Media Education in Latin America: A Book Review

This book review examines Media Education in Latin America (Routledge, 2020) edited by Julio-César Mateus, Pablo Andrada, and María-Teresa Quiroz. This book provides insight to the contribution made by Latin American educators and scholars to global dialogue about media education and educommunicacion. This review explores the concepts and contexts as outlined in eleven case studies of specific Latin American countries and a series of critical essays This impressive book provides essential insights to enhance the fields of literacy, educommunicacion, and media education

Testing use of mitochondrial COI sequences for the identification and phylogenetic analysis of New Zealand caddisflies (Trichoptera)

We tested the hypothesis that cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) sequences would successfully discriminate recognised species of New Zealand caddisflies. We further examined whether phylogenetic analyses, based on the COI locus, could recover currently recognised superfamilies and suborders. COI sequences were obtained from 105 individuals representing 61 species and all 16 families of Trichoptera known from New Zealand. No sequence sharing was observed between members of different species, and congeneric species showed from 2.3 to 19.5% divergence. Sequence divergence among members of a species was typically low (mean = 0.7%; range 0.0–8.5%), but two species showed intraspecific divergences in excess of 2%. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on COI were largely congruent with previous conclusions based on morphology, although the sequence data did not support placement of the purse-cased caddisflies (Hydroptilidae) within the uncased caddisflies, and, in particular, the Rhyacophiloidea. We conclude that sequence variation in the COI gene locus is an effective tool for the identification of New Zealand caddisfly species, and can provide preliminary phylogenetic inferences. Further research is needed to ascertain the significance of the few instances of high intra-specific divergence and to determine if any instances of sequence sharing will be detected with larger sample sizes

Climate Vulnerability and Human Migration in Global Perspective

The relationship between climate change and human migration is not homogenous and depends critically on the differential vulnerability of population and places. If places and populations are not vulnerable, or susceptible, to climate change, then the climate–migration relationship may not materialize. The key to understanding and, from a policy perspective, planning for whether and how climate change will impact future migration patterns is therefore knowledge of the link between climate vulnerability and migration. However, beyond specific case studies, little is known about this association in global perspective. We therefore provide a descriptive, country-level portrait of this relationship. We show that the negative association between climate vulnerability and international migration holds only for countries least vulnerable to climate change, which suggests the potential for trapped populations in more vulnerable countries. However, when analyzed separately by life supporting sector (food, water, health, ecosystem services, human habitat, and infrastructure) and vulnerability dimension (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity), we detect evidence of a relationship among more, but not the most, vulnerable countries. The bilateral (i.e., country-to-country) migration show that, on average, people move from countries of higher vulnerability to lower vulnerability, reducing global risk by 15%. This finding is consistent with the idea that migration is a climate adaptation strategy. Still, ~6% of bilateral migration is maladaptive with respect to climate change, with some movement toward countries with greater climate change vulnerabilit

DNA barcodes for 1/1000 of the animal kingdom

This study reports DNA barcodes for more than 1300 Lepidoptera species from the eastern half of North America, establishing that 99.3 per cent of these species possess diagnostic barcode sequences. Intraspecific divergences averaged just 0.43 per cent among this assemblage, but most values were lower. The mean was elevated by deep barcode divergences (greater than 2%) in 5.1 per cent of the species, often involving the sympatric occurrence of two barcode clusters. A few of these cases have been analysed in detail, revealing species overlooked by the current taxonomic system. This study also provided a large-scale test of the extent of regional divergence in barcode sequences, indicating that geographical differentiation in the Lepidoptera of eastern North America is small, even when comparisons involve populations as much as 2800 km apart. The present results affirm that a highly effective system for the identification of Lepidoptera in this region can be built with few records per species because of the limited intra-specific variation. As most terrestrial and marine taxa are likely to possess a similar pattern of population structure, an effective DNA-based identification system can be developed with modest effort

In the dark in a large urban park: DNA barcodes illuminate cryptic and introduced moth species

Abstract To facilitate future assessments of diversity following disturbance events, we conducted a first level inventory of nocturnal Lepidoptera in Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada. To aid the considerable task, we employed high-throughput DNA barcoding for the rough sorting of all material and for tentative species identifications, where possible. We report the preliminary species list of 190, the detection of four new exotic species (Argyresthia pruniella, Dichelia histrionana, Paraswammerdamia lutarea, and Prays fraxinella), and the potential discovery of two cryptic species. We describe the magnitude of assistance that barcoding presents for faunal inventories, from reducing specialist time to facilitating the detection of native and exotic species at low density

A Comprehensive DNA Barcode Library for the Looper Moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) of British Columbia, Canada

The construction of comprehensive reference libraries is essential to foster the development of DNA barcoding as a tool for monitoring biodiversity and detecting invasive species. The looper moths of British Columbia (BC), Canada present a challenging case for species discrimination via DNA barcoding due to their considerable diversity and limited taxonomic maturity.By analyzing specimens held in national and regional natural history collections, we assemble barcode records from representatives of 400 species from BC and surrounding provinces, territories and states. Sequence variation in the barcode region unambiguously discriminates over 93% of these 400 geometrid species. However, a final estimate of resolution success awaits detailed taxonomic analysis of 48 species where patterns of barcode variation suggest cases of cryptic species, unrecognized synonymy as well as young species.A catalog of these taxa meriting further taxonomic investigation is presented as well as the supplemental information needed to facilitate these investigations

A reference library for Canadian invertebrates with 1.5 million barcodes, voucher specimens, and DNA samples

The synthesis of this dataset was enabled by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, from Genome Canada through Ontario Genomics, from NSERC, and from the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science in support of the International Barcode of Life project. It was also enabled by philanthropic support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and from Ann McCain Evans and Chris Evans. The release of the data on GGBN was supported by a GGBN – Global Genome Initiative Award and we thank G. Droege, L. Loo, K. Barker, and J. Coddington for their support. Our work depended heavily on the analytical capabilities of the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD, www.boldsystems.org). We also thank colleagues at the CBG for their support, including S. Adamowicz, S. Bateson, E. Berzitis, V. Breton, V. Campbell, A. Castillo, C. Christopoulos, J. Cossey, C. Gallant, J. Gleason, R. Gwiazdowski, M. Hajibabaei, R. Hanner, K. Hough, P. Janetta, A. Pawlowski, S. Pedersen, J. Robertson, D. Roes, K. Seidle, M. A. Smith, B. St. Jacques, A. Stoneham, J. Stahlhut, R. Tabone, J.Topan, S. Walker, and C. Wei. For bioblitz-related assistance, we are grateful to D. Ireland, D. Metsger, A. Guidotti, J. Quinn and other members of Bioblitz Canada and Ontario Bioblitz. For our work in Canada’s national parks, we thank S. Woodley and J. Waithaka for their lead role in organizing permits and for the many Parks Canada staff who facilitated specimen collections, including M. Allen, D. Amirault-Langlais, J. Bastick, C. Belanger, C. Bergman, J.-F. Bisaillon, S. Boyle, J. Bridgland, S. Butland, L. Cabrera, R. Chapman, J. Chisholm, B. Chruszcz, D. Crossland, H. Dempsey, N. Denommee, T. Dobbie, C. Drake, J. Feltham, A. Forshner, K. Forster, S. Frey, L. Gardiner, P. Giroux, T. Golumbia, D. Guedo, N. Guujaaw, S. Hairsine, E. Hansen, C. Harpur, S. Hayes, J. Hofman, S. Irwin, B. Johnston, V. Kafa, N. Kang, P. Langan, P. Lawn, M. Mahy, D. Masse, D. Mazerolle, C. McCarthy, I. McDonald, J. McIntosh, C. McKillop, V. Minelga, C. Ouimet, S. Parker, N. Perry, J. Piccin, A. Promaine, P. Roy, M. Savoie, D. Sigouin, P. Sinkins, R. Sissons, C. Smith, R. Smith, H. Stewart, G. Sundbo, D. Tate, R. Tompson, E. Tremblay, Y. Troutet, K. Tulk, J. Van Wieren, C. Vance, G. Walker, D. Whitaker, C. White, R. Wissink, C. Wong, and Y. Zharikov. For our work near Canada’s ports in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax, we thank R. Worcester, A. Chreston, M. Larrivee, and T. Zemlak, respectively. Many other organizations improved coverage in the reference library by providing access to specimens – they included the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the University of Guelph Insect Collection, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Pacifc Forestry Centre, the Northern Forestry Centre, the Lyman Entomological Museum, the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, and rare Charitable Research Reserve. We also thank the many taxonomic specialists who identifed specimens, including A. Borkent, B. Brown, M. Buck, C. Carr, T. Ekrem, J. Fernandez Triana, C. Guppy, K. Heller, J. Huber, L. Jacobus, J. Kjaerandsen, J. Klimaszewski, D. Lafontaine, J-F. Landry, G. Martin, A. Nicolai, D. Porco, H. Proctor, D. Quicke, J. Savage, B. C. Schmidt, M. Sharkey, A. Smith, E. Stur, A. Tomas, J. Webb, N. Woodley, and X. Zhou. We also thank K. Kerr and T. Mason for facilitating collections at Toronto Zoo and D. Iles for servicing the trap at Wapusk National Park. This paper contributes to the University of Guelph’s Food from Thought research program supported by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD; www.boldsystems.org)8 was used as the primary workbench for creating, storing, analyzing, and validating the specimen and sequence records and the associated data resources48. The BOLD platform has a private, password-protected workbench for the steps from specimen data entry to data validation (see details in Data Records), and a public data portal for the release of data in various formats. The latter is accessible through an API (http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/resources/api?type=webservices) that can also be controlled through R75 with the package ‘bold’76.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Intrauterine environment, mammary gland mass and breast cancer risk

