Galaxy activity and interaction: the optical view

The relevance of interaction to the presence of Seyfert or starburst activity in the nuclei of galaxies is examined. We focus the attention on the close environments of spectroscopically selected samples of Seyfert-1, Seyfert-2 and starburst galaxies. In particular the results of a statistical procedure aimed at finding physical pairs are tested with redshift measurements of the identified pairs. Seyfert and starburts galaxies show an excess of physical companions compared to normal galaxies. This excess tends to increase as one moves from Seyfert to starburst galaxies.     

On Sitnikov-like motions generating new kinds of 3D periodic orbits in the R3BP with prolate primaries

The existence of new equilibrium points is established in the restricted three-body problem with equal prolate primaries. These are located on the Z-axis above and below the inner Eulerian equilibrium point L ₁ and give rise to a new type of straight-line periodic oscillations, different from the well known Sitnikov motions. Using the stability properties of these oscillations, bifurcation points are found at which new types of families of 3D periodic orbits branch out of the Z-axis consisting of orbits located entirely above or below the orbital plane of the primaries. Several of the bifurcating families are continued numerically and typical member orbits are illustrated.     

Coupled atmosphere-ocean models of Titan's past

We have developed a coupled atmosphere and ocean model of Titan's surface. The atmospheric model is a 1-D spectrally-resolved radiative-convective model. The ocean thermodynamics are based upon solution theory. The ocean, initially composed of CH4, becomes progressively enriched in ethane over time. The partial pressures of N2 and CH4 in the atmosphere are dependent on the ocean temperature and composition. We find that the resulting system is stable against a runaway greenhouse. Accounting for the decreased solar luminosity, we find that Titan's surface temperature was about 20 K colder 4 Gyr ago. Without an ocean, but only small CH4 lakes, the temperature change is 12 K. In both cases we find that the surface of Titan may have been ice covered about 3 Gyr ago. In the lakes case condensation of N2 provides the ice, whereas in the ocean case the ocean freezes. The dominant factor influencing the evolution of Titan's surface temperature is the change in the solar constant--amplified, if an ocean is present, by the temperature dependence of the solubility of N2. Accretional heating can dramatically alter the surface temperature; a surface thermal flux of 500 erg cm-2 sec-1, representative of small levels of accretional heating, results in a approximately 20 K change in surface temperatures.     

CANADIAN ARCTIC METEORITE SEARCH: 1981

The recovery of several thousand meteorite fragments from Antarctica has led to speculation that accumulations may occur on the Earth's other major ice caps. Meteorites falling over the past 80,000 years on the Devon Island ice cap in the Canadian Arctic may be exposed at the surface near the ice cap margin. From the terrestrial meteorite flux, ice movement rates, and fragmentation factors it is calculated that 12,560 samples of 150 g mass are potentially concentrated in a 65 km² zone along the northwest margin. A search of this region on foot and by helicopter in July, 1981, failed to recover any specimens. Although metre-sized gneissic boulders, plucked from the underlying Precambrian basement, were concentrated in this zone it is postulated that the unseasonal 30 cm snow cover on the ice prohibited the recognition of possible meteorite specimens, which may average only 5 cm in diameter.     

An OLS regression model for context-aware tile prefetching in a web map cache

The increasing popularity of web map services has motivated the development of more scalable services in the spatial data infrastructures. Tiled map services have emerged as a scalable alternative to traditional map services. Instead of rendering map images on the fly, a collection of pre-generated image tiles can be served very fast from a server-side cache. However, during the start-up of the service, the cache is initially empty and users experience a poor quality of service. Tile prefetching attempts to improve hit rates by proactively fetching map images without waiting for client requests.

While most popular prefetching policies in traditional web caching consider only the previous access history to make predictions, significant improvements could be achieved in web mapping by taking into account the background geographic information.

This work proposes a regressive model to predict which areas are likely to be requested in the future based on spatial cross-correlation between an unconstrained catalog of geographic features and a record of past cache requests. Tiles that are anticipated to be most frequently requested can be pre-generated and cached for faster retrieval. Trace-driven simulations with several million cache requests from two different nation-wide public web map services in Spain demonstrate that accurate predictions and performance gains can be obtained with the proposed model.     

Aid to the Southern African periphery: the case of Lesotho

Lesotho receives a disproportionate volume of aid, most of it disbursed on exceedingly generous terms. In recent years, allocations have escalated and sources diversified. Increasingly, projects are being funded multilaterally with the Lesotho Government contributing a proportion and retaining a large measure of control. Hence, many of the now traditional arguments against aid—the creation of debt, tying of expenditure, manipulation of the economy in the interests of foreign capital—cannot be sustained in the case of Lesotho. Theoretically, the objective of the transfer of capital is the development of the indigenous economy and therefore the reduction of dependence on South Africa. However, an analysis of aid disbursements reveals disturbing trends which seriously question this prospectus. First, aid is allowing the Government to divert domestic revenue to projects of dubious developmental value and to the expansion and entrenchment of the state apparatus. Second, allocations to the agricultural sector, the underdevelopment of which constitutes the most serious obstacle to the manufacture of an independent economic future, are being cut back in favour of ventures where the returns are more visible and immediate. Third, a vast percentage of externally derived capital is rerouted to the South African space-economy via Lesotho through a variety of conduits catalogued in this paper. Thus, in this form, aid serves to tighten dependency but, ironically, it helps to guarantee political independence of the Republic by providing within Lesotho an attractive reservoir of foreign exchange which can be readily tapped by South African companies.     

Spatial difference and mechanisms of influence of geo-economy in the border areas of China

Border areas are both important territorial security barriers and portals to the outside world. Considering the complicated geopolitical environment of China’s inland borders, analysis of the current status and mechanisms of influence of geo-economy in border areas is of great significance. Namely, this analysis is important towards leveraging traditional advantages to accelerate China’s development in border and minority areas. Based on a comprehensive analysis, our study constructed a framework to analyze the geo-economy in border areas, and also introduced three indexes: local economy, export-oriented economy and local development. In addition, our study systematically described geo-economic evolution in the border areas of China. We also analyzed the mechanism of geo-economic spatial differentiation in these border areas by using geographical detectors. Our results indicated that the level of geo-economic influence in border areas has grown steadily with significant spatial differentiation. The absolute geo-economic dominance of Northeast China gradually declines over time. Areas with geo-economic advantages are highly dispersed, showing a spatial polarization pattern with several polar nuclei including Mudanjiang city (Northeast China), Baotou city (Inner Mongolia), Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture (Xinjiang), Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture and the city of Chongzuo (Yunnan-Guangxi area). Geo-economics in border area is mainly influenced by national policies, the development level of neighboring countries, as well as the desire of these countries to cooperate with China in bilateral trade. Favorable policies, traffic, cultural proximity and other factors also impact the geo-economics of border areas significantly. The Inner Mongolia and Tibet areas are mainly influenced by neighboring countries, while Northeast China and Xinjiang are mainly affected by Chinese policies; the Yunnan-Guangxi area is influenced by a combination of these factors. At the end of the study, we provide our recommendations for developing policies that further geo-economic advantages in complex geopolitical environments and in areas with varied development.     

Reponses and sensitivities of maize phenology to climate change from 1981 to 2009 in Henan Province,China

With the global warming, crop phenological shifts in responses to climate change have become a hot research topic. Based on the long-term observed agro-meteorological phenological data (1981–2009) and meteorological data, we quantitatively analyzed temporal and spatial shifts in maize phenology and their sensitivities to key climate factors change using climate tendency rate and sensitivity analysis methods. Results indicated that the sowing date was significantly delayed and the delay tendency rate was 9.0 d·10a^-1. But the stages from emergence to maturity occurred earlier (0.1 d·10a^-1<θ<1.7 d·10a^-1, θ is the change slope of maize phenology). The length of vegetative period (VPL) (from emergence to tasseling) was shortened by 0.9 d·10a^-1, while the length of generative period (GPL) (from tasseling to maturity) was lengthened by 1.7 d·10a^-1. The growing season length (GSL) (from emergence to maturity) was lengthened by 0.4 d·10a^-1. Correlation analysis indicated that maize phenology was significantly correlated with average temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration and growing degree days (GDD) (p<0.01). Average temperature had significant negative correlation relationship, while precipitation, sunshine duration and growing degree days had significant positive correlations with maize phenology. Sensitivity analysis indicated that maize phenology showed different responses to variations in key climate factors, especially at different sites. The conclusions of this research could provide scientific supports for agricultural adaptation to climate change to address the global food security issue.