Foreland Magmatism during the Arabia-Eurasia Collision: Pliocene-Quaternary Activity of the Karacadağ Volcanic Complex, SW Turkey

Pliocene to Quaternary magmatism in the Karacadağ Volcanic Complex in SE Turkey occurred in the foreland region of the Arabia-Eurasia collision and can be divided into two phases. The earlier Karacadağ phase formed a north-south-trending volcanic ridge that erupted three groups of lavas. The same range of mantle sources contributed to the younger Ovabağ phase lavas, which were erupted from monogenetic cones to the east of the Karacadağ fissure. As at several other intraplate localities across the northern Arabian Plate this magmatism represents mixtures of melt from shallow, isotopically enriched mantle and from deeper, more depleted mantle. The deep source is similar to the depleted mantle invoked for other northern Arabian intraplate volcanic fields but at Karacadağ this source contained phlogopite. This source could be located in the shallow convecting mantle or may represent a metasomatic layer in the base of the lithosphere. There is no evidence for a contribution from the Afar mantle plume, as has been proposed elsewhere in northern Arabia. Melting during the Karacadağ and Ovabağ phases could have resulted from a combination of upwelling beneath weak or thinned lithosphere and restricted local extension of that weakened lithosphere as it collided with Eurasia. Tension associated with the collision focused magma of the Karacadağ phase into the elongate shield volcano of Mt. Karacadağ. The northern end of the fissure accommodated more extensive differentiation of magma, with isolated cases of crustal contamination, consistent with greater stress in the lithosphere closest to the collision. Most magma batches of the Karacadağ and Ovabağ phases differentiated by fractional crystallization at ∼5 MPa, near the boundary between the upper and lower crust. Magma batches dominated by melt from garnet lherzolite show evidence for restricted amounts of differentiation at ∼22·5 MPa, which is close to the base of the lithospheric mantl

Factors affecting pain and fatigue in females with chronic widespread pain

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate factors related to pain intensity and global fatigue in females with Chronic Widespread Pain (CWP). Material and methods: One hundred four patients with CWP were included. The mean age was 40.28±10.82 years. Both Pain intensity and global fatigue were assessed using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to describe anxiety and depression symptoms. Three different questionnaires (leisure time activity, and physical activity at home, at work) were used to determine physical activity levels. Dorsal regression was used to analyze the data. Results: The anxiety score was the most common factor affecting pain intensity (p=0.003). On the other hand, a moderate level of physical activity at home (p=0.027), physical activity level at work (p=0.008), and the anxiety score (p=0.027) were significant factors affecting global fatigue. Conclusion: Our results show that anxiety is the most important factor affecting both pain and global fatigue in women with CWP. These results also support the idea that the characteristics of pain, fatigue and anxiety should be evaluated separately

Preliminary Multiphysics Analyses of HFIR LEU Fuel Conversion using COMSOL

The research documented herein was performed by several individuals across multiple organizations. We have previously acknowledged our funding for the project, but another common thread among the authors of this document, and hence the research performed, is the analysis tool COMSOL. The research has been divided into categories to allow the COMSOL analysis to be performed independently to the extent possible. As will be seen herein, the research has progressed to the point where it is expected that next year (2011) a large fraction of the research will require collaboration of our efforts as we progress almost exclusively into three-dimensional (3D) analysis. To the extent possible, we have tried to segregate the development effort into two-dimensional (2D) analysis in order to arrive at techniques and methodology that can be extended to 3D models in a timely manner. The Research Reactors Division (RRD) of ORNL has contracted with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering Department (MABE) to perform a significant fraction of this research. This group has been chosen due to their expertise and long-term commitment in using COMSOL and also because the participating students are able to work onsite on a part-time basis due to the close proximity of UTK with the ORNL campus. The UTK research has been governed by a statement of work (SOW) which clearly defines the specific tasks reported herein on the perspective areas of research. Ph.D. student Isaac T. Bodey has focused on heat transfer, fluid flow, modeling, and meshing issues and has been aided by his major professor Dr. Rao V. Arimilli and is the primary contributor to Section 2 of this report. Ph.D student Franklin G. Curtis has been focusing exclusively on fluid-structure interaction (FSI) due to the mechanical forces acting on the plate caused by the flow and has also been aided by his major professor Dr. Kivanc Ekici and is the primary contributor to Section 4 of this report. The HFIR LEU conversion project has also obtained the services of Dr. Prashant K. Jain of the Reactor & Nuclear Systems Division (RNSD) of ORNL. Prashant has quickly adapted to the COMSOL tools and has been focusing on thermal-structure interaction (TSI) issues and development of alternative 3D model approaches that could yield faster-running solutions. Prashant is the primary contributor to Section 5 of the report. And finally, while incorporating findings from all members of the COMSOL team (i.e., the team) and contributing as the senior COMSOL leader and advocate, Dr. James D. Freels has focused on the 3D model development, cluster deployment, and has contributed primarily to Section 3 and overall integration of this report. The team has migrated to the current release of COMSOL at version 4.1 for all the work described in this report, except where stated otherwise. Just as in the performance of the research, each of the respective sections has been originally authored by the respective authors. Therefore, the reader will observe a contrast in writing style throughout this document

Study of ultrastructural changes on the cochleae caused by various intonations used in classical music

The aim of this study is to investigate the differences on ultrastructure of the cochleae caused by different classic musical opuses with different intonations. Guinea pigs were grouped into 3, one of which was the control and the other two were the experimental groups. While the first group, which was the control, was not exposed to any music, the second group was exposed to classic musical opuses with extensive intervals (40 decibel) and third group was exposed to classical music opuses with strained intonations (60 decibel) for 6 h a day with 15 min-intervals for totally 10 days. Cochleae tissue samples were taken from the guinea pigs at the end of the tenth day. They were examined at the electron microscopic level. In addition to compansatris processes on the cochleae, thickening on the stereocilias of hair cells and basal membranes and proliferation on the synaptic terminalles of afferent nerves caused by extensive intonations were observed. Extremely obvious degenerative differences such as damage in neuroepitelial cells, nerves and synaptic terminalles as well as compansatris processes caused by strained intonations were determined. As a result of all these observations it was concluded that continuously listening to the strained intonations used in musical opuses has a very harmful effect on the auditory system. © 2008 Academic Journals Inc

Regulation of cellular proliferation, differentiation and cell death by activated Raf

The protein kinases Raf-1, A-Raf and B-Raf connect receptor stimulation with intracellular signaling pathways and function as a central intermediate in many signaling pathways. Gain-of-function experiments shed light on the pleiotropic biological activities of these enzymes. Expression experiments involving constitutively active Raf revealed the essential functions of Raf in controlling proliferation, differentiation and cell death in a cell-type specific manner

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM -/- patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors