Pulsar reflections within the Crab Nebula

Between 1997 August and October, the radio pulses from the Crab pulsar were followed by discrete moving echoes, which appear to be reflections from part of an ionized shell in the outer part of the Crab Nebula, crossing the line of sight to pulsar. Similar events have now been recognized in recordings from the past 30 yr, and it seems that the Nebula must contain a large number of ionized shell-like surfaces on a much finer scale than recognized hitherto.     

Hα emission objects in Circinus

We present a new survey for Hα emission objects in the Circinus cloud complex and introduce an efficient photometric method for detecting Hα emission via observations in a narrow‐band filter. The observed flux is compared to a blackbody fit of the continuum. Our search strategy reveals 20 stars with strong Hα emission (EW > 10 Å), eight of them being new detections. All Hα stars display infrared excess corroborating their youth. On the other hand, the region contains a number of infrared excess objects that do not show Hα emission. Our results support the picture that accretion – as witnessed by Hα emission – is a highly variable phenomenon. Therefore, Hα surveys can only trace the temporarily active objects. In contrast, infrared excess is a more robust tracer that reveals most of the population of young stellar objects in a star forming region. Our analysis of the general stellar content of the region yields a reliable distance of 450 pc for the Circinus cloud. Moreover, we find a ratio of total‐to‐selective extinction of R^V = 2.8 suggesting that smaller‐than‐normal dust grains may be present. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

CFD modelling of a small–scale fixed multi–chamber OWC device

Wave Energy Converters (WECs) have excellent potential as a source of renewable energy that is yet to be commercially realised. Recent attention has focused on the installation of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) devices as a part of harbor walls to provide advantages of cost–sharing structures and proximity of power generation facilities to existing infrastructure. In this paper, an incompressible three–dimensional CFD model is constructed to simulate a fixed Multi–Chamber OWC (MC–OWC) device. The CFD model is validated; the simulation results are found to be in good agreement with experimental results obtained from a scale physical model tested in a wave tank. The validated CFD model is then used for a benchmark study of 96 numerical tests. These investigate the effects of the PTO damping caused by the power take–off (PTO) system on device performance. The performance is assessed for a range of regular wave heights and periods. The results demonstrate that a PTO system with an intermediate damping can be used for all chambers in the MC–OWC device for most wave period ranges, except for the long wave periods. These require a higher PTO damping. An increased incident wave height reduces the device capture width ratio, but there is a noticeable improvement for long wave periods.     

陕北地区动物骨骼的脂肪酸单体碳同位素分析

基于动物油脂的脂肪酸单体碳同位素模型开展古代样品的脂肪酸单体碳同位素分析可细化脂肪来源, 有助于探究动物资源的加工利用、相关载体的使用功能及先民饮食策略, 从而为古代人类的生活方式和古代社会的经济形态提供重要信息。目前该模型已得到国外诸多地区现代动物样品的验证, 但其在中国的适用性尚不明晰。文章对陕北地区石峁遗址和高家洼遗址出土的动物骨骼开展了脂肪酸分析, 并对其中1例缺乏形态鉴定特征的碎骨样本进行ZooMS(基于质谱的动物考古学)分析。结果显示, 该碎骨样本的一系列特征肽段与鹿和绵羊的部分肽段相匹配, 表明其为鹿或绵羊。家养动物(猪、普通牛、羊亚科)中, 除2例绵羊显现出较强的C4饮食信号, 应源于粟类作物副产品或人工采集的藜科植物消费; 其余动物均表现为C3/C4类混合特征, 意味着存在野生C3植物的摄入。相比其他遗址, 石峁遗址采取了相对粗放的家猪管理模式; 而牛、羊饲养模式的多样化可能是先民在当地自然条件下对新兴家畜品种开展探索性饲养活动的反映。野生动物(梅花鹿、马鹿)中, 2例鹿具有较高的δ13C16:0和δ13C18:0值, 应有C4植物的摄入, 表明龙山时代陕北地区先民与鹿存在互动关系。古代陕北地区C4植物对饮食的贡献使得该地区的动物脂肪酸单体碳同位素数据相对于前人建立的"δ13C18:0-δ13C16:0"分布模型存在正向偏移, 但仍可通过计算Δ13C值来区分该地区的动物脂肪来源(Δ13C>0‰为非反刍动物体脂, -3.3‰ <Δ13C <0‰为反刍动物体脂)。     

