Suitable distance to observe Red-crowned Cranes:a note on the observer effect

In order to assess the effect of the observer distance on the behavior of Red-crowned Cranes (Grus japonensis),we studied their time budgets with a gradient of observer distances in Yancheng,China from December 2008 to March 2009.Observer distance was classified into four levels,i.e.,＜ 200 m,200-300 m,300-400 m and ＞ 400 m.The results indicated that cranes increased their vigilance when the observer was less than 300 m away.A safe distance for the observer was often as far as or more than 300 m.Cranes increased scan frequency when observers were within 200 m,whereas they prolonged the duration of their scan when observers were between 200 m and 300 m away,indicating two distinct vigilant strategies,given the observer distance.We suggest an observer distance of at least 300 m,in order to minimize the observer effect.

Are Type Ia Supernovae Reliable Distance Indicators?

Recent applications of type Ia supernovae （SNe Ia） in cosmology have successfully revealed the accelerating expansion of the universe. However, as distance indicators used in measuring the expansion history of the universe and probing the nature of dark energy, these objects must pass more strict tests. We propose a K-S test to investigate if there exists any systematic bias when deriving the luminosity distances under the standard candle assumption. Two samples, one comprising 71 high-redshift SNe Ia and the other, 44 nearby ones, are used in our investigation. We find that it is likely there exists a bias in the adopted samples, which is probably caused by a systematic error, e.g. in the color parameter used in the luminosity calibration and a bias may be caused by the SN evolution or by varying properties of the dust surrounding the SNe Ia.

Testing X-ray measurements of galaxy cluster gas mass fraction using the cosmic distance-duality relation

We propose a consistency test for some recent X-ray gas mass fraction （fgas） measurements in galaxy clusters, using the cosmic distance-duality relation, Ttneory = DL（1 ＋ Z）-2/DA, with luminosity distance （DL） data from the Union2 compilation of type Ia supernovae. We set Z/theory = 1, instead of assigning any red- shift parameterizations to it, and constrain the cosmological information preferred by fga8 data along with supernova observations. We adopt a new binning method in the reduction of the Union2 data, in order to minimize the statistical errors. Four data sets of X-ray gas mass fraction, which are reported by Allen et al. （two samples）, LaRoque et al. and Ettori et al., are analyzed in detail in the context of two theoretical models of fgas. The results from the analysis of Alien et al.＇s samples demonstrate the feasibility of our method. It is found that the preferred cosmology by LaRoque et al.＇s sample is consistent with its reference cosmology within the 1σ confidence level. However, for Ettori et al.＇s fgas sample, the inconsistency can reach more than a 3σ confidence level and this dataset shows special preference to an ΩA = 0 cosmology.

An Experimental Study on Optimization of Large-volume Airgun Source Excitation Conditions in a Reservoir

Through manual pickup of seismic phases,the number of recording stations,the farthest observation distance of station and received energy are determined,then optimal operating condition processing software is developed to evaluate the excitation effect of operating conditions. The optimal operating conditions in the Mianhuatan Reservoir are determined using this software. They are: optimal water depth 25 m,airgun array sink depth 9m and airgun array size 7m × 7m. At the same time,accumulative stacking results for every 10 times are analyzed for 300 fixed-point excitations. It is concluded that the excitation effect shows a rapidly rising trend at 10 to 90 times stacking,a slowly rising trend at 100 to 150 times stacking,a rapidly rising trend at 160 to 240 times stacking,and a slowly rising trend at 250 to 300 times stacking. As the number of stacking increases,the propagation distance and the number of recording stations also increase gradually.

Constraining Dark Energy and Cosmological Transition Redshift with Type Ia Supernovae

The property of dark energy and the physical reason for the acceleration of the present universe are two of the most difficult problems in modern cosmology. The dark energy contributes about two-thirds of the critical density of the present universe from the observations of type-Ia supernovae （SNe Ia） and anisotropy of cosmic microwave background （CMB）. The SN Ia observations also suggest that the universe expanded from a deceleration to an acceleration phase at some redshift, implying the existence of a nearly uniform component of dark energy with negative pressure. We use the ＂Gold＂ sample containing 157 SNe Ia and two recent well-measured additions, SNe Ia 1994ae and 1998aq to explore the properties of dark energy and the transition redshift. For a fiat universe with the cosmological constant, we measure ΩM=0.28-0.05^＋0.04 which is consistent with Riess et al. The transition redshift is zT=0.60-0.08^＋0.04. We also discuss several dark energy models that define w（z） of the parameterized equation of state of dark energy including one parameter and two parameters （w（z） being the ratio of the pressure to energy density）. Our calculations show that the accurately calculated transition redshift varies from zT =0.29-0.06^＋0.07 to zT =0.60-0.08^＋0.06 across these models. We also calculate the minimum redshift zc at which the current observations need the universe to accelerate.

The Peak Luminosity of Type Ia Supernovae and its Implications for the Cosmic Expansion Rate

Supernovae of type Ia (SNe Ia) are confirmed to be the best distance indicators to derive the cosmic expansion rate. The dispersion of their peak luminosity at optical bands (BVI) is approximate to 0.13 mag, after taking into account the effects of the second parameters (i.e., the Antial decline rate m15(B) and (B - V) color at maximum light). The local calibrations from HST indicate an absolute magnitude of 19.48 ± 0.08mag (in V band) for SNe Ia in spiral galaxies. The current expansion rate, Ho, is found to be 63.6 ± 1.8 (random) ±5.7 (systematic) kms-1 Mpc-1. This Value will decrease by 3% when the metallicity effect on the cepheid distances is considered. In addition, a marginal local outward flow of 4.0 ± 4.5% within the velocity-distance of 7000 km s-1 can be inferred from SNe Ia for the Einstein-de Sitter universe; however, this outward flow is only 2.2 ± 4.4% for an accelerating expansion universe (which is supported by high-z SNe Ia).

Probing model-independent cosmic opacity and its spatial properties

Cosmic opacity and its spatial distribution have been constrained with a model independent method. The average opacity of the universe is not zero, but can be zero in the 1σ error range. The bestfit value of the spatial distribution of cosmic opacity is not a constant as the redshift varies, though a homogeneous and transparent universe is favored in the 2σ error range.

The P-wave velocity structure of the lithosphere of the North China Craton——Results from the Wendeng-Alxa Left Banner deep seismic sounding profile

For the first time on the Chinese mainland, long-range wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction profiling technology has been applied to seismic wave phases from different depths and with different attributes within the various blocks of the North China Craton to characterize the structure of the crust and upper mantle lithosphere. By comparative analysis of the seismic wave phase characteristics in each block across a 1500-km-long east-west profile, we have identified conventional Pg, Pci, PmP and Pn phases in the crust, made a clear contrast between PL1 and PL2 waves belonging to two groups of lithospheric-scale phases, and produced a model of crust-mantle velocity structures and tectonic characteristics after one- and two-dimensional calcula- tions and processing. The results show that the thickness of the crust and lithosphere gradually deepens from east to west along the profile. However, at the reflection/refraction interface, seismic waves in each group show obvious localized changes in each block. Also, the depth to the crystalline basement changes greatly, from as much as 7.8 km in the North China fault basin to only about 2 km beneath the Jiaodong Peninsula and Taihang-Ltlliang area. The Moho morphology as a whole ranges from shallow in the east to deep in the west, with the deepest point in the Ordos Block at 47 km; in contrast, the North China Plain Block is uplifting. The L1 interface of the lithosphere is observed only to the west of Taihang Mountains, at a relatively slowly changing depth of about 80 km. The L2 interface varies from 75 to 160 km and shows a sharp deepening to the west of Tai- hang Mountains, forming a mutation belt.