What do giant titanosaur dinosaurs and modern Australasian megapodes have in common?

Titanosauria is a globally distributed clade of sometimes extremely large Mesozoic herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs. On the basis of current evidence these giant dinosaurs seem to have reproduced in specific and localized nesting sites. However, no investigations have been performed to understand the possible ecological and geological biases that acted for the selection of these nesting sites worldwide. In this study, observations were performed on the best-known Cretaceous nesting sites around the world. Our observations strongly suggest their eggs were incubated with environmental sources of heat, in burial conditions. Taking into account the clutch composition and geometry, the nature and properties of the sediments, the eggshells' structures and conductance, it would appear that titanosaurs adopted nesting behaviors comparable to the modern Australasian megapodes, using burrow-nesting in diverse media and mound-building strategies.Fil: Hechenleitner, Esteban Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Transferencia Tecnológica de Anillaco; ArgentinaFil: Grellet Tinner, Gerald . Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Transferencia Tecnológica de Anillaco; Argentina. Orcas Island Historical Museum; Estados UnidosFil: Fiorelli, Lucas Ernesto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Transferencia Tecnológica de Anillaco; Argentin

Teeth of embryonic or hatchling sauropods from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) of Cherves-de-Cognac, France

Copyright © 2016 P.M. Barrett et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

A revision of Meladema diving beetles (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae), with the description of a new species from the central Mediterranean based on molecules and morphology

Meladema Laporte, 1835 are relatively large, stream-dwelling diving beetles, distributed widely in the Western Palaearctic, from the Atlantic Islands to Turkey, and from southern France and the Balkans to the central Sahara. In addition to the three previously recognised taxa (M. coriacea Laporte, 1835, M. imbricata (Wollaston, 1871) and M. lanio (Fabricius, 1775)) we describe a new, cryptic, species from the central Mediterranean area, which can be distinguished from M. coriacea on both DNA sequence data and morphology, and provide a key to known species of the genus. Based on the study of genotyped material, both recent and archival, as well as the examination of a large number of museum specimens, we show that M. lepidopterasp. n. occurs to the apparent exclusion of M. coriacea on Corsica, Sardinia and islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, but that both taxa are found in peninsular Italy, where they may occasionally hybridize. In the absence of the original type series, we designate a neotype for M. coriacea, and take the opportunity to designate a lectotype for M. lanio. Morphological variation in Meladema species is discussed, including that seen in known and presumed hybrids. Our study highlights the incomplete state of knowledge of Mediterranean biodiversity, even in relatively large, supposedly well-studied taxa

Learning spectro-temporal representations of complex sounds with parameterized neural networks

Deep Learning models have become potential candidates for auditory neuroscience research, thanks to their recent successes on a variety of auditory tasks. Yet, these models often lack interpretability to fully understand the exact computations that have been performed. Here, we proposed a parametrized neural network layer, that computes specific spectro-temporal modulations based on Gabor kernels (Learnable STRFs) and that is fully interpretable. We evaluated predictive capabilities of this layer on Speech Activity Detection, Speaker Verification, Urban Sound Classification and Zebra Finch Call Type Classification. We found out that models based on Learnable STRFs are on par for all tasks with different toplines, and obtain the best performance for Speech Activity Detection. As this layer is fully interpretable, we used quantitative measures to describe the distribution of the learned spectro-temporal modulations. The filters adapted to each task and focused mostly on low temporal and spectral modulations. The analyses show that the filters learned on human speech have similar spectro-temporal parameters as the ones measured directly in the human auditory cortex. Finally, we observed that the tasks organized in a meaningful way: the human vocalizations tasks closer to each other and bird vocalizations far away from human vocalizations and urban sounds tasks

The Portuguese Common Laws : case of Cima Coa, Guarda, Santarém, Évora and Beja. Challenges and methodologies

Este texto tiene por objectivo hacer una reflexión sobre los fueros extensos de los concejos medievales portugueses (Siglos XIII-XIV). Seleccionamos algunos casos: Cima Coa (Alfaiates, Castelo Bom, Castelo Melhor e Castelo Rodrigo), Guarda, Santarém, Évora, Borba y Beja. En este artículo analizaremos estas fuentes, con el objectivo de hacer una reflexión sobre los orígenes, características y los procesos de formación de los diversos corpora.Este texto tiene por objectivo hacer una reflexión sobre los fueros extensos de los concejos medievales portugueses (Siglos XIII-XIV). Seleccionamos algunos casos: Cima Coa (Alfaiates, Castelo Bom, Castelo Melhor e Castelo Rodrigo), Guarda, Santarém, Évora, Borba y Beja. En este artículo analizaremos estas fuentes, con el objectivo de hacer una reflexión sobre los orígenes, características y los procesos de formación de los diversos corpora.Este texto tiene por objectivo hacer una reflexión sobre los fueros extensos de los concejos medievales portugueses (Siglos XIII-XIV). Seleccionamos algunos casos: Cima Coa (Alfaiates, Castelo Bom, Castelo Melhor e Castelo Rodrigo), Guarda, Santarém, Évora, Borba y Beja. En este artículo analizaremos estas fuentes, con el objectivo de hacer una reflexión sobre los orígenes, características y los procesos de formación de los diversos corpora.The aim of this study is to provide an analysis about the customary and laws of the Portuguese medieval town’s councils (13th and 14th Century’s). We select some cases: Cima Coa Coa (Alfaiates, Castelo Bom, Castelo Melhor e Castelo Rodrigo), Guarda, Santarém, Évora, Borba and Beja. In this article we will analyse this local source of common-laws with the aim of making a reflection about the origins, characteristics, processes of formation of the various corpora

Paleobiology of titanosaurs: reproduction, development, histology, pneumaticity, locomotion and neuroanatomy from the South American fossil record

Fil: García, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Salgado, Leonardo. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. General Roca. Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Fernández, Mariela. Inibioma-Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Bariloche. Río Negro; ArgentinaFil: Cerda, Ignacio A.. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología. Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino. Cipolletti; ArgentinaFil: Carabajal, Ariana Paulina. Museo Carmen Funes. Plaza Huincul. Neuquén; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Alejandro. Museo de La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Coria, Rodolfo A.. Instituto de Paleobiología y Geología. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Neuquén; ArgentinaFil: Fiorelli, Lucas E.. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica. Anillaco. La Rioja; Argentin

Hybrid treatment of small droplets in atomized jet

International audienceL'atomisation de combustible a un impact direct sur l'émission de polluants dans l'atmosphère. Face au besoin de caractériser l'atomisation primaire, l'étude numérique de l'intéraction liquide-gaz croît dans le but de maîtriser la création de particules polluantes et de la réduire. Elle est effectuée sur l'ensemble du spray, de son injection dans la chambre de combustion jusqu'à l'évaporation des gouttes créées suite au secondary breakup. Notre but est d'augmenter la précision du transport des gouttes au sein des jets atomisés, typiquement, une goutte est 100 fois plus petite que le diamètre d'injection. Cette différence d'échelle rend la définition de l'interface liquide-gaz complexe et crééer des zones sous résolues. Pour résoudre ce probleme d'échelle, un coupling entre un suivi Eulérien et un suivi Lagrangian a été proposé, voir Hermann, [1]. Cette communication se concentre sur les critères de transformation d'une goutte eulérienne en particule lagrangienne et les modifications physiques et numériques entourant cette transformation. Cette communication se concentre sur l'implémentation d'une méthode de suivi de particule polydisperse basée sur des critères géometriques. Ils sont finalement appliqués sur l'étude d'un jet atomisé. Abstract : Atomization of liquid fuel has a direct impact on the production of pollutant emission in engineering propulsion devices. Due to the multiple challenges in experimental investigations, motivation for numerical study is increasing on liquid/gas interaction from injection till dispersed spray zone. Our purpose is to increase the accuracy of the treatment of droplets in atomized jet, which are typically 100 times smaller than the injection size. As the size of the droplets reduces with the primary breakup of liquid fuel, it is increasingly challenging to track the interface of the droplets accurately. To solve this multis-cale issue, a coupled tracking Eulerian-Lagrangian Method is proposed, see Hermann, [1]. This communication focuses on the criteria of transformation of this coupling from interface captured droplets to Lagrangian particles and numerical/physical reconstruction during this process. From the literature, interaction criteria of transformation are all geometric, implementation of physical parameter is made in this communication. Those criteria are finally applied on a liquid jet atomization

AIoT for Smart territories

Artificial Intelligence revived in the last decade. The need for progress, the growing processing capacity and the low cost of the Cloud have facilitated the development of new, powerful algorithms. The efficiency of these algorithms in Big Data processing, Deep Learning and Convolutional Networks is transforming the way we work and is opening new horizons. Thanks to them, we can now analyse data and obtain unimaginable solutions to today’s problems. Nevertheless, our success is not entirely based on algorithms, it also comes from our ability to follow our “gut” when choosing the best combination of algorithms for an intelligent artefact. It's about approaching engineering with a lot of knowledge and tact. This involves the use of both connectionist and symbolic systems, and of having a full understanding of the algorithms used. Moreover, to address today’s problems we must work with both historical and real-time data