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First record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata from Cyprus and its comparative morphology and genetics with Ecteinascidia thurstoni
No full textThe genus Ecteinascidia (family Perophoridae) comprises colonial ascidians typically found in warm seas, known for their biomedical significance. Four species have been recorded to date in the Mediterranean, but the records remain patchy due to the similar external morphology of these species and limited taxonomic data. This study presents the first record of the ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata from Cyprus, extending its Mediterranean range, where it is currently regarded as cryptogenic. Here, we combine morphological and genetic data to compare E. turbinata from Cyprus with congeneric Ecteinascidia thurstoni specimens from Israel, an Indo-Pacific species introduced into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, highlighting the key diagnostic features and genetic divergence between the two species. Although the two species resemble each other in external appearance, E. turbinata and E. thurstoni differ in key diagnostic traits, including gut loop shape (open C vs. compact C), zooid length (15-22 mm vs. 4-7 mm), and the number of stigmata rows (17-20 vs. 12-14), respectively. Genetic data from Cypriot specimens indicate close affinity with both neighboring Mediterranean and Atlantic populations, suggesting these areas as possible sources of introduction. Based on the literature, the two species contend with similar environmental conditions, suggesting a potential niche overlap. Future monitoring of Mediterranean ascidian fauna may help to clarify this, especially in the context of global change an its influence on marine biodiversity and species distribution. Our findings also resolve past misidentifications and underscore the value of integrative taxonomy for reliable tracking of ascidian bioinvasions
New records of rarely reported species in the Mediterranean Sea (December 2025)
No full textNew records of rarely reported species in the Mediterranean Sea (December 2025
The investigation of jujube fruit added into diets on performance and meat quality of broiler chickens
No full textThis study was conducted to determine the effects of jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) fruit added at different rates into the mixed feed on performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality of broiler chickens. A total of 160 male broiler chickens (Ross-308) including 40 in each group, were used in the study. The groups were divided into 4 subgroups, including 10 broiler chickens in each. The study groups were set as follows; the group without jujube fruit was the control group, the group with 0.5% jujube fruit was the H-0.5% group, the group with 1% jujube fruit was the H-1 group and the group with 2% jujube fruit was the H-2 group. At the end of the experiment (42nd day), the highest body weight (P<0.01), daily body weight gain (P<0.05), daily feed intake (P<0.01), and feed conversion ratio (P<0.05) were determined in the H-1 group. The highest thigh and heart weights were determined in the H-1 group, while the lowest hot carcass, breast, back-neck weights and carcass yield were determined in the H-2 group (P<0.05). The lowest poly unsaturated fatty acid, omega-6 and omega-3 levels and the highest omega-6/omega-3 ratio were determined in the control group (P<0.05). In the study, mortality rate was similar in all groups (P>0.05).
As a result, it was concluded that jujube fruit, which is mainly used for its antioxidant properties, can be used in poultry compound feeds especially at 1% level due to its positive effects on performance, carcass, and meat quality
Relationship Between DGAT1 Gene Polymorphism and Some Growth Traits in Anatolian Merino and Akkaraman Sheep
No full textA strong correlation exists between growth traits and particular genes. Determining genotypes linked to advantageous morphometric features allows for selective breeding, promoting the establishment of flocks with preferred attributes. The DGAT1 gene is strongly connected to growth, meat quality, production, and carcass characteristics in sheep, making it a key target in research on growth efficiency and overall productivity. Investigated the relationship between the DGAT1 gene polymorphism and its variation and growth traits in 40 Anatolian Merino and 33 Akkaraman ewes in this study. Data on traits such as weight (six months weight (LW6), weaning weight (WW), birth weight (BW)), and body measurements were collected. Additionally, average daily weight gain (ADWG) and Kleiber ratios were computed. Using PCR-RFLP analysis with the AluI enzyme, three genotypes were identified, revealing polymorphisms: CC, CT, and TT. The analysis showed no statistically significant differences between genotypes and body measurements. These findings indicate that the DGAT1 gene is unlikely to be a suitable candidate for Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) in Anatolian Merino and Akkaraman sheep, especially concerning traits associated with growth
Immunomodulatory potential effects of pomegranate peel in the immunization of chickens against Newcastle disease virus
No full textNewcastle disease (ND) is an acute, transmissible, infectious respiratory disease associated with high mortality and morbidity in chickens. Biosecurity, mass vaccination, and improved immunization are suggested as controlling strategies. Enhancing poultry's innate immunity using natural feed additives eventually activates adaptive immune responses. This research was conducted to determine the effect of a diet supplemented with pomegranate peel (Pop) on the immune status of chickens whether vaccinated against NDV or not. Pop antioxidant capacity was determined by calculating radical scavenging activity. Specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens' basal diet was supplemented with 1.0% Pop. Chickens were divided into four groups (A-D; n=20): (A) NDV vaccination + basal diet; (B) NDV vaccination + Pop feeding; (C) Pop feeding; and (D) control. Day-old chicks were vaccinated against NDV with a booster dose at 14 days of age. The experimental trial lasted 42 days. Kinetics of IFN-γ and chTLR4 immune response gene expressions and nitric oxide production levels were assessed in primary chicken monocyte-derived dendritic cells isolated from the chicken groups. Humoral and cell-mediated immune responses were also evaluated. Upregulating IFN-γ and chTLR4 expression in the Pop-feeding groups suggested a significant increase in the innate immunity of chickens. The chickens also showed a marked decrease in nitric oxide production levels, which could be attributable to Pop's high total antioxidant capacity. Slight increases in humoral and lymphoproliferative responses against NDV confirmed the synergistic effect of Pop. These findings suggest that Pop potentiated the immunomodulatory impact on chicken’s innate immunity and acted synergistically on adaptive immunity against NDV
