The NNE-trending Upper Rhine Graben (URG) of the European Cenozoic Rift System developed from c. 47 Ma onwards in response to changing lithospheric stresses in the northwestern foreland of the Alps. ...The composite graben structure consists of three segments, each c. 100 km long and 30–40 km wide, but flares to c. 60 km near its southern and to c. 80 km near its northern termination. Normal faulting induced a total extension of 5–8 km of the 1–2 km thick Mesozoic sedimentary Franconian platform and underlying Variscan basement rocks. However, distribution of an up to 3.5 km thick sedimentary graben fill and cumulative displacements near Eastern and Western Main Border fault systems suggest that subsidence of the graben floor and shoulder uplift created strong cross-sectional asymmetries. Cumulative W-down displacements >3 km along strongly segmented transfer faults in the east contrast with E-down displacements <3 km and major monoclinal “block fields” in the west. Both location and asymmetry of the URG appear to be related to lithospheric shear zones that originated within the central parts of the Variscan orogen between c. 330 and 315 Ma. Following pervasive deformation, HT/LP regional metamorphism and emplacement of granodioritic-granitic plutons a c. 50-km-thick orogenic crust were thinned to an about 30-km-thick two-layered crust above a reconsolidated and relatively planar crust-mantle boundary (Moho). In the URG area extensional thinning of the crust appears to have occurred mainly along a composite NNE-striking and mainly W-down “East Rhine Detachment”, which is partly exposed along the Wehratal, Omerskopf, Otzberg and other mylonitic-cataclastic shear zones in the basement of the eastern graben shoulder. These shear zones probably extend into lower crustal levels, where they are revealed as gently W-dipping seismic reflectors beneath and west of the URG. Major W-down displacements probably account for the mapped abundance of high-grade metamorphic basement rocks on the eastern graben shoulder in contrast to the predominantly low-grade metamorphic to unmetamorphosed sedimentary-volcanic rocks exposed on the western shoulder. Although between c. 310 and 270 Ma NE-trending Permocarboniferous volcanic-sedimentary basins of the URG area subsided along upper crustal faults that mimic the trend of Variscan faults, initial broad lithospheric cooling from c. 270–200 Ma led to subsidence of a distinctly NNE- to SSW-oriented embayment that was probably underlain by thinner Palaeozoic crust in the area of the NNE-trending East Rhine Detachment. After re-emergence of the platform above sea level in late Mesozoic times, the deep-reaching W-dipping “extensional defects” of the East Rhine Detachment exerted a primary lithospheric scale control on both location and cross-sectional asymmetry of the Cenozoic graben structure. NE- and NW-striking, strongly altered and more shallow rooted Permocarboniferous or Mesozoic faults exerted secondary upper crustal controls on transfer faults and the accommodation zones near the terminations and segment boundaries of the URG. Deep crustal to upper lithospheric asymmetries continue to influence the neotectonic setting of the URG, such as westward rising earthquake hypocentres. Seismic activity along the URG appears to be part of a >600 km long zone that delimits the trailing edge of a SW-moving lithospheric block. In the URG area, NE–SW-oriented seismic anisotropy at sublithospheric depths of c. 60–80 km suggest active mantle flow in this direction as a possible driving force for the reactivation of pre-graben lithospheric shear zones.
GIS-based remote sensing techniques and lineament mapping provide additional information on the spatial arrangement of faults and fractures in large areas with variable outcrop conditions. Due to ...inherent censoring and truncation bias mapping of lineaments is still a challenging task. In this study we show how statistical evaluations help to improve the reliability of lineament mappings by comparing two digital elevation models (ASTER, LIDAR) and satellite imagery data sets in the seismically active southern Black Forest. A statistical assessment of the orientation, average length, and the total length of mapped lineaments reveals an impact of the different resolutions of the data sets that allow to define maximum (censoring bias) and minimum (truncation bias) observable lineament length for each data set. The increase of the spatial resolution of the digital elevation model from 30 m × 30 m to 5 m × 5 m results in a decrease of total lineament length by about 40% whereby the average lineament lengths decrease by about 60%. Lineament length distributions of both data sets follow a power law distribution as documented elsewhere for fault and fracture systems. Predominant NE-, N-, NNW-, and NW-directions of the lineaments are observed in all data sets and correlate with well-known, mappable large-scale structures in the southern Black Forest. Therefore, mapped lineaments can be correlated with faults and hence display geological significance. Lineament density in the granite-dominated areas is apparently higher than in the gneiss-dominated areas. Application of a slip- and dilation tendency analysis on the fault pattern reveals largest reactivation potentials for WNW-ESE and N-S striking faults as strike-slip faults whereas normal faulting may occur along NW-striking faults within the ambient stress field. Remote sensing techniques in combination with highly resolved digital elevation models and a slip- and dilation tendency analysis thus can be used to quickly get first order results of the spatial arrangement of critically stressed faults in crystalline basement rocks.
