Stimulating exploration by government-sponsored regional geoscience surveys

The island of Ireland is one of the most attractive places for mineral exploration and development, according to a recent global review. The Republic of Ireland is a major European producer of lead-zinc and historically of copper, lead-silver and alluvial gold. Northern Ireland has one gold mine in production, a second gold prospect at an advanced stage of exploration, and one salt mine. In the past lead, iron and coal mining have all been prominent. Other minerals that are or have in the past been mined in the island include bauxite, barite, gypsum, coal and high-grade aggregates. In Northern Ireland, prospecting in recent years has been stimulated by the Tellus Project, managed by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland. Between 2004 and 2007 this government-funded initiative completed soil and stream geochemical samples surveys and a low-level airborne geophysical survey of Northern Ireland, an area of 13,800 km2. Within 12 months of the data launch in 2007 the area of Northern Ireland licensed for exploration increased from 15% to 70% and the subsequent private sector investment in exploration now exceeds £32 million. Targets include gold, platinum group elements and base metals. The project is a good example of how regional geo-science surveys can stimulate exploration activity and inward investment. Historically the principal focus of prospecting in Northern Ireland has been the area of vein gold deposits in Neoproterozoic rocks of County Tyrone, centred on the deposits at Curraghinalt and Cavanacaw. Here, the airborne magnetic and electromagnetic results delineate significant associated structures. Arsenic in soils and stream sediments has been the principal geochemical pathfinder historically and the new sampling and analyses for multiple trace elements provide improved coverage at a better detection limit. Cross-border soil geochemical anomalies also characterise the area around the vein deposits in South Armagh and County Monaghan, in Ordovician/Silurian rocks. The geochemistry survey has revealed more widely distributed gold anomalies in stream sediments in other areas and mapped significant anomalies in platinum group elements over the Antrim basalts. Here again, the airborne magnetic and electromagnetic imagery reveal new structural information, particularly in those areas obscured by glacial deposits and peat. Following this success, the airborne geophysics and geochemistry surveys have been extended over 12,300 km2 of the six border counties of the Republic of Ireland (Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth) under the cross-border ‘Tellus Border’ project, financed by the INTERREG IVA programme of the European Regional Development Fund. This new survey work is jointly managed by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland and the Geological Survey of Ireland. The integrated geophysical and geochemical results of Tellus and Tellus Border surveys are being released throughout 2013 and have prompted further interest in mineral prospectivity as well as environmental research into soils, surface and groundwater, radioactivity and ecology. The project has stimulated joint data collection with the private sector. In 2012 the airborne survey was extended in eastern Co. Mayo and north Co. Roscommon in collaboration with a mining company, which has made the data publicly available. Another company has already taken out four licences on the basis of Tellus Border geochemical results released in February 2013. These data reveal the continuation of a trend established on adjoining licenses held in Northern Ireland. New fire-assay gold analyses of the Tellus Border stream sediment samples will be released in 2013. Together the merged Tellus and Tellus Border geochemical and geophysical data are expected to promote further investment in this cross-border region

The First Metriorhynchid Crocodylomorph from the Middle Jurassic of Spain, with Implications for Evolution of the Subclade Rhacheosaurini

Background: Marine deposits from the Callovian of Europe have yielded numerous species of metriorhynchid crocodylomorphs. While common in English and French Formations, metriorhynchids are poorly known from the Iberian Peninsula. Twenty years ago an incomplete, but beautifully preserved, skull was discovered from the Middle Callovian of Spain. It is currently the oldest and best preserved metriorhynchid specimen from the Iberian Peninsula. Until now it has never been properly described and its taxonomic affinities remained obscure. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we present a comprehensive description for this specimen and in doing so we refer it to a new genus and species: Maledictosuchus riclaensis. This species is diagnosed by numerous autapomorphies, including: heterodont dentition; tightly interlocking occlusion; lachrymal anterior process excludes the jugal from the preorbital fenestra; orbits longer than supratemporal fenestrae; palatine has two non-midline and one midline anterior processes. Our phylogenetic analysis finds Maledictosuchus riclaensis to be the basal-most known member of Rhacheosaurini (the subclade of increasingly mesopelagic piscivores that includes Cricosaurus and Rhacheosaurus). Conclusions/Significance: Our description of Maledictosuchus riclaensis shows that the craniodental morphologies that underpinned the success of Rhacheosaurini in the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, as a result of increasing marine specialization to adaptations for feeding on fast small-bodied prey (i.e. divided and retracted external nares; reorientation of the lateral processes of the frontal; elongate, tubular rostrum; procumbent and non-carinated dentition; high overall tooth count; and dorsolaterally inclined paroccipital processes), first appeared during the Middle Jurassic. Rhacheosaurins were curiously rare in the Middle Jurassic, as only one specimen of Maledictosuchus riclaensis is known (with no representatives discovered from the well-sampled Oxford Clay Formation of England). As such, the feeding/marine adaptations of Rhacheosaurini did not confer an immediate selective advantage upon the group, and it took until the Late Jurassic for this subclade to dominate in Western Europe

Nab: Measurement Principles, Apparatus and Uncertainties

The Nab collaboration will perform a precise measurement of 'a', the electron-neutrino correlation parameter, and 'b', the Fierz interference term in neutron beta decay, in the Fundamental Neutron Physics Beamline at the SNS, using a novel electric/magnetic field spectrometer and detector design. The experiment is aiming at the 10^{-3} accuracy level in (Delta a)/a, and will provide an independent measurement of lambda = G_A/G_V, the ratio of axial-vector to vector coupling constants of the nucleon. Nab also plans to perform the first ever measurement of 'b' in neutron decay, which will provide an independent limit on the tensor weak coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, talk presented at the International Workshop on Particle Physics with Slow Neutrons, Grenoble, 29-31 May 2008; to appear in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. in Physics Research

NCESPARC+: an implementation of a SPARC architecture with hardware support to multithreading for the multiplus multiprocessor

NCESP ARC + is an implementation of the SP ARC v: 8 architecture with hardware support to a variable number of thread contexts, which is under development for use within the framework of the Multiplus distributed shared-memory multiprocessor. It is expected to provide an efficient and automatic mechanism to hide the latency of busy-waiting synchronization loops, cachecoherence protocol and remote memory access operations within the Multiplus multiprocessor. NCESPARC + performs context-switching in at most four processor cycles whenever there is an instruction cache miss, a data dependency in relation to the destination operand of a pending load instruction or a busy-waiting synchronization loop. It has a decoupled architecture which allows the main pipeline to process instructions from a given context while the Memory Interface Unit performs memory access operations related to that same context or to any other context. Results of simulation experiments show the impact of some architectural parameters on the NCESPARC + processor performance and demonstrate that the use of multiple thread contexts can e.ffectively produce a much better utilization of the processor when long latency operations are performed In addition, NCESPARC + processor performance with a single context is superior to that of a standard implementation of the SPARC architecture due to its decoupled architecture

Precise spatio-temporal control of rapid optogenetic cell ablation with mem-KillerRed in Zebrafish

The ability to kill individual or groups of cells in vivo is important for studying cellular processes and their physiological function. Cell-specific genetically encoded photosensitizing proteins, such as KillerRed, permit spatiotemporal optogenetic ablation with low-power laser light. We report dramatically improved resolution and speed of cell targeting in the zebrafish kidney through the use of a selective plane illumination microscope (SPIM). Furthermore, through the novel incorporation of a Bessel beam into the SPIM imaging arm, we were able to improve on targeting speed and precision. The low diffraction of the Bessel beam coupled with the ability to tightly focus it through a high NA lens allowed precise, rapid targeting of subsets of cells at anatomical depth in live, developing zebrafish kidneys. We demonstrate that these specific targeting strategies significantly increase the speed of optoablation as well as fish survival

Deriving a preference-based utility measure for cancer patients from the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer's Quality of Life Questionnaire C30: a confirmatory versus exploratory approach

Background: Multi attribute utility instruments (MAUIs) are preference-based measures that comprise a health state classification system (HSCS) and a scoring algorithm that assigns a utility value to each health state in the HSCS. When developing a MAUI from a health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaire, first a HSCS must be derived. This typically involves selecting a subset of domains and items because HRQOL questionnaires typically have too many items to be amendable to the valuation task required to develop the scoring algorithm for a MAUI. Currently, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) followed by Rasch analysis is recommended for deriving a MAUI from a HRQOL measure. Aim: To determine whether confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is more appropriate and efficient than EFA to derive a HSCS from the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer’s core HRQOL questionnaire, Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30), given its well-established domain structure. Methods: QLQ-C30 (Version 3) data were collected from 356 patients receiving palliative radiotherapy for recurrent/metastatic cancer (various primary sites). The dimensional structure of the QLQ-C30 was tested with EFA and CFA, the latter informed by the established QLQC30 structure and views of both patients and clinicians on which are the most relevant items. Dimensions determined by EFA or CFA were then subjected to Rasch analysis. Results: CFA results generally supported the proposed QLQ-C30 structure (comparative fit index =0.99, Tucker–Lewis index =0.99, root mean square error of approximation =0.04). EFA revealed fewer factors and some items cross-loaded on multiple factors. Further assessment of dimensionality with Rasch analysis allowed better alignment of the EFA dimensions with those detected by CFA. Conclusion: CFA was more appropriate and efficient than EFA in producing clinically interpretable results for the HSCS for a proposed new cancer-specific MAUI. Our findings suggest that CFA should be recommended generally when deriving a preference-based measure from a HRQOL measure that has an established domain structure

Rms-flux relation in the optical fast variability data of BL Lacertae object S5 0716+714

The possibility that BL Lac S5 0716+714 exhibits a linear root mean square (rms)-flux relation in its IntraDay Variability (IDV) is analysed. The results may be used as an argument in the existing debate regarding the source of optical IDV in Active Galactic Nuclei. 63 time series in different optical bands were used. A linear rms-flux relation at a confidence level higher than 65% was recovered for less than 8% of the cases. We were able to check if the magnitude is log-normally distributed for eight timeseries and found, with a confidence > 95%, that this is not the case.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysics and Space Scienc

The IRIS Network of Excellence:: Integrating Research in Interactive Storytelling

Abstract. Interactive Storytelling is a major endeavour to develop new media which could offer a radically new user experience, with a potential to revolutionise digital entertainment. European research in Interactive Storytelling has played a leading role in the development of the field, and this creates a unique opportunity to strengthen its position even further by structuring collaboration between some of its main actors. IRIS (Integrating Research in Interactive Storytelling) aims at creating a virtual centre of excellence that will be able to progress the understanding of fundamental aspects of Interactive Storytelling and the development of corresponding technologies

The Influences of Diesel Particulate Filter Installation on Air Pollutant Emissions for Used Vehicles

Three kinds of diesel particulate filters (DPFs) were installed on used diesel-powered vehicles to investigate their influences on air pollutant emissions. The air pollutant emissions were measured before, after and running for specific distances to assess the deterioration effect. The emission measurement was performed on a chassis dynamometer. The results show that emissions of smoke, CO and HC are all reduced after DPF installation. After 20000 km driving, the emission concentrations of the above 3 criteria air pollutants do not increase in comparison with that right after installation. When DPFs are installed, the emissions of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are reduced by 85.6-89.4% and 69.0-89.2% for heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDVs) and light-duty diesel vehicles (LDVs), respectively. After driving 20000 km for HDVs and 2500 km for LDVs, PAH emissions do not increase in comparison with that right after installation, indicating that the DPFs do not deteriorate after driving for the test mileages. The lower molecular weight PAHs predominates in the exhaust both before and after DPF installation. The results also show the reduction rate is higher for higher molecular weight PAHs due to their tendency to adsorb on particulate