Fast-developing social networking sites (SNS) have become the major media by which people develop their personal network online in recent years. To explore factors affecting user’s joining SNS, this ...study applies network externalities and motivation theory to explain why people continue to join SNS. This study used an online questionnaire to conduct empirical research, and collected and analyzed data of 402 samples by structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The findings show that enjoyment is the most influential factor in people’s continued use of SNS, followed by number of peers, and usefulness. The number of peers and perceived complementarity have stronger influence than the number of members on perceived benefits (usefulness and enjoyment). This work also ran clustering analysis by gender, which found notable difference in both number of peers and number of members between men and women. The number of peers is an important factor affecting the continued intention to use for women but not for men; the number of members has no significant effect on enjoyment for men. The findings suggest that gender difference also produces different influences. The implication of research and discussions provides reference for SNS operators in marketing and operation.
Microplastics (MPs) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) coexist widely in farmland soils, but the fate and abundance of ARGs on MPs is rarely explored. In this study, high-throughput fluorescent ...quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to determine ARGs on MPs in facility vegetable soil. The results indicated that when the particle size of the MPs was larger, the weathering was more serious, or the MPs came from soils with a long vegetable cultivation period, the levels of antibiotics and heavy metals on the MPs were higher. The distribution of the detected ARGs types on distinct MPs showed changes. Compared with weakly weathered MPs, the detected beta lactamase and aminoglycoside resistance genes on strongly weathered MPs were decreased by 2.6% and 1.7%, while the detected sul-ARGs and Macrolide-Lincosamide-Streptogramin B (MLSB) resistance genes were increased by 1.5% and 2.8%. Compared with smaller MPs, the detected MLSB and vancomycin resistance genes on larger MPs were decreased by 2.0% and 1.4%, while the detected fluoroquinolone, quinolone, florfenicol, chloramphenicol, and amphenicol (FCA) resistance genes and sul-ARGs were increased by 1.2% and 1.0%. Compared with MPs in soil after three years of vegetable cultivation, the detected FCA resistance genes and sul-ARGs on MPs in soil after ten years of vegetable cultivation were decreased by 1.3% and 1.6%, while the detected beta lactamase and aminoglycoside resistance genes were increased by 1.0% and 1.7%. This study suggests that MPs with larger size, stronger weathering or from soil after long-term vegetable cultivation adsorb more antibiotics and heavy metals and cause more mobile genetic elements, which can contribute to antibiotic resistance on the MPs.
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•ARG abundance on larger MPs was higher than on smaller MPs by increasing 98.8%–154.4%•ARG abundance on strongly weathered MPs exceeded weakly weathered MPs by 0–45.7%•ARG abundance on MPs after 10 planting years exceeded 3 planting years by 25%–148%
An increasing number of industries remove toluene from flue gas by the existing NH3-selective catalytic reduction (NH3-SCR) units. A thorough probe into the impact of NOx and NH3 addition on toluene ...oxidation is imperative but still lacks a unified understanding. In this work, NH3-SCR reactants are found to inhibit the toluene oxidation process over the MnOx-CeO2 catalyst below 200 °C. The competitive adsorption between NH3-SCR reactants and toluene, the NO2 adsorption state, and carbon deposition are emphasized to play important roles in this deactivation. Within the NO2 adsorption states, only the adsorbed NO2 can enhance the toluene oxidation. The formed nitrate species (NO3-) on the surface is inactive. NO2 adsorption is the weakest among the reactants with the smallest adsorption energy of −0.42 eV, restricting its promotion on toluene oxidation. NO and N2O are both demonstrated to be inefficient to oxidize toluene. Meanwhile, MnOx-CeO2 catalyst suffers from serious acetonitrile and benzonitrile poisoning. The amount of nitrile species accounts for ~95% of total carbon deposition, while no simple substance carbon (C) can be generated from CO disproportionation. Special care should be considered towards the formation of environmentally hazardous benzamide in the off-gas from the simultaneous NOx and toluene removal process.
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•NH3-SCR gas inhibits the toluene oxidation process over MnOx-CeO2 catalyst.•Toluene competitively adsorbs with NH3-SCR reactants.•The formed nitrate species is inactive for toluene oxidation.•Nitrile species block the active sites on the catalyst surface.•Environmentally hazardous benzamide is generated in the off-gas.
Rechargeable aqueous sodium ion batteries (ASIBs) are rising as an important alternative to lithium ion batteries, owing to their safety and low cost. Metal anodes show a high theoretical capacity ...and nonselective hydrated ion insertion for ASIBs, yet their large volume expansion and sluggish reaction kinetics resulted in poor electrochemical stability. Herein, we demonstrate an electrode cyclability enhancement mechanism by inlaying bismuth (Bi) nanoparticles on graphene nanosheets through chemical bond, which is achieved by a unique laser induced compounding method. This anchored metal‐graphene heterostructure can effectively mitigate volume variation, and accelerate the kinetic capability as the active Bi can be exposed to the electrolyte. Our method can achieve a reversible capacity of 122 mAh g−1 at a large current density of 4 A g−1 for over 9500 cycles. This finding offers a desirable structural design of other metal anodes for aqueous energy storage systems.
Reinforcing bismuth nanoparticles on laser‐induced graphene nanosheets were introduced for an electrically rechargeable aqueous sodium‐ion battery for the first time, which could achieve long‐term operation stability based on a chemical anchoring effect.
COVID-19 booster dose vaccination has been crucial in ensuring protection against COVID-19 including recently predominant Omicron variants. Because vaccines against newer SARS-CoV- 2 variants are ...likely to be recommended in future, it will be valuable to understand past booster dose uptake among different demographic groups. Using U.S. vaccination data, this study examined intervals between primary series completion and receipt of first booster dose (monovalent or bivalent) during August 2021 - October 2022 among persons ≥12 years of age who had completed a COVID-19 vaccine primary series by October 2021. Sub-populations who were late booster recipients (received a booster dose ≥12 months after the primary series) or received no booster dose included persons <35 years old, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine primary dose recipients, persons in certain racial and ethnic groups, and persons living in rural and more socially vulnerable areas, and in the South region of the United States; these groups may benefit the most from public health outreach efforts to achieve timely COVID-19 vaccination completion in future.
The long-term health consequences of COVID-19 remain largely unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the long-term health consequences of patients with COVID-19 who have been discharged from ...hospital and investigate the associated risk factors, in particular disease severity.
We did an ambidirectional cohort study of patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital (Wuhan, China) between Jan 7, 2020, and May 29, 2020. Patients who died before follow-up, patients for whom follow-up would be difficult because of psychotic disorders, dementia, or re-admission to hospital, those who were unable to move freely due to concomitant osteoarthropathy or immobile before or after discharge due to diseases such as stroke or pulmonary embolism, those who declined to participate, those who could not be contacted, and those living outside of Wuhan or in nursing or welfare homes were all excluded. All patients were interviewed with a series of questionnaires for evaluation of symptoms and health-related quality of life, underwent physical examinations and a 6-min walking test, and received blood tests. A stratified sampling procedure was used to sample patients according to their highest seven-category scale during their hospital stay as 3, 4, and 5-6, to receive pulmonary function test, high resolution CT of the chest, and ultrasonography. Enrolled patients who had participated in the Lopinavir Trial for Suppression of SARS-CoV-2 in China received severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 antibody tests. Multivariable adjusted linear or logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between disease severity and long-term health consequences.
In total, 1733 of 2469 discharged patients with COVID-19 were enrolled after 736 were excluded. Patients had a median age of 57·0 (IQR 47·0-65·0) years and 897 (52%) were men. The follow-up study was done from June 16, to Sept 3, 2020, and the median follow-up time after symptom onset was 186·0 (175·0-199·0) days. Fatigue or muscle weakness (63%, 1038 of 1655) and sleep difficulties (26%, 437 of 1655) were the most common symptoms. Anxiety or depression was reported among 23% (367 of 1617) of patients. The proportions of median 6-min walking distance less than the lower limit of the normal range were 24% for those at severity scale 3, 22% for severity scale 4, and 29% for severity scale 5-6. The corresponding proportions of patients with diffusion impairment were 22% for severity scale 3, 29% for scale 4, and 56% for scale 5-6, and median CT scores were 3·0 (IQR 2·0-5·0) for severity scale 3, 4·0 (3·0-5·0) for scale 4, and 5·0 (4·0-6·0) for scale 5-6. After multivariable adjustment, patients showed an odds ratio (OR) 1·61 (95% CI 0·80-3·25) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 4·60 (1·85-11·48) for scale 5-6 versus scale 3 for diffusion impairment; OR 0·88 (0·66-1·17) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and OR 1·77 (1·05-2·97) for scale 5-6 versus scale 3 for anxiety or depression, and OR 0·74 (0·58-0·96) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 2·69 (1·46-4·96) for scale 5-6 versus scale 3 for fatigue or muscle weakness. Of 94 patients with blood antibodies tested at follow-up, the seropositivity (96·2% vs 58·5%) and median titres (19·0 vs 10·0) of the neutralising antibodies were significantly lower compared with at the acute phase. 107 of 822 participants without acute kidney injury and with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 90 mL/min per 1·73 m
or more at acute phase had eGFR less than 90 mL/min per 1·73 m
at follow-up.
At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Patients who were more severely ill during their hospital stay had more severe impaired pulmonary diffusion capacities and abnormal chest imaging manifestations, and are the main target population for intervention of long-term recovery.
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Major Projects of National Science and Technology on New Drug Creation and Development of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and Peking Union Medical College Foundation.
Silkworms,
Bombyx mori
,
are a promising model animal in health safety and environmental pollution assessment due to their sensitivity to chemical compounds like pesticides, drugs,
and
heavy metals, ...in addition to other features like their low cost and body characteristics and their full genome sequencing. In this review, we summarize the silkworm advantages as a model organism in toxicological research.
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Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) is a kind of multi-functional nuclear transcription factor involved in regulating gene transcription to influence pathological evolution of inflammatory and immune ...diseases. Numerous literature evidence that NF-κB pathway plays an essential role in pathogenic development of ulcerative colitis (UC). UC is a chronic non-specific inflammatory bowel disease, and until now, therapeutic agents for UC including aminosalicylates, corticosteroids and immune inhibitors still cannot exert satisfied effects on patients. In recent years, Chinese medicines suggest the advantages of alleviating symptoms and signs, decreasing side-effects and recurrence, whose one of mechanisms is related to regulation of NF-κB pathway. In this review, we categorize Chinese medicines according to their traditional therapeutic functions, and summarize the characteristics of Chinese medicines targeting NF-κB pathway in UC treatment. It indicates that 85 kinds of Chinese medicines' compounds and formulae can directly act on NF-κBp65; while 58 Chinese medicines' ingredients and formulae indirectly suppress NF-κBp65 by regulation of its upstream or other related pathways. Moreover, by the analysis of Chinese medicines' category based on their traditional functions, we conclude the category of dampness-drying and detoxificating medicine targeting NF-κB pathway accounts for primary status for amelioration of UC. Simultaneously, this review also contributes to the choices of Chinese medicine category and provides curative potential of Chinese medicines for clinical UC treatment.
Ecological environment quality and resilience assessment is an important prerequisite for ensuring the coordination and stability of socio-economic development and eco-environment protection. Remote ...sensing technology has provided new approaches for quantitatively evaluating regional ecological environment quality and resilience rapidly, accurately, and objectively. Taking the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREBML) as an example, to assess ecological environment quality, this study calculated the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI) based on the Google Earth Engine using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data with a spatial resolution of 500 m during 2000–2020. An evaluation index to assess ecological resilience and its spatial pattern based on the RSEI of 2000–2020 was then constructed. The evaluation index was constructed from two dimensions, including the sensitivity and adaptability of the RSEI. Finally, this study identified key factors that affect ecological residence based on a structural equation model. The results showed that the overall RSEI was at moderate and good levels in the YREBML during 2000–2020, accounting for more than 85% of the total area. Its spatial characteristics showed that the RSEI was higher in the middle reaches than in the lower reaches of the YREB, and higher in the south than in the north. The overall RSEI in the YREBML showed a decreasing trend during 2000–2020, with 54.36% of the region improving and 45.64% declining. Areas with declining RSEI were concentrated in Anhui, while the increasing RSEI was observed in Zhejiang. In addition, the spatial pattern of ecological resilience was characterized by high resilience in the north and east, and low resilience in the south and west. High resilience areas accounted for 40.48% of the YREBML, mainly contributed by Jiangxi and Hunan provinces. The driving factors analysis results indicated that economic development, natural disaster risk, and environmental pollution would further affect ecological resilience of urban systems. This study provides more scientific and effective data support for ecological environment monitoring and governance.
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