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The western tree hole mosquito, Aedes sierrensis (Ludlow) (Diptera: Clucidae), is a pestiferous mosquito with a range extending over the entire pacific seaboard and into portions of the intermountain west. As a peridomestic heartworm vector, it demands at least some level of surveillance to understand its abundance. However, the species is refractory to a majority of conventional vector surveillance approaches for tracking mosquitoes. To find more options for Aedes sierrensis surveillance, a variety of oviposition attractants were evaluated in arena-style choice assays using colony reared adults. A range of infusion treatments (e.g. alfalfa, oak, and beetroot) were examined and then combined with investigations of liquid color as well as ovicup color and entryway position. These studies revealed that Ae. sierrensis have an affinity for purple coloration, plain water, and larger entryway sizes for oviposition cups. A prototype ovicup was 3D-printed using purple filament and multiple types of entryways, and used to re-test infusion waters. No particular attraction differences were detected after normalizing for purple color. Comparisons to black 3D-printed cups yielded surprising observations that male mosquitoes also aggregated on purple cups while females sheltered, but not necessarily oviposited, in black cups. Although this was only a laboratory-based assessment, these studies provide useful information for future field trials of potential oviposition traps for surveillance of Ae. sierrensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author(s): Neil J. Vickers (corresponding author) [1, 2]; Thomas A. Christensen [1]; Thomas C. Baker [3]; John G. Hildebrand [1] The neural computations used to represent olfactory information in the [...]

In this paper, I describe some of the ways in which D.W. Winnicott's notion of 'holding' might be seen as something intimates do for one another across the life cycle. Drawing on a wide selection of Winnicott's writings on the subject, I identify five characteristics of holding that many, perhaps most, Western adults take for granted in ordinary life. Holding enables us to split off catastrophe. It reduces our dependence and increases our sense of autonomy. It contains unmourned losses and sponsors transitional experience. It enables us to form psychosomatic communities with others. I then consider some of the ways in which these characteristics are thrown into jeopardy when serious physical illness arises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory projection neurons convey information from the insect antennal lobe (AL) to higher brain centers. Previous reports have demonstrated that pheromone‐responsive projection neurons with cell bodies in the moth medial cell cluster (mcPNs) predominantly have dendritic arborizations in the sexually dimorphic macroglomerular complex (MGC) and send an axon from the AL to the calyces of the mushroom body (CA) as well as the lateral horn (LH) of the protocerebrum via the medial AL tract. These neurons typically exhibit a narrow odor tuning range related to the restriction of their dendritic arbors within a single glomerulus (uniglomerular). In this study, we report on the diverse physiological and morphological properties of a group of pheromone‐responsive olfactory projection neurons with cell bodies in the AL lateral cell cluster (MGC lcPNs) of two closely related moth species. All pheromone‐responsive lcPNs appeared to exhibit "basket‐like" dendritic arborizations in two MGC compartments and made connections with various protocerebral targets including ventrolateral and superior neuropils via projections primarily through the lateral AL tract and to a lesser extent the mediolateral antennal lobe tract. Physiological characterization of MGC lcPNs also revealed a diversity of response profiles including those either enhanced by or reliant upon presentation of a pheromone blend. These responses manifested themselves as higher maximum firing rates and/or improved temporal resolution of pulsatile stimuli. MGC lcPNs therefore participate in conveying diverse olfactory information relating to qualitative and temporal facets of the pheromone stimulus to a more expansive number of protocerebral targets than their mcPN counterparts. Olfactory output neurons from the moth antennal lobe transmit pheromone information to a variety of higher brain centers along several distinct pathways. Pheromone blend‐sensitive multiglomerular neurons originating in the lateral cluster send information directly to lateral and dorsal targets where integration with other olfactory pathways and sensory modalities may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthologist of The Golden Treasury, F. T. Palgrave, recorded a conversation with Tennyson in which the poet claimed 'his poems sprang from a 'nucleus', some one word, may be, [...]