Gravity modes as a way to distinguish between hydrogen- and helium-burning red giant stars

Red giants are evolved stars that have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in their cores and instead burn hydrogen in a surrounding shell. Once a red giant is sufficiently evolved, the helium in the core also undergoes fusion. Outstanding issues in our understanding of red giants include uncertainties in the amount of mass lost at the surface before helium ignition and the amount of internal mixing from rotation and other processes. Progress is hampered by our inability to distinguish between red giants burning helium in the core and those still only burning hydrogen in a shell. Asteroseismology offers a way forward, being a powerful tool for probing the internal structures of stars using their natural oscillation frequencies. Here we report observations of gravity-mode period spacings in red giants that permit a distinction between evolutionary stages to be made. We use high-precision photometry obtained by the Kepler spacecraft over more than a year to measure oscillations in several hundred red giants. We find many stars whose dipole modes show sequences with approximately regular period spacings. These stars fall into two clear groups, allowing us to distinguish unambiguously between hydrogen-shell-burning stars (period spacing mostly ～ 50 seconds) and those that are also burning helium (period spacing ～ 100 to 300 seconds).     

Fault lubrication during earthquakes

The determination of rock friction at seismic slip rates (about 1?m?s(-1)) is of paramount importance in earthquake mechanics, as fault friction controls the stress drop, the mechanical work and the frictional heat generated during slip. Given the difficulty in determining friction by seismological methods, elucidating constraints are derived from experimental studies. Here we review a large set of published and unpublished experiments (～300) performed in rotary shear apparatus at slip rates of 0.1-2.6?m?s(-1). The experiments indicate a significant decrease in friction (of up to one order of magnitude), which we term fault lubrication, both for cohesive (silicate-built, quartz-built and carbonate-built) rocks and non-cohesive rocks (clay-rich, anhydrite, gypsum and dolomite gouges) typical of crustal seismogenic sources. The available mechanical work and the associated temperature rise in the slipping zone trigger a number of physicochemical processes (gelification, decarbonation and dehydration reactions, melting and so on) whose products are responsible for fault lubrication. The similarity between (1) experimental and natural fault products and (2) mechanical work measures resulting from these laboratory experiments and seismological estimates suggests that it is reasonable to extrapolate experimental data to conditions typical of earthquake nucleation depths (7-15?km). It seems that faults are lubricated during earthquakes, irrespective of the fault rock composition and of the specific weakening mechanism involved.     

矿区植物--环境恢复的重要资源

综述了矿区植物的研究现状矿区植物的生态学、遗传学、植物分类学特性,矿区植物对重金属的耐性与吸收性,矿区植物在矿山及污染环境修复中的功能与作用;最后,探讨了矿区植物资源研究的未来发展方向。     

Helmholtz's Kant revisited (Once more). The all-pervasive nature of Helmholtz's struggle with Kant's Anschauung

In this analysis, the classical problem of Hermann von Helmholtz's (1821–1894) Kantianism is explored from a particular vantage point, that to my knowledge, has not received the attention it deserves notwithstanding its possible key role in disentangling Helmholtz's relation to Kant's critical project. More particularly, we will focus on Helmholtz's critical engagement with Kant's concept of intuition [Anschauung] and (the related issue of) his dissatisfaction with Kant's doctrinal dualism. In doing so, it soon becomes clear that both (i) crucially mediated Helmholtz's idiosyncratic appropriation and criticism of (certain aspects of) Kant's critical project, and (ii) can be considered as a common denominator in a variety of issues that are usually addressed separately under the general header of (the problem of) Helmholtz's Kantianism. The perspective offered in this analysis can not only shed interesting new light on some interpretive issues that have become commonplace in discussions on Helmholtz's Kantianism, but also offers a particular way of connecting seemingly unrelated dimensions of Helmholtz's engagement with Kant's critical project (e.g. Helmholtz's views on causality and space). Furthermore, it amounts to the rather surprising conclusion that Helmholtz's most drastic revision of Kant's project pertains to his assumption of free will as a formal condition of experience and knowledge.     

职住变迁与通勤自平衡

采用2011年和2014年各两周的上海移动手机信令数据,通过跟踪分析识别出居住地、就业地发生变迁的居民作为研究对象,数据可视化、描述性统计、定量对比分析等方法对同一批变迁居民的通勤行为进行跟踪研究,以此对其中存在的“自平衡”特征进行分析,并进一步研究该变化特征与城市空间之间所存在的联系。研究表明：总体层面,从平均通勤距离变化以及过剩通勤率变化方面来看,居民在进行居住地、就业地变迁时均存在通勤“自平衡”的特征与趋势;个体层面,原通勤距离越远,通过居住地、就业地变迁以改善自身通勤关系追求通勤“自平衡”的效果越明显;就业地变迁居民的通勤“自平衡”特征相较于居住地变迁来说更加显著;空间集合层面,职住关系较差的居住区、就业区,存在总体的“自平衡”现象。     

传递矩阵方法与矩形势垒的量子隧穿

利用传递矩阵方法精确计算了一维定态薛定谔方程,求解出电子穿过矩形势垒的透射系数,进一步研究了该透射系数与有效质量和矩形势垒参数的关系。数值计算结果表明,有效质量和矩形势垒参数对透射系数的影响同等重要。