Aedes aegypti Pharate First Instar Aseasonal Quiescence Cues Anticipatory Plasticity with Implications for Urban Vector Ecology and Control

The eggs of the dengue fever vector Aedes aegypti possess the ability to undergo an extended quiescence period hosting a fully developed first instar larvae within its chorion. As a result of this life history stage, pharate larvae can withstand months of dormancy inside the egg where they depend on stored reserves of maternal origin. This adaptation known as pharate first instar quiescence, allows A. aegypti to cope with fluctuations in water availability. An examination of this fundamental adaptation has shown that there are trade-offs associated with it. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are frequently associated with urban habitats that may contain metal pollution. My research has demonstrated that the duration of this quiescence and the extent of nutritional depletion associated with it affects the physiology and survival of larvae that hatch in a suboptimal habitat; nutrient reserves decrease during pharate first instar quiescence and alter subsequent larval and adult fitness. The duration of quiescence compromises metal tolerance physiology and is coupled to a decrease in metallothionein mRNA levels. My findings also indicate that even low levels of environmentally relevant larval metal stress alter the parameters that determine vector capacity. My research has also demonstrated that extended pharate first instar quiescence can elicit a plastic response resulting in an adult phenotype distinct from adults reared from short quiescence eggs. Extended pharate first instar quiescence affects the performance and reproductive fitness of the adult female mosquito as well as the nutritional status of its progeny via maternal effects in an adaptive manner, i.e., anticipatory phenotypic plasticity results as a consequence of the duration of pharate first instar quiescence and alternative phenotypes may exist for this mosquito with quiescence serving as a cue possibly signaling the environmental conditions that follow a dry period. M findings may explain, in part, A. aegypti’s success as a vector and its geographic distribution and have implications for its vector capacity and control.

The European Educational Research Association: people, practices and policy over the last 20 years

From a pragmatic point of view, it is the people who make an organisation, but organisations are both people and structures, and not least organisations develop culture. One of the significant features of the European Educational Research Association (EERA) as an organisation is that many of its activities are run by people on a voluntary basis. Apart from a small office, now in Berlin, which oversees and handles the everyday management, participation on Council, reviewing and programming for ECER (European Conference on Educational Research), managing networks, etc. are all undertaken as voluntary work by academics from across Europe (and beyond). From the large group of people who are currently sustaining these activities, many have participated from the beginning, but many others, after having been once at the conference, returned and got engaged in the work, for instance within one of the networks. Among the many who participate in EERA activities, there is a diversity of reasons for doing so, but there seems to be something which is recurring in what people say about why they do it. One of these recurring ideas is that the discursive norms of the organisation are enforced in the context of welcoming people and ideas, and second, there exists an intellectual generosity and egalitarianism which encourages newcomers to participate rather than protect themselves. We believe that this tells something about what EERA and ECER are about.

Subfilter-scale Stress Modelling for Large Eddy Simulations

A subfilter-scale (SFS) stress model is developed for large-eddy simulations (LES) and is tested on various benchmark problems in both wall-resolved and wall-modelled LES. The basic ingredients of the proposed model are the model length-scale, and the model parameter. The model length-scale is defined as a fraction of the integral scale of the flow, decoupled from the grid. The portion of the resolved scales (LES resolution) appears as a user-defined model parameter, an advantage that the user decides the LES resolution. The model parameter is determined based on a measure of LES resolution, the SFS activity. The user decides a value for the SFS activity (based on the affordable computational budget and expected accuracy), and the model parameter is calculated dynamically. Depending on how the SFS activity is enforced, two SFS models are proposed. In one approach the user assigns the global (volume averaged) contribution of SFS to the transport (global model), while in the second model (local model), SFS activity is decided locally (locally averaged). The models are tested on isotropic turbulence, channel flow, backward-facing step and separating boundary layer. In wall-resolved LES, both global and local models perform quite accurately. Due to their near-wall behaviour, they result in accurate prediction of the flow on coarse grids. The backward-facing step also highlights the advantage of decoupling the model length-scale from the mesh. Despite the sharply refined grid near the step, the proposed SFS models yield a smooth, while physically consistent filter-width distribution, which minimizes errors when grid discontinuity is present. Finally the model application is extended to wall-modelled LES and is tested on channel flow and separating boundary layer. Given the coarse resolution used in wall-modelled LES, near the wall most of the eddies become SFS and SFS activity is required to be locally increased. The results are in very good agreement with the data for the channel. Errors in the prediction of separation and reattachment are observed in the separated flow, that are somewhat improved with some modifications to the wall-layer model.

Análisis de mujeres cachemires como sujetos subalternos en la representación institucional de India y Paquistán a partir del fenómeno de desaparición forzada (1989-2008)

El interés de esta monografía es analizar las consecuencias de la representación institucional de India y Paquistán en la disputa territorial por Cachemira durante el periodo de 1989 a 2008. Puntualmente, se analiza y explica cómo la representación institucional prestada individualmente por India y Paquistán validó sus intereses como agentes de poder en la región, pasó por alto las necesidades de la población cachemir y fomentó la práctica de la desaparición forzada, lo que en consecuencia convirtió a las mujeres cachemires en un grupo subalterno. Para tal objetivo, se hará uso de la teoría postcolonialista, específicamente el enfoque subalternista de la autora Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ya que permite explicar adecuadamente el proceso mediante el cual las mujeres cachemires se convirtieron en un grupo subalterno.

El concepto de duelo en los familiares de los desaparecidos : una revisión de la literatura

Este trabajo de grado tiene por objetivo realizar una revisión de literatura que dé cuenta de las características conceptuales del duelo que viven los familiares de los desaparecidos, en un contexto de desaparición forzada de personas como ilícito internacional de los derechos humanos. Para ello se exploraron libros de consulta reconocidos en el tema, artículos de revistas indexadas de los últimos diez años, y jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos de casos de desapariciones forzada. Se presenta la definición de la desaparición forzada como ilícito internacional en DDHH, una categorización de víctimas, el desarrollo del concepto de duelo general y para estos casos y su aplicabilidad a los casos de la Corte IDH. Se encontró que los hallazgos dados por la teoría son aplicados en los dictámenes de esta corte, con un discurso de reivindicación de derechos y reparación integral. Se recomiendan futuras investigaciones en propuestas terapéuticas.

Age and Gender Identification using Stacking for Classification⋆ Notebook for PAN at CLEF 2016

This paper presents our approach of identifying the profile of an unknown user based on the activities of known users. The aim of author profiling task of PAN@CLEF 2016 is cross-genre identification of the gender and age of an unknown user. This means training the system using the behavior of different users from one social media platform and identifying the profile of other user on some different platform. Instead of using single classifier to build the system we used a combination of different classifiers, also known as stacking. This approach allowed us explore the strength of all the classifiers and minimize the bias or error enforced by a single classifier.

Robustness of germination analysis methods for Copaifera langsdorffii Desf. (Fabaceae) seeds.

2016

Caracterização estrutural e funcional da subfamília gênica ARR-tipo B em macieira

A produtividade de pomares de macieira está estritamente relacionada ao processo de superação da dormência, o qual se caracteriza pela inabilidade do crescimento meristemático mesmo sob condições favoráveis. Embora eventos fisiológicos deste processo tenham sido elucidados, aspectos moleculares ainda são pouco compreendidos. A busca por elementos cis de regulação em genes DAM (Dormancy Associated MADS-box) de macieira revelou a presença de sítios de ligação a fatores de transcrição denominados Arabidopsis Response Regulators (ARR)?tipo B. Estes fatores fazem parte da via de sinalização de citocininas e seu papel na dormência ainda não foi elucidado. Pelo presente trabalho, temos por objetivo compreender a estrutura e a função dos elementos cis e trans associados aos fatores ARR-tipo B de macieira e avaliar se os mesmos podem estar atuando como possíveis repressores do estado dormente da planta.

El respeto a la formación de la identidad como un elemento esencial del derecho humano a la identidad de las personas menores

ResumenLa identidad de una persona, adultos/as o niños/as, es un conjunto de características que particularizan a ese ser humano. Desde la infancia y hasta avanzada la edad adulta se van erigiendo rasgos que servirán para afianzar una identidad propia; la mayoría de estas características se toman a muy temprana edad y por lo tanto, debe delimitarse muy bien no solo el derecho que tienen las personas menores de edad a tener una identidad propia y estatalmente resguardada, sino también, se debe valorar y hacer respetar al derecho que tienen a formarla. Los instrumentos internacionales destinados a la protección de los derechos de las personas menoresasí como el Código de la Niñez y la Adolescencia costarricense, no delimitan claramente el derecho a la identidad en general y del todo son omisos en relación con el derecho de los/as infantes a conformar su identidad.Palabras clave: Derechos Humanos de las niñas y los niños, identidad, formación de la identidad, derecho a la identidad.AbstractThe identity of a person, adults or children, is a set of characteristics that distinguish that human being. Traits that will strengthen one’s own identity are erected from childhood to advanced adulthood; mostof these features are acquired at an early age and therefore, they should not only be delimited by the right minors have of their own and state protected identity, but also, their rights of identity formationshould be assessed and enforced. International instruments aimed at the protection of the rights of children, as well as the Costa Rican code of children and adolescents, do not clearly delimit the right to identity in general and are entirely neglectful in relation to the right of infants to shape their identity.Keywords: Human Rights of Children, identity, identity’s training, right to the identity.