Age and geochemistry of Late Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian igneous rocks in southern New Brunswick: similarities and contrasts

Late Proterozoic to Early Cambrian igneous rocks are major components of the fault-bounded Caledonia, Brookville, and New River terranes of southern New Brunswick. As previously demonstrated, ca. 620 Ma and ca. 560– 550 Ma volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Caledonia terrane are petrologically similar to coeval units elsewhere in the Avalon terrane sensu stricto of the northern Appalachian orogen. In contrast, the Golden Grove Plutonic Suite and volcanic rocks of the Dipper Harbour Formation in the Brookville terrane are mainly younger, ranging in age from ca. 555 Ma to 525 Ma. A new U-Pb (zircon) age reported here confirms that rhyolite in the Dipper Harbour Formation crystallized at 553 ± 3 Ma, like the older units of the Golden Grove Plutonic Suite to which they are chemically similar. However, they differ chemically from felsic units of similar age in the Caledonia terrane, with higher K2O and Rb, lower Na2O, and negative epsilon Nd values, although they also appear to have formed in an extensional setting. The Early Cambrian history of the two terranes is also very different, with clastic sediment deposition dominating in the Caledonia terrane while an active continental margin subduction zone developed on the Brookville terrane. A U-Pb (zircon) age of 539 ± 4 Ma shows that volcanic rocks in the Simpsons Island Formation in the New River terrane are early Cambrian, similar to the ages of some plutons of the Golden Grove Plutonic Suite. More petrological studies of the Simpsons Island Formation are needed to assess it tectonic setting and relationship to the older (ca. 555 Ma) Leavitts Head Formation and Ragged Falls Plutonic Suite. These units are chemically similar to one another, consistent with their inferred comagmatic relationship, and are interpreted to have formed in an extensional setting. They are more similar to ca. 555– 545 Ma volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Brookville terrane than to 560– 550 Ma volcanic and plutonic rocks of the Caledonia terrane, although all of these units apparently formed in extensional settings. Too few data are available from volcanic units in the northeastern part of the New River terrane (Lobster Brook Formation) to compare them to the Leavitts Head Formation or to assess their tectonic setting. A U-Pb age of 622 ± 2 Ma from the Blacks Harbour Granite in the southern part of the New River terrane is similar to previously reported ages from the Lingley Suite in the northeastern part of the terrane. More mapping and sampling are needed to define the extent of these ca. 625 Ma units in the New River terrane and assess their tectonic setting, although a subduction environment is suggested by the available data. RÉSUMÉ Les roches ignées du Protérozoïque tardif au Cambrien précoce constituent des éléments importants des terranes limités par des failles de Caledonia, de Brookville et de New River dans le Sud du Nouveau-Brunswick. Il a déjà été démontré que les roches volcaniques et plutoniques d'environ 620 Ma et de 560 à 550 Ma du terrane de Caledonia sont pétrologiquement semblables aux unités contemporaines ailleurs à l'intérieur du terrane d'Avalon, faisant partie, au sens strict, du nord de l'orogène des Appalaches. Par contraste, le cortège plutonique de Golden Grove et les roches volcaniques de la Formation de Dipper Harbour dans le terrane de Brookville sont essentiellement plus récentes; leurs âges varient entre 755 Ma et 525 Ma. Une nouvelle datation au U-Pb (à partir de zircon) signalée aux présentes confirme que la rhyolite de la Formation de Dipper Harbour s'est cristallisée vers 553±3 Ma, tout comme les unités plus anciennes du cortège plutonique de Golden Grove auxquelles ces roches ressemblent sur le plan chimique. Elles diffèrent toutefois du point de vue chimique des unités felsiques d'âge analogue du terrane de Caledonia, en présentant des concentrations plus élevées de K2O et de Rb, des concentrations inférieures de Na2O, et des valeurs Nd epsilon négatives, même si elles semblent s'être formées dans un cadre d'extension. Le passé des deux terranes au cours du Cambrien précoce est également très différent : un dépôt de sédiments clastiques prédomine dans le terrane de Caledonia, tandis qu'une zone active de subduction de la marge continentale s'est développée dans le terrane de Brookville. Une datation au U-Pb (à partir de zircon) situant les roches volcaniques de la Formation de Simpsons Island dans le terrane de New River à 539 ±4 Ma, révèle qu'elles remontent au Cambrien, ce qui leur confère des âges semblables à certains plutons du cortège plutonique de Golden Grove. Il faudrait réaliser d'autres études pétrologiques de la Formation de Simpsons Island pour évaluer son cadre tectonique et ses rapports avec la Formation plus ancienne (environ 555 Ma) de Leavitts Head et le cortège plutonique de Ragged Falls. Ces unités sont chimiquement semblables les unes aux autres, ce qui correspond à leur présumée relation comagmatique. Elles sont interprétées comme des unités s'étant formées dans un cadre d'extension. Elles ressemblent plus aux roches plutoniques et volcaniques d'environ 555 à 545 Ma du terrane de Brookville qu'aux roches plutoniques et volcaniques de 560 à 550 Ma du terrane de Caledonia, même si ces unités se sont apparemment constituées dans des cadres d'extension. On dispose de trop peu de données des unités volcaniques du nord-est du terrane de New River (Formation de Lobster Brook) pour les comparer à la Formation de Leavitts Head ou pour évaluer leur cadre tectonique. L'âge au U-Pb de 622 ±2 Ma du granite de Blacks Harbour dans le sud du terrane de New River est semblable aux âges précédemment signalés dans le cas du cortège de Lingley dans le nord-est du terrane. D'autres travaux de cartographie et d'échantillonnage s'avèrent nécessaires pour définir l'étendue de ces unités d'environ 625 Ma dans le terrane de New River ainsi que pour évaluer leur cadre tectonique, même si les données dont on dispose laissent supposer un environnement de subduction

Granitoid plutons of the Brookville terrane, southern New Brunswick: petrology, age, and tectonic setting

Latest Neoproterozoic and Cambrian plutons in the Brookville terrane of southern New Brunswick are termed the Golden Grove Plutonic Suite. Four groups are recognized on the basis of composition: gabbro (2 plutons), diorite - granodiorite (17 plutons), granodiorite - monzogranite (8 plutons), and syenogranite - monzogranite (7 plutons). The dioritic to granodioritic and most of the granodioritic to monzogranitic plutons form linear trends on chemical variation diagrams, suggesting that magma evolution was dominated by plagioclase and amphibole fractionation. These plutons appear to constitute a typical I-type, calc-alkaline suite characteristic of continental margin subduction zones. This interpretation is supported by U-Pb zircon ages, which show that these plutons have ages between 540 Ma and 526 Ma. A new U-Pb age of 539.6 ± 1.2 Ma from one of the gabbroic plutons shows that the gabbroic plutons are co-genetic with the dioritic to granitic plutons, although they show varied ultramafic to anorthositic and dioritic compositions as a result of crystal accumulation. The syenogranitic to monzogranitic plutons and two of the granodioritic and monzogranitic plutons, as well as felsic volcanic rocks of the Dipper Harbour volcanic unit, show chemical trends that differ from the other plutons in having A-type characteristics. A U-Pb age of 548 ± 2 Ma for the Fairville Granite, as well as similar ages for a syenogranitic pluton and the Dipper Harbour volcanic unit, suggests that these units represent early stages of magmatism in the Golden Grove Plutonic Suite. RESUMÉ Les plutons du Cambrien et des périodes les plus anciennes du Néoprotérozoïque à l'intérieur du terrane de Brookville dans le Sud du Nouveau-Brunswick sont désignés sous le nom de « cortège plutonique de Golden Grove ». On y distingue quatre groupes en fonction de leur composition : ceux à base de gabbro (deux plutons), de diorite - granodiorite (17 plutons), de granodiorite - monzogranite (huit plutons) et de syénogranite - monzogranite (sept plutons). Les plutons dioritiques à granodioritiques et la majorité des plutons granodioritiques à monzogranitiques forment des tracés linéaires sur les schémas de diversité de la composition chimique, ce qui laisse supposer que l'évolution magmatique a été dominée par une cristallisation fractionnée des plagioclases et des amphiboles. Ces plutons semblent constituer un cortège calco-alcalin intrusif typique, caractéristique des zones de subduction de la marge continentale. Cette interprétation est corroborée par la datation au U-Pb, obtenue à partir de zircon, qui révèle que ces plutons ont des âges entre 540 Ma et 526 Ma. Une nouvelle datation au U-Pb obtenue à partir de zircon situant à 539,6 ± 1,2 Ma l'âge de l'un des plutons gabbroïques, signale que les plutons gabbroïques sont cogénétiques avec les plutons dioritiques à granitiques, même s'ils présentent des compositions ultramafi ques à anorthositiques et dioritiques diversifi ées par suite d'une accumulation de cristaux. Les plutons syénogranitiques à monzogranitiques et deux des plutons granodioritiques et monzogranitiques, de même que les roches volcanofelsiques de l'unité volcanique de Dipper Harbour, livrent des tracés chimiques différents des autres plutons du fait qu'ils possèdent les caractéristiques des plutons de type anorogénique. L'âge au U-Pb de 548 ± 2 Ma du granite de Fairville ainsi que les âges similaires d'un pluton syénogranitique et de l'unité volcanique de Dipper Harbour permettent de supposer que ces unités représentent les stades précoces du magmatisme à l'intérieur du cortège plutonique de Golden Grove

An Integrated Approach for Characterizing Aerosol Climate Impacts and Environmental Interactions

Aerosols exert myriad influences on the earth's environment and climate, and on human health. The complexity of aerosol-related processes requires that information gathered to improve our understanding of climate change must originate from multiple sources, and that effective strategies for data integration need to be established. While a vast array of observed and modeled data are becoming available, the aerosol research community currently lacks the necessary tools and infrastructure to reap maximum scientific benefit from these data. Spatial and temporal sampling differences among a diverse set of sensors, nonuniform data qualities, aerosol mesoscale variabilities, and difficulties in separating cloud effects are some of the challenges that need to be addressed. Maximizing the long-term benefit from these data also requires maintaining consistently well-understood accuracies as measurement approaches evolve and improve. Achieving a comprehensive understanding of how aerosol physical, chemical, and radiative processes impact the earth system can be achieved only through a multidisciplinary, inter-agency, and international initiative capable of dealing with these issues. A systematic approach, capitalizing on modern measurement and modeling techniques, geospatial statistics methodologies, and high-performance information technologies, can provide the necessary machinery to support this objective. We outline a framework for integrating and interpreting observations and models, and establishing an accurate, consistent, and cohesive long-term record, following a strategy whereby information and tools of progressively greater sophistication are incorporated as problems of increasing complexity are tackled. This concept is named the Progressive Aerosol Retrieval and Assimilation Global Observing Network (PARAGON). To encompass the breadth of the effort required, we present a set of recommendations dealing with data interoperability; measurement and model integration; multisensor synergy; data summarization and mining; model evaluation; calibration and validation; augmentation of surface and in situ measurements; advances in passive and active remote sensing; and design of satellite missions. Without an initiative of this nature, the scientific and policy communities will continue to struggle with understanding the quantitative impact of complex aerosol processes on regional and global climate change and air quality

Galactic-Scale Outflow and Supersonic Ram-Pressure Stripping in the Virgo Cluster Galaxy NGC 4388

