Nicholas J. White

Uplift histories of Africa and Australia from linear inverse modeling of drainage inventories

This is the final version. It first appeared at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1002/2014JF003297/abstract.

Molecular analysis of chromosome 20q deletions associated with myeloproliferative disorders and myelodysplastic syndromes

Acquired deletions of the long arm of chromosome 20 are found in several hematologic conditions and particularly in the myeloproliferative disorders and myelodysplastic syndromes. The spectrum of diseases associated with 20q deletions suggests that such deletions may mark the site of a tumor suppressor gene that contributes to the regulation of normal multipotent hematopoietic progenitors. We present here the first detailed molecular analysis of 20q deletions associated with myeloid disorders. Thirty-four microsatellite primer pairs corresponding to loci on 20q have been used to study DNA samples from two cell lines and from highly purified peripheral blood granulocytes obtained from seven patients. In addition, Southern analysis of cell line DNA has been performed using 19 DNA probes that map to 20q. Three conclusions can be drawn from our results. Firstly, molecular heterogeneity of both centromeric and telomeric breakpoints was demonstrated, thus supporting the existence of a tumor suppressor gene on 20q. In addition many of the breakpoints have been mapped to small genetic intervals. Secondly, our results define a commonly deleted region of 16-21 cM which contains ADA, PLC1, TOP1, SEMG1, and PPGB. Several candidate tumor suppressor genes lie outside the common deleted region including SRC, HCK, p107, PTPN1, and CEBP beta. Thirdly, the data allow integration of genetic and physical maps and have refined the map positions of multiple genes. These results will facilitate attempts to identify candidate hematopoietic tumor suppressor genes on 20q.

Cenozoic Epeirogeny of the Indian Peninsula

Peninsular India is a cratonic region with asymmetric relief manifest by eastward tilting from the 1.5 km high Western Ghats escarpment toward the floodplains of eastward-draining rivers. Oceanic residual depth measurements on either side of India show that this west-east asymmetry is broader scale, occurring over distances of >2,000 km. Admittance analysis of free-air gravity and topography shows that the elastic thickness is 10 ±3 km, suggesting that regional uplift is not solely caused by flexural loading. To investigate how Indian physiography is generated, we have jointly inverted 530 river profiles to determine rock uplift rate as a function of space and time. Key erosional parameters are calibrated using independent geologic constraints (e.g. emergent marine deposits, elevated paleosurfaces, uplifted lignite deposits). Our results suggest that regional tilt grew at rates of up to 0.1 mm a– 1 between 25 Ma and the present day. Neogene uplift initiated in the south and propagated northward along the western margin. This calculated history is corroborated by low-temperature thermochronologic observations, by sedimentary flux of clastic deposits into the Krishna-Godavari delta, and by sequence stratigraphic architecture along adjacent rifted margins. Onset of regional uplift predates intensification of the Indian monsoon at 8 Ma, suggesting that rock uplift rather than climatic change is responsible for modern-day relief. A positive correlation between residual depth measurements and shear wave velocities beneath the lithosphere suggests that regional uplift is generated and maintained by temperature anomalies of ±100°C within a 200 ±25 km thick asthenospheric channel. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Architecture of North Atlantic Contourite Drifts Modified by Transient Circulation of the Icelandic Mantle Plume

Overflow of Northern Component Water, the precursor of North Atlantic Deep Water, appears to have varied during Neogene times. It has been suggested that this variation is moderated by transient behavior of the Icelandic mantle plume, which has influenced North Atlantic bathymetry through time. Thus pathways and intensities of bottom currents that control deposition of contourite drifts could be affected by mantle processes. Here, we present regional seismic reflection profiles that cross sedimentary accumulations (Bjorn, Gardar, Eirik, and Hatton Drifts). Prominent reflections were mapped and calibrated using a combination of boreholes and legacy seismic profiles. Interpreted seismic profiles were used to reconstruct solid sedimentation rates. Bjorn Drift began to accumulate in late Miocene times. Its average sedimentation rate decreased at ∼2.5 Ma and increased again at ∼0.75 Ma. In contrast, Eirik Drift started to accumulate in early Miocene times. Its average sedimentation rate increased at ∼5.5 Ma and decreased at ∼2.2 Ma. In both cases, there is a good correlation between sedimentation rates, inferred Northern Component Water overflow, and the variation of Icelandic plume temperature independently obtained from the geometry of diachronous V-shaped ridges. Between 5.5 and 2.5 Ma, the plume cooled, which probably caused subsidence of the Greenland-Iceland-Scotland Ridge, allowing drift accumulation to increase. When the plume became hotter at 2.5 Ma, drift accumulation rate fell. We infer that deep-water current strength is modulated by fluctuating dynamic support of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge. Our results highlight the potential link between mantle convective processes and ocean circulation.

The human CD40 gene lies within chromosome 20q deletions associated with myeloid malignancies.

Deletions of chromosome 20q are associated with myeloid malignancies and have been previously shown to arise in a multipotent progenitor of both myeloid and B cells. However, B‐cell differentiation from the abnormal progenitor was impaired. The CD40 antigen is a surface glycoprotein which is expressed in B cells and haemopoietic stem cells and is important for B‐cell growth and development. Following the recent mapping of CD40 to chromosome 20q we sought to determine its position relative to 20q deletions. Analysis of lymphoblastoid cell lines carrying 20q deletions placed CD40 within a 19–21 cM interval which is almost coincidental with the common deleted region defined by previous analysis of patient samples. Our results raise the possibility that genetic alteration of this locus may contribute to the pathogenesis of myeloid disorders associated with 20q deletions.

Gender Difference and Cultural Labour in French Fiction from Zola to Colette

Novels of the French Third Republic brought to bear a particular reflexivity and investment in their accounts of specifically cultural collaborations between men and women (such as journalism, painting, and the stage). This chapter compares the ways in which these joint efforts were depicted in male-authored mimetic fiction such as Zola’s short story Madame Sourdis (1880) and Maupassant’s novel Bel-Ami (1885), and in female-authored fiction such as Marcelle Tinayre’s La Rebelle (1905) and Colette’s La Vagabonde (1910). In particular, it examines the way in which the long lexical history of ‘association’, not least in post-revolutionary egalitarian politics, lends ideological weight to tales of artistic and romantic union, and the questions they ask.

Research data supporting "Oceanic Residual Depth Measurements, the Plate Cooling Model and Global Dynamic Topography"

CSV files containing the measurements of oceanic residual depth anomalies from the paper. These data are a proxy for dynamic topography. Circles represent the most accurate data. Downwards pointing triangles are maximum constraints and upwards are minimums. Data have been averaged within 1 and 4 degree bins on the Earths surface. Half of the points include a correction for the shape of the Earths non-hydrostatic geoid. Gridfiles of the oceanic age grid and ship-track derived residual topography compatible with GMT (Generic Mapping Tools) are also included.

Naturalisme—Vous avez dit naturalismes? by Cèline Grenaud-Tostain and Olivier Lumbroso (review)

these ideas — or traces of them— come to inform or colour Proust’s novel. By scrutinizing race and the ‘imaginaire biologique’ in À la recherche du temps perdu, Moret-Jankus draws our attention in new ways to an unresolved tension with which readers of the novel have long been familiar: the tension between the particular and the universal, the micro and the macro. The biologist or natural historian, by Moret-Jankus’s account, has a mode of seeing that Proust latches onto and adapts to his own ends. Persuasive parallel readings highlight, for example, the importance for Proust of Jules Michelet’s natural-historical writings; and two important turn-of-the-century documents are reproduced as annexes to the main text of the book: Salomon Reinach’s refutation of contemporary discourses concerning Judaism, ‘La Prétendue race juive’ (originally published in the Revue des études juives, 47 (1903), i–xiv), and excerpts of Isidore Weil’s tract ‘La Caractéristique d’Israël’ (originally published in L’Univers israélite, 16 (1890), 259–62, 294–96, 360–63, 387–91, 505–09, 600–03, 630–31). Exploring the fine details of Proust’s assimilation and adaptation of the scientific air du temps, Moret-Jankus shows deftly how threads common to discourses of evolution, metamorphosis, and heredity are woven creatively by Proust into his own search for knowledge, re-emerging in the novel in networks of metaphor and simile, in images of transformation, growth, reproduction, sterility, and atavism. The book’s multiple indexes (‘Personnes’, ‘Personnages’, ‘Thèmes et notions’) and excellent bibliography mean that it will be a valued resource for scholars across a range of fields.