A deep insight into the sialome of male and female aedes aegypti mosquitoes

Only adult female mosquitoes feed on blood, while both genders take sugar meals. Accordingly, several compounds associated with blood feeding (i.e. vasodilators, anti-clotting, anti-platelets) are found only in female glands, while enzymes associated with sugar feeding or antimicrobials (such as lysozyme) are found in the glands of both sexes. We performed de novo assembly of reads from adult Aedes aegypti female and male salivary gland libraries (285 and 90 million reads, respectively). By mapping back the reads to the assembled contigs, plus mapping the reads from a publicly available Ae. aegypti library from adult whole bodies, we identified 360 transcripts (including splice variants and alleles) overexpressed tenfold or more in the glands when compared to whole bodies. Moreover, among these, 207 were overexpressed fivefold or more in female vs. male salivary glands, 85 were near equally expressed and 68 were overexpressed in male glands. We call in particular the attention to C-type lectins, angiopoietins, female-specific Antigen 5, the 9.7 kDa, 12–14 kDa, 23.5 kDa, 62/34 kDa, 4.2 kDa, proline-rich peptide, SG8, 8.7 kDa family and SGS fragments: these polypeptides are all of unknown function, but due to their overexpression in female salivary glands and putative secretory nature they are expected to affect host physiology. We have also found many transposons (some of which novel) and several endogenous viral transcripts (probably acquired by horizontal transfer) which are overexpressed in the salivary glands and may play some role in tissue-specific gene regulation or represent a mechanism of virus interference. This work contributes to a near definitive catalog of male and female salivary gland transcripts from Ae. aegypti, which will help to direct further studies aiming at the functional characterization of the many transcripts with unknown function and the understanding of their role in vector-host interaction and pathogen transmission

A deeper insight into the sialome of male and female Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes

Introduction: During evolution, blood-feeding arthropods developed a complex salivary mixture that can interfere with host haemostatic and immune response, favoring blood acquisition and pathogen transmission. Therefore, a survey of the salivary gland contents can lead to the identification of molecules with potent pharmacological activity in addition to increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the hematophagic behaviour of arthropods. The southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, is a vector of several pathogenic agents, including viruses and filarial parasites that can affect humans and wild animals. Results: Previously, a Sanger-based transcriptome of the salivary glands (sialome) of adult C. quinquefasciatus females was published based on the sequencing of 503 clones organized into 281 clusters. Here, we revisited the southern mosquito sialome using an Illumina-based RNA-sequencing approach of both male and female salivary glands. Our analysis resulted in the identification of 7,539 coding DNA sequences (CDS) that were functionally annotated into 25 classes, in addition to 159 long non-coding RNA (LncRNA). Additionally, comparison of male and female libraries allowed the identification of female-enriched transcripts that are potentially related to blood acquisition and/or pathogen transmission. Conclusion: Together, these findings represent an extended reference for the identification and characterization of the proteins containing relevant pharmacological activity in the salivary glands of C. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes.This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Division of Intramural Research (AI001246 and AI000810), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH). This work utilized the computational resources of the NIH HPC Biowulf cluster (http://hpc.nih.gov). Open Access funding provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).S

As novas regras de solvência e seu impacto no equilíbrio financeiro e atuarial dos fundos de pensão do Brasil

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso (graduação)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Administração, Contabilidade, Economia e Gestão de Políticas Públicas, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis e Atuariais, 2017.O Conselho Nacional de Previdência Complementar (CNPC) vem instituindo normas para modificar as regras que tratam da solvência dos fundos de pensão em vigor. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo tem como objetivo avaliar o impacto dessas novas regras de solvência instituídas pelo CNPC no equilíbrio financeiro e atuarial dos fundos de pensão brasileiros. Para tratar a questão da pesquisa, foram analisadas as demonstrações contábeis e atuariais dos 323 planos de fundos de pensão classificados como de benefício definido existentes no Brasil, buscando informações relacionadas à duração do passivo (duration), equilíbrio técnico, ajuste de precificação, equilíbrio técnico ajustado e provisão matemática, relativos ao exercício de 2015. Em seguida, foram calculados os limites de solvência em 160 planos de fundos de pensão que se encontravam com todas as informações necessárias disponíveis em seus respectivos sítios eletrônicos, comparando as regras atuais com as antigas regras de cada plano. Os achados do estudo mostram que considerando a duration do plano ao invés de parâmetros fixos, os limites de solvência apresentaram valores nominais em média 1,6% menores em relação aos planos deficitários e 2,6% menores em relação aos planos superavitários. O valor equacionado também mudou, passando a ser obrigatória apenas a diferença excedente ao limite do déficit do plano, resultando em valores nominais 45,86% menores. Em relação à destinação do superávit excedente à reserva de contingência, as novas regras impactaram em 6,76% a maior no valor a ser distribuído pelos planos analisados

Sand dunes on mars and on earth

In this work the dune model introduced by Sauermann et al. (2001) is extended and applied to investigate the formation of different dune shapes on Mars and on Earth as function of wind directionality and sand availability. The formation of sand dunes on Mars under the present atmospheric conditions of the red planet is studied and conclusions about wind speed, migration velocity of dunes and changing wind regimes on Mars are presented. Field measurements of the shape of coastal transverse dunes are presented and the formation of coastal dune fields is explained. Finally, the formation of linear dunes by bimodal wind regimes is calculated. The simulations explain the appearance of exotic bimodal dune shapes in areas of low sand availability on Mars and on Earth.thesi

Generating attribute grammar-based bidirectional transformations from rewrite rules

Higher order attribute grammars provide a convenient means for specifying uni-directional transformations, but they provide no direct support for bidirectional transformations. In this paper we show how rewrite rules (with non-linear right hand sides) that specify a forward/get transformation can be inverted to specify a partial backward/put transformation. These inverted rewrite rules can then be extended with additional rules based on characteristics of the source language grammar and forward transformations to create, under certain circumstances, a total backward transformation. Finally, these rules are used to generate attribute grammar specifications implementing both transformations.This work is partly funded by the following projects: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the program COMPETE, project reference FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-020532, by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2 - O Novo Norte); under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the ERDF, project reference RL3 SENSING NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000058; by the Portuguese Government through FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology); by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) award No. 0905581 and 1047961; and by the FLAD/NSF program Portugal-U.S. Research Networks 2011

Gas mixing system for imaging of nanomaterials under dynamic environments by environmental transmission electron microscopy

A gas mixing manifold system that is capable of delivering a stable pressure stream of a desired composition of gases into an environmental transmission electron microscope has been developed. The system is designed to provide a stable imaging environment upon changes of either the composition of the gas mixture or upon switching from one gas to another. The design of the system is described and the response of the pressure inside the microscope, the sample temperature, and sample drift in response to flow and composition changes of the system are reported. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC