Search Results (23)

Facing the problems in determining the distribution range of karst areas and detecting karst caves under the restrictions of complex building and human exploration environments on the urban surface, taking the karst detection of Tianmeixin village and its southern pond in the north extension section of Guanghua Intercity Railway Line 18 as the application research object, based on the formation mechanism of karst and the existing geophysical detection methods, the electrical resistivity tomography method with a large detection range and the cross-well seismic computed tomography method with a high detection accuracy are used to carry out application research on concealed karst cave detection, which are two geophysical technical detection methods with strong adaptability and anti-interference ability. The results show that the optimized combination of geophysical exploration techniques can effectively overcome the limitations of the environment, draw the main karst development areas, reveal the interface between rock and soil, and accurately characterize the size and shape of karst caves. The electrical resistivity tomography method was used to find a number of potential water conduction channels in the middle zone between Tianmeixin village and the south river. The overall distribution characteristics of karst in Tianmeixin village were summarized, and the key detection areas were drawn. This conclusion was verified by several sets of cross-well seismic computed tomography profiles, which provided a reference for the layout of the subsequent cross-well seismic computed tomography imaging method and greatly reduced the workload of drilling, shortened the construction period, saved on detection costs, and reduced the impact on the production and life of residents. Full article

In the face of urban expansion, ensuring sustainable water consumption is paramount. This study aims to develop a domestic water demand forecast model that considers population heterogeneity and the urban area distribution in a city in the Brazilian Semiarid Region. The methodology comprises three main steps: (1) spatial data collection to identify explanatory variables for a future Land Use and Cover (LULC) model; (2) simulation of LULC data for 2030, 2040, and 2050 using the MOLUSCE plugin; and (3) estimation of domestic water demand based on projected urban area expansion and a linear regression model incorporating demographic indicators of household income, residents per household, total population, and gender. The results demonstrated a consistent LULC simulation, indicating an urban expansion of 4 km² between 2030 and 2050, with reductions of 0.6 km² in natural formations and 3.4 km² in farming areas. Using LULC data, the study predicted a 14.21% increase in domestic water consumption in Campina Grande for 2050 compared to 2010, equivalent to an increase of 2,348,424.96 m³. Furthermore, the spatial analysis draws a spatial profile of water consumption among residents, highlighting the areas with the highest per capita consumption. Thus, this research offers a consistent approach to estimating water demand in regions with limited consumption data, providing valuable insights for decision-makers to consider in urban planning. Full article

The western plain of the Nansihu Lake Basin (NLB) is an important agricultural economic zone in Shandong Province, where there is a high content of fluoride in soils. Studying the content and influencing factors of fluoride in soils is of great significance for the maintenance of regional eco-logical security and human health. This study takes the farmland soils in the west of NLB as the research focus and uses a method based on GIS and geostatistics to quantitatively analyze the spatial variation characteristics of soil total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride contents to draw a map showing their spatial distribution. The effects on the spatial distribution of soil total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride were analyzed from the aspects of geomorphological type, soil parent material (stratigraphic lithology), crop type, and groundwater fluoride concentration, among others, and the correlation between groundwater and soil fluoride contents was also analyzed. Our study results in the following findings: (1) The average content of total fluoride in topsoil in the study area is 652.8 mg/kg, the national background value is exceeded in 99.5% of the sampling sites, and the background value of Shandong Province is exceeded in 98.7% of the sampling sites. The average water-soluble fluoride is 15.2 mg/kg and exceeds 5.0 mg/kg in 94.3% of the sampling sites. Topsoils have high values of total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride. (2) The total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride in topsoils exhibit moderate spatial variability, indicating that their spatial distribution is the result of structural factors such as soil parent materials and man-made random factors such as fluorinated fertilizers. (3) In the 2 m vertical profile of shallow soils, total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride increase with the increase in soil viscosity, and the water-soluble fluoride has the characteristics of surface aggregation due to the influence of soil adsorption. Because fluoride ions as ligands are easily adsorbed and form fluoride complexes with other ions such as aluminum ions, the water-soluble fluoride shows the characteristics of surface aggregation and fractionation. (4) The analysis of influencing factors reveals that the lithology of Quaternary strata, geomorpho-logical types, and planting crop types have significant effects on the distribution of the total fluoride and water-soluble fluoride in the topsoils, and the distribution of the groundwater soluble fluoride in the topsoils is not related to that in groundwater. Our study provides data and technical support for improving both the soil environmental quality and water quality of the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, thus helping to promote the sustainable development of the social economy and ecological environment in the NLB. Full article

