Evaluation of Several Genes as Targets for RNAi in German Cockroach

Citation: Banister, H. (2017). Evaluation of Several Genes as Targets for RNAi in German Cockroach . 1st Annual Undergraduate Research Experience in Entomology Symposium, November 16, 2016. Manhattam, KS.RNA interference (RNAi) was first discovered in nematodes when exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) complementary to a specific gene suppressed expression of that gene [1]. Subsequently, much effort has been devoted to developing RNAi as a highly specific tool for therapeutic interventions and control of insect pests [2]. However, there are still many challenges associated with using RNAi to control insects, including efficient delivery and selection of appropriate targets. In this study, we evaluated three genes as potential targets for causing mortality via RNAi in German cockroach, Blatella germanica. German cockroaches are ubiquitous structural pests that can serve as reservoirs for species of pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or fungi in humans [3,4] and is an excellent organism for exploring insect control using RNAi. Injection of dsRNA complementary to either tubulin (Tub, a cytoskeletal structural protein), VATPase subunit 1 (Vha, an integral membrane protein), or Snf7 (an ESCRT III protein) caused decreased survival with Snf7 causing the greatest and fastest mortality (LT50 = 8.2 days). Our results demonstrate that when suppressed with RNAi, these genes could be effective targets for cockroach control. Furthermore, knowing these genes can be effectively used for RNAi, we can now attempt to understand why methods other than injection for RNAi delivery are less efficient in an effort to improve the utility of RNAi in insect control

Managing dramaturgical dilemmas:youth drinking and multiple identities

Purpose This paper aims to understand how young people manage the dramaturgical dilemmas related to drinking alcohol and performing multiple identities. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on qualitative data collected with 16-18-year olds, the authors adopt Goffman’s dramaturgical perspective to examine youth alcohol consumption in relation to multiple identities. Findings Young people continuously and skilfully juggle multiple identities across multiple contexts, where identities overflow and audiences and interactions overlap. Techniques of audience segregation, mystification and misrepresentation and justification are used to perform and manage multiple identities in a risky health behaviour context. Research limitations/implications The approach may facilitate some over- and under-claiming. Future studies could observe young people’s performances of self across multiple contexts, paying particular attention to how alcohol features in these performances. Practical implications Social marketing campaigns should demonstrate an understanding of how alcohol relates to the contexts of youth lives beyond the “night out” and engage more directly with young peoples’ navigation between different identities, contexts and audiences. Campaigns could tap into the secretive nature of youth alcohol consumption and discourage youth from prioritising audience segregation and mystification above their own safety. Originality/value Extant work has argued that consumers find multiplicity unmanageable or manage multiple identities through internal dialogue. Instead, this paper demonstrates how young people manage multiple identities through interaction and performance. This study challenges the neat compartmentalisation of identities identified in prior literature and Goffman’s clear-cut division of performances into front and back stage

A cultural exploration of consumers’ interactions and relationships with celebrities

This paper offers a cultural exploration of young adult consumers' everyday interactions and relationships with celebrities. Adopting an interpretive methodology, we build on McCracken's (1986, 1989) important work on cultural-meaning transfer, and integrate a contemporary understanding of consumers as co-creators of meaning, in order to explore their everyday experiences with celebrities. Findings suggest that consumers purposefully interact with celebrities in a diverse range of ways and actively engage in a variety of consumer–celebrity relationships. We conceptualise a range of consumer–celebrity relationship types and demonstrate the roles that celebrities can play in providing meaning and context to consumers' identity projects

The Dirty Pint: Consumption Objects in Young People's Extreme Alcohol Consumption and Enactment of Self

Purpose – To extend understanding of the rituals and practices of alcohol consumption through a focus on the consumption object (the Dirty Pint) as a central actant in the practices of extreme alcohol consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Seventeen paired and group interviews were conducted with young consumers (aged 16–18). An Actor-Network Theory (ANT)-inspired approach to data analysis was used in conjunction with Bourdieu's key concepts of habitus, field and capital to present a detailed understanding of the practices and rituals of extreme alcohol consumption. Findings – The same consumption object takes on a very different role and has different forms of agency, depending on the social space (field) in which it is embedded. The Dirty Pint acts differently within different social spaces or sub-fields of the field of adolescence, particularly when combined with individual subjects of differing habitus to produce an object+subject hybrid. Social implications – Paying attention to all the relevant actants (both human and non-human) involved in the practice of alcohol consumption could lead to more novel and relevant alcohol-harm reduction strategies or campaigns that young people can both relate to and take more seriously. Originality/value of paper – We stress the need to grant greater agency to objects in studying consumption practices and identity enactment and contribute to the literature on identity by extending Gergen's (2009) ‘relational being’, conceiving of the self as embedded in both inter-subjective and inter-objective interactions and relationships (Latour, 1996)

Producing and consuming celebrity identity myths:unpacking the classed identities of Cheryl Cole and Katie Price

We investigate the ways in which celebrity identity myths are created, shaped, interpreted and utilised by media, celebrities and consumers. Two working-class female celebrities, Cheryl Cole and Katie Price, provide our focus, and we draw on an analysis of articles in the popular press, celebrity autobiographies and qualitative data collected with 16- to 18-year-olds. We find that class-infused celebrity identity myths (‘celebrity chav’) are constructed in terms of glamour, allure and charisma but also vulgarity, repulsion and ordinariness. Young consumers interpret these myths based on judgements of taste, morality, connection and worthiness and utilise them in order to support the identity goals of distinction, affirmation, belonging and enhancement