Malaria in pregnant women living in areas of low transmission on the southeast Brazilian Coast: molecular diagnosis and humoural immunity profile

Studies on autochthonous malaria in low-transmission areas in Brazil have acquired epidemiological relevance because they suggest continued transmission in what remains of the Atlantic Forest. In the southeastern portion of the state of São Paulo, outbreaks in the municipality of Juquitiba have been the focus of studies on the prevalence of Plasmodium, including asymptomatic cases. Data on the occurrence of the disease or the presence of antiplasmodial antibodies in pregnant women from this region have not previously been described. Although Plasmodium falciparum in pregnant women has been widely addressed in the literature, the interaction of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium malariae with this cohort has been poorly explored to date. We monitored the circulation of Plasmodium in pregnant women in health facilities located in Juquitiba using thick blood film and molecular protocols, as well as immunological assays, to evaluate humoural immune parameters. Through real-time and nested polymerase chain reaction, P. vivax and P. malariae were detected for the first time in pregnant women, with a positivity of 5.6%. Immunoassays revealed the presence of IgG antibodies: 44% for ELISA-Pv, 38.4% for SD-Bioline-Pv and 18.4% for indirect immunofluorescence assay-Pm. The high prevalence of antibodies showed significant exposure of this population to Plasmodium. In regions with similar profiles, testing for a malaria diagnosis might be indicated in prenatal care.

Frequency and effects of meeting health behaviour guidelines among adolescents.

Background: To assess the relationship between overweight status and the concomitant adherence to physical activity, daily screen time and nutritional guidelines. Methods: Data were derived from the Swiss Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey 2006. Participants (n = 8130, 48.7% girls) were divided into two groups: normal weight (n = 7215, 44.8% girls) and overweight (n = 915, 34.8% girls), using self-reported height and weight. Groups were compared on adherence to physical activity, screen time and nutritional guidelines. Bivariate analyses were carried out followed by multivariate analyses using normal-weight individuals as the reference category. Results: Regardless of gender, overweight individuals reported more screen time, less physical activity and less concomitant adherence to guidelines. For boys, the multivariate analysis showed that any amount exceeding screen time recommendations was associated with increased odds of being overweight [>2-4 h: adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.40; >4-6 h: AOR = 1.48; >6 h: AOR = 1.83]. A similar relation was found for any amount below physical activity recommendations (4-6 times a week: AOR = 1.67; 2-3 times a week: AOR = 1.87; once a week or less: AOR = 2.1). For girls, not meeting nutritional guidelines was less likely among overweight individuals (0-2 recommendations: AOR = 0.54). Regardless of weight status, more than half of the adolescents did not comply with any guideline and <2% met all three at the same time. Conclusions: Meeting current nutritional, physical activity and screen time guidelines should be encouraged with respect to overweight. However, as extremely low rates of concomitant adherence were found regardless of weight status, their achievability is questionable (especially for nutrition), which warrants further research to better adapt them to adolescents.

Time resolved construction of a bimodal laccolith (Torres del Paine, Patagonia)

Granitic and mafic magma pulses were sequentially accreted in the spectacularly exposed shallow crustal Torres del Paine laccolith, in southern Patagonia. This 12.5 Ma pluton forms a composite intrusion with a subvertical feeding system in the west and a laccolith in the east. A key unknown in the formation of sill complexes is how individual magma pulses are assembled over time and the geometry and localization of their feeding system. High resolution zircon CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb dating shows that the laccolith grew first by under-accretion of granitic sills over 90 +/- 30 ka, linked to a `sheet-like' feeding system, followed by underplating of mafic sills after similar to 20 ka of quiescence. In the mafic sills complex, individual sills were injected by over-accretion during 41 +/- 11 ka. Our data show that successive granitic and mafic magmas emplacement generated a volume of similar to 88 km(3) in 162 +/- 11 ka. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of the Paracoccidioides brasiliensis14-3-3 and gp43 proteins on the induction of apoptosis in A549 epithelial cells

The fungal strain Paracoccidioides brasiliensisremains viable inside of epithelial cells and can induce apoptosis in this population. However, until now, the molecules that participate in this process remained unknown. Thus, this study evaluated the contribution of two P. brasiliensismolecules, the 14-3-3 and glycoprotein of 43 kDa proteins, which had been previously described as extracellular matrix adhesins and apoptosis inductors in human pneumocytes. Accordingly, epithelial cells were treated with these molecules for different periods of time and the expression of the apoptosis regulating-proteins Bak, Bax, Bcl-2, p53 and caspases were evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labelling, flow cytometry and real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. Our results demonstrated that treatment with these molecules induces apoptosis signalling in pulmonary epithelial cells, showing the same pattern of programmed cell-death as that observed during infection with P. brasiliensis. Thus, we could conclude that P. brasiliensisuses these molecules as virulence factors that participate not only in the fungal adhesion process to host cells, but also in other important cellular mechanisms such as apoptosis.

On optimal learning schedules and the marginal value of cumulative cultural evolution.

The age-dependent choice between expressing individual learning (IL) or social learning (SL) affects cumulative cultural evolution. A learning schedule in which SL precedes IL is supportive of cumulative culture because the amount of nongenetically encoded adaptive information acquired by previous generations can be absorbed by an individual and augmented. Devoting time and energy to learning, however, reduces the resources available for other life-history components. Learning schedules and life history thus coevolve. Here, we analyze a model where individuals may have up to three distinct life stages: "infants" using IL or oblique SL, "juveniles" implementing IL or horizontal SL, and adults obtaining material resources with learned information. We study the dynamic allocation of IL and SL within life stages and how this coevolves with the length of the learning stages. Although no learning may be evolutionary stable, we find conditions where cumulative cultural evolution can be selected for. In that case, the evolutionary stable learning schedule causes individuals to use oblique SL during infancy and a mixture between IL and horizontal SL when juvenile. We also find that the selected pattern of oblique SL increases the amount of information in the population, but horizontal SL does not do so.

Evolution of the correlation between expression divergence and protein divergence in mammals.

Divergence of protein sequences and gene expression patterns are two fundamental mechanisms that generate organismal diversity. Here, we have used genome and transcriptome data from eight mammals and one bird to study the positive correlation of these two processes throughout mammalian evolution. We demonstrate that the correlation is stable over time and most pronounced in neural tissues, which indicates that it is the result of strong negative selection. The correlation is not driven by genes with specific functions and may instead best be viewed as an evolutionary default state, which can nevertheless be evaded by certain gene types. In particular, genes with developmental and neural functions are skewed toward changes in gene expression, consistent with selection against pleiotropic effects associated with changes in protein sequences. Surprisingly, we find that the correlation between expression divergence and protein divergence is not explained by between-gene variation in expression level, tissue specificity, protein connectivity, or other investigated gene characteristics, suggesting that it arises independently of these gene traits. The selective constraints on protein sequences and gene expression patterns also fluctuate in a coordinate manner across phylogenetic branches: We find that gene-specific changes in the rate of protein evolution in a specific mammalian lineage tend to be accompanied by similar changes in the rate of expression evolution. Taken together, our findings highlight many new aspects of the correlation between protein divergence and expression divergence, and attest to its role as a fundamental property of mammalian genome evolution.

Excision of the Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) and its crucial role in the horizontal transfer of methicillin resistance in staphylococci.

Staphylococcus aureus est un pathogène humain majeur ayant développé des résistances contre la quasi totalité des antibiotiques disponibles, incluant la très importante famille des β- lactamines. La résistance à cette classe d'antibiotiques est conférée par la « Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec » (SCCmec), qui est un élément génétique mobile capable de s'insérer dans le chromosome bactérien et capable d'être transféré horizontalement chez d'autres staphylocoques. Le mécanisme moléculaire impliqué dans ce transfert horizontal demeure largement inconnu. L'une des premières étapes du transfert est l'excision du SCC mec du chromosome bactérien. Cette excision est promue par des enzymes codées par l'élément SCCmec lui- même et appelées de ce fait « Cassette Chromosome Recombinases » (Ccr). L'un des buts de ce travail de thèse a été de comprendre la régulation de l'expression des gènes codant pour les Ccr recombinases. En utilisant des outils moléculaires originaux, nous avons été en mesure de démontrer en premier lieu que les Ccr recombinases étaient exprimées de façon « bistable », c'est à dire qu'uniquement quelques pourcents de cellules dans une population exprimaient ces gènes à un temps donné. Dans un deuxième temps, nous avons également démontré que l'expression de ces gènes était régulée par des facteurs étrangers au SCC mec. L'expression bistable des recombinases est un concept important. Effectivement, cela permet à la majorité des cellules d'une population de conserver l'élément SCC mec, alors que seulement une petite fraction le perd afin de le rendre disponible pour un transfert. Ainsi, alors que l'élément SCC mec continue de se propager avec la multiplication des bactéries Staphylococcus aureus résistant à la méticilline (SARM), il peut être simultanément transmis à des souches susceptibles (Staphylococcus aureus susceptible à la méticilline, SASM), entraînant l'apparition de nouveaux SARM. De façon très intéressante, le fait que cette bistabilité est contrôlée par les bactéries, et non le SCCmec lui-même, montre que la décision de transférer ou non la cassette SCC mec appartient à la bactérie. En conséquence, il doit exister dans la nature des souches qui sont plus ou moins aptes à effectuer ce transfert. En nous appuyant sur ces observations, nous avons montré que l'excision du SCC mec était effectivement régulée de façon très étroite au cours de la division cellulaire, et ne se passait que pendant un temps limité au début de la croissance. Ce résultat est compatible avec une régulation génétique commandée par la densité cellulaire, qui pourrait être dépendante de la production de signaux extracellulaires, du type que l'on rencontre dans le quorum sensing. Les signaux hypothétiques entraînant l'excision du SCC mec restent inconnus à l'heure actuelle. La connaissance de ces signaux pourrait se révéler très importante afin de développer des stratégies pour interférer avec la dissémination de la résistance au β-lactamines. Deux sujets additionnels ont été logiquement investigués au vu de ces premiers résultats. Premièrement, si certaines souches de SARM sont plus ou moins aptes à déclencher l'excision du SCC mec, de même certaines souches de SASM devraient être plus ou moins aptes à acquérir cet élément. Deuxièmement, afin d'étudier ces mécanismes de transfert au niveau épidémiologique, il nous a été nécessaire de développer des outils nous permettant d'explorer le phénomène à une plus large échelle. Concernant le premier point, il a été postulé que certains SASM seraient réfractaires à l'intégration génomique d'un SCC mec en raison de polymorphismes particuliers à proximité du site d'insertion chromosomique (attB). En étudiant plus de 40 isolais de S. aureus, provenant de porteurs sains, nous avons confirmé ce polymorphisme dans l'environnement à'attB. De plus, nous avons pu montrer que ces régions polymorphiques ont évolué parallèlement à des groupes phylogénétiques bien connus. Ainsi, si des telles régions réfractaires à l'intégration de SCC mec existent, celles-ci devraient ségréger dans des complexes clonaux bien définis qui devraient être facilement identifiables au niveau épidémiologique. Concernant le second point, nous avons été capables de construire un système rapporteur de l'excision du SCCmec, en utilisant un plasmide à faible copie. Ce système consistait en un promoteur fort et un gène codant pour une protéine verte fluorescente (GFP) sous le contrôle d'un promoteur fort séparés à l'aide d'un élément SCC artificiel portant trois terminateurs de transcription. Ainsi, la fluorescence ne s'exprime que si l'élément SCC est excisé du plasmide. Ce système a été testé avec succès dans plusieurs types de staphylocoques, et est actuellement évalué dans d'autres souches et conditions stimulant ou inhibant l'excision. De manière générale, cette dissertation représente parcours scientifique à travers plusieurs aspects d'un problème de santé publique majeur en rapport avec la résistance bactérienne aux antibiotiques. Ce travail s'attaque à des problèmes fondamentaux concernant le transfert horizontal de l'élément SCC mec. De plus, il s'intéresse à des aspects plus généraux de cet élément génétique mobile qui pourraient se révéler très importants en terme de mouvement de gènes au sein des staphylocoques, voir d'autres bactéries gram-positives. Finalement ce travail de thèse met en place le fondamentaux requis pour des recherches futures visant à interférer avec le transfert horizontal de la résistance aux β-lactamines. - Staphylococcus aureus is a major human pathogen. Moreover, S. aureus have developed resistance to almost all available antibiotics, including the important family of β-lactam molecules. Intrinsic resistance to β-lactams is conferred by the Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec), which is a mobile genomic island that inserts into the staphylococcal chromosome and can be horizontally transferred into other staphylococci. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms involved in this horizontal transfer into naïve strains. One of the first steps in SCC mec horizontal transfer is its excision from the chromosome. Excision is mediated by recombinase enzymes that are encoded by SCC mec itself, and named accordingly Ccr recombinases - for Cassette Chromosome recombinases. One goal of this thesis was to understand the regulation these recombinase genes. By using original molecular tools we could demonstrate first that the Ccr recombinases were expressed in a "bistable" manner, i.e. in only few percentages of the bacterial cells at a given time, and second that they were regulated by determinants that were not encoded on the SCC mec element, but elsewhere on the staphylococcal genome. "Bistable" expression Ccr recombinases is an important concept. It allows SCC mec to be excised and thus available for horizontal transfer, while ensuring that only some cells, but not the whole population, loose their valuable SCC mec genes. Thus, while the SCC mec element expands with the multiplication of the MRSA colony, it can simultaneously be transmitted into methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA), which convert into new MRSA. Most interestingly, the fact that bistability was regulated by the cells, rather than by SCC mec, indicates that it was the choice of the bacteria to trigger or not SCC mec transfer. As a consequence, there must be, in nature, staphylococcal strains that are more or less prone to sustain SCC mec transfer. Following these seminal observations we found that excision was indeed tightly regulated during bacterial division, and occurred only during a limited period of time at the beginning of bacterial growth. This is compatible with cell-density mediated gene regulation, and may depend on the production of extracellular signal molecules that transmit appropriate orders to neighboring cells, such as in quorum sensing. The potential signal triggering SCCmec excision is as yet unknown. However, it could be critical in promoting the horizontal transfer of methicillin resistance, or for the possible development of means to interfere with it. Two additional hypothesis were logically investigated in the view of these first results. First, if some strains of MRSA might be more prone than others to promote SCC mec excision, then some strains of MS SA might be more or less prone to acquire the element as well. Second, to investigate these multiple mechanisms at an epidemiological level, one would need to develop tools amenable to explore S. aureus strains at a larger scale. Regarding the first issue, it was postulated by others that some MSSA might be refractory to SCC mec integration because they had peculiar DNA polymorphisms in the vicinity of the site-specific chromosomal entry point {attB) of SCC mec. By studying >40 S. aureus isolates from healthy carriers, we confirmed the polymorphism of the attB environment. Moreover, we could show that these polymorphic regions co-evolved with well-known phylogenic clonal clusters. Therefore, if SCCwec-refractory attB environments exist, then they would segregate in well- defined S. aureus clonal clusters that would be easy to identify at the epidemiological level. Regarding the second issue, we were able to construct a new excision reporter system in a low copy number S. aureus plasmid. The reporter system consists in a strong promoter driving a green fluorescent protein {gfp) gene, separated by an artificial SCC-like element carrying three transcriptional terminators. Thus, fluorescence is not expressed unless the SCC-like element is excised. The system has been successfully tested in several aureus and non- aureus staphylococci, and is now being applied to more strains and various excision- triggering or inhibiting conditions. Altogether the dissertation is a scientific journey through various aspects of a salient medical problem with regard to antibiotic resistance and public health threat. The research work tackles fundamental issues about the mechanisms of horizontal transfer of the SCC mec element. Moreover, it also addresses more general features of this mobile element, which could be of larger importance with regard to gene trafficking in staphylococci, and maybe other gram-positive bacteria. Finally, the dissertation sets the fundamentals for future work and possible new ways to interfere with the horizontal transfer of methicillin resistance.

Fishery-induced selection on an Alpine whitefish: quantifying genetic and environmental effects on individual growth rate

Size-selective fishing, environmental changes and reproductive strategies are expected to affect life-history traits such as the individual growth rate. The relative contribution of these factors is not clear, particularly whether size-selective fishing can have a substantial impact on the genetics and hence on the evolution of individual growth rates in wild populations. We analysed a 25-year monitoring survey of an isolated population of the Alpine whitefish Coregonus palaea. We determined the selection differentials on growth rate, the actual change of growth rate over time and indicators of reproductive strategies that may potentially change over time. The selection differential can be reliably estimated in our study population because almost all the fish are harvested within their first years of life, i.e. few fish escape fishing mortality. We found a marked decline in average adult growth rate over the 25 years and a significant selection differential for adult growth, but no evidence for any linear change in reproductive strategies over time. Assuming that the heritability of growth in this whitefish corresponds to what was found in other salmonids, about a third of the observed decline in growth rate would be linked to fishery-induced evolution. Size-selective fishing seems to affect substantially the genetics of individual growth in our study population.

Intermittent atrial tachycardia promotes repolarization alternans and conduction slowing during rapid rates, and increases susceptibility to atrial fibrillation in a free-behaving sheep model.

INTRODUCTION: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) may be triggered by intermittent atrial tachycardia, and ultimately lead to persistent AF. However, the mechanisms by which intermittent atrial tachycardia promotes sustained AF are not well understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: Eight sheep were chronically implanted with 2 pacemakers for the recording of broadband right atrial unipolar electrograms, and for the delivery of electrophysiological stimulation protocols and intermittent right atrial tachycardia. Right atrial kinetics of activation recovery interval (ARI) as a surrogate for action potential duration, of conduction time and velocity, and of repolarization alternans were analyzed at incremental pacing rates during the remodeling process induced by weeks of intermittent atrial tachycardia until the development of sustained AF. Intermittent atrial tachycardia decreased ARI and blunted its rate adaptation, facilitated atrial capture, and slowed conduction at high rates, and increased susceptibility to pacing-induced AF. In spite of blunted ARI rate adaptation, right atrial repolarization alternans was maintained during remodeling, and further increased in magnitude just before rapid pacing-induced AF. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that weeks of intermittent right atrial tachycardia result in a gradual electrical remodeling favorable for wavebreaks and reentry that may facilitate fibrillation.

Knowledge management for systems biology a general and visually driven framework applied to translational medicine

Background: To enhance our understanding of complex biological systems like diseases we need to put all of the available data into context and use this to detect relations, pattern and rules which allow predictive hypotheses to be defined. Life science has become a data rich science with information about the behaviour of millions of entities like genes, chemical compounds, diseases, cell types and organs, which are organised in many different databases and/or spread throughout the literature. Existing knowledge such as genotype - phenotype relations or signal transduction pathways must be semantically integrated and dynamically organised into structured networks that are connected with clinical and experimental data. Different approaches to this challenge exist but so far none has proven entirely satisfactory. Results: To address this challenge we previously developed a generic knowledge management framework, BioXM™, which allows the dynamic, graphic generation of domain specific knowledge representation models based on specific objects and their relations supporting annotations and ontologies. Here we demonstrate the utility of BioXM for knowledge management in systems biology as part of the EU FP6 BioBridge project on translational approaches to chronic diseases. From clinical and experimental data, text-mining results and public databases we generate a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) knowledge base and demonstrate its use by mining specific molecular networks together with integrated clinical and experimental data. Conclusions: We generate the first semantically integrated COPD specific public knowledge base and find that for the integration of clinical and experimental data with pre-existing knowledge the configuration based set-up enabled by BioXM reduced implementation time and effort for the knowledge base compared to similar systems implemented as classical software development projects. The knowledgebase enables the retrieval of sub-networks including protein-protein interaction, pathway, gene - disease and gene - compound data which are used for subsequent data analysis, modelling and simulation. Pre-structured queries and reports enhance usability; establishing their use in everyday clinical settings requires further simplification with a browser based interface which is currently under development.

PPAR expression and function during vertebrate development.

The peroxisome proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand activated receptors which belong to the nuclear hormone receptor family. As with other members of this superfamily, it is thought that the ability of PPAR to bind to a ligand was acquired during metazoan evolution. Three different PPAR isotypes (PPARalpha, PPARbeta, also called 6, and PPARgamma) have been identified in various species. Upon binding to an activator, these receptors stimulate the expression of target genes implicated in important metabolic pathways. The present article is a review of PPAR expression and involvement in some aspects of Xenopus laevis and rodent embryonic development. PPARalpha and beta are ubiquitously expressed in Xenopus early embryos but become more tissue restricted later in development. In rodents, PPARalpha, PPARbeta and PPARgamma show specific time- and tissue-dependent patterns of expression during fetal development and in the adult animals. PPARs are implicated in several aspects of tissue differentiation and rodent development, such as differentiation of the adipose tissue, brain, placenta and skin. Particular attention is given to studies undertaken by us and others on the implication of PPARalpha and beta in rodent epidermal differentiation.

Historical Development and Applications of the EPIC and APEX Models, June 2005

The development of the field-scale Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) model was initiated in 1981 to support assessments of soil erosion impacts on soil productivity for soil, climate, and cropping conditions representative of a broad spectrum of U.S. agricultural production regions. The first major application of EPIC was a national analysis performed in support of the 1985 Resources Conservation Act (RCA) assessment. The model has continuously evolved since that time and has been applied for a wide range of field, regional, and national studies both in the U.S. and in other countries. The range of EPIC applications has also expanded greatly over that time, including studies of (1) surface runoff and leaching estimates of nitrogen and phosphorus losses from fertilizer and manure applications, (2) leaching and runoff from simulated pesticide applications, (3) soil erosion losses from wind erosion, (4) climate change impacts on crop yield and erosion, and (5) soil carbon sequestration assessments. The EPIC acronym now stands for Erosion Policy Impact Climate, to reflect the greater diversity of problems to which the model is currently applied. The Agricultural Policy EXtender (APEX) model is essentially a multi-field version of EPIC that was developed in the late 1990s to address environmental problems associated with livestock and other agricultural production systems on a whole-farm or small watershed basis. The APEX model also continues to evolve and to be utilized for a wide variety of environmental assessments. The historical development for both models will be presented, as well as example applications on several different scales.

Flow-R, a model for susceptibility mapping of debris flows and other gravitational hazards at a regional scale

The development of susceptibility maps for debris flows is of primary importance due to population pressure in hazardous zones. However, hazard assessment by processbased modelling at a regional scale is difficult due to the complex nature of the phenomenon, the variability of local controlling factors, and the uncertainty in modelling parameters. A regional assessment must consider a simplified approach that is not highly parameter dependant and that can provide zonation with minimum data requirements. A distributed empirical model has thus been developed for regional susceptibility assessments using essentially a digital elevation model (DEM). The model is called Flow-R for Flow path assessment of gravitational hazards at a Regional scale (available free of charge under www.flow-r.org) and has been successfully applied to different case studies in various countries with variable data quality. It provides a substantial basis for a preliminary susceptibility assessment at a regional scale. The model was also found relevant to assess other natural hazards such as rockfall, snow avalanches and floods. The model allows for automatic source area delineation, given user criteria, and for the assessment of the propagation extent based on various spreading algorithms and simple frictional laws.We developed a new spreading algorithm, an improved version of Holmgren's direction algorithm, that is less sensitive to small variations of the DEM and that is avoiding over-channelization, and so produces more realistic extents. The choices of the datasets and the algorithms are open to the user, which makes it compliant for various applications and dataset availability. Amongst the possible datasets, the DEM is the only one that is really needed for both the source area delineation and the propagation assessment; its quality is of major importance for the results accuracy. We consider a 10m DEM resolution as a good compromise between processing time and quality of results. However, valuable results have still been obtained on the basis of lower quality DEMs with 25m resolution.

Pathogen-induced hatching and population-specific life-history response to water-borne cues in brown trout (Salmo trutta)

Hatching is an important niche shift, and embryos in a wide range of taxa can either accelerate or delay this life-history switch in order to avoid stage-specific risks. Such behavior can occur in response to stress itself and to chemical cues that allow anticipation of stress. We studied the genetic organization of this phenotypic plasticity and tested whether there are differences among populations and across environments in order to learn more about the evolutionary potential of stress-induced hatching. As a study species, we chose the brown trout (Salmo trutta; Salmonidae). Gametes were collected from five natural populations (within one river network) and used for full-factorial in vitro fertilizations. The resulting embryos were either directly infected with Pseudomonas fluorescens or were exposed to waterborne cues from P. fluorescens-infected conspecifics. We found that direct inoculation with P. fluorescens increased embryonic mortality and induced hatching in all host populations. Exposure to waterborne cues revealed population-specific responses. We found significant additive genetic variation for hatching time, and genetic variation in trait plasticity. In conclusion, hatching is induced in response to infection and can be affected by waterborne cues of infection, but populations and families differ in their reaction to the latter.

PANACEA (Platform for Automatic, Normalised Annotation and Cost-Effective Acquisition of Language Resources for Human Language Technologies)

The objective of PANACEA is to build a factory of LRs that automates the stages involved in the acquisition, production, updating and maintenance of LRs required by MT systems and by other applications based on language technologies, and simplifies eventual issues regarding intellectual property rights. This automation will cut down the cost, time and human effort significantly. These reductions of costs and time are the only way to guarantee the continuous supply of LRs that MT and other language technologies will be demanding in the multilingual Europe.