Genomic analysis of two phlebotomine sand fly vectors of Leishmania from the New and Old World.

Phlebotomine sand flies are of global significance as important vectors of human disease, transmitting bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens, including the kinetoplastid parasites of the genus Leishmania, the causative agents of devastating diseases collectively termed leishmaniasis. More than 40 pathogenic Leishmania species are transmitted to humans by approximately 35 sand fly species in 98 countries with hundreds of millions of people at risk around the world. No approved efficacious vaccine exists for leishmaniasis and available therapeutic drugs are either toxic and/or expensive, or the parasites are becoming resistant to the more recently developed drugs. Therefore, sand fly and/or reservoir control are currently the most effective strategies to break transmission. To better understand the biology of sand flies, including the mechanisms involved in their vectorial capacity, insecticide resistance, and population structures we sequenced the genomes of two geographically widespread and important sand fly vector species: Phlebotomus papatasi, a vector of Leishmania parasites that cause cutaneous leishmaniasis, (distributed in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa) and Lutzomyia longipalpis, a vector of Leishmania parasites that cause visceral leishmaniasis (distributed across Central and South America). We categorized and curated genes involved in processes important to their roles as disease vectors, including chemosensation, blood feeding, circadian rhythm, immunity, and detoxification, as well as mobile genetic elements. We also defined gene orthology and observed micro-synteny among the genomes. Finally, we present the genetic diversity and population structure of these species in their respective geographical areas. These genomes will be a foundation on which to base future efforts to prevent vector-borne transmission of Leishmania parasites

The Use Of Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology To Constrain Fault Movements And Sedimentary Basin Evolution In Northeastern Brazil

An apatite fission track study of crystalline rocks underlying sedimentary basins in northeastern Brazil indicate that crustal blocks that occur on opposite sides of a geological fault experienced different thermal histories. Samples collected on the West block yielded corrected fission-track ages from 140 to 375 Ma, whereas samples collected on the East block yielded ages between 90 and 125 Ma. The thermal models suggest that each block experienced two cooling events separated by a heating event at different times. We concluded that the West block moved downward relative to the East block ca. 140 Ma ago, when sediments eroded from the East side were deposited on the West side. This process represents the early stage of sedimentary basin formation and the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean in the region. Downward and upward movements related to heating and cooling events of these crustal blocks at different periods until recent times are proposed. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd.396627633Bigazzi, G., Guedes, S., Hadler Neto, J.C., Iunes, P.J., Paulo, S.R., Tello Saenz, C.A., Application of neutron dosimetry by natural uranium and thorium thin films in fission-track dating (2000) Extended Abstract of Ninth International Conference on Fission Track Dating in Thermochronology, pp. 33-35. , Lorne, AustraliaFleischer, R.L., Hart, H.R., Fission track dating: Techniques and problems (1972) Calibration of Humanoid Evolution, pp. 135-170. , W.W. Bishop J.A. Miller S. Cole Scottish Academic Press EdinburgFrançolin, J.B.L., Szatmari, P., Mecanismo de rifteamento da porção oriental da margem norte brasileira (1987) Rev. Bras. Geoc., 17, pp. 196-207Galbraith, P.F., On statistical models for fission track counts (1981) J. Math. Geol., 13, pp. 471-488Gleadow, A.J.W., Fission-track dating methods - What are the real alternatives? (1981) Nucl. Tracks Radiat. Meas., 5, pp. 3-14Green, P.F., A new look at statistics in fission-track dating (1981) Nucl. Tracks Radiat. Meas., 5, pp. 77-86Green, P.F., The relationship between track shortening and fission track age reduction in apatite: Combined influence of inherent instability, annealing anisotropy, length bias and system calibration (1988) Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 89, pp. 335-352Guedes, S., Hadler Neto, J.C., Iunes, P.J., Paulo, S.R., Zuñiga, A., The spontaneous fission decay constant of 238U using SSNTD (2000) J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 245, pp. 441-442Guedes, S., Hadler Neto, J.C., Iunes, P.J., Zuniga, A., Tello, C.A., Paulo, S.R., The use of the U(n,f) reaction dosimetry in the determination of the λf value through fission-track techniques (2003) Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A, 496, pp. 215-221Guedes, S., Hadler Neto, J.C., Sarkis, J.E.S., Oliveira, K.M.G., Kakazu, M.H., Iunes, P.J., Saiki, M., Paulo, S.R., Spontaneous-fission decay constant of 238U measured by nuclear techniques without neutron irradiation (2003) J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 258, pp. 117-122Guedes, S., Hadler Neto, J.C., Iunes, P.J., Tello Saenz, C.A., Kinetic model for the relationship between confined fission-track length shortening and fission-track age reduction in minerals (2004) Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 217, pp. 627-636Hackspacher, P.C., Legrand, J.M., Deformation and metamorphism on the Portalegre Shear Zone, Northeastern Brazil (1989) Rev. Bras. Geoc., 19, pp. 63-75Hadler Neto, J.C., Paulo, S.R., Iunes, P.J., Tello, C.A., Balestrieri, M.L., Bigazzi, G., Curvo, E.A.C., Hackspacher, P.C., A PC compatible Brazilian software for obtaining thermal histories using apatite fission track analysis (2001) Radiat. Meas., 34, pp. 149-154Holden, N.E., Hoffman, D.C., Spontaneous fission half-lives ground-state nuclides (Technical report) (2000) Pure Appl. Chem., 72, pp. 1525-1562Hurford, A.J., Standardization of fission track dating calibration: Recommendation by the Fission Track Working Group of the I.U.G.S. Subcommission on Geochronology (1990) Chem. Geol., 80, pp. 171-178Iunes, P.J., Hadler Neto, P.C., Bigazzi, G., Tello Saenz, C.A., Guedes, S., Paulo, S.R., Durango apatite fission-track dating using length-based age corrections and neutron fluence measurements by natural Thorium thin films and natural U-doped glasses calibrated through natural uranium thin films (2002) Chem. Geol., 187, pp. 201-211Iwano, H., Danhara, T., A re-investigation of the geometry factors for fission-track dating of apatite, sphene and zircon (1998) Advances in Fission-track Geochronology, pp. 47-66. , P. Van den haute F. De Corte Kluwer Academic Publishers DordrechtJonckheere, R., On the densities of etchable fission tracks in mineral and co-irradiated external detector with reference to fission-track dating of minerals (2003) Chem. Geol., 200, pp. 41-58Matos, R.M.D., The northeast Brazilian rift system (1992) Tectonics, 11, pp. 766-791Morais Neto, J.M., Hegarty, K.A., Karner, G.D., Alkimin, F.F., Matos, R.M.D., Uplift and erosion in the Borborema Province, northeast Brazil: Insights from apatite fission track analysis (2000) XXXI International Geological Congress, , Abstract Volume, IUGS/SBG, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. GS 18.1Tello, C.A., (1998) Estudo de Annealing de Traços de Fissão em Apatitas, Tanto em Seções Basais Quanto em Seções sem Orientação Preferencial, Análise dos Comprimentos dos Traços de Fissão, 111p. , UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, Ph.D. Thesi

