Hard organic carbon Porosity Diffusion a b s t r a c t Sequestration and diffusion of three polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in seven Chinese soils were investigated for up to 200 days in sterile soil microcosms as functions of soil property and aging time. The aging of the PAHs, assessed using a mild extractant that removes primarily the labile fraction, showed a biphasic behavior. The rapid diffusion from labile to nonlabile domains was mainly dependent upon the distribution of meso-and micropore fraction and total organic carbon content. Meanwhile, the slow diffusion was found to decrease with the increase of the content of soil organic carbon, particularly of hard organic carbon (p < 0.01) and the meso-and micropore fraction, as well as with the increasing molecular size of PAHs. This work offers evidence that analyses of organic carbon fractionation and porosity are important to adequately assess the mechanistic basis of sequestration and diffusion of organic contaminants in soils.

Object recognition is among the basic survival skills of human beings and other animals. To date, artificial intelligence (AI) assisted high-performance object recognition is primarily visual-based, empowered by the rapid development of sensing and computational capabilities. Here, we report a tactile-olfactory sensing array, which was inspired by the natural sense-fusion system of star-nose mole, and can permit real-time acquisition of the local topography, stiffness, and odor of a variety of objects without visual input. The tactile-olfactory information is processed by a bioinspired olfactory-tactile associated machine-learning algorithm, essentially mimicking the biological fusion procedures in the neural system of the star-nose mole. Aiming to achieve human identification during rescue missions in challenging environments such as dark or buried scenarios, our tactile-olfactory intelligent sensing system could classify 11 typical objects with an accuracy of 96.9% in a simulated rescue scenario at a fire department test site. The tactile-olfactory bionic sensing system required no visual input and showed superior tolerance to environmental interference, highlighting its great potential for robust object recognition in difficult environments where other methods fall short.

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