ALBERT

Description: Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/ja310742m

Description: The Death Valley Fault Zone (DVFZ), located in southeastern California, is an active fault system with an evolved pull-apart basin that has been deforming over the past 6 Myr. We present a study of the interseismic motion and long-term stress accumulation rates to better understand the nature of both past and present-day loading conditions of the DVFZ. Using a 3-D semi-analytic viscoelastic deformation model, combined with geodetic velocities derived from the Mobile Array of GPS for Nevada Transtension (MAGNET) network and the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) Crustal Motion Map version 4 (CMMv4) GPS data, we establish parameters for interseismic slip rate and apparent locking depth for four DVFZ fault segments. Our preferred model provides good fit to the data (1.0 mm/yr and 1.5 mm/yr RMS misfit in the fault-perpendicular and fault-parallel directions, respectively) and yields apparent locking depths between 9.8–17.1 km and strike-slip rates of 3–7 mm/yr for the segments. We also determine subsidence (0.5–0.8 mm/yr) and extension (1.0–1.2 mm/yr) rates in the pull-apart basin region. With these parameters, we construct a DVFZ evolution model for the last 6 Myr that recreates the motion of the fault blocks involved in the formation of the present-day geological structures in Death Valley. Finally, using Coulomb stress accumulation rates derived from our model (0.25–0.49 MPa/100 yr), combined with earthquake recurrence interval estimates of 500 to 2600 years, we assess present-day seismic hazards with calculated moment magnitudes ranging from 6.7–7.7.

Description: Evolution of a hexavalent uranium [U(VI)] plume at the Hanford 300 Area bordering the Columbia River was investigated to evaluate the roles of labile and nonlabile forms of U(VI) on the longevity of the plume. A high fidelity, three-dimensional, field-scale, reactive flow and transport model was used to represent the system. Richards’ equation coupled to multicomponent reactive transport equations were solved for times up to 100 yr, taking into account rapid fluctuations in the Columbia River stage resulting in pulse releases of U(VI) into the river. The petascale computer code PFLOTRAN developed under a Department of Energy Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC-2) project was used in the simulations and executed on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar XT5 Cray supercomputer. Labile U(VI) was represented in the model through surface complexation reactions and its nonlabile form through dissolution of metatorbernite used as a surrogate mineral. Initial conditions were constructed corresponding to the U(VI) plume already in place to avoid uncertainties associated with the lack of historical data for the waste stream. The cumulative U(VI) flux into the river was compared for cases of equilibrium and multirate sorption models and for no sorption, and its sensitivity on the initial plume configuration was investigated. The presence of nonlabile U(VI) was found to be essential in explaining the longevity of the U(VI) plume and the prolonged high U(VI) concentrations at the site exceeding the USEPA maximum contaminant level for U(VI).

Description: We infer rates of crustal deformation in the northern Walker Lane (NWL) and western Basin and Range using data from the Mobile Array of GPS for Nevada transtension, and other continuous GPS networks including the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory. We present 224 new GPS velocities, correct them for the effects of viscoelastic postseismic relaxation, and use them to constrain a block model to estimate fault slip rates. The data segregate the NWL into domains based on differences in deformation rate, pattern, and style. Deformation is transtensional, with highest rates near the western and eastern edges of the NWL. Some basins, e.g., Tahoe, experience shear deformation and extension. Normal slip is distributed throughout the NWL and Basin and Range, where 11 subparallel range-bounding normal fault systems have an average horizontal extension rate of 0.1 mm/yr. Comparison between geologic and geodetic slip rates indicates that out of 12 published geologic rates, 10 agree with geodetic rates to within uncertainties. This suggests that smaller crustal blocks move steadily, similar to larger lithospheric plates, and that geodetic measurements of slip rates are reliable in zones of complex crustal deformation. For the two slip rates that disagree, geologic rates are greater. The vertical axis rotation rate of the Carson domain is −1.3 ± 0.1°/My clockwise, lower than the 3° to 6°/My obtained in paleomagnetic measurements. This suggests that vertical axis rotation rates may have decreased over the last 9–13 My as the role of faulting has increased at the expense of rigid rotations.

Description: Analytical Chemistry DOI: 10.1021/ac502700b

Description: Platelets are the second most abundant cell type in blood and are essential for maintaining haemostasis. Their count and volume are tightly controlled within narrow physiological ranges, but there is only limited understanding of the molecular processes controlling both traits. Here we carried out a high-powered meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in up to 66,867 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment. We identified 68 genomic loci reliably associated with platelet count and volume mapping to established and putative novel regulators of megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation. These genes show megakaryocyte-specific gene expression patterns and extensive network connectivity. Using gene silencing in Danio rerio and Drosophila melanogaster, we identified 11 of the genes as novel regulators of blood cell formation. Taken together, our findings advance understanding of novel gene functions controlling fate-determining events during megakaryopoiesis and platelet formation, providing a new example of successful translation of GWAS to function.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335296/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3335296/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gieger, Christian -- Radhakrishnan, Aparna -- Cvejic, Ana -- Tang, Weihong -- Porcu, Eleonora -- Pistis, Giorgio -- Serbanovic-Canic, Jovana -- Elling, Ulrich -- Goodall, Alison H -- Labrune, Yann -- Lopez, Lorna M -- Magi, Reedik -- Meacham, Stuart -- Okada, Yukinori -- Pirastu, Nicola -- Sorice, Rossella -- Teumer, Alexander -- Voss, Katrin -- Zhang, Weihua -- Ramirez-Solis, Ramiro -- Bis, Joshua C -- Ellinghaus, David -- Gogele, Martin -- Hottenga, Jouke-Jan -- Langenberg, Claudia -- Kovacs, Peter -- O'Reilly, Paul F -- Shin, So-Youn -- Esko, Tonu -- Hartiala, Jaana -- Kanoni, Stavroula -- Murgia, Federico -- Parsa, Afshin -- Stephens, Jonathan -- van der Harst, Pim -- Ellen van der Schoot, C -- Allayee, Hooman -- Attwood, Antony -- Balkau, Beverley -- Bastardot, Francois -- Basu, Saonli -- Baumeister, Sebastian E -- Biino, Ginevra -- Bomba, Lorenzo -- Bonnefond, Amelie -- Cambien, Francois -- Chambers, John C -- Cucca, Francesco -- D'Adamo, Pio -- Davies, Gail -- de Boer, Rudolf A -- de Geus, Eco J C -- Doring, Angela -- Elliott, Paul -- Erdmann, Jeanette -- Evans, David M -- Falchi, Mario -- Feng, Wei -- Folsom, Aaron R -- Frazer, Ian H -- Gibson, Quince D -- Glazer, Nicole L -- Hammond, Chris -- Hartikainen, Anna-Liisa -- Heckbert, Susan R -- Hengstenberg, Christian -- Hersch, Micha -- Illig, Thomas -- Loos, Ruth J F -- Jolley, Jennifer -- Khaw, Kay Tee -- Kuhnel, Brigitte -- Kyrtsonis, Marie-Christine -- Lagou, Vasiliki -- Lloyd-Jones, Heather -- Lumley, Thomas -- Mangino, Massimo -- Maschio, Andrea -- Mateo Leach, Irene -- McKnight, Barbara -- Memari, Yasin -- Mitchell, Braxton D -- Montgomery, Grant W -- Nakamura, Yusuke -- Nauck, Matthias -- Navis, Gerjan -- Nothlings, Ute -- Nolte, Ilja M -- Porteous, David J -- Pouta, Anneli -- Pramstaller, Peter P -- Pullat, Janne -- Ring, Susan M -- Rotter, Jerome I -- Ruggiero, Daniela -- Ruokonen, Aimo -- Sala, Cinzia -- Samani, Nilesh J -- Sambrook, Jennifer -- Schlessinger, David -- Schreiber, Stefan -- Schunkert, Heribert -- Scott, James -- Smith, Nicholas L -- Snieder, Harold -- Starr, John M -- Stumvoll, Michael -- Takahashi, Atsushi -- Tang, W H Wilson -- Taylor, Kent -- Tenesa, Albert -- Lay Thein, Swee -- Tonjes, Anke -- Uda, Manuela -- Ulivi, Sheila -- van Veldhuisen, Dirk J -- Visscher, Peter M -- Volker, Uwe -- Wichmann, H-Erich -- Wiggins, Kerri L -- Willemsen, Gonneke -- Yang, Tsun-Po -- Hua Zhao, Jing -- Zitting, Paavo -- Bradley, John R -- Dedoussis, George V -- Gasparini, Paolo -- Hazen, Stanley L -- Metspalu, Andres -- Pirastu, Mario -- Shuldiner, Alan R -- Joost van Pelt, L -- Zwaginga, Jaap-Jan -- Boomsma, Dorret I -- Deary, Ian J -- Franke, Andre -- Froguel, Philippe -- Ganesh, Santhi K -- Jarvelin, Marjo-Riitta -- Martin, Nicholas G -- Meisinger, Christa -- Psaty, Bruce M -- Spector, Timothy D -- Wareham, Nicholas J -- Akkerman, Jan-Willem N -- Ciullo, Marina -- Deloukas, Panos -- Greinacher, Andreas -- Jupe, Steve -- Kamatani, Naoyuki -- Khadake, Jyoti -- Kooner, Jaspal S -- Penninger, Josef -- Prokopenko, Inga -- Stemple, Derek -- Toniolo, Daniela -- Wernisch, Lorenz -- Sanna, Serena -- Hicks, Andrew A -- Rendon, Augusto -- Ferreira, Manuel A -- Ouwehand, Willem H -- Soranzo, Nicole -- 092731/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 098051/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- BB/F019394/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- CZB/4/505/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- ETM/55/Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- G0000111/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0601966/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0700704/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0700931/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0701120/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0701863/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G0801056/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- G1000143/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- K12 RR023250/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- K12 RR023250-05/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- M01 RR016500/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- M01 RR016500-08/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- MC_U105260799/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- MC_U106179471/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- MC_U106188470/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- N01 HC055015/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055016/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055018/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055019/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055020/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055021/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC055022/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- N01 HC085079/HC/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL076491/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL076491-09/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL098055/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P01 HL098055-03/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- P30 DK072488/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ -- P30 DK072488-08/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ -- P41 HG003751/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG018728/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG018728-05S1/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM053275/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM053275-14/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 HD042157/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R01 HD042157-01A1/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL059367/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL059367-11/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL068986/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL068986-06/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL073410/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL073410-08/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL085251/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL085251-04/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL086694/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL086694-05/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL087641/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL087641-03/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL087679-03/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL088119/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL088119-04/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL103866/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL103866-03/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HL105756/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- RG/09/012/28096/British Heart Foundation/United Kingdom -- RL1 MH083268/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- RL1 MH083268-05/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- U01 GM074518/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 GM074518-04/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 HL072515/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- U01 HL072515-06/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- U01 HL084756/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- U01 HL084756-03/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- U54 RR020278/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- U54 RR020278-06/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- UL1 RR025005/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- UL1 RR025005-05/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- WT077037/Z/05/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT077047/Z/05/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT082597/Z/07/Z/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- England -- Nature. 2011 Nov 30;480(7376):201-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10659.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Genetic Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstadter Landstr 1, 85764 Neuherberg, Germany. christian.gieger@helmholtz-muenchen.de〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22139419" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Groundwater use in California's San Joaquin Valley exceeds replenishment of the aquifer, leading to substantial diminution of this resource and rapid subsidence of the valley floor. The volume of groundwater lost over the past century and a half also represents a substantial reduction in mass and a large-scale unburdening of the lithosphere, with significant but unexplored potential impacts on crustal deformation and seismicity. Here we use vertical global positioning system measurements to show that a broad zone of rock uplift of up to 1-3 mm per year surrounds the southern San Joaquin Valley. The observed uplift matches well with predicted flexure from a simple elastic model of current rates of water-storage loss, most of which is caused by groundwater depletion. The height of the adjacent central Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada is strongly seasonal and peaks during the dry late summer and autumn, out of phase with uplift of the valley floor during wetter months. Our results suggest that long-term and late-summer flexural uplift of the Coast Ranges reduce the effective normal stress resolved on the San Andreas Fault. This process brings the fault closer to failure, thereby providing a viable mechanism for observed seasonality in microseismicity at Parkfield and potentially affecting long-term seismicity rates for fault systems adjacent to the valley. We also infer that the observed contemporary uplift of the southern Sierra Nevada previously attributed to tectonic or mantle-derived forces is partly a consequence of human-caused groundwater depletion.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Amos, Colin B -- Audet, Pascal -- Hammond, William C -- Burgmann, Roland -- Johanson, Ingrid A -- Blewitt, Geoffrey -- England -- Nature. 2014 May 22;509(7501):483-6. doi: 10.1038/nature13275. Epub 2014 May 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Geology Department, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington 98225-9080, USA. ; Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. ; Nevada Geodetic Laboratory, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and Nevada Seismological Laboratory, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA. ; 1] Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-4760, USA [2] Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California 97720-4767, USA. ; Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-4760, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24828048" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: We use data from western US GPS networks to estimate the rate, pattern, and style of tectonic deformation of the central Basin and Range Province (BRP). Previous geodetic investigations have found the crust of eastern Nevada and western Utah to act as a rigid microplate, with zero deformation rates to within measurement uncertainty. Observed transients in GPS time series have led others to propose a megadetachment model, predicting that the central BRP behaves as a microplate, but with time varying translation. Here we reassess these hypotheses, benefiting from a significant increase in GPS stations and time span, and innovations in analysis techniques. Our results show that the BRP crust deforms everywhere and all the time. In a group of 24 stations between longitude -113.5° and -116.8° we find strain rates of 1.9 ± 0.2 × 10 -9  yr -1 extension directed N55˚W and 2.2 ± 0.2 × 10 -9  yr -1 contraction directed N35˚E, inconsistent with microplate behavior. The linearity of time series of strain from GPS station triplets is inconsistent with episodic translation of quasi-rigid domains. One exception is station EGAN that exhibits non-linear motion not found in adjacent stations. The dominant signal in Nevada is distributed shear consistent with Pacific/North America relative plate motion, suggesting that stresses are transmitted through the lithosphere at least 800 km from the plate boundary. The observed active extension is consistent with earthquake focal mechanisms and is in agreement with integrated rates estimated from earthquake geology. Our results do not support the proposed megadetachment in the BRP.

Description: Journal of the American Chemical Society DOI: 10.1021/ja311960g