Veredas, oásis do Sertão: conflito ambiental na apropriação das águas em Botumirim-MG

This paper describes an ethnographic research which aimed at analyzing the influence of traditional water resource use and management as well as its role in the process of building community identities and territorialities. Furthermore, the paper analyses the environmental conflicts associated with the dispute between the community’s traditional way of life and governmental policies towards environmental conservation. The research was carried out in the Gigante and Pé da Serra community, within the municipality of Botumirim, in the region recognized as Vale do Jequitinhonha, Minas Gerais State. The community’s livelihood and means of existence are related to familiar agriculture, having values and rules linked to a specific traditional culture, in which water has significant importance. This area and its water resources have been disputed by different types users and institutions with very different interests and economic power, setting traditional communities, their means of existence, their culture and their common use of natural resources at risk

The Musicality of Non-Musicians: An Index for Assessing Musical Sophistication in the General Population

Musical skills and expertise vary greatly in Western societies. Individuals can differ in their repertoire of musical behaviours as well as in the level of skill they display for any single musical behaviour. The types of musical behaviours we refer to here are broad, ranging from performance on an instrument and listening expertise, to the ability to employ music in functional settings or to communicate about music. In this paper, we first describe the concept of ‘musical sophistication’ which can be used to describe the multi-faceted nature of musical expertise. Next, we develop a novel measurement instrument, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) to assess self-reported musical skills and behaviours on multiple dimensions in the general population using a large Internet sample (n = 147,636). Thirdly, we report results from several lab studies, demonstrating that the Gold-MSI possesses good psychometric properties, and that self-reported musical sophistication is associated with performance on two listening tasks. Finally, we identify occupation, occupational status, age, gender, and wealth as the main socio-demographic factors associated with musical sophistication. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical accounts of implicit and statistical music learning and with regard to social conditions of sophisticated musical engagement

Crab Team: Addressing an agency mandate with citizen science

Citizen science approaches are an attractive option for projects that require large scale data collection. However not all large scale projects are necessarily suitable for citizen science. For instance, agency mandates to conduct environmental monitoring could benefit from the cost-effective approach of volunteer monitoring, but the project goals might not be suitable for, or attractive to, volunteers. A citizen science monitoring program to meet a WDFW mandate to monitor for invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) was designed by Washington Sea Grant with such balance in mind. Meeting the directive to maximize detection probability for a species that might be rare, or might never be present, presents unique challenges for volunteer engagement and retention. How do we prepare volunteers to search for an organism which they have never seen in real life, and have no search image for, while maintaining a low probability of false negatives? How do we sustain their engagement with the project if, and/or when, the monitoring target is never detected? Moreover, how do we balance motivating volunteers about the urgency of the threat, with managing their expectations of agency intervention if the invasive does become established? These questions will be explored as we discuss our approaches to the European green crab monitoring program. With thoughtful design, citizen science projects can be tailored to suit diverse scientific needs, expanding the engagement, educational, and community benefits of the projects

Isolation and reactivity of a gold(<scp>i</scp>) hydroxytrifluoroborate complex stabilized by anion-π⁺ interactions

A new ambiphilic phosphine-xanthylium ligand is described, along with its ability to stabilize a catalytically competent Au–μ(OH)–BF3 complex via anion-π+ interactions.</jats:p

Ligand-enforced intimacy between a gold cation and a carbenium ion: impact on stability and reactivity

This work describes the synthesis of carbenium-based, γ-cationic phosphines and their coordination to Au(i) cations , leading to carbophilic catalysts whose activity is enhanced by the ligand-enforced convergence of the positively charged moieties.</p

Invasive European green crab (Carcinus maenas) predation in a Washington State estuary revealed with DNA metabarcoding.

Predation by invasive species can threaten local ecosystems and economies. The European green crab (Carcinus maenas), one of the most widespread marine invasive species, is an effective predator associated with clam and crab population declines outside of its native range. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, green crab has recently increased in abundance and expanded its distribution, generating concern for estuarine ecosystems and associated aquaculture production. However, regionally-specific information on the trophic impacts of invasive green crab is very limited. We compared the stomach contents of green crabs collected on clam aquaculture beds versus intertidal sloughs in Willapa Bay, Washington, to provide the first in-depth description of European green crab diet at a particularly crucial time for regional management. We first identified putative prey items using DNA metabarcoding of stomach content samples. We compared diet composition across sites using prey presence/absence and an index of species-specific relative abundance. For eight prey species, we also calibrated metabarcoding data to quantitatively compare DNA abundance between prey taxa, and to describe an 'average' green crab diet at an intertidal slough versus a clam aquaculture bed. From the stomach contents of 61 green crabs, we identified 54 unique taxa belonging to nine phyla. The stomach contents of crabs collected from clam aquaculture beds were significantly different from the stomach contents of crabs collected at intertidal sloughs. Across all sites, arthropods were the most frequently detected prey, with the native hairy shore crab (Hemigrapsus oregonensis) the single most common prey item. Of the eight species calibrated with a quantitative model, two ecologically-important native species-the sand shrimp (Crangon franciscorum) and the Pacific staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus)-had the highest average DNA abundance when detected in a stomach content sample. In addition to providing timely information on green crab diet, our research demonstrates the novel application of a recently developed model for more quantitative DNA metabarcoding. This represents another step in the ongoing evolution of DNA-based diet analysis towards producing the quantitative data necessary for modeling invasive species impacts