The Geophysical Model Generator: a tool to unify and interpret geophysical datasets

Geophysical datasets and their interpretations form the basis of geodynamic simulations of the Earth’s mantle and lithosphere. Yet, going from data to models is often non-trivial, particularly in complex regions such as the Alps. This is because creating consistent three-dimensional models from these datasets is often challenging due to technical discrepancies such as different data set formats, different spatial resolutions or discrepancies between different data sets. At the same time, the different datasets obtained through initiatives such as AlpArray contain a wealth of data that can help to constrain subsurface models to an unprecedented extent. Yet interpreting these different data still involves subjective steps and ideally different datasets are combined in the process. To facilitate the joint interpretation of these datasets and the generation of geodynamic model setups, we therefore developed an open-source package - the Geophysical Model Generator (GMG) - to assist with unifying these datasets in a common data format that can then be further used to visualize, compare and interpret data. Within this package, we provide a set of routines to import different datasets, convert them to a common data format and to process them further (e.g., to create vote maps from different tomographies). These unified datasets can then be exported as vtk-files for further 3D visualization (e.g., Paraview). Moreover, with the Geophysical Model Generator it is also possible to create model setups for numerical models (such as the 3D geodynamic code LaMEM). This package thus covers the entire workflow from data import to numerical model generation. Key features of the Geophysical Model Generator include 1) the creation of 3D volumes from seismic tomography models, 2) the import of 2D data (e.g., surface or Moho topography or screenshots from published papers) and 3) the incorporation of point data such as earthquake locations or GPS measurements. Both scalar and vector data can be handled. With these tools, one can then create a consistent overview of the entire data available for a given region. The package is written in Julia and hosted as a public open-source repository on GitHub (https://github.com/JuliaGeodynamics/GeophysicalModelGenerator.jl). To assist the joint interpretation of different geophysical datasets, we furthermore provide a graphical user interface that allows to view and compare them (https://github.com/JuliaGeodynamics/DataPicker). The GUI works provides an interactive webpage, allows loading different datasets and facilitates the manual interpretation of different structures (such as subducting slabs) along profiles and visualize them in 3D while taking different data into account. An example of the current version is given in Figure 1

Imaging structure and geometry of Alpine slabs by full waveform inversion of teleseismic body waves

The primary goal of this project was to use records of distant earthquakes from the AlpArray Seismic Network to contribute to the controversial debate about the structure, origin, and fate of subducted lithospheric plates in the deeper mantle beneath the Alps, such as possible slab detachments or changes in subduction polarity, to expand our understanding on mountain-building processes. Originally intended as a preliminary step before full-waveform inversion, we performed a teleseismic P-wave travel-time tomography (Paffrath et al., 2021b) based on waveforms recorded at over 600 temporary and permanent broadband stations of the AlpArray Seismic Network. An algorithm using a combination of automatic picking, beamforming and cross-correlation was developed to extract teleseismic travel times of direct P-waves from 331 events of magnitude > 5.5 recorded between 2015 and 2019 resulting in a database of over 162 000 highly accurate absolute P-wave travel times and travel-time residuals (Paffrath et al., 2021a). In addition, we developed an automatic picking algorithm based on multi-component autoregressive prediction and properties of the analytic signal. This algorithm was applied to a global data set of waveforms from over 6000 events of magnitude < 6 recorded between 1990 and 2019 at more than 25000 stations to obtain about 3.8 million P- and 3.2 million S-phase arrival times. We obtained models of P-wave velocities on a grid with 25 km lateral and 15 km depth spacing, encompassing the entire Alpine region, from the Massif Central to the Pannonian Basin and from the Po Plain to the river Main, down to a depth of 600 km. Hardly resolvable crustal heterogeneities were taken into account by a novel approach of direct incorporation of an external 3D a priori model of the crust and uppermost mantle into the starting model of the inversion. For forward travel-time predictions, a hybrid method was developed by combining ObsPy-Taup with the fast-marching code FM3D. The resulting model provides a detailed image of slab configuration beneath the Alpine and Apennine orogens that differs from previous studies. Major features are: (1) A partly overturned Adriatic slab beneath the Apennines reaching down to 400 km depth exhibiting progressive detachment towards the southeast; (2) a fast anomaly beneath the western Alps indicating a short western Alpine slab that ends at about 100 km depth; (3) a complex deep-reaching coherent fast anomaly beneath the Central Alps generally dipping to the SE down to about 400 km, detached from the overlying lithosphere in its eastern part but suggesting a slab of European origin; (4) a further deep-reaching, nearly vertically dipping high-velocity anomaly beneath the Eastern Alps, laterally well-separated in the upper 200 km from the slab beneath the central Alps but merging with it below, suggesting a slab beneath the eastern Alps of presumably European origin completely detached from the orogenic root so that a change in subduction polarity is not necessary. Very recent P-wave velocity models from teleseismic full-waveform inversion based on hybrid coupling of GEMINI and SPECFEM3D exhibit, in contrast to travel time tomography, surprisingly high resolution in the crust and uppermost mantle with a superb image of the Alpine and Apennine orogenic root and the Ivrea body; they confirm the general distribution of high-velocity anomalies found by traveltime tomography in the mantle below, but might allow new conclusions about the connection of the subducted slabs

Diagnosing increased muscle activity and occlusal stress in temporo mandibular joint syndrome with Periotest

Bei 38 Patienten mit funktioneller Myoarthropathie und 25 Probanden einer Kontrollgruppe mit parodontal gesundem Gebiß wurden Periotestwerte bestimmt. Die Periotestmessungen wurden sowohl ohne Okklusalkontakt als auch in maximaler Interkuspidation durchgeführt. Der Vergleich der Patienten mit Myoarthropathie und der Probanden ohne Muskelbefund ergab signifikante Unterschiede auf dem 1 %.Niveau sowohl bei Periotestwerten ohne Okklusalkontakt als auch vor allem bei den Differenzen der Periotestwerte ohne Okklusalkontakt und der Periotestwerte in maximaler Interkuspidation. Dies betraf vor allem die Prämolaren und die ersten Molaren. Bei Probanden ohne Muskelbefund ergaben sich Periotestwertdifferenzen zwischen -2,0 und -3,4 (Vertrauensbereiche). Bei Patienten mit Muskelbefund waren die Periotestwerte mit -5,4 ... -7,9 ausgeprägter negativ. Punktbiserielle Korrelationskoeffizienten ergaben einen besonders ausgeprägten Zusammenhang zwischen Periotestwertdifferenzen und der Aktivität der aduktorischen Kaumuskulatur.Periotest measurements were carried out not in occlusal contact to the antagonist tooth and under maximum habitual occlusion in 38 patients with functional temporo mandibular joint syndrome and in a control group of 25 test subjects with periodontally sound dentition. A comparison between the patients with temporo mandibular joint syndrome and test subjects without muscle findings showed significant (1) variations both for Periotest measurements not in occlusal contact and particularly for Periotest value differences of the measurement carried out under maximum habitual occlusion and the measurement not in occlusal contact. This was especially true for the premolars and the first molars. In the test subjects without muscle findings, Periotest value differences were between -2.0 and -3.4 (confidence intervals). In patients with muscle findings, the Periotest value differences of -5.4 to -7.9 were greater. Point-biserial correlation coefficients showed a particularly pronounced correlation between Periotest value differences and sensitivity to pressure in the aductory masticatory muscles

A realistic formulation of approximate CP

CP violation in the SM is naturally implemented as a small imaginary perturbation to real Yukawa couplings. For example, a large CP asymmetry in B_d decays can arise if the imaginary parts of quark mass matrices are of order 10^(-3)m_t,b or smaller. Applying the same principle of ``additive CP violation'' to soft SUSY-breaking terms, the electric dipole moments of the neutron and mercury atom are predicted near current experimental limits; for nonuniversal A-terms, EDM bounds can be satisfied given certain flavour structures. The proposal is conveniently formulated in a democratic basis, with Yukawas and soft terms of the form const. x (1+eps+i zeta) where eps<<1, zeta<~10^(-3), motivated by approximate permutation x CP symmetry.Comment: 28 pages, 2 tables v3: improved notation and discussion of 'removability' v2: revised discussion of USY, improved notation of SUSY section, added acknowledgements and reference

11th EGU Galileo Conference: Solid Earth and Geohazards in the Exascale Era Consensual Document

The 11th Galileo Conference in Barcelona (May 23-26, 2023) addressed Exascale computing challenges in geosciences. With 78 participants from 15 countries, it focused on European-based research but welcomed contributions from worldwide institutions. The conference had four sessions covering HPC applications, data workflows, computational geosciences, and EuroHPC infrastructures. It featured keynote presentations, poster sessions, and breakout sessions, including Master Classes for 22 Early Career Scientists supported by EGU. This document represents the consensus among participants, capturing outcomes from breakout sessions and acknowledging diverse opinions and approaches.The 11th Galileo Conference of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) focused on "Solid Earth and Geohazards in the Exascale Era." This abstract presents the main outcomes and conclusions from the conference breakout sessions, which aimed to provide recommendations for the future of solid earth research. The discussions highlighted the challenges and opportunities associated with high-performance computing (HPC) in solid earth sciences. The key findings include the need for collaboration between computer scientists and solid earth domain-specific scientists, the importance of portability software layers for different hardware architectures, the adoption of programming models for easier development and deployment of applications, the necessity of HPC training at all career stages, the improvement of accessibility and authentication mechanisms for European machines, and the readiness of urgent computing services for natural catastrophes. The conference also emphasized the significance of sustainable funding, software engineering best practices, and the development of modular and interoperable codes and workflows. Overall, the conference provided insights into the current status of computational solid earth research and offered recommendations for future advancements in the field.European Geosciences Union (EGU), the EuroHPC Center of Excellence for Exascale in Solid Earth (ChEESE) under Grant Agreement No 101093038 (https://cheese2.eu), and the European Union's Next Generation/PRTR Program through grant PCI2022-134973-2.Peer reviewe

A dual propagation contours technique for semi-automated assessment of systolic and diastolic cardiac function by CMR

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is frequently performed to measure accurate LV volumes and ejection fractions, LV volume-time curves (VTC) derived ejection and filling rates are not routinely calculated due to lack of robust LV segmentation techniques. VTC derived peak filling rates can be used to accurately assess LV diastolic function, an important clinical parameter. We developed a novel geometry-independent dual-contour propagation technique, making use of LV endocardial contours manually drawn at end systole and end diastole, to compute VTC and measured LV ejection and filling rates in hypertensive patients and normal volunteers.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>39 normal volunteers and 49 hypertensive patients underwent CMR. LV contours were manually drawn on all time frames in 18 normal volunteers. The dual-contour propagation algorithm was used to propagate contours throughout the cardiac cycle. The results were compared to those obtained with single-contour propagation (using either end-diastolic or end-systolic contours) and commercially available software. We then used the dual-contour propagation technique to measure peak ejection rate (PER) and peak early diastolic and late diastolic filling rates (ePFR and aPFR) in all normal volunteers and hypertensive patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to single-contour propagation methods and the commercial method, VTC by dual-contour propagation showed significantly better agreement with manually-derived VTC. Ejection and filling rates by dual-contour propagation agreed with manual (dual-contour – manual PER: -0.12 ± 0.08; ePFR: -0.07 ± 0.07; aPFR: 0.06 ± 0.03 EDV/s, all P = NS). However, the time for the manual method was ~4 hours per study versus ~7 minutes for dual-contour propagation. LV systolic function measured by LVEF and PER did not differ between normal volunteers and hypertensive patients. However, ePFR was lower in hypertensive patients vs. normal volunteers, while aPFR was higher, indicative of altered diastolic filling rates in hypertensive patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Dual-propagated contours can accurately measure both systolic and diastolic volumetric indices that can be applied in a routine clinical CMR environment. With dual-contour propagation, the user interaction that is routinely performed to measure LVEF is leveraged to obtain additional clinically relevant parameters.</p

Plasmid pP62BP1 isolated from an Arctic Psychrobacter sp. strain carries two highly homologous type II restriction-modification systems and a putative organic sulfate metabolism operon

The complete nucleotide sequence of plasmid pP62BP1 (34,467 bp), isolated from Arctic Psychrobacter sp. DAB_AL62B, was determined and annotated. The conserved plasmid backbone is composed of several genetic modules, including a replication system (REP) with similarities to the REP region of the iteron-containing plasmid pPS10 of Pseudomonas syringae. The additional genetic load of pP62BP1 includes two highly related type II restriction-modification systems and a set of genes (slfRCHSL) encoding enzymes engaged in the metabolism of organic sulfates, plus a putative transcriptional regulator (SlfR) of the AraC family. The pP62BP1 slflocus has a compact and unique structure. It is predicted that the enzymes SlfC, SlfH, SlfS and SlfL carry out a chain of reactions leading to the transformation of alkyl sulfates into acyl-CoA, with dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a possible starting substrate. Comparative analysis of the nucleotide sequences of pP62BP1 and other Psychrobacter spp. plasmids revealed their structural diversity. However, the presence of a few highly conserved DNA segments in pP62BP1, plasmid 1 of P. cryohalolentis K5 and pRWF-101 of Psychrobacter sp. PRwf-1 is indicative of recombinational shuffling of genetic information, and is evidence of lateral gene transfer in the Arctic environment

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

2017/2018 Gallup ECME Certificate Assessment

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/provost_assessment/1913/thumbnail.jp