Morphology, sedimentary infill and depositional environments of the Early Quaternary North Sea Basin (56°-62°N)

The North Sea Basin has been subsiding during the Quaternary and contains hundreds of metres of fill. Seismic surveys (170 000 km2) provide new evidence on Early Quaternary sedimentation, from about 2.75 Ma to around the Brunhes-Matuyama boundary (0.78 Ma). We present an informal seismic stratigraphy for the Early Quaternary of the North Sea, and calculate sediment volumes for major units. Early Quaternary sediment thickness is > 1000 m in the northern basin and >700 m in the central basin (total about 40 000 km3). Northern North Sea basin-fill comprises several clinoform units, prograding westward over 60 000 km2. Architecture of the central basin also comprises clinoforms, building from the southeast. To the west, an acoustically layered and mounded unit (Unit Z) was deposited. Remaining accommodation space was filled with fine-grained sediments of two Central Basin units. Above these units, an Upper Regional Unconformity-equivalent (URU) records a conformable surface with flat-lying units that indicate stronger direct glacial influence than on the sediments below. On the North Sea Plateau north of 59°N, the Upper Regional Unconformity (URU) is defined by a shift from westward to eastward dipping seismic reflectors, recording a major change in sedimentation, with the Shetland Platform becoming a significant source. A model of Early Quaternary sediment delivery to the North Sea shows sources from the Scandinavian ice sheet and major European rivers. Clinoforms prograding west in the northern North Sea Basin, representing glacigenic debris flows, indicate an ice sheet on the western Scandinavian margin. In the central basin, sediments are generally fine-grained, suggesting a distal fluvial or glacifluvial origin from European rivers. Ploughmarks also demonstrate that icebergs, derived from an ice sheet to the north, drifted into the central North Sea Basin. By contrast, sediments and glacial landforms above the URU provide evidence for the later presence of a grounded ice sheet.We thank Det norske oljeselskap for financial support and permission to publish this work. We also thank Petroleum Geoservices and TGS for permission to publish seismic lines and seismic amplitude maps and Exploro AS for their support of the project.This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264817214001342

Passenger mutations and aberrant gene expression in congenic tissue plasminogen activator‐deficient mouse strains

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134273/1/jth13338_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134273/2/jth13338.pd

Deeply buried glacigenic debris-flows imaged in 3D seismic data from early Quaternary sediments of the northern North Sea

Debris flows composed of diamictic glacial sediment are found on the continental slope offshore of many former ice streams in the Arctic and Antarctic (Vorren et al. 1998). The debris flows are often stacked, making up important building-blocks of the major trough-mouth fans that form huge depocentres on high-latitude margins (e.g. Laberg & Vorren 1995; King et al. 1996; Taylor et al. 2002). Such debris flows have been investigated previously using 2D-seismic methods and have also been mapped in plan using side-scan sonar and multibeam systems (Vogt et al. 1993; Dowdeswell et al. 1996; Nygård et al. 2002 ; Pedrosa et al. 2011). 3D-seismic data can be used to image and map these and other glacigenic landforms buried within Quaternary sediments (e.g. Dowdeswell & Ottesen 2013 ).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from[the Geological Society of London. via https://doi.org/10.1144/M46.13

Living with sub-optimal glycaemic control: the experiences of Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and education

Aim The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of diagnosis and education for people living with Type 2 diabetes who have sub-optimal glycaemic control. Background The increasing prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is a global concern. Many people have difficulty maintaining optimal glycaemic control with up to 50% having HbA1c levels higher than recommended. A range of factors that have been suggested as possibly contributing to this, however, little is known about how their experience of diagnosis, education and support to attempt to understand the context of their self-management practices. Design A qualitative thematic analysis of interviews conducted with people with sub-optimal glycaemic control prior to their participation in an intervention study. Method Thirty participants taking part in a psychosocial/educational intervention for people with sub-optimal glycaemic control were interviewed in 2012 before the intervention commenced. These interviews explored each participant's experience of the diagnosis and associated education. The interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis was conducted. Findings Almost all the participants had been shocked at receiving the diagnosis and felt it had been a moral indictment on their lifestyle. Many had been given the impression that they had a mild form of diabetes and most had been given very little information on self-management that they had found useful. Conclusion The findings suggest that for the participants there was a considerable gap between the rhetoric of person-centred services and the reality of the experiences of diagnosis and education for the self-management of Type 2 diabetes

Unusual iceberg ploughmarks on the Norwegian continental shelf

Iceberg ploughmarks are produced when the keels of drifting icebergs impinge upon and cut into seafloor sediments. They are common landforms of high-latitude shelves and fjords, especially in water shallower than about 500 m, where they are easily detected using modern multibeam echo-sounding and earlier side-scan sonar systems (e.g. Lien 1983; Dowdeswell et al. 1993). In addition, similar buried morphological features have been identified within Quaternary sediments on palaeo-shelves, imaged using 3-dimensional seismic methods (e.g. Andreassen et al. 2007; Dowdeswell & Ottesen 2013).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Geological Society of London via https://doi.org/10.1144/M46.12

Precision determination of band offsets in strained InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells by C-V-profiling and Schroedinger-Poisson self-consistent simulation

The results of measurements and numerical simulation of charge carrier distribution and energy states in strained quantum wells In_xGa_{1-x}As/GaAs (0.06 < x < 0.29) by C-V-profiling are presented. Precise values of conduction band offsets for these pseudomorphic QWs have been obtained by means of self-consistent solution of Schroedinger and Poisson equations and following fitting to experimental data. For the conduction band offsets in strained In_xGa_{1-x}As/GaAs - QWs the expression DE_C(x) = 0.814x - 0.21x^2 has been obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, RevTeX

A nurse-led education and cognitive behaviour therapy-based intervention among adults with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes: A randomised controlled trial

Rationale, aims and objectives: Diabetes mellitus is associated with significant morbidity, mortality and escalating healthcare costs. Research has consistently demonstrated the importance of glycaemic control in delaying the onset, and decreasing the incidence, of both the short- and long-term complications of diabetes. Although glycaemic control is difficult to achieve and challenging to maintain, it is key to reducing negative disease outcomes.&nbsp; The aim of this study was to determine whether a nurse-led educational intervention alone or a nurse-led intervention using education and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) were effective in reducing HbA1c in people living with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes compared to usual care.&nbsp; Methods: Adults over the age of 18 years, with a confirmed diagnosis of type 2 diabetes and HbA1c outside of the recommended range (4-7%, 20-53 mmol/mol) for 12 months or more were eligible to participate.&nbsp; Participants were randomised to either a nurse-led education intervention, a nurse-led education plus ACT intervention or usual care. One hundred and eighteen participants completed baseline data collection (N=34 education group, N=39 education plus ACT, N=45 control group). An intention to treat analysis was employed.&nbsp; Results: A statistically significant reduction in HbA1c in the education intervention group was found (p=.011 [7.48, 8.14]). At 6 months, HbA1c was reduced in both intervention groups (Education group -0.21, education and ACT group -0.04) and increased in the control group (+0.32). A positive change in HbA1c (HbA1c reduced) was noted in 50 participants overall. Twice as many participants in the intervention groups demonstrated an improvement as compared to the control group (56% of the education group, 51% education plus ACT, and 24% control group.&nbsp; Conclusions: At 6 months post intervention, HbA1c was reduced in both intervention groups with a greater reduction noted in the nurse-led education intervention

A nurse-led interdisciplinary approach to promote self-management of type 2 diabetes: A process evaluation of post intervention experiences

Rationale, aims and objectives&nbsp; Self-management of type 2 diabetes through diet, exercise and for many medications, are vital in achieving and maintaining glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes. A number of interventions have been designed to improve self-management, but the outcomes of these are rarely explored from a qualitative angle and even fewer through a process evaluation.&nbsp; Method&nbsp; A process evaluation was conducted using a qualitative design with participants randomized to an intervention. Seventy-three people living with type 2 diabetes and hyperglycaemia for a minimum of 1 year, randomized to one of two interventions (n = 34 to an education intervention andn = 39 to an education and acceptance and commitment therapy intervention) completed stage one of the process evaluation, immediately following the intervention through written feedback guided by open-ended questions. A purposive sample of 27 participants completed semi-structured interviews at 3 and 6 months post intervention. Interview data were transcribed and data analysed using a thematic analysis.&nbsp; Results&nbsp; The majority of participants described an increase in knowledge around diabetes self-management and an increased sense of personal responsibility. Participants also described changes in self-management activities and reflected on the challenges in instigating and maintaining change to improve diabetes management.&nbsp; Conclusion&nbsp; The complexities of implementing change in daily life to improve glycaemic control indicate the need for ongoing support post intervention, which may increase and maintain the effectiveness of the intervention

Refitting of combined inner detector and muon spectrometer tracks from Monte Carlo samples by using the Kalman fitter and the STEP algorithm in the ATLAS experiment

In this paper we refit combined muon tracks using the Kalman fitter and the simultaneous track and error propagation (STEP) algorithm of the ATLAS tracking software. The muon tracks are simulated by GEANT4 in the full detector description, reconstructed by MUID, and refitted by the Kalman fitter in the ATLAS TrackingGeometry. The relative transverse momentum resolution of the refitted tracks is compared to the resolution of the refits done by the global chi-square track fitter, along with the resolution found by the MUID and STACO muon combination algorithms. Reconstructed invariant masses are compared in a similar way

Design, Commissioning and Performance of the PIBETA Detector at PSI

We describe the design, construction and performance of the PIBETA detector built for the precise measurement of the branching ratio of pion beta decay, pi+ -> pi0 e+ nu, at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The central part of the detector is a 240-module spherical pure CsI calorimeter covering 3*pi sr solid angle. The calorimeter is supplemented with an active collimator/beam degrader system, an active segmented plastic target, a pair of low-mass cylindrical wire chambers and a 20-element cylindrical plastic scintillator hodoscope. The whole detector system is housed inside a temperature-controlled lead brick enclosure which in turn is lined with cosmic muon plastic veto counters. Commissioning and calibration data were taken during two three-month beam periods in 1999/2000 with pi+ stopping rates between 1.3*E3 pi+/s and 1.3*E6 pi+/s. We examine the timing, energy and angular detector resolution for photons, positrons and protons in the energy range of 5-150 MeV, as well as the response of the detector to cosmic muons. We illustrate the detector signatures for the assorted rare pion and muon decays and their associated backgrounds.Comment: 117 pages, 48 Postscript figures, 5 tables, Elsevier LaTeX, submitted to Nucl. Instrum. Meth.