Mosquitoes collected in Germany in 2016, including Culex pipiens pipiens biotype pipiens, Culex torrentium and Aedes albopictus, as well as Culex pipiens pipiens biotype molestus (in colony since 2011) were experimentally infected with Zika virus (ZIKV) at 18 degrees C or 27 degrees C. None of the Culex taxa showed vector competence for ZIKV. In contrast, Aedes albopictus were susceptible for ZIKV but only at 27 degrees C, with transmission rates similar to an Aedes aegypti laboratory colony tested in parallel.

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider has measured the differential cross section of phi(1020)-meson production at forward rapidity in p + p collisions at root s = 510 GeV via the dimuon decay channel. The partial cross section in the rapidity and P-T ranges 1.2 <vertical bar y vertical bar <2.2 and 2 <p(T) <7 GeV/c is sigma(phi) = [2.28 +/- 0.09(stat) +/- 0.14(syst) +/- 0.27(norm)] x 10(-2) mb. The energy dependence of sigma(phi )(1.2 <vertical bar y vertical bar <2.2,2 <p(T) <5 GeV/c) is studied using the PHENIX measurements at root s = 200 and 510 GeV and the Large Hadron Collider measurements at root s = 2.76 and 7 TeV. The experimental results arc compared to various event generator predictions (PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, PHOJET, AMPT, EPOS3, and EPOS-LHC).

Background Ticks are responsible for transmitting several notable pathogens worldwide. Finland lies in a zone where two human-biting tick species co-occur: Ixodesricinus and Ixodespersulcatus. Tick densities have increased in boreal regions worldwide during past decades, and tick-borne pathogens have been identified as one of the major threats to public health in the face of climate change. Methods We used species distribution modelling techniques to predict the distributions of I.ricinus and I.persulcatus, using aggregated historical data from 2014 to 2020 and new tick occurrence data from 2021. By aiming to fill the gaps in tick occurrence data, we created a new sampling strategy across Finland. We also screened for tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and Borrelia from the newly collected ticks. Climate, land use and vegetation data, and population densities of the tick hosts were used in various combinations on four data sets to estimate tick species' distributions across mainland Finland with a 1-km resolution. Results In the 2021 survey, 89 new locations were sampled of which 25 new presences and 63 absences were found for I.ricinus and one new presence and 88 absences for I.persulcatus. A total of 502 ticks were collected and analysed; no ticks were positive for TBEV, while 56 (47%) of the 120 pools, including adult, nymph, and larva pools, were positive for Borrelia (minimum infection rate 11.2%, respectively). Our prediction results demonstrate that two combined predictor data sets based on ensemble mean models yielded the highest predictive accuracy for both I.ricinus (AUC = 0.91, 0.94) and I.persulcatus (AUC = 0.93, 0.96). The suitable habitats for I.ricinus were determined by higher relative humidity, air temperature, precipitation sum, and middle-infrared reflectance levels and higher densities of white-tailed deer, European hare, and red fox. For I.persulcatus, locations with greater precipitation and air temperature and higher white-tailed deer, roe deer, and mountain hare densities were associated with higher occurrence probabilities. Suitable habitats for I.ricinus ranged from southern Finland up to Central Ostrobothnia and North Karelia, excluding areas in Ostrobothnia and Pirkanmaa. For I.persulcatus, suitable areas were located along the western coast from Ostrobothnia to southern Lapland, in North Karelia, North Savo, Kainuu, and areas in Pirkanmaa and Paijat-Hame. Conclusions This is the first study conducted in Finland that estimates potential tick species distributions using environmental and host data. Our results can be utilized in vector control strategies, as supporting material in recommendations issued by public health authorities, and as predictor data for modelling the risk for tick-borne diseases.

CRISPR-mediated gene activation (CRISPRa) can be used to target endogenous genes for activation. By targeting pluripotency-associated reprogramming factors, human fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here, we describe a method for the derivation of iPSCs from human fibroblasts using episomal plasmids encoding CRISPRa components. This chapter also provides procedure to assemble guide RNA cassettes and generation of multiplexed guide plasmids for readers who want to design their own guide RNAs.

We perform lattice studies of meson mass spectra and decay constants of the Sp(4) gauge theory in the quenched approximation. We consider two species of (Dirac) fermions as matter field content, transforming in the 2-index antisymmetric and the fundamental representation of the gauge group, respectively. All matter fields are formulated as Wilson fermions. We extrapolate to the continuum and massless limits and compare to each other the results obtained for the two species of mesons. In the case of two fundamental and three antisymmetric fermions, the long-distance dynamics is relevant for composite Higgs models. This is the first lattice study of this class of theories. The global SU(4)×SU(6) symmetry is broken to the Sp(4)×SO(6) subgroup, and the condensates align with the explicit mass terms present in the lattice formulation of the theory. The main results of our quenched calculations are that, with fermions in the 2-index antisymmetric representation of the group, the masses squared and decay constant squared of all the mesons we considered are larger than the corresponding quantities for the fundamental representation, by factors that vary between ∼1.2 and ∼2.7. We also present technical results that will be useful for future lattice investigations of dynamical simulations, of composite chimera baryons, and of the approach to large N in the Sp(2N) theories considered. We briefly discuss their high-temperature behavior, where symmetry restoration and enhancement are expected.