Arrested development-A comparative analysis of multilayer corona textures in high-grade metamorphic rocks

Coronas, including symplectites, provide vital clues to the presence of arrested reaction and preservation of partial equilibrium in metamorphic and igneous rocks. Compositional zonation across such coronas is common, indicating the persistence of chemical potential gradients and incomplete equilibration. Major controls on corona mineralogy include prevailing pressure (P), temperature (T ) and water activity (aH2O) during formation, reaction duration (t ) single-stage or sequential corona layer growth; reactant bulk compositions (X) and the extent of metasomatic exchange with the surrounding rock; relative diffusion rates for major components; and/or contemporaneous deformation and strain. High-variance local equilibria in a corona and disequilibrium across the corona as a whole preclude the application of conventional thermobarometry when determining P-T conditions of corona formation, and zonation in phase composition across a corona should not be interpreted as a record of discrete P-T conditions during successive layer growth along the P-T path. Rather, the local equilibria between mineral pairs in corona layers more likely reflect compositional partitioning of the corona domain during steadystate growth at constant P and T . Corona formation in pelitic and mafic rocks requires relatively dry, residual bulk rock compositions. Since most melt is lost along the high-T prograde to peak segment of the P-T path, only a small fraction of melt is generally retained in the residual post-peak assemblage. Reduced melt volumes with cooling limit length scales of diffusion to the extent that diffusion-controlled corona growth occurs. On the prograde path, the low melt (or melt-absent) volumes required for diffusion-controlled corona growth are only commonly realized in mafic igneous rocks, owing to their intrinsic anhydrous bulk composition, and in dry, residual pelitic compositions that have lost melt in an earlier metamorphic event. Experimental work characterizing rate-limiting reaction mechanisms and their petrogenetic signatures in increasingly complex, higher-variance systems has facilitated the refinement of chemical fractionation and partial equilibration diffusion models necessary to more fully understand corona development. Through the application of quantitative physical diffusion models of coronas coupled with phase equilibria modelling utilizing calculated chemical potential gradients, it is possible to model the evolution of a corona through P-T-X-t space by continuous, steady-state and/or sequential, episodic reaction mechanisms. Most coronas in granulites form through a combination of these endmember reaction mechanisms, each characterized by distinct textural and chemical potential signatures with very different petrogenetic implications. An understanding of the inherent petrogenetic limitations of a reaction mechanism model is critical if an appropriate interpretation of P-T evolution is to be inferred from a corona. Since corona modelling employing calculated chemical potential gradients assumes nothing about the sequence in which the layers form and is directly constrained by phase compositional variation within a layer, it allows far more nuanced and robust understanding of corona evolution and its implications for the path of a rock in P-T-X space.EM201

'I'd like to know what causes it, you know, anything I've done?' Are we meeting the information and support needs of patients with macular degeneration? A qualitative study

Objective: To examine patients' experiences of information and support provision for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the UK. Study design: Exploratory qualitative study investigating patient experiences of healthcare consultations and living with AMD over 18 months. Setting: Specialist eye clinics at a Birmingham hospital. Participants: 13 patients diagnosed with AMD. Main outcome measures: Analysis of patients' narratives to identify key themes and issues relating to information and support needs. Results: Information was accessed from a variety of sources. There was evidence of clear information deficits prior to diagnosis, following diagnosis and ongoing across the course of the condition. Patients were often ill informed and therefore unable to self-advocate and recognise when support was needed, what support was available and how to access support. Conclusions: AMD patients have a variety of information needs that are variable across the course of the condition. Further research is needed to determine whether these experiences are typical and identify ways of translating the guidelines into practice. Methods of providing information need to be investigated and improved for this patient group

A possible Mesoarchaean impact structure at Setlagole, North West Province, South Africa : aeromagnetic and field evidence

A 25 to 30 km wide magnetic anomaly within the >2.79 Ga granite-greenstone rocks of the northwestern Kaapvaal Craton is spatially associated with megabreccia outcrops near the village of Setlagole in the North West Province, South Africa. The breccia comprises angular to rounded ciasts of TTG gneisses, granites and granodiorites, with les.ser amounts of amphilxjlite, calc-silicate rock and banded iron-formation as well as unusual dark grey to black, irregular, centimetre- to decimetre-sized clasts that show evidence of fluidal behaviour and plastic deformation during incorporation into the breccia. The largest cla.sts reach up to several metres in size. Evidence of fluvial transport is found in rare thin sandy to gritty layers that show crude bedding and upward-fining with layers dipping gently to the northeast. The breccia matrix is highly variable but is dominated by angular mineral clasls (mainly quartz and feldspar, with subsidiary biotite, amphibole and epidote) with interstitial chlorite. The clasts show variable amounts of alteration (saussuritization, sericitization, chloritization of biotite and amphibole). The dark clasts contain angular quartz and feldspar and small biotite fragments in a cryptocrystalline chlorite-dominant matrix. Textures indicate a lower greenschist faciès metamorphic overprint. The absence of lava, dolomite or quartzite cla.sts suggests that the breccia formed prior to the deposition of the Neoarchaean Ventersdorp and Eoproterozoic Transvaal Supergroups, whereas the metamorphic grade indicates that it postdates the ca. 2.79 Ga amphibolite-facies metamorphic peak in the region. This suggests a late Mesoarchaean or early Neoarchaean (ca. 2.79 to 2.71 Ga) age for the breccia. A similar age is inferred for the magnetic anomaly based on postulated crosscutting dyke ages. Despite a comprehensive search, unequivocal shock-diagnostic microdeformation features have not yet Ixïen found in either the breccia or the highly-weathered granitic gneiss outcrops in the central parts of the anomaly. The unusual plastically-deformed dark clasts may represent chloritized mud clasts or impact melt clasts. Geochemical data on these clasts and other components of the megabreccia provide no conclusive support for a meteoritic origin, but the unparalleled comptjsition of the clasts and their high trace element abundances of Ni, Cr, V, Zn and Co relative to rocks of the Kraaipan granite-greenstone basement, sugge.sts an unusual origin for this matrix material. Given the distinctive nature of the breccia and its proximity to a large circular magnetic anomaly, it is postulated that the megabreccia could represent a mass or debris flow in a marine .setting triggered by an impact tsunami or resurge. Subsequent faulting may have led to the preferential preservation of these deposits. This interpretation of the Setlagole megabreccia and geophysical anomaly is evaluated in terms of other possible modes of origin and it is concluded that a meteoritic source best fits the available data

