1,180 research outputs found

    Early Palaeozoic orogenic events north of the Rheic suture (Brabant, Ardenne): a review

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    The Lower Palaeozoic rocks exposed in the Brabant-Ardenne region (Belgium, France) recorded the Early Palaeozoic history on the southern margin of the perigondwanan microcontinent of Avalonia, north of the Rheic suture. These rocks crop out in the Brabant basement and in the Ardenne basement inliers within the Variscan Ardenne allochthon. The two main unconformities are classically associated with distinct orogenic episodes, the Late Ordovician "Ardennian" event and the Early Devonian "Brabantian" event. A review of the current state-of-knowledge with respect to the reconstruction of Early Palaeozoic geodynamics in the Brabant-Ardenne region is presented. It is demonstrated that an unconformity does not necessarily represent an orogenic event, and that the hiatus related to an unconformity does not necessarily coincide with tectonic activity, especially when tectonism is diachronous in nature. The former applies to the Ardennian unconformity, while the latter applies to the Brabantian unconformity. Finally, the well-constrained Brabantian orogeny, as well as the Ardenne-Eifel basin development, is tentatively framed within the Early Palaeozoic geodynamic context of the northern margin of the Rheic realm. By doing so, it is shown that the Brabant-Ardenne region links, both in space and time, the Rheic and Rhenohercynian ocean. © 2008 Académie des sciences.sponsorship: [ "This research is sponsored by the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO - Vlaanderen). The work is part of the research projects 6.0271.05 and KAN1.5.128.05. Manuel Sintubin is Research Professor of the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds at the K.U.Leuven. Timothy N. Debacker is Postdoctoral Fellow of the FWO - Vlaanderen. Herve Van Baelen is Research Assistant of the Institute for Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology (IWT - Vlaanderen). Jacques Verniers is thanked to provide a photograph of the Fepin outcrop.", "Brian Windley and Stanislaw Mazur are greatly acknowledged for their comments. Karel Schulmann, Jean-Marc Lardeaux and Richard Scriveners are thanked to edit this special issue of the Comptes Rendus Geoscience." ] (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO - Vlaanderen), 6.0271.05, KAN1.5.128.05)status: Publishe

    Adverse reactions to methylphenidate treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: structure and associations with clinical characteristics and symptom control.

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    Background: methylphenidate (MPH)-related adverse events are well characterized. Their predictors and their relationship with therapeutic effects are less well understood. Here we examine these issues in relation to two long-acting formulations.Method: comparison of Methylphenidates in the Analog Classroom Setting (COMACS) was made in a large (n=184) placebo-controlled trial comparing Equasym XL®/Metadate CD®, Concerta®, and placebo (PLA) using a Laboratory School protocol. Therapeutic effects were measured using direct observation, scores on a simple math productivity task and parent ratings. Parents also completed the Barkley Stimulant Side Effect Rating Scale (BSSERS).Results: the BSSERS had six factors: Emotionality, sleep/appetite, disengaged, dizzy, uninterested, and aches. Treatment effects were seen only for emotionality (which improved) and sleep and appetite (which worsened). Adverse events were not predictable from personal and clinical characteristics of patients. Sleep/appetite adverse events were not associated with therapeutic effects. Improvements in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and emotionality were correlated.Discussion: the results support a narrow conceptualization of MPH adverse events with problems restricted to appetite and sleep. These effects were not predictable on the basis of available information and may be due to an underlying mechanism rather distinct from those determining therapeutic effect

    The supposed thrust fault in the Dyle-Thyle outcrop area (southern Brabant Massif, Belgium) re-interpreted as a folded low-angle extensional detachment

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    Since 1943 the anomalous contact in the Dyle-Thyle area between the Lower Cambrian Tubize Formation and older deposits, on the one hand, and the Upper Cambrian Mousty Formation and younger deposits, on the other hand, has been interpreted as a gently N-dipping, large-displacement thrust, the Orne-Noirmont-Baudecet thrust. The irregular fault trace and the presence of a supposed klippe at Court-St.-Etienne are both ascribed to the very gentle fault dip. However, a review of outcrop, borehole and geophysical data shows that there are no convincing arguments for such a gently N-dipping thrust. An alternative model is proposed in which the Orne-Noirmont-Baudecet fault is considered a pre-cleavage and pre-folding low-angle extensional detachment, similar to the Asquempont fault sensu Debacker in the Senne-Sennette area. The irregular subcrop trace of the Orne-Noirmont-Baudecet fault is attributed to the strongly variable fold orientations, associated with a transition zone between steeply plunging and gently plunging folds, similar to what has recently been described in the Senne-Sennette area. Although also this model remains speculative, it is the only model which successfully combines all the data from the Dyle-Thyle area and which is compatible also with the structural architecture of other outcrop and subcrop areas of the Brabant Massif.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

    Contractional kink bands formed by stress deflection along pre-existing anisotropies? Examples from the Anglo-Brabant Deformation Belt (Belgium) and the North Dobrogea Orogen (Romania)

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    Kink bands within two slate belts, the Anglo-Brabant Deformation Belt (Belgium) and the North Dobrogea Orogen (Romania), reveal similar problems with respect to linking kink band geometries to expected palaeostress directions. In the North Dobrogea Orogen, the two opposite kink band sets of two different systems of conjugate kink bands develop for a wide variety of cleavage orientations. In the Anglo-Brabant Deformation Belt, the occurrence of the two opposite kink band sets of a conjugate kink band system opposes the expected occurrence. In both cases, this can be attributed to stress deflection along a pre-existing anisotropy. Moreover, the presence of kink bands in the North Dobrogea Orogen with curving kink axes (and curving kink band boundaries) also puts doubt on the direct relationship between kink band geometry and stress. The idea of stress deflection along a pre-existing anisotropy and the strong control of the pre-existing anisotropy on the kink band geometry and orientation has important implications for the use of kink bands as regional palaeostress indicators. Depending on the relative intensity and relative orientation of the pre-existing fabrics (here bedding and cleavage), different mechanisms of kink band development may operate. Depending on the mechanism, different solutions in terms of inferred palaeostress direction may exist. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.sponsorship: The authors wish to acknowledge B. Goscombe, D. Srivastava and T. Blenkinsop for their constructive remarks on the manuscript, and are grateful to G. Oaie and M. Vaida for the support during the fieldwork in North Dobrogea (Romania). T.N. Debacker is a Post-doctoral Fellow of the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (F.W.O.-Vlaanderen) and M. Sintubin a Research Associate of the "Onderzoeksfonds, K.U.Leuven". This work, resulting from fieldwork when T. Debacker was at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2002-2005), forms part of research projects G.0274.99, G.0094.01 and C.0271.05 of the F.W.O.-Vlaanderen. The research in Romania benefited from the International scientific and technological cooperation program from the Science, Innovation and Media Department of the Ministry of the Flemish Community (BIL01/34). (Science, Innovation and Media Department of the Ministry of the Flemish Community|BIL01/34)status: Publishe

    Evaluating Research Impact through Open Access to Scholarly Communication

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    Scientific research is a competitive business – in order to secure funding, promotion and tenure researchers must demonstrate their work has impact in their field. To maximise impact researchers undertake high priority research, aim to get results first, and publish in the highest impact journals. The Internet now presents a new opportunity to the scholarly author seeking higher impact: s/he can now make their work instantly accessible on the Web through author self-archiving. This growing body of open access literature (coupled with new publishing models that make journals available for-free to the reader) maximises research impact by maximising the number of people who can read it, and making it available sooner. Open access also provides a new opportunity for bibliometric research. This thesis describes the relatively recent phenomenon of open access to research literature, tools that were built to collect and analyse that literature, and the results of analyses of the effect of open access and its effect on author behaviour. It shows that articles self-archived by authors receive between 50-250% more citations, that rapid pre-printing on the Web has dramatically reduced the peak citation rate from over a year to virtually instant and how citation-impact – now widely used for evaluation – can be expanded to include a new web metric of download impact

    DNA fusion gene vaccination mobilizes effective anti-leukemic cytotoxic T lymphocytes from a tolerized repertoire

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    The majority of known human tumor-associated antigens derive from non-mutated self proteins. T cell tolerance, essential to prevent autoimmunity, must therefore be cautiously circumvented to generate cytotoxic T cell responses against these targets. Our strategy uses DNA fusion vaccines to activate high levels of peptide-specific CTL. Key foreign sequences from tetanus toxin activate tolerance-breaking CD4+ T cell help. Candidate MHC class Ibinding tumor peptide sequences are fused to the C terminus for optimal processing and presentation. To model performance against a leukemia-associated antigen in a tolerized setting, we constructed a fusion vaccine encoding an immunodominant CTL epitopederived from Friend murine leukemia virus gag protein (FMuLVgag) and vaccinated tolerant FMuLVgag-transgenic (gag-Tg) mice. Vaccination with the construct induced epitopespecificIFN-c-producing CD8+ T cells in normal and gag-Tg mice. The frequency and avidity of activated cells were reduced in gag-Tg mice, and no autoimmune injury resulted. However, these CD8+ T cells did exhibit gag-specific cytotoxicity in vitro and in vivo. Also, epitope-specific CTL killed FBL-3 leukemia cells expressing endogenous FMuLVgag antigen and protected against leukemia challenge in vivo. These results demonstrate a simple strategy to engage anti-microbial T cell help to activate epitope-specific polyclonal CD8+ T cell responses from a residual tolerized repertoire

    Increasing Distributed Generation Penetration using Soft Normally-Open Points

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    This paper considers the effects of various voltage control solutions on facilitating an increase in allowable levels of distributed generation installation before voltage violations occur. In particular, the voltage control solution that is focused on is the implementation of `soft' normally-open points (SNOPs), a term which refers to power electronic devices installed in place of a normally-open point in a medium-voltage distribution network which allows for control of real and reactive power flows between each end point of its installation sites. While other benefits of SNOP installation are discussed, the intent of this paper is to determine whether SNOPs are a viable alternative to other voltage control strategies for this particular application. As such, the SNOPs ability to affect the voltage profile along feeders within a distribution system is focused on with other voltage control options used for comparative purposes. Results from studies on multiple network models with varying topologies are presented and a case study which considers economic benefits of increasing feasible DG penetration is also given

    A new geological map of the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif (Belgium)

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    As a result of the “new geological map of Wallonia” program undertaken by the Walloon Government since 1990, all the maps at 1/25 000 scale covering the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif have been finalised. During the long period of mapping (1993-2017) our understanding of the stratigraphy and tectonics of the Brabant Massif has evolved significantly and this led to several inconsistencies between different maps. We present here an overarching geological map of the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif, resulting from the merging of these 21 maps, updated according to the most recent findings and insights. The resulting map, at a scale of ~1/200 000, shows a coherent image of the outcrop areas of the Brabant Massif. This map better illustrates the geological history and structural architecture of the Brabant Massif compared to previous maps (e.g. Fourmarier, 1921; Legrand, 1968) and allows for a better understanding of the geology of the Brabant Massif. Also, it fully complements the subcrop map of the Brabant Massif of Piessens et al. (2005, in prep.).SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

    AN ANALYSIS OF VOCAL STEREOTYPY AND THERAPIST FADING

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    A functional analysis for a boy with Down syndrome and autism suggested that vocal stereotypy was maintained by automatic reinforcement. The analysis also showed that instructions and noncontingent attention suppressed vocal stereotypy. A treatment package consisting of noncontingent attention, contingent demands, and response cost effectively reduced vocal stereotypy. The treatment package remained effective even when noncontingent attention was removed, making the procedure easier to implement. Also, the presence of the therapist in the room with the participant was faded systematically. After completion of fading, vocal stereotypy remained low during conditions similar to the no‐consequence phase of the functional analysis.Peer reviewedFinal article publishedAutismDown syndromeResponse costTreatment fadingVocal stereotyp

    Decentering the Dancing Text: From Dance Intertext to Hypertext

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    This paper explains and draws together two projects from different disciplines: dance studies and hypertext writing. Each project sets out to examine the processes and practices of hypertextuality, and to develop new ways of writing using electronic technology and the Internet. The dance studies project seeks to link the critical theory of intertextuality (as a means of dance interpretation) with the theoretical and practical concerns of hypertextuality. It hopes to show a convergence of the two into a working system for analysing dance in a network of people, institutions and information. The Associative Writing Framework (AWF) project seeks to explore how writers could best be supported in representing and exploring hypertextuality in a Web environment, and in producing new hypertexts which integrate or 'glue together' existing Web resources (ideas, concepts, data, descriptions, experiences, claims, theories, suggestions, reports, etc). Following the combining of the two projects we report on some initial evaluation of the AWF system by dance experts, and discuss where the relationship might lead and potential future outcomes of the collaboration
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