<i>Discoplana malagasensis</i> sp. nov., a new turbellarian (Platyhelminthes: Polycladida: Leptoplanidae) symbiotic in an ophiuroid (Echinodermata), with a cladistic analysis of the <i>Discoplana/ Euplana</i> species

A new species of polyclad flatworm from Papua New Guinea is described. It is found symbiotic in the ophiuroid Ophiothrix purpurea von Martens, 1867 (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea). Apparently it belongs to the taxon Discoplana Bock, 1913 and can be distinguished from the six previously described Discoplana species by its very short ejaculatory duct and a penial papilla covered with a penial sheath, but without any true sclerotised structures such as a stylet or spines. The cladistic analysis of the Discoplana/Euplana species, based on morphological features and including two outgroups, reveals that all species of Discoplana, except D. pacificola, form a monophyletic taxon, that is not a synonym of Euplana Girard, 1893. Therefore the name Discoplana is conserved and the new species will be described as Discoplana malagasensis sp. nov. A key for the Discoplana/Euplana group is provided. In this key the biogeographical distribution and possible synonyms are given

Use of freeze-cracking in ontogenetic research in Macrostomum lignano (Macrostomida, Rhabditophora)

A method for studying whole mount flatworm embryos based on freeze-cracking of the eggs is described. This method allows successful immunohistological and immunocytological studies of whole mount embryos. It does not require the use of sharpened needles or a microinjection system to puncture the eggshell. Moreover, this method is more practical and less time-consuming than classical puncturing and much cheaper than the use of a microinjection system. The advantages of this method are illustrated by results of several immunolocalisation experiments in the macrostomid flatworm Macrostomum lignano. The optimal procedure and crucial steps for this method are discussed

First record of Nemertodermatida from Belgian marine waters

Acoelomorpha; Nemertodermatida; new records; Belgium</td

How unknown is the world's biodiversity? Free-living flatworms as an example

Even at the start of the 21st century, the actual biodiversity of the world's marine ecosystems is still largely unknown. Not surprisingly, especially the smallest creatures are much understudied. Among the least known taxonomical groups are the microturbellarians, small free-living flatworms that inhabit sandy beaches or live epiphytically on algae. With a rough conservative estimation of about 15.000 species still to be described, an enormous task still lays ahead for classical morphology-based taxonomy. And not only is the relative number of species already described limited, but on top of that most of them are described from a few marine ecoregions only, mostly from the Western and Northern Europe, and the Mediterranean. The major part of the world's coasts and deep sea habitats never were investigated. This lack of knowledge greatly hampers further research regarding biogeography, ecology or even phylogeny. In recent years we have tried to shed light on several questions regarding the evolution and ecology of these animals, including the origin of a symbiotic life style, the history of major habitat shifts and the "Everything small is everywhere"-hypothesis, research that is still ongoing. These studies were only possible because of a big taxonomical effort and trustable databases, and the results will briefly be presented

Cuantificación y prescripción: ¿qué pasa con los márgenes de maniobra de los trabajadores sociales y los usuarios?

The implementation of social policies has led to the principle of making evaluation a standard for organizing the vocational integration sector. Evaluating social policies is currently all but limited exclusively to analyzing quantitative criteria determined by subsidiary claims dependent on political will. In this article we propose a critical and reflective approach based on a case study, seeking to answer a three-pronged question, namely: what are the effects on how work is organized, on the recipients of social measures, and on the workers themselves?La activación de las políticas sociales ha fijado el principio de la evaluación como una norma de organización del sector de inserción profesional. La evaluación de las políticas sociales pasa en el presente casi exclusivamente por el análisis de criterios cuantitativos definidos por instancias subsidiarias en función de la voluntad política. Nos proponemos en este artículo una aproximación crítica y reflexiva basada en un estudio de caso. Hay abierta una triple pregunta: Cuáles son los efectos sobre la organización del trabajo, sobre los destinatarios de los dispositivos sociales y sobre los trabajadores mismos

Unsupervised clustering of wildlife necropsy data for syndromic surveillance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of wildlife disease surveillance is increasing, because wild animals are playing a growing role as sources of emerging infectious disease events in humans. Syndromic surveillance methods have been developed as a complement to traditional health data analyses, to allow the early detection of unusual health events. Early detection of these events in wildlife could help to protect the health of domestic animals or humans. This paper aims to define syndromes that could be used for the syndromic surveillance of wildlife health data. Wildlife disease monitoring in France, from 1986 onward, has allowed numerous diagnostic data to be collected from wild animals found dead. The authors wanted to identify distinct pathological profiles from these historical data by a global analysis of the registered necropsy descriptions, and discuss how these profiles can be used to define syndromes. In view of the multiplicity and heterogeneity of the available information, the authors suggest constructing syndromic classes by a multivariate statistical analysis and classification procedure grouping cases that share similar pathological characteristics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A three-step procedure was applied: first, a multiple correspondence analysis was performed on necropsy data to reduce them to their principal components. Then hierarchical ascendant clustering was used to partition the data. Finally the k-means algorithm was applied to strengthen the partitioning. Nine clusters were identified: three were species- and disease-specific, three were suggestive of specific pathological conditions but not species-specific, two covered a broader pathological condition and one was miscellaneous. The clusters reflected the most distinct and most frequent disease entities on which the surveillance network focused. They could be used to define distinct syndromes characterised by specific post-mortem findings.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The chosen statistical clustering method was found to be a useful tool to retrospectively group cases from our database into distinct and meaningful pathological entities. Syndrome definition from post-mortem findings is potentially useful for early outbreak detection because it uses the earliest available information on disease in wildlife. Furthermore, the proposed typology allows each case to be attributed to a syndrome, thus enabling the exhaustive surveillance of health events through time series analyses.</p