Questidae—Polychaetes with Oligochaetoid Morphology and Development1

The morphology and anatomy of Novaquesta trifurcata Hobson, 1970 and of the closely related Questa caudicirra Hartman, 1966 have been studied in detail from live worms from intertidal beaches in Maine (USA) and New Brunswick (Canada) and from a review of the type material. Oligochaetoid features in combination with peculiar specific structures lead to a discussion of the systematic position of the family Questidae within the Annelida. It is concluded that they represent aberrant polychaetes with an oligochaetoid mode of reproduction associated with an interstitial life. The ventral pharyngeal pad and accessory musculature is compared with that of archiannelid and aberrant polychaete species.     

A Tribute to Thomas A. Sebeok

According to the approach developed by Thomas A. Sebeok (1921–2001) and his ‘global semiotics,’ semiosis and life converge. This leads to his cardinal axiom: ‘semiosis is the criterial attribute of life.’ His global approach to sign life presupposes his critique of anthropocentrism and glottocentrism. Global semiotics is open to zoosemiotics, indeed, even more broadly, biosemiotics which extends its gaze to semiosis in the whole living universe to include the realms of macro- and microorganisms. In Sebeok’s conception, the sign science is not only the study of communication in culture, but of communicative behaviour from a biosemiotic perspective.     

The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its Variation in Recent Human Populations

The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth: Dental Morphology and Its Variation in Recent Human Populations. G. Richard Scott and Christy G. Turner 11. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.382 pp.     

Human motion tracking for rehabilitation—A survey

Human motion tracking for rehabilitation has been an active research topic since the 1980s. It has been motivated by the increased number of patients who have suffered a stroke, or some other motor function disability. Rehabilitation is a dynamic process which allows patients to restore their functional capability to normal. To reach this target, a patients’ activities need to be continuously monitored, and subsequently corrected. This paper reviews recent progress in human movement detection/tracking systems in general, and existing or potential application for stroke rehabilitation in particular. Major achievements in these systems are summarised, and their merits and limitations individually presented. In addition, bottleneck problems in these tracking systems that remain open are highlighted, along with possible solutions.