Spatiotemporal Variations in Abundance and Biomass of Planktonic Ciliates Related to Environmental Variables in a Temporal Pond, Argentina

This report describes the structure and seasonal dynamics of ciliated protozoa associated with variations in the physicochemical characteristics of the environment in a temporary pond in the Buenos Aires province, Argentina. Plankton samples were obtained and physicochemical variables measured monthly for two years. A total of 50 planktonic ciliates were recorded. The highest species richness occurred during the pond´s filling and stable-hydric phases. Upon the pond´s desiccation, the number of ciliate species decreased, with the lowest values being recorded in spring; while the highest abundance and biomass were observed before the droughts. Ciliate diversity tended to be higher after droughts but decreased with pond desiccation. Most of the ciliate species were rare and found during the filling periods. Vorticella convallaria, Pelagostrobilidium wilberti, and Coleps hirtus were dominant; Cyclidium glaucoma, Strobilidium caudatum, Pseudochilodonopsis piscatoris, Limnostrombidium viride, L. pelagicum, and Chilodonella sp. were common; and Pelagostrombidium mirabile along with Rhabdostyla sp.?an epibiont on cladocerans?were occasional. The first and the sum of all axes in canonical correspondence analysis explained a significant portion of the ciliate-data variance. The autumn and winter samples grouped together corresponding to the highest conductivities, high precipitations, and low temperatures?properties characterizing the filling and stable-hydric periods. The species were distributed mainly according to conductivity and temperature gradients along the first canonical axis. The structure and temporal dynamics of planktonic ciliates from this temporary pond varied with the changes in physicochemical characteristics of the environment determined by flooding and desiccation.Fil: Kuppers, Gabriela Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Claps, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; Argentin

The Role of Motivational Persistence and Resilience Over the Well-being Changes Registered in Time

The present study investigates the interaction between personal characteristics that are considered nowadays strengths used to face difficult events or transition period. A number of 200 married or living together participants completed self-reports for common goals, motivational persistence, resilience and well-being. Results show that persistence and resilience do interact with each other at an individual level but also from a family concept perspective. Moreover, maintaining apositive outlook and family spirituality do have an impact over the intensity and direction of the relationship between long term purposes pursuing and recurrence of unattained purposes and changes in well-being registered in time. Resiliency as a personal characteristic and family resilience show good psychometric qualities for this study. Although some of the results are descriptive, in-depth analyses of direction and intensity of the relationships lead the finalconclusions to suggestions for further research and implications for psychological practice

The consumer society and the (false) myth of mass democratisation

About fifty years from its first publication in 1970, La société de consommation. Ses mythes ses structures (Paris Denoël) confirms itself as a lucid analysis of the meanings at the basis of the consumption dynamics within contemporary society. In what he calls the ‘mystique of equality’, the concept of needs is linked to that of well-being, triggering the illusion that the increase in total amount of goods an individual can possess automatically translates into a levelling of society and in total well-being for all. According to Baudrillard, this approach does not take due account of the social logic of consumption, at which level the differentiation process for the retention of social distances is reiterated. Thus, according to Baudrillard, a mechanism that powers social differences survives through a consumerist ideology disguised as egalitarianism. Hence, Baudrillard distances himself from Marx and from the concept of value in use, understanding that at the base of mature capitalism does not lie production (and thus the dialectic of capital/labour force), but consumption. Years later, the system of consumption presents itself unchanged, to the extent that in some respects the postmodern aesthetics has actually exasperated its characteristics, blending the needs of production with an individual differentiation process that seems incapable of finding other ways of expression

Fighting austerity: Why after 80 years the General Theory is still relevant today,

The guiding spirit of the Keynesian Revolution is that full employment is a goal which can be pursued not by following the free market rules, but by reshaping them by means of public intervention. This message was widely accepted for thirty years as from the end of the Second World War by all the advanced countries which actively engaged in full employment and welfare policies, and subsequently abandoned with the neo-liberal Restoration which saw the dogmas of individualism and de-regulation prevailing. In reclaiming the topical importance of the General Theory, we should take into consideration the changed circumstances of today’s world when compared to those of twenty – let alone eighty – years ago, although there are notable similarities between the Great Depression of the 1930s – Keynes’s world – and our contemporary crisis. However, his prescription for a better society is still relevant: it lies in setting rules and limitations in the market arena, not letting individual self-interest prevail, and putting some governing bodies in charge of filling the gap when deficient aggregate demand occurs, so that the acquisition of material goods and the fruition of the enjoyments of life be not a privilege of the few but the conquest of civilization