Deep origin and hot melting of an Archaean orogenic peridotite massif in Norway

The buoyancy and strength of sub-continental lithospheric mantle is thought to protect the oldest continental crust (cratons) from destruction by plate tectonic processes. The exact origin of the lithosphere below cratons is controversial, but seems clearly to be a residue remaining after the extraction of large amounts of melt. Models to explain highly melt-depleted but garnet-bearing rock compositions require multi-stage processes with garnet and clinopyroxene possibly of secondary origin. Here we report on orogenic peridotites (fragments of cratonic mantle incorporated into the crust during continent-continent plate collision) from Otr?y, western Norway. We show that the peridotites underwent extensive melting during upwelling from depths of 350 kilometres or more, forming a garnet-bearing cratonic root in a single melting event. These peridotites appear to be the residue after Archaean aluminium depleted komatiite magmatism.     

A low density of 0.8 g cm(-3) for the Trojan binary asteroid 617 Patroclus

The Trojan population consists of two swarms of asteroids following the same orbit as Jupiter and located at the L4 and L5 stable Lagrange points of the Jupiter-Sun system (leading and following Jupiter by 60 degrees ). The asteroid 617 Patroclus is the only known binary Trojan. The orbit of this double system was hitherto unknown. Here we report that the components, separated by 680 km, move around the system's centre of mass, describing a roughly circular orbit. Using this orbital information, combined with thermal measurements to estimate the size of the components, we derive a very low density of 0.8(- 0.1)+0.2 g cm(-3). The components of 617 Patroclus are therefore very porous or composed mostly of water ice, suggesting that they could have been formed in the outer part of the Solar System.     

Gene therapy: is IL2RG oncogenic in T-cell development?

The gene IL2RG encodes the gamma-chain of the interleukin-2 receptor and is mutated in patients with X-linked severe combined immune deficiency (X-SCID). Woods et al. report the development of thymus tumours in a mouse model of X-SCID after correction by lentiviral overexpression of IL2RG and claim that these were caused by IL2RG itself. Here we find that retroviral overexpression of IL2RG in human CD34+ cells has no effect on T-cell development, whereas overexpression of the T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) oncogene LMO2 leads to severe abnormalities. Retroviral expression of IL2RG may therefore not be directly oncogenic--rather, the restoration of normal signalling by the interleukin-7 receptor to X-SCID precursor cells allows progression of T-cell development to stages that are permissive for the pro-leukaemic effects of ectopic LMO2.     

First record of the genus Tanaostigma (Hymenoptera,Chalcidoidea, Tanaostigmatidae) from the Afrotropical region with description of three new species

ABSTRACT

The genus Tanaostigma is newly recorded from the Afrotropical region and three new species are described: Tanaostigma lasallei van Noort sp. nov. (South Africa), Tanaostigma mulu van Noort sp. nov. (Kenya) and Tanaostigma ukumbusho van Noort sp. nov. (Kenya). We provide comprehensive images of the holotypes and an illustrated identification key to the African species. New country distribution records are provided for Tanaostigmodes tambotis Prinsloo & LaSalle, 1995. All images presented here as well as supplementary images and online keys are available on www.waspweb.org

www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:61D1A59D-3702-480A-B146-73067C29CD82     

SEPRAN:A Versatile Finite-Element Package for a Wide Variety of Problems in Geosciences

Numerical modelling of geological processes, such as mantle convection, flow in porous media, and geothermal heat transfer, has become quite common with the increase in computing and the availability o...     

Dynamic measurement of myosin light-chain-domain tilt and twist in muscle contraction.

A new method is described for measuring motions of protein domains in their native environment on the physiological timescale. Pairs of cysteines are introduced into the domain at sites chosen from its static structure and are crosslinked by a bifunctional rhodamine. Domain orientation in a reconstituted macromolecular complex is determined by combining fluorescence polarization data from a small number of such labelled cysteine pairs. This approach bridges the gap between in vitro studies of protein structure and cellular studies of protein function and is used here to measure the tilt and twist of the myosin light-chain domain with respect to actin filaments in single muscle cells. The results reveal the structural basis for the lever-arm action of the light-chain domain of the myosin motor during force generation in muscle.     

Divisive Latent Class Modeling as a Density Estimation Method for Categorical Data

Traditionally latent class (LC) analysis is used by applied researchers as a tool for identifying substantively meaningful clusters. More recently, LC models have also been used as a density estimation tool for categorical variables. We introduce a divisive LC (DLC) model as a density estimation tool that may offer several advantages in comparison to a standard LC model. When using an LC model for density estimation, a considerable number of increasingly large LC models may have to be estimated before sufficient model-fit is achieved. A DLC model consists of a sequence of small LC models. Therefore, a DLC model can be estimated much faster and can easily utilize multiple processor cores, meaning that this model is more widely applicable and practical. In this study we describe the algorithm of fitting a DLC model, and discuss the various settings that indirectly influence the precision of a DLC model as a density estimation tool. These settings are illustrated using a synthetic data example, and the best performing algorithm is applied to a real-data example. The generated data example showed that, using specific decision rules, a DLC model is able to correctly model complex associations amongst categorical variables.     

Correction of Breathing Motion in the Thorax for Helical CT

This paper investigates a reconstruction method for helical computed tomography which compensates for the motion artifacts in the thorax caused by patient breathing.The method takes into account a motion vector field determined from a four-dimensional(4-D) uncompensated image data set.Surface models of the lung and the ribs are tracked through the 4-D data set to create motion information within the entire thorax.Finally,an image is reconstructed using motion compensated back-projection.The results show tha...