This manuscript presents the Microwave Temperature and Humidity Profiler (MTHP), a dual-band spectroradiometer designed for measuring multi-incidence angle temperature and humidity atmospheric profiles from an aircraft platform. The MTHP bands are at 60 GHz for measuring the oxygen complex lines, therefore at this band, MTHP has a hyperspectral radiometer able to provide 2048 channels over an 8 GHz bandwidth, and 183 GHz for measuring water vapor, which only uses four channels since this absorption band’s spectral richness is simpler. The MTHP builds upon the Microwave Temperature Profiler (MTP) with the inclusion of the hyperspectral radiometer. The instrument’s design, components, and calibration methods are discussed in detail, with a focus on the three-point calibration scheme involving internal calibration loads and static air temperature readings. Preliminary results from the Technological Innovation into Iodine and GV aircraft Environmental Research (TI3GER) campaign are presented, showcasing the instrument’s performance during flights across diverse geographical regions. The manuscript presents successful antenna temperature measurements at 60 GHz and 183 GHz. The hyperspectral measurements are compared with a simulated antenna temperature using the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS) showing an agreement better than R² > 0.88 for three of the flights analyzed. Additionally, the manuscript draws attention to potential Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) effects observed during a specific flight, underscoring the instrument’s sensitivity to external interference. This is the first-ever airborne demonstration of a broadband and hyperspectral multi-incidence angle 60 GHz measurement. Future work on the MTHP could result in an improved spatial resolution of the atmospheric temperature vertical profile and, hence, help in estimating the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) with better accuracy. The MTHP and its hyperspectral multi-incidence angle at 60 GHz have the potential to be a valuable tool for investigating the PBL’s role in atmospheric dynamics, offering insights into its impact on Earth’s energy, water, and carbon cycles. Full article

As the smart grid involves more new technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and distributed energy resources (DERs), more attention is needed in research to general energy storage (GES) based energy management systems (EMS) that account for all possible load shifting and control strategies, specifically with major appliances that are projected to continue electrification such as the electric water heater (EWH). In this work, a methodology for a modified single-node model of a resistive EWH is proposed with improved internal tank temperature for user comfort modeling and capabilities for conservation voltage reduction (CVR) simulations as well as Energy Star and Consumer Technology Association communications protocol (CTA-2045) compliant controls, including energy storage calculations for “energy take”. Daily and weekly simulations are performed on a representative IEEE test feeder distribution system with experimental load and hot water draw (HWD) profiles to consider user comfort. Sequential controls are developed to reduce power spikes from controls and lead to peak shavings. It is found that EWHs are suitable for virtual power plant (VPP) operation with sustainable tank temperatures, i.e., average water temperature is maintained at set-point or above at the end of the control period while shifting up to 78% of EWH energy out of shed windows per day and 75% over a week, which amounts to up to 23% of the total load shifted on the example power system. While CVR simulations reduced the peak power of individual EWHs, the aggregation effect at the distribution level negates this reduction in power for the community. The EWH is shown as an energy constant load without consistent benefit from CVR across the example community with low energy reductions of less than 0.1% and, in some cases, increased daily energy by 0.18%. Full article

