Inappropriate fertilization and poor management practices in citrus orchards can cause soil acidification, which may result in potential proton (H+) toxicity to citrus roots. It has been reported that boron (B) can mediate H+ detoxification in citrus; however, the mechanisms remain limited. Herein, a hydroponic experiment was employed to unravel the alleviation mechanism of B on H+ toxicity at pH 4 in trifoliate (Poncirus trifoliate (L.) Raf.) seedlings. H+ toxicity reduced cytoplasmic pH from 7.2 (control) to 6.9 and vacuolar pH from 5.6 (control) to 5.4. This severely damaged the plasma membrane (PM) and inhibited root activity by 35%. However, B supplementation restored cytoplasmic pH to 7.1 and vacuolar pH to 5.6, enhancing root activity by 52% and reducing membrane permeability (relative conductivity decreased by 28%). Mechanistically, B upregulated phosphorylated-type adenosine triphosphatase activity by 14%; conversely, it suppressed vacuolar-type adenosine triphosphatase hyperactivity by 9% to stabilize vacuolar pH. Furthermore, B restored PM integrity by increasing phospholipid (40%), glycolipid (50%) and sulfhydryl group (28%) content, critical for membrane structure and function. It is concluded that B can alleviate root growth inhibition induced by H+ toxicity via increasing the content of key components of PM, which not only repairs the damaged PM but also maintains cellular pH homeostasis through enzyme regulation. The improvement of citrus growth correspondingly safeguards the production capacity.

The cyclic injection and production of fluids into and from underground gas storage (UGS) may lead to caprock failure, such as capillary sealing failure, hydraulic fracturing, shear failure, and fault slipping or dilation. The dynamic sealing capacity of a caprock-fault system is a critical constraint for safe operation, and is a key factor in determining the maximum operating pressure (MOP). This study proposed an efficient semi-analytical method for calculating changes in the in situ stress within the caprock. Next, the parameters of dynamic pore pressure, in situ stresses, and deformations obtained from reservoir simulations and geomechanical modeling were used for inputs for the analytical solution. Based on the calculated results, an experimental scheme for the coupled cyclic stress-permeability testing of caprock was designed. The stability analysis indicated that the caprock was not prone to fatigue shear failure under the current injection and production strategy, supported by the experimental results. The experimental results further reveal that the sealing capacity of caprock plugs may remain stable. This phenomenon is attributed to cyclic stress causing pore connectivity and microcrack initiation in certain plugs, while leading to pore compaction in others. A comparison between the dynamic pore pressure and the minimum principal stress suggests that the risk of tensile failure is extremely low. Furthermore, although the faults remain stable under the current injection and production strategies, the continuous increase in injection pressure may lead to an increased tendency for fault slip and dilation, which can cause fault slip ultimately. The MOPs corresponding to each failure mode were calculated. The minimum value of approximately 36.5 MPa at capillary sealing failure indicated that the gas breakthrough in the caprock occurred earlier than rock failure. Therefore, this minimum value can be used as the MOP for the target UGS. (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/).

We study CO2 injection into a saline aquifer intersected by a tectonic fault using a coupled modeling approach to evaluate potential geomechanical risks. The simulation approach integrates the reservoir and mechanical simulators through a data transfer algorithm. MUFITS simulates non-isothermal multiphase flow in the reservoir, while FLAC3D calculates its mechanical equilibrium state. We accurately describe the tectonic fault, which consists of damage and core zones, and derive novel analytical closure relations governing the permeability alteration in the fault zone. We estimate the permeability of the activated fracture network in the damage zone and calculate the permeability of the main crack in the fault core, which opens on asperities due to slip. The coupled model is applied to simulate CO2 injection into synthetic and realistic reservoirs. In the synthetic reservoir model, we examine the impact of formation depth and initial tectonic stresses on geomechanical risks. Pronounced tectonic stresses lead to inelastic deformations in the fault zone. Regardless of the magnitude of tectonic stress, slip along the fault plane occurs, and the main crack in the fault core opens on asperities, causing CO2 leakage out of the storage aquifer. In the realistic reservoir model, we demonstrate that sufficiently high bottomhole pressure induces plastic deformations in the near-wellbore zone, interpreted as rock fracturing, without slippage along the fault plane. We perform a sensitivity analysis of the coupled model, varying the mechanical and flow properties of the storage layers and fault zone to assess fault stability and associated geomechanical risks. (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 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

This paper presents a comprehensive on-site decision-making framework for assessing the structural integrity of a jacket-type offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, installed at a water depth of 50 m. Six critical analyses-(i) static operation and storm, (ii) dynamic storm, (iii) strength-level seismic, (iv) seismic ductility (pushover), (v) maximum wave resistance (pushover), and (vi) spectral fatigue-are performed using SACS V16 software to capture both linear and nonlinear interactions among the soil, piles, and superstructure. The environmental conditions include multi-directional wind, waves, currents, and seismic loads. In the static linear analyses (i, ii, and iii), the overall results confirm that the unity checks (UCs) for structural members, tubular joints, and piles remain below allowable thresholds (UC < 1.0), thus meeting API RP 2A-WSD, AISC, IMCA, and Pemex P.2.0130.01-2015 standards for different load demands. However, these three analyses also show hydrostatic collapse due to water pressure on submerged elements, which is mitigated by installing stiffening rings in the tubular components. The dynamic analyses (ii and iii) reveal how generalized mass and mass participation factors influence structural behavior by generating various vibration modes with different periods. They also include a load comparison under different damping values, selecting the most unfavorable scenario. The nonlinear analyses (iv and v) provide collapse factors (Cr = 8.53 and RSR = 2.68) that exceed the minimum requirements; these analyses pinpoint the onset of plasticization in specific elements, identify their collapse mechanism, and illustrate corresponding load-displacement curves. Finally, spectral fatigue assessments indicate that most tubular joints meet or exceed their design life, except for one joint (node 370). This joint's service life extends from 9.3 years to 27.0 years by applying a burr grinding weld-profiling technique, making it compliant with the fatigue criteria. By systematically combining linear, nonlinear, and fatigue-based analyses, the proposed framework enables robust multi-hazard verification of marine platforms. It provides operators and engineers with clear strategies for reinforcing existing structures and guiding future developments to ensure safe long-term performance.

In modern agricultural practices, agrochemicals and pesticides play an important role in protecting the crops from pests and elevating agricultural productivity. This strategic utilization is essential to meet global food demand due to the relentless growth of the world's population. However, the indiscriminate application of these substances may result in environmental hazards and directly affect the soil microorganisms and crop production. Considering this, an in vitro study was carried out to evaluate the pesticides' effects i.e. lambda cyhalothrin (insecticide) and fosetyl aluminum (fungicide) at lower, recommended, and higher doses on growth behavior, enzymatic profile, total soluble protein production, and lipid peroxidation of bacterial specimens (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis). The experimental findings demonstrated a concentration-dependent decrease in growth of both tested bacteria, when exposed to fosetyl aluminium concentrations exceeding the recommended dose. This decline was statistically significant (p < 0.000). However, lambda cyhalothrin at three times of recommended dose induces 10% increase in growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and 76.8% decrease in growth of Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) respectively as compared to control. These results showed the stimulatory effect of lambda cyhalothrin on P. aeruginosa and inhibitory effect on B. subtilis. Pesticides induced notable alterations in biomarker enzymatic assays and other parameters related to oxidative stress among bacterial strains, resulting in increased oxidative stress and membrane permeability. Generally, the maximum toxicity of both (P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis) was shown by fosetyl aluminium, at three times of recommended dose. Fosetyl aluminium induced morphological changes like cellular cracking, reduced viability, aberrant margins and more damage in both bacterial strains as compared to lambda cyhalothrin when observed under scanning electron microscope (SEM). Conclusively the, present study provide an insights into a mechanistic approach of pyrethroid insecticide and phosphonite fungicide induced cellular toxicity towards bacteria.

This paper investigates the feasibility of a proposed underground gas storage facility. Based on S gas storage, a large-scale 2D hydromechanical coupling FEA model is established to explore the geo-mechanical properties of S gas storage under a multi-cycle alternating injection and production and validated by the interference logging test. To account for the damage development of fault damage area under the influence of seepage-stress coupling, the soil adopts the Mohr-Coulomb constitutive assumption. Additionally, a zero-thickness cohesive element is proposed as a mechanical model to simulate the fault gouge. The mechanical parameters of zero-thickness cohesive elements are verified by a ring shear test and a preliminary FE model. Thereafter, another refined conceptual finite element (FE) model considering the fault damage area, fault core, water-containing damaged area, overburden damaged area, and the contact model between different damaged areas of the fault and the fault core is developed and validated. The simulation results demonstrate that the initial seal ability of the caprock and faults remains intact. Specifically, (i) the maximum caprock and ground displacements are 8.5 cm and 5.4 cm, respectively. (ii) The most significant slip distance is 0.125 mm, indicating that, leakage under the action of multi-period alternating injection-production, the S aquifer structure had no fault activation and caprock. (iii) The risk of fault activation is higher for high-angle faults compared to low-angle faults. Low-angle faults are more susceptible to shear slip. Providing a scientific reference for the feasibility study of gas storage.

The fuel assembly (FA) stands as a pivotal component within the reactor core, impacting safety, reliability, and economic viability of the entire facility during the lifetime. As a newly-designed nuclear heating reactor, the FA of the 200 MW nuclear heating reactor (NHR200-II) embodies a novel configuration, characterized by a 9x9 fuel bundle arrangement inside, which are clamped by three spacer girds along the height direction, and fully enclosed by a square zirconium channel outside for improving effective coolant flow rate. Under the earthquake event, possible deformations of fuel cladding or outer channel, buckling instability of spacer grids, even damage of the structures and control rod insertion failures can occur and further pose unaffordable safety risks. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a comprehensive seismic fluid-structureinteraction (FSI) analysis with regard to the NHR200-II fuel assembly to evaluate the structural integrity. In this paper, a particle finite element method (PFEM) based partitioned two-way FSI scheme is used to capture the seismic responses of NHR200-II FA, that is, implicit finite element method for structure dynamics, PFEM for fluid motion. To accurately solve the FSI phenomenon, it is essential to couple the fluid solver and structural solver advancing with a same time step, i.e., strongly-coupled on the FSI interfaces. The specific fluid solver and structural solver are combined together in the commercial finite element code LS-DYNA to carry out the two-way FSI simulation, which greatly improves computational efficiency. This finite-element based numerical framework has been validated in detail in the previous work on the axial flow-induced vibration analysis of a single NHR200-II fuel rod. At present, the seismic excitations applied to a fuel assembly level are not available, which are usually generated from several analyses of a site-specific earthquake, including sequential analyses of soil-structure-interaction model, the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) internals and FA array models. Thereby the computation employed a time-compressed El-Centro N-S earthquake (1.5 times amplification, similar to 0.36 g peak acceleration) for the preliminary evaluation of the seismic FSI responses of NHR200-II FA. The results present stress distribution of each component (including the top & bottom nozzle, fuel cladding, zirconium channel, spacer grids), channel-spacer grid interactions (transverse impact force), dynamic clamping of the spacer girds, acceleration responses, and response spectra of the FA at typical positions. The results would confirm the reasonable structural design and robust seismic performance of NHR200-II FA and also are broadly applicable to the seismic response of fully submerged fuel assembly with square-type channel outside.

In view of the problem that the alignment of internal and external detection data mainly relies on manual verification and excavation verification, and can not make full use of mining detection information, feature information and mileage information are extracted from internal and external detection data as input and output variables, and the mapping relationship between them is established by using limit gradient lift (XGBoost) algorithm. Predict the outer detection mileage of the internal detection point, take the internal detection information as the benchmark, and use step by step translation to realize the alignment of the internal and external detection data, and conduct a comprehensive analysis according to the alignment results. The results show that the mileage error of all stations and valve chambers after data alignment is within 5m, the latitude and longitude distribution changes in the same height, and the alignment result points meet the accuracy requirements. In the example analysis, the degree of AC and DC interference of the pipeline is small, and the cathodic protection of the pipeline is normal. Although the soil corrosion is strong, there is metal loss and no obvious corrosion pits and corrosion products are found at the damage of the corrosion layer, indicating that the pipeline is in good running condition. The research results can provide theoretical basis for improving the level of pipeline integrity management.