Precise Elevation Thresholds Associated with Salt Marsh–Upland Ecotones along the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Coastal marshes provide essential ecosystem services related to biodiversity, water quality, and protection from erosion. As increasing rates of relative sea-level rise affect many coastal marsh systems, a thorough understanding of marsh responses to sea-level change, particularly the migration of marsh–upland boundaries, becomes essential. The goal of this study was to determine precise elevation thresholds associated with coastal marsh, the marsh–upland ecotone, and upland plant communities along Mississippi’s Gulf of Mexico coast (diurnal, microtidal). Elevations (NAVD88) were measured using survey-grade Global Navigation Satellite System solutions integrated with high-precision leveling. Plant species were sampled at approximately 1-m intervals along each of thirty-three transects extending from intermediate marsh through the marsh–upland ecotone. Elevation thresholds associated with plant community change were determined based on relevant quartiles of the data. Probabilities of occurrence of each plant community type were computed for elevations at the centimeter scale. Results indicated transitions from marsh to ecotone and ecotone to upland at elevations of approximately 0.40 m and 0.60 m, respectively. Understanding the precise nature of these centimeter-scale dependencies of marsh vegetation on coastal elevation will facilitate spatial modeling of marsh transgression in response to sea-level rise, subsidence, changes in sediment flux, and land use change

An amplitude analysis of the N‾N→π−π+\overline{N}N \to \pi^- \pi^+ reaction

A simple partial wave amplitude analysis of $\overline{p}p \rightarrow \pi^- \pi^+$ has been performed for data in the range p_{\sl lab} = 360 -- 1000 MeV/c. Remarkably few partial waves are required to fit the data, while the number of required $J$ values barely changes over this energy range. However, the resulting set of partial wave amplitudes is not unique. We discuss possible measurements with polarized beam and target which will severely restrict and help resolve the present analysis ambiguities. New data from the reaction $\overline{p}p \rightarrow \pi^0 \pi^0$ alone, are insufficient for that purpose.Comment: 16 pages (revtex), 8 figures available on request, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Analysing the elasticity difference tensor of general relativity

The elasticity difference tensor, used in [1] to describe elasticity properties of a continuous medium filling a space-time, is here analysed from the point of view of the space-time connection. Principal directions associated with this tensor are compared with eigendirections of the material metric. Examples concerning spherically symmetric and axially symmetric space-times are then presented.Comment: 17 page

Time-Independent Gravitational Fields

This article reviews, from a global point of view, rigorous results on time independent spacetimes. Throughout attention is confined to isolated bodies at rest or in uniform rotation in an otherwise empty universe. The discussion starts from first principles and is, as much as possible, self-contained.Comment: 47 pages, LaTeX, uses Springer cl2emult styl

About Bianchi I with VSL

In this paper we study how to attack, through different techniques, a perfect fluid Bianchi I model with variable G,c and Lambda, but taking into account the effects of a $c$-variable into the curvature tensor. We study the model under the assumption,div(T)=0. These tactics are: Lie groups method (LM), imposing a particular symmetry, self-similarity (SS), matter collineations (MC) and kinematical self-similarity (KSS). We compare both tactics since they are quite similar (symmetry principles). We arrive to the conclusion that the LM is too restrictive and brings us to get only the flat FRW solution. The SS, MC and KSS approaches bring us to obtain all the quantities depending on \int c(t)dt. Therefore, in order to study their behavior we impose some physical restrictions like for example the condition q<0 (accelerating universe). In this way we find that $c$ is a growing time function and Lambda is a decreasing time function whose sing depends on the equation of state, w, while the exponents of the scale factor must satisfy the conditions $\sum_{i=1}^{3}\alpha_{i}=1$ and $\sum_{i=1}^{3}\alpha_{i}^{2}<1,$ $\forall\omega$, i.e. for all equation of state$,$ relaxing in this way the Kasner conditions. The behavior of $G$ depends on two parameters, the equation of state $\omega$ and $\epsilon,$ a parameter that controls the behavior of $c(t),$ therefore $G$ may be growing or decreasing.We also show that through the Lie method, there is no difference between to study the field equations under the assumption of a $c-$var affecting to the curvature tensor which the other one where it is not considered such effects.Nevertheless, it is essential to consider such effects in the cases studied under the SS, MC, and KSS hypotheses.Comment: 29 pages, Revtex4, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Topological Defects and CMB anisotropies : Are the predictions reliable ?

We consider a network of topological defects which can partly decay into neutrinos, photons, baryons, or Cold Dark Matter. We find that the degree-scale amplitude of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies as well as the shape of the matter power spectrum can be considerably modified when such a decay is taken into account. We conclude that present predictions concerning structure formation by defects might be unreliable.Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in PR

Stratigraphy and provenance of the Paleogene syn-rift sediments in central-southern Palawan: paleogeographic significance for the South China margin

The Palawan microcontinental block is thought to have separated from the South China margin due to seafloor spreading and opening of the South China Sea. However, it is uncertain when and from which section the Palawan microcontinental block rifted from the South China margin, and little is known about sediment routing across the rifted margin before continental breakup. To address these aspects we studied the biostratigraphy and provenance of syn-rift sedimentary rocks collected from the Panas-Pandian Formation in central-southern Palawan. Micropaleontological evidence indicates a Middle Eocene–earliest Oligocene (47.7–32.9 Ma) age for the Panas-Pandian Formation. Based on this and the oldest age of the post-rift Nido Limestone (~32 Ma), the breakup unconformity on the Palawan microcontinent block is dated around 33–32 Ma. This timing of breakup unconformity is close to that of the Pearl River Mouth Basin (~30 Ma) and IODP Site U1435 (~34Ma), suggesting the conjugate relationship between the Palawan microcontinental block and the Pearl River Mouth Basin. Trace fossils and benthic foraminifera from the Panas-Pandian Formation indicate a middle bathyal to abyssal environment on the continental slope of the South China margin. Multidisciplinary provenance analysis reveals that the Panas-Pandian Formation was derived from both local Mesozoic basement uplifts and the interior Cathaysia Block. It indicates that a paleo-Pearl River has been established at least since the Middle Eocene (47.7– 42.1 Ma) and could deliver sediments from the interior Cathaysia Block to the continental slope, across the wide rifted margin with a low topographic gradien

Knowledge-based energy functions for computational studies of proteins

This chapter discusses theoretical framework and methods for developing knowledge-based potential functions essential for protein structure prediction, protein-protein interaction, and protein sequence design. We discuss in some details about the Miyazawa-Jernigan contact statistical potential, distance-dependent statistical potentials, as well as geometric statistical potentials. We also describe a geometric model for developing both linear and non-linear potential functions by optimization. Applications of knowledge-based potential functions in protein-decoy discrimination, in protein-protein interactions, and in protein design are then described. Several issues of knowledge-based potential functions are finally discussed.Comment: 57 pages, 6 figures. To be published in a book by Springe

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

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02