Diversity, distribution and relative abundance of the mosquito fauna (Diptera: Culicidae) of Malakand and Dir Lower, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to evaluate the diversity, distribution (C) and relative abundance (RA) of the mosquito fauna (Diptera: Culicidae) of Malakand and Dir Lower, Pakistan. Collection of specimens (n = 1087) was made during September 2018 to July 2019 at six different habitats including freshwater bodies, rice fields, animal sheds, indoors, drains and sewage waters. Specimens were collected through light traps, pyrethrum spray, aspirators and nets and subsequently killed, preserved and then arranged in entomological boxes for identification. Three genera were identified namely Culex, Anopheles and Aedes. A total of fourteen species were identified namely: Cx. quinquefasciatus (Say, 1823), An. stephensi (Liston, 1901), Cx. tritaeniorhynchus (Giles, 1901), Ae. vittatus (Bigot, 1861), An. maculatus (Theobald, 1901), An. fluviatilis (James, 1902), Cx. vishnui (Theobald, 1901), Ae. aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762) An. subpictus (Grassi, 1899), An. dthali (Patton, 1905), An. culicifascies (Giles, 1901), An. pallidus (Theobald, 1901), Ae. albopictus (Skuse, 1894) and An. annularis (van der Wulp, 1884). Cx. quinquefasciatus was found constantly distributed in the study area with RA = 16.5% and C = 100%. An. annularis was found as a satellite species, sporadically distributed in the study area having RA = 0.9% and C = 17%. Diversity indices of mosquitoes in the studied habitats were found as, Shannon-Wiener Index (2.415), Simpson Index (9.919), Fisher’s Index (2.269) and Margalef’s Index (1.859). A statistically significant difference was recorded in mosquito diversity in the six habitats (Kruskal-Wallis, chi-squared, H = 17.5, df = 5, P = 0.003 at α = 0.05). The present study encompasses mosquito fauna of Malakand, Pakistan with respect to diversity, relative abundance and distribution in diverse habitats and all seasons of the year. This will assist scientists working in various fields related with epidemiology, medical and veterinary entomology, ecology and allied areas of biological sciences.

Mapping the broadband circular dichroism of copolymer films with supramolecular chirality in time and space

Measurements of the electronic circular dichroism (CD) are highly sensitive to the absolute configuration and conformation of chiral molecules and supramolecular assemblies and have therefore found widespread application in the chemical and biological sciences. Here, we demonstrate an approach to simultaneously follow changes in the CD and absorption response of photoexcited systems over the ultraviolet−visible spectral range with 100 fs time resolution. We apply the concept to chiral polyfluorene copolymer thin films and track their electronic relaxation in detail. The transient CD signal stems from the supramolecular response of the system and provides information regarding the recovery of the electronic ground state. This allows for a quantification of singlet−singlet annihilation and charge-pair formation processes. Spatial mapping of chiral domains on femtosecond time scales with a resolution of 50 μm and diffraction-limited steady-state imaging of the circular dichroism and the circularly polarised luminescence (CPL) of the films is demonstrated.

Systems biology–the transformative approach to integrate sciences across disciplines

Life science is the study of living organisms, including bacteria, plants, and animals. Given the importance of biology, chemistry, and bioinformatics, we anticipate that this chapter may contribute to a better understanding of the interdisciplinary connections in life science. Research in applied biological sciences has changed the paradigm of basic and applied research. Biology is the study of life and living organisms, whereas science is a dynamic subject that as a result of constant research, new fields are constantly emerging. Some fields come and go, whereas others develop into new, well-recognized entities. Chemistry is the study of composition of matter and its properties, how the substances merge or separate and also how substances interact with energy. Advances in biology and chemistry provide another means to understand the biological system using many interdisciplinary approaches. Bioinformatics is a multidisciplinary or rather transdisciplinary field that encourages the use of computer tools and methodologies for qualitative and quantitative analysis. There are many instances where two fields, biology and chemistry have intersection. In this chapter, we explain how current knowledge in biology, chemistry, and bioinformatics, as well as its various interdisciplinary domains are merged into life sciences and its applications in biological research.

An alternative way to stain the gel in gel electrophoresis without causing contamination

Gel electrophoresis is an important invention that can help us separate molecules based on size and charge. It has been used in many circumstances, including analysing the DNA sequence during forensic investigations and obviously, in many disciplines regarding microbiology and biological sciences as a whole. The biggest headache that comes with gel electrophoresis is the part that requires staining of a gel. Very often, if not well done, it will cause contamination and splash. In this poster, we talked about a different way to stain the gel used in gel electrophoresis without causing too much contamination

First person – Ziyan Fang

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Ziyan Fang is first author on ‘ The Salmonella effector SifA initiates a kinesin-1 and kinesin-3 recruitment process mirroring that mediated by Arl8a and Arl8b’, published in JCS. Ziyan conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Stéphane Méresse's lab at Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML), Marseille, France. She is now a postdoc in the lab of Elina Zúñiga at Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, USA, where her research interests lie in studying the cellular and molecular aspects of the host immune responses during viral or bacterial infection.

