Autonomous convergence and divergence of the self-powered soft liquid metal vehicles

Conventional rigid machines, even biological systems in nature, generally do not own the capabilities like autonomous convergence or divergence. Here, such extraordinary behavior was demonstrated for the first time with the liquid metal vehicle. This synthetic soft machine fueled with an aluminum flake could initiate its autonomous locomotion in an opentop circular channel containing NaOH solution, like a running vehicle. If cutting a large machine into several smaller separately running vehicles, each of them still resumes its traveling state along the original track and chases each other. If the volumes of such dispersive vehicles were close to each other and they were all squeezed in the channel, the vehicles would move syn-chronously with oscillation. Otherwise, such self-motion would become desynchronized with interval between the inequable vehicles decreased gradually. If their volumes were significantly different, and the smaller vehicles were not squeezed in the channel, the faster vehicle would overtake the slower ones, until they finally coalesced seamlessly. The assembled vehicle could deform itself along with change of its velocity. This finding may shedlight on future researches on smart material, fluid mechanics and soft matter to self-fueled machine and biomimics. It would also offer opportunities for constructing self-reconfigurable soft robots.

Study of the climatic teleconnection between the Siberian high and maritime continent warm pool

This paper attempts to establish a method for analysing the relationship between the polar and equatorial climate of the Northern Hemisphere. The Arctic Oscillation （AO） is known to have no direct relationship with the monsoon over the Maritime Continent （MC）. Thus, an index called the Siberian High（SH^Maritime Continent（MC） Index （SHMCI） is developed to represent the mean sea level pressure difference between the SH and the warm pool over the MC. This index indicates a strong link with the monsoon circulation. A positive （strong） value of the SHMCI is associated with strong meridional winds and intense and frequent cold surge events over the South China Sea. The correlation between the AO index and the SHMCI is -0.39, which is medium but statistically significant; however, it is not sufficiently conclusive to infer direct correlation. Nevertheless, the SHMCI can be used as a tool to relate the AO with the monsoon over the MC because of the influence demonstrated by the AO towards the SH. Further analysis on the convergence and divergence anomalies over the MC reveals an impact discernible only from the SHMCI. This implies that the SHMCI manifests clearly the relationship between the Arctic and equatorial climate.

Russian,Chinese and Indian Ambivalence Policies on Iranian Nuclear Question

The Iran policy of Russia,China and India is one of ambivalence.While going along with the US-sponsored resolution in the United Nations to end the alleged Iranian nuclear weapon program,the three nations have been opposed to any“crippling sanctions”against Iran.The current paper analyzes this policy of ambivalence and attributes it to a curious mix of convergence and divergence of their interests with the Persian nation.It also recommends how Tehran could mould this policy in its favor.