Closure in concentration data: Is it always such a hazard?

Birds exhibit a huge array of behavior, ecology and physiology, and occupy nearly every environment on earth, ranging from the desert outback of Australia to the tropical rain forests of Panama. Some birds have adopted a fully nocturnal lifestyle, such as the barn owl and kiwi, while others, such as the albatross, spend nearly their entire life flying over the ocean. Each species has evolved unique adaptations over millions of years to function in their respective niche. In order to increase processing power or network efficiency, many of these adaptations require enlargements and/or specializations of the brain as a whole or of specific brain regions. In this study, we examine the relative size and morphology of 9 telencephalic regions in a number of Paleognath and Neognath birds and relate the findings to differences in behavior and sensory ecology. We pay particular attention to those species that have undergone a relative enlargement of the telencephalon to determine whether this relative increase in telencephalic size is homogeneous across different brain regions or whether particular regions have become differentially enlarged. The analysis indicates that changes in the relative size of telencephalic regions are not homogeneous, with every species showing hypertrophy or hypotrophy of at least one of them. The three-dimensional structure of these regions in different species was also variable, in particular that of the mesopallium in kiwi. The findings from this study provide further evidence that the changes in relative brain size in birds reflect a process of mosaic evolution.

A retrospective analysis was performed on 23 subjects with lone atrial fibrillation who were followed for an average of 6.2 years (1.1-12.8 years). In all patients, underlying organic heart disease was excluded based on history, physical exam, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and Doppler ultrasound interrogation. All patients had at least two echocardiographic studies during the period of observation. Atrial fibrillation was chronic in 11 subjects and paroxysmal in 12. All echocardiographic measurements were obtained by averaging the measurements of two blinded investigators. Left atrial size increased an average of 5.6 mm which translates into a 14.7% increase over the baseline measurement. This increase in size was not associated with a change in left ventricular mass or fractional shortening as determined by echocardiography. Subjects with chronic atrial fibrillation had a larger percent increase than subjects with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (18.9 vs. 10.8%), although this relative change in size failed to reach statistical significance. The only variable which significantly contributed to the change in left atrial size was the duration of follow-up. We conclude that atrial fibrillation occurring in patients with lone atrial fibrillation may cause a slow and progressive increase in left atrial size independent of changes in left ventricular size or function.

With the rapid development of modern geochemical analysis techniques, massive volumes of data are being generated from various sources and forms, and geochemical data acquisition and analysis have become important tools for studying geochemical processes and environmental changes. However, geochemical data have high-dimensional, nonlinear characteristics, and traditional geochemical data analysis methods have struggled to meet the demands of modern science. Nowadays, the development of big data and artificial intelligence technologies has provided new ideas and methods for geochemical data analysis. However, geochemical research involves numerous fields such as petrology, ore deposit, mineralogy, and others, each with its specific research methods and objectives, making it difficult to strike a balance between depth and breadth of investigation. Additionally, due to limitations in data sources and collection methods, existing studies often focus on a specific discipline or issue, lacking a comprehensive understanding of the bigger picture and foresight for the future. To assist geochemists in identifying research hotspots in the field and exploring solutions to the aforementioned issues, this article comprehensively reviews related studies in recent years, elaborates on the necessity and challenges of combining geochemistry and artificial intelligence, and analyzes the characteristics and research hotspots of the global collaboration network in this field. The study reveals that the investigation into artificial intelligence techniques to address geochemical issues is progressing swiftly. Joint research papers serve as the primary means of contact within a worldwide collaborative network. The primary areas of focus in the ongoing research on the integration of geochemistry and artificial intelligence include methodologies for analyzing geochemical data, environmental modifications, and mineral prospectivity mapping. Geochemical data analysis is currently a significant focus of research, encompassing a range of methods including machine learning and deep learning. Predicting mineral resources for deep space, deep Earth, and deep sea is also a pressing topic in contemporary research. This paper explores the factors driving research interest and future trends, identifies current research challenges, and considers opportunities for future research.

This paper measures market dynamics within the U.S. grocery industry (defined as supermarket, supercenter, and club retailers). We find that despite being a mature industry, the grocery industry is remarkably dynamic. Each year retailers open or close roughly 7% of U.S. stores. We also find significant changes in the size of firms’ operations within markets over time. These changes in relative size are largely the result of expansion or contraction by incumbents rather than the result of firm entry or exit. In fact, entry and exit are quite rare, except by small firms. Moreover, only in small markets do new entrants gain substantial market share.

