Climatic gradients frequently predict large‐scale ecogeographical patterns in animal coloration, but the underlying causes are often difficult to disentangle. We examined ecogeographical patterns of reflectance among 343 European butterfly species and isolated the role of selection for thermal benefits by comparing animal‐visible and near‐infrared (NIR) wavebands. NIR light accounts for ~50% of solar energy but cannot be seen by animals so functions primarily in thermal control. We found that reflectance of both dorsal and ventral surfaces shows thermally adaptive correlations with climatic factors including temperature and precipitation. This adaptive variation was more prominent in NIR than animal‐visible wavebands and for body regions (thorax‐abdomen and basal wings) that are most important for thermoregulation. Thermal environments also predicted the reflectance difference between dorsal and ventral surfaces, which may be due to modulation between requirements for heating and cooling. These results highlight the importance of climatic gradients in shaping the reflectance properties of butterflies at a continent‐wide scale.

We use three-dimensional (3D) numerical models to examine critical hydrodynamic characteristics of a range of shell shapes found in extinct ammonoid cephalopods. Ammonoids are incredibly abundant in the fossil record and were likely a major component of ancient marine ecosystems. Despite their fossil abundance we lack significant soft body remains, which has made it historically difficult to investigate the potential life modes and ecological roles that these organisms played. By employing numerical tools to study how the morphology of a shell affected an ammonite's hydrodynamics, we can build a foundation for hypothesizing and testing changes in the organism's capabilities through time. To achieve this goal, the study was carried out in two major steps. First, we applied a number of simulation methods to a known problem, the drag coefficient of a half-sphere, to select the most appropriate modeling method that is accurate and efficient. These were further checked against previous experimental results on ammonoid hydrodynamics. Next, we produced 3D models of the ammonoid shells using Blender and Zbrush where each shell model emulated a specific fossil ammonoid, recent Nautilus, or an idealized shell forms created by systematically varying shell inflation and umbilical exposure. We test the hypothesis that both the overall shell inflation and umbilical exposure will increase the drag experienced by a similarly sized ammonoid shell as it moves through water relative to other morphologies. ANSYS FLUENT was employed to execute the study. We further compare our simulation results to published experimental measurements of drag on ammonoid fossil replicas and live Nautilus. The simulation results provide accuracy within an order of magnitude of published values, across the tested range of water flow velocities (1-50 cm/s). The simulated drag measurements demonstrate a first-order sensitivity to shell inflation, with a second-order effect from umbilical exposure. The impact of a larger umbilical exposure (shells that are more evolute) is minimal at low velocities, but substantial at higher velocities. We conclude that the overall shell inflation and umbilical exposure influence an individual shell's drag coefficient, therefore, influence the hydrodynamic efficiency.

A substantial body of research has been accumulated around ammonoids over several decades. A core aspect of this research has been attempts to infer their life mode from analysis of the morphology of their shells and the drag they incur as that shell is pushed through the water. Tools such as Westermann Morphospace have been developed to investigate and scaffold hypotheses about the results of these investigations. We use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to simulate fluid flow around a suite of 24 theoretical ammonoid morphologies to interrogate systematic variations within this space. Our findings uphold some of the long-standing expectations of drag behavior; conch inflation has the greatest influence over ammonoid drag. However, we also find that other long-standing assumptions, such as oxyconic ammonoids being the best swimmers, are subject to substantial variation and nuance resulting from their morphology that is not accounted for through simple drag assessment.

This article describes the design, synthesis, and in vitro anti-inflammatory screening of new triarylpyrazole derivatives. A total of 34 new compounds were synthesized containing a terminal arylsulfonamide moiety and a different linker between the sulfonamide and pyridine ring at position 4 of the pyrazole ring. All the target compounds were tested for both cytotoxicity and nitric oxide (NO) production inhibition in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages. Compounds 1b, 1d, 1g, 2a, and 2c showed the highest NO inhibition percentages and the lowest cytotoxic effect. The most potent derivatives were tested for their ability to inhibit prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages. The IC50 for nitric oxide inhibition, PGE2 inhibition, and cell viability were determined. In addition, 1b, 1d, 1g, 2a, and 2c were tested for their inhibitory effect on LPS-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and Cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) protein expression as well as iNOS enzymatic activity.

No abstract