50,151 research outputs found
Tip dating supports novel resolutions of controversial relationships among early mammals
The estimation of the timing of major divergences in early mammal evolution is challenging due to conflicting interpretations of key fossil taxa. One contentious group is Haramiyida, the earliest members of which are from the Late Triassic. Many phylogenetic analyses have placed haramiyidans in a clade with multituberculates within crown Mammalia, thus extending the minimum divergence date for the crown group deep into the Triassic. A second taxon of interest is the eutherian Juramaia from the Middle-Late Jurassic Yanliao Biota, which is morphologically very similar to eutherians from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and implies a very early origin for therian mammals. Here we apply Bayesian tip-dating phylogenetic methods to investigate these issues. Tip dating firmly rejects a monophyletic Allotheria (multituberculates and haramiyidans), which are split into three separate clades, a result not found in any previous analysis. Most notably, the Late Triassic Haramiyavia and Thomasia are separate from the Middle Jurassic euharamiyidans. We also test whether the Middle–Late Jurassic age of Juramaia is ‘expected’ given its known morphology by assigning an age prior without hard bounds. Strikingly, this analysis supports an Early Cretaceous age for Juramaia, but similar analyses on twelve other mammaliaforms from the Yanliao biota return the correct, Jurassic age. Our results show that analyses incorporating stratigraphic data can produce results very different from other methods. Early mammal evolution may have involved multiple instances of convergent morphological evolution (e.g., in the dentition), and tip dating may be a method uniquely suitable to recognising this due to the incorporation of stratigraphic data. Our results also confirm that Juramaia is anomalous in exhibiting a much more derived morphology than expected given its age, which in turn implies very high rates of evolution at the base of therian mammals
BSE crisis and food safety regulation: a comparison of the UK and Germany
The BSE crisis represents one of the worst policy disasters experienced by a UK government in recent years. In material terms, it led to the slaughter of 3.3 million cattle and an estimated economic loss of £3.7 billion. In administrative terms, the crisis led to the dissolution of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), an institution that was heavily criticised by the Phillips Inquiry for its lack of openness and transparency. Although far less severe in terms of its economic impact, with estimated losses of between Euro 0.8 and 1.05 billion, the German BSE crisis resulted in extensive political fallout, leading, inter alia, to the resignation of two government ministers. This paper compares the handling of the crisis in the UK and Germany and the regulation put in place in its aftermath. It explores the reasons for the failure of both governments to manage this crisis in a credible, timely and proactive fashion. Examining the institutional contexts in which decisions about scientific evidence on BSE were made, the paper argues that, in both countries, a centralised system, in which government agencies controlled “science for government”, was vulnerable to expert-interest group alliances which undermined the potential for a credible assessment of public health and safety risks. Looking at the policies adopted in the aftermath of these crises, the paper notes that, although being far less affected by BSE, Germany paradoxically adopted far more rigorous measures for the prevention of future incidents, which included the strict administrative separation of the risk assessment and management functions. Our paper concludes that the extent of administrative reforms which are initiated in response to crises is more likely to correspond to that general receptiveness of the political environment to these reforms, than the ‘objective’ impact of the crisis itself
Lattice-point generating functions for free sums of convex sets
Let \J and \K be convex sets in whose affine spans intersect at
a single rational point in \J \cap \K, and let \J \oplus \K = \conv(\J \cup
\K). We give formulas for the generating function {equation*} \sigma_{\cone(\J
\oplus \K)}(z_1,..., z_n, z_{n+1}) = \sum_{(m_1,..., m_n) \in t(\J \oplus \K)
\cap \Z^{n}} z_1^{m_1}... z_n^{m_n} z_{n+1}^{t} {equation*} of lattice points
in all integer dilates of \J \oplus \K in terms of \sigma_{\cone \J} and
\sigma_{\cone \K}, under various conditions on \J and \K. This work is
motivated by (and recovers) a product formula of B.\ Braun for the Ehrhart
series of \P \oplus \Q in the case where and \Q are lattice polytopes
containing the origin, one of which is reflexive. In particular, we find
necessary and sufficient conditions for Braun's formula and its multivariate
analogue.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory
Series
Geometry and supersymmetry of heterotic warped flux AdS backgrounds
We classify the geometries of the most general warped, flux AdS backgrounds
of heterotic supergravity up to two loop order in sigma model perturbation
theory. We show under some mild assumptions that there are no
backgrounds with . Moreover the warp factor of AdS backgrounds is
constant, the geometry is a product and such solutions
preserve, 2, 4, 6 and 8 supersymmetries. The geometry of has been
specified in all cases. For 2 supersymmetries, it has been found that
admits a suitably restricted structure. For 4 supersymmetries, has
an structure and can be described locally as a circle fibration over a
6-dimensional KT manifold. For 6 and 8 supersymmetries, has an
structure and can be described locally as a fibration over a
4-dimensional manifold which either has an anti-self dual Weyl tensor or a
hyper-K\"ahler structure, respectively. We also demonstrate a new Lichnerowicz
type theorem in the presence of corrections.Comment: 34 pages. Reference adde
Beneficial and Harmful Agile Practices for Product Quality
There is the widespread belief that Agile neglects the product quality. This
lack of understanding how Agile processes assure the quality of the product
prevents especially companies from regulated domains from an adoption of Agile.
This work aims to identify which Agile Practices contribute towards product
quality. Hence, data from a survey study is analyzed to identify Ag-ile
Practices which are beneficial or harmful for the quality of the product. From
49 practices that were used in the survey so far, 36 were perceived to have a
positive impact on product quality, while four practices were rated as being
harmful. The results enrich understanding of how product quality can be
achieved in Agile, and support selection of practices to improve quality
Can Long-Range Nuclear Properties Be Influenced By Short Range Interactions? A chiral dynamics estimate
Recent experiments and many-body calculations indicate that approximately
20\% of the nucleons in medium and heavy nuclei () are part of
short-range correlated (SRC) primarily neutron-proton () pairs. We find
that using chiral dynamics to account for the formation of pairs due to
the effects of iterated and irreducible two-pion exchange leads to values
consistent with the 20\% level. We further apply chiral dynamics to study how
these correlations influence the calculations of nuclear charge radii, that
traditionally truncate their effect, to find that they are capable of
introducing non-negligible effects.Comment: 6 pages, 0 figures. This version includes many improvement
The CF6 Jet Engine Performance Improvement - Low Pressure Turbine Active Clearance Control
A low pressure turbine (LPT) active clearance control (ACC) cooling system was developed to reduce the fuel consumption of current CF6-50 turbofan engines for wide bodied commercial aircraft. The program performance improvement goal of 0.3% delta sfc was determined to be achievable with an improved impingement cooling system. The technology enables the design of an optimized manifold and piping system which is capable of a performance gain of 0.45% delta sfc
Introductory workshops on remote sensing as related to geological problems in Georgia
There are no author-identified significant results in this report
Application of pushbroom altimetry from space using large space antennas
The capabilities of multibeam altimetry are discussed and an interferometric multibeam technique for doing precision altimetry is described. The antenna feed horn arrangement and the resulting footprint lube pattern are illustrated. Plans for a shuttle multibeam altimetry mission are also discussed
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