In recent decades, precast concrete buildings have undergone significant development, attracting considerable academic attention to their mechanical performances. Unlike cast-in-situ buildings, precast buildings are assembled on site by connecting precast components using mechanical devices or on-site casted joints, which makes the connections particularly important for overall structural performances. This study presents a comprehensive review of the mechanical performances of precast buildings, with a specific focus on various types of connections and their structural properties. This study reviews the mechanical performances of building connections using dry, wet, and/or hybrid methods between pre-manufactured components, e.g., beam–column joints, wall–panel connections, and column/wall–foundation connections. Both experimental and numerical investigations are reviewed. The paper provides a valuable reference regarding the mechanical performances of precast concrete buildings.

Climate change affects many aspects of the physiological and biochemical processes of growing maize and ultimately its yield. A comprehensive climate suitability model is proposed that quantifies the effects of temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and wind in different phenological stages of maize. It is calibrated using weather and yield data from China’s Henan Province. The comprehensive suitability model showed the capability of correctly hindcasting observed temporal and spatial changes in maize phenology in response to climatic factors. The predicted yield based on the suitability model can well match the recorded field yield very well from 1971–2020. The results of correlation showed that the yields are more closely related to multi-weather factors, temperature and precipitation than to solar radiation and wind. The sensitivity analysis illustrates that temperature and precipitation are the dominant weather factors affecting yield changes based on a direct differentiation method. The comprehensive suitability model can provide a scientific support and analysis tool for predicting grain production considering climate changes.

This study focuses on evaluating the positioning accuracy of smartphones in a deciduous forest environment compared to various levels of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) devices. In a mixed coniferous forest with 90% broad-leaved forest (deciduous season), the accuracy of 57 test points was evaluated according to different openness levels under the forest. Taking the coordinates obtained by survey-grade GNSS devices in RTK (Real-time Kinematic) mode as standard, the accuracy of the single-point positioning (SPP) mode and precise-point positioning (PPP) mode obtained by three smartphones (one single frequency and two dual frequency), one survey-grade receiver and one recreational-grade receiver are compared. It can be found that there was a significant positive correlation between canopy openness and carrier-to-noise density(C/N0) (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the C/N0 of survey-grade devices is significantly higher than that of smartphones. The results show that the positioning accuracy of dual-frequency smartphones under forests is better than that of single-frequency smartphones. Furthermore, the positioning accuracy of the smartphone corrected by PPP mode is better than that of the recreational-grade GNSS receiver and can achieve an accuracy of about 2.5 m in the horizontal direction, which can be used for forestry stakeout, reset and determination of forest area boundaries in environments with high openness (R > 0.7). However, in an environment with low openness (R < 0.7) and relatively complex forest area positioning, survey-grade GNSS devices are still required to cooperate with the PPP or real-time differential positioning method to obtain accurate sub-meter-level positioning data.

Halophyte Tamarix ramosissima. Lcdcb (T. ramosissima) are known as the representative of Tamarix plants that are widely planted in salinized soil. However, molecular mechanisms towards salt tolerance and adaptation are largely rare. In this study, we carried out RNA-sequence and transcriptome analysis of T. ramosissima in response to NaCl stress, screened differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and further verified by qRT-PCR. Results showed that 105702 unigenes were spliced from the raw data of transcriptome sequencing, where 54238 unigenes were retrieved from KEGG, KOG, NR, and SwissProt. After 48 hours of NaCl treatment, the expression levels of 6374 genes were increased, and 5380 genes were decreased in leaves. After 168 hours, the expression levels of 3837 genes were up-regulated and 7808 genes were down-regulated. In particular, 8 transcription factors annotated to the KEGG Pathway were obtained, involving the WRKY and bZIP transcription family. In addition, KEGG pathway annotation showed that expression of 39 genes involved in ROS scavenging mechanisms were significantly changed, in which 21 genes were up-regulated and 18 genes were down-regulated after 48 hours as well as 15 genes were up-regulated and 24 genes were down-regulated after 168h. Simultaneously, the enzyme activities of SOD and POD were significantly enhanced under NaCl treatment, but the enzyme activity of CAT was not significantly enhanced. Moreover, WRKY, MYB and bZIP may participate in the process of salt resistance in T. ramosissima. This study provides gene resources and a theoretical basis for further molecular mechanisms of salt tolerance in T. ramosissima.