“Al menos un puñado de gurises”. Una experiencia de reasentamiento de niños sirios en Uruguay

En este artículo abordamos el Programa de Reasentamiento de Personas Sirias Refugiadas (PRPSR) en Uruguay, implementado en cooperación con ACNUR en 2014, interrumpiéndose sobre finales del 2015, y que tuvo como principales destinatarios a niños víctimas de la catástrofe humanitaria en Siria. A lo largo del texto problematizamos cómo un sector de la población refugiada —definido en torno a la edad cronológica entendida como correlato de un momento específico y diferenciado del ciclo vital— se transforma en una categoría central en disputa. Focalizamos en la pugna entre los diferentes sentidos que se establecen para las categorías de niños y menores, las formas en que son reelaboradas en cada contexto y cómo están vinculadas a los procesos de asimilación proyectados. Proponemos que, por encima de los derechos humanos, lo que moviliza finalmente las acciones en torno al reasentamiento es un fuerte impulso nacionalista que refuerza una identidad nacional: la uruguaya.This article addresses the Resettlement of Syrian Refugees Program in Uruguay, implemented in cooperation with UNHCR from 2014 and interrupted in 2015, targeting children victims of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. Throughout the text, we discuss how a sector of the refugee population — defined around the chronological age understood as correlate of a specific and differentiated moment of the life cycle — becomes a central category in dispute. We focus on the struggle between the different senses that are established for the categories of children and minors, the ways in which they are re-elaborated in each context and how they are linked to the projected assimilation processes. We propose that, beyond human rights, what finally mobilizes the actions around resettlement is a strong nationalist impulse that reinforces a national identity: the Uruguayan one

Entre el refugio y la inmigración: un plan de reasentamiento para personas de origen sirio en Uruguay

El presente artículo aborda el proceso de elaboración y puesta en práctica de un plan oficial de reasentamiento al Uruguay de 12 familias sirias, en ese momento refugiadas en el Líbano. Dicho plan comenzó a implementarse en cooperación con ACNUR en 2014 y se vio interrumpido sobre finales del 2015, ejecutándose el reasentamiento de cinco de las 12 familias seleccionadas.El objeto de nuestro abordaje son las concepciones de derechos y ayuda humanitaria puestas en juego en torno a la población reasentada en nuestro país mediante esa iniciativa.El programa oficial se vinculó de formas directa y por momentos contradictoria con las concepciones de derechos humanos que respaldan las políticas de ACNUR en materia de refugio. Esto se hace particularmente claro en relación a sus destinatarios iniciales: niños, niñas y adolescentes. Algunas nociones que refieren “a la forma de ser de los uruguayos” impactarondirectamente sobre la experiencia condicionando la percepción social en relación a las demandas de las familias de origen sirio al programa y sus ejecutores. A lo largo del proceso se construye la figura de un “refugiado hiperreal” que es en varias dimensiones, imposible de emular. Proponemos que la falta de concordancia entre lo esperado por la sociedad receptora y las características concretas de las familias reasentadas produce un desencuentro tal que inhibe la continuidad del programa

What can challenging reproductive contexts tell us about the rat’s maternal behavior?

Maternal behavior in mammals encompasses a complex repertoire of activities that ensure the survival of the offspring and shape their neural and behavioral development. The laboratory rat has been employed as a classic model for investigating maternal behavior, and recently with the use of advanced techniques, the knowledge of its neural basis has been expanded significantly. However, the standard laboratory testing conditions in which rats take care of a single litter impose constraints on the study of maternal flexibility. Interestingly, the reproductive characteristics of this species, including the existence of a fertile postpartum estrus, allow us to study maternal behavior in more complex and ethologically relevant contexts, even in laboratory settings. Here we review how maternal and sexual motivations interact during the postpartum estrus, shaping the behavioral response of females according to the presence of the pups and males. Next, we describe how impregnation during the postpartum estrus creates a new reproductive context in which mothers simultaneously care for two successive litters, adapting their responses to different behavioral and physiological demands of pups. These findings illustrate the behavioral adaptability of maternal rats to pups’ needs and the presence of other reinforcers, as well as its dependence on the context. In our view, future perspectives in the field, by incorporating the use of cutting-edge techniques, should analyze maternal flexibility and its neural substrates in models that incorporate complex and challenging contexts. This approach would allow a more comprehensive understanding of brain circuits involved in the adaptive and flexible nature of parenting

"Al menos un puñado de gurises" : una experiencia de reasentamiento de niños sirios en Uruguay

En este artículo abordamos el Programa de Reasentamiento de Personas Sirias Refugiadas (PRPSR) en Uruguay, implementado en cooperación con ACNUR en 2014, interrumpiéndose sobre finales del 2015, y que tuvo como principales destinatarios a niños víctimas de la catástrofe humanitaria en Siria. A lo largo del texto problematizamos cómo un sector de la población refugiada -definido en torno a la edad cronológica entendida como correlato de un momento específico y diferenciado del ciclo vital- se transforma en una categoría central en disputa. Focalizamos en la pugna entre los diferentes sentidos que se establecen para las categorías de niños y menores, las formas en que son reelaboradas en cada contexto y cómo están vinculadas a los procesos de asimilación proyectados. Proponemos que, por encima de los derechos humanos, lo que moviliza finalmente las acciones en torno al reasentamiento es un fuerte impulso nacionalista que refuerza una identidad nacional: la uruguaya.This article addresses the Resettlement of Syrian Refugees Program in Uruguay, implemented in cooperation with UNHCR from 2014 and interrupted in 2015, targeting children victims of the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria. Throughout the text, we discuss how a sector of the refugee population - defined around the chronological age understood as correlate of a specific and differentiated moment of the life cycle - becomes a central category in dispute. We focus on the struggle between the different senses that are established for the categories of children and minors, the ways in which they are re-elaborated in each context and how they are linked to the projected assimilation processes. We propose that, beyond human rights, what finally mobilizes the actions around resettlement is a strong nationalist impulse that reinforces a national identity: the Uruguayan one

Reorganization of perineuronal nets in the medial Preoptic Area during the reproductive cycle in female rats

Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are aggregations of extracellular matrix associated with specific neuronal populations in the central nervous system, suggested to play key roles in neural development, synaptogenesis and experience-dependent synaptic plasticity. Pregnancy and lactation are characterized by a dramatic increase in neuroplasticity. However, dynamic changes in the extracellular matrix associated with maternal circuits have been mostly overlooked. We analyzed the structure of PNNs in an essential nucleus of the maternal circuit, the medial preoptic area (mPOA), during the reproductive cycle of rats, using the Wisteria floribunda (WFA) label. PNNs associated to neurons in the mPOA start to assemble halfway through gestation and become highly organized prior to parturition, fading through the postpartum period. This high expression of PNNs during pregnancy appears to be mediated by the influence of estrogen, progesterone and prolactin, since a hormonal simulated-gestation treatment induced the expression of PNNs in ovariectomized females. We found that PNNs associated neurons in the mPOA express estrogen receptor α and progesterone receptors, supporting a putative role of reproductive hormones in the signaling mechanisms that trigger the assembly of PNNs in the mPOA. This is the first report of PNNs presence and remodeling in mPOA during adulthood induced by physiological variables

On-line carbon dots synthesis using flow injection analysis. Application to aluminium determination in water samples

An on-line synthesis of CDots is proposed for the first time, using the flow injection analysis (FIA) technique, which was coupled, in a single system, to the analytical determination of aluminium in water samples. The nanoparticles were obtained from the carbonization of glucose and iron(III) in an acidic medium, and their photoluminescence increased in the presence of aluminium ions. Under optimal experimental conditions, the proposed method has shown an acceptable linearity range –between 0.04 and 3.0 mg L−1 (R2 = 0.9999) – and a detection limit of 0.007 mg L−1. The analysis of drinking water and groundwater samples showed good accuracy (recoveries ranged between 91 – 113%) and RSD% < 13. The on-line system exhibited a high sample throughput (36 h−1), since no incubation time was required.Financial support from Universidad Nacional del Sur (PGI 24/Q099 and 24/Q123, CONICET 11220200102603CO, CONICET 11220200103198CO and the ANPCyT PICT-2019-04458 (2021-2023) is gratefully acknowledged. This research was part of the Ph.D. thesis of Damian Uriarte, which was supported by a doctoral grant funded by Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). M. Garrido and C.E. Domini wish to thank CONICET

Refugiado hiperreal: inmigrante ideal que imposibilita el refigio.

En el presente artículo se analiza un Plan de Reasentamiento para Familias de Origen Sirio en Uruguay (PRFOSU) implementado por el gobierno uruguayo entre agosto de 2014 y diciembre de 2015. Veremos el proceso por el que se produce la representación de un refugiado hiperreal&nbsp;sobre su público objetivo -familias de origen sirio ya refugiadas en el Líbano- y de qué modo esta representación fue decisiva en el devenir del plan y su suspensión. El holograma ético construido en ese proceso, implicó el desdibujamiento e incluso la suspensión de las características constitutivas de la condición misma de refugio de acuerdo a lo establecido por el ACNUR. Por un lado, obstaculizando el derecho al retorno. Por otro, poniendo en entredicho las historias de violencia y vulneración de derechos en torno a la crisis humanitaria que hace necesaria la protección internacional. La distancia entre las personas concretas, los refugiados que llegaron con el programa de reasentamiento, y la representación del refugiado hiperreal presente en su planificación y en la comunicación de la iniciativa, se cristaliza en la articulación de dos polos de sentido: por una parte, el refugiado como sujeto de tutela y, en segundo término, el refugio como acto de conversión. Durante el desarrollo del PRFOSU el sentido atribuido a los refugiados transmuta en un inmigrante ideal, caracterizado como: agradecido, trabajador, austero y bien dispuesto a ocupar a la mayor brevedad posible- su lugar de ciudadano uruguayo

