Operational and structural aspects of a vapor-feed semi-passive direct methanol fuel cell supplied with concentrated methanol

Direct methanol fuel cell （DMFC） has great potential to replace the traditional battery in the field of portable power sources. This study investigates the operational and structural aspects of a vapor-feed semi-passive DMFC supplied with concentrated methanol. The effec tiveness of using vaporous methanol to improve the cell performance is experimentally validated. Results indicate that there exits an optimal value of methanol concentration that favors both methanol supply and control of methanol crossover （MCO）. With the increase in vaporization temperature, the cell performance can be enhanced. Based on the traditional structural design, a sintered porous metal plate is further used to depress the impact of MCO so that the cell performance can be significantly improved at a relatively higher methanol concentration. This is of great importance to enhance the energy density and operating duration for portable applications. The mechanisms related to the performance behaviors are discussed in detail.     

Subcellular localization of chitosan oligosaccharides in living cells

Chitosan oligosaccharides （COS） is derived from the chemical or enzymatic decomposition of chitosan. The exact mechanisms underlying many biological functions of COS have not been elucidated. Since subcellular localization is very important in determining biological activity in a number of molecules, we used fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled chitosan oligosaccharides （FITC- COS） and investigated the localization of COS in living cells by laser scanning microscopy. We found that COS entered cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner, and we first showed that COS may enter cells by facilitated passive diffusion and was preferentially localized in the mitochondria. While in high concentration, it was also found in the cytoplasm and nucleus and was enriched in the nucleolus and karyotheca. The different subcellular localization of COS suggested that they played different effects. Determination of COS subcellular localization in cells is important to help us understand the potent mechanisms underlying its multiple functions.     

Flabellariopteris,a new aquatic fern leaf from the Late Triassic of western Liaoning,China

An aquatic fern leaf, Flabellariopteris mii Sun gen. et sp. nov. from the Late Triassic of Western Liaoning, China, is described and proposed as the type species of the new morphortaxon of the Marsileaceae. The fossil leaves are preserved as impression. No fertile and rhizomatic materials are found. The leaves attached at a common point on the top of the petiole are composed of two leaflets joined basally in an opposite arrangement. The petiole is slender. The leaflet is fan-shaped or semi-circular, and commonly divided into four wedge-shaped lobes. Terminal margin of lobes is usually incised, incisions shallow or deep, with bluntly rounded or notched apex. The veins are conspicu- ously dichotomous, but anastomoses and marginal vein are absent. The unique morphological features, including two- parted thin leaflets, size, shape, veins and slender petiole, indicate that the present specimen represents an aquatic fern, which is the oldest fossil record and the first megafossil evidence assignable to Marsileaceae from the Triassic floras.     

Assessment of urinary concentration of cotinine in Chinese pregnant women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke

Environmental tobacco smoke （ETS） is a well- known reason of many adverse health consequences in pregnant women. Exposure of ETS during pregnancy may increase the risk of some fetal diseases in pregnant women and/or birth defects in neonates. Many countries have implemented laws to control smoking and free of second hand smoke in all enclosed workplaces. In China, anti- smoking law was enforced in March 2010. We aimed to assess the exposure of pregnant women to cotinine after anti-smoking law was implemented in China. The urine samples were collected from 2,100 volunteers from Zhejiang Province, China and urinary concentration of cotinine was measured using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Cotinine was detected in 87 % of the pregnant women. The GM and 95th percentile concentration in pregnant women were 4.28 and 44.00 μg/L, respectively. Similarly, the GM and 95th concentration of cotinine were significantly higher in smoking group than in non-smoking group （P 〈 0.0001）. Our results indicate that pregnant women in China are at the high risk of exposure ETS. Further attempts are required to make strategies to find out the sources of ETS exposure and prevent smoking at public places especially during pregnancy.     

Compact packaging for multi-wavelength DML TOSA

A compact multi-wavelength hybrid-integrated directly-modulated distributed-feedback laser （DML） transmitter optical sub-assembly （TOSA） has been achieved in our laboratory. The 8-channel distributed feedback （DFB） lasers are monolithically integrated based on the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp （REC） technology. With the high-density and high-speed packaging technique, the laser array and a multi-mode interference （MMI） multiplexer are assembled in the TOSA. The channel spacing of the TOSA is 200 GHz between adjacent lasers. It meets the 8 ; 12.5 Gb/s operation demand and gives rather low channel crosstalk of less than -25 dB. This compact TOSA is of effective cost and shows good sta- bility for mass production, which is expected to improve the performance of devices in access networks, data centers and supercomputing.     

Quantitative study of tectonic geomorphology along Haiyuan fault based on airborne LiDAR

High-precision and high-resolution topography are the fundamental data for active fault research.Light detection and ranging(LiDAR)presents a new approach to build detailed digital elevation models effectively.We take the Haiyuan fault in Gansu Province as an example of how LiDAR data may be used to improve the study of active faults and the risk assessment of related hazards.In the eastern segment of the Haiyuan fault,the Shaomayin site has been comprehensively investigated in previous research because of its exemplary tectonic topographic features.Based on unprecedented LiDAR data,the horizontal and vertical coseismic offsets at the Shaomayin site are described.The measured horizontal value is about 8.6 m,and the vertical value is about 0.8 m.Using prior dating ages sampled from the same location,we estimate the horizontal slip rate as4.0±1.0 mm/a with high confidence and define that the lower bound of the vertical slip rate is 0.4±0.1 mm/a since the Holocene.LiDAR data can repeat the measurements of field work on quantifying offsets of tectonic landform features quite well.The offset landforms are visualized on an office computer workstation easily,and specialized software may be used to obtain displacement quantitatively.By combining precious chronological results,the fundamentallink between fault activity and large earthquakes is better recognized,as well as the potential risk for future earthquake hazards.     

Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations of the atomic structure of materials with subangstrom resolution and picometer precision

Lattice defects are unavoidable structural units in materials and play an important role in determining material properties. Compared with the periodic structure of crystals, the atomic configurations of the lattice defects are determined by the coordinates of a large number of atoms, making it difficult to experimentally investigate them. In computational materials science, multiparameter optimization is also a difficult problem and experimental verification is usually required to determine the possibility of obtaining the structure and properties predicted by cal- culations. Using our recent studies on oxide surfaces as examples, we introduce the method of integrated aberra- tion-corrected electron microscopy and the first-principles calculations to analyze the atomic structure of lattice defects. The atomic configurations of defects were mea- sured using quantitative high-resolution electron micros- copy at subangstrom resolution and picometer precision, and then the electronic structure and dynamic behavior of materials can be studied at the atomic scale using the first- principles calculations. The two methods complement each other and can be combined to increase the understanding of the atomic structure of materials in both the time and space dimensions, which will benefit materials design at the atomic scale.     

Super solar particle event around AD775 was found

A rapid radiocarbon14C increase of 120/00in AD774–775 has been reported in cedar and oak tree rings.So far,the origin of the14C increase is still uncertain and the possible origin is either supernova or solar particle event.The most possible origin of14C increase is strong solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections(CMEs)with strong particles emission.Comprehensive approaches to identify the strong historical solar particle events based on the rapid14C/10Be increase in tree/coral rings and ice cores,long duration strong auroras and geomagnetic storms are introduced.Evidence of the super auroras in AD775 was first found in a Chinese Chronicles Jiutangshu and it supports the views that the rapid14C increase and strong auroras around AD775 are most possibly caused by strong solar storms with intense particles emission.It was identified that the solar event around AD775 would be the strongest solar particle event in the past 11400 years.The discovery is significant for the research on the history of solar activities,space weather and forecast,radiation of solar energetic particles and protection.     

Upregulation of annexin A5 affects the biological behaviors of lung squamous carcinoma cells in vitro

Annexin A5 is a Ca2＋-dependent phospholipid- binding protein and protein kinase C inhibitory protein. It has a potential role in cellular signal transduction, inflam- mation, growth and differentiation. In this study, we evaluated the expression of this protein in lung tumor tis- sues and subsequently established a NCI-H520 cell line that stably expresses the wild-type ANXA5 gene to deter- mine the effects of annexin A5 upregulation on the cell morphology, proliferation and metastasis potential in vitro. The effects of annexin A5 on NCI-H520 cells were tested by crystal violet staining, CCK-8 assay, scratch wound assay, and Transwell assay. The expressions of Akt, PCNA, vimentin, and E-cadherin were examined by Western blot assay. In this study, we demonstrated that annexin A5 is expressed at lower levels in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. Additionally, the upregu- lation of this protein may inhibit the proliferation, migra- tion, and invasion abilities of NCI-H520 cells in vitro. Thetransfected cells were arrested in the G1/S phase of the cell cycle, and the expression levels of Akt, PCNA and Vimentin were downregulated, while E-cadherin was upregulated.     

Simulated change in the near-surface soil freeze/thaw cycle on the Tibetan Plateau from 1981 to 2010

The near-surface freeze/thaw cycle in cold regions plays a major role in the surface energy budget,hydrological activity,and terrestrial ecosystems.In this study,the Community Land Model,Version 4 and a suite of high-resolution atmospheric data were used to investigate the changes in the near-surface soil freeze/thaw cycle in response to the warming on the Tibetan Plateau from1981 to 2010.The in situ observations-based validation showed that,considering the cause of scale mismatch in the comparison,the simulated soil temperature,freeze start and end dates,and freeze duration at the near-surface were reasonable.In response to the warming of the Tibetan Plateau at a rate of approximately 0.44°C decade-1,the freeze start-date became delayed at an area-mean rate of1.7 days decade-1,while the freeze end-date became advanced at an area-mean rate of 4.7 days decade-1.The delaying of the freeze start-date,which was combined with the advancing of the freeze end-date,resulted in a statistically significant shortening trend with respect to the freeze duration,at an area-mean rate of 6.4 days decade-1.Such changes would strongly affect the surface energy flux,hydrological processes,and vegetation dynamics.We also found that the rate of freeze-duration shortening at the near-surface soil layer was approximately 3.0 days decade-1lower than that at a depth of 1 m.This implied that the changes in soil freeze/thaw cycles at the near surface cannot be assumed to reflect the situation in deeper soil layers.The significant correlations between freeze duration and air temperature indicated that the shortening of the near-surface freeze duration was caused by the rise in air temperature,which occurred especially in spring,followed by autumn.These results can be used to reveal the laws governing the response of the near-surface freeze/thaw cycle to climate change and indicate related changes in permafrost.     

U-Pb ages of zircon grains reveal a proximal dust source of the Xiashu loess,Lower Yangtze River region,China

Deciphering the eolian sources is critical to understand the paleo-significance of the Quaternary eolian deposits （the Xiashu loess） in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Both a local source from the fluvial sediments of the Yangtze River and a distal source from the northern deserts similar to that of the loess on the Chinese Loess Plateau （CLP） have been proposed. Recent researches show great advantages of detrital zircon ages as a source tracer for Asian dust based on the laser ablation U-Pb isotopic dating technique. This work presents the U-Pb ages of zircon grains extracted from the Xiashu loess. The results indicate that the Xiashu loess has a very different age distribution of zircon grains from that of the loess on the CLP as well as the materials in the arid lands of the Asian Interior. Instead, the zircon ages of the Xiashu loess are indistinguishable from the fluvial sediments of the Yangtze River, indicating the dominance of proximal dust source. Proximal source of the Xiashu loess implies that extensive eolian processes might have existed in the currently wet South China, possibly in response to the full glacial conditions after the middle Pleistocene transition of global climate.     

Clustering approach based on hierarchical expansion for community detection of scientific collaboration network①

This study presents a clustering algorithm based on hierarchical expansion to solve the problem of community detection in scientific collaboration network .The characteristics of achievements infor-mation related to scientific and technological domains are analyzed , and then an ontology that repre-sents their latent collaborative relations is built to detect clusters from the collaboration network .A case study is conducted to collect a data set of research achievements in the electric vehicle field and better clustering results are obtained .A hierarchical recommendation framework that enriches the domain ontologies and retrieves more relevant information resources is proposed in the last part of this paper .This work also lays out a novel insight into the exploitation of scientific collaboration net-work to better classify achievements information .     

A Study on Forest Species Diversity and Its Ecological Service Function in the Plateau Area of Western Sichuan

This paper presents a study on species diversity and its ecological service function in the plateau area in western Sichuan. The results show that species diversity in the plantations on the cutover land has a tendency to increase and that its ecological service function is to be improved with stand age growing. The species diversity in forest communities is also gradually increased on different succession stage till reaching a climax level. But the species diversity in the climax community is slightly decreased before it reaches a relatively constant status. Ecological service function of diversity is gradually strengthened with the progress of succession. In addition, species diversity in a stand in a similar site and at a same age differs among forest types. Species diversity index within a coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest is larger than that within a coniferous forest. Meanwhile, species diversity enriches as the tree density increases.     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of freezing and thawing of the active layer in the source areas of the Yellow River （SAYR）

Based on the analysis of data on temperatures and moisture of soils in the active layer at four different permafrost sites in the source areas of the Yellow River(SAYR)in 2010–2012,the freeze–thaw processes of soils in the active layer were compared and contrasted for understanding the spatiotemporal variations.At the four studied sites,the thickness and mean annual temperature of permafrost are different.The temperatures at the top of permafrost(TTOP),i.e.,the maximum depth(s)of seasonal frost and/or thaw penetration,are-1.9°C at the Chalaping site(CLP),-0.9°C at the site on the southern bank of the Zhaling Lake(ZLH),-0.4°C at the Maduo Town site(MDX),and 1.1°C at the site on the northern bank of the Eling Lake(ELH).Differences in the mean annual ground temperature of permafrost and TTOPs may be responsible for the differentiations in the freeze–thaw processes of soils in the active layer.With rising TTOPs,the ground thawing started earlier:CLP in early June,ZLH in late May,MDX in early May,and ELH in mid-April,while the freezing began later:CLP in early October,ZLH in early to midOctober,MDX in mid-October,and ELH in the mid-to late October.With increasing TTOPs,the freeze-up periods for permafrost sites were shortened:202 days at CLP,130 days at ZLH,100 days at MDX,and the period of complete thaw was 89 days at ELH.At the CLP and ZLH sites,the two-directional ground freezing(downwards from ground surfaces and upwards from the permafrost table)and thawing finished in the same year,but the ground freezing at the MDX continued to the end of the nextJanuary,with very slow freezing rates in the end.At the ELH site,ground freezing kept on until early May when thawing began on the surface,and upward and downward thawing became increasingly stable in late June to early July.At each site,with rising TTOPs,the downward freezing accelerated in comparison with the upward freezing,and with an increasing proportion of downward frozen depth,and with the larger ratios of freezing to thawing duration.In summary,the patterns of thawing and freezing processes in the active layer in the SAYR differ from those in other parts of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau to a noticeable extent.     

Nanoparticle coagulation and dispersion in a rotating curved pipe

Nanoparticulate flow in a curved pipe differs to that in a straight pipe, and is of scientific and technological interest. The length of flow path within a curved pipe is generally short, and the fluid experiences a centrifugal force which significantly changes the particle distribution both inside and downstream of the pipe. This phenomenon is more obvious when particle coagulation occurs. Prior to this study, nanoparticle migration in a rotating curved pipe with consideration of coagulation and dispersion has not been reported in detail. This study aimed to     

Influence of the carbon cycle on the attribution of responsibility for climate change

The carbon cycle is one of the fundamental climate change issues.Its long-term evolution largely affects the amplitude and trend of human-induced climate change,as well as the formulation and implementation of emission reduction policy and technology for stabilizing the atmospheric CO2concentration.Two earth system models incorporating the global carbon cycle,the Community Earth System Model and the Beijing Normal University-Earth System Model,were used to investigate the effect of the carbon cycle on the attribution of the historical responsibility for climate change.The simulations show that when compared with the criterion based on cumulative emissions,the developed(developing)countries’responsibility is reduced(increased)by 6%–10%using atmospheric CO2concentration as the criterion.This discrepancy is attributed to the fact that the developed world contributed approximately61%–68%(61%–64%)to the change in global oceanic(terrestrial)carbon sequestration for the period from 1850 to2005,whereas the developing world contributed approximately 32%–49%(36%–39%).Under a developed world emissions scenario,the relatively larger uptake of global carbon sinks reduced the developed countries’responsibility for carbon emissions but increased their responsibility for global ocean acidification(68%).In addition,the large emissions from the developed world reduced the efficiency of the global carbon sinks,which may affect the long-term carbon sequestration and exacerbate global warming in the future.Therefore,it is necessary to further consider the interaction between carbon emissions and the carbon cycle when formulating emission reduction policy.     

Chemical and biological research of Clematis medicinal resources

Clematis is a botanical source for various pharmaceutically active components,which has long been used in conventional medicine since the beginning of Chinese civilization.Increasing interest in Clematis medicinal resources has led to additional discoveries of triterpenoid saponins,flavonoids,coumarins,alkaloids and many other compounds in various Clematis species,and to investigations on their chemotaxonomy,molecular phylogeny and pharmacology.In continuation with our studies on Clematis chemistry and biology,we review the chemistry,chemotaxonomy,molecular biology and phylogeny of Clematis and their relevance to drug efficacy and drug development.Various databases and technology have been used in literature search in order to characterize the global scientific effort.It is essential to study more species for both the sustainable utilization of Clematis medicinal resources and finding novel compounds with potential clinical utility.Systems biology and omics technologies will play an increasingly important role in future medicinal research involving bioactive compounds of Clematis.     

The spatial distribution pattern of landslides triggered by the 20 April 2013 Lushan earthquake of China and its implication to identification of the seismogenic fault

After the 20 April 2013 Lushan MS6.6 earthquake occurred,investigation and identification of the seismogenic fault for this event have become a focused and debatable issue.This work prepared an initial landslide inventory map related to the Lushan earthquake based on field investigations and visual interpretation of high-resolution aerial photographs and provided evidence for solving the issue aforementioned.The analysis of three landslide-density profiles perpendicular to strike direction of the probable seismogenic fault shows that many landslides occurred on the footwall of the Shuangshi–Dachuan fault(SDF),without sudden change of landslide density near the fault.Very few landslides were detected near the Dayi fault(DF)and also no change of landslide density there.While obvious sudden change of landslide density appeared about 1–2 km from the northwest to the western Shangli fault(WSF),and the landslide density on the hanging wall of the fault is obviously higher than that of on the footwall.Therefore,we infer that the seismogenic fault for the Lushan earthquake is neither the SDF nor the DF,rather probably the WSF located between these two faults,which is an evident linear trace on the earth surface.Meanwhile,the coseismic slip did not propagate upward to the ground,implying the Lushan earthquake was spawned by a blind-thrust-fault beneath the WSF.     

New insights into mTOR structure and regulation

The mammalian target of rapamycin, mTOR, forms various protein-protein complexes to regulate cell growth in response to the nutrient and energy status of the cell. Recently, the first crystal structure of large HEAT repeat protein mTOR revealed that the FAT domain interacts with the kinase domain through electrostatic effects and hydrophobic interactions. Based on the structure, the previous researches on how FAT domain regulates mTOR activity are reviewed. DEPTOR is currently known as an endogenous mTOR inhibitor, which may interact with roTOR FAT domain to suppress mTOR activity in vivo. The possible interactions of DEPTOR with the mTOR FAT domain are analyzed, too. In addition, the inhibition mechanism of DEPTOR may be similar to members of HEAT-involved RanGTP complex family, providing new mechanistic insights into mTOR kinase regulation.