Surveying Clay Mineral Diversity in the Murray Formation, Gale Crater, Mars

The CheMin XRD instrument aboard Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has documented clay minerals in various drill samples during its traverse of Gale Crater's floor and ascent of Mt. Sharp. The most recent samples, named Marimba, Quela and Sebina were acquired from the Murray Formation in the Murray Buttes region of lower Mt. Sharp. Marimba and Quela come from a approx. 30 m package of finely laminated lacustrine mudstones. Sebina comes from an overlying package of heterolithic mudstone-sandstones. Clay minerals make up approx.15-25 wt.% of the bulk rock with similar contributions to XRD patterns in all three samples. Broad basal reflections at approx. 10deg 2(theta) CoK(alpha) indicate the presence of 2:1 group clay minerals. The 02(lambda) clay mineral band lies at approx. 22.9deg 2(theta), a region typically occupied by Fe-bearing dioctahedral 2:1 clay minerals like nontronite or Fe-illite. The low humidity within the CheMin instrument, which is open to the martian atmosphere, promotes loss of interlayer H2O and collapse of smectite interlayers making them difficult to distinguish from illites. However, based on the low K content of the bulk samples, it appears that smectitic clay minerals are dominant. Peak dehydroxylation of the Marimba sample measured by the SAM instrument on MSL occurred at 610C and 780C. Fe-bearing smectites are not consistent with these dehydroxylation temperatures. Thus, we suggest that a mixture of dioctahedral and trioctahedral smectite phases are present giving the appearance of intermediate octahedral occupancy in XRD. Dioctahedral smectites have not previously been reported in Gale Crater by MSL. Earlier in the mission, relatively clay mineral rich samples (approx. 20 wt.%) from lacustrine mudstones in Yellowknife Bay (YKB) were found to contain ferrian saponites. It is proposed that YKB saponites formed via isochemical aqueous alteration of detrital olivine close to the time of sediment deposition, under anoxic to poorly oxidizing conditions. In terrestrial settings where alteration sequences of basaltic rocks or sediments are observed, first-stage alteration clay minerals are typically trioctahedral smectite species, as reported from YKB. In later alteration stages trioctahedral clay minerals are replaced by dioctahedral clays as a result of removal and/or oxidation of Fe2+ and Mg. Observed changes in clay mineralogy between YKB and Murray Buttes samples correspond with differences in bulk mineralogy, including: 1) a transition from magnetite to hematite as the main Fe-oxide, 2) increasing abundances of Ca-sulfates and 3) a reduction in the quantity of reactive mafic minerals. This mineralogical change indicates an increasing degree of aqueous alteration and oxidation of mafic detritus in the upper part of the Murray Formation. These results broaden the spectrum of mineralogical facies documented by MSL. Together sedimentology and mineralogy indicate a long-lasting, dynamic fluvial-lacustrine system encompassing a range aqueous geochemical processes under varying redox conditions. Future work is needed to unravel the influence of global and local controls on the range of ancient conditions observed at Gale Crater

Systematic Review of Medicine-Related Problems in Adult Patients with Atrial Fibrillation on Direct Oral Anticoagulants

New oral anticoagulant agents continue to emerge on the market and their safety requires assessment to provide evidence of their suitability for clinical use. There-fore, we searched standard databases to summarize the English language literature on medicine-related problems (MRPs) of direct oral anticoagulants DOACs (dabigtran, rivaroxban, apixban, and edoxban) in the treatment of adults with atri-al fibrillation. Electronic databases including Medline, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstract (IPA), Scopus, CINAHL, the Web of Science and Cochrane were searched from 2008 through 2016 for original articles. Studies pub-lished in English reporting MRPs of DOACs in adult patients with AF were in-cluded. Seventeen studies were identified using standardized protocols, and two reviewers serially abstracted data from each article. Most articles were inconclusive on major safety end points including major bleeding. Data on major safety end points were combined with efficacy. Most studies inconsistently reported adverse drug reactions and not adverse events or medication error, and no definitions were consistent across studies. Some harmful drug effects were not assessed in studies and may have been overlooked. Little evidence is provided on MRPs of DOACs in patients with AF and, therefore, further studies are needed to establish the safety of DOACs in real-life clinical practice

Bacteria transport through porous media. Annual report, December 31, 1984

The following five chapters in this report have been processed separately for inclusion in the Energy Data Base: (1) theoretical model of convective diffusion of motile and non-motile bacteria toward solid surfaces; (2) interfacial electrochemistry of oxide surfaces in oil-bearing sands and sandstones; (3) effects of sodium pyrophosphate additive on the ''huff and puff''/nutrient flooding MEOR process; (4) interaction of Escherichia coli B, B/4, and bacteriophage T4D with Berea sandstone rock in relation to enhanced oil recovery; and (5) transport of bacteria in porous media and its significance in microbial enhanced oil recovery

Chemistry and structure of coal derived asphaltenes and preasphaltenes. Quarterly progress report, October-December 1980. [Methyl-o-xylene; methyl anthracene; methyl naphthalene; methyl pyrene; methyl phenyl ether]

Six model compounds of low molecular weight polymers or oligomers of benzene, o-xylene, anthracene, naphthalene, pyrene, and diphenyl ether were synthesized to study the separate effects of ring number, aliphatic substitution and ether oxygen on pyrolysis yield and microstructure. The results of the experiments on the model compounds were not as expected and hard to explain. The polyphenyl and methyl-o-xylene formed fine and coarse mesophases respectively. Methyl naphthalene and methyl anthracene both formed fine isotropic mesophases. Methyl pyrene and methyl phenyl ether did not melt and formed disordered chars. The polyphenyl, although pyridine insoluble, has no oxygen to suppress mesophase growth. The methy-o-xylene is a template for mesophase formation. During pyrolysis, the methyl groups must react together to form the large, flat aromatic sheets. That the methyl naphthalene and methyl anthracene formed an isotropic structure is surprising. It was expected that these would form at least a coarse deformed mesophase like polyphenyl. The methyl pyrene contained some oxygen and was insoluble in pyridine so could already have been cross-linked in the precursor. Methyl phenyl ether also was pyridine insoluble and was possibly a cross-linked precursor as well

A Bayes empirical Bayes decision rule for classification

For classification, it is known that the Bayes decision rule is the best decision rule, which gives the minimum probability of misclassification. It is difficult to use the Bayes decision rule, since it contains unknown parameters from each class. In this study, a set of unidentied samples ( patterns) is used to establish an optimal classifier such that ( 1) it only contains the observations of unclassified samples (testing samples), ( 2) no other classifier is strictly better than our optimal classifier, and ( 3) when the number of unidentifed samples increases, the recognition rate of our classifier converges to the rate of the Bayes decision rule. A Monte Carlo simulation study is presented to demonstrate the favorable recognition rates obtained from our optimal classifier, which quickly converge to the highest rates obtained from the real Bayes decision rule, where the parameters in each class are known

Magnetic field effects on humans: epidemiological study design

This report presents details of the study design and methods for a retrospective epidemiological study on the health effects, if any, of stationary and alternating magnetic fields produced by man-made devices such as cyclotrons, controlled thermonuclear reactors (CTR), high voltage-high current transmission lines, magnetohydrodynamic devices (MHD), energy storage systems, and isotope separation facilities. The magnetic fields to which the workers can be exposed are as high as 10,000 gauss and the anticipated increase in magnetic fields associated with the environment and transmission lines near these devices is a few times the natural earth magnetic field. Thus the objectives include acquisition of low exposure data which can be used to evaluate any risks to the population incidentally exposed to environmental increases in magnetic fields, as well as an acquisition of high exposure data to be used in determining allowable exposure standards for the technical personnel working at CTR and MHD facilities. From the present status of knowledge on biological effects of magnetic fields, it is not possible to extrapolate or rationally conclude maximum permissible exposure levels for magnetic device workers and the population at large. There are no known previous studies of the effects of long-term exposure to magnetic fields involving large samples and matched controls. Thus this human epidemiological study was commenced in 1977 in parallel with experimental studies on biological and medical effects of magnetic fields being conducted by Dr. T. Tenforde and co-workers at LBL, by investigators at Battelle Northwest, and smaller projects at a number of laboratories around the world. The data base for the exposed population is comprised of approximately 1,000 cyclotron and bubble chamber workers