Growth Lines Research Articles

A new species of the genus Humboldtiana (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Xanthonychidae) from Sierra de Penjamo, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Mexican terrestrial malacofauna is highly diverse, but poorly studied. The genus Humboldtiana includes near to 60 species, most with insular distributions on single mountains from South Texas (USA) to entral Mexico. Humboldtianadugesi sp. nov. is described from the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. This new species represents the first one described for the state and is diagnosed by the following combination of characters that allow distinguishing for other species included in the genus, a protoconch with growth lines and granulated microsculpture, a globose penis that bears a stout verge that covers half of the penis cavity and a long flagellum that is four times longer than the combined length of the penis and epiphallus.

Sauropod tail clubs from the Kota Formation (Lower to Middle Jurassic) of India and their implications for early sauropod evolution

ABSTRACT The Lower to Middle Jurassic Kota Formation of India has yielded abundant yet disarticulated skeletal remains attributed to the basally diverging sauropod Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis. The hypodigm of Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis includes four ellipsoidal elements that we identify as tail clubs, based on morphological similarities to tail clubs attributed to two basal sauropods from China: Shunosaurus lii, for which a fully articulated tail series was recovered, and Omeisaurus tianfuensis. Detailed comparison of the Chinese and Indian tail clubs suggests that they are composed of up to three individual elements that fuse in adulthood. Computed tomography of the Indian tail clubs reveals their internal structure, which shows incremental growth lines as well as other features whose origin and function remain unknown. The Indian and Chinese tail clubs share a similar temporal range (Early to Middle Jurassic) and similar morphologies, which raises the question of whether sauropod tail clubs evolved once, multiple times, or were gained and then lost within basally diverging members of Sauropoda. We describe four new characters to reflect the morphological constituents of sauropod tail clubs known to date.

Cytotoxic effect of Laurus nobilis leave extracts on bacterial growth and MCF-7 cancer cell line in vitro

Cytotoxic effect of Laurus nobilis leave extracts on bacterial growth and MCF-7 cancer cell line in vitro

Assessment of Growth, Reproduction and Long Line Selectivity of the Spangled Emperor, Lethrinus nebulosus, in the Red Sea, Egypt

Assessment of Growth, Reproduction and Long Line Selectivity of the Spangled Emperor, Lethrinus nebulosus, in the Red Sea, Egypt

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope-based sclerochronology of bivalve mollusk shells from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) Coon Creek Formation in Tennessee, USA: Implications for paleoecology and paleoenvironment

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope-based sclerochronology was carried out on well-preserved fossil shells of bivalve mollusks Crassatella vadosa and Cucullaea vulgaris from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) Coon Creek Formation in Tennessee, USA, to reconstruct their life-history traits and sedimentary settings on an intra-annual time scale. The δ13CShell values along with the shell growth showed the cyclic variation with downward convex to lower value, likely reflecting the seasonal cycle of ambient seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) or metabolism of the bivalve or both. The δ13CShell cycles were largely associated with the strong growth disturbance lines, supporting hypothesis that the growth lines were formed annually. We estimated the ages of the shells based on both δ13C cycle or the growth cessation line. The modeled relationship between age and shell growth showed that Cr. vadosa and Cu. vulgaris grew up to about 40 mm at 7 years old and about 65 mm at 10 years old, respectively. The paleotemperatures estimated from the δ18OShell profiles of the examined specimens ranged from 16.2 °C to 24.2 °C and from 18.8 °C to 27.0 °C when assuming the bottom seawater δ18O to be −1.00‰ and −0.46‰ (VSMOW), respectively, and showed no clear seasonal cycle. The bottom seawater temperatures reconstructed from the specimens of the two bivalve species were lower than the near-surface seawater temperatures (29.0–30.6 °C) estimated from the planktic foraminiferal δ18O. We inferred that the benthic bivalve habitat of the Coon Creek Formation was at least 10 m or deeper below the thermocline.

Visualisation of dental anatomy in CBCT scans (Part 2).

To the trained eye, every tooth is different. An in-depth understanding of dental anatomy in cross-sectional images is a fundamental basic skill required when interpreting cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. The conventional orthogonal planes of axial, coronal, and sagittal are not always the best planes in which to assess teeth because every tooth is at a slightly different angle to all these planes. In this chapter, the author demonstrates the characteristic anatomy of upper and lower incisors, canines, premolars, and molars in longitudinal and transverse sections, using carefully uprighted images. Some of these teeth are also shown in transverse section at various levels in the crown and root. The chronology of permanent teeth is shown. Developing teeth are discussed and incremental growth lines are mentioned.The author describes three well-known dental notation systems (Palmer, FDI, hybrid).There are four videos accompanying this chapter, including one fascinating video showing a scroll-through of all the cross-arch sections of a synthetic panoramic (curved multiplanar reconstruction) image that includes all the upper and lower teeth in a 16-year-old.

Compaction during fragmentation and bouncing produces realistic dust grain porosities in protoplanetary discs

Context. In protoplanetary discs, micron-sized dust grows to form millimetre- to centimetre-sized pebbles but encounters several barriers during its evolution. Collisional fragmentation and radial drift impede further dust growth to planetesimal size. Fluffy grains have been hypothesised to solve these problems. While porosity leads to faster grain growth, the implied porosity values obtained from previous simulations were larger than suggested by observations. Aims. In this paper, we study the influence of porosity on dust evolution, taking into account growth, bouncing, fragmentation, compaction, rotational disruption, and snow lines, in order to understand their impact on dust evolution. Methods. We developed a module for porosity evolution for the 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics code PHANTOM that accounts for dust growth and fragmentation. This mono-disperse model is integrated into both a 1D code and the 3D code to capture the overall evolution of dust and gas. Results. We show that porosity helps dust growth and leads to the formation of larger solids than when considering compact grains, as predicted by previous work. Our simulations taking into account compaction during fragmentation show that large millimetre grains are still formed but are ten to 100 times more compact. Thus, millimetre sizes with typical filling factors of ~0.1 match the values measured on comets or via polarimetric observations of protoplanetary discs.

Heterogeneous shell growth of the neustonic goose barnacle Lepas anserifera

Floating materials of both natural and anthropogenic origin affect marine ecosystems and human economic activities. Although the tracking of floating materials is important to manage the economic risks, it is difficult to trace them back to the events of origin, such as tsunamis and underwater volcanic eruptions. The gooseneck barnacle Lepas anserifera, a rapid colonizer in pelagic environments, is a potential “natural logger” of floating materials. In this study, we performed temperature-controlled culture experiments and growth line staining in the laboratory to quantify the growth increments of shells (scutum and tergum) consisting the capitulum of L. anserifera separately, and to examine the effects of the temperature on their growth. Following calcein staining, the growth lines of L. anserifera were visualized under a fluorescent microscope, and gross (capitular length and width) and individual (scutum and tergum) shell growth were compared. Shells grew in twice as much in the capitular length direction than in the capitular width direction owing to the larger growth increases in the scutum than in the tergum. Growth increments were unaffected by temperatures in the range from 20°C to 30°C, although the growth appeared to slow down in September and October compared with August. The stable oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of the shells represented the water temperature as previously known, and the present results showed that 18O enriched in scutum than tergum in most cases. Further understanding for the biomineralization process of barnacles is required for the precise application of environmental proxies in barnacle shells.

Mytilus galloprovincialis shell growth – Insights from shell geochemistry

Despite the wide geographic distribution of mussels and their importance in fisheries and aquaculture, understanding of temporal and spatial variations of their growth is still limited. This can be, at least partly, attributed to the lack of distinct growth lines in their shells. Our study uses geochemical properties of shells, particularly oxygen (δ18Oshell) and carbon (δ13Cshell) stable isotope values, to reconstruct mussel growth. Mytilus galloprovincialis specimens were collected from two of the most important bivalve aquaculture sites in the eastern Adriatic - Krka River estuary and Mali Ston Bay. The first site has variable environmental conditions, influenced mainly by the Krka River, resulting in a strong temperature and salinity gradient along the estuary. In contrast, Mali Ston Bay is a relatively shallow enclosed bay with more stable conditions. Samples for δ18Oshell and δ13Cshell analysis were acquired by manual microdrilling cross-sectioned shells from three similar sized shells from each site. In addition, analysis of elemental profiles (Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, and Ba/Ca) in shells from the Krka River estuary was conducted using laser ablation ICPMS. Temperature and salinity values were obtained for each site through research and monitoring projects and used to calculate predicted δ18Oshell values. By aligning the measured δ18Oshell data along the predicted δ18Oshell curve, it was possible to reconstruct the timing and rate of seasonal shell growth. Results show that M. galloprovincialis shell deposition slows down and/or ceases during high temperature and low salinity periods. Specimens from the Krka River estuary had faster shell growth rates and were characterised by higher δ13Cshell values. Mg/Ca profiles of M. galloprovincialis specimens from the Krka River estuary, confirm growth periodicity data obtained by δ18O analysis. Ba/Ca peaks were also discussed by comparison with δ13C time-series and environmental data. Results have potential applications in fisheries studies as well as in palaeoecology and palaeoceanography research.

Visualisation of dental anatomy in CBCT scans: Part 1.

To the trained eye, every tooth is different. An in-depth understanding of dental anatomy in cross-sectional images is a fundamental basic skill required when interpreting cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. The conventional orthogonal planes of axial, coronal, and sagittal are not always the best planes in which to assess teeth because every tooth is at a slightly different angle to all these planes. In this chapter, the author demonstrates the characteristic anatomy of upper and lower incisors, canines, premolars, and molars in longitudinal and transverse sections, using carefully uprighted images. Some of these teeth are also shown in transverse section at various levels in the crown and root. The chronology of permanent teeth is shown. Developing teeth are discussed and incremental growth lines are mentioned.The author describes three well-known dental notation systems (Palmer, FDI, hybrid).There are four videos accompanying this chapter, including one fascinating video showing a scroll-through of all the cross-arch sections of a synthetic panoramic (curved multiplanar reconstruction) image that includes all the upper and lower teeth in a 16-year-old.

Testing the Sample Preparation Method and Oxygen Isotopic Analysis of Tooth Enamel for the Reconstruction of the Birth Seasonality of Ovicaprines (the Case of Teeth from Istykskaya Cave, Eastern Pamir)

Cyclic variations of δ18O along the growth line of M2 and M3 molars provide information about the seasonality of enamel formation and thereby about reproductive seasonality in animals, taking into account the time of tooth eruption and full enamel maturation. Determination of birth seasonality of small ruminants is relevant to the reconstruction of pastoralist strategies. Two peaks of reproductive activity per year are one of the most reliable indicators of human control of the small ruminants. As part of this work, for the first time in Russia, a method of sample preparation and analysis of oxygen isotope ratios in the tooth enamel of small ruminants is proposed. Traditionally, breeding seasonality was evaluated by the isotopic analysis of carbonates, the content of which in dental enamel is only 4 %. According to a new approach, oxygen from a sample is converted to gaseous CO by the interaction of enamel with carbon in a helium flow under 1300 °С, enabling one to measure δ18O in all components of the dental enamel, including phosphates, which make up 90 % of enamel mass and are resistant to diagenesis. In this study, four sample preparation protocols depending on the degree of preservation of teeth and their age were tested: (A) cleaning and sampling of enamel, (B) treatment by H2O2, (C) treatment by NaOCl and CH3COOH, and (D) extraction of Ag3PO4. Results show that for assessing seasonality breeding, it suffices to evaluate the lowest and the highest δ18O along the tooth growth line. If the preservation of sample is good, minimal chemical treatment is enough to observe these extremes.

Investigating femoral growth disruption in subadults from the 10th-13th century St. Étienne cemetery of Toulouse, France.

The skeleton embodies an individual's environment and lived experiences. Studying childhood growth disruption can, therefore, aid in understanding the experiences of children in the past. This study evaluates growth disruption in a medieval Toulousian subadult sample to explore factors that may have influenced childhood growth and mortality at this site and to assess the utility of Harris line (HL) interpretations in bioarchaeology. Femoral growth disruption was assessed in n = 71 subadults (0.125-12.42 years) from the 10th-13th century St. Étienne cemetery of Toulouse, France, using femoral length, total area, cortical area, and relative cortical area. Femoral radiographs were assessed for HLs. To determine the prevalence of growth disruption, z-scores were calculated using data from the Denver growth study. The majority of subadults in this sample suffered from femoral growth disruption. Young children (1.0-3.99 years) were the most affected, with >65% experiencing reduced appositional growth and linear growth stunting at time-of-death. Additionally, while many individuals presented with observable HLs, linear and appositional growth did not significantly differ between individuals with and without HLs. Maternal malnutrition and inadequate complementary feeding practices likely contributed to the high prevalence of growth disruption among the youngest individuals in the study. The older children and adolescents buried at St. Étienne experienced an amelioration in growth deficits, indicating an improvement in nutrition and/or disease load. The results of this study suggest that more consideration is required when interpreting the presence/absence of HLs, and that studies assessing HLs may benefit from using a more individualistic approach.

Introgression of the Self-Pruning Gene into Dwarf Tomatoes to Obtain Salad-Type Determinate Growth Lines.

The use of dwarf plants in tomato breeding has provided several advantages. However, there are no identified dwarf plants (dd) containing the self-pruning habit (spsp). The aim of this work was to obtain future generations, characterize the germplasm, and select potential dwarf plants with a determinate growth habit to obtain Salad-type lines. The work was started by carrying out hybridization, followed by the first, second, and third backcrosses. Once F2BC3 seeds became available, the introgression of the self-pruning gene (spsp) into dwarf plants (dd) began. Three strains of normal architecture and a determinate growth habit were hybridized with two strains of dwarf size and an indeterminate growth habit, thus yielding four hybrids. Additionally, donor genotype UFU MC TOM1, the commercial cultivar Santa Clara, and the wild accession Solanum pennellii were used in the experiment. Agronomic traits, fruit quality, metabolomics, and acylsugars content were evaluated, and dwarf plants with a determinate growth habit were selected. Hybrid 3 exhibited the highest yields. Visual differences between determinate and indeterminate dwarf plant seedlings were observed. It is suggested to carry out five self-pollinations of the best dwarf plant determined and subsequent hybridization with homozygous lines of normal plant architecture and determinate growth habit to obtain hybrids.

Successive selection responses of tetraploid Crassostrea angulata: Comparison of growth, survival, sex ratio and ploidy composition between selected and unselected groups

Triploid Crassostrea angulata has the advantages of fast growth, poor fertility and high quality. However, due to poor fertility, direct genetic improvement is difficult. Mating between tetraploid males and diploid females has been shown to be the best method for commercial triploid production, so genetic improvement of tetraploids will directly affect the phenotypic traits of triploid offspring. However, to date, few studies have investigated the genetic improvement of tetraploid oysters. Based on the induced tetraploid C. angulata population, this study carried out three successive generations of growth selective breeding research, and systematically compared the growth, survival, ploidy composition and sex ratio of the selected group and the control group. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the survival rate from planktonic larvae to adult between the two groups. However, the growth of the selected group was significantly higher than that of the control group, that was, the shell height and whole weight of S3 were significantly higher than that of C3, and the selection advantage of shell height increased from 7.80% of S1 to 34.68% of S3. The ploidy composition of the two tetraploid groups was relatively stable before the 90th days, but on the 270th day, some tetraploids underwent chromosome loss and transformed into diploids or triploids, which might be related to gametogenesis of tetraploids. Moreover, with the increase of generations, the number of individuals with chromosome loss in the selected group gradually decreased, and their ploidy became more stable than that in the control group. In addition, both groups were fertile, with a sex ratio of more males than females, and a proportion of hermaphrodite individuals. In conclusion, this study successfully selected a fast growth line of tetraploid C. angulata, which can be used for commercial production of fast-growing triploid C. angulata, and provides a basis and reference for the genetic improvement of tetraploid oysters.

