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[1] The Sea of Marmara is presently the site of pure dextral strike-slip faulting that connects the Izmit Fault in the east to the Ganos Fault in the west along a linear strike-slip fault that is part of the northwestern branch of the North Anatolian Fault. This active Main Marmara Fault (MMF) cuts across a succession of depocenters and highs. Analysis of a large data set that includes multichannel seismic lines, sparker and deep towed high definition seismics, shows that most of the N120[degrees]E trending normal faults framing these depocenters are now inactive as they are sealed by an average thickness of 300 m of sediments. The highs correspond to a series of NE-SW trending anticlines and reverse faults blanketed by a thin cover of undeformed sediments. We interpret these structures as inverted former transfer faults of the now inactive Sea of Marmara pull-apart system. Depocenters and highs are the relicts of a former pull-apart basins and transfer faults system that accommodated the North Anatolian Fault motion within the Sea of Marmara prior to the formation of the MMF. We propose that a relatively short (a few hundreds of thousands of years) period of basin inversion accompanied the localization of strain along the present Main Marmara Fault, until it was fully formed, 200 [+ or -] 100 Kyr ago. The preexisting pull-apart basin system accounts for about 30 km of motion along this fault system and thus probably appeared sometime in late Pliocene or early Pleistocene as a reactivated portion of the old Thrace basin. During the Plio-Quaternary the Sea of Marmara has been the site of progressive localization of strain. INDEX TERMS. 8107 Tectonophysics: Continental neotectonics; 8010 Structural Geology: Fractures and faults; 8122 Tectonophysics: Dynamics, gravity and tectonics; 8109 Tectonophysics: Continental tectonics--extensional (0905); KEYWORDS: Sea of Marmara, tectonics, geodynamics, strain localization, strike-slip fault, basin inversion.

Post-transcriptional control of gene expression is mediated by the interaction of RNA-binding proteins with their cognate mRNAs that specifically regulate their stability, localization and translation. mRNA-binding proteins are multifunctional and it has been proposed therefore that a combinatorial RNA-binding protein code exists that allows specific protein sub-complexes to control cytoplasmic gene expression under a range of pathophysiological conditions. We show that polypyrimidine tract-binding protein (PTB) is central to one such complex that forms in apoptotic cells. Thus, during apoptosis initiated by TNF-related apoptosis inducing ligand there is a change in the repertoire of RNA-binding proteins with which PTB interacts. We show that altering the cellular levels of PTB and its binding partners, either singly or in combination, is sufficient to directly change the rates of apoptosis with increased expression of PTB, YBX1, PSF and NONO/p54nrb accelerating this process. Mechanistically, we show that these proteins post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression, and therefore apoptotic rates, by interacting with and stimulating the activity of RNA elements (internal ribosome entry segments) found in mRNAs that are translated during apoptosis. Taken together, our data show that PTB function is controlled by a set of co-recruited proteins and importantly provide further evidence that it is possible to dictate cell fate by modulating cytoplasmic gene expression pathways alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Petrological data provide a good record of the thermal structure of deeply eroded orogens, and, in principle, might be used to relate the metamorphic structure of an orogen to its deformational history. In this paper, we present two-dimensional thermal modelling of various subduction models taking into account varying wedge geometry as well as variation of density and topography with metamorphic reactions. The models clearly show that rock type accreted in the wedge has important effects on the thermal regime of orogenic wedges. The thermal regime is dominated by radiogenic heat production. Material having high radioactive heat production, like the granodioritic upper crust, produces high temperature metamorphism (amphibolitic conditions). Material with low radioactive heat production results in low temperature metamorphism of greenschist or blueschist types depending on the thickness of the wedge. Application of this model to seemingly unrelated areas of the Central Alps (Lepontine Dome, Grisons) and Eastern Alps (Tauern Window) explains the coexistence and succession of distinct Barrovian and blueschist facies metamorphic conditions as the result of a single, continuous tectonic process in which the main difference is the composition of the incoming material in the orogenic wedge. Accretion of the European upper continental crust in the Lepontine and Tauern Domes produces Barrovian type metamorphism while accretion of oceanic sediments results in blueschist facies metamorphism in the Valaisan domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate and eastern Indonesia corresponds to a wide deformation zone that includes the stretched continental margin of Sundalan. Evaluation of relative motion in tectonic boundaries; Discussion of the kinematic pattern in Global Positioning System; Establishment of simple model on the pattern of transfer.

Proposes that the present structure of Indochina is the result of its geological movement during the Cenozoic era. Extrusion of eastern Tibet; Cenozoic deformation of Indochina; Extrusion of Indochina and opening of the South China Sea.

We use a detailed 6500 km commercial seismic reflection survey over the lower northern margin of the Bay of Biscay to discuss the structure of the thinned lower margin crust. Our study demonstrates that the 'S' reflecting horizon, at the base of the tilted block layer, progressively cuts into higher levels of the upper continental crust oceanward. This S horizon is best interpreted as a low-angle normal fault within the upper crust with an original dip toward the continent. We use previously acquired seismic refraction work to demonstrate that the S horizon is the top of a highly thinned high-velocity lower continental crust layer. The crustal layers above and below S both thicken toward the continent. We consequently interpret the lower crust as a ductile zone of decoupling between the upper brittle crust and the upper presumably brittle lithospheric mantle. We present a model which incorporates those features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]