541 research outputs found
Genetic diversity in two sibling species of the Anopheles punctulatus group of mosquitoes on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mosquito <it>Anopheles irenicus</it>, a member of the <it>Anopheles punctulatus </it>group, is geographically restricted to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. It shows remarkable morphological similarities to one of its sibling species, <it>An. farauti sensu stricto </it>(<it>An. farauti s.s</it>.), but is dissimilar in host and habitat preferences. To infer the genetic variations between these two species, we have analyzed mitochondrial <it>cytochrome oxidase subunit II </it>(<it>COII</it>) and nuclear ribosomal <it>internal transcribed spacer 2 </it>(<it>ITS2</it>) sequences from Guadalcanal and from one of its nearest neighbours, Malaita, in the Solomon Islands.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>An. farauti s.s</it>. was collected mostly from brackish water and by the human bait method on both islands, whereas <it>An. irenicus </it>was only collected from fresh water bodies on Guadalcanal Island. <it>An. irenicus </it>is distributed evenly with <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. (Ί<sub>SC </sub>= 0.033, 0.38%) and its range overlaps in three of the seven sampling sites. However, there is a significant population genetic structure between the species (Ί<sub>CT </sub>= 0.863, <it>P </it>< 0.01; Ί<sub>ST </sub>= 0.865, <it>P </it>< 0.01 and <it>F</it><sub>ST </sub>= 0.878, <it>P </it>< 0.01). Phylogenetic analyses suggest that <it>An. irenicus </it>is a monophyletic species, not a hybrid, and is closely related to the <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. on Guadalcanal. The time estimator suggests that <it>An. irenicus </it>diverged from the ancestral <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. on Guadalcanal within 29,000 years before present (BP). <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. expanded much earlier on Malaita (<it>t</it><sub>exp </sub>= 24,600 BP) than the populations on Guadalcanal (<it>t</it><sub>exp </sub>= 16,800 BP for <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. and 14,000 BP for <it>An. irenicus</it>).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings suggest that <it>An. irenicus </it>and <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. are monophyletic sister species living in sympatry, and their populations on Guadalcanal have recently expanded. Consequently, the findings further suggest that <it>An. irenicus </it>diverged from the ancestral <it>An. farauti s.s</it>. on Guadalcanal.</p
Efeito de microrganismos indutores de crescimento e adubação quĂmica em paricĂĄ em solo arenoso.
O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito de fungos micorrĂzicos arbusculares (FMA) associados Ă rizobactĂ©ria promotora de crescimento em plantas (RPCP) e adubação quĂmica sobre o crescimento e mortalidade de paricĂĄ, em SĂŁo Domingos do Araguaia, PA, Brasil. O experimento foi montado em blocos casualizados com trĂȘs repetiçÔes (trĂȘs blocos) para cada tratamento. Cada bloco continha 49 indivĂduos, totalizando 147 ĂĄrvores por tratamento. O espaçamento entre as mudas foi de 3,0 x 3,0 metros. Avaliou-se o crescimento do paricĂĄ sob a influĂȘncia de quatro tratamentos: (T0) controle, (T1) adubação quĂmica convencional, (T2) inoculação com FMA, (T3) inoculação com FMA e o uso de RPCP. A inoculação nĂŁo influenciou o desenvolvimento em diĂąmetro, altura e mortalidade de paricĂĄ. Ărvores de paricĂĄ com adubação quĂmica convencional tiveram o melhor crescimento em altura, diĂąmetro e menor percentual de mortalidade. A adubação quĂmica Ă© recomendada nas plantaçÔes de paricĂĄ atĂ© os quatro anos de idade na regiĂŁo sudeste do estado do ParĂĄ
A New 5-Flavour LO Analysis and Parametrization of Parton Distributions in the Real Photon
New, radiatively generated, LO quark (u,d,s,c,b) and gluon densities in a
real, unpolarized photon are presented. We perform a global 3-parameter fit,
based on LO DGLAP evolution equations, to all available data for the structure
function F2^gamma(x,Q^2). We adopt a new theoretical approach called ACOT(chi),
originally introduced for the proton, to deal with the heavy-quark thresholds.
This defines our basic model (CJKL model), which gives a very good description
of the experimental data on F2^gamma(x,Q^2), for both Q^2 and x dependences.
