Responses and sensitivities of maize phenology to climate change from 1971 to 2020 in Henan Province, China.

Climate change affects many aspects of the physiological and biochemical processes of growing maize and ultimately its yield. A comprehensive climate suitability model is proposed that quantifies the effects of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and wind in different phenological stages of maize. It is calibrated using weather and yield data from China's Henan Province. The comprehensive suitability model showed the capability of correctly hindcasting observed temporal and spatial changes in maize phenology in response to climatic factors. The predicted yield based on the suitability model can well match the recorded field yield very well from 1971-2020. The results of correlation showed that the yields are more closely related to multi-weather factors, temperature and precipitation than to solar radiation and wind. The sensitivity analysis illustrates that temperature and precipitation are the dominant weather factors affecting yield changes based on a direct differentiation method. The comprehensive suitability model can provide a scientific support and analysis tool for predicting grain production considering climate changes

Sciences for The 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST)

The Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is a dedicated photometric survey facility under construction jointly by the University of Science and Technology of China and Purple Mountain Observatory. It is equipped with a primary mirror of 2.5m in diameter, an active optical system, and a mosaic CCD camera of 0.73 Gpix on the main focus plane to achieve high-quality imaging over a field of view of 6.5 square degrees. The installation of WFST in the Lenghu observing site is planned to happen in the summer of 2023, and the operation is scheduled to commence within three months afterward. WFST will scan the northern sky in four optical bands (u, g, r, and i) at cadences from hourly/daily to semi-weekly in the deep high-cadence survey (DHS) and the wide field survey (WFS) programs, respectively. WFS reaches a depth of 22.27, 23.32, 22.84, and 22.31 in AB magnitudes in a nominal 30-second exposure in the four bands during a photometric night, respectively, enabling us to search tremendous amount of transients in the low-z universe and systematically investigate the variability of Galactic and extragalactic objects. Intranight 90s exposures as deep as 23 and 24 mag in u and g bands via DHS provide a unique opportunity to facilitate explorations of energetic transients in demand for high sensitivity, including the electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational-wave events detected by the second/third-generation GW detectors, supernovae within a few hours of their explosions, tidal disruption events and luminous fast optical transients even beyond a redshift of 1. Meanwhile, the final 6-year co-added images, anticipated to reach g about 25.5 mag in WFS or even deeper by 1.5 mag in DHS, will be of significant value to general Galactic and extragalactic sciences. The highly uniform legacy surveys of WFST will also serve as an indispensable complement to those of LSST which monitors the southern sky.Comment: 46 pages, submitted to SCMP

A bulk-heterostructure nanocomposite electrolyte of Ce0.8Sm0.2O2-δ–SrTiO3 for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells

Since colossal ionic conductivity was detected in the planar heterostructures consisting of fluorite and perovskite, heterostructures have drawn great research interest as potential electrolytes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). However, so far, the practical uses of such promising material have failed to materialize in SOFCs due to the short circuit risk caused by SrTiO3. In this study, a series of fluorite/perovskite heterostructures made of Sm-doped CeO2 and SrTiO3 (SDC–STO) are developed in a new bulk-heterostructure form and evaluated as electrolytes. The prepared cells exhibit a peak power density of 892 mW cm−2 along with open circuit voltage of 1.1 V at 550 °C for the optimal composition of 4SDC–6STO. Further electrical studies reveal a high ionic conductivity of 0.05–0.14 S cm−1 at 450–550 °C, which shows remarkable enhancement compared to that of simplex SDC. Via AC impedance analysis, it has been shown that the small grain-boundary and electrode polarization resistances play the major roles in resulting in the superior performance. Furthermore, a Schottky junction effect is proposed by considering the work functions and electronic affinities to interpret the avoidance of short circuit in the SDC–STO cell. Our findings thus indicate a new insight to design electrolytes for low-temperature SOFCs.Published versionThe authors acknowledge funding from the Shanghai Pujiang Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12004103), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 2020CFB414), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (19D111317, 20D110638/003 and 274-10-0001/003), and start-up grant from Donghua University (No. 113-07-0053058)

Self-mode-locked 2 mu m Tm3+-doped double-clad fiber laser with a simple linear cavity

We demonstrate the self-mode-locking operation of a thulium (Tm)-doped fiber laser (TDFL) with a simple linear cavity. Since the laser cavity does not include any specific mode-locker, we experimentally investigate and analyze the self-mode-locking mechanism. The mode-locking operation is attributed to the combination of the self-phase modulation effect and the weak saturable absorption of the high-concentration Tm-doped fiber. The mode-locked TDFL operates at a central wavelength of 1985.5 nm with the 3 dB spectral linewidth of 0.18 nm. The self-mode-locking generates a large pulse energy of 32.7 nJ with a pulsed repetition rate of 2.05 MHz and is stable with a radio-frequency signal-to-noise ratio of more than 54 dB. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first demonstration of a 2 mu m Tm-doped fiber laser mode-locked by such technique. (C) 2014 Optical Society of Americ

Self-mode-locked 2 μm Tm3+-doped double-clad fiber laser with a simple linear cavity

We demonstrate the self-mode-locking operation of a thulium (Tm)-doped fiber laser (TDFL) with a simple linear cavity. Since the laser cavity does not include any specific mode-locker, we experimentally investigate and analyze the self-mode-locking mechanism. The mode-locking operation is attributed to the combination of the self-phase modulation effect and the weak saturable absorption of the high-concentration Tm-doped fiber. The mode-locked TDFL operates at a central wavelength of 1985.5 nm with the 3 dB spectral linewidth of 0.18 nm. The self-mode-locking generates a large pulse energy of 32.7 nJ with a pulsed repetition rate of 2.05 MHz and is stable with a radio-frequency signal-to-noise ratio of more than 54 dB. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first demonstration of a 2 μm Tm-doped fiber laser mode-locked by such technique. ? 2014 Optical Society of America