The Effect of SkitoSnack, an Artificial Blood Meal Replacement, on Aedes aegypti Life History Traits and Gut Microbiota.

Public health research and vector control frequently require the rearing of large numbers of vector mosquitoes. All target vector mosquito species are anautogenous, meaning that females require vertebrate blood for egg production. Vertebrate blood, however, is costly, with a short shelf life.

An online survey of personal mosquito-repellent strategies.

Background: Mosquito repellents can be an effective method for personal protection against mosquito bites that are a nuisance and carry the risk of transmission of mosquito-borne pathogens like , dengue virus, chikungunya virus, and Zika virus. A multitude of commercially available products are currently on the market, some of them highly effective while others have low or no efficacy. Many home remedies of unknown efficacy are also widely used.

Variability of measurement of retinal vessel diameters.

Purpose: To examine the effects of various cardiovascular, ocular, and lifestyle factors on retinal vessel diameters over short periods of time.

Methods: Subjects were invited to have photographs of their retina taken at each of three study visits. The same eye was photographed each time.

Structural basis of differential ligand recognition by two classes of bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate-binding riboswitches.

The bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) signaling pathway regulates biofilm formation, virulence, and other processes in many bacterial species and is critical for their survival. Two classes of c-di-GMP-binding riboswitches have been discovered that bind this second messenger with high affinity and regulate diverse downstream genes, underscoring the importance of RNA receptors in this pathway. We have solved the structure of a c-di-GMP-II riboswitch, which reveals that the ligand is bound as part of a triplex formed with a pseudoknot.

Genome-wide linkage analysis of multiple metabolic factors: evidence of genetic heterogeneity.

The metabolic syndrome is a highly complex disease and has become one of the major public-health challenges worldwide. We sought to identify genetic loci with potential influence on multiple metabolic factors in a white population in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and to explore the possibility of genetic heterogeneity by family history of diabetes (FHD). Three metabolic factors were generated using principal-component factor analysis, and they represented: (i) glycemia, (ii) blood pressure, and (iii) combined (BMI, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, and serum uric acid) factors.

A whole-genome screen of a quantitative trait of age-related maculopathy in sibships from the Beaver Dam Eye Study.

Age-related maculopathy (ARM) is a leading cause of visual impairment among the elderly in Western populations. To identify ARM-susceptibility loci, we genotyped a subset of subjects from the Beaver Dam (WI) Eye Study and performed a model-free genomewide linkage analysis for markers linked to a quantitative measure of ARM. We initially genotyped 345 autosomal markers in 325 individuals (N=263 sib pairs) from 102 pedigrees.

Do multiple families alter estimates of risk for age-related cataract in a population-based study? The Beaver Dam Eye Study.

We sought to determine the effect of "genetic" load on the strengths of risk factors for age-related cataracts in the population-based Beaver Dam Eye Study. Of the 4,926 participants in the baseline examination in 1988 to 1990, 2,338 were members of 594 family groups. There were no important differences in the risks due to pack-years smoked, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, body mass index, current smoking, hypertension or hormone replacement therapy for either the whole population or subgroups created by omitting siblings or any family relation.