Transcriptome profiling of chemosensory appendages in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae reveals tissue- and sex-specific signatures of odor coding

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chemosensory signal transduction guides the behavior of many insects, including <it>Anopheles gambiae</it>, the major vector for human malaria in sub-Saharan Africa. To better understand the molecular basis of mosquito chemosensation we have used whole transcriptome RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to compare transcript expression profiles between the two major chemosensory tissues, the antennae and maxillary palps, of adult female and male <it>An. gambiae</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compared chemosensory tissue transcriptomes to whole body transcriptomes of each sex to identify chemosensory enhanced genes. In the six data sets analyzed, we detected expression of nearly all known chemosensory genes and found them to be highly enriched in both olfactory tissues of males and females. While the maxillary palps of both sexes demonstrated strict chemosensory gene expression overlap, we observed acute differences in sensory specialization between male and female antennae. The relatively high expression levels of chemosensory genes in the female antennae reveal its role as an organ predominately assigned to chemosensation. Remarkably, the expression of these genes was highly conserved in the male antennae, but at much lower relative levels. Alternatively, consistent with a role in mating, the male antennae displayed significant enhancement of genes involved in audition, while the female enhancement of these genes was observed, but to a lesser degree.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings suggest that the chemoreceptive spectrum, as defined by gene expression profiles, is largely similar in female and male <it>An. gambiae</it>. However, assuming sensory receptor expression levels are correlated with sensitivity in each case, we posit that male and female antennae are perceptive to the same stimuli, but possess inverse receptive prioritizations and sensitivities. Here we have demonstrated the use of RNA-seq to characterize the sensory specializations of an important disease vector and grounded future studies investigating chemosensory processes.</p

Towards a Critical Sociology of Dominant Ideologies: An Unexpected Reunion between Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski

This article aims to demonstrate the enduring relevance of Pierre Bourdieu and Luc Boltanski’s ‘La production de l’idéologie dominante’ [‘The production of the dominant ideology’], which was originally published in Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales in 1976. More than three decades later, in 2008, a re-edited version of this study was printed in book format as La production de l’idéologie dominante, which was accompanied by a detailed commentary, written by Luc Boltanski and entitled Rendre la réalité inacceptable. À propos de « La production de l’idéologie dominante » [Making Reality Unacceptable. Comments on ‘The production of the dominant ideology’]. In addition to containing revealing personal anecdotes and providing important sociological insights, this commentary offers an insider account of the genesis of one of the most seminal pieces Boltanski co-wrote with his intellectual father, Bourdieu. In the Anglophone literature on contemporary French sociology, however, the theoretical contributions made both in the original study and in Boltanski’s commentary have received little – if any – serious attention. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature, arguing that these two texts can be regarded not only as forceful reminders of the fact that the ‘dominant ideology thesis’ is far from obsolete but also as essential for understanding both the personal and the intellectual underpinnings of the tension-laden relationship between Bourdieu and Boltanski. Furthermore, this article offers a critical overview of the extent to which the unexpected, and partly posthumous, reunion between ‘the master’ (Bourdieu) and his ‘dissident disciple’ (Boltanski) equips us with powerful conceptual tools, which, whilst illustrating the continuing centrality of ‘ideology critique’, permit us to shed new light on key concerns in contemporary sociology and social theory. Finally, the article seeks to push the debate forward by reflecting upon several issues that are not given sufficient attention by Bourdieu and Boltanski in their otherwise original and insightful enquiry into the complexities characterizing the daily production of ideology

Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017) includes a comprehensive assessment of incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) for 354 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. Previous GBD studies have shown how the decline of mortality rates from 1990 to 2016 has led to an increase in life expectancy, an ageing global population, and an expansion of the non-fatal burden of disease and injury. These studies have also shown how a substantial portion of the world's population experiences non-fatal health loss with considerable heterogeneity among different causes, locations, ages, and sexes. Ongoing objectives of the GBD study include increasing the level of estimation detail, improving analytical strategies, and increasing the amount of high-quality data. Methods: We estimated incidence and prevalence for 354 diseases and injuries and 3484 sequelae. We used an updated and extensive body of literature studies, survey data, surveillance data, inpatient admission records, outpatient visit records, and health insurance claims, and additionally used results from cause of death models to inform estimates using a total of 68 781 data sources. Newly available clinical data from India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Nepal, China, Brazil, Norway, and Italy were incorporated, as well as updated claims data from the USA and new claims data from Taiwan (province of China) and Singapore. We used DisMod-MR 2.1, a Bayesian meta-regression tool, as the main method of estimation, ensuring consistency between rates of incidence, prevalence, remission, and cause of death for each condition. YLDs were estimated as the product of a prevalence estimate and a disability weight for health states of each mutually exclusive sequela, adjusted for comorbidity. We updated the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary development indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and total fertility rate. Additionally, we calculated differences between male and female YLDs to identify divergent trends across sexes. GBD 2017 complies with the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting. Findings: Globally, for females, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and haemoglobinopathies and haemolytic anaemias in both 1990 and 2017. For males, the causes with the greatest age-standardised prevalence were oral disorders, headache disorders, and tuberculosis including latent tuberculosis infection in both 1990 and 2017. In terms of YLDs, low back pain, headache disorders, and dietary iron deficiency were the leading Level 3 causes of YLD counts in 1990, whereas low back pain, headache disorders, and depressive disorders were the leading causes in 2017 for both sexes combined. All-cause age-standardised YLD rates decreased by 3·9% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 3·1–4·6) from 1990 to 2017; however, the all-age YLD rate increased by 7·2% (6·0–8·4) while the total sum of global YLDs increased from 562 million (421–723) to 853 million (642–1100). The increases for males and females were similar, with increases in all-age YLD rates of 7·9% (6·6–9·2) for males and 6·5% (5·4–7·7) for females. We found significant differences between males and females in terms of age-standardised prevalence estimates for multiple causes. The causes with the greatest relative differences between sexes in 2017 included substance use disorders (3018 cases [95% UI 2782–3252] per 100 000 in males vs s1400 [1279–1524] per 100 000 in females), transport injuries (3322 [3082–3583] vs 2336 [2154–2535]), and self-harm and interpersonal violence (3265 [2943–3630] vs 5643 [5057–6302]). Interpretation: Global all-cause age-standardised YLD rates have improved only slightly over a period spanning nearly three decades. However, the magnitude of the non-fatal disease burden has expanded globally, with increasing numbers of people who have a wide spectrum of conditions. A subset of conditions has remained globally pervasive since 1990, whereas other conditions have displayed more dynamic trends, with different ages, sexes, and geographies across the globe experiencing varying burdens and trends of health loss. This study emphasises how global improvements in premature mortality for select conditions have led to older populations with complex and potentially expensive diseases, yet also highlights global achievements in certain domains of disease and injury

Deformation Behavior and Wear Resistance of High Mn Steels at Low Temperature

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Reciprocating wear mechanisms in a Zr-based bulk metallic glass

The dry sliding friction coefficient \mu and the wear volume loss W, in a zirconium-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) under high-frequency (50 Hz) reciprocating conditions, were investigated with the objective of assessing the influence of free volume and crystallization on the wear behavior of amorphous metals. The BMG samples were annealed either below the glass transition temperature $T_g$ to induce structural relaxation and hence reduce the free volume that controls plasticity through shear-band formation or above $T_g$ to crystallize the amorphous BMG prior to wear testing. Results show that the wear behavior of both the as-cast and relaxed glasses was dominated by the xidation of the surface layers. A sharp transition in the contact electrical resistance complemented by a marked increase in \mu was noted. This was attributed to the formation of a thick tribo film with high oxygen concentration and its subsequent delamination. The \mu values, before as well as after the transition, in the relaxed glasses were similar to those for the as-cast alloy. However, a gradual decrease in W with annealing temperature was observed. A good correlation between W and nanohardness was noted, implying that the intrinsic hardness in the BMGs controlled the wear rate

Low Temperature Deformation Behavior and Wear Resistance of High Mn Steels

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Effect of shot peening on the fatigue life of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass

The fatigue lives of a Zr-based bulk metallic glass (BMG) in the as-cast and shot-peened conditions were evaluated. Results suggest that shot peening does not cause significant enhancement of the fatigue performance of the BMG. Cracks were observed to nucleate in subsurface regions. This was attributed to the domination of the compressive residual stress field on the surface over deformation-induced plastic flow softening that otherwise leads to easy nucleation of shear bands which act like microcracks

Influence of tempering temperature on both the microstructural evolution and elemental distribution in AISI 4340 steels

In the present study, the influence of tempering temperature on the microstructural evolution and prior austenite grain boundary segregation of AISI 4340 steels was investigated by transmission electron microscope and atom probe. The transmission electron microscopy results showed a variation in the microstructure and the morphology of carbides with a change in tempering temperature. Additionally, the chemical compositions of the prior austenite grain boundaries and carbides were quantified by atom probe tomography. An increase in the tempering temperature led to a decrease in the amount of carbon segregated at the prior austenite grain boundary from 7.9 to 1.3 at.%. It was found that a higher tempering temperature can accelerate the diffusion of carbon from the prior austenite grain boundary into carbide. However, phosphorus atoms were segregated mainly at the prior austenite grain boundary in steel tempered at 400 degrees C ( up to 0.18 at.%). It was found that formation of film-like carbide and phosphorus segregation along the prior austenite grain boundary is the main cause of embrittlement in steel tempered at 400 degrees C.X11129sciescopuskc