A model is presented to describe the cooling of the Earth in the Archaean. At the higher Archaean mantle temperatures pressure-release melting starts deeper and generates a thicker basaltic or komatiitic crust and depleted harzburgite layer compared with the present-day situation. Intrinsic compositional stability and lack of mechanical coherency renders the mechanism of plate tectonics ineffec...

In order to accelerate the crystallization of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) biopolymer and enhance its crystallizability, biocompatible and environmentally friendly tungsten disulphide inorganic nanotubes (INT-WS2) were introduced into the polymer matrix. The non-isothermal cold-crystallization and subsequent melting behaviour of pure PLLA and PLLA/INT-WS2 nanocomposites were investigated in detai...

A mechanism for crystal-crystal phase transformations (PTs) via surface-induced virtual premelting is justified thermodynamically and confirmed experimentally for the PTs in PbTiO3 nanofibers. When the thickness of the surface melt (which appears much below the melting temperature, especially for nanoobjects) exceeds the size of the critical product nucleus, nucleation and growth of the product...

A new mechanism of crystal (c)-amorphous (a) and c-c phase transformations (PTs) and internal stress relaxation via virtual melting (VM) induced by internal stresses was justified thermodynamically and kinetically. VM removes interface friction, reduces kinetic barrier, increases atomic mobility, and can reduce thermodynamic melting temperature. We combine VM and nonequilibrium PT diagrams to d...

The MCM2-MCM7 (minichromosome maintenance 2-7) complex is involved both in the initiation and the elongation step of eukaryotic DNA replication and is believed to be the replicative helicase. Whereas the mechanism of DNA unwinding at the replication fork has been extensively investigated, the role of the MCM2-MCM7 complex during initiation has not yet been characterized by biochemical studies. ...

Two phenomena will be considered. Phase transformations (PTs) and chemical reactions (CRs) under compression and shear of materials in rotational diamond anvil cell (RDAC) represent examples of apparent effects of plastic shear. We recently predicted the new phenomenon that crystal-crystal and crystalamorphous PTs can occur through virtual melting (VM) significantly below (> 1000K!) the melting...

Abstract The effect of molecular weight M w on the polymorphous crystallization and melting behavior poly(Llactide) PLLA (L206, L210 L214) were systemically studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Melting reorganization conformationally disordered crystals (α′-phase) are analyzed with respect to cooling rate q c in a range between about 4 50 K/min heating h 5 200 K/min. It was shown...

We use hydrodynamic modelling combined with known data on mantle melting behaviour to examine the potential for decompression melting of lithosphere beneath a large terrestrial impact crater. This mechanism may generate sufficient quantity of melt to auto-obliterate the crater. Melting would initiate almost instantaneously, but the effects of such massive mantle melting may trigger long-lived m...