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Summary Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) is a prime feedstock for commercial production of biofuel and table sugar. Optimizing canopy architecture for improved light capture has great potential for elevating biomass yield. LIGULELESS1 (LG1) is involved in leaf ligule and auricle development in grasses. Here, we report CRISPR/Cas9‐mediated co‐mutagenesis of up to 40 copies/alleles of the putative LG1 in highly polyploid sugarcane (2n = 100–120, x = 10–12). Next generation sequencing revealed co‐editing frequencies of 7.4%–100% of the LG1 reads in 16 of the 78 transgenic lines. LG1 mutations resulted in a tuneable leaf angle phenotype that became more upright as co‐editing frequency increased. Three lines with loss of function frequencies of ~12%, ~53% and ~95% of lg1 were selected following a randomized greenhouse trial and grown in replicated, multi‐row field plots. The co‐edited LG1 mutations were stably maintained in vegetative progenies and the extent of co‐editing remained constant in field tested lines L26 and L35. Next generation sequencing confirmed the absence of potential off targets. The leaf inclination angle corresponded to light transmission into the canopy and tiller number. Line L35 displaying loss of function in ~12% of the lg1 NGS reads exhibited an 18% increase in dry biomass yield supported by a 56% decrease in leaf inclination angle, a 31% increase in tiller number, and a 25% increase in internode number. The scalable co‐editing of LG1 in highly polyploid sugarcane allows fine‐tuning of leaf inclination angle, enabling the selection of the ideotype for biomass yield.

The leaf inclination angle (LIA), defined as the leaf or needle inclination angle to the horizontal plane, is vital in radiative transfer, precipitation interception, evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, and hydrological processes. This paper reviews the field and remote sensing methods to determine LIA. In the field, LIA is determined using direct and indirect methods. The direct methods include direct contact, photographic, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) methods, while the indirect methods are composed of the gap fraction, four-component, and polarization measurement methods. The direct methods can obtain LIA accurately at individual leaves, crown, and plot scales, whereas the indirect methods work well for crops at the plot level. The remote sensing methods to estimate LIA are mainly based on the empirical, radiative transfer model, and gap fraction methods. More advanced inversion strategies and validation studies are necessary to improve the robustness of LIA remote sensing estimation. In future studies, automated observation systems can be developed and the LIA measurement can be incorporated into existing ground observation networks to enhance spatial coverage.

Purpose Solar-driven water desalination technologies are rapidly developing with various links to other renewable sources. However, the efficiency of such systems severely depends on the design parameters. This paper presents results from an investigation on the effect of the glass cover inclination angle on the performance of two stepped solar still geometries (flat and convex) and the amount of produced distilled water. Design Methodology Approach Studied inclination angles of 25°, 27.5°, 30°, 32.5° and 35° were chosen, while other design parameters were fixed. Findings The investigation showed that the unit with the convex absorber plate had higher average water daily production rate, compared to the output of the flat absorber plate unit. The results also depicted that the inclination angle of the still has a noticeable effect on the performance of solar stills. The value of the critical angle is 32.5°, and the higher inclination angle results in less heat transfer coefficient. This value can be used for design purposes and erases the typical assumption to use lower angles to optimize the productivity of the still. Practical Implications Finally, obtained data were used to correlate the Nusselt number for the flat and convex surfaces with different inclination angles of the glass cover. Originality Value The outcome of this investigation may find applications to develop highly efficient solar stills to secure more drinkable water in warm, dry lands.

Low permeability is the main constraint on the high-efficiency coalbed methane recovery in deep coal seams. Hydraulic slotting has been proved to be a favorable method to stimulate low-permeability coal seams. In this paper, the coal samples with various slot inclination angles and borehole-slot ratios were used to investigate the weakening effect of slot inclination angle and borehole-slot ratio on the mechanical property of the pre-cracked coal. Besides, the crack patterns of the slotted coal specimens were identified to reveal the slot weakening mechanism. It is revealed that the variations in compression strength, elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio with the slot inclination angle generally conform to a Boltzmann function, logistic function and quadratic function, respectively. With the increase in the borehole-slot ratio, the curve clusters of compression strength and elastic modulus show the horizontal “V” with left opening, and the curve clusters of Poisson’s ratio show the trend of rapid increase after slow increase. Compared with elastic modulus, the slot weakening degrees of compression strength and Poisson’s ratio are more significant. Moreover, the tensile and shear cracks mainly appear in the coal samples with small and large slot inclination angles, respectively, which verify the fact that the slot weakening effect on mechanical property of the slotted coal samples with small slot inclination angles is more significant. The research achievements are attributed to the improvement in the efficiency of the hydraulic slotting-based enhanced coalbed methane recovery.

In underground coal mines, deep-hole pre-splitting blasting (DHPB) is an effective means of attenuating or even eliminating the risk of rockburst induced by the breakage of hard-thick roof. The in-situ stress field and drill geometry are the controlling factors for the performance of DHPB, but their impacts on the rock blasting crack extension characteristics are still not fully understand. This paper used LS-DYNA to investigate the crack extension characteristics of DHPB under different in-situ stress conditions, horizontal stress difference, and blasthole inclination angle. The results show that the blasting cracks extend along the plane that is perpendicular to the direction of minimum principal stress. Increasing horizontal stress difference weakens the inhibitory effect of the in-situ stress on crack extension and favors crack extension. Under high horizontal stress difference conditions, the plane of crack extension gradually coincides with the plane of the blasthole inclination angle. When the blasthole is perpendicular to the direction of the maximum principal stress, the variability of crack extension at different inclination angles is significant. When the inclination angle is greater than 75°, the degree of crack extension is high and the plane of crack extension is along the plane of the blasthole inclination angle. This is close to the fracture plane of the overburdened rock at Chinese underground coal mines, which can effectively pre-splitting the hard-thick roof and prompt it to collapse. However, when the blasthole is parallel to the direction of the maximum principal stress, there is basically no change in the crack extension at different inclination angles. Suggestions to optimize DHPB in coal mines are proposed in terms of in-situ stress, blasthole inclination angle, blasthole spacing, and verified by field tests.HighlightsEffect of three-dimensional stress fields and blasthole inclination angles on blasting crack is investigated by LS-DYNA software.Blasting cracks extend along the plane that is perpendicular to the direction of minimum principal stress under three-dimensional stress fields.The greater the horizontal stress difference, the better the blasting crack extension.Significant differences in blasting crack extension with changes in blasthole inclination were observed when the blastholes were perpendicular and parallel to σH.We suggest adjusting the blasting design according to the direction and magnitude of the in-situ stresses, blasthole angles, and blasthole spacing to achieve better blasting results.

Iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA) fibers can enhance cementitious composites through both crack bridging and thermally activated recovery stresses. Since fiber pull-out governs load transfer at the micro scale, understanding the combined effects of fiber geometry, inclination, and thermal treatment is essential. This study experimentally investigated the pull-out behavior of hooked-end Fe-SMA fibers embedded in high-performance concrete (HPC). A total of 54 ASTM C307-type briquette specimens were tested using single-hook (3D) and double-hook (4D) fibers at inclination angles of 60°, 75°, and 90° under ambient, 100 °C, and 200 °C conditions. Additional flexural, compressive, and direct tensile tests were conducted on plain HPC exposed to the same thermal regime. At ambient temperature, 4D fibers showed 50–70% higher peak pull-out forces than 3D fibers. Heating to 100 °C further increased pull-out resistance by about 6–17%, and the 4D-60-100 configuration achieved the highest performance. In contrast, exposure to 200 °C reduced pull-out resistance by about 5–12% below ambient values. Overall, a 60° inclination generally provided a better response, while 90° produced the lowest. The results confirm that moderate thermal activation combined with double-hook geometry is the most effective strategy for maximizing Fe-SMA fiber–matrix load transfer in HPC.

This study examines how leading-edge inclination angles affect a two-stage centrifugal compressor’s aerodynamic performance using numerical and experimental methods. Five impellers with varied inclination configurations were designed for both stages. The results show that negative inclination improves the pressure ratio and efficiency under near-choke conditions, with greater enhancements in the low-pressure stage. Positive inclination significantly boosts the pressure ratio and efficiency under near-stall conditions, particularly in the low-pressure stage. Negative inclinations optimize blade loading and choke flow capacity, while effectively reducing incidence angle deviations induced by interstage pipeline distortion and decreasing outlet pressure fluctuation amplitude in the high-pressure stage. Positive inclinations delay flow separation, suppress tip leakage vortices, and extend the stall margin.

Background Leaf inclination angle (LIA) is a key trait affecting crop canopy structure and photosynthetic efficiency, but its accurate measurement is challenging due to complex leaf geometry, especially in narrow, curved rice leaves. As the flag leaf serves as the primary photosynthetic organ in rice, the precise spatial parsing of its architecture is crucial for optimizing canopy light interception and yield potential. With the rapid development of high-throughput phenotyping technologies, an increasing number of studies have focused on the fine-grained characterization of 3D crop architecture. However, accurate methodologies for extracting the flag leaf inclination angle (FLIA) in rice, as well as systematic investigations into its spatiotemporal variation patterns, remain largely unexplored. Results In this study, we systematically evaluated multiple plane-fitting strategies based on SfM-MVS point clouds, finding that voxel-based piecewise analysis outperformed traditional global approaches. To further improve accuracy, skeleton extraction methods were innovatively extended to LIA estimation. A proposed multi-method ensemble, based on the median of eight skeleton extraction combinations, yielded high robustness (R 2  = 0.923, RMSE = 2.072°) against photographic ground truth. By applying the proposed framework to both field- and pot-grown rice, we observed no significant FLIA differences between varieties or nitrogen treatments under field-grown conditions, likely due to phenotypic plasticity regulated by population effects. However, pot-grown plants, experiencing reduced interplant competition, exhibited significant varietal differences in FLIA. Across growth environments, varieties, and nitrogen treatments, FLIA at maturity was significantly lower than at anthesis and grain filling stages due to leaf senescence. Conclusions This study establishes a robust and accurate measurement framework for LIA based on 3D point clouds, improving estimation performance through piecewise analysis, voxelization, and ensemble strategies. The proposed approach is demonstrated to be an effective tool for the precise quantification of rice leaf phenotypes.

Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) effectively mitigate drought stress in crops, yet their physiological mechanisms in maize remain unclear. This study conducted field experiments in the arid region of northwest China, setting up three maize genotypes (Zhengdan 958, Zhongdan 2, and MC670), two irrigation methods (full irrigation, FI, and regulated deficit irrigation, RDI), and two exogenous treatments (water as control, and SiNPs application). The RDI increased stomatal density ( ), intrinsic water use efficiency (iWUE), and water productivity (WP), albeit with a slight reduction in yield. However, the application of SiNPs increased the yield and WP across all three genotypes under both FI and RDI. Additionally, SiNPs notably enhanced SPAD values, stomatal conductance ( ), net photosynthesis rate ( ), leaf area index (LAI), and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation ( ), while reducing the leaf inclination angle (LIA) at the middle ear position. Further analysis revealed the following mechanisms: (1) an increase in SPAD and enhanced ; (2) enhanced LAI and reduced LIA at the ear-bearing canopy layers significantly improved ; and (3) the combined increase in and synergistically contributed to increased maize yield. The improvements in WP were more strongly correlated with yield gains than with changes in evapotranspiration. The findings demonstrate that SiNPs improve maize productivity and water use efficiency under both full and deficit irrigation by coordinately enhancing photosynthetic performance and optimizing canopy light interception. The results provide physiological insights into how SiNPs alleviate drought-related limitations in maize. These findings offer important theoretical insights and a practical strategy for employing SiNPs as a sustainable crop enhancer under water-limited conditions.

The fast and precise positioning of lithium battery is crucial for effective manufacturing of mass production. In order to acquire position information of lithium batteries rapidly and accurately, a novel dual-template matching algorithm is proposed to properly locate and segment each battery for fast and precise mass production. Initially, an image down-sampling method is applied to build up a multi-layer image pyramid for speeding up target search, and a novel mixed matching template is designed to increase the matching precision. A row of lithium batteries is likely tilt during rolling, and the images of batteries captured by the CCD camera are distorted, which may generate a negative effect on next procedure. Hence, a two-level correction algorithm for battery angle and location is applied to obtain rough areas of the batteries and improve the accuracy of template matching. Lastly, the comparison with other state-of-the-art algorithms is done to locate each battery in a row with high speed and precision. The precision rates of the proposed algorithm, improved SAD algorithm, and YOLOv3 algorithm are 99.44%, 95.98%, and 93.64 for normal battery images and 97.86%, 89.19%, and 85.10 for tilted battery images, respectively. Compared with improved SAD matching algorithm and YOLOv3 algorithm, the positioning accuracy of the proposed method is significantly increased, and the matching robustness is improved in spite of large battery inclination angle.