On the issue of the manufacture of ceramic structures in orthopedic dentistry

The article presents a review of ceramic materials used in modern orthopedic dentistry. Currently, the main types of orthopedic structures containing dental porcelain are metal-ceramic, metal-free ceramic crowns, as well as prostheses made using pressed ceramic technology, in particular veneers. All types of prostheses produced using dental porcelain have a common manufacturing technology, which consists in the sequential application of ceramic layers with their subsequent firing. Moreover, for each group of teeth, there are additional masses for firing, for example, masses of the cutting edge, masses simulating various effects (for example, blue, yellow and other shades, imitation of tooth growth lines). These masses are created in order to give future crowns the most natural and aesthetic appearance. All structural components (layers) of ceramics used in the manufacture of ceramic prostheses have a similar chemical composition. The raw material is feldspar glass with inclusions of crystalline quartz. Depending on the conditions of the reactions, the composition of mixtures can be varied and compounds with desired properties can be obtained using the phase analysis method, which will expand the range of domestic ceramic materials produced, which are currently quite scarce. This is especially relevant in modern conditions of import substitution.

Automated extraction of Tridacna shell growth patterns via machine learning for enhanced paleoclimate/paleoweather research

Tridacna spp. are valuable archives for paleoclimate and paleoweather research due to their distinct daily growth patterns and the sensitivity of the daily growth patterns to environment changes. However, manually identifying daily growth lines and measuring the daily growth increment width (DGIW) of Tridacna shells from Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (LSCM) images is a tedious task that has become a significant barrier to Tridacna studies. This paper addresses this challenge by integrating machine learning into Tridacna research for the first time to automate the calculation of the number of daily growth lines and DGIW of Tridacna shells. Specifically, we propose an unsupervised generative adversarial attention network called TriGAN to automatically recognize distinct daily growth lines of Tridacna shells from LSCM images. Utilizing modern Tridacna specimens collected from the South China Sea, our experimental results demonstrate that TriGAN can effectively reconstruct the ambiguous and blurred regions in LSCM images and produce higher quality images of daily growth patterns compared to existing image generation networks. Furthermore, the daily growth line number and DGIW of Tridacna shells can be counted automatically from the images recognized by TriGAN, which are in good agreement with the statistical results obtained manually from the original LSCM images (R = 0.7, p < 0.01 for the DGIW profile of T. gigas specimen MD1 and R = 0.6, p < 0.01 for T. derasa specimen XB10). This automated method provides an efficient solution for researching the laminar chronology of Tridacna.

PARAMETERS OF THE PERTURBED STATE OF THE DENDRITE TIP IN DEEPLY SUPERCOOLED NICKEL AND COPPER MELTS

The object of study is the morphological stability of the tip of a free dendrite in a supercooled melt of a pure substance. Areas of deep supercooling are considered: for nickel DT &gt; 166 K, for copper – DT &gt; 180 K. A distinctive feature of the processes being studied is the presence of two propagation velocities of small disturbances (velocities of “sound”). The dependences of these rates on the supercooling of the melt were determined. The periodic and coordinate-aperiodic modes of perturbation of the growth line have been studied in detail. For these stable regimes, the possibility of observing the same speed of the disturbance wave in two processes, differing from each other in the size of the spatial inhomogeneity of the background in front of the wave and the characteristic wave attenuation times, was discovered. It is shown that aperiodic instability appears if, after the passage of the wave front, the width of the growth line inhomogeneity zone decreases. The resonant excitation mode of the dendrite tip demonstrates important differences between the properties of the nickel and copper melts. First of all, this relates to the temperature dependences of the resonant frequency and the speed of a standing wave formed in the vicinity of the vertex. Numerical calculations are presented and graphic information is presented illustrating the patterns of growth of nickel and copper dendrites.

New Equations for the Estimation of the Age of the Formation of the Harris Lines.

Harris Lines (HLs) are transverse, sclerotic lines that can be visualized by X-ray imaging and that occur in long bones, most commonly in the tibia and femur. HLs are associated with disrupted bone mineralization during endochondral ossification, affecting the normal growth process. The etiology of HLs is debated, with some claims linking their presence to detrimental factors such as inflammation, malnutrition, alcohol abuse, and diseases. The age at which HLs form can be estimated based on their location, which allows for a retrospective assessment of the individual's health status during childhood or youth. The current study is concerned with providing new equations to estimate the age of Harris Line occurrences using a simple calculating tool. Bone growth curves were derived based on a dataset provided by Byers in 1991 using non-linear estimation. The best model was chosen with the Akaike Information Criterion. New and old methods were compared through Bland-Altman plots. As a result, we managed to produce reliable, well-fitted growth curves, concordant with previous methods.

RADIOCARBON AGES OF PLANT REMAINS IN MASSIVE GROUND ICE AND UNDERLYING SEDIMENTS OF THE BARROW PERMAFROST TUNNEL, ALASKA

ABSTRACT Massive ground ice found in the Barrow Permafrost Tunnel at 3–7 m depths from the surface has been interpreted as an ice wedge and used to reconstruct early Holocene environmental changes. To better understand the development of this ground ice, we conducted radiocarbon dating for 34 samples of plant remains from the massive ground ice and underlying sediment layer. A significantly large gap in the measured radiocarbon ages (more than 24 ka) between massive ice and the underlying sediment layer throughout the tunnel profile suggested at least two possibilities. One is that the lower and older sediment layer had thrust upwards at the boundary between intruding ice wedge and adjacent sediment, and the growing ice had pushed the sediment sideways. Another is that erosional events had removed surface materials at about 12–36 ka BP (14–41 cal ka BP) before the overlaying sediment layer with massive ground ice developed. The overall distribution of radiocarbon ages from the massive ice supported the ice-wedge hypothesis as a formation mechanism, although our results showed several age inversions and large fluctuations. Dating of densely spaced samples revealed two ground-ice regions with similar ages around 11–11.5 and 10–10.5 ka BP divided by a relatively narrow region of transitional ages along the tunnel long-axis. This distribution may be explained by a possible misalignment between the sampling direction and the ice-wedge growth line or by intermittent ice growth with repeated cracking at more random locations than the classic ice-wedge growth model suggested.

Evaluation of genetic parameters of growth traits in G2 selected generation of Penaeus monodon

Fifteen whole sib families of the second-generation Penaeus monodon were constructed using artificial mating design in 2020. After labeling the families with fluorescent markers, the growth traits and genetic parameters were evaluated in a cement pond for 56 days. The results showed that the coefficient of variation of growth traits was 11.52-47.53%, indicating a high genetic variation. The heritability range of growth traits of the G2 population of P. monodon was 0.25±0.03-0.41±0.13, which belonged to medium and high heritability, and the statistical test results were significant (P&lt;0.01). The heritability of body length and body weight were 0.38±0.11 and 0.41±0.13, respectively. The evaluation results of genetic correlation among growth traits were highly positive, and the statistical test results were significant (P&lt;0.01). The genetic correlation between body weight and body length was the highest (0.99), and the genetic correlation between the width of the first carapace and the height of the first abdominal segment was the lowest (0.71). The phenotypic correlation between body weight and body length was the highest (0.93), and the lowest was head breastplate width and first abdominal segment height (0.53). These results showed that the G2 generation population of P. monodon has high genetic improvement potential, and the combination of family selection and individual selection achieved better genetic gain. The growth traits were highly positively correlated. Body length and body weight could be selected as the key traits for fast growth line selection, while the other growth traits could be indirectly selected through positive genetic correlation.