Sobre la identidad de Calomicrus fallax (Joannis, 1865), con descripción de una nueva especie de Calomicrus ampliamente distribuida por España y Portugal, y notas sobre las especies ibéricas (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae)

Calomicrus fallax (Joannis, 1865) is redescribed and its distribution is limited to Tunisia and Algeria. Calomicrus ibericus sp. nov. is described from Portugal and Spain. Due to the historical confusion between them, their differences are established. The Iberian species of Calomicrus Dillwyn, 1829 are listed. Two species, Calomicrus espanoli (Codina, 1963) and Calomicrus pinicola (Duftschmid, 1825) are transferred to Euluperus Weise, 1886. The Iberian species in Calomicrus and Euluperus are keyed and colour photo of habitus are provided. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F3532A0A-F6D2-433A-B111-74D887D2912FSe redescribe Calomicrus fallax (Joannis, 1865), y su distribución queda limitada a Túnez y Argelia. Se describe una nueva especie de Portugal y España, Calomicrus ibericus sp. nov., históricamente confundida con C. fallax, y se evidencian las diferencias entre ambas. Se ofrece una lista geográfica de las especies ibéricas de Calomicrus Dillwyn, 1829, y dos especies anteriormente combinadas en este género, C. espanoli (Codina, 1963) y C. pinicola (Duftschmid, 1825), son transferidas a Euluperus Weise, 1886. Se propone una clave dicotómica para separar las especies ibéricas de Calomicrus y Euluperus, y se muestran fotografía a color de los habitus de las mismas

Fisiología Animal ambiental y control de plagas. II. Pesticidas de tercera generación y la fisiología de los insectos

Conferencia de Clase: Las aplicaciones de la ciencia son a menudo impredecibles. El conocimiento de la regulación endocrina de la metamorfosis de los insectos, iniciado por Vincent Wigglesworth en 1934, ha devenido en toda una generación de insecticidas llamados Reguladores del Crecimiento (IGR, por sus siglas en inglés: Insect Growth Regulators). Además, Sláma y Williams en 1965 dieron cuenta del hallazgo “fortuito” del “Factor Papel (Paper Factor)”: estos autores observaron que el papel fabricado a partir de madera del abeto balsámico (Abies balsamea) emitía vapores con un potente efecto análogo a la hormona juvenil en heterópteros; este grupo de compuestos se denominó Juvabionas, y poseen una importante función en determinados vegetales como defensas contra insectos. El conocimiento del papel de las hormonas juvenil y de la muda, así como de la biosíntesis de lípidos cuticulares ha facilitado la síntesis y aplicación de 7 grupos de materias activas con diferentes modos de acción insecticida (IRAC, Insecticide Resistance Action Committee). Estos grupos se basan en sus diferentes modos de acción como análogos y antagonistas de las hormonas juvenil y de la muda, inhibidores de la biosíntesis de quitina y disruptores de la muda. Ha sido una verdadera revolución en el desarrollo de materias con efecto insecticida, ya que los IGR son más específicos que los insecticidas clásicos, disminuyen los riesgos ambientales y para la salud humana, y reducen la aparición de fenómenos de resistencia. Estas materias con efecto hormonoide, junto al empleo de feromonas y de bacterias (Bacillus), hongos (p. ej. Beauveria) y virus entomopatógenos, se denominan insecticidas biorracionales. Actualmente, se investigan los mecanismos moleculares en la modulación de la expresión génica de estas hormonas, y tal vez podamos asistir en un futuro a una nueva generación de insecticidas altamente específicos de las plagas agrícolas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Un nuevo Eurydema Lp. ibérico (Heteroptera, Pentatomidae)

