An enigmatic new archosauriform from the Carnian-Norian, Upper Triassic, Ischigualasto Formation of northwestern Argentina

In this contribution we introduce a new Late Triassic archosaur, Incertovenator longicollum gen. et sp. nov., with an unusual combination of character states that are present in certain early avemetatarsalian and pseudosuchian archosaur clades. The holotype consists of a partial postcranial skeleton, preserving most of the axial skeleton and displaying a marked anteroposterior elongation in the cervical vertebrae. We include I. longicollum gen. et sp. nov. into one of the most comprehensive early archosaur phylogenetic data sets available, and recover it as either an early diverging avemetatarsalian, closely associated with the clade Aphanosauria and Ornithodira, or as an early diverging loricatan closely related to Mandasuchus tanyauchen in the most parsimonious trees. We further evaluate which alternative phylogenetic positions can I. longicollum gen. et sp. nov. take in the suboptimal trees, and determined which character states support those alternative positions in comparison with those of the unconstrained analysis. The analyses recover the new taxon in three main general phylogenetic placements within Archosauria, as well as one position outside this clade, highlighting widespread morphological evolutionary convergence towards neck elongation in several clades of Triassic archosauriforms.Fil: Yáñez, Imanol. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones de la Geosfera y Biosfera; ArgentinaFil: Pol, Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio; ArgentinaFil: Leardi, Juan Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Alcober, Oscar A.. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Martínez, Ricardo Néstor. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; Argentin

A fast vertical trajectory prediction method for air traffic management, and relevant ATM system

The invention concerns a method and system for the prediction of aircrafts vertical trajectory, in particular for Air Traffic Management, comprising the following flight calculation modules: Take-off; Climb; Cruise; Descent; and Landing, corresponding to the relevant flight phases, wherein: the calculation of the predicted aircraft trajectory is effected by using a set of TEM equations comprising, as output variables, the vertical rate of climb or descent, the true air speed, the energy share factor, the thrust and the drag, the mass of the aircraft modeled as point-mass, and comprising, as inpu variables, the Mach number depending on true air speed and temperature and altitude, the gravity acceleration, and the fuel flow, and the flight path angle; the calculation of the predicted aircraft trajectory for Cruise phase, wherein only the mass is varying, is performed by using the following analytical solution to said set of TEM equations

Effect of the irrigation method and genotype on the bioaccumulation of toxic and trace elements in rice

The total concentration of three toxic elements (As, Cd and Pb) and five oligoelements (Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni and Se) has been determined using an original and completely validated ICP-MS method. This was applied to rice grains from 26 different genotypes cultivated in the same soil and irrigated with the same water in three different ways: by the traditional continuous flooding (CF) and by two intermittent methods, the sprinkler irrigation (SP) and the periodical saturation of the soil (SA). The adoption of SP hugely minimizes the average amounts of almost all elements in kernels (−98% for As, −90% for Se and Mn, −60% for Mo, −50% for Cd and Pb), with the only exception of Ni, whose concentration increases the average amount found in the CF rice by 7.5 times. Also SA irrigation is able to reduce the amounts of As, Mo and Pb in kernels but it significantly increases the amounts of Mn, Ni and – mainly - Cd. Also the nature of the genotype determined a wide variability of data within each irrigation method. Genotypes belonging to Indica subspecies are the best bioaccumulators of elements in both CF and SP methods and, never, the worst bioaccumulators for any element/irrigation method combination. In the principal component analysis, PC1 can differentiate samples irrigated by SP by those irrigated by CF and SA, whereas PC2 provides differentiation of CF samples by SA samples. When looking at the loading plot Ni is negatively correlated to the majority of the other elements, except Cu and Cd having negative loadings on PC2. These results allow to envisage that a proper combination of the irrigation method and the nature of rice genotype might be a very valuable tool in order to successfully achieve specific objectives of food safety or the attainment of functional properties

Global Antifungal Profile Optimization of Chlorophenyl Derivatives against Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides

Twenty-two aromatic derivatives bearing a chlorine atom and a different chain in the para or meta position were prepared and evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity against the phytopathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The results showed that maximum inhibition of the growth of these fungi was exhibited for enantiomers S and R of 1-(40-chlorophenyl)- 2-phenylethanol (3 and 4). Furthermore, their antifungal activity showed a clear structure-activity relationship (SAR) trend confirming the importance of the benzyl hydroxyl group in the inhibitory mechanism of the compounds studied. Additionally, a multiobjective optimization study of the global antifungal profile of chlorophenyl derivatives was conducted in order to establish a rational strategy for the filtering of new fungicide candidates from combinatorial libraries. The MOOPDESIRE methodology was used for this purpose providing reliable ranking models that can be used later

Alleviating poverty through Islamic microfinance: factors and measures of financial performance, and roles of Islamic values and financial policies

Indonesia has a strong presence of microfinance sector with the number of Islamic Microfinance Institutions (IMFIs) estimated to be around 5,000 currently. Microfinance is an effective tool in alleviating poverty in Indonesia due to the limited access to financial services by the poor who accounted for approximately 96 million Indonesians (or 37% of the total population), living on less than USD 1.90 a day. In the absence of collateral and steady income, the poor are considered too risky to be given credit facilities by the formal financial services providers and living in remote areas has also limited their access to formal financial services. This study aims to examine the poverty alleviation efforts from the perspective of the IMFIs in view of their direct involvement in the process and having rich information about financial issues facing the borrowers. The managers also understand about financial inclusion agenda as well as financial guidelines and regulations issued by the relevant authorities. A total of 34 managers of Baitulmaal Wa Tamwil (BMTs), which registered under the Sharia Cooperative Centre (INKOPSYAH) are taken as respondents from the Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (JABODETABEK) areas. The first instrument was a survey questionnaire, and the second one was an in-depth interview to outline data related to the model design. The findings of this research are expected to contribute to better decision-making for the BMTs to further enhance its role in alleviating poverty. The findings also elaborate several dimensions to improving financial inclusion among the poor including providing financial services, implementing Islamic principles, significant policies, community-based framework concept and training financial education. This research highlights the need for a variety of strategies to warrant success of poverty alleviation efforts by BMT

The efficacy of preopoerative instruction in reducing anxiety following gyneoncological surgery: a case control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This is a quasi-experimental case control research focusing on the impact of systematic preoperative instruction on the level of postoperative anxiety in gyneoncologic patients. The population studied consists of the gyneoncologic surgery patients admitted to the Gynecologic Oncology Service at Zekai Tahir Burak Gynecology Training and Research Hospital from May to September 2010.</p> <p>Patients and methods</p> <p>Through a random sampling, 60 patients were recruited in each group. The study group was given a systematic preoperative instruction while the control group was given routine nursing care. Patients were interviewed in the postoperative period and anxiety was measured. The data-collecting tool consisted of the Individual Information Form and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The collected data were analyzed by using the SPSS Program to find the frequency, the percentage, the mean and the standard variables, and the hypothesis was tested with Chi-square, variance, and t-independent test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It was found that the incidence rates from the post-operative anxiety score of the study group were lower than those of the control group (p < .05). The results of this research demonstrated that gyneoncologic surgery patients who were given systematic preoperative instruction felt less anxious than the ones who were given merely a routine nursing care.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Results of this study suggest that preoperative instruction programs aiming at informing gyneoncologic surgery patients at the preoperative stage should be organized in hospitals and have an essential role.</p

MCR-ALS on metabolic networks: Obtaining more meaningful pathways

[EN] With the aim of understanding the flux distributions across a metabolic network, i.e. within living cells, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been proposed to obtain a set of orthogonal components (pathways) capturing most of the variance in the flux data. The problems with this method are (i) that no additional information can be included in the model, and (ii) that orthogonality imposes a hard constraint, not always reasonably. To overcome these drawbacks, here we propose to use a more flexible approach such as Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) to obtain this set of biological pathways through the network. By using this method, different constraints can be included in the model, and the same source of variability can be present in different pathways, which is reasonable from a biological standpoint. This work follows a methodology developed for Pichia pastoris cultures grown on different carbon sources, lately presented in González-Martínez et al. (2014). In this paper a different grey modelling approach, which aims to incorporate a priori knowledge through constraints on the modelling algorithms, is applied to the same case of study. The results of both models are compared to show their strengths and weaknesses.Research in this study was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and FEDER funds from the European Union through grants DPI2011-28112-C04-01 and DPI2011-28112-C04-02. The authors are also grateful to Biopolis SL for supporting this research.Folch-Fortuny, A.; Tortajada Serra, M.; Prats-Montalbán, JM.; Llaneras Estrada, F.; Picó Marco, JA.; Ferrer Riquelme, AJ. (2015). MCR-ALS on metabolic networks: Obtaining more meaningful pathways. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems. 142:293-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemolab.2014.10.004S29330314