Seawater acidification by CO2 in a coastal lagoon environment: Effects on life history traits of juvenile mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis

The carbonate chemistry of seawater from the Ria Formosa lagoon was experimentally manipulated, by diffusing pure CO2, to attain two reduced pH levels, by -0.3 and -0.6 pH units, relative to unmanipulated seawater. After 84 days of exposure, no differences were detected in terms of growth (somatic or shell) or mortality of juvenile mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis. The naturally elevated total alkalinity of the seawater (= 3550 µmol/kg) prevented under-saturation of CaCO3, even under pCO2 values exceeding 4000 µatm, attenuating the detrimental effects on the carbonate supply-side. Even so, variations in shell weight showed that net calcification was reduced under elevated CO2 and reduced pH, although the magnitude and significance of this effect varied among size-classes. Most of the loss of shell material probably occurred as post-deposition dissolution in the internal aragonitic nacre layer. Our results show that, even when reared under extreme levels of CO2-induced acidification, juvenile M. galloprovincialis can continue to calcify and grow in this coastal lagoon environment. The complex responses of bivalves to ocean acidification suggest a large degree of interspecific and intraspecific variability in their sensitivity to this type of perturbation. Further research is needed to assess the generality of these patterns and to disentangle the relative contributions of acclimation to local variations in seawater chemistry and genetic adaptation.

Mobilities, Entanglements, Transformations. Outline of a Research Project on Pottery Practices in Neolithic Wetland Sites of the Swiss Plateau

A large number of later Neolithic sites (3900–3500BC) in Switzerland, Southern Germany and Eastern France offer outstandingly well preserved archaeological materials from cultural layers. Due to the wide use of dendrochronology, settlement remains and artefact assemblages can now be placed into a precise and fixed chronological framework, thus presenting a unique case within prehistoric archaeology. In earlier research, chronological and regional units were constructed on the basis of pottery. These spacial and temporal units of typical pottery sets were understood as Neolithic cultures, as culturally more or less homogenous entities connected with (ethnic) identities. Today, with a larger data corpus of excavated settlements at hand, we can begin to understand that this period of the past was in fact characterised by a multitude of cultural entanglements and transformations. This is indicated by the occurrence of local and non-local pottery styles in one and the same settlement: for example typically local Cortaillod pottery is found together with NMB-styled pottery in settlements at Lake Neuchâtel or Michelsberg pottery is regularly occurring in settlements at Lake Constance where Pfyn pottery style is the typical local one. These and many more examples show that there must have been complex entanglements of social ties expanding between Eastern France, Southern Germany and the Swiss Plateau. Given these circumstances the former notions of Neolithic culture should be critically revised. Therefore, in late 2014, the Prehistoric Archaeology Department at the Archaeological Institute of University of Berne started a four-year research project funded by Swiss National Science Foundation in late 2014: ‘Mobilities, Entanglements and Transformations in Neolithic Societies of the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)’. It’s objective is to address the topic sketched above by adopting a mixed methods research (MMR)-design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches from archaeology and archaeometry. The approach is theoretically based on Pierre Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and his concept of habitus but includes further concepts of practice theories. By shifting the focus to the movement of people, ideas and things – to pottery production practices in contexts of mobility – a deeper understanding of the transformative capacities of encounters can be achieved. This opens the path for new insights of Neolithic societies including social, cultural and economic dynamics that were underestimated in former research.

Three decades of Space Activities at the Instituto Universitario de Microgravedad "Ignacio Da Riva" / Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IDR/UPM) en History of Rocketry and Astronautics

Strictly speaking, space related activities at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Aeronáuticos (ETSIA) begun in 1973, when Prof. Ignacio Da Riva got a contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to compile a handbook on spacecraft thermal control. By the same time, ESA issued an announcement of opportunities offering to the European scientific community the possibility of perform microgravity relevant experiments on board space platform like the European orbital laboratory Spacelab. Prof. Da Riva proposed one of the few selected experiments dealing with fluid physics under microgravity conditions, later flown on Spacelab-1 mission in 1983. These two events were the starting point where Prof. Da Riva, full professor of Aerodynamics at ETSIA, nucleated a small group of young professors and students located at the Laboratorio de Aerodinámica y Mecánica de Fluidos (LAMF) of ETSIA. Such group was leaded by Prof. Da Riva since its creation till 1991, when Prof. Da Riva died, and it was the seed of the more recently created research institute for aerospace science and technology named "Ignacio Da Riva" (IDR) in his honour. In this communication space related activities performed either at LAMF or IDR during the last three decades are briefly described.

Research activities of Spanish antenna groups

When we look at the history of electricity and electromagnetism in Spain we discover that the most important Spanish researchers are generally out of the official institutions or stable research groups until the 20th century [1] [2]. In the 20th century most of the scientific research is done in stable research institutions and universities and the most important electromagnetism research centres in Spain are located in the Faculty of Physics of the most important universities, the National Scientific Research Council (CSIC) and the School for Telecommunication Engineering created in 1923. But the greatest impulse of research in the antenna and radiowave propagation field is done after 1960 reaching the first national URSI conference in 1980. After that year, the relation between groups and the number of research groups is continuously growing and the relation to industry is also increasing. When Spain joins the European research organizations (COST, ERC...) and the European Union in 1985 the research support experience a fast growing and the participation in the European research structures. In the antenna design field, there exist some specializations although most of the groups have dome specific projects in almost all the antenna analysis and design fields. Here, we have selected the most important and characteristic area related to each of the research groups and institutions. The easiest way to classify the research work in antennas is the selection between antenna analysis, design and measurement. After that the selected frequency bands technology, the type of antennas and the related circuits can be a good criterion to describe the variety of research work and specialization between groups.

Vegetation and fire history since the last glacial maximum in an inland area of the western Mediterranean Basin (Northern Iberian Plateau, NW Spain)

We reconstructed vegetation responses to climate oscillations, fire and human activities since the last glacial maximum in inland NW Iberia, where previous paleoecological research is scarce. Extremely sparse and open vegetation composed of steppic grasslands and heathlands with scattered pioneer trees suggests very cold and dry conditions during the Oldest Dryas, unsuitable for tree survival in the surroundings of the study site. Slight woodland expansion during the Bolling/Allerod was interrupted by the Younger Dryas cooling. Pinewoods dominated for most of the early Holocene, when a marked increase in fire activity occurred. Deciduous trees expanded later reaching their maximum representation during the mid-Holocene. Enhanced fire activity and the presence of coprophilous fungi around 6400-6000 cal yr BP suggest an early human occupation around the site. However, extensive deforestation only started at 4500 calyrBP, when fire was used to clear the tree canopy. Final replacement of woodlands with heathlands, grasslands and cereal crops occurred from 2700 cal yr BP onwards due to land-use intensification. Our paleoecological record can help efforts aimed at restoring the natural vegetation by indicating which communities were dominant at the onset of heavy human impact, thus promoting the recovery of currently rare oak and alder stands.

Construction History in Spain: the Discipline's Foundation

In the past two decades the History of Construction has started to become an independent discipline. On one hand, the number of articles, theses and books that could be assigned to this field has grown exponentially. Furthermore, there have been numerous and remarkably successful Congresses: 12 National (Spain 8; France 2; United Kingdom 1; Germany 1) and 4 International Congresses (Madrid 2003, Cambridge 2006, Cottbus 2009, Paris 2012), see Table 1 below. However, the situation is far from that corresponding to an already recognized discipline, such as the History of Art or the History of Science. There are no University chairs and departments, and in the reference databases “Construction History” is not listed as a common descriptor. This is not surprising; it reflects the inertia of academia to accept new disciplines. In what follows we will discuss the current state of discipline in Spain. Previous articles have tackled the matter. We will try to avoid unnecessary repetitions and concentrate on: 1) The activities of the Spanish Society of Construction History; 2) Its consequences on teaching and research, taken as a case study the experience in the School of Architecture of Madrid, and 3) We will give a provisional List of dissertations on Construction History read in Spain in the last forty years. First, we will try to define with the least possible ambiguity its field and its objectives. The intention is not to enter into the actual debate on the "definition" of Construction History, but to expose, in as detached as possible way, the ideas behind the actions made.

