冰碛扇型砂金矿床特征及其成矿初探

成生于冰碛扇内，经一定的生物、物理、化学成矿作用，以砂金形态分布而富集成矿的金矿称为冰碛扇型砂金矿床。它具有沿造山带一定标高范围成群、成带分布，沉积物为近源且半胶结，砂金呈面状分布，并以粒金、块金为主，具胶状、浑圆状、包块状构造形态，分布极不均匀等特征。冰碛扇型砂金矿床的成矿作用与河成砂金矿床有本质的区别。它的成矿作用模式是：造山带下地壳富含的活化金通过新构造运动活化的断裂运移地表，经地下流体和地表流体的迁移聚集到冰碛扇这一封闭稳定的生物、物理、化学障环境中，主要经高效聚金微生物有机胶体成矿作用沉淀、再生加大形成砂金，逐步富集成矿床。而红色磨拉石建造中风化离解的Ｆｅ，Ｍｎ物质对沉淀环境ｐＨ值起着一定的调节作用。冰碛扇型砂金矿床在我国西部造山带内广泛分布，具有一定的工业价值，是砂金矿床中一重要类型，应予以重视     

Testing the circumstellar disc hypothesis: a search for H2 outflow signatures from massive young stellar objects with linearly distributed methanol masers

The results of a survey searching for outflows using near-infrared imaging are presented. Targets were chosen from a compiled list of massive young stellar objects associated with methanol masers in linear distributions. Presently, it is a widely held belief that these methanol masers are found in (and delineate) circumstellar accretion discs around massive stars. If this scenario is correct, one way to test the disc hypothesis is to search for outflows perpendicular to the methanol maser distributions. The main objective of the survey was to obtain wide-field near-infrared images of the sites of linearly distributed methanol masers using a narrow-band 2.12-μm filter. This filter is centred on the  H₂ v = 1–0 S(1)  line; a shock diagnostic that has been shown to successfully trace CO outflows from young stellar objects. 28 sources in total were imaged of which 18 sources display H₂ emission. Of these, only two sources showed emission found to be dominantly perpendicular to the methanol maser distribution. Surprisingly, the H₂ emission in these fields is not distributed randomly, but instead the majority of sources are found to have H₂ emission dominantly parallel to their distribution of methanol masers. These results seriously question the hypothesis that methanol masers exist in circumstellar discs. The possibility that linearly distributed methanol masers are instead directly associated with outflows is discussed.     

Biological and granulometric controls on sedimentary organic matter of an intertidal mudflat

A variety of measures of organic matter concentration and quality were made on samples collected from the top few mm of intertidal mudflat sediment over the course of a year, in order to assess the relative importance of biological and sedimentological influences on sedimentary organic matter. Winter and summer were times of relatively fine-grained sediment accumulation, caused by biological deposition or stabilization processes and resulting in higher organic matter concentrations. Stable carbon isotope and Br:C ratios indicated a planktonic source of bulk organic matter. Ratios of organic carbon to specific surface area of the sediments were consistent with an organic monolayer coverage of sediment grains. Correction for changing grain size during the year showed no change in the organic concentration per unit surface area, in spite of organic matter inputs by in situ primary production, buildup of heterotroph biomass and mucus coatings, and biodeposition of organic-rich seston. There were also no indications of changes in bulk organic quality, measured as hydrolyzable carbohydrates and amino acids, in response to these biological processes. It is concluded that biological processes on a seasonal time scale affect the bulk organic matter of these sediments via a modulation of grain size rather than creation or decay of organic matter.     

The NAIAD experiment for WIMP searches at Boulby mine and recent results

The NAIAD experiment (NaI Advanced Detector) for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches at Boulby mine (UK) is described. The detector consists of an array of encapsulated and unencapsulated NaI(Tl) crystals with high light yield. Six crystals are collecting data at present. Data accumulated by four of them (10.6 kg × year exposure) have been used to set upper limits on the WIMP–nucleon spin-independent and WIMP–proton spin-dependent cross-sections. Pulse shape analysis has been applied to discriminate between nuclear recoils, as may be caused by WIMP interactions, and electron recoils due to gamma background. Various calibrations of crystals are presented.     

Galaxy formation: Warm dark matter, missing satellites, and the angular momentum problem

We present warm dark matter (WDM) as a possible solution to the missing satellites and angular momentum problem in galaxy formation and introduce improved initial conditions for numerical simulations of WDM models, which avoid the formation of unphysical haloes found in earlier simulations. There is a hint, that because of that the mass function of satellite haloes has been overestimated so far, pointing to higher values for the WDM particle mass. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.