Recognition of individual-specific marked parasitized hosts by the solitary parasitoid Epidinocarsis lopezi

Summary In parasitoid wasps, self-superparasitism (oviposition into a host already parasitized by the female herself) often contributes less to the reproductive success of the parasitoid than oviposition into a host previously parasitized by a conspecific (conspecific superparasitism). It could therefore often be profitable for parasitoids to avoid self-superparasitism. This requires a mechanism for either (1) the avoidance of previously searched areas and/or (2) the rejection of hosts containing eggs laid by the searching female. We investigated whether the solitary parasitoid Epidinocarsis lopezi is able to avoid self-superparasitism. We show that visits to previously searched patches were shorter than visits to unsearched patches and conclude that E. lopezi females leave a trail odour on patches they have searched. No differences were found between the time on patches previously searched by the wasp itself and on patches visited by conspecifics. However, E. lopezi superparasitizes fewer hosts previously parasitized by itself than hosts parasitized by a conspecific. Thus, they recognize an individual-specific mark in or on the host. We discuss how patch marking and host marking enable E. lopezi to avoid self-superparasitism.     

清洁生产信息：因特网工作的重要性

CP6的一个成果就是开发全球清洁生产信息网的承诺.基于现有网络的经验，概述了维持此全球网络的责任、努力的程度和所需的资源.叙述了为改善信息交流所做的四个现有的地区性尝试.     

TEMPO-Mediated Oxidation of Norway Spruce and Eucalyptus Pulps: Preparation and Characterization of Nanofibers and Nanofiber Dispersions

This study deals with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation of cellulose. Softwood and hardwood pulp fibers were suspended in water and oxidized to various extents at pH 10 and 22 °C using sodium hypochlorite in the presence of TEMPO radical and sodium bromide. This reaction system is known to be the most efficient one for the introduction of both surface carboxyl and aldehyde groups. Important relationships between formation of these functional groups and the fibrillation yield, light transmittance of the water dispersions and degree of polymerization of the oxidized softwood and hardwood pulps were established in the present study. A birefringence test confirmed the presence of nanofibers which according to atomic force microscopy analyses had diameters in the 1.6–3.8 nm range.     

Sorption and desorption behavior of benzidine in different solvent-sediment systems

The sorption and desorption behavior of benzidine in eight solvent-sediment systems were studied using a batch method. The solvents tested included deionized water (DI), calcium chloride solution (CaCl2), sodium hydroxide solution (NaOH), acetonitrile (ACN), a mixture of acetonitrile and ammonium acetate solution (ACN-NH4OAc), methanol (MeOH), ammonium acetate solution (NH4OAc) and hydrochloric acid solution (HCl). Three sets of sorption isotherm experiments were conducted separately in these eight solvents with seven days, three weeks, and two months of contact times, respectively. The results demonstrated nonlinear benzidine sorption phenomena in all eight solvents with higher sorption affinities for sediment sites in the aqueous solvents than in the organic solvents. The results from the desorption experiments revealed that the benzidine desorption efficiencies in the solvents decreased in an order, which was approximately the reverse order of its sorption affinity. Results also suggested that hydrophobic partitioning and covalent binding processes dominated in the desorption experiments, while cation exchange process had little effect on desorption of benzidine. A three-stage model was subsequently applied to simulate the desorption data in the selected solvents of ACN, ACN-NH4OAc and NaOH, respectively. The rapidly desorbing initial fractions were about 0.13-0.20, 0.15-0.26, and 0.18-0.25 for ACN, ACN-NH4OAc and NaOH, respectively. Finally, the sorbed concentrations of benzidine in slowly and very slowly desorbing domains in the selected solvents were correlated with the maximum sorption capacities obtained from the Langmuir sorption isotherm model. The maximum sorption capacities of benzidine were found to be comparable to the amount of benzidine residing in the slowly and very slowly desorbing domains.     

Insights into the dissolution and the three-dimensional structure of insensitive munitions formulations

Two compounds, 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) and 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazol-5-one (NTO) are the main ingredients in a suite of explosive formulations that are being, or soon will be, fielded at military training ranges. We aim to understand the dissolution characteristics of DNAN and NTO and three insensitive muntions (IM) formulations that contain them. This information is needed to accurately predict the environmental fate of IM constituents, some of which may be toxic to people and the environment. We used Raman spectroscopy to identify the different constituents in the IM formulations and micro computed tomography to image their three-dimensional structure. These are the first three-dimensional images of detonated explosive particles.     

Sharing Rules for Common-Pool Resources When Self-Insurance is Available

When a group of users who share a common-pool resource through a system of licenses is exposed to the risk of shortage, there is a need to establish a sharing rule. Such sharing rule is likely to impact the individual decisions to self-insure, i.e., to rely on a secure but costly resource instead of the free but uncertain common-pool resource. We determine the optimal sharing rule and the optimal diversification between the common-pool resource and the safe resource as a function of the agents’ individual characteristics, the distribution of the common-pool resource availability, and the cost of the safe resource. We find that, for a group of agents with heterogenous risk preferences, a perfectly informed regulator can obtain the optimal diversification level by imposing a rationing rule which shares the resource between agents proportionally to their relative risk tolerance. We illustrate and interpret our results in the context of water management in France.     

A multiobjective optimization framework for multicontaminant industrial water network design

The optimal design of multicontaminant industrial water networks according to several objectives is carried out in this paper. The general formulation of the water allocation problem (WAP) is given as a set of nonlinear equations with binary variables representing the presence of interconnections in the network. For optimization purposes, three antagonist objectives are considered: F(1), the freshwater flow-rate at the network entrance, F(2), the water flow-rate at inlet of regeneration units, and F(3), the number of interconnections in the network. The multiobjective problem is solved via a lexicographic strategy, where a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) procedure is used at each step. The approach is illustrated by a numerical example taken from the literature involving five processes, one regeneration unit and three contaminants. The set of potential network solutions is provided in the form of a Pareto front. Finally, the strategy for choosing the best network solution among those given by Pareto fronts is presented. This Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem is tackled by means of two approaches: a classical TOPSIS analysis is first implemented and then an innovative strategy based on the global equivalent cost (GEC) in freshwater that turns out to be more efficient for choosing a good network according to a practical point of view.     

Recovering Food Commons in Post Industrial Europe: Cooperation Networks in Organic Food Provisioning in Catalonia and Norway

This paper explores food commoning through an ethnographic case study in Catalonia as our primary site while the Norwegian case is juxtaposed as a comparison, two agriculturally and economically different European countries. The ethnography analyses cooperation networks between organic food producers’ and consumers’ involving different nodes of community gardening initiatives, self-employed growers, local farmers and all of them under a unique cooperative integrating a community economy. The result it is a myriad of exchange practices ranging from reciprocity and barter to market exchange without intermediaries through on-line platforms. Along these exchanges different options of currency intervene giving rise to novel social and cooperative relations. Similar initiatives in Norway show less variation and are less experimental regarding forms of payment but share similarities in relation to material articulations, concerns and forms of alternative practice. Although these novel forms do not represent a complete break from the more standardized supply chains, and hence from the oppositions/contradictions of production and consumption, the participants see themselves as contributing to a more general process of de-commodification of food. We explore the extent to which the meaning and moral values are mutually constituted in relation to socioeconomic exchanges and environmental caring that each person experiences based on different forms of cooperation and reciprocity. Food, we suggest, is more than a commodity on the market that we may influence through our role as consumers. It is a significant focal point connecting our lives to those of others that articulates one’s relations to society in a political manner.