Loss of a larval generic character: an interesting and new description for Isoperla vevcianensis Ikonomov, 1980 (Plecoptera: Perlodidae) with updated adult characters

The larva of the Balkan microendemic Isoperla vevcianensis Ikonomov, 1980 (Plecoptera: Perlodidae: Isoperlinae) is described on the basis of larvae associated with adults by means of cox1 sequences similarities. Eggs and everted penis of the male are described for the first time. The larva possessed blunt paraprocts which were previously sharp among Palaearctic larvae of this huge Holarctic and Oriental genus. The commonly pointed paraproct remains as the only distinguishing generic character for the morphologically diverse larvae of Palaearctic Isoperla, but should not be considered as an exclusive character state for the genus. Morphological characters are illustrated in comparison with the sympatric larvae of the Isoperla tripartita species complex.

The genus Oligonychus Berlese (Acari, Prostigmata, Tetranychidae): taxonomic assessment and a key to subgenera, species groups, and subgroups

A comprehensive taxonomic assessment of the most agriculturally important and highly diverse spider mite genus, Oligonychus Berlese (Acari: Tetranychidae) was performed. The sub-generic division, species groups, doubtful species, species complexes and the interpretation of a key generic character are discussed. Based on the orientation of the male aedeagus, only two subgenera, namely Oligonychus Berlese (aedeagus downturned) and Reckiella Tuttle & Baker (aedeagus upturned), are valid in the genus Oligonychus. The subgenera Homonychus Wainstein, Metatetranychoides Wainstein, and Wainsteiniella Tuttle & Baker are considered to be synonyms of the subgenus Oligonychus, whereas the subgenus Pritchardinychus Wainstein is proposed as a synonym of the subgenus Reckiella. Moreover, based on female morphological characters, four species groups (coffeae, exsiccator, iseilemae, and peruvianus) and 11 species subgroups (aceris, biharensis, coffeae, comptus, exsiccator, gossypii, iseilemae, peruvianus, pritchardi, smithi, and subnudus) are suggested in the subgenera Oligonychus and Reckiella. Fourteen Oligonychus species are proposed as species inquirendae, and potential cryptic species complexes in the genus Oligonychus are briefly highlighted. It is agreed that the clunal seta h1 is always absent, while the para-anal setae h2 and h3 are always present in the genus Oligonychus. A key to subgenera, species groups, and species subgroups of the genus Oligonychus is provided.

A Generic Model for Swarm Intelligence and Its Validations

The modeling of emergent swarm intelligence constitutes a major challenge and it has been tacked in a number of different ways. However, existing approaches fail to capture the nature of swarm intelligence and they are either too abstract for practical application or not generic enough to describe the various types of emergence phenomena. In this paper, a contradiction-centric model for swarm intelligence is proposed, in which individuals determine their behaviors based on their internal contradictions whilst they associate and in-teract to update their contradictions. The model hypothesizes that 1) the emergence of swarm intelligence is rooted in the development of individuals’ internal contradictions and the interactions taking place between in-dividuals and the environment, and 2) swarm intelligence is essentially a combinative reflection of the configu-rations of individuals’ internal contradictions and the distributions of these contradictions across individuals. The model is formally described and five swarm intelligence systems are studied to illustrate its broad applica-bility. The studies confirm the generic character of the model and its effectiveness for describing the emergence of various kinds of swarm intelligence; and they also demonstrate that the model is straightforward to apply, without the need for complicated computations.

What Is a Videogame Movie?

Cinematic adaptations of videogames are an increasingly common feature of film culture, and the adaptive relationship between these mediums is an increasingly common subject of film and videogame studies. However, our ability to historicize and theorize that relationship is hampered by a failure to fully define the generic character of our object of study. This essay asks, what is a videogame movie? It argues that film scholars (1) have not considered the full range of ways videogames have been represented in film; (2) have not attended fully to the historical, technological, figurative, and social dimensions of videogames; and therefore (3) have limited the set of possible texts that comprise the genre “videogame cinema.” The essay recommends a tropological approach to the problem, defining six tropes that comprise the “videogame movie” as a genre, and applying them to two films, Her and 1917, neither of them a direct adaptation of a videogame, the latter not “about” or referencing videogames in any way, yet both exemplary of a broadened concept of “videogame cinema”.

Emendation of Kiliophora (Xylariales incertae sedis), a new species and a new combination

Kiliophora is a hyphomycete genus whose species are involved in leaf litter decomposition. It was originally described with polytretic conidiogenesis. Based on observation of fresh specimens collected in Brazil and bibliographic revision, an emended description is proposed in order to rectify the mode of conidial production. The presence of minute polar extensions at both ends of conidia is stated as a diagnostic generic character. A new species, Kiliophora clavatophora, and a new combination, Kiliophora aseptata, are proposed. The new species is characterized by its conidiophores with clavate apical cell, its ellipsoidal conidiogenous cell and fusiform conidia. A table for comparison of all accepted species is also included.

Tropidogyne lobodisca sp. nov., a third species of the genus from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber

The fossil flower described here is the third species of Tropidogyne to have been collected from mid-Cretaceous amber deposits in the Hukawng Valley of northwestern Myanmar. The flower of Tropidogyne lobodisca differs from the 2 previously described species, T. pikei and T. pentaptera, in lacking stamens and having a 5-lobed nectar disc covering the apex of the ovary. Its 2 slender, curved, attenuate styles are like those of T. pentaptera in being stigmatic along the adaxial surface. The new species has 5 spreading, reticulately-veined sepals, a generic character of Tropidogyne. An unusual, probably teratological, feature is the presence of 2 sepal-like staminodes on one side of the flower, inserted at the base of the nectar disc where stamens would otherwise be found. The inferior portion of the pistil is obconic, with 5 distinct veins that connect to the mid-nerves of the sepals.

El Capitan as a Site for Male Healing from Trauma in Jeff Long’s The Wall and Tommy Caldwell’s The Push

Nature and mountains are often represented as places of healing in literature and the media, especially for white, healthy, and middleclass men. However, discussions on nature and gender in relation to trauma are rare, and a specific discussion on the representation of male mountain climbers’ traumas is missing. In this article, we are interested in how nature, particularly the famous mountain El Capitan, is represented in Jeff Long’s novel The Wall (2006) and Tommy Caldwell’s memoir The Push (2017) as a specific spatial location of healing for male rock climbers, who at the same time are both victims of traumatic events and partially responsible for the development of those events. More specifically, this article places ecofeminist and ecological masculinities scholarship in dialog with trauma studies and analyzes these texts with the aim of showing how representations of trauma relate to those of nature and masculinity. In this analysis, questions of how certain aspects of ecological and hegemonic masculinities relate to representing trauma, nature, and masculinity are central, as are issues of perpetrator trauma and the non-generic character of traumatic experience. Ultimately, we show how representations of nature, trauma, and masculinities in the primary texts converge and reflect a plurality of gendered responses to trauma and healing in nature.

The Generic Argument for teaching philosophy

John Dewey wished to place development of the ability to think at the core of school education. The kind of thinking that Dewey had in mind was based on his conception of scientific inquiry. Matthew Lipman was likewise committed to an education centred on thinking, but he claimed that we should turn to philosophy rather than to science in order to secure this end. In his view, philosophy has a stronger claim to this mantle than does science, or any other subject, when it is appropriately reconstructed and taught. He developed various arguments to that effect, but the one considered here is that philosophical thinking has a generic character that especially suits it for the role. I examine this argument to see how compelling a case it makes for the inclusion of philosophy in the school curriculum.

MoDentify: a tool for phenotype-driven module identification in multilevel metabolomics networks

SummaryMetabolomics is an established tool to gain insights into (patho)physiological outcomes. Associations of metabolism with such outcomes are expected to span functional modules, which are defined as sets of correlating metabolites that are coordinately regulated. Moreover, these associations occur at different scales, from entire pathways to only a few metabolites, which is an aspect that has not been addressed by previous methods. Here we present MoDentify, a freely available R package to identify regulated modules in metabolomics networks at different layers of resolution. Importantly, MoDentify shows higher statistical power than classical association analysis. Moreover, the package offers direct visualization of results as interactive networks in Cytoscape. We present an application example using a complex, multifluid metabolomics dataset. Owing to its generic character, the method is widely applicable to any dataset with a phenotype variable, a data matrix, and optional pathway annotations.Availability and ImplementationMoDentify is freely available from GitHub: https://github.com/krumsiek/MoDentifyThe package vignette contains a detailed tutorial of the analysis [email protected]