应用显微激光拉曼光谱分析单个流体包裹体同位素

单个流体包裹体同位素是研究特定成岩成矿（藏）阶段古流体成因和来源最有效的方法之一,在矿床、油气、地质流体和大地构造演化动力学等多个领域具有十分重要的用途。但是,目前还没有成熟的分析单个流体包裹体同位素的方法。文中在对目前国内外流体包裹体分析技术总结分析基础上,认为激光拉曼光谱是一项可以分析单个流体包裹体同位素的最有效方法,国外在该领域已经开展了许多创新性的研究工作,并取得了一些重要进展。对激光拉曼光谱分析单个流体包裹体同位素的原理和可行性进行了分析论证,提出通过对已知比值的同位素标准物质拉曼光谱测试和研究,在确定稳定同位素分子的拉曼参数和实验条件等基础上,可以建立起单个流体包裹体稳定同位素激光拉曼测试方法,从而改变目前只能依靠分析群体包裹体同位素来示踪古流体成因和来源的局限性和不确定性。     

The limits of validity of the Frequency Ratio Method: The particular case of γ Doradus stars

This work provides a general vision of the limits of validity of the Frequency Ratio Method applied to the g‐mode pulsators in asymptotic regime, the γ Doradus stars. In particular, the work is mainly focused on the role of rotation which is found one of the most important source of uncertainty of the method. The particular case of the moderately rotating γ Doradus star HD48501 is discussed. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Observations of Giant Pulses of the Crab Pulsar

The Crab Pulsar was observed at 1540 MHz with the 25m radio telescope at Urumqi with a filterbank de-dispersion backend. A total of 2436 giant pulses with pulse energies larger than 4300 Jy μs were detected in two observing sets. All of these giant pulses are located in the main pulse (MP) and inter pulse (IP) windows of the average profile of the Crab Pulsar. The ratio of the numbers of giant pulses detected in the IP and MP windows is about 0.05. Our results show that, at 1540 MHz, the emission in the IP is contributed by giant and normal pulses, while that in the MP is almost dominated by giant pulses. The distribution of energy of the 2436 giant pulses at 1540 MHz can be described by a power-law with index α=3.13±0.09. The intrinsic threshold of giant pulse energy in the MP window is about 1400 Jy μs at 1540 MHz.     

Photometric distances to nine dark globules

Distances to nine dark globules are determined by a method using optical ( VRI ) and near-infrared (near-IR) ( JHK ) photometry of stars projected towards the field containing the globules. In this method, we compute intrinsic colour indices of stars projected towards the direction of the globule by dereddening the observed colour indices using various trial values of extinction   A _V   and a standard extinction law. These computed intrinsic colour indices for each star are then compared with the intrinsic colour indices of normal main-sequence stars and a spectral type is assigned to the star for which the computed colour indices best match with the standard intrinsic colour indices. Distances ( d ) to the stars are determined using the   A _V   and absolute magnitude  ( M_V )  corresponding to the spectral types thus obtained. A distance versus extinction plot is made and the distance at which   A _V   undergoes a sharp rise is taken to be the distance to the globule. All the clouds studied in this work are in the distance range 160–400 pc. The estimated distances to dark globules LDN 544, LDN 549, LDN 567, LDN 543, LDN 1113, LDN 1031, LDN 1225, LDN 1252 and LDN 1257 are  180 ± 35, 200 ± 40, 180 ± 35, 160 ± 30, 350 ± 70, 200 ± 40, 400 ± 80, 250 ± 50  and 250 ± 50 pc, respectively. Using the distances determined, we have estimated the masses of the globules and the far-IR luminosity of the IRAS sources associated with them. The mass of the clouds studied are in the range  10–200 M_⊙  .