•Application of lineament mappings in the 2.000 km2 large area of the southern Black Forest.•Use of two digital elevation models with different spatial resolutions.•Comparison of our results with an earlier approach based on satellite imagery data.•Statistical assessments reveal a distinct impact of the different resolutions of the data sets.•Fault patterns are discussed in the contexts of rock types and geomechanical anisotropies.
Evaluating uncertainties of geological features on fluid temperature and pressure changes in a reservoir plays a crucial role in the safe and sustainable operation of high-temperature aquifer thermal ...energy storage (HT-ATES). This study introduces a new automated surface fitting function in the Python API (application programming interface) of Gmsh (v4.11) to simulate the impacts of structural barriers and variations of the reservoir geometries on thermohydraulic behaviour in heat storage applications. These structural features cannot always be detected by geophysical exploration but can be present due to geological complexities. A Python workflow is developed to implement an automated mesh generation routine for various geological scenarios. This way, complex geological models and their inherent uncertainties are transferred into reservoir simulations. The developed meshing workflow is applied to two case studies: (1) Greater Geneva Basin with the Upper Jurassic (“Malm”) limestone reservoir and (2) the 5° eastward-tilted DeepStor sandstone reservoir in the Upper Rhine Graben with a uniform thickness of 10 m. In the Greater Geneva Basin example, the top and bottom surfaces of the reservoir are randomly varied by ± 10 and ± 15 m, generating a total variation of up to 25 % from the initially assumed 100 m reservoir thickness. The injected heat plume in this limestone reservoir is independent of the reservoir geometry variation, indicating the limited propagation of the induced thermal signal. In the DeepStor reservoir, a vertical sub-seismic fault juxtaposing the permeable sandstone layers against low permeable clay-marl units is added to the base case model. The fault is located in distances varying from 4 to 118 m to the well to quantify the possible thermohydraulic response within the model. The variation in the distance between the fault and the well resulted in an insignificant change in the thermal recovery (∼ 1.5 %) but up to a ∼ 10.0 % pressure increase for the (shortest) distance of 4 m from the injection well. Modelling the pressure and temperature distribution in the 5° tilted reservoir, with a well placed in the centre of the model, reveals that heat tends to accumulate in the updip direction, while pressure increases in the downdip direction.
Basement-slices are frequent components in the lower nappes of the central Scandinavian Caledonides. New geochronological and geochemical data provide evidence that three of these basement-slices in ...the Middle Allochthon are derived from the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt. Dated samples in this study comprise a quartz monzonite from the Stalon Nappe Complex and a quartz monzodiorite and a monzonite from the Ammarnäs Nappe Complex. A Ce/Yb-Ta/Yb-plot of the mafic rocks from the Ammarnäs Nappe Complex suggests a calc-alkaline to shoshonitic geochemical character. Low Ni- and Cr-contents and low Mg# indicate that the mafic rocks originated from an already evolved magma. Enrichment of Fe-Ti oxides and V>200 ppm indicate presence of cumulus phases to various degrees. These basement-derived rocks in the Middle Allochthon yielded concordant U-Pb zircon SIMS ages of 1799 ± 10 Ma, 1787 ± 6 Ma and 1797 ± 5 Ma. They are therefore interpreted to represent rocks detached from the Palaeoproterozoic Transscandinavian Igneous Belt and incorporated in the Middle Allochthon during Scandian orogeny.
