Search for: All records

A new latest Paleocene mammal fauna from the Great Divide Basin in southern Wyoming is described and compared with fossil assemblages of similar age elsewhere in Wyoming. The Twelvemile Gulch local fauna is currently documented by 182 mammalian (127 identifiable) specimens from two localities representing 10 orders, 18 families, and 22 species of mammals, including Phenacolemur cavatus, new species. Several characteristic taxa indicate a Clarkforkian age, but some taxa that co-occur at Twelvemile Gulch show disjunct stratigraphic ranges in the well-documented stratigraphic sequence exposed in the Clarks Fork Basin of northern Wyoming. Anachronistic occurrences of Clarkforkian taxa in northern and southern Wyoming have now been documented repeatedly. These unexpected faunal associations likely reflect changing climates and associated taxon-specific range shifts across a latitudinal gradient in the Rocky Mountain Interior. The apparently asynchronous first and last appearances of certain taxa across this latitudinal gradient highlight the utility of immigrant clades over endemic taxa in biostratigraphy. A previous biozonation scheme for the Clarkforkian of the Clarks Fork Basin emphasized endemic Plesiadapis cookei and Copecion as index taxa for Clarkforkian biozones Cf-2 and Cf-3, respectively. However, the applicability of this zonation to Clarkforkian faunas from other parts of Wyoming has been problematic because Plesiadapis cookei occurs in all of them, despite substantial evidence for age disparity among these faunas. A revised biozonation for the Clarkforkian leverages first appearances of invasive Coryphodontidae and Miacidae to discriminate later Clarkforkian faunas including Twelvemile Gulch from earlier Clarkforkian faunas such as Big Multi Quarry. 

Abstract Environmental practitioners often develop communications and behavior change interventions that conceptualize individuals as consumers or as other limited, standalone personae. This view neglects the role of conservation audiences as social beings with complex social relationships and networks, potentially resulting in lost opportunities to increase the effectiveness of conservation interventions. We offer a reframing of individuals as members of social networks who can influence others through their many different societal roles. This framing may help individuals recognize their potential to affect large‐scale societal structures and empower them to contribute to systemic changes. In practice, conservation organizations might increase the impact and reach of their behavioral interventions by targeting social referents (individuals or groups who people reference for accepted and desired behaviors) and leveraging interpersonal relationships. This includes encouraging individuals to make use of their networks to discuss issues such as biodiversity loss with a variety of acquaintances to normalize them as a topic of conversation. We argue that organizations can leverage the power of social networks to amplify change and promote the message that people change the world through their social ties, thereby inspiring audiences to further engage in conservation behaviors. 

This paper presents a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) design and simulation aimed at enhancing beamforming and beam steering capabilities for 5G and 6G mobile communications. The proposed design introduces a 2- bit unit cell design, having four distinct phase states that can be tuned by a single varactor diode. This configuration has a 5x5 array and provides efficient operation at 23.8 GHz within the 5G New Radio (NR) frequency range 2 (FR2). The proposed RIS design demonstrates unique beam steering capabilities ranging from −60∘ to 60∘ in the azimuth plane which is crucial for extending coverage into the mm-wave coverage. The performance of the RIS is simulated using the CST 3D electromagnetic simulator, focusing on radar cross section (RCS) pattern for optimization. The simulation results reveal effective beam steering capabilities ranging from -10° to -60° and 10° to 60°, with a minimum scan loss of approximately 3 dB. The proposed RIS exhibits the high angular reciprocity that handles the incident waves up to 110∘ at an oblique 60∘ angle. 

Abstract Climate-driven permafrost thaw can release ancient carbon to the atmosphere, begetting further warming in a positive feedback loop. Polar ice core data and young radiocarbon ages of dissolved methane in thermokarst lakes have challenged the importance of this feedback, but field studies did not adequately account for older methane released from permafrost through bubbling. We synthesized panarctic isotope and emissions datasets to derive integrated ages of panarctic lake methane fluxes. Methane age in modern thermokarst lakes (3132 ± 731 years before present) reflects remobilization of ancient carbon. Thermokarst-lake methane emissions fit within the constraints imposed by polar ice core data. Younger, albeit ultimately larger sources of methane from glacial lakes, estimated here, lagged those from thermokarst lakes. Our results imply that panarctic lake methane release was a small positive feedback to climate warming, comprising up to 17% of total northern hemisphere sources during the deglacial period. 

Nucleon structure functions, as measured in lepton-nucleon scattering, have historically provided a critical observable in the study of partonic dynamics within the nucleon. However, at very large parton momenta, it is both experimentally and theoretically challenging to extract parton distributions due to the probable onset of nonperturbative contributions and the unavailability of high-precision data at critical kinematics. Extraction of the neutron structure and the d quark distribution have been further challenging because of the necessity of applying nuclear corrections when utilizing scattering data from a deuteron target to extract the free neutron structure. However, a program of experiments has been carried out recently at the energy-upgraded Jefferson Lab electron accelerator aimed at significantly reducing the nuclear correction uncertainties on the d quark distribution function at large partonic momentum. This allows leveraging the vast body of deuterium data covering a large kinematic range to be utilized for d quark parton distribution function extraction. In this Letter, we present new data from experiment E12-10-002, carried out in Jefferson Lab Experimental Hall C, on the deuteron to proton cross section ratio at large Bjorken $x$. These results significantly improve the precision of existing data and provide a first look at the expected impact on quark distributions extracted from parton distribution function fits. 

Abstract This study focuses on understanding what drives the previously observed deep nighttime ionospheric hole in the American sector during the January 2013 sudden stratospheric warming (SSW). Performing a set of numerical experiments with the thermosphere‐ionosphere‐mesosphere‐electrodynamics general circulation model (TIME‐GCM) constrained by a high‐altitude version of the Navy Global Environmental Model, we demonstrate that this nighttime ionospheric hole was the result of increased poleward and down magnetic field line plasma motion at low and midlatitudes in response to alteredF‐region neutral meridional winds. Thermospheric meridional wind modifications that produced this nighttime depletion resulted from the well‐known enhancements in semidiurnal tidal amplitudes associated with stratospheric warming (SSWs) in the upper mesosphere and thermosphere. Investigations into other deep nighttime ionospheric depletions and their cause were also considered. Measurements of total electron content from Global Navigation Satellite System receivers and additional constrained TIME‐GCM simulations showed that nighttime ionospheric depletions were also observed on several nights during the January‐February 2010 SSW, which resulted from the same forcing mechanisms as those observed in January 2013. Lastly, the recent January 2021 SSW was examined using Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2, COSMIC‐2 Global Ionospheric Specification electron density, and ICON Michelson Interferometer for Global High‐Resolution Thermospheric Imaging horizontal wind data and revealed a deep nighttime ionospheric depletion in the American sector was likely driven by modified meridional winds in the thermosphere. The results shown herein highlight the importance of thermospheric winds in driving nighttime ionospheric variability over a wide latitude range. 

Abstract While basaltic volcanism is dominant during rifting and continental breakup, felsic magmatism may be a significant component of some rift margins. During International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 396 on the continental margin of Norway, a graphite‐garnet‐cordierite bearing dacitic unit (the Mimir dacite) was recovered in two holes within early Eocene sediments on Mimir High (Site U1570), a marginal high on the Vøring Transform Margin. Here, we present a comprehensive textural, petrological, and geochemical study of the Mimir dacite in order to assess its origin and discuss the geodynamic implications. The major mineral phases (garnet, cordierite, quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar) are hosted in a fresh rhyolitic, vesicular, glassy matrix that is locally mingled with sediments. The major element chemistry of garnet and cordierite, the presence of zircon inclusions with inherited cores, and thermobarometric calculations all support an upper crustal metapelitic origin. While most magma‐rich margin models favor crustal anatexis in the lower crust, thermobarometric calculations performed here show that the Mimir dacite was produced at upper‐crustal depths (<5 kbar, 18 km depth) and high temperature (750–800°C) with up to 3 wt% water content. In situ U‐Pb analyses on zircon inclusions give a magmatic crystallization age of 54.6 ± 1.1 Ma, consistent with emplacement that post‐dates the Paleocene‐Eocene Thermal Maximum. Our results suggest that the opening of the Northeast Atlantic was associated with a phase of low‐pressure, high‐temperature crustal anatexis preceding the main phase of magmatism.