As usinas termelétricas a ciclo combinado empregadas na geração de energia elétrica são compostas basicamente por três elementos ou sistemas: a Turbina a Gás, a Caldeira de Recuperação e a Turbina a Vapor. A Turbina a Gás é responsável pela transformação da energia química do combustível em energia mecânica para acionar os geradores, e os gases de escapamento com alta temperatura são responsáveis pela geração de vapor para as turbinas de vapor nas caldeiras de recuperação. É por estes motivos que é importante manter disponível a Turbina a Gás. A disponibilidade de um sistema está relacionada com a confiabilidade dos seus componentes e com as políticas de manutenção associadas aos mesmos, que não só influenciam no tempo de retorno à operação após uma ação de manutenção programada ou não programada, como também na degradação da confiabilidade do sistema. Este trabalho apresenta um método de análise empregado para a estimativa da confiabilidade e disponibilidade de Turbinas a Gás empregadas em usinas termelétricas a ciclo combinado, baseado nos conceitos de Confiabilidade e Manutenção Centrada em Confiabilidade. O método baseia-se na avaliação dos tempos entre falhas das causas destas falhas, e dos tempos de reparo associados a cada uma das intervenções de operação associadas à ocorrência de falhas. Adicionalmente, apresenta-se uma aplicação deste método para Turbinas a Gás de grande porte, com potência nominal de 150MW instaladas em uma Usina Termelétrica com capacidade de geração superior a 500MW. Verifica-se a existência da diferencia na disponibilidade das duas turbinas instaladas na usina obtendo um valor de 99,35% e 96%, considerando um período de operação de 8760 horas. Finalmente, apresentam-se as principais conclusões do trabalho e uma discussão sobre a viabilidade de aplicação do método proposto. / The combined cycle thermoelectric power station presents three main equipments: the Gas Turbine, the Heat Recovery Steam Generator and the Steam Turbine. The Gas Turbine transforms the chemical energy generated by combustion in mechanical energy unit to rotate the generator\'s shaft and the exhaust gas in high temperature is used to heat water at the Heat Recovery Steam Generator to generate steam for the Steam Turbine. Taking in view the great importance of the gas turbine for power generation, its availability should be carefully evaluated to guarantee the power station full operational availability. The availability of a system is strongly associated with the parts reliability and their maintenance policy. That policy not only has influence on the parts repair time but also on the parts reliability, affecting the system degradation and availability. This study presents a method for reliability and availability evaluation of gas turbines installed in a combined cycle thermoelectric power station, based on system Reliability concepts and Reliability-Centered Maintenance. The methodology depended on time between failures, failure modes and time to repair associated to each failure that operation interruption. The method is applied on the analysis of a gas turbine with more than 150MW nominal output installed in a 500MW power plant. A difference between the gas turbines availability are identified. The calculator values are 99,35 % and 96 % for 8760 hours operation period. Finally, the main conclusions and a discussion about feasibility of application of the considered method are present at the end of the study.

Este trabalho procura averiguar as dificuldades e os problemas envolvidos na especificação e implementação de uma arquitetura de objetos de serviço para gerenciamento e suporte a aplicações distribuídas em uma plataforma de computadores em configuração tipo cluster, em particular daqueles que devem cumprir requisitos de alta disponibilidade. Tal arquitetura deve apresentar-se como uma infra-estrutura distribuída de serviços e compor uma camada intermediária entre as partes das aplicações distribuídas e os recursos do cluster, compondo desse modo uma camada de middleware. Uma arquitetura de gerenciamento e de suporte a aplicações distribuídas, para que possa atingir plenamente seus objetivos, deve ser projetada como uma infra-estrutura distribuída de serviços de modo a oferecer acesso fácil e eficiente a estes. Neste trabalho, investigamos a possibilidade de se implementar tal infra-estrutura utilizando a arquitetura de objetos distribuídos OMG CORBA, a qual tem por objetivo facilitar a especificação, implementação e o acesso a interfaces de serviços de objetos distribuídos. Uma infra-estrutura de serviços de suporte a aplicações e de gerenciamento de cluster- é composta de dezenas de interfaces dos mais diversos tipos e finalidades, compondo vários sistemas e subsistemas distribuídos cujos serviços devem ser fácil e transparentemente acessíveis através da rede de comunicação que interconecta os nós do cluster. Essa rede tipicamente utiliza os protocolos de comunicação Ethernet IEEE 802.3, IP e TCP/UDP em seus níveis de enlace, rede e transporte, respectivamente. Por essa ótica, CORBA atende de antemão vários dos requisitos necessários, porém em diversos aspectos da arquitetura e dos serviços houve necessidade de se averiguar com mais profundidade a capacidade de CORBA de atendê-los. Como por exemplo, averiguou-se a capacidade de CORBA lidar com problemas ligados à falhas parciais de comunicação, comunicação em grupo, comunicação não-bloqueante e outras. Um dos desafios da abordagem utilizando CORBA reside no fato de que se tem o pré-requisito de alta disponibilidade. A arquitetura proposta deve ser projetada levando-se em conta que certas partes do sistema, tais como subsistemas de armazenamento, processamento, rede, aplicações e outros podem , a qualquer momento, falhar ou tornar-se inoperantes. O grande desafio deste trabalho consiste assim em averiguar quais são as dificuldades de se utilizar CORBA como parte central da arquitetura, uma vez que a infra-estrutura obtida necessita ser ela própria um conjunto de serviços de alta disponibilidade, caso contrário ela não conseguirá cumprir seus objetivos. Investigaremos então possíveis modos de implementação de objetos CORBA que venham a cumprir os requisitos de alta disponibilidade necessários. Por fim, este trabalho procura averiguar a possibilidade de se implementar tal arquitetura em clusters baseados em elementos de hardware e software disponíveis em larga escala e a baixo custo no mercado tais como PCs ou servidores baseados em processador Intel rodando os sistemas operacionais Linux ou FreeBSD e interconectados por redes locais de baixo custo. Tais plataformas são popularmente conhecidas como Beowulf Clusters. Este aspecto da investigação terá influência no projeto da arquitetura proposta, uma vez que procuramos enfocar aspectos de alta escalabilidade para o cluster, uma tendência para o uso desse tipo de cluster em aplicações de alta demanda de processamento e recursos, tais servidores web e de banco de dados de grandes provedores de conteúdo e serviços da Internet / This work intends to investigate for the difficulties and problems involved in the specification and implementation of an object-oriented architecture of services for management and support of distributed applications in a platform of computers in cluster configuration, in particular for those that must fulfill requirements of high availability. Such architecture must present itself as a infrastructure of distributed services and should compose an intermediate layer between the parts of the cluster distributed applications and the cluster resources, composing in this way a middleware layer. In order to reach its objectives, this support and management architecture must be designed as a distributed infrastructure of services. By this way, it can offer easy and efficient access to its services. In this text, we investigate the possibility of implementing such infrastructure of services using the distributed object architecture proposed by OMG, the so-called CORBA architecture. CORBA has many objectives and features as to facilitate the specification, implementation and access to distributed service objects. An infrastructure of services for the support and management of clusters and cluster applications is composed of a set of interfaces of the most diverse types and purposes, composing some distributed systems and subsystems whose services must be easy and transparently accessible through the communication networks that interconnects the cluster computer nodes. Cluster networks typically uses standard communication protocols such as Ethernet IEEE 802.3 at the data-link layer, the Internet Protocol (IP) at the network layer and TCP/UDP at the transport layer. In these aspects CORBA takes care on beforehand of severa1 of these requirements. However, for many service requirements of the proposed architecture it was necessary inquiring in more depth the CORBA capabilities to accomplish them. As an example, it was investigated the CORBA capabilities to deal with problems related to partial communication failures, communication for object groups, non-blocking and asynchronous communication and others. One of the challenges of the CORBA approach for the proposed architecture inhabits in the fact that the system must accomplish the prerequisite of high availability. The architecture proposal must be designed taking in account that certain parts of the system, such as storage subsystems, processors, network, applications and others can, at any time, fail or become inoperative. The great challenge of this proposal work consists thus inquiring the difficulties of adopting CORBA as a central part of the architecture, since the gotten infrastructure needss to be a proper high availability set of services. In contrary case, it will not fulfill its primary objectives. We will investigate possible ways of implementing CORBA objects in such a way that they fulfill the necessary high availability requirements. Finally, this work looks for the possibility of implementing the proposed system in clusters built with wide scale and low cost hardware and software elements available in the market, such as Intel-processor-based PCs and servers running open-source and low-cost operating systems such as Linux or FreeBSD and interconnected by low cost local area networks. Such platforms are popularly known as Beowulf Clusters. This aspect of The inquiry will have influence in the architecture proposal, once we are focusing aspects of high scalability for the cluster since there is a trend for the use of this type of cluster in applications of high demand of processing and resources, such as web servers for great suppliers of content and services on the Internet

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a disponibilidade de Fe, Cu e Zn em presença de mesocarpo de babaçu, pois o mesocarpo contem compostos antinutricionais (fitato e lignina) que podem diminuir a disponibilidade de nutrientes minerais. As concentrações de Fe, Cu e Zn encontradas no mesocarpo de babaçu foram 17, 7,0 e 2,6 µg g-1, respectivamente. Para um melhor entendimento das interações dos elementos com o mesocarpo, foi realizada a extração de substâncias complexantes com soluções de NaOH (pH 7 e 12). Análises por espectrometria de absorção molecular indicaram que o principal complexante presente no extrato era o fitato. Soluções de Fe, Cu e Zn (10 a 300 mg L-1) foram adicionadas aos extratos, para que, após agitação e centrifugação, fossem determinadas as recuperações desses elementos. Os resultados mostraram que os elementos formam complexos com o fitato e a solubilidade desses complexos é dependente da razão elemento/fitato, quanto maior essa razão menor é a solubilidade. Também foi avaliada a interação dos elementos com o sólido remanescente da extração. Fe, Cu ou Zn foram adicionados ao mesocarpo lavado. Não foi possível afirmar que houve interação do mesocarpo lavado com Fe e Cu devido à precipitação decorrente da hidrólise. Porém, o Zn não sofreu hidrólise e teve baixas recuperações, indicando que houve interação com o sólido. Além disso, pode ser observado que ao adicionar maiores concentrações de Zn obtiveram-se melhores recuperações, provavelmente devido à saturação dos sítios de ligação. Para os estudos de disponibilidade, foi utilizado o procedimento de digestão simulada in vitro da US Pharmacopeia. Fe e Zn não foram extraídos durante a digestão do mesocarpo, portanto esses elementos não estariam disponíveis para absorção pelo organismo. Entretanto, cerca de 120 µg L-1 de Cu foi extraído do mesocarpo. Foram realizadas digestões do mesocarpo com adição de Fe, Cu e Zn e apenas 48% do Fe, 65% do Cu e 75% do Zn foram recuperados. Digestões contendo essa mesma concentração dos elementos foram realizadas com adições de Ca e Mg. A presença do Ca diminuiu a recuperação de Fe e Zn. Para simular uma situação próxima ao real, foram realizadas digestões gastrointestinais de leite, mistura de leite e mesocarpo e mistura de leite e lignina. Apesar do ferro presente no leite apresentar baixa disponibilidade, quando o mesmo foi misturado ao mesocarpo observou-se um aumento da concentração de Fe solúvel. Compostos presentes no leite ou no mesocarpo podem aumentar a solubilidade dos elementos. Não foi possível observar se havia alguma alteração da disponibilidade do Cu presente no leite na presença do mesocarpo, pois a concentração de Cu no leite é muito baixa. A fração de Zn solúvel na mistura de leite e mesocarpo permaneceu a mesma, porém a fração dialisável foi praticamente nula. A adição de lignina ao leite aumentou a extração dos elementos. Entretanto, esses elementos continuaram não sendo dialisados / The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of Fe, Cu and Zn in the presence of mesocarp of babassu because it contains antinutritional compounds (phytate and lignin) that may decrease the availability of mineral nutrients. The concentrations of Fe, Cu and Zn found in the mesocarp of babassu were 17, 7.0 and 2.6 mg g-1, respectively. For a better understanding of elements interactions with mesocarp, it was performed the extraction of complexing substances with NaOH solutions (pH 7 and 12). Analysis by molecular absorption spectrometry indicated that the main complexing present in the extract was the phytate. Solutions of Fe, Cu and Zn (10 to 300 mg L-1) were added to the extracts for determining the recoveries of these elements, after agitation and centrifugation. The results showed that the elements form complexes with phytate and the solubility of these complexes is dependent on the ratio element / phytate, the greater this ratio the lower the solubility. The elements interaction with the remaining solid from extraction was also evaluated. Fe, Cu or Zn were added to the washed mesocarp. It was not possible to affirm that there was interaction of washed mesocarp with Fe and Cu due to precipitation derived from hydrolysis. However, Zn did not suffer hydrolysis and had low recoveries, indicating that there was an interaction with the solid. Furthermore, it can be seen that adding higher concentrations of Zn, better recoveries were obtained, probably due to saturation of the binding sites. For the studies of availability, it was used an in vitro simulated digestion procedure from U.S. Pharmacopeia. Fe and Zn were not extracted during digestion of the mesocarp, therefore these elements would not be available for absorption by the organism. However, about 120 mg L-1 of Cu was extracted from the mesocarp. Mesocarp digestions were performed with addition of Fe, Cu and Zn and only 48% of Fe, 65% of Cu and 75% of Zn were recovered. Digestions containing the same concentration of the elements were performed with additions of Ca and Mg. The presence of Ca decreased the recovery of Fe and Zn. For simulating a real situation, gastrointestinal digestion of milk, milk and mesocarp mixture and milk and lignin mixture were performed. Although the iron present in milk had low availability, when it was mixed with mesocarp it was observed an increase in the concentration of soluble Fe. Compounds present in milk or in mesocarp can increase the solubility of the elements. It was not possible to observe if there was any change in the availability of Cu present in milk in the presence of mesocarp, because the Cu concentration in the milk is very low. The fraction of soluble Zn in milk and mesocarp mixture remained the same, but the dialysable fraction was practically null. Lignin addition increases the milk elements extraction. However, these elements remain not dialyzed

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a disponibilidade de Fe, Cu e Zn em presença de mesocarpo de babaçu, pois o mesocarpo contem compostos antinutricionais (fitato e lignina) que podem diminuir a disponibilidade de nutrientes minerais. As concentrações de Fe, Cu e Zn encontradas no mesocarpo de babaçu foram 17, 7,0 e 2,6 µg g-1, respectivamente. Para um melhor entendimento das interações dos elementos com o mesocarpo, foi realizada a extração de substâncias complexantes com soluções de NaOH (pH 7 e 12). Análises por espectrometria de absorção molecular indicaram que o principal complexante presente no extrato era o fitato. Soluções de Fe, Cu e Zn (10 a 300 mg L-1) foram adicionadas aos extratos, para que, após agitação e centrifugação, fossem determinadas as recuperações desses elementos. Os resultados mostraram que os elementos formam complexos com o fitato e a solubilidade desses complexos é dependente da razão elemento/fitato, quanto maior essa razão menor é a solubilidade. Também foi avaliada a interação dos elementos com o sólido remanescente da extração. Fe, Cu ou Zn foram adicionados ao mesocarpo lavado. Não foi possível afirmar que houve interação do mesocarpo lavado com Fe e Cu devido à precipitação decorrente da hidrólise. Porém, o Zn não sofreu hidrólise e teve baixas recuperações, indicando que houve interação com o sólido. Além disso, pode ser observado que ao adicionar maiores concentrações de Zn obtiveram-se melhores recuperações, provavelmente devido à saturação dos sítios de ligação. Para os estudos de disponibilidade, foi utilizado o procedimento de digestão simulada in vitro da US Pharmacopeia. Fe e Zn não foram extraídos durante a digestão do mesocarpo, portanto esses elementos não estariam disponíveis para absorção pelo