From 11/9 to 9/11: Continuity or Change in International Politics?

Desde o choque do ataque terrorista aos Estados Unidos da América em 11 de Setembro de 2001, espalhou-se a crença de que o mundo não é mais o mesmo e que o carácter da política e segurança internacionais se alteraram radicalmente. O conteúdo deste artigo visa mostrar que, embora a segurança e a procura da estabilidade a longo termo permaneçam o supremo objectivo para todas as sociedades, é apenas a definição e percepção da noção de segurança que sofreram uma reapreciação significativa, mas esta mudança fundamental verificou-se efectivamente antes do 11 de Setembro com o fim da Guerra Fria, embora não fosse realmente discernida ou completamente reconhecida. No entanto, os ataques terroristas à Costa Leste dos Estados Unidos da América compeliram inegavelmente a comunidade internacional a reconhecer que ameaças veladas foram substituídas por consideração de ” risco” e “desafios” que o ambiente internacional se baseia não já na gestão da segurança mas na gestão da insegurança. Dimensões transnacionais assumiram um perfil saliente nas avaliações da sociedade como considerações de estabilidade e segurança e, nesta perspectiva, o 11 de Setembro levou os Estados Unidos da América a adoptar uma abordagem mais radical e de não compromisso na sua política externa e de defesa, a ter em conta a nova definição de segurança e a mais difusa noção dos desafios contemporâneos, incluindo as ameaças assimétrica

Noticia sobre la microfauna vertebrada holocénica de la grotta Su Guanu o Gonagosula

[eng] In this paper the discovery of a very important fossiliferous deposit at Su Guanu or Gonagosula Cave (Oliena, prov. Nuoro, Sardinia) is presented. Remains of a great number of microvertebrates (in fact more than 2,000 specimens) have been furnished by this deposit. All the vertebrate materials are now under study. The chronology of the deposit can be placed around the second half of the IV millenium B.C. The composition of the fauna obtained allows us to establish a relative chronology of several faunistic events.[eng] In this paper the discovery of a very important fossiliferous deposit at Su Guanu or Gonagosula Cave (Oliena, prov. Nuoro, Sardinia) is presented. Remains of a great number of microvertebrates (in fact more than 2,000 specimens) have been furnished by this deposit. All the vertebrate materials are now under study. The chronology of the deposit can be placed around the second half of the IV millenium B.C. The composition of the fauna obtained allows us to establish a relative chronology of several faunistic events

Diatom flagellar genes and their expression during sexual reproduction in Leptocylindrus danicus

Background: Flagella have been lost in the vegetative phase of the diatom life cycle, but they are still present in male gametes of centric species, thereby representing a hallmark of sexual reproduction. This process, besides maintaining and creating new genetic diversity, in diatoms is also fundamental to restore the maximum cell size following its reduction during vegetative division. Nevertheless, sexual reproduction has been demonstrated in a limited number of diatom species, while our understanding of its different phases and of their genetic control is scarce. Results: In the transcriptome of Leptocylindrus danicus, a centric diatom widespread in the world's seas, we identified 22 transcripts related to the flagella development and confirmed synchronous overexpression of 6 flagellum-related genes during the male gamete formation process. These transcripts were mostly absent in the closely related species L. aporus, which does not have sexual reproduction. Among the 22 transcripts, L. danicus showed proteins that belong to the Intra Flagellar Transport (IFT) subcomplex B as well as IFT-A proteins, the latter previously thought to be absent in diatoms. The presence of flagellum-related proteins was also traced in the transcriptomes of several other centric species. Finally, phylogenetic reconstruction of the IFT172 and IFT88 proteins showed that their sequences are conserved across protist species and have evolved similarly to other phylogenetic marker genes. Conclusion: Our analysis describes for the first time the diatom flagellar gene set, which appears to be more complete and functional than previously reported based on the genome sequence of the model centric diatom, Thalassiosira pseudonana. This first recognition of the whole set of diatom flagellar genes and of their activation pattern paves the way to a wider recognition of the relevance of sexual reproduction in individual species and in the natural environment

The ligand-receptor interactions based on silicon technology

We explored the use of porous silicon (pSi) technology for the construction of a biotechnological device, in which the ligand-receptor interactions are revealed by means of laser optical measurements. Here we report the settling of chemical procedures for the functionalization of the silicon wafers and for the subsequent anchoring of biological molecules such as a purified murine monoclonal antibody (UN1 mAb), an antibody anti-P8 protein of M13 phage and an antibody anti-A20 murine lymphoma cell line. The optical analysis of the interaction on the biochips between the bound biomolecules and their corresponding ligands indicated that the pSi is suitable for thi

De Novo Assembly and Transcriptome Analysis of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly Ceratitis capitata Early Embryos

The agricultural pest Ceratitis capitata, also known as the Mediterranean fruit fly or Medfly, belongs to the Tephritidae family, which includes a large number of other damaging pest species. The Medfly has been the first non-drosophilid fly species which has been genetically transformed paving the way for designing genetic-based pest control strategies. Furthermore, it is an experimentally tractable model, in which transient and transgene-mediated RNAi have been successfully used. We applied Illumina sequencing to total RNA preparations of 8-10 hours old embryos of C. capitata, This developmental window corresponds to the blastoderm cellularization stage. In summary, we assembled 42,614 transcripts which cluster in 26,319 unique transcripts of which 11,045 correspond to protein coding genes; we identified several hundreds of long ncRNAs; we found an enrichment of transcripts encoding RNA binding proteins among the highly expressed transcripts, such as CcTRA-2, known to be necessary to establish and, most likely, to maintain female sex of C. capitata. Our study is the first de novo assembly performed for Ceratitis capitata based on Illumina NGS technology during embryogenesis and it adds novel data to the previously published C. capitata EST databases. We expect that it will be useful for a variety of applications such as gene cloning and phylogenetic analyses, as well as to advance genetic research and biotechnological applications in the Medfly and other related Tephritidae

De novo assembly of a transcriptome from the eggs and early embryos of Astropecten aranciacus

Starfish have been instrumental in many fields of biological and ecological research. Oocytes of Astropecten aranciacus, a common species native to the Mediterranean Sea and the East Atlantic, have long been used as an experimental model to study meiotic maturation, fertilization, intracellular Ca2+ signaling, and cell cycle controls. However, investigation of the underlying molecular mechanisms has often been hampered by the overall lack of DNA or protein sequences for the species. In this study, we have assembled a transcriptome for this species from the oocytes, eggs, zygotes, and early embryos, which are known to have the highest RNA sequence complexity. Annotation of the transcriptome identified over 32,000 transcripts including the ones that encode 13 distinct cyclins and as many cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK), as well as the expected components of intracellular Ca2+ signaling toolkit. Although the mRNAs of cyclin and CDK families did not undergo significant abundance changes through the stages from oocyte to early embryo, as judged by real-time PCR, the transcript encoding Mos, a negative regulator of mitotic cell cycle, was drastically reduced during the period of rapid cleavages. Molecular phylogenetic analysis using the homologous amino acid sequences of cytochrome oxidase subunit I from A. aranciacus and 30 other starfish species indicated that Paxillosida, to which A. aranciacus belongs, is not likely to be the most basal order in Asteroidea. Taken together, the first transcriptome we assembled in this species is expected to enable us to perform comparative studies and to design gene-specific molecular tools with which to tackle long-standing biological questions

Polar and non-polar organic binder characterization in Pompeian wall paintings: comparison to a simulated painting mimicking an a secco technique.

The use of Fourier transform infrared spectromicroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS) allowed us to characterize the composition of polar and non-polar binders present in sporadic wall paint fragments taken from Pompeii's archaeological excavation. The analyses of the polar and non-polar binder components extracted from paint powder layer showed the presence of amino acids, sugars, and fatty acids but the absence of proteinaceous material. These results are consistent with a water tempera painting mixture composed of pigments, flours, gums, and oils and are in agreement with those obtained from a simulated wall paint sample made for mimicking an ancient "a secco" technique. Notably, for the first time, we report the capability to discriminate by tandem MS the presence of free amino acids in the paint layer