IN MEMORY OF VERA BORISOVNA VOZZHINSKAYA

On July 29, 2021, just 90 years have passed since the day of birth of Vera Borisovna Vozzhinskaya, doctor of biological sciences, head of the Laboratory of biological foundation of mariculture IO RAS. She was connected with our Institute during all her life, 43 years – from young post-graduate up to well-known algologist, specialist in benthic marine algae. She was a bright personality, outstanding organizer, skilled expedition worker. Under her leadership 37 coastal expeditions of IO were carried out – to the White, Barents, Black and Far East Seas. She tragically perished in happy and long-awaited moment: just after the authorization of her degree (doctor of biology) by All-Russian Attestation Commission. Publications by V.B. Vozzhinskaya are in demand up to now, especially her unique monograph on the White Sea macrophytobenthos and investigations on productivity of bottom seaweeds.

ESTUDOS BIBLIOMÉTRICOS RELACIONADOS ÀS PRODUÇÕES CIENTÍFICAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DO ESTADO DA BAHIA NA WEB OF SCIENCE E SCOPUS (1994-2020) = BIBLIOMETRIC STUDIES RELATED TO THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTIONS FROM THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF BAHIA AT WEB OF SCIENCE AND SCOPUS (1994- 2020)

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo aprofundar os estudos concernentes às produções científicas da Universidade do Estado da Bahia entre os anos de 1994 e 2020 nas bases de dados Web of Science e Scopus, tendo como fundamentos uma pesquisa descritiva com abordagens qualitativas e quantitativas. Foram utilizadas técnicas da bibliometria, com métricas de produtividade e de impacto, como o quantitativo de produções por ano de publicação, relações de autoria, redes de cooperação, fontes de publicação, nacionalidades, áreas do conhecimento, citações e palavras-chave, que serviram para análises e diagnósticos que podem ser basilares na construção de planejamentos e tomada de decisão no que diz respeito a gestão dos programas de pós-graduação e estabelecimento de parcerias com outras instituições.ABSTRACTThe present work aims to deepen the studies concerning the scientific productions of the University of the State of Bahia between 1994 and 2020 in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. It is characterized as a descriptive research with qualitative and quantitative approaches, through bibliometric techniques, with productivity and impact metrics. Variables that resulted in the identification of diagnoses that can be fundamental in the construction of plans and decision-making regarding the management of graduate programs were analyzed. It concludes that the institution's scientific production at the bases has grown and strengthened in the last 4 years, with emphasis on areas such as Agronomy, Biological Sciences and Chemistry, requiring greater attention and investment in partnerships with other institutions, and in areas with potential and growing such as Health Science and Physics.

Tracking mutational semantics of SARS-CoV-2 genomes

Genomes have an inherent context dictated by the order in which the nucleotides and higher order genomic elements are arranged in the DNA/RNA. Learning this context is a daunting task, governed by the combinatorial complexity of interactions possible between ordered elements of genomes. Can natural language processing be employed on these orderly, complex and also evolving datatypes (genomic sequences) to reveal the latent patterns or context of genomic elements (e.g Mutations)? Here we present an approach to understand the mutational landscape of Covid-19 by treating the temporally changing (continuously mutating) SARS-CoV-2 genomes as documents. We demonstrate how the analogous interpretation of evolving genomes to temporal literature corpora provides an opportunity to use dynamic topic modeling (DTM) and temporal Word2Vec models to delineate mutation signatures corresponding to different Variants-of-Concerns and tracking the semantic drift of Mutations-of-Concern (MoC). We identified and studied characteristic mutations affiliated to Covid-infection severity and tracked their relationship with MoCs. Our ground work on utility of such temporal NLP models in genomics could supplement ongoing efforts in not only understanding the Covid pandemic but also provide alternative strategies in studying dynamic phenomenon in biological sciences through data science (especially NLP, AI/ML).

Advances in Editing Silkworms (Bombyx mori) Genome by Using the CRISPR-Cas System

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated) represents a powerful genome editing technology that revolutionized in a short period of time numerous natural sciences branches. Therefore, extraordinary progress was made in various fields, such as entomology or biotechnology. Bombyx mori is one of the most important insects, not only for the sericulture industry, but for numerous scientific areas. The silkworms play a key role as a model organism, but also as a bioreactor for the recombinant protein production. Nowadays, the CRISPR-Cas genome editing system is frequently used in order to perform gene analyses, to increase the resistance against certain pathogens or as an imaging tool in B. mori. Here, we provide an overview of various studies that made use of CRISPR-Cas for B. mori genome editing, with a focus on emphasizing the high applicability of this system in entomology and biological sciences.