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During earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunnelling in sandy ground, not only foam but also other conditioning agents need to be injected to reduce the permeability of muck and avoid water spewing out of the screw conveyor. Permeability tests were carried out to study the permeability characteristics of conditioned sand under high hydraulic gradients. A low bentonite slurry injection ratio (BIR) enhanced the workability of foam-conditioned sand. As the hydraulic gradient increased, the initial permeability coefficient of conditioned sand increased, and the initial stable period became shorter or disappeared. The BIR had a more significant effect on the permeability of conditioned sand than the foam injection ratio (FIR), and this effect gradually weakened as the hydraulic gradient increased. The initial permeability coefficient of the foam–bentonite slurry-conditioned sand decreased by approximately an order of magnitude compared with that of the foam-conditioned sand. With the addition of bentonite slurry, suitable sand conditioning can accept a higher water content (w) and lower FIR, resulting in suitable ranges of w and FIR that are more flexible. Finally, the mechanism of stabilizing foam under the action of bentonite slurry was discussed by considering the interaction between foam bubbles and fine particles.

Frequent cultivation is often used to control weeds in crops such as lettuce. The efficacy of this technique on weed populations has been evaluated, but the effect on weed emergence and seedbanks is less documented. Studies in mineral soil indicate that soil disturbance can increase both weed emergence and seed persistence depending on where seeds are redistributed in the soil profile. Evaluations done in muck soil are scarce. This study evaluated the effect of two and four repetitive shallow (3.4 to 7.1 cm deep) cultivations on weed emergence and the weed seedbank in muck soil. Cultivation treatments (0, 2, and 4 cultivations using a inter-row rototiller) were done in lettuce plots from 2017 to 2019. Weed density was evaluated by species before each cultivation date and after crop harvest. Viable seedbanks were evaluated by collecting soil samples before and after each growing season and placing them in greenhouse flats. Statistical analyses were based on mixed models. Results showed that shallow cultivation modified the emergence patterns of weeds but did not reduce total emergence during the subsequent years or viable seedbanks. After two seasons without seed inputs, total emergence was reduced by 46.6% and the seedbank was reduced by 31.7% regardless of the cultivation treatment. However, the seedbank of the very abundant common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) remained high.

Based on Monte Carlo method, this paper calculates landslide probability of muck soil slopes under different rainfall time, rainfall intensity, soil permeability coefficient and slope angle, thus obtaining the probability samples of muck soil landslides. On this basis, logistic regression method of nonlinear classification is used for data fitting and analysis, thus establishing nonlinear function . Function expression is derived by data fitting, and a landslide probability evaluation model is constructed. Based on analysis of engineering examples, the error between this method and the numerical calculation results is within 10%, and the evaluation results are reasonable. It provides theoretical support for rapid identification of muck soil landslide risk under heavy rain conditions.

The application of appropriate excavation equipment in difficult grounds is of crucial importance and consequently improves the performance of hard rock Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). The cutterhead is one of the main components of TBMs which is directly involved in the excavation process, and its design can highly affect the cutting efficiency, the overall balance of the head, the performance of main bearing in long term, and the wear of the whole cutting face and muck buckets. This paper mainly focuses on the significant role of a proper design on the cutting efficiency with reference to a TBM tunneling project. Due to existence of very hard and abrasive rocks on the path of Kerman water conveyance tunnel, a new cutterhead was designed to be applied on a second hand TBM. The new cutterhead contains larger 19-inch disc cutters with a new disc cutter layout. Since the new cutterhead was launched following the excavation of the old one in a specific chainage of the tunnel, the performance of the two cutterheads in pyroclastic rocks could be compared with respect to the cutting efficiency, and lower specific energy values were observed for the new cutterhead which is the indicator of a better cutting efficiency in this geological condition.

In south Florida sugarcane is cultivated on muck and sandy soils. The cane yield (CY) of varieties grown on sandy soils is substantially lower than on muck soils due to water and nutrients stress. High CY combined with good ratooning ability (RA) is important for profitable sugarcane cultivation. In this study three series of CP trials (CP 2009, CP 2010, and CP 2011) planted in 3–4 locations with sandy soils were evaluated during 3 crop cycles. Our goals were to assess the magnitude of the sources of variation in the final selection stage (Stage 4) in the CP program for sandy soils, and to select sugarcane genotypes for sandy soils with high CY, good RA, and performance stability across sand locations. Variability of CY on sandy soils depended on crop and crop × location interaction. Genotype × crop × location interaction was significant in two out of three CP series, highlighting the complexity associated with breeding for CY on sandy soils in Florida. There were significant differences for CY among genotypes of CP 2011 series, but a limited RA diversity was detected among genotypes. The genotype plus genotype × environment (GEE) interaction analysis conducted with the combined CY data of CP 2011 series showed that Pahokee Produce Inc. (PPI) and Lykes locations were the most discriminant locations, whereas Hilliard and Townsite were the most representative sand locations in Florida. The simultaneous selection for CY, RA and stability identified outstanding genotypes in the CP 2011 series such as CP 11-1314 and CP 11-1640.

Background: Baking-free bricks have the advantages of saving energy and soil, being environmentally friendly and sustainable. It is interesting to prepare baking-free muck bricks using the muck as the main raw material by the curing process under the moderate environment. Methods: The muck baking-free bricks were analysed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The roles of the ratio of the cement to muck in determining the compressive strength, water absorption, softening coefficient, stability of the freeze-thaw cycles and stability of the drying-wetting cycles of the muck bricks have been investigated. Results: The compressive strength and softening coefficient of the muck bricks were the highest with the values of 15.81 MPa and 0.80, respectively, while the water absorption and mass loss percentage were the lowest with the values of 8.12% and 0.61%, respectively when the ratio of the slag cement to muck is 1:4. Hydration products formed by the hydration reaction resulting in the increase of the density and compressive strength of the muck baking-free bricks. Conclusion: Muck baking-free bricks with good physical performance have been prepared using slag cement as the cementing material for the amalgamation of muck. The obtained baking-free bricks exhibited high mechanical performance.

During tunnel boring machine (TBM) excavation, scrapers play the role in shoveling the broken rock fragments, directly contacting with them, which may result in seriously wear and failure, causing high economic loss. Therefore, it is an urgent problem to study the wear mechanism of scraper and how to reduce the blade wear. In this study, the wear prediction model of scraper was established based on working mechanism and wear mechanism analysis. The factors influence on wear characteristic were obtained. Then, the numerical model of TBM scraper shoveling the muck was established using discrete element method. The shovel capacity and wear characteristic of scraper were studied. The structural parameters of blade were optimal designed, comprehensively considering the shovel capacity and wear characteristics. The results indicate that abrasive wear is the main type of scraper wear. The main influencing factors of scraper wear are blade angles. When the front angle of the blade is 25° and the back angle is 8°, the wear performance of the scraper would be improved. The optimal results were successfully applied to a tunneling project and the actual data in the engineering construction of the scraper during the construction were analyzed to verify the structural design method of TBM scraper.

Soil conditioning is an important stage in shield tunnel construction that can effectively improve muck flow plasticity, reduce cutter head wear and improve tunneling efficiency, especially in sandy and cobbly soils. The aim of this paper is to obtain the optimal ratio of residue modifiers in sandy and cobbly soil and to improve the equipment used in residue-related shield machines. Residual soil in a sandy pebble layer was selected, and particles with sizes over 50 mm were removed to form soil samples. Through laboratory tests, the optimal ratio of the modifier was obtained, and the shield tunneling machine equipment was optimized. The research results for the laboratory tests and equipment optimization were verified and adjusted appropriately through field tunneling tests. The following results were obtained. 1) A 3% foaming agent C was selected for the soil conditioning tests. The final mass ratio of the bentonite mixed solution of water, bentonite, soda ash (Na2CO3), and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was 6:1:0.028:0.035. 2) Improving earth pressure balance (EPB) shield machine equipment can improve the effects of soil conditioning. 3) Compared with the volume of residual soil, the optimal ratio of soil conditioning in sandy and cobbly layer was 13% water, 4–5% bentonite mixed solution and 12–15% foam. In addition, the maximum ratio shall be taken for the strata with poor grain composition. These results can be used to provide excavation guidelines for using an EPB machine under these soil conditions.

