Abstract Metal‒organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous materials that combine high stability, large surface areas, excellent porosity, and low toxicity. The rapid development of these drugs has opened new opportunities to enhance drug efficacy with reduced adverse effects. To enhance the pharmacological effects of poorly soluble, easily degraded, low-permeability drugs can be covalently bound, adsorbed, or encapsulated in MOF nanopores. This strategy prevents premature release during transport and allows release at the target site, triggered by bond breakage or MOF structure collapse in pathological microenvironments, together with surface functional modifications. In this review, we initially summarize the antibacterial capabilities, easy functional modifications, and flexible structural properties of MOFs, as well as the standard classification of MOFs for drug delivery and their synthesis methods. We subsequently discuss functional modifications for active targeting and several pathological responsiveness tactics for targeted drug delivery, including the pH response, ion response, ATP response, redox response, magnetic reactivity, and light response. Finally, the incumbent challenges and future directions of the use of MOFs for drug delivery are proposed. This review aims to help researchers more clearly understand the properties and stimulus‐responsive mechanisms of MOFs to design more effective and targeted nanosystems for drug delivery.
Physical anthropology. Somatology, Veterinary medicine
This register-based study investigates how natural selection acts on educational attainment and reproductive timing among Estonians born between 1925 and 1977. Women with primary education consistently achieved the highest reproductive success throughout the study period, whereas a positive educational gradient in reproduction emerged among men born since the 1950s, resulting in sexually antagonistic selection on educational attainment. Men with tertiary education had higher reproductive success than other men, despite initiating reproduction later. The lowest-educated women exhibited the strongest selection for early reproduction and the earliest start of reproduction throughout the study period. These women and the least-educated men also experienced the strongest selection for delayed reproductive cessation. Nonetheless, parents with primary education (particularly men) were typically the first to stop reproducing. Stabilizing selection for intermediate interbirth intervals also showed the strongest quadratic selection gradients among minimally educated parents of both sexes. At that, men with primary education had the fastest reproductive pace, whereas women in the same group had the slowest. Our study shows that selection on reproductive timing traits was consistently stronger among parents with lower educational attainment, and that variation in reproductive timing across educational strata does not consistently reflect the selective pressures acting on recent generations.
Abstract We describe an almost complete fossil cranium of a shrew, identified as Asoriculus gibberodon (Petényi, 1864) from the early Pliocene of Jradzor site, Armenia. The sedimentary unit, which yielded the specimen, is an 11-m-thick package composed of white thinly-parallel-laminated diatomite laying at the base of the Jradzor section. It was dated at 4.29 ± 0.09 Ma based on the magnetostratigraphy and 40Ar/39Ar radioisotopic dating of a tephra layer located at the top of the diatomite package. The skull from Jradzor shows several synapomorphies that allow its assignment to the Soricinae subfamily and Neomyini tribe. Among Neomyini, as far as the cranium anatomy is known, the specimen from Jradzor is most similar to that of Soriculus and Episoriculus. Both petrosal bones are preserved and are studied thanks to a 3D modelling of their morphology based on a CT-scan. Compared with other eulipotyphlans, the bony labyrinth of A. gibberodon from Jradzor shows a morphology typical of soricids. Its anatomy also indicates a high-frequency auditory capability similar to that of modern shrews but cannot confirm an echolocation system neither does it shows any feature that can be related to a specific locomotory adaption or ecological characteristic. The discovery of this cranium inside diatomites, corresponding to a distal lacustrine environment, raises the question of the possible semi-aquatic adaptation of this species (this adaptation being known for other extant species of the family). However, Soriculus and Episoriculus, the two genera closest to Asoriculus based on cranial anatomy are not semi-aquatic and are clearly distinguished from semi-aquatic Neomys shrews. The inner ear morphology is more similar to that of terrestrial shrews despite the general similarities among soricids and suggests an echolocation-based orientation using high frequencies to navigate through low vegetation, which is often essential in high metabolic rate organisms to reduce energy expenditure. We therefore propose a terrestrial locomotion for A. gibberodon, consistent with its previously proposed paleoecological model, depicting it was a terrestrial species inhabiting wet or humid environments in close proximity to permanent bodies of water.
Blanca Jiménez-García, Gabriel Cifuentes-Alcobendas, Enrique Baquedano
et al.
The longstanding debate over early hominin subsistence strategies, particularly the hunting-versus-scavenging hypothesis, as well as discussions regarding the functionality of Oldowan sites, has been primarily centered on the archeological and paleoanthropological record of Olduvai Gorge. Historically, FLK Zinj has been at the core of these debates, serving as a principal empirical reference due to the prevailing assumption that most other Bed I sites at Olduvai represented non-anthropogenic accumulations However, recent discoveries have significantly reshaped this perspective. Newly identified early sites, including PTK, DS, and AGS, situated within the paleolandscape and thin stratigraphic context of FLK Zinj, provide crucial new anthropogenic datasets. These sites offer additional dimensions to the study of early hominin behavior, facilitating a more nuanced reconstruction of their adaptive strategies in this paleoenvironment. Furthermore, methodological advancements in recent years—including controlled experimental and actualistic studies, sophisticated statistical modeling, and the integration of machine learning algorithms—have greatly enhanced the analytical frameworks available for investigating early hominin behavior. These innovations have refined the ability to formulate and test hypotheses within a rigorous scientific paradigm, significantly improving the resolution of archeological and taphonomic interpretations. This study presents an in-depth taphonomic analysis of the faunal assemblage from level 22A at DS, a Bed I site at Olduvai Gorge dated to approximately 1.84 Ma. The assemblage exhibits exceptional preservation, enabling detailed assessments of skeletal part representation, fragmentation patterns, and surface modifications. By combining traditional taphonomic methodologies with state-of-the-art AI-driven bone surface modification (BSM) analyses, this research contributes novel insights into the interactions between early hominins and carnivores, elucidating the complex ecological dynamics of an Early Pleistocene African paleolandscape.
Rosemarie C. Baron-Szabo, Felix Schlagintweit, Koorosh Rashidi
Abstract From the upper Maastrichtian (Tarbur Fm.) and Paleocene of Iran, 20 species of scleractinian corals belonging to 17 genera and 14 families, and one species of the octocoral Heliopora are newly recorded. Furthermore, coral species previously described from the upper Maastrichtian Tarbur Fm. and the Paleocene are revised and included in the evaluation, resulting in a total of 37 species from 28 genera belonging to 20 families (including 3 subfamilies) for the Iranian K/Pg-boundary time period. The majority of the taxa (21 out of 37 = 57%) crossed the K/Pg-boundary. The genera Acropora and Stylocoeniella are recorded from strata older than the Paleogene (upper Maastrichtian) for the first time; for Lobopsammia it is the first report from strata older than the Eocene (Selandian‒Thanetian). The vast majority of the coral taxa occurring in both the upper Maastrichtian (Tarbur Fm.) and the Paleocene of Iran have been reported from a variety of both reefal and non-reefal paleoenvironments. On the species level, a slight majority of the corals from the upper Maastrichtian (Tarbur Fm.) are endemic (14 out of 27 species = 52%). In contrast, the vast majority of the Paleocene Iranian corals are cosmopolitan to subcosmopolitan; only 4 taxa are endemic during the Paleocene. While the upper Maastrichtian coral fauna of Iran shows greatest affinities to contemporaneous assemblages of Europe and the Caribbean, the Paleocene coral fauna is most closely related to contemporaneous coral associations of central Asia, Europe, and North America.
Juliana Rubinatto Serrano, Maria Camila Vallejo-Pareja, Susan D. deFrance
et al.
We examine the processes that resulted in the deposition of bones of at least three anuran genera on four archaeological sites associated with the Tiwanaku culture occupied between 700–1100 CE in the Moquegua Valley of far southern Peru. We review archaeological data and ethnographic accounts of Andean peoples using frogs and toads for food and in rain-quest rituals. Anuran bones are common in prehispanic cemeteries, but far less common in habitational and ceremonial sites. The quantity of anuran remains in certain cemeteries is anomalous in comparison to other archaeological sites in the valley and to Tiwanaku sites in other geographic settings. We conclude that anurans are most common where abandoned below-ground rock-covered tombs are likely to have been reused by nesting owls, and propose that most anuran remains in archaeological contexts in Moquegua are the result of predation. We consider environmental, cultural and taphonomic explanations and posit that the abundance of anuran remains relates to the 14th-century Miraflores ENSO event. This event generated increased rainfall in the desert, creating conditions favorable for frogs and toads, and predation by owls. We also advocate for the use of fine-screening to recover small-sized animal remains, such as anurans, that can be used to understand taphonomic processes and paleoenvironmental conditions.
