Copalic Acid: Occurrence, Chemistry, and Biological Activities Gonçalves Medeiros, Vanessa; Duran, Fernando Javier; Lang, Karen Luise (–)-Copalic acid is a naturally occurring labdane‐type diterpene acid usually isolated from oleoresins of Copaifera trees, being considered the biomarker for the genus. This compound has shown many remarkable biological and pharmacological activities, including anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, cytotoxic, chemopreventive, antimutagenic, and antigenotoxic activities, which have attracted interest in its use as a prototype for the development of new drugs. This review was organized to describe the extraction, isolation, and analytical methods for quantification and structural elucidation, biological and pharmacological activities, pharmacokinetic and toxicological studies, and several semisynthetic derivatives of copalic acid. Some remaining gaps related to the reviewed activities are also mentioned, while the perspectives for future research with copalic acid are proposed.

Soluble adenylyl cyclase inhibition prevents human sperm functions essential for fertilization Balbach, Melanie; Ghanem, Lubna; Rhossetti, Thomas; Kaur, Navpreet; Ritagliati, Carla; Ferreira, Jacob; Krapf, Dario; Puga Molina, Lis del Carmen; Santi, Celia; Hansen, Jan; Wachten, Dagmar; Fushimi, Makoto; Meinke, Peter; Buck, Jochen; Levin, Lonny Soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC: ADCY10) has been genetically confirmed to be essential for male fertility in mice and humans. In mice, ex vivo studies of dormant, caudal epididymal sperm demonstrated that sAC is required for initiating capacitation and activating motility. We now use an improved sAC inhibitor, TDI-10229, for a comprehensive analysis of sAC function in mouse and human sperm. In contrast to caudal epididymal mouse sperm, human sperm are collected post-ejaculation, after sAC activity has already been stimulated. In addition to preventing the capacitation-induced stimulation of sAC and protein kinase A activities, tyrosine phosphorylation, alkaliniza- tion, beat frequency and acrosome reaction in dormant mouse sperm, sAC inhibitors interrupt each of these capacitation-induced changes in ejaculated human sperm. Furthermore, we show for the first time that sAC is required during acrosomal exocytosis in mouse and hu- man sperm. These data define sAC inhibitors as candidates for non-hormonal, on-demand contraceptives suitable for delivery via intravagi- nal devices in women.

Exploring the landscape of CHL strings on T d Font, Anamaría; Fraiman, Bernardo; Graña, Mariana; Nuñez, Carmen Alicia; De Freitas, Héctor Parra Compactifications of the heterotic string on special Td/ℤ2 orbifolds realize a landscape of string models with 16 supercharges and a gauge group on the left-moving sector of reduced rank d + 8. The momenta of untwisted and twisted states span a lattice known as the Mikhailov lattice II(d), which is not self-dual for d > 1. By using computer algorithms which exploit the properties of lattice embeddings, we perform a systematic exploration of the moduli space for d ≤ 2, and give a list of maximally enhanced points where the U(1)d+8 enhances to a rank d + 8 non-Abelian gauge group. For d = 1, these groups are simply-laced and simply-connected, and in fact can be obtained from the Dynkin diagram of E10. For d = 2 there are also symplectic and doubly-connected groups. For the latter we find the precise form of their fundamental groups from embeddings of lattices into the dual of II(2). Our results easily generalize to d > 2.

