Morphological estimation of changes in cancellous raduis bone for forensic age determination

Visual researches showed that the cancellous bone of the distal radius has significant morphological changes with the increase of years. Revealed structural changes of cancellous bone allows to differentiate the age of an object and to direct a medical expert towards the proposed age group at the identification study. As a result of photocolorimetric research of involution changes of cancellous bone of the distal radius we found statistically significant increase of light transmission with the increase of years which is associated with an increase of osteoporosis. The correlation coefficient ranged from 0,63 to 0,80. On the basis of these data mathematical models that allow to determine the person's age in the forensic identification researches of the distal radius were developed (standard mean square error in determination of the age was from 6,6 to 8,2 years)

Regularities of structural-cellular structure of ovaries in ontogenesis

The article presents the examination of the ovaries of embryos, ovaries of human feti and ovaries of children of the tender age. The researches revealed the increase of the surface of follicles, nucleus and primary oocyte's cytoplasm that tells about the fact that further follicular maturation continues in the ovaries of a child of 2-4 months old. Also we registered the increase of nuclear cytoplasmic ratio, appearance of single mature follicles with cumulus oophorus that testifies to the fact that the ovary is functionally mature. Furthermore the research revealed increased content of lipids and DNA in follicular epithelium that also tells aboutfunctional maturity of the ovary. It was found that incretory activity of an ovary during the first year of life is provided by the cells originated from the connective tissue membrane of atresic follicles

Inter-year variation in pup production of Caspian seals (Pusa caspica) 2005-2012 determined from aerial surveys

Assessing species abundance and reproductive output is crucial for evaluations of population dynamics, conservation status and the development of management objectives. The Caspian seal (Pusa caspica) is a key predator in the Caspian Sea ecosystem and is listed as “Endangered” by IUCN. Here we report on fixed-wing aerial strip transect surveys of the breeding population on the Caspian Sea winter ice field carried out in February 2005-2012. Potential detection biases were estimated by applying a Petersen mark-recapture estimator to the counts from double photographic observations. We also tested for effects of weather conditions on count results, and for correlations between pup production and ice conditions and net primary productivity (npp). Fluctuations in pup production estimates were observed among years, ranging from 8,200 pups (95% CI 7,130-9342) in 2010 to 34,000 (95% CI 31,275-36,814) in 2005. Total adults on the ice ranged from 14,500 in 2010 to 66,300 in 2012. We did not detect significant associations between pup production and either ice summary data (ice season length, and ice area) or npp. The observed inter-year variation may be partly due to underlying biological drivers influencing the fecundity of the population, although measurement errors arising from observation bias, plus variation in survey timing and weather conditions may also have contributed. Identifying the potential drivers of Caspian seal population dynamics will require extending both the survey time series and the quality of supporting data. However, inter-year fluctuations should still cause concern that the population may be vulnerable to environmental variability and ecosystem dynamics

Excited-State Electronic Structure with Configuration Interaction Singles and Tamm–Dancoff Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory on Graphical Processing Units

Excited-state calculations are implemented in a development version of the GPU-based TeraChem software package using the configuration interaction singles (CIS) and adiabatic linear response Tamm–Dancoff time-dependent density functional theory (TDA-TDDFT) methods. The speedup of the CIS and TDDFT methods using GPU-based electron repulsion integrals and density functional quadrature integration allows full ab initio excited-state calculations on molecules of unprecedented size. CIS/6-31G and TD-BLYP/6-31G benchmark timings are presented for a range of systems, including four generations of oligothiophene dendrimers, photoactive yellow protein (PYP), and the PYP chromophore solvated with 900 quantum mechanical water molecules. The effects of double and single precision integration are discussed, and mixed precision GPU integration is shown to give extremely good numerical accuracy for both CIS and TDDFT excitation energies (excitation energies within 0.0005 eV of extended double precision CPU results)