Abundant Occurrence of Basal Radial Glia in the Subventricular Zone of Embryonic Neocortex of a Lissencephalic Primate, the Common Marmoset Callithrix jacchus

Subventricular zone (SVZ) progenitors are a hallmark of the developing neocortex. Recent studies described a novel type of SVZ progenitor that retains a basal process at mitosis, sustains expression of radial glial markers, and is capable of self-renewal. These progenitors, referred to here as basal radial glia (bRG), occur at high relative abundance in the SVZ of gyrencephalic primates (human) and nonprimates (ferret) but not lissencephalic rodents (mouse). Here, we analyzed the occurrence of bRG cells in the embryonic neocortex of the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus, a near-lissencephalic primate. bRG cells, expressing Pax6, Sox2 (but not Tbr2), glutamate aspartate transporter, and glial fibrillary acidic protein and retaining a basal process at mitosis, occur at similar relative abundance in the marmoset SVZ as in human and ferret. The proportion of progenitors in M-phase was lower in embryonic marmoset than developing ferret neocortex, raising the possibility of a longer cell cycle. Fitting the gyrification indices of 26 anthropoid species to an evolutionary model suggested that the marmoset evolved from a gyrencephalic ancestor. Our results suggest that a high relative abundance of bRG cells may be necessary, but is not sufficient, for gyrencephaly and that the marmoset's lissencephaly evolved secondarily by changing progenitor parameters other than progenitor typ

LINCOS - A Storage System Providing Long-Term Integrity, Authenticity, and Confidentiality (Full Paper)

The amount of digital data that requires long-term protection of integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality grows rapidly. Examples include electronic health records, genome data, and tax data. In this paper we present the secure storage system LINCOS, whichprovides protection of integrity, authenticity, and confidentiality in the long-term, i.e., for an indefinite time period. It is the first such system. It uses the long-term integrity scheme COPRIS, which is also presented here and is the first such scheme that does not leak any information about the protected data. COPRIS uses information-theoretic hiding commitments for confidentiality-preserving integrity and authenticity protection. LINCOS uses proactive secret sharing for confidential storage of secret data. We also present implementations of COPRIS and LINCOS. A special feature of our LINCOS implementation is the use of quantum key distribution and one-time pad encryption for information-theoretic private channels within the proactive secret sharing protocol. The technological platform for this is the Tokyo QKD Network, which is one of worlds most advanced networks of its kind. Our experimental evaluation establishes the feasibility of LINCOS and shows that in view of the expected progress in quantum communication technology, LINCOS is a promising solution for protecting very sensitive data in the cloud

DESAFIOS E OPORTUNIDADES DO BUDISMO NO BRASIL: RELATO DE UM SIMPÓSIO COM TRADUTORES/ACADÊMICOS BUDISTAS

A partir de um Simpósio Virtual ocorrido em agosto de 2020 com praticantes e estudiosos do budismo, alguns deles tradutores budistas de diversas línguas (chinês, japonês, tibetano e sânscrito) para o português, emergem várias questões. A motivação deste encontro foi a de dialogar sobre importantes questões sobre o budismo no presente momento atual, suas oportunidades e desafios. Ao longo do debate fica evidente o grande hiato cultural entre o Brasil e os países asiáticos. Igualmente se revela a sofisticação e rigor necessários às traduções bem como a necessidade e a dificuldade de estabelecer esse debate na academia. Este artigo apresenta os pontos mais importantes de cada exposição, os coloca em perspectiva e encaminha considerações finais sobre os desafios e oportunidades presentes no amplo tema das traduções e do diálogo acadêmico com o budismo

Abundant Occurrence of Basal Radial Glia in the Subventricular Zone of Embryonic Neocortex of a Lissencephalic Primate, the Common Marmoset Callithrix jacchus

