Hot-melt co-extrusion for the production of fixed-dose combination products with a controlled release ethylcellulose matrix core

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Finding the right plaice at the right time:Multi-molecular analysis of flatfish reveals historical catch habitats

Flatfish are ecologically diverse species that commonly occur in marine environments, but also in estuarine and riverine habitats. This complicates the examination of the potential role of flatfish in the ‘marine fish event horizon’, an economic shift in human exploitation from freshwater to marine fish species during the 10–11th centuries CE around the southern North Sea. This study represents the first multi-disciplinary investigation of flatfish remains to make species-specific interpretations of flatfish exploitation. Peptide mass fingerprinting and multi-isotope analysis of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) was performed on collagen from 356 archaeological flatfish and 120 comparative archaeological marine or freshwater species to explore the catch habitat of individual flatfish species between 600 and 1600 CE from the North Sea area. European flounder show signals reflecting both freshwater and marine environments, while other flatfish show only those of marine habitats. A subtle shift towards more marine exploitation towards the end of the period is identified, corresponding to the observed transition in targeted species from flounder to plaice throughout the medieval period. Sites show slight differences in δ13C and δ34S within the same species, related to the local environments. Remarkable is the high abundance of marine plaice and flounder during the early medieval period, which shows clear marine or coastal exploitation of flatfish early on, well before the previously accepted onset of the marine fish event horizon. This indicates a gradual shift from coastal to open marine fish exploitation over the medieval period

Flatfish and the origins of European marine fishing

During the Early Medieval period, most fish consumed in areas around the southern North Sea were taxa which could have been caught in freshwater habitats. From around the 11th century CE significantly more marine species appear in inland archaeological deposits — the so-called ‘marine fish event horizon’. As flatfish are ecologically varied, they could have been amongst the first marine taxa exploited, but so far, their role in this economic transition has been unclear due to difficulties in identifying marine, estuarine, and riverine flatfish morphologically. To assess the role of flatfish in the marine fish event horizon, a timeline is constructed for the frequency of six species from thirteen sites around the southern North Sea to explore how flatfish fisheries changed per region during the Medieval period (6-16th centuries CE). Firstly, flatfish identifications are refined via morphological and molecular approaches. It is found that comparative osteology and geometric morphometrics have limited applicability on archaeological material, however, a more thorough understanding of flatfish morphology is described. ZooMS identifications (n=467) using eight newly described peptide markers, reveal a relative decrease of flounder (Platichthys flesus) and an increase of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) throughout the Medieval period. Secondly, multi-isotope analysis of a substantial dataset (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S; n=476) indicates an early onset of marine fishing and a continuation of freshwater fisheries of flatfish throughout the Medieval period. Changes in isotope values and species abundances could be linked to a more marine-oriented fishing practice across the southern North Sea in the High Medieval period. This first multi-disciplinary study of flatfish remains has revealed species-specific interpretations about where and when people exploited flatfish, providing insight into economic, social and environmental changes in the North Sea area during a key period of economic transition in the Medieval period

Protomelas krampus, a new paedophagous cichlid from Lake Malawi (Teleostei, Cichlidae)

A new paedophagous species of Protomelas, P. krampus sp. nov., is described from Lake Malawi. It has been found in Lukoma Bay in Tanzania, near Mara Point in Mozambique, and at Otter Point, Chizumulu, the Likoma Islands and Mazinzi Reef in Malawi. This species is placed in the genus Protomelas based on its melanin pattern, which comprises a continuous midlateral stripe. A morphometric study was done to compare this species with its congeners and similar species of Hemitaeniochromis and Caprichromis. It differs from most congeners by having only one inner tooth row. Furthermore, P. krampus sp. nov. differs from P. insignis, P. spilopterus, H. brachyrhynchus, H. urotaenia, Caprichromis liemi and C. orthognathus by its shorter premaxillary pedicel, shorter prepectoral distances and dentition. It also differs largely in its melanin pattern from the paedophagous species C. liemi, C. orthognathus, Diplotaxodon greenwoodi and Naevochromis chrysogaster, as well as H. brachyrhynchus and H. urotaenia. Protomelas krampus sp. nov. has been observed to ram mouth-brooding cichlids from above to feed on their eggs or larvae

Protomelas Eccles & Trewavas 1989

Genus Protomelas Eccles & Trewavas, 1989 Protomelas Eccles & Trewavas, 1989: 40 (type species: Chromis kirkii Günther, 1894, by original designation).Published as part of Dierickx, Katrien & Snoeks, Jos, 2020, Protomelas krampus, a new paedophagous cichlid from Lake Malawi (Teleostei, Cichlidae), pp. 1-18 in European Journal of Taxonomy 672 on page 7, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2020.672, http://zenodo.org/record/390679

Protomelas krampus, a new paedophagous cichlid from Lake Malawi (Teleostei, Cichlidae)

A new paedophagous species of Protomelas, P. krampus sp. nov., is described from Lake Malawi. It has been found in Lukoma Bay in Tanzania, near Mara Point in Mozambique, and at Otter Point, Chizumulu, the Likoma Islands and Mazinzi Reef in Malawi. This species is placed in the genus Protomelas based on its melanin pattern, which comprises a continuous midlateral stripe. A morphometric study was done to compare this species with its congeners and similar species of Hemitaeniochromis and Caprichromis. It differs from most congeners by having only one inner tooth row. Furthermore, P. krampus sp. nov. differs from P. insignis, P. spilopterus, H. brachyrhynchus, H. urotaenia, Caprichromis liemi and C. orthognathus by its shorter premaxillary pedicel, shorter prepectoral distances and dentition. It also differs largely in its melanin pattern from the paedophagous species C. liemi, C. orthognathus, Diplotaxodon greenwoodi and Naevochromis chrysogaster, as well as H. brachyrhynchus and H. urotaenia. Protomelas krampus sp. nov. has been observed to ram mouth-brooding cichlids from above to feed on their eggs or larvae

Figure 6 from: Dierickx K, Hanssens M, Rusuwa B, Snoeks J (2018) Trematocranus pachychilus, a new endemic cichlid from Lake Malawi (Teleostei, Cichlidae). ZooKeys 743: 153-166. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.743.22814

A new species of Trematocranus, T. pachychilus sp. n., is described from Lake Malawi. So far, it has only been found at Jafua Bay, Mozambique. It can easily be distinguished from T. labifer by its molariform pharyngeal dentition. A morphometric study, including 24 measurements and 15 counts, was done to compare the new species with T. microstoma and T. placodon. Trematocranus pachychilus is characterised by its thick lips. This species further differs from T. microstoma by its bicuspid (vs. unicuspid) outer oral teeth, wide (vs. small) pharyngeal bone, and its head shape. It resembles T. placodon, from which it can be distinguished by its straight to concave head profile (vs. rounded), less-developed pharyngeal bones (vs. hypertrophied), and the presence of small to minute teeth on the lateral parts of the dentigerous area on the lower pharyngeal bone. A key to the species of Trematocranus is provided

Geometric morphometric analysis of Pleuronectiformes vertebrae: A new tool to identify archaeological fish remains?

Flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) vertebrae are difficult to identify to species due to the lack of diagnostic features. This has resulted in a lack of understanding of the species abundances across archaeological sites, hindering interpretations of historical fisheries in the North Sea area. We use a new approach, utilising a combined 2D landmark-based geometric morphometric analysis as an objective and non-destructive method for species identification of flatfish vertebrae from the North Sea area. Modern specimens were used as a reference to describe the morphological variation between taxa using principal component analysis (PCA) and to trial an automated classification using linear discriminant analysis. Although there is limited distinction between taxa using PCAs, the classification shows high accuracies, indicating that flatfish species identifications using geometric morphometrics are possible. Bone samples (n = 105) from two archaeological sites in the United Kingdom and France were analysed using this approach and their identifications were verified using collagen peptide mass fingerprinting. The success rate of species identification was usually less than 50%, indicating that this technique has limited applicability due to preservation/fragmentation of archaeological fish bone. Nonetheless, this could prove a valuable tool for modern and non-fragmented samples. Furthermore, the technique applied in this study can be easily adapted to work on other landmark datasets

Rapid collagen peptide mass fingerprinting as a tool to authenticate Pleuronectiformes in the food industry

Reliable species identification of specimens in the food chain is crucial for detecting mislabelling fraud. While visual identification, DNA-analyses, and proteomic approaches have been used in the past, this research provides an alternative proteomic technique that has been trialled here to identify tissue samples from species within the order Pleuronectiformes (flatfish). Previously, archaeological research has used peptide mass fingerprinting to identify fish remains to species by extracting collagen Type I preserved in bones. As this type of collagen can also be found in the fins, skin and muscle of fishes (types of tissue that can be found throughout the food chain), collagen peptide mass fingerprinting has been applied here to identify modern fish specimens to species. In this study, MALDI-ToF MS peptide fingerprints are obtained from enzymatic digestion of collagen Type I from fin (or skin if fin was not available) and muscle tissues from six specimens of Pleuronectiformes. Using the already available diagnostic collagen peptide biomarkers for flatfish, all six specimens could be identified to the correct species for each of the tissue types. We recommend using this rapid approach for future screenings of modern flatfish in the food chain to detect mislabelling fraud, and also in more general applications of modern ecological studies of this order. It is likely that the methods can be applied to other Actinopterygian fishes