Cenomanian/Turonian benthic foraminiferal faunas of the Demerara Rise depth transect (ODP Leg 207)

Abstrac

Wo war die Küste? : Rekonstruktion von kreidezeitlichen Meeresspiegel-Schwankungen

Wo sich während der verschiedenen Erdzeitalter die Küste befand, beeinflusst bis heute die Beschaffenheit des geologischen Untergrundes. Mit Hilfe von geochemischen Analysen an Bohrkernen untersuchen Wissenschaftler des Instituts für Geologie in Zusammenarbeit mit Wissenschaftlern der Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe die Zusammensetzung der Sedimentgesteine im Untergrund, um damit der Küstenlinie auf die Spur zu kommen. Für die Energiegewinnung oder Endlagerung von hochradioaktiven Abfällen kann dies von großer Bedeutung sein

Using high‐resolution XRF analyses as a sequence stratigraphic tool in a mudstone‐dominated succession (Early Cretaceous, Lower Saxony Basin, Northern Germany)

Delineation of stratigraphic sequences and their component systems tracts in mudstone‐dominated successions is challenging due to the relatively homogenous, fine‐grained nature of the strata. High‐resolution elemental intensity data from X‐ray fluorescence core scanning is used in order to develop a sequence stratigraphic framework for the Lower Cretaceous monotonous mudstone succession in the eastern Lower Saxony Basin. The study is based on four drill cores covering the Berriasian to Aptian interval. In addition, carbon isotope (δ13Corg), grain size and CaCO3 analyses were carried out on discrete samples. The studied cores represent both proximal and distal basinal environments of the eastern Lower Saxony Basin and can be reliably correlated by utilizing variations in selected X‐ray flourescence elemental ratios, K/Ti data have proven to be particularly suitable in this regard. The core correlation shows that chemostratigraphic variability within the studied succession is laterally reproducible in the eastern Lower Saxony Basin, and can be used to establish a sequence stratigraphic framework. Further, Si/Al and Ca/Ti ratios have been applied to characterize the cores in terms of variation in grain size and CaCO3 content, respectively. Vertical grading trends inferred from Si/Al changes were used to identify transgressive and regressive systems tracts within the studied succession. An important regression in the uppermost lower Valanginian coincides with the onset of the Valanginian Weissert Event, as indicated by the well‐known positive δ13C shift, and, thus, supports the idea that the initial interval of this event corresponds to enhanced supply of terrigenous material. The results of this study are also in agreement with previously recognized transgressive–regressive trends in the Lower Saxony Basin and adjacent areas. This clearly shows that systematic geochemical variations recorded in mudstone‐dominated basinal settings are suitable to establish sequence stratigraphic frameworks

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Juxtaposing BTE and ATE – on the role of the European insurance industry in funding civil litigation

One of the ways in which legal services are financed, and indeed shaped, is through private insurance arrangement. Two contrasting types of legal expenses insurance contracts (LEI) seem to dominate in Europe: before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance. Notwithstanding institutional differences between different legal systems, BTE and ATE insurance arrangements may be instrumental if government policy is geared towards strengthening a market-oriented system of financing access to justice for individuals and business. At the same time, emphasizing the role of a private industry as a keeper of the gates to justice raises issues of accountability and transparency, not readily reconcilable with demands of competition. Moreover, multiple actors (clients, lawyers, courts, insurers) are involved, causing behavioural dynamics which are not easily predicted or influenced. Against this background, this paper looks into BTE and ATE arrangements by analysing the particularities of BTE and ATE arrangements currently available in some European jurisdictions and by painting a picture of their respective markets and legal contexts. This allows for some reflection on the performance of BTE and ATE providers as both financiers and keepers. Two issues emerge from the analysis that are worthy of some further reflection. Firstly, there is the problematic long-term sustainability of some ATE products. Secondly, the challenges faced by policymakers that would like to nudge consumers into voluntarily taking out BTE LEI

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe