Pheromone Disruption of Argentine Ant Trail Integrity

Disruption of Argentine ant trail following and reduced ability to forage (measured by bait location success) was achieved after presentation of an oversupply of trail pheromone, (Z)-9-hexadecenal. Experiments tested single pheromone point sources and dispersion of a formulation in small field plots. Ant walking behavior was recorded and digitized by using video tracking, before and after presentation of trail pheromone. Ants showed changes in three parameters within seconds of treatment: (1) Ants on trails normally showed a unimodal frequency distribution of walking track angles, but this pattern disappeared after presentation of the trail pheromone; (2) ants showed initial high trail integrity on a range of untreated substrates from painted walls to wooden or concrete floors, but this was significantly reduced following presentation of a point source of pheromone; (3) the number of ants in the pheromone-treated area increased over time, as recruitment apparently exceeded departures. To test trail disruption in small outdoor plots, the trail pheromone was formulated with carnuba wax-coated quartz laboratory sand (1 g quartz sand/0.2 g wax/1 mg pheromone). The pheromone formulation, with a half-life of 30 h, was applied by rotary spreader at four rates (0, 2.5, 7.5, and 25 mg pheromone/m²) to 1- and 4-m² plots in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Ant counts at bait cards in treated plots were significantly reduced compared to controls on the day of treatment, and there was a significant reduction in ant foraging for 2 days. These results show that trail pheromone disruption of Argentine ants is possible, but a much more durable formulation is needed before nest-level impacts can be expected. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

An investigation into physicochemical characteristics of ash produced from combustion of oil palm biomass wastein a boiler

Ash derived from combustion of Malaysian oil palm biomass (empty fruit bunches consisting of fibers) was physically and chemically characterized in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of its specific properties in terms of toxicity, compositions and reusability. Principal analyses conducted include particle size distribution, scanning electron microscopy, elemental dispersive X-ray, elemental analysis, toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) as well as thermogravimetric, X-ray diffractometry and Fourier-transform infrared analyses. TCLP result indicated that the oil palm ash (OPA) should not be classified as toxic wastes in terms of heavy metal leachability since leachable copper, cadmium, lead and nickel concentrations were detected below the stipulated leachability limits. It was determined that the OPA contained high amount of potassium as well as presence of silica which implied its suitability to be reused as crude fertilizer or cement replacement material.     

基于Lab VIEW的小型汽油机磁电机点火提前角的测量

本文介绍了磁电机点火系统的点火提前角测量原理。对点火系统的点火信号和触发信号进行采集、调理，再用单片机进行处理，最后用LabVIEW进行点火提前角数据存储和显示。     

Measuring consistency in TTL-based caches

We propose a general modeling framework to evaluate the performance of cache consistency algorithms. In addition to the usual hit rate, we introduce the hit^* rate as a consistency measure, which captures the fraction of non-stale downloads from the cache. We apply these ideas to the analysis of the fixed TTL consistency algorithm in the presence of network delays. The hit and hit^* rates are evaluated when requests and updates are modeled by renewal processes. Classical results on the renewal function lead to various bounds.     

Effects of Spatial Characteristics on Smart Antenna System with Uniform Linear Antenna Array

1IntroductionCurrently,smart antenna technology can greatly en-hance system performance and i mprove the system ca-pacity so that it has been considered as a keytechnologyinthe third generation wireless communicationsystems .The researches on channel model , beamforming algo-rithms and receive algorithms have been widely carriedout and a great many of proposition have beensubmittedtothe 3th Generation Project Partner (3GPP) . Fromthe viewpoint of link-level and system-level research,many asp…     

对称配筋小偏心受压构件的截面设计

对小偏心受压构件在对称配筋情况下的截面配筋计算，提出用最佳一次逼近多项式简化基本公式，直接按二次方程求解ξ的近似方法，具有精度高，相对误差小，计算方便等优点，可供工程设计人员参考。     

济钢高炉喷煤数学模型的研究与应用

基于湍流两相流理论建立了高炉喷煤两相流动及传质三维数学模型。采用该模型指导高炉生产 ,高炉利用系数由2 .7t/(m3.d)提高到 3 .0 t/(m3.d)以上 ,焦比由 460 kg/t降到 40 0 kg/t,煤比达到 10 0 kg/t,提高了高炉的各项经济技术指标。     

Structural Changes in Titin and Nebulin Filaments Specific to Calcium Ions at 0.1 mM: Factors of Meat Tenderization During Postmortem Aging

ABSTRACT Postmortem structural changes in titin and nebulin filaments were investigated by incubating isolated myofibrils in a solution containing 0.1 mM calcium ions and various concentrations of a protease inhibitor. The inhibition curves showed 2 abnormal steps with increases in the concentration of leupeptin or calpastatin domain I. While the amounts of unchanged titin and nebulin were constant in the 1st step, the 2nd occurred at higher protease inhibitor concentrations. These facts indicated that excess amounts of leupeptin and calpastatin domain I caused deterioration in titin and nebulin properties, thus interfering with the binding of calcium ions. We concluded that the severance of titin and nebulin filaments in the 1st step were induced by calcium ions at 0.1 mM.     

Distributed Optical Fiber Sensor for Multi-point Temperature Measurement

The distributed optical fiber sensing technology is overviewed, which is based on Raman scattering light theory. Basic operation principle, structure, system characteristics and signal processing are discussed. This structure and method of the signal processing possess of certain spatial resolution, hence will ensure the practicability of system.