The importance of biotic interactions and local adaptation for plant response to environmental changes: field evidence along an elevational gradient

Predicting the response of species to environmental changes is a great and on-going challenge for ecologists, and this requires a more in-depth understanding of the importance of biotic interactions and the population structuration in the landscape. Using a reciprocal transplantation experiment, we tested the response of five species to an elevational gradient. This was combined to a neighbour removal treatment to test the importance of local adaptation and biotic interactions. The trait studied was performance measured as survival and biomass. Species response varied along the elevational gradient, but with no consistent pattern. Performance of species was influenced by environmental conditions occurring locally at each site, as well as by positive or negative effects of the surrounding vegetation. Indeed, we observed a shift from competition for biomass to facilitation for survival as a response to the increase in environmental stress occurring in the different sites. Unlike previous studies pointing out an increase of stress along the elevation gradient, our results supported a stress gradient related to water availability, which was not strictly parallel to the elevational gradient. For three of our species, we observed a greater biomass production for the population coming from the site where the species was dominant (central population) compared to population sampled at the limit of the distribution (marginal population). Nevertheless, we did not observe any pattern of local adaptation that could indicate adaptation of populations to a particular habitat. Altogether, our results highlighted the great ability of plant species to cope with environmental changes, with no local adaptation and great variability in response to local conditions. Our study confirms the importance of taking into account biotic interactions and population structure occurring at local scale in the prediction of communities’ responses to global environmental changes.

"A Room of One's Own": Reale und mentale Innenräume weiblicher Selbstbestimmung im spätmittelalterlichen England

Frauen werden im englischen Spätmittelalter auf den Innenraum von Haus und Kirche verwiesen. Wie sie diese Räume nutzten und kreativ (um-)gestalteten und auf welche Weise es ihnen gelang, reale Räume mental zu transgredieren und durch mentale Innenräume auszuwechseln, zeigt diese Arbeit. Dabei wird Raum - in Anlehnung an Giddens’ Theory of Structuration und den poststrukturalistischen Ansatz der Archäologie - als sowohl wirkmächtig als auch verschieden interpretierbar und transformierbar verstanden. Der Rückzug in den mentalen Innenraum führte im Extremfall dazu, daß neben der realen eine zweite Existenz aufgebaut wurde. Beide Existenzweisen konnten, wie insbesondere an den Biographien von Margaret Beaufort sowie Cicely und Margaret von York ablesbar ist, problemlos nebeneinander bestehen oder - wie am Beispiel von Margery Kempe gezeigt wird - so unvereinbar miteinander sein, daß gesellschaftliche Sanktionen die Folge waren.

Las organizaciones cooperativas en el agro argentino: apuntes metodológicos para su estudio en base al Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 1937

Este trabajo presenta un análisis del movimiento cooperativo en el agro pampeano y en el resto del país, tal como fuera retratado por el Censo Nacional Agropecuario del año 1937. Tiene por objetivo aportar herramientas metodológicas para el conocimiento del grado de arraigo del cooperativismo agropecuario entre los productores agrarios a partir del uso de índices de asociación, adhesión e integración. Finalmente se concluye del estudio estadístico de esos indicadores que la doctrina cooperativa jugó un papel muy relativo en la estructuración de las opciones económicas efectivas de bases sociales del movimiento.

Las organizaciones cooperativas en el agro argentino: apuntes metodológicos para su estudio en base al Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 1937

Este trabajo presenta un análisis del movimiento cooperativo en el agro pampeano y en el resto del país, tal como fuera retratado por el Censo Nacional Agropecuario del año 1937. Tiene por objetivo aportar herramientas metodológicas para el conocimiento del grado de arraigo del cooperativismo agropecuario entre los productores agrarios a partir del uso de índices de asociación, adhesión e integración. Finalmente se concluye del estudio estadístico de esos indicadores que la doctrina cooperativa jugó un papel muy relativo en la estructuración de las opciones económicas efectivas de bases sociales del movimiento.

Las organizaciones cooperativas en el agro argentino: apuntes metodológicos para su estudio en base al Censo Nacional Agropecuario de 1937

Este trabajo presenta un análisis del movimiento cooperativo en el agro pampeano y en el resto del país, tal como fuera retratado por el Censo Nacional Agropecuario del año 1937. Tiene por objetivo aportar herramientas metodológicas para el conocimiento del grado de arraigo del cooperativismo agropecuario entre los productores agrarios a partir del uso de índices de asociación, adhesión e integración. Finalmente se concluye del estudio estadístico de esos indicadores que la doctrina cooperativa jugó un papel muy relativo en la estructuración de las opciones económicas efectivas de bases sociales del movimiento.

Urbanism and dictatorship: perspectives of the field of urban studies

In 1933 public letter to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Joseph Goebbels synthesized the official understanding of the link between politics, art and society in the early steps of the Third Reich. By assuming the ethos of art, politics acquired a plastic agency to mold its objects —population and the state— as a unified entity in the form of a ‘national-popular community’ (Volksgemeinschaft); in turn, by infusing art with a political valence, it became part of a wider governmental apparatus that reshaped aesthetic discourses and practices. Similar remarks could be made about the ordering of cities and territories in this period. Dictatorial imaginations mobilized urbanism —including urban theory, urban design and planning— as a fundamental tool for social organization. Under their aegis the production of space became a moment in a wider production of society. Many authors suggest that this political-spatial nexus is intrinsic to modernity itself, beyond dictatorial regimes. In this light, I propose to use dictatorial urbanisms as an analytical opportunity to delve into some concealed features of modern urban design and planning. This chapter explores some of these aspects from a theoretical standpoint, focusing on the development of dictatorial planning mentalities and spatial rationalities and drawing links to other historical episodes in order to inscribe the former in a broader genealogy of urbanism. Needless to say, I don’t suggest that we use dictatorships as mere templates to understand modern productions of space. Instead, these cases provide a crude version of some fundamental drives in the operationalization of urbanism as an instrument of social regulation, showing how far the modern imagination of sociospatial orderings can go. Dictatorial urbanisms constituted a set of experiences where many dreams and aspirations of modern planning went to die. But not, as the conventional account would have it, because the former were the antithesis of the latter, but rather because they worked as the excess of a particular orientation of modern spatial governmentalities — namely, their focus on calculation, social engineering and disciplinary spatialities, and their attempt to subsume a wide range of everyday practices under institutional structuration by means of spatial mediations. In my opinion the interest of dictatorial urbanisms lies in their role as key regulatory episodes in a longer history of our urban present. They stand as a threshold between the advent of planning in the late 19th and early 20th century, and its final consolidation as a crucial state instrument after World War II. We need, therefore, to pay attention to these experiences vis-à-vis the alleged ‘normal’ development of the field in contemporary democratic countries in order to develop a full comprehension thereof.

SEXUALIDADE E DST/AIDS: CONHECIMENTOS E PRÁTICAS DE PROTEÇÃO COM ESCOLARES

This work has for general objective to investigate the information regarding sexuality and STD/Aids among students in the city of Rondonópolis (Mato Grosso), observing the behavior of this public for concepts on sexuality and STD, use of condoms and behaviors faced in a virus HIV intense reality. The analysis involves the interpretations, beliefs, images or symbols shared and used for the people in its interaction with sexuality and STD. This manner, the analysis of literature demonstrated that the lack of information on the STD don t usually differs from a situation of salient social differences. The Structuration theory, theoretical framework of the present work, visualizes that the themes like sexuality and the STD s/Aids needs to be part of day-by-day of the young and the adolescents of all the societies, independent of the social or cultural class of the same ones. In this way, it is conceived that school is an important vehicle of information that must be used in all its amplitude, thus assisting in the maintenance of the public health through the prevention of the STD s/Aids. For in such a way, a collection of data was carried to get more details on questions as: Knowledge on sexuality and concept and use of condoms. Among others results founded, it has evidence of the necessity of the school, while privileged space of the information and knowledge, to insert itself in programs that oportunizes the debate and the reflection of the such themes.

SEXUALIDADE E DST/AIDS: CONHECIMENTOS E PRÁTICAS DE PROTEÇÃO COM ESCOLARES

This work has for general objective to investigate the information regarding sexuality and STD/Aids among students in the city of Rondonópolis (Mato Grosso), observing the behavior of this public for concepts on sexuality and STD, use of condoms and behaviors faced in a virus HIV intense reality. The analysis involves the interpretations, beliefs, images or symbols shared and used for the people in its interaction with sexuality and STD. This manner, the analysis of literature demonstrated that the lack of information on the STD don t usually differs from a situation of salient social differences. The Structuration theory, theoretical framework of the present work, visualizes that the themes like sexuality and the STD s/Aids needs to be part of day-by-day of the young and the adolescents of all the societies, independent of the social or cultural class of the same ones. In this way, it is conceived that school is an important vehicle of information that must be used in all its amplitude, thus assisting in the maintenance of the public health through the prevention of the STD s/Aids. For in such a way, a collection of data was carried to get more details on questions as: Knowledge on sexuality and concept and use of condoms. Among others results founded, it has evidence of the necessity of the school, while privileged space of the information and knowledge, to insert itself in programs that oportunizes the debate and the reflection of the such themes.

Restauración del medio marino en la reserva marina de Tabarca (Alicante, España): estructura y variaciones temporales de la ictiofauna asociada al arrecife artificial

El arrecife artificial de Tabarca se diseñó e instaló principalmente con el objetivo de impedir la pesca de arrastre ilegal sobre las praderas de Posidonia oceanica. Además se diseñó un arrecife alveolar experimental para estudiar sus efectos sobre la ictiofauna litoral y sus posibilidades como lugar de pesca alternativo a la flota artesanal de Tabarca. La ictiofauna asociada al arrecife artificial de Tabarca se estudió mediante censos visuales durante tres años consecutivos entre 1990 y 1992, con una frecuencia estacional. Los resultados muestran una estructura de la comunidad condicionada por el diseño y emplazamiento de los módulos. La dinámica temporal manifiesta una clara diferencia según consideremos el poblamiento total o sólo el residente: el primero refleja una pauta muy fluctuante, poco predecible; el poblamiento residente muestra una tendencia hacia la estructuración, con un aumento progresivo de especies sedentarias predadoras, y un incremento significativo de la biomasa. Estos resultados refuerzan las interpretaciones que dan un papel condicionante al tamaño del arrecife artificial y a su localización.

A importância da liberdade na correspomdência entre Gottfried Leibniz e Samuel Clarke, 1717/1716: análise temática da totalidade da polémica

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo analisar tematicamente a polémica de 1715/16 entre Leibniz e Clarke, não apenas, como é usual, no âmbito das conceções do espaço e do tempo, mas no conjunto dos seus temas metafísicos, teológicos, gnosiológicos e físicos. Na estruturação da dissertação, adquiriu um papel central o confronto dos autores em torno da noção de liberdade, cuja importância é evidente na utilização do princípio da razão suficiente e seus corolários, na distinção entre verdades de razão e verdades de facto, entre os diversos tipos de necessidade, nas conceções alternativas de espaço e de tempo, na alternativa entre átomos e mónadas, na questão dos limites do universo, na relação entre a alma e o corpo, nas teses relativas à providência divina, na forma como se concebe a relação de Deus com a sua máquina, na noção de milagre e nas próprias noções de força e de movimento, pelo menos no que respeita à sua relação com Deus, isto sem desprezar a abordagem direta da própria noção de liberdade. Com este enquadramento, pretende-se mostrar, através de um eloquente exemplo histórico, que as teorias científicas naturais se podem alicerçar em teorias metafísicas e que esses alicerces não têm que se esgotar, mesmo no seio da metafísica, nas questões estritamente cosmológicas, isto para lá de poderem existir influências nunca menosprezáveis de domínios não filosóficos, como é o caso da teologia dogmática. Apesar disto ser evidente na abordagem dos textos, existe uma sistemática menorização contemporânea desta determinação, como se fosse uma idiossincrasia da época ou uma deferência que a ciência tinha de ter numa época ainda obscurecida pela autoridade das igrejas e pela especulação filosófica. Esta abordagem pretende compreender todos os aspetos do pensamento expresso pelos autores na polémica, na sua integralidade, sem reservas de qualquer tipo.

Swiss Banking Secrecy; The Erosion of an Institution. IES WORKING PAPER 2/2008

Switzerland has for a long time been an important centre of banking services in Europe and beyond. Consequently, the banking sector has become important to Switzerland’s prosperity. This paper focuses on a central reason behind the success of the Swiss banking sector: the institution of banking secrecy, deeply enshrined in the Swiss history and tradition. The rapid development of international markets that eventually gave rise to a “group structuration process” has, however, progressively eroded Swiss banking secrecy. It has had to bend before the duty of transparency within the groups in order not to promote financial criminality through accelerated asset inflows. Switzerland has also had to develop a comprehensive legislative frame to tackle financial criminality, and to enter into international agreements providing for mutual assistance. This process has undoubtedly and irremediably weakened the Swiss banking secrecy. Most importantly, nevertheless, the questionable ethical and socio-economic grounds of this controversial institution could and should also start to erode it from within.

Inter-organisational networks, value creation and the process of technology integration in research and development

Traditional methods of R&D management are no longer sufficient for embracing innovations and leveraging complex new technologies to fully integrated positions in established systems. This paper presents the view that the technology integration process is a result of fundamental interactions embedded in inter-organisational activities. Emerging industries, high technology companies and knowledge intensive organisations owe a large part of their viability to complex networks of inter-organisational interactions and relationships. R&D organisations are the gatekeepers in the technology integration process with their initial sanction and motivation to develop technologies providing the first point of entry. Networks rely on the activities of stakeholders to provide the foundations of collaborative R&D activities, business-to-business marketing and strategic alliances. Such complex inter-organisational interactions and relationships influence value creation and organisational goals as stakeholders seek to gain investment opportunities. A theoretical model is developed here that contributes to our understanding of technology integration (adoption) as a dynamic process, which is simultaneously structured and enacted through the activities of stakeholders and organisations in complex inter-organisational networks of sanction and integration.

'Slippage' is not a dirty word: Considering the usefulness of Giddens' notion of knowledgeability in understanding the possibilities for teacher education

The attempt to understand the relationship between messages intended and messages received has been an enduring issue in teacher education. For the past three decades researchers have made forays into understanding this enduring issue, and in the process have drawn on various explanatory frameworks, one of them being socialisation. In this paper we work with Giddens' structuration theory as well as his concept of knowledgeability as analytical frameworks for understanding the relationship between messages intended (by the teacher educator) and messages received (by the student-teachers). Our discussion is informed by the findings of a study that investigated student-teachers' interpretations of the pedagogical process of a physical education teacher education course. Data generated from conversations with, and observations of, the student-teachers indicated that there was considerable “slippage” between the teacher educator's critical pedagogy inspired intentions and what was understood by the student-teachers.

SEXUALIDADE E DST/AIDS: CONHECIMENTOS E PRÁTICAS DE PROTEÇÃO COM ESCOLARES

This work has for general objective to investigate the information regarding sexuality and STD/Aids among students in the city of Rondonópolis (Mato Grosso), observing the behavior of this public for concepts on sexuality and STD, use of condoms and behaviors faced in a virus HIV intense reality. The analysis involves the interpretations, beliefs, images or symbols shared and used for the people in its interaction with sexuality and STD. This manner, the analysis of literature demonstrated that the lack of information on the STD don t usually differs from a situation of salient social differences. The Structuration theory, theoretical framework of the present work, visualizes that the themes like sexuality and the STD s/Aids needs to be part of day-by-day of the young and the adolescents of all the societies, independent of the social or cultural class of the same ones. In this way, it is conceived that school is an important vehicle of information that must be used in all its amplitude, thus assisting in the maintenance of the public health through the prevention of the STD s/Aids. For in such a way, a collection of data was carried to get more details on questions as: Knowledge on sexuality and concept and use of condoms. Among others results founded, it has evidence of the necessity of the school, while privileged space of the information and knowledge, to insert itself in programs that oportunizes the debate and the reflection of the such themes.

A study of outcomes measures in forensic mental health

Outcomes measures, which is the measurement of effectiveness of interventions and services has been propelled onto the health service agenda since the introduction of the internal market in the 1990s. It arose as a result of the escalating cost of inpatient care, the need to identify what interventions work and in what situations, and the desire for effective information by service users enabled by the consumerist agenda introduced by Working for Patients white paper. The research reported in this thesis is an assessment of the readiness of the forensic mental health service to measure outcomes of interventions. The research examines the type, prevalence and scope of use of outcomes measures, and further seeks a consensus of views of key stakeholders on the priority areas for future development. It discusses the theoretical basis for defining health and advocates the argument that the present focus on measuring effectiveness of care is misdirected without the input of users, particularly patients in their care, drawing together the views of the many stakeholders who have an interest in the provision of care in the service. The research further draws on the theory of structuration to demonstrate the degree to which a duality of action, which is necessary for the development, and use of outcomes measures is in place within the service. Consequently, it highlights some of the hurdles that need to be surmounted before effective measurement of health gain can be developed in the field of study. It concludes by advancing the view that outcomes research can enable practitioners to better understand the relationship between the illness of the patient and the efficacy of treatment. This understanding it is argued would contribute to improving dialogue between the health care practitioner and the patient, and further providing the information necessary for moving away from untested assumptions, which are numerous in the field about the superiority of one treatment approach over another.