Magmatic Cu-Ni-PGE-Au sulfide mineralisation in alkaline igneous systems: An example from the Sron Garbh intrusion, Tyndrum, Scotland

Magmatic sulfide deposits typically occur in ultramafic-mafic systems, however, mineralisation can occur in more intermediate and alkaline magmas. Sron Garbh is an appinite-diorite intrusion emplaced into Dalradian metasediments in the Tyndrum area of Scotland that hosts magmatic Cu-Ni-PGE-Au sulfide mineralisation in the appinitic portion. It is thus an example of magmatic sulfide mineralisation hosted by alkaline rocks, and is the most significantly mineralised appinitic intrusion known in the British Isles. The intrusion is irregularly shaped, with an appinite rim, comprising amphibole cumulates classed as vogesites. The central portion of the intrusion is comprised of unmineralised, but pyrite-bearing, diorites. Both appinites and diorites have similar trace element geochemistry that suggests the diorite is a more fractionated differentiate of the appinite from a common source that can be classed with the high Ba-Sr intrusions of the Scottish Caledonides. Mineralisation is present as a disseminated, primary chalcopyrite-pyrite-PGM assemblage and a blebby, pyrite-chalcopyrite assemblage with significant Co-As-rich pyrite. Both assemblages contain minor millerite and Ni-Co-As-sulfides. The mineralisation is Cu-, PPGE-, and Au-rich and IPGE-poor and the platinum group mineral assemblage is overwhelmingly dominated by Pd minerals; however, the bulk rock Pt/Pd ratio is around 0.8. Laser ablation analysis of the sulfides reveals that pyrite and the Ni-Co-sulfides are the primary host for Pt, which is present in solid solution in concentrations of up to 22 ppm in pyrite. Good correlations between all base and precious metals indicate very little hydrothermal remobilisation of metals despite some evidence of secondary pyrite and PGM. Sulfur isotope data indicate some crustal S in the magmatic sulfide assemblages. The source of this is unlikely to have been the local quartzites, but S-rich Dalradian sediments present at depth. The generation of magmatic Cu-Ni-PGE-Au mineralisation at Sron Garbh can be attributed to post-collisional slab drop off that allowed hydrous, low-degree partial melting to take place that produced a Cu-PPGE-Au-enriched melt, which ascended through the crust, assimilating crustal S from the Dalradian sediments. The presence of a number of PGE-enriched sulfide occurrences in appinitic intrusions across the Scottish Caledonides indicates that the region contains certain features that make it more prospective than other alkaline provinces worldwide, which may be linked the post-Caledonian slab drop off event. We propose that the incongruent melting of pre-existing magmatic sulfides or ‘refertilised’ mantle in low-degree partial melts can produce characteristically fractionated, Cu-PPGE-Au-semi metal bearing, hydrous, alkali melts, which, if they undergo sulfide saturation, have the potential to produce alkaline-hosted magmatic sulfide deposits

Stochastic Adaptive Control for Exponentially Convergent Time-Varying Systems

This paper shows that the standard stochastic adaptive control algorithms for time-invariant systems have an inherent robustness property which renders them applicable, without modification, to time-varying systems whose parameters converge exponentially. One class of systems satisfying this requirement is those having non-steady-state Kalman filter or innovation representations. This allows the usual assumption of a stationary ARMAX representation to be replaced by a more general state space model.published_or_final_versio

Sources d'information sur la santé et la mortalité en Afrique de l'Ouest : une étude comparative

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI: West African sources of health and mortality information : a comparative revie

West African sources of health and mortality information : a comparative review

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Sources d'information sur la santé et la mortalité en Afrique de l'Ouest : une étude comparativ

Measuring maternal mortality : an overview of opportunities and options for developing countries

Background:There is currently an unprecedented expressed need and demand for estimates of maternal mortality in developing countries. This has been stimulated in part by the creation of a Millennium Development Goal that will be judged partly on the basis of reductions in maternal mortality by 2015. Methods: Since the launch of the Safe Motherhood Initiative in 1987, new opportunities for data capture have arisen and new methods have been developed, tested and used. This paper provides a pragmatic overview of these methods and the optimal measurement strategies for different developing country contexts. Results: There are significant recent advances in the measurement of maternal mortality, yet also room for further improvement, particularly in assessing the magnitude and direction of biases and their implications for different data uses. Some of the innovations in measurement provide efficient mechanisms for gathering the requisite primary data at a reasonably low cost. No method, however, has zero costs. Investment is needed in measurement strategies for maternal mortality suited to the needs and resources of a country, and which also strengthen the technical capacity to generate and use credible estimates. Conclusion: Ownership of information is necessary for it to be acted upon: what you count is what you do. Difficulties with measurement must not be allowed to discourage efforts to reduce maternal mortality. Countries must be encouraged and enabled to count maternal deaths and act.WJG is funded partially by the University of Aberdeen. OMRC is partially funded by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. CS and SA are partially funded by Johns Hopkins University. CAZ is funded by the Health Metrics Network at the World Health Organization. WJG, OMRC, CS and SA are also partially supported through an international research program, Immpact, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department for International Development, the European Commission and USAID

The mechanism of glycosphingolipid degradation revealed by a GALC-SapA complex structure.

Sphingolipids are essential components of cellular membranes and defects in their synthesis or degradation cause severe human diseases. The efficient degradation of sphingolipids in the lysosome requires lipid-binding saposin proteins and hydrolytic enzymes. The glycosphingolipid galactocerebroside is the primary lipid component of the myelin sheath and is degraded by the hydrolase β-galactocerebrosidase (GALC). This enzyme requires the saposin SapA for lipid processing and defects in either of these proteins causes a severe neurodegenerative disorder, Krabbe disease. Here we present the structure of a glycosphingolipid-processing complex, revealing how SapA and GALC form a heterotetramer with an open channel connecting the enzyme active site to the SapA hydrophobic cavity. This structure defines how a soluble hydrolase can cleave the polar glycosyl headgroups of these essential lipids from their hydrophobic ceramide tails. Furthermore, the molecular details of this interaction provide an illustration for how specificity of saposin binding to hydrolases is encoded

Two 100 Mpc-scale structures in the 3-D distribution of radio galaxies and their implications

We present unequivocal evidence for a huge (~80 x 100 x 100 Mpc^3) super-structure at redshift z=0.27 in the 3-D distribution of radio galaxies from the TONS08 sample, confirming tentative evidence for such a structure from the 7C redshift survey (7CRS). A second, newly discovered super-structure is also less securely found at redshift 0.35 (of dimensions ~100 x 100 x 100 Mpc^3). We present full observational details on the TONS08 sample which was constructed to probe structures in the redshift range 0 < z < 0.5 by matching NVSS sources with objects in APM catalogues to obtain a sample of optically bright (E ~ R 3 mJy) radio galaxies in the same 25 deg^2 area as part-II of the 7CRS. Out of the total sample size of 84 radio galaxies, at least 25 are associated with the two ~100 Mpc-scale super-structures. We use quasi-linear structure formation theory to estimate the number of such structures expected in the TONS08 volume if the canonical value for radio galaxy bias is assumed. Under this assumption, the structures represent ~ 4-5 sigma peaks in the primordial density field and their expected number is low (~10^-2 - 10^-4). Fortunately, there are several plausible explanations (many of which are testable) for these low probabilities in the form of potential mechanisms for boosting the bias on large scales. These include: the association of radio galaxies with highly biased rich clusters in super-structures, enhanced triggering by group/group mergers, and enhanced triggering and/or redshift space distortion in collapsing systems as the growth of super-structures moves into the non-linear regime (abridged).Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 26 pages,16 figures. spectra can be found in: http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~brand/08_paper.ps.g