scholarly journals Combining 3D seismics, eyewitness accounts and numerical simulations to reconstruct the 1888 Ritter Island sector collapse and tsunami

2020 ◽  
Vol 109 (8) ◽  
pp. 2659-2677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Karstens ◽  
Karim Kelfoun ◽  
Sebastian F. L. Watt ◽  
Christian Berndt

Abstract The 1888 Ritter Island volcanic sector collapse triggered a regionally damaging tsunami. Historic eyewitness accounts allow the reconstruction of the arrival time, phase and height of the tsunami wave at multiple locations around the coast of New Guinea and New Britain. 3D seismic interpretations and sedimentological analyses indicate that the catastrophic collapse of Ritter Island was preceded by a phase of deep-seated gradual spreading within the volcanic edifice and accompanied by a submarine explosive eruption, as the volcanic conduit was cut beneath sea level. However, the potential impact of the deep-seated deformation and the explosive eruption on tsunami genesis is unclear. For the first time, it is possible to parameterise the different components of the Ritter Island collapse with 3D seismic data, and thereby test their relative contributions to the tsunami. The modelled tsunami arrival times and heights are in good agreement with the historic eyewitness accounts. Our simulations reveal that the tsunami was primarily controlled by the displacement of the water column by the collapsing cone at the subaerial-submarine boundary and that the submerged fraction of the slide mass and its mobility had only a minor effect on tsunami genesis. This indicates that the total slide volume, when incorporating the deep-seated deforming mass, is not directly scalable for the resulting tsunami height. Furthermore, the simulations show that the tsunamigenic impact of the explosive eruption energy during the Ritter Island collapse was only minor. However, this relationship may be different for other volcanogenic tsunami events with smaller slide volumes or larger magnitude eruptions, and should not be neglected in tsunami simulations and hazard assessment.

1997 ◽  
Vol 498 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Park ◽  
L. Bergman ◽  
W. B. Choi ◽  
A. T. Sowers ◽  
R. J. Nemanich ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTNitrogen-doped diamond films were prepared for the first time using melamine (C3H6N6) as the nitrogen source. To explore the differences in the films produced with different precursors, nitrogen-doped films were also produced using pure nitrogen gas as the source. Since melamine has a ring structure with pre-existing C-N bonds, the incorporation of nitrogen on substitutional sites of diamond lattice are expected. Relatively large amounts of substitutional nitrogen were successfully doped into diamond without degrading its quality. However, when pure nitrogen gas was used as a doping source, the quality of the diamond was not as high as the sample doped with nitrogen by melamine. Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL), and field emission measurements were carried out to characterize the samples. Nitrogen-doped diamond samples did not exhibit any significant reduction in turn-on fields. It is suggested that nitrogen doping has only a minor effect on the field emission properties of the diamond films.


