Distinctive expansion of potential virulence genes in the genome of the oomycete fish pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica.

Oomycetes in the class Saprolegniomycetidae of the Eukaryotic kingdom Stramenopila have evolved as severe pathogens of amphibians, crustaceans, fish and insects, resulting in major losses in aquaculture and damage to aquatic ecosystems. We have sequenced the 63 Mb genome of the fresh water fish pathogen, Saprolegnia parasitica. Approximately 1/3 of the assembled genome exhibits loss of heterozygosity, indicating an efficient mechanism for revealing new variation. Comparison of S. parasitica with plant pathogenic oomycetes suggests that during evolution the host cellular environment has driven distinct patterns of gene expansion and loss in the genomes of plant and animal pathogens. S. parasitica possesses one of the largest repertoires of proteases (270) among eukaryotes that are deployed in waves at different points during infection as determined from RNA-Seq data. In contrast, despite being capable of living saprotrophically, parasitism has led to loss of inorganic nitrogen and sulfur assimilation pathways, strikingly similar to losses in obligate plant pathogenic oomycetes and fungi. The large gene families that are hallmarks of plant pathogenic oomycetes such as Phytophthora appear to be lacking in S. parasitica, including those encoding RXLR effectors, Crinkler's, and Necrosis Inducing-Like Proteins (NLP). S. parasitica also has a very large kinome of 543 kinases, 10% of which is induced upon infection. Moreover, S. parasitica encodes several genes typical of animals or animal-pathogens and lacking from other oomycetes, including disintegrins and galactose-binding lectins, whose expression and evolutionary origins implicate horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of animal pathogenesis in S. parasitica

Design, Objects and Memory: A Sustainability-Oriented Project Itinerary

Game kasino Concerns related to sustainability are recurrent in Design. Questioning project practices, reassessing principles which are intrinsic to the design process, promoting the dissemination of sustainability-oriented actions, and contributing with a new awareness-raising process about consumption are attitudes that might help in the inclusion of environmental and social requirements in design practices. The relationship between sustainability and esthetic, symbolic and affective aspects is under explored in project elaboration. The project process that emphasizes subjective and material characteristics of objects with a view towards the appreciation of affective memories, through the analysis of users’ real-life experiences, might allow the designer to rethink time, tradition, aesthetics and perception to comprehend characteristics at play that are emotionally sustainable. This paper presents and discusses the ongoing research, whose main objective is to design a sustainability-oriented project itinerary, through affections and memory embedded into the relationship between people and objects

Apartamento mínimo contemporâneo: desenvolvimento do conceito de uso como chave para obtenção de sua qualidade

O fenômeno da minimização de apartamentos é uma realidade vista em um número expressivo de imóveis comercializados no Brasil,  apresentando soluções de projeto insatisfatórias e pouco adequadas às questões referentes aos modos de morar da atualidade. Por isso, é fundamental analisar esses espaços, buscando formas de atenuar tais problemas, por meio do entendimento dos usos. Este artigo é parte integrante da pesquisa de mestrado “Apartamentos mínimos contemporâneos: análises e reflexões para obtenção de sua qualidade" desenvolvida no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo - Faculdade de Arquitetura Urbanismo e Design (FAUeD) da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (UFU), financiada pela Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (Fapemig). Tem por objetivo principal analisar as inadequações geradas pela minimização dos apartamentos e seus efeitos sobre os modos de morar, e sugerir que a relação mais intensa entre o design e a arquitetura possa nortear a melhoria da qualidade funcional desses espaços. Para tanto, este artigo mantém seu foco nos aspectos de desempenho do conceito de uso, que vão desde os elementos arquitetônicos que formam o espaço até as atividades realizadas no ambiente doméstico e suas sobreposições. Foram obtidas análises que permitiram visualizar o desempenho e o papel do conceito de uso, percebendo que a habitação e seu conjunto de mobiliário e equipamentos fazem parte de um processo variável e dinâmico