Explaining recently studied intermediate luminosity optical transients(ILOTs) with jet powering

We apply the jet-powered ILOT scenario to two recently studied intermediate luminosity optical transients(ILOTs),and find the relevant shell mass and jets' energy that might account for the outbursts of these ILOTs.In the jet-powered ILOT scenario,an accretion disk around one of the stars of a binary system launches jets.The interaction of the jets with a previously ejected slow shell converts kinetic energy to thermal energy,part of which is radiated away.We apply two models of the jet-powered ILOT scenario.In the spherical shell model,the jets accelerate a spherical shell,while in the cocoon toy model the jets penetrate into the shell and inflate hot bubbles,the cocoons.We find consistent results.For the ILOT(ILRT:intermediate luminosity red transient) SNhunt120 we find the shell mass and jets' energy to be Ms■0.5-1 M_☉ and E_(2 j)■5×10~(47) erg,respectively.The jets' half opening angle is α_j■30°-60°.For the second peak of the ILOT(luminous red nova) AT 2014 ej we find these quantities to be M_s1-2 M_☉ and E_(2 j)1.5×10~(48) erg,with αj■20°-30°.The models cannot tell whether these ILOTs were powered by a stellar merger that leaves one star,or by mass transfer where both stars survived.In both cases the masses of the shells and energies of the jets suggest that the binary progenitor system was massive,with a combined mass of M_1+M_210 ■M_☉.     

Strontium stable isotopes fractionate in the soil environments?

This study shows that the stable isotopic composition of strontium (the ⁸⁸Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio expressed as δ^88/86Sr value relative to the NBS987 standard) varies significantly in sedimentary terrestrial environments. The abundances of ⁸⁶Sr, ⁸⁸Sr isotopes were analyzed by MC-ICP-MS “Nu Plasma”. All studied rocks and waters show δ^88/86Sr values that are distinctly different from the measured NBS987 standard (yielding 0.01 ± 0.05‰, all errors are reported as 2σ). Modern corals from the northern Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea yielded significantly different value than seawater (δ^88/86Sr = 0.22 ± 0.07‰, compared to 0.35 ± 0.06‰, respectively), in an excellent correlation with the δ^88/86Sr analyses reported by Fietzke and Eisenhauer [Fietzke, J., Eisenhauer, A., 2006. Determination of temperature-dependent stable strontium isotopes (⁸⁸Sr/⁸⁶Sr) fractionation via bracketing standard MC-ICP-MS. Geochm. Geophys. Geosyst. 7 (no. 8)] on other coral samples. All carbonate samples that originated in the marine environment: corals (porites and acropora from the northern Gulf of Aqaba); Cretaceous limestone and runoff from the Judea Mountains as well as lacustrine evaporitic aragonite (Dead Sea); and Red Sea and Atlantic seawater yield an average δ^88/86Sr value of 0.26 ± 0.1‰. On the other hand, secondary materials (products of chemical weathering) from the terrestrial environment of the Judea Mountain such as terra rossa soil and speleothem calcite (that derives its Sr from the above-lying soil) yielded significantly lower δ^88/86Sr value of − 0.17 ± 0.06‰. This indicates that strontium isotopes fractionate in the soil environment calling for a possible development of strontium isotopes as a tracer for processes of chemical weathering and pedogenesis.     

Simple Spring-mass Model Simulation of Earthquake Cycle along the Nankai Trough in Southwest Japan

— Along the Nankai trough in southwest Japan, due to the subduction of the Philippine Sea plate, great earthquakes have occurred repeatedly. The rupture zone is divided into five segments. Historical documents show the characteristic features of the past several earthquake cycles, such as almost simultaneous rupture occurrence in segments in spite of different convergence rates, the recurrence time of 90 to 150 years, the existence of segment pairing in earthquake ruptures and the different coseismic slip behaviors in respective segments. Based on the rate and state friction law, we simulate these features with a simple block-spring model to investigate the physical mechanisms of earthquake cycle. Considering the actual fault parameters related to the geometry and the kinematics of the convergent plate in five segments, we calculate the model parameters for the corresponding blocks in the simulation. The features of the observed earthquake cycle are successfully reproduced by assigning the other following model parameters; (1) the stick-slip periods are the same (more than 150 years) for non-interacting blocks, (2) the different pairs of frictional parameters a-b and D _c are assigned in each segment, (3) the interactions between segments are large, (4) the convergence rate in the eastern Tokai segment is about half of those in the other segments.     

Time series analysis of vegetation-cover response to environmental factors and residential development in a dryland region

Land-use changes as a result of residential development often lead to degradation and alter vegetation cover (VC). Although these are worldwide phenomena, sufficient knowledge about anthropogenic effects caused by various populated areas in dryland ecosystems is lacking. This study explored anthropogenic development in rural areas and its effects on the conservation of protected areas in drylands, focusing on the change in VC, the reasons, extent, and the drivers of change. We propose a novel framework for exploring VC change (VCC) as a function of environmental and human-driven factors including different types of populated areas in drylands. As a case study, we used a 30-year time series of Landsat satellite images over the arid region of Israel to analyze spatiotemporal VCC. The temporal analysis involved the Contextual Mann-Kendall significance test and spatial analysis to model clustering of VCC. A Gradient Boosted Regression machine learning algorithm was applied to study the relative influence of environmental and human-driven factors on VCC. In addition, we used ANOVA to examine differences between the effects of three types of populated areas on the spatiotemporal trends of VC. The results show that the most influential environmental variable on VCC was elevation (relative contribution of 17%), followed by slope (14.8%) and distance from populated areas (14.6%). Moreover, different types of populated areas affected VC differently with varying distances from residential centroids. The nature reserves increased VC positively and significantly, while livestock settlements had a negative effect. Change in vegetation was mostly confined to the stream network and occurred in lower elevations. The study demonstrates how different land-use practices alter the landscape in terms of VC and differ in their extents, patterns, and effects. With the expected growth in population and residential development worldwide, the proposed framework may assist conservation managements and policy makers in minimizing environmental degradation in drylands.