The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis: global perspectives on invasion history and ecology

The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is native to Asia but has been intentionally introduced to many countries as a biological control agent of pest insects. In numerous countries, however, it has been introduced unintentionally. The dramatic spread of H. axyridis within many countries has been met with considerable trepidation. It is a generalist top predator, able to thrive in many habitats and across wide climatic conditions. It poses a threat to biodiversity, particularly aphidophagous insects, through competition and predation, and in many countries adverse effects have been reported on other species, particularly coccinellids. However, the patterns are not consistent around the world and seem to be affected by many factors including landscape and climate. Research on H. axyridis has provided detailed insights into invasion biology from broad patterns and processes to approaches in surveillance and monitoring. An impressive number of studies on this alien species have provided mechanistic evidence alongside models explaining large-scale patterns and processes. The involvement of citizens in monitoring this species in a number of countries around the world is inspiring and has provided data on scales that would be otherwise unachievable. Harmonia axyridis has successfully been used as a model invasive alien species and has been the inspiration for global collaborations at various scales. There is considerable scope to expand the research and associated collaborations, particularly to increase the breadth of parallel studies conducted in the native and invaded regions. Indeed a qualitative comparison of biological traits across the native and invaded range suggests that there are differences which ultimately could influence the population dynamics of this invader. Here we provide an overview of the invasion history and ecology of H. axyridis globally with consideration of future research perspectives. We reflect broadly on the contributions of such research to our understanding of invasion biology while also informing policy and people.  Additional co-authors: Artur Gil, Audrey A. Grez, Thomas Guillemaud, Danny Haelewaters, Annette Herz, Alois Honek, Andy G. Howe, Cang Hui, William D. Hutchison, Marc Kenis, Robert L. Koch, Jan Kulfan, Lori Lawson Handley, Eric Lombaert, Antoon Loomans, John Losey, Alexander O. Lukashuk, Dirk Maes, Alexandra Magro, Gilles San Martin, Zdenka Martinkova, Ingrid A. Minnaar, Oldřich Nedved, Marina J. Orlova-Bienkowskaja, Naoya Osawa, Wolfgang Rabitsch, Hans Peter Ravn, Gabriele Rondoni, Steph L. Rorke, Sergey K. Ryndevich, May-Guri Saethre, John J. Sloggett, Antonio Onofre Soares, Riaan Stals, Axel Vandereycken, Paul van Wielink, Sandra Viglášová, Peter Zach, Ilya A. Zakharov, Tania Zaviezo, Zihua Zha

High Power Electric Propulsion: MARS plus EUROPA – Already Beyond 2025!

It’s mid-term realization plus global strategic investments: the results of the European Russian DEMOCRITOS project (Horizon 2020) related to the MW class INPPS (International Nuclear Power and Propulsion System) flagship will be described. INPPS flagship includes high power electric thrusters cluster, supplied electric power by the nuclear reactor (successfully tested in Russia) and a solar power ring. Two INPPS versions were studied – the wide and arrow wing versions. Both versions have a futuristic design with standardized interfaces for several flagship subsystems. Especially the high payload mass of INPPS allows the transport of – for example – up to 12 t to JUPITER moon EUROPA and about 18 t to MARS – as a function of specific impulse of electric thrusters. INPPS flagship not only allows scientific, but especially commercial and communication payloads as well. This means industrial-scale production of space flight systems for robotic and human space exploration. International cooperation related to INPPS realization are necessary within an International High Power Space Transportation program to realize the DEMOCRITOS core, ground and space components until 2025. DEMOCRITOS project included partners from Europe, Russia and a Brazilian guest observer and received several inputs from NASA Cleveland and JAXA Tokyo

Positive Digital Practices: supporting positive learner identities and student mental wellbeing in technology-enhanced higher education

Embedding mental wellbeing in learning is a priority for the UK Higher Education sector, as increasing numbers of students disclose mental health difficulties, challenges and conditions. Technology-enhanced, distance and blended learning is uniquely positioned to make a change for good in the sector; it can provide alternatives to traditional education models, support hard-to-reach students and make positive changes to practice. However, to make positive change, it needs to address the barriers to mental health that are inherent throughout education, and embed student wellbeing throughout its practices, cultures and digital environments. The Positive Digital Practices project aims to scale up existing work on mental wellbeing in technology-enhanced learning, creating resources to support practitioners in three focus areas: Positive Learner Identities - supporting students’ emotional awareness, reflection, resilience in adversity and wellbeing literacy; Positive Digital Communities - supporting students’ sense of belonging and facilitating meaningful connections that do not rely on a campus environment; Positive Digital Pedagogies – creating and sharing pedagogical practices that support mental wellbeing. In this paper, we present baseline data from staff and students on perceptions of barriers and enablers to student mental wellbeing, and we explore examples of positive practice from the Positive Learner Identities work area. We present the participatory co-creation methodologies used, the resources created, and we discuss how these can be applied by practitioners. These resources are a call to action for post-secondary practitioners to work together to enhance student mental health and wellbeing, and make education a more inclusive, equitable experience

Whole Genome Deep Sequencing of HIV-1 Reveals the Impact of Early Minor Variants Upon Immune Recognition During Acute Infection

Deep sequencing technologies have the potential to transform the study of highly variable viral pathogens by providing a rapid and cost-effective approach to sensitively characterize rapidly evolving viral quasispecies. Here, we report on a high-throughput whole HIV-1 genome deep sequencing platform that combines 454 pyrosequencing with novel assembly and variant detection algorithms. In one subject we combined these genetic data with detailed immunological analyses to comprehensively evaluate viral evolution and immune escape during the acute phase of HIV-1 infection. The majority of early, low frequency mutations represented viral adaptation to host CD8+ T cell responses, evidence of strong immune selection pressure occurring during the early decline from peak viremia. CD8+ T cell responses capable of recognizing these low frequency escape variants coincided with the selection and evolution of more effective secondary HLA-anchor escape mutations. Frequent, and in some cases rapid, reversion of transmitted mutations was also observed across the viral genome. When located within restricted CD8 epitopes these low frequency reverting mutations were sufficient to prime de novo responses to these epitopes, again illustrating the capacity of the immune response to recognize and respond to low frequency variants. More importantly, rapid viral escape from the most immunodominant CD8+ T cell responses coincided with plateauing of the initial viral load decline in this subject, suggestive of a potential link between maintenance of effective, dominant CD8 responses and the degree of early viremia reduction. We conclude that the early control of HIV-1 replication by immunodominant CD8+ T cell responses may be substantially influenced by rapid, low frequency viral adaptations not detected by conventional sequencing approaches, which warrants further investigation. These data support the critical need for vaccine-induced CD8+ T cell responses to target more highly constrained regions of the virus in order to ensure the maintenance of immunodominant CD8 responses and the sustained decline of early viremia

Humans to Mars: by MARS- plus EUROPA-INPPS Flagship Mission

The first non-human INPPS (International Nuclear Power and Propulsion System) flagship flight with orbits Earth-Mars-Earth-Jupiter/Europa (after 2025) is the most maximal space qualification test of INPPS flagship to carry out the second INPPS flagship flight to Mars with humans (in the 2030th). This high power space transportation tug is realistic because of A) the successful finalization of the European-Russian DEMOCRITOS and MEGAHIT projects with their three concepts of space, ground and nuclear demonstrators for INPPS realization (reached in 2017), B) the successful ground based test of the Russian nuclear reactor with 1MWel plus important heat dissipation solution via droplet radiators (confirmed in 2018), C) the space qualification of the Russian reactor by 2025 and D) the perfect celestial constellation for a Earth-Mars/Phobos-Earth-Jupiter/Europa trajectory between 2026 and 2035. Therefore the talk sketches the preparation status of INPPS flagship with its subsystems. Critical performance will be studied by parallel realizations of the ground and nuclear demonstrators of DEMOCRITOS (until 2025). The space qualification of INPPS with all subsystems including the nuclear reactor in the middle of the 2020th plus the INPPS tests for about one to two years - first in high Earth orbit robotic assembly phase of INPPS and later extended in nearby Earth space environment flight - means a complete concepts driven approval for all applied INPPS space subsystem technologies. It is also important to consider wider aspects for the overall mission implementation phase. Component like the nuclear reactor as the power source for the propulsion system will have to agree with the 1992 UN principles relevant to the use of nuclear power sources (NPS) in outer space. Therefore this talk will look into the legal and policy issues of nuclear space systems related to the international realization of mission design, requirements of associated safety regulations (including AI applications in the subsystems) and new aspects for INPPS flagship commercialization and new media communication on board

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies

Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry:Workshop Summary

This document presents a summary of the 2023 Terrestrial Very-Long-Baseline Atom Interferometry Workshop hosted by CERN. The workshop brought together experts from around the world to discuss the exciting developments in large-scale atom interferometer (AI) prototypes and their potential for detecting ultralight dark matter and gravitational waves. The primary objective of the workshop was to lay the groundwork for an international TVLBAI proto-collaboration. This collaboration aims to unite researchers from different institutions to strategize and secure funding for terrestrial large-scale AI projects. The ultimate goal is to create a roadmap detailing the design and technology choices for one or more km-scale detectors, which will be operational in the mid-2030s. The key sections of this report present the physics case and technical challenges, together with a comprehensive overview of the discussions at the workshop together with the main conclusions

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies