Soft-Shelled Turtles (Trionychidae) from the Cenomanian of Uzbekistan

Localities from the Cenomanian of Uzbekistan are the oldest in Middle Asia and Kazakhstan to preserve two broadly sympatric species of trionychid turtle. Material described here comes from multiple Cenomanian formations from the Itemir locality, and from multiple localities in the Cenomanian Khodzhakul Formation. The first taxon from the locality, "Trionyx" cf. kyrgyzensis, has multiple morphological similarities with the older, Early Cretaceous "Trionyx" kyrgyzensis. In contrast, the second taxon, "Trionyx" dissolutus, has multiple similarities with "Trionyx" kansaiensis, one of two species of trionychid found in younger Late Cretaceous localities. "Trionyx" dissolutus bears some superficial resemblance to other trionychid taxa within the clade Plastomenidae because of its highly ossified plastron with a hyoplastral lappet and an epiplastral notch. However, Plastomenidae is diagnosed primarily through characters that are absent or cannot be observed in the available material of "T." dissolutus, and other shared features are plesiomorphic. In addition, "T" dissolutus shares other synapomorphies with Trionychinae. A heavily ossified plastron may be more homoplastric within Trionychidae than has been previously recognized. Finally, we provide an improved understanding of the subtle similarities and differences between several closely related Cretaceous turtle assemblages of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.National Science Foundation EAR-9804771, 0207004National Geographic Society 5901-97, 6281-98US Civilian Research and Development Foundation RUB1-2860-ST-07Russian Federation NSh-2990.2014.4Russian Foundation for Basic Research 14-04-00416Robert C. Bates Travelling FellowshipGeological Science

Soft-Shelled Turtles (Trionychidae) from the Bissekty formation (Upper Cretaceous: Turonian) of Uzbekistan: Skull-Based Taxa and Probable Skull-Shell Associations

In this paper we describe previously unpublished trionychid turtle material, consisting of skull fragments, from the Late Cretaceous (late Turonian) Bissekty Formation of the Dzharakuduk locality in Uzbekistan. This material is assigned to two taxa: the skull-based Khunnuchelys kizylkumensis Brinkman et al. (1993, Can. J. Earth Sci. 30, 2214-2223) and Trionychini indet. Two specimens which cannot be confidently attributed to these two taxa are considered Trionychidae indet. In addition to these trionychid taxa known from skulls, the Dzharakuduk turtle assemblage includes at least two shell-based taxa, Aspideretoides cf. A. riabinini and "Trionyx" cf. "T." kansaiensis. For this and other Late Cretaceous localities of Middle Asia and Kazakhstan, we suggest the probable skull-shell associations of Khunnuchelys spp. with "Trionyx" kansaiensis-like forms and Trionychini indet. with Aspideretoides-like forms. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.National Science Foundation EAR-9804771, 0207004National Geographic Society 5901-97, 6281-98US Civilian Research and Development Foundation RUB1-2860-ST-07President of the Russian Federation to the Leading Scientific Schools NSh-6560.2012.4GSA Graduate Student Research GrantGeological Science

Neuronal Coherence Agent for Shared Intentionality : A Hypothesis of Neurobiological Processes Occurring during Social Interaction

Funding Information: No foundation that funded this research. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the author.The present interdisciplinary study discusses the physical foundations of the neurobiological processes occurring during social interaction. The review of the literature establishes the difference between Intentionality and Intention, thereby proposing the theoretical basis of Shared Intentionality in humans. According to the present study, Shared Intentionality in humans (Goal-directed coherence of biological systems), which is the ability among social organisms to instantly select just one stimulus for the entire group, is the outcome of evolutionary development. Therefore, this interaction modality should be the preferred, archetypal, and most propagated modality in organisms, attributed to the Model of Hierarchical Complexity Stage 3. This characteristic of biological systems facilitates the training of the new members of the group and also ensures efficient cooperation among the members of the group without requiring communication. In humans, Shared Intentionality contributes to the learning of newborns. The neurons of a mature organism may teach the neonate neurons regarding the fitting reactions to the excitatory inputs of the specific structural organization. This enables the neonate neurons to develop a Long-Term Potentiation that links particular stimuli with specific embodied sensorimotor neural networks. The present report discusses three possible neuronal coherence agents that could involve quantum mechanisms in cells, thereby enabling the distribution of the quality of goal-directed coherence in biological systems (Shared Intentionality in humans). Recently reported case studies conducted online with the task of conveying the meaning of numerosity to the children of age 18–33 months revealed the occurrence of Shared Intentionality in mother-child dyads in the absence of sensory cues between the two, which promoted cognitive development in the children. The findings of these case studies support the concept of physical foundations and the hypothesis of the neurophysiological process of social interaction proposed in the present study.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Empirical Evidence of Shared Intentionality : Towards Bioengineering Systems Development

Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the author.This article is the expanded conference paper that reports the results of a psychophysiological research study on shared intentionality conducted in 24 online experiments with 405 subjects (208 recipients and 197 contributor-confederates). In this research, we created a bioengineering system for assessing shared intentionality in human groups by modeling mother-neonate dyad properties in subjects during intellectual testing. In this model, only the mother (contributor-confederate) knows the correct stimulus and shares this knowledge with the neonate (participant-recipient). For modeling mother-neonate dyad properties in subjects, the bioengineering system induces interpersonal dynamics in the subjects by stimulating their interactional synchrony, emotional contagion and neuronal coherence. The system collects data by confronting recipients' performance in "primed" and "unprimed" conditions of confederates. These informed contributors know correct responses only in the "primed" condition and confidently respond on "primed" items. Specifically, in 13 online experiments in mother-child dyads, evidence showed a recipients' performance increase of 48–394%, P-value < 0.001 (62 recipients and 54 confederates) in the “primed” condition of confederates; and in 7 experiments in primary group adults, it showed a performance increase of 143–300%, P-value < 0.002. In experiments in the secondary group, evidence showed a recipients' performance increase only with the UL3 items (a translation of an unfamiliar language, 20 recipients from 41 subjects in experiment No.12). In 3 experiments in 207 secondary group subjects, non-semantic tasks–SL3 (synthetic language) and US3 (two-color unintelligible symbols)–did not stimulate the effect. We also analyzed data confronting the outcome of recipients' performance in the "primed" condition and random value (possible recipients' responses by chance). Comparing the outcomes of these two data collecting methods as well as the sample size of the experiments allow for discussing the research method's validity and reliability. The article also shows four factors' domains that contribute to shared intentionality magnitude.Peer reviewe

A New Perspective on Assessing Cognition in Children through Estimating Shared Intentionality

This theoretical article aims to create a conceptual framework for future research on digital methods for assessing cognition in children through estimating shared intentionality, different from assessing through behavioral markers. It shows the new assessing paradigm based directly on the evaluation of parent-child interaction exchanges (protoconversation), allowing early monitoring of children’s developmental trajectories. This literature analysis attempts to understand how cognition is related to emotions in interpersonal dynamics and whether assessing these dynamics shows cognitive abilities in children. The first part discusses infants’ unexpected achievements, observing the literature about children’s development. The analysis supposes that due to the caregiver’s help under emotional arousal, newborns’ intentionality could appear even before it is possible for children’s intention to occur. The emotional bond evokes intentionality in neonates. Therefore, they can manifest unexpected achievements while performing them with caregivers. This outcome shows an appearance of protoconversation in adult-children dyads through shared intentionality. The article presents experimental data of other studies that extend our knowledge about human cognition by showing an increase of coordinated neuronal activities and the acquisition of new knowledge by subjects in the absence of sensory cues. This highlights the contribution of interpersonal interaction to gain cognition, discussed already by Vygotsky. The current theoretical study hypothesizes that if shared intentionality promotes cognition from the onset, this interaction modality can also facilitate cognition in older children. Therefore in the second step, the current article analyzes empirical data of recent studies that reported meaningful interaction in mother-infant dyads without sensory cues. It discusses whether an unbiased digital assessment of the interaction ability of children is possible before the age when the typical developmental trajectory implies verbal communication. The article develops knowledge for a digital assessment that can measure the extent of children’s ability to acquire knowledge through protoconversation. This specific assessment can signalize the lack of communication ability in children even when the typical trajectory of peers’ development does not imply verbal communication.publishersversionPeer reviewe

A Case Study on the Development of Math Competence in an Eight-year-old Child with Dyscalculia : Shared Intentionality in Human-Computer Interaction for Online Treatment Via Subitizing

Studies in the field of neuroscience have shown that the neural network responsible for numeracy overlaps with the visual and spatial processing regions. Other studies in psychology also highlighted an association of visual-spatial processing with mathematical competence at the early stages of development. These findings suggest that research on the size of the focal area of attention (consciousness) can contribute to understanding the development of numeracy. In this case study, we verified the hypothesis of developing numeracy in children by training the rapid apperception of a few items called “subitizing.” Shared intentionality promotes cognition from the onset. Therefore, in this study, we investigated this interaction modality to give an eight-year-old girl an insight into expanded apperception of an array in "subitizing" for improving her numerical competence. The child was stimulated to apperceive more objects while performing “subitizing” tasks with the mother. The course of treatment consisted of the four regimes of human-computer interaction based on rapid exposure to several pictures with a few dots. Simultaneously, this human-computer interaction also stimulated shared intentionality in the mother-child dyad for developing the child’s rapid apprehension of these small quantities. The outcome of this intervention was an increase in the size of the focal point of attention (consciousness) and the development of numerical competence, where an association was established between the expanding apperception and the developing numeracy.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Computerized Assessment of Cognitive Development in Neurotypical and Neurodivergent Children

This study aims to observe the differences in the shared intentionality magnitude in mother-child dyads with neurotypical (NT) children and neurodivergent (ND) children aged 3-6 years. The quality of shared intentionality in infancy is associated with cognitive development. Our results showed that ND children scored six times higher (on average) in quiz-test than NT children. Children with difficulties in interaction (ND children) are more likely to use shared intentionality in conversation than NT children. We believe that this knowledge can contribute to developing computerized assessment methods which can diagnose developmental disabilities in such children.publishersversionPeer reviewe

A New Computer-Aided Method for Assessing Children's Cognition in Bioengineering Systems for Diagnosing Developmental Delay

This pilot study (n = 19) examines fidelity rates of the new computer-aided method of diagnosing cognitive development delay in 3-to-6-year-old children. The small-scale research repeats the methodological components of the previous two studies, only changing the data collection process by introducing the baseline value (BV). Experimental data show a significant increase of 9.4 times in the shared intentionality magnitude in neurodivergent children. The results support the hypothesis that the bioengineering system (computer-mother-child) can encourage shared intentionality in the dyad by emulating the mother-newborn communication model. The outcome shows the association between the shared intentionality magnitude and children's diagnosis. However, the bioengineering diagnostic paradigm and the new BV method still need more evidence since the pilot study observes the effect in a small sample size. The pilot study evaluates the fidelity rates of this new BV method through nine markers. It shows the feasibility (with the limitations) of testing this new BV method in further research with a large sample size.Peer reviewe

A new brontothere from the Eocene of South China

The upper Eocene Youganwo Formation in Maoming Province, Guangdong Province, China, produced abundant remains of turtles and crocodiles, but mammalian remains are rare. The previously found mammals from Youganwo Formation include a nimravid carnivore and an amynodontid perissodactyl. Here we report on a new brontotheriid perissodactyl from the Youganwo Formation. Maobrontops paganus gen. et sp. nov. is described based on a maxillary fragment with P4 and M1–2 (SYSU-M-4). Maobrontops paganus gen. et sp. nov. is characterized by the combination of a simple P4 without a hypocone with derived molars having large molar fossae and large anterolingual cingular cusp. A parsimony implied weighting character analysis places Maobrontops gen. nov. in the clade Embolotheriita as a sister taxon to the terminal subclade containing Nasamplus, Protembolotherium, and Embolotherium. Maobrontops paganus gen. et sp. nov. is one of the largest Asian brontotheres. The brontotheriid fauna of South China is endemic and includes at least three valid taxa: Dianotitan from Brontotheriita and Pygmaetitan and Maobrontops gen. nov. from Embolotheriita

Segmentation of anatomical structures of the heart based on echocardiography

Nowadays, many practical applications in the field of medical image processing require valid and reliable segmentation of images in the capacity of input data. Some of the commonly used imaging techniques are ultrasound, CT, and MRI. However, the main difference between the other medical imaging equipment and EchoCG is that it is safer, low cost, non-invasive and non-traumatic. Three-dimensional EchoCG is a non-invasive imaging modality that is complementary and supplementary to two-dimensional imaging and can be used to examine the cardiovascular function and anatomy in different medical settings. The challenging problems, presented by EchoCG image processing, such as speckle phenomena, noise, temporary non-stationarity of processes, unsharp boundaries, attenuation, etc. forced us to consider and compare existing methods and then to develop an innovative approach that can tackle the problems connected with clinical applications. Actual studies are related to the analysis and development of a cardiac parameters automatic detection system by EchoCG that will provide new data on the dynamics of changes in cardiac parameters and improve the accuracy and reliability of the diagnosis. Research study in image segmentation has highlighted the capabilities of image-based methods for medical applications. The focus of the research is both theoretical and practical aspects of the application of the methods. Some of the segmentation approaches can be interesting for the imaging and medical community. Performance evaluation is carried out by comparing the borders, obtained from the considered methods to those manually prescribed by a medical specialist. Promising results demonstrate the possibilities and the limitations of each technique for image segmentation problems. The developed approach allows: to eliminate errors in calculating the geometric parameters of the heart; perform the necessary conditions, such as speed, accuracy, reliability; build a master model that will be an indispensable assistant for operations on a beating heart