Distribution of the genera Euryoryzomys and Sooretamys (Rodentia, Cricetidae) in Argentina

Se revisó la distribución en Argentina de los sigmodontinos selváticos Euryoryzomys y Sooretamys, agregándose 22 nuevas localidades a las referidas en la literatura. Euryoryzomys legatus se registró en laderas andinas forestadas (<1000 m) en las provincias de Jujuy y Salta. Euryoryzomys russatus sólo se conoce para la provincia de Misiones. Sooretamys angouya ocupa las selvas subtropicales interiores de Misiones y las selvas en galería de los ríos Paraná y Paraguay y sus tributarios en el nordeste de Argentina. Se brinda el primer registro de S. angouya para la provincia de Entre Ríos, extendiendo la distribución conocida para este género ca. 500 km hacia el sur.The geographic distribution of sigmodontine sylvan genera E uryoryzomys and S ooretamys in Argentina was reviewed. Twenty two new localities were added to those previously reported in the literature. E uryoryzomys legatus is restricted to Andean forested foot hills (< 1000 m) in Jujuy and Salta provinces. E uryoryzomys russatus is only known from Misiones Province. S ooretamys angouya occupies interior subtropical forests in Misiones and gallery forest along the Paraná and Paraguay rivers and their tributaries in northeastern Argentina. We cited for the first time S. angouya in Entre Ríos Province, extending the known distribution of this genus ca. 500 km southwards.Fil: Teta, Pablo Vicente. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; ArgentinaFil: Pardiñas, Ulises Francisco J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Andrade, Analia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto Patagónico de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas; ArgentinaFil: Cirignoli, Sebastián. The Conservation Land Trust; Argentin

Putting Religious Symbolism in Context: A Linguistic Critique of the Endorsement Test

The treatment of Establishment Clause challenges to displays of religious symbolism by the Supreme Court and the lower courts is notoriously unpredictable: a crèche is constitutionally acceptable if it is accompanied by a Santa Claus house and reindeer, a Christmas tree, and various circus figures, but unacceptable if it is accompanied by poinsettias, a peace tree, or a wreath, a tree, and a plastic Santa Claus. A menorah may be displayed next to a Christmas tree, or next to Kwanzaa symbols, Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman, but not next to a crèche and a Christmas tree. A number of commentators have suggested that this disarray can be blamed largely on the chaotic state of the Supreme Court\u27s Religion Clauses doctrine. Since the 1980s the Supreme Court has recognized that the public display of religious symbols may, in some circumstances, violate the Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court\u27s guidance as to when such a display will violate the Establishment Clause has been vague, however; in applying what has come to be known as the endorsement test, the Court has essentially declared that public displays of religious symbols are impermissible if they convey a message of endorsement of religion. Yet, beyond stating that it is necessary to examine the context of the display, the Supreme Court has failed to provide a satisfactory way of determining what message a given religious symbol or set of symbols actually conveys. This failure has led to a widely recognized inconsistency, confusion, and apparent subjectivity in the Supreme Court and lower court cases dealing with public displays of religious symbolism. This Article draws upon linguistic theory to explain why the task of discerning the meaning of a display of religious symbolism has proven so unmanageable. In particular, it draws on the branch of linguistic theory known as speech act theory, as well as some postmodern critiques of, and elaborations on, speech act theory. The defining feature of speech act theory, as I use the term here, is that it emphasizes the effects of linguistic utterances and the contextual features that give rise to those effects, rather than the intent behind the utterances. These features of speech act theory make this branch of linguistic theory particularly relevant to the analysis of meaning in religious symbol cases, because the endorsement test is similarly concerned primarily with the (endorsing) effect of religious symbolism and with the contextual features that may create or negate an endorsement effect

Molecular Phylogenetics and Historical Biogeography of the Tribe Chiococceae (Rubiaceae)

Chiococceae are a monophyletic assemblage of morphologically very diverse groups of plants ranging in habit from subshrubs to shrubs to tall trees exhibiting an astonishing variation in shapes and sizes of corolla, and kinds of fruits and seeds. They are primarily distributed in the Neotropics but also occur in the West Pacific islands; thus exhibiting amphi-Pacific tropical disjunction. This study addresses the phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of the Chiococceae using molecular DNA sequence data, and presents novel data on the tribal and generic delimitations, intergeneric relationships, and the origin and dispersal of this group. In the most recent tribal delimitations within subfamily Cinchonoideae, Strumpfia, a monotypic genus with historically uncertain tribal affiliation, is included in tribe Chiococceae despite distinctly differing morphologically from the rest of the genera in Chiococceae. Based on intertribal genetic divergences in the subfamily Cinchonoideae, analyzed in this study, coupled with morphological and palynological data, is transferred to a new monotypic tribe Strumpfieae; concurrently tribe Chiococceae is re-delimited to include 29 genera. This study presents the most comprehensive molecular phylogeny, to date, of the Chiococceae that includes 126 species and 27 genera and enables better understanding of taxonomic affinities and evolutionary relationships within the tribe. Based on the phylogenies generated by analyzing molecular sequence data of two nuclear (ETS, ITS) and two chloroplast (petD, trnL-F) regions using Bayesian inference and maximum parsimony frameworks, a total of nine new taxonomic changes are proposed- generic recognition for five new genera, and synonymization and new combinations for three genera ( Ceuthocarpus, Morierina, and Phyllacanthus ) and two species of Chiococca (C. plowmanii and C. naiguatensis). Historical events of origin, diversification and disjunction in Chiococceae were inferred with the help of molecular dating analysis using BEAST and ancestral area reconstruction using S-DIVA and BBM. Results indicate that tribe Chiococceae originated in Mexico in the Eocene and through subsequent dispersal, vicariance, and extinction events dispersed to the current distribution in the Neotropics. Multiple dispersal events to the Caribbean and back to Mexico and Central America are inferred. Two Mid-Miocene long-distance dispersal events from the Greater Antilles, one to the New Caledonia and another to other islands of the West Pacific, resulted in the amphi-Pacific tropical disjunction in the Chiococceae

An analysis of the perceived effects of European Economic Monetary Union upon the hotel industry in the north of Portugal.

