Search

Amphiphilic aromatic poly (amino acids) polymers were designed as biodegradability demulsifiers with higher aromaticity, stronger polarity, and side chain-like combs. The effects of demulsifier dosage, structural characteristics and emulsion properties such as pH, salinity, and oil content on the demulsification efficiency were investigated. The results show that the poly (L-glutamic-benzyl ester)-block-poly (L-phenylalanine) (PBLG 15 - b -PPA 15) as the demulsifier can remove more than 99.97% of the oil in a 5.0 wt% oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion at room temperature within 2 min. The poly (L-tyrosine)-block-poly (L-phenylalanine) (PTyr 15 - b -PPA 15) with environmental durability demonstrates high effectiveness, universality, and demulsification speed. It achieves a remarkable demulsification efficiency of up to 99.99% for a 20.0 wt% O/W emulsion at room temperature. The demulsification mechanism indicates that demulsifiers have sufficient interfacial activity can quickly migrate to the oil-water interface after being added to the emulsions. Additionally, when demulsifiers are present in a continuous phase in the molecular form, their "teeth" side chains are beneficial for increasing coalescence and flocculation capacities. Furthermore, according to the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, enhancing the intermolecular interactions between demulsifiers and the primary native surfactants that form an oil-water interfacial film is a more efficient approach to reducing demulsification temperature and improving demulsification efficiency and rate. [Display omitted] • Proposed a strategy for developing a low-temperature oil-in-water demulsifier. • Improving the polarity and aromaticity of demulsifiers enhances their performance. • Aromatic poly (amino acids) demulsifiers perform well at low temperatures. • The intermolecular interactions determine the deoiling temperature and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, building energy consumption accounts for a considerable proportion of the world's energy consumption, e.g., 35 % in China, which has become a key concern with its rising proportion. Accurate prediction of building hourly energy consumption is key to realizing green, low-carbon, and energy-saving modern buildings. However, most of the current prediction methods are only based on dynamic data from IoT (Internet of Things) systems that may contain a large number of outliers, resulting in lower accuracy and reliability. To solve this problem, with the help of rich data provided by BIM (Building Information Modelling), we propose an approach named dynamic and static hybrid data analysis (D&S-HDA) that can provide a solution with better prediction accuracy. Technically, the novelties of D&S-HDA are fourfold. Firstly, we establish the D&S-HDA framework to obtain more accurate prediction outcomes, where the electricity consumption prediction results based on dynamic data analysis are weighted with the estimation values based on static data analysis. Secondly, in the dimension of dynamic data analysis, we design an improved temporal convolutional networks (TCNs) for parallelly outputting dynamic data samples to make the prediction results more intuitive. Thirdly, in the dimension of static data analysis, a novel concept of building hourly power consumption coefficient(BHPCC) is proposed, and its calculation method using static data analysis is designed to estimate hourly electricity consumption. Finally, in order to validate the effectiveness of our D&S-HDA approach, we design multidimensional evaluation metrics and conduct multi-group comparative experiments under different conditions, including climate models, electricity usage behaviour and time scales. The experimental results reveal that the proposed D&S-HDA approach outperforms current mainstream works in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), with values of 1.5248, 1.0693 and 2.9505, respectively, which shows the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed D&S-HDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panax notoginseng cultivation planting conditions are harsh and require high soil moisture and slope of cultivated land, plus it takes 3–7 years from planting to harvesting. At present, the continuous crop barrier of Panax notoginseng has not been solved, which makes the arable land suitable for planting significantly reduced. And yet, there is almost no report on the impact of coupling water and slope on the growth of Panax notoginseng. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of different irrigation levels and slopes on soil water content (SWC) in the root zone, soil nutrient content, root characteristics, yield, water use efficiency (WUE), partial fertilizer productivity (PFP) and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng. During 2018–2020, a field experiment was conducted in the Panax notoginseng growing seasons with three irrigation levels (I 1 : 70–75% θ FC , I 2 : 75–80% θ FC , I 3 : 80–85% θ FC) and three slopes (S 1 : 2.43°, S 2 : 6.38°, S 3 : 16.38°). The results evidenced that soil water and nutrient content increased with increasing irrigation and decreased with increasing slope. The yield of Panax notoginseng , root morphological characteristics, WUE, PFP, and economic benefits showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing with the increase of irrigation amount and slope, which increased with the increase of planting years. These parameters reached their maximum at the irrigation I 2 (75–80% θ FC) and slope S 2 (6.38°) treatments. Thus, based on the results of this study, medium irrigation I 2 (75–80% θ FC) and slope S 2 (6.38°) should be considered as the best slope and water management strategy to obtain both high Panax notoginseng yield and economic benefits. Through establishing a multi-objective optimization model with binary quadratic regression analysis. It was indicated that Panax notoginseng yield, WUE, PFP, and economic benefits simultaneously reached ≥ 98% of their maximum values when irrigation interval was 152–193 mm and slope interval was 5.4–9°. In summary, the results obtained in this study have important practical significance for the water management of Panax notoginseng cultivation in slope farmland in Yunnan Province, China. [Display omitted] • Water regulation technology for Panax notoginseng cultivation on sloping land was proposed. • Soil nutrient content and Soil water content gradually decreases with increasing slope. • I 2 S 2 treatment obtain maximum yield and economic efficiency. • Irrigation interval of 152-193 mm and slope interval of 5.4-9° determined to make yield, economic benefits, PFP and WUE reach ≥ 98% maximum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a challenge to improve Panax notoginseng production and soil environment in arid area of Southwest China. Therefore, the objective of this study was to propose a new and promising alternate micro-sprinkler irrigation (D 2) to cope with the challenge based on moderate deficit micro-sprinkler irrigation (D 1) and slight deficit micro-sprinkler irrigation (D 3). A two-year greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the root rot incidence of Panax notoginseng among of the D 1 , D 2 and D 3 treatments by analyzing the soil water content (SWC), soil microbial biomass carbon (SMBC), nitrogen (SMBN), total phosphorus (TP) and total potassium (TK), soil available nutrients(AN, AP and AK), soil enzyme activity, soil microbial structure, plant growth parameters, plant dry matter, nutrients uptake (N, P and K), and root rot incidence. Experiment treatments consisted of three irrigation amounts (D 1 , D 2 and D 3) and four organic fertilizer levels [500 (F 1), 1000 (F 2), 1500 (F 3), and 2000 (F 4) kg hm−2] in 2017 and 2018, respectively. All treatments were designed using a randomized complete block with three replications. The results indicated that no significant differences in growth parameters [PH (plant height), SD (stem diameter), and LAI (leaf area index)] of Panax notoginseng were found among of the D 1 , D 2 and D 3 treatments in 2017 and 2018. Compared with the D 1 and D 3 , the D 2 treatment significantly increased shoot dry weight (SDW), root dry weight (RDW), total N, P, K uptake and decreased SMBC, SMBN, TP, TK, AN, AP, AK and root rot incidence in 2017 and 2018. The result suggested the D 2 treatment had greater production advantages than the D 1 and D 3 treatments. In addition, compared with the F 3 treatment, other F treatments (F 1 , F 2 , and F 4) in the D 2 treatment significantly enhance total plant dry matter, total N, P and K uptake. However, root rot incidence significantly increased with the increase of application F levels, and D 2 F 3 can significantly decrease fungi/bacteria and fungi/actinomycetes in rhizosphere soil of healthy Panax notoginseng in 2018. According to analyzing the root rot incidence of different application F treatments, we found that 1500 kg hm−2 in the alternate micro-sprinkler irrigation might be recommended as an appropriate application F level to decrease root rot incidence of Panax notoginseng in the semi-arid area of Southwest China. [Display omitted] • Alternate irrigation and organic fertilization improved soil environment. • Alternate irrigation and organic fertilization (F 3) decreased root rot of plant. • Alternate irrigation and organic fertilization (F 3) improved yield of plant. • Organic fertilization (F 3) should be recommended to promote production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, the secure protocol was proposed from the certificateless signature (CLS) scheme to provide the corresponding security for the actual application. However, for the previous application protocols, most of the underlying CLS schemes cannot have their claimed security, because some proposals cannot resist forgery attacks or the master secret key can be captured by the probabilistic polynomial time adversary. To further address the above problems, we take several previous CLS schemes as instances to make a detailed analysis of the causes of the above security flaws and point out that, in a secure CLS scheme, we should appropriately publish the public parameters. Based on the above analysis, we design an efficient and secure CLS scheme in this paper, and the unforgeability is proved based on the hardness of discrete logarithm complexity assumption through the Forking lemma. Compared with the existing constructions, our new proposal has advantages in communication and computation efficiency but also has higher security. Furthermore, a concrete construction of a certificateless aggregate signature (CLAS) scheme is designed with the above basic CLS scheme to realize efficient verification of multiple signatures. Finally, we further improve the key conditions that need to be paid attention to design a secure CLS scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The yield of Panax notoginseng (BurK.) F. H. Chen in Yunnan Province accounted for more than 90% of China's total yield, but extensive water and fertilizer management restricted improvement of yield, quality, and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng. Therefore, this study tried to propose an adaptive irrigation and fertilizer management strategy for Panax notoginseng production. A two-year (2017 and 2018) rain-shelter cultivation study in Yunnan Province of southwest China was conducted to analyze the influences of irrigation and organic fertilizer application on soil water distribution, root growth, water-fertilizer