CHARACTERISTICS AND IMPLICATIONS OF EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED SEDIMENTARY DEFORMATION FEATURES (SEISMITES) IN THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION (EOCENE), WYOMING, COLORADO, AND UTAH, USA

Lacustrine sediments of the Green River Formation were deposited during Eocene (53-45 Ma) in interconnected foreland basins along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains across an area of > 62 150 km2 in present-day Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, USA. These deposits are up to 2 km thick, dominated by finely laminated carbonate mudstones. Deposition was taken place in an active tectonic setting during the late-stage activity of the Laramide Orogeny and the Sevier Fold and Thrust Belt. Sedimentary deformation structures are widespread in these deposits and despite the large number of geological studies devoted to the stratigraphy, they are poorly understood. The principal aim of this thesis was to explore and document previously overlooked or unrecognized deformation structures through field observations of exceptional outcrops in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. This work represents the first detailed study on such features in the Green River Formation, the best-documented ancient lake systems worldwide. The investigation of outcrops revealed an unparalleled suite of sedimentary deformation structures in all the sub-basins, in a variety of depositional settings. These include convolute lamination, load structures, folds, hybrid brittle–ductile features, sedimentary dikes, microfaults, fluid-escape features, oil shale breccias, and mass-transport deposits. They occur in numerous laterally extensive deformed horizons, mainly in laminated carbonates, that could be traced and correlated laterally for >25 km. Their morphological attributes, lateral extent, and recurrence at different stratigraphic levels, along with the low-energy and low-gradient sedimentary environment and the active tectonic setting, indicate that they were induced by ancient syndepositional earthquakes and can be interpreted as ‘seismites’. This study has demonstrated that these structures can be used to infer tectonically active periods and to refine the paleotectonic history of the area. The reinterpretation of features previously described as the result of desiccation helped to better understand the depositional setting of the Green River Formation. Moreover, the occurrence of seismites was related to synchronous changes in basin evolution for the first time, implying that many abrupt changes in the history of the Green River Formation were tectonically, rather than climatically, driven. Clearly, seismites should be more widely utilized to recognize the contribution of tectonics on basin history

A sebesült hős katona mítosza

The First World War battle trauma and the destruction itself, the recruitment of the whole active male population and their disappearance from home, fundamentally tips the given community’s social, cultural and economic balance. To survive they summon heroes for help and to hold on to. When wounded soldiers arrive to Balatonfüred, the war is on the doorstep of the civilian population, this way they might experience and understand it more. The fact that the soldiers arrived into their own community, created the opportunity for the locals to express their esteem towards the heroes in practice (thus participating in the war) they could connect, the hero cult could take its shape

Small donors in world politics: The role of trust funds in the foreign aid policies of Central and Eastern European donors

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU member states have emerged as new donors of international development assistance since the turn of the millennium. The literature has tended to focus on the bilateral components of these policies, and neglected CEE multilateral aid. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining how and why CEE donors contribute to trust funds operated by multilateral donors. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, it provides a descriptive account of how CEE countries use trust funds in the allocation of their foreign aid. Second, it explains this allocation using data from qualitative interviews with CEE officials. CEE countries make much less use of trust funds than might be expected. This is due not only to the loss of visibility and control over their resources, but also to how CEE companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) rarely achieve funding successes at multilateral organisations

A2A adenosine receptors control pancreatic dysfunction in high-fat-diet-induced obesity

Adenosine, a key extracellular signaling mediator, regulates several aspects of metabolism by activating 4 G-protein-coupled receptors, the A1, A2A, A2B, and A3 adenosine receptors (ARs). The role of A2AARs in regulating high-fat-diet (HFD)-induced metabolic derangements is unknown. To evaluate the role of A2AARs in regulating glucose and insulin homeostasis in obesity, we fed A2AAR-knockout (KO) and control mice an HFD for 16 wk to initiate HFD-induced metabolic disorder. We found that genetic deletion of A2AARs caused impaired glucose tolerance in mice fed an HFD. This impaired glucose tolerance was caused by a decrease in insulin secretion but not in insulin sensitivity. Islet size and insulin content in pancreata of A2AAR-deficient mice were decreased compared with control mice after consuming an HFD. A2AAR-KO mice had decreased expression of the β-cell-specific markers pdx1, glut2, mafA, and nkx6.1 and increased expression of the dedifferentiation markers sox2 and hes1. Ex vivo islet experiments confirmed the role of A2AARs in protecting against decreased insulin content and release caused by HFD. Other experiments with bone marrow chimeras revealed that inflammation was not the primary cause of decreased insulin secretion in A2AAR-KO mice. Altogether, our data showed that A2AARs control pancreatic dysfunction in HFD-induced obesity.-Csóka, B., Törő, G., Vindeirinho, J., Varga, Z. V., Koscsó, B., Németh, Z. H., Kókai, E., Antonioli, L., Suleiman, M., Marchetti, P., Cseri, K., Deák, Á., Virág, L., Pacher, P., Bai, P., Haskó, G. A2A adenosine receptors control pancreatic dysfunction in high-fat-diet-induced obesity