organismo. Entretanto, cerca de 120 µg L-1 de Cu foi extraído do mesocarpo. Foram realizadas digestões do mesocarpo com adição de Fe, Cu e Zn e apenas 48% do Fe, 65% do Cu e 75% do Zn foram recuperados. Digestões contendo essa mesma concentração dos elementos foram realizadas com adições de Ca e Mg. A presença do Ca diminuiu a recuperação de Fe e Zn. Para simular uma situação próxima ao real, foram realizadas digestões gastrointestinais de leite, mistura de leite e mesocarpo e mistura de leite e lignina. Apesar do ferro presente no leite apresentar baixa disponibilidade, quando o mesmo foi misturado ao mesocarpo observou-se um aumento da concentração de Fe solúvel. Compostos presentes no leite ou no mesocarpo podem aumentar a solubilidade dos elementos. Não foi possível observar se havia alguma alteração da disponibilidade do Cu presente no leite na presença do mesocarpo, pois a concentração de Cu no leite é muito baixa. A fração de Zn solúvel na mistura de leite e mesocarpo permaneceu a mesma, porém a fração dialisável foi praticamente nula. A adição de lignina ao leite aumentou a extração dos elementos. Entretanto, esses elementos continuaram não sendo dialisados / The aim of this study was to evaluate the availability of Fe, Cu and Zn in the presence of mesocarp of babassu because it contains antinutritional compounds (phytate and lignin) that may decrease the availability of mineral nutrients. The concentrations of Fe, Cu and Zn found in the mesocarp of babassu were 17, 7.0 and 2.6 mg g-1, respectively. For a better understanding of elements interactions with mesocarp, it was performed the extraction of complexing substances with NaOH solutions (pH 7 and 12). Analysis by molecular absorption spectrometry indicated that the main complexing present in the extract was the phytate. Solutions of Fe, Cu and Zn (10 to 300 mg L-1) were added to the extracts for determining the recoveries of these elements, after agitation and centrifugation. The results showed that the elements form complexes with phytate and the solubility of these complexes is dependent on the ratio element / phytate, the greater this ratio the lower the solubility. The elements interaction with the remaining solid from extraction was also evaluated. Fe, Cu or Zn were added to the washed mesocarp. It was not possible to affirm that there was interaction of washed mesocarp with Fe and Cu due to precipitation derived from hydrolysis. However, Zn did not suffer hydrolysis and had low recoveries, indicating that there was an interaction with the solid. Furthermore, it can be seen that adding higher concentrations of Zn, better recoveries were obtained, probably due to saturation of the binding sites. For the studies of availability, it was used an in vitro simulated digestion procedure from U.S. Pharmacopeia. Fe and Zn were not extracted during digestion of the mesocarp, therefore these elements would not be available for absorption by the organism. However, about 120 mg L-1 of Cu was extracted from the mesocarp. Mesocarp digestions were performed with addition of Fe, Cu and Zn and only 48% of Fe, 65% of Cu and 75% of Zn were recovered. Digestions containing the same concentration of the elements were performed with additions of Ca and Mg. The presence of Ca decreased the recovery of Fe and Zn. For simulating a real situation, gastrointestinal digestion of milk, milk and mesocarp mixture and milk and lignin mixture were performed. Although the iron present in milk had low availability, when it was mixed with mesocarp it was observed an increase in the concentration of soluble Fe. Compounds present in milk or in mesocarp can increase the solubility of the elements. It was not possible to observe if there was any change in the availability of Cu present in milk in the presence of mesocarp, because the Cu concentration in the milk is very low. The fraction of soluble Zn in milk and mesocarp mixture remained the same, but the dialysable fraction was practically null. Lignin addition increases the milk elements extraction. However, these elements remain not dialyzed

abstract: For systems having computers as a significant component, it becomes a critical task to identify the potential threats that the users of the system can present, while being both inside and outside the system. One of the most important factors that differentiate an insider from an outsider is the fact that the insider being a part of the system, owns privileges that enable him/her access to the resources and processes of the system through valid capabilities. An insider with malicious intent can potentially be more damaging compared to outsiders. The above differences help to understand the notion and scope of an insider. The significant loss to organizations due to the failure to detect and mitigate the insider threat has resulted in an increased interest in insider threat detection. The well-studied effective techniques proposed for defending against attacks by outsiders have not been