scholarly journals The invasive longhorn beetle Xylotrechus chinensis, pest of mulberries, in Europe: Study on its local spread and efficacy of abamectin control

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245527
Author(s):  
Victor Sarto i Monteys ◽  
Adrià Costa Ribes ◽  
Ivan Savin
Keyword(s):  
Egg Laying ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Risk Of Falling ◽  
Longicorn Beetle ◽  
Local Spread ◽  
Longhorn Beetle ◽  
Trunk Injection ◽  
Newly Hatched Larvae ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

The invasive wasp-mimicking Tiger Longicorn Beetle, Xylotrechus chinensis, a potentially lethal pest of mulberry trees (Moraceae: Morus sp.), was first reported in Europe in 2018, although its colonization and establishment were estimated to have occurred during the year 2012 or earlier. In Catalonia the infestation spread from four towns and 44.1 km2 in 2018 to 12 towns and 378.1 km2 in 2020; in the studied town of Barberà del Vallès, infested trees rose from 16.21% in February 2016 to 59.29% in December 2018. Human safety in public parks and avenues is a concern, as beetle infestation increases the risk of falling branches. The main objective of this study was to evaluate how the infestation progresses over time, with and without abamectin treatment, and provide insights into female egg-laying preferences. Such knowledge helps contribute to management efforts to reduce expansion of the range of beetle infestation. Our statistical analysis shows that females prefer laying eggs on larger trees, on the highest part of trunks and on the crown base (this being more preferred than the trunk), and they do so on warmer, SW orientations rather than those facing N, NW and E. Emergence holes and gallery slits predict the spreading of infestations to new trees. An abamectin treatment (trunk injection) carried out at the end of April significantly reduced the number of new infestation. However, for maximum insecticide efficiency, the best time for treating with abamectin would be from mid-July to mid-August, when newly hatched larvae begin feeding on the phloem.

Earnings Management and Capital Resource Allocation: Evidence from China's Accounting-Based Regulation of Rights Issues

2004 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin C. W. Chen ◽  
Hongqi Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Earnings Management ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Return On Equity ◽  
Rights Issue ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

From 1996 to 1998, listed companies in China were required to achieve a minimum return on equity (ROE) of 10 percent in each of the previous three years before they could apply for permission to issue additional shares. As a result of this rule, there was a heavy concentration of ROEs in the area just above 10 percent. We show that the Chinese regulators appear to have scrutinized firms using excess amounts of nonoperating income to reach the 10 percent hurdle. In addition, their ability to do so seems to have improved over time, which allows them to be better able to identify firms that subsequently performed better. However, many firms were still able to gain rights issue approval through excess nonoperating income. We show that these firms subsequently underperformed other approved firms that did not use the same practice, indicating that the Chinese regulators' objective of guiding capital resources toward the well-performing sectors is partially compromised by earnings management.

Quel corpus pour l’étude du dialecte niçois ?

2021 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-361
Author(s):  
Philippe Del Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Descriptive Grammar ◽  
Written Production ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Social Use ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Made In ◽  
Do So

Abstract A new project has just been launched to write a synchronic, descriptive grammar of Niçois, the Occitan dialect of Nice. In this article, I define the corpus of the research. To do so, I first review written production from the Middle Ages to the present. I then analyze the linguistic features of Niçois over time, in order to determine the precise starting point of the current language state. But because of reinforced normativism and the decreasing social use of Niçois among the educated population, written language after WWII became artificial and does not really correspond to recordings made in the field. The corpus will thus be composed of writings from the 1820’s to WWII and recordings from the last few decades.

scholarly journals Temporal changes in DNA methylation and RNA expression in a small song bird: within- and between-tissue comparisons

BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Lindner ◽  
Irene Verhagen ◽  
Heidi M. Viitaniemi ◽  
Veronika N. Laine ◽  
Marcel E. Visser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Gene Body ◽  
Cpg Site ◽  
Repeated Sampling ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Background DNA methylation is likely a key mechanism regulating changes in gene transcription in traits that show temporal fluctuations in response to environmental conditions. To understand the transcriptional role of DNA methylation we need simultaneous within-individual assessment of methylation changes and gene expression changes over time. Within-individual repeated sampling of tissues, which are essential for trait expression is, however, unfeasible (e.g. specific brain regions, liver and ovary for reproductive timing). Here, we explore to what extend between-individual changes in DNA methylation in a tissue accessible for repeated sampling (red blood cells (RBCs)) reflect such patterns in a tissue unavailable for repeated sampling (liver) and how these DNA methylation patterns are associated with gene expression in such inaccessible tissues (hypothalamus, ovary and liver). For this, 18 great tit (Parus major) females were sacrificed at three time points (n = 6 per time point) throughout the pre-laying and egg-laying period and their blood, hypothalamus, ovary and liver were sampled. Results We simultaneously assessed DNA methylation changes (via reduced representation bisulfite sequencing) and changes in gene expression (via RNA-seq and qPCR) over time. In general, we found a positive correlation between changes in CpG site methylation in RBCs and liver across timepoints. For CpG sites in close proximity to the transcription start site, an increase in RBC methylation over time was associated with a decrease in the expression of the associated gene in the ovary. In contrast, no such association with gene expression was found for CpG site methylation within the gene body or the 10 kb up- and downstream regions adjacent to the gene body. Conclusion Temporal changes in DNA methylation are largely tissue-general, indicating that changes in RBC methylation can reflect changes in DNA methylation in other, often less accessible, tissues such as the liver in our case. However, associations between temporal changes in DNA methylation with changes in gene expression are mostly tissue- and genomic location-dependent. The observation that temporal changes in DNA methylation within RBCs can relate to changes in gene expression in less accessible tissues is important for a better understanding of how environmental conditions shape traits that temporally change in expression in wild populations.

scholarly journals Camp stability predicts patterns of hunter–gatherer cooperation

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 160131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Smith ◽  
Mark Dyble ◽  
James Thompson ◽  
Katie Major ◽  
Abigail E. Page ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Ecological Context ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Ecological Conditions ◽  
Resource Transfers ◽  
Experimental Games ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

Humans regularly cooperate with non-kin, which has been theorized to require reciprocity between repeatedly interacting and trusting individuals. However, the role of repeated interactions has not previously been demonstrated in explaining real-world patterns of hunter–gatherer cooperation. Here we explore cooperation among the Agta, a population of Filipino hunter–gatherers, using data from both actual resource transfers and two experimental games across multiple camps. Patterns of cooperation vary greatly between camps and depend on socio-ecological context. Stable camps (with fewer changes in membership over time) were associated with greater reciprocal sharing, indicating that an increased likelihood of future interactions facilitates reciprocity. This is the first study reporting an association between reciprocal cooperation and hunter–gatherer band stability. Under conditions of low camp stability individuals still acquire resources from others, but do so via demand sharing (taking from others), rather than based on reciprocal considerations. Hunter–gatherer cooperation may either be characterized as reciprocity or demand sharing depending on socio-ecological conditions.

Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 297-302
Author(s):  
Marc Galanter
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Change ◽  
System P ◽  
The Law ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

This article proposes some conjectures about the way in which the basic architecture of the legal system creates and limits the possibilities of using the system as a means of redistributive change. Specifically, the question is under what conditions litigation can be redistributive, taking litigation in the broadest sense of the presentation of claims to be decided by courts. Because of differences in their size, differences in the state of the law, and differences in their resources, some of the actors in society have many occasions to utilize the courts; others do so only rarely. One can divide these actors into those claimants who have only occasional recourse to the courts (one-shotters) and repeat players who are engaged in many similar litigations over time. The article then looks at alternatives to the official litigation system.

Democracy as Public Law: The Case of Constitutional Rights

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1017-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bellamy
Keyword(s):  
Ad Hoc ◽  
State Power ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Public Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Behavior ◽  
The Law ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

The distinctive domain and character of public law have become—and in certain respects always were—unclear and, to a degree, contested. As a result, any definition is likely to be to some extent stipulative. For my purposes, I want to refer to public law in two broad and related senses—as applying to a certain kind of body and its functions, and as requiring a certain kind of justification. The first sense refers to the actions of the state and its administration. Of course, it will be pointed out that these are increasingly performed by private bodies and often involve legal activities that have been associated with private parties and doctrines, such as procurement and contract. Nevertheless, government and the administrative apparatus more generally can still be considered as possessing distinctively broad, authoritative, and coercive powers which in various ways make their subjection to the law both problematic and pressing: Problematic in that they play a central role in the making and enforcement of the law, pressing in that this role renders them more powerful than other bodies. The second sense enters here. For the justification of state power has come to rest on its serving the public ends of the ruled rather than private ends of the rulers, and certain public qualities of law have been thought to oblige those who wield state power to do so in a publically justified and justifiable way. Ruling through laws has been viewed as different from rule by willful, ad hoc commands because laws have certain characteristics that render them capable of coordinating and shaping public behavior in consistent and coherent ways over time, while ruling under the law likewise forces rulers to adopt public processes and offers an additional incentive to devise laws that treat rulers and ruled equitably. Again, these matters are far from straightforward. How far laws need to, or even can, always possess the requisite qualities and the degree to which these do constrain power holders are matters of dispute. Yet, that all law has to have some public qualities—for example, that it be promulgated and capable of being followed in ways that make it publicly recognized as law—and that these features formalize power to a degree, is reasonably undisputed. Increasingly, though, and even more controversially, many jurists have wanted to suggest that legality also involves certain substantive qualities of a public kind—that laws must appeal to public reasons that all subject to them can accept as reflecting, or being compatible with certain basic interests or values that are equally shared by all. Such arguments have come to be identified with rights and in particular constitutional rights, which are deemed to set the terms of how and to what purpose political power may be legally exercised. In this way, the two senses of public law come together. Constitutional rights define and mark the limits of public power in ways that can be publicly justified, and thereby ensure it serves public ends. They thereby serve what Martin Loughlin calls the “basic tasks of public law;” namely, “the constitution, maintenance and regulation of governmental authority.”

E-Portfolios

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Giering ◽  
Yitna B. Firdyiwek
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Research University ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Learning Engagement ◽  
High Impact Practice ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

This chapter describes the experiences of a liberal arts college that is part of a large research university implementing e-portfolios with a focus on learning engagement. Using qualitative data collected over time and programmatic experience, the team assesses the depth of engagement their students are experiencing, to determine whether most students are using e-portfolios to engage in learning on their own, or only when prompted to do so by faculty within the confines of a single course. Too few students have taken full ownership of their e-portfolios and engaged with them as a meta-high impact practice. Implications of this finding suggest faculty using e-portfolios need to be intentional about student engagement at the meta-high impact level. Part of achieving this is developing further clarity on what it looks like when e-portfolios are designed to be used as a meta-high impact practice while applying more rigorous methods to determine when students have reached this level of engagement.

scholarly journals From Aggression to Acceptance: The Shifting of Quebecois Nationalist Attitudes in Relation to Indigenous Nationalism in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Andrew McWhinney
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
James Bay ◽  
Quiet Revolution ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

This essay examines the shifting relationship between Quebecois and Indigenous nationalism, tracing a historical path from post-Quiet Revolution Quebec to the signing of the “La Paix des Braves” document in 2002. Nationalist attitudes in Quebec were initially hostile towards their Indigenous counterparts, due to the Indigenous push of a three-nation conception of Canada which undermined the Quebecois dualist English-French founding narrative upon which Quebecois nationalist claims rested. This essay argues that Quebecois nationalist attitudes have grown more accepting over time in response to popularization of the three-nation conception of Canada, and that Quebec’s unique hybrid position as a decolonizing nation and a settler-colonial nation has allowed it to do so through recognition of Indigenous peoples as co-colonized by the Canadian state. This shift from aggression to tolerance is shown through examinations of historical moments such as the James Bay Agreement, the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords, and the Oka Crisis.

Imprinting Beyond the Founding Phase: How Sedimented Imprints Develop over Time

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 1579-1600
Author(s):  
Lien De Cuyper ◽  
Bart Clarysse ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Process Model ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Social Venture ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

In this study, we build on the foundational observations of Selznick and Stinchcombe that organizations bear the lasting imprint of their founding context and explore how characteristics shaped during founding are coherently carried forward through time. To do so, we draw on an ethnography of a social venture where the entrepreneurs left soon after founding. In examining how an initial organizational imprint evolves beyond a venture’s founding phase, we focus on the actions and interactions of organizational members, the founders’ imprint, the venture’s new leadership, and the external environment. The process model we develop shows how the organizational imprint evolves as a consequence of the interplay between top-down and bottom-up forces. We first find that the initial imprint is transmitted through a bottom-up mechanism of imprint reinforcement, and second, that the venture is reimprinted after the founding period through two processes which we call imprint reforming and imprint coupling. The result of this is the formation of a sedimented imprint. Our findings further illuminate that, although the initial imprint sticks, its function and manifestation changes over time.

"Polemik im Concertsaal": Mahler, Beethoven, and the Viennese Critics

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Knittel
Keyword(s):  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Concert Hall ◽  
Ninth Symphony ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

"Polemic in the Concert Hall": the title of Richard Heuberger's article in the Neue freie Presse refers in no uncertain terms to the uproar surrounding Mahler's performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Vienna. The two performances, on 18 and 22 February 1900, used Mahler's own orchestral re-touchings of Beethoven's work, and Mahler's biographers have often identified these concerts as the first sustained attacks by the press, attacks that would, over time, only continue to increase in severity and frequency. When these concerts are placed into the context of reactions to Mahler's other Philharmonic concerts, however, this narrative of a "fall from grace" proves impossible to sustain. Not only was Mahler denounced for reorchestrating other works from his very first concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, but the language used to do so remained consistent throughout Mahler's tenure. Mahler, as a Jew, was not perceived as having the "right" to "improve" Beethoven--or any other composer for that matter. Although not overtly anti-Semitic, the language of the reviews resembles that found in Wagner's essay "Das Judentum in der Musik," where he outlines the Jewish composer's supposed handicaps: an emphasis on detail to the detriment of the whole, the prevalence of intellect over feeling, and an understanding of culture as merely "learnt" but never "mother tongue." An examination of the critical reactions points out these similarities while also suggesting that, particularly given Wagner's own suggestions (in 1873) for the reorchestration of Beethoven's symphony, the uproar had very little to do with what anyone heard.

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