New palaeontological investigations in the Jurassic of western Thailand

The paleontological investigations of the Jurassic of Western Thailand, districts of Mae Sot (Tak-Mae Sot highway, Padaeng Tak and Ban Mae Kut Luang Zinc mines) and Umphang (Klo Tho), provide age constraints for the Late Indosinian orogeny, the Paleotethys closure and the timing of the marine Jurassic inundation of Sundaland. The basal conglomerate of the Jurassic is derived from the pelagic Triassic Mae Sariang substratum. Stratigraphy, microfacies and paleontology of the Jurassic marine strata focus especially on ammonites, bivalves, large benthic foraminifera and algae. Among ammonites, the Tethyan Catulloceras perisphinctoides Gemmellaro marks the Upper Toarcian (Aalensis Zone) along the Tak-Mae Sot highway and Riccardiceras longalvum (Vacek). Malladaites pertinax (Vacek), Abbasites sp. and Vacekia sp. indicate Middle Aalenian to lowermost Bajocian in the Padaeng Mine (SE of Mae Sot) and Klo-Tho (Umphang). Vacekia sp., Spinammatoceras schindewolfi Linares and Sandoval and Malladaites vaceki Linares and Sandoval indicate Middle Aalenian to lowermost Upper Aalenian at Ban Mae Kut Luang (NE of Mae Sot). Among foraminifers, the large benthic foraminifer Timidonella sarda Bassoullet, Chabrier and Fourcade in the Western Tethys is indicative for Aalenian-Bajocian times, as characterized in the section at the Tak-Padaeng Zinc mine and the Klo-Tho Formation near Umphang. The endemic foraminifer Gutnicella kaempferi characterizes the Pu Khloe Khi Formation near Umphang. Among bivalves, shallow marine, dominantly endemic fauna includes Parvamussium donaiense (Mansuy) and Bositra ornate (Quenstedt), from the Toarcian to the Early Bajocian. A consideration of the faunal affinity shows that the fauna is partly endemic with Northern Tethyan (Eurasian) affinity. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of International Association for Gondwana Research. All rights reserved.

Imaging for clarification of accusation of treatment error

In the assessment of medical malpractice imaging methods can be used for the documentation of crucial morphological findings which are indicative for or against an iatrogenically caused injury. The clarification of deaths in this context can be usefully supported by postmortem imaging (primarily native computed tomography, angiography, magnetic resonance imaging). Postmortem imaging offers significant additional information compared to an autopsy in the detection of iatrogenic air embolisms and documentation of misplaced medical aids before dissection with an inherent danger of relocation. Additional information is supplied by postmortem imaging in the search for sources of bleeding as well as the documentation of perfusion after cardiovascular surgery. Key criteria for the decision to perform postmortem imaging can be obtained from the necessary preliminary inspection of clinical documentation.

Multisensory facilitation of behavior in monkeys: effects of stimulus intensity.

Multisensory stimuli can improve performance, facilitating RTs on sensorimotor tasks. This benefit is referred to as the redundant signals effect (RSE) and can exceed predictions on the basis of probability summation, indicative of integrative processes. Although an RSE exceeding probability summation has been repeatedly observed in humans and nonprimate animals, there are scant and inconsistent data from nonhuman primates performing similar protocols. Rather, existing paradigms have instead focused on saccadic eye movements. Moreover, the extant results in monkeys leave unresolved how stimulus synchronicity and intensity impact performance. Two trained monkeys performed a simple detection task involving arm movements to auditory, visual, or synchronous auditory-visual multisensory pairs. RSEs in excess of predictions on the basis of probability summation were observed and thus forcibly follow from neural response interactions. Parametric variation of auditory stimulus intensity revealed that in both animals, RT facilitation was limited to situations where the auditory stimulus intensity was below or up to 20 dB above perceptual threshold, despite the visual stimulus always being suprathreshold. No RT facilitation or even behavioral costs were obtained with auditory intensities 30-40 dB above threshold. The present study demonstrates the feasibility and the suitability of behaving monkeys for investigating links between psychophysical and neurophysiologic instantiations of multisensory interactions.

Organizing principles across the senses

ABSTRACT This thesis is composed of two main parts. The first addressed the question of whether the auditory and somatosensory systems, like their visual counterpart, comprise parallel functional pathways for processing identity and spatial attributes (so-called `what' and `where' pathways, respectively). The second part examined the independence of control processes mediating task switching across 'what' and `where' pathways in the auditory and visual modalities. Concerning the first part, electrical neuroimaging of event-related potentials identified the spatio-temporal mechanisms subserving auditory (see Appendix, Study n°1) and vibrotactile (see Appendix, Study n°2) processing during two types of blocks of trials. `What' blocks varied stimuli in their frequency independently of their location.. `Where' blocks varied the same stimuli in their location independently of their frequency. Concerning the second part (see Appendix, Study n°3), a psychophysical task-switching paradigm was used to investigate the hypothesis that the efficacy of control processes depends on the extent of overlap between the neural circuitry mediating the different tasks at hand, such that more effective task preparation (and by extension smaller switch costs) is achieved when the anatomical/functional overlap of this circuitry is small. Performance costs associated with switching tasks and/or switching sensory modalities were measured. Tasks required the analysis of either the identity or spatial location of environmental objects (`what' and `where' tasks, respectively) that were presented either visually or acoustically on any given trial. Pretrial cues informed participants of the upcoming task, but not of the sensory modality. - In the audio-visual domain, the results showed that switch costs between tasks were significantly smaller when the sensory modality of the task switched versus when it repeated. In addition, switch costs between the senses were correlated only when the sensory modality of the task repeated across trials and not when it switched. The collective evidence not only supports the independence of control processes mediating task switching and modality switching, but also the hypothesis that switch costs reflect competitive interterence between neural circuits that in turn can be diminished when these neural circuits are distinct. - In the auditory and somatosensory domains, the findings show that a segregation of location vs. recognition information is observed across sensory systems and that these happen around 100ms for both sensory modalities. - Also, our results show that functionally specialized pathways for audition and somatosensation involve largely overlapping brain regions, i.e. posterior superior and middle temporal cortices and inferior parietal areas. Both these properties (synchrony of differential processing and overlapping brain regions) probably optimize the relationships across sensory modalities. - Therefore, these results may be indicative of a computationally advantageous organization for processing spatial anal identity information.

Electrical neuroimaging of memory discrimination based on single-trial multisensory learning.

Multisensory experiences influence subsequent memory performance and brain responses. Studies have thus far concentrated on semantically congruent pairings, leaving unresolved the influence of stimulus pairing and memory sub-types. Here, we paired images with unique, meaningless sounds during a continuous recognition task to determine if purely episodic, single-trial multisensory experiences can incidentally impact subsequent visual object discrimination. Psychophysics and electrical neuroimaging analyses of visual evoked potentials (VEPs) compared responses to repeated images either paired or not with a meaningless sound during initial encounters. Recognition accuracy was significantly impaired for images initially presented as multisensory pairs and could not be explained in terms of differential attention or transfer of effects from encoding to retrieval. VEP modulations occurred at 100-130ms and 270-310ms and stemmed from topographic differences indicative of network configuration changes within the brain. Distributed source estimations localized the earlier effect to regions of the right posterior temporal gyrus (STG) and the later effect to regions of the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Responses in these regions were stronger for images previously encountered as multisensory pairs. Only the later effect correlated with performance such that greater MTG activity in response to repeated visual stimuli was linked with greater performance decrements. The present findings suggest that brain networks involved in this discrimination may critically depend on whether multisensory events facilitate or impair later visual memory performance. More generally, the data support models whereby effects of multisensory interactions persist to incidentally affect subsequent behavior as well as visual processing during its initial stages.

BME-based uncertainty assessment of the Chernobyl fallout

The vast territories that have been radioactively contaminated during the 1986 Chernobyl accident provide a substantial data set of radioactive monitoring data, which can be used for the verification and testing of the different spatial estimation (prediction) methods involved in risk assessment studies. Using the Chernobyl data set for such a purpose is motivated by its heterogeneous spatial structure (the data are characterized by large-scale correlations, short-scale variability, spotty features, etc.). The present work is concerned with the application of the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) method to estimate the extent and the magnitude of the radioactive soil contamination by 137Cs due to the Chernobyl fallout. The powerful BME method allows rigorous incorporation of a wide variety of knowledge bases into the spatial estimation procedure leading to informative contamination maps. Exact measurements (?hard? data) are combined with secondary information on local uncertainties (treated as ?soft? data) to generate science-based uncertainty assessment of soil contamination estimates at unsampled locations. BME describes uncertainty in terms of the posterior probability distributions generated across space, whereas no assumption about the underlying distribution is made and non-linear estimators are automatically incorporated. Traditional estimation variances based on the assumption of an underlying Gaussian distribution (analogous, e.g., to the kriging variance) can be derived as a special case of the BME uncertainty analysis. The BME estimates obtained using hard and soft data are compared with the BME estimates obtained using only hard data. The comparison involves both the accuracy of the estimation maps using the exact data and the assessment of the associated uncertainty using repeated measurements. Furthermore, a comparison of the spatial estimation accuracy obtained by the two methods was carried out using a validation data set of hard data. Finally, a separate uncertainty analysis was conducted that evaluated the ability of the posterior probabilities to reproduce the distribution of the raw repeated measurements available in certain populated sites. The analysis provides an illustration of the improvement in mapping accuracy obtained by adding soft data to the existing hard data and, in general, demonstrates that the BME method performs well both in terms of estimation accuracy as well as in terms estimation error assessment, which are both useful features for the Chernobyl fallout study.

Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy Agency Performance Reporting, 2006

The Agency Performance Report for the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy is published in accordance with the Accountable Government Act. The information provided within this report is to aid in decision-making and to illustrate accountability to stakeholders and citizens. The report is indicative of the agency’s progress in meeting performance targets and achieving goals consistent with the enterprise strategic plan, the agency strategic plan and agency performance plan.

Proteinaceous infectious behavior in non-pathogenic proteins is controlled by molecular chaperones.

External stresses or mutations may cause labile proteins to lose their distinct native conformations and seek alternatively stable aggregated forms. Molecular chaperones that specifically act on protein aggregates were used here as a tool to address the biochemical nature of stable homo- and hetero-aggregates from non-pathogenic proteins formed by heat-stress. Confirmed by sedimentation and activity measurements, chaperones demonstrated that a single polypeptide chain can form different species of aggregates, depending on the denaturing conditions. Indicative of a cascade reaction, sub-stoichiometric amounts of one fast-aggregating protein strongly accelerated the conversion of another soluble, slow-aggregating protein into insoluble, chaperone-resistant aggregates. Chaperones strongly inhibited seed-induced protein aggregation, suggesting that they can prevent and cure proteinaceous infectious behavior in homo- and hetero-aggregates from common and disease-associated proteins in the cell.

Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy Agency Performance Reporting, 2007

The Agency Performance Report for the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy is published in accordance with the Accountable Government Act. The information provided within this report is to aid in decision-making and to illustrate accountability to stakeholders and citizens. The report is indicative of the agency’s progress in meeting performance targets and achieving goals consistent with the enterprise strategic plan, the agency strategic plan and agency performance plan.

Heterogeneous 40Ar* distributions in naturally deformed muscovite: in situ UV-laser ablation evidence for micro structurally controlled intragrain diffusion

Micas are commonly used in Ar-40/Ar-39 thermochronological studies of variably deformed rocks yet the physical basis by which deformation may affect radiogenic argon retention in mica is poorly constrained. This study examines the relationship between deformation and deformation-induced microstructures on radiogenic argon retention in muscovite, A combination of furnace step-heating and high-spatial resolution in situ UV-laser ablation Ar-40/Ar-39 analyses are reported for deformed muscovites sampled from a granitic pegmatite vein within the Siviez-Mischabel Nappe, western Swiss Alps (Penninic domain, Brianconnais unit). The pegmatite forms part of the Variscan (similar to 350 Ma) Alpine basement and exhibits a prominent Alpine S-C fabric including numerous mica `fish' that developed under greenschist facies metamorphic conditions, during the dominant Tertiary Alpine tectonic phase of nappe emplacement. Furnace step-heating of milligram quantities of separated muscovite grains yields an Ar-40/Ar-39 age spectrum with two distinct staircase segments but without any statistical plateau, consistent with a previous study from the same area. A single (3 X 5 mm) muscovite porphyroclast (fish) was investigated by in situ UV-laser ablation. A histogram plot of 170 individual Ar-40/Ar-39 UV-laser ablation ages exhibit a range from 115 to 387 Ma with modes at approximately 340 and 260 Ma. A variogram statistical treatment of the (40)Ad/Ar-39 results reveals ages correlated with two directions; a highly correlated direction at 310 degrees and a lesser correlation at 0 degrees relative to the sense of shearing. Using the highly correlated direction a statistically generated (Kriging method) age contour map of the Ar-40/Ar-39 data reveals a series of elongated contours subparallel to the C-surfaces which where formed during Tertiary nappe emplacement. Similar data distributions and slightly younger apparent ages are recognized in a smaller mica fish. The observed intragrain age variations are interpreted to reflect the partial loss of radiogenic argon during Alpine (similar to 35 Ma) greenschist facies metamorphism. One-dirnensional diffusion modelling results are consistent with the idea that the zones of youngest apparent age represent incipient shear band development within the mica porphyroclasts, thus providing a network of fast diffusion pathways. During Alpine greenschist facies metamorphism the incipient shear bands enhanced the intragrain loss of radiogenic argon. The structurally controlled intragrain age variations observed in this investigation imply that deformation has a direct control on the effective length scale for argon diffusion, which is consistent with the heterogeneous nature of deformation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The electric revolution in Latin America

Latin America participated in the electric revolution which profoundly transformed the most developed Western economies between 1880 and 1930. The electrification of Latin America began relatively soon after these economies, but it was incapable of keeping up with them. Public electric lighting was introduced early in the big Latin American cities, where electric trams started running at almost the same time as in Europe, and electricity spread rapidly in the mining sector. In the most advanced countries or areas in the region, the manufacturing industry substituted the steam engine with the electric motor, following the example of industry in the United States and Europe. Nevertheless, towards 1930 electricity consumption per inhabitant for Latin America was far below that of the more advanced economies, and only the Latin American countries which lead the process of electrification had reached levels of electric consumption that were similar to those of the late industrialised European countries. One of the most striking features of the electric revolution in Latin America is rooted precisely in the enormous national differences. These differences are indicative of the great economic inequalities existing in the heart of the region and these nations highly diverse capacity for economic modernisation.

PCR-RAPD and PCR-RFLP polymorphisms detected in Anopheles cruzii (Diptera, Culicidae)

The aim of the present study was to examine genetic variability in populations of An. cruzii by employing PCR-RAPD and PCR-RFLP markers. All analyses were carried out using individuals of the F1 generation of wild caught females obtained in Santa Catarina State (Florianópolis and São Francisco do Sul), Paraná State (Morretes, Paranaguá and Guaratuba) and São Paulo State (Cananéia). In the PCR-RAPD experiments, seven primers were used for comparisons within and among populations. The restriction profile of the ITS2 including a fragment of both 5.8S and 28S regions of the rDNA was obtained with the enzymes BstUI, HaeIII, TaqI, HhaI, Sau96I, HinfI, HincII and NruI. The PCR-RAPD method detected a large number of polymorphic bands. Genetic distance among populations of An. cruzii varied from 0,0214 to 0,0673, suggesting that all individuals used in the analyses belong to a single species. The number of migrants per generation (Nm) was 4.3, showing the existence of gene flow among populations. The restriction profile of the ITS2, 5.8S and 28S gene regions was similar in all An. cruzii samples, whereas the results obtained by using HhaI and NruI are indicative that the individuals analyzed have nucleotide sequences distinct from those of An. cruzii samples from Peruíbe and Juquiazinho deposited in GenBank.

Capital formation in machinery in Latin America, 1890-1930

Investment in machinery is a key aspect in the analysis of long-term economic growth during the era of the spread of industrialisation. But, historiography has only revealed what the pace of capital accumulation was in a few Latin American economies. This article offers continuous (annual) and consistent series on the magnitude of this investment in all of the Latin American countries for the period at the height of the first globalisation, 1890-1930. The paper gives special attention to comparative analysis, showing the differences that exist at the heart of the Latin American community, in the levels of capital formation in machinery as well as in the national development of this over time. The differences in the levels appear very indicative of the unequal degree of development reached by these economies. This article puts to test the hypothesis of intraregional divergence, obtaining the tentative result that there was divergence until 1913, but that there was convergence from 1914-1930.

