No abstract

On 12 May 2008, the M w 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake ruptured two northeast-striking imbricated reverse faults and one northwest-striking reverse fault along the middle Longmen Shan thrust belt, at the eastern margin of the Tibetan plateau. The morphology of the coseismic scarp varies drastically along strike. We distinguish eight different categories: (1) simple thrust scarp, (2) hanging-wall collapse scarp, (3) simple pressure ridge, (4) dextral pressure ridge, (5) fault-related fold scarp, (6) backthrust pressure ridge, (7) local normal fault scarp, and (8) pavement suprathrust scarp. The coseismic surface ruptures confirm that the Wenchuan earthquake is dominated by reverse faulting with some right-lateral component that varies from site to site. The surface rupture can be divided into two parts, the Yingxiu segment and the Beichuan segment. When the earthquake is split into two subevents accordingly, they correspond to an M w 7.8 event and an M w 7.6 event, respectively. These two segments can in turn be divided into four second-order subsegments, which are equivalent to four subevents of M w 7.5, M w 7.7, M w 7.0, and M w 7.5, respectively. The segmentation of the rupture is consistent with a cascading-rupture pattern, responsible for the total 110 s of the earthquake rupture. In addition to surface ruptures, the focal mechanisms determined for the aftershocks recorded by the local seismic network are used to constrain the fault geometry of the subsegments. They show that the dip of the fault responsible for the earthquake varies along strike, and the fault tends to flatten at depth. In addition, the fault plane gets steeper northward, enabling the fault to accommodate a larger strike-slip component along a lateral ramp. This major earthquake confirms that crustal shortening could be the main driving force for the growth of high topography along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau and that lower crustal flow is not required.Online Material: Aftershock focal mechanisms of the Wenchuan earthquake.

The aim of this study was to explore the signatures of oral microbiome associated with OSCC using a random forest (RF) model. Patients and Methods: A total of 24 patients with OSCC were enrolled in the study. The oral microbiome was assessed in cancerous lesions and matched paracancerous tissues from each patient using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Signatures of mucosal microbiome in OSCC were identified using a RF model. Results: Significant differences were found between OSCC lesions and matched paracancerous tissues with respect to the microbial profile and composition. Linear discriminant analysis effect size analyses (LEfSe) identified 15 bacteria genera associated with cancerous lesions. Fusobacterium, Treponema, Streptococcus, Peptostreptococcus, Carnobacterium, Tannerella, Parvimonas and Filifactor were enriched. A classifier based on RF model identified a microbial signature comprising 12 bacteria, which was capable of distinguishing cancerous lesions and paracancerous tissues (AUC = 0.82). The network of the oral microbiome in cancerous lesions appeared to be simplified and fragmented. Functional analyses of oral microbiome showed altered functions in amino acid metabolism and increased capacity of glucose utilization in OSCC. Conclusion: The identified microbial signatures may potentially be used as a biomarker for predicting OSCC or for clinical assessment of oral cancer risk.

No abstract

In this paper, ultrastable aqueous foam stabilized by a kind of flexible connecting bipolar-headed surfactant alkyl polyoxyethylene sulfate (AE3S) with coexisting Mg(2+) was reported. Detailed molecular behaviors of AE3S in foam film with coexisting divalent cationic Ca(2+) or Mg(2+) were investigated by molecular dynamic simulation, comparing with the traditional surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), to find out how the microcharacter and array behavior of molecules in the foam film determined by molecular interaction effect the foam stability. It was found that the ultrastable foam film obtained by the cooperation of magnesium ions and AE3S was driven from two aspects: one is the favorable arrangement of surfactant molecules, and the other is the increase of capacity of foam films for resolutely holding water molecules deduced by a dipolar pair formed by the flexible connecting head groups of AE3S and hydrated Mg(2+) via intermolecular coactions, both related to the presence of magnesium ions. Foam lamella stability measurement and foam decay method were both used to evaluate the stability of foam. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) was used to detect the composition variation of foam film in the drainage process; the vibration peak of OH for water molecule shifted from the 3390 cm(-1) (being assigned to the bulk water integrated by hydrogen bonds) to 3685 cm(-1) (being assigned to the vibration of isolated water molecules) for the ultrastable foam film after complete drainage, which agreed very well with the molecular simulation results.