8,671 research outputs found
Neogene paleoceanography of the eastern equatorial Pacific based on the radiolarian record of IODP drill sites off Costa Rica
The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 344 drilled cores following a transect across the convergent margin off Costa Rica. Two of the five sites (U1381 and U1414) are the subject of the present study. Major radiolarian faunal breaks and characteristic species groups were defined with the aid of cluster analysis, nodal analysis, and discriminant analysis of principal components. A middle-late Miocene to Pleistocene age (radiolarian zones RN5 to RN16) was determined for the sites, which agrees with the nannofossil zonations and 40Ar/39Ar and tephra layers. Considering the northward movement of the Cocos plate (∼7.3 cm/yr), and a paleolatitude calculator, it is assumed that during the Miocene the two sites were located ∼1000 km to the southwest of their current position, slightly south of the equator. The radiolarian faunas retrieved were thus seemingly formed under the influence of different oceanic currents and sources of nutrients. Changes in the radiolarian assemblages at Site U1414 point at dissimilar environmental settings associated with the colder South Equatorial Current and the warmer Equatorial Countercurrent, as well as to coastal upwelling. These differences are best reflected by changes in the abundance of the morphotype Spongurus spp., with noticeably higher values during the Miocene, than in the Pliocene and the Pleistocene. Because Spongurus spp. is generally associated with cooler waters, these abundance variations (as well as those of several other species) suggest that during the Miocene the area had a stronger influence of colder waters than during younger periods. During the Pliocene and the lowermost Pleistocene, biogenic remains are scarce, presumably due to the terrigenous input, which could have diluted and affected the preservation of pelagic fossils, as well as to the displacement of the site to warmer waters. A typically tropical fauna characterized the Pleistocene, yet with widespread presence of colder water species, most probably indicative of the influence of coastal upwelling processes.Fil: Sandoval, MarÃa I.. Universidad de Costa Rica; Costa Rica. Universite de Lausanne; SuizaFil: Boltovskoy, Demetrio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de EcologÃa, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de EcologÃa, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Baxter, Alan T.. University of New England; Australia. McGill University; CanadáFil: Baumgartner, Peter O.. Universite de Lausanne; Suiz
Triangle areas in line arrangements
A widely investigated subject in combinatorial geometry, originated from
Erd\H{o}s, is the following. Given a point set of cardinality in the
plane, how can we describe the distribution of the determined distances? This
has been generalized in many directions. In this paper we propose the following
variants. Consider planar arrangements of lines. Determine the maximum
number of triangles of unit area, maximum area or minimum area, determined by
these lines. Determine the minimum size of a subset of these lines so that
all triples determine distinct area triangles.
We prove that the order of magnitude for the maximum occurrence of unit areas
lies between and . This result is strongly connected
to both additive combinatorial results and Szemer\'edi--Trotter type incidence
theorems. Next we show a tight bound for the maximum number of minimum area
triangles. Finally we present lower and upper bounds for the maximum area and
distinct area problems by combining algebraic, geometric and combinatorial
techniques.Comment: Title is shortened. Some typos and small errors were correcte
Quo Vadis Dry Reforming of Methane?—A Review on Its Chemical, Environmental, and Industrial Prospects
In recent years, the catalytic dry reforming of methane (DRM) has increasingly come into academic focus. The interesting aspect of this reaction is seemingly the conversion of CO2 and methane, two greenhouse gases, into a valuable synthesis gas (syngas) mixture with an otherwise unachievable but industrially relevant H2/CO ratio of one. In a possible scenario, the chemical conversion of CO2 and CH4 to syngas could be used in consecutive reactions to produce synthetic fuels, with combustion to harness the stored energy. Although the educts of DRM suggest a superior impact of this reaction to mitigate global warming, its potential as a chemical energy converter and greenhouse gas absorber has still to be elucidated. In this review article, we will provide insights into the industrial maturity of this reaction and critically discuss its applicability as a cornerstone in the energy transition. We derive these insights from assessing the current state of research and knowledge on DRM. We conclude that the entire industrial process of syngas production from two greenhouse gases, including heating with current technologies, releases at least 1.23 moles of CO2 per mol of CO2 converted in the catalytic reaction. Furthermore, we show that synthetic fuels derived from this reaction exhibit a negative carbon dioxide capturing efficiency which is similar to burning methane directly in the air. We also outline potential applications and introduce prospective technologies toward a net-zero CO2 strategy based on DRM
A quantitative study of disfluencies in formal, informal and media spontaneous speech in Spanish
Proceedings of IberSpeech 2012 (Madrid, Spain)A descriptive study of the prevalence of different types of disfluencies
(fragmented words, restarts and vocalic supports) in spontaneous Spanish is
presented based on a hand-annotated corpus. A quantitative account of differences
among three types of registers (formal, informal and media) and several
subtypes of text for each register is provided to analyze the importance of each
disfluency class for a given register
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