Araneoid spiders use specialized sets of abdominal silk glands to produce up to seven different types of silks, each with diverse functional properties. At the time of these studies, fibroin eDNA sequences that encode egg case silk had not been reported in the literature. This study used conventional nucleic acid-nucleic acid screening of a eDNA library to isolate a novel gene, named tubuliform spidroin 1 , from the black widow spider Latrodectus hesperus. TuSp 1 was demonstrated to be selectively expressed in the tubuliform gland (the gland suspected for egg case silk production), and examination of the amino acid sequence revealed highly homogeneous repeats (184 amino acid ensemble repeats), a characteristic feature of fibroin sequences. Analyses of the ensemble repeats within the amino acid sequence of TuSp 1 revealed the lack of long stretches of polyalanine and glycine-alanine sub-repeats, which are commonly found in minor ampullate and major ampullate silks. Polyserine blocks and short polyalanine stretches were highly represented in the TuSp 1 amino acid sequence. Our data support the assertion that TuSp 1 represents the main constituent within egg case silk. This supposition is supported by the observation that the amino acid composition of raw egg case silk was strikingly similar to the amino acid composition predicted from the translated TuSp1 eDNA. Two additional constituents identified in black widow egg case, egg case protein 1 (ECP-1) and egg case protein 2 (ECP-2), were also partially characterized in this study. Using immunohistochemical approaches, we demonstrate that ECPs predominantly localize to the exterior of the large diameter fibers of egg cases. Additionally, these studies revealed smaller amounts of ECPs localized to the interior portion of the fibers. Collectively, these results support TuSp1 as the predominant fibroin within egg sacs as well as reveal a structural role for the ECPs, providing clues regarding the supramolecular structure of egg case fibers.

Spider silk is one of the most remarkable materials produced in the natural world and its strength and extensibility are legendary. To date, the majority of studies have been performed on the following silks: dragline, capture spiral, and eggcase silk. The primary goal of this study was to characterize a lesser known silk type, called wrapping (swathing) silk, from Latrodectus hesperus. My research focused on elucidating the fibroins that make up the swathing silk. Perfonning MS/MS analyses on solubilized wrapping silk fibroins digested with trypsin, we demonstrate that a novel fibroin named AcSp !-like is present within wrapping silk. Consistent with this finding, SEM analyses reveal that wrapping silk is a composite material, containing at least three different diameter silk fibers. By using scanning electron micrographs, along with amino acid composition analyses and MS/MS analyses, we demonstrate wrapping material contains the fibroins AcSp1-like, MiSp1-like, MaSp1 and MaSp2. These are the first studies to reveal that minor, major and acinifonn silks are constituents of wrapping material.

No description available.

Diploma thesis The history of music journalism from the year 1963 until now examines the development of domestic music journalism from the year 1963 to the present in three crucial periods. The first period starts by the year 1963 because at this time the first professional music magazine Melodie in the Czechoslovak socialism republic developed. The second period that I study in my thesis was the 1990s, right after the Velvet Revolution, when many new music magazines were established, led by the magazine Rock & Pop. The third period I study in my thesis are the times after the year 2000 which are characterized by the development of online music journalism and by diminishing role of printed music magazines. In the theoretical part, I briefly describe every period by key historical characteristics and I also describe theirs dominant music magazines. In the last section, where I focus on the present time and the world of Internet, I focus also on the online music journalism as a new crucial field of the 21 century which fundamentally changed the work of music journalists. In the analytical part, I choose important music journalists for each period whose work is linked to the period, and with whom I conducted the interviews. The research method is qualitative research conducted in the form of semi-structured...

No description available.

Keystone species are widely distributed across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and are fundamental in preserving the structure, diversity, and stability of an ecological community due to its disproportionately large impact on its community relative to its biomass. As biodiversity of ecosystems becomes more threatened with urbanization and habitat destruction, it is imperative to understand a keystone species' role in maintaining ecosystem function. One of the ways to do so is by examining their significance and connection to the ecosystem food web. Within North American freshwater ecosystems is the pebble nest-building minnow, the bluehead chub (Nocomis leptocephalus; "chub"). Chubs provide spawning habitat for not only themselves, but for other minnows, collectively called "nest associates". In this work, I observe the predatory and potential mutualistic interactions between chubs, nest associates, and their predators. In Chapter 1, I observe spawning nests to identify the predators of adult chubs, nest associates, and embryos. I further investigate how nest visibility covariates including minnow activity, minnow abundance, nest size (area), and nest growth affect predator encounter rate to spawning nests. I found a total of 23 diverse taxa to prey on the adult minnows and minnow embryos on chub spawning nests, 14 predators of which had not been reported in literature. One of these predators was the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina; "turtle"). Additionally, I found that activity, abundance, nest size (area), and nest growth had a significant effect on predator encounter rate, attracting predators to seek spawning nests for prey. In Chapter 2, I investigate the effect of ambient temperature on turtle epizoic coverage during the spawning season and provide preliminary evidence of a potential cleaning symbiotic mutualism between the turtle and minnows. I found that epizoic coverage decreases during the duration of a minnow spawning season after an initial increase with early summer warming, and my results also present unique and shared bacterial communities across three sources, the ambient environment, gut contents of minnows, and turtles. The results additionally revealed there to be bacterial communities unique between minnows and turtles that were not identified in the ambient environment. Overall, this study is first to systematically document predators of chub spawning nests and first to provide preliminary evidence of a cleaning symbiotic mutualism between a freshwater turtle and minnow species (or freshwater turtles and fish in general), which, thus far, has not been explored in freshwater ecosystems. This work demonstrates that chub spawning nests are a crucial entity of the freshwater food web structure across Nocomis' distribution range and reveals that chub spawning nests create an interconnection between a diversity of fauna in a freshwater ecosystem. / Master of Science / Ecological communities often include species that are essential in ensuring the overall stability and biodiversity of an ecosystem. These species, otherwise called keystone species, play a crucial role in facilitating interconnections within the ecosystem's food web. The bluehead chub (Nocomis leptocephalus; "chub") is an example of a keystone minnow found in North American freshwater streams. This minnow engages in a complex, distinguished act when it reproduces, making mounded, pebble nests using only its mouth. Chubs are not the only minnow species interested in this engineering complexity. Various minnow species called "nest associates" reproduce on the nests as well, providing an appearance of a mutualism: all species involved benefit from the interaction. While this interaction has been observed, there is limited research identifying predators of chub nests and if there are potential mutualisms with any of these predators. In this work, I identify predatory and mutualistic interactions between chubs, nest associates, and their predators. In Chapter 1, I identify predators of chub nests and observe variables that attract these predators to the nests. In Chapter 2, I explore a potential, mutualistic interaction between these minnows and an identified predator from this research, the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina; "turtle"), whereby minnows feed on potentially harmful growth of algae and bacteria on turtles, while turtles benefit from the cleaning. For Chapter 1, my results revealed that a chub nest is a hotspot for predator diversity, showing 23 diverse taxa as predators, in which 14 of the identified taxa are novel for ecological literature. Additionally, variables that were observed to attract predators to chub nests were minnow activity, minnow abundance, nest size (area), and nest growth. Results for Chapter 2 demonstrated that there are unique bacterial communities between turtles and minnows that are not found in the stream environment, therefore providing preliminary evidence of mutualistic interaction between the coexisting species. Overall, this study is the first to systematically document predators of chub nests. This study is also first to investigate a mutualistic interaction between minnows and turtles in a freshwater ecosystem, an area that has not been previously explored, unlike similar interactions in marine ecosystems. Cohesively, the keystone species, the chub, and their reproductive nests, are important for the aquatic food web structure and the interconnectedness to their overall ecosystem function. This research further stewards scientific knowledge about how important Nocomis are to natural freshwater ecosystems.

In T cells, signalling events initiated at the immunological synapse by T cell receptor (TCR) have been already thoroughly studied. In contrast, signalling pathways involved in MHCII-mediated signal transduction on the APC side of this structure are still rather poorly understood. Transmembrane adaptor proteins (TRAPs) are a class of proteins with an essential role in signalling triggered by TCR and other immunoreceptors. So far no TRAPs involved in MHCII signalling have been identified. In this work a new TRAP, highly enriched in the immunological synapse in APCs is described and termed Nvl. Nvl is expressed exclusively in professional antigen presenting cells - B cells, monocytes/macrophages and dendritic cells, and the level of its expression positively correlates with the expression of MHCII. Nvl is present in tetraspanin microdomains and together with tetraspanins it is localized to the polarized structures of the cell, including uropod, cleavage furrow, and, most interestingly, the immunological synapse. The presence in the immunological synapse indicates possible role for Nvl in MHCII- mediated signal transduction. Indeed, Nvl becomes tyrosine-phosphorylated after stimulation via MHCII, although strong phosphorylation has also been observed after FcγR stimulation or treatment with...

