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For 80 years, there were no sightings of the Andean frog, Telmatobius halli , due to the ambiguity with which its type locality was described (“warm spring near Ollagüe”, northern Chile). The type specimens were collected during the International High Altitude Expedition to Chile (IHAEC) in 1935 and were subsequently described in 1938. In 2018 and 2020, two studies independently reported the rediscovery of the species, but they reached different conclusions about its identity and geographic distribution. In fact, the populations identified as T. halli in those studies are more phylogenetically related to other species than to each other, so they clearly do not belong to the same taxon. Although the study of 2020 is more in line with the geographic information of the description, it does not consider some bibliographic details and the transport limitations of the IHAEC. Here, based on a detailed analysis of the chronicles of the IHAEC and other bibliographic sources, I first refute the proposals of the 2018 and 2020 studies and then provide a possible solution. The combined information from the chronicles indicates that the type locality of T. halli is found at the sources of the Loa River, a different place from those identified in the two previous studies. By also incorporating geographic information of the time, I conclude that its true type locality is Miño, an abandoned mining camp located near the origin of the Loa River, where currently no populations of the genus have been described.

The legacy of the 19 th -century naturalist Rudolph Philippi to the taxonomy of Chilean amphibians has been controversial since most of the species he described in 1902 have been questioned or invalidated. Here, we describe the rediscovery of Alsodes vittatus , a species that was not observed for 130 years after being collected, in three places very close to the type locality in the Andean foothills of the La Araucanía Region, Chile. The species was identified phenotypically by the vertebral line of some individuals, which turned out to be an intrapopulationally polymorphic trait. A phylogenetic analysis with mitochondrial genes, including most of the species of the genus, showed that the discovered populations of A. vittatus are paraphyletic with respect to the only individual of A. neuquensis included. We also describe populations from another area where A. vittatus was searched in the past, which we assigned here to A. igneus due to its geographic location and phylogenetic and phenotypic affinity. All these populations are part of two well-supported clades, but their relationships with nearby species (e.g., A. norae and A. barrioi ) remain uncertain. These results ratify that the diversity and phylogenetic relationships of the genus in the Chilean Andes, particularly in the La Araucanía Region, are not yet well established. We discuss the possibility that A. vittatus and A. neuquensis , known until now only in Argentina, are the same species, and suggest downgrading the conservation status of A. vittatus from Critically Endangered to Endangered, considering the information from the new localities discovered.

Telmatobius halli was the first representative of its genus to be described exclusively for Chile, yet for 85 years no new individuals could be located due to the vagueness with which its type locality was described. The type series was collected by one of the members of the International High Altitude Expedition to Chile (IHAEC) of 1935. Recently, three studies successively claimed to have located the type locality in different places. The third study proved, according to the chronicles of the IHAEC, that the actual locality is Miño, at the origin of the Loa River, where currently there are no published records of Telmatobius . In this study, additional documentary antecedents and graphic material are provided that corroborate that Miño is indeed the type locality of T. halli. Additionally, the recently rediscovered Telmatobius population from Miño and the environment it inhabits are described. The external characteristics of the frogs are consistent with the description of T. halli . Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic analyses were performed that showed that T. halli , T. dankoi , and T. vilamensis , all known only from their type localities in Chile, comprise a clade without internal resolution. A detailed comparison of the diagnoses of the three species revealed that the few phenotypic differences between these taxa were based on characteristics that vary widely within and between populations of the genus, hence their conspecificity is proposed. The implications of this synonymy for the taxonomy, biogeography, and conservation of the Telmatobius from the extreme south of its distribution in Chile are discussed.

The genus Eupsophus (ground frogs) inhabits exclusively the temperate forests of southern South America (Chile and Argentina). The current delimitation of the genus was reached in the late 1970s, when only two species were recognized, but since then the number of described species steadily increased, reaching a maximum of 11 by 2012. Subsequent studies that applied explicit species delimitation approaches decreased the number of species to six in 2017 and raised it again to 11 the following year, including an undescribed putative species. Despite these taxonomic changes, the two species groups traditionally recognized, roseus and vertebralis , have been maintained. Another recent contribution to the taxonomy of the genus was the explicit recognition of the extremely high level of external phenotypic variation exhibited by species of the roseus group, which undermines the utility of some diagnostic characters. Here we provide a critical review of the extensive taxonomic and systematic literature on the genus over the last six decades, to examine the evidence behind the recurrent taxonomic changes and advances in its systematics. We also update and complete a 2017 review of geographic information, provide additional qualitative observations of external characters commonly used in the diagnoses of species of the roseus group, and reassess the phylogenetic position of a putative new species from Tolhuaca (Chile), which was not included in the last species delimitation study. The present review shows that: 1) there is no congruence between the patterns of phenotypic and genetic/phylogenetic differentiation among species of both groups; 2) in the roseus group, the intraspecific variation in some external characters is as high as the differences described among species; 3) there is little morphological and bioacoustic differentiation within species groups, and inconsistencies in the chromosomal evidence at the genus level; 4) under the latest taxonomic proposal (2018), species of the roseus group still lack consistent and reliable diagnoses and their distribution limits are poorly defined; and 5) the population from Tolhuaca represents an additional undescribed species under the most recent taxonomic framework. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the taxonomy and biogeography of the genus, pointing out some areas that require further research to understand their patterns and processes of diversification.

In this paper we extend the Banach spaces-based fully mixed approach recently developed for the coupled Stokes and Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations, to cover the coupled Navier–Stokes and Poisson–Nernst–Planck equations. In addition to the velocity and pressure of the fluid, the velocity gradient and the Bernoulli-type stress tensor are added as further unknowns. Similarly, fully mixed formulations for the Poisson and Nernst–Planck sub-problems are achieved by considering, alongside the electrostatic potential and the concentration of ionized particles, the electric current field and total ionic fluxes as new mixed variables. As a consequence, two saddle-point problems, one of them non-linear, and both involving nonlinear source terms depending on the other unknowns, along with a perturbed saddle-point problem that is in turn further perturbed by a bilinear form depending on the remaining unknowns, constitute the resulting variational formulation of the whole coupled system. Fixed-point strategies are then employed to prove, under smallness assumptions on the data, the well-posedness of the continuous and associated Galerkin schemes, the latter for arbitrary finite element subspaces under suitable stability assumptions. The main theoretical tools utilized include the Babuška–Brezzi and Banach–Nečas–Babuška theories in Banach spaces, an abstract result for perturbed saddle-point problems (also in Banach spaces), and the classical Banach and Brouwer fixed-point theorems. Strang-type lemmas are then applied to establish a priori error estimates. Next, specific finite element subspaces (defined by Raviart–Thomas elements of order k ≥ 0 and piecewise polynomials of degree ≤ k ) are shown to satisfy the required hypotheses, and this yields specific convergence rates. Finally, several numerical results are reported, confirming the theoretical findings and illustrating the good performance of the method.

Background: Thermovinification is a non-conventional winemaking practice that replaces the traditional method of grape maceration. Methods: This study evaluated the influence of thermovinification temperature on the quality of Syrah wines. The treatments included traditional winemaking with 7 days of maceration during alcoholic fermentation at 23 °C (TW—control); and thermovinification for 2 h at 55 °C (TV55), 65 °C (TV65), and 75 °C (TV75). The red wines were made through microvinification (10-litre glass). Phenolic compounds (n = 26) were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography and a colour analysis using the CIELab/CIEL*C*h systems and a sensory analysis was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of the thermovinified wine. Results: The results indicate that thermovinification increased the content of bioactive compounds and intensified the colour of the wine, reducing L* and a*. However, the content of phenolic acids decreased, except for trans-caftaric acid, which was approximately 50 times higher. A higher temperature of thermovinification (75 °C) promoted the degradation of all anthocyanins. Among flavonols, kaempferol-3-O-glucoside, quercetin-3-β-D-glucoside, and isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside were higher in TV65 and TV75 wines. Greater amounts of stilbenes were quantified in TV65. Among the flavan-3-ols, TV75 stood out, especially for (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, procyanidin A2, and procyanidin B1. Conclusions: The thermovinification at 65 °C is optimal for minimising anthocyanin degradation and improving Syrah wine quality.

One of the most characteristic and abundant amphibian taxa of South American temperate forests is Eupsophus. The ten currently recognized species of the genus have been divided in two species groups, roseus and vertebralis, but most of them, eight, belong to the roseus group. Recent phylogeographic and phylogenetic studies have suggested that species diversity of the roseus group could be underestimated. An examination of the literature shows that species of the roseus group exhibit high levels of variation in their external characteristics, particularly those used as diagnostic characters, which compromises their taxonomy and hinders their field recognition. High levels of variation were also observed in several new populations of the roseus group discovered in southern Chile (36°-40°S), which could not be identified to the species level by their external characteristics. On the other hand, the literature reveals a scarse karyotype differentiation and a high bioacoustic uniformity among the species of the roseus group. We performed a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis using mitochondrial and nuclear genes to reevaluate the species diversity of the roseus group, including all the nominal species of Eupsophus and new populations. This analysis was complemented with three species delimitation approaches, General Mixed Yule Coalescent, multi-rate Poisson Tree Process and Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery. We favored a conservative delimitation of only four species for the roseus group, a result more consistent with the distribution of pairwise genetic distances, and the available chromosome and bioacoustic evidence. The four recognized lineages, which have nearly completely allopatric distributions, are named after the earliest nominal species that they include, but because high levels of phenotypic variation, they are not diagnosable by consistent differences in external morphology. We discuss the implications of this new proposal for the taxonomy and conservation of the genus, and the possible causes of the difficulty to estimate its species diversity.

En Chile central habitan tres lagartos endémicos y amenazados del género Pristidactylus, que tienen distribuciones muy reducidas. Se examinó la variación genética mitocondrial (citocromo b) de dos poblaciones de cada una de estas tres especies. Los análisis sugieren que las tres tienen tamaños poblacionales grandes, alta estructura poblacional y bajo flujo génico entre sus poblaciones. Se discuten las implicaciones de estos resultados para la conservación de estas especies.

The Soil–Structure Interaction (SSI) effect has been widely evidenced during several earthquakes around the world. In the Venezuelan context, the seismic event in Caracas in 1967 showed the significant consequences of designing buildings without considering the SSI effect. Nevertheless, limited research on the seismic performance of concrete moment frames (commonly used as structural systems in office and residential buildings in Venezuela and Latin America) considering the SSI effects has been developed, although there have been continuous updates to the Venezuelan Seismic Code. In this research, the influence of the SSI on the seismic performance of RC moment frame buildings designed according to the New Venezuelan Seismic Code was studied. An extensive numerical study of 3D buildings using concrete moment frames supported by mat foundations on sandy and clayey soils was performed. The response spectrum method, non-linear static analysis, and non-linear dynamic analysis were used to assess the seismic response of the archetypes studied. The results show that SSI effects can have a significant impact on the seismic response of RC moment frame buildings, increasing the interstory drift ratio and decreasing the shear forces. As is shown in fragility curves, the probability of collapse increases for cases with flexible bases in comparison to the cases of models with fixed bases. Additionally, in the 24-story archetype, the fixed-base model reached a maximum probability of collapse. Finally, a new proposal for the reduction of the strength-reduction factor (R) must be incorporated into the Venezuelan Seismic Code to improve the safety of the structures. Limitations in the use of RC moment frames must be incorporated for high-rise buildings since, as the present work demonstrates, for high-period structures, the normative provisions are not reached.

Recently, the nominal species Atractus meridensis was considered a junior synonym of Atractus erythromelas, both species being endemic to the cordillera de Mérida in Venezuela. Here, its taxonomic status is resolved through the examination of the original descriptions, available type specimens, and an extensive comparison of additional museum material. In this review, we provide a new morphological–phylogenetic approach regarding its diagnosis and description for each species, including a model of its current distribution, which demonstrates its allopatric distribution. Both sleepyhead snakes are considered mimetic, but A. erythromelas exhibits a polymorphic color pattern with at least five known morphs, while A. meridensis is dichromatic with only two known color patterns. According to the IUCN, both taxa should be included in the Vulnerable category according to criteria B2abi,ii,iii,iv.