Author(s):  
Valerii Stepankov ◽  

One of the significant events of Ukraine's struggle for independence during the first period of the National Revolution (1648 – June 1652) was Loev campaign of its troops, which despite the defeat and hetman S.M. Krychevsky’s death nevertheless prevented the Lithuanians invasion. Though for the first time in historiography V. Lypynskyі proved convincingly in his monographic study the falsity of neglecting its role in the Ukrainian-Polish military-political confrontation in the summer of 1649, as well as the works of subsequent scholars (including modern ones) did. But up to now Lithuanian theater of hostilities has been considered traditionally as an event with a minor effect. However this is far from the case! For example although it was not decisive in 1649 and 1651, it is by no means possible to interpret as something insignificant. It is firstly. Secondly, except for confessions ("confession") of captured Ukrainian soldiers and rebels, the lack of Ukrainian origin sources (no one letter, universal, report, diary, message or the story of the battle participant have been saved) is still a major obstacle for the reconstruction by the researchers of more or less a complete picture of the Ukrainian army’s Loev campaign. They only managed to reproduce the most important events in very general / contour features and even then through the prism of information material from Lithuanian and Polish sources. Instead, its course with the Lithuanian units’ participation is depicted scrupulously thanks to the efforts of Polish authors. However in general due to the schematic presentation of the Ukrainian command strategic plan, the steps taken for its implementation, the factors that significantly changed the course of the battle and determined its results, the overall panorama of the event looks somewhat simplified, devoid of internal dynamics and drama and in some ways with the spraying of popularity while imaging the infallibility of the Lithuanian polny hetman J. Radziwill decisions and actions. In order to outline the ways to correct shortcomings and fill scientific gaps the author’s research focus is on identifying a number of actual problems of the Ukrainian army’s Loev campaign. Having analyzed heritage and discovered source base, the author considers those actual problems need rethinking, finding new ways to solve them, further discussions or even starting their study. They included the following ones: to clarify the essence of B. Khmelnytsky's strategic plan, developed in May-June, regarding the place and role of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) in the forthcoming campaign against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; to find out the time and place of the Acting Hetman S. Krychevsky departure to the Lithuanian theater of hostilities and the route of its promotion; to specify the number of soldiers who took part in the battle on both sides; to find out the essence of S. Krychevsky’s activity since his appearance in Chernobyl (about July, 8) till the capture of Kholmech (July, 29); to determine the nature of his relations with colonel S. Pobodailo, who defended the crossing of the Dnieper opposite Loev; to coverage the action plan of the latter, the reasons for their passivity and inconsistency with the attack of the Acting Hetman on the Lithuanian camp in the morning of July, 31, etc. The author is aware that hoping for their full clarification will be a fiction until the sources which had been created by Ukrainians, the participants of the campaign are found. Nevertheless, the painstaking work of researchers in archives and manuscripts departments of scientific libraries in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania and other countries will undoubtedly enrich the existing source base as a whole and contribute, albeit slightly, to enrich knowledge in the study of this problem.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
V. Miska ◽  
J.H.J.M. van der Graaf ◽  
J. de Koning

Nowadays filtration processes are still monitored with conventional analyses like turbidity measurements and, in case of flocculation–filtration, with phosphorus analyses. Turbidity measurements have the disadvantage that breakthrough of small flocs cannot be displayed, because of the blindness regarding changes in the mass distributions. Additional particle volume distributions calculated from particle size distributions (PSDs) would provide a better assessment of filtration performance. Lab-scale experiments have been executed on a flocculation–filtration column fed with effluent from WWTP Beverwijk in The Netherlands. Besides particle counting at various sampling points, the effect of sample dilution on the accuracy of PSD measurements has been reflected. It was found that the dilution has a minor effect on PSD of low turbidity samples such as process filtrate. The correlation between total particle counts, total particle volume (TPV) and total particle surface is not high but is at least better for diluted measurements of particles in the range 2–10 μm. Furthermore, possible relations between floc-bound phosphorus and TPV removal had been investigated. A good correlation coefficient is found for TPV removal versus floc-bound phosphorus removal for the experiments with polyaluminiumchloride and the experiments with single denitrifying and blank filtration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Brassac ◽  
Quddoos H. Muqaddasi ◽  
Jörg Plieske ◽  
Martin W. Ganal ◽  
Marion S. Röder

AbstractTotal spikelet number per spike (TSN) is a major component of spike architecture in wheat (Triticumaestivum L.). A major and consistent quantitative trait locus (QTL) was discovered for TSN in a doubled haploid spring wheat population grown in the field over 4 years. The QTL on chromosome 7B explained up to 20.5% of phenotypic variance. In its physical interval (7B: 6.37–21.67 Mb), the gene FLOWERINGLOCUST (FT-B1) emerged as candidate for the observed effect. In one of the parental lines, FT-B1 carried a non-synonymous substitution on position 19 of the coding sequence. This mutation modifying an aspartic acid (D) into a histidine (H) occurred in a highly conserved position. The mutation was observed with a frequency of ca. 68% in a set of 135 hexaploid wheat varieties and landraces, while it was not found in other plant species. FT-B1 only showed a minor effect on heading and flowering time (FT) which were dominated by a major QTL on chromosome 5A caused by segregation of the vernalization gene VRN-A1. Individuals carrying the FT-B1 allele with amino acid histidine had, on average, a higher number of spikelets (15.1) than individuals with the aspartic acid allele (14.3) independent of their VRN-A1 allele. We show that the effect of TSN is not mainly related to flowering time; however, the duration of pre-anthesis phases may play a major role.


Cells ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Kristina Ritter ◽  
Jan Christian Sodenkamp ◽  
Alexandra Hölscher ◽  
Jochen Behrends ◽  
Christoph Hölscher

Anti-inflammatory treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases often increases susceptibility to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB). Since numerous chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases are mediated by interleukin (IL)-6-induced T helper (TH) 17 cells, a TH17-directed anti-inflammatory therapy may be preferable to an IL-12-dependent TH1 inhibition in order to avoid reactivation of latent infections. To assess, however, the risk of inhibition of IL-6-dependent TH17-mediated inflammation, we examined the TH17 immune response and the course of experimental TB in IL-6- and T-cell-specific gp130-deficient mice. Our study revealed that the absence of IL-6 or gp130 on T cells has only a minor effect on the development of antigen-specific TH1 and TH17 cells. Importantly, these gene-deficient mice were as capable as wild type mice to control mycobacterial infection. Together, in contrast to its key function for TH17 development in other inflammatory diseases, IL-6 plays an inferior role for the generation of TH17 immune responses during experimental TB.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Ben Abu ◽  
Philip E. Mason ◽  
Hadar Klein ◽  
Nitzan Dubovski ◽  
Yaron Ben Shoshan-Galeczki ◽  
...  

AbstractHydrogen to deuterium isotopic substitution has only a minor effect on physical and chemical properties of water and, as such, is not supposed to influence its neutral taste. Here we conclusively demonstrate that humans are, nevertheless, able to distinguish D2O from H2O by taste. Indeed, highly purified heavy water has a distinctly sweeter taste than same-purity normal water and can add to perceived sweetness of sweeteners. In contrast, mice do not prefer D2O over H2O, indicating that they are not likely to perceive heavy water as sweet. HEK 293T cells transfected with the TAS1R2/TAS1R3 heterodimer and chimeric G-proteins are activated by D2O but not by H2O. Lactisole, which is a known sweetness inhibitor acting via the TAS1R3 monomer of the TAS1R2/TAS1R3, suppresses the sweetness of D2O in human sensory tests, as well as the calcium release elicited by D2O in sweet taste receptor-expressing cells. The present multifaceted experimental study, complemented by homology modelling and molecular dynamics simulations, resolves a long-standing controversy about the taste of heavy water, shows that its sweet taste is mediated by the human TAS1R2/TAS1R3 taste receptor, and opens way to future studies of the detailed mechanism of action.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 792-803
Author(s):  
Marit Buhaug Folstad ◽  
Eli Ringdalen ◽  
Halvard Tveit ◽  
Merete Tangstad

AbstractThis work investigates the phase transformations in silica (SiO2) during heating to a target temperature between 1700 °C and 1900 °C and the effect of SiO2 polymorphs on the reduction reaction 2SiO2 + SiC = 3SiO + CO in silicon production. Different heating rates up to target temperature have been used to achieve the different compositions of quartz, amorphous silica and cristobalite. The different heating rates had a minor effect on the final composition, and longer time at temperatures > 1400 °C were necessary to achieve greater variations in the final composition. Heating above the melting temperature gave more amorphous silica and less cristobalite, as amorphous silica also may form from β-cristobalite. Isothermal furnace experiments were conducted to study the extent of the reduction reaction. This study did not find any significant difference in the effects of quartz, amorphous silica or cristobalite. Increased temperature from 1700 °C to 1900 °C increased the reaction rate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. 16-16
Author(s):  
Orla Maguire ◽  
Laura McCullagh ◽  
Cara Usher ◽  
Michael Barry

