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Coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros; CRB) was discovered in 2015 in a small outbreak in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. This was the first record of CRB from Solomon Islands and a response plan was prepared. An awareness programme was launched and where CRB sightings were confirmed, delimitation surveys were carried out. Following the launch of the awareness programme, later in 2015, CRB was also reported from the Shortland Islands in the Western Province. Other islands were surveyed from 2015 to 2020. If CRB presence was confirmed, beetles were collected and analysed for haplotype and presence of the classical biological control agent, Oryctes rhinoceros nudivirus (OrNV). A distribution map and timeline of invasion were developed. The initial populations belonged to two distinct haplotypes: CRB-G (clade IA) in Honiara and CRB-S (clade II) in Shortland Islands. Despite control measures, by 2020 CRB-G had spread to islands in eight provinces and CRB-S had spread to islands in seven provinces. CRB-S and CRB-G co-occur in Guadalcanal and Malaita provinces. In 2019, OrNV was detected from field collected CRB from Guadalcanal and has since spread to Malaita Island. In both cases the virus was detected where CRB-G and CRB-S co-occur. Other outbreak areas in Solomon Islands remain OrNV-free. The two haplotypes appear to have spread following patterns of air and sea movement between the point of origin (CRB-G from Honiara and CRB-S from the Shortland Islands) to other islands/provinces.

The coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros (L.), (CRB) is a major pest of coconut and oil palms that causes significant damage in the Asia/Pacific region. Traditional methods for surveillance and detection of CRB involve in-person inspections, but these are expensive to carry out and were made impossible by travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, a method to remotely detect possible CRB incursions and assess damage levels using publicly available images is described. The method involves searching for pictures of palms and identifying those with the distinctive V-shaped cuts in fronds characteristic of CRB feeding. The method was validated by examining palm images from known outbreak areas and those free from the pest. We found evidence of CRB damage in the previously unreported site of Dili, Timor Leste and possible evidence of CRB in the Solomon Islands even before it was first reported in 2015. Potential limitations and broader applications of this approach are also discussed.

Detecting and improving the scientific understanding of global trends in complex Earth systems, such as climate, increasingly depend on assimilating datasets from multiple instruments and platforms over decadal timescales. Calibration accuracy, stability, and inter-consistency among different instruments are key to developing reliable composite data records from sensors in low Earth and geostationary orbits, however, achieving sufficiently low uncertainties for these performance metrics poses a significant challenge. Space-borne instruments commonly carry on-board references for calibration at various wavelengths, but these increase mass and mission complexity and are subject to degradation in the space environment. The Moon can be considered a natural solar diffuser which can be utilized as an on-orbit calibration target by most space-borne Earth-observing instruments. Since the lunar surface reflectance is effectively time-invariant, establishing the Moon as a high-accuracy calibration reference enables broad inter-calibration opportunities even between temporally non-overlapping instruments and provides an exo-atmospheric absolute radiometric standard. This on-orbit radiometric spectral reference helps enable high-accuracy absolute calibrations and inter-calibrations of past, current, and future Earth-observing sensors, meteorological imagers, and long-term climatemonitoring satellite systems. The goal of the ARCSTONE In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies (InVEST) project, funded by NASA ESTO, is to demonstrate its novel lunar measurement approach from space and improve the Moon as a radiometric SI-traceable reference for high-accuracy on-orbit calibrations spanning the visible and nearinfrared spectral regions. The ARCSTONE instrument is a compact spectrometer which will be accommodated on a 6U CubeSat intended for low Earth orbit with planned readiness for launch in about 2 years. It will measure the lunar spectral reflectance with combined standard uncertainty of 0.5% (k=1) across the 350 nm to 2300 nm spectral range. The ARCSTONE InVEST team will present the status of the project, the instrument design, calibration approach, concept of operations, and the planned path toward mission implementation.

This private OSF component documents presentations and discussions at the ICE concerning coconut rhinoceros beetle.

Results and scripts for under review paper: Dissociable Cerebellar-Prefrontal Networks Underlying Executive Function: Evidence from the Human Connectome Project. A pre-print of the paper is available on bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.1101/431593

Recent research found increased functional connectivity (FC) between the (DN) and cerebral cortex in Alzheimer’s disease (AD; Olivito, 2020) and points to the potential importance of cerebrocerebellar connectivity as a biomarker in the progression of the disease. The cerebellum, which projects to the thalamus via the dentate nucleus (DN), is connected to both cognitive and motor regions of the cerebral cortex via separate, trans-thalamic, reciprocal loops (Kelly & Strick, 2003). Research has delineated at least two distinct dentate-cortical networks in both the non-human primate and human brain: the dorsal DN, associated with motor functions and circuits, and the ventral DN, associated with cognitive processing and the corresponding circuits (Dum & Strick, 2003; Bernard et al., 2014; Steele et al., 2017). Importantly, cerebellar regions prone to atrophy in AD (e.g., Crus I/II) are functionally connected to atrophied regions of the cerebral cortex (e.g., primary motor cortex and regions related to the default mode network; de Jong et al. 2008, Suvà et al., 1999, Guo, 2016), indicating dysfunction occurs at a network level. A crucial step in elucidating the role of the cerebellum in AD was to investigate functional connectivity alterations between cerebral structures and the DN (Olivito, 2020) and an important next step is to investigate functional connectivity differences in the individual networks within the DN. Additionally, loss of motor function and the presence of motor symptoms can predict AD outcomes and the risk of developing AD (Buchman& Bennett, 2011; Scarmeas, 2005; Albers, 2015). Therefore, it is of interest to explore whether the dorsal and ventral dentate-cortical networks have differences in functional connectivity in the presence of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD and whether any differences seen in these networks are related to scores on motor and cognitive tasks. This work may potentially inform future clinical work in the diagnosis and understanding of AD, as well as help decipher AD subtypes and the progression of symptoms as they relate to brain network dysfunction.

Agriculture is going through a global crisis, productivity and sustainability are two factors, which farmers are challenging to produce more food, preserve the environment and the health of living beings. Developed and developing countries need to adopt new productive alternatives, which improve the quality of food, preserving the environment and the ecosystems. Actually, the abuse and misuse of chemical products has caused a series of problems such as contamination (soil and water) and pest resistance to active ingredients. Climate change and other transformations that agriculture is going through, generated decades ago the emergence of the industry of biological inputs, which are friendly products with the environment and human health. These products have characteristics and modes of action that help pest control with fewer risks than the use of pesticides. This review compiles the importance, use and applications of biological products based on beneficial fungi in Latin America, highlighting the project "Biocontrol for Sustainable Farming Systems" executed in Ecuador, funded by MFAT New Zeland, which has shown the efficiency of the use of microorganisms in the agriculture through the research results obtained during the execution of this Project. In addition, aspects related to quality control of bioproducts and regulations for their registration are also mentioned.

This thesis was scanned from the print manuscript for digital preservation and is copyright the author. Researchers can access this thesis by asking their local university, institution or public library to make a request on their behalf. Monash staff and postgraduate students can use the link in the References field.

El éxito de un bioproducto a base de microorganismos depende de que la formulación sea adecuada para su uso y estable en condiciones de almacenamiento. En este contexto, se evaluó la estabilidad de cuatro sistemas de liberación para la formulación de conidios del hongo antagonista Trichoderma asperellum Samuels, Lieckfeldt & Nirenberg (polvo mojable, gránulo cubierto, gránulo dispersable y concentrado emulsionable). La estabilidad de los prototipos almacenados a 4 °C y 30 °C fue evaluada durante seis meses mediante la determinación de características microbiológicas y fisicoquímicas. Los productos almacenados a 4 °C fueron más estables que los almacenados a 30 °C; presentando estos últimos una pérdida total de la germinación después de seis meses de almacenamiento, con excepción del polvo mojable (WP) que mantuvo su germinación por encima del 80%. Dentro de los sistemas de entrega, el polvo mojable fue el prototipo más estable, manteniendo una germinación de conidios mayor al 85% y una viabilidad de 1x108 unidades formadoras de colonias por gramo (UFC/g). Esta formulación además mantuvo las propiedades fisicoquímicas dentro de los estándares de calidad cuando fue almacenada bajo condiciones de refrigeración. The success of a microorganism-based bio product depends on an appropriate formulation for use, stable under storage conditions. In this context, four delivery systems were evaluated for the formulation of conidia of the antagonist fungus Trichoderma asperellum (wettable powder, coated granule, dispersible granule and emulsifiable concentrate). The stability of the prototypes stored at 4º C and 30º C was assessed for six months by determining microbiological and physicochemical characteristics. The products stored at 4º C were more stable than those stored at 30º C, the latter presenting a total loss of germination except for the wettable powder (WP), which presented a germination of over 80% after six months of storage. Within delivery systems, wettable powder was the most stable prototype, maintaining conidia germination above 85% and viability in 1x108 colony forming units per gram (UFC/g). This formulation also maintained all physicochemical properties within quality standards, when stored under refrigeration. Gerencia de Comunicación Institucional, DG SICyP, INTA Fil: Perdomo-Quispe, Cynthia Estefanía. Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura; Ecuador Fil: Villamizar, Laura. Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias; Ecuador Fil: Báez-Cevallos, Francisco Javier. Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura; Ecuador Fil: Viera-Arroyo, William Fernando. Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura; Ecuador Fil: Jackson, Trevor. AgResearch Ltd. Lincoln Research Centre. Microbial Solutions; Nueva Zelandia

