Soybean Stem Fly, Melanagromyza sojae (Diptera: Agromyzidae), in the New World: detection of high genetic diversity from soybean fields in Brazil

Soybean Stem Fly (SSF), Melanagromyza sojae (Zehntner), belongs to the family Agromyzidae and is highly polyphagous, attacking many plant species of the family Fabaceae, including soybean and other beans. SSF is regarded as one of the most important pests in soybean fields of Asia (e.g., China, India), North East Africa (e.g., Egypt), parts of Russia, and South East Asia. Despite reports of Agromyzidae flies infesting soybean fields in Rio Grande do Sul State (Brazil) in 1983 and 2009 and periodic interceptions of SSF since the 1940s by the USA quarantine authorities, SSF has not been officially reported to have successfully established in the North and South Americas. In South America, M. sojae was recently confirmed using morphology and its complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was characterized. In the present study, we surveyed the genetic diversity of M. sojae, collected directly from soybean host plants, using partial mtDNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene, and provide evidence of multiple (>10) maternal lineages in SSF populations in South America, potentially representing multiple incursion events. However, a single incursion involving multiple-female founders could not be ruled out. We identified a haplotype that was common in the fields of two Brazilian states and the individuals collected from Australia in 2013. The implications of SSF incursions in southern Brazil are discussed in relation to the current soybean agricultural practices, highlighting an urgent need for better understanding of SSF population movements in the New World, which is necessary for developing effective management options for this significant soybean pest. © FUNPEC-RP.

Multiple Embolism in a Female Patient with Infective Endocarditis: Low Back Pain and Hematuria as the Initial Clinical Manifestations

A 59-year-old female patient with mitral valve prolapse and a previous history of lumbosacral spondyloarthrosis and lumbar disk hernia had an episode of infective endocarditis due to Streptococcus viridans, which evolved with peripheral embolism to the left kidney, spleen, and left iliac artery, and intraventricular cerebral hemorrhage. Her clinical manifestations were low back pain and hematuria, which were initially attributed to an osteoarticular condition. Infective endocarditis is a severe polymorphic disease with multiple clinical manifestations and it should always be included in the differential diagnosis by clinicians.

Exploring female graduate students' multifaceted and intersecting roles and identities in a complex educational milieu /

This qualitative phenomenological investigation explored six female Master of Education students' critical understandings of their identity and role negotiations, and their perceptions of environmental conditions that facilitated or impeded their identity explorations and negotiations within the institution. The interweaving of Feminist and Women's Development theories enabled the data to be examined under different, yet complementary, lenses. The data collection strategies included: four to five in-depth semistructured interviews, three take-home activities (involving identity mapping, object and metaphor identification, and strategy development), and the compilation of extensive interview notes as well as researcher reflections. The combination of a constant comparative method and a voice-centered method were used in tandem to analyze the data. Together they uncovered five emergent themes: (a) intricate understandings of key terms; (b) life-long learning and transformative pathways; (c) gender issues; (d) challenges, tensions, and possibilities; as well as (e) personal, professional, and educational implications. The findings underscored the possibility for both a singular static identity and dynamic multifaceted identities to exist in tandem, and the emergence of natural or logical identity intersections, as well as disjointed or colliding identity intersections. Ultimately, it is the continuous negotiation of internal and external spheres that contributes to the complexity and multidimensionality of graduate students' identities.

Heritability of multiple mating by female field crickets, Gryllus integer (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

The heritability of multiple mating in female Gryllus integer crickets was studied. Two preliminary experiments were conducted to determine when females first mate following the post-imaginal moult and to ascertain whether constant exposure to males affects female mating rate. Female Q. integer first mated at an average age of 3.6 days (S.D. = 2.3, Range = 0-8 days) . Exposing female crickets to courting males 24 hr daily did not significantly alter mating rates from those females in contact with males for only 5 hr per day. A heritability value of 0.690 ± 0.283 was calculated for multiple mating behavior in female Q. integer using a parent-offspring regression approach. Parental females mated between land 30 times (x 9.8, S . D. = 6. 6 ) and offspring matings ranged from 0 to 26 times (x 7 .3, S.D. = 3.4). Multiple mating is probably a sexually selected trait which functions as a mechanism of female choice and increases reproductive success through increased offspring production. Classical theory suggests that traits intimately related with fitness should exhibit negligible heritable variation. However, this study has shown that multiple mating, a trait closely linked with reproductive fitness, exhibits substantial heritability. These results are in concordance with a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting many fitness traits in natural populations demonstrate heritabilities far removed from zero. Various mechanisms which may maintain heritable variation for female multiple mating in wild, outbred Q. integer populations are discussed.

Teachers Without Borders: Exploring Experiences, Transitions, and Identities of Refugee Women Teachers from Yugoslavia

Prior to September 11 2011, Canada was recognized as a leading advocate of international refugee protection and the third largest settlement country in the world. University educated refugees were admitted to the country in part on the basis of their education, but once in Canada their credentials were often ignored. The purpose of this study was to explore, through a transnational feminist lens, immigrant and settlement experiences of refugee female teachers from Yugoslavia who immigrated to Canada during and after the Yugoslav wars; to document the ways in which socially constructed categories such as gender, race, and refugee status have influenced their post-exile experiences and identities; and to identify the government's role in creating conditions where the women were either able or unable to continue in their profession. In this study, I employed both a transnational feminist methodology and narrative inquiry. The analysis process included an emphasis on the storying stories model, poetic transcription, and concentric storying. The women’s voices are represented in various forms throughout the document including individual and collective narratives. Each narrative contributed to a detailed picture of immigration and settlement processes as women spoke of continuing their education, knowing or learning the official language, and contributing to Canadian society and the economy. The findings challenge the image of a victimized and submissive refugee woman, and bring to the centre of discourse the image of the refugee woman as a skilled professional who often remains un- or underemployed in her new country. The dissertation makes an important contribution to an underdeveloped area in the research literature, and has the potential to inform immigration, settlement, and teacher education policies and practices in Canada and elsewhere.

Microscopic evaluation of proliferative disorders in the gerbil female prostate: Evidence of aging and the influence of multiple pregnancies

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

The identities of the Brazilian female athlete: the "points of temporary attachment" of women in sports

The aim of this study is to analyze the formation of the Brazilian Olympic female athletes' identities and the construction of this social role both in the Olympic scene as in Brazilian social context. The results, when compared with previous researches and the theoretical approach allows to conclude that even after inclusion of the growing Brazilian women in several sports - including pointing out that this did not occur in the form of confrontation, just as in other countries - this does not represent a rethinking of the social roles of the female and male letting to the athletes maintain a separation between sports life and life as a woman.

The multiple signals assessed by female satin bowerbirds: could they be used to narrow down females' choices of mates?

Female choice based on multiple male traits has been documented in many species but the functions of such multiple traits are still under debate. The satin bowerbird has a polygynous mating system in which males attract females to bowers for mating; females choose mates based on multiple aspects of males and their bowers. In this paper, we demonstrate that females use some cues to decide which males to examine closely and other cues to decide which males to mate with. Female visitation rates to bowers were significantly related to male size and the males' 'solitary' display rates, and, to a lesser extent, to the numbers of bower decorations. After controlling for female visitation rates, it was found that a male's mating success was significantly related to his size and the rate at which he 'painted' his bower with saliva and chewed up plant material.

Outside in-group and out-group identities? Constructing male solidarity and female exclusion in UK builders’ talk

This article examines the spoken interactions of a group of British construction workers to discover whether it is possible to identify a distinctive ‘builders’ discourse’. Given that builders work for a mostly all-male profession (Curjao, 2006), we ask whether the ways in which male builders converse with each other while ‘on the job’ can be held in any way responsible for the under-representation of women within this major occupational sector in the UK. This article reports on a case study of the conversations of three white, working-class, male builders, which took place while travelling in a truck between different building sites. This forms part of a larger ethnographic study of builders’ discourse in different work locations. The analysis shows that male builders are highly collaborative in constructing narratives of in-group and out-group identities (Duszak, 2002; Tajfel, 1978). Various other male groups are demonized in these conversations: Polish immigrant builders, rude clients and rival builders. However, there is almost no reference to women. The article concludes that women are viewed as so unthreatening to male ascendancy in the building industry that they do not even feature within the ‘out-group’.

When does female multiple mating evolve to adjust inbreeding? : Effects of inbreeding depression, direct costs, mating constraints, and polyandry as a threshold trait

Peer reviewed