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• Anodic oxidation coating's cracking causes a severe substrate stress concentration. • Sealing weakens anodic oxidation coating's cracking resistance during fatigue tests. • Prior shot peening enhances the fatigue property of anodic oxidation coated specimen. In this study, the effects of sealing and prior shot peening treatments on the fatigue behavior of the sulphuric acid anodic oxidation coated 6082-T6 aluminium alloy were investigated. Experimental results indicate that the preferential fracture of anodic oxidation coatings due to its higher brittleness and lower fracture toughness as well as the stress concentration of near-interface substrate caused by the interface cyclic dislocation accumulation could cause the fatigue failure of anodic oxidation coated specimens. Consequently, the fatigue property of anodic oxidation coated specimens notably decreases compared to as-machined specimens, with a decrease of 26.7 % in the fatigue limit corresponding to 2 × 107 fatigue cycles. Additionally, the sealing treatment introduces numerous cracks that penetrate the coating entirely, diminishing the coating's resistance to cracking under fatigue loading; this alteration changes the fatigue failure mechanism of anodic oxidation coated specimens, ultimately resulting in a decrease of 15.5 % in the fatigue limit of anodic oxidation coated specimens. Despite exacerbating the surface integrity and increasing the surface roughness of anodic oxidation coated specimens, the prior shot peening treatment increases the fatigue limit of anodic oxidation coated specimens by 82.8 % since the affecting layer beneath the interface plays a crucial role in inhibiting the further propagation of coating cracks into the substrate as well as the crack propagation in the substrate beneath the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the frequency and intensity of exposure to heat stress have increased gradually, seriously hampering the production of maize. This paper presents a study designed to analyze how the development, physiology and dispersal of pollen from the heat‐resistant maize variety Zhengdan958 and the heat‐sensitive maize variety Xianyu335 are affected by exposure to heat stress during the tasselling stage. Our results showed That exposure to heat stress significantly increased the antioxidant enzyme activity in pollen. Upon visual inspection of the pollen, we found that the lower water content had given rise to wrinkles in the pollen surface, sunken germination pores, and morphological deformations. In addition, the anther dehiscence process was hindered, resulting in a reduced amount of pollen being dispersed. We also found elevated levels of abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and its derivatives, indole acetic acid (IAA) and gibberellin‐3 (GA3) in heat‐pollens, as well as elevated ratios of IAA to ABA and ABA to GA3. Ultimately impaired pollen fertility. Summarizing, our experiment revealed that reduced pollen quantity and quality are significant contributors to fertility losses in summer maize exposed to heat stress at anthesis, and we hope that our analysis of the physiological mechanisms involved can contribute to the development of crop management measures aimed at countering the increasingly detrimental effects of heat stress on the production of summer maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greenhouse effect caused by global warming was becoming more and more obvious, resulting in increased frequency of high temperature and high humidity, which significantly affected maize productivity. However, it was poorly understood how the interactions of high temperature and high humidity affected leaf senescence, photosynthetic performance and yield of summer maize. Three stress treatments including (a) high temperature stress (T), (b) waterlogging stress (W) and (c) complex stress (T‐W) were set at the third leaf stage (V3), the sixth leaf stage (V6) and the tasselling stage (VT) in 2019–2020 to explore the influence mechanism of complex stress. Each stress treatment period lasted 6 days. Non‐stressed plants served as control. Yield, antioxidant enzyme activity, photosynthetic characteristics, and dry matter accumulation were determined. Our study found that the activity of antioxidant enzymes was significantly decreased, while malonyldialdehyde (MDA) accumulation was increased under each stress treatment. As a result, the photosynthetic characteristics were impaired, manifested in a significant decrease in net photosynthetic rate (Pn), enzyme activities of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) and ribulose diphosphate carboxylase (RUBPCase). The decrease in photosynthetic intensity affected by each stress treatment led to a significant decrease in total dry matter accumulation and grain yield. The most significant effects of waterlogging and combined stresses on yield occurred at the V3 stage, followed by the V6 and VT stages. However, the most significant effects of high temperature occurred at the VT stage, followed by the V6 and V3 stages. Moreover, the compound stress exacerbated damage to leaf senescence and photosynthetic properties of summer maize compared to the single stress of high temperature or waterlogging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cause and consequence analysis for industrial hot work is conducted. • The ABT model and PN are integrated to analyze hot work accident evolution. • An