Two-photon excitation fluorescence microspectroscopy protocols for examining fluorophores in fossil plants.

Fluorescence emission is common in plants. While fluorescence microscopy has been widely used to study living plants, its application in quantifying the fluorescence of fossil plants has been limited. Fossil plant fluorescence, from original fluorophores or formed during fossilization, can offer valuable insights into fluorescence in ancient plants and fossilization processes.

Suberin, the hallmark constituent of bark, identified in a 45-million-year-old monkeyhair tree (Coumoxylon hartigii) from Geiseltal, Germany.

Suberin, a complex biopolymer, forms a water- and gas-insoluble barrier that protects the inner tissues of plants. It is abundant in tree bark, particularly in the cork oak Quercus suber. Anatomically, fossil bark has been described since the Devonian.

Traces of calcium oxalate biomineralization in fossil leaves from late Oligocene maar deposits from Germany.

Calcium oxalate (CaOx) is one of the most common bio-mineral in extant plants and is believed to serve a variety of functions such as calcium storage and herbivore defense. However, traces of CaOx crystals have rarely been identified in fossil plants, and they are primarily known from fossil gymnosperms, where empty cavities of former CaOx crystals or ghost crystals have been reported from leaf cuticles of some Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic conifers. Here we investigate fossil angiosperm leaves from the late Oligocene Rott Fossil Lagerstätte and report ghost crystals of various shapes, sizes and topology (distribution patterns), and cavities.

Cervical Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) and Oncogenic Human Papillomavirus Screening in Rural Indigenous Guatemalan Women: Time to Rethink VIA.

Single-visit "screen-and-treat" strategies using visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA) and cryotherapy (liquid nitrous oxide ablation) in low-resource settings are commonly used to detect and treat precancerous lesions for cervical cancer prevention. This study compared VIA sensitivity and specificity in rural indigenous Guatemalan communities, to that of oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) testing for detection of precancerous changes, using cytology as the reference standard. Between 3-8 September 2017, trained nurses examined 222 women aged 23-58 years with VIA.

The complex role of microbial metabolic activity in fossilization.

Bacteria play an important role in the fossilization of soft tissues; their metabolic activities drive the destruction of the tissues and also strongly influence mineralization. Some environmental conditions, such as anoxia, cold temperatures, and high salinity, are considered widely to promote fossilization by modulating bacterial activity. However, bacteria are extremely diverse, and have developed metabolic adaptations to a wide range of stressful conditions.

Chemistry of porphyrins in fossil plants and animals.

Porphyrins are macrocyclic tetrapyrrole derivatives that are widely distributed in nature. They are often complexed with a metal ion located in the center of the ring system and may be modified by various substituents including additional rings, or by ring opening, which leads to a plethora of different functions. Due to their extended conjugated aromatic ring system, porphyrins absorb light in the visible range and therefore show characteristic colors.

Air Breathing in an Exceptionally Preserved 340-Million-Year-Old Sea Scorpion.

Arachnids are the second most successful terrestrial animal group after insects [1] and were one of the first arthropod clades to successfully invade land [2]. Fossil evidence for this transition is limited, with the majority of arachnid clades first appearing in the terrestrial fossil record. Furthermore, molecular clock dating has suggested a Cambrian-Ordovician terrestrialization event for arachnids [3], some 60 Ma before their first fossils in the Silurian, although these estimates assume that arachnids evolved from a fully aquatic ancestor.

Chemical signatures of soft tissues distinguish between vertebrates and invertebrates from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois.

The chemical composition of fossil soft tissues is a potentially powerful and yet underutilized tool for elucidating the affinity of problematic fossil organisms. In some cases, it has proven difficult to assign a problematic fossil even to the invertebrates or vertebrates (more generally chordates) based on often incompletely preserved morphology alone, and chemical composition may help to resolve such questions. Here, we use in situ Raman microspectroscopy to investigate the chemistry of a diverse array of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils from the Pennsylvanian Mazon Creek Lagerstätte of Illinois, and we generate a ChemoSpace through principal component analysis (PCA) of the in situ Raman spectra.

Self-reported factors associated with dental care utilization among Hispanic migrant farmworkers in South Florida.

Objectives: To explore patterns of dental care utilization among adult Hispanic migrant farmworkers utilizing the Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services.

Methods: In 2010, 278 Hispanic migrant workers participated in the oral health assessment. Hierarchical logistic regression modeling was used to assess the effects of multiple factors on having a past-year dental visit.

Structurally assisted super black in colourful peacock spiders.

Male peacock spiders ( Maratus, Salticidae) compete to attract female mates using elaborate, sexually selected displays. They evolved both brilliant colour and velvety black. Here, we use scanning electron microscopy, hyperspectral imaging and finite-difference time-domain optical modelling to investigate the deep black surfaces of peacock spiders.

Ancient amino acids from fossil feathers in amber.

Ancient protein analysis is a rapidly developing field of research. Proteins ranging in age from the Quaternary to Jurassic are being used to answer questions about phylogeny, evolution, and extinction. However, these analyses are sometimes contentious, and focus primarily on large vertebrates in sedimentary fossilisation environments; there are few studies of protein preservation in fossils in amber.

Unlocking preservation bias in the amber insect fossil record through experimental decay.

Fossils entombed in amber are a unique resource for reconstructing forest ecosystems, and resolving relationships of modern taxa. Such fossils are famous for their perfect, life-like appearance. However, preservation quality is vast with many sites showing only cuticular preservation, or no fossils.

Benthic iron cycling in a high-oxygen environment: Implications for interpreting the Archean sedimentary iron isotope record.

