Camilla Alberti, NONOSTANTE, 2019

La ricerca artistica di Camilla Alberti parte da un’analisi dell’architettura come dispositivo di relazione con il mondo e come strumento privilegiato attraverso il quale indagare l’occupazione dello spazio. Per portare a termine la sua indagine, Alberti non privilegia un medium in particolare, ma passa dalla pittura all’installazione, al disegno, allo sviluppo di maquette, nelle quali in tempi più recenti hanno iniziato ad abitare muschi, licheni e bachi da seta. Allo stesso tempo, si avvale di strumenti teorici provenienti da diversi campi di studi e conoscenza: architettura, psicologia, urbanistica e, ovviamente, dal confronto con altri artisti

Duchamp Meets Turing: Art, Modernism, Posthuman

In her book How We Became Posthuman (1999), Katherine Hayles analysed the process through which the conception of the liberal humanist subject led the way to the posthuman subject, a subject who lives in complete entwinement with the digital. This process, however, was not innocuous: it made the (fallacious) perception that information could do without material instantiation pervasive within many fields of knowledge, a process that Hayles contends originates in the Macy Conferences and the evolution of cybernetic theory. This research identifies an analogous process within the artistic realm: when Clement Greenberg delineated the concepts of opticality and colour field as the main characteristics that “defined” Modernist painting, he conceived of these in a purely disembodied subject (Krauss 1993). In this context, this work proposes to consider that the actual overcoming of modernism comes along with the advent of the posthuman, tracing its origin to Marcel Duchamp and his invention of the readymade, and not with postmodernism, the theoretical consistency of which, at least in the artistic field, this research will question. A first aim of this work will be to unify the main concepts and theories of the artistic field with those of cybernetics, to bring together ‘Turing land’ and ‘Duchamp land’ (Manovich 1996). For achieving this, digitalisation processes are not to be understood as representations of some material reality, but rather as ontological repetitions through which difference is conveyed. This is why the consideration of the temporal dimension of the archive as event is fundamental for understanding that the archive can only exist in its change, in its movement, in its action, in its metamorphosis, and thus the relevance of digitalisation processes in this regard becomes evident. Therefore, the archive is not only an issue of memory, but also a question yet to come, of conformation both of the future and subjectivities (Derrida 1967b, 1995). In this context, the present work advances the emergence of a digital subject with the emergence of new media, and theorises that the constitution of this subject happens by assuming a ‘point of view’ (Deleuze 1988) in the technological unconscious (Vaccari 1979). Reflecting upon the effects of digitalisation and actualisation (Deleuze 1968) on the subject, on how the digitised artwork and event affects, and changes, the subject observing and interacting with it, the present research will demonstrate that it is pertinent to talk about a subject who is embodied in the digital. In this sense, if the digitised artwork in the archive needs a subject to be actualised, this process also has its consequences for the subject. Therefore, the digital subject is the possibility of actualisation of the archive, and at the same time changes with it: she assumes an always-different ‘point of view’ constituted for her by the floating signifier in the technological unconscious. All these theories, which are part of the posthuman, are presented as the actual overcoming of modernism to show that the readymade as medium is, at the same time, both one of the points of rupture and the key link to bring back new media and art theory as art at large

Histological changes of Berberis mikuna pollen grains in relation to viability and germinability

Berberis mikuna is a spontaneous shrub grown in the Tucuman-Bolivian subtropical jungle area and its fruits were highly prized as food by diaguitas and calchaquies who were local populations. Fruits are rich in phenolic compounds which would be responsible for the beneficial properties for health. Pollen preservation in gene banks should be implemented as standard procedures since pollen is a useful source of diverse alleles within a gene pool. Therefore, the aim of this work was to study the histological and ultrastructural changes of pollen grains after 45 days of conservation at different temperatures. Berberis mikuna pollen grain germination and viability decreased significantly after 45 days of its collection. Germination and viability decreased with increasing storage temperature, although the viability in T45 Ref and T45 Fr was similar. Ultrastructure studies revealed differences in the fibrillar structure of the intine, as well as the decrease in starch reserve in pollen grains stored at 5 °C andat room temperature.Fil: Radice, Silvia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Moron. Facultad de Agronomia y Ciencias Agroalimentarias. Laboratorio de Investigaciones En Fisiología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Galati, Beatriz Gloria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; ArgentinaFil: Zarlavsky, Gabriela Elena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; ArgentinaFil: Arena, Miriam Elisabet. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Moron. Facultad de Agronomia y Ciencias Agroalimentarias. Laboratorio de Investigaciones En Fisiología Vegetal; Argentin

Nectary ultrastructure of Cabomba caroliniana Gray (Cabombaceae)

Cabomba Aubl. is a genus considered as a potential genetic model for studies of early angiosperm evolution, accordingly, it is important to expand the knowledge of it. This paper reports the study of the anatomy and the ultrastructure of the nectary of Cabomba caroliniana Gray using bright-field microscope, scanning and transmission electron microscope in order to understand its secretion mechanism. C. caroliniana has protoginous flowers and the anthesis lasts two days. Nectaries of C. caroliniana are located in two basal lobes or yellow auricles of each white petal. Most nectar is observed in the area above the pronounced auricles. The secretion is released mainly by the four-cellular trichomes or hydropotens present in both nectary epidermis. The cellular ultrastructure indicates that the nectary is active during the two days of the anthesis. This agrees with the fact that in both anthesis days the fertile structures of the flower (first the stigmata and then the anthers) are disposed above the nectaries. The nectar secretion mechanism is discussed in relation to the present knowledge. The results of this study are related to what has been described for other basal angiosperms.Fil: Galati, Beatriz Gloria. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; ArgentinaFil: Gotelli, Marina María. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fabbri, Liliana Teresa. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; ArgentinaFil: Rosenfeldt, Sonia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Zarlavsky, Gabriela Elena. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Botánica General; Argentin

The transmission of visceral leishmaniasis in the municipality of Guarujá, on the Coast of São Paulo state, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: To perform an entomological survey, evaluating the circulation of Leishmania spp. in sand flies captured from the new foci of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the coastal region of São Paulo state. METHODS: Sand flies were captured from November 2016 to September 2018 using light traps of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in the neighborhood where VL cases were reported. Leishmania spp. circulation was evaluated by gut dissection and molecular analysis of the females captured. RESULTS: Nyssomyia intermedia was the more frequent species (90,7%) within the 1,203 sand flies captured. We found no flagellates in dissected females, but two pools containing females of Ny. Intermedia presented DNA of L. infantum. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that Ny. intermedia might be involved in the establishment of this new VL focus in Sao Paulo. However, before incriminating this species as a L. infantum vector, further studies should investigate other vectorial capacity parameters, including competence, survival, and feeding habits

Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil: setting the baseline knowledge on the animal diversity in Brazil

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classifications. In this context, the Brazilian megadiverse fauna is no exception, and the Catálogo Taxonômico da Fauna do Brasil (CTFB) (http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br/), made public in 2015, represents a database on biodiversity anchored on a list of valid and expertly recognized scientific names of animals in Brazil. The CTFB is updated in near real time by a team of more than 800 specialists. By January 1, 2024, the CTFB compiled 133,691 nominal species, with 125,138 that were considered valid. Most of the valid species were arthropods (82.3%, with more than 102,000 species) and chordates (7.69%, with over 11,000 species). These taxa were followed by a cluster composed of Mollusca (3,567 species), Platyhelminthes (2,292 species), Annelida (1,833 species), and Nematoda (1,447 species). All remaining groups had less than 1,000 species reported in Brazil, with Cnidaria (831 species), Porifera (628 species), Rotifera (606 species), and Bryozoa (520 species) representing those with more than 500 species. Analysis of the CTFB database can facilitate and direct efforts towards the discovery of new species in Brazil, but it is also fundamental in providing the best available list of valid nominal species to users, including those in science, health, conservation efforts, and any initiative involving animals. The importance of the CTFB is evidenced by the elevated number of citations in the scientific literature in diverse areas of biology, law, anthropology, education, forensic science, and veterinary science, among others

The Electronic Representation of Information: New Relationships between the Virtual Archive and its (Possible) Referent

“Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life.” ”” Nam June Paik [1]The present work focuses on the new relationship generated by electronic information between the virtual archive (the Web in a broad sense, certain specialized archives in particular) and its referent (material reality in general, museums, inter-art practices, and artworks in particular). It proposes that the relationship between information, its representation and the referent (or in other words, the relation between reality and the conceptual construction of reality) has to be re-thought. Douglas C. McGill, “Art People,” The New York Times, October 3, 1986, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/03/arts/art-people.html (accessed September 1, 2013)