BACKGROUND For the shortage of high-quality general practitioners (GPs) in China's rural areas, Chinese government has taken steps to encourage rural specialists to participate in transition training for future GPs. Specialists' initial participation motivations and their perceived deterrents during training may play important roles for their learning engagement in the transition training. This...

Marine mammal depredation of fisheries is a concern from a scientific, management, and conservation perspective. This conflict has prompted the development of non-lethal deterrents, a management technique that uses aversive stimuli to elicit avoidance. Animals are expected to be sensitive to cues of danger to avoid sources of mortality. Deterrents capitalize on behavioral mechanisms such as thr...

Natural products present in preferred and non-preferred animal hosts of biting insects can exhibit interesting semiochemical properties. Recently, a novel fatty acid compound that acts as a feeding deterrent for blood sucking insects was identified from the gaur (Bos frontalis). In our laboratory we have prepared analogues of this novel fatty acid and explored their structure activity relations...

A membrane feeding assay in which the effects of the antimalarial drugs quinine and artesunate are tested on Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto is described. In the present study, 87% of female A. gambiae are shown to feed on whole defibrinated bovine blood alone, whereas only 47% and 43.5% feed on saline and on saline + bovine serum albumin (BSA) solutions, respectively, suggesting that add...

Seaweed preference by the Brazilian endemic gastropod Astraea latispina was examined in the laboratory to evaluate the role of secondary metabolites in determining food choice. Of three species of seaweeds examined, Plocamium brasiliense was highly preferred; less so were Sargassum furcatum and Dictyota cervicornis were preferred less. Extracts and/or pure major metabolites of the two potential...