Microseismicity of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 7°S-8°15′S and at the Logatchev Massif oceanic core complex at 14°40′N-14°50′N

Lithospheric formation at slow spreading rates is heterogeneous with multiple modalities, favoring symmetric spreading where magmatism dominates or core complex and inside corner high formation where tectonics dominate. We report microseismicity from three deployments of seismic networks at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). Two networks surveyed the MAR near 7 degrees S in the vicinity of the Ascension transform fault. Three inside corner high settings were investigated. However, they remained seismically largely inactive and major seismic activity occurred along the center of the median valley. In contrast, at the Logatchev Massif core complex at 14 degrees 45N seismicity was sparse within the center of the median valley but concentrated along the eastern rift mountains just west of the serpentine hosted Logatchev hydrothermal vent field. To the north and south of the massif, however, seismic activity occurred along the ridge axis, emphasizing the asymmetry of seismicity at the Logatchev segment. Focal mechanisms indicated a large number of reverse faulting events occurring in the vicinity of the vent field at 3-5 km depth, which we interpret to reflect volume expansion accompanying serpentinization. At shallower depth of 2-4 km, some earthquakes in the vicinity of the vent field showed normal faulting behavior, suggesting that normal faults facilitates hydrothermal circulation feeding the vent field. Further, a second set of cross-cutting faults occurred, indicating that the surface location of the field is controlled by local fault systems

Massive Stars: Their Environment and Formation

Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular emphasis is given to recent high angular resolution observations which have improved our knowledge of the physical conditions and kinematics of compact regions of ionized gas and of dense and hot molecular cores associated with luminous O and B stars. We will show that this large body of data, gathered during the last decade, has allowed significant progress in the understanding of the physical processes that take place during the formation and early evolution of massive stars.Comment: Pub. Astron. Soc. of Pacific (Invited Review), 95 pages (Latex), 5 pages (tables, Latex), 11 postscript or gif figure

Methane budget estimates in Finland from the CarbonTracker Europe-CH4 data assimilation system

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.We estimated the CH4 budget in Finland for 2004–2014 using the CTE-CH4 data assimilation system with an extended atmospheric CH4 observation network of seven sites from Finland to surrounding regions (Hyytiälä, Kjølnes, Kumpula, Pallas, Puijo, Sodankylä, and Utö). The estimated average annual total emission for Finland is 0.6 ± 0.5 Tg CH4 yr−1. Sensitivity experiments show that the posterior biospheric emission estimates for Finland are between 0.3 and 0.9 Tg CH4 yr−1, which lies between the LPX-Bern-DYPTOP (0.2 Tg CH4 yr−1) and LPJG-WHyMe (2.2 Tg CH4 yr−1) process-based model estimates. For anthropogenic emissions, we found that the EDGAR v4.2 FT2010 inventory (0.4 Tg CH4 yr−1) is likely to overestimate emissions in southernmost Finland, but the extent of overestimation and possible relocation of emissions are difficult to derive from the current observation network. The posterior emission estimates were especially reliant on prior information in central Finland. However, based on analysis of posterior atmospheric CH4, we found that the anthropogenic emission distribution based on a national inventory is more reliable than the one based on EDGAR v4.2 FT2010. The contribution of total emissions in Finland to global total emissions is only about 0.13%, and the derived total emissions in Finland showed no trend during 2004–2014. The model using optimized emissions was able to reproduce observed atmospheric CH4 at the sites in Finland and surrounding regions fairly well (correlation > 0.75, bias < ± ppb), supporting adequacy of the observations to be used in atmospheric inversion studies. In addition to global budget estimates, we found that CTE-CH4 is also applicable for regional budget estimates, where small scale (1x1 in this case) optimization is possible with a dense observation network.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)NordFrosk Nordic Centre of ExcellenceAcademy of FinlandEuropean Research Council (ERC)Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)Swedish Research Counci

Peak Stir Zone Temperatures during Friction Stir Processing

The stir zone (SZ) temperature cycle was measured during the friction stir processing (FSP) of NiAl bronze plates. The FSP was conducted using a tool design with a smooth concave shoulder and a 12.7-mm step-spiral pin. Temperature sensing was accomplished using sheathed thermocouples embedded in the tool path within the plates, while simultaneous optical pyrometry measurements of surface temperatures were also obtained. Peak SZ temperatures were 990 ⁰Cto 1015 ⁰C (0.90 to 0.97 TMelt) and were not affected by preheating to 400⁰C, although the dwell time above 900 ⁰C was increased by the preheating. Thermocouple data suggested little variation in peak temperature across the SZ, although thermocouples initially located on the advancing sides and at the centerlines of the tool traverses were displaced to the retreating sides, precluding direct assessment of the temperature variation across the SZ. Microstructure-based estimates of local peak SZ temperatures have been made on these and on other similarly processed materials. Altogether, the peak-temperature determinations from these different measurement techniques are in close agreement

