241 research outputs found

    High-Resolution Topography along Surface Rupture of the 16 October 1999 Hector Mine, California, Earthquake (M_w 7.1) from Airborne Laser Swath Mapping

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    In order to document surface rupture associated with the Hector Mine earthquake, in particular, the area of maximum slip and the deformed surface of Lavic Lake playa, we acquired high-resolution data using relatively new topographic-mapping methods. We performed a raster-laser scan of the main surface breaks along the entire rupture zone, as well as along an unruptured portion of the Bullion fault. The image of the ground surface produced by this method is highly detailed, comparable to that obtained when geologists make particularly detailed site maps for geomorphic or paleoseismic studies. In this case, however, for the first time after a surface-rupturing earthquake, the detailed mapping is along the entire fault zone rather than being confined to selected sites. These data are geodetically referenced, using the Global Positioning System, thus enabling more accurate mapping of the rupture traces. In addition, digital photographs taken along the same flight lines can be overlaid onto the precise topographic data, improving terrain visualization. We demonstrate the potential of these techniques for measuring fault-slip vectors

    Earthquake (M w 7.1) from Airborne Laser Swath Mapping

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    Abstract In order to document surface rupture associated with the Hector Mine earthquake, in particular, the area of maximum slip and the deformed surface of Lavic Lake playa, we acquired high-resolution data using relatively new topographicmapping methods. We performed a raster-laser scan of the main surface breaks along the entire rupture zone, as well as along an unruptured portion of the Bullion fault. The image of the ground surface produced by this method is highly detailed, comparable to that obtained when geologists make particularly detailed site maps for geomorphic or paleoseismic studies. In this case, however, for the first time after a surface-rupturing earthquake, the detailed mapping is along the entire fault zone rather than being confined to selected sites. These data are geodetically referenced, using the Global Positioning System, thus enabling more accurate mapping of the rupture traces. In addition, digital photographs taken along the same flight lines can be overlaid onto the precise topographic data, improving terrain visualization. We demonstrate the potential of these techniques for measuring fault-slip vectors

    Syn‐rift sediment gravity flow deposition on a Late Jurassic fault‐terraced slope, northern North Sea

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    Structurally controlled bathymetry in rifts has a significant influence on sediment routing pathways and depositional architecture of sediment gravity flow deposits. In contrast to rift segments characterized by crustal-scale half-grabens, the tectono-stratigraphic evolution of deep-water rift domains characterised by distributed faulting on narrow fault terraces has received little attention. We use 3D broadband seismic data, calibrated by boreholes, from the Lomre and Uer terraces in the northern North Sea rift to investigate Late Jurassic syn-rift sediment gravity flow systems on fault-terraced slopes. The sediment gravity flow fairways were sourced from hinterland drainages via basin margin deltaic systems on the Horda Platform to the southeast. The deep-water sedimentary systems evolve from initial, widespread submarine channelized lobe complexes, through submarine channels, to incised submarine canyons. This progressive confinement of the sediment gravity flow system was concomitant with progressive localization of strain onto the main terrace-bounding faults. Although the normal fault network on the terraces has local impact on deep-water sediment transport and the architecture of gravity flow deposits, it is the regional basin margin to rift axis gradient that dominantly controls deep-water sediment routing. Furthermore, the gravity flow deposits on the Lomre and Uer terraces were predominantly sourced by rift margin deltaic systems, not from erosion of local uplifted footwall crests, emphasising the significance of hinterland catchments in the development of volumetrically significant deep-water syn-rift depositional systems

    A pilot Internet "Value of Health" Panel: recruitment, participation and compliance

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    Objectives To pilot using a panel of members of the public to provide preference data via the Internet Methods A stratified random sample of members of the general public was recruited and familiarised with the standard gamble procedure using an Internet based tool. Health states were perdiodically presented in "sets" corresponding to different conditions, during the study. The following were described: Recruitment (proportion of people approached who were trained); Participation (a) the proportion of people trained who provided any preferences and (b) the proportion of panel members who contributed to each "set" of values; and Compliance (the proportion, per participant, of preference tasks which were completed). The influence of covariates on these outcomes was investigated using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results A panel of 112 people was recruited. 23% of those approached (n = 5,320) responded to the invitation, and 24% of respondents (n = 1,215) were willing to participate (net = 5.5%). However, eventual recruitment rates, following training, were low (2.1% of those approached). Recruitment from areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and among ethnic minority communities was low. Eighteen sets of health state descriptions were considered over 14 months. 74% of panel members carried out at least one valuation task. People from areas of higher socioeconomic deprivation and unmarried people were less likely to participate. An average of 41% of panel members expressed preferences on each set of descriptions. Compliance ranged from 3% to 100%. Conclusion It is feasible to establish a panel of members of the general public to express preferences on a wide range of health state descriptions using the Internet, although differential recruitment and attrition are important challenges. Particular attention to recruitment and retention in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation and among ethnic minority communities is necessary. Nevertheless, the panel approach to preference measurement using the Internet offers the potential to provide specific utility data in a responsive manner for use in economic evaluations and to address some of the outstanding methodological uncertainties in this field

    Laser vision : lidar as a transformative tool to advance critical zone science

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    © The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 19 (2015): 2881-2897, doi:10.5194/hess-19-2881-2015.Observation and quantification of the Earth's surface is undergoing a revolutionary change due to the increased spatial resolution and extent afforded by light detection and ranging (lidar) technology. As a consequence, lidar-derived information has led to fundamental discoveries within the individual disciplines of geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology. These disciplines form the cornerstones of critical zone (CZ) science, where researchers study how interactions among the geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere shape and maintain the "zone of life", which extends from the top of unweathered bedrock to the top of the vegetation canopy. Fundamental to CZ science is the development of transdisciplinary theories and tools that transcend disciplines and inform other's work, capture new levels of complexity, and create new intellectual outcomes and spaces. Researchers are just beginning to use lidar data sets to answer synergistic, transdisciplinary questions in CZ science, such as how CZ processes co-evolve over long timescales and interact over shorter timescales to create thresholds, shifts in states and fluxes of water, energy, and carbon. The objective of this review is to elucidate the transformative potential of lidar for CZ science to simultaneously allow for quantification of topographic, vegetative, and hydrological processes. A review of 147 peer-reviewed lidar studies highlights a lack of lidar applications for CZ studies as 38 % of the studies were focused in geomorphology, 18 % in hydrology, 32 % in ecology, and the remaining 12 % had an interdisciplinary focus. A handful of exemplar transdisciplinary studies demonstrate lidar data sets that are well-integrated with other observations can lead to fundamental advances in CZ science, such as identification of feedbacks between hydrological and ecological processes over hillslope scales and the synergistic co-evolution of landscape-scale CZ structure due to interactions amongst carbon, energy, and water cycles. We propose that using lidar to its full potential will require numerous advances, including new and more powerful open-source processing tools, exploiting new lidar acquisition technologies, and improved integration with physically based models and complementary in situ and remote-sensing observations. We provide a 5-year vision that advocates for the expanded use of lidar data sets and highlights subsequent potential to advance the state of CZ science.The workshop forming the impetus for this paper was funded by the National Science Foundation (EAR 1406031). Additional funding for the workshop and planning was provided to S. W. Lyon by the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT grant no. 2013-5261). A. A. Harpold was supported by an NSF fellowship (EAR 1144894)

    Palaeozoic-Recent geological development and uplift of the Amanos Mountains (S Turkey) in the critically located northwesternmost corner of the Arabian continent

