Background Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a widespread issue for feed and food safety, leading to animal and human health risks. The objective of this study was to determine whether ferroptosis is involved in DON-induced intestinal injury in piglets. Three groups of 21-day-old male weanling piglets (n = 7/group) were fed a control diet, or diet adding 1.0 or 3.0 mg DON/kg. At week 4, serum and small intestines were collected to assay for biochemistry, histology, redox status and ferroptosis-related genes expression. In addition, the involvement of ferroptosis and the role of FTL gene in DON-induced cell death were further verified in the IPEC-J2 cells. Results Compared to the control, dietary supplementation of DON at 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg induced different degrees of damage in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum, and increased (P < 0.05) serum lipopolysaccharide concentration by 46.2%–51.4%. Dietary DON supplementation at 1.0 and (or) 3.0 mg/kg increased (P < 0.05) concentrations of malondialdehyde (17.4%–86.5%) and protein carbonyl by 33.1%–92.3% in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum. In addition, dietary supplemented with DON upregulated (P < 0.05) ferroptotic gene (DMT1) and anti-ferroptotic genes (FTL and FTH1), while downregulated (P < 0.05) anti-ferroptotic genes (FPN, FSP1 and CISD1) in the duodenum of the porcine. Furthermore, the in vitro study has demonstrated that deferiprone, a potent ferroptotic inhibitor, mitigated (P < 0.05) DON-induced cytotoxicity in porcine small intestinal IPEC-J2 cells. Additionally, deferiprone prevented or alleviated (P < 0.05) the dysregulation of ferroptosis-related genes (ACSL4 and FTL) by DON in IPEC-J2 cells. Moreover, specific siRNA knockdown FTL gene expression compromised the DON-induced cell death in IPEC-J2 cells. Conclusions In conclusion, this study revealed that ferroptosis is involved in DON-induced intestinal damage in porcine, and sheds a new light on the toxicity of DON to piglets.

This paper aims to study the dynamic mechanical properties, failure patterns, fractal behaviors, and energy dissipation of polypropylene fiber-reinforced cement soil under impact loading. Dynamic compression tests for reinforced cement soil with different polypropylene fiber contents of 0%, 0.4%, 0.8%, and 1.2% were conducted using a 50 mm diameter split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) device. The static and dynamic stress-strain curves, dynamic strength increase factor (DIF), fractal behaviors, and energy dissipation properties of polypropylene fiber-reinforced cement soil were investigated and analyzed. The experimental results indicated that the dynamic strength increase factor (DIF) of cement soil increases firstly and then decreases with the increase of polypropylene fiber content from 0% to 1.2%. The maximum dynamic compressive strength of cement soil was obtained with adding 0.8% polypropylene fiber. With the increase of polypropylene fiber content, the average particle size of cement soil fragments has an increasing trend, whereas the fractal dimension presents a decreasing trend. Besides, the fragmentation degree of cement soil decreases correspondingly with the increase of polypropylene fiber content. The fractal dimension value has a linear relationship with the polypropylene fiber content and a decreasing exponential relationship with the average particle size. The absorbed energy per unit volume of cement soil presents an increasing trend firstly and a decreasing trend subsequently as the polypropylene fiber content increases from 0% to 1.2%. When the fractal dimension of cement soil is kept in the range of 2.04 to 2.15, the absorbed energy per unit volume of cement soil increases first and then decreases. The absorbed energy per unit volume of cement soil has a quadratic parabola relationship with polypropylene fiber content and fractal dimension, respectively. At last, the relationship of the absorbed energy per unit volume, fractal dimension, and polypropylene fiber content can be established, which can be used in the studies of dynamic behaviors and fractal properties of the fiber-reinforced cement soil under impact loading.

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Comparing with the traditional construction process, 3D printing technology used in construction offers many advantages due to the elimination of formwork. Currently, 3D printing technology used in the construction field is widely studied, however, limited studies are available on the dynamic properties of 3D printed materials. In this study, the effects of sand to binder ratios and printing directions on the fractal characteristics, dynamic compressive strength, and energy dissipation density of 3D printed cement mortar (3DPCM) are explored. The experiment results indicate that the printing direction has a more significant influence on the fractal dimension compared with the sand to binder ratio (S/B). The increasing S/B first causes an increase and then results in a decline in the dynamic compressive strength and energy dissipation of different printing directions. The anisotropic coefficient of 3DPCM first is decreased by 20.67%, then is increased by 10.56% as the S/B increases from 0.8 to 1.4, showing that the anisotropy is first mitigated, then increased. For the same case of S/B, the dynamic compressive strength and energy dissipation are strongly dependent on the printing direction, which are the largest printing in the Y-direction and the smallest printing in the X-direction. Moreover, the fractal dimension has certain relationships with the dynamic compressive strength and energy dissipation density. When the fractal dimension changes from 2.0 to 2.4, it shows a quadratic relationship with the dynamic compressive strength and a logarithmic relationship with the energy dissipation density in different printing directions. Finally, the printing mortar with an S/B = 1.1 is proved to have the best dynamic properties, and is selected for the 3D printing of the designed field barrack model.

An orthogonal set of experiments was performed on common shotcrete, where the coarse and fine aggregates were substituted with ceramsite and pottery sand, while basalt and plant fibers were also added. The influence of ceramsite, pottery sand, basalt fiber, and plant fiber on the mechanical properties and thermal conductivity of shotcrete was investigated, and the relevant mechanisms were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the admixtures formed a stable state in the concrete matrix when the coarse and fine aggregates were substituted by 5 mass% of ceramsite and 10 mass% of pottery sand, respectively, and with 0.15 and 0.2 vol.% basalt fiber and plant fiber, respectively. At this point, the cement hydration was normal, and the strength of the concrete was relatively higher than other groups. The ceramsite and pottery sand formed a uniformly distributed porous structure in the concrete matrix, thereby reducing the thermal conductivity of the concrete.