I apply array processing techniques to study the slowness and coda of P/Pdiff for 1,371 shallow earthquakes (< 200 km) that occurred in Asia, South America, Tonga-Fiji, and Indonesia, and were recorded by the medium-aperture array, YKA, in Canada. The slowness analysis shows lateral variations in Earth structure at the base of the mantle across the north Pacific. I observe an Ultra-Low Velocity...

MADS-domain transcription factors are involved in signal transduction and developmental control in plants, animals and fungi. Because their diversification is linked to the origin of novelties in multicellular eukaryotes, the early evolution of MADS-domain proteins is of interest, but has remained enigmatic. Employing whole genome sequence information and remote homology detection methods, we d...

The modern concept of "biorefinery" is dominantly based on chemical pulp mills to create more value than cellulose pulp fibres, and energy from the dissolved lignins and hemicelluloses. This concept is characterized by the conversion of biomass into various biobased products. It includes thermochemical processes such as gasification and fast pyrolysis. In mechanical pulp mills, the feedstock av...

We define a multi-type coalescent point process of a general branching process with countably many types. This multi-type coalescent fully describes the genealogy of the (quasi-stationary) standing population providing types along ancestral lineages of all individuals in the standing population. We show that the coalescent process is a functional of a certain Markov chain defined by the planar ...

Amborella trichopoda is strongly supported as the single living species of the sister lineage to all other extant flowering plants, providing a unique reference for inferring the genome content and structure of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of living angiosperms. Sequencing the Amborella genome, we identified an ancient genome duplication predating angiosperm diversification, without e...

BACKGROUND Continuous spinal anaesthesia with spinal catheters allows incremental dosing of local anaesthetic and, consequently, less haemodynamic changes. However, little is known about the required doses. Therefore, we designed a study to assess the minimum effective local anaesthetic dose (MLAD) of levobupivacaine and ropivacaine in this context. METHODS Forty-one patients undergoing hip r...