Molecular biomarkers for fish welfare and species authentication.

Aquaculture is currently contributing almost half of fish consumed by the human population and it keeps growing more rapidly than other animal food production sectors. The introduction of molecular techniques, such as various genome projects, gene expression analysis and functional genomics, and the monitoring of stress levels through very early indicators such as molecular biomarkers, can bring considerable benefits to the quantity and quality of production and improve welfare of reared animals. Moreover in recent years, some teleost species have become model organisms, such as zebrafish and pufferfish, and the knowledge about them could be transferred to further improve reared animals and husbandry. Therefore, species of interest in aquaculture could, in turn, become new animal models. In this context, we looked for a new molecular biomarker for stress in Dicentrarchus labrax. Stress could involve alterations of brain functioning that may precipitate to mood disorders. The neurotrophin Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) has recently been involved in stress-induced adaptation. BDNF is a key regulator of neuronal plasticity and adaptive processes. Regulation of BDNF is complex and may reflect not only stressspecific mechanisms, but also hormonal and emotional responses. For this reason, we used, as an animal model of stress, a fish, D. labrax, whose brain organization is very similar to that of higher vertebrates, but is generally considered free of emotional reactions. We provide, for the first time in a species of great interest in aquaculture, a comprehensive characterization of BDNF gene and its transcriptional, translational and post-translational regulation following acute stress. While total BDNF mRNA levels are unchanged, BDNF splicing variants 1c and 1d resulted down regulated after acute stress. Acute stress induces also a significant increase in proBDNF levels and reduction in mature BDNF suggesting altered regulation of proBDNF proteolytic processing. Notably, we provide here the first evidence that fishes possess a simplified proteolytic regulation of BDNF since the pro28kDa form, generated by the SKI-1 protease in mammals, is absent in fishes. The cleavage site, in fact, has first emerged in reptilians. Finally, we show that the proBDNF/totBDNF ratio is a highly predictive novel quantitative biomarker to detect stress in fishes with sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 87%, and Negative Predictive Value = 100%. The high predictivity of proBDNF/totBDNF ratio for stress in lower vertebrates indicates that processing of BDNF is a central mechanism in adaptation to stress and predicts that a similar regulation of pro/mature BDNF has likely been conserved throughout evolution of vertebrates from fish to man. The second part of this thesis is focused on the problem of seafood and fish species authentication. This is an important issue within the seafood industry to protect consumers from fraudulent practices, like species substitution, resulting from the increasingly wide diversification of species and globalization of fish trade. DNA-based methods for species identification are by far the best: they are generally based on PCR amplification of a target sequence, followed by a post-PCR analysis of amplified products, which could consist in sequencing or obtaining species-specific patterns of restriction fragments. The gene coding for the 5S ribosomal RNA is a suitable target for fish species identification because, for its particular sequence features, it does not require any further treatment after PCR. This gene consists of a small coding conserved region and a variable region of noncoding DNA, which is termed not transcribed spacer (NTS). Both regions are tandem repeated in the genome. The NTS, which is species-specific for length and sequence, has been used, here, to discriminate species subjected to substitution in the Italian fish market. Although preliminary, our results have demonstrated the value of this approach

Lead generation and communication strategies for Targomo GMBH

More and more importance has been given to the customers’ role in communication strategies in the recent years. Especially in the high tech industry, the increasingly fast pace of innovation has made it vital to understand the customers’ needs and motives. This is crucial in order to base lead generation creation processes and therefore better communicate with the market (Derunova and Semenov, 2013). Buyer personas are archetypes of real buyers which allow marketers to craft strategies to promote services and products. The term has become almost a marketing mantra, but buyer personas also involve the sales department and the concept of lead generation (Adele Ravella, 2015). This paper aims to collect the knowledge required for the subsequent development of buyer personas for each of the solutions of the tech start-up Targomo. Creating personas aims to better embody the behaviours, pain points, goals, and characteristics of real customers or target audiences (Junior and Filgueiras, 2005). The aim of this paper is therefore to collect the information required to subsequently implement the personas in the context of Targomo. Hence, they can later be used as a tool for developing the company’s communication strategy. Moreover, the knowledge acquired can also be applied to the wider context of communication strategy. This is especially beneficial, as the existing academic literature on the topic of buyer personas remains extremely scarce.Mais e mais importância foi dada ao papel dos clientes nas estratégias de comunicação nos últimos anos. Especialmente na indústria de alta tecnologia, o ritmo cada vez mais rápido da inovação tornou essencial entender as necessidades e os motivos dos clientes. Isto é crucial para basear os processos de criação de geração de leads e, portanto, se comunicar melhor com o mercado (Derunova and Semenov, 2013). As personas dos compradores são arquétipos de compradores reais que permitem aos profissionais de marketing elaborar estratégias para promover serviços e produtos. O termo tornou-se quase um mantra de marketing, mas as personas dos compradores também envolvem o departamento de vendas e o conceito de geração de leads (Adele Ravella, 2015). Este artigo tem como objetivo coletar o conhecimento necessário para o desenvolvimento subsequente de personas de compradores para cada uma das soluções da Targomo, uma startup de tecnologia. A criação de personas visa incorporar melhor os comportamentos, pontos problemáticos, objetivos e características de clientes reais ou públicos-alvo (Junior and Filgueiras, 2005). O objetivo deste artigo é, portanto, recolher informação necessária para implementar posteriormente as personas no contexto da Targomo. Posteriormente, podem ser usadas como uma ferramenta para o desenvolvimento da estratégia de comunicação da empresa. Além disso, o conhecimento adquirido também pode ser aplicado ao contexto mais amplo da estratégia de comunicação. Isso é especialmente benéfico, pois a literatura acadêmica existente sobre o tema das personas dos compradores permanece extremamente escassa

Molecular biomarkers for fish welfare and species authentication.