The earliest evidence for agriculture in Taiwan dates to about 6000 years BP and indicates that farmer-gardeners from Southeast China migrated across the Taiwan Strait. However, little is known about the adaptive interactions between Taiwanese foragers and Neolithic Chinese farmers during the transition. This paper considers theoretical expectations from human behavioral ecology based models and macroecological patterning from Binford’s hunter-gatherer database to scope the range of responses of native populations to invasive dispersal. Niche variation theory and invasion theory predict that the foraging niche breadths will narrow for native populations and morphologically similar dispersing populations. The encounter contingent prey choice model indicates that groups under resource depression from depleted high-ranked resources will increasingly take low-ranked resources upon encounter. The ideal free distribution with Allee effects categorizes settlement into highly ranked habitats selected on the basis of encounter rates with preferred prey, with niche construction potentially contributing to an upswing in some highly ranked prey species. In coastal plain habitats preferred by farming immigrants, interactions and competition either reduced encounter rates with high ranked prey or were offset by benefits to habitat from the creation of a mosaic of succession ecozones by cultivation. Aquatic-focused foragers were eventually constrained to broaden subsistence by increasing the harvest of low ranked resources, then mobility-compatible Neolithic cultigens were added as a niche-broadening tactic. In locations less suitable for farming, fishing and hunting continued as primary foraging tactics for centuries after Neolithic arrivals. The paper concludes with a set of evidence-based archaeological expectations derived from these models.
Elke Schneebeli-Hermann, Borhan Bagherpour, Torsten Vennemann
et al.
Abstract The plant fossil record from Lower Triassic sedimentary successions of the Western USA is extremely meager. In this study, samples from a drill core taken near Georgetown, Idaho, were analyzed for their palynological content as well as their stable carbon isotope composition. The concentration of palynomorphs is generally low. The lowermost part of the drilled succession represents Dinwoody/Woodside Formation and contains spore and pollen assemblages with Permian and Early Triassic affinity. Representatives of lycophytes (Densoisporites spp., Lundbladisporites spp.) were found in the overlying Meekoceras Limestone, in agreement with middle Smithian assemblages elsewhere. Ammonoids and conodonts are extremely rare, but confirm a middle Smithian age. Bulk organic and carbonate carbon isotope composition provide a stratigraphic framework. Carbonate carbon isotope compositions are compatible with the Smithian–Spathian global trend, with a middle Smithian shift towards lower δ13C values followed by a late Smithian shift towards higher values. Bulk organic carbon isotope compositions have been influenced by changes in the constitution of organic matter. A comparison with other paired carbon isotope datasets from the same basin is difficult due to lithostratigraphic inconsistencies (Hot Springs, ID) or biochemical mediated disturbance of isotope signals (Mineral Mountains, UT).
Matilde Sylvia Beresi, Joseph P. Botting, Juan J. Palafox
et al.
A small assemblage of extremely well-preserved fragments of new sponges has been discovered in calcipelites of the middle Cambrian El Mogallón Formation in the Cerro El Mogallón section, near Arivechi in eastern Sonora, Mexico. The assemblage includes two new reticulosan species referred to Ratcliffespongia arivechensis sp. nov. and Valospongia sonorensis sp. nov., combined with disarticulated remains assigned to Kiwetinokia and additional, currently unidentifiable taxa. The new species represent the first records of these Cambrian genera from Mexico, although they are widely distributed at low latitudes, being previously best known from Utah but extending through Laurentia and South China. This middle Cambrian fauna indicates that there was considerable continuity of the deeper-water hexactinellid sponges between the warm peri-platform of Laurentia and the peri-continental Cambrian platform of Sonora. The new material supports the impression of extremely wide distribution of Cambrian sponge genera, with local diversification at species level within regions, in contrast to much greater generic-level endemism during the Ordovician Period.
El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la variabilidad en la morfometría dental en muestras de restos óseos humanos del SE de la Región Pampeana asignables a distintos momentos del Holoceno tardío y comparar, desde un punto de vista espacial, el grado de similitud morfológica con muestras procedentes del NE de Patagonia (valles de Río Negro y Chubut, San Blas, Isla Gama). Se relevaron los diámetros mesiodistal y bucolingual medidos a nivel del margen cervical en la totalidad de las piezas dentales permanentes correspondientes a 130 individuos de ambos sexos. Las medidas obtenidas fueron empleadas en análisis estadísticos multivariados con el fin de evaluar el grado similitud morfológica entre las muestras. Los resultados obtenidos indican que: 1- hay diferencias entre las muestras procedentes del SE de la Región Pampeana correspondientes al Holoceno tardío inicial y final, caracterizándose estas últimas por un mayor tamaño dental; 2- la muestra del SE de la Región Pampeana correspondiente al Holoceno tardío final presenta mayor similitud morfológica con la muestra más tardía del valle de Río Negro; 3- existen variaciones cronológicas en el tamaño dental entre las muestras procedentes del NE de Patagonia.
