The expression of pre- and postcopulatory sexually selected traits reflects levels of dietary stress in guppies

Environmental and ecological conditions can shape the evolution of life history traits in many animals. Among such factors, food or nutrition availability can play an important evolutionary role in moderating an animal\u27s life history traits, particularly sexually selected traits. Here, we test whether diet quantity and/or composition in the form of omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (here termed \u27n3LC\u27) influence the expression of pre- and postcopulatory traits in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata), a livebearing poeciliid fish. We assigned males haphazardly to one of two experimental diets supplemented with n3LC, and each of these diet treatments was further divided into two diet \u27quantity\u27 treatments. Our experimental design therefore explored the main and interacting effects of two factors (n3LC content and diet quantity) on the expression of precopulatory (sexual behaviour and sexual ornamentation, including the size, number and spectral properties of colour spots) and postcopulatory (the velocity, viability, number and length of sperm) sexually selected traits. Our study revealed that diet quantity had significant effects on most of the pre- and postcopulatory traits, while n3LC manipulation had a significant effect on sperm traits and in particular on sperm viability. Our analyses also revealed interacting effects of diet quantity and n3LC levels on courtship displays, and the area of orange and iridescent colour spots in the males\u27 colour patterns. We also confirmed that our dietary manipulations of n3LC resulted in the differential uptake of n3LC in body and testes tissues in the different n3LC groups. This study reveals the effects of diet quantity and n3LC on behavioural, ornamental and ejaculate traits in P. reticulata and underscores the likely role that diet plays in maintaining the high variability in these condition-dependent sexual traits

The use of copper slags as an aggregate replacement in asphalt mixes with RAP: Physical-chemical and mechanical behavioural analysis

Copper slag (CS) is a derivative of copper production that is mainly composed of heavy metals. The large amount of this material accumulated around the world entails a serious environmental danger. Its use as a replacement of mineral aggregate in asphalt mixtures would allow to increase the durability and resistance, taking advantage of its physical-chemical properties. In this research, physicochemical analyses of different combinations of CS, reclaimed asphalt pavements (RAP), asphalt cement and aggregates by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FT-IR) were developed. Subsequently, Marshall stiffness ratio, indirect tensile strength (IDT) and resilient modulus tests were performed to determine their implication in mechanical behaviour. Asphalt mixes with ranges from 45 to 55% of recycled material have improved stability, Marshall Flow and Stiffness ratio, obtaining values comparable with those from a conventional mixture. At the same time, its resilient modulus and IDT values increased by 35% compared to conventional mixes. To maintain values similar to conventional mixes, when the amount of RAP decreases the amount of CS should be increased, with a maximum value of 35%. This behaviour is explained by the presence of fayalite and magnetite in CS, which are hard, dense and hydrophobic components that produce increased elastic deformation of the binder before breaking.These results are part of a project funded by: the Universidad Austral de Chile [DID S-2014-27]; and a CONICYT-Chile project [FONDECYT Initiation into Research No. 11140889]

El lenguaje inclusivo y la promoción de una educación inclusiva con justicia social

La carrera de Pedagogía en Educación Diferencial de la Universidad Central de Chile (UCEN) plantea desde su origen la promoción de profesionales bajo un enfoque inclusivo, generando diversas acciones ligadas a la formación inicial docente, al desarrollo de estudios, a la formación continua, a la creación de materiales de apoyo y a la participación en espacios académicos que han permitido visibilizar una serie de cambios en torno a lo que actualmente se ha denominado “lenguaje inclusivo”, incidido en buena parte, y tal como lo demuestra la historia, a través de las propias demandas de estudiantes, profesionales, familias y de la ciudadanía en general, por los derechos sociales, quienes han interpelado a instituciones, autoridades y a la sociedad a reconocer y valorar la diversidad humana, fuertemente asociada en estos últimos años a las identidades de género. En ese plano, el presente artículo monográfico espera aportar al debate sobre las implicancias y representaciones sociales relativas al uso de dicho lenguaje, el que podría incidir ya sea como barrera o como facilitador para avanzar finalmente hacia una educación y una sociedad más inclusiva, es decir, más equitativa y justa

First Description of Invertebrate Benthic Fauna in the Middle Zone of the Loa River (Chile)

Aquatic insect communities in inland waters of Chile are characterised by the presence of certain species depending on water quality, but there is little information on statistical ecology in the structure of insect communities. The aim of the present study was to apply null models to explain the structure of aquatic insects in the middle zone of the Loa River, in the Atacama Desert (Antofagasta Region, Chile; 23°S). The results of the null models of species co-occurrence showed that species associations are random, while niche sharing showed that species share ecological niches and consequently there is interspecific competition. The reported taxa are similar to communities for other North Patagonian rivers in terms of community structure

A physically motivated analytical expression for the temperature dependence of the zero-field splitting of the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond

The temperature dependence of the zero-field splitting (ZFS) between the $|m_{s}=0\rangle$ and $|m_{s}=\pm 1\rangle$ levels of the nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center's electronic ground-state spin triplet can be used as a robust nanoscale thermometer in a broad range of environments. However, despite numerous measurements of this dependence in different temperature ranges, to our knowledge no analytical expression has been put forward that captures the scaling of the ZFS of the NV center across all relevant temperatures. Here we present a simple, analytical, and physically motivated expression for the temperature dependence of the NV center's ZFS that matches all experimental observations, in which the ZFS shifts in proportion to the occupation numbers of two representative phonon modes. In contrast to prior models our expression does not diverge outside the regions of fitting. We show that our model quantitatively matches experimental measurements of the ZFS from 15 to 500 K in single NV centers in ultra-pure bulk diamond, and we compare our model and measurements to prior models and experimental data.Comment: Main text: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 44 references. Supplemental Material: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, 23 reference

Effect of location and stage of development of dominant follicle on ovulation and embryo survival rate in alpacas

This study was designed to determine the effect of location of the preovulatory dominant follicle and stage of ovarian follicle development on ovulation rate and embryo survival in alpacas. In Experiment 1, mature lactating alpacas were randomly assigned to one of two groups according to the location of the dominant follicle detected by ultrasonography: (a) Right ovary (RO, n=96) or (b) Left ovary (LO, n=108). All females were mated once by an intact adult male. Ovulation rate, CL diameter and embryo survival rate (heartbeat) were assessed by ultrasonography on Days 2 (Day 0. =mating), 8 and 30, respectively. Ovulation rate (96.5 and 96.3% for RO and LO group, respectively), corpus luteum (CL) diameter (10.2 and 10.6. mm for RO and LO group, respectively) and pregnancy rate (60.2 and 56.7% for RO and LO group, respectively) did not differ among groups. In Experiment 2, lactating alpacas (n=116) were submitted to ultrasonic-guided follicle ablation to synchronize follicular wave emergence. Afterwards, daily ultrasonography examinations were performed and females were randomly assigned to the following groups according to the growth phase and diameter of the dominant follicle: (a) early growing (5-6. mm, n=27), (b) growing (7-12. mm, n=30); (c) static (7-12. mm, n=30), or (d) regressing phase (12-7. mm, n=29). All alpacas were mated with a proven intact male, except five alpacas from early growing group that rejected the male. Females were examined by ultrasonography on Day 2 (ovulation rate), Day 8 (CL diameter), and Days 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 (embryo survival by the presence of embryo proper and heartbeat). No differences were detected in ovulation rate among groups (96%, 97%, 100%, and 97%) or in CL size (10.3, 11.7, 11.1, and 11.1. mm, for early growing, growing, early static and regressing, respectively). Although, embryo survival rate at Day 35 after mating was numerically greatest in growing (65.5%), intermediate in early growing (52.4%) and static (53.3%), and least in regressing phase (42.9%), there were no differences among groups. Results suggest that neither location nor stage of development of the dominant follicle has an influence on ovulation and embryo survival rate in alpacas. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

Revisión sistemática de práctica de actividad física en estudiantes universitarios

La presente investigación tiene dos objetivos: (1) describir las investigaciones empíricas desarrolladas sobre la actividad física en estudiantes universitarios y (2) especificar limitaciones y orientaciones señaladas en los estudios sobre actividad física en estudiantes universitarios. El método desarrollado fue una Revisión Sistemática de las bases de datos Web of Science (WOS) y Scielo en el período de tiempo 2013 a 2018. Los resultados del primer objetivo son descripción de los estudios respecto del país, diseño, muestra, objetivos, e instrumentos de medida de las investigaciones. Respecto de los resultados del segundo objetivo, las dos principales limitaciones declaradas en los estudios son el uso de instrumentos de medida de tipo autorreporte y los diseños que son principalemente correlaciónales y escasos cuasiexperimento; las dos principales orientaciones son que las universidades fomenten la actividad física a través de programas de intervención y que sea integrada al currículum

Mitochondrial phylogeography and demographic history of the Vicuña: implications for conservation

The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna; Miller, 1924) is a conservation success story, having recovered from near extinction in the 1960s to current population levels estimated at 275 000. However, lack of information about its demographic history and genetic diversity has limited both our understanding of its recovery and the development of science-based conservation measures. To examine the evolution and recent demographic history of the vicuña across its current range and to assess its genetic variation and population structure, we sequenced mitochondrial DNA from the control region (CR) for 261 individuals from 29 populations across Peru, Chile and Argentina. Our results suggest that populations currently designated as Vicugna vicugna vicugna and Vicugna vicugna mensalis comprise separate mitochondrial lineages. The current population distribution appears to be the result of a recent demographic expansion associated with the last major glacial event of the Pleistocene in the northern (18 to 22°S) dry Andes 14–12 000 years ago and the establishment of an extremely arid belt known as the 'Dry Diagonal' to 29°S. Within the Dry Diagonal, small populations of V. v. vicugna appear to have survived showing the genetic signature of demographic isolation, whereas to the north V. v. mensalis populations underwent a rapid demographic expansion before recent anthropogenic impacts

PRIDB: a protein–RNA interface database

The Protein–RNA Interface Database (PRIDB) is a comprehensive database of protein–RNA interfaces extracted from complexes in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). It is designed to facilitate detailed analyses of individual protein–RNA complexes and their interfaces, in addition to automated generation of user-defined data sets of protein–RNA interfaces for statistical analyses and machine learning applications. For any chosen PDB complex or list of complexes, PRIDB rapidly displays interfacial amino acids and ribonucleotides within the primary sequences of the interacting protein and RNA chains. PRIDB also identifies ProSite motifs in protein chains and FR3D motifs in RNA chains and provides links to these external databases, as well as to structure files in the PDB. An integrated JMol applet is provided for visualization of interacting atoms and residues in the context of the 3D complex structures. The current version of PRIDB contains structural information regarding 926 protein–RNA complexes available in the PDB (as of 10 October 2010). Atomic- and residue-level contact information for the entire data set can be downloaded in a simple machine-readable format. Also, several non-redundant benchmark data sets of protein–RNA complexes are provided. The PRIDB database is freely available online at http://bindr.gdcb.iastate.edu/PRIDB