Neotropical plant morphology

An analysis on plant morphology and the sources that are important to the morphologic interpretations is done. An additional analysis is presented on all published papers in this subject by the Revista de Biología Tropical since its foundation, as well as its contribution to the plant morphology development in the neotropics.     

Half century of botany publishing in Revista de Biologia Tropical

Over its first half century the Revista de Biología Tropical published many papers and supplements dealing with the botany. However, the Revista is not a primary botanical journal. A wide variety of topics and geographic sources have been included, taking into consideration species from the Neotropics, but also from India and Nigeria. A complete index of botanical papers is presented.     

Marine science in Revista de Biologia Tropical in its 50th anniversary

The first paper published in the Revista de Biología Tropical (RBT) on anything related to marine science was in 1963. Since then the number of marine-related papers has increased to 637, which represents 27% of the total production of RBT (excluding the Supplements), and 33% since 1979. Most publications are Full Articles on Ecology (135 papers). The marine ecosystem of which there is more publications is the coral reefs (28); and fish is the most studied taxonomic group (165). Almost half of the Supplements are marine related (12). The RBT must continue its efforts to maintain itself as a leading marine science publication in Latin America.     

Fifty years of entomological publications in the Revista de Biología Tropical

Over its fifty year history nearly twenty percent of the papers published in the Revista de Biología Tropical have been about insects and arachnids. In the 1950's papers on arthropods of medical importance were dominant, in the 1960's there was a poliferation of papers on bees, and in more recent years the subjects have become increasingly diverse. In terms of nationality of contributing authors, the journal appears to have become increasingly international in later years.     

50 years of the Revista de Biologia Tropical: its contribution to the development of the Geo-Paleontology

The geosciences contribution along the 50 years of the Revista de Biología Tropical had been scarcity and episodic. Until now there are 2374 papers but only 21 (0.88%) have some relation with geological sciences. It's possible to recognize two periods with geological contributions, one between 1963 and 1978. It's appropriate to underline the importance of the biologist L. D. Gómez with his contributions about Costa Rican Paleobotanic in this period. The other period includes from 1988 to the present, and it's typified by an increase of biologist and geologist participation in different topics regarding with geosciences. Foreign and national researches are in the same ratio and belong from several countries like Costa Rica, México and Dominican Republic. The subjects are concerning mainly about fossil taxonomy (Paleontology: 81%), only 19% are related with geological topics. Such distribution could be explained because the affinity between the fossil studies and the biological sciences.     

Impact factor of Revista Iberoamericana de Micología

The impact factor is a bibliometric indicator published annually in the Journal Citation Reports, and widely regarded as a quality ranking of the journals included in this database. The problem with this indicator is that the impact factor of several journals not listed in the Science Citation Index database is largely unknown. The aim of this study was to analyze the 2001 national and international impact factor of Revista Iberoamericana de Micología. The National impact factor of Revista Iberoamericana de Micología was obtained by adding the number of cites in 2001 from a total of 87 Spanish medical journals of greater scientific quality. Also, bibliographical references from Spanish journals indexed in the 2001 Journal Citation reports database have been included to determine the international impact factor of this analyzed journal. Revista Iberoamericana de Micología received a total of 62 cites from published articles in 1999 to 2001, coming from 20 different journals, being their self-citation index 10.1%. The journal with the highest number of cites to Revista Iberoamericana de Micología was Journal of Clinical Microbiology, with 12 cites (19.3%). According to this findings the national and international impact factor of Revista Iberoamericana de Micología was 0.266 and 0.606, respectively. The impact factor of Revista Iberoamericana de Micología, although not included in the Science Citation Index database, was higher than other Journal Citation Reports. Moreover, Revista Iberoamericana de Micología received most of its citations from high impact factor journals included in the Journal Citation Reports database. These data support the international recognition of the scientific level of the journal.     

Scientific publications of Costa Rica in Science Citation Index bibliometric analysis of the period 1999-2001

This study analyzed the publications of authors from Costa Rican institutions that were included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) during 1999-2001. Out of the 722 references detected, distributed in 328 journals, 90.7% corresponded to original research articles. The total productivity figures showed a moderately increasing trend, both in absolute and population-adjusted terms, in concordance with previous data recorded for the period 1980-1998. The contribution of Revista de Biología Tropical to these figures corresponded to 10.0%, 8.9%, and 19.1%, for the years 1999, 2000, and 2001, respectively. The subject distribution of articles followed a similar pattern to that described for 1980-1998, with a predominance of biomedical (33.3%) and biological (27.5%) sciences, followed by agronomical (15.5%) sciences, chemistry (13.6%), physics (5.0%), geological sciences (3.6%), and mathematics (1.5%). Citation analyses for individual publications (up to July 15, 2002) revealed that only 45.2% of the articles had been cited at least once. The ten most cited references were analyzed, varying from 26 to 114 citations. The average citation per article was 2.60, and the average number of authors per article was 2.92. In agreement with data from 1980-1998, the University of Costa Rica appeared as the institution with highest productivity of SCI publications during 1999-2001, with a contribution of 50.0%. The percentage of publications performed without the participation of foreign co-authors showed a change in its decreasing trend of 1980-1998, stabilizing near the range of 25-30% during the period 1999-2001.     

Jorge Mardones: oration at his funeral service

Oratios at the funeral service of Prof Jorge Mardones, MD. A very successful and influential pharmacologist, he was Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile; President of the Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chile; National Prize of Sciences, 1977; and Minister of Public Health. He also served as Chief Editor of "Archivos de Biología y Medicina Experimentales" (former name of this journal) between 1964 and 1978.     

Croton chamelensis (Euphorbiaceae), a new species from coastal Jalisco,Mexico

Croton chamelensis Lott, known from the Estación de Biología, Chamela, Jalisco, and surrounding area, is described and illustrated. It appears to be most closely related to C. ramillatus Croizat of Veracruz.     

A new name for parasitology today

Parasitology Today is officially the Number One ranked journal in parasitology (impact factor 4.940). Since its launch in 1985, Parasitology Today has been part of the Trends Journal series - the most highly cited group of monthly review journals in the world, that includes Trends in Biochemical Sciences, Trends in Microbiology, Trends in Genetics, Immunology Today and Trends in Cell Biology.     

Ultrastructure of Elasmobranch and Teleost Thrombocytes

Zapata, A., Carrato, A. 1980. Ultrastructure of elasmobranch and teleost thrombocytes. (Departamento de Morfología Microscópica, Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.) — Acta zool. (Stockh.) 61 (3): 179–182. The ultrastructure of circulating thrombocytes of Raja clavata and Torpedo marmorata (Elasmobranchs) and Rutilus rutilus and Gobio gobio (Teleosts) was described. In elasmobranchs, only one thrombocytic cell type was found, while teleosts presented two types. These cells contained microtubules and cytoplasmic granules, whose functional significance related to clotting processes is analyzed.     

Tortula and some related genera (Pottiaceae, Musci): phylogenetic relationships based on chloroplast rps4 sequences

 According to chloroplast rps4 sequence data the genus Syntrichia forms a monophyletic clade clearly separated from Tortula, while Pottia is shown to be polyphyletic and the Rhynchostegiae species (with rostrate lid) are very similar to Tortula. Crossidium is probably polyphyletic. The close affinity of Desmatodon, Stegonia, Pterygoneurum and some of the species of Phascum with Tortula is confirmed by the molecular data. Received May 23, 2002; accepted August 23, 2002 Published online: November 22, 2002 Address of the authors: O. Werner, R. M. Ros, M. J. Cano, J. Guerra (E-mail: werner@um.es) Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica), Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, E-30100-Murcia, Spain.     

Inhibition of neutral Mg2+-dependent sphingomyelinase by ubiquinol-mediated plasma membrane electron transport

Summary.  Sphingomyelin is an abundant constituent of the plasma membranes of mammalian cells. Ceramide, its primary catabolic intermediate, has emerged as an important lipid signaling molecule. Previous work carried out by our group has documented that plasma membrane Mg²⁺-dependent neutral sphingomyelinase can be effectively inhibited by exogenous ubiquinol. In this work, we have tested whether or not plasma-membrane-associated electron transport can also achieve this inhibition through endogenous ubiquinol. Our results have shown that Mg²⁺-dependent neutral sphingomyelinase in isolated plasma membranes was inhibited by NAD(P)H under conditions where ubiquinone is reduced to ubiquinol. This inhibition was potentiated in the presence of an extra amount of NAD(P)H:(quinone acceptor) oxidoreductase 1 (EC 1.6.99.2). Depletion of plasma membranes from lipophilic antioxidants by solvent extraction abolished the inhibition by reduced pyridine nucleotides without affecting the sensitivity of the neutral sphingomyelinase to exogenous ubiquinol. Reconstitution of plasma membranes with ubiquinone restored the ability of NAD(P)H to inhibit the enzyme. Our results support that the reduction of endogenous ubiquinone to ubiquinol by NAD(P)H-driven electron transport may regulate the activity of the plasma membrane neutral sphingomyelinase. Received May 20, 2002; accepted September 20, 2002; published online May 21, 2003 RID="**" ID="**" Present address: Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, University of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. RID="*" ID="*" Correspondence and reprints: Departamento de Biología Celular, Fisiología e Inmunología, Facultad de Ciencias, Edificio C-6, Campus Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14014 Córdoba, Spain.     

In silico analysis of arginine catabolism as a source of nitric oxide or polyamines in endothelial cells

Summary. We use a modeling and simulation approach to carry out an in silico analysis of the metabolic pathways involving arginine as a precursor of nitric oxide or polyamines in aorta endothelial cells. Our model predicts conditions of physiological steady state, as well as the response of the system to changes in the control parameter, external arginine concentration. Metabolic flux control analysis allowed us to predict the values of flux control coefficients for all the transporters and enzymes included in the model. This analysis fulfills the flux control coefficient summation theorem and shows that both the low affinity transporter and arginase share the control of the fluxes through these metabolic pathways. The first two authors equally contributed to this work. Current address for the second author: ICREA-Complex Systems Laboratory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. Authors’ address: Dr. Miguel ángel Medina, Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, E-29071 Málaga, Spain     

Conception of health: Space-Earth

A new approach for assessing the state of health of cosmonauts, athletes, pilots, drivers, operators, and persons exposed to occupational hazards is considered. It has been created and developed at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the direction of Academician A.I. Grigor’ev. The results of the work of the last decade performed in the Program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Fundamental Sciences for Medicine” are presented. A new system for estimating the functional state of the body under stressful influences is provided. The methodology of remotely studying the influence of environmental factors on health that initiated a new branch of science and public health—environmental telemedicine—has been elaborated. Issues of the further introduction of the new concept of health and technologies of prenosological diagnostics in the practice of public health services are discussed.     

Morphology of some tricostrongilinae (Strongylida) from the National Helminth Collection, Institute of Biology, UNAM, Mexico

The present study analyses the taxonomic status of eleven species of trichostrongylins that parasitize rodents and lagomorphs deposited in the Colección Nacional de Helmintos, Instituto de Biología. UNAM. Mexico. This analysis is based on the morphology of the synlophe, characteristic that had not been studied for most of these nematode species and at present, it has a very important taxonomic value. As a result of this study, the identity of five species is ratified (Trichostrongylus calcaratus, Obeliscoides cuniculi, Carolinensis huehuetlana. Stilestrongylus peromysci and Nippostrongylus brasiliensis), the transference suggested previously for two more (Vexillata convoluta and Vexillata vexillata) is confirmed, Trichostrongylus chiapensis is synonymized with Boehmiella willsoni, and finally Lamothiella romerolagi is re-determined as Teporingonema cerropeladoensis and Stilestrongylus atlatilpinensis as Stilestrongylus hidalguensis.     

Trends on enzyme immobilization researches based on bibliometric analysis

In this survey, a bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production on enzyme immobilization researches was developed using Web of Science© database. The time-span comprised the period from 1991 to 2017. A total of 9636 documents related to the subject were retrieved and analyzed according to seven main aspects: publication years, journals, countries, authors, organizations, keywords, and Web of Science categories. The results indicated that the countries with the highest number of publications were China and the United States. The most expressive international collaborative networks were evidenced between Brazil and Spain and between the USA and China. Additionally, the Spanish researchers were the ones that contributed most to this domain, while the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Chinese Academy of Sciences were the most emblematic organizations. Finally, the analysis of keywords revealed that biosensor, lipase and glucose oxidase were the most cited terms among all publications, and also indicated the existence of a possible knowledge gap involving the terms Escherichia coli, Candida rugosa lipase and cytochrome-c in the context of enzyme immobilization. This study was efficient to evaluate the trends of the body of literature on enzyme immobilization research, subsidizing future decision-making in this field of science.