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Abstract The Vrancea Seismic Zone (VSZ) is an atypical intermediate-depth earthquake nest located in the South-East Carpathians in Romania, often regarded as a relic slab sinking into the mantle. The origin of the slab and the earthquakes it produces are debated because brittle failure is unlikely to occur at mantle depths. Cluster types and statistical properties of seismicity can vary with deformation regime, fluid content and temperature. Here we investigate the spatial–temporal properties of earthquakes recorded in the VSZ from a high-quality local catalogue, identify and classify earthquake clusters, placing constraints on the debated nature of the Vrancea slab, its coupling with the overlying crust, and its potential for triggering crustal earthquakes. We use the nearest-neighbour distance to estimate the correlation between pairs of earthquakes, considering the origin time, magnitude, b-value and fractal dimension of the observed seismicity with M w ≥ 2.5 from the 1977–2023 period. With this approach, we find a small percentage of clustered seismicity (8%), suggesting that background seismicity dominates. We identified 12 conventional mainshock-dominated sequences and 17 swarms with relatively small (0.92) and large (1.73) b-values, respectively, that may reflect differences in stress or the presence of fluids in the crustal volume. The aftershock decays—p-values of 0.99 for the large-event clusters and 1.42 for the swarms—may reflect typical and, respectively, fast stress relaxations. Swarm clusters are predominantly localised within the crust, whereas conventional mainshock sequences lack foreshocks and prevail in the subcrustal domain, occasionally triggering aftershocks at shallower depths. This partitioning suggests higher heat flow and fluid-modulated seismicity in the crust, as opposed to brittle failure conditions, triggered by slab dynamics in the mantle, including abrupt stress release without preceding signals. The spread of aftershocks from subcrustal large mainshocks to shallower depths indicate a stress transfer process where the descending Vrancea slab influences seismic activity in the overlying crust. Graphical Abstract

Abstract The lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary and mid‐lithospheric discontinuities are primary attributes of the upper mantle. The Pannonian region is an extensional sedimentary basin enclosed by collisional orogens. Here, we estimate the negative phase depth of S‐to‐P receiver functions to image the lithospheric thickness and other discontinuities with high resolution, based on the recent dense seismological broadband networks. The lithosphere‐asthenosphere boundary is relatively shallow (

We designed a convolutional neural network application to detect seismic precursors in geomagnetic field records. Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural hazards on Earth, yet their short-term forecasting has not been achieved. Stress loading in dry rocks can generate electric currents that cause short-term changes to the geomagnetic field, yielding theoretically detectable pre-earthquake electromagnetic emissions. We propose a CNN model that scans windows of geomagnetic data streams and self-updates using nearby earthquakes as labels, under strict detectability criteria. We show how this model can be applied in three key seismotectonic settings, where geomagnetic observatories are optimally located in high-seismicity-rate epicentral areas. CNNs require large datasets to be able to accurately label seismic precursors, so we expect the model to improve as more data become available with time. At present, there is no synthetic data generator for this kind of application, so artificial data augmentation is not yet possible. However, this deep learning model serves to illustrate its potential usage in earthquake forecasting in a systematic and unbiased way. Our method can be prospectively applied to any kind of three-component dataset that may be physically connected to seismogenic processes at a given depth.

Copyright of Romanian Journal of Forensic Science is the property of Romanian Forensic Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Romanian Journal of Forensic Science is the property of Romanian Forensic Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on a clinical example this study case describes the pattern of destructive mothering. The paradox of a mortifying narcissistic mother and a loving, dutiful son focuses on the damage some mothers are willing to inflict on their children. In spite of that, images of mother as deficient still seem to be a denial of the imagos of the "angelic mother" and shock public opinion. Thoughtful consideration is given to the ways in which social care professionals can prevent, repair or remedy the unhappy effects of insecure early relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]