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Abstract Background There are 13 known chicken blood systems, which were originally detected by agglutination of red blood cells by specific alloantisera. The genomic region or specific gene responsible has been identified for four of these systems (A, B, D and E). We determined the identity of the gene responsible for the chicken blood system I, using DNA from multiple birds with known chicken I blood system serology, 600K and 54K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, and lowpass sequence information. Results The gene responsible for the chicken I blood system was identified as RHCE, which is also one of the genes responsible for the highly polymorphic human Rh blood group locus, for which maternal/fetal antigenic differences can result in fetal hemolytic anemia with fetal mortality. We identified 17 unique RHCE haplotypes in the chicken, with six haplotypes corresponding to known I system serological alleles. We also detected deletions in the RHCE gene that encompass more than 6000 bp and that are predicted to remove its last seven exons. Conclusions RHCE is the gene responsible for the chicken I blood system. This is the fifth chicken blood system for which the responsible gene and gene variants are known. With rapid DNA-based testing now available, the impact of I blood system variation on response against disease, general immune function, and animal production can be investigated in greater detail.

El crecimiento de la población y la migración en las grandes ciudades, iniciado a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, ha implicado desde entonces una expansión urbanística que ha conllevado un cambio drástico en el hábitat autóctono. La necesidad de ocupar grandes áreas de suelo, la demanda energética, el consumo de los recursos naturales, la gran contaminación atmosférica, hídrica, lumínica, acústica, electromagnética y la generación de residuos; son algunos de los efectos que suponen una de las principales causas de pérdida de biodiversidad en la actualidad. Estos daños no solamente repercuten directamente sobre los ecosistemas sino también sobre la presente y futuras generaciones. En el presente documento, se abordarán algunas de las problemáticas propias de las sociedades de consumo, y se reflexionará acerca del gran apetito de nuestra sociedad contemporánea y como esta postura se ve reflejada en los diversos paisajes generados por nuestra sociedad. En este caso, desde una perspectiva conceptual y analítica, dirigiremos nuestra atención a la ciudad de Valencia, utilizando la capital como punto de referencia para formular diversas cuestiones que atañen a distintos espacios urbanos, intermedios y periféricos que se encuentran en declive.

The authors share a theatre game used with language learners that connects students performances with objects and in their bodies to the work of curating displays at a museum.

In Canada, abortion is not a criminal offence. There are no legal restrictions on abortion, including no restrictions with respect to gestational age or on the reasons for which a pregnant person may choose to have an abortion. As lawful medical procedures, abortions fall under provincial jurisdiction over health and there is some regulatory variability between provinces. Information about abortion access is similarly affected by provincial jurisdiction over education. Prior to decriminalization, advocacy on abortion access was national in scope, but since 1988, most activism has been focused on access and funding and has been provincial or even local.

In einem vielzitierten Brief, den Robert Schumann im Juni 1839 an Clara Wieck schrieb, freut er sich auf ihre spätere Ehe, die er nicht nur als physische oder rechtliche Verbindung sieht, sondern als Verschmelzung von Herz und Geist, eine schöpferische und geistige Durchdringung. »Wir werden auch vieles unter unseren beiden Namen veröffentlichen« schreibt Schumann, »die Nachwelt soll uns als ein Herz und eine Seele betrachten und nicht herausfinden, was von dir und was von mir ist.« Dieser Artikel untersucht das Verschwimmen des Subjekts in der Musik der Schumanns, insbesondere den fließenden Übergang zwischen dem Selbst und dem Anderen und das Potenzial, beides zu vereinen. Dieser Gedanke ist von besonderer Bedeutung in Bezug auf das Problem des gespaltenen Ich, das das idealistische und romantische Denken durchzog. Durch die Verschmelzung des Selbst mit einem Anderen könnte das individuelle Subjekt die scheinbar unüberbrückbaren Spaltungen in seiner eigenen Konstitution überwinden, ein Prozess der Selbstreflexion im Anderen, der zur vollständigen Kenntnis des Selbst führen kann. Eine solche Dynamik ist implizit in den virtuellen Persönlichkeiten einiger Instrumentalwerke Robert Schumanns enthalten, wird aber darüber hinaus in mehreren Liedersammlungen explizit thematisiert. In Liebesfrühling, einem bemerkenswerten Beispiel für die schöpferische Zusammenarbeit zwischen den frisch verheirateten Robert und Clara Schumann, wird das Thema der verschwimmenden Gender-Unterschiede und der hermaphroditischen Vereinigung im Text auffällig in den Vordergrund gestellt und in der Vertonung reflektiert. Auch andere Lieder wie z.B. aus Frauenliebe und Leben, Myrthen und dem Eichendorff-Liederkreis deuten darauf hin, dass der Weg zum Selbstbewusstsein im virtuellen Subjekt der Musik offenbar durch die gegenseitige Reflexion von Selbst und Anderem ermöglicht wird.

