Description of Pintomyia (Pifanomyia) brazilorum sp. nov. a new fossil species from the Dominican Republic (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae)

A sand fly fossil was found in amber, a vegetal resin, which allows all the external phlebotomine structures to be seen. The piece that contains the new species is 14 mm long ´ 8 mm wide ´ 3 mm high. All the structures from the head, thorax, and abdomen were examined under the microscope and measured with a calibrated micrometric eye-piece. The morphological aspects of the new species suggest its inclusion in the Pintomyia genus, Pifanomyia subgenus though it is not possible to include it in any of the series known for this subgenus. The presence of two atrophied spines on the gonostyles and gonocoxites without tufts of setae permit the exclusion of the new species from the other species of the subgenus Pifanomyia. The new species is named Pintomyia (Pifanomyia) brazilorum sp. nov.

Description of Pintomyia (Pifanomyia) paleotrichia, a Miocene period new species from the Dominican Republic (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae)

A new fossil species of phlebotomine sandflies is described from Dominican amber based in one specimen. Pintomyia (Pifanomyia) paleotrichia sp. nov. is distinguished from the other extant and extinct species by aspects of paramere and the basal tuft of bristles in the gonocoxite.

Description of Micropygomyia brandaoi sp. n. (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae), a fossil phlebotomine from the Dominican Republic

The description of Micropygomyia brandaoi, a new species of fossil phlebotomine sand fly, is based on one male specimen obtained from Dominican amber of the Miocene period (20 million years). In this new species, the fifth palpal segment is long, the coxite lacks a setal tuft and the style shows four well-developed spines. This set of characters allowed us to place the new species in the genus Micropygomyia Barretto.

Leptoconops nosopheris sp. n. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) and Paleotrypanosoma burmanicus gen. n., sp. n. (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae), a biting midge - trypanosome vector association from the Early Cretaceous

Leptoconops nosopheris sp. n. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) is described from a blood-filled female biting midge in Early Cretaceous Burmese amber. The new species is characterized by a very elongate terminal flagellomere, elongate cerci, and an indistinct spur on the metatibia. This biting midge contained digenetic trypanosomes (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae) in its alimentary tract and salivary glands. These trypanosomes are described as Paleotrypanosoma burmanicus gen. n., sp. n., which represents the first fossil record of a Trypanosoma generic lineage.

Synthesis of Best Practice for Increasing Protection and Visibility of Highway Maintenance Vehicles, CTRE Final Report Iowa DOT Project TR-475, August 2002

The purpose of this research project is to study current practices in enhancing visibility and protection of highway maintenance vehicles involved in moving operations such as snow removal and shoulder operations, crack sealing, and pothole patching. The results will enable the maintenance staff to adequately assess the applicability and impact of each strategy to their use and budget. The report’s literature review chapter examines the use of maintenance vehicle warning lights, retroreflective tapes, shadow vehicles and truck-mounted attenuators, and advanced vehicle control systems, as well as other practices to improve visibility for both snowplow operators and vehicles. The chapter concludes that the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices does not specify what color or kind of warning lights to use. Thus, a wide variety of lights are being used on maintenance vehicles. The study of the relevant literatures also suggests that there are no clear guidelines for moving work zones at this time. Two types of surveys were conducted to determine current practices to improve visibility and safety in moving work zones across the country and in the state of Iowa. In the first survey of state departments of transportation, most indicated using amber warning lights on their maintenance vehicles. Almost all the responding states indicated using some form of reflective material on their vehicles to make them more visible. Most participating states indicated that the color of their vehicles is orange. Most states indicated using more warning lights on snow removal vehicles than their other maintenance vehicles. All responding state agencies indicated using shadow vehicles and/or truck-mounted attenuators during their moving operations. In the second survey of Iowa counties, most indicated using very similar traffic control and warning devices during their granular road maintenance and snow removal operations. Mounting warning signs and rotating or strobe lights on the rear of maintenance vehicles is common for Iowa counties. The most common warning devices used during the counties’ snow removal operations are reflective tapes, warning flags, strobe lights, and auxiliary headlamps.

