Short-Term and Continuing Stresses Differentially Interplay with Multiple Hormones to Regulate Plant Survival and Growth

The stress phytohormone, abscisic acid （ABA）, plays important roles in facilitating plants to survive and grow well under a wide range of stress conditions. Previous gene expression studies mainly focused on plant responses to short-term ABA treatment, but the effect of sustained ABA treatment and their difference are poorly studied. Here, we treated plants with ABA for 1 h or 9 d, and our genome-wide analysis indicated the differentially regulated genes under the two conditions were tremendously different. We analyzed other hormones＇ signaling changes by using their whole sets of known responsive genes as reporters and integrating feedback regulation of their biosynthesis. We found that, under short-term ABA treatment, signaling outputs of growth-promoting hormones, brassinosteroids and gibberellins, and a biotic stress-responsive hormone, jasmonic acid, were significantly inhibited, while auxin and ethylene signaling outputs were promoted. However, sustained ABA treatment repressed cytokinin and gibberellin signaling, but stimu- lated auxin signaling. Using several sets of hormone-related mutants, we found candidates in corresponding hormonal signaling pathways, including receptors or transcription regulators, are essential in responding to ABA. Our findings indicate interactions of ABA-dependent stress signals with hormones at different levels are involved in plants to survive under transient stress and to adapt to continuing stressful environments.

Stiffness Degradation of Undisturbed Saturated Soft Clay in the Yangtze Estuary Under Complex Stress Conditions

Stiffness degradation will occur due to the generation of accumulated pore pressure in saturated soft clays under cyclic loading. The soil static-dynamic multi-purpose triaxial and torsional shear apparatus in Dalian University of Technology was employed to perform different types of test on the saturated soft marine clay in the Yangtze Estuary. Undisturbed samples of the clay were subjected to undrained cyclic vertical and torsional coupling shear and cyclic torsional shear after three-directional anisotropic consolidation with different initial consolidation parameters. Investigated were the effects of the initial orientation angle of the major principal stress, initial ratio of deviatoric stress, initial coefficient of intermediate principal stress and continuous rotation of principal stress axes on the stiffness degradation. It is found that the degradation index decreases （or degradation degree increases） significantly with increasing initial orientation angle of the major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress. Compared with the effects of the initial orientation angle of the major principal stress and initial ratio of deviatoric stress, the effect of initial coefficient of intermediate principal stress is less evident and this trend is more clearly reflected by the results of the cyclic torsional shear tests than those of the cyclic coupling shear tests. At the same cycle number, the degradation index obtained from the cyclic torsional shear test is higher than that from the cyclic coupling shear test. The main reason is that the continuous rotation in principal stress directions during cyclic coupling shear damages the original structure of the soil more than the cyclic torsional shear does.Based on a series of experiments, a mathematical model for stiffness degradation is proposed and the relevant parameters are determined.

Layerwise third-order shear deformation theory with transverse shear stress continuity for piezolaminated plates

Regarding laminated structures,an electromechanically coupled Finite Element(FE)model based on Layerwise Third-Order Shear Deformation(LW-TOSD)theory is proposed for sta-tic and dynamic analysis.LW-TOSD ensures the continuity of in-plane displacements and trans-verse shear stresses.The current LW-TOSD can be applied to arbitrary multi-layer laminated structures with only seven Degrees of Freedom(DOFs)for each element node and eliminates the use of the shear correction factors.Moreover,a shear penalty stiffness matrix is constructed to sat-isfy artificial constraints to optimize the structural shear strain.A dynamic finite element model is obtained based on LW-TOSD using the Hamilton's principle.First,the accuracy of the current model is validated by comparing with literature and ABAQUS results.Then,this study carries out numerical investigations of piezolaminated structures for different width-to-thickness ratios,length-to-width ratios,penalty stiffness matrix,boundary conditions,electric fields and dynamics.

Stress Recovery Procedure for the Bonded Particle Model

In the simulation of discontinuous block systems,the discrete element method(DEM)has better computational efficiency and convergence than the finite element method(FEM).When several DEM particles are bonded together with parallel bonds(the bonded particle model,BPM),various shapes and block fractures can be simulated.The main aim of the BPM is to simulate a continuous material in which the stress distribution is continuous.Since the existing stress result for a single particle is an average value over the particle’s area,stress results do not exist in the area between particles.In this paper,the stress value for a single two-dimensional DEM particle is deduced.A stress recovery procedure with a linear stress function for a triangular element generated by the centroids of three bonded particles is proposed.In this way,the recovered stress field for the whole mesh composed of all triangular elements is continuous.A stress gradient exists in the whole mesh.This can also provide more accurate stress values for judging a fracture inside a block.Symmetrical and asymmetrical models are simulated by the BPM and FEM.Similar to the FEM results,the recovered stress results for the BPM can describe the stress distribution in the simulated continuous blocks.For the model with the theoretical stress solution,the recovered result and the theoretical solution coincide well.

Experimental Study on the Effect of Cyclic Preloading on the Resistance to Liquefaction of Saturated Loose Sand under Wave Loading

By using the soil static and dynamic universal triaxial and torsional shear apparatus, a series of combined cyclic shear tests are performed to simulate the rotation in the principal stress direction induced by ocean wave. The tests include the cyclic preloading tests and liquefaction tests in the second loading on saturated loose sand with a relative density of 30%. The all tests are consolidated under isotropic condition. The effect of the cyclic preloading on the resistance to liquefaction of saturated loose sands under the condition of continuous rotation in the principal stress direction is investigated. Experimental data indicate that the void ratio of saturated sands has a negligible reduction after cyclic preloading. With the increase of the intensity of cyclic preloading (in the amplitude and in the number of cycles), the resistance to liquefaction in the second loading is increased continuously under the condition that the liquefaction does not occur during the cyclic preloading. The reason is that the construction of more stable structure due to the uniformity of the void and the better interlocking of the particles when the cyclic preloading is applied to the saturated sand.