MethylExtract: High-Quality methylation maps and SNV calling from whole genome bisulfite sequencing data

[v2; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/301]Whole genome methylation profiling at a single cytosine resolution is now feasible due to the advent of high-throughput sequencing techniques together with bisulfite treatment of the DNA. To obtain the methylation value of each individual cytosine, the bisulfite-treated sequence reads are first aligned to a reference genome, and then the profiling of the methylation levels is done from the alignments. A huge effort has been made to quickly and correctly align the reads and many different algorithms and programs to do this have been created. However, the second step is just as crucial and non-trivial, but much less attention has been paid to the final inference of the methylation states. Important error sources do exist, such as sequencing errors, bisulfite failure, clonal reads, and single nucleotide variants. We developed MethylExtract, a user friendly tool to: i) generate high quality, whole genome methylation maps and ii) detect sequence variation within the same sample preparation. The program is implemented into a single script and takes into account all major error sources. MethylExtract detects variation (SNVs – Single Nucleotide Variants) in a similar way to VarScan, a very sensitive method extensively used in SNV and genotype calling based on non-bisulfite-treated reads. The usefulness of MethylExtract is shown by means of extensive benchmarking based on artificial bisulfite-treated reads and a comparison to a recently published method, called Bis-SNP. MethylExtract is able to detect SNVs within High-Throughput Sequencing experiments of bisulfite treated DNA at the same time as it generates high quality methylation maps. This simultaneous detection of DNA methylation and sequence variation is crucial for many downstream analyses, for example when deciphering the impact of SNVs on differential methylation. An exclusive feature of MethylExtract, in comparison with existing software, is the possibility to assess the bisulfite failure in a statistical way. The source code, tutorial and artificial bisulfite datasets are available at http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/MethylExtract/ and http://sourceforge.net/projects/methylextract/, and also permanently accessible from 10.5281/zenodo.7144.This work was supported by the Spanish Government [BIO2008-01353 to JLO and BIO2010-20219 to MH], and Basque country 'AE' grant (GB)

Attitudes toward westbound refugees in the East German press

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67107/2/10.1177_002200277001400303.pd

Antibiotic knowledge, attitudes, and practices: new insights from cross-sectional rural health behaviour surveys in low- and middle-income South-East Asia

Introduction: Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are crucial in the global response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but diverse health systems, healthcare practices, and cultural conceptions of medicine can complicate global education and awareness-raising campaigns. Social research can help understand LMIC contexts but remains underrepresented in AMR research. Objective: To (1) describe antibiotic-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the general population in two LMICs and to (2) assess the role of antibiotic-related knowledge and attitudes on antibiotic access from different types of healthcare providers. Design: Observational study: cross-sectional rural health behaviour survey, representative on the population level. Setting: General rural population in Chiang Rai (Thailand) and Salavan (Lao PDR), surveyed between November 2017 and May 2018. Participants: 2141 adult members (≥18 years) of the general rural population, representing 712,000 villagers. Outcome measures: Antibiotic-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices across sites and healthcare access channels. Findings: Villagers were aware of antibiotics (Chiang Rai: 95.7%; Salavan: 86.4%; p<0.001) and drug resistance (Chiang Rai: 74.8%; Salavan: 62.5%; p<0.001), but the usage of technical concepts for antibiotics was dwarfed by local expressions like “anti-inflammatory medicine” in Chiang Rai (87.6%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 84.9–90.0) and “ampi” in Salavan (75.6%; 95% CI: 71.4–79.4). Multivariate linear regression suggested that attitudes against over-the-counter antibiotics were linked to 0.12 additional antibiotic use episodes from public healthcare providers in Chiang Rai (95% CI: 0.01 – 0.23) and 0.53 in Salavan (95% CI: 0.16 – 0.90). Conclusions: Locally specific conceptions and counter-intuitive practices around antimicrobials can complicate AMR communication efforts and entail unforeseen consequences. Overcoming “knowledge deficits” alone will therefore be insufficient for global AMR behaviour change. We call for an expansion of behavioural AMR strategies towards “AMR-sensitive interventions” that address context-specific upstream drivers of antimicrobial use (e.g. unemployment insurance) and complement education and awareness campaigns