A multi‐method approach to dating the burial and skeleton of Kiacatoo Man,New South Wales,Australia

Kiacatoo Man, a large, rugged Aboriginal adult buried in the Lachlan riverine plains of southeastern Australia, was discovered in 2011. Laser‐ablation uranium series analysis on bone yielded a minimum age for the burial of 27.4 ± 0.4 ka (2σ). Single‐grain, optically stimulated luminescence ages on quartz sediment in which the grave had been dug gave a weighted mean age of 26.4 ± 1.5 ka (1σ). Luminescence samples from the grave infill and from sediment beneath the grave exhibit overdispersed dose distributions consistent with bioturbation or other disturbance, which has obscured the burial signal. The overlap between the minimum (U‐series) and maximum (luminescence) ages places the burial between 27.0 and 29.4 ka (2σ). Luminescence ages obtained from the channel belt of between 28 ± 2 and 25 ± 3 ka indicate that fluvial sedimentation was occurring before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with the broader geomorphic setting. Together, these results are internally and regionally consistent, and indicate that Kiacatoo Man was one of the more ancient individuals so far identified in Australia. His remains are important to our understanding of patterns of biological variation and other processes that have shaped people in the Murray‐Darling Basin through time. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

显性语法知识传授中的发现原则

尽管语法在交际教学法鼎盛时期一度遭到冷遇，但现在又重新被英语语言教学所接纳，作为一种新的语法教学方式，发现原则综合了传统归纳发和演绎法的长处，概述了发现原则的理论依据，指出发现原则旨在鼓励学习者积极参与而非被动接受，符合当前认知主义对二语学习的认识。     

Auroral zone effects on hydrogen geocorona structure and variability

The instantaneous structure of planetary exospheres is determined by the time history of energy dissipation, chemical, and transport processes operative during a prior time interval set by intrinsic atmospheric time scales. The complex combination of diurnal and magnetospheric activity modulations imposed on the Earth's upper atmosphere no doubt produce an equally complex response, especially in hydrogen, which escapes continuously at exospheric temperatures. Vidal-Madjar and Thomas (1978) have discussed some of the persistent large scale structure which is evident in satellite ultraviolet observations of hydrogen, noting in particular a depletion at high latitudes which is further discussed by Thomas and Vidal-Madjar (1978). The latter authors discussed various causes of the H density depletion, including local neutral temperature enhancements and enhanced escape rates due to polar wind H⁺ plasma flow or high latitude ion heating followed by charge exchange. We have reexamined the enhancement of neutral escape by plasma effects including the recently observed phenomenon of low altitude transverse ion acceleration. We find that, while significant fluxes of neutral H should be produced by this phenomenon in the auroral zone, this process is probably insufficient to account for the observed polar depletion. Instead, the recent exospheric temperature measurements from the Dynamics Explorer-2 spacecraft suggest that neutral heating in and near the high latitude cusp may be the major contributor to depleted atomic hydrogen densities at high latitudes.     

Radiocarbon on Titan

Abstract— We explore the likely production and fate of ¹⁴C in the thick nitrogen atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan and investigate the constraints that measurements of ¹⁴C might place on Titan's photochemical, atmospheric transport and surface‐atmosphere interaction processes. Titan's atmosphere is thick enough that cosmic‐ray flux limits the production of ¹⁴C: absence of a strong magnetic field and the increased distance from the Sun suggest production rates of ?9 atom/cm²/s, ?4x higher than Earth. The fate and detectability of ¹⁴C depends on the chemical species into which it is incorporated: as methane it would be hopelessly diluted even in only the atmosphere. However, in the more likely case that the ¹⁴C attaches to the haze that rains out onto the surface (as tholin, HCN or acetylene and their polymers), haze in the atmosphere or recently deposited on the surface would be quite radioactive. Such radioactivity may lead to a significant enhancement in the electrical conductivity of the atmosphere which will be measured by the Huygens probe. Measurements with simple detectors on future missions could place useful constraints on the mass deposition rates of photochemical material on the surface and identify locations where surface deposits of such material are “freshest”.     

Postglacial vegetation and climate dynamics in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex,central coastal British Columbia,Canada: palynological evidence from Tiny Lake

A pollen‐based study from Tiny Lake in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex of central coastal British Columbia, Canada, permits an evaluation of the dynamic response of coastal temperate rainforests to postglacial climate change. Open Pinus parklands grew at the site during the early Lateglacial when the climate was cool and dry, but more humid conditions in the later phases of the Lateglacial permitted mesophytic conifers to colonise the region. Early Holocene conditions were warmer than present and a successional mosaic of Tsuga heterophylla and Alnus occurred at Tiny Lake. Climate cooling and moistening at 8740 ± 70 ¹⁴C a BP initiated the development of closed, late successional T. heterophylla–Cupressaceae forests, which achieved modern character after 6860 ± 50 ¹⁴C a BP, when a temperate and very wet climate became established. The onset of early Holocene climate cooling and moistening at Tiny Lake may have preceded change at more southern locations, including within the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex, on a meso‐ to synoptic scale. This would suggest that an early Holocene intensification of the Aleutian Low pressure system was an important influence on forest dynamics in the Seymour‐Belize Inlet Complex and that the study region was located near the southern extent of immediate influence of this semi‐permanent air mass. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei

We examine the properties of the host galaxies of 22 623 narrow-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) with  0.02 < z < 0.3  selected from a complete sample of 122 808 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We focus on the luminosity of the [O  iii ]λ5007 emission line as a tracer of the strength of activity in the nucleus. We study how AGN host properties compare with those of normal galaxies and how they depend on L [O  iii ]. We find that AGN of all luminosities reside almost exclusively in massive galaxies and have distributions of sizes, stellar surface mass densities and concentrations that are similar to those of ordinary early-type galaxies in our sample. The host galaxies of low-luminosity AGN have stellar populations similar to normal early types. The hosts of high-luminosity AGN have much younger mean stellar ages. The young stars are not preferentially located near the nucleus of the galaxy, but are spread out over scales of at least several kiloparsecs. A significant fraction of high-luminosity AGN have strong Hδ absorption-line equivalent widths, indicating that they experienced a burst of star formation in the recent past. We have also examined the stellar populations of the host galaxies of a sample of broad-line AGN. We conclude that there is no significant difference in stellar content between type 2 Seyfert hosts and quasars (QSOs) with the same [O  iii ] luminosity and redshift. This establishes that a young stellar population is a general property of AGN with high [O  iii ] luminosities.     

Radiation Products in Processed Ices Relevant to Edgeworth-Kuiper-Belt Objects

Near the inner edge of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt (EKB) are Pluto and Charon, which are known to have N₂- and H₂O-dominated surface ices, respectively. Such non-polar and polar ices, and perhaps mixtures of them, also may be present on other trans-Neptunian objects. Pluto, Charon, and all EKB objects reside in a weak, but constant UV-photon and energetic ion radiation environment that drives chemical reactions in their surface ices. Effects of photon and ion processing include changes in ice composition, volatility, spectra, and albedo, and these have been studied in a number of laboratories. This paper focuses on ice processing by ion irradiation and is aimed at understanding the volatiles, ions, and residues that may exist on outer solar system objects. We summarize radiation chemical products of N₂-rich and H₂O-rich ices containing CO or CH₄, including possible volatiles such as alcohols, acids, and bases. Less-volatile products that could accumulate on EKB objects are observed to form in the laboratory from acid-base reactions, reactions promoted by warming, or reactions due to radiation processing of a relatively pure ice (e.g., CO → C₃O₂). New IR spectra are reported for the 1–5 mu;m region, along with band strengths for the stronger features of carbon suboxide, carbonic acid, the ammonium and cyanate ions, polyoxymethylene, and ethylene glycol. These six materials are possible contributors to EKB surfaces, and will be of interest to observers and future missions.     

Fresnel modeling of hematite crystal surfaces and application to martian hematite spherules

The gray crystalline hematite at Meridiani Planum first discovered by the Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MGS-TES) instrument occurs as spherules that have been interpreted as concretions. Analysis of the TES and mini-TES spectra shows that no 390 cm⁻¹ feature is present in the characteristic martian hematite spectrum. Here, we incorporate the mid-IR optical constants of hematite into a simple Fresnel reflectance model to understand the effect of emission angle and crystal morphology on the presence or absence of the 390 cm⁻¹ feature in an IR hematite spectrum. Based on the results we offer two models for the internal structure of the martian hematite spherules.