From plurality to a space of their own. ‘Communal voice’ in “Ninfe sbranate” by Francesca Cavallero (2020) and “Il catalogo delle vergini” by Nicoletta Vallorani (2017)

Los textos distópicos “Ninfe sbranate” de Francesca Cavallero (2020) e “Il catalogo delle vergini” de Nicoletta Vallorani (2017) retratan mundos impregnados por la objetificación de la mujer artificial. En ellos, una monstruosa red masculina se aprovecha del sistema cisheteropatriarcal para cubrir sus propios delitos: el tráfico de mujeres, la violencia sexual y el feminicidio. Sin embargo, en ambos relatos dichas víctimas femeninas, definidas como las ‘otras’ por parte de la sociedad, ya no se hacen silenciar, sino que consiguen –desde un espacio entre la vida y la muerte– apoderarse de parte de la narración. De esta manera, logran contar su historia y denunciar a sus abusadores. A través del concepto de la ‘communal voice’ de Susan Lanser (1992) analizaremos el espacio creado para conceder la palabra a este colectivo reprimido. El empleo de dicha voz interfiere en la narración principal y crea un lugar desde el cual reivindicar el propio derecho de justicia. El propósito de esta contribución es, así pues, resaltar la importancia de la narratología a la hora de enfrentarse a textos desde la mirada feminista, y demostrarla a través de los espacios creados por las voces narrativas presentes en ambos textos.Both “Ninfe sbranate” by Francesca Cavallero (2020) and “Il catalogo delle vergini” by Nicoletta Vallorani (2017) can be described as dystopian texts that portray worlds permeated by the objectification of artificial women. In the previously mentioned short stories, a monstrous male network takes advantage of the cisheteropatriarchal system to cover up crimes such as the traffic of these ‘women’, sexual violence and femicide. However, in both stories, these ‘female’ victims, socially defined as the ‘others’, are no longer silenced but manage – from a space between life and death – to take over part of the narration in order to reveal their stories and denounce their abusers. By using Susan Lanser’s (1992) ‘communal voice’ model, the following article examines the space that this voice creates by interfering with the main narrator, giving the repressed collective a chance to make its voice heard and permitting it to claim its right to justice. The purpose of this contribution is thus to highlight the importance of narratology especially when analysing texts from a feminist perspective. This will be demonstrated through the spaces created by the narrative voices found in both texts

Studies in Neoproterozoic Paleontology

The Neoproterozoic Era was one of major biotic change against a background marked by fluctuations in oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, formation and rifting of the supercontinent Rodinia, and at least two global glaciations (Snowball Earth events). Presented here are three studies of differing aspects of those biological changes. The first is a systematic study of the diverse and well-preserved, organic-walled microfossil assemblage of the Alinya Formation of eastern Officer Basin, Australia. The use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed an unexpected level of morphological detail not visible in transmitted light microscopy and led to the recognition of new species and emendation of existing species as well as establishment of degradational sequences. In total, thirty-three taxa are described here including nineteen previously named forms, five newly described species and two new combinations. The second study describes the organic-walled microfossil assemblages from five successions that span the first (Sturtian) glaciation (~717 Ma) and interglacial interval (>635 Ma), and integrates those data with a critical evaluation of primary paleontological literature of units deposited from ~850 to 650 Ma. The described successions from Australia and Svalbard record low species richness throughout this interval and when placed in context of all available body fossil data from the mid-Neoproterozoic, indicate global species richness may have decreased much earlier than previously realized. This finding of temporal decoupling between loss of richness and glacial onset suggests the extinctions previously associated with the Snowball Earth glacial events may not have been glacially driven. The last of these three studies provides a broader view of the early to middle Neoproterozoic biosphere (1 Ga to 635 Ma) and describes application of the CONOP correlation and seriation algorithm to a new database of paleontological, geochemical and radiometric data. Paleobiological (first and last species appearances), geochemical and age events were placed into an ordinal sequence and calibrated to the geological time-scale to reveal a high-resolution species richness record for the first 80% of the Neoproterozoic Era. Major features of this record include an increase in species richness ~805 Ma, sustained high richness levels until a decrease ~770 Ma and a short-lived increase ~760 Ma before a steep decline ~750 Ma. The findings of the two studies described above can be placed within the context of this broader synthesis: the diverse assemblage of the Alinya Formation is representative of the richness peak between ~805 and 775 Ma and the successions recording the Sturtian glacial and interglacial assemblages in Australia and Svalbard are indicative of the extended nadir that began ~750 Ma with a recovery in species richness delayed until after the termination of the second (Marinoan) glacial event.These three studies, together, describe a broad view of the early to middle Neoproterozoic Era and detail important vignettes within that story. From a more detailed and temporally constrained record of the Neoproterozoic biosphere, relationships between biotic and abiotic events during this transformative time can become better understood

