Hard Parts Research Articles

Description of Gyrodactylus paludinosus sp. nov. (Monogenea: Gyrodactylidae) from the Straightfin Barb, Enteromius paludinosus (Peters, 1852), in South Africa.

Parasites of the genus Gyrodactylus von Nordmann, 1832, are predominantly parasites of freshwater and marine bony fishes. To date, 40 species of the genus have been described from Africa, with only 6 of these reported from South Africa. This represents only a small fraction of the known diversity of almost 500 species known worldwide. In total, 43 of Straighhfin barb, Enteromius paludinosus were collected from Barberspan Bird Sanctuary, North West Province, South Africa. Monogenean parasites were isolated from the fins and fixed on microscope slides in ammonium picrate glycerine. Morphometric evaluation of opisthaptoral hard parts confirmed the identity of these specimens as a new species. The description of Gyrodactylus paludinosus sp. nov. is presented. The new species has well-developed, slightly curved superficial inner roots and well-developed rectangular-like ventral bar membrane. Despite the small differences between the hamuli size, it can be distinguished from its congeners, G. kyogae and G. ivindoensis, the only species known from small African barbs, by the shape of ventral bars and marginal hook sickle propers. The description of Gyrodactylus paludinosus n. sp. increases the total number of Gyrodactylus spp. known from African cyprinid fish to three. Undoubtedly, more attention should be given to studies on small barbs as potential hosts for new species.

Paruman The Khemion Master: Learning Chemistry Periodic table with Trading Card game

The purpose of this research is to learn about how IP character can help students remembering their lesson. In this case we apply the research to a subject that majority students having difficulty to learn, it is chemistry. Some students say that chemistry is the hardest subject for them. Some say that the hardest part is to remember codes and elements on chemistry. Even they said it is the most boring subject, and usually they get a bad mark for it. Based on our survey, we find out that most of students having difficulties to study the subject using traditional method. They prefer to learn using graphics, because it is easier to remember the codes. For this case, we create a set of play card that can help students remembering the chemicals codes. Each card has a unique IP Character that resembles chemical element. Writers also add an element, which could make the chemistry lesson easier to understand, that is game. A game rule will be applied on the card game, and it will help student learned chemistry. And to make it more attractive and fun, we also try to put some technology to the game. Using a technology called Augment Reality, we try to engage students more.

The Effect of Different Soft Core/Hard Shell Ratios on the Coating Performance of Acrylic Copolymer Latexes.

Core–shell acrylic copolymer latexes containing bio resourced itaconic acid with different compositions in respect with the core and shell segments were synthesized, characterized, and applied as coating materials for leather. The purpose of the study was to evidence the high coating performance of the latexes when the ratio of the core/shell differed from 90/10 to 50/50 wt %. The copolymers were prepared via emulsion copolymerization technique and the products were isolated and characterized by means of structure identity, thermal behavior (DSC and DMTA), coating performance. The particle size of the latexes varied from 83 to 173 nm with the variation of the ratio of core/shell segments. The influence of the composition of soft part and hard part was highlighted in the thermal and coating properties. The optimal composition giving the best coating performance could be determined as DS 60/40. Further increase of the hard segment content, resulted in decreased emulsion stability and the coating performance on the leathers. The use of itaconic acid seemed to increase the emulsion stability as well the adhesion of the latexes to the substrate.

The earliest chimaeriform fish from the Carboniferous of Central Russia

The ancestry of chimaeriform chondrichthyan fishes can be traced back to the Late Triassic (∼220 Ma). To date, only one chimaeriform suborder, the Echinochimaeroidei, has been recognized from the Palaeozoic. The origin and evolution of the chimaeriforms has been a matter of debate for more than a hundred years. This problem is aggravated by the scarcity of holomorphic fossils; the bulk of the material includes only hard parts of the jaw apparatus and other skeletal elements. Here we describe the oldest record of the Chimaeriformes, represented by tooth plates from the lower Carboniferous deposits (∼338–332 Ma) of Russia, as Protochimaera mirabilis gen. et sp. nov., and establish a new family and suborder based upon their particular morphological and histological features. The newly described tooth plates demonstrate a continuous layer of varitubate dentine over their oral surfaces; beak-shaped mandibular plates have been formed by fusion of a labial component of cutaneous origin to two others formed orally. Three separate vascular systems enabled the growth of these histological components. The beak and wear facets suggest a grasping-cutting feeding action and are the earliest example of this feeding mode in fishes after the placoderm extinction at the end of the Devonian. Phylogenetic analysis of the dental characters places these stem chimaeriforms as a sister group to the Chimaeroidei. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5593C7FE-B5B5-4922-8D32-BF0440D89192

Zn elemental and isotopic features in sinking particles of the South China Sea: Implications for its sources and sinks

We determined the elemental and isotopic composition of Zn in sinking particles collected in the deep water of the northern South China Sea (NSCS) to investigate the relative contribution of various sources and assess their isotopic signatures. Using differentiable elemental ratios and δ66Zn of the potential sources, a mass balance approach estimates that anthropogenic aerosol Zn accounted for 64 ± 10% of the total Zn in sinking particles for more than 50% of the sampling period, indicating that anthropogenic aerosol Zn has become a dominant form of Zn source in the deep water. A relatively large discrepancy between the estimated and measured δ66Zn is observed during the high productivity season, which can be attributed to the elevated contribution of the biogenic hard parts or scavenging Zn on organic materials. Elevated δ66Zn values were observed at 3500 m during autumn which may be caused by the influence of authigenic particles during the lowest flux period. We found that the averaged measured output δ66Zn value, +0.35 ± 0.12‰, is significantly lighter than most of the output values proposed in previous studies. Due to recent findings highlighting the importance of anthropogenic aerosol Zn in the ocean, we have re-evaluated the solubility and fluxes of aerosol Zn in the ocean and found that the flux has been significantly underestimated in previous studies. The updated global aerosol Zn input to the ocean, ranging from 0.3 to 3.0 Gmol yr−1, is comparable to the output magnitude from hydrothermal and riverine sources. The updated Zn residence time would then be down to 1400 years on average. In addition to organic decomposition, the sinking particle data indicate that particle-associated removal and release processes play important roles in controlling Zn cycling in the water column. How anthropogenic aerosol deposition influences Zn fluxes and cycling in other oceanic regions deserves further investigation.

Quilting Voices

Quilting Voices

МЕТОДИКИ ПРАКТИЧЕСКИХ НАВЫКОВ. БАЗОВЫЕ ТРУДНОСТИ, ВЗГЛЯД СТУДЕНТА

The literature review of methods used for mastering objective investigation skills of the propedeutics of internal diseases course has been done, as well as questionnaire of second-year students of FSAEI HE N.I. Pirogov RNRMU MOH Russia from 19 to 20 years old. Provided form consisted of the basic part, prescribed to investigate the respondents subjective opinion about the level of mastering the basic skills, and 4 more specialized precising ones. The questionnaire has detected problems in studying the objective methods of observation related for more than half students. The heart-vascular system was acknowledged as the hardest part of the propedeutics of internal diseases course. Auscultation happened to be the most difficult skill. And practice on health volunteers and individual work with tutor were recognized as the effective ones.

Phosphatic carapace of the waptiid arthropod Chuandianella ovata and biomineralization of ecdysozoans

AbstractArthropods other than trilobites or bradoriids constitute a major component of many Cambrian Burgess‐Shale‐type Lagerstätten. Owing to their scarcity in other less well‐preserved deposits, they are generally regarded as lightly sclerotized but non‐mineralized. Here we show that Chuandianella ovata, one of the typical lightly sclerotized arthropods from the Chengjiang biota, reinforced its carapace with phosphatic mineralization. Multiple methods reveal a pitted microstructure and organophosphatic composition of the carapace. Nanogranules of amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) on the fossil carapace are comparable to those of recent crustacean microstructures, implying that arthropods may have a conserved mechanism of phosphatic mineralization since the Cambrian. The fossil record indicates that the mineralization of ecdysozoans, preceded by the mineralization of lophotrochozoans in the Terreneuvian (~541–521 Ma), appeared in Cambrian Stage 3 (~521–514 Ma) and surpassed the range of living counterparts in phylogenetic coverage. This phenomenon strengthens the view that biomineralization has evolved multiple times independently within the Metazoa. The sudden appearance of mineralized skeletons in the early history of metazoan evolution is frequently attributed to external environment drivers. However, this viewpoint cannot explain the minerology and appearance time of metazoan lineages with mineralized hard parts during the Cambrian explosion.

Cephalopod species identification using integrated analysis of machine learning and deep learning approaches.

BackgroundDespite the high commercial fisheries value and ecological importance as prey item for higher marine predators, very limited taxonomic work has been done on cephalopods in Malaysia. Due to the soft-bodied nature of cephalopods, the identification of cephalopod species based on the beak hard parts can be more reliable and useful than conventional body morphology. Since the traditional method for species classification was time-consuming, this study aimed to develop an automated identification model that can identify cephalopod species based on beak images.MethodsA total of 174 samples of seven cephalopod species were collected from the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Both upper and lower beaks were extracted from the samples and the left lateral views of upper and lower beak images were acquired. Three types of traditional morphometric features were extracted namely grey histogram of oriented gradient (HOG), colour HOG, and morphological shape descriptor (MSD). In addition, deep features were extracted by using three pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNN) models which are VGG19, InceptionV3, and Resnet50. Eight machine learning approaches were used in the classification step and compared for model performance.ResultsThe results showed that the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model achieved the best testing accuracy of 91.14%, using the deep features extracted from the VGG19 model from lower beak images. The results indicated that the deep features were more accurate than the traditional features in highlighting morphometric differences from the beak images of cephalopod species. In addition, the use of lower beaks of cephalopod species provided better results compared to the upper beaks, suggesting that the lower beaks possess more significant morphological differences between the studied cephalopod species. Future works should include more cephalopod species and sample size to enhance the identification accuracy and comprehensiveness of the developed model.

Dead, fossil or alive: Bioapatite diagenesis and fossilization

Calcium carbonate, silica and calcium phosphate have been selectively used by organisms in the production of mineralized hard parts throughout the Phanerozoic. Among these materials, bioapatite has enabled fundamental acquisitions in the evolution of life. Despite the remarkable biological success, the crystallography of bioapatite and the eventual modification of its lattice parameters over geological time have in contrast been scarcely investigated.In our study, we analyzed living, dead and fossil remains of both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms that biomineralized apatite, ranging from the Cambrian to the Recent, a time interval spanning over 500 million years. We detected in this way the bioapatite crystal features of the major phosphatic phyla (Brachiopoda, Arthropoda, Bryozoa, and Chordata: the latter including conodonts, cartilaginous and bony fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals). Groups were investigated using either fossil or recent material (dead and/or alive, the former indicating organisms who died in recent times, the latter referring to material extracted from living organisms). The experimental results revealed that phosphatic materials from living, dead, and fossilized organisms have a distinct crystallographic signature. In fact, bioapatite in fossils is characterized by lower values of the crystal lattice cell parameter a (9.320–9.439 Å compared to 9.355–9.466 Å in dead and alive organisms), whereas the cell parameter c is less variable (6.857–6.911 Å for fossils and 6.861–6.902 Å for recent bioapatite); Student t-tests, applied to the means of these ranges of values (a¯=9.369 Å, c¯=6.887 Å, volume¯=523.6 Å3 for fossil values, a¯=9.415 Å, c¯=6.878 Å, volume¯=528.0 Å3 for recent values), highlighted significant differences between fossils and recent samples at a level p < 0.01 for the three cell parameters. These changes, which begin at the death of the organism and only stabilize in the ultimate stages of fossilization, mirror the isomorphic chemical substitutions within the crystal lattice and drive to a general decrease of the cell volume (i.e., the volume of the bioapatite hexagonal crystalline cell frame) over time, with an average reduction of 4.4 Å3 (0.8%) from alive to fossil organisms.

Jupiter’s X-ray aurora during UV dawn storms and injections as observed byXMM–Newton, Hubble, andHisaki

ABSTRACTWe present results from a multiwavelength observation of Jupiter’s northern aurorae, carried out simultaneously by XMM–Newton, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Hisaki satellite in 2019 September. HST images captured dawn storms and injection events in the far-ultraviolet aurora several times during the observation period. Magnetic reconnection occurring in the middle magnetosphere caused by internal drivers is thought to start the production of those features. The field lines then dipolarize, which injects hot magnetospheric plasma from the reconnection site to enter the inner magnetosphere. Hisaki observed an impulsive brightening in the dawnside Io plasma torus (IPT) during the final appearance of the dawn storms and injection events, which is evidence that a large-scale plasma injection penetrated the central IPT between 6 and 9RJ (Jupiter radii). The extreme ultraviolet aurora brightened and XMM–Newton detected an increase in the hard X-ray aurora count rate, suggesting an increase in electron precipitation. The dawn storms and injections did not change the brightness of the soft X-ray aurora and they did not ‘switch-on’ its commonly observed quasi-periodic pulsations. Spectral analysis of the X-ray aurora suggests that the precipitating ions responsible for the soft X-ray aurora were iogenic and that a power-law continuum was needed to fit the hard X-ray part of the spectra. The spectra coincident with the dawn storms and injections required two power-law continua to get good fits.

Higgs boson decay to paired Bc: Relativistic and one-loop corrections

The exclusive decays of the Higgs boson to BcBc and Bc⁎Bc⁎ pairs are studied. The hard parts of the decay amplitudes are estimated within the perturbative Standard Model up to one-loop corrections. The soft fusion of heavy quarks to the quarkonium is described in framework of the relativistic quark model.

An improved adaptive differential evolution algorithm for single unmanned aerial vehicle multitasking

Single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multitasking plays an important role in multiple UAVs cooperative control, which is as well as the most complicated and hardest part. This paper establishes a three-dimensional topographical map, and an improved adaptive differential evolution (IADE) algorithm is proposed for single UAV multitasking. As an optimized problem, the efficiency of using standard differential evolution to obtain the global optimal solution is very low to avoid this problem. Therefore, the algorithm adopts the mutation factor and crossover factor into dynamic adaptive functions, which makes the crossover factor and variation factor can be adjusted with the number of population iteration and individual fitness value, letting the algorithm exploration and development more reasonable. The experimental results implicate that the IADE algorithm has better performance, higher convergence and efficiency to solve the multitasking problem compared with other algorithms.

ANALISIS PENGARUH PAPARAN FISIK PADA SAMPEL GIGI TERHADAP HASIL KUANTIFIKASI DNA FORENSIK MENGGUNAKAN METODE KIT PURIFIKASI DNA KOMERSIAL

Physical exposure to biological samples has an enormous influence on the results of forensic DNA analysis. The lack of molecular research on the effect of physical exposure on dental samples is the reason for the need for further research. This study aims to determine the effect of physical exposure on dental samples on the results of forensic DNA quantification. The parameter used is the concentration value of isolated DNA obtained from real time PCR analysis. The use of real time PCR allows the detection and quantification of specific sequences of DNA samples at the same time to be analyzed. The dental samples used were obtained from different individuals. Teeth are used as identification media because teeth are the hardest part of the body and are chemically the most stable and most resistant to degradation and decomposition. The method in this study is to give three types of treatment to the tested samples in the form of sea water immersion, river water immersion and exposure to free air at room temperature with each treatment consisting of three test samples. All samples were extracted using a Commercial DNA purification KIT with a reagent in the form of a Qiagen KIT (QIAamp® DNA Investigator) then a quantification process was carried out to see the value of the DNA concentration of each sample using real time PCR. The results of DNA quantification of dental samples from each treatment showed that the highest sample concentration value was based on the average of each treatment, namely samples with treatments exposed to free air at room temperature with a concentration value of 1.34 ng/µl, followed by samples soaked using river water with a concentration value of 0.15 ng/µl, while the sample with the lowest concentration is shown by a sample treated with seawater immersion with a concentration value of 0.10 ng/µl. Physical exposure in the form of exposure to free air, exposure to river water and exposure to sea water on dental samples, gave a not too significant effect on the results of DNA quantification produced.

A model of digestive tooth corrosion in lizards: experimental tests and taphonomic implications

Corrosion patterns induced by gastric fluids on the skeleton of prey animals may depend on the nature of the corrosive agents (acid, enzymes) as well as on the composition of the hard parts and the soft tissues that surround them. We propose a framework for predicting and interpreting corrosion patterns on lizard teeth, our model system, drawing on the different digestive pathways of avian and non-avian vertebrate predators. We propose that high-acid, low-enzyme systems (embodied by mammalian carnivores) will lead to corrosion of the tooth crowns, whereas low-acid, high-enzyme systems (embodied by owls) will lead to corrosion of the tooth shafts. We test our model experimentally using artificial gastric fluids (with HCl and pepsin) and feeding experiments, and phenomenologically using wild-collected owl pellets with lizard remains. Finding an association between the predictions and the experimental results, we then examine corrosion patterns on nearly 900 fossil lizard jaws. Given an appropriate phylogenetic background, our focus on physiological rather than taxonomic classes of predators allows the extension of the approach into Deep Time.

Fitting growth models to otolith increments to reveal time-varying growth

Identifying changes in fish growth is important for accurate scientific advice used for fisheries management, because environmental change is affecting fish growth and size-at-age is a critical component of contemporary stock assessment methods. Growth-increment biochronologies are time series of growth-increments derived from hard parts of marine organisms that may reveal dynamics of somatic fish growth. Here we use time series of otolith increments of two fish stocks to fit and compare a biologically derived growth model and a generalized statistical model. Both models produced similar trajectories of annual growth trends, but the biologically based one was more precise and predicted smaller interannual fluctuations than the statistical model. The biologically based model strongly indicated covariance between anabolic and catabolic rates among individuals. Otolith size-at-age did not closely match fish length-at-age, and consequently the growth model could not accurately hindcast observed fish length-at-age. For these reasons, fitted growth dynamics from otolith biochronologies may best suited to identify growth rate fluctuations, understand past drivers of growth dynamics, and improve ecological forecast in the face of rapid environmental change.

Change management: A framework for measuring and implementing organisational change

In 2018, Mayo Clinic completed the largest transformational project in its 150-year history. Mayo Clinic was prepared to take on the implementation of new software systems (Epic Systems Corp) as an integrated electronic health record (EHR) and revenue cycle management (RCM) system across all sites of the enterprise. Three foundational teams were launched for this project: leadership, project management and change management. In a project such as this, a common pitfall is to focus completely on the system and lose sight of the end users. For Mayo Clinic, the people side of change was at the forefront of the project. A robust change management team was budgeted, staffed and engaged with an experienced outside consulting partner. A goal for the change management team centred on the best way to measure the change management impact and the degree to which it was making a positive contribution in driving successful adoption of the new EHR and RCM system. With literature lacking in this area, the team moved forward with courage and quickly learned that the easy part was the development of a survey with questions mapped to the six components of the change management strategy and the phases of the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement (ADKAR) Model (Prosci Inc). The hard part was building the infrastructure to visually display millions of rows of data that needed to be positioned, filtered and analysed for all affected locations. The authors share the methods to measure change and explain the importance of developing a comprehensive and robust means of gathering and displaying large volumes of change management data at the project onset. This paper prepares the reader to confidently develop an organisational framework to measure and report the effectiveness of a change management strategy.

Fragmentation function of g \u2192 Qoverline{Q} (3 {S}_1^{left[8right]} ) in soft gluon factorization and threshold resummation

We study the fragmentation function of the gluon to color-octet 3S1 heavy quark-antiquark pair using the soft gluon factorization (SGF) approach, which expresses the fragmentation function in a form of perturbative short-distance hard part convoluted with one-dimensional color-octet 3S1 soft gluon distribution (SGD). The short distance hard part is calculated to the next-to-leading order in αs and all orders in velocity expansion. By deriving and solving the renormalization group equation of the SGD, threshold logarithms are resummed to all orders in perturbation theory. The comparison with gluon fragmentation function calculated in NRQCD factorization approach indicates that the SGF formula resums a series of velocity corrections in NRQCD which are important for phenomenological study.

Enhancing English Proficiency Skills Through Workshop

This study applied descriptive methods to determine the extent improvement of English Proficiency Test (EPT) score which was equivalent with TOEFL. The preparation workshop included skills and strategies workshop regarding to the TOEFL experience. This research purposed to describe the improvement as the result of workshop. The data collection techniques were (1) observation, (2) training, and (3) document analysis. The participants were assisted to discover of how to deal with TOEFL test type of questions. The sample is the training participants from 209 students came from several different major. The results of the data analysis showed that broadly speaking, there was a significant correlation between the preparation workshops and score achievement of EPT. The results indicated that the hardest part or section experienced by the students was structure and written expression 41%, while in the part of listening was 33%, meanwhile the easiest part assumed by the student was reading comprehension 26%. Based on the result, it was proved by the EPT score achieved by the students. The average score was 443, and the best score reached by the student was in the section of reading comprehension. It was in line with the result of the workshop described the ability of mastering the skills in TOEFL section

ENAMEL THICKNESS MEASUREMENTS ON 3D RECONSTRUCTIONS OF TEETH FOR PALEONTOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract. Findings of teeth play a significant role in palaeoanthropology. And excavations in Vietnamese LangTrank cave serve as a vivid example and evidence of this statement. Teeth constitute the majority of the paleontological material dated to Middle and Late Pleistocene periods. This is to some extent the result of dietary preferences of porcupines as these rodents include in their diets bones of animals however avoiding extremely hard coronal parts of teeth. Under such circumstances teeth serve a key to taxonomic differentiation of findings as genetic analysis is often hindered by a lack of preserved DNA at such dating of material. However morphological analysis is difficult in some cases either, as teeth can be worn out or broken. In that case enamel thickness measurements become an effective study instrument as this feature varies between species. In the current study two teeth with clear signs of expressed dental wear, presumably upper fourth premolars of wild boar required more detailed analysis. Thus they were reconstructed after micro-computed tomography scanning similarly to other upper teeth picked for comparison: orang-utan tooth from the same location and two teeth from the Upper Palaeolithic Sunghir (they have been scanned earlier). This study required new approaches to image processing and measurement methodology due to marked attrition of the samples. The workflow and results of enamel thickness assessments which facilitated taxonomical differentiation of the findings are presented in the article.