Unique Relationships Research Articles

Spatial and Temporal Variability in Stream Thermal Regime Drivers for Three River Networks During the Summer Growing Season.

Many cold-water dependent aquatic organisms are experiencing habitat and population declines from increasing water temperatures. Identifying mechanisms which drive local and regional stream thermal regimes facilitates restoration at ecologically relevant scales. Stream temperatures vary spatially and temporally both within and among river basins. We developed a modeling process to identify statistical relationships between drivers of stream temperature and covariates representing landscape, climate, and management-related processes. The modeling process was tested in 3 study areas of the Pacific Northwest USA during the growing season (May [start], August [warmest], September [end]). Across all months and study systems, covariates with the highest relative importance represented the physical landscape (elevation [1st], catchment area [3rd], main channel slope [5th]) and climate covariates (mean monthly air temperature [2nd] and discharge [4th]). Two management covariates (ground water use [6th] and riparian shade [7th]) also had high relative importance. Across the growing season (for all basins) local reach slope had high relative importance in May, but transitioned to a regional main channel slope covariate in August and September. This modeling process identified regionally similar and locally unique relationships among drivers of stream temperature. High relative importance of management-related covariates suggested potential restoration actions for each system.

Torque-Ripple Reduction of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Drives Based on Novel Speed Harmonic Control at Low-Speed Operation

Torque ripple reduction methods based on harmonic current injection for PMSM drives have been widely discussed, while the performance of torque-ripple-model (TRM) based methods are limited due to model accuracy as well as the rotor position errors, and the speed harmonic control based methods still cannot get rid of the impact of the phase information of speed harmonics, which results in remaining torque ripples and the difficulty in designing speed harmonic controller. In this paper, the unique relationships between the quadrature magnitudes of speed harmonics and harmonic currents are derived considering the minimal conduction copper loss by the harmonic currents. Based on that, a novel torque ripple reduction method based on speed harmonic control is proposed, wherein a novel speed harmonic controller is presented to regulate the quadrature magnitudes of speed harmonics, so that the phase of speed harmonics is avoided in the speed harmonic controller. Also, the proposed speed harmonic controller aims to generate harmonic current references. The proposed methodology is evaluated by experiments and is verified to reduce torque ripples of PMSM drives effectively.

Extending RDT and TCE to Address the Unique Resource-dependence Relationships in B2G Contexts

Extending RDT and TCE to Address the Unique Resource-dependence Relationships in B2G Contexts

The role of the icc coordinator within the NHS-SUD pilot project

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction Inherited Cardiac Conditions services across the country provide excellent care to families affected by sudden unexpected death, with many Coroners and Pathologists facilitating appropriate referrals and retention of post mortem tissue samples for future genetic testing. However, service provision varies greatly resulting in missed opportunities for tissue retention, signposting to ICC services and disparities in clinical screening. To ensure this gap is closed, the seven NHS Genomic Medicine Service Alliance (GMSA) regions have partnered with the British Heart Foundation to recruit seven ICC coordinators, tasked with coordinating the delivery of a nationally standardised NHS - Coronial Sudden Unexpected Death (SUD) pilot pathway. Methods The ICC coordinator’s main role is to improve the processes and collaboration between the Coronial and their nearest ICC service, increase the number of affected families who are assessed in an NHS ICC service and facilitate genomic counselling and testing at the beginning of the pathway. ICC nurses and genetic counsellors have been recruited into these posts. Their unique skillsets and existing links with pathologists, coroners, coroner officers, families, nurses, geneticists, support groups and cardiologists maximises the deliverables for the duration of the pilot. Results 30 cases of sudden unexplained deaths eligible for entry into the pilot have been signposted and 65 at risk family members have been identified by the seven sites. Some of the most notable results have been facilitation of family referrals, cardiac-genomic counselling, and timely results dissemination. Furthermore, ICC Coordinators have established relationships and delivered training to pathologists, coroner officers and local MDTs, ensuring consistent pathway delivery. Genomic samples are tracked and transferred to the regional genomic laboratory hubs in a standardised manner. Collaboration with external evaluators is ongoing and methods of data capture have been established. Conclusion To ensure national delivery and equitable access to genomic testing, the ICC coordinator role is vital to each ICC service and coronial network. We have highlighted some of the unique skills and relationships needed for a national rollout. Following the outcome of the project evaluation, this role can be expanded to other cardiac nurses and genetic counsellors in other regions.