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T18:51:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseLeonardoGama.pdf: 673646 bytes, checksum: b1f31519bf1d9bd07a3dde2a7574423b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-01 / Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior / A food web comprises exchanges of matter and energy that occur among species and between biotic and abiotic environment. Given that abiotic components form the basal resources, the approach of this work consists of evaluating the effects of nutrients input in strategic models that describe food web and chain dynamics. Its focus lies on the determination of the nature of equilibrium populations as well as on their dynamics for different functional responses. Strategic models that describe the behavior of interactive populations under nutrient inputs are an important basis for outlining general phenomena that occur in community dynamics. / Uma rede trófica reúne as trocas de matéria e energia que ocorrem entre as espécies e entre o meio biótico e abiótico. Visto que os componentes abióticos formam a fonte de recursos basais, a abordagem deste trabalho consiste na avaliação dos efeitos da entrada de nutrientes alóctones em modelos estratégicos que descrevem a dinâmica de redes e cadeias tróficas, concentrando-se na determinação das características das populações de equilíbrio e das dinâmicas das espécies com diferentes respostas funcionais. Modelos estratégicos que contêm informações acerca do comportamento de populações interativas frente à entrada de nutrientes são uma base importante no delineamento de fenômenos gerais que podem ocorrer dentro da dinâmica de comunidades.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RoseTeseVersaoFinal2.pdf: 1622153 bytes, checksum: e89bbc87d6e96cb4d9c7b26c2b16033c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-25 / This thesis addresses the theme of networks, situating it in the field of Psychology as a conception that has been largely used in the formulation of public policies on mental health and on childhood and adolescence. The human being subjectivizes himself/herself having as a reference all those things and people with which they establish an association. In their turn, these become place of ties and reference where innumerable articulations and displacements occur. At the same time, however, there is a growing rupture of social ties. Also, life conditions that would guarantee dignity to the human being are becoming more and more precarious. In the same way, the State is more and more destitute of its function as a promoter of social policies that might reconduct citizenship to a status of priority. As it is, it became a goal to inquire into and analyze how the concept of networks is born and grows strong as it is perceived, on the one hand, as ontology and power and, on the other hand, and more clearly, as a term that is banalized and captured by a logic of individualism and fragmentation fabricated in neoliberalism. The focus was on how the networks become empirical and conceptual operators cartographying the images children and adolescents that children and adolescents create about their feelings of belonging to a community. Methodological procedures like focal group, elaboration of collective panels and relationship webs were used. With the contribution of Social Psychology and Institutional Analysis, which have a trajectory of political, ethical and critical positioning dialoguing with the Biology of Knowing, three images of networks were constituted to understand the interfaces of the material. The first image is that of topological webs, in the plural, identifying their interweaving. Topology is the description of a place or a portion, that may be virtual geographical and human body. The second image is of sociability webs. They represent the ties that irrupt within society; they refer to civility and to what happens among people. They have affective properties and prescind from the instruments, the language, the human being in his/her corporality, his/her history, conferring them a dimension of hybrid sociability. The third image has an analytical-institutional dimension aiming at that the analysis be produced in the web itself. They become effectively webs as they produce connections, attributing different and new meanings to this experience. This study showed that the webs are partly implemented in their topological dimensions with places and services and that the sociability webs emerge from encounters in the conversation webs, institutionalizing this movement as anti-production, that is to say, the web as a constituting power is co-opted by the logic of maintenance, reproduction and, predominantly, control. Thus, it becomes a paradigm conciliated with the time in which it emerges, where there are no investments in the processes of appropriation of collectives. However, one can work from this conception visualizing it and intervening in its processes. It is up to us to assume the need to constantly analyze introducing the analytical-institutional dimension so that each intervention potentializes autonomy and emancipation / Esta tese aborda o tema redes, situando-o na Psicologia como uma concepção que tem sido amplamente utilizada na formulação de políticas públicas voltadas para a saúde mental e para a infância e adolescência. O ser humano subjetiva-se tendo por referência àquilo e àqueles com que estabelece vinculação, e estes, por sua vez, tornam-se lugar de ligação e referência com inumeráveis articulações e deslocamentos. Entretanto, ao mesmo tempo, há crescente ruptura dos laços sociais e precarização das condições de vida que garantiriam dignidade ao ser humano, assim como o Estado, cada vez mais, é destituído de sua função de promover políticas sociais que recoloquem a cidadania como prioridade. Com isto, tornou-se objetivo investigar e analisar como nasce e se fortalece o conceito de redes, ao percebê-lo, por um lado, como ontologia e potência e, por outro, mais claramente, como um termo banalizado e capturado por uma lógica de individualismo e fragmentação forjada no neoliberalismo. Focalizou-se como as redes tornam-se operadores conceituais e empíricos, cartografando as imagens que crianças e adolescentes têm de sua pertença na comunidade. Utilizou-se procedimentos metodológicos como grupo focal, elaboração de painéis coletivos e redes de relações. Com os aportes da Psicologia Social e da Análise Institucional, com trajetórias de posicionamentos críticos, éticos e políticos, dialogando com a Biologia do Conhecer, constituiu-se três imagens de redes para a compreensão das interfaces do material. A primeira imagem é a de redes topológicas, no plural identificando seus entrelaçamentos. A topologia é a descrição de um local ou de uma porção, que pode ser geográfica virtual e corpo humano. A segunda imagem é de redes de sociabilidade. Representam os laços que irrompem da vida em sociedade; referem-se à civilidade e ao que se passa entre as pessoas. Têm propriedades afetivas e prescindem dos instrumentos, da linguagem, do ser humano em sua corporalidade, de sua história, conferindo-lhes uma dimensão de sociabilidade híbrida. A terceira imagem tem dimensão analítico-institucional visando que na própria rede se produza análise. Tornam-se efetivamente redes quando produzem conexões, atribuindo diferentes e novos sentidos a esta vivência. O estudo apontou que, em parte, as redes estão implementadas em suas dimensões topológicas com locais e serviços, e as redes de sociabilidade emergem dos encontros nas redes de conversações, institucionalizando-se este movimento como anti-produção, isto é, a rede como potência instituinte é cooptada pela lógica de manutenção, reprodução e, predominantemente, de controle. Torna-se, assim, um paradigma conciliado ao tempo em que emerge, em que não há investimentos nos processos de apropriação dos coletivos. Todavia, pode-se trabalhar a partir desta concepção justamente visualizando-a e intervindo em seus processos. Caberá assumir a necessidade de analisá-los constantemente instalando a dimensão analítico-institucional para que cada intervenção potencialize a autonomia e emancipação

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:45:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Patricia Giannoccaro Von Huelsen.pdf: 3531241 bytes, checksum: c9c107b3e10a7349dcd669f80726e55e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-06-06 / This paper discusses the C2C relations occurring in blogs and communities on the Brazilian Internet as an opportunity to practices of advertising and marketing. Nowadays, the Internet offers much more than just free information, placing itself as a forum for social manifestations, a space where people put forward their opinions, search for identities and interact with friends or even with unkown people. Therefore, companies that usually focus on audiences only, can now interact with their custumers. This paper is meant to provide researchers and marketing agents with support in their efforts to identify these opportunities of interaction. It is a qualitative study, based on the observation of social manifestations and on consistent interviews. Sociology and Marketing are its theoretical grounds. Research has shown that advertising and marketing moves, concentrate on procedures which are very little interactive, with a predominance of the use of banners and links; and that the utilization of public relations and viral marketing also takes place. Research has also pointed out that the nature of interactions that occur on social webs are mainly affective, but the existence of marketing on C2C webs creates relationships driven by other interests, as well. The web turns to be a space not quite predictable, where the roles and identities of consumers and companies are mixed together. Thus, these are the challenges to advertising and marketing posed by social webs: to watch closely these groups manifestations, to measure such interactions and to make use of multilateral actions / Este trabalho discute as relações C2C presentes em blogs e comunidades na Internet brasileira como oportunidades para as práticas da publicidade e do marketing. Atualmente a Internet oferece mais do que informação gratuita, configurando-se como um espaço para as manifestações sociais, onde as pessoas retratam opiniões, buscam identidades e se relacionam com amigos e desconhecidos. As empresas, que normalmente buscam apenas audiência, podem agora interagir com seus clientes. A dissertação procura apoiar pesquisadores e agentes de marketing na tarefa de identificar as oportunidades de interação. É um estudo qualitativo, que utiliza a observação de algumas manifestações sociais e realiza entrevistas em profundidade, e que tem na sociologia e no marketing o apoio teórico. A pesquisa indica que as ações publicitárias e de marketing concentram-se em práticas pouco interativas, com a predominância do uso de banners e links, e que o uso das relações públicas e do marketing viral também ocorre. Indica ainda que as interações presentes nas redes sociais são sobretudo de ordem afetiva, mas a presença do marketing nas redes C2C traz relações também motivadas por interesses. A rede configura-se como um espaço pouco previsível, onde os papéis e as identidades entre consumidores e empresas se cruzam. Assim, a publicidade e o marketing têm como desafios nas redes sociais a observação das manifestações dos grupos, a qualificação das interações e o uso de ações multidirecionais