How Much “Safety” Is Available under the U.S. Proposal to the WTO?, November 2005

Critics of the U.S. proposal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) made in October 2005 are correct when they argue that adoption of the proposal would significantly reduce available support under the current farm program structure. Using historical prices and yields from 1980 to 2004, we estimate that loan rates would have to drop by 9 percent and target prices would have to drop by 10 percent in order to meet the proposed aggregate Amber Box and Blue Box limits. While this finding should cheer those who think that reform of U.S. farm programs is long overdue, it alarms those who want to maintain a strong safety net for U.S. agriculture. The dilemma of needing to reform farm programs while maintaining a strong safety net could be resolved by redesigning programs so that they target revenue rather than price. Building on a base of 70 percent Green Box income insurance, a program that provides a crop-specific revenue guarantee equal to 98 percent of the product of the current effective target price and expected county yield would fit into the proposed aggregate Amber and Blue Box limits. Payments would be triggered whenever the product of the season-average price and county average yield fell below this 98 percent revenue guarantee. Adding the proposed crop-specific constraints lowers the coverage level to 95 percent. Moving from programs that target price to ones that target revenue would eliminate the rationale for ad hoc disaster payments. Program payments would automatically arrive whenever significant crop losses or economic losses caused by low prices occurred. Also, much of the need for the complicated mechanism (the Standard Reinsurance Agreement) that transfers most risk of the U.S. crop insurance to the federal government would be eliminated because the federal government would directly assume the risk through farm programs. Changing the focus of federal farm programs from price targeting to revenue targeting would not be easy. Farmers have long relied on price supports and the knowledge that crop losses are often adequately covered by heavily subsidized crop insurance or by ad hoc disaster payments. Farmers and their leaders would only be willing to support a change to revenue targeting if they see that the current system is untenable in an era of tight federal budgets and WTO limits.

Iowa Workforce Monthly, June-July 2010, Issue 17

Highlights: * Iowa Workforce Development Director Elisabeth Buck and Deputy Director Joe Walsh recently visited a number of IowaWORKS offices in Eastern Iowa as part of a summer tour........................................pg. 2 * Amber Connolly was recently awarded the Iowa Association of Workplace Professionals (IAWP) individual award for Outstanding Specialized Customer Service...............pg. 2 * Iowa Workforce Development has partnered with Iowa’s Community Colleges to implement Iowa’s National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC).................pg. 3 * O*NET is an occupational information network developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration.....................pg. 3

Iowa Workforce Monthly, October 2010, Issue 18

Highlights: * Iowa Workforce Development Director Elisabeth Buck and Deputy Director Joe Walsh recently visited a number of IowaWORKS offices in Eastern Iowa as part of a summer tour........................................pg. 2 * Amber Connolly was recently awarded the Iowa Association of Workplace Professionals (IAWP) individual award for Outstanding Specialized Customer Service...............pg. 2 * Iowa Workforce Development has partnered with Iowa’s Community Colleges to implement Iowa’s National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC).................pg. 3 * O*NET is an occupational information network developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration.....................pg. 3

Iowa Workforce Monthly, March 2010, Issue 14

Highlights: * Iowa Workforce Development Director Elisabeth Buck and Deputy Director Joe Walsh recently visited a number of IowaWORKS offices in Eastern Iowa as part of a summer tour........................................pg. 2 * Amber Connolly was recently awarded the Iowa Association of Workplace Professionals (IAWP) individual award for Outstanding Specialized Customer Service...............pg. 2 * Iowa Workforce Development has partnered with Iowa’s Community Colleges to implement Iowa’s National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC).................pg. 3 * O*NET is an occupational information network developed under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration.....................pg. 3

New and revised maimetshid wasps from cretaceous ambers (Hymenoptera, Maimetshidae)

New material of the wasp family Maimetshidae (Apocrita) is presented from four Cretaceous amber de- posits- the Neocomian of Lebanon, the Early Albian of Spain, the latest Albian/earliest Cenomanian of France, and the Campanian of Canada. The new record from Canadian Cretaceous amber extends the temporal and paleogeographical range of the family. New material from France is assignable to Guyote- maimetsha enigmatica Perrichot et al. including the first females for the species, while a series of males and females from Spain are described and figured as Iberomaimetsha Ortega-Blanco, Perrichot & Engel, gen. n., with the two new species Iberomaimetsha rasnitsyni Ortega-Blanco, Perrichot & Engel, sp. n. and I. nihtmara Ortega-Blanco, Delclòs & Engel, sp. n.; a single female from Lebanon is described and figured as Ahiromaimetsha najlae Perrichot, Azar, Nel & Engel, gen. et sp. n., and a single male from Canada is described and figured as Ahstemiam cellula McKellar & Engel, gen. et sp. n. The taxa are compared with other maimetshids, a key to genera and species is given, and brief comments made on the family.

The importance of distinguishing information from evidence/observations when formulating propositions

The value of forensic results crucially depends on the propositions and the information under which they are evaluated. For example, if a full single DNA profile for a contemporary marker system matching the profile of Mr A is assessed, given the propositions that the DNA came from Mr A and given it came from an unknown person, the strength of evidence can be overwhelming (e.g., in the order of a billion). In contrast, if we assess the same result given that the DNA came from Mr A and given it came from his twin brother (i.e., a person with the same DNA profile), the strength of evidence will be 1, and therefore neutral, unhelpful and irrelevant 1 to the case at hand. While this understanding is probably uncontroversial and obvious to most, if not all practitioners dealing with DNA evidence, the practical precept of not specifying an alternative source with the same characteristics as the one considered under the first proposition may be much less clear in other circumstances. During discussions with colleagues and trainees, cases have come to our attention where forensic scientists have difficulty with the formulation of propositions. It is particularly common to observe that results (e.g., observations) are included in the propositions, whereas-as argued throughout this note-they should not be. A typical example could be a case where a shoe-mark with a logo and the general pattern characteristics of a Nike Air Jordan shoe is found at the scene of a crime. A Nike Air Jordan shoe is then seized at Mr A's house and control prints of this shoe compared to the mark. The results (e.g., a trace with this general pattern and acquired characteristics corresponding to the sole of Mr A's shoe) are then evaluated given the propositions 'The mark was left by Mr A's Nike Air Jordan shoe-sole' and 'The mark was left by an unknown Nike Air Jordan shoe'. As a consequence, the footwear examiner will not evaluate part of the observations (i.e., the mark presents the general pattern of a Nike Air Jordan) whereas they can be highly informative. Such examples can be found in all forensic disciplines. In this article, we present a few such examples and discuss aspects that will help forensic scientists with the formulation of propositions. In particular, we emphasise on the usefulness of notation to distinguish results that forensic scientists should evaluate from case information that the Court will evaluate.

Carbamato de etila em bebidas alcoólicas (cachaça, tiquira, uísque e grapa)

The presence of ethyl carbamate in cachaças, tiquiras, whiskies and grapes was investigated by GC-MS, monitoring the m/z 62 ion. The external standard method was used for quantitation in 188 samples (126 cachaças, 37 tiquiras, 6 grappas and 19 whiskies). The results of the study for cachaça were analysed considering the geographic origin, distillation type (still or column), bottle coloration (amber or transparent) and ageing. The average contents of ethyl carbamate in cachaças and tiquiras were 0.77 and 2.4 mg L-1, respectively. These values were higher than the mean concentration found in grapes (0.045 mg L-1) and whiskies (0.14 mg L-1). On average the cachaças distilled in column tend to present higher values of ethyl carbamate than those from still. In the sampling studied it was not possible to define a correlation between content of ethyl carbamate, bottle coloration and ageing time.

Alternative technique for biodiesel quality control using an optical fiber long-period grating sensor

We report the use of an optical fiber sensor to measure the soybean oil concentration in samples obtained from the mixture of pure biodiesel and commercial soybean oil. The operation of the device is based on the long-period grating sensitivity to the surrounding medium refractive index, which leads to measurable modifications in the grating transmission spectrum. The proposed analysis method results in errors in the oil concentration of 0.4% and 2.6% for pure biodiesel and commercial soybean oil, respectively. Techniques of total glycerol, dynamic viscosity, density, and hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were also employed to validate the proposed method.

Composição molecular e origem paleobotânica de âmbares da bacia do Araripe, Formação Santana

The terpenoid composition of seven amber samples from Araripe Basin (Santana Formation, Crato Member) has been analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine their botanical origin. The diterpenoids, which have been identified in the fossil resin extracts are derived primarily from the abietane class, e.g., dehydroabietane, 4-epidehydroabietol, 16,17,18-trisnorabieta-8,11,13-triene, 7-oxo-16,17,19-trisnorabieta-8,11,13-trieno, dehydroabietic acid, ferruginol, hinokiol and hinokione. Their composition is certainly typical for conifers, and angiosperms can be excluded as the botanical source, as no triterpene was identified. The terpenoid characteristics strongly support a relationship to the Araucariaceae or Podocarpaceae families. In addition, the fossil record of the embedding sediments (pollen and fossil leaves) also supports the proposal of these paleobotanical origins for the ambers.