The yeast Candida albicans has a clonal mode of reproduction in a population of infected human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients

To ascertain the population structure of Candida albicans, we have carried out a multilocus enzyme electrophoresis study based on the analysis of 21 gene loci. We have thus characterized 55 strains isolated one each from 55 human immunodeficiency virus-positive patients. There is considerable polymorphism among the strains. A population-genetic analysis indicates that the two fundamental consequences of sexual reproduction (i.e., segregation and recombination) are apparently absent in this population of C. albicans. The population structure of C. albicans appears to be clonal, a state of affairs that has important medical and biological consequences

Superconductivity in the SU(N) Anderson Lattice at U=\infty

We present a mean-field study of superconductivity in a generalized N-channel cubic Anderson lattice at U=\infty taking into account the effect of a nearest-neighbor attraction J. The condition U=\infty is implemented within the slave-boson formalism considering the slave bosons to be condensed. We consider the $f$-level occupancy ranging from the mixed valence regime to the Kondo limit and study the dependence of the critical temperature on the various model parameters for each of three possible Cooper pairing symmetries (extended s, d-wave and p-wave pairing) and find interesting crossovers. It is found that the d- and p- wave order parameters have, in general, very similar critical temperatures. The extended s-wave pairing seems to be relatively more stable for electronic densities per channel close to one and for large values of the superconducting interaction J.Comment: Seven Figures; one appendix. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Occupational exposure to gases/fumes and mineral dust affect DNA methylation levels of genes regulating expression

Many workers are daily exposed to occupational agents like gases/fumes, mineral dust or biological dust, which could induce adverse health effects. Epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA methylation, have been suggested to play a role. We therefore aimed to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs) upon occupational exposures in never-smokers and investigated if these DMRs associated with gene expression levels. To determine the effects of occupational exposures independent of smoking, 903 never-smokers of the LifeLines cohort study were included. We performed three genome-wide methylation analyses (Illumina 450 K), one per occupational exposure being gases/fumes, mineral dust and biological dust, using robust linear regression adjusted for appropriate confounders. DMRs were identified using comb-p in Python. Results were validated in the Rotterdam Study (233 never-smokers) and methylation-expression associations were assessed using Biobank-based Integrative Omics Study data (n = 2802). Of the total 21 significant DMRs, 14 DMRs were

Long-term air pollution exposure, genome-wide DNA methylation and lung function in the lifelines cohort study

BACKGROUND: Long-term air pollution exposure is negatively associated with lung function, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are not fully clear. Differential DNA methylation may explain this association. OBJECTIVES: Our main aim was to study the association between long-term air pollution exposure and DNA methylation. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide methylation study using robust linear regression models in 1,017 subjects from the LifeLines cohort study to analyze the association between exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5, fine particulate ma

A compositional model for gesture definition

The description of a gesture requires temporal analysis of values generated by input sensors and does not fit well the observer pattern traditionally used by frameworks to handle user input. The current solution is to embed particular gesture-based interactions, such as pinch-to-zoom, into frameworks by notifying when a whole gesture is detected. This approach suffers from a lack of flexibility unless the programmer performs explicit temporal analysis of raw sensors data. This paper proposes a compositional, declarative meta-model for gestures definition based on Petri Nets. Basic traits are used as building blocks for defining gestures; each one notifies the change of a feature value. A complex gesture is defined by the composition of other sub-gestures using a set of operators. The user interface behaviour can be associated to the recognition of the whole gesture or to any other sub-component, addressing the problem of granularity for the notification events. The meta-model can be instantiated for different gesture recognition supports and its definition has been validated through a proof of concept library. Sample applications have been developed for supporting multitouch gestures on iOS and full body gestures with Microsoft Kinec

Genetic multilocus studies of different strains of Cryptococcus neoformans: taxonomy and genetic structure232334008

The genotypes of 107 strains of Cryptococcus isolated from the environment or from patients from various geographical areas were determined by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE). We analyzed the relationships between genotype structure and serotype and between genotype structure and strain origin. Twelve of the 14 enzyme-encoding loci studied were polymorphic, giving rise to 48 electrophoretic types. The genotypes of C. neoformans and C. laurentii were very similar. MLEE could not distinguish between these two pathogenic species. A correlation between the genetic multilocus structure and the origin of the sample (from the environment or patients) existed. A second analysis detected a correlation between genotype distribution and serotype. The second analysis considered three serotype groups (B, C, and A plus D plus A/D), proving that serotypes A, D, and A/D are closely related. MLEE is a useful epidemiological tool for improving our understanding of the biology of this fungus</p