Faculty and students in studies and research on e-mentoring: international practices

El e-mentoring puede aportar alternativas muy potentes al problema de supervisión de prácticas cuando se integra una dimensión de distancia entre el campus académico y el lugar de las prácticas, como es el caso de las prácticas internacionales en general y de la formación de directivos hoteleros en particular. Las técnicas del e-mentoring y de la presencia virtual docente podrían sustituir eficazmente la supervisión exclusiva por empleados de las empresas colaboradoras. Podemos disminuir las diferencias entre teoría y práctica, mejorar la transferencia entre la primera y la segunda, y, así, entender mejor las relaciones entre los conceptos aprendidos y lo que se observe durante las prácticas. Gracias a su integración en el proceso de mentorización, el profesorado estará más en contacto con el mundo empresarial y podrá beneficiarse de una visión de las nuevas técnicas utilizadas en las empresas y de la evolución del mundo real. Las aportaciones en casos prácticos enriquecerán el nivel académico de las futuras sesiones magistrales.The e-mentoring can possibly provide strong alternatives about distance problems,during internships periods, between the university and the internship place such as international internships in general and as well hospitality management internships in particular. The e-mentoring technique and the virtual teaching presence might replace the exclusive supervision of companies staff that receives the trainee. This way, will help to reduce the differences between theory and practice, students could have a better understanding of the links between academic concepts and what he may observe during the internship. Thanks to their integration into de mentoring process, teachers will update their approach to the business world and gain a better knowledge over new techniques used in the companies and over the evolution of the real world. The feedback from the trainees and the real cases studies they will have to solve will also increase the academic level for future lectures

Profesorado y estudiantes en estudios e investigaciones sobre e-mentoring: Prácticas internacionales

El e-mentoring puede aportar alternativas muy potentes al problema de supervisión de prácticas cuando se integra una dimensión de distancia entre el campus académico y el lugar de las prácticas, como es el caso de las prácticas internacionales en general y de la formación de directivos hoteleros en particular. Las técnicas del e-mentoring y de la presencia virtual docente podrían sustituir eficazmente la supervisión exclusiva por empleados de las empresas colaboradoras. Podemos disminuir las diferencias entre teoría y práctica, mejorar la transferencia entre la primera y la segunda, y, así, entender mejor las relaciones entre los conceptos aprendidos y lo que se observe durante las prácticas. Gracias a su integración en el proceso de mentorización, el profesorado estará más en contacto con el mundo empresarial y podrá beneficiarse de una visión de las nuevas técnicas utilizadas en las empresas y de la evolución del mundo real. Las aportaciones en casos prácticos enriquecerán el nivel académico de las futuras sesiones magistrales

Fitness costs of key point mutations that underlie acaricide target-site resistance in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae

The frequency of insecticide/acaricide target-site resistance is increasing in arthropod pest populations and is typically underpinned by single point mutations that affect the binding strength between the insecticide/acaricide and its target-site. Theory predicts that although resistance mutations clearly have advantageous effects under the selection pressure of the insecticide/acaricide, they might convey negative pleiotropic effects on other aspects of fitness. If such fitness costs are in place, target-site resistance is thus likely to disappear in the absence of insecticide/acaricide treatment, a process that would counteract the spread of resistance in agricultural crops. Hence, there is a great need to reliably quantify the various potential pleiotropic effects of target-site resistance point mutations on arthropod fitness. Here, we used near-isogenic lines of the spider mite pest Tetranychus urticae that carry well-characterized acaricide target-site resistance mutations to quantify potential fitness costs. Specifically, we analyzed P262T in the mitochondrial cytochrome b, the combined G314D and G326E substitutions in the glutamate-gated chloride channels, L1024V in the voltage-gated sodium channel, and I1017F in chitin synthase 1. Five fertility life table parameters and nine single-generation life-history traits were quantified and compared across a total of 15 mite lines. In addition, we monitored the temporal resistance level dynamics of populations with different starting frequency levels of the chitin synthase resistant allele to further support our findings. Three target-site resistance mutations, I1017F and the co-occurring G314D and G326E mutations, were shown to significantly and consistently alter certain fitness parameters in T. urticae. The other two mutations (P262T and L1024V) did not result in any consistent change in a fitness parameter analyzed in our study. Our findings are discussed in the context of the global spread of T. urticae pesticide resistance and integrated pest management

Metagenomic approach with the NetoVIR enrichment protocol reveals virus diversity within Ethiopian honey bees (Apis mellifera simensis)

Metagenomics studies have accelerated the discovery of novel or divergent viruses of the honey bee. However, most of these studies predominantly focused on RNA viruses, and many suffer from the relatively low abundance of viral nucleic acids in the samples (i.e., compared to that of the host). Here, we explored the virome of the Ethiopian honey bee, Apis mellifera simensis, using an unbiased metagenomic approach in which the next-generation sequencing step was preceded by an enrichment protocol for viral particles. Our study revealed five well-known bee viruses and 25 atypical virus species, most of which have never been found in A. mellifera before. The viruses belong to Iflaviridae, Dicistroviridae, Secoviridae, Partitiviridae, Parvoviridae, Potyviridae, and taxonomically unclassified families. Fifteen of these atypical viruses were most likely plant-specific, and the remaining ten were presumed to be insect-specific. Apis mellifera filamentous virus (AmFV) was found in one sampling site out of 10. Two samples contained high read counts of a virus similar to Diatraea saccharales densovirus (DsDNV), which is a virus that causes high mortality in the sugarcane borer. AmFV and the DsDNV-like virus were the only DNA viruses found. Three viruses that primarily infect Drosophila spp. were also discovered: La Jolla virus (LJV), Kilifi virus (KiV), and Thika virus. Our study suggests that phoretic varroa mites are involved in the transmission of LJV and KiV and that both viruses replicate in mites and adult bees. We also found an overwhelming dominance of the deformed wing virus type B variant, which fits well with the apparently harmless infestation by Varroa destructor. It was suggested that Ethiopian bees have developed tolerance against virus infections as the result of natural selection

A genomic approach to investigate resistance mechanisms in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae

The two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) is a global and important crop pest that is mainly controlled by acaricides. Its rapid development, high fecundity and haplo-diploid reproduction all contribute to the fast development of resistance. Resistance to acaricides can arise due to modification of the target site or by an increased detoxification. Recently, the complete genome of T. urticae was sequenced and used in this work to develop innovative techniques to study resistance in spider mites. First, using high-throughput sequencing, we developed a bulk segregant mapping method which allowed us to map resistance genes in high resolution. We uncovered that the resistance locus for the mite growth inhibitors etoxazole, hexythiazox and clofentezine maps to a small genomic region coinciding with the chitin synthase-1 (CHS-1) gene. Based on additional genetic and biochemical investigations, we reveal that a point mutation in CHS-1 confers strong resistance, hereby also elucidating the mode of action of an important class of acaricides. Second, we used a gene expression microarray to compare gene expression levels of susceptible and resistant mites on a genome-wide basis. We investigated resistance to the tetronic acid derivate spirodiclofen, a recently commercialized acaricide. Gene expression data of genetically distinct resistant strains revealed that the expression of a number of detoxification genes was greatly increased. Functional expression of the P450 CYP392E10 confirmed that it hydroxylates spirodiclofen to a non-toxic compound. We further identified and functionally expressed an esterase, CCE04, of which a specific allele is highly overexpressed in resistant strains