BackgroundViral hepatitis, mainly hepatitis B and C, is a serious public health problem worldwide. In China, the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains high, while that of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is controversial. This study investigated the epidemiology of HBV and HCV infections and assessed the beneficial effect of the vaccination strategy for hepatitis B in Northeastern China.MethodsFrom June 2016 to August 2016, 6541 residents of Changchun in Northeastern China were recruited for this cross-sectional study. Demographic characteristics as well as HBV and HCV serological test results were reviewed and analyzed.ResultsAmong all study participants, 3.8% and 0.36% tested positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-HCV, respectively. The HBsAg- and anti-HCV-positive rates were significantly higher in male participants (4.58% and 0.43%) than in female individuals (3.0% and 0.33%). Notably, among all age groups, the lowest rate of HBsAg positivity (0.2%) was found in children born after the implementation of the vaccination strategy for hepatitis B. Conversely, participants aged 40–49 years had significantly greater positive rates of HBsAg (5.9%) compared with those of other age groups. Furthermore, the highest rates of anti-HCV positivity (1.1%) were observed in participants aged 50–59 years.ConclusionsThe rate of HBsAg-positivity declined significantly following successful implementation of the policy on hepatitis B vaccination, indicating a beneficial impact on the control of HBV infection. However, only a slight decrease was observed in the anti-HCV–positivity rate, identifying an area in need of improvement within viral hepatitis prevention and control programs in China.

Activated carbon has been used to treat organic dyes in water systems; however, the adsorption capacity of the samples studied was limited by the specific surface area and influenced by the pH of the aqueous solution. In this study, a hybrid adsorbent consisting of a mixture (MCS) of activated chestnut shell biochar (CN) and pyrolyzed snail shell material (SS) was developed to solve this problem, with the waste snail shell samples being processed by pyrolysis and the chestnut shell samples chemically pretreated and then pyrolyzed. The BET and SEM results revealed that the SS had a mesoporous fluffy structure with a higher specific surface (1705 m2/g) and an average pore diameter of about 4.07 nm, providing a large number of sites for adsorption. In addition, XPS and FTIR results showed that the main component of SS was calcium oxide, and it also contained a certain amount of calcium carbonate, which not only provided an alkaline environment for the adsorption of biochar but also degradation and photocatalytic capabilities. The results showed that the MCS3-1 sample, obtained when CN and SS were mixed in the ratio of 3:1, had good capacity for adsorption for methylene blue (MB), with 1145 mg/g at an initial concentration of 1300 mg/L (92% removal rate). The adsorption behaviors were fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm model, which indicated that the adsorption was multilayer chemisorption with a saturated adsorption capacity of 1635 mg/g. The photocatalytic capacity from the SS composition was about 89 mg/g, and the sorption of MB dye onto the sorbent reached equilibrium after 300 min. The results suggested that MCS3-1 has enormous potential for removing MB from wastewater.

Crack growth mechanism of styrene-butadiene rubber influenced by silica nanoparticles.

In this work, the silane coupling agent bis-(triethoxysilylpropyl) -tetrasulfide (TESPT) is used to modify the carbon nanotubes. After modification, carbon nanotubes can be well dispersed in the natural rubber (NR) matrix and form a strong and flexible network. Based on the original real-time crack tip morphology monitoring, crack propagation and scanning electronic microscopy tests, it is revealed that modified carbon nanotubes filled NR samples (NR/F-CNTs) have better crack resistance. It is found that modified carbon nanotubes can resist the cavitation process during cyclic loading. Crack tip morphology monitoring tests indicate that the crack tip of NR/F-CNTs is rougher and the ligaments are thinner and densely distributed. A crack branching phenomenon is also observed. It proves that F-CNTs increase the energy consumption of NR during cyclic loading. It is concluded that the F-CNTs used in this work improve the crack resistance of NR in two ways: the one is cavitation resistance and the other is the increase of energy consumption for crack propagation.

In the present work, functionalized liquid isoprene rubber (FLIR) was used to improve the filler dispersion and filler-rubber interaction in the silica filled natural rubber system. By the infrared spectra and scanning electron microscopy, it was proved that the FLIR was successfully grafted on the silica and the functionalized silica was dispersed in the NR matrix homogeneously. Based on the real-time crack tip morphology monitoring method, the influence of FLIR on the crack growth behavior of NR filled with silica was analyzed. By the adding of FLIR, the crack resistance of the natural rubber embedded with functionalized silica is remarkably increased. When the weight ratio of FLIR to silica is 3:10, the NR composite has the best crack resistance. V C 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 42972.