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According to the characteristic that mineralized-anomaly samples have larger reconstruction errors, traditional autoencoder networks have been applied widely in mineralized-anomaly identification. However, they easily ignore spatial coupling information of multi-source ore-indicating factors have lower generalization abilities caused by excessive feature redundancies, and rely on known non-mineralization samples when they are utilized in mineralized-anomaly identification. This paper utilizes a convolutional sparse autoencoder network for realizing mineralized-anomaly identification. The proposed method retains the extraction of spatial coupling correlations of geological and geochemical variables through the addition of convolutional operations, learning the relationship between mineralized-features and the locations of mineralization, and being conducive to analyzing results with geological structures. The establishment of sparse terms of using ReLU activation functions and adding sparsity constraints into the objective loss function improves the generalization ability of the whole network through suppression of several feature units to reduce redundant features. Moreover, the isolated forest is employed as an autonomous extractor of background multichannel image samples, overcoming the limitation of traditional autoencoder networks that rely on labeled non-mineralization samples. The integration of convolutional sparse autoencoder network and isolated forest can accurately predict more known mineral deposits (68.96%) in smaller prospective areas (16.77%) in the Fengxian District, Shaanxi Province, China. The obtained mineralized-anomaly map reveals that most of the known mineralization is distributed in the delineated areas of larger reconstruction errors, demonstrating that this approach can effectively identify mineralized-anomalies without relying on prior knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continous advancement of industrialization, the environmental problems among resource-based cities in China are becoming increasingly serious. Therefore, exploring the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution to understand the interaction mechanism between them is of great significance for the coordinated development of resource-based cities. In this paper, 114 resource-based cities in China are selected as research objects, and data from the period of 2011 to 2020 are used for analysis and research. Location entropy and entropy weight models are used to measure the relevant indicators, and a spatial simultaneous equation model is constructed. The generalized spatial three-stage least squares (GS3SLS) method is used to assess the spatial interactive spillover effects of industrial agglomeration on environmental pollution. The research results show that ① the industrial agglomeration center of China has begun to shift to the junction of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia, and the level of environmental pollution has dropped significantly; ② industrial agglomeration promotes environmental pollution, while environmental pollution inhibits industrial agglomeration, and between them, the inhibition effect is more obvious; ③ the level of industrial agglomeration in surrounding cities promotes industrial agglomeration in the region and inhibits environmental pollution, while the level of environmental pollution in surrounding cities inhibits industrial agglomeration in the region and promotes the diffusion of pollution. Thus, the building of a coordinated development system across regions can achieve a win–win situation between industrial development and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is an important issue for cities today and in the future. At present, China has a large population and complex climate conditions, and cities are also vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change (Tian, Environ Sustain Dev 6: 153-155 2020). Three-dimensional greening can not only improve the green space system of a city but also have a far-reaching impact on the ecology, image, and economic benefits of a city. Therefore, the study of urban three-dimensional greening is an effective means to deal with climate change strategies. By exploring the influence of traditional greening and three-dimensional greening on Local Climate in Beilin District of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, the mechanism of three-dimensional greening on urban ecological environment was discussed, and the ecological theory, urban three-dimensional greening theory, and urban local climate zone (LCZ) were referred to. Based on the methods of national climate monitoring, ENVI-met simulation, and field independent measurement, this paper selected a research sample site in the east section of Jianshe Road, Beilin District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China, and applied ENVI-met software to simulate the thermal stress relationship among building exterior surfaces, plants, and air in the street; quantified the overall ecology of the area; and used measuring instruments. The influence of different types of greening in the base on the site temperature, humidity, CO2 (carbon dioxide) concentration, wind speed, and other climate factors data was, respectively, measured and analyzed. The grid analysis was used to compare the traditional greening and three-dimensional greening, then the numerical differences of each impact factor were sorted out, and the effect of three-dimensional greening on the improvement of urban ecological environment was discussed by analyzing the climate factors with greater impact. The results show that (1) three-dimensional greening plus traditional greening is the most beneficial mode; (2) in the same environment, according to the parameter of 1.5 m from the ground in the model environment, it can be seen that the temperature of the space treated with three-dimensional greening of buildings is reduced by 3.5–3.6 ℃ compared with the control group, the relative humidity is different by 7–8%, the CO2 concentration is reduced by about 5%, and the spatial wind speed is relatively small. (3) When the urban green coverage rate is more than 40%, the improvement of temperature is more obvious, if it reaches 50%, the cool phenomenon in summer can be fundamentally changed. From the perspective of human perception, the PMV index increased by 0.27 on average. This paper discusses and analyzes the three-dimensional greening of urban streets in Beilin District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, China, and studies its influence on urban ecology to different degrees. The conclusions are as follows: Different types of greening have different degrees of influence on urban climate. Meanwhile, the experimental results of this paper show that in cities like Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, where summer is hot, adding three-dimensional greening to traditional street greening can significantly improve the environmental microclimate, which is an effective means to cope with climate change, improve the site environment, and stabilize the urban ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China is the prominent area for agricultural production, but it is also the most typical ecological fragile area with frequent drought disasters. Taking Yulin City at Shaanxi Province in China as the case area, the paper aims to investigate the spatio-temporal changes of agricultural vulnerability to drought in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the period 2000 to 2020. The results show that: 1) the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City has shifted from high vulnerability in the period 2000–2010 to low vulnerability in the period 2011–2020. 2) There exist obvious spatio-temporal differences of the agricultural vulnerability to drought in Yulin City during the research period. 3) Four sensitive events and 14 resilient events were identified in the research and the crops of Yulin had become more resilient to drought. Finally, the paper put forward with policy implications to make adaptive strategies of agriculture to climate change in China's agro-pastoral ecotone in the future, e.g., carrying out agricultural zoning based on agricultural production conditions, intensifying the construction of disaster prevention and relief system, and integrating with modern agricultural technology to develop new type agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas in Northwest China have always been the main concentration of poverty-stricken people in China. In 1986, China listed 665 poor counties (mostly in the northwest), and successively launched the actions of "Volunteer Teaching in Western China" and "Great Development of Western China" to help underdeveloped areas get rid of poverty. At present, the number of poor counties has been reduced to 52. In 2014, the Chinese government proposed to comprehensively improve the rural living environment by 2020. Through in-depth investigation and visit to 11 districts (counties) of Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, China, this study puts forward a set of index system suitable for evaluating the human settlements in underdeveloped rural areas and constructs a comprehensive evaluation model by using a variety of mathematical methods. Using the combination of accurate evaluation and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, this paper makes a horizontal evaluation on the residential environment of each district (county) in Yulin City, and a dynamic evaluation on the overall development level of livable environment in Yulin City in recent 9 years. Finally, using qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, this paper discusses the shortcomings, available advantages and development prospects in the construction of human settlements in Yulin City, and concludes that the key to improving rural human settlements is to develop township enterprises. This study is an empirical analysis of the government's long-term poverty alleviation effect, summarizes experience and finds out existing problems, so as to provide basis and reference for the government's poverty alleviation in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desert lakes are important wetland resources in the blown-sand area of western China and play a significant role in maintaining the regional ecological environment. However, large-scale coal mining in recent years has considerably impacted the deposition condition of several lakes. Rapid and accurate extraction of lake information based on satellite images is crucial for developing protective measures against desertification. However, the spatial resolution of these images often leads to mixed pixels near water boundaries, affecting extraction precision. Traditional pixel unmixing methods mainly obtain water coverage information in a mixed pixel, making it difficult to accurately