Aquaculture is currently contributing almost half of fish consumed by the human population and it keeps growing more rapidly than other animal food production sectors. The introduction of molecular techniques, such as various genome projects, gene expression analysis and functional genomics, and the monitoring of stress levels through very early indicators such as molecular biomarkers, can bring considerable benefits to the quantity and quality of production and improve welfare of reared animals. Moreover in recent years, some teleost species have become model organisms, such as zebrafish and pufferfish, and the knowledge about them could be transferred to further improve reared animals and husbandry. Therefore, species of interest in aquaculture could, in turn, become new animal models. In this context, we looked for a new molecular biomarker for stress in Dicentrarchus labrax. Stress could involve alterations of brain functioning that may precipitate to mood disorders. The neurotrophin Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) has recently been involved in stress-induced adaptation. BDNF is a key regulator of neuronal plasticity and adaptive processes. Regulation of BDNF is complex and may reflect not only stressspecific mechanisms, but also hormonal and emotional responses. For this reason, we used, as an animal model of stress, a fish, D. labrax, whose brain organization is very similar to that of higher vertebrates, but is generally considered free of emotional reactions. We provide, for the first time in a species of great interest in aquaculture, a comprehensive characterization of BDNF gene and its transcriptional, translational and post-translational regulation following acute stress. While total BDNF mRNA levels are unchanged, BDNF splicing variants 1c and 1d resulted down regulated after acute stress. Acute stress induces also a significant increase in proBDNF levels and reduction in mature BDNF suggesting altered regulation of proBDNF proteolytic processing. Notably, we provide here the first evidence that fishes possess a simplified proteolytic regulation of BDNF since the pro28kDa form, generated by the SKI-1 protease in mammals, is absent in fishes. The cleavage site, in fact, has first emerged in reptilians. Finally, we show that the proBDNF/totBDNF ratio is a highly predictive novel quantitative biomarker to detect stress in fishes with sensitivity = 100%, specificity = 87%, and Negative Predictive Value = 100%. The high predictivity of proBDNF/totBDNF ratio for stress in lower vertebrates indicates that processing of BDNF is a central mechanism in adaptation to stress and predicts that a similar regulation of pro/mature BDNF has likely been conserved throughout evolution of vertebrates from fish to man. The second part of this thesis is focused on the problem of seafood and fish species authentication. This is an important issue within the seafood industry to protect consumers from fraudulent practices, like species substitution, resulting from the increasingly wide diversification of species and globalization of fish trade. DNA-based methods for species identification are by far the best: they are generally based on PCR amplification of a target sequence, followed by a post-PCR analysis of amplified products, which could consist in sequencing or obtaining species-specific patterns of restriction fragments. The gene coding for the 5S ribosomal RNA is a suitable target for fish species identification because, for its particular sequence features, it does not require any further treatment after PCR. This gene consists of a small coding conserved region and a variable region of noncoding DNA, which is termed not transcribed spacer (NTS). Both regions are tandem repeated in the genome. The NTS, which is species-specific for length and sequence, has been used, here, to discriminate species subjected to substitution in the Italian fish market. Although preliminary, our results have demonstrated the value of this approach

Geometrically rational real conic bundles and very transitive actions

In this article we study the transitivity of the group of automorphisms of real algebraic surfaces. We characterize real algebraic surfaces with very transitive automorphism groups. We give applications to the classification of real algebraic models of compact surfaces: these applications yield new insight into the geometry of the real locus, proving several surprising facts on this geometry. This geometry can be thought of as a half-way point between the biregular and birational geometries.Comment: Compositio Mathematica (2010) To appea

Análise do registro hospitalar de câncer infanto-juvenil de um centro de referência em Santa Catarina no período de 1999-2003

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Curso de Medicina. Departamento de Pediatria

Smooth and Analytic Salutions for Analytic Linear System

Sin resume

Los Estados y la producción de energía nuclear: el debate sobre los riesgos y beneficios vinculados a esta práctica

El presente artículo aborda el debate en torno a uno de los usos pacíficos de la tecnología nuclear, la producción de energía. La Agencia Internacional de la Energía Atómica ha reportado que, a finales de 2015, treinta países utilizaban energía nucleoeléctrica para abastecer sus economías. Sin embargo, la situación de esta fuente energética en los distintos países ha sufrido alteraciones a lo largo de las décadas. En el desarrollo del texto se da cuenta de los argumentos más frecuentemente invocados a favor y en contra de esta práctica, en virtud de sus riesgos y beneficios. Por un lado, se hace referencia a la relación de la actividad nuclear con el concepto de “riesgo socialmente producido”. Por el otro, se mencionan las ventajas de la misma en comparación con otras fuentes de energía, particularmente, su papel en la reducción de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Finalmente, se destaca la incidencia de estos argumentos en el desarrollo nuclear de determinados países. En particular, se contraponen algunos casos relevantes de países asiáticos y europeos.Departamento de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo.Instituto de Relaciones Internacionale