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A new method for the heterogeneous synthesis of ethanolamide from soybean oil methyl ester and monoethanolamine/diethanolamine has been established by using CaO and modified CaO as the solid basic catalyst. As the results show, the commercial CaO catalyst gives a high yield (80.2%) of monoethanolamide with high purity at a ratio of methyl ester to amine of 1: 2 after 3 h under the reaction temperature of 130°C over modified CaO. The yield was greatly enhanced to 96.3% after commercial CaO was modified by benzyl bromide in a simple way. Moreover, this catalyst shows a promising future in providing an environmentally clean process for the industrial applications. The effects of modification and reaction conditions on yields as well as the possible reaction mechanism were discussed. Further investigation indicated that the structure of ethanolamine has a great effect on the yield of monoethanolamide.

According to the “jacking-up” theory, which relates the cause of earthquakes to outer core convection ascension bodies, the crust will gradually recover after an earthquake. In such cases, the crust is stretched, the underground temperature is reduced, precipitation decreases, and drought occurs. In this paper, precipitation is compared with ground temperature and seismic data to determine the spatial and temporal relationship between earthquakes and subsequent droughts. Our objective is to develop a new method of drought prediction. With a few exceptions in location, the analysis of the first drought to occur after the Ms ≥ 7 earthquakes in mainland China and the adjacent areas since 1950 shows that droughts tended to occur in regions near earthquake epicenters and in the eastern regions of the epicenters at the same latitude within six months after the earthquakes. In addition, and the differences between the starting time of the earthquakes and the droughts nearly share the same probability of 0 to 6 months. After careful analysis of 34 Ms ≥ 6.5 earthquakes occurring in western China from 1980 to 2011, we determined that a second drought tends to occur approximately six months following the first drought, indicating a quasi-half-year period. Moreover, the duration of the quasi-half-year fluctuation increases with the magnitude of earthquake, at approximately 2.5 years for Ms 6.5 earthquake and approximately 5 years for Ms 8 earthquake

Flower-like ZnO microstructures have been fabricated by a facile microwave hydrothermal method (HM) with the aid of benzoic acid. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The morphology gradually evolved from flower bud shape to fireworks display with increase of alkalinity in the presence of benzoic acid. The formation mechanism of the flower-like ZnO microstructures was investigated briefly. Furthermore, the gas response of the flower-like ZnO microstructures has been studied to a series of organic vapors. It was found that the gas sensing properties were influenced by the size of the ZnO microstructures. The facile preparation method and the improved gas-sensing properties derived from the flower-like ZnO microstructures demonstrated their potential applications in gas sensor.

Mesophase pitch based graphite foams were electroplated with copper to obtain the improved mechanical and thermal properties and to extend their applications in heat sinks. A nickel interlayer was electroplated prior to copper to improve the wettability and bonding between copper and the graphite foams. An ultrasonic oscillation device and a rotary cathode were applied to enhance the mass transfer and to ensure the more even coatings throughout the foams from inside. Microstructure and properties of the copper coated foams were studied. Results indicated the copper coatings greatly improved the mechanical and thermal properties of the foams. With the prolonged timescale of plating, the foams possessed enhanced mechanical and thermal properties. After 16 min. of plating, the bending strength of the foams increased from 1·1 to 7·6 MPa, and the thermal conductivity of the foams reached 100·2 from 81·6 W m−1 K−1, while the porosity was reduced only by 4·2%.

A series of highly active, selective, and stable silver-exchanged phosphotungstic acid (AgPW) catalysts were prepared, characterized, and evaluated for bio-derived glycerol esterification with acetic acid to produce valuable biofuel additives. The structures, morphologies, acidities, and water tolerance of these samples were determined by FTIR, Raman, XRD, SEM-EDX, FT-IR of pyridine adsorption, and H2O-TPD. Several typical acidic catalysts were also performed for comparison. Among them, partially silver-exchanged phosphotungstic acid (Ag1PW) presented exceptionally high activity, with 96.8% conversion within just 15 min of reaction time and remarkable stability, due to the unique Keggin structure, high acidity as well as outstanding water-tolerance property. A plausible reaction mechanism was also proposed. In addition, this Ag1PW catalyst exhibited universal significance for esterification, holding great potential for a wide range of other acid-catalyzed reactions.