Two intimately linked hypotheses on breast cancer etiology are described. The main postulate of the first hypothesis is that higher levels of pregnancy estrogens and other hormones favor the generation of a higher number of susceptible stem cells with compromised genomic stability. The second hypothesis postulates that the mammary gland mass, as a correlate of the number of cells susceptible to transformation, is an important determinant of breast cancer risk. A simple integrated etiological model for breast cancer is presented and it is indicated that the model accommodates most epidemiological aspects of breast cancer occurrence and natural history

A DNA Barcode Library for North American Ephemeroptera: Progress and Prospects

DNA barcoding of aquatic macroinvertebrates holds much promise as a tool for taxonomic research and for providing the reliable identifications needed for water quality assessment programs. A prerequisite for identification using barcodes is a reliable reference library. We gathered 4165 sequences from the barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene representing 264 nominal and 90 provisional species of mayflies (Insecta: Ephemeroptera) from Canada, Mexico, and the United States. No species shared barcode sequences and all can be identified with barcodes with the possible exception of some Caenis. Minimum interspecific distances ranged from 0.3–24.7% (mean: 12.5%), while the average intraspecific divergence was 1.97%. The latter value was inflated by the presence of very high divergences in some taxa. In fact, nearly 20% of the species included two or three haplotype clusters showing greater than 5.0% sequence divergence and some values are as high as 26.7%. Many of the species with high divergences are polyphyletic and likely represent species complexes. Indeed, many of these polyphyletic species have numerous synonyms and individuals in some barcode clusters show morphological attributes characteristic of the synonymized species. In light of our findings, it is imperative that type or topotype specimens be sequenced to correctly associate barcode clusters with morphological species concepts and to determine the status of currently synonymized species