A new species, Eurydema (Eurydema) ferreri (Heteroptera, Pentatomidae), is described from the Serrania de Ronda, southern Spain; likewise the host plant and ecological data are included. E. ferreri n. sp. is a closely related species to E. nana de la Fuente within the E. oleraceum group. Furthermore E. oleraceum (L.), E. lineola lineola (Ba.), E. lineolrt'nevadensis Lg. and E. wnsobrina (Pt.) are argued to be synonymous. An identification key for the Iberian species of the subgenus Eurydema (Eurydema) is provided.Se describe un heteróptero de la familia Pentatomidae, Eurydema (Eurydema) ferreri n. sp., procedente de la Serrania de Ronda (Málaga), aportándose datos ecológicos al respecto. Esta nueva especie está estrechamente relacionada con Eurydema nana de la Fuente, de Sierra Nevada (Granada), del grupo de Eurydema oleraceum (L.). De dicho grupo se estudian E. oleraceum (L.), E. lineola lineola (Ba), E. lineola nevadensis Lg. y E. consobrina (Pt.), estableciéndose la sinonimia de las mismas. Finalrnente, se dan unas claves de separación de las especies ibéricas del subgénero Eurydema

A positioning algorithm for SPH ghost particles in smoothly curved geometries

An algorithm to place ghost particles across the domain boundary in the context of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is derived from basic principles, and constructed for several simple, three-dimensional, geometries. The performance of the algorithm is compared against the more commonly used ‘‘mirrored with respect to the local tangent plane" approach and shown to converge to it whenever the distance of the particles to the reflecting boundary is much smaller than a local measure of the surface’s curvature. The algorithm is demonstrated, tested and compared against the usual approach via simulations of a compressible flow around a cylinder, and the numerical cost of implementing it is addressed. We conclude that use of ghost particles to enforce boundary conditions is not only viable in the presence of smoothly curved boundaries, but more robust than the usual method for low-resolution scenarios.This research was sponsored in part by the DGICYT (Dirección General de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas) of Spain under National Project No. ENE2015-68265. Research was also funded in part by the Erasmus Mundus Program: International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering FUSION-DC, Spain

Magneto-hydrodynamical nonlinear simulations of magnetically confined plasmas using smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH)

The successful application of techniques inspired in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) nonlinear simulations of magnetically confined plasmas requires the previous solution to a number of challenging issues that are still not fully resolved, namely, the construction of precise, arbitrary initial conditions in complicated geometries, the formulation of adequate boundary conditions for the magnetic field, and the correct treatment of three-dimensional toroidal boundaries of the arbitrary shape. In this paper, we present an SPH implementation of the nonlinear MHD equations that include our proposed solution to these issues and test its performance on a broad selection of nonlinear MHD problems: (1) the propagation of circularly polarized Alfven waves, (2) the occurrence of magnetic reconnection for a Harris current-sheet, and (3) the nonlinear MHD stability properties of various cylindrical pinches.This research was sponsored by DGICYT (Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica) under Project No. ENE2015-68265, MINECO (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) under Project No. UNC313-4E-2361, and the Erasmus Mundus Program: International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering FUSION-DC

Assessment of 5-HT7 Receptor Agonists Selectivity Using Nociceptive and Thermoregulation Tests in Knockout versus Wild-Type Mice

No study has ever examined the effect of 5-HT7 receptor agonists on nociception by using 5-HT7 receptor knockout mice. Basal sensitivity to noxious heat stimuli and formalin-induced nociception in both phase I and II of the formalin test did not differ in 5-HT7 receptor knockout mice and paired wild-type controls. Similarly, there was no significant difference in basal body temperature between both genotypes. Subcutaneous administration of 5-HT7 receptor agonists AS-19 (10 mg/kg), E-57431 (10 mg/kg), and E-55888 (20 mg/kg) significantly reduced formalin-induced licking/biting behavior during the phase II of the test in wild-type but not in 5-HT7 receptor knockout mice. At these active analgesic doses, none of the three 5-HT7 receptor agonists modified the basal body temperature neither in wild-type nor in 5-HT7 receptor knockout mice. However, a significant decrease in body temperature was observed at a higher dose (20 mg/kg) of AS-19 and E-57431 in both genotypes. Our data strongly suggest that the 5-HT7 receptor agonists AS-19, E-57431, and E-55888 produce antinociception in the formalin test by activating 5-HT7 receptors. These results also strengthen the idea that the 5-HT7 receptor plays a role in thermoregulation, but by acting in concert with other receptors

