Petrographical and geochemical evidences for paragenetic sequence interpretation of diagenesis in mixed siliciclastic–carbonate sediments: Mozduran Formation (Upper Jurassic), south of Agh-Darband, NE Iran

The Upper Jurassic Mozduran Formation with a thickness of 420 m at the type locality is the most important gas-bearing reservoir in NE Iran. It is mainly composed of limestone, dolostone with shale and gypsum interbeds that grade into coarser siliciclastics in the easternmost part of the basin. Eight stratigraphic sections were studied in detail in south of the Agh-Darband area. These analyses suggest that four carbonate facies associations and three siliciclastic lithofacies were deposited in shallow marine to shoreline environments, respectively. Cementation, compaction, dissolution, micritization, neomorphism, hematitization, dolomitization and fracturing are diagenetic processes that affected these sediments.Stable isotope variations of δ18O and δ13C in carbonate rocks show two different trends. High depletion of δ18O and low variation of δ13C probably reflect increasing temperatures during burial diagenesis, while the higher depletion in carbon isotope values with low variations in oxygen isotopes are related to fresh water flushing during meteoric diagenesis. Negative values of carbon isotopes may have also resulted from organic matter alteration during penetration of meteoric water. Fe and Mn enrichment with depletion of δ18O also supports the contention that alteration associated with higher depletion in carbon isotope values with low variations in oxygen isotopes took place during meteoric diagenesis. The presence of bright luminescence indicates redox conditions during precipitation of calcite cement

Development and characterization of a microfluidic model of the tumour microenvironment

The physical microenvironment of tumours is characterized by heterotypic cell interactions and physiological gradients of nutrients, waste products and oxygen. This tumour microenvironment has a major impact on the biology of cancer cells and their response to chemotherapeutic agents. Despite this, most in vitro cancer research still relies primarily on cells grown in 2D and in isolation in nutrient- and oxygen-rich conditions. Here, a microfluidic device is presented that is easy to use and enables modelling and study of the tumour microenvironment in real-time. The versatility of this microfluidic platform allows for different aspects of the microenvironment to be monitored and dissected. This is exemplified here by real-time profiling of oxygen and glucose concentrations inside the device as well as effects on cell proliferation and growth, ROS generation and apoptosis. Heterotypic cell interactions were also studied. The device provides a live ‘window’ into the microenvironment and could be used to study cancer cells for which it is difficult to generate tumour spheroids. Another major application of the device is the study of effects of the microenvironment on cellular drug responses. Some data is presented for this indicating the device’s potential to enable more physiological in vitro drug screening

ADAM8 signaling drives neutrophil migration and ARDS severity

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) results in catastrophic lung failure and has an urgent, unmet need for improved early recognition and therapeutic development. Neutrophil influx is a hallmark of ARDS and is associated with the release of tissue-destructive immune effectors, such as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and membrane-anchored metalloproteinase disintegrins (ADAMs). Here, we observed using intravital microscopy that Adam8–/– mice had impaired neutrophil transmigration. In mouse pneumonia models, both genetic deletion and pharmacologic inhibition of ADAM8 attenuated neutrophil infiltration and lung injury while improving bacterial containment. Unexpectedly, the alterations of neutrophil function were not attributable to impaired proteolysis but resulted from reduced intracellular interactions of ADAM8 with the actin-based motor molecule Myosin1f that suppressed neutrophil motility. In 2 ARDS cohorts, we analyzed lung fluid proteolytic signatures and identified that ADAM8 activity was positively correlated with disease severity. We propose that in acute inflammatory lung diseases such as pneumonia and ARDS, ADAM8 inhibition might allow fine-tuning of neutrophil responses for therapeutic gain

A Bioinformatics Filtering Strategy for Identifying Radiation Response Biomarker Candidates

The number of biomarker candidates is often much larger than the number of clinical patient data points available, which motivates the use of a rational candidate variable filtering methodology. The goal of this paper is to apply such a bioinformatics filtering process to isolate a modest number (<10) of key interacting genes and their associated single nucleotide polymorphisms involved in radiation response, and to ultimately serve as a basis for using clinical datasets to identify new biomarkers. In step 1, we surveyed the literature on genetic and protein correlates to radiation response, in vivo or in vitro, across cellular, animal, and human studies. In step 2, we analyzed two publicly available microarray datasets and identified genes in which mRNA expression changed in response to radiation. Combining results from Step 1 and Step 2, we identified 20 genes that were common to all three sources. As a final step, a curated database of protein interactions was used to generate the most statistically reliable protein interaction network among any subset of the 20 genes resulting from Steps 1 and 2, resulting in identification of a small, tightly interacting network with 7 out of 20 input genes. We further ranked the genes in terms of likely importance, based on their location within the network using a graph-based scoring function. The resulting core interacting network provides an attractive set of genes likely to be important to radiation response

