Resilience Properties Research Articles

Influence of Iron Mining Waste Addition as a Sustainable Alternative on the Resilient and Physical Properties of Soils for Pavement Design

Influence of Iron Mining Waste Addition as a Sustainable Alternative on the Resilient and Physical Properties of Soils for Pavement Design

Regulating Land in Rural Africa: An Institutional, Vulnerability Perspective

Abstract Recent scholarship has focused on socio-economic trends concerning rural degradation, urbanisation and the sustainable use of natural resources. This article draws on these studies to focus on rural Africa, its projected poverty levels, and the institutional role in relation to these estimates. It uses vulnerability theory, progressive property theory and resilient property theory to reframe rural property as an asset of resilience for both communities and the state, arguing that property is being institutionalized across rural Africa to serve political interests, backed by global demands, at the cost of local communities, and their resiliency needs.

Spectrally selective and thermally insulating hybrid nanofiber aerogel coolers for building energy conservation

With the advancement of worldwide carbon neutralization, passive radiative cooling (PRC) has attracted tremendous interest in energy conservation by dissipating heat into the ultracold outer space without any electricity consumption. Despite some progress has been made in tailoring spectral properties for PRC, it still remains a crucial challenge in fabricating efficient and low-cost coolers for building energy saving. Herein, hierarchical cellulose-based aerogel coolers consisting of beads-on-string structural electrospun nanofibers are manufactured for all-day and all-region energy saving by combining radiative cooling and thermal insulation in one design. The hierarchically porous architectures and well-designed chemical compositions endow the aerogels with strong solar reflectance (∼0.974), high mid-infrared emittance (∼0.985), and ultra-low thermal conductivity (0.0285 W (m K)−1), achieving a sub-ambient cooling of ∼8.24 °C during the daytime and ∼7.41 °C during the nighttime. The aerogels also exhibit exceptional compressive resiliency, anti-aging, and self-cleaning properties, promising for durable cooling under harsh conditions. The building energy simulations show that about 23.1 kWh m−2 of the total energy consumption per year can be saved if the aerogel coolers are widely deployed as building envelopes in China. This work provides new perspectives for the development of advanced aerogel coolers for future energy saving applications.

Enhancing thermo-mechanical and moisture properties of 3D-Printed concrete through recycled ultra-fine waste glass powder

This paper presents a novel approach to enhancing 3D printed concrete (3DPC) by incorporating ultra-fine glass powder (UFGP), focusing on its mechanical properties and high-temperature resistance. Investigation like fresh properties, basic physical properties, residual compressive strength after exposure to 400 °C and 800 °C, hygric properties such as water vapor diffusion resistance, liquid water transport, and moisture buffering capacity were performed the observe the effect of UFGP replacement ratio on 3DPC, which demonstrates significant improvements, highlighting the potential of UFGP to elevate 3DPCs’ performance. Results showed significant improvements, particularly with a 20% UFGP mix, which showed the lowest compressive strength loss (9.0% at 400 °C and 53.7% at 800 °C). Additionally, the water vapor diffusion resistance factor for the 20% UFGP mix was measured at 65.03. These results suggest that incorporating UFGP in 3DPC enhances thermal resilience and mechanical properties, offering a solution for high-temperature construction. This study contributes to sustainable construction by emphasizing the importance of mechanical resilience for structural integrity under extreme temperatures.

Gelatin-Based Polymers Can Be Processed to Highly Resilient Biocompatible Porous Hydrogel Scaffolds for Soft Tissue Regeneration Applications.

Tissue regeneration relies on the mechanical properties of the surrounding environment, and it has already been shown that mechanostimulation is highly dependent on the stiffness of the native biological tissue. The main advantage of injectable hydrogels in medical applications is their ability to be delivered through minimally invasive techniques. Natural polymer-based hydrogels have been widely used in biomedical applications, due to their high biocompatibility, low immunogenicity, and similarity to soft tissues. However, the crucial combination of low stiffness with high resilience has not been achieved for natural polymers. The current study focuses on the development of novel gelatin-based injectable hydrogels for soft tissue regeneration applications, elucidating the effects of the formulation parameters on the resilience, microstructure, biocompatibility, and mechanical properties. Non-foamed hydrogels demonstrated resilience of at least 95%, while porous hydrogels maintained resilience above 90%, allowing them to withstand mechanical stresses and dynamic conditions within the body. The adjustable modulus of these hydrogels provides the necessary flexibility to mimic the mechanical properties of soft and very soft tissues, without compromising resilience. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) observations of the porous hydrogels indicated round interconnected pore structures, desired for cell migration and nutrient flow. Biocompatibility tests on fibroblasts and pre-adipocytes confirmed high biocompatibility, both directly and indirectly. In summary, structuring these new hydrogels for achieving adjustable stiffness, along with the excellent resilience and biocompatibility, is expected to enable this new technology to fit various soft tissue regeneration applications.

Reduction in Floor Impact Noise Using Resilient Pads Composed of Machining Scraps.

Floor impact noise is a significant social concern to secure a quiescent living space for multi-story building residents in South Korea. The floating floor, consisting of a concrete structure on resilient pads, is a specifically designed system to minimize noise transmission. This floating structure employs polymeric pads as the resilient materials. In this study, we investigated the utilization of helically shaped machining scraps as a resilient material for an alternative approach to floor noise reduction. The dynamic elastic modulus and loss factor of the scrap pads were measured using the vibration test method. The scrap pads exhibited a low dynamic elastic modulus and a high loss factor compared to the polymeric pads. Heavyweight impact sound experiments in an actual building were conducted to evaluate the noise reduction performance. The proposed pads showed excellent performance on the reduction in the structure-borne vibration of the concrete slab and resulting sound generation. The analytical model was used to simulate the response of the floating floor structure, enabling a parametric study to examine the effects of the resilient layer viscoelastic properties. Both experimental and analytical evidence confirmed that the proposed scrap pads contribute to the development of sustainable solutions for the minimization of floor impact noise.

Engineered endothelium model enables recapitulation of vascular function and early atherosclerosis development

Human health relies heavily on the vascular endothelium. Here, we propose a novel engineered endothelium model (EEM), which recapitulated both normal vascular function and pathology. An artificial basement membrane (aBM), where porous polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel was securely integrated with human fibroblast-derived, decellularized extracellular matrix on both sides was fabricated first and followed by endothelial cells (ECs) and pericytes (PCs) adhesion, respectively. Our EEM formed robust adherens junction (VE-cad) and built an impermeable barrier with time, along with the nitric oxide (NO) secretion. In our EEM, ECs and PCs interacted each other via aBM and led to hemoglobin alpha 1 (Hb-α1) development, which was involved in NO control and was strongly interconnected with VE-cad as well. A resilient property of EEM under inflammatory milieu was also confirmed by VE-cad and barrier recovery with time. In particular interest, foam cells formation, a hallmark of atherosclerotic initiation was successfully recapitulated in our EEM, where a series of sequential events were confirmed: human monocytes adhesion, transendothelial migration, and oxidized low-density lipoprotein uptake by macrophages. Collectively, our EEM is excellent in recapitulating not only normal endothelium but early pathologic one, thereby enabling EEM to be a physiologically relevant model for vascular study and disease modeling.

Paediatric mass casualty response through the lens of Functional Resonance Analytical Methodology- lessons learned

BackgroundMass Casualty Incidents are rare but can significantly stress healthcare systems. Functional Resonance Analytical Methodology (FRAM) is a systematic approach to model and explore how complex systems adapt to variations and to understand resilient properties in the face of perturbations. The aim of this study was to use FRAM to create a model of a paediatric trauma system during the initial response to the Manchester Arena Attack to provide resilience-based insights for the management of future Mass Casualty Incidents (MCI).MethodsQualitative interviews in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist bombing, were followed up with further in-depth probing of subject matter experts to create a validated and verified FRAM model. This model was compared with real incident data, then simplified for future studies.ResultsA Work As Imagined (WAI) model of how a paediatric emergency department provided resilient healthcare for MCI patients from reception and resuscitation to definitive care is presented. A focused model exploring the pathway for the most severely injured patients that will facilitate the simulation of a myriad of potential emergency preparedness resilience response scenarios is also presented.ConclusionsThe systematic approach undertaken in this study has produced a model of a paediatric trauma system during the initial response to the Manchester Arena Attack, providing key insights on how a resilient performance was sustained. This modelling may provide an important step forward in the preparedness and planning for future MCIs.

Changing disturbance regimes, material legacies, and stabilizing feedbacks: Dead coral skeletons impair key recovery processes following coral bleaching.

Ecosystem responses to disturbance depend on the nature of the perturbation and the ecological legacies left behind, making it critical to understand how climate-driven changes in disturbance regimes modify resilience properties of ecosystems. For coral reefs, recent increases in severe marine heat waves now co-occur with powerful storms, the historic agent of disturbance. While storms kill coral and remove their skeletons, heat waves bleach and kill corals but leave their skeletons intact. Here, we explored how the material legacy of dead coral skeletons modifies two key ecological processes that underpin coral reef resilience: the ability of herbivores to control macroalgae (spatial competitors of corals), and the replenishment of new coral colonies. Our findings, grounded by a major bleaching event at our long-term study locale, revealed that the presence of structurally complex dead skeletons reduced grazing on turf algae by ~80%. For macroalgae, browsing was reduced by >40% on less preferred (unpalatable) taxa, but only by ~10% on more preferred taxa. This enabled unpalatable macroalgae to reach ~45% cover in 2 years. By contrast, herbivores prevented macroalgae from becoming established on adjacent reefs that lacked skeletons. Manipulation of unpalatable macroalgae revealed that the cover reached after 1 year (~20%) reduced recruitment of corals by 50%. The effect of skeletons on juvenile coral growth was contingent on the timing of settlement relative to the disturbance. If corals settled directly after bleaching (before macroalgae colonized), dead skeletons enhanced colony growth by 34%, but this benefit was lost if corals colonized dead skeletons a year after the disturbance once macroalgae had proliferated. These findings underscore how a material legacy from a changing disturbance regime can alter ecosystem resilience properties by disrupting key trophic and competitive interactions that shape post-disturbance community dynamics.

Bioinspired waterproof and self-healing Photonic-Ionic skin for underwater interactive sensing

Bioinspired photonic-ionic skins (PI-skins) possessing multiple signals considerably promote the development of soft ionoelectronics owing to the fascinating interactive sensing capabilities. Unfortunately, swelling and leakage in aqueous environments are significantly detrimental to the stability and durability of underwater sensing. Herein, a novel PI-skin with waterproof, self-healing, and highly resilient properties is ingeniously fabricated via integrating the photonic array and dynamically covalently crosslinking fluorine-rich ionogel. Benefiting from the strain-modulated nanostructure and ionic conduction, the PI-skin achieves unique dual-signal sensing capability with sensitive mechanochromic performance and synchronous electrical response. Furthermore, the synergistic water repellency of the trifluoromethyl on the skeleton and the long alkyl chain modified hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL) inhibit swelling and leakage, significantly enhancing underwater stability. Notably, the exchangeable hindered urea bonds (HUBs) were judiciously introduced to construct a stable dynamically covalently crosslinking network, achieving efficient self-healing and high resilience simultaneously. The PI-skin with excellent adhesion and durability demonstrates the application potential in dual-signal underwater sensing and wireless information transmission. This work offers innovative design inspirations for the advancement of multifunctional artificial skins, intelligent interactive devices, and high-performance wearable iontronics.

Efficiency and resilience: key drivers of distribution network growth

Networks to distribute goods, from raw materials to food and medicines, are the backbone of a functioning economy. They are shaped by several supply relations connecting manufacturers, distributors, and final buyers worldwide. We present a network-based model to describe the mechanisms underlying the emergence and growth of distribution networks. In our model, firms consider two practices when establishing new supply relations: centralization, the tendency to choose highly connected partners, and multi-sourcing, the preference for multiple suppliers. Centralization enhances network efficiency by leveraging short distribution paths; multi-sourcing fosters resilience by providing multiple distribution paths connecting final buyers to the manufacturer. We validate the proposed model using data on drug shipments in the US. Drawing on these data, we reconstruct 22 nationwide pharmaceutical distribution networks. We demonstrate that the proposed model successfully replicates several structural features of the empirical networks, including their out-degree and path length distributions as well as their resilience and efficiency properties. These findings suggest that the proposed firm-level practices effectively capture the network growth process that leads to the observed structures.

Response theory identifies reaction coordinates and explains critical phenomena in noisy interacting systems

We consider a class of nonequilibrium systems of interacting agents with pairwise interactions and quenched disorder in the dynamics featuring, in the thermodynamic limit, phase transitions. We identify mathematical conditions on the microscopic interaction structure, namely the separability of the interaction kernel, that lead to a dimension reduction of the system in terms of a finite number of reaction coordinates (RCs). Such RCs prove to be proper nonequilibrium thermodynamic variables as they carry information on correlation, memory and resilience properties of the system. Phase transitions can be identified and quantitatively characterised as singularities of the complex valued susceptibility functions associated to the RCs. We provide analytical and numerical evidence of how the singularities affect the physical properties of finite size systems.

Protein research in millets: current status and way forward.

Millets' protein studies are lagging behind those of major cereals. Current status and future insights into the investigation of millet proteins are discussed. Millets are important small-seeded cereals majorly grown and consumed by people in Asia and Africa and are considered crops of future food security. Although millets possess excellent climate resilience and nutrient supplementation properties, their research advancements have been lagging behind major cereals. Although considerable genomic resources have been developed in recent years, research on millet proteins and proteomes is currently limited, highlighting a need for further investigation in this area. This review provides the current status of protein research in millets and provides insights to understand protein responses for climate resilience and nutrient supplementation in millets. The reference proteome data is available for sorghum, foxtail millet, and proso millet to date; other millets, such as pearl millet, finger millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet, tef, and browntop millet, do not have any reference proteome data. Many studies were reported on stress-responsive protein identification in foxtail millet, with most studies on the identification of proteins under drought-stress conditions. Pearl millet has a few reports on protein identification under drought and saline stress. Finger millet is the only other millet to have a report on stress-responsive (drought) protein identification in the leaf. For protein localization studies, foxtail millet has a few reports. Sorghum has the highest number of 40 experimentally proven crystal structures, and other millets have fewer or no experimentally proven structures. Further proteomics studies will help dissect the specific proteins involved in climate resilience and nutrient supplementation and aid in breeding better crops to conserve food security.

Auxetic textiles, composites and applications

Auxetic textiles are intriguing materials with unusual capabilities. These materials exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio with extraordinary performance in toughness, resilience, shear resistance, and acoustic properties mainly due to their special structure and associated deformation mechanics. Auxetic materials can also have applications around energy absorption and can effectively be used for vibration damping and shock absorbency. The exceptional behaviour of auxetic textiles can be obtained by utilising specific fibrous materials and introducing auxetic geometry and structures differently during weaving, knitting, and nonwoven manufacturing. This issue of Textile Progress highlights the fundamental aspects of various auxetic structures and their properties in general and a detailed analysis of auxetic textile structures and composites, their manufacturing processes, modelling, characterisation, and applications. These materials can potentially revolutionise their applications in sports, automotive, construction industry, biomedical engineering, aerospace, marine, and defence personal protective equipment. Fundamental understanding of auxetic geometry, followed by developing and analysing these geometries by analytical and computational modelling, translating the geometry into appropriate textile structures for actual fabric production, characterisation of auxetic fabrics and their composites, and finally, some innovative applications in technical textiles are some of the fascinating issues addressed in this review.

