Typical unconventional gas/liquid plays of China were studied using field-emission/focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for clay mineralogy and microstructural development. The SEM microstructural investigations of clay-rich shale and mudstone reservoirs provided significant information about clay mineral type, size, distribution and aggregates, which allows for interpretations regarding porosity preservation and petrophysical variability. The major clay-hosted porosity types are interparticle clay pores, intraparticle clay pores and aggregate pores. Interparticle clay pores occur in open spaces of the clay aggregates and include four subtypes: (1) elongated pores, (2) packed pores, (3) jagged pores and (4) card-house pores. Intraparticle clay pores are present within clay particles and have mostly secondary origin. These pores are diagenesis dependent and are restricted to secondary illite particles during the transformation of clay minerals from smectite to illite. Intraparticle clay pores constitute only isolated porosity and could not contribute to hydrocarbon molecule storage and migration. Aggregate pores were predominantly encountered in association with organic–clay and pyrite–clay aggregates. In places, organic–pyrite–clay aggregates can also display polymerization, but they do not contribute significantly to overall porosity and permeability. Combining SEM morphological analyses with the software ImageJ is critical in clay microstructure and porosity analyses via semi-quantitative characterization of the 3D pore surface, 2D pore profile, pore quantity, pore size, areal porosity, etc. These visual and semi-quantitative results highlight the significance of jagged pores and pyrite–clay aggregate pores in shale gas/liquid reservoirs because they may be important facilitators of gas storage and transmission.

The mass balance of glaciers requires more detailed and continuous observations to understand their seasonal change in relation to climate. Here, we designed and installed an automated real-time monitoring platform at 4645 m a.s.l. on the Baishui River Glacier No.1 to collect continuous high-resolution observational data, and analyzed the seasonal dynamic from glacier movement and surface mass balance from glacier melting and snow accumulation. The results showed that the platform moved northeastward ~12.9 m at a rate of 0.06 ± 0.02 m d−1 between September 2021 and April 2022. The surface mass balance showed a varied temporal period. July and August were the main ablation periods, while ablation decreased and ceased in September. The glacier neither melted nor accumulated much between October and December, but began to have rapid snow accumulation in January. The glacier surface temperature varied with the air temperature and showed significant inter-seasonal differences among monsoon, post-monsoon and winter seasons. The surface mass balance also exhibited a strong response to the air temperature changes, with an average decrease of 1°C the point mass balance increased by 0.11 m w.e. from monsoon to post-monsoon and 0.22 m w.e. from post-monsoon to winter. Moreover, we found snowfall caused a decrease in the glacier surface temperature by increasing the surface albedo.

The association between dietary Cu intake and mortality risk remains uncertain. We aimed to investigate the relationship of dietary Cu intake with all-cause mortality among Chinese adults. A total of 17 310 participants from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, a national ongoing open cohort of Chinese participants, were included in the analysis. Dietary intake was measured by three consecutive 24-h dietary recalls in combination with a weighing inventory over the same 3 d. The average intakes of the 3-d dietary macronutrients and micronutrients were calculated. The study outcome was all-cause mortality. During a median follow-up of 9·0 years, 1324 (7·6 %) participants died. After adjusting for sex, age, BMI, ever alcohol drinking, ever smoking, education levels, occupations, urban or rural residents, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and the intakes of fat, protein and carbohydrate, the association between dietary Cu intake and all-cause mortality followed a J-shape (P for nonlinearity = 0·047). When dietary Cu intake was assessed as quartiles, compared with those in the first quartile (<1·60 mg/d), the adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were 0·87 (95 % CI (0·71, 1·07)), 0·98 (95 % CI (0·79, 1·21)) and 1·49 (95 % CI (1·19, 1·86)), respectively, in participants in the second (1·60–<1·83 mg/d), third (1·83–<2·09 mg/d) and fourth (≥2·09 mg/d) quartiles. A series of subgroup analyses and sensitivity analyses showed similar results. Overall, our findings emphasised the importance of maintaining optimal dietary Cu intake levels for prevention of premature death.

Accurate ice flow velocity data are essential for studying the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet. However, there is a lack of ice velocity maps of 1960s–80s in basin-wide regions or the entire ice sheet. In this study, an enhanced hierarchical network densification approach is developed for basin-wide Antarctic velocity mapping using historical ARGON and Landsat images. The produced multiple historical velocity maps from 1963 to 1989 in the region of the Fimbul and Jelbart ice shelves, East Antarctica, achieved an accuracy better than 29 m a−1. They revealed that the ice flow velocity had no significant changes over the period. Combining the surface mass balance estimate with the ice discharge estimated from our historical velocity maps and recently published velocity maps, we estimated a positive mass balance of 8.6 ± 3.9 Gt a−1 in the study area from 1963 and 2015. Our results indicate that the region's positive mass balance, as estimated in recently published studies, has been maintained since the 1960s. It is also in concordance with the low level of mass balance from 1992 to 2017 in East Antarctica. This suggests that the study area has been stable since the 1960s.

Geoffrey Robinson conjectured in 1996 that the $p$-part of character degrees in a $p$-block of a finite group can be bounded in terms of the center of a defect group of the block. We prove this conjecture for all primes $p\neq 2$ for all finite groups. Our argument relies on a reduction by Murai to the case of quasi-simple groups which are then studied using deep results on blocks of finite reductive groups.

We analyzed variations in the Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, REE/Ca (REE: rare earth element), Zn/Ca, and Pb/Ca ratios preserved in an annually layered stalagmite, XL21, from central China. The stalagmite record spans the 95 year period AD 1914–2008. The Sr/Ca and Ba/Ca ratios have a significant positive correlation with the stalagmite's growth rate, suggesting that they were primarily controlled by growth-rate variations. Variations in REE/Ca ratios are consistent with local temperature changes, suggesting temperature influenced REE concentrations in the stalagmite over decadal to annual timescales. Higher temperature in this humid area can increase vegetation cover, microbial activity, and organic decomposition in the soil, resulting in enhanced pCO2, organic matter concentration and reduced pH, and consequently increased REE mobilization from the overlying soil layer and host rock. Higher temperatures may also increase the natural Zn mobilization from the overlying soil mediated by organic matter and consequently may have led to increased Zn retention in XL21. An increasing trend is seen in the Pb/Ca ratios from XL21 since 1985, which is consistent with increased lead production in this area, and indicates an increase in mine-derived lead pollution in the local environment over the past 30 years.

Nanobelt-like precipitates in an Al–Si–Mg–Hf alloy were studied using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and focused ion beam (FIB) scanning electron microscopy techniques. One grain of the Al matrix with a near [111] normal direction was identified by EBSD and the three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of nanobelt-like precipitates in this grain was studied using 3D-FIB. Ten growth directions of the nanobelt-like precipitates in the grain were identified.

Zircon U–Pb ages, major and trace element geochemistry and Sr, Nd and Pb isotope compositions of diorite and diorite porphyry dykes from the Jinchanggouliang (JCGL) gold ore field on the northern margin of the North China craton (NCC) were studied to investigate their sources, petrogenesis and geodynamic significance. LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb dating reveals three major age groups of 2500 Ma (n = 2), 253 ± 7 Ma (n = 5) and 227 ± 1 Ma (n = 9). The inherited ages of 2500 Ma, contemporary with the Archaean NCC continental growth, imply that crustal material was involved in the magma source. The igneous zircons with a concordia age of 227 ± 1 Ma may record the emplacement age of the JCGL dykes. Both diorite and diorite porphyry exhibit a wide range of SiO2 and MgO contents and are characterized by high concentrations of Na2O+K2O and Al2O3, and low abundances of P2O5 and TiO2. They are enriched in large ion lithophile elements and light rare earth elements without significant Eu anomalies, and depleted in high-field-strength elements; all are categorized as shoshonitic rocks. All samples show a narrow range of Sr isotope compositions with initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios from 0.70394 to 0.70592, variable εNd(t) values (1.1 to −12.0) and TDM2 ages of 913–1972 Ma. Their Pb isotope compositions form continuous variation trends and plot in the fields between enriched mantle 1 (EM1) and lower continental crust (LCC). The above results suggest that the JCGL dykes studied could have been derived from mixing of lower crust, lithospheric mantle of the NCC and ascending asthenospheric melt in a post-orogenic extensional geodynamic setting. These shoshonitic dykes, together with the geochronological data of regional ENE-trending retrograded eclogites, ophiolites, continental arc magmatic belt, A-type granite, alkaline intrusions and metamorphic core complex from the northern NCC and Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) suggest that closure of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean (i.e. stage of pre-collision to collision) had completed during latest Permian to earliest Triassic time, and that the CAOB was subsequently tectonically dominated by post-orogenic extensional regimes. The involvement of asthenospheric melt in the magma source implies that the sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) of the NCC had been modified, and the onset of lithospheric destruction and thinning beneath the northern NCC may have occurred in Middle–Late Triassic time as a result of post-orogenic subducting slab detachment and lithospheric delamination.