Large strain plasticity is phenomenologically defined as the ability of a material to exhibit an exceptionally large deformation rate during mechanical deformation. It is a property that is well established for metals and alloys but is rarely observed for ceramic materials especially at low temperature (∼300 K). With the reduction in dimensionality, however, unusual mechanical properties are shown by ceramic nanomaterials. In this Letter, we demonstrated unusually large strain plasticity of ceramic SiC nanowires (NWs) at temperatures close to room temperature that was directly observed in situ by a novel high-resolution transmission electron microscopy technique. The continuous plasticity of the SiC NWs is accompanied by a process of increased dislocation density at an early stage, followed by an obvious lattice distortion, and finally reaches an entire structure amorphization at the most strained region of the NW. These unusual phenomena for the SiC NWs are fundamentally important for understanding the nanoscale fracture and strain-induced band structure variation for high-temperature semiconductors. Our result may also provide useful information for further studying of nanoscale elastic−plastic and brittle−ductile transitions of ceramic materials with superplasticity.

No abstract

No abstract

Abstract. Stemflow of xerophytic shrubs represents a significant component of water replenishment to the soil-root system influencing water utilization of plant roots at the stand scale, especially in water scarce desert ecosystems. In this study, stemflow of Caragana korshinskii was quantified by an aluminum foil collar collection method on re-vegetated sand dunes of the Shapotou restored desert ecosystem in northwestern China. Time domain reflectometry probes were inserted horizontally at 20 different soil profile depths under the C. korshinskii shrub to monitor soil moisture variation at hourly intervals. Results indicated that 2.2 mm precipitation was necessary for the generation of stemflow for C. korshinskii. Stemflow averaged 8% of the gross precipitation and the average funnelling ratio was as high as 90. The soil moisture in the uppermost soil profile was strongly correlated with individual rainfall and the stemflow strengthened this relationship. Therefore, it is favourable for the infiltrated water redistribution in the deeper soil profile of the root zone. Consequently, stemflow contributes significantly to a positive soil moisture balance in the root zone and the replenishment of soil moisture at deeper soil layers. This plays an important role in plant survival and the general ecology of arid desert environments.

We study the evolution of the temporal properties of MAXIJ1820+070 during the 2018 outburst in its hard state from MJD58,190 to 58,289 with Insight-HXMT in a broad energy band 1-150 keV. We find different behaviors of the hardness ratio, the fractional rms and time lag before and after MJD58,257, suggesting a transition occurred around this point. The observed time lags between the soft photons in the 1-5 keV band and the hard photons in higher energy bands, up to 150 keV, are frequency-dependent: the time lags in the low-frequency range, 2-10mHz, are both soft and hard lags with a timescale of dozens of seconds but without a clear trend along the outburst; the time lags in the high-frequency range, 1-10Hz, are only hard lags with a timescale of tens of milliseconds; they first increase until around MJD58,257 and decrease after this date. The high-frequency time lags are significantly correlated to the photon index derived from the fit to the quasi-simultaneous NICER spectrum in the 1-10 keV band. This result is qualitatively consistent with a model in which the high-frequency time lags are produced by Comptonization in a jet.Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Black holes (162); Compact objects (288); Low-mass x-ray binary stars (939)

No abstract

We performed the broadband (1–100 keV) spectral analysis of the first Galactic Be ultraluminous X-ray pulsar (BeULX) Swift J0243.6+6124 observed by Insight-HXMT during the 2017−2018 outburst. The results show spectral transitions at two typical luminosities, roughly consistently with those reported previously via pure timing analysis. We find that the spectrum evolves and becomes softer and has higher cutoff energies until the luminosity reaches L 1 (∼1.5  ×  1038 erg s−1). Afterwards the spectrum becomes harder with lower cutoff energies until the luminosity increases to L 2 (∼4.4  × 1038 erg s−1), around which the second spectral transition occurs. Beyond L 2, the spectrum softens again and has larger cutoff energies. Similar behaviors were observed previously in other high-mass X-ray binary systems (HMXBs), especially for the second transition at higher luminosities, which is believed to have a correlation with the magnetic field of the harbored neutron star. Accordingly, we speculate that Swift J0243.6+6124 owns a neutron star with magnetic field strength >1013 G. The spectral transition at around L 1 of Swift J0243.6+6124 is first observed thoroughly for any HMXB outburst characterized by strong evolution of the thermal component: the temperature of the blackbody drops sharply accompanied by a sudden increase of the blackbody radius. These spectral transitions can in principle be understood in a general scenario of balancing the emission patterns between the pencil and the fan beams at the magnetic pole, for which the extreme brightness of Swift J0243.6+6124 may provide an almost unique lab to probe the details.

Biofuel production can alleviate reliance on fossil resources and thus carbon dioxide emission. Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) refers collectively to a series of important biorefinery processes to produce biofuels. Here, well‐dispersed and ultra‐small Ru metal nanoclusters (ca. 1 nm), confined within the micropores of zeolite Y, provide the required active site intimacy, which significantly boosts the chemoselectivity towards the production of pentanoic biofuels in the direct, one‐pot HDO of neat ethyl levulinate. Crucial for improving catalyst stability is the addition of La, which upholds the confined proximity by preventing zeolite lattice deconstruction during catalysis. We have established and extended an understanding of the “intimacy criterion” in catalytic biomass valorization. These findings bring new understanding of HDO reactions over confined proximity sites, leading to potential application for pentanoic biofuels in biomass conversion.