Incipient Continent-Continent Collision between the Eratosthenes Seamount and Cyprus / Eastern Mediterranean

Earth processes related to incipient continent-continent collision have been studied via the example of Cyprus and the Eratosthenes Seamount in the eastern Mediterranean. Subduction of the African plate beneath the Cyprus-Anatolian plate continued until the seamount, and perhaps a predecessor, the Hecataeus Rise, approached the Cyprus arc trench. The following transition from subduction to collision triggered a series of synchronous deformations across the collision zone between Africa-Sinai-Arabia and Eurasia-Anatolia, including the entire eastern Mediterranean region. This fundamental Earth process has been studied during research cruise MSM14/3 with RV Maria S. Merian in spring 2010. 39 MCS-profiles of more than 2300 km entire length, more than 3000 km magnetic and sediment echosounder data, and about 4000 km of gravity data have been recorded. Four wide-angle reflection/refraction profiles across the seamount were measured with up to 34 OBS deployments along each profile. 10 ocean-bottommagnetotelluric stations were deployed along one of these profiles that connects the seamount with the Hecataeus Rise. One 650 km long amphibian refraction profile strikes across the seamount, Cyprus and southern Turkey. Of the 250 land stations, 200 were deployed in southern Turkey and 50 in Cyprus. A first analysis of the collected data led to the following hypothesis about the interrelation of observed processes: Continent-continent collision caused a compressional regime in the crustal lithosphere, which resulted in the flexure (of the Eratosthenes Seamount), uplift (of Cyprus and Turkey) and accordingly an increased tilt of the facing slopes. The collision reactivated Mesozoic fault lineaments in the Levantine Basin like the Baltim-Hecataeus-Line and created the Hecataeus Rise. Shortening in the non-consolidated Messinian to Holocene sediment succession between the seamount and Cyprus resulted in faulting, folding and compressional salt diapirism. The increase in pore pressure causes fluid migration and mud volcanism. Slope tilt and faulting triggered mass wasting. All of these processes are still shaping the seafloor morphology and interact with the bottom current circulation, which is reflected by sediment drift deposition, sediment remobilisation and erosion, which facilitates again mass wasting

A New Way of Identifying Biomarkers in Biomedical Basic-Research Studies

A simple, nonparametric and distribution free method was developed for quick identification of the most meaningful biomarkers among a number of candidates in complex biological phenomena, especially in relatively small samples. This method is independent of rigid model forms or other link functions. It may be applied both to metric and non-metric data as well as to independent or matched parallel samples. With this method identification of the most relevant biomarkers is not based on inferential methods; therefore, its application does not require corrections of the level of significance, even in cases of thousands of variables. Hence, the introduced method is appropriate to analyze and evaluate data of complex investigations in clinical and pre-clinical basic research, such as gene or protein expressions, phenotype-genotype associations in case-control studies on the basis of thousands of genes and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphism), search of prevalence in sleep EEG-Data, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or others

ENIGMA-anxiety working group : Rationale for and organization of large-scale neuroimaging studies of anxiety disorders

Altres ajuts: Anxiety Disorders Research Network European College of Neuropsychopharmacology; Claude Leon Postdoctoral Fellowship; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation, 44541416-TRR58); EU7th Frame Work Marie Curie Actions International Staff Exchange Scheme grant 'European and South African Research Network in Anxiety Disorders' (EUSARNAD); Geestkracht programme of the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw, 10-000-1002); Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) program within the National Institute of Mental Health under the Intramural Research Program (NIMH-IRP, MH002781); National Institute of Mental Health under the Intramural Research Program (NIMH-IRP, ZIA-MH-002782); SA Medical Research Council; U.S. National Institutes of Health grants (P01 AG026572, P01 AG055367, P41 EB015922, R01 AG060610, R56 AG058854, RF1 AG051710, U54 EB020403).Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and disabling but seem particularly tractable to investigation with translational neuroscience methodologies. Neuroimaging has informed our understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, but research has been limited by small sample sizes and low statistical power, as well as heterogenous imaging methodology. The ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group has brought together researchers from around the world, in a harmonized and coordinated effort to address these challenges and generate more robust and reproducible findings. This paper elaborates on the concepts and methods informing the work of the working group to date, and describes the initial approach of the four subgroups studying generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobia. At present, the ENIGMA-Anxiety database contains information about more than 100 unique samples, from 16 countries and 59 institutes. Future directions include examining additional imaging modalities, integrating imaging and genetic data, and collaborating with other ENIGMA working groups. The ENIGMA consortium creates synergy at the intersection of global mental health and clinical neuroscience, and the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group extends the promise of this approach to neuroimaging research on anxiety disorders