bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fractured rock hydromechanics: from borehole testing to solute transport and CO
2
storage
Authors: Tsang C.-F. , Rutqvist J. , Min K.-B. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

The interaction between mechanical deformation and fluid flow in fractured rock gives rise to a host of coupled hydromechanical processes, which form the basis of a number of interesting research questions with practical implications. This paper will first discuss these processes in general, describing two numerical models that have been developed to analyse these processes. Then, four very different studies will be presented to illustrate the richness of this field. The first study has to do with borehole injection testing to determine fracture parameters and how hydromechanical effects will modify test results. The second study is on stress changes (caused by stress release) in rock near a tunnel during excavation, which cause significant changes in fluid pressures in the region. The third study is on the relationship between mechanical effects and flow anisotropy and channelling in a rock block with a fracture network. The fourth study pertains to the hydromechanical effects associated with deep CO
2
injection and storage. These examples serve to demonstrate the various interesting research problems in fractured rock hydromechanics. In the coming years, we expect intensified activity and further advances in this exciting field of research.
Characterization of pore-space heterogeneity in sandstone by X-ray computed tomography
Authors: Louis L. , Baud P. , Wong T.-F. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

In this study we review some of the recent advances in the application of X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) to geomaterials. This non-destructive technique based on density contrasts provides 2D images comparable with micrographs and 3D reconstructions at various resolutions depending on the acquisition setup. Synchrotron images with resolution of a few microns allow for 3D mapping of the pore space and can be used to perform 3D fluid flow simulations. ‘Industrial’ CT systems can provide images of centimetre-sized samples with a resolution of
c
. 50 µm. This resolution is suitable for studying centimetre-scale structural heterogeneities and compaction localization, as illustrated in recent studies. Starting from images taken at both synchrotron and industrial resolutions in intact samples of porous sandstones, we show that important conclusions on pore-space heterogeneity can be drawn from global and local analysis of the distributions of X-ray attenuation values. The global analysis is used in particular to identify relatively homogeneous materials in which compaction bands are likely to develop. Local analysis performed over small clusters of voxels appears to have more potential for the geometric description of the pore space. We show the existence of a resolution at which the local coefficient of variation of the X-ray distributions reaches a maximum. This resolution, which is about an order of magnitude lower than synchrotron resolution, appears to be related to the pore size, and the corresponding coefficient of variation to the porosity.
Understanding tsunamis, potential source regions and tsunami-prone mechanisms in the Eastern Mediterranean
Authors: Yolsal S. , Taymaz T. , Yalçiner A. C. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract
Historical tsunamis and tsunami propagation are synthesized in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea region, with particular attention to the Hellenic and the Cyprus arcs and the Levantine basin, to obtain a better picture of the tsunamigenic zones. Historical data of tsunami manifestation in the region are analysed, and compared with current seismic activity and plate interactions. Numerical simulations of potential and historical tsunamis reported in the Cyprus and Hellenic arcs are performed as case studies in the context of the nonlinear shallow-water theory. Tsunami wave heights as well as their distribution function are calculated for the Paphos earthquake of 11 May 1222 and the Crete earthquake of 8 August 1303 as illustrative examples depicting the characteristics of tsunami propagation, and the effects of coastal topography and near-shore amplification. The simulation studies also revealed that the long-normal distributions are compatible with reported damage. Furthermore, it is necessary to note that high-resolution bathymetry maps are a crucial component in tsunami wave simulations, and this aspect is rather poorly developed in the Eastern Mediterranean. The current study also demonstrates the role of bottom irregularities in determining the wave-height distribution near coastlines. Assuming the probability of occurrence of destructive tsunamigenic earthquakes, these studies will help us to evaluate the tsunami hazard for the coastal plains of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea region. We suggest that future oceanographic and marine geophysical research should aim to improve the resolution of bathymetric maps, particularly for the details of the continental shelf and seamounts.
Late Quaternary sedimentation and tectonics in the submarine Şarköy Canyon, western Marmara Sea (Turkey)
Authors: Ergin M. , Uluadam E. , Sarikavak K. , Keskin Ş. , Gökaşan E. , Tur H. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

