mlsa-iai-msu-lab/ru_sci_bench_zho_cite_reranking huggingface dataset:
Two new marine benthic diatom species of Hippodonta (Bacillariophyceae) from the coast of China: H. nanjiensis sp. nov. and H. qingdaoensis sp. nov

The diversity and distribution of Hippodonta species on the coast of China are largely unknown due to limited investigations. In this paper, we report the detailed morphology and ultrastructure of two new species: H. nanjiensis sp. nov., collected from intertidal sandy sediments of Nanji Islands, the East China Sea and H. qingdaoensis sp. nov., collected from intertidal sandy sediments of the No. 1 Bathing Beach in Qingdao City, the Yellow Sea. Both species occur mainly in the middle part of the intertidal zone. H. nanjiensis possesses a unique large round central area. H. qingdaoensis differs from congeners in having a unique stria pattern, wherein the areolae in the middle transapical striae are less developed or absent on the primary side of the valve, and two areolae per stria are apparent under light microscopy (LM). This study expands our knowledge of Hippodonta diversity and distribution on the coast of China.
Landscape changes and their ecological effects of Miaodao Archipelago with human disturbances and under natural conditions in the past 30 years

The modern landscape patterns of islands usually show obvious spatial heterogeneity and complex ecological effects due to the vulnerability of ecosystems with natural characteristics under increasing human activities. In this work, we studied the variation in landscape pattern of the Miaodao Archipelago in Bohai Sea, North China, from 1990 to 2019, and an evaluation index system was established to explore the impacts of natural conditions and human disturbances on the ecological effects in the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework. Empirical analysis was conducted on the natural conditions, human disturbances, and ecological effects. The results show that forest was the main component of the landscape pattern in the archipelago. Both of the areas of forest and construction land were increasing, and the areas of cropland and grassland were declining. Other landscape types changed slightly, and the landscape fragmentation was increasing. The natural condition exhibited positive effects while human disturbance showed negative effects on the local ecology. Human disturbances come mainly from shoreline use while the natural conditions were mainly from the elevation change. The ecological effects were resulted mainly from the net primary productivity and water yield.
Isolation and identification of antimicrobial metabolites from sea anemone-derived fungus Emericella sp. SMA01

Marine symbiotic fungi represent an intriguing source of discovery of novel secondary metabolites with various biological activities. Sea anemones are benthic marine invertebrates, however, the cultivable symbiotic fungi residing in the sea anemones are paid few attentions compared to those derived from their cnidarian counterparts. Here we show the identification of antimicrobial secondary metabolites from the sea anemone-derived symbiotic fungi. Out of five isolated fungal strains, only the strain SMA01 showed strong antimicrobial activities, which was assigned into the genus Emericella based on the morphological characteristics and the ITS sequencing. Media swift from liquid fermentation to solid rice medium presented little infl uence on its antibacterial activity. A chemical investigation of the ethyl acetate extract of the Emericella sp. SMA01 led to discovery of the primary antibiotic metabolite phenazine-1- carboxylic acid. The IC_(50) values of the phenazine-1-carboxylic acid against Phytophthora capsici, Gibberella zeae, and Verticillium dahliae were determined to be 23.26-53.89 μg/mL. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first report of Emericella sp. in sea anemones. The current study may benefit understanding of the defensive chemical interactions between the symbiotic fungi and their host sea anemones.
Validating the deep time carbonate carbon isotope records: effect of benthic flux on seafloor carbonate