productivity, quality, and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng in four organic fertilizer application rates [500 (F 1), 1000 (F 2), 1500 (F 3), and 2000 (F 4) kg ha−1] combined with three micro-sprinkler irrigation schedules [I 1 : moderate deficit micro-sprinkler irrigation, (70–75%) θ FC ; I 2 : alternate micro-sprinkler irrigation, (70–75%) θ FC / (80–85%) θ FC ; I 3 : slight deficit micro-sprinkler irrigation, (80–85%) θ FC ]. The results indicated that the increasing micro-sprinkler irrigation levels enhanced soil water content in 0–40 cm soil layer, but resulted in a reduction irrigation water productivity (IWP). Moreover, the increasing organic fertilizer application significantly led to reduced partial fertilizer productivity (PFP). Under the interaction of micro-sprinkler irrigation schedules and organic fertilizer application in 2017 and 2018, the I 2 F 3 significantly obtained the highest soil water storage (SWS), root hydraulic conductivity, root morphological characteristics, root-shoot ratio, lowest root rot rate (4.68% in 2017 and 6.59% in 2018), largest yield (3614.5 kg ha−1 in 2017 and 3981.5 kg ha−1 in 2018), total saponin content (20.23% in 2017 and 23.28% in 2018), and economic benefits (25.28 × 104 $ ha−1 in 2017 and 32.6 × 104 $ ha−1 in 2018) of Panax notoginseng. Based on the above results, the comprehensive evaluation of five saponin contents and the comprehensive evaluation of the yield, IWP, PFP, economic benefits, and total saponin content of Panax notoginseng were analyzed by using a TOPSIS model in 2017 and 2018. We found that synergistic of alternate micro-sprinkler irrigation [I 2 , (70–75%) θ FC / (80–85%) θ FC ] and organic fertilizer application (F 3 , 1500 kg ha−1) could decrease root rot, improve root growth, water-fertilizer productivity, quality, and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng. [Display omitted] • Alternate irrigation synergized with organic fertilizer (AIOF) was a sustainable technology of Panax notoginseng production. • The AIOF promoted root growth and decreased root rot incidence of Panax notoginseng. • The AIOF improved water-fertilizer productivity, quality, and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superelastic silk fibroin (SF)-based aerogels can be used as multifunctional substrates, exhibiting a promising prospect in air filtration, thermal insulation, and biomedical materials. However, fabrication of the superelastic pure SF aerogels without adding synthetic polymers remains challenging. Here, the SF micro-nano fibrils (SMNFs) that preserved mesostructures are extracted from SF fibers as building blocks of aerogels by a controllable deep eutectic solvent liquid exfoliation technique. SMNFs can assemble into multiscale fibril networks during the freeze-inducing process, resulting in all-natural SMNF aerogels (SMNFAs) with hierarchical cellular architectures after lyophilization. Benefiting from these structural features, the SMNFAs demonstrate desirable properties including ultra-low density (as low as 4.71 mg/cm3) and superelasticity (over 85 % stress retention after 100 compression cycles at 60 % strain). Furthermore, the potential applications of superelastic SMNFAs in air purification and thermal insulation are investigated to exhibit their functionality, mechanical elasticity, and structural stability. This work provides a reliable approach for the fabrication of highly elastic SF aerogels and endows application prospects in air purification and thermal insulation opportunities. [Display omitted] • Multiscale SMNFs are extract from SF fibers by DES liquid exfoliation strategy to construct superelastic aerogel. • The assembled SMNF aerogels demonstrate excellent superelastic performance. • The SMNF aerogel exhibit distinctive air filtration and thermal insulation properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effect of nitrogen addition on growth and water use of pot-grown Jatropha curcas (J. curcas) under three irrigation frequencies, i.e. 4d (W1), 8d (W2) and 12d (W3). Results show that compared to W1, W3 significantly reduced net plant growth, leaf area, basal shoot xylem cross-section area, total dry mass and whole water storage capacity and total evapotranspiration under saving irrigation water of 21.0%, but increased irrigation water-use efficiency (WUEI) and crop water-use efficiency (WUEET) by 9.7 and 13.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, W3 had higher Huber value, which may improve transfer water efficiency from roots to shoots. Compared to no nitrogen treatment, nitrogen addition increased total dry mass, whole plant water storage capacity, total evapotranspiration, WUEI and WUEET by 13.4–38.1, 8.5–17.7, 14.9–17.5, 16.4–30.7 and 17.7–21.9%, respectively. Thus the optimal combination was the treatment with irrigation frequency of 12d and nitrogen supply, which can increase water-use efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Panax notoginseng (Burk) F. H. Chen, called Sanqi, is a valuable herbal plant and is widely used in Chinese medicine. However, the yield and saponin content cannot be guaranteed due to irrational irrigation and fertilizer management in low-latitude regions in southwestern China. To obtain suitable irrigation and organic fertilizer modes for improving the yield and saponin content of the plant, a shelter experiment was conducted using a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement of treatments with three replications. Three irrigation regimes, D L , D M and D S (irrigation upper/lower limit: 65–50% θ f , 50–35% θ f , and 35–20% θ f , respectively, where θ f is the field capacity), three organic fertilizer levels, F L , F M and F H (33, 48 and 63 t ha−1, respectively), and a control group, CK (65–50% θ f and 3 t ha−1), were applied in the two-year and eight-month growth cycles. With the paired comparison design, the results indicated that the flower dry yield, root dry yield and Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) were significantly affected by different water deficit irrigation and organic fertilizer treatments, and they first increased and then decreased with increased water deficit or organic fertilizer. Compared with D L F H , D M F M reduced water use by 42.39% and fertilizer use by 23.81%, and the flower dry yield, root dry yield, PNS , water use efficiency and partial factor productivity of fertilizer increased by 19.67%, 22.52%, 54.33%, 149.72% and 91.83%, respectively. Under the D M F M treatment, the dry root yield and saponin content for 3-year-old P. notoginseng were 3039.19 kg ha−1 and 10.85%, respectively, which were higher than those resulting from other treatments. Additionally, the PNS resulting from D M F M exhibited the highest comprehensive score and comprehensive index based on principal component analysis and the TOPSIS model. This combination could create a higher yield of flowers and roots, provide a scientific management for planting, and improve the economic benefits for planters and the local government. • Study highlights role of deficit irrigation and organic fertilizer on Panax notoginseng growth. • Fertigation with highest irrigation and fertilizer amount increase root disease incidence and decrease root dry yield. • Severe drought stress significantly increased the water use efficiency for P. notoginseng. • Organic fertilizer schedule with water irrigation amount of 50~35% θf is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To investigate the effect of alternate drip irrigation on hydraulic conductivity and water-use efficiency of young pear tree, a field experiment was conducted with three drip irrigation methods, i.e. alternate drip irrigation (ADI, both sides of the root-zone irrigated alternatively), fixed drip irrigation (FDI, only one side of the root-zone irrigated), conventional drip irrigation (CDI, watering near the base of tree), and three irrigation levels, i.e. irrigation quantity of 20 (W1), 30 (W2) and 40mm (W3), respectively. Results show that compared to CDI, ADI reduced total hydraulic conductivity (root to leaf), soil evaporation, evapotranspiration, leaf area and total dry mass of young pear tree, but increased water-use efficiency (WUE ET ) and irrigation water-use efficiency (WUE I ) when the watering was reduced by 50% at W1, and it reduced soil evaporation, evapotranspiration, leaf area and total dry mass, but increased total hydraulic conductivity (root to leaf), WUE ET and WUE I when the watering was reduced by 25–33% at W2 and W3. However, FDI significantly decreased total hydraulic conductivity and total dry mass when compared to CDI. Thus ADI significantly increased total hydraulic conductivity due to its more evenly watering to the whole root-zone, which led to the increase of water-use efficiency when the watering was reduced by 25–33%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of three drip irrigation methods (i.e. conventional drip irrigation (CDI), both sides of the root-zone irrigated with full watering, alternate drip irrigation (ADI), both sides of the root-zone irrigated alternatively with half of the full watering, and fixed drip irrigation (FDI), only one side of the root-zone irrigated with half of the full watering) on growth, physiology, root hydraulic conductance and water use of young apple tree under different nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P) fertilization (i.e. CK (no fertilization), N1 (0.2gN/kg), N2 (0.4gN/kg), P1 (0.2gP2O5/kg) and P2 (0.4gP2O5/kg)). Results show that compared to CDI, ADI and FDI reduced mean root dry mass, daily transpiration, root hydraulic conductance (K r ), leaf photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance of young apple tree by 6.9 and 27.7, 29.3 and 45.0, 6.8 and 37.9, 2.5 and 4.8, 32.6 and 33.0, 22.1 and 22.3%, but increased leaf water use efficiency (WUE) by 31.3 and 29.8%, respectively when they saved irrigation water by 50%. Compared to the CK, N or P fertilization significantly increased K r , and K r was increased with the increased N or P fertilization level. There were parabolic correlations between K r and root dry mass, daily transpiration and stomatal conductance. Our results indicate that ADI reduced transpiration rate significantly, but it did not reduce photosynthesis rate and K r significantly, thus alternate drip irrigation improved WUE and the regulation ability of water balance in plants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

At present, the state has introduced the policy of forest Chinese herbal medicine planting planning, strictly prohibiting the planting of Chinese herbal medicine in basic farmland, coupled with the fact that the continuous cropping obstacles of Panax notoginseng have not yet been solved, which makes the area of arable land suitable for planting become less and less. However, the effect of soil moisture regulation on the growth of Panax notoginseng cultivated on sloping arable land has not been reported. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of various irrigation levels and slopes on Panax notoginseng agronomic traits, physiological characteristics, disease attributes, biomass, and quality characteristics. During 2018–2020, a field experiment was conducted in the Panax notoginseng growing seasons with three irrigation levels (I1: 70–75% θ FC , I2: 75–80% θ FC , I3: 80–85% θ FC) and three slopes (S1: 2.43°, S2: 6.38°, S3: 16.38°). The results evidenced that the photosynthetic characteristics, root hydraulic conductivity characteristics, biomass and PNS of Panax notoginseng reached the maximum value in the I2S2 treatment, and at the same time, the incidence rate of Panax notoginseng root rot was the lowest. Therefore, based on the results of this study, irrigation volume I2S2 should be regarded as the optimal slope and irrigation management strategies for reducing Panax notoginseng diseases and realizing stable yield and quality improvement of Panax notoginseng. A multi-objective optimization model was established through binary quadratic regression analysis. The findings evidenced that when the irrigation interval was 187–203 mm and the slope interval was 5–10.7°, Panax notoginseng had the lowest incidengce rate, and the root biomass and saponin content reached > 95% of the maximum values at the same time. [Display omitted] • Moisture and slope coupling reduces root rot in Panax notoginseng • Panax notoginseng had the worst hydraulic conductivity under I1S3 treatment • The most suitable slope for planting Panax notoginseng is 5–10.7° • Irrigation 152–193 mm balanced the relationship between morbidity, yield, and PNS [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cotton is the most widely planted fiber crop in the world and plays an important role in the national economy. Climate change alters the environmental elements of crop growth such as sunlight, moisture, and soil through changes in temperature and precipitation, which in turn affects the phenology period, growth potential, and cropping system of cotton, and ultimately affects yields. Studying the feedback of cotton growth to climate change is of great practical significance for cotton planting planning and yield increase and stabilization. Crop growth is affected by both climate and management measures, but most studies often ignore the impact of management measures, resulting in the inability to accurately assess the impact of climate. And existing research is mostly based on single sites or some provinces, lacking regional research on the main cotton producing areas in China. This study calibrated the AquaCrop model using data from 40 sites from three major cotton growing regions in China collected over different time periods between 1978 and 2018 and simulated the climate change impact on cotton for the subsequent years. The model showed good applicability in simulating the growth process of cotton in the study areas. The above-ground biomass (Bio), potential yield (Py) and water use efficiency (WUE) of cotton under the influence of climate change showed an increasing trend of 98% (39/40), 98%, and 93% of the sites, while the actual evapotranspiration (ET a) mainly decreased. Elevated CO 2 concentration increased cotton yield. The main climatic variables affecting cotton growth were wind speed, solar radiation, sunshine hours, and minimum and maximum temperature. Climate variables explained the changes in ET a , Bio , Py , and WUE by 65.1–95.5%, 9.7–74.5%, 14.8–68.3%, and 15.2–90.4%, respectively. Overall, cotton growth showed close relation to changes in W s , R s , T min , and T max. The study quantitatively analyzed and identified the main climatic factors affecting cotton growth and found that climate change and elevated CO 2 concentrations have a positive impact on cotton production. The simulations conducted in this study using multi-site data provided reliable regional information that can help develop future management strategies to maintain current and meet future demand for cotton in China, and provide recommendations and guidance for environmental regulation and sustainable discovery of the cotton growing process. [Display omitted] • The applicability of the AquaCrop model in the three major cotton producing regions in China was evaluated. • The effects of climate change on cotton growth and yield in china were analyzed under with unchanged management measures. • Cotton growth and yield changes under constant and elevated CO 2 concentration scenarios were comparatively analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been developing rapidly and popularizing the world. Smart home is one of its important applications, the devices and household appliances are connected together through the network to provide intelligent services. However, malicious attacks often occur during the transmission of data information, resulting in data leakage or data changes. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the integrity and availability of data. Based on this, we propose a new pairing-free certificateless aggregate signature (CLAS) scheme, which achieves efficient authentication of multiple messages and improves the verification rate. In addition, we demonstrate its security based on the hardness of the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem in the random oracle model. Comparison with other CLAS schemes proves that our scheme has better security and higher efficiency through performance analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The oxidative stability of MXene nanosheets is enhanced by co-assembling with natural sericin. • A silk fabric with superior thermal management performance was fabricated via sericin-MXene coating. • The interfacial binding between silk fiber and sericin-MXene is improved by deep eutectic solvent micro-etching pretreatment. • The resulting silk fabric exhibits excellent electrical heating and low mid-IR emissivity. • The obtained silk fabric shows breathability, flame retardancy and washing durability. Integration of natural textiles (e.g. silk) and two-dimensional transition metal carbide/nitride (MXene) is promising for the development of wearable thermal management materials. However, fabricating MXene-decorated textiles with durable and stable thermal management performance remains a challenge due to the susceptible oxidation of MXene and the weak interaction between MXene and fibers. Here, we propose a novel surface modification strategy for MXene nanosheets (SSMXene) by co-assembling with natural sericin to protect against water and oxygen, enrich surface chemistry, and significantly enhance oxidative stability. Subsequently, SSMXene-coated silk fabrics (M-silk) were developed via choline chloride/oxalic acid deep eutectic solvent (DES) micro-etching pretreatment and then decorating SSMXene through a scalable solution dip-coating technique. Notably, DES micro-etching pretreatment enabled strong interfacial bonding between SSMXene and fibers through the synergistic effect of hydrogen bonding and mechanical locking. The fabricated M-silk not only demonstrated desirable thermal management performance, including active electrical heating (the maximum temperature rise = 55.6 °C) and passive radiative heating (the mid-infrared emissivity as low as 0.24 at 7–14 μm), but also possessed superior breathability, laundry durability, and flame retardancy. Therefore, the smart, comfortable, durable, and multifunctional M-silk displays great potential for achieving effective personal thermal management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnAlTi layered double oxide (ZnAlTi-LDO) supported C 60 @AgCl nanoparticles were synthesized by the coprecipitation-light-induced method and their photocatalytic activity for photo-degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) was analyzed quantitatively by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The morphology, structure and composition of the nanocomposites were analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction patterns, Fourier Transform Infrared spectra and Specific Surface Area. According to the analysis, ZnAlTi-LDO supported C 60 @AgCl nanoparticles (C 60 @AgCl-LDO) was characteristic of mesoporous materials. Pore size distribution plots of all the catalysts were well-distributed, ranging between 10 and 20 nm. Because the heterostructure of Ag@AgCl enhanced near-field for light scattering, reflection and absorption. The Ag@AgCl-LDO nanoparticles and C 60 @AgCl-LDO nanoparticles showed a very intense absorption band in the near-UV region. The C 60 was used as support materials to enhance the stability of Ag-based photocatalysts. The C 60 @AgCl can reduce the recombination of photo-induced electron–hole pairs and therefore increase the efficiency of the photocatalysis. The photo-degradation experiment was conducted by using a series of the nanoparticles to degrade BPA under simulated visible light irradiation. Test results show that, photogenerated holes, superoxide radical species, OH bulk and singlet oxygen are responsible for the photo-degradation, among which the superoxide radical species plays an indispensable role in the photocatalytic reaction system. The degradation rate of the C 60 @AgCl-LDO in photocatalytic degradation of BPA under simulated visible light irradiation is for 90%. The C 60 @AgCl-LDO nanoparticles with remarkable photocatalytic activity can be used for large-scale environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still a long-term challenge to decrease root rot and improve saponin content of Panax notoginseng , thus economic benefits in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces, China. The objective of this study was therefore to propose a promising abiotic stresses strategy: deficit irrigation combined with sodium chloride (DISC) to cope with the challenge. A two-year field experiment was conducted to explore the effects of deficit irrigation combined with sodium chloride on physiological traits, yield, quality attributes, water use efficiency, and economic benefit of Panax notoginseng in 2018 and 2019. Experiment treatments consisted of two deficit irrigation levels [ D L , light deficit level: irrigation upper∼lower limit (80–65 %) θ FC ; D M , moderate deficit level: irrigation upper∼lower limit: (70–55 %) θ FC , where θ FC represents field capacity] and five NaCl application rates [0 (C 0), 15 (C 1), 30 (C 2), 45 (C 3), and 60 (C 4) mmol L−1], respectively. All treatments were designed using a randomized complete block with three replications. The results indicated that DISC could significantly promote the physiology and growth of Panax notoginseng and improve yield, quality and economic benefits under micro-sprinkler irrigation and shaded conditions in 2018 and 2019. Compared with the D M C 0 and D L C 0 treatments, D L C 1 treatment significantly improved net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), root (k r), shoot (k sh), and canopy (k c) hydraulic conductance of Panax notoginseng. The D L C 1 treatment significantly increased root length, surface area, average diameter, and volume of root of Panax notoginseng compared with the D M C 0 and D L C 0 treatments. The D L C 1 treatment significantly improved rood dry matter, yield, saponin content of Panax notoginseng , water use efficiency, and economic benefits by decreasing the incidence of root rot, but reverse results were observed in the D L C 2 , D L C 3 , and D L C 4 treatments. Therefore, this study suggested that deficit irrigation amount [ D L , (80–65 %) θ FC ] combined with NaCl concentration (C 1 , 15 mmol L−1) should be recommended as an appropriate agronomic management strategy to alleviate root rot and improve water use efficiency, saponin content, economic benefits of Panax notoginseng in the seasonally arid region of Southwest China. [Display omitted] • Deficit irrigation combined with sodium chloride (DISC): a strategy to improve Panax notoginseng production. • The DISC decreased root rot and improved physiological features of plant. • The DISC improved yield, quality, and economic benefits of Panax notoginseng. • The DISC [ D L , (80–65 %) θ FC and C 1 , (15 mmol L−1)] should be recommended to promote production of Panax