Length at Maturity, Sex Ratio, and Proportions of Maturity of the Giant Electric Ray, Narcine entemedor, in Its Septentrional Distribution

The size at which a certain fraction of a fish population reaches sexual maturity is an important parameter of life history. The estimation of this parameter based on logistic or sigmoid models could provide different ogives and values of length at maturity, which must be analyzed and considered as a basic feature of biological reproduction for the species. A total of 305 individuals of Narcine entemedor (N. entemedor) were obtained from artisanal fisheries in the Bahía de La Paz, Mexico. For the organisms sampled, sexes were determined and total length (TL) in cm was measured from October 2013 to December 2015. The results indicated that the females were larger, ranging from 48.5 cm to 84 cm TL, while males varied from 41.5 cm to 58.5 cm TL. The sex ratio was dominated by males ranging from 45–55 cm TL, while females were more abundant from 60 to 85 cm TL. Mature females were present all year long, exhibiting a continuous annual reproductive cycle. The length at maturity data were described by the Gompertz model with value of 55.87 cm TL. The comparison between models, and the model selection between them, showed that the Gompertz model had maximum likelihood and smaller Akaike information criterion, indicating that this model was a better fit to the maturity proportion data of N. entemedor.

Histomorphometry and uterine proteomics during the normal reproductive cycle in bitches

We aimed to evaluate the histomorphometry and proteomic profile of the canine uterus during all stages of the reproductive cycle. Eighteen healthy female dogs had their estrous cycle identified by clinical evaluation, vaginal cytology, and serum progesterone levels, which were allocated to the proestrus (n=5), estrus (n=5), diestrus (n=5), and anestrus (n=3) groups. All were submitted to elective ovariosalpingohysterectomy, and the uteri were collected for histomorphometric measurement (Image J software). For proteomic analysis, fragments of the uterine horns were subjected to protein measurement (Bradford method) and extraction by 2D electrophoresis (PDquest software). The results showed that the diestrus promoted greater values of thickness in the uterine structures (μm): uterine wall (2,223.8±229.8), endometrium (819.7±109.1), and myometrium (1,392.6±294.2). Uterus showed a protein profile with good reproducibility per phase (pI: 3.5–9.0; PM: 24–150 KDa), with 11 spots in all phases. Despite the greatest histomorphometric changes in the diestrus, we observed a greater number of spots in the estrus (253±45), followed by the proestrus (185±21), diestrus (113±39), and anestrus (80±21). This finding showed probable participation of these proteins in the uterine preparation for receiving gametes for fertilization. Our results showed greater uterine thickness in the diestrus, and greater protein secretion in the estrus, contributing to the prospection of identification of proteins responsible for the biological reproduction processes.

Evolution of Autopoiesis and Multicellularity in the Game of Life

Recently we introduced a model of symbiosis, Model-S, based on the evolution of seed patterns in Conway's Game of Life. In the model, the fitness of a seed pattern is measured by one-on-one competitions in the Immigration Game, a two-player variation of the Game of Life. Our previous article showed that Model-S can serve as a highly abstract, simplified model of biological life: (1) The initial seed pattern is analogous to a genome. (2) The changes as the game runs are analogous to the development of the phenome. (3) Tournament selection in Model-S is analogous to natural selection in biology. (4) The Immigration Game in Model-S is analogous to competition in biology. (5) The first three layers in Model-S are analogous to biological reproduction. (6) The fusion of seed patterns in Model-S is analogous to symbiosis. The current article takes this analogy two steps further: (7) Autopoietic structures in the Game of Life (still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships—collectively known as ashes) are analogous to cells in biology. (8) The seed patterns in the Game of Life give rise to multiple, diverse, cooperating autopoietic structures, analogous to multicellular biological life. We use the apgsearch software (Ash Pattern Generator Search), developed by Adam Goucher for the study of ashes, to analyze autopoiesis and multicellularity in Model-S. We find that the fitness of evolved seed patterns in Model-S is highly correlated with the diversity and quantity of multicellular autopoietic structures.

Locating 'Coolie' Women's Health in Tea Plantation Environments in Colonial Assam

The history of Assam tea plantations in India is well-documented, yet a gender sensitive environmental history of these colonially-introduced plantation landscapes is absent. The colonial tea planters saw advantages in a growing female presence in their plantations, in terms of increased male ties to the plantation, lower wages for female workers and the added benefit of biological reproduction that would fulfil the need for manual labour in these plantations for generations. This paper attempts to understand how this plantation structure in general and the work regime in particular relied on a particular type of gender identity, which in turn had a detrimental effect on the health of the women labourers in this new landscape.