It is a consensus that marine carbonate archives the isotopic composition of seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC, δ~(13)C_(sw)), the largest active C reservoir in the hydrosphere. Carbonate carbon isotope (δ~(13)C_(carb)) excursions have been used to reflect perturbations of the global carbon cycle and related environmental change. However, the deep time δ~(13)C_(carb) records indicate faster and more pronounced perturbations of the carbon cycle compared to the present day. Here, we report δ~(13)C_(carb) and elemental compositions of Late Paleozoic carbonate sections from South China, showing negative correlations between δ~(13)C_(carb) and Fe~(2+) content of carbonate (Fe_(carb)). We suggest that, because Late Paleozoic carbonate was mainly produced by benthic carbonate-secreting organisms, δ~(13)C_(carb) recorded the isotopic composition near the seafloor, where benthic flux derived from anaerobic organic matter degradation delivers both Fe~(2+) and 13C-depleted DIC from porewater. The binary mixing between seawater and benthic flux would result in the deviation of δ~(13)C_(carb) from δ~(13)C_(sw). The negative correlation implies that δ~(13)C_(carb) is influenced by benthic flux and is affected by the seafloor redox and sedimentation rate. The deep time spatially heterogeneous and temporally oscillatory δ~(13)C_(carb) records in the basin-scale could be alternatively attributed to the variations of local environmental factors rather than a δ~(13)C_(sw) depth-gradient. Thus, the seafloor carbonate precipitation is continuously affected by diagenetic reactions in sediments, suggesting that δ~(13)C_(carb) recording the seawater DIC composition is conditional. Our study urges that the interpretation of δ~(13)C_(carb) should also consider the sedimentary process and depositional environment of marine carbonate.
A statistical analysis of geomechanical data and its effect on rock mass numerical modeling: a case study

Geomechanical data are never sufficient in quantity or adequately precise and accurate for design purposes in mining and civil engineering. The objective of this paper is to show the variability of rock properties at the sampled point in the roadway's roof, and then, how the statistical processing of the available geomechanical data can affect the results of numerical modelling of the roadway's stability. Four cases were applied in the numerical analysis, using average values (the most common in geomechanical data analysis), average minus standard deviation, median, and average value minus statistical error. The study show that different approach to the same geomechanical data set can change the modelling results considerably. The case shows that average minus standard deviation is the most conservative and least risky. It gives the displacements and yielded elements zone in four times broader range comparing to the average values scenario, which is the least conservative option. The two other cases need to be studied further. The results obtained from them are placed between most favorable and most adverse values. Taking the average values corrected by statistical error for the numerical analysis seems to be the best solution. Moreover, the confidence level can be adjusted depending on the object importance and the assumed risk level.
Physicochemical factors affecting the wettability of copper mine blasting dust

To investigate the factors affecting the wettability of copper mine blasting dust, the primary blasting dust was collected from an open-pit copper mine and separated into hydrophilic blasting dust (HLBD) and hydrophobic blasting dust (HBBD) using water flotation method. The physicochemical properties of HLBD and HBBD were measured and compared with each other. The properties included particle size distributions (PSDs), micromorphologies, pore structures, mineral components and surface organic carbon functional groups. The results show that particle size and pore structure of the blasting dust are the main factors affecting its wettability. Specifically, particle size of HBBD is smaller than that of HLBD, and their respiratory dust (less than 10 μm) accounts for 61.74 vol% and 53.00 vol%, respectively. The pore structure of HBBD is more developed, and the total pore volume of HBBD is 1.66 times larger than that of HLBD. The identical mineral compositions were detected in HLBD and HBBD by X-rays diffraction (XRD); however, the surface organic hydrophobic component of HBBD is slightly larger than that of HLBD, this may be the reason for the poor wettability of HBBD. This study is significant to understand the effects of physicochemical properties of copper mine blasting dust on its wettability.
Investigation of the anisotropic confinement-dependent brittleness of a Utah coal

Changes of failure mechanism with increasing confinement, from extensional to shear-dominated failure, are widely observed in the rupture of intact specimens at the laboratory scale and in rock masses. In an analysis published in 2018, both unconfined and triaxial compressive tests were conducted to investigate the strength characteristics of 84 specimens of a Utah coal, including the spalling limits, the ratio of apparent unconfined compressive strength to unconfined compressive strength (UCS), the damage characteristics, and the post-yield dilatancy. These mechanical characteristics were found to be strongly anisotropic as a function of the orientation of the cleats relative to the loading direction, defined as the included angle. A total of four different included angles were used in the work performed in 2018. The authors found that the degree of anisotropic strength differed according to the included angle. However, the transition from extensional to shear failure at the given confinements was not clearly identified. In this study, a total of 20 specimens were additionally prepared from the same coal sample used in the previous study and then tested under both unconfined and triaxial compressive conditions. Because the authors already knew the most contrasting cases of the included angles from the previous work using the four included angles, they chose only two of the included angles (0° and 30°) for this study. For the triaxial compressive tests, a greater confining stress than the mean UCS was applied to the specimens in an attempt to identify the brittle-ductile transition of the coal. The new results have been compiled with the previous results in order to re-evaluate the confinement-dependency of the coal behavior. Additionally, the different confining stresses are used as analogs for different width-to-height (W/H) conditions of pillar strength. Although the W/H ratios of the specimens were not directly considered during testing, the equivalent W/H ratios of a pillar as a function of the confining stresses were estimated using an existing empirical solution. According to this relationship, the W/H at which in situ pillar behavior would be expected to transition from brittle to ductile is identified.
Polarization-insensitive 3D conformal-skin metasurface cloak

Electromagnetic metasurface cloaks provide an alternative paradigm toward rendering arbitrarily shaped scatterers invisible. Most transformation-optics (TO) cloaks intrinsically need wavelength-scale volume/thickness, such that the incoming waves could have enough long paths to interact with structured meta-atoms in the cloak region and consequently restore the wavefront. Other challenges of TO cloaks include the polarization-dependent operation to avoid singular parameters of composite cloaking materials and limitations of canonical geometries, e.g., circular, elliptical, trapezoidal, and triangular shapes. Here, we report for the first time a conformal-skin metasurface carpet cloak, enabling to work under arbitrary states of polarization (SOP) at Poincare sphere for the incident light and arbitrary conformal platform of the object to be cloaked. By exploiting the foundry three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques to fabricate judiciously designed meta-atoms on the external surface of a conformal object, the spatial distributions of intensity and polarization of its scattered lights can be reconstructed exactly the same as if the scattering wavefront were deflected from a flat ground at any SOP, concealing targets under polarization-scanning detections. Two conformal-skin carpet cloaks working for partial- and full-azimuth plane operation are respectively fabricated on trapezoid and pyramid platforms via 3D printing. Experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations and both demonstrate the polarization-insensitive cloaking within a desirable bandwidth. Our approach paves a deterministic and robust step forward to the realization of interfacial, free-form, and full-polarization cloaking for a realistic arbitrary-shape target in real-world applications.
Operando surface science methodology reveals surface effect in charge storage electrodes

Surface and interface play critical roles in energy storage devices, calling for operando characterization techniques to probe the electrified surfaces/interfaces. In this work, surface science methodology, including electron spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy, has been successfully applied to visualize electrochemical processes at operating electrode surfaces in an Al/graphite model battery. Intercalation of anions together with cations is directly observed in the surface region of a graphite electrode with tens of nanometers thickness, the concentration of which is one order higher than that in bulk. An intercalation pseudocapacitance mechanism and a double specific capacity in the electrode surface region are expected based on the super-dense intercalants and anion/cation co-intercalation, which are in sharp contrast to the battery-like mechanism in the electrode bulk. The distinct electrochemical mechanism at the electrode surface is verified by performance tests of real battery devices, showing that a surface-dominant, nanometer-thick graphite cathode outperforms a bulk-dominant, micrometer-thick graphite cathode. Our findings highlight the important surface effect of working electrodes in charge storage systems.
De novo domestication towards new crops

Long-term natural and human selections have domesticated crops from their wild progenitors for millennia, leading to the fixation of a large number of agronomically beneficial alleles and traits in cultivated crops. However, this process has been extremely time-consuming, accompanied with negative consequences, such as genetic erosion, accumulation of deleterious mutations and decreased environmental adaptation. Global population increase and climate change are increasingly threatening food security. One potential solution to this problem is the use of genome editing for rapid domestication of novel crops. Pioneers in this field have managed to de novo domesticate wild tomatoes and groundcherry. In a recent issue of Cell, Li's group from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and collaborators provided an exciting illustration of de novo domestication of a wild allotetraploid rice.
Towards climate resilient urban energy systems: a review

Climate change and increased urban population are two major concerns for society. Moving towards more sustainable energy solutions in the urban context by integrating renewable energy technologies supports decarbonizing the energy sector and climate change mitigation. A successful transition also needs adequate consideration of climate change including extreme events to ensure the reliable performance of energy systems in the long run. This review provides an overview of and insight into the progress achieved in the energy sector to adapt to climate change, focusing on the climate resilience of urban energy systems. The state-of-the-art methodology to assess impacts of climate change including extreme events and uncertainties on the design and performance of energy systems is described and discussed. Climate resilience is an emerging concept that is increasingly used to represent the durability and stable performance of energy systems against extreme climate events. However, it has not yet been adequately explored and widely used, as its definition has not been clearly articulated and assessment is mostly based on qualitative aspects. This study reveals that a major limitation in the state-of-the-art is the inadequacy of climate change adaptation approaches in designing and preparing urban energy systems to satisfactorily address plausible extreme climate events. Furthermore, the complexity of the climate and energy models and the mismatch between their temporal and spatial resolutions are the major limitations in linking these models. Therefore, few studies have focused on the design and operation of urban energy infrastructure in terms of climate resilience. Considering the occurrence of extreme climate events and increasing demand for implementing climate adaptation strategies, the study highlights the importance of improving energy system models to consider future climate variations including extreme events to identify climate resilient energy transition pathways.
Migmatite-like textures in anthracite: Further evidence for low-grade metamorphic melting and resolidification in high-rank coals

Previous studies demonstrated that melting, initiated by supercritical fluids in the 375-400 °C range, occurred as part of anthracite metamorphismin the Appalachian Basin. Based on the knownbehavior of vitrinite at high temperatures and, to a lesser extent, at high pressures, it was determined that the duration of the heating, melting, and resolidification event was about 1 h. In the current study, featureless vitrinitewithin banded maceral assemblages demonstratesthe intimate association of melted and resolidified vitrinite with anthracite-rank macerals. By analogy with metamorphosed inorganic rocks, such associations represent diadysites and embrechites, i.e., cross-cutting and layered migmatites, respectively. Even though the temperature of formation of the anthracite structures is several hundred °C lower than that seen in metamorphosed inorganic rocks, anthracites are metamorphic rocks and the nomenclature for metamorphic rocks may be appropriate for coal.
Potentially harmful metals, and health risk evaluation in groundwater of Mardan, Pakistan: Application of geostatistical approach and geographic information system