One of the main phytosanitary problems in blackberry (Rubus glaucus Benth) crops in Ecuador is the fungus Botrytis cinerea that causes gray mold disease. The objective of this study was to determine the antagonistic capacity of four fungi against the pathogen B. cinerea. To carry out this research, two endophytic blackberry microorganisms were isolated (Clonostachys sp. and Alternaria sp.) and strains of Trichoderma asperellum and Trichoderma sp. belonging to the INIAP´s collection were used. The dual culture technique was used. The Bell scale was used to assess antagonism and the percentage of inhibition of mycelial growth was calculated for the antagonistic effect. T. asperellum y Trichoderma sp. grade I on the Bell scale, where the antagonist fungus inhibited the growth of B. cinerea by 75.1% and 73.7% respectively; while the isolate of Clonostachys sp. obtained grade II and despite its slow growth, it was observed that its spores parasitize the sclerotia of B. cinerea. On the other hand, the isolate of Alternaria sp. was located in grade III, consequently it was not efficient to avoid the growth of the pathogenic fungus., Uno de los principales problemas fitosanitarios en los cultivos de mora (Rubus glaucus Benth) del Ecuador es el hongo Botrytis cinerea causante de la enfermedad del “moho gris”. El objetivo de este estudio fue determinar la capacidad antagónica de cuatro hongos frente al patógeno B. cinerea. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación se aislaron dos microorganismos endófitos del cultivo de mora (Clonostachys sp. y Alternaria sp.) y se utilizaron aislados de Trichoderma asperellum y Trichoderma sp. de la colección de INIAP. Se utilizó la técnica de cultivos duales. Se utilizó la escala de Bell para evaluar el antagonismo y se calculó el porcentaje de inhibición del crecimiento micelial para el efecto antagónico. T. asperellum y Trichoderma sp. alcanzaron el grado I en la escala de Bell, donde el antagonista inhibió el crecimiento de B. cinerea en un 75.1% y 73.7% respectivamente; mientras que el aislado de Clonostachys sp. alcanzó el grado II y se observó que sus esporas parasitaron los esclerocios de B. cinerea. Por otro lado, el asilado de Alternaria sp. se ubicó en grado III, lo cual no se consideró eficiente para inhibir el crecimiento del hongo patógeno.

Satellite instrument change in orbit during a mission lifetime can result in significant error for absolute radiance sensor calibrations. Polarization (POL) response, out-of-band signal rejection (OOB), and relative spectral response (RSR) are important contributors to understanding calibration error, yet no existing systems can conduct all of these diagnostics while a sensor is in space. In this presentation, a system under development is described that enables new diagnostic analyses of radiometers while they are in orbit by propagating a laser beam from the ground. While the system is not expected to provide high accuracy (

The Andean blackberry crop (Rubus glaucus) is very important for the farmers, since they must implement cultural practices that allow reducing the use of synthetic pesticides. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of different technological alternatives for the control of Botrytis sp. in the blackberry crop. The treatments were: 1: Absolute control (silwet+water), 2: Traditional chemical treatment (Carbendazim), 3: Mirtaceae extract (Iridium®), 4: Bacterial metabolite (Balus®) and 5: Trichoderma spp. (Tricomix®). The applications were carried out every 15 days for the synthetic product and every 8 days for the biologicals, organic and the control. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used with 3 repetitions and Tukey test at 5% were made. The studied variables were botrytis incidence (%), yield (g/plot), weight (g), polar and equatorial diameter (mm), firmness (N), total soluble solids (Brix), titratable acidity (% citric acid) and pH (log H+). Throughout a weekly incidence analysis, it was possibly to identify that the Carbendazim, Trichoderma spp. and mirtaceae extract had a better control in the incidence of Botrytis sp. in the blackberry fruit., El cultivo de mora de castilla (Rubus glaucus) es de mucha importancia para los agricultores ya que deben implementar prácticas culturales que permitan reducir el uso de pesticidas sintéticos. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar el efecto de diferentes alternativas tecnológicas para el control de Botrytis sp. en el cultivo de mora de castilla. Los tratamientos fueron 1: Testigo absoluto (silwet + agua), 2: Fungicida tradicional sintético (Carbendazim), 3: Extracto de mirtáceas (Iridium®), 4: Metabolitos bacterianos (Balus®) y 5: Trichoderma spp. (Tricomix®). Las aplicaciones se realizaron cada 15 días para el producto sintético y cada 8 días los biológicos, orgánicos y el testigo. Se utilizó un diseño de bloques completamente al azar (DBCA) con 3 repeticiones y un total de 10 unidades experimentales. Las variables estudiadas del fruto fueron: incidencia de Botrytis sp. (%), rendimiento (g/parcela), peso (g), diámetro polar y ecuatorial (mm), firmeza (N), sólidos solubles totales (Brix), acidez (% ácido cítrico) y pH (log H+). Se realizó un análisis de varianza y prueba de Tukey al 5%. A partir de un análisis de incidencia semanal, se identificó que Carbendazim, Trichoderma spp. y extracto mirtáceas tuvieron un control en la incidencia de Botrytis sp. en el fruto de mora de castilla.

Calibration accuracy, long-term precision, and inter-consistency are key on-orbit performance metrics for Earth observing sensors. The accuracy and consistency of environmental measurements across multiple instruments in low Earth and geostationary orbits are directly connected to the scientific understanding of complex systems, such as Earth’s weather and climate. Recent studies have demonstrated the quantitative impacts of observational accuracy on the quality of science data products and the ability to detect climate change trends for essential climate variables (e.g., Earth’s radiation budget, cloud feedback, and long-term trends in cloud parameters). It is common for instruments to carry on-board references for calibration at various wavelengths, but these can be subject to degradation, and also increase mass and risk. The Moon can be considered a natural solar diffuser in space. Establishing the Moon as a high-accuracy calibration reference enables broad inter-calibration opportunities, as the lunar reflectance is effectively time-invariant and can be directly measured by most Earth-observing instruments. Existing approaches to calibrate sensors against the Moon can achieve stabilities of tenths of a percent over a decade, as demonstrated by the SeaWIFS. However, current lunar calibration capabilities have uncertainties of 5 – 10%, attributed to the photometric model of the Moon. Significant improvements in the lunar reference and calibration are possible, and are necessary for improving accuracy of Earth climate observations. The ARCSTONE mission goal is to provide a reliable reference for high-accuracy on-orbit calibration for reflected solar instruments. The ARCSTONE instrument is a lunar/solar spectrometer intended to fly on a CubeSat in low Earth orbit. It will provide lunar spectral reflectance with accuracy < 0.5% (k = 1), sufficient to establish an SI-traceable absolute lunar calibration standard for past, current, and future Earth environmental, weather and climate sensors. The ARCSTONE team will present the instrument design status and path forward for development, building, calibration and testing.

This project describes strategies presented in the fiction of three American novelists which alter our relationship to the epistemological codes of modernity, standards in which we are implicated by a vast network of cultural assumptions and institutional apparatuses. Such confinement within an ethical hegemony—a system permitting only a limited range of acceptable conduct, contemplation, and resistance in both public and private spheres—restricts the bounds not only of what can be practiced but also of what can be safely thought. This system I identify as the epistemology of modernity and, ushered in by the advent of modernization, capitalist relations, and the contemporary continuation of enlightenment reason against which any form of expression must situate itself either in opposition or corroboration. Because divergence is permitted to a certain degree, the possibility of epistemological shifting cannot be achieved by outward participation in such a system and thus must be perceptual: achieved through mentality and self-awareness. The strategies involve a shift in epistemological and thus ethical relations to modernity. Briefly, for Nabokov, it is the ridding of focus on the self; for Pynchon, comprehending the influences of totality; and for Morrison, the depiction of the always-othered non-self rather than one reduced to normative social assumptions and interpretive practices. More specifically, each author offers a particular set of insights on which to build. The project at which most of Nabokov’s (1899-1977) written work is aimed involves the generation, almost separate from the fabric of reality, of a purely aesthetic world. While much of his project is (at worst) doomed to fail or (at best) susceptible to the inevitably invasive material of the real, it remains useful in seeing what potential arises when an imaginative mind consciously attempts to work outside of and resist established systems. Pynchon (b. 1937), on the other hand, is far more rooted in the project of describing the systemic effects of a totalizing modernity. His daunting narratives (often labeled encyclopedic) depict the overwhelming saturation of apparatuses under which individuals find themselves situated and interpolated. What Pynchon’s work portrays is the oppressive and interconnected systems conducting the flow of control in modern life and, most important for this project, the realization of this as a social technology along with the means by which, once understood as such, to subversively navigate it. Finally, Morrison (b. 1931) represents the most directly and aggressively destabilizing personality of this trio. Her novels adopt as a constituted whole an aesthetic form that seeks to confront and expose the hegemonic systems responsible for the perpetuation of ideologies that come to seem natural but which need not be. Rather than constructing an alternative world or showing the means by which one can navigate the current one, Morrison assails and deconstructions the assumptions that constitute modern reality. Together, these three novelists offer distinct possibilities for epistemological change that can be wrought, and my future work—proceeding this dissertation project—will turn to transforming the literary strategies uncovered here into an actionable praxis that reaches beyond the readership of the novel.

The recent boom in the “history of capitalism” has neglected one of the most noted and maligned features of its subject: the connection between capitalism and inequality. To address this gap, this dissertation develops and employs the concept of “economic impunity.” It argues that impunity is a function of three variables acting with the sphere of the economy, each of which changed over time even as the structure of the economy itself changed. The first variable is prosecutorial discretion, whether contingent and corrupt or institutionalized in the limits of jurisprudence. The second is technical knowledge, as financial instruments became increasingly esoteric and economic theory became increasingly formalized across the eighteenth century. The third is international mobility, of both capital and its owners, since European capital markets integrated sooner and more thoroughly than markets for land, labor, or commodities. To test this approach, this dissertation uses documents from twenty-three archives in four countries to analyze the disparity between the increasing complexity of international financial instruments and the simultaneously limited scope of securities regulation in Britain and France to argue that the Financial Revolution witnessed the first expansion of economic impunity from the sovereign to the technical managers of capital, culminating in the world’s first international financial crisis in 1720. The second chapter shows how eighteenth century economic thought tried to solve the conceptual and political problems this crisis raised. The third chapter uses the financial records of the speculator Étienne Clavière to illustrate the normal workings of eighteenth century finance and how that systems came apart during the French Revolution, turning impunity into a nationalized and politicized attribute. The fourth chapter investigates the revolutionary interregnum through a pair of case studies in Dublin and Strasbourg. The final chapter shows how international private banks like Barings, Rothschilds, and Laffitte reconstituted the European financial system after 1815, culminating with their efforts to contain the first crisis of the nineteenth century gold standard in 1825. This dissertation accomplishes three things: it injects a tractable approach to inequality into the new “history of capitalism” that goes beyond national income accounting or cultural representations by using the concept of impunity to illustrate how institutional exceptions allow for the frequent but disavowed episodes of dispossession that accompanied the rise of modern finance. It illuminates why a constitutive element of the modern, self-authorizing economic sphere is that great moral and material harm can take place within it despite nobody being legally at fault or politically held accountable. Finally, it allows for a method of historicizing financial crises, which otherwise are taken to be eternal, inevitable, and above all, natural. This last moves the recent effort to historicize “the economy” towards an approach that grapples with how economies fail rather than how they grow.

A general practitioner and murderer

A Wellcome Trust exhibition at the TwoTen Gallery, 210 Euston Road, London NW1, until 6 February 2004