Tundra Rodents in a Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Tofty Placer District, Central Alaska

Describes remains of the arctic ground squirrel, collared and brown lemmings, and the narrow-skulled vole collected 1956-1961 in or near the Sullivan mining pit. Topography, vegetation, and mining history are outlined, as are the stratigraphy and age of the unconsolidated deposits in which the fossils were found. The rodents, all typical tundra forms, are not now in the Tofty area which has been forested at least 6800 yr. Apparently, they represent the fauna of a colder climatic period during Wisconsin time

Major role of pKpQIL-like plasmids in the early dissemination of KPC-type carbapenemases in the UK

Objectives: KPC-producing Enterobacteriaceae were first seen in the UK in 2003 and have been increasingly reported since 2010, largely owing to an ongoing outbreak in North-West England. We examined the role of clonal spread and plasmid transmission in their emergence. Methods: Isolates comprised KPC-positive Klebsiella pneumoniae (n=33), Escherichia coli (n=7) and Enterobacter spp. (n=4) referred to the national reference laboratory between 2008 and 2010 from 17 UK centres, including three in North-West England. Isolates were typed by MLST. Plasmids were transferred by electroporation and characterised by PCR or sequencing. PCR screening assays were developed to distinguish plasmid pKpQIL variants. Results: The K. pneumoniae isolates included 10 STs, of which three belonged to clonal group (CG) 258. CG258 (n=19) isolates were detected in 13 centres but accounted for only 7/19 (36.8%) of those from North-West England. Most KPC-producers (37/44, 84.1%), including 16/19 CG258 K. pneumoniae carried blaKPC on IncFIIK2 plasmids. Sequencing of a subset of these plasmids (n=11) revealed similarities with published pKpQIL. One variant, pKpQIL-UK - identified in K. pneumoniae CG258 (n=5) and ST468 (n=1) isolates from distinct centres - had only a few nucleotide changes from classical pKpQIL, whereas pKpQIL-D1 (n=1) and pKpQIL-D2 (n=4), from isolates of various species in the North-West, harboured large variations reflecting replacement of the partitioning and replication functions and potentially thereby facilitating spread. PCR revealed that 36/37 (97.3%) IncFIIK2-type plasmids in KPC-positive isolates had pKpQIL markers. Conclusions: pKpQIL-like plasmids played a major role in the early dissemination of KPC enzymes in the UK

Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Evidence of Reputation Risk Management in Large Australian Companies

The objective of this research is to examine whether stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting constitutes the process of managing reputation risks. This research utilises Shrives and Brennan’s (2017) framework of rhetorical strategies of non-compliance to obtain empirical evidence of reputation risk management in the context of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting. Quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis were undertaken on 154 sustainability disclosures in both annual reports and sustainability reports of large Australian companies. This research finds that large Australian companies engage with their stakeholders to manage reputation risks: to increase market share and pre-empt social issues. It is evident that large Australian companies use several forms of rhetorical statements in their sustainability disclosures with respect to reputation risk management efforts. However, there is no evidence that they shirk responsibilities

The Milky Way Bulge: Observed properties and a comparison to external galaxies

The Milky Way bulge offers a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the role that different processes such as dynamical instabilities, hierarchical merging, and dissipational collapse may have played in the history of the Galaxy formation and evolution based on its resolved stellar population properties. Large observation programmes and surveys of the bulge are providing for the first time a look into the global view of the Milky Way bulge that can be compared with the bulges of other galaxies, and be used as a template for detailed comparison with models. The Milky Way has been shown to have a box/peanut (B/P) bulge and recent evidence seems to suggest the presence of an additional spheroidal component. In this review we summarise the global chemical abundances, kinematics and structural properties that allow us to disentangle these multiple components and provide constraints to understand their origin. The investigation of both detailed and global properties of the bulge now provide us with the opportunity to characterise the bulge as observed in models, and to place the mixed component bulge scenario in the general context of external galaxies. When writing this review, we considered the perspectives of researchers working with the Milky Way and researchers working with external galaxies. It is an attempt to approach both communities for a fruitful exchange of ideas.Comment: Review article to appear in "Galactic Bulges", Editors: Laurikainen E., Peletier R., Gadotti D., Springer Publishing. 36 pages, 10 figure

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters