4,908 research outputs found
CHERI: a research platform deconflating hardware virtualisation and protection
Contemporary CPU architectures conflate virtualization and protection,
imposing virtualization-related performance, programmability,
and debuggability penalties on software requiring finegrained
protection. First observed in micro-kernel research, these
problems are increasingly apparent in recent attempts to mitigate
software vulnerabilities through application compartmentalisation.
Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions (CHERI) extend
RISC ISAs to support greater software compartmentalisation.
CHERI’s hybrid capability model provides fine-grained compartmentalisation
within address spaces while maintaining software
backward compatibility, which will allow the incremental deployment
of fine-grained compartmentalisation in both our most trusted
and least trustworthy C-language software stacks. We have implemented
a 64-bit MIPS research soft core, BERI, as well as a
capability coprocessor, and begun adapting commodity software
packages (FreeBSD and Chromium) to execute on the platform
Origins and Development of Fresh Water Lake, Dominica, West Indies, and Exploratory Study of Traces of Catastrophic Events in its Sediments
Long-term perspectives on terrestrial and aquatic carbon cycling from palaeolimnology
Lakes are active processors and collectors of carbon (C) and thus recognized as quantitatively important within the terrestrial C cycle. Better integration of palaeolimnology (lake sediment core analyses) with limnological C budgeting approaches has the potential to enhance understanding of lacustrine C processing and sequestration. Palaeolimnology simultaneously assimilates materials from across lake habitats, terrestrial watersheds, and airsheds to provide a uniquely broad overview of the terrestrial-atmospheric-aquatic linkages across different spatial scales. The examination of past changes over decadal–millennial timescales via palaeolimnology can inform understanding and prediction of future changes in C cycling. With a particular, but not exclusive, focus on northern latitudes we examine the methodological approaches of palaeolimnology, focusing on how relatively standard and well-tested techniques might be applied to address questions of relevance to the C cycle. We consider how palaeolimnology, limnology, and sedimentation studies might be linked to provide more quantitative and holistic estimates of lake C cycling and budgets. Finally, we use palaeolimnological examples to consider how changes such as terrestrial vegetation shifts, permafrost thaw, the formation of new lakes and reservoirs, hydrological modification of inorganic C processing, land use change, soil erosion and disruption to global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles might influence lake C cycling
Correction: Management of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma: novel agents, antibodies, immunotherapies and beyond
Mid-mantle deformation inferred from seismic anisotropy
With time, convective processes in the Earth's mantle will tend to align crystals, grains and inclusions. This mantle fabric is detectable seismologically, as it produces an anisotropy in material properties—in particular, a directional dependence in seismic-wave velocity. This alignment is enhanced at the boundaries of the mantle where there are rapid changes in the direction and magnitude of mantle flow, and therefore most observations of anisotropy are confined to the uppermost mantle or lithosphere and the lowermost-mantle analogue of the lithosphere, the D" region. Here we present evidence from shear-wave splitting measurements for mid-mantle anisotropy in the vicinity of the 660-km discontinuity, the boundary between the upper and lower mantle. Deep-focus earthquakes in the Tonga–Kermadec and New Hebrides subduction zones recorded at Australian seismograph stations record some of the largest values of shear-wave splitting hitherto reported. The results suggest that, at least locally, there may exist a mid-mantle boundary layer, which could indicate the impediment of flow between the upper and lower mantle in this region
The magnetic record of inorganic fly ash deposition in lake sediments and ombrotrophic peats.
Unwinding of a cholesteric liquid crystal and bidirectional surface anchoring
We examine the influence of bidirectional anchoring on the unwinding of a planar cholesteric liquid crystal induced by the application of a magnetic field. We consider a liquid crystal layer confined between two plates with the helical axis perpendicular to the substrates. We fixed the director twist on one boundary and allow for bidirectional anchoring on the other by introducing a high-order surface potential. By minimizing the total free energy for the system, we investigate the untwisting of the cholesteric helix as the liquid crystal attempts to align with the magnetic field. The transitions between metastable states occur as a series of pitchjumps as the helix expels quarter or half-turn twists, depending on the relative sizes of the strength of the surface potential and the bidirectional anchoring. We show that secondary easy axis directions can play a significant role in the unwinding of the cholesteric in its transition towards a nematic, especially when the surface anchoring strength is large
Yukawa hierarchies at the point of in F-theory
We analyse the structure of Yukawa couplings in local SU(5) F-theory models
with enhancement. In this setting the symmetry is broken down to
SU(5) by a 7-brane configuration described by T-branes, all the Yukawa
couplings are generated in the vicinity of a point and only one family of
quarks and leptons is massive at tree-level. The other two families obtain
their masses when non-perturbative effects are taken into account, being
hierarchically lighter than the third family. However, and contrary to previous
results, we find that this hierarchy of fermion masses is not always
appropriate to reproduce measured data. We find instead that different T-brane
configurations breaking to SU(5) give rise to distinct hierarchical
patterns for the holomorphic Yukawa couplings. Only some of these patterns
allow to fit the observed fermion masses with reasonable local model parameter
values, adding further constraints to the construction of F-theory GUTs. We
consider an model where such appropriate hierarchy is realised and
compute its physical Yukawas, showing that realistic charged fermions masses
can indeed be obtained in this case.Comment: 46 pages + appendices, 5 figures. v2, added references and typos
corrected, version accepted on JHEP. v3, typos correcte
Transverse Cerebellar Diameter On Cranial Ultrasound Scan In Preterm Neonates In An Australian Population
Objective: Fetal measurement of transverse cerebellar diameter (TCD) has been shown to correlate well with gestational age (GA), even in the presence of growth retardation. The aim of this study was to define the normal range of TCD in preterm neonates in an Australian population between 23 and 32 weeks GA. Methodology: Infants admitted to the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, having routine cranial ultrasound scans (< 1500 g and/or of gestational age 32 weeks at birth) had their TCD measured on a cranial scan performed during the first 3 days of life. The posterior fossa was examined through the asterion using a General Electric LOGIQ 500 scanner (GE Medical Systems, Waukesha, USA) and TCD measurement was taken in the coronal plane. Results: 106 infants < 1500 g and/or of GA 32 weeks at birth had their TCD measured between 1 January 1997 and 30 November 1997. Transverse cerebellar diameter and associated 95% confidence intervals are described for infants between 23 and 32 weeks GA. The linear regression equation relating TCD and GA was: TCD (mm) = 12.9 + 1.61 GA (weeks). R2 = 0.80, P< 0.001. Conclusion: This is the only study of TCD measurement using cranial ultrasound in a group of preterm newborns, and forms the basis for nomograms of TCD which can be used as a tool to assist in the assessment of GA, even in growth-retarded preterm newborns, and in the diagnosis of cerebellar hypoplasia
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