Anatomia, dos nectános de algumas espécies da flora apícola

This paper deals with anatomical descriptions of some types of nectaries in 27 species of honey plants of Piracicaba, S. P. The material studied was divides in two groups: a) Extra-floral nectaries; b) Floral nectaries. Euphorbia pulcherrima, Willd; showed to belonging to the first group: its nectaries tissue consist of an epidermal layer of cell without stomata and with true gland, with subepidermal cells diferentiated by the thickness of the wall. Among the plants with floral nectaries, the following types has been listed, according the location of the nectary in the flower: 1 - with true glands: a) in sepals, Hibiscus rosa sinensis, L.; Dombeya Wallichii, Bth. e Hk; b) in the stamens tube, Antigonum leptopus, Hook e Arn.; 2 - on the receptacle with nectariferous tissue in the epidermal cell with: a) thickness wall with stomata, Prunus persical, L.; b) thin wall without stomata, Crotalaria paulinia, Shranck; Caesal-pinia sepiaria, Roxb; Aberia caffra; 3 - with a disc located in the receptacle with: epidermal: a) with stomata, Coffea arábica, L. var. semper florens; Citrus aurantifolia, Swing; Cinchona sp.; Pryrostegia ignea, Presl.; b) without stomata and with thin wall, Leojurus sibiricus, L.; Bactocydia unguis, Mart., Ipomoea purpurea, L.; Greviüea Thelemanniana, Hueg.; Dolichos lablab, L.; Vernonia polyanthes, Less., Montanoa bipinatifida, C. Koch., Eruca sativa, L. Brassica Juncea, Co; Eucalyptus tereticomis, Smith.; Eucalyptus rostrata, Schleche; Salvia splendens, Selow.; 4 - in the basal tissues of the ovary, Budleia brasiliensis, Jacq F.; Petrea subserrata, Cham.; 5 - in the base of stamens, Per sea americana, Mill. On the anatomical point of view, most of the types of nectary studied has external nectariferous tissues, located on the epidermal cells with thin periclinal wall and without stomata. The sub-epidermal layer were rich in sugar. Short correlation was found between the structure of the nectary and the amount of nectar secretion. So, in the nectary with true glands, in those with thin wall and without stomata on epidermal cells and in those with stomata, the secretion was higher than in the other types listed.

Atividades da estação biológica de Perús

The author who was appointed entomologist of the Biological Station in Perus, São Paulo, describes in this paper, the kind of work he has been doing there. He begins with a description of the organization of the Station and of the routine work as it was daily carried on there, by himself and his staff, during nearly 6 months. During the day as well as during the night, captures of jungle were made in the forest and the same was done by night, in the Station House chiefly when the athmosphere was damp, just before, during, or after a rain. There was also an intensive search for foci of mosquitoes' larves in the bromelias, in holes, in trees and in the soil. The larves found in these breeding places were brought to a larvarium established in the forest in a place close to the station where they were bred in holes of bambus which were very suitable for them. During daytime, only new hatched mosquitoes have been captured, but during the night it has been possible to catch, inside the Station house, many female mosquitoes, with developped eggs, so confirming Aragão's opinion, that mosquitoes biting during the day are always, newly hatched ones. Some species of Sabetini were captured only inside the Biological Station House, during the night. The habits of the following species were subjected to more accurate investigations. Aedes scapularis, Aedes leucocelaenus, Lutzia braziliae, Culex (Carolia) iridescens, Orthopodomyia albicosta, Goeldia palidiventer, Joblotia compressum, Wyeomyia longirostris, Sabetoides intermedius, Limatus durhami. The conditions of the temperature of the Station, did not permit the authour to obtain breedings of Aedes aegypti in the larvarium of the Station, even during he summer months. A great diminuitions of species of the jungle mosquitoes was observed, from January till June, that is, when temperature gets lower and lower. The author has made the interesting observation that some species of mosquitoes (Joblotia and Limatus), must take a meal of flowers or bee honey before they suck blood. A list of the mosquitoes captured during the months of February to June, in the Station is given.

Sociogenomics of Cooperation and Conflict during Colony Founding in the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta.

One of the fundamental questions in biology is how cooperative and altruistic behaviors evolved. The majority of studies seeking to identify the genes regulating these behaviors have been performed in systems where behavioral and physiological differences are relatively fixed, such as in the honey bee. During colony founding in the monogyne (one queen per colony) social form of the fire ant Solenopsis invicta, newly-mated queens may start new colonies either individually (haplometrosis) or in groups (pleometrosis). However, only one queen (the "winner") in pleometrotic associations survives and takes the lead of the young colony while the others (the "losers") are executed. Thus, colony founding in fire ants provides an excellent system in which to examine the genes underpinning cooperative behavior and how the social environment shapes the expression of these genes. We developed a new whole genome microarray platform for S. invicta to characterize the gene expression patterns associated with colony founding behavior. First, we compared haplometrotic queens, pleometrotic winners and pleometrotic losers. Second, we manipulated pleometrotic couples in order to switch or maintain the social ranks of the two cofoundresses. Haplometrotic and pleometrotic queens differed in the expression of genes involved in stress response, aging, immunity, reproduction and lipid biosynthesis. Smaller sets of genes were differentially expressed between winners and losers. In the second experiment, switching social rank had a much greater impact on gene expression patterns than the initial/final rank. Expression differences for several candidate genes involved in key biological processes were confirmed using qRT-PCR. Our findings indicate that, in S. invicta, social environment plays a major role in the determination of the patterns of gene expression, while the queen's physiological state is secondary. These results highlight the powerful influence of social environment on regulation of the genomic state, physiology and ultimately, social behavior of animals.

Aplicación con Google Maps

El principal objetivo de este proyecto es realizar un aplicativo web que utilice API’s para que, a partir de un conjunto de rutas almacenadas en el sistema, éste sea capaz de generar nuevas rutas a partir de éstas, de modo que dicho sistema no se comporte como un mero "almacén" de rutas introducidas por los usuarios para poder ser utilizadas por los demás posteriormente, sino que podamos ser nosotros mismos los que decidamos ciertos aspectos de la ruta que deseamos que el sistema nos proporcione. Así, el aplicativo desarrollado, partiendo de un conjunto previo de rutas, será capaz de generar nuevas rutas pasando lo más cerca posible de un conjunto de puntos definidos por el usuario, pudiendo ser calculadas siguiendo diferentes parámetros de optimización tales como el menor número de rutas utilizadas en el cálculo o el menor número de intersecciones entre ellas. Estas rutas, posteriormente, pueden visualizarse en la aplicación mediante el API de Google Maps, o pueden ser descargadas para utilizarlas en nuestro dispositivo GPS portátil.

Traducció i estudi de documents demòtics datats del regnat d'Alexandre el Gran (332-323 aC)

Projecte de recerca elaborat a partir d’una estada a l’Oriental Institute de la University of Oxford, Regne Unit, entre juliol i octubre de 2007. Durant l’estada s’ha analitzat la documentació demòtica datada del regnat d’Alexandre el Gran com a faraó d’Egipte (332-323 aC). El conjunt de fonts que examinat està constituït per sis papirs (actes notarials que recullen diversos tipus de contractes o acords entre dues parts), un òstrakon fragmentari i una sèrie d’esteles provinents de la Necròpolis d’Animals de Saqqara Nord, en concret de la Catacumba de les Mares d’Apis. Aquesta documentació és fonamental perquè permet extreure conclusions importants sobre diversos aspectes relacionats amb l’administració i la religiositat egípcies en els moments inicials de la dominació grega d'Egipte. Cadascun d’aquests documents ha estat traduït, analitzat en profunditat i degudament contextualitzat històricament. D’una banda, en l’àmbit de l’administració, he pogut constatar la continuïtat existent amb el període històric immediatament anterior, és a dir, amb la Segona Dominació Persa del país; mentre que de l'altra, des del punt de vista religiós, l’anàlisi d’aquestes fonts m’ha permès verificar l'existència de tota una sèrie de canvis substancials, estretament vinculats a la voluntat expressa de la nova elit dirigent d'origen grec de distanciar-se dels seus predecessors aquemènides i de marcar amb força l’obertura d’una nova era que es caracteritzarà pel respecte a les tradicions autòctones i per la potenciació dels cultes nacionals.

Microsporidiosis of Tachinaephagus zealandicus Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae)

An undescribed microsporidium was found infecting Tachinaephagus zealandicus, a gregarious parasitoid that attacks third instar larvae of muscoid flies. Spores were present in all body regions and in all stages of development. Infected adults contained an average of 3.75 x 10(5) spores, and the pathogen was vertically transmitted to progeny. Infected female adults were fed either rifampicin or albendazole mixed with honey to determine the effectiveness of these drugs in preventing vertical transmission. After eight days of feeding on rifampicin the parasitoids produced progeny of which only 37% were infected. In contrast, albendazole-treated and untreated females produced progeny that were 97% and 100% infected, respectively. Healthy and infected colonies were established and studies were conducted to determine the mechanisms of transmission. It was observed that the efficiency of vertical (maternal) transmission was 96.3%. Uninfected parasitoid immatures also became infected when they shared superparasitized hosts with infected immatures. The method of transmission within superparasitized hosts is not known.

JEE : Aplicació de gestió

Amb aquest TFC s'ha obtingut una aplicació funcional àmplia en l'ús de recursos de JEE, tot i així APIs importants com a JMS, JavaMail o tot el referent a la seguretat s'ha deixat fora.

Gestor de fotos geoetiquetades

En aquest treball de final de carrega s¿ha desenvolupat una aplicació que permet la gestió d¿imatges geoetiquetades publicades en els sistemes Flicker i PicasaWeb fent servir les tecnologies de Microsoft .NET i els serveis web que ofereixen les APIs públiques d¿aquestssistemes.

NewsAnalyzer : un analitzador de notícies etiquetades

En aquest treball es pretén abordar la problemàtica de confirmar o refutar si determinades fonts de notícies online mostren algun tipus de biaix que a priori un lector podria detectar per simple intuïció. Per simplificar les tasques d'anàlisi es treballa amb fonts de notícies que disposen d'APIs d'accés als seus articles i que, a més a més, proporcionen anotacions semàntiques (etiquetes) associades a cada notícia a mode de classificació d'aquestes. Per complir amb els objectius plantejats s'analitza i millora un mètode descrit en la bibliografia que permet dur a terme una anàlisi de les etiquetes per tal d'obtenir i aplicar un vocabulari comú a les diferents fonts (procediment de normalització). El programari resultant es presenta com una aplicació implementada en Java i MySQL que recol·lecta notícies anotades semànticament de diferents fonts de notícies online (els diaris The Guardian i The New York Times), les analitza i permet visualitzar els resultats en funció del vocabulari normalitzat per tal d'extreure conclusions sobre quins són els temes més tractats per cada font. Finalment, s'analitzen els resultats obtinguts, es discuteixen i s'extreuen una sèrie de conclusions sobre el mètode de normalització i classificació emprats i es proposen possibles millores per al futur de l'aplicació.

Anaphylaxis caused by imported red fire ant stings in Málaga, Spain.

A 27-year-old woman suffered from anaphylaxis after being stung by Solenopsis invicta ants while she was handling wood from South America. The patient reported no previous adverse reactions to stings by other hymenopteran species. Intradermal skin tests with hymenoptera venom (Vespula vulgaris, Polistes species, Apis melifera) were negative. Serum specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E yielded positive results for S invicta (5.28 kU/L) and negative results for A melifera, Ves v 5 and Pol a 5. Immunodetection assays showed the presence of serum IgE against the Sol i 2 allergen. The patient had probably been stung previously although inadvertently by red fire ants while she handled infested wood from South America, and precautionary measures are thus advisable when this material is to be handled. To our knowledge this is the first case of anaphylaxis from red fire ant stings reported in Europe.

MR connectomics: Principles and challenges.

MR connectomics is an emerging framework in neuro-science that combines diffusion MRI and whole brain tractography methodologies with the analytical tools of network science. In the present work we review the current methods enabling structural connectivity mapping with MRI and show how such data can be used to infer new information of both brain structure and function. We also list the technical challenges that should be addressed in the future to achieve high-resolution maps of structural connectivity. From the resulting tremendous amount of data that is going to be accumulated soon, we discuss what new challenges must be tackled in terms of methods for advanced network analysis and visualization, as well data organization and distribution. This new framework is well suited to investigate key questions on brain complexity and we try to foresee what fields will most benefit from these approaches.

Integració de googlemaps i qüestionaris IMS QTI

La utilització de mapes a l'ensenyament de la geografia esdevé de capitalimportància. En concret, els mapes també són sovint utilitzats en el procésd'avaluació dels alumnes. En aquest projecte es proposa una aproximació quedesenvolupa un middleware per a connectar un motor que genera qüestionaris ipreguntes definits segons l'especificació IMS QTI (APIS), amb un servei que ensproporciona mapes (GoogleMaps). La finalitat és aconseguir que treballin demanera conjunta, introduint els mínims canvis al motor. S'han modelat algunesinteraccions contemplades a l'especificació, a més d'obrir noves formesd'interacció més naturals i intuïtives. L'aproximació és genèrica, i es podriafàcilment estendre per a altres serveis externs.

Mapping the structural core of human cerebral cortex.

Structurally segregated and functionally specialized regions of the human cerebral cortex are interconnected by a dense network of cortico-cortical axonal pathways. By using diffusion spectrum imaging, we noninvasively mapped these pathways within and across cortical hemispheres in individual human participants. An analysis of the resulting large-scale structural brain networks reveals a structural core within posterior medial and parietal cerebral cortex, as well as several distinct temporal and frontal modules. Brain regions within the structural core share high degree, strength, and betweenness centrality, and they constitute connector hubs that link all major structural modules. The structural core contains brain regions that form the posterior components of the human default network. Looking both within and outside of core regions, we observed a substantial correspondence between structural connectivity and resting-state functional connectivity measured in the same participants. The spatial and topological centrality of the core within cortex suggests an important role in functional integration.

O subgênero Centris (Aphemisia) Ayala: notas complementares e descrição de uma nova espécie (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)

The subgenus Centris (Aphemisia) Ayala: complementary notes and description of a new species (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Centris (Aphemisia) Ayala, 2002 is redescribed pointing out some others important distinctive characters. The nominal species designated by Ayala as the type species, Centris plumipes Smith, 1854, is preocupied by Centris plumipes (Fabricius, 1781) originaly described in Apis Linnaeus. Being so, Centris xanthosara nom. nov. is proposed to replace Centris plumipes Smith, 1854 non Centris plumipes (Fabricius, 1781). Two other species are considered to belong in this subgenus: Centris (Aphemisia) lilacina Cockerell, 1919, and Centris (Aphemisia) plumbea sp. nov., from Tingo Maria, Peru. A key for the species, illustrations, and geographical distribution are also added.