The Eneolithic Botai culture of the Central Asian steppes provides the earliest archaeological evidence for horse husbandry, ~5500 years ago, but the exact nature of early horse domestication remains ...controversial. We generated 42 ancient-horse genomes, including 20 from Botai. Compared to 46 published ancient- and modern-horse genomes, our data indicate that Przewalski's horses are the feral descendants of horses herded at Botai and not truly wild horses. All domestic horses dated from ~4000 years ago to present only show ~2.7% of Botai-related ancestry. This indicates that a massive genomic turnover underpins the expansion of the horse stock that gave rise to modern domesticates, which coincides with large-scale human population expansions during the Early Bronze Age.
Current genetic data are equivocal as to whether goat domestication occurred multiple times or was a singular process. We generated genomic data from 83 ancient goats (51 with genome-wide coverage) ...from Paleolithic to Medieval contexts throughout the Near East. Our findings demonstrate that multiple divergent ancient wild goat sources were domesticated in a dispersed process that resulted in genetically and geographically distinct Neolithic goat populations, echoing contemporaneous human divergence across the region. These early goat populations contributed differently to modern goats in Asia, Africa, and Europe. We also detect early selection for pigmentation, stature, reproduction, milking, and response to dietary change, providing 8000-year-old evidence for human agency in molding genome variation within a partner species.
Significance
Goats were among the first domestic animals and today are an important livestock species; archaeozoological evidence from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran indicates that goats were ...managed by the late ninth/early eighth millennium. We assess goat assemblages from Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein, two Aceramic Neolithic Zagros sites, using complementary archaeozoological and archaeogenomic approaches. Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes indicate that these goats were genetically diverse and ancestral to later domestic goats and already distinct from wild goats. Demographic profiles from bone remains, differential diversity patterns of uniparental markers, and presence of long runs of homozygosity reveal the practicing and consequences of management, thus expanding our understanding of the beginnings of animal husbandry.
The Aceramic Neolithic (∼9600 to 7000 cal BC) period in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran, provides some of the earliest archaeological evidence of goat (
Capra hircus
) management and husbandry by circa 8200 cal BC, with detectable morphological change appearing ∼1,000 y later. To examine the genomic imprint of initial management and its implications for the goat domestication process, we analyzed 14 novel nuclear genomes (mean coverage 1.13X) and 32 mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes (mean coverage 143X) from two such sites, Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein. These genomes show two distinct clusters: those with domestic affinity and a minority group with stronger wild affinity, indicating that managed goats were genetically distinct from wild goats at this early horizon. This genetic duality, the presence of long runs of homozygosity, shared ancestry with later Neolithic populations, a sex bias in archaeozoological remains, and demographic profiles from across all layers of Ganj Dareh support management of genetically domestic goat by circa 8200 cal BC, and represent the oldest to-this-date reported livestock genomes. In these sites a combination of high autosomal and mtDNA diversity, contrasting limited Y chromosomal lineage diversity, an absence of reported selection signatures for pigmentation, and the wild morphology of bone remains illustrates domestication as an extended process lacking a strong initial bottleneck, beginning with spatial control, demographic manipulation via biased male culling, captive breeding, and subsequently phenotypic and genomic selection.
AbstractThis study focused on the characterization of sulfur-modified mortars made with amorphous carbon powder (ACP). To this end, modified paste samples were fabricated initially with different ACP ...content through a dry mixing method, considering varying mixing times. The reinforcement efficiency was evaluated through X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses. Subsequently, the sulfur-modified mortar samples were prepared following the results of the paste assessment. A series of properties of modified and raw sulfur mortar samples, including mechanical performances and durability behaviors, were investigated. Microstructural investigation of the paste samples showed that the degree of modification increased by increasing the ACP content and reducing the mixing time. Results from mechanical measurements revealed that the addition of 20% ACP by weight of sulfur enhanced the compressive and flexural strengths of the mortar sample by up to 26% and 57%, respectively, which aligns with the outcomes from the helium porosimetry and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) tests. The incorporation of ACP led to a significant reduction in the sorptivity and water absorption of the mortar samples by enhancing the hydrophobicity properties of the mortar. Durability assessments demonstrated that mortar samples containing ACP are less prone to corrosion damage compared with raw sulfur mortar. However, these positive effects were less pronounced in mortar samples including a large amount of ACP.
Treatment of wastewater from synthetic constituents such as methylene blue (MB) which are extensively harmful to environment and human health is known as important issue in different industries. ...Also, implementing experiments to solve problems in engineering issues are highly time consuming and costly, so in the current work, the least square support vector machine (LSSVM) is coupled with two different evolutionary algorithms as particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) to predict removal MB on silver nanoparticles. The proposed algorithms have been evaluated with the experimental data graphically and statistically. The coefficients of determination for LSSVM-PSO and LSSVM-GA have been reported as 0.99999 and 0.99952, respectively. Also these methods have been compared with existing artificial neural network. The comparisons show that proposed methods have acceptable accuracy to predict MB extraction by silver nanoparticles.
It is crucial to produce plant growth biostimulants from waste and renewable resources. A study was carried during 2020 at the Soil and Water Research Institute, Karaj, Iran to evaluate the effect of ...decomposed chicken feather as a biostimulant on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) growth. A total of 29 soil samples from 15 Iranian regions were used to isolate and identify the bacteria and 31 strains that were able to produce keratinase and capable of feather degrading were isolated. Then, 8 isolates that were able to degrade the feather during 7 days were selected as the superior strains. Based on the results Bacillus siamensis c11, Bacillus methylotrophicus gh1 and Bacillus methylotrophicus a2 were identified as the new strains that can produce keratinase enzyme. Then, the effect of foliar spraying of the solutions produced from feather degradation by the new strains (c11, gh1, and a2) on the growth of lettuce was investigated. The results showed that the solution produced by methylotrophicus gh1 strain significantly increased the fresh and dry weight of the shoot and root (respectively, 25.9, 36.9, 34.1 and 51.9% increase compared to the control). It is concluded that the microbial solution of these three microbes as a consortium could be quite a new addition on one hand, could also reduce the human allergy as a via- medium of waste disposal.
Aims: This study aimed at presenting a model for addiction potential based on developmental assets mediating by alexithymia in adolescents living in Arak, Iran. Materials and Methods: Five hundred ...members were selected as samples (n = 500) among female and male second-grade high school students at the tenth and eleventh academic grades in Arak using cluster random sampling. To collect data, Iranian Addiction Potential Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale and Developmental Assets Profile were used. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling and LISREL Software. Results: Model fit indices had suitable model fit with data. Internal developmental assets with path coefficient of B = −0.48 were more effective in reducing addiction potential compared with external developmental assets with path coefficient of B = −0.27. Positive identity, empowerment, and social competency were the most effective components of developmental assets in reducing addiction potential. Internal assets could explain addiction potential in adolescence more than external assets. Conclusion: Direct effect of developmental assets on addiction potential was confirmed and its indirect effect with mediation of alexithymia was significant. Moreover, results showed that only internal developmental asset had an effect on addiction potential in adolescents mediating by alexithymia, so the effect of external developmental asset on addiction potential in adolescents based on the mediation of alexithymia was rejected.
The impact of team-based learning on knowledge development Nikooravesh, Aghdas; Parpoochi, Ashrafolsadat; Davoudi, Amir Hossein Mohammad
International Journal of Organizational Leadership,
06/2016, Letnik:
5, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Learning is the most important component of education. However, experts must try to improve the quality and methods of ideal learning through implementing new methods and spending educational cost to ...improve internal efficiency and productivity. One of the most common methods is the team-based learning. Team-based learning is considered as a strong instructional strategy to benefit from using small groups and people participating in learning and using others' experiences to attract, develop, and manage the knowledge. This learning method is based on group activities to create and develop active and more effective learning. Effective learning leads to create the knowledge, increase the ability and awareness of teachers and students, and improve the education. The literature review also mentions the concepts which have effective role on team-based learning, creating, and developing the knowledge.
The importance of the cladoceran
as a model organism for ecotoxicity testing has been well-established since the 1980s.
have been increasingly used in standardised testing of chemicals as they are ...well characterised and show sensitivity to pollutants, making them an essential indicator species for environmental stress. The mapping of the genomes of
in 2012 and
in 2017 further consolidated their utility for ecotoxicity testing, including demonstrating the responsiveness of the
genome to environmental stressors. The short lifecycle and parthenogenetic reproduction make
useful for assessment of developmental toxicity and adaption to stress. The emergence of nanomaterials (NMs) and their safety assessment has introduced some challenges to the use of standard toxicity tests which were developed for soluble chemicals. NMs have enormous reactive surface areas resulting in dynamic interactions with dissolved organic carbon, proteins and other biomolecules in their surroundings leading to a myriad of physical, chemical, biological, and macromolecular transformations of the NMs and thus changes in their bioavailability to, and impacts on, daphnids. However, NM safety assessments are also driving innovations in our approaches to toxicity testing, for both chemicals and other emerging contaminants such as microplastics (MPs). These advances include establishing more realistic environmental exposures via medium composition tuning including pre-conditioning by the organisms to provide relevant biomolecules as background, development of microfluidics approaches to mimic environmental flow conditions typical in streams, utilisation of field daphnids cultured in the lab to assess adaption and impacts of pre-exposure to pollution gradients, and of course development of mechanistic insights to connect the first encounter with NMs or MPs to an adverse outcome, via the key events in an adverse outcome pathway. Insights into these developments are presented below to inspire further advances and utilisation of these important organisms as part of an overall environmental risk assessment of NMs and MPs impacts, including in mixture exposure scenarios.
Purpose
Soilless culture and using organic wastes can increase not only yield but also quality and safety of fresh produce and thus meet the demands of modern society.
Methods
In order to study the ...effect of new organic-based soilless media including aged wood bark, composted date palm woody wastes, and a mixture of 70% cocopeat + 30% perlite as the control on yield, quality, and nutritional status of greenhouse cucumber, this study was conducted as randomized complete blocks design with three replications.
Result
Based on the results, the average daily yield was not significantly affected by the studied organic wastes. Although aged wood bark had the highest total yield, the number of fruit and average fruit weight compared to other treatments; however, there was no significant difference between the three-growing media in terms of yield parameters. The nitrate content of fruit in all treatments was lower than the permissible limit. Furthermore, regardless of the type of growing media, the accumulation of nitrate in fruit peel was greater than in the fruit flesh by 3–7 times.
Conclusion
In general, it is concluded that both aged wood bark and composted date palm woody wastes may be considered as the alternative options for cocopeat and perlite.
Graphical Abstract
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