(1) Background: Eudraguard^® Natural (EN) and Protect (EP) are polymers regulated for use in dietary supplements in the European Union and the United States to carry natural products, mask unpleasant smells and tastes, ameliorate product handling, and protect products from moisture, light, and oxidation. Moreover, EN and EP can control the release of encapsulated compounds. The aim of this work was the development, preparation, and control of Eudraguard^® spray-drying microparticles to obtain powders with easy handling and a stable dietary supplement containing a polar functional extract (SOE) from Sorbus domestica L. leaves. (2) Methods: SOE was characterized using HPLC, NMR, FTIR, DSC, and SEM methods. Furthermore, the SOE’s antioxidant/free radical scavenging activity, α-glucosidase inhibition, MTT assay effect on viability in normal cells, and shelf life were evaluated in both the extract and final formulations. (3) Results: The data suggested that SOE, rich in flavonoids, is a bioactive and safe extract; however, from a technological point of view, it was sticky, difficult to handle, and had low aqueous solubility. Despite the fact that EN and EP may undergo changes with spray-drying, they effectively produced easy-to-handle micro-powders with a controlled release profile. Although EN had a weaker capability to coat SOE than EP, EN acted as a substrate that was able to swell, drawing in water and improving the extract solubility and dissolution/release; however, EP was also able to carry the extract and provide SOE with controlled release. (4) Conclusion: Both Eudraguard^® products were capable of carrying SOE and improving its antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibition activities, as well as the extract stability and handling. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to propose the quasi-linear theory of tsunami run-up and run-down on a beach with complex bottom topography. We begin with the one-dimensional nonlinear shallow-water wave equations, which we consider over a beach of complex geometry that can be modeled by a piecewise continuous function, along with several natural initial and boundary conditions. The primary obstacle in solving this problem is the moving boundary associated with the shoreline motion. To avoid this difficulty, we replace the moving boundary with a stationary boundary by applying a transformation to the spatial variable of the computational domain. A characteristic feature of any tsunami problem is the smallness of the parameter $\epsilon ={\eta }_0/h_0$, where ${\eta }_0$ is the characteristic amplitude of the wave, and $h_0$ is the characteristic depth of the ocean. The presence of this small parameter enables us to effectively linearize the problem by using the method of perturbations, which leads to an analytical solution via an integral transformation. This analytical solution assumes that there is no wave breaking. In light of this assumption, we introduce the wave no-breaking criterion and determine bounds for the applicability of our theory. The proposed model can be readily used to investigate the tsunami run-up and draw-down for different sea bottom profiles. The novel particular solution, when the seafloor is described by the piecewise linear function, is obtained, and the effects of the different beach profiles and initial wave locations are considered. Full article

Climatic changes because of groundwater levels rising near the archaeological sites became a fundamental issue in Egypt. The problem will affect the deterioration of the stone foundations of the temples and any archaeological features, which will affect their deformation, changing their features, and their archaeological and architectural importance. Osirion in Abydos archaeological place, west of Sohag Governorate, undergoes this problem where the level of ground water increases west of this site in the spring season. Solving this problem will help to preserve the antiques at the Abydos site and, in particular, the Osirion and its surrounding area. It is important to understand the hydrostratigraphic conditions of the Abydos site and its surroundings. The main objectives of the work are: (1) characterizing the subsurface succession and lithology; (2) identifying the sources responsible for the groundwater level rising near the Osirion, and groundwater assessment distribution and water table depth; and (3) evaluating the subsurface location and geometry of any paleochannels that may represent conduits for groundwater flow pathways to join the water to the studied site. All this information will aid the officials to decide and make future solutions to solve these problems. To achieve these goals, the authors implemented an advanced geophysical technique, namely electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) investigations in conjunction with the existing boreholes data. The main outcomes of this work are 2D and 3D representations of the resistivity distributions, which reflect a full picture about the subsurface engineering layers, including details of the lithology of the study site. The subsurface succession includes four geoelectrical zones that were recognized. The water table level in the study site varies from 5 m to 14 m as confirmed from all the ERT profiles together with the available borehole data. A three-dimensional visual representation of the water-bearing muddy sand formation shows the presence of a potential channel in the north-east direction and its location, which is responsible for delivering the groundwater from the Nile River to the Osirion site. This result is in consistent with archaeological studies conducted in the Osirion site, where there are ancient archaeological text and drawings on the temple walls and columns. By defining the direction of the groundwater pathways, the authors recommend the decision-makers to take the engineering precautions to try to prevent the groundwater from reaching the important archaeological sites by establishing the dams and partitions. In addition, they should monitor and control the groundwater level changes around the archaeological foundations by implementing all the necessary measurements to prevent the soil subsidence and foundation collapse, and establishing a dewatering system network. Full article

Façade panel systems with horizontal open joints are commonly used on larger buildings in Nordic countries. Excessive water intrusion through open joints may cause deterioration of the façade, a concern exacerbated by climate change. Previous studies have shown that current design recommendations for open-joint façade panel systems may not be optimal to prevent water intrusion. It is therefore of interest to investigate the watertightness of different design solutions for horizontal joints to inform recommendations for more durable façades. Large-scale measurements are conducted in a driving rain apparatus. Façade panel systems with different joint solutions are tested according to NS-EN 1027:2016. In total, 72 unique tests are conducted, investigating the impact of the four parameters: panel types, joint widths, joint profiles, and bevelled joint designs. All designs performed differently for the different types of panels, making it difficult to draw general conclusions. Smooth panels consistently exhibit higher water intrusion rates than rough panels, because runoff concentrates in streams on a smooth surface, causing localized, great intrusion in the horizontal joints. Modifications of the joints or the insertion of aluminium profiles may reduce or increase water intrusion. The most watertight among the investigated solutions involves an h-shaped profile. Bevelled joints improve overall watertightness but may direct more water towards the wind barrier. For open joints, a narrower joint width was found to decrease water intrusion to the wind barrier. In general, a barrier is needed to protect the joints against water intrusion. However, the effectiveness of protection measures depends on their design and mounting. Some protection measures led to greater water intrusion than no barrier at all. Full article

Ensuring water availability for agriculture and drinking water supply in semi-arid mountainous regions requires control of factors influencing groundwater availability. In most cases, the population draws its water needs from the alluvial aquifers close to villages that are already limited and influenced by current climatic change. In addition, the establishment of deep wells in the hard rock aquifers depletes the aquifer. Hence, understanding the factors influencing water availability is an urgent requirement. The use of geographic information system (GIS), and remote sensing (RS), together with decision-making methods like analytical hierarchy process (AHP) will be of good aid in this regard. In the Tata basin, located in SE Morocco, ten factors were used to explain the groundwater potentiality map (GWPM). Five categories of potential zones were determined: very low (8.67%), low (17.74%), moderate (46.77%), high (19.95%), and very high (6.87%). The efficiency of the AHP model is validated using the ROC curve (receiver operating characteristics) which revealed a good correlation between the high potential groundwater zones and the spatial distribution of high flow wells. Geophysical prospecting, using electrical resistivity profiles, has made it possible to propose new well sites. It corresponds to conductive resistivity zones that coincide with the intersection of hydrogeological lineaments. Full article

The development of any commercial product should also be aimed at reducing the risk associated with it, according to the safe-by-design concept; that is, risk assessment should always be at the center of the design, and the impact on human and environmental health should be assessed and eliminated during the product development phase and not afterwards. Unfortunately, even today, most operators in any production sector implement the philosophy of “risk management” or rather of managing the problem when it occurs, using spot interventions instead of changing the approach. This argument is also valid in the production of solar filters, which have reached a satisfactory degree of efficiency in the face of a substantial underestimation of the risks associated with their possible environmental fate. In fact, solar filters have been found in bathing waters and their environmental fate may depend on various factors such as the pH of the water, the presence of organic material, metal ions and light, and, above all, the chemical agents used in the disinfection of the water itself. Thus, during disinfection processes, the generation of dozens of products with a lower molecular weight and generally of an aromatic nature has been tested, where some of them did not receive an exact structural definition and a precise evaluation of their precise toxicological profile. Therefore, it is interesting to draw a complete picture of organic sunscreens and of the byproducts obtained under different conditions and their related ecotoxicological profile. Full article

Because of the special geological conditions on the Loess Plateau, Landslide erosion is not only the main goal of prevention and control of geological disasters, but also an important erosion mode of soil and water loss in the basin. Thus, landslide susceptibility assessment before only considering landslide frequency is not far enough for a decision-maker. The study aims to consider both frequency and scale of landslides for a better landslide susceptibility evaluation. Taking the Yangou small watershed as an example, this study used a VR model, RIRA method, and the GIS method to comprehensively consider frequency and scale to analyze landslide susceptibility of the small watershed. Based on the detailed analysis of the existing literature, slope, elevation, NDVI, land-use, lithology, amount distant to road, amount distant to river, profile curvature, and rainfall as landslide are selected as the conditioning factors (CFs) of the landslide, to draw the sensitivity map. The map of landslide susceptibility was classified into five zones: very low, low, medium, high, and very high, and the cover areas occupy 6.90, 12.81, 12.83, 9.42, and 5.87 km², respectively. A total of 60% of the landslide occurred in the zones of high and very high susceptibility, accounting for 87% of the total volume in the study area. The very high susceptibility is the area with a larger relief and along the river and road. The findings will help decision makers to formulate scientific comprehensive policies that take into account disaster prevention and soil conservation measures in specific regions. Full article

The use of microbial biostimulants in the agricultural sector is increasingly gaining momentum and drawing scientific attention to decode the molecular interactions between the biostimulants and plants. Although these biostimulants have been shown to improve plant health and development, the underlying molecular phenomenology remains enigmatic. Thus, this study is a metabolomics work to unravel metabolic circuits in sap extracts from maize plants treated with a microbial biostimulant, under normal and drought conditions. The biostimulant, which was a consortium of different Bacilli strains, was applied at the planting stage, followed by drought stress application. The maize sap extracts were collected at 5 weeks after emergence, and the extracted metabolites were analyzed on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry platforms. The acquired data were mined using chemometrics and bioinformatics tools. The results showed that under both well-watered and drought stress conditions, the application of the biostimulant led to differential changes in the profiles of amino acids, hormones, TCA intermediates, phenolics, steviol glycosides and oxylipins. These metabolic changes spanned several biological pathways and involved a high correlation of the biochemical as well as structural metabolic relationships that coordinate the maize metabolism. The hypothetical model, postulated from this study, describes metabolic events induced by the microbial biostimulant for growth promotion and enhanced defences. Such understanding of biostimulant-induced changes in maize sap pinpoints to the biochemistry and molecular mechanisms that govern the biostimulant–plant interactions, which contribute to ongoing efforts to generate actionable knowledge of the molecular and physiological mechanisms that define modes of action of biostimulants. Full article

Carbon footprint reduction issues have been drawing more and more attention these days. Reducing the energy consumption is among the basic directions along this line. In the paper, a low-energy approach to tsunami danger evaluation is concerned. After several disaster tsunamis of the XXIst century, the question arises whether is it possible to evaluate in a couple of minutes the tsunami wave parameters, expected at the particular geo location. The point is that it takes around 20 min for the wave to approach the nearest coast after a seismic event offshore of Japan. Currently, the main tool for studying tsunamis is computer modeling. In particular, the expected tsunami height near the coastline, when a major underwater earthquake is detected, can be estimated by a series of numerical experiments of various scenarios of generation and the following wave propagation. Reducing the calculation time of such scenarios and the necessary energy consumption for this is the scope of this study. Moreover, in case of the major earthquake, the electric power shutdown is possible (e.g., the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan on 11 May 2011), so the solution should be of low energy-consuming, preferably based at regular personal computers (PCs) or laptops. The way to achieve the requested performance of numerical modeling at the PC platform is a combination of efficient algorithms and their hardware acceleration. Following this strategy, a solution for the fast numerical simulation of tsunami wave propagation has been proposed. Most of tsunami researchers use the shallow-water approximation to simulate tsunami wave propagation at deep water areas. For software implementation, the MacCormack finite-difference scheme has been chosen, as it is suitable for pipelining. For hardware code acceleration, a special processor, that is, the calculator, has been designed at a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform. This combination was tested in terms of precision by comparison with the reference code and with the exact solutions (known for some special cases of the bottom profile). The achieved performance made it possible to calculate the wave propagation over a 1000 × 500 km water area in 1 min (the mesh size was compared to 250 m). It was nearly 300 times faster compared to that of a regular PC and 10 times faster compared to the use of a central processing unit (CPU). This result, being implemented into tsunami warning systems, will make it possible to reduce human casualties and economy losses for the so-called near-field tsunamis. The presented paper discussed the new aspect of such implementation, namely low energy consumption. The corresponding measurements for three platforms (PC and two types of FPGA) have been performed, and a comparison of the obtained results of energy consumption was given. As the numerical simulation of numerous tsunami propagation scenarios from different sources are needed for the purpose of coastal tsunami zoning, the integrated amount of the saving energy is expected to be really valuable. For the time being, tsunami researchers have not used the FPGA-based acceleration of computer code execution. Perhaps, the energy-saving aspect is able to promote the use of FPGAs in tsunami researches. The approach to designing special FPGA-based processors for the fast solution of various engineering problems using a PC could be extended to other areas, such as bioinformatics (motif search in DNA sequences and other algorithms of genome analysis and molecular dynamics) and seismic data processing (three-dimensional (3D) wave package decomposition, data compression, noise suppression, etc.). Full article

Buildings are great contributors to global GHG emissions, because they are responsible for direct and indirect emissions. In light of increased renewable energy share in the electricity mix, it is crucial to boost residential electrification for building decarbonization. Consequently, building regulation ought to send the proper signals to the market to encourage electrification and avoid establishing new fossil fuel-based infrastructure, which may lock in future interventions and seriously compromise climate change mitigation. This paper studies short-term residential electrification with electric water tanks in Spain using a parametric analysis considering several water heater configurations with various sizes and management strategies, using different draw-off profiles, actual time-dependent electricity prices, and CO₂ factors. The results demonstrate significant GHG savings when substituting fossil fuel boilers for any water heater configuration. However, current electricity prices are such that technology change is only cost effective for low hot water demands (1–2 people) and the provided fossil fuel supply is completely removed from dwellings. The exploitation of implicit demand response increases cost-effectiveness. The analysis of Spanish regulation shows that some elements of current policies on energy efficiency in buildings hamper residential electrification, consequently policy changes are proposed. Full article