Feedback from the 8th European Bioanalysis Forum Young Scientist Symposium.

After 2 years of COVID-19 restrictions, the 8th Young Scientist Symposium was organized again as a face-to-face meeting covering a broad array of scientific presentations. As in the previous editions, the meeting was organized by young scientists for young scientists under the umbrella of the European Bioanalysis Forum and in collaboration with academia. The traditional Science Café was again included as an interactive round table session.

The role of interleukin-6 trans-signalling on cardiovascular dysfunction in inflammatory arthritis.

Objectives: Cardiovascular (CV) mortality in RA patients is 50% higher than in the general population. There is increasing recognition that systemic inflammation is a major driver of this. IL-6 is implicated in cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population but its role in CVD in RA is undefined.

In Vivo Models for Inflammatory Arthritis.

In vivo mouse models of inflammatory arthritis are extensively used to investigate pathogenic mechanisms governing inflammation-driven joint damage. Two commonly utilized models include collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA) antigen-induced arthritis (AIA). These offer unique advantages for modeling different aspects of human disease.

Alterations to adipose tissue morphology during inflammatory arthritis is indicative of vasculopathology in DBA/1 mice.

The physiologic function of adipose tissue is altered by the host's inflammatory response; the implications for maintaining human health and regulating inflammation-associated disease progression are ill defined. However, this cannot be investigated in humans, therefore the use of animal models is required. With the aim to determine morphological and molecular alterations to perivascular and organ-associated adipose tissues during inflammatory arthritis, collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was established in male DBA/1 mice.

A comparison of two parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) of the vine mealybug: rapid, non-discriminatory oviposition is favored when ants tend the host.

The encyrtid parasitoids Coccidoxenoides perminutus Girault and Anagyrus nr. sp. pseudococci (Girault) were compared in the laboratory as parasitoids of the mealybug Planococcus ficus (Signoret).

Pharmacoscintigraphy confirms consistent tamsulosin release from a novel triple-layered tablet.

Conventional modified release preparations of tamsulosin HCl have been linked to increased incidence of cardiovascular adverse events, possibly due to rapid drug peaks soon after ingestion. A 'flattened' absorption profile has been shown to reduce the occurrence of these unwanted effects while improving symptom control. The potential of a novel triple-layered tablet to effect prolonged release and continuous absorption of tamsulosin HCl in the gastrointestinal tract was investigated in this clinical study.

Testing baits to control Argentine ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in vineyards.

Liquid baits were evaluated for control of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), and associated mealybug and soft scale pests in California vineyards. In 2003, liquid baits with small doses ofimidacloprid, boric acid, or thiamethoxam dissolved in 25% sucrose water resulted in lower ant and mealybug densities and fruit damage, compared with an untreated control. Similar treatments in a soft scale-infested vineyard showed only a reduction of ant density and fruit infestation in only the boric acid and thiamethoxam treatments.

Psyttalia ponerophaga (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) as a potential biological control agent of olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae (Diptera: Tephritidae) in California.

The olive fruit fly, Bactrocera oleae (Rossi), is a newly invasive, significant threat to California's olive industry. As part of a classical biological control programme, Psyttalia ponerophaga (Silvestri) was imported to California from Pakistan and evaluated in quarantine. Biological parameters that would improve rearing and field-release protocols and permit comparisons to other olive fruit fly biological control agents were measured.

Opportunistic out-crossing in Nicotiana attenuata (Solanaceae), a predominantly self-fertilizing native tobacco.

Background: Although Nicotiana attenuata is entirely self-compatible, chemical and other floral traits suggest selection for the maintenance of advertisement for moth pollinators.

Results: Experimental exclusions of pollinators from plants with emasculated flowers in natural populations in southern Utah during an outbreak of the hawkmoth Hyles lineata revealed that 24% of the seed set could be attributed to insect pollination, and eliminated wind pollination and apomixis as contributing to seed set. Hence these moths can mediate gene flow when self-pollen is unavailable.

Experimental studies of the host-finding behavior of Trogus pennator, a parasitoid of swallowtail butterflies.

The parasitic wasp Troguspennator (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) attacks larvae in two genera of Papilionidae, Eurytides and Papilio, on plants in a variety of families. The female wasps' responses to food plants, feeding damage, and frass were examined in a series of experiments designed to test the hypothesis that parasitic wasps that specialize on host taxa and seek their hosts in a variety of habitats exhibit fixed responses to host-derived cues and more flexible responses to cues associated only with the hosts' food plants. Naive T pennator females showed no preferences when offered either a choice between two papilionid food plants or a choice between a food plant and a plant not used for food by Papilionidae.