Diversidade e sazonalidade de ácaros (Acari) em seringal (Hevea brasiliensis, Muell. Arg.) no Noroeste do Estado de São Paulo

A Região Sudeste do Brasil apresenta aspectos edafo-climáticos favoráveis para o plantio e desenvolvimento da seringueira, sendo o estado de São Paulo o maior produtor nacional de látex. Este trabalho teve como objetivos determinar, através de coletas mensais durante três anos de estudo, a diversidade, a riqueza de espécies e a sua sazonalidade, bem como realizar estimativas de densidade populacional das principais espécies de ácaros presentes nas folhas. Todos os ácaros foram montados em lâminas de microscopia, totalizando 74.407 indivíduos, de 26 espécies pertencentes a 10 famílias. Os fitófagos representaram 95,4% do total de indivíduos coletados e os predadores 3,9%. Doze espécies foram consideradas acidentais, seis foram acessórias e oito constantes. Apresentaram maior número de espécies as famílias Phytoseiidae (cinco) e Tydeidae (quatro). A espécie mais abundante foi Calacarus heveae Feres (50.573), com maior abundância nos meses correspondentes ao término da estação chuvosa e início da estação seca na região. Dentre os predadores, a mais abundante foi Zetzellia quasagistemas Hernandes & Feres (1.345), seguida por Pronematus sp. (455), Zetzellia agistzellia Hernandes & Feres (409) e Euseius citrifolius Denmark & Muma (243). C. heveae apresentou maior densidade populacional em março e abril de 2003, e Lorryia formosa Cooreman e Tenuipalpus heveae Baker em março e maio de 2001, respectivamente. Muitos estigmeídeos foram observados associados a agrupamentos de L. formosa predando seus ovos e estágios imaturos.

Diversidade e sazonalidade de ácaros (Acari) em seringal (Hevea brasiliensis, Muell. Arg.) no Noroeste do Estado de São Paulo

Brazilian southeastern region has soil and climate conditions suitable for the growing of rubber trees, and most part of national yield arises from São Paulo State. The aims proposed for this work were to determine the diversity, the richness and the seasonal occurrence of mites found in a rubber tree crop in a triennial survey with monthly samplings, as well as to estimate the populational density of the major phytophagous species. This study found 74,407 mites from 26 species belonging to 10 families. The phytophagous and predators represented 95.4% and 3.9% of the total abundance, respectively. Twelve species were rare, six accessories and eight constant. The families Phytoseiidae and Tydeidae had the greatest richness (five and four species, respectively). The most numerous species was Calacarus heveae Feres (50,573), with great abundance at the end of rainy season until the beginning of dry season. Among predators, the most abundant were Zetzellia quasagistemas Hernandes & Feres (1,345), Pronematus sp. (455), Zetzellia agistzellia Hernandes & Feres (409) and Euseius citrifolius Denmark & Muma (243). C. heveae had greatest densities on March and April 2003, and Lorryia formosa Cooreman and Tenuipalpus heveae Baker on March and May 2001, respectively. Many stigmaeids were observed in association with colonies of L. formosa preying their eggs and immatures.

Diversidade e sazonalidade de ácaros (Acari) em seringal (Hevea brasiliensis, Muell. Arg.) no Noroeste do Estado de São Paulo

A Região Sudeste do Brasil apresenta aspectos edafo-climáticos favoráveis para o plantio e desenvolvimento da seringueira, sendo o estado de São Paulo o maior produtor nacional de látex. Este trabalho teve como objetivos determinar, através de coletas mensais durante três anos de estudo, a diversidade, a riqueza de espécies e a sua sazonalidade, bem como realizar estimativas de densidade populacional das principais espécies de ácaros presentes nas folhas. Todos os ácaros foram montados em lâminas de microscopia, totalizando 74.407 indivíduos, de 26 espécies pertencentes a 10 famílias. Os fitófagos representaram 95,4% do total de indivíduos coletados e os predadores 3,9%. Doze espécies foram consideradas acidentais, seis foram acessórias e oito constantes. Apresentaram maior número de espécies as famílias Phytoseiidae (cinco) e Tydeidae (quatro). A espécie mais abundante foi Calacarus heveae Feres (50.573), com maior abundância nos meses correspondentes ao término da estação chuvosa e início da estação seca na região. Dentre os predadores, a mais abundante foi Zetzellia quasagistemas Hernandes & Feres (1.345), seguida por Pronematus sp. (455), Zetzellia agistzellia Hernandes & Feres (409) e Euseius citrifolius Denmark & Muma (243). C. heveae apresentou maior densidade populacional em março e abril de 2003, e Lorryia formosa Cooreman e Tenuipalpus heveae Baker em março e maio de 2001, respectivamente. Muitos estigmeídeos foram observados associados a agrupamentos de L. formosa predando seus ovos e estágios imaturos.

Pattern-based analysis of EAI languages : the case of the business modelling language

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a challenging area that is attracting growing attention from the software industry and the research community. A landscape of languages and techniques for EAI has emerged and is continuously being enriched with new proposals from different software vendors and coalitions. However, little or no effort has been dedicated to systematically evaluate and compare these languages and techniques. The work reported in this paper is a first step in this direction. It presents an in-depth analysis of a language, namely the Business Modeling Language, specifically developed for EAI. The framework used for this analysis is based on a number of workflow and communication patterns. This framework provides a basis for evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of EAI languages with respect to recurrent problems and situations.

What lies beneath? : The pattern and abundance of the subterranean tuber bank of the invasive liana cat’s claw creeper, Macfadyena unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae)

Cat’s claw creeper, Macfadyena unguis-cati (L.) Gentry (Bignoniaceae) is a major environmental weed of riparian areas, rainforest communities and remnant natural vegetation in coastal Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. In densely infested areas, it smothers standing vegetation, including large trees, and causes canopy collapse. Quantitative data on the ecology of this invasive vine are generally lacking. The present study examines the underground tuber traits of M. unguis-cati and explores their links with aboveground parameters at five infested sites spanning both riparian and inland vegetation. Tubers were abundant in terms of density (~1000 per m2), although small in size and low in level of interconnectivity. M. unguis-cati also exhibits multiple stems per plant. Of all traits screened, the link between stand (stem density) and tuber density was the most significant and yielded a promising bivariate relationship for the purposes of estimation, prediction and management of what lies beneath the soil surface of a given M. unguis-cati infestation site. The study also suggests that new recruitment is primarily from seeds, not from vegetative propagation as previously thought. The results highlight the need for future biological-control efforts to focus on introducing specialist seed- and pod-feeding insects to reduce seed-output.

BioPatML : pattern sharing for the genomic sciences

Computational biology increasingly demands the sharing of sophisticated data and annotations between research groups. Web 2.0 style sharing and publication requires that biological systems be described in well-defined, yet flexible and extensible formats which enhance exchange and re-use. In contrast to many of the standards for exchange in the genomic sciences, descriptions of biological sequences show a great diversity in format and function, impeding the definition and exchange of sequence patterns. In this presentation, we introduce BioPatML, an XML-based pattern description language that supports a wide range of patterns and allows the construction of complex, hierarchically structured patterns and pattern libraries. BioPatML unifies the diversity of current pattern description languages and fills a gap in the set of XML-based description languages for biological systems. We discuss the structure and elements of the language, and demonstrate its advantages on a series of applications, showing lightweight integration between the BioPatML parser and search engine, and the SilverGene genome browser. We conclude by describing our site to enable large scale pattern sharing, and our efforts to seed this repository.

Interpersonal pattern dynamics and adaptive behavior in multiagent neurobiological systems : conceptual model and data

Ecological dynamics characterizes adaptive behavior as an emergent, self-organizing property of interpersonal interactions in complex social systems. The authors conceptualize and investigate constraints on dynamics of decisions and actions in the multiagent system of team sports. They studied coadaptive interpersonal dynamics in rugby union to model potential control parameter and collective variable relations in attacker–defender dyads. A videogrammetry analysis revealed how some agents generated fluctuations by adapting displacement velocity to create phase transitions and destabilize dyadic subsystems near the try line. Agent interpersonal dynamics exhibited characteristics of chaotic attractors and informational constraints of rugby union boxed dyadic systems into a low dimensional attractor. Data suggests that decisions and actions of agents in sports teams may be characterized as emergent, self-organizing properties, governed by laws of dynamical systems at the ecological scale. Further research needs to generalize this conceptual model of adaptive behavior in performance to other multiagent populations.

Power law distributions in pattern dynamics of attacker-defender dyads in the team sport of Rugby Union : phenomena in a region of self-organized criticality?

In the region of self-organized criticality (SOC) interdependency between multi-agent system components exists and slight changes in near-neighbor interactions can break the balance of equally poised options leading to transitions in system order. In this region, frequency of events of differing magnitudes exhibits a power law distribution. The aim of this paper was to investigate whether a power law distribution characterized attacker-defender interactions in team sports. For this purpose we observed attacker and defender in a dyadic sub-phase of rugby union near the try line. Videogrammetry was used to capture players’ motion over time as player locations were digitized. Power laws were calculated for the rate of change of players’ relative position. Data revealed that three emergent patterns from dyadic system interactions (i.e., try; unsuccessful tackle; effective tackle) displayed a power law distribution. Results suggested that pattern forming dynamics dyads in rugby union exhibited SOC. It was concluded that rugby union dyads evolve in SOC regions suggesting that players’ decisions and actions are governed by local interactions rules.