Subventricular zone (SVZ) progenitors are a hallmark of the developing neocortex. Recent studies described a novel type of SVZ progenitor that retains a basal process at mitosis, sustains expression of radial glial markers, and is capable of self-renewal. These progenitors, referred to here as basal radial glia (bRG), occur at high relative abundance in the SVZ of gyrencephalic primates (human) and nonprimates (ferret) but not lissencephalic rodents (mouse). Here, we analyzed the occurrence of bRG cells in the embryonic neocortex of the common marmoset Callithrix jacchus, a near-lissencephalic primate. bRG cells, expressing Pax6, Sox2 (but not Tbr2), glutamate aspartate transporter, and glial fibrillary acidic protein and retaining a basal process at mitosis, occur at similar relative abundance in the marmoset SVZ as in human and ferret. The proportion of progenitors in M-phase was lower in embryonic marmoset than developing ferret neocortex, raising the possibility of a longer cell cycle. Fitting the gyrification indices of 26 anthropoid species to an evolutionary model suggested that the marmoset evolved from a gyrencephalic ancestor. Our results suggest that a high relative abundance of bRG cells may be necessary, but is not sufficient, for gyrencephaly and that the marmoset's lissencephaly evolved secondarily by changing progenitor parameters other than progenitor type

Challenges and opportunities of buddhism in Brazil : report of a symposium with buddhist translators/academics

A partir de um Simpósio Virtual ocorrido em agosto de 2020 com praticantes e estudiosos do budismo, alguns deles tradutores budistas de diversas línguas (chinês, japonês, tibetano e sânscrito) para o português, emergem várias questões. A motivação deste encontro foi a de dialogar sobre importantes questões sobre o budismo no presente momento que vivemos, suas oportunidades e desafios. Ao longo do debate fica evidente o grande hiato cultural entre o Brasil e os países asiáticos. Igualmente se revela a sofisticação e rigor necessários às traduções bem como a necessidade e a dificuldade de estabelecer esse debate na academia. Este artigo apresenta os pontos mais importantes de cada exposição, os coloca em perspectiva e encaminha considerações finais sobre os desafios e oportunidades presentes no amplo tema das traduções e do diálogo acadêmico com o budismo.Several questions emerged from a Virtual Symposium that took place in August 2020 with practitioners and scholars of Buddhism, some of them Buddhist translators from different languages (Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan and Sanskrit) into Portuguese. The motivation of this meeting was to discuss important questions about Buddhism in our day and age, its opportunities and challenges. Throughout the debate it became evident that there is a great cultural gap between Brazil and Asian countries. It also reveals the sophistication and rigor required for translations, as well as the need and difficulty of establishing this debate in academia. This article presents the most important points of each speech, puts them in perspective and makes final considerations about the challenges and opportunities present in the broad topic of translations and academic dialogue with Buddhism

Comparative whole genome sequencing reveals phenotypic tRNA gene duplication in spontaneous Schizosaccharomyces pombe La mutants

We used a genetic screen based on tRNA-mediated suppression (TMS) in a Schizosaccharomyces pombe La protein (Sla1p) mutant. Suppressor pre-tRNASerUCA-C47:6U with a debilitating substitution in its variable arm fails to produce tRNA in a sla1-rrm mutant deficient for RNA chaperone-like activity. The parent strain and spontaneous mutant were analyzed using Solexa sequencing. One synonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), unrelated to the phenotype, was identified. Further sequence analyses found a duplication of the tRNASerUCA-C47:6U gene, which was shown to cause the phenotype. Ninety percent of 28 isolated mutants contain duplicated tRNASerUCA-C47:6U genes. The tRNA gene duplication led to a disproportionately large increase in tRNASerUCA-C47:6U levels in sla1-rrm but not sla1-null cells, consistent with non-specific low-affinity interactions contributing to the RNA chaperone-like activity of La, similar to other RNA chaperones. Our analysis also identified 24 SNPs between ours and S. pombe 972h- strain yFS101 that was recently sequenced using Solexa. By including mitochondrial (mt) DNA in our analysis, overall coverage increased from 52% to 96%. mtDNA from our strain and yFS101 shared 14 mtSNPs relative to a ‘reference’ mtDNA, providing the first identification of these S. pombe mtDNA discrepancies. Thus, strain-specific and spontaneous phenotypic mutations can be mapped in S. pombe by Solexa sequencing

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts