Cell walls of the dimorphic fungal pathogens Sporothrix schenckii and Sporothrix brasiliensis exhibit bilaminate structures and sloughing of extensive and intact layers

This work was supported by the Fundação Carlos Chagas de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ), grants E-26/202.974/2015 and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), grants 229755/2013-5, Brazil. LMLB is a senior research fellow of CNPq and Faperj. NG acknowledged support from the Wellcome Trust (Trust (097377, 101873, 200208) and MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Diversity of floral visitors to sympatric Lithophragma species differing in floral morphology

Most coevolving relationships between pairs of species are embedded in a broader multispecific interaction network. The mutualistic interaction between Lithophragma parviflorum (Saxifragaceae) and its pollinating floral parasite Greya politella (Lepidoptera, Prodoxidae) occurs in some communities as a pairwise set apart from most other interactions in those communities. In other communities, however, this pair of species occurs with congeners and with other floral visitors to Lithophragma. We analyzed local and geographic differences in the network formed by interactions between Lithophragma plants and Greya moths in communities containing two Lithophragma species, two Greya species, and floral visitors other than Greya that visit Lithophragma flowers. Our goal was to evaluate if non-Greya visitors were common, if visitor assembly differs between Lithophragma species and populations and if these visitors act as effective pollinators. Sympatric populations of L. heterophyllum and L. parviflorum differ in floral traits that may affect assemblies of floral visitors. Visitation rates by non-Greya floral visitors were low, and the asymptotic number of visitor species was less than 20 species in all populations. Lithophragma species shared some of the visitors, with visitor assemblages differing between sites more for L. heterophyllum than for L. parviflorum. Pollination efficacy experiments showed that most visitors were poor pollinators. Single visits to flowers by this assemblage of species resulted in significantly higher seed set in Lithophragma heterophyllum (30.6 ± 3.9 SE) than in L. parviflorum (4.7 ± 3.4 SE). This difference was consistent between sites, suggesting that these visitors provide a better fit to the floral morphology of L. heterophyllum. Overall, none of the non-Greya visitors appears to be either sufficiently common or efficient as a pollinator to impose strong selection on any of these four Lithophragma populations in comparison with Greya, which occurs within almost all populations of these species throughout their geographic ranges

The role of resources and technology in mathematics education. Editorial

Technology has long been a theme open for debate within the mathematics education community and has been reflected in the work of ICMI even prior to the first ICME (Lyon, 1969). More recently, information and communication technology (ICT) has played an increasing role in the events organized by ICMI. Debates around ICT have brought to light the fact that other resources and technologies have been introduced over the last 100 years. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of ICMI a Symposium was held in Rome to celebrate the event . In that Symposium a Working Group was devoted to the issue of resources and technology throughout the history of ICMI ((e.g. paper and pencil, memorisation and calculators, Dienes blocks, mathematical machines, computers, software and digital learning objects etc.). More than twenty researchers from all over the world took part in this WG, carrying their personal experience and informed reviews of the ICMI related literature in this field. In this special issue we have collected several research papers that emphasize, on the one hand, the historical roots of the experimental approach drawing on resources and technologies and on the other hand show the effectiveness of it in mathematics education. In other words, we present an international review of the theme Resources and technology throughout the history of ICMI as an historical base, on the one hand, and as a prompt towards future development, on the other hand. The authors come from all the continents and have expertise on the didactical use of both classical and information and communication technologies

National prevalence survey in Brazil to evaluate the quality of microbiology laboratories: the importance of defining priorities to allocate limited resources

This report describes a survey of microbiology laboratories (n = 467) serving Brazilian hospitals with = 10 intensive care beds and/or involved in the government health care adverse event reporting system. Coordinators were interviewed and laboratories classified as follows: Level 0 (no minimal functioning conditions-85.4% of laboratories); Level 1 (minimal functioning conditions but inadequate execution of basic routine-6.7%); Level 2 (minimal functioning conditions and adequate execution of basic routine but no adequate procedures for quality control-5.8%); Level 3 (minimal functioning conditions, adequate execution of basic routine, and adequate procedures for quality control, but no direct communication with the infection control department-0.9%); Level 4 (minimal functioning conditions, adequate execution of basic routine, adequate procedures for quality control, and direct communication with infection control, but no available advanced resources-none); and Level 5 (minimal functioning conditions, adequate execution of basic routine, adequate procedures for quality control, direct communication with infection control, and available advanced resources-0.9%). Twelve laboratories did not perform Ziehl-Neelsen staining; 271 did not have safety cabinets; and >30% without safety cabinets had automated systems. Low quality was associated with serving hospitals not participating in government adverse-event program; private hospitals; nonteaching hospitals; and those outside state capitals. Results may reflect what occurs in many other countries where defining priorities is important due to limited resources.331737

Rat liver responsiveness to gluconeogenic substrates during insulin-induced hypoglycemia

Hepatic responsiveness to gluconeogenic substrates during insulin-induced hypoglycemia was investigated. For this purpose, livers were perfused with a saturating concentration of 2 mM glycerol, 5 mM L-alanine or 5 mM L-glutamine as gluconeogenic substrates. All experiments were performed 1 h after an ip injection of saline (CN group) or 1 IU/kg of insulin (IN group). The IN group showed higher (P<0.05) hepatic glucose production from glycerol, L-alanine and L-glutamine and higher (P<0.05) production of L-lactate, pyruvate and urea from L-alanine and L-glutamine. In addition, ip injection of 100 mg/kg glycerol, L-alanine and L-glutamine promoted glucose recovery. The results indicate that the hepatic capacity to produce glucose from gluconeogenic precursors was increased during insulin-induced hypoglycemia