Relay selection methods for maximizing the lifetime of wireless sensor networks

Combined analytical and fuzzy techniques are proposed for improving the battery lifetime, performance, as well as energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with the aid of efficient relay selection methods. We determine the best relay selection method by striking an appealing performance versus network lifetime trade-off. Furthermore, the beneficial regions of cooperation are determined considering asymmetric traffic scenarios, where relaying provides energy saving

Experiências exitosas dos agentes comunitários de saúde em Mafra/SC

INTRODUÇÃO: Apresentamos o Relato da Experiência do “I Encontro de Experiências exitosas dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde” de Mafra/SC”, onde fora uma estratégia proposta pelo Núcleo de Educação Permanente (NEP) da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Mafra, que busca integrar os ACS envolvidos e comprometidos com a promoção de saúde e equidade, afim de compartilhar e discutir novos, práticas e estratégias inovadoras, além das experiências vivenciadas. O NEP, foi instituído no ano de 2016 com o propósito de identificar e dar visibilidade as ações de saúde que ocorrem na realidade dos serviços e na comunidade. Dentre as Ações desenvolvidas do NEP, foi o I Encontro de Experiências exitosas dos Agentes Comunitários de Saúde” de Mafra/SC, abrangendo tanto a área rural quanto a urbana. Este evento ocorreu no dia 26 de outubro de 2016 e os trabalhos apresentados foram agrupados nas categorias visita Domiciliar, Atividades Coletivas, Processos de Trabalho e estudo de caso. OBJETIVOS: Oportunizar às Agentes Comunitárias de Saúde (ACS), um ambiente coletivo municipal de divulgação de suas experiências exitosas, observadas durante o exercício profissional; estimular as ACS a escrevem e a socializarem vivências que foram executadas ou a um determinado grupo e/ou caso, que promoveu melhora na situação observada inicialmente. RELATO DE EXPERIÊNCIA: As Experiências Exitosas foram apresentadas nas modalidades de pôster, sendo expostas em painel no dia do Evento, e na modalidade oral, onde em 15 minutos as ACS expuseram para todas as Agentes Comunitárias de Saúde de Mafra, seus relatos utilizando quando necessário recurso de projetor de multimídia. RESULTADOS: O Núcleo de Educação Permanente-NEP, recebeu o total de 24 Experiências Exitosas, sendo que 12 destas experiências foram apresentadas na modalidade Oral no dia do Evento, e a totalidade compôs os anais do município de Mafra/SC. As experiências foram: 1. Experiência exitosa em saúde mental na adolescência; 2. Experiência exitosa na detecção de câncer de boca; 3. Experiência exitosa na detecção de câncer de útero; 4. Experiência exitosa no tratamento de adolescente em depressão; 5. Dificuldades apresentadas com pacientes etilistas / psiquiátricos e o impacto causado na família; 6. Teatro sobre vacina; 7. Aprendendo sobre plantas medicinais com a melhor idade; 8. Entendendo a adolescência; 9. Grupo de atividade física – em busca de uma boa qualidade de vida; 10. Acompanhamento de paciente em surto psicótico; 11. A feira de saúde; 12. Grupo de hiperdia; 13. Ser agente comunitário de saúde; 14. Mapa territorial: uma experiência que deu certo; 15. Não vacile, vacine; 16. Orientação para a ação; 17. Horto mandala; 18. Uma abordagem; 19. Programa saúde na escola; 20. Apoio intersetorial pastoral da criança e saúde para que todos tenham vida; 21. Avós que tutelam netos; 22. Projeto tablet’s na atenção básica; 23. Prevenção saúde do homem; 24. Visita resolutiva. CONCLUSÕES: O NEP incentivou a categoria de ACS, a olharem para suas ações e aquelas que a partir do impacto gerado em um único caso, ou na comunidade, reconhecido pela sua equipe da Estratégia de Saúde da Família, pudesse ser apresentado neste dia. Como foi o primeiro movimento municipal de valorização das atividades das Agentes Comunitárias de Saúde, todas as experiências apresentadas foram respeitadas e incluídas em um tipo de modalidade de apresentação ou oral ou pôster.  O Evento permitiu apresentar e discutir com as equipes de saúde as experiências exitosas, articulando análises da situação de saúde com debates sobre as estratégias para a melhoria da qualidade de vida e os desafios acerca da saúde-doença- cuidado e de seus determinantes em nosso território

Imaturos de Trichoptera na bacia do rio Paranã, GO, com novos registros de gênero

Distribution of Trichoptera along Paranã River Basin, Goiás State, with new records for genera, is presented. Eighteen sample sites were made along the basin during the rain (March and December/2003) and dry (July/2003 and August/2004) seasons. Surber and D net were used for sampling all habitats

Coordinated calcium signalling in cochlear sensory and non‐sensory cells refines afferent innervation of outer hair cells

