Material research from the viewpoint of functional motifsOA

As early as 2001,the need for the ’functional motif theory’ was pointed out,to assist the rational design of functional materials.The properties of materials are determined by their functional motifs and how they are arranged in the materials.Uncovering functional motifs and their arrangements is crucial in understanding the properties of materials and rationally designing new materials of desired properties.The functional motifs of materials are the critical microstructural units(e.g.constituen...     

A common variant in AAK1 reduces risk of noise-induced hearing lossOA

<正>Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the most common types of hearing loss and contributes to significant morbidity worldwide,as well as being the major cause of age-related hearing loss and tinnitus.The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10%of the world’s population is exposed to sound levels that could potentially cause NIHL[1].It has been widely accepted that NIHL is a multifactorial genetic disorder with estimated heritability of 36%to 40%[2].Ideally,identificatio...     

Targeted synthesis of zeolites from calculated interaction between zeolite structure and organic templateOA

Zeolites,a class of silica-based porous materials,have been widely employed in the chemical industry for uses such as sorption,separation,catalysis and ion exchange.Normally,the synthesis of zeolites is performed in the presence of organic templates via a trial-and-error route,which is labor-intensive and empirical.In recent years,theoretical simulation from the interaction between a zeolite structure and an organic template has been used to guide the synthesis of zeolites,which is time-saving.I...     

Photodegradable polar-functionalized polyethylenesOA

The degradation of plastics has attracted much attention from the global community.Polyethylenes(PEs),as the most abundant synthetic plastics,are most frequently studied.PE is non-degradable and non-polar because of the sole presence of the pure hydrocarbon components.Concurrent incorporation of both in-chain cleavable and functional groups into the PE chain is an effective pathway to overcome the non-degradable and non-polar issue;however,the method for achieving this pathway remains elusive.He...     

Worldwide impacts of atmospheric vapor pressure deficit on the interannual variability of terrestrial carbon sinksOA

Interannual variability of the terrestrial ecosystem carbon sink is substantially regulated by various environmental variables and highly dominates the interannual variation of atmospheric carbon dioxide(CO₂) concentrations.Thus,it is necessary to determine dominating factors affecting the interannual variability of the carbon sink to improve our capability of predicting future terrestrial carbon sinks.Using global datasets derived from machine-learning methods and process-based ecosy...     

What are species and how are they formed?OA

<正>In this issue of NSR,four papers address various aspects of speciation.The fifth one,to appear in the next issue,is on biodiversity and should ultimately be about speciation as well.As has always been the case in speciation research,the conclusion depends on what’species’are.This is true for Wang et al.[1] on post-speciation gene flow,Ma et al.[2] on hybridization speciation,Sun et al.[3] on sympatric speciation and Fan et al.[4]on species diversity.The conclusions would all be quite di...     

Cyclic-anion salt for high-voltage stable potassium-metal batteriesOA

Electrolyte anions are critical for achieving high-voltage stable potassium-metal batteries(PMBs).However,the common anions cannot simultaneously prevent the formation of ’dead K’ and the corrosion of Al current collector,resulting in poor cycling stability.Here,we demonstrate cyclic anion of hexafluoropropane-1,3-disulfonimide-based electrolytes that can mitigate the ’dead K’ and remarkably enhance the high-voltage stability of PMBs.Particularly,even using low salt concentration(0.8 M) and addi...     

Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology

The CAS Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Tech- nology (SIAT) is jointly founded by CAS and the gov- ernment of Shenzhen, China’s first special economic region. It is the first R&D entity in China specializing in modernized manufacturing and independent innovation with integrated technologies as its disciplinary orientation. Why SIAT? Involving a number of fields of sci- ence and engineering, the integrated technology has gained a rapid development and is recognized for a variety of app…     

In pursuit of reconstructing missing human handsOA

<正>Human beings are the most intelligent living beings on Earth.Creating reconstructions of missing human limbs that can be naturally integrated into the human body is a lofty ambition and faces challenges in neuroscience,information science,mechanical and electronic engineering,and many other disciplines.Based on the development history of robotic prosthetic hands over the past 70 years,     

云南省宁蒗县树扎铜矿地质特征及矿床成因探讨

树扎铜矿位于区域性构造的挖开断层北东,树劳河～中梁子断层南西相交的二迭系玄武岩组地层内。区域两个构造带应力集中交汇的地段,是造就树扎铜矿的导矿构造、容矿构造之原因。后期从华力西～燕山～喜山期的岩浆热液活动,对树扎铜矿的后期成矿和富集都起了重要作用。本文介绍了树扎铜矿矿区地质概况,阐述了树扎铜矿的地质特征,并对矿床成因进行了探讨分析,对该地区今后的地质工作具有一定的指导意义。     

The onset of deep recycling of supracrustal materials at the Paleo-Mesoarchean boundary

The recycling of supracrustal materials, and in particular hydrated rocks, has a profound impact on mantle composition and thus on the formation of continental crust, because water modifies the physical properties of lithological systems and the mechanisms of partial melting and fractional fractionation. On the modern Earth, plate tectonics offers an efficient mechanism for mass transport from the Earth''s surface to its interior, but how far this mechanism dates back in the Earth''s history is still uncertain. Here, we use zircon oxygen (O) isotopes to track recycling of supracrustal materials into the magma sources of early Archean igneous suites from the Kaapvaal Craton, southern Africa. The mean δ¹⁸O values of zircon from TTG (tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite) rocks abruptly increase at the Paleo-Mesoarchean boundary (ca. 3230 million years ago; Ma), from mantle zircon values of 5‰–6‰ to approaching 7.1‰, and this increase occurs in ≤3230 Ma rocks with elevated Dy/Yb ratios. The ¹⁸O enrichment is a unique signature of low-temperature water–rock interaction on the Earth''s surface. Because the later phase was emplaced into the same crustal level as the older one and TTG magmas would derive from melting processes in the garnet stability field (>40 km depth), we suggest that this evident shift in TTG zircon O isotopic compositions records the onset of recycling of the mafic oceanic crust that underwent seawater hydrothermal alteration at low temperature. The onset of the enhanced recycling of supracrustal materials may also have developed elsewhere in other Archean cratons and reflects a significant change in the tectonic realm during craton formation and stabilization, which may be important processes for the operation of plate tectonics on early Earth.     

Isotopic evidence for volatile replenishment of the Moon during the Late Accretion

The traditional view of a dry, volatile-poor Moon has been challenged by the identification of water and other volatiles in lunar samples, but the volatile budget delivery time(s), source(s) and temporal evolution remain poorly constrained. Here we show that hydrogen and chlorine isotopic ratios in lunar apatite changed significantly during the Late Accretion (LA, 4.1–3.8 billion years ago). During this period, deuterium/hydrogen ratios in the Moon changed from initial carbonaceous-chondrite-like values to values consistent with an influx of ordinary-chondrite-like material and pre-LA elevated δ³⁷Cl values drop towards lower chondrite-like values. Inferred pre-LA lunar interior water contents are significantly lower than pristine values suggesting degassing, followed by an increase during the LA. These trends are consistent with dynamic models of solar-system evolution, suggesting that the Moon''s (and Earth''s) initial volatiles were replenished ∼0.5 Ga after their formation, with their final budgets reflecting a mixture of sources and delivery times.     

Celestial and mythical origins of the citadel of Bukhara

Narshakhī's The History of Bukhara, an account from the tenth century AD that has been narrated as a mythical and strange story about the formation of the citadel of Bukhara, has received scanty scholarly attention. This study addresses some of the unknown semantic and symbolic origins of Iranian citadels and fortresses through an analysis of documented legends and other classical sources. This analysis shows that the citadel (qal'a) was built based on the conceptual archetype of the Utopia of Kangdiz (Siāvošgerd) and the geometric shape of Banāt Naʿsh (Big Dipper), which has played a symbolic role in protecting and guarding in Persian cosmology. This celestial analogy can explain the causes and origins of the irregular shape of some other Iranian citadels.     

两种方法评价不同高度涡度相关系统的观测结果

主要通过常规气象参数、湍流特性和能量闭合度对2套涡度相关系统的观测结果进行了比较研究.对2层高度湍流特性的研究中,以相似理论为基础,分析了垂直风速的标准差和稳定度参数z/L(观测高度与莫宁霍夫长度比值)的关系,2层观测结果对垂直风速的标准差和稳定度参数z/L的模拟方程显示23m观测数据的模拟结果更符合通用方程的经验参数.最后对2层高度的半年时间内(2003-01-01)～(2003-06-30)总体能量闭合度和能量闭合度的时间变化趋势作了对比研究.结果表明,39m观测结果的总体能量闭合度要高于23m的总体能量闭合度;但从各自的能量闭合度的时间变化来看,23m在冬季的能量闭合度要高于39m,而在春季39m的能量闭合度要高于23m.     

青藏高原能量、水分循环影响效应

青藏高原是世界上总辐射量最高的地区,也是全球超太阳常数的极值区域之一。此处形成了一个"嵌入"对流层中部大气的巨大的热源,可以伸展到自由大气,其超越了世界上任何超级城市群落所产生的中空热岛效应,对全球与区域大气环流系统变化的动力"驱动"产生了难以估计的效应。与地形热力过程季节变化密切相关的亚洲夏季风是世界上范围最广和强度最强的季风;从冬季到早春季节转换过程中,由于太阳辐射的影响造成青藏高原大地形感热的"快速响应"及其相对高值动态移动,在盛夏梅雨及其云降水带前沿线恰好停滞于中国"三阶梯"地形分布山地—平原过渡区。此现象表明,青藏高原可能扮演着夏季风过程陆地—海洋—大气相互作用的关键角色。中国区域低云量与总云量极值区均与青藏高原大江大河的源头(长江、澜沧江、雅鲁藏布江等)、中东部湖泊群与冰川集中区空间分布几乎吻合,这表明"亚洲水塔"形成的关键因素与"世界屋脊"特有的云降水结构不可分割。研究表明,青藏高原大气热源对局地与下游区域云降水过程水汽输送流型等均有显著影响。长江流域降水与全国低云量存在一个明显沿长江流域的带状高相关结构,充分表明长江流域降水与上游"亚洲水塔""热驱动"以及对流系统具有重要相关关系。从跨赤道经向环流的视角可发现,夏季南、北半球跨赤道气流低层强偏南、高层强偏北气流出现在东亚地区和北美区域两大地形对应的赤道区,这2个跨赤道极值区恰与青藏高原、落基山高原位置相对应。青藏高原纬向与经向环流圈结构与区域-全球大气环流相关机制,印证了"世界屋脊"隆起大地形的"热驱动"及其对流活动在全球能量、水分循环的作用。青藏高原特殊水汽三维结构分布和跨半球的纬向和经向大气垂直环流图表明青藏高原对全球尺度大气环流变化的贡献显著。文章进一步以东亚、全球水循环的视角,提出了青藏高原作为全球性大气"水塔"的观念,认为在高原地区一个水塔的"供水"和"蓄水"循环体系,特别是高原地表冰川、积雪和湖泊作为"蓄水池"系统,使得所有的河流可作为"输水管道",将"水塔"的水向周边区域输送出去,高层大气也提供向外输送的渠道。青藏高原特殊的跨半球大气水分循环可构建"世界水塔"与其周边地区独特的水文功能概念,综合描绘了青藏高原"世界水塔"及其地球上一个完整的行星尺度陆地—海洋—大气水分循环物理图像。     

Water in the upper mantle and deep crust of eastern China: concentration,distribution and implications

Understanding the concentration and distribution of water in the Earth''s mantle plays a substantial role in studying its chemical, physical and dynamic processes. After a decade of research, a comprehensive dataset of water content in upper-mantle samples has been built for eastern China, which is now the only place with water-content data from such diverse types of natural samples, and provides an integrated picture of the water content and its distribution in the upper mantle at a continental scale. The main findings include the following: (i) the temporal heterogeneity of the water content in the lithospheric mantle from early Cretaceous (∼120 Ma) to Cenozoic (<40 Ma) was tightly connected with the stability of the North China Craton (from its destruction to its consolidation); (ii) the heterogeneous water content in the Cenozoic lithospheric mantle beneath different blocks of eastern China was not only inherited from tectonic settings from which they came, but was also affected later by geological processes they experienced; (iii) the distinct water content between the lowermost crust and lithospheric mantle of eastern China and its induced rheological contrast at the base of the crust indicate that the continental crust–mantle boundary could behave either in a coupled or decoupled manner beneath different areas and/or at different stages; (iv) the alkali basalts of eastern China demonstrate a heterogeneous distribution of water content in the mantle; local and regional comparisons of the water content between the lithospheric mantle and basalts'' source indicate that the Cenozoic alkali basalts in eastern China were not sourced from the lithospheric mantle. Instead, the inferred high water contents in the mantle sources suggest that the Cenozoic eastern China basalts were likely sourced from the mantle transition zone (MTZ); and (v) both oceanic and continental crusts may carry a certain amount of water back into the deep mantle of eastern China by plate subduction. Such recycled crustal materials have not only created a local water-rich zone, but have also introduced crustal geochemical signatures into the mantle, both accounting for crustal geochemical imprints in the intra-plate magmatic rocks of eastern China.     

Evidence for oxygenation of Fe-Mg oxides at mid-mantle conditions and the rise of deep oxygen

As the reaction product of subducted water and the iron core, FeO₂ with more oxygen than hematite (Fe₂O₃) has been recently recognized as an important component in the D” layer just above the Earth''s core-mantle boundary. Here, we report a new oxygen-excess phase (Mg, Fe)₂O_3+δ (0 < δ < 1, denoted as ‘OE-phase’). It forms at pressures greater than 40 gigapascal when (Mg, Fe)-bearing hydrous materials are heated over 1500 kelvin. The OE-phase is fully recoverable to ambient conditions for ex situ investigation using transmission electron microscopy, which indicates that the OE-phase contains ferric iron (Fe³⁺) as in Fe₂O₃ but holds excess oxygen through interactions between oxygen atoms. The new OE-phase provides strong evidence that H₂O has extraordinary oxidation power at high pressure. Unlike the formation of pyrite-type FeO₂Hx which usually requires saturated water, the OE-phase can be formed with under-saturated water at mid-mantle conditions, and is expected to be more ubiquitous at depths greater than 1000 km in the Earth''s mantle. The emergence of oxygen-excess reservoirs out of primordial or subducted (Mg, Fe)-bearing hydrous materials may revise our view on the deep-mantle redox chemistry.     

Will Earth's next supercontinent assemble through the closure of the Pacific Ocean?

Earth''s known supercontinents are believed to have formed in vastly different ways, with two endmembers being introversion and extroversion. The former involves the closure of the internal oceans formed during the break-up of the previous supercontinent, whereas the latter involves the closure of the previous external superocean. However, it is unclear what caused such diverging behavior of supercontinent cycles that involved first-order interaction between subducting tectonic plates and the mantle. Here we address this question through 4D geodynamic modeling using realistic tectonic set-ups. Our results show that the strength of the oceanic lithosphere plays a critical role in determining the assembly path of a supercontinent. We found that high oceanic lithospheric strength leads to introversion assembly, whereas lower strength leads to extroversion assembly. A theoretically estimated reduction in oceanic crustal thickness, and thus its strength, during Earth''s secular cooling indicates that introversion was only possible for the Precambrian time when the oceanic lithosphere was stronger, thus predicting the assembling of the next supercontinent Amasia through the closure of the Pacific Ocean instead of the Indian-Atlantic oceans. Our work provides a new understanding of the secular evolution of plate tectonics and geodynamics as the Earth cooled.     

Bacterial aggregation and biofilm formation in a vortical flow

Bacterial aggregation and patchiness play an important role in a variety of ecological processes such as competition, adaptation, epidemics, and succession. Here, we demonstrate that hydrodynamics of their environment can lead to their aggregation. This is specially important since microbial habitats are rarely at rest (e.g., ocean, blood stream, flow in porous media, and flow through membrane filtration processes). In order to study the dynamics of bacterial collection in a vortical flow, we utilize a microfluidic system to mimic some of the important microbial conditions at ecologically relevant spatiotemporal scales. We experimentally demonstrate the formation of “ring”-shaped bacterial collection patterns and subsequently the formation of biofilm streamers in a microfluidic system. Acoustic streaming of a microbubble is used to generate a vortical flow in a microchannel. Due to bacteria''s finite-size, the microorganisms are directed to closed streamlines and trapped in the vortical flow. The collection of bacteria in the vortices occurs in a matter of seconds, and unexpectedly, triggers the formation of biofilm streamers within minutes. Swimming bacteria have a competitive advantage to respond to their environmental conditions. In order to investigate the role of bacterial motility on the rate of collection, two strains of Escherichia coli bacteria with different motilities are used. We show that the bacterial collection in a vortical flow is strongly pronounced for high motile bacteria.