The Integration Of Morphology, Variation, And Phylogenetics To Better Understand Fossil Taxa And Their Modern Relatives

Morphology, or shapes, particularly of bones, is important for understanding how animals vary and, therefore, for understanding diversity. Comparison of morphology in animals can be used to make inferences on fossil organisms. At its base, fossil specimens are described and compared with other fossil and modern specimens, often to determine if they represent a new and distinct species, thereby increasing observed biodiversity through time. Dromaeosaurids (family Dromaeosauridae) are a group of dynamic, swift predatory dinosaurs, that have a sparse fossil record, particularly at the time of their extinction near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. A recently recovered specimen from the latest Cretaceous of New Mexico represents a new genus and species and is the first diagnostic dromaeosaurid from the Maastrichtian of the southern United States (southern Laramidia). The specimen also reveals aspects of this dinosaurs behavior, including potential wounds or injuries consistent with an active predatory lifestyle, features that would have made it agile, and the presence of feathers on its forelimbs. The evolutionary relationships of this dinosaur were explored through phylogenetic analysis and shows multiple lineages of these dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous in North America. Additionally, the Maastrichtian members of these dinosaurs would have also been living in the same environments as the largest terrestrial predators known, the tyrannosaurids, with different species in the north and south living alongside different tyrannosaurid species, creating complex ecosystems with different sized predators presumably utilizing different predatory methods. Emydids (family Emydidae) are the most diverse and widespread family of turtles in the New World. Their fossil record is relatively well known, but more complete fossils are less common and little work has been done to understand the relationships of potential fossil members. New species within both subfamilies (Deirochelyinae and Emydinae) from approximately 5 million years ago increase our knowledge of the past biodiversity of the group. A new painted turtle helps show how Chrysemys has migrated through time and part of these biogeographic changes are controlled by temperature and climate conditions. A new species of Emydoidea represents the southern-most occurrence of the genus and suggests the physiological requirements of the species have changed through time. A new species of Terrapene shows features consistent with an aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle, and its position basally within the genus lends further credence to the hypothesis that the genus evolved from aquatic or semi-aquatic ancestors and has evolved to become more terrestrial through time. The new species also help researchers better understand previously known fossil species. Several fossil species considered to represent Chrysemys are found to be basally within the subfamily and potentially outside Chrysemys. Emydoidea lies phylogenetically close to Emys and is part of a clade of emydine turtles that can at least partially close their shells. Features of stem Terrapene species suggest features of T. ornata are basal and further suggests terrestrially has evolved multiple times in the genus or that there have been multiple reinvasions of the water. These studies look at morphological variation to determine the distinct nature of several new fossil species and use phylogenetic analyses to hypothesize evolutionary relationships. This information can be used to make inferences of the direct groups studied and closely related groups, but also can be used to investigate ancient ecosystems and local and regional habitats and climates, along with more generalized larger-scale conditions. These continue to add to our knowledge of biodiversity and increases the information and data we have to use toward further future studies as well

Russian Hunters on Svalbard and the Polar Winter

Ways of surviving in the High Arctic environment are among the most interesting problems addressed by archaeological research concerning hunting groups operating in these areas. The Svalbard archipelago affords a unique opportunity for comparative studies of arctic survival with respect to representatives from two different European cultural centers: the hunters from northern Russia and the western European whalers. The present paper concentrates on the Russian way of dealing with the polar winter. Both the documentary sources and the elements of material culture recovered during archaeological explorations reveal a relatively high level of adaptation to arctic conditions.Key words: polar winter, Svalbard, Pomorye, Russian hunting, Orthodox monasteriesMots clés: hiver polaire, Svalbard, Pomorye, chasse russe, monastères orthodoxe

Rethinking Philosophy for Children

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. What is philosophical about the practice Philosophy for Children (P4C)? In this book, the authors offer a surprising answer to this question: a practitioner’s contemplation of the potentiality to speak, or what can be called infancy. Although essential to the experience of language, this most basic and profound capacity is often taken for granted or simply instrumentalized for the educational purposes of developing critical, caring, or creative thinking skills in the name of democratic citizenship. Against this kind of instrumentalization, the authors’ radical reconceptualization of P4C focuses on the experience of infancy that can take place through collective inquiry. The authors’ Philosophy for Infancy (P4I) emerges as a non-instrumental educational practice that does not dictate what to say or how to say it but rather turns attention to the fact of speaking. Referencing critical theorist Giorgio Agamben’s extensive work on the theme of infancy, the authors philosophically engage the core writings of Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp, foundational scholars in the P4C tradition, to rediscover this latent potentiality in the original P4C program that has yet to be developed. Not only does the book provide a new theoretical basis for appreciating what is philosophical in Lipman and Sharp’s formulations of P4C, it also provides a unique elucidation of key concepts in Agamben’s work—such as infancy, demand, rules, adventure, happiness, love, and anarchy—within a collective, educational practice. Throughout, the authors offer applications of P4I that will provide anchoring points to inspire educators to return to philosophical experimentation with language as a means without end

Rethinking Philosophy for Children

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. What is philosophical about the practice Philosophy for Children (P4C)? In this book, the authors offer a surprising answer to this question: a practitioner’s contemplation of the potentiality to speak, or what can be called infancy. Although essential to the experience of language, this most basic and profound capacity is often taken for granted or simply instrumentalized for the educational purposes of developing critical, caring, or creative thinking skills in the name of democratic citizenship. Against this kind of instrumentalization, the authors’ radical reconceptualization of P4C focuses on the experience of infancy that can take place through collective inquiry. The authors’ Philosophy for Infancy (P4I) emerges as a non-instrumental educational practice that does not dictate what to say or how to say it but rather turns attention to the fact of speaking. Referencing critical theorist Giorgio Agamben’s extensive work on the theme of infancy, the authors philosophically engage the core writings of Matthew Lipman and Ann Sharp, foundational scholars in the P4C tradition, to rediscover this latent potentiality in the original P4C program that has yet to be developed. Not only does the book provide a new theoretical basis for appreciating what is philosophical in Lipman and Sharp’s formulations of P4C, it also provides a unique elucidation of key concepts in Agamben’s work—such as infancy, demand, rules, adventure, happiness, love, and anarchy—within a collective, educational practice. Throughout, the authors offer applications of P4I that will provide anchoring points to inspire educators to return to philosophical experimentation with language as a means without end

