New taxa and new record of Hemilophini (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae: Lamiinae).

New species described and illustrated: Adesmus nigrolineatus sp. nov from Mexico (Oaxaca). From Costa Rica: A, moruna sp. nov. (Heredia); Corcovado bezarki sp. nov. (Guanacaste); Alampyris fuscus sp. nov. (Guanacaste), Cariua gen. nov type species C. sulphurea sp. nov. (Guanacaste). From Bolivia: Phoebemima albomaculata sp. nov. (Cochabamba); Ipepo gen. nov type species I. dilatatus sp. nov. (Santa Cruz). From Brazil: Adesmus facetus sp. nov and Canarana arguta sp. nov. (Rondonia). A new record from Costa Rica of Piruanycha pitilla Galileo & Martins, 2005 is added. The three new species of Adesmus are recognized: A. nigrolineatus by the longitudinal black stripes on elytra; A. moruna by the elytra entirely black; A. facetus by the white belts behind the middle of the elytra and white maculae on apical quarter. Phoebemima albomaculata is characterized by the white macula on the elytral suture. Corcovado bezarki sp. nov is distinguished by the black antennal scape and whitish flagelomeres. Canarana arguta sp. nov has prothorax and urosternites I-IV covered by dense yellowish pubescence. Alampyris fusca sp. nov differs from A. cretaria by the antenomere III longer than scape. Cariua sulphurea sp. nov is distinguished by the urosternites covered by compact white pubescence and Ipepo dilatatus is characterized by the elytra with three carinae.

New taxa of Hemilophini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae) of the Americas

New taxa of Hemilophini (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae) of the Americas. The new genus Mexicoscylus is described to include: M. rosae sp. nov., type species of the genus, and M. bivittatus (Gahan, 1892), comb. nov. both from Mexico. A key to the species of Mexicoscylus is added. More three species are described: Cotycuara villosa sp. nov., from Costa Rica; Phoebe parvimacula sp. nov., from Bolivia and Adesmus beruri sp. nov., from Brazil (Amazonas). All new species are illustrated.

A prehistoric thoroughfare between the Ganges and the Himalayas

The greater Himalayan region, including the Tibetan plateau in the north and the Gangetic plain in the south, served as the principal prehistoric thoroughfare for the peopling of East and Southeast Asia. The descendants of ancient migrants through this region ultimately settled lands as far away as New Zealand, Madagascar and the Americas. Several of the keys to understanding the ethnogenesis of human diversity in Asia include the Father Tongue correlation, possible refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum and the hypothesis that language families may have arisen as the result of demographic bottlenecks in prehistory. Ethnolinguistically informed inferences based on Asian Y chromosomal phylogeography permit a reconstruction of episodes of ethnolinguistic prehistory which lie beyond the linguistic event horizon, i.e. beyond the time depth empirically accessible to historical linguistics. The origins of the language families which make up the hypothetical Uralo-Siberian and East Asian linguistic phyla are argued to have lain in the northeastern corner of the Indian subcontinent. Several other Asian language families are shown to be tied to the subcontinent. The Centripetal Migration model, which assumes that migrations in quest of a better life unfolded in both centrifugal and centripetal directions with respect to technologically more advanced centres of civilisation, is opposed to the Farming Language Dispersal theory, which assumes that all linguistic dispersals were driven by agricultural centrifugal migration.

Genetics and epidemiology of gallbladder disease in New World native peoples.

Native peoples of the New World, including Amerindians and admixed Latin Americans such as Mexican-Americans, are highly susceptible to diseases of the gallbladder. These include cholesterol cholelithiasis (gallstones) and its complications, as well as cancer of the gallbladder. Although there is clearly some necessary dietary or other environmental risk factor involved, the pattern of disease prevalence is geographically associated with the distribution of genes of aboriginal Amerindian origin, and levels of risk generally correspond to the degree of Amerindian admixture. This pattern differs from that generally associated with Westernization, which suggests a gene-environment interaction, and that within an admixed population there is a subset whose risk is underestimated when admixture is ignored. The risk that an individual of a susceptible New World genotype will undergo a cholecystectomy by age 85 can approach 40% in Mexican-American females, and their risk of gallbladder cancer can reach several percent. These are heretofore unrecognized levels of risk, especially of the latter, because previous studies have not accounted for admixture or for the loss of at-risk individuals due to cholecystectomy. A genetic susceptibility may, thus, be as "carcinogenic" in New World peoples as any known major environmental exposure; yet, while the risk has a genetic basis, its expression as gallbladder cancer is so delayed as to lead only very rarely to multiply-affected families. Estimates in this paper are derived in part from two studies of Mexican-Americans in Starr County and Laredo, Texas.

