A new species of Floronia Simon, 1887 from Baiyan Cave in Guizhou Province, China (Araneae, Linyphiidae).

Floroniahuishuiensis Zhou & Xu, sp. nov. (♂♀) is the first species in the genus Floronia to be described from Baiyan Cave in Guizhou Province, China. The new species is similar to F.zhejiangensis Zhu, Chen & Sha, 1987 but differs in structural details of the genital organs, primarily by the presence of a well-developed retrolateral tibial apophysis, a hook-shaped distal end of the radix in the male palp, and the rectangular posterior median plate in the epigyne. The illustration of copulatory organs of F.bucculenta (Clerck, 1757) and F.zhejiangensis Zhu, Chen & Sha, 1987 were reproduced here for comparison. A detailed description, photographs of the habitus and copulatory organs of the new species and a distribution map is provided.

Anomalous Enrichment of As and Hg in Underground Coal Dust: A Case from Xishan Coalfield, Shanxi Province, North China.

Coal dust is an important source of coal workers' pneumoconiosis, which is harmful to the health of underground workers. The coal dust samples were directly collected using a coal dust sampler from four major production positions in the underground coal mine. The particle size distribution, mineralogy, and occurrence of As and Hg in the coal dust samples were investigated. The results indicated that the contents of As and Hg were depleted or normal in the parent coal samples compared with the average values of C-P coal in North China and Chinese coal, but they were anomalously enriched in coal dusts. The concentrations of As and Hg in the coal dust samples studied are greater than the values of the elements in the parent coal. The As content in the coal dust samples studied is about one to three orders of magnitude above the parent coal value and the Hg content in the studied coal is 1.28 to 20.28 times higher than the parent coal value. The modes of occurrences of As and Hg were studied by sequential chemical extraction in combination with field emission scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy-EDS (HRTEM-EDS). The occurrence of As is dominated mainly by pyrite and secondarily by carbonate and silicate in the coal dust samples. Pyritic Hg and organic Hg may be the dominant forms in mining face and heading face samples, and carbonate and pyritic Hg are the main forms in rocks roadway and return airway samples. It is considered that the mechanochemical effect resulted in the formation of surface active sites and modification of the morphology. Harmful trace elements, such as As, Cd, Hg, Se, Pb, Co, Sb, and Tl, and minor grains associated with nanominerals that bear much hazardous elements, could easily be originally fractionated or adsorbed by airborne particulates. This research aims to provide a theoretical basis for the prevention of occupational disease and underground environmental evaluation.

Experimental Research on Seismic Behavior of Seismic-Damaged Double-Deck Viaduct Frame Pier Strengthened with CFRP and Enveloped Steel.

This paper investigates the seismic behavior of a seismic-damaged double-deck viaduct frame pier (DVFP) strengthened with CFRP and enveloped steel, four strengthened DVFP specimens with different degrees of initial damage were tested under quasi-static cyclic loading. Based on the test results, the hysteretic behavior, the stiffness and strength degradation, crack propagation, and failure mechanism were firstly analyzed. Then, the damage indexes of the tested specimens were calculated with different models to evaluate the seismic strengthening performance. Results of this study show that CFRP and enveloped steel strengthening could effectively improve the strength and ductility of pre-damaged DVFPs. The ultimate load, the failure displacement and the displacement ductility of the moderately damaged specimen after being strengthened were found to increase by 120.74%, 35% and 32.33%, respectively. For the severely damaged specimens with CFRP and enveloped steel strengthening, the figures were 105.36%, 25.98% and 31.41%, respectively. The research results can provide reference for the hybrid strengthening application of seismic-damaged DVFP.

Experimental Study on Self-Centering Performance of the SMA Fiber Reinforced ECC Composite Beam.

The combination of superelastic shape memory alloy fibers and ECC materials can form a new SMA fiber reinforced ECC composite material (SMAF-ECC) with good self-centering performance. In order to study the self-centering performance of the new composite material, 6 groups of pre-notch beam specimens were made for three-point bending cyclic loading tests, and the failure phenomenon, hysteresis curve, self-centering effect and influencing factors of the specimens were analyzed. The research results show that when the SMA fibers are effectively anchored in the ECC matrix, the SMA fibers can exert the superelastic properties to provide the ECC beams with recoverying force, and realize the crack self-closure and deflection self-recovery function for the beams, with the minimum residual crack width and deflection is only 0.9 mm and 1.3 mm respectively. Increasing fiber content can cause a small increase in the self-centering ability of the beams. However, only when the fiber diameter is appropriate, better self-centering effect can be achieved, but the difference caused by fiber diameter in the test was only 5%. SMA Fiber end forms have significant influence on self-centering performance. The knotted end beam can get a more than 70% self-centering ratio, while the straight end beams and bended end beams have no self-centering ability. The research results provide important reference for the research and application of this new self-centering materials and their structures.

Evaluation of photodegradation performance by paper microzones.

Currently, the performance evaluation of catalysts usually requires expensive instruments. Hence, it is imperative to develop an alternative, green and sustainable method to investigate the photocatalytic reaction processes. Herein, the variation of degradation performance of different wastewaters with different dosage of P25 TiO2 was evaluated to verify the reliability of the paper microzones method (PMZs). The optimum P25 TiO2 dosage of 1 g/L for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) (UV light for 6 mins) and 0.5 g/L for the degradation of fuchsin basic (FB) (UV light for 5 mins) was obtained by the PMZs method. For the photocatalytic degradation of trivalent iron ion complexed salicylic acid (Fe(III)-SA) solution, the R2 values of 0.904 and 0.801 were obtained for the photocatalytic reaction kinetics by PMZs and spectrophotometry, respectively, which again indicated the high reliability of PMZs. The accuracy of the results obtained by PMZs method relative to the spectrophotometric method ranged from 68.80% to 87.54% when degrading MB, FB, mixture of MB and FB, and Fe(III)-SA by P25 TiO2. Therefore, the PMZs method is all in line with the requirements of low-carbon environmental protection and green chemistry, and has broad application prospects in the future.

Biomagnification and trophic transfer of total mercury and methylmercury in a sub-tropical montane forest food web, southwest China.

Little is known about the bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of total mercury (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) via food webs in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in subtropical forest ecosystems. In the present study, THg and MeHg were determined as well as the carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope composition in samples of soils, plants, invertebrates, and songbird feathers to construct food webs in a remote subtropical montane forest in Mt. Ailao, southwest China and assess the bioaccumulation, biomagnification, and trophic transfer of Hg. Results showed that the trophic levels (TLs) of all consumers ranged from 0.8 to 3.3 and followed the order of songbirds > spiders > omnivorous insects > herbivorous insects > plants, and THg and MeHg exhibited a clear biomagnification up the food chain from plants-herbivorous/omnivorous insects-spiders-songbirds. The lowest MeHg concentration was observed in pine needles ranged from 0.104 to 0.949 ng g-1 with only a 1.6% ratio of MeHg to THg (MeHg%), while the highest MeHg concentrations ranged from 425 to 5272 ng g-1 in songbirds with MeHg% values of up to 96%. High values of trophic magnification slope (TMS) for THg (0.22) and MeHg (0.38) were observed in plant-invertebrate-songbird food chain, verifying the significant bioaccumulation of Hg, particularly MeHg, in the remote subtropical forest ecosystem. This study confirmed the production and efficient biomagnification of MeHg in remote subtropical montane forest and the significant bioaccumulation of MeHg in terrestrial top predators.

Design of a miniaturized ultrawideband and low scattering antipodal vivaldi antenna array.

This paper presents a miniaturized ultra-wideband (UWB) antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) array with low-scattering characteristics integrated a hybrid diffusive-absorptive metasurface. Periodic elliptical slots at the outer edges and a dielectric lens are utilized for antenna element to improve performances including miniaturized size, wide bandwidth, and high gain. The optimized element is fabricated and measured, the results demonstrate that the - 10 dB impedance bandwidth is 4.5-50 GHz with a ratio bandwidth (fH/fL) of 11.1:1, and the maximum gain at 35 GHz is 12.7 dBi, which are in good agreement with simulation. By loading an optimized Minkowski-shaped metasurface as the ground reflector, which combines the multielement phase cancellation (MEPC) and EM absorption technology, the 4 × 4 array realizes a low radar cross section (RCS) without the radiation performance degradation. Simulated and measured results show that the proposed low-scattering array has a 10-dB RCS reduction band ranging from 5 to 50 GHz at normal incidence for both polarizations. Furthermore, the array structure shows extremely low-observable capability, which is larger than 15 dB of the RCS reduction from 7.1 to 50 GHz with a ratio bandwidth of 7.0:1. The results verify the feasibility of improving the performance of antenna and the UWB low-scattering functionality.

