Carboniferous and Permian magmatism in Scotland

Extensional tectonics to the north of the Variscan Front during the Early Carboniferous generated fault-controlled basins across the British Isles, with accompanying basaltic magmatism. In Scotland Dinantian magmatism was dominantly mildly alkaline-transitional in composition. Tournaisian activity was followed by widespread Visean eruptions largely concentrated within the Scottish Midland Valley where the lava successions, dominantly of basaltic-hawaiitic composition, attained thicknesses of up to 1000 m. Changing stress fields in the late Visean coincided with a change in the nature of the igneous activity; subsequently, wholly basic magmatism persisted into the Silesian. As sedimentary basin fills increased, sill intrusion tended to dominate over lava extrusion. In the Late Carboniferous (Stephanian) a major melting episode, producing large volumes of tholeiitic magma, gave rise to a major dyke swarm and sills across northern England and Scotland. Alkali basaltic magmatism persisted into the Permian, possibly until as late as 250 Ma in Orkney. Geochemical data suggest that the Carboniferous-Permian magmas were dominantly of asthenospheric origin, derived from variable degrees of partial melting of a heterogeneous mantle source; varying degrees of interaction with the lithosphere are indicated. Peridotite, pyroxenite and granulite-facies basic meta-igneous rocks entrained as xenoliths within the most primitive magmas provide evidence for metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle and high-pressure crystal fractionation

Blocking of Dynamical Triangulations with Matter

We use the recently proposed node decimation algorithm for blocking dynamical geometries to investigate a class of models, with central charge greater than unity, coupled to 2D gravity. We demonstrate that the blocking preserves the fractal structure of the surfaces.Comment: Talk presented at LATTICE96(gravity), 3 pages, LaTeX, espcrc2.st

Ecosistemas de las profundidades marinas: Reservorio privilegiado de la biodiversidad y desafíos tecnológicos

30 páginasFinancial support of the BBVA FoundationPeer reviewe

Ptolemaic spaces and CAT (0)

We consider Ptolemy’s inequality in a metric space setting. It is not hard to see that CAT(0) spaces satisfy this inequality. Although the converse is not true in full generality, we show that if our Ptolemaic space is either a Riemannian or Finsler manifold, then it must also be CAT(0). Ptolemy’s inequality is closely related to inversions of metric spaces. We exploit this link to establish a new characterization of Euclidean space amongst all Riemannian manifolds

On Ptolemaic metric simplicial complexes

We show that under certain mild conditions, a metric simplicial complex which satisfies the Ptolemy inequality is a CAT(0) space. Ptolemy’s inequality is closely related to inversions of metric spaces. For a large class of metric simplicial complexes, we characterize those which are isometric to Euclidean space in terms of metric inversions

Hydrate-phobic surfaces

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 25-27).Clathrate hydrate formation and subsequent plugging of deep-sea oil and gas pipelines represent a significant bottleneck for ultra deep-sea production. Current methods for hydrate mitigation focus on injecting thermodynamic or kinetic inhibitors into the flow, heating the pipe walls, or managing the flow of formed hydrates. These methods are expensive and energy intensive. An alternative approach involves reducing the adhesion of hydrates to surfaces, ideally to a low enough level that the force of flow detaches them and prevents plug formation. Systematic and quantitative studies of hydrate adhesion on smooth surfaces with varying energies were conducted. Surface energies were quantified using van Oss-Chaudhury-Good analysis of advancing and receding contact angles of polar and nonpolar fluids. The strengths of hydrate adhesion to these surfaces were measured using a custom-built testing apparatus, and greater than 75% reduction in adhesion strength of Tetrahydrofuran hydrate was achieved on treated surfaces compared with bare steel. This reduction is achievable on surfaces characterized by low Lewis acid, Lewis base, and van der Waals contributions to surface free energy such that the work of adhesion is minimized. Hydrate adhesion strength was correlated with the practical work of adhesion, i.e. with [gamma]₁(1 + cos [theta]rec) , of a suitable probe fluid, that is, one with similar surface energy properties to those of the hydrate. These fundamental studies provide a framework for the development of hydrate-phobic surfaces, and may lead to passive enhancement of flow assurance and prevention of blockages in deep-sea oil and gas operations.by Jonathan David Smith.S.M

Gebrukothuria profundus, a new genus and species of laetmogonid holothurian (Elasipodida, Laetmogonidae) from around the Crozet Plateau in the Southern Indian Ocean

A new genus and species of laetmogonid holothurian (Elasipodida, Laetmogonidae), collected from around the Crozet Plateau in the Southern Indian Ocean, is described. It differs from other members of the family in that the body wall lacks the wheel-shaped calcareous deposits completely. Instead only rods are present. The genus is also distinguished by the combination of other morphological characters lacking in other known genera: absence of circum-oral and ventrolateral papillae together with development of midventral tube feet. All other members of the family Laetmogonidae are known to have wheel-shaped deposits, therefore diagnosis of the family is refined

PENGARUH KINERJA KEUANGAN DAERAH TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN EKONOMI SERTA DAMPAKNYA TERHADAP KEMISKINAN DI KOTA BITUNG

ABSTRAK Penilaian kinerja pengelolaan keuangan dilakukan terhadap Anggaran Pendapatan dan Belanja Daerah (APBD). Anggaran sebagai instrumen kebijakan pemerintah harus dapat menunjukkan kinerja yang baik. Tujuannya untuk penilaian secara internal maupun dalam mendorong pertumbuhan ekonomi sehingga diharapkan bisa menimbulkan efek domino yang positif yaitu mengurangi pengangguran dan menurunkan tingkat kemiskinan. Kinerja yang terkait dengan anggaran merupakan kinerja keuangan berupa perbandingan antara komponen – komponen yang terdapat pada anggaran. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah ingin menganalisis rasio kinerja keuangan berupa rasio kemandirian, rasio efektifitas dan rasio efisiensi terhadap kemiskinan melalui pertumbuhan ekonomi. Analisis yang digunakan ialah analisis jalur (Path Analysis). Hasil penelitian menunjukan  bahwa rasio kemandirian dan rasio efektivitas berpengaruh negatif dan tidak signifikan terhadap pertumbuhan ekonomi sedangkan rasio efisiensi berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap pertumbuhan ekonomi. Rasio kemandirian dan rasio efektivitas berpengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadap kemiskinan sedangkan, rasio efisiensi berpengaruh positif dan tidak signifikan terhadap kemiskinan. Pertumbuhan ekonomi berpengaruh negatif dan tidak signifikan terhadap kemiskinan.Kata Kunci  : Rasio Kemandirian, Rasio Efektivitas, Rasio Efisiensi, Pertumbuhan Ekonomi dan Kemisikinan   ABSTRACT The financial management performance assessment is carried out on the Regional Budget (APBD). The budget as an instrument of government policy must be able to show good performance. The aim is to assess internally and to encourage economic growth so that it is expected to have a positive domino effect, namely reducing unemployment and reducing poverty. Performance related to the budget is a financial performance in the form of a comparison between the components contained in the budget. The purpose of this study is to analyze the ratio of financial performance in the form of independence ratio, effectiveness ratio and efficiency ratio to poverty through economic growth. The analysis used is path analysis. The results showed that the independence ratio and effectiveness ratio had a negative and not significant effect on economic growth while the efficiency ratio had a positive and significant effect on economic growth. The independence ratio and effectiveness ratio have a negative and significant effect on poverty whereas, the efficiency ratio has a positive and not significant effect on poverty. Economic growth has a negative and not significant effect on poverty. Keywords: Independence Ratio, Effectiveness Ratio, Efficiency Ratio, Economic Growth and Povert

The flat phase of fixed-connectivity membranes

The statistical mechanics of flexible two-dimensional surfaces (membranes) appears in a wide variety of physical settings. In this talk we discuss the simplest case of fixed-connectivity surfaces. We first review the current theoretical understanding of the remarkable flat phase of such membranes. We then summarize the results of a recent large scale Monte Carlo simulation of the simplest conceivable discrete realization of this system \cite{BCFTA}. We verify the existence of long-range order, determine the associated critical exponents of the flat phase and compare the results to the predictions of various theoretical models.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. LaTeX w/epscrc2.sty, combined contribution of M. Falcioni and M. Bowick to LATTICE96(gravity), to appear in Nucl. Phys. B (proc. suppl.

Strategic Focus of CSR towards Sustainability: A Sri Lankan Perspective

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) being one of the fastest changing areas of management today has few facets among scholars in the world, one school of thoughts believe CSR should be used mainly as a social endeavor and the others think it should be linked to the corporate strategy for financial performance. In this context, this paper aims to observe how strategic approach of CSR initiatives leads to sustainability specially an environment where economic wounds are been settling and new opportunities are been evolving after a 30 year long civil unrest in a society. The strategic antecedents recognized in this model are resource mobilization, market development and customer orientation and the study attempts to identify the core strategic focus of those in building CSR initiatives for sustainability. Accordingly, total of 360 shareholders/investors and managers among 40 corporates who were involved in CSR activities during 05 years after a long civil war in Sri Lanka was sampled. It has found that implementing CSR initiatives strategically aiming both resource mobilization and market development tend to support sustainability of those initiatives but aiming customer orientation has less impact otherwise. In conclusion, it is advisable for corporates to approach CSR initiatives strategically gaining a return to both the society and for them and also it is important that governments too support those initiatives in rebuilding process. Keywords: strategic CSR, sustainability, rebuilding, resource mobilization and market development