the leopard moth, zeuzera pyrina (l.) (lepidoptera: cossidae) is a serious pest of walnut and apple trees in iran. one of the control methods for this pest is the mass trapping of males using pheromone traps. to determine the best size and color of traps, four different colors (green, yellow, white, gray) and two different sizes (delta shape with standard adhesive surface, 19 × 22 cm and trapez...

The relatively large number of Culicoides midges (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) that can be collected with a light trap makes it the most widely used tool for this purpose. However, the majority of these traps were originally designed for collecting mosquitoes. The evaluation and improvement of traps to increase their effectiveness in collecting Culicoides midges will unavoidably form part of resea...

  The clustering problem under the criterion of minimum sum of squares is a non-convex and non-linear program, which possesses many locally optimal values, resulting that its solution often falls into these trap and therefore cannot converge to global optima solution. In this paper, an efficient hybrid optimization algorithm is developed for solving this problem, called Tabu-KM. It gathers the ...

An agricultural water conservation policy prevalent worldwide encourages producers to improve on-farm irrigation efficiency. Contrary to intention, increasing empirical evidence reveals that this policy may set an ‘irrigation efficiency trap’ that worsens water crises by reducing water supplies and jeopardizing economic growth. We derive a pair of testable hydrologic-economic conditions require...

A new type of horizontal trap was developed for measuring the aeolian sand transport rate on a flat surface. The trap consists of an adjustable frame that is embedded level with the sand surface, into which a plastic liner is installed and filled with water to capture the blown sand. The water trap has high efficiency and does not disturb the wind field or induce upwind scour. Deployment on Pad...

The pink hibiscus mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), is a highly polyphagous pest that invaded Florida in 2002 and has recently been reported from several locations in Louisiana. Although identification of its sex pheromone in 2004 improved monitoring capabilities tremendously, the effectiveness and efficiency of different pheromone trap designs for capturin...