notoginseng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feedback mechanism of cotton yield to climate change is important knowledge for cotton planting planning and stable production. However, the impact of sowing date on cotton yield in China's main cotton producing areas under future climate change is still unclear. To deal with it, this study first evaluated the applicability of the AquaCrop model using actual observed cotton growth and yield data. Then, based on the 27 Global Climate Models (GCMs) multi-model ensemble data in the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), the future climate changes in China 's main cotton producing areas from 2021 and 2060 (2040 s) and 2061–2100 (2080 s) under two typical Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5 were predicted. Finally, the effects of different sowing dates on cotton yield under SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5 scenarios were simulated. The results showed that: (1) AquaCrop model had good applicability and it could accurately simulate cotton growth and yield. (2) The temperature under the SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5 scenarios increased significantly compared with the baseline period (1985–2020). Precipitation during the cotton growth period mainly showed an increasing trend, but the spatial and temporal variability was large. The reference crop evapotranspiration (ET o) during the cotton growth period mainly showed a decreasing trend under the SSP2–4.5 (2040 s) scenario, while it mainly showed an increasing trend in other future periods. (3) The cotton yield under the SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5 scenarios increased by an average of 10.51% and 13.67%, 14.76% and 28.04% in 2040 s and 2080 s compared to the baseline period (1981–2015), respectively. (4) Early sowing was beneficial to increase cotton yield, cotton yield sown on March 31 increased by an average of 5.32% compared to May 10. In conclusion, future climate change will have positive impacts on cotton production in China, and early sowing is an effective adaptation measure to cope with climate change. • AquaCrop model has good applicability in the main cotton producing areas in China. • The simulation of future yield of cotton is based on the latest CMIP6 data. • Future climate change have positive impacts on cotton production in China. • Early sowing is an effective adaptation measure to cope with climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction of keratin from discarded feathers for the preparation of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) ionic conductive hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties shows promise for applications in green flexible electronics. Here, we first extracted feather keratin (FK) from duck feather fibers using the lactic acid/ l -cysteine deep eutectic solvents. Subsequently, the composite ionic conductive hydrogel composed of FK, PVA, and CaCl 2 was constructed by a one-pot freeze-thawing strategy. The introduction of FK resulted in a denser structure of the fabricated hydrogel, which significantly enhanced its mechanical properties, including high elongation at break of 639.3%, high breaking strength of 270 kPa, and durable fatigue resistance. Impressively, the hydrogel-based wearable strain sensor demonstrated high strain sensing sensitivity (GF = 1.26), wide strain detection range (5%–200%), fast response, and stable reliability, enabling it to accurately monitor and distinguish the difference in electrical signals generated by large and tiny human motions. This work provides a reliable method for the green extraction of FK and the design of high-performance PVA hydrogel-based flexible electrical devices. [Display omitted] • FK was extracted from feathers using a novel deep eutectic solvent. • PVA based ionic conductive hydrogels were constructed by a one-pot freeze-thawing strategy. • FK enhanced mechanical properties and ionic conductivity of hydrogels. • The hydrogel demonstrated superior strain sensing performance. • The hydrogel sensors are suitable for human motion monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, there is a lack of understanding of the dynamic characteristics of the carbon, nitrogen, and enzyme activities of the soil microbial biomass of Panax pseudoginseng under irrigation and fertilization. We set up a field experiment with 3 irrigation and 4 fertilization levels for a total of 12 treatments plus a control in the micro-sprinkler Panax pseudoginseng farmland in Luxi County, Yunnan Province, from 2018 to 2020. The results showed that the soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and enzyme activities increased from the rooting period to the flowering period, and then decreased in the fruiting period. The soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and enzyme activities of Panax pseudoginseng reached the maximum values in the flowering period, while the minimum values were reached in the rooting period. There were significant positive correlations between the soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen and enzyme activities during different growth periods under different water and fertilizer optimization management. This study revealed the tendency of the carbon, nitrogen, and enzyme activities of the soil microbial biomass of Panax pseudoginseng with the growth periods. It also analyzed the optimal management of different water and fertilizer regimes and the Ci values of soil microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen, and enzyme activities in different growth periods to determine the best water and fertilizer treatment methods in each growth period through the entropy value method combined with the TOPSIS method. The study found that the C i values in the rooting, seedling period, and fruiting periods increased with the increase in the fertilization level under the same irrigation level, and the Ci value in the seedling period and fruiting period increased with the increase of irrigation amount under the same fertilization level. The best water and fertilizer management regime at seedling, flowering, and fruiting periods was W3F4, and the rooting stage was W2F4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • An attentional deep learning model, named DeepFocus, is proposed to allow selective retrieval of informative signal variations and crucial feature regions. • An innovative temporal attention module based on the structural similarity values of WiFi snippets is designed. • A channel-spatial attention module is presented to strengthen the useful signal features along both the channel and spatial axes. • Extensive experiments are carried out on various real activity datasets. In this work, we have proposed the first WiFi-based attention model for intrinsic human activity information measuring. First, both convolutional layers and time-recurrent layers are integrated in a one-off manner for joint feature learning. Based on this, a temporal attention module is introduced to capture activity moments and reduce lengthy data collections. In addition, a channel-spatial attention module is further designed to retrieve the activity feature of interest, without requiring any additional supervision. Extensive experiments were conducted for performance comparison under diverse environmental settings. The results showed that our model can achieve the best overall accuracy of 94.62%, 94.36% and 91.04% in three datasets with minimal manual efforts involved, and consistently outperforms other baselines under diverse parameter settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupant activity (OA) is a crucial prerequisite for providing energy-efficient and occupant-centric services in intelligent buildings. To understand OAs well, conventional technologies require either wearable equipment of smart devices or the deployment of specialized cameras, raising relevant issues of body and privacy-intrusion. Recent WiFi-based methods circumvent the above issues and characterize the OA patterns in a non-intrusive manner. However, they demand the cooperation of occupants for a sufficient amount of collected samples, otherwise, the performance might degrade significantly. In this paper, we propose a non-intrusive approach that models distinct OA patterns for comprehensive understanding. Based on the idea of generative adversarial network (GAN), our technical novelties are three-fold. First, we modify the working principle of vanilla GAN with external constraints to avoid brute-force generation. Second, we integrate a self-attention mechanism to establish contextual relations from both local and global perspectives. Third, to recover the informative details, we construct a powerful generator with deep residual convolutional operations. We conduct extensive experiments on a real dataset and visualize the generation results for intuitive evaluation. Numerical results compared with several state-of-the-art baselines further illustrate the superior performance of our proposed GAN approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive rainfall and irrigation amount in the facility herbal medicine production system (FHmPS) in China leading to a severe root rot disease of Panax notoginseng , which endangers root yield and quality, compromise economic profit and waste resources. Therefore, the objective of our research was to seek optimal irrigation and cultivation management strategy for FHmPS to improve Panax notoginseng production and economic benefit. A three-year (2019, 2020 and 2021) field experiment was conducted on Panax notoginseng under two shelter-cultivation [rain-shelter cultivation (Sr) and unrain-shelter cultivation (NSr)] at three deficit irrigation levels [ I 1= 65%W, I 2= 75%W, I 3= 85% W, where W was the irrigation quota when the upper and lower limits of irrigation are (100% ∼ 40%) θ FC under shelter-cultivation] to explore the combined practices effects on yield, quality, economic benefit, water productivity (WP) and nutrients uptake of Panax notoginseng , and to obtain the optimal irrigation and cultivation supply practice by the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The results showed that SrI 2 obtained relatively high plant nutrient uptake, net profit, WP, and quality. SrI 2 significantly decreased the root rot incidence by 6–17.5% in comparison to other treatments. However, compared with rain-shelter cultivation, unrain-shelter cultivation weaken these effects in Panax notoginseng. Deficit irrigation promoted Sr to obtain higher WP than NSr. According to the result of TOPSIS, the comprehensive ranking of SrI 2 and SrI 3 were first and second among the practices, regardless of growing seasons and planting years. The SrI 2 significantly decreased the yield of Panax notoginseng by 5.4%− 20.8% in comparison to other treatments. SrI 2 and SrI 3 were highly recommended for facility herbal medicine production system (FHmPS) in the semi-arid area of Southwest China. [Display omitted] • The study proposed rain-shelter (Sr) based on traditional cultivation (NSr). • Deficit irrigation (I 2) and Sr decreased root rot rate of P. notoginseng. • The SrI 2 improved nutrient uptake and yield of P. notoginseng. • The SrI 2 improved PNS, economic benefit and WP of P. notoginseng [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Water, N and year significantly affect dry matter accumulation, fruit yield, quality, water and N productivity. • The Entropy Weight-TOPSIS method was adopted to achieve the multi-objective optimization of water and N fertilizer. • I80N360 (80% ET 0 - 360 kg N ha−1) is the ideal