ALBERT

Description: The Cadell Fault, found in stable continental region (SCR) crust in southeastern Australia, provides a record of temporally clustered morphogenic earthquakes spanning much of the Cenozoic. The slip rate, averaged over perhaps as many as five complete seismic cycles in the period 70–20 ka, is c. 0.4–0.5 mm a –1 , compared with an average rate of c. 0.005–0.01 mm a –1 over the period spanning the late Miocene to Recent. If full length rupture of the 80 km long feature is assumed, the average recurrence for M w 7.3–7.5 earthquake events on the Cadell Fault in the period 70–20 ka is c. 8 kyr. About 20 kyr, representing more than two average seismic cycles, have lapsed since the most recent morphogenic seismic event on the fault. It might therefore be speculated that this fault has relapsed into a quiescent period. Episodic rupture behaviour on the Cadell Fault, and nearby faults in Phanerozoic SCR crust in eastern Australia, might be controlled by their linkage into major crustal fault systems at depth, in apparent contrast with the style of deformation in non-extended Precambrian SCR crust. Periods of strain localization on these major crustal fault systems, effectively turning deforming regions ‘on’ and ‘off’, might be influenced by changes in distant plate boundary forces. If proved, this would have profound consequences for how the occurrence of large earthquakes is assessed in Australia, as the fundamental assumption of morphogenic earthquakes occurring as a result of the progressive build-up of strain, and thus being in some way predictable in their periodicity, is not satisfied. Documenting such fault behaviour in SCR crust assists in conceptualizing the points critical to understanding the hazards posed by SCR faults worldwide. Supplementary material: Seismic reflection and refraction survey parameters are available at: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18869

Description: Escalating wildfire in subalpine forests with stand-replacing fire regimes is increasing the extent of early-seral forests throughout the western US. Post-fire succession generates the fuel for future fires, but little is known about fuel loads and their variability in young post-fire stands. We sampled fuel profiles in 24-year-old post-fire lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta var. latifolia ) stands ( n =82) that regenerated from the 1988 Yellowstone Fires to answer three questions. (1) How do canopy and surface fuel loads vary within and among young lodgepole pine stands? (2) How do canopy and surface fuels vary with pre- and post-fire lodgepole pine stand structure and environmental conditions? (3) How have surface fuels changed between 8 and 24 years post-fire? Fuel complexes varied tremendously across the landscape despite having regenerated from the same fires. Available canopy fuel loads and canopy bulk density averaged 8.5 Mg ha -1 [range 0.0-46.6] and 0.24 kg m 3 [range: 0.0-2.3], respectively, meeting or exceeding levels in mature lodgepole pine forests. Total surface-fuel loads averaged 123 Mg ha -1 [range: 43 - 207], and 88% was in the 1000-hr fuel class. Litter, 1-hr, and 10-hr surface fuel loads were lower than reported for mature lodgepole pine forests, and 1000-hr fuel loads were similar or greater. Among-plot variation was greater in canopy fuels than surface fuels, and within-plot variation was greater than among-plot variation for nearly all fuels. Post-fire lodgepole pine density was the strongest positive predictor of canopy and fine surface fuel loads. Pre-fire successional stage was the best predictor of 100-hr and 1000-hr fuel loads in the post-fire stands and strongly influenced the size and proportion of sound logs (greater when late successional stands had burned) and rotten logs (greater when early successional stands had burned). Our data suggest that 76% of the young post-fire lodgepole pine forests have 1000-hr fuel loads that exceed levels associated with high-severity surface fire potential, and 63% exceed levels associated with active crown fire potential. Fire rotations in Yellowstone National Park are predicted to shorten to a few decades and this prediction cannot be ruled out by a lack of fuels to carry repeated fires. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) has been associated with the severe declines and extinctions of amphibians in Costa Rica that primarily occurred during the 1980s and 1990s. However, the current impact of Bd infection on amphibian species in Costa Rica is unknown. We aimed to update the list of amphibian species in Costa Rica and evaluate the prevalence and infection intensity of Bd infection across the country to aid in the development of effective conservation strategies for amphibians. We reviewed taxonomic lists and included new species descriptions and records for a total of 215 amphibian species in Costa Rica. We also sampled for Bd at nine localities from 2015–2018 and combined these data with additional Bd occurrence data from multiple studies conducted in amphibian communities across Costa Rica from 2005–2018. With this combined dataset, we found that Bd was common (overall infection rate of 23%) across regions and elevations, but infection intensity was below theoretical thresholds associated with mortality. Bd was also more prevalent in Caribbean lowlands and in terrestrial amphibians with an aquatic larval stage; meanwhile, infection load was the highest in direct-developing species (forest and stream-dwellers). Our findings can be used to prioritize regions and taxonomic groups for conservation strategies.

Description: Author(s): Stephen A. FitzGerald, Christopher T. Eckdahl, Cooper S. McDonald, Jocienne N. Nelson, Kai Shinbrough, Holden W. H. Lai, and Jesse L. C. Rowsell Infrared spectroscopy is used to observe the orientational fine structure arising from ortho − H 2 adsorbed at the primary site of the microporous framework MOF-5. The Q 1 ( 1 ) vibrational transition shows at least two symmetrically spaced fine structure bands on either side of the main band. These grow i… [Phys. Rev. B 92, 134304] Published Fri Oct 09, 2015

Description: The Journal of Organic Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/jo302072p

Description: The thermal and chain length sensitivity of the infrared spectra of some solid state anhydrous silver(I) salts (n-octanoate to n-eicosanoate, inclusive) are discussed. At ambient temperature, the tilted alkyl chains, anchored to the metal planes via chelating bidentate coordination to the silver ions, are crystallized in the fully extended all-trans conformation. Interestingly, though all compounds are crystallized in a monoclinic crystal system, their lateral chain packing, van der Waals effects, and hence vibrational features are chain length-dependent. This is a direct result of electrostatic effects of the COO group in addition to vibrational coupling between CH2, CH3, and COO modes, an effect which varies significantly with chain length. Variable temperature infrared measurements indicate significant irreversible changes in the metal-carboxyl coordination sphere, most likely due to bond fission. For long chain adducts (), thermally induced crystal system switching, monoclinic to triclinic, indicates greater thermal sensitivity of their alkyl chains. During heating, the regions of the hydrocarbon chains, furthest from the COO, become increasingly molten and mobile as the stepwise melt advances towards the solid COO moieties. This solid-liquid melting behaviour is responsible for mesophase formation in metal carboxylate systems.

Description: Provision of appropriate fertilizer recommendations to smallholder farmers is becoming increasingly important, for reasons of food security, economic viability, and the need to maintain soil fertility. Oil palm is one of the most important crops in the humid tropics, but smallholder growers (〈 10 ha) typically have low yields, largely due to inadequate fertilizer inputs and/or incomplete harvesting. It is difficult to produce appropriate fertilizer recommendations for the smallholder growers, due to their large numbers and small farm sizes. In this work, we developed a way of transferring to smallholder growers the fertilizer recommendations that have been developed for nearby plantation fields using large fertilizer trials. The study site was in West New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, and transfer of information was done using a geographic information system and maps of plantation fields, smallholder blocks, and soil types. The soil-map-unit descriptions were interpreted, and a unified classification system was derived. Then, fertilizer recommendations that had been made on a field-specific basis for the large plantations were allocated to soil types and thereby to individual smallholder blocks. In this way, block-specific fertilizer recommendations were made for more than 4000 individual smallholders. The procedures used were developed into a conceptual framework which is transferable to other regions. Recommendations can be updated as new information becomes available on smallholder block locations or plantation fertilizer recommendations.

Description: Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis Jacq. ) crops are expanding rapidly in the tropics, with implications for the global carbon cycle. Little is currently known about soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics following conversion to oil palm and virtually nothing for conversion of grassland. We measured changes in SOC stocks following conversion of tropical grassland to oil palm plantations in Papua New Guinea using a chronosequence of plantations planted over a 25-year period. We further used carbon isotopes to quantify the loss of grassland-derived and gain in oil palm-derived SOC over this period. The grassland and oil palm soils had average SOC stocks of 10.7 and 12.0 kg m −2 , respectively, across all the study sites, to a depth of 1.5 m. In the 0–0.05 m depth interval, 0.79 kg m −2 of SOC was gained from oil palm inputs over 25 years and approximately the same amount of the original grass-derived SOC was lost. For the whole soil profile (0–1.5 m), 3.4 kg m −2 of SOC was gained from oil palm inputs with no significant losses of grass-derived SOC. The grass-derived SOC stocks were more resistant to decrease than SOC reported in other studies. Black carbon produced in grassfires could partially but not fully account for the persistence of the original SOC stocks. Oil palm-derived SOC accumulated more slowly where soil nitrogen contents where high. Forest soils in the same region had smaller carbon stocks than the grasslands. In the majority of cases, conversion of grassland to oil palm plantations in this region resulted in net sequestration of soil organic carbon.

Description: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a frequently lethal malignancy that is often unresponsive to available therapeutic strategies. The tumorigenesis of ATC and its relationship to the widely prevalent well-differentiated thyroid carcinomas are unclear. We have analyzed 22 cases of ATC as well as 4 established ATC cell lines using whole-exome sequencing. A total of 2674 somatic mutations (121/sample) were detected. Ontology analysis revealed that the majority of variants aggregated in the MAPK, ErbB and RAS signaling pathways. Mutations in genes related to malignancy not previously associated with thyroid tumorigenesis were observed, including mTOR , NF1 , NF2 , MLH1 , MLH3 , MSH5, MSH6, ERBB2, EIF1AX and USH2A ; some of which were recurrent and were investigated in 24 additional ATC cases and 8 ATC cell lines . Somatic mutations in established thyroid cancer genes were detected in 14 of 22 (64%) tumors and included recurrent mutations in BRAF , TP53 and RAS- family genes (6 cases each), as well as PIK3CA (2 cases) and single cases of CDKN1B, CDKN2C , CTNNB1 and RET mutations. BRAF V600E and RAS mutations were mutually exclusive; all ATC cell lines exhibited a combination of mutations in either BRAF and TP53 or NRAS and TP53 . A hypermutator phenotype in two cases with 〉8 times higher mutational burden than the remaining mean was identified; both cases harbored unique somatic mutations in MLH mismatch-repair genes. This first comprehensive exome-wide analysis of the mutational landscape of ATC identifies novel genes potentially associated with ATC tumorigenesis, some of which may be targets for future therapeutic intervention.

Description: Regeneration of adult skeletal muscle following injury occurs through the activation of satellite cells, an injury-sensitive muscle stem cell population that proliferates, differentiates, and fuses with injured myofibers. Members of the myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) family of transcription factors play essential roles in muscle differentiation during embryogenesis, but their...