This study investigates the values of pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), elevation, oxidative reduction potential (ORP), temperature, and depth, while the concentrations of Br, and potentially harmful metals (PHMs) such as Cr, Ni, Cd, Mn, Cu, Pb, Co, Zn, and Fe in the groundwater samples. Moreover, geographic information system (GIS), XLSTAT, and IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software were used for spatial distribution modeling, principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis (CA), and Quantile-Quantile (Q-Q) plotting to determine groundwater pollution sources, similarity index, and normal distribution reference line for the selected parameters. The mean values of pH, TDS, elevation, ORP, temperature, depth, and Br were 7.2, 322 mg/L, 364 m, 188 mV, 29.6 °C, 70 m, 0.20 mg/L, and PHMs like Cr, Ni, Cd, Mn, Cu, Pb, Co, Zn, and Fe were 0.38, 0.26, 0.08, 0.27, 0.36, 0.22, 0.04, 0.43 and 0.86 mg/L, respectively. PHMs including Cr (89%), Cd (43%), Mn (23%), Pb (79%), Co (20%), and Fe (91%) exceeded the guideline values set by the world health organization (WHO). The significant R2 values of PCA for selected parameters were also determined (0.62, 0.67, 0.78, 0.73, 0.60, 0.87, -0.50, 0.69, 0.70, 0.74, -0.50, 0.70, 0.67, 0.79, 0.59, and -0.55, respectively). PCA revealed three geochemical processes such as geogenic, anthropogenic, and reducing conditions. The mineral phases of Cd(OH)_2, Fe(OH)_3, FeOOH, Mn_3O_4, Fe_2O_3, MnOOH, Pb(OH)_2, Mn(OH)_2, MnO_2, and Zn(OH)_2 (-3.7, 3.75, 9.7, -5.8, 8.9, -3.6, 2.2, -4.6, -7.7, -0.9, and 0.003, respectively) showed super-saturation and under-saturation conditions. Health risk assessment (HRA) values for PHMs were also calculated and the values of hazard quotient (HQ), and hazard indices (HI) for the entire study area were increased in the following order: Cd>Ni>Cu>Pb>Mn>Zn>Cr. Relatively higher HQ and HI values of Ni, Cd, Pb, and Cu were greater than one showing unsuitability of groundwater for domestic, agriculture, and drinking purposes. The long-term ingestion of groundwater could also cause severe health concerns such as kidney, brain dysfunction, liver, stomach problems, and even cancer.
Metal-enriched nanoparticles and black carbon: A perspective from the Brazil railway system air pollution

Having a better understanding of air pollutants in railway systems is crucial to ensure a clean public transport. This study measured, for the first time in Brazil, nanoparticles (NPs) and black carbon (BC) on two groundlevel platforms and inside trains of theMetropolitan Area of Porto Alegre (MAPA). An intense sampling campaign during thirteen consecutive months was carried out and the chemical composition of NPs was examined by advanced microscopy techniques. The results showed that highest concentrations of the pollutants occur in colder seasons and influenced by variables such as frequency of the trains and passenger densities. Also, internal and external sources of pollution at the stations were identified. The predominance of NPs enriched with metals that increase oxidative stress like Cd, Fe, Pb, Cr, Zn, Ni, V, Hg, Sn, and Ba both on the platforms and inside trains, including Fe-minerals as hematite and magnetite, represents a critical risk to the health of passengers and employees of the system. This interdisciplinary and multi-analytical study aims to provide an improved understanding of reported adverse health effects induced by railway system aerosols.
Location-allocation modeling for emergency evacuation planning with GIS and remote sensing: A case study of Northeast Bangladesh

Thiswork developedmodels to identify optimal spatial distribution ofemergency evacuation centers (EECs) such as schools, colleges, hospitals, and fire stations to improve flood emergency planning in the Sylhet region of northeastern Bangladesh. The use of location-allocation models (LAMs) for evacuation in regard to flood victims is essential to minimize disaster risk. In the first step, flood susceptibility maps were developed using machine learning models (MLMs), including: Levenberg-Marquardt back propagation (LM-BP) neural network and decision trees (DT) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method. Performance of the MLMs andMCDMtechniques were assessed considering the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve. Mathematical approaches in a geographic information system(GIS) for fourwell-known LAMproblems affecting emergency rescue time are proposed: maximal covering location problem (MCLP), the maximize attendance (MA), p-median problem (PMP), and the location set covering problem(LSCP). The results showed that existing EECs were not optimally distributed, and that some areas were not adequately served by EECs (i.e., not all demand points could be reached within a 60-min travel time). We concluded that the proposed models can be used to improve planning of the distribution of EECs, and that application of the models could contribute to reducing human casualties, property losses, and improve emergency operation.