Alluvial gravel sedimentation in a contractional growth fold setting, Sant Llorenc de Morunys, southeastern Pyrenees

This paper is included in the Special Publication entitled 'Cenozoic foreland basins of Western Europe' edited by A. Mascle, C. Puigdefabregas, H.P. Luterbacher and M. Fernandez. New data are presented on the classic growth structure at Sant Llorenc de Morunys (NE Ebro Basin, Spain). During the late Eocene to Oligocene thick alluvial-fan gravel sediments accumulated principally by repetitive sub-aerial mass flow (cohesionless debris flow and fluidal sediment flow) events, with smaller volumes of fan-stream flows. Subaerial, high-viscosity (cohesive) debris flows contributed comparatively small volumes of sediment to the succession. These sediments constructed a complex architecture of conglomeratic and sandstone-bearing lithosomes that were affected by stratal thickening and erosion across a growth fold pair and genetically related internal unconformities, which formed a long-lived thrust-related structure in the immediate footwall of the SE Pyrenean mountain front. Four periods of evolution for the Sant Llorenc growth structure are defined on the basis of distintive stratigraphical architecture. These describe a gross evolution from onlapping to overlapping growth strata, related to the ultimate demise of growth folding. In detail complex erosional and offlapping events punctuated the growth history, which shows extreme variation parallel to the axis of the structure. Patterns of palaeoflow were highly complex, showing distinct axial and transverse directions relatable to growth fold evolutionary periods. Palaeocurrents are considered to have been deflected and diverted by surficial differential subsidence and areas of relative uplift and erosion generated by fold growth. The complexity of sediment dispersal is compounded by variables intrinsic to alluvial fan environments. The Sant Llorenc de Morunys growth strata provide information on how sediments are reorganized by syndepositionally-growing structures and on the nature of sediment distribution between external fold-and-thrust belts and foreland basins

Methodology and reliability of respiratory muscle assessment

The optimal method for respiratory muscle endurance (RME) assessment remains unclear. This study assessed the test-retest reliability of two RME-test methodologies. Fifteen healthy adults attended the laboratory on four occasions, separated by 5 ± 2 days, and completed each test in a random, “one on two” order. They performed spirometry testing, maximal respiratory pressure assessment and two different RME tests: an inspiratory resistive breathing (IRB) and an isocapnic hyperpnea endurance (IHE) test. Typical error, expressed as coefficient of variation, for IRB maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) and IHE maximal ventilation were 12.21 (8.85–19.67) % and 10.73 (7.78–17.29) %, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficients for the same parameters were 0.83 (0.46-0.94) and 0.80 (0.41-0.93), respectively. No correlations were found between RME parameters derived from the IHE and IRB tests (all p > 0.05). Significant positive correlations were found between both IRB and IHE outcomes and spirometry parameters, MIP and maximal expiratory pressure (p < 0.05).Given these results, IRB and IHE appear to be suitable for RME testing in healthy people, although they may reflect different physiological mechanisms (respiratory mechanics and respiratory muscle capacity for IHE test vs. inspiratory muscle capacity for IRB test). Future studies are therefore warranted that compare IRB and IHE tests in clinical settings

Thermodynamic Comparison and the Ideal Glass Transition of A Monatomic Systems Modeled as an Antiferromagnetic Ising Model on Husimi and Cubic Recursive Lattices of the Same Coordination Number

Two kinds of recursive lattices with the same coordination number but different unit cells (2-D square and 3-D cube) are constructed and the antiferromagnetic Ising model is solved exactly on them to study the stable and metastable states. The Ising model with multi-particle interactions is designed to represent a monatomic system or an alloy. Two solutions of the model exhibit the crystallization of liquid, and the ideal glass transition of supercooled liquid respectively. Based on the solutions, the thermodynamics on both lattices was examined. In particular, the free energy, energy, and entropy of the ideal glass, supercooled liquid, crystal, and liquid state of the model on each lattice were calculated and compared with each other. Interactions between particles farther away than the nearest neighbor distance are taken into consideration. The two lattices show comparable properties on the transition temperatures and the thermodynamic behaviors, which proves that both of them are practical to describe the regular 3-D case, while the different effects of the unit types are still obvious.Comment: 27 pages, 13 figure

Opposing synaptic regulation of amyloid-β metabolism by NMDA receptors in vivo

The concentration of amyloid-β (Aβ) within the brain extracellular space is one determinant of whether the peptide will aggregate into toxic species that are important in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis. Some types of synaptic activity can regulate Aβ levels. Here we demonstrate two distinct mechanisms that are simultaneously activated by NMDA receptors and regulate brain interstitial fluid (ISF) Aβ levels in opposite directions in the living mouse. Depending on the dose of NMDA administered locally to the brain, ISF Aβ levels either increase or decrease. Low doses of NMDA increase action potentials and synaptic transmission which leads to an elevation in synaptic Aβ generation. In contrast, high doses of NMDA activate signaling pathways that lead to ERK (extracellular-regulated kinase) activation, which reduces processing of APP into Aβ. This depression in Aβ via APP processing occurs despite dramatically elevated synaptic activity. Both of these synaptic mechanisms are simultaneously active, with the balance between them determining whether ISF Aβ levels will increase or decrease. NMDA receptor antagonists increase ISF Aβ levels, suggesting that basal activity at these receptors normally suppresses Aβ levels in vivo. This has implications for understanding normal Aβ metabolism as well as AD pathogenesis

Zinc oxide as an ozone sensor

Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 96, nº3This work presents a study of intrinsic zinc oxide thin film as ozone sensor based on the ultraviolet sUVd photoreduction and subsequent ozone re oxidation of zinc oxide as a fully reversible process performed at room temperature. The films analyzed were produced by spray pyrolysis, dc and rf magnetron sputtering. The dc resistivity of the films produced by rf magnetron sputtering and constituted by nanocrystallites changes more than eight orders of magnitude when exposed to an UV dose of 4 mW/cm2. On the other hand, porous and textured zinc oxide films produced by spray pyrolysis at low substrate temperature exhibit an excellent ac impedance response where the reactance changes by more than seven orders of magnitude when exposed to the same UV dose, with a response frequency above 15 kHz, thus showing improved ozone ac sensing discrimination

Structural Disorder Induced Polaron Formation and Magnetic Scattering in the Disordered Holstein-Double Exchange Model

In this paper we present results on the disordered Holstein-Double Exchange model, explicitly in three dimension and `metallic' densities, obtained by using a recently developed Monte Carlo approach. Following up on our earlier paper, cond-mat/0406085, here we provide a detailed microscopic picture of the thermally driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) that arises close to the ferromagnet to paramagnet transition in this problem. This paper is focused mainly on the `diagnostics', clarifying the origin of the effective disorder that drives the MIT in this system. To that effect, we provide results on the thermal evolution of the distributions of (i) lattice distortions, (ii) the net `structural disorder' and (iii) the `hopping disorder' arising from spin randomness feeding back through the Hunds coupling. We suggest a phenomenology for the thermally driven MIT, viewing it as an `Anderson-Holstein' transition.Comment: 6 pages, latex, JPSJ style, 7 eps figs. Style files included. Proceedings of the SPQS Meeting at Sendai, Japan, 2004. To appear in JPS