scholarly journals Traquair's lungfish from Loanhead: dipnoan diversity and tooth plate growth in the late Mississippian

Author(s):  
Timothy R. SMITHSON ◽  
Thomas J. CHALLANDS ◽  
Ketura Z. SMITHSON

ABSTRACTRamsay Heatley Traquair, the eminent Victorian Scottish palaeoichthyologist and museum curator, procured an extensive collection of Palaeozoic fishes from across Scotland with the help of local miners and quarrymen. One very productive locality near Edinburgh was Loanhead. Traquair described numerous fossil fish from this Serpukhovian site, including four lungfish taxa: Ctenodus interruptus, Sagenodus quinquecostatus, Uronemus splendens and Ctenodus angustulus. The first three are now quite well known, but the fourth was only briefly described and never figured. It is based entirely on tooth plates, which are unusual both in their very small size and the arrangement of the tooth ridges. They lack the diagnostic characters of Ctenodus tooth plates and are here renamed Clackodus angustulus. A further taxon, Conchopoma sp., has recently been identified. Represented by a spade-shaped parasphenoid and denticulated jaw elements, it is the earliest known occurrence of the genus, extending its range into the Mississippian. A sixth taxon may be represented by an isolated parasphenoid bearing an anterior process, previously only seen in Devonian lungfish. The presence of up to six lungfish taxa at a single locality is unprecedented in the Carboniferous and indicates that the high level of lungfish diversity encountered in the Tournaisian of the Scottish Borders continued throughout the Mississippian, adding to the growing evidence that post-Devonian lungfish evolution was not as limited as previously proposed. This may have been due to changes in tooth plate growth, enabling greater variation in dentition and diet. In most Devonian taxa, tooth plate growth can be explained by comparison with that in extant forms, but analysis of Carboniferous tooth plates suggest growth was different in many taxa, possibly based on more than one pioneer tooth, allowing for novel patterns of tooth ridges and different types of teeth to develop on the same plate.

Total twenty different processed meat plant producing emulsion type sausage were histologically and chemically examined for detection of adulteration with unauthorized tissues. Results revealed that samples were adulterated with different types of animal tissues included; hyaline cartilage, tendon, spongy bone, peripheral nerve trunk, basophilic matrix, lymphatic tissue, fascia, fibrocartilage and vascular tissue. Moreover, these samples were adulterated Also, adulterated with plant tissue included; plant stem, leaves and root. Chemical analysis showed a significant difference in their chemical composition (moisture, fat, protein, ash and calcium) content. Moisture and fat content varied around the permissible limit of E.S.S. while low protein, high ash and calcium content was detected in the examined samples. Therefore, Histological and chemical examinations can be used as reliable methods to detect adultration using unauthorized addition of both animal and plant tissues in processed meat product samples which revealed a high level of falsification.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Yizhe Wang ◽  
Cunqian Feng ◽  
Yongshun Zhang ◽  
Sisan He

Precession is a common micromotion form of space targets, introducing additional micro-Doppler (m-D) modulation into the radar echo. Effective classification of space targets is of great significance for further micromotion parameter extraction and identification. Feature extraction is a key step during the classification process, largely influencing the final classification performance. This paper presents two methods for classifying different types of space precession targets from the HRRPs. We first establish the precession model of space targets and analyze the scattering characteristics and then compute electromagnetic data of the cone target, cone-cylinder target, and cone-cylinder-flare target. Experimental results demonstrate that the support vector machine (SVM) using histograms of oriented gradient (HOG) features achieves a good result, whereas the deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) obtains a higher classification accuracy. DCNN combines the feature extractor and the classifier itself to automatically mine the high-level signatures of HRRPs through a training process. Besides, the efficiency of the two classification processes are compared using the same dataset.


2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (6) ◽  
pp. 1584-1598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marino Pagan ◽  
Nicole C. Rust

The responses of high-level neurons tend to be mixtures of many different types of signals. While this diversity is thought to allow for flexible neural processing, it presents a challenge for understanding how neural responses relate to task performance and to neural computation. To address these challenges, we have developed a new method to parse the responses of individual neurons into weighted sums of intuitive signal components. Our method computes the weights by projecting a neuron's responses onto a predefined orthonormal basis. Once determined, these weights can be combined into measures of signal modulation; however, in their raw form these signal modulation measures are biased by noise. Here we introduce and evaluate two methods for correcting this bias, and we report that an analytically derived approach produces performance that is robust and superior to a bootstrap procedure. Using neural data recorded from inferotemporal cortex and perirhinal cortex as monkeys performed a delayed-match-to-sample target search task, we demonstrate how the method can be used to quantify the amounts of task-relevant signals in heterogeneous neural populations. We also demonstrate how these intuitive quantifications of signal modulation can be related to single-neuron measures of task performance ( d′).


Author(s):  
Konstantinos Apostoleris ◽  
Basil Psarianos ◽  
Ioannis-Alexandros Choupas ◽  
Vassilios Matragos

Skew superelevation has proven to be an efficient pavement constructional measure to address hydroplaning phenomena under specific critical superelevation runoff designs. However, this technique has raised concerns about user’s comfort when driving over the skewed edge of the pavement, especially for heavy vehicles and when the traveling speed is higher than the design speed. This paper aims to evaluate the driving comfort outcome on an improved skew superelevation design, where a rounding of the skew edge has been applied. This is achieved through the use of a simulation program which examines the vehicle and driver behavior when passing over it. The simulation program estimates many parameters including the lateral and vertical accelerations ( Gy and Gz) imposed on both elements, the vehicle and the driver. This evaluation is made for different alignment designs provided in the freeway design and for a broad range of especially high velocities ranging from 80 to 160 km/h (50–100 mph), as well as for different types of heavy vehicles. Also, the influence on the above parameters has been investigated in respect of the distance between two consecutive skew superelevations, concerning cases of entering and exiting a simple, low-length curve. The outcomes are classified in order to evaluate their variability as affected by each parameter change (speed, geometry, vehicle). Simulation results are compared with thresholds, as provided in the international literature, to ensure driver comfort and a high level of road safety.


2018 ◽  
Vol 386 ◽  
pp. 315-320
Author(s):  
Vladimir S. Egorkin ◽  
Igor E. Vyaliy ◽  
Nikolay S. Sviridov ◽  
Alexander N. Minaev ◽  
Sergey L. Sinebryukhov ◽  
...  

Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) of 5754 aluminum alloy in a tartrate electrolyte was carried out to form a base layer. Composite fluoropolymer coatings were obtained on the base layers in two ways allowing the formation of two different types of morphological structure: a continuous polymer film and a multimodal islet relief. The resulted coatings exhibit substantially different wettability along with high level of barrier properties.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1107-1112
Author(s):  
Shiva Raoufi-Danner ◽  
Sterwin Carl ◽  
Abtahi Jahan

Background: Ameloblastoma is the second most common odontogenic tumor. It shows a locally aggressive behavior, with a high level of recurrence. Wide resection of the jaw is recommended for treatment of ameloblastoma. However, radical surgery causes an abnormal mandibular movement, facial asymmetry, and masticatory dysfunction. Methods: Three cases of different types of ameloblastoma is presented, with different reconstruction techniques including Non-Vascularized Bone Graft (NVBG), Osteocutaneous Fibula Free Flap (OFFF), and Deep Circumflex Iliac Artery flap (DCIA). Results: In all three cases the tumor site was successfully reconstructed to obtain very good esthetic results as well as functional oral rehabilitation with implants and fixed prosthetics for optimal masticatory function. Conclusion: For reconstruction of the mandible, we prefer bone grafts from the iliac crest. The natural curvature and variable bone height offer a very good reconstruction of the defect.


Author(s):  
Shiva Abbasi ◽  
Neda Mohsen-Pour ◽  
Niloofar Naderi ◽  
Shahin Rahimi ◽  
Majid Maleki ◽  
...  

