Review of advanced road materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies

As a vital and integral component of transportation infrastructure, pavement has a direct and tangible impact on socio-economic sustainability. In recent years, an influx of groundbreaking and state-of-the-art materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies related to road engineering have continually and progressively emerged, reshaping the landscape of pavement systems. There is a pressing and growing need for a timely summarization of the current research status and a clear identification of future research directions in these advanced and evolving technologies. Therefore, Journal of Road Engineering has undertaken the significant initiative of introducing a comprehensive review paper with the overarching theme of “advanced road materials, structures, equipment, and detection technologies”. This extensive and insightful review meticulously gathers and synthesizes research findings from 39 distinguished scholars, all of whom are affiliated with 19 renowned universities or research institutions specializing in the diverse and multidimensional field of highway engineering. It covers the current state and anticipates future development directions in the four major and interconnected domains of road engineering: advanced road materials, advanced road structures and performance evaluation, advanced road construction equipment and technology, and advanced road detection and assessment technologies

Effect of Random Lateral Ballast Resistance on Force-Deformation Characteristics of CWR with a Small-Radius Curve

To address the randomness of lateral ballast resistance in the field and its effect on the force-deformation behavior of Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) with small-radius curves, field tests were first conducted to investigate longitudinal and lateral ballast resistance on a 250 m-radius curve. It was found that the lateral ballast resistance follows a normal distribution based on the Shapiro–Wilk test. A finite element model of a small-radius curve CWR track was then established based on actual field conditions, and the force-deformation characteristics were analyzed under thermal loading. The results showed that it is of great significance to incorporate the randomness of the lateral ballast resistance as the deformation mode is closer to the actual field situation. In particular, attention should be given to areas where the lateral ballast resistance is weak. The research presented here has significant implications for railway maintenance practice

Characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of a common Chinese medicinal herb, Eriocaulon buergerianum (Eriocaulaceae: Eriocaulon)

Eriocaulon buergerianum is a common Chinese medicinal herb and belongs to the family Eriocaulaceae genus Eriocaulon the annual herbs. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of E. buergerianum was assembled and reported. The complete chloroplast genome of E. buergerianum is 157,016 bp in length as the circular, which harbours a large single-copy region (LSC) of 81,534 bp, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 17,114 bp, and two inverted-repeat regions (IRs) of 26,393 bp each one. The overall nucleotide content of the chloroplast genome: A of 31.8%, T of 32.4%, C of 18.2% G of 17.6%, and 35.8% GC content. The chloroplast genome of E. buergerianum contains 133 genes, which includes 88 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 37 transfer RNA (tRNAs), and 8 ribosome RNA (rRNAs). The evolutionary analysis used neighbour-joining (NJ) method and the result showed that E. buergerianum was closely related to Eriocaulon sexangulare in the family Eriocaulaceae. This study will be helpful for genome data and genomic resources of the family Eriocaulaceae for further

Influence of Fiber Mixing Process on the Cracking Resistance of Cold Recycled Asphalt Mixture

Fiber reinforcement is often used to improve the road performance of cold recycled asphalt mixture (CRAM). The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of fiber mixing process on the cracking resistance of CRAM from multiple perspectives. Four kinds of fiber mixing processes, named A, B, C, and D, were designed by changing the order of fiber addition during the mixing process. Then, semicircle bending tests and indirect tensile tests were conducted to characterize the low-temperature cracking behavior of fiber CRAM. Freeze–thaw cycle tests under both dry and water-saturated conditions were performed to investigate the freeze–thaw damage behavior of fiber CRAM. Furthermore, the fiber dispersion in CRAM was observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the fiber mixing process has a significant effect on the cracking resistance of CRAM. The CRAM specimens prepared by process C have the largest fracture energy, splitting strength, and fracture work, while the specimens made by process D have the smallest value. Specially, the fracture energy of the specimens prepared by process C is 77.23% larger than that of the specimens prepared by process A, while the fracture energy of the specimens prepared by process D is 5.6% smaller than that of the specimens prepared by process A. The reason for this phenomenon is that the fiber is well dispersed in the specimens prepared by process C, which contributes to obtain a better crack resistance. For all CRAM specimens, with the increase of freeze–thaw cycles, splitting strength and fracture work of fiber CRAM decrease. However, there is an obvious difference in the reduction rate of splitting strength and fracture work, especially for the specimens under the water saturation condition. The specimens made by process C have the smallest reduction rate, which indicates a better resistance to freezing and thawing damage. According to the analysis of fiber macro-distribution state in loose CRAM, the fiber dispersion is affected by the humidity conditions in the mixing environment. The best humidity conditions are obtained for fiber dispersion in process C. Based on the SEM observation, the overlapping bridging network structure can be observed in the microstructure of the specimens prepared by process C, allowing the mixture to better transfer and disperse stress

Organic pulses and bacterial invasion alleviated by the resilience of soil microbial community

Biogas slurry is a nutrient-rich secondary product of livestock feces digestion which is recycled as a crop plantation fertilizer and provides exogenous microbes to the soil. However, the effects of biogas slurry microbes on the soil resident community remain unknown. In this study, we examined the ecological consequences of long-term biogas slurry pulse on the soil resident community and found that it promoted crop yield and altered soil characteristics. The soil microbial ecosystem was altered as a result of organic amendments due to the exogenous input of microbes and nutrients. Nevertheless, the soil resident communities were highly resilient to long-term organic pulses, as evidenced by community diversity and composition. The two dominant bacterial species in biogas slurry were Sterolibacterium and Clostridium. Notably, the abundance of Clostridium in biogas slurry increased following long-term amendments, while other species such as GP1 and Subdivision3_genera_incertae_sedis decreased; which was consistent with the results of module-eigengene analysis. Long-term organic pulses shifted the balance of microbial community assembly from stochastic to deterministic processes. Overall, our findings indicated that organic pulses accompanied with bacterial invasion could be alleviated by the resilience of soil microbial communities, thereby emphasizing the importance of microbiota assemblage and network architecture

Investigation of internal phases of linear SBS modified bitumen at the nanoscale using AFM PF-QNM

Currently, few studies explore the internal phases of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modified bitumen at the nanoscale, though the surface phases of SBS modified bitumen have been deeply understood through a lot of research. The present study uses the atomic force microscopy (AFM) peak force quantitative nanomechanical mode (PF-QNM) to investigate the nanomechanical properties of the interior of linear SBS modified bitumen and corresponding mastics at the nanoscale. Firstly, the suitable experimental methods for the interior of bitumen and mastics are explored. Then, the phase relationship between surfaces and interiors of linear SBS modified bitumen is determined by analyzing nanomechanical properties. On this basis, in comparison with the internal phases of base bitumen, the effect of modifiers on phases is deeply investigated. Finally, the internal phases of linear SBS modified bituminous mastics are further investigated. The results reveal that the interior of linear SBS modified bitumen only has two phases, which form in a manner like periphase and paraphase on the surface. In contrast to base bitumen, linear SBS modified bitumen does not create new phases and change the properties of original phases in the interior, but affects the proportion of A-phase and B-phase and presents the homogenization. Furthermore, due to the influence of preparation methods, only the bitumen area away from the fillers can be imaged by AFM PF-QNM. It can be found that the addition of mineral fillers also slightly changes the internal phase distribution of linear SBS modified bitumen, while the effect is less than that of fillers on base bitumen

Research Progress of Nanomaterials in Chemotherapy of Osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a common malignant bone tumor that occurs mostly in children and adolescents. At present, surgery after chemotherapy or postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is the main treatment plan. However, the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs is limited by the occurrence of chemotherapeutic resistance, toxicity to normal cells, poor pharmacokinetic performance, and drug delivery failure. The delivery of chemotherapy drugs to the bone to treat OS may fail for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of selectivity for OS cells, initial sudden release, short‐term release, and the presence of biological barriers (such as the blood‐bone marrow barrier). Nanomaterials are new materials with at least one dimension on the nanometer scale (1–100 nm) in three‐dimensional space. These materials have the ability to penetrate biological barriers and can accumulate preferentially in tumor cells. Studies have shown that the effective combination of nanomaterials and traditional chemotherapy can significantly improve the therapeutic effect. Therefore, this article reviews the latest research progress on the use of nanomaterials in OS chemotherapy

Intra-Cluster Federated Learning-Based Model Transfer Framework for Traffic Prediction in Core Network

Accurate prediction of cellular traffic will contribute to efficient operations and management of mobile network. With deep learning, many studies have achieved exact cellular traffic prediction. However, the reality is that quite a few subnets in the core network do not have sufficient computing power to train their deep learning model, which we call subnets (LCP-Nets) with limited computing power. In order to improve the traffic prediction efficiency of LCP-Nets with the help of deep learning and the subnets (ACP-Nets) with abundant computing power under the requirement of privacy protection, this paper proposes an intra-cluster federated learning-based model transfer framework. This framework customizes models for LCP-Nets, leveraging transferring models trained by ACP-Nets. Experimental results on the public dataset show that the framework can improve the efficiency of LCP-Nets traffic prediction

Viscoelastic Behavior and Phase Structure of High-Content SBS-Modified Asphalt

To investigate the effect of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modifier content on the viscoelastic behavior of SBS-modified asphalt (SBSMA) at different temperatures and phase structures, the star SBS modifier was chosen to fabricate seven types of SBSMA with different contents. Multiple stress creep recovery (MSCR), linear amplitude sweep (LAS), and low-temperature frequency sweep tests were adopted to study the influence of SBS modifier content on the viscoelastic performance of SBSMA at high to low temperatures. The SBSMA’s microstructure with different contents was investigated using a fluorescence microscope. The results indicated that the change in non-recoverable creep compliance and creep recovery rate was bounded by 4.5% content at high temperatures, with an apparent turning point. The changing slope of content at less than 4.5% was much higher than that of the content greater than 4.5%. At medium temperatures, the fatigue life of SBSMA increased exponentially with the rising modifier content. The rate of increase in fatigue life was the largest as the content increased from 4.5% to 6.0%. At low temperatures, the low-temperature viscoelastic property index G (60 s) of SBSMA decreased logarithmically as the modifier content increased. In terms of the microscopic phase structure, the SBS modifier gradually changed from the dispersed to the continuous phase state with the increasing SBS modifier content