Systematic studies in Neotropical Myrtaceae with an emphasis on <i>Myrcia s.l.</i>: The evolution and biogeography of a large South American clade

Low morphological variation at all taxonomic levels give Neotropical Myrtaceae a reputation as a 'difficult' family to identify even to genus, resulting in a lack of taxonomic data on every front. The subtribal classification of the predominantly Neotropical and exclusively fleshy-fruited tribe Myrteae (49 genera and c. 2500 species) is unstable, as are generic boundaries within it. Neotropical Myrtaceae are particularly species rich in some of South America's most threatened habitats. The second largest Neotropical genus, Myrcia s.l., comprises >700 taxonomically 'difficult' species with species diversity reaching its peak in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest and cerrado, habitats in urgent need of inventories of their plant species before conservation initiatives can be undertaken. Phylogenetic hypotheses are provided for evolutionary relationships within Myrteae and Myrcia s.l. based on nuclear ITS and ETS ribosomal DNA and plastid psbA-trnH and matK DNA sequences, using parsimony and Bayesian inference. Four morphological characters of Myrteae are optimized on the resulting trees and nineteen are used in a cladistic analysis of Myrcia s.l. Myrteae appear monophyletic, comprising seven clades plus two isolated taxa. Of the four previously accepted genera of subtribe Myrciinae sensu DC., two are polyphyletic and all emerge in a single clade treated here as Myrcia s.l. Morphological characters exhibit homoplasy at both ranks, although in combination are useful for clade diagnosis. Biogeographical analysis is inconclusive regarding tribal ancestral areas, but South American colonization before northern radiation via the Andes appears likely. The largest genera, Eugenia and Myrcia s.l., have western and southeastern South American origins, respectively. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and ordination techniques are employed to divide the distribution of Myrcia s.l. into discrete areas of endemism and historical biogeographical scenarios are discussed. Finally, modern, natural, subtribal and infrageneric classifications are proposed and concluding inferences are drawn regarding drivers of large genera using Myrtaceae and Myrcia s.l. as case studies

Homoeologous chromosomal location of the genes encoding thionins in wheat and rye

Thionins are high sulphur basic polypeptides present in the endosperm of Gramineae. In wheat there are three thionins encoded by genes located in the long arms of chromosomes 1A, 1B and 1D. Rye has one thionin encoded by a gene which has been assigned to chromosome 1R after analysis of the Imperial-Chinese Spring rye-wheat disomic addition lines. Commercial varieties and experimental stocks with a 1B/1R substitution carry the thionin from rye ( R) instead of the B thionin from wheat. The R thionin gene is not located in the large chromosomal segment representing most of the short arm of chromosome 1R

Los juegos deportivos y su influencia en la gestión emocional en universitarios

Los objetivos de este estudio fueron identicar las intensidades emocionales (positivas, negativas y ambiguas) durante la práctica de jue- gos deportivos de oposición con y sin competición y comprobar la relación existente con el historial deportivo de los participantes. Participaron 147 estudiantes universitarios, los cuales cumplimentaron el cuestionario GES (Game and Emotions Scale) desarrollado y validado por Lavega, March y Filella (2013). Las ecuaciones de estimación generalizadas mostraron di- ferencias signicativas (p &lt; .001) en las variables tipo de emoción, tipo de resultado y huella deportiva del participante. Las emociones positivas se vi- vieron con mayor intensidad en los juegos, mientras que las emociones nega- tivas y ambiguas fueron más bajas que las positivas. La huella deportiva fue determinante para las variaciones emocionales experimentadas, mostrando los jugadores con mayor experiencia y nivel competitivo puntuaciones me- nores en las emociones suscitadas durante la práctica de juegos deportivos de oposición. Los resultados contribuyen a orientar las intervenciones de futuros profesionales gracias a las experiencias prácticas vivenciadas.

The Alvarez impact theory of mass extinction; limits to its applicability and the „great expectations syndrome”

For the past three decades, the Alvarez impact theory of mass extinction, causally related to catastrophic meteorite impacts, has been recurrently applied to multiple extinction boundaries. However, these multidisciplinary research efforts across the globe have been largely unsuccessful to date, with one outstanding exception: the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The unicausal impact scenario as a leading explanation, when applied to the complex fossil record, has resulted in force-fitting of data and interpretations ("great expectations syndrome". The misunderstandings can be grouped at three successive levels of the testing process, and involve the unreflective application of the impact paradigm: (i) factual misidentification, i.e., an erroneous or indefinite recognition of the extraterrestrial record in sedimentological, physical and geochemical contexts, (ii) correlative misinterpretation of the adequately documented impact signals due to their incorrect dating, and (iii) causal overestimation when the proved impact characteristics are doubtful as a sufficient trigger of a contemporaneous global cosmic catastrophe. Examples of uncritical belief in the simple cause-effect scenario for the Frasnian-Famennian, Permian-Triassic, and Triassic-Jurassic (and the Eifelian-Givetian and Paleocene-Eocene as well) global events include mostly item-1 pitfalls (factual misidentification), with Ir enrichments and shocked minerals frequently misidentified. Therefore, these mass extinctions are still at the first test level, and only the F-F extinction is potentially seen in the context of item-2, the interpretative step, because of the possible causative link with the Siljan Ring crater (53 km in diameter). The erratically recognized cratering signature is often marked by large timing and size uncertainties, and item-3, the advanced causal inference, is in fact limited to clustered impacts that clearly predate major mass extinctions. The multi-impact lag-time pattern is particularly clear in the Late Triassic, when the largest (100 km diameter) Manicouagan crater was possibly concurrent with the end-Carnian extinction (or with the late Norian tetrapod turnover on an alternative time scale). The relatively small crater sizes and cratonic (crystalline rock basement) setting of these two craters further suggest the strongly insufficient extraterrestrial trigger of worldwide environmental traumas. However, to discuss the kill potential of impact events in a more robust fashion, their location and timing, vulnerability factors, especially target geology and palaeogeography in the context of associated climate-active volatile fluxes, should to be rigorously assessed. The current lack of conclusive impact evidence synchronous with most mass extinctions may still be somewhat misleading due to the predicted large set of undiscovered craters, particularly in light of the obscured record of oceanic impact events

Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum

We report a first measurement for ultra-high energy cosmic rays of the correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in the water Cherenkov stations of air-showers registered simultaneously by the fluorescence and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlation measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory with sensitivity to both the electromagnetic and muonic components. It allows an accurate determination of the spread of primary masses in the cosmic-ray flux. Up till now, constraints on the spread of primary masses have been dominated by systematic uncertainties. The present correlation measurement is not affected by systematics in the measurement of the depth of shower maximum or the signal in the water Cherenkov stations. The analysis relies on general characteristics of air showers and is thus robust also with respect to uncertainties in hadronic event generators. The observed correlation in the energy range around the `ankle' at $\lg(E/{\rm eV})=18.5-19.0$ differs significantly from expectations for pure primary cosmic-ray compositions. A light composition made up of proton and helium only is equally inconsistent with observations. The data are explained well by a mixed composition including nuclei with mass $A > 4$. Scenarios such as the proton dip model, with almost pure compositions, are thus disfavoured as the sole explanation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray flux at Earth.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters