Yield, Quality, and Nitrogen Leaching of Open-Field Tomato in Response to Different Nitrogen Application Measures in Northwestern China.

The overuse of fertilizers in open-field tomato leads to soil deterioration through nutrient leaching and increases the risk of agricultural non-point source contamination. Currently, the combined effects of different fertilization methods on soil nitrogen leaching and tomato production are still unclear. Therefore, the most effective fertilization method for open-field tomato should be discovered by examining how different fertilization methods affected tomato yield and quality, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and soil nitrogen leaching. Compared with CK (no fertilization), fertilization significantly increased the yield, total sugar (TS), total soluble solids (TSS), and vitamin C (vC) contents of fruits (p < 0.05), and OPT (optimal fertilization, controlled release nitrogen application, 240 kg ha-1) had the largest effect on increasing yield, quality, and net profit. However, when the fertilizer application rate reached 375 kg ha-1, these indices decreased. Nitrogen leaching concentrations, leaching amount, and titratable acids (TAs) increased with increased nitrogen application rates. Compared with other treatments, OPT reduced the total leaching amounts of total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen (NO3--N), and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) by 30.09-51.79%, 24.89-50.03%, and 30-65%, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that OPT achieved the highest overall score in terms of yield, quality, and nitrogen leaching conditions. The partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) further reveals that applications of high amounts of nitorigen have a positive effect on soil nitrogen leaching. The amount of nitrogen leaching vegetatively affects tomato yield and quality, while plant uptake of nitrogen positively affects tomato production. These findings confirm the importance of using controlled-release fertilizers and reducing nitrogen inputs to control nitrogen leaching and enhance open-field tomato yields.

Controlled-release urea application and optimized nitrogen applied strategy reduced nitrogen leaching and maintained grain yield of paddy fields in Northwest China.

Nitrogen loss from paddy fields contributes to most of the nitrogen pollution load in the Ningxia Yellow River irrigation area, threatening the water quality of the Yellow River. Consequently, optimizing the nitrogen management practices in this area is essential, which can maintain paddy grain productivity and reduce nitrogen loss simultaneously. Five treatments with different nitrogen application rates and nitrogen fertilizer types were set in this study, including conventional urea application with zero nitrogen application rate (CK, 0 kg hm-2), nitrogen expert-based fertilization application strategy (NE, 210 kg hm-2), optimized nitrogen fertilizer application strategy recommended by local government (OPT, 240 kg hm-2), and farmer's experience-based nitrogen fertilizer application strategy (FP, 300 kg hm-2), and controlled-release urea application (CRU, 180 kg hm-2). The data from one growth season field experiment in 2021 revealed the dynamics of nitrogen concentration, paddy yield and its nitrogen uptake characteristic, and nitrogen balance in the paddy field under different nitrogen application practices. Most nitrogen leaching was observed during the seedling and tillering stages in the form of nitrate nitrogen (NO3 -N). Compared with the FP, the CRU and OPT significantly reduced the nitrogen concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), ammonium nitrogen (NH4 +-N), and NO3 -N in the surface and soil water and reduced the nitrogen leaching at 100 cm soil depth. Meanwhile, the paddy grain yield in CRU (7737 kg hm-2) and OPT (7379 kg hm-2) was not significantly decreased compared with FP (7918 kg hm-2), even though the nitrogen uptake by grain and straw was higher in FP (135 kg hm-2) than in other treatments (52.10~126.40 kg hm-2). However, the grain yield in NE (6972 kg hm-2) was decreased compared with the FP. The differences in grain yield among these treatments were mainly attributed to the ear number and grain number changes. Also, the highest nitrogen use efficiency (40.14%), apparent nitrogen efficiency (19.53 kg kg-1), and nitrogen partial productivity (43.98 kg kg-1) were identified in CRU than in other treatments. Considering increased grain yield and reducing nitrogen loss in the paddy field simultaneously, the treatments of CRU (i.e., 180 kg hm-2 nitrogen application rate with controlled-release urea) and OPT (i.e., 240 kg hm-2 nitrogen application rate with conventional urea) were recommended for nitrogen fertilizer application in the study area.

Effect of Cold Rolling Reduction Rate on the Microstructure and Properties of Q&P Steel with a Ferrite-Pearlite Initial Structure.

Quenching and partitioning (Q&P) steel has garnered attention as a promising third-generation automotive steel. While the conventional production (CP) method for Q&P steel involves a significant cumulative cold rolling reduction rate (CRRR) of 60-70%, the thin slab casting and rolling (TSCR) process has emerged as a potential alternative to reduce or eliminate the need for cold rolling, characterized with a streamline production chain, high-energy efficiency, mitigated CO2 emission and economical cost. However, the effect of the CRRR on the microstructure and properties of Q&P steel with an initial ferrite-pearlite microstructure has been overlooked, preventing the extensive application of TSCR in producing Q&P steel. In this work, investigations involving different degrees of CRRRs reveal a direct relationship between increased reduction and decreased yield strength and plasticity. Notably, changes in the microstructure were observed, including reduced size and proportion of martensite blocks, increased ferrite proportion and decreased retained austenite content. The decrease in yield strength was primarily attributed to the increased proportion of the softer ferrite phase, while the reduction in plasticity was primarily linked to the decrease in retained austenite content. This study provides valuable insights for optimizing the TSCR process of Q&P steel, facilitating its wider adoption in the automotive sector.

Design Improvement of Four-Strand Continuous-Casting Tundish Using Physical and Numerical Simulation.

The flow pattern is vital for the metallurgical performance of continuous casting tundishes. The purpose of this study was to design and optimize the flow characteristics inside a four-strand tundish. Numerical simulations and water model experiments were validated and utilized to investigate the flow behavior. The effect of different flow rates in the original tundish was evaluated; two modified retaining walls and a new ladle shroud were designed for optimization. The molten steel inside the original tundish tends to be more active as the flow rate increases from 3.8 L/min to 6.2 L/min, which results in a reduction in dead volume from 36.47% to 17.59% and better consistency between different outlets. The dead volume and outlet consistency inside the tundish are improved significantly when the modified walls are applied. The proper design of the diversion hole further enhances the plug volume from 6.39% to 13.44% of the tundish by forming an upstream circular flow in the casting zone. In addition, the new trumpet ladle shroud demonstrates an advantage in increasing the response time from 152.5 s to 167.5 s and alleviating the turbulence in the pouring zone, which is beneficial for clean steel production.

Study on Corrosion Behavior and Mechanism of Ultrahigh-Strength Hot-Stamping Steel Based on Traditional and Compact Strip-Production Processes.

Hot-stamping steel is a type of high-strength steel that is mainly used in key safety components such as the front and rear bumpers, A-pillars, and B-pillars of vehicles. There are two methods of producing hot-stamping steel, i.e., the traditional process and the near net shape of compact strip production (CSP) process. To assess the potential risks of producing hot-stamping steel using CSP, the microstructure and mechanical properties, and especially the corrosion behavior were focused on between the traditional and CSP processes. The original microstructure of hot-stamping steel produced by the traditional process and the CSP process is different. After quenching, the microstructures transform into full martensite, and their mechanical properties meet the 1500 MPa grade. Corrosion tests showed that the faster the quenching speeds, the smaller the corrosion rate of the steel. The corrosion current density changes from 15 to 8.6 µA·cm-2. The corrosion resistance of hot-stamping steel produced by the CSP process is slightly better than that of traditional processes, mainly since the inclusion size and distribution density of CSP-produced steel were both smaller than those of the traditional process. The reduction of inclusions reduces the number of corrosion sites and improves the corrosion resistance of steel.

Multi-Scale Microstructural Tailoring and Associated Properties of Press-Hardened Steels: A Review.

High-strength press-hardened steels (PHS) are highly desired in the automotive industry to meet the requirement of carbon neutrality. This review aims to provide a systematic study of the relationship between multi-scale microstructural tailoring and the mechanical behavior and other service performance of PHS. It begins with a brief introduction to the background of PHS, followed by an in-depth description of the strategies used to enhance their properties. These strategies are categorized into traditional Mn-B steels and novel PHS. For traditional Mn-B steels, extensive research has verified that the addition of microalloying elements can refine the microstructure of PHS, resulting in improved mechanical properties, hydrogen embrittlement resistance, and other service performance. In the case of novel PHS, recent progress has principally demonstrated that the novel composition of steels coupling with innovative thermomechanical processing can obtain multi-phase structure and superior mechanical properties compared with traditional Mn-B steels, and their effect on oxidation resistance is highlighted. Finally, the review offers an outlook on the future development of PHS from the perspective of academic research and industrial applications.

The Characteristic Microstructures and Properties of Steel-Based Alloy via Additive Manufacturing.

Differing from metal alloys produced by conventional techniques, metallic products prepared by additive manufacturing experience distinct solidification thermal histories and solid-state phase transformation processes, resulting in unique microstructures and superior performance. This review starts with commonly used additive manufacturing techniques in steel-based alloy and then some typical microstructures produced by metal additive manufacturing technologies with different components and processes are summarized, including porosity, dislocation cells, dendrite structures, residual stress, element segregation, etc. The characteristic microstructures may exert a significant influence on the properties of additively manufactured products, and thus it is important to tune the components and additive manufacturing process parameters to achieve the desired microstructures. Finally, the future development and prospects of additive manufacturing technology in steel are discussed.

Effect of the Severe Plastic Deformation on the Corrosion Resistance of a Tantalum-Tungsten Alloy.

Tantalum and its alloys are regarded as equipment construction materials for processing aggressive acidic media due to their excellent properties. In this study, the influence of severe rolling (90%) on the dissolution rate of a cold-rolled Ta-4%W sheet in different directions was investigated during immersion testing and the corresponding mechanism was discussed. The results show that the dissolution rate of the cold-rolled sample is significantly lower than that of the undeformed sample. The corrosion resistance followed the sequence of "initial" < "90%-ND" < "90%-RD" < "90%-TD", while the strength is in positive correlation with the corrosion resistance. Severe rolling promotes grain subdivision accompanied by long geometrically necessary boundaries and short incidental dislocation boundaries on two scales in the cold-rolled sample. The volume elements enclosed by geometrically necessary boundaries form preferential crystallographic orientations. Such preferential crystallographic orientations can greatly weaken the electrochemical process caused by adjacent volume elements, resulting in greatly reduced corrosion rates in the severely deformed sample. The unexpected finding provides a new idea for tailoring the structures of tantalum alloys to improve both their strength and corrosion resistance.

An Evaluation of HER2-Positive Ovarian Carcinoma Xenografts: From a Novel Therapy to a Noninvasive Monitoring Method.

PURPOSE: Overexpression of the HER2/neu (HER2) is linked to an adverse outcome in ovarian cancer. Short-interfering RNA (siRNA) is a HER2 inhibitor, which in combination with chemotherapy improves survival rate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of adenovirus mediated HER2-siRNA in combination with cisplatin (Ad-HER2-siRNA+DDP) on treating HER2-positive ovarian cancer xenografts and explore the effectiveness of 131I-Herceptin immunoSPECT imaging for monitoring the tumor's progression. METHODS: Mice with ovarian cancer xenografts were treated with different therapy regimens and imaged at 1, 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h postinjection with 131I-Herceptin. Concurrently, the tumor/background (T/B) ratios were calculated. In addition, HER2 protein expression levels were determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). RESULTS: The in vivo therapy experiments revealed that tumor weight and volume of Ad-HER2-siRNA+DDP group was the least of all. The IHC results further confirmed that HER2 protein level was significantly downregulated in this group. The results of SPECT imaging showed that the T/B ratios at each time point in Ad-HER2-siRNA +DDP group was the lowest (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The data demonstrate that the growth of xenografts of human ovarian cancer with high expression of HER2 could be inhibited effectively by Ad-HER2-siRNA+DDP. 131I-Herceptin had potential use for noninvasive imaging of HER2 expression.