Impact of myxomatosis on densities of Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) in North-western Spain: implications for management and sustainable hunting

[ENG]Outbreaks of myxomatosis in Iberian hares (Lepus granatensis) were detected for the first time in Spain in 2018. The disease spread to a significant proportion of the species range, negatively affecting the hare populations. In this study, we analyzed the impact of myxomatosis at hunting grounds of Castilla y León (Northern Spain), comparing hare density during two consecutive hunting seasons; the first when outbreaks were detected for the first time (season 1, Oct 2019-Jan 20) and the second after the spread of the disease (season 2, Oct 2020-Jan 21). Data was gathered from 1,102 hunts from 178 hunting grounds through “coursing”, a hunting type in which hunters and greyhounds search for hares, allowing the estimation of hare density. Overall, hare density decreased significantly, from 12.7 hare/100 ha in season 1 to 4.7 hare/100 ha in season 2. The percentage of hares suspected to be affected by myxomatosis (sick and dead) per hunt was higher in season 1 (14.4%) compared to season 2 (10.7%). For both seasons, this proportion was higher when hunting season was started (20.7%, October), compared to the remaining months (4.7%, November–January). However, the proportion of hunting grounds affected increased from 44% in season 1 to 66.7% in season 2. Our research confirmed a 62.7% reduction in hare density in Castilla y León after the spread of myxomatosis and identified scenarios of possible depletion when densities were below 4–5 hare/100 ha. As myxomatosis becoming endemic in Iberian hares is likely, hunters and game managers should continue current monitoring and disease surveillance and make management decisions accordingly.SIJunta de Castilla y LeónFundación Artemisa

Analysis of the presence of sustainability in Higher Education Degrees of the Spanish university system

This paper analyzes the extent to which sustainability is present in the curricula of the 16 Education Degree programs belonging to the EDINSOST project: 6 Early Childhood Education Degrees, 7 Primary Education Degrees, 2 Pedagogy Degrees and 1 Social Education Degree. The results obtained suggest that sustainability is present in all Degrees, but not uniformly so. A great disparity is observed in the number of subjects that develop sustainability, with an average of 22.63 subjects per Degree. The competency most present is the ‘ Application of ethical principles related to the values of sustainability in personal and professional behaviors, ’ while the least present is ‘ Sustainable use of resources and prevention of negative impacts on the natural and social environment. ’Sustainability is not developed uniformly in the different universities either. Three universities (UAM, UCA and UIC) develop sustainability competencies at 100%, while others such as the USAL do so at only 50

Opuntia ficus-indica (Nopal Extract) as Green Inhibitor for Corrosion Protection in Industrial Steels

Soluble extract from Opuntia ficus-indica (Nopal extract) has been proposed in this chapter as a green inhibitor due to its component called mucilage, which has the ability to retain water; for this reason, it has been used as metal corrosion protection in machinery pieces, tools and other metallic components that need to be stored for short periods. In this way, three industrial carbon steels (AISI 1018, 1045 and 4140) have been exposed in sulfuric acid (H2SO4) to evaluate the corrosion behavior with or without Nopal extract (NE). Some electrochemical techniques have been implemented to evaluate the corrosion inhibition efficiency (IE) such as DC linear polarization resistance (LPR) and AC electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Results indicated a considerable superficial modification of steel in terms of dielectric constant and ion charge capacity. When the NE was added, the corrosion mechanism changed from localized to general attack, decreasing the corrosion rate in all cases. More susceptibility to fail by corrosion was observed in the 1045 carbon steel in comparison with the other two studied steels; these results were confirmed by the percentage of inhibitor’s efficiency of about 95%

Electrochemical Noise Analysis of Corrosion Behavior of Stainless Steel 304 Exposed in NaCl and FeCl3 solutions

