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Insecticide resistance is a growing threat to mosquito control programs around the world, thus creating the need to discover novel target sites and target-specific compounds for insecticide development. Emerging evidence suggests that mosquito inward rectifier potassium (Kir) channels represent viable molecular targets for developing insecticides with new mechanisms of action. Here we describe the discovery and characterization of VU041, a submicromolar-affinity inhibitor of Anopheles (An.) gambiae and Aedes (Ae.) aegypti Kir1 channels that incapacitates adult female mosquitoes from representative insecticide-susceptible and -resistant strains of An. gambiae (G3 and Akron, respectively) and Ae. aegypti (Liverpool and Puerto Rico, respectively) following topical application. VU041 is selective for mosquito Kir channels over several mammalian orthologs, with the exception of Kir2.1, and is not lethal to honey bees. Medicinal chemistry was used to develop an analog, termed VU730, which retains activity toward mosquito Kir1 but is not active against Kir2.1 or other mammalian Kir channels. Thus, VU041 and VU730 are promising chemical scaffolds for developing new classes of insecticides to combat insecticide-resistant mosquitoes and the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases, such as Zika virus, without harmful effects on humans and beneficial insects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stepfamily education programs are becoming increasingly common. While research on these programs is also increasing, the extant literature tends to be quantitative and cross-sectional. To more fully understand the stepfamily education experience, this case study focuses on the perceptions, feelings, and reports of one participating couple in the Smart Steps program. The nuances and complexities of this single case highlight the sequentiality and reasons for seeking out and participating in stepfamily education. A holistic portrayal of the perceived benefits of attending is also provided, including improvements with spouse, ex-spouse, and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before women could participate directly in the creation of scientific knowledge, they worked privately as translators, illustrators, and authors of science books. In the early nineteenth century, Jane Marcet in Britain, and later Almira Lincoln Phelps in the U.S., recognized the need for experimental training of beginners and, to compensate for the lack of experiments, produced meaningful drawings for their textbooks. By using a fresh narrative, a pleasing style, and beautiful drawings of their own, they wrote “chemistries for the beginners” that were both instructional and entertaining. Engraved in the tradition of the nineteenth century illustration, Jane Marcet’s Conversations on Chemistry and Almira Lincoln Phelps’ Chemistry for Beginners, originally written for the education of women, were immensely successful and lasted longer than many of the more specialized contemporary works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about representational forms in qualitative research have tended either to celebrate or to condemn particular forms. Such an approach reifies the differences between various means of expression and diverts attention from the interpretive, political and pedagogic issues which, in my view, lend importance to representational choices. Here, I offer an experiential account of performing ethnography, based on my own field work. I discuss performance both as process and product, and find points of convergence between my goals as an ethnographer and the resources of performance. As process, performance encourages participants-performers and audience members alike-to articulate and reflect critically on cultural contexts and meanings; as product, performance models (in ways more difficult through writing) episodes of social life which, often, are the object of naturalistic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports The Cancer Genome Atlas, an expensive federal project by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to start in March 2006. The purpose of the project is to scan the genome of tumors and catalog the genetic alterations associated with cancer, that may help researchers develop cancer drugs. The project has been approved despite loud skepticism from several scientists.

The article reports on the 2007 fiscal buget allocation by the Bush administration in the research and development area in the U.S. Pandemic flu preparedness and biodefense came out to have an increase in the budget, while other agencies have flat or either lower than the 2006 budget including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration.