Discovery of the termite specialist ant genus Centromyrmex, Mayr 1866 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Ponerinae) for the Guiana Shield

The ponerine ant genus Centromyrmex is recorded for the first time in French Guiana. The specimens reported here were collected by the SEAG (Société Entomologique Antilles-Guyane) team in the commune of Saül, French Guiana. The ants were collected in a region of Amazon Forest with flight interception traps. Two out of the three species currently recognized for the genus in South America were here recorded in French Guiana, Centromyrmex alfaroi and Centromyrmex gigas. In total, 24 specimens were collected, all represented by alate queens. This record expands the knowledge about the distribution of this rarely collected genus and reinforces the importance of alternative sampling techniques for collecting cryptobiotic ants and unknown alate forms.

First standardized inventory of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the natural grasslands of Paraná: New records for Southern Brazil

Despite the large number of studies investigating ant diversity in Brazilian biomes, no ant-related studies have been carried out in Campos Gerais, a grassland physiognomy in Paraná state. The present study is the first inventory of the ant fauna in one of the few conservation units protecting the Campos Gerais landscape, the Guartelá State Park (PEG). Sixty samples were collected from different habitats within PEG using pitfall traps. Qualitative samples of leaf litter were collected from forest fragments and submitted to Winkler extractors. In addition, manual qualitative sampling was carried out in the various physiognomies within the PEG. A total of 163 species was collected and sorted into 43 genera and nine subfamilies. Five genera and 28 species were recorded for the first time in the state of Paraná. Out of these, 17 species were also recorded for the first time in the Southern Region of Brazil and two were recorded for the first time to the country. The significant species richness in the PEG and the high number of new records is a strong sign of this ecosystem’s potential to reveal taxonomic novelties. These results suggest that PEG, and the Campos Gerais as a whole, should be the target of greater conservation efforts to preserve native remnants

First standardized inventory of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the natural grasslands of Paraná: New records for Southern Brazil

Abstract Despite the large number of studies investigating ant diversity in Brazilian biomes, no ant-related studies have been carried out in Campos Gerais, a grassland physiognomy in Paraná state. The present study is the first inventory of the ant fauna in one of the few conservation units protecting the Campos Gerais landscape, the Guartelá State Park (PEG). Sixty samples were collected from different habitats within PEG using pitfall traps. Qualitative samples of leaf litter were collected from forest fragments and submitted to Winkler extractors. In addition, manual qualitative sampling was carried out in the various physiognomies within the PEG. A total of 163 species was collected and sorted into 43 genera and nine subfamilies. Five genera and 28 species were recorded for the first time in the state of Paraná. Out of these, 17 species were also recorded for the first time in the Southern Region of Brazil and two were recorded for the first time to the country. The significant species richness in the PEG and the high number of new records is a strong sign of this ecosystem’s potential to reveal taxonomic novelties. These results suggest that PEG, and the Campos Gerais as a whole, should be the target of greater conservation efforts to preserve native remnants

“Quem é da rua não é da calçada”: cenas da pixação em Porto Alegre

The present article takes an ethnographic approach to understand the networks of relations established between taggers in the city of Porto Alegre. The results presented redeem the subject tracking for five years, where through interviews, observations and walk through the city itself was shaped up a framework for a better understanding the phenomenon in question. Starting from a conception of the communicational act as graffiti glimpsed the relationship between these social actors in the city, passersby, to establish among themselves and with graffiti. The "twilight" identity that permeates these experiences indicate nowadays for crossings of belonging / not belonging to their society, the search for ingroup and outgrouprecognition and generated tensions over the disputed areas in the city.O presente artigo assume uma perspectiva etnográfica para a compreensão das redes de relações estabelecidas entre os pichadores da cidade de Porto Alegre. Os resultados apresentados resgatam o acompanhamento do tema durante cinco anos, onde através de entrevistas, observações e do próprio caminhar pela cidade foi se configurando um quadro de compreensão maior acerca do fenômeno em questão. Partindo de uma concepção do ato de pichar como ato comunicacional se vislumbram a relação desses atores sociais com a cidade, transeuntes, as que estabelecem entre si e com os grafiteiros. O “lusco-fusco identitário” que permeia tais vivências na contemporaneidade indica para os atravessamentos do pertencer/não pertencer à sociedade em que vivem, a busca por reconhecimento endogrupo e exogrupo e as tensões geradas pela disputa dos espaços na cidade

First survey of the ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of Piauí: filling a major knowledge gap about ant diversity in Brazil

Piauí, a Brazilian Northeast state, has been considered one of the most important regions for the presence of new taxa in ants globally, especially considering the ecosystems’ diversity formed by the transition of the three biomes in the state, the Cerrado, Caatinga and the Atlantic Forest. Despite the recent increase in studies of ant diversity in the Neotropical region, Piauí still represents a major knowledge gap regarding its ant fauna. Therefore, this study aimed to increase the knowledge about the ant fauna of the state by generating a list of species with data obtained from the literature, online repositories and collection expeditions to the Serra da Capivara and Serra das Confusões National Parks. A total of 152 species in 52 genera and nine subfamilies were registered from 24 localities in Piauí. Fifty-eight out the 152 species recorded represent new records for the state, eight are new records for the Brazilian Northeast Region, and one consists of a new record for the country. Eleven species are here recognized as new for science. Considering the field expeditions carried out here, this work represents the first standardized study for the ant fauna of Piauí. The species list presented considerably exceeds the current number of species registered for the state so far. From the present 48 records, the number of species for Piauí raises to more than 150 with a tendency to increase with the accomplishment of future field endeavors and advances in the study of the local ants

Aspects for Graph Grammars

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is an extension to the object oriented paradigm that aims to provide better modularity for code that is usually scattered across an object-oriented system such as logging, authentication and distributed object handling. Aspect weaving is a novel way to compose systems, focusing on the integration of system-wide policies through pattern-action rules. While there are several semantic proposals for representing aspects over source code and programs, aspect weaving for visual models such as graph rewriting systems is still not fully established. In this work, we propose the definition of aspect-oriented graph grammars, an extension to conventional graph grammar where aspects are modeled as transformation rules over the structure of a base graph grammar

Neurobiological basis of bipolar disorder

In this article, the authors review relevant aspects related to the neurobiological basis of bipolar disorder. This illness has been associated with complex biochemical and molecular changes in brain circuits linked to neurotransmission and intracellular signal transduction pathways, and changes on neurons and glia have been proposed to be directly associated with clinical presentation of mania and depression. In the same context, dysfunctions on brain homeostasis and energy metabolism have been associated with alterations on circadian rythms, behavior and mood in human and animal models of bipolarity. In the recent years, advances on techniques of neuroimaging, molecular biology and genetics has provided new insights about the biology of bipolarity. The authors emphasize that bipolar disorder has been shown to be directly associated with dysfunctions on neural adaptative mechanisms, promoting neural stress. The resulted stress, even that do not lead to cell death, may limit the neuroplasticity and neurotrophism in neurons and glia, which in turn may facilitate the arousal of this pervasive illness.Neste artigo, os autores revisam importantes aspectos associados às bases biológicas do transtorno de humor bipolar (THB). O THB está relacionado com o surgimento de diversas alterações bioquímicas e moleculares em sistemas de neurotransmissão e vias de segundos-mensageiros geradores de sinais intracelulares. Essas modificações em neurônios e glia parecem estar associadas com o surgimento de sintomas maníacos e depressivos. Ainda neste contexto, disfunções na homeostasia e no metabolismo energético cerebral tem sido associado com alterações comportamentais, na modulação do humor e ritmo circadiano em humanos e em modelos animais da doença. Assim, alterações metabólicas em neurônios e células gliais têm sido associadas com quadros depressivos e maníacos. Nos últimos anos, avanços nas técnicas de neuroimagem, genéticos e de biologia moleculares têm gerado novos conhecimentos acerca das bases biológicas da bipolaridade. Os autores destacam que a doença parece estar relacionada diretamente com disfunções em diferentes mecanismos adaptativos a estresse em células neurais, gerando perda na capacidade celular de induzir neuroplasticidade e neurotrofismo, facilitando assim o surgimento da doença.Fundação Faculdade Federal de Ciências Médicas de Porto Alegre Programa de Transtornos de HumorHospital Presidente VargasStanley Foundation Research Unit of Porto AlegreHospital EspíritaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de Psiquiatria Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Neuroimagem e CogniçãoInstitute of Psychiatry, King's College LondonUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre Departamento de BioquímicaUniversity of Texas Health Science Center Department of Psychiatry Division of Mood and Anxiety DisordersUNIFESP, Depto. de Psiquiatria Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Neuroimagem e CogniçãoSciEL

"I'm doing my best, considering" - the relationship between worker satisfaction with HRM practices and worker perception of individual performance in the healthcare sector

Throughout the world, hospitals are facing many challenges including increased costs, per capita decreases in government funding, technology that delivers both less invasive surgery (consequently capacity to perform more inpatient procedures) and the capacity to deal with more complex medical interventions; also, health care systems that include hospitals have been under constant and continuing pressure to deliver quality improvements, better accountability, consumer choice and cost savings (Kabene, 2006; Grimshaw et al, 2010). As such, it is arguable that one important area of improving and maintaining service delivery as well as facing current challenges is through the hospital’s arguably most important asset: the people that work in hospitals, the Human Resources (HR) (West et al., 2006)

Towards Test Coverage Criteria for Visual Contracts

When testing component-based or service-oriented applications we cannot always rely on coverage criteria based on source code. Instead, we have to express our requirements for testing at the interface level. Specifying interfaces by graph transformation rules, so-called visual contracts, we define model-based coverage criteria exploiting the well-known relations of causal dependency and conflict on transformation rules.To this end we establish an observational semantics for graph transformation systems with rule signatures formalising a notion of test execution, and define dependency graphs to provide a structure on which coverage can be analysed