Shifting gender relations at Khok Phanom Di, Thailand: Isotopic evidence from the skeletons

The values for isotopes of strontium, carbon, and oxygen in human tooth enamel from the prehistoric site of Khok Phanom Di (ca. 2100–1500 BC) in Thailand shed light on human mobility and marital residence during a crucial period of subsistence change. Khok Phanom Di was a sedentary coastal community that apparently relied on hunting, gathering, and fishing in the midst of a transition to rice agriculture in the interior. The results of the isotope analyses indicate female immigration and then a marked shift to local strontium isotope signatures among females accompanied by a clear increase in the prestige of female burials. A possible explanation is a shift in the pattern of exogamy with a concomitant change in gender relations. Observation of a very similar transition at Ban Chiang, in northeastern Thailand, suggests the possibility of a regionwide social transition. In the case of Khok Phanom Di, the increasing role of females in producing high-quality ceramic vessels may have contributed to the change

BGS karst report series: J2. Karst in the Jurassic limestones of central England

This report documents the evidence for karst and rapid groundwater flow in the Jurassic limestones of central England. It is part of the BGS karst report series on karst aquifers in England in which cave development is limited – the Chalk and the Jurassic and Permian limestones. The series is the main output of the NERC funded Knowledge Exchange fellowship “Karst knowledge exchange to improve protection of groundwater resources”. The term “karst” applies to rocks that are soluble. In classic karst there are extensive caves and large scale surface karst landforms such as dolines, shafts, river sinks, and springs. In the past the Chalk and the Jurassic and Permian limestones of England were not considered karstic because they have limited cave development, and because karst features are usually small and have not been well documented. However, permeability in these aquifers is determined by their soluble nature and groundwater flow is predominantly through small-scale karstic solutional features. These reports provide data and information on karst in each area. Karst data are compiled from the British Geological Survey databases on karst, springs, and transmissivity; reports and peer reviewed papers; from geological mapping; and through knowledge exchange with the Environment Agency, universities, water companies and consultants. This report shows that in the Jurassic limestones of central England there is extensive evidence for karst, with surface geomorphology, tracer tests and hydrogeological studies all highlighting the role of karstic solutional development in the aquifers. Karst is best documented in the Grantham to Stamford area, associated with the East Glen, West Glen and Witham rivers; but there is evidence for karst throughout the area. Karst is particularly developed in the Lincolnshire Limestone Formation, but there is also evidence of karst in the limestones of the Great Oolite Group. Stream sinks, dolines, dissolution pipes, and springs are all present. There are many stream sinks, and several major rivers in the area have large losses to the aquifer as they cross the limestone. Some stream sinks are very substantial with inflows of 200-300 l/s. There are also many springs, and some have large reported discharges of up to 355 l/s. Several tracer tests indicate rapid groundwater flow velocities ranging from 21 to 10000 m/day over distances of up to 11.9 km. Tracer tests demonstrate connections to multiple outlets over a wide area, suggesting that the karst comprises complex networks with divergent and convergent flow. Some tracer breakthrough curves had very long tails, with tracer discharged for more than 100 days following injection indicating high attenuation via dispersion and/or diffusion. Hydrogeological studies in the area also indicate the importance of karstic solutional development including evidence from rapid water level responses in monitoring boreholes, and powerful artesian boreholes with large discharges. Further work is needed in the area to improve understanding of karst: Data on spring discharges are very sparse, and for most springs there discharge is unknown. There is almost no information on long term variations in spring discharges or how they respond to rainfall. Further studies of dolines and stream sinks, and further tracer testing would also be useful. Indicators of karst at abstraction boreholes (e.g. conduits observed in borehole images; water quality indicators of rapid groundwater flow) have not been considered for this report, and would enable understanding of the impacts of karst on groundwater abstractions. Although karstic caves have not been identified in this area, conduits are observed in quarries and unexplored small karstic caves may be present. The Jurassic limestones of central England are karstic in nature with extensive solutional networks of conduits and fissures. Karst is an important factor that should be considered in hydrogeological studies, and which affects groundwater protection and management in this area

Methane in underground air in Gibraltar karst

AbstractLittle is known about the abundance and geochemical behaviour of gaseous methane in the unsaturated zone of karst terrains. The concentrations and δ13C of methane in background atmosphere, soil air and cave air collected at monthly intervals over a 4yr period are reported for St. Michaels Cave, Gibraltar, where the regional climate, surface and cave processes are well documented. Methane concentrations measured in Gibraltar soil are lower than the local background atmosphere average of 1868ppb and fall to <500ppb. The abundance–δ13C relationships in soil air methane lack strong seasonality and suggest mixing between atmosphere and a 12C depleted residue after methanotrophic oxidation. Methane abundances in cave air are also lower than the local background atmosphere average but show strong seasonality that is related to ventilation-controlled annual cycles shown by CO2. Cave air methane abundances are lowest in the CO2-rich air that outflows from cave entrances during the winter and show strong inverse relationship between CH4 abundance and δ13C which is diagnostic of methanotrophy within the cave and unsaturated zone. Anomalies in the soil and cave air seasonal patterns characterised by transient elevated CH4 mixing ratios with δ13C values lower than −47‰ suggests intermittent biogenic input. Dynamically ventilated Gibraltar caves may act as a net sink for atmospheric methane

Magnetization relaxation in (Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconductors

We describe a theory of Mn local-moment magnetization relaxation due to p-d kinetic-exchange coupling with the itinerant-spin subsystem in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As alloy. The theoretical Gilbert damping coefficient implied by this mechanism is calculated as a function of Mn moment density, hole concentration, and quasiparticle lifetime. Comparison with experimental ferromagnetic resonance data suggests that in annealed strongly metallic samples, p-d coupling contributes significantly to the damping rate of the magnetization precession at low temperatures. By combining the theoretical Gilbert coefficient with the values of the magnetic anisotropy energy, we estimate that the typical critical current for spin-transfer magnetization switching in all-semiconductor trilayer devices can be as low as $\sim 10^{5} {\rm A cm}^{-2}$.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Rapid Communication

The nature and distribution of flowing features in a weakly karstified porous limestone aquifer

The nature and distribution of flowing features in boreholes in an area of approximately 400 km2 in a weakly karstic porous limestone aquifer (the Chalk) was investigated using single borehole dilution tests (SBDTs) and borehole imaging. One-hundred and twenty flowing features identified from SBDTs in 24 boreholes have densities which decrease from ∼0.3 m−1 near the water table to ∼0.07 m−1 at depths of more than 40 m below the water table; the average density is 0.20 m−1. There is some evidence of regional lithological control and borehole imaging of three boreholes indicated that most flowing features are associated with marls, hardgrounds and flints that may be developed at a more local scale. Borehole imaging also demonstrated that many flowing features are solutionally enlarged fractures, suggesting that even in carbonate aquifers where surface karst is developed on only a small scale, groundwater flow is still strongly influenced by dissolution. Fully connected solutional pathways can occur over 100s, sometimes 1000s of metres. However, conduits, tubules and fissures may not always be individually persistent along a flowpath, instead being connected together and also connected to unmodified fractures to create a relatively dense network of voids with variable apertures (15 cm). Groundwater therefore moves along flowpaths made up of voids with varying shape and character. Local solutional development of fractures at significant depths below the surface suggests that mixing corrosion and in situ sources of acidity may contribute to solutional enhancement of fractures. The study demonstrates that single borehole dilution testing is a useful method of obtaining a large dataset of flowing features at catchment-regional scales. The Chalk is a carbonate aquifer with small-scale surface karst development and this study raises the question of whether other carbonate aquifers with small-scale surface karst have similar characteristics, and what hydrological role small-scale dissolutional features play in highly karstic aquifers

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Working paper analysing the economic implications of the proposed 30% target for areal protection in the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framewor

58 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables- The World Economic Forum now ranks biodiversity loss as a top-five risk to the global economy, and the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework proposes an expansion of conservation areas to 30% of the earth’s surface by 2030 (hereafter the “30% target”), using protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). - Two immediate concerns are how much a 30% target might cost and whether it will cause economic losses to the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. - Conservation areas also generate economic benefits (e.g. revenue from nature tourism and ecosystem services), making PAs/Nature an economic sector in their own right. - If some economic sectors benefit but others experience a loss, high-level policy makers need to know the net impact on the wider economy, as well as on individual sectors. [...]A. Waldron, K. Nakamura, J. Sze, T. Vilela, A. Escobedo, P. Negret Torres, R. Button, K. Swinnerton, A. Toledo, P. Madgwick, N. Mukherjee were supported by National Geographic and the Resources Legacy Fund. V. Christensen was supported by NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-04901. M. Coll and J. Steenbeek were supported by EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578 (TRIATLAS). D. Leclere was supported by TradeHub UKRI CGRF project. R. Heneghan was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Acciones de Programacion Conjunta Internacional (PCIN-2017-115). M. di Marco was supported by MIUR Rita Levi Montalcini programme. A. Fernandez-Llamazares was supported by Academy of Finland (grant nr. 311176). S. Fujimori and T. Hawegawa were supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan and the Sumitomo Foundation. V. Heikinheimo was supported by Kone Foundation, Social Media for Conservation project. K. Scherrer was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 682602. U. Rashid Sumaila acknowledges the OceanCanada Partnership, which funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). T. Toivonen was supported by Osk. Huttunen Foundation & Clare Hall college, Cambridge. W. Wu was supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan. Z. Yuchen was supported by a Ministry of Education of Singapore Research Scholarship Block (RSB) Research FellowshipPeer reviewe

Operation and performance of the ATLAS semiconductor tracker

The semiconductor tracker is a silicon microstrip detector forming part of the inner tracking system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The operation and performance of the semiconductor tracker during the first years of LHC running are described. More than 99% of the detector modules were operational during this period, with an average intrinsic hit efficiency of (99.74±0.04)%. The evolution of the noise occupancy is discussed, and measurements of the Lorentz angle, δ-ray production and energy loss presented. The alignment of the detector is found to be stable at the few-micron level over long periods of time. Radiation damage measurements, which include the evolution of detector leakage currents, are found to be consistent with predictions and are used in the verification of radiation background simulations

Measurement of the correlation between flow harmonics of different order in lead-lead collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Correlations between the elliptic or triangular flow coefficients vm (m=2 or 3) and other flow harmonics vn (n=2 to 5) are measured using √sNN=2.76 TeV Pb+Pb collision data collected in 2010 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 7 μb−1. The vm−vn correlations are measured in midrapidity as a function of centrality, and, for events within the same centrality interval, as a function of event ellipticity or triangularity defined in a forward rapidity region. For events within the same centrality interval, v3 is found to be anticorrelated with v2 and this anticorrelation is consistent with similar anticorrelations between the corresponding eccentricities, ε2 and ε3. However, it is observed that v4 increases strongly with v2, and v5 increases strongly with both v2 and v3. The trend and strength of the vm−vn correlations for n=4 and 5 are found to disagree with εm−εn correlations predicted by initial-geometry models. Instead, these correlations are found to be consistent with the combined effects of a linear contribution to vn and a nonlinear term that is a function of v22 or of v2v3, as predicted by hydrodynamic models. A simple two-component fit is used to separate these two contributions. The extracted linear and nonlinear contributions to v4 and v5 are found to be consistent with previously measured event-plane correlations

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector during 2011 data taking

The performance of the jet trigger for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the 2011 data taking period is described. During 2011 the LHC provided proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and heavy ion collisions with a 2.76 TeV per nucleon–nucleon collision energy. The ATLAS trigger is a three level system designed to reduce the rate of events from the 40 MHz nominal maximum bunch crossing rate to the approximate 400 Hz which can be written to offline storage. The ATLAS jet trigger is the primary means for the online selection of events containing jets. Events are accepted by the trigger if they contain one or more jets above some transverse energy threshold. During 2011 data taking the jet trigger was fully efficient for jets with transverse energy above 25 GeV for triggers seeded randomly at Level 1. For triggers which require a jet to be identified at each of the three trigger levels, full efficiency is reached for offline jets with transverse energy above 60 GeV. Jets reconstructed in the final trigger level and corresponding to offline jets with transverse energy greater than 60 GeV, are reconstructed with a resolution in transverse energy with respect to offline jets, of better than 4 % in the central region and better than 2.5 % in the forward direction