Oxidized and reduced kaolin fan deposits: Their sedimentological-mineralogical facies and physical-chemical regime (North-Bavarian Kaolin Mining District, Germany)

The kaolin-fan deposits under consideration are sedimentary in origin and they bridge the gap between residual kaolin deposits proximal to the fan apex in crystalline basement rocks and syn(dia)genetic sandstone-hosted kaolin deposits on the fan apron. The “kaolin ore beds” on the other hand, developed in an arenaceous braided-river drainage system (bed load >>> suspended load deposits), reworking into secondary kaolin deposits that took place either intraformationally during the evolution of the kaolin fan deposits or epigenetically after unroofing of the kaolin deposits in high-sinuosity drainage systems passing, locally, into ephemeral lakes and mud flats (suspended load > bed load deposits). The reference type for kaolin fan deposits has been studied in terrigeneous sediments which are largely mined at Hirschau–Schnaittenbach, along the Western edge of the Bohemian Massif, SE Germany. The fan deposits formed under alternating wet and dry subtropical climatic conditions during the early Triassic. Different intensities of uplift in the hinterland and the frequency of tectonic quiescence to tectonic pulse had a strong impact on the paleogradient, facies and hydrography of the kaolin fan deposits, resulting in the build-up of oxidized kaolin fans (OKF) and reduced kaolin fans (RKF). The OKF provide favorable conditions for the accumulation and preservation of kaolin deposits of economic potential, due to a low paleogradient and a continuous rate of uplift. The opposite is the case in the RKF that formed more proximal to the initial residual kaolin deposits and, more basinward, grade into sandstone-hosted (non)-sulfidic faciesbound Pb deposits that were targeted upon during exploration campaigns in the study area. The mineral association of the kaolin fan deposits has been categorized as follows: the allochthonous heavy minerals are zircon, tourmaline, apatite, monazite, xenotime, rutile, garnet, titaniferous magnetite, and ilmenite. They do not significantly vary between OKF and RKF. The autochthonous heavy minerals show strong contrasts in their heavy mineral suites. The RKF are enriched in sulfides and arsenides, which can be deleterious for the kaolin raw material and exclude its use for special final products (anatase, hematite, galena, sphalerite, marcasite, pyrite, bravoite (Ni pyrite), “limonite”, goethite, Ag–Cu–Ni–As sulfides, and barite). The OKF are rather poor in accessory minerals and contain anatase, hematite, and APS minerals. The latter are geo-acidometers (marker minerals for low pH) and considered as an ore guide to high-potential target areas for kaolin. The allochthonous light minerals quartz and K feldspar are common to both fan types and were only in parts affected by kaolinization, whereas plagioclase has been decomposed to completeness. Autochthonous light minerals quartz, chalcedony (carnelian), and calcite are exclusive to the RKF, where silcretes and calcretes evolved in those stratigraphic units which in the OKF only brought about Ca, Fe and Ti anomalies. The OKF have a significant edge over the RKF in terms of kaolin quality and kaolin exploitation (providing less mechanical wear on LHD [load–haul–dump machinery] machinery). Allochthonous phyllosilicates have a more widespread occurrence in the RKF with muscovite, biotite and chlorite most common in the lowermost kaolin beds. By quality there is not much difference among the autochthonous phyllosilicates of the OKF and RKF. Kaolinite-group minerals, illite, smectite, and an illite–smectite mixed-layer are present in both types, but kaolinite-group minerals prevail in the OKF, with a downward-increasing trend of dickite. By contrast the amount of smectite and smectite–illite mixed layers increases at the expense of kaolinite upward in the stratigraphy. The evolution of the kaolin fan deposits can be subdivided into six stages. Each stage is representative of a peculiar process which translates into concentration, preservation and destruction of kaolin: stage 1 weathering and the formation of a kaolin regolith (constructive), stage 2 transport, deposition synsedimentary to early-diagenetic kaolinization (constructive + preserving), stage 3 synsedimentary to early-diagenetic smectitization of kaolin (faciesbound Pb mineralization only in the RKF) (preserving + destructive), stage 4 late-diagenetic kaolinization and formation of dickite (preserving + constructive) (not in RKF), stage 5 epigenetic unconformity-related Cu–Ag–Ni–As–Ba mineralization (vaguely expressed in the OKF) (preserving), and stage 6 unroofing, erosion and redeposition of kaolin (only in the OKF) (destructive). During the study a PIMA device has proven in this type of kaolin deposit to be an efficacious tool for capturing digital data in the field of exploitation and exploration of industrial minerals for the identification and quantification of clay minerals (quality control)

Current clinical criteria for Lynch syndrome are not sensitive enough to identify MSH6 mutation carriers

