Dry electrodes for physiological monitoring

Subject preparation and application of sprayed dry electrodes for physiological monitorin

Estação de tratamento de dejetos de suínos (ETDS) como alternativa na redução do impacto ambiental da suinocultura.

bitstream/item/58122/1/CUsersPiazzonDocuments452.pd

Differential genomic imprinting regulates paracrine and autocrine roles of IGF2 in mouse adult neurogenesis.

Genomic imprinting is implicated in the control of gene dosage in neurogenic niches. Here we address the importance of Igf2 imprinting for murine adult neurogenesis in the subventricular zone (SVZ) and in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus in vivo. In the SVZ, paracrine IGF2 is a cerebrospinal fluid and endothelial-derived neurogenic factor requiring biallelic expression, with mutants having reduced activation of the stem cell pool and impaired olfactory bulb neurogenesis. In contrast, Igf2 is imprinted in the hippocampus acting as an autocrine factor expressed in neural stem cells (NSCs) solely from the paternal allele. Conditional mutagenesis of Igf2 in blood vessels confirms that endothelial-derived IGF2 contributes to NSC maintenance in SVZ but not in the SGZ, and that this is regulated by the biallelic expression of IGF2 in the vascular compartment. Our findings indicate that a regulatory decision to imprint or not is a functionally important mechanism of transcriptional dosage control in adult neurogenesis.This work was supported by grants from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF2012-40107), Generalitat Valenciana (Programa ACOMP2014-258) and Fundación BBVA to SRF and grants from the MRC, Wellcome Trust and EU FP7 Ingenium Training Network to AFS. AW and TRM were supported by the Association for International Cancer Research and Medical Research Council, UK.SRF was a recipient of a Herchel-Smith fellowship and currently is a Ramón y Cajal investigator. ADM is funded by a Spanish FPU fellowship program of the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. AR was from the Erasmus Placement Program.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms926

Custos e receitas do tratamento e reuso de efluentes da suinocultura.

bitstream/item/224528/1/final9655.pd

Lablab purpureus—A Crop Lost for Africa?

In recent years, so-called ‘lost crops’ have been appraised in a number of reviews, among them Lablab purpureus in the context of African vegetable species. This crop cannot truly be considered ‘lost’ because worldwide more than 150 common names are applied to it. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper aims to put forward four theses, (i) Lablab is one of the most diverse domesticated legume species and has multiple uses. Although its largest agro-morphological diversity occurs in South Asia, its origin appears to be Africa. (ii) Crop improvement in South Asia is based on limited genetic diversity. (iii) The restricted research and development performed in Africa focuses either on improving forage or soil properties mostly through one popular cultivar, Rongai, while the available diversity of lablab in Africa might be under threat of genetic erosion. (iv) Lablab is better adapted to drought than common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) or cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), both of which have been preferred to lablab in African agricultural production systems. Lablab might offer comparable opportunities for African agriculture in the view of global change. Its wide potential for adaptation throughout eastern and southern Africa is shown with a GIS (geographic information systems) approach

The Cercal Organ May Provide Singing Tettigoniids a Backup Sensory System for the Detection of Eavesdropping Bats

Conspicuous signals, such as the calling songs of tettigoniids, are intended to attract mates but may also unintentionally attract predators. Among them bats that listen to prey-generated sounds constitute a predation pressure for many acoustically communicating insects as well as frogs. As an adaptation to protect against bat predation many insect species evolved auditory sensitivity to bat-emitted echolocation signals. Recently, the European mouse-eared bat species Myotis myotis and M. blythii oxygnathus were found to eavesdrop on calling songs of the tettigoniid Tettigonia cantans. These gleaning bats emit rather faint echolocation signals when approaching prey and singing insects may have difficulty detecting acoustic predator-related signals. The aim of this study was to determine (1) if loud self-generated sound produced by European tettigoniids impairs the detection of pulsed ultrasound and (2) if wind-sensors on the cercal organ function as a sensory backup system for bat detection in tettigoniids. We addressed these questions by combining a behavioral approach to study the response of two European tettigoniid species to pulsed ultrasound, together with an electrophysiological approach to record the activity of wind-sensitive interneurons during real attacks of the European mouse-eared bat species Myotis myotis. Results showed that singing T. cantans males did not respond to sequences of ultrasound pulses, whereas singing T. viridissima did respond with predominantly brief song pauses when ultrasound pulses fell into silent intervals or were coincident with the production of soft hemi-syllables. This result, however, strongly depended on ambient temperature with a lower probability for song interruption observable at 21°C compared to 28°C. Using extracellular recordings, dorsal giant interneurons of tettigoniids were shown to fire regular bursts in response to attacking bats. Between the first response of wind-sensitive interneurons and contact, a mean time lag of 860 ms was found. This time interval corresponds to a bat-to-prey distance of ca. 72 cm. This result demonstrates the efficiency of the cercal system of tettigoniids in detecting attacking bats and suggests this sensory system to be particularly valuable for singing insects that are targeted by eavesdropping bats