Outer hair cells (OHCs) are highly specialized sensory cells conferring the fine‐tuning and high sensitivity of the mammalian cochlea to acoustic stimuli. Here, by genetically manipulating spontaneous Ca2+ signalling in mice in vivo, through a period of early postnatal development, we find that the refinement of OHC afferent innervation is regulated by complementary spontaneous Ca2+ signals originating in OHCs and non‐sensory cells. OHCs fire spontaneous Ca2+ action potentials during a narrow period of neonatal development. Simultaneously, waves of Ca2+ activity in the non‐sensory cells of the greater epithelial ridge cause, via ATP‐induced activation of P2X3 receptors, the increase and synchronization of the Ca2+ activity in nearby OHCs. This synchronization is required for the refinement of their immature afferent innervation. In the absence of connexin channels, Ca2+ waves are impaired, leading to a reduction in the number of ribbon synapses and afferent fibres on OHCs. We propose that the correct maturation of the afferent connectivity of OHCs requires experience‐independent Ca2+ signals from sensory and non‐sensory cells

Signal mixing in a ratchet device: commensurability and current control

Rectification current in overdamped ratchets can be easily controlled by applying two driving signals and tuning either their relative phase or their frequency ratio. The interplay of the two inputs generates intriguing transport mechanisms that can be implemented to optimize shuttling and separation of particles in a variety of physical and technological applications.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43872/1/10051_2004_Article_208.pd

A Small Molecule SMAC Mimic LBW242 Potentiates TRAIL- and Anticancer Drug-Mediated Cell Death of Ovarian Cancer Cells

BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer remains a leading cause of death in women and development of new therapies is essential. Second mitochondria derived activator of caspase (SMAC) has been described to sensitize for apoptosis. We have explored the pro-apoptotic activity of LBW242, a mimic of SMAC/DIABLO, on ovarian cancer cell lines (A2780 cells and its chemoresistant derivative A2780/ADR, SKOV3 and HEY cells) and in primary ovarian cancer cells. The effects of LBW242 on ovarian cancer cell lines and primary ovarian cancer cells was determined by cell proliferation, apoptosis and biochemical assays. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: LBW242 added alone elicited only a moderate pro-apoptotic effect; however, it strongly synergizes with tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) or anticancer drugs in inducing apoptosis of both ovarian cancer cell lines and primary ovarian cancer cells. Mechanistic studies show that LBW242-induced apoptosis in ovarian cancer cells is associated with activation of caspase-8. In line with this mechanism, c-FLIP overexpression inhibits LBW242-mediated apoptosis. CONCLUSION: LBW242 sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to the antitumor effects of TRAIL and anticancer drugs commonly used in clinic. These observations suggest that the SMAC/DIABLO mimic LBW242 could be of value for the development of experimental strategies for treatment of ovarian cancer

Unity in defence: honeybee workers exhibit conserved molecular responses to diverse pathogens

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Background: Organisms typically face infection by diverse pathogens, and hosts are thought to have developed specific responses to each type of pathogen they encounter. The advent of transcriptomics now makes it possible to test this hypothesis and compare host gene expression responses to multiple pathogens at a genome-wide scale. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of multiple published and new transcriptomes using a newly developed bioinformatics approach that filters genes based on their expression profile across datasets. Thereby, we identified common and unique molecular responses of a model host species, the honey bee (Apis mellifera), to its major pathogens and parasites: the Microsporidia Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, RNA viruses, and the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor, which transmits viruses. Results: We identified a common suite of genes and conserved molecular pathways that respond to all investigated pathogens, a result that suggests a commonality in response mechanisms to diverse pathogens. We found that genes differentially expressed after infection exhibit a higher evolutionary rate than non-differentially expressed genes. Using our new bioinformatics approach, we unveiled additional pathogen-specific responses of honey bees; we found that apoptosis appeared to be an important response following microsporidian infection, while genes from the immune signalling pathways, Toll and Imd, were differentially expressed after Varroa/virus infection. Finally, we applied our bioinformatics approach and generated a gene co-expression network to identify highly connected (hub) genes that may represent important mediators and regulators of anti-pathogen responses. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis generated a comprehensive overview of the host metabolic and other biological processes that mediate interactions between insects and their pathogens. We identified key host genes and pathways that respond to phylogenetically diverse pathogens, representing an important source for future functional studies as well as offering new routes to identify or generate pathogen resilient honey bee stocks. The statistical and bioinformatics approaches that were developed for this study are broadly applicable to synthesize information across transcriptomic datasets. These approaches will likely have utility in addressing a variety of biological questions.This article is a joint effort of the working group TRANSBEE and an outcome of two workshops kindly supported by sDiv, the Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Sciences within the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the German Science Foundation (FZT 118). New datasets were performed thanks to the Insect Pollinators Initiative (IPI grant BB/I000100/1 and BB/I000151/1), with participation of the UK-USA exchange funded by the BBSRC BB/I025220/1 (datasets #4, 11 and 14). The IPI is funded jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Scottish Government and the Wellcome Trust, under the Living with Environmental Change Partnershi

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016