A contribution to the taxonomy of Lyromma (Lyrommataceae, lichenized Ascomycota) with a species key

The paper presents a new concept of conidial-ascosporic relationship in the foliicolous lichenized genus Lyromma and a revised key to species determination. Lyromma coronatum sp. nov. (Bolivia) is characterized by reduced perithecial appendages composed of clavate hyphae that form a crown around the ostiole. Lyromma multisetulatum sp. nov. (Bolivia, Brazil) is characterized by numerous large strongly recurved perithecial appendages composed of individual acicular hyphae. Undescribed ascosporic states for Lyromma dolicobelum and L. palmae and conidial states for L. ornatum and L. pilosum are described based on observations of perithecia and pycnidia for the first time in natural conditions. Confirmation of a conidial-ascosporic connection for L. nectandrae suggests L. confusum as a synonym. Lyromma dolicobelum, L. nectandrae, and L. ornatum are reported as new to Bolivia, and L. pilosum as new to Bolivia and Brazil

New species of Sticta (lichenised Ascomycota, lobarioid Peltigeraceae) from Bolivia suggest a high level of endemism in the Central Andes

Six species of Sticta are described as new to science on the basis of material from Bolivia and supported by phylogenetic analysis of the fungal ITS barcoding marker. The species were resolved in all three of the clades (I, II, III) widespread and common in the Neotropics, as defined in an earlier study on the genus. Comparison with material from neighbouring countries (i.e. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) suggests that these new species may be potentially endemic to the Bolivian Yungas ecoregion. For each species, a detailed morphological and anatomical description is given. Sticta amboroensis Ossowska, Kukwa, B. Moncada & Lücking is a medium-sized green-algal species with laminal to submarginal apothecia with hirsute margins and with light to dark brown lower tomentum. Sticta aymara Ossowska, Kukwa, B. Moncada, Flakus, Rodriguez-Flakus & Lücking is a comparatively small cyanobacterial taxon with Nostoc as photobiont, laminal, richly branched, aggregate isidia and a golden to chocolate-brown lower tomentum. The medium-sized, cyanobacterial S. bicellulata Ossowska, Kukwa, B. Moncada & Lücking has cyanobacterial photobiont, bicellular ascospores, apothecia with white to golden-brown hairs on the margins, K+ violet apothecial margin (ring around disc) and epihymenium and a white to dark brown lower tomentum. In contrast, the green-algal species, S. carrascoensis Ossowska, Kukwa, B. Moncada & Lücking is characterised by its large size, apothecia with dark brown hairs on the margins and a yellow medulla. The cyanobacterial S. catharinae Ossowska, B. Moncada, Kukwa, Flakus, Rodriguez-Flakus & Lücking forms stipitate thalli with Nostoc as photobiont, abundant, laminal to submarginal apothecia and a golden-brown lower tomentum. Finally, the cyanobacterial S. pseudoimpressula Ossowska, Kukwa, B. Moncada & Lücking produces laminal apothecia with an orange-yellow line of pruina along the margins which reacts K+ carmine-red. In addition to the six new Bolivian taxa, the cyanobacterial S. narinioana B. Moncada, Ossowska & Lücking is described as new from Colombia and it represents the closely-related sister species of the Bolivian S. aymara; it differs from the latter largely in the marginal instead of laminal isidia

Pseudolepraria, a new leprose genus revealed in Ramalinaceae (Ascomycota, Lecanoromycetes, Lecanorales) to accommodate Lepraria stephaniana

The new genus Pseudolepraria Kukwa, Jabłońska, Kosecka & Guzow-Krzemińska is introduced to accommodate Lepraria stephaniana Elix, Flakus & Kukwa. Phylogenetic analyses of nucITS, nucLSU, mtSSU and RPB2 markers recovered the new genus in the family Ramalinaceae with strong support. The genus is characterised by its thick, unstratified thallus composed entirely of soredia-like granules, the presence of 4-O-methylleprolomin, salazinic acid, zeorin and unknown terpenoid, and its phylogenetic position. The new combination, P. stephaniana (Elix, Flakus & Kukwa) Kukwa, Jabłońska, Kosecka & Guzow-Krzemińska, is proposed

Strengthening Professional Efficacy Due to Sustainable Development of Social and Individual Competences - Empirical Research Study among Polish and Slovak Employees of the Aviation Sector

Nowadays, taking into account the multidimensionality of the external environment and necessity of the sustainable development of human resources, organizations are obliged to take more care of the psychological resources of their employees, e.g., positive orientation, ego resilience, and emotional stability. Such resources a ect how we cope with stress and a sense of threat. The authors of this paper focus on people employed in the aviation sector, who work in the hard-to-cope environment of full automation, demanding working conditions and numerous stressors. The presented study fills a gap in the research on the psychological characteristics of the aviation sector. Moreover, a sense of stress/threat is described in the context of the high specificity of employees representing the 4.0 sector. Therefore, it provides additional insights into the psychological functioning of the employees in the aviation sector. The results show that both positive orientation and ego resilience might be seen as protective factors against a sense of threat and stress, while a type D personality is a risk factor of a higher level of those psychological states. The novelty of the presented research concerns a better understanding of the sense of stress/threat experienced by the employees in this sector, as well as verifying the relationships between psychological variables described in the literature as personal resources

Contributions to the knowledge of the lichen biota of Bolivia 5

Peer reviewe

Two new species of Astrothelium from Sud Yungas in Bolivia and the first discovery of vegetative propagules in the family Trypetheliaceae (lichen-forming Dothideomycetes, Ascomycota)

Two new species of Astrothelium are described from the Yungas forest in Bolivian Andes. Astrothelium chulumanense is characterised by pseudostromata concolorous with the thallus, perithecia immersed for the most part, with the upper portion elevated above the thallus and covered, except the tops, with orange pigment, apical and fused ostioles, the absence of lichexanthone (but thallus UV+ orange-yellow), clear hamathecium, 8-spored asci and amyloid, large, muriform ascospores with median septa. Astrothelium isidiatum is known only in a sterile state and produces isidia that develop in groups on areoles, but easily break off to reveal a medulla that resembles soralia. Both species, according to the two-locus phylogeny, belong to Astrothelium s.str. The production of isidia is reported from the genus Astrothelium and the family Trypetheliaceae for the first time