A mixed-feeding Equus species from the Middle Pleistocene of South Africa

The dietary regime of Equus capensis from the Middle Pleistocene of South Africa is investigated by mesowear analysis. Results indicate that the mesowear signature of this species resembles that of two extant mixed feeders, the Grant's Gazelle (Gazella granti) and the Thomson's Gazelle (Gazella thomsoni), suggesting a mixed feeding dietary strategy for E. capensis. The mesowear signature of a contemporaneous population of Equus mosbachensis from Europe (Arago, France) is also determined for comparative purposes and has a typical grazing signature. In general, all extant species of Equus are believed to be almost exclusively grazers. However, a considerable degree of dietary flexibility is recently reported. The dietary signal of E. capensis is considered to be the result of feeding on the unique fynbos vegetation, which was beginning to establish itself at this time in southwestern South Africa. Grasses are a minor component of this floral kingdom. Our findings thus provide further evidence for the unexpected flexibility in feeding strategies of Equus, the most widely distributed equid taxon in the Quaternary. They highlight the potential use of the attrition–abrasion wear equilibrium as a habitat indicator, by mirroring the availability of food items in mammalian herbivore ecosystems.     

Characteristics of the top ten snowstorms at First-Order Stations in the U.S.

Snowstorms can produce varying degrees of damage depending on the amount and intensity of the snowfall over a given amount of time. Concurrent weather conditions such as freezing rain and high winds often exacerbate the amount of damage received. In order to assess the frequency of potentially damaging conditions during climatologically significant snowstorms, the top ten snowstorms (TTS) at individual First-Order Stations in the eastern two-thirds of the conterminous U.S. were determined, and the hourly weather conditions during each event were analyzed. The results show that TTS have occurred as early as September and as late as June, with January being the peak month of occurrence. Hourly precipitation totals during TTS were 2.3 mm or less 88% of the time. Seven percent of TTS were classified as a blizzard with over half of the blizzards occurring in the West North Central region. The most common concurrent weather condition during a TTS was fog followed by blowing snow. Regionally, heavy snow events in the Northeast had relatively higher precipitation amounts, colder temperatures, higher winds, and more fog and blowing snow than any other region.     

Physiological responses of juvenile and adult shore crabs Carcinus maenas (Crustacea: Decapoda) to pyrene exposure

This study measured aspects of the physiology of juvenile [(<35mm carapace width (CW)] and adult (>60mm CW) Carcinus maenas to test the hypothesis that these different life-history stages exhibit different sensitivities to environmental contamination. Newly-collected juveniles had significantly (P<0.05) lower immunocompetence (phagocytosis and cellular integrity), lower metabolic energy (haemolymph glucose) and increased scope for growth compared with adults. Seven day exposure to a sub-lethal concentration (200microgL(-1)) of pyrene significantly (P<0.01) reduced immunocompetence, elevated basal heart rate and decreased respiration (at rest) for juveniles but had no overall impact on adult crab physiology. Results confirm that physiological differences exist between juvenile and adult shore crabs, and cause juveniles to be more susceptible to the effects of pyrene exposure than adults. Such differences in sensitivity to contamination between life-cycle stages of the same species have to be taken into account during the risk assessment process.     

