Are we overusing IVF?

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Comment on "X-ray resonant scattering studies of orbital and charge ordering in Pr1-xCaxMnO3"

In a recent published paper [Phys. Rev. B 64, 195133 (2001)], Zimmermann et al. present a systematic x-ray scattering study of charge and orbital ordering phenomena in the Pr1-xCaxMnO3 series with x= 0.25, 0.4 and 0.5. They propose that for Ca concentrations x=0.4 and 0.5, the appearance of (0, k+1/2, 0) reflections are originated by the orbital ordering of the eg electrons in the a-b plane while the (0, 2k+1, 0) reflections are due to the charge ordering among the Mn3+ and Mn4+ ions. Moreover, for small Ca concentrations (x<0.3), the orbital ordering is only considered and it occurs at (0, k, 0) reflections. A rigorous analysis of all these resonance reflections will show the inadequacy of the charge-orbital model proposed to explain the experimental results. In addition, this charge-orbital model is highly inconsistent with the electronic balance. On the contrary, these reflections can be easily understood as arising from the anisotropy of charge distribution induced by the presence of local distortions, i.e. due to a structural phase transition.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures.To be published Phys. Rev.

Low‐Fe(III) Greenalite Was a Primary Mineral From Neoarchean Oceans

Banded iron formations (BIFs) represent chemical precipitation from Earth’s early oceans and therefore contain insights into ancient marine biogeochemistry. However, BIFs have undergone multiple episodes of alteration, making it difficult to assess the primary mineral assemblage. Nanoscale mineral inclusions from 2.5 billion year old BIFs and ferruginous cherts provide new evidence that iron silicates were primary minerals deposited from the Neoarchean ocean, contrasting sharply with current models for BIF inception. Here we used multiscale imaging and spectroscopic techniques to characterize the best preserved examples of these inclusions. Our integrated results demonstrate that these early minerals were low‐Fe(III) greenalite. We present potential pathways in which low‐Fe(III) greenalite could have formed through changes in saturation state and/or iron oxidation and reduction. Future constraints for ancient ocean chemistry and early life’s activities should include low‐Fe(III) greenalite as a primary mineral in the Neoarchean ocean.Plain Language SummaryChemical precipitates from Earth’s early oceans hold clues to ancient seawater chemistry and biological activities, but we first need to understand what the original minerals were in ancient marine deposits. We characterized nanoscale mineral inclusions from 2.5 billion year old banded iron formations and determined that the primary minerals were iron‐rich silicate minerals dominated by reduced iron, challenging current hypotheses for banded iron formation centered on iron oxides. Our results suggest that our planet at this time had a very reducing ocean and further enable us to present several biogeochemical mineral formation hypotheses that can now be tested to better understand the activities of early life on ancient Earth.Key PointsNeoarchean nanoparticle silicate inclusions appear to be the earliest iron mineral preserved in cherts from Australia and South AfricaOur multiscale analyses indicate that the particles are greenalite that are dominantly Fe(II) with have low and variable Fe(III) contentWe present four (bio)geochemical hypotheses that could produce low‐Fe(III) greenalitePeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143747/1/grl57046_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143747/2/grl57046.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143747/3/grl57046-sup-0001-2017GL076311-SI.pd

Polarization Dependence of Anomalous X-ray Scattering in Orbital Ordered Manganites

In order to determine types of the orbital ordering in manganites, we study theoretically the polarization dependence of the anomalous X-ray scattering which is caused by the anisotropy of the scattering factor. The general formulae of the scattering intensity in the experimental optical system is derived and the atomic scattering factor is calculated in the microscopic electronic model. By using the results, the X-ray scattering intensity in several types of the orbital ordering is numerically calculated as a function of azimuthal and analyzer angles.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Monopole operators in three-dimensional N=4 SYM and mirror symmetry

We study non-abelian monopole operators in the infrared limit of three-dimensional SU(N_c) and N=4 SU(2) gauge theories. Using large N_f expansion and operator-state isomorphism of the resulting superconformal field theories, we construct monopole operators which are (anti-)chiral primaries and compute their charges under the global symmetries. Predictions of three-dimensional mirror symmetry for the quantum numbers of these monopole operators are verified.Comment: 23 pages, LaTex; v2: section 3.4 modified, section 3.5 extended, references adde

What lies beneath? The role of informal and hidden networks in the management of crises

Crisis management research traditionally focuses on the role of formal communication networks in the escalation and management of organisational crises. Here, we consider instead informal and unobservable networks. The paper explores how hidden informal exchanges can impact upon organisational decision-making and performance, particularly around inter-agency working, as knowledge distributed across organisations and shared between organisations is often shared through informal means and not captured effectively through the formal decision-making processes. Early warnings and weak signals about potential risks and crises are therefore often missed. We consider the implications of these dynamics in terms of crisis avoidance and crisis management

Relative contributions of lattice distortion and orbital ordering to resonant x-ray scattering in manganites

We investigated the origin of the energy splitting observed in the resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) in manganites. Using thin film samples with controlled lattice parameters and orbital states at a fixed orbital filling, we estimated that the contribution of the interatomic Coulomb interaction relative to the Jahn-Teller mechanism is insignificant and at most 0.27. This indicates that RXS probes mainly Jahn-Teller distortion in manganites.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Models of Individual Blue Stragglers

This chapter describes the current state of models of individual blue stragglers. Stellar collisions, binary mergers (or coalescence), and partial or ongoing mass transfer have all been studied in some detail. The products of stellar collisions retain memory of their parent stars and are not fully mixed. Very high initial rotation rates must be reduced by an unknown process to allow the stars to collapse to the main sequence. The more massive collision products have shorter lifetimes than normal stars of the same mass, while products between low mass stars are long-lived and look very much like normal stars of their mass. Mass transfer can result in a merger, or can produce another binary system with a blue straggler and the remnant of the original primary. The products of binary mass transfer cover a larger portion of the colour-magnitude diagram than collision products for two reasons: there are more possible configurations which produce blue stragglers, and there are differing contributions to the blended light of the system. The effects of rotation may be substantial in both collision and merger products, and could result in significant mixing unless angular momentum is lost shortly after the formation event. Surface abundances may provide ways to distinguish between the formation mechanisms, but care must be taking to model the various mixing mechanisms properly before drawing strong conclusions. Avenues for future work are outlined.Comment: Chapter 12, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G. Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe