Abstract
New optical probes are developed for carotid distention waveform measurements, in order to assess the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The probes make use of two distinct photodetectors: planar and avalanche photodiodes. Their performance is compared for visible and infrared (IR) light wavelengths. The test setup designed for the evaluation of the probes simulates the fatty deposits commonly seen in the obese people, between skin and the artery. The performed tests show that the attenuation of the signal is lower for the IR light, with higher penetration and better resolution in the captured distension waveform, with higher definition in morphological features on the wave and higher signal-to-noise ratio when compared to the visible source signals. The probes show good overall performance in the test setup with a root mean square error lower than 8%. In vivo, the IR probes allow easier waveform detection, even more relevant with the increasing deposit structures.

Abstract
Assistive Technologies may greatly contribute to give autonomy and independence for individuals with physical limitations. Electric wheelchairs are examples of those assistive technologies and nowadays each time becoming more intelligent due to the use of technology that provides assisted safer driving. Usually, the user controls the electric wheelchair with a conventional analog joystick. However, this implies the need for an appropriate methodology to map the position of the joystick handle, in a Cartesian coordinate system, to the wheelchair wheels intended velocities. This mapping is very important since it will determine the response behavior of the wheelchair to the user manual control. This paper describes the implementation of several joystick mappings in an intelligent wheelchair (IW) prototype. Experiments were performed in a realistic simulator using cerebral palsy users with distinct driving abilities. The users had 6 different joystick control mapping methods and for each user the usability and the users' preference order was measured. The results achieved show that a linear mapping, with appropriate parameters, between the joystick's coordinates and the wheelchair wheel speeds is preferred by the majority of the users.

Abstract

Abstract
To determine the differences between the optical clearing effects created by ethylene glycol in fresh and frozen samples, we have performed several measurements from samples in both conditions. Fresh samples were used after animal sacrifice and frozen samples were kept at -20 degrees C for 72 hours. The different measurements performed with samples from both cases were total transmittance, collimated transmittance, total reflectance and specular reflectance. Considering, for instance, collimated transmittance measurements, we have verified that the spectra measured from both samples before adding the solution present different levels of collimated transmittance. The time-dependence evolution of the collimated transmittance spectrum is similar between both cases of samples, but since they present different levels of "natural" transmittance, the optical clearing effect is observed at different levels if we compare between fresh and frozen samples.

Abstract
Background: Understanding how alternative phenotypes arise from the same genome is a major challenge in modern biology. Eusociality in insects requires the evolution of two alternative phenotypes - workers, who sacrifice personal reproduction, and queens, who realize that reproduction. Extensive work on honeybees and ants has revealed the molecular basis of derived queen and worker phenotypes in highly eusocial lineages, but we lack equivalent deep-level analyses of wasps and of primitively eusocial species, the latter of which can reveal how phenotypic decoupling first occurs in the early stages of eusocial evolution. Results: We sequenced 20 Gbp of transcriptomes derived from brains of different behavioral castes of the primitively eusocial tropical paper wasp Polistes canadensis. Surprisingly, 75% of the 2,442 genes differentially expressed between phenotypes were novel, having no significant homology with described sequences. Moreover, 90% of these novel genes were significantly upregulated in workers relative to queens. Differential expression of novel genes in the early stages of sociality may be important in facilitating the evolution of worker behavioral complexity in eusocial evolution. We also found surprisingly low correlation in the identity and direction of expression of differentially expressed genes across similar phenotypes in different social lineages, supporting the idea that social evolution in different lineages requires substantial de novo rewiring of molecular pathways. Conclusions: These genomic resources for aculeate wasps and first transcriptome-wide insights into the origin of castes bring us closer to a more general understanding of eusocial evolution and how phenotypic diversity arises from the same genome.

Abstract
Genome sequencing projects are discovering millions of genetic variants in humans, and interpretation of their functional effects is essential for understanding the genetic basis of variation in human traits. Here we report sequencing and deep analysis of messenger RNA and microRNA from lymphoblastoid cell lines of 462 individuals from the 1000 Genomes Project-the first uniformly processed high-throughput RNA-sequencing data from multiple human populations with high-quality genome sequences. We discover extremely widespread genetic variation affecting the regulation of most genes, with transcript structure and expression level variation being equally common but genetically largely independent. Our characterization of causal regulatory variation sheds light on the cellular mechanisms of regulatory and loss-of-function variation, and allows us to infer putative causal variants for dozens of disease-associated loci. Altogether, this study provides a deep understanding of the cellular mechanisms of transcriptome variation and of the landscape of functional variants in the human genome.