Paragonimus skrjabini Chen, 1959 (Digenea: Paragonimidae) and related species in eastern Asia: A combined molecular and morphological approach to identification and taxonomy

A molecular and morphometric investigation is reported on the species complex of mammalian lungflukes of which Paragonimus skrjabini Chen, 1959 and P. miyazakii Kamo, Nishida, Hatsushika & Tomimura, 1961 are the best-known examples. This species complex (here called the P. skrjabini complex) is shown to be monophyletic using DNA sequences from the nuclear ITS2 region and the mitochondrial cox1 gene. The latter marker permits the discrimination of populations, some previously named\ud as distinct species, from various geographical locations in China and Japan. Morphometric analysis of a number of variables accords remarkably closely with the molecular results. Main findings are that: (1) nominal P. skrjabini from Fujian Province in eastern China is phylogenetically very close to P. miyazakii from Japan. It is proposed that both taxa should be referred to the same subspecies as P. skrjabini miyazakii. (2) Populations from Guangdong Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sichuan and Hubei should be referred to P. skrjabini skrjabini. Specimens of P. skrjabini from the Yangtze basin in\ud Sichuan and Hubei are remarkably similar to one another according to genetic and morphometric data, but are not so different from Guangdong populations that they should be referred to a different subspecies at this stage. Specimens of P. skrjabini from Yunnan have not been assigned to a subspecies at this stage. (3) Partly following earlier studies, we regard the following\ud as synonyms of P. skrjabini: P. miyazakii (reduced to subspecific status); P. szechuanensis Chung & Tsao, 1962 (probably belongs to P. s. skrjabini); and P. hueitungensis Chung, Hsu, Ho, Kao, Shao, Chiu, Pi, Liu, Ouyang, Shen, Yi & Yao, 1975(probably belongs to P. s. skrjabini); P. veocularis (Chen & Li, 1979) (specimens from Fujian regarded as belonging to this species should be referred to P. skrjabini miyazakii: the subspecific status of specimens from the type-locality in northern Sichuan is unclear). A number of questions remain unresolved. The name P. hokuoensis Ho & Chung, 1964 was proposed for two individual metacercariae of distinctive appearance from southern Yunnan. DNA sequences from very similar metacercariae from the same locality place this nominal species within, or sister to, the P. skrjabini complex. As yet, nothing is known regarding adult morphology or biology of this taxon and we retain it here as a distinct species. P. heterorchis (Zhou, Pang &\ud Hsiang, 1982) might be a synonym of P. skrjabini: the form of the metacercaria provides evidence against this view and further work is required. P. macrorchis Chen, 1962 has probably been confused with P. skrjabini in China. Within China, the former probably occurs only on Hainan Island, although P. fukienensis Tang & Tang, 1962 from Fujian Province could be a synonym

Education in the Learning Economy: a European perspective<strong/>

ABSTRACT Innovation is crucial to the competitiveness of the economies of Europe, and learning is crucial to innovation. The most important trend shift is not that knowledge is becoming more important but that it is becoming obsolete more rapidly than before, so that firms and employees constantly have to learn and acquire new competencies. This involves different types of knowledge of which the less formalised, learnt through experience, are often just as important as the formalised, learnt through exposure to teaching. The article opens with a presentation of different categories of knowledge, their consequences for approaches to education and the concept of the learning economy. Drawing on cross-national data it is then shown how European economies are characterised by dramatic differences in work organisation and learning at the workplace. The authors illustrate how such differences are linked not only to inequality of access to workplace learning but also to institutional and cultural differences between different national school systems in Europe. They argue that traditional schooling, isolated from society and organised according to traditional disciplines and educational methods, is insufficient in the context of the learning economy. Educational principles and cultures focusing on collaboration, interdisciplinarity and engagement with real-life problems are needed to prepare people for flexible and innovative participation in the economy and society