A Christian worldview entreats humans to live in ethical relationship with the natural world; our current ecological crisis makes that call of crucial and immediate importance. If humans, and Christians in particular, are to adequately participate in care for creation, then we must proceed with both ecological and theological knowledge about the natural world. In both scientific and theological analyses, we uncover not only creative processes of growth, but elements of chaos and destruction. The carbon cycle, food webs, and evolution are examples of where the earth’s survival depends upon destructive processes. In parallel fashion, God’s activity in Scripture also entails chaos and destructive activity, such as the flood in Genesis, the wisdom of the Book of Job, and Paul’s reflection on creation in Romans. This article argues that humans, called to be co-creators with God, thus need to integrate destructive activity into our framework of what it means to “co-create,” thereby participation in creation in a more holistic manner. Far from unleashing unrestricted destruction on the world, such a framework offers ethical guidelines for destroying and creating in ways that support the overall flourishing of the natural world.

Osmia (Melanosmia) uncinata Gerstäcker is a Palaearctic megachilid bee distributed from temperate and northern Europe eastwards to the Russian Far East. The discovery of over 80 nests in Switzerland, southern Germany and Scotland enabled for the first time a closer investigation of its nesting biology and prompted the assessment of the species’ phenology, distribution and habitat. O. uncinata nested in self-excavated burrows inside the bark of both living trunks and dead stumps of Pinus sylvestris. The nests were excavated at a height of 10–220 cm above ground either on the underside of prominences of longitudinal bark ribs or inside beetle borings and extended more or less vertically upwards. They consisted of a single straight to slightly curved burrow with rarely one to three side burrows, had a total length of 1.2–12.0 cm and contained 1–6 brood cells. The brood cells, which faced downwards with the larval provisions being located in the upper cell half, were separated from each other by one-layered walls of chewed leaves (“leaf pulp”). The nests were sealed with a plug of 2–4 closely adjacent walls of leaf pulp. DNA metabarcoding of cell and plug walls revealed that Potentilla and Fragaria (Rosaceae) served as leaf pulp sources. Pre-imaginal mortality amounted to 77%, partly caused by brood parasites such as Sapyga similis (Sapygidae) and Cacoxenus indagator (Drosophilidae) or predators such as snakeflies (Raphidioptera). At low elevations, O. uncinata needs one year for its development and overwinters as imago inside the nest, whereas in the subalpine zone of the Alps it has a two-year cycle passing the first winter as prepupa and the second winter as imago. O. uncinata starts to emerge between the end of March at low elevations and the end of May at higher elevations qualifying as an early flying bee like the other European O. (Melanosmia) species. The distribution of O. uncinata in Central Europe and Scotland largely coincides with the occurrence of P. sylvestris. As in the pine, it extends over a wide altitudinal range from below 100 m up to 1900 m a.s.l. and encompasses dry and wet as well as warm and cold habitats including open pine forests, inner and outer forest edges dominated by pine and isolated pine groups. At a few locations in the subalpine zone of the Alps, O. uncinata occurs in the absence of P. sylvestris; here, the thick bark of Larix decidua serves as a substitute nesting substrate.

Abstract Background During the last decade, the use of common-variant array-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping in the beef and dairy industries has produced an astounding amount of medium-to-low density genomic data. Although low-density assays work well in the context of genomic prediction, they are less useful for detecting and mapping causal variants and the effects of rare variants are not captured. The objective of this project was to maximize the accuracies of genotype imputation from medium- and low-density assays to the marker set obtained by combining two high-density research assays (~ 850,000 SNPs), the Illumina BovineHD and the GGP-F250 assays, which contains a large proportion of rare and potentially functional variants and for which the assay design is described here. This 850 K SNP set is useful for both imputation to sequence-level genotypes and direct downstream analysis. Results We found that a large multi-breed composite imputation reference panel that includes 36,131 samples with either BovineHD and/or GGP-F250 genotypes significantly increased imputation accuracy compared with a within-breed reference panel, particularly at variants with low minor allele frequencies. Individual animal imputation accuracies were maximized when more genetically similar animals were represented in the composite reference panel, particularly with complete 850 K genotypes. The addition of rare variants from the GGP-F250 assay to our composite reference panel significantly increased the imputation accuracy of rare variants that are exclusively present on the BovineHD assay. In addition, we show that an assay marker density of 50 K SNPs balances cost and accuracy for imputation to 850 K. Conclusions Using high-density genotypes on all available individuals in a multi-breed reference panel maximized imputation accuracy for tested cattle populations. Admixed animals or those from breeds with a limited representation in the composite reference panel were still imputed at high accuracy, which is expected to further increase as the reference panel expands. We anticipate that the addition of rare variants from the GGP-F250 assay will increase the accuracy of imputation to sequence level.

The following interview is an email exchange with the author, which was conducted as a follow up to the School for Politics and Critique 2019: Municipal Organizing and Left-wing Environmental Solutions. The questions were prepared by Katerina Kolozova and Zdravko Saveski. Author(s): Katerina Kolozova, Zdravko Saveski and Blair Taylor Title (English): Refusing the False Choice Between Individual and Collective Liberation: Interview with Blair Taylor Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 16, No. 1-2 (Summer - Winter 2019) Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities - Skopje Page Range: 32-37 Page Count: 6 Citation (English): Katerina Kolozova, Zdravko Saveski and Blair Taylor, “Refusing the False Choice Between Individual and Collective Liberation: Interview with Blair Taylor,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 16, No. 1-2 (Summer - Winter 2019): 32-37.

This is the preface to the first issue in the new Digital Modern Languages section of Modern Languages Open. It engages with the content of the articles in the issue, and also reflects on the intersections between Modern Languages research, and digital media technologies. It highlights how the articles within the special issue, through the guidance of Spence and Wells, raise the visibility of digital research and pedagogy in Modern Languages, and also engage closely with the distinctive linguistic and cultural perspectives of digital practice.

Book review: David Alcalde, Cosmology Without God?: The Problematic Theology Inherent in Modern Cosmology, Cascade, Eugene 2019, pp.226.

Regional languages in France have historically struggled to find their place in the national linguistic landscape, and French-based Creoles, like those of Guadeloupe and Martinique, are no exception. Despite laws and initiatives like the creation of the Creole CAPES (2002) and the propagation of research like Poth (1997) and Cummins (2009) on the benefits of bilingualism, Creole-language education in French overseas departments, like Guadeloupe, is still stigmatized for a lack of standardization by academic policymakers, despite its attested success in the classroom as a tool for improving students’ metalinguistic capacities in French. Using a corpus of official Creole-language educational guides, pedagogical guides and one elementary textbook featuring exercises focusing on correction of regional French phrases, along with observations of two elementary Creole-language classes in Guadeloupe, this paper aims to analyze and demonstrate that educators often receive mixed messages on how to teach Creole in bilingual classrooms, and that the language is often perceived as a threat by French academic policymakers to the French abilities of students in Guadeloupe—yet that in practice, elementary students are more likely to struggle with Creole than French.

Sound biosecurity systems contribute to achieving sustainable agricultural and environmental systems, reducing the threat of introducing unwanted pests and supporting food safety and product integrity. Within Australia, the Grains Farm Biosecurity Program (GFBP) is a national initiative to assist in the development and implementation of improved biosecurity practice within its grain industry. Initiated in 2007, the extension focused program contributes to the industry’s risk mitigation activities, supports continued market access and promotes a partnership approach involving governments, industry and community. The program is funded through grower levies in partnership with state government agencies and Plant Health Australia. Using a variety of community engagement strategies, the GFBP has developed a wide range of tools to improve the management of and preparedness for, biosecurity risks in the Australian grains industry at the farm and industry level by highlighting risk pathways and activities throughout the supply chain and encouraging adoption of practices and strategies to mitigate risks. The GFPB also promotes and conducts surveillance for high priority pests especially in on-farm storage. Evaluations indicate an increased awareness of biosecurity risks, industry capacity and voluntary adoption of biosecurity best practices throughout the sector. The GFBP focus on biosecurity best practice through industry engagement has seen it contribute to safeguarding and maintaining Australia’s export reputation, with the program recently winning a national biosecurity award.

The Puck Project is a performance-based summer program for K-6 learners in partnership with a non-profit agency that supports homeless families in Atlanta, GA. The Puck Project’s curriculum focuses on the ethical toolkit individuals acquire when they embark upon a journey of performance. The project’s aim was to cultivate skills relevant to building a community, formulating and expressing ideas as a team, reading and responding to the emotions of others, and accessing and attending to emotions in oneself. Together these skills serve a larger aim of cultivating what Gretchen Case and Daniel Brauner have called “empathetic imagination.” Central to empathetic imagination is translation, a powerful framework for pedagogical aims such as “transfer” and “carrying over.” The Puck Project de-centers the dramatic text in favor of the learner’s lived realities. Using Rex Gibson’s theory that the ambiguities of Shakespeare’s plays provide the soil in which actors may create their own meaning and experience, the Puck Project encourages performers to provide their own translations of a script based on their unique histories. We discuss how young performers are able to make connections about embodied expression, emotional intelligence, and broader forms of literacy.

Phosphine is a widely used fumigant for controlling insects in stored grain, but fumigation effectiveness is often compromised by suboptimal distribution of the gas. Leaks in the grain bin wall and roof, foreign material in the grain, and phosphine placement contribute to regions of insufficient concentration of fumigant, resulting in insect survival and leading to phosphine-resistant insect populations. Phosphine distribution was studied during field tests in temporarily sealed bins to compare distribution from conventional probed tablets to the distribution using a closed-loop recirculation system. The results showed uneven distribution patterns and leakage over time with conventional probed tablets, which resulted in some areas in the lower half of the grain mass receiving no phosphine and some other locations remaining below the target phosphine concentration for the entire period of fumigation. The closed-loop fumigations with the same phosphine dosage yielded much more uniform phosphine concentrations, but suffered from equal or greater phosphine leakage losses.

A major concern in grain storage and management facilities is the effective control of insects and pests that reside in stored grain. Currently, the best studied method of subduing these insects is fumigating the grain bins with phosphine. However, many grain storage insects have developed a resistance to phosphine due to its misuse over the years, partially due to bin leakage, leading to minimum pest control in grain and increased product damage. The first step in managing the issue of fumigant leakage is by identifying environmental conditions that may impact the bins’ total air loss, and ultimately, fumigant loss. One way to quantify the leakage potential of a structure is to perform pressure tests. Data collected from these tests statistically quantify the significance of atmospheric conditions on bin leakage, as well as quantify leakage area in the bin. These tests were performed on a 500 bushel grain bin filled with canola seed, sealed with plastic sheeting and Gorilla duct tape. A PVC pipe “arm” and shop vacuum (Shop-Vac® 5-gallon 6-Peak HP) contraption was designed for pressure application. Constant pressure testing methods were performed to collect data for calculations of leakage area. Tests were repeated in varying environmental conditions. Data analysis included performing single sample ttests to determine significance of environmental conditions, as well as using previously established relationships to quantify predicted leakage area in each scenario. It was concluded that atmospheric conditions significantly affect gas leakage from structures (p < 0.001), so pressure test conditions should match fumigation conditions for an accurate initial fumigant dosage. Constant pressure tests accurately predict equivalent leakage area of bin, with areas demonstrating a variance of 3.4 x 10-5. Future tests to improve fumigating processes could include relationships between phosphine concentration and the leakiness of the bin, as well as automated constant pressure testing devices.

Verifying freedom from exotic pests such as Khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium) & Karnal Bunt (Tilletia indica) is critical to supporting & maintaining access for Australian grain producers to international markets. Despite Australia’s geographical isolation & strong quarantine systems, increasing levels of travel & trade continues to place pressure on our biosecurity systems, emphasising the need for improving our regional efforts in prevention, preparedness & surveillance to mitigate risks. The Australian Grains Farm Biosecurity Program (GFBP) is a national initiative to assist in the development & implementation of improved biosecurity practice, playing a vital role in the education of exotic pests & the role of surveillance by industry. The GFBP has undertaken a targeted surveillance program for stored product pests, with Khapra beetle as the main focus. A range of sites based on potential risk groups & pathways (e.g. farming enterprises, seed distributors & agricultural stores) were targeted, with different approaches used across the three grain growing regions of Australia depending on State activities & pre-existing collaborators. All regions used a combination of pheromone traps & other sampling methods appropriate for host materials & environment. The surveillance is aimed at strengthening evidence of absence, building industry knowledge & participation in grain storage surveillance & promoting improved management practices around storage. These regionally specific engagement methods & surveillance efforts are discussed. Australia remains free of Khapra beetle.

Author(s): Anne-Françoise Schmid Title (French): L’histoire de l’ONPhI n’est pas seulement une question de perspectives Title (English): ONPhI’s History Is Not a Matter of Perspectives Translated by (French to English): Taylor Adkins Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018) Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje Page Range: 112-117 Page Count: 6 Citation (French): Anne-Françoise Schmid, “L’histoire de l’ONPhI n’est pas seulement une question de perspectives,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018): 112-117. Citation (English): Anne-Françoise Schmid, “ONPhI’s History Is Not a Matter of Perspectives,” translated from the French by Taylor Adkins, Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018): 112-117.

This paper argues for a deeper understanding of the challenges posed to undergraduate western music history by an increasingly globalised higher education system. Reflecting on the experience of delivering programmes at a music conservatory in Chennai, India, I suggest how curriculum can be adapted to explore the social history of cross-cultural musical practices. A brief case study surveys the role of western music in colonial and post-colonial south India to illustrate how we might foster critical approaches to music history at a global level.

Author(s): Gilles Grelet Title (French): “Tract(atus) 23: La théorie est attente.” Notice Title (English): “Tract(atus) 23: Theory Is Waiting.” A Note Translated by (French to English): Taylor Adkins Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018) Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje Page Range: 104-106 Page Count: 3 Citation (French): Gilles Grelet, “‘Tract(atus) 23: La théorie est attente.’ Notice,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018): 104-106. Citation (English): Gilles Grelet, “‘Tract(atus) 23: Theory Is Waiting.’ A Note,” translated from the French by Taylor Adkins, Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 15, No. 1-2 (Summer 2018): 104-106.