As a catalyst for a closer economic integration through a single currency, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) held out the promise of welfare gains for the participating countries and their respective industries. Among the potential benefits of monetary union, EMU was expected to enhance business competition through a stability-oriented macroeconomic policy framework, including greater transparency, reduced exchange rate uncertainty, greater credibility to the policy regime and lower transactions costs, among others. Whether the hotel stakeholders perceived, or did not perceive, significant changes brought about by EMU for Portugal, and the hotel business environment in the north of Portugal in particular, was the central aim of this study. To meet this aim the following was done: First, based on a literature review focussing on the economics of integration, business management and competitiveness theories the underpinning framework of the primary research were identified and developed. In particular, this research focused on the perceptions of the hotel stakeholders towards the implications of EMU using and adapting three of Porter's models: the Diamond, Five Forces, and Value Chain models. By combining Porter's models together in an all-encompassing framework, it was possible to confirm that there are advantages in merging more than one business environment level into an integrated study procedure. Second, three sets of surveys were conducted based on the underlying analytical frameworks and knowledge of EMU and tourism/hotel industry. one survey for each of the three target groups. Together, these three surveys provided a multi-stakeholder perspective - the national, the industry and the businesses perspective - using people involved directly at each level of the business environment (the Portuguese national authorities, the hotel industry associations and the hotel businesses in the North of Portugal). Finally, the data analysis was structured into two parts based on the type of questionnaire used: structured and semi-structured. The semi-structured questionnaires were analysed using two types of content analysis, summation and explanation, using QSR NUD*IST 6 software programme. The structured questionnaires were analysed using basic descriptive methods, such as frequencies and cross tabulations. The quantitative data was analysed using the Statistical Packagefo r SocialS cience(sS PSS). One of the main conclusions the study reached through the conceptual framework used was that, EMU not only changed the business environment at a national level, but also changed the competitive and operational environment of the hotels. However, the effects expected in literature were greater than the effects observed by the hotel stakeholders and, in particular, by the business respondents

The nematophagous fungus Verticillium chlamydosporium: aspects of pathogenicity

Verticillium chlamydosporium is a fungal pathogen of eggs and females of plantparasitic nematodes. The fungus produced an alkaline serine protease in submerged culture. This enzyme, VCPI, was characterized as a class II subtilisin, based on amino acid sequenceh omology. Several of its characteristics, e.g. molecular mass (33 kDa), pI (ca 10) and broad substrate utilisation, are typical of fungal subtilisins. Although some immunological cross-reactivity existed with other enzymes of this class, an antigenic fingerprint was obtained that was distinct, even from the subtilisin that was its closest homologue based on amino acid sequence, PrI from the entomogenous fungus Metarhizium anisopliae. There was circumstantial evidence, suggesting that this fungal protease was involved in the infection of nematode eggs, which have a largely proteinaceous eggshell. First of all, the enzyme was able to remove the outer protein layer from eggs of the susceptible root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, exposing the underlying chitin layer. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that fungal hyphae on the egg surface left an imprint, presumably through enzymatic action. There was also evidence of the protease weakening the eggshell, as enzyme-treated nematode eggs were more easily lysed and infected by the fungus than those not pre-incubated in the enzyme. A polyclonal antibody against VCPI demonstrated protease production by the fungus, prior to, or concurrent with, penetration. The enzyme was associated with appressoria, i.e. fungal infection structures. In contrast to the susceptible root-knot nematode, VCPI had little impact on the egg shell of the potato cyst nematode Globodera rostochiensis. It is suggested that the limited in situ hydrolysis of G. rostochiensis egg shell proteins is a factor contributing to its relative resistance to the fungus. Regulation studies in batch culture showed that production of the protease VCPI was repressed by high carbon and nitrogen levels. Its basic regulatory mechanism was that of repression/derepression. However, the highest protease titre was obtained when M incognita eggs were present in the medium, suggesting induction by the host. Collagen and chitin were possibly responsible for this inductive effect. In conclusion, it is believed that VCPI is a protease with a dual role for V chlamydosporium. During saprotrophic growth, VCP1 would allow the fungus to scavenge nutrients from a wide range of protein sources. However, the enzyme also has a designated function in penetration of the host, which makes it a versatile tool for a fungus that can switch trophic modes during its life-cycle. The achievements of this research include the first demonstration in a nematode-attacking fungus of: -a well-characterized protease, including data on stability, kinetics and isoforms; -a subtilisin-like protease in an egg-parasitic nematophagous fungus; -a pathogenicity-related enzyme in V chlamydosporium; -a determinant of host specificity; - enzyme regulation in general, and induction by the host, in particular