Evaluation of the photocatalytic performance of molecularly imprinted S-TiO2 by paper microzones.

The paper microzones method (PMZs) is a green chemical method that uses the principle of the three primary colors of red, green and blue (RGB) to detect the water quality of the droplets on white paper. However, this method is rarely used in the performance evaluation of photocatalysts. The paper details the first use of paper microzones utilized in the evaluation of photocatalyst performance. A sol-gel method was used to prepare molecularly imprinted modified TiO2 photocatalysts for the treatment of different wastewaters, and characterized the catalysts using XRD and several other methods. The reliability of PMZs on the evaluation of photocatalytic activity and selectivity was also analyzed. The following results were obtained: EP-TiO2 catalysts (EP, ethyl paraben, the imprinting molecule) with different S doping levels were synthesized using a one-step sol-gel method, and the best S doping ratio was found to be n(Ti):n(S) 3:1. S-EP-TiO2 was found to be 100% anatase and showed excellent photocatalytic performance, while the PMZs method accurately determined changes in RGB levels for the photocatalytic degradation process of pollutants using S-EP-TiO2 as the photocatalyst. A photocatalytic kinetic analysis showed the PMZs method was quite suitable for the evaluation of photocatalyst activity, but the evaluation of selectivity needs improvement. This method is a promising green chemistry way to evaluate photocatalyst performance and the rapid detection of outdoor sewage water quality.

[Characteristics of Pomacea canaliculata reproduction under natural conditions].

Abstract: A three-year breeding experiment was conducted in a paddy field in Zixing City of Hunan Province, South-central China to study the characteristics of golden apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) reproduction under natural conditions. Under the natural conditions in southern Hunan Province, the snails could approximately reproduce three generations per year. The average sexual maturity periods of the first, the second, and the third generation of the female snails were 59.3, 45.4 and 213.0 days, respectively, and those of the male snails were 4.3 days earlier than the females'. The natural sex ratio of the females to the males was 1.54:1. The average copulation duration was 19.2 hours, but spawning did not always occur after each time of copulation. The number of the egg masses produced by the females per month was significantly positively correlated with the mean monthly air temperature (r = 0.756) , while the average incubation duration of the egg masses was significantly negatively correlated with the daily air temperature (gamma = -0.726x + 23.064, r = -0.980). The average incubation time of the egg masses was 20.7 days, average incubation rate was 44.1%, and the average life expectancy of the female and male snails was 2.40 and 1.98 years, respectively. A female snail in its lifetime could averagely spawn 13764 eggs and reproduce 6070 young snails.

Silicate improves growth and ion absorption and distribution in aloe vera under salt stress.

Si 2.0 mmol/L in irrigation solution alleviated significantly the inhibition of NaCl stress of 100 or 200 mmol/L to aloe growth. Exogenously applied Si decreased significantly Na(+) and Cl(-) contents, increased K(+) content and K(+)/Na(+) ratio and selectivity ratio of absorption (AS(K, Na)) and of translocation (TS(K, Na)) to K(+) and Na(+) in aloe plant under both NaCl 100 and 200 mmol/L stresses for 30 d. In this way, the ion homeostasis in aloe plant under NaCl stress was maintained, as was proved by X-ray microanalysis of root tip and leaf across sections. One of the mechanisms to achieve this may be the significant enhancement of H(+)-ATPase activities by the addition of silicate in plasma membrane and tonoplast, H(+)-pyrophosphatase (H(+)-PPase) activity in tonoplast isolated from aloe root tips under NaCl stress.