514 research outputs found
An integrated sequence stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental, and chronostratigraphic analysis of the Tangahoe Formation, southern Taranaki coast, with implications for mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4â3.0 Ma) glacio-eustatic sea-level changes
Sediments of the mid-Pliocene (c. 3.4â3.0 Ma) Tangahoe Formation exposed in cliffs along the South Taranaki coastline of New Zealand comprise a 270 m thick, cyclothemic shallow-marine succession that has been gently warped into a north to south trending, low angle anticline. This study examines the sedimentologic, faunal, and petrographic characteristics of 10 Milankovitch-scale (6th order), shallow-marine depositional sequences exposed on the western limb of the anticline. The sequences are recognised on the basis of the cyclic vertical stacking of their constituent lithofacies, which are bound by sharp wave cut surfaces produced during transgressive shoreface erosion. Each sequence comprises three parts: (1) a 0.2â2 m thick, deepening upwards, basal suite of reworked bioclastic lag deposits (onlap shellbed) and/or an overlying matrix supported, molluscan shellbed of offshore shelf affinity (backlap shellbed); (2) a 5â20 m thick, gradually shoaling, aggradational siltstone succession; and (3) a 5â10 m thick, strongly progradational, well sorted âforced regressiveâ shoreline sandstone. The three-fold subdivision corresponds to transgressive, highstand, and regressive systems tracts (TSTs, HSTs, and RSTs) respectively, and represents deposition during a glacio-eustatic sea-level cycle. Lowstand systems tract sediments are not recorded because the outcrop is situated c. 100 km east of the contemporary shelf edge and was subaerially exposed at that time. Well developed, sharp- and gradational-based forced regressive sandstones contain a variety of storm-emplaced sedimentary structures, and represent the rapid and abrupt basinward translation of the shoreline on to a storm dominated, shallow shelf during eustatic sea-level fall. Increased supply of sediment from north-west South Island during âforced regressionâ is indicated from petrographic analyses of the heavy mineralogy of the sandstones. A chronology based on biostratigraphy and the correlation of a new magnetostratigraphy to the magnetic polarity timescale allows: (1) identification of the Mammoth (C2An.2r) and Kaena (C2An.1r) subchrons; (2) correlation of the coastal section to the Waipipian Stage; and (3) estimation of the age of the coastal section as 3.36â3.06 Ma. Qualitative assessment of foraminiferal census data and molluscan palaeoecology reveals cyclic changes in water depth from shelf to shoreline environments during the deposition of each sequence. Seven major cycles in water depth of between 20 and 50m have been correlated to individual 40 ka glacio-eustatic sea-level cycles on the marine oxygen isotope timescale. The coastal Tangahoe Formation provides a shallow-marine record of global glacio-eustasy prior to the development of significant ice sheets on Northern Hemisphere continents, and supports evidence from marine ÎŽ18O archives that changes in Antarctic ice volume were occurring during the Pliocene
Integrin activation - the importance of a positive feedback
Integrins mediate cell adhesion and are essential receptors for the
development and functioning of multicellular organisms. Integrin activation is
known to require both ligand and talin binding and to correlate with cluster
formation but the activation mechanism and precise roles of these processes are
not yet resolved. Here mathematical modeling, with known experimental
parameters, is used to show that the binding of a stabilizing factor, such as
talin, is alone insufficient to enable ligand-dependent integrin activation for
all observed conditions; an additional positive feedback is required.Comment: in press in Bulletin of Mathematical Biolog
Cold nuclear matter effects on J/psi production: intrinsic and extrinsic transverse momentum effects
Cold nuclear matter effects on J/psi production in proton-nucleus and
nucleus-nucleus collisions are evaluated taking into account the specific J/psi
production kinematics at the partonic level, the shadowing of the initial
parton distributions and the absorption in the nuclear matter. We consider two
different parton processes for the c-cbar pair production: one with collinear
gluons and a recoiling gluon in the final state and the other with initial
gluons carrying intrinsic transverse momentum. Our results are compared to RHIC
observables. The smaller values of the nuclear modification factor R_AA in the
forward rapidity region (with respect to the mid rapidity region) are partially
explained, therefore potentially reducing the need for recombination effects.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, LaTeX, uses elsarticle.cls (included).v2:
version (with minor text revisions and Fig 2 and 4a modified) to appear in
Phys.Lett.
Light Gluinos and the Parton Structure of the Nucleon
We study the effects of light gluinos with mass below about 1 GeV on the
nucleon parton densities and the running of alpha_(S). It is shown that from
the available high-statistics DIS data no lower bound on the gluino mass can be
derived. Also in the new kinematical region accessible at HERA the influence of
such light gluinos on structure f unctions is found to be very small and
difficult to detect. For use in more direct searches involving final state
signatures we present a radiative estimate of the gluino distribution in the
nucleon.Comment: 23 pages, LateX, 8 figures, MPI-PhT/94-22, LMU-3/9
Elasticity-driven interaction between vortices in type-II superconductors
The contribution to the vortex lattice energy which is due to the
vortex-induced strains is calculated covering all the magnetic field range
which defines the vortex state. This contribution is compared with previously
reported ones what shows that, in the most part of the vortex state, it has
been notably underestimated until now. The reason of such underestimation is
the assumption that only the vortex cores induce strains. In contrast to what
is generally assumed, both core and non-core regions are important sources of
strains in high- superconductors.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, revtex
Coherent electron-phonon coupling and polaron-like transport in molecular wires
We present a technique to calculate the transport properties through
one-dimensional models of molecular wires. The calculations include inelastic
electron scattering due to electron-lattice interaction. The coupling between
the electron and the lattice is crucial to determine the transport properties
in one-dimensional systems subject to Peierls transition since it drives the
transition itself. The electron-phonon coupling is treated as a quantum
coherent process, in the sense that no random dephasing due to electron-phonon
interactions is introduced in the scattering wave functions. We show that
charge carrier injection, even in the tunneling regime, induces lattice
distortions localized around the tunneling electron. The transport in the
molecular wire is due to polaron-like propagation. We show typical examples of
the lattice distortions induced by charge injection into the wire. In the
tunneling regime, the electron transmission is strongly enhanced in comparison
with the case of elastic scattering through the undistorted molecular wire. We
also show that although lattice fluctuations modify the electron transmission
through the wire, the modifications are qualitatively different from those
obtained by the quantum electron-phonon inelastic scattering technique. Our
results should hold in principle for other one-dimensional atomic-scale wires
subject to Peierls transitions.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (to
appear march 2001
Centrality, rapidity, and transverse-momentum dependence of gluon shadowing and antishadowing on production in Au collisions at =200 GeV
We have carried out a wide study of shadowing and antishadowing effects on
\jpsi\ production in \dAu\ collisions at GeV. We have
studied the effects of three different gluon nPDF sets, using the exact
kinematics for a process, namely as expected from LO
pQCD. We have computed the rapidity dependence of \RCP\ and for
the different centrality classes of the PHENIX data. For mid rapidities, we
have also computed the transverse-momentum dependence of the nuclear
modification factor, which cannot be predicted with the usual
simplified kinematics. All these observables have been compared to the PHENIX
data in \dAu\ collisions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, talk given by N. Matagne at the conference
"thirty years of hadronic physics", Spa, Belgium, April 6-8, 2011, to appear
in Few Body System
Cold Nuclear Matter Effects on Dijet Productions in Relativistic Heavy-ion Reactions at LHC
We investigate the cold nuclear matter(CNM) effects on dijet productions in
high-energy nuclear collisions at LHC with the next-to-leading order
perturbative QCD. The nuclear modifications for dijet angular distributions,
dijet invariant mass spectra, dijet transverse momentum spectra and dijet
momentum imbalance due to CNM effects are calculated by incorporating EPS, EKS,
HKN and DS param-etrization sets of parton distributions in nucleus . It is
found that dijet angular distributions and dijet momentum imbalance are
insensitive to the initial-state CNM effects and thus provide optimal tools to
study the final-state hot QGP effects such as jet quenching. On the other hand,
the invariant mass spectra and the transverse momentum spectra of dijet are
generally enhanced in a wide region of the invariant mass or transverse
momentum due to CNM effects with a feature opposite to the expected suppression
because of the final-state parton energy loss effect in the QGP. The difference
of EPS, EKS, HKN and DS parametrization sets of nuclear parton distribution
functions is appreciable for dijet invariant mass spectra and transverse
momentum spectra at p+Pb collisions, and becomes more pronounced for those at
Pb+Pb reactions.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figure
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Risk Owners & Risk Managers: Dealing with the complexity of feeding children with neurodevelopmental disability
This paper illustrates negotiations around risk between lay people and clinicians in relation to gastrostomy interventions for disabled children. These negotiations centre on differing interpretations of what constitutes risk in relation to the safety of oral feeding and a child's need for a feeding tube between parents, carers and clinical specialties. Drawing on Heyman's distinction between risk managers and risk owners, we show that not only do clinicians act as risk managers and parents and carers as risk owners, but that these distinctions often become blurred either because of the shifting dynamics of relations of care or because of the specificity of clinical practice. Parents become risk managers in relation to carers' roles, while clinicians become risk owners in relation to particular procedures which define their practice. This has implications for lay and expert interactions as well as professional accountability for those caring for children with complex medical conditions. Although not an empirical article, we draw on empirical work in the UK. We analyse both parental and professional constructions of risk based on observations of co-ordinating a clinical trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of gastrostomy surgery. We also examine the diverse value systems used by different groups of professionals and lay carers which inform judgements about risk and feeding. We conclude by arguing that issues of risk in contemporary health care are not just examples of âmanufactured uncertaintyâ or of ânegotiated powerâ but constitute a dialectical relationship which breaks down the essentialist dualism of lay and professional constructions of risk
Quarkonium production in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions
We present a brief overview of the most relevant current issues related to
quarkonium production in high energy proton-proton and proton-nucleus
collisions along with some perspectives. After reviewing recent experimental
and theoretical results on quarkonium production in pp and pA collisions, we
discuss the emerging field of polarisation studies. Thereafter, we report on
issues related to heavy-quark production, both in pp and pA collisions,
complemented by AA collisions. To put the work in a broader perspective, we
emphasize the need for new observables to investigate quarkonium production
mechanisms and reiterate the qualities that make quarkonia a unique tool for
many investigations in particle and nuclear physics.Comment: Overview for the proceedings of QUARKONIUM 2010: Three Days Of
Quarkonium Production in pp and pA Collisions, 29-31 July 2010, Palaiseau,
France; 34 pages, 30 figures, Late
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