Males resemble females. re-evaluating sexual dimorphism in protoceratops andrewsi (neoceratopsia, protoceratopsidae)

BACKGROUND: Protoceratops andrewsi (Neoceratopsia, Protoceratopsidae) is a well-known dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Some previous workers hypothesized sexual dimorphism in the cranial shape of this taxon, using qualitative and quantitative observations. In particular, width and height of the frill as well as the development of a nasal horn have been hypothesized as potentially sexually dimorphic. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we reassess potential sexual dimorphism in skulls of Protoceratops andrewsi by applying two-dimensional geometric morphometrics to 29 skulls in lateral and dorsal views. Principal Component Analyses and nonparametric MANOVAs recover no clear separation between hypothetical "males" and "females" within the overall morphospace. Males and females thus possess similar overall cranial morphologies. No differences in size between "males" and "females" are recovered using nonparametric ANOVAs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Sexual dimorphism within Protoceratops andrewsi is not strongly supported by our results, as previously proposed by several authors. Anatomical traits such as height and width of the frill, and skull size thus may not be sexually dimorphic. Based on PCA for a data set focusing on the rostrum and associated ANOVA results, nasal horn height is the only feature with potential dimorphism. As a whole, most purported dimorphic variation is probably primarily the result of ontogenetic cranial shape changes as well as intraspecific cranial variation independent of sex

Alcune note sulla geografia umana della Provincia Sardinia

Abstract - The recent discovery of some epigraphic artefacts in the countryside of Barumini and Siddi (Sardinia, Italy) is an opportunity to reflect on the Romanization of Sardinia. The new interpretation of CIL X, 7840 from Vallermosa, where the Fifenses are mentioned, and the identification of a new populus, the Barsanes (vel Barsani), allow us to put forward the proposal of a new cartography of Roman Sardinia. The epitaph of a colonus suggests an opportunity of going deeply into the question of Marmilla agrarian organization in the Roman age ---- [ITALIANO] Sommario - Il recente rinvenimento di alcuni manufatti epigrafici in agro di Siddi e Barumini sono l’occasione per una riflessione sulla romanizzazione della Sardegna. La rilettura di CIL X, 7840 da Vallermosa in cui vengono menzionati i Fifenses e l’individuazione di un nuovo populus, i Barsanes (vel Barsani) consentono di poter avanzare la proposta di una nuova cartografia su cui discutere. L’iscrizione di un colonus suggerisce lo spunto per un approfondimento dell’organizzazione agraria della Marmilla in età romana

Arothron: an R package for virtual anthropology to build endocast and to perform digital reconstruction

Arothron is an R package [1] containing brand new tools for geometric morphometric analysis. The package comes with examples pertaining to the field of virtual anthropology, yet it is addressed to the entire audience of geometric morphometricians. The functions embedded in the package allow aligning disarticulated parts belonging to a single specimen (i.e. broken skull fragments), to build internal cavities such as endocasts, and to reproduce and analyse the shapes of three-dimensional objects. Arothron functions import and export landmark coordinates and 3D paths into ’landmarkAscii’ and ’am’ format files. The Digital Tool for Alignment (DTA) is a landmark-based methodology which allows aligning two or more portions of a 3D mesh (i.e. a disarticulated model, DM) by using a reference sample or model (RM) for comparison. To run DTA, a set of anatomical landmarks is defined on two separated portions of the DM. Each point of the landmark sets is moved to the nearest vertex of the triangles. This way, each landmark is identified by a number corresponding to a row of the vertex matrix of the mesh and its position is tracked on the 3D models moved in the Cartesian coordinate system.The second step is the alignment via Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) of each part of the DM on each RM of the comparative sample, where the same landmark configuration as with the DM has been previously defined. The items of the reference sample are previously scaled to the mean of the single scale factors calculated for each half of the DM, separately, and symmetrized via reflection and relabelling, thereby producing a perfectly symmetrical, bilateral, and scaled landmark configurations (to avoid alignment error as introduced by asymmetry). The last step consists in the quantification of the morphological (Euclidean) distances between each part of the DM and the corresponding landmark configurations on each item in the RM set. Computer-Aided Laser Scanner Emulator (CA-LSE) and Automatic Segmentation Tool for 3D objects (AST-3D) are two new tools designed for the reconstruction of virtual cavities and external shapes [2]. CA-LSE provides the reconstruction of the external portions of a 3D mesh by simulating the action of a laser scanner. AST-3D performs the digital reconstruction of anatomical cavities as endocasts. Both tools use the definition of points of views that can be placed externally to the object (CA-LSE) or inside the object (AST-3D). By applying these tools is possible in few minutes to build virtual cavities as endocast, maxillary sinuses and trabecular bone. In the Arothron R package, we supplied three examples of reconstructing: the dental pulp cavity within a deciduous Neanderthal tooth, the network of blood vessels within a human malleus bone, and an endocast of a human skull.The tools could be used in virtual anthropology application.The digital alignment tool is efficient in find ideal alignments of broken pieces. It could be applied as the first step in virtual reconstruction on human fossil specimens that often consist of a disarticulated fragments such as BOU-VP12/130 (Australopithecus garhi), AL-442 (Australopithecus afarensis), OH5 (Paranthropus boisei), ATD6-15 and ATD6-69 (Homo antecessor), Amud 1 (Homo neanderthalensis), Le Moustier 1 (Homo neanderthalensis). The easily and quickly use of the Arothron R package to build virtual cavities may provide a new means largely applicable in virtual Anthropology. References:[1] Profico A., Veneziano A., Melchionna M., Piras P. & Raia P., 2018. Arothron: Geometric Morphometrics Analyses. R package version 1.0.1, developer version available at https://github/Arothron DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1218712.[2] Profico A., Schlager S., Valoriani V., Buzi C., Melchionna M., Veneziano A., Raia P., MoggifiCecchi J. & Manzi G., 2018. Reproducing the internal and external anatomy of fossil bones: Two new automatic digital tools. American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Correlated electron-hole plasma in organometal perovskites

