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Now extinct, the aurochs (Bos primigenius) was a keystone species in prehistoric Eurasian and North African ecosystems, and the progenitor of cattle (Bos taurus), domesticates that have provided people with food and labour for millennia1. Here we analysed 38 ancient genomes and found 4 distinct population ancestries in the aurochs—European, Southwest Asian, North Asian and South Asian—each of which has dynamic trajectories that have responded to changes in climate and human influence. Similarly to Homo heidelbergensis, aurochsen first entered Europe around 650 thousand years ago2, but early populations left only trace ancestry, with both North Asian and European B. primigeniusgenomes coalescing during the most recent glaciation. North Asian and European populations then appear separated until mixing after the climate amelioration of the early Holocene. European aurochsen endured the more severe bottleneck during the Last Glacial Maximum, retreating to southern refugia before recolonizing from Iberia. Domestication involved the capture of a small number of individuals from the Southwest Asian aurochs population, followed by early and pervasive male-mediated admixture involving each ancestral strain of aurochs after domestic stocks dispersed beyond their cradle of origin.

Ancient DNA studies have established that Neolithic European populations were descended from Anatolian migrants who received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers. Many open questions remain, however, about the spatial and temporal dynamics of population interactions and admixture during the Neolithic period. Here we investigate the population dynamics of Neolithization across Europe using a high-resolution genome-wide ancient DNA dataset with a total of 180 samples, of which 130 are newly reported here, from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Hungary (6000–2900 bc, n = 100), Germany (5500–3000 bc, n = 42) and Spain (5500–2200 bc, n = 38). We find that genetic diversity was shaped predominantly by local processes, with varied sources and proportions of hunter-gatherer ancestry among the three regions and through time. Admixture between groups with different ancestry profiles was pervasive and resulted in observable population transformation across almost all cultural transitions. Our results shed new light on the ways in which gene flow reshaped European populations throughout the Neolithic period and demonstrate the potential of time-series-based sampling and modelling approaches to elucidate multiple dimensions of historical population interactions.

Although aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) mutations are rare in sporadic acromegaly, their prevalence among young patients is nonnegligible. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the frequency of AIPmutations in a cohort of Mexican patients with acromegaly with disease onset before the age of 30 and to search for molecular abnormalities in the AIPgene in teeth obtained from the “Tampico Giant”. Peripheral blood DNA from 71 patients with acromegaly (51 females) with disease onset <30 years was analysed (median age of disease onset of 23 years) and correlated with clinical, biochemical and imaging characteristics. Sequencing was also carried out in DNA extracted from teeth of the Tampico Giant. Five patients (7 %) harboured heterozygous, germline mutations of the AIPgene. In two of them (a 9-year-old girl with gigantism and a young man with symptoms of GH excess since age 14) the c.910C>T (p.Arg304Ter), well-known truncating mutation was identified; in one of these two cases and her identical twin sister, the mutation proved to be a de novo event, since neither of their parents were found to be carriers. In the remaining three patients, new mutations were identified: a frameshift mutation (c.976_977insC, p.Gly326AfsTer), an in-frame deletion (c.872_877del, p.Val291_Leu292del) and a nonsense mutation (c.868A > T, p.Lys290Ter), which are predicted to be pathogenic based on in silico analysis. Patients with AIPmutations tended to have an earlier onset of acromegaly and harboured larger and more invasive tumours. A previously described genetic variant of unknown significance (c.869C > T, p.Ala299Val) was identified in DNA from the Tampico Giant. The prevalence of AIPmutations in young Mexican patients with acromegaly is similar to that of European cohorts. Our results support the need for genetic evaluation of patients with early onset acromegaly.

AbstractDespite the fact that both nitrosonium salts NO[SbCl6] and NO[TaCl6] crystallize in the same space group C2/cwith Z= 4, their disorder behaviour is different. While in the antimony compound the reorientation jumps of the NO+ions are restricted to two alignments of equal weight, the NO+disorder of NO[TaCl6] is in principle six fold, but with two of the alignments underrepresented. NO[SbCl6] undergoes a phase transformation to C-1 at Tc= 104 K. NO[TaCl6] stays monoclinic down to 10 K. An extrapolation of the isotropic displacements against abso lute zero reveals permanent components due to genuine dis order. A computer simulation is used to investigate the unusual population of the NO+sites.

Abstract: The Barbary lion became extinct in the wild around 1942. Since the end of the 19th century, a last purebred captive breeding stock existed at the court of Morocco. The rest of these animals became the core exhibition of the new Rabat Zoo after passing through repeated bottlenecks and possibly some introgression events by foreign lions. This study uses mitochondrial DNA sequencing data to clarify the relationship among these lions and their sub-Saharan and Asian relatives. We analysed mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences obtained from a sample from a Barbary lion descended from a young female of the Barbary lion breeding group at the Rabat Zoo and various other members of the genus Panthera. In our cytochrome-b-based phylogenetic tree, the North African Barbary lion, represented by a biopsy sample from the Neuwied Zoo, joins the Asian lion clade, although it is slightly different from its Asian sister group. However, it is clearly distinct from sub-Saharan lions and can be considered as a genetically defined phylogeographic group of its own. Molecular dating of the extant sub-Saharan and Asian lion groups shows that the split between North African Barbary lions and Asian lions must be considerably more recent than 74–203 kilo years ago.

This article discusses the technology of and applications for Phase Change Materials (PCM). PCM store heat or cold in a melting and crystallization cycle. During this cycle, the temperature stays constant. Micro-encapsulation enables products to handle the PCM independently of being solid or liquid. The microcapsules are tiny containers, about five to 10 millimeter in diameter, which surround the paraffinic PCM core material individually with a hard polymeric shell. In building applications and textile processing, including the nonwovens business, micro-encapsulated PCM are on the market already.

Calcium ions and organic ligands—in this case deprotonated erythritol—together are capable of reducing aggregation of oxoiron(III) species to such an extent that well-defined oxoclusters can be isolated. In the title cluster, an Fe8O32rutile core is extended by further iron centers to yield a hematite-type microtwin (Fe14O48; arrangement of iron centers depicted on the right), which may be related to metastable oxoiron(III) phases in terms of structure and magnetism.

Gemeinsam mit organischen Liganden— hier deprotoniertem Erythrit — können Calcium‐Ionen die Aggregation von Oxoeisen(III)‐Spezies so weit einschränken, daß definierte Oxocluster isoliert werden können. In der Titelverbindung ist ein Fe8O32‐Rutilkern durch weitere Eisen(III)‐Zentralatome zu einem Hämatit‐Zwillingskeim (Fe14O48; Anordnung der Eisenzentren siehe rechts) erweitert, der eine Vorstellung von den Strukturprinzipien und möglichen Wegen magnetischer Kopplung metastabiler Oxoeisen(III)‐Phasen gibt.

Polyol Metal Complexes. 33 [1] Structure of a Homoleptic Bis‐xylitolato(5–) Dicobaltate(III)