The article considers a 30-year history of the creation, state regulation, and production of AquAdvantage transgenic salmon genetically modified (GM) with the growth hormone gene. The arguments of ...opponents and proponents of the concept of ecological safety of the use of transgenic fish in aquaculture are critically analyzed. It has been generalized that the adaptability of transgenic fish is lower than that of its wild relatives. On this basis, it is assumed that, in the event of an accidental ingress of GM fish from aquaculture to natural populations, transgenes are under the negative influence of natural selection. Strict security measures for the maintenance of GM fish, however, should not be weakened, since there are still unexplained cases of the survival of fluorescent transgenic aquarium fish in freshwater ecosystems.
Modern optical systems increasingly rely on complex physical processes that require accessible control to meet target performance characteristics. In particular, advanced light sources, sought for, ...for example, imaging and metrology, are based on nonlinear optical dynamics whose output properties must often finely match application requirements. However, in these systems, the availability of control parameters (e.g., the optical field shape, as well as propagation medium properties) and the means to adjust them in a versatile manner are usually limited. Moreover, numerically finding the optimal parameter set for such complex dynamics is typically computationally intractable. Here, we use an actively controlled photonic chip to prepare and manipulate patterns of femtosecond optical pulses that give access to an enhanced parameter space in the framework of supercontinuum generation. Taking advantage of machine learning concepts, we exploit this tunable access and experimentally demonstrate the customization of nonlinear interactions for tailoring supercontinuum properties.
We review results on the optical injection of dual state InAs quantum dot-based semiconductor lasers. The two states in question are the so-called ground state and first excited state of the laser. ...This ability to lase from two different energy states is unique amongst semiconductor lasers and in combination with the high, intrinsic relaxation oscillation damping of the material and the novel, inherent cascade like carrier relaxation process, endows optically injected dual state quantum dot lasers with many unique dynamical properties. Particular attention is paid to fast state switching, antiphase excitability, novel information processing techniques and optothermally induced neuronal phenomena. We compare and contrast some of the physical properties of the system with other optically injected two state devices such as vertical cavity surface emitting lasers and ring lasers. Finally, we offer an outlook on the use of quantum dot material in photonic integrated circuits.
The review considers the main stages in the development of the genetic method of insect control: (1) the idea of A.S. Serebrovsky, who suggested releasing males with nonviable translocations into ...nature; (2) “Z-lethal” method of V.A. Strunnikov for control of harmful Lepidoptera, which consists in the release of males carrying two nonallelic recessive mutations in the sex Z chromosomes into nature; (3) sterile insect technique (SIT) used widely in practice in the second half of the 20th century; (4) genetically engineered biotechnology RIDL (Release of Insects carrying a Dominant Lethal) used in practice to control the invasive mosquito
Aedes aegypti
, which is the vector of Zika viruses and yellow fever. It is generalized that the main opponent of the genetic method of insect control is natural selection, which supports females, choosing natural rather than sterile or “genetically modified” males for mating. It follows from the above that genetic methods of control can be effective only in control of invasive species that have not spread widely yet.
Creation of genetically modified plants with an incorporated system protecting them from pests is one of the main goals in modern agricultural biotechnology. From the mid-1990s to the present, the ...majority of such transgenic crops is represented by carriers of the insecticidal
Cry
and
Vip
genes of the bacterium
Bacillus thuringiensis.
However, a tendency to change this strategy in favor of the incorporated defense systems based on RNA interference has become evident during the recent decade. Evolutional paths of phytophages' responses to insecticidal GM plants that are armed with these genetic constructions are discussed in the review.
The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) package is an element of the Russian contribution to the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission. ACS consists of three separate infrared ...spectrometers, sharing common mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces. This ensemble of spectrometers has been designed and developed in response to the Trace Gas Orbiter mission objectives that specifically address the requirement of high sensitivity instruments to enable the unambiguous detection of trace gases of potential geophysical or biological interest. For this reason, ACS embarks a set of instruments achieving simultaneously very high accuracy (ppt level), very high resolving power (>10,000) and large spectral coverage (0.7 to 17 μm—the visible to thermal infrared range). The near-infrared (NIR) channel is a versatile spectrometer covering the 0.7–1.6 μm spectral range with a resolving power of ∼20,000. NIR employs the combination of an echelle grating with an AOTF (Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter) as diffraction order selector. This channel will be mainly operated in solar occultation and nadir, and can also perform limb observations. The scientific goals of NIR are the measurements of water vapor, aerosols, and dayside or night side airglows. The mid-infrared (MIR) channel is a cross-dispersion echelle instrument dedicated to solar occultation measurements in the 2.2–4.4 μm range. MIR achieves a resolving power of >50,000. It has been designed to accomplish the most sensitive measurements ever of the trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere. The thermal-infrared channel (TIRVIM) is a 2-inch double pendulum Fourier-transform spectrometer encompassing the spectral range of 1.7–17 μm with apodized resolution varying from 0.2 to 1.3 cm
−1
. TIRVIM is primarily dedicated to profiling temperature from the surface up to ∼60 km and to monitor aerosol abundance in nadir. TIRVIM also has a limb and solar occultation capability. The technical concept of the instrument, its accommodation on the spacecraft, the optical designs as well as some of the calibrations, and the expected performances for its three channels are described.
Reduction in the area occupied with Bt-crops caused by their cost inefficiency largely depends on the outbreaks of secondary pests. Among them, a highly important place belongs to the representatives ...of the order Hemiptera. These phytophages are insensitive to Cry-proteins of genetically modified (GM) insecticidal crops engineered to control the main pests from the orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera with chewing mouthparts. In contrast to chewing, evolutionary more advanced piercing-sucking mouthparts of Hemiptera phytophages do not initiate in plants the state of induced defense associated with an elevated content of terpenes. When the main pest is absent, a reduced content of terpenes in Bt-crops makes them more attractive to hemipterans than conventional cultivars. In the absence of the main pest there’s no competition for hemipterous secondary pests. In aggregate, these two factors bring about outbreaks of Hemiptera in Bt-crops.
Neurons communicate by brief bursts of spikes separated by silent phases and information may be encoded into the burst duration or through the structure of the interspike intervals. Inspired by the ...importance of bursting activities in neuronal computation, we have investigated the bursting oscillations of an optically injected quantum dot laser. We find experimentally that the laser periodically switches between two distinct operating states with distinct optical frequencies exhibiting either fast oscillatory or nearly steady state evolutions (two-color bursting oscillations). The conditions for their emergence and their control are analyzed by systematic simulations of the laser rate equations. By projecting the bursting solution onto the bifurcation diagram of a fast subsystem, we show how a specific hysteresis phenomenon explains the transitions between active and silent phases. Since size-controlled bursts can contain more information content than single spikes our results open the way to new forms of neuron inspired optical communication.
The world market for the first generation of transgenic crops (insecticidal and herbicide-resistant plants) has been expanding since 2012, mostly owing to developing countries. The cautious attitude ...in the majority of economically developed countries to the first-generation transgenic agricultural crops is due to several objective circumstances: the negative impact of insecticidal Bt-crops on useful and endangered invertebrate species, the allergenic properties of Bt-toxin for humans, toxicity of glyphosate to humans and animals, the widely spreading resistance of weeds to glyphosate, the increasing resistance of–harmful–insects to insecticidal Bt-plants, the danger of–genetic pollution–of aboriginal plant varieties, and the flow of herbicide resistance traits to weed plants.