Dike intrusions during rifting episodes obey scaling relationships similar to earthquakes

As continental rifts evolve towards mid-ocean ridges, strain is accommodated by repeated episodes of faulting and magmatism. Discrete rifting episodes have been observed along two subaerial divergent plate boundaries, the Krafla segment of the Northern Volcanic Rift Zone in Iceland and the Manda-Hararo segment of the Red Sea Rift in Ethiopia. In both cases, the initial and largest dike intrusion was followed by a series of smaller intrusions. By performing a statistical analysis of these rifting episodes, we demonstrate that dike intrusions obey scaling relationships similar to earthquakes. We find that the dimensions of dike intrusions obey a power law analogous to the Gutenberg-Richter relation and the long-term release of geodetic moment is governed by a relationship consistent with the Omori law. Due to the effects of magma supply, the timing of secondary dike intrusions differs from that of the aftershocks. This work provides evidence of self-similarity in the rifting process

Fractional differentiability for solutions of nonlinear elliptic equations

We study nonlinear elliptic equations in divergence form $${\operatorname{div}}{\mathcal A}(x,Du)={\operatorname{div}}G.$$ When ${\mathcal A}$ has linear growth in $Du$, and assuming that $x\mapsto{\mathcal A}(x,\xi)$ enjoys $B^\alpha_{\frac{n}\alpha, q}$ smoothness, local well-posedness is found in $B^\alpha_{p,q}$ for certain values of $p\in[2,\frac{n}{\alpha})$ and $q\in[1,\infty]$. In the particular case ${\mathcal A}(x,\xi)=A(x)\xi$, $G=0$ and $A\in B^\alpha_{\frac{n}\alpha,q}$, $1\leq q\leq\infty$, we obtain $Du\in B^\alpha_{p,q}$ for each $p<\frac{n}\alpha$. Our main tool in the proof is a more general result, that holds also if ${\mathcal A}$ has growth $s-1$ in $Du$, $2\leq s\leq n$, and asserts local well-posedness in $L^q$ for each $q>s$, provided that $x\mapsto{\mathcal A}(x,\xi)$ satisfies a locally uniform $VMO$ condition

Responses to stress: Investigating the role of gender, social relationships, and touch avoidance in italy

Stress is a physiological response to internal and external events we call “stressors”. Response to the same daily stressors varies across individuals and seems to be higher for women. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that women perceive sociality, relationships, and intimacy— important sources of both stress and wellbeing—differently from how men experience them. In this study, we investigate how gender, attachment, and touch avoidance predict stress responses on a sample of 335 Italians (216 females; age = 35.82 ± 14.32). Moreover, we analyze the network of relationships between these variables through multiple linear regression and exploratory network analysis techniques. The results recontextualize the role of gender in determining stress responses in terms of (lack of) confidence and touch avoidance toward family members; attitudes toward relationships seem to be the main determinants of stress responses. These results have implications for reducing stress in both clinical settings and at a social level

Structural connectivity and functional properties of the macaque superior parietal lobule

Despite the consolidated belief that the macaque superior parietal lobule (SPL) is entirely occupied by Brodmann’s area 5, recent data show that macaque SPL also hosts a large cortical region with structural and functional features similar to that of Brodmann’s area 7. According to these data, the anterior part of SPL is occupied by a somatosensory-dominated cortical region that hosts three architectural and functional distinct regions (PE, PEci, PEip) and the caudal half of SPL by a bimodal somato-visual region that hosts four areas: PEc, MIP, PGm, V6A. To date, the most studied areas of SPL are PE, PEc, and V6A. PE is essentially a high-order somatomotor area, while PEc and V6A are bimodal somatomotor–visuomotor areas, the former with predominant somatosensory input and the latter with predominant visual input. The functional properties of these areas and their anatomical connectivity strongly suggest their involvement in the control of limb movements. PE is suggested to be involved in the preparation/execution of limb movements, in particular, the movements of the upper limb; PEc in the control of movements of both upper and lower limbs, as well as in their interaction with the visual environment; V6A in the control of reach-to-grasp movements performed with the upper limb. In humans, SPL is traditionally considered to have a different organization with respect to macaques. Here, we review several lines of evidence suggesting that this is not the case, showing a similar structure for human and non-human primate SPLs

The stress shadow induced by the 1975-1984 Krafla rifting episode

It has been posited that the 1975\u20131984 Krafla rifting episode in northern Iceland was responsible for a significant drop in the rate of earthquakes along the H\ufasav\uedk\u2010Flatey Fault (HFF), a transform fault that had previously been the source of several magnitude 6\u20137 earthquakes. This compelling case of the existence of a stress shadow has never been studied in detail, and the implications of such a stress shadow remain an open question. According to rate\u2010state models, intense stress shadows cause tens of years of low seismicity rate followed by a faster recovery phase of rate increase. Here, we compare the long\u2010term predictions from a Coulomb stress model of the rifting episode with seismological observations from the SIL catalog (1995\u20132011) in northern Iceland. In the analyzed time frame, we find that the rift\u2010induced stress shadow coincides with the eastern half of the fault where the observed seismicity rates are found to be significantly lower than expected, given the historical earthquake activity there. We also find that the seismicity rates on the central part of the HFF increased significantly in the last 17 years, with the seismicity progressively recovering from west to east. Our observations confirm that rate\u2010state theory successfully describes the long\u2010term seismic rate variation during the reloading phase of a fault invested by a negative Coulomb stress. Coincident with this recovery, we find that the b\u2010value of the frequency\u2010magnitude distribution changed significantly over time. We conclude that the rift\u2010induced stress shadow not only decreased the seismic rate on the eastern part of the HFF but also temporarily modified how the system releases seismic energy, with more large magnitude events in proportion to small ones. This behavior is currently being overturned, as rift\u2010induced locking is now being compensated by tectonic forcing

A Traffic Merging and Generation Framework for Realistic Synthesis of Network Traffic

The Internet is steadily growing and is of increasing importance for our economy and society. Due to this increased importance it is also in the focus of attacks, e.g. distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. As attackers dynamically change their attack behaviour, novel detection approaches that are able to automatically adjust to these dynamic attacks are needed. To train and test such network anomaly detection systems, it is necessary to provide realistic data. As of today, this area of research suffers from the lack of publicly available datasets that can be used to train and test anomaly detection systems and are exchangeable to allow reproducible research. Therefore, we propose a novel framework that enables researchers and developers to generate customizable synthetic datasets. It not only allows to generate fully-synthetic network traffic, but also to generate semi-synthetic network traffic by merging of multiple network captures from reallive environments. Further, it allows the mapping of IP addresses as well as the modi﬿cation of other header ﬿elds, if desired. This enables researchers and developers to exchange network traces from sensitive environments without revealing any sensitive end-user related information, while perceiving the relevant characteristics of the network(s) and attack(s). In the following, we provide a description of, the problem, our concept and the features of our solution, the architecture and functional model and ﬿nally provide a short summary together with an outlook for future work

Stress inversions to forecast magma pathways and eruptive vent location

When a batch of magma reaches Earth\u2019s surface, it forms a vent from which volcanic products are erupted. At many volcanoes, successive batches may open vents far away from previous ones, resulting in scattered, sometimes seemingly random spatial distributions. This exposes vast areas to volcanic hazards and makes forecasting difficult. Here, we show that magma pathways and thus future vent locations may be forecast by combining the physics of magma transport with a Monte Carlo inversion scheme for the volcano stress history. We validate our approach on a densely populated active volcanic field, Campi Flegrei (Italy), where we forecast future vents on an onshore semi-annular belt located between 2.3 and 4.2 km from the caldera center. Our approach offers a mechanical explanation for the vent migration over time at Campi Flegrei and at many calderas worldwide and may be applicable to volcanoes of any type

Tissue Barriers to Arbovirus Infection in Mosquitoes

Citation: Franz, A. W. E., Kantor, A. M., Passarelli, A. L., & Clem, R. J. (2015). Tissue Barriers to Arbovirus Infection in Mosquitoes. Viruses-Basel, 7(7), 3741-3767. doi:10.3390/v7072795Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) circulate in nature between arthropod vectors and vertebrate hosts. Arboviruses often cause devastating diseases in vertebrate hosts, but they typically do not cause significant pathology in their arthropod vectors. Following oral acquisition of a viremic bloodmeal from a vertebrate host, the arbovirus disease cycle requires replication in the cellular environment of the arthropod vector. Once the vector has become systemically and persistently infected, the vector is able to transmit the virus to an uninfected vertebrate host. In order to systemically infect the vector, the virus must cope with innate immune responses and overcome several tissue barriers associated with the midgut and the salivary glands. In this review we describe, in detail, the typical arbovirus infection route in competent mosquito vectors. Based on what is known from the literature, we explain the nature of the tissue barriers that arboviruses are confronted with in a mosquito vector and how arboviruses might surmount these barriers. We also point out controversial findings to highlight particular areas that are not well understood and require further research efforts

Heritable CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti

Citation: Dong, S. Z., Lin, J. Y., Held, N. L., Clem, R. J., Passarelli, A. L., & Franz, A. W. E. (2015). Heritable CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing in the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti. Plos One, 10(3), 13. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122353In vivo targeted gene disruption is a powerful tool to study gene function. Thus far, two tools for genome editing in Aedes aegypti have been applied, zinc-finger nucleases (ZFN) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALEN). As a promising alternative to ZFN and TALEN, which are difficult to produce and validate using standard molecular biological techniques, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated sequence 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) system has recently been discovered as a "do-it-yourself" genome editing tool. Here, we describe the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in the mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti. In a transgenic mosquito line expressing both Dsred and enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) from the eye tissue-specific 3xP3 promoter in separated but tightly linked expression cassettes, we targeted the ECFP nucleotide sequence for disruption. When supplying the Cas9 enzyme and two sgRNAs targeting different regions of the ECFP gene as in vitro transcribed mRNAs for germline transformation, we recovered four different G1 pools (5.5% knockout efficiency) where individuals still expressed DsRed but no longer ECFP. PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing of PCR amplicons revealed indels in the ECFP target gene ranging from 2-27 nucleotides. These results show for the first time that CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene editing is achievable in Ae. aegypti, paving the way for further functional genomics related studies in this mosquito species