We investigate two abnormal CME-Storm pairs that occurred on 2014 September 10 - 12 and 2015 March 15 - 17, respectively. The first one was a moderate geomagnetic storm (Dstmin  -75 nT) driven by the X1.6 high speed flare-associated CME (1267 km s−1) in AR 12158 (N14E02) near solar disk center. The other was a very intense geomagnetic storm (Dstmin  -223 nT) caused by a CME with moderate speed (719 km s−1) and associated with a filament eruption accompanied by a weak flare (C9.1) in AR 12297 (S17W38). Both CMEs have large direction parameters facing the Earth and southward magnetic field orientation in their solar source region. In this study, we inspect the structure of Interplanetary Flux Ropes (IFRs) at the Earth estimated by using the torus fitting technique assuming self-similar expansion. As results, we find that the moderate storm on 2014 September 12 was caused by small-scale southward magnetic fields in the sheath region ahead of the IFR. The Earth traversed the portion of the IFR where only the northward fields are observed. Meanwhile, in case of the 2015 March 17 storm, our IFR analysis revealed that the Earth passed the very portion where only the southward magnetic fields are observed throughout the passage. The resultant southward magnetic field with long- duration is the main cause of the intense storm. We suggest that 3D magnetic field geometry of an IFR at the IFR-Earth encounter is important and the strength of a geomagnetic storm is strongly affected by the relative location of the Earth with respect to the IFR structure.

The present investigation establishes deltamethrin resistance in the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, populationcollected from New York City (NY-BB). The mortality resistance ratio indicated that NY-BB population was 264-fold more resistant to 1% deltamethrin in contact bioassay compared to one insecticide- susceptible population collected in Florida (FL-BB). Specific enzyme activities (general esterase, glutathione S-transferase, and 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase) of NY-BB were not statistically different from those of FL-BB, indicating that the metabolic factors are not associated with the deltamethrin resistance in NY-BB. Complementary DNA fragments that encoded the open reading frame of voltage-sensitive sodium channel α-subunit genes from the FL-BB and NY-BB were obtained by homology probing PCR and sequenced. Sequence alignment of the internal and 5’ and 3’ RACE fragments generated a 6500 bp cDNA sequence contig, which was composed of a 6084 bp open reading frame (ORF) encoding 2027 amino acid residues and 186 bp 5’ and 230 bp 3’ untranslated regions (5’ and 3’UTRs, respectively). Sequence comparisons of the complete open reading frames of the sodium channel genes identified two point mutations (V419L and L925I) that were presented only in the NY-BB population. L925I, located the intracellular loop between IIS4 and IIS5, has been previously found in the pyrethroid-resistant populations of whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) that was more than 100-fold resistant to fenpropathrin. V419L, located in the IS6 transmembrane segment, is a novel mutation. This evidence suggests that the two mutations are likely the major resistance-causing mutations in the deltamethrin-resistant NY-BB via a knockdown-type nerve insensitivity mechanism.

"Early Valley", is an early maturing potato cultivar with high yield potential. "Early Valley" is a clonal selection resulting from the cross between 'Suncrisp' and 'A87109-10'. It has medium plant height and light green foliage. "Early Valley" has medium flowering habit and white flowers. Tubers are smooth, yellow skin, light yellow flesh, round tuber shape, medium eye depth, and medium dormancy and good keeping quality. It has stable yield under wide range of climatic conditions. "Early Valley" is resistance to late blight, but moderately susceptible to common scab and hollow heart. This cultivar is also resistant to potato rotting at harvesting during the raining season. "Early Valley" has high level of antioxidant activity (about three times higher) and vitamin C (higher by 40%) than the 'Superior'. This cultivar has high level of tuber uniformity and capable of yielding 36.56 t/ha which is 17.07% higher than the control potato cultivar 'Superior' under optimum agronomical practices.