First results on the fossilization of Dwarf Hippo skeletal remains from Aghia Napa

El 2001 la Universitat d'Atenes va començar l'excavació paleontològica d'un jaciment situat a Aghia Napa, Xipre, en col·laboració amb el Departament de Prospeccions Geològiques de Xipre. Aquest jaciment ha lliurat una rica col·lecció de restes esquelètiques d'hipopòtams nans del Quaternari Superior. Lobjecte d'aquest treball rau en estudiar l'estat de conservació dels materials com a resultat de la seva fossilització. El material triat prové de les excavacions realitzades els dos darrers anys i consisteix en ossos i dents. La fossilització sembla haver afectat la histologia del material estudiat, mentre que la cristal·litzacíó i la química sembla que l'han afectat menys. En general, els materials no s'han vist molt afectats pels processos causats per la interacció entre les restes del sistema esquelètic i el sòl.During the year 2001, Athens University began palaeontological excavations at a site situated in Aghia Napa, Cyprus in collaboration with the Geological Survey Department of Cyprus. This site has given a rich collection of skeletal remains of Dwarf Hippos from the Upper Quaternary. The object of this paper is to study the state of preservation of the material as a result of fossilization. The material chosen was derived from the excavations realized during the last two years and consists of a number of bones and teeth. Fossilization seems to have mostly affected the histology of our material, while the crystallínity and the chemistry are less affected. In general our material has not been strongly affected by the procedures caused by the interaction of the system skeletal remain-soil

Corruption, entry and pollution

We model an economy where imperfectly competitive firms choose whether to employ a dirty technology and pay an emission tax or employ a clean technology and incur the cost of its adoption. Bureaucrats who are entrusted with the task of monitoring the emissions of each firm, are corruptible in the sense that they may accept bribes in order to mislead authorities on the firms’ actual emissions. Market entry is an important element in the relation between corruption and pollution. Particularly, the incidence of corruption increases the number of entrants in the market, while the bureaucrats’ incentives to be corrupt are higher in a market with more competitors. We find multiple equilibria where both corruption and pollution are either high or low

MONOCULAR DEPTH PREDICTION IN PHOTOGRAMMETRIC APPLICATIONS

Abstract. Despite the recent success of learning-based monocular depth estimation algorithms and the release of large-scale datasets for training, the methods are limited to depth map prediction and still struggle to yield reliable results in the 3D space without additional scene cues. Indeed, although state-of-the-art approaches produce quality depth maps, they generally fail to recover the 3D structure of the scene robustly. This work explores supervised CNN architectures for monocular depth estimation and evaluates their potential in 3D reconstruction. Since most available datasets for training are not designed toward this goal and are limited to specific indoor scenarios, a new metric, large-scale synthetic benchmark (ArchDepth) is introduced that renders near real-world scenarios of outdoor scenes. A encoder-decoder architecture is used for training, and the generalization of the approach is evaluated via depth inference in unseen views in synthetic and real-world scenarios. The depth map predictions are also projected in the 3D space using a separate module. Results are qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated and compared with state-of-the-art algorithms for single image 3D scene recovery

Taphonomical observations on the pygmy hippopotamus site in Aghia Napa, Cyprus.

Στην εργασία αυτή παρουσιάζονται τα αποτελέσματα ταφονομικής ανάλυσης της Άνω πλειστοκαινικής θέσης της Αγίας Νάπας στην Κύπρο. Η πανίδα της απολιθωματοφόρου θέσης κυριαρχείται από σκελετικό υλικό νάνων ιπποπόταμων του είδους Phanourios minor, και εντοπίζεται κάτω από ένα φυσικό στέγαστρο εντός των ασβεστολιθικών σχηματισμών της περιοχής. Η εμφάνιση εκτείνεται σε μια περιοχή περίπου 72 τ.μ. από την οποία έχει συλλεχθεί ιδιαίτερα μεγάλος αριθμός ευρημάτων που υποδεικνύει την ύπαρξη περισσότερων από 160 ιπποπόταμων στη θέση. Στόχο της μελέτης αποτελεί και η απόδοση της αυξημένης συσσώρευσης του οστεολογικού υλικού σε συγκεκριμένους μηχανισμούς, εστιάζοντας στους παλαιοπεριβαλλοντικούς παράγοντες που πιθανά έχουν επηρεάσει και την επιβίωση του. Η ανάλυση στηρίζεται και σε παραμέτρους που μας πληροφορούν σχετικά με την αντιπροσώπευση και άρα την επιβίωση των διαφόρων σκελετικών στοιχείων. Η μελέτη του υλικού ανέδειξε την ύπαρξη λείανσης, κατακερματισμού και σημαντικής θραύσης, φαινόμενα που σχετίζονται με τον τύπο, το μέγεθος και το σχήμα των σκελετικών στοιχείων. Η συσσώρευση του υπό μελέτη υλικού ερμηνεύεται ως αποτέλεσμα φυσικής μεταφοράς τους στη θέση από την γύρω περιοχή, ενώ ο ρόλος του ανθρώπου σε αυτήν είναι ακόμη υπό διερεύνηση. In this paper data concerning the taphonomy of the Upper Pleistocene site Aghia Napa in Cyprus is presented. The site is dominated by skeletal material belonging to the pygmy Hippopotamus species Phanourios minor, and consists a littoral rockshelter. The fossiliferous assemblage is spread in a total area of about 72 m2 and a significantly large number of specimens were collected, indicating the presence of more than 160 individuals at the site. In this paper, we attempt to identify the causes or mechanisms that led to the accumulation of the endemic hippopotamus remains, focusing also on the palaeo-environmental parameters that might had affected the survivorship of the fossils. The taphonomical analysis is also based on parameters, which provide information concerning skeletal element representation and thus survivorship. The study of the skeletal material shows signs of abrasion, cracking and significant fragmentation which are related to the type, size and shape of the skeletal elements. The bone assemblage is interpreted as a result of transportation of the skeletal material from longer or shorter distances in the surrounding area while the impact of man concerning their accumulation is still under discussion

Sea bottom sediments of Elefsis Gulf: A potential secondary source of metals under simulated ocean acidification conditions

Hypoxic coastal areas are considered as high-priority systems for Ocean Acidification (OA) research, because the co-occurrence and interaction of low oxygen with other environmental stressors, such as elevated pCO2, warming and eutrophication, may put them at greater risk. In this work, an anoxic coastal phenomenon exhibiting relatively reduced pH at the near bottom water layer was studied. In-situ and microcosm experiment measurements, simulating OA conditions, were conducted in order to assess the fate of dissolved trace metals that could either sink towards the sediment or be released towards the water column. OA conditions seem to induce the release of Al, Ni, Cd, Fe, Mn and As from the sediment while, in combination with anoxia, a restriction in this dissolution mechanism was found. Cr, Zn and Pb seem to follow a sink type mechanism under more acidified conditions while, in addition to anoxia, a source type mechanism is revealed. Hg seems to follow a source type mechanism under OA in any case. Regarding Fe species, it becomes evident that Fe (II) is the dominant species, indicating an increased stability as a result of acidified conditions

Aerial triangulation with learning-based tie points

Aerial triangulation (AT) has reached outstanding progress in the last decades, and now fully automated solutions for nadir and oblique images are available. Usually, image correspondences (tie points) are found using hand-crafted methods, such as SIFT or its variants. But in the last years, there were many investigations and developments to promote the use of machine and deep learning solutions within the photogrammetric processing pipeline. The paper explores learning-based methods for the extraction of tie points in aerial image blocks. Image correspondences are used to perform aerial triangulation (AT) and successively generate dense point clouds. Two different datasets are used to compare conventional hand-crafted detector/descriptor methods with respect to learning-based methods. Accuracy analyses are performed using GCPs as well as ground truth LiDAR point clouds. Results confirm the potential of learning-based methods in finding reliable image correspondences in the aerial block, still showing space for improvements due to camera rotations

Successful Control of Acute Myelofibrosis with Lenalidomide

Acute panmyelosis with myelofibrosis (APMF) is a rare, fatal hematological neoplasm that is characterized by the acute onset of cytopenias and fibrosis in the bone marrow in the absence of splenomegaly or fibrosis-related morphological changes in the RBCs. We present the case of a 59-year-old female who presented with a two-month history of anemia, leucopenia and a normal platelet count. The marrow was heavily fibrotic, and no aspirate material could be obtained; the biopsy showed extensive infiltration with small to medium size megakaryocytes, dysplastic changes in the erythroid compartment, and left shift in the myeloid cells. The patient was treated for four months with anabolic steroids (Danazol), growth factors and received regular blood transfusions. At 4 months after diagnosis, the patient was started on Lenalidomide, 10 mg/day for a 21-d-course along with growth factor support. At 6 months after treatment, the patient was transfusion-independent, had normalized blood counts, and, at 32 months on continuous lenalidomide treatment, her needs for growth factor support have been minimized. Repeat bone marrow biopsies showed a patchy distribution of fibrosis with areas of normal cellularity and morphology. To our knowledge, this is the first case for a medication that could reverse the fatal outcome of APMF

Gene editing restores dystrophin expression in a canine model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Mutations in the gene encoding dystrophin, a protein that maintains muscle integrity and function, cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The deltaE50-MD dog model of DMD harbors a mutation corresponding to a mutational “hotspot” in the human DMD gene. We used adeno-associated viruses to deliver CRISPR gene editing components to four dogs and examined dystrophin protein expression 6 weeks after intramuscular delivery (n = 2) or 8 weeks after systemic delivery (n = 2). After systemic delivery in skeletal muscle, dystrophin was restored to levels ranging from 3 to 90% of normal, depending on muscle type. In cardiac muscle, dystrophin levels in the dog receiving the highest dose reached 92% of normal. The treated dogs also showed improved muscle histology. These large-animal data support the concept that, with further development, gene editing approaches may prove clinically useful for the treatment of DMD