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Vegetation in watercourses can influence different aspects of flow structure, subsequently affecting many processes of flow, such as pollutant transportation, sediment deposition and hydrophyte habitat distribution. Vegetation often occurs on one side of a channel, which requires understanding the effects of partial vegetation on the flow. Although many studies have been done on flows through uniform vegetation, this type of flow is unrealistic, as in natural floodplains, the vegetation in riparian zones is usually non-uniform. There is little study on the hydraulic characteristics of the flow with the co-existence of short and tall vegetation under either emergent or submerged conditions. In this paper, a novel experiment with rigid vegetation of two heights in one side of a channel was conducted to understand flow characteristics such as velocity profile, turbulence intensity, Reynolds stress, and discharge distribution. Experimental results revealed that the velocity is almost constant over the short vegetation height and increases sharply with the depth just above the short vegetation. Similarly, the Reynolds stress had little variation in the short vegetation layer, but started to increase rapidly from the top of the short vegetation to the water surface, which indicates the presence of strong mixing layer near the top of the short vegetation. Additionally, a strong shear layer existed between non-vegetated and vegetated zones, indicating the reduction effect of vegetation on the flow velocity. Furthermore, modifications are needed to properly calculate the hydraulic radius and Manning's coefficient for the flow with double-layered vegetation.

There have been inconsistent reports regarding the association between dietary acid load and Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). We aimed to investigate the association between dietary acid load and MetS in an Iranian adult population. In this cross-sectional study, 1945 participants aged 35–65 years were recruited from MASHAD cohort study. Dietary intakes were assessed using a 24-h dietary recall. Diet-based acidity was assessed as the net endogenous acid production (NEAP), potential renal acid load (PRAL), and dietary acid load (DAL). To define MetS, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria were used. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to determine the association between diet-based acid load scores and MetS. Participants' mean age and BMI were 47.13 ± 7.78 years and 27.57 ± 4.48 kg/m 2 , respectively. Around 57% of the population was female. Overall, 31.9% had MetS. According to the full-adjusted model, there was a significant association between higher quartiles of PRAL, NEAP, and DAL and MetS (Q4 PRAL; OR (95%CI) 1.42(1.05–1.91), Q4 NEAP; OR (95%CI) 1.48(1.11–1.98), Q4 DAL; OR (95%CI) 1.44(1.05–1.91)). This study showed a significant positive association between different dietary acid load indicators (PRAL, NEAP, and DAL) and odds of MetS among Iranian adults.

Optimizing the utilization of reservoirs has become an indispensable part of water resources planning. One of the challenges is how to overcome the conflict between the flood control and the revenue generated from hydropower energy. The Ostour and Pirtaghi reservoirs, which are crucial in Iran water system, are selected in this study. The aim is to find the optimal values for water release from each reservoir over a 12-month period to maximize both objective functions. The imperialist competitive algorithm is employed to optimize this multiobjective-nonlinear problem with complex constraints. It is observed that the imperialist competitive algorithm has a fast convergence and it is highly adaptable to defined constraints such as water release limitation, minimum downstream flow, water balance in reservoirs. This study results in better flood control and more revenue from the sale of hydropower energy. The paper also provides a systematic guidance to properly formulate and solve a multi-objective problem.

Numerous sources of overtopping and flood events suggest different cross-sectional land characteristics of the river and urban river water systems. Multiple stages of floodplains in compound channels are viable in urban areas to facilitate bank slope stability and a higher discharge capacity for different flow rates. The complexity of the contiguous floodplains’ compound channel flows manifold with the interactive geometry and roughness of the surrounding floodplains. In the present study, a large-eddy simulation study is undertaken to investigate the turbulent structure of open channels with multiple-stage floodplains. The validation uses experimental data collected at individual contiguous multiple-stage floodplains for three depth ratios from shallow to deep flow regimes. The wall-modelled large eddy simulations were validated with the depth-averaged velocity, primary velocity and secondary currents. Furthermore, the impact of the multiple-stage floodplains on the instantaneous flow fields and large-scale vortical structures is predicted herein. It was found that vortical structures affect the distribution of the momentum exchange over multiple-stage floodplains.

Groundwater is one of the most important water sources in arid and semi-arid areas. With the increasing world population and the water demand for agriculture and urban use, the need for water resources has increased, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, where groundwater resources play a significant role. To prevent the pollution of groundwater resources, various studies for their preservation and maintenance should be carried out, including a detailed plan for proper management of water resources and establishing a balance between water quality and how to use them. It becomes important to understand the spatial change of the quality of groundwater resources. In this study, Sabzevar plain, a typical region of semi-arid climate in Iran, was selected as a case study to assess the groundwater quality of the region, using data from 24 observation wells between 2015 and 2019. Using Arc GIS software, a map of groundwater quality parameters in the study area was prepared for quality assessment and comparison with existing international standards. The results showed that (except pH and HCO 3 − ) the concentration of Sodium, Magnesium, and other anions and cations is higher than the corresponding WHO standard limit, suggesting that the study area is unsuitable for drinking and agricultural use. According to the Wilcox chart, 87.5% of the samples are in the C4S4 class while 8.33% are in the C4S3 class, showing the groundwater unsuitable for agricultural use due to its high salinity and alkalinity. Piper diagrams show that more than 50% of the samples are non-carbonate alkalis, indicating a very high salinity in the area. According to the pie chart, chlorine ion and sodium ion are the dominant anions and cations in the Sabzevar plain, respectively. The Schuler diagram shows that none of the samples examined were in a good class for drinking. Therefore, considering the importance of water for agricultural activities in the study area, it is recommended to have agricultural management solutions to prevent groundwater mixing with freshwater resources.

In this paper, a new and applied concept of topological spaces based upon relations is introduced. These topological spaces are called R -topological spaces and SR -topological spaces. Some of the properties of these spaces and their relationship with the initial topological space are verified. Moreover, some of their applications for example in fixed point theory, functional analysis, C ∗ -algebras and etc, is verified.

The local scouring around the pier, is one of major cause of the bridges failure worldwide. Compared to the flow hydraulics in single channels, the flow pattern in compound channels is completely different with flood plains covered with vegetation and this issue can affect the amount of scouring in the area of bridge piers. However, the combined effect of these factors has not been systematically investigated. Therefore, due to the complex nature of the local scouring phenomenon and the absence one of an accurate prediction model, in this research, an experimental study on the hydraulic characteristics of the flow approaching the bridge deck in compound channels with floodplain vegetation in pressurized flow conditions, has been done. It was found that increasing vegetation density on average will reduce scour depth by 15% for the same floodplain width and relative depth. In free-flow conditions, increasing the vegetation density on average will increase the scour depth. The aim is to develop an optimized model to estimate the bridge pier scour in consideration of the combined effect. The newly developed relationship shows a good correlation coefficient of more than 92% with the experimental data and yielded better results than the previous equations. The finding of this study will have potential applications for the prediction of the bridge pier scour in clear water conditions. Article highlights Scouring is a complex phenomenon due to the three-dimensional nature of the flow, simultaneous with the sediment transport and continuous change of the flow boundaries, which makes it difficult to analyse the problem by analytical and numerical methods. For this reason, investigating this issue is often done through laboratory research. Most of the scouring studies are in free flow conditions and few studies have been done on the investigation and identification of scouring pattern in pressurized flow. The results showed that the relative depth is the most effective among the effective parameters in scouring the bridge pier. Using the experimental results, an equation for determining and predicting the amount of the maximum scour depth is presented.

Vegetation plays a vital role in the flow characteristics of natural open channels, such as rivers. Typically, vegetation density is higher in the lower layer and sparser in the upper layer of these channels. In this research, Ansys Fluent and the k–ϵ model have been employed to simulate various vegetation configurations to capture intricate flow complexities within vegetation regions. Numerical analysis demonstrated that the numerical results align with anticipated Turbulence Kinetic Energy data obtained from analytical and experimental studies. Our findings revealed that double-layer vegetation induces a more intricate flow distribution. In the spaces between vegetation zones, Turbulence Kinetic Energy decreases due to the resistance imposed by the vegetation patches. This resistance has positive implications for sustaining aquatic life and facilitating sediment deposition, promoting a more environmentally sustainable outcome.

In this article, applying the concept of a generalized c-distance in cone b-metric spaces over Banach algebra with a nonnormal solid cone therein, we establish several common fixed point theorems for two noncontinuous mappings satisfying the Han-Xu-type contraction. Our results are interesting, since they are not equivalent to former well-known results regarding a wt-distance in b-metric spaces while they contain recent results corresponding to a generalized c-distance in cone b-metric spaces.

The role of vegetation in the natural environment has drawn great interest recently. The vegetation can change the velocity distribution due to its additional resistance on the flow, consequently affecting the nutrient and pollutant transport, and the habitats. Due to the complexity of flow and vegetation interaction, many previous researchers have studied the flow structure of channels with uniform vegetation. Few studies have been done on the flow of open channels partially covered vegetation of different heights on one side of the channel, which commonly exists in natural rivers. Through novel experiments for such a vegetated flow, this paper shows the influence of different layered vegetation on the velocity profile and discharge, which indicates that the velocity in the vegetation zone is significantly smaller than that in the free-flow zone and that the velocity profiles in the short and tall vegetation zones are very different. The flow through the free-flow zone is dominant (about 75%) despite its half width, and its discharge percentage slightly decreases as increasing flow depth.