Catastrophic volcanism as a cause of shocked features found at the K/T boundary and in cryptoexplosion structures

The presence of quartz grains containing shock lamellae at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary is viewed by many as the single most compelling evidence of meteoritic or cometary impact because there is no known endogenous mechanism for producing these features. Similarly the presence of shocked quartz, shatter cones, coesite and stishovite at cryptoexplosion structures is comonly taken as conclusive evidence of impact. However, several recent studies have cast doubt on this interpretation. It is argued that basaltic volcanism, although not normally explosive, can under exceptional circumstances produce overpressures sufficiently high to produce shock features. The exceptional circumstances include a high content of volatiles, usually CO2, and no preestablished pathway to the surface. Rapid cooling of the saturated basaltic magma can occur if it underlies a cooler more evolved magma in a chamber. Initial slow cooling and partial exsolution of the volatiles will cause the density of the basaltic magma to become less than that of the overlying magma, leading to overturning and mixing. Gas will escape the magma chamber along planar cracks once the pressure becomes sufficiently high. In the vicinity of the crack tip there is a smallscale deviatoric stress pattern which is thought to be sufficiently high to produce transient cracks along secondary axes in the quartz crystals, causing the planar features. The CO2-rich fluid inclusions which have been found along planar elements of quartz in basement rocks of the Vredefort Dome were likely to have been emplaced by such a process. If the mechanism described is capable of producing shocked features as above, it would require a reassessment of the origin of many cryptoexplosion structures as well as seriously weakening the case for an impact origin of the K/T event

An analysis of confined magnetohydrodynamic vortex flows

Vortex flow analysis of viscous, incompressible, electrically conducting fluid between two plates under applied axial magnetic fiel

An analysis of confined vortex flows

Vortex flow of incompressible fluid between two finite flat plates analysi

A Fully Quantum Calculation of Broadening and Shifting Coefficients of the D\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3e and D\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e spectral lines of alkali-metal atoms colliding with noble-gas atoms

We use the Baranger model to compute collisional broadening and shift rates for the D1 and D2 spectral lines of M + Ng, where M = K, Rb, Cs and Ng = He, Ne, Ar. Scattering matrix elements are calculated using the channel packet method, and non-adiabatic wavepacket dynamics are determined using the split-operator method together with a unitary transformation between adiabatic and diabatic representations. Scattering phase shift differences are weighted thermally and are integrated over temperatures ranging from 100 K to 800 K. We find that predicted broadening rates compare well with experiment, but shift rates are predicted poorly by this model because they are extremely sensitive to the near-asymptotic behavior of the potential energy surfaces. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd

The Ekman-Hartmann layer in MHD Taylor-Couette flow

We study magnetic effects induced by rigidly rotating plates enclosing a cylindrical MHD Taylor-Couette flow at the finite aspect ratio $H/D=10$. The fluid confined between the cylinders is assumed to be liquid metal characterized by small magnetic Prandtl number, the cylinders are perfectly conducting, an axial magnetic field is imposed \Ha \approx 10, the rotation rates correspond to \Rey of order $10^2-10^3$. We show that the end-plates introduce, besides the well known Ekman circulation, similar magnetic effects which arise for infinite, rotating plates, horizontally unbounded by any walls. In particular there exists the Hartmann current which penetrates the fluid, turns into the radial direction and together with the applied magnetic field gives rise to a force. Consequently the flow can be compared with a Taylor-Dean flow driven by an azimuthal pressure gradient. We analyze stability of such flows and show that the currents induced by the plates can give rise to instability for the considered parameters. When designing an MHD Taylor-Couette experiment, a special care must be taken concerning the vertical magnetic boundaries so they do not significantly alter the rotational profile.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; accepted to PR

Keep it SMPL: Automatic Estimation of 3D Human Pose and Shape from a Single Image

We describe the first method to automatically estimate the 3D pose of the human body as well as its 3D shape from a single unconstrained image. We estimate a full 3D mesh and show that 2D joints alone carry a surprising amount of information about body shape. The problem is challenging because of the complexity of the human body, articulation, occlusion, clothing, lighting, and the inherent ambiguity in inferring 3D from 2D. To solve this, we first use a recently published CNN-based method, DeepCut, to predict (bottom-up) the 2D body joint locations. We then fit (top-down) a recently published statistical body shape model, called SMPL, to the 2D joints. We do so by minimizing an objective function that penalizes the error between the projected 3D model joints and detected 2D joints. Because SMPL captures correlations in human shape across the population, we are able to robustly fit it to very little data. We further leverage the 3D model to prevent solutions that cause interpenetration. We evaluate our method, SMPLify, on the Leeds Sports, HumanEva, and Human3.6M datasets, showing superior pose accuracy with respect to the state of the art.Comment: To appear in ECCV 201

Mobile genetic elements in the genome of the beneficial rhizobacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Pseudomonas fluorescens </it>Pf-5 is a plant-associated bacterium that inhabits the rhizosphere of a wide variety of plant species and and produces secondary metabolites suppressive of fungal and oomycete plant pathogens. The Pf-5 genome is rich in features consistent with its commensal lifestyle, and its sequence has revealed attributes associated with the strain's ability to compete and survive in the dynamic and microbiologically complex rhizosphere habitat. In this study, we analyzed mobile genetic elements of the Pf-5 genome in an effort to identify determinants that might contribute to Pf-5's ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and/or colonize new ecological niches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence analyses revealed that the genome of Pf-5 is devoid of transposons and IS elements and that mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are represented by prophages and genomic islands that collectively span over 260 kb. The prophages include an F-pyocin-like prophage 01, a chimeric prophage 03, a lambdoid prophage 06, and decaying prophages 02, 04 and 05 with reduced size and/or complexity. The genomic islands are represented by a 115-kb integrative conjugative element (ICE) PFGI-1, which shares plasmid replication, recombination, and conjugative transfer genes with those from ICEs found in other <it>Pseudomonas </it>spp., and PFGI-2, which resembles a portion of pathogenicity islands in the genomes of the plant pathogens <it>Pseudomonas syringae </it>and <it>P. viridiflava</it>. Almost all of the MGEs in the Pf-5 genome are associated with phage-like integrase genes and are integrated into tRNA genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Comparative analyses reveal that MGEs found in Pf-5 are subject to extensive recombination and have evolved in part via exchange of genetic material with other <it>Pseudomonas </it>spp. having commensal or pathogenic relationships with plants and animals. Although prophages and genomic islands from Pf-5 exhibit similarity to MGEs found in other <it>Pseudomonas </it>spp., they also carry a number of putative niche-specific genes that could affect the survival of <it>P. fluorescens </it>Pf-5 in natural habitats. Most notable are a ~35-kb segment of "cargo" genes in genomic island PFGI-1 and bacteriocin genes associated with prophages 1 and 4.</p

Book Reviews

THE MODERN SUPREME COURT. By Robert G. McCloskey. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. Pp. x, 376. $3.95. RECORDS, COMPUTERS, AND THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS. Washington: United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1973. Pp. xxxv, 346.$2.35. CHINA\u27S PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: SOME CASE STUDIES. Edited by Jerome Alan Cohen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972, Pp. x, 417. $15.00. DETERRENCE: THE LEGAL THREAT IN CRIME CONTROL. By Franklin E. Zimring and Gordon J. Hawkins. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. Pp. xiv, 376.$13.50