University of Puerto Rico at Utuado

Agricultural intensification is a leading cause of global biodiversity loss, which can reduce the provisioning of ecosystem services in managed ecosystems. Organic farming and plant diversification are farm management schemes that may mitigate potential ecological harm by increasing species richness and boosting related ecosystem services to agroecosystems. What remains unclear is the extent to which farm management schemes affect biodiversity components other than species richness, and whether impacts differ across spatial scales and landscape contexts. Using a global metadataset, we quantified the effects of organic farming and plant diversification on abundance, local diversity (communities within fields), and regional diversity (communities across fields) of arthropod pollinators, predators, herbivores, and detritivores. Both organic farming and higher in-field plant diversity enhanced arthropod abundance, particularly for rare taxa. This resulted in increased richness but decreased evenness. While these responses were stronger at local relative to regional scales, richness and abundance increased at both scales, and richness on farms embedded in complex relative to simple landscapes. Overall, both organic farming and in-field plant diversification exerted the strongest effects on pollinators and predators, suggesting these management schemes can facilitate ecosystem service providers without augmenting herbivore (pest) populations. Our results suggest that organic farming and plant diversification promote diverse arthropod metacommunities that may provide temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem service provisioning. Conserving diverse plant and arthropod communities in farming systems therefore requires sustainable practices that operate both within fields and across landscapes.

The relationship of body weight and total length (L T ) of Mustelus schmitti in southern Patagonia was different between sexes. Changes in maturity stages in males appear at larger sizes in Ría Deseado specimens than in the Mar del Plata area. Mature females ranged from 795 to 913 mm while all male specimens >759 mm L T were mature. The data suggest that mating occurs before parturition, with simultaneous ovulation. The diet of adult M. schmitti was mainly carcinophage and the diet of young‐of‐the‐year and adults differed. The young‐of‐the‐year use the Ría Deseado as a pupping area.

Resistance and resilience have become important concepts in the evaluation of disturbance events, providing a framework that is useful in light of the expected increase in frequency and occurrences of hurricanes as a consequence of climate change. Hurricane Maria landed on Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm in September of 2017. Among the affected elements were agricultural systems, including coffee agroecosystems. Historically, coffee has been a major backbone of the island's agricultural sector. Grown with a range of management styles, the coffee agroecosystem provides an excellent model system to study the resistance/resilience of agroecosystems faced with hurricane disturbance. Sampling 28 farms and comparing pre-hurricane data (2013) with post hurricane data we find that management style had only a small effect on either resistance or resilience, likely due to the especially strong nature of the storm. Rather, the socio-political context of individual farms seems to be a more useful predictor of resilience.

Do the cognitive origins of our theistic beliefs debunk them or explain them away? This paper develops an empirically motivated debunking argument and defends it against objections. First, we introduce the empirical and epistemological background. Second, we develop and defend the main argument, the debunking argument from false god beliefs. Third, we characterize and evaluate the most prominent religious debunking argument to date: the debunking argument from insensitivity. It is found that insensitivity-based arguments are problematic, which makes them less promising than the debunking argument from false god beliefs.

Mitigation of CO2 atmospheric emission rates is partially accomplished through carbon storage in ecosystems, including agricultural systems. In particular, agroforestry systems have been cited as important current and potentially future depositories for carbon. Coffee is produced on substantial areas of tropical lands, traditionally incorporating shade trees as part of the system, but recently having seen much conversion to so-called sun coffee, largely absent of shade trees. Taking the coffee production region of Puerto Rico as a case study, we estimated carbon (C) stock on 68 coffee farms in the Cordillera Central region of Puerto Rico. Total farm carbon was determined by combining carbon content in the soil, shade trees and the main crops (coffee, plantain and citrus). We note that 38 of the farms used in this study incorporated shade trees, 30 did not. Farms that included shade trees had larger overall pools of C, with shade trees accounting for almost all the variability in C storage, as the other pools of carbon measured in this study were relatively constant from farm to farm. This case study demonstrates that adopting agroforestry practices on coffee farms (i.e., maintaining and incorporating shade and fruit trees) could contribute to the reduction of the world’s carbon footprint, given the importance and extent of this agroecosystem type.

