Search Results (88)

Complex operating conditions, such as low temperature, can affect the degradation and safety stability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This paper conducts research on the aging evolution and safety characteristics of LIBs under low-temperature conditions (−20 °C), to reveal the change laws of battery degradation and the trends of thermal parameters of aging LIBs. Cycling and charging/discharging experiments under low temperatures were conducted to collect realistic battery data. Various factors such as temperature, cycle number, charging/discharging rate, and depth of discharge/charge (DOD/DOC) are taken into consideration to test the battery cycling and thermal performance. With collected experimental results, basic electrical states of LIBs such as open-circuit voltage (OCV), internal resistance, and capacity are presented. Then, the capacity loss and internal resistance growth are also described and analyzed under various charge/discharge rates and DODs/DOCs. The experimental results show that low temperatures cause an almost 30% increase in polarization resistance, with nonlinear changes in total internal resistance. Moreover, the battery capacity and internal resistance also have extreme points with different charge/discharge rates under −20 °C, which may demonstrate that the charge/discharge rates of LIBs can be optimized under low temperature. Thermal runaway (TR) experiments were also conducted, and the self-heating rate and other indices are presented to show that an aging battery under low temperature still holds large energy to develop TR. The aging trends of LIBs under low temperatures are summarized, and battery safety is clarified to provide a reference for battery lifetime and safety management under low-temperature conditions. Full article

With the widespread adoption of mobile devices in daily life, efficiently capturing and digitizing documentation has emerged as a critical research question. The acquisition of documents via mobile devices is often compromised by shadow interference and geometric distortions, which degrade image quality and adversely affect both OCR accuracy and readability. To address this, we propose a novel method that utilizes control points and illumination prediction to effectively rectify distortions and eliminate shadows in captured document images. Spatial attention is employed to guide the interpolation between control points and reference points, effectively eliminating geometric distortions in the captured document images. Following geometric unwarping, an illumination correction model is applied to remove shadows and enhance surface clarity, improving both human readability and OCR accuracy. Our method demonstrates robust performance in effectively rectifying document distortions across diverse scenarios. Evaluation on the DocUNet benchmark dataset shows that our approach achieves competitive results compared with state-of-the-art techniques. Full article

Deploying deep learning (DL) models in real-world environments remains a major challenge, particularly under resource-constrained conditions where achieving both high accuracy and compact architectures is essential. While effective, Conventional pruning methods often suffer from high computational overhead, accuracy degradation, or disruption of the end-to-end training process, limiting their practicality for embedded and real-time applications. We present Dynamic Attention-Guided Pruning (DAGP), a Dynamic Attention-Guided Soft Channel Pruning framework that overcomes these limitations by embedding learnable, differentiable pruning masks directly within convolutional neural networks (CNNs). These masks act as implicit attention mechanisms, adaptively suppressing non-informative channels during training. A progressively scheduled L1 regularization, activated after a warm-up phase, enables gradual sparsity while preserving early learning capacity. Unlike prior methods, DAGP is retraining-free, introduces minimal architectural overhead, and supports optional hard pruning for deployment efficiency. Joint optimization of classification and sparsity objectives ensures stable convergence and task-adaptive channel selection. Experiments on CIFAR-10 (VGG16, ResNet56) and PlantVillage (custom CNN) achieve up to 98.82% FLOPs reduction with accuracy gains over baselines. Real-world validation on an enhanced PlantDoc dataset for agricultural monitoring achieves 60 ms inference with only 2.00 MB RAM on a Raspberry Pi 4, confirming efficiency under field conditions. These results illustrate DAGP’s potential to scale beyond agriculture to diverse edge-intelligent systems requiring lightweight, accurate, and deployable models. Full article

The inevitable ubiquity of natural organic matter (NOM) in all waters presents a challenge to the proper functioning of water treatment processes. Therefore, minimizing NOM in raw water is crucial to avoid operational issues in subsequent treatment steps. In this experimental study, we aimed to maximize the degradation of NOM using UV/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation, employing design of experiments (DoE) and response surface methodology (RSM) for process optimization. Experiments were carried out on synthetic water, and the effects of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content and hydrogen peroxide concentration on DOC removal at neutral pH were examined. NOM isolated from the Suwannee River was used as a representative model. The process was modeled and optimized using Design-Expert 14.0.7.0 software. The highest DOC removal of approximately 34% was observed at a DOC level of ~8 mg L⁻¹ and an H₂O₂ concentration just below 250 mg L⁻¹. Degradation products were analyzed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, revealing sixteen compounds, mostly long-chain saturated fatty acids. Finally, the energy efficiency of the experimental setup was assessed and discussed. Full article