The most notable trend in the sedimentary iron isotope record is a shift at the end of the Archean from highly variable δ Fe values with large negative excursions to less variable δ Fe values with more limited negative values. The mechanistic explanation behind this trend has been extensively debated, with two main competing hypotheses: (i) a shift in marine redox conditions and the transition to quantitative iron oxidation; and (ii) a decrease in the signature of microbial iron reduction in the sedimentary record because of increased bacterial sulfate reduction (BSR). Here, we provide new insights into this debate and attempt to assess these two hypotheses by analyzing the iron isotope composition of siderite concretions from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil site.

A new model of the formation of Pennsylvanian iron carbonate concretions hosting exceptional soft-bodied fossils in Mazon Creek, Illinois.

Preservation of Pennsylvanian-aged (307 Ma) soft-bodied fossils from Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA, is attributed to the formation of siderite concretions, which encapsulate the remains of terrestrial, freshwater, and marine flora and fauna. The narrow range of positive δ S values from pyrite in individual concretions suggests microenvironmentally limited ambient sulfate, which may have been rapidly exhausted by sulfate-reducing bacteria. Tissue of the decaying carcass was rapidly encased by early diagenetic pyrite and siderite produced within the sulfate reduction and methanogenic zones of the sediment, with continuation of the latter resulting in concretion cementation.

The 'Tully monster' is a vertebrate.

Problematic fossils, extinct taxa of enigmatic morphology that cannot be assigned to a known major group, were once a major issue in palaeontology. A long-favoured solution to the 'problem of the problematica', particularly the 'weird wonders' of the Cambrian Burgess Shale, was to consider them representatives of extinct phyla. A combination of new evidence and modern approaches to phylogenetic analysis has now resolved the affinities of most of these forms.

Blended Infant Massage-Parenting Enhancement Program on Recovering Substance-Abusing Mothers' Parenting Stress, Self-Esteem, Depression, Maternal Attachment, and Mother-Infant Interaction.

Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether a blended Infant Massage-Parenting Enhancement Program (IMPEP) improved maternal psychosocial health outcomes (parenting stress, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, maternal attachment) and maternal-infant interaction among substance-addicted mothers (SAMs) actively engaged in outpatient rehabilitation.

Methods: Designed as a randomized, three-group controlled trial testing two levels of psychoeducational intervention (IMPEP vs. PEP) and a control group (standard care parenting resources), the study was conducted in two substance abuse centers in southeast Florida on a convenience sample of 138 recovering SAM-infant pairs.

All the better to see you with: eyes and claws reveal the evolution of divergent ecological roles in giant pterygotid eurypterids.

Pterygotid eurypterids have traditionally been interpreted as active, high-level, visual predators; however, recent studies of the visual system and cheliceral morphology of the pterygotid Acutiramus contradict this interpretation. Here, we report similar analyses of the pterygotids Erettopterus, Jaekelopterus and Pterygotus, and the pterygotid sister taxon Slimonia. Representative species of all these genera have more acute vision than A.

What big eyes you have: the ecological role of giant pterygotid eurypterids.

Eurypterids are a group of extinct chelicerates that ranged for over 200 Myr from the Ordovician to the Permian. Gigantism is common in the group; about 50% of families include taxa over 0.8 m in length.

Methodological challenges in intervention studies.

Parental substance abuse is a risk factor for child maltreatment, neglect and multi-generational drug abuse. Developing efficacious, cost-efficient interventions is critical to addressing this growing problem. This article by Brian Porter, Luz Porter, Virginia McCoy, Mayra Lima, Clare Pryce and Sachin Nunnewar highlights lessons learned during the first year of a study based in Florida to evaluate a novel parenting intervention targeting substance-abusing mothers and their babies.

Mammography use among Haitian women in Miami, Florida: an opportunity for intervention.

When compared to other racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants in Miami, Florida, Haitian women are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer when the prognosis for survival is poor. This disparity likely reflects mammography underutilization. Previous research has not examined the frequency of mammography use among Haitian women in Miami.

Imaging features of invasive and noninvasive fungal sinusitis: a review.

Fungal sinusitis was once considered a rare disorder but is now reported with increasing frequency throughout the world. The classification of fungal sinusitis has evolved in the past two decades, and this entity is now thought to comprise five subtypes. Acute invasive fungal sinusitis, chronic invasive fungal sinusitis, and chronic granulomatous invasive fungal sinusitis make up the invasive group, whereas noninvasive fungal sinusitis is composed of allergic fungal sinusitis and fungus ball (fungal mycetoma).

Radiofrequency tissue ablation: effect of hepatic blood flow occlusion on thermal injuries produced in cirrhotic livers.

Background: Radiofrequency thermal ablation has been used as a treatment for several types of hepatic malignancies. Many of these lesions exist in the presence of cirrhosis. Limitations exist to the size of the ablations and, subsequently, the efficacy of treatment.

Sonographically observed echogenic response during intraoperative radiofrequency ablation of cirrhotic livers: pathologic correlation.

Objective: We performed a study to determine the correlation between the diameter of the echogenic response observed with intraoperative sonography during radiofrequency ablation of the cirrhotic liver and the mean diameter of tissue necrosis.

Subjects And Methods: A total of 22 intraoperative radiofrequency ablations were created in 11 cirrhotic livers. The largest diameter of the sonographically observed echogenic response surrounding and perpendicular to the radiofrequency probe was measured.

Limited accuracy of premorbid intelligence estimators: a demonstration of regression to the mean.

Regression-based premorbid intelligence estimators have been devised by Barona, Reynolds, and Chastain (1984), Barona and Chastain (1986), Hamsher (1984), Krull, Scott, and Sherer (1995; the Oklahoma Premorbid Intelligence Estimate: OPIE), and Vanderploeg, Schinka, and Axelrod (1996; BEST-3 approach), but little is known of their relative accuracy, particularly in outer ranges of intellectual ability (e.g., below-average, superior, etc.