Effects of various pollutant mixtures on immune responses of the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) collected at a salinity gradient in Danish coastal waters, links to supplementary material

The Baltic Sea is a semi-enclosed sea with a steady salinity gradient (3 per mil-30 per mil). Organisms have adapted to such low salinities, but are suspected to be more susceptible to stress. Within the frame of the integrated environmental monitoring BONUS + project "BEAST" the applicability of immune responses of the blue mussel was investigated in Danish coastal waters. The sampling sites were characterised by a salinity range (11-19 per mil) and different mixtures of contaminants (metals, PAHs and POPs), according to chemical analysis of mussel tissues. Variation partitioning (redundancy analysis) was applied to decompose salinity and contamination effects. The results indicated that cellular immune responses (total and differential haemocyte count, phagocytic activity and apoptosis) were mainly influenced by contaminants, whereas humoral factors (haemolytic activity) were mainly impacted by salinity. Hence, cellular immune functions may be suitable as biomarkers in monitoring programmes for the Baltic Sea and other geographic regions with salinity variances of the studied range.

Los territorios municipales de Mendoza frente a las prácticas de planificación participativa

The province of Mendoza, in the west of the Argentine Republic is in a favorable political conjuncture to strengthen the territorial planning in the municipalities. This is due to the approval of the Provincial Law 8051 of Territorial Ordering and Municipal Ground Uses that establish terms to formulate a Plan Provincial Territorial Ordering and Plans; against this background the municipalities have an annotated time to elaborate their own Plan. On the other hand the civil society is giving awareness signs on its protagónico paper like controller of the public policies, generating propitious scopes for the participativas social practices and circulation of the knowledge. This verifies in the social reactions front to decisions that can affect the atmosphere and the resources of the territory. In spite of this favorable context to fortify the instances of social participation it jeopardize with projects based on territorial intelligence, are observed very different institutional answers. The greater obstacles are within such municipalities, lack territorial conscience in the municipal agents and the handling of the information is fragmented. Taking into account the marks from reference that affect the provincial territorial policy, an investigation was made in order to analyze the practices of participativa planning in municipal scopes. Interviews, studies of case and qualification of municipal agents were combined, which allowed triangular results and of obtaining a socioterritorial differentiation of the municipalities of Mendoza. This result is a departure point to consider at the time of making proposals for a work agenda or trying transformations towards a new form to govern, where the associate management is multiplied. Before a same frame of provincial reference, the particular answers of the municipalities are improving, but the majority requires to cross a gradual own way with the qualification of the human resource and with a renovation of guidelines in relation to the local community

Reflections on vocational guidance and counselors' training in contexts of global change

Vocational guidance (V.G.) is currently facing both theoretical and methodological reconsiderations. This demands rethinking ethical and scientific assumptions, counselors' role and training. V.G. provides a space to receive information about oneself as well as about labor world and for the elaboration of projects for the future. Many guidance situations in teenagers and young adults are described in this paper, highlighting the main current emergent aspects. There was a remarkable protagonism of those seeking guidance and the reflective frame of the guidance. This frame prepares for the educational stage changes and also for occupational insertion working on aspects that widen autonomous choice and the development of social abilities and attitudes to carry out the vocational project and the development in work. Troubled sociocultural and economic transformations demand an on-going training on the part of counselors. To that end, possible fields of concern and subjects to be worked in said training are suggested.

What factors affect the visibility of Argentinean publications in humanities and social sciences in Scopus? Some evidence beyond the geographic realm of research

Se analizan los patrones de publicación y citación en ciencias humanas y sociales en Scopus en el período 2003-2012, según el alcance geográfico de la investigación. Los resultados muestran que los temas de alcance nacional tienen un predominio del español como lengua de publicación y una marcada preferencia por la autoría única frente a los patrones observados en el grupo de otros temas, no situados geográficamente, donde el inglés y la colaboración institucional es más fuerte y está más consolidada. La citación no parece estar determinada solo por el alcance geográfico de las investigaciones, sino también por el idioma de publicación, la coautoría y los perfiles de las revistas donde se publica. Se espera que los resultados den lugar a una reflexión constructiva sobre la cultura investigadora y editorial y que sean útiles como referencia para establecer criterios de evaluación en las comisiones evaluadoras y las políticas editoriales a nivel nacional

Reflections on vocational guidance and counselors' training in contexts of global change

Vocational guidance (V.G.) is currently facing both theoretical and methodological reconsiderations. This demands rethinking ethical and scientific assumptions, counselors' role and training. V.G. provides a space to receive information about oneself as well as about labor world and for the elaboration of projects for the future. Many guidance situations in teenagers and young adults are described in this paper, highlighting the main current emergent aspects. There was a remarkable protagonism of those seeking guidance and the reflective frame of the guidance. This frame prepares for the educational stage changes and also for occupational insertion working on aspects that widen autonomous choice and the development of social abilities and attitudes to carry out the vocational project and the development in work. Troubled sociocultural and economic transformations demand an on-going training on the part of counselors. To that end, possible fields of concern and subjects to be worked in said training are suggested.

What factors affect the visibility of Argentinean publications in humanities and social sciences in Scopus? Some evidence beyond the geographic realm of research

Se analizan los patrones de publicación y citación en ciencias humanas y sociales en Scopus en el período 2003-2012, según el alcance geográfico de la investigación. Los resultados muestran que los temas de alcance nacional tienen un predominio del español como lengua de publicación y una marcada preferencia por la autoría única frente a los patrones observados en el grupo de otros temas, no situados geográficamente, donde el inglés y la colaboración institucional es más fuerte y está más consolidada. La citación no parece estar determinada solo por el alcance geográfico de las investigaciones, sino también por el idioma de publicación, la coautoría y los perfiles de las revistas donde se publica. Se espera que los resultados den lugar a una reflexión constructiva sobre la cultura investigadora y editorial y que sean útiles como referencia para establecer criterios de evaluación en las comisiones evaluadoras y las políticas editoriales a nivel nacional

Los territorios municipales de Mendoza frente a las prácticas de planificación participativa

The province of Mendoza, in the west of the Argentine Republic is in a favorable political conjuncture to strengthen the territorial planning in the municipalities. This is due to the approval of the Provincial Law 8051 of Territorial Ordering and Municipal Ground Uses that establish terms to formulate a Plan Provincial Territorial Ordering and Plans; against this background the municipalities have an annotated time to elaborate their own Plan. On the other hand the civil society is giving awareness signs on its protagónico paper like controller of the public policies, generating propitious scopes for the participativas social practices and circulation of the knowledge. This verifies in the social reactions front to decisions that can affect the atmosphere and the resources of the territory. In spite of this favorable context to fortify the instances of social participation it jeopardize with projects based on territorial intelligence, are observed very different institutional answers. The greater obstacles are within such municipalities, lack territorial conscience in the municipal agents and the handling of the information is fragmented. Taking into account the marks from reference that affect the provincial territorial policy, an investigation was made in order to analyze the practices of participativa planning in municipal scopes. Interviews, studies of case and qualification of municipal agents were combined, which allowed triangular results and of obtaining a socioterritorial differentiation of the municipalities of Mendoza. This result is a departure point to consider at the time of making proposals for a work agenda or trying transformations towards a new form to govern, where the associate management is multiplied. Before a same frame of provincial reference, the particular answers of the municipalities are improving, but the majority requires to cross a gradual own way with the qualification of the human resource and with a renovation of guidelines in relation to the local community

Los territorios municipales de Mendoza frente a las prácticas de planificación participativa

The province of Mendoza, in the west of the Argentine Republic is in a favorable political conjuncture to strengthen the territorial planning in the municipalities. This is due to the approval of the Provincial Law 8051 of Territorial Ordering and Municipal Ground Uses that establish terms to formulate a Plan Provincial Territorial Ordering and Plans; against this background the municipalities have an annotated time to elaborate their own Plan. On the other hand the civil society is giving awareness signs on its protagónico paper like controller of the public policies, generating propitious scopes for the participativas social practices and circulation of the knowledge. This verifies in the social reactions front to decisions that can affect the atmosphere and the resources of the territory. In spite of this favorable context to fortify the instances of social participation it jeopardize with projects based on territorial intelligence, are observed very different institutional answers. The greater obstacles are within such municipalities, lack territorial conscience in the municipal agents and the handling of the information is fragmented. Taking into account the marks from reference that affect the provincial territorial policy, an investigation was made in order to analyze the practices of participativa planning in municipal scopes. Interviews, studies of case and qualification of municipal agents were combined, which allowed triangular results and of obtaining a socioterritorial differentiation of the municipalities of Mendoza. This result is a departure point to consider at the time of making proposals for a work agenda or trying transformations towards a new form to govern, where the associate management is multiplied. Before a same frame of provincial reference, the particular answers of the municipalities are improving, but the majority requires to cross a gradual own way with the qualification of the human resource and with a renovation of guidelines in relation to the local community

Reflections on vocational guidance and counselors' training in contexts of global change

Vocational guidance (V.G.) is currently facing both theoretical and methodological reconsiderations. This demands rethinking ethical and scientific assumptions, counselors' role and training. V.G. provides a space to receive information about oneself as well as about labor world and for the elaboration of projects for the future. Many guidance situations in teenagers and young adults are described in this paper, highlighting the main current emergent aspects. There was a remarkable protagonism of those seeking guidance and the reflective frame of the guidance. This frame prepares for the educational stage changes and also for occupational insertion working on aspects that widen autonomous choice and the development of social abilities and attitudes to carry out the vocational project and the development in work. Troubled sociocultural and economic transformations demand an on-going training on the part of counselors. To that end, possible fields of concern and subjects to be worked in said training are suggested.

What factors affect the visibility of Argentinean publications in humanities and social sciences in Scopus? Some evidence beyond the geographic realm of research

Se analizan los patrones de publicación y citación en ciencias humanas y sociales en Scopus en el período 2003-2012, según el alcance geográfico de la investigación. Los resultados muestran que los temas de alcance nacional tienen un predominio del español como lengua de publicación y una marcada preferencia por la autoría única frente a los patrones observados en el grupo de otros temas, no situados geográficamente, donde el inglés y la colaboración institucional es más fuerte y está más consolidada. La citación no parece estar determinada solo por el alcance geográfico de las investigaciones, sino también por el idioma de publicación, la coautoría y los perfiles de las revistas donde se publica. Se espera que los resultados den lugar a una reflexión constructiva sobre la cultura investigadora y editorial y que sean útiles como referencia para establecer criterios de evaluación en las comisiones evaluadoras y las políticas editoriales a nivel nacional

Late Miocene development of the western Pacific warm pool: Planktonic foraminifer and oxygen isotopic evidence

The disappearance at ~10 Ma of the deep dwelling planktonic foraminifer Globoquadrina dehiscens from the western Pacific including the South China Sea was about 3 Myr earlier than its final extinction elsewhere. Accompanying this event at ~10 Ma was a series of faunal turnover characterized by increase in mixed layer, warm-water species and decrease to a minimum in deepwater species. Paleobiological and isotopic evidence indicates sea surface warming and a deepened local thermocline that we interpret as related to the development of an early western Pacific warm pool. The stepwise decline of G. dehiscens and other deep dwelling species from the NW and SW Pacific suggests more intensive warm water pileup than equatorial localities where surface bypass flow through the narrowing Indonesia seaway appears to remain efficient during the late Miocene. Planktonic delta18O values from the South China Sea consistently lighter than the tropical western Pacific during the Miocene also suggest, similar to today, more variable hydrologic conditions along the periphery than in the core of the warm pool. Stronger hydrologic variability affected mainly by monsoons and increased thermal gradient along the western margin of the late Miocene warm pool may have contributed to the decline of deep dwelling planktonic species including the early extinction of G. dehiscens from the South China Sea region. The late Miocene warm pool became influential and paleobiologically detectable from ~10 Ma, but the modern warm pool did not appear until about 4 Ma, in the middle Pliocene.

Geodetic and satellite derived ice surface velocities of Vestfonna ice cap

During 2007 we launched a geodetic campaign on the Svalbard ice cap Vestfonna in order to estimate the velocity field of the ice cap. This was done within the frame of the IPY project KINNVIKA. We present here the velocity measurements derived from our campaigns 2007-2010 and compare the geodetic measurements against InSAR velocity fields from satellite platforms from 1995/96 and 2008. We find the spatial distribution of ice speeds from the InSAR is in good agreement within the uncertainty limits with our geodetic measurements. We observe no clear indication of seasonal ice speed differences, but we find a speed-up of the outlet glacier Franklinbreen between the InSAR campaigns, and speculate the outlet is having a surge phase.

Nd isotope composition of fossil fish teeth of ODP Hole 119-738B

We report an optimized method for extracting neodymium (Nd) from fossil fish teeth with a single-stage column (125 µl stem volume; LN Resin, Eichrom Industries, Darien Illinois) for isotopic analysis by multi-collector inductively coupled mass spectrometry (MC-ICMPS). Three reference materials (basalt: BCR-2, BHVO-2; phosphate: fossil bone composite) and splits of fossil fish teeth samples previously processed with existing two-stage column methods were processed using the single-stage column method. 143Nd/144Nd values of reference materials agree within error with published values, and the values for fish teeth correspond with sample splits processed with two-stage columns. Precision to ± ~0.23 epsilon-Nd was achieved for 30 ng Nd samples of reference materials, and Nd isotope measurements of fossil fish tooth sample replicates as small as 7 ng Nd were reproducible within long term instrumental uncertainty. We demonstrate the utility of the new method with the first high resolution Nd isotope record spanning the ~40.0 Ma middle Eocene Climatic Optimum, which shows an excursion of 0.65 epsilon-Nd during the peak warming at the study site (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 119, Site 738; 30 kyr sample spacing from 40.3 to 39.6 Ma). LN Resin is already used in standard methods for separating Nd, and Nd isotopes are routinely measured by MC-ICPMS with high efficiency inlet systems. Our innovation is a single, small volume LN Resin column for Nd separation. The streamlined approach results in a 10X increase in sample throughput.

delta13Corg of Paleozoic land plants

Based on the evaluation of 1323 carbon isotope values for Silurian to Permian terrestrial organic carbon, measured on plant fossils, cuticules, humic coals and bulk terrestrial organic matter (TOM), we conclude that the temporal trend in d13CTOM records variations in the global carbon cycle, notably an increase in the fractional burial of light (terrestrial) organic matter in Late Palaeozoic sediments. d13CTOM values suggest that the Late Palaeozoic pO2 peak could have been restricted to a time frame of ca. 40 Ma. Carbon isotope data from four taxonomic groups reveal small differences that could be a consequence of habitat conditions. No significant differences in organic carbon isotopic composition in relation to variable climatic conditions are discernible. The carbon isotopic composition solely reflects C3 plant metabolism.

The CoastColour Round Robin datasets: a database to evaluate the performance of algorithms for the retrieval of water quality parameters in coastal waters

The CoastColour project Round Robin (CCRR) project (http://www.coastcolour.org) funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) was designed to bring together a variety of reference datasets and to use these to test algorithms and assess their accuracy for retrieving water quality parameters. This information was then developed to help end-users of remote sensing products to select the most accurate algorithms for their coastal region. To facilitate this, an inter-comparison of the performance of algorithms for the retrieval of in-water properties over coastal waters was carried out. The comparison used three types of datasets on which ocean colour algorithms were tested. The description and comparison of the three datasets are the focus of this paper, and include the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) Level 2 match-ups, in situ reflectance measurements and data generated by a radiative transfer model (HydroLight). The datasets mainly consisted of 6,484 marine reflectance associated with various geometrical (sensor viewing and solar angles) and sky conditions and water constituents: Total Suspended Matter (TSM) and Chlorophyll-a (CHL) concentrations, and the absorption of Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM). Inherent optical properties were also provided in the simulated datasets (5,000 simulations) and from 3,054 match-up locations. The distributions of reflectance at selected MERIS bands and band ratios, CHL and TSM as a function of reflectance, from the three datasets are compared. Match-up and in situ sites where deviations occur are identified. The distribution of the three reflectance datasets are also compared to the simulated and in situ reflectances used previously by the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG, 2006) for algorithm testing, showing a clear extension of the CCRR data which covers more turbid waters.