Concerns over the capacity of the world’s existing agricultural land to provide food for the global population under climate change and continued biodiversity loss have set the stage for a prevailing narrative of inherent tradeoffs with agricultural production. Coffee, a major export of tropical countries, offers a unique opportunity to examine how different management practices can lead to a variety of outcomes in food security, ecosystem services, and biodiversity conservation. Our study examined this intersection to identify tradeoffs and synergies using compiled data from Puerto Rico. At the island level, we analyzed data on coffee yield and planted area under shade or sun management. At the farm level, we analyzed management variables (percent shade cover, maximum canopy height, ground cover, and food crop richness), non-provisioning ecosystem services variables (total farm carbon storage, soil organic carbon storage, coffee plant carbon biomass, and hurricane resistance and resilience), and biodiversity variables (ant, bird, and lizard richness and abundance). At the island level, we found that planted area was the most significant predictor of total production, suggesting no obvious tradeoff between production and shade management in coffee farms. At the farm level, canopy cover of shade trees was negatively correlated with ground cover and positively correlated with food crop richness, suggesting a synergy between agroforestry and subsistence food production. We detected mostly synergies associated with ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, and agroforestry management and no tradeoffs among ecosystem service and biodiversity parameters. Shade canopy cover significantly increased total carbon storage, coffee plant biomass, hurricane resistance, and bird species richness. Shade canopy height had a similar positive effect on total farm carbon storage while food crop richness had a positive effect on farm resilience following Hurricane Maria. Ground cover was positively associated with soil carbon storage and pest-controlling lizard abundance. Tradeoffs related to agroforestry management included an inverse relationship between ground cover and hurricane resistance and more dominance of an invasive ant species in farms with higher shade canopies. We discuss the implications of practicing agroforestry principles in this smallholder coffee system and highlight opportunities to contribute to more diversified food production systems that support biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Abstract In its first 2 years of operation, the ground‐based Terrestrial gamma ray flash and Energetic Thunderstorm Rooftop Array (TETRA)‐II array of gamma ray detectors has recorded 22 bursts of gamma rays of millisecond‐scale duration associated with lightning. In this study, we present the TETRA‐II observations detected at the three TETRA‐II ground‐level sites in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and Panama together with the simultaneous radio frequency signals from the lightning data sets VAISALA Global Lightning Dataset, VAISALA National Lightning Detection Network, Earth Networks Total Lightning Network, and World Wide Lightning Location Network. The relative timing between the gamma ray events and the lightning activity is a key parameter for understanding the production mechanism(s) of the bursts. The gamma ray time profiles and their correlation with radio sferics suggest that the gamma ray events are initiated by lightning leader activity and are produced near the last stage of lightning leader channel development prior to the lightning return stroke.

Pottery in contexts that predate the entrance of Arawak societies to the Antilles (500 B.C.) by at least one millennium demand a reassessment of the introduction of this technology to the islands. We summarize the available evidence of what we term the Pre-Arawak Pottery horizon and address the social implications of the introduction of such technology to the insular Caribbean, based on the role of pots as tools. We show that this early pottery is more widespread than originally thought, extending from Cuba to Hispanola and perhaps to Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles as well. We argue that the paucity of early ceramic contexts discovered thus far could have resulted from the consideration of pottery as intrusive in Pre-Arawak contexts and because of its technological and stylistic overlap with wares associated to the Ostionoid series (A.D. 600-1500) of the Greater Antilles. Based on this evidence, we conclude by suggesting that some of the post-Saladoid manifestations that have been identified in the islands could have resulted from a multifocal development of these pre-Arawak cultures rather than simply from the divergent evolution of Saladoid societies as has been argued thus far.

Puerto Rico has played a pivotal role in the building of cultural chronology for the insular Caribbean, and yet little systematic work has been conducted in recent decades to assess the validity of the system(s) produced. To resolve this issue, we assembled a radiocarbon inventory comprised of more than a thousand assays, drawn from both published sources and grey literature, which was used to assess and revise (as necessary) the received cultural chronology of Puerto Rico. The application of chronological hygiene protocols and Bayesian modeling of the dates yields an initial arrival of humans to the island more than a millennium earlier than previously established, making Puerto Rico the earliest inhabited island of the Antilles, following Trinidad. The chronology of the different cultural manifestations that have been identified for the island, as grouped by Rousean styles, also is updated, and in some cases heavily modified, as a result of this process. While admittedly limited by several mitigating factors, the image that emerges from this chronological revision suggests a much more complex, dynamic, and plural cultural scenario than has been traditionally assumed, as a result of the myriad of interactions that took place between the different peoples that coexisted in the island through time.

One of the central goals of archaeology is the definition of regional cultural succession. Since at least the 1960s, archaeology has purported to have moved beyond the strictures of Culture History, and yet the constructs of that paradigm (styles, periods, cultures) continue to be used routinely. This work aims to show that by doing so, one is still implicitly subscribing to that theoretical perspective"s assumptions and biases. In the end, this article is intended to be a self-critical assessment of the shortcomings of Caribbean archaeology vis-à-vis issues inherent in that region"s dominant culture-history framework. Moreover, it aims to provide an example for Caribbeanists, and archaeologists working in other regions, of the value of moving beyond the products of, and not just beyond the term, Culture History.

This article notes that the initial layer of insular Caribbean cultural stratigraphy was forged by navigators who ventured in the first open-sea treks registered in the Western Hemisphere after the initial peopling of the Americas. Current understanding of the discoverers of the islands has changed dramatically in the past decade due to data generated from the discovery of new sites and the application of novel techniques. Newfound evidence demonstrates not only the existence of a very plural and dynamic cultural and social landscape during the early peopling of the archipelago but also the marked influence that these primeval societies had on the transformation of the insular into an artifact following their arrival. The article discusses some of these recent lines of evidence and provides guidelines regarding their implications for understanding the social and cultural configurations of the earliest inhabitants of the Antilles.

1 2 3 4 Cover. Compilation of photographs related to landslides, including (1) landslide damage after Hurricane Maria in the Utuado municipality, Puerto Rico; (2

ABSTRACT Mature breadfruit, sliced to 1.25 mm, fried in soy oil at 165°C and salted to 1.5% produced a stable, crisp chip with lipid stability comparable to potato chips. Partial air drying prior to frying reduced oil absorption from 42% to 26%. Sensory evaluations showed the product to be as acceptable as commercial plantain or potato chips. In view of the extreme perishability and high postharvest losses of breadfruit, chip production represents a useful value‐adding preservation method meriting consideration in breadfruit producing regions.

Slugs can be important agricultural pests in tropical regions. They are also intermediate hosts of parasitic nematodes, such as Angiostrongylus costaricensis and A. cantonensis , which can cause abdominal and cerebral angiostrongyliasis in humans. Management of slugs in conventional agriculture has relied heavily in the use of pellets containing metaldehyde. In this article, we review cases of slug problems and their management in neotropical agroecosystems.

Abstract Many archaeological sites with jadeitite artefacts are known in the Caribbean region, but defining the source of the raw material is a major problem because of great mineralogical heterogeneity both in potential sources and in artefacts. The archaeological settlement site of Playa Grande on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic is particularly significant because it yielded evidence of on-site axe manufacture, and lies only 20–30 km NE of a recently discovered potential source area of serpentinite mélanges in the nearby Río San Juan Complex (RSJC). A suite of nine artefacts was chosen from a collection of over 100 excavated woodworking tools rich in jadeite, as well as two blueschist artefacts. Permission to perform destructive analysis allowed data on petrography, mineral chemistry and bulk-rock chemistry to be obtained. Seven of the nine artefacts are jadeitite sensu stricto (>90 vol% jadeite), which are identical to material known from the RSJC. Two artefacts are jadeite–lawsonite rocks. These and the two blueschists show only minor differences from corresponding rocks of the RSJC source. With this direct linking of source and site material, it is now possible to better define source discriminators for the Caribbean and to assess sampling bias.

Abstract Calculated level energies for valence and K-vacancy states are provided for the ion series S vii –S xiv and Ar ix –Ar xvi . The calculations were performed with the relativistic Multi-Reference Møller–Plesset Perturbation Theory method (MR-MP). The data set includes all the level energies with configurations , , , , , and , where 1 ≤ q ≤ 8, n ≤ 5, and l ≤ 3. We have compared our results with data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) online database and with previous calculations. The average deviation of valence level energies ranges from 0.16 eV in Ne-like ions to 0.01 eV in Li-like ions, showing that the present MR-MP valence level energies are highly accurate. In the case of K-vacancy states, the deviation is generally below 0.3 eV for Li-like S xiv and Ar xvi . The deviation for K-vacancy energies in other L-shell ions (Be-, B-, C-, N-, and O-like Ar ions) is higher but likely because the NIST-recommended values have a higher uncertainty. The data set includes many n = 4 and n = 5 valence and K-vacancy levels in L-shell ions of S and Ar that have not been previously reported. The data can be used for line identification and modeling of L-shell ions of S and Ar in astrophysical and laboratory-generated plasmas, and as energy references in the absence of more accurate laboratory measurements.