During the shield construction of Harbin Subway Line No. 3 Project, the average ground settlement exceeds the warning value. In order to find the cause of settlement and improve it, this paper establishes a settlement prediction model to analyse the potential influencing factors based on the Deep Belief Network (DBN) and calculated the correlation degree between influencing factors and settlement through sensitivity analysis. It was found that the permeability coefficients of layer and cutter head torque are the main factors affecting settlement. Then, corresponding muck improvement measures were made according to the analysis of the layer conditions, which successfully reduced the permeability and shear strength of the muck, thereby controlling the surface settlement value within the warning range. The research results in this paper illustrate the applicability and robustness of DBN in tunnel engineering, and the related research ideas can be applied to other projects.

Wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are major economic pests of Florida sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid). The corn wireworm, Melanotus communis (Gyllenhal), is the most important wireworm pest of Florida sugarcane occurring in both sandy and muck soils. The objective of this study was to determine survivability, preference, and dispersal of wireworms in sandy and muck soils. There was no significant difference in starved wireworm survival between the soils after 2 mo. However, the starved wireworms gained more weight in muck soil than in sand. Wireworms dispersed at similar rates toward oat baits in both soil types. Interestingly, in free choice tests wireworms showed a high preference to reside in muck versus sandy soil, which corresponds to the greater wireworm weight change found in muck versus sandy soil. The high preference for muck and greater weight gain in muck found in this study partially explains why M. communis is more abundant in muck soils than in sandy soils in Florida sugarcane.

Emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis) has had an extensive impact across North America. It is currently present in Minnesota, USA but has not been observed in northern portions of the state where the vast majority of black ash (Fraxinus nigra) trees are located. Unlike other ash forest communities, the black ash forest type occurs in wetlands and is dominated by black ash with few associate species. Because of this, the loss of black ash can result in changes to the hydrological regime and species composition. The goal of this study was to quantify the structure and composition of regeneration 5 to 11 years post-harvest in three silvicultural systems (group selection, clearcut, and diameter-limit harvesting) to evaluate the potential for establishment of other tree species. Overall, regeneration post-harvest was high but variable across all systems. Across silvicultural systems, there was no significant relationships between residual overstory trees (> 10 cm dbh) basal area and non-ash regeneration TPH, indicating flexibility in designing treatments for diversification. Populus sapling (2.54–10 cm) density was significantly negatively correlated to the depth of the soil muck layer. In contrast, a positive relationship was observed between depth of the soil muck and black ash saplings. These findings indicate that specific silvicultural systems in combination with site quality (e.g., clearcuts on high-quality sites with shallow muck layers) may help to promote non-ash species in black ash forests that are threatened with EAB.

Biogas age from the anaerobic processing has uncovered to be probably the best innovation as another fuel source to petroleum derivatives, which can decrease the unfavorable ecological contamination and yield supplement muck as bio manure. Biogas production from sugarcane press mud has enormous potential for energy age. Nonetheless, to empower the enhancement of the anaerobic digestion (AD) measure substrate trademark ought to be painstakingly assessed. In this paper the biogas improvement has been talked about and completed. Tests of press mud from different locales from the nation were investigated as far as aggregate and unstable solids, macronutrients, minor components and dietary benefit. Biochemical methane potential was performed to assess the energy capability of the press mud as per various sorts of sugarcane plants. Methane yields changed extensively, for the most part because of the various areas, water quality, soil structure and manures utilized for developing the sugar stick just as sugar and additionally ethanol creation measures.

This study looks at volunteering at parkrun, a weekly 5 k run/walk event held at almost 2,000 different locations worldwide, which relies on volunteers. Despite large numbers of parkrunners, and an...

Experiments were conducted to evaluate potential functional and mechanistic differences in the suppression of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and S. minor and root-knot nematodes in muck soils by anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) using different carbon source amendments. Volatile compounds produced during ASD in muck soil amended with molasses, wheat bran, or mustard greens at 20.2 Mg/ha or a 2% ethanol solution significantly reduced the mycelial growth and number of sclerotia produced by both Sclerotinia spp. compared with the anaerobic control. In amended soils, acetic and butyric acids were detected in concentrations that reduced the viability of sclerotia of both pathogens. Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide were observed in ASD-treated soils, regardless of the amendment, than in the nonamended anaerobic control. Only amendment with wheat bran did not increase the production of methane gas during ASD compared with the controls. Meloidogyne hapla survival was completely suppressed in soils treated with ASD regardless of carbon source. Field trials were conducted in Ohio muck soil to assess survival of sclerotia of both Sclerotinia spp. The viability of sclerotia of both Sclerotinia spp. was significantly reduced in soil subjected to ASD amended with wheat bran (20.2 Mg/ha), molasses (10.1 Mg/ha), or wheat bran (20.2 Mg/ha) plus molasses (10.1 Mg/ha) compared with the controls. A consistent negative correlation between soil reduction and viability of sclerotia of both pathogens was observed. Wheat bran and molasses are both widely available amendments that can be used as ASD carbon sources for the management of soilborne pathogens in muck soils.

This study investigated the potential utilization of the TBM muck obtained from the Gold Line of the Doha Metro Project as a partial replacement of coarse aggregates in concrete mixes. First, the TBM muck particles were screened to coarse aggregate standard sizes. Then, concrete mixes were prepared using 0%, 25%, 50%, and 75% TBM muck replacement of coarse aggregates. The compressive and flexural strengths were determined for all mixes at 28 and 56 days. Moreover, the results obtained were validated using EDX analysis and SEM images. A t-statistical analysis did not show a significant impact of TBM muck usage on the compressive strength results of the concrete mixes. However, another t-statistical analysis showed that TBM muck replacement of coarse aggregates had adversely affected the flexural strength results. The EDX analysis indicated the presence of Na+ ions, which can replace the Ca2+ ions in the C-S-H gel, cause discontinuities of it, and hence reduce the strength at later ages. Finally, the SEM images showed that the ettringite and carbon hydroxide (C-H) contents in the mixes with TBM muck were higher than that of the control mix, while the C-S-H gel was less in such mixes.

To assess the impact of dry sludge on solid execution, its physical and mechanical properties were contemplated. Right now endeavor is taken to bring into play the muck squander in different extents with the goal that the last item property of solid blend is same as the control blend. Squander sludge material was supplanted with fine and coarse total.

A computational scheme coupling PFC3D (Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimensions) and FLAC3D (Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in 3 Dimensions) was performed to investigate influences of sand conditioning on the tunneling behaviour of earth pressure balance (EPB) shield in sandy ground. A detailed EPB shield and its near ground were modelled in the PFC3D while the other ground was simulated in the FLAC3D. Decreasing friction coefficients were used to characterize the fluidity improvement of conditioned muck particles. The results indicate that the residence time of muck in the excavation chamber is associated with its position and rotation directions of the spoke. The muck pressure and its difference in front of and behind the cutterhead decrease with the improvement of conditioning degree in a certain conditioning range, and an appropriate soil conditioning scheme can facilitate the control of chamber pressure. In addition, the torque of cutterhead decreases more significantly than the thrust with an improvement of soil conditioning degree within a normal conditioning range.

Scenarios modeling can be a useful tool to plan for climate change. In this study, we help Everglades restoration planning to bolster climate change resiliency by simulating plausible ecosystem responses to three climate change scenarios: a Baseline scenario of 2010 climate, and two scenarios that both included 1.5 °C warming and 7% increase in evapotranspiration, and differed only by rainfall: either increase or decrease by 10%. In conjunction with output from a water-use management model, we used these scenarios to drive the Everglades Landscape Model to simulate changes in a suite of parameters that include both hydrologic drivers and changes to soil pattern and process. In this paper we focus on the freshwater wetlands; sea level rise is specifically addressed in prior work. The decreased rainfall scenario produced marked changes across the system in comparison to the Baseline scenario. Most notably, muck fire risk was elevated for 49% of the period of simulation in one of the three indicator regions. Surface water flow velocity slowed drastically across most of the system, which may impair soil processes related to maintaining landscape patterning. Due to lower flow volumes, this scenario produced decreases in parameters related to flow-loading, such as phosphorus accumulation in the soil, and methylmercury production risk. The increased rainfall scenario was hydrologically similar to the Baseline scenario due to existing water management rules. A key change was phosphorus accumulation in the soil, an effect of flow-loading due to higher inflow from water control structures in this scenario.

A series of dynamic triaxial tests were performed to investigate the dynamic deformation properties of the muck soil, in the Pearl River Delta region of Shenzhen, China, under different consolidation ratios, loading frequencies and cyclic stress with SPAX-2000 triaxial testing system. The results showed that the initial stress-strain hysteresis curve of the muck soil under the low-frequency cyclic loading developed rapidly and the curve shape changes from sparse to tight and to slightly sparse. The cumulative plastic strain of muck soil increased nonlinearly with the dynamic stress amplitude, and there was a critical dynamic stress. As the dynamic stress amplitude reached its critical value, the strain increased sharply and the soil microstructure was destroyed. There was a frequency threshold between 0.25 Hz and 0.5 Hz, and the cumulative plastic strain development mode was from stable model to over-destructive model. The stiffness of the muck decreased gradually, and the plastic deformation increased as the number of cycles increased. Therefore, the lower the loading frequency developed, the greater the plastic deformation would be. The dynamic elastic modulus decreased as the plastic deformation increased, while the dynamic elastic modulus increased as the consolidation stress increased. Moreover, the empirical formulas of dynamic elastic modulus and plastic strain index were established with the consolidation stress ratio as the parameter, and the validity was verified by experimental data.

The application of seaweeds as muck in agricultural farming has been very common from ancient times in the Roman Empire, Japan, China, France, Spain, Britain, etc. Most coastal areas all over the world use seaweeds as bio-fertilizer for crop production. Seaweed extracts are used in different ways like seed treatment, foliar spray and soil application for plant protection and for plant growth promotion. Seaweed extract is more useful than chemical fertilizer because of its bio-decomposable, non-toxic and eco-friendly property. These are the most important reasons to use seaweed extracts in recent years for sustainable agriculture in organic and integrated organic farming. Seaweeds affect agricultural crops for enhancement of plant growth, seedling growth, both root hair and secondary root development. It can also improve nutrient incorporation, fruit setting, resistance properties against pests and diseases, improving the stress management (drought, salinity and temperature). The present review focused on use of seaweed extract in the agricultural system and novel strategies for the use of seaweed extract.

Soil sinking is a major engineering concern need to be addressed through proper planning and investigation. Usually Engineers depend on borehole data or soil tests for designing the solution for such problems. In view of cost, time and less destruction, geophysical methods are best to probe such engineering and environmental problems. Therefore, Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method used to investigate soil sinking in Satellite town Langerpura, Sub Himalayas Azad Jammu and Kashmir Muzaffarabad Pakistan. Two profiles acquired overlap the zone under study with electrode spacing 5m and average depth of 40-50m. Three different geological zones are identified on the base of resistivity data. Low resistivity zone having resistivity 3.0 – 15Ωm is water saturated friable sandstone. Intermediate resistivity zone with resistivity range 100-1000 Ωm consists of alternate layers of sand, clay and river deposits. High resistivity zone with resistivity range 1000-4000 Ωm show cavities in subsurface. The room size cavity detected which cause the soil sinking at surface. Muck filling or compaction grouting recommended as engineering solution for stabilization of sink soil.

An attempt was made to examine the relationship between various TBM operational factors, its performance, and muck geometry during the excavation of a short geologically uniform section of Golab II water transfer tunnel. A database based on nine field testing data derived from machine operating and performance parameters along with muck shape and size was formed. Subsequently, it was used for analyzing the correlation among variables. The analysis results point out that there is a strong inverse correlation between specific energy (SE), an indicator parameter of rock cutting efficiency, and three muck size indicators including: coarseness index (CI), mean particle size, and absolute grain size (last one is the correlation with R 2 = 0.93). Typically, for the small sized muck with the mean grain size ranging from 3 to 9 mm examined in shale formation in this study, the in situ SE varies between 3.4 and 8.1 kWh/m3. Also, the TBM penetration rate (PRev) follows reasonable trends with respect to other field performance parameters such as boreability index (BI), instantaneous cutting rate (ICR), and machine operational factors including the cutterhead thrust force and torque, in agreement with findings of several similar both laboratory and field scale studies. For example, for the PRev ranging from 5.5 to 10 mm/rev, the BI decreases in power function from 34.8 to 16.8 kN/cutter/mm/rev, and the ICR increases logarithmic from 50 to 85 m3/h. These results highlight the potential development of a real-time monitoring based system can be come on the scene for controlling TBM operation. However, the range of the input data available is very limited, therefore a deep analysis along with an extended database is required for enhancing outcomes of this study.

High rainfall may disrupt mining operations due to possibility of wet mud slides, occurences. One of the area wet mud slide in the mining area of "DOZ" Panel 7 West PT Freeport Indonesia, Mimika District, Papua Province. Study was needed to image the subsurface where have high probability of wet mud slide might happen. Resistivity method was used using Wenner Alpha configuration with a total length of 270 m. The measurements were performea six times at different dates. Measured data use as the primary data to determine the high possibility areas of mud wet slides. And the primary data were compared with secondary data such as rainfall and geological data. Analysis the resistivity cross-sections show that the low resistivity zones are located in Panel 7 DP # 14E, 16E, 18E, 19E, 20E and 21E. Water enter the DOZ Mine (Deep Ore Zone) by infiltration and precipitation directly through the cave material, permeable zones along the contact zone of diorite/skarn/marble, and the spillover cut crackline or caveline of formation Lower Kais. The correlation between the quantitative data of the apparent resistivity with rainfall data has the highest value of 3.52 %. Keywords: Resistivity, wet muck, panel

