Carta a los Editores

Las actividades profesionales son afectadas por las construcciones socioculturales que configuran los roles, las percepciones, y el estatus de las mujeres y los hombres en una sociedad. El ámbito científico no es ajeno a esta situación y las desigualdades de género en ciencia son ampliamente conocidas. Es por eso que en los últimos tiempos en la comunidad científica, en consonancia con el movimiento global por los derechos de las mujeres, se ha suscitado un proceso de autoevaluación bajo una perspectiva de género (Scott et al., 2010; Shen, 2013; Greshake Tzovaras, 2017; Berenbaum, 2019). En Argentina, pese a que las mujeres representan el 53% del conjunto de investigadores del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, 2020), su participación en cargos superiores—académicos y administrativos—es minoritaria, alcanzando por ejemplo en 2018 sólo el 23% de representación en la categoría superior de CONICET (Baringoltz y Posadas, 2009; CONICET, 2020). Este marcado sesgo de género en puestos jerárquicos es un patrón conocido como techo de cristal, que da cuenta de las limitaciones del ascenso laboral de las mujeres en una organización (Lühe, 2014).Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Carta a los Editores

Las actividades profesionales son afectadas por las construcciones socioculturales que configuran los roles, las percepciones, y el estatus de las mujeres y los hombres en una sociedad. El ámbito científico no es ajeno a esta situación y las desigualdades de género en ciencia son ampliamente conocidas. Es por eso que en los últimos tiempos en la comunidad científica, en consonancia con el movimiento global por los derechos de las mujeres, se ha suscitado un proceso de autoevaluación bajo una perspectiva de género (Scott et al., 2010; Shen, 2013; Greshake Tzovaras, 2017; Berenbaum, 2019). En Argentina, pese a que las mujeres representan el 53% del conjunto de investigadores del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, 2020), su participación en cargos superiores—académicos y administrativos—es minoritaria, alcanzando por ejemplo en 2018 sólo el 23% de representación en la categoría superior de CONICET (Baringoltz y Posadas, 2009; CONICET, 2020). Este marcado sesgo de género en puestos jerárquicos es un patrón conocido como techo de cristal, que da cuenta de las limitaciones del ascenso laboral de las mujeres en una organización (Lühe, 2014).Asociación Herpetológica Argentin

Can space-for-time-substitution surveys represent zooplankton biodiversity patterns and their relationship to environmental drivers?

Space-for-Time-Substitution surveys (SFTS) are commonly used to describe zooplankton community dynamics and to determine lake ecosystem health. SFTS surveys typically combine single point observations from many lakes to evaluate the response of zooplankton community structure and dynamics (e.g., species abundance and biomass, diversity, demographics and modeled rate processes) to spatial gradients in hypothesized environmental drivers (e.g., temperature, nutrients, predation), in lieu of tracking such responses over long time scales. However, the reliability and reproducibility of SFTS zooplankton surveys have not yet been comprehensively tested against empirically-based community dynamics from longterm monitoring efforts distributed worldwide. We use a recently compiled global data set of more than 100 lake zooplankton time series to test whether SFTS surveys can accurately capture zooplankton diversity, and the hypothesized relationship with temperature, using simulated SFTS surveys of the time series data. Specifically, we asked: (1) to what degree can SFTS surveys capture observed biodiversity dynamics; (2) how does timing and duration of sampling affect detected biodiversity patterns; (3) does biodiversity ubiquitously increase with temperature across lakes, or vary by climate zone or lake type; and (4) do results from SFTS surveys produce comparable biodiversity-temperature relationship(s) to empirical data within and among lakes? Testing biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) relationships, and the drivers of such relationships, requires a solid data basis. Our work provides a global perspective on the design and usefulness of (long-term) zooplankton monitoring programs and how much confidence we can place in the zooplankton biodiversity patterns observed from SFTS surveys

Synthetic biology open language (SBOL) version 3.1.0

Abstract Synthetic biology builds upon genetics, molecular biology, and metabolic engineering by applying engineering principles to the design of biological systems. When designing a synthetic system, synthetic biologists need to exchange information about multiple types of molecules, the intended behavior of the system, and actual experimental measurements. The Synthetic Biology Open Language (SBOL) has been developed as a standard to support the specification and exchange of biological design information in synthetic biology, following an open community process involving both bench scientists and scientific modelers and software developers, across academia, industry, and other institutions. This document describes SBOL 3.1.0, which improves on version 3.0.0 by including a number of corrections and clarifications as well as several other updates and enhancements. First, this version includes a complete set of validation rules for checking whether documents are valid SBOL 3. Second, the best practices section has been moved to an online repository that allows for more rapid and interactive of sharing these conventions. Third, it includes updates based upon six community approved enhancement proposals. Two enhancement proposals are related to the representation of an object’s namespace. In particular, the Namespace class has been removed and replaced with a namespace property on each class. Another enhancement is the generalization of the CombinatorialDeriviation class to allow direct use of Features and Measures. Next, the Participation class now allow Interactions to be participants to describe higher-order interactions. Another change is the use of Sequence Ontology terms for Feature orientation. Finally, this version of SBOL has generalized from using Unique Reference Identifiers (URIs) to Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) to support international character sets.</jats:p

A longitudinal study on the occurrence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in dogs during their first year of life

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The primary aim of this study was to obtain more knowledge about the occurrence of <it>Cryptosporidium </it>and <it>Giardia </it>in young dogs in Norway.</p> <p>The occurrence of these parasites was investigated in a longitudinal study by repeated faecal sampling of dogs between 1 and 12 months of age (litter samples and individual samples). The dogs were privately owned and from four large breeds. Individual faecal samples were collected from 290 dogs from 57 litters when the dogs were approximately 3, 4, 6, and 12 months old. In addition, pooled samples were collected from 43 of the litters, and from 42 of the mother bitches, when the puppies were approximately 1 and/or 2 months old.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The samples were purified by sucrose gradient flotation concentration and examined by immunofluorescent staining.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>128 (44.1%) of the young dogs had one or more <it>Cryptosporidium </it>positive samples, whilst 60 (20.7%) dogs had one or more <it>Giardia </it>positive samples. The prevalence of the parasites varied with age. For <it>Cryptosporidium</it>, the individual prevalence was between 5.1% and 22.5%, with the highest level in dogs < 6 months old, and declining with age. For <it>Giardia</it>, the individual prevalence was between 6.0% and 11.4%, with the highest level in dogs > 6 months old, but the differences between age groups were not statistically significant. Significant differences in prevalences were found in relation to geographic location of the dogs. Both parasites occurred at low prevalences in Northern Norway.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Both <it>Cryptosporidium </it>and <it>Giardia </it>are common in Norwegian dogs, with <it>Cryptosporidium </it>more prevalent than <it>Giardia</it>. Prevalences of the parasites were found to be influenced by age, geographical location, and infection status before weaning.</p

Brazilian mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) fauna: I. Anopheles species from Porto Velho, Rondônia state, western Amazon, Brazil

This study contributes to knowledge of Anopheles species, including vectors of Plasmodium from the western Brazilian Amazon in Porto Velho, Rondônia State. The sampling area has undergone substantial environmental changes as a consequence of agricultural and hydroelectric projects, which have caused intensive deforestation and favored habitats for some mosquito species. The purpose of this study was to diagnose the occurrence of anopheline species from collections in three locations along an electric-power transmission line. Each locality was sampled three times from 2010 to 2011. The principal adult mosquitoes captured in Shannon trap were Anopheles darlingi, An. triannulatus, An. nuneztovari l.s., An.gilesi and An. costai. In addition, larvae were collected in ground breeding sites for Anopheles braziliensis, An. triannulatus, An. darlingi, An. deaneorum, An. marajoara, An. peryassui, An. nuneztovari l.s. and An. oswaldoi-konderi. Anopheles darlingi was the most common mosquito in the region. We discuss Culicidae systematics, fauna distribution, and aspects of malaria in altered habitats of the western Amazon