Accurate reconstruction of a known HIV-1 transmission history by phylogenetic tree analysis.

Phylogenetic analyses are increasingly used in attempts to clarify transmission patterns of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), but there is a continuing discussion about their validity because convergent evolution and transmission of minor HIV variants may obscure epidemiological patterns. Here we have studied a unique HIV-1 transmission cluster consisting of nine infected individuals, for whom the time and direction of each virus transmission was exactly known. Most of the transmissions occurred between 1981 and 1983, and a total of 13 blood samples were obtained approximately 2-12 years later. The p17 gag and env V3 regions of the HIV-1 genome were directly sequenced from uncultured lymphocytes. A true phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the knowledge about when the transmissions had occurred and when the samples were obtained. This complex, known HIV-1 transmission history was compared with reconstructed molecular trees, which were calculated from the DNA sequences by several commonly used phylogenetic inference methods [Fitch-Margoliash, neighbor-joining, minimum-evolution, maximum-likelihood, maximum-parsimony, unweighted pair group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA), and a Fitch-Margoliash method assuming a molecular clock (KITSCH)]. A majority of the reconstructed trees were good estimates of the true phylogeny; 12 of 13 taxa were correctly positioned in the most accurate trees. The choice of gene fragment was found to be more important than the choice of phylogenetic method and substitution model. However, methods that are sensitive to unequal rates of change performed more poorly (such as UPGMA and KITSCH, which assume a constant molecular clock). The rapidly evolving V3 fragment gave better reconstructions than p17, but a combined data set of both p17 and V3 performed best. The accuracy of the phylogenetic methods justifies their use in HIV-1 research and argues against convergent evolution and selective transmission of certain virus variants.

A Carboniferous insect gall: insight into early ecologic history of the Holometabola.

Although the prevalence or even occurrence of insect herbivory during the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) has been questioned, we present the earliest-known ecologic evidence showing that by Late Pennsylvanian times (302 million years ago) a larva of the Holometabola was galling the internal tissue of Psaronius tree-fern fronds. Several diagnostic cellular and histological features of these petiole galls have been preserved in exquisite detail, including an excavated axial lumen filled with fecal pellets and comminuted frass, plant-produced response tissue surrounding the lumen, and specificity by the larval herbivore for a particular host species and tissue type. Whereas most suggestions over-whelmingly support the evolution of such intimate and reciprocal plant-insect interactions 175 million years later, we provide documentation that before the demise of Pennsylvanian age coal-swamp forests, a highly stereotyped life cycle was already established between an insect that was consuming internal plant tissue and a vascular plant host responding to that herbivory. This and related discoveries of insect herbivore consumption of Psaronius tissues indicate that modern-style herbivores were established in Late Pennsylvanian coal-swamp forests.

A pre-Columbian Y chromosome-specific transition and its implications for human evolutionary history.

A polymorphic C-->T transition located on the human Y chromosome was found by the systematic comparative sequencing of Y-specific sequence-tagged sites by denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography. The results of genotyping representative global indigenous populations indicate that the locus is polymorphic exclusively within the Western Hemisphere. The pre-Columbian T allele occurs at > 90% frequency within the native South and Central American populations examined, while its occurrence in North America is approximately 50%. Concomitant genotyping at the polymorphic tetranucleotide microsatellite DYS19 locus revealed that the C-->T mutation displayed significant linkage disequilibrium with the 186-bp allele. The data suggest a single origin of linguistically diverse native Americans with subsequent haplotype differentiation within radiating indigenous populations as well as post-Columbian European and African gene flow. The mutation may have originated either in North America at a very early time during the expansion or before it, in the ancestral population(s) from which all Americans may have originated. The analysis of linkage of the DYS199 and the DYS19 tetranucleotide loci suggests that the C-->T mutation may have occurred around 30,000 years ago. We estimate the nucleotide diversity over 4.2 kb of the nonrecombining portion of the Y chromosome to be 0.00014. compared to autosomes, the majority of variation is due to the smaller effective population size of the Y chromosome rather than selective sweeps. There begins to emerge a pattern of pronounced geographical localization of Y-specific nucleotide substitution polymorphisms.

Reproductive cooperation between queens and their mated workers: the complex life history of an ant with a valuable nest.

The life history of Harpegnathos saltator is exceptional among ants because both queens and workers reproduce sexually. Recently mated queens start new colonies alone, but later some of the offspring workers also become inseminated and take over the egg-laying role. This alternation seems associated with the existence of very complex underground nests, which are designed to survive floods. Longevity of ponerine queens is low (a consequence of limited caste dimorphism in this "primitive" subfamily), and upon the death of an H. saltator foundress, the nest represents a substantial investment. The queen's progeny should thus be strongly selected to retain the valuable nests. Unlike the flying queens, the workers copulate with males from their own colonies, and, thus, their offspring are expected to be highly related to the foundress. Colony fission appears not to occur because a daughter fragment would lack an adequate nest for protection. Thus, the annual production of queens in colonies with reproductive workers remains essential for the establishment of new colonies. This contrasts with various other ponerine species in which the queens no longer exist.

Attentional processes associated with victimization history and posttraumatic symptomatology in women exposed to intimate partner violence

Exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) puts women at risk for severe and chronic physical and mental health consequences, including elevations in IPV-related psychopathology and increased risk for future victimization. Previous research has examined attention as one of the key information processing mechanisms associated with elevated psychopathology and risk for victimization; however, the nature of attentional processing in response to IPV-related information in women exposed to IPV is poorly understood. Therefore, the current study aimed to further understanding of associations between attentional processing, IPV exposure, and related distress using measures of eye movement and subjective interpretations of IPV-related information. A sample of women exposed to IPV (n = 57) viewed sets of negative, positive, and neutral relationship images for 15 s each while having their eye movements monitored and later provided subjective ratings and interpretations of levels of risk and safety in those images. We examined associations of outcome measures with proximal victimization experiences and IPV-related psychopathology (i.e., depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and dissociation). Results indicated a bias to attend to negative relationship images relative to positive and neutral images, though this attention bias fluctuated over time and varied as a function of symptomatology such that depression corresponded with increases in attention to negative images over time and PTSD corresponded with decreases in attention to negative images. The general attention bias for negative images appeared to be explained by rumination on and/or difficulty disengaging from negative images, which was related to general elevations in psychopathology as well as exposure to revictimization by different perpetrators. Subjective interpretations and perception of danger cues were related to victimization history and level and type of IPV-related distress. We replicated these procedures with a sample of undergraduate students without IPV histories or related symptomatology (n = 33) and found that the overall attention bias for negative images was not replicated, despite general similarities in patterns of attention over time. Results therefore indicated associations between attentional processing and IPV exposure and related symptomatology. Implications for models of IPV-related psychopathology and attentional processing as well as directions for future study and interventions are discussed.

A History of Transplants: A Study of Entryway Gardens at Amache

Previous research shows that during the period of Japanese American internment gardening became a popular activity for the interned. Primarily approached historically, little work has been conducted to archaeologically analyze the efforts of landscaping by former internees. Gardening activity can paint a better picture of Japanese American identity during the period of forced confinement. This research investigates internee gardens methodologically through surface survey, ground penetrating radar, excavation, oral history, soil chemistry, archaeobotany, and palynology. The thorough investigation of landscaping efforts of internees builds upon knowledge of expression within Japanese American relocation centers, as well as the understanding of a lineage of gardening as Japanese immigrant tradition. Using available materials, gardeners adapted both tradition and environment for the purpose of improving conditions under internment and maintaining an affiliation to heritage. My examination of internee landscaping better explains how many collectively maintained, adapted, and publicly expressed an ethnic identity.