Examining technostress and its impact on worker well-being in the digital gig economy

PurposeOnline labour markets (OLMs) have recently become a widespread phenomenon of digital work. While the implications of OLMs on worker well-being are hotly debated, little empirical research examines the impact of such work on individuals. The highly competitive and fast-paced nature of OLMs compels workers to multitask and to perform intense technology-enabled work, which can potentially enhance technostress. This paper examines the antecedents and well-being consequences of technostress arising from work in OLMs.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw from person–environment fit theory and job characteristics theory and test a research model of the antecedents and consequences of worker technostress in OLMs. Data were gathered from 366 workers in a popular OLM through a large-scale online survey. Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the research model.FindingsThe findings extend existing research by validating the relationships between specific OLM characteristics and strain. Contrary to previous literature, the results indicate a link between technology complexity and work overload in OLMs. Furthermore, in OLMs, feedback is positively associated with work overload and job insecurity, while strain directly influences workers' negative affective well-being and discontinuous intention.Originality/valueThis study contributes to technostress literature by developing and testing a research model relevant to a new form of work conducted through OLMs. The authors expand the current research on technostress by integrating job characteristics as new antecedents to technostress and demonstrating its impact on different types of subjective well-being and discontinuous intention. In addition, while examining the impact of technostressors on outcomes, the authors consider their impact at the individual level (disaggregated approach) to capture the subtlety involved in understanding technostressors' unique relationships with outcomes.

Temporal Network of Depressive Symptoms across College Students with Distinct Depressive Trajectories during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background. There are marked differences in how individuals respond and adapt to depressive symptoms over time during the strain of public health emergencies; however, few studies have examined the interrelations between depressive symptoms in distinct depressive trajectories from the COVID-19 outbreak period to the COVID-19 control period. Therefore, this study conducted cross-lagged panel networks to investigate the temporal relationships between depressive symptoms across distinct depressive trajectories from the COVID-19 outbreak period (T1) to the COVID-19 control period (T2). Methods. A total of 35,516 young participants from the College Students’ Behavior and Health Cohort during the COVID-19 pandemic were included in the current study. Depressive symptoms were self-reported using the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire. Unique longitudinal relationships between symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic were estimated using a cross-lagged panel network. Results. Longitudinal relationships across distinct depressive trajectories were unique during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, suicidal ideation at T1 in the chronic- and delayed-dysfunction groups was most predictive of other symptoms at T2, whereas “sleep” at T1 in the recovery group and “lack of energy” at T1 in the resistance group may be strongly related to the remission of other depressive symptoms at T2. Conclusions. These exploratory findings demonstrate the directionality of relationships underlying individual symptoms in the youth and highlight suicidal ideation, sleep, and energy as potential influencers of other depressive symptoms across distinct depressive trajectories. Targeting those symptoms during the outbreak period of COVID 19 would theoretically have been beneficial in preventing and/or reducing the likelihood of spontaneous depression during the subsequent control period.

Citizen Sensing within Urban Greenspaces: Exploring Human Wellbeing Interactions in Deprived Communities of Glasgow

The relationship between urban greenspaces and the benefits to psychological, social, and physical aspects of human wellbeing are important to study, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas and underrepresented communities. This interaction was theorized, analyzed, and measured in this paper through the transactional paradigm and operationalized through the use of a volunteer geographic information questionnaire, SoftGIS, which activated the urban greenspace–human wellbeing interaction through its map-based data collection. Over 450 unique place-based relationships were statistically analyzed within the Greater Glasgow Urban Region of Paisley, Scotland, a vulnerable community. This study revealed that multiple components of human wellbeing are supported through interactions with urban greenspaces. The Paisley region’s respondents visited greenspaces, generally, and most often to receive psychological benefits such as reduction of stress and mental relaxation through interactions which included sitting and relaxing in quiet spaces, enjoying natural surroundings, and viewing nature and wildlife. The physical and social wellbeing benefits were not as frequent in these urban greenspace interactions but were distinctly present. The results imply pathways towards management and multifunctional greenspace design responses in urbanizing regions and indicate strategies for public policy, human health, and urban planning, which deliver wellbeing benefits to communities.

Exploring Postmodern Approaches to Jewish Identity in Contemporary Europe through The Finkler Question

This research article explores the depiction of Jewish identity in contemporary Europe as presented in Howard Jacobson’s novel, The Finkler Question, using postmodern perspectives on Otherness, specificity, and alterity. By drawing on Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition, the article examines the meta-narratives of Jewish identity and how identity is constructed in a fluid, postmodern era. The article critically evaluates Jacobson’s position and whether The Finkler Question posits a postmodern Jewish identity. The article offers insights into the complex and multifaceted nature of Jewish identity in contemporary Europe by analysing the novel's portrayal of Jewish characters and their relationships and examining the broader socio-political context. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how postmodern perspectives can enhance our understanding of this important issue. The analysis shows that The Finkler Question reflects postmodern approaches to identity, with characters navigating complex and often contradictory identities. The novel presents a diverse range of Jewish characters, each with their own unique experiences and relationships to their cultural and religious identity. The article argues that the novel’s focus on cultural rather than religious aspects of Jewish identity is evidence of a postmodern Jewish identity that embraces diversity and multiplicity. The article concludes that postmodern perspectives offer a valuable lens through which to examine Jewish identity in contemporary Europe and that works of literature such as The Finkler Question can provide important insights into this complex issue.

Negative interpretation bias connects to real-world daily affect: A multistudy approach.

Negative interpretation bias, the tendency to appraise ambiguous stimuli as threatening, shapes our emotional lives. Various laboratory tasks, which differ in stimuli features and task procedures, can quantify negative interpretation bias. However, it is unknown whether these tasks globally predict individual differences in real-world negative (NA) and positive (PA) affect. Across two studies, we tested whether different lab-based negative interpretation bias tasks predict daily NA and PA, measured via mobile phone across months. To quantify negative interpretation bias, Study 1 (N = 69) used a verbal, self-referential task whereas Study 2 (N = 110) used a perceptual, emotional image task with faces and scenes. Across tasks, negative interpretation bias was linked to heightened daily NA. However, only negative interpretation bias in response to ambiguous faces was related to decreased daily PA. These results illustrate the ecological validity of negative interpretation bias tasks and highlight converging and unique relationships between distinct tasks and naturalistic emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

In search of similarity in adverse events journeys of patients with left ventricular assist devices

ObjectiveThe Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) Event data set contains an expansive collection of longitudinal evidence of the course of adverse events (AEs) of >15,000 patients who have received a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). Buried in the huge Event data set is knowledge that can provide a deeper understanding of the patterns of the “AE journey” of patients with LVAD. Thus, the goal of this study was to examine the Event data set from a comprehensive perspective to identify unique relationships and patterns of AEs, alert potential challenges, and suggest future research directions. MethodsA sequential pattern mining algorithm called SPADE (ie, Sequential PAttern Discovery using Equivalence classes) was applied to 86,912 recorded AEs of 15,820 patients with a continuous-flow LVAD between 2008 and 2016, extracted from the publicly accessible INTERMACS registry. The patterns of AE journey were investigated by posing 5 descriptive research questions about most common types of AE, concomitant AEs, AE sequences, AE subsequences, and interesting relations between AEs. ResultsThe analysis revealed several characteristics of patterns of the AE journey of patients who received an LVAD that accounts for the types and temporal ordering of successive AEs, combinations of AEs, and their timing after surgery. ConclusionsThe high diversity and sparsity of the types and timing of AE occurrences make the AE journeys of patients dissimilar from each other, impeding the discovery of highly-patterned AE journeys among the patients. This study suggests 2 salient directions for future studies to tackle this issue using cluster analysis to cluster patients into more similar groups and translate these results into a practical clinical tool to forecast the next AE based on the history of previous AEs.

Regional Time-Series Coding Network and Multi-View Image Generation Network for Short-Time Gait Recognition.

Gait recognition is one of the important research directions of biometric authentication technology. However, in practical applications, the original gait data is often short, and a long and complete gait video is required for successful recognition. Also, the gait images from different views have a great influence on the recognition effect. To address the above problems, we designed a gait data generation network for expanding the cross-view image data required for gait recognition, which provides sufficient data input for feature extraction branching with gait silhouette as the criterion. In addition, we propose a gait motion feature extraction network based on regional time-series coding. By independently time-series coding the joint motion data within different regions of the body, and then combining the time-series data features of each region with secondary coding, we obtain the unique motion relationships between regions of the body. Finally, bilinear matrix decomposition pooling is used to fuse spatial silhouette features and motion time-series features to obtain complete gait recognition under shorter time-length video input. We use the OUMVLP-Pose and CASIA-B datasets to validate the silhouette image branching and motion time-series branching, respectively, and employ evaluation metrics such as IS entropy value and Rank-1 accuracy to demonstrate the effectiveness of our design network. Finally, we also collect gait-motion data in the real world and test them in a complete two-branch fusion network. The experimental results show that the network we designed can effectively extract the time-series features of human motion and achieve the expansion of multi-view gait data. The real-world tests also prove that our designed method has good results and feasibility in the problem of gait recognition with short-time video as input data.

Benchmark Study of Epoxy Coatings with Selection of Bio-Based Phenalkamine versus Fossil-Based Amine Crosslinkers.

The phenalkamines (PK) derived from cardanol oil can be used as a bio-based crosslinker for epoxy coatings as an alternative for traditional fossil amines (FA). First, the reaction kinetics of an epoxy resin with four PK and FA crosslinkers are compared by differential scanning calorimetry, illustrating a fast reaction rate and higher conversion of PK at room temperature in parallel with a moderate exothermal reaction. Second, the performance of coatings with various concentrations of PK and PK/FA ratios indicates good mixing compatibility between crosslinkers resulting in higher hardness, scratch resistance, hydrophobicity, and abrasive wear resistance of coatings with PK. The superior performance is confirmed over a broad range of resin/crosslinker ratios, facilitating the processing with viscosity profiles depending on the PK type. Although fossil- and bio-based crosslinkers have different chemical structures, the unique linear relationships between intrinsic mechanical properties (i.e., ductility and impact resistance) and coating performance indicate that the degree of crosslinking is a primary parameter controlling coating performance, where PK simultaneously provides high hardness and ductility. In conclusion, the optimization of the processing range for bio-based PK as a crosslinker for epoxy coatings delivers suitable processing conditions and superior mechanical performance compared to traditional amine crosslinkers.

Comparative Analysis Between Physical Activity Affect and Discrete Emotions in College Students

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate empirical distinctness and overlap between physical activity (PA) affect and emotions as well as potential unique relationships with PA beliefs and behaviors. Specifically, researchers wanted to explore the level of shared variance amongst discrete emotions and affect, which in effect tested the jingle-jangle fallacy that can be present in psychometric evaluation of related constructs. Participants: College students (N=519; Mage= 20.47) enrolled in PA courses at two universities in the Southeastern United States completed questionnaires concerning their PA related emotions, affect, self-efficacy, and self-reported PA. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling were used to evaluate factor structure and hypothesized relationships. Results: Sound factor analysis was identified with affect related to several emotions, including strong correlations between enjoyment and positive affect, suggesting some construct and measurement intersection. Regression results showed emotions produced stronger relationships with self-efficacy and PA compared to affect. Conclusions: While conceptual overlap did exist, measuring several discrete emotions over the dichotomous affective measure may be more insightful and provide specificity in explaining PA decisions. More research is needed on the use of PA emotions.

Burkholderia contaminans Bacteriophage CSP3 Requires O-Antigen Polysaccharides for Infection.

The Burkholderia cepacia complex is a group of opportunistic pathogens that cause both severe acute and chronic respiratory infections. Due to their large genomes containing multiple intrinsic and acquired antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, treatment is often difficult and prolonged. One alternative to traditional antibiotics for treatment of bacterial infections is bacteriophages. Therefore, the characterization of bacteriophages infective for the Burkholderia cepacia complex is critical to determine their suitability for any future use. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of novel phage, CSP3, infective against a clinical isolate of Burkholderia contaminans. CSP3 is a new member of the Lessievirus genus that targets various Burkholderia cepacia complex organisms. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of CSP3-resistant B. contaminans showed that mutations to the O-antigen ligase gene, waaL, consequently inhibited CSP3 infection. This mutant phenotype is predicted to result in the loss of cell surface O-antigen, contrary to a related phage that requires the inner core of the lipopolysaccharide for infection. Additionally, liquid infection assays showed that CSP3 provides suppression of B. contaminans growth for up to 14 h. Despite the inclusion of genes that are typical of the phage lysogenic life cycle, we saw no evidence of CSP3's ability to lysogenize. Continuation of phage isolation and characterization is crucial in developing large and diverse phage banks for global usage in cases of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. IMPORTANCE Amid the global antibiotic resistance crisis, novel antimicrobials are needed to treat problematic bacterial infections, including those from the Burkholderia cepacia complex. One such alternative is the use of bacteriophages; however, a lot is still unknown about their biology. Bacteriophage characterization studies are of high importance for building phage banks, as future work in developing treatments such as phage cocktails should require well-characterized phages. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a novel Burkholderia contaminans phage that requires the O-antigen for infection, a distinct phenotype seen among other related phages. Our findings presented in this article expand on the ever-evolving phage biology field, uncovering unique phage-host relationships and mechanisms of infection.