water and N management strategy for greenhouse cherry tomato. In the context of climate-change and shortage of fresh water resources, improving agricultural productivity has become a major challenge globally, especially in China with large population. In this study, the purpose was to achieve the optimal combination of water and nitrogen (N) rates for greenhouse cherry tomato based on fruit yield, quality, net income and water-N productivity. Herein, during 2019–2021, three irrigation levels (I100: 100% ET 0 ; I80: 80% ET 0 ; I60: 60% ET 0 , where ET 0 was the reference evapotranspiration) and five N rates (450, 360, 270, 180 and 0 kg N ha−1, defined by N450, N360, N270, N180 and N0, respectively) with 15 treatments were set up. The 3-year ANOVA analysis indicated that irrigation, N fertilizer and year had significant effects on dry matter accumulation, fruit yield, quality, water and N productivity of greenhouse cherry tomato. Both the highest fruit yield (56.72 t ha−1, average of 3-year) and net income (60.8 × 104 CNY ha−1) were occurred under I80N360 treatment, though peak N partial factor productivity (PFPN, 294.88 kg−1) was observed under I80N180 treatment. The combined application of water and N fertilizer increased water productivity (WP) by 15.64% (average of 3-year) compared to I60N0 treatment, with I80N360 and I60N270 treatments having the highest WP. N fertilizer addition significantly increased fruit yield and WP irrespective of irrigation level, but the differences between N360 and N450 treatments were not significant in 80% ET 0 and 100% ET 0 irrigation level treatments, and between N270, N360 and N450 treatments in 60% ET 0 irrigation level treatments. Nevertheless, PFPN decreased significantly as the N rate increased. In addition, fruit quality could be improved at some extent under deficit irrigation relative to full irrigation regardless of N rate. More specifically, compared with the full irrigation treatment (I100), the I80 treatment increased the content of total soluble solid (TSS) by an average of 6.68%, soluble sugar (SS) by 11.96%, organic acid (OA) by 4.91%, sugar acid ratio (SAR) by 11.28%, vitamin C (VC) by 14.55%, lycopene by 30.06% and firmness by 7.60%; meanwhile, the I60 treatment increased TSS by an average of 11.17%, SS by 18.60%, OA by 12.04%, SAR by 10.02%, VC by 27.55%, lycopene by -7.93% and firmness by 13.14%, respectively. The increase of N rate largely increased TSS, SS, SAR, VC and lycopene, while these indicators decreased when N rate exceeded a threshold. Nevertheless, OA and firmness increased with increasing N rate, while firmness showed a slight decrease when N rate increased from N360 to N450 treatment. Generally, in a greenhouse cherry tomato production agroecosystem, the optimal amount of N fertilizer applied for each indicator varies with the availability of irrigation water. Furthermore, the Entropy-Weight TOPSIS method was adopted and the results indicated that the optimization of irrigation and N fertilizer supply schedule (I80N360 treatment: 80% ET 0 –360 kg N ha−1) was conducive to increase fruit yield, net income and water-N productivity whilst maintaining fruit quality in greenhouse cherry tomato cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Reasonable irrigation and fertilization strategies significantly improved the nutrient content, bacterial diversity, and community abundance of Panax notoginseng soil. • The relationships among soil physical and chemical properties, bacterial diversity, community structure and community function were elucidated. • W2F4 treatment significantly improved soil physicochemical properties, bacterial diversity, community structure and community function, and was the optimal irrigation fertilization strategy. Improper irrigation and fertilization can result in soil compaction, solidification, and acidification, consequently disrupting the equilibrium of the soil microbial community. The objective was to enhance the microbial environment in Panax notoginseng soil, augment bacterial diversity, increase community abundance, and establish a scientific and theoretical foundation for Panax notoginseng cultivation. Panax notoginseng field planting experiment was carried out from 2019 to 2021, involving two controlled variables: irrigation (W) and fertilizer application (F). Three irrigation levels were established, denoted as W1 (0.6 FC), W2 (0.75 FC), and W3 (0.9 FC). A total of 1440 kg•hm−2 of soluble organic fertilizer was applied throughout the entire growth cycle, with varying proportions allocated to each growth stage. Four fertilization levels were designated as F1 (rooting stage: seedling stage: flowering stage: fruiting stage = 25 %: 25 %: 25 %: 25 %), F2 (20 %: 25 %: 30 %: 25 %), F3 (15 %: 30 %: 30 %: 25 %), and F4 (10 %: 40 %: 20 %: 30 %), total 12 treatments. Non-irrigated and non-fertilized CK treatments were employed as control. Soil physicochemical attributes, bacterial diversity, community structure, and functional characteristics across various water and fertilizer treatments were comprehensively assessed utilizing the quotient-weighted TOPSIS method. The results showed that coupled irrigation and fertilization treatments had a significant impact on various soil parameters of Panax notoginseng, including total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, organic carbon, pH, water content, and bacterial alpha diversity (P < 0.05). Moreover, coupled irrigation and fertilization treatments had a highly significant influence on soil water content during the rooting stage, seedling stage, and fruiting stage (P < 0.01). Total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, ammonium nitrogen, water content, and pH emerged as the primary environmental factors significantly shaping the structure of the soil bacterial community. In the W2F4 treatment, soil total nitrogen, organic carbon content, pH, Chao1, Shannon index, and functional abundance in categories such as chemoheterotrophy, aerobic chemoheterotrophy, nitrogen fixation, nitrate reduction, nitrogen respiration, and nitrate respiration were notably higher compared to other water-fertilized treatments. Furthermore, the W2F4 treatment ranked first in the TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation. Consequently, the W2F4 treatment emerged as the optimal irrigation-fertilization strategy for enhancing soil microbial activity and fertility in Panax notoginseng cultivation. This study establishes a theoretical foundation for enhancing the microbiological environment of Panax notoginseng soils, augmenting soil bacterial diversity, increasing community abundance, and ultimately elevating soil fertility for the efficient and high-quality cultivation of Panax notoginseng. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational application of water and fertilizer management practices can not only improve mango (Mangifera indica L.) yield and quality but also improve irrigation water-use efficiency (IWUE). However, few studies have addressed the use of water and fertilizer management practices in hot, dry environments with the aim of achieving relatively favorable levels of these parameters concurrently. We used the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method to identify optimal water and fertilizer management practices that resulted in high fruit yields and high IWUE in Southwest China. A randomized block design study with four irrigation levels [full irrigation throughout the growth period (FI), regulated deficit irrigation during flowering (RDI FS), regulated deficit irrigation during fruit expansion (RDI ES), and regulated deficit irrigation at maturity (RDI MS)] and three fertilization levels [F H , a water-soluble compound fertilizer (N:P 2 O 5 :K 2 O = 12:8:40) applied at 129.0 kg ha−1; F M , 103.2 kg ha−1; and F L , 77.4 kg ha−1] was implemented in 2018 and 2019 to investigate these relationships. The net photosynthesis rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr) and stomatal conductance (Gs) of mango under the different water deficit treatments were significantly lower than those under the FI treatment with the same fertilization conditions, but the instantaneous water-use efficiency (WUEi) of the leaves increased. The fresh fruit yield, solids:acid ratio (SOAR), sugar:acid ratio (SUAR), and IWUE under the RDI FS treatment were significantly lower than those under the FI treatment at the same fertilization rates. Averaged over all fertilization rates, the fruit yield under RDI ES was 8.6–22.3% lower than that under FI in both years, but the IWUE significantly increased from 3.7% to 18.6%. Compared with the FI treatment, the RDI MS treatment had no significant effect on fruit yield but significantly increased the IWUE (35.5–44.7%), total sugar (TS) content (3.7–8.5%), and carotenoid content (CC) (1.5–13.1%) in both years. At the same irrigation level, the Pn, Gs and Tr increased with an increasing fertilization rate, while the fruit yield, IWUE, TS, and vitamin C (VC) content of fresh fruit first decreased but then increased with increasing fertilization rate. IWUE was more closely related to photosynthesis characteristics at the flowering stage than at the mature stage, but fruit quality was more closely related to photosynthesis characteristics at the mature stage than at the flowering stage. Compared with the FIF H treatment, the RDI MS F M treatment significantly increased the fruit yield by 10.1% and 6.6% in 2018 and 2019, respectively, and increased the IWUE by 28.1% and 35.6%, respectively. On the basis of the TOPSIS method, the multi-target optimum scheduling of mango was achieved under the RDI MS F M treatment. The identified optimum combination of water and fertilizer can provide a scientific basis for irrigation and fertilization optimization and management in the hot, dry environment of Southwest China. • TOPSIS was used to determine the best water-saving irrigation method for mango. • IWUE was close to photosynthetic characteristics at flowering stage. • Fruit quality was closely related to photosynthetic characters in maturity stage. • The mango yield was significantly increased by RDI at maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonium (NH 4 +) absorption by crops enhances inorganic phosphate (Pi) acquisition efficiency mediated by rhizosphere acidification. The application of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) prolong NH 4 + retention in soil by inhibiting ammonia oxidation and facilitating ammonium uptake by crops which may promote crop P utilisation. However, the efficacy of NIs on enhanced P-utilisation efficiency has not been comprehensively evaluated, and the mechanism underlying these effects remains unclear. Here, a meta-analysis of 92 peer-reviewed articles (1217 paired observations) was conducted to investigate soil pH and crop P absorption changes under NIs amendment, and boosted regression tree model was adopted to identify the primary factor regulating enhanced P-efficiency. The results showed that the addition of NIs reduced the rhizosphere soil pH by 12.37% and increased bulk soil pH by 2.38%, increased plant N and P uptake by 16.09% and 8.49%, respectively, and shoot N and P concentrations by 4.38% and 6.73%, respectively. NIs significantly decreased the crop N/P ratio and alleviated P limitation for crop production. Fertiliser (N and P) application method, NI product type, and soil properties (soil organic carbon, available P, total N content and soil texture) are major factors affecting crop P uptake. Using dicyandiamide (DCD) or 3,4-dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) as