Early-life stress reprograms stress-coping abilities in male and female juvenile rats Pallares, Maria Eugenia; Monteleone, Melisa Carolina; Pastor, Verónica; Grillo Balboa, Jazmín; Alzamendi, Ana; Brocco, Marcela Adriana; Antonelli, Marta Cristina Prenatal stress (PS) is a major risk factor for the development of emotional disorders in adulthood that may be mediated by an altered hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis response to stress. Although the early onset of stress-related disorders is recognized as a major public health problem, to date, there are relatively few studies that have examined the incidence of early-life stressors in younger individuals. In this study, we assessed PS impact on the stress-coping response of juvenile offspring in behavioral tests and in the induced molecular changes in the hippocampus. Furthermore, we assessed if pregnancy stress could be driving changes in patterns of maternal behavior during early lactation. We found that PS modified stress-coping abilities of both sex offspring. In the hippocampus, PS increased the expression of bdnf-IV and crfr1 and induced sex difference changes on glucocorticoids and BDNF mRNA receptor levels. PS changed the hippocampal epigenetic landscape mainly in male offspring. Stress during pregnancy enhanced pup-directed behavior of stressed dams. Our study indicates that exposure to PS, in addition to enhanced maternal behavior, induces dynamic neurobehavioral variations at juvenile ages of the offspring that should be considered adaptive or maladaptive, depending on the characteristics of the confronting environment. Our present results highlight the importance to further explore risk factors that appear early in life that will be important to allow timely prevention strategies to later vulnerability to stress-related disorders.

Universal critical exponents of the magnetic domain wall depinning transition Albornoz, Lucas Javier; Ferrero, E. E.; Kolton, Alejandro Benedykt; Jeudy, V.; Bustingorry, Sebastian; Curiale, Carlos Javier Magnetic-field-driven domain wall dynamics in a ferrimagnetic GdFeCo thin film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is studied using low-temperature magneto-optical Kerr microscopy. Measurements performed in a practically athermal condition allow for the direct experimental determination of the velocity (β=0.30±0.03) and correlation length (ν=1.3±0.3) exponents of the depinning transition. The whole family of exponents characterizing the transition is deduced, providing evidence that the depinning of magnetic domain walls is better described by the quenched Edwards-Wilkinson universality class.

A task execution scheme for dew computing with state-of-the-art smartphones Hirsch Jofré, Matías Eberardo; Mateos Diaz, Cristian Maximiliano; Zunino Suarez, Alejandro Octavio; Majchrzak, Tim A.; Grønli, Tor-Morten; Kaindl, Hermann The computing resources of today’s smartphones are underutilized most of the time. Using these resources could be highly beneficial in edge computing and fog computing contexts, for example, to support urban services for citizens. However, new challenges, especially regarding job scheduling, arise. Smartphones may form ad hoc networks, but individual devices highly differ in computational capabilities and (tolerable) energy usage. We take into account these particularities to validate a task execution scheme that relies on the computing power that clusters of mobile devices could provide. In this paper, we expand the study of several practical heuristics for job scheduling including execution scenarios with state-of-the-art smartphones. With the results of new simulated scenarios, we confirm previous findings and better comprehend the baseline approaches already proposed for the problem. This study also sheds some light on the capabilities of small-sized clusters comprising mid-range and low-end smartphones when the objective is to achieve real-time stream processing using Tensorflow object recognition models as edge jobs. Ultimately, we strive for industry applications to improve task scheduling for dew computing contexts. Heuristics such as ours plus supporting dew middleware could improve citizen participation by allowing a much wider use of dew computing resources, especially in urban contexts in order to help build smart cities.

Arackar licanantay gen. et sp. nov. a new lithostrotian (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of the Atacama Region, northern Chile Rubilar Rogers, David; Vargas, Alexander O.; Gonzalez Riga, Bernardo Javier; Soto Acuña, Sergio; Alarcón Muñoz, Jhonatan; Iriarte Díaz, José; Arévalo, Carlos; Gutstein, Carolina Simon A new lithostrotian sauropod, Arackar licanantay gen. et sp. nov. is described based on a partial skeleton from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian) beds of the Hornitos Formation, Atacama Region, northern Chile. The holotype consists of axial (cervical and dorsal vertebrae) and appendicular (humerus, femur and ischium) elements of a sub-adult specimen (ca. 6.3 m long). Autapomorphies characterizing this new titanosaur include: middle neural arches with wide and tall centroprezygapophyseal fossa + parapophyseal centroprezygapophyseal fossa (cprf + pacprf) extending on the entire anterior faces of the pedicles, but not above the neural canal, and reduced spinopostzygapophyseal laminae, shorter than the postzygapophyseal facet length. A phylogenetic analysis based on a data matrix of 87 taxa and 405 characters recovered Arackar as a derived lithostrotian titanosaur, placing it in a clade that includes Rapetosaurus + (Arackar + Isisaurus). This is the third dinosaur named from Chile and the third titanosaur from the western side of the Andes in South America.

