Effects of inbreeding and genetic modification on Aedes aegypti larval competition and adult energy reserves

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetic modification of mosquitoes offers a promising strategy for the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases. For such a strategy to be effective, it is critically important that engineered strains are competitive enough to serve their intended function in population replacement or reduction of wild mosquitoes in nature. Thus far, fitness evaluations of genetically modified strains have not addressed the effects of competition among the aquatic stages and its consequences for adult fitness. We therefore tested the competitive success of combinations of wild, inbred and transgenic (created in the inbred background) immature stages of the dengue vector <it>Aedes aegypti </it>in the presence of optimal and sub-optimal larval diets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The wild strain of <it>Ae. aegypti </it>demonstrated greater performance (based on a composite index of survival, development rate and size) than the inbred strain, which in turn demonstrated greater performance than the genetically modified strain. Moreover, increasing competition through lowering the amount of diet available per larva affected fitness disproportionately: transgenic larvae had a reduced index of performance (95-119%) compared to inbred (50-88%) and wild type larvae (38-54%). In terms of teneral energy reserves (glycogen, lipid and sugar), adult wild type mosquitoes had more reserves directly available for flight, dispersal and basic metabolic functions than transgenic and inbred mosquitoes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study provides a detailed assessment of inter- and intra-strain competition across aquatic stages of wild type, inbred, and transgenic mosquitoes and the impact of these conditions on adult energy reserves. Although it is not clear what competitive level is adequate for success of transgenic strains in nature, strong gene drive mechanisms are likely to be necessary in order to overcome competitive disadvantages in the larval stage that carryover to affect adult fitness.</p

Dive performance in a small-bodied, semi-aquatic mammal in the wild

Aquatic foraging is a fundamental component of the behavior of a number of small mammals, yet comprehensive observations of diving are often difficult to obtain under natural circumstances. Semiaquatic mammals, having evolved to exploit prey in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, are generally not as well adapted for diving (or for life in the water) as are fully aquatic species. Because dive ability also tends to increase with body size, small, semiaquatic mammals are presumed to have fairly limited dive ability. Nevertheless, diving plays an important role in food acquisition for many such species. We used time–depth recorders (TDRs) to measure and describe the dive performance of 9 female and 5 male free-living American mink (Neovison vison; body mass approximately 1 kg) on lowland rivers in the southern United Kingdom. We recorded dives up to 2.96 m deep (maximum depth X ¯ 5 1.82 m) and up to 57.9 s in duration (maximum duration X ¯ 5 37.2 s). Dive duration was approximately 40% of that predicted by allometry for all air-breathing diving vertebrates (as might be expected for a small, semiaquatic animal) but was twice as long as previously measured for mink in captivity. Mink performed up to 189 dives per day (X ¯ 5 35.7 dives/day), mostly during daylight, and spent a maximum of 38.4 minutes diving per day (X ¯ 5 7.6 min/day). Some individuals maintained particularly high diving rates over the coldest months, suggesting that the benefits of aquatic foraging in winter outweigh the costs of heat loss. We observed a number of very shallow dives (depth approximately 0.3 m) of particularly long duration (up to 30 s). The function of these dives is currently unknown, but possibilities include searching for prey, travelling, or avoidance of threats. There is only 1 other study of which we are aware that presents detailed measurements of dive performance in a small, shallow-diving, semiaquatic mammal.Fil: Harrington, Lauren. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Hays, Graeme C.. Swansea University; Reino UnidoFil: Fasola, Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas; ArgentinaFil: Harrington, Andrew L.. University of Oxford; Reino UnidoFil: Righton, David. No especifíca;Fil: Macdonald, David W.. University of Oxford; Reino Unid

Upstream Consciousness: exploring artists’ fieldwork through geomorphing, spiralling and co-productive ecologies

This practice-based enquiry examines the ways in which artistic practice encounters and then utilises the spatio- temporal, relational, material, and embodied nature of fieldwork. The thesis is developed predominately through my own field based activities and artistic production within peatland landscapes in Finnish Lapland (Sápmi), Eastern Finland and at Moor House–Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve, UK research that I have conducted with and alongside other artists and scientists, supported here by a critical survey of other artists’ methods in, and approaches to, the field. The research therefore develops, enacts and proposes practical strategies that investigate conditions in and connections between artist and field. To this end, the thesis finds value in three critical terms and approaches – geomorphing, spiralling and co-productive ecologies. Geomorphing is a practice which is reactive to material and experiential conditions; spiralling holds and works with indeterminate openness; and co-productive ecologies privilege collective actions as eventful and critical to field-based research. These methods not only position fieldwork as a situated, self-reflective and embodied practice, they also foreground ethical questions of environmental responsibility. As such, the research advances an ethos for a productive ethics of engagement, which I call upstream consciousness: a soft activism, potentially creating the conditions to reorientate ourselves within the current environmental crisis. Through a practical and theoretical approach, building upon recent ecologically conscious geographical, feminist and philosophical insights, this research fosters a coming-together of bodies, temporalities, spaces and concepts, whilst also unsettling notions of established knowledge production. Informed by Doreen Massey’s notion of ‘spatio-temporal events’; Jane Bennett’s conception of enchantment and vibrant matter; and Donna Haraway’s situated and ‘response-able’ feminist thinking, the research broadens understandings of artists’ fieldwork as a discursive and creative activity of relevance to the arts, science and philosophy. In conceiving of such methods as productive and complex acts of engagement, it furthers discussion of diverse and interdisciplinary ways of knowing – and contributes to evolving discourses of more-than-human fieldwork, place-orientated thinking, and coproductive research. In an era of increasing environmental instability, this research asks in what ways artists’ approaches might engage productively with a field in continual process, and in turn contribute to interdisciplinary and non-hierarchical understandings of particular environments. In doing so, the research contributes to contemporary epistemologies of place, landscape and related ecological thought

