Description: The cooling history and therefore thermal structure of oceanic lithosphere in slow-spreading environments is, to date, poorly constrained. Application of thermochronometric techniques to rocks from the very slow spreading SW Indian Ridge provide for the first time a direct measure of the age and thermal history of in situ lower oceanic crust. Crystallization of felsic veins (~850°C) drilled in Hole 735B is estimated at 11.93F0.14 Ma, based on U-Pb analyses of zircon by ion probe. This crystallization age is older than the 'crustal age' from remanence inferred from both sea surface and near-bottom magnetic anomaly data gathered over Hole 735B which indicate magnetization between major normal polarity chrons C5n.2n and C5An.1n (10.949-11.935 Ma). 40Ar/39Ar analyses of biotite give plateau ages between 11 and 12 Ma (mean 11.42 +/- 0.21 Ma), implying cooling rates of 〉800°C/m.y. over the first 500,00 years to temperatures below ~330-400°C. Fission-track ages on zircon (mean 9.35 +/- 1.2 Ma) and apatite reveal less rapid cooling to 〈110°C by ~7 Ma, some 4-5 m.y. off axis. Comprehensive thermochronometric data from the structurally intact block of gabbro between ~700 and 1100 m below sea floor suggest that crust traversed by ODP Hole 735B mimics conductive cooling over the temperature range ~ 900-330°C, characteristic of a 2-D plate-cooling model for oceanic lithosphere. In contrast, lower temperature chronometers (fission track on zircon, titanite, and apatite; T〈=280°C) are not consistent with these predictions and record anomalously high temperatures for crust 〉700 m below sea floor at 8-10 Ma (i.e. 2-4 m.y. off axis). We offer two hypotheses for this thermal anomaly: (i) Off-axis (or asymmetric) magmatism that caused anomalous reheating of the crust preserved in Hole 735B. This postulated magmatic event might be a consequence of the transtension, which affected the Atlantis II transform from ~19.5 to 7.5 Ma. (ii) Late detachment faulting, which led to significant crustal denudation (2.5-3 km removed), further from the ridge axis than conventionally thought.

Description: BACKGROUND Accurate preoperative staging of prostate cancer (PCa) is important but current diagnostic methods cannot accurately determine extracapsular extension (ECE), resulting in the possible triage of patients towards a less appropriate arm of therapy. This has consequences to patient care and better methods of preoperatively determining ECE are required. METHODS We followed a biomarker development pathway and compared the preoperative serum expressions of VEGF-D, PEDF, IGF-I, IGFBP3, and CD14 in patients from the Irish Prostate Cancer Research Consortium (PCRC) with radical prostatectomy determined ECE against patients with nonECE. RESULTS The expression measurements of five proteins were fitted into a logistic regression model and backwards variable elimination methods were applied which resulted in a model with IGFBP3 and CD14 as the best combination biomarker panel. This panel was tested in an independent cohort of patients using an optimized multiplex electrochemiluminescence assay. Receiver operating characteristic curves were generated and the areas under the curve (AUC) were calculated as an estimation of prediction accuracy. The biomarker panel was validated with an AUC of 76.6%, and a sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 75% was obtained. CONCLUSIONS This is the first internally validated, preoperative serum biomarker panel that identifies ECE in patients with Gleason score 7 PCa with AUC 76.6%. The panel surpasses the routinely used diagnostic standards in accuracy and may help to improve preoperative cancer staging, better inform treatment options, and improve the referral patterns of patients with urgently treatable cancers towards more appropriate arms of therapy. Prostate © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.