A new ceramic–carbon nanostructured hybrid (86 vol.% ceramics, 14 vol.% carbon) formed from organoclay during pyrolysis is reported. It functions as a reinforcing filler and a binder for carbon/carbon (C/C) composites. Alone, it can also serve as a high-temperature structural monolith. During pyrolysis, the ordered montmorillonite clay ( d 001 31.5 A) is transformed to mullite, cristobalite and disordered clay, allowing the clay part of the organoclay to serve as both binder and reinforcement. The organic part serves as a binder. Thus, a unidirectional C/C composite (50 vol.% fibers, 33 vol.% carbon matrix, 5 vol.% hybrid and 12% porosity) exhibiting flexural strength 290 MPa, modulus 55 GPa and toughness 2.9 MPa is obtained by 1000 °C 21-MPa hot-press pyrolysis in the presence of mesophase pitch powder, which serves as an additional binder, without densification after the pyrolysis. With the hybrid incorporation, the fiber content decreases from 53 to 50 vol.%, but the flexural strength and modulus are increased by 46% and 14% respectively, relative to the composite without the hybrid but with densification. Hot pressing the organoclay alone forms a black monolithic sheet with high thermal stability, electrical resistivity 6 × 10 6 Ω cm, flexural strength 180 MPa, modulus 69 GPa, but low ductility.

Catalytic hydrogenolysis of glycerol to value-added 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) holds the potential to utilize the large surplus of crude glycerol from biodiesel industry. A series of alkaline metals (Li, K, Rb and Cs) modified Pt–H4SiW12O40/ZrO2 catalysts were prepared, characterized and evaluated for this reaction. The bulk and surface features of these catalysts were characterized by several techniques, including BET, CO-chemisorption, XRD, Raman, SEM-EDX, NH3-TPD and FTIR of adsorbed pyridine. Among them, Li exchanged H4SiW12O40 (HSiW) exhibited superior activity and maximum 1,3-PDO selectivity due to the enhanced Bronsted acid sites. This catalyst achieved 120 h long-term stability owing to the strong interaction of active components with ZrO2, remaining of unique Keggin structure as well as the enhanced water-tolerance. There is a linear relationship between 1,3-PDO yield and concentration of Bronsted acid sites, providing direct evidence that Bronsted acid sites are responsible for the selective formation of 1,3-PDO from glycerol hydrogenolysis.

Cu/SiO 2 catalyst has been extensively applied in glycerol hydrogenolysis for its high selectivity to 1,2-propanediol, while suffering from severe deactivation easily. B 2 O 3 is frequently used as an additive for stabilizing active species. Thus, a series of Cu/SiO 2 catalysts with various B 2 O 3 loadings for glycerol hydrogenolysis were prepared via precipitation-gel method followed by impregnation with boric acid. These catalysts were fully characterized by ICP, BET, XRD ( in situ XRD), N 2 O chemisorption, H 2 -TPR, NH 3 -TPD, IR, Raman, XPS, and TEM. Addition of B 2 O 3 to Cu/SiO 2 can greatly restrain the growth of copper particles and promote the dispersion of copper species upon calcination, reduction and reaction, which resulted in the enhanced catalytic activity and stability. The optimal 3CuB/SiO 2 reached complete conversion with 98.0% 1,2-propanediol selectivity. The strong correlation between 1,2-propanediol yield and Cu surface area gave direct evidence that the active Cu species were the primary active sites for glycerol hydrogenolysis.

In this paper, triclinic WO 3 nanoplates with prominent cyclohexene sensing and photocatalytic properties were fabricated via a facile hydrothermal method assisted with p -aminobenzoic acid. The as-prepared product was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XRD, SEM and TEM images illustrated that the WO 3 nanoplates have a triclinic phase with the length of 100–200 nm and the thickness of 50–80 nm. The gas sensing properties of the WO 3 nanoplates were measured by detection of methanol, ethanol, cyclohexane, benzene, ethyl acetate and acetone at 160–300 °C, and their photocatalytic activities were investigated by the degradation of methyl blue (MB). The as-prepared product exhibited not only excellent photocatalytic property for the degradation of MB, but also high response (1000 ppm of cyclohexene, R a /R g = 140) and excellent selectivity for the detection of cyclohexene.

Deception is commonly seen in everyday social interactions. However, most of the knowledge about the underlying neural mechanism of deception comes from studies where participants were instructed when and how to lie. To study spontaneous deception, we designed a guessing game modeled after Greene and Paxton (2009) "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(30), 12506-12511", in which lying is the only way to achieve the performance level needed to end the game. We recorded neural responses during the game using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We found that when compared to truth-telling, spontaneous deception, like instructed deception, engenders greater involvement of such prefrontal regions as the left superior frontal gyrus. We also found that the correct-truth trials produced greater neural activities in the left middle frontal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus than the incorrect-truth trials, suggesting the involvement of the reward system. Furthermore, the present study confirmed the feasibility of using NIRS to study spontaneous deception.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease in the CNS. The current immunomodulating drugs for MS do not effectively prevent the progressive neurological decline. Neural stem cells (NSCs) transplantation has been proven to promote repair and functional recovery of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) animal model for MS, and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has also been found to have capability of promoting axonal regeneration and remyelination of regenerating axons. In the present study, to assess whether GDNF would enhance therapeutic effect of NSCs for EAE, GDNF gene-modified NSCs (GDNF/NSCs) and native NSCs were transplanted into each lateral ventricle of rats at 10 days and rats were sacrificed at 60 days after EAE immunization. We found that NSCs significantly reduced the clinical signs, and GDNF gene-modification further promoted functional recovery. GDNF/NSCs more profoundly suppressed brain inflammation and improved density of myelin compared with NSCs. The survival of GDNF/NSCs was significantly higher than that of transplanted NSCs. Transplanted GDNF/NSCs, in contrast to NSCs, differentiated into more neurons and oligodendrocytes. Moreover, the mRNA expression of oligodendrocyte lineage cells in rats with GDNF/NSCs was significantly increased compared to rats with NSCs. These results suggest that GDNF enhances therapeutic efficiency of NSCs-based therapy for EAE.

A simple and effective route for the direct synthesis of Mo 2 C coatings on graphite matrix is introduced for the joining of copper alloy heat sinks to graphite materials in Tokamak devices. The composition and microstructure of the Mo 2 C coatings on graphite, and the wetting behaviors of molten copper on coated and uncoated graphite were investigated. Results indicated that the Mo 2 C coatings were of several tens of micrometers depth in the graphite matrix. The coatings greatly improved the wettability of graphite by copper, and copper could be infiltrated into Mo 2 C-coated graphite matrix without external pressure. The strong interfacial bonding between copper and the graphite matrix was obtained by utilizing the mechanical interlocking within the space limitations of the graphite network. The Mo 2 C-modified graphite–copper samples resulted to have the average shear strength of 17 ± 4 MPa.

Since copper does not wet graphite foams (GFs), a method for the synthesis of Mo2C coatings throughout the GFs was developed for improving the wetting between GFs and copper and for the preparation of GF/copper composites. The coatings were formed on the GFs in a reaction medium consisting of ammonium paramolybdate, which decomposed to fine MoO3, in a mixture of molten NaCl–KCl salts. The formation mechanism and microstructure of the Mo2C coatings on GFs were investigated. Then the microstructure, thermal conductivity and thermal expansion behavior of the obtained GF/copper composites were studied. Results indicated the formation of Mo2C coatings occurred in two steps, namely, the reduction of MoO3 to MoO2 and the reduction of MoO2 to Mo2C. Copper was infiltrated into the Mo2C-coated GFs without external pressure and the nearly pore-free GF/copper composites were obtained. The thermal conductivity of the composite with a density of 5.76 g/cm3 reached 268.4 W/mK. Significant reduction in coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite compared with that of copper (8.91 versus 18.59 ppm/K) was obtained.

In the present work, the wettability and interface thermal resistance (ITR) of copper/graphite (Cu/Gr) system with an addition of chromium (Cr) was studied. First, alloy element of Cr (1.0 wt.%) was introduced in copper to improve the wettability of Cu/Gr system. The wetting procedure of liquid Cu–Cr alloy on graphite substrate was studied by sessile drop method. It was found that the contact angle decreased to 43° with addition of Cr. Then, an experimental method was employed to determine the ITR of Cu/Gr system. Results reveal that the ITR decreased significantly with the introducing of Cr. It suggested that the reduction of ITR related to the formation of a continuous carbide layer at the interface zone which consisted of Cr 7 C 3 and Cr 3 C 2 .

Mesophase pitch based graphite foams with different thermal properties and cell structures were infiltrated with glass by pressureless infiltration to prepare potential alternative composites for cooling electronics. Microstructure, thermal diffusivity and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the obtained composites were investigated. It was demonstrated that there was excellent wettability of the graphite foam by molten glass, and the foam framework was retained well after infiltration, which could facilitate good heat transfer throughout the composites. The highest thermal diffusivity of the composites reached 202.80 mm 2 /s with a density of 3.81 g/cm 3 . And its CTE value was 4.53 ppm/K, much lower than the corresponding calculated result (7.46 ppm/K) based on a simple “rule of mixtures” without considering the space limitations of the graphite foams. Thus, the mechanical interlocking within the space limitations of the graphite network played a crucial role in limiting the thermal expansion of the glass. The CTEs of the graphite foam/glass composites varied from 4.53 to 7.40 ppm/K depending on the graphite foam density which varied from 0.82 to 0.48 g/cm 3 . The CTEs were a good match to those of semiconductor chips and packaging materials.

We measured contrast thresholds for the identification of faces and facial expressions as a function of the center spatial frequency of narrow-band additive noise. In adults, masking of mid spatial frequencies (11–16c/fw) caused the largest elevation in contrast threshold (Experiment 1). Ideal observer analysis revealed that adults were equally sensitive to available information at low and mid spatial frequencies, both of which they used more efficiently than high spatial frequencies. The drop-off of sensitivity at high spatial frequencies began at a lower spatial frequency for recognizing facial identity than for recognizing facial expression. As a result, the critical band was higher for expression than for identity. The critical band for both identity and expression shifted to slightly lower values as distance increased (Experiment 2), a pattern indicating only partial scale invariance. Children aged 10 and 14years showed similar tuning but needed more contrast (Experiment 3). The patterns suggest that adults use finer details for recognizing facial expressions than for identifying faces, a tuning that appears as early as age 10.

Based on searching the combining of quadratic function and exponential (or hyperbolic cosine) function from the Hirota bilinear form of the dimensionally reduced p-gBKP equation, eight class of interaction solutions are derived via symbolic computation with Mathematica. The submergence phenomenon, presented to illustrate the dynamical features concerning these obtained solutions, is observed by three-dimensional plots and density plots with particular choices of the involved parameters between the exponential (or hyperbolic cosine) function and the quadratic function. It is proved that the interference between the two solitary waves is inelastic.

We explored the perceptual structure of facial expressions of six basic emotions, varying systematically in intensity, in adults and children aged 7 and 14 years. Multidimensional scaling suggested that three- or four-dimensional structures were optimal for all groups. Two groups of adults demonstrated nearly identical structure, which had dimensions representing pleasure, potency, arousal, and intensity, despite the fact that one group was tested with a child-friendly ‘‘odd-man-out” paradigm and the other group was tested with a conventional similarity-rating paradigm. When tested with the odd-man-out paradigm, the 7-year-olds showed systematic structure, which differed from that of adults in both the meaning of some dimensions and the proximities among some of the expression categories. When tested with similarity judgments, the 14-year-olds showed an adult-like pattern on all measures except that their similarity judgments were more influenced by physical differences than were those of adults. We conclude that an adult-like representation of facial expressions develops slowly during childhood.

In this paper, we have prepared the fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSNPs) covalently doped with rhodamine B (RB) dye molecules via 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) in reverse microemulsion method. Then by the cohydrolysis and polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and APTES, the surface of the FSNPs formed another thin silica shell with the functionalized amino groups. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized by infrared (IR) spectrum, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and spectrofluorimetry. TEM showed that the particles with diameters in the range of 70–500 nm were obtained, with core and shell sizes controlled by varying component content. At the same time, the effect of RB content on the fluorescent properties of the FSNPs was studied, and the results indicated that the fluorescence intensity of the FSNPs could be precisely tuned by varying the doping amount of RB dyes. Finally, the dye leakage was also tested, displaying that RB molecules would not leak out from the silica nanoparticles after dispersing in the aqueous solution.

We explored differences in the mental representation of facial identity between 8-year-olds and adults. The 8-year-olds and adults made similarity judgments of a homogeneous set of faces (individual hair cues removed) using an "odd-man-out" paradigm. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses were performed to represent perceived similarity of faces in a multidimensional space. Five dimensions accounted optimally for the judgments of both children and adults, with similar local clustering of faces. However, the fit of the MDS solutions was better for adults, in part because children's responses were more variable. More children relied predominantly on a single dimension, namely eye color, whereas adults appeared to use multiple dimensions for each judgment. The pattern of findings suggests that children's mental representation of faces has a structure similar to that of adults but that children's judgments are influenced less consistently by that overall structure.

This paper presents a feasible protocol for the preparation of a novel versatile nanocomposite possessing superparamagnetism via a layer-by-layer method. We combined (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane-coated magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (APTES-MNPs) with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD). The following unusual features were integrated in a single nano-system : (a) the silane coating outside the magnetic Fe 3 O 4 cores derived from the hydrolysis of APTES acted as a coupling agent and provided amino group (–NH 2 ) for linking the CD molecule; (b) the outermost CD moieties can function as inclusion sites and specific containers for drugs and biomolecules; (c) the innermost magnetic cores were able to sense and respond to an externally applied magnetic field and their behaviors in vivo or in vitro can be artificially manipulated and navigated. The obtained nanocomposite turned out to be superparamagnetic with a relatively high saturation magnetization value of 69 emu g −1 , which implies potentially promising applications in magnetic drug delivery technology and bioseparation.

Pollution caused by traffic activities is increasingly becoming a great threat to urban environmental quality and human health in many municipalities in Northwest China. The Sophora japonica L., a native tree species occurring widely in many regions of Northwest China, was used as a case study to assess the potential effects of traffic pollution on heavy metal accumulation in leaves of S. japonica trees and associated soils. Fifty-four leaf samples and 41 relevant soil samples (0–10 cm) were collected systematically along main trunk roads and at parks distant from main trunk roads in the city of Lanzhou, Northwest China, respectively. Traffic pollution has resulted in significant accumulation of heavy metals in both the roadside leaves and soils, but the pattern and level of accumulation varied remarkably between elements. The nine elements examined can be classified into three groups relating to their responses to traffic pollution. The first group, including Zn, Cd, Hg, Pb and Cr, showed greater accumul...

Carbon/carbon composites containing zirconium were prepared using chopped carbon fiber, mesophase pitch and Zr powder by the traditional process including molding, carbonization, densification and graphitization. The influence of Zr on the microstructure and properties of the composites were investigated. Results show that Zr can improve the interface bonding, promote more perfect and larger crystallites and enhance the conductive/mechanical properties of the composites. The high in-plane thermal conductivity of 464 W/(m K) and excellent bending strength of 83.6 MPa was obtained for a Zr content of 13.9 wt% at heat treatment temperature(HTT) of 2500 °C. However the conductive/mechanical properties of the composites decrease dramatically for an higher HTT of 3000 °C. SEM micrograph of the fracture surface for the composites shows that lower disorder crystallite arrangement of fiber and carbon matrix come into being in the composites during HTT of 3000 °C, which should be responsible for the low properties. Correlation between the content of Zr and the microstructure and properties are discussed.

Optical tweezers has shown its significant advantages in applying pico-Newton force on micro beads and handling them with nanometer-level precision, and becomes a powerful tool for single-molecule biology. Many excellent researching results in use of the optical tweezers have been reported. Most of them focus on the single-trap optical tweezers experiments. However, when a single-trap optical tweezers is applied to biological molecule, there is often an obvious noise from the sample chamber holder to which one end of the sample molecule is tethered. In contrast, a dual-trap optical tweezers can intrinsically avoid this problem because both ends of the sample tethered to microspheres are manipulated with two separate optical traps. In order to force the molecule precisely, it is of importance to do calibrations for both traps. Many approaches have been studied to obtain the stiffness and sensitivity of the trap, but those are not quite suitable for making calibration during experiment. Here, we use a modified method of power spectrum density (PSD) for the calibrations of the stiffness and sensitivity of the traps, which combines a sinusoidal motion of the sample stage. The main strength of the method is that the beads used for the calibration also can be used in experiment later. In addition, the calibration can be performed during experiment. Finally, an experiment using a dsDNA molecule to test the system is presented. The results show that the calibration approach for the dual-trap optical tweezers is efficient and accurate.

