Root calcrete formation on Quaternary karstic surfaces of Grand Cayman

The rugged karst terrain developed on the dolostones of the Miocene Cayman Formation (Fm) on Grand Cayman includes numerous large cavities that formed through the activity of tree roots. The surfaces of those cavities are coated with laminated calcrete crusts up to 8 cm thick that are formed of an alteration zone, an accretionary zone, and final infill of the cavities. These crusts are formed of various laminae, including dolostone with root traces, alveolar septal structures, peloids, micritic and microsparitic laminae, micrite with bioclasts, and pisoliths. Features such as microborings, spores, needle-fiber calcite and micro-rods are common in all parts of the calcrete crust. Calcrete formation was initiated as the roots and associated microorganisms generated the cavities. Later on trapping and binding processes and organically induced precipitation of carbonate allowed the formation of the accretionary (mostly laminar) part of the calcrete. The last phases of crust formation took place when ponded waters filled the cavities. The calcrete crusts developed on the Cayman Formation dolostones record a very specific setting for calcrete formation and constitute a good example of non-horizontal calcrete crusts

Role of SOX family of transcription factors in central nervous system tumors

SOX genes are developmental regulators with functions in the instruction of cell fate and maintenance of progenitor’s identity during embryogenesis. They play additional roles during tissue homeostasis and regeneration in adults particularly in the Central Nervous System (CNS). In the last years a growing number of evidences has shown that mutations and dysfunction of SOX factors are implicated in several human diseases, including a variety of cancers. In this review, we will summarize the current knowledge about SOX family in CNS tumors and their role in the origin and maintenance of the subpopulation of cancer stem cells in these tumors

Supergravity interacting with bosonic p-branes and local supersymmetry

We study the coupling of supergravity with a purely bosonic brane source (bosonic p-brane). The interaction, described by the sum of their respective actions, is self-consistent if the bosonic p-brane is the pure bosonic limit of a super-p-brane. In that case the dynamical system preserves 1/2 of the local supersymmetry characteristic of the `free' supergravity.Comment: 11 pages, RevTe

Effective potential and stability of the rigid membrane

The calculation of the effective potential for fixed-end and toroidal rigid $p$-branes is performed in the one-loop as well as in the $1/d$ approximations. The analysis of the involved zeta-functions (of inhomogeneous Epstein type) which appear in the process of regularization is done in full detail. Assymptotic formulas (allowing only for exponentially decreasing errors of order $\leq 10^{-3}$) are found which carry all the dependences on the basic parameters of the theory explicitly. The behaviour of the effective potential (specified to the membrane case $p=2$) is investigated, and the extrema of this effective potential are obtained.Comment: 15 PAGE

Three disks in a row: A two-dimensional scattering analog of the double-well problem

We investigate the scattering off three nonoverlapping disks equidistantly spaced along a line in the two-dimensional plane with the radii of the outer disks equal and the radius of the inner disk varied. This system is a two-dimensional scattering analog to the double-well-potential (bound state) problem in one dimension. In both systems the symmetry splittings between symmetric and antisymmetric states or resonances, respectively, have to be traced back to tunneling effects, as semiclassically the geometrical periodic orbits have no contact with the vertical symmetry axis. We construct the leading semiclassical ``creeping'' orbits that are responsible for the symmetry splitting of the resonances in this system. The collinear three-disk-system is not only one of the simplest but also one of the most effective systems for detecting creeping phenomena. While in symmetrically placed n-disk systems creeping corrections affect the subleading resonances, they here alone determine the symmetry splitting of the 3-disk resonances in the semiclassical calculation. It should therefore be considered as a paradigm for the study of creeping effects. PACS numbers: 03.65.Sq, 03.20.+i, 05.45.+bComment: replaced with published version (minor misprints corrected and references updated); 23 pages, LaTeX plus 8 Postscript figures, uses epsfig.sty, espf.sty, and epsf.te

Charge conservation and time-varying speed of light

It has been recently claimed that cosmologies with time dependent speed of light might solve some of the problems of the standard cosmological scenario, as well as inflationary scenarios. In this letter we show that most of these models, when analyzed in a consistent way, lead to large violations of charge conservation. Thus, they are severly constrained by experiment, including those where $c$ is a power of the scale factor and those whose source term is the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. In addition, early Universe scenarios with a sudden change of $c$ related to baryogenesis are discarded.Comment: 4 page

Analysis of a spatial Lotka-Volterra model with a finite range predator-prey interaction

We perform an analysis of a recent spatial version of the classical Lotka-Volterra model, where a finite scale controls individuals' interaction. We study the behavior of the predator-prey dynamics in physical spaces higher than one, showing how spatial patterns can emerge for some values of the interaction range and of the diffusion parameter.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Partition Functions for the Rigid String and Membrane at Any Temperature

Exact expressions for the partition functions of the rigid string and membrane at any temperature are obtained in terms of hypergeometric functions. By using zeta function regularization methods, the results are analytically continued and written as asymptotic sums of Riemann-Hurwitz zeta functions, which provide very good numerical approximations with just a few first terms. This allows to obtain systematic corrections to the results of Polchinski et al., corresponding to the limits $T\rightarrow 0$ and $T\rightarrow \infty$ of the rigid string, and to analyze the intermediate range of temperatures. In particular, a way to obtain the Hagedorn temperature for the rigid membrane is thus found.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX file, UB-ECM-PF 93/

A pedosedimentary succession of the Late Cenozoic of Zárate (Buenos Aires): Continental record of the MIS5 and older interglacial intervals

Pedosedimentary processes, recorded in a late Quaternary section near Zarate city, north Buenos Aires province are reconstructed in this study. Both field features and laboratory results were analyzed as a whole. Grain size, sand, silt and clay mineralogy, micromorphology, Rb and Sr concentrations, optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages as well as preliminary paleomagnetic analysis were performed in order to get a detailed information on processes involved. All studied paleosols were developed on loess horizons. Four definite breaks in sedimentation and a coupled development of paleosols were observed. On this basis four units showing different types of calcretes were defined. Welded paleosols at unit C, could be correlated to those studied at Baradero (Buenos Aires province) and Lozada (Córdoba province), which probably record the last interglacial stage before present, the Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS5), studied on marine cores. The highest values of Rb/Sr ratio reflect changes due to chemical weathering processes and generally match paleosol levels occurrences. Development of ground water-related and pedogenic calcretes, as well as their association to smectite, illite and ferric oxide indicate drier weather conditions than present and strong seasonality. Finally, a tentative correlation between one of the paleosols and the marine isotope stage 11(MIS 11) is suggested.Fil:Tófalo, O.R. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Orgeira, M.J. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Ramos, A.M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil:Alonso, M.S. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results