@article{ChipmanFerrierBrenaetal.2014, author = {Chipman, Ariel D. and Ferrier, David E. K. and Brena, Carlo and Qu, Jiaxin and Hughes, Daniel S. T. and Schroeder, Reinhard and Torres-Oliva, Montserrat and Znassi, Nadia and Jiang, Huaiyang and Almeida, Francisca C. and Alonso, Claudio R. and Apostolou, Zivkos and Aqrawi, Peshtewani and Arthur, Wallace and Barna, Jennifer C. J. and Blankenburg, Kerstin P. and Brites, Daniela and Capella-Gutierrez, Salvador and Coyle, Marcus and Dearden, Peter K. and Du Pasquier, Louis and Duncan, Elizabeth J. and Ebert, Dieter and Eibner, Cornelius and Erikson, Galina and Evans, Peter D. and Extavour, Cassandra G. and Francisco, Liezl and Gabaldon, Toni and Gillis, William J. and Goodwin-Horn, Elizabeth A. and Green, Jack E. and Griffiths-Jones, Sam and Grimmelikhuijzen, Cornelis J. P. and Gubbala, Sai and Guigo, Roderic and Han, Yi and Hauser, Frank and Havlak, Paul and Hayden, Luke and Helbing, Sophie and Holder, Michael and Hui, Jerome H. L. and Hunn, Julia P. and Hunnekuhl, Vera S. and Jackson, LaRonda and Javaid, Mehwish and Jhangiani, Shalini N. and Jiggins, Francis M. and Jones, Tamsin E. and Kaiser, Tobias S. and Kalra, Divya and Kenny, Nathan J. and Korchina, Viktoriya and Kovar, Christie L. and Kraus, F. Bernhard and Lapraz, Francois and Lee, Sandra L. and Lv, Jie and Mandapat, Christigale and Manning, Gerard and Mariotti, Marco and Mata, Robert and Mathew, Tittu and Neumann, Tobias and Newsham, Irene and Ngo, Dinh N. and Ninova, Maria and Okwuonu, Geoffrey and Ongeri, Fiona and Palmer, William J. and Patil, Shobha and Patraquim, Pedro and Pham, Christopher and Pu, Ling-Ling and Putman, Nicholas H. and Rabouille, Catherine and Ramos, Olivia Mendivil and Rhodes, Adelaide C. and Robertson, Helen E. and Robertson, Hugh M. and Ronshaugen, Matthew and Rozas, Julio and Saada, Nehad and Sanchez-Gracia, Alejandro and Scherer, Steven E. and Schurko, Andrew M. and Siggens, Kenneth W. and Simmons, DeNard and Stief, Anna and Stolle, Eckart and Telford, Maximilian J. and Tessmar-Raible, Kristin and Thornton, Rebecca and van der Zee, Maurijn and von Haeseler, Arndt and Williams, James M. and Willis, Judith H. and Wu, Yuanqing and Zou, Xiaoyan and Lawson, Daniel and Muzny, Donna M. and Worley, Kim C. and Gibbs, Richard A. and Akam, Michael and Richards, Stephen}, title = {The first myriapod genome sequence reveals conservative arthropod gene content and genome organisation in the centipede Strigamia maritima}, series = {PLoS biology}, volume = {12}, journal = {PLoS biology}, number = {11}, publisher = {PLoS}, address = {San Fransisco}, issn = {1545-7885}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.1002005}, pages = {24}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Myriapods (e. g., centipedes and millipedes) display a simple homonomous body plan relative to other arthropods. All members of the class are terrestrial, but they attained terrestriality independently of insects. Myriapoda is the only arthropod class not represented by a sequenced genome. We present an analysis of the genome of the centipede Strigamia maritima. It retains a compact genome that has undergone less gene loss and shuffling than previously sequenced arthropods, and many orthologues of genes conserved from the bilaterian ancestor that have been lost in insects. Our analysis locates many genes in conserved macro-synteny contexts, and many small-scale examples of gene clustering. We describe several examples where S. maritima shows different solutions from insects to similar problems. The insect olfactory receptor gene family is absent from S. maritima, and olfaction in air is likely effected by expansion of other receptor gene families. For some genes S. maritima has evolved paralogues to generate coding sequence diversity, where insects use alternate splicing. This is most striking for the Dscam gene, which in Drosophila generates more than 100,000 alternate splice forms, but in S. maritima is encoded by over 100 paralogues. We see an intriguing linkage between the absence of any known photosensory proteins in a blind organism and the additional absence of canonical circadian clock genes. The phylogenetic position of myriapods allows us to identify where in arthropod phylogeny several particular molecular mechanisms and traits emerged. For example, we conclude that juvenile hormone signalling evolved with the emergence of the exoskeleton in the arthropods and that RR-1 containing cuticle proteins evolved in the lineage leading to Mandibulata. We also identify when various gene expansions and losses occurred. The genome of S. maritima offers us a unique glimpse into the ancestral arthropod genome, while also displaying many adaptations to its specific life history.}, language = {en} } @article{SchneidemesserSibiyaCaseiroetal.2021, author = {Schneidemesser, Erika von and Sibiya, Bheki and Caseiro, Alexandre and Butler, Tim and Lawrence, Mark and Leitao, Joana and Lupa{\c{s}}cu, Aura and Salvador, Pedro}, title = {Learning from the COVID-19 lockdown in Berlin}, series = {Atmospheric environment: X}, volume = {12}, journal = {Atmospheric environment: X}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {2590-1621}, doi = {10.1016/j.aeaoa.2021.100122}, pages = {13}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Urban air pollution is a substantial threat to human health. Traffic emissions remain a large contributor to air pollution in urban areas. The mobility restrictions put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic provided a large-scale real-world experiment that allows for the evaluation of changes in traffic emissions and the corresponding changes in air quality. Here we use observational data, as well as modelling, to analyse changes in nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions at the height of the lockdown period in Spring of 2020. Accounting for the influence of meteorology on air quality, we found that reduction of ca. 30-50 \% in traffic counts, dominated by changes in passenger cars, corresponded to reductions in median observed nitrogen dioxide concentrations of ca. 40 \% (traffic and urban background locations) and a ca. 22 \% increase in ozone (urban background locations) during weekdays. Lesser reductions in nitrogen dioxide concentrations were observed at urban background stations at weekends, and no change in ozone was observed. The modelled reductions in median nitrogen dioxide at urban background locations were smaller than the observed reductions and the change was not significant. The model results showed no significant change in ozone on weekdays or weekends. The lack of a simulated weekday/weekend effect is consistent with previous work suggesting that NOx emissions from traffic could be significantly underestimated in European cities by models. These results indicate the potential for improvements in air quality due to policies for reducing traffic, along with the scale of reductions that would be needed to result in meaningful changes in air quality if a transition to sustainable mobility is to be seriously considered. They also confirm once more the highly relevant role of traffic for air quality in urban areas.}, language = {en} }