Additional observations on the gross morphology and microstructure of Baccaconularia Hughes, Gunderson et Weedon, 2000, a Cambrian (Furongian) conulariid from the north-central USA

Baccaconularia Hughes, Gunderson et Weedon, 2000, from the Furongian Series (Cambrian System) of the north-central USA, has been interpreted as a conulariid cnidarian, based on a suite of gross morphological similarities shared only with other post-Cambrian genera currently assigned to this group. Closely spaced, squarish to subrectangular facial nodes of Baccaconularia are aligned in distinct longitudinal files. Nodes also display a subtler, more or less rectilinear transverse alignment, though this pattern commonly is disrupted by offset parallel to the longitudinal files. In their shape and pattern of arrangement, the nodes of Baccaconularia are most similar to the squarish to elongate nodes of Pseudoconularia Bouček, 1939. Longitudinal node files of Baccaconularia may also be compared with the longitudinal facial ridges of Conularia cambria Walcott, 1890 from the Furongian of Wisconsin. Apical angles of Baccaconularia range from approximately 13° to 14.5°. Scanning electron imaging of B. cf. robinsoni shows that its thin, phosphatic skeleton is finely lamellar, with the thickness of individual lamellae measuring approximately 1 μm. The skeleton also exhibits microscopic circular pores and crater-like pits that range from approximately 5 to 10 μm in diameter. These pores and pits are similar in size, geometry, areal density and pattern of arrangement to those of many post-Cambrian conulariids. Microscopic circular pores are documented here for the first time in the genus Archaeoconularia Bouček, 1939 from the Upper Ordovician of the Czech Republic. Although the origin of the pores and pits is open to alternative interpretations, the discovery of these features and fine lamination in Baccaconularia strengthens the argument that this genus is a Cambrian conulariid. © 2006 Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS.

ICE-KEEL SCOUR MARKS IN THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD: EVIDENCE FROM CARBONIFEROUS SOFT-SEDIMENT STRIATED SURFACES IN THE PARANA BASIN, SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Petrified Marattiales pinnae from the Lower Permian of North-Western Gondwana (Parnaiba Basin, Brazil)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Locomotor performance of closely related Tropidurus species: relationships with physiological parameters and ecological divergence

Tropidurid lizards have colonized a variety of Brazilian open environments without remarkable morphological variation, despite ecological and structural differences among habitats used. This study focuses on two Tropidurus sister-species that, despite systematic proximity and similar morphology, exhibit great ecological divergence and a third ecologically generalist congeneric species providing an outgroup comparison. We quantified jumping capacity and sprint speed of each species on sand and rock to test whether ecological divergence was also accompanied by differences in locomotor performance. Relevant physiological traits possibly associated with locomotor performance metabolic scopes and fiber type composition, power output and activity of the enzymes citrate synthase, pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase of the iliofibularis muscle - were also compared among the three Tropidurus species. We found that the two sister-species exhibited remarkable differences in jumping performance, while Tropidurus oreadicus, the more distantly related species, exhibited intermediate values. Tropidurus psamonastes, a species endemic to sand dunes, exhibited high absolute sprint speeds on sand, jumped rarely and possessed a high proportion of glycolytic fibers and low activity of citrate synthase. The sister-species Tropidurus itambere, endemic to rocky outcrops, performed a large number of jumps and achieved lower absolute sprint speed than T. psamonastes. This study provides evidence of rapid divergence of locomotor parameters between sister-species that use different substrates, which is only partially explained by variation in physiological parameters of the iliofibularis muscle.

Molecular weight estimation of esterase isoenzymes in closely related Drosophila Species (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Determination of resonant frequencies of triangular and rectangular microstrip antennas, using artificial neural networks

This paper presents models that can be used in the design of microstrip antennas for mobile communications. The antennas can be triangular or rectangular. The presented models are compared with deterministic and empirical models based on artificial neural networks (ANN) presented in the literature. The models are based on Perceptron Multilayer (PML) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) ANN. RBF based models presented the best results. Also, the models can be embedded in CAD systems, in order to design microstrip antennas for mobile communications.

Weight vector estimation of circular arrays of antennas using Artificial Neural Networks

This paper presents a model for the control of the radiation pattern of a circular array of antennas, shaping it to address the radiation beam in the direction of the user, in order to reduce the transmitted power and to attenuate interference. The control of the array is based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) of the type RBF (Radial Basis Functions), trained from samples generated by the Wiener equation. The obtained results suggest that the objective was reached.

New contributions to the determination of resonance frequencies of rectangular microstrip antennas by neural networks

This paper uses artificial neural networks (ANN) to compute the resonance frequencies of rectangular microstrip antennas (MSA), used in mobile communications. Perceptron Multi-layers (PML) networks were used, with the Quasi-Newton method proposed by Broyden, Fletcher, Goldfarb and Shanno (BFGS). Due to the nature of the problem, two hundred and fifty networks were trained, and the resonance frequency for each test antenna was calculated by statistical methods. The estimate resonance frequencies for six test antennas were compared with others results obtained by deterministic and ANN based empirical models from the literature, and presented a better agreement with the experimental values.