Shin Sohee, Demura Shinichi, Watanabe Tsuneo
et al.
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study examines the effect of obstacle height cognition (OHC) on single-leg forward step (SFS) and Obstacle-SFS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the SFS test, participants stepped 25 cm forward with one leg and returned it to its original position five times as quickly as possible. The Obstacle-SFS added an obstacle to the above condition in the SFS test. The participants were divided into two groups: tripping group, which tripped over an obstacle in the Obstacle-SFS test; and non-tripping group, which did not trip. Parameters were step time (T), the time it took to step forward (F), and the time it took to return to the original position (R). The OHC was determined by the difference between the elevated leg’s height and the obstacle height (10 cm), which was set at 60 cm in front of the participant.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>OHC showed a significant and moderate relationship with all parameters of Obstacle-SFS (OSFS-T, OSFS-F and OSFS-R). The tripping group had significantly larger values in the OHC, OSFS-T and OSFS-F than the non-tripping group.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusion, the differences in obstacle height cognition ability may affect Obstacle-SFS movement.</p>
Completion of a survey of dermatoglyphic variables for all ethnic groups in an ethnically diverse country like China is a huge research project, and an achievement that anthropological and dermatoglyphic scholars in the country could once only dream of. However, through the endeavors of scientists in China over the last 30 years, the dream has become reality. This paper reports the results of a comprehensive analysis of dermatoglyphics from all ethnic groups in China. Using cluster analysis and principal component analysis of dermatoglyphics, it has been found that Chinese populations can be generally divided into a southern group and a northern group. Furthermore, there has been considerable debate about the origins of many Chinese populations and about proper assignment of these peoples to larger ethnic groups. In this paper, we suggest that dermatoglyphic data can inform these debates by helping to classify a Chinese population as a northern or southern group, using selected reference populations and quantitative methods. This study is the first to assemble and investigate dermatoglyphics from all 56 Chinese ethnic groups. It is fortunate that data on population dermatoglyphics, a field of physical anthropology, have now been collected for all 56 Chinese ethnic groups, because intermarriage between individuals from different Chinese ethnic groups occurs more frequently in recent times, making population dermatoglyphic research an ever more challenging field of inquiry.
Alicia L. Caratini, Ana Ariovich, Lea Geler
et al.
RESUMEN El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la evolución en el tiempo de las defunciones y de las causas de muerte por edad y sexo de la población galesa de Gaiman, provincia de Chubut, Argentina. Los datos fueron obtenidos de las Actas de Defunción del Archivo del Registro Civil de la ciudad de Rawson, Chubut. El período de estudio se extendió de 1892 a 1961 y para su descripción y análisis se lo dividió en decenios. Se registraron 2103 defunciones de las cuales 1039 (49%) correspondieron a galeses y sus descendientes, lo cual representa un promedio de 14.6 muertes por año. Se detectó una sobremortalidad masculina (59%), esperable en una población colonizadora con predominio de varones. Se observó un incremento, en el tiempo, de la edad media de defunción, lo que indica mejoras en las condiciones socioeconómicas y de salud de la población. La mortalidad infantil y los natimortos representaron el 20% y el 11%, respectivamente, de las defunciones y se constató una transición desde una mortalidad provocada por enfermedades de naturaleza exógena a otra de causalidad endógena. Al compararse nuestros datos con los de la provincia de Chubut y el país, se comprobó, en todos los casos, un descenso de la mortalidad en el tiempo, aunque en Gaiman esa disminución fue más significativa, probablemente por la atención que la comunidad le dedicaba a la educación y a la salud.
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyze throughout time the evolution of deceases and the causes of death by age and sex of the population Welsh of Gaiman, Province of Chubut, Argentine. The data were obtained from the Register of Deaths of Civil Archive of Rawson City, Chubut. The study was extended from 1892 to 1961 but for its description and analysis was divided into decades. 2013 deceases were registered, of which 1039 (49%) corresponded to the Welsh and their descendents and represent an average of 14.6 deaths per year. A male overmortality (59%) was detected, which would be expected in a colonizing population with excess of males. An increase throughout time , of the age average of deceases was observed. The data show an improvement of the socioeconomic and health conditions of the population. The infantile and the birth mortality represent the 20% and 11% respectively of the deceases. The data reveal a transition from a mortality generated by illness of exogenous nature to the other of endogenous causality. When we compared our data with those of the Province of Chubut and those of our country, we observed in all cases a decrease in the rate of mortality, although in Gaiman this decrease was more significant probably due to the attention that the community has paid to education and health