NIs combined with the application of ammonium-based fertiliser, adoption of subsurface or one-time N application, or application of these fertilisers to coarse-textured soils could significantly decrease rhizosphere soil pH while increasing crop P uptake. This study quantitatively demonstrated the positive impact of NIs on crop P acquisition using a meta-analysis approach, enhanced the knowledge on the incidental efficacy of N stabilisers and provide a strategy for the sustainable management of N and P in agriculture. [Display omitted] • Applying nitrification inhibitors induces rhizosphere acidification. • Divergent changes between rhizosphere and bulk soil pH after NIs amendment. • NIs amendment improved crop P uptake and concentration. • Crop N/P ratio declined and P limitation alleviated after NIs amendment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • UHP pretreatment enhanced the production of SCFAs in WAS anaerobic fermentation. • UHP pretreatment contributed to WAS disintegration significantly. • UHP pretreatment facilitated the generation and transformation of intermediates. • OH, O 2 and urea were the major contributors to the increased WAS disintegration. • Functional microbials and genes related with acetate production were upregulated. Improving the anaerobic treatment performance of waste activated sludge (WAS) to achieve resource recovery is an indispensable requirement to reduce carbon emissions, minimize and stabilize biosolids. In this study, a novel strategy by using urea hydrogen peroxide (UHP) to enhance SCFAs production through accelerating WAS disintegration, degrading recalcitrant substances and alleviating competitive suppression of methanogens. The SCFAs production and acetate proportion rose from 436.9 mg COD/L and 31.3% to 3102.6 mg COD/L and 54.1%, respectively, when UHP grew from 0 to 80 mg/g TSS. Mechanism investigation revealed that OH, O 2 and urea were the major contributors to accelerate WAS disintegration with the sequence of OH> O 2 > urea. Function microbes related to acidification and genes associated with acetate production ([EC:2.3.1.8] and [EC:2.7.2.1]) were upregulated while genes encoding propionic acid production ([EC:6.4.1.3] and [EC:6.2.1.1]) were downregulated. These results raised the application prospects of UHP in WAS resource utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panax notoginseng (P. notoginseng) is a traditional Chinese medicinal material with high economic and medicinal value. There is an urgent need to find new cultivation areas due to continuous cropping barriers and the effects of climate change. This study integrated the geographical environment of Yunnan with the necessary requirements for a suitable habitat for P. notoginseng and comprehensively analyzed climatic, topographical and soil factors. Furthermore, the criteria were weighted and prioritized by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the best worst method (BWM) respectively, and the overlay analysis method was used to present the suitability map in the GIS environment. Two ecological suitability assessment models were established and compared to explore the ecological suitability regionalization of P. notoginseng in Yunnan Province, China. The results showed that:(1) Among the 12 driving factors, precipitation in the hottest season is the most important, followed by average temperature in the coldest season, average temperature in the hottest season, altitude, and annual precipitation. (2) The most suitable, suitable, and unsuitable regions obtained by the AHP-GIS model accounted for respective 17.98%, 33.41%, and 48.61% of the total area of Yunnan. The values for BWM-GIS model were 13.93%, 40.25%, and 45.81%, respectively. (3) The suitable regions obtained by the two models were overlayed and concentrated in Wenshan, Qujing, Kunming, Chuxiong, Baoshan, Dali, Lijiang, Honghe and Yuxi in central Yunnan, while the unsuitable regions were distributed in Xishuangbanna, Puer, Dehong, Diqing, and southwestern Zhaotong. The sensitivity of the assessment model was analyzed, and its reliability was verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and area under curve (AUC). The BWM-GIS model (AUC=0.85) had higher accuracy than AHP-GIS model (AUC=0.822), and was more suitable for ecological suitability analysis of P. notoginseng. Our research results provide a theoretical basis for the rational expansion of cultivation regions of P. notoginseng and agricultural layout planning in Yunnan Province of China. [Display omitted] • BWM, AHP and GIS were integrated together to construct comprehensive evaluation model. • The ecological factors affecting the distribution of Panax notoginseng were finely analyzed. • Sensitivity analysis was used to verify the stability of the model. • Panax notoginseng showed range expansions towards high-latitude regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge of seasonal nutrient demand is necessary for maximizing potato yield and resources use efficiency under drip fertigation, and it also can effectively mitigate the risk of nutrient leaching caused by excessive fertilization. To explore the coupling effects of irrigation level and fertilization rate on drip-fertigated potato growth, nutrient accumulation and determine the multi-objective optimal irrigation and fertilization regimes, a two-year (2018 and 2019) field experiment was conducted in the sandy regions of northern China. The experiments included three irrigation levels (I 60 , 60% ET C ; I 80 , 80% ET C and I 100 , 100% ET C , where ETc is the crop evapotranspiration) and five fertilization rates (N 0 P 0 K 0 , 0 kg ha−1; N 1 P 1 K 1 , 100–17.5–124.5 kg ha−1; N 2 P 2 K 2 , 150–26.2–186.7 kg ha−1; N 3 P 3 K 3 , 200–34.9–248.9 kg ha−1 and N 4 P 4 K 4 , 250–43.7–311.2 kg ha−1, where the ratio of N, P and K was 1:0.17:1.24). The results showed that N, P and K accumulated rapidly from 42th to 95th, 50th to 96th and 46th to 91th days after sowing, respectively. For producing 1000 kg tuber yield, the required amounts of N, P and K were 1.97–4.16 kg, 0.55–0.81 kg and 4.83–7.65 kg, respectively. The uptakes of N, P and K in 1000 kg tubers across all treatments were 1:0.18–0.34:1.61–2.59, with the average N:P:K ratio of 1:0.23:2.05. Besides, irrigation level, fertilization rate and their interaction had significant effects on potato leaf area index, biomass, N, P and K accumulation. Deficit irrigation reduced seasonal LAI, biomass, N, P and K accumulation, tuber yield and apparent fertilizer recovery (AFR), but increased water productivity. High fertilization rate was conducive to promoting nutrient absorption, plant growth and improving tuber yield, while it reduced the unit nutrient productivity. The AFR increased first and then decreased with the increase of fertilization rate. To simultaneously achieve high potato yield and resources use efficiency, a multi-objective optimization model was established using the binary quadratic regression analysis between tuber yield, net income, water productivity, AFR and water–fertilizer regimes, which showed that tuber yield, net income, water productivity, and AFR could obtained ≥ 90% of their maximum values simultaneously when the irrigation interval was 204–262 mm and fertilization (N-P-K) interval ranged from 200–24–248 to 247–42–306 kg ha−1. The findings can provide useful information for optimizing irrigation and fertilization regimes in sandy regions of northern China. ● Nutrient uptake process under virous drip fertigation combinations was explored. ● Water and fertilization had significant effects on nutrient accumulation and yield. ● 1.97–4.16 kg N, 0.55–0.81 kg P and 4.83–7.65 kg K were needed to produce 1 t tuber. ● Interval of fertigation was put forward through a multi-objective optimization model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality is one of the most vital aspects of a construction project, and inspection is the most important task in construction quality management. Despite the application of advanced information technologies, the omission of check items and in-efficiency of entering inspection results from paper-based inspection records into computers and collaboration among the construction stakeholders remain to be major problems. This paper proposes an approach to make the process of construction quality management more effective and collaborative by developing a system based on the integrated application of building information modeling (BIM) and indoor positioning technology. First, the system requirements of the collaboration platform are analyzed based on the standards for construction quality inspection in China, the technologies to be used for its implementation are justified, and a process model for the collaboration of multiple stakeholders is established. Next, the system architecture is developed, and the algorithm for generating inspection tasks and the technique for integrating with indoor positioning technology are formulated. Finally, the implementation of a prototype system is presented, and the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach for construction quality management are verified by using the system in an on-site test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive water and fertilizer management strategy was main factor restricting high-quality production of edible Rose s. The objective of this study was therefore to explore a combination of micro-irrigation method and bio-organic fertilizer application amount suitable for high-quality production of edible Rose s. A two-year greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effects micro-irrigation method and bio-organic fertilizer application on soil environment, photosynthetic characteristics, yield, and nutritional quality of edible Rose in 2019 and 2020. The experiment treatments consisted of three micro-irrigation methods [micro-sprinkler irrigation (SI), drip irrigation (DI), and micro-moistening irrigation (MI)] and four bio-organic fertilizer supplementation levels (0, 5000, 10000, and 15000 kg ha−1, labeled as BF 0 , BF L , BF M , and BF H). The results indicated that MIBF M significantly improved soil water content, soil organic matter, pH, and the number of bacteria, fungus, and actinomycetes in the edible Rose field among all treatments. The MIBF M could improve net photosynthetic rate and leaf instantaneous water use efficiency of edible Rose compared with MIBF H. The flower weight, average flower diameter, and edible Rose yield were larger in MIBF M than those of MIBF H in 2019 and 2020. The MIBF M improved total sugar, flavonoids, vitamin C, and total amino acids of edible Rose compared with MIBF H. According to analyzing the relationships between photosynthesis, soil environment, flower yield, and quality among all treatments, we found MIBF M promoted edible Rose production by improving soil environment. The membership function method was used to comprehensively evaluate the nutritional quality of edible Rose s, we recommended that the combination of micro-moistening irrigation (MI) combined with bio-organic fertilizer application amount (10000 kg ha−1) (BF M) would be an adaptive irrigation and fertilization management strategy for improving soil environment and edible Rose production in Southwest China. • The MIBF M could improve soil environment and edible Rose productivity. • The MIBF M improved soil water storage, soil nutrients and soil microorganism. • The MIBF M improved yield and nutritional quality of edible Rose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The yield and quality of Arabica coffee ( Coffea arabica ) cannot be guaranteed due to irrational irrigation and light management in dry and hot regions of southwest China. The objective of this study was to obtain rational irrigation and shading mode for efficient light and water use, suitable yield and high nutritional quality of Arabica coffee. Taking full irrigation (FI) as the control, the effects of deficit irrigation (DI) (DI75 and DI50, 75 and 50% of full irrigation amount, respectively) on photosynthesis, yield, nutritional quality and water use efficiency (WUE) were investigated under four shading levels (Sh0 no shading, Sh30, Sh45 and Sh60, 30, 45 and 60% shading, respectively) using the field experiments, and a comprehensive benefit assessment model of yield, nutritional quality and WUE was established under different irrigation and shading treatments. Results indicated that DI75 increased leaf apparent radiation use efficiency and the contents of crude fat and chlorogenic acid in dry bean if compared to FI. In comparison with Sh0, Sh30 enhanced dry bean yield, WUE and the contents of total sugar and chlorogenic acid in dry bean. Compared with FISh0 (CK), DI75Sh30 raised dry bean yield, WUE, and the contents of total sugar, protein, crude fat and chlorogenic acid, but reduced the caffeine content. Principal component analysis showed that DI75Sh30 had optimal comprehensive nutritional quality, and TOPSIS method indicated that DI75Sh30 had the optimal comprehensive benefit, showing that our results can provide scientific basis for rational irrigation and light management of Arabica coffee in dry and hot regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improper irrigation by Panax notoginseng growers can lead to soil consolidation, low fertilizer utilization, and decreased yield quality. In an attempt to provide a scientific and theoretical basis for Panax notoginseng cultivation to improve soil microhabitat and yield quality, field experiment were conducted on three-year-old Panax notoginseng in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The experimental design consisted of two control factors, the amount of irrigation (W) and the amount of fertilizer (F) applied. The irrigation was set to three levels, as W1, W2, and W3, with exact irrigation volumes of 5 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm. The amount of fertilizer applied was different in all four growth stages. The amount of fertilizer applied according to the four growth stages (rooting stage: seedling stage: flowering stage: fruiting stage), where F1 (360–360–360–360 kg∙hm−2), F2 (288–360–432–360 kg∙hm−2), F3 (216–432–432–360 kg∙hm−2) and F4 (144–576–288–432 kg∙hm−2). The W and F were randomly combined to form a total of 12 treatments. And a control treatment (CK), was added, and CK was neither irrigated nor fertilization. For obtaining the best treatment results, the TOPSIS method was used to comprehensively evaluate the soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, enzyme activity, physiological growth and saponin content of Panax notoginseng in 13 different water and fertilizer treatments. The results indicated that microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen, urease, sucrase, acid phosphatase and catalase activities of Panax notoginseng soil were significantly different (P < 0.05) and varied with the growth stage. The comprehensive evaluation by the TOPSIS method ranked W3F4 first and was the optimal treatment. The W3F4 treatment was more beneficial to the quality of Panax notoginseng than the other 12 treatments. W3F4 had the largest soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen content. W3F4 had the highest urease, sucrase, acid phosphatase, and catalase activities, which were 1.95, 1.69, 2.32, and 1.47 times higher than the CK treatment, respectively. W3F4 significantly improved R 1 , Rg 1 , Re, Rb 1 , and Rd saponin content. This study provided a theoretical basis for the water and fertilizer regulation of Panax notoginseng with its green, healthy and efficient quality cultivation. • W3F4 treatment was most beneficial for the increase of ginsenoside content. • Soil microbial biomass C and N were negatively associated with Re, and were positively associated with R 1. • Soil water content, sucrase, acid phosphatase, catalase, and urease were negatively correlated with Rb 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water and fertilizer are two important factors affecting crop growth and yield. Crop growth models are powerful tools for making irrigation and fertilization scheduling and predicting crop yield. The performance of crop models on potato under different irrigation amounts along with different N, P and K rates has been rarely evaluated, especially under drip fertigation. In this study, the accuracy of AquaCrop and DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato models in simulating potato growth, yield and water productivity under different drip fertigation regimes was compared. For model calibration and validation, a two-year field experiment with three irrigation levels (W 1 , 60% ET C ; W 2 , 80% ET C and W 3 , 100% ET C , where ET C was the crop evapotranspiration) and four fertigation (N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O) rates (F 1 : 100–40–150 kg ha−1, F 2 : 150–60–225 kg ha−1, F 3 : 200–80–300 kg ha−1 and F 4 : 250–100–375 kg ha−1) was carried out in a sandy region of northwest China in 2018 and 2019. The statistical indicators showed that the AquaCrop model gave satisfactory predictions of canopy cover (R 2 ≥ 0.92, NRMSE ≤ 14.7%, d ≥ 0.96 and RMSE ≤ 10.8%), total dry matter (R 2 ≥ 0.92, NRMSE ≤ 25.0%, d ≥ 0.94 and RMSE ≤ 2.2 t ha−1), final dry tuber yield (R 2 ≥ 0.57, NRMSE ≤ 12.21%, d ≥ 0.82 and RMSE ≤ 0.83 t ha−1) and fresh tuber yield (R 2 ≥ 0.53, NRMSE ≤ 12.02%, d ≥ 0.81 and RMSE ≤ 4.91 t ha−1) in the four fertigation treatments (F 1 -F 4) under W 3 and W 2 during the two potato growing seasons. The final total dry matter and tuber yield under W 1 were over-estimated. The simulated water productivity and soil water content also agreed well with the observations (R 2 ≥ 0.91 , NRMSE ≤ 5.51%, d ≥ 0.94 and RMSE ≤ 0.48 kg m−3, and R 2 ≥ 0.40 , NRMSE ≤ 14.8%, d ≥ 0.77 and RMSE ≤ 11.5 mm). The simulation accuracy of DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato model was lower than that of AquaCrop model, which only showed a goodness of fit between simulated total dry matter, soil water content, tuber yield, water productivity and observations under high irrigation amount with high fertilization rate (W 3 F 4). Since the observed tuber yield increased with the increase of irrigation level (60–100% ET C) under the same fertigation rate, 120%ET C and 40%ET C were further simulated using the AquaCrop model to test the changes in tuber yield with further increased or decreased irrigation levels. The scenarios simulation showed that the tuber yield was only increased by 0.19%−1.52% under 120%ET C compared with that under 100% ET C , but 18.0% more irrigation water was consumed. Comprehensively considering water resources and tuber yield, the irrigation level of 100% ET C (W 3) along with fertigation (N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O) rate of 200–80–300 kg ha−1 (F 3) was recommended for the sustainable potato production in the study region. The results of this study can provide guidance for the application of crop models in drip-fertigated potato. • AquaCrop and DSSAT-SUBSTOR-Potato were evaluated under various drip fertigation regimes. • AquaCrop adequately simulated the effects of irrigation and fertilization regimes on potato. • Simulation accuracy of DSSAT-SUBSTOR-potato was lower than that of AquaCrop. • 100% ET C along with N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O rate of 200–80–300 kg ha−1 was recommenced for potato production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, three types of oxided multi-wall carbon nanotubes (o-MWCNT) with different diameters and oxygen-containing group content were used to synthesize Layered double hydroxides/mixed metal oxides-carbon nanotubes (LDH/MMO-CNT) nanohybrids via a homogeneous urea precipitation method. The surface morphology, structure, graphitization of as-prepared nanohybrids were investigated by Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements, etc. The results showed that 3D hierarchical honeycomb nano-structured MMO-CNT was obtained when adding o-MWCNT with a diameter < 8 nm during preparation. And addition of o-MWCNT with a diameter > 30 nm; resulted in formation of a structure in which 1D CNT coupled with layers of 2D LDH/MMO with a “line-face” morphology. The results of bisphenol A degradation showed that addition of o-MWCNT with a smaller diameter led to better catalytic performance of MMO-CNT nanohybrids. It may be attributed to the better graphitization and highly dispersed activated components in the catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to obtain water and nitrogen (N) management mode for water saving, high quality and proper yield of Arabica coffee in dry and hot region of southwest China. Taking full irrigation (FI) as the control, the effects of three deficit irrigation (DI) levels (DI 80 , DI 60 and DI 40 , with irrigation amount of 80, 60 and 40% FI, respectively) in dry season on growth, yield, nutritional quality and water use efficiency (WUE) of Arabica coffee were investigated under three N rates (N H : 140, N M : 100 and N L : 60 g N plant −1 ) using field experiments from 2013 to 2015, and the comprehensive benefit of yield and nutritional quality was evaluated using the technique for ordering preferences by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method. Compared with FI, DI 80 increased two-year averaged contents of protein, crude fat and chlorogenic acid in dry bean by 9.4, 26.0 and 12.5%, respectively, but reduced dry bean yield by 6.4%. DI 60 and DI 40 reduced dry bean yield and water use efficiency (WUE) greatly, but increased the contents of caffeine and crude fiber in dry bean. Compared with N L , enhancing N rate increased dry bean yield, WUE, and the contents of protein and chlorogenic acid in dry bean by 32.9–42.6, 32.1–45.4, 5.9–9.7 and 7.0–12.6%, respectively, and N M level had the largest dry bean yield, WUE and chlorogenic acid content in dry bean. FIN M treatment had the largest two-year averaged dry bean yield of 5587.42 kg ha −1 and 31.8% higher than FIN L treatment. DI 80 N H treatment had the best comprehensive benefit of yield and nutritional quality. Compared with FIN L treatment, DI 80 N H treatment increased two-year averaged dry bean yield, WUE and the contents of protein and chlorogenic acid by 29.5, 42.7, 19.3 and 20.0%, respectively. Thus the treatment of high N (140 g plant −1 ) and moderate deficit irrigation (irrigation amount was 80% of FI) was the suitable mode of water and nitrogen management for Arabica coffee, which could realize water-saving, high quality and proper yield of Arabica coffee simultaneously in the dry and hot region of southwest China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the widely grown fruit crops and brings remarkable economic benefit in the xerothermic regions of southwest China. However, mango yield and quality can not be guaranteed due to the severe seasonal drought, low precipitation and extensive management of water and fertilizer. To investigate the effects of irrigation amount and fertilizer regime on mango yield, fruit quality, water use efficiency (WUE) and partial fertilizer productivity (PFP), an orthogonal experiment [L 9 (3)4] was conducted on mango under drip fertigation during 