New Late Tertiary Fish Fossils from the Sinda Region, Eastern Zaire

An assemblage of about 200 fish remains, recently collected from late Miocene early Pliocene deposits of the Sinda area, is described. Although the collection is small, several taxa not previously reported from these localities are included. Gymnarchus, Hydrocynus and Bagrus are new for the Sinda-Mogari ichthyofauna, whereas the previously doubtful presence of Clariidae is now confirmed by several finds, including one identifiable as Clarias. The discovery of three outer premaxillary teeth of Shungura Sindacharax along with the numerous Sindacharax lepersonnei specimens is surprising. The Shungura form is considered conspecific with Sindacharax lepersonnei. Other represented taxa are Synodontis, Auchenoglanis and Lates rhachirhinchus. Comparison of the ichthofauna from the oldest deposits (Ongoliba Beds) with that of the Middle Member of the Sinda Beds shows a decline in characiforms and an increase in siluriforms through time. Reconstruction of the former aquatic environment indicates a large and deep permanent water-body with shallow and marshy habitats at its margins

Ultrasonic Superharmonic Imaging

Medical ultrasound is one of the most prevalent imaging techniques used for diagnosing patients. The technique allows for the visualization of tissues in the human body. Compared to competing imaging techniques such as CT or MRI, medical ultrasound has numerous advantages: it is real-time, safe (no radiation is involved), inexpensive and portable. Over the years medical ultrasound equipment has become smaller and the image quality has improved considerably. Similar to CT or MRI, contrast agents are also used in medical ultrasound. Their use comprises e.g. endocardial border delineation, the improvement of blood flow detection using Doppler methods in cardiology and radiology, and the visualization of malignant tumors (Emmer, 2009; Vos, 2010). Ultrasound is also commonly used for therapeutic applications such as High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), which is used for the noninvasive treatment of tumors by ablation, and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, which is used for the noninvasive treatment of urinary calculosis and biliary calculi. The therapeutic applications for contrast agents are currently under research and range from the stimulated uptake of bioactive materials (van Wamel et al., 2006), to drug delivery (Kooiman et al., 2009) and the treatment of tumors by bloodvessel destruction (Skyba et al., 1998)

De archeologie van de pladijs

status: publishe

The Holocene occurrence of the European catfish (<i>Silurus glanis</i>) in Belgium: the archaeozoological evidence

An overview is given of the skeletal remains of the European catfish Silurus glanis found thus far in Belgian archaeological sites. These finds demonstrate that the species is autochthonous and allow documenting its occurrence and disappearance during the Holocene in the Scheldt and Meuse basins. Possible causes for the local extinction of this catfish are discussed

On the Pila-Wilkie theorem

This expository paper gives an account of the Pila-Wilkie counting theorem and some of its extensions and generalizations. We use semialgebraic cell decomposition to simplify part of the original proof. Included are complete treatments of a result due to Pila and Bombieri and of the o-minimal Yomdin- Gromov theorem that are used in this proof.Comment: 44 page

Guide for the identification of archaeological sea sturgeon (<i>Acipenser sturio</i> and <i>A. oxyrinchus</i>) remains

Remains of sturgeons (Acipenser sturio and A. oxyrinchus) are regularly found on western European archaeological sites. The identification of these isolated bones should ideally be carried out with the aid of a comparative skeletal collection, consisting of modern specimens of different sizes. Because such reference material of sea sturgeons (A. sturio and A. oxyrinchus) is relatively rare and dispersed over many different museums and institutes, a practical guide is presented here as an aid to the identification of the most commonly found archaeological sturgeon remains. This guide, which is based on observations made on 64 individuals housed in 13 different natural history collections, should allow identifying most archaeological sturgeon remains from western European sites. Presented are the morphological characteristics of the bones of the skull roof and circumorbital region (posttemporal, dermopterotic, parietal, frontal, dermosphenotic, postorbital, jugal and supraorbital), bones of the braincase (parasphenoid), opercular series (subopercle and branchiostegals), the palatoquadrate and associated bones and lower jaw (palatopterygoid, dermopalatine and dentary), the hyoid and gill arches with the hyomandibula, the isolated skeletal elements from the pectoral girdle (clavicle, cleithrum and supracleithrum), the bones of the fin and fin supports (pectoral fin spine, fin rays and fulcra) and the dorsal, ventral, lateral and accessory scutes. For each element, descriptions and pictures are provided of modern and archaeological specimens. Regression equations allowing fish length reconstructions on the basis of single bone measurements are given for 14 elements and the scutes. Finally, criteria for species identification are provided. In the case of the dentary, dermopalatine and palatopterygoid, these are differences in shape of the skeletal elements, whereas for the dermal bones the external surface pattern is diagnostic when reconstructed fish length is over one meter

Ann Peralta v. Drew Anderson, Brad Anderson, Tammy Anderson, and Donna Hansen : Brief of Appellee

BRIEF OF APPELLEE APPELLEE\u27S RESPONSE BRIEF TO APPELLANT\u27S INTERLOCUTORY APPEAL FROM THE HONORABLE BEN H. HADFIELD\u27S, FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, CACHE COUNTY, MEMORANDUM DECISION GRANTING DONNA HANSEN\u27S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT (ORDER DOES NOT APPEAR IN FILE

Metagenomic analysis of dental calculus in ancient Egyptian baboons

Dental calculus, or mineralized plaque, represents a record of ancient biomolecules and food residues. Recently, ancient metagenomics made it possible to unlock the wealth of microbial and dietary information of dental calculus to reconstruct oral microbiomes and lifestyle of humans from the past. Although most studies have so far focused on ancient humans, dental calculus is known to form in a wide range of animals, potentially informing on how human-animal interactions changed the animals' oral ecology. Here, we characterise the oral microbiome of six ancient Egyptian baboons held in captivity during the late Pharaonic era (9th-6th centuries BC) and of two historical baboons from a zoo via shotgun metagenomics. We demonstrate that these captive baboons possessed a distinctive oral microbiome when compared to ancient and modern humans, Neanderthals and a wild chimpanzee. These results may reflect the omnivorous dietary behaviour of baboons, even though health, food provisioning and other factors associated with human management, may have changed the baboons' oral microbiome. We anticipate our study to be a starting point for more extensive studies on ancient animal oral microbiomes to examine the extent to which domestication and human management in the past affected the diet, health and lifestyle of target animals