UNESCO World Heritage „Prehistoric pile-dwellings around the Alps“: Chances and Challenges for Management and Research of Cultural Heritage Under Water

Research in prehistoric sites of lakes and bogs around the Alps started more than 150 years ago. In 2004 Switzerland took the initiative to propose an international UNESCO world heritage nomination, which was successful in 2011. Six countries – Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland – joined forces to obtain the precious label for an invisible cultural heritage of outstanding universal value. Archaeological sites under water or in bogs are of special importance because objects made of organic material like wood, bark, plant fibres and others survive in this milieu for hundred or thousands of years. The alpine pile-dwelling sites offer a highly precise dating possibility by using dendrochronology. All in all these sites have a high scientific potential but run also risks of long term conservation. Beside the scientific chances there are risks to consider: public access is difficult and a major challenge. New ideas are demanded to keep alive public interest.

Pre-pregnancy obesity on the border and pregnancy complications: A secondary analysis comparing post-natal adult women in Matamoros, Mexico and Cameron County, Texas

Obesity during pregnancy is a serious health concern which has been associated with many adverse health outcomes for both the mother and the infant. In addition, data on the prevalence of obesity and its effects on pregnant women living in the border region are limited. This goal of this study was to examine the prevalence of preconception obesity among women living on each side of the Brownsville-Matamoros border who have just given birth, the relationship between obesity and pregnancy complications for the total population, and these associations by location. Study participants were drawn from a sample (n=947) from the Brownsville-Matamoros Sister City Project which included women from 10 border region hospitals (6 in Matamoros, 4 in Cameron County) who were recruited based on hospital log records indicating they had given birth to a live infant. De-identified data from verbal questionnaires administered within twenty-four hours after birth were analyzed to determine prevalence of preconception obesity on both sides of the border, and associated pregnancy outcomes for women residing in the United States and those in Mexico. Participants with missing height or weight data were excluded from analyses in this study, resulting in a final sample of 727 women. Significant associations were found between pre-pregnancy obesity and adverse pregnancy outcomes (OR=1.85, CI=1.30–2.64), hypertensive conditions (OR=2.76, CI=1.72–4.43), and macrosomia (OR=6.77, CI=1.13–40.57) using the total sample. Comparisons between the United States and Mexico sides of the border showed differences; associations between preconception obesity and adverse pregnancy outcomes were marginally significant among women in the United States (p=0.05), but failed to reach significance within this group for each individual complication. However, significant associations were found between obesity and preeclampsia (OR=3.61, CI=2.14–6.10), as well as obesity and the presence of one or more adverse pregnancy outcome (OR=2.29, CI=1.30–4.02), among women in Mexico. The results from this analysis provide new information specific to women on the Texas and Mexico border, a region that had not previously been studied. These significant associations between preconception obesity and adverse birth outcomes indicate that efforts to prevent obesity should focus on women of childbearing age, especially in Mexico.^

Patterns of prehistoric human mobility in Polynesia indicated by mtDNA from the Pacific rat

Human settlement of Polynesia was a major event in world prehistory. Despite the vastness of the distances covered, research suggests that prehistoric Polynesian populations maintained spheres of continuing interaction for at least some period of time in some regions. A low level of genetic variation in ancestral Polynesian populations, genetic admixture (both prehistoric and post-European contact), and severe population crashes resulting from introduction of European diseases make it difficult to trace prehistoric human mobility in the region by using only human genetic and morphological markers. We focus instead on an animal that accompanied the ancestral Polynesians on their voyages. DNA phylogenies derived from mitochondrial control-region sequences of Pacific rats (Rattus exulans) from east Polynesia are presented. A range of specific hypotheses regarding the degree of interaction within Polynesia are tested. These include the issues of multiple contacts between central east Polynesia and the geographically distinct archipelagos of New Zealand and Hawaii. Results are inconsistent with models of Pacific settlement involving substantial isolation after colonization and confirm the value of genetic studies on commensal species for elucidating the history of human settlement.

Pipe3D, a pipeline to analyse integral Field Spectroscopy data: I. New fitting philosophy of FIT3D

We present an improved version of FIT3D, a fitting tool for the analysis of the spectroscopic properties of the stellar populations and the ionized gas derived from moderate resolution spectra of galaxies. This tool was developed to analyze integral field spectroscopy data and it is the basis of PIPE3D, a pipeline used in the analysis of CALIFA, MaNGA, and SAMI data. We describe the philosophy and each step of the fitting procedure. We present an extensive set of simulations in order to estimate the precision and accuracy of the derived parameters for the stellar populations and the ionized gas. We report on the results of those simulations. Finally, we compare the results of the analysis using FIT3D with those provided by other widely used packages, and we find that the parameters derived by FIT3D are fully compatible with those derived using these other tools.

Mathematics Game e-Library for Elementary School, study case: Mexico

One of the most relevant subjects for the intellectual formation of elementary school students is Mathematics where its importance goes back to ancient civilizations and which its importance is underestimated nowadays. This phenomenon occurs in Mexico, where 63.1% of the total population of elementary school students between the third and sixth grade have insufficient/elemental level of mathematics knowledge. This has resulted in the need to use a new mechanism to complement student’s classroom learning. With the rapid growth of wireless and mobile technologies, the mobile learning has been gradually considered as a novel and effective form of learning due to it inherits all the advantages of e-learning as well as breaks the limitations of learning time and space occurring in the traditional classroom teaching. This project proposes the use of a Mathematics Game e-Library integrated by a set of games for mobile devices and a distribution/management tool. The games are developed for running on mobile devices and for cover the six competencies related with the mathematics learning approach established in Mexico. The distribution/management tool allows students to reach contents according to their needs; this is achieved through a core engine that infers, from an initial profile, the games that cover the user’s knowledge gaps.

Recolonization of mortars by endolithic organisms on the walls of San Roque church in Campeche (Mexico): A case of tertiary bioreceptivity

San Roque church (Campeche, Mexico) was built at the end of the 17th century with a micritic limestone and lime mortar in baroque style. In 2005 the church exhibited heavy biodeterioration associated with the development of extensive dark green phototrophic-based biofilms. Several cyanobacteria belonging to the order Chroococcales and lichenized fungi (Toninia nordlandica, Lobaria quercizans, Lecanora subcarnea, Cystocoleus ebeneus) were predominant in the dark biofilm samples, as revealed by DNA-based molecular techniques. In 2009, a cleaning and restoration intervention was adopted; however, after few months, microbial recolonization started to be noticeable on the painted church walls, representing an early phototrophic-based recolonization. According to molecular analysis, scanning electron microscopy observations and digital image analysis of cross sections, new phototrophic-based colonization, composed of cyanobacteria and bryophytes, developed mainly beneath the restored mortars. The intrinsic properties of the mortars, the tropical climate of Campeche and the absence of a biocide treatment in the restoration protocol influenced the recolonization of the church façades and enhanced the overall rate of deterioration in a short-term period.

Ethnological and biogeographical significance of pottery sherds from Nissan Island, Papua New Guinea / Susan Kaplan, Bryn Mawr College.

v.66:no.3(1976)

A flora of North America :containing abridged descriptions of all the known indigenous and naturalized plants growing north of Mexico, arranged according to the natural system /by John Torrey and Asa Gray.

v.2 (1841-1843)

(Table 1) Crystal sizes of measured samples from the Bush Hill region in the Gulf of Mexico and from ODP Leg 204 at the Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon

The grain sizes of gas hydrate crystallites are largely unknown in natural samples. Single grains are hardly detectable with electron or optical microscopy. For the first time, we have used high-energy synchrotron diffraction to determine grain sizes of six natural gas hydrates retrieved from the Bush Hill region in the Gulf of Mexico and from ODP Leg 204 at the Hydrate Ridge offshore Oregon from varying depth between 1 and 101 metres below seafloor. High-energy synchrotron radiation provides high photon fluxes as well as high penetration depth and thus allows for investigation of bulk sediment samples. Gas hydrate grain sizes were measured at the Beam Line BW 5 at the HASYLAB/Hamburg. A 'moving area detector method', originally developed for material science applications, was used to obtain both spatial and orientation information about gas hydrate grains within the sample. The gas hydrate crystal sizes appeared to be (log-)normally distributed in the natural samples. All mean grain sizes lay in the range from 300 to 600 µm with a tendency for bigger grains to occur in greater depth. Laboratory-produced methane hydrate, aged for 3 weeks, showed half a log-normal curve with a mean grain size value of c. 40 µm. The grains appeared to be globular shaped.