improved regional center method is developed to obtain crisp evaluation value. • Data fitting is performed for probability calculation. Hot work poses great hazards to industrial operation site. Although regulatory and guidance exist, accidents caused by hot work continue to occur. Risk assessment has proved to be an effective method for risk control. However, current studies paid less attention to the evolution process of industrial hot work accidents and the quantitative risk assessment seems to be insufficient. In this context, we aimed to perform comprehensive risk evolution analysis and quantitative risk assessment of hot work using adaptive bow tie (ABT) and Petri nets (PNs). The ABT model is improved to analyze deep causes, consequences, and their relationships. PNs are employed to conduct quantitative risk assessment. To address uncertainties, the triangular membership function and improved regional center method are proposed to calculate the confidences of all places and transitions in the PNs. The probabilities are finally obtained by data fitting method. The study found that the most likely consequence of hot work accident is near miss. The results also indicate that hot work accident prevention measures should emphasize on the isolation of workplace, combustible gases test, removal of combustible substances, job organization, and job training. Besides, emergency devices maintenance and emergency drilling are critical to prevent accidents from expanding. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It's well known that the development and distribution of roots could be regulated to obtain deep soil resource and enhance the grain yield by increasing the depth of fertilization, but little is known about whether increasing P fertilization depth can optimize the root distribution to delay leaf senescence, enhance photosynthetic performance and root-shoot coordination or not. We conducted a field experiment that tested the following four placement depths of P fertilization: 5 cm (P 5), 10 cm (P 10), 15 cm (P 15), and 20 cm (P 20). The experiment was designed to explore the regulatory effects of the P fertilization depth on the root growth and distribution, the photosynthetic performance, the root-shoot coordination, the yield formation, the N and P fertilizer utilization of maize plants. We found that deep P placement did indeed alter the root parameters. In the 20–60 cm soil layer, both the root dry weight and length of P 15 treatment were on average 23.2% higher than those of P 5 treatment. The specific root length and specific root surface area of P 15 treatment were 4.5% and 5.6% higher than those of P 5 treatment. In addition, the P 15 treatment achieved a significantly improved photosynthetic performance over the P 5 treatment: The leaf area index at the R6 stage was 10.2% higher, the leaf senescence index from the R2 to the R6 stages was 31.4% lower, the photosynthetic rate at the R3 stage was 25.9% higher. The P placement depth also optimized the root-shoot coordination: The ratios of root weight to shoot weight, root surface area to leaf area, and root length to leaf area of P 15 treatment were 6.7%, 13.8%, and 12.7% higher than those of P 5 treatment, respectively. Finally, the root P and N uptake efficiency, the photosynthetic P-use efficiency, and the physiological P-use efficiency of P 15 treatment were all significantly higher than those of P 5 treatments. And together these responses had the effect of increasing the mature biomass by 12.5%, and the grain yield by 22.0%. In conclusion, increasing the P fertilization placement depth to 15 cm regulates the growth and development of the root system, which in turn improves the capability of plant to uptake and utilize N and P in the soil, delays the onset of leaf senescence, enhances its photosynthetic performance and biomass accumulation rate, and thus ultimately increases the yield. [Display omitted] • Deep P fertilization optimizes root growth, and root-shoot coordination. • Deep P fertilization delays leaf senescence and improves photosynthetic performance. • Optimized root-shoot coordination improves the grain yield and nutrient use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Vanadium addition causes an increase in both yield strength and yield ratio. • Vanadium addition reduces strain hardening ability, and weakens wear resistance. • RCF crack initiation of V-alloyed stee is delayed by increasing yield strength. • RCF crack growth size is restricted by reducing plastic deformation capacity. • Increasing yield ratio improves RCF resistance, but weakens wear resistance. This study aims to evaluate the effect of vanadium microalloying on rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and wear behavior of railway wheel steels. It involves microstructural analysis and mechanical testing, including hardness, tensile, and rolling/sliding tests on the test steels, followed by electron backscatter diffraction, residual stress, and microhardness analyses after rolling/sliding tests. The findings demonstrate that vanadium microalloying leads to the alleviation of dynamic recrystallization, strain hardening, and compressive residual stress within the outermost layer beneath the worn surface, indicating a reduction in the plastic deformation capacity during dry rolling/sliding conditions. RCF resistance of railway steel can be enhanced through vanadium microalloying, as it simultaneously delays crack initiation by increasing yield strength and restricts crack growth by reducing plastic deformation capacity. While vanadium microalloying enhances the matrix hardness of wheel steel, it concurrently diminishes its strain hardening ability, potentially compromising its wear resistance. In addition, this study found that the yield ratio, being indicative of plastic deformation capacity and strain hardening ability, can serve as a suitable parameter for characterizing the RCF and wear resistances of tested steels. It exhibits a positive correlation with RCF resistance and a negative correlation with wear resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the extensive promotion of controlled-release urea (CRU), its N-release pattern has been shown to match the crop's N-demand period and improve crop yield by reducing N losses. Nevertheless, the impacts of CRU on summer maize yield, especially on greenhouse gas emissions, have rarely been reported during its long-term use. It is necessary through long-term positioning field experiment with CRU application to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of maize yield formation, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), ammonia volatilization and greenhouse gas emissions. The long-term fertilizer positioning experiment for ten years, four treatments were performed: polymeric-coated controlled-release urea (CRF, 42% N, 3-months controlled-release period), sulfur-coated controlled-release urea (SCF, 35% N, 3-months controlled-release period), common urea (CCF, 46% N) and no nitrogen fertilizer (CK). Results showed that the two coated controlled-release fertilizers significantly increased NUE and dry matter accumulation in summer maize, and ultimately improved grain yield. Compared to CCF, CRF and SCF treatments increased post-silking dry matter accumulation by 16.3% and 13.3%; NUE by 42.3% and 28.9%. The 2-year mean grain yield of CRF and SCF treatment increased 9.0% and 12.4% compared to CCF treatment. CRF treatment significantly increased the NO 3 --N content in 0–60 cm soil layer; while CRF and SCF treatments showed a significantly higher NH 4 +-N concentration in the 0–20 cm soil layer than CCF treatment. Compared to CCF treatment, the CRF and SCF treatments significantly reduced peak ammonia volatilization, and the average cumulative emissions of ammonia volatilization of two years were reduced by 80.8% and 53.2%, respectively. CRF treatment had lower peak of N 2 O emissions but longer N 2 O emission duration than other N application treatments. The two-year average cumulative N 2 O emissions from CRF treatment increased by 49.6%, and SCF treatment increased by 61.1% compared to CCF treatment. Compared to CK treatment, total cumulative CH 4 uptake was 36.1% lower in CRF treatment, 60.9% in SCF and 78.9% in CCF treatment. The higher cumulative N 2 O emissions from CRF and SCF treatment resulted in a significantly higher global warming potential (GWP) than CCF treatment. The two-year mean increase in greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) was 36.2% for CRF treatment and 44.7% for SCF treatment compared to CCF treatment. Long-term application of coated controlled-release fertilizers could achieve high yields and nitrogen use efficiency. However, there is a risk of increased N 2 O emissions, causing elevated GHGI. In the future, it is necessary to strengthen the research on the comprehensive effects of long-term reduced application of CRU on crop yield and greenhouse gas emissions, in order to promote the wide application of environmentally friendly CRU in the field. [Display omitted] • Long-term application of CRU could achieve sustainable crop yield improvement. • Long-term application of CRU significantly reduced ammonia volatilization and CH 4 emissions. • Long-term application of CRU carried the risk of increased N 2 O emissions, leading to higher GHGI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The preferentially dissolved ferrite in pearlite and shedding of cementite lamellae contribute to the formation of corrosion pits. • Corrosion fatigue crack initiation and growth mechanism of U75V rail steel is clarified. • Corrosion fatigue crack initiation behavior is related to morphology ratio and local shape of corrosion pits. Understanding the corrosion fatigue mechanism of rail materials is of great importance to guide the assessment of the structural integrity of modern railway components. To this purpose, the corrosion fatigue crack (CFC) initiation and growth behaviors of heat-treated U75V rail steel are investigated under 3.5 wt% NaCl solution in terms of high-cycle fatigue, fatigue crack growth (FCG) rate, together with surface morphology and microstructure. Experimental results reveal that the U75V rail steel is susceptible to corrosion fatigue failure. Examinations on fractured samples clearly show that the electric potential difference between ferrite and cementite triggers the preferential anodic dissolution of ferrite, leading to corrosion fatigue crack initiation. The crack initiation is not only solely determined by the size of the corrosion pit, but also strongly influenced by its local shape. In comparison with the fatigue crack growth in air, the corrosion FCG tends to grow in a relatively straight path, because of hydrogen embrittlement. Additionally, the CFC behaviors indicate a tendency to transverse through soft-oriented grains and deflect upon encountering hard-oriented grains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]