Drosophila mettleri is found in deserts of North America breeding in soil soaked by the juices of necrotic cacti. Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) and cardón (Pachycereus pringlei) are the usual host cacti in Mexico and Arizona, while prickly pear (Opuntia spp.) is used by an isolated population on Santa Catalina Island off the southern California Coast. Populations of D. mettleri show significant ...

Habitat fragmentation may interrupt trophic interactions if herbivores and their specific parasitoids respond differently to decreasing connectivity of populations. Theoretical models predict that species at higher trophic levels are more negatively affected by isolation than lower trophic level species. By combining ecological data with genetic information from microsatellite markers we tested...

A completely decentralised observer-based control scheme for interconnected dynamical systems is proposed. The scheme requires no information transfer among the subsystems, local observers or local controllers and applies equally to systems with known and/or unknown disturbances. It is shown that each local observer asymptotically converges to the true state of its corresponding subsystem an4 o...

Understanding the factors determining genetic diversity and structure in peripheral populations is a long-standing goal of evolutionary biogeography, yet little empirical information is available for tropical species. In this study, we combine information from nuclear microsatellite markers and niche modelling to analyse the factors structuring genetic variation across the southernmost populati...

objective: guidelines have recommended that structured programs to support fungal peritonitis in cancer patients should be introduced. the role of fungi in causing peritonitis is rare, but fungal peritonitis has high morbidity and mortality. the abdominal fullness may be secondary to the fungi accumulation of peritoneal fluid. the isolation of fungi, particularly candida from peritoneal fluid s...

Understanding the drivers of plant-insect interactions is still a key issue in terrestrial ecology. Here, we used 30 well-defined plant-herbivore assemblages to assess the effects of host plant phylogenetic isolation and origin (native vs. exotic) on the species richness, composition and specialization of the insect herbivore fauna on co-occurring plant species. We also tested for differences i...