Understanding thermal-time relationships of plant-parasitic nematodes is necessary to predict their geographicaldistributions, population dynamics and potential for decreasing crop yields. Our objective was to compare the thermaltimerequirements for development of three major species that affect Florida agriculture, namely Meloidogyne arenariarace 1, M. javanica, and M. incognita race 4. The base temperature (Tb) and heat units expressed as degree-days (DD)required for nematode development from second-stage juveniles (J2) to egg-laying females were determined at constanttemperatures ranging from 12 to 35°C. Freshly hatched J2 of the three species were inoculated on okra (Abelmoschusesculentus) and placed in growth chambers. Data were subjected to regression analysis to estimate the base temperaturefor each species. The shortest time and average DD above base temperatures 10.3, 9.8, and 10.6oC for development were19 days and 316 DD, 15 days and 300 DD, and 17 days and 334 DD, for M. arenaria, M. incognita, and M. javanica,respectively.

Objetivou-se realizar avaliação clínica de úlceras de perna em idosos atendidos em um ambulatório especializado. Pesquisa exploratório-descritiva, transversal, desenvolvida de agosto a novembro/2010, cuja população foi constituída de idosos portadores de úlceras de perna acompanhados na sala de curativo do Ambulatório de Cirurgia de um Hospital Universitário em Fortaleza-CE/Brasil. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevista através de um formulário. Participaram do estudo 53 idosos, média de idade 69,3 anos; 27(51,0%) com tempo de existência da úlcera ≥ de 1 ano; 34 (64,1%) com localização da úlcera na ZONA I, 53 (100%) com perda tecidual; 40 (75,5%) com necrose; 43 (81,1%) com infecção; 32 (60,4%) com exsudato e destes com 50,0% com odor e 29 (54,7%) presença de dor. Concluiu-se que a avaliação clínica das úlceras de perna é uma etapa importante durante a abordagem do paciente, devendo esta ser realizada por profissional com competência acerca do assunto.

Con el propósito de identificar microorganismos con potencial para el control del nematodo nodulador, Meloidogyne incognita, se determinó la capacidad quitinolítica de la micoflora asociada a este nematodo en suelos agrícolas de los pueblos de Adjuntas, Barranquitas, Jayuya y Mar¡cao, Puerto Rico. De un total de 74 hongos aislados, 19 especies mostraron actividad quitinolítica ¡n vitro: Trichoderma sp., T. harzianum, Gliocladium roseum, Paecilomyces lilacinus, P. marquandi (Tipo I, II y III), Diheterospora chlamydosporia, Acremonium fusidioides, Myrothecium verrucaria, M. roridum, Chaetomium giobosum, Metarrhizium anisopliae, Penicillium melinii, P. purpurogenum, P. simplicissimum, P. thomii, Scopulariopsis sp., y Aspergillus fumigatus. El pH, textura y temperatura de los suelos fue similar en todas las localidades. La variación por localidad en el contenido de materia orgánica, humedad relativa y elementos del suelo (contenido de fósforo, potasio, calcio, magnesio y manganeso) aparentemente afectó la distribución de especies de hongos. Estos organismos tienen gran potencial como biocontroladores de nematodos, ya que la mayoría se han encontrado asociados a huevos, larvas y hembras de Meloidogyne spp. y Heterodera spp.; son endémicos de las áreas; y poseen gran capacidad quitinolítica.

The Na(+)/H(+) and K(+)/H(+) exchange pathways of Amphiuma tridactylum red blood cells (RBCs) are quiescent at normal resting cell volume yet are selectively activated in response to cell shrinkage and swelling, respectively. These alkali metal/H(+) exchangers are activated by net kinase activity and deactivated by net phosphatase activity. We employed relaxation kinetic analyses to gain insight into the basis for coordinated control of these volume regulatory ion flux pathways. This approach enabled us to develop a model explaining how phosphorylation/dephosphorylation-dependent events control and coordinate the activity of the Na(+)/H(+) and K(+)/H(+) exchangers around the cell volume set point. We found that the transition between initial and final steady state for both activation and deactivation of the volume-induced Na(+)/H(+) and K(+)/H(+) exchange pathways in Amphiuma RBCs proceed as a single exponential function of time. The rate of Na(+)/H(+) exchange activation increases with cell shrinkage, whereas the rate of Na(+)/H(+) exchange deactivation increases as preshrunken cells are progressively swollen. Similarly, the rate of K(+)/H(+) exchange activation increases with cell swelling, whereas the rate of K(+)/H(+) exchange deactivation increases as preswollen cells are progressively shrunken. We propose a model in which the activities of the controlling kinases and phosphatases are volume sensitive and reciprocally regulated. Briefly, the activity of each kinase-phosphatase pair is reciprocally related, as a function of volume, and the volume sensitivities of kinases and phosphatases controlling K(+)/H(+) exchange are reciprocally related to those controlling Na(+)/H(+) exchange.