Search results for "Reproduction"
showing 10 items of 752 documents
Social capital formation across space: proximity and trust in European regions
2013
An extensive economics and regional science literature has discussed the importance of social capital for economic growth and development. Yet, what social capital is and how it is formed are elusive issues, which require further investigation. Here, we refer to social capital in terms of “civic” capital and “good culture,” as rephrased by Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales and Tabellini. The accumulation of this kind of capital allows the emerging of regional informal institutions, which may help explaining differences in regional development. In this article, we take a regional perspective and use exploratory space and space–time methods to assess whether geography, via proximity, contributes…
Intellectual Capital as a Key Factor of Socio-economic Development of Regions and Countries
2013
Abstract The main goal of the paper is to present the concept of intellectual capital (IC) from regional perspective and define intangible assets as knowledge that can be converted into value or profit. Most of the measurement methods designed by now apply for measuring the intellectual capital at corporate level. Some efforts are being made to present the IC concept in the regional perspective. Development of research on a new regional approach to the intellectual capital theory has been noticed. A sample model of IC for countries and its main sub-components have been presented as well. Some selected knowledge indicators for measuring intellectual capital at national level have been illust…
The influence of bacteria-dominated diets on Daphnia magna somatic growth, reproduction, and lipid composition
2012
We explored how dietary bacteria affect the life history traits and biochemical composition of Daphnia magna, using three bacteria taxa with very different lipid composition. Our objectives were to (1) examine whether and how bacteria-dominated diets affect Daphnia survival, growth, and fecundity, (2) see whether bacteria-specific fatty acid (FA) biomarkers accrued in Daphnia lipids, and (3) explore the quantitative relationship between bacteria availability in Daphnia diets and the amounts of bacterial FA in their lipids. Daphnia were fed monospecific and mixed diets of heterotrophic (Micrococcus luteus) or methanotrophic bacteria (Methylomonas methanica and Methylosinus trichosporium) and…
Gene expression patterns associated with caste and reproductive status in ants: worker-specific genes are more derived than queen-specific ones.
2013
Variation in gene expression leads to phenotypic diversity and plays a central role in caste differentiation of eusocial insect species. In social Hymenoptera, females with the same genetic background can develop into queens or workers, which are characterized by divergent morphologies, behaviours and lifespan. Moreover, many social insects exhibit behaviourally distinct worker castes, such as brood-tenders and foragers. Researchers have just started to explore which genes are differentially expressed to achieve this remarkable phenotypic plasticity. Although the queen is normally the only reproductive individual in the nest, following her removal, young brood-tending workers often develop …
Sexual Exploitation from Origin Countries to Destination Countries
2020
Human trafficking tends to follow a pattern of phases, such as recruitment, transfer, exploitation, protection, and sometimes re-trafficking. This chapter gives the opportunity for the reader to understand the influence of several factors within human trafficking at a geographical level, from the origin and transit country to the destination country, as well as at a cultural, social, and criminological level. All factors are considered according to victim nationality, in this case Romanian and Nigerian, including the vulnerable factors created by the criminal groups. In this chapter, the difference of citizenship between Nigerian women, who are third-country nationals, and Romanian women, w…
Dioecious species and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses: the case of Antennaria dioica.
2013
Sex-specific interactions with herbivores and pollinators have been observed in female and male plants of dioecious species. However, only a limited number of studies have revised sex-specific patterns in mycorrhizal symbiosis. To test whether female and male plants of Antennaria dioica differ in their relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, we examined the temporal and spatial variation in AM fungi in female, male and non-reproductive A. dioica plants in three natural populations in Finland during flowering and after seed production. Our results are consistent with previous studies both under greenhouse and field conditions with the same species showing differences in AM colon…
Do highly ornamented and less parasitized males have high quality sperm? - an experimental test for parasite-induced reproductive trade-offs in Europ…
2014
Parasites take their resources from hosts and thus directly reduce available resources for hosts’ own body functions, such as growth and reproduction. Furthermore, parasite infections cause significant indirect costs to their hosts in terms of increased investments on immune defense. In this study, we investigated the impact of parasite infection on the sperm quality and expression of secondary sexual ornamentation (saturation of the red abdominal colouration and number of breeding tubercles) in the Eurasian minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus). We exposed minnows to a high and low dose of common nonspecific fish ectoparasite, the glochidia larvae of duck mussel (Anodonta anatina) and tested whether …
The paradox of the Italian clinical embryologist in the national public health system: hints towards harmonization of a postgraduate educational curr…
2022
Clinical embryologists are highly trained laboratory professionals with multiple roles, including laboratory, clinical, biobanking and quality system management. In most European countries, clinical embryologists are trained to work in Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR) centres without a specifically dedicated educational path. The criteria required for employment vary according to the educational structure and the public or private nature of the centre. We have herein described the educational profile required by Italian clinical embryologists to work in MAR centres of the National Health System (NHS). Public centres currently represent 36% of all the Italian MAR clinics. According to t…
Control of ovarian steroidogenesis in insects: A locust neurohormone is active in vitro on blowfly ovaries
2009
0016-6480 doi: DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2009.04.034; Ovarian steroidogenesis controlling insect reproduction is mainly regulated by brain gonadotropins liberated from corpora cardiaca (CC). Till now, different neurohormones have been identified in two insect groups only, locusts and mosquitoes, and it is unknown whether they could be active in other insects. In order to complete previous observations on the control of ovarian steroidogenesis in the blowfly, Phormia regina, we examined whether neuropeptides isolated from locust CC have an effect in vitro on ovarian steroidogenesis in our dipteran model. Our experiments showed that crude extracts from locust CC efficiently stimulated steroidogene…
Air pollution exposure during pregnancy and reduced birth size: a prospective birth cohort study in Valencia, Spain
2010
Abstract Background Maternal exposure to air pollution has been related to fetal growth in a number of recent scientific studies. The objective of this study was to assess the association between exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and anthropometric measures at birth in a cohort in Valencia, Spain. Methods Seven hundred and eighty-five pregnant women and their singleton newborns participated in the study. Exposure to ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2) was estimated by means of land use regression. NO2 spatial estimations were adjusted to correspond to relevant pregnancy periods (whole pregnancy and trimesters) for each woman. Outcome variables were birth weight, length, and head circumf…