Background: Reported prevalence, penetrance and expression of deleterious mutations in the mismatch repair (MMR) genes, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6 and PMS2, may reflect differences in the clinical criteria used to select families for DNA testing. The authors have previously reported that clinical criteria are not sensitive enough to identify MMR mutation carriers among incident colorectal cancer cases. Objective: To describe the sensitivity of the criteria when applied to families with a demonstrated MMR mutation. Methods: Families with an aggregation of colorectal cancers were examined for deleterious MMR mutations according to the Mallorca guidelines. All families with a detected MMR mutation as of November 2009 were reclassified according to the Amsterdam and Bethesda criteria. Results: Sixty-nine different DNA variants were identified in a total of 129 families. The original Amsterdam clinical criteria were met by 38%, 12%, 78% and 25% of families with mutations in MSH2, MSH6, MLH1 and PMS2, respectively. Corresponding numbers for the revised Amsterdam criteria were 62%, 48%, 87% and 38%. Similarly, each of the four clinical Bethesda criteria had low sensitivity for identifying MSH6 or PMS2 mutations. Conclusion: Amsterdam criteria and each of the Bethesda criteria were inadequate for identifying MSH6 mutation-carrying kindreds. MSH6 mutations may be more common than currently assumed, and the penetrance/expression of MSH6 mutations, as derived from families meeting current clinical criteria, may be misleading. To increase detection rate of MMR mutation carriers, all cancers in the Lynch syndrome tumour spectrum should be subjected to immunohistochemical analysis and/or analysis for microsatellite instability

Mental health consultations in a prison population: a descriptive study

BACKGROUND: The psychiatric morbidity among prison inmates is substantially higher than in the general population. We do, however, have insufficient knowledge about the extent of psychiatric treatment provided in our prisons. The aim of the present study was to give a comprehensive description of all non-pharmacological interventions provided by the psychiatric health services to a stratified sample of prison inmates. METHODS: Six medium/large prisons (n = 928) representing 1/3 of the Norwegian prison population and with female and preventive detention inmates over-sampled, were investigated cross-sectionally. All non-pharmacological psychiatric interventions, excluding pure correctional programs, were recorded. Those receiving interventions were investigated further and compared to the remaining prison population. RESULTS: A total of 230 of the 928 inmates (25 %) had some form of psychiatric intervention: 184 (20 %) were in individual psychotherapy, in addition 40 (4 %) received ad hoc interventions during the registration week. Group therapy was infrequent (1 %). The psychotherapies were most often of a supportive (62 %) or behavioural-cognitive (26 %) nature. Dynamic, insight-oriented psychotherapies were infrequent (8 %). Concurrent psychopharmacological treatment was prevalent (52 %). Gender and age did not correlate with psychiatric interventions, whereas prisoner category (remanded, sentenced, or preventive detention) did (p < 0.001). Most inmates had a number of defined problem areas, with substance use, depression, anxiety, and personality disorders most prevalent. Three percent of all inmates were treated for a psychotic disorder. Remand prisoners averaged 14 sessions per week per 100 inmates, while sentenced inmates and those on preventive detention averaged 22 and 25 sessions per week per 100 inmates, respectively. Five out of six psychiatric health services estimated the inmates' psychiatric therapy needs as adequately met, both overall and in the majority of individual cases. CONCLUSION: Our results pertain only to prisons with adequate primary and mental health services and effective diversion from prison of individuals with serious mental disorders. Given these important limitations, we do propose that the service estimates found may serve as a rough guideline to the minimum number of sessions a prison's psychiatric health services should be able to fulfil in order to serve the inmates psychiatric needs. The results rely on the specialist services' own estimates only. Future studies should take other important informants, including the inmates themselves, into consideration

Starvation induces rapid degradation of selective autophagy receptors by endosomal microautophagy

It is not clear to what extent starvation-induced autophagy affects the proteome on a global scale and whether it is selective. In this study, we report based on quantitative proteomics that cells during the first 4 h of acute starvation elicit lysosomal degradation of up to 2–3% of the proteome. The most significant changes are caused by an immediate autophagic response elicited by shortage of amino acids but executed independently of mechanistic target of rapamycin and macroautophagy. Intriguingly, the autophagy receptors p62/SQSTM1, NBR1, TAX1BP1, NDP52, and NCOA4 are among the most efficiently degraded substrates. Already 1 h after induction of starvation, they are rapidly degraded by a process that selectively delivers autophagy receptors to vesicles inside late endosomes/multivesicular bodies depending on the endosomal sorting complex required for transport III (ESCRT-III). Our data support a model in which amino acid deprivation elicits endocytosis of specific membrane receptors, induction of macroautophagy, and rapid degradation of autophagy receptors by endosomal microautophagy