Applying Imidacloprid Via a Precision Banding System to Control Striped Cucumber Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) in Cucurbits

The striped cucumber beetle, Acalymma vittatum (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is a key pest of cucurbit crops throughout its range. A novel precision band applicator was designed to inject a solid stream of imidacloprid solution in-furrow directly over the seed during planting to reduce beetle leaf feeding on pumpkin, zucchini, and cucumber crops. In 2004 and 2005, bioassays at the cotyledon through fifth leaf were conducted on striped cucumber beetles using seedling leaf tissue grown from seeds treated using both continuous and precision banded in-furrow imidacloprid solution applications. In 2004, 80% of bioassay trials had treatments with beetle mortality significantly higher than the check, whereas 70% of the bioassay trials showed no significant difference in mortality between continuous in-furrow and precision banded treatments. In 2005, 79% of bioassay trials had treatments with beetle mortality significantly higher than the check, whereas 100% of the bioassays showed no significant difference in beetle mortality between continuous in-furrow and precision banded treatments at the same insecticide rate. The environmental savings of precision banded treatments compared with continuous in-furrow treatment reduced imidacloprid up to 84.5% on a per hectare basis for all cucurbits tested in 2004 and 2005, translating into an economic savings up to 030215/ha. In separate bioassay trials conducted in 2005 on pumpkin, where insecticide band length and injection volume were manipulated independently, several treatments had significantly higher beetle mortality than the check. There was a trend of increased beetle mortality in treatments using shorter band lengths combined with higher insecticide solution volumes

Mechanisms of rhythmic bursting involving Na+ and Ca2+ in excitatory networks of brainstem and spinal cord: a modeling study

The rhythmic, synchronized bursting of neurons in a network is an important phenomenon that underlies many rhythmic behaviors such as breathing, locomotion, feeding, etc. The basic mechanisms of rhythmic bursting in excitatory networks are currently under debate in some areas of the brainstem and spinal cord, and controversies exist regarding the role of network interactions and cellular properties in their generation. We focus on a specific controversy concerning the role of the membrane currents persistent sodium (INaP) and the calcium-activated nonspecific cation current (ICAN) in network rhythms existing in brainstem slices containing the preBotzinger complex (preBotC), an important preparation relevant for understanding respiratory rhythm generation. We also address another type of rhythm existing in some of these preparations which has been proposed as fictive sighing. Using ideas suggested by and data gathered from experiments in this field, we constructed a mathematical, physiologically realistic model, which includes a description of cellular properties such as INaP, ICAN, Ca2+ current (ICa), the Na+/K+ pump current (IPump), IP3-mediated intracellular Ca2+ release, inactivation of INaP and intracellular Ca2+ release, and network properties such as synaptic coupling and excitatory drive to the network. Using this model, we investigated how the behavior of an isolated neuron depends on the relative expression of these properties, and how the behavior of a network of coupled neurons depends on the distribution of these properties across the network. We show that the role of a particular current such as INaP or ICAN in a network rhythm may depend on this distribution, and on the conditions of excitatory drive to and the overall strength of synaptic interactions in the network, offering a possible resolution of the controversy regarding the role of these currents in respiratory rhythm generation. We also propose a model of fictive sighing. Although our model was designed to address a specific controversy in a preparation of the brainstem concerned with repiratory rhythmogenesis, we expect that some of our results may be applicable to understanding the basic mechanisms of rhythmic bursting in excitatory networks in other areas of the brainstem and spinal cord.Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering -- Drexel University, 201

4-(4-Chloro­phen­yl)-4-hy­droxy­piperidinium maleate maleic acid solvate

In the cation of the title compound, C11H15ClNO+·C4H3O4 −·C4H4O4, the dihedral angle between the mean planes of the chlorine-substituted aromatic ring and the 4-hy­droxy­piperidinium ring (C–C–C–C–C–N) is 61.9 (8)°. Intra­molecular O—H⋯O and inter­molecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonding, as well as weak π-stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.646 (5) Å] help to establish the packing

(2E)-1-(2,5-Dichloro-3-thien­yl)-3-(6-meth­oxy-2-naphth­yl)prop-2-en-1-one

In the title compound, C18H12Cl2O2S, the dihedral angle between the thio­phene ring and the naphthalene ring system is 2.13 (4)°. In the crystal, pairs of weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds form centrosymmetric dimers

High resistivity and ultrafast carrier lifetime in argon implanted GaAs

We have investigated the optoelectronic and structural properties of GaAs that has been implanted with Ar ions and subsequently annealed. The material exhibits all the basic optical and electronic characteristics typically observed in nonstoichiometric, As implanted or low‐temperature‐grown GaAs. Annealing of Ar implanted GaAs at 600 °C produces a highly resistive material with a subpicosecond trapping lifetime for photoexcited carriers. Transmission electron microscopy shows that, instead of As precipitates, characteristic for the nonstoichiometeric GaAs, voids ranging in size from 3 to 5 nm are observed in Ar implanted and annealed GaAs. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69637/2/APPLAB-69-17-2569-1.pd