Old Father, Old Artificer: Female Sexuality and Male Authorship in Les Fleurs du mal and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

This paper examines the troubling relationship between the identity of the male artist and female sexuality during the rise of early modernism by comparing two literary works: Charles Baudelaire’s poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal and James Joyce’s novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Portraying prominent female characters as a means to define the authors’ own modern aesthetics, both Baudelaire and Joyce perceive underlying tensions between biological reproduction and artistic creativity, prompting them to explore in detail the relationships between gender, sexuality, and the production of literature. For Baudelaire, the male poet as flaneur derives voyeuristic pleasure from his imaginary lesbian narratives, and his aesthetic awareness of the self that emerges is contrasted with the “sterile” nature of female homosexuality. Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus in Portrait, on the other hand, adopts a more ambivalent relationship towards women: like Baudelaire’s speaker, Stephen usurps the generativity of women by replacing meaningful relations with imaginary ones, subsequently deriving literary inspiration; at the same time, however, these attempts bespeak deeper anxieties towards his inability to attain artistic autonomy, ultimately reflecting increasing vulnerabilities in the modern male artist’s perceptions of self-contained subjectivity. Published half a century apart, these two works marked critical junctures in the emergence of modernism, and a comparative approach thus allows us to trace shifting ideologies of modern personhood and gendered identity.

Spermatozoa Morphology and Embryo Development of Four Species of Bivalves from Beibu Gulf

The morphology of sperm and early embryo development of shellfish can provide guidance for classification and biological reproduction. In this study, scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy were used to determine the shape of the sperm, characterize the embryonic development, and measured the size of the mature eggs and the D-shape larvae of four different clam species (Paphia schnelliana, Lutraria sieboldii, Antigona lamellaris, and Paphia textzle). The results showed that these four clam species differ in sperm morphology and the size of the mature eggs and the Dshape larvae (P<0.01). There were also differences in embryonic development time and morphology. This analysis of spermatozoa morphology, egg size, D-shaped larvae size, and embryo development in these four different clam species provides the basis for classification and future breeding efforts.

Recurring ideas: Searching for the roots of right-wing populism in Eastern Europe

The main sets of ideas that dominated discourses on market-making and democratization in Eastern Europe during the 1990s concerned: first, the superiority of market-led mechanisms of exchange and distribution with individual responsibility and entrepreneurship; and second, the conservative gender order, with women disappearing from the public domain, now being responsible for domestic sphere and the biological reproduction of the nation. Suppressed when these countries were on the path for joining the European Union, the ideas have been now recurring in a new form, representing the basis for the right-wing populist turn in several of the post-communist countries.

Introduction

This chapter introduces and defines several of the book’s key terms, including biological reproduction, colonialism, settler colonialism, and reproductive justice. Articulating the book’s overarching arguments, the chapter contends that colonial politics have been and remain reproductive politics. It further argues that Native women have navigated pregnancy and birthing in myriad ways that disrupt any tidy dichotomy between “traditional” and “modern” birthing in the twentieth century. The introduction begins with an overview of the founding of the Women of All Red Nations (WARN) in 1978 and suggests that the roots of this 1970s activism are not only in Native struggles for sovereignty and self-determination in post-World War II decades but in Native women’s reproductive-related activism throughout the century.

Responding to the Platonists

This chapter examines Aristotle’s rejection of a Platonist theory positing two principles: Form and the Great and Small. He complains that, under the latter, privation is not distinguished from the subject of coming to be. This chapter discusses the background for this dyadic theory in the Philebus and the Timaeus. It suggests that Aristotle’s opposition only makes sense if Platonists were proposing to extend it to cover comings to be such as biological reproduction. It also discusses whether, dialectically, Aristotle wins against Platonism within Physics I 9, and in the wider context of his biology. The chapter notes that when the explanandum is eternal motion, the triad of principles is useless, because there is no distinct principle of privation. So, Aristotle himself is chained to a Platonist-style dyadism. The chapter concludes by drawing a connection between this theory and Aristotle’s first mover as both final and efficient cause of eternal motion.