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 of wing venation honey bee Apis dorsata
Abstrak: Lebah Apis dorsata tersebar luas di kepulauan Indonesia, namun, hubungan kekerabatan berdasarkan variasi landmark yang menunjukkan pola persebarannya belum pernah dianalisis. Lebah A. dorsata memiliki landmark homolog pada venasi sayap yang merupakan karakter dapat diturunkan. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengeksplorasi landmark penciri venasi sayap A. d. dorsata asal Pulau Sumatera, Belitung, Jawa, Sumbawa, Maluku dan A. d. binghami asal Pulau Sulawesi serta menganalisis hubungan kekerabatannya. Metode yang digunakan adalah digitasi landmark dan menganalisis kekerabatan melalui landmark venasi sayap dengan perangkat lunak Thin Plate Spin (TPS) dan R. Grid deformasi berdasarkan konfigurasi landmark menunjukkan variasi venasi sayap A. dorsata. Variasi landmark pada grid deformasi dipengaruhi oleh bending energies. Bending energies menunjukkan penciri landmark 14 dengan nilai variansi yang tinggi serta landmark 16 dan 17 adalah dua nilai dengan kontribusi relatif tertinggi. Landmark tersebut dikenal dengan cubital index dalam morfometika tradisional yang juga digunakan sebagai karakter menentukan subspesies lebah madu. Plot ordinasi menunjukkan sebaran dan kedekatan individu A. dorsata berdasarkan morphometrika geometrik venasi sayap dari berbagai pulau di Indonesia. Kladogram hasil analisis kekerabatan berdasarkan metode neighbor-joining menyatakan bahwa A. dorsata asal Sumbawa dan Sulawesi terdapat pada clade yang terpisah dari A. dorsata di pulau lainnya., Apis dorsata distributes across a large area in the Indonesian archipelago, however, the relationship based on landmark variations to reveal the pattern of their distribution has never been analyzed. Apis dorsata has homologous landmarks on wing venation which presumably are inherited. This research aimed to explore the venation landmark of A. dorsata wings from Sumatera, Belitung, Java, Sumbawa, Mollucas dan A. d. binghami from Sulawesi and analysed their relationships. The method employed were landmark digitization and the relationship of the wing venation landmarks using Thin Plate Spin (TPS) and R software. Deformation grids based on landmark configurations showed variations in the venation of the A. dorsata wing which are influenced by bending energies. The bending energies revealed that the landmark 14 has high variance value and the landmark 16 and 17 were the two highest value of relative contribution. These landmarks were known as the cubital index in the traditional morphometrics, are used for subspecies determining in honey bees. Ordination plots presented that the distribution and proximity of A. dorsata individuals based on wing morphometric geometric. The cladogram based on neighbor-joining showed that A. dorsata from Sumbawa and Sulawesi are in a clade separated with A. dorsata from other islands.
Keyword: Apis dorsata, A. dorsata binghami, cubital index, digitasi landmark sayap, Sulawesi

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