Proceedings of Manitoba's Undergraduate Science and Engineering Research

Gonadal Development, Social Structure, and Implications of Protandry by Aggressive Dominance in Amphiprion Anemonefish

2020-01-03T10:54:34+00:00

Anemonefish of the genus Amphiprion have developed a mating system involving protandrous sequential hermaphroditism, wherein male sexual maturation occurs prior to female sexual maturation within an individual¹. This review will summarize changes in the gonad and individual behaviour through the transition from juvenile to male to female, as well as explore the relationship between body size and fecundity in Amphiprion. A protandrous mating system is advantageous due to the low abundance of host anemones, as it ensures that a migrating anemonefish can find a potential mate in any group it encounters, and loss of a mate will always trigger a replacement. This strategy ultimately grants Amphiprion the ability to withstand unpredictable host abundance and maximize safety and offspring production, encouraging the proliferation of the genus².

Keywords: anemonefish, Amphiprion, protandry, gonad, aggressive dominance

How To Submit

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Still not sure? Ask us! pmuser@umanitoba.ca
A manuscript is essentially the raw medium in which a researcher tells their story. Sharing the experiences of undergraduate
research is important. It is both a way to share knowledge, but also see the self-development that comes in the process of
research. Every piece of literature one can create is innately perfect; the true show of strength is to make it a little bit better.
At PMUSER Journal, we look for the manuscript to be in a plain word document. Do not include personal information in
the file. Have in-file citations in APA format. Also include citations in a .tex or .bib file. This basic layout of citations allows
ease of publication. No adapted figures, all work is original and reviewed in a double-blind peer-review process.

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Executive Teams give students co-curricular record (CCR) credits at the University of Manitoba.
Doing two peer-reviews for PMUSER Journal after attending the workshop “upgrades” the credit to peer-reviewer.
Editorial Team members for PMUSER Journal receive CCR recognition for their involvement with journal leadership.

Advancing Data Analytics for Decoding Gendered Language in Job Advertisements of STEM Fields

2020-01-03T10:43:50+00:00

The underrepresentation of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is a complex issue that is influenced by several factors. Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality (Gaucher et al., 2011) has shown that word choice in job advertisements affects not only one’s perception of their fit for the position, but
also how much they feel they belong to that field. Gaucher’s study documents the effect of masculine and feminine wording in advertisements.

Female-Specific Larval Lethality in the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti

2020-01-03T10:46:59+00:00

The mosquito, Aedes aegypti, is the primary vector of dengue, yellow fever, and Zika viruses. Dengue alone threatens
over 390 million people worldwide, causing over 300,000 deaths annually. Chemical pesticides are the main method of disease
suppression, but new, environmentally friendly methods of mosquito control are needed. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is
a pesticide-free method of locally controlling pest insects by releasing large numbers of sterile males, to out-compete wild males
for female mates. For this method to work effectively, few or no females should be released with sterile males as sterile females
can still spread diseases. Thus, efficient sex-sorting is needed, and to date, no large-scale sex-sorting methods for mosquitoes
have been sufficiently effective for use in sterile insect technique.

Structural Insights into Metal-Organic Connectivity by Paramagnetic NMR

2020-01-03T10:40:06+00:00

Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) are an emerging class of materials with numerous applications in domains such as
gas storage and separation, catalysis and bioimaging [1]. They consist of metallic centres with organic linkers between them,
forming a 3D network. These MOFs are difficult to analyze through x-ray diffraction (XRD) methods, thus the hope is
that Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) will provide meaningful insight into their structures. However, many MOFs
are paramagnetic, as many positive ions of transition metals contain unpaired electrons. Paramagnetic electrons introduce
complications to NMR studies of such compounds. Along with these complications, opportunities to probe chemical structure

Effects of Filtration Techniques in Identifying Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus versus Particulates in South Tobacco Creek Watershed

2020-01-03T10:45:18+00:00

Various research centers, scientists and professionals in analytical chemistry use different types of filter papers to determine
the types of phosphorus (P) and particulates responsible for algal blooms and eutrophication in water bodies. However, those
filter papers misinterpret results in defining dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) versus particulates, by ignoring the fact that
particulates which could be enriched in phosphorus (P) or nitrogen (N) present in the water also contribute to eutrophication.

Phenotypic Analysis of Multi-Drug Resistant Cystic Fibrosis Clinical Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains

2020-01-03T10:41:34+00:00

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram negative opportunistic pathogen and a leading cause of lung infection in cystic fibrosis
(CF) patients. This study was focused on characterizing two multi drug resistant (MDR) cystic fibrosis clinical isolates of P.
aeruginosa. These clinical isolates were taken from patients in the Sick Children’s Hospital, Ontario. Genomic analysis and
phenotypic assays were done to assess the multi-drug resistant and virulence phenotype between these isolates compared to wild
type PA01. The strains exhibit very similar resistance profiles apart from meropenem, however a difference is observed in
biofilm formation, virulence, and growth in minimal media.

Estimation of Ectoparasites in an African Ground Squirrel

2020-04-29T16:38:29+00:00

Studying the parasites of wildlife necessitates the accurate estimate of ectoparasites of free-ranging animals, often in a field
setting. The objective of this study was to test the relative accuracy of ectoparasite estimate in a rodent species, the Southern
African ground squirrel (Xerus inauris). Estimates of ectoparasites using combing were compared to total counts of ectoparasites on sacrificed animals. Results suggest that our combing method and visual inspection was a reliable method to estimate
flea and lice intensity and abundance for Xerus inauris species. However, differences were found in prevalence of these parasites between estimated and total collected, as the total was 1.5 times that of the estimates. These results demonstrate successful
estimation of parasites in a live small mammal species without requiring anaesthesia.

Crushed glass as a constructed wetland substrate: Invertebrate community responses to simulated wastewater inputs.

2020-01-03T16:35:22+00:00

Constructed wetlands (CWs) are an increasingly common polishing step prior to the release of municipal wastewater treatment facility effluents, especially in smaller and more isolated communities. It is hypothesized that recycled crushed glass could be a suitable alternative matrix for CW construction. In comparison to commonly used substrates, recycled crushed glass has several advantages: it is less expensive, more environmentally friendly, and it can be transformed into various sizes to meet specific design requirements. The material is inert, transparent, has large pore spaces, and significant surface area. Components that impair receiving water quality (e.g., nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and pathogenic bacteria) could be reduced by enhancing light penetration, macrophytes for uptake and assimilation, surface area for microbes, and overall retention time. To explore the ability of crushed glass to support relevant biological communities, twelve outdoor mesocosms were established with and without emergent plants, and crushed glass was contrasted with a typical gravel base in triplicate. Specifically, we examined the response of the zooplankton community. After these systems were acclimated, they were treated with a single pulse of synthetic wastewater (e.g., nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and salts). Mesocosms exposed to the synthetic effluent developed a significantly (p<0.05) different invertebrate community response in total abundance when compared to the unexposed control treatment. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences among the mesocosms with crushed glass as a substrate (including controls) for all diversity indices, indicating that the addition of synthetic effluent and macrophytes had no significant impacts on the invertebrate community structure. Overall, recycled crushed glass was determined to be suitable matrix for zooplankton communities, with water quality and effective treatments being maintained relative to gravel systems. Though the treatments with a gravel substrate had greater total invertebrate abundance, it was found that the gravel treatments were significantly (p<0.05) less diverse (Shannon’s index) and had less evenness than all other treatments with glass substrates. We recommend that future studies should explore the effectiveness of recycled crushed glass in CWs on a larger scale, as these results suggest that recycled crushed glass could be a viable surrogate for gravel in subsurface filtration processes.

Innovation and Expanding Horizons within Research at the University of Manitoba

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Cover

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Preface

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Masthead

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2020-01-03T10:51:08+00:00

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

2020-01-03T10:50:16+00:00

University of Manitoba Faculty Profile

2020-04-28T16:38:24+00:00

Role of RNA-interference in Crop Pests and Disease Vector Control

2020-01-03T10:55:16+00:00

Insect pests are a threat to meeting food demands of the ever-increasing human population. They are also the cause of many vector borne diseases in humans leading to countless deaths. Present insect pest control strategies including chemical pesticides, developing transgenic plants and organic certified chemical pesticides have numerous limitations in terms of their effectiveness and target specificity. However, genetic method that makes use of the sequence specificity of RNA interference (RNAi) has great potential in controlling pest insect populations. RNAi is a naturally occurring conserved process responsible for protection against viral pathogens. Efficiency of RNAi is variable among different pest insects. It is dependent on method of double stranded RNA (dsRNA) delivery, gene selection techniques, dsRNA expression and presence of off-target effects. Moreover, environmental risks involved in use of RNAi based insecticides in natural crop field scenario is debatable. Despite the challenges faced, RNAi mediated gene knockout of different pest insect genes has potential usefulness in controlling pest insect growth and survival.