Monoclonal antibodies that target amyloid-beta and remove amyloid plaques can slow cognitive and functional decline in early Alzheimer's disease. Gantenerumab is a subcutaneously administered ...fully-human anti-amyloid-beta monoclonal antibody with highest affinity for aggregated amyloid-beta. Since the phase 3 GRADUATE trials did not meet the primary endpoint (change from baseline to Week 116 in Clinical Dementia Rating scale - Sum of Boxes), development of gantenerumab in sporadic Alzheimer's disease was stopped and all ongoing trials were terminated early due to sponsor decision. Subcutaneous administration at the clinic or at home by care partner would be an important option for other therapies in this class in order to increase flexibility and reduce overall burden. The insights obtained from the experience with gantenerumab home administration by care partner in the phase 2 GRADUATION trial will serve to guide the ongoing efforts with other anti-amyloid-beta antibodies.
To evaluate the pharmacodynamic effects on brain amyloid load of once weekly subcutaneous administration of gantenerumab and the safety and feasibility of home administration by care partners.
Phase 2, open-label, single arm study.
Multicenter trial conducted in 33 sites in 8 countries from November 2020 to March 2023.
Participants aged 50 to 90 with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (mild cognitive impairment/mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease), and evidence of amyloid positron emission tomography positivity.
Participants could receive up to 255 mg gantenerumab once-weekly, administered subcutaneously at site or at home by healthcare professionals or non-healthcare-professional care partners.
The primary endpoint was the change from baseline to Week 52 and to Week 104 in brain amyloid load as measured by PET centiloid levels. The secondary endpoints were responses to the home administration questionnaire, plasma concentrations and safety.
The overall number of participants enrolled was 192, with a mean (standard deviation) amyloid PET load at baseline of 101.80 (29.80) centiloids. At the time of early study termination by sponsor, 149 participants had valid Week 52 amyloid PET data (primary endpoint), and 12 participants had an early termination PET within the pre-defined time range of Week 104. The mean change in amyloid PET from baseline to Week 52 and Week 104 was -26.19 centiloids (range: -75.6-15.8; n=149) and -35.48 centiloids (range: -63.2--7.0; n=12), respectively. Responses to the home administration questionnaire at Week 52 (n=148) indicated that the majority of care partners (88-97%) considered administration of study drug at home easy (30.4%) or very easy (57.4%), and convenient (25.7%) or very convenient (70.9%). Care partners felt confident (31.1%) or very confident (62.2%) and satisfied (29.7%) or very satisfied (64.9%) with giving the injection at home. Responses by care partners at Week 36 (n=72), Week 76 (n=126) and Week 104 (n=29) and participant (patient) assessment of convenience and satisfaction at these time points were similar. There were no new safety findings associated with gantenerumab administered subcutaneously once weekly at 255 mg or safety issues associated with at-home injections by non-healthcare professional care partners.
Once-weekly subcutaneous home administration of the anti-amyloid-beta antibody gantenerumab by non-healthcare-professional care partners to participants with early Alzheimer's disease was feasible, safe, well tolerated, and considered as a convenient option by both the care partners and participants with Alzheimer's disease. Although gantenerumab's development has been stopped due to lack of efficacy, this approach has the potential to reduce the frequency of hospital/outpatient clinic visits required for treatment with other anti-amyloid-β antibodies and can increase flexibility of drug administration for people living with Alzheimer's disease and their families.
Amyloid-β positron emission tomography (PET) imaging allows in vivo detection of fibrillar plaques, a core neuropathological feature of Alzheimer disease (AD). Its diagnostic utility is still unclear ...because amyloid plaques also occur in patients with non-AD dementia.
To use individual participant data meta-analysis to estimate the prevalence of amyloid positivity on PET in a wide variety of dementia syndromes.
The MEDLINE and Web of Science databases were searched from January 2004 to April 2015 for amyloid PET studies.
Case reports and studies on neurological or psychiatric diseases other than dementia were excluded. Corresponding authors of eligible cohorts were invited to provide individual participant data.
Data were provided for 1359 participants with clinically diagnosed AD and 538 participants with non-AD dementia. The reference groups were 1849 healthy control participants (based on amyloid PET) and an independent sample of 1369 AD participants (based on autopsy).
Estimated prevalence of positive amyloid PET scans according to diagnosis, age, and apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 status, using the generalized estimating equations method.
The likelihood of amyloid positivity was associated with age and APOE ε4 status. In AD dementia, the prevalence of amyloid positivity decreased from age 50 to 90 years in APOE ε4 noncarriers (86% 95% CI, 73%-94% at 50 years to 68% 95% CI, 57%-77% at 90 years; n = 377) and to a lesser degree in APOE ε4 carriers (97% 95% CI, 92%-99% at 50 years to 90% 95% CI, 83%-94% at 90 years; n = 593; P < .01). Similar associations of age and APOE ε4 with amyloid positivity were observed in participants with AD dementia at autopsy. In most non-AD dementias, amyloid positivity increased with both age (from 60 to 80 years) and APOE ε4 carriership (dementia with Lewy bodies: carriers n = 16, 63% 95% CI, 48%-80% at 60 years to 83% 95% CI, 67%-92% at 80 years; noncarriers n = 18, 29% 95% CI, 15%-50% at 60 years to 54% 95% CI, 30%-77% at 80 years; frontotemporal dementia: carriers n = 48, 19% 95% CI, 12%-28% at 60 years to 43% 95% CI, 35%-50% at 80 years; noncarriers n = 160, 5% 95% CI, 3%-8% at 60 years to 14% 95% CI, 11%-18% at 80 years; vascular dementia: carriers n = 30, 25% 95% CI, 9%-52% at 60 years to 64% 95% CI, 49%-77% at 80 years; noncarriers n = 77, 7% 95% CI, 3%-18% at 60 years to 29% 95% CI, 17%-43% at 80 years.
Among participants with dementia, the prevalence of amyloid positivity was associated with clinical diagnosis, age, and APOE genotype. These findings indicate the potential clinical utility of amyloid imaging for differential diagnosis in early-onset dementia and to support the clinical diagnosis of participants with AD dementia and noncarrier APOE ε4 status who are older than 70 years.
The Qinling orogen preserves a record of late mid-Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonism in central China. High-pressure metamorphism and ophiolite emplacement (Songshugou ophiolite) assembled the Yangtze ...craton, including the lower Qinling unit, into Rodinia during the ∼1.0 Ga Grenvillian orogeny. The lower Qinling unit then rifted from the Yangtze craton at ∼0.7 Ga. Subsequent intra-oceanic arc formation at ∼470–490 Ma was followed by accretion of the lower Qinling unit first to the intra-oceanic arc and then to the Sino-Korea craton. Subduction then imprinted a ∼400 Ma Andean-type magmatic arc onto all units north of the northern Liuling unit. Oblique subduction created Silurian–Devonian WNW-trending, sinistral transpressive wrench zones (e.g., Lo-Nan, Shang-Dan), and Late Permian–Early Triassic subduction reactivated them in dextral transpression (Lo-Nan, Shang-Xiang, Shang-Dan) and subducted the northern edge of the Yangtze craton. Exhumation of the cratonal edge formed the Wudang metamorphic core complex during dominantly pure shear crustal extension at ∼230–235 Ma. Post-collisional south-directed shortening continued through the Early Jurassic. Cretaceous reactivation of the Qinling orogen started with NW–SE sinistral transtension, coeval with large-scale Early Cretaceous crustal extension and sinistral transtension in the northern Dabie Shan; it presumably resulted from the combined effects of the Siberia–Mongolia—Sino-Korean and Lhasa–West Burma—Qiangtang–Indochina collisions and Pacific subduction. Regional dextral wrenching was active within a NE–SW extensional regime between ∼60 and 100 Ma. An Early Cretaceous Andean-type continental magmatic arc, with widespread Early Cretaceous magmatism and back-arc extension, was overprinted by shortening related to the collision of Yangtze–Indochina Block with the West Philippines Block. Strike–slip and normal faults associated with Eocene half-graben basins record Paleogene NNE–SSW contraction and WNW–ESE extension. The Neogene(?) is characterized by normal faults and NNE-trending sub-horizontal extension. Pleistocene(?)–Quaternary NW–SE extension and NE–SW contraction comprises sinistral strike–slip faults and is part of the NW–SE extension imposed across eastern Asia by the India–Asia collision.