Interspecific functional convergence and divergence and intraspecific negative density dependence underlie the seed-to-seedling transition in tropical trees

The seed-to-seedling transition constitutes a critical bottleneck in the life history of plants and represents a major determinant of species composition and abundance. However, we have surprisingly little knowledge regarding the forces driving this ontogenetic transition. Here we utilize information regarding organismal function to investigate the strength of intra- and interspecific negative density dependence during the seed-to-seedling transition in Puerto Rican tree species. Our analyses were implemented at individual sites and across an entire 16-ha forest plot, spanning 6 years. The functional richness of seedling assemblages was significantly lower than expected given the seed assemblages, but the functional evenness was significantly higher than expected, indicating the simultaneous importance of constraints on the overall phenotypic space and trait differences for successful transitions from seed to seedling. The results were consistent across years. Within species, we also found evidence for strong intraspecific negative density dependence, where the probability of transition was proportionally lower when in a site with high conspecific density. These results suggest that filtering of similar phenotypes across species and strong negative density dependence within and among species are simultaneously driving the structure and dynamics of tropical tree assemblages during this critical life-history transition

Large‐ and small‐seeded species have contrasting functional neighborhoods in a subtropical forest

Forest community composition is the outcome of multiple forces, including those that increase taxonomic and functional divergence and those that promote convergence in traits. The mechanisms underlying these forces may not operate homogenously within communities; individuals of different species are never perfectly mixed, and thus, species tend to be surrounded and interact with different subsets of species. In fact, taxonomic and functional composition of neighborhoods of different focal species can be highly variable. Here, we examine whether mechanisms driving species‐level neighborhoods relate to intrinsic characteristics of focal species such as differences in life‐history and resource‐uptake strategies and in turn relate to species survival. We focus on two key characteristics: (1) seed mass, which defines a dominant axis of life‐history strategies related to stress tolerance, and (2) understory light preferences that sort species from light‐demanding pioneers to shade‐tolerant. We monitored seedling communities over 10 yr in Puerto Rico and calculated neighborhood trait dispersion in species‐level neighborhoods using seven functional traits. We examined whether species‐level characteristics, seed mass and preferred light conditions, influence patterns of functional dispersion in seedling neighborhoods using linear models. Then, we examined how species‐level functional neighborhoods impact seedling survival. We found that small‐ and large‐seeded species diverge in the type of functional neighborhoods they associate with. Large‐seeded species associate with neighbors that are more similar than expected in leaf economic traits, but more different than expected in seed mass and leaf area traits, while the opposite was found for small‐seeded species. This variation in species functional neighborhood was important in determining seedling survival. In sum, our results suggest that divergent and convergent forces do not operate homogenously over entire communities. Their relative role changes in space, and on a species‐by‐species basis, probably with a deterministic foundation linked to traits such as seed mass

Dry conditions and disturbance promote liana seedling survival and abundance

Species composition and community structure in Neotropical forests have been severely affected by increases in climate change and disturbance. Among the most conspicuous changes is the proliferation of lianas. These increases have affected not only the carbon storage capacity of forests but also tree dynamics by reducing tree growth and increasing mortality. Despite the importance of lianas in Neotropical forests, most of the studies on lianas have focused on adult stages, ignoring dynamics at the seedlings stage. Here, we asked whether observed increases in liana abundance are associated with a demographic advantage that emerges early in liana ontogeny and with decreased precipitation and increased disturbance. To test this, we compared patterns of growth and survival between liana seedlings and tree seedlings using a long‐term data set of seedling plots from a subtropical wet forest in Puerto Rico, USA. Then, we examined the effect of precipitation and land use history on these demographic variables. We found evidence for liana seedling survival advantage over trees, but no growth advantages. This survival advantage exhibited significant temporal variation linked with patterns of rainfall, as well as differences associated with land‐use history in the study area. Furthermore, we found that neighborhood density has a negative effect on liana survival and growth. Our results indicate that liana proliferation is likely related to a survival advantage that emerges in early stages and is influenced by climatic conditions and past disturbance. Predicted climatic changes in rainfall patterns, including more frequent and severe droughts, together with increases in disturbance, could have a significant effect on seedling tropical communities by favoring lianas