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Current insights into the mosquito dehydration response rely on studies that examine specific responses but ultimately fail to provide an encompassing view of mosquito biology. Here, we examined underlying changes in the biology of mosquitoes associated with dehydration. Specifically, we show that dehydration increases blood feeding in the northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens , which was the result of both higher activity and a greater tendency to land on a host. Similar observations were noted for Aedes aegypti and Anopheles quadrimaculatus . RNA-seq and metabolome analyses in C . pipiens following dehydration revealed that factors associated with carbohydrate metabolism are altered, specifically the breakdown of trehalose. Suppression of trehalose breakdown in C . pipiens by RNA interference reduced phenotypes associated with lower hydration levels. Lastly, mesocosm studies for C . pipiens confirmed that dehydrated mosquitoes were more likely to host feed under ecologically relevant conditions. Disease modeling indicates dehydration bouts will likely enhance viral transmission. This dehydration-induced increase in blood feeding is therefore likely to occur regularly and intensify during periods when availability of water is low.

Diseases that are transmitted by mosquitoes are a tremendous health and socioeconomic burden with hundreds of millions of people being impacted by mosquito-borne illnesses annually. Many factors have been implicated and extensively studied in disease transmission dynamics, but knowledge regarding how dehydration impacts mosquito physiology, behavior, and resulting mosquito-borne disease transmission remain underdeveloped. The lapse in understanding on how mosquitoes respond to dehydration stress likely obscures our ability to effectively study mosquito physiology, behavior, and vectorial capabilities. The goal of this review is to develop a profile of factors underlying mosquito biology that are altered by dehydration and the implications that are related to disease transmission.

Issue Title: Special Section: Children's Elementary School Social Experiences and Executive Functions Development Peer interactions and executive function play central roles in the development of healthy children, as peer problems have been indicative of lower cognitive competencies such as self-regulatory behavior and poor executive function has been indicative of problem behaviors and social dysfunction. However, few studies have focused on the relation between peer interactions and executive function and the underlying mechanisms that may create this link. Using a national sample (n=1164, 48.6 % female) from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), we analyzed executive function and peer problems (including victimization and rejection) across three waves within each domain (executive function or peer problems), beginning in early childhood and ending in middle adolescence. Executive function was measured as a multi-method, multi-informant composite including reports from parents on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire and Child Behavior Checklist and child's performance on behavioral tasks including the Continuous Performance Task, Woodcock-Johnson, Tower of Hanoi, Operation Span Task, Stroop, and Tower of London. Peer problems were measured as a multi-informant composite including self, teacher, and afterschool caregiver reports on multiple peer-relationship scales. Using a cross-lagged design, our Structural Equation Modeling findings suggested that experiencing peer problems contributed to lower executive function later in childhood and better executive function reduced the likelihood of experiencing peer problems later in childhood and middle adolescence, although these relations weakened as a child moves into adolescence. The results highlight that peer relationships are involved in the development of strengths and deficits in executive function and vice versa.

The mosquito midgut is an important site for bloodmeal regulation while also acting as a primary site for pathogen exposure within the mosquito. Recent studies show that exposure to dehydrating conditions alters mosquito bloodfeeding behaviors as well as post-feeding regulation, likely altering how pathogens interact with the mosquito. Unfortunately, few studies have explored the underlying dynamics between dehydration and bloodmeal utilization, and the overall impact on disease transmission dynamics remains veiled. In this study, we find that dehydration-based feeding in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, prompts alterations to midgut gene expression, as well as subsequent physiological factors involving water control and post-bloodfeeding (pbf) regulation. Altered expression of ion transporter genes and aquaporin 2 (AQP2) in the midgut of dehydrated mosquitoes as well as the rapid reequilibration of hemolymph osmolality after a bloodmeal indicate an ability to expedite fluid and ion processing. These alterations ultimately indicate that female A. aegypti employ mechanisms to ameliorate the detriments of dehydration by imbibing a bloodmeal, providing an effective avenue for rehydration. Continued research into bloodmeal utilization and the resulting effects on arthropod-borne transmission dynamics becomes increasingly important as drought prevalence is increased by climate change.

Objective. Many social policies and academic studies assume that education is \"the great equalizer\" that is capable of counteracting the unequal social resources of different demographic groups. This study aims to determine whether non-Hispanic whites and racial/ethnic minorities indeed experience comparable health benefits with greater educational attainment. Methods. Data from the National Health Interview Survey 1997-2012 were used to conduct ordered logistic models comparing the self-rated health of 518,288 non-Hispanic whites and racial/ethnic minorities aged 30-65 across the full spectrum of educational attainment. Results. Educational attainment was found to affect the health of whites more than minorities, even with the inclusion of a wide range of potential sociodemographic, behavioral, and economic mediators. Conclusion. We discuss the possibility that unmeasured variables, such as childhood environment and other individual characteristics, are responsible for the stronger effect of education for whites than minorities, and what the implications are for future policy and research.

