Kinematic study of planetary nebulae in NGC 6822

By measuring precise radial velocities of planetary nebulae (which belong to the intermediate age population), H II regions, and A-type supergiant stars (which are members of the young population) in NGC 6822, we aim to determine if both types of population share the kinematics of the disk of H I found in this galaxy. Spectroscopic data for four planetary nebulae were obtained with the high spectral resolution spectrograph Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) on the Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. Data for other three PNe and one H II region were obtained from the SPM Catalog of Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae which employed the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer attached to the 2.1m telescope at the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional, M\'exico. In the wavelength calibrated spectra, the heliocentric radial velocities were measured with a precision better than 5-6 km s$^{-1}$. Data for three additional H II regions and a couple of A-type supergiant stars were collected from the literature. The heliocentric radial velocities of the different objects were compared to the velocities of the H i disk at the same position. From the analysis of radial velocities it is found that H II regions and A-type supergiants do share the kinematics of the H I disk at the same position, as expected for these young objects. On the contrary, planetary nebula velocities differ significantly from that of the H I at the same position. The kinematics of planetary nebulae is independent from the young population kinematics and it is closer to the behavior shown by carbon stars, which are intermediate-age members of the stellar spheroid existing in this galaxy. Our results are confirming that there are at least two very different kinematical systems in NGC 6822

Juncus emmanuelis

This species is endemic to a small area in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, with subpopulations scattered in approximately 16 localities. It is assessed as Endangered (EN B2ab(ii,iii,iv)) because it has an Area of Occupancy (AOO) of less than 500 km2 and shows signs of severe fragmentation due to the ongoing transformation of its specific habitat of sandy soils with an impermeable underlayer in temporary pools, as a result of several ongoing major threats associated with intensive agricultural activities. Based on this information, a continuing decline in the AOO, habitat quality and number of subpopulations has been inferred. Additional research and conservation action is needed for this species

Zannichellia contorta

This species is native to southern, central and eastern Spain, with an old record from the Atlas Mountains in northern Morocco requiring confirmation. The species is very sensitive to eutrophication and deterioration of water quality. The Area of Occupancy (AOO) has been estimated to be less than 500 km2 based on confirmed records and knowledge that its habitat is in continuous decline and at least 40% of the known localities have disappeared, especially in southern Spain. Moreover, an ongoing continuing decline in AOO, habitat quality and number of subpopulations of this species due to the increase in nutrients concentration from waters of the streams where it lives, which stops its growth, has been observed. The same process of habitat deterioration is happening in central and eastern Spain. The population of this species is severely fragmented with more than half of its subpopulations being isolated with no exchange possibilities and suspected to have reached no viable levels. It therefore qualifies to be listed in the category Endangered (EN B2ab(ii,iii,iv)) in the Mediterranean region. Resource and habitat protection and site management are needed. Other recommended conservation measures are ex situ conservation, population and distribution research, and habitat and population monitoring

Sobre la distribución geográfica de Scarabaeus (Scarabaeus) aegyptiacus Stolfa, 1938 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): primer registro para el Sáhara Atlántico (suroeste de Marruecos)

Scarabaeus aegyptiacus is a species widely distributed from the Arabian Peninsula to Morocco, occupying mainly arid and desert regions. Despite its wide geographic range, the number of known localities is very low (ten locations) and its populations seem apparently fragmented and spaced. During a recent field survey in southwestern Morocco, we found a population of S. aegyptiacus in a rocky steppe (hamada) near Msied (Tan-Tan province, Guelmin-Smara region), which constitutes the first record from Atlantic Sahara and extends about 1000 km to the southwest its known distribution. The specimens were found in a water cistern (“matfiya” in the local language), infrastructure that acts as a deadly trap for many animals, especially reptiles, amphibians and epigean arthropods, whose negative effect on invertebrate communities has not yet been evaluated. Chorological information of the species is synthesized and data on the habitat are provided.Scarabaeus aegyptiacus es una especie ampliamente distribuida desde la Península Arábiga hasta Marruecos, ocupando ambientes áridos y desérticos. A pesar de su amplio rango de distribución, el número de localidades precisas conocidas es muy escaso (diez localidades) y sus poblaciones se encuentran aparentemente fragmentadas y muy distanciadas entre sí. Durante muestreos recientes en el suroeste de Marruecos, hemos hallado una población de S. aegyptiacus en una estepa pedregosa (hamada) en las cercanías de Msied (provincia de Tan-Tan, región de Guelmín-Smara), que constituye el primer registro para el Sáhara Atlántico y amplía unos 1000 km hacia el suroeste su área de distribución conocida. Los individuos estudiados fueron hallados en el interior de un aljibe (“matfiya” en lengua local), infraestructura que actúa como trampa mortal para numerosos animales, especialmente anfibios, reptiles y artrópodos epígeos, cuyo impacto negativo sobre las comunidades de invertebrados no ha sido evaluado. Se sintetiza la información corológica disponible y se aportan datos sobre el hábitat de la especie

An Iterated Greedy Heuristic for Mixed No-Wait Flowshop Problems

[EN] The mixed no-wait flowshop problem with both wait and no-wait constraints has many potential real-life applications. The problem can be regarded as a generalization of the traditional permutation flowshop and the no-wait flowshop. In this paper, we study, for the first time, this scheduling setting with makespan minimization. We first propose a mathematical model and then we design a speed-up makespan calculation procedure. By introducing a varying number of destructed jobs, a modified iterated greedy algorithm is proposed for the considered problem which consists of four components: 1) initialization solution construction; 2) destruction; 3) reconstruction; and 4) local search. To further improve the intensification and efficiency of the proposal, insertion is performed on some neighbor jobs of the best position in a sequence during the initialization, solution construction, and reconstruction phases. After calibrating parameters and components, the proposal is compared with five existing algorithms for similar problems on adapted Taillard benchmark instances. Experimental results show that the proposal always obtains the best performance among the compared methods.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61572127 and 61272377, in part by the Key Research and Development Program in Jiangsu Province under Grant BE2015728, and in part by the Collaborative Innovation Center of Wireless Communications Technology. The work of R. Ruiz was supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the project "SCHEYARD-Optimization of Scheduling Problems in Container Yards" under Grant DPI2015-65895-R, and in part by the FEDER Funds.Wang, Y.; Li, X.; Ruiz García, R.; Sui, S. (2018). An Iterated Greedy Heuristic for Mixed No-Wait Flowshop Problems. IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. 48(5):1553-1566. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCYB.2017.2707067S1553156648

Influencia del Porcentaje de SiCp en el Comportamiento a la Corrosión de la Aleación AA6061 Obtenida por Compactación Isostática

Se ha estudiado el comportamiento a la corrosión de materiales compuestos A6061/SiCp obtenidos por compactación isostática y extrusión en caliente de polvos mediante ensayos de polarización cíclica. El estudio de la naturaleza de los productos de corrosión se ha llevado a cabo mediante Microscopía Electrónica de Barrido (SEM) después de la realización de los ensayos, con objeto de estudiar la influencia de la proporción de refuerzo en el comportamiento a la corrosión. El proceso de corrosión está significativamente influenciado por la adición de partículas reforzantes, debido a que las intercaras matriz/SiCp son centros preferentes de ataque localizado por picadura

Anticancer applications of nanostructured silica-based materials functionalized with titanocene derivatives: Induction of cell death mechanism through TNFR1 modulation

This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanomaterials for Biomedical ApplicationsA series of cytotoxic titanocene derivatives have been immobilized onto nanostructured silica-based materials using two different synthetic routes, namely, (i) a simple grafting protocol via protonolysis of the Ti-Cl bond; and (ii) a tethering method by elimination of ethanol using triethoxysilyl moieties of thiolato ligands attached to titanium. The resulting nanostructured systems have been characterized by different techniques such as XRD, XRF, DR-UV, BET, SEM, and TEM, observing the incorporation of the titanocene derivatives onto the nanostructured silica and slight changes in the textural features of the materials after functionalization with the metallodrugs. A complete biological study has been carried out using the synthesized materials exhibiting moderate cytotoxicity in vitro against three human hepatic carcinoma (HepG2, SK-Hep-1, Hep3B) and three human colon carcinomas (DLD-1, HT-29, COLO320) and very low cytotoxicity against normal cell lines. In addition, the cells' metabolic activity was modified by a 24-h exposure in a dose-dependent manner. Despite not having a significant effect on TNFalfa or the proinflammatory interleukin 1alfa secretion, the materials strongly modulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling, even at sub-cytotoxic concentrations. This is achieved mainly by upregulation of the TNFR1 receptor production, something which has not previously been observed for these systems.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from FEDER and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (grant no. CTQ2015-66164-R) and the Romanian UEFISCDI Exploratory Research Project PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0870, IMPRESS. We would also like to thank Universidad Rey Juan Carlos and Banco de Santander for supporting our Research Group of Excellence QUINANOAP. Finally, we thank D. Pérez for valuable discussion and S. Carralero and C. Forcé for their assistance with solid-state NMR experiments