Science China Press., Co. Ltd.

The human cognition reliability model is used to study time-related human response interaction (HI). The classification of HI types is an important base. At present, the two types of HIS classification (i.e. SRK classification and CP classification) are based on subjective or objective characteristics respectively by which some phenomena can be hardly explained. Since the types were limited, they could not meet the requirements. The integrate approach of HIs classification is compatible with the original methods, and HIs are classified according to subjective and objective characteristics. The integrate approach contains more detailed types and has higher precision. It is more advantageous and convenient for the classification of HIs. The integrate approach has been used in the study of operator reliability for nuclear power plants in China. The results were satisfactory, and by which the integrate approach was verified.

The age of the alkali basalt from Daxizhuang in Jiaozhou, eastern Shandong, was determined to be 73.5±0.3 Ma by 40Ar-39Ar technique. The basalt gave high εNd(t) values of +7.5 and +7.6, suggesting that the primitive magma was derived from depleted asthenospheric mantle with a formation depth of about 65–95 km. Spinel-lherzolite xenoliths have been discovered in the basalt. The Fo values of olivine from the xenoliths range from 88 to 89. The estimated equilibrium P-T conditions of spinel-lherzolite xenoliths are about 2.0 GPa and 1010–1140°C, suggesting an equilibrium depth of about 65 km. Geochemical characteristics of the Late Mesozoic (125-115 Ma) mantle-derived rocks in Shandong Province suggest an enriched lithospheric mantle along the southern margin of the North China block. However, geochemical characteristics of the Late Cretaceous basalts in Daxizhuang and the equilibrium P-T condition estimated from the xenoliths suggest that the lithosphere at 73 Ma ago was as thick as that of the Cenozoic in the region. Additionally, the xenoliths are rich in basaltic-component, suggesting a derivation from a newly-formed lithosphere. Therefor, lithospheric thinning took place at a time interval between about 120 and 73 Ma along the southern margin of the North China block.

Located in the southern Qinling Mountains of central China, the Guanjiagou Formation has been a controversial issue with regard to its depositional age and tectonic implications. Being comprised of an approximately 2050 m thick succession of texturally and compositionally immature, presumed marine turbiditic sandstones and conglomerate, the Guanjiagou Formation consists of an overall prograding- and coarsening-upward megasequence. Although bounded by faults on both its northern and southern margins, it is weakly metamorphosed and deformed. To the north is the Devonian Sanhekou Group and to the south is the Neoproterozoic Hengdan Group. The lower portion of the sequence contains granitic and volcanic clasts (Guanjiagou conglomerate). The feldspars from these clasts were dated using the40Ar/39Ar method. Two cooling ages of 219.69±0.49 and 216.46±0.59 Ma, for K-feldspar from a granitic clast and plagioclase from a volcanic clast, respectively, were obtained. These ages are identical to the time of regional igneous activities (ca. 240–220 Ma) and are interpreted as the products of magmatism associated with collision in the Qinling orogenic belt in the Early Mesozoic, suggesting that the Guanjiagou Formation was deposited in the Norian of the Late Triassic, ca. 220 Ma. Therefore,40Ar/39Ar and sedimentary analyses suggest that the Guanjiagou Formation contains sediments that may have filled in a remnant ocean basin, which might be part of the Anyemaqen-Mianlüe ocean, or Tethys on the southern side of Central Orogenic Belt in China during the Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic.

The equation describing the transfer of radiant energy in semitransparent media is radiative transfer equation. In three-dimensional semitransparent media, radiative intensity is a function of 7 dimensions, which can only be solved through the numerical method in most circumstances. Numerical simulation has become an important way in the study and application of the theory of thermal radiative transfer in semitransparent media. This paper reviews the recent progress of Chinese scholars in the field of computational thermal radiative transfer, and proposes some important subjects in this field for future study.

The heat convection in ballast mass and ripped-stone mass in railway embankments is the problem of heat convection in porous media. In order to calculate the temperature distribution of Qing-Tibet railway embankment, from the governing equations used to study forced convection for incompressible fluids porous media, the finite element formulae for heat convection in porous media are derived by using Galerkin’s method. The temperature fields of the traditional ballast embankment and the ripped-stone mass embankment, constructed on July 15, have been analyzed and compared under the case that the air temperature in Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau will be warmed up by 2.0 °C in the future 50 years. The calculated results indicate that, the permafrost 5 m below the traditional ballast embankment will be thawed in the regions in which the air yearly-average temperature is larger than -3.5 °C or the yearly-average temperature at the native surface is larger than -1°C. The embankment will cause large thawing settlement. The railway embankment will be damaged by permafrost degradation. The ripped-stone mass embankment can not only resist the effect of climatic warm up on it but also provide cool energy for the permafrost under it. It can assure permafrost stability and not subjected to thawing. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the ripped-stone mass embankment be taken as the Qing-Tibet railway embankment structure in high-temperature permafrost regions so that permafrost embankment can be protected as possible as we could.

In the Carboniferous and Permian of the Qinshui Basin, coal reservoirs are well developed. But different coal reservoirs are obviously different in distribution, thickness, and reservoir performance etc. This paper studies the factors controlling the development and distribution of good coal reservoirs from the viewpoint of sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy. The study shows that good coal reservoirs are mainly formed in marsh environments on tidal flats and delta plains. The coal reservoirs formed on tidal flats are more continuous laterally than those on delta plains. The fluctuation of sea level shows important control over the vertical and lateral distribution of coal reservoirs. Generally speaking, the coal reservoirs formed in the highstand system tracts are more abundant, thicker and more widespread, and thus the highstand system tracts are more favorable to the formation of good coal reservoirs. The coal reservoirs formed in the transgressive system tracts are lower in abundance, thinner and much less widespread, and thus the transgressive system tracts are not favorable to the formation of good coal reservoirs.