A Dual-Bond Crosslinking Strategy Enabling Resilient and Recyclable Electrolyte Elastomers for Solid-State Lithium Metal Batteries.

Elastomeric solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) are highly promising to address the solid-solid-interface issues of solid-state lithium metal batteries (LMBs), but compromises have to be made to balance the intrinsic trade-offs among their conductive, resilient and recyclable properties. Here, we propose a dual-bond crosslinking strategy for SPEs to realize simultaneously high ionic conductivity, elastic resilience and recyclability. An elastomeric SPE is therefore designed with hemiaminal dynamic covalent networks and Li+-dissociation co-polymer chains, where the -C-N- bond maintains the load-bearing covalent network under stress but is chemically reversible through a non-spontaneous reaction, the weaker intramolecular hydrogen bond is mechanically reversible, and the soft chains endow the rapid ion conduction. With this delicate structure, the optimized SPE elastomer achieves high elastic resilience without loading-unloading hysteresis, outstanding ionic conductivity of 0.2 mS cm-1 (25 °C) and chemical recyclability. Then, exceptional room-temperature performances are obtained for repeated Li plating/stripping tests, and stable cycling of LMBs with either LiFePO4 or 4.3 V-class LiFe0.2Mn0.8PO4 cathode. Furthermore, the recycled and reprocessed SPEs can be circularly reused in LMBs without significant performance degradation. Our findings provide an inspiring design principle for SPEs to address the solid-solid-interface and sustainability challenges of solid-state LMBs.

Geochemical impact of biomethane and natural gas blend injection in deep aquifer storage

Biomethane is one of the main renewable gases available today to offset fossil gas and decarbonize the energy system. The EU is seeking to rapidly replace part of the natural gas usually stored in deep saline aquifers by biomethane which contains up to 10000 ppm of O2. This study presents for the first-time assessment of deep aquifers’ resilience to biomethane and natural gas blend injection into two sandstone reservoirs with different mineral paragenesis from the Paris Basin (France). Multiphase reactive transport modeling allowed to evaluate changes in gas and water quality, mineralogy and moreover, to identify major resilience properties of storage facilities necessary to buffer the oxygen reactivity and induced acidification coming from gas–water–rock interactions. In the presence of pyrite, the injected oxygen is consumed during pyrite oxidation and contributes to the acidification of the formation water close to the injection point. However, the injection of 1% mole fraction of CO2(g) contained in the gas blend is found to be the main acidification factor. The analysis of reservoir resilience showed three protection levels of pH buffering capacity, which can effectively mitigate an increase in oxygen content up to 1000 ppm: (i) calcite dissolution, (ii) plagioclase and clay dissolution and (iii) clay sorption capacity. Models predict that the gas blend injection could induce minimal but long-term change in the mineralogy without significantly impacting the global porosity. Overall, both sandstones can preserve the quality of the gas plume despite partial CO2(g) exsolution induced by the geochemical perturbation of the formations. The developed models will be used as a basis for assessment of renewable natural gas storage facilities in the long-term.