The Hawaii Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (HIFI) on the University of Hawaii 2.2m telescope was used to map the Halpha and [O III] 5007 A emission-line profiles across the entire disk of the edge-on Sb galaxy NGC 4388. We confirm a rich complex of highly ionized gas that extends ~4 kpc above the disk of this galaxy. Low-ionization gas associated with star formation is also present in the disk. Evidence for bar streaming is detected in the disk component and is discussed in a companion paper (Veilleux, Bland-Hawthorn, & Cecil 1999; hereafter VBC). Non-rotational blueshifted velocities of 50 - 250 km/s are measured in the extraplanar gas north-east of the nucleus. The brighter features in this complex tend to have more blueshifted velocities. A redshifted cloud is also detected 2 kpc south-west of the nucleus. The velocity field of the extraplanar gas of NGC 4388 appears to be unaffected by the inferred supersonic (Mach number M ~ 3) motion of this galaxy through the ICM of the Virgo cluster. We argue that this is because the galaxy and the high-|z| gas lie behind a Mach cone with opening angle ~ 80 degrees. The shocked ICM that flows near the galaxy has a velocity of ~ 500 km/s and exerts insufficient ram pressure on the extraplanar gas to perturb its kinematics. We consider several explanations of the velocity field of the extraplanar gas. Velocities, especially blueshifted velocities on the N side of the galaxy, are best explained as a bipolar outflow which is tilted by > 12 degrees from the normal to the disk. The observed offset between the extraplanar gas and the radio structure may be due to buoyancy or refractive bending by density gradients in the halo gas. Velocity substructure in the outflowing gas also suggests an interaction with ambient halo gas.Comment: 29 pages including 5 figures, Latex, requires aaspp4.sty, to appear in ApJ, 520 (July 20, 1999 issue

A PATO-compliant zebrafish screening database (MODB): management of morpholino knockdown screen information

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The zebrafish is a powerful model vertebrate amenable to high throughput <it>in vivo </it>genetic analyses. Examples include reverse genetic screens using morpholino knockdown, expression-based screening using enhancer trapping and forward genetic screening using transposon insertional mutagenesis. We have created a database to facilitate web-based distribution of data from such genetic studies.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>The MOrpholino DataBase is a MySQL relational database with an online, PHP interface. Multiple quality control levels allow differential access to data in raw and finished formats. MODBv1 includes sequence information relating to almost 800 morpholinos and their targets and phenotypic data regarding the dose effect of each morpholino (mortality, toxicity and defects). To improve the searchability of this database, we have incorporated a fixed-vocabulary defect ontology that allows for the organization of morpholino affects based on anatomical structure affected and defect produced. This also allows comparison between species utilizing Phenotypic Attribute Trait Ontology (PATO) designated terminology. MODB is also cross-linked with ZFIN, allowing full searches between the two databases. MODB offers users the ability to retrieve morpholino data by sequence of morpholino or target, name of target, anatomical structure affected and defect produced.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>MODB data can be used for functional genomic analysis of morpholino design to maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity. MODB also serves as a template for future sequence-based functional genetic screen databases, and it is currently being used as a model for the creation of a mutagenic insertional transposon database.</p

Social connections predict brain structure in a multidimensional free-ranging primate society

Reproduction and survival in most primate species reflects management of both competitive and cooperative relationships. Here, we investigated the links between neuroanatomy and sociality in free-ranging rhesus macaques. In adults, the number of social partners predicted the volume of the mid–superior temporal sulcus and ventral-dysgranular insula, implicated in social decision-making and empathy, respectively. We found no link between brain structure and other key social variables such as social status or indirect connectedness in adults, nor between maternal social networks or status and dependent infant brain structure. Our findings demonstrate that the size of specific brain structures varies with the number of direct affiliative social connections and suggest that this relationship may arise during development. These results reinforce proposed links between social network size, biological success, and the expansion of specific brain circuits

Who uses firearms as a means of suicide? A population study exploring firearm accessibility and method choice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The 1996 Australian National Firearms Agreement introduced strict access limitations. However, reports on the effectiveness of the new legislation are conflicting. This study, accessing all cases of suicide 1997-2004, explores factors which may impact on the choice of firearms as a suicide method, including current licence possession and previous history of legal access.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Detailed information on all Queensland suicides (1997-2004) was obtained from the Queensland Suicide Register, with additional details of firearm licence history accessed from the Firearm Registry (Queensland Police Service). Cases were compared against licence history and method choice (firearms or other method). Odds ratios (OR) assessed the risk of firearms suicide and suicide by any method against licence history. A logistic regression was undertaken identifying factors significant in those most likely to use firearms in suicide.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The rate of suicide using firearms in those with a current license (10.92 per 100,000) far exceeded the rate in those with no license history (1.03 per 100,000). Those with a license history had a far higher rate of suicide (30.41 per 100,000) compared to that of all suicides (15.39 per 100,000). Additionally, a history of firearms licence (current or present) was found to more than double the risk of suicide by any means (OR = 2.09, <it>P </it>< 0.001). The group with the highest risk of selecting firearms to suicide were older males from rural locations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Accessibility and familiarity with firearms represent critical elements in determining the choice of method. Further licensing restrictions and the implementation of more stringent secure storage requirements are likely to reduce the overall familiarity with firearms in the community and contribute to reductions in rates of suicide.</p

Teratology Primer-2nd Edition (7/9/2010)

Foreword: What is Teratology? “What a piece of work is an embryo!” as Hamlet might have said. “In form and moving how express and admirable! In complexity how infinite!” It starts as a single cell, which by repeated divisions gives rise to many genetically identical cells. These cells receive signals from their surroundings and from one another as to where they are in this ball of cells —front or back, right or left, headwards or tailwards, and what they are destined to become. Each cell commits itself to being one of many types; the cells migrate, combine into tissues, or get out of the way by dying at predetermined times and places. The tissues signal one another to take their own pathways; they bend, twist, and form organs. An organism emerges. This wondrous transformation from single celled simplicity to myriad-celled complexity is programmed by genes that, in the greatest mystery of all, are turned on and off at specified times and places to coordinate the process. It is a wonder that this marvelously emergent operation, where there are so many opportunities for mistakes, ever produces a well-formed and functional organism. And sometimes it doesn’t. Mistakes occur. Defective genes may disturb development in ways that lead to death or to malformations. Extrinsic factors may do the same. “Teratogenic” refers to factors that cause malformations, whether they be genes or environmental agents. The word comes from the Greek “teras,” for “monster,” a term applied in ancient times to babies with severe malformations, which were considered portents or, in the Latin, “monstra.” Malformations can happen in many ways. For example, when the neural plate rolls up to form the neural tube, it may not close completely, resulting in a neural tube defect—anencephaly if the opening is in the head region, or spina bifida if it is lower down. The embryonic processes that form the face may fail to fuse, resulting in a cleft lip. Later, the shelves that will form the palate may fail to move from the vertical to the horizontal, where they should meet in the midline and fuse, resulting in a cleft palate. Or they may meet, but fail to fuse, with the same result. The forebrain may fail to induce the overlying tissue to form the eye, so there is no eye (anophthalmia). The tissues between the toes may fail to break down as they should, and the toes remain webbed. Experimental teratology flourished in the 19th century, and embryologists knew well that the development of bird and frog embryos could be deranged by environmental “insults,” such as lack of oxygen (hypoxia). But the mammalian uterus was thought to be an impregnable barrier that would protect the embryo from such threats. By exclusion, mammalian malformations must be genetic, it was thought. In the early 1940s, several events changed this view. In Australia an astute ophthalmologist, Norman Gregg, established a connection between maternal rubella (German measles) and the triad of cataracts, heart malformations, and deafness. In Cincinnati Josef Warkany, an Austrian pediatrician showed that depriving female rats of vitamin B (riboflavin) could cause malformations in their offspring— one of the early experimental demonstrations of a teratogen. Warkany was trying to produce congenital cretinism by putting the rats on an iodine deficient diet. The diet did indeed cause malformations, but not because of the iodine deficiency; depleting the diet of iodine had also depleted it of riboflavin! Several other teratogens were found in experimental animals, including nitrogen mustard (an anti cancer drug), trypan blue (a dye), and hypoxia (lack of oxygen). The pendulum was swinging back; it seemed that malformations were not genetically, but environmentally caused. In Montreal, in the early 1950s, Clarke Fraser’s group wanted to bring genetics back into the picture. They had found that treating pregnant mice with cortisone caused cleft palate in the offspring, and showed that the frequency was high in some strains and low in others. The only difference was in the genes. So began “teratogenetics,” the study of how genes influence the embryo’s susceptibility to teratogens. The McGill group went on to develop the idea that an embryo’s genetically determined, normal, pattern of development could influence its susceptibility to a teratogen— the multifactorial threshold concept. For instance, an embryo must move its palate shelves from vertical to horizontal before a certain critical point or they will not meet and fuse. A teratogen that causes cleft palate by delaying shelf movement beyond this point is more likely to do so in an embryo whose genes normally move its shelves late. As studies of the basis for abnormal development progressed, patterns began to appear, and the principles of teratology were developed. These stated, in summary, that the probability of a malformation being produced by a teratogen depends on the dose of the agent, the stage at which the embryo is exposed, and the genotype of the embryo and mother. The number of mammalian teratogens grew, and those who worked with them began to meet from time to time, to talk about what they were finding, leading, in 1960, to the formation of the Teratology Society. There were, of course, concerns about whether these experimental teratogens would be a threat to human embryos, but it was thought, by me at least, that they were all “sledgehammer blows,” that would be teratogenic in people only at doses far above those to which human embryos would be exposed. So not to worry, or so we thought. Then came thalidomide, a totally unexpected catastrophe. The discovery that ordinary doses of this supposedly “harmless” sleeping pill and anti-nauseant could cause severe malformations in human babies galvanized this new field of teratology. Scientists who had been quietly working in their laboratories suddenly found themselves spending much of their time in conferences and workshops, sitting on advisory committees, acting as consultants for pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, and lawyers, as well as redesigning their research plans. The field of teratology and developmental toxicology expanded rapidly. The following pages will show how far we have come, and how many important questions still remain to be answered. A lot of effort has gone into developing ways to predict how much of a hazard a particular experimental teratogen would be to the human embryo (chapters 9–19). It was recognized that animal studies might not prove a drug was “safe” for the human embryo (in spite of great pressure from legislators and the public to do so), since species can vary in their responses to teratogenic exposures. A number of human teratogens have been identified, and some, suspected of teratogenicity, have been exonerated—at least of a detectable risk (chapters 21–32). Regulations for testing drugs before market release have greatly improved (chapter 14). Other chapters deal with how much such things as population studies (chapter 11), post-marketing surveillance (chapter 13), and systems biology (chapter 16) add to our understanding. And, in a major advance, the maternal role of folate in preventing neural tube defects and other birth defects is being exploited (chapter 32). Encouraging women to take folic acid supplements and adding folate to flour have produced dramatic falls in the frequency of neural tube defects in many parts of the world. Progress has been made not only in the use of animal studies to predict human risks, but also to illumine how, and under what circumstances, teratogens act to produce malformations (chapters 2–8). These studies have contributed greatly to our knowledge of abnormal and also normal development. Now we are beginning to see exactly when and where the genes turn on and off in the embryo, to appreciate how they guide development and to gain exciting new insights into how genes and teratogens interact. The prospects for progress in the war on birth defects were never brighter. F. Clarke Fraser McGill University (Emeritus) Montreal, Quebec, Canad

Trans-Dominant Inhibition of Prion Propagation In Vitro Is Not Mediated by an Accessory Cofactor

Previous studies identified prion protein (PrP) mutants which act as dominant negative inhibitors of prion formation through a mechanism hypothesized to require an unidentified species-specific cofactor termed protein X. To study the mechanism of dominant negative inhibition in vitro, we used recombinant PrPC molecules expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells as substrates in serial protein misfolding cyclic amplification (sPMCA) reactions. Bioassays confirmed that the products of these reactions are infectious. Using this system, we find that: (1) trans-dominant inhibition can be dissociated from conversion activity, (2) dominant-negative inhibition of prion formation can be reconstituted in vitro using only purified substrates, even when wild type (WT) PrPC is pre-incubated with poly(A) RNA and PrPSc template, and (3) Q172R is the only hamster PrP mutant tested that fails to convert into PrPSc and that can dominantly inhibit conversion of WT PrP at sub-stoichiometric levels. These results refute the hypothesis that protein X is required to mediate dominant inhibition of prion propagation, and suggest that PrP molecules compete for binding to a nascent seeding site on newly formed PrPSc molecules, most likely through an epitope containing residue 172