פרסומים

Negative attitudes and discrimination remain everyday realities for many individuals with intellectual disabilities. This chapter provides an overview of interventions aimed at reducing intellectual disability stigmaand encouraging more positive perceptions and interactions. Based on a multilevel model of stigma change interventions, this chapter provides an overview of interventions aimed at the intrapersonal, familial, widerinterpersonal, and structural levels to reduce stigma. The quality of the evidence on the range of interventions is considered and found to be rather thin on the whole. Priorities for research and intervention are identified.

Abstract BACKGROUND Antagonistic interactions among predators with shared prey are thought to hamper their ability to suppress herbivores. Our aim was to quantify intraguild interactions in omnivorous predatory mite assemblages in the presence of pollen, and assess their effect on pest populations. We focused on the following naturally occurring phytoseiid species in Israeli citrus orchards and their ability to suppress a key pest, the citrus rust mite (CRM) Phyllocoptruta oleivora (Eriophyidae): the generalists Amblyseius swirskii and Typhlodromus athiasae and the specialised pollen feeders Iphiseius degenerans, Euseius scutalis, E. stipulatus and E. victoriensis. Evaluations were performed on two spatial scales, tree seedlings and leaf discs. RESULTS On seedlings, experiments were conducted to quantify the interactions between predators in the presence of pollen and its effects on CRM suppression. On leaf discs, intraguild interactions were studied between pairs of phytoseiid species in the presence of pollen without CRM. On seedlings, the specialised pollen predators were more effective at suppressing CRM populations than the generalist predators. CONCLUSION In most cases, the more aggressive intraguild predator was the specialised pollen feeder. Similarly, leaf-disc experiments suggest that in these interactions the specialised pollen feeders tend to be the intraguild predators more often than the intraguild prey. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry

Abstract Populations of Eruca sativa (Brassicaceae) from desert and Mediterranean (Med) habitats in Israel differ in their defense against larvae of the generalist Spodoptera littoralis but not the specialist Pieris brassicae. Larvae of the generalist insect feeding on plants of the Med population gained significantly less weight than those feeding on the desert plants, and exogenous application of methyl jasmonate (MJ) on leaves of the Med plants significantly reduced the level of damage created by the generalist larvae. However, MJ treatment significantly induced resistance in plants of the desert population, whereas the generalist larvae caused similar damage to MJ-induced and noninduced plants. Analyses of glucosinolates and expression of genes in their synthesis pathway indicated that defense in plants of the Med population against the generalist insect is governed by the accumulation of glucosinolates. In plants of the desert population, trypsin proteinase inhibitor activity was highly induced in response to herbivory by S. littoralis. Analysis of genes in the defense-regulating signaling pathways suggested that in response to herbivory, differences between populations in the induced levels of jasmonic acid, ethylene, and salicylic acid mediate the differential defenses against the insect. In addition, expression analysis of myrosinase-associated protein NSP2 suggested that in plants of the desert population, glucosinolates breakdown products were primarily directed to nitrile production. We suggest that proteinase inhibitors provide an effective defense in the desert plants, in which glucosinolate production is directed to the less toxic nitriles. The ecological role of nitrile production in preventing infestation by specialists is discussed.

Gene regulation relies on the specificity of transcription factor (TF)–DNA interactions. Limited specificity may lead to crosstalk: a regulatory state in which a gene is either incorrectly activated due to noncognate TF–DNA interactions or remains erroneously inactive. As each TF can have numerous interactions with noncognate cis-regulatory elements, crosstalk is inherently a global problem, yet has previously not been studied as such. We construct a theoretical framework to analyse the effects of global crosstalk on gene regulation. We find that crosstalk presents a significant challenge for organisms with low-specificity TFs, such as metazoans. Crosstalk is not easily mitigated by known regulatory schemes acting at equilibrium, including variants of cooperativity and combinatorial regulation. Our results suggest that crosstalk imposes a previously unexplored global constraint on the functioning and evolution of regulatory networks, which is qualitatively distinct from the known constraints that act at the level of individual gene regulatory elements.

In August 17, 2013, the Asahi Shimbun discovered that copies of Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen), an internationally renowned manga about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, had been pulled out from school library shelves at the city of Matsue in Shimane Prefecture. The city’s education board decided that children should not be allowed to freely check out Hadashi no Gen at the libraries of public elementary and junior high schools due to graphic descriptions of violence committed by Japanese troops, but teachers could still use them as educational materials. “We are not going to remove the manga because it is an invaluable piece,” Furukawa Yasunori, the deputy head of the education board, was quoted as saying. “But we understand that it contains portions that warrant consideration as appropriate reading material for children.” According to the article, the board’s decision stemmed from the complaint of one citizen who said the manga described actions that were never committed by Japanese troops during the war. Nakazawa Misayo, the widow of Hadashi no Gen creator Nakazawa Keiji, expressed dismay over the decision. “It is incredible and I am saddened,” said Misayo, 70. “I am afraid that board members do not grasp the tragedy and pain that the war and the atomic bombing brought on us.”

An appealing alternative approach to the conventional electrochem. deposition is presented, which can be universally utilized to form nanomaterial coatings from their aq. dispersions without involving their oxidn.-redn. It is based on altering the ionic strength by elec. potential in the vicinity of the electrode surface, which causes the nanomaterials to deposit. The concept has been demonstrated for four different systems. [on SciFinder(R)]