Diet-induced mating preference in Drosophila

Diet-induced mating preference was initially observed by Dodd (1). Subsequently, we reported that diet-induced mating preference occurred in Drosophila melanogaster. Treatment of the flies with antibiotics abolished the mating preference, suggesting that fly-associated commensal bacteria were responsible for the phenomenon (2). The hypothesis was confirmed when it was shown that colonizing antibiotic-treated flies with Lactobacillus plantarum reestablished mating preference in multiple-choice mating assays with CMY (0.65% agar, 7.6% cornmeal, 7.6% molasses, 5% inactivated brewer’s yeast, 0.1% methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate, 0.76% ethanol, and 0.4% propionic acid) flies. Furthermore, analytical studies indicated that the flies grown on different media had distinct levels of cuticular hydrocarbon sex pheromones. The difference in their levels was reduced when the flies were treated with antibiotics

Diet-induced mating preference in Drosophila

Diet-induced mating preference was initially observed by Dodd (1). Subsequently, we reported that diet-induced mating preference occurred in Drosophila melanogaster. Treatment of the flies with antibiotics abolished the mating preference, suggesting that fly-associated commensal bacteria were responsible for the phenomenon (2). The hypothesis was confirmed when it was shown that colonizing antibiotic-treated flies with Lactobacillus plantarum reestablished mating preference in multiple-choice mating assays with CMY (0.65% agar, 7.6% cornmeal, 7.6% molasses, 5% inactivated brewer’s yeast, 0.1% methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate, 0.76% ethanol, and 0.4% propionic acid) flies. Furthermore, analytical studies indicated that the flies grown on different media had distinct levels of cuticular hydrocarbon sex pheromones. The difference in their levels was reduced when the flies were treated with antibiotics

Effects of Service Learning on Physical Education Teacher Education Students’ Subjective Happiness, Prosocial Behavior, and Professional Learning

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the effects of a service learning (SL) program on the subjective happiness (SH), prosocial behavior (PB), and professional learning (PL) perceptions of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) students as well as to examine the correlations among these variables. Methods: The study used a quasi-experimental design of two non-equivalent groups (control and experimental) comparing pre-test and post-test data. The instruments used were the Subjective Happiness Scale, the Prosocial and Civic Competence questionnaire, and the Impact of Service Learning during Initial Training of Physical Activity and Sports questionnaire. Results: Data indicated that SL only had a significant influence on SH when the students compared themselves with their peers. On the other hand, the effect of SL on promoting PB and PL perceived was significant in several of their dimensions. Finally, the results showed a greater correlation of the perceived PL with the PB than with the SH. Discussion/Conclusion: The results of the study provide educational researchers with valuable information to better understand how SL influences the training of PETE students

Rheological behavior of thermoreversible k-carrageenan/nanosilica gels

The rheological behavior of silica/κ-carrageenan nanocomposites has been investigated as a function of silica particle size and load. The addition of silica nanoparticles was observed to invariably impair the gelation process, as viewed by the reduction of gel strength and decrease of gelation and melting temperatures. This weakening effect is seen, for the lowest particle size, to become slightly more marked as silica concentration (or load) is increased and at the lowest load as particle size is increased. These results suggest that, under these conditions, the particles act as physical barriers to polysaccharide chain aggregation and, hence, gelation. However, for larger particle sizes and higher loads, gel strength does not weaken with size or concentration but, rather, becomes relatively stronger for intermediate particles sizes, or remains unchanged for the largest particles, as a function of load. This indicates that larger particles in higher number do not seem to increasingly disrupt the gel, as expected, but rather promote the formation of stable gel network of intermediate strength. The possibility of this being caused by the larger negative surface charge found for the larger particles is discussed. This may impede further approximation of neighboring particles thus leaving enough inter-particle space for gel formation, taking advantage of a high local polysaccharide concentration due to the higher total space occupied by large particles at higher loads.FCT - PTDC/QUI/67712/2006FEDE

A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4Currently, technologies and applications evolve to create eco-systems made up of a myriad of heterogeneous and distributed services that are accessible anytime and anywhere. Even though these services can be used individually, it is their coordinated and combined usage what provide an added value to end-users. In addition, user¿s wide adoption of mobile devices for daily activities have fostered a shift in the role played by end-users towards Internet data and services. However, existing solutions to service composition are not targeted to ordinary end-users. More easy-to-use tools have to be offered to end-users to make sure that they are successfully accepted and used by them. To this end, the work presented in this paper supports end-users in the creation of service compositions by using mobile devices. We present a Domain Specific Visual Language (DSVL) for end-users that allows them to create service compositions. A tool specifically designed for mobile devices supports this DSVL.This work has been developed with the support of MINECO under the project SMART ADAPT TIN2013-42981-P and co-financed with ERDF.Valderas Aranda, PJ.; Torres Bosch, MV.; Mansanet Benavent, I.; Pelechano Ferragud, V. (2016). A mobile-based solution for supporting end-users in the composition of services. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3910-4S131Athreya B, Bahmani F, Diede A, Scaffidi C (2012) End-user programmers on the loose: a study of programming on the phone for the phone. In IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), Innsbruck, Austria, pp. 75–82Atoma (2015) Atoomam, a touch of magic. Accesible at: https://www.atooma.com/ . 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Exploring and yet failing less: learning from past and current exploration in R&D

Exploration is both an important part of a firm’s innovation strategy and an activity that involves a high degree of uncertainty. This article investigates a duality in the exploratory component of R&D activity with regard to innovation failure: while exploration is likely to increase firms’ exposure to failure, it might also provide learning opportunities to reduce failure. Our study contributes to the innovation management and organizational learning literatures by demonstrating the value of exploratory R&D for enabling two types of learning mechanisms. The first, experience-based learning, is based on the learning opportunities derived from accumulated experience in exploratory R&D: it involves improvements to procedures associated with experimentation and provides guidance for current exploration and to navigate the search space. The second, inferential-based learning, is based on the learning opportunities derived from current exploratory R&D efforts, which are associated with improved interpretation of ill-defined problems and timely responses to unstructured information. We draw on a longitudinal data set of 2226 Spanish manufacturing companies and show that, when past experience is associated with current exploration, innovation failure in the conception phase is reduced. We also find an inverted U-shaped relation between current exploratory R&D and innovation failure, in both the conception and implementation phases of innovation activities, showing that increasing levels of investment in current exploration activities attenuate the initial positive association between exploratory R&D and failure

Alcohol and fatal life trajectories in Russia: understanding narrative accounts of premature male death in the family

Background: In the post-Soviet period, Russian working-age men have suffered unusually high mortality rates. Earlier quantitative work found that part of this is attributable to hazardous and harmful patterns of alcohol consumption, which increased in the period of transition at a time of massive social and economic disruption and uncertainty. However, there has been very little work done to document and understand in detail the downward life trajectories of individual men who died prematurely from alcohol-related conditions. Building on an earlier case-control study, this unique qualitative study investigates the perceived interplay between men's drinking careers, their employment and family history, health and eventual death.Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with close relatives (most often the widow) of 19 men who died between 2003 and 2005 aged 25-54 years whose close relatives reported that alcohol contributed to their death. The study was conducted in a typical medium-sized Russian city. The relative's accounts were analysed using thematic content analysis.Results: The accounts describe how hazardous drinking both contributed to serious employment, family and health problems, and was simultaneously used as a coping mechanism to deal with life crises and a decline in social status. The interviews highlighted the importance of the workplace and employment status for shaping men's drinking patterns. Common themes emerged around a culture of drinking in the workplace, peer pressure from colleagues to drink, use of alcohol as remuneration, consuming non-beverage alcohols,Russian-specific drinking patterns, attitudes to treatment, and passive attitudes towards health and drinking.Conclusions: The study provides a unique insight into the personal decline that lies behind the extremely high working-age mortality due to heavy drinking in Russia, and highlights how health status and hazardous drinking are often closely intertwined with economic and social functioning. Descriptions of the development of drinking careers, hazardous drinking patterns and treatment experiences can be used to plan effective interventions relevant in the Russian context

Social Class

Discussion of class structure in fifth-century Athens, historical constitution of theater audiences, and the changes in the comic representation of class antagonism from Aristophanes to Menander