Widespread Presence of Human BOULE Homologs among Animals and Conservation of Their Ancient Reproductive Function

Sex-specific traits that lead to the production of dimorphic gametes, sperm in males and eggs in females, are fundamental for sexual reproduction and accordingly widespread among animals. Yet the sex-biased genes that underlie these sex-specific traits are under strong selective pressure, and as a result of adaptive evolution they often become divergent. Indeed out of hundreds of male or female fertility genes identified in diverse organisms, only a very small number of them are implicated specifically in reproduction in more than one lineage. Few genes have exhibited a sex-biased, reproductive-specific requirement beyond a given phylum, raising the question of whether any sex-specific gametogenesis factors could be conserved and whether gametogenesis might have evolved multiple times. Here we describe a metazoan origin of a conserved human reproductive protein, BOULE, and its prevalence from primitive basal metazoans to chordates. We found that BOULE homologs are present in the genomes of representative species of each of the major lineages of metazoans and exhibit reproductive-specific expression in all species examined, with a preponderance of male-biased expression. Examination of Boule evolution within insect and mammalian lineages revealed little evidence for accelerated evolution, unlike most reproductive genes. Instead, purifying selection was the major force behind Boule evolution. Furthermore, loss of function of mammalian Boule resulted in male-specific infertility and a global arrest of sperm development remarkably similar to the phenotype in an insect boule mutation. This work demonstrates the conservation of a reproductive protein throughout eumetazoa, its predominant testis-biased expression in diverse bilaterian species, and conservation of a male gametogenic requirement in mice. This shows an ancient gametogenesis requirement for Boule among Bilateria and supports a model of a common origin of spermatogenesis

Pretoriana, no. 097, Aug. 1990

J.J. Kirkness gedenkplaat -- NZASM employees -- Uit die geskiedenis van die NZASM, 1887-1908 -- 100 jaar gelede die Randtram, 1890-1990 -- Pieter Jan van Winter, Nederlandse geskiedskrywer -- Nedbank -- Afrikanerboere in Oos-Indie (5) -- 'n Opstel oor een van Pretoria se pioniersgesinne, Farrell -- 'n Eeu emigrasie vasgele -- Addendum: Wapenskild van die Stad Pretoria (tussen 40 en 41

Value-based utility implementation in software-defined testbed for sensor data traffic management

Data transmitted among wireless sensor nodes are generated from sensing physical events with diverse traffic types. These data have to reach their destinations with a specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirement. With the increasing usage of sensors in various Internet of Things applications, there is a need to address the traffic management for handling these critical data while satisfying their respective QoS requirements. In this work, we implemented a traffic management mechanism using Value-based Utility (VBU) model that utilizes network packet statistics to cope with QoS requirement of each sensor data. The mechanism ensures that the demands of each sensor data are satisfied by allocating queue resources based on a utility function. The function defines an expectation range and the state where minimal requirements are met for each sensor. We evaluated the performance of the mechanism over a simple low-cost software-defined testbed with different sensor data type having different QoS requirements. Results show that each sensor node achieved the level of satisfaction based on their required utility function both in an ideal testbed scenario and in an actual indoor deployment. © 2019 Elsevier B.V

The angiogenic effect of Eleusine indica (Goosegrass) ethanolic extract on the chorioallantoic membrane of a ten-day old duck embryo

Eleusine indica is a weed commonly known as paragis in the Philippines and mostly found on tropical countries. The purpose of the study is to identify the angiogenic effect among the varying concentrations of E. indica extract on the Chorioallantoic membrane of a ten-day old duck embryo via angiogenesis which was known as the formation of new blood vessels originating from the pre-existing blood vessels. Three different concentrations: (100ppm), (200ppm), (300ppm), and a (T0) using saline solution were used in 20 duck eggs to identify its angiogenic effect. Upon extraction, the leaves were soaked in 99% ethyl alcohol and a rotary evaporator was used to get the 100% leaf ethanolic extract, diluted and administered to the eggs using pipettes. Then, the eggs were incubated for 48 hours and then counted the vessels. The gathered result had an average of (T0) 8.6, (T1) 9.8, (T2) 6.4 and (T3) 9.8. Based on Analysis of Variance, the three treatments had almost the same number of collaterals counted with a close average in comparison to (T0). The study failed to reject the null hypothesis. Therefore, a no significant difference on the effects of the concentrations of E. indica leaf ethanolic extract on the Chorioallantoic membrane of a ten-day old duck embryo had been concluded