Preparation of a Green Sustained-Release Microcapsule-Type Anti-Icing Agent for Asphalt Pavement and Its Application Demonstration Project.

Salt-storage additives (SSAs) were added to the asphalt mixtures during the construction stage, and the formed anti-icing asphalt pavement (AIAP) played an active and smart role in continuous snow melting, which could avoid traffic accidents and provide positive support for winter road maintenance in cold areas. In this study, a novel and economical green sustained-release microcapsule salt-storage anti-icing agent was prepared by using solid waste porous sustained-release skeleton loading organic acetate salt as the core material and styrene-acrylic-acrylate copolymer P(AA-MA-BA-St) as the wall material, which have less corrosiveness and extended the release time. By comparing the physical properties of different solid waste porous carriers and corrosion inhibitors, the blast furnace slag and NaHCO3 were selected as the sustained-release skeleton and corrosion inhibitors. The optimal conditions of the synthesis of vesicle wall materials were investigated: 3.8 wt % acrylic acid polymerized at 110 °C with 3 wt % AIBN and for 3.5 h, and the relative ice-snow melting capacity of the prepared sustained-release microcapsule-type anti-icing agent (SMAA) product was 90.8%. The best proportion of the SMAA used to replace a part of the equal mass of mineral powder in the SMA-13 asphalt mixtures was 5.5 wt %, and it could satisfy the requirements of road performance. Moreover, we applied the SMAA product to the 5 cm thick surface layer of SMA-13 of the section K64 + 992 ∼ K65 + 193.641 over the main line ramp at the Sizhuang Toll Station of Beijing-Xiong'an highways to construct AIAP. Compared with adjacent sections of the road without SMAA in winter snowfall, the pilot test section has a very good melting effect. This study contributes to the development of long-acting environment-friendly materials for SSAs to reduce the cost of winter road maintenance, and the obtained product has very promising prospects for practical applications.

Multifacet echelle grating for intensity broadening on spectral plane fabricated by rotating ion-beam etching.

This paper describes a new type of multifacet echelle grating (MFEG) for use in an echelle spectrometer. This new type of echelle grating broadens the spectral distribution on the spectral plane. We built a geometric model of MFEG to analyze the influence of the blaze angle and number of facet shapes on the spectral evolution. A dual-facet echelle grating and a four-facet echelle grating with different parameters were fabricated by rotating ion-beam etching with a self-shadowing rotating mask, based on the existing single-facet echelle grating (SFEG) with a line density of 52.7 g/mm and a blaze angle of 63.5°. The distributions of diffraction efficiency for different orders were measured with a He-Ne laser (632.8 nm); furthermore, these echelle gratings were applied in an echelle spectrometer (ICP-OES, Plasma2000), and testing spectra were obtained. The experimental results demonstrate that the MFEG can broaden the intensity distribution on the spectral plane, overcoming the weak spectral margin signal of SFEG spectrometers.

Threonine and tryptophan supplementation enhance porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome (PRRS) vaccine-induced immune responses of growing pigs.

The aim of the present study was to investigate influences of threonine and tryptophan supplementation (TTS) on immune response of growing pigs inoculated with modified live porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) vaccine. Twenty growing barrows (Landrace × Yorkshire) were randomly assigned to four groups according to the PRRS vaccination and TTS. Serum samples were collected from all pigs at days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49 post-vaccination (day 0 defined as the day of vaccination). Pigs were euthanized and samples collected at day 49 post-vaccination. The results showed that TTS tended to increase weight gain and average daily gain (ADG) of pigs (P < 0.1). PRRS vaccine enhanced serum PRRSV-specific antibody, serum virus neutralizing (SVN) antibody and interferon-γ, interleukin (IL)-10 and IL-1ß concentrations (P < 0.05). The expression of TLR3 and TLR7 mRNA in lymph nodes were higher in TTS than in the control group after PRRS vaccine inoculation (P < 0.05). TTS diet mitigated lung damage which is induced by PRRS vaccination from microscopic evaluation. These results suggest that dietary TTS could improve growth performance of growing pigs, which may be ascribed to the improved immune response and mitigated lung damage.

Effects of dietary threonine and tryptophan supplementation on growing pigs induced by porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome vaccination.

A total of 32 growing pigs were used in a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments with two different diets (conventional [CON] diet vs. threonine [Thr]- and tryptophan [Trp]-rich [TTR] diet) and two immunological challenge regimens (porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome [PRRS] vaccine vs. phosphate buffer solution [PBS]) to study the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with Trp and Thr would benefit for growing pigs vaccinated with PRRS vaccine. After feeding the experimental diets for 21 d, the pigs were intramuscularly vaccinated with PRRS or PBS. Performance data were recorded over a period of 10 weeks and are presented for the pre-challenge period (3 weeks) and the challenge period (7 weeks, where on day 1, pigs were immunologically challenged). During the pre-challenge period, the growth performance was not different between dietary treatments. PRRS vaccination resulted in increased rectal temperature and decreased feed intake and growth rate (p < 0.05). In PRRS-vaccinated pigs, diet TTR enhanced the feed intake, especially during the first 2 weeks after the PRRS vaccination compared with diet CON (p < 0.05). PRRS vaccination also resulted in increased plasma concentration of urea nitrogen, essential and non-essential amino acids (p < 0.05) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus specific antibodies (p < 0.05), but decreased concentration of immunoproteins including alpha-1-acylglycoprotein and immunoglobulin G (p < 0.05). The alleviation of the PRRS vaccination induced decrease in feed intake and growth rate by Thr and Trp supplementation, indicating that the PRRS-vaccinated pigs had a higher Thr and Trp requirement than non-vaccinated pigs.