Description of the third instar larvae of five species of Cyclocephala (Coleoptera, Melolonthidae, Dynastinae) from Mexico

Description of the third instar larvae of five species of Cyclocephala (Coleoptera, Melolonthidae, Dynastinae) from Mexico. Larvae of four species of Cyclocephala are described for the first time based on specimens collected in Mexican localities: C. barrerai Martínez, 1969 from Puebla, C. sinaloae Howden & Endrödi, 1966 from Sinaloa, C. fasciolata Bates, 1888 from Veracruz, and C. jalapensis Casey, 1915 from Hidalgo. Larva of C. lunulata Burmeister, 1847, is redescribed based on specimens from the Mexican states of Morelos, Puebla, and Veracruz. Diagnostic structures are illustrated and the differences and similarities of each species with other previously described larvae of the genus are commented.

Cultivo masivo de microalgas en Biorreactores verticales

El cultivo masivo de microalgas en biorreactores presenta una alta tasa de productividad frente a los cultivos abiertos, esta ventaja, aunada a determinados factores ambientales, se relaciona directamente con la cantidad y calidad de biomasa algal obtenida como producto final en el proceso de cultivo. El presente trabajo centró sus investigaciones en la evaluación de los parámetros físicos del ambiente (temperatura e intensidad lumínica), así como, físico-químicos (temperatura, pH y CO2) en la capacidad de carga de los cultivos. La investigación se desarrolló en el invernadero del Área de Biotecnología Acuática, del Instituto del Mar del Perú, dentro del marco del Proyecto IMARPE-EEP-FINCyT, denominado “Determinación de la Biomasa Microalgal potencialmente acumuladora de lípidos para la obtención de combustibles”, según contrato Nº025-FINCYT-PIBAP-2007. Los cultivos se realizaron empleando la cepa IMP-LBA-009, correspondiente a la microalga Nannochloropsis spp., con un flujo de producción semi-continuo por 48 horas, en un periodo de 6 meses, entre julio a diciembre, Bajo condiciones de iluminación (22,003.93 Lux.m-2.seg-1 ±10640.94), temperatura ambiental (31.7°C±2.8), temperatura de cultivo (25.7°C±1.2), CO2 (0.2 g.L-1) y pH (8.36 ±0.18); los resultados mostraron que la producción de biomasa húmeda fue 0.48g.L-1, equivalente a 0.13 g.L-1 de biomasa seca, durante los meses de octubre y noviembre, con una razón de conversión BS/BH del 28%. El impacto lumino-térmico, al interior del invernadero, favoreció el incremento progresivo de la concentración celular del cultivo en biorreactores, por ende, la producción de biomasa húmeda y seca, durante el periodo de trabajo.

Quality coding by neural populations in the early olfactory pathway: analysis using information theory

In this article, we analyze the ability of the early olfactory system to detect and discriminate different odors by means of information theory measurements applied to olfactory bulb activity images. We have studied the role that the diversity and number of receptor neuron types play in encoding chemical information. Our results show that the olfactory receptors of the biological system are low correlated and present good coverage of the input space. The coding capacity of ensembles of olfactory receptors with the same receptive range is maximized when the receptors cover half of the odor input space - a configuration that corresponds to receptors that are not particularly selective. However, the ensemble's performance slightly increases when mixing uncorrelated receptors of different receptive ranges. Our results confirm that the low correlation between sensors could be more significant than the sensor selectivity for general purpose chemo-sensory systems, whether these are biological or biomimetic.

Heat transfer between nanoparticles: Thermal conductance for near-field interactions

We analyze the heat transfer between two nanoparticles separated by a distance lying in the near-field domain in which energy interchange is due to the Coulomb interactions. The thermal conductance is computed by assuming that the particles have charge distributions characterized by fluctuating multipole moments in equilibrium with heat baths at two different temperatures. This quantity follows from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the fluctuations of the multipolar moments. We compare the behavior of the conductance as a function of the distance between the particles with the result obtained by means of molecular dynamics simulations. The formalism proposed enables us to provide a comprehensive explanation of the marked growth of the conductance when decreasing the distance between the nanoparticles.

Hydrodynamic fluctuations in fluids under external gradients

Temperature and velocity correlation functions in a fluid subjected to conditions creating both a temperature and a velocity gradient are computed up to second order in the gradients. Temperature and velocity fluctuations are coupled due to convection and viscous heating. When the viscosity goes to infinity one gets the temperature correlation function for a solid under a temperature gradient, which contains a long-ranged contribution, quadratic in the temperature gradient. The velocity correlation function also exhibits long-range behavior. In a particular case its equilibrium term is diagonal whereas the nonequilibrium correction contains nondiagonal terms.

Light scattering from suspensions under external gradients

We analyze the light-scattering spectrum of a suspension in a viscoelastic fluid under density and velocity gradients. When a density gradient is present, the dynamic structure factor exhibits universality in the sense that its expression depends only on the reduced frequency and the reduced density gradient. For a velocity gradient, however, the universality breaks down. In this last case we have found a transition point from one to three characteristic frequencies in the spectrum, which is governed by the value of the external gradient. The presence of the viscoelastic time scales introduces a shift in the ``critical¿¿ point.

Energy transduction in periodically driven non-hermitian systems

We show a new mechanism to extract energy from nonequilibrium fluctuations typical of periodically driven non-Hermitian systems. The transduction of energy between the driving force and the system is revealed by an anomalous behavior of the susceptibility, leading to a diminution of the dissipated power and consequently to an improvement of the transport properties. The general framework is illustrated by the analysis of some relevant cases.

Giant acceleration of free diffusion by use of titled periodic potentials

The effective diffusion coefficient for the overdamped Brownian motion in a tilted periodic potential is calculated in closed analytical form. Universality classes and scaling properties for weak thermal noise are identified near the threshold tilt where deterministic running solutions set in. In this regime the diffusion may be greatly enhanced, as compared to free thermal diffusion with, for a realistic experimental setup, an enhancement of up to 14 orders of magnitude.

Simple model for nonexponential relaxation in complex fluids

The nonexponential relaxation occurring in complex dynamics manifested in a wide variety of systems is analyzed through a simple model of diffusion in phase space. It is found that the inability of the system to find its equilibrium state in any time scale becomes apparent in an effective temperature field, which leads to a hierarchy of relaxation times responsible for the slow relaxation phenomena.

Stochastic resonance in a suspension of magnetic dipoles under shear flow

We show that a magnetic dipole in a shear flow under the action of an oscillating magnetic field displays stochastic resonance in the linear response regime. To this end, we compute the classical quantifiers of stochastic resonance, i.e., the signal to noise ratio, the escape time distribution, and the mean first passage time. We also discuss the limitations and role of the linear response theory in its applications to the theory of stochastic resonance.

Onsager symmetry principle for a particle moving through a fluid not in equilibrium

We have shown that the mobility tensor for a particle moving through an arbitrary homogeneous stationary flow satisfies generalized Onsager symmetry relations in which the time-reversal transformation should also be applied to the external forces that keep the system in the stationary state. It is then found that the lift forces, responsible for the motion of the particle in a direction perpendicular to its velocity, have different parity than the drag forces.

Difussion in a titled periodic potential: Enhancement, universality, and scaling

An exact analytical expression for the effective diffusion coefficient of an overdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potential is derived for arbitrary potentials and arbitrary strengths of the thermal noise. Near the critical tilt (threshold of deterministic running solutions) a scaling behavior for weak thermal noise is revealed and various universality classes are identified. In comparison with the bare (potential-free) thermal diffusion, the effective diffusion coefficient in a critically tilted periodic potential may be, in principle, arbitrarily enhanced. For a realistic experimental setup, an enhancement by 14 orders of magnitude is predicted so that thermal diffusion should be observable on a macroscopic scale at room temperature.

Stochastic resonance in nonpotential systems

We propose a method to analytically show the possibility for the appearance of a maximum in the signal-to-noise ratio in nonpotential systems. We apply our results to the FitzHugh-Nagumo model under a periodic external forcing, showing that the model exhibits stochastic resonance. The procedure that we follow is based on the reduction to a one-dimensional dynamics in the adiabatic limit and in the topology of the phase space of the systems under study. Its application to other nonpotential systems is also discussed.