2018–2019. The four factors were irrigation amount (IA) and fertilization rate at the flowering (F Ⅰ), fruit expansion (F Ⅱ) and fruit ripening (F Ⅲ) growth stages. There were three irrigation amounts, i.e., full irrigation (FI: 100%ET c), mild deficit irrigation (DI M : 75%ET c) and severe deficit irrigation (DI S : 50%ET c), and three fertilization rates, i.e., 75 (F 75), 50 (F 50) and 25 (F 25) kg ha−1 using a compound water-soluble fertilizer (N:P 2 O 5 :K 2 O=20%:20%:20%). The results showed the order of factors influencing fruit yield and WUE in terms of their importance was IA, F Ⅱ , F Ⅰ and F Ⅲ , that influencing water, vitamin C and carotenoid contents in fruit was IA, F Ⅲ , F Ⅱ and F Ⅰ , and that influencing soluble solids and total sugar contents was IA, F Ⅲ , F Ⅰ and F Ⅱ. The WUE of DI M F Ⅰ50 F Ⅱ75 F Ⅲ25 was highest. FIF Ⅰ25 F Ⅱ75 F Ⅲ50 achieved the highest fruit yield, PFP and contents of soluble solid, vitamin C and carotenoid. DI M F Ⅰ25 F Ⅱ50 F Ⅲ75 had the highest total sugar content and the lowest titratable acid content. Based on the comprehensive scoring method, DI M F Ⅰ50 F Ⅱ75 F Ⅲ25 achieved the optimum score in terms of fruit yield and water–fertilizer use efficiency, while FIF Ⅰ25 F Ⅱ75 F Ⅲ50 was optimum for fruit quality. Further, the TOPSIS method indicated DI M F Ⅰ50 F Ⅱ75 F Ⅲ25 had the optimal comprehensive benefit. To obtain high yield, quality and water–fertilizer use efficiency, the recommended water and fertilizer scheduling was irrigation with 75% ET c and fertilization with 50, 75 and 25 kg ha−1 at the flowering, fruit expansion and fruit ripening stages, respectively. The research results provided a scientific reference for identified optimum combination irrigation and fertilizer in the xerothermic environment of southwest China. • Fruit yield, WUE, PFP and quality were more sensitive to irrigation than staged fertilization. • Increasing fertilizer allocation at fruit expansion stage, FI elevated fruit yield and PFP, while DI M increased WUE. • Improving fertilizer allocation at the later growth, FI increased SS, VC and CC, while DI M increased TS. • Optimal strategy of irrigation and split fertilization for mango was revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Entropy weight method was used to determine the best water saving method for mango. • Sugarcane leaf mulching was significantly increased fruit yield and IWUE. • Sugarcane leaf mulching decreased the titratable acid by 31.3%. • Sugarcane leaf mulching with 50% ETC had the best fresh fruit quality. Rational application of field-management technology can not only improve mango (Mangifera indica L.) fresh fruit yield and quality but also improve irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). However, few studies have involved the simultaneous use of mulch and irrigation-management techniques in hot and dry environments to achieve a relatively good level of performance. We used the entropy weight method (EWM) to explore an optimal mulching and irrigation-management technology for mango production in a dry hot environment. Three irrigation levels [FI, 100% mango evapotranspiration (ET C); DI 75 , 75% ET C ; DI 50 , 50% ET C ] were designed with (SM) and without (NM) sugarcane leaf mulching in 2018 and 2019 in a dry hot environment. The results showed that the photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, leaf water-use efficiency, and carboxylation efficiency in the SM treatment were 12.5% to 83.7% higher than those in the NM treatment in both years. Compared with the NM treatment, the SM treatment increased the fresh fruit yield and IWUE by 45.7% and 49.7% in 2018 and by 46.1% and 63.2% in 2019. The solid-to-acid ratio and sugar-to-acid ratio in the SM treatment were 48.5% and 50.4% higher than those in the NM treatment, respectively, but the titratable acid content decreased by 31.3%. Compared with FI, DI 75 increased carotenoid content, total soluble solids, solid-to-acid ratio and sugar-to-acid ratio by 8.4%–40.7%, while it reduced titratable acid by 22.8%. Compared with FI, DI 50 reduced fresh fruit yield by 24.3% and 21.9% in 2018 and 2019, respectively, while it increased IWUE by 13.6% and 17.7%. The fresh fruit yield of SMDI 75 was the highest, which was 1.42 and 1.44 times that of NMFI in both years, respectively. A comprehensive evaluation by EWM also showed that the SMDI 50 treatment had the highest comprehensive scores of mango yield, quality and water-use efficiency, which could provide a basis for the scientific management of mango fertiliser in dry and hot areas of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • MaxEnt and AHP-GIS were used to predict potential distribution. • Bio5, Bio6, Bio12, altitude, slope, sand and silt were the most key factors. • Under SSPs370, the most suitable area of Arabica coffee has increased. • Arabica coffee showed range expansions towards higher elevation and latitude. Coffee, as one of three major beverages all over the world, is featured by many functions mainly including refreshment, diuresis, invigorating stomach and stimulating appetite. However, there still lack of studies regarding the potential distribution of suitable planting regions and the important environmental factors that affect the growth and development of Arabica coffee. Based on climate, terrain and soil data, MaxEnt model and AHP-GIS technology were used to evaluate and analyze the increase and decrease range of Arabica coffee ecological suitability planting areas and most suitable areas in different periods, determine the most significant environmental factors affecting ecological suitability, and determine the distribution transformation under climate change scenario (SSPs370). Results showed that the ecological suitability of Arabica coffee plantation was mainly subjected to the climate factors, among which the maximum temperature in the warmest month, minimum temperature in the coldest month and the annual precipitation were particularly important, followed by terrain and soil factors. The model accuracies of MaxEnt and AHP-GIS were 0.925 and 0.833 respectively, indicating that the two methods were reliable in the ecological suitability evaluation of Arabica coffee. MaxEnt predicted that the most and moderately suitable area accounted for 16.26% and 22.59%, and AHP-GIS predicted that they accounted for 13.35% and 41.32% of the total area respectively. The most and moderately suitable areas were mainly concentrated in west, southeast, south and southwest Yunnan. Under the future climate scenario model, MaxEnt and AHP-GIS predicted that the area of the most suitable area would increase by 2.62 × 104–4.42 × 104 km2 and 3.53 × 104–5.44 × 104 km2 respectively from 2021 to 2100, which were mainly concentrated in west, southwest and southeast Yunnan. At the same time, the distribution of the most suitable area migrated northward generally to higher altitude and higher latitude, and the migration distance was 27.44–92.22 km. The predicted potential distribution of Arabica coffee based on MaxEnt model and AHP-GIS model could provide reference for the implementation of long-term planning and development programs so as to alleviate the effects of climate change on the distribution of Arabica coffee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Micro-moistening irrigation (MM) significantly increased dry mass (DM) accumulation and water-fertilizer use efficiency of young mango tree. • Moderate fertilization rate (F M) had the highest leaf net photosynthetic rate (P n), hydraulic conductivity and healthy index (H i). • MMF M treatment was the suitable coupling mode of irrigation and fertilization management for young mango tree. Unsuitable irrigation and soil nutrient deficiency affect the normal physiology and growth of mango (Mangifera indica L.) of tropical fruit tree in Southwest China. To obtain optimal fertigation mode for mango, the effects of three micro-irrigation methods (i.e., micro-sprinkler irrigation (SI), drip irrigation (DI) and micro-moistening irrigation (MM)) on photosynthetic characteristics, hydraulic conductivity, growth and water-fertilizer use efficiency of young mango tree were investigated under four fertilization rates (i.e., 0 g plant−1 (F N), 9.3 g plant−1 (F L), 18.6 g plant−1 (F M) and 27.9 g plant−1 (F H), a compound water-soluble fertilizer) using a randomized block design experiment. The results indicated that DI and MM increased net photosynthetic rate (P n) by 17.50 and 28.95%, root hydraulic conductivity (K r) by 39.65 and 52.69%, shoot hydraulic conductivity (K sh) by 48.63 and 82.38%, total dry mass (DM) by 27.44 and 47.13%, water use efficiency (WUE ET) by 43.27 and 73.17%, fertilizer agronomic efficiency (FAE) by 45.92 and 95.41%, and partial factor productivity of fertilizer (PFP) by 33.96 and 54.44%, but reduced transpiration rate (T r) by 6.61 and 16.38%, leaf with petiole hydraulic conductivity (K l+p) by 13.11 and 30.32%, and water consumption (ET) by 10.38 and 14.85% when compared with SI. Compared with F N , enhancing fertilization rate significantly increased P n , T r , total hydraulic conductivity (root to leaf), total DM , healthy index (H i) and WUE ET , and their maximum values appeared in the F M. FAE firstly increased and then decreased, while PFP gradually reduced with the increase of fertilization rate. MMF M had the highest total DM and WUE ET , 2.32 and 2.58 times of SIF N (CK), and the largest FAE of 4.95 kg−1. Thus, MMF M (micro-moistening irrigation with moderate fertilization rate of 18.6 g plant−1) significantly promoted growth and improved water-fertilizer use efficiency of young mango tree, which was the best coupling mode of irrigation method and fertilization rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel (octylamine modified vermiculite) material for enhanced simultaneous removal of Cd(II) and Pb(II). • Modification involved ion exchange and surface complexation properties between surfactant and vermiculite. • Modified material was low lost with no secondary pollution. • After modification, adsorbent showed >220 % metal uptake with easy separation and recyclability. Cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) have been remained the topic of investigation for various research studies because of their adverse effects on human health, furthermore, they have toxic and non‒biodegradable properties. In this study, vermiculite (VER) was functionalized with octylamine (OCT) to obtain a novel organoclay (OCT-VER) for enhanced simultaneous adsorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) from aqueous solution. Adsorbents were characterized and parameters influencing on adsorption were also investigated. The adsorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by OCT-VER was monolayer and homogenous which was described well by Langmuir isotherm model. After modification, the affinities of OCT-VER towards both metal ions were enhanced. In single system, maximum adsorption capacities for Cd(II) and Pb(II) were improved from 45.245 and 102.289 mg.g−1 to 69.595 and 184.603 mg.g−1, while in binary system from 37.539 and 78.265 mg.g−1 to 61.630 and 121.986 mg.g−1, respectively. In adsorbent regeneration experiment of OCT-VER, the removal ratio was found ≈90 % even after 5 consecutive cycles, exhibiting good stability and easy regeneration potential. After studying thoroughly, ion-exchange and complexation properties were the main reaction mechanism. These findings suggested that the proposed low cost adsorbent was suitable and promising material for Cd(II) and Pb(II) adsorption in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]