The dispersal of Crocodylus from Africa to Europe during the Miocene is not well understood. A small collection of cranial fragments and postcranial elements from the latest Miocene (6.2 Ma) site of Venta del Moro (Valencia, Spain) have previously been referred to Crocodylus cf. C. checchiai Maccagno, 1947 without accompanying descriptions. Here we describe and figure for the first time the crocodylian remains from Venta del Moro, which represent at least two individuals. Our comparisons indicate that this material clearly does not belong to Diplocynodon or Tomistoma—the only two other crocodylians described so far for the European late Miocene. The material is only tentatively referred to cf. Crocodylus sp. because the apomorphies of this genus are not preserved and a referral to C. checchiai cannot be supported on a morphological basis. However, it is likely that this late Miocene species, originally described from Libya (As Sahabi) and later identified also in Kenya, could have dispersed across the Mediterranean Basin multiple times and colonized the southern areas of Mediterranean Europe, as evidenced by several Crocodylus or Crocodylus-like remains described during the past years.

Muchos animales se encuentran entretejidos en las visiones cósmicas de diferentes culturas del mundo. En este contexto varias especies han sido idealizadas como referentes que sintetizan atributos apreciados por el hombre como poder, valor, nobleza, así como fuerzas de la naturaleza o de lo desconocido. Con frecuencia son animales grandes los que han capturado la atención humana desde sus orígenes, como lo refleja el arte parietal antiguo. Probablemente esto obedece a que se les consideró importantes para la vida cotidiana y también a su supuesta influencia en mitos de mundos paralelos.

En varias culturas alrededor del mundo se ha asignado a los osos un sitio prominente. Se conocen rituales y cultos relacionados con la presencia del oso en distintos grupos humanos en Asia, en pueblos originarios de Norteamérica y culturas de los Andes. Estas manifestaciones ocurren, por lo general, en sociedades que se encuentran asentadas en territorios dentro las principales áreas de distintas especies de osos. Sin embargo, en partes marginales de territorios ocupados por osos, las referencias culturales a ellos son escasas. Por ejemplo, no se había reportado la representación de estos mamíferos en las culturas que se desarrollaron en Mesoamérica.

Trabajos arqueológicos recientes en el sitio de Tancama (Querétaro, México), ocupado por un grupo de afinidad Huasteca cuya mayor actividad se dio en el período clásico (entre 500 y 700 d.C.; fechas de C14), han revelado una escultura de barro asociada con restos de uno de los edificios principales, que representa un oso de cuerpo entero (se determinó como un oso negro, Ursus americanus, dado que es la única especie presente en el área). Además de la escultura, se encontraron vasijas y fragmentos cerámicos, excavados en otros edificios, que muestran rasgos diagnósticos de la cabeza de un oso.

El presente estudio analiza este primer y singular hallazgo para Mesoamérica, enfatizando su relevancia para la región. Se analizan las relaciones entre la efigie principal de oso como parte de un edificio y las numerosas vasijas con representaciones ursiformes, para explorar el posible significado cultural local de esta especie animal.

Maternal obesity (MO) during pregnancy and lactation leads to maternal and offspring metabolic dysfunction. Recent research has suggested that probiotics might be a novel approach to counteract these unwanted MO effects. The aim of this research was to analyze the impact of Leuconostoc SD23, a probiotic isolated from aguamiel (traditional Mexican drink), on MO metabolism in rats at the end of lactation (21 days). From weaning through lactation, control female Wistar rats (C) ate chow (5% fat) or high-energy obesogenic diet (MO; 25% fat). Half the C and MO mothers received a daily dose (1 × 1010 CFU/ml) of probiotic orally, control with probiotic (CP) and MO with probiotic (MOP), 1 month before mating and through pregnancy and lactation. Histological analyses of the liver, white adipose tissue and small intestine, body composition, glucose, insulin, triglycerides, and leptin were determined in mothers at the end of lactation. Maternal weight during pregnancy was greater in MO than C mothers, but similar at the end of lactation. Probiotic intervention had no effect on maternal weight. However, at the end of lactation, percentage of body fat was higher in MO than C, CP, and MOP. Serum glucose, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, and triglycerides were higher in MO versus C, CP, and MOP. MO small intestine villus height was higher versus MOP, C, and CP. Leuconostoc SD23 did not present adverse effects in C. Conclusions: maternal administration of Leuconostoc SD23 has beneficial effects on maternal metabolism, which holds possibilities for preventing adverse offspring metabolic programming.

The second and final year of the Erasmus Plus programme ‘Innovative Education and Training in high power laser plasmas’, otherwise known as PowerLaPs, is described. The PowerLaPs programme employs an innovative paradigm in that it is a multi-centre programme, where teaching takes place in five separate institutes with a range of different aims and styles of delivery. The ‘in-class’ time is limited to 4 weeks a year, and the programme spans 2 years. PowerLaPs aims to train students from across Europe in theoretical, applied and laboratory skills relevant to the pursuit of research in laser plasma interaction physics and inertial confinement fusion. Lectures are intermingled with laboratory sessions and continuous assessment activities. The programme, which is led by workers from the Hellenic Mediterranean University and supported by co-workers from the Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Bordeaux, the Czech Technical University in Prague, Ecole Polytechnique, the University of Ioannina, the University of Salamanca and the University of York, has just finished its second and final year. Six Learning Teaching Training activities have been held at the Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Bordeaux, the Czech Technical University, the University of Salamanca and the Institute of Plasma Physics and Lasers of the Hellenic Mediterranean University. The last of these institutes hosted two 2-week-long Intensive Programmes, while the activities at the other four universities were each 5 days in length. In addition, a ‘Multiplier Event’ was held at the University of Ioannina, which will be briefly described. In this second year, the work has concentrated on training in both experimental diagnostics and simulation techniques appropriate to the study of plasma physics, high power laser matter interactions and high energy density physics. The nature of the programme will be described in detail, and some metrics relating to the activities carried out will be presented. In particular, this paper will focus on the overall assessment of the programme.

A common feature in Answer Set Programming is the use of a second negation, stronger than default negation and sometimes called explicit, strong or classical negation. This explicit negation is normally used in front of atoms, rather than allowing its use as a regular operator. In this paper we consider the arbitrary combination of explicit negation with nested expressions, as those defined by Lifschitz, Tang and Turner. We extend the concept of reduct for this new syntax and then prove that it can be captured by an extension of Equilibrium Logic with this second negation. We study some properties of this variant and compare to the already known combination of Equilibrium Logic with Nelson’s strong negation.

The incorporation of triturated tire particles as an aggregate in the concrete mixture is one of the ways to take advantage of this Waste Rubber (WR) in order to improve concrete properties, such as mechanical behavior. In this research we evaluated mechanical behavior of concrete specimens prepared with different amounts WR, which partially substituted the fine aggregate, under an indirect tensile test. In contrast with other’s researcher’s findings, our results show that the specimens with 5% WR present the highest value of indirect tensile strength (TP) of 4.36 MPa. Polynomial relationships between TP and compression strength (f´c), where Tp ranges from 0.1f´c to 0.2f´c. Specimens with the 0, 5 and 10% WR content show two types of failure: normal tension and tiple-cleft failure, described in the norm ASTM 1144-89. Nevertheless, specimens with 15 and 20% WR show a new failure not described in the norm, which is thought to be occurring due to the high amount of WR used.

The potential of a mass asteroid impact on Earth to disturb the chemosynthetic communities at global scale is discussed. Special emphasis is made on the potential influence on anammox communities and their implications in the nitrogen biogeochemical cycle. According to our preliminary estimates, anammox communities could be seriously affected as a consequence of global cooling and the large process of acidification usually associated with the occurrence of this kind of event. The scale of affectations could vary in a scenario like the Chicxulub as a function of the amount of soot, depth of the water column and the deposition rate for sulphates assumed in each case. The most severe affectations take place where the amount of soot and sulphates produced during the event is higher and the scale of time of settlements for sulphates is short, of the order of 10 h. In this extreme case, the activity of anammox is considerably reduced, a condition that may persist for several years after the impact. Furthermore, the impact of high levels of other chemical compounds like sulphates and nitrates associated with the occurrence of this kind of event are also discussed.

This issue of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science (MSCS) contains a selection of papers presented at the 12th International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing (ICTAC 2015), which took place in Cali, Colombia, on October 29–31, 2015.

Let (R, 𝔪) be a Noetherian local ring and I an arbitrary ideal of R with analytic spread s. In [3] the authors proved the existence of a chain of ideals I ⊆ I[s] ⊆ ⋅⋅⋅ ⊆ I[1] such that deg(PI[k]/I) < s − k. In this article we obtain a structure theorem for this ideals which is similar to that of K. Shah in [10] for 𝔪-primary ideals.

This is a systematic review on the role of metalloproteases in the pathogenicity of the American tegumentary leishmaniasis (ATL) caused by New World Leishmania species. The review followed the PRISMA method, searching for articles in PubMed, EMBASE, LILACS and ISI Web of Science, by employing the following terms: ‘leishmaniasis’, ‘cutaneous leishmaniasis’, ‘mucocutaneous leishmaniasis’, ‘diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis’, ‘Leishmania’ and ‘metalloproteases’. GP63 of New World Leishmania species is a parasite metalloproteases involved in the degradation and cleavage of many biological molecules as kappa-B nuclear factor, fibronectin, tyrosine phosphatases. GP63 is capable of inhibiting the activity of the complement system and reduces the host's immune functions, allowing the survival of the parasite and its dissemination. High serological/tissue levels of host matrix metalloproteases (MMP)-9 have been associated with tissue damage during the infection, while high transcriptional levels of MMP-2 related with a satisfactory response to treatment. Host MMPs serological and tissue levels have been investigated using Western Blot, zymography, and Real Time polymerase chain reaction. GP63 detection characterizes species and virulence in promastigotes isolated from lesions samples using techniques mentioned previously. The monitoring of host MMPs levels and GP63 in Leishmania isolated from host samples could be used on the laboratory routine to predict the prognostic and treatment efficacy of ATL.