The authors thanks to the Center of Research and Technological Development in Electrochemistry, S.C. (CIDETEQ) who supported this research with the scholarship conceded by the National Commission on Science and Technology (CONACYT). Also, thanks to the Autonomous University of the Mexican State (UAEM) for the research project conducted in CU UAEM Valle de Mexico (Laboratory of Electrochemical and Corrosion of industrial materials).Electrical parameters such as charge of the event (q), characteristic frequency (fn) and impedance (Zn) obtained from shot-noise theory have been proposed as indicators of the initiation of pitting corrosion, and have played an important role in the construction of corrosion patterns which are a good approximation to examine the evolution of corrosion type in metals and its alloys. Therefore, in this research paper, Electrochemical Noise (EN) signals (potential and current noise data) have been collected from AISI 304 stainless steel exposed to chloride solution to evaluate the pitting corrosion behavior. The electrochemical tests were carried out at standard condition during 24 hours of exposure in two chlorine solutions (NaCl and FeCl ). Noise data analysis was mathematical treated by wavelet transform in order to identify the low frequencies that lead the calculation of q, fn and Zn to plot the corrosion behavior and this was correlated with the Energy Distribution Plots (EDP) and metallographic images. The results of all the time series evaluated reveals a concordance in scale of EDP with the initiation and the growth of pitting.EVALUACIÓN MATEMÁTICA DE ACEROS INDUSTRIALES Y SU COMPORTAMIENTO ELECTROQUÍMICO MEDIANTE INTELIGENCIA ARTIFICIAL Folio asignado 4365/2017/CID Modalidad “D” Investigación Básica Aplicada Área de conocimiento Ingeniería y Tecnología Vigencia 01/06/2017 – 01/06/201

New Method to Disaggregate and Analyze Single Isolated Helminthes Cells Using Flow Cytometry: Proof of Concept

In parasitology, particularly in helminthes studies, several methods have been used to look for the expression of specific molecules, such as RT-PCR, western blot, 2D-electrophoresis, and microscopy, among others. However, these methods require homogenization of the whole helminth parasite, preventing evaluation of individual cells or specific cell types in a given parasite tissue or organ. Also, the extremely high interaction between helminthes and host cells (particularly immune cells) is an important point to be considered. It is really hard to obtain fresh parasites without host cell contamination. Then, it becomes crucial to determine that the analyzed proteins are exclusively from parasitic origin, and not a consequence of host cell contamination. Flow cytometry is a fluorescence-based technique used to evaluate the expression of extra-and intracellular proteins in different type cells, including protozoan parasites. It also allows the isolation and recovery of single-cell populations. Here, we describe a method to isolate and obtain purified helminthes cells

Paleoecología del género Anchitherium von Meyer, 1834 (Equidae, Perissodactyla, Mammalia) en España: evidencias a partir de las faunas de macromamíferos

En el presente trabajo se interpreta la paleoecología y evolución del équido Anchitherium VON MEYER, 1834 por medio del análisis multifactorial (análisis de componentes principales, análisis discriminante) de las faunas de macromamíferos del Rambliense-Vallesiense inferior de la Península Ibérica. El análisis conjunto con faunas tropicales y subtropicales actuales permite inferir algunas de las características ambientales (temperatura, estacionalidad térmica) bajo las cuales se desarrollan dichas comunidades del Mioceno. Los resultados obtenidos también muestran la posibilidad de interpretar el bioma de una localidad en función de su fauna de macromamíferos, pudiéndose inferir la presencia en el Mioceno ibérico de laurisilvas, bosques tropicales y sabanas. Se observa una relación entre el tamaño relativo de la dentición respecto al tamaño corporal de Anchitherium y las variaciones en la temperatura. Las poblaciones que ocupaban ambientes térmicamente más estacionales presentaban una dentición relativamente mayor respecto al tamaño corporal que las habitantes de ambientes menos estacionales. Esto podría estar relacionado con un menor consumo de frutos determinado por una disminución en la disponibilidad anual de los mismos en las zonas con mayor estacionalidad térmica y un aumento en el consumo de follaje, menos nutritivo. La abundancia relativa de Anchitherium en los yacimientos parece determinada principalmente por las condiciones de temperatura, siendo más abundante cuanto menor es esta. Este hecho podría estar relacionado con las condiciones ambientales que los Anchitheriinae tuvieron que superar para atravesar Beringia antes de alcanzar Eurasia. Se estudian los biomas ocupados por cada especie de Anchitherium. Los dos clados propuestos por SÁNCHEZ et al. (1998) muestran un comportamiento similar. Especies más o menos ubiquistas y adaptadas a ambientes forestales densos dan lugar a especies más derivadas y adaptadas en mayor medida a los ambientes con una estación seca (bosques tropicales y sabanas), predominantes en la Península Ibérica durante el período estudiado. Este proceso es más acusado en el segundo linaje que en el primero. Durante la zona MN 6, una especie ubiquista, el inmigrante norteño A. hippoides entra en la península y sustituye a las especies presentes hasta el momento. Este proceso se relaciona con un progresivo aumento de la humedad ambiental que provocaría una reorganización de la fauna. Finalmente se expone un escenario ambiental para la evolución de Anchitherium en España. En él se muestra la relación de alternancia existente entre Equidae y Rhinocerotidae como grupo faunístico dominante durante el Mioceno. [ABSTRACT] The paleoecology and evolution of the equid Anchitherium VON MEYER, 1834 is studied in this paper by means of multifactorial analysis (principal components analysis, discriminant analysis) of the Ramblian-lower Vallesian large mammal faunas from the Iberian Peninsula. Joint analysis of subtropical and tropical recent faunas and Miocene faunas allow the establishment of several environmental characteristics (temperature, thermal seasonality) of the ecosystems of those Miocene communities. Our results indicate that it is possible to infer the biome of a locality based on its macromammal fauna. It has been able to infer the presence in the Iberian Miocene of temperate evergreen forests, tropical deciduous forests and savannas. A relationship is observed between the relative size of the dentition regarding the corporal size in Anchitherium and the temperature variations. Populations that occupied more thermally seasonal environments presented a relatively bigger dentition regarding their corporal size than the non-seasonally environment inhabitants. This could be related with a diminished consumption of fruits caused by a lesser fruit availability in the more thermal seasonality areas, and a higher consumption of leaves, less nutritive than fruits. The relative abundance of Anchitherium in the fossil local faunas seems mainly settled by temperature, being more abundant in faunas from colder fossil sites. This fact could be related with the environmental conditions that Anchitheriinae had to overcome to cross Beringia before reaching Eurasia. Biomes occupied by each Anchitherium species are studied. The two clades proposed by SÁNCHEZ et al. (1998) shown a similar behaviour. More or less ubiquitous species, adapted to dense forest environments, are substituted by more derived species adapted to ecosystems with a dry station (tropical deciduous forests and savannas), the predominant biomes in the Iberian Peninsula during the studied period. This process is more pronounced in the second lineage than in the first one. Another ubiquitous species, the northern immigrant A. hippoides come into the Iberian Peninsula in MN 6 zone and replace the rest of species. This process is related with the progressive increment in environmental humidity causing a faunal reorganization. Finally an environmental scenario for the evolution of Anchitherium in Spain is exposed. An alternation relationship as faunal dominant group during the Miocene between Equidae and Rhinocerotidae is shown

Synthesis of TiB2-Ni3B Nanocomposite Powders by Mechanical Alloying

Combination of good oxidation resistance, thermal stability, hardness and high strength are great interest properties in engineering and, that are possible to obtain with the Ni-Ti-B ternary system. Mechanical alloying (MA) is an alternative method and cheapest for the synthesis of this kind of metal-ceramic materials with respect to the traditional melt and quench process. The transformation sequence of all the mixtures reported the formation of (ɣ Ni) phase with a nodular morphology and identified the additional presence of the TiB2 phase (needle morphology), which was more evident with the increase of titanium content (M2 and M3 mixtures) after 24 h of milling. Thermal activation of the milled powders showed the nucleation and growth of the Ni3B (O boride) and TiB2 (Hex) as the main phases after heat treatment, where the TiB2 phase (thin flakes morphology) was nucleated onto Ni3B matrix. Ternary alloy by MA took place under a metastable equilibrium, offering the possibility to form glassy alloys for compositions, which are not accessible by melting or quenching techniques