Functional Genomics of Allergen Gene Families in Fruits

Fruit consumption is encouraged for health reasons; however, fruits may harbour a series of allergenic proteins that may cause discomfort or even represent serious threats to certain individuals. Thus, the identification and characterization of allergens in fruits requires novel approaches involving genomic and proteomic tools. Since avoidance of fruits also negatively affects the quality of patients’ lives, biotechnological interventions are ongoing to produce low allergenic fruits by down regulating specific genes. In this respect, the control of proteins associated with allergenicity could be achieved by fine tuning the spatial and temporal expression of the relevant genes

Microarray-Based Transcriptomic Analysis of Differences between Long-Term Gregarious and Solitarious Desert Locusts

Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) show an extreme form of phenotypic plasticity and can transform between a cryptic solitarious phase and a swarming gregarious phase. The two phases differ extensively in behavior, morphology and physiology but very little is known about the molecular basis of these differences. We used our recently generated Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) database derived from S. gregaria central nervous system (CNS) to design oligonucleotide microarrays and compare the expression of thousands of genes in the CNS of long-term gregarious and solitarious adult desert locusts. This identified 214 differentially expressed genes, of which 40% have been annotated to date. These include genes encoding proteins that are associated with CNS development and modeling, sensory perception, stress response and resistance, and fundamental cellular processes. Our microarray analysis has identified genes whose altered expression may enable locusts of either phase to deal with the different challenges they face. Genes for heat shock proteins and proteins which confer protection from infection were upregulated in gregarious locusts, which may allow them to respond to acute physiological challenges. By contrast the longer-lived solitarious locusts appear to be more strongly protected from the slowly accumulating effects of ageing by an upregulation of genes related to anti-oxidant systems, detoxification and anabolic renewal. Gregarious locusts also had a greater abundance of transcripts for proteins involved in sensory processing and in nervous system development and plasticity. Gregarious locusts live in a more complex sensory environment than solitarious locusts and may require a greater turnover of proteins involved in sensory transduction, and possibly greater neuronal plasticity

Los public private partnerships (PPP) en las calificaciones crediticias subnacionales

Presentación expuesta durante el Cuarto Encuentro Técnico sobre Proyectos de Asociación Público Privada, llevado a cabo en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México, el 16, 17 y 18 de febrero de 2011. Los gobiernos se han visto en la necesidad de buscar esquema de financiamiento de infraestructura y/o servicios (Reino Unido, Canadá, Australia, México) para atender demandas de la población. Desde el punto de vista de las calificaciones, se evalúa caso por caso el tipo de Asociación Público Privada (APPs) y si se debe consolidar como deuda o como pasivo contingente. El objetivo de esta presentación es analizar bajo qué lente las clasificadoras de riesgo observan las APPs y sus distintas ramas y cómo éstas impactan en la calificación final de una determinada región

Los public private partnerships (PPP) en las calificaciones crediticias subnacionales

Presentación expuesta durante el Cuarto Encuentro Técnico sobre Proyectos de Asociación Público Privada, llevado a cabo en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México, el 16, 17 y 18 de febrero de 2011. Los gobiernos se han visto en la necesidad de buscar esquema de financiamiento de infraestructura y/o servicios (Reino Unido, Canadá, Australia, México) para atender demandas de la población. Desde el punto de vista de las calificaciones, se evalúa caso por caso el tipo de Asociación Público Privada (APPs) y si se debe consolidar como deuda o como pasivo contingente. El objetivo de esta presentación es analizar bajo qué lente las clasificadoras de riesgo observan las APPs y sus distintas ramas y cómo éstas impactan en la calificación final de una determinada región

Allattamento e nutrizione: possibili influenze sulla comparsa e sviluppo del disturbo

OBIETTIVI: Il disturbo celiaco pu\uf2 essere definito come un'enteropatia cronica del piccolo intestino, mediata dal sistema immunologico e promossa dall'introduzione di una dieta contenente glutine in soggetti predisposti geneticamente. A tale proposito, l'influenza dell'allattamento e del momento di introduzione del glutine sul Disturbo Celiaco (CD = coleolic disease) \ue8 un argomento molto dibattuto, al punto che due fazioni si dividono: una ne riconosce un legame, l'altra invece lo nega. Sulle basi della prima ipotesi, lo studio vuole valutare in che misura in un gruppo familiare siano presenti tali fattori di rischio e, una volta identificati i soggetti celiaci che li presentano in anamnesi, confrontarli con i rispettivi fratelli/sorelle non affette per cogliere eventuali differenze. Il secondo obiettivo \ue8 quello di riuscire a riconoscere delle abitudini e atteggiamenti alimentari ideali a cui affidarsi per prevenire la patologia celiaca in soggetti predisposti. METODI: Per la raccolta dati \ue8 stato realizzato un questionario costituito da venticinque domande chiuse. Successivamente, mediante l'aiuto di informatici esperti, tale questionario \ue8 stato riportato in internet e somministrato in siti social e in chat dedicate alla celiachia, nel periodo compreso tra il 30 agosto 2015 e 18 ottobre 2015. I soggetti celiaci coinvolti in questo studio, rintracciati mediante internet, sono stati invitati ad inviare il questionario a rispettivi fratelli/sorelle con l'intento di creare un gruppo \u201ccaso\u201d e un gruppo \u201ccontrollo\u201d. RISULTATI: Hanno risposto al questionario 69 persone; di queste, 11 sono state escluse in quanto non rientravano nei criteri di inclusione (essere celiaci, o essere fratello o sorella di un celiaco che ha risposto al test)

Bell beaker graves of Šlapanice

During an introductory course into computer aided archaeology, we analyzed the bell beaker graves of Šlapanice II. All data used in the paper can be retrieved from this repository. As the focus during the analysis lies on practicing working with the computer in archaeological studies, the scientific correctness of these analyses is not given. This is most evident in the fact that all the 14C-dates are chosen at random as there are no actual dates available for the studied site