For comparison we perform a standard fit using the Fixed Flavour-Number Scheme
(FFNS_CJKL model), updated with respect to the previous fits of this type. We
show the superiority of the CJKL fit over the FFNS_CJKL one and other LO fits
to the F2^gamma(x,Q^2) data. The CJKL model gives also the best description of
the LEP data on the Q^2 dependence of the F2^gamma, averaged over various
x-regions, and the F_2,c^gamma, which were not used directly in the fit.
Finally, a simple analytic parametrization of the resulting parton densities
obtained with the CJKL model is given.Comment: 43 pages, RevTeX4 using axodraw style, 3 tex and 12 postscript
figures, version submitted to Phys. Rev. D, small text changes, one reference
added, FORTRAN program available at http://www.fuw.edu.pl/~pjank/param.html
and at http://www-zeuthen.desy.de/~alorca/id4.htm
LC3B and ph-S6K are both expressed in epithelioid and classic renal angiomyolipoma: a rationale tissue-based evidence for combining use of autophagic and mTOR targeted drugs
Background: Targeted drugs to the autophagy processes are emerging in clinical trials. The aim of this work is to assess the magnitude of autophagic expression in renal angiomyolipoma. Methods: Fourteen cases of renal angiomyolipoma were recruited. Anti-LC3B-II and anti-phospho-S6K were detected by Western blot analysis. For immunohistochemical staining, sections were stained with the antibodies LC3B-II and cathepsin-K. LC3B-II was also analyzed by immunofluorescence. We have also carried out electron microscopy analysis on tumor cells. Results: 13 classic and 1 epithelioid renal angiomyolipoma were recruited. The Western-blot LC3B-II analysis shows increasing in protein expression in all cases, however quantitative protein expression ranged from 1 to 15 (mean 5). The autophagosome protein LC3B-I also significantly increased in all tumor extraction. The expression of LC3B-II protein was confirmed in tumoral samples by immunofluorescence. The lysosomal marker cathepsin-K was observed by immunohistochemistry on all tumours. The Western-blot ph-S6K analysis showed significant protein overexpression along all cases after evaluation of the quantitative S6K/Ponceaus ratio. In 6/14 (52%) the expression was high, with a quantitative increase of 653 fold induction in 4 angiomyolipoma compared to normal tissue. At electron microscopy, cancer cells evidenced round or oval electron-dense granules associated with membranes and granules with double membrane. Conclusion: Both autophagic LC3B-II and ph-S6K molecules are over-represented in both epithelioid and classic renal angiomyolipoma and a combined use of inhibitors to the autophagic and mTOR processes may be designed in clinical trials, when enrolling patients affected by tumours in tuberous sclerosis or angiomyolipoma at risk of bledding
Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at = 5.02 TeV
Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and
associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a
nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum
range 0.7 5.0 GeV/ is examined,
to include correlations induced by jets originating from low
momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as
associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range
. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in
high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side
short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like
components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with
event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This
invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent
fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related
to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of
uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with
multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton
interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the
number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary
nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161
Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged
particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the
question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal
correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the
larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the
second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity,
characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions.
However, when a gap is placed to suppress such correlations,
the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the
presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the
p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic
four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values
when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of
to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at
similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also
found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find
which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian
function for the distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb
collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become
consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and
Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping
multiplicities, when a gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20,
published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87
Fungal diversity associated to the olive moth, prays oleae Bernard : a survey for potential entomopathogenic fungi
