Effects of insemination and blood-feeding on locomotor activity of Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) females under laboratory conditions

Background\ud Dengue is an arbovirus disease transmitted by two Aedes mosquitoes: Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Virgin females of these two species generally show a bimodal and diurnal pattern of activity, with early morning and late afternoon peaks. Although some studies on the flight activity of virgin, inseminated and blood-fed Ae. aegypti females have been carried out under laboratory conditions, little is known about the effects of such physiological states on the locomotor activity of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females. The aim of this study was to analyze, under laboratory conditions, the effects of insemination and blood-feeding on the locomotor activity of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females under LD 12:12, at 25°C.\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud Both Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females were obtained from established laboratory colonies. Control groups were represented by virgin/unfed Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females. Experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions, using an activity monitor that registers individual activity every thirty minutes.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud Virgin/unfed Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females showed a diurnal and bimodal pattern of locomotor activity, with peaks at early morning and late afternoon. Insemination and blood-feeding significantly decreased the locomotor activity of Ae. aegypti females, but inseminated/blood-fed Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus females showed a similar significant decrease on the locomotor activity compared to virgin/unfed females.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud This study is the first demonstration of the effects of insemination and blood-feeding on the locomotor activity of Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females under artificial conditions. Data suggest that Ae. albopictus and Ae. aegypti females respond in different ways to physiological status changes and such divergence between these two dengue vectors, associated with several ecological differences, could be related to the greater dengue vectorial capacity of Ae. aegypti in Americas in comparison to Ae. albopictus.HHMIFiocruzFaperjCNP

Análise de impactos da metodologia de estimativa da porosidade em reservas de petróleo por meio de simulação de Monte Carlo

In many papers dealing with estimation of oil reserves, engineers usually assume that well porosity can be modeled as a Gaussian distribution, that is, under this assumption the expected value of porosity can be estimated from the average porosity values from well log and petrophysical data. But, other distributions can be used to model local porosity when Gaussian distribution cannot fit sample data. In this paper, using actual porosity data of a 3-NA-002-RJS well from the Campos Basin, it is shown that for a selected interval, the logistic distribution fits the data better than other distributions and its expected value should be used to estimate the well porosities of the entire population. In such cases, as numerical analysis shows, using arithmetic mean instead of expected value may give rise to errors. The data shows that using an average as porosity estimator will overestimate the P90 and underestimate the P10 estimates.Nos trabalhos de estimativa de reservas de petróleo, geralmente, assume-se que a variável aleatória porosidade do reservatório se distribui de acordo com o modelo Gaussiano. Desse modo, assume-se que o valor esperado da distribuição pode ser estimado por meio da média aritmética dos valores de porosidade obtidos a partir de análises de perfilagens e plugs em nível de poço. Isso implica que a distribuição Gaussiana é a melhor escolha para a modelagem dos dados dessa variável, mas nem sempre essa premissa é verdadeira. Nesse trabalho, ao se utilizarem dados reais de porosidade de uma camada de rocha reservatório do poço 3-NA-002-RJS da bacia de Campos, mostra-se que a distribuição logística é a que melhor se ajusta aos dados amostrais. Em tais casos, como ilustra a análise numérica, pode-se cometer erros significativos ao selecionar a média aritmética amostral como sendo o estimador da média populacional. Os resultados apontam que o uso inadequado do tipo de distribuição pode gerar impactos significativos nas estimativas das reservas recuperáveis, observando-se que a média aritmética tende a subestimar o P90 e a superavaliar o P10.239246Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

SARAVÁ: data sharing for online communities in P2P

International audienceThis paper describes SARAVÁ, a research project that aims at investigating new challenges in P2P data sharing for online communities. The major advantage of P2P is a completely decentralized approach to data sharing which does not require centralized administration. Users may be in high numbers and interested in different kinds of collaboration and sharing their knowledge, ideas, experiences, etc. Data sources can be in high numbers, fairly autonomous, i.e. locally owned and controlled, and highly heterogeneous with different semantics and structures. Our project deals with new, decentralized data management techniques that scale up while addressing the autonomy, dynamic behavior and heterogeneity of both users and data sources. In this context, we focus on two major problems: query processing with uncertain data and management of scientific workflows

