A catalogue of integrated H-alpha fluxes for 1,258 Galactic planetary nebulae

We present a catalogue of new integrated H-alpha fluxes for 1258 Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe), with the majority, totalling 1234, measured from the Southern H-Alpha Sky Survey Atlas (SHASSA) and/or the Virginia Tech Spectral-line Survey (VTSS). Aperture photometry on the continuum-subtracted digital images was performed to extract H-alpha + [NII] fluxes in the case of SHASSA, and H-alpha fluxes from VTSS. The [NII] contribution was then deconvolved from the SHASSA flux using spectrophotometric data taken from the literature or derived by us. Comparison with previous work shows that the flux scale presented here has no significant zero-point error. Our catalogue is the largest compilation of homogeneously derived PN fluxes in any waveband yet measured, and will be an important legacy and fresh benchmark for the community. Amongst its many applications, it can be used to determine statistical distances for these PNe, determine new absolute magnitudes for delineating the faint end of the PN luminosity function, provide baseline data for photoionization and hydrodynamical modelling, and allow better estimates of Zanstra temperatures for PN central stars with accurate optical photometry. We also provide total H-alpha fluxes for another 75 objects which were formerly classified as PNe, as well as independent reddening determinations for ~270 PNe, derived from a comparison of our H-alpha data with the best literature H-beta fluxes. In an appendix, we list corrected H-alpha fluxes for 49 PNe taken from the literature, including 24 PNe not detected on SHASSA or VTSS, re-calibrated to a common zero-point.Comment: 49 pages, 7 figures, 10 tables, to appear in MNRAS. This version includes full-length tables 1 and

HASH: the Hong Kong/AAO/Strasbourg H-alpha planetary nebula database

By incorporating our major recent discoveries with re-measured and verified contents of existing catalogues we provide, for the first time, an accessible, reliable, on-line SQL database for essential, up-to date information for all known Galactic PNe. We have attempted to: i) reliably remove PN mimics/false ID's that have biased previous studies and ii) provide accurate positions, sizes, morphologies, multi-wavelength imagery and spectroscopy. We also provide a link to CDS/Vizier for the archival history of each object and other valuable links to external data. With the HASH interface, users can sift, select, browse, collate, investigate, download and visualise the entire currently known Galactic PNe diversity. HASH provides the community with the most complete and reliable data with which to undertake new science.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; accepted to appear in refereed proceedings of the 11th Pacific Rim Conference held in Hong-kong in Dec 201

The politics, practice and paradox of ‘ethnic security’ in Bosnia-Herzegovina

The international intervention in Bosnia- Herzegovina has intended to support conflict resolution by introducing territorial self- government and power sharing as the foundation for building a governance framework that provides for collective and individual security alignment over time. Instead, it has contributed to the ethnification of security whereby collective security in the form of an ethnified state remains at the forefront of political discourse and political practice. Social acceptance of ‘ethnified state’ as a guarantor of security, despite the fading reality of the ethnic threat in the peoples’ perceptions of what makes life insecure in post-war Bosnia- Herzegovina, has been actively manufactured by the country’s ethnic elites using the very institutional means put in place by the international intervention . The result is an ‘ethnic security paradox’ in which the idea of individual safety, linked to the protection of ethnic identity in the form of an ethnified state, unsettles both collective and individual security alike

The Hα\alpha surface brightness −- radius plane as a diagnostic tool for photoionized nebulae

The H$\alpha$ surface brightness $-$ radius ($S-r$) relation is a robust distance indicator for planetary nebulae (PNe), further enhanced by different populations of PNe having distinct loci in $S-r$ space. Other types of photoionized nebulae also plot in quite distinct regions in the $S-r$ plane, allowing its use as a diagnostic tool. In particular, the nova shells and massive star ejecta (MSE) plot on relatively tight loci illustrating their evolutionary sequences. For the MSE, there is potential to develop a distance indicator for these objects, based on their trend in $S-r$ space. As high-resolution, narrowband surveys of the nearest galaxies become more commonplace, the $S-r$ plane is a potentially useful diagnostic tool to help identify the various ionized nebulae in these systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 11th Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics: Physics and Chemistry of the Late Stages of Stellar Evolution, held in Hong Kong, Dec 201

SMC SMP 24: A newly radio-detected planetary nebula in the small magellanic cloud

In this paper we report new radio-continuum detection of an extragalactic PN: SMC SMP 24. We show the radio-continuum image of this PN and present the measured radio data. The newly reduced radio observations are consistent with the multi-wavelength data and derived parameters found in the literature. SMC SMP 24 appear to be a young and compact PN, optically thick at frequencies below 2 GHz.Comment: accepted for publication in Serbian Astronomical Journa

The H\alpha\ surface brightness - radius relation: a robust statistical distance indicator for planetary nebulae

Measuring the distances to Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) has been an intractable problem for many decades. We have now established a robust optical statistical distance indicator, the H$\alpha$ surface brightness- radius or S-r relation, which addresses this problem. We developed this relation from a critically evaluated sample of primary calibrating PNe. The robust nature of the method results from our revised calibrating distances with significantly reduced systematic uncertainties, and the recent availability of high-quality data, including updated nebular diameters and integrated H$\alpha$ fluxes. The S-r technique is simple in its application, requiring only an angular size, an integrated H\alpha\ flux, and the reddening to the PN. From these quantities, an intrinsic radius is calculated, which when combined with the angular size, yields the distance directly. Furthermore, we have found that optically thick PNe tend to populate the upper bound of the trend, while optically-thin PNe fall along the lower boundary in the S-r plane. This enables sub-trends to be developed which offer even better precision in the determination of distances, as good as 18 per cent in the case of optically-thin, high-excitation PNe. This is significantly better than any previous statistical indicator. We use this technique to create a catalogue of statistical distances for over 1100 Galactic PNe, the largest such compilation in the literature to date. Finally, in an appendix, we investigate both a set of transitional PNe and a range of PN mimics in the S-r plane, to demonstrate its use as a diagnostic tool. Interestingly, stellar ejecta around massive stars plot on a tight locus in S-r space with the potential to act as a separate distance indicator for these objects.Comment: 49 pages, 17 tables, 8 figures. Published in MNRAS; supplementary tables are included at end of this manuscrip

Planetary nebulae and their mimics: the MASH-MEN Project

The total number of true, likely and possible planetary nebulae (PN) now known in the Milky Way is about 3000, approximately twice the number known a decade ago. The new discoveries are a legacy of the recent availability of wide-field, narrowband imaging surveys, primarily in the light of H-alpha. The two most important are the AAO/UKST SuperCOSMOS H-alpha survey - SHS and the Isaac Newton photometric H-alpha survey - IPHAS, which are responsible for most of the new discoveries. A serious problem with previous PN catalogues is that several different kinds of astrophysical objects are able to mimic PN in some of their observed properties leading to significant contamination. These objects include H II regions and Stromgren zones around young O/B stars, reflection nebulae, Wolf-Rayet ejecta, supernova remnants, Herbig-Haro objects, young stellar objects, B[e] stars, symbiotic stars and outflows, late-type stars, cataclysmic variables, low redshift emission-line galaxies, and even image/detector flaws. PN catalogues such as the Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg H-alpha Planetary Nebula catalogue (MASH) have been carefully vetted to remove these mimics using the wealth of new wide-field multi-wavelength data and our 100% follow-up spectroscopy to produce a compilation of new PN discoveries of high purity. During this process significant numbers of PN mimics have been identified. The aim of this project is to compile these MASH rejects into a catalogue of Miscellaneous Emission Nebulae (MEN) and to highlight the most unusual and interesting examples. A new global analysis of these MEN objects is underway before publishing the MEN catalogue online categorizing objects by type together with their spectra and multi-wavelength images.Comment: 2 pages, IAU 283: An Eye To The Future proceeding

War economy, governance and security in Syria’s opposition-controlled areas

This paper explores links between the war economy and civilian security by using evidence from the three opposition-held areas in Syria. The study of Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and Atareb shows how different type of behavior by non-state armed groups engaged in criminal war economy, shaped by the broader war economy conditions, impacts on the ability of the local populations to address their security predicaments. Our findings will challenge the assumption prevalent in the scholarship on the war economy that civilian security is unequivocally undermined by insurgents’ criminal war economy dealings. We show that in some local contexts a diverse range of economic choices and actors provide the local population with more opportunities to develop coping strategies by engaging in different parts of the war economy

Wholly local? Ownership as philosophy and practice in peacebuilding interventions

This paper engages with the theme of local ownership in peacebuilding from a practice- based perspective which suggests that the way in which the external actors reach out and work with local constituencies shows conceptual and practice gaps that limit the applicability of local ownership in day-to-day peacebuilding operations. We examine how, in the case of EU peacebuilding policies, such gaps impair the potential for effective, inclusive and sustainable peacebuilding. Using a Whole- of-Society lens the paper demonstrates how current modalities of EU engagement fail to embrace the diversity of local society and its authentic forms of mobilisation and action in order to pursue peacebuilding objectives that resonate with locally relevant forms of peace. The paper further reflects on how Whole-of-Society perspective can provides pointers for enhancing peacebuilding practices in this area