Relaxed MHD states of a multiple region plasma

We calculate the stability of a multiple relaxation region MHD (MRXMHD) plasma, or stepped-Beltrami plasma, using both variational and tearing mode treatments. The configuration studied is a periodic cylinder. In the variational treatment, the problem reduces to an eigenvalue problem for the interface displacements. For the tearing mode treatment, analytic expressions for the tearing mode stability parameter $\Delta'$, being the jump in the logarithm in the helical flux across the resonant surface, are found. The stability of these treatments is compared for $m=1$ displacements of an illustrative RFP-like configuration, comprising two distinct plasma regions. For pressure-less configurations, we find the marginal stability conclusions of each treatment to be identical, confirming analytic results in the literature. The tearing mode treatment also resolves ideal MHD unstable solutions for which $\Delta' \to \infty$: these correspond to displacement of a resonant interface. Wall stabilisation scans resolve the internal and external ideal kink. Scans with increasing pressure are also performed: these indicate that both variational and tearing mode treatments have the same stability trends with $\beta$, and show pressure stabilisation in configurations with increasing edge pressure. Combined, our results suggest that MRXMHD configurations which are stable to ideal perturbations plus tearing modes are automatically in a stable state. Such configurations, and their stability properties, are of emerging importance in the quest to find mathematically rigorous solutions of ideal MHD force balance in 3D geometry.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, 22nd IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Geneva, Switzerland. Submitted to Nuclear Fusio

3D MHD Flux Emergence Experiments: Idealized models and coronal interactions

This paper reviews some of the many 3D numerical experiments of the emergence of magnetic fields from the solar interior and the subsequent interaction with the pre-existing coronal magnetic field. The models described here are idealized, in the sense that the internal energy equation only involves the adiabatic, Ohmic and viscous shock heating terms. However, provided the main aim is to investigate the dynamical evolution, this is adequate. Many interesting observational phenomena are explained by these models in a self-consistent manner.Comment: Review article, accepted for publication in Solar Physic

Homologous Flares and Magnetic Field Topology in Active Region NOAA 10501 on 20 November 2003

We present and interpret observations of two morphologically homologous flares that occurred in active region (AR) NOAA 10501 on 20 November 2003. Both flares displayed four homologous H-alpha ribbons and were both accompanied by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The central flare ribbons were located at the site of an emerging bipole in the center of the active region. The negative polarity of this bipole fragmented in two main pieces, one rotating around the positive polarity by ~ 110 deg within 32 hours. We model the coronal magnetic field and compute its topology, using as boundary condition the magnetogram closest in time to each flare. In particular, we calculate the location of quasiseparatrix layers (QSLs) in order to understand the connectivity between the flare ribbons. Though several polarities were present in AR 10501, the global magnetic field topology corresponds to a quadrupolar magnetic field distribution without magnetic null points. For both flares, the photospheric traces of QSLs are similar and match well the locations of the four H-alpha ribbons. This globally unchanged topology and the continuous shearing by the rotating bipole are two key factors responsible for the flare homology. However, our analyses also indicate that different magnetic connectivity domains of the quadrupolar configuration become unstable during each flare, so that magnetic reconnection proceeds differently in both events.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Solar Physics (accepted

Chasing the genes that control resistance to gastrointestinal nematodes

The host-protective immune response to infection with gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes involves a range of interacting processes that begin with recognition of the parasite’s antigens and culminate in an inflammatory reaction in the intestinal mucosa. Precisely which immune effectors are responsible for the loss of specific worms is still not known although many candidate effectors have beenproposed. However, it is now clear that many different genes regulate the response and that differences between hosts (fast or strong versus slow or weak responses) can be explained by allelic variation in crucial genes associated with the gene cascade that accompanies the immune response and/or genes encoding constitutively expressed receptor/signalling molecules. Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes have been recognized for some time as decisive in controlling immunity, and evidence that non-MHC genes are equally, if not more important in this respect has also been available for two decades. Nevertheless, whilst the former have been mapped in mice, only two candidate loci have been proposed for non-MHC genes and relatively little is known about their roles. Now, with the availability of microsatellite markers, it is possible to exploit linkage mapping techniques to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for resistance to GI nematodes. Four QTL for resistance to Heligmosomoides polygyrus, and additional QTL affecting faecal egg production by the worms and the accompanying immune responses, have been identified. Fine mapping and eventually the identification of the genes (and their alleles) underlying QTL for resistance/susceptibility will permit informed searches for homologues in domestic animals, and human beings, through comparative genomic maps. This information in turn will facilitate targeted breeding to improve resistance in domestic animals and, in human beings, focused application of treatment and control strategies for GI nematodes