Scaling of Star Polymers with one to 80 Arms

We present large statistics simulations of 3-dimensional star polymers with up to $f=80$ arms, and with up to 4000 monomers per arm for small values of $f$. They were done for the Domb-Joyce model on the simple cubic lattice. This is a model with soft core exclusion which allows multiple occupancy of sites but punishes each same-site pair of monomers with a Boltzmann factor $v<1$. We use this to allow all arms to be attached at the central site, and we use the `magic' value $v=0.6$ to minimize corrections to scaling. The simulations are made with a very efficient chain growth algorithm with resampling, PERM, modified to allow simultaneous growth of all arms. This allows us to measure not only the swelling (as observed from the center-to-end distances), but also the partition sum. The latter gives very precise estimates of the critical exponents $\gamma_f$. For completeness we made also extensive simulations of linear (unbranched) polymers which give the best estimates for the exponent $\gamma$.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

The Impact of Global Warming and Anoxia on Marine Benthic Community Dynamics: an Example from the Toarcian (Early Jurassic)

The Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Early Jurassic) fossil record is an archive of natural data of benthic community response to global warming and marine long-term hypoxia and anoxia. In the early Toarcian mean temperatures increased by the same order of magnitude as that predicted for the near future; laminated, organic-rich, black shales were deposited in many shallow water epicontinental basins; and a biotic crisis occurred in the marine realm, with the extinction of approximately 5% of families and 26% of genera. High-resolution quantitative abundance data of benthic invertebrates were collected from the Cleveland Basin (North Yorkshire, UK), and analysed with multivariate statistical methods to detect how the fauna responded to environmental changes during the early Toarcian. Twelve biofacies were identified. Their changes through time closely resemble the pattern of faunal degradation and recovery observed in modern habitats affected by anoxia. All four successional stages of community structure recorded in modern studies are recognised in the fossil data (i.e. Stage III: climax; II: transitional; I: pioneer; 0: highly disturbed). Two main faunal turnover events occurred: (i) at the onset of anoxia, with the extinction of most benthic species and the survival of a few adapted to thrive in low-oxygen conditions (Stages I to 0) and (ii) in the recovery, when newly evolved species colonized the re-oxygenated soft sediments and the path of recovery did not retrace of pattern of ecological degradation (Stages I to II). The ordination of samples coupled with sedimentological and palaeotemperature proxy data indicate that the onset of anoxia and the extinction horizon coincide with both a rise in temperature and sea level. Our study of how faunal associations co-vary with long and short term sea level and temperature changes has implications for predicting the long-term effects of “dead zones” in modern oceans

Mass mortality or exceptional fossilization? The case of the early and middle Toarcian fossiliferous beds from the Digne-Les-Bains area (southeastern France)

La série sédimentaire d’âge domérien supérieur à toarcien supérieur (de –190 à –180 Ma) dans la Réserve Géologique de Haute-Provence (Sud-Est de la France) a l’intérêt de présenter deux types de gisements fossilifères remarquables. Le premier type, d’âge toarcien inférieur, a la particularité de présenter des restes d’ichtyosaures (dans au moins six sites) en plus de très nombreux autres fossiles. Le deuxième type, d’âge toarcien moyen, est caractérisé par l’abondance et la présence presque exclusive d’ammonites et de nautiles. Des études lithostratigraphiques, biostratigraphiques, paléontologiques, sédimentologiques et géochimiques, ont permis de savoir si ces accumulations résultaient de mortalité en masse ou bien si elles n’étaient dues qu’à des fossilisations exceptionnelles d’organismes à taux de mortalité normal. Les accumulations d’âge toarcien inférieur se sont effectuées, après mortalité normale, par piégeage avec des sédiments terrigènes dans des hémigrabens à la suite de jeu de blocs basculés et pendant une période d’anoxie ou d’hypoxie. Les gisements d’âge toarcien moyen correspondent à des condensations et concentrations fauniques lors de sédimentation carbonatée très réduite en liaison avec une transgression marine de grande ampleur. Diverses conditions, tectoniques locales de rifting, eustatiques régionales liées à l’évolution du domaine liguro-piémontais, océanographiques globales d’anoxie et de crise de production carbonatée, ont toutes joué un rôle dans la genèse des gisements fossilifères. Tout lien avec des extinctions massives, en rapport ou non avec des crises biologiques, est exclu

New perspective in steelmaking activity to increase competitiveness and reduce enviromental impact

The competitiveness of the European steel industry is strictly related to the introduction of high performanceproducts and to the increase in process efficiency and to the reduction in environmental impact. Thesechallenges can be faced to ensure a future to the area’s important industrial assets and some actions need to beidentified. Several aspects about steelmaking plants, processes and steel products have been highlighted andnowadays, they may become the object of innovative action and efforts in order to achieve and maintain a highlevel of competitiveness and to solve this serious industrial crisis

Anagenetic evolution of the Early Tithonian Ammonite genus Semiformiceras tested with cladistic analysis

International audienceThe Early Tithonian ammonite genus Semiformiceras represents a lineage that lasted almost 3 myr. Previously, a gradual, anagenetic evolutionary pattern has been proposed on the basis of both biostratigraphic data and the interpretation of morphological changes in successive species, subspecies or morphotypes. The existence of two almost homeomorphic species, S. birkenmajeri and S. gemmellaroi, at two separate stratigraphic intervals in the early Tithonian contrasts with the transformation of characters suggested by the stratigraphic distribution of others. New descriptions of 18 specimens of the poorly known species Semiformiceras gemmellaroi (Zittel) allow a more accurate analysis of its characters. Cladistic analysis of a taxon-character matrix is based on nine Semiformiceras phena (species, chronosubspecies and morphotypes) and two outgroup taxa (Taramelliceras and Streblites), using 14 morphological characters. The phyletic relationships inferred from these do not fit the anagenetic pattern and question the adequacy of the fossil record in reconstructing phyletic lineages