Desiring Life: Colonial Violence, the Anthropocene, and the Life/Nonlife Boundary Thinking with Derrida
No full textThis article explores how Derrida's questioning of the life/death dichotomy intersects with anticolonial and feminist perspectives about the violent tracing of this boundary. From this point of departure, I want to reflect on how Derrida’s unsettling of this dichotomy can open a space to trouble the desires for life and the terror for the inert at the centre of colonial/modern ontologies. His reflections about life and death seem to open avenues to address an un-appropriable negation, a constitutive absence, and otherness at the core of these desires for aliveness. Therefore, the main aim of this essay is to explore how this way of unsettling the life/nonlife dichotomy can encourage (or not) a reflection on how colonial forms of violence are at the root of desires for life and their capture of being. In the first part of the paper, I bring Sylvia Wynter and Elizabeth Povinelli into conversation, looking into the violent capture of the space of being, life and the human that sustains the modern/colonial order and its centring around Man. Following this, I engage with Derrida’s unsettling of the notion of life and consider the ways in which it can interrupt the logics of this capture and open a space to address the forms of violence that sustain them. In the last section of the paper, I offer a reflection on haptics (touch) through the perspectives of Hortense Spillers and Lorena Cabnal, whose anticolonial and feminist thought highlights the possibilities and limitations of Derrida’s thought to address the violences that permeate the Anthropocene’s intimate entanglements. In this sense, I present here a brief reflection on Derrida’s relevance to thinking through and with the violent entanglements of the “Colonial Anthropocene” (Gómez-Barris)
Defend the Text
No full textThis essay is an attempt to rearticulate the relationship of text to context. Defending the text should not be the same as fetishizing the text. On the other hand, no context is self-evident. In a geopolitical context where some contexts are visible and others occluded or colonized or preempted, the act of reading a text should avoid the pitfall of universalism. The manifesto, Defend the text, needs to be aware that texts may well be indefensible. It all depends on the context, and no context is unique, exemplary, or universal. It must not be forgotten that defending is a polemical exercise, and polemics are prone to reductiveness and overgeneralization. In a world that is yet to encounter a full-blown conversation/contestation between Faith and secular Reason, defending any text at best can only be an honest and vulnerable overture
Qualitative Inquiry in the era of artificial intelligence: Why and how to keep the practice human?
No full textHow might our research practice, and our very way of knowing, change if, instead of rushing to feed qualitative data into ‘intelligent’ machines for the supposed ever optimal analysis, we returned our attention to the living moment of data production itself, treating it as an embodied, mindful, relational, and transformative act of co-creation, presence, and meaning-making that no algorithm can replicate? In this era of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), qualitative research is at a crossroads. Large Language Models (LLMs) promise a more objective and efficient way to analyze vast volumes of qualitative data. This may seem like a magical solution for the positivist approach to qualitative inquiry, the so-called small q tradition. Yet, it also presents a dystopian prospect for the more interpretive, relational, culturally situated, and social-constructionist approaches of the big Q tradition. In the latter case, the risk is that the qualitative researcher becomes overshadowed by the machine, with the process losing its relational and generative capacities. This special issue addresses precisely this tension by showcasing a series of undergraduate research projects, demonstrating why it is so important to keep qualitative inquiry, and especially qualitative interviewing, a profoundly human practice. Generative AI is here to stay. The challenge now becomes how to make qualitative inquire even more process-oriented, relational, meaningful, embodied, and transformative, and how to use AI technologies in ways that serve this purpose
Is There a Paradox Between the Evaluation and Recruitment of Public Servant in Greece?
No full textΣτο παρακάτω Policy Brief επιχειρείται μια παρουσίαση του νέου θεσμού της αξιολόγησης στον δημόσιο τομέα και ο συσχετισμός του με τις διαδικασίες προλήψεων προσωπικού τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης. Φαίνεται πως υπάρχει ένα σύστημα αξιολόγησης με βασικές αρχές και αμφίδρομες διαδικασίες αξιολόγησης. Αντίθετα σε ότι έχει να κάνει με τις προσλήψεις φαίνεται πώς έχει επικρατήσει τόσο μια καθυστέρηση αλλά και σύγχυση. Ενώ οι διαδικασίες είναι αρκετά κοντά στην αξιολόγηση του υπάρχοντος προσωπικού υπάρχει μια σύγχυση που χρήζει πολιτικές παρεμβάσεις. Στον επίλογο της μελέτης επιχειρείται η πρόταση πολιτικών σχετικά με τις παθογένειες που εντοπίζονται.The following Policy Brief attempts to present the new institution of evaluation in the public sector in Greece and its relationship with the procedures for recruiting procedure of higher education public servants. It seems that there is an evaluation system with basic principles and two-way evaluation procedures. On the contrary, in what has to do with recruitment, it seems that both delay and confusion have prevailed. While the procedures are quite close to the evaluation of existing personnel, there is a confusion that requires political interventions. In the conclusion of the study, an attempt is made to propose policies regarding the pathologies identified
