Mosquitoes cloak their legs to resist insecticides

Malaria incidence has halved since the year 2000, with 80% of the reduction attributable to the use of insecticides. However, insecticide resistance is now widespread, is rapidly increasing in spectrum and intensity across Africa, and may be contributing to the increase of malaria incidence in 2018. The role of detoxification enzymes and target site mutations has been documented in the major malaria vector Anopheles gambiae; however, the emergence of striking resistant phenotypes suggests the occurrence of additional mechanisms. By comparing legs, the most relevant insect tissue for insecticide uptake, we show that resistant mosquitoes largely remodel their leg cuticles via enhanced deposition of cuticular proteins and chitin, corroborating a leg-thickening phenotype. Moreover, we show that resistant female mosquitoes seal their leg cuticles with higher total and different relative amounts of cuticular hydrocarbons, compared with susceptible ones. The structural and functional alterations in Anopheles female mosquito legs are associated with a reduced uptake of insecticides, substantially contributing to the resistance phenotype.Fil: Balabanidou, Vasileia. Institute of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology. Foundation For Research And Technology; GreciaFil: Kefi, Mary. University of Crete; Grecia. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; GreciaFil: Aivaliotis, Michalis. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; Grecia. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; GreciaFil: Koidou, Venetia. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; Grecia. University of Crete; GreciaFil: Girotti, Juan Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Mijailovsky, Sergio Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Patricia Juárez, M.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner". Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de La Plata "Prof. Dr. Rodolfo R. Brenner"; ArgentinaFil: Papadogiorgaki, Eva. University of Crete; GreciaFil: Chalepakis, George. University of Crete; GreciaFil: Kampouraki, Anastasia. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; Grecia. Agricultural University of Athens; GreciaFil: Nikolaou, Christoforos. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; Grecia. University of Crete; GreciaFil: Ranson, Hilary. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; Reino UnidoFil: Vontas, John. Institute Of Molecular Biology And Biotechnology, Foundation For Research And Technology; Grecia. Agricultural University of Athens; Greci

Texture Analysis and Radial Basis Function Approximation for IVUS Image Segmentation

>Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has become in the last years an important tool in both clinical and research applications. The detection of lumen and media-adventitia borders in IVUS images represents a first necessary step in the utilization of the IVUS data for the 3D reconstruction of human coronary arteries and the reliable quantitative assessment of the atherosclerotic lesions. To serve this goal, a fully automated technique for the detection of lumen and media-adventitia boundaries has been developed. This comprises two different steps for contour initialization, one for each corresponding contour of interest, based on the results of texture analysis, and a procedure for approximating the initialization results with smooth continuous curves. A multilevel Discrete Wavelet Frames decomposition is used for texture analysis, whereas Radial Basis Function approximation is employed for producing smooth contours. The proposed method shows promising results compared to a previous approach for texture-based IVUS image analysis

Immunological synapse formation between T regulatory cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes tumour development

Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have emerged as a dominant non-hematopoietic cell population in the tumour microenvironment, serving diverse functions in tumour progression. However, the mechanisms via which CAFs influence the anti-tumour immunity remain poorly understood. Here, using multiple tumour models and biopsies from cancer patients, we report that α-SMA+ CAFs can form immunological synapses with Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in tumours. Notably, α-SMA+ CAFs can phagocytose and process tumour antigens and exhibit a tolerogenic phenotype which instructs movement arrest, activation and proliferation in Tregs in an antigen-specific manner. Moreover, α-SMA+ CAFs display double-membrane structures resembling autophagosomes in their cytoplasm. Single-cell transcriptomic data showed an enrichment in autophagy and antigen processing/presentation pathways in α-SMA-expressing CAF clusters. Conditional knockout of Atg5 in α-SMA+ CAFs promoted inflammatory re-programming in CAFs, reduced Treg cell infiltration and attenuated tumour development. Overall, our findings reveal an immunosuppressive mechanism entailing the formation of synapses between α-SMA+ CAFs and Tregs in an autophagy-dependent manner

Two-Level Automatic Adaptation of a Distributed User Profile for Personalized News Content Delivery

This paper presents a distributed client-server architecture for the personalized delivery of textual news content to mobile users. The user profile consists of two separate models, that is, the long-term interests are stored in a skeleton profile on the server and the short-term interests in a detailed profile in the handset. The user profile enables a high-level filtering of available news content on the server, followed by matching of detailed user preferences in the handset. The highest rated items are recommended to the user, by employing an efficient ranking process. The paper focuses on a two-level learning process, which is employed on the client side in order to automatically update both user profile models. It involves the use of machine learning algorithms applied to the implicit and explicit user feedback. The system's learning performance has been systematically evaluated based on data collected from regular system users

Darier's disease complicated by Kaposi's varicelliform eruption due to herpes simplex virus

Darier’s disease is an autosomal dominant dermatosis. It may rarely be complicated by localized or widespread cutaneous viral infections. We describe a case of Kaposi’s varicelliform eruption due to herpes simplex virus type 1 presenting in a patient with Darier’s disease

Μοντελοποίηση της υδρολογίας της λεκάνης απορροής του ποταμού Μύρτου

Περίληψη: Η λεκάνη απορροής του ποταμού Μύρτου βρίσκεται στο νότιο – δυτικό τμήμα του Νομού Λασιθίου, στη νήσο Κρήτη. Εκτείνεται από τη νότια πλευρά του όρους Δίκτυ έως το Λιβυκό πέλαγος κι έχει επιφάνεια 96 km2. Η ιδιαιτερότητα της συγκεκριμένης περιοχής είναι ότι στις όχθες του ποταμού Μύρτου συγκεντρώνεται μεγάλος αριθμός από θερμοκήπια. Το γεγονός αυτό, σε συνδυασμό με το ότι οι κύριες δραστηριότητες της περιοχής είναι κτηνοτροφικές και γεωργικές και συνεπώς η σημασία των υδατικών ποσοτήτων είναι υψηλή, οδήγησε στην ανάγκη περεταίρω διερεύνησης του υδρολογικού ισοζυγίου του εν λόγω ποταμού. Πραγματοποιήθηκε εφαρμογή του ημι-κατανεμημένου μοντέλου λεκάνης απορροής, Soil and Water Assesment Tool (SWAT 2012), σε συνδυασμό με περιβάλλον ΓΣΠ (GIS), προκειμένου να μοντελοποιηθεί η υδρολογική απόκριση της λεκάνης απορροής. Αρχικά, η περιοχή διαιρέθηκε σε 17 υπολεκάνες και 125 υδρολογικές μονάδες απόκρισης (HRUs) με αυτοματοποιημένη διαδικασία και χρησιμοποιήθηκαν ημερήσια και συνεχή μετεωρολογικά δεδομένα από πέντε μετεωρολογικούς και βροχομετρικούς σταθμούς, καθώς επίσης και δεδομένα γεωλογίας και χρήσεων γης. Ακολούθησε η βαθμονόμηση του μοντέλου για τα υδρολογικά έτη 1976-1981 και η ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων. Η αποτελεσματικότητα του μοντέλου ελέγχθηκε με χρήση διαφόρων στατιστικών δεικτών, όπως οι RMSE, NSE, RSR και PBIAS και η προσομοίωση που έγινε ήταν σχετικά ικανοποιητική. Τέλος, δημιουργήθηκαν και παρουσιάστηκαν τα συνολικά υδρολογικά ισοζύγια για σαράντα έτη (1969-2009)