Diferenciação genética entre procedências de açaizeiro por marcadores RAPD e SSR

Diferenciação genética refere-se à distribuição da variabilidade entre e dentro de populações, procedências ou outros tipos de agrupamentos. Seu conhecimento é importante para estabelecer estratégias de coleta, conservação e manejo de germoplasma de qualquer espécie. Neste trabalho, avaliou-se a diferenciação genética entre procedências de açaizeiro que compõem a coleção da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, por meio de marcadores RAPD e SSR. Para tanto, foram utilizados DNAs de 107 acessos, representantes de 17 regiões geográficas diferentes e utilizados em PCR com 28 primers RAPD e sete primers SSR. Os dados foram submetidos à análise de variância molecular (AMOVA) com estrutura hierárquica desbalanceada. Altos níveis de diferenciação genética foram registrados entre procedências, com 0,301 para o marcador dominante e 0,242 para o co-dominante. Para os dois marcadores, a AMOVA apresentou grande variabilidade dentro das procedências (acima de 69%). O pequeno tamanho amostral das procedências do Maranhão pode ter contribuído para a diferenciação significativa entre procedências. Os dados obtidos por esses marcadores foram concordantes quanto à distribuição da variação genética entre e dentro de procedências dessa palmeira.

Disponibilidade hídrica, radiação solar e fotossíntese em videiras 'Cabernet Sauvignon' sob cultivo protegido

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os efeitos da cobertura de videira 'Cabernet Sauvignon' com lona plástica translúcida sobre a disponibilidade de luz e água, a concentração foliar de clorofila e a fotossíntese. As plantas com cinco anos de idade foram conduzidas em sistema 'Y' sobre porta-enxerto Paulsen 1103. O experimento seguiu o delineamento em blocos ao acaso, com dois tratamentos (plantas sem e com cobertura plástica) e quatro repetições de 15 plantas (unidade experimental). A cobertura plástica reduziu o suprimento às plantas de radiações ultravioleta (UV), azul, verde, vermelho, vermelho distante e total (300-750 nm), bem como a disponibilidade hídrica nas camadas superficiais do solo (0-30 cm). As plantas cobertas apresentaram maior taxa fotossintética máxima e condutância estomática em relação às plantas descobertas. Os pontos de compensação e de saturação de luz, a eficiência quântica aparente, a respiração no escuro, a concentração foliar de clorofilas e o potencial hídrico foliar de base não foram influenciados pelo uso da cobertura plástica. A cobertura plástica reduziu a radiação e a disponibilidade hídrica nas camadas superficiais do solo, porém favoreceu a assimilação foliar de CO2.

Insertion of a malE B-Galactosidase fusion protein into the envelope of Escherichia coli disrupts biogenesis of outer membrane proteins and processing of inner membrane proteins

The synthesis of a membrane-bound MalE ,B-galactosidase hybrid protein, when induced by growth of Escherichia coli on maltose, leads to inhibition of cell division and eventually a reduced rate of mass increase. In addition, the relative rate of synthesis of outer membrane proteins, but not that of inner membrane proteins, was reduced by about 50%o. Kinetic experiments demonstrated that this reduction coincided with the period of maximum synthesis of the hybrid protein (and another maltose-inducible protein, LamB). The accumulation of this abnormal protein in the envelope therefore appeared specifically to inhibit the synthesis, the assembly of outer membrane proteins, or both, indicating that the hybrid protein blocks some export site or causes the sequestration of some limiting factor(s) involved in the export process. Since the MalE protein is normally located in the periplasm, the results also suggest that the synthesis of periplasmic and outer membrane proteins may involve some steps in common. The reduced rate of synthesis of outer membrane proteins was also accompanied by the accumulation in the envelope of at least one outer membrane protein and at least two inner membrane proteins as higher-molecular-weight forms, indicating that processing (removal of the N-terminal signal sequence) was also disrupted by the presence of the hybrid protein. These results may indicate that the assembly of these membrane proteins is blocked at a relatively late step rather than at the level of primary recognition of some site by the signal sequence. In addition, the results suggest that some step common to the biogenesis of quite different kinds of envelope protein is blocked by the presence of the hybrid protein.

Characterization and drying of caja bagasse (Spondias mombin L.) in a tray dryer using a factorial planning

The caja (Spondias mombin L.) is used in the manufacture of ice-cream, jams, pulps, beverages being also consumed in natura. One of the most important procedures in food conservation is drying, considering that most fresh fruits contain approximately 80% of water. Food drying is used to obtain two basic aspects: (1) the economic factor; in the shipping and handling of the product; (2) at the manipulation; once dried and grinded, the material is rehydrated, at desirable levels, to formulate a new product as in ice cream, jams, yoghurts and drinks and may also be added to pasta, biscuits and other industrialized products. The aim of this study was to investigate the kinetics of caja bagasse drying in a fixed-bed tray dryer, using central composite factorial planning. The following factors were evaluated: temperature (55, 65 and 75 ºC), dryer inlet air velocity (3.2, 4.6 and 6.0 m.s-1) and cake thickness (0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 cm) where the response of the considered variable was caja bagasse moisture content (b.s.) and the results showed that the main effects and their interactions were significant at a 95% confidence level being the best condition obtained at temperature of 75 ºC, velocity of 6.0 m.s-1 and cake thickness of 0.8 cm.

Adubação em vinhedo orgânico da cv. Isabel utilizando cinzas vegetais e esterco bovino

A busca por uma viticultura mais sustentável exige o estudo de fontes alternativas de nutrientes que causem menor impacto ambiental. Neste contexto, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o efeito de diferentes doses de cinzas vegetais e esterco bovino no desenvolvimento de videiras cv. Isabel. As doses utilizadas foram: 0; 750;1.500 e 2.250 g planta-1 de cinzas vegetais e 0; 5 e 10 kg planta-1 de esterco bovino, em esquema fatorial 4x3, com 12 tratamentos, cinco repetições e duas plantas por parcela. Nos dois primeiros ciclos de desenvolvimento vegetativo, foram avaliados o diâmetro dos ramos e o diâmetro do tronco e, no segundo ciclo, foi avaliado o índice de área foliar e realizadas as análises químicas de teores foliares de nutrientes. Houve efeitos positivos dos tratamentos para todas as variáveis estudadas, com mais evidência para as avaliações de índice de área foliar. De modo geral, para a maioria das variáveis, a dose de 5 kg planta-1 de esterco teve os melhores resultados, acrescido de 750 ou 1.500 g planta-1 de cinzas vegetais, ou o uso exclusivo de 10 kg planta-1de esterco bovino. No entanto, este último tratamento aumentou excessivamente o conteúdo de N, o que poderia ser prejudicial às plantas. Concluiu-se que as duas fontes podem ser usadas de maneira a suprir as exigências nutricionais de plantas jovens de videira, necessitando, dependendo das condições de solo, de uma suplementação com potássio e cálcio.

Atividade antioxidante, citotóxica e antimicrobiana de Annona vepretorum Mart. (Annonaceae)

Annona vepretorum Mart. é uma espécie endêmica do bioma Caatinga, conhecida no Nordeste do Brasil como "araticum". Neste trabalho, o conteúdo de fenóis totais foi determinado pelo método de Folin-Ciocalteu. O teor de flavonoides totais também foi medido. A atividade antioxidante dos extratos foi analisada pelos métodos do sequestro do radical DPPH e inibição da auto-oxidação do β-caroteno, e comparada com o ácido ascórbico, BHA e BHT, utilizados como compostos de referência. A análise de citotoxidade foi realizada frente a linhagens de células HCT-116, OVCAR-8 e SF-295. O efeito antibacteriano foi avaliado pelo método de microdiluição. O conteúdo de fenóis totais do extrato etanólico (Av-EtOH) foi de 76,60 ± 5,57 mg de equivalente de ácido gálico/g. O conteúdo de flavonoides foi de 194,50 ± 11,72 mg de equivalente de catequina/g para o extrato hexânico. O extrato EtOH exibiu boa atividade antioxidante (IC50 = 98,87 ± 11,24 mg/mL) no método do DPPH. Os extratos mostraram atividade citotóxica e antibacteriana contra a maior parte das células e microrganismos testados. Pesquisas adicionais serão realizadas para o isolamento e a identificação dos principais constituintes fenólicos dos extratos.

Atividade antioxidante e antimicrobiana de extratos de atemoia (Annona cherimola Mill. x A. squamosa L.)

O objetivo deste trabalho foi quantificar os teores de fenóis e flavonoides totais, bem como avaliar as atividades antioxidante e antimicrobiana de extratos obtidos dos talos e folhas de atemoia (A. cherimola Mill. x A. squamosa L.), que pertence à família Annonaceae. A atividade antioxidante foi avaliada pelos métodos de sequestro dos radicais 2,2-difenil-1-picrilhidrazil (DPPH) e 2,2'-azinobis-3-etilbenzotiazolina-6-ácido sulfônico (ABTS), bem como pelo método da cooxidação do β-caroteno/ácido linoleico. A avaliação da atividade antimicrobiana dos extratos foi analisada contra 10 cepas de bactérias. Os resultados da atividade antioxidante dos extratos mostraram que o extrato etanólico dos talos (EEt) foi o antioxidante mais efetivo (IC50 = 10,44 ± 1,25 µg/mL) no método do sequestro do DPPH, bem como no sequestro do radical ABTS (24,81 ± 0,49%). O extrato hexânico das folhas apresentou o melhor percentual de atividade antioxidante no ensaio do β-caroteno/ácido linoleico (41,12 ± 4,35%). Os extratos etanólico dos talos e metanólico das folhas mostraram-se ativos contra cepas de Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus resistente à meticilina (MRSA), Staphylococcus aureus e Staphylococcus epidermidis.

Directional dominance on stature and cognition in diverse human populations.

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders, and Darwin was one of the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness that is common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power. Here we use runs of homozygosity to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts, and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in one second, general cognitive ability and educational attainment (P < 1 × 10(-300), 2.1 × 10(-6), 2.5 × 10(-10) and 1.8 × 10(-10), respectively). In each case, increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months' less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing evidence that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been.

The Influence of Age and Sex on Genetic Associations with Adult Body Size and Shape: A Large-Scale Genome-Wide Interaction Study.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 100 genetic variants contributing to BMI, a measure of body size, or waist-to-hip ratio (adjusted for BMI, WHRadjBMI), a measure of body shape. Body size and shape change as people grow older and these changes differ substantially between men and women. To systematically screen for age- and/or sex-specific effects of genetic variants on BMI and WHRadjBMI, we performed meta-analyses of 114 studies (up to 320,485 individuals of European descent) with genome-wide chip and/or Metabochip data by the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits (GIANT) Consortium. Each study tested the association of up to ~2.8M SNPs with BMI and WHRadjBMI in four strata (men ≤50y, men >50y, women ≤50y, women >50y) and summary statistics were combined in stratum-specific meta-analyses. We then screened for variants that showed age-specific effects (G x AGE), sex-specific effects (G x SEX) or age-specific effects that differed between men and women (G x AGE x SEX). For BMI, we identified 15 loci (11 previously established for main effects, four novel) that showed significant (FDR<5%) age-specific effects, of which 11 had larger effects in younger (<50y) than in older adults (≥50y). No sex-dependent effects were identified for BMI. For WHRadjBMI, we identified 44 loci (27 previously established for main effects, 17 novel) with sex-specific effects, of which 28 showed larger effects in women than in men, five showed larger effects in men than in women, and 11 showed opposite effects between sexes. No age-dependent effects were identified for WHRadjBMI. This is the first genome-wide interaction meta-analysis to report convincing evidence of age-dependent genetic effects on BMI. In addition, we confirm the sex-specificity of genetic effects on WHRadjBMI. These results may provide further insights into the biology that underlies weight change with age or the sexually dimorphism of body shape.

Personality traits and psychopathology predict burnout symptoms after two years in a sample of Catalan police officers

The operational aspects of psychological assessment are well documented (e.g. Murphy and Davidshofer, 1994). Essentially, the process involves the administration of one or more valid psychological tests in order to assess a person’s suitability to a task or situation. The resulting data and report are then used by police psychologists to assist in determining the suitability of the applicant for police duties. In Catalunya, this task is carried out during basic training for police career agent in the evaluation of psychological conditions for the use of the weapon. Police work can be one of the most stressful jobs, and it frequently leads to the development of burnout syndrome. In their day-to-day tasks, police officers are constantly subjected to various stressors (de la Fuente, Aguayo, Vargas and Cañadas, 2013). The most widely accepted definition of the burnout syndrome is one that describes it as a response to chronic work stress made up of three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and low personal accomplishment (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Some studies showed that personality characteristics, and positive and negative affectivity explained significant variance in each of the burnout dimensions (Alarcon, Eschleman and Bowling, 2009).

The Coordinated Radio and Infrared Survey for High-mass Star Formation. II. Source Catalog

The CORNISH project is the highest resolution radio continuum survey of the Galactic plane to date. It is the 5 GHz radio continuum part of a series of multi-wavelength surveys that focus on the northern GLIMPSE region (10° < l < 65°), observed by the Spitzer satellite in the mid-infrared. Observations with the Very Large Array in B and BnA configurations have yielded a 1.''5 resolution Stokes I map with a root mean square noise level better than 0.4 mJy beam 1. Here we describe the data-processing methods and data characteristics, and present a new, uniform catalog of compact radio emission. This includes an implementation of automatic deconvolution that provides much more reliable imaging than standard CLEANing. A rigorous investigation of the noise characteristics and reliability of source detection has been carried out. We show that the survey is optimized to detect emission on size scales up to 14'' and for unresolved sources the catalog is more than 90% complete at a flux density of 3.9 mJy. We have detected 3062 sources above a 7σ detection limit and present their ensemble properties. The catalog is highly reliable away from regions containing poorly sampled extended emission, which comprise less than 2% of the survey area. Imaging problems have been mitigated by down-weighting the shortest spacings and potential artifacts flagged via a rigorous manual inspection with reference to the Spitzer infrared data. We present images of the most common source types found: H II regions, planetary nebulae, and radio galaxies. The CORNISH data and catalog are available online at http://cornish.leeds.ac.uk.

Helping formulate propositions in forensic DNA analysis

The Bayesian paradigm is the preferred approach to evidence interpretation. It requires the evaluation of the probability of the evidence under at least two propositions. The value of the findings (i.e., our LR) will depend on these propositions and the case information, so it is crucial to identify which propositions are useful for the case at hand. Previously, a number of principles have been advanced and largely accepted for the evaluation of evidence. In the evaluation of traces involving DNA mixtures there may be more than two propositions possible. We apply these principles to some exemplar situations. We also show that in some cases, when there are no clear propositions or no defendant, a forensic scientist may be able to generate explanations to account for observations. In that case, the scientist plays a role of investigator, rather than evaluator. We believe that it is helpful for the scientist to distinguish those two roles.

Direct Interrogation of Viral Peptides Presented by the Class I HLA of HIV-Infected T Cells

Identification of CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes has traditionally relied upon testing of overlapping peptide libraries for their reactivity with T cells in vitro. Here, we pursued deep ligand sequencing (DLS) as an alternative method of directly identifying those ligands that are epitopes presented to CTLs by the class I human leukocyte antigens (HLA) of infected cells. Soluble class I HLA-A*11:01 (sHLA) was gathered from HIV-1 NL4-3-infected human CD4+ SUP-T1 cells. HLA-A*11:01 harvested from infected cells was immunoaffinity purified and acid boiled to release heavy and light chains from peptide ligands that were then recovered by size-exclusion filtration. The ligands were first fractionated by high-pH high-pressure liquid chromatography and then subjected to separation by nano-liquid chromatography (nano-LC)–mass spectrometry (MS) at low pH. Approximately 10 million ions were selected for sequencing by tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). HLA-A*11:01 ligand sequences were determined with PEAKS software and confirmed by comparison to spectra generated from synthetic peptides. DLS identified 42 viral ligands presented by HLA-A*11:01, and 37 of these were previously undetected. These data demonstrate that (i) HIV-1 Gag and Nef are extensively sampled, (ii) ligand length variants are prevalent, particularly within Gag and Nef hot spots where ligand sequences overlap, (iii) noncanonical ligands are T cell reactive, and (iv) HIV-1 ligands are derived from de novo synthesis rather than endocytic sampling. Next-generation immunotherapies must factor these nascent HIV-1 ligand length variants and the finding that CTL-reactive epitopes may be absent during infection of CD4+ T cells into strategies designed to enhance T cell immunity.

Influència de l'educació envers prevenció d'úlceres per pressió en els coneixements dels professionals de l'equip d'infermeria i en la prevalença

Les úlceres per pressió són considerades com una de les cinc causes més comunes de dany al pacient. El 95% de les lesions, són evitables i els membres de l’equip d’infermeria són responsables de la seva prevenció. Varis estudis demostren un dèficit de coneixement dels professionals de l’equip d’infermeria envers prevenció d’UPP.En el següent projecte d’estudi, de disseny experimental longitudinal ambispectiu, es proposa avaluar l’eficàcia d’una intervenció educativa enfocada en la prevenció d’UPP i dirigida a l’equip d’infermeria per la disminució de la incidència d’UPPEl projecte consta de 6 fases. Una primera en la que es determinarà, mitjançant la revisió de les històries clíniques, la prevalença d’UPP. Posteriorment i amb l’aplicació d’un qüestionari, es valoraran els coneixements d’infermeria abans (fase 2) i després (fase 4) de la realització d’un programa educatiu (fase 3). Durant la fase 5 i amb l’ajuda d’una graella d’observació, es determinarà la incidència d’UPP durant un any des de l’aplicació del programa educatiu. A la fase 6 i passat més d’un any, es tornaran a avaluar els coneixements de l’equip d’infermeria