On The Cover: Invasive Sparrows and the American Bird Box.

The cover image for this issue of Technology and Culture depicts how bird boxes became contested technologies in the United States. The early twentieth-century image shows a pair of house sparrows (Passer domesticus)- an introduced species-taking over a bird box intended for native birds. But the claim that sparrows seized bird boxes and other nesting places to the detriment of American birds was controversial. Since their mid-nineteenth-century introduction to the United States, sparrows have had both supporters and detractors who used bird boxes as tools to aid or suppress the birds. This essay argues that this image and others like it constitute a form of "biological propaganda" that supported the professionalization of ornithology in the United States. Natural history illustrations are not value neutral but show animals and technology in such a way as to support their creator's specific view of nature and what "belongs" in it.

Bird Boxes and Sparrow Traps: The Technological Regulation of Avian Life in the United States.

Only a few decades after its introduction to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, the house sparrow was considered a pest that drove away native birds. Its downfall is representative of a story familiar to scholars of animals and technology who have studied the methods used to control or exclude unwanted species from both rural and urban areas. The case of the house sparrow, however, differs in a crucial respect: the birds made their homes in bird boxes, built technologies designed to attract avian species and bring them closer to humans. This article documents how bird boxes were used as tools to regulate avian life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States and argues that they should be seen as a technology that mediates and regulates our relationship with nature by promoting or controlling certain aspects of living organisms.

Avian architects: Technology, domestication, and animal minds in urban America.

In the mid-nineteenth century, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) was introduced to the United States, quickly spreading across the country. For a brief period in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the observation of sparrow behavior was something of an urban pastime. Traits such as intelligence, reason, persistence, and craftsmanship were conferred onto sparrows by American urbanites. This paper argues that sparrow intelligence was often conflated with domestication: the ability of the birds to adapt to living alongside humans. Praise for the ingenuity of sparrows generally revolved around their nest building, particularly when such structures overcame the challenges posed by urban infrastructure and technology. Sparrows were far less praiseworthy when they caused electricity outages or contaminated water supplies. The sparrow in the United States demonstrates how the relationship between these anecdotes and their implications for animal minds was mediated by the technology and infrastructure of cities. Admirers of sparrows were not measuring the birds' mental capacity, but rather their ability to adapt to human habitations. Sparrows were only granted intelligence once they had demonstrated their ability to become domesticated.

What are the temporal and physical characteristics of locally applied vibration that modulate balance in older adults? - A systematic review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Compromised balance is known to contribute to falls, which are associated with increased morbidity and mortality for older adults. Evidence suggests that the application of local vibration to the lower limbs of older adults has the potential to modulate balance. RESEARCH QUESTION: To identify the temporal and mechanical parameters of vibration applied locally to the lower limbs of older adults that modulate measures of balance, and to define the short- and long-term effects of vibration on balance in this population. METHODS: The PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used to conduct a systematic search including the PUBMED, EMBASE, and Scopus databases to identify peer-reviewed literature where vibration was applied to the lower limbs of older adults to modulate balance. Data was extracted using a study-specific data extraction form and risk of bias assessed. Where possible, effect sizes were calculated. RESULTS: Of 7777 records screened, ten randomised controlled trials and 43 prospective laboratory-based studies met the inclusion criteria. Vibration frequencies ranged from 1 to 272 Hz, most studies (n=41) used ≤100 Hz. Amplitude ranged from 0.2 to 3.0 mm, most studies (n=28) used ≤1 mm. Effects of short-term vibration (applied for seconds to hours) were measured during and/or immediately after application. Short-term suprathreshold perceived muscle/tendon vibration had a 'large' destabilising effect size on balance in healthy older adults, but little or no effect on older fallers. Short-term subthreshold vibration to the soles of the feet had a 'small' stabilising effect size. Suprathreshold muscle, tendon or sole vibration applied for 10-30 min over days to weeks improved balance measures, but most (8 of 10) had increased risk of bias. SIGNIFICANCE: The heterogeneity of methodology, populations, and vibration and balance parameters precluded conclusions about the relative effects of lower limb vibration in older adults. However, these results suggest that the application of local vibration to the lower limbs of older adults can modulate balance in the short- and long-term.

Cell constriction requires processive septal peptidoglycan synthase movement independent of FtsZ treadmilling in Staphylococcus aureus.

Bacterial cell division requires recruitment of peptidoglycan (PG) synthases to the division site by the tubulin homologue, FtsZ. Septal PG synthases promote septum growth. FtsZ treadmilling is proposed to drive the processive movement of septal PG synthases and septal constriction in some bacteria; however, the precise mechanisms spatio-temporally regulating PG synthase movement and activity and FtsZ treadmilling are poorly understood. Here using single-molecule imaging of division proteins in the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, we showed that the septal PG synthase complex FtsW/PBP1 and its putative activator protein, DivIB, move with similar velocity around the division site. Impairing FtsZ treadmilling did not affect FtsW or DivIB velocities or septum constriction rates. Contrarily, PG synthesis inhibition decelerated or stopped directional movement of FtsW and DivIB, and septum constriction. Our findings suggest that a single population of processively moving FtsW/PBP1 associated with DivIB drives cell constriction independently of FtsZ treadmilling in S. aureus.