Influences of tectonics and late Quaternary sea-level changes on sedimentation in the submarine Şarköy Canyon, western Marmara Sea (Turkey) were investigated using a total of 37 seismic reflection profiles and 12 gravity sediment cores (with 63–435 cm thicknesses), which were collected at water depths ranging from 62 to 245 m.
14
C ages of base sections in three cores (11.585, 11.845 and 24.915 ka
bp
) and upward fining of grain size in the cores suggest that these sediments must have been deposited since the sea-level lowstand at about 12 ka
bp,
when the conditions in the Marmara Sea began to change from lacustrine to the present marine phase. With some exceptions, siliciclastic mud (silt+clay >90%) with low carbonate contents (<15% CaCO
3
) is the dominant sediment type covering the floor of the canyon. The high organic carbon contents (1–2%) with slight downcore-increasing tendencies reflect higher primary organic productivities towards the early Holocene. Faults, sedimentation deformation structures, and submarine slides or slumps observed on seismic profiles, varying elevations of dated lowstand palaeoshores and low water contents (19–25%) of sediments at some sites together strongly indicate the important effect of neotectonics on sedimentation in this canyon. On the seismic profiles at least four stratigraphic units were recognized overlying the pre-Miocene basement, which indicate not only the effects of faulting and folding but also changing conditions and related depositional environments in and around the canyon. Geological evolution and thus the sea-floor morphology of the Şarköy Canyon is controlled by both regional Plio-Quaternary tectonics and global Quaternary sea-level changes.
The magnetism in tectonically controlled travertine as a palaeoseismological tool: examples from the Sıcak Çermik geothermal field, central Turkey
Authors: Gürsoy H. , Mesci B. L. , Piper J. D. A. , Tatar O. , Davies C. J. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

In regions of neotectonic activity geothermal waters flow into extensional fissures and deposit successive layers of carbonate as fissure travertine incorporating small amounts of ferromagnetic grains. The same waters spill out onto the surface to deposit bedded travertine, which may also incorporate wind-blown dust with a ferromagnetic component. Travertine deposits are linked to earthquake activity because geothermal reservoirs are reset and activated by earthquake fracturing but tend to become sealed by deposition of carbonate between events. A weak ferromagnetism records the ambient field at the time of deposition and sequential deposition can identify cycles of secular variation of the geomagnetic field to provide a means of estimating the rate of travertine growth. The palaeomagnetic record in three travertine fissures from the Sıcak Çermik geothermal field in central Anatolia dated to between 100 and 360 ka by U–Th determinations has been examined to relate the geomagnetic signature to earthquake-induced layering. Sequential sampling from the margins (earliest deposition) to the centres (last deposition) identifies directional migrations reminiscent of geomagnetic secular variation. On the assumption that these cycles record time periods of 1–2 ka, the number of travertine layers identifies resetting of the geothermal system by earthquakes every 50–100 years. Travertine precipitation occurs at rates of 0.1–0.3 mm a
−1
on each side of the extensional fissures and at a rate an order higher than for bedded travertine on the surface. Earthquakes of magnitude M≤4 occur too frequently in the Sivas Basin to have any apparent influence on travertine deposition but earthquakes with M in the range 4.5–5.5 occur with a frequency compatible with the travertine layering, and it appears to be events of this order that are recorded by sequential travertine deposition. Two signatures of much larger earthquakes on a 1–10 ka time scale are also present in the travertine deposition: (1) the incidental emplacement of massive travertine or fracturing of earlier travertine without destruction of the fissure as a site of travertine emplacement; (2) termination of the fissure as a site of deposition with transfer of the geothermal activity to a new fracture. The presence of some 25 fractures in the
c
. 300 ka Sıcak Çermik field growing at rates of 0.1–0.6 mm a
−1
suggests that the type (2) signature may be achieved by an M
c
. 7.5 event approximately every 10 ka.
Distribution and chronology of submarine volcanic rocks around Santorini and their relationship to faulting
Authors: Piper D. J. W. , Pe-Piper G. , Perissoratis C. , Anastasakis G. 
Published: December 2007

Abstract
Seismic reflection profiles from the marine areas around Santorini in the south Aegean arc show the distribution of active faults and the occurrence of submarine volcanic rocks interfingering with stratified basinal sediment. Santorini is located at the intersection of fault sets of different ages. To the west, active faults trend east–west, whereas to the east, active faults trend ENE–WSW and a slightly older set of faults trends NE–SW. Subsurface submarine volcanic rocks can be dated using ages estimated for the stratified basin sediments elsewhere in the Milos–Christiani Basin. Volcanic horizons off Santorini correlate with the main (young) Akrotiri (0.65–0.55 Ma) and old Akrotiri (1.6 ka) volcanic episodes, respectively. Off Christiani, the upper unit of volcanic rocks is of similar age to the young Akrotiri episode and the lower volcanic unit is likely to be of latest Pliocene age. Late Neogene basin subsidence and volcanism are a consequence of changing patterns of faulting resulting from the collision of the African and Aegean–Anatolian plates.
St. Benedict Sees the Light: Asam's Solar Eclipses as Metaphor
Authors: Pasachoff Jay , Olson Roberta 
Published: December 2007

AbstractDuring the Baroque period, artists worked in a style—encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church and the Council of Trent—that revealed the divine in natural forms and made religious experiences more accessible. Cosmas Damian Asam, painter and architect, and his brother Egid (Aegid) Quirin Asam, sculptor and stuccatore, were the principal exponents of eighteenth-century, southern-German religious decoration and architecture in the grand manner, the Gesamtkunstwerk. Cosmas Damian's visionary and ecstatic art utilized light, both physical and illusionistic, together with images of meteorological and astronomical phenomena, such as solar and lunar eclipses. This paper focuses on his representations of eclipses and demonstrates how Asam was galvanized by their visual, as well as metaphorical, power and that he studied a number of them. He subsequently applied his observations in a series of paintings for the Benedictine order that become increasingly astronomically accurate and spiritually profound. From the evidence presented, especially in three depictions of St. Benedict's vision, the artist harnessed his observations to visualize the literary description of the miraculous event in the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, traditionally a difficult scene to illustrate, even for Albrecht Dürer. Asam painted the trio at Einsiedeln, Switzerland (1724–27); Kladruby, the Czech Republic (1725–27), where he captured the solar corona and the "diamond-ring effect"; and Weltenburg, Germany (1735), where he also depicted the diamond-ring effect at a total solar eclipse. We conclude that his visualizations were informed by his personal observations of the solar eclipses on 12 May 1706, 22 May 1724, and 13 May 1733. Asam may have also known the eclipse maps of Edmond Halley and William Whiston that were issued in advance. Astronomers did not start studying eclipses scientifically until the nineteenth century, making Asam's depictions all the more fascinating. So powerful was the image that Asam invented to visualize St. Benedict's vision that it found reflection in the subsequent Bavarian Benedictine visual tradition. Total solar eclipses are among the most spectacular sights in Nature. Therefore, in an age obsessed with revealing the divine through natural idioms and making religious experiences direct—not to mention that light had long functioned as a symbol of divinity in the Christian tradition—it seems fitting that solar eclipses would be interpreted as a metaphor of a divine presence or a miracle.
Light Falling on England: History and Landscape in the Poetry of C. H. Sisson
Authors: Gardner Kevin 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThe defining characteristic of the poetry of C. H. Sisson (1914–2003) may be its complex understanding of time. Pervading his work is an incessant fascination with the history and landscape of England that hinges on a non-linear theory of time. Sisson imagines events past and present swirling together in eddies of dislocated English history. He associates the English landscape not only with a past still vibrantly alive but with moral virtue as well. A profound commitment to Anglicanism and monarchism also notably marks his poetry. Sisson's attention to the history and landscape of England substantiates and justifies his commitments to church and crown. This Drydenesque Toryism, rooted in the landscape of his poetic imagination, enables him to conceptualize time as an undisrupted flow in which history and the present merge seamlessly and offer comfort against an uncertain future. The poetry of C. H. Sisson is the poetry of hope, amid the desolation of the present, located in the living history of the past.
Zionism and Politics in Swaziland
Authors: Cummergen Paul 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis paper gives an account of the place of Zionism in Swazi society. It does so by examining the available literature on Zionism in Swaziland, looking at the origins and development of Swazi Zionism and at its contemporary social and political context. In this way, Swazi Zionism is shown to be a distinctive and significant social and religious phenomenon.
Review Essay: The ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism' 50 Years On
Authors: Parrini Paolo 
Published: December 2007

AbstractThis chronicle is a review of a collective publication commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of W. V. O. Quine’s most influential paper. The author, a prominent epistemologist, discusses these contributions in a way that sheds a particular light on the importance of Quine’s work for the ongoing epistemological debate.
Horizontal gene transfer and nucleotide compositional anomaly in large DNA viruses
Authors: Monier Adam , Claverie Jean-Michel , Ogata Hiroyuki 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

Background
DNA viruses have a wide range of genome sizes (5 kb up to 1.2 Mb, compared to 0.16 Mb to 1.5 Mb for obligate parasitic bacteria) that do not correlate with their virulence or the taxonomic distribution of their hosts. The reasons for such large variation are unclear. According to the traditional view of viruses as gifted "gene pickpockets", large viral genome sizes could originate from numerous gene acquisitions from their hosts. We investigated this hypothesis by studying 67 large DNA viruses with genome sizes larger than 150 kb, including the recently characterized giant mimivirus. Given that horizontally transferred DNA often have anomalous nucleotide compositions differing from the rest of the genome, we conducted a detailed analysis of the inter- and intra-genome compositional properties of these viruses. We then interpreted their compositional heterogeneity in terms of possible causes, including strand asymmetry, gene function/expression, and horizontal transfer.

