The composition of airborne and grain-dust fungal communities is shaped at regional scale by plant genotypes and farming practices

Chronic exposure to airborne fungi has been associated with different respiratory symptoms and pathologies in occupational populations, such as grain workers. However, the homogeneity in the fungal species composition of these bioaerosols on a large geographical scale and the different drivers that shape these fungal communities remain unclear. In this study, the diversity of fungi in grain dust and in the aerosols released during harvesting was determined across 96 sites at a geographical scale of 560 km(2) along an elevation gradient of 500 m by tag-encoded 454-pyrosequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences. Associations between the structure of fungal communities in the grain dust and different abiotic (farming system, soil characteristics, geographic and climatic parameters) and biotic (wheat cultivar, previous crop culture) factors were explored. These analyses revealed a strong relationship between the airborne and grain dust fungal communities and showed the presence of allergenic and mycotoxigenic species in most samples, which highlights the potential contribution of these fungal species to work-related respiratory symptoms of grain workers. The farming system was the major driver of the alpha and beta phylogenetic diversity of fungal communities. In addition, elevation and soil CaCO3 concentrations shaped the alpha diversity whereas wheat cultivar, cropping history and the number of freezing days per year shaped the taxonomic beta diversity of these communities.

Urban Gardening: espacio de creación, crítica social y activismo ecológico

El artículo hace una revisión de aquellas intervenciones artísticas que abordan determinados usos del territorio urbano y formas de cultivo. Actuaciones que mediante la acción de plantar y cultivar generan espacios para la expresión de identidades artísticas, políticas y sociales. Estos lugares encuentran asentamiento en los intersticios de nuestras ciudades, en espacios vacíos como solares abandonados, en zonas no urbanizables o semi urbanizadas, en riberas de ríos, arcenes de autopistas, márgenes de vías de tren, etc. The paper reviews those specific artistic interventions that address urban land uses and farming methods. Actions that through the act of planting and cultivating generate spaces for the expression of artistic, political and social identities. These places are settling in the interstices of our cities, in empty spaces such as brownfield sites, in non-urbanized or semi urbanized areas, on riverbanks, highways verges, railways edges, etc.

From breaking the rule to making the rules : the adoption, entrenchment and diffusion of gender quotas in France

Once a country allergic to any type of preferential treatment or quota measure for women, France has become a country that applies gender quotas to regulate women's presence and representation in politics, the business sector, public bodies, public administration, and even some civil society organizations. While research has concentrated on the adoption of electoral gender quotas in many countries and their international diffusion, few studies focus on explaining the successful diffusion of gender quotas from politics to other domains in the same country. This paper proposes to fill this gap by studying the particularly puzzling case of a country that at one point strongly opposed the adoption of gender quotas in politics, but, in less than a decade, transformed into one of the few countries applying gender quotas across several policy domains. This paper argues that the legal entrenchment of the parity principle, the institutionalization of parity in several successive women's policy agencies, and key players in these newly created agencies are mainly responsible for this unexpected development. The diffusion of gender quotas in France thus offers an illuminating example of under which conditions women's policy agencies can act autonomously to diffuse and impose a new tool for gender equality

Hybrid treatment of penetrating aortic ulcer

AbstractPenetrating atherosclerotic aortic ulcer is a rare entity with poor prognosis in the setting of acute aortic syndrome. In the literature, cases like the present one, located in the aortic arch, starting with chest pain and evolving with dysphonia, are even rarer. The present report emphasizes the role played by computed tomography in the diagnosis of penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer as well as in the differentiation of this condition from other acute aortic syndromes. Additionally, the authors describe a new therapeutic approach represented by a hybrid endovascular surgical procedure for treatment of the disease.

Newspaper attention and policy activities in Spain

Spain"s newspapers are characterised by strong partisan identities. We demonstrate that the two leading newspapers nonetheless show powerful similarities in the topics of their coverage over time. The media system is strongly related to the policy process and it shows similar levels of skew (attention focuses on just a few topics) and friction (attention lurches rapidly from topic to topic) as others have shown for policy processes more generally. Further, media attention is significantly related to parliamentary activities. Oral questions in parliament track closely with media attention over time. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories (over 95,000 stories) in El Paı´s and El Mundo, Spain"s largest daily newspapers, and all 7,446 oral questions from 1996 to 2009. The paper shows that explanations of friction and skew in governmental activities should incorporate media dynamics as well. Political leaders are clearly sensitive to media salience.

Complex patterns of global spread in invasive insects: eco-evolutionary and management consequences

The advent of simple and affordable tools for molecular identification of novel insect invaders and assessment of population diversity has changed the face of invasion biology in recent years. The widespread application of these tools has brought with it an emerging understanding that patterns in biogeography, introduction history and subsequent movement and spread of many invasive alien insects are far more complex than previously thought. We reviewed the literature and found that for a number of invasive insects, there is strong and growing evidence that multiple introductions, complex global movement, and population admixture in the invaded range are commonplace. Additionally, historical paradigms related to species and strain identities and origins of common invaders are in many cases being challenged. This has major consequences for our understanding of basic biology and ecology of invasive insects and impacts quarantine, management and biocontrol programs. In addition, we found that founder effects rarely limit fitness in invasive insects and may benefit populations (by purging harmful alleles or increasing additive genetic variance). Also, while phenotypic plasticity appears important post-establishment, genetic diversity in invasive insects is often higher than expected and increases over time via multiple introductions. Further, connectivity among disjunct regions of global invasive ranges is generally far higher than expected and is often asymmetric, with some populations contributing disproportionately to global spread. We argue that the role of connectivity in driving the ecology and evolution of introduced species with multiple invasive ranges has been historically underestimated and that such species are often best understood in a global context.

Estudio cualitativo sobre factores psicosociales de riesgo en profesionales de enfermería (Catalunya-España).

Peer-reviewed

Erwinia amylovora Novel Plasmid pEI70: Complete Sequence, Biogeography, and Role in Aggressiveness in the Fire Blight Phytopathogen

Comparative genomics of several strains of Erwinia amylovora, a plant pathogenic bacterium causal agent of fire blight disease, revealed that its diversity is primarily attributable to the flexible genome comprised of plasmids. We recently identified and sequenced in full a novel 65.8 kb plasmid, called pEI70. Annotation revealed a lack of known virulence-related genes, but found evidence for a unique integrative conjugative element related to that of other plant and human pathogens. Comparative analyses using BLASTN showed that pEI70 is almost entirely included in plasmid pEB102 from E. billingiae, an epiphytic Erwinia of pome fruits, with sequence identities superior to 98%. A duplex PCR assay was developed to survey the prevalence of plasmid pEI70 and also that of pEA29, which had previously been described in several E. amylovora strains. Plasmid pEI70 was found widely dispersed across Europe with frequencies of 5–92%, but it was absent in E. amylovora analyzed populations from outside of Europe. Restriction analysis and hybridization demonstrated that this plasmid was identical in at least 13 strains. Curing E. amylovora strains of pEI70 reduced their aggressiveness on pear, and introducing pEI70 into low-aggressiveness strains lacking this plasmid increased symptoms development in this host. Discovery of this novel plasmid offers new insights into the biogeography, evolution and virulence determinants in E. amylovora

Äitiys kulttuurisina odotuksina

Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat äitiydelle tuotetut kulttuuriset odotukset, joita tarkastellaan kahdella yhteiskunnallisella keskustelufoorumilla. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan yhtäältä lastensuojelun perhetyössä toimivien ammattilaisten ja toisaalta median puhetta äitiydestä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tehdä näkyväksi vaihtoehtoisia tapoja konstruoida äitiyttä hyvänä tai riittämättömänä sekä haastaa pohtimaan erilaisten tulkintojen perusteita ja seurauksia lastensuojelutyössä. Kulttuuriset, äitiyttä koskevat odotukset vaikuttavat myös siihen, miten äitiys henkilökohtaisella tasolla koetaan. Äitiyden kulttuurista määrittelyä analysoidaan kahdesta tekstiaineistosta. Yhtenä aineistona ovat Stakesissa vuonna 1999 toteutetun Perhetyöprojektin yhteydessä kerätyt, lastensuojelussa toimivien perhetyöammattilaisten ryhmäkeskustelut. Toisena aineistona on projektin ajankohtana ilmestyneistä suomalaisista naisten- ja perhelehdistä (Kotiliesi, Anna, Kaksplus) kerätyt äitien haastattelut. Tutkimuksessa kysytään 1) Mihin ammattilaisten äitejä koskeva huolipuhe kiinnittyy ja millaisia kulttuurisia äitiyden odotuksia se konstruoi? 2) Millaisia äitiyden odotuksia median äitihaastattelut konstruoivat? 3) Millaisen äitiyden odotushorisontin nämä puhekäytännöt yhdessä tuottavat? Analyysin teoreettis-metodologisina kulmakivinä ovat sosiaalinen konstruktionismi ja feministinen tietokäsitys. Analyysimenetelmänä on laadullinen, aineistojen ehdoilla etenevä, feministisesti ja kriittisesti sävyttynyt lukutapa, joka hyödyntää teemoittelun, diskurssianalyysin ja feministisen metodologian ideoita ja käsitteitä. Analysoitavana olevissa keskusteluissa äitiyttä konstruoidaan lapsen tarpeiden (ammattilaiset) ja naisen tarpeiden (media) näkökulmista. Ammattilaiset puhuvat tilanteista, joissa äitien toiminta rikkoo kulttuurista hyvän äidin kuvaa, vaarantaa lapsen hyvinvointia ja äitiyteen joudutaan puuttumaan ammatillisesti. Ammattilaisten tulkinnat kuvaavat taitavaa lapsen edun näkökulmasta tehtyä arviointia, jonka kiintopisteenä ovat äidit yksilöllisine ominaisuuksineen ja piirteineen. Ammatillisen huolipuheen keskiössä ovat äidin vuorovaikutussuhteet sekä äidin tunteet, käyttäytyminen ja asenteet. Riittävää äitiyttä konstruoi kodin luominen, kiintymyssuhteen rakentaminen ja lapsen ensisijaiseksi asettaminen. Sen sijaan vaikuttaa siltä, ettei äitiyden arviointia juurikaan tehdä suhteessa äidin muihin identiteetteihin tai äitiyden toteuttamisen kontekstiin. Paikoin ammattilaisten tulkinnat heijastavat myös stereotyyppisiä ja idealistisia odotuksia, joita vasten äitiyttä arvioidaan. Tällaiset piirteet voivat kertoa siitä, että äitien avuntarpeet jäävät lastensuojelutyössä kohtaamatta ja ymmärtämättä. Mediapuhe äitiydestä käydään naiseuden ja äitiyden mallien antamisen kontekstissa. Puheen keskiössä ovat mediajulkisuuteen päässeiden naisten äidiksi tuloon ja äitiyden toteuttamiseen liittyvät valinnat ja käyttäytyminen. Mediapuhe on puhetta kulttuuristen ja ammatillisten äitiyden odotusten rikkomisesta, uudelleen tulkinnasta ja niiden muovaamisesta itselle sopiviksi. Mediapuheessa hyvää äitiyttä konstruoi äidin itsenäisyys ja oma aika, sosiaalisen elämän rikkaus, ammatillinen identiteetti ja persoonalliset valinnat. Aineistojen kautta rakentuu moninaisten ja ristiriitaisten, äitejä eri suuntaan vetävien kulttuuristen odotusten kirjo. Odotukset jäsentyvät neljälle ulottuvuudelle: 1) lapselle omistautuva – itseään toteuttava, 2) emotionaalinen side – rationaalinen tehtävä, 3) odotuksia toteuttava – omaehtoinen, 4) itsenäinen - äitiyttä jakava. Äitiyden toteuttaminen kulttuurisesti ”oikein” on näiden odotusten välissä tasapainoilua. Ulottuvuuksien kautta esille tulevat kaksoisviestit voivat heikentää äitien itsetuntoa, tuottaa riittämättömyyden tunteita tai yllyttää suorittamaan äitiyttä. Myös äitiyden ammatillinen tukeminen edellyttää tasapainoilua, jottei äitejä idealisoida tai syyllistetä kulttuurisia odotuksia vasten.

Cultura, identitat i diversitat: projecte de creació d'un centre d'experimentació cultural i artística

Quin hauria de ser el paper de les pràctiques artístiques i la cultura contemporània a la societat? I les institucions artístiques, quin rol haurien d’assolir? Aquest treball final de màster és una indagació entorn els fets més significatius al llarg de la història del món occidental pel que fa a la cultura que s’ha desenvolupat al marge dels poders. Una anàlisi de les relacions que s’estableixen entre aquests diversos àmbits, on es planteja un projecte que compleix les característiques de ser un laboratori per a les pràctiques artístiques contemporànies i la seva recerca. Partint, a més a més, de la base teòrica de la historia cultural que ens porta fins on som ara i com a conformadora de les identitats

Aplicação de métodos quimiométricos na especiação de Cr(VI) em solução aquosa

The equilibria, the spectra and the identities of the species of Cr(VI) that are present in aqueous solution have long been an active subject of discussion in the literature. In this paper, three different chemometric methodologies are applied to sets of UV/Visible spectra of aqueous Cr(VI) solutions, in order to solve a chemical system where there is no available information concerning the composition of the samples nor spectral information about the pure species. Imbrie Q-mode factor analysis, followed by varimax rotation and Imbrie oblique projection, were used to estimate the composition of Cr(VI) equilibrium solutions and, by combining these results with the k-matrix method, to obtain the pure spectra of the species. Evolving factor analysis and self modeling curve resolution were used to confirm the number of the species and the resolution of the system, respectively. Sets of 3.3×10-4 and 3.3×10-5 mol L-1 Cr(VI) solutions, respectively, were analyzed in the pH range from 1 to 12. Two factors were identified, which were related to the chromate ion (CrO4(2-)) and bichromate ion (HCrO4-). The pK of the equilibrium was estimated as 5.8.