NGC 300 is a near-optical twin of the Local Group galaxy M33, which are benchmarks for understanding late-type spiral galaxies. They are two bulgeless and low-mass spiral galaxies in different environments. In order to explore the common properties and differences between the two nearby low-mass systems, we first use the simple chemical evolution model to explore the star formation history (SFH) of NGC300 and M33, and then compare the feasible model predicted SFH of NGC 300 with that of M33. Through comparing the SFHs between them, it can be found that the mean stellar age of NGC 300 is older than that of M33, there is a recent lack of primordial gas infall onto the disk of NGC 300, recent star formation along the disk of NGC 300 is less active than that of M33, and the local environment may play a key role in the secular evolution of a galaxy.

Understanding the effect of environment on galaxy formation and evolution is one of the hot topics in extragalactic astronomy. Here we constructed a chemical evolution model of disk galaxies. By comparing the model predictions with the observed profiles, we investigated the star formation history of M33, NGC 300 and NGC 2403. We found that M33 has much longer infall timescale than NGC 300 and NGC 2403, and the star formation process of M33 is still active at later phase. Our results suggested that the cold gas supply of M33 is sufficient in the present-day, which may originate from the HI bridge between M33 and M31. In other words, we argue that the local environment plays an important role on the star formation history of a galaxy, at least for M33.

A simple model for M51a is constructed to explore its evolutionary history by assuming its disk grows from continuous gas infall, which is shaped by a free parameter-the infall-peak time tp. By adopting a constant infall-peak time tp = 7.0Gyr, our model predictions can reproduce most of the observed constraints and still show that the disk of M51a forms inside-out. Our results also show that the current molecular gas surface density, the star-formation rate and the UV-band surface brightness are important quantities to trace the effect of recent interactions on galactic star-formation process.

Using Eggletons code the evolution of cataclysmic variables (CVs) is investigated. CVs might suffer the loss of mass and angular momentum during their evolution, we present the models of CVs with mass loss and angular momentum loss (AML) due to gravitation wave radiation (GR) and/or magnetic braking (MB). It is found that the loss of mass and angular momentum has significant influence on the evolution of CVs, and that the change of the star structure or their atmosphere properties is a possible mechanism which underlies a sudden change in the rate of AML owing to MB.

We discuss the effect of binary interactions on the tracers of star formation rate (including L1500, L2800, LHα, L[OII] and LFIR) at different metallicities (0.0001–0.03).

W UMa systems can be found everywhere in the Galaxy. They can be used as a distance tracer. Therefore, W UMa systems are very important to investigate the structure of the Galaxy. The distance to W UMa systems in globular clusters (GCs) is determined using a period–color–luminosity relation. It is found that the mean distance (ra) of W UMa systems is consistent with their host cluster distances (rGC) deduced from their intrinsic distance moduli if rGC ≤ 10 kpc. There is a significant difference between ra and rGC for rGC ≥ 10 kpc. We discuss the reasons causing this deviation.

We summarize and discuss our recent works on the structure and evolution of low-mass W UMa-type contact binary stars. Three conclusions are given as followings: (1) The energy transfer is taken place in the radiative region of common envelope of W UMa systems; (2) The magnetic activity level of W UMa systems is weaker than that of non-contact binaries or rapid-rotating single stars; (3) The evolutionary outcome of W UMa systems might be the rapid-rotating single stars, and an average lifetime is derived to be about 7 Gyr for W UMa systems.

We try to find some colors that have the potential to study stellar age and metallicity from UBV RIJHK and ugriz colors using the simple population synthesis model of Bruzual & Charlot 2003 (BC03). The principal component analysis (PCA) (See Kong & Cheng 2001) and relative sensitive parameter techniques (see Worthey 1994) are used in this work. As a result, some colors such as (B – K), (R – K), (I – H), (B – V), (U – R), (R – I), are found to have the ability to break the stellar age-metallicity degeneracy partially and can possibly be used for studying stellar populations of galaxies.