Root traces in fossil bones from the Huayquerian (Late Miocene) faunal assemblage of Telén, La Pampa, Argentina

One of the exposures of the Cerro Azul Formation in northern La Pampa (Argentina) has yielded a Huayquerian (Upper Miocene) faunal assemblage. The degree of bioerosion caused by roots on mandibles of Paedotherium minor (Mammalia, Notoungulata, Hege-totheriidae) was analyzed, in an attempt to throw light upon the events that affected the remains after deposition. According to the fea-tures observed on the specimens, two types of traces were identified. These were referred to the ethological categories Sphenoichnia and Corrosichnia. The first type is interpreted as the marks produced by rootlets growing on the skeletal element/sediment boundary after burial. These traces would indicate the development of a herbaceous cover on the soil where the remains were deposited and later bu-ried and may be another feature helpful in the identification of these paleosols. The second type implies a surface dissolution of the hard substrate, which in this case is the fossil itself. The characteristics of the remains that show this kind of trace may suggest that root growth has affected them only in recent stages.Uno de los afloramientos de la Formación Cerro Azul, ubicado en Telén, al norte de la provincia de La Pampa (Argentina), ha aportado fauna de vertebrados de edad Huayqueriense (Mioceno superior). Con la finalidad de conocer los acontecimientos que afectaron a los restos recuperados de esta asociación faunística después de su depósito, se analizó el grado de bioerosión producido por raíces. Se eligieron para este análisis los fragmentos mandibulares de Paedotherium minor (Mammalia, Notoungulata, Hegetotheriidae). Las características observadas en los materiales permitieron identificar dos tipos de trazas, que se atribuyeron a las categorías etológicas Sphenoichnia y Corrosichnia. El primer tipo de traza se interpreta como marcas de raicillas desarrolladas en la interfase elemento esquelético-sedimento después del enterramiento. Su presencia indicaría el desarrollo de una cobertura herbácea sobre el suelo mientras los restos fueron depositados. Constituye, además, otra evidencia que facilita la identificación de los paleosuelos presentes en este afloramiento. El segundo tipo de trazas está representado por marcas de mayor tamaño que las anteriores, con disolución superficial del sustrato que en este caso son los restos fósiles. Las características de los especímenes que presentan esta traza sugerirían que el desarrollo de raíces ha afectado los restos en etapas más recientes

Real Loneliness and Artificial Companionship: Looking for Social Connections in Technology

Loneliness among older adults is a problem with severe consequences to individual health, quality of life, cognitive capacity, and life-expectancy. Although approaches towards improving the quality and quantity of social relationships are the prevailing model of therapy, older adults may not always be able to form these relationships due to either personality factors, decreased mobility, or isolation. Intelligent personal assistants (IPAs), virtual agents, and social robotics offer an opportunity for the development of technology that could potentially serve as social companions to older adults. The present study explored whether an IPA could potentially be used as a social companion to older adults feeling lonely. Additionally, the research explored whether the device has the potential to generate social presence among both young and older adults. Results indicate that while the devices do show some social presence, participants rate the device low on some components of social presence, such as emotional contagion. This adversely affects the possibility of a social relationship between an older adult and the device. Analysis reveals ways to improve social presence in these devices

It\u27s Not Just a Leave

In this piece, the author sets out to explore the first-generation college identity through a gothic lens. In the early stages of this project, Montalvo had considered doing research on narratives from other first-gen college students as a way to trace the uncanny and the abject in their experiences. However, as she began reflecting on her own personal history, she realized that in a matter of only two years she had already experienced moments of distance, uncanniness, and confusion, which are recorded here. In presenting these installments in non-chronological order, Montalvo intends to insert a gothic element of disorder, which also reflects her experience with certain financial issues that resulted in her leave from the university. Issues of cultural identity are also explored as the author embraces her Chicana identity and finds a way to overcome the challenges she faces

Countable covers and uniform closure

In this paper we present, in a unified way, several results af uniform approximation for real-valued continuous and uniformly continuous functions an a space X. We obtain all of them by applying a general method af proof that involves certain kind of cauntable covers af X, the so-called 2-finite covers. For instance, if X is endowed with the weak uniformity given by a vector lattice $\mathfrak{F}$ of real-valued functions an X containing all the real constant functions then, using that method, we characterize the uniform density of $\mathfrak{F}$ only in terms of the family $\mathfrak{F}$, improving a previous result in this line

Pair of Heavy-Exotic-Quarks at LHC

We study the production and signatures of heavy exotic quarks pairs at LHC in the framework of the vector singlet model (VSM), vector doublet model (VDM) and fermion-mirror-fermion (FMF) model. The pair production cross sections for the electroweak and strong sector are computed.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. accept at Int. Jour. of Mod. Phy

Fed-batch control based upon the measurement of intracellular NADH

A series of experiments demonstrating that on-line measurements of intracellular NADH by culture fluorescence can be used to monitor and control the fermentation process are described. A distinct advantage of intercellular NADH measurements over other monitoring techniques such as pH and dissolved oxygen is that it directly measures real time events occurring within the cell rather than changes in the environment. When coupled with other measurement parameters, it can provide a finer degree of sophistication in process control

Combination of bioanalytical approaches and quantitative proteomics for the elucidation of the toxicity mechanisms associated to TiO2 nanoparticles exposure in human keratinocytes.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) are being used in several consumer products. The high refractive index of nano-scaled titanium dioxide particles allows them to protect from UV radiation, and so, they can be found as one of the main components of cosmetics and suncreens. Many studies have reported the potential toxicological effects associated to TiO2-NPs such as ROS generation, DNA damage, apoptosis and cell cycle arrest, among others. The continuous and systematic use of TiO2-NPs in cosmetic products requires a full comprehension of the risks involving their sustained contact with the human skin. Thus, it is important to evaluate not only the hazardous effects but to elucidate the biomolecular mechanisms involved in such effects. Based on this premises, we have evaluated the potential toxicity of TiO2-NPs using a human epithelial cell culture (HaCaT cells) as in-vitro model, together with different bioanalytical approaches and mass spectrometrybased quantitative proteomics, to gain a deeper insight into the molecular mechanisms of toxicity associated to TiO2-NPs exposurepre-print451 K

Retrospective Analysis of the Serologic Response to the Treatment of Syphilis During Pregnancy

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of several maternal variables on the serologic response following the treatment of syphilis in pregnancy

t-channel production of heavy charged leptons

We study the pair production of heavy charged exotic leptons at e+ e- colliders in the SU(2)_L x SU(2)_I x U(1)_Y model. This gauge group is a subgroup of the grand unification group E6; SU(2)_I commutes with the electric charge operator, and the three corresponding gauge bosons are electrically neutral. In addition to the standard photon and Z boson contributions, we also include the contributions from extra neutral gauge bosons. A t-channel contribution due to W_I-boson exchange, which is unsuppressed by mixing angles, is quite important. We calculate the left-right and forward-backward asymmetries, and discuss how to differentiate different models.Comment: Increased discussion of experimental signatures. Version accepted by PR

Institutional Structuralism as a Process to Achieve Social Development: Aymara Women\u27s Community Project Based on the Working with People Model in Peru

Institutional Structuralism draws on different social and economic institutions and seeks to mobilize them through an approach known as “managed pluralism” (Midgley, 2013). It also works as a process to promote social development for everyone. The state should usually play a key role in this process, although this is not always the case. This article analyzes a process which has been ongoing since 2007 promoted by a university institution with the Aymara Women’s Community in Peru to harmonize social welfare with economic development; taking into account the Working with People model through its three components: ethical-social, political-contextual and technical-entrepreneurial. The results show new tools for developing the institutional structuralism process through a bottom-up methodology which enables social development to be achieved