The wheat powdery mildew (WPM) is one of the most severe crop diseases worldwide, affecting wheat growth and causing yield losses. The WPM was a bottom-up disease that caused the loss of cell integrity, leaf wilting, and canopy structure damage with these symptoms altering the crop's functional traits (CFT) and canopy spectra. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based hyperspectral analysis became a mainstream method for WPM detection. However, the CFT changes experienced by infected wheats, the relationship between CFT and canopy spectra, and their role in WPM detection remained unclear, which might blur the understanding for the WPM infection. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a new method that considered the role of CFT for detecting WPM and estimating disease severity. The UAV hyperspectral data used in this study were collected from the Plant Protection Institute's research demonstration base, Xinxiang city, China, covering a broad range of WPM severity (0-85 %) from 2022 to 2024. The potential of eight CFT [leaf structure parameter (N), leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll a + b content (Cab), carotenoids (Car), Car/Cab, anthocyanins (Ant), canopy chlorophyll content (CCC) and average leaf angle (Deg)] obtained from a hybrid method combining a radiative transfer model and random forest (RF) and fifty-five narrow-band hyperspectral indices (NHI) was explored in WPM detection. Results indicated that N, Cab, Ant, Car, LAI, and CCC showed a decreasing trend with increasing disease severity, while Deg and Car/Cab exhibited the opposite pattern. There were marked differences between healthy samples and the two higher infection levels (moderate and severe infection) for Cab, Car, LAI, Deg, CCC, and Car/Cab. N and Ant only showed significant differences between the healthy samples and the highest infection level (severe infection). As Cab, Car, and Ant decreased, the spectral reflectance in the visible light region increased. The decrease in N and LAI was accompanied by a reduction in reflectance across the entire spectral range and the near-infrared area, which was exactly the opposite of Deg. The introduction of CFT greatly improved the accuracy of the WPM severity estimation model with R2 of 0.92. Features related to photosynthesis, pigment content, and canopy structure played a decisive role in estimating WPM severity. Also, results found that the feature importance showed a remarkable interchange as increasing disease levels. Using features that described canopy structure changes, such as optimized soil adjusted vegetation index, LAI, visible atmospherically resistant indices, and CCC, the mild infection stage of this disease was most easily distinguished from healthy samples. In contrast, most severe impacts of WPM were best characterized by features related to photosynthesis (e.g., photochemical reflectance index 515) and pigment content (e.g., normalized phaeophytinization index). This study help deepen the understanding of symptoms and spectral responses caused by WPM infection.

The widespread utilisation of vacuum-assisted prefabricated vertical drains (PVD) for managing clayey soft ground has led to the development of numerous consolidation models. However, these models have limitations when describing the filtration behaviour of soil under high water content conditions, without the formation of a particle network. To effectively address this issue, in this work, based on the compressional rheology theory, a two-dimensional axisymmetric model incorporating the compressive yield stress Py(phi) and a hindered setting factor r(phi) was developed to couple the filtration and consolidation of soil under vacuum preloading. A novel approach for determining the unified phi-Py-r relationships was introduced. The equation governing such fluid/solid and solid/solid interactions was solved using the alternative direction implicit (ADI) method, and the numerical solutions were validated against the 1-D filtration cases, 3-D laboratory model tests, and large-scale field trials. Further parametric analysis suggests that the radius of the representative unit and r(phi) exclusively affect the dewatering rate of the clayey slurry, while the gel point and Py(phi) influence both the dewatering rate and the final deformation.

Significant movement of in-situ retaining walls is usually assumed to begin with bulk excavation. However, an increasing number of case studies show that lowering the pore water pressures inside a diaphragm wall-type basement enclosure prior to bulk excavation can cause wall movements in the order of some centimeters. This paper describes the results of a laboratory-scale experiment carried out to explore mechanisms of in situ retaining wall movement associated with dewatering inside the enclosure prior to bulk excavation. Dewatering reduces the pore water pressures inside the enclosure more than outside, resulting in the wall moving as an unpropped cantilever supported only by the soil. Lateral effective stresses in the shallow soil behind the wall are reduced, while lateral effective stresses in front of the wall increase. Although the associated lateral movement was small in the laboratory experiment, the movement could be proportionately larger in the field with a less stiff soil and a potentially greater dewatered depth. The implementation of a staged dewatering system, coupled with the potential for phased excavation and propping strategies, can effectively mitigate dewatering-induced wall and soil movements. This approach allows for enhanced stiffness of the wall support system, which can be dynamically adjusted based on real-time displacement monitoring data when necessary.

