Morphotectonic interpretation of the Ibague fault for paleoseismological purposes

The Ibagué Fault is a WSW-ENE right-lateral strike-slip structure located in the central part of the Central Cordillera and in the middle of transverse shear zone that affects the Colombian Andes. Morphotectonic interpretations of the fault from satellite images allow us to propose the style of deformation and the kinematics of the structure. These structural characteristics together with geographical, geomorphologic, sedimentologic and climatic data are key elements for the right selection of a paleoseismical investigation site. The strand appears to be as a single line along the Ibagué Fan at regional scale. However, detailed studies shown several morphotectonic features characteristic of wrench tectonics. Riedel and en-echelon array indicate dextral displacements. Additionally, microtectonic data show a local stress tensor with a s1=311º/18 °±15 ° and a factor R=0,62, indicating a strike-slip regime, which is coherent with the observed geologic and morphotectonic features.  La Falla Ibagué es una estructura de tipo transcurrente dextral que se extiende en dirección WSW-ENE y se encuentra ubicada en medio de una zona de cizalla transversal que afecta la parte central de la Cordillera Central de Los Andes Colombianos con dirección NEE. Utilizando imágenes de sensores remotos se realizó una interpretación morfotectónica de la falla, que permitió proponer la geometría de deformación y algunas características cinemáticas, conocimiento que, junto con datos geográficos, morfoclimáticos y sedimentológicos, es básico para la elección acertada de un sitio de trinchera de exploración paleosismológica. El trayecto de la falla a lo largo del Abanico de Ibagué se muestra regionalmente como un solo trazo, pero a mayor escala se observan numerosos y variados rasgos morfotectónicos característicos de fallamiento transcurrente, caracterizados por presentar un arreglo de cizallas Riedel dextrales y en echelon con saltos a la izquierda. Las mediciones microtectónicas en estaciones situadas a lo largo de la falla en el Abanico de Ibagué arrojaron un tensor de esfuerzos local, con un esfuerzo máximo horizontal (s1) de dirección 311º/18° +/- 15° y un factor de forma de R=0,62, que indican un régimen de esfuerzos de tipo transcurrente, resultado que es consecuente con las observaciones morfotectónicas y geológicas.  &nbsp

Incremental QBF Solving

We consider the problem of incrementally solving a sequence of quantified Boolean formulae (QBF). Incremental solving aims at using information learned from one formula in the process of solving the next formulae in the sequence. Based on a general overview of the problem and related challenges, we present an approach to incremental QBF solving which is application-independent and hence applicable to QBF encodings of arbitrary problems. We implemented this approach in our incremental search-based QBF solver DepQBF and report on implementation details. Experimental results illustrate the potential benefits of incremental solving in QBF-based workflows.Comment: revision (camera-ready, to appear in the proceedings of CP 2014, LNCS, Springer

Morphotectonic interpretation of the Ibague fault for paleoseismological purposes

The Ibagué Fault is a WSW-ENE right-lateral strike-slip structure located in the central part of the Central Cordillera and in the middle of transverse shear zone that affects the Colombian Andes. Morphotectonic interpretations of the fault from satellite images allow us to propose the style of deformation and the kinematics of the structure. These structural characteristics together with geographical, geomorphologic, sedimentologic and climatic data are key elements for the right selection of a paleoseismical investigation site. The strand appears to be as a single line along the Ibagué Fan at regional scale. However, detailed studies shown several morphotectonic features characteristic of wrench tectonics. Riedel and en-echelon array indicate dextral displacements. Additionally, microtectonic data show a local stress tensor with a s1=311º/18 °±15 ° and a factor R=0,62, indicating a strike-slip regime, which is coherent with the observed geologic and morphotectonic features.  La Falla Ibagué es una estructura de tipo transcurrente dextral que se extiende en dirección WSW-ENE y se encuentra ubicada en medio de una zona de cizalla transversal que afecta la parte central de la Cordillera Central de Los Andes Colombianos con dirección NEE. Utilizando imágenes de sensores remotos se realizó una interpretación morfotectónica de la falla, que permitió proponer la geometría de deformación y algunas características cinemáticas, conocimiento que, junto con datos geográficos, morfoclimáticos y sedimentológicos, es básico para la elección acertada de un sitio de trinchera de exploración paleosismológica. El trayecto de la falla a lo largo del Abanico de Ibagué se muestra regionalmente como un solo trazo, pero a mayor escala se observan numerosos y variados rasgos morfotectónicos característicos de fallamiento transcurrente, caracterizados por presentar un arreglo de cizallas Riedel dextrales y en echelon con saltos a la izquierda. Las mediciones microtectónicas en estaciones situadas a lo largo de la falla en el Abanico de Ibagué arrojaron un tensor de esfuerzos local, con un esfuerzo máximo horizontal (s1) de dirección 311º/18° +/- 15° y un factor de forma de R=0,62, que indican un régimen de esfuerzos de tipo transcurrente, resultado que es consecuente con las observaciones morfotectónicas y geológicas.  &nbsp

Incrementally Computing Minimal Unsatisfiable Cores of QBFs via a Clause Group Solver API

We consider the incremental computation of minimal unsatisfiable cores (MUCs) of QBFs. To this end, we equipped our incremental QBF solver DepQBF with a novel API to allow for incremental solving based on clause groups. A clause group is a set of clauses which is incrementally added to or removed from a previously solved QBF. Our implementation of the novel API is related to incremental SAT solving based on selector variables and assumptions. However, the API entirely hides selector variables and assumptions from the user, which facilitates the integration of DepQBF in other tools. We present implementation details and, for the first time, report on experiments related to the computation of MUCs of QBFs using DepQBF's novel clause group API.Comment: (fixed typo), camera-ready version, 6-page tool paper, to appear in proceedings of SAT 2015, LNCS, Springe

Diversification and Intensification in Parallel {SAT} Solving

International audienceIn this paper, we explore the two well-known principles of diversification and intensification in portfolio-based parallel SAT solving. These dual concepts play an important role in several search algorithms including local search, and appear to be a key point in modern parallel SAT solvers. To study their trade-off, we define two roles for the computational units. Some of them classified as Masters perform an original search strategy, ensuring diversification. The remaining units, classified as Slaves are there to intensify their master's strategy. Several important questions have to be answered. The first one is what information should be given to a slave in order to intensify a given search effort? The second one is, how often, a subordinated unit has to receive such information? Finally, the question of finding the number of subordinated units along their connections with the search efforts has to be answered. Our results lead to an original intensification strategy which outperforms the best parallel SAT solver, and solves some open SAT instances

A SAT Approach to Clique-Width

Clique-width is a graph invariant that has been widely studied in combinatorics and computer science. However, computing the clique-width of a graph is an intricate problem, the exact clique-width is not known even for very small graphs. We present a new method for computing the clique-width of graphs based on an encoding to propositional satisfiability (SAT) which is then evaluated by a SAT solver. Our encoding is based on a reformulation of clique-width in terms of partitions that utilizes an efficient encoding of cardinality constraints. Our SAT-based method is the first to discover the exact clique-width of various small graphs, including famous graphs from the literature as well as random graphs of various density. With our method we determined the smallest graphs that require a small pre-described clique-width.Comment: proofs in section 3 updated, results remain unchange

SUNNY-CP : a Sequential CP Portfolio Solver

International audienceThe Constraint Programming (CP) paradigm allows to model and solve Constraint Satisfaction / Optimization Problems (CSPs / COPs). A CP Portfolio Solver is a particular constraint solver that takes advantage of a portfolio of different CP solvers in order to solve a given problem by properly exploiting Algorithm Selection techniques. In this work we present sunny-cp: a CP portfolio for solving both CSPs and COPs that turned out to be competitive also in the MiniZinc Challenge, the reference competition for CP solvers

Development of an Agrobacterium transformation system for onion (Allium cepa L.)

Onion (Allium cepa) bulbs of the New Zealand-bred cultivars 'Pukekohe Longkeeper' and 'Early Longkeeper' produced tumourous growths after inoculation with 25 virulent strains of Agrobactenum tumefaciens, A. rubi and A. rhizogenes. The majority of these tumours produced nopaline, indicating that tumour cells were transformed. Some excised tumours produced roots in sterile culture. Eight onion genotypes were screened in tissue culture for callus formation, regeneration of plantlets from callus and clonal multiplication by shoot proliferation. All genotypes could be clonally multiplied and four were readily regenerable from callus. A technique for plantlet multiplication, which uses longitudinally-bisected stems of in vitro-germinated onion seedlings as explants, was developed. Onion (‘Pukekohe Longkeeper', 'Southport White Globe', 'Japanese Saporo Yellow' and 'Hikeeper Fl ') protoplasts were isolated and cultured on a range of media. These protoplasts formed new cell walls and sometimes divided, but only first divisions were regularly seen. Kanamycin, geneticin (G418), hygromycin and chlorsulfuron were evaluated for their use as selective agents in onion transformation experiments. Tissues surveyed for sensitivity to these selective agents included seeds and seedlings on germination and callusing media, established callus on callusing and regeneration media, and shoot cultures on shoot proliferation medium. Hygromycin was shown to be the antibiotic most toxic to tissues of all the surveyed onion cultivars, with effects being obvious in all tissues after 4-5 weeks of culture on concentrations as low as 20 mgl-1. Kanamycin was shown to be the least toxic of the selection agents surveyed. The kanamycin analogue G418 was considerably more toxic to most onion cultures than kanamycin. However, responses of cultures to G418 were slower than those to hygromycin. The herbicide chlorsulfuron was also shown to be toxic to onion seedlings and shoot cultures. The ability of Agrobacterium tumefaciens to transfer foreign genes to A. cepa was demonstrated. A single, putatively transformed plantlet (RC1), was regenerated from an onion seedling stem via callus, following co-cultivation of stem explants with Agrobacterium strain LBA4404 harbouring the binary vector pKIWI110. In addition, 41 auxiliary or adventitious shoots which grew directly from basal plates injected in vitro with four strains of A. tumefaciens (each harbouring the binary vectors pKIWI110 or pGA643) exhibited resistance to G418 in culture. The binary vectors used carry the neomycin phosphotransferase II gene (nptII) controlled by the nopaline synthase (nos) promoter. Both RC1 and some of the shoots growing from basal plate explants produced roots when grown on culture media supplemented with G418. Southern analyses showed that fragments of DNA from RC1 and from five of the 41 G418-resistant shoots hybridized to a 1.25 kbp nptII probe. (β- glucuronidase (GUS) activity was detected in over half of the plantlets derived from basal plate tissue injected with A. tumefaciens strains LBA4404 or C58, both of which harboured pKIWI110. Molecular and phenotypic evidence suggested that the putatively transformed plants produced from injected basal plate tissues were chimeric

Automatically Comparing Memory Consistency Models

A memory consistency model (MCM) is the part of a programming language or computer architecture specification that defines which values can legally be read from shared memory locations. Because MCMs take into account various optimisations employed by archi- tectures and compilers, they are often complex and counterintu- itive, which makes them challenging to design and to understand. We identify four tasks involved in designing and understanding MCMs: generating conformance tests, distinguishing two MCMs, checking compiler optimisations, and checking compiler mappings. We show that all four tasks are instances of a general constraint-satisfaction problem to which the solution is either a program or a pair of programs. Although this problem is intractable for automatic solvers when phrased over programs directly, we show how to solve analogous constraints over program executions, and then construct programs that satisfy the original constraints. Our technique, which is implemented in the Alloy modelling framework, is illustrated on several software- and architecture-level MCMs, both axiomatically and operationally defined. We automatically recreate several known results, often in a simpler form, including: distinctions between variants of the C11 MCM; a failure of the ‘SC-DRF guarantee’ in an early C11 draft; that x86 is ‘multi-copy atomic’ and Power is not; bugs in common C11 compiler optimisations; and bugs in a compiler mapping from OpenCL to AMD-style GPUs. We also use our technique to develop and validate a new MCM for NVIDIA GPUs that supports a natural mapping from OpenCL

Revealing hidden species distribution with pheromones: the case of Synanthedon vespiformis (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) in Sweden

Synanthedon vespiformis L. (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) is considered a rare insect in Sweden, discovered in 1860, with only a few observations recorded until a sex pheromone attractant became available recently. This study details a national survey conducted using pheromones as a sampling method for this species. Through pheromone trapping we captured 439 specimens in Southern Sweden at 77 sites, almost tripling the number of previously reported records for this species. The results suggest that S. vespiformis is truly a rare species with a genuinely scattered distribution, but can be locally abundant. Habitat analyses were conducted in order to test the relationship between habitat quality and the number of individuals caught. In Sweden, S. vespiformis is thought to be associated with oak hosts, but our attempts to predict its occurrence by the abundance of oaks yielded no significant relationships. We therefore suggest that sampling bias and limited knowledge on distribution may have led to the assumption that this species is primarily reliant on oaks in the northern part of its range, whereas it may in fact be polyphagous, similar to S. vespiformis found as an agricultural pest in Central and Southern Europe. We conclude that pheromones can massively enhance sampling potential for this and other rare lepidopteran species. Large-scale pheromone-based surveys provide a snapshot of true presences and absences across a considerable part of a species national distribution range, and thus for the first time provide a viable means of systematically assessing changes in distribution over time with high spatiotemporal resolution