Cynipid wasps inducing galls on plants of the genus Picris (Asteraceae) in Europe, with a description of a new species of Phanacis Foerster (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) from the Iberian Peninsula.

The cynipid species (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae), which induceing galls on plants of the genus Picris (Asteraceae) in Europe, are revised. A key for the identification of adult wasps and galls of the three known species is provided. Phanacis helminthiae (De Stefani) is recorded from Sicily for the first time after since its description, and re-described with newly collected materials. The final instar larva of Phanacis caulicola is described and new biological data on the sex ratio and life-cycle of this species are given. A new species, Phanacis comosae nov. sp., is described from the Southwest portion of the Iberian Peninsula. The new species is closely allied related to P. caulicola and induces conspicuous galls in flower receptacles of Picris comosa

Comment on "Geometrothermodynamics of a Charged Black Hole of String Theory"

We comment on the conclusions found by Larra\~naga and Mojica regarding the consistency of the Geoemtrothermodynamics programme to describe the critical behaviour of a Gibbons-Maeda-Garfinkle-Horowitz-Strominger charged black hole. We argue that making the appropriate choice of metric for the thermodynamic phase space and, most importantly, considering the homogeneity of the thermodynamic potential we obtain consistent results for such a black hole.Comment: Comment on arXiv:1012.207

Classification of kinematic and electromyographic signals associated with pathological tremor using machine and deep learning.

Peripheral Electrical Stimulation (PES) of afferent pathways has received increased interest as a solution to reduce pathological tremors with minimal side effects. Closed-loop PES systems might present some advantages in reducing tremors, but further developments are required in order to reliably detect pathological tremors to accurately enable the stimulation only if a tremor is present. This study explores different machine learning (K-Nearest Neighbors, Random Forest and Support Vector Machines) and deep learning (Long Short-Term Memory neural networks) models in order to provide a binary (Tremor; No Tremor) classification of kinematic (angle displacement) and electromyography (EMG) signals recorded from patients diagnosed with essential tremors and healthy subjects. Three types of signal sequences without any feature extraction were used as inputs for the classifiers: kinematics (wrist flexion-extension angle), raw EMG and EMG envelopes from wrist flexor and extensor muscles. All the models showed high classification scores (Tremor vs. No Tremor) for the different input data modalities, ranging from 0.8 to 0.99 for the f1 score. The LSTM models achieved 0.98 f1 scores for the classification of raw EMG signals, showing high potential to detect tremors without any processed features or preliminary information. These models may be explored in real-time closed-loop PES strategies to detect tremors and enable stimulation with minimal signal processing steps

Physical weathering of carbonate host-rock by precipitation of soluble salts in caves: A case study in El Orón-Arco Cave (Region of Murcia, SE Spain)

The dissolution of carbonate host-rock by freshwater in phreatic or vadose conditions is the most common mechanism for the formation of caves; however, circulation of saline solutions through carbonate materials and precipitation of soluble salts may also play an important role. We studied the stable isotope composition (δ18O and δ34S of sulfate, δ18O and δD of structurally-bound gypsum hydration water and 87Sr/86Sr) and salinity of fluid inclusions in gypsum speleothems found in El Orón-Arco Cave (Cartagena, SE Spain). We suggest that physical weathering of carbonate host-rock was driven by precipitation of soluble sea-salts (mostly gypsum and halite), and this process controlled the recent geomorphological evolution of the cave. The Triassic carbonate host-rock shows clear evidence for salt weathering, including gypsum/halite infillings in cracks of the bedrock, mechanical spalling of the carbonate, and detachment of rock fragments that lead to the formation cave voids and in-situ accumulations of piles of unsorted rubble. Sulfur and oxygen isotopes of gypsum sulfate (3.0‰ < δ18O < 11.6‰ and 16.7‰ < δ34S < 20.7‰) are generally lower than modern seawater sulfate and suggest contributions from a 34S-depleted source (i.e. oxidation of pyrite). The δ18O and δD of gypsum hydration water are relatively low compared to expected values for the evaporation of pure seawater to gypsum saturation, suggesting that gypsum precipitation involved a secondary calcium-sulfate source or recycling of gypsum from previous stages, along with mixing of seawater and meteoric water seepage to the cave. The 87Sr/86Sr in gypsum shows intermediate values between modern seawater and Triassic carbonate values because of interaction between the solution and the bedrock. The salinities of the speleothem-forming solutions are relatively high (13.2 ± 3.2 wt% eq. NaCl) compared to gypsum formed from evaporated brackish solutions (i.e. ~4–8 wt% eq. NaCl) and indicate dissolution of earlier evaporites before secondary gypsum precipitation. This cave-forming mechanism, which is related to saline water circulation and precipitation of evaporitic minerals, may be common in other coastal caves

Solid lubricant behavior of MoS2 and WSe2-based nanocomposite coatings

Tribological coatings made of MoS2 and WSe2 phases and their corresponding combinations with tungsten carbide (WC) were prepared by non-reactive magnetron sputtering of individual targets of similar composition. A comparative tribological analysis of these multiphase coatings was done in both ambient air (30–40% relative humidity, RH) and dry nitrogen (RH<7%) environments using the same tribometer and testing conditions. A nanostructural study using advanced transmission electron microscopy of the initial coatings and examination of the counterfaces after the friction test using different analytical tools helped to elucidate what governs the tribological behavior for each type of environment. This allowed conclusions to be made about the influence of the coating microstructure and composition on the tribological response. The best performance obtained with a WSex film (specific wear rate of 2 × 10−8 mm3 N–1m–1 and a friction coefficient of 0.03–0.05) was compared with that of the well-established MoS2 lubricant material.The Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [projects n° MAT2010-21597-C02-01, MAT2011-29074-C02-01; MAT2015-65539-P; MAT2015-69035-REDC], Junta de Andalucía [P10-TEP-67182] and Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) [201560E013] are acknowledged for their financial support

Optical signature of symmetry variations and spin-valley coupling in atomically thin tungsten dichalcogenides

Motivated by the triumph and limitation of graphene for electronic applications, atomically thin layers of group VI transition metal dichalcogenides are attracting extensive interest as a class of graphene-like semiconductors with a desired band-gap in the visible frequency range. The monolayers feature a valence band spin splitting with opposite sign in the two valleys located at corners of 1st Brillouin zone. This spin-valley coupling, particularly pronounced in tungsten dichalcogenides, can benefit potential spintronics and valleytronics with the important consequences of spin-valley interplay and the suppression of spin and valley relaxations. Here we report the first optical studies of WS2 and WSe2 monolayers and multilayers. The efficiency of second harmonic generation shows a dramatic even-odd oscillation with the number of layers, consistent with the presence (absence) of inversion symmetry in even-layer (odd-layer). Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show the crossover from an indirect band gap semiconductor at mutilayers to a direct-gap one at monolayers. The PL spectra and first-principle calculations consistently reveal a spin-valley coupling of 0.4 eV which suppresses interlayer hopping and manifests as a thickness independent splitting pattern at valence band edge near K points. This giant spin-valley coupling, together with the valley dependent physical properties, may lead to rich possibilities for manipulating spin and valley degrees of freedom in these atomically thin 2D materials

EXPERIENCIA PILOTO CON LA HERRAMIENTA MOOSHAK EN UN GRUPO DE ALUMNOS DE ENFERMERÍA: CUESTIONARIO DE SATISFACCIÓN

This paper aims at evaluating new educational resources which help instructors and students to achieve the goals of the Higher Education European Space. This study presents the results of a feedback survey based on a pilot experience which proposes a web environment to assist in the learning process of Medical Surgical Nursing in an undergraduate degree program. A web-based automatic assessment tool named Mooshak was used by 54 students who voluntarily participated in the study. Five of these students solved all the problems proposed. A total of 16 (28.57%) students answered an on-line survey, 15 of them agreed that the experience with Mooshak had been satisfactory or highly satisfactory. The on-line activity was rated with a mean score of 7.96 out of 10. We can conclude that there is evidence to suggest that the use of Mooshak has had a positive impact on Medical Surgical Nursing students' learning.El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar nuevos recursos educativos que ayuden a los docentes y a los alumnos a conseguir los objetivos que se plantean en el nuevo Espacio Europeo de Educaci&oacute;n Superior (EEES). Este estudio presenta los resultados de un cuestionario de retroalimentaci&oacute;n sobre una experiencia piloto que propone un entorno web en el proceso de aprendizaje de la materia Enfermer&iacute;a M&eacute;dico-Quir&uacute;rgica (EMQ) de una titulaci&oacute;n universitaria de enfermer&iacute;a. Una herramienta web de evaluaci&oacute;n autom&aacute;tica llamada Mooshak fue utilizada por los 54 alumnos que participaron en la experiencia de forma voluntaria, logrando 5 de ellos resolver la totalidad de los problemas propuestos. Un total de 16 (28.57%) alumnos respondieron a una encuesta (on-line), 15 de los cuales indicaron que la experiencia hab&iacute;a sido satisfactoria o muy satisfactoria, obteniendo la actividad on-line una calificaci&oacute;n media de 7.96 sobre 10. En base a esta experiencia, podemos afirmar que hay evidencias de que el uso del recurso on-line Mooshak ha tenido una incidencia positiva en la formaci&oacute;n de los alumnos de EM

APOE-ε4 Shapes the Cerebral Organization in Cognitively Intact Individuals as Reflected by Structural Gray Matter Networks

Gray matter networks (GMn) provide essential information on the intrinsic organization of the brain and appear to be disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Apolipoprotein E (APOE)-ε4 represents the major genetic risk factor for AD, yet the association between APOE-ε4 and GMn has remained unexplored. Here, we determine the impact of APOE-ε4 on GMn in a large sample of cognitively unimpaired individuals, which was enriched for the genetic risk of AD. We used independent component analysis to retrieve sources of structural covariance and analyzed APOE group differences within and between networks. Analyses were repeated in a subsample of amyloid-negative subjects. Compared with noncarriers and heterozygotes, APOE-ε4 homozygotes showed increased covariance in one network including primarily right-lateralized, parietal, inferior frontal, as well as inferior and middle temporal regions, which mirrored the formerly described AD-signature. This result was confirmed in a subsample of amyloid-negative individuals. APOE-ε4 carriers showed reduced covariance between two networks encompassing frontal and temporal regions, which constitute preferential target of amyloid deposition. Our data indicate that, in asymptomatic individuals, APOE-ε4 shapes the cerebral organization in a way that recapitulates focal morphometric alterations observed in AD patients, even in absence of amyloid pathology. This suggests that structural vulnerability in neuronal networks associated with APOE-ε4 may be an early event in AD pathogenesis, possibly upstream of amyloid deposition