P-23 Variations in Microbiota of Culex (Melanoconion) ocossa and Culex (Culex) declaratorAcross Periurban and Rural Environments

Mosquitoes serve as the primary mode of transmission for many tropical infections such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, dengue virus, and malaria. Therefore, mosquitoes are an important area of study for disease control. This study examined the differences in gut microbiota of Culex melanoconion species across two different habitats: periurban and rural. Mosquitoes were collected from locations around Iquitos, Peru and their gut bacterial DNA was extracted and analyzed. Based on previous studies it is believed that the bacterial flora will differ among mosquitoes reared in different locations

Alien Registration- Starkey, Abner M. (Auburn, Androscoggin County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/30368/thumbnail.jp

Investigation of RelBE1 toxin-antitoxin function in the carbon-dependent metabolic adaptation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Tuberculosis (TB) is a devastating disease with suboptimal treatment regimens and a single vaccine with variable efficacy. Reducing the global burden of TB requires a refined arsenal of methods to prevent and treat the disease, which necessitates a better understanding of M. tuberculosis (Mtb) pathogenesis during infection. Mtb undergoes continuous metabolic reprogramming throughout acute and chronic stages of infection in order to survive and persist harsh host conditions, and the regulatory network responsible for mediating metabolic adaptation has not been fully defined. Mtb harbors at least 88 Toxin-antitoxin (TA) loci that have been proposed to function as regulatory modules in response to stress. TA systems are uniquely abundant in Mtb, making them viable targets for the treatment of both active and latent infection. Several RelBE TA systems are present in Mtb, and the RelE toxins function as ribonucleases to inhibit translation when not bound to RelB antitoxins. The genes encoding relBE1 are adjacent to a gene that encodes an enzyme involved in central carbon metabolism, which could suggest a regulatory role for RelBE1 in carbon metabolism. We aimed to explore the relationship between the RelBE1 TA system and carbon-mediated metabolic adaptation. This work incorporated in vitro transcriptional and genetic studies under defined carbon sources to investigate the activity of RelBE1 and the requirement of RelE1 in Mtb metabolism, growth, and viability in the presence of different carbon sources. We observed transcriptional and physiological trends consistent with the hypothesis that RelBE1 contributes to iii adaptation of Mtb metabolism in the presence of cholesterol and oleate. Additionally, we found evidence that supports the necessity of RelE1 in Mtb metabolism under conditions depleted of nutrients. To investigate if multiple RelBE systems work redundantly or cooperatively in Mtb metabolic adaptation, we applied CRISPRi to simultaneously silence three RelBE TA loci. CRISPRi construction of knockdown mutants resulted in variable success but did not fully resolve the question regarding the cooperative or redundant functions of RelBE systems in Mtb metabolism. Nonetheless, the study provided the building blocks for efficient genetic manipulation of multiple TA systems in Mtb that are essential for exploring the coordination of TA systems in their contribution to Mtb pathogenesis. This thesis work contributes to the debate regarding TA system function in Mtb stress response and adaptation during infection. Given the limitations of the presented studies, further work is warranted to elucidate the relationship between TA systems and Mtb pathogenesis. Expanding our understanding of TA systems in TB disease would provide novel avenues in research to improve treatments against TB

Transforming disfigured and disoriented areas into routable switchboxes

Journal ArticleRouting an entire circuit requires partitioning the circuit (routing area) into smaller, localized routing areas. Using non-rectangular, rotated switchbox shapes (and therefore non-manhattan routing layout) has the potential to simplify the partitioning of the circuit into routable areas and to use "dead space" on a chip for routing. The method described in this paper for generating non-rectangular, rotated switchboxes borrows ideas from computer graphics

Switchbox routing by pattern matching

Journal ArticleMany good algorithms have been designed that provide good solutions to the wire routing problem in VLSI. Unfortunately, many of these algorithms only consider a small subset of different parameters such as number of layers, routability of layers and technology. We believe that these algorithms can be applied generally to any set of parameters by implementing the algorithms as a description that allows them to take advantage of this flexibility. We propose that routing algorithms either use patterns directly or can be converted to use patterns. We present a powerful formalism for describing these patterns

Species Limits and Phylogeography of North American Cricket Frogs (Acris: Hylidae)

Cricket frogs are widely distributed across the eastern United States and two species, the northern cricket frog (Acris crepitans) and the southern cricket frog (A. gryllus) are currently recognized. We generated a phylogenetic hypothesis for Acris using fragments of nuclear and mitochondrial genes in separate and combined phylogenetic analyses. We also used distance methods and fixation indices to evaluate species limits within the genus and the validity of currently recognized subspecies of A. crepitans. The distributions of existing A. crepitans subspecies, defined by morphology and call types, do not match the distributions of evolutionary lineages recovered using our genetic data. We discuss a scenario of call evolution to explain this disparity. We also recovered distinct phylogeographic groups within A. crepitans and A. gryllus that are congruent with other codistributed taxa. Under a lineage-based species concept, we recognize Acris blanchardi as a distinct species. The importance of this revised taxonomy is discussed in light of the dramatic declines in A. blanchardi across the northern and western portions of its range

A versatile high resolution objective for imaging quantum gases

We present a high resolution objective lens made entirely from catalog singlets that has a numerical aperture of 0.36. It corrects for aberrations introduced by a glass window and has a long working distance of 35mm, making it suitable for imaging objects within a vacuum system. This offers simple high resolution imaging for many in the quantum gas community. The objective achieves a resolution of 1.3{\mu}m at the design wavelength of 780nm, and a diffraction-limited field of view of 360{\mu}m when imaging through a 5mm window. Images of a resolution target and a pinhole show quantitative agreement with the simulated lens performance. The objective is suitable for diffraction-limited imaging on the D2 line of all the alkalis by changing only the aperture diameter, retaining numerical apertures above 0.32. The design corrects for window thicknesses of up to 15mm if the singlet spacings are modified