National identity profiles and support for the European Union

Scholars have long recognized that national identity-related factors are among the strongest predictors of citizens’ attitudes toward the European Union. But while some find that they reinforce support for the European Union, other scholars show that national identity undermines its support. In this article, we aim to disentangle this puzzle by studying how the national identity profiles of European citizens relate to support for the European Union across individuals and member states. To this end, we employ data from the International Social Survey Program 2013, by far the most extensive collection of survey questions on national identity, and the technique of latent class analysis. Our results show which specific configurations of national identity entail support, ambivalence or rejection of the European Union, their antecedents, and their variation across countries

Nivel de deserción universitaria en el programa de ingeniería en sistemas y computación de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira

La razón de ser de las instituciones de educación superior es la formación académica, por lo que la deserción estudiantil universitaria es una problemática afecta a las universidades y se ha convertido en un fenómeno de interés por las implicaciones institucionales, sociales, personales y económicas que conlleva. Institucionalmente hablando representa disminución en el rendimiento académico. En el ámbito social genera una desigualdad debido a la diferencia que hay con los profesionales graduados. Afecta emocionalmente al estudiante generando una sensación de fracaso y frustración al no terminar con éxito su educación universitaria, que se ve reflejado en lo personal y en el círculo familiar de este. Y económicamente el costo que tiene para el sistema educativo ya que compromete la estabilidad de los ingresos transferidos a las instituciones de Educación Superior

Quantifying the impact of chemicals on stable carbon and oxygen isotope values of raw pollen

Purification protocols to extract pollen from lake sediments contain chemicals that alter the carbon and oxygen pollen‐isotope values according to pollen characteristics and family affiliation. Modern (raw) pollen of broad‐leaved (Alnus glutinosa, Betula pendula, Carpinus betulus, Corylus avellana, Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur) and coniferous tree species (Picea abies and Pinus sylvestris) were treated with potassium hydroxide (KOH), hydrofluoric acid (HF), sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and sulphuric acid (H2SO4) to test the impact on δ13Cpollen and δ18Opollen and assess the applicability in purification protocols. Pollen of broad‐leaved and coniferous trees reacted differently to chemical exposure, but response patterns are generally alike. Alterations of δ13Cpollen values vary between + 1.0‰ (B. pendula, NaClO‐treatment) and −5.0‰ (P. sylvestris, H2SO4‐treatment). The δ13Cpollen values of raw and chemically treated samples seem to be related after treatments with KOH, NaClO and HF, whereas the application of H2SO4 led to inconsistent changes among species. The impact of chemicals on δ18Opollen are more diverse and offsets range between +1.1‰ (C. avellana, NaClO‐treatment) and −17.9‰ (P. sylvestris, H2SO4‐treatment). In general, the use of isotope‐altering chemicals in purification protocols should be brought to a minimum, but the application of KOH and NaClO seems mostly unproblematic before δ13Cpollen and δ18Opollen analysis

Detección de respiración y temperatura con imágenes térmicas en bebés

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is one of the leading causes of death in children under one year of age. SIDS is defined as the death of a child under one year of age, without apparent symptoms or causes during sleep that lead to his death. Therefore, monitoring of childhood sleep has become vital for parents, health care providers and health educators during the perinatal period. Temperature and respiration are the parameters most used during neonatal and postnatal consultations as an indicator of events related to the SIDS. This document proposes a method of non-invasive detection of temperature and breathing, based on the automatic detection of areas of the forehead, nose and mouth of the infant, calculating statistical measures and pixel-temperature conversion of thermal images. The proposed method used 7.189 thermal images of 6 infants during sleep, obtaining a general accuracy of 88,26% in temperature and breathing detection into three different classes.El Síndrome Infantil de Muerte Súbita (SIMS) es una de las primeras causas de muerte en niños menores de un año. SIMS se define como la muerte de un niño menor de un año, sin aparente síntomas o causas durante el sueño que conllevan a su muerte. Por lo tanto, el monitoreo del sueño infantil se ha convertido en algo vital para los padres, los proveedores de atención médica y los educadores de salud durante el período perinatal. La temperatura y la respiración son los parámetros más usados durante las consultas neonatales y postnatales como indicador de eventos relacionados con el SIMS. En este documento se propone un método de detección no invasiva de temperatura y respiración, basado en la detección automática de zonas de la frente, nariz y boca del menor, cálculo de medidas estadísticas y conversión pixel - temperatura de imágenes térmicas. El método propuesto utilizó 7.189 imágenes térmicas de 6 menores durante el sueño, obteniendo una precisión general de 88.26% en la detección de temperatura y respiración en tres diferentes clases

Arabidopsis thaliana embryo sac mitochondrial membrane potential stain

The aim of this experiment is to study mitochondrial functional status in Arabidopsis embryo sacs using the membrane potential indicator JC-1. Changes in the membrane potential are presumed to be due to the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP), allowing passage of ions and small molecules. The resulting equilibrium of ions leads in turn to the decoupling of the respiratory chain and the release of cytochrome c into the cytosol, a distinctive feature of the early stages of programmed cell death. JC-1 is a lipophilic dye that can selectively enter into mitochondria and reversibly change color from green to red as the membrane potential increases. In healthy cells with high mitochondrial potential, JC-1 spontaneously forms complexes with intense red fluorescence. On the other hand, in mitochondria with low mitochondrial potential, JC-1 remains in the monomeric form, which exhibits only green fluorescence (Martin et al., 2013; Hauser et al., 2006). This protocol could be used in isolated mitochondria, and in a variety of cell types and different tissues of plants and other organism.Fil: Martin, María Victoria. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fiol, Diego Fernando. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Zabaleta, Eduardo Julian. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pagnussat, Gabriela Carolina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Thirty Thousand Miles Above.

This thesis is a collection of stories examining the successes and failures of hu-man connection. It portrays characters struggling to understand worlds, sometimes frigh-tening and bizarre but always larger than themselves, and it investigates the desire for a sense of place and purpose among other human beings, as well as the daunting chasms that must be crossed when seeking to bridge these gaps

New insights into the functional roles of reactive oxygen species during embryo sac development and fertilization in Arabidopsis thaliana

Previously considered as toxic by-products of aerobic metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS) are emerging as essential signaling molecules in eukaryotes. Recent evidence showed that maintenance of ROS homeostasis during female gametophyte development is crucial for embryo sac patterning and fertilization. Although ROS are exclusively detected in the central cell of mature embryo sacs, the study of mutants deficient in ROS homeostasis suggests that controlled oxidative bursts might take place earlier during gametophyte development. Also, a ROS burst that depends on pollination takes place inside the embryo sac. This oxidative response might be required for pollen tube growth arrest and for sperm cell release. In this mini-review, we will focus on new insights into the role of ROS during female gametophyte development and fertilization. Special focus will be made on the mitochondrial Mn-Superoxide dismutase (MSD1), which has been recently reported to be essential for maintaining ROS homeostasis during embryo sac formation.Fil: Martin, María Victoria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Distefano, Ayelen Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Zabaleta, Eduardo Julian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Pagnussat, Gabriela Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentin

Scaling-up climate services with users in Latin America

Latin America farmers are highly vulnerable to climate variability, with crop losses observed throughout the region on a virtually annual basis. For instance, as indicated by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP), the 2014–2017 drought conditions in Central America affected over 3.5 million people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. At the same time, local stakeholders and farmers generally have limited access to existing climate and forecast information, do not have sufficient capacities to understand the climate information and/or mechanisms to relate this information to the impact that climate variations can generate at a local level. This precludes the translation of information into actionable knowledge, and therefore into action. In this study, we describe a process through which scientists and strategic partners have co-developed, tested and scaled out an approach to assess, co-produce, translate and transfer climate information to enable agricultural decision making –the Local Technical Agroclimatic Committees (LTAC). LTACs allow open and clear dialogues about climate variations at multiple timescales, how these can affect crops, and the design of measures to reduce crop loss, particularly providing agronomic recommendations to farmers. We systematically describe the process of evidence generation, creation, partner engagement, scaling up, and monitoring of the approach throughout Latin America. Currently, 35 LTACs exist in 9 Latin American countries, engaging more than 250 public and private institutions, increasing the resilience and food security of an estimated 330,000 farmers, and potentially transforming how Latin American farmers manage climate risk. The study illustrates changes in institutional and farmers' capacities to co-produce, translate and use climate information and explores how better climate and crop prediction models can effectively underpin this process. We show how strategic alliances with farmer organizations, national public, and private and regional climate outlook forums help deliver improved and accurate climate information to users. Finally, we document how LTACs and their integration with other local-scale processes have led to changes in farmers’ management practices to take better advantage of good climatic conditions or avoid losses

EULOGY for choir and brass quintet

For my thesis, I wrote a musical work called Eulogy. It is a composition for brass quintet and choir that makes use of contrast, both in regard to the text and the music. Juxtaposing elements are used in order to give character to sections and to also create a hierarchy of moments. Through an examination of how contrasts are used, the way in which the music works can be determined. This paper defines the meaning of musical contrast and the ways in which it applies in Eulogy and then categorizes the different contrasts based on the functionality in the piece. Simultaneous and nonsimultaneous contrasts are found to work differently within the work to either recontexutalize and idea or to change existing musical material

Perceptions and beliefs of teacher educators who work in professional development schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the beliefs and perceptions held by selected teacher education professors regarding (a) their individual roles as teacher educators in professional development schools, and (b) the utility of professional development schools in the preparation of teachers. Initial and follow-up interviews were conducted with four faculty members in schools of education at two doctoeal-granting southeastern universities. Supporting data were gathered from interviews with others who had first-hand knowledge of the participants behaviors in professional development schools. Also, the participants' course syllabi, related professional writings, and departmental publications were examined to support perceptions and beliefs stated in the interviews