Thermally-driven scintillator flow in the SNO+ neutrino detector

The SNO+ neutrino detector is an acrylic sphere (radius 6 m) with a thin vertical neck containing almost 800 tonnes of liquid scintillator. The apparatus is immersed in a water-filled underground cavern, the neck protruding upward into a manifold above water level, with scintillator filling the sphere and rising up the neck some 6 m to an interface with purified nitrogen gas. Time-dependent flow simulations have been performed to investigate convective motion of the scintillator fluid, motivated by observations of a transient radon (222Rn) contamination layer which, over a period of two weeks, sank from near the base of the neck to the detector’s equator. According to simulations, this motion may have been induced by heat transfer through the detector wall, that resulted in buoyant ascending flow within a thin wall boundary layer and compensating sink elsewhere. This mechanism can result in transport down the neck to the sphere on a time scale of several hours. If the scintillator happens to be thermally stratified, the same forcing by a weak wall heat flux produces internal gravity waves in the spherical flow domain, at the Brunt–Väisälä frequency. Nevertheless as oscillatory motion is by its nature non-diffusive, simulations confirm that imposing strong thermal stratification over the depth of the neck can mitigate mixing due to transient heat fluxes

RCEP vs TPP: the pursuit of eastern dominance

ASEAN when defined as a single regional bloc, can be perceived as being one of the most prominent battle-fields between two new economic powerhouses; the US and China. When compared to efforts in the prior half-century, the US’s regional integration efforts were derided politically and economically since the 2007 Western financial crisis. This was predominantly due to a plethora of reasons alike to the fact that post the impasse, the ASEAN nations’ credence of the US as a political and trading partner greatly eroded. As a late runner, China exemplifies her regional prowess via an influx of Chinese emigration in those targeted regions. This enables the ASEAN nations to centre their trade around the Chinese economy in lieu of that of the US. This is galvanised by the wealth of the ethnic minority that efficiently entwine the ASEAN nations with China as the nucleus. Through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, two subsequent agreements were penned; and these concepts are examined from the Chinese perspective, and the effects that are encompassed are further amplified throughout the course of this paper

Understanding the relative importance of vertical and horizontal flow in ice-wedge polygons

Ice-wedge polygons are common Arctic landforms. The future of these landforms in a warming climate depends on the bidirectional feedback between the rate of ice-wedge degradation and changes in hydrological characteristics. This work aims to better understand the relative roles of vertical and horizontal water fluxes in the subsurface of polygonal landscapes, providing new insights and data to test and calibrate hydrological models. Field-scale investigations were conducted at an intensively instrumented location on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) near Utqiagvik, AK, USA. Using a conservative tracer, we examined controls of microtopography and the frost table on subsurface flow and transport within a low-centered and a high-centered polygon. Bromide tracer was applied at both polygons in July 2015 and transport was monitored through two thaw seasons. Sampler arrays placed in polygon centers, rims, and troughs were used to monitor tracer concentrations. In both polygons, the tracer first infiltrated vertically until encountering the frost table and was then transported horizontally. Horizontal flow occurred in more locations and at higher velocities in the low-centered polygon than in the high-centered polygon. Preferential flow, influenced by frost table topography, was significant between polygon centers and troughs. Estimates of horizontal hydraulic conductivity were within the range of previous estimates of vertical conductivity, highlighting the importance of horizontal flow in these systems. This work forms a basis for understanding complexity of flow in polygonal landscapes

Oligoclonal expansions of CD8(+) T cells in chronic HIV infection are antigen specific

Acute HIV infection is associated with a vigorous immune response characterized by the proliferation of selected T cell receptor V beta (BV)-expressing CD8(+) T cells. These 'expansions', which are commonly detected in the peripheral blood, can persist during chronic HIV infection and may result in the dominance of particular clones. Such clonal populations are most consistent with antigen-driven expansions of CD8(+) T cells. However, due to the difficulties in studying antigen-specific T cells in vivo, it has been hard to prove that oligoclonal BV expansions are actually HIV specific. The use of tetrameric major histocompatibility complex-peptide complexes has recently enabled direct visualization of antigen-specific T cells ex vivo but has not provided information on their clonal composition. We have now made use of these tetrameric complexes in conjunction with anti-BV chain-specific monoclonal antibodies and analysis of cytotoxic T lymphocyte lines/clones to show that chronically clonally expanded CD8(+) T cells are HIV specific in vivo

A coherent middle Pliocene magnetostratigraphy, Wanganui Basin, New Zealand

We document magnetostratigraphies for three river sections (Turakina, Rangitikei, Wanganui) in Wanganui Basin and interpret them as corresponding to the Upper Gilbert, the Gauss and lower Matuyama Chrons of the Geomagnetic Polarity Timescale, in agreement with foraminiferal biostratigraphic datums. The Gauss-Gilbert transition (3.58 Ma) is located in both the Turakina and Wanganui River sections, while the Gauss-Matuyama transition (2.58 Ma) is located in all three sections, as are the lower and upper boundaries of the Mammoth (3.33–3.22 Ma) and Kaena (3.11–3.04 Ma) Subchrons. Our interpretations are based in part on the re-analysis of existing datasets and in part on the acquisition and analysis of new data, particularly for the Wanganui River section. The palaeomagnetic dates of these six horizons provide the only numerical age control for a thick (up to 2000 m) mudstone succession (Tangahoe Mudstone) that accumulated chiefly in upper bathyal and outer neritic palaeoenvironments. In the Wanganui River section the mean sediment accumulation rate is estimated to have been about 1.8 m/k.y., in the Turakina section it was about 1.5 m/k.y., and in the Rangitikei section, the mean rate from the beginning of the Mammoth Subchron to the Hautawa Shellbed was about 1.1 m/k.y. The high rates may be associated with the progradation of slope clinoforms northward through the basin. This new palaeomagnetic timescale allows revised correlations to be made between cyclothems in the Rangitikei River section and the global Oxygen Isotope Stages (OIS) as represented in Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 846. The 16 depositional sequences between the end of the Mammoth Subchron and the Gauss-Matuyama Boundary are correlated with OIS MG2 to 100. The cyclothems average 39 k.y. in duration in our age model, which is close to the 41 k.y. duration of the orbital obliquity cycles. We support the arguments advanced recently in defence of the need for local New Zealand stages as a means of classifying New Zealand sedimentary successions, and strongly oppose the proposal to move stage boundaries to selected geomagnetic polarity transitions. The primary magnetisation of New Zealand mudstone is frequently overprinted with secondary components of diagenetic origin, and hence it is often difficult to obtain reliable magnetostratigraphic records. We suggest specific approaches, analytical methods, and criteria to help ensure robustness and coherency in the palaeomagnetic identification of chron boundaries in typical New Zealand Cenozoic mudstone successions