Project Medusa in the Context of its Historical Time

In 2000, the National Science Foundation, in union with Croatian and Slovenian science ministries, provided initial support for the international collaboration that has become Meduza project. The program was started with the goal of international collaboration. Our initial objective was simple - use this international collaboration to develop exiting scientific research involving medusae in Southern Adriatic waters. This international collaborationa has been of great importance personally and professionally to all of the investigators and institutions involved in the project, but we now ask what objective difference has the project made scientifically. We approach this question by comparing what we might accomplish at the project\u27s outset to how we now view of research on gelatinous zooplankton because of research in the Meduza project. Work outside the also has affected our views but we describe here research produced through the project that has contributed substantially to broadening our perspectives in three major areas of investigations: modes of propulsion, mechanics of predation, and trophic significance of medusae

Seed production in relation to fruit size of quebracho blanco (Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco) in the semiarid Chaco forest

Para manejar y conservar una población biológica es necesario conocer las etapas de su ciclo de vida. El quebracho blanco es una especie clave en el ecosistema chaqueño y es necesario emprender estudios relacionados con su producción de semillas. Se estudió el número de semillas fértiles (con embrión) y vanas por fruto (sin embrión) y la relación entre el número de semillas fértiles con el tamaño (largo y ancho en cm) del fruto del quebracho blanco en el sector sur-oeste del Parque Nacional Copo, Argentina. Se encontró un promedio de 23 semillas fértiles y dos semillas vanas/fruto. El ancho y el largo del fruto estuvieron positivamente asociados con el número de semillas fértiles/fruto (bancho = 4,9, R2 = 0,18; blargo = 0,35, R2 = 0,33). Los modelos no serían una buena herramienta para predecir el número de semillas fértiles/fruto debido a sus bajos valores de bondad de ajuste. Sin embargo, al momento de seleccionar frutos con el objetivo de recolectar semillas, se recomienda seleccionar frutos de mayor tamaño. Se sugiere continuar el estudio mediante una estimación del número de frutos promedio por árbol para terminar de comprender esta etapa del ciclo de vida y estimar el potencial de regeneración del quebracho blanco.Effective management and conservation of a biological population requires knowledge of the different phases of its life cycle. We present data on seed production of quebracho blanco (white quebracho), Aspídosperma quebracho-blanco, a key tree species in the Chaco ecosystem of South America. In the southwestern sector of Copo National Park, Argentina, we recorded numbers of viable (with embryo) and non-viable (without embryo) seeds per fruit. The average fruit held 23 viable and 2 non-viable seeds (medians). Using a simple regression model we determined the relation between number of viable seeds and fruit size (width and length, respectively): bwidth = 4.9, R2 = 0.18; blength = 0.35, R2 = 0.33. The low goodness-of-fit values indicate that size is not a reliable tool for accurate predictions of the number of viable seeds per fruit. Nevertheless, given the positive slopes of the two regressions, we recommend that field workers collecting quebracho blanco seeds for regeneration select large fruits when possible. For further knowledge of this life history phase (seed production) and for estimations of the regeneration potential of quebracho blanco, we suggest that future studies focus on the variation in number of fruits produced per tree.Fil: Tálamo, Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Salta. Instituto de Bio y Geociencias del Noroeste Argentino; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Salta; ArgentinaFil: Cardozo, Silvana. Universidad Nacional de Salta; ArgentinaFil: Mohr, Federico. Universidad Nacional de Salta; Argentin

Jewish diaspora engagement with Israel

From the outset of Zionism, the Diaspora has had a distinct role to play with developing the homeland, raising funds, mobilizing political activity, and providing&nbsp;immigrants. Today, particularly since 1948, Israel continues to play an unequivocally essential role in Diaspora Jewish identity. This centrality is expressed through&nbsp;many areas of Jewish life, such as education, community, philanthropy, and political activism. These deepseated&nbsp;attachments to Israel are also evident through&nbsp;growing rates of aliyah, participation in Israel programs, and visits to the Jewish state.&nbsp;Since 1967, a time when the Jewish world was gripped by the realization that the State of Israel could be destroyed, and people were then caught up in Israel&rsquo;s&nbsp;jubilation at her survival, Israel has been a central factor in Diaspora Jewish life and identity. Israel is seen as playing a central role in maintaining Jewish identity&nbsp;throughout the Diaspora. The existence of Israel is important to world Jewry, as is illustrated by the following data: 87 percent of Canadian Jewry believes Israel is&nbsp;&ldquo;important to being a Jew&rdquo;; more than 80 percent of American Jews in the 2000 National Jewish Population Survey were very or somewhat familiar with social and&nbsp;political events in Israel, and over 80 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that Israel is the spiritual center of the Jewish people; 81 percent of British Jews were,&nbsp;according to a 1997 survey, strongly or moderately attached to Israel; and 86 percent of respondents to a 2002 survey of French Jews said they felt &ldquo;very close or&nbsp;close&rdquo; to Israel. The importance of Israel in the identity of world Jewry today is manifested through various means of engagement with the Jewish State.</div

Multimodel Ensembles of Wheat Growth: More Models are Better than One

Crop models of crop growth are increasingly used to quantify the impact of global changes due to climate or crop management. Therefore, accuracy of simulation results is a major concern. Studies with ensembles of crop models can give valuable information about model accuracy and uncertainty, but such studies are difficult to organize and have only recently begun. We report on the largest ensemble study to date, of 27 wheat models tested in four contrasting locations for their accuracy in simulating multiple crop growth and yield variables. The relative error averaged over models was 24-38% for the different end-of-season variables including grain yield (GY) and grain protein concentration (GPC). There was little relation between error of a model for GY or GPC and error for in-season variables. Thus, most models did not arrive at accurate simulations of GY and GPC by accurately simulating preceding growth dynamics. Ensemble simulations, taking either the mean (e-mean) or median (e-median) of simulated values, gave better estimates than any individual model when all variables were considered. Compared to individual models, e-median ranked first in simulating measured GY and third in GPC. The error of e-mean and e-median declined with an increasing number of ensemble members, with little decrease beyond 10 models. We conclude that multimodel ensembles can be used to create new estimators with improved accuracy and consistency in simulating growth dynamics. We argue that these results are applicable to other crop species, and hypothesize that they apply more generally to ecological system models

El control de los intercambios internacionales de armamento y tecnologías de doble uso : el caso de España

Se analizan los efectos económicos de los sistemas de control de las exportaciones de armamento y tecnologías de doble uso en la economía española desde la firma del Arreglo de Wassenaar, en lo que respecta a las exportaciones en elperiodo 1991-199

Diversidad diferencial de esporas de Glomeromycota en la rizosfera de bromeliáceas nativas del Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas (San Luis, Argentina)

Los hongos micorrícicos arbusculares (HMA) están ampliamente distribuidos en distintos ambientes y forman con la mayoría de las plantas asociaciones simbióticas denominadas micorrizas arbusculares. Bromeliaceae es una familia americana que habita desde los trópicos hasta zonas templadas y áridas. En el Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas (San Luis, Argentina) las especies terrestres de Bromeliaceae están colonizadas por HMA, presentando distintos grados de asociación. El objetivo de este trabajo fue estudiar la diversidad (riqueza y densidad) de esporas de HMA en el suelo rizosférico de tres especies nativas de Bromeliaceae del Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas. Riqueza y densidad de esporas difirieron significativamente entre las especies de Bromeliaceae estudiadas, siendo siempre marcadamente menores los valores obtenidos en Bromelia urbaniana, mientras que Deuterocohnia longipetala y Dyckia floribunda presentaron los mayores valores y sólo difirieron entre sí en la riqueza de HMA. Esta diversidad diferencial de esporas de HMA observada, podría tener relación con la especie hospedante y a su vez, con los distintos grados de colonización radical de cada especie. La escasa riqueza y densidad de esporas de HMA en B. urbaniana podría deberse tanto a un efecto alelopático de esta planta como a su particular morfología radical.Fil: Rivero Mega, Maria Soledad. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Area Ecológica; ArgentinaFil: Crespo, Esteban María. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Area Ecológica; ArgentinaFil: Molina, M.G.. Universidad Nacional de San Luis. Facultad de Química, Bioquímica y Farmacia. Area Ecológica; ArgentinaFil: Lugo, Mónica Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico San Luis. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigaciones Biológicas de San Luis; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Luis; Argentin

Income inequality in Latin America: Data challenges and availability from a comparative perspective

Includes bibliographyI. Factor income shares.-- II. Inequality measurement using household surveys.-- III. Data from fiscal administrations.-- IV. Final comments