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Using 3D terrestrial laser scan (TLS) technology, we have recorded postseismic deformation on and adjacent to the surface rupture formed during the 6th April 2009 L'Aquila normal faulting earthquake (Mw 6.3). Using surface modeling techniques and repeated surveys 8–124 days after the earthquake, we have produced a 4D dataset of postseismic deformation across a 3 × 65 m area at high horizontal spatial resolution. We detected millimetre‐scale movements partitioned between discrete surface rupture slip and development of a hangingwall syncline over 10's of meters. We interpret the results as the signal of shallow afterslip in the fault zone. We find 52% of the total postseismic hangingwall vertical motion occurs as deformation within 30 m of the surface rupture. The total postseismic vertical motions are approximately 50% that of the coseismic. We highlight the importance of quantifying partitioned postseismic contributions when applying empirical slip‐magnitude datasets to infer palaeoearthquake magnitudes.

IntroductionType 2 diabetes is a chronic condition associated with impaired glucose tolerance and a high prevalence of comorbidity, polypharmacy and medication safety incidents. Little is known about the patient work associated with using diabetes management technologies by patients and their informal caregivers at home. This study aims to apply a systems engineering approach to better understand this work.Methods and analysisThis is a qualitative focused ethnographic study using interview and photography. Adults, living independently at home, with type 2 diabetes who have been using insulin as part of their treatment regimen for a minimum of 6 months and who are using at least one diabetes management technology without support of a professional at home are eligible for inclusion. Participants will be recruited through advertisements on social media, in diabetes clinics and by contacting associations of persons living with diabetes and diabetes specialists. Participant consent will be taken, interviews will be undertaken in the participant’s home, audio-recorded and photographs securely saved. The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model will frame the data coding and we will develop new codes to accommodate data outside the SEIPS model. Results will be interpreted to produce a description of work processes, work system elements and interactions that support or jeopardise the achievement of safety. This protocol will follow the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research checklist for the reporting of qualitative research interviews.Ethical considerations and disseminationThis protocol was approved by the University of Lille’s Behavioural Sciences Ethics Committee. The study will comply with data protection legislation: the protocol has been declared by the Data Protection Officer of the University of Lille to the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty. We plan to disseminate our findings via presentations at relevant patient/public, professional, academic and scientific meetings, and publish in a peer-reviewed journal.

Dikes and sills represent an important component of the deformation history in volcanic systems, but unlike dikes, sills are typically omitted from traditional paleostress analyses in tectonic studies. The emplacement of sheet intrusions is commonly associated with Mode I fracturing in a low deviatoric stress state, in which dilation is perpendicular to the fracture plane. Many natural examples of sills and dikes, however, are observed to accommodate minor shear offsets, in addition to a component of dilation. Here we present mechanical models for sills in the San Rafael subvolcanic field, Utah, which use field-based measurements of intrusion attitude and opening angles to constrain the tectonic stress axes during emplacement and the relative magma pressure for that stress state. The sills display bimodal dips to the NE and SW and consistent vertical opening directions, despite variable sill dips. Based on sill attitude and opening angles, we find that the sills were emplaced during a phase of NE–SW horizontal shortening. Calculated principal stress axes are consistent (within ∼ 4°) with paleostress results for penecontemporaneous thrust faults in the area. The models presented here can be applied to any set of dilational structures, including dikes, sills, or hydrous veins, and represent a robust method for characterising the paleostress state in areas where other brittle deformation structures (e.g. faults) are not present.

Bulk and surface distributions of molecular orientation in injection‐molded plaques of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs) have been studied using a combination of techniques, coordinated with process simulations using the Larson‐Doi “polydomain” model. Wide‐angle X‐ray scattering was used to map out the bulk orientation distribution. Fourier Transform Infrared Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR‐ATR) and Near‐Edge X‐ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) were utilized to probe the molecular orientation states to within about ∼5 μm and ∼2 nm, respectively, of the sample surface. These noninvasive, surface‐sensitive techniques yield reasonable self‐consistency, providing complementary validation of the robustness of these methods. An analogy between Larson‐Doi and fiber orientation models has allowed the first simulations of TLCP injection molding. The simulations capture many fine details in the bulk orientation distribution across the sample plaque. Direct simulation of surface orientation at the level probed by FTIR‐ATR and NEXAFS was not possible due to the limited spatial resolution of the simulations. However, simulation results extracted from the shear‐dominant skin region are found to provide a qualitatively accurate indicator of surface orientation. Finally, simulations capture the relation between bulk and surface orientation states across the different regions of the sample plaque. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:1864–1877, 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers

We report process simulations of molecular orientation of liquid crystalline polymers for isothermal channel flows in extrusion. The simulations use a “polydomain” model due to Larson and Doi (Larson and Doi, J. Rheol., 35, 539 (1991)), which is implemented by exploiting a nearly exact analogy with a fiber orientation model that is widely used for analysis of composites processing. Simulation results are compared to experimental data previously obtained using a customized X‐ray capable extrusion die that allows a wide range of channel flow geometries to be explored. Competition between inhomogeneous shear and extension in these kinematically complex flows has a profound effect on the resulting molecular orientation distributions. We find that the Larson–Doi model successfully predicts most aspects of the experimental observations, demonstrating its utility for process modeling. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2008. © 2008 Society of Plastics Engineers

The mechanical interaction of propagating normal faults is known to influence the linkage geometry of first-order faults, and the development of second-order faults and fractures, which transfer displacement within relay zones. Here we use natural examples of growth faults from two active volcanic rift zones (Koa`e, island of Hawai`i, and Krafla, northern Iceland) to illustrate the importance of horizontal-plane extension (heave) gradients, and associated vertical axis rotations, in evolving continental rift systems. Second-order extension and extensional-shear faults within the relay zones variably resolve components of regional extension, and components of extension and/or shortening parallel to the rift zone, to accommodate the inherently three-dimensional (3-D) strains associated with relay zone development and rotation. Such a configuration involves volume increase, which is accommodated at the surface by open fractures; in the subsurface this may be accommodated by veins or dikes oriented obliquely and normal to the rift axis. To consider the scalability of the effects of relay zone rotations, we compare the geometry and kinematics of fault and fracture sets in the Koa`e and Krafla rift zones with data from exhumed contemporaneous fault and dike systems developed within a > 5×104 km2 relay system that developed during formation of the NE Atlantic margins. Based on the findings presented here we propose a new conceptual model for the evolution of segmented continental rift basins on the NE Atlantic margins.

In situ X-ray scattering measurements of molecular orientation under shear are reported for two commercial thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers (TLCPs), Vectra A950® and Vectra B950®. Transient shear flow protocols (reversals, step changes, and flow cessation) are used to investigate the underlying director dynamics. Synchrotron X-ray scattering in conjunction with a high-speed area detector provides sufficient time resolution to limit the total time spent in the melt during testing, whereas a redesigned X-ray capable shear cell provides a more robust platform for working with TLCP melts at high temperatures. The transient orientation response upon flow inception or flow reversal does not provide definitive signatures of either tumbling or shear alignment. However, the observation of clear transient responses to step increases or step decreases in shear rate contrasts with expectations and experience with shear-aligning nematics and suggests that these polymers are of the tumbling class. Finally, these two polymers show opposite trends in orientation following flow cessation, which appears to correlate with the evolution of dynamic modulus during relaxation. Specifically, Vectra B shows an increase in orientation upon flow cessation, an observation that can only be rationalized by the assumption of tumbling dynamics in shear. Together with prior observations of commercial LCP melts in channel flows, these results suggest that this class of materials, as a rule, exhibits director tumbling.

Creep experiments in uniaxial extension have been performed to explore the kinetics of the physical aging process in semicrystalline syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) having two processing histories. Classical time‐aging time superposition behavior was found for both materials at temperatures from 70 to 95°C, with the shift rate μ decreasing as temperature was increased. Virtually no aging was seen at 95°C, the DSC determined glass transition, Tg. This behavior was atypical for a semicrystalline polymer and reminiscent of the behavior of glassy amorphous thermoplastics. Some evidence for a separate crystalline aging mechanism > Tg, which manifests itself as only vertical shifts without timescale shifts, is seen in experiments at T > 100°C. Finally, the two different materials age differently, suggesting that some control of aging can be obtained by altering processing conditions or morphology.

Small Angle X‐Ray scattering (SAXS) studies have been carried out on injection molded syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS) at room temperature and at elevated temperatures up to 290°C. Features indicating lamellar crystallinity were weak or entirely absent at room temperature, becoming increasingly intense above the glass transition temperature (Tg) for this material. A background scattering whose intensity was roughly proportional to q−2, where q is the scattering momentum transfer, was present throughout the temperature range. We suggest that these results indicate that SPS materials formed in this way are three‐phase systems, with an amorphous phase, a crystalline phase, and a grain boundary phase.

At approximately 11:00 PM, Sunday night. October 16, 1859, Capt Brown's legion's stalked into the small Virginia town of Harper's Ferry (now in West Virginia) and set in motion his machinery of insurrection. Coming out of the hills from the direction of Kennedy's Farm. Brown's band seized the unsuspecting watchman at the federal arsenal's bridge across the Potomac, cut the lines of communication, and took possession of several points along the river.