Canonical singularities of orders over surfaces

We classify the possible ramification data and etale local structure of orders over surfaces with canonical singularities.Comment: This contains major revisions, primarily to help introduce the reader to the minimal model program for orders on surface

Period-index bounds for arithmetic threefolds

The standard period-index conjecture for the Brauer group of a field of transcendence degree 2 over a $p$-adic field predicts that the index divides the cube of the period. Using Gabber's theory of prime-to-$\ell$ alterations and the deformation theory of twisted sheaves, we prove that the index divides the fourth power of the period for every Brauer class whose period is prime to $6p$, giving the first uniform period-index bounds over such fields.Comment: Final version, to appear in Inventione

Preserving Access to Previous System States in the Lively Kernel

In programming systems such as the Lively Kernel, programmers construct applications from objects. Dedicated tools make it possible to manipulate the state and behavior of objects at runtime. Programmers are encouraged to make changes directly and receive immediate feedback on their actions. However, when programmers make mistakes in such programming systems, they need to undo the effects of their actions. Programmers either have to edit objects manually or reload parts of their applications. Moreover, changes can spread across many objects. As a result, recovering previous states is often error-prone and time-consuming. This report presents an approach to object versioning for systems like the Lively Kernel. Access to previous versions of objects is preserved using version-aware references. These references can be resolved to multiple versions of objects and, thereby, allow reestablishing preserved states of the system. We present a design based on proxies and an implementation in JavaScript

The Science Case for an Extended Spitzer Mission

Although the final observations of the Spitzer Warm Mission are currently scheduled for March 2019, it can continue operations through the end of the decade with no loss of photometric precision. As we will show, there is a strong science case for extending the current Warm Mission to December 2020. Spitzer has already made major impacts in the fields of exoplanets (including microlensing events), characterizing near Earth objects, enhancing our knowledge of nearby stars and brown dwarfs, understanding the properties and structure of our Milky Way galaxy, and deep wide-field extragalactic surveys to study galaxy birth and evolution. By extending Spitzer through 2020, it can continue to make ground-breaking discoveries in those fields, and provide crucial support to the NASA flagship missions JWST and WFIRST, as well as the upcoming TESS mission, and it will complement ground-based observations by LSST and the new large telescopes of the next decade. This scientific program addresses NASA's Science Mission Directive's objectives in astrophysics, which include discovering how the universe works, exploring how it began and evolved, and searching for life on planets around other stars.Comment: 75 pages. See page 3 for Table of Contents and page 4 for Executive Summar

Alternative strategies of nutrient acquisition and energy conservation map to the biogeography of marine ammonia-oxidizing archaea

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) are among the most abundant and ubiquitous microorganisms in the ocean, exerting primary control on nitrification and nitrogen oxides emission. Although united by a common physiology of chemoautotrophic growth on ammonia, a corresponding high genomic and habitat variability suggests tremendous adaptive capacity. Here, we compared 44 diverse AOA genomes, 37 from species cultivated from samples collected across diverse geographic locations and seven assembled from metagenomic sequences from the mesopelagic to hadopelagic zones of the deep ocean. Comparative analysis identified seven major marine AOA genotypic groups having gene content correlated with their distinctive biogeographies. Phosphorus and ammonia availabilities as well as hydrostatic pressure were identified as selective forces driving marine AOA genotypic and gene content variability in different oceanic regions. Notably, AOA methylphosphonate biosynthetic genes span diverse oceanic provinces, reinforcing their importance for methane production in the ocean. Together, our combined comparative physiological, genomic, and metagenomic analyses provide a comprehensive view of the biogeography of globally abundant AOA and their adaptive radiation into a vast range of marine and terrestrial habitats

Molecular excitation in the Interstellar Medium: recent advances in collisional, radiative and chemical processes

We review the different excitation processes in the interstellar mediumComment: Accepted in Chem. Re

Evidence from diatom-bound nitrogen isotopes for subarctic Pacific stratification during the last ice age and a link to North Pacific denitrification changes

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 22 (2007): PA1215, doi:10.1029/2005PA001205.In a piston core from the central Bering Sea, diatom microfossil-bound N isotopes and the concentrations of opal, biogenic barium, calcium carbonate, and organic N are measured over the last glacial/interglacial cycle. Compared to the interglacial sections of the core, the sediments of the last ice age are characterized by 3‰ higher diatom-bound δ 15N, 70 wt % lower opal content and 1200 ppm lower biogenic barium. Taken together and with constraints on sediment accumulation rate, these results suggest a reduced supply of nitrate to the surface due to stronger stratification of the upper water column of the Bering Sea during glacial times, with more complete nitrate consumption resulting from continued iron supply through atmospheric deposition. This finding extends the body of evidence for a pervasive link between cold climates and polar ocean stratification. In addition, we hypothesize that more complete nutrient consumption in the glacial age subarctic Pacific contributed to the previously observed ice age reduction in suboxia and denitrification in the eastern tropical North Pacific by lowering the nutrient content of the intermediate-depth water formed in the subpolar North Pacific. In the deglacial interval of the Bering Sea record, two apparent peaks in export productivity are associated with maxima in diatom-bound and bulk sediment δ 15N. The high δ 15N in these intervals may have resulted from greater surface nutrient consumption during this period. However, the synchroneity of the deglacial peaks in the Bering Sea with similar bulk sediment δ 15N changes in the eastern Pacific margin and the presence of sediment lamination within the Bering Sea during the deposition of the productivity peaks raise the possibility that both regional and local denitrification worked to raise the δ 15N of the nitrate feeding Bering Sea surface waters at these times.Financial support for this work was provided by NSF grants OCE-0136449, OCE-9981479, ANT-0453680, by BP and Ford Motor Company through the Princeton Carbon Migration Initiative, and by a NDSEG fellowship to B.G.B. Work conducted aboard the USCG Healy (Healy 0202) was funded by grant OPP-9912122

14C and 13C characteristics of higher plant biomarkers in Washington margin surface sediments

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 105 (2013): 14-30, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2012.11.034.Plant wax lipids and lignin phenols are the two most common classes of molecular markers that are used to trace vascular plant-derived OM in the marine environment. However, their 13C and 14C compositions have not been directly compared, which can be used to constrain the flux and attenuation of terrestrial carbon in marine environment. In this study, we describe a revised method of isolating individual lignin phenols from complex sedimentary matrices for 14C analysis using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and compare this approach to a method utilizing preparative capillary gas chromatography (PCGC). We then examine in detail the 13C and 14C compositions of plant wax lipids and lignin phenols in sediments from the inner and mid shelf of the Washington margin that are influenced by discharge of the Columbia River. Plant wax lipids (including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic (fatty) acids, n-alkanols, and n-aldehydes) displayed significant variability in both δ13C (-28.3 to -37.5 ‰) and ∆14C values (-204 to +2 ‰), suggesting varied inputs and/or continental storage and transport histories. In contrast, lignin phenols exhibited similar δ13C values (between -30 to -34 ‰) and a relatively narrow range of ∆14C values (-45 to -150 ‰; HPLC-based mesurement) that were similar to, or younger than, bulk OM (-195 to -137 ‰). Moreover, lignin phenol 14C age correlated with the degradation characteristics of this terrestrial biopolymer in that vanillyl phenols were on average ~500 years older than syringyl and cinnamyl phenols that degrade faster in soils and sediments. The isotopic characteristics, abundance, and distribution of lignin phenols in sediments suggest that they serve as promising tracers of recently biosynthesized terrestrial OM during supply to, and dispersal within the marine environment. Lignin phenol 14C measurements may also provide useful constraints on the vascular plant end member in isotopic mixing models for carbon source apportionment, and for interpretation of sedimentary records of past vegetation dynamics. Key words: 14C and 13C composition, radiocarbon age, plant wax lipids, lignin phenols, Washington margin, marine carbon cycling, terrestrial organic matterGrants OCE-9907129, OCE-0137005, and OCE-0526268 (to TIE) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) supported this research