Main Energy Paths and Energy Cascade Processes of the Two Types of Persistent Heavy Rainfall Events over the Yangtze River–Huaihe River Basin

Two types of persistent heavy rainfall events （PHREs） over the Yangtze River-Huaihe River Basin were determined in a recent statistical study： type A, whose precipitation is mainly located to the south of the Yangtze River; and type B, whose precipitation is mainly located to the north of the river. The present study investigated these two PHRE types using a newly derived set of energy equations to show the scale interaction and main energy paths contributing to the persistence of the precipitation. The main results were as follows. The available potential energy （APE） and kinetic energy （KE） associated with both PHRE types generally increased upward in the troposphere, with the energy of the type-A PHREs stronger than that of the type-B PHREs （except for in the middle troposphere）. There were two main common and universal energy paths of the two PHRE types： （1） the baroclinic energy conversion from APE to KE was the dominant energy source for the evolution of large-scale background circulations; and （2） the downscaled energy cascade processes of KE and APE were vital for sustaining the eddy flow, which directly caused the PHREs. The significant differences between the two PHRE types mainly appeared in the lower troposphere, where the baroclinic energy conversion associated with the eddy flow in type-A PHREs was from KE to APE, which reduced the intensity of the precipitation-related eddy flow; whereas, the conversion in type-B PHREs was from APE to KE, which enhanced the eddy flow.

Decentralized closed-loop identification and controller design for a kind of cascade processes

A new decentralized closcd-loop identification and predictive controller design method for a kind of cascade processes composed of several sub-processes is studied. This kind of cascade processcs has the characteristies of one-way connection. The process is divided into several two-input-two-output （TITO） sub-systems. The parameters of the first-order plus dead-time models for the transfer function matrices can be obtained using least squares method. Hence a distributed model predictive contn,ller is designed based on the coupling models of each sub-process. Simulation results on the temperature control of a reheating furnace are given to show the efficiency of the algorithm.

Cascading multi-segment rupture process of the 2023 Turkish earthquake doublet on a complex fault system revealed by teleseismic P wave back projection method

In this study,the vertical components of broadband teleseismic P wave data recorded by China Earthquake Network are used to image the rupture processes of the February 6th,2023 Turkish earthquake doublet via back projection analysis.Data in two frequency bands(0.5-2 Hz and 1-3 Hz)are used in the imaging processes.The results show that the rupture of the first event extends about 200 km to the northeast and about 150 km to the southwest,lasting~90 s in total.The southwestern rupture is triggered by the northeastern rupture,demonstrating a sequential bidirectional unilateral rupture pattern.The rupture of the second event extends approximately 80 km in both northeast and west directions,lasting~35 s in total and demonstrates a typical bilateral rupture feature.The cascading ruptures on both sides also reflect the occurrence of selective rupture behaviors on bifurcated faults.In addition,we observe super-shear ruptures on certain fault sections with relatively straight fault structures and sparse aftershocks.

Numerical investigation of hydro-morphodynamic characteristics of a cascading failure of landslide dams

A cascading failure of landslide dams caused by strong earthquakes or torrential rains in mountainous river valleys can pose great threats to people’s lives,properties,and infrastructures.In this study,based on the three-dimensional Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes equations(RANS),the renormalization group(RNG)k-εturbulence model,suspended and bed load transport equations,and the instability discriminant formula of dam breach side slope,and the explicit finite volume method(FVM),a detailed numerical simulation model for calculating the hydro-morphodynamic characteristics of cascading dam breach process has been developed.The developed numerical model can simulate the breach hydrograph and the dam breach morphology evolution during the cascading failure process of landslide dams.A model test of the breaches of two cascading landslide dams has been used as the validation case.The comparison of the calculated and measured results indicates that the breach hydrograph and the breach morphology evolution process of the upstream and downstream dams are generally consistent with each other,and the relative errors of the key breaching parameters,i.e.,the peak breach flow and the time to peak of each dam,are less than±5%.Further,the comparison of the breach hydrographs of the upstream and downstream dams shows that there is an amplification effect of the breach flood on the cascading landslide dam failures.Three key parameters,i.e.,the distance between the upstream and the downstream dams,the river channel slope,and the downstream dam height,have been used to study the flood amplification effect.The parameter sensitivity analyses show that the peak breach flow at the downstream dam decreases with increasing distance between the upstream and the downstream dams,and the downstream dam height.Further,the peak breach flow at the downstream dam first increases and then decreases with steepening of the river channel slope.When the flood caused by the upstream dam failure flows to the downstream dam,it can produce a surge wave that overtops and erodes the dam crest,resulting in a lowering of the dam crest elevation.This has an impact on the failure occurrence time and the peak breach flow of the downstream dam.The influence of the surge wave on the downstream dam failure process is related to the volume of water that overtops the dam crest and the erosion characteristics of dam material.Moreover,the cascading failure case of the Xiaogangjian and Lower Xiaogangjian landslide dams has also been used as the representative case for validating the model.In comparisons of the calculated and measured breach hydrographs and final breach morphologies,the relative errors of the key dam breaching parameters are all within±10%,which verify the rationality of the model is applicable to real-world cases.Overall,the numerical model developed in this study can provide important technical support for the risk assessment and emergency treatment of failures of cascading landslide dams.

Three-wavelength generation from cascaded wavelength conversion in monolithic periodically poled lithium niobate

Tunable coherent emission is generated in a single-pass, cascaded wavelength conversion process from mode-locked laser-pumped monolithic periodically poled lithium niobate（PPLN）. Three ranges of wavelength, including visible output from 628 nm to 639 nm, near-infrared output from 797 nm to 816 nm, and mid-infrared output from 3167 nm to 3459 nm,were obtained from the monolithic PPLN, which consists of a 10-mm section for 532-nm-pumped optical parametric generation（OPG） and a 7-mm section for 1064-nm-pumped sum frequency generation（SFG）. A pump-to-signal conversion efficiency of 23.4% for OPG at 50°C and a quantum efficiency of 26.2% for SFG at 200°C were obtained.

Enhancement of multiple four-wave mixing via cascaded fibers with discrete dispersion decreasing

Cascaded fiber geometry with the dispersion of each fiber decreasing is proposed to enhance the multiple four-wave mixing（FWM） generation. The first fiber with relatively large dispersion initiates and accelerates the expansion of multiple FWM, and the second fiber with small dispersion would allow the phase-matching process（thus the spectrum broadening）to keep going. Numerical and experimental results show that with this geometry not only multiple FWM expansion can be accelerated, but also the efficiency of multiple FWM products can be effectively improved with shorter fibers.

A smart productivity evaluation method for shale gas wells based on 3D fractal fracture network model

The generation method of three-dimensional fractal discrete fracture network(FDFN)based on multiplicative cascade process was developed.The complex multi-scale fracture system in shale after fracturing was characterized by coupling the artificial fracture model and the natural fracture model.Based on an assisted history matching(AHM)using multiple-proxy-based Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm(MCMC),an embedded discrete fracture modeling(EDFM)incorporated with reservoir simulator was used to predict productivity of shale gas well.When using the natural fracture generation method,the distribution of natural fracture network can be controlled by fractal parameters,and the natural fracture network generated coupling with artificial fractures can characterize the complex system of different-scale fractures in shale after fracturing.The EDFM,with fewer grids and less computation time consumption,can characterize the attributes of natural fractures and artificial fractures flexibly,and simulate the details of mass transfer between matrix cells and fractures while reducing computation significantly.The combination of AMH and EDFM can lower the uncertainty of reservoir and fracture parameters,and realize effective inversion of key reservoir and fracture parameters and the productivity forecast of shale gas wells.Application demonstrates the results from the proposed productivity prediction model integrating FDFN,EDFM and AHM have high credibility.

Ball Lightning as Source of High-Energy Particles When It Enters a Dense Medium

Experiments have been carried out to study the anomalous passage of laboratory-produced ball lightning through solid-state sheets. The passing of the ball lightning within the standard model can be explained by cascading generation of particles at entering of high-energetic protons of the ball lightning into a dense matter. The process of energy conversion of its own poloidal magnetic field of the ball lightning into the kinetic energy of its charged particles occurs in this case. The energy of protons becomes sufficient for the generation of charged pions and their subsequent cascade decay. The decay of pions leads to the appearance of negative and positive muons, as well as muon antineutrino and muon neutrino. This fact is confirmed by the presence of a passed ball lightning and a high potential of variable polarity in the region above the solid-state sheet after the ball lightning passing through it. The dark ball lightning also found was in the experiments. The laboratory ball lightning opens up new perspectives in many areas of research and applications and may have a positive impact on attempts to solve the energy problem based on muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion.

Study of narrow-band second harmonic generation from a broad-band fundamental pulse

This paper studies the type-I phase-matched second harmonic generation using 25-fs input laser pulses in a thick BBO crystal. The harmonic signal exhibits a narrow spectrum bandwidth, even though the input pulse has a broad bandwidth. The energy transfer efficiency and modulation of the fundamental spectrum are investigated.

Multifractal modeling of the production of concentrated sugar syrup crystal

High quality, concentrated sugar syrup crystal is produced in a critical step in cane sugar production： the clarification process. It is characterized by two variables： the color of the produced sugar and its clarity degree. We show that the temporal variations of these variables follow power-law distributions and can be well modeled by multiplicative cascade multifractal processes. These interesting properties suggest that the degradation in color and clarity degree has a systemwide cause. In particular, the cascade multifractal model suggests that the degradation in color and clarity degree can be equivalently accounted for by the initial ＂impurities＂ in the sugarcane. Hence, more effective cleaning of the sugarcane before the clarification stage may lead to substantial improvement in the effect of clarification.

Experimental demonstration of TE/TM polarizationindependent frequency upconversion assisted by polarization coupling

Optical frequency conversion based on the second-order nonlinearity(χ^((2))) only occurs in anisotropic media(or at interfaces) and thus is intrinsically polarization-dependent. But for practical applications, polarization-insensitive or independent operation is highly sought after. Here, by leveraging polarization coupling and second-order nonlinearity, we experimentally demonstrate a paradigm of TE/TM polarization-independent frequency upconversion, i.e., sum frequency generation, in the periodically poled lithium niobate-on-insulator ridge waveguide. The cascading of quasi-phase-matched polarization coupling and nonlinear frequency conversion is exploited. With a proper transverse electric field, TE and TM mode fundamental waves can be frequency-upconverted with an equal efficiency in the frequency converter. The proposed method may find ready application in all-optical wavelength conversion and upconversion detection technologies.

Quantitative simulation and prediction of extreme geological events

The systematic study of extreme geological events(such as plate collision and subduction, extreme cold and extreme hot events, biological extinction and revival, earthquakes, volcanoes, mineralization, and oil accumulation) that occurred during the evolution of the earth is essential not only for understanding the “abrupt changes in the evolution of the earth”, but also for an in-depth understanding of the co-evolution of material-life-environment of the livable earth. However, due to the temporal and spatial anomalies and complexity of extreme geological events, classical mathematical models cannot be effectively applied to quantitively describe such events. After comparative studies of many types of geological events, the author found that such extreme geological events often depict “singular” characteristics(abnormal accumulation or depletion of matter or massive release or absorption of energy in a small space or time interval). On this basis, the author proposes a unified definition of extreme geological events, a new concept of “fractal density” and a “local singularity analysis” method for quantitative description and modeling of extreme geological events. Applications of these methods to several types of extreme geological events have demonstrated that the singularity theory and methods developed in the current research can be used as general approaches for the characterization, simulation, and prediction of geological events.

Organelle-inspired supramolecular nanomedicine to precisely abolish liver tumor growth and metastasis

Organelles are responsible for the efficient storage and transport of substances in living systems.A myriad of extracellular vesicles(EVs)acts as a bridge to exchange signaling molecules in cell-cell communication,and the highly dynamic tubulins and actins contribute to efficient intracellular substance transport.The inexhaustible cues of natural cargo delivery by organelles inspire researchers to explore the construction of biomimetic architectures for“smart”delivery carriers.Herein,we report a 10-hydroxycamptothecin(HCPT)-peptide conjugate HpYss that simulates the artificial EV-to-filament transformation process for precise liver cancer therapy.Under the sequential stimulus of extracellular alkaline phosphatase(ALP)and intracellular glutathione(GSH),HpYss proceeds via tandem self-assembly with a morphological transformation from nanoparticles to nanofibers.The experimental phase diagram elucidates the influence of ALP and GSH contents on the self-assembled nanostructures.In addition,the dynamic transformation of organelle-mimetic architectures that are formed by HpYss in HepG2 cells enables the efficient delivery of the anticancer drug HCPT to the nucleus,and the size-shape change from extracellular nanoparticles(50-100 nm)to intracellular nanofibers(4-9 nm)is verified to be of key importance for nuclear delivery.Nuclear targeting of HpYss amplifies apoptosis,thus significantly enhancing the inhibitory effect of HCPT(>10-fold)to HepG2 cells.Benefitting from the spatiotemporally controlled nanostructures,HpYss exhibited deep penetration,enhanced accumulation,and long-term retention in multicellular spheroid and xenograft models,potently abolishing liver tumor growth and preventing lung metastasis.We envision that our organelle-mimicking delivery strategy provides a novel paradigm for designing nanomedicine to cancer therapy.