100,447 research outputs found
Scherotheca portcrosana Marchan & Decaens 2020, sp. nov.
No full textScherotheca portcrosana Marchán & Decäens sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 663F18D2-A2EA-4B4E-8ED3-55A3FE5B7D57 Fig. 3, Table 4 Diagnosis Specimens of Scherotheca portcrosana Marchán & Decäens sp. nov. can be distinguished from other known species of Scherotheca by the position of the clitellum in segments 26–35 (½ 36) and tubercula pubertatis in segments 30–33, position of spermathecae in 12, 13 in addition to a smaller body size and faint pigmentation (Table 4). Etymology The species name is derived from Port-Cros, the island inhabited by this species. Material examined Holotype FRANCE • adult; Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Var, Port-Cros Island; 43.0089º N, 6.41176º E [Locality 3 (PCR8) (Table 1)]; 13 Mar. 2018; T. Decaens, E. Lapied, M. Hedde and M. Zwicke leg.; meadow; BOLD Sample ID: EW-PNPC-0174; UCMLT. Paratypes FRANCE – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur • 1 spec.; Var, Port-Cros Island; 43.0042º N, 6.39014º E [Locality 1 (PCR3) (Table 1)]; 13 Mar. 2018; T. Decaens, E. Lapied, M. Hedde and M. Zwicke leg.; evergreen oak forest; BOLD SampleID: EW-PNPC-0111; UCMLT • 5 specs; same collection data as for preceding; BOLD SampleID: EW-PNPC-0117, EW-PNPC-0119, EW-PNPC-0120, EW-PNPC-0121, EW-PNPC-0122; CEFE • 1 spec.; Var, Port-Cros Island; 43.0119º N, 6.39384º E [Locality 2 (PCR6) (Table 1)]; 13 Mar. 2018; T. Decaens, E. Lapied, M. Hedde and M. Zwicke leg.; mixed pine/evergreen oak forest; BOLD SampleID: EW-PNPC-0237; UCMLT • 1 spec.; same collection data as for preceding; BOLD SampleID: EW-PNPC-0242; CEFE. Morphological description External morphology Body pigmentation very faint brown-grey. White-beige with dorsal brownish mid-segment brown bands in fixed specimens (Fig. 3). Average length 80 mm (75–85 mm, n = 2 adults); average diameter 7 mm (6.9–7.1 mm, n = 3 adults); body cylindrical in cross-section; average number of segments 163 (160–166, n = 2 adults; 166 segments in the holotype). Average weight (fixed specimens): 2.13 g (1.89–2.36 g, n = 2 adults). Prostomium epilobous, closed. Longitudinal furrows in segments 1 and 2. First dorsal pore at intersegmental furrow 5/6. Nephridial pores “en solfège” (irregularly distributed). Spermathecal pores at intersegmental furrows 12/13 and 13/ 14 in c. Male pores in segment 15, surrounded by a well-developed porophore. Female pores on segment 14. Clitellum saddle-shaped in segments 26–35 (½ 36). Tubercula pubertatis in segments 30–33. Chaetae small and closely paired, with interchaetal ratio aa: 8, ab: 1, bc: 3.5, cd: 1, dd: 18 at segment 40. Chaetophores/genital papillae in segments 11, 12, 14, 27, 29 and 34–38. Internal anatomy Septa 5/6–10/11 thickened and muscular. Hearts in segments 6–11, oesophageal. Calciferous glands in segments 10–14, with diverticula in segment 10. Crop in segments 15–16, gizzard in segments 17–19. Typhlosole pinnate. Male sexual system holandric, testes and funnels (not enclosed in testes sacs, but with sperm present) located ventrally in segments 10 and 11. Four pairs of reniform seminal vesicles in segments 9, 10, 11 and 12, with the latter two pairs being larger. Ovaries and female funnels in segment 13, ovarian receptacles (ovisacs) in segment 14. Two pairs of small globular spermathecae in segments 12 and 13 (intersegments 12/13, 13/14). Nephridial bladders U-shaped, reclinate in segment 30. Distribution and ecology Scherotheca portcrosana Marchán & Decäens sp. nov. is known from the island of Port-Cros in the Hyères Archipelago, France. This species has been found in meadows, pine and evergreen oak forests, thus appears to have a preference for natural habitats.Published as part of Marchán, Daniel F., Decaëns, Thibaud, Díaz Cosín, Darío J., Hedde, Mickaël, Lapied, Emmanuel & Domínguez, Jorge, 2020, French Mediterranean islands as a refuge of relic earthworm species: Cataladrilus porquerollensis sp. nov. and Scherotheca portcrosana sp. nov. (Crassiclitellata, Lumbricidae), pp. 1-22 in European Journal of Taxonomy 701 on pages 11-14, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.701, http://zenodo.org/record/398836
Letter, [Author unclear] to Paulina T. Merritt
No full textHandwritten letter to Paulina Merritt from an unknown author, October 1, 1876.
Handwritten biographical information on Paulina T. McClung Merritt
No full textA handwritten biography of Paulina T. McClung Merritt by an unknown author, 1892.
Heterogeneous and tissue-specific regulation of effector T cell responses by IFN-gamma during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection.
No full textIFN-γ and T cells are both required for the development of experimental cerebral malaria during Plasmodium berghei ANKA infection. Surprisingly, however, the role of IFN-γ in shaping the effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell response during this infection has not been examined in detail. To address this, we have compared the effector T cell responses in wild-type and IFN-γ(-/-) mice during P. berghei ANKA infection. The expansion of splenic CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells during P. berghei ANKA infection was unaffected by the absence of IFN-γ, but the contraction phase of the T cell response was significantly attenuated. Splenic T cell activation and effector function were essentially normal in IFN-γ(-/-) mice; however, the migration to, and accumulation of, effector CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells in the lung, liver, and brain was altered in IFN-γ(-/-) mice. Interestingly, activation and accumulation of T cells in various nonlymphoid organs was differently affected by lack of IFN-γ, suggesting that IFN-γ influences T cell effector function to varying levels in different anatomical locations. Importantly, control of splenic T cell numbers during P. berghei ANKA infection depended on active IFN-γ-dependent environmental signals--leading to T cell apoptosis--rather than upon intrinsic alterations in T cell programming. To our knowledge, this is the first study to fully investigate the role of IFN-γ in modulating T cell function during P. berghei ANKA infection and reveals that IFN-γ is required for efficient contraction of the pool of activated T cells
Factors driving soil Collembola and earthworms in Mediterranean urban parks: feedbacks from Montpellier and Naples
No full textWithin the cities, soil biodiversity is preserved in few sites, still unsealed by cement or paved roads, like urban parks, family gardens, or urban agricultural areas. These areas provide crucial ecosystem services (Haase et al. 2014). Urban parks in particular provide aesthetic and recreational services, regulate the water cycle, modify local climate, produce O2 and, filtering air pollutants, improve citizens health (Lorenz and Lal 2009). Besides, urban parks are also important habitats for biodiversity (Nielsen et al. 2014), which being valuable by itself provides also a range of other services (Haase et al. 2014). However, soil biodiversity is currently poorly known, especially in Mediterranean cities, and relatively uninvestigated are the environmental factors determining its structure and persistence. To fill this gap, we explored the environmental factors affecting soil biodiversity of Collembola and earthworms (good indicators of soil biological quality), in parks of two cities: Naples (Italy) and Montpellier (France). The investigated factors were soil inorganic pollutant contents, vegetation cover (with or without canopy) and urban landscape features. In addition, we focused on the effects of management practices, especially of turfs, studying both conventionally managed systems (high energy inputs, including irrigation and regular cuttings with exportation of organic matter) and ecologically managed systems (low energy
inputs, with only 1 or 2 cutting per year and mulching). Collembola communities are both strongly affected by urban park management practices. In particular, the canopy cover was the main determinant of the Collembola community structure, which strikingly differed between areas with or without canopy. Landscape features, followed by soil local conditions, like the presence of litter and soil porosity, also influenced Collembola communities. Abundance of earthworms was greater in ecologically managed systems compared to conventionally managed systems. Our findings may help city planners to promote soil biodiversity by creating or correctly managing urban parks
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Pelevin’s Trinity in the novel “t”: author – protagonist – reader
