Gene & Genome Duplication in Acanthamoeba Polyphaga Mimivirus

Gene duplication is key to molecular evolution in all three domains of life and may be the first step in the emergence of new gene function. It is a well recognized feature in large DNA viruses, but has not been studied extensively in the largest known virus to date, the recently discovered Acanthamoeba Polyphaga Mimivirus. Here we present a systematic analysis of gene and genome duplication events in the Mimivirus genome. We find that one third of the Mimivirus genes are related to at least one other gene in the Mimivirus genome, either through a large segmental genome duplication event that occurred in the more remote past, either through more recent gene duplication events, which often occur in tandem. This shows that gene and genome duplication played a major role in shaping the Mimivirus genome. Using multiple alignments together with remote homology detection methods based on Hidden Markov Model comparison, we assign putative functions to some of the paralogous gene families. We suggest that a large part of the duplicated Mimivirus gene families are likely to interfere with important host cell processes, such as transcription control, protein degradation, and cell regulatory processes. Our findings support the view that large DNA viruses are complex evolving organisms, possibly deeply rooted within the tree of life, and oppose the paradigm that viral evolution is dominated by lateral gene acquisition, at least in what concerns large DNA viruses

Sistematização da assistência de enfermagem: gestantes em uma Unidade Básica de Saúde Vale do Taquari

A sistematização de Assistência de Enfermagem é uma maneira de melhorar qualidade da assistência prestada aos clientes, é um método que organiza, sistematiza e direciona as etapas do processo de cuidar (1). A pesquisa tem como objetivo geral implantar a assistência de enfermagem visando a integralidade e a humanização no cuidado na Atenção Básica a gestante. Trata-se uma pesquisa de natureza descritiva- exploratória, com abordagem qualitativa dos dados. A análise de dados seguiu o método proposto por Bardin (2) e foi classificada em cinco categorias: Um A percepção da gestante do atendimento da equipe de enfermagem; Dois A equipe faz um planejamento para as próximas consultas; Três Qual a melhora no atendimento do pré-natal; Quatro A equipe proporciona educação e saúde; Cinco Confiança no trabalho da equipe; Concluímos que a equipe de enfermagem tem um papel importante para orientar e apoiar às gestantes e sua família desde a concepção até o parto.La sistematización de la asistencia de enfermería es una manera de mejorar la calidad de la asistencia prestada a los clientes, es un método que organiza, sistematiza y direcciona las etapas del proceso de cuidar (1). La investigación tiene como objetivo general implantar la asistencia de enfermería pretendiendo la integralidad y humanización en el cuidado en la atención básica a la gestante. Se trata de una encuesta de naturaleza descriptiva-exploratoria, con abordaje cualitativa de los datos. El análisis de datos siguió un método propuesto por Bardin (2) y fue clasificada en cinco categorías: uno La percepción de la gestante del atendimiento del equipo de enfermería, dos El equipo hace un planeamiento para las próximas consultas, tres Cuál la mejora en el atendimiento del prenatal, cuatro El equipo proporciona educación y salud, cinco Confianza en el trabajo de equipo, concluimos que el equipo de enfermería tiene un papel importante para orientar y apoyar las gestantes y su familia desde la concepción hacia el parto

Multi-scale directional-filtering-based method for follicular lymphoma grading

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a group of malignancies of lymphocyte origin that arise from lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow in the lymphatic system. It is the second most common non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Characteristic of FL is the presence of follicle center B cells consisting of centrocytes and centroblasts. Typically, FL images are graded by an expert manually counting the centroblasts in an image. This is time consuming. In this paper, we present a novel multi-scale directional filtering scheme and utilize it to classify FL images into different grades. Instead of counting the centroblasts individually, we classify the texture formed by centroblasts. We apply our multi-scale directional filtering scheme in two scales and along eight orientations, and use the mean and the standard deviation of each filter output as feature parameters. For classification, we use support vector machines with the radial basis function kernel. We map the features into two dimensions using linear discriminant analysis prior to classification. Experimental results are presented

Phydbac "Gene Function Predictor" : a gene annotation tool based on genomic context analysis

BACKGROUND: The large amount of completely sequenced genomes allows genomic context analysis to predict reliable functional associations between prokaryotic proteins. Major methods rely on the fact that genes encoding physically interacting partners or members of shared metabolic pathways tend to be proximate on the genome, to evolve in a correlated manner and to be fused as a single sequence in another organism. RESULTS: The new "Gene Function Predictor", linked to the web server Phydbac proposes putative associations between Escherichia coli K-12 proteins derived from a combination of these methods. We show that associations made by this tool are more accurate than linkages found in the other established databases. Predicted assignments to GO categories, based on pre-existing functional annotations of associated proteins are also available. This new database currently holds 9,379 pairwise links at an expected success rate of at least 80%, the 6,466 functional predictions to GO terms derived from these links having a level of accuracy higher than 70%. CONCLUSION: The "Gene Function Predictor" is an automatic tool that aims to help biologists by providing them hypothetical functional predictions out of genomic context characteristics. The "Gene Function predictor" is available at

Logical Reasoning in Formal and Everyday Reasoning Tasks

Logical reasoning is of great societal importance and, as stressed by the twenty-first century skills framework, also seen as a key aspect for the development of critical thinking. This study aims at exploring secondary school students’ logical reasoning strategies in formal reasoning and everyday reasoning tasks. With task-based interviews among 4 16- and 17-year-old pre-university students, we explored their reasoning strategies and the reasoning difficulties they encounter. In this article, we present results from linear ordering tasks, tasks with invalid syllogisms and a task with implicit reasoning in a newspaper article. The linear ordering tasks and the tasks with invalid syllogisms are presented formally (with symbols) and non-formally in ordinary language (without symbols). In tasks that were familiar to our students, they used rule-based reasoning strategies and provided correct answers although their initial interpretation differed. In tasks that were unfamiliar to our students, they almost always used informal interpretations and their answers were influenced by their own knowledge. When working on the newspaper article task, the students did not use strong formal schemes, which could have provided a clear overview. At the end of the article, we present a scheme showing which reasoning strategies are used by students in different types of tasks. This scheme might increase teachers’ awareness of the variety in reasoning strategies and can guide classroom discourse during courses on logical reasoning. We suggest that using suitable formalisations and visualisations might structure and improve students’ reasoning as well

Student Development in Logical Reasoning:Results of an Intervention Guiding Students Through Different Modes of Visual and Formal Representation

Due to growing interest in twenty-first-century skills, and critical thinking as a key element, logical reasoning is gaining increasing attention in mathematics curricula in secondary education. In this study, we report on an analysis of video recordings of student discussions in one class of seven students who were taught with a specially designed course in logical reasoning for non-science students (12th graders). During the course of 10 lessons, students worked on a diversity of logical reasoning tasks: both closed tasks where all premises were provided and everyday reasoning tasks with implicit premises. The structure of the course focused on linking different modes of representation (enactive, iconic, and symbolic), based on the model of concreteness fading (Fyfe et al., 2014). Results show that students easily link concrete situations to certain iconic referents, such as formal (letter) symbols, but need more practice for others, such as Venn and Euler diagrams. We also show that the link with the symbolic mode, i.e. an interpretation with more general and abstract models, is not that strong. This might be due to the limited time spent on further practice. However, in the transition from concrete to symbolic via the iconic mode, students may take a step back to a visual representation, which shows that working on such links is useful for all students. Overall, we conclude that the model of concreteness fading can support education in logical reasoning. One recommendation is to devote sufficient time to establishing links between different types of referents and representations