Braincase anatomy of araripesuchus gomesii price, 1959 (crocodyliformes, notosuchia) and the evolution of braincase pneumaticity in crocodyliforms

Recent high-resolution CT-scans of the referred specimen of Araripesuchus gomesii (AMNH-FR 24450; housed at the American Museum of Natural History, New york, USA) from the Santana Formation (Albian; NW Brazil) allowed a detailed study of its skull. Given the pristine preservation of the specimen, the delicate structures of its internal anatomy are preserved. Additionally, given the recent increase of CT data on fossil crocodyliforms, we evaluated the distribution and relative development of the braincase pneumaticity in the group. The braincase of A. gomesii is invaded by several pneumatic recesses that are highly interconnected among them, in many cases being separated by thin bony struts. This condition contrasts with that observed in non-crocodyliform crocodylomorphs (e.g., Almadasuchus, Dibothrosuchus), where these cavities are completely surrounded by their respective hosting bones. In particular, the ventral pneumatic (rostral, pre- and postcarotid, and basioccipital) recesses of A. gomesii are fused between them, forming an almost continuous cavity that extends from the rostrum of the basisphenoid to the level of the otic capsule. As in basal crocodyliforms like Protosuchus haughtoni, the eustachian foramina open directly into a large ventral recess and are not extended internally forming bony tubes that divide internally into canals (anterior and posterior communicating canals), as observed in extant crocodylians, thalattosuchians and Rhabdognathus. Posterodorsally, the mastoid antrum is large and is also interconnected with other dorsal pneumatizations of the skull (intertympanic, posterior tympanic and trigeminal recesses) trough large foramina that are bounded by thin struts. Araripesuchus gomesii bears a rare condition among crocodylomorphs as some of its dermal bones (parietal and squamosal) are invaded by pneumatic cavities. These pneumatic recesses can be interpreted as an anterodorsal expansion of the mastoid antrum and intertympanic recess, as the recess on the squamosal is connected with the former and the recess on the parietal is connected with the latter. The parietal pneumatization seems to be an exclusive feature of crocodyliforms, as Protosuchus richardsoni and Campinasuchus dinszi also bear a pneumatic recess in this bone. It is important to mention that neosuchians (including thalattosuchians) lack any parietal recess, which can be interpreted as a secondary reduction in the clade considering the available information. On the other hand, squamosal pneumatizations have only been reported in some notosuchians (e.g., Notosuchus terrestris) and might represent an additional unique feature of the clade, even though it is not present ubiquitously among members of Notosuchia. The presence of additional cavities also shows that the degree of pneumatization was a dynamic feature among crocodyliforms. Finally, our study reports the presence of recesses (e.g., rostral and trigeminal recesses) in crocodyliforms that were previously reported only in non- crocodyliform crocodylomorphs, expanding their distribution in the clade.Fil: Leardi, Juan Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; ArgentinaFil: Pol, Diego. Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Turner, Alan. Stony Brook University ; State University Of New York;Fil: Kelner, Alexander. Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional; BrasilXII Congreso de la Asociación Paleontológica ArgentinaBuenos AiresArgentinaAsociación Paleontológica Argentin

High-energy Particle Acceleration and Production of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays in the Giant Lobes of Centaurus A

‘The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14265.xThe nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A is poorly studied at high frequencies with conventional radio telescopes because of its very large angular size, but is one of a very few extragalactic objects to be detected and resolved by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).We have used the five-year WMAP data for Cen A to constrain the high-frequency radio spectra of the 10-degree giant lobes and to search for spectral changes as a function of position along the lobes. We show that the high-frequency radio spectra of the northern and southern giant lobes are significantly different: the spectrum of the southern lobe steepens monotonically (and is steeper further from the active nucleus) whereas the spectrum of the northern lobe remains consistent with a power law. The inferred differences in the northern and southern giant lobes may be the result of real differences in their high-energy particle acceleration histories, perhaps due to the influence of the northern middle lobe, an intermediate-scale feature which has no detectable southern counterpart. In light of these results, we discuss the prospects for Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) detections of inverse-Compton emission from the giant lobes and the lobes’ possible role in the production of the ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) detected by the Pierre Auger Observatory. We show that the possibility of a GLAST detection depends sensitively on the physical conditions in the giant lobes, with the northern lobe more likely to be detected, and that any emission observed by GLAST is likely to be restricted to the soft end of the GLAST energy band. On the other hand we argue that the estimated conditions in the giant lobes imply that UHECRs can be accelerated there, with a potentially detectable -ray signature at GeV-TeV energies.Peer reviewe

Mapping patterns of complementary and alternative medicine use in cancer: An explorative cross-sectional study of individuals with reported positive "exceptional" experiences

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among cancer patients is common and widespread, levels of commitment to CAM vary. "Committed" CAM use is important to investigate, as it may be associated with elevated risks and benefits, and may affect use of biomedically-oriented health care (BHC). Multiple methodological approaches were used to explore and map patterns of CAM use among individuals postulated to be committed users, voluntarily reporting exceptional experiences associated with CAM use after cancer diagnosis.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>The verbatim transcripts of thirty-eight unstructured interviews were analyzed in two steps. First, manifest content analysis was used to elucidate and map participants' use of CAM, based on the National Center for Complementary Medicine (NCCAM)'s classification system. Second, patterns of CAM use were explored statistically using principal component analysis.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>The 38 participants reported using a total of 274 specific CAM (median = 4) consisting of 148 different therapeutic modalities. Most reported therapies could be categorized using the NCCAM taxonomy (n = 224). However, a significant number of CAM therapies were not consistent with this categorization (n = 50); consequently, we introduced two additional categories: <it>Spiritual/health literature </it>and <it>Treatment centers</it>. The two factors explaining the largest proportion of variation in CAM usage patterns were a) number of CAM modalities used and b) a category preference for <it>Energy therapies </it>over the categories <it>Alternative Medical Systems </it>and <it>Treatment centers </it>or vice versa.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>We found considerable heterogeneity in patterns of CAM use. By analyzing users' own descriptions of CAM in relation to the most commonly used predefined professional taxonomy, this study highlights discrepancies between user and professional conceptualizations of CAM not previously addressed. Beyond variations in users' reports of CAM, our findings indicate some patterns in CAM usage related to number of therapies used and preference for different CAM categories.</p

The Alzheimer's Disease Prediction Of Longitudinal Evolution (TADPOLE) Challenge: Results after 1 Year Follow-up

We present the findings of "The Alzheimer's Disease Prediction Of Longitudinal Evolution" (TADPOLE) Challenge, which compared the performance of 92 algorithms from 33 international teams at predicting the future trajectory of 219 individuals at risk of Alzheimer's disease. Challenge participants were required to make a prediction, for each month of a 5-year future time period, of three key outcomes: clinical diagnosis, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive Subdomain (ADAS-Cog13), and total volume of the ventricles. No single submission was best at predicting all three outcomes. For clinical diagnosis and ventricle volume prediction, the best algorithms strongly outperform simple baselines in predictive ability. However, for ADAS-Cog13 no single submitted prediction method was significantly better than random guessing. Two ensemble methods based on taking the mean and median over all predictions, obtained top scores on almost all tasks. Better than average performance at diagnosis prediction was generally associated with the additional inclusion of features from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). On the other hand, better performance at ventricle volume prediction was associated with inclusion of summary statistics, such as patient-specific biomarker trends. The submission system remains open via the website https://tadpole.grand-challenge.org, while code for submissions is being collated by TADPOLE SHARE: https://tadpole-share.github.io/. Our work suggests that current prediction algorithms are accurate for biomarkers related to clinical diagnosis and ventricle volume, opening up the possibility of cohort refinement in clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease

Geant4 simulation of high energy muon interactions

The set of models describing production and interaction of high energy muons is developed in the framework of the Geant4 toolkit. It includes following processes or models: ionization of high energy muons with radiative corrections, bremsstrahlung, electron-positron pair production, muon induced nuclear reactions, gamma annihilation into muon pair, positron annihilation into muon pair, and into pion pair. These models are essential for LHC experiments, for understanding of the background for underground detectors, for simulation of atmospheric showers induced by muons and for simulation of backgrounds in future colliders. The applicability area of the models extended to 1 PeV. The major use-cases and methods of validation of the models are discussed

Molecular events in relapsed oral squamous cell carcinoma: Recurrence vs secondary primary tumor

Relapses have a great impact on both the morbidity and mortality rates of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Current classification criteria are imprecise and need improvements. Recent advances in understanding of OSCC relapses on a molecular level provide new possibilities to better classify true recurrences and second primary tumors. This review discusses the limitations of the current OSCC relapse classification method and presents possible alternatives to improve this classification based on molecular techniques. Moreover, these molecular techniques add to the further understanding of these lesions and may provide tools for clinical management.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Molecular events in relapsed oral squamous cell carcinoma: Recurrence vs secondary primary tumor journaltitle: Oral Oncology articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oraloncology.2015.04.016 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.status: publishe