The North China Craton (NCC) is one of the important Precambrian nuclei of the globe as well as an integral component of the Paleoproterozoic supercontinent Columba. The NCC is considered in popular ...models as an assembly of two major crustal blocks, the Eastern and Western Blocks, which were sutured along the Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO), which represents a major Paleoproterozoic collisional orogen. The central segment of the TNCO preserves important keys to unravel the tectonic history of amalgamation and cratonization of the NCC. Here we present an overview on the lithology, geochemistry, geochronology, Lu-Hf isotopes and metamorphic history of the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic rocks in the major basement terranes from the central segment of the TNCO. The available data allow us to re-construct the major Precambrian events from the heart of the NCC as follows. (1) 2.58–2.48 Ga: amalgamation of three microblocks (Ordos, Qianhuai and Xuchang) along the Wutai granite-greenstone belt and its branch at the Zanhuang area, together with the convergence of major microblocks along other ~2.5 Ga granite-greenstone belts leading to the initial cratonization of the NCC. (2) 2.50–2.45 Ga: post-collisional extension as represented by undeformed mafic dykes and granitoid dykes or plutons, resulting in the opening of an oceanic basin along the Hengshan and Huai’an-Xuanhua Complexes. (3) 2.45–2.12 Ga: subduction in the Hengshan, Huai’an-Xuanhua and Lüliang Complexes, and simultaneous rifting in the Fuping, Wutai and Zanhuang Complexes. (4) 2.12–1.98 Ga: opening of oceanic basins in the Wutai and Fuping areas followed by double subduction of the oceanic lithosphere and arc magmatism in the Fuping, Wutai and Lüliang Complexes, with coeval rifting in the northern part as represented by the Hengshan and Huai’an-Xuanhua Complexes and the southern side as represented by the Zanhuang Complex. (5) 1.96–1.80 Ga: the assembly of the separated terranes (or complexes) driven by the amalgamation of the Western and Eastern Blocks. The collisional event may have occurred at 1.96–1.90 Ga, and the 1.88–1.80 Ga metamorphic ages might represent the retrograde cooling during exhumation. (6) Termination of the collisional event represented by post-collisional intrusions of granitoids, charnockites and pegmatites until ca. 1.74 Ga. Thus the central segment of the TNCO records a prolonged Wilson cycle following the initial cratonization of the NCC during Neoarchean, and involved multiple rift-subduction and collisional processes in the Paleoproterozoic resulting in the unified NCC and its incorporation into the supercontinent Columbia.
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•Initial cratonization of the North China Craton occurred at 2.58–2.48 Ga.•Post-collisional magmatism during 2.5–2.45 Ga resulted in the opening of oceanic basin.•Subduction-rift system I (2.45–2.12 Ga) and II (2.12–1.98 Ga) formed various arc- and rift-related rocks.•The terrane assembly and collision between the Eastern and Western Blocks occurred at 1.96–1.90 Ga.
Ferroptosis, a newly discovered iron-dependent cell death pathway, is characterized by lipid peroxidation and GSH depletion mediated by iron metabolism and is morphologically, biologically and ...genetically different from other programmed cell deaths. Besides, ferroptosis is usually found accompanied by inflammatory reactions. So far, it has been found participating in the development of many kinds of diseases. Macrophages are a group of immune cells that widely exist in our body for host defense and play an important role in tissue homeostasis by mediating inflammation and regulating iron, lipid and amino acid metabolisms through their unique functions like phagocytosis and efferocytosis, cytokines secretion and ROS production under different polarization. According to these common points in ferroptosis characteristics and macrophages functions, it's obvious that there must be relationship between macrophages and ferroptosis. Therefore, our review aims at revealing the interaction between macrophages and ferroptosis concerning three metabolisms and integrating the application of certain relationship in curing diseases, mostly cancer. Finally, we also provide inspirations for further studies in therapy for some diseases by targeting certain resident macrophages in distinct tissues to regulate ferroptosis. FACTS: Ferroptosis is considered as a newly discovered form characterized by its nonapoptotic and iron-dependent lipid hydroperoxide, concerning iron, lipid and amino acid metabolisms. Ferroptosis has been widely found playing a crucial part in various diseases, including hepatic diseases, neurological diseases, cancer, etc. Macrophages are phagocytic immune cells, widely existing and owning various functions such as phagocytosis and efferocytosis, cytokines secretion and ROS production. Macrophages are proved to participate in mediating metabolisms and initiating immune reactions to maintain balance in our body. Recent studies try to treat cancer by altering macrophages' polarization which damages tumor microenvironment and induces ferroptosis of cancer cells. OPEN QUESTIONS: How do macrophages regulate ferroptosis of other tissue cells specifically? Can we use the interaction between macrophages and ferroptosis in treating diseases other than cancer? What can we do to treat diseases related to ferroptosis by targeting macrophages? Is the use of the relationship between macrophages and ferroptosis more effective than other therapies when treating diseases?
Ligaments are flexible and stiff tissues around joints to support body movements, showing superior toughness and fatigue-resistance. Such a combination of mechanical properties is rarely seen in ...synthetic elastomers because stretchability, stiffness, toughness, and fatigue resistance are seemingly incompatible in materials design. Here we resolve this long-standing mismatch through a hierarchical crosslinking design. The obtained elastomer can endure 30,000% stretch and exhibit a Young's modulus of 18 MPa and toughness of 228 MJ m
, outperforming all the reported synthetic elastomers. Furthermore, the fatigue threshold is as high as 2,682 J m
, the same order of magnitude as the ligaments (~1,000 J m
). We reveal that the dynamic double-crosslinking network composed of Li
-O interactions and PMMA nanoaggregates allows for a hierarchical energy dissipation, enabling the elastomers as artificial ligaments in soft robotics.
The demands for waste heat energy recovery from industrial production, solar energy, and electronic devices have resulted in increasing attention being focused on thermoelectric materials. Over the ...past two decades, significant progress is achieved in inorganic thermoelectric materials. In addition, with the proliferation of wireless mobile devices, economical, efficient, lightweight, and bio‐friendly organic thermoelectric (OTE) materials have gradually become promising candidates for thermoelectric devices used in room‐temperature environments. With the development of experimental measurement techniques, the manufacturing for nanoscale thermoelectric devices has become possible. A large number of studies have demonstrated the excellent performance of nanoscale thermoelectric devices, and further improvement of their thermoelectric conversion efficiency is expected to have a significant impact on global energy consumption. Here, the development of experimental measurement methods, theoretical models, and performance modulation for nanoscale OTE materials are summarized. Suggestions and prospects for the future development of these devices are also provided.
Organic thermoelectric (OTE) devices play an important role in developing novel thermoelectric devices. Here, the progresses of nanoscale OTE devices from the aspects of structural, materials, measurement, and theoretical methods, as well as some typical optimization strategies are reviewed, and an outlook is given to provide an inspiration for the future development of OTE devices.
•The time-fractional Klein–Gorden equation quadratic and cubic nonlinearities is considered and the exact solutions to this equation is obtained.•The time fractional Klein–Gordon equation is ...proposed.•The classification of single traveling wave solutions to the equation is gotten.•The influence of the fractional order is analyzed.
In this paper, we solve the conformal time-fractional Klein–Gordon equation with high-order nonlinearities via the complete discrimination system for polynomial method, namely with the quadratic and cubic nonlinearities. Our results contain all the existing solutions, and some new exact solutions such as Jacobian elliptic function solutions, are also presented. Moreover, to ensure the existence of each solution, the concrete examples are given and the discussions of the influence of the fractional order are also presented.
Abstract
Scalable and sustainable solar hydrogen production through photocatalytic water splitting requires highly active and stable earth-abundant co-catalysts to replace expensive and rare ...platinum. Here we employ density functional theory calculations to direct atomic-level exploration, design and fabrication of a MXene material, Ti
3
C
2
nanoparticles, as a highly efficient co-catalyst. Ti
3
C
2
nanoparticles are rationally integrated with cadmium sulfide via a hydrothermal strategy to induce a super high visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production activity of 14,342 μmol h
−1
g
−1
and an apparent quantum efficiency of 40.1% at 420 nm. This high performance arises from the favourable Fermi level position, electrical conductivity and hydrogen evolution capacity of Ti
3
C
2
nanoparticles. Furthermore, Ti
3
C
2
nanoparticles also serve as an efficient co-catalyst on ZnS or Zn
x
Cd
1−
x
S. This work demonstrates the potential of earth-abundant MXene family materials to construct numerous high performance and low-cost photocatalysts/photoelectrodes.
Developing nano‐ferroelectric materials with excellent piezoelectric performance for piezocatalysts used in water splitting is highly desired but also challenging, especially with respect to reaching ...large piezo‐potentials that fully align with required redox levels. Herein, heteroepitaxial strain in BaTiO3 nanoparticles with a designed porous structure is successfully induced by engineering their surface reconstruction to dramatically enhance their piezoelectricity. The strain coherence can be maintained throughout the nanoparticle bulk, resulting in a significant increase of the BaTiO3 tetragonality and thus its piezoelectricity. Benefiting from high piezoelectricity, the as‐synthesized blue‐colored BaTiO3 nanoparticles possess a superb overall water‐splitting activity, with H2 production rates of 159 μmol g−1 h−1, which is almost 130 times higher than that of the pristine BaTiO3 nanoparticles. Thus, this work provides a generic approach for designing highly efficient piezoelectric nanomaterials by strain engineering that can be further extended to various other perovskite oxides, including SrTiO3, thereby enhancing their potential for piezoelectric catalysis.
Heteroepitaxial strain in BaTiO3 nanoparticles with a designed porous structure is induced by engineering the surface reconstruction, resulting in a significant increase of the BaTiO3 tetragonality and thus its piezoelectricity. Benefiting from high piezoelectricity, the as‐synthesized BaTiO3 nanoparticles possess a superb piezocatalytic overall water‐splitting activity.
Iron overload triggers the ferroptosis in the heart following ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) and transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) charges the cellular iron uptake. Bioinformatics analysis shows that the ...three molecules of ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7), p53 and TfR1 form a unique pathway of USP7/p53/TfR1. This study aims to explore whether USP7/p53/TfR1 pathway promotes ferroptosis in rat hearts suffered I/R and the underlying mechanisms. The SD rat hearts were subjected to 1 h-ischemia plus 3 h-reperfusion, showing myocardial injury (increase in creatine kinase release, infarct size, myocardial fiber loss and disarray) and up-regulation of USP7, p53 and TfR1 concomitant with an increase of ferroptosis (reflecting by accumulation of iron and lipid peroxidation while decrease of glutathione peroxidase activity). Inhibition of USP7 activated p53 via suppressing deubiquitination, which led to down-regulation of TfR1, accompanied by the decreased ferroptosis and myocardial I/R injury. Next, H9c2 cells underwent hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) in vitro to mimic the myocardial I/R model in vivo. Consistent with the results in vivo, inhibition or knockdown of USP7 reduced the H/R injury (decrease of LDH release and necrosis) and enhanced the ubiquitination of p53 along with the decreased levels of p53 and TfR1 as well as the attenuated ferroptosis (manifesting as the decreased iron content and lipid peroxidation while the increased GPX activity). Knockdown of TfR1 inhibited H/R-induced ferroptosis without p53 deubiquitination. Based on these observations, we conclude that a novel pathway of USP7/p53/TfR1 has been identified in the I/R-treated rat hearts, where up-regulation of USP7promotes ferrptosis via activation of the p53/TfR1 pathway.
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•The protein levels of USP7, p53 and TfR1 are all elevated in the I/R-treated rat hearts.•Suppression of USP7 mitigate the myocardial I/R injury via reduction of ferroptosis.•USP7 promotes ferroptosis in the I/R-treated hearts via activation of p53/TfR1 pathway.
Lithium metal batteries are considered a promising candidate for high‐energy‐density energy storage. However, the strong reducibility and high reactivity of lithium lead to low Coulombic efficiency ...when contacting oxidants, such as lithium polysulfide caused by the serious “shuttle effect” in lithium–sulfur batteries. Herein we design selectively permeable lithium‐ion channels on lithium metal surface, which allow lithium ions to pass through by electrochemical overpotential, while the polysulfides are effectively blocked due to the much larger steric hindrance than lithium ions. The selective permeation of lithium ions through the channels is further elucidated by the molecular simulation and visualization experiment. Consequently, a prolonged cycle life of 75 cycles and high Coulombic efficiency of 99 % are achieved in a practical Li–S pouch cell with limited amounts of lithium and electrolyte, confirming the unique role the selective ion permeation plays in protecting highly reactive alkali metal anodes in working batteries.
Selectively permeable lithium‐ion channels, which were created by aminopropyl‐terminated polydimethylsiloxanes anchored on the lithium metal surface, allow lithium ions to get through, while the polysulfides are effectively blocked due to their much larger volume. The selective lithium ion channels enable a prolonged cycle life and a high Coulombic efficiency of 99 % in a practical Li–S pouch cell.
Piezocatalysis, converting mechanical vibration into chemical energy, has emerged as a promising candidate for water‐splitting technology. However, the efficiency of the hydrogen production is quite ...limited. We herein report well‐defined 10 nm BaTiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) characterized by a large electro‐mechanical coefficient which induces a high piezoelectric effect. Atomic‐resolution high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF‐STEM) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) suggests that piezoelectric BaTiO3 NPs display a coexistence of multiple phases with low energy barriers and polarization anisotropy which results in a high electro‐mechanical coefficient. Landau free energy modeling also confirms that the greatly reduced polarization anisotropy facilitates polarization rotation. Employing the high piezoelectric properties of BaTiO3 NPs, we demonstrate an overall water‐splitting process with the highest hydrogen production efficiency hitherto reported, with a H2 production rate of 655 μmol g−1 h−1, which could rival excellent photocatalysis system. This study highlights the potential of piezoelectric catalysis for overall water splitting.
The oscillatory polarization state of a nano‐ferroelectric with the coexistence of three ferroelectric phases (T+O+R) leads to an imbalanced charge state on the sample surface and creates an alternating cascade of a space charge release and attraction under ultrasonic vibration, thus generating hydrogen and oxygen via direct water decomposition.
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