describe the spatial distribution. In this paper, the cellular automata (CA) model was adopted in order to realize lake information extraction at a sub-pixel level. A mining area in Shenmu City, Shaanxi Province, China is selected as the research region, using the image of Sentinel-2 as the data source and the high spatial resolution UAV image as the reference. First, water coverage of mixed pixels in the Sentinel-2 image was calculated with the dimidiate pixel model and the fully constrained least squares (FCLS) method. Second, the mixed pixels were subdivided to form the cellular space at a sub-pixel level and the transition rules are constructed based on the water coverage information and spatial correlation. Lastly, the process was implemented using Python and IDL, with the ArcGIS and ENVI software being used for validation. The experiments show that the CA model can improve the sub-pixel positioning accuracy for lake bodies in mixed pixel image and improve classification accuracy. The FCLS-CA model has a higher accuracy and is able to identify most water bodies in the study area, and is therefore suitable for desert lake monitoring in mining areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban–rural fringe area (URFa) is an active and expansive region, and its environment is complex and frangible. Previous studies have focused on the landscape spatial pattern changes, the spatial–temporal variability of soil pollutants and the land management and policy issues, etc., but it is lack of the practice study of land and water comprehensive remediation in URFa. This article is taking the Sichuan River, a typical URFa, as an example. Based on field investigation and lab tests, the main characteristic form of the URFa and land and water comprehensive remediation measures are summarized in this paper. The results show that it is feasible to turn wasteland, low-efficiency land, and old deserted beach into farm land, residential land, and ecological land by comprehensive land improvement. For the farm land reconstruction, the texture is an important indicator. The content of soil organic matter (SOM), carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus has increased after remediation. For the SOM, 58.3% are more than 10.0 g·kg−1, and 79.2% are more than 8.0 g·kg−1. For the frequent dry-off and polluted low flow river channels in URFa, the river bottom consolidation and water purification is the important measures. The water quality meets IV standard of the "Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water" (GB3838-2002) (State EPA of China, 2002) by pollution treatment after remediation, and water volume keeps balance. The findings of this study are expected to provide support for better construction practices in arid and semiarid area in China and for the improvement of the ecological environment in URFa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important resource for human survival, soil plays an important role in maintaining productivity, environmental quality, animal and plant health, etc. Soil quality evaluation, as a decision-making tool to improve understanding of soil quality, can effectively indicate soil status. Mu Us sandy land of Daji Khan in northern Shaanxi Province is one of the serious desertification areas in China. The phenomenon of soil erosion and ecological deterioration is extremely serious. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen to pay attention to the research of Mu Us sandy land, to help the restoration of damaged soil, and to build a powerful soil ecosystem. In this paper, the soil quality in the process of development and utilization of the Mu Us sandy land was evaluated based on fuzzy sets for the purpose of sustainable utilization of compound soil. Based on soil structure and soil fertility, 16 evaluation indexes of soil quality in Mu Us sandy land were screened, and then the evaluation index system of soil quality was constructed. The fuzzy multi-objective decision-making model based on fuzzy sets was used to comprehensively evaluate the soil quality from 2013 to 2019. We calculated that the year-on-year growth rates of soil quality from 2013 to 2019 are 13.56, 0.16, 12.81, 33.84, 9.68, and 14.80%, respectively. The results showed that the overall soil quality in the study area showed a trend of increasing year by year, and the year-on-year increase was the largest in 2017. Meanwhile, the reasons for the sudden increase in soil quality in typical years were analyzed. The results showed that the dominant factor of this phenomenon was the comprehensive influence of soil fertility. Furthermore, the relationship between soil fertility and cultivated horizon in typical years was analyzed one by one, and the specific factors affecting soil fertility were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternaria leaf blotch, and rust are two common types of apple leaf diseases that severely affect apple yield. A timely and effective detection of apple leaf diseases is crucial for ensuring the healthy development of the apple industry. In general, these diseases are inspected by experienced experts one by one. This is a time-consuming task with unstable precision. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed a LOW-COST, STABLE, HIGH precision apple leaf diseases identification method. This is achieved by employing MobileNet model. Firstly, comparing with general deep learning model, it is a LOW-COST model because it can be easily deployed on mobile devices. Secondly, instead of experienced experts, everyone can finish the apple leaf diseases inspection STABLELY by the help of our algorithm. Thirdly, the precision of MobileNet is nearly the same with existing complicated deep learning models. Finally, in order to demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed method, several experiments have been carried out for apple leaf diseases identification. We have compared the efficiency and precision with the famous CNN models: i.e. ResNet152 and InceptionV3. Here, the apple disease datasets (including classes: Alternaria leaf blotch and rust leaf) were collected by the agriculture experts in Shaanxi Province, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate identification of priority areas for ecological restoration is an important prerequisite for ecological protection and restoration, but it is a current challenge in landscape planning. Northern Shaanxi, which is located in the middle of the Loess Plateau in China, was selected as a study area in this paper. A three-dimensional framework including natural potential, human disturbance, and landscape pattern factors was used to construct an ecological security evaluation index system, and spatial principal component analysis (SPCA) was used to quantitatively evaluate the ecological security levels of the study area. The ecological security assessment result was used as a resistance surface, and landscape elements were identified by morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA), minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model and the gravity model. On this basis, priority areas for ecological restoration were identified by considering ecosystem security and the matching degree of landscape elements. The resulting area with low and moderately low security levels was 27,574.87 km2 in size, accounting for 34.48% of the total study area, and the ecological security situation was not ideal. We identified seventeen ecological sources with an area of 5789.36 km2, and the important ecological sources were mainly distributed in the south of the study area. We identified one hundred and thirty-six potential ecological corridors with a total length of 7431.12 km, including 16 important ecological corridors with a length of 1279.43 km. We also identified 83 ecological nodes, including 17 important ecological nodes. We found that the high matching degree of landscape elements included four watersheds with an area of 7571.17 km2, mainly distributed in the southern part of the study area. Fifty-one basins with a low matching degree of landscape elements were identified, covering an area of 50,399.44 km2 and mainly distributed in the west and north of the study area. We identified three levels of areas to be restored, of which the level I ecological restoration priority area was the smallest, at 7047.61 km2. The areas of the level II ecological restoration priority area and the level III ecological restoration priority area were 20,379.35 km2 and 27,866.35 km2, respectively. The two areas were large and mainly distributed in the west and north of the study area. We discussed ecological restoration strategies for different levels of ecological restoration priority areas and provided new methods for identifying priority ecological restoration areas in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loess landslides are one of the geological hazards prevalent in mountainous areas of Loess Plateau, seriously threatening people's lives and property safety. Accurate identification of landslides is a prerequisite for reducing the risk of landslide hazards. Traditional landslide interpretation methods often have the disadvantage of being laborious and difficult to use on a large scale compared with the recently developed deep learning-based landslide detection methods. In this study, we propose an improved deep learning model, landslide detection- you only look once (LD-YOLO), based on the existing you only look once (YOLO) model for the intelligent identification of old and new landslides in loess areas. Specifically, remote sensing images of landslides in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, China are acquired from the Google Earth Engine platform. The landslide images of Baoji City (excluding Qianyang County) are used to establish a loess landslide dataset for training the model. The landslide data of Qianyang County is used to verify the detection performance of the model. The focal and efficient IoU (Focal-EIoU) loss function and efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanism are incorporated into the 7th version of YOLO (YOLOv7) model to construct the LD-YOLO model, which makes it more suitable for the landslide detection task. The experiments yielded an improved LD-YOLO model with average precision of 92.05%, precision of 92.31%, recall of 90.28%, and F1-score of 91.28% for loess landslide detection. The landslides in Qianyang County were divided into two test sets, new landslides and old landslides, which were used to test the detection performance of LD-YOLO for both types of landslides. The results show that LD-YOLO detects old landslides with a detection precision of 82.75% and a recall of 80%. When detecting new landslides, the detection precision is 94.29% and the recall is 91.67%. It indicates that our proposed LD-YOLO model has strong detection performance for both new and old landslides in loess areas. Through a proposed solution that can realize the accurate detection of landslides in loess areas, this paper provides a valuable reference for the application of deep learning methods in landslide identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal fires refer to fires generated by the self-combustion of coal seams, which have a maximum temperature of 1000 °C. Such fires can significantly alter the properties of surrounding rock and soil. However, in Northern Shaanxi, China, coal resources are abundant, and the buried depth of coal seams is shallow; therefore, coal fires often occur. Because Northern Shaanxi is located in China's Loess Plateau, there is a large amount of loess accumulation on the surface. For this reason, it is imperative to study the effects of high temperatures on loess. In this paper, the loess samples are heat treated at different temperatures (200–1000 °C), and their surface redness (a*) and mass magnetic susceptibility (χ) are measured to simulate the high-temperature effects of coal fires on the loess in northern Shaanxi, and also study its chromaticity changes and abnormal magnetic properties. The results show that (1) the loess χ value is affected by the heat-treatment temperature; at 600 °C, the χ value decreases, increasing rapidly above after 850 °C. Further, the magnetic susceptibility changes significantly. (2) The thermal-induced transformation of ferromagnetic minerals and the buried depth of loess are the main reasons for these changes in magnetic susceptibility and red chroma of loess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to obtain reliable shear strength parameters for the stability analysis and evaluation of high loess slopes. Hence, this paper determines slope elements and physical parameter of 79 slopes with heights of [40, 120] m based on the measured loess slopes in the Ganquan and Tonghuang subregions of northern Shaanxi Province, China. In the limit state of the loess slope (stability factor Fs is 1.0), a fitting equation for the slope height and width is established. Then, the model is developed by stability analysis software-SLOPE/W, and the comprehensive shear strength parameters corresponding to different slope heights of the high slope in the study area are obtained by inversion using the Morgenstern-Price method. The results show that when the height of the slope increases, the cohesion c increases in the soil, and the internal friction angle φ decreases. This change is consistent with the characteristics reflected in the composition and physical properties of the slopes, and the comprehensive strength parametric curves are very similar between the Ganquan subregion and the Tonghuang subregion. A landslide that occurred in Miaodian-zaitou of Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province, is selected to verify this inversion method, and the results show that the calculated shear strength parameters of the inversion are consistent with the measured value of the actual slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) is an effective way to reduce the fertilizer use and non-point source pollution in agriculture production in China. Existing research related to fertilizer use efficiency ignores the impact of famers' social networks, which can significantly affect the fertilizer use and its efficiency. This paper analyzed the impact of social networks on fertilizer use efficiency and the mediator effect of green fertilization technology adoption, based on the calculation of fertilizer use efficiency of 569 kiwifruit farmers in Shaanxi province of China surveyed in 2021 by using stochastic frontier method. The results show that the FUE of kiwifruit production ranged within 0.1027–0.9945, with an average value of 0.333, which showed great variability, and fertilizer input had an average 66.7% reduction potential without reducing output. Social networks and its four dimensions all had a significant positive impact on FUE, in which network trust and network learning had a greater impact on FUE. Farmers' adoption of green fertilization technology played a positive mediator effect in the process of social networks influencing their fertilizer use efficiency, which was mainly promoted by network trust and learning. Farmers' experience in agricultural production, joining the cooperative, the quantity of village agricultural supply points had a significant positive impact on fertilizer use efficiency, while age and gentle of the head of household had a significant negative impact of fertilizer use efficiency. Planting scale had a U-shape impact on FUE. Policies aimed at improving FUE and reducing non-point source pollution should, therefore, focus on improving the social networks of farmers, especially young farmers, strengthening network trust, promoting network learning, network reciprocity and network interaction, strengthening the research and development and extension of green fertilization technology, encouraging farmers to join agricultural cooperative, improving village production conditions, guiding sustainable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water flowing fractured zone height (WFFZH) is critical for the safe exploitation of coal resources and environmental protection, especially in arid and semiarid mining areas. Most existing studies focus on the WFFZH in bedrock, without considering the effect of the soil layer. This paper uses in situ data from a Jurassic coalfield the Yu-Shen-Fu mining area in Shaanxi province, China, to investigate the WFFZH for different hydrogeological units. Thirteen hydrogeological units, which were simplified into 4 hydrogeological associations, were used in this study to develop the inhibition coefficient and promotion coefficient of the soil layer and to determine the quantitative relationship between the soil-bedrock ratio and the inhibition (promotion) coefficient. This information was used to develop a comprehensive prediction method for WFFZH under complex hydrogeological structures using ArcGIS. The traditional calculation method for WFFZH only considers the soil layer's inhibition effect whereas our comprehensive prediction method considers multiple factors. The verification of field investigation indicates that the comprehensive prediction method is more accurate than the traditional WFFZH calculation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A woman's crown made of fine gilt bronze with refined glass inlay work was excavated from a Sui-Tang tomb called Kunlun M2 in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. Very few female crowns and crown ornaments have been excavated in China thus far, and there has been a lack of systematic research into the technologies used to manufacture them. Importantly, this paper uses the M2 crown to investigate its surface inlays and overall shape, then conducts a comparative analysis of women's crown ornaments of the same type, providing a reference for study of the crown. Non-invasive and micro-destructive analysis including optical microscopy (OM), optical coherence tomography (OCT), micro X-ray fluorescence imagery (XRF), and Raman spectroscopy were applied. These identified the crown's inlays as potash-lime glass, composed mainly of the raw materials: vein quartz or quartzite with potassium nitrate as flux. The inlays were sintered before embedding into gilt copper wire filigree. In comparison to the composition proportions in other ancient potash-lime glass, there is no specific percentage of the raw materials in Chinese potash-lime glass, where the ingredients were likely determined by the experience of the craftsman. Compared with existing research on other crowns and their inlays, this study speculates that the crown dates from the Sui dynasty (581–618) or early Tang dynasty (618–649), was made locally by Chinese craftsmen and belonged to the wife of a high official. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of lateral deformation on subgrade settlement is often ignored. This paper discusses this effect under different constraint conditions. Compression tests of typical Q2 remoulded loess from Shaanxi Province, China, were conducted under different confining pressures using a self-developed three-dimensional loading test device. The vertical and lateral deformation characteristics of loess samples were analysed, and a model of lateral strain in subgrade soil was derived. Then, a model of total subgrade settlement with consideration of lateral deformation was established based on the equal volume concept. The stratified summation calculation formula was also revised, and correction coefficients under different constraints are given. The results show that the accuracy of the revised method is positively correlated with the number of lateral constraints. The correction coefficient can reflect the influence of different subgrade constraints. Importantly, the modified model was verified by field measurements and found to be more accurate than the stratified summation method. These results help to understand the influence of lateral deformation on total settlement and the mechanism of subgrade settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency of incomplete portfolios consisting of a few risk-free assets is an important issue in household portfolio selection, and its cause has not yet been satisfactorily identified. Using data from the Shaanxi Province survey of rural residents' financial assets in China, this paper validates the influence path model of household portfolios to understand the determinants of rural household's ownership of risky financial assets. The structural equation modelling method is used to illustrate the complex relationship between household portfolio allocation and influencing factors. The results show that holding risky financial assets is directly determined by total financial assets, risky investment intentions and financial market knowledge. Ability, desire and awareness are all indispensable for holding risky financial assets, which can explain most of the incomplete participant problem. Household wealth, financial literacy, age and education have indirect influences along different paths through these three mediation variables. In addition, a second house is separated from real estate that only includes the residential house and defined investments. A path analysis also shows that real estate (residential house, home appliances and vehicles) does not have a significant effect on holding risky financial assets, while an investment house will crowd out and substitute financial assets and have a negative influence on holding risky financial assets. The findings could help explain the fairly simple and safe structure of the typical household portfolio in rural China and other undeveloped regions and may also have important policy implications for developing risky financial markets in similar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the construction of tunnels in the central and western regions of China, diorite is frequently affected by vibration, blasting and water which will lead to the questions of the quality and operational safety of project. However, there are few studies on the dynamic characteristics of diorite under the action of dry–wet cycles. Therefore, this paper selected the gray–green altered diorite from Ning shan County, Shaanxi Province, China, mainly composed of plagioclase, and used the Slit Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) to study the effect of dry–wet cycle on the dynamic characteristics of Diorite. The test results show that the strength decay rate of the peak strength of diorite is the maximum under 1–3 dry–wet cycles, then decreases gradually. The dynamic elastic modulus of diorite dropped by 35.02% after three dry–wet cycles, accounting for 98.45% of the total attenuation. Compared the test result of three dry–wet cycles, the decrease volumes of the stress growth rate of diorite are the largest after six dry–wet cycles. Because of the actions of the dry–wet cycles, the growth rate of the rapid growth stage of the reflected energy–time history curve reduces and the growth rate of the rapid growth stage of the transmitted energy–time history curve improves. Under the action of the dry–wet cycles, the dissipation energy ratio gradually decreases, and the decrease of energy consumption density follows a negative exponential function relationship. Under the action of multiple dry–wet cycles, the tension and compression stress frequently change between the particles of rock, resulting in a significant increase of micro-cracks and an obvious degradation effect on the dynamical properties of diorite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid industrialization and the lack of technological innovation over the past 40 years have caused serious environmental pollution and waste of resources. Therefore, it remains an urgent challenge to coordinate technological innovation, resource consumption, environmental quality, and high-quality industrial development in China. Using the data of Shaanxi Province from 2005 to 2019, in this paper, we adopt the 4-population grey Lotka-Volterra model (GLV) to study the competition and cooperation among technological innovation (TI), resource consumption (RE), environmental quality (EE), and industrial development quality (IQ). We also discuss the equilibrium point and stability of the GLV model and further verify its accuracy. We conduct an empirical study of the data of Shaanxi Province, and the results demonstrate that (1) TI is able to improve EE, increase IQ, and promote RE; (2) conserving resources has a positive effect on TI, EE, and IQ; (3) although EE could prevent TI and IQ, it can reduce RE; and (4) IQ can effectively reduce RE and improve EE; however, it hinders TI. (5) The result of equilibrium analysis reveals that the evolution of the four factors will tend to reach a stable equilibrium point in the future, that is, realizing co-evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Loess Plateau accounts more than 6% of China's land area and 45% of Shaanxi Province. The land-creation project could double the city's current area. However, the behavior of loess, and in particular inadequate compacted loess, can have significant implications on the safe and reliable operation of man-made infrastructure. The mechanical behavior and collapsibility of intact, in situ compacted and remolded loess in lab, which are widely recognized as fundamentally different materials, were associated with the microstructure. There is limited understanding of micro–macro-relationships in the three fine-grained loess. This study focuses on the microstructural changes and micro–macro-relationships of an intact, compacted and remolded loess from complex land-creation project. A comprehensive microstructural comparisons about PSDs, micrographs and quantitative evaluation for intact and remolded loess from an 80-m-high section of the sedimentary strata, and compacted loess from a highly filled exploratory well are presented and discussed in this paper. The results show that both the intact and compacted loess exhibit trimodal characteristics in their PSDs, while there are bimodal/unimodal characteristics of the PSD for the remolded loess. The compressibility and the specific surface area of the remolded loess are far less than those of the intact or compacted loess. This is further evidence the remolded loess is not suitable to study the collapsibility and compressibility instead of intact loess. However, compared with the intact loess, the compacted loess shows the same pore and particle flocculation structure characteristics for samples at higher density (> 1710 kg/m3 + 10 kg/m3). Under high-energy impact load, particles perform the breakdown, from round, coarse and disordered particles gradually to flaky, fine and ordered particles, which are different from traditional research results. The threshold value of dry density 1710 kg/m3 + 10 kg/m3 can be defined the boundary and micro–macro-relationships among intact, compacted and remolded loess. The results are of great importance to understand the microstructure characteristics and improve the engineering construction safety in loess areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Loess Plateau can be considered as a landslide-prone area in northwest China. The genera consensus about the interaction between landslide deposit and terrace sediments is not well studied; this paper summarised 40 loess landslides in the South Jingyang Platform, Shaanxi Province, China to help understand of this issue. Four of the loess landslides with high mobility have been analysed in detail. Three trenches T1, T2 and T3 dug after the loess landslides LD37, LD11 and LD38 highlighted the landslide-induced changes in geomorphology and internal geometry of geology, respectively. Furthermore, observation of upwards seepage flow on the profile of trench T3 is believed to be the trigger of the high speed, and long runout flowslides in the study area. A newly developed sandbox apparatus is used to reproduce the landslide kinematics due to a mass travelling over an inclined plane. The sandbox experiments show that the sediments are sheared and pushed upwards after the collision with the deposits. The deposits are then wrapped in a space between sediments, which tends to form the 'sandwich' structure. The distal sediments are thrust when the loess deposits' kinetic energy consistently dissipates, developing the accumulated folded strata. These results reveal the deposits' interactions with the sediments in the study area and provide key guideposts regarding prevention and mitigation of loess landslide hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large deformation has always been a focus and difficult issue in the construction of deep-buried tunnels in squeezing rock. Previous studies mainly focused on the large deformation of medium and small span railway/highway tunnels in soft ground. However, there are limited researches on the large deformation control methods for large-span (three-lane) highway tunnels constructed in unfavorable geological environment. Based on the Lianchengshan Tunnel of the Baoji-Hanzhong expressway in Shaanxi Province, China, this paper studied the deformation behaviors and mechanical mechanisms of a large-span tunnel excavated in chlorite schist formation with single primary lining method and double primary lining method by in-situ test and numerical simulation. The achieved results indicate that the double primary lining method is much more effective than that of the single primary lining method in restraining the deformation of surrounding rock, and the maximum vertical displacement and horizontal convergence are reduced by 67% and 66%, respectively. The support method of double HK200b-type steel sets combined with large-diameter foot reinforcement bolt (FRB) and deep invert could effectively control the large deformation of the case tunnel, which effectively avoided the supporting structure failure, repeated clearance invasion and multiple reshaping work caused by the single primary lining method and conformed to the energy-saving construction concept of "no clearance interfering, no support reshaping" of tunnels in squeezing ground. Simulation analysis of surrounding rock deformation, supporting structure stress and plastic zone distribution was performed to evaluate the support effect of the two deformation-controlled methods. Finally, the deformation and stress characteristic curves of rock-support of the two deformation-controlled methods were established, which revealed the supporting mechanism of double primary linings for large-span tunnels in chlorite schist. The research results can provide a theoretical basis and practical reference for the large-deformation control of similar large-span tunnels in squeezing rock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loess landslides have complicated deformation mechanisms. Accurately describing the internal failure deformation of loess landslides and establishing a theoretical method of landslide instability evaluation for the prevention of subsequent landslides have become important topics in western development project construction in China. This paper presents a case study of the Zhonglou Mountain landslide in Shaanxi Province, China. Based on field investigation results, a two-dimensional stability analysis model was constructed using the finite element method. Taking the deformation characteristics of the landslide as the research basis, the distribution laws of the displacement, stress, and shear strain of this landslide were identified with the strength reduction finite element numerical simulation method. Additionally, the safety factor was evaluated under normal and storm conditions. The numerical simulation results show that the horizontal tensile stress of the landslide was mainly distributed in the middle and upper parts of the landslide under normal conditions, while the vertical tensile stress was distributed near the sliding surface. Under heavy rainfall, the sliding force increased, and the anti-sliding force and anti-sliding section decreased; the location of the maximum shear strain shifted down from the middle and upper parts of the landslide body to the area with a shear crack, and the plastic shear strain area expanded along nearly the entire the sliding surface, leading to the occurrence of a landslide. Thus, the use of anti-slide piles to stabilize the landslide was proposed and tested. Monitoring points were arranged along the sliding surface to evaluate the displacement, stress, and strain responses. The on-site observation results agreed with the modeling results. The use of anti-slide piles was demonstrated to be an effective stabilization method for the Zhonglou Mountain landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study establishes an economic financial support model for the improvement of environmental quality through the development rural revitalization based on the extended Cobb–Douglas production function. Using statistical data from Shaanxi Province, China, from 2004 to 2019, a vector autoregressive (VAR) model is used to empirically analyze the development effect of financial support for rural revitalization and to give the focus points and optimization paths for financial support for environmental quality, rural revitalization and sustainable development. The research results show that financial support plays an active and long-term role in improving environmental quality and promoting rural revitalization and sustainable development. Specifically, the effect of financial instruments in supporting rural revitalization and sustainable development is continuous. In the insurance system, increasing the scale of agricultural insurance support and expanding the coverage of agricultural insurance are key to improving environmental quality and promoting rural revitalization and sustainable development. Therefore, financial policy makers should improve the targeting of financial instruments to provide the right guidance for improving the quality of rural environment and enhancing rural economy, so as to ultimately realize rural revitalization in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highway construction is time consuming and complicated. Various environmental issues can be encountered during this process. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the impact of ecologic environment in highway construction. However, the traditional assessment approaches paid more attention to the environmental factors rather than the ecological problems, and the weights of evaluation indexes were assigned with relatively average values, which cannot comprehensively and accurately to assess the impact of ecological environment in highway construction. In order to solve these problems, this paper established a new model to combine improved group AHP and FCE. A total of six main factors and 22 sub-factors from three aspects of social, ecological, and natural environment were identified. The model and index system were applied to the ecological environment impact assessment of the highway from the city of Hanzhong to Lueyang County section in Shaanxi Province, and compared with traditional fuzzy AHP approach to verify the feasibility of this model. The results showed that only the ranking of social and ecological factor changed when comparing with the traditional approach. The weight of social factor determined by the improved approach was 0.2835, while that of the traditional approach was only 0.2365, and the weight difference was 0.047. This improved approach highlighted the importance of social factor and overcame the equal weight distribution of traditional approach, which made the overall weight ratio distribution more reasonable and objective. The comprehensive assessment result was 0.3482, which was in line with the "general impact" level. This was consistent with the actual situation of highway construction. The improved group AHP-FCE model could be used successfully for assessing the impact of the ecological environment in highway construction, and it had good applicability and popularization value in ecological environment assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate change on the impact of grain production potential has significant regional differences. Researchers have studied the grain production potential of various crop combinations or focused on single crop types in a typical area; however, the regional differences of the climate change on the impact of grain production potential were neglected. This paper used the Global Agro-Ecological Zone (GAEZ 3.0) model to focus on the analysis what is the climate change on the impact of grain production potential in different geographic units (Northern Shaanxi Plateau, Guanzhong Basin, Qinba Mountain) in Shaanxi Province of China. The case showed that the precipitation (Pre) what made changes of grain production potential was the most important factor in different geographic units. The increase of Pre had a positive impact on the grain production potential in Northern Shaanxi Plateau and Guanzhong Basin. However, in Qinba Mountain, due to excessive Pre in the Qinba Mountains, the decrease of Pre had a certain positive impact on the grain production potential. The precipitation was less in the Northern Shaanxi Plateau; therefore, its major factors leading to changes of crop production were precipitation and rainfall days. The increase of the mean maximum temperature (Tmx) and the mean minimum temperature (Tmn) had a positive impact of the grain production potential in the Northern Shaanxi Plateau and Guanzhong Basin. The higher temperature had a negative impact on the grain production potential. In Qinba Mountain, the increase of the temperature has a certain negative impact on the grain production potential. It has more influence of Tmx in the Guanzhong Basin and Qinba Mountain rather than that in the Northern Shaanxi Plateau. Generally speaking, the major climatic factors leading grain production potential were Pre and Tmx in Guanzhong Basin and Qinba Mountain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on expectancy valence theory, people's behavior is affected by their self-perception and the external environment. In rural China, policy instruments as robust external environment factors have a strong effect on waste separation behavior (WSB). The purpose of the paper is to explore the influencing mechanism of policy instruments (infrastructure and information) on perceived value (perceived benefit and perceived cost) and waste separation behaviors. The data were collected from 689 rural households of Shaanxi province in China, and analyzed by using structural equation model (SEM). According to the results, the mediation effect proves that policy instruments not only can affect WSB directly but also can affect it indirectly through the perceived value. Specifically, information and infrastructure influence the perceived benefit positively and the perceived cost negatively, and information and infrastructure have an indirect effect on WSB through the mediation effect of the perceived cost. Second, policy instruments have a stronger effect on rural people's waste separation behavior than perceived value. Specifically, infrastructure has the most important impact on waste separation behavior, followed by information and then perceived cost. Third, the perceived cost is significantly negatively related to WSB, and perceived benefit has a positive effect but is statistically insignificant. It has a practical implication for the government. Providing sufficient infrastructure and launching effective information activities could improve the perceived benefit including biospheric, egoistic, social-altruistic, and reputation; and reduce the perceived cost of time, physical, learning, and money, which could then induce rural households to engage in WSB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing large prehistoric rock avalanches provides significant data for evaluating the disaster posed by these relatively infrequent but destructive geological events. This paper attempts to study the characteristics and dynamics of the Ganqiuchi granitic rock avalanche, in the middle of the northern margin of Qinling Mountains, 30 km to the south of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China. In plane view, this rock avalanche is characterized by source area, accumulation area and dammed lake area. Based on previous studies, historical records and regional geological data, the major trigger of the Ganqiuchi rock avalanche is considered to be a strong paleo-earthquake with tremendous energy. The in situ deposit block size distributions of the intact rock mass and the debris deposits are presented and analyzed by using a simple model for estimating the number of fragmentation cycles that the blocks underwent. The results show that the primary controlling factor of the fragmentation process is the pre-existing fractures, and there is a relationship between the potential energy and the fragmentation energy: the latter is approximately 20% of the former. Based on the dynamic discrete element technique, the study proposes a four-stage model for the dynamic course of the Ganqiuchi rock avalanche: (1) failing; (2) highspeed sliding; (3) collision with obstacles; (4) decelerated sliding, which has implication for hazard assessment of the potential rock avalanches in China and other countries with similar geological setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jurassic coalfield in northern Shaanxi, China is one of the seven largest coalfields in the world. It is located in an arid region of northwestern China, with poor water resources and fragile ecological environment. Due to coal mining, the rock layers on the coal seam will be slumped and fractured to produce fissures. The penetrated fissures will cause a mine water burst disaster and cause damage to groundwater and surface water. The strip filling method can control the expansion of the diversion fissure zone and protect the groundwater and surface water from the underground mining of coal. In this paper, the effects of different strip filling conditions on the diversion fissure zone are studied by discrete element numerical experiments. The study indicates that the upward-fissure and the downward-fissure penetrations are the direct causes of the instability of the water-blocking rock group. After the upward fissure extends to a certain extent, there will be a downward fissure. Under the condition of controlling the width of the filling strip and the compressive strength, the strip filling method can effectively prevent the upward and downward fissures of the water-blocking rock group from penetrating and can ensure that the surface water system is not affected by the underground coal mining activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of an ecologically livable rural environment requires treating rural domestic waste. Farmers, as key participants in rural domestic waste disposal, can improve the rural environment by disposing of domestic waste in an environmentally friendly manner. Few studies have examined the cadre–farmer relationship and its impact on rural waste pollution. Using a questionnaire survey of farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, this study estimates the effect of cadre–farmer relationship on their willingness to treat domestic waste. The findings indicate that a positive cadre–farmer relationship significantly increases farmers' willingness to treat domestic waste. This positive relationship can also strengthen the positive effects of institutional rules on waste treatment willingness. Further mechanism analysis shows that a good cadre–farmer relationship mobilizes farmers to protect the environment and to comply with national ecological laws and regulations, enhancing their willingness to treat domestic waste. These findings