Variations on a theme: Clifford’s parallelism in elliptic space

In 1873, W. K. Clifford introduced a notion of parallelism in the three-dimensional elliptic space that, quite surprisingly, exhibits almost all properties of Euclidean parallelism in ordinary space. The purpose of this paper is to describe the genesis of this notion in Clifford’s works and to provide a historical analysis of its reception in the investigations of F. Klein, L. Bianchi, G. Fubini, and E. Bortolotti. Special emphasis is placed upon the important role that Clifford’s parallelism played in the development of the theory of connections.     

The coconut pathosystem: weed hosts of nymphs of the American palm Cixiid Haplaxius crudus (Hemiptera: Fulgoroidea)

Lethal yellowing (LY) of coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L., Arecaceae) is a disease of economic importance that is caused by the phytoplasma ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma palmae’ and is transmitted by the planthopper Haplaxius crudus (Van Duzee) (Hemiptera: Cixiidae). This study explores the weeds used by H. crudus nymphs and other Cixiidae in a coconut pathosystem in southern Mexico. Nymphs were collected directly from the root system of each weed by hand or with the help of a vacuum after carefully opening the culm. This study included 11 species of weeds: nine Poaceae [Brachiaria decumbens Stapf, B. humidicola (Rendle) Schweick, B. mutica (Forssk.) Stapf, Digitaria abyssinica (Hochst. Ex A. Rich.) Stapf, Eustachys petraea (Sw.) Desv., Leersia hexandra Sw., Panicum laxum Sw., P. maximum Jacq., Paspalum notatum Flüggé]; one Cyperaceae [Cyperus ligularis L.], and one Portulacaceae: [Portulaca pilosa L.]. Brachiaria mutica, E. petraea, B. humidicola, P. maximum were identified as the principal host species for H. crudus nymphs. Brachiaria decumbens, D. abyssinica, and C. ligularis are new host records for the nymphs of H. crudus. Additionally, it was found that H. crudus may coexist with its cogeners H. skarphion Kramer (Cixiidae) and H. caldwelli Kramer (Cixiidae), on B. mutica. On C. ligularis, H. crudus may coexist with Oecleus snowi Ball (Cixiidae) nymphs. These results suggest that in the coconut pathosystem there is a complex of multitrophic interactions that should be considered in integrated management of LY.     

一种新数值工具在车辆气动声学开发中的应用

为了优化车辆开发过程的有效性，数值气动声学分析法的实施和应用对汽车制造商来说变得越来越重要。提出了一种结合延迟分离涡流模拟和基于Lighthill方程及声学扰动方程的有限元模型混合数值工具，应用OpenFOAM和Actran软件实现了基于声学有限元法的近场声源区提取及声学压力脉动计算，并尝试应用于车顶扰流板及后视镜区域的气动噪声计算及分析。在兰博基尼Urus车型上，研究了不同车顶扰流板设计的气动声学行为，将仿真结果与斯图加特大学气动声学全尺寸风洞的实验结果进行比较，发现了令人信服的相关性。此外，探讨了扰流板上的主要噪声产生机制，研究了汽车表面压力波动水平随几何形状改变的变化情况。     

Somatic histone H3 alterations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and non-brainstem glioblastomas

To identify somatic mutations in pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), we performed whole-genome sequencing of DNA from seven DIPGs and matched germline tissue and targeted sequencing of an additional 43 DIPGs and 36 non-brainstem pediatric glioblastomas (non-BS-PGs). We found that 78% of DIPGs and 22% of non-BS-PGs contained a mutation in H3F3A, encoding histone H3.3, or in the related HIST1H3B, encoding histone H3.1, that caused a p.Lys27Met amino acid substitution in each protein. An additional 14% of non-BS-PGs had somatic mutations in H3F3A causing a p.Gly34Arg alteration.     

Oncogenes and angiogenesis: a way to personalize anti-angiogenic therapy?

The acquisition of oncogenic mutations and promotion of angiogenesis are key hallmarks of cancer. These features are often thought of as separate events in tumor progression and the two fields of research have frequently been considered as independent. However, as we highlight in this review, activated oncogenes and deregulated angiogenesis are tightly associated, as mutations in cancer cells can lead to perturbation of the pro- and anti-angiogenic balance thereby causing aberrant angiogenesis. We propose that normalization of the vascular network by targeting oncogenes in the tumor cells might lead to more efficient and sustained therapeutic effects compared to therapies targeting tumor vessels. We discuss how pharmacological inhibition of oncogenes in tumor cells restores a functional vasculature by bystander anti-angiogenic effect. As genetic alterations are tumor-specific, targeted therapy, which potentially blocks the angiogenic program activated by individual oncogenes may lead to personalized anti-angiogenic therapy.     

Extracting behavioural models from 2010 FIFA world cup

The FIFA World Cup? is the most profitable worldwide event. The FIFA publishes global statistics of this competition which provide global data about the players and teams during the competition. This work is focused on the extraction of behavioural patterns for both, players and teams strategies, through the automated analysis of this dataset. The knowledge and models extracted in this work could be applied to soccer leagues or even it could be oriented to sport betting. However, the main contribution is related to the study on several automatic knowledge extraction techniques, such as clustering methods, and how these techniques can be used to obtain useful behavioural models from a global statistics dataset. The information provided by the clustering algorithms shows similar properties which have been combined to define the models, making the human interpretation of these statistics easier. Finally, the most successful teams strategies have been analysed and compared.