Results
We first show that the global nucleotide composition and nucleotide word usage of viral genomes are species-specific and distinct from those of their hosts. Next, we identified compositionally anomalous (cA) genes in viral genomes, using a method based on Bayesian inference. The proportion of cA genes is highly variable across viruses and does not exhibit a significant correlation with genome size. The vast majority of the cA genes were of unknown function, lacking homologs in the databases. For genes with known homologs, we found a substantial enrichment of cA genes in specific functional classes for some of the viruses. No significant association was found between cA genes and compositional strand asymmetry. A possible exogenous origin for a small fraction of the cA genes could be confirmed by phylogenetic reconstruction.

Conclusion
At odds with the traditional dogma, our results argue against frequent genetic transfers to large DNA viruses from their modern hosts. The large genome sizes of these viruses are not simply explained by an increased propensity to acquire foreign genes. This study also confirms that the anomalous nucleotide compositions of the cA genes is sometimes linked to particular biological functions or expression patterns, possibly leading to an overestimation of recent horizontal gene transfers.
A nanoplex PCR assay for the rapid detection of vancomycin and bifunctional aminoglycoside resistance genes in Enterococcus species
Authors: Yean Chan Yean , Yin Lee Su , Lalitha Pattabhiraman , Ravichandran Manickam 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

Background
Enterococci have emerged as a significant cause of nosocomial infections in many parts of the world over the last decade. The most common enterococci strains present in clinical isolates are E. faecalis and E. faecium which have acquired resistant to either gentamicin or vancomycin. The conventional culture test takes 2–5 days to yield complete information of the organism and its antibiotic sensitivity pattern. Hence our present study was focused on developing a nanoplex PCR assay for the rapid detection of vancomycin and bifunctional aminoglycoside resistant enterococci (V-BiA-RE). This assay simultaneously detects 8 genes namely 16S rRNA of Enterococcus genus, ddl of E. faecalis and E. faecium, aac A-aph D that encodes high level gentamicin resistance (HLGR), multilevel vancomycin resistant genotypes such as van A, van B, van C and van D and one internal control gene.

Results
Unique and specific primer pairs were designed to amplify the 8 genes. The specificity of the primers was confirmed by DNA sequencing of the nanoplex PCR products and BLAST analysis. The sensitivity and specificity of V-BiA-RE nanoplex PCR assay was evaluated against the conventional culture method. The analytical sensitivity of the assay was found to be 1 ng at the DNA level while the analytical specificity was evaluated with 43 reference enterococci and non-enterococcal strains and was found to be 100%. The diagnostic accuracy was determined using 159 clinical specimens, which showed that 97% of the clinical isolates belonged to E. faecalis, of which 26% showed the HLGR genotype, but none were vancomycin resistant. The presence of an internal control in the V-BiA-RE nanoplex PCR assay helped us to rule out false negative cases.

Conclusion
The nanoplex PCR assay is robust and can give results within 4 hours about the 8 genes that are essential for the identification of the most common Enterococcus spp. and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern. The PCR assay developed in this study can be used as an effective surveillance tool to study the prevalence of enterococci and their antibiotic resistance pattern in hospitals and farm animals.
Trends in influenza vaccination coverage rates in Germany over five seasons from 2001 to 2006
Authors: Holm Majbrit V , Blank Patricia R , Szucs Thomas D 
Published: December 2007

Abstract

Background
To assess influenza vaccination coverage from 2001 to 2006 in Germany, to understand drivers and barriers to vaccination and to identify vaccination intentions for season 2006/07.

Methods
9,990 telephone-based household surveys from age 14 were conducted between 2001 and 2006. Essentially, the same questionnaire was used in all seasons.

Results
The influenza vaccination coverage rate reached 32.5% in 2005/06. In the elderly (≥60 years), the vaccination rate reached 58.9% in 2005/06. In those aged 65 years and older, it was 63.4%. Perceiving influenza as a serious illness was the most frequent reason for getting vaccinated. Thirteen percent of those vaccinated in 2005/06 indicated the threat of avian flu as a reason. The main reason for not getting vaccinated was thinking about it without putting it into practice. The major encouraging factor to vaccination was a recommendation by the family doctor. 49.6% of the respondents intend to get vaccinated against influenza in season 2006/07.

Conclusion
Increasing vaccination rates were observed from 2001 to 2006 in Germany. The threat of avian influenza and the extended reimbursement programs may have contributed to the recent increase.