A NOVEL ROLE FOR CYTOCHROME P450 G 35 (CYP4G35) IN ODOR PROCESSING IN AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITOES

Mosquitoes are vectors of various pathogens important to human health. The emergence of insecticide resistance has put pressure on identifying new avenues for mosquito control. These genetics tools require novel targets, which only come with a better understanding of mosquito biology. Chemo sensation is essential for insects to interpret their environments. Three primary appendages mediate chemoreception, esp. olfaction in mosquitoes: antennae, maxillary palps, and proboscis. These appendages have sensilla hairs covering their exterior structure. The sensilla hair houses many chemoreceptors, including odorant, ionotropic, and gustatory receptors. The volatile odorants enter the sensilla lymph through pores to bind to the receptors. Maintaining odor receptor sensitivity through degrading these odorants is essential for odor perception. Many enzymes, such as esterases and cytochrome P450s (CYPs), have been hypothesized to function as odor-degrading enzymes; however, none is yet functionally characterized. Most insects have 1 or 2 CYP4G genes, an insect-specific class of CYPs. The Dipteran insect genomes have two genes. Similar to other dipterans, the Ae. aegypti genome expresses two CYP4G genes: CYP4G36 (CYP4G1) and CYP4G35 (CYP4G15). Previous work in the Gulia-Nuss and Blomquist labs showed that Ae. aegypti CYP4G36 is an oxidative decarbonylase that catalyzes the last two steps in cuticular hydrocarbon synthesis, a function consistent with the findings in other insects (unpublished data). From the preliminary data in the Gulia-Nuss lab, we hypothesized that CYP4G35 is an odor-degrading enzyme (ODE). An important consideration for an ODEs is its localization. If CYP4G35 were to have an olfactory function, it would need to localize in the sensilla (Chapter 2). To understand the potential pathways in which CYP4G35 might be involved, we knockout CYP4G35 in mosquitoes. We separated both mutant and wild-type samples' head and carcass/body tissue to identify head-specific differences in protein expression in CYP4G35 mutant mosquitoes (Chapter 3). To identify the direct target (substrate) for the CYP4G35 enzyme, we expressed CYP4G35 and used these microsomes with different chained-length alcohol and aldehyde substrates (Chapter 4). GC-MS was used to analyze the breakdown product of a particular substrate. Our data support our hypothesis that CYP4G35 has a function in odor perception. However, it is unclear whether it directly breaks down odor molecules or is a general detoxification enzyme that helps clear the lymph to avoid odor molecule buildup

Learning Ground Traversability from Simulations

Mobile ground robots operating on unstructured terrain must predict which areas of the environment they are able to pass in order to plan feasible paths. We address traversability estimation as a heightmap classification problem: we build a convolutional neural network that, given an image representing the heightmap of a terrain patch, predicts whether the robot will be able to traverse such patch from left to right. The classifier is trained for a specific robot model (wheeled, tracked, legged, snake-like) using simulation data on procedurally generated training terrains; the trained classifier can be applied to unseen large heightmaps to yield oriented traversability maps, and then plan traversable paths. We extensively evaluate the approach in simulation on six real-world elevation datasets, and run a real-robot validation in one indoor and one outdoor environment.Comment: Webpage: http://romarcg.xyz/traversability_estimation

Preparing for CAFTA-DR: The Need of Commercial Law Reform in Central America

This article explores the policies, laws and institutions that may prevent Central American States from exploiting the opportunities provided by the CAFTA-DR. In that sense, we examine several of the legal factors that appear to be important in determining economic growth as they apply to the commercial legal conditions of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua

Informal Economy: Is It a Problem, a Solution or Both? The Perspective of the Informal Business

This paper deals with the informal economy. For many it is a solution, for others it is a problem. What can the law do to incorporate the informal economy into the formal economy? Does it really matter? What are the challenges

HIV Vaccines: Progress, Limitations and a CRISPR/Cas9 Vaccine

ABSTRACT: The HIV-1 pandemic continues to thrive due to ineffective HIV-1 vaccines. Historically, the world’s most infectious diseases, such as polio and smallpox, have been eradicated or have come close to eradication due to the advent of effective vaccines. Highly active antiretroviral therapy is able to delay the onset of AIDS but can neither rid the body of HIV-1 proviral DNA nor prevent further transmission. A prophylactic vaccine that prevents the various mechanisms HIV-1 has to evade and attack our immune system is needed to end the HIV-1 pandemic. Recent advances in engineered nuclease systems, like the CRISPR/Cas9 system, have given rise to novel gene editing treatment options for HIV-1. In this proposed study, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was used alongside the ALVAC vaccine to determine whether the vaccine combination can effectively cleave HIV-1 DNA and prevent HIV-1 infection in mouse epithelial cells in the cervix in-vivo. This vaccine not only has the potential to immunize individuals but can also have therapeutic effects. It is hypothesized that the CRISPR/Cas9 plasmid will be successfully expressed inside most, if not all, cervical epithelial cells and the subsequent Cas9/gRNA activity will cleave all HIV-1 DNA encountered

Multiple Sensor Fusion and Classification for Moving Object Detection and Tracking

International audience—The accurate detection and classification of moving objects is a critical aspect of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). We believe that by including the objects classification from multiple sensors detections as a key component of the object's representation and the perception process, we can improve the perceived model of the environment. First, we define a composite object representation to include class information in the core object's description. Second , we propose a complete perception fusion architecture based on the Evidential framework to solve the Detection and Tracking of Moving Objects (DATMO) problem by integrating the composite representation and uncertainty management. Finally, we integrate our fusion approach in a real-time application inside a vehicle demonstrator from the interactIVe IP European project which includes three main sensors: radar, lidar and camera. We test our fusion approach using real data from different driving scenarios and focusing on four objects of interest: pedestrian, bike, car and truck

“ESTADO ACTUAL DE LOS ANTIBIÓTICOS” (REVISIÓN DE LA LITERATURA)

Habitualmente los antibióticos son considerados uno de los más importantes descubrimientos terapéuticos de la historia de la medicina. En la actualidad es prácticamente imposible que alguien pase la vida sin haber recibido algún tipo de antibiótic

Teacher as Social Context (TASC) questionnaire in the Spanish setting:Teacher version

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónTítulo, resumen y palabras clave en inglés y españolSe realiza por primera vez la construcción o adaptación de una versión en español del cuestionario Teacher as Social Context (TASC). Se incluyó una muestra de 410 profesores de educación secundaria en España. Se realizó un análisis factorial confirmatorio utilizando la estimación de máxima verosimilitud; la invarianza factorial de la versión española del cuestionario TASC entre géneros se analizó utilizando un análisis factorial confirmatorio multigrupo. Por último, se realizaron análisis correlacionales entre las tres escalas TASC (participación, estructura y apoyo a la autonomía) y el compromiso conductual y emocional. Los resultados de esta investigación confirmaron la estructura del instrumento original manteniendo las tres dimensiones básicas. El modelo de medición también demostró ser invariable en función del género. Además, sustenta la suposición de que la percepción de los profesores sobre su propia actividad en relación con la satisfacción de las necesidades psicológicas básicas de los estudiantes muestra una relación con el compromiso emocional y conductual de estos, siendo la implicación de los profesores la dimensión más determinante.ES