Introduction: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital abnormality and the main cause of infant mortality worldwide. Some of the mutations that occur in the GATA4 gene region may result in different types of CHD. Here, we report our in silico analysis of gene variants to determine the effects of the GATA4 gene on the development of CHD. Methods: Online 1000 Genomes Project, ExAC, gnomAD, GO-ESP, TOPMed, Iranome, GME, ClinVar, and HGMD databases were drawn upon to collect information on all the reported GATA4 variations.The functional importance of the genetic variants was assessed by using SIFT, MutationTaster, CADD,PolyPhen-2, PROVEAN, and GERP prediction tools. Thereafter, network analysis of the GATA4protein via STRING, normal/mutant protein structure prediction via HOPE and I-TASSER, and phylogenetic assessment of the GATA4 sequence alignment via ClustalW were performed. Results: The most frequent variant was c.874T>C (45.58%), which was reported in Germany.Ventricular septal defect was the most frequent type of CHD. Out of all the reported variants of GATA4,38 variants were pathogenic. A high level of pathogenicity was shown for p.Gly221Arg (CADD score=31), which was further analyzed. Conclusion: The GATA4 gene plays a significant role in CHD; we, therefore, suggest that it be accorded priority in CHD genetic screening.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 357-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eddy Yusron

A study on Echinoderms community structure in marine national parks of Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi was conducted in six locations, i.e., Waha Beach, Coastal Sombo, Beach Houses, Beach Kapota, Banakawa beach, and Umala beach in October 2013. All of the six parks were located the Wakatobi territorial waters with coordinates of 5°06'25" S and 123°124'10 E. The results showed of 18 species of echinoderms representing six different types of Asteroidea, two types of Ophiuroidea, six types of Echinoidea, and four types of Holothuroidea. Group of starfish or Asteroidea was the most prominent on seagrass area. Based on the six transects sites, it turned out that the group of starfish (Asteridea) occupied a relatively high level of species richness. From the quantitative analysis values, we obtained diversity index (H) of 1.105 in Sombu, the highest evenness index (J) of 0.989 was found in Umala, and the highest species richness index values (D) of 0.132 was obtained in kapota. It seemed that all echinoderm groups were generally like seagrass microhabitat (12 types). While, sand and dead coral habitats were only occupied by 8 (eight) echinoderm groups. Keywords: echinoderms, diversity, Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swapna Iyer

The invention of “smart grid” promises to improve the efficiency and reliability of the power system. As smart grid is turning out to be one of the most promising technologies, its security concerns are becoming more crucial. The grid is susceptible to different types of attacks. This paper will focus on these threats and risks especially relating to cyber security. Cyber security is a vital topic, since the smart grid uses high level of computation like the IT. We will also see cryptography and key management techniques that are required to overcome these attacks. Privacy of consumers is another important security concern that this paper will deal with.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 4551-4570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Heikenfeld ◽  
Peter J. Marinescu ◽  
Matthew Christensen ◽  
Duncan Watson-Parris ◽  
Fabian Senf ◽  
...  

Abstract. We introduce tobac (Tracking and Object-Based Analysis of Clouds), a newly developed framework for tracking and analysing individual clouds in different types of datasets, such as cloud-resolving model simulations and geostationary satellite retrievals. The software has been designed to be used flexibly with any two- or three-dimensional time-varying input. The application of high-level data formats, such as Iris cubes or xarray arrays, for input and output allows for convenient use of metadata in the tracking analysis and visualisation. Comprehensive analysis routines are provided to derive properties like cloud lifetimes or statistics of cloud properties along with tools to visualise the results in a convenient way. The application of tobac is presented in two examples. We first track and analyse scattered deep convective cells based on maximum vertical velocity and the three-dimensional condensate mixing ratio field in cloud-resolving model simulations. We also investigate the performance of the tracking algorithm for different choices of time resolution of the model output. In the second application, we show how the framework can be used to effectively combine information from two different types of datasets by simultaneously tracking convective clouds in model simulations and in geostationary satellite images based on outgoing longwave radiation. The tobac framework provides a flexible new way to include the evolution of the characteristics of individual clouds in a range of important analyses like model intercomparison studies or model assessment based on observational data.


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