Applying Failure Modes and Effects Analysis to Public Health Models: The Breathe Easy at Home Program

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a structured process used to identify and prioritize risks by ranking them based on severity, occurrence, and detectability. Historically, FMEA has been used within industries, including automotive and health care. This project explored the adaption of the FMEA template to a small public health program designed to improve asthma outcomes. The Breathe Easy at Home (BEAH) program is a multi-sector partnership that uses a web-based system to link clinical sites with housing code inspections and enforcement for patients with asthma. In July and August 2014, an FMEA was conducted to uncover risks within the BEAH process, and failures were prioritized for corrective action. The FMEA team prioritized risk based on severity, occurrence, and detectability to apply the FMEA process to a public health program. The FMEA team developed an action plan to improve failure modes that received the highest rankings. To fit the needs of a relatively small public health program, Joint Health Commission and U.S. Veterans Administration rating scales were adapted. The FMEA process can be adapted to a public health systems evaluation framework in order to prioritize areas for improvement

Bringing the Globe into Your Classroom

PSU students are keen to learn more about global issues, but not all are able to study abroad or travel. How can professors bring the globe into our classrooms? Presenters will share strategies they have used to create engaged and hands-on global experiences for students on campus and in the surrounding region. They will also share ideas for globally-oriented off-campus partnerships, internships, and student activities with organizations that have global missions or clients

Institutional Fieldwork:CNoS@10, Group Exhibition, Northumbria University Gallery North, Experimental Studio and City Campus, Newcastle

Exhibition dates: 16th November – 1st December 2023 Exhibition venue: Northumbria University Gallery North, Experimental Studio and City Campus, NewcastleInstitutional Fieldworking: CNoS @10 is a three-week series of exhibitions and events celebrating the tenth anniversary of Northumbria University’s Cultural Negotiation of Science Research Group (CNoS). CNoS was inaugurated at the 2013 British Science Festival when three founder members developed the exhibition and networking event, Extraordinary Renditions, for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. The event set out to explore the compelling questions thrown up when artists negotiate scientific practices; questions that require artists to perform ‘extraordinary renditions’ across the ethical and political spaces where personal vulnerability and risk-taking is impossible to avoid.CNoS has grown over the last ten years to bring together artists, academics and research students who engage with expert cultures across a broad spectrum of science and technology, including bio-medical, fundamental and environmental sciences. The ‘negotiations’ consider the creative, critical and ethical dimensions of working in and with the scientific realm, as a distinct contemporary art practice. The Institutional Fieldworking programme shares and tests our commitment to supporting innovative, practice-based methods to negotiate and re-vision the relationships between scientific and artistic research in ways that both unsettle and connect. The programme proposes our institution of Northumbria University as the ‘field’ in which we perform and make manifest examples of critical cross disciplinary research and practice via six ‘strands’ of activity that embody the authenticity of what it is to work together<br/

Institutional Fieldwork:CNoS@10, Group Exhibition, Northumbria University Gallery North, Experimental Studio and City Campus, Newcastle

Exhibition dates: 16th November – 1st December 2023 Exhibition venue: Northumbria University Gallery North, Experimental Studio and City Campus, NewcastleInstitutional Fieldworking: CNoS @10 is a three-week series of exhibitions and events celebrating the tenth anniversary of Northumbria University’s Cultural Negotiation of Science Research Group (CNoS). CNoS was inaugurated at the 2013 British Science Festival when three founder members developed the exhibition and networking event, Extraordinary Renditions, for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. The event set out to explore the compelling questions thrown up when artists negotiate scientific practices; questions that require artists to perform ‘extraordinary renditions’ across the ethical and political spaces where personal vulnerability and risk-taking is impossible to avoid.CNoS has grown over the last ten years to bring together artists, academics and research students who engage with expert cultures across a broad spectrum of science and technology, including bio-medical, fundamental and environmental sciences. The ‘negotiations’ consider the creative, critical and ethical dimensions of working in and with the scientific realm, as a distinct contemporary art practice. The Institutional Fieldworking programme shares and tests our commitment to supporting innovative, practice-based methods to negotiate and re-vision the relationships between scientific and artistic research in ways that both unsettle and connect. The programme proposes our institution of Northumbria University as the ‘field’ in which we perform and make manifest examples of critical cross disciplinary research and practice via six ‘strands’ of activity that embody the authenticity of what it is to work together<br/