Adding Semantics to Enrich Public Transport and Accessibility Data from the Web

Web technologies and open data practices have now begun to promote new issues and services addressed to both final and specialized users. The smart cities initiative has also introduced new trends and ideas to offer to the public, one of which is the challenge of a more inclusive society that will provide the same opportunities for all. One of the major areas that could benefit from these new initiatives is public transport by, for example, providing open and accessible datasets, which include information by and about people with special needs. In this sense, the Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) defines a format to describe public transportation and associated geographic information. It includes details regarding accessibility and what people with special needs might require to get around using public transport. We are, however, of the opinion that this specification has a low granularity and is not sufficient, since it only takes into account only mobility needs. As suggestions for improvement, we propose to enrich GTFS data by combining public transport data from multiple Web sources with semantic metadata techniques. Those data are stored in a public semantic dataset. To define this dataset, we propose a systematic method to extract data from different sources and integrate them. This method is applied to obtain data about the metro system from the website of Metro Madrid and GTFS. Relevant SPARQL queries and two applications are developed to evaluate the usefulness of the dataset obtained

A New Pharmacophore Model for the Design of Sigma-1 Ligands Validated on a Large Experimental Dataset

The recent publication of the σ1R crystal structure is an important cornerstone for the derivation of more accurate activity prediction models. We report here a comparative study involving a set of more than 25,000 structures from our internal database that had been screened for σ1R affinity. Using the recently published crystal structure, 5HK1, two new pharmacophore models were generated. The first one, 5HK1–Ph.A, was obtained by an algorithm that identifies the most important receptor-ligand interactions including volume restrictions enforced by the atomic structure of the recognition site. The second, 5HK1–Ph.B, resulted from a manual edition of the first one by the fusion of two hydrophobic (HYD) features. Finally, we also docked the database using a high throughput docking technique and scored the resulting poses with seven different scoring functions. Statistical performance measures were obtained for the two models, comparing them with previously published σ1R pharmacophores (Hit Rate, sensitivity, specificity, and Receiver Operator Characteristic) and 5HK1–Ph.B emerged as the best one in discriminating between active and inactive compounds, with a ROC-AUC value above 0.8 and enrichment values above 3 at different fractions of screened samples. 5HK1–Ph.B also showed better results than the direct docking, which may be due to the rigidity of the crystal structure in the docking process (i.e., feature tolerances in the pharmacophore model). Additionally, the impact of the HYD interactions and the penalty for desolvating ligands with polar atoms may be not adequately captured by scoring functions, whereas HYD groups filling up such regions of the binding site are entailed in the pharmacophore model. Altogether, using annotated data from a large and diverse compound collection together with crystal structure information provides a sound basis for the generation and validation of predictive models to design new molecules

Antidepressive-like Behavior-Related Metabolomic Signatures of Sigma-1 Receptor Knockout Mice

Sigma-1 receptor (Sig1R) has been proposed as a therapeutic target for neurological, neu-rodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety. Identifying metabolites that are affected by Sig1R absence and cross-referencing them with specific mood-related behaviors would be helpful for the development of new therapies for Sig1R-associated disorders. Here, we examined metabolic profiles in the blood and brains of male CD-1 background Sig1R knockout (KO) mice in adulthood and old age and correlated them with the assessment of depression-and anxiety-related behaviors. The most pronounced changes in the metabolic profile were observed in the plasma of adult Sig1R KO mice. In adult mice, the absence of Sig1R significantly influenced the amino acid, sphingolipid (sphingomyelin and ceramide (18:1)), and serotonin metabolic pathways. There were higher serotonin levels in plasma and brain tissue and higher histamine levels in the plasma of Sig1R KO mice than in their age-matched wild-type counterparts. This increase correlated with the reduced behavioral despair in the tail suspension test and lack of anhedonia in the sucrose preference test. Overall, these results suggest that Sig1R regulates behavior by altering serotonergic and histaminergic systems and the sphingolipid metabolic pathway. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.This research was supported by the ERDF project 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/244 “The role of sigma-1 receptor in sexual behavior”; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020- WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART2