Bulked segregant analysis of the pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) genome for identification of sex-specific molecular markers.

Arapaima gigas (Osteoglossidae) is one of the largest fish species in the Amazon Basin, attaining lengths of over 2.5 m and weights of over 100 kg. Its flesh is prized, and it has great potential for production in aquaculture systems. However, live pirarucu cannot be reliably sexed visually, even after sexual development, since this species does not have clear external sexual dimorphism. Simple and inexpensive methods for sexing immature pirarucu based on DNA markers would facilitate production of this species in commercial operations. We analyzed A. gigas male and female DNA pools with 566 RAPD primers, generating 2609 fragments, with an estimated 1341 segregating polymorphic markers, and an estimated average spacing of 714 kb, which corresponds to less than 0.1% of the species' genome. Two putative sex-specific fragments were initially identified in bulked samples; but they were not confirmed in a study of individual male and female samples. We suggest that A. gigas has developed a non-chromosomal system of sex determination or, alternatively, that the species has undergone a recent loss of the chromosome carrying the sex-determining locus

Classificação automática de inclusões em aços – preparação de amostras com diferentes tipos de inclusões

O desenvolvimento de aços avançados requer um controle bastante elaborado da etapa do refino, em particular para o controle da formação das inclusões, que ocorrem através da interação entre o metal líquido e as diversas superfícies do equipamento (inclusões exógenas) ou pela solubilização de gases e outros elementos de liga que posteriormente se precipitam durante o vazamento do metal (inclusões endógenas). Padrões internacionais definem normas para classificação destas inclusões, utilizando métodos clássicos de comparação de quadros – chart comparison e medidas utilizando análise de imagens. No entanto, o processo definido por estas normas ainda é caracteristicamente manual. Estas normas classificam as inclusões de acordo com o tipo de inclusão nas classes A (sulfetos), B (alumina), C (silicatos) e D (óxidos); espessura ou diâmetro; formação de “strings” – seqüências de inclusões alinhadas na direção de laminação; severidade – uma medida da densidade de inclusões. O presente projeto de pesquisa foi desenvolvido em parceria com o grupo de pesquisadores da PUC-Rio que desenvolveu um método automático de classificação de inclusões em aços, com alta confiabilidade estatística, minimizando a interferência do usuário ao longo de todo o procedimento inicialmente baseado nas imagens padrão. O presente trabalho colaborou com uma segunda fase do trabalho que consiste em aplicar a rotina computacional desenvolvida em imagens reais contendo inclusões. Para isso as amostras de aços contendo inclusões foram preparadas metalograficamente e analisadas em MO. Desta maneira será possível fazer uma comparação entre os resultados da rotina automática para separar inclusões das diferentes classes das imagens reais e das imagens de referência da norma

Estrutura genética do pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) na região de Santarém, PA, Brasil.

O pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) é um peixe encontrado na Bacia Amazônica e Araguaia/Tocantins que possui grande importância econômica para populações locais. Estudos para avaliação da estrutura genética das populações naturais de pirarucu são necessários a fim de prover informações para o manejo da espécie em seu habitat natural. Desta forma, este trabalho analisou quatro comunidades próximas à região de Santarém-PA (N=99) por meio do sequenciamento de 1059 pb do gene mitocondrial ATPase. Os resultados sugerem que a variabilidade genética encontrada é similar a encontrada em estudos de maior abrangência geográfica. A rede de haplótipos gerada, mostrou dois haplogrupos dentro dos quais estão distribuídos cinco haplótipos (H) referentes a este estudo distribuídos de forma semelhante à rede haplotípica disponibilizada na literatura

Genotypic variability and antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp. isolated from hospital surfaces and hands of healthcare professionals

Objectives Candida spp. are responsible for 9095% of hematogenous fungal infections. In Brazil and Latin America, C. albicans is the most common specie, followed by C. parapsilosis and C. tropicalis. Infections caused by Candida spp. may have their origin in exogenous sources, transmitted to patients via contaminated infusions, biomedical devices or even by the hands of the hospital staff members. Molecular biology techniques such as Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) can show that the strains found in anatomical sites or abi- otic surfaces have the same pattern genome.Moreover, in the last decades it has been observed increasing the number of yeasts isolated from hospital environment resistant to antifungals. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the susceptibility to antifungals and intraspecies similarity among isolates of different hospital surfaces and hands of healthcare professionals. Methods The study was conducted with 25 isolates of Candida spp.: 5 strains of C. albicans and 5 strains of C. parapsilosis isolated from hospital surfaces. 5 strains of C. albicans, 5 strains of C. parapsilosis and 5 strains of C. tropicalis isolated from hands of healthcare professionals. Professionals and surfaces belonged to intensive care units. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined to voriconazole (VOR), fluconazole (FLZ), amphotericin B (AMB) and micafungin (MFG) according to M27-A3 of the Clinical and Labora- tory Standards Institute (CLSI). To determine the intra-species similarity, 3 primers were used: P4 (50 -AAGAGCCCGT-30 ), OPA-18 (50AGCTGACCGT30) and OPE-18 (50GGACTGCAGA 30). RAPD pro- files were analyzed using BioNumerics software version 4.6. The study was approved by the Ethics in research involving human subjects, CAAE 0448.0.093.000-11 protocol. Results In relation to susceptibility testing (Table 1), it is important to highlight that C. parapsilosis showed 80% of MFG resistance. C. albicans and C. tropicalis showed reduced susceptibility to VOR, and resistence of the AMB was observed for C. albicans (20%). All amplifi- cations revealed distinct polymorphic bands. Genetic distances between each of the isolates were calculated and cluster analysis was used to generate a dendrogram showing relationships between them. The analysis of all primers showed similarity greater than 80% between strains of hands and hospital surfaces for intraspecies. Conclusion Our work shows that, healthy people and hospital surfaces may be colonized by different species yeast. Furthermore, the strains studied had relative resistance to antifungal drugs most frequently used in clinical practice. Finally, there was a high similarity between samples from hands (hospital staff members) and surfaces, providing an infection risk to susceptible individuals. Healthy people working in hospitals can carry yeasts on their hands with the same potential virulence, and which therefore offer the same risk of infection. This information should be considered when preventive measures are established. Attention to the colonization of hands and surfaces should not be restricted to high-risk units such as NICUs, but should also include other sections of hospitals

Atividade alelopática da leucena sobre espécies de plantas daninhas.

Alelopatia e o efeito direto ou indireto de uma planta sobre outra, por meio da producao de compostos quimicos liberados no ambiente. Os metabolitos secundarios ou produtos naturais envolvidos em alelopatia sao denominados aleloquimicos e estao presentes nos tecidos de diferentes partes das plantas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar o potencial alelopatico da leucena (Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit.) sobre as plantas daninhas Desmodium purpureum (desmodio), Bidens pilosa (picao-preto) e Amaranthus hybridus (caruru). Os bioenseticidas foram conduzidos em laboratorio e em casa de vegetacao com extratos aquosos da parte aerea da leucena nas concentracoes de 100, 50, 25, 12,5% (vv-1). O extrato apresentou maior efeito quando aplicado em papel filtro. O potencial alelopatico da leucena variou com a especie de planta daninha, sendo o picao-preto e o caruru as especies mais sensiveis em ambos os bioensaios. A mimosina foi qualificada por HPLC em concentracoes diretamente correlacionadas a concentracao do extrato, indicando ser este aleloquimico o provavel responsavel pelo efeito sobre a germinacao e o desenvolvimento das plantas daninhas

Multi-agent Electricity Markets and Smart Grids Simulation with Connection to Real Physical Resources

The increasing penetration of distributed energy sources, mainly based on renewable generation, calls for an urgent emergence of novel advanced methods to deal with the associated problems. The consensus behind smart grids (SGs) as one of the most promising solutions for the massive integration of renewable energy sources in power systems has led to the development of several prototypes that aim at testing and validating SG methodologies. The urgent need to accommodate such resources require alternative solutions. This chapter presents a multi-agent based SG simulation platform connected to physical resources, so that realistic scenarios can be simulated. The SG simulator is also connected to the Multi-Agent Simulator of Competitive Electricity Markets, which provides a solid framework for the simulation of electricity markets. The cooperation between the two simulation platforms provides huge studying opportunities under different perspectives, resulting in an important contribution to the fields of transactive energy, electricity markets, and SGs. A case study is presented, showing the potentialities for interaction between players of the two ecosystems: a SG operator, which manages the internal resources of a SG, is able to participate in electricity market negotiations to trade the necessary amounts of power to fulfill the needs of SG consumers.This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement N. 641794 (project DREAM-GO). It has also received FEDER Funds through the COMPETE program and National Funds through FCT under the project UID/EEA/00760/2013. The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable contribution of Bruno Canizes, Daniel Paiva, Gabriel Santos and Marco Silva to the work presented in the chapter.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio