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Late Amazonian-aged volcanic cones of explosive origin in Ceraunius fossae, Tharsis, Mars
Full text linkDetailed volcanological studies continue to enhance our understanding of Martian eruptive styles and their associated volcanic products. Growing evidence points to the involvement of mildly explosive eruptions as one of the eruption styles that contributed to the formation of distributed volcanic edifices in the volcanic province, Tharsis. This highlights a complex and dynamic eruptive evolution that occurred during the late Amazonian volcanism. Therefore, here, we report on the presence of small-scale, conical-shaped volcanic edifices located at the edge of Ceraunius Fossae in Tharsis. The association of the N-S aligned cones with a rough-surfaced lava flow enabled us to constrain the minimum age of their volcanic activity at ca. 48 Ma. Although they superficially resemble Martian scoria cones, their morphometric parameters indicate that they have a distinct and separate origin. They comprise coarser pyroclastic material such as spatter, and display an accumulation of likely volcanic bombs on the cones' slopes and at their bases, observable in the high-resolution images. Combining the sizes and distribution of the mapped individual volcanic bombs with a ballistic emplacement model enables us to calculate the exit velocity and maximum height for a given bomb density at a given launch angle. This provides a means to improve our understanding of ballistic trajectories and distances over which the pyroclastic material can be transported on Mars. Moreover, we argue that the portfolio of Martian volcanic edifices is more diverse than currently recognized. The use of high-resolution remotely sensed volcanological mapping could provide critical information about volcanic products and, consequently, the magma fragmentation, which depends on the eruptivity, controlled by magma composition and volatile contents
Greening agriculture: accelerating safe- and sustainable-by-design plant protection products through innovation and incentives in the European Union : Accelerating Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Plant Protection Products through Innovation and Incentives in the EU
Full text linkThe European Union’s (EU’s) Green Deal initiatives, including the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, emphasize the need for developing plant protection products (PPPs) that meet safety and sustainability goals. In the EU, PPPs are regulated under Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009, which sets approval criteria to ensure human health and environmental safety. This legislation is complemented by the sustainable use of pesticides (Directive 2009/128), which aims to achieve sustainable pesticide use by minimizing risks to human health and the environment, while promoting use of integrated pest management and nonchemical alternatives. Although both legislations address the conditions of placing PPPs on the market and their use, neither directly addresses the broader aspects of sustainability, such as the life cycle impacts, resource efficiency during design and manufacture, and the socioeconomic dimensions of sustainability. The safe- and sustainable-by-design framework of the EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre offers a holistic approach to chemical product innovation, minimizing risks and maximizing sustainability throughout a chemical’s life cycle. This framework, combined with existing safety regulations, can advance the sustainability of PPPs in line with the European Green Deal and the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. Agrochemical manufacturers have embedded into their innovation pipelines practices that align with the safe- and sustainable-by-design framework, but approaches tend to be company specific and lack standardized metrics. Incorporating well-defined sustainability criteria and incentives for manufacturers would accelerate the development of PPPs that contribute to long-term agricultural sustainability, safeguard human health and the environment, and ensure food security in line with sustainable development goals
Canopy reflectance as a predictor of soil microbial community composition and diversity at a continental scale
Full text linkSummary: Canopy reflectance captures plant traits related to ecological processes, which may reflect the composition of soil microbial communities. However, the extent to which canopy reflectance can help elucidate soil microbial community composition and diversity across biomes remains unclear. Using data from 14 National Ecological Observatory Network ecoregions (domains), we linked plant traits to soil microbial composition and diversity (characterised by phospholipid fatty acids and 16S rRNA gene sequencing) and built partial least squares regression models to predict soil microbial attributes from airborne imaging spectroscopy at the continental scale. The ability of remote sensing to predict soil microbial communities was mediated by plant attributes that both directly influence microbial communities and reflect shared responses to soil and climate gradients. Model validation accuracy varied with taxonomic resolution (normalised root mean squared error, 10.1–24%; coefficient of determination, 0.27–0.86), with models of broad soil microbial groups performing best, although bacterial community composition and diversity could also be modelled with moderate levels of accuracy (normalised root mean squared error, 12.5–18.6%; coefficient of determination, 0.43–0.61). Models using full‐spectrum hyperspectral data consistently outperformed those based on simple vegetation indices, highlighting the value of imaging spectroscopy for soil microbial research
