Aggregation of the bean flower thrips, Megalurothrips sjostedti (Trybom) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), has been observed on cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp. To understand the mechanism underpinning this behavior, we studiedthe responses of M. sjostedti to headspace volatiles from conspecifics in a four-arm olfactometer. Both male andfemale M. sjostedti were attracted to male, but not to female od

Odorant receptors (OR) play a critical role in signal transduction and olfactory recognition in insects. Unfortunately, insect ORs are difficult to express and purify, and limited structural data are available. Computational methods were used to predict models for aphid ORs, and binding interactions with aphid pheromones and other semiochemicals were investigated. Previously functionally character

Self-assembly processes play a key role in the fabrication of functional nano-structures with widespread application in drug delivery and micro-reactors. In addition to the thermodynamics, the kinetics of the self-assembled nano-structures also play an important role in determining the formed structures. However, as the self-assembly process is often highly heterogeneous, systematic elucidation of

This paper presents the first performance results of the ALICE TPC Readout Control Unit 2 (RCU2). With the upgraded hardware typology and the new readout scheme in FPGA design, the RCU2 is designed to achieve twice the readout speed of the present Readout Control Unit. Design choices such as using the flash-based Microsemi Smartfusion2 FPGA and applying mitigation techniques in interfaces and FPGA

Tumor response in radionuclide therapy can be monitored with PET/CT and/or PET/MR. A high background photon fluence from a therapy radionuclide may influence both image quality and quantification, when imaging is performed intra-therapeutically, i.e. with high activity of the therapeutic radionuclide present. Here, count losses and image distortion have been investigated for preclinical and clinic

The luminosity monitor LUCID (LUminosity Cherenkov Integrating Detector) employed in the ATLAS experiment at the LHC had to be upgraded for the second run of LHC (Run 2) that started in spring 2015. The increased energy of the proton beams and the higher luminosity implied that the Photomultipliers of the original LUCID detector had to be replaced for Run 2 to cope with the more demanding conditio

Traditional phase scan method for cavity phase and amplitude setting is offline and hard to track the variations of environment and operation points. An alternative beam loading based calibration method is investigated in this paper, which might become useful online/real time calibration method.

In a two Higgs-doublet model with D4 flavor symmetry we establish a relation between tanβ and the Cabibbo angle. Due to a small number of parameters, the quark Yukawa sector of the model is very predictive. The flavor changing neutral currents are small enough to allow for relatively light nonstandard scalars to pass through the flavor constraints.

We present a method to find anomaly-free gauged Froggatt-Nielsen type models using results from algebraic geometry. These methods should be of general interest for model building beyond the Standard Model (SM) when rational charges are required. We consider models with a gauged U(1) flavor symmetry with one flavon and two Higgs doublets and three right-handed SM singlets to provide three model exa

In increasingly digitalised societies, government initiatives to ensure that public services remain accessible for everyone typically focus on the digital inclusion of older adults. However, by solely viewing older adults as passive recipients or consumers of services, digital inclusion strategies under-emphasise the concept of digital participation. Highlighting the importance of older adults as

The MAX IV 3 GeV storage ring is presently being commissioned and crucial parameters such as machine functions, emittance, and stored current have either already been reached or are approaching their design specifications [1, 2]. Once the baseline performance has been achieved, a campaign will be launched to further improve the brightness and coherence of this storage ring for typical x-ray users.