What is the Nature of EUV Waves? First STEREO 3D Observations and Comparison with Theoretical Models

One of the major discoveries of the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on SOHO were intensity enhancements propagating over a large fraction of the solar surface. The physical origin(s) of the so-called `EIT' waves is still strongly debated. They are considered to be either wave (primarily fast-mode MHD waves) or non-wave (pseudo-wave) interpretations. The difficulty in understanding the nature of EUV waves lies with the limitations of the EIT observations which have been used almost exclusively for their study. Their limitations are largely overcome by the SECCHI/EUVI observations on-board the STEREO mission. The EUVI telescopes provide high cadence, simultaneous multi-temperature coverage, and two well-separated viewpoints. We present here the first detailed analysis of an EUV wave observed by the EUVI disk imagers on December 07, 2007 when the STEREO spacecraft separation was $\approx 45^\circ$. Both a small flare and a CME were associated with the wave cadence, and single temperature and viewpoint coverage. These limitations are largely overcome by the SECCHI/EUVI observations on-board the STEREO mission. The EUVI telescopes provide high cadence, simultaneous multi-temperature coverage, and two well-separated viewpoints. Our findings give significant support for a fast-mode interpretation of EUV waves and indicate that they are probably triggered by the rapid expansion of the loops associated with the CME.Comment: Solar Physics, 2009, Special STEREO Issue, in pres

The making of English cricket cultures: Empire, globalization and (post) colonialism

The aim of this article is to understand how English cricket cultures have been made, negotiated and, ultimately, resisted in the context of (post) colonialism. I draw upon research undertaken with white and British Asian cricketers in Yorkshire to identify the place and significance of cricket within the everyday lives of British Asian communities. Over the last decade the number of British Asian cricketers progressing into the upper echelons of the game (mainly the English County Championship) has increased. Many within the game (mainly white people) have used these figures to argue that English cricket is now 'colour blind'. However, I argue that representation is not the equivalent to acceptance and integration, and present evidence to suggest that racial prejudice and discrimination, not to mention inaccurate and essentialized cultural stereotypes of British Asian cricketers, remain firmly and routinely embedded in aspects of the sport at all levels. I argue that the ability of British Asians to resist the hegemonic structures of white 'Englishness', by asserting their own distinctive post-colonial identities in cricket, is paramount to their everyday negotiations of power and racism. © 2011 Taylor & Francis

State of the climate in 2013

In 2013, the vast majority of the monitored climate variables reported here maintained trends established in recent decades. ENSO was in a neutral state during the entire year, remaining mostly on the cool side of neutral with modest impacts on regional weather patterns around the world. This follows several years dominated by the effects of either La Niña or El Niño events. According to several independent analyses, 2013 was again among the 10 warmest years on record at the global scale, both at the Earths surface and through the troposphere. Some regions in the Southern Hemisphere had record or near-record high temperatures for the year. Australia observed its hottest year on record, while Argentina and New Zealand reported their second and third hottest years, respectively. In Antarctica, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported its highest annual temperature since records began in 1957. At the opposite pole, the Arctic observed its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 20th century. At 20-m depth, record high temperatures were measured at some permafrost stations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation occurred throughout much of the year, leading to marked regional extremes of both temperature and precipitation. Cold temperature anomalies during winter across Eurasia were followed by warm spring temperature anomalies, which were linked to a new record low Eurasian snow cover extent in May. Minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. Including 2013, all seven lowest extents on record have occurred in the past seven years. Antarctica, on the other hand, had above-average sea ice extent throughout 2013, with 116 days of new daily high extent records, including a new daily maximum sea ice area of 19.57 million km2 reached on 1 October. ENSO-neutral conditions in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and a negative Pacific decadal oscillation pattern in the North Pacific had the largest impacts on the global sea surface temperature in 2013. The North Pacific reached a historic high temperature in 2013 and on balance the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was among the 10 highest on record. Overall, the salt content in nearsurface ocean waters increased while in intermediate waters it decreased. Global mean sea level continued to rise during 2013, on pace with a trend of 3.2 mm yr-1 over the past two decades. A portion of this trend (0.5 mm yr-1) has been attributed to natural variability associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation as well as to ongoing contributions from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean warming. Global tropical cyclone frequency during 2013 was slightly above average with a total of 94 storms, although the North Atlantic Basin had its quietest hurricane season since 1994. In the Western North Pacific Basin, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest tropical cyclone of 2013, had 1-minute sustained winds estimated to be 170 kt (87.5 m s-1) on 7 November, the highest wind speed ever assigned to a tropical cyclone. High storm surge was also associated with Haiyan as it made landfall over the central Philippines, an area where sea level is currently at historic highs, increasing by 200 mm since 1970. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide all continued to increase in 2013. As in previous years, each of these major greenhouse gases once again reached historic high concentrations. In the Arctic, carbon dioxide and methane increased at the same rate as the global increase. These increases are likely due to export from lower latitudes rather than a consequence of increases in Arctic sources, such as thawing permafrost. At Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the first time since measurements began in 1958, the daily average mixing ratio of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm on 9 May. The state of these variables, along with dozens of others, and the 2013 climate conditions of regions around the world are discussed in further detail in this 24th edition of the State of the Climate series. © 2014, American Meteorological Society. All rights reserved

Meta-analysis of type 2 Diabetes in African Americans Consortium

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is more prevalent in African Americans than in Europeans. However, little is known about the genetic risk in African Americans despite the recent identification of more than 70 T2D loci primarily by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in individuals of European ancestry. In order to investigate the genetic architecture of T2D in African Americans, the MEta-analysis of type 2 DIabetes in African Americans (MEDIA) Consortium examined 17 GWAS on T2D comprising 8,284 cases and 15,543 controls in African Americans in stage 1 analysis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) association analysis was conducted in each study under the additive model after adjustment for age, sex, study site, and principal components. Meta-analysis of approximately 2.6 million genotyped and imputed SNPs in all studies was conducted using an inverse variance-weighted fixed effect model. Replications were performed to follow up 21 loci in up to 6,061 cases and 5,483 controls in African Americans, and 8,130 cases and 38,987 controls of European ancestry. We identified three known loci (TCF7L2, HMGA2 and KCNQ1) and two novel loci (HLA-B and INS-IGF2) at genome-wide significance (4.15 × 10(-94)<P<5 × 10(-8), odds ratio (OR)  = 1.09 to 1.36). Fine-mapping revealed that 88 of 158 previously identified T2D or glucose homeostasis loci demonstrated nominal to highly significant association (2.2 × 10(-23) < locus-wide P<0.05). These novel and previously identified loci yielded a sibling relative risk of 1.19, explaining 17.5% of the phenotypic variance of T2D on the liability scale in African Americans. Overall, this study identified two novel susceptibility loci for T2D in African Americans. A substantial number of previously reported loci are transferable to African Americans after accounting for linkage disequilibrium, enabling fine mapping of causal variants in trans-ethnic meta-analysis studies.Peer reviewe

Searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson in pp collisions at root S=7, 8, and 13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurements of differential production cross sections for a Z boson in association with jets in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for neutral resonances decaying into a Z boson and a pair of b jets or τ leptons

A search is performed for a new resonance decaying into a lighter resonance and a Z boson. Two channels are studied, targeting the decay of the lighter resonance into either a pair of oppositely charged τ leptons or a bb‾ pair. The Z boson is identified via its decays to electrons or muons. The search exploits data collected by the CMS experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.8 fb −1 . No significant deviations are observed from the standard model expectation and limits are set on production cross sections and parameters of two-Higgs-doublet models

Search for vectorlike charge 2/3 T quarks in proton-proton collisions at root(s)=8 TeV

Peer reviewe