Back to solidarity-based living? The economic crisis and the development of alternative projects in Portugal

The socio-economic crisis in 2011 caused a decrease in living standards for a large part of the Portuguese population, especially after the implementation of a new austerity programme. At the same time the country saw an increase in alternative projects such as: self-organised cultural centres; urban gardening groups; and solidarity-based exchange networks. The main aim of this contribution is to analyse how the crisis impacted these projects in Portugal in cities and also rural areas. The argument that the cri-sis had an adverse effect on resilience projects is strengthened by the results of case studies in other countries affected by the crisis and by empirical observations regarding the case of Portugal. After having re-viewed the scarce literature on social resilience and alternative projects I present data from an analysis of internet pages and a questionnaire on the impact of the socio-economic crisis on the projects of Rede Convergir in 2015.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The global justice movement: resistance to dominant economic models of globalization

Resistance to dominant economic models of globalization has a long history that reaches back to various movements, protests and campaigns, as for example the Tupac Amaru uprising (1780–1781) or the anti-slave trade movement (which peaked between 1787 and 1807). This chapter focusses on one of the most recent incarnations, the ‘global justice movement’ (GJM). The recent mobilizations by the Indignados and the Occupy movements do not form part of this movement. These current movements entered the scene in 2011 and became prominent for their large street protests and occupations of public spaces. They are mainly directed towards their respective national governments, claiming more democracy and protesting against austerity programmes. According to Dieter Rucht in this volume ‘a social movement can be defined as a network of individuals, groups and organizations that, based on a sense of collective identity, seek to bring about social change (or resist social change) primarily by means of collective public protest’. In order to speak about a movement as an entity, there has to exist a certain degree of consensus of what activists perceived as a grievance and how problems and solutions are defined. The actors within movements also need to be related to each other, at least in the sense that they consider their struggles as related. Similarities in action forms and internal practices also have to exist in a meaningful way in order for observers to be able to talk about movements. These criteria are also important when we decide whether to consider a movement as a new movement or as a continuity of an existing movement. Although some claims and practices are very similar to the GJM’s, the organizational structure of the current protests differs and the international ties of the GJM are hardly used by these new movements. As the current mobilizations have a lot in common with the global justice movement and as there already exists some comparative research on these movements that reveals the continuities between the GJM and the current mobilizations, this chapter will occasionally highlight connections and similarities as well as differences and discontinuities between these movements

Transgenerational Sterility in fbf-1 and rrf-1 Mutant Caenorhabditis elegans

The interaction between RNAs and RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) is an important topic in studies of gene expression. Our lab is interested in fbf-1, a gene that encodes an RBP that maintains stem cell proliferation and differentiation, and rrf-1, a gene that encodes an RNA-polymerase that generates small regulatory RNAs. These RNAs have been proposed to contribute to the function of FBF genes, but this hypothesis remains controversial in the field. Through previous lab research, we suspected that at 24°C, a strain of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) with rrf-1 and fbf-1 mutations becomes sterile over the course of multiple generations. Due to this finding, we decided to investigate if the rate at which rrf-1 and fbf-1 mutant C. elegans become sterile at 24°C changes based on how the mutant is produced. We use the model organism C. elegans because many of the proteins present in C. elegans have mammalian orthologs. We will generate the mutant strain in two ways. The first method is to produce a strain that has a fbf-1 deletion but maintains a wild type (WT) copy of rrf-1 through the use of a genetic balancer, a genetic tool that stabilizes a WT gene copy in heterozygotes. We hypothesize that the rrf-1 and fbf-1 mutant progeny of this strain will become sterile at over time at 24°C because the RRF-1-generated small RNAs they have inherited will be depleted each generation. The second method is to produce a strain that has an rrf-1 deletion but maintains a WT copy of fbf-1 using a genetic balancer. We hypothesize that the rrf-1 and fbf-1 mutant progeny will become sterile at 24°C immediately because they did not inherit RRF-1-generated small RNAs. Understanding the link between small regulatory RNAs and RBPs is important because their interaction is implicated in many human diseases, including cancer

DLC-1 Over-Expression and Growth Inhibition in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae

The activity and regulation of RNA-binding proteins (RBP) is an important topic in studies of gene expression. The regulation of RBPs includes interactions with cofactors. One cofactor that our lab has identified is DLC-1, a small protein that prompts the association of a RBP with subcellular RNA granules. Previous research on a protein, Pbp1, with similar effects in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast) shows that Pbp-1 over-expression leads to growth inhibition in yeast cells due to the promotion of excessive RNA granule formation (Swisher and Parker, 2010). Due to similar effects between Pbp-1 and DLC-1, we hypothesize that DLC-1, when over-expressed, will cause growth inhibition in yeast cells. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the model organism that we will use to investigate this question because it is cost efficient, allows for fast results, and is relevant for humans because many of the proteins present in yeast have mammalian orthologs. This hypothesis will be tested on multiple strains of yeast. Using these different strains, we will express DLC-1, two positive controls (Pab1 and Dhh1), and a negative control under the control of a galactose-inducible promotor. We will then grow the yeast on agarose plates that contain different concentrations of sugars (galactose and sucrose). We vary the concentrations of sugars in order to control the activity of the promotor, resulting in protein over-expression in higher concentrations of galactose. The yeast will then be incubated on the plates for five days. At the end of the incubation period, potential lack of cell growth on the high-galactose plate will suggest if DLC-1 over-expression does lead to inhibition of cell growth. Understanding how expression of DLC-1 is related to cell growth and RNA granule formation is important because abnormal RNA granule formation is linked to neurodegenerative diseases

The roles of segmental and tandem gene duplication in the evolution of large gene families in Arabidopsis thaliana

BACKGROUND: Most genes in Arabidopsis thaliana are members of gene families. How do the members of gene families arise, and how are gene family copy numbers maintained? Some gene families may evolve primarily through tandem duplication and high rates of birth and death in clusters, and others through infrequent polyploidy or large-scale segmental duplications and subsequent losses. RESULTS: Our approach to understanding the mechanisms of gene family evolution was to construct phylogenies for 50 large gene families in Arabidopsis thaliana, identify large internal segmental duplications in Arabidopsis, map gene duplications onto the segmental duplications, and use this information to identify which nodes in each phylogeny arose due to segmental or tandem duplication. Examples of six gene families exemplifying characteristic modes are described. Distributions of gene family sizes and patterns of duplication by genomic distance are also described in order to characterize patterns of local duplication and copy number for large gene families. Both gene family size and duplication by distance closely follow power-law distributions. CONCLUSIONS: Combining information about genomic segmental duplications, gene family phylogenies, and gene positions provides a method to evaluate contributions of tandem duplication and segmental genome duplication in the generation and maintenance of gene families. These differences appear to correspond meaningfully to differences in functional roles of the members of the gene families

The atmospheric background situation in northern Scandinavia during January/February 2003 in the context of the MaCWAVE campaign

The atmosphere background wind field controls the propagation of gravity waves from the troposphere through the stratosphere into the mesosphere. During January 2003 the MaCWAVE campaign took place at Esrange, with the purpose of observing vertically ascending waves induced by orography. Temperature data from the U. Bonn lidar at Esrange (68° N/21° E) and the ALOMAR RMR lidar (69° N/16° E), wind data from Esrange MST radar ESRAD, as well as wind data from the ECMWF T106 model, are used to analyse the atmospheric background situation and its effect on mountain wave propagation during January/February 2003. Critical levels lead to dissipation of vertically ascending waves, thus mountain waves are not observable above those levels. In the first half of January a minor as well as a major stratospheric warming dominated the meteorological background situation. These warmings led to a wind reversal, thus to critical level filtering and consequently prevented gravity waves from propagating to high altitudes. While the troposphere was not transparent for stationary gravity waves most of the time, there was a period of eight days following the major warming with a transparent stratosphere, with conditions allowing gravity waves generated in the lower troposphere to penetrate the stratosphere up to the stratopause and sometimes even into the lower mesosphere. In the middle of February a minor stratospheric warming occurred, which again led to critical levels such that gravity waves were not able to ascend above the middle stratosphere. Due to the unfavourable troposphere and lower stratosphere conditions for gravity wave excitation and propagation, the source of the observed waves in the middle atmosphere is probably different from orography

Untersuchungen zur Spezifitätsfrage der heterosynaptischen Facilitation bei Aplysia californica

1. Heterosynaptic facilitation (H.S.F.) could be obtained in 10–15% of all tested nerve cells in the abdominal and left pleural ganglion of Aplysia californica.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47441/1/424_2004_Article_BF00362957.pd

Spatial and Temporal Variability in MLT Turbulence Inferred from in situ and Ground-Based Observations During the WADIS-1 Sounding Rocket Campaign

In summer 2013 the WADIS-1 sounding rocket campaign was conducted at the Andøya Space Center (ACS) in northern Norway (69° N, 16° E). Among other things, it addressed the question of the variability in mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT) turbulence, both in time and space. A unique feature of the WADIS project was multi-point turbulence sounding applying different measurement techniques including rocket-borne ionization gauges, VHF MAARSY radar, and VHF EISCAT radar near Tromsø. This allowed for horizontal variability to be observed in the turbulence field in the MLT at scales from a few to 100 km. We found that the turbulence dissipation rate, ε varied in space in a wavelike manner both horizontally and in the vertical direction. This wavelike modulation reveals the same vertical wavelengths as those seen in gravity waves. We also found that the vertical mean value of radar observations of ε agrees reasonably with rocket-borne measurements. In this way defined 〈εradar〉 value reveals clear tidal modulation and results in variation by up to 2 orders of magnitude with periods of 24 h. The 〈εradar〉 value also shows 12 h and shorter (1 to a few hours) modulations resulting in one decade of variation in 〈εradar〉 magnitude. The 24 h modulation appeared to be in phase with tidal change of horizontal wind observed by SAURA-MF radar. Such wavelike and, in particular, tidal modulation of the turbulence dissipation field in the MLT region inferred from our analysis is a new finding of this work