Faunal communities at sites of gas- and oil-bearing fluids in Lake Baikal

Macro- and meiofaunal communities were examined at four geomorphologically distinct sites with different gas- and oil-bearing fluid characteristics in the northern, central and southern basins of Lake Baikal. All sites had elevated concentrations of bicarbonate, nitrate, sulphate and chloride ions in pore fluids, with highest values at the Frolikha vent. Elevated levels of iron ions were found in pore waters of the St. Petersburg methane seep and the Gorevoy Utes oil seep. The chemical composition of pore waters at the Malenky mud volcano was similar to that reported in earlier work. Consistent with published data, the Frolikha vent (northern basin) and the St. Petersburg methane seep (central basin) were characterised by methane of mixed genesis (thermogenic + biogenic), whereas the methane source was mainly thermogenic at the Gorevoy Utes oil seep (central basin) and biogenic at the Malenky mud volcano (southern basin). In contrast to marine seep ecosystems, the macrofauna was dominated only by amphipods, giant planarians and oligochaetes, whereas bivalves were absent; the meiofauna was similar to its marine counterpart, being dominated by nematodes, cyclops, harpacticoids and ostracods. A statistically significant positive relationship was revealed between faunal abundance and the availability of bacterial mats on seep sediments. Moreover, ANOVA tests showed significant increases in both meiozoobenthic and macrozoobenthic densities at “hot spot” vent/seep sites relative to discharge-free reference sites. The isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen at various trophic levels of these benthic vent/seep communities was found to differ markedly from that reported by earlier studies for the pelagic and other benthic food webs in Lake Baikal. As in marine seeps, the macrofauna had variable isotopic signatures. Light δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values suggest the utilization of chemosynthetically fixed and/or methane-derived organic matter. By contrast, the heavy δ¹³C signatures of some mobile amphipods likely reflect consumption of photosynthetically derived carbon. These findings would at least partly explain why Lake Baikal is a notable outlier in global temperature–biodiversity patterns, exhibiting the highest biodiversity of any lake worldwide but at an extremely cold average temperature.     

A New Echeloned Poisson Series Processor (EPSP)

A specialized Echeloned Poisson Series Processor (EPSP) is proposed. It is a typical software for the implementation of analytical algorithms of Celestial Mechanics. EPSP is designed for manipulating long polynomial-trigonometric series with literal divisors. The coefficients of these echeloned series are the rational or floating-point numbers. The Keplerian processor and analytical generator of special celestial mechanics functions based on the EPSP are also developed.     

Probabilistic analysis of strip footings based on enhanced Kriging metamodeling

Two advanced Kriging metamodeling techniques were used to compute the failure probability of geotechnical structures involving spatially varying soil properties. These methods are based on a Kriging metamodel combined with a global sensitivity analysis that is called in literature Global Sensitivity Analysis-enhanced Surrogate (GSAS) modeling for reliability analysis. The GSAS methodology may be used in combination with either the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) or importance sampling (IS) method. The resulting Kriging metamodeling techniques are called GSAS-MCS or GSAS-IS. The objective of these techniques is to reduce the number of calls of the mechanical model as compared with the classical Kriging-based metamodeling techniques (called AK-MCS and AK-IS) combining Kriging with MCS or IS. The soil uncertain parameters were assumed as non-Gaussian random fields. EOLE methodology was used to discretize these random fields. The mechanical models were based on numerical simulations. Some probabilistic numerical results are presented and discussed.     

Hydrogen bonding in coquimbite, nominally Fe2(SO4)3·9H2O, and the relationship between coquimbite and paracoquimbite

Using single-crystal X-ray diffraction at 293, 200 and 100 K, and neutron diffraction at 50 K, we have refined the positions of all atoms, including hydrogen atoms (previously undetermined), in the structure of coquimbite ( $ P {\bar 3}1c $ , a?=?10.924(2)/10.882(2) Å, c?=?17.086(3) / 17.154(3) Å, V?=?1765.8(3)/1759.2(5) ų, at 293 / 50 K, respectively). The use of neutron diffraction allowed us to determine precise and accurate hydrogen positions. The O–H distances in coquimbite at 50 K vary between 0.98 and 1.01 Å. In addition to H₂O molecules coordinated to the Al³⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions, there are rings of six “free” H₂O molecules in the coquimbite structure. These rings can be visualized as flattened octahedra with the distance between oxygen and the geometric center of the polyhedron of 2.46 Å. The hydrogen-bonding scheme undergoes no changes with decreasing temperature and the unit cell shrinks linearly from 293 to 100 K. A review of the available data on coquimbite and its “dimorph” paracoquimbite indicates that paracoquimbite may form in phases closer to the nominal composition of Fe₂(SO₄)₃·9H₂O. Coquimbite, on the other hand, has a composition approximating Fe_1.5Al_0.5(SO₄)₃·9H₂O. Hence, even a “simple” sulfate Fe_2-x Al _x (SO₄)₃·9H₂O may be structurally rather complex.