University of Costa Rica

About: University of Costa Rica is a education organization based out in San José, Costa Rica. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Venom. The organization has 9817 authors who have published 16781 publications receiving 238208 citations. The organization is also known as: UCR & Universidad de Costa Rica.

Chlorothalonil, a possible cause of erythema dyschromicum perstans (ashy dermatitis).

Abstract: We studied 39 patients with erythema-dyschromicum-perstans-like dermatitis seen at Changuinola Hospital in Panama. They were compared with 41 controls. The 2 groups were native field workers of the banana plantations exposed to many pesticides. In 34 patients, there was a positive patch test reaction to 2,4,5,6-1,3-tetrachloroisophthalonilnitrile (chlorothalonil, TCPN) 0.001% in acetone. In 39 cases, biopsies showed a lichenoid tissue reaction compatible with a chronic pigmented dermatitis or erythema-dyschromicum-perstans-like dermatitis. Chlorothalonil is possibly the cause of the pigmented dermatitis observed in the 39 banana farm workers studied. Until additional studies are carried out, we consider this a possible rather than definite cause-and-effect relationship.

Checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica.

Abstract: Helminth parasites of vertebrates have been studied in Costa Rica for more than 50 years. Survey work on this group of parasites is far from complete. We assembled a database with all the records of helminth parasites of wild and domestic vertebrates in Costa Rica. Information was obtained from different sources such as literature search (all published accounts) and parasite collections. Here we present a checklist with a parasitehost list as well as a host-parasite list. Up to now, 303 species have been recorded, including 81 species of digeneans, 23 monogeneans, 63 cestodes, 12 acanthocephalans, and 124 nematodes. In total, 108 species of vertebrates have been studied for helminths in Costa Rica (31 species of fishes, 7 amphibians, 14 reptiles, 20 birds, and 36 mammals). This represents only 3.8% of the vertebrate fauna of Costa Rica since about 2,855 species of vertebrates occur in the country. Interestingly, 58 species (19.1 %) were recorded as new species from Costa Rica and most of them are endemic to particular regions. Considering the valuable information that parasites provide because it is synergistic with all the information about the natural history of the hosts, helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica should be considered within any initiatives to accomplish the national inventory of biological resources. Starting with this compilation work, the Coleccion de Helmintos de Costa Rica (CHCR), hosted at the Facultad de Microbiologia, Universidad de Costa Rica, has re-emerged and it is our hope that it will have the standards of quality to assure that it will become the national depository of helminths in the country

The implicit power motive and sociosexuality in men and women: Pancultural effects of responsibility.

Abstract: Research has shown that an individual's implicit power motive relates to 2 types of behavioral clusters: either prosocial, socially appropriate behaviors or profligate, impulsive behaviors. The present study examined the relationship between individuals' implicit power motives and their tendency to engage in sexual activities without strong emotional ties (i.e., sociosexuality). For men, but not for women, this relationship was hypothesized to be moderated by an implicit disposition for responsibility. Whereas most research has been limited to Euro-American contexts, the present study examined the relationship between power motive, disposition for responsibility, and sociosexuality among participants recruited in Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, and Germany. Explicit Big Five measures of personality were controlled for. For women, only a main effect of responsibility on sociosexuality was found across cultural groups; for men, the association between power motivation and sociosexuality was moderated by responsibility, independent of cultural group. Traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness were systematically related to lower levels of sociosexuality. Effects for both implicit and explicit measures of personality suggest universality in the processes associated with more enactments of sociosexuality, confirming in part the hypothesized role of responsibility in channeling the realization of the power motive into less impulsive activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Aggregation Pheromones and Host Kairomones of West Indian Sugarcane Weevil, Metamasius hemipterus sericeus

Abstract: Coupled gas chromatographic–electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) analyses and coupled GC-mass spectrometry (MS) of volatiles produced by male and female West Indian sugarcane weevils (WISW), Metamasius hemipterus sericeus (Oliv), revealed eight male specific, EAD-active compounds: 3-pentanol (1), 2-methyl-4-heptanol (2), 2-methyl-4-octanol (3), 4-methyl-5-nonanol (4), and the corresponding ketones In field experiments in Florida, alcohols 1–4 in combination with sugarcane were most attractive, whereas addition of the ketones or replacement of alcohols with ketones significantly reduced attraction In Costa Rica field experiments testing alcohols 1–4 singly and in all binary, ternary, and quaternary combinations revealed 4 in combination with 2 was the major aggregation pheromone, equally attracting male and female WISW Stereoisomeric 4 and (4S,5S)-4, the only isomer produced by WISW, were equally attractive Addition of 4S-, 4R- or (±)-2 to (4S,5S)-4 significantly enhanced attraction Sugarcane stalks in combination with 2 plus 4 (ratio of 1:8) were highly synergistic, whereas EAD-active sugarcane volatiles ethyl acetate, ethyl propionate, or ethyl butyrate only moderately increased attractiveness of the pheromone lure

Species Diversity, Phylogeny and Large Scale Biogeographic Patterns of the Genus Padina (Phaeophyceae, Dictyotales)

Abstract: The brown algal genus Padina (Dictyotales, Phaeophyceae) is distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate seas. Global species diversity and distribution ranges, however, remain largely unknown. Species-level diversity was reassessed using DNA-based, algorithmic species delineation techniques based on cox3 and rbcL sequence data from 221 specimens collected worldwide. This resulted in estimates ranging from 39 to 61 putative species (ESUs), depending on the technique as well as the locus. We discuss the merits, potential pitfalls, and evolutionary and biogeographic significance of algorithmic species delineation. We unveil patterns whereby ESUs are in all but one case restricted to either the Atlantic or Indo-Pacific Ocean. Within ocean basins we find evidence for the vast majority of ESUs to be confined to a single marine realm. Exceptions, whereby ESUs span up to three realms, are located in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Patterns of range-restricted species likely arise by repeated founder events and subsequent peripatric speciation, hypothesized to dominate speciation mechanisms for coastal marine organisms in the Indo-Pacific. Using a three-gene (cox3, psaA and rbcL), relaxed molecular clock phylogenetic analysis we estimated divergence times, providing a historical framework to interpret biogeographic patterns.