9,333 research outputs found
Impact and extinction signatures in complete Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary sections
The Zumaya, Caravaca and Agost sections in Spain, the El Kef section in Tunisia and the Negev (Nahal Avdat) sections in Israel are among the most continuous, expanded and complete K-T boundary sections. The distribution patterns of the planktic faunas were quantitatively analyzed in closely spaced samples across the K-T boundary in these sections, in conjuction with the geochemistry, stable isotopes, mineralogy and magnetostratigraphy. Three hundred foraminiferal specimens were randomly selected and determined. Reliable estimates for the foraminiferal productivity changes across the K-T boundary and for the 1 to 2 Ma interval preceding the K-T boundary were made from the numbers of individuals/gram of sediment corrected for the sedimentation rates (calculated from magnetic reversals and lithology). No gradual or stepwise extinction is seen below the K-T boundary nor any productivity decrease. Stable isotope analyses show a warming just after deposition of the ejecta layer, not cooling as predicted by nuclear winter scenarios, although the duration of such cooling may be too short to be observed even in these complete sections. Low REE values and cpx spherules with quench textures idential to quench-textures in diagenetically altered spherules, strongly indicate an oceanic site of (one of) the impactor(s)
The Quasi-Verbal Dispute Between Kripke and 'Frege-Russell'
Traditional descriptivism and Kripkean causalism are standardly interpreted as rival theories on a single topic. I argue that there is no such shared topic, i.e. that there is no question that they can be interpreted as giving rival answers to. The only way to make sense of the commitment to epistemic transparency that characterizes traditional descriptivism is to interpret Russell and Frege as proposing rival accounts of how to characterize a subject’s beliefs about what names refer to. My argument relies on a development of the distinction between speaker’s reference and semantic reference
Anomalous Hall Effect due to the spin chirality in the Kagom\'{e} lattice
We consider a model for a two dimensional electron gas moving on a kagom\'{e}
lattice and locally coupled to a chiral magnetic texture. We show that the
transverse conductivity does not vanish even if spin-orbit
coupling is not present and it may exhibit unusual behavior. Model parameters
are the chirality, the number of conduction electrons and the amplitude of the
local coupling. Upon varying these parameters, a topological transition
characterized by change of the band Chern numbers occur. As a consequence,
can be quantized, proportional to the chirality or have a non
monotonic behavior upon varying these parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Anomalous Hall effect and weak localization corrections in a ferromagnet
In this paper, we report results on the anomalous Hall effect. First, we
summarize analytical calculations based on the Kubo formalism : explicit
expressions for both skew-scattering and side-jump are derived and
weak-localization corrections are discussed. Next, we present numerical
calculations of the anomalous Hall resistivity based on the Dirac equation.
Qualitative agreement with experiments is obtained.Comment: Proceeding JEMS'0
Topological Hall effect and Berry phase in magnetic nanostructures
We discuss the anomalous Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas
subject to a spatially varying magnetization. This topological Hall effect
(THE) does not require any spin-orbit coupling, and arises solely from Berry
phase acquired by an electron moving in a smoothly varying magnetization. We
propose an experiment with a structure containing 2D electrons or holes of
diluted magnetic semiconductor subject to the stray field of a lattice of
magnetic nanocylinders. The striking behavior predicted for such a system (of
which all relevant parameters are well known) allows to observe unambiguously
the THE and to distinguish it from other mechanisms.Comment: 5 pages with 4 figure
The Value of Black Monukka, Perlette, Ruby Seedless and Sultanina as parents for breeding Raisin Grapes
The seedless grape cultivars Black Monukka, Perlette, Ruby Seedless and Sultanina were used as pollen parents and hybridized with two muscat flavoured and four neutral flavoured cultivars and selections in an effort to breed seedless table grapes. The progeny of some of these crosses were also evaluated for raisin quality during the 1983/84 season. Ten seedless selections and 21 selections possessing trace seeds (1-2 mm) obtained a quality rating comparable to that of Merbein Seedless, Fiesta, Perlette and Sultanina raisins. Perlette produced four times as many seedlings with satisfactory raisin quality as all the other crosses combined. The cross CG 1272 X Sultanina produced five promising white currant types. Selection CG 1272 appears to be a valuable parent for breeding improved currant types
Phase diagram of patchy colloids: towards empty liquids
We report theoretical and numerical evaluations of the phase diagram for
patchy colloidal particles of new generation. We show that the reduction of the
number of bonded nearest neighbours offers the possibility of generating liquid
states (i.e. states with temperature lower than the liquid-gas critical
temperature) with a vanishing occupied packing fraction (), a case which
can not be realized with spherically interacting particles. Theoretical results
suggest that such reduction is accompanied by an increase of the region of
stability of the liquid phase in the (-) plane, possibly favoring the
establishment of homogeneous disordered materials at small , i.e. stable
equilibrium gels.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revised version, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let
A Class of Nonperturbative Configurations in Abelian-Higgs Models: Complexity from Dynamical Symmetry Breaking
We present a numerical investigation of the dynamics of symmetry breaking in
both Abelian and non-Abelian Higgs models in three spatial
dimensions. We find a class of time-dependent, long-lived nonperturbative field
configurations within the range of parameters corresponding to type-1
superconductors, that is, with vector masses () larger than scalar masses
(). We argue that these emergent nontopological configurations are related
to oscillons found previously in other contexts. For the Abelian-Higgs model,
our lattice implementation allows us to map the range of parameter space -- the
values of -- where such configurations exist and to
follow them for times t \sim \O(10^5) m^{-1}. An investigation of their
properties for -symmetric models reveals an enormously rich structure
of resonances and mode-mode oscillations reminiscent of excited atomic states.
For the SU(2) case, we present preliminary results indicating the presence of
similar oscillonic configurations.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures, prd, revte
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Heat-Conducting Near-Critical Fluids
Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study supercritical fluids near the
gas-liquid critical point under heat flow in two dimensions. We calculate the
steady-state temperature and density profiles. The resultant thermal
conductivity exhibits critical singularity in agreement with the mode-coupling
theory in two dimensions. We also calculate distributions of the momentum and
heat fluxes at fixed density. They indicate that liquid-like (entropy-poor)
clusters move toward the warmer boundary and gas-like (entropy-rich) regions
move toward the cooler boundary in a temperature gradient. This counterflow
results in critical enhancement of the thermal conductivity
MissForest - nonparametric missing value imputation for mixed-type data
Modern data acquisition based on high-throughput technology is often facing
the problem of missing data. Algorithms commonly used in the analysis of such
large-scale data often depend on a complete set. Missing value imputation
offers a solution to this problem. However, the majority of available
imputation methods are restricted to one type of variable only: continuous or
categorical. For mixed-type data the different types are usually handled
separately. Therefore, these methods ignore possible relations between variable
types. We propose a nonparametric method which can cope with different types of
variables simultaneously. We compare several state of the art methods for the
imputation of missing values. We propose and evaluate an iterative imputation
method (missForest) based on a random forest. By averaging over many unpruned
classification or regression trees random forest intrinsically constitutes a
multiple imputation scheme. Using the built-in out-of-bag error estimates of
random forest we are able to estimate the imputation error without the need of
a test set. Evaluation is performed on multiple data sets coming from a diverse
selection of biological fields with artificially introduced missing values
ranging from 10% to 30%. We show that missForest can successfully handle
missing values, particularly in data sets including different types of
variables. In our comparative study missForest outperforms other methods of
imputation especially in data settings where complex interactions and nonlinear
relations are suspected. The out-of-bag imputation error estimates of
missForest prove to be adequate in all settings. Additionally, missForest
exhibits attractive computational efficiency and can cope with high-dimensional
data.Comment: Submitted to Oxford Journal's Bioinformatics on 3rd of May 201
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