Continental accretion and incremental deformation in the thermochronologic evolution of the Lesser Caucasus

Apatite fission-track analysis and thermochronologic statistical modeling of Precambrian\u2013Oligocene plutonic and metamorphic rocks from the Lesser Caucasus resolve two discrete cooling episodes. Cooling occurred during incremental crustal shortening due to obduction and continental accretion along the margins of the northern branch of the Neotethys. (1) The thermochronometric record of a Late Cretaceous (Turonian\u2013Maastrichtian) cooling/exhumation event, coeval to widespread ophiolite obduction, is still present only in a relatively small area of the upper plate of the Amasia-Sevan-Akera (ASA) suture zone, i.e. the suture marking the final closure of the northern Neotethys during the Paleogene. Such area has not been affected by significant later exhumation. (2) Rapid cooling/exhumation occurred in the Early-Middle Miocene in both the lower and upper plates of the ASA suture zone, obscuring previous thermochronologic signatures over most of the study area. Miocene contractional reactivation of the ASA suture zone occurred contemporaneously with the main phase of shortening and exhumation along the Bitlis suture zone marking the closure of the southern branch of the Neotethys and the ensuing Arabia-Eurasia collision. Miocene collisional stress from the Bitlis suture zone was transmitted northward across the Anatolian hinterland, which was left relatively undeformed, and focused along preexisting structural discontinuities such as the eastern Pontides and the ASA suture zone

Photocatalytic hydrogen production using polymeric carbon nitride with a hydrogenase and a bioinspired synthetic Ni catalyst.

Solar-light-driven H2 production in water with a [NiFeSe]-hydrogenase (H2ase) and a bioinspired synthetic nickel catalyst (NiP) in combination with a heptazine carbon nitride polymer, melon (CN(x)), is reported. The semibiological and purely synthetic systems show catalytic activity during solar light irradiation with turnover numbers (TONs) of more than 50,000 mol H2(mol H2ase)(-1) and approximately 155 mol H2 (mol NiP)(-1) in redox-mediator-free aqueous solution at pH 6 and 4.5, respectively. Both systems maintained a reduced photoactivity under UV-free solar light irradiation (λ>420 nm).This is the final version. It was first published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201406811/abstract

Under the influence::Using natural language in interactive storytelling

Interacting in natural language with virtual actors is an important aspect of the development of future Interactive Storytelling systems. We describe a paradigm for speech interfaces in interactive storytelling based on the notion of influence. In this paradigm, the user is mainly a spectator who is however able to interfere with the course of action by issuing advice to the characters. This is achieved by recognising corresponding speech acts and mapping them to the plans which implement characters' behaviours in the story. We discuss some examples based on a preliminary, yet fully implemented, prototype

The Italian Journal of Geosciences is increasing its appeal among Geoscientists

This is an Editorial of the new Editorial Board of the Italian Journal of Geosciences, composed by Marco Balini (Milan), Hugo Bucher (Zürich), Simonetta Cirilli (Perugia), Laura Crispini (Genoa), Maurizio Mazzucchelli (Modena), and Giulio Ottonello (Genoa), which underlines the progress in the appeal of the journal among Geoscientists

Storytelling integration of the internet of things into business processes

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018. This paper discusses the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) into Business Processes (BPs). To define the business logic of thing-aware BPs, existing approaches extend traditional workflow languages (i.e., who does what, why, when, and where) with constructs like things’ roles. However, this way of defining the business logic restricts things’ operations and, thus, hinders them from initiating ad-hoc/opportunistic collaboration with peers. To overcome this limitation, we tap into the storytelling principles to introduce the concept of Process of Things (PoT) as a new way of integrating IoT into BPs. A PoT is specified as a story whose script indicates the characters that things will play as well as the scenes that will feature these things. A PoT, also, allows things to collaborate by offering value-added services to end-users. For demonstration purposes, a hospital scenario is implemented using a combination of real and simulated sensors along with different IoT technologies and communication protocols