Contrasting stress fields on correlating margins of the South Atlantic

The “passiveness” of passive continental margins across the globe is currently under debate since several studies have shown that these margins may experience a variety of stress states and undergo significant vertical movement post-breakup. Of special interest is the South Atlantic, because the bounding continents have very different recent geological histories, with Africa experiencing continental rifting whereas South America is influenced by subduction on the Pacific side. It is not clear to what extent the Atlantic continental margins are subject to the same stresses and vertical motions as the main continents. To address this problem, we performed a paleostress analysis of two originally adjacent areas, i.e. NW Namibia and SE/S Brazil. Both areas are covered by the ~ 133-Ma-old Paraná-Etendeka extrusives that were emplaced shortly before or during the onset of the Atlantic rifting. Thus, the volcanics serve as a time marker for syn- or post-rift deformation. Collected fault slip data in the volcanics reveal remarkable differences between the two correlating areas. NW Namibia was dominated by extension in ENE-WSW and SW-NE directions, and by minor strike-slip movement with NW-SE directed compression. SE/S Brazil was mostly affected by strike-slip faulting, with compression oriented E-W and SW-NE. Similar fault systems appear widespread across SE Brazil and may be the combined result of flexural margin bending and the Nazca plate subduction. The results of NW Namibia differ from known compressional stress tensors in western South Africa, post-dating 90 Ma. The south-western African continental margin may thus have experienced a spatially variable stress history. Our results show that the tectonic evolution of the continental margins of the South Atlantic is not passive and that both margins vary significantly in structural style and stress fields, indicating that variable plate boundary forces play a major role in margin evolution

Onset of intruder ground state in exotic Na isotopes and evolution of the N=20 shell gap

The onset of intruder ground states in Na isotopes is investigated by comparing experimental data and shell-model calculations. This onset is one of the consequences of the disappearance of the N=20 magic structure, and the Na isotopes are shown to play a special role in clarifying the change of this magic structure. Both the electromagnetic moments and the energy levels clearly indicate an onset of ground state intruder configurations at neutron number N=19 already, which arises only with a narrow N=20 shell gap in Na isotopes resulting from the spin-isospin dependence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction (as compared to a wider gap in stable nuclei like 40Ca). It is shown why the previous report based on the mass led to a wrong conclusion.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Mutually compensative pseudo solutions of primary energy spectra in the knee region

The problem of the uniqueness of solutions during the evaluation of primary energy spectra in the knee region using an extensive air shower (EAS) data set and the EAS inverse approach is investigated. It is shown that the unfolding of primary energy spectra in the knee region leads to mutually compensative pseudo solutions. These solutions may be the reason for the observed disagreements in the elementary energy spectra of cosmic rays in the 1-100 PeV energy range obtained from different experiments.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Dynamic in vitro hemocompatibility testing – improving the signal to noise ratio

Assigning the hemocompatibility of small vascular implants is one of the great challenges in biomedical engineering. Due to the fact, that there are no widely approved test setups1, we decided to developed a modified CHANDLER-Loop system for dynamic in vitro hemocompatibility tests. The setup allows simultaneous testing of about 30 tube rings with an inner diameter of 2,4 mm. Cardiovascular implants can be placed into these tube rings. After filling them with anticoagulated blood and closing them to loops, they were placed on a rotating disc. While the loop is rotating, the blood remains in the lower part of the loop. The relative movement between the foreign surface and the blood sample induces a blood flow without the need of mechanical pumping. A first test series with the new test setup had been conducted to achieve a highly hemocompatible tube material. The results were compared to hemocompatibility tests done by LEMM, mentioned in the ISO 10993-42,3. We could prove, that Tygon S50HL® and Polyurethane achieve similar hemocompatibility values. In addition, we did in vitro tests of bare metal stents. We recorded a difference in the index of thrombocytes of about 17 % between the loops with three stents and the control. During further experiments the difference decreases to 8 %, which might be due to adhesion processes. The ability to measure these processes demonstrates the high sensitivity and very low background activation of the test setup. This can be assured by the recorded index of hemolysis, which had been less than 0,8 % in all our experiments. By developing and improving our modified CHANDLER-Loop system, we were able to establish a dynamic in vitro test setup for the hemocompatibility testing of small vascular implants. Because of its extremely low background activation and a high variability, the system serves as a benchmark for upcoming test setups.SFB-TR37 – Q2SFB-TR37 – B

A systematic review and diagnostic test accuracy meta-analysis of the validity of anion gap as a screening tool for hyperlactatemia

Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis seeks to determine the validity of the anion gap to screen for hyperlactatemia in critically ill patients. We have previously shown that the anion gap does not predict 31-day and in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients. The present review aims to add confirmatory evidence to identify whether the anion gap is a suitable tool for risk stratification in low-resource countries. Results Nine studies reporting on 4504 samples from 2111 patients were included. The anion gap failed to detect hyperlactatemia defined as lactate above 2.5 mmol/l but showed good discriminatory ability for the detection of severe hyperlactatemia defined as lactate over 4 mmol/l. At the 2.5 mmol/l threshold, the anion gap had high specificity but low sensitivity for the detection of hyperlactatemia. A meta-analysis of correlation coefficients yielded high statistical heterogeneity. Therefore, in keeping with our previous findings, the use of the anion gap for risk stratification as an alternative to lactate cannot be recommended. However, the strength of the evidence we have synthesised is adversely affected by the small number of studies included, inconsistency of effect measures and positivity thresholds reported, and selection bias within individual studies. PROSPERO Registration Number: CRD42015016470 (registered on the 4th February 2015)

Anion gap as a prognostic tool for risk stratification in critically ill patients – a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Lactate concentration is a robust predictor of mortality but in many low resource settings facilities for its analysis are not available. Anion gap (AG), calculated from clinical chemistry results, is a marker of metabolic acidosis and may be more easily obtained in such settings. In this systematic review and meta-analysis we investigated whether the AG predicts mortality in adult patients admitted to critical care settings. Methods We searched Medline, Embase, Web of Science, Scopus, The Cochrane Library and regional electronic databases from inception until May 2016. Studies conducted in any clinical setting that related AG to in-hospital mortality, in-intensive care unit mortality, 31-day mortality or comparable outcome measures were eligible for inclusion. Methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the Quality in Prognostic Studies tool. Descriptive meta-analysis was performed and the I2 test was used to quantify heterogeneity. Subgroup analysis was undertaken to identify potential sources of heterogeneity between studies. Results Nineteen studies reporting findings in 12,497 patients were included. Overall, quality of studies was poor and most studies were rated as being at moderate or high risk of attrition bias and confounding. There was substantial diversity between studies with regards to clinical setting, age and mortality rates of patient cohorts. High statistical heterogeneity was found in the meta-analyses of area under the ROC curve (I2=99%) and mean difference (I2=97%) for the observed AG. Three studies reported good discriminatory power of the AG to predict mortality and were responsible for a large proportion of statistical heterogeneity. The remaining 16 studies reported poor to moderate ability of the AG to predict mortality. Subgroup analysis suggested that intravenous fluids affect the ability of the AG to predict mortality. Conclusion Based on the limited quality of available evidence, a single AG measurement cannot be recommended for risk stratification in critically ill patients. The probable influence of intravenous fluids on AG levels renders the AG an impractical tool in clinical practice. Future research should focus on increasing the availability of lactate monitoring in low resource settings.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Dynamische In-Vitro-Studie zur Strömungsabhängigkeit der Degradationsrate von Magnesium

Zur Schaffung eines standardisierten Versuchsablaufs für Studien zur Magnesiumdegradation im Rahmen der Entwicklung eines biodegradablen Implantatwerkstoffs, wurde eine Steuerung für einen Prüfstand zur dynamischen in-vitro-Testung programmiert und deren Funktionsfähigkeit mit einer Testreihe bestätigt. Durch die Ergebnisse dieser Versuchsreihe konnte zudem die Strömungsabhängigkeit der Degradationsrate von Magnesium nachgewiesen werden