First Report of Entomopathogenic Fungi Occurrence in Forest Soils in Croatia

Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) in Croatian forests are known only from observations of insect cadavers that show obvious signs of disease. To date, their presence in soils has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate their occurrence, diversity, and distribution, and to assess their density in tested soils. Soil samples were collected during 2018, 2019, and 2020 at different localities throughout the country, and analyzed by using a method of isolation of fungi on selective culture media. To assess the density of EPF in tested soils, colonies of individual fungal species were counted and recorded; the results were expressed as the number of colony-forming units (CFU) per gram of dry soil. After morphological and molecular analysis, five entomopathogenic fungal genera were identified: Beauveria spp., Metarhizium spp., Purpureocillium spp., Lecanicillium spp., and Paecilomyces spp. Results also showed that the range of a total EPF colony density in the soil varies from 4 × 103 to 27.4 × 103 CFU g−1. The most common were EPF of the genus Beauveria, which were recorded at four of five locations, and at 16 of 25 sampling points, but the highest average number (density) of colonies belonged to the genus Metarhizium. Since this type of research was never conducted in Croatia previously, this is the first evidence that insect pathogenic fungi are present in soils of different natural forest habitats. Such research can be useful in selecting and utilizing entomopathogens that are suitable for biological pest control in certain target areas.

The Effect of Inhibitory Neuron on the Evolution Model of Higher-Order Coupling Neural Oscillator Population

We proposed a higher-order coupling neural network model including the inhibitory neurons and examined the dynamical evolution of average number density and phase-neural coding under the spontaneous activity and external stimulating condition. The results indicated that increase of inhibitory coupling strength will cause decrease of average number density, whereas increase of excitatory coupling strength will cause increase of stable amplitude of average number density. Whether the neural oscillator population is able to enter the new synchronous oscillation or not is determined by excitatory and inhibitory coupling strength. In the presence of external stimulation, the evolution of the average number density is dependent upon the external stimulation and the coupling term in which the dominator will determine the final evolution.

STRUCTURE OF CONFINED HARD ELLIPSES USING MOLECULAR DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY

Density functional (DF) theory is used to study confined two-dimensional molecular fluids. The approximate DF used here is based upon a functional Taylor series expansion of the excess grand potential about the density of a uniform molecular liquid. This formalism is applied to obtain the density profiles of the hard-ellipse fluid confined between two parallel hard walls. The required direct correlation function is obtained using Percus–Yevick and hypernetted chain approximations for low- and high-number density, respectively. Both the restricted orientation model and the extension of this model are used. Generally, we obtained that the number density of the hard ellipses with the major axes parallel to the wall is larger near the walls than the other directions. To check the results, we show that for isotropic hard-ellipse fluids the average number density in the middle of the wall is almost equal to the bulk density and as we expect the average number density of the ellipses at the wall is nearly equal to the amount of the reduced pressure, βP. We also perform Monte Carlo simulation and find reasonable agreement with our results.

Molecular Dynamics Study on Resolution in Nanoimprint Lithography for Glass Material

A theoretical study of resolution in nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has been carried out using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. We have performed a MD simulation for glass NIL, monitored the friction force during entire NIL process and evaluated the deformed shapes of glass patterns after the mold releasing. The resolution in NIL is governed by the maximum tensile stress acting on the glass, which is induced by the friction force during the mold releasing. Based on the distribution of average number density of atoms in the molded glass, the ultimate resolution in the glass NIL has been proved to be 0.4 nm.

Dynamical evolution of a supernova driven turbulent interstellar medium

It is shown that a number of key observations of the Galactic ISM can be understood, if it is treated as a highly compressible and turbulent medium, energized predominantly by supernova explosions (and stellar winds). We have performed extensive numerical high resolution 3D hydrodynamical and magnetohydrodynamical simulations with adaptive mesh refinement over sufficiently long time scales to erase memory effects of the initial setup. Our results show, in good agreement with observations, that (i) volume filling factors of the hot medium are modest (typically below 20%), (ii) global pressure is far from uniform due to supersonic (and to some extent super-Alfvénic) turbulence, (iii) a significant fraction of the mass (~60%) in the warm neutral medium is in the thermally unstable regime (500 < T < 5000 K), (iv) the average number density of Ovi in absorption is 1.81 × 10−8 cm−3, in excellent agreement with Copernicus and FUSE data, and its distribution is rather clumpy, consistent with its measured dispersion with distance.

On the Effect of Binary Encounters

The effect of binary encounters is examined by restricting considerations to a sphere of finite radius R, instead of an infinite one assumed hitherto. The sphere is centered at an assigned test-particle with velocity ∇o. The corresponding modified assumption is that particles lying outside the sphere are scattered randomly with an average number density n and their velocity distribution is Maxwellian with an r.m.s. of in the space velocity. As for the particles' masses the same M is presumed.

Rocket Measurements of the Galactic Background at 100 μ

Measurements of the diffuse background radiation in the 85–115 μ band are presented, as observed from altitudes close to 190 km with a rocket-borne, liquid helium cooled telescope. Evidence is given for detection of the galactic background due to thermal grain emission at galactic latitudes of 5–35°, and at a galactic longitude of ~ 163°. At small latitudes, the background intensity is measured to be ~ 9 × 10–11 W cm–2 sr–1; the average number density of grains derived is consistent with the optically determined measure. The 100 μ data is compared with 20 μ data taken on the same flight, in order to draw some conclusions about the grain emissivity and temperature.

Preliminary results of molecular oxygen observations from the Ariel III satellite

The Meteorological Office experiment in the Ariel III satellite measured molecular oxygen distribution in the thermosphere by observing the attenuation of solar radiation at a wavelength of about 145 nm at satellite sunrise and sunset. After eliminating various disturbing effects satisfactory results were obtained and those for the first 10 days of operation have been analysed. The average number density of oxygen molecules at 180 km in May 1967 was about 3·5 x 10 8 cm –3 , but the most striking feature was a large and systematic variation with longitude