Organic-inorganic perovskites are a class of solution-processed semiconductors holding promise for the realization of low-cost efficient solar cells and on-chip lasers. Despite the recent attention they have attracted, fundamental aspects of the photophysics underlying device operation still remain elusive. Here we use photoluminescence and transmission spectroscopy to show that photoexcitations give rise to a conducting plasma of unbound but Coulomb-correlated electron-hole pairs at all excitations of interest for light-energy conversion and stimulated optical amplification. The conductive nature of the photoexcited plasma has crucial consequences for perovskite-based devices: in solar cells, it ensures efficient charge separation and ambipolar transport while, concerning lasing, it provides a low threshold for light amplification and justifies a favourable outlook for the demonstration of an electrically driven laser. We find a significant trap density, whose cross-section for carrier capture is however low, yielding a minor impact on device performance

Surface reactivity of tributyl thiophosphate: effects of temperature and mechanical stress

The surface reactivity of tributyl thiophosphate on iron surfaces has been studied in situ by attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and temperature-programmed reaction and desorption spectroscopies. The results show that at temperatures lower than 373K the molecule forms a physisorbed layer on the iron substrate. At 373K a reaction takes place with the formation of an organic layer, together with iron polyphosphate and sulfate. At higher temperatures temperature-programmed desorption results suggest that the mechanism involves P-O bond scission to yield butoxy groups. This could be preceded by P=S bond scission to give tributyl phosphite, which then, in turn, undergoes P-O bond scission to produce butoxy groups. The results obtained following tribological testing are in agreement with those of thermal tests: evidence of polyphosphate and sulfate formation is foun

BAT2 and BAT3 polymorphisms as novel genetic risk factors for rejection after HLA-related SCT.

The genetic background of donor and recipient is an important factor determining the outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (allo-HSCT). We applied whole-genome analysis to investigate genetic variants - other than HLA class I and II - associated with negative outcome after HLA-identical sibling allo-HSCT in a cohort of 110 β-Thalassemic patients. We identified two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in BAT2 (A/G) and BAT3 (T/C) genes, SNP rs11538264 and SNP rs10484558, both located in the HLA class III region, in strong linkage disequilibrium between each other (R2 =0.92). When considered as single SNP, none of them reached a significant association with graft rejection (nominal P<0.00001 for BAT2 SNP rs11538264, and P<0.0001 for BAT3 SNP rs10484558), whereas the BAT2/BAT3 A/C haplotype was present at significantly higher frequency in patients who rejected as compared to those with functional graft (30.0% vs 2.6%, nominal P=1.15 × 10-8; and adjusted P=0.0071). The BAT2/BAT3 polymorphisms and specifically the A/C haplotype may represent a novel immunogenetic factor associated with graft rejection in patients undergoing allo-HSCT

Left atrial trajectory impairment in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy disclosed by geometric morphometrics and parallel transport

The analysis of full Left Atrium (LA) deformation and whole LA deformational trajectory in time has been poorly investigated and, to the best of our knowledge, seldom discussed in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Therefore, we considered 22 patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and 46 healthy subjects, investigated them by three-dimensional Speckle Tracking Echocardiography, and studied the derived landmark clouds via Geometric Morphometrics with Parallel Transport. Trajectory shape and trajectory size were different in Controls versus HCM and their classification powers had high AUC (Area Under the Receiving Operator Characteristic Curve) and accuracy. The two trajectories were much different at the transition between LA conduit and booster pump functions. Full shape and deformation analyses with trajectory analysis enabled a straightforward perception of pathophysiological consequences of HCM condition on LA functioning. It might be worthwhile to apply these techniques to look for novel pathophysiological approaches that may better define atrio-ventricular interaction

Detection and characterization of Rickettsial strains in ticks from Sardinia, Italy

The aim of this study was, firstly, to detect the presence of Rickettsial DNA by PCR and, then, to identify the Rickettsiae species using restriction endonuclease fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) on two amplified genes