IntroductionThere is ongoing debate as to whether conventional pharmacoeconomic evaluation (PE) methods are appropriate for orphan medicinal products (OMPs). The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) in Ireland has a well-defined process for conducting pharmacoeconomic evaluations of pharmaceuticals, which is the same for OMPs and non-OMPs. The objective of this study was to identify whether supplementary criteria considered in the pharmacoeconomic evaluation of OMPs would affect final reimbursement recommendations.MethodsA literature search was conducted to identify criteria. Orphan drug pharmacoeconomic evaluations completed by the NCPE between January 2015 and December 2017 were identified and supplementary criteria, where feasible, were applied.ResultsFourteen pharmacoeconomic evaluations were included in the study. Three criteria that could feasibly be applied to the NCPE evaluation process were identified, all three of which essentially broadened the economic perspective of the pharmacoeconomic evaluation. Higher cost-effectiveness threshold: Despite being arbitrarily raised from EUR 45,000/QALY to EUR 100,000/QALY, only one orphan drug demonstrated cost-effectiveness at this higher threshold. Weighted QALY gain: here, a weighted gain of between one and three is applied to drugs demonstrating QALY gains between 10 and 30, respectively. No OMPs included in the study showed a QALY gain of more than 10. Thirteen demonstrated QALY gains less than 10 and one could not be evaluated. Societal perspective: six submissions incorporated societal perspective as a scenario analysis. Despite incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) being reduced between 4 percent and 58 percent, only two OMPs demonstrated cost-effectiveness at the higher threshold (EUR 100,000/QALY).ConclusionsApplication of supplementary criteria to the pharmacoeconomic evaluation of OMPs had a minor effect on three products assessed. However, for the majority, the final cost-effectiveness outcomes remained the same. The study highlights that other criteria are being considered in the decision to reimburse.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 587-595
Author(s):  
Zhandong Wan ◽  
Wei Guo ◽  
Qiang Jia ◽  
Lang Xu ◽  
Peng Peng

AbstractDP980 steels were joined using fiber laser welding. The welded joint was characterized in terms of hardness distribution and tensile behavior at room temperature, 150 ℃, and 300 ℃, respectively. The fine-grained martensite in supercritical heat affected zone (HAZ) resulted in the highest hardness (428 Hv), while the tempered martensite contributed to the hardness decreasing (‒31 Hv). Both the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of the base metal and welded joint decreased at 150 ℃, and then increased at 300 ℃ due to dynamic strain aging (DSA). The welded joint exhibited slightly higher yield strength and lower elongation at all the test temperatures compared to base metal due to the hardened fusion zone. The energy absorption reduced slightly with increasing temperature both for base metal and welded joint, and the weld posed a minor effect on the energy absorption. Deformation was one of the requirements for DSA effect. DSA enhanced the hardness of base metal (+78 Hv) and softened zone (+53 Hv). HAZ was not softened enough to become the weakest position during tensile test.


1988 ◽  
Vol 255 (3) ◽  
pp. 869-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J Steenkamp

The mitochondrial electron-transfer flavoprotein (ETF) is a heterodimer containing only one FAD. In previous work on the structure-function relationships of ETF, its interaction with the general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (GAD) was studied by chemical cross-linking with heterobifunctional reagents [D. J. Steenkamp (1987) Biochem. J. 243, 519-524]. GAD whose lysine residues were substituted with 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionyl groups was preferentially cross-linked to the small subunit of ETF, the lysine residues of which had been substituted with 4-mercaptobutyramidine (MBA) groups. This work was extended to the interaction of ETF with ETF-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (ETF-Q ox). ETF-Q ox was partially inactivated by modification with N-succinimidyl 3-(2-pyridyldithio)propionate to introduce pyridyl disulphide structures. A similar modification of ETF caused a large increase in the apparent Michaelis constant of ETF-Q ox for modified ETF owing to the loss of positive charge on some critical lysines of ETF. When ETF-Q ox was modified with 2-iminothiolane to introduce 4-mercaptobutyramidine groups, only a minor effect on the activity of the enzyme was observed. To retain the positive charges on the lysine residues of ETF, pyridyl disulphide structures were introduced by treating ETF with 2-iminothiolane in the presence of 2,2′-dithiodipyridyl. The electron-transfer activity of the resultant ETF preparation containing 4-(2-pyridyldithio)butyramidine (PDBA) groups was only slightly affected. When ETF-Q ox substituted with MBA groups was mixed with ETF bearing PDBA groups, at least 70% of the cross-links formed between the two proteins were between the small subunit of ETF and ETF-Q ox. ETF-Q ox, therefore, interacts predominantly with the same subunit of ETF as GAD. Variables which affect the selectivity of ETF-Q ox cross-linking to the subunits of ETF are considered.


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