Apatite fission-track (AFT) and structural data outline the Late Cretaceous−Cenozoic history of the southern Tan-Lu fault zone (TLFZ), one of Asia's major faults, the Triassic–Jurassic Dabie orogen, ...Earth's largest track of ultrahigh-pressure rock exposure, and its foreland, the Yangtze foreland fold-thrust belt. The fission-track analyses utilized the independent (
φ-),
Z- and
ξ-methods for age determination, which yielded within error identical ages. Ages from Triassic–Jurassic syn-orogenic foreland sediments are younger than their depositional age and thus were reset. A group of ages records rapid cooling following shallow emplacement of granitoids of the widespread latest Jurassic−Early Cretaceous “Yanshanian” magmatism. Most ages are 90 to 55 Ma and document cooling following reheating at 110–90 Ma, the time when the basement units of the Dabie Shan were last at >200 °C. This cooling coincides with rifting marked by the Late Cretaceous−Eocene red-bed deposition in eastern China. During this period, the Dabie basements units exhumed in the footwall of the Tan-Lu fault with the Qianshan basin in the hanging wall; the associated stress field is transtensional (NW-trending principal extension direction). The youngest fission-track ages and temperature–time path modeling point to enhanced cooling in the footwall of the Tan-Lu and associated faults at 45±10 Ma. The related stress field is transtensional, with the principal extension direction changing trend from NW to W. It may be the far-field expression of the India–Asia collision superposed on the back-arc extension setting in eastern China. A regional unconformity at ∼25 Ma marks an upper bound for the inversion of the Late Cretaceous−Eocene rift structures. During the Neogene, further subsidence in the eastern China basins was accommodated by sub-horizontal NE–SW extension, and followed by the presently active NW–SE extension. The Tan-Lu fault along the eastern edge of the Dabie Shan had normal and then sinistral-transpressive motion during the Late Cretaceous−Eocene. Its motion changed during the Neogene from sinistral transtensive to normal and then to its present dextral transtensive activity.
Terra Nova, 23, 270–279, 2011
The Ammarnäs Complex is a tectonic unit in the Middle Allochthon of the central Scandinavian Caledonides and consists of several hundred metres of thick uniform ...meta‐greywacke successions of greenschist metamorphic grade containing kilometre‐scale lenses of pre‐Caledonian crystalline basement rocks. Meta‐greywacke samples were analysed for major and trace elements and U‐Pb isotopes. Lithoclasts and geochemical data indicate that the greywackes were derived from granitic–granodioritic rocks. Detrital zircon dating yielded 7% Neoproterozoic, 52% Mesoproterozoic and 41% Palaeoproterozoic 207Pb/206Pb ages with two prominent age peaks at 1.64 and 1.5 Ga and a broad distribution of Sveconorwegian (1140–900 Ma) and ‘pre‐Sveconorwegian’ (1340–1140 Ma) ages. We interpret the Ammarnäs Complex as a former Neoproterozoic basin in the foreland of the Sveconorwegian orogen, which escaped major pre‐Caledonian magmatism–metamorphism and which was most likely deposited between c. 920 and 630 Ma.
Terra Nova, 00, 1–10, 2011
Rhizomania, caused by Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV), is an important sugar-beet disease worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate and map BNYVV resistance from the WB258 source. ...Presence of a major resistance gene (termed Rz5) was indicated by ~1 : 1 segregation of virus levels in a population of 170 individuals derived from WB258. The maximum logarithm of odds (LOD) position for Rz5, identified by interval mapping, explained ~81% of the phenotypic variance. Rz5 was mapped alongside the previously identified Rz4 from the R36 source. Rz4 and Rz5 were located to 6.9 cM and 6.0 cM regions, respectively, on chromosome III by interval mapping. These locations corresponded well to the position of the widely deployed Rz1 gene, suggesting that the three genes could represent an allelic series. Physical mapping is probably required to confirm this however. BNYVV resistance genes from novel sources are potentially important in breeding for more durable resistance either as separate genes or as BNYVV race-specific alleles.
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