The role of competition by dominants and temperature in the foraging of subordinate species in Mediterranean ant communities

In this paper we test the influence of temperature and interference competition by dominant species on the foraging of subordinate species in Mediterranean ant communities. We have analyzed the changes in resource use by subordinate species in plots with different abundances of dominant ants, and in different periods of the day and the year, i.e., at different temperatures. The expected effects of competition by dominant species on foraging of subordinates were only detected for two species in the number of baits occupied per day, and for one species in the number of foragers at pitfall traps. In all three cases, subordinate species were less represented at baits or in traps in plots with a high density of dominants than in plots with a medium or low density of dominants. The number of workers per bait, and the foraging efficiency of subordinate species did not differ in plots differing in dominant abundance. Daily activity rhythms and curves of temperature versus foraging activity of subordinate species were also similar in plots with different abundance of dominant species, indicating no effect of dominants on the foraging times of subordinates. Instead, temperature had a considerable effect on the foraging of subordinate species. A significant relationship was found between maximum daily temperature and several variables related to foraging (the number of foragers at pitfall traps, the number of baits occupied per day, and the number of workers per bait) of a number subordinate species, both in summer and autumn. These results suggest that the foraging of subordinate ant species in open Mediterranean habitats is influenced more by temperature than by competition of dominants, although an effect of dominants on subordinates has been shown in a few cases. In ant communities living in these severe and variable environments, thermal tolerance reduces the importance of competition, and the mutual exclusion usually found between dominant and subordinate species appears to be the result of physiological specialization to different temperature ranges.Peer Reviewe

Taxonomic differentiation of iberian knapweeds (Centaurea sects. Jacea and Lepteranthus, Asteraceae) and genetic isolation of infraspecific floral morphotypes

The taxonomic boundaries of Centaurea L. species and infraspecific taxa are often blurred by hybridizations. However, counterbalancing genetic isolation contributes to maintaining taxonomic limits and fostering rapid speciation processes. Radiant (R) and non-radiant (NR) capitula are two major floral morphs present in Centaurea. However, it is unclear how gene flow affects the distribution of floral morphotypes across populations and taxa. We have investigated the taxonomic differentiation and potential effect of genetic isolation in R and NR populations of Iberian Centaurea sects. Jacea (Mill.) Pers. ex Dumort. and Lepteranthus (Neck. ex DC.) Dumort. A total of 510 individuals from 58 populations (12 taxa) were analyzed using 165 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Genetic diversity and structure parameters were estimated at the taxon, population, and floral morphotypic levels. We tested whether there was correlation between population pairwise fixation index (Fst) genetic distances and the inbreeding coefficient (Fis), taken as a surrogate of reproductive isolation between the R and NR morphotypes of each group, and also taking into account geographic distances, using distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA). We also performed isolation by distance (IBD) tests between different floral morphotypes, aiming to infer the impact of genetic isolation on evolutionary and taxonomic divergence of the individuals. The taxa of Centaurea sects. Jacea and Lepteranthus constitute independent evolutionary lineages. Most of the detected genetic clusters match the taxonomic circumscription proposed in our most recent treatments. Genetic diversity was highest in C. debeauxii Godr. & Gren. subsp. debeauxii and subsp. grandiflora (Gaudin ex Schübl. & G. Martens) Devesa & Arnelas and in C. jacea L. subsp. angustifolia (DC.) Gremli (R) and lowest in C. nevadensis Boiss. & Reut. (NR) within the Centaurea sect. Jacea clade, whereas it was highest in C. linifolia L. within the Centaurea sect. Lepteranthus clade. Population-level dbRDA tests did not detect a significant correlation of R versus NR genetic distances and Fis values in any of the studied cases; by contrast, they detected significant correlation with longitude (C. jacea subsp. angustifolia, C. debeauxii, C. linifolia–C. stuessyi Arnelas, Devesa & E. López) or latitude (C. nigra L.). IBD analysis at the individual level showed that, in addition to geography, other morphotype-related factors may affect the genetic differentiation of R versus NR morphs in C. nigra, C. debeauxii, and C. linifolia–C. stuessyi. These results suggest that the fixation of the different morphs within the same taxon or group may be explained by geographic isolation, though we could not discount other potential unknown factors that could have contributed to microspeciation in these recently divergent populations, which originated only several thousands of years ago

Enhancing magnetorheological effect using bimodal suspensions in the singlemultidomain limit

We demonstrate a new route to enhance the magnetorheological effect using bimodal suspensions in the single-multidomain limit. Experimental results are satisfactorily compared to 3D finite element method simulations. The physical reason behind this enhancement is the coating of the larger particles by the smaller ones due to the remnant magnetization of the latter.This work was supported by MAT 2016-78778-R and PCIN 2015-051 projects (FEDER FUNDS and MINECO, Spain). A J F Bombard is grateful to FAPEMIG grants: APQ-01824-17, PEE-00081-16, RED-00144-16, ETC-00043-15, PEP-00231- 15, APQ-00463-11 and RDP-00164-10. J R Morillas acknowledges FPU14/01576 fellowship

IMPLEMENTACION DE UN PLAN DE MARKETING ESTRATEGICO PARA LA EMPRESA OMEGA TRACTORS SAC AÑO 2014

MARKETING ESTRATÉGICO ESTRATEGIAS CLASIFICACIÓN DE ESTRATEGIAS DECISIONES ESTRATÉGICAS DE CARTERA ESTRATEGIAS DE SEGMENTACIÓN Y POSICIONAMIENTO ESTRATEGIA FUNCIONAL ESTRATEGIA DE LIDERAZGO EN COSTES LA ESTRATEGIA DE CONCENTRACIÓN INTEGRACIÓN HACIA ATRÁS INTEGRACIÓN HACIA DELANTE AMPLITUD CALIDAD DEL PRODUCTO CANAL DE DISTRIBUCIÓN CARTERA DE PRODUCTOS CICLO DE VIDA DEL PRODUCTO COMPORTAMIENTO DEL CONSUMIDOR CRITERIOS DE SEGMENTACIÓN ENVASE IMAGEN DE UN PRODUCTO O MARCA INTANGIBILIDAD LEALTAD DE MARCA LÍNEA DE PRODUCTOS LOGÍSTICA LONGITUD MADUREZ MARCA MARKETING DE SERVICIOS MARKETING DIRECTO MARKETING MIX MERCADO OBJETIVO MERCHANDISING PRECIO PSICOLÓGICO PROFUNDIDAD PROMOCIÓN DE VENTA

The experimental pond and garden at Universty of Jaén, a new teaching experience

La Universidad de Jaén en la búsqueda de la innovación docente ha construido recientemente en el Campus de Las Lagunillas (Jaén) un humedal y un jardín experimental con fines docentes y de investigación. Con este proyecto se ha pretendido, por una parte establecer un modelo distinto en la impartición de las prácticas docentes en asignaturas de Ciencias sustentado en el hecho ya comentado por el profesor Enrique Rioja de que "la contemplación de los hechos o de los seres vivos en su ambiente natural es el único medio de que tenga un sentido educativo la labor realizada dentro de la escuela", y en segundo lugar apoyar las recomendaciones de la Conferencia de Rectores de Universidades Españolas (CRUE) potenciando la biodiversidad en los campus universitarios y el uso de los espacios exteriores como lugares para el desarrollo de actividades docentes. En este trabajo se presenta el humedal y el jardín experimental de la Universidad de Jaén, y se muestran los resultados obtenidos en el primer año de utilización de los mismos en las prácticas docentes de las asignaturas de Ecología y Metodología y Experimentación en el Medio Natural del Grado de Biología, Metodología de Evaluación de Ecosistemas de la Licenciatura de Biología e Itinerarios Turísticos Naturales de la Diplomatura de Turismo, así como en la formación y realización de trabajos de investigación de estudiantes de postgrado. Parte de los resultados derivan del desarrollo de un proyecto de Innovación Docente de la Universidad de Jaén (PID451012) llevado a cabo por parte de los miembros del grupo de trabajo.The University of Jaén, seeking innovation in teaching procedures, has recently built at Campus de las Lagunillas (Jaén) an experimental pond and garden for teaching and research purposes. This project firstly aims to establish a different model for teaching Sciences practice courses, in accordance with the Professor Enrique Rioja’s beliefs: “contemplation of facts or living beings in their own natural environment is the only way of providing a meaningful educative of the teaching labor at the school”. Secondly, this project aims to support the recommendations made by the Conference of Presidents of the Spanish Universities (CRUE), which asked to improve the biodiversity on Spanish campuses, and the encouragement of outdoors teaching activities. In this work, we present the experimental pond and garden of the University of Jaén, and show the first results obtained during the first year of its use as a teaching implement for practice courses of Ecology and Methodology and Experimentation in the wild (Biology Degree), Methodology of the Evaluation of Ecosystems (Biology), Touristic Natural Itineraries (Diploma of Tourism) and others research works conducted by postgraduate students. Part of the results here presented come from an Innovation Teaching Project supported by the University of Jaén (PID451012) which is carrying out by part of the members of this team of work

Neutral molecular markers support common origin of aluminium tolerance in three congeneric grass species growing in acidic soils

Aluminium (Al) toxicity is the main abiotic stress limiting plant productivity in acidic soils that are widely distributed among arable lands. Plant species differ in the level of Al resistance showing intraspecific and interspecific variation in many crop species. However, the origin of Al-tolerance is not well known. Three annual species, difficult to distinguish phenotypically and that were until recently misinterpreted as a single complex species under Brachypodium distachyon, have been recently separated into three distinct species: the diploids B. distachyon (2n = 10) and B. stacei (2n = 20), and B. hybridum (2n = 30), the allotetraploid derived from the two diploid species. The aims of this work were to know the origin of Al-tolerance in acidic soil conditions within these three Brachypodium species and to develop new DNA markers for species discrimination. Two multiplex SSR-PCRs allowed to genotype a group of 94 accessions for 17 pentanucleotide microsatellite (SSRs) loci. The variability for 139 inter-microsatellite (ISSRs) markers was also examined. The genetic relationships obtained using those neutral molecular markers (SSRs and ISSRs) support that all Al-tolerant allotetraploid accessions of B. hybridum have a common origin that is related with both geographic location and acidic soils. The possibility that the adaptation to acidic soils caused the isolation of the tolerant B. hybridum populations from the others is discussed. We finally describe a new, easy, DNA barcoding method based in the upstream-intron 1 region of the ALMT1 gene, a tool that is 100 % effective to distinguish among these three Brachypodium species

Multiple founder events explain the genetic diversity and structure of the model allopolyploid grass Brachypodium hybridum in the Iberian Peninsula hotspot

Background and Aims It is accepted that contemporary allopolyploid species have originated recurrently, but very few cases have been documented using multiple natural formations of the same species. To extend our knowledge, we have investigated the multiple origins, genetic variation and structure of the allotetraploid grass Brachypodium hybridum with respect to its progenitor diploid species B. distachyon (D genome) and B. stacei (S genome). For this, our primary focus is the Iberian Peninsula, an evolutionary hotspot for the genus Brachypodium. Methods We analysed 342 B. hybridum individuals from 36 populations using ten nuclear SSR loci and two plastid loci. The B. hybridum genetic profiles were compared with those previously reported for B. stacei and B. distachyon. In addition, phylogenetic analysis of the plastid data was performed for a reduced subset of individuals. Key Results The nuclear simple sequence repeat (SSR) genetic analysis detected medium to high genetic diversity, with a strong south-to-north genetic structure cline, and a high selfing rate in B. hybridum. Comparative genetic analysis showed a close relatedness of current B. hybridum D allelic profiles with those of B. distachyon, but a lack of similarity with those of B. stacei, suggesting another B. stacei source for the B. hybridum S alleles. Plastid analysis detected three different bidirectional allopolyploidization events: two involved distinct B. distachyon-like ancestors and one involved a B. stacei-like ancestor. The south-eastern Iberian Peninsula B. hybridum populations were more genetically diverse and could have originated from at least two hybridization events whereas north-eastern/north-western Iberian Peninsula B. hybridum populations were less diverse and may have derived from at least one hybridization event. Conclusions The genetic and evolutionary evidence supports the plausible in situ origin of the south-eastern and northern Iberian Peninsula B. hybridum allopolyploids from their respective local B. distachyon and unknown B. stacei ancestors. The untapped multiple origins and genetic variation detected in these B. hybridum populations opens the way to future evolutionary analysis of allopolyploid formation and genomic dominance and expression in the B. hybridum–B. distachyon–B. stacei grass model complex.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Clinical Trials of Thermosensitive Nanomaterials: An Overview

Currently, we are facing increasing demand to develop efficient systems for the detection and treatment of diseases that can realistically improve distinct aspects of healthcare in our society. Sensitive nanomaterials that respond to environmental stimuli can play an important role in this task. In this manuscript, we review the clinical trials carried out to date on thermosensitive nanomaterials, including all those clinical trials in hybrid nanomaterials that respond to other stimuli (e.g., magnetic, infrared radiation, and ultrasound). Specifically, we discuss their use in diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. At present, none of the existing trials focused on diagnosis take advantage of the thermosensitive characteristics of these nanoparticles. Indeed, almost all clinical trials consulted explore the use of Ferumoxytol as a current imaging test enhancer. However, the thermal property is being further exploited in the field of disease treatment, especially for the delivery of antitumor drugs. In this regard, ThermoDox®, based on lysolipid thermally sensitive liposome technology to encapsulate doxorubicin (DOX), is the flagship drug. In this review, we have evidenced the discrepancy existing between the number of published papers in thermosensitive nanomaterials and their clinical use, which could be due to the relative novelty of this area of research; more time is needed to validate it through clinical trials. We have no doubt that in the coming years there will be an explosion of clinical trials related to thermosensitive nanomaterials that will surely help to improve current treatments and, above all, will impact on patients’ quality of life and life expectancy.This research was supported by the Fundación Mutua Madrileña by the project FMM-AP16683-2017, Consejería de Salud Junta de Andalucía (PI-0089-2017), MINECO MAT 2016-78778-R, PCIN-2015-051 projects (Spain), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and from the Chair “Doctors Galera-Requena in cancer stem cell research”

RecruitNet: A global database of plant recruitment networks

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities. Despite the huge body of knowledge on the mechanisms underlying recruitment interactions among species, we still know little about the structure of the recruitment networks emerging in ecological communities. Modeling and analyzing the community-level structure of plant recruitment interactions as a complex network can provide relevant information on ecological and evolutionary processes acting both at the species and ecosystem levels. We report a data set containing 143 plant recruitment networks in 23 countries across five continents, including temperate and tropical ecosystems. Each network identifies the species under which another species recruits. All networks report the number of recruits (i.e., individuals) per species. The data set includes >850,000 recruiting individuals involved in 118,411 paired interactions among 3318 vascular plant species across the globe. The cover of canopy species and open ground is also provided. Three sampling protocols were used: (1) The Recruitment Network (RN) protocol (106 networks) focuses on interactions among established plants (“canopy species”) and plants in their early stages of recruitment (“recruit species”). A series of plots was delimited within a locality, and all the individuals recruiting and their canopy species were identified; (2) The paired Canopy-Open (pCO) protocol (26 networks) consists in locating a potential canopy plant and identifying recruiting individuals under the canopy and in a nearby open space of the same area; (3) The Georeferenced plot (GP) protocol (11 networks) consists in using information from georeferenced individual plants in large plots to infer canopy-recruit interactions. Some networks incorporate data for both herbs and woody species, whereas others focus exclusively on woody species. The location of each study site, geographical coordinates, country, locality, responsible author, sampling dates, sampling method, and life habits of both canopy and recruit species are provided. This database will allow researchers to test ecological, biogeographical, and evolutionary hypotheses related to plant recruitment interactions. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set; please cite this data paper when using these data in publications. © 2022 The Authors. Ecology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America

Thermo-Sensitive Nanomaterials: Recent Advance in Synthesis and Biomedical Applications

Progress in nanotechnology has enabled us to open many new fronts in biomedical research by exploiting the peculiar properties of materials at the nanoscale. The thermal sensitivity of certain materials is a highly valuable property because it can be exploited in many promising applications, such as thermo-sensitive drug or gene delivery systems, thermotherapy, thermal biosensors, imaging, and diagnosis. This review focuses on recent advances in thermo-sensitive nanomaterials of interest in biomedical applications. We provide an overview of the different kinds of thermoresponsive nanomaterials, discussing their potential and the physical mechanisms behind their thermal response. We thoroughly review their applications in biomedicine and finally discuss the current challenges and future perspectives of thermal therapies.This research was supported by the Fundación Mutua Madrileña (project FMM-AP16683-2017), Consejería de Salud Junta de Andalucía (PI-0089-2017), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FEDER funds PIE16/00045), MINECO MAT2015-63644-C2-R, MAT 2016-78778-R, PCIN-2015-051 projects (Spain), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and from the Chair “Doctors Galera-Requena in cancer stem cell research”