No full textThe article attempts to interpret Pelevin's artistic strategy in the novel "T" by exploring its subject organization and addressing the key problems of the author, the protagonist, and the reader as they are seen by the researcher. The article analyzes the peculiarities of constructing the narrative reality in the novel "T", and goes on to discuss Pelevin's philosophic models of the development of the humankind, and the emergence of his new anthropology
Measuring industry-science links through inventor-author relations: A profiling method
No full textIn this pilot study we examine the performance of text-based profiling in recovering a set of validated inventor-author links. In a first step we match patents and publications solely based on their similarity in content. Next, we compare inventor and author names on the highest ranked matches for the occurrence of name matches. Finally, we compare these candidate matches with the names listed in a validated set of inventor-author names. Our text-based profile methodology performs significantly better than a random matching of patents and publications, suggesting that text-based profiling is a valuable complementary tool to the name searches used in previous studies.innovation; industry-science links; text-based profiling;
Wave turbulence of a rotating array of quantized vortices in the T → 0 temperature limit
No full textThe dynamics of quantized vortices in the zero temperature limit is currently of great interest, particularly in the case of the Fermi superfluid He-B. Here we study wave turbulence, generated by the librating motion of a rotating cylindrical container filled with He-B, in the limit of vanishing viscous forces at temperatures . The polarization of the quantized vortices with respect to the axis of rotation is measured using non-invasive NMR techniques. We observe a decrease of the polarization when the librating motion is started, and a two-stage relaxation process when the modulation of the rotation velocity is stopped. The first relaxation process is associated with the dissipation of large-scale flow stored in inertial waves and the solid body rotation of the vortex array. From the decay of these energy reservoirs we determine the rate of energy dissipation of large-scale flow. The later second process is related to the relaxation of Kelvin waves on individual vortices. This process is monitored by the recovery of the polarization. The existence of a Kelvin wave cascade at the lowest temperatures is currently a central open question. We supply some evidence for the cascade
DNA fusion gene vaccination mobilizes effective anti-leukemic cytotoxic T lymphocytes from a tolerized repertoire
No full textThe majority of known human tumor-associated antigens derive from non-mutated self proteins. T cell tolerance, essential to prevent autoimmunity, must therefore be cautiously circumvented to generate cytotoxic T cell responses against these targets. Our strategy uses DNA fusion vaccines to activate high levels of peptide-specific CTL. Key foreign sequences from tetanus toxin activate tolerance-breaking CD4+ T cell help. Candidate MHC class Ibinding tumor peptide sequences are fused to the C terminus for optimal processing and presentation. To model performance against a leukemia-associated antigen in a tolerized setting, we constructed a fusion vaccine encoding an immunodominant CTL epitopederived from Friend murine leukemia virus gag protein (FMuLVgag) and vaccinated tolerant FMuLVgag-transgenic (gag-Tg) mice. Vaccination with the construct induced epitopespecificIFN-c-producing CD8+ T cells in normal and gag-Tg mice. The frequency and avidity of activated cells were reduced in gag-Tg mice, and no autoimmune injury resulted. However, these CD8+ T cells did exhibit gag-specific cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Also, epitope-specific CTL killed FBL-3 leukemia cells expressing endogenous FMuLVgag antigen and protected against leukemia challenge in vivo. These results demonstrate a simple strategy to engage anti-microbial T cell help to activate epitope-specific polyclonal CD8+ T cell responses from a residual tolerized repertoire
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