A wireless multi-sensor subglacial probe: design and preliminary results

This paper introduces a new way to investigate in situ processes, the wireless multi-sensor probe, as part of an environmental sensor network. Instruments are housed within a 'probe' which can move freely and so behave like a clast. These were deployed in the ice and till at Briksdalsbreen, Norway. The sensors measure temperature, resistivity, case stress, tilt angle and water pressure and send their data to a base station on the glacier surface via radio links. These data are then forwarded by radio to a reference station with mains power 2.5 km away, from where they are sent to a web server in the UK. The system deployed during 2004/05 was very successful and a total of 859 probe days worth of data from the ice and till were collected, along with GPS, weather and diagnostic data about the system

Sugar deficiency causes changes in cuticle permeability and cell wall composition that influence fruit postharvest shelf-life

The cuticle is a protective layer synthesized by epidermal cells of the plants and consisting of cutin covered and filled by waxes. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit, the thick cuticle embedding epidermal cells has crucial roles in the control of pathogens, water loss, cracking, and postharvest shelf-life. Tomato fruits with reduced expression of the tomato gene LIN5 encoding cell wall invertase exhibits decreases transpirational water loss. Transcriptomic, biochemical, histological, and biomechanical analysis identified several unsual features of RNAi-LIN5 cuticles and the data indicate that, perturbation of endogenous fruit sugar levels affects the composition of the tomato cuticle and cell wall architecture which are an integral and regulated part of the ripening program affecting the postharvest shelf-life. A model is proposed in which sugar levels affects the cuticle formation which has a direct effect in softening of intact tomato fruit both directly, by providing a physical support, and indirectly, by regulating water status.University of Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional de Andalucia Tech. Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ramón and Cajal contract, RYC2011-09170

The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c.3500 - 1000 BC

The ancient region of Elam (southwestern Iran) has produced a significant assemblage of cylinder seals across a considerable chronological span. Unlike the glyptic material from the related and neighbouring region Mesopotamia, the Elamite cylinder seals have not previously been studied in detailed reference to one another, nor has there been an established paradigm of stylistic development articulated. This study addresses this lacuna by compiling all the published cylinder seals from Elam (as defined here, thus incorporating the historical provinces of Khuzistan, Luristan and Fars), from their earliest appearance (c.3500 BC), throughout the era of their typological dominance (over stamp seals, thus this study departs c.1000 BC). This compilation is presented in the Elamite Cylinder Seal Catalogue (Volume II), and is annotated and described through the annunciation of eighteen chronologically defined developmental styles (with another two non-chronological type classifications and four miscellaneous groups). Through the further analysis of this data, including the newly formulated and articulated styles, several facets and problems of Elamite glyptic material have been addressed (and thus the reliance upon assumed similarity in type and function with the Mesopotamian glyptic material is abandoned). These problems particularly pertain to the function of cylinder seals in Elam and the type and form of the Elamite-Mesopotamian glyptic interaction. In regards to function, a standard administrative function can be discerned, though of varying types and forms across the region and the period of study. Other, non-standard, symbolic glyptic functions can also be demonstrated in the Corpus, including the apparent proliferation of a form known as the ‘votive’ seal, perhaps a specifically Elamite form. The analysis of the style type (whether ‘Elamite’, ‘Mesopotamian Related’ or ‘Shared Elamite-Mesopotamian’), in association with their relative geographical and chronological distribution, has also enabled the discussion of the nature of Elamite-Mesopotamian glyptic interaction, and thereby the constitution of Elamite civilisation (especially in regards to Mesopotamian cultural impact and influence, and thus the testing of several previously presented paradigms [Amiet 1979a; 1979b; Miroschedji 2003])

Spin in relativistic quantum theory

We discuss the role of spin in Poincar\'e invariant formulations of quantum mechanics.Comment: 54 page

An Effective-Medium Tight-Binding Model for Silicon

A new method for calculating the total energy of Si systems is presented. The method is based on the effective-medium theory concept of a reference system. Instead of calculating the energy of an atom in the system of interest a reference system is introduced where the local surroundings are similar. The energy of the reference system can be calculated selfconsistently once and for all while the energy difference to the reference system can be obtained approximately. We propose to calculate it using the tight-binding LMTO scheme with the Atomic-Sphere Approximation(ASA) for the potential, and by using the ASA with charge-conserving spheres we are able to treat open system without introducing empty spheres. All steps in the calculational method is {\em ab initio} in the sense that all quantities entering are calculated from first principles without any fitting to experiment. A complete and detailed description of the method is given together with test calculations of the energies of phonons, elastic constants, different structures, surfaces and surface reconstructions. We compare the results to calculations using an empirical tight-binding scheme.Comment: 26 pages (11 uuencoded Postscript figures appended), LaTeX, CAMP-090594-

The uses and abuses of power: teaching school leadership through children's literature

There are relatively few studies of how representations of teachers, schools and educational administrators in popular films and television might be, and are, used in leadership preparation. This paper seeks to add to this small body of work; it reports on an exploratory study of the representation of headteachers in contemporary children's fiction. Thirty-one texts are analysed to ascertain key themes and the major characterisations. The paper draws on children's literature scholars to argue that both the historical school story and its contemporary counterpart focus heavily on the power of the head to control the micro-world of the school. Because these fictional accounts deal with issues of power and justice more openly than many mainstream educational administration texts, this makes them particularly useful in the preparation of potential school leaders

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02