Conventional Ground Research Articles

Applications of Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation on Non-Woven Geotextiles

Recently, an innovative ground improvement method known as microbially induced calcium precipitation (MICP) has been proposed as an alternative to conventional ground improvement techniques. Having numerous advantages such as being environmentally friendly and promoting sustainable solutions, MICP has been studied by researchers from various civil engineering sub-disciplines to solve problems related to crack propagation of concrete, insufficient soil strength characteristics, soil erosion, asphalt cracks, etc. This study aims at moving MICP one step further by introducing a hybrid approach that combines MICP and geotextiles to produce a good quality product for reliable field use. Within this scope, MICP is applied on non-woven geotextiles. Physical (imaging) and mechanical (puncture resistance) properties of non-woven geotextiles subjected to MICP treatments under soaking conditions are investigated. Puncture resistance tests are performed and the details of laboratory work including specimen preparation and MICP treatments are presented in this paper. This study, together with its implications for future works, also highlights the next steps to be taken for properly using the MICP method when other geosynthetics are used.

Monitoring nature's calendar from space: Emerging topics in land surface phenology and associated opportunities for science applications.

Vegetation phenology has been viewed as the nature's calendar and an integrative indicator of plant-climate interactions. The correct representation of vegetation phenology is important for models to accurately simulate the exchange of carbon, water, and energy between the vegetated land surface and the atmosphere. Remote sensing has advanced the monitoring of vegetation phenology by providing spatially and temporally continuous data that together with conventional ground observations offers a unique contribution to our knowledge about the environmental impact on ecosystems as well as the ecological adaptations and feedback to global climate change. Land surface phenology (LSP) is defined as the use of satellites to monitor seasonal dynamics in vegetated land surfaces and to estimate phenological transition dates. LSP, as an interdisciplinary subject among remote sensing, ecology, and biometeorology, has undergone rapid development over the past few decades. Recent advances in sensor technologies, as well as data fusion techniques, have enabled novel phenology retrieval algorithms that refine phenology details at even higher spatiotemporal resolutions, providing new insights into ecosystem dynamics. As such, here we summarize the recent advances in LSP and the associated opportunities for science applications. We focus on the remaining challenges, promising techniques, and emerging topics that together we believe will truly form the very frontier of the global LSP research field.

A novel multi-objective optimization model for the vehicle routing problem with drone delivery and dynamic flight endurance

With growing environmental concerns and tough carbon–neutral objectives, logistics providers have to consider not only economic benefits but also environmental impact in the delivery process. This study proposes a novel multi-objective optimization model for the vehicle routing problem with drone delivery. The proposed model involves improving delivery efficiency and reducing environmental impact by extending the conventional ground vehicle (i.e. truck) delivery model with the implementation of drone delivery as well as the optimization of the total energy consumption of trucks. Drones need to collaborate with trucks to serve customers because of their limited flight endurance. Moreover, the fact that flight endurance is dynamic and influenced by the loading rate of drones is also considered to satisfy practical application scenarios. An extended non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm is presented to solve the proposed model. A new encoding and decoding method is incorporated to represent multiple feasible routes of drones and trucks, several crossover and mutation operators are integrated to accelerate the algorithmic convergence, and a multi-dimensional local search strategy is employed to enhance the diversity of population. Finally, the experimental results demonstrate that the presented algorithm is effective in obtaining high-quality non-dominated solutions by comparing it with three other baseline multi-objective algorithms.

Design and SAR Analysis of a Dual Band Wearable Antenna for WLAN Applications

This paper presents the design of three types of dual band (2.5 & 5.2 GHz) wearable microstrip patch antennas. The first one is based on a conventional ground plane, whereas the other two antennas are based on two different types of two-dimensional electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures. The design of these two different dual-band EBG structures using wearable substrates incorporates several factors in order to improve the performance of the proposed conventional ground plane (dual band) wearable antenna. The second EBG with plus-shaped slots is about 22.7% more compact in size relative to the designed mushroom-like EBG. Subsequently, we have demonstrated that the mushroom-like EBG and the EBG with plus-shaped slots improve the bandwidth by 5.2 MHz and 7.9 MHz at lower resonance frequencies and by 33.6 MHz and 16.7 MHz at higher resonance frequencies, respectively. Furthermore, improvements in gain of 4.33% and 16.5% at a frequency of 2.5 GHz and improvements in gain of 30.43% and 4.57% at 5.2 GHz have been achieved by using the mushroom-like EBG and EBG with plus-shaped slots, respectively. The operation of the conventional ground plane antenna is investigated under different bending conditions, such as wrapped around different rounded body parts. The proposed conventional ground plane antenna is placed over a three-layered (flat body phantom (chest)) and four-layered (rounded body parts) tissue models, and a thorough SAR analysis has been performed. It is concluded that the proposed antenna reduces SAR effects (<2 W/kg) on the human body, thereby making it useful for numerous critical wearable applications.

A Compact and High‐Gain Omnidirectional Antenna‐Based Coding Metasurface Ground for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Applications

In this article, the design and implementation of a small omnidirectional antenna operating at 0.83 GHz for industrial, research, medical and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) applications is proposed. By designing two unit cells (“0” and “1”) of the coding metasurface with a dynamic phase difference, a coding metasurface ground is proposed. The suggested antenna replaces the traditional ground with a coding metasurface ground that is deliberate to work at the center frequency of 0.83 GHz and uses a coaxial feed probe to provide a lightweight, high‐gain antenna design. The omnidirectional antenna gain and efficiency are boosted using a coding metasurface as a ground. A simulation tool is used to characterize the antenna designed. A remarkable gain increase and operational bandwidth of the radiator have been developed in the proposed design, which entails the replacement of the conventional ground. The proposed antenna is constructed and empirically characterized in addition to the simulation. The proposed antenna has a return loss of –16.14 dB and a steady radiation gain of 3.2 dB, according to the measurements. Furthermore, the designed antenna demonstrates an omnidirectional radiation pattern based on simulation and experiment. Radiation properties are assessed using a radome framework, and simulations and measurements results coincide well. Such an antenna has omnidirectional radiation patterns across a wide frequency range and could be used in future UAV and aircraft applications.

Thermal infrared remote sensing and soil gas radon for detecting blind geothermal area

Geothermal resources in the Wugongshan area are abundant and most closely associated with faults. Due to the dense vegetation covering the research area, locating the geothermal resources using conventional ground technologies is costly and challenging. This paper proposes and implements a novel method in the area under examination. More specifically, remote sensing information (Landsat 8) and known geological information are used to delineate the geothermal target area. On January 19, 2021, the land surface temperature in the study area ranged between 7.7 and 21.2 °C. Combining the geothermal geological features of the regional area, two areas, namely Tangjiashan and Sanjiang, are delineated as geothermal target areas. The probable location of faults is determined by measuring the soil gas radon concentration. The relative coefficient KQ of radon activity attained in profiles varies between 1.7 and 13.2. The average values of KQ between different areas are ranked as Wenjia > Tangjiashan > Hongjiang > Sanjiang. Generally, areas with higher KQ of radon activity have higher land surface temperature (LST). Thus, the KQ and LST can be used to evaluate the shallow geothermal potential. Finally, by integrating the interpretation of remote sensing and soil radon measurements, the fault location is identified, and the result is successfully used to guide the drilling of geothermal wells in the Tangjiashan area.

High-resolution satellite products improve hydrological modeling in northern Italy

Abstract. Satellite-based Earth observations (EO) are an accurate and reliable data source for atmospheric and environmental science. Their increasing spatial and temporal resolutions, as well as the seamless availability over ungauged regions, make them appealing for hydrological modeling. This work shows recent advances in the use of high-resolution satellite-based EO data in hydrological modeling. In a set of six experiments, the distributed hydrological model Continuum is set up for the Po River basin (Italy) and forced, in turn, by satellite precipitation and evaporation, while satellite-derived soil moisture (SM) and snow depths are ingested into the model structure through a data-assimilation scheme. Further, satellite-based estimates of precipitation, evaporation, and river discharge are used for hydrological model calibration, and results are compared with those based on ground observations. Despite the high density of conventional ground measurements and the strong human influence in the focus region, all satellite products show strong potential for operational hydrological applications, with skillful estimates of river discharge throughout the model domain. Satellite-based evaporation and snow depths marginally improve (by 2 % and 4 %) the mean Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) at 27 river gauges, compared to a baseline simulation (KGEmean= 0.51) forced by high-quality conventional data. Precipitation has the largest impact on the model output, though the satellite data on average shows poorer skills compared to conventional data. Interestingly, a model calibration heavily relying on satellite data, as opposed to conventional data, provides a skillful reconstruction of river discharges, paving the way to fully satellite-driven hydrological applications.

Study on Reducing Towing Drag by Varying the Shape and Arrangement of Floats and Gears

Many studies have been conducted with the aim of reducing fuel consumption by the fishing industry. We examined whether drag can be reduced by changing the arrangement of gears without requiring the development of new parts for the conventional float and ground gear. Ten differently shaped floats and ground gears were measured in a water flume tank. The float and ground gear were fixed to a steel rod to measure fluid drag according to attack angle, using a multi-component load cell. To estimate the frictional drag of ground gear on the seabed, five types of large ground gear were towed on flat land while changing attack angle using the load cell to measure tension. The fluid drag of the float and ground gear was highest at an attack angle of 60°, regardless of shape, size, and flow velocity. The resistance coefficients of the float and ground gear varied depending on the attack angle and tended to be lower at small attack angles. The frictional drag of the ground gear was greater when the axis of rotation had a small attack angle in the towing direction compared to other attack angles. We then investigated a method for designing bottom-towed gear that reduces drag while maintaining the size, buoyancy, and sinking force of conventional fishing gear parts. This gear design showed 1.2% drag reduction and an estimated 0.8% improvement in fuel efficiency per haul.

Research on 5G Key Technologies and Applications in Urban Rail Transit

With the rapid development of science and technology, Chinese urban rail transit has entered a newstage of intelligent development from the stage of rapid construction. Urban rail transit has the advantagesof high speed, large capacity and high density, which greatly facilitates modern life. However,urban rail transit is quite different from conventional ground transportation. Traditional informationtransmission methods cannot be well applied to urban rail transit. The maturity and commercial useof 5G mobile communication technology provide new ideas for solving the problem of informationtransmission in urban rail transit. Based on the salient features and key technologies of 5G communicationtechnology, this paper researches on key technonlgies 5G in rail transit scenarios to achievefast and efficient processing efficiency. It is a solution for intelligent operation and maintenance ofurban rail transit and high-definition video surveillance, and studies and analyzes the security of thesystem solution. This fills the gap of rail transit in these two fields, and provides dual guarantees ofsafety and service for urban rail transit construction. It provides a new direction for the applicationof future urban rail transit system.

Varying Responses of Invertebrates to Biodynamic, Organic and Conventional Viticulture

Alternative farming methods must be deployed to mitigate the detrimental impacts of intensive agriculture on climate, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Organic and biodynamic farming are environmental-friendly practices that progressively replace conventional agriculture. While potential biodiversity benefits of organicvs. conventional farming have been studied repeatedly, the effects of biodynamic farming on biodiversity remain ill-understood. We investigated the effects of these three main management regimes, and their interaction with ground vegetation cover, on vineyard invertebrate communities in SW Switzerland. Invertebrates were sampled three times during the vegetation season in 2016, focusing on ground-dwelling (pitfall traps) and epiphytic (sweep-netting) invertebrates, and their abundance was modelled for single, additive, and interactive influences of management and ground vegetation cover. Overall, organic and, but to a lesser degree, biodynamic vineyards provided better conditions for invertebrate abundance than conventional vineyards. On the one hand, there was a significant interaction between management and ground vegetation cover for epiphytic invertebrates with a positive linear increase in abundance in organic, a positive curvilinear relationship in biodynamic but a negative curvilinear response to vegetation cover in conventional vineyards. The abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrates was primarily affected by the management regime alone, i.e. without any interaction with ground vegetation characteristics, leading to much higher abundances in organic compared to conventional vineyards, while biodynamic did not differ from the other two regimes. We interpret the patterns as follows: organic grape production offers more suitable habitat conditions for invertebrates due to a spatially more heterogenous but also less often disturbed (compared to biodynamic management) or destroyed (compared to conventional) ground vegetation cover, in line with the predictions of the intermediate disturbance hypothesis. Biodynamic and conventional viticultural management regimes often provide a habitat that is either too mineral (conventional: ground vegetation widely eliminated) or subject to soil disturbance happening frequently through ploughing (biodynamic). We conclude that alternative farming methods do promote biodiversity in vineyard agro-ecosystems, especially so organic management.

Towards accurate quantification of ice content in permafrost of the Central Andes – Part 2: An upscaling strategy of geophysical measurements to the catchment scale at two study sites

Abstract. With ongoing climate change, there is a pressing need to better understand how much water is stored as ground ice in areas with extensive permafrost occurrence, as well as how the regional water balance may alter in response to the potential generation of meltwater from permafrost degradation. However, field-based data on permafrost in remote and mountainous areas such as the South American Andes are scarce. Most current ground ice estimates are based on broadly generalized assumptions such as volume–area scaling and mean ground ice content estimates of rock glaciers. In addition, ground ice contents in permafrost areas outside of rock glaciers are usually not considered, resulting in a significant uncertainty regarding the volume of ground ice in the Andes and its hydrological role. In Part 1 of this contribution, Hilbich et al. (2022a) present an extensive geophysical data set based on electrical resistivity tomography and refraction seismic tomography surveys to detect and quantify ground ice of different landforms and surface types in several study regions in the semi-arid Andes of Chile and Argentina with the aim to contribute to the reduction of this data scarcity. In Part 2 we focus on the development of a strategy for the upscaling of geophysics-based ground ice quantification to an entire catchment to estimate the total ground ice volume (and its approximate water equivalent) in the study areas. In addition to the geophysical data, the upscaling approach is based on a permafrost distribution model and classifications of surface and landform types. In this paper, we introduce our upscaling strategy, and we demonstrate that the estimation of large-scale ground ice volumes can be improved by including (i) non-rock-glacier permafrost occurrences and (ii) field evidence through a large number of geophysical surveys and ground truthing information. The results of our study indicate that (i) conventional ground ice estimates for rock-glacier-dominated catchments without in situ data may significantly overestimate ground ice contents and (ii) substantial volumes of ground ice may also be present in catchments where rock glaciers are lacking.

Engineered meatballs via scalable skeletal muscle cell expansion and modular micro-tissue assembly using porous gelatin micro-carriers

The emerging field of cultured meat faces several technical hurdles, including the scale-up production of quality muscle and adipose progenitor cells, and the differentiation and bioengineering of these cellular materials into large, meat-like tissue. Here, we present edible, 3D porous gelatin micro-carriers (PoGelat-MCs), as efficient cell expansion scaffolds, as well as modular tissue-engineering building blocks for lab-grown meat. PoGelat-MC culture in spinner flasks, not only facilitated the scalable expansion of porcine skeletal muscle satellite cells and murine myoblasts, but also triggered their spontaneous myogenesis, in the absence of myogenic reagents. Using 3D-printed mold and transglutaminase, we bio-assembled pork muscle micro-tissues into centimeter-scale meatballs, which exhibited similar mechanical property and higher protein content compared to conventional ground pork meatballs. PoGelat-MCs also supported the expansion and differentiation of 3T3L1 murine pre-adipocytes into mature adipose micro-tissues, which could be used as modular assembly unit for engineered fat-containing meat products. Together, our results highlight PoGelat-MCs, in combination with dynamic bioreactors, as a scalable culture system to produce large quantity of highly-viable muscle and fat micro-tissues, which could be further bio-assembled into ground meat analogues.

Evaluation of 12 Sweetpotato Clones in Coastal South Carolina for Yield and Insect Resistance Using Organic and Conventional Cultural Practices

The yield and insect resistance of 12 sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) clones grown in two different production systems (organic black plastic mulch and conventional bare ground) were evaluated in 2016 and 2017 in coastal South Carolina. Significant differences in total storage root yield, marketable storage root yield, U.S. No. 1 storage root yield, and percent of U.S. No. 1 storage roots in all trials were found, except for percent of U.S. No. 1 storage roots in 2017 for the organic black plastic mulch trial. In the organic black plastic mulch trials, ‘Bonita’ and USDA-04-136 consistently produced high marketable yields, whereas ‘Ruddy’ and USDA-W388 consistently produced the lowest marketable yields. ‘Averre’, ‘Beauregard’, ‘Covington’, and USDA-09-130 exhibited variable performance, with marketable yields among the highest in a single year. For the conventional trials, USDA-04-136 consistently produced high marketable yields, whereas ‘Ruddy’ and USDA-W-388 consistently produced the lowest marketable yields. ‘Averre’, ‘Bonita’, ‘Covington’, and USDA-09-130 exhibited variable performance, with marketable yields among the highest in a single year. For the organic black plastic mulch, significant differences were detected in the percent of uninjured roots and percent white grub (primarily Plectris aliena) damage in 2016 and in wireworm (Elateridae)-cucumber beetle (Diabrotica)-flea beetle (Systena) severity index (WDS severity index) in 2016 and 2017. USDA-04-136 and USDA-W-388 consistently had the lowest WDS severity index, whereas ‘Covington’ consistently had the highest WDS severity index. For the conventional trials, significant differences were found among clones in both years for all insect rating variables, except for percent sweetpotato weevil (Cylas formicarius elegantulus) damage. ‘Ruddy’, USDA-04-136, and USDA-W-388 consistently yielded the highest percent of uninjured roots, whereas ‘Averre’, ‘Bonita’, SC-1149-19, and USDA-09-130 consistently had the lowest percent of uninjured roots. The research reported here for yield and insect resistance under conventional and organic production systems will be useful for producers in the selection of cultivars suitable for growth in South Carolina.

Aeroacoustic characteristics of multi-directional wing under the wing-in-ground effect

Characteristics of the generation and propagation of aerodynamic noise are unique to conventional ground vehicles or aircraft due to the wing-in-ground (WIG) phenomenon. This study numerically examines the aeroacoustic characteristics of a multi-directional wing under the WIG effect with different values of clearance. The flow field was simulated by using a large eddy simulation for six groups of wings with different clearances and one group of wings in free space, at a freestream velocity of 0.3 Ma and an angle of attack of 5°. Acoustic simulations were carried out for each condition by using Möhring's analogy, and the acoustic analysis was based on details of the flow field. A multi-vortex system was generated at the trailing edge of the wing when the clearance was lower than 0.2 C. It consisted of an oscillating attached vortex that expanded and shrank with continuous changes in energy, and two periodically shedding vortices were formed that generated a strong wall-bound vortex street downstream of the wing after shedding. An analytical approach was used to simultaneously analyze different dominant frequencies in each region of the sound field. We conclude that different intensities of the WIG effect led to remarkable differences in the characteristic frequency of aerodynamic noise induced by the multi-directional wing. The characteristic frequencies of aerodynamic noise of the multi-directional wing with a low clearance (clearance ≤ 0.2 C) were mainly caused by the wall-bound vortex street while those at a high clearance (clearance ≥ 0.4 C) were mainly caused by vortices on the wingtip.

A Numerical Experiment of Full Waveform Inversion of Complex Structures Concealed Around a Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing Well Using Perforation Seismic Data

It is difficult to image the details of complex structures concealed around a horizontal hydraulic fracturing well using seismic data from the ground surface. In this paper, an approach is proposed to solve this problem by non-linear full waveform inversion (FWI) using perforation seismic data. The feasibility of the approach was investigated using numerical modeling based on an experimental model built from the well-known SEG/EAGE overthrust model, which contains complex geological structures with faults. First, seismic modeling was performed to produce experimental synthetic data, including three sets of perforation seismic data recorded by different acquisition systems deployed in observation wells and on the ground surface, and another set of conventional seismic reflection data with both sources and receivers deployed on the ground surface. Then, FWI was performed separately on each data set using an initial velocity model which was heavily smoothed to remove the target structures. The inversion results show that the concealed complex structures around the well were successfully recovered by FWI using perforation data, while the benchmark image from the FWI using conventional seismic data was poor. Particularly, the experiments also demonstrated that FWI using perforation seismic data can image the faults around a horizontal hydraulic fracturing well, while this is unable to achieve using conventional ground surface seismic data. This conclusion was also proved to be valid for noisy data deteriorated either by synthetic Gaussian or field noises. Further experiments demonstrated that FWI using perforation data recorded from wells outperformed that of surface data in terms of structure imaging accuracy characterized by quantitative errors.

Solar Photovoltaic Tree: Urban PV power plants to increase power to land occupancy ratio

With the day-by-day modernization, increasing electricity demand, and the restriction of climate change, more pressure is to search the renewable energy sources (Solar, Wind, etc.) and draw maximum power from them as it increases the need to develop Smart Cities, which have heavy electricity demand. For renewable energy power plant installations, one of the major difficulties is availability of land, as power plants like Solar photovoltaics have higher demand of open land, which is scarce in urban landscapes. In context of the problem statement of generating same electric power using less land, new models of Solar Photovoltaic Trees have been proposed, which can be used instead of conventional Solar PV plants. Simulations have been done on different SPV Tree models, concluding that very less land area is required to generate the same amount of electric power in comparison to conventional SPV plants, for example if a conventional ground – mounted model requires 300 m2 area, but one of our proposed models; Daisy SPV Tree requires only about 13 m2 area for generating the same electric power. Out of the total land area, other available space can be utilized for various purposes, which can be a solution for switching to renewables and can become very useful in urban landscapes. The possible designs are studied to get optimum “Power-to-Land occupancy Ratio” and “Land Coverage Ratio” with no additional power loss as compared to conventional ground-mounted Solar PV power plant and generate same amount of power using very marginal amount of land.

A Geospatial Platform for Crowdsourcing Green Space Area Management Using GIS and Deep Learning Classification

Green space areas are one of the key factors in people’s livelihoods. Their number and size have a significant impact on both the environment and people’s quality of life, including their health. Accordingly, government agencies often rely on information relating to green space areas when devising suitable plans and mandating necessary regulations. At present, obtaining information on green space areas using conventional ground surveys faces a number of limitations. This approach not only requires a lengthy period, but also tremendous human and financial resources. Given such restrictions, the status of a green space is not always up to date. Although software applications, especially those based on geographical information systems and remote sensing, have increasingly been applied to these tasks, the capability to use crowdsourcing data and produce real-time reports is lacking. This is partly because the quantity of data required has, to date, prohibited effective verification by human operators. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel geospatial platform for green space area management by means of GIS and artificial intelligence. In the proposed system, all user-submitted data are automatically verified by deep learning classification and analyses of the greenness areas on satellite imagery. The experimental results showed that the classification and analyses can identify green space areas at accuracies of 93.50% and 97.50%, respectively. To elucidate the merits of the proposed approach, web-based application software was implemented to demonstrate multimodal data management, cleansing, and reporting. This geospatial system was thus proven to be a viable tool for assisting governmental agencies to devise appropriate plans toward sustainable development goals.

Experimental Research on the Bearing Properties of Red Mud Geopolymer Foundations

In this study, the mechanical properties of composite foundations in red mud ground were examined, and the reinforcement effect of composite foundation dams with mixed geopolymer piles of fly ash and red mud were determined. The feasibility of red mud geopolymers as pile materials for composite foundations was verified by laboratory and field tests. The static load test of the red mud geopolymer foundation showed that the effective length of the pile body in the red mud foundation is approximately 8 m, and the stress of the soil layer is generally limited within 2 m below the ground surface. The results also showed that the principal load is supported by the pile body, while the bearing capacity of this kind of foundation is mainly provided by the side friction of the pile. The bearing mechanism of the new foundation is similar to that of conventional mixed composite ground. This is of great significance to optimize the red mud geopolymer foundation design and maximize the use of the pile bearing properties. Overall, there is a positive role in promoting the development of red mud dam reinforcement technology.

New Capabilities of the FLUKA Multi-Purpose Code

FLUKA is a general purpose Monte Carlo code able to describe the transport and interaction of any particle and nucleus type in complex geometries over an energy range extending from thermal neutrons to ultrarelativistic hadron collisions. It has many different applications in accelerator design, detector studies, dosimetry, radiation protection, medical physics, and space research. In 2019, CERN and INFN, as FLUKA copyright holders, together decided to end their formal collaboration framework, allowing them henceforth to pursue different pathways aimed at meeting the evolving requirements of the FLUKA user community, and at ensuring the long term sustainability of the code. To this end, CERN set up the FLUKA.CERN Collaboration1. This paper illustrates the physics processes that have been newly released or are currently implemented in the code distributed by the FLUKA.CERN Collaboration2 under new licensing conditions that are meant to further facilitate access to the code, as well as intercomparisons. The description of coherent effects experienced by high energy hadron beams in crystal devices, relevant to promising beam manipulation techniques, and the charged particle tracking in vacuum regions subject to an electric field, overcoming a former lack, have already been made available to the users. Other features, namely the different kinds of low energy deuteron interactions as well as the synchrotron radiation emission in the course of charged particle transport in vacuum regions subject to magnetic fields, are currently undergoing systematic testing and benchmarking prior to release. FLUKA is widely used to evaluate radiobiological effects, with the powerful support of the Flair graphical interface, whose new generation (Available at http://flair.cern) offers now additional capabilities, e.g., advanced 3D visualization with photorealistic rendering and support for industry-standard volume visualization of medical phantoms. FLUKA has also been playing an extensive role in the characterization of radiation environments in which electronics operate. In parallel, it has been used to evaluate the response of electronics to a variety of conditions not included in radiation testing guidelines and standards for space and accelerators, and not accessible through conventional ground level testing. Instructive results have been obtained from Single Event Effects (SEE) simulations and benchmarks, when possible, for various radiation types and energies. The code has reached a high level of maturity, from which the FLUKA.CERN Collaboration is planning a substantial evolution of its present architecture. Moving towards a modern programming language allows to overcome fundamental constraints that limited development options. Our long term goal, in addition to improving and extending its physics performances with even more rigorous scientific oversight, is to modernize its structure to integrate independent contributions more easily and to formalize quality assurance through state-of-the-art software deployment techniques. This includes a continuous integration pipeline to automatically validate the codebase as well as automatic processing and analysis of a tailored physics-case test suite. With regard to the aforementioned objectives, several paths are currently envisaged, like finding synergies with Geant4, both at the core structure and interface level, this way offering the user the possibility to run with the same input different Monte Carlo codes and crosscheck the results.

Effects of Adjuvants on Spraying Characteristics and Control Efficacy in Unmanned Aerial Application

Pesticide application by unmanned agricultural aerial vehicles (UAVs) has rapidly developed in China and other Asian counties. Currently, tank-mix spray adjuvants are usually added into pesticide solutions to reduce spray drift and facilitate droplet deposition and control efficacy. The currently used tank-mix adjuvants are all derived from conventional ground sprays, and their mechanisms of action in aerial applications are still unclear. In order to clarify the spraying characteristics and control efficacy of those adjuvants in aerial sprays, the performances of various types of tank-mix adjuvants were compared by analyzing droplet spectrum, drift potential index (DIX) in a wind tunnel, field deposition and control efficacy on wheat rust and aphids. The atomization results showed that the addition of adjuvants could change the droplet spectrum of liquid, and the results suggest that droplet size is an effective indicator of spray drift potential. In the field application, the meteorological conditions are complex and uncontrollable, and the effects of adjuvants on droplet deposition and distribution were not significant. Compared with the control solution, there was no significant difference in the deposition amount of each adjuvant solution, and the CVs of deposition were higher than 30%. Adding adjuvants to the spray solution can significantly improve the control efficacy of pesticides on wheat aphids and rust and also prolong the duration of the pesticide. Our results suggest that tank-mix adjuvants should be added when UAVs are used for aerial application. This study can be used as a reference to the research and development or selection of adjuvants in aerial sprays of UAVs.