scholarly journals Fossil birds from the Roof of the World: The first avian fauna from High Asia and its implications for late Quaternary environments in Eastern Pamir

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0259151
Author(s):  
Nikita Zelenkov ◽  
Nuritdin Sayfulloev ◽  
Svetlana V. Shnaider
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Fossil Birds ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
The Past ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
High Asia ◽  
Bird Fauna ◽  
Fossil Bird ◽  
First Time

The Eastern Pamir (eastern Tajikistan) is a high-mountain plateau with elevations up to 7000 m, currently characterized by extremely severe environmental conditions and harboring a specialized montane fauna, which in part is shared with that of the Tibetan Plateau. The modern bird fauna of High Asia comprises a diversity of both ancient and recently diverged endemics, and thus is of general importance for historical biogeography and understanding the origin of modern high mountain ecosystems. However, the past history of the Central Asian highland avian communities remains practically unknown, as no fossil bird assemblages from high elevation areas were previously reported. In particular, it remains completely unexplored how birds responded to late Quaternary climatic fluctuations. Here we report the first fossil bird fauna from the High Asia and the first fossil birds from Tajikistan. An assemblage from the late Pleistocene through middle Holocene of Istykskaya cave (4060 m) in Eastern Pamir surprisingly comprises a remarkable diversity of waterbirds, including a few species that are completely absent from High Asia today and that were not reported globally from such high altitudes. The diversity of waterbirds incudes taxa of various ecological preferences (shorebirds, underwater and surface feeders, both zoophagous and phytophagous), strongly indicating the presence of a productive waterbody at the vicinity of the site in the past. These observations correspond to recent palaeoclimatic data, implying increased water availability in this region, currently occupied by high mountain semi-deserts. Our findings for the first time show that milder environmental conditions of late Quaternary attracted lowland species to the Central Asian highland wetlands. The reported assemblage yet contains several characteristic highland taxa, indicating a long-time persistence of some Central Asian montane faunistic elements. In particular, it includes the Tibetan Sandgrouse (Syrrhaptes tibetanus), a highly-specialized montane dweller, which is for the first time found in the fossil record.

Sedelnikovaea baicalensis (Lecanoraceae) — new lichen genus and species for Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-416
Author(s):  
T. V. Makryi
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Lichen Species ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Southern Siberia ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Northeastern Siberia ◽  
Mountain Belts ◽  
First Time ◽  
Vast Range

Sedelnikovaea baicalensis, the Siberian-Central Asian lichen species, is recorded for the first time for Europe. Based on all the known localities, including those first-time reported from Baikal Siberia, the peculiarities of the ecology and distribution of this species are discussed, the map of its distribution is provided. It is concluded that the species was erroneously considered earlier as a Central Asian endemic. The center of the present range of this lichen is the steppes of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Assumptions are made that S. baicalensis is relatively young (Paleogene-Neogene) species otherwise it would have a vast range extending beyond Asia, and also that the Yakut locations of this species indicate that in the Pleistocene its range was wider and covered a significant part of the Northeastern Siberia but later underwent regression. Based on the fact that in the mountains of Central Asia the species is found only in the upper mountain belts, it is proposed to characterize it as «cryo-arid xerophyte» in contrast to «arid xerophytes». A conclusion is made that the presence of extensive disjunctions of S. baicalensis range between the Southern Pre-Urals and the Altai-Sayan Mountains or the Mountains of Central Asia is unlikely; the lichen is most likely to occur in the Urals and most of Kazakhstan.

Morphological and Molecular Diversity of Benthic Cyanobacteria Communities Versus Environmental Conditions in Shallow, High Mountain Water Bodies in Eastern Pamir Mountains (Tajikistan)

2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Jasser ◽  
Iwona Kostrzewska-Szlakowska ◽  
Jan Kwiatowski ◽  
Dovutsho Navruzshoev ◽  
Małgorzata Suska-Malawska ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Molecular Diversity ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Benthic Cyanobacteria ◽  
Pamir Mountains

Developments in sugarcane processing over the past 15 years

2019 ◽  
pp. 451-458
Author(s):  
Peter W. Rein
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Energy Value ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Technology Of Production ◽  
Sugarcane Processing

Developments in the technology of production of sugar from sugarcane tend to be incremental improvements in an effort to reduce costs and boost revenue. Nonetheless the developments are significant and contribute to sustainable sugarcane enterprises. Some technologies have adapted to changing environmental conditions, and more attention is being given to boosting revenue through associated activities, particularly in enhancing the potential for sugarcane operations to exploit the energy value of sugarcane. This paper outlines recent developments of interest in processing sugarcane.

scholarly journals A phasianid bird from the Pleistocene of Tainan: the very first avian fossil from Taiwan

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Hsiu Tsai ◽  
Gerald Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Birds ◽  
Phasianus Colchicus ◽  
Diagnostic Features ◽  
Physical Evidence ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Geological Past ◽  
Fossil Bird ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Unambiguous Assignment

AbstractTaiwan accommodates more than 600 avian species, including about 30 endemic ones. As yet, however, no fossil birds have been scientifically documented from Taiwan, so that the evolutionary origins of this diversified avifauna remain elusive. Here we report on the very first fossil bird from Taiwan. This Pleistocene specimen, a distal end of the left tarsometatarsus, shows diagnostic features of the galliform Phasianidae, including an asymmetric plantar articular facet trochlea metatarsi III. Our discovery of a Pleistocene phasianid from Taiwan opens a new perspective on studies of the evolution of the avifauna in Taiwan because the fossil shows that careful search for fossils in suitable localities has the potential of recovering avian remains. In general, East Asia has an extremely poor avian fossil record, especially if terrestrial birds are concerned, which impedes well-founded evolutionary scenarios concerning the arrival of certain groups in the area. The Phasianidae exhibit a high degree of endemism in Taiwan, and the new fossil presents the first physical evidence for the presence of phasianids on the island, some 400,000–800,000 years ago. The specimen belongs to a species the size of the three larger phasianids occurring in Taiwan today (Syrmaticus mikado, Lophura swinhoii, and Phasianus colchicus). Still, an unambiguous assignment to either of these species is not possible due to the incomplete nature of the left tarsometatarsus. Because the former two species are endemic to Taiwan, the fossil has the potential to yield the first data on their existence in the geological past of Taiwan if future finds allow identification on species-level.

FC14-01 - Internal losses and the creation of “Nowhere land”: psychodynamic themes of adults with ADHD discovered during drama-therapy

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1893-1893
Author(s):  
I. Manor ◽  
G. Yazpan
Keyword(s):  
Drama Therapy ◽  
Transitional Space ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chronic Disorder ◽  
Pharmacological Aspect ◽  
Inner Self ◽  
Socioeconomic Strata ◽  
The Creation ◽  
First Time

ADHD is a well-known, chronic disorder that persists in adulthood. During the past 20 years its existence in adults is becoming clearer, yet its dynamic aspects are rarely discussed. The treatment of adults is vital, as much as that of children; however the literature discussing it, especially its non-pharmacological aspect, is scarce.We describe the results of our treatment with drama-therapy of two groups of adults with ADHD. These groups included 11 adults (from both groups), men and women, from most socioeconomic strata, aged ≥ 60 yrs., who were diagnosed as suffering from ADHD and were treated for it for the first time in their life. Drama-therapy was selected as we believed it to be a useful method with associative, distracted ADHD patients, since it enabled the use of transitional space through non-verbal images and acts.This presentation discusses the basic themes with which patients began therapy. Interestingly, all patients, however different, shared the same themes that were built on self doubt and the pre-presumption of disappointment. The impairment related to ADHD, that was felt, but not understood, led to a strong experience of heavy losses, which we tried to define separately: of a clear path, of control, of the inner perception of borders and of the loss of an integrative inner self. All these losses were accumulated in the transitional space in a place we named “Nowhere land”.We would like to present these themes of losses and of becoming lost and to discuss their meaning.

BRAZILIAN BISHOP OUTLINES "A PASTORAL STRATEGY IN TIMES OF REVOLUTION"

Exchange ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Keyword(s):  
Northeast Brazil ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
First Time

AbstractMons. Antonio Batista Fragoso has been bishop of Crateus in Northeast Brazil for the past ten years. Eighty percent of the 360,000 people in his diocese are impoverished peasants who engage in rudimentary farming. At least half of the peasants are landless. It is among these people that Bishop Fragoso has encouraged the formation of small grassroots Christian communities that are responsible for a profound change in the patterns of Christian living in his diocese. The following is LP's translation of excerpts from a talk that Bishop Fragoso gave to his fellow bishops and priests in Managua in October, 1980. This is the first time it has appeared in English. (Editor Latinamerica Press)

scholarly journals Global nutrient transport in a world of giants

2015 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 868-873 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher E. Doughty ◽  
Joe Roman ◽  
Søren Faurby ◽  
Adam Wolf ◽  
Alifa Haque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Waters ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Nutrient Transport ◽  
Anadromous Fish ◽  
Upward Movement ◽  
The Past ◽  
Large Animals ◽  
Continental Interior

The past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the sea and large animals roaming the land. However, that world came to an end following massive late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions on land and widespread population reductions in great whale populations over the past few centuries. These losses are likely to have had important consequences for broad-scale nutrient cycling, because recent literature suggests that large animals disproportionately drive nutrient movement. We estimate that the capacity of animals to move nutrients away from concentration patches has decreased to about 8% of the preextinction value on land and about 5% of historic values in oceans. For phosphorus (P), a key nutrient, upward movement in the ocean by marine mammals is about 23% of its former capacity (previously about 340 million kg of P per year). Movements by seabirds and anadromous fish provide important transfer of nutrients from the sea to land, totalling ∼150 million kg of P per year globally in the past, a transfer that has declined to less than 4% of this value as a result of the decimation of seabird colonies and anadromous fish populations. We propose that in the past, marine mammals, seabirds, anadromous fish, and terrestrial animals likely formed an interlinked system recycling nutrients from the ocean depths to the continental interiors, with marine mammals moving nutrients from the deep sea to surface waters, seabirds and anadromous fish moving nutrients from the ocean to land, and large animals moving nutrients away from hotspots into the continental interior.

scholarly journals Novel AI driven approach to classify infant motor functions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Reich ◽  
Dajie Zhang ◽  
Tomas Kulvicius ◽  
Sven Bölte ◽  
Karin Nielsen-Saines ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Movement Pattern ◽  
Video Stream ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Movement Assessment ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Ablation Study ◽  
First Time ◽  
Efficient Screening

AbstractThe past decade has evinced a boom of computer-based approaches to aid movement assessment in early infancy. Increasing interests have been dedicated to develop AI driven approaches to complement the classic Prechtl general movements assessment (GMA). This study proposes a novel machine learning algorithm to detect an age-specific movement pattern, the fidgety movements (FMs), in a prospectively collected sample of typically developing infants. Participants were recorded using a passive, single camera RGB video stream. The dataset of 2800 five-second snippets was annotated by two well-trained and experienced GMA assessors, with excellent inter- and intra-rater reliabilities. Using OpenPose, the infant full pose was recovered from the video stream in the form of a 25-points skeleton. This skeleton was used as input vector for a shallow multilayer neural network (SMNN). An ablation study was performed to justify the network’s architecture and hyperparameters. We show for the first time that the SMNN is sufficient to discriminate fidgety from non-fidgety movements in a sample of age-specific typical movements with a classification accuracy of 88%. The computer-based solutions will complement original GMA to consistently perform accurate and efficient screening and diagnosis that may become universally accessible in daily clinical practice in the future.

New species and record of Pseudonereis (Annelida, Polychaeta, Nereididae) from Taiwan

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4996 (3) ◽  
pp. 492-512
Author(s):  
PAN-WEN HSUEH
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
New Record ◽  
Length Ratio ◽  
Offshore Island ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Record Species ◽  
Ridge Pattern ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
First Time ◽  
Key Characters

Two new species and one new record species of the genus Pseudonereis are described from specimens collected from ecological surveys of coasts of Taiwan and an offshore island during the past 15 years: P. jihueiensis n. sp., P. kihawensis n. sp., and P. trimaculata. Epitokes of P. jihueiensis n. sp. and P. trimaculata are also described. Pseudonereis jihueiensis n. sp. can be distinguished from congeners by having edentate jaws, χ-shaped ridge pattern of Areas VI–V–VI, parapodial morphology (i.e., length ratio of dorsal cirrus to dorsal ligule or presence of small pennant-like dorsal ligule, shape of dorsal ligule in certain region of chaetigers), and no heterogomph spinigers in the subacicular fascicle of the neuropodia. Pseudonereis kihawensis n. sp. differs from congeners by having crescent-shaped pointed-bars in Area VI, λ-shaped ridge pattern of Areas VI–V–VI, parapodial morphology (i.e., length ratio of dorsal cirrus to dorsal ligule or presence of small pennant-like dorsal ligule or shape of dorsal ligule in certain region of chaetigers), and no heterogomph spinigers in the subacicular fascicle of the neuropodia. Pseudonereis trimaculata, a species originally described from Indonesia, is reported from Taiwan for the first time. A table of key characters for all species of Pseudonereis is provided.  

The Roman Imperial Cult in Smyrna

Belleten ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 76 (276) ◽  
pp. 385-402
Author(s):  
Murat Kılıç
Keyword(s):  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Imperial Cult ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rising Power ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

The origins of the imperial cult in Smyrna date back to the Hellenistic period. It is a fact that political concerns were effective in the generation of such cults. Predicting the super power of the future and proving to be a loyal ally whilst acting in satisfactory behaviors were essential factors. The right preference made between two fighting or contending powers ensured that a city would benefit from various privileges in the future. For example, Symrna, which had established a cult in the city previously on behalf of Stratonice, the mother of Antiochus II of Seleucid dynasty, would do the same by building a temple in the name of the dty of Rome for the first time in Asia in 195 BC, after recognizing the rising power. Later on, while giving permission to the provinces that wanted to establish an imperial cult, the Roman emperors and the Senate would consider first, their relationships with Rome in the past and second, their origins. Smyrna, building its relationships with the Roman state on a solid basis, was granted the title of neokoros three times by the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Hadrianus and Caracalla, respectively. In this essay, the development of the Roman imperial cult in Smyrna is discussed within the historical process outlined above. An attempt has been made to put forth new opinions about the issue by discussing the academicians' evaluations on the imperial cult, which apparently was effectively executed in Smyrna between the first and third centuries AD, with the support of epigraphic and numismatic evidences.

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