Fast Radio Burst Morphology in the First CHIME/FRB Catalog

We present a synthesis of fast radio burst (FRB) morphology (the change in flux as a function of time and frequency) as detected in the 400–800 MHz octave by the FRB project on the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME/FRB), using events from the first CHIME/FRB catalog. The catalog consists of 62 bursts from 18 repeating sources, plus 474 one-off FRBs, detected between 2018 July 25 and 2019 July 2. We identify four observed archetypes of burst morphology (“simple broadband,” “simple narrowband,” “temporally complex,” and “downward drifting”) and describe relevant instrumental biases that are essential for interpreting the observed morphologies. Using the catalog properties of the FRBs, we confirm that bursts from repeating sources, on average, have larger widths, and we show, for the first time, that bursts from repeating sources, on average, are narrower in bandwidth. This difference could be due to beaming or propagation effects, or it could be intrinsic to the populations. We discuss potential implications of these morphological differences for using FRBs as astrophysical tools.

POLARIMETRIC MINISAR MAPPING SYSTEM

Polarimetric MiniSAR is a ku-band fully polarimetric SAR mapping system that is being developed at CASM (Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping). The system consists of a ku-band fully polarimetric miniSAR data acquisition system and a set of miniSAR mapping software. Nowadays, as the most representative SAR system in China, polarimetric miniSAR mapping system have developed multiple advanced miniSAR mapping techniques, a large scale of mapping experiment has been achieved.

Time will tell: Temporal landmarks influence metaphorical associations between space and time

According to the Temporal Focus Hypothesis (TFH), people’s implicit spatial conceptions are shaped by their temporal focus. Whereas previous studies have demonstrated that people’s cultural or individual differences related to certain temporal focus may influence their spatializations of time, we focus on temporal landmarks as potential additional influences on people’s space-time mappings. In Experiment 1, we investigated how personally-related events influence students’ conceptions of time. The results showed that student examinees were more likely to think about time according to the past-in-front mapping, and student registrants, future-in-front mapping. Experiment 2 explored the influence of calendar markers and found that participants tested on the Chinese Spring Festival, a symbol of a fresh start, tended to conceptualize the future as in front of them, while those tested on the Tomb Sweeping Day, an opportunity to remember the ancestors, showed the reversed pattern. In Experiment 3, two scenarios representing past or future landmarks correspondingly were presented to participants. We found that past-focused/future -focused scenarios caused an increase in the rate of past-in-front/future-in-front responses respectively. Taken together, the results from these three studies suggest that people’s conceptions of time may vary according to temporal landmarks, which can be explained by the TFH.

Crossmodal Correspondence between Color, Shapes, and Wine Odors

Crossmodal correspondence is of scientific and commercial interest in regard to the packaging of food and beverages. Research has shown that colors and shapes can be associated with certain aromas, but these interactions have been less extensively studied with authentic visual stimuli (i.e., packaging), nor with complex odors in a food matrix. This study sought to investigate odor-color-shape crossmodal interactions with complex odor stimuli (wine odors) and wine labels. The present research uses projective mapping with 3D shapes and colors, along with a wine label matching study, to test whether chardonnay odors of different character (buttery, citrus, floral, smoky, and vegetable) are associated with certain colors and shapes. In the projective mapping experiment, most chardonnay odors were grouped similarly, however, the vegetable-forward wine was more associated with sharper shapes than rounded ones. In the wine label experiment, the yellow labels tended to be better matched with all odors, except the vegetable-forward wine, which was matched equally to all colors. These findings indicate that regardless of chardonnay odor character, it is mostly associated with a yellow colored label. Interestingly, results also indicated that not all correspondences aligned with the most common color association of an odor character (i.e., vegetative was not strictly associated with green, smoky was not associated with brown, etc.). Significant correlations between stimuli liking and matching scores indicate much of the correspondences are explained by hedonics. Overall, the present research demonstrates evidence for odor-color-shape correspondences in complex odors and realistic visual stimuli, however not as strongly as in controlled environments and simplistic stimuli.