The mutual climatic range method of palaeoclimate reconstruction based on insect fossils: New applications and interhemispheric comparisons

The Mutual Climatic Range (MCR) method of palaeoclimate reconstruction has been employed in Europe for the last decade. A quantitative, calibrated method, MCR has many advantages over qualitative methods. More recent applications deal with eastern and central North America, and the method is also being developed for desert and arctic faunas. The climate envelopes for North American beetles have been compiled using a 25-km gridded North American climate database that pairs climate parameters with modern collection sites. Modern tests of the reliability of the MCR method for North American species yielded similar results to prior European tests. Linear regressions of predicted on observed values yielded equations used to calibrate the MCR estimates. Work is under way to develop MCR estimates of mean annual precipitation for fossil assemblages from the desert southwest, where moisture conditions may play a more important role in determining beetle species' ranges.An examination of British and North American mean July temperature reconstructions during the Late Wisconsinan glacial interval compares and contrasts three sets of records. The North American records show no indication of the Younger Dryas cooling that is clearly marked in records from northwest Europe. The MCR method adds vigour to our reconstructions, and allows us to compare between regions and with other palaeoenvironmental methods.     

Nonsmooth dynamics prediction of measured bridge response involving deck‐abutment pounding

Earthquake‐induced deck‐abutment contact alters the boundary conditions at the deck level and might activate a different mechanical system than the one assumed during the design of the bridge. Occasionally this discrepancy between the assumed and the actual seismic behavior has detrimental consequences, for example, pier damage, deck unseating, or even collapse. Recently, an insightful shake‐table testing of a scaled deck‐abutment bridge model 1 , showed unexpected in‐plane rotations even though the deck was straight. These contact‐induced rotations produced significant residual displacements and damage to the piers and the bents. The present paper utilizes that experimental data to examine the validity and the limitations of a proposed nonsmooth dynamic analysis framework. The results show that the proposed approach satisfactorily captures the planar rigid‐body dynamics of the deck which is characterized by deck‐abutment contact. The analysis brings forward the role of friction on the physical mechanism behind the rotation of the deck, and underlines the importance of considering the frictional contact forces during deck‐abutment interaction even for straight bridges, which typically are neglected. Finally, the paper investigates the sensitivity of the rotation with respect to macroscopic contact parameters (i.e., the coefficient of friction and the coefficient of restitution). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scaling property of regional floods in New South Wales Australia

Regional flood frequency analysis (RFFA) is often used in hydrology to estimate flood quantiles when there is a limitation of at-site recorded flood data. One of the commonly used RFFA methods is the index flood method, which is based on the assumptions that a region satisfies criterion of simple scaling and it can be treated homogeneous. Another RFFA method is quantile regression technique where prediction equations are developed for flood quantiles of interest as function of catchment characteristics. In this paper, the scaling property of regional floods in New South Wales (NSW) State in Australia is investigated. The results indicate that the annual maximum floods in NSW satisfy a simple scaling assumption. The application of a heterogeneity test, however, reveals that NSW flood data set does not satisfy the criteria for a homogeneous region. Finally, a set of prediction equations are developed for NSW using quantile regression technique; an independent test shows that these equations can provide reasonably accurate design flood estimates with a median relative error of about 27%.     

Dynamically equivalent rocking structures

Predicting the rocking response of structures to ground motion is important for assessment of existing structures, which may be vulnerable to uplift and overturning, as well as for designs which employ rocking as a means of seismic isolation. However, the majority of studies utilize a single rocking block to characterize rocking motion. In this paper, a methodology is proposed to derive equivalence between the single rocking block and various rocking mechanisms, yielding a set of fundamental rocking parameters. Specific structures that have exact dynamic equivalence with a single rocking block, are first reviewed. Subsequently, approximate equivalence between single and multiple block mechanisms is achieved through local linearization of the relevant equations of motion. The approximation error associated with linearization is quantified for three essential mechanisms, providing a measure of the confidence with which the proposed methodology can be applied. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The structure of Neptune's upper atmosphere: The stellar occultation of 24 May 1981

Observations of the 24 May 1981 occultation of an uncatalogued star by Neptune made at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have been analyzed to yield temperature profiles of Neptune's upper atmosphere for number densities near 5 × 10¹³ cm^?3. The mean temperatures at immersion (latitude ?56°) and emersion (latitude ?16°) obtained by numerical inversion were 140 ± 10°K and 154 ± 10°K, respectively. The immersion and emersion profiles are remarkably similar in overall shape, suggestive of global atmospheric layering. From the astrometry of the event, precise relative positions of Neptune and the occulted were obtained.     

The ISM in nearby galaxies

The SKA will revolutionise the study of the principles underlying star formation (SF), resolving interstellar cloud complexes which are the birthplaces of stars and answering such questions as which are the sufficient and necessary conditions for SF to commence. Also, massive SF is intimately related to stellar death. The SKA will be able to study the structure of the ISM at 100 pc resolution out to distances of up to 20 Mpc and will quantify the impact the demise of massive stars has on their environment. Importantly, the SKA will probe the transition region between ISM and IGM, linking star formation and stellar death in the disks of galaxies to faint HI structures further afield, such as “anomalous gas” and (Compact) High Velocity Clouds. Lastly, the superb sensitivity of the SKA will result in some hundred background sources per square degree against which HI absorption lines can be searched for, probing not only the relative importance of the different phases of the gas in galaxies but also the low density gas in the outskirts and between galaxies.     

Star-formation modes in the solar neighborhood

We perform a study into the spatial and kinematical distribution of young open clusters in the solar neighborhood, distinguishing between Gould Belt and local Galactic disk members. We use a previous estimate of the structural parameters of both systems obtained from a sample of O to B6 stars from Hipparcos. The two star-forming regions that dominate and give the Gould Belt its characteristic inclined shape show a striking difference in their content of star clusters: while Ori OB1 is richly populated by open clusters, not a single one can be found within the boundaries of Sco OB2. This is mirrored in velocity space, translating again into an abundance of clusters in the region of the kinematic space populated by the members of Ori OB1, and a marginal number of them associated with Sco OB2. We interpret all these differences by characterizing the Orion region as a cluster complex typically surrounded by a stellar halo, and the Sco-Cen region as an OB association in the outskirts of the complex. The different contents of star clusters, the different heights above the Galactic plane and the different residual velocities of Ori OB1 and Sco OB2 can be explained in terms of their relative position with respect to the density maximum of the Local Arm in the solar neighborhood. The origin of this feature could have been the interaction of a density wave with the local interstellar medium close to the Galactic co-rotation radius.     

Hierarchical star formation: stars and stellar clusters in the Gould Belt

We perform a study of the spatial and kinematical distribution of young open clusters in the solar neighbourhood, discerning between bound clusters and transient stellar condensations within our sample. Then, we discriminate between Gould Belt (GB) and local Galactic disc (LGD) members, using our previous estimate of the structural parameters of both systems obtained from a sample of O-B6 Hipparcos stars. Single membership probabilities of the clusters are also calculated in the separation process. Using this classified sample, we analyse the spatial structure and the kinematic behaviour of the cluster system in the GB. The two star formation regions that dominate and give the GB its characteristic-inclined shape show a striking difference in their content of star clusters: while Ori OB1 is richly populated by open clusters, not a single one can be found within the boundaries of Sco OB2. This is mirrored in the velocity space, translating again into an abundance of clusters in the region of the kinematic space populated by the members of Ori OB1, and a marginal number of them associated with Sco OB2. We interpret all these differences by characterizing the Orion region as a cluster complex typically surrounded by a stellar halo, and the Sco-Cen region as an OB association in the outskirts of the complex. In the light of these results, we study the nature of the GB with respect to the optical segment of the Orion Arm, and we propose that the different content of star clusters, the different heights over the Galactic plane and the different residual velocities of Ori OB1 and Sco OB2 can be explained in terms of their relative position to the density maximum of the Local Arm in the solar neighbourhood. Although morphologically intriguing, the GB appears to be the result of our local and biased view of a larger star cluster complex in the Local Arm, that could be explained by the internal dynamics of the Galactic disc.