The dilp2/5 genes control diapause inducibility

Many holometabolous insects hibernate by triggering diapause, an “actively-induced” dormancy that blocks developmental functions. Yet, the nature of signals enhancing the plasticity of developmental system and underlying diapause inducibility is still elusive. We show that the “Insulin/IGF” dilp2/5 genes, encoding for developmental hormones, antagonize diapause switch in D. melanogaster and their modulation is pivotal in sensitizing the developmental system to environmental perturbations. Functional impairment of dilp2/5 signaling results in the appearance, or inhibition, of the inducible diapause polyphenism, revealing that they are at the core of the gene network regulating diapause inducibility, beyond the control of developmental time. DILP2/5, as dispensable developmental hormones, cover a latent and hidden plasticity of development, underlying the evolution of an inducible diapause polyphenism through genetic accommodation. Such hormonal mechanism might be the putative target to bioengineer diapause inducibility

Mechanisms Of Nonlethal Predator Effect On Cohort Size Variation: Ecological And Evolutionary Implications

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116938/1/ecy20078861536.pd

A Novel Study of Project Financing in Sport: Technical Acquisition of Infrastructure Using Financial Investment Simulation

Project Financing, PF, is an instrument which allows public bodies to relieve their budgets of substantial maintenance costs and private individuals to manage the plant that has been granted under the concession in an independent economic and financial way. In addition to these purely monetary aspects, and looking at the whole picture, granting a building or any other structure of public interest to a private individual makes it possible to better satisfy the needs of the citizen. PF has assumed great importance with the sovereign debt crisis and is used in many areas, not only in sports, of course. This instrument is divided into several phases, such as the feasibility study, the business plan and the identification of the necessary guarantees. What we considered essential to focus on is the business plan, which is also the most important part of the entire PF, as it illustrates all the business and financial dynamics of the project. It is also the part that requires the most information and, in fact, the data entered in the model are the result of estimates, some of which are very accurate and reliabl

SATISFAÇÃO DO CLIENTE COMO ESTRATÉGIA PARA AUMENTAR A COMPETITIVIDADE DE UM HOSPITAL ESPECIALIZADO

Esse trabalho busca analisar a satisfação do cliente na prestação de serviços oftalmológicos oferecidos por hospital especializado (Grupo HOSP). Para avaliar a satisfação do cliente neste contexto, 184 pacientes responderam à questionário de satisfação do paciente, com o objetivo de identificar aspectos a melhorar e assim redirecionar a estratégia organizacional. Ao aplicar-se o Net Promoter Score (NPS®), o HOSP obteve score de 63%, o que corresponde à chamada zona de qualidade, na qual a maioria dos clientes é considerada neutra, pois não difamam e nem indicam o Hospital; o que não é bom para um serviço que preza pela excelência em Oftalmologia. Com base nessa pesquisa, foram levantados os pontos falhos para elaboração de um plano de melhorias para o Grupo HOSP com o objetivo de aumentar o número de clientes promotores e diminuir o de detratores

Farm input subsidy program in Malawi: the rationale behind the policy

There is a general agreement that agricultural growth in developing countries is needed in order to increase income and guarantee food security. Many authors agree that to achieve these goals, an increase in agricultural yield and production is necessary. However, the literature has shown a diverging discussion about which policy governments should apply for pro-poor agricultural growth. While some authors state that input subsidy policies (ISPs) are the principal tool to increase agricultural productivity for smallholders, many others say that these policies are highly costly and have not yet improved the development of rural areas. This article aims to show, from a theoretical perspective, that input subsidy policies can impact economic growth and food security. The method explores the welfare effects of a fertilizer subsidy policy on producers, consumers, government and society as a whole. The paper also examines, based on empirical data, the outcomes of the well-known Malawi farm input subsidy program (FISP). The results indicate that, as expected from theory, the FISP has raised productivity, households ’income and rural wages. However, it has not improved access to food at national level. The high cost and targeting inefficiency are also a constraint for maintaining the input subsidy program

Amphibians of São Paulo State, Brazil: state-of-art and perspectives

The last list of species of the state of São Paulo State was updated and totaled 236 species of amphibians, 230 of which are anurans and six are caecilians. Bokermannohyla gouveai and Sphaenorhynchus surdus were removed from this list, because they did not occur in the State of São Paulo. The number of anuran species recorded comprise 27% of the species richness of the country and an increase by 31% in the number of species recorded for the state since 1998. Thus, despite the State of São Paulo be the Brazilian region where the anurans have been most studied, these data show that the number of known species tends to increase in the next years. We have identified two major geographical gaps of inventory: the southwest of the state, especially in the Paranapanema river basin and the northeast region, mainly at the border between the States of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Although both have been sampled recently, information is still lacking. The current state of knowledge and perspectives in the areas such as taxonomy, systematics, ecology and conservation are evaluated.A última lista de espécies do Estado de São Paulo foi atualizada, totalizando 236 espécies de anfíbios, das quais 230 são anuros e seis são Gymnophiona. Foram removidos da lista Bokermannohyla gouveai e Sphaenorhynchus surdus por não ocorrerem no Estado de São Paulo. O número de espécies de anuros registrado representa 27% da riqueza de espécies do país e um aumento de 31% em relação ao número de espécies registradas para o Estado em 1998, demonstrando que, a despeito do Estado de São Paulo ser a região brasileira onde os anuros foram mais estudados, o número de espécies conhecidas deve aumentar nos próximos anos. Foram evidenciadas duas lacunas geográficas importantes: a região sudoeste do Estado, principalmente na bacia hidrográfica do rio Paranapanema e a região nordeste, principalmente na divisa entre os Estados de Minas Gerais e São Paulo. Apesar de ambas terem sido amostradas recentemente, ainda há carência de informações. O estado atual do conhecimento e perspectivas nas áreas de taxonomia, sistemática, ecologia e conservação são avaliados.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Estadual PaulistaUniversidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) Departamento de Ciências BiológicasUniversidade de São Paulo Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades, Gestão AmbientalUNIFESP, Depto. de Ciências BiológicasSciEL

Carnivory and resource-based niche differentiation in anuran larvae: implications for food web and experimental ecology

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72114/1/FWB_2134_sm_appendix_S1-S2.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72114/2/j.1365-2427.2008.02134.x.pd

Geographical analysis of diapause inducibility in European Drosophila melanogaster populations

Seasonal overwintering in insects represents an adaptation to stressful environments and in European Drosophila melanogaster females, low temperatures and short photoperiods can induce an ovarian diapause. Diapause may represent a recent (<15 Ky) adaptation to the colonisation of temperate Europe by D. melanogaster from tropical sub-Saharan Africa, because African D. melanogaster and the sibling species D. simulans, have been reported to fail to undergo diapause. Over the past few centuries, D. melanogaster have also invaded North America and Australia, and eastern populations on both continents show a predictable latitudinal cline in diapause induction. In Europe however, a new diapause-enhancing timeless allele, ls-tim, is observed at high levels in southern Italy (∼80%), where it appears to have arisen and has spread throughout the continent with a frequency of ∼20% in Scandinavia. Given the phenotype of ls-tim and its geographical distribution, we might predict that it would work against any latitudinal cline in diapause induction within Europe. Indeed we reveal that any latitudinal cline for diapause in Europe is very weak, as predicted by ls-tim frequencies. In contrast, we determine ls-tim frequencies in North America and observe that they would be expected to strengthen the latitudinal pattern of diapause. Our results reveal how a newly arisen mutation, can, via the stochastic nature of where it initially arose, blur an otherwise adaptive geographical pattern

DON ANTE DRAČEVAC (1920-1993)

<div><p>Diapause is an actively induced dormancy that has evolved in Metazoa to resist environmental stresses. In temperate regions, many diapausing insects overwinter at low temperatures by blocking embryonic, larval or adult development. Despite its Afro-tropical origin, <i>Drosophila melanogaster</i> migrated to temperate regions of Asia and Europe where females overwinter as adults by arresting gonadal development (reproductive diapause) at temperatures <13°C. Recent work in <i>D</i>. <i>melanogaster</i> has implicated the developmental hormones dILPs-2 and/or dILP3, and dILP5, homologues of vertebrate insulin/insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), in reproductive arrest. However, polymorphisms in <i>timeless (tim)</i> and <i>couch potato (cpo)</i> dramatically affect diapause inducibility and these dILP experiments could not exclude this common genetic variation contributing to the diapause phenotype. Here, we apply an extensive genetic dissection of the insulin signaling pathway which allows us to see both enhancements and reductions in egg development that are independent of <i>tim</i> and <i>cpo</i> variations. We show that a number of manipulations dramatically enhance diapause to ~100%. These include ablating, or reducing the excitability of the insulin-producing cells (IPCs) that express dILPs-2,3,5 employing the <i>dilp2</i>,<i>3</i>,<i>5</i>^<i>-/-</i> triple mutant, desensitizing insulin signaling using a <i>chico</i> mutation, or inhibiting dILP2 and 5 in the hemolymph by over-expressing Imaginal Morphogenesis Protein-Late 2 (Imp-L2). In addition, triple mutant <i>dilp2</i>,<i>3</i>,<i>5</i>^-/- females maintain high levels of diapause even when temperatures are raised in adulthood to 19°C. However at 22°C, these females all show egg development revealing that the effects are conditional on temperature and not a general female sterility. In contrast, over-expression of <i>dilps-2/5</i> or enhancing IPC excitability, led to levels of ovarian arrest that approached zero, underscoring dILPs-2 and 5 as key antagonists of diapause.</p></div

Taking tadpole biology into the 21st century: a consensus paper from the First Tadpoles International Workshop

Although tadpoles are common, frequently encountered vertebrates, their natural history is poorly known. Despite the fact that Brazil harbors the highest anuran diversity in the world, with almost a thousand known species (Segalla et  al., 2014), the larvae of many species remain undescribed. The problem is not unique to Brazil. At the turn of the century, approximately ⅔ of almost 3,300 anuran species with a larval stage lacked tadpole descriptions (McDiarmid & Altig, 1999). The proportion of neotropical anurans with free-swimming larvae that are not described is estimated to be around 40% (Provete et al., 2012).Fil: Rossa Feres, Denise de C.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Venesky, Matthew. Allegheny College; Estados UnidosFil: Nomura, Fausto. Universidade Federal de Goias; BrasilFil: Eterovick, Paula C.. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Vera Candioti, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Menin, Marcelo. Universidade Federal do Amazonas; BrasilFil: Juncá, Flora A.. Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana; BrasilFil: Schiesari, Luis C.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Haddad, Celio F. B.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Garey, Michel V.. Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana; BrasilFil: dos Anjos, Luciano A.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Wasserug, Richard. Dalhousie University Halifax; Canadá. University Of British Columbia; Canad