What happens when the lights are left on? Transcriptomic and phenotypic habituation to light pollution.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a ubiquitous pollutant worldwide. Exposure can induce immediate behavioral and physiological changes in animals, sometimes leading to severe health consequences. Nevertheless, many organisms persist in light-polluted environments and may have mechanisms of habituating, reducing responses to repeated exposure over time, but this has yet to be tested experimentally. Here, we tested whether zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) can habituate to dim (0.3 lux) ALAN, measuring behavior, physiology (oxidative stress and telomere attrition), and gene expression in a repeated measures design, over 6 months. We present evidence of tolerance to chronic exposure, persistent behavioral responses lasting 8 weeks post-exposure, and attenuation of responses to re-exposure. Oxidative stress decreased under chronic ALAN. Changes in the blood transcriptome revealed unique responses to past exposure and re-exposure. Results demonstrate organismal resilience to chronic stressors and shed light on the capacity of birds to persist in an increasingly light-polluted world.

The highly improved genome of Ixodes scapularis with X and Y pseudochromosomes.

Ixodes scapularis, the black-legged tick, is the principal vector of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, and is responsible for most of the ∼470,000 estimated Lyme disease cases annually in the USA. Ixodes scapularis can transmit six additional pathogens of human health significance. Because of its medical importance, I. scapularis was the first tick genome to be sequenced and annotated. However, the first assembly, I. scapularis Wikel (IscaW), was highly fragmented because of the technical challenges posed by the long, repetitive genome sequences characteristic of arthropod genomes and the lack of long-read sequencing techniques. Although I. scapularis has emerged as a model for tick research because of the availability of new tools such as embryo injection and CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing yet the lack of chromosome-scale scaffolds has slowed progress in tick biology and the development of tools for their control. Here we combine diverse technologies to produce the I. scapularis Gulia-Nuss (IscGN) genome assembly and gene set. We used DNA from eggs and male and female adult ticks and took advantage of Hi-C, PacBio HiFi sequencing, and Illumina short-read sequencing technologies to produce a chromosome-level assembly. In this work, we present the predicted pseudochromosomes consisting of 13 autosomes and the sex pseudochromosomes: X and Y, and a markedly improved genome annotation compared with the existing assemblies and annotations.

Evidence-based practice in Steeltown: a good start on needed cultural change.

At the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation we talk a lot about the need to improve the 'receptor capacity' for research in the health sector (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation 2000). To create a demand for research as well as a supply of it. To encourage and assist clinicians, managers and policymakers in the health system to pull research from academe with as much fervor as applied researchers now bring to publishing it. Browman, Snider and Ellis have done more than talk about and encourage these things - they have implemented them at their own workplace in Hamilton. Their formula is:1. Design a policy-learning forum (Clinical Policy Committee'), where the use of available research is encouraged and expected 2. Create champions (knowledge stewards') responsible for marshalling and presenting the evidence. 3. Provide rules (negotiation') for the dialogue between the operational implications of the research and its budgetary reality. 4. Use story telling to uncover local implementation barriers and make tacit knowledge explicit. The approach is reminiscent of political scientist Paul Sabatier's description of the circumstances under which policy learning occurs (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith 1993) and Brown and Duguid's compelling outline of how information permeates corporate structures (Brown and Duguid 2000). Sabatiers advocacy coalition framework highlights the optimal conditions for learning as: balanced coalitions (in this case, of those behind the research and those behind the finances), enough resources for each side to produce a steady flow of information, an organized forum for debate and clear rules of engagement. In 'The Social Life of Information, 'Brown and Duguid highlight the extent to which modern corporations often leave unrecognized and under-utilized their greatest asset - the tacit knowledge accumulated by each employee over his or her career. They, too, recommend storytelling as a way to liberate this knowledge for wider use. Browman and colleagues 'practical realization of Sabatier' advocacy coalition framework and Browns social view of information is refreshing on a number of levels.