Limb-Bone Scaling Indicates Diverse Stance and Gait in Quadrupedal Ornithischian Dinosaurs

Background The most primitive ornithischian dinosaurs were small bipeds, but quadrupedality evolved three times independently in the clade. The transition to quadrupedality from bipedal ancestors is rare in the history of terrestrial vertebrate evolution, and extant analogues do not exist. Constraints imposed on quadrupedal ornithischians by their ancestral bipedal bauplan remain unexplored, and consequently, debate continues about their stance and gait. For example, it has been proposed that some ornithischians could run, while others consider that none were cursorial. Methodology/Principal Findings Drawing on biomechanical concepts of limb bone scaling and locomotor theory developed for extant taxa, we use the largest dataset of ornithischian postcranial measurements so far compiled to examine stance and gait in quadrupedal ornithischians. Differences in femoral midshaft eccentricity in hadrosaurs and ceratopsids may indicate that hadrosaurs placed their feet on the midline during locomotion, while ceratopsids placed their feet more laterally, under the hips. More robust humeri in the largest ceratopsids relative to smaller taxa may be due to positive allometry in skull size with body mass in ceratopsids, while slender humeri in the largest stegosaurs may be the result of differences in dermal armor distribution within the clade. Hadrosaurs are found to display the most cursorial morphologies of the quadrupedal ornithischian cades, indicating higher locomotor performance than in ceratopsids and thyreophorans. Conclusions/Significance Limb bone scaling indicates that a previously unrealised diversity of stances and gaits were employed by quadrupedal ornithischians despite apparent convergence in limb morphology. Grouping quadrupedal ornithischians together as a single functional group hides this disparity. Differences in limb proportions and scaling are likely due to the possession of display structures such as horns, frills and dermal armor that may have affected the center of mass of the animal, and differences in locomotor behaviour such as migration, predator escape or home range size

Detection of human and rodent 5-HT3B receptor subunits by anti-peptide polyclonal antibodies

Background: The 5-HT3 receptor is a member of a neurotransmitter-gated ion channel family which includes nicotinic acetylcholine, GABA(A), and glycine receptors. While antibodies specific for the 5-HT3A receptor subunit are plentiful, and have revealed a wealth of structural and functional information, few antisera exist for the detection of 5-HT3B receptor subunits. Here we describe the generation and characterisation of a rabbit polyclonal antiserum that specifically recognises 5HT(3B) receptor subunits|Results: Immunization of a rabbit with a 20-mer peptide, corresponding to the N-terminus of the human 5-HT3B receptor subunit, generated serum with polyclonal antibodies from which an IgG fraction was purified, yielding pAb77. The antibodies were shown to label 5-HT3B receptor subunits in transfected human embryonic kidney cells and rodent tissues using Western blots. Immunocytochemistry using pAb77 on these cells showed that 5-HT3B receptor subunits do not reach the plasma membrane in the absence of 5-HT3A receptor subunits. Immunohistochemical analysis of rat brain sections showed pAb77 immunoreactivity in distinct populations of cells in the hippocampus.|Conclusion: We have demonstrated that pAb77 antibodies specifically label native and recombinant 5-HT3B receptor subunits with high affinity and specificity. The antibody was shown to be useful for the determination of both receptor trafficking and also mapping 5-HT3B receptor subunit expression in the CNS

A new phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)

The stegosaurs are some of the most easily recognisable dinosaurs, but they are surprisingly rare as fossils. Consequently much remains unknown about their palaeobiology, and every new stegosaurian find contr ibutes to understanding the evolution of the clade. Since the last attempt to examine the evolutionary relationships of Stegosauria, new specimens have come to light, including the most complete individual of Stegosaurus ever found, new taxa have been desc ribed and, perhaps most importantly, new methods for analysis of cladistic datasets have been produced. In the light of these new data and technological advances, the phylogenetic relationships of the stegosaurs and basal armoured dinosaurs are investigate d. The inclusion of continuous data results in much better resolution than was previously obtained, and the resulting single most parsimonious tree supports re - erection of the genera Miragaia and Hesperosaurus , which had previously been synonymized with Dacentrurus and Stegosaurus respectively. The recently described genus Alcovasaurus is resolved as a basal thyreophoran, but this is likely to be due to a combination of a very high degree of missing data and the questionable ontogenetic stage of the speci men. Examination of the effects of continuous data on the analysis suggest that while it contains a phylogenetic signal congruent with that of discrete data and provides better resolution than discrete data alone, it can affect t opologies in unpredictable ways, particularly in areas of the tree where there are large amounts of missing data. The phylogeny presented here will form the basis for future work on the palaeobiology of the plated dinosaurs

The dune effect on sand-transporting winds on Mars

Wind on Mars is a significant agent of contemporary surface change, yet the absence of in situ meteorological data hampers the understanding of surface–atmospheric interactions. Airflow models at length scales relevant to landform size now enable examination of conditions that might activate even small-scale bedforms (ripples) under certain contemporary wind regimes. Ripples have the potential to be used as modern ‘wind vanes’ on Mars. Here we use 3D airflow modelling to demonstrate that local dune topography exerts a strong influence on wind speed and direction and that ripple movement likely reflects steered wind direction for certain dune ridge shapes. The poor correlation of dune orientation with effective sand-transporting winds suggests that large dunes may not be mobile under modelled wind scenarios. This work highlights the need to first model winds at high resolution before inferring regional wind patterns from ripple movement or dune orientations on the surface of Mars today

Smart homes and their users:a systematic analysis and key challenges

Published research on smart homes and their users is growing exponentially, yet a clear understanding of who these users are and how they might use smart home technologies is missing from a field being overwhelmingly pushed by technology developers. Through a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature on smart homes and their users, this paper takes stock of the dominant research themes and the linkages and disconnects between them. Key findings within each of nine themes are analysed, grouped into three: (1) views of the smart home-functional, instrumental, socio-technical; (2) users and the use of the smart home-prospective users, interactions and decisions, using technologies in the home; and (3) challenges for realising the smart home-hardware and software, design, domestication. These themes are integrated into an organising framework for future research that identifies the presence or absence of cross-cutting relationships between different understandings of smart homes and their users. The usefulness of the organising framework is illustrated in relation to two major concerns-privacy and control-that have been narrowly interpreted to date, precluding deeper insights and potential solutions. Future research on smart homes and their users can benefit by exploring and developing cross-cutting relationships between the research themes identified

EQ-5D in skin conditions: an assessment of validity and responsiveness

Aims and objectives This systematic literature review aims to assess the reliability, validity and responsiveness of three widely used generic preference-based measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL), i.e., EQ-5D, Health Utility Index 3 (HUI3) and SF-6D in patients with skin conditions. Methods A systematic search was conducted to identify studies reporting health state utility values obtained using EQ-5D, SF-6D, or HUI3 alongside other HRQL measures or clinical indices for patients with skin conditions. Data on test-retest analysis for reliability, known group differences or correlation and regression analyses for validity, and change over time or responsiveness indices analysis were extracted and reviewed. Results A total of 16 papers reporting EQ-5D utilities in people with skin conditions were included in the final review. No papers for SF-6D and HUI3 were found. Evidence of reliability was not found for any of these measures. The majority of studies included in the review (12 out of 16) examined patients with plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis and the remaining four studies examined patients with either acne, hidradenitis suppurativa, hand eczema, or venous leg ulcers. The findings were generally positive in terms of performance of EQ-5D. Six studies showed that EQ-5D was able to reflect differences between severity groups and only one reported differences that were not statistically significant. Four studies found that EQ-5D detected differences between patients and the general population, and differences were statistically different for three of them. Further, moderate-to-strong correlation coefficients were found between EQ-5D and other skin-specific HRQL measures in four studies. Eight studies showed that EQ-5D was able to detect change in HRQL appropriately over time and the changes were statistically significant in seven studies. Conclusions Overall, the validity and responsiveness of the EQ-5D was found to be good in people with skin diseases, especially plaque psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. No evidence on SF-6D and HUI3 was available to enable any judgments to be made on their performance

The Postcranial Skeleton of an Exceptionally Complete Individual of the Plated Dinosaur Stegosaurus stenops (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A.

Copyright: © 2015 Maidment et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [4.0], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article