Biodiversity Informatics
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Herpetofauna of the Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltación, Beni Department, Bolivia
Get PDFThe Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltación is a little-explored region of the Beni Department in Bolivia.During a multidisciplinary scientific expedition, we documented the herpetofauna of this part of the floodplains of theLlanos de Moxos and the Cerrado, confirming the presence of 25 amphibian species (Anura) and 40 reptilian species(Testudines, Crocodylia, and Squamata), and estimated species richness of 30 amphibians and 56 reptilian species forthe region. Most reported species have wide distributions in the lowlands, except for Leptodactylus cf. gracilis, a specieswith a restricted distribution in the southern ecoregions of Bolivia. Two threatened turtle species (Podocnemis unifilisand Chelonoidis denticulatus) categorized as Vulnerable were present, as well as other larger reptilian species such as theBlack Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) and the Spectacled Caiman (Caiman yacare)
Geology and Ground-Water Resources of Linn County, Kansas
Get PDFLinn County is located along the Kansas-Missouri boundary in east-central Kansas and is a nearly square area of about 605 square miles. The relief in this area is moderate, and the topography is characterized by northeast-trending cuestas that face southeast. The county is located mostly within the Marais des Cygnes River drainage basin and contains a segment of this river in its northeastern part.
Pennsylvanian rocks, Desmoinesian and Missourian Stages, are exposed in the county and have an aggregate thickness of 660 feet. The dominant lithology is shale followed by limestone, sandstone, and minor amounts of coal. Rocks in this part of Kansas are gently tilted to the northwest at about 20 feet per mile.
All but the smallest tributary stream valleys are filled to some depth with locally derived and unconsolidated materials. These materials are mainly clay and silt with several feet of medium to coarse gravel near the base. Thickness of these valley-fill deposits ranges from several feet in smaller stream valleys to 50 feet in the principal valleys.
Approximately 780 feet of Arbuckle Group (Cambrian and Ordovician), 20 feet of Devonian, 320 feet of Mississippian, and 400 feet of Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) rock underlie the oldest outcropping Pennsylvanian rocks in Linn County.
Small domal structures of modest relief and a number of small-scale structures related to compaction and collapse are noted at the surface. Two apparent collapse-related structures in southeastern Linn County are associated with lead and zinc mineralization.
Only very small quantities of ground water are obtained from Pennsylvanian rocks in Linn County. Yields rarely exceed 1 gallon per minute and are normally barely sufficient for domestic purposes. Limestones are the most productive aquifers, and limestones of the lower part of the Kansas City Group are the best of the bedrock aquifers.
Ground water below a depth of about 100 feet in this area is normally too highly mineralized for use. However, in areas in Missouri close to the southeast corner of Linn County, water is obtained from the Cherokee Group at depths of 400 to 600 feet. At still greater depths in this area, large quantities (150 gallons per minute) of highly mineralized water are obtained from Ordovician rocks and moderate quantities (10 gallons per minute) from Mississippian rocks.
Large quantities (30 to 100 gallons per minute) of good quality water are obtained from properly constructed and developed wells in Illinoisan and Wisconsinan valley-fill deposits, mainly from thin gravel deposits near the base
Reading Achievement in Arizona Public Montessori Schools
Get PDFIn recent years, many state legislatures in the United States have implemented legislation and regulations requiring public schools to use evidence-based reading curricula. This study of reading achievement in public Montessori schools in Arizona was conducted to comply with one such piece of legislation. It compares public Montessori students’ standardized state reading test scores to those of traditional public school students statewide. Through descriptive statistics and t-tests on aggregate measures, as well as simple regression, we demonstrate that students receiving Montessori reading instruction perform as well as or better than the comparison group in absolute terms. The longer students remain in the Montessori setting, the better they perform. This is also true for special education students, whose reading test scores after three or more years in a public Montessori program were indistinguishable from the general population. These results suggest Montessori instruction works as well or better than other reading curricula in use throughout the state to produce favorable results on Arizona’s reading assessment, with noteworthy outcomes for students receiving special education services
The importance of vessel size categorization in nerve biopsy From “Distinctive clinical features in biopsy-proven nerve large-arteriole vasculitis and microvasculitis”
Get PDFThis study underscores the different pathophysiology of nerve large-arteriole vasculitis and nerve microvasculitis: that is nerve microvasculitis is associated with greater nerve proximal nerve and root involvement, while nerve large-arteriole vasculitis typically shows watershed infarction (occurring at mid-thigh and mid-arm levels), thus manifesting as primarily distal asymmetrical neuropathies. However, these processes represent a continuum of anatomical involvement rather than entirely distinct entities. With the unclear pathomechanism, different antigens might speculatively contribute to this variation. Additionally, this study confirms the association between nerve large-arteriole vasculitis and connective tissue disorders and more systemic vasculitis whereas microvasculitis is more associated with diabetes mellitus. We plan to further publish findings on clinical outcomes and pathological distinctions between the two conditions
Isolated Hypercapneic Respiratory Failure as a presentation of GBS variant: a paraneoplastic association?
Get PDFGuillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an acute immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy, with the Pharyngeal-Cervical-Brachial (PCB) variant being a rare subtype. We report a 60-year-old male presenting with isolated hypercapnic respiratory failure and pulmonary embolism, subsequently diagnosed with PCB-GBS. The patient exhibited cranial and cervical weakness with preserved lower limb strength, cerebrospinal fluid albumino-cytological dissociation, and cervical root enhancement on MRI. Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin led to rapid recovery. Evaluation for paraneoplastic etiology revealed an oncocytic follicular thyroid neoplasm, managed with thyroidectomy. This case underscores the importance of considering PCB-GBS in unexplained respiratory failure and highlights the rare paraneoplastic association with thyroid malignancy
Second locality record of Kaulback’s Lance-headed Pitviper, Protobothrops kaulbacki (Smith 1940), from India
No full textDifferential responses to disturbance by brumating Shillong Bush Frogs (Raorchestes shillongensis) (Rhacophoridae)
Get PDFPhotography and imagination
Get PDFThis article is written from the standpoint of a photographer. It does not offer a systematic approach to the relationship between photography and imagination, nor does it advance a specific thesis. The ontological identity of photography – its singular way of affirming a presence – serves as the point of departure: it is this fundamental trait that appears to determine imagination. Drawing on concrete cases, the text explores how this specificity can give rise to different imaginative acts: whether in the form of a sensory experience (tactile, olfactory, auditory); or in the reverie of wishing to cross into and inhabit the interior of a photograph; or in the attempt to fictionalize it; or, finally, in the mode of material imagination – the Bachelardian imagination. In a final, contrary movement, the photograph is considered inaccessible, blocking imagination – the image in which photography’s specificity seems no longer to have a place
Runaway Male Fantasies: A Cybernetic Interpretation of Becoming-Fascist
Get PDFThis article offers a cybernetic interpretation of the role the imagination plays in fascism. First, I address Deleuze and Guattari’s response to Reich, who according to them adequately poses the problem of fascism by asking how the masses came to desire their own repression, but who supposes two distinct realities — the rational socio-economic reality and the irrational sexual or psychic reality of desire — thus reintroducing the idea of deception into his explanation. Then I discuss how, in contrast to this, Deleuze and Guattari, and later Theweleit, focus on fantasies and on groups in order to account for fascist desire. Drawing on Bion’s group dynamics, I discuss Guattari’s distinction between the subjected group and the subject-group, which he associates with two different group fantasy functions, and I show that in the subjected group, group fantasies take on a repressive function of cybernetic totalisation, which can be considered as microfascist and proto-totalitarian. The relation between microfascism and molar fascism remaining somewhat unclear in Deleuze and Guattari’s writings as well as in Theweleit, I end by suggesting that we can account for this relation by looking at it as a runaway process, where existing, segregative and homogenising microfascist tendencies are reinforced through positive feedback originating from cultural productions like speeches, propaganda, popular songs and literature, etc., which produce redundancies and resonance with the existing system. When this kind of aberrant process goes together with and exacerbates a culture of repression, which blocks out many of the pathways for desire, it tends to develop into a violent line of abolition, where the only possible desire left is the desire for death and destruction.
Cet article propose une interprétation cybernétique du rôle que joue l’imagination dans le fascisme. Tout d’abord, j’aborde la réponse de Deleuze et Guattari à Reich, qui, selon eux, pose de manière adéquate le problème du fascisme en se demandant comment les masses en sont venues à désirer leur propre répression, mais qui suppose deux réalités distinctes — à savoir la réalité socio-économique et la réalité sexuelle ou psychique du désir — réintroduisant ainsi l’idée de déception dans son explication. Ensuite, je montre comment, en réponse à Reich, Deleuze et Guattari, et plus tard Theweleit, se concentrent sur les fantasmes et sur les groupes afin d’expliquer le désir fasciste. En m’appuyant sur la dynamique de groupe de Bion, j’aborde la distinction entre groupe-sujet et groupe assujetti, que Guattari associe à deux fonctions différentes du fantasme de groupe, en démontrant que dans le groupe assujetti, le fantasme de groupe fonctionne de manière répressive, en opérant une totalisation cybernétique microfasciste et proto-totalitaire. La relation entre microfascisme et fascisme molaire restant quelque peu floue dans les écrits de Deleuze et Guattari ainsi que chez Theweleit, je termine en suggérant que l’on peut rendre compte de cette relation en la considérant comme un processus cybernétique de dérapage ou de fuite, où les tendances microfascistes existantes, ségrégatives et homogénéisantes, sont renforcées par une rétroaction positive provenant de productions culturelles telles que les discours, la propagande, les chansons et la littérature populaires, etc., qui produisent des redondances et des résonances par rapport au système existant. Lorsque ce genre de processus aberrant s’accompagne d’une culture de répression et l’exacerbe, bloquant les voies au désir, il tend à se développer en une ligne violente d’abolition, où le seul désir possible restant est le désir de mort et de destruction