Potential for deep geological sequestration of CO2 in Switzerland: a first appraisal

Possibilities to sequester anthropogenic CO2 in deep geological formations are being investigated worldwide, but the potential within Switzerland has not yet been evaluated. This study presents a first-order appraisal based solely on geological criteria collated from the literature. The Swiss Molasse Basin (SMB) and the adjacent Folded Jura are the only realms of the country where CO2 could conceivably be stored in saline aquifers. Evaluation of geological criteria at the basin-wide scale shows that the SMB-Jura has moderate potential (score of 0.6 on a scale from 0 to 1) when compared to basins elsewhere. At the intrabasinal scale, inspection of the stratigraphy reveals four regional candidate aquifers that are sealed by suitable caprocks: top Basement plus basal Mesozoic sandstones, all sealed by the Anhydrite Group; Upper Muschelkalk sealed by the Gipskeuper; Hauptrogenstein sealed by the Effinger Member, and Upper Malm plus Lower Cretaceous sealed by the Lower Freshwater Molasse. Nine geological criteria are defined to evaluate the storage potential of these and other smaller scale candidates. A numerical scoring and weighting scheme allows the criteria to be assessed simultaneously, permitting the storage potential to be depicted using the 0-1 scale in contoured maps. Approximately 5,000km2 of the central SMB exhibits potentials between 0.6 and 0.96. The Fribourg-Olten-Luzern area is the most favoured owing to the presence of several sealed aquifers within the preferred 800-2,500m depth interval, and to its low seismicity, low geothermal gradient, low fault density, and long groundwater residence times. Smaller areas with good potential lie between Zürich and St. Gallen. In contrast, western Switzerland, the Jura and the southern SMB have markedly poorer potential. Considering only the portions of the aquifers with potential above 0.6, the theoretical, effective storage capacity of the basin is estimated to be 2,680 million tonnes of CO

Ethnographic approach to the new African migration in Argentina. Movement and knowledge in the case of the Senegaleses arrived in last the two decades

Este artículo expone algunos datos y reflexiones que se plantean como una contribución para explicar y comprender prácticas y procesos -de comunicación, inserción, organización- desplegados por migrantes africanos en Argentina. Lo anterior, prestando especial atención a la experiencia de la circulación, la inserción en redes sociales y la producción y puesta en juego de saberes específicos por parte de tales actores en territorios diversos interconectados a partir de las trayectorias migratorias. Tales aportes se desprenden de poner en diálogo resultados del trabajo realizado en dos proyectos de investigación en curso -con inserción en la Université Lumière de Lyon 2 y en la Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), respectivamente-, que indagan, a través de aproximaciones etnográficas con objetivos diferentes, el fenómeno de una nueva corriente migratoria desde diversos países de África en Argentina (América del Sur). El relevamiento de campo es desarrollado a partir de entrevistas, conversaciones informales y observación participante en espacios de la vida cotidiana de migrantes africanos, en su mayoría de nacionalidad senegalesa, arribados al país en la última década y con residencia en las ciudades de Buenos Aires y La Plata.This article presents some facts and thoughts that arise as a contribution to explain and understand practices and processes, of communication, integration, organization, deployed by African migrants in Argentina. This issue is tackled, giving special attention to the experience of movement, integration into social networks and the production and discussion of specific knowledge by interconnected actors from different territories from migratory paths. These contributions emerge from the dialogue between two research projects in development, with insertion at the Universite Lumiere Lyon 2 and National University of La Plata (UNLP), respectively, that investigate, through ethnographic approaches with different purposes, the phenomenon of a new flow of migrants from various African countries in Argentina (South America). The ethnographic work is developed based on interviews, informal conversations and participant observation in spaces of everyday life of African migrants, the majority of Senegalese nationality, arrived in the country over the last decade and living in the cities of Buenos Aires and La Plata.Facultad de Periodismo y Comunicación Socia

Physiological effects of oral glucosamine on joint health: Current status and consensus on future research priorities

The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the current knowledge and understanding of the potential beneficial physiological effects of glucosamine (GlcN) on joint health. The objective was to reach a consensus on four critical questions and to provide recommendations for future research priorities. To this end, nine scientists from Europe and the United States were selected according to their expertise in this particular field and were invited to participate in the Hohenheim conference held in August 2011. Each expert was asked to address a question that had previously been posed by the chairman of the conference. Based on a systematic review of the literature and the collection of recent data, the experts documented the effects of GlcN on cartilage ageing, metabolic/kinetic and maintenance of joint health as well as reduction of risk of OA development. After extensive debate and discussion the expert panel addressed each question and a general consensus statement was developed, agreeing on the current state-of-the-art and future areas for basic and clinical studies. This paper summarizes the available evidence for beneficial effects of GlcN on joint health and proposes new insight into the design of future clinical trials aimed at identifying beneficial physiological effect of GlcN on joint tissuesHenrotin is the founder of Artialis SA a spin-off of the University of Liège. His research has been supported by educational grant from Bioiberica, Nestle, Royal Canin, Expanscience, Danone and BioXtract. The other authors have no conflict of interest related to the subject of this paper. A. Mobasheri acknowledges the financial support of The Wellcome Trust, the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs; grant number: Mobasheri. A. 28102007), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; grants BBSRC/S/M/2006/ 13141 and BB/G018030/1) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Y Henrotin, H Weinans and A. Mobasheri are members of the D-BOARD Consortium funded by European Commission Framework 7 Programme (EU FP7) and wish to acknowledge funding from the Commission in relation to project number 305815, (Novel Diagnostics and Biomarkers for Early Identification of Chronic Inflammatory Joint Diseases, HEALTH.2012.2.4.5-2)

Constraints on Type Ib/c and GRB Progenitors

Although there is strong support for the collapsar engine as the power source of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), we still do not definitively know the progenitor of these explosions. Here we review the current set of progenitor scenarios for long-duration GRBs and the observational constraints on these scenarios. Examining these, we find that single-star models cannot be the only progenitor for long-duration GRBs. Several binary progenitors can match the solid observational constraints and also have the potential to match the trends we are currently seeing in the observations. Type Ib/c supernovae are also likely to be produced primarily in binaries; we discuss the relationship between the progenitors of these explosions and those of the long-duration GRBs.Comment: 36 pages, 6 figure

Desarrollo de una herramienta para la evaluación de los examen tipo test y sus aplicaciones en la mejora de la calidad y en los criterios de evaluación de estos exámenes

Depto. de Radiología, Rehabilitación y FisioterapiaFac. de MedicinaFALSEsubmitte

Catching Element Formation In The Act

Gamma-ray astronomy explores the most energetic photons in nature to address some of the most pressing puzzles in contemporary astrophysics. It encompasses a wide range of objects and phenomena: stars, supernovae, novae, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, nucleosynthesis, the interstellar medium, cosmic rays and relativistic-particle acceleration, and the evolution of galaxies. MeV gamma-rays provide a unique probe of nuclear processes in astronomy, directly measuring radioactive decay, nuclear de-excitation, and positron annihilation. The substantial information carried by gamma-ray photons allows us to see deeper into these objects, the bulk of the power is often emitted at gamma-ray energies, and radioactivity provides a natural physical clock that adds unique information. New science will be driven by time-domain population studies at gamma-ray energies. This science is enabled by next-generation gamma-ray instruments with one to two orders of magnitude better sensitivity, larger sky coverage, and faster cadence than all previous gamma-ray instruments. This transformative capability permits: (a) the accurate identification of the gamma-ray emitting objects and correlations with observations taken at other wavelengths and with other messengers; (b) construction of new gamma-ray maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies where extended regions are distinguished from point sources; and (c) considerable serendipitous science of scarce events -- nearby neutron star mergers, for example. Advances in technology push the performance of new gamma-ray instruments to address a wide set of astrophysical questions.Comment: 14 pages including 3 figure

Measurement of the branching fraction and CP content for the decay B(0) -> D(*+)D(*-)

This is the pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the links below. Copyright @ 2002 APS.We report a measurement of the branching fraction of the decay B0→D*+D*- and of the CP-odd component of its final state using the BABAR detector. With data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.4  fb-1 collected at the Υ(4S) resonance during 1999–2000, we have reconstructed 38 candidate signal events in the mode B0→D*+D*- with an estimated background of 6.2±0.5 events. From these events, we determine the branching fraction to be B(B0→D*+D*-)=[8.3±1.6(stat)±1.2(syst)]×10-4. The measured CP-odd fraction of the final state is 0.22±0.18(stat)±0.03(syst).This work is supported by DOE and NSF (USA), NSERC (Canada), IHEP (China), CEA and CNRS-IN2P3 (France), BMBF (Germany), INFN (Italy), NFR (Norway), MIST (Russia), and PPARC (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the A.P. Sloan Foundation, Research Corporation, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events

The $B^0$-$\bar B^0$ oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of 23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives $\Delta m_d = 0.493 \pm 0.012{(stat)}\pm 0.009{(syst)}$ ps$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter