To assess actual foliage damage due to potato leaf miner, Liriomyza huidobrensis (Blanchard), commercial potato pockets of Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Kavrepalanchwok, Sindhupalchwok and Makwanpur districts of Mid-Nepal were surveyed in 2009. Percent foliage damage analysis and ANOVA (with unbalanced frequency distribution) of multiple regressions of different factors were done to evaluate the level of damage and factors significantly influencing damage. Damage level was found more in lower altitudes (790-1568 meters above sea level) than in higher altitudes (1560-2610 meters above sea level). Similarly, lower leaves were more damaged than the upper ones. So, altitude and plant age were two factors influencing damage by test insect. Since the pest is becoming severe and can withstand chemical sprays, it is imperative to develop suitable IPM technique against this insect. Similarly, strict quarantine and awareness campaign against this insect pest are crucial to check its migration to virgin potato pockets.

A supercritical carbon dioxide (SCC) process of dispersion of multi-walled carbon nano-tubes (MWCNTs) into epoxy resin has been developed to achieve MWCNT/epoxy com-posites (CECs) with improved mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. The synthesis of CECs has been executed at a MWCNT (phr) concentration ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 into epoxy resin (0.1 mol) at 1800 psi, 90°C, and 1500 rpm over 1 h followed by curing of the MWCNT/epoxy formulations with triethylene tetramine (15 phr). The effect of SCC treat-ment on the qualitative dispersion of MWCNTs at various concentrations into the epoxy has been investigated through spectra analyses and microscopy. The developed SCC assisted process provides a good dispersion of MWCNTs into the epoxy up to a MWCNT concentra-tion of 0.2. The effects of SCC assisted dispersion at various concentrations of MWCNTs on modificationof mechanical, thermal, dynamic mechanical thermal, and tribological proper-ties and the electrical conductivity of CECs have been investigated.

Withthe increasing trend of global trades and protection of agro-ecosystem in importing and exporting countries against quarantine pest, quarantine and pre-shipment(QPS) fumigation in perishable commodities is now more important to maintain postharvest quality until delivering to end user not just eradiation of quarantine pest. However, there are limited use of MB fumigation on export fruits and vegetables due to phytotoxic damages of fumigated one. VapormateTM, alternative to methyl bromide(MB), a gas formulation of ethyl formate(EF) with carbon dioxide, is commercially in use for imported fruits fumigation such as bananas and lemon. Herein, based on previous preliminary studies, scale-up and commercial scale fumigation of ethyl formate is presented for promising export paprika and tomato. Efficacy of ethyl formate was described in terms of concentration × time (CT) products to Myzus persicae for paprika and Bemisia tabaci for tomato.

The highabundance and impact on honeybees of the Asian hornet Vespa velutina var. nigrithorax have caused great concern among European public authorities and beekeepers. The species was reported for the first time in France in 2005 and spread out across 66 European districts (ca. 360 000 km 2 ) within 7 years (INPN, 2012; Rome et al., 2013). Its arrival was reported in 2010 in Northern Spain, in 2011 in Portugal and Belgium and in 2013 in Italy. Its wider expansion in Europe is soon to be expected. We discuss here the advances of the collaborative research project initiated in 2008 in France. 1. The potential invasion risk of the species was assessed using modeling tools of climatic suitability (Villemant et al., 2011, Barbet-Massin et al., 2013). Interestingly, the potential distribution of V. v. nigrithorax matches the current distribution of another invasive social wasp, the German yellow jacket, Vespula germanica (Beggs et al., 2011). 2. Apartfrom reported damages on hives, little is known on the biology of V. velutina throughout its native Asian range. In the invaded range, the impact of V. v. nigrithorax on the diversity and biomass of the invertebrate fauna is under study. Preliminary results reported a diversified diet varying among seasons and habitat types. 3. The genetic variability between individuals of V. v. nigrithorax from France and Asia was assessed in order to describe the history of its invasion. The analysis has evidenced a low variability among the invasive population, which indicates a single introduction of one or more queens. The sampling of specimens in France and in the area of origin has been extended to confirm this hypothesis and the most probable area of origin (Arca, 2012). Given the potential economic and biological impact of V. v. nigrithorax, a better understanding of its invasion dynamics is necessary to predict regions at risk, hence to help with planning dedicated control measures, a prerequisite for replacing the reactive nature of current solutions with a proactive, predictive approach.

AKARI's all-sky survey resolves the far-infrared emission in many thousands of nearby galaxies, providing essential local benchmarks against which the evolution of high-redshift populations can be measured. This review presents some recent results in the resolved galaxy populations, covering some well-known nearby targets, as well as samples from major legacy surveys such as the Herschel Reference Survey and the JCMT Nearby Galaxies Survey. This review also discusses the prospects for higher redshifts surveys, including strong gravitational lens clusters and the AKARI NEP field.

We constructed an unbiased asteroid catalog from the mid-infrared part of the All-Sky Survey with the Infrared Camera (IRC) on board AKARI. About 20% of the point source events recorded in the IRC All-Sky Survey observations were not used for the IRC Point Source Catalog in its production process because of a lack of multiple detection by position. Asteroids, which are moving objects on the celestial sphere, are included in these "residual events" We identified asteroids out of the residual events by matching them with the positions of known asteroids. For the identified asteroids, we calculated the size and albedo based on the Standard Thermal Model. Finally we had a new brand of asteroid catalog, which contains 5,120 objects, about twice as many as the IRAS asteroid catalog.

An overview of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) deep multi-wavelength survey covering from X-ray to radio wavelengths is presented. The main science objective of this multi-wavelength project is to unveil the star-formation and AGN activities obscured by dust in the violent epoch of the Universe (z=0.5-2), when the star formation and black-hole evolution activities were much stronger than the present. The NEP deep survey with AKARI/IRC consists of two survey projects: shallow wide (8.2 sq. deg, NEP-Wide) and the deep one (0.6 sq. deg, NEP-Deep). The NEP-Deep provides us with a 15 μm or 18 μm selected sample of several thousands of galaxies, the largest sample ever made at these wavelengths. A continuous filter coverage at mid-IR wavelengths (7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24 μ m ) is unique and vital to diagnose the contribution from starbursts and AGNs in the galaxies at the violent epoch. The recent updates of the ancillary data are also provided: optical/near-IR magnitudes (Subaru, CFHT), X-ray (Chandra), FUV/NUV (GALEX), radio (WSRT, GMRT), optical spectra (Keck/DEIMOS etc.), Subaru/FMOS, Herschel/SPIRE, and JCMT/SCUBA-2.

Sulfoxaflor, a novel sulfoximine insecticide, discovered by and proprietary to Dow AgroSciences is being developed globally. Sulfoxaflor will be used in all major crop groups, including fruits, vegetables, rice, cereals, soybean, and many other crops. Sulfoxaflor provides excellent efficacy at low use rates through contact and ingestion against important and difficult-to-control sap-feeding insect pests, including certain species of aphids, scales, plant bugs, whiteflies, planthoppers and other sap feeders. Sulfoxaflor’s mode of action is via agonism of the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR), which is the same target site of neo-nicotinoid insecticides. However, relative to most neonicotinoids, sulfoxaflor is a high efficacy agonist of the nAchR with relatively low affinity for the imidacloprid binding site. Furthermore, sulfoxaflor is less susceptible to metabolism by monooxygenase enzymes and displays a broad lack of metabolism-based cross-resistance with neonicotinoids. This difference as well as its novel chemical structure led to sulfoxaflor being designated as the sole member of Group 4, Subgroup C of the IRAC Mode of Action Classification Scheme. Because of broad lack of crossresistance, sulfoxaflor will be a useful rotational partner with other insecticide chemistries, enhancing Insect Resistance Management strategies. In Korea, sulfoxaflor is being developed for use in fruit and leafy and fruiting vegetable by several companies. Results from several laboratory and field trials revealed that sulfoxaflor at use rate of 35 ppm (7% product, X2,000 dilution rate) provided excellent performance against economically important aphids in several crops compared with current sap-feeding pest control agents. Sulfoxaflor was registered in October 2011 as brandname TRANSFORM® (Sulfoxaflor 7% SC which is produced by Dongbu Hannong) will be launched for apple, pear and red-pepper in 2012.