Improving community and participant knowledge about preventive HIV vaccine trials may help ensure informed consent. However, whether informing potential participants will reverse or contribute to the declining trend in WTP observed in this cohort warrants further investigation.

Biannual applications of hexazinone have been applied in many lowbush blueberry fields in Nova Scotia for more than 30 years. Persistent reliance on a single herbicide chemistry may have selected for hexazinone-resistant red sorrel. The recommended rate of hexazinone (1.92 kg ai ha−1) no longer controls red sorrel in many growing regions. Six levels of hexazinone (0, 0.48, 0.96, 1.92, 3.84, and 7.68 kg ai ha−1) were applied to red sorrel plants grown in a greenhouse from seeds collected from three commercial fields and a no blueberry area to determine if they were hexazinone resistant. Red sorrel from two sites where hexazinone had not been applied regularly died at the 0.96 kg ai ha−1rate of hexazinone whereas red sorrel from two commercial fields survived at 7.68 kg ai ha−1. It is concluded that red sorrel is hexazinone-resistant in some wild blueberry fields. A portion of thepsbA gene was sequenced and it was determined that resistant plants had a Phe to Val substitution at position 255 in the D1 protein. This is the first recorded instance of hexazinone resistance in a perennial broadleaf weed in blueberry fields.

Transposable elements (TEs), such as endogenous retroviruses (ERVs), are common in the genomes of vertebrates. ERVs result from retroviral infections of germ-line cells, and once integrated into host DNA they become part of the host's heritable genetic material. ERVs have been ascribed positive effects on host physiology such as the generation of novel, adaptive genetic variation and resistance to infection, as well as negative effects as agents of tumorigenesis and disease. The avian leukosis virus subgroup E family (ALVE) of endogenous viruses of chickens has been used as a model system for studying the effects of ERVs on host physiology, and approximately 30 distinct ALVE proviruses have been described in the Gallus gallus genome. In this report we describe the development of a software tool, which we call Vermillion, and the use of this tool in combination with targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) to increase the number of known proviruses belonging to the ALVE family of ERVs in the chicken genome by 4-fold, including expanding the number of known ALVE elements on chromosome 1 (Gga1) from the current 9 to a total of 40. Although we focused on the discovery of ALVE elements in chickens, with appropriate selection of target sequences Vermillion can be used to develop profiles of other families of ERVs and TEs in chickens as well as in species other than the chicken.

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