An unusual occurrence of ultramafic and mafic rocks north of Mt Bischoff, Tasmania

Plagioclase-bearing harzburgite, plagioclase lherzolite, basalt and dolerite intrude a sequence of mudstone, greywacke, pillowed basalt and chert in the Arthur River valley north of Mt Bischoff. The ultramafic rocks are concordant bodies characterised by absence of internal deformation structures, abundant primary mineral assemblages and cumulate textures. The ultramafics were most probably intruded as magma. Fine- to coarse-grained dolerite were intruded in the same zone, probably as dykes

Choice between alternative routes to go public: backdoor listing versus IPO

Going public is the dream of many private companies. It represents a major milestone in the development of a firm. The listing status brings a lot of advantages to a firm. Some of these advantages include (1) access to capital markets and lower cost of capital; (2) enhanced company reputation and profile; (3) providing liquidity for owners to cash out; and (4) use of stock to pay for acquisitions, among others. However, going public is also a costly process. The out-of-pocket costs for an IPO typically involve fees paid for investment banks, accountants, auditors, lawyers, other experts, underwriters and brokers. The IPO firm will also have to pay for the printing of a prospectus and listing fees and other compliance costs. Other hidden costs entail underpricing, more stringent disclosure and regulatory requirements and the time spent by senior management in preparing the company for public listing

Cascade atom in high-Q cavity: The spectrum for non-Markovian decay

The spontaneous emission spectrum for a three level cascade configuration atom in a single mode high-Q cavity coupled to a zero temperature reservoir of continuum external modes is determined from the atom-cavity mode master equation using the quantum regression theorem. Initially the atom is in its upper state and the cavity mode empty of photons. Following Glauber, the spectrum is defined via the response of a detector atom. Spectra are calculated for the detector located inside the cavity (case A), outside the cavity end mirror (Case B-end emission), or placed for emission out the side of the cavity (Case C). The spectra for case A and case B are found to be essentially the same. In all the cases the predicted lineshapes are free of instrumental effects and only due to cavity decay. Spectra are presented for intermediate and strong coupling regime situations (where both atomic transitions are resonant with the cavity frequency), for cases of non-zero cavity detuning, and for cases where the two atomic transition frequencies differ. The spectral features for Cases B(A) and C are qualitatively similar, with six spectral peaks for resonance cases and eight for detuned cases. These general features of the spectra can be understood via the dressed atom model. However, Case B and C spectra differ in detail, with the latter exhibiting a deep spectral hole at the cavity frequency due to quantum interference effects.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures; v2: very minor correction to two equations, thicker lines in some figure

Corporate governance and the long-run performance of firms issuing seasoned equity: An Australian study

Corporate governance has been propelled to the forefront of contemporary business thinking by a string of high profile corporate collapses and dramatic regulatory responses in the United States, Australia and in other countries as well. A particularly extensive body of research has emerged surrounding the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance. We combine the governance literature with evidence on the long-term underperformance of firms issuing seasoned equity to examine the benefits of corporate governance in a setting where it is more likely to matter. That is, we address the question, Does good corporate governance mitigate post-issue underperformance? For a broad sample of Australian seasoned equity offerings and employing a comprehensive, self-constructed governance database, we first demonstrate that issuing firms substantially underperform a variety of benchmarks over the long term, confirming similar findings in the existing literature. We then find evidence that better-governed firms do not experience the same degree of post-issue underperformance. Our findings, which are robust to a variety of estimation methods and econometric specifications, are consistent with the windows of opportunity hypothesis and with equity raisings being an important channel through which better corporate governance can improve future performance

Vacuum phototriodes for the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter endcap

The measurement of scintillation light from the lead tungstate crystals of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) poses a substantial technical challenge, particularly in the endcap regions, where the radiation levels are highest. The photodetectors must be fast, sensitive, radiationhard, and operate with significant internal gain in a magnetic field of 4 Tesla. The measured performance characteristics of the first batches of series production vacuum phototriodes (VPT), developed to satisfy the needs of CMS, will be described

Novel Bayesian Networks for Genomic Prediction of Developmental Traits in Biomass Sorghum.

The ability to connect genetic information between traits over time allow Bayesian networks to offer a powerful probabilistic framework to construct genomic prediction models. In this study, we phenotyped a diversity panel of 869 biomass sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) lines, which had been genotyped with 100,435 SNP markers, for plant height (PH) with biweekly measurements from 30 to 120 days after planting (DAP) and for end-of-season dry biomass yield (DBY) in four environments. We evaluated five genomic prediction models: Bayesian network (BN), Pleiotropic Bayesian network (PBN), Dynamic Bayesian network (DBN), multi-trait GBLUP (MTr-GBLUP), and multi-time GBLUP (MTi-GBLUP) models. In fivefold cross-validation, prediction accuracies ranged from 0.46 (PBN) to 0.49 (MTr-GBLUP) for DBY and from 0.47 (DBN, DAP120) to 0.75 (MTi-GBLUP, DAP60) for PH. Forward-chaining cross-validation further improved prediction accuracies of the DBN, MTi-GBLUP and MTr-GBLUP models for PH (training slice: 30-45 DAP) by 36.4-52.4% relative to the BN and PBN models. Coincidence indices (target: biomass, secondary: PH) and a coincidence index based on lines (PH time series) showed that the ranking of lines by PH changed minimally after 45 DAP. These results suggest a two-level indirect selection method for PH at harvest (first-level target trait) and DBY (second-level target trait) could be conducted earlier in the season based on ranking of lines by PH at 45 DAP (secondary trait). With the advance of high-throughput phenotyping technologies, our proposed two-level indirect selection framework could be valuable for enhancing genetic gain per unit of time when selecting on developmental traits

Investigating microstructural evolution during the electroreduction of UO2 to U in LiCl-KCl eutectic using focused ion beam tomography

Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels using molten salt media is an attractive alternative to liquid-liquid extraction techniques. Pyroelectrochemical processing utilizes direct, selective, electrochemical reduction of uranium dioxide, followed by selective electroplating of a uranium metal. Thermodynamic prediction of the electrochemical reduction of UO2 to U in LiCl-KCl eutectic has shown to be a function of the oxide ion activity. The pO2− of the salt may be affected by the microstructure of the UO2 electrode. A uranium dioxide filled “micro-bucket” electrode has been partially electroreduced to uranium metal in molten lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic. This partial electroreduction resulted in two distinct microstructures: a dense UO2 and a porous U metal structure were characterised by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Focused ion beam tomography was performed on five regions of this electrode which revealed an overall porosity ranging from 17.36% at the outer edge to 3.91% towards the centre, commensurate with the expected extent of reaction in each location. The pore connectivity was also seen to reduce from 88.32% to 17.86% in the same regions and the tortuosity through the sample was modelled along the axis of propagation of the electroreduction, which was seen to increase from a value of 4.42 to a value of infinity (disconnected pores). These microstructural characteristics could impede the transport of O2− ions resulting in a change in the local pO2− which could result in the inability to perform the electroreduction

Predominance diagrams of uranium and plutonum species in both lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic and calcium chloride

Electro-reduction of spent nuclear fuel has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of high level waste from nuclear reactors. Typically, spent uranium and plutonium are recovered via the PUREX process leading to a weapons-grade recovery; however, electro-reduction would allow spent nuclear fuel to be recovered effectively whilst maintaining proliferation resistance. Here, we pres- ent predominance diagrams (also known as Littlewood diagrams) for both uranium and plutonium species in molten lithium chloride–potassium chloride eutectic (LKE) at 500 C and in calcium chloride at 800 C. All diagrams presented depict regions of stability of various phases at unit activity in equilibrium with their respective dissociated ions. The diagrams thermodynamically define the electro- chemical system leading to predictions of reaction condi- tions necessary to electrochemically separate species. The diagrams have been constructed using a pure thermody- namic route; identifying stable species within the molten salt with an assumption of unit activity for each of the phases. These thermodynamically predicted diagrams have been compared to the limited available experimental data; demonstrating good correlation. The diagrams can also be used to predict regions of stability at activities less than unity and is also demonstrated