Use of 3D visualisation tools for representing urban greenspace spatial planning.

The objective of this paper is to report on the development of prototype models for use in raising public awareness of changes in urban areas, focusing on green spaces, and testing responses to scenarios of change. Specifically, the focus is on the design of appropriate types of outdoor features for community planning and engagement. This modelling is fulfilled using the Autodesk Maya, Google SketchUp and ArcGIS software packages together in a novel combination of spatial and visualisation tools. The experiment results show evidence that different types of 3D iconic symbols with interactive communication will influence participation and decision making in land use planning

Genetic relationship between hydrocarbon system evolution and Carlin-type gold mineralization: Insights from ReOs pyrobitumen and pyrite geochronology in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China

The spatial association of hydrocarbons with metalliferous ore deposits is found worldwide and is particularly common to Carlin-type gold systems. Both liquid oil and pyrobitumen are found in Carlin-type gold deposits of North Nevada, USA and the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China. However, the temporal and genetic association of hydrocarbons and gold mineralization are still debated. To this end, using rhenium‑osmium (Resingle bondOs) geochronology of pyrobitumen and gold-bearing pyrite from the Laizishan and Banqi reservoirs and the Yata Carlin-type gold deposit in the Nanpanjiang Basin, we consider hydrocarbons played a critical role in the mineralization process. A Resingle bondOs age of 228 ± 16 Ma obtained for highly mature pyrobitumen suggests that liquid oil cracking occurred during the Late Triassic in the Laizishan and Banqi reservoirs. This age is in agreement with the modelled thermal history of the Nanpanjiang Basin. Additionally, a broadly identical gold-bearing pyrite Resingle bondOs age of 218 ± 25 Ma from Yata Carlin-type gold deposit which is in agreement with ages reported for other Carlin-type gold deposits in the Nanpanjiang Basin (e.g., in-situ SIMS Usingle bondPb rutile = 213.6 ± 5.4 Ma, Resingle bondOs arsenopyrite = 204 ± 19 Ma - 235 ± 33 Ma and Rbsingle bondSr illite = 212.8 ± 4.6 Ma) suggests the auriferous Carlin-type systems of the Nanpanjiang Basin also formed during the Late Triassic. Integrating our Resingle bondOs data, with recent liquid hydrocarbon experimental data and fluid inclusion data from both reservoirs and gold deposits within the Nanpanjiang Basin, a methane (CH4) dominated thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) process, which introduced hydrogen sulfide (H2S) into basinal fluid and ultimately led to the deposition of gold-bearing pyrite by sulfidation, is considered to be the genetic link between of pyrobitumen and gold-bearing pyrite mineralization of the Carlin-type systems of the Nanpanjiang Basin

Lifetime Socioeconomic Position and Twins' Health: An Analysis of 308 Pairs of United States Women Twins

BACKGROUND: Important controversies exist about the extent to which people's health status as adults is shaped by their living conditions in early life compared to adulthood. These debates have important policy implications, and one obstacle to resolving them is the relative lack of sufficient high-quality data on childhood and adult socioeconomic position and adult health status. We accordingly compared the health status among monozygotic and dizygotic women twin pairs who lived together through childhood (until at least age 14) and subsequently were discordant or concordant on adult socioeconomic position. This comparison permitted us to ascertain the additional impact of adult experiences on adult health in a population matched on early life experiences. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Our study employed data from a cross-sectional survey and physical examinations of twins in a population-based twin registry, the Kaiser Permanente Women Twins Study Examination II, conducted in 1989 to 1990 in Oakland, California, United States. The study population was composed of 308 women twin pairs (58% monozygotic, 42% dizygotic); data were obtained on childhood and adult socioeconomic position and on blood pressure, cholesterol, post-load glucose, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, physical activity, and self-rated health. Health outcomes among adult women twin pairs who lived together through childhood varied by their subsequent adult occupational class. Cardiovascular factors overall differed more among monozygotic twin pairs that were discordant compared to concordant on occupational class. Moreover, among the monozygotic twins discordant on adult occupational class, the working class twin fared worse and, compared to her professional twin, on average had significantly higher systolic blood pressure (mean matched difference = 4.54 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.10–8.97), diastolic blood pressure (mean matched difference = 3.80 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.44–7.17), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (mean matched difference = 7.82 mg/dl; 95% CI, 1.07–14.57). By contrast, no such differences were evident for analyses based on educational attainment, which does not capture post-education socioeconomic position. CONCLUSION: These results provide novel evidence that lifetime socioeconomic position influences adult health and highlight the utility of studying social plus biological aspects of twinship

Proto-Tethys magmatic evolution along northern Gondwana: Insights from Late Silurian–Middle Devonian A-type magmatism, East Kunlun Orogen, Northern Tibetan Plateau, China

The East Kunlun Orogen records the geological evolutions of the Neoproterozoic – Early Paleozoic Proto-Tethyan Ocean and Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic Paleo-Tethys Ocean along northern Gondwana. However, the late-stage evolution of the Proto-Tethyan Ocean and the configuration of peri-Gondwana microcontinents during the Silurian – Devonian is under debate. Here we report new geochronological and geochemical data of A-type granites from the western Wulonggou and the eastern Gouli areas in the East Kunlun Orogen to deepen our understanding of these problems. Zircon LA-ICP-MS UPb data reveal that the Danshuigou monzogranite and Shenshuitan syenogranite from the western Wulonggou area were emplaced simultaneously at 418 ± 3 Ma, while the Niantang syenogranite from the eastern Gouli area was emplaced at 403 ± 2 Ma. All these rocks display high-K calcic-alkalic to shoshonitic and metaluminous to slight peraluminous signatures, with relatively low CaO, Al2O3, MgO and Sr, and high FeOt/MgO, Ga/Al, Zr, and Nb, indicating their A-type affinity. Their moderate whole-rock εNd(t) (−5.3 to −0.6) and zircon εHf(t) (−6.3–6.4) are different from those of depleted mantle and old basement rocks, but similar to those of the Ordovician–Silurian granitoids in the East Kunlun Orogen. These chemical signatures, together with the anhydrous, low-pressure and high-temperature characteristics of the magmas, indicate that partial melting of the Ordovician–Silurian granitoids generated these A-type granites. Regionally, these A-type granites and previously reported A-type granites in the East Kunlun Orogen compose a Late Silurian – Middle Devonian A-type granite belt. This belt, together with the regionally coeval molasse formation and mafic-ultramafic rocks, indicate a post-collisional extensional regime for the East Kunlun Orogen during the Late Silurian – Middle Devonian. Given that extensive contemporaneous post-collision-related magmatic rocks have also been revealed in the neighboring West Kunlun, Altyn, Qilian and Qinling blocks/terranes, we contend that the Neoproterozoic – Early Paleozoic Proto-Tethyan Ocean that separated these blocks/terranes from Gondwana had closed by the Late Silurian – Middle Devonian, which]resulted in the re-welding of the above blocks/terranes to northern Gondwana or Gondwana-derived microcontinents

Cretaceous intermediate sulfidation ore system in the Dongkeng Volcanic Basin, SE China: constraints from the Dongji and Maluntou gold deposits

The Dongji (>12.5 t Au @ 4.27 g/t) and Maluntou (>5.0 t Au @ 3.70 g/t) gold deposits are the two largest ones in the Dongkeng Volcanic Basin (DVB), SE China, that are hosted by volcanic rocks. Mineralization is represented by three stages (i.e., stage 1, 2, and 3) that are characterized by four types of unzoned hydrothermal pyrite (i.e., pyrite1, 2a, 2b, and 3). Hydrothermal fluids responsible for pyrite1 deposition are moderate temperatures (308−377 °C) and low salinity (4.6−9.1 wt% NaCl equiv.). The deposition of pyrite2a and 2b is related to the stage 2 fluids featured by moderate-low temperatures (253−341 °C) and low salinity (3.2−9.1 wt% NaCl equiv.). Pyire3 is deposited from the stage 3 fluids with low temperatures (220−250 °C) and salinities (1.0−6.5 wt% NaCl equiv.). Hydrothermal fluids potentially have a magmatic origin and experience fluid boiling and mixing of meteoric water. Scanning electron microscopy and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry were used to investigate the occurrence of visible gold and the distribution of invisible gold in pyrite from different generations. Visible gold mainly exists as native gold and electrum within crystal interstices, fractures, and hollows of pyrite2b, and precipitates directly from the fluids during fluid boiling at ca. 329 °C with pressure of ca.120 bar. Invisible gold mainly presents in the form of solid solution in all pyrite types. Solid solution gold is also closely related to pyrite2b as the measured Au concentrations in pyrite2b (up to 27 ppm) exceed those in other pyrite types (<0.6 ppm) by one or two orders of magnitude. The elevated content of invisible Au (together with As, Ag, Zn, and Sb) in pyrite2b is potentially associated with lattice dislocations caused by rapid precipitation of Py2b during boiling process. The Re–Os isochron age of pyrite2b (99 ± 10 Ma) and the zircon U–Pb dating of the volcanic and subvolcanic rocks (95.1–104 Ma) indicate that the formation of gold mineralization and the igneous activity in the DVB were coeval during the Turonia–Albian. Geochronology, fluid characteristics, together with low Ni concentrations (<98 ppm) and high mean Co/Ni ratios (≥2.0) of pyrite from different generations, support that the Dongji and Maluntou gold deposits formed in a magmatic-hydrothermal ore system and have an intermediate-sulfidation epithermal origin

Can k-NN imputation improve the performance of C4.5 with small software project data sets? A comparative evaluation

Missing data is a widespread problem that can affect the ability to use data to construct effective prediction systems. We investigate a common machine learning technique that can tolerate missing values, namely C4.5, to predict cost using six real world software project databases. We analyze the predictive performance after using the k-NN missing data imputation technique to see if it is better to tolerate missing data or to try to impute missing values and then apply the C4.5 algorithm. For the investigation, we simulated three missingness mechanisms, three missing data patterns, and five missing data percentages. We found that the k-NN imputation can improve the prediction accuracy of C4.5. At the same time, both C4.5 and k-NN are little affected by the missingness mechanism, but that the missing data pattern and the missing data percentage have a strong negative impact upon prediction (or imputation) accuracy particularly if the missing data percentage exceeds 40%

Distinct Properties of Hexameric but Functionally Conserved Mycobacterium tuberculosis Transcription-Repair Coupling Factor

Transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) is involved in correcting UV-induced damage and other road-blocks encountered in the transcribed strand. Mutation frequency decline (Mfd) is a transcription repair coupling factor, involved in repair of template strand during transcription. Mfd from M. tuberculosis (MtbMfd) is 1234 amino-acids long harboring characteristic modules for different activities. Mtbmfd complemented Escherichia coli mfd (Ecomfd) deficient strain, enhanced survival of UV irradiated cells and increased the road-block repression in vivo. The protein exhibited ATPase activity, which was stimulated ∼1.5-fold in the presence of DNA. While the C-terminal domain (CTD) comprising amino acids 630 to 1234 showed ∼2-fold elevated ATPase activity than MtbMfd, the N-terminal domain (NTD) containing the first 433 amino acid residues was able to bind ATP but deficient in hydrolysis. Overexpression of NTD of MtbMfd led to growth defect and hypersensitivity to UV light. Deletion of 184 amino acids from the C-terminal end of MtbMfd (MfdΔC) increased the ATPase activity by ∼10-fold and correspondingly exhibited efficient translocation along DNA as compared to the MtbMfd and CTD. Surprisingly, MtbMfd was found to be distributed in monomer and hexamer forms both in vivo and in vitro and the monomer showed increased susceptibility to proteases compared to the hexamer. MfdΔC, on the other hand, was predominantly monomeric in solution implicating the extreme C-terminal region in oligomerization of the protein. Thus, although the MtbMfd resembles EcoMfd in many of its reaction characteristics, some of its hitherto unknown distinct properties hint at its species specific role in mycobacteria during transcription-coupled repair

A near-infrared interferometric survey of debris disc stars. II. CHARA/FLUOR observations of six early-type dwarfs

High-precision interferometric observations of six early-type main sequence stars known to harbour cold debris discs have been obtained in the near-infrared K band with the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA Array. The measured squared visibilities are compared to the expected visibility of the stellar photospheres based on theoretical photospheric models taking into account rotational distortion, searching for potential visibility reduction at short baselines due to circumstellar emission. Our observations bring to light the presence of resolved circumstellar emission around one of the six target stars (zeta Aql) at the 5 sigma level. The morphology of the emission source cannot be directly constrained because of the sparse spatial frequency sampling of our interferometric data. Using complementary adaptive optics observations and radial velocity measurements, we find that the presence of a low-mass companion is a likely origin for the excess emission. The potential companion has a K-band contrast of four magnitudes, a most probable mass of about 0.6 Msun, and is expected to orbit between about 5.5 AU and 8 AU from its host star assuming a purely circular orbit. Nevertheless, by adjusting a physical debris disc model to the observed Spectral Energy Distribution of the zeta Aql system, we also show that the presence of hot dust within 10 AU from zeta Aql, producing a total thermal emission equal to 1.69 +- 0.31% of the photospheric flux in the K band, is another viable explanation for the observed near-infrared excess. Our re-interpretation of archival near- to far-infrared photometric measurements shows however that cold dust is not present around zeta Aql at the sensitivity limit of the IRS and MIPS instruments onboard Spitzer, and urges us to remove zeta Aql from the category of bona fide debris disc stars.Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in A&