Fouling conditions and associated deformation characteristics of railway ballast

ABSTRACT Ballast is an essential component of the railway track substructure to facilitate load distribution and drainage. However, during service life, ballast loses its strength by reducing friction properties and gets fouled, which fails to perform as desired. Therefore, highly fouled ballast needs to be either cleaned or replaced to restore the expected load-bearing capacity, resiliency, track geometry, and drainage properties. Therefore, it is important to identify the intensity of ballast fouling and the characteristics of fouling materials along with their effect on the strength and deformation of the railway ballast. In this study, field investigation includes a collection of ballast samples from the live railway track of Bangladesh, and related tests are conducted. Based on the findings of the field identification, ballast samples on a scale of 1/5th are prepared in the laboratory with desired gradation and material properties to replicate the field samples. Compaction tests and a series of consolidated drained cyclic triaxial tests are conducted to identify the strength and deformation characteristics of the fouled ballast, considering the effect of water content. Based on the fouling index, four out of six samples are highly fouled, and the fouling materials contain both plastic and non-plastic properties. Triaxial test results indicate that consistency of the fouling material, degree of saturation, and deviator stress level significantly affect the strength and deformation characteristics of the fouled railway ballast. Fouling materials containing plastic properties increases the risk to the stability of the railway track in the presence of moisture.

Harnessing the Transcriptomic Resources of Millets to Decipher Climate Resilience and Nutrient Enrichment Traits

Rich nutrients, climate resilience, and the economic importance of millets are believed to ensure food security for future generations. Millets have the habit of growing against abiotic stresses (particularly drought stress). Millets show much better climate resilience and nutrient supplementation properties compared to other major cereals. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of genes that respond to stresses and nutrient transport will help understand the tolerance mechanism and improve against both stresses. Genome sequences are currently available for two major (sorghum and pearl millet) and eight minor millets (foxtail millet, finger millet, kodo millet, barnyard millet, proso millet, job’s tear, fonio millet, and tef). Five minor millets (little millet, kodo millet, brown top millet, guinea millet, and raishan) do not have genome sequences to date. Transcriptome studies help to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs), mine genes induced in a particular stress and develop several molecular markers for all plants, including millets. Some millets have reports on transcriptome datasets for plants exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses and for nutritional traits. Unfortunately, the transcriptome datasets of millets have not been adequately leveraged to explore genes associated with traits such as climate resilience, nutrient enrichment, and crop improvement. This underutilization stems from a lack of high-resolution studies and limited exploration within the field. As a result, the potential insights and genetic understanding offered by these datasets remain largely untapped. Through this review, we plan to elucidate the current status of transcriptome resources on millets and draw future insights on the utilization of these resources. This review will motivate researchers to utilize the available transcriptome resources for millet improvement.

A trait-based approach to integrate resilience frameworks

Multiple context-specific resilience frameworks with explicit assumptions have limited their application over a wide range of complex systems. Ability to withstand and recover subsumes the core properties in multiple resilience definitions across disciplines. This study presents a generic framework using a spring-damper-mechanical-system (SDMS), as it provides suitable analogy, as spring and damper represent recovery and withstanding capabilities to an external force. Using SDMS framework, an integrated resilience index (IRI) was developed as a combined measure of recovery and withstanding capabilities of the system. IRI successfully distinguished SDMSs and diverse range of ecological systems based on their resilience properties. IRI solely depends on system's response and not limited to either a particular type of external forcing, or system with specific set of equilibria and criteria for bifurcations. Therefore, it overcomes limitations of traditional resilience frameworks, particularly in the context of engineering and ecological resilience frameworks applied in ecological systems.

Soy protein isolate with higher solubility and improved gel properties when co‐assembled with walnut protein

SummaryPhytoproteins have been widely implemented in the food industry benefiting from their good functionalities, vast reserves and relatively low cost. However, phytoproteins frequently experience poor solubility, which limits their applications. In our study, the solubility of soy protein isolate (SPI) treated with pH‐shifting increased over 1.8 times; however, the transglutaminase‐induced gel properties were sacrificed. To solve this problem, walnut protein (WP) was used to co‐assemble with SPI during the treatment. The co‐assembly hybrid protein shows significantly better solubility, meanwhile, maintaining the transglutaminase‐induced gel properties and improving the cohesiveness and resilience properties compared with untreated SPI, which behaved an improved water holding capacity during storage. The detailed mechanisms were investigated with rheological analysis, SEM, textural analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Overall, our study provided a promising strategy to develop SPI/WP hybrid composites with high solubility and improved gel properties to extend the application of SPI in the food industry.