Compositional data analysis of regional geochemical data in the Lhasa area of Tibet, China

Mini Tightrope Fixation Versus Ligament Reconstruction – Tendon Interposition for Maintenance of Post-trapeziectomy Space Height: A Biomechanical Study

Geochemical data are compositional in nature and are subject to the problems typically associated with data that are restricted to the real non-negative number space with constant-sum constraint, that is, the simplex. Geochemistry can be considered a proxy for mineralogy, comprised of atomically ordered structures that define the placement and abundance of elements in the mineral lattice structure. Based on the innovative contributions of John Aitchison, who introduced the logratio transformation into compositional data analysis, this contribution provides a systematic workflow for assessing geochemical data in a simple and efficient way, such that significant geochemical (mineralogical) processes can be recognized and validated. This workflow, called GeoCoDA and presented here in the form of a tutorial, enables the recognition of processes from which models can be constructed based on the associations of elements that reflect mineralogy. Both the original compositional values and their transformation to logratios are considered. These models can reflect rock-forming processes, metamorphism, alteration and ore mineralization. Moreover, machine learning methods, both unsupervised and supervised, applied to an optimized set of subcompositions of the data, provide a systematic, accurate, efficient and defensible approach to geochemical data analysis. The workflow is illustrated on lithogeochemical data from exploration of the Star kimberlite, consisting of a series of eruptions with five recognized phases.

Since conventional oil and gas is under a depletion phase, unconventional oil, and gas have become prime candidates for current and future oil and gas production. Based on this, investment and research have increased significantly related to unconventional oil and gas exploitation, especially in the North East Java Basin, one of the sedimentary basins producing oil and gas. The research was conducted in the form of well-logging, geochemical, and seismic data analysis to determine the quality and quantity of oil and gas reservoirs. The thickness and TOC value of the reservoir were determined using well-logging data using the Passey method, resulting in a thickness ranging from 900-954 ft and an average TOC value of 3.87 Wt% in the Kujung III Formation. Based on geochemical data analysis, the reservoir has type II kerogen with an immature-early mature maturity level (Ro and Tmax). Meanwhile, based on seismic data, the reservoir thickens to the northwest, ranging from 500-600 m. Unconventional oil and gas reservoirs in the research area have the potential to be developed because they meet several criteria, such as being rich in organic material and thick, even though the maturity level is still in the immature phase. It is estimated that deeper areas will produce different levels of maturity as pressure and temperature increase.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of oral Doxycycline in reducing the size of pterygium lesions in a Pakistani population
 Study Design: Quasi-experimental study.
 Place and Duration of Study: Armed Forces Institute of Ophthalmology, Rawalpindi, from Sep 2018 and May 2019.
 Methodology: Sixty patients above 20 years of age were enrolled in the study. Oral Doxycycline 200m/day was given for thirty consecutive days. Photographs of the lesions were taken at the time of recruitment and at the end of the study for assessment of pterygium size. Difference between pre-treatment and post-treatment size was analysed and comparison was made with age, gender and initial lesion size.
 Results: Twenty-two females and thirty-eight males were examined. The mean age of the participants was 48.8 ± 13.8 years. The mean size of the pterygium lesions before commencing the treatment was 12.24 ± 6.28 mm2. The mean size of the lesions after the treatment was 11.24 ± 5.39 mm2. The mean difference size was 1.00 ± 1.62 mm2 (p <0.001). The relative change in size (i.e. post-treatment size divided by pre-treatment size) was 0.94 ± 0.09 which was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). There was correlation between larger initial lesion size and greater relative reduction in size (r = -0.42, p = 0.001).
 Conclusion: The change in the size of pterygium lesions produced by Doxycycline was found to be statistically significant but was not deemed clinically significant. Therefore, oral Doxycycline is not recommended for the treatment of pterygium in our population.

Preparation of 2D coatings of functionally graded chitosan-gold nanocomposite through in-situ reduction in cationic and anionic environments: Application for inhibiting hepatocellular carcinoma cells response

The prefrontal cortex is commonly associated with cognitive capacities related to human uniqueness: purposeful actions towards higher-level goals, complex social information processing, introspection, and language. Comparative investigations of the prefrontal cortex may thus shed more light on the neural underpinnings of what makes us human. Using histological data from 19 anthropoid primate species (6 apes including humans and 13 monkeys), we investigate cross-species relative size changes along the anterior (prefrontal) and posterior (motor) axes of the cytoarchitectonically defined frontal lobe in both hemispheres. Results reveal different scaling coefficients in the left versus right prefrontal hemisphere, suggest that the primary factor underlying the evolution of primate brain architecture is left hemispheric prefrontal hyperscaling, and indicate that humans are the extreme of a left prefrontal ape specialization in relative white to grey matter volume. These results demonstrate a neural adaptive shift distinguishing the ape from the monkey radiation possibly related to a cognitive grade shift between (great) apes and other primates.

Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (GEEA) as the scientific journal of the AAG focuses on the use of geochemistry in mineral exploration/resource development. Since the first issue of GEEA was published in 2001, there have been hundreds of papers regarding methodologies for geochemical data analysis. In 2017, a thematic issue: analysis of exploration geochemical data for mapping of anomalies (Carranza and Zuo, 2017) was published on the development of methods and techniques for exploration geochemical data analysis. As a successor, this current thematic set of papers introduces some new progress and advancements in geochemical data analysis, e.g., nonlinear, fractal/multifractal, multi-statistical, machine learning methods and their applications in mineral exploration. Twelve papers from Professor Qiuming Cheng's colleagues in China and Canada are organized in this thematic set in honor of his Gold Medal Award. Thematic collection: This article is part of the Applications of Innovations in Geochemical Data Analysis collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection.org/topic/collections/applications-of-innovations-in-geochemical-data-analysis

Some 2178 male and 2109 female Callinectes danae Smith, 1869 were caught in Northeastern Brazil, from March 2009 through February 2010; we reared 24 males and 24 females for 6 months. The relative growth (relation between weight and cephalothorax width) showed negative allometry, except in adult males. The females presented marked changes in relative size of the fifth pleomere as they matured, while the males showed changes in chela size. As rearing progressed, the females underwent ecdysis five times while the males underwent ecdysis six times. The puberal molt was the last to occur. The von Bertalanffy growth model (with t0) provided the best fit, when compared to the von Bertalanffy (with CW0), von Bertalanffy (with t0 = 0), Gompertz, and Richard models. The following growth functions for reared individuals were obtained: CW t = 9 . 88 ( 1 − exp ( − 0 . 0228 ( t + 14 . 27 ) ) ) and CW t = 8 . 02 ( 1 − exp ( − 0 . 0158 ( t + 26 . 23 ) ) ) . For wild individuals the growth functions were as follows: CW t = 12 . 12 ( 1 − exp ( − 0 . 0052 ( t + 29 . 36 ) ) ) and CW t = 9 . 48 ( 1 − exp ( − 0 . 0036 ( t + 59 . 04 ) ) ) , for males and females, respectively. The individuals reached smaller sizes in the rearing system; however, the growth rate was higher. The mean longevity ranged from 375 to 429 days for males and from 458 to 553 for females. The maximum longevity ranged from 550 to 860 and from 764 to 1205 days, for males and females, respectively.

The relative size of the Aristotle’s lantern of most sea urchins varies in relation to the food availability and it is often used to infer the availability of food of the environment. The aim of our study was to evaluate the lantern morphology plasticity of Arbacia dufresnii in populations with different environmental characteristics, either mussel beds or disturbed areas, by the invasive alga Undaria pinnatifida along the Patagonian Atlantic coast. The test diameter of the sea urchins along with the weight and height of the lanterns, the jaw lenght and rotula lenght were measured. Classic and geometric morphometric analyses were performed to test differences among populations. The length of the jaw was the best indicator of relative changes in size of the lantern. The largest length of the jaw was measured in individuals from disturbed areas dominated by the invasive algae U. pinnatifida. The rotula shape changed with the increase of the diameter of the sea urchins, it tends to be more elongated with larger sea urchins.

Aerial photogrammetry of seabirds from digital aerial video images using relative change in size to estimate flight height