Burial history of the eastern Officer Basin, South Australia

The intracratonic Officer Basin of central Australia was formed during the Neoproterozoic, approximately 820 m.y. ago. The eastern third of the Officer Basin is in South Australia and contains nine unconformity-bounded sequence sets (super-sequences), from Neoproterozoic to Tertiary in age. Burial history is interpreted from a series of diagrams generated from well data in structurally diverse settings. These enable comparison between the stable shelf and co-existing deep troughs. During the Neoproterozoic, subsidence in the north (Munyarai Trough) was much higher than in either the south (Giles area) or northeast (Manya Trough). This subsidence was related to tectonic as well as sediment loading. During the Cambrian, subsidence was much higher in the northeast and was probably due to tectonic and sediment loading (carbonates over siliciclastics). During the Early Ordovician, subsidence in the north created more accommodation space for the last marine transgression from the northeast. The high subsidence rate of Late Devonian rocks in the Munyarai Trough was probably related to rapid deposition of fine-grained siliciclastic sediments prior to the Alice Springs Orogeny. Rates of subsidence were very low during the Early Permian and Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, probably due to sediment loading rather than tectonic sinking. Potential Neoproterozoic source rocks were buried enough to reach initial maturity at the time of the terminal Proterozoic Petermann Ranges Orogeny. Early Cambrian potential source rocks in the Manya Trough were initially mature prior to the Delamerian Orogeny (Middle Cambrian) and fully mature on the Murnaroo Platform at the culmination of the Alice Springs Orogeny (Devonian).</jats:p

The relation between glauconitization and calcite cementation with the relative sea level changes in the mixed silisiclastic- carbonate sediments of Aitamir Formation (Mid-Cretaceous), Kopet-Dagh basin

Two diagenetic processes of glauconitization and calcite cementation and relation those to sea level changes in the siliciclastic-carbonate sediments of the Aitamir Formation (Albian-Cenomanian) in Kopet-Dagh basin have studied. The lower sandstone unit consists of mainly sandstone intercalated with shale and limestone and the upper shale units are two major sediments of this formation. The sandstone of the lower unit based on composition and their relations with sea level change subdivided into two transgressive and regressive facies and in this relation, show different pathways of the diagenesis. In the transgressive facies display by high content of the shell remains, with development in diagenesis shows extensive cementation and a little compaction during burial stage. In the regressive sandstone, characterized by little skeletal elements, display little calcite cements and high burial compaction. The glauconitic grains and calcite cementation in the Aitamir Formation concentrated in the transgressive facies and especially in the maximum flooding surface and transgresive surface. Whereas, in the regressive facies the glauconitic grains and calcite cementation is principally low. Moreover, the transgressive system tract and maximum flooding surface is characterized by mature and high mature glauconitic grains

Significance of ichnofossils in high resolution sequence stratigraphy: Upper Maastrichtian, Kopeh-Dagh Basin, NE Iran

This study shows that ichonology can be used to refine sequence stratigraphy as well as to interpret the depositional environment of the Kalat Formation (Upper Maastrichtian) in the Central Kopeh-Dagh Basin (NE Iran), Dareh-Gaz section. Field studies and petrography of these deposits led to recognize four lithofacies and nine subfacies that formed in the tidal flat (lithofacies A), lagoon (lithofacies B), shoal (lithofacies C), and open marine (lithofacies D) within a carbonate ramp system. Trace fossils in this succession consist of Psilonichnus quietis, Thalassinoides suevicus, Diplocraterion parallelum, Rhizocorallium jenense and Ophiomorpha isp. that are classified in the Psilonichnus ichnofacies and Thalassinoides suevicus, Diplocraterion parallelum, Rhizocorallium jenense, and Ophiomorpha isp. in the Cruziana ichnofacies. Based on lithofacies and ichnofacies analyses, two depositional sequences (DS1 and DS2) were identified, that are composed of transgressive and highstand systems tracts. The maximum flooding surface (MFS) in DS1 is characterized at the top of the bed containing Rhizocorallium jenense, while this surface in DS2 is recognized by Diplocraterion parallelum grading into Ophiomorpha isp. in similar lithofacies. This study is an example where ichnology provides additional support for high-resolution sequence stratigraphy in carbonate deposits. Moreover, our study demonstrates that trace fossils could be useful in identification of the MFS in similar lithofacies elsewhere