Air Space Proportion (ASP) is a measure of how much air is present within a bone, which allows for a quantifiable comparison of pneumaticity between specimens and species. Measured from zero to one, higher ASP means more air and less bone. Conventionally, it is estimated from measurements of the internal and external bone diameter, or by analyzing cross-sections. To date, the only pterosaur ASP study has been carried out by visual inspection of sectioned bones within matrix. Here, computed tomography (CT) scans are used to calculate ASP in a small sample of pterosaur wing bones (mainly phalanges) and to assess how the values change throughout the bone. These results show higher ASPs than previous pterosaur pneumaticity studies, and more significantly, higher ASP values in the heads of wing bones than the shaft. This suggests that pneumaticity has been underestimated previously in pterosaurs, birds, and other archosaurs when shaft cross-sections are used to estimate ASP. Furthermore, ASP in pterosaurs is higher than those found in birds and most sauropod dinosaurs, giving them among the highest ASP values of animals studied so far, supporting the view that pterosaurs were some of the most pneumatized animals to have lived. The high degree of pneumaticity found in pterosaurs is proposed to be a response to the wing bone bending stiffness requirements of flight rather than a means to reduce mass, as is often suggested. Mass reduction may be a secondary result of pneumaticity that subsequently aids flight.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate: 1) the feasibilty of administering a modified CILT (mCILT) treatment session immediately after TMS; and 2) if this combined therapy could improve naming and elicited propositional speech in chronic, nonfluent aphasia. Methods: Two chronic stroke patients with nonfluent aphasia (mild-moderate and severe) each received twenty minutes of rTMS to suppress the right pars triangularis, followed immediately by three hours of mCILT (5 days/week, 2 weeks). (Each patient had received TMS alone, 2–6 years prior.) Language evaluations were performed pre- TMS+mCILT, and post- at 1-2 months, and 6 or 16 months. Results: Both patients showed significant improvements in naming pictures, and elicited propositional speech at 1-2 months post- TMS+mCILT. The improved naming was still present at 6 months post- TMS+mCILT for P2; but not at 16 months post- TMS+mCILT for P1. Conclusions: It is feasible to administer mCILT for three hours immediately after a TMS session. It is unknown if the significant improvements in naming pictures, and elicited propositional speech were associated with the second series of TMS, or this first series of mCILT, or a combination of both. A larger, sham controlled clinical trial is warranted.