45thSpace Congress“The Next Great Steps”: Space Policy Directive-1

“Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.

Influence of blood meal on the responsiveness of olfactory receptor neurons in antennal sensilla trichodea of the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti

In female Aedes aegypti L. mosquitoes, a blood meal induces physiological and behavioral changes. Previous studies have shown that olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) housed in grooved peg sensilla on the antennae of Ae. aegypti down-regulate their sensitivity to lactic acid, a key component driving host-seeking behavior, which correlates with observed changes in the host-seeking behavior of this species. In the present study, we performed electrophysiological recordings from the most abundant antennal sensillum type, sensilla trichodea. Our results indicate that the response spectra of ORNs contained within most trichoid sensilla do not change in response to blood feeding. However, we observe an increase in sensitivity to primarily indole and phenolic compounds in neurons housed within four of the five functional types of short blunt tipped II trichoid sensilla, both at 24 and 72 h post-blood feeding, which was more pronounced at 24 h than 72 h. Furthermore, sensitivity to undecanone, acetic acid and propionic acid was observed to increase 72 h post-blood meal. Considering the timing of these changes, we believe that these neurons may be involved in driving the orientation behavior of female mosquitoes to oviposition sites, which are known to release these compounds

The Assessment CyberGuide for Learning Goals and Outcomes

The CyberGuide serves as a companion resource for implementing the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Major in Psychology. These resources should aid psychology departments and their faculty to design the most appropriate and effective assessment plans. We have organized this Cyberguide into four parts that will assist departments in developing assessment plans: I. Understanding Assessment: Departmental, Institutional, Educational, and Societal Perspectives II. Designing Viable Assessment Plans III. Sustaining an Assessment Culture IV. Applying Assessment Strategies in Psycholog

Conclusion: Capitalism, Resistance and What is to be Done?

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Web tools for large-scale 3D biological images and atlases

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Large-scale volumetric biomedical image data of three or more dimensions are a significant challenge for distributed browsing and visualisation. Many images now exceed 10GB which for most users is too large to handle in terms of computer RAM and network bandwidth. This is aggravated when users need to access tens or hundreds of such images from an archive. Here we solve the problem for 2D section views through archive data delivering compressed tiled images enabling users to browse through very-large volume data in the context of a standard web-browser. The system provides an interactive visualisation for grey-level and colour 3D images including multiple image layers and spatial-data overlay.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The standard Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP) has been extended to enable arbitrary 2D sectioning of 3D data as well a multi-layered images and indexed overlays. The extended protocol is termed IIP3D and we have implemented a matching server to deliver the protocol and a series of Ajax/Javascript client codes that will run in an Internet browser. We have tested the server software on a low-cost linux-based server for image volumes up to 135GB and 64 simultaneous users. The section views are delivered with response times independent of scale and orientation. The exemplar client provided multi-layer image views with user-controlled colour-filtering and overlays.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Interactive browsing of arbitrary sections through large biomedical-image volumes is made possible by use of an extended internet protocol and efficient server-based image tiling. The tools open the possibility of enabling fast access to large image archives without the requirement of whole image download and client computers with very large memory configurations. The system was demonstrated using a range of medical and biomedical image data extending up to 135GB for a single image volume.</p

Integrated analysis of Wnt signalling system component gene expression

Wnt signalling controls patterning and differentiation across many tissues and organs of the developing embryo through temporally and spatially restricted expression of multi-gene families encoding ligands, receptors, pathway modulators and intracellular components. Here, we report an integrated analysis of key genes in the 3D space of the mouse embryo across multiple stages of development. We applied a method for 3D/3D image transformation to map all gene expression patterns to a single reference embryo for each stage, providing both visual analysis and volumetric mapping allowing computational methods to interrogate the combined expression patterns. We identify territories where multiple Wnt and Fzd genes are co-expressed and cross-compare all patterns, including all seven Wnt paralogous gene pairs. The comprehensive analysis revealed regions in the embryo where no Wnt or Fzd gene expression is detected, and where single Wnt genes are uniquely expressed. This work provides insight into a previously unappreciated level of organisation of expression patterns, as well as presenting a resource that can be utilised further by the research community for whole-system analysis

Ecological and Phylogenetic Relationships Shape the Peripheral Olfactory Systems of Highly Specialized Gall Midges (Cecidomiiydae)

Insects use sensitive olfactory systems to detect relevant host volatiles and avoid un-suitable hosts in a complex environmental odor landscape. Insects with short lifespans, such as gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), are under strong selection pressure to detect and locate suitable hosts for their offspring in a short period of time. Ephemeral gall midges constitute excellent models for investigating the role of olfaction in host choice, host shift and speciation. Midges mate near their site of emergence and females migrate in order to locate hosts for oviposition, thus females are expected to be more responsive to olfactory cues emitted by the host compared to males. In this study, we explored the correlation between host choice and the func-tion of the peripheral olfactory system in twelve species of gall midges, including species with close phylogenetic relationships that use widely different host plants and more distantly related gall midge species that use similar hosts. We tested the anten-nal responses of males and females of the twelve species to a blend of 45 known insect attractants using coupled gas chromatographic–electroantennographic detec-tion. When the species-specific response profiles of the gall midges were compared to a newly generated molecular-based phylogeny, we found they responded to the com-pounds in a sex- and species-specific manner. We found the physiological response profiles of species that use annual host plants, and thus have to locate their host every season, are similar for species with similar hosts despite large phylogenetic distances. In addition, we found closely related spe-cies with perennial hosts demonstrated odor response profiles that were consistent with their phylogenetic history. The ecology of the gall midges affects the tuning of the peripheral olfactory system, which in turn demonstrates a correlation between olfaction and speciation in the context of host use