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Abstract Rockeries have a complex and significant role in classical Chinese garden designs. They present distinct artistic characteristics and spatial hierarchies and are crucial to garden heritage conservation. Craftsmanship in rockery construction is a significant part of China’s intangible cultural heritage. Rockeries are primarily composed of naturally occurring rocks chosen for their uniqueness and complex shapes and textures. These rocks present challenges as nonstandard elements within the traditional Chinese garden context, as it is not easy to depict them using conventional blueprints and models. This complicates the design, adjustment, display, and construction of rockeries, which lacks tangible bases for reference. Consequently, the preservation and restoration of garden rockeries is difficult, and the perpetuation and dissemination of rockery construction skills face numerous challenges. This study introduces a method that combines laser scanning and photographic measurements to digitize precisely nonstandard elements of rockery stones. This approach presents an innovative design and construction workflow for rockeries by refining design processes, showcasing real effects, and resolving assembly issues. The results demonstrate that the combination of three-dimensional laser scanning and close-range photogrammetry can accurately replicate the complex forms and textures of these nonstandard elements. The stone coding and digital management system devised based on the logic of construction effectively satisfies the design and building requirements of rockeries. Correspondingly, the proposed digital construction workflow enhances the accuracy of rockery design, presentation, and evaluation, thereby contributing to the protection and restoration of rockery heritage sites and the transmission of rockery construction techniques.

This study assessed the service efficacy of Nanjing’s urban open space (UOS) system, emphasizing the complex structural characteristics of UOS services, specifically, the impact of interactions between different subsystems on the overall service efficacy of the UOS system. The objective was to understand whether and how a UOS system can effectively and efficiently meet urban needs under constrained conditions. The dimensions of UOS services and the interrelationships between services offered by different subsystems were examined, and a structural model for assessing the service efficacy of the UOS system was developed. A multidimensional analytical approach was applied to quantify and characterize the relationships between subsystems and identify and determine the weighting of subsystem analysis indicators. The findings indicate that subsystems and their respective indicators differ in importance across dimensions, influence each other, and collectively form the overall service efficacy of a UOS system. Furthermore, while service efficacy across different administrative districts in Nanjing’s main urban areas generally remains moderate, significant differences in evaluation values exist among districts and subsystems, offering direction for future urban planning and resource allocation. This study offers detailed insights into the efficiency and optimization of UOS services, helping urban planners improve UOSs globally.

Transition metal phosphides (CoP, etc.), featuring rich natural abundance and remarkable theoretical capacity, suffer from extremely poor rate capability and severe energy decay for sodium storage due to their huge volume change and low electronic conductivity. Herein, an elaborate hierarchical superstructure, nitrogen-doped carbon wrapped CoP in-situ anchored on Ti3C2Tx MXene (CoP@NC/Ti3C2Tx), was fabricated by crosslinking ZIF-67 on Ti3C2Tx flakes followed by successive carbonization and phosphorization. In principle, the dual modification for CoP nanoparticles through NC coating and Ti3C2Tx support can dramatically accelerate the ionic/electronic transportation and alleviate the structure change upon repeated sodiation/desodiation, thus leading to superior electrode integrity, modified ohmic polarization, and excellent electrochemical reversibility. Consequently, the elaborated hierarchical superstructure delivers impressive sodium storage performances with large capacity (396.06 mA·h/g at 0.1 A/g up to 100 cycles), robust rate performance (237.8 mA·h/g at 2.0 A/g), and satisfied cyclability (capacity retention of 81.3% at 1.0 A/g after 1,200 cycles). In principle, systematic electrochemical and characterizations measurements manifest that the high pseudocapacitive effect to charge storage, enhanced ionic diffusion kinetics, and remarkable electrochemical reversibility contribute to the impressive sodium storage performance of target CoP@NC/Ti3C2Tx. Importantly, the unique modification strategy reported in this study paves a way to fabricate high-performance electrode for SIBs.

Highlights Iron sulfide-based heterostructure in situ hybridized with nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes was prepared through a successive pyrolysis and sulfidation approach. The as-prepared Fe7S8/FeS2/NCNT electrode exhibits superior sodium storage performance in both ester and ether-based electrolytes. The structure advantages of the electrode contribute to high electrochemical performance in the ester-based electrolyte, while fast ionic diffusion and favorable capacitive behavior result in the robust sodium storage performance in the ether-based electrolyte.

Belowground interactions mediated by root exudates are critical for the productivity and efficiency of intercropping systems. Herein, we investigated the process of microbial community assembly in maize, peanuts, and shared rhizosphere soil as well as their regulatory mechanisms on root exudates under different planting patterns by combining metabolomic and metagenomic analyses. The results showed that the yield of intercropped maize increased significantly by 21.05% (2020) and 52.81% (2021), while the yield of intercropped peanut significantly decreased by 39.51% (2020) and 32.58% (2021). The nitrogen accumulation was significantly higher in the roots of the intercropped maize than in those of sole maize at 120 days after sowing, it increased by 129.16% (2020) and 151.93% (2021), respectively. The stems and leaves of intercropped peanut significantly decreased by 5.13 and 22.23% (2020) and 14.45 and 24.54% (2021), respectively. The root interaction had a significant effect on the content of ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) as well as the activities of urease (UE), nitrate reductase (NR), protease (Pro), and dehydrogenase (DHO) in the rhizosphere soil. A combined network analysis showed that the content of NH4+-N as well as the enzyme activities of UE, NR and Pro increased in the rhizosphere soil, resulting in cyanidin 3-sambubioside 5-glucoside and cyanidin 3-O-(6-Op-coumaroyl) glucoside-5-O-glucoside; shisonin were significantly up-regulated in the shared soil of intercropped maize and peanut, reshaped the bacterial community composition, and increased the relative abundance of Bradyrhizobium. These results indicate that interspecific root interactions improved the soil microenvironment, regulated the absorption and utilization of nitrogen nutrients, and provided a theoretical basis for high yield and sustainable development in the intercropping of maize and peanut.

Potassium is one of the most important elements for crop growth and development. However, potassium deficiencies are common in the cultivated land of oil crops in the world, which limits the increase in their yields. The photosynthesis, fluorescence, and physiological indexes of peanut plants were affected by low K stress to varying degrees, and finally the yield decreased. However, the effect of low K stress on the photosynthetic physiological mechanism of peanut plants remains unclear. In this study, in order to explore the response mechanism of peanuts to low K stress, NH18 (tolerance to low K) and HY20 (intolerance to low K) were used to explore the effects of different peanut varieties under low K stress on the dry matter accumulation, protective enzyme activities, osmotic regulatory substance accumulation capacity, fluorescence characteristics, nutrient content, grain quality, and yield. The results of the 2-year experiment showed that under the stress of low K, the content of malondialdehyde in peanut leaves increased and the activities of NH18 superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in the low-K-tolerant variety were higher than those in the low-K-intolerant variety HY20. The decrease in osmotic regulation caused by low K was compensated for by an increase in the soluble protein content. As a result, the chlorophyll content decreased significantly, F0 increased under dark adaptation, and Fm, Fv, and Fv/Fm decreased. The photosynthetic and fluorescence physiology of low-K-tolerant NH18 was less affected by low K stress. Furthermore, under low K stress, the dry matter accumulation of NH18 was reduced less, so that the final yield was less affected by low K stress than that of HY20. Under low K stress, the potassium content in the roots, stems, leaves, and fruit needles decreased significantly, and the decreasing range of stems and leaves gradually increased with the growth period, while that of the pod gradually decreased with the growth period. Under low K stress, the sodium content in the root system significantly increased and was significantly higher than that in the stem, leaf, pod, and fruit needle, indicating that the peanut plants actively absorbed more Na+ to replace the K+ function. This study clarified the mechanism of photosynthesis and the physiology of peanut plants under low K stress, which is of great significance for the breeding and cultivation of peanut resistance.