Self-recognition is of great significance to our sense of self. To date, disturbances in the processing of visual self-recognition are well studied in people with schizophrenia, whereas relatively few studies have focused on the processing of self in other domains, such as auditory. An investigation of auditory self-recognition contributes to delineate changes related to self and the potential roots of the described psychopathological aspects connoting schizophrenia. By applying unimodal task and multisensory test, this study investigated auditory self-recognition in people with schizophrenia under unimodal and bimodal circumstances. Forty-six adults diagnosed with schizophrenia and thirty-two healthy controls were involved in this study. Results suggested that people with schizophrenia seemed to have significantly lower perceptual sensitivity in detecting self-voice, and also showed stricter judgment criteria in self-voice decision. Furthermore, in the presentation of stimuli that combined the stimulation of others’ faces with one’s own voice, people with schizophrenia mistakenly attributed the voices of others as their own. In conclusion, altered auditory self-recognition in people with schizophrenia was found.

Gut bacteria from the genus Prevotella are found in high abundance in faeces of non-industrialised communities but low abundance in industrialised, Westernised communities. Prevotella copri is one of the principal Prevotella species within the human gut. As it has been associated with developmental health and disease states, we sought to (i) develop a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly determine P. copri abundance and (ii) investigate its abundance in a large group of Australian pregnant mothers.

The Barwon Infant Study is a pre-birth cohort study (n = 1074). Faecal samples were collected from mothers at 36 weeks gestation. Primers with a probe specific to the V3 region of P. copri 16S rRNA gene were designed and optimised for real-time PCR. Universal 16S rRNA gene primers amplified pan-bacterial DNA in parallel. Relative abundance of P. copri was calculated using a 2-ΔCt method.

Relative abundance of P. copri by PCR was observed in 165/605 (27.3%) women. The distribution was distinctly bimodal, defining women with substantial (n = 115/165, 69.7%) versus very low P. copri expression (n = 50/165, 30.3%). In addition, abundance of P. copri by PCR correlated with 16S rRNA gene MiSeq sequencing data (r2 = 0.67, P < 0.0001, n = 61).

We have developed a rapid and cost-effective technique for identifying the relative abundance of P. copri using real-time PCR. The expression of P. copri was evident in only a quarter of the mothers, and either at substantial or very low levels. PCR detection of P. copri may facilitate assessment of this species in large, longitudinal studies across multiple populations and in various clinical settings.

The possibilities of modelling the diffraction profiles from bimodal microstructure in computer program MSTRUCT are demonstrated on two examples. A special “Double Component” profile effect can be utilized for such problems. At first it was applied to an analysis of a mixture of two nanocrystalline anatase powders with different crystallite sizes and the relative ratio of both components was determined from X-ray diffraction data. In the second case study, diffraction peaks from a pure polycrystalline copper sample treated by equal channel angular pressing were fitted using a two-phase model of large recrystallized defect-free grains and ultrafine crystallites with high dislocation density. The method is shown to be suitable for determination of the relative fraction of the microstructural components as well as other parameters (e.g. dislocation density).

The Strathy Complex of the Scottish Caledonides is a bimodal association of amphibolites and siliceous grey gneisses that structurally underlies adjacent metasediments of the Moine Supergroup. Both rock units record a common polyphase Caledonian tectonometamorphic history. New elemental and radiogenic isotope data indicate that both end-members of the Strathy suite were derived from a depleted mantle source, that they are cogenetic and that they may have been related by crystal fractionation. δ18O values and their correlations with major and trace elements suggest that the protoliths were hydrothermally altered at temperatures below 200 °C. Tectonomagmatic discrimination based on relatively immobile elements and isotope systems, plus comparison with geochemically similar bimodal supracrustal associations elsewhere, strongly support the conclusion that the igneous protoliths of the Strathy Complex formed in an oceanic destructive margin setting. If TDM model ages of c. 1000 Ma approximate protolith crystallization, the Strathy Complex may have formed as juvenile crust in the peri-Rodinian ocean broadly contemporaneous with the Grenville orogenic cycle.

The 1·65–1·54 Ga rapakivi granites of southeastern Fennoscandia represent the silicic members of a bimodal magmatic association in which the mafic members are tholeiitic diabase dykes and minor gabbroic-anorthositic bodies. They are metaluminous to slightly peraluminous A-type granites and occur as high-level batholiths and stocks in an E-W-trending belt extending from Soviet Karelia to southwestern Finland. The Soviet Karelian granites were emplaced into the contact zone between Archaean craton and Svecofennian juvenile 1·9Ga-old crust, while the Finnish granites were intruded into the Svecofennian crust. Deep seismic soundings show that the rapakivi granites and the contemporaneous, mainly WNW or NW-trending diabase dyke swarms are situated in a zone of relatively thin crust. Below the Wiborg Batholith there exists a domal structure in the lithosphere in which a transitional zone (mafic underplate) occurs between the crust and the mantle.

The Nd isotopic evolution of the rapakivi granites (εNd(T) −3·1—−0·2) corresponds to the evolution of the 1·9Ga-old Svecofennian crust, as do their Pb isotopic compositions. This implies that the Finnish granites represent anatectic melts of the Svecofennian crust. In contrast, the Soviet Karelian granites show isotopic composition indicative of substantial incorporation of Archaean lower crust material. Petrochemical modelling of one of the Finnish batholiths shows that its parental magma could have been generated by c. 20% melting of a granodioritic source and that fractional crystallisation was important during the subsequent evolution of this magma.

The rapakivi granites are redefined as A-type granites that show the rapakivi texture at least in larger batholiths. The field, geochemical, and seismic data indicate that the classical Finnish rapakivi granites were generated in an anorogenic extensional regime by partial melting of the lower/middle crust. The melting, and possibly also the extensional tectonics, were related to upwellings of hot mantle material which led to intrusion of mafic magmas at the base and into the crust.

The Topsails igneous terrane of western Newfoundland contains several intrusive and volcanic suites underlain and separated by screens of older intrusive rocks. The heterogeneous Hungry Mountain complex yielded U-Pb zircon upper and lower intercept ages of 2090 ± 75 Ma and 467 ± 8 Ma, demonstrating a significant inherited component of Aphebian age, while an adjacent suite of relatively massive granodioritic to granitic rocks yielded a slightly discordant U-Pb zircon age of 460 ± 10 Ma. The 438 ± 8 Ma age of the Rainy Lake complex, a suite of island arc type intrusive rocks, suggests it forms part of a Silurian magmatic episode, which also included Springdale Group bimodal volcanics (429 ± 4 Ma), and peralkaline granite and subvolcanic porphyries which intrude the Springdale Group (429 ± 3 Ma and 427 ±3 Ma, respectively). Most igneous units contain a slight component of inherited zircon, but initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (average 0·704) are similar to calculated ‘Bulk Earth’ values at this time.

Available data suggest that the Topsails terrane formed an oceanic tract with active volcanic island arcs when obduction commenced in early Ordovician time. The subsequent magmatic history, including the major but short-lived early Silurian magmatism, can be directly or indirectly related to obduction processes, including over-riding of the Topsails terrane by ophiolitic allochthons. There is no evidence of any Acadian (Devonian) igneous activity in the Topsails terrane.