Effect of temperature, food availability, and estradiol injection on gametogenesis and gender in the pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera

The black-lip pearl oyster Pinctada margaritifera is a protandrous hermaphrodite species. Its economic value has led to the development of controlled hatchery reproduction techniques, although many aspects remain to be optimized. In order to understand reproductive mechanisms and their controlling factors, two independent experiments were designed to test hypotheses of gametogenesis and sex ratio control by environmental and hormonal factors. In one, pearl oysters were exposed under controlled conditions at different combinations of temperature (24 and 28°C) and food level (10,000 and 40,000 cells mL−1); whereas in the other, pearl oysters were conditioned under natural conditions into the lagoon and subjected to successive 17β-estradiol injections (100 μg per injection). Gametogenesis and sex ratio were assessed by histology for each treatment. In parallel, mRNA expressions of nine marker genes of the sexual pathway (pmarg-foxl2, pmarg-c43476, pmarg-c45042, pmarg-c19309, pmarg-c54338, pmarg-vit6, pmarg-zglp1, pmarg-dmrt, and pmarg-fem1-like) were investigated. Maximum maturation was observed in the treatment combining the highest temperature (28°C) and the highest microalgae concentration (40,000 cells mL−1), where the female sex tended to be maintained. Injection of 17β-estradiol induced a significant increase of undetermined stage proportion 2 weeks after the final injection. These results suggest that gametogenesis and gender in adult pearl oysters can be controlled by environmental factors and estrogens. While there were no significant effects on relative gene expression, the 3-gene-pair expression ratio model of the sexual pathway of P. margaritifera, suggest a probable dominance of genetic sex determinism without excluding a mixed sex determination mode (genetic + environmental)

Metodologia participativa para repositórios de recursos educacionais abertos

This research deals with the use of a participatory design methodology to develop a repository of open educational resources, the Arcaz. Discusses key aspects of neutrality and determinism of technology within the context of Social Studies of Science and Technology and presents some concepts of critical theory of technology related to the democratic construction of technological artifacts. Discusses the philosophical heritage of the movements that led to the emergence of free software, open education and open educational resources and argues that participatory design share similar ideals. It presents concepts of human-computer interaction, interaction design and user centered design, important to enhance the user experience in information systems. It addresses the participatory design as a methodology that allows the democratic participation of users in the technological construction, promoting mutual learning and active voice for the participants. Develops a participatory design methodology adapted to the Arcaz context of use and provides the procedures for the meetings conducted to apply participatory design techniques to the repository and the results obtained. It concludes with a study of some of the interventions suggested in the system and orientations for future applications of participatory practices in the development of the repository and a list of best practices, focusing on ethical principles that should guide the participatory design.

Technologizacja życia i tożsamości w kulturze współczesnej

The author of article considers the growing role of technology in contemporary society in the context of its role in creating identity and shaping the daily life. Various aspects of Elllul’s conception of technological determinism are reconstructed, including the problem (lack) of freedom in relationships between the individual and technology as well as the problem of annihilation of time and space. The main problem of article is analysed both on the micro and the macro levels, considering the possible contradictions in the use of modern technology devices.

Sobre (vivência) e mortalidade de pequenos negócios: o caso de mercados varejistas potiguares

This paper‟s starting point was the objective of understanding the relation between the reasons pointed out by small businesses owners for the continuity or shutdown of their businesses, and the reasons presented by the Environmental Theories. The paper discusses the Environmental Theories understand that it is supported by a systemic metaphor speech, discussing the theme in terms of organizational survival and mortality . The text reviews the literature showing the changes in the administrative thinking regarding the organization versus environment relation, and presenting general ideas about the micro and small businesses. In methodological terms, the qualitative approach was used in the research. Regarding the data collection technique, an in-depth thematic interview was used. It was carried out considering the elements of the techniques of life history and oral history, always giving priority to real world related narratives told by the interviewed subjects. The empirical corpus of the research was made up of seven owners of small retail businesses in two Potiguar cities: Natal and Mossoró. The interpretative and analytical process focused, at first, on the reflexive dialogue with each one of the owners‟ professional life history and business management experience, constituting the first level of analysis: reflections on individual narratives; and, afterwards, the interpretative process was developed through the analysis of all the subjects‟ statements, identifying the recurring themes and constituting the second level of analysis: reflection on the totalizing narrative. The themes identified in the totalizing narrative, that refer to the continuity of the businesses are: evolution, control, fidelity, liking what one does for a living. The themes that came up as reasons for shutdown are: lack of empathy with the business, lack of evolution, competition problems, suppliers and the government. The text synthesizes its comprehensions affirming that the reasons associated with continuity and shutdown of small markets, for this group of owners specifically, come up as a permanent tension between the volunteerism (quite human) and the determinism (systemic). The tension is shown in testimonies that at the same time evoke the organicist systemic logic through the themes evolution/no evolution, and also counterpoints with themes related to the interested human action, based on desires, feelings and personal convictions such as: liking what one does/ lack of empathy. As for the reflexive dialogue between the postulates of the Environmental Theories and the narratives, the results make it possible to affirm that, differently from the tension expressed by the subjects while talking about their reasons, the reasons associated with survival and mortality of businesses according to the Environmental Theories are theoretically polarized, seeming to preach options that are stagnated and shaping towards the subjects involved in the organization-environment relation

Genetic analysis of the flowering date and number of petals in rose

International audience

Determinization of timed Petri nets behaviors

International audience

Pesquisas genéticas, prognósticos morais e discriminação genética : um estudo de caso sobre traço falciforme

O debate sobre ética em pesquisa pode ser aplicado tanto ao âmbito da metodologia científica como a outras áreas do saber, como é o caso dos esportes. No campo da saúde esportiva brasileira, têm sido comuns pesquisas que fazem testes genéticos para identificar atletas com traço falciforme. Apesar da persistência de confederações esportivas brasileiras em discriminar atletas com essa característica hereditária, o traço falciforme não é uma doença. Este artigo relata o caso de uma atleta de futebol vítima de discriminação genética: identificada com o traço falciforme, ela foi considerada inapta a participar de um campeonato pela Confederação Brasileira de Futebol. O artigo analisa as repercussões da pesquisa genética para identificação do traço falciforme na ausência de cuidados éticos voltados à preservação dos direitos de quem se submete aos testes. Além disso, mostra a situação de vulnerabilidade à qual estão expostas pessoas envolvidas em pesquisas que fazem testes genéticos sem cuidados éticos ou mesmo justificativas razoáveis e cujos resultados são interpretados sob a racionalidade do determinismo biológico e do reducionismo genético. As confederações esportivas brasileiras interessadas em identificar atletas com o traço falciforme deveriam submeter esse objetivo de estudo à avaliação de Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa, pois esse é um procedimento com potencial de acarretar prejuízos aos atletas. O teste genético não pode ser considerado um ato de assistência em saúde, visto que não há doença a ser tratada. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT

Social determinants of health - why we continue to ignore them in the search for improved population health outcomes!

There is now unequivocal evidence that the health status of individuals and of whole communities is socially and economically determined, as are many other aspects of our lives. This suggests, as advocates of public health and population health approaches argue, that our efforts in managing our health and wellbeing should focus much more on early intervention and prevention programs than has been the case to date. However, although this ideology of social and economic determinism is generally accepted, practice does not reflect such values. Indeed, as increasing demand at the critical end of health service provision sees us spending more and more of our limited health care resources on acute and chronic illness, less resources are devoted to constructing and maintaining health-creating communities and environments. Paradoxically, while most of our leaders, academics and policy makers have themselves been nurtured in a sound understanding of cause and effect in the world, they are ignoring these fundamental premises in their approaches to the provision and management of health care. This paper explores some of the reasons why this might be the case and draws on key evidence to suggest that the time has come for us to think more ideologically in approaching health care in the future.

ID scanners and überveillance in the night-time economy: crime prevention or invasion of privacy?

ID scanners are promoted as an effective solution to the problems of anti-social behavior and violence in many urban nighttime economies. However, the acceptance of this and other forms of computerized surveillance to prevent crime and anti-social behavior is based on several unproven assumptions. After outlining what ID scanners are and how they are becoming a normalized precondition of entry into one Australian nighttime economy, this chapter demonstrates how technology is commonly viewed as the key to preventing crime despite recognition of various problems associated with its adoption. The implications of technological determinism amongst policy makers, police, and crime prevention theories are then critically assessed in light of several issues that key informants talking about the value of ID scanners fail to mention when applauding their success. Notably, the broad, ill-defined, and confused notion of "privacy" is analyzed as a questionable legal remedy for the growing problems of überveillance.

Making the Men of Tomorrow: American Science Fiction and the Politics of Masculinity, 1965 – 1974

Suggesting that the political diversity of American science fiction during the 1960s and early 1970s constitutes a response to the dominance of social liberalism throughout the 1940s and 1950s, I argue in Making the Men of Tomorrow that the development of new hegemonic masculinities in science fiction is a consequence of political speculation. Focusing on four representative and influential texts from the 1960s and early 1970s, Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Ubik, Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, this thesis explores the relationship between different conceptions of hegemonic masculinity and three separate but related political ideologies: the social ethic, market libertarianism, and socialist libertarianism. In the first two chapters in which I discuss Dick’s novels, I argue that Dick interrogates organizational masculinity as part of a larger project that suggests the inevitable infeasibility of both the social ethic and its predecessor, social liberalism. In the next chapter, I shift my attention to Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress as a way of showing how, unlike Dick, other authors of the 1960s and early 1970s sought to move beyond social liberalism by imagining how new political ideologies, in this case market libertarianism, might change the way men see themselves. Having demonstrated how the libertarian potential of Heinlein’s novel is ultimately undermined by its insistent and uncompromising biological determinism, I then discuss how Le Guin’s The Dispossessed uses the socialist libertarianism of the moon Anarres to suggest a more egalitarian form of masculinity, one that makes possible, to some extent at least, a future in which men might embrace not only the mutual aid of socialism, but also the primacy of individual rights that is at the heart of all forms of libertarianism and liberalism.