Measuring fast gene dynamics in single cells with time-lapse luminescence microscopy.

Time-lapse fluorescence microscopy is an important tool for measuring in vivo gene dynamics in single cells. However, fluorescent proteins are limited by slow chromophore maturation times and the cellular autofluorescence or phototoxicity that arises from light excitation. An alternative is luciferase, an enzyme that emits photons and is active upon folding. The photon flux per luciferase is significantly lower than that for fluorescent proteins. Thus time-lapse luminescence microscopy has been successfully used to track gene dynamics only in larger organisms and for slower processes, for which more total photons can be collected in one exposure. Here we tested green, yellow, and red beetle luciferases and optimized substrate conditions for in vivo luminescence. By combining time-lapse luminescence microscopy with a microfluidic device, we tracked the dynamics of cell cycle genes in single yeast with subminute exposure times over many generations. Our method was faster and in cells with much smaller volumes than previous work. Fluorescence of an optimized reporter (Venus) lagged luminescence by 15-20 min, which is consistent with its known rate of chromophore maturation in yeast. Our work demonstrates that luciferases are better than fluorescent proteins at faithfully tracking the underlying gene expression

Whole-chromosome hitchhiking driven by a male-killing endosymbiont.

Neo-sex chromosomes are found in many taxa, but the forces driving their emergence and spread are poorly understood. The female-specific neo-W chromosome of the African monarch (or queen) butterfly Danaus chrysippus presents an intriguing case study because it is restricted to a single 'contact zone' population, involves a putative colour patterning supergene, and co-occurs with infection by the male-killing endosymbiont Spiroplasma. We investigated the origin and evolution of this system using whole genome sequencing. We first identify the 'BC supergene', a broad region of suppressed recombination across nearly half a chromosome, which links two colour patterning loci. Association analysis suggests that the genes yellow and arrow in this region control the forewing colour pattern differences between D. chrysippus subspecies. We then show that the same chromosome has recently formed a neo-W that has spread through the contact zone within approximately 2,200 years. We also assembled the genome of the male-killing Spiroplasma, and find that it shows perfect genealogical congruence with the neo-W, suggesting that the neo-W has hitchhiked to high frequency as the male-killer has spread through the population. The complete absence of female crossing-over in the Lepidoptera causes whole-chromosome hitchhiking of a single neo-W haplotype, carrying a single allele of the BC supergene and dragging multiple non-synonymous mutations to high frequency. This has created a population of infected females that all carry the same recessive colour patterning allele, making the phenotypes of each successive generation highly dependent on uninfected male immigrants. Our findings show how hitchhiking can occur between the physically unlinked genomes of host and endosymbiont, with dramatic consequences

Evaluation of flight efficiency for Stockholm Arlanda Airport arrivals

Analysis of punctuality of airport arrivals, as well as identification of causes of the delays within transition airspace, is an important step in evaluating performance of the Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) Air Navigation Services: without knowing the current performance levels, it is difficult to identify which areas could be improved. Deviations from the flight plans is one of the major reasons for arrival delays. In this work, we quantified the impact of the deviations from the flight plans on the fuel burn. One of the main reasons of fuel waste is non- optimal vertical profiles during the descent phase. We calculated how much extra fuel is wasted due to vertical flight inefficiency within Stockholm TMA.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Khresmoi: Multimodal Multilingual Medical Information Search

Khresmoi is a European Integrated Project developing a multilingual multimodal search and access system for medical and health information and documents. It addresses the challenges of searching through huge amounts of medical data, including general medical information available on the internet, as well as radiology data in hospital archives. It is developing novel semantic search and visual search techniques for the medical domain. At the MIE Village of the Future, Khresmoi proposes to have two interactive demonstrations of the system under development, as well as an overview oral presentation and potentially some poster presentation

Khresmoi – multilingual semantic search of medical text and images

The Khresmoi project is developing a multilingual multimodal search and access system for medical and health information and documents. This scientific demonstration presents the current state of the Khresmoi integrated system, which includes components for text and image annotation, semantic search, search by image similarity and machine translation. The flexibility in adapting the system to varying requirements for different types of medical information search is demonstrated through two instantiations of the system, one aimed at medical professionals in general and the second aimed at radiologists. The key innovations of the Khresmoi system are the integration of multiple software components in a flexible scalable medical search system, the use of annotation cycles including manual correction to improve semantic search, and the possibility to do large scale visual similarity search on 2D and 3D (CT, MR) medical images

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

El derecho a la ciudad en América Latina : visiones desde la política

En un contexto internacional y local donde las contradicciones urbanas y sociales son un escenario recurrente es impostergable e imprescindible discutir sobre el Derecho a la Ciudad, el cual es una utopía de justicia espacial construida por diversos colectivos sociales en distintas partes de América Latina y del mundo. Esta utopía urbana no reivindica la reconquista de una ciudad perdida, sino la conquista de una ciudad que no hemos sabido construir: una ciudad para todos. El Derecho a la Ciudad implica la búsqueda de una gestión urbana democrática e incluyente en la que no sólo decidan qué hacer en ella el capital inmobiliario y el gobierno, sino también quienes la habitan, trabajan y/o disfrutan de la ciudad. Las ciudades con mejor calidad de vida son aquellas capaces de comprometer e involucrar a sus ciudadanos y de garantizar, por tanto, una gestión urbana participativa y democrática. La participación activa de la ciudadanía en los procesos de construcción, apropiación y administración colectiva de la ciudad son claves para construir una ciudad socialmente justa, que posibilite a los ciudadanos defender el interés público