Behavioural response of the house mosquitoes Culex quinquefasciatus and Culex pipiens molestus to avian odours and its reliance on carbon dioxide

How Culex (Diptera: Culicidae) mosquitoes select and discriminate between potential avian hosts is critical for understanding the epidemiology of West Nile virus. Therefore, the present authors studied the behavioural responses of Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) and Culex pipiens molestus (Forsskål) to headspace volatiles of three avian species [chicken and pigeon (sexes analysed separately), and magpie], presented either alone or in combination with 600 p.p.m. carbon dioxide (CO2). The attraction of Cx. quinquefasciatus to the headspace volatiles of both sexes of chicken, and of female pigeon, in combination with CO2 was significantly higher than that achieved by the CO2 and solvent control. Although Cx. p. molestus was attracted to headspace volatiles of chickens and magpies, it was repelled by those of female pigeons when combined with CO2. An increased effect between the avian volatiles and CO2 was observed for Cx. quinquefasciatus, whereas the addition of CO2 had no effect on the attraction of Cx. p. molestus females. The results of this study demonstrate that Cx. quinquefasciatus and Cx. p. molestus are attracted to the odour of potential avian hosts. Future studies aimed at identifying the bioactive volatile compounds in the headspace of chickens may contribute to the potential development of effective surveillance and control tools against Culex species

Fifth European Dirofilaria and Angiostrongylus Days (FiEDAD) 2016

Peer reviewe

An individual differences approach in adaptive waving of user checkout process in retail eCommerce

Developing a usable checkout process is pivotal for e-business success. However, recent research has shown that users frequently abandon their shopping carts and lacking a clear direction through the process. In this context, aiming to improve the usability and overall user experience of checkout processes in ecommerce Web-sites, this paper reports on a study, primarily inspired by concepts driven from theories of individual differences in cognitive processing, and considers content presentation and navigability as a measure of checkout usability and task quality. Concurrent think-aloud, short interviews and questionnaires were conducted with a convenient sample of 15 users to understand the preference of a particular type of checkout process, and users' task completion time while interacting with ecommerce Web-sites for a set of different checkout scenarios. Preliminary results revealed that cognitive styles have an effect on users' task completion and checkout process preference. © 2014 Springer International Publishing