The effects of biochar on Bermuda grass growth and mechanical properties of vegetated soil were investigated in this study. Six groups of soil column tests were conducted, including two degrees of compaction (DOC) (70% and 90%) and two types of biochar content (5% and 10% by soil dry weight), with two groups of bare soil serving as a reference (soil used in the test was classified as silty sand with gravel, i.e., SM). It was found that biochar increased the effective cohesion by up to 70% and slightly enhanced the effective internal friction angle while mitigating the detrimental effects of wetting–drying cycles, with the effective cohesion and friction angle retaining up to 73% and 99% of their initial values, respectively. Root biomass initially increased and then decreased as biochar content increased, particularly at a low degree of compaction of soil (i.e., 70% DOC was two times that of 90% DOC). The effective cohesion of intact biochar–root–soil initially increased up to 23% (at the biochar content of 5%, 90% DOC) and then decreased as biochar content increased, regardless of DOC. At the optimal biochar content (5%), the effective cohesion and internal friction angle of rooted soil were 1.4 and 1.1 times greater at low DOC (70%). For the remolded biochar–root–soil composite, at a high degree of compaction (90% DOC), the effective cohesion increased with the increase in root and biochar content. For a given root content, the shear strength of the remolded biochar–root–soil mixture was higher than that of intact biochar–root–soil (i.e., the shear strength of intact soil at 5% of biochar content was 87% of remolded soil), suggesting that the remolded soil mixture overestimated the biochar–root–soil strength. Generally, the present study demonstrates that a 5% biochar addition is optimal for enhancing plant root growth and soil strength, particularly under low compaction. Biochar significantly improves the mechanical performance of root–soil composites and mitigates the degradation of soil strength under wetting–drying cycles. Full article

Soil degradation exerts profound impacts on soil ecological functions, global food security, and human development, making the development of effective technologies to mitigate degradation a critical research focus. Microorganisms play a leading role in rehabilitating degraded land, improving soil hydraulic properties, and enhancing soil structural stability. Mosses contribute to soil particle fixation through their unique rhizoid structures; however, the mechanisms underlying their interactions in mixed inoculation remain unclear. Therefore, this study addresses soil and water loss caused by rainfall erosion in the cold black soil region. We conducted controlled laboratory experiments cultivating Bacillus subtilis and cold-adapted moss species, evaluating the erosion mitigation effects of different biological treatments under gradient slopes (3°, 6°, 9°) and rainfall intensities (70 mm h⁻¹, 120 mm h⁻¹), and elucidating their carbon-based structural reinforcement mechanism. The results indicated that compared to the control group, Treatment C significantly increased the mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD) of soil aggregates by 121.6% and 76.75%, respectively. In separate simulated rainfall events at 70 mm h⁻¹ and 120 mm h⁻¹, Treatment C reduced soil loss by 95.70% and 96.75% and decreased runoff by 38.31% and 67.21%, respectively. Crucially, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) loss rate in Treatment C was only 21.98%, significantly lower than that in Treatment A (32.32%), Treatment B (22.22%), and the control group (51.07%)—representing a 59.41% reduction compared to the control. This demonstrates the following: (1) Bacillus subtilis enhances microbial metabolism, driving carbon conversion into stable pools, while mosses reduce carbon leaching via physical barriers, synergistically forming a dual “carbon protection–structural reinforcement” barrier. (2) The combined inoculation optimizes soil structure by increasing the proportion of large soil particles and enhancing aggregate stability, effectively suppressing soil loss even under extreme rainfall erosion. This study elucidates, for the first time, the biological pathway through which microbe–moss interactions achieve synergistic carbon sequestration and erosion resistance by regulating aggregate formation and pore water dynamics. It provides a scalable “carbon–structure”-optimized biotechnology system (co-inoculation of Bacillus subtilis and moss) for the ecological restoration of the cold black soil region. Full article

Biochar, as an emerging biotechnology, has been widely used in the remediation of soil organic pollution, mainly by promoting the abundance of related degrading bacteria in soil. In this study, we explored the influence of sewage sludge biochars pyrolyzed at different temperatures of 300–700 °C (SSB₃₀₀-SSB₇₀₀) and addition rates (1% and 5%) on the atrazine biodegradation in soils. After a 21-day incubation, the application of 5% SSB₃₀₀ significantly increased soil catalase (CAT), urease activity, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and electrical conductivity (EC). However, biochar amendment exhibited inhibitory effects on atrazine degradation in soils. The atrazine degradation ratio decreased with decreasing pyrolysis temperature and increasing addition rates. Further analysis found that there were two possible reasons for the significant decline of atrazine biodegradation in SSB₃₀₀ groups: (1) SSB₃₀₀ demonstrated higher adsorption capacity for atrazine compared to SSB₅₀₀ and SSB₇₀₀ and reduced atrazine bioavailability due to its stronger hydrophobic nature and more abundant surface functional groups; and (2) the SSB₃₀₀ significantly decreased the abundances of dominant atrazine-degraders (Arthrobacter and Pseudomonas) and atrazine-degrading genes (atzA, atzB, and trzN). Full article

The possibility of hydrogen (H₂) production from sizing waste, specifically starch-based substrates, was investigated through dark fermentation. Modified starch substrates produced less (up to 54% without heating and 18% after heating) H₂ than natural ones. However, heating modified starch samples led to 18% higher H₂ production than unheated ones, suggesting that high temperatures activate more favorable metabolic pathways. The highest H₂ production (215 mL/g_{TVS_substrate}) was observed with unheated natural starch, where the classic butyric–acetic fermentation pathway predominated. This variant also generated the highest CO₂ levels (250 mL/g_{TVS_substrate}), confirming the correlation between H₂ and CO₂ production in these pathways. Modified starch substrates shifted fermentation towards fatty acid chain elongation, reducing CO₂ production. The proportion of CO₂ in the fermentation gases correlated strongly with H₂ production across all variants. A decrease in total volatile solids (TVS) indicated effective organic matter conversion, while varying dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels suggested different degradation rates. Nitrogen analysis (TN) revealed that the differences between variants were due to varying nitrogen processing mechanisms by microorganisms. These results highlight the potential of sizing waste as a substrate for bioH₂ production and offer insights for optimizing the process and developing industrial technologies for bioH₂ and other valuable products. Full article

Vegetation restoration is critical for improving soil quality and microbial community dynamics in degraded mining areas. This study explored the effects of different vegetation types (grassland, shrubland, and mixed grass–shrub areas) on soil physicochemical properties, organic carbon fractions, and abundant versus scarce microbial taxa assemblies in a Loess Plateau coal mining area. Soil samples from four depths (0–100 cm) were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing for nutrient content; carbon components, soil organic carbon (SOC), particulate organic carbon (POC), mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), microbial biomass organic carbon (MBC), and readily oxidizable organic carbon (ROC); microbial diversity. Shrubland soils exhibited significantly higher total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), and organic carbon components (SOC, MAOC, and POC) than other vegetation types (p < 0.05), with the greatest carbon accumulation noted in the surface layer depths (0–20 cm). Microbial communities displayed vegetation-specific patterns: abundant taxa (e.g., Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria) dominated nutrient cycling and exhibited resilience to environmental gradients, while rare taxa (e.g., Methylomirabilota, Olpidiomycota) correlated strongly with labile carbon fractions (DOC and POC) and demonstrated metabolic flexibility. Mantel tests identified soil pH, TN, and organic carbon components as key drivers of microbial community divergence (p < 0.01). Shrubland vegetation enhanced soil nutrient retention and carbon stabilization, whereas the mixed grass–shrub systems promoted niche partitioning among rare taxa. These findings highlight the roles of vegetation-mediated carbon inputs and environmental filtering in shaping microbial assembly, providing a scientific framework for optimizing restoration strategies in mining ecosystems. Full article

Clinician notes are a rich source of patient information, but often contain inconsistencies due to varied writing styles, abbreviations, medical jargon, grammatical errors, and non-standard formatting. These inconsistencies hinder their direct use in patient care and degrade the performance of downstream computational applications that rely on these notes as input, such as quality improvement, population health analytics, precision medicine, clinical decision support, and research. We present a large-language-model (LLM) approach to the preprocessing of 1618 neurology notes. The LLM corrected spelling and grammatical errors, expanded acronyms, and standardized terminology and formatting, without altering clinical content. Expert review of randomly sampled notes confirmed that no significant information was lost. To evaluate downstream impact, we applied an ontology-based NLP pipeline (Doc2Hpo) to extract biomedical concepts from the notes before and after editing. F1 scores for Human Phenotype Ontology extraction improved from 0.40 to 0.61, confirming our hypothesis that better inputs yielded better outputs. We conclude that LLM-based preprocessing is an effective error correction strategy that improves data quality at the level of free text in clinical notes. This approach may enhance the performance of a broad class of downstream applications that derive their input from unstructured clinical documentation. Full article

Soil pH critically regulates microbial community structure and activity, thereby influencing carbon transformation processes in terrestrial ecosystems. However, the mechanisms underlying pH-mediated shifts in microbial metabolic functions and cellulose-degrading functional genes remain poorly understood. This study investigated the responses of bacterial communities, metabolic profiles, and the abundance of cellobiohydrolase I (cbhI) and glycoside hydrolase family 48 (GH48) genes to varying pH levels in fluvo-aquic and red soils. High-throughput sequencing, PICRUSt-based metabolic prediction, and quantitative PCR were employed to analyze microbial composition, functional traits, and gene dynamics. Network analysis clarified linkages between functional genes, pathways, and taxa. The results revealed that elevated pH significantly increased CO₂ emissions and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) content in both soils. Dominant taxa, including Alphaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Xanthomonadaceae, and Mycoplasma, exhibited pH-dependent enrichment. Metabolic predictions indicated that pH positively influenced genes linked to biodegradation and xenobiotic metabolism in fluvo-aquic soil but suppressed energy-metabolism-related genes. Contrastingly, in red soil, cbhI and GH48 gene abundance declined with rising pH, suggesting that acidic conditions favor cellulolytic activity. Network analysis identified strong positive correlations between CO₂ emissions and Caulobacteraceae, while cbhI and GH48 genes were closely associated with taxa such as Xanthomonadaceae, Comamonadaceae, and Micromonosporaceae, which drive organic matter decomposition. These findings underscore pH as a pivotal regulator of microbial community structure and functional gene expression, with soil-specific responses highlighting the need for tailored strategies to optimize carbon cycling and sequestration in agricultural ecosystems. Full article

The high-input production mode of rice monoculture (RM) has caused severe soil degradation and biodiversity loss, necessitating a transition toward more sustainable practices. The traditional rice-fish co-culture (RF) may provide valuable insights for this situation. However, it remains elusive how long-term RF system influences soil microbial community structure, enzyme activities, and carbon (C) sequestration. Here, a study was conducted at two representative RF areas in Lianshan Zhuang and Yao Autonomous County. At Shatian (P1), three treatments included rice monoculture (RM1) and 2-year and 5-year RF (RF2, RF5). At Gaoliao (P2), the experimental treatments included rice monoculture (RM2) and 15 and 30 years of RF (RF15, RF30). We collected the surface layer (0–20 cm) soils. Then, we analyzed the chemical properties, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA), and enzyme activities to investigate the effects of their variation on soil C sequestration. The results showed that RF treatments significantly increased soil organic C (SOC) content. Specifically, RF2 and RF5 treatments promoted the SOC content by 4.82% and 13.60% compared with RM1 treatment at P1, respectively; RF15 and RF30 treatments increased the SOC content by 23.41% and 31.93% compared with RM2 treatment at P2, respectively. Additionally, RF5 treatment significantly increased the biomass of the soil microbial community in comparison with RM1 treatment, as did RF15 treatment and RF30 treatment compared with RM2 treatment, including the contents of total PLFA and the PLFA of gram-positive bacteria (G+), gram-negative bacteria (G−), actinomycetes, fungi, and bacteria. Activities of β-glucosidase, cellobiohydrolase, β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase, and urease significantly increased in RF5 and RF30 treatments. The piecewise SEM results indicated that the changes of total PLFA content and the PLFA content ratio of fungi to bacteria were related to contents of dissolved organic C (DOC) and total N (TN) under different RF durations, which are key indicators affecting SOC content. Overall, SOC storage increases with the RF durations, and soil microbial community structure may drive soil C sequestration under long-term RF, which provides a scientific significance and practical value in promoting the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems, enhancing the potential of soil as a carbon sink, and addressing global climate change. Full article

China generates a significant amount of dredged sediment annually, much of which is contaminated with heavy metals. This study investigates the adsorption of Pb(II) from water and dredged sediment using different biochar materials, including BC and HC. The results show that the maximum adsorption of Pb(II) by BC-350-2h and HC-350-1:2-0.5h was 9.90 mg/g and 9.95 mg/g, respectively, with adsorption efficiencies of 99.0% and 99.5% for a 50 mg/L Pb(II) solution at a dosing concentration of 5 g/L, under 10 min of adsorption. BC-350-2h effectively adsorbed Pb(II) from dredged sediment, with no detectable Pb(II) concentration in the liquid fraction of the dredged sediment after 20 days. However, when the adsorption time increased, a small portion of Pb migrated into an unstable form, probably due to its binding to dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which dissolves out of the biochar. Microbial activity may also contribute to the degradation of DOC into small-molecule dissolved organic carbon (SDOC), thereby reducing the binding strength of biochar to DOC, which adsorbs Pb(II). This study highlights the importance of considering the effects of DOC and the long-term stability of biochar when used to treat contaminated dredged sediment. Full article

The alpine peatlands in western Sichuan Province are currently experiencing aridification. To understand the effects of aridification on the characteristics of organic carbon release from alpine soils, the soil in the northwest Sichuan Plateau was investigated. Soil columns were incubated under different moisture conditions in situ and in the laboratory, and ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy and three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy were used to assess the soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) levels. The results revealed that (1) the cumulative release of DOC from alpine soil in the northwest Sichuan Plateau decreased with decreasing moisture content. The cumulative release of soil DOC in the laboratory (0–5 cm soil reached 1.93 ± 0.43 g/kg) was greater than that from soil incubated in situ (0–5 cm soil reached 1.40 ± 0.13 g/kg); (2) the cumulative release of DOC in 0–5 cm soil exhibited the greatest response to changes in water content, and the cumulative release of DOC from the 0–5 cm soil layer (1.40 ± 0.13 g/kg) was greater than that from the 5–15 cm soil layer (1.25 ± 0.03 g/kg); and (3) UV-visible absorption spectra and 3D fluorescence spectral characteristics indicated that aridification increases the content of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) components with strong hydrophobicity, especially tyrosine components (surface soil increased 39.59~63.31%), in alpine soil DOC. This increase in hydrophobic CDOM components enhances the aromaticity and degree of humification of DOC. Our results revealed that drought inhibits the release of soil DOC, which is unfavorable for the sequestration of organic carbon in alpine soils, potentially resulting in the loss of soil carbon pools and further degradation of alpine ecosystem functions. Full article

Real winery wastewater (WW), with a high concentration of organic matter (OM), was treated using Fenton (FP), photo-Fenton (PFP), sono-Fenton (SFP), and sono-photo-Fenton processes (SPFP), with the primary objective of removing phenolic compounds (PhCs). Although beneficial to human health, these compounds are considered recalcitrant and toxic to aquatic organisms, posing significant environmental risks if discharged into water bodies. They can also reduce the efficiency of biological treatment processes. After physicochemical characterization and two hours of treatment, the removal efficiencies achieved by the FP, PFP, SFP, and SPFP processes were 29.35%, 41.30%, 28.82%, and 33.95% for PhCs; 27.88%, 31.51%, 23.19%, and 29.29% for chemical oxygen demand (COD); and 12.53%, 13.92%, 9.28%, and 10.62% for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), respectively. The degradations achieved by SFP and SPFP were lower than those of FP and PFP, respectively, due to reactions that scavenge hydroxyl radicals. Treatment of a gallic acid (GA) solution, used as a model compound for PhCs, exhibited similar trends, indicating that the lower efficiency in processes involving ultrasound is not due to the OM in the effluent, but rather the interaction between ultrasound (US) and H₂O₂, which reduces hydroxyl radical concentration. However, under the conditions of the wastewater used, the technologies applied did not completely reduce the parameters analyzed, being recommended as pre- or post-treatment, and combined with other processes. Full article