In the present study, besides morphological evidence, two bioassays, antenna-excision and hairpencil-excision, were used to demonstrate the presence of a male sex pheromone of the diamondback moth Plutella xylostella L. Although the antenna-excision bioassay demonstrated that a male aphrodiasic pheromone exists in the diamondback moth, it was proven to be not as important as the female sex pher...

A set of 10 polymorphic diand trinucleotide microsatellite loci were developed for the forestry pest insect, masson pine moth, Dendrolimus punctatus Walker . The expected heterozygosity at these loci ranges from 0.285 to 0.859, and the observed allele numbers from five to 19. Cross species amplification of these loci in four other congeneric pine moth species indicates variable levels of loci c...

In this work hybrid pectin-based biosorbents with secondary polysaccharide additives (gellan, carob and xanthan gum, ratio to pectin 1:1, 1:1 and 1:3, respectively) were obtained at two temperatures. The presence of these additives in prepared beads was confirmed by Raman spectra. The SEM micrographs show better homogeneity of blends and grater differences between structures of beads with vario...

It has been reported that caroubin, a protein mixture obtained from carob seeds, has rheological properties similar to those of gluten. Comparative studies of the effects of hydration and temperature on caroubin and gluten were carried out with the aid of NMR, FTIR, scanning electron microscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry techniques. The results show that caroubin has a more ordered ...

Four sunflower accessions were compared with a susceptible check, hybrid '894', in the greenhouse to determine their resistance to the banded sunflower moth, Cochylis hospes Walsingham, and their interaction with Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner variety kurstaki. Antibiosis, expressed as lower larval weight, was detected in all of the accessions. In addition to being antibiotic, sunflower access...

We seek to characterize the learning tools (ie algorithmic components) used in biological neural networks, in order to port them to the machine learning context. In particular we address the regime of very few training samples. The Moth Olfactory Network is among the simplest biological neural systems that can learn. We assigned a computational model of the Moth Olfactory Network the task of cl...

Pseudomonas fluorescens subsp. cellulosa when cultured in the presence of carob galactomannan degraded the polysaccharide. To isolate gene(s) from P. fluorescens subsp. cellulosa encoding endo-beta-1,4-mannanase (mannanase) activity, a genomic library of Pseudomonas DNA, constructed in lambda ZAPII, was screened for mannanase-expressing clones using the dye-labelled substrate, azo-carob galacto...

In the northeastern United States, pitch pine ( Pinus rigida Mill.)–scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia Wang.) communities are increasingly threatened by development and fire suppression, and prioritization of these habitats for conservation is of critical importance. As a basis for local conservation planning in a pitch pine–scrub oak community in southeastern Massachusetts, we developed logistic-re...

Delay of mating was examined as a possible mechanism for population decreases associated with mating disruption for codling moth, Cydia pomonella L., and obliquebanded leafroller, Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). We examined the effect of delaying female mating 0, 2, 4, or 6 d while holding male age constant on life table parameters of both species. We found that inc...