Improving ciprofloxacin antimicrobial activity through lipid nanoencapsulation or non-thermal plasma on Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms Muraca, Giuliana Sabrina; Soler Arango, Juliana; Castro, Guillermo Raul; Islan, German Abel; Brelles Mariño, Graciela Antibiotic resistance is a significant challenge in the clinical practice. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogen prevalent in hospital settings. Besides, P. aeruginosa forms biofilms that aggravate the problem since biofilms are more resilient to conventional decontamination methods than their planktonic counterparts. Due to the lack of novel antibiotics, the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains, and the resilience of biofilms to antimicrobials, new approaches based on the combination of agents are desirable. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) and nanotechnology-based strategies are an alternative to conventional decontamination/sterilization methods. NTP causes microbial cell damage or death, and it has been proved effective to inactivate more than 99% of biofilm cells after a short exposure to plasma. Nanotechnology is a promising strategy to overcome antibiotic resistance/tolerance of microbial biofilms and nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems may interact with the biofilm matrix and help remove bacterial biofilms. Nanoparticles known as “nanostructured lipid carriers” (NLCs) have been proposed as efficient and tailorable drug delivery systems since their physicochemical properties facilitate their penetrability. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of ciprofloxacin-loaded NLC formulations and their potential synergy with plasma on P. aeruginosa biofilms. A decrease in the minimum inhibitory concentration was reported for biofilms exposed to plasma and free ciprofloxacin, and for biofilms treated with NLCs. The synergy between NLCs and NTP was not found under the experimental conditions used, and further research is needed to test other conditions that might result in synergy. Results show the potential of nanoparticles and plasma for biofilm inactivation.

8 fs laser pulses from a compact gas-filled multi-pass cell Rueda Suescun, Pedro Enrique; Videla, Fabian Alfredo; Witting, T.; Torchia, Gustavo Adrian; Furch, J. Compression of 42 fs, 0.29 mJ pulses from a Ti:Sapphire amplifier down to 8 fs (approximately 3 optical cycles) is demonstrated by means of spectral broadening in a compact multi-pass cell filled with argon. The efficiency of the nonlinear pulse compression is limited to 45 % mostly by losses in the mirrors of the cell. The experimental results are supported by 3-dimensional numerical simulations of the nonlinear pulse propagation in the cell that allow us to study spatio-spectral properties of the pulses after spectral broadening.

Direct measurement and modeling of intraglottal, subglottal, and vocal fold collision pressures during phonation in an individual with a hemilaryngectomy Mehta, Daryush D.; Kobler, James B.; Zeitels, Steven M.; Zañartu, Matías; Ibarra, Emiro J.; Alzamendi, Gabriel Alejandro; Manriquez, Rodrigo; Erath, Byron D.; Peterson, Sean D.; Petrillo, Robert H.; Hillman, Robert E. The purpose of this paper is to report on the first in vivo application of a recently developed transoral, dual-sensor pressure probe that directly measures intraglottal, subglottal, and vocal fold collision pressures during phonation. Synchronous measurement of intraglottal and subglottal pressures was accomplished using two miniature pressure sensors mounted on the end of the probe and inserted transorally in a 78-year-old male who had previously undergone surgical removal of his right vocal fold for treatment of laryngeal cancer. The endoscopist used one hand to position the custom probe against the surgically medialized scar band that replaced the right vocal fold and used the other hand to position a transoral endoscope to record laryngeal high-speed videoendoscopy of the vibrating left vocal fold contacting the pressure probe. Visualization of the larynx during sustained phonation allowed the endoscopist to place the dual-sensor pressure probe such that the proximal sensor was positioned intraglottally and the distal sensor subglottally. The proximal pressure sensor was verified to be in the strike zone of vocal fold collision during phonation when the intraglottal pressure signal exhibited three characteristics: an impulsive peak at the start of the closed phase, a rounded peak during the open phase, and a minimum value around zero immediately preceding the impulsive peak of the subsequent phonatory cycle. Numerical voice production modeling was applied to validate model-based predictions of vocal fold collision pressure using kinematic vocal fold measures. The results successfully demonstrated feasibility of in vivo measurement of vocal fold collision pressure in an individual with a hemilaryngectomy, motivating ongoing data collection that is designed to aid in the development of vocal dose measures that incorporate vocal fold impact collision and stresses.

