[1] We argue that by fracturing rock, not by raising it relative to base level, tectonics plays its most important role in causing rapid incision of valleys and rapid erosion of hillslopes. Tectonic deformation riddles the upper crust with fractures, which not only provide avenues for water flow and thus promote weathering and further disintegration of rock but also fragment bedrock into debris...

A rock mass is a material quite different from other structural materials used in civil engineering. It is heterogeneous and quite often discontinuous, but is one of the materials in the earth's crust, which is most used in man's construction. Ideally, a rock mass is composed of a system of rock blocks and fragments separated by discontinuities forming a material in which all elements behave in...

Manganiferous rock varnish (desert varnish) is common in subtropical deserts, but coatings of amorphous silica glaze dominate rock surfaces of the same lithology and exposed to similar amounts of annual precipitation in the rain shadows of the large tropical shield volcanoes such as those in Hawaii. Lacking an explanation for this contrast, a two decade-long laboratory experiment tested importa...

[1] Rock physics attempts to relate the geophysical response of a rock to geologic properties of interest, such as porosity, lithology, and fluid content. The geophysical properties estimated by field-scale surveys, however, are impacted by additional factors, such as complex averaging of heterogeneity at the scale of the survey and artifacts introduced through data inversion, that are not addr...

OBJECTIVE Rock musicians are known to have an increased prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus. The aims of the present study were to examine the distribution of anxiety and depression symptoms among rock musicians with or without tinnitus and how these mental health indicators and internal locus of control influenced upon their tinnitus symptom concerns and the degree to which the tinnitus af...

Ras homolog family member A (RhoA) and Rho-associated coiled coil-containing protein kinases 1 and 2 (ROCK1 and 2) are key regulators of focal adhesion, actomyosin contraction and cell motility. RhoA/ROCK signaling has emerged as an attractive target for the development of new cancer therapeutics. Whether RhoA/ROCK is involved in regulating the formation of tumor cell vasculogenic mimicry (VM) ...

BACKGROUND In epithelial and endothelial cells, detachment from the matrix results in anoikis, a form of apoptosis, whereas stromal and cancer cells are often anchorage independent. The classical anoikis model is based on static 3D epithelial cell culture conditions (STCK). METHODS We characterized a new model of renal, stromal and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) matrix deprivation, based on slow...

This system includes a C-code software program and a set of MATLAB software tools for statistical analysis and rock distribution mapping. The major functions include rock detection and rock detection validation. The rock detection code has been evolved into a production tool that can be used by engineers and geologists with minor training. The software takes as an input an image of a scene cont...

Rock varnish is a dark-colored Mnand Fe-rich coating that forms on exposed rock surfaces in almost every terrestrial weathering environment, particularly in arid and semiarid regions. Varnishes average about 100 μm in thickness but can reach thicknesses of several hundred micrometers, with accumulation rates of 1–15 μm/1000 years (Liu and Dorn 1996). Rock varnishes have attracted considerable r...

BACKGROUND Rho kinases (ROCKs) mediate cell contraction, local adhesion, and cell motility, which are considered to be important in cell differentiation. We postulated that ROCKs are involved in controlling embryonic stem (ES) cell renewal and differentiation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS CCE, a murine ES cell, was treated with Y-27632 for 48 to 96 hours and colony formation was evaluated. ...