Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador

Book review of Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador. Suzana Sawyer. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. xii + 294 pp., notes, glossary, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8223-3272-8

Cryoseston of the Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria

In the cryoseston community of the Pirin Mountains, 18 species were determined. Chlorophyta: Chlamydomonas nivalis (predominant), Chloromonas brevispina,Chloromonas rostafinski, Chlainomonas rubra (new genus and species for Bulgaria, documented in Europe for only the second time), Cystococcus nivicolus and Stichococcus nivalis. Bacillariophyceae: Aulacoseira granulata var. angustissima, Hantzchia amphioxys, cf. Surirella. Fungi: cf. Chytridium chlamydococcii. Deuteromycetes: Selenotila nivalis, Chionaster nivalis, and saprophytic fungae cf. Myzocytium, Rhodosporidium toruloides, Alternaria sp. and cf. Cladosporium, in pollen grains. Bacteria: Leptothrixochracea. Ciliata: Vorticella campanula. The composition of cryoseston in the Pirin Mountains is characteristic for high mountains where Chlamydomonas nivalis predominates

Permutations via linear translators

International audienceWe show that many infinite classes of permutations over finite fields can be constructedvia translators with a large choice of parameters. We first characterize some functionshaving linear translators, based on which several families of permutations are then derived. Extending the results of \cite{kyu}, we give in several cases thecompositional inverse of these permutations. The connection with complete permutations is also utilized to provide further infinite classes of permutations. Moreover, wepropose new tools to study permutations of the form $x\mapsto x+(x^{p^m}-x+\delta)^s$ and a few infinite classes of permutations of this form are proposed

Bent functions stemming from Maiorana-McFarland class being provably outside its completed version

In early nineties Carlet [1] introduced two new classes of bent functions, both derived from the Maiorana-McFarland ($\mathcal{M}$) class, and named them \cC and \cD class, respectively. Apart from a subclass of \cD, denoted by \cD_0 by Carlet, which is provably outside two main (completed) primary classes of bent functions, little is known about their efficient constructions. More importantly, both classes may easily remain in the underlying $\mathcal{M}$ class which has already been remarked in [21]. Assuming the possibility of specifying a bent function $f$ that belongs to one of these two classes (apart from \cD_0), the most important issue is then to determine whether $f$ is still contained in the known primary classes or lies outside their completed versions. In this article, we further elaborate on the analysis of the set of sufficient conditions given in \cite{OutsideMM} concerning the specification of bent functions in \cC and \cD which are provably outside \cM. It is shown that these conditions, related to bent functions in class \cD, can be relaxed so that even those permutations whose component functions admit linear structures still can be used in the design. It is also shown that monomial permutations of the form $x^{2^r+1}$ have inverses which are never quadratic for $n >4$, which gives rise to an infinite class of bent functions in \cC but outside \cM. Similarly, using a relaxed set of sufficient conditions for bent functions in \cD and outside \cM, one explicit infinite class of such bent functions is identified. We also extend the inclusion property of certain subclasses of bent functions in \cC and \cD, as addressed initially in [1,21], that are ultimately within the completed $\mathcal{M}$ class. Most notably, we specify {\em another generic and explicit subclass} of \cD, which we call \cD_2^\star, whose members are bent functions provably outside the completed $\mathcal{M}$ class

Demographic variation in space and time : implications for conservation targeting

The dynamics of wild populations are governed by demographic rates which vary spatially and/or temporally in response to environmental conditions. Conservation actions for widespread but declining populations could potentially exploit this variation to target locations (or years) in which rates are low, but only if consistent spatial or temporal variation in demographic rates occurs. Using long-term demographic data for wild birds across Europe, we show that productivity tends to vary between sites (consistently across years), while survival rates tend to vary between years (consistently across sites), and that spatial synchrony is more common in survival than productivity. Identifying the conditions associated with low demographic rates could therefore facilitate spatially targeted actions to improve productivity or (less feasibly) forecasting and temporally targeting actions to boost survival. Decomposing spatio-temporal variation in demography can thus be a powerful tool for informing conservation policy and for revealing appropriate scales for actions to influence demographic rates.Peer reviewe

Selection on multiple sexual signals in two Central and Eastern European populations of the barn swallow

Variation in intensity and targets of sexual selection on multiple traits has been suggested to play a major role in promoting phenotypic differentiation between populations, although the divergence in selection may depend on year, local conditions or age. In this study, we quantified sexual selection for two putative sexual signals across two Central and East European barn swallow (Hirundo rustica rustica) populations from Czech Republic and Romania over multiple years. We then related these differences in selection to variation in sexual characters among barn swallow populations. Our results show that tail length and ventral coloration vary between populations, sexes, and age classes (first‐time breeders vs. experienced birds). We found that selection on tail length was stronger in first‐time breeders than in experienced birds and in males than in females in the Romanian population, while these differences between age groups and sexes were weak in Czech birds. We suggest that the populational difference in selection on tail length might be related to the differences in breeding conditions. Our results show that ventral coloration is darker (i.e., has lower brightness) in the Romanian than in the Czech population, and in experienced birds and males compared with first‐time breeders and females, respectively. The sexual difference in ventral coloration may suggest sexual selection on this trait, which is supported by the significant directional selection of ventral coloration in first‐time breeding males on laying date. However, after controlling for the confounding effect of wing length and tarsus length, the partial directional selection gradient on this trait turned nonsignificant, suggesting that the advantage of dark ventral coloration in early breeding birds is determined by the correlated traits of body size. These findings show that ventral coloration may be advantageous over the breeding season, but the underlying mechanism of this relationship is not clarified