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) has been successfully used in wetland-based water treatment systems due to its capacity for rapid nutrient uptake, water-column oxygenation, and dampening of sediment resuspension. For Everglades restoration, large engineered wetlands known as Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) rely heavily on SAV-dominated treatment cells, since they have been highly efficient at reducing phosphorus (P) in surface waters to mesotrophic levels (12–25 µg/L). However, Everglades STAs have strict water quality effluent limits (∼13 µg/L), and many SAV cells are unable to regularly achieve such levels. In shallow aquatic systems, SAV can be a potential source of internal P loading from sediment to the water column via “nutrient pumping” through root uptake and leaf turnover. This mechanism may be an important obstacle to achieving lower wetland outflow P concentrations, but little is known of the interactions between substrate and SAV nutrition under these low-nutrient conditions. Soil core microcosms were incubated with or without macrophytes to estimate internal P loading potential in an SAV wetland and test the hypothesis that wetland substrate manipulation in the downstream (outflow) region might have reduced such loads and enabled more reliable delivery of low-P discharges. During six sequential two-week batch incubations, water-column P concentrations above muck soil overlain by accrued marl (typical of substrates in existing SAV-dominated STAs) indicated significantly higher internal P loading and higher macrophyte biomass growth than above either a bare limerock (LR) substrate (representative of a 40-ha pilot substrate manipulation study, where the muck soil was removed to expose the underlying limestone bedrock, i.e., “limerock”) or LR with an accrued marl layer (representing post-startup conditions in the pilot, after muck removal and subsequent sediment accumulation under treatment wetland conditions). The results suggest that by removing muck soils to expose a LR substrate in the pilot wetland, SAV biomass and tissue P were diminished, thus reducing the potential for internal loading from SAV, which supports our hypothesis. For each of the three substrate types, internal P loading was higher in the presence of a vascular rooted plant, Potamogeton illinoensis, than the non-vascular macro-alga, Chara sp., (both taxa are prevalent in full-scale STAs), while internal loading was not different between Chara and the non-vegetated control. This indicates the role of P mining by rooted SAV. Overall, this study furthers our understanding of the wetland P cycle at near-oligotrophic levels, and is relevant to STA optimization for Everglades restoration.

The main purpose of blasting in open pit mines is to produce the feed for crushing stage with the optimum dimensions from in situ rocks. The size distribution of muck pile indicates the efficiency of blasting pattern to reach the required optimum sizes. Nevertheless, there is no mature model to predict fragmentation distribution to date that can be used in various open pit mines. Therefore, a new framework to evaluate and predict fragmentation distribution is presented based on the image analysis approach. For this purpose, the data collected from Jajarm bauxite mine in Iran were used as the sources in this study. The image analysis process was performed by Split-Desktop software to find out fragmentation distribution, uniformity index and average size of the fragmented rocks. Then, two different approaches including the multivariate regression method and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique were incorporated to develop new models of the uniformity index and the average size to improve the Rosin-Rammler function. The performances of the proposed models were evaluated in four blasting operation sites. The results obtained indicate that the regression model possesses a better performance in prediction of the uniformity index and the average size and subsequently the fragmentation distribution in comparison with DEMATEL and conventional Rosin-Rammler models. Keywords: Rock fragmentation, Image analysis, Open pit mine, Split-desktop software package, Decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique

Fine-grained “chalky” pottery containing microscopic sponge spicules is commonly recovered from archaeological sites throughout peninsular Florida, but many questions remain about its composition and origins. It is identified by different names, but most are associated with the St. Johns Type series. While it has been commonly assumed to originate in the St. Johns River drainage for which it is named, the prevalence of pottery with these characteristics in other locations has presented the likelihood of independent production in multiple places. In this study, we conducted LA-ICP-MS and XRD analysis of spiculate pottery from three Woodland period (ca. 1000 BCE to 1000 CE) sites, along with comparative clay samples, in order to characterize the raw materials and determine the geographic scope of production. Our results support the theory that this ware was independently produced across peninsular Florida. We further evaluate the hypothesis that this pottery was made with common wetland muck, through consideration of the material properties of muck constituents. This project emphasizes the importance of an ecosystem framework for understanding the long history of spiculate pottery production and its geographic spread within Florida.

This paper presents an evaluation of muck pile fragmentation based on the Kuz-Ram empirical model. Furthermore, a comparisonof the cumulative size distribution curves obtained from the photogrammetry analysis and based on the Kuz-Ram modelwas made. Size distribution was performed based on the Kuz-Ram model and further validated in the O-Pitblast software. It wasestablished that the algorithm applied in O-Pitblast software was not modified. The difference between empirical results and in-situanalysis could be explained by, inter alia, the subjective assumption of the RMD index value.