Dormancy within Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms: an immunoproteomic characterization

Dormant bacteria within biofilms contribute to biofilm heterogeneity. Consequently, physiological heterogeneity of biofilms may influence host immune response and tolerance to antibiotics. Recently, we described an in vitro model to modulate dormancy in S. epidermidis biofilms. Here, we present a study based on immunoproteomics, where we compared the reactive profile of S. epidermidis biofilm proteins with prevented and induced dormancy, to human sera. A total of 19 immunoreactive proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF. Most of these proteins present molecular functions, such as catalytic activity and ion binding. CodY and GpmA proteins were more reactive to sera when biofilm dormancy was induced, while FtnA and ClpP were more reactive when dormancy was prevented. This is the first work identifying protein immunoreactivity differences between bacterial biofilms with induced or prevented dormancy. Considering the importance of dormancy within biofilms, further studies on these proteins may provide insights into the mechanisms related to dormancy and help improving current understanding on how dormancy affects the host immune response

Numerical Simulations of Astrophysical Jets from Keplerian Disks with Periodic Ejection

We present 2.5-dimensional time-dependent simulations of nonrelativistic and nonradiative outflows from sinusoidally perturbed Keplerian accretion disks. A sinusoidal perturbation is introduced in the velocity of the gas ejected from the surface of the disk into a cold corona. In the simulations, the disk is a fixed boundary from which the gas is ejected with a pulsed velocity. The maximum value of this velocity is taken to be a thousandth of the local Keplerian disk velocity. It was found that for large periods, the structures in the jet tend to fragment into smaller substructures. For small values of the period, the structures tend to dissipate, while for medium values of the period, they tend to persist.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figures (by e-mail to [email protected]), accepted for publication in Ap

Por que o trabalhador livre nacional não foi aproveitado durante a escravidão? Notas sobre a história do trabalho

On the basis of data about the Province of São Paulo in the period from de 1864 to 1888, the article discusses, in a preliminary way, reasons for the non-utilization of national free workers on a large scale during the slavery period, even after the cessation of the transatlantic traffic of Africans to Brazil. Key words: national free worker, slavery, slave, civilization, colonization, politics, economy, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Empire.A partir de dados sobre a Província de São Paulo no período de 1864 até 1888, pretendemos, de forma preliminar, encaminhar respostas do porquê da não utilização em grande escala do trabalhador livre nacional durante a escravidão, mesmo depois da cessação do tráfico transatlântico de africanos para o Brasil. Palavras-chave: trabalhador livre nacional, escravidão, escravo, civilização, colonização, política, economia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Império

Characterisation of Portuguese RC precast industrial building stock

The construction of a vulnerability model requires reliable information on the features of the buildings in the study. The purpose of this work is the characterisation of the precast industrial buildings in Portuguese industrial park, based on the survey of 73 design projects of existing buildings. The collected data are based on a previous study on the features that influence the seismic response of this type of buildings. The parameters collected are associated with the global geometry and specific elements characteristics (e.g., column dimensions, reinforcement ratios, and connections details), to the mechanical properties of the materials and other parameters that can give some important information in the characterisation of the buildings (e.g., construction year and localization). In the end, a comparison with other available databases, namely, from Italy and Turkey, is done in order to conclude about the similarity. This information is important to define representative experimental specimens and numerical simulation to conduce seismic risk analysis.publishe

Abordagem computacional para a identificação de elementos cis-regulatórios no genoma da soja.

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Abordagem computacional para a identificação de elementos cis-regulatóriso no genoma da soja.

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Protein Electrophoresis in Saliva Study

The following sections will give an overview about the use of electrophoresis in saliva studies. Methodological issues and the major advantages and limitations for the use of this technique in human and animal saliva studies will be presented. We will finish the chapter by presenting alternatives to electrophoresis for the study of salivary proteome

Biological implications of differential expression of mitochondrial-shaping proteins in Parkinson’s disease

It has long been accepted that mitochondrial function and morphology is affected in Parkinson’s disease, and that mitochondrial function can be directly related to its morphology. So far, mitochondrial morphological alterations studies, in the context of this neurodegenerative disease, have been performed through microscopic methodologies. The goal of the present work is to address if the modifications in the mitochondrial-shaping proteins occurring in this disorder have implications in other cellular pathways, which might constitute important pathways for the disease progression. To do so, we conducted a novel approach through a thorough exploration of the available proteomics-based studies in the context of Parkinson’s disease. The analysis provided insight into the altered biological pathways affected by changes in the expression of mitochondrial-shaping proteins via different bioinformatic tools. Unexpectedly, we observed that the mitochondrial-shaping proteins altered in the context of Parkinson’s disease are, in the vast majority, related to the organization of the mitochondrial cristae. Conversely, in the studies that have resorted to microscopy-based techniques, the most widely reported alteration in the context of this disorder is mitochondria fragmentation. Cristae membrane organization is pivotal for mitochondrial ATP production, and changes in their morphology have a direct impact on the organization and function of the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes. To understand which biological processes are affected by the alteration of these proteins we analyzed the binding partners of the mitochondrial-shaping proteins that were found altered in Parkinson’s disease. We showed that the binding partners fall into seven different cellular components, which include mitochondria, proteasome, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER), amongst others. It is noteworthy that, by evaluating the biological process in which these modified proteins are involved, we showed that they are related to the production and metabolism of ATP, immune response, cytoskeleton alteration, and oxidative stress, amongst others. In summary, with our bioinformatics approach using the data on the modified proteins in Parkinson’s disease patients, we were able to relate the alteration of mitochondrial-shaping proteins to modifications of crucial cellular pathways affected in this disease.This work was financed by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/ Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the projects “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274), iBiMED (UID/BIM/04501/2013) and UnIC (UID/IC/00051/2013) research units, the COST ACTION CA15203, and the Investigator Grant to Rui Vitorino (IF/00286/2015). Ana Freitas acknowledges FCT for her Ph.D. scholarship (SFRH/BD/111423/2015), as does Sofia C. Guimaraes (SFRH/BPD/122920/2016), and Miguel Aroso (SFRH/BPD/123261/2016). Sara Rocha was founded by the project Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000008 -Porto Neurosciences and Neurologic Disease Research Initiative at I3S, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)”

Immunoproteomic analysis of Plasmodium falciparum antigens using sera from patients with clinical history of imported malaria.

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