Olive production is one of the main agricultural activities in Portugal. In the region of TrĂĄs-os-Montes this crop has been considerably affected by Prays oleae. In order to evaluate the diversity of fungi on P. oleae population of TrĂĄs-os-Montes olive orchards, larvae and pupae of the three annual generations (phyllophagous, antophagous and carpophagous) were collected and evaluated for fungal growth on their surface. From the 3828 larvae and pupae, a high percentage of individuals exhibited growth of a fungal agent (40.6%), particularly those from the phyllophagous generation. From all the moth generations, a total of 43 species from 24 genera were identified, but the diversity and abundance of fungal species differed between the three generations. Higher diversity was found in the carpophagous generation, followed by the antophagous and phyllophagous generations. The presence of fungi displaying entomopathogenic features was highest in the phyllophagous larvae and pupae, being B. bassiana the most abundant taxa. The first report of B. bassiana presence on P. oleae could open new strategies for the biocontrol of this major pest in olive groves, since the use of an already adapted species increases the guarantee of success of a biocontrol approach. The identification of antagonistic fungi able to control agents that cause major olive diseases, such as Verticillium dahliae, will benefit future biological control approaches for limiting this increasingly spreading pathogen.This work was supported by Science and Technology Foundation (Fundação para a CiĂȘncia e Tecnologia â FCT) project PTDC/AGR-AAM/102600/2008 âEntomopathogenic fungi associated to olive pests: isolation, characterization and selection for biological controlâ. The first author is grateful to the Science and Technology Foundation for the PhD grant SFRH/BD/44265/2008
Normative and self-perceived orthodontic treatment need of a Peruvian university population
BACKGROUND: Previous studies on orthodontic treatment need in young adults have shown that up to 50% had malocclusions that needed orthodontic treatment. The aims of this study were to assess the normative and self-perceived need for orthodontic treatment using the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (IOTN) and to determine if the treatment need levels were influenced by sex, age and socio-economic status (SES) in a sample of Peruvian young adults. METHODS: 281 first-year students (157 male and 124 female students) with a mean age of 18.1 +/- 1.6 years were randomly selected and evaluated through the Dental Health Component (DHC) and Aesthetic Component (AC) of the IOTN. Structured interview and clinical examination were used to assess the students. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used for data analysis with statistical significance set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: An intra-examiner reliability of 0.89 was obtained (weighted Kappa). The percentage of students according to SES was 51.2%, 40.6% and 8.2% corresponding to low, medium and high SES respectively. The percentage of students with DHC grades 4â5 was 29.9% whereas the percentage of students with AC grades 8â10 was 1.8%. There were no significant differences in the distribution of normative and self-perceived orthodontic treatment need based on sex, age and SES comparisons. CONCLUSION: Normative orthodontic treatment need was not matched by a similar level of self-perceived treatment need in these young adults. Sex, age and SES were non-significant factors associated with levels of treatment need
TGF-Ă induces miR-100 and miR-125b but blocks let-7a through LIN28B controlling PDAC progression.
Abstract
TGF-Ă/Activin induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and stemness in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, the microRNAs (miRNAs) regulated during this response have remained yet undetermined. Here, we show that TGF-Ă transcriptionally induces MIR100HG lncRNA, containing miR-100, miR-125b and let-7a in its intron, via SMAD2/3. Interestingly, we find that although the pro-tumourigenic miR-100 and miR-125b accordingly increase, the amount of anti-tumourigenic let-7a is unchanged, as TGF-Ă also induces LIN28B inhibiting its maturation. Notably, we demonstrate that inactivation of miR-125b or miR-100 affects the TGF-Ă-mediated response indicating that these miRNAs are important TGF-Ă effectors. We integrated AGO2-RIP-seq with RNA-seq to identify the global regulation exerted by these miRNAs in PDAC cells. Transcripts targeted by miR-125b and miR-100 significantly overlap and mainly inhibit p53 and cell-cell junctionsâ pathways. Together, we uncover that TGF-Ă induces an lncRNA, whose encoded miRNAs, miR-100, let-7a and miR-125b, play opposing roles in controlling PDAC tumourigenesis
Reduced Apaf-1 expression in human cutaneous melanomas
Malignant melanoma is a life-threatening skin cancer due to its highly metastatic character and resistance to radio- and chemotherapy. It is believed that the ability to evade apoptosis is the key mechanism for the rapid growth of cancer cells. However, the exact mechanism for failure in the apoptotic pathway in melanoma cells is unclear. p53, the most frequently mutated tumour suppressor gene in human cancers, is a key apoptosis inducer. However, p53 mutation is only found in 15â20% of melanoma biopsies. Recently, it was found that Apaf-1, a downstream target of p53, is inactivated in metastatic melanoma. Specifically, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of the Apaf-1 gene was found in 40% of metastatic melanoma. To determine if loss of Apaf-1 expression is indeed involved in melanoma progression, we employed the tissue microarray technology and examined Apaf-1 expression in 70 human primary malignant melanoma biopsies by immunohistochemistry. Our data showed that Apaf-1 expression is significantly reduced in melanoma cells compared with normal nevi (Ï2=6.02, P=0.014). Our results also revealed that loss of Apaf-1 was not associated with the tumour thickness, ulceration or subtype, patient's gender, age and 5-year survival. In addition, our in vitro apoptosis assay revealed that overexpression of Apaf-1 can sensitise melanoma cells to anticancer drug treatment. Taken together, our data indicate that Apaf-1 expression is significantly reduced in human melanoma and that Apaf-1 may serve as a therapeutic target in melanoma
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