Semblanzas Ictiológicas: Cecilia Yanina Di Prinzio

A través de esta serie intentaremos conocer diferentes facetas personales de los integrantes de nuestra “comunidad”. El cuestionario, además de su principal objetivo, con sus respuestas quizás nos ayude a encontrar entre nosotros puntos en común que vayan más allá de nuestros temas de trabajo y sea un aporte a futuros estudios históricos. Esperamos que esta iniciativa pueda ser otro nexo entre los ictiólogos de la región, ya que consideramos que el resultado general trascendería nuestras fronteras.

A dor que dói na escola: psicanálise e educação no século XXI

A presente pesquisa nasce da inserção de uma psicóloga em formação psicanalítica em escolas municipais da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Nosso ponto de partida é a expansão dos diagnósticos de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade em crianças em idade escolar e de Burnout em professores. O reconhecimento de que tais diagnósticos são nomes correntes na atualidade para nomear a dor que dói na escola permite que nos questionemos sobre as mudanças no campo da cultura e suas repercussões na tarefa educativa na escola. Para construirmos uma leitura sobre o mal-estar na escola em nossa época, recorremos à psicanálise enquanto instrumento primordial. Nossa investigação se inicia em Freud e suas diversas concepções de educação, desde a noção de moral sexual civilizada até admissão da educação enquanto uma tarefa necessária e impossível, causadora do mal-estar. Logo em seguida, abordamos a releitura de Freud feita por Lacan a partir da teoria dos discursos. Passamos, assim, à educação enquanto laço social. Verificamos o quanto Lacan avança ao distinguir o discurso do mestre como discurso de entrada na linguagem, a partir do qual os outros discursos são possíveis. O discurso do mestre escreve a operação permanente em toda civilização, sem que isso indique a imutabilidade do Outro. Ao nos indagarmos sobre a delimitação do Outro em nossa época, reconhecemos a importância do discurso da ciência e do capitalista, assim como o Outro nãotodo. Com essas chaves de leitura, questionamo-nos sobre o lugar da criança na cultura hoje e sobre os significantes-mestres das atuais políticas públicas para a educação, aproximando-nos do mal-estar na escola. Sustentados por essas ferramentas, terminamos por nos indagar sobre a prática da psicanálise nas instituições escolares, desvendando que a partir das (re)invenções da psicanálise, há na escola um lugar possível para o psicanalista.

Diel movements of fishes linked to benthic seascape structure in a Caribbean coral reef ecosystem

Many common fishes associated with Caribbean coral reef ecosystems use resources from more than 1 patch type during routine daily foraging activities. Few studies have provided direct evidence of connectivity across seascapes, and the importance of benthic seascape structure on movement behavior is poorly known. To address this knowledge gap, we coupled hydro-acoustic technology to track fish with seafloor mapping and pattern analysis techniques from landscape ecology to quantify seascape structure. Bluestriped grunts Haemulon sciurus and schoolmaster snapper Lutjanus apodus were tracked over 24 h periods using boat-based acoustic telemetry. Movement pathways, and day and night activity spaces were mapped using geographical information system (GIS) tools, and seafloor structure within activity spaces was mapped from high-resolution aerial photography and quantified using spatial pattern metrics. For both fish species, night activity spaces were significantly larger than day activity spaces. Fish exhibited a daytime preference for seascapes with aggregate coral reef and colonized bedrock, then shifted to night activity spaces with lower complexity soft sediment including sand, seagrass, and scattered coral/rock. Movement path complexity was negatively correlated with seascape complexity. This demonstrates direct connectivity across multiple patch types and represents the first study to apply quantitative landscape ecology techniques to examine the movement ecology of marine fish. The spatially explicit approach facilitates understanding to the linkages between biological processes and the heterogeneity of the landscape. Such studies are essential for identifying ecologically relevant spatial scales, delineating essential fish habitat and designing marine protected areas.

Southern California's megaflood event of ca. 1605 AD linked to large-scale atmospheric forcing

A distinct, 1- to 2-cm-thick flood deposit found in Santa Barbara Basin with a varve-date of 1605 AD ± 5 years testifies to an intensity of precipitation that remains unmatched for later periods when historical or instrumental records can be compared against the varve record. The 1605 AD ± 5 event correlates well with Enzel's (1992) finding of a Silver Lake playa perennial lake at the terminus of the Mojave River (carbon-14-dated 1560 AD ± 90 years), in relative proximity to the rainfall catchment area draining into Santa Barbara Basin. According to Enzel, such a persistent flooding of the Silver Lake playa occurred only once during the last 3,500 years and required a sequence of floods, each comparable in magnitude to the largest floods in the modern record. To gain confidence in dating of the 1605 AD ± 5 event, we compare Southern California's sedimentary evidence against historical reports and multi-proxy time-series that indicate unusual climatic events or are sensitive to changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. The emerging pattern supports previous suggestions that the first decade of the 17th century was marked by a rapid cooling of the Northern Hemisphere, with some indications for global coverage. A burst of volcanism and the occurrence of El Nino seem to have contributed to the severity of the events. The synopsis of the 1605 AD ± 5 years flood deposit in Santa Barbara Basin, the substantial freshwater body at Silver Lake playa, and much additional paleoclimatic, global evidence testifies for an equatorward shift of global wind patterns as the world experienced an interval of rapid, intense, and widespread cooling.

Development, validation, and utilization of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies against Brucella species in marine mammals

A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) was developed by using a whole-cell antigen from a marine Brucella sp. isolated from a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The assay was designed to screen sera from multiple marine mammal species for the presence of antibodies against marine-origin Brucella. Based on comparisons with culture-confirmed cases, specificity and sensitivity for cetacean samples tested were 73% and 100%, respectively. For pinniped samples, specificity and sensitivity values were 77% and 67%, respectively. Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi; n = 28) and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus; n = 48) serum samples were tested, and the results were compared with several other assays designed to detect Brucella abortus antibodies. The comparison testing revealed the marine-origin cELISA to be more sensitive than the B. abortus tests by the detection of additional positive serum samples. The newly developed cELISA is an effective serologic method for detection of the presence of antibodies against marine-origin Brucella sp. in marine mammals.