Brampton has reached a tentative deal with nearly 1,200 city workers who have been on strike since last week, according to Mayor Patrick Brown and the union.

Macroeconomic risks for grains and oilseeds include China's growth and FX rates.

Some Ukrainians living in Calgary say they're even more worried for their friends and family back home in light of Donald Trump's election win.

The provincial government is seeking contractors to restore hundreds of kilometres of land where fireguards were created during the 2023 wildfire season.

Charlottetown-born curler Brett Gallant says competing in the Olympics will be a dream come true for him and his fiancée, Jocelyn Peterman, even if COVID-19 protocols will make it difficult for them to see each other.

Kamloops, B.C., has been selected as the host city of the 2023 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Laura Walker made a game-winning draw Sunday afternoon to win the Alberta women's curling playdowns and secure a berth in the upcoming national championship.

It’s official — Team Galusha will be representing the N.W.T. at the 2022 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay later this month.

The oft-discussed wild-card setup at the national championships took centre stage again Monday with the release of updated rankings that appeared to determine the play-in game matchup at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Curling Canada, with the assistance of Own the Podium and the Canadian Olympic Committee, announced Rachel Homan and John Morris as the mixed doubles team for Canada competing at the Beijing Olympics.

As some qualifying events in curling get cancelled, organizers in this region and across the country are starting to have to choose teams based on a ranking system to determine who gets to compete.

Newly announced mixed doubles duo Rachel Homan and John Morris, skips Jennifer Jones and Brad Gushue, and broadcasters Mike Harris, Joanne Courtney and Bruce Rainnie all break down a busy week in curling news.

Curling Canada says the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Thunder Bay, Ont., will operate under Ontario's current public health measures and an approved framework from the office of the chief medical officer.

CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it has received approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) to establish a futures commission merchant (FCM). "We...

Record October ADV for interest rate, energy, metals and agricultural products Record October ADV across U.S. Treasury and SOFR complexes All-time record monthly ADV in U.S. Treasury options and...

Farmer sentiment saw an unexpected surge in October ahead of the upcoming U.S. election, according to the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. The index rose to 115, marking a...

Mosquitoes transmit deadly pathogens from person to person as they obtain the blood meal that is essential for their life cycle. Female mosquitoes of many species are unable to reproduce without consuming protein that they obtain from blood. This developmental stage makes them highly efficient disease vectors of deadly pathogens. They can transmit pathogens between members of the same species and different species that can provide a route for evolving zoonotic viruses to jump from animals to humans. One possible way to develop novel strategies to combat pathogen transmission by mosquitoes is to study the sensory systems that drive mosquito reproductive behaviors, in particular the neural architecture and circuits of mosquito sensory afferent neurons, the central circuits that process sensory information, and the downstream circuits that drive reproductive behaviors. The study of mosquito neuroanatomy and circuitry also benefits basic neuroscience, allowing for comparative neuroanatomy in insect species, which has great value in the current model species-heavy landscape of neuroscience. Here, we introduce two important techniques that are used to study neuroanatomy and neural circuitry—namely, immunofluorescent labeling and neural tracing. We describe how to apply these approaches to study mosquito neuroanatomy and describe considerations for researchers using the techniques.

A researcher may have many reasons for wanting to establish new laboratory colonies from field-collected mosquitoes. In particular, the ability to study the diversity found within and among natural populations in a controlled laboratory environment opens up a wide range of possibilities for understanding how and why burdens of vector-borne disease vary over space and time. However, field-collected mosquitoes are often more difficult to work with than established laboratory strains, and considerable logistical challenges are involved in safely transporting field-collected mosquitoes into the laboratory. Here, we provide advice for researchers working with Aedes aegypti, Anopheles gambiae, and Culex pipiens, as well as notes on other closely related species. We provide guidance on each stage of the life cycle and highlight the life stages for which it is easiest to initiate new laboratory colonies for each species. In accompanying protocols, we provide methods detailing Ae. aegypti egg collection and hatching as well as how to transport larvae and pupae from the field.

CRISPR–Cas9 has revolutionized gene editing for traditional and nontraditional model organisms alike. This tool has opened the door to new mechanistic studies of basic mosquito biology as well as the development of novel vector control strategies based on CRISPR–Cas9, including gene drives that spread genetic elements in the population. Although the promise of the specificity, flexibility, and ease of deployment CRISPR is real, its implementation still requires empirical optimization for each new species of interest, as well as to each genomic target within a given species. Here, we provide an overview of designing and testing single-guide RNAs for the use of CRISPR-based gene editing tools.

Analysis of taste sensory responses has been a powerful approach for understanding principles of taste detection and coding. The shared architecture of external taste sensing units, called sensilla, in insects opened up the study of tastant-evoked responses in any model of choice using a single-sensillum tip recording method that was developed in the mid-1900s. Early studies in blowflies were instrumental for identifying distinct taste neurons based on their responses to specific categories of chemicals. Broader system-wide analyses of whole organs have since been performed in the genetic model insect Drosophila melanogaster, revealing principles of stereotypical organization and function that appear to be evolutionarily conserved. Although limited in scope, investigations of taste sensory responses in mosquitoes showcase conservation in sensillar organization, as well as in groupings of functionally distinct taste neurons in each sensillum. The field is now poised for more thorough dissections of mosquito taste function, which should be of immense value in understanding close-range chemosensory interactions of mosquitoes with their hosts and environment. Here, we provide an introduction to the basic structure of a taste sensillum and functional analysis of the chemosensory neurons within it.

The host associations of mosquitoes vary by species, with some species being relative generalists, whereas others specialize, to varying extents, on a particular subset of the available host community. These host associations are driving factors in transmission dynamics of mosquito-vectored pathogens. For this reason, characterizing the host associations of mosquito species is critical for understanding the epidemiology of mosquito-vectored pathogens. Diverse methods have been used to associate mosquito species with their hosts. These typically include collecting mosquitoes that bite a restrained host (bait) or collecting wild blood-engorged mosquitoes and matching their blood meal to reference samples (blood meal analysis). Blood meal analysis refers to a collection of molecular techniques for determining the taxonomic identity of the source of a mosquito blood meal using cytological, serological, or DNA-based characteristics of the blood meal. Blood meal analyses that are based on DNA markers have advantages over cytological and serological methods and are effective for determining species-level identities of hosts from a broad range of potential host taxa. Here, we discuss effective techniques for analyzing blood meals.

Transposon-mediated transgenesis of mosquito vectors of disease pathogens followed the early success of transgenesis in the vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The P transposable element used in Drosophila does not function canonically in mosquitoes, and repeatable, routine transgenesis in mosquitoes was not accomplished until new transposable elements were discovered and validated. A number of distinct transposons were subsequently identified that mediate the introduction of exogenous DNA in a stable and heritable manner in mosquito species, including members of the genera Aedes, Anopheles, and Culex. The most versatile element, piggyBac, is functional in all of these mosquito genera, as well as in many other insects in diverse orders, and has been used extensively outside the class. Transposon-mediated transgenesis of recessive and dominant marker genes and reporter systems has been used to define functional fragments of gene control sequences, introduce exogenous DNA encoding products beneficial to medical interests, and act as "enhancer traps" to identify endogenous genes with specific expression characteristics.

Anautogenous female mosquitoes, which ingest a blood meal from warm-blooded vertebrates to produce eggs, have become a valuable model organism for investigating signaling pathways and physiological processes that occur during egg development. Different molecular pathways tightly regulate the initiation of egg development and are governed by a balance among different insect hormones. Gravid (mature egg-carrying) females deposit fully developed eggs at the end of each gonotrophic cycle, which is defined as the time interval between the ingestion of a blood meal to oviposition. An intact eggshell protects the oocyte and embryo inside from external factors such as desiccation, physical damage, etc., and the various eggshell proteins are spatially and temporary deposited during oogenesis. Additionally, follicle resorption (oosorption) during blood meal–induced mosquito ovarian follicle development is an adapted physiological process that optimizes reproductive fitness. Mosquito oocytes grow and mature synchronously throughout oogenesis; however, during the later stages of oogenesis, some oocytes may undergo oosorption if sufficient nutrients are unavailable. This introduction highlights how mosquito egg development can be used to investigate follicular resorption and identify proteins involved in eggshell formation in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Anna (Germany) and Christina (Canada) are the youngest members of OM Montenegro. They describe how God called them into missions, and led them unexpectedly to Montenegro, a Balkan country neither had heard much about before. Here God is changing them as they prepare for further service...

Four OM guys in Bar, Montenegro, and four guys from a nearby Roma camp take a hiking/camping trip together.

The OM team in Bar, Montenegro, do a creative programme in over 15 kindergartens, explaining to children how important it is to regularly brush their teeth.

Robbie and Angela from OM in Montenegro take every opportunity to bring God's love into the lives of lonely elderly people in a care home.

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