Representações socias em enfermagem: comentários sobre teses e dissertações Social representations: commentary about thesis and dissertations

O ponto de partida deste trabalho se constitui de um levantamento de teses e dissertações desenvolvidas por enfermeiros com o objetivo de verificar como a representação social foi utilizada enquanto referencial teórico nestas pesquisas. Através de uma leitura sistemática dos trabalhos destacou-se as temáticas, os principais resultados e as reflexões que estes propunham para as práticas profissionais de enfermagem. Constatou-se, a partir dos trabalhos analisados que este referencial teórico é utilizado pelos enfermeiros, e que alguns estudos desenvolvidos trazem resultados significativos favorecendo a mudança da visão desses profissionais.<br>The starting point of this work consists on a revision of thesis and dissertations developed by nurses aiming to check how the social representation was used as a theoretical referencial on these researches. Through a sistematic reading of these works some points were dettached, as thematic, main resultas and reflections proposed in order to atain professional practice nursing. It was ascertained from the analysed works that this theoretical referencial is used by nurses, and that some studies developed introduce significative results from these professionals

The generation and utilization of a cancer-oriented representation of the human transcriptome by using expressed sequence tags.

Whereas genome sequencing defines the genetic potential of an organism, transcript sequencing defines the utilization of this potential and links the genome with most areas of biology. To exploit the information within the human genome in the fight against cancer, we have deposited some two million expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from human tumors and their corresponding normal tissues in the public databases. The data currently define approximately 23,500 genes, of which only approximately 1,250 are still represented only by ESTs. Examination of the EST coverage of known cancer-related (CR) genes reveals that &amp;lt;1% do not have corresponding ESTs, indicating that the representation of genes associated with commonly studied tumors is high. The careful recording of the origin of all ESTs we have produced has enabled detailed definition of where the genes they represent are expressed in the human body. More than 100,000 ESTs are available for seven tissues, indicating a surprising variability of gene usage that has led to the discovery of a significant number of genes with restricted expression, and that may thus be therapeutically useful. The ESTs also reveal novel nonsynonymous germline variants (although the one-pass nature of the data necessitates careful validation) and many alternatively spliced transcripts. Although widely exploited by the scientific community, vindicating our totally open source policy, the EST data generated still provide extensive information that remains to be systematically explored, and that may further facilitate progress toward both the understanding and treatment of human cancers

Analysis and Functional Annotation of an Expressed Sequence Tag Collection for Tropical Crop Sugarcane

To contribute to our understanding of the genome complexity of sugarcane, we undertook a large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) program. More than 260,000 cDNA clones were partially sequenced from 26 standard cDNA libraries generated from different sugarcane tissues. After the processing of the sequences, 237,954 high-quality ESTs were identified. These ESTs were assembled into 43,141 putative transcripts. Of the assembled sequences, 35.6% presented no matches with existing sequences in public databases. A global analysis of the whole SUCEST data set indicated that 14,409 assembled sequences (33% of the total) contained at least one cDNA clone with a full-length insert. Annotation of the 43,141 assembled sequences associated almost 50% of the putative identified sugarcane genes with protein metabolism, cellular communication/signal transduction, bioenergetics, and stress responses. Inspection of the translated assembled sequences for conserved protein domains revealed 40,821 amino acid sequences with 1415 Pfam domains. Reassembling the consensus sequences of the 43,141 transcripts revealed a 22% redundancy in the first assembling. This indicated that possibly 33,620 unique genes had been identified and indicated that >90% of the sugarcane expressed genes were tagged