Rainfall makes impacts on the process of solidification/stabilization (S/S) and the long-term safety of solidified matrix. In this study, the effect of rainfall on solidification/stabilization process was investigated by the rainfall test. The unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) were adopted to characterize the properties of S/S sediments before and after the rainfall test. The samples cured for 28 days were selected for semi-dynamic leaching tests with a simulated acidic leachant prepared at pH of 2.0, 4.0 and 7.0. The effectiveness of S/S treatment was evaluated by diffusion coefficient (De ) and leachability index (LX). The results indicated that UCS decreased at maximum deterioration rate of 34.23% after 7 days of curing, along with the minimum rate of 7.98% after 28 days by rainfall, with greater than 14 days referred. The rainfall had little effect on the leaching characteristics of heavy metals during the curing process. However, the simulated acid rain made significant impacts on the leaching behaviours of the heavy metals in the S/S materials. All the values of cumulative fraction of leached heavy metals were less than 2.0%, exhibition of good stabilization of cement. Furthermore, the calculated diffusion coefficient (De ) for Cu was 1.28 × 101 cm2 s-1, indicating its low mobility of heavy metal ions in S/S sediments. Furthermore, the calculated diffusion coefficients (Di ) for Cd, Cu and Pb were 7.44 × 10-11, 8.18 × 10-12 and 7.85 × 10-12 cm2 s-1, respectively, indicating their relatively low mobility of heavy metal in S/S sediments.Non-equilibrium phase transitions from survival to extinction have recently been observed in computational models of evolutionary dynamics. Dynamical signatures predictive of population collapse have been observed in yeast populations under stress. We experimentally investigate the population response of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to biological stressors (temperature and salt concentration) in order to investigate the system’s behaviour in the vicinity of population collapse. While both conditions lead to population decline, the dynamical characteristics of the population response differ significantly depending on the stressor. Under temperature stress, the population undergoes a sharp change with significant fluctuations within a critical temperature range, indicative of a continuous absorbing phase transition. In the case of salt stress, the response is more gradual. A similar range of response is observed with the application of various antibiotics to Escherichia coli, with a variety of patterns of decreased growth in response to antibiotic stress both within and across antibiotic classes and mechanisms of action. These findings have implications for the identification of critical tipping points for populations under environmental stress.Bi-layered composites capable of self-shaping are of increasing relevance to science and engineering. They can be made out of anisotropic materials that are responsive to changes in a state variable, e.g. wood, which swells and shrinks by changes in moisture. When extensive bending is desired, such bilayers are usually designed as cross-ply structures. However, the nature of cross-ply laminates tends to prevent changes of the Gaussian curvature so that a plate-like geometry of the composite will be partly restricted from shaping. Therefore, an effective approach for maximizing bending is to keep the composite in a narrow strip configuration so that Gaussian curvature can remain constant during shaping. This represents a fundamental limitation for many applications where self-shaped double-curved structures could be beneficial, e.g. in timber architecture. In this study, we propose to achieve double-curvature by gridshell configurations of narrow self-shaping wood bilayer strips. Using numerical mechanical simulations, we investigate a parametric phase-space of shaping. Our results show that double curvature can be achieved and that the change in Gaussian curvature is dependent on the system’s geometry. see more Furthermore, we discuss a novel architectural application potential in the form of self-erecting timber gridshells.Global monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change can be aided by the effective use of indicators. Tree-cavity excavators, the majority of which are woodpeckers (Picidae), are known to be useful indicators of the health or naturalness of forest ecosystems and the diversity of forest birds. They are indicators of the latter due to shared associations with particular forest elements and because of their role in facilitating the occurrence of other species through the provision of nesting cavities. Here, we investigated whether these positive correlations between excavators and other forest birds are also found at broad geographical scales. We used global distribution maps to extract richness estimates of tree-cavity nesting and forest-associated birds, which we grouped by zoogeographic regions. We then created generalized least-squares models to assess the relationships between these groups of birds. We show that richness of tree-cavity excavating birds correlates positively with that of secondary cavity nesters and other forest birds (generalists and specialists) at global scales, but with variation across zoogeographic regions. As many excavators are relatively easy to detect, play keystone roles at local scales and are effective management targets, we propose that excavators are useful for biodiversity monitoring across multiple spatial scales and geographical regions, especially in the tropics.Strength and toughness are both of great importance for the application of polylactic acid (PLA). Unfortunately, these two properties are often contradictory. In this work, an effective and practical strategy is proposed by using carboxylated graphene oxide (GC) grafted with polyethylene glycol (PEG), i.e. GC-g-PEG. The synthesis procedure of GC-g-PEG is firstly optimized. Then, a series of PLA nanocomposites were prepared by the melt blending method via masterbatch. In comparison to that achieved over pure PLA, these nanocomposites are of higher crystallinity, thermal stability and mechanical strength. This is mainly attributed to well-tailored interface and good dispersion. Especially, while retaining the tensile strength of the original PLA, the elongation at break increases by seven times by adding 0.3 wt% GC-g-PEG.