Late Quaternary Faulting History of the Carrizal and Related Faults, La Paz Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico

The southwest margin of the Gulf of California has an array of active normal faults despite this being an oblique-divergent plate boundary with spreading centers that localized deformation along the plate boundary 2–3 million years ago. The Carrizal and Centenario faults form the western border fault of the Gulf of California marginal fault system within and south of La Paz Bay, and ∼20–30 km west of the capital city of La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Geologic and geomorphic mapping, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) geochronology, and paleoseismic investigations onshore, compressed high-intensity radar pulse (CHIRP) profiling offshore, and analysis of uplifted marine terraces in the footwall of the offshore Carrizal fault provide some of the first numerical and geometrical constraints on late Pleistocene–Holocene faulting along the Carrizal fault. The onshore Carrizal fault has ruptured with up to ∼1–2 m of vertical displacement per event, likely producing ∼M 6.3–6.9 earthquakes, and at least two to three surface rupturing earthquakes have occurred since 22 ka. Onshore paleoseismic excavations and uplifted marine terraces on the western side of La Paz Bay both suggest offset rates of 0.1–0.2 mm/yr, with a footwall uplift rate of 0.13 mm/yr since 128 ka, and an approximately constant rate since marine oxygen-isotope stage (MIS) 11 terraces (420 ka). A CHIRP survey identified underwater fault scarps with heights ranging from 21 to 86 m on the Carrizal fault in La Paz Bay and from 3 to 5 m along the Centenario fault. The offshore Carrizal fault lies 8–10 km east of the western edge of La Paz Bay, forming a right step from the onshore Carrizal fault. The offshore Carrizal fault is the oldest fault of the fault system, and the fault likely grew in the latest Miocene to Pliocene in a complex way to the south toward the onshore Centenario and Carrizal faults. When the Alarcon spreading center started its modern rates at 2.4 Ma, the Carrizal fault likely slowed to the 0.1–0.2 mm/yr rates of the late Quaternary determined in this study

Shortfalls and Solutions for Meeting National and Global Conservation Area Targets

Governments have committed to conserving greater than or equal to 17% of terrestrial and greater than or equal to 10% of marine environments globally, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity through ecologically representative Protected Area (PA) systems or other area-based conservation measures , while individual countries have committed to conserve 3-50% of their land area. We estimate that PAs currently cover 14.6% of terrestrial and 2.8% of marine extent, but 59-68% of ecoregions, 77-78% of important sites for biodiversity, and 57% of 25,380 species have inadequate coverage. The existing 19.7 million km super(2) terrestrial PA network needs only 3.3 million km super(2) to be added to achieve 17% terrestrial coverage. However, it would require nearly doubling to achieve, cost-efficiently, coverage targets for all countries, ecoregions, important sites, and species. Poorer countries have the largest relative shortfalls. Such extensive and rapid expansion of formal PAs is unlikely to be achievable. Greater focus is therefore needed on alternative approaches, including community- and privately managed sites and other effective area-based conservation measures

Variation in amino acid and lipid composition of latent fingerprints

The enhancement of latent fingerprints, both at the crime scene and in the laboratory using an array of chemical, physical and optical techniques, permits their use for identification. Despite the plethora of techniques available, there are occasions when latent fingerprints are not successfully enhanced. An understanding of latent fingerprint chemistry and behaviour will aid the improvement of current techniques and the development of novel ones. In this study the amino acid and fatty acid content of ‘real’ latent fingerprints collected on a non-porous surface was analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Squalene was also quantified in addition. Hexadecanoic acid, octadecanoic acid and cis-9- octadecenoic acid were the most abundant fatty acids in all samples. There was, however, wide variation in the relative amounts of each fatty acid in each sample. It was clearly demonstrated that touching sebum-rich areas of the face immediately prior to fingerprint deposition resulted in a significant increase in the amount of fatty acids and squalene deposited in the resulting ‘groomed’ fingerprints. Serine was the most abundant amino acid identified followed by glycine, alanine and aspartic acid. The significant quantitative differences between the ‘natural’ and ‘groomed’ fingerprint samples seen for fatty acids were not observed in the case of the amino acids. This study demonstrates the variation in latent fingerprint composition between individuals and the impact of the sampling protocol on the quantitative analysis of fingerprints

High-velocity neon line emission from the ULIRG IRAS F00183-7111: revealing the optically obscured base of a nuclear outflow

We report the first mid-IR detection of highly disturbed ionized gas in the ultraluminous infrared galaxy IRAS F00183-7111. The gas, traced by the 12.81um [NeII] and 15.56um [NeIII] lines, spans a velocity range of-3500 to 3000 km/s with respect to systemic velocity. Optical and near-IR spectroscopic studies show no evidence for similarly high velocity gas components in forbidden lines at shorter wavelengths. We interpret this as the result of strong extinction (Av=10-50) on the high-velocity gas, which identifies the base of the outflow traced in 5007A [OIII] as a plausible origin. Unusual excitation conditions are implied by a comparison of the mid-infrared low-excitation neon line emission and the PAH emission for a sample of 56 ULIRGs. For IRAS F00183, the neon/PAH ratio is 8 times higher than the average ratio. Similar mid-infrared kinematic and excitation characteristics are found for only 2 other ULIRGs in our sample: IRAS 12127-1412NE and IRAS 13451+1232. Both sources have an elevated neon/PAH ratio and exhibit pronounced blue wings in their 15.56um [NeIII] line profiles. IRAS 13451 even shows a strongly blue shifted and broad 14.32um [NeV] line. While for IRAS 13451 the observed [NeIII]/[NeII] and [NeV]/[NeII] line ratios indicate exposure of the blue shifted gas to direct radiation from the AGN, for IRAS F00183 and 12127 the neon line ratios are consistent with an origin in fast shocks in a high-density environment, and with an evolutionary scenario in which strongly blue shifted [Ne II] and [Ne III] emission trace the (partial) disruption of the obscuring medium around a buried AGN. The detection of strongly blue shifted [Ne V] emission in IRAS 13451 would then indicate this process to be much further advanced in this ULIRG than in IRAS F00183 and 12127, where this line is undetected.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Pooled analysis of iron-related genes in Parkinson's disease: Association with transferrin

Pathologic features of Parkinson's disease (PD) include death of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, presence of α-synuclein containing Lewy bodies, and iron accumulation in PD-related brain regions. The observed iron accumulation may be contributing to PD etiology but it also may be a byproduct of cell death or cellular dysfunction. To elucidate the possible role of iron accumulation in PD, we investigated genetic variation in 16 genes related to iron homeostasis in three case-control studies from the United States, Australia, and France. After screening 90 haplotype tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the genes of interest in the US study population, we investigated the five most promising gene regions in two additional independent case-control studies. For the pooled data set (1289 cases, 1391 controls) we observed a protective association (OR. = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.71-0.96) between PD and a haplotype composed of the A allele at rs1880669 and the T allele at rs1049296 in transferrin (TF; GeneID: 7018). Additionally, we observed a suggestive protective association (OR. = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.74-1.02) between PD and a haplotype composed of the G allele at rs10247962 and the A allele at rs4434553 in transferrin receptor 2 (TFR2; GeneID: 7036). We observed no associations in our pooled sample for haplotypes in SLC40A1, CYB561, or HFE. Taken together with previous findings in model systems, our results suggest that TF or a TF- TFR2 complex may have a role in the etiology of PD, possibly through iron misregulation or mitochondrial dysfunction within dopaminergic neurons

Implementing smartphone enabled collaborative travel: Routes to success in the tourism domain.

Smartphone technology can help identify current and anticipate future patterns of behaviour and, with its social networking capabilities, allow users to imagine and organise collaborative travel opportunities, such as lift share. This has led to the development of collaborative apps designed to enable activities like lift sharing. Such apps require new norms of behaviour to establish a user base and research has yet to address the socio-cultural barriers to both the use of this technology to organise travel and the sharing of personal space that collaborative travel entails. This paper reports the findings of a study which designed, built and tested a collaborative travel app in the tourism domain. Data derived from exploratory interviews, post-trial interviews and a questionnaire reveal that user age and extent of mobile engagement play a less significant role than expected, while other aspects of the social exchange, notably social tie strength, trust and obligations play a more marked role. A conceptual framework and discussion of strategies to address these barriers provides insight into appropriate contexts and routes for implementation of collaborative travel apps

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

Update on the third international stroke trial (IST-3) of thrombolysis for acute ischaemic stroke and baseline features of the 3035 patients recruited

Intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) is approved in Europe for use in patients with acute ischaemic stroke who meet strictly defined criteria. IST-3 sought to improve the external validity and precision of the estimates of the overall treatment effects (efficacy and safety) of rtPA in acute ischaemic stroke, and to determine whether a wider range of patients might benefit