Selfies of imperial cormorants (Phalacrocorax atriceps): What is happening underwater?

During the last few years, the development of animal-borne still cameras and video recorders has enabled researchers to observe what a wild animal sees in the field. In the present study, we deployed miniaturized video recorders to investigate the underwater foraging behavior of Imperial cormorants (Phalacrocorax atriceps). Video footage was obtained from 12 animals and 49 dives comprising a total of 8.1 h of foraging data. Video information revealed that Imperial cormorants are almost exclusively benthic feeders. While foraging along the seafloor, animals did not necessarily keep their body horizontal but inclined it downwards. The head of the instrumented animal was always visible in the videos and in the majority of the dives it was moved constantly forward and backward by extending and contracting the neck while travelling on the seafloor. Animals detected prey at very short distances, performed quick capture attempts and spent the majority of their time on the seafloor searching for prey. Cormorants foraged at three different sea bottom habitats and the way in which they searched for food differed between habitats. Dives were frequently performed under low luminosity levels suggesting that cormorants would locate prey with other sensory systems in addition to sight. Our video data support the idea that Imperial cormorants' efficient hunting involves the use of specialized foraging techniques to compensate for their poor underwater vision.Fil: Gómez Laich, Agustina Marta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; ArgentinaFil: Yoda, Ken. Nagoya University; JapónFil: Zavalaga, Carlos. Universidad Científica del Sur; Perú. Nagoya University; JapónFil: Quintana, Flavio Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentina. Wildlife Conservation Society; Estados Unido

Influence of the pre-treatments and process temperature on the adhesion of tin films deposited by PBII&D over nitrided austenitic stainless steel

In this work the influence of pre-treatment cleaning processes in the adhesion of TiN films deposited by the plasma based ion implantation and deposition (PBII&D) process over plasma nitrided AISI 316L stainless steel was investigated, varying the gas composition, the duration of the sputtering process and the temperature in the same deposition chamber. The TiN film morphology was scrutinized with scanning electron microscopy on the surface complemented with focus ion beam for the cross section. The film microstructure was characterized with X ray diffraction. The adhesion of the coatings was studied using the Scratch Test with constant load at different values and the Rockwell C indentation method as well. It was found that only with the sputtering carried out in a H2 - Ar gas mixing at 300 ºC temperature used as pre-treatment was successful to prepare the nitrided surface for the subsequent TiN deposition by the PBII&D process.Fil: Vaca, Laura Silvia. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Concepción del Uruguay; ArgentinaFil: Quintana, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física del Plasma. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física del Plasma; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; ArgentinaFil: Guitar, María Agustina. Universitat Saarland; AlemaniaFil: Vega, Daniel. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia de Área Investigaciones y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (CAC). Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada; ArgentinaFil: Brühl, Sonia Patricia. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Concepción del Uruguay; ArgentinaFil: Marquez, Adriana Beatriz. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física del Plasma. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física del Plasma; Argentin

Leg rings impact the diving performance of a foot-propelled diver

Leg rings are frequently used to mark aquatic birds in order to identify individuals, and study population dynamics and migration patterns, with the proviso being that the rings should not affect the birds. The effects of tags and rings are of particular interest in diving birds because any change in body shape could impact swimming efficiency and costs, as water is almost a thousand times denser than air. We attached tri-axial accelerometers to both ringed and unringed breeding Imperial Shags Leucocarbo atriceps to assess dive performance based on descent angle, descent rate, power stroke rate, power stroke peak acceleration amplitude and Vectorial Dynamic Body Acceleration (VeDBA) as a proxy for energy expenditure. Ringed birds, especially females, had a higher foot-stroke amplitude than unringed animals. In addition, the overall efficiency of the ringed individuals, as expressed by the descent rate per unit VeDBA, was compromised (by 3.5% in females and 4.3% in males) compared with unringed birds. We conclude that leg rings change the diving performance of Imperial Shags, although the effect is small and may not affect reproductive success. However, given that birds are typically ringed for life, we urge researchers to be particularly careful about the potential cumulative effect of attaching leg rings to foot-propelled diving species.Fil: Gómez Laich, Agustina Marta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Pantano, Carolina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Wilson, Rory P. Swansea University. College Of Sciences. Departament Of Biosciences; Reino UnidoFil: Svagelj, Walter Sergio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Yoda, Ken. Nagoya University; JapónFil: Gunner, Richard. Swansea University. College Of Sciences. Departament Of Biosciences; Reino UnidoFil: Quintana, Flavio Roberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos; Argentin

La definición de los valores en la organización: una propuesta metodológica

La teoría clásica de estrategia utiliza como insumo los valores, cuya definición constituye un elemento sustancial para establecer la estrategia y las políticas de las organizaciones. Deben promover un marco de coherencia y personalidad que contribuya a que las personas puedan tomar decisiones. Las preguntas subyacentes son: ¿cómo se definen los valores? y ¿quién o quiénes deben definirlos? Los valores deben surgir de las personas que forman parte de la organización, deben ser jerarquizados, definidos y puestos en práctica para finalmente ser re definidos en función a las condiciones del entorno que afecta a la organización.The classic theory for strategy uses values as an input whose definition constitutes a substantial element to establish the organization's strategy and policies. It must promote a frame of coherence and personality contributing to the people's decision making. The underlying questions are "how to define values?" and "who has the role to define them?". Values should come from the people who are part of the organization, and should be prioritized, defined and put in practice, to finally be redefined according to the environment conditions that impact the organization.Fil: Toniut, Hernán. Universidad FASTA; Argentina.Fil: Arraigada, Mariana Cecilia. Universidad FASTA; Argentina.Fil: del Valle Ricci, Sabrina. Universidad FASTA; Argentina.Fil: Dondero, Micaela. Universidad FASTA; Argentina.Fil: Pacheco, Ximena. Universidad FASTA; Argentina.Fil: Quintana, Agustina. Universidad FASTA; Argentina

Estrategia de superación para la preparación de tutores en el segundo año de la carrera de Medicina. (Original)

The preparation for tutors for students of Medicine’s major refers to the incorporation of the shows, procedures and tasks recognized by the educational university community of the health to the educational activity of the integral teaching general practitioners designated for accompanying the students’ pre-professional formation. For the sake of designing a strategy of overcoming for the integral general practitioners' development students Medicine’s tutors, with emphasis in give them second year, an educational investigation with empiric methods was  accomplished, theoretically and statistical mathematicians, to characterize the relation pedagogic preparation quality in students' tutorship, becoming established the scientific problem in how do we contribute the perfecting of the work of the tutor in the second year of Medicine’s major? They specified insufficiencies in students' tutorship, for whose solution the strategy here proposed, with reliable results in his experimental application in the tutors' overcoming, when tutoral perceived in the sign advances in preparation and the exercise itself was designed, which offers itself to in satisfactory answer the social request of better preparation of the integral general practitioners as tutors for the conduction of the pre-professional formation.La preparación de tutores de estudiantes de la carrera Medicina se refiere a la incorporación de las funciones, procedimientos y tareas reconocidos por la comunidad educativa universitaria de la salud a la actividad educativa de los médicos generales integrales docentes designados para acompañar la formación preprofesional de dichos estudiantes. Con el objetivo de diseñar una estrategia de superación para el desarrollo de los médicos generales integrales, tutores de estudiantes de Medicina, con énfasis en los de segundo año, se realizó una investigación educativa con métodos empíricos, teóricos y matemáticos estadísticos, que permitieron establecer la relación preparación pedagógica-calidad en la tutoría de estudiantes, estableciéndose el problema científico en ¿cómo contribuir al perfeccionamiento de la labor del tutor en el segundo año de la carrera de Medicina? Se precisaron insuficiencias en la tutoría de estudiantes, para cuya solución se diseñó la estrategia  aquí propuesta, con fiables resultados en su  aplicación experimental en la superación de los tutores, al percibirse en la muestra avances en la preparación y el ejercicio tutoral, la cual se ofrece en respuesta satisfactoria a la demanda social de mejor preparación de los médicos generales integrales en calidad de tutores para la conducción de la formación preprofesional.&nbsp

Luck and tactics in foraging success: the case of the imperial shag

It has been proposed that predators searching for prey acquire food according to a probabilistic framework, where success is based on ‘luck’ and the odds of success vary with prey abundance. If true, this has major ramifications for variation in the rates of energy acquisition within animal populations, which is particularly pertinent in offspring provisioning and breeding success, because smaller animals (the young) cannot starve for as long as the adults. However, despite much general speculation about rates of food acquisition, no study has measured whether food encounter is probabilistic in wild animals. We used animal-mounted cameras to document all prey captures by wild imperial shags Leucocarbo atriceps as they hunted underwater and show that, although they mostly do not have inter-prey acquisition time distributions that accord with a ‘luck-based’ framework assuming a constant probability of finding prey over time, there is no difference in the predicted amount of food captured between models that use the empirical data or theoretical Poisson-based fits of the data. We also noted considerable inter-individual differences in foraging success that far exceeded any differences between empirical and theoretical inter-prey acquisition time distributions. The data were used in a probabilistic foraging model that made explicit the mechanistic link between random prey encounters and food-dependent breeding success, indicating that ‘less lucky’ individuals could not provision their broods at rates commensurate with normal growth while the ‘lucky’ birds could do so easily. Given the nature of food encounter in these birds, coupled with substantial inter-individual variation in foraging success, we suggest that more successful individuals are particularly choosey about when, how and where to forage, which results in them operating with higher odds of success

What is going on with dengue fever?: a socio-environmental opinion for great San Miguel de Tucumán

¿Qué ocurre primero: el dengue o las condiciones socio-ambientales desfavorables para que el mosquito Aedes aegypti exista? La respuesta desde una visión integrada es “ambas y de manera sinérgica”. Será difícil controlar al dengue, una enfermedad viral transmitida por el mosquito Ae. aegypti, si no mejoramos estas condiciones. En el Gran San Miguel de Tucumán el brote de dengue se ve favorecido por distintas condiciones derivadas de la actividad humana. La ciudad presenta cursos de agua contaminados (canales de desagüe y ríos) y acumulación de residuos sólidos urbanos en microbasurales a cielo abierto que se multiplican de manera constante. Además, en estas áreas residen los grupos sociales más vulnerables. Para disminuir la proliferación de Ae. aegypti y la propagación del dengue, ambas situaciones deben ser atendidas, generando mejoras en las condiciones socio-ambientales puertas adentro (en el interior de los hogares) como puertas afuera (en el espacio público).What is first: dengue fever or the unfavorable socio-environmental conditions that promote the existence of the mosquito Aedes aegypti? The answer from an integrative vision is “both, and in a synergic manner”. It will be difficult to control dengue, a viral disease transmitted by Ae. aegypti, if we do not improve these conditions. In the Great San Miguel de Tucumán the dengue outbreak is favored by different conditions derived from human activity. The city includes contaminated water courses (drainage channels and rivers), and urban solid waste accumulation in open micro waste dumps that replicate constantly. In addition, the most vulnerable social groups inhabit these areas. In order to help diminish the proliferation of Ae. aegypti and dengue propagation, both situations must be managed, generating improvements in indoor (the interior of houses) and outdoor (public space) socio-environmental conditions.Fil: Malizia, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Malizia, Matilde. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo; ArgentinaFil: Boldrini Peralta, Paula Luciana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo; ArgentinaFil: Monmany, Ana Carolina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, Giselle A.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo; ArgentinaFil: Quintana, María Gabriela. Dirección Nacional de Instituto de Investigación. Administración Nacional de Laboratorio e Instituto de Salud "Dr. C. G. Malbrán"; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Perspectivas sobre el dengue. un abordaje socio-ambiental para el Gran San Miguel de Tucumán

¿Qué ocurre primero: el dengue o las condiciones socio-ambientales desfavorables para que el mosquito Aedes aegypti exista? La respuesta desde una visión integrada es ?ambas y de manera sinérgica?. Será difícil controlar al dengue, una enfermedad viral transmitida por el mosquito Ae. aegypti, si no mejoramos estas condiciones. En el Gran San Miguel de Tucumán el brote de dengue se ve favorecido por distintas condiciones derivadas de la actividad humana. La ciudad presenta cursos de agua contaminados (canales de desagüe y ríos) y acumulación de residuos sólidos urbanos en microbasurales a cielo abierto que se multiplican de manera constante. Además, en estas áreas residen los grupos sociales más vulnerables. Para disminuir la proliferación de Ae. aegypti y la propagación del dengue, ambas situaciones deben ser atendidas, generando mejoras en las condiciones socio-ambientales puertas adentro (en el interior de los hogares) como puertas afuera (en el espacio público).Fil: Malizia, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Laboratorio de Investigaciones Ecológicas de las Yungas; ArgentinaFil: Malizia, Matilde. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales; ArgentinaFil: Boldrini Peralta, Paula Luciana. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Centro de Estudios del Territorio y Hábitat Popular; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Monmany Garzia, Carolina A.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Giselle Alejandra. Fundación Miguel Lillo. Dirección de Zoología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Quintana, María Gabriela. Secretaria de Gobierno de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical - Sede Tucumán; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentin

Conference: Reparations in the Inter-American System: A Comparative Approach Conference

This publication will enhance the understanding of what we call the law of reparations, developed in the Inter-American Court and Commission of Human Rights. Reparations have a special meaning for the victims of human rights violations and, in particular, the victims of mass and gross violations that took place in this hemisphere during the twentieth century. For those victims and their family members, reestablishing the rights as if no violation had occurred is not possible. Accordingly, to them, avoiding the repetition of those violations in the future is of paramount importance. In achieving that goal, what the victims want is the investigation and punishment of those who appear guilty as an essential component of the law of compensation. Material and moral damages, symbolic measures of redress, as well as legislative changes when needed are also crucially important. The inter-American system’s supervisory organs, within the limits of their jurisdiction, and in particular through the interpretation of Article 63 of the American Convention, have creatively developed the law of reparations within the Americas. As a result of the decisions from the supervisory organs, what has emerged is perhaps the most comprehensive legal regime on reparations developed in the human rights field in international law. This contains edited versions of speeches delivered at the conference

Dead-reckoning animal movements in R: a reappraisal using Gundog.Tracks

BackgroundFine-scale data on animal position are increasingly enabling us to understand the details of animal movement ecology and dead-reckoning, a technique integrating motion sensor-derived information on heading and speed, can be used to reconstruct fine-scale movement paths at sub-second resolution, irrespective of the environment. On its own however, the dead-reckoning process is prone to cumulative errors, so that position estimates quickly become uncoupled from true location. Periodic ground-truthing with aligned location data (e.g., from global positioning technology) can correct for this drift between Verified Positions (VPs). We present step-by-step instructions for implementing Verified Position Correction (VPC) dead-reckoning in R using the tilt-compensated compass method, accompanied by the mathematical protocols underlying the code and improvements and extensions of this technique to reduce the trade-off between VPC rate and dead-reckoning accuracy. These protocols are all built into a user-friendly, fully annotated VPC dead-reckoning R function; Gundog.Tracks, with multi-functionality to reconstruct animal movement paths across terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial systems, provided within the Additional file 4 as well as online (GitHub).ResultsThe Gundog.Tracks function is demonstrated on three contrasting model species (the African lion Panthera leo, the Magellanic penguin Spheniscus magellanicus, and the Imperial cormorant Leucocarbo atriceps) moving on land, in water and in air. We show the effect of uncorrected errors in speed estimations, heading inaccuracies and infrequent VPC rate and demonstrate how these issues can be addressed.ConclusionsThe function provided will allow anyone familiar with R to dead-reckon animal tracks readily and accurately, as the key complex issues are dealt with by Gundog.Tracks. This will help the community to consider and implement a valuable, but often overlooked method of reconstructing high-resolution animal movement paths across diverse species and systems without requiring a bespoke application