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Wear and friction cause huge economic losses in the agriculture and mining industries. Wear simulations of working elements, materials, and surfaces that can reduce downtime and economic losses. This work proposes the use a cone penetration resistance measurement result as option to determine movement resistance of soil ripper tine by the discrete element method. It allows avoiding mechanical properties investigation of soil. Simulation made in sand and sandy clay helps to compare wear track of tine wear plates with actual wear. The actual wear was evaluated by 3D scanning of a soil ripper tine wear plates made from tungsten carbide and cobalt alloy and compared with simulated tines. Wear loss expressed as loss of area at the cross-section of tine wear plate. The maximum wear loss of scanned ripper wear plate at 0–150 mm working depth is 1.8% and simulated-in-sand and simulated-in-sandy-clay 1.2 and 1.7%. The maximum actual wear loss caused 57.9% wear loss of cross-section area at 150–204 mm working depth. Simulation in sand and simulation in sandy clay soil 6.9 and 9% caused by lower soil resistance than in field experiments. Simulations in sandy clay soil increased the draft force by 3.9 and 2.8 times that in the sand, at 0–200 mm depth, for tine parts to account for the stiffness fraction of sandy clay soil. As an alternative, tine wear evaluation is also suggested from shear energy values. Image 1 • Wear modelled by discrete element method. • Soil hardness simulation. • Wear model comparison with field experiments. • Evaluation of wear dependency with respect to working depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transgenic Bt -rice is rice that has been genetically modified to produce insecticidal proteins (Cry1Ab/Ac) within the plant. Rice straw is incorporated into paddy soils after harvest for fertilization or to improve the soil structure. The incorporation of straw from transgenic Bt -rice may pose risks to the paddy soil system. The decomposition of Bt -rice straw and degradation of Cry1Ab/Ac proteins from the straw were investigated under laboratory conditions. In addition, effects of the incorporation with chopped rice straw on microbial communities in differently textured paddy soils were studied. The results indicated that the incorporation of straw from transgenic Bt -rice might have a slight influence on soil respiration and CH 4 emissions in two paddy soils, i.e. the Silt Loam soil and the Silty Clay soil. Differences were also observed in the cumulative emissions of CO 2 between the two amended paddy soils in addition to the well-known increase in emissions of both CO 2 and CH 4 due to straw incorporation. The Cry1Ab/Ac proteins from straw of transgenic Bt -rice were degraded in paddy soils. The rate of decline in the concentration of Cry1Ab/Ac proteins was different in the two soils. After 29 d of incubation, 61% and 42% of initial Cry1Ab/Ac proteins were detected in the silt loam and silty clay, respectively. As a result of the presence of the rice straw, the abundance of bacteria, archaea, and total cells were increased in two soils. The numbers of bacteria and total cells were 6.4% and 11.5% higher in the silt loam amended with straw of Bt -rice than non- Bt -rice, respectively. The silty clay displayed a similar trend as the silt loam. • Straw from Bt -rice has a slight influence on CO 2 and CH 4 emissions in paddy soil. • No differences in microbial abundance between Bt -rice and non- Bt -rice. • Cry-proteins could be detected in soil after incorporation of Bt -rice straw. • Cry-proteins degraded at different rates for differently textured paddy soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sodium montmorillonite clay (Na-MMT) was modified using 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS). The objective of this study was to determine which chemical group is the ‘driving force’ leading to the adsorption of AMPS inside the clay galleries. AMPS has been reported to be a good candidate as a clay modifier for the preparation of polymer–clay nanocomposites by in situ free radical polymerization in emulsion. However, the way in which AMPS interacts with the surface of MMT has not yet been studied. The type of interaction between organic modifiers and clay plays a determining role in the successful preparation of polymer–clay nanocomposite materials. The adsorption ability of three other organic compounds similar to AMPS, namely sodium 1-allyloxy-2-hydroxypropyl sulfonate (Cops), N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) and methacryloyloxyundecan-1-yl sulfate (MET), was also evaluated. These selected compounds also have functional groups potentially able to interact with the clay surface (i.e., a sulfonate group, an amido group, or a sulfate group, respectively). Results of FT-IR, TGA and SAXS analyses showed that AMPS, NIPA, Cops and MET all interacted with clay, but to various extents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The membrane potential, the pressure difference, and the concentration difference induced by an applied concentration gradient through samples of compact clay were measured as functions of sodium chloride concentration and of porosity. The results of some previous numerical predictions are recalled to be functions of a characteristic length scale which can be derived from conductivity and permeability. Generally, the experimental data were in agreement with these numerical predictions. Therefore, nondiagonal coupling coefficients can be derived with acceptable precision from the diagonal coefficients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]