Exploratory Behavior, Trap Models and Glass Transitions

A random walk is performed on a disordered landscape composed of $N$ sites randomly and uniformly distributed inside a $d$-dimensional hypercube. The walker hops from one site to another with probability proportional to $\exp [- \beta E(D)]$, where $\beta = 1/T$ is the inverse of a formal temperature and $E(D)$ is an arbitrary cost function which depends on the hop distance $D$. Analytic results indicate that, if $E(D) = D^{d}$ and $N \to \infty$, there exists a glass transition at $\beta_d = \pi^{d/2}/\Gamma(d/2 + 1)$. Below $T_d$, the average trapping time diverges and the system falls into an out-of-equilibrium regime with aging phenomena. A L\'evy flight scenario and applications to exploratory behavior are considered.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, new versio

Contribution from Tree Legumes to Mixed Grass-Legume Pastures

Legumes and associated microorganisms may fix N from atmosphere and benefit grass on mixed grass-legume pastures. Nitrogen may be transferred by different mechanisms, including direct transfer of N compounds by roots, decomposition of nodules, roots, litter from legume (Nair 1993), and through animal excreta after legume intake by cattle. Silvopastoral systems including tree legumes may become a viable option in tropical regions, considering the increasing prices of N fertilizers compared to farm products such as beef and milk. This experiment evaluated legume contribution on mixed grass-legume pastures in the coastal region of Pernambuco State, Brazil

Renal tubular dysfunction in patients with American cutaneous leishmaniasis

Renal dysfunction seen in patients with American cutaneous leishmaniasis (ACL) has been attributed to the use of antimonials for treatment. To determine whether ACL itself causes tubular dysfunction, we measured renal function in 37 patients with ACL prior to their treatment and compared results to that in 10 healthy volunteers of similar mean age. None of the patients presented with glomerular dysfunction; however, 27 had a urinary concentrating defect. There was no statistical difference between groups in the pre- and post-desmopressin test of urine osmolality, but the post-test urine osmolality of the controls was significantly higher. Urinary AQP2 levels, determined by western blot of isolated exosomes, were found to be significantly lower in patients than in controls, whereas that of the cotransporter (NKCC2) was significantly higher. A urinary acidification defect (post-test pH greater than 5.50 following calcium chloride) was found in 15 patients. Pretest plasma bicarbonate was below normal in 12 patients as was the pretest plasma pH in 14. Expression of the Na/H exchanger (NHE3), H+-ATPase, and pendrin were all significantly higher in patients with ACL than in controls. A combined urinary concentration and acidification defect was found in 12 patients. Thus, the urinary concentrating defect of ACL may be caused by decreased AQP2, with increased NKCC2 compensatory. Pendrin upregulation may be related to the urinary acidification defect with increased NHE3 and H+-ATPase also compensatory. Hence, ACL can cause asymptomatic renal tubular dysfunction

A New Mouse Model for Marfan Syndrome Presents Phenotypic Variability Associated with the Genetic Background and Overall Levels of Fbn1 Expression

Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease of connective tissue caused by mutations in the fibrillin-1 encoding gene FBN1. Patients present cardiovascular, ocular and skeletal manifestations, and although being fully penetrant, MFS is characterized by a wide clinical variability both within and between families. Here we describe a new mouse model of MFS that recapitulates the clinical heterogeneity of the syndrome in humans. Heterozygotes for the mutant Fbn1 allele mgΔloxPneo, carrying the same internal deletion of exons 19–24 as the mgΔ mouse model, present defective microfibrillar deposition, emphysema, deterioration of aortic wall and kyphosis. However, the onset of a clinical phenotypes is earlier in the 129/Sv than in C57BL/6 background, indicating the existence of genetic modifiers of MFS between these two mouse strains. In addition, we characterized a wide clinical variability within the 129/Sv congenic heterozygotes, suggesting involvement of epigenetic factors in disease severity. Finally, we show a strong negative correlation between overall levels of Fbn1 expression and the severity of the phenotypes, corroborating the suggested protective role of normal fibrillin-1 in MFS pathogenesis, and supporting the development of therapies based on increasing Fbn1 expression