The epiphyllous habit in the hepatic genus Frullania

We report for the first time 11 species of Frullania growing as epiphylls in New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Colombia . Also listed are 29 Frullania species that have previously been recorded growing as epiphylls in other regions of the world. The highest diversity of Frullania epiphyllous species are in the floristic regions of New Zealand, New Caledonia, Macraonesia, and Madagascar. Frullania epiphylls range in altitude from sea-level to 2500m and can be categorised into facultative or accidental epiphylls. The number of Frullania species currently recorded growing as epiphylls will no doubt increase as more revisions of the genus in different floristic regions take place. This number may also increase if botanists were to explore leaf surfaces as a potential substrate for Frullania species, in addition to bark and rock habitats that have traditionally been described as microhabitats for the genus

Evaluación de la implementación del plan de mejora institucional en La Pampa

Fil: Rivarola, Javiera, . Universidad Nacional de Villa María; Argentina.Fil: Konrat, Nieves, . Universidad Nacional de Villa María; Argentina

Caracterización del comportamiento del mercado de microcrédito empresarial peruano (2002-2006)

El mercado de microcrédito empresarial peruano es originado básicamente por la estructura empresarial peruana, la cual es representada mayoritariamente por las micro y pequeñas empresas (MYPE) es por esta particularidad que en la década de los 80’s comenzaron a ingresar instituciones “no formales” a prestar servicios de microcréditos empresariales ya que en ese entonces la banca no ofrecía este servicio por considerarlo como de alto riesgo

People-Powered Research and Experiential Learning: Unravelling Hidden Biodiversity

Globally, thousands of institutions house nearly three billion scientific collections offering unparallelled resources that contribute to both science and society. For herbaria alone - facilities housing dried plant collections - there are over 3,000 herbaria worldwide with an estimated 350 million specimens that have been collected over the past four centuries. Digitisation has greatly enhanced the use of herbarium data in scientific research, impacting diverse research areas, including biodiversity informatics, global climate change, analyses using next-generation sequencing technologies and many others. Despite the entrance of herbaria into a new era with enhanced scientific, educational and societal relevance, museum specimens remain underused. Natural history museums can enhance learning and engagement in science, particularly for school-age and undergraduate students. Here, we outline a novel approach of a natural history museum using touchscreen technology that formed part of an interactive kiosk in a temporary museum exhibit on biological specimens. We provide some preliminary analysis investigating the efficacy of the tool, based on the Zooniverse platform, in an exhibit environment to engage patrons in the collection of biological data. We conclude there is great potential in using crowd‐sourced science, coupled with online technology to unlock data and information from digital images of natural history specimens themselves. Sixty percent of the records generated by community scientists (citizen scientists) were of high enough quality to be utilised by researchers. All age groups produced valid, high quality data that could be used by researchers, including children (10 and under), teens and adults. Significantly, the paper outlines the implementation of experiential learning through an undergraduate mathematics course that focuses on projects with actual data to gain a deep, practical knowledge of the subject, including observations, the collection of data, analysis and problem solving. We here promote an intergenerational model including children, high school students, undergraduate students, early career scientists and senior scientists, combining experiential learning, museum patrons, researchers and data derived from natural history collections. Natural history museums with their dual remit of education and collections-based research can play a significant role in the field of community engagement and people-powered research. There also remains much to investigate on the use of interactive displays to help learners interpret and appreciate authentic research. We conclude with a brief insight into the next phase of our ongoing people-powered research activities developed and designed by high school students using the Zooniverse platform

The sporophyte of the Paleogene liverwort Frullania varians Caspary

We document the sporophyte of the extinct Frullania varians based on an inclusion in Late Oligocene Bitterfeld amber from Germany. The sporophyte consists of a short, ca. 45 µm thick seta that exceeds the perianth only slightly; the elongate-ovate, acute valves of the opened capsule are about 225 µm long, curved backwards and consist of an epidermal and an internal layer. Cell walls of both layers possess nodulose trigones. Several trumpet-shaped, unispiral elaters are fixed to the upper third of the internal valve layer. They have a length of ca. 150 µm and a diameter of 15–18 µm. A subglobose structure of 19 µm diameter is interpreted as a degraded spore. Fossil elaters and spores as well as capsule wall details of Frullaniaceae are described for the first time.doi:10.1002/mmng.20120000

RNA chaperone activity and RNA-binding properties of the E. coli protein StpA

The E. coli protein StpA has RNA annealing and strand displacement activities and it promotes folding of RNAs by loosening their structures. To understand the mode of action of StpA, we analysed the relationship of its RNA chaperone activity to its RNA-binding properties. For acceleration of annealing of two short RNAs, StpA binds both molecules simultaneously, showing that annealing is promoted by crowding. StpA binds weakly to RNA with a preference for unstructured molecules. Binding of StpA to RNA is strongly dependent on the ionic strength, suggesting that the interactions are mainly electrostatic. A mutant variant of the protein, with a glycine to valine change in the nucleic-acid-binding domain, displays weaker RNA binding but higher RNA chaperone activity. This suggests that the RNA chaperone activity of StpA results from weak and transient interactions rather than from tight binding to RNA. We further discuss the role that structural disorder in proteins may play in chaperoning RNA folding, using bioinformatic sequence analysis tools, and provide evidence for the importance of conformational disorder and local structural preformation of chaperone nucleic-acid-binding sites