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    <p>We have carried out a several-year-long study of the Amanos Mountains, on the basis of which we present new sedimentary and structural evidence, which we combine with existing data, to produce the first comprehensive synthesis in the regional geological setting. The ca. N-S-trending Amanos Mountains are located at the northwesternmost edge of the Arabian plate, near the intersection of the African and Eurasian plates. Mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sediments accumulated on the north-Gondwana margin during the Palaeozoic. Triassic rift-related sedimentation was followed by platform carbonate deposition during Jurassic-Cretaceous. Late Cretaceous was characterised by platform collapse and southward emplacement of melanges and a supra-subduction zone ophiolite. Latest Cretaceous transgressive shallow-water carbonates gave way to deeper-water deposits during Palaeocene-Eocene. Eocene southward compression, reflecting initial collision, resulted in open folding, reverse faulting and duplexing. Fluvial, lagoonal and shallow-marine carbonates accumulated during Late Oligocene(?)-Early Miocene, associated with basaltic magmatism. Intensifying collision during Mid-Miocene initiated a foreland basin that then infilled with deep-water siliciclastic gravity flows. Late Miocene-Early Pliocene compression created mountain-sized folds and thrusts, verging E in the north but SE in the south. The resulting surface uplift triggered deposition of huge alluvial outwash fans in the west. Smaller alluvial fans formed along both mountain flanks during the Pleistocene after major surface uplift ended. Pliocene-Pleistocene alluvium was tilted towards the mountain front in the west. Strike-slip/transtension along the East Anatolian Transform Fault and localised sub-horizontal Quaternary basaltic volcanism in the region reflect regional transtension during Late Pliocene-Pleistocene (<4 Ma).</p

    Effects of Genotype and Growth Temperature on the Contents of Tannin, Phytate and in vitro Iron Availability of Sorghum Grains

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    Background: It has been predicted that the global temperature will rise in the future, which means crops including sorghum will likely be grown under higher temperatures, and consequently may affect the nutritional properties. Methods: The effects of two growth temperatures (OT, day/night 32/21°C; HT 38/21°C) on tannin, phytate, mineral, and in vitro iron availability of raw and cooked grains (as porridge) of six sorghum genotypes were investigated. Results: Tannin content significantly decreased across all sorghum genotypes under high growth temperature (P ≤0.05), while the phytate and mineral contents maintained the same level, increased or decreased significantly, depending on the genotype. The in vitro iron availability in most sorghum genotypes was also significantly reduced under high temperature, except for Ai4, which showed a pronounced increase (P ≤0.05). The cooking process significantly reduced tannin content in all sorghum genotypes (P ≤0.05), while the phytate content and in vitro iron availability were not significantly affected. Conclusions: This research provides some new information on sorghum grain nutritional properties when grown under predicted future higher temperatures, which could be important for humans where sorghum grains are consumed as staple food

    Evaluation of high-throughput genomic assays for the Fc gamma receptor locus

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    Cancer immunotherapy has been revolutionised by the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that function through their interaction with Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs). The low-affinity FcγR genes are highly homologous, map to a complex locus at 1p23 and harbour single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and copy number variation (CNV) that can impact on receptor function and response to therapeutic mAbs. This complexity can hinder accurate characterisation of the locus. We therefore evaluated and optimised a suite of assays for the genomic analysis of the FcγR locus amenable to peripheral blood mononuclear cells and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) material that can be employed in a high-throughput manner. Assessment of TaqMan genotyping for FCGR2A-131H/R, FCGR3A-158F/V and FCGR2B-232I/T SNPs demonstrated the need for additional methods to discriminate genotypes for the FCGR3A-158F/V and FCGR2B-232I/T SNPs due to sequence homology and CNV in the region. A multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assay provided high quality SNP and CNV data in PBMC cases, but there was greater data variability in FFPE material in a manner that was predicted by the BIOMED-2 multiplex PCR protocol. In conclusion, we have evaluated a suite of assays for the genomic analysis of the FcγR locus that are scalable for application in large clinical trials of mAb therapy. These assays will ultimately help establish the importance of FcγR genetics in predicting response to antibody therapeutics

    Distinct in vitro binding properties of the anti-CD20 small modular immunopharmaceutical 2LM20-4 result in profound and sustained in vivo potency in cynomolgus monkeys

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    Objectives. To characterize the in vitro binding and effector function properties of CD20-directed small modular immunopharmaceutical (SMIP) 2LM20-4, and to compare its in vivo B-cell depletion activity with the mutated 2LM20-4 P331S [no in vitro complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC)] and rituximab in cynomolgus monkeys
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