Toward Zero Static Friction at the Microscale.

Static friction, a ubiquitous physical phenomenon, plays a significant role in natural processes and industrial applications. Its influence is particularly notable in the field of controlled micromanipulation and precision manufacturing, where static friction often exceeds kinetic friction and leads to material damage and unpredictable behaviors. In this study, we report the first experimental observation of the elimination of static friction peak in sliding micrometer contacts of layered materials, achieved through a technique involving selective etching of the amorphous edges of single crystalline surfaces.

Topological mechanical states in geometry-driven hyperuniform materials.

Disordered hyperuniform materials are increasingly drawing attention due to their unique physical properties, associated with global isotropy and locally broken orientational symmetry, that set them apart from traditional crystalline materials. Using a dynamic space-partitioning process, we generate disordered hyperuniform cellular structures where distinct patterns of pentagonal and heptagonal topological defects emerge within hexagonal domains. The microscopic defect dynamics are guided by local topological transitions, commonly observed in viscoelastic systems.

The removal of high Se(IV) and Cd(II) concentrations in sulfur autotrophic reactor based on the "hibernation-like microbial survival strategy".

The removal of selenite (Se(IV)) and cadmium (Cd(II)) from low-carbon wastewater presents significant challenges. However, the addition of external organic carbon sources is limited in application due to the high cost and potential for secondary pollution. This study introduced a "hibernation-like microbial survival strategy", enabling efficient removal of Se(IV) and Cd(II) in sulfur autotrophic reactor, with S acting as the electron donor.

Pyrrhotite promote aerobic granular sludge formation in dye wastewater: pH, interfacial free energy, and microbial community evolution.

This study introduces a technique utilizing natural pyrrhotite powder as a nucleating agent in four sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) for the treatment of dye wastewater. Through analysis of various factors including pH, pyrrhotite surface free energy, sludge zeta potential, and shifts in microbial communities, the mechanism by which pyrrhotite facilitates the formation of aerobic granular sludge (AGS) is elucidated. Over 140 days of continuous operation under neutral conditions, natural pyrrhotite rapidly cultivated AGS under neutral conditions.

Urban ecosystem services, ecological security patterns and ecological resilience in coastal cities: The impact of land reclamation in Macao SAR.

Land reclamation from the sea is a common practice to create territorial space and accommodate urbanisation in coastal cities. However, previous studies did not adequately examine the changes in ecosystem service values, the spatial transformation of the ecological network and the ecological resilience at an urban scale in the context of land reclamation. This study uses Macao SAR, a fully urbanised city with two-thirds of its land reclaimed from the sea, as a case study.

Enhanced oxidation and in-situ coagulation Fe(Ⅱ)/peroxymonosulfate-Mn(Ⅶ) process for carbamazepine removal: Multiple promoting effects of Mn and direct/indirect regulation of Cl- on active substances transformation.

Slow transformation efficiency of Fe(III)/Fe(II) limits the generation of radicals in peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), and these radicals was easy to be interfered by the presence of water constituents. In addition, in-situ coagulation during this oxidation process was neglected. This study proposed Fe(II)/PMS-Mn(VII) in the presence of chlorides ions (FPMC) process to reveal multiple promoting effects of Mn on redox cycle of Fe(III)/Fe(II) and different reactive mechanisms of Cl on types of radicals generation pathways, and the in-situ coagulation enhanced mechanisms was investigated.

Estimating the differences in police and hospital records of people injured in traffic crashes in Dire Dawa City administration, Ethiopia.

The management of road safety relies on data from road traffic crashes to identify priorities, monitor trends and evaluate interventions. Both police and hospital records are important sources of information on crashes that result in injury; however, both are known to be incomplete, with the quality and completeness of data being lower in low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study is to estimate the magnitude of the underreporting of crashes in Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia, as a case study that may be applicable elsewhere.

Study on the preparation and mechanism of environmentally friendly polysaccharide-xanthan gum gel dust suppressants.

In response to the dust pollution problem in open-pit mines, an environmentally friendly network structure with a dust suppressor structure was prepared by grafting acrylamide (AM) monomers onto xanthan gum (XG). The results show that the polymer produced from 1 g XG, 15 g AM, and 0.45 g trimethylolpropane triglycidyl ether (TTE) had a more orderly structured gel with a viscosity of 81.

Spatiotemporal evolution of drought status and its driving factors attribution in China.

Drought has intensified in China in recent years, and it is urgent to clarify the characteristics of drought evolutions in different regions and its influencing factors. To this end, we selected six main influencing factors and analyzed their impact on drought patterns. The results show that drought is increasing in 78.

Effect of alkali-activation conditions on microstructure and heavy metal solidification of alkali-activated converter steel slag and municipal solid waste incineration fly ash.

Alkaline-activation technology was an effective means of disposing of low-activity and heavy-metal-containing industrial solid wastes. In this paper, alkali-activated converter steel slag and municipal solid waste incineration fly ash (MSWIFA) were prepared by modulating alkali-activation conditions. The effect of alkali-activation conditions on microstructure of C-(A)-S-H and leaching of lead and zinc, pore solution pH, and the correlation among them were revealed.

Thermo-responsive/anti-biofouling chitosan hydrogel beads in situ decorated with silver nanoparticles for water disinfection.

The development of a sustainable and eco-friendly silver-based hybrid nanocomposite for safe and efficient point-of-use (POU) water disinfection remains a challenge. Herein, a simple and facile approach was proposed for the in situ immobilization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on chitosan-g-poly (sulfobetaine methacrylate) (CS-g-PSBMA) hydrogel beads, which have been achieved via graft copolymerization of sulfobetaine methacrylate along the chitosan chains followed by a drop method. The AgNPs-decorated CS-g-PSBMA hydrogel beads were characterized and their bactericidal efficacy towards Escherichia coli was evaluated concurrently with their anti-biofouling behaviors.

Road properties of cement-phosphogypsum-red clay under dry and wet cycles.

In this paper, the road performance and mechanism of cement-phosphogypsum-red clay (CPRC) under dry and wet cycling were systematically investigated using 5% cement as curing agent, the mass ratio of phosphogypsum: red clay = 1:1, and 5% SCA-2 as water stabilizer. The road performance of dry and wet cycle mix was verified with the National Highway G210 Duyun Yangan to Yingshan Highway Reconstruction and Expansion Project as a test road to provide a scientific basis for the application of cement-phosphogypsum-red clay on roads. The results show that the cement-phosphogypsum-red clay unconfined compressive strength decreases with the increase of the number of wet and dry cycles, with a larger decay in the first three times and leveling off thereafter.

Improving soil carbon sequestration stability in farmland through co-application of rice straw and its biochar.

Introduction: Susbtantial agricultural wastes are produced globally which need urgent management policies. To explore the effective utilization of agricultural waste in enhancing soil quality and carbon sequestration capacity, straw and its biochar can be applied as soil ameliorants.

Methods: This study was designed to investigate the impact of different return-to-field methods of rice straw on the transformation between different carbon components in the soil of i fields.

Damage identification based on the inner product matrix and parallel convolution neural network for frame structure.

Structural health monitoring based on vibration signal analysis has been extensively employed for damage identification. Mainstream machine learning techniques, such as convolutional neural networks (CNN), often rely on single-domain inputs, which may provide limited information for accurate damage identification. To overcome this limitation, this study proposes a novel approach that combines an inner product matrix (IPM) with a parallel CNN (IPM-PCNN) to extract multidimensional features for detecting structural damage in a steel frame structure.

Characteristics and microscopic mechanisms of smoke emissions of OMMT/SBS-modified asphalt.

Nanomaterials are increasingly being used in road engineering with the development of road construction technology. The smoke suppression performance of asphalt can be substantially improved using organic nano-montmorillonite (OMMT)/styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) block modifiers. Pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY-GC-MS), fluorescence microscopy (FM), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were used to explore the characteristics and microscopic mechanisms of flue gas emissions.

Mechanical properties of soil reinforced by fiber and alkaline-activated rice husk ash, and rainfall erosion model tests.

Rice husk ash is an industrial waste produced by biomass power plant to generate electricity, which contains a lot of silica. The accumulation of rice husk ash not only consumes land resources, but also causes environmental pollution. It is an urgent problem to explore the resource utilization of rice husk ash.

Impact of organic contaminant viscosity and cation hydrated radius on the rheological properties of sodium-bentonite: experimental and numerical investigations.

Soil contamination by organic and hazardous substances is a critical environmental issue, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates the limitations of double-layer theory for bentonite-organic contaminant interactions through experimental and numerical analysis. Using NaCl and KCl as salts and acetone, isopropyl alcohol, and glycerol as organic contaminants, the research explores the rheological properties of Na-bentonite dispersions.

Ni(0) formation on carbon felt cathode triggers redox synergetic degradation of Ni-EDTA during electrochemical treatment for Ni-plating wastewater.

Ni organic complexes are widely used in industrial production, posing severe threats to the natural environment and human health. In this work, we found that Ni (0) formed by the decomplexation and reduction of typical Ni organic complexes (Ni-EDTA) on the surface of carbon felt cathode. The formed Ni(0) as a catalytic site generates atomic hydrogen (H•) with strong reductive reactivity via electron transfer.

Dynamic performance of a slab track-concrete box subgrade under a double-line high speed railway.

Concrete box subgrades constructed from reinforced concrete serve as alternatives to conventional fill subgrades, effectively addressing the scarcity of high-quality fill materials. A hybrid simulation approach that merges coupled dynamics with finite element modelling was adopted for both single-line and double-line ballastless track-box subgrade systems, enabling a comparative analysis of dynamic stress, displacement, and acceleration. The results reveal that, when the two traffic conditions are compared, the dynamic response of the concrete box subgrade under double-line opposing operation shows a marked increase, particularly when the dynamic displacement increases by 80%.

Carbonization test and orthogonal polynomial regression analysis of steel fiber reclaimed concrete.

To enhance the carbonation resistance of reclaimed concrete, several key factors affecting its performance were investigated. An orthogonal array (4³ × 2⁶) was employed to design the carbonation tests for steel fiber (SF) reinforced concrete. The study included varying SF volume ratios, along with considerations of different concrete ages (T) and water-cement ratios (W/R).

Study on Calibration Tests for Interface-Type Earth Pressure Cell Based on Matching Error Analysis.

The stress status of a soil pressure cell placed in soil is very different from its stress state in a uniform fluid medium. The use of the calibration coefficient provided by the soil pressure cell manufacturer will produce a large error. In order to improve the measurement accuracy of the interface-type earth pressure cell placed in soil, this paper focuses on a single-membrane resistive earth pressure cell installed on the surface of a structure, analyzing the influence of loading and unloading cycles, the thickness and particle size of the sand filling, and the depth of the earth pressure cell inserted in the structure on the calibration curve and matching error, which were analyzed through calibration tests.

A Three-Stage Cellular Automata Model of Complex Large Roundabout Traffic Flow, with a Flow-Efficiency- and Safety-Enhancing Strategy.

Intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) present new opportunities for enhanced traffic management by leveraging advanced driving behavior sensors and real-time information exchange via vehicle-based and cloud-vehicle communication technologies. Specifically, onboard sensors can effectively detect whether human-driven vehicles are adhering to traffic management directives. However, the formulation and validation of effective strategies for vehicle implementation rely on accurate driving behavior models and reliable model-based testing; in this paper, we focus on large roundabouts as the research scenario.

Assessing Huanglongbing Severity and Canopy Parameters of the Huanglongbing-Affected Citrus in Texas Using Unmanned Aerial System-Based Remote Sensing and Machine Learning.

Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as citrus greening disease, is a devastating disease of citrus. However, there is no known cure so far. Recently, under Section 24(c) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a special local need label was approved that allows the trunk injection of antimicrobials such as oxytetracycline (OTC) for HLB management in Florida.

The Deformation Monitoring Capability of Fucheng-1 Time-Series InSAR.

The Fucheng-1 (FC-1) satellite has successfully transitioned from its initial operational phase and is now undergoing a detailed performance assessment for time-series deformation monitoring. This study evaluates the surface deformation monitoring capabilities of the newly launched FC-1 satellite using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique, particularly in urban applications. By analyzing the observation data from 20 FC-1 scenes and 20 Sentinel-1 scenes, deformation velocity maps of a university in Mianyang city were obtained using persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) and distributed scatterer interferometry (DSI) techniques.