Uso da dinâmica de sistemas em projetos de mineração : estudo exploratório integrando aspectos técnicos e não técnicos

O setor mineral passa por um crescente questionamento em relação a aspectos relacionados ao desenvolvimento sustentável. Tais aspectos podem ser definidos como não-técnicos ou intangíveis, relacionados a aspectos sociais e partes interessadas, em contraste a aspectos técnicos ou tangíveis, relacionados aos recursos geológicos, de engenharia e impactos ambientais quantificáveis. Há evidências da materialidade dos aspectos sociais e ambientais a um empreendimento mineiro causando atrasos, perdas de produtividade e maiores custos operacionais e de capital. Torna-se, portanto, necessária a consideração de tais fatores não-técnicos desde estágios iniciais de avaliação de um projeto. Abordagens tradicionais tendem a enfatizar aspectos tangíveis e financeiros. O objetivo deste estudo é explorar a aplicação de uma técnica para avaliar projetos que permita a inclusão de tais aspectos técnicos e não-técnicos bem como suas interrelações. Tal ferramenta permite uma avaliação sistêmica de fatores-chave para o desenvolvimento sustentável na mineração como geração de rejeitos, uso da água e energia, além do impacto de possíveis conflitos sociais. Para isso, é proposto o uso de simulação por dinâmica. O modelo desenvolvido foi dividido em quatro subsistemas: produção (relativo ao processo produtivo do bem mineral), ambiental, financeiro e socioeconômico. Realizou-se um estudo de caso a partir de dados conhecidos de um projeto de cobre combinado a valores de referência da literatura (e.g. Inventário de Ciclo de Vida), gerando um modelo com 222 variáveis. Nove indicadores foram propostos para ilustrar a performance do projeto sob aspectos técnicos e socioeconômicos. Além de reproduzir os resultados de um fluxo de caixa descontado, o modelo baseado em dinâmica de sistemas se mostra flexível e robusto para lidar com a complexidade de fatores técnicos e não-técnicos.The mineral sector is going through increasing scrutiny regarding Sustainable Development aspects. Such aspects can be defined as non-technical or intangibles, as related to stakeholders, whereas technical or tangible aspects can be defined as factors related to the geological setting, engineering and environmental impacts. In the context of projects evaluation at scoping stage, there is mounting evidence of the intangible risks’ materiality to projects development. Thus, the consideration of such non-technical aspects from the outset becomes critical. Traditional approaches tend to emphasize geological and engineering aspects. The goal of this study is to create a tool for supporting the evaluation of projects including technical and non-technical aspects as well as interrelationships therein. Such framework can improve the systemic evaluation of key factors as well as simulate different scenarios. A Literature Review highlighted different methods such as Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) e System Dynamics (SD) as tools to manage problems of that nature. Data sources as well as reference values were collected and utilized to format a methodology based in SD. The model was divided in 4 subsystems: production (entailing the productive process of the raw material), environmental, financial and socioeconomic. This model was applied to a copper project data as a case study and combined with complementary reference values (e.g. Life Cycle Inventory), generating a model with 222 variables. In addition, nine indicators were proposed to illustrate the performance of the project under different technical, environmental and socioeconomic factors. Besides the reproduction of a Discounted Cash Flow model, the System Dynamics-based model also showed flexibility and robustness to deal with the complexity of technical and non-technical factors

Caracterización del comportamiento del mercado de microcrédito empresarial peruano (2002-2006)

El mercado de microcrédito empresarial peruano es originado básicamente por la estructura empresarial peruana, la cual es representada mayoritariamente por las micro y pequeñas empresas (MYPE) es por esta particularidad que en la década de los 80’s comenzaron a ingresar instituciones “no formales” a prestar servicios de microcréditos empresariales ya que en ese entonces la banca no ofrecía este servicio por considerarlo como de alto riesgo.Tesi

Meta-structure correlation in protein space unveils different selection rules for folded and intrinsically disordered proteins

The number of existing protein sequences spans a very small fraction of sequence space. Natural proteins have overcome a strong negative selective pressure to avoid the formation of insoluble aggregates. Stably folded globular proteins and intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) use alternative solutions to the aggregation problem. While in globular proteins folding minimizes the access to aggregation prone regions IDPs on average display large exposed contact areas. Here, we introduce the concept of average meta-structure correlation map to analyze sequence space. Using this novel conceptual view we show that representative ensembles of folded and ID proteins show distinct characteristics and responds differently to sequence randomization. By studying the way evolutionary constraints act on IDPs to disable a negative function (aggregation) we might gain insight into the mechanisms by which function - enabling information is encoded in IDPs