7,387 research outputs found
Carbon dioxide catastrophes: Past and future menace
Carbon dioxide is important in its role as coupler of the terrestrial biosphere to inorganic chemical processes and as the principal greenhouse gas controlling Earth's surface temperature. The hypothesis that atmospheric CO2 levels have diminished with time, with the resulting cooling effect offsetting an increase in the solar constant, seems firmly established, and it is shown that feedback mechanisms exist which can maintain the terrestrial surface in a relatively narrow temperature range over geological time. Of the factors involved in such CO2 variation, the oceanic reservoir appears the most important. Surface waters are probably in approximate equilibrium with regard to CO2 exchange with the ambient atmosphere in most regions, but data from deep-ocean water sampling indicates that such waters are somewhat undersaturated in the sense that they would tend to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere if brought to the surface without change in composition or temperature. If major impacts into the ocean can result in loss of a substantial portion of the atmospheric CO2 reservoir, then any such future event could imperil the continuation of most higher forms of life on Earth. The most likely candidate for an inverse Nyos global event in previous Earth history is the Cretaceous-Tertiary terminal extinction event. The Cretaceous was characterized by warm, equable temperatures presumably indicative of relatively high CO2 levels and an intense greenhouse heating. Cooling of the oceans in absence of massive transfer of CO2 to the oceanic reservoir in itself would promote a condition of CO2 undersaturation in abyssal waters, and this is made even more extreme by the pattern of ocean water circulation. It is possible to envision a situation in which deep ocean waters were at least occasionally profoundly undersaturated with regard to CO2. Turnover of a major fraction of such an ocean would then remove, on a very short time scale, as much as 90 percent of the atmospheric CO2 inventory
Synthesis of extracellular matrix components by human ciliary muscle cells in culture
The production and spatial organization of connective tissue components in ciliary muscle cell cultures was studied with immunohistochemical and ultrastructural methods. Antibodies against collagen types IV and VI, fibronectin and laminin were used. Laminin stains as pericellular network surrounding individual muscle cells. Type IV collagen shows positive cytoplasmic staining and only small foci of extracellular immunofluorescence. Staining for type VI collagen and fibronectin is seen near the ends of the bipolar cells, while the lateral sides of the cells remain unstained. Electronmicroscopy shows that cultured ciliary muscle cells are surrounded by an incomplete basal lamina. In addition, bundles of 5-20 nm thick extracellular microfibrils are seen. The bundles are oriented parallel to the axis of the cells and are in close contact with the cell membrane in areas where membrane-bound dense bands are formed. Immunoelectronmicroscopy indicates that the bundles contain fibronectin and type VI collagen fibrils. While the fibronectin fibrils approach the cell membrane directly, type VI collagen fibrils are usually separated from the cell membrane by fine fibrillous material of different nature. Quality and spatial organization of the extracellular material in ciliary muscle cell cultures shows marked similarities with the extracellular matrix of ciliary muscle in situ
Two-body recombination in a quantum mechanical lattice gas: Entropy generation and probing of short-range magnetic correlations
We study entropy generation in a one-dimensional (1D) model of bosons in an
optical lattice experiencing two-particle losses. Such heating is a major
impediment to observing exotic low temperature states, and "simulating"
condensed matter systems. Developing intuition through numerical simulations,
we present a simple empirical model for the entropy produced in this 1D
setting. We also explore the time evolution of one and two particle correlation
functions, showing that they are robust against two-particle loss. Because of
this robustness, induced two-body losses can be used as a probe of short range
magnetic correlations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures - v4, published versio
Hadron collider limits on anomalous couplings
A next-to-leading log calculation of the reactions and
is presented including a tri-boson
gauge coupling from non-Standard Model contributions. Two approaches are made
for comparison. The first approach considers the tri-boson coupling
as being uniquely fixed by tree level unitarity at high energies to its
Standard Model form and, consequently, suppresses the non-Standard Model
contributions with form factors. The second approach is to ignore such
considerations and calculate the contributions to non-Standard Model tri-boson
gauge couplings without such suppressions. It is found that at Tevatron
energies, the two approaches do not differ much in quantitative results, while
at Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies the two approaches give significantly
different predictions for production rates. At the Tevatron and LHC, however,
the sensitivity limits on the anomalous coupling of are too weak to
usefully constrain parameters in effective Lagrangian models.Comment: Revtex 23 pages + 8 figures, UIOWA-94-1
Coherent photon-photon interactions in very peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions
Heavy ions at high velocities provide very strong electromagnetic fields for
a very short time. The main characteristics of ultraperipheral relativistic
heavy ion collisions are reviewed, characteristic parameters are identified.
The main interest in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at relativistic ion
colliders like the LHC is the interactions of very high energy (equivalent)
photons with the countermoving (equivalent) photons and hadrons (protons/ions).
The physics of these interactions is quite different from and complementary to
the physics of the strong fields achieved with current and future lasers.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, invited talk presented at the ELI Workshop and
School on Fundamental Physics with Ultra-high Fields (September 29- October
2, 2008, Frauenwoerth, German
Logarithmic electroweak corrections to gauge-boson pair production at the LHC
We have studied the effects of the complete logarithmic electroweak O(alpha)
corrections on the production of vector-boson pairs WZ, ZZ, and WW at the LHC.
These corrections are implemented into a Monte Carlo program for pp -> 4f
(+\gamma) with final states involving four or two leptons using the double-pole
approximation. We numerically investigate purely leptonic final states and find
that electroweak corrections lower the predictions by 5-30% in the physically
interesting region of large di-boson invariant mass and large angle of the
produced vector bosons.Comment: 47 pages, LaTeX, 18 eps figure
Searching for t-bar t Resonances at the Large Hadron Collider
Many new physics models predict resonances with masses in the TeV range which
decay into a pair of top quarks. With its large cross section, t-bar t
production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) offers an excellent opportunity
to search for such particles. We present a detailed study of the discovery
potential of the CERN Large Hadron Collider for Kaluza-Klein (KK) excitations
of the gluon in bulk Randall-Sundrum (RS) models in the t-bar t -> ell^+/- nu
b-bar bq-bar q' (ell=e, mu) final state. We utilize final states with one or
two tagged b-quarks, and two, three or four jets (including b-jets). Our
calculations take into account the finite resolution of detectors, the energy
loss due to b-quark decays, the expected reduced b-tagging efficiency at large
t-bar t invariant masses, and include the background originating from Wb-bar
b+jets, (Wb+W-bar b)+jets, W+jets, and single top + jets production. We derive
semi-realistic 5 sigma discovery limits for nine different KK gluon scenarios,
and compare them with those for KK gravitons, and a Z_H boson in the Littlest
Higgs model. We also analyze the capabilities of the LHC experiments to
differentiate between individual KK gluon models and measure the couplings of
KK gluons to quarks. We find that, for the parameters and models chosen, KK
gluons with masses up to about 4 TeV can be discovered at the LHC. The ability
of the LHC to discriminate between different bulk RS models, and to measure the
couplings of the KK gluons is found to be highly model dependent.Comment: revtex3, 27 pages, 5 tables, 6 figure
The Constitutional Administration of the Beirut Agreement: Paradox or Possibility
The Beirut Agreement is a multilateral treaty that allows for the dutyfree exchange of audiovisual materials, if they are certified by the exporting country to be cultural, educational or scientific. The certification criteria used by the United States to define these terms was struck down as unconstitutional in the case of Bullfrog Films v. Wick. This Note analyzes the Bullfrog case and its subsequent appeal, as well as the issues surrounding the continued efforts of the United States Information Agency to draft satisfactory criteria. The Note concludes with the author offering suggestions for a constitutionally acceptable set of certification criteria
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