Russian State Hydrometeorological University

Although Passengers’ comfort in subway stations significantly influences their travel experiences and mode choices, objective assessment methods remain underexplored. This study introduces a novel field-based approach utilizing multimodal physiological signals to evaluate comfort across nine functional zones within a subway station, including electroencephalography, eye tracking, electrodermal activity, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability. It uses data from 30 participants to construct a multidimensional physiological index, which is then classified into three discrete comfort levels: comfortable, normal, and uncomfortable. The results demonstrate that multimodal physiological signals effectively capture complex comfort-related states. Distinct comfort patterns emerge among zones: escalators ranked highest in comfort, while station entrances, transfer areas, and elevators ranked as moderate. In contrast, public areas outside fare gates, security check channels, staircases, and waiting areas were consistently ranked lowest. Notably, at fare gates, passengers exhibited stable respiration but elevated emotional tension. These findings provide a neurophysiological foundation for understanding passenger comfort and offer evidence-based design strategies to improve environmental quality in subway stations. This study establishes a replicable methodology for integrating physiological sensing into post-occupancy evaluation and human-centered architectural design.

Sandy-gravel composite strata, including sand-over-gravel and gravel-over-sand configurations, are prone to face instability under insufficient support pressure. The absence of a unified calculation method complicates parameter determination during construction. To establish a unified calculation formula applicable to both types of composite strata, the stratification ratio (sigma, defined as the ratio of the upper soil layer thickness to the cutterhead diameter) and the cutterhead-soil external friction angle (beta, representing the interfacial friction between the cutterhead panel and the surrounding soil) were introduced to evaluate face stability. Experimental validation was conducted using a slurry shield model with an adjustable cutterhead opening ratio. Key findings include the following: (1) Face failure develops through "slow deformation, rapid failure, and instability" stages. The limit support pressure increases linearly with sigma in the sand-over-gravel strata but decreases in the gravel- over-sand strata, whereas the support stress ratio is negatively correlated with the overburden depth. (2) A unified equation is developed by introducing the stratification ratio (sigma), which is defined as the ratio of the thickness of the upper soil layer to the cutterhead diameter, and the cutterhead-soil friction angle (beta), which represents the external friction angle between the cutterhead panel and the surrounding soil, to assess face stability. (3) Cutterhead rotation speed affects surface settlement by exhibiting a staged characteristic of gentle, accelerated, and ultimately saturated development, and the opening ratio is nonlinearly positively correlated with settlement. Compared with the cutterhead parameters, the overburden depth dominated the surface settlement. These findings provide comprehensive insights for optimizing support pressure calculations and controlling ground settlement in composite stratum tunneling projects.

The influence of deficiency and excess of essential microelements (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, B, Co, and Mo) on human beings, farm animals, and crops and factors affecting their distribution in the soil–plant system are considered. It is shown that liming of acid soils exerts a significant and long-term impact on the availability of microelements for plants and may result in their deficiency in food and animal feed. This technique of soil fertility enhancement affects the elemental status of human beings and farm animals and should be considered as an additional health risk factor. It is shown that the decrease in the yield of many crop plants when complete lime rates are applied may be largely associated with a lack of mobile microelement compounds in the soil. It has been substantiated that, to control the element composition of cultivated plants, the rates of lime ameliorants should maintain the soil acidity at levels that ensure optimal contents of mobile compounds of vital microelements. The deficiency of microelements (Cu, Zn, B, Co, and Mn) in limed soils may be compensated by micronutrient fertilizers.

The Russian Arctic continental shelf and adjacent coastal zone is primarily regarded as a strategic base of hydrocarbon resources; at the same time, its mineral resource potential is not limited to oil and gas. This zone is also rich in commonly-occurring mineral resources, including construction materials such as sand and gravel, as well as their mixtures, which can be used in the implementation of infrastructure and sea-port development projects. However, under Arctic conditions, the extraction of such materials is associated with a high load on vulnerable marine and coastal ecosystems, characterized by low recovery rates. This requires accounting for the cumulative effect of anthropogenic actions. In comparison with hydrocarbon extraction, there is a lack of studies covering the environmental aspects of developing common mineral resources in the Arctic shelf. This determines the relevance of reviewing existing data and analyzing promising approaches to reducing negative environmental impact in this zone.

Polar lows (PLs) are maritime mesoscale cyclones that generate strong winds in high-latitude regions, posing significant threats to marine transportation. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations of PLs are predominantly acquired in dual-polarization (HH + HV) mode, whereas existing SAR wind retrieval algorithms have been developed primarily for tropical cyclones (TCs) using VV- and VH-polarized SAR imagery, thereby limiting their applicability to PL conditions. To bridge this gap, this study presents the first SAR wind retrieval method specifically designed for PLs that exploits dual-polarization (HH + HV) observations. The proposed method estimates optimal wind speeds by minimizing a cost function that jointly integrates observed and simulated normalized radar cross sections (NRCSs) in both HH and HV polarizations. Wind speeds retrieved from 129 Sentinel-1 SAR images are validated against collocated Soil Moisture Active and Passive mission (SMAP) radiometer wind measurements, yielding a bias of 0.9 m/s and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 3.25 m/s. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is capable of reliably capturing the high wind speeds associated with PLs.