Scientific knowledge has been under attack recently, especially during and from the Trump administration. This article discusses the value of research in social studies of science in relation to scientific practice and post-truth attacks on science. This literature analyzes the expert work and social values that enter into the production of evidence, the development and testing of methods, and the construction of theoretical and epistemological frames for connecting evidence, methods, and methodologies. Although researchers in this area argue that there are politics in science, this article demonstrates that their analyses of the processes of adjudicating evidence and epistemologies contribute to science. In contrast, post-truth attacks on scientific expertise exemplify a particular kind of politics aimed at supporting a particular group’s political and economic interests.

Background/ObjectivesTo evaluate outcomes from all British military patients who underwent eye removal during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.Subjects/MethodsRetrospective case note review of all patients (n = 19) who had undergone either evisceration or enucleation, on a database of all military patients repatriated to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham.ResultsTwenty eye removals were performed on 19 patients, of which 14 (70%) were eviscerations and 6 (30%) were enucleations. Orbital wall fractures were seen in 12 (61%) patients, with orbital floor fractures being the most common. The eye removal was a primary procedure in five of fourteen eviscerations, and five of six enucleations. Complications were seen after four (28.6%) eviscerations patients and two (33.3%) enucleations. Postoperative pain was problematic after three (21.4%) eviscerations but no enucleations. Orbital implants were placed during three of the five primary enucleations, with good outcomes in two. One patient however required implant retrieval and wound washout due to a high risk of infection and communication with the intra-cranial space.ConclusionsEvisceration and enucleation are both viable options in the management of severe ocular trauma in military patients. Evisceration and enucleation have similar complication rates and outcomes, and both have low rates of sympathetic ophthalmia. Primary orbital implants can be at high risk in cases with orbital roof fracture, but can provide good outcomes in select patients.

Theory suggests that in a new habitat, initial levels of genetic or species diversity can influence subsequent community assembly. Nevertheless, empirical investigations of these diversity effects in newly created habitats remain rare at both the genetic and species level, especially for animal systems. To test this theory, we conducted a field experiment in which initial stocking diversity (both intra‐ and interspecific) of freshwater zooplankton in newly constructed pools was manipulated in a 2 × 2 fully factorial design. Zooplankton communities were sampled every 2 weeks from May to August in 2011 and 2012, and once in May of 2013 and 2014. Estimates of overland dispersal were measured in 2012. Despite theoretical predictions, we found no difference in taxonomic richness among stocking treatments after 4 yr. A total of 24 species was recorded in the experimental pool metacommunity, with average cumulative taxonomic richness ranging from 6.1 to 7.6 species per pool. Using dispersal traps, we found that dispersal of zooplankton was rapid, with eight taxa dispersing within 7 d; we found no difference in the number of dispersed propagules based on number of neighboring source pools. Despite theoretical predictions regarding diversity and community assembly, our study suggests that initial diversity may have no effect on early successional community species richness.

The Stressors associated with poverty increase the risks for externalizing psychopathology; however, specific patterns of neurobiology and higher self-regulation may buffer against these effects. This study leveraged a randomized control trial, aimed at increasing self-regulation at ~11 years of age. As adults, these same individuals completed functional MRI scanning (Mage = 24.88 years; intervention n = 44; control n = 49). Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex was examined in relation to the intervention, gains in self-regulation, and present-day externalizing symptoms. Increased connectivity between these brain areas was noted in the intervention group compared to controls. Furthermore, individual gains in self-regulation, instilled by the intervention, statistically explained this brain difference. These results begin to connect neurobiological and psychosocial markers of risk and resiliency.

Mosquito-borne diseases have caused more than 1 million deaths each year. There is an urgent need to develop an effective way to reduce mosquito–host interaction to mitigate disease transmission. Sugar diets have long been linked to abnormal physiology in animals, making them potential candidates for mosquito control. Here, we show the impact of sugar diets on humidity preference and survival in Aedes aegypti (Gainesville) and Culex pipiens (Buckeye). Two-choice assays with high and low relative humidity (80% and 50% RH) show that the impact of sugar diets on humidity preference is species-specific. In comparison to Cx. pipiens, various sugar diets resulted in marked reductions in humidity avidity and preference in Ae. aegypti, which exhibited significant differences. Among the sugar diets, arabinose significantly reduced the survival rate of mosquitoes at low concentrations. Moreover, we found that host landing was not impacted by feeding on different sugar types. Our study suggests that specific sugar treatments could be applied to mosquito control by dampening their humidity preference and reducing their lifespan, thus reducing mosquito-borne disease transmission.