Table of Content

25 August 2015, Volume 37 Issue 4

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Invited Special Paper

New decadal scientific ocean drilling: Illuminating Earth’s past, present, and future

TIAN Jun① TUO Shouting

2015, 37(4):  239-250.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.001

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The new decadal International Ocean Discovery Program science plan covers a 10-year period of operation and highlights four main themes, encompassing a total of 14 scientific challenges. These themes are climate and ocean change: reading the past, informing the future; biosphere frontiers: deep life, biodiversity, and environmental forcing of ecosystems; Earth connections: deep processes and their impact on Earth’s surface environment; Earth in motion: processes and hazards on human time scales. After the theory of plate tectonics led to an epoch revolution of Earth science, the new decadal scientific ocean drilling has the greatest potentiality to trigger the other one.



Review Article

Research progress in the first-principles calculations of phase transition mechanism and doping of VO₂

CUI Yuanyuan, CHEN Lanli, YAN Liuming, REN Qinghua, SHI Siqi, ZHANG Wenqing,LUO Hongjie, GAO Yanfeng

2015, 37(4):  251-260.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.002

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VO₂, which undergoes semiconducting-metallic phase transition, is a promising thermochromic material that can intelligently control the transmittance of sunlight in the near-infrared region in response to ambient temperature changes. This characteristic makes VO₂ valuable for applications to thermal switches, optical sensors, information storage devices, smart windows and uncooled focal plane detectors. In the present review, we firstly introduced the physical and chemical property and the present experimental investigations of VO₂ briefly. And then we discussed in detail on the research progress in the first-principles calculations
of the phase transition mechanism of VO₂, and indicated that a coupling of Mott transition and Peierls transition may exist in the VO₂ phase transition. After that, we discussed the application of first-principles calculations in the study of modification of VO₂ through doping of either metallic or nonmetallic elements. Moreover, we pointed out the great conflicts of calculation results from different calculation methods, and more cautious should be paid when dealing with these issues. Finally, a prediction of the developing trends of first-principles calculations in the study of VO₂ was summarized.

First principles computation methods and applications for metal/metal-oxide interfaces

JIANG Yong

2015, 37(4):  261-268. 

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In view of our many years of experience, the first principles computation methods and procedures are briefly and systematically reviewed for the study of metal/metal-oxide interfaces. A combined first principles based thermodynamics and classical diffusion kinetics analysis is demonstrated to develop a fundamental understanding of the interface-level microstructure formation and evolution of Cu/(Al2O3)p composites during internal oxidation fabrication, which can guide experiments in promising directions.

Current situation and utilization technology of nickel ore in China

LU Changyuan, LU Xionggang, ZOU Xingli, CHENG Hongwei, XU Qian

2015, 37(4):  269-277.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.004

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The profiles of nickel ore resources of China were expounded comprehensively in this paper, and the utilization technology of sulfide/laterite nickel ore was also discussed in detail. The treatment processes for different nickel resources were introduced, especially the promising processes were presented and discussed. The significance of the utilization technology of nickel ores was pointed out, which may provide an implication to the further comprehensive utilization and treatment of nickel ore resources.

Progress

Status and advance on study of behavior and ecology in primate (II): Activity patterns and feeding behavior

SHANG Yuchang

2015, 37(4):  278-280.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.005

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Most primates limit their activities to one particular segment of each 24-hour day. Rather than being strictly diurnal and nocturnal, they seem to be active at intervals throughout a 24-hour day, an activity pattern that is called cathemeral. Each of these ways of life has its advantages and disadvantages. For most primates, the day is generally divided among three main activities: feeding, moving, and resting. The distribution of activities throughout the day is usually not random. Primate diets have generally been divided into three main food categories: fruit, leaves and fauna. In addition to particular nutritional and mechanical features, primate foods may vary considerably in their distribution and availability in both space and time. No other order of mammals displays the diversity of locomotors habits seen among primates. Primate locomotors habits can be divided into several major categories: leaping,arboreal and terrestrial guadrupedalism, suspensory behavior and bipedalism. In addition to locomotion, primatologist also pay careful attention to differences in primate postures—the way primates sit, hang, cling, or stand. In many instances, feeding postures may be as important as locomotion in the evolution of the species.

Wonderful astronomical phenomena: Comet ISON

HU Zhongwei

2015, 37(4):  281-286.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.006

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History of Natural Science

The establishment of homologous recombination mechanisms

XIANG Yihe

2015, 37(4):  287-296.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.007

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The establishment of homologous recombination mechanisms is introduced. The key events include the discover of gene linkage and recombination phenomena, the proposition of chiasmatype hypothesis, the appear of breakage, reunion and copy choice hypothesis, the establishment of three models of homologous recombination: Holliday model, single-strand-break and double-strandbreak repair model for recombination.

Natural Forum

Brain science in the courtroom

GU Fanji

2015, 37(4):  297-303.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.008

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In the last half of century, with the swift development of brain science, deeper insight into memory, emotion, consciousness and even free will have got much knowledges, thus questions about how reliable the testimony by eyewitnesses and the confession of the suspects is, new technology to collect evidences, and even if there is free will or people should be responsible for their actions, are raised from new angles of view. Some interdisciplinary fields such as neurolaw and forensic neuroscience have been emerging, a radical reform of the main principles underlying the law is on its way.

Science Review

Record the legend of our times

GUAN Yi

2015, 37(4):  304-312.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.009

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Reading and Comments

Add some salt to popular science education and science

SUI Shuguang

2015, 37(4):  313-316.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2015.04.010

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