Testing the Temporal Limits of Lures and Toxicants for Trapping Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae): Additional Weathering Studies of Solid Bactrocera and Zeugodacus Male Lures and Associated Insecticidal Strips

Detection of pestiferous fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) relies largely on traps baited with male-specific attractants. Surveillance programs in Florida and California use liquid methyl eugenol (ME, attractive to males of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)) and liquid cue-lure (CL, attractive to males of Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett)) mixed with the toxicant naled to bait detection traps. However, this practice requires considerable time and may subject personnel to health risks. Recent work indicates that solid male lures deployed with a separate insecticidal (DDVP) strip are as effective as the standard liquid formulations. Specifically, solid ME and CL dispensers and DDVP strips were weathered for 6 or 12 weeks under summer conditions in AZ and FL and subsequently field tested in Hawaii. Results showed that (i) solid ME dispensers weathered for 6 weeks, but not 12 weeks, were as attractive as fresh liquid ME, and (ii) solid CL dispensers and the insecticidal strips were as effective as fresh liquid formulation for at least 12 weeks. The present study expands upon these earlier findings and addresses two specific questions: Could solid ME dispensers be deployed for 8 or 10 weeks without loss of effectiveness? Could solid CL dispensers and insecticidal strips be deployed for intervals even longer than 12 weeks? Adopting the same protocol noted above, the present study indicates that effective field longevities are 10 weeks for solid ME dispensers, at least 20 weeks for solid CL dispensers, and 12 weeks for the DDVP strips. Comparisons are drawn with related studies, and implications for tephritid surveillance programs are discussed

Trapping Pestiferous Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae): Additional Studies on the Performance of Solid Bactrocera Male Lures and Separate Insecticidal Strips Relative to Standard Liquid Lures

Detection of pestiferous Bactrocera fruit flies relies largely on traps baited with male-specific attractants. Surveillance programs in Florida and Cali- fornia use liquid methyl eugenol (ME, attractive to males of B. dorsalis (Hendel)) and liquid cue-lure (CL, attractive to males of B. cucurbitae (Coquillett)) mixed with the toxicant naled to bait traps. However, the application of the liquids requires considerable time and may subject personnel to health risks from inadvertent exposure to the lure and the insecticide. Recent studies have shown that solid dispensers containing a toxicant perform as well or better than liquid lures, but the combination of lure and toxicant in the same solid dispenser faces registration problems. Fewer studies have assessed the efficacy of solid, and separate, lures and toxicants, but existing data are promising. Here, we present the results of two independent studies that further assess the effectiveness of solid ME and CL lures and their associated, but separate, insecticidal strips. The first study, conducted exclusively in Hawaii over a 12 week period, found that captures of B. dorsalis or B. cucurbitae males were similar between traps baited with the standard liquid formulation and traps baited with solid lure dispensers and either 1 or 2 insecti- cidal strips. In the second study, solid lure dispensers and associated insecticide strips were weathered for 6 or 12 weeks under summer conditions in Arizona and Florida, where high temperatures were presumed to result in high volatility and thus provide a rigorous test of field longevity. Aged materials were shipped to Hawaii for testing against fresh (non-weathered) lures and insecticidal strips in wild populations. The results were fairly consistent between Arizona- and Florida- weathered devices and indicated that (i) solid ME dispensers were effective for 6 weeks but lost significant attractancy at 12 weeks and (ii) CL solid lures and the insecticidal strips were effective for at least 12 weeks. Collectively, these findings provide additional evidence that surveillance programs could switch to solid lures and toxicants and maintain a high level of detection sensitivity

An Omentum-inspired 3D PEG Hydrogel for Identifying ECM-drivers of Drug Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer (OvCa) is a challenging disease to treat due to poor screening techniques and late diagnosis. There is an urgent need for additional therapy options, as patients recur in 70% of cases. The limited availability of clinical treatment options could be a result of poor predictions in early stage drug screens on standard tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). TCPS does not capture the mechanical and biochemical cues that cells experience in vivo, which can impact how cells will respond to a drug. Therefore, an in vitro model that captures some of the microenvironment features that the cells experience in vivo could provide better insights into drug responses. In this study, we formed 3D multicellular tumor spheroids (MCTS) in microwells and encapsulated them in 3D omentum-inspired hydrogels. SKOV-3 MCTS were resistant to Paclitaxel in our 3D hydrogels compared to a monolayer on TCPS. Toward clinical application, we tested cells from patients [ovarian carcinoma ascites spheroids (OCAS)] who had been treated with Paclitaxel, and drug responses predicted by using the 3D omentum-inspired hydrogels demonstrated the lack of the Paclitaxel response of these samples. Additionally, we observed the presence of collagen production around the encapsulated SKOV-3 MCTS, but not significantly on TCPS. Our results demonstrated that our 3D omentum-inspired hydrogel is an improved in vitro drug testing platform to study the OvCa drug response for patient-derived cells and helped us identify collagen 3 as a potential driver of Paclitaxel resistance in 3D

Teaching Innovation as Part of an Agribusiness Curriculum

Innovation is critical to the survival of agricultural businesses in the U.S. yet few universities have classes in their curricula that focus on innovation and innovation management. Innovation includes developing new processes and concepts and taking products based on those ideas to market. By its nature, innovation generally involves technical components, market assessment, business analysis, and implementation strategies that include marketing campaigns to a target market. As a result, if innovation is going to be experientially taught to students, the class will likely need to include concepts from multiple disciplines. The objectives of this paper are to present an outline of capstone/senior design classes designed to cause students to learn innovation by participating in interdisciplinary teams working with real companies on the development of new product innovation.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Effects of Grazing Management on Selected Stream Bank Characteristics and Stream Bank Erosion

Six 30-acre cool-season grass pastures, containing predominantly smooth bromegrass and bisected by a 642- foot stream segment were grouped into two blocks and assigned one of three treatments: continuous stocking - unrestricted stream access (CSU), continuous stocking - restricted stream access (CSR), and rotational stocking (RS). Stream bank condition and surface roughness and stream morphology were evaluated pre-, mid-, and postgrazing over a two-year period. Stream bank erosion was monitored monthly from May through November over the same two-year period. Stream banks in CSU pastures had greater vegetative cover, stability, and condition scores than did the CSR or RS pastures, implying that the stream banks in pastures in which cattle had unlimited access were more susceptible to erosion than stream banks in pastures in which cattle access to stream banks was restricted or controlled. However, no effect of grazing management on net stream bank erosion was observed for either grazing season

Investigating tritrophic interactions using bioenergetic demographic models

A central debate in ecology has been the long-running discussion on the role of apex predators in affecting the abundance and dynamics of their prey. In terrestrial systems, research has primarily relied on correlational approaches, due to the challenge of implementing robust experiments with replication and appropriate controls. A consequence of this is that we largely suffer from a lack of mechanistic understanding of the population dynamics of interacting species, which can be surprisingly complex. Mechanistic models offer an opportunity to examine the causes and consequences of some of this complexity. We present a bioenergetic mechanistic model of a tritrophic system where the primary vegetation resource follows a seasonal growth function, and the herbivore and carnivore species are modeled using two integral projection models (IPMs) with body mass as the phenotypic trait. Within each IPM, the demographic functions are structured according to bioenergetic principles, describing how animals acquire and transform resources into body mass, energy reserves, and breeding potential. We parameterize this model to reproduce the population dynamics of grass, elk, and wolves in northern Yellowstone National Park (USA) and investigate the impact of wolf reintroduction on the system. Our model generated predictions that closely matched the observed population sizes of elk and wolf in Yellowstone prior to and following wolf reintroduction. The introduction of wolves into our basal grass-elk bioenergetic model resulted in a population of 99 wolves and a reduction in elk numbers by 61% (from 14,948 to 5823) at equilibrium. In turn, vegetation biomass increased by approximately 25% in the growing season and more than threefold in the nongrowing season. The addition of wolves to the model caused the elk population to switch from being food-limited to being predator-limited and had a stabilizing effect on elk numbers across different years. Wolf predation also led to a shift in the phenotypic composition of the elk population via a small increase in elk average body mass. Our model represents a novel approach to the study of predator-prey interactions, and demonstrates that explicitly considering and linking bioenergetics, population demography and body mass phenotypes can provide novel insights into the mechanisms behind complex ecosystem processes

PENYULUHAN HUKUM DAN BIMBINGAN TEKNIS BAGI PELAKU USAHA MIKRO KECIL DAN MENENGAH KELURAHAN KEBONLEGA-KOTA BANDUNG: PEMBUATAN NOMOR INDUK BERUSAHA DAN ASPEK HUKUM PROMOSI PRODUK MELALUI SOSIAL MEDIA

Aktivitas pengabdian kepada masyarakat merupakan bagian dari aktivitas penerapan ilmu pengetahuan yang dapat memberikan manfaat langsung kepada masyarakat.  Fakultas Hukum Universitas Kristen Maranatha melaksanakan pengabdian masyarakat untuk mensosialisasikan pentingnya pembuatan Nomor Induk Berusaha, dan aspek hukum promosi produk melalui sosial media kepada masyarakat Kelurahan Kebonlega-Kota Bandung. Tujuan dari kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat ini adalah untuk memberikan informasi dan pendampingan teknis terkait pembuatan Nomor Induk Berusaha, dan memberikan pengetahuan kepada pelaku UMKM terkait aspek hukum dalam promosi produk melalui sosial media Usaha Mikro, Kecil dan Menengah (selanjutnya disebut UMKM). Metode yang digunakan dalam pelaksanaan abdimas ini adalah dengan melaksanakan aktivitas pendahuluan berupa pengkajian terhadap Undang-undang Nomor 20 tahun 2008 tentang Usaha Mikro, Kecil, dan Menengah yang merupakan dasar hukum pengaturan UMKM. Kemudian, dilakukan wawancara pendahuluan dengan Lurah Kebonlega terkait profil pengusaha UMKM di wilayah tersebut. Diperoleh informasi bahwa masyarakat di Kelurahan Kebonlega- Kota Bandung merupakan pengusaha UMKM di bidang produksi sepatu, usaha pangan, kerajinan aksesoris yang terbuat dari kulit seperti tas, dompet, dan sebagainya. Aktivitas inti dalam pengabdian masyarakat ini adalah penyuluhan hukum dan pendampingan pembuatan Nomor Induk Berusaha. Hasil dari kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini menunjukan bahwa pelaku UMKM di lingkungan Kelurahan Kebonlega kota Bandung telah memiliki kesadaran tentang pentingnya memiliki NIB, dan pentingnya pengetahuan tentang promosi produk secara online. Para peserta juga telah memperoleh manfaat konkrit dari berlangsungnya kegiatan ini, di mana masyarakat langsung didampingi dalam proses pembuatan NIB dan langsung memperoleh print out NIB dari web resmi oss.go.id &nbsp