Sequence stratigraphic interpretation of a Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) coal from the Central Appalachian Basin, USA

Peat mires retain a sensitive record of water-table (base-level) fluctuations throughout their accumulation. On this basis, coals provide one of the best opportunities to interpret high-resolution base-level change in ancient non-marine deposits. The petrographic composition of 275 samples collected from 11 localities along a 100km south-west to north-east transect across the regionally extensive (&gt;37000km2) Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) Fire Clay coal of the Central Appalachian Basin, USA was analysed to determine its internal stratigraphy. The coal is positioned within the late lowstand/early transgressive systems tract of a fourth-order depositional sequence. The results of the petrographic analyses reveal a cyclicity in the composition of the Fire Clay coal, which defines six units that are correlated over more than 100km. Each coal cycle is characterized by a gradual upward transition from vitrinite-dominated to inertinite-dominated coal, which represents a 'drying-up' succession. Increased concentrations of resistant peat components at the top of the drying-up successions indicate reduced peat accumulation rates associated with slowing rate of water-table rise, and may represent a residue of peat remaining from a phase of exposure and erosion resulting from a falling water table. These drying-up successions are bound by surfaces that display an abrupt coal facies shift from inertinite-rich to vitrinite-rich coal, representing a rapid water-table rise. Each cycle represents markedly different mire conditions with different aerial distributions, which supports the notion of temporal disconnection between each unit of coal, and suggests that considerable time may be 'locked-up' in unit bounding exposure surfaces. Recognition that the rate of peat accumulation in a mire may vary considerably through time, has important implications for studies which assume that peat and coal successions provide continuous and time-invariant records of base-level fluctuations or palaeoecological change.</p

N-cadherin is differentially expressed in histological subtypes of papillary renal cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) represents a rare tumor, which is divided, based on histological criteria, into two subtypes. In contrast to type I papillary RCC type II papillary RCC shows a worse prognosis. So far, reliable immunohistochemical markers for the distinction of these subtypes are not available. METHODS: In the present study the expression of N(neural)-, E(epithelial)-, P(placental)-, und KSP(kidney specific)-cadherin was examined in 22 papillary RCC of histological type I and 18 papillary RCC of histological type II (n = 40). RESULTS: All papillary RCC type II displayed a membranous expression for N-cadherin, whereas type I did not show any membranous positivity for N-cadherin. E-cadherin exhibited a stronger, but not significant, membranous as well as cytoplasmic expression in type II than in type I papillary RCC. A diagnostic relevant expression of P- and KSP-cadherin could not be demonstrated in both tumor entities. CONCLUSION: Thus N-cadherin represents the first immunhistochemical marker for a clear cut differentiation between papillary RCC type I and type II and could be a target for therapy and diagnostic in the future. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/201155698276173

Optical control of one and two hole spins in interacting quantum dots

A single hole spin in a semiconductor quantum dot has emerged as a quantum bit that is potentially superior to an electron spin. A key feature of holes is that they have a greatly reduced hyperfine interaction with nuclear spins, which is one of the biggest difficulties in working with an electron spin. It is now essential to show that holes are viable for quantum information processing by demonstrating fast quantum gates and scalability. To this end we have developed InAs/GaAs quantum dots coupled through coherent tunneling and charged with controlled numbers of holes. We report fast, single qubit gates using a sequence of short laser pulses. We then take the important next step toward scalability of quantum information by optically controlling two interacting hole spins in separate dots.Comment: 5 figure

Measurement of the inclusive and differential Higgs boson production cross sections in the decay mode to a pair of τ Leptons in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV

Measurements of the inclusive and differential fiducial cross sections of the Higgs boson are presented, using the τ lepton decay channel. The differential cross sections are measured as functions of the Higgs boson transverse momentum, jet multiplicity, and transverse momentum of the leading jet in the event, if any. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13  TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138  fb^{-1}. These are the first differential measurements of the Higgs boson cross section in the final state of two τ leptons. In final states with a large jet multiplicity or with a Lorentz-boosted Higgs boson, these measurements constitute a significant improvement over measurements performed in other final states

Taking stock of 10 years of published research on the ASHA programme: Examining India’s national community health worker programme from a health systems perspective

Background: As India’s accredited social health activist (ASHA) community health worker (CHW) programme enters its second decade, we take stock of the research undertaken and whether it examines the health systems interfaces required to sustain the programme at scale. Methods: We systematically searched three databases for articles on ASHAs published between 2005 and 2016. Articles that met the inclusion criteria underwent analysis using an inductive CHW–health systems interface framework. Results: A total of 122 academic articles were identified (56 quantitative, 29 mixed methods, 28 qualitative, and 9 commentary or synthesis); 44 articles reported on special interventions and 78 on the routine ASHA program. Findings on special interventions were overwhelmingly positive, with few negative or mixed results. In contrast, 55% of articles on the routine ASHA programme showed mixed findings and 23% negative, with few indicating overall positive findings, reflecting broader system constraints. Over half the articles had a health system perspective, including almost all those on general ASHA work, but only a third of those with a health condition focus. The most extensively researched health systems topics were ASHA performance, training and capacity-building, with very little research done on programme financing and reporting, ASHA grievance redressal or peer communication. Research tended to be descriptive, with fewer influence, explanatory or exploratory articles, and no predictive or emancipatory studies. Indian institutions and authors led and partnered on most of the research, wrote all the critical commentaries, and published more studies with negative results. Conclusion: Published work on ASHAs highlights a range of small-scale innovations, but also showcases the challenges faced by a programme at massive scale, situated in the broader health system. As the programme continues to evolve, critical comparative research that constructively feeds back into programme reforms is needed, particularly related to governance, intersectoral linkages, ASHA solidarity, and community capacity to provide support and oversight

CMS pythia 8 colour reconnection tunes based on underlying-event data

A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv (https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02905).Copyright © CERN for the benefit of the CMS collaboration 2023. New sets of parameter tunes for two of the colour reconnection models, quantum chromodynamics-inspired and gluon-move, implemented in the PYTHIA 8 event generator, are obtained based on the default CMS PYTHIA 8 underlying-event tune, CP5. Measurements sensitive to the underlying event performed by the CMS experiment at centre-of-mass energies s√=7 and 13TeV , and by the CDF experiment at 1.96TeV are used to constrain the parameters of colour reconnection models and multiple-parton interactions simultaneously. The new colour reconnection tunes are compared with various measurements at 1.96, 7, 8, and 13TeV including measurements of the underlying-event, strange-particle multiplicities, jet substructure observables, jet shapes, and colour flow in top quark pair (tt¯) events. The new tunes are also used to estimate the uncertainty related to colour reconnection modelling in the top quark mass measurement using the decay products of tt¯ events in the semileptonic channel at 13TeV.SCOAP3