Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections observed by MESSENGER and Venus Express

Interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) observed by the MESSENGER (MES) and Venus Express (VEX) spacecraft have been catalogued and analysed. The ICMEs were identified by a relatively smooth rotation of the magnetic field direction consistent with a flux rope structure, coinciding with a relatively enhanced magnetic field strength. A total of 35 ICMEs were found in the surveyed MES data (primarily from March 2007 to April 2012), and 84 ICMEs in the surveyed VEX data (from May 2006 to December 2013). The ICME flux rope configurations have been determined. Ropes with northward leading edges were about four times more common than ropes with southward leading edges, in agreement with a previously established solar cycle dependence. Ropes with low inclinations to the solar equatorial plane were about four times more common than ropes with high inclinations, possibly an observational effect. Left and right-handed ropes were observed in almost equal numbers. In addition, data from MES, VEX, STEREO-A, STEREO-B and ACE were examined for multipoint signatures of the catalogued ICMEs. For spacecraft separations below 15{\deg} in heliocentric longitude, the second spacecraft observed the ICME flux rope in 82% of cases; this percentage dropped to 49% for separations between 15 and 30{\deg}, to 18% for separations between 30 and 45{\deg}, and to 12% for separations between 45 and 60{\deg}. As spacecraft separation increased, it became increasingly likely that only the sheath and not the flux rope of the ICME was observed, in agreement with the notion that ICME flux ropes are smaller in longitudinal extent than the shocks or discontinuities that they often drive. Furthermore, this study has identified 23 ICMEs observed by pairs of spacecraft close to radial alignment. A detailed analysis of these events could lead to a better understanding of how ICMEs evolve during propagation.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figure

An eighth-century inscribed cross-slab in Dull, Perthshire

The discovery of a cross-inscribed slab with an inscription is described. Because of its importance it was decided to invite specialist comment on this piece of sculpture and to publish it in advance of the full report on the excavations. The form of the monument, its inscription and archaeological context are considered. The text appears to consist of a Gaelic personal name. The script is a form of geometrical lettering which can be dated to the opening quarter of the eighth century. The form of the cross has Columban associations which sit well with place-name and other evidence which points to Dull having been a monastery founded from Iona by c. AD 700

Isospin Splitting in the Baryon Octet and Decuplet

Baryon mass splittings are analyzed in terms of a simple model with general pairwise interactions. At present, the $\Delta$ masses are poorly known from experiments. Improvement of these data would provide an opportunity to make a significant test of our understanding of electromagnetic and quark-mass contributions to hadronic masses. The problem of determining resonance masses from scattering and production data is discussed.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX inc. 2 LATEX "pictures", CMU-HEP91-24-R9

Large Chiral Diffeomorphisms on Riemann Surfaces and W-algebras

The diffeomorphism action lifted on truncated (chiral) Taylor expansion of a complex scalar field over a Riemann surface is presented in the paper under the name of large diffeomorphisms. After an heuristic approach, we show how a linear truncation in the Taylor expansion can generate an algebra of symmetry characterized by some structure functions. Such a linear truncation is explicitly realized by introducing the notion of Forsyth frame over the Riemann surface with the help of a conformally covariant algebraic differential equation. The large chiral diffeomorphism action is then implemented through a B.R.S. formulation (for a given order of truncation) leading to a more algebraic set up. In this context the ghost fields behave as holomorphically covariant jets. Subsequently, the link with the so called W-algebras is made explicit once the ghost parameters are turned from jets into tensorial ghost ones. We give a general solution with the help of the structure functions pertaining to all the possible truncations lower or equal to the given order. This provides another contribution to the relationship between KdV flows and W-diffeomorphimsComment: LaTeX file, 31 pages, no figure. Version to appear in J. Math. Phys. Work partly supported by Region PACA and INF

Motor deficits in schizophrenia quantified by nonlinear analysis of postural sway.

Motor dysfunction is a consistently reported but understudied aspect of schizophrenia. Postural sway area was examined in individuals with schizophrenia under four conditions with different amounts of visual and proprioceptive feedback: eyes open or closed and feet together or shoulder width apart. The nonlinear complexity of postural sway was assessed by detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). The schizophrenia group (n = 27) exhibited greater sway area compared to controls (n = 37). Participants with schizophrenia showed increased sway area following the removal of visual input, while this pattern was absent in controls. Examination of DFA revealed decreased complexity of postural sway and abnormal changes in complexity upon removal of visual input in individuals with schizophrenia. Additionally, less complex postural sway was associated with increased symptom severity in participants with schizophrenia. Given the critical involvement of the cerebellum and related circuits in postural stability and sensorimotor integration, these results are consistent with growing evidence of motor, cerebellar, and sensory integration dysfunction in the disorder, and with theoretical models that implicate cerebellar deficits and more general disconnection of function in schizophrenia

Presencia de minerales poco comunes en la roca alterada de un edificio medieval escocés colonizado por organismos biológicos

During the course of a study of biodeterioration at Hermitage Castle in the Scottish Borders various rare minerals: monohydrocalcite, nesquehonite and dypingite were found in association with the biological growths. Monohydrocalcite was found particularly in association with a green alga "Trentepohlia aurea". A brief review of previous publications concerning these minerals is given and the theory put forward with regard to the possible origin of the monohydrocalcite as a biogenic by product.En el transcurso de un estudio sobre el biodeterioro existente en el 'Hermitage Castle', localizado en los 'Scottish Borders' (frontera entre Escocia e Inglaterra), se detectó la presencia de monohidrocalcita, nesquehonita y dipingita, minerales considerados como poco frecuentes, asociados con la colonización biológica presente, especialmente en el caso de la monohidrocalcita y el alga verde Trentepohlia áurea. En este trabajo se presenta una revisión bibliográfica sobre estos minerales así como la teoría del posible origen biogénico de la monohidrocalcita

Strange Decays of Nonstrange Baryons

The strong decays of excited nonstrange baryons into the final states Lambda K, Sigma K, and for the first time into Lambda(1405) K, Lambda(1520) K, Sigma(1385) K, Lambda K*, and Sigma K*, are examined in a relativized quark pair creation model. The wave functions and parameters of the model are fixed by previous calculations of N pi and N pi pi, etc., decays. Our results show that it should be possible to discover several new negative parity excited baryons and confirm the discovery of several others by analyzing these final states in kaon production experiments. We also establish clear predictions for the relative strengths of certain states to decay to Lambda(1405) K and Lambda(1520) K, which can be tested to determine if a three-quark model of the Lambda(1405) K is valid. Our results compare favorably with the results of partial wave analyses of the limited existing data for the Lambda K and Sigma K channels. We do not find large Sigma K decay amplitudes for a substantial group of predicted and weakly established negative-parity states, in contrast to the only previous work to consider decays of these states into the strange final states Lambda K and Sigma K.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, RevTe

Invariants of differential equations defined by vector fields

We determine the most general group of equivalence transformations for a family of differential equations defined by an arbitrary vector field on a manifold. We also find all invariants and differential invariants for this group up to the second order. A result on the characterization of classes of these equations by the invariant functions is also given.Comment: 13 page