Hintoniella,a replacement name for the preoccupied generic name Helonastes Hinton, 1968 (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea: Elmidae)

Abstract

A replacement name, Hintoniella is proposed for the generic name Helonastes Hinton, 1968 in the family Elmidae (Coleoptera: Byrrhoidea).     

Understanding the local actions of lipids in bone physiology

The adult skeleton is a metabolically active organ system that undergoes continuous remodeling to remove old and/or stressed bone (resorption) and replace it with new bone (formation) in order to maintain a constant bone mass and preserve bone strength from micro-damage accumulation. In that remodeling process, cellular balances – adipocytogenesis/osteoblastogenesis and osteoblastogenesis/osteoclastogenesis – are critical and tightly controlled by many factors, including lipids as discussed in the present review.Interest in the bone lipid area has increased as a result of in vivo evidences indicating a reciprocal relationship between bone mass and marrow adiposity. Lipids in bones are usually assumed to be present only in the bone marrow. However, the mineralized bone tissue itself also contains small amounts of lipids which might play an important role in bone physiology. Fatty acids, cholesterol, phospholipids and several endogenous metabolites (i.e., prostaglandins, oxysterols) have been purported to act on bone cell survival and functions, the bone mineralization process, and critical signaling pathways. Thus, they can be regarded as regulatory molecules important in bone health. Recently, several specific lipids derived from membrane phospholipids (i.e., sphingosine-1-phosphate, lysophosphatidic acid and different fatty acid amides) have emerged as important mediators in bone physiology and the number of such molecules will probably increase in the near future. The present paper reviews the current knowledge about: (1°) bone lipid composition in both bone marrow and mineralized tissue compartments, and (2°) local actions of lipids on bone physiology in relation to their metabolism. Understanding the roles of lipids in bone is essential to knowing how an imbalance in their signaling pathways might contribute to bone pathologies, such as osteoporosis.     

Development and validation of a generic 3D model of the distal femur

The development and validation of a virtual generic 3D model of the distal femur using computer graphical methods is presented. The synthesis of the generic model requires the following steps: acquisition of bony 3D morphology using standard computed tomography (CT) imaging; alignment of 3D models reconstructed from CT images with a common coordinate system; computer graphical sectioning of the models; extraction of bone contours from the image sections; combining and averaging of extracted contours; and 3D reconstruction of the averaged contours.

The generic models reconstructed from the averaged contours of six cadaver femora were validated by comparing their surface geometry on a point to point basis with that of the CT reconstructed reference models. The mean errors ranged from 0.99 to 2.5 mm and were in agreement with the qualitative assessment of the models.     

世界及中国菌物新命名发表概况(2020年)

菌物是全球生物多样性最丰富的生物类群之一, 每年有大量新物种被描述和发现, 统计和分析菌物新名称发表数据, 可实时展示菌物分类学的研究热点, 并为学科的未来发展提供参考数据。根据世界菌物名称信息库Fungal Names、Index Fungorum和MycoBank所收录的数据, 2020年全球共发表了4,996个菌物新名称, 包括652个新高阶分类单元、2,905个新种及种下单元、1,342个新组合和97个其他名称, 是历史上发表菌物新名称数量最多的一年。这些新名称隶属于12门44纲173目469科1,386属, 盘菌、小型子囊菌、地衣和伞菌是本年度最受关注的类群。来自全球的1,978位学者将上述菌物新名称发表在133个期刊的885篇论文和9部专著中, 其中669位作者是首次参与新名称发表, 是历年来新作者最多的一年。本年度发表的菌物新物种的模式标本来自世界103个国家和地区, 东亚和东南亚是新物种发现的最热点地区, 而中国是发现新物种最多的国家, 共发现663种, 占全球的23%, 是排名第二位的泰国的2.28倍。西南地区是我国新物种发现的热点地区, 云南、贵州、西藏三省区本年度发现的新物种数量占全国的44.80%。除了新物种来源, 中国学者在本年度的菌物分类学研究中取得了令人瞩目的成果, 333位中国学者参与发表了1,271个菌物新名称, 占全球新名称总数的1/4。这些菌物新名称隶属于8门24纲87目209科440属, 发表在45个期刊的258篇研究论文和1部专著中。通过上述研究发现, 全球菌物新物种发现的速度仍在加快, 命名作者和新名称发表数量在逐步增加, 研究类群规模在逐渐扩大。但菌物物种描述率仍处于较低水平, 持续、高效地发现菌物新物种将是菌物学者的重点研究方向之一。     

Review of the genus Stephanospathius Belokobylskij, 1992 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae), with discussion of their tribal position

A review of the Afrotropical genus Stephanospathius Belokobylskij is provided. A new species Stephanospathius benoitisp. n. from the Republic of Congo, and the male and, for the first time, the female of Stephanospathius ornatipes (Kieffer) are described. A discussion of the status and composition of the tribe Stephaniscini is given and a new name for this tribe, Leptospathiini, nom. n., is proposed. A key to the included genera and a key to species of Stephanospathius are provided.     

中国菌物名录数据库在大型真菌红色名录编制中的作用

长期以来, 分类学的研究成果主要以平面的方式发表在各种纸质文献资料中。近年来, 随着计算机和人工智能等新兴技术的发展和应用, 平面资料信息的数字化成为一种趋势, 世界各国都非常重视本国生物资源信息的收集汇总, 构建了多种数据库, 为科学研究、政府决策、资源保护、合理利用和科学传播提供了重要的信息基础。本研究探索并建立从菌物学平面资料信息构建数据库的流程和方法, 并在中国菌物名录数据库和Index Fungorum所收集数据的基础上进行数据挖掘和分析。通过软件操作和程序设计, 在数据库中提取相关信息, 辅助完成了《中国生物多样性红色名录——大型真菌卷》的编制工作, 同时梳理和规范了菌物拉丁和汉语学名, 为菌物分类研究和资源评估与保护提供基础。     

New Replacement Name for Rana paradoxa Mocquard,1890 with Designations of Lectotypes for Rana paradoxa and Rana conspicillata Günther,1872:Both Synonymized with Limnonectes kuhlii (Tschudi,1838) (Dicroglossidae:Dicroglossinae)

Fanged frogs,now called Limnonectes kuhlii,from Borneo are remotely related to true Javanese L.kuhlii.For future taxonomy of Bornean fanged frogs,we fi x the nomenclatural status of two existing names,Rana conspicillata Günther,1872 and Rana paradoxa Mocquard,1890.Morphological comparison of the type-series revealed heterospecif ic relationships of the two species.For R.conspicillata,we designate BMNH 1947.2.29.20 as the lectotype,and for R.paradoxa,we also designate MNHN 1889.222 as the lectotype and propose a replacement name Limnonectes mocquardi,in order to stabilize their nomenclature.     

Partially observed branching processes for stochastic epidemics

At the offset of a (stochastic) epidemic, it is of importance to have a mathematical model that will assist in the making of an informed judgement on whether the epidemic will explode, or will be minor and die out. In this paper, we consider probabilistic inferences related to the event of extinction of a discrete time branching process when this cannot be directly observed. Instead, we are able to observe only a random “trace” of the process, which not only trails the latter, but also directly affects it (in terms of interventions). A simple model is proposed that provides tractability, preserves a marginal branching property, and gives reasonable closed form expressions. Part of this work was done while the author was an academic visitor at the Department of Statistics, University of Oxford.