Unique relationships between phages and endospore-forming hosts.

As part of their survival strategy under harsh environmental conditions, endospore-forming bacteria can trigger a sporulation developmental program. Although the regulatory cascades that precisely control the transformation of vegetative bacteria into mother cells and resilient spores have been described in detail, less is known about how bacteriophages that prey on endospore-formers exploit sporulation. Herein, we argue that phages infecting these bacteria have evolved several specific molecular mechanisms, not yet known in other bacteria, that manifest from the phage-driven alliance to negative effects on the host. We anticipate that the relationships between phages and endospore-formers outlined here will inspire studies on phage ecology and evolution, and could facilitate important advances in the development of phage therapies against pathogenic spore-formers.

Arousal and locomotion differently modulate activity of somatostatin neurons across cortex.

Arousal powerfully influences cortical activity, in part by modulating local inhibitory circuits. Somatostatin-expressing inhibitory interneurons (SOM) are particularly well-situated to shape local population activity in response to shifts in arousal, yet the relationship between arousal state and SOM activity has not been characterized outside of sensory cortex. To determine whether SOM activity is similarly modulated by behavioral state across different levels of the cortical processing hierarchy, we compared the behavioral modulation of SOM neurons in auditory cortex (AC), a primary sensory region, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC), an association-level region of cortex, in mice. Behavioral state modulated activity differently in AC and PPC. In PPC, transitions to high arousal were accompanied by large increases in activity across the full PPC neural population, especially in SOM neurons. In AC, arousal transitions led to more subtle changes in overall activity, as individual SOM and Non-SOM neurons could be either positively or negatively modulated during transitions to high arousal states. The coding of sensory information in population activity was enhanced during periods of high arousal in AC, but not PPC. Our findings suggest unique relationships between activity in local circuits and arousal across cortex, which may be tailored to the roles of specific cortical regions in sensory processing or the control of behavior.Significance statementThe effects of arousal on brain networks are profound, but vary across regions. Somatostatin neurons may carry out some of the effects of arousal on local network activity in sensory cortex, by modulating response gain and decorrelating population activity. However, SOM neurons have not been well studied outside of sensory cortex, and so it is unknown whether SOM neurons are similarly affected by shifts in brain state throughout the cortex. Here, we have revealed specialization in the relationship between arousal and activity in SOM neurons that could contribute to the diversity of arousal-related impacts on local computation across cortical regions.

COVID-19, the COVID-19 response, and racial injustice: Associations with depressive and anxiety symptoms among US adults from April 2020 to March 2021

BackgroundPeople in the United States have faced numerous large and intersecting threats to their mental health since the onset of the coronavirus disease pandemic. This study aimed to understand the unique relationships between these co-occurring threats – including the police killings of unarmed Black people and the fight for racial justice – and how they affect mental health symptoms among various demographic groups. MethodsData on population mental health, state-level COVID-19 incidence rates, cases of police-involved killings, and occurrences of racial justice protests were analyzed. The primary outcome was depression or anxiety symptoms. Regression models were used to estimate prospective associations between individual-, household-, and state-level exposures to hypothesized mental health threats and subsequent depression or anxiety symptoms. ResultsData from 2,085,041 individual participants were included. Most were women (51.2%), and most were white, non-Hispanic (61.2%), with almost half (47.7%) reporting some loss of household income since March 13, 2020. Neither the killing of unarmed Black people by police, nor the above-average occurrence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, were observed to be associated with anxiety or depressive symptoms in the overall population, though the BLM protests were associated with reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms among younger participants. State-level COVID-19 incidence risk was more strongly associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms among women, Black people, older people, and higher income people, compared to men, white people, younger people, and lower income people. ConclusionOur findings are relevant for anticipating and addressing the mental health consequences of social injustice and protest movements in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future pandemics. Promoting population mental health requires addressing underlying social and structural inequities and prioritizing the pursuit of social justice and health equity as a primary mental health intervention.

Densification of polycrystalline alumina with dense dislocation arrays via stainless steel sealed powder metallurgy hot isostatic press

Aluminum oxide (alumina, Al2O3) is one of the most widely used ceramic materials owing to its excellent dielectric, chemical resistance, and low cost. In contemporary semiconductor fabrication processing, in particular, Al2O3 plays a key role in high-value processing components, such as an electrostatic chuck. Here, we report for the first time a novel densifying technique for Al2O3 that can be referred to as the powder metallurgy hot isostatic press (PM-HIP) process. Unlike the conventional HIP process, our PM-HIP process can directly convert Al2O3 powders into fully densified ceramics via a one-step process. More importantly, during the PM-HIP process, thermomechanical energy can easily be transferred to each of the particles simultaneously, which facilitates the sinter process (i.e., necking and diffusion) and the clipping of lattice planes. As a result, highly dense dislocation arrays are embedded within the entire volume of the sintered body. This correlates with unique material properties-processing relationships in the Al2O3 ceramics sintered via PM-HIP. The Al2O3 ceramics sintered by PM-HIP exhibited unique mechanical and electrical properties, highlighting its potential for use in electrostatic chucks.

Unique Host-Parasite Relationships from Wildlife and Pets at a Zoological Medicine Service at Central Oklahoma

Ectoparasites on wild birds and mammals threaten health of the animal and community. Most studies of ectoparasites tend to be location focused so characterizing wider differences between ectoparasites and hosts is difficult. The aim of this study was to identify ectoparasites from free ranging and captive wildlife at an academic zoological medicine service in Central Oklahoma and record first reports of ectoparasites and hosts. We collected 228 ectoparasites from 47 animals: 111 ectoparasites from 30 birds were 14 lice (n = 78), four hematophagous fly (n = 20), and three tick (n = 13) species. One hundred seventeen ectoparasites from 17 mammals were four flea (n = 8) and four tick (n = 109) species. Results included 13 first-time ectoparasite species and 26 first-time host-ectoparasite reports in Oklahoma. The study portrays closer representation of ectoparasites infesting wild animals in Central Oklahoma and demonstrate possible correlation between mortality and injury to parasitized hosts. Additional studies would document ectoparasites infesting wildlife in Central Oklahoma.

Physical and Mechanical Behaviors of Compacted Soils under Hydraulic Loading of Wetting–Drying Cycles

Exposed geo−infrastructures filled with compacted soils experience cyclic wetting–drying effects due to environment and underground water fluctuations. Soil physical and mechanical behaviors are prone to deterioration to a great extent, e.g., swelling, collapse, or even slope failure, resulting in huge losses to human life, safety, and engineering construction. In this paper, hydraulic loading tests of wetting–drying cycles were carried out on compacted fine soil via a one−dimensional pressure plate apparatus equipped with bender elements. The influences of wetting–drying paths on the soil characteristics of moisture content, void ratio and shear modulus were obtained and analyzed. Results showed that cyclic wetting–drying effects weakened the soil’s water retention capacity. It was observed that it was harder for pore water to approach saturation at a lower matric suction level and to be expelled at a higher matric suction level. Typical swelling and shrinkage deformations occurred during the hydraulic loading processes, and volume expansion was generated after the drying–wetting cycles at a given value of matric suction, which deteriorated the densely compacted soils to a relatively looser state. Then, a unified soil–water characteristic surface was proposed to describe the unique relationships of moisture content, void ratio, and matric suction. Moreover, the small−strain shear modulus of the soil, in terms of shear wave velocity, was reduced by 32.2–35.5% and 13.8–25.8% at the same degree of saturation during the first and second wetting paths, respectively. Therefore, the volume expansion and modulus degradation resulting from the wetting–drying cycles should attract particular attention to avoid further distresses in the practical engineering.