Hacia la configuración del sujeto cultural converso en un manuscrito de João Pinto Delgado Gonzalez Molina, Mario Augusto Este trabajo analiza la categoría del sujeto converso como sujeto cultural, noción proveniente de la sociocrítica. En cuanto a su configuración discursiva se considera que el manuscrito Dialogos contra a Cristandade de João Pinto Delgado se ubica en el espectro de la literatura de conversos, teniendo en cuenta su delimitación genérica y las posibilidades teóricas para abordar otros textos similares del Siglo de Oro. El objetivo es abrir la discusión de la presencia de voces silenciadas ante un discurso hegemónico como una forma de legitimación desde la literatura.

Heuristic Methodology for Planning AC Rural Medium-Voltage Distribution Grids Montoya Giraldo, Oscar Danilo; Serra, Federico Martin; de Angelo, Cristian Hernan; Chamorro, Harold R.; Alvarado Barrios, Lázaro The optimal expansion of AC medium-voltage distribution grids for rural applications is addressed in this study from a heuristic perspective. The optimal routes of a distribution feeder are selected by applying the concept of a minimum spanning tree by limiting the number of branches that are connected to a substation (mixed-integer linear programming formulation). In order to choose the caliber of the conductors for the selected feeder routes, the maximum expected current that is absorbed by the loads is calculated, thereby defining the minimum thermal bound of the conductor caliber. With the topology and the initial selection of the conductors, a tabu search algorithm (TSA) is implemented to refine the solution with the help of a three-phase power flow simulation in MATLAB for three different load conditions, i.e., maximum, medium, and minimum consumption with values of 100%, 60%, and 30%, respectively. This helps in calculating the annual costs of the energy losses that will be summed with the investment cost in conductors for determining the final costs of the planning project. Numerical simulations in two test feeders comprising 9 and 25 nodes with one substation show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology regarding the final grid planning cost; in addition, the heuristic selection of the calibers using the minimum expected current absorbed by the loads provides at least 70% of the calibers that are contained in the final solution of the problem. This demonstrates the importance of using adequate starting points to potentiate metaheuristic optimizers such as the TSA.

A Monolithic Solid-State Sodium–Sulfur Battery with Al-Doped Na 3.4 Zr 2 (Si 0.8 P 0.2 O 4 ) 3 Electrolyte Lu, Liang; Lu, Yao; Alonso, José Antonio; Lopez, Carlos Alberto; Fernández Díaz, Maria Teresa; Zou, Bingsuo; Sun, Chunwen The limit of the energy density and increasing security issues on sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) impede their further development. Solid-state sodium metal batteries are potential candidates to replace the present SIBs. However, low ionic conductivity and poor interface contact hinder their progress. In this work, the impact of Al doping on the crystalline structure and ionic transport in Na3.4Zr2(Si0.8P0.2O4)3 was studied by neutron powder diffraction. The ionic conductivity of Na3.5Zr1.9Al0.1Si2.4P0.6O12 achieves 4.43 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 50 °C. The polarization voltage of the Na||Na symmetric battery is about 40 mV after cycling for more than 1600 h. Moreover, a solid-state sodium-sulfur battery with a monolithic structure was constructed to alleviate the interfacial resistance problems. Its specific discharge capacity can still keep 300 mA h g-1 after 480 cycles at 300 mA g-1. The work provides a promising strategy to design solid-state sodium-sulfur batteries with high performances.

Landscape Engineering Impacts the Long-Term Stability of Agricultural Populations Freeman, Jacob; Anderies, John M.; Beckman, Noelle G.; Robinson, Erick; Baggio, Jacopo A.; Bird, Darcy; Nicholson, Christopher; Finley, Judson Byrd; Capriles, José M.; Gil, Adolfo Fabian; Byers, David; Gayo, Eugenia; Latorre, Claudio Explaining the stability of human populations provides knowledge for understanding the resilience of human societies to environmental change. Here, we use archaeological radiocarbon records to evaluate a hypothesis drawn from resilience thinking that may explain the stability of human populations: Faced with long-term increases in population density, greater variability in the production of food leads to less stable populations, while lower variability leads to more stable populations. However, increased population stability may come with the cost of larger collapses in response to rare, large-scale environmental perturbations. Our results partially support this hypothesis. Agricultural societies that relied on extensive landscape engineering to intensify production and tightly control variability in the production of food experienced the most stability. Contrary to the hypothesis, these societies also experienced the least severe population declines. We propose that the interrelationship between landscape engineering and increased political-economic complexity reduces the magnitude of population collapses in a region.

Molecular mechanisms underlying responses of the Antarctic coral Malacobelemnon daytoni to ocean acidification Servetto, Natalia; de Aranzamendi, Maria Carla; Bettencourt, R.; Held, Christoph; Abele, D.; Movilla, J.; Gonzalez, Germán Alexis; Bustos, Diego Martin; Sahade, Ricardo Jose Benthic organisms of the Southern Ocean are particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification (OA), as they inhabit cold waters where calcite-aragonite saturation states are naturally low. OA most strongly affects animals with calcium carbonate skeletons or shells, such as corals and mollusks. We exposed the abundant cold-water coral Malacobelemnon daytoni from an Antarctic fjord to low pH seawater (LpH) (7.68 ± 0.17) to test its physiological responses to OA, at the level of gene expression (RT-PCR) and enzyme activity. Corals were exposed in short- (3 days) and long-term (54 days) experiments to two pCO2 conditions (ambient and elevated pCO2 equaling RCP 8.5, IPCC 2019, approximately 372.53 and 956.78 μatm, respectively). Of the eleven genes studied through RT-PCR, six were significantly upregulated compared with control in the short-term in the LpH condition, including the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD), Heat Shock Protein 70 (HSP70), Toll-like receptor (TLR), galaxin and ferritin. After long-term exposure to low pH conditions, RT-PCR analysis showed seven genes were upregulated. These include the mannose-binding C-Lectin and HSP90. Also, the expression of TLR and galaxin, among others, continued to be upregulated after long-term exposure to LpH. Expression of carbonic anhydrase (CA), a key enzyme involved in calcification, was also significantly upregulated after long-term exposure. Our results indicated that, after two months, M. daytoni is not acclimatized to this experimental LpH condition. Gene expression profiles revealed molecular impacts that were not evident at the enzyme activity level. Consequently, understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the physiological processes in the response of a coral to LpH is critical to understanding the ability of polar species to cope with future environmental changes. Approaches integrating molecular tools into Antarctic ecological and/or conservation research make an essential contribution given the current ongoing OA processes.

Potential distribution models from two highly endemic species of subterranean rodents of Argentina: which environmental variables have better performance in highly specialized species? Austrich, Ailin; Kittlein, Marcelo Javier; Mora, Matias Sebastian; Mapelli, Fernando Javier South American rodents of the genus Ctenomys (tuco-tucos) occupy the underground environment, present high specificity to loose and friable soils and have restricted mobility, with a generally fragmented distribution. We use species distribution models (SDMs) in two Ctenomys species from the Atlantic coast and continental areas of Argentina. We develop SDMs using Maxent software for Ctenomys australis and Ctenomys talarum, which coexist in a narrow coastal landscape with restricted distributions. We model the potential distributions of both species using, first, bioclimatic variables (Group 1), and second, Landsat 8 bands and granulometric layers (Group 2). According to the known distributions of the species, the Group 2 variables showed the greatest accuracy for inferring their potential distributions. The most important variables for predicting habitat suitability were, primarily, the majority of granulometric variables and some Landsat 8 bands such as the bands 4 and 5, related to the vegetation cover. We also analyze the level of overlapping niches between these two species, and we found that there is a certain degree of geographical overlap between them, and also present ecologically similar niches, despite the fact that the characteristics of their habitats differ in certain aspects. We conclude that in tuco-tucos species, their potential distributions are better predicted by variables that consider the particular characteristics of soils and cover vegetation, since they are specialized species of substrates. Also, a higher spatial resolution allows a better performance of the Ctenomys species models, which was expected for species with restricted distributions.

On the relation between the astrophysical neutrino fluxes and the cosmic ray fluxes Roulet, Esteban Some generalizations of the relation between high-energy astrophysical neutrino and cosmic ray fluxes are obtained, taking into account present results on the cosmic ray spectrum and composition as well as a more realistic modeling of the Galactic and extragalactic cosmic ray components down to PeV energies. It is found that the level of neutrino fluxes measured by IceCube can be consistent with sources that are thin to escaping protons. This could also make it easier for heavier nuclei to be emitted from the sources without suffering excessive disintegration processes.

Roberto Santoro: retrato del poeta como saltimbanqui Catalano, María Agustina Este artículo analiza la imagen de escritor en Roberto Santoro (1939-1977) desde un diálogo doble: con la figura del saltimbanqui, desarrollada por Jean Starobinski en su ensayo Retrato del artista como saltimbanqui, y con el modelo del escritor-intelectual comprometido, vigente durante los años 60 y 70. Para ello, consideraremos los poemarios, publicaciones en revistas y algunas intervenciones públicas o de índole artística y cultural de Santoro.

Varieties of K-lattices Aglianò, Paolo; Marcos, Miguel In this paper we deal with varieties of commutative residuated lattices that arise from a specific kind of construction: the twist-product of a lattice. Twist-products were first considered by Kalman in 1958 to deal with order involutions on plain lattices, but the extension of this concept to residuated lattices has attracted some attention lately. Here we deal mainly with varieties of such lattices that can be obtained by applying a specific twist-product construction to varieties of integral and commutative residuated lattices.

Lamb and wool provisioning ecosystem services in Southern Patagonia Peri, Pablo Luis; Rosas, Yamina Micaela; Rivera, Emilio; Martínez Pastur, Guillermo José In Southern Patagonia, grasslands are the principal food resource for sheep reared for meat and wool as the main provisioning ecosystem services (ES). The main objective of this study was to model lamb and wool production as provisioning ES at a regional scale using climatic, topo-graphic, and vegetation variables from sheep farms across Santa Cruz province. At a regional level, animal yield ranged from 0.25 to 0.69 g lamb/m2/yr and 0.10 to 0.19 g greasy wool/m2/yr. We used multiple regression models to produce maps of lamb and wool provisioning ES across Santa Cruz province. The model for variation of lamb production explained 96% of the variance in the data and the most significant predictor variables were temperature seasonality, normalized vegetation index (NVDI, dimensionless), and desertification index. The most important variables for the model of greasy wool production were isothermality, temperature seasonality, and NVDI, which together explained 98% of the variance. The lowest CF values of both products (lamb and wool) were located in more productive grasslands. There were differences in lamb and wool production across vegetation types with the highest values being located in more productive grasslands (0.51 g lamb/m2/yr in Nothofagus antarctica forest and 0.15 g greasy wool/m2/yr in Magellanic grass steppe and N. ant-arctica). Lamb and greasy wool yields decreased with desertification gradient due to erosion pro-cesses. The main limitation of the model is related to the data availability at landscape level, which must be improved in future studies by accounting for soil type, fertility, and soil water content. The results of lamb and wool production found in the present work assist in characterizing the provisioning ES ecosystem of livestock products in Southern Patagonia. The successful management of livestock becomes an important challenge to the commercial and policy communities to satisfy so-ciety’s need for food and wool products under sustainable grassland management.