The influence of emerging atmospheric organophosphorus flame retardants from land source emissions on the East China Sea.

Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) pose a new challenge to the marine environment due to their toxicity and persistence. This study explores the contributions of OPFR emissions from different land sources and sectors to its contamination of the East China Sea (ECS) using a novel atmospheric transport model（ChnMETOP）for POPs and a marine food web model. The results show that the major land sources causing OPFR pollution in the ECS were situated in Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and middle reach areas of China's Yangtze River, confirming that source proximity made most significant contributions to OPFR pollution in the ECS. Among those OPFR emission sectors, industrial emissions accounted for the highest modeled OPFR levels in the seawaters, followed by the OPFR usage process in textile, plastic, and rubber products. Assessment of bioaccumulation of OPFR in the marine food web of the ECS and the potential risk in commercial fish consumers reveals lower exposure risk via dietary fish ingestion. However, the risk might increase if OPFRs are continuously bioaccumulated in the biotic and released into the abiotic marine environment. This study simultaneously identified both the source locations and emission sectors, thereby providing important policy implications in mitigating OPFR pollution in the ECS marine environment.

Research on Response Parameters and Classification Identification Method of Concrete Vibration Process.

The vibration process applied to fresh concrete is an important link in the construction process, but the lack of effective monitoring and evaluation methods results in the quality of the vibration process being difficult to control and, therefore, the structural quality of the resulting concrete structures difficult to guarantee. In this paper, according to the sensitivity of internal vibrators to vibration acceleration changes under different vibration media, the vibration signals of vibrators in air, concrete mixtures, and reinforced concrete mixtures were collected experimentally. Based on a deep learning algorithm for load recognition of rotating machinery, a multi-scale convolution neural network combined with a self-attention feature fusion mechanism (SE-MCNN) was proposed for medium attribute recognition of concrete vibrators. The model can accurately classify and identify vibrator vibration signals under different working conditions with a recognition accuracy of up to 97%. According to the classification results of the model, the continuous working times of vibrators in different media can be further statistically divided, which provides a new method for accurate quantitative evaluation of the quality of the concrete vibration process.

Atmospheric deposition contributed mostly to organophosphorus flame retardant entering into the Bohai Sea, China.

Atmospheric emission sources of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in China's eastern seaboard regions cause heavy POP contamination in the Bohai Sea (BS), China. Because many rivers are emptying into the BS, terrestrial runoff has been considered a dominant pathway of POPs onto the BS. Here, we explored the contribution of atmospheric transport and terrestrial runoff to organophosphorus flame retardants (OPFRs) to the BS by using an atmospheric transport model and a terrestrial runoff model. We examined the sensitivity and response of OPFR in the BS seawater to its atmospheric transport, deposition, and riverine discharge via terrestrial runoff. Both terrestrial runoff and atmospheric transport model simulations reveal that the atmospheric transport and deposition, including dry, wet, and diffusive gaseous deposition, dominate OPFR input into the BS. The total OPFR fluxes entering the BS via the atmospheric pathway and riverine input were 70.4 and 2.8 t/yr in 2013, respectively.

Effects of different dietary protein levels on intestinal aquaporins in weaned piglets.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between changes in intestinal aquaporins (AQPs) in piglets fed diets with different protein levels and nutritional diarrhoea in piglets. Briefly, 96 weaned piglets were randomly divided into four groups fed diets with crude protein (CP) levels of 18%, 20%, 22% and 24%. The small intestines and colons of the weaned piglets were collected, and several experiments were conducted. In the small intestine, AQP4 protein expression was higher in weaned piglets fed the higher-CP diets (22% and 24% CP) than in those fed the 20% CP diet except at 72 h (p < 0.01). At 72 h, the AQP4 protein expression in the small intestine was lower in the 18% group than in the other three groups (p < 0.01). Under 20% CP feeding, AQP2, AQP4 and AQP9 protein expression in the colons of piglets peaked at certain time points. The AQP2 and AQP4 mRNA levels in the colon and the AQP4 and AQP4 mRNA levels in the distal colon were approximately consistent with the protein expression levels. However, the AQP9 mRNA content in the colon was highest in the 18% group, and the AQP2 mRNA content in the distal colon was significantly higher in the 24% group than in the 20% group. AQP2 and AQP4 were expressed mainly around columnar cells in the upper part of the smooth colonic intestinal villi, and AQP9 was expressed mainly on columnar cells and goblet cells in the colonic mucosa. In conclusion, 20% CP is beneficial to the normal expression of AQP4 in the small intestine, AQP2, AQP4 and AQP9 in the colon of weaned piglets, which in turn maintains the balance of intestinal water absorption and secretion in piglets.

Effects of dietary protein level on small intestinal morphology, occludin protein, and bacterial diversity in weaned piglets.

Due to the physiological characteristics of piglets, the morphological structure and function of the small intestinal mucosa change after weaning, which easily leads to diarrhea in piglets. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of crude protein (CP) levels on small intestinal morphology, occludin protein expression, and intestinal bacteria diversity in weaned piglets. Ninety-six weaned piglets (25 days of age) were randomly divided into four groups and fed diets containing 18%, 20%, 22%, and 24% protein. At 6, 24, 48, 72, and 96 h, changes in mucosal morphological structure, occludin mRNA, and protein expression and in the localization of occludin in jejunal and ileal tissues were evaluated. At 6, 24, and 72 h, changes in bacterial diversity and number of the ileal and colonic contents were analyzed. Results showed that structures of the jejunum and the ileum of piglets in the 20% CP group were intact. The expression of occludin mRNA and protein in the small intestine of piglets in the 20% CP group were significantly higher than those in the other groups. As the CP level increased, the number of pathogens, such as Clostridium difficile and Escherichia coli, in the intestine increased, while the number of beneficial bacteria, such as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Roseburia, decreased. It is concluded that maintaining the CP level at 20% is beneficial to maintaining the small intestinal mucosal barrier and its absorption function, reducing the occurrence of diarrhea, and facilitating the growth and development of piglets.

Exploring the Peer Effect of Physicians' and Patients' Participation Behavior: Evidence from Online Health Communities.

BACKGROUND: Little research has studied the peer effect of physicians and patients in online health communities (OHCs) simultaneously. The study investigates the impact of the focal physician's peers (F-peers) on the focal physician (F-physician), and the impact of patients of the focal physician's peers (F-P-patients) on the focal physician's patients (F-patients). Moreover, based on brand extension and accessible-diagnosable theories, this study explores the moderating effects of the intensity of F-peers' knowledge sharing behavior and department reputation. METHODS: This study collects data of 3297 physicians and related patients from Haodf.com platform between January 2019 and December 2019. Both two-way fixed effect and panel negative binomial regression are adopted to quantify the effects. RESULTS: Results show that the behavior of F-peers positively affects the behavior of the F-physician, while the behavior of F-P-patients positively affects the behavior of F-patients. Moreover, both the intensity of F-peers' knowledge sharing behavior and department reputation have a compound moderating effect. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to the literature of peer effects by constructing the conceptual framework of different types of individual participation behaviors in OHCs. The findings offer practical guides for establishing an incentive mechanism and formulating peer incentives or competition strategies in OHCs.

Research progress on diarrhoea and its mechanism in weaned piglets fed a high-protein diet.

In order to pursue faster growth and development of weaned piglets, increased dietary protein (CP) levels were favoured by the pig industry and the feed industry. The digestive organs of piglets were not fully developed at weaning, and the digestive absorption capacity of protein was limited. High-protein diets can cause allergic reactions in piglets, destroy intestinal structural integrity, reduce immunity, and cause intestinal flora imbalance. Undigested proteins were prone to produce toxic substances, such as ammonia and biogenic amines, after fermentation in the hindgut, which negatively affects the health of the intestine and eventually causes reduced growth performance and diarrhoea in piglets. This review revealed the mechanism of diarrhoea caused by high-protein diets in weaned piglets and provided ideas for preventing diarrhoea in weaned piglets.

A Study on the Relationships between Water Film Thickness, Fresh Properties, and Mechanical Properties of Cement Paste Containing Superfine Basalt Powder (SB).

In this paper, the effect of a newly developed superfine basalt powder (SB) on the fresh and mechanical properties of cement paste was studied. The concept of water film thickness (WFT) was cited to explain the influence of SB on fresh and mechanical properties and related mathematical model formulas were established. In addition, the relationship between the fresh properties and mechanical properties of paste was also explored. The results indicated that SB can improve the segregation resistance and cohesiveness. The maximum improvement rate relative to the control cement paste was 75.4% and 50.4%, respectively. The 5% SB and 10% SB reduced the fluidity in the range of 4.1-68.7% but increased the early and late compressive strength in the range of 1.2-25.7% compared to control cement paste under different water/cementitious materials (W/CM) ratios. However, the influence of 20% SB on fluidity and compressive strength was opposite to the above behavior, and the increase rate and decrease rate were 1.8-11.8% and 1.1-13.9% respectively. The WFT was the most important factor that determined the compressive strength, rheological parameters, and flow parameters of paste containing SB, while the substitute content of SB and WFT together determined the bleeding rate and cohesiveness. Among them, the correlation between bleeding rate and WFT increased with time. The empirical mathematical models between WFT, fresh properties, and compressive strength were established and verified by other mineral admixtures, which were successfully extended and applied to the entire field of cement-based materials.