Judul: Geometric morphometric wing venation of Indonesian Apis cerana and Central Sulawesi Apis nigrocincta
Abstrak: The Asian honey bee, Apis cerana, is widely distributed in almost all Asian regions, including Indonesia. The distributions of A. cerana in Indonesia arrange from Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi to Papua. Apis cerana sympatrically lives with A. nigrocincta on Sulawesi Island. In contrast with A. cerana, the distribution of A. nigrocincta is limited to Sulawesi Island and the surrounded islands. Several islands in the Indonesian archipelagos belong to the Sundaland (Sunda Shelf), and others are located in the Wallacea region; both regions have different environmental conditions and species distribution. The differences in a specific geographic area also affected the morphological characters of species, including bees. Honeybee wing venations show highly heritability that can determined the relationship and distribution of honey bees. However, the wing landmarks venation of A. cerana in Sumatra, as well as A. cerana and A. nigrocincta that live sympatrically in Sulawesi, has not been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse: 1) intraspecies landmark variations of A. cerana from Sumatra at different altitudes, 2) intraspecies landmark variations of A. cerana from the islands of Sumatra, Belitung, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, and the Moluccas, 3) interspecies landmark variations between A. cerana and A. nigrocincta, and 4) interspecies relationship between A. cerana and A. nigrocincta based on wing venation landmarks. This study used 55 bee colonies, i.e., 50 colonies of A. cerana, from Sumatra, Belitung, Java, Bali, Sulawesi, and the Moluccas, and five colonies of A. nigrocincta from Central Sulawesi. The right wings of ten individuals from each colony of A. cerana and A. nigrocincta were excised using a scalpel and were digitized on 19 wing venation landmarks. The digitization results were analyzed using geometric morphometric methods with Thin Plate Splin (TPS) software. The analysis of landmark visualization (grid deformation) was performed on the intraspecies of A. cerana from Sunda Shelf and Wallacea, as well as on the interspecies of A. cerana and A. nigrocincta. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and relationship analysis were performed using R software with rooted and unrooted Neighbor-Joining (NJ) methods. The intraspecies landmark variations of A. cerana Sumatra resulted variations in the deformation grid. The deformation grid displacement of A. cerana from Aceh and West Sumatra were similar to the reference landmark (300 individuals of A. cerana Sumatra). This study revealed the high different deformation grids in A. cerana North Sumatra, Jambi, South Sumatra, and Lampung compared to reference landmarks. Based on the bending energy values, the lowlands of North Sumatra and Jambi have higher bending energy than the highlands. In contrast, the A. cerana from the lowland West Sumatra has lower bending energy values than those from the highlands. The comparison of A. cerana from the six islands to the reference landmark resulted the variated displacement of landmarks. The reference landmark is a landmark configuration that were aligned from 50 colonies of A. cerana from six islands. The variations of landmark displacement (deformation grid) between A. cerana on the six islands from Sunda Shelf, i.e., A. cerana Sumatra, Belitung, Java, and Bali, resulted a different deformation grid to the reference landmark. However, A. cerana Sulawesi and Moluccas
Keyword: Cubital index, landmark, Sundaland, Thin Plate Splin, Wallacea

Judul: Geometric Morphometrics Wing Venation of Bali Honey Bees Apis cerana
Abstrak: Apis cerana merupakan lebah madu yang tersebar di Asia. Di Indonesia, A. cerana tersebar di Sumatra, Kalimantan, Jawa, Bali, Lombok, Flores, dan Sulawesi. Lebah madu termasuk dalam Ordo Hymenoptera, Famili Apidae, Genus Apis dengan ciri khas yaitu adanya sengat pada lebah betina. Lebah Apis cerana banyak dibudidayakan di Indonesia karena potensinya sebagai lebah penghasil madu dan dapat hidup di dataran tinggi maupun dataran rendah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis variasi landmark venasi sayap A. cerana serta analisis kekerabatannya dari tiga desa di Bali. Sayap depan lebah pekerja A. cerana dianalisis menggunakan morfometrik geometris berdasarkan 19 landmark venasinya. Analisis morfometrika geometris berdasarkan pergerakan landmark grid deformasi venasi sayap A. cerana berhasil menunjukkan perbedaan intraspesies pada lebah yang berasal dari lokasi berbeda. Variasi landmark pada A. cerana yang berasal dari Pitra dan Tenganan memiliki pergerakan landmark yang menjauhi nilai rerata. Hasil ini berbeda dengan A. cerana asal Melaya yang memiliki pergerakan landmark mendekati nilai rerata. Landmark venasi sayap A. cerana asal Bali yang paling berkontribusi terhadap pergerakan landmark adalah 8, 10, dan 11. Nilai bending energy tertinggi terlihat pada A. cerana Tenganan., Apis cerana (honey bee) spread across Asia. In Indonesia, A. cerana spread around Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Bali, Lombok, Flores and Sulawesi. Honey bees belong to the Hymenoptera Order, Apidae Family, Apis Genus with distinctive feature, sting on the female bee. Apis cerana are widely cultivated in Indonesia because of their potential as honey-producing bees and ability to live in the highlands and lowlands. This study aims to analyze variations in the landmark venation of A. cerana wings and kinship analysis of the bee from three villages in Bali. The fore wings of worker bee A. cerana were analyzed using geometric morphometrics based on 19 landmarks. Geometric morphometric analysis based on the deformation grid landmark movement of the wing venation of A. cerana succeeded in showing intraspecies differences in bees from different locations. Landmark variations in A. cerana from Pitra and Tenganan have landmark displacement that move away from the mean value. This result is different from A. cerana from Malaya which has movement of landmarks close to the mean value. The wing venation landmarks of A. cerana from Bali that contribute the most to the movement of landmarks are 8, 10, and 11. The highest bending energy values were seen in A. cerana Tenganan.
Keyword: Apis cerana, Geometric, Morphometrics, Wing Venation

Judul: Sintesis Nanokomposit Kaolin/TiO2 Teremban Fe2O3 untuk Adsorpsi-Fotodegradasi Biru Metilena
Abstrak: Kaolin is a type of clay mineral that has adsorption capacity. The experiment shows that the adsorption capacity of kaolin was 20.6 mg/g. This value is lower than zeolite adsorption capacity that in general has value above 100 mg/g. Mixing kaolin with other materials to form nanocomposite, may improve its adsorption properties. Nanocomposites that had been synthesized were kaolin/TiO2 nanocomposites with the addition of Fe2O3 using 2 synthetic methods, namely using ball milling and paste methods. The nanocomposite synthesized using ball milling method had higher adsorption capacity value, i.e. 23.6 mg/g. The nanocomposite of kaolin/ TiO2 was able to adsorb and degrade waste dyes in ultraviolet range. Furthermore, addition of Fe2O3 to the kaolin/TiO2 nanocomposite improved the performance of the nanocomposite by reacting under the visible rays. Therefore, the performance of nanocomposite of kaolin/TiO2 added with Fe2O3 was is more effective since visible ray is the major part of the sun light.
Keyword: nanocomposite of kaolin/TiO2/Fe2O3., kaolin, photodegradation, adsorption