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The dominant mental timelines of native Chinese speakers (Exp1) and Mandarin learners of near-native proficiency (Exp2) was examined with the spontaneous gesture task. The results demonstrated that (1) both groups produced horizontal, vertical, sagittal, fused horizontal and vertical, and fused horizontal and sagittal gestures for all kinds of Chinese temporal words, indicating a strong preference for horizontal over vertical gestures. (2) Negligible correlations between immediate spatio-temporal metaphors and the mental timelines were observed, with an almost non-existent difference in gesture distribution across metaphorical types between the two groups. The findings indicate that (1) the horizontal mental timeline is the dominant timeline for two groups; (2) visuospatial experience exerts a greater influence on temporal cognition; (3) mental timelines formed by the long-term effects of language may operate beyond the immediate metaphors, similar to the horizontal gestures. A unified model proposing embodied experience as the mechanism for activating mental timelines is presented.

Twenty first century faces unprecedented challenges for the management of global waterways. The Himalayan waterways in Asia are exposed to unpredictable climatic warming together with anthropogenic perturbations caused by population growth, land use change and socio‐economic development. Given the increased public concerns on the Himalayan Mountain development programmes including the hydropower and tourism, there has been a growing need of the use of interdisciplinary scientific approaches to address water resources challenges that the Himalayan region has faced during the 21st century. Ecohydrology is an emerging scientific tool that explores key hydrological processes regulating structure and function of ecosystems, as well as assessing the impact of biological processes on water cycle variables under rapidly changing environment. The International Geosphere‐Biosphere Programme and the International Hydrological Programme hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization have adopted ecohydrology as a sustainable development tool by linking water resources and poverty eradication and ecosystem restoration, irrigation, energy and sanitation. However, ecohydrology tool needs to be reconfigured for sustainable development of rapidly changing Himalayan waterways. Here we propose the advancement of ecohydrology by developing various integrated frameworks of ecology, hydrology, hydraulics and sociology for resilient waterways in the Asian Himalayas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aromatics constitute the highest proportion among the four asphalt components. The existing literature contains over 20 types of small molecules used to characterise asphalt aromatics, which presents a challenge in constructing asphalt molecular models. In this investigation, quantum chemical calculations were employed to determine the molecular morphology, molecular polarity, and infrared spectrum indicators of asphalt aromatics. Based on principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering, statistical analysis of the aforementioned indicators was conducted to present a recommended scheme for selecting representative molecules of aromatics, thereby reducing the difficulty of constructing asphalt molecular models. The results indicated that N2 was recommended as the representative molecule for aromatics with high molecular weight and long alkane chains, while N3 was recommended as the representative molecule for aromatics with low molecular weight. Based on the variations in substituents of aromatics, it was advisable to select one or more of N7, N10, N14 – N16, and N19 as representative molecules. The investigation guided the selection of aromatic representative molecules in the construction of asphalt molecular models. For major projects with test data, representative molecules could be adjusted according to the test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is required to conduct repeated multi-frequency test to determine the best detection frequency when taking traditional tone burst as the guided wave excitation of dirt pipe, which had problems of blindness, time and resources consuming. A conversion algorithm from broadband chirp to tone burst was put forward based on broadband chirp guided wave excitation of dirt pipe. All tone burst responses in the broadband of chirp signal is similarly extracted during post-processing. The best detection frequency was determined through the comparing energy distribution and modal purity of the different frequency guided wave responses that it was calculated from the chirp response, and combined with time-frequency analysis method to determine the appropriate waveguide frequency interval according to the distribution of the response waveform energy of the dirt pipe. It had shown from simulation analysis and experiment studies that: the center frequency of about 175 kHz was the most appropriate for guided wave detection of investigating dirt pipe. The method could determine the best guided wave detection frequency of dirt addresses both test at multi-frequency and minimize acquisition time, which would lay a foundation for achieving guided wave detection from the ‘point’ to ‘line’ of the pipe dirt.

Since the fouling accumulation in the heat exchanger equipment has produced great effect for safe and economical operation,it is particularly important to detect the fouling produced in heat exchanger equipment accurately and rapidly. Ansys finite element simulation software was used to establish the model of hollow and fouling pipelines. Research on the vibration characteristics of ultrasonic guided waves propagate in pipes and the influence of different sources for fouling detection. The optimum excitation frequency and period was obtained for fouling ultrasonic detection in pipes. After compared with the experimental studies,the results indicate that L（ 0,3） mode guided waves motivated by excitation signal with the 1 MHz central frequency and the 10 period signal is adapted to the fouling detection for 304 steel of outside diameter 25 mm and wall thickness 3 mm. The experiment results are in agreement with the numerical results. The guided wave mode and the optimal excitation frequency can be directly applied to the actual detection. The research results lay the foundation for the measurement realization of the fouling thickness in pipes.