Padrões de Distribuição da Flora Exótica em Cabo Verde: o Papel dos Factores Antrópicos e Ecológicos

Dada a relevância a nível global do impacto da introdução de espécies exóticas, e tendo sido identificada uma grande escassez de estudos nesta área de investigação em Cabo Verde, pretendeu-se com este estudo actualizar a lista dos taxa exóticos naturalizados deste arquipélago, fornecendo dados sobre a sua distribuição, caracterização taxonómica e principais grupos funcionais. Com o objectivo de averiguar quais são os factores que influenciam os padrões de distribuição da flora exótica nestas ilhas, efectuaram-se correlações de Spearman entre o número de taxa exóticos e várias variáveis ambientais e antrópicas. Sendo conhecida a importância que os factores antrópicos têm na composição e distribuição da flora introduzida, procurou-se ainda perceber se a flora da única ilha desabitada do arquipélago (Santa Luzia) poderá ser indicadora de características invasoras das espécies introduzidas. Os resultados obtidos indicaram um total de 403 taxa exóticos, correspondendo a 55% da flora de Cabo Verde, sendo as Poaceae, Fabaceae e Asteraceae as famílias com maior número de espécies. Verificou-se também que predominam as espécies herbáceas e o tipo biológico mais frequente é o terófito. Além disso, a população rural é o factor que mais fortemente e positivamente correlacionado com os padrões de distribuição da flora exótica em Cabo Verde. Correlações positivas muito significativas foram também encontradas para a área e altitude máxima de cada ilha. A análise da flora exótica da ilha desabitada de Santa Luzia revelou que, embora os taxa exóticos registados nesta ilha estejam presentes em quase todas as outras ilhas, as espécies inventariadas parecem não exibir um comportamento invasor ou de ameaça à flora nativa. Para finalizar, espera-se que os resultados obtidos possam contribuir com informação que fundamente futuras estratégias de conservação da Biodiversidade das ilhas de Cabo Verde.

(Young Investigator Award) Trabecular Bone Score Helps Classifying Women At Risk Of Fracture Prospectively In The Ofely Study

Introduction: To determine the metabolic effect of teriparatide (TPTD) on bone, 99mTc-MDP skeletal plasma clearance was measured in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis treated with TPTD 20 μg/day. Methods: Ten postmenopausal women with osteoporosis had radionuclide bone scans at baseline, 3, and 18 months after starting TPTD 20 μg/day and after 6 months off therapy. Participants were injected with 600 MBq 99mTc- MDP and whole body bone scans acquired at 10 min, 1, 2, 3, and 4 h. Multiple blood samples were taken between 5 min and 4 h and free 99mTc-MDP measured using ultrafiltration. 99mTc-MDP plasma clearance (Kbone) was evaluated using the Patlak plot method. Regional differences in Kbone were studied by measuring the whole skeleton and subregions. Serum procollagen type I Nterminal propeptide (PINP), bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (BSAP), and urinary N-terminal telopeptide (NTX) were measured at each visit.Discussion: The median increase from baseline in whole skeleton Kbone was 22% (P=0.004) at 3 months and 34% (P= 0.002) at 18 months, decreasing to 0.7% after 6 months off therapy. In subregions, Kbone value increases were statistically significant at 3 months and in all subregions except the pelvis at 18 months. After 6 months off therapy, subregional Kbone values also returned toward baseline. Bone markers increases from baseline were statistically significant at 3 and 18 months (BSAP, 15% and 36%; PINP, 137% and 192%; NTX, 109% and 125%). After 6 months off therapy, PINP and NTX values had declined, though remained above baseline (BSAP, −3%; PINP, 43%; NTX, 56%). Increased Kbone values in the whole body and lower extremities were correlated with increases in most bone markers at 3 and 18 months. Increased skeletal uptake of 99mTc-MDP during treatment with TPTD is indicative of increased bone formation and is supported by increases in bone turnover markers.Conclusion: Changes in Kbone and skeletal uptake measured by radionuclide bone scans in patients taking TPTD are the result of metabolic activity of the drug. These data may provide physicians with useful insights when interpreting bone scan results in this population.