The current study used computer vision technology to examine the nonverbal facial expressions of children (6–11 years old) telling antisocial and prosocial lies. Children in the antisocial lying group completed a temptation resistance paradigm where they were asked not to peek at a gift being wrapped for them. All children peeked at the gift and subsequently lied about their behavior. Children in the prosocial lying group were given an undesirable gift and asked if they liked it. All children lied about liking the gift. Nonverbal behavior was analyzed using the Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT), which employs the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), to automatically code children’s facial expressions while lying. Using CERT, children’s facial expressions during antisocial and prosocial lying were accurately and reliably differentiated significantly above chance-level accuracy. The basic expressions of emotion that distinguished antisocial lies from prosocial lies were joy and contempt. Children expressed joy more in prosocial lying than in antisocial lying. Girls showed more joy and less contempt compared with boys when they told prosocial lies. Boys showed more contempt when they told prosocial lies than when they told antisocial lies. The key action units (AUs) that differentiate children’s antisocial and prosocial lies are blink/eye closure, lip pucker, and lip raise on the right side. Together, these findings indicate that children’s facial expressions differ while telling antisocial versus prosocial lies. The reliability of CERT in detecting such differences in facial expression suggests the viability of using computer vision technology in deception research.

Human adults implicitly learn the prototype and the principal components of the variability distinguishing faces (Gao & Wilson, 2014). Here we measured the implicit learning effect in adults and 9-year-olds, and with a modified child-friendly procedure, in 7-year-olds. All age groups showed the implicit learning effect by falsely recognizing the average (the prototype effect) and the principal component faces as having been seen (the PCA learning effect). The PCA learning effect, but not the prototype effect increased between 9 years of age and adulthood and at both ages was the better predictor of memory for the actually studied faces. In contrast, for the 7-year-olds, the better predictor of face memory was the prototype effect. The pattern suggests that there may be a developmental change between ages 7 and 9 in the mechanism underlying memory for faces. We provide the first evidence that children as young as age 7 can extract the most important dimensions of variation represented by principal components among individual faces, a key ability that grows stronger with age and comes to underlie memory for faces.

Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) reinforced carbon matrix (MWNT/C) composites have been explored using mesophase pitch as carbon matrix precursor in the present work. Results show that carbon nanotubes (CNTs)can enhance the mechanical properties of carbon matrix significantly. The maximal increment of the bending strength and stiffness of the composites, compared with the carbon matrix, are 147% and 400%, respectively. Whereas the highest in-plane thermal conductivity of the composites is 86 W m 1 K 1 which much lower than that of carbon matrix (253 W m 1 K 1 ).At the same time the electrical resistivity of the composites is much higher than that of matrix. It is implicated that CNTs seem to play the role of thermal/electrical barrier in the composites. FSEM micrograph of the fracture surface for the composites shows that the presence of CNTs restrains the crystallite growth of carbon matrix, which is one of factors that improve mechanical properties and decrease the conductive properties of the composites. The defects and curved shape of CNTs are also the affecting factors on the conductive properties of the composites. D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

WO3·0.33H2O nanoplates have been synthesized with p-nitrobenzoic acid as a structure-directing agent through a facile hydrothermal method. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM results showed that most of the products had a hexagonal morphology with a lateral size of 500–1000 nm and a thickness of ∼80 nm. The XRD result showed that the products were orthorhombic WO3·0.33H2O. The photocatalytic and gas-sensing properties of the WO3·0.33H2O nanoplates were studied. The products exhibited a high degradation activity for methylene blue (MB) under ultraviolet light irradiation, and a high sensitivity to cyclohexene. The facile preparation method and the improved properties derived from the plate-shaped nanostructures are significant in the synthesis and future applications of functional nanomaterials.

Nickel nanoparticle-doped pitch (NNDP) was prepared using the detonation of a Ni-containing explosive during the thermal polycondensation of ethylene bottom oil. The NNDP melt was centrifugally electrospun into fibers and formed the Ni nanoparticle-doped carbon fibers (NNDCFs) with diameters of 2–50 μm after heat treatment.

To examine individual differences in adults’ sensitivity to facial expressions, we used a novel method that has proved revealing in studies of developmental change. Using static faces morphed to show different intensities of facial expressions, we calculated two measures: (1) the threshold to detect that a low intensity facial expression is different from neutral, and (2) accuracy in recognizing the specific facial expression in faces above the detection threshold. We conducted two experiments with young adult females varying in reported temperamental shyness and sociability – the former trait is known to influence the recognition of facial expressions during childhood. In both experiments, the measures had good split half reliability. Because shyness was significantly negatively correlated with sociability, we used partial correlations to examine the relation of each to sensitivity to facial expressions. Sociability was negatively related to threshold to detect fear (Experiment 1) and to misidentify fear as another expression or happy expressions as fear (Experiment 2). Both patterns are consistent with hypervigilance by less sociable individuals. Shyness was positively related to misidentification of fear as another emotion (Experiment 2), a pattern consistent with a history of avoidance. We discuss the advantages and limitations of this new approach for studying individual differences in sensitivity to facial expressions.

Using ground temperature data from meteorological stations as well as earthquake, ground tilt and precipitation data, the spatial-temporal distribution of “Underground Hot Vortex” (UHV) in China was analyzed in detail. The results show that concerning an “Underground Hot Vortex” cell, its life-span is 3–8 seasons, 1.5 years on average; the mean horizontal scale is 600 km and its characteristic velocity is about 400 km/a; UHV is likely to appear in some areas where the crustal movement is intense and the absolute value of vertical deformation rate is relatively high; its activity could hardly be detected in the area where the crust is stable and the vertical deformation is weak; most of “Underground Hot Vortex Groups” originate from the edge of Indian Plate, then migrate eastwards with a leaping-frog style. 5–10 years are needed for their arrival in the eastern border of China. Their horizontal migrating velocity is 200–500 km/a which is nearly equal to the characteristic velocity of a single UHV.

The occurrence process of the Xingtai earthquake (1996) is discussed on the basis of evolution of small scale ground temperature fields on the background of large ground temperature field. It point out that the merging and strengthening of GHV is one of the basic reasons for triggering the Xingtai earthquake. It is worthy to pay attention that the earthquake precursors (for example ground temperature …) does not clear with the shorter distance from the epicenter. It is an urgent task for earthquake prediction to strengthen the supervision of some spatial-temporal continuous elements (such as G.T, geomagnetism, ground tilt field, gravity, etc.) and carry out comprehensive analysis.

We investigated the effects of early visual deprivation on the underlying representation of the six basic emotions. Using multi-dimensional scaling (MDS), we compared the similarity judgments of adults who had missed early visual input because of bilateral congenital cataracts to control adults with normal vision. Participants made similarity judgments of the six basic emotional expressions, plus neutral, at three different intensities. Consistent with previous studies, the similarity judgments of typical adults could be modeled with four underlying dimensions, which can be interpreted as representing pleasure, arousal, potency and intensity of expressions. As a group, cataract-reversal patients showed a systematic structure with dimensions representing pleasure, potency, and intensity. However, an arousal dimension was not obvious in the patient group’s judgments. Hierarchical clustering analysis revealed a pattern in patients seen in typical 7-year-olds but not typical 14-year-olds or adults. There was also more variability among the patients than among the controls, as evidenced by higher stress values for the MDS fit to the patients’ data and more dispersed weightings on the four dimensions. The findings suggest an important role for early visual experience in shaping the later development of the representations of emotions. Since the normal underlying structure for emotion emerges postnatally and continues to be refined until late childhood, the altered representation of emotion in adult patients suggests a sleeper effect.

Functional neural imaging studies have identified a network of brain areas that are more active to faces than to other objects. However, it remains largely unclear how these areas encode individual facial identity. To investigate the neural representations of facial identity, we constructed a multidimensional face space structure, whose dimensions were derived from geometric information of faces using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Using fMRI, we recorded participants' neural responses when viewing blocks of faces that differed only on one dimension within a block. Although the response magnitudes to different blocks of faces did not differ in a univariate analysis, multi-voxel pattern analysis revealed distinct patterns related to different face space dimensions in brain areas that have a higher response magnitude to faces than to other objects. The results indicate that dimensions of the face space are encoded in the face-selective brain areas in a spatially distributed way.

We examined how recent biased face experience affects the influence of averageness on judgments of facial attractiveness among 8- and 9-year-old children attending a girls’ school, a boys’ school, and a mixed-sex school. We presented pairs of individual faces in which one face was transformed 50% toward its group average, whereas the other face was transformed 50% away from that average. Across blocks, the faces varied in age (adult, 9-year-old, or 5-year-old) and sex (male or female). We expected that averageness might influence attractiveness judgments more strongly for same-age faces and, for children attending single-sex schools, same-sex faces of that age because their prototype(s) should be best tuned to the faces they see most frequently. Averageness influenced children’s judgments of attractiveness, but the strength of the influence was not modulated by the age of the face, nor did the effects of sex of face differ across schools. Recent biased experience might not have affected the results because of similarities between the average faces of different ages and sexes and/or because a minimum level of experience with a particular group of faces may be adequate for the formation of a veridical prototype and its influence on judgments of attractiveness. The results suggest that averageness affects children’s judgments of the attractiveness of the faces they encounter in everyday life regardless of age or sex of face.

The synthesis of bioadditives for biofuels from glycerol esterification with acetic acid was performed over zirconia supported heteropolyacids catalysts using H 4 SiW 12 O 40 (HSiW), H 3 PW 12 O 40 (HPW) and H 3 PMo 12 O 40 (HPMo) as active compounds. The as-prepared catalysts were characterized by N 2 -physisorption, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, NH 3 -TPD, FTIR of pyridine adsorption and H 2 O-TPD. Among the catalysts tested, HSiW/ZrO 2 achieved the best catalytic performance owing to the better combination of surface Bronsted acid sites and hydrothermal stability. A 93.6% combined selectivity of glyceryl diacetate and glyceryl triacetate with complete glycerol conversion was obtained at 120 °C and 4 h of reaction time in the presence of HSiW/ZrO 2 . This catalyst also presented consistent activity for four consecutive reaction cycles, while HPW/ZrO 2 and HPMo/ZrO 2 exhibited distinct deactivation after reusability tests. In addition, HSiW/ZrO 2 can be resistant to the impurities present in bulk glycerol.

We present here the most comprehensive analysis to date of neuroaesthetic processing by reporting the results of voxel-based meta-analyses of 93 neuroimaging studies of positive-valence aesthetic appraisal across four sensory modalities. The results demonstrate that the most concordant area of activation across all four modalities is the right anterior insula, an area typically associated with visceral perception, especially of negative valence (disgust, pain, etc.). We argue that aesthetic processing is, at its core, the appraisal of the valence of perceived objects. This appraisal is in no way limited to artworks but is instead applicable to all types of perceived objects. Therefore, one way to naturalize aesthetics is to argue that such a system evolved first for the appraisal of objects of survival advantage, such as food sources, and was later co-opted in humans for the experience of artworks for the satisfaction of social needs.

Using 20 levels of intensity, we measured children’s thresholds to discriminate the six basic emotional expressions from neutral and their misidentification rates. Combined with the results of a previous study using the same method (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102 (2009) 503–521), the results indicate that by 5 years of age, children are adult-like, or nearly adult-like, for happy expressions on all measures. Children’s sensitivity to other expressions continues to improve between 5 and 10 years of age (e.g., surprise, disgust, fear) or even after 10 years of age (e.g., anger, sad). The results indicate that there is a slow development of sensitivity to the expression of all basic emotions except happy. This slow development may impact children’s social and cognitive development by limiting their sensitivity to subtle expressions of disapproval or disappointment.

Most previous studies investigating children's ability to recognize facial expressions used only intense exemplars. Here we compared the sensitivity of 5-, 7-, and 10-year-olds with that of adults (n=24 per age group) for less intense expressions of happiness, sadness, and fear. The developmental patterns differed across expressions. For happiness, by 5 years of age, children were as sensitive as adults even to low intensities. For sadness, by 5 years of age, children were as accurate as adults in judging that the face was expressive (i.e., not neutral), but even at 10 years of age, children were more likely to misjudge it as fearful. For fear, children's thresholds were not adult-like until 10 years of age, and children often confused it with sadness at 5 years of age. For all expressions, including even happy expressions, 5- and 7-year-olds were less accurate than adults in judging which of two expressions was more intense. Together, the results indicate that there is slow development of accurate decoding of subtle facial expressions.

Previous studies have indicated that physical movement on either every second or on every third beat of an unaccented auditory rhythm pattern can disambiguate whether it is perceived in double time as a march or in triple time as a waltz. Here we demonstrate that this disambiguation can also be accomplished by direct galvanic stimulation of the vestibular system. The galvanically induced sensation, without any actual movement, that the head moved from side to side on either every second or on every third beat of the ambiguous auditory rhythm pattern strongly biased whether adults perceived it as being in double or in triple time. These results imply that the vestibular system plays a primal role in the perception of musical rhythm.

Erratum to “Neural correlates of spontaneous deception: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study” [Neuropsychologia, 51(4), 704–712] Xiao Pan Ding , Xiaoqing Gao , Genyue Fu , Kang Lee d,e,nn a Hangzhou College of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou 310012, China b School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China c Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Canada ONM4N3M6 d Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada ONM5R2X2 e Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, LaJolla, CA 92093-0109, US