Since the advent of North Sea exploration, a variety of new advances have been made in understanding basin dynamics and regional variations in structural style that are well-founded on the stratigraphy of the better known basins. New insights have also been made into the influence of Palaeozoic compressional and inversion tectonics on the structure of Mesozoic successor basins. This paper, based in part on these advances, offers a new, post plate tectonics, model for the structural and stratigraphic development of Mesozoic and Tertiary basins between mid-Norway and the Bay of Biscay.The tectono-stratigraphic evolution of this region can now be simply described in terms of a southward propagating ‘Arctic’ rift and a northward propagating ‘Atlantic’ rift. These rifts, formed by polyphase extension, remained largely separate entities until the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous. Thereafter, the rifts and their successor basins became a single entity represented by the Rockall Trough, Faeroe–Shetland Basin and Møre Basins only modified by later Cretaceous events and the Early Tertiary break-up of the North Atlantic and Norwegian–Greenland Sea.The ‘Arctic’ rift was initiated possibly as early as the Late Palaeozoic, nucleating on Caledonian and Late Devonian structures in the strike-parallel Caledonian terranes. Polyphase extensional events between the Permo-Triassic and Late Jurassic with intervening phases of passive subsidence resulted in rifts and basins of opposing polarity, sometimes superposed or offset, trending from the Barents Sea into the greater North Sea area.In contrast, the ‘Atlantic’ rift was probably initiated by rifting between North America and Africa in Late Triassic to Early Jurassic times. Its northward propagation was at first limited by the E-W and NE-SW Hercynian and Caledonian terranes of the British Isles and northeast Canada. The main subsequent major phase of extension initiated in the Late Jurassic and continuing through the Early Cretaceous progressively opened the North Atlantic from south to north through into the Bay of Biscay.The northward propagation of the Atlantic rift from Biscay into the Rockall Trough and Faeroe–Shetland Basin–Møre Basin completed the linkage to the Arctic rift possibly as early as the Late Jurassic and certainly by the Albo–Aptian. The ensuing rift, underlain by highly stretched continental crust, extended from the Barents Sea via the Vøring Plateau, Møre Basin into the Rockall Trough.The subsequent Late Cretaceous history of the linked system of rifts is characterized by both extension and inversion of unknown origin. In the Early Tertiary, rifting associated with voluminous volcanism along the entire margin and on the scale of the Deccan Traps heralded the break-up by spreading of the Norwegian–Greenland Sea and the northern North Atlantic. A subsequent phase of rifting elevated the Jameson Land Basin of East Greenland exhuming major oil accumulations. In contrast, co-eval phases of inversion in the Vøring Basin, Møre Basin and the Faeroe–Shetland Basin have had a positive impact on prospectivity. Inversion in the Celtic Sea is more probably related to the Pyrennean orogeny.The model of ‘Arctic’ and ‘Atlantic’ rifts offers a new and simpler predictive model of source and reservoir distribution. In the ‘Arctic’ rift, i.e. the North Sea, West of Shetland and offshore Norway–Greenland, volumetrically significant source-bed systems are confined to the Permo–Triassic, Toarcian, Middle and Late Jurassic. In the ‘Atlantic’ rift, between the Celtic Sea, Iberia and the Grand Banks, the major sources seem to be of Toarcian and Late Jurassic age. Cretaceous source beds are minor in the linked rift. However, the multiple phases of rifting and later burial or inversion history have severely affected the maturity of the Jurassic, although appeal to remigration is clearly necessary in the Faeroe–Shetland Basin.Distribution of the major reservoirs in both rifts can be best understood in relation to phases of rift propagation and subsequent subsidence. Thus, the early rifts and their immediate successor passive basins are characterized by shallow marine sedimentation. In contrast, the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rifts were subject to stretching that resulted in initially deep marine environments and very thick infill of later Cretaceous sediments. Significant sand input to the linked rifts only began in the Early Tertiary as a result of the uplift and unroofing of Scotland that heralded the opening to the North Atlantic.

Goals: To describe patterns of antidepressant (ADs) prescribing in community oncology practice. Patients and methods: Data were collected using an electronic medical record on all staged breast, colon, and lung cancer patients in three community-based oncology practices. The data were analyzed retrospectively, using descriptive and bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression modeling. There were 850 breast, 299 colon, and 473 lung cancer patients identified in this analysis. Main results: Overall, 19.2% of breast, 11% of colon, and 13.7% of lung cancer patients had been prescribed ADs during the 2-year period. The clinic in which cancer treatment was received predicted AD prescribing. The relationship between AD administration and age proved to be nonlinear; the pattern exhibited an "inverted U" shape. Patients with comorbidities and on pain medications were more likely to be administered ADs. Colon cancer patients on pain medications were five times more likely to be administered ADs than those not on pain medications. Conclusions: While some predictors of AD prescribing appear to be consistent with other studies, such as being on pain medication, there is still a great amount of variability in prescribing patterns across community practices, age groups, and cancer diagnoses. This study demonstrates that prescriptions of ADs seem to be influenced by parameters other than psychopathology. Given the importance of major depression in oncology care, diagnosis of psychiatric disorders and prescription patterns of psychotropics should be part of the routine monitoring and quality management in oncology patient care.

The mean spherical approximation and related integral equations theories (such as the linearized hypernetted chain equation) are studied for a fluid composed of atoms or spherical molecules with quantum mechanical fluctuating internal dipoles. We derive the solutions of these equations for the case in which the intramolecular restoring force for a fluctuating dipole is harmonic (i.e., a quantum Drude model). In the limit of low oscillator frequencies, the solutions reduce to those deduced by Pratt on the basis of classical theory. We discuss the frequency dependence of the fluid renormalizations of atomic polarizabilities, and show that for the zero frequency applications discussed by Pratt, the classical theory is correct. We find, however, that the finite frequency quantum effects play a dominant role for many experimentally relevant properties. Generalizations of the quantum theory to include features such as charge overlap and hyperpolarizabilities are also discussed. The relationship between low order quantum mechanical perturbation theory and the integral equation theories is described.

Areas of exploration for new hydrocarbons are changing as the hydrocarbon industry seeks new resources for economic and political reasons. Attention has turned from easily accessible onshore regions such as the Middle East to offshore continental shelves. Over the past ten years, there has been a marked shift towards deep-water continental margins (500-2,500 m below sea level). In these more hostile regions, the risk and cost of exploration is higher, but the prize is potentially enormous. The key to these endeavours is a quantitative understanding of the structure and evolution of the thinned crust and lithosphere that underlie these margins.

[1] A general understanding of rifted margins, which form by thinning of the continental lithosphere, exists. Nevertheless, the exact form of thinning is unclear. This debate has been stimulated by acquisition of dense seismic wide-angle and deep reflection surveys from Atlantic Ocean margins. A central issue concerns the way in which thinning changes with depth. We have tackled this issue by developing a generalized inverse model. This model attempts to fit subsidence and crustal thinning observations by varying strain rate as a function of time and space. Depth-dependent thinning is permitted but we do not prescribe its existence or form. Here, the algorithm is applied to six margins, including two of the most contentious conjugate margins: Newfoundland-Iberia and Brazil-Angola. Calculated strain rate histories predict thinning estimates which broadly match estimates inferred from normal faulting. The Eastern Indian and Beaufort Sea margins formed by largely uniform lithospheric thinning. In contrast, the Newfoundland-Iberian conjugate margins formed by a pattern of strongly depth-dependent strain rate. To account for the paucity of syn-rift decompression melting of the underlying asthenosphere, the lithospheric mantle close to oceanic-continent transition must thin more slowly than the overlying crust. This form of depth dependency is not common. For example, the BrazilAngolan conjugate margin could have formed by uniform lithospheric thinning provided thick layers of salt were deposited in a preexisting 400 m deep topographic depression. Depth-dependent thinning is not required to account for rapid subsidence of presalt strata.