Dewatering and excavation are fundamental processes influencing soil deformation in deep foundation pit construction. Excavation causes stress redistribution through unloading, while dewatering lowers the groundwater level, increases effective stress, and generates seepage forces and compressive deformation in the surrounding soil. To systematically investigate their combined influence, this study conducted a scaled physical model test under staged excavation and dewatering conditions within a layered multi-aquifer-aquitard system. Throughout the experiment, soil settlement, groundwater head, and pore water pressure were continuously monitored. Two dimensionless parameters were introduced to quantify the contributions of dewatering and excavation: the total dewatering settlement rate eta dw and the cyclic dewatering settlement rate eta dw,i. Under different experimental conditions, eta dw ranges from 0.35 to 0.63, while eta dw,i varies between 0.32 and 0.82. Both settlement rates decrease with increasing diaphragm wall insertion depth and increase with greater dewatering depth inside the pit and higher soil permeability. An analytical formula for dewatering-induced soil settlement was developed using a modified layered summation method that accounts for deformation coordination between soil layers and includes correction factors for unsaturated zones. Although this approach is limited by scale effects and simplified boundary conditions, the findings offer valuable insights into soil deformation mechanisms under the combined influence of excavation and dewatering. These results provide practical guidance for improving deformation control strategies in complex hydrogeological environments.

Deep excavation engineering often causes deformation and destruction of adjacent existing shield tunnels. In previous studies, the influence of deep excavation on tunnel was mainly concentrated on tunnel deformation caused by retaining structure deformation, and the maximum range of the influence zone was approximately 4 times the excavation depth (4He). However, there has been little research on tunnel deformation caused by groundwater drawdown when tunnels are located outside the traditional influence range (4He) of the excavation. In this study, the deformation and damage characteristics of tunnels caused by dewatering in a deep excavation project were analysed using field data, and control methods of tunnel deformation caused by excavation dewatering in leaky aquifers were proposed and discussed. In this project, the maximum settlement reached 8.23 mm for tunnel at the location far than 4He from the excavation, and the influence range of the dewatering on tunnel was nearly 8He. Furthermore, the higher stiffness of the station reduced the settlement and convergence but aggravated the dislocation of the tunnels within approximately 40 m from the station, causing many leakage points. To protect the tunnels, groundwater recharge and deep-shallow-well dewatering scheme (dewatering wells in phreatic aquifer and confined aquifer were set independently) were proposed and applied during subsequent construction, which effectively avoided further tunnel settlement. Groundwater recharge also induced slight uplift and horizontal deformation of the tunnels to the opposite side of the excavation. In addition, recharge should be started in advance and remain in operation until the groundwater level was fully restored. For deep excavations near important infrastructures in soft soil strata with leaky aquifers, the same dewatering and recharge system in this case study is suggested to adopted.

Seismicity resulting from the near- or in-field fault activation significantly affects the stability of largescale underground caverns that are operating under high-stress conditions. A comprehensive scientific assessment of the operational safety of such caverns requires an in-depth understanding of the response characteristics of the rock mass subjected to dynamic disturbances. To address this issue, we conducted true triaxial modeling tests and dynamic numerical simulations on large underground caverns to investigate the impact of static stress levels, dynamic load parameters, and input directions on the response characteristics of the surrounding rock mass. The findings reveal that: (1) When subjected to identical incident stress waves and static loads, the surrounding rock mass exhibits the greatest stress response during horizontal incidence. When the incident direction is fixed, the mechanical response is more pronounced at the cavern wall parallel to the direction of dynamic loading. (2) A high initial static stress level specifically enhances the impact of dynamic loading. (3) The response of the surrounding rock mass is directly linked to the amplitude of the incident stress wave. High amplitude results in tensile damage in regions experiencing tensile stress concentration under static loading and shear damage in regions experiencing compressive stress concentration. These results have significant implications for the evaluation and prevention of dynamic disasters in the surrounding rock of underground caverns experiencing dynamic disturbances. (c) 2025 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/).

Powdery Mildew Blumeria graminis (PMBG) is one of the most dangerous diseases for winter wheat plants, causing damage to all above-ground plant organs. The main aim of this study is to develop and validate machine learning (ML) models with explainable AI (XAI) capabilities for accurate risk prediction of PMBG in winter wheat crops at the pre-symptomatic stage. Multiple heterogeneous ML classifiers with XAI for PMBG risk prediction have been developed in this study. The weather data used in this study were collected from two regions in Ukraine and included hourly air temperature, solar radiation, leaf wetness duration and other measurements of soil and climatic parameters. Several different feature selection approaches were leveraged to retrieve the most salient features. The multistack of ML models has been used to find the best-performing pipeline, which achieved an accuracy of 82 %. Further, diverse XAI methods such as Shapley Additive Values (SHAP), ELI5, Anchor and Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations (LIME) have been applied to understand the model predictions. The precision, recall, f1-score and AUC obtained were 85%, 82%, 82% and 72 % respectively. As a result a decision support system has been developed to predict the risk of wheat powdery mildew using soil and climatic parameters monitoring, ML, and XAI. This study provides the holistic risk prediction of PMBG for the enhancement of wheat stress resistance during the full cycle of its cultivation in open-field conditions.

Mining and using underground resources demand high water usage, producing significant waste with environmental risks. Methods like electrokinetics prove effective in accelerating dewatering and stabilizing structures. This research provides the results of experimental investigation on dewatering silty tailings obtained from Sungun Tailings Dam (East Azerbaijan, Iran) using the electrokinetic water recovery method. Previous studies primarily examined the electrokinetic process in steady-state flow and saturated soil, with limited exploration of unsaturated soil parameters. In this research, the electrokinetic process in steady-state flow was initially investigated, and the saturated electro-osmotic permeability was determined. Subsequently, experiments were conducted in non-steady-state flow and unsaturated conditions, measuring the influential parameters with soil moisture sensors and tensiometers. Results show that decreasing sample moisture through electro-osmotic flow increases negative pore water pressure. Tailings' electrical conductivity is more influenced by moisture content, with a steeper reduction slope concerning volumetric moisture reduction over time. pH assessments show soil acidity on the anode side and alkalinity on the cathode side. Higher applied voltage gradients result in increased maximum power consumption. Importantly, the results caution against assuming that higher applied voltage improves the electro-osmotic process, as it may lead to issues such as deep sample cracking, void space creation, interrupted electrical flow, and energy loss.

Groundwater recharge around the protected buildings to offset the impact of the sharp drop of groundwater caused by the dewatering operation of the surrounding foundation has been successfully implemented worldwide. However, due to the variable engineering geological conditions, it is particularly important to summarize the site-specific practical experience of groundwater recharge. The opening time of dewatering is not always synchronous with that of groundwater recharge in surrounding area, the subsoils often had certain settlements before recharging. It is difficult to find the influence of this small deformation on the physical and mechanical properties of soils through laboratory tests. Based on the actual project of groundwater recharge in Nanjing, China, this paper compares the previous research experience in different areas, summarizes the feasibility of this method in floodplain area of Nanjing and the typical characteristics of surface vertical displacement. This study, which was based on the CPTU tests carried out in different periods of the study area, reveals that the hydraulic conductivity of aquifuge I decreases slightly with the OCR, undrained shear strength and compression modulus have certain increases due to the dewatering and recharging operations. The little differences of the aquifuge can not be found by laboratory tests.

Sewage sludge requires effective dewatering and high nutrients retention before disposal for agricultural application. Pressurized electro-osmotic dewatering (PEOD) process with low energy consumption can effectively remove water from sludge, but the influences of PEOD process on nutrients for agricultural application still lacks in-depth research. In this study, the influences of PEOD process on nutrients for agricultural application were investigated, including organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and silicon contents. Layered experiments were conducted to investigate the layered variation of nutrients in sludge and to understand the potential change mechanisms. The experimental results showed that PEOD process caused small losses (<10%) of organic matter and total phosphorus (TP) in sludge, but caused 11.2-18.4% loss of total nitrogen (TN). PEOD process also caused 18.6-27.0% loss of total potassium (TK) and over 80% loss of available potassium in sludge, and could weaken the potential salt damage during the agricultural application of sludge. Furthermore, the available phosphorus content of sludge in the anode area increased significantly after the PEOD process, indicating that PEOD process could enhance the phosphorus bioavailability of sludge in the anode area. Besides, PEOD process caused a slight loss of silicon components in sludge, but improved the long-term silicon dissolution and release ability of sludge. This work could expand the knowledge about the influences of PEOD process on sludge nutrients and provide scientific guidance for the agricultural application of PEOD sludge.