Rivale: A Prototype realistic Immersive Virtual Agent-Based Learning Environment Case Study for Learning Requirements Elicitation Skills

Current ways of teaching requirements analysis, such as paper-based case studies, do not sufficiently support development of skills to investigate a problem situation. This paper reports on research to develop and evaluate an initial prototype of a Realistic Immersive Virtual Agent-based Learning Environment (RIVALE) virtual case study. The example fictional case study in this paper would be used as an exercise for students taking a systems analysis and design class to practice and learn requirements elicitation skills, such as interviewing, questionnaires, document review, form review, and observation. The intention is to provide a more realistic experience and to thereby support better learning as well as more realistic assessment of and feedback concerning student skills in requirements elicitation. The requirements, design, implementation, and initial, lightweight evaluation of the initial prototype are described. The initial prototype shows promise, but specific issues, especially problems with achieving realistic conversation, are identified and recommendations for further research are provided.

First Evidence for Adoption in California Sea Lions

Demographic parameters such as birth and death rates determine the persistence of populations. Understanding the mechanisms that influence these rates is essential to developing effective management strategies. Alloparental behavior, or the care of non-filial young, has been documented in many species and has been shown to influence offspring survival. However, the role of alloparental behavior in maintaining population viability has not been previously studied. Here, we provide the first evidence for adoption in California sea lions and show that adoption potentially works to maintain a high survival rate of young and may ultimately contribute to population persistence. Alloparental behavior should have a positive effect on the population growth rate when the sum of the effects on fitness for the alloparent and beneficiary is positive

The stochastic modelling of kleptoparasitism using a Markov process

Kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food items from other animals, is a common behaviour observed across a huge variety of species, and has been subjected to significant modelling effort. Most such modelling has been deterministic, effectively assuming an infinite population, although recently some important stochastic models have been developed. In particular the model of Yates and Broom (Stochastic models of kleptoparasitism. J. Theor. Biol. 248 (2007), 480–489) introduced a stochastic version following the original model of Ruxton and Moody (The ideal free distribution with kleptoparasitism. J. Theor. Biol. 186 (1997), 449–458), and whilst they generated results of interest, they did not solve the model explicitly. In this paper, building on methods used already by van der Meer and Smallegange (A stochastic version of the Beddington-DeAngelis functional response: Modelling interference for a finite number of predators. J. Animal Ecol. 78 (2009) 134–142) we give an exact solution to the distribution of the population over the states for the Yates and Broom model and investigate the effects of some key biological parameters, especially for small populations where stochastic models can be expected to differ most from their deterministic equivalents

Taphonomy of Biosignatures in Microbial Mats on Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands

Microbial mats are taxonomically and metabolically diverse microbial ecosystems, with a characteristic layering that reflects vertical gradients in light and oxygen availability. Silicified microbial mats in Proterozoic carbonate successions are generally interpreted in terms of the surficial, mat building community. However, information about biodiversity in the once-surface-layer can be lost through decay as the mats accrete. To better understand how information about surface microbial communities is impacted by processes of decay within the mat, we studied microbial mats from Little Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. We used molecular techniques, microscopy and geochemistry to investigate microbial mat taphonomy – how processes of degradation affect biological signatures in sedimentary rocks, including fossils, molecular fossils and isotopic records. The top < 1 cm of these mats host cyanobacteria-rich communities overlying and admixed with diverse bacterial and eukaryotic taxa. Lower layers contain abundant, often empty, sheaths of large filamentous cyanobacteria, preserving their record as key mat-builders. Morphological remains and free lipid biomarkers of several bacterial groups, as well as diatoms, arthropods, and other eukaryotes also persist in lower mat layers, although at lower abundances than in surface layers. Carbon isotope signatures of organic matter were consistent with the majority of the biomass being sourced from CO2-limited cyanobacteria. Porewater sulfide sulfur isotope values were lower than seawater sulfate sulfur isotope values by ∼45–50‰, consistent with microbial sulfate reduction under sulfate-replete conditions. Our findings provide insight into how processes of degradation and decay bias biosignatures in the geological record of microbial mats, especially mats that formed widely during the Proterozoic (2,500–541 million years ago) Eon. Cyanobacteria were the key mat-builders, their robust and cohesive fabric retained at depth. Additionally, eukaryotic remains and eukaryotic biosignatures were preserved at depth, which suggests that microbial mats are not inherently biased against eukaryote preservation, either today or in the past

Alloparental behaviour and long-term costs of mothers tolerating other members of the group in a plurally breeding mammal

Cooperative-breeding studies tend to focus on a few alloparental behaviours in highly cooperative species exhibiting high reproductive skew and the associated short-term, but less frequently long-term, fitness costs. We analysed a suite of alloparental behaviours (assessed via filming) in a kin-structured, high-density population of plurally breeding European badgers, Meles meles, which are not highly cooperative. Group members, other than mothers, performed alloparental behaviour; however, this was not correlated with their relatedness to within-group young. Furthermore, mothers babysat, allogroomed cubs without reciprocation, and allomarked cubs more than other members of the group (controlling for observation time). For welfare reasons, we could not individually mark cubs; however, the number observed pre-independence never exceeded that trapped. All 24 trapped cubs, in three filmed groups, were assigned both parents using 22 microsatellites. Mothers may breed cooperatively, as the time they babysat their assigned, or a larger, litter size did not differ. Furthermore, two mothers probably allonursed, as they suckled more cubs than their assigned litter size. An 18-year genetic pedigree, however, detected no short-term (litter size; maternal survival to the following year) or long-term (offspring breeding probability; offspring lifetime breeding success) fitness benefits with more within-group mothers or other members of the group. Rather, the number of other members of the group (excluding mothers) correlated negatively with long-term fitness. Mothers may tolerate other members of the group, as nonbreeders undertook more digging. Our study highlights that alloparental care varies on a continuum from that seen in this high-density badger population, where alloparenting behaviour is minimal, through to species where alloparental care is common and provides fitness benefits. (C) 2010 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Anaesthesia of three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) for fracture repair

Three young grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) were presented separately for fracture repair to the veterinary teaching hospital of University College Dublin. The seals were premedicated with a combination of pethidine, midazolam and atropine; anaesthesia was induced with propofol via the front flipper vein and maintained with sevoflurane or isoflurane in oxygen. One of the seals did not breathe spontaneously after anaesthesia; a cardiac arrest, resulting in death, occurred after several hours of mechanical ventilation. Post-mortem examination revealed a severe lungworm infestation and parasitic pneumonia in this animal. The two other seals recovered uneventfully from anaesthesia

Blood dynamics of mercury and selenium in northern elephant seals during the lactation period

The effects of reproduction and maternal investment (i.e., milk transfer) on trace element levels remain poorly understood in marine mammals. We examined the blood dynamics of mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) during lactation in the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), a top predator from the North Pacific Ocean. Total Hg and Se levels were measured in whole blood and milk of 10 mother-pup pairs on days 5 and 22 of lactation. Both Hg and Se were transferred to offspring through the milk. Results suggested that the maternal transfer of Se was prominent during lactation, whereas the Hg transfer was larger during gestation. The lactation period affected Hg and Se levels in the blood of elephant seal mothers and pups. Physiological processes and their relationship to body condition should be considered carefully when interpreting trace element levels in the framework of biomonitoring.Peer reviewe