The impact of foreign media on political mobilization during the Arab Spring
Full text linkWe investigate how foreign media influenced political mobilization during the Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Focusing on two prominent transnational networks, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, we use Arab Barometer survey data to track political mobilization and media use indicators in Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories. To address potential endogeneity, we use the frequency of lightning strikes and submarine cable seaquake shocks as instrumental variables, which help isolate exogenous variation in access to foreign media. Our results show that access to foreign media has a positive and statistically significant effect on political mobilization. A one-standard-deviation increase corresponds to a rise in the likelihood of participating in protests of approximately 6.5 percentage points, a gain of approximately 39% at the sample mean. We argue that this effect is primarily driven by the informational dimension of foreign media, rather than its ideological content
Age-Related Changes in the Attentional Modulation of Multisensory Integration in Relation to Balance Maintenance
No full textAgeing is associated with increased multisensory integration and reduced attentional control during audiovisual processing, which can lead to inaccurate representations of dynamic environments and may contribute to fall risk in older adults. Alpha-band oscillatory activity (8–12 Hz), commonly interpreted as an index of inhibitory attentional control, is a plausible neural mechanism underlying age-related differences in multisensory attention. Here, we tested whether alterations in alpha oscillatory dynamics account for reduced attentional modulation of audiovisual integration in ageing, and whether these neural signatures relate to measures of fall risk. Thirty-six younger adults (18–35 years) and thirty-six older adults (60–80 years) completed a cued spatial-attention stream–bounce task assessing audiovisual integration at validly and invalidly cued locations, with stimulus-onset asynchronies of 0 ms and 300 ms. Concurrent EEG was recorded to quantify task-related alpha-band activity as a marker of inhibitory control. Balance and postural sway were assessed as indices of fall risk. Behaviourally, both age groups showed comparable attentional modulation of audiovisual integration. In contrast, electrophysiological data revealed age-related differences in neural control mechanisms: younger adults exhibited clear, cue-dependent modulation of alpha power, whereas older adults did not show such modulation. These findings demonstrate a dissociation between preserved behavioural performance and altered neural control mechanisms in ageing, highlighting the importance of neural measures for revealing age-related changes in attentional control that are not evident from behaviour alone. Together, these results implicate reduced flexibility of alpha-mediated inhibitory processes linking attentional control, multisensory processing, and balance in ageing
Systems theory, law and complexity theory
Full text linkIt is not sufficient to recognize law as a system, we must see that legal systems are complex systems. In a ‘complex’ system, structure emerges spontaneously as the result of the interactions between the component elements in the system as they encounter new information. Our contention is that legal systems are complex systems, and that to better make sense of Law we must look to the insights from complexity theory. In this chapter we outline the origins of complexity theory in the natural and social sciences, and the value it offers to legal analysis over other systems theory approaches to law
Ultra-high-strain-rate deformation induced HCP-to-FCC phase transformation and its interaction with {112¯2} twin in pure Ti
No full textIn this work, HCP-to-FCC phase transformation and its interaction with {11 ¯ 2 2} compression twins (CTWs) in CP-Ti under ultra-high-strain-rate compression (∼106/s) was investigated. Muti-scale characterization and analysis demonstrate the both B- and P-type FCCTi lamellae are profusely generated and exhibit significant growth capability and intensive interaction with the CTWs. Particularly, two adjacent FCCTi lamellae with a twinning relationship can be formed within the CTW and matrix, respectively. Moreover, two adjacent FCCTi lamellae with nearly identical orientation can be formed within the two different CTW variants. Two possible mechanisms were proposed to account for this unique phenomenon
Quantum Monte Carlo study of low-dimensional Fermi fluids of dipolar atoms
No full textFermionic cold atoms in optical traps provide viable quantum simulators of correlation effects in electronic systems. For dressed Rydberg atoms in two-dimensional traps with out-of-plane dipole moments, a realistic model of the pairwise interaction is of repulsive dipolar form at long range, softened to a constant at short range. This study provides parametrizations of fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo energy data for ferromagnetic (one-component) and paramagnetic (two-component) two-dimensional homogeneous Fermi fluids of interacting dipolar atoms. We find itinerant ferromagnetism to be unstable within our parameter spaces for dipolar interactions both with and without softening. Our parametrization of the energy as a function of density will enable density functional theory to support experimental studies of inhomogeneous fermionic cold atom systems