enrich research on rural domestic waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural tourism development has an important impact on optimizing the rural industrial structure and stimulating local economic growth. China's Rural Revitalization Strategy has promoted the development of rural tourism nationwide and emphasized Chinese characteristics in the process of local development. Based on the theoretical analysis of landscape perception, this article uses the external Landscape Perception→Satisfaction→Revisit Intention influence path as a theoretical research framework to construct a structural equation model to analyze the willingness of tourists to revisit rural tourism destinations. We selected Nangou Village, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, as a key model village for rural revitalization, and conducted an empirical analysis. The empirical analysis results show that landscape perception has a significant positive impact on satisfaction and revisit intention. Tourist satisfaction has a significant positive impact on revisit intention and plays an intermediary role between landscape perception and revisit intention. The five dimensions of natural ecology, historical culture, leisure recreation, research experience, and integral route under landscape perception are all significantly positively correlated with revisit intention, with historical culture and integral route having the greatest impact on landscape perception. The survey about Nangou Village verifies the relationship between landscape perception, satisfaction, and tourists' revisit intention. Based on the objective data analysis results, this study puts forward suggestions for optimizing Nangou Village's tourism landscapes and improving tourists' willingness to revisit from three aspects: deeply excavating rural historical and cultural resources, shaping the national red culture brand, and creating rural tourism boutique routes. It is hoped that the quantitative research method of landscape perception theory in Nangou Village can also provide a reference and inspiration for similar rural tourism planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coordinated development of land urbanization and population urbanization is crucial for the advancement of new urbanization. The study applied the entropy weight method and coupling coordination degree model, taking Shaanxi—a province in China characterized by a moderate pace of economic development and volume, along with distinct geographic and demographic features within its region—as the subject. It assessed the coordination conditions of these two types of urbanization from both macro and micro scales during the years 2010–2022. Utilizing the Analytic Network Process (ANP), the study ranked and analyzed the causes of issues stemming from uneven development, thus connecting a crucial link from theoretical analysis to decision-making implementation. The results showed that: (1) The province's land urbanization index was between 0.075 and 0.203, whereas the population urbanization index ranged from 0.221 to 0.408, with the development of the former significantly lagging behind the latter. (2) The coupling degree between land and population urbanization ranged from 0.835 to 0.854, with a coordination degree between 0.148 and 0.306. This indicated that a close connection had been formed between the two, yet a benign coupling relationship had not been established, displaying a spatial distribution characterized by "high in the middle, low in the north and south". (3) The limitation on further urban expansion was identified as the primary issue to be addressed (with a weight of 0.324), followed by insufficient infrastructure (with a weight of 0.261). The extent of ecological environmental damage was comparatively lower (with a weight of 0.225), and the degree of social injustice was the lowest (with a weight of 0.191). Therefore, to alleviate the problems associated with the imbalanced development between land urbanization and population urbanization, measures such as optimizing land spatial layout, enhancing urban ecological service functions, and strengthening the central cities' radiating effect should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's need for energy resources is growing every day. Future energy demands will be partly met by low-temperature pyrolysis of oil-rich coal, which is a form of coal-to-oil technology. Under the existing fully-mechanized coal mining technology, oil-rich coal is mechanically broken into different particle sizes by a shearer and used in different industrial utilization directions. However, due to differences in particle size and material composition, the pyrolysis products of oil-rich coal with different natural particle sizes are different, which affect the pyrolysis efficiency of oil-rich coal with different particle sizes. In order to explore the differences and influencing factors of pyrolysis products of oil-rich coal with different particle sizes, and taking Jurassic oil-rich coal in northern Shaanxi as the research object, the differences and causes of pyrolysis production of oil and gas from nine kinds of oil-rich coal with different natural particle sizes under existing coal mining conditions are discussed according to particle size characteristics, pore structure, heat transfer velocity and molecular structure. The findings demonstrate that the pyrolysis characteristics of coal do not show a single trend with change in particle size. With decrease in particle size, the ash and sulfur contents were relatively high, and the tar yield increased first and then decreased. In contrast, the light fraction decreased overall, and the heavy fraction decreased. The tar yield of 0.125–0.25 mm was the highest, and the tar content was 1.996 g. For the gas components produced by pyrolysis, the contents of CH4, CO and H2 first increased and then decreased with decrease in particle size, while the contents of CO2 and CnHm showed the opposite trend. Larger particles (about 30 mm) affect the escape efficiency of pyrolysis products and the amount of carbon deposition due to the difference in porosity (interparticle resistance) of the inner surface and pyrolysis bed, resulting in secondary reactions of the products escaped from a primary reaction, thus affecting the differences in pyrolysis products. The heat transfer process of coal was affected by particle size, and the thermal conductivity increased gradually with decrease in particle size, which is consistent with the change of tar yield with particle size. The maceral components and molecular structure functional groups in coal with different particle sizes were also different, which resulted in the differences in tar yield. Studies have shown that smaller particle sizes have longer alkyl side chains, and pyrolysis accompanied by rising temperature causes different changes in the aliphatic hydrocarbon content in coal coke after pyrolysis. The aliphatic hydrocarbon content decreased the most when the particle size was 0.125 mm, which is more beneficial to the improvement of tar yield. In addition, vitrinite is a good carrier of tar yield, and the granular coal vitrinite after crushing is enriched to smaller particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbially mediated carbon cycling is essential for the production of refractory dissolved organic carbon and subsequent formation of stable carbon sinks at the sediment–water interface (SWI) in aquatic ecosystems, such as lakes. It remains unclear how this process is influenced by hydrostatic pressure changes due to water level fluctuation in deep-water reservoirs. Here, a microcosm simulation experiment was carried out to decipher the response of microbially mediated carbon cycling to various hydrostatic pressures (i.e., 0.1 MPa [atmospheric pressure], 0.2 MPa, 0.5 MPa, 0.7 MPa) at the SWI in Jinpen Reservoir, Shaanxi Province, China. The response mechanisms of microbial community structure, functional gene abundance, and metabolic pathway activity associated with carbon cycling were explored by metagenomics and metabolomics. Results showed that the number of microbial species in sediment samples increased with elevating pressure. The relative abundance of archaea also increased from 0.2% to 0.4% as a consequence of pressure elevation, accompanied by 0.17% and 0.03% decrease in bacteria and fungi, respectively. In contrast with low pressures, high pressures allowed the microbial communities to form a more closely connected network, which maintained more complex interspecies interactions and greater system stability. High pressures additionally improved the abundances of specific functional genes (e.g., ALDO, ACO, sdhA, and sdhC) in carbon metabolic pathways, promoted carbon fixation by the reductive pentose phosphate (Calvin) and citrate cycles, and hindered methanogenesis. Piezophilic taxa (e.g., Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes) and genes (e.g., ompH, asd) were identified among carbon cycling-associated microbial communities. The piezophilic genes, which were mainly present in the Proteobacteria phylum, increased first and then decreased in abundance with elevating pressure. The findings indicate that elevated hydrostatic pressure contributes to carbon sequestration at the SWI in deep-water reservoirs by changing carbon cycling-associated microbial species, as well as relevant functional genes and metabolic pathways. Highlights: • Metagenomics and metabolomics unravel microbial mechanisms of C cycling at the sediment–water interface of reservoirs • Distinct microbes contribute to C cycling, with improved community stability at high hydrostatic pressures • Elevated pressure leads to enrichment of specific functional genes and metabolites in C fixation pathways • Elevated pressure enhances the potential for microbially mediated C sequestration at the interface [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Jingyang tableland, located in Shaanxi Province, China, is composed of loess deposits. Agricultural irrigation in this area has caused the continuous rise of the groundwater table, which triggered a series of loess landslides. Although extensive research has been conducted on the effect of rising groundwater tables on induced loess landslides, less is known about the groundwater table distribution. This study jointly investigated the distribution of the groundwater table in the South Jingyang tableland using boreholes, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and laboratory tests. A qualitative analysis between the apparent resistivity and the water content was estimated at different depths, using the borehole data and ERT inversion data. A quantitative relationship between the resistivity and the water content was established in the laboratory tests. A combination of the qualitative analysis of the inversion results and the quantitative relationship was used to determine the distribution of the groundwater table. The groundwater table is present at the depth where the water content of the loess is 30% (liquid limit of loess) and the resistivity is 28.35 Ω m. The groundwater table elevation in the southern study area is higher than that of the northern study area and decreases in a stepwise gradient from south to north. This study not only identified the distribution of the groundwater table in the South Jingyang tableland, but also makes up for the limitation and inaccuracy in determining groundwater tables by relying solely on the borehole information or inversion results of ERT. The ascertained distribution characteristics of the groundwater table provides a basis for the analysis of the formation mechanism of landslides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural technology adoption is an important way to improve agricultural technology and production efficiency and promote agricultural modernization. However, the low willingness to adopt agricultural technologies has been a challenge in China. Cognitive load may affect smallholder farmers' decision to adopt new technologies. Using an experimental economics approach, we examine the effect of cognitive load on smallholder farmers' willingness to adopt technology from a cognitive perspective based on a field experiment with 440 smallholder farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, in 2021 and 2022. The experimental results show that cognitive load has a significant negative effect on farmers' willingness to adopt technology, and the higher the level of cognitive load, the lower the farmers' willingness to adopt the technology. From the mechanism of action, cognitive load influences smallholder farmers' technology adoption intention by consuming their attention. In addition, cognitive ability, technology training, and government subsidies had heterogeneous effects on cognitive load affecting farmers' willingness to adopt new technologies, i.e., the cognitive load had less inhibitory effects on technology adoption willingness of smallholder farmers who has the high cognitive ability, participated in technology training and received government subsidies. Therefore, in the context of rural revitalization, the Chinese government should pay attention to the influence of farmers' cognitive mechanism on their willingness to adopt agricultural technologies, improve their cognitive ability, provide more technical training guidance, and provide targeted subsidies, to guide farmers to actively adopt new technologies and get rid of the "poverty trap". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rapid economic development and urbanization in China, rural wastewater treatment has become an important issue. This study investigated 63 rural sewage treatment stations in northern, central and southern Shaanxi, China for a 1-year period, 2021 to 2022. The main purpose of the research was to investigate the quality and discharge characteristics of rural sewage, along with current problems in rural wastewater treatment, in order to provide evidence for the optimal construction and operation of rural sewage treatment stations. We found that the biodegradability of rural wastewater is adequate, and BOD5/COD ratio in sewage was 0.4, which is suitable for biological treatment. It has obvious intermittent flow cut-off characteristics, and the range of cut-off duration of sewage was 6–16 h/d, which leads to poor pollutant removal efficiency (COD: 50.0 ± 29.2%, NH4+-N: 46.0 ± 26.1%, TN: 38.5 ± 24.9% and TP: 38.3 ± 23.8%) in sewage treatment stations. In response to the above characteristics, the rural sewage biologically enhanced internal circulation treatment (BEICT) system was constructed. After 97 days of operation, the system has a stable removal effect on TN and TP with an average removal rate of 77.42% and 89.69%, respectively, under the condition of influent interruption for 12 h per day. The activated sludge of system maintained good activity and stable sedimentation performance during the whole experiment, with MLVSS/MLSS and SVI of 0.72 and 128 mL/g, respectively. This study can provide the basis and technical support for the accurate design of rural sewage treatment facilities, and has important significance for guiding the treatment of rural domestic sewage in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods to examine urban poverty in China's state-owned enterprise communities where laid-off workers concentrate. A sequential explanatory model using interviews, Participatory Poverty Assessments and a community household survey on textile and military industries in Shaanxi Province of north-western China shows that low-income households suffered multidimensional disadvantages. Qualitative techniques have helped to reveal the hidden aspects of poverty while statistical tools have captured holistic information on the communities. These approaches together (Q-squared) consider both the outsiders' and insiders' views on the laid-off poor and benefit the making of effective anti-poverty policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water resource structure is one of the most important factors that constrain the economic development in arid–semiarid areas. Sustainable use of water requires a thorough understanding of the local geology and hydrology and developing of effective protection strategies. Discussed in this paper is a study on the phreatic water quality of the Yuxi River Valley of Shaanxi Province, China. The Yuxi River Valley passes through the Shaanbei energy base, which demands large quantities of high-quality water. A total of 129 water samples were collected in 4,938 km2 in a recent study to delineate the areas with water suitable for drinking, industrial, and agricultural usage and areas with poor quality. The study indicates that the poor quality of water contains high concentrations of NH4+ and NO, indicating possible contamination by waste disposal in the nearby cities and towns. A series of strategies are proposed to protect the water in the Yuxi River Valley, including proper treatment and recycling of the waste water in the cities and towns, strict control of the waste-water discharge from any new factories and mines, and prevention of groundwater contamination by wastes containing heavy metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ankang black shales in P. R. of China provides an important example of natural geological materials containing toxic elements. This paper presents the results of environmental geochemical research on black shales, soils, waters and edible plants in the Ankang area, Shaanxi Province, P. R. of China. The study area lies in the northern margin of the Yangtze Platform; there are black shales which contains black shale, carbonaceous rocks and coal in the Cambrian Donghe Formation throughout the area. Mean trace element concentrations of the coal were high. Soils derived from these rocks tend to reflect their extreme geochemical composition. Chemical analysis of common plant species in the Ankang area showed a heterogeneous distribution of Se, Mo, and V within a single and among plant species. Selenium was more concentrated in radish than in legumes, and in potato more than in green vegetable. High V concentrations were found in two kinds of Chinese tea. Legume had more Mo in the seed than potato, although Mo concentrations in radish vary. Higher concentrations of Se and Mo are present in the leaf of radish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the effect of air masses on the distribution of artificial radionuclides on both sides of the mountain range, Pu and 137Cs in forest soils of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi Province were determined for the first time. The 239+240Pu and 137Cs activity concentrations ranged from 0.001 ± 0.001 to 0.501 ± 0.031 Bq/kg and 0.27 ± 0.06 to 7.82 ± 0.34 Bq/kg, respectively. The 240Pu/239Pu atom ratios in samples ranged from 0.160 ± 0.024 to 0.218 ± 0.037 with an average value of 0.188 ± 0.014, indicated that Pu isotopes from the Qinling Mountains mainly came from global fallout. The results of this research add the 239+240Pu activity concentrations and 240Pu/239Pu atom ratio of the Qinling Mountains, the atmospheric circulation in the Qinling Mountains did not significantly affect the Pu content. Also, it provides significant data on the radioactivity of Chinese soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Inherent spatial variability of properties of loess deposit along depth direction plays important roles in soil reclamation, agricultural irrigation, and risk assessment and management of geo-hazards on the Loess Plateau. This study aims to develop a database for loess deposit properties in Shaanxi Province first, followed by evaluating and reporting comprehensively the abovementioned spatial variability along depth. Materials and methods: A comprehensive literature review and numerous laboratory tests were conducted for 37, 81, and 177 loess profiles respectively for sandy, silty, and clayey loess to examine their properties in Shaanxi Province, China. For each property collected in the database, the means, coefficients of variation (COV), most suitable probability distribution functions, and spatial correlation lengths along the depth direction were evaluated and reported. Results and discussion: The physical and index properties and strength properties of the three loess soil generally exhibit relatively low variabilities with a mean COV of less than 20.0% in most cases. In contrast, the deformation properties exhibit medium to high variabilities with a mean COV varying from roughly 27.0 to 85.0%. For all of these properties mentioned above, the spatial correlation length along depth was estimated to be approximately 3 ~ 8 m. Conclusions: (1) The COV of loess properties at one site can be significantly different from that at other sites. Thus, the site-specific variabilities of loess deposit properties shall be considered in geological design and analysis. (2) When site-specific data of properties for loess deposits are not available for on-going geological/geotechnical projects, the typical ranges of loess properties obtained in this study, including their statistics and correlation lengths, can be used as guidelines for approximation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the prevalence of allergic diseases has increased significantly, causing great concern, and wheat, as one of the top 8 food allergens, is a common allergy trigger. Nevertheless, reliable estimates of the positivity rate of wheat allergens in the allergic population in China are still lacking. The systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the positive detection rate of wheat allergens in the Chinese allergic population and further provide a reference for the prevention of allergy. CNKI, CQVIP, WAN-FANG DATA, Sino Med, PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases were retrieved. Related research and case reports about the positive rate of wheat allergen in the Chinese allergic population published from inception to June 30, 2022, were searched, and meta-analysis was performed using Stata software. The pooled positive rate of wheat allergens and 95% confidence interval were calculated by random effect models, and the publication bias was evaluated using Egger's test. A total of 13 articles were included for the final meta-analysis, in which wheat allergen detection methods involved only serum sIgE testing and SPT assessment. The results showed that the wheat allergen positivity detection rate in Chinese allergic patients was 7.30% (95% CI 5.68–8.92%). Subgroup analysis showed that the positivity rate of wheat allergens was influenced by region, but hardly by age and assessment method. The positive rates of wheat allergy in the population with allergic diseases were 2.74% (95% CI 0.90–4.58%) and 11.47% (95% CI 7.08–15.87%) in southern and northern China, respectively. In particular, the positive rates of wheat allergens were greater than 10% in Shaanxi, Henan and Nei Mongol, all of which belong to the northern region. These results suggest that wheat allergens are an important cause of sensitization in allergic populations from northern China, and therefore attention should be paid to early prevention in high-risk populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of green and smart mine construction under the context of carbon neutrality, China's coal safety situation has been continuously improved in recent years. In order to recognize the development of coal production in China and prepare for future monitoring and prevention of safety incidents, this study mainly elaborated on the basic situation of coal resources and national mining accidents over the past five years (2017–2021), from four dimensions (accident level, type, region, and time), and then proposed the preventive measures based on accident statistical laws. The results show that the storage of coal resources has obvious geographic characteristics, mainly concentrated in the Midwest, with coal resources in Shanxi and Shaanxi accounting for about 49.4%. The proportion of coal consumption has dropped from 70.2% to 56% between 2011 and 2021, but still accounts for more than half of the all. Meanwhile, the accident-prone areas are positively correlated with the amount of coal production. Among different levels of coal mine accidents, general accidents had the highest number of accidents and deaths, with 692 accidents and 783 deaths, accounting for 87.6% and 54.64% respectively. The frequency of roof, gas, and transportation accidents is relatively high, and the number of single fatalities caused by gas accidents is the largest, about 4.18. In terms of geographical distribution of accidents, the safety situation in Shanxi Province is the most severe. From the time distribution of coal mine accidents, the accidents mainly occurred in July and August, and rarely occurred in February and December. Finally, the "4 + 4" safety management model is proposed, combining the statistical results with coal production in China. Based on the existing health and safety management systems, the managements are divided into four sub-categories, and more specific measures are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural irrigation of the South Jingyang tableland in Shaanxi Province, China has led to a continuous rise of the groundwater level and has triggered a series of loess landslides, thereby seriously affecting the life and property safety of local residents. Research shows that the major cause of the landslide in the loess layer of the South Jingyang tableland is the rising groundwater level. Therefore, the research on the formation mechanism of landslide in this area should include the investigation of the stratigraphic structure and groundwater level distribution characteristics. On this basis, a series of approaches, such as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), borehole, and laboratory tests, was carried out on the South Jingyang tableland, and the groundwater level distribution and stratigraphic structure in the study area were determined. The qualitative relationship between resistivity value and water content at different depths was detected using the inversion results of ERT and borehole data. Through laboratory tests, the quantitative relationship between resistivity values under different water contents was established. The precise depth of the groundwater level was inferred by connecting the qualitative relationship with the quantitative relationship, and then a detailed 3D geological model was established by linking the inversion results of ERT with the field borehole lithology data and geological survey data. The detection results show that when the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the ERT inversion results were combined, the distribution of the groundwater level was accurately judged. The ERT is effective in reflecting the stratigraphic structure and hydrological characteristics of the Loess Plateau, and its potential as a supplementary technology for detecting the groundwater level is reasonable. This study addresses the limitation and inaccuracy in determining the stratum structure and groundwater level by solely relying on borehole information or ERT. The established 3D geological model not only provides a basis for the study of groundwater table fluctuation, but also a technical guidance for the stability evaluation of loess slope, landslide prediction, and early warning in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous combustion of coal seams can produce a high temperature of about 800 ℃, which greatly changes the thermal conductivity of the overlying loess layer. The thermal conductivity of loess plays an important role in ecological restoration design and the calculation of roadbed and slope stability. In this study, loess in northern Shaanxi, China was taken as the research object to measure the mass-loss rate and heat conduction parameters of loess specimens after high temperature. The test results show that, between 23 and 900 °C, with temperature increasing, the mass-loss rate is reduced. And the heat conduction coefficient (λ), specific heat capacity (c), and thermal diffusion coefficient (α) decreased by 48.9%, 23.1%, and 35.6%. This is due to the air thermal resistance effect caused by the increase of pores and cracks in loess specimens after high temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treatment of agricultural waste plays an important role in the sustainability of agricultural production and the well-being of rural communities. The present study analyzes the existing sources of agricultural waste in rural communities, their current disposal, and the farmers' attitudes towards waste management. The data is based on a survey in 21 communities in agricultural areas in Shaanxi (N = 359 farmers interviewed). The results provide a description of the main agricultural waste in the region based on empirical data. The responses highlight the farmers' experience, reputation, and engagement at recycling domestic waste as the main variables shaping their attitudes towards agricultural waste disposal. Farmers prefer treating primarily biowaste, mostly used for biogas generation or crop fertilizer at the farms. Improving waste management facilities, accessibility and economic incentives are identified as the main factors that could increase recycling rates, as well as the importance of training campaigns and instructions related to waste handling and recycling. The analysis captured the general trends in agricultural waste treatment and future directions and provides a basis for better designing waste and management alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the pressure of water shortages, coal mine water has been allocated as a national water resource in China. However, the existence of harmful trace elements (HTEs) in coal mine water causes environmental risks and health concerns over its reuse. Through a lixiviation experiment, the dominant factors affecting the dissolution of HTEs in coal were simulated and analyzed, and the environmental risks of HTEs in coal mine water in China were evaluated for the first time. The average dissolved content levels of HTEs from coal were Mn > Cu > Zn > Ni > Ba > Cr > Co > V > Mo > Se > U > Pb > Cd, and the average maximum dissolution rates were Ni > Co > Mo > Zn > Cu > Cd > Mn > Se > Ba > Cr > U > Pb > V. Oxidation–reduction potential (Eh) and pH are the dominant factors controlling HTE dissolution. Higher oxygen exposure levels induce Eh and pH development, resulting in more HTE dissolution. This study constructed the dissolution potential index (FC) of HTEs from coal. Based on the results of the FC model, the areas with the highest migration potential and environmental risk of HTEs from coal seams to mine water are located in southern China, especially in the southwest, followed by areas of eastern Inner Mongolia and Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. The corresponding risks in other regions are relatively low; thus, mine water utilization remains an effective option. This study provides an effective reference for the analysis of HTE enrichment in coal mine water and an evaluation of its safe utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the influence of natural weathering on the mineralogical, physical, and chemical properties of molybdenum tailings from Shaanxi Province, China, stored at different stacking ages. The results showed that the mineralogical and chemical compositions of the molybdenum tailings remained stable after stacking for different years. The analysis of bulk density, porosity, field moisture capacity, and aggregate characteristics indicated that the physical structure of the molybdenum tailings was similar to a nearby soil with increasing stacking age in spite of a time-consuming process. In addition, 10 years of the natural weathering process resulted in the formation of more aggregates with the surface of microaggregates roughened, and displayed more debris and fine particles than stocking for 1 year. The findings showed that the bulk density of molybdenum tailings reduced from 1.45 to 1.42 g/cm3 after 10 years of storage, while its porosity rose from 46.5 to 49.4%. The fraction of large aggregate (> 0.25 mm) and mean weight diameter increased from 7.91 to 42.07% and from 0.1482 to 0.1864 mm, respectively, which demonstrated that the natural weathering significantly improved the physical properties of the aggregate and enhanced the structural stability. Thus, natural weathering provides an ecological basis for restoring and reconstructing the soil ecosystem in molybdenum tailings. The results confirmed that long-term deposition can improve the soil structure of tailings, which provides a reference for further research on restoring and reconstructing the soil ecosystem in molybdenum tailings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]