proven successful against insider attacks. Although a number of security policies and models to deal with the insider threat have been developed, the approach taken by most organizations is the use of audit logs after the attack has taken place. Such approaches are inspired by academic research proposals to address the problem by tracking activities of the insider in the system. Although tracking and logging are important, it is argued that they are not sufficient. Thus, the necessity to predict the potential damage of an insider is considered to help build a stronger evaluation and mitigation strategy for the insider attack. In this thesis, the question that seeks to be answered is the following: `Considering the relationships that exist between the insiders and their role, their access to the resources and the resource set, what is the potential damage that an insider can cause?' A general system model is introduced that can capture general insider attacks including those documented by Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) for the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Further, initial formulations of the damage potential for leakage and availability in the model is introduced. The model usefulness is shown by expressing 14 of actual attacks in the model and show how for each case the attack could have been mitigated. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2019

En el presente artículo se muestra la aplicación de la metodología de RCM en las excavadoras de una empresa de alquiler de maquinaria pesada. La aplicación de la metodología RCM permitió el análisis de los tres sistemas más críticos de las excavadoras John Deere. Así también, se determinó el modo de falla y efecto de falla. Para determinar el plan de mantenimiento óptimo, se realizó el llenado de la hoja de análisis modal de efecto y fallas (AMEF) y con la ayuda del número de prioridad de riesgo (NPR) se seleccionaron los modos de fallas más críticos. Posteriormente, se analizaron los modos de fallas en la hoja de decisión para poder determinar las tareas de mantenimiento y las frecuencias. Además, se determinó el plan de mantenimiento de las excavadoras, con ello, se puede pronosticar el abastecimiento de los repuestos. Finalmente, a través de la simulación con el software ProModel se logró validar exitosamente los tres indicadores de mantenimiento; disponibilidad mecánica, tiempo promedio de reparación (MTTR) y tiempo promedio entre fallas (MTBF), con lo cual, la empresa generará mayores ingresos. / This article shows the application of the RCM methodology in the excavators of a heavy machinery rental company. The application of the RCM methodology allowed the analysis of the ee most critical systems of John Deere excavators. Also, the failure mode and effects analysis were determined. To determine the optimal maintenance plan, the filling of the failure mode effects analysis (FMEA) sheet was carried out and with the risk priority number (RPN), the most critical failure modes were selected. Subsequently, the failure modes were pointed out in the decision sheet in order to determine maintenance tasks and frequencies. In addition, the maintenance plan of the excavators was determined, with it, it is possible to forecast the supply of the spare parts. Finally, through the simulation with the Promodel software, it was possible to validate the three maintenance indicators; mechanical availability, the mean time to repair (MTTR) and the mean time between failures (MTBF), therefore the company will generate higher revenues. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Recently, massive migration of enterprise applications to the cloud has been recorded in the Information Technology (IT) world. The number of cloud providers offering their services and the number of cloud customers interested in using such services is rapidly increasing. However, one of the challenges of cloud computing is Quality-of-Service management which denotes the level of performance, reliability, and availability offered by cloud service providers. Quality-of-Service is fundamental to cloud service providers who find the right tradeoff between Quality-of-Service levels and operational cost. In order to find out the optimal tradeoff, cloud service providers need to comply with service level agreements contracts which define an agreement between cloud service providers and cloud customers. Service level agreements are expressed in terms of quality of service (QoS) parameters such as availability, scalability performance and the service cost. On the other hand, if the cloud service provider violates the service level agreement contract, the cloud customer can file for damages and claims some penalties that can result in revenue losses, and probably detriment to the provider’s reputation. Thus, the goal of any cloud service provider is to meet the Service level agreements, while reducing the total cost of offering its services.

A major challenge in ecology is to understand intraspecific variation in life histories. Variation in resource availability can lead to differences in reproductive allocation and life histories. Grasshoppers are a good organism for the study of variation in life histories, since they exhibit life history plasticity in response to biotic and environmental factors. An optimality model for grasshoppers was developed that predicts optimal total allocation to reproduction and optimal effort-per-offspring as functions of resource availability and mortality. Relative allocation to reproduction is predicted to increase with resource availability, while relative allocation to survival declines. A resource-based trade-off between egg size and number does not exist, as optimal egg size is predicted to be independent of resource intake. I examined if changes in reproductive allocation and survival of Melanoplus sanguinipes (Fabricus) under a range of resource availabilities fit the predictions of the model. The patterns of reproductive allocation and survival in the field were in qualitative agreement with the predictions. I examined the importance of density, resources, and parasitism on the life history patterns of grasshoppers. I conducted an experiment to examine if differences in reproductive allocation of M. sanguinipes are primarily explained by exploitative competition. Per capita resource availability explained a significant amount of the variation in reproduction , as expected with exploitative competition. M. sanguinpes grasshoppers appeared to trade off resource allocation to reproduction for that of allocation to survival, because per capita resource availability did not affect survival. Careful examinations of changes in life history characteristics in response to parasitism are lacking, despite the fact that parasites often influence resource availability for the host. I investigated the effects of a grasshopper ectoparasitic mite on grasshopper reproduction and survival. Mites had small effects on grasshopper survival. As predicted, both species had reduced initial and total reproduction, and completed development of a lower percentage of ovarioles initiated when parasitized. These experiments act to expand our knowledge of life history theory and further our understanding of grasshopper life history variation and population fluctuations.

One of the principal fertility problems of calcareous soils is the lack of available phosphates. The factors which control this availability are not completely understood. One hindrance to the solution of the problems involved results from confusion of the concepts of solubility and availability. Availability is the net effect of the chemical state of a plant nutrient element and the ability of the plant to utilize the forms of the element present under the existing chemical and physical environmental conditions. In this paper, the term solubility will be used to designate the chemical solubility of an element in water or in specified extracting reagents. The term physiological availability will be used to designate the ability of the plant to assimilate the soluble forms of the element, and the term net availability will be used to designate the net effect of chemical solubility and physiological availability. These limited definitions seem justified in this study because the sodium and calcium systems investigated are alkaline and plants growing in these systems would probably be largely limited to soluble phosphates. Solubility is known to be one of the main factors which control availability of phosphates, but there is now conclusive evidence as to the importance of physiological availability. Some investigators (26,13)1 have produced evidence which they claim supports the hypothesis that the H2PO4- ion is the only phosphate ion absorbed by plants. Since the relative concentration of this ion decreases as the pH increases above neutrality, they then conclude that physiological availability is largely a function of pH. Other investigators (41,7) have produced evidence which suggests that solubility is probably the only factor which limits the availability of phosphates in alkaline and calcareous soils. The purpose of this study is to add evidence which will help clarify the relative importance of solubility and physiological availability of phosphates in sodium and calcium soils.

Soil-phosphorus relations have attracted the interest of many investigators since Liebig introduced his famous theory about the importance of the mineral matters to the plant in 1840. It was soon realized that phosphorus nutrition was a problem not easily solved for two reasons. 1. The added phosphorus fertilizers, soon after soil application are converted by some reactions in the soil to complex compounds far less soluble, consequently less available to the plant. Conclusions about this process led to controversial debates until it was discovered that a general statement covering all soils was impossible since the reactions involved in each case are different. 2. There was confusion caused by the use of two terms coined to express the plant's need for phosphorus. The first term, soluble phosphorus, was based on the assumption that nutrient absorption is a simple diffusion of ions from the soil solution into the roots while the second term, available phosphorus, was based on the observation that the plant absorbed more than that which could be estimated as soluble phosphorus from some insoluble sources. A general definition was given to the term available phosphorus as "that part of soil phosphorus which may be absorbed by ordinary crop plant in the production of plant substance." Later some restrictions were applied to regard the physical conditions of both soils and plants.