Yue Kang

Background: In addition to the COVID-19 waves, the globe is recently facing global monkeypox (MPX) outbreak. As the daily confirmed cases of MPX infection across epidemic and nonepidemic countries are increasing, taking measures to control global pandemic remains crucial. Therefore, this review aimed to provide fundamental knowledge for the prevention and control of future outbreaks of this emerging epidemic. Methods: The review was conducted using PubMed and Google Scholar databases; the search terms used were “monkeypox,” “MPX tropism,” “replication signaling of MPX,” “biology and pathogenicity of MPX,” “diagnosis of MPX,” “treatment of MPX,” “prevention of MPX,” etc. The update epidemic data were collected from the websites of the World Health Organization (WHO), United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ADCC). High-quality research results published in authoritative journals were summarized and preferred cited. Excluding all duplicates, non-English published references, and irrelevant literature, totally 1,436 articles were assessed for eligibility. Results: It is still difficult to diagnose the patient as MPX simply based on clinical manifestations; therefore, under this situation, employing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to provide confirmed evidence for the diagnosis of MPX seems to be the preferred and indispensable strategy. The treatment approach for MPX infection is mainly symptomatic and supportive; anti-smallpox virus drugs including tecovirimat, cidofovir, and brincidofovir can be employed in severe cases. Timely identification and isolation of confirmed cases, cutting off dissemination routes, and vaccination of close contacts are effective measures to control MPX. Also, smallpox vaccines (JYNNEOS, LC16m8, and ACAM2000) can be under consideration due to their immunological cross-protection among Orthopoxvirus. Nevertheless, given the low quality and scarcity of relevant evidence of current antiviral drugs and vaccines, deeply seeking for the MAPK/ERK, PAK-1, PI3K/Akt signaling, and other pathways involved in MPX invasion may provide potential targets for the treatment, prevention, and control of the epidemic. Conclusions: In response to the current MPX epidemic, the development of vaccines and antiviral drugs against MPX, as well as the rapid and precise diagnostic methods are still urgently needed. Sound monitoring and detection systems should be established to limit the rapid spread of MPX worldwide.

In the iron-ore-sintering process, the use of biomass charcoal instead of coke breeze can reduce the emission of flue gas pollutants and alleviate the energy crisis of fossil fuels. However, the direct application of biomass charcoal to iron ore sintering is bound to affect the sinter properties. The effects of biomass charcoal addition on the sintering ore properties and flue gas pollutants emission were studied through sintering cup and related performance test experiments. Meanwhile, the influence mechanism of biomass charcoal instead of coke breeze on iron ore sintering was expounded. The experimental results show that with an increase in biomass charcoal, the vertical sintering rate increased, the internal pore structure developed rapidly, and the pollutant emission decreased gradually. When the biomass charcoal content was less than 40%, the sinter strength and yield were stable and slightly improved with the increase in biomass charcoal. When the biomass charcoal content was higher than 40%, the metallurgical properties of sinter degraded sharply, making it difficult to meet the production requirements. The comprehensive effect of biomass charcoal on the sinter suggests that the suitable biomass charcoal addition was 40%; under this condition, the reduction in SO₂ and NO_x was 28.2% and 25.7%, respectively.

Most of the air pollutants in the steel industry come from the sintering process, and the air pollutants produced by the sintering process mainly come from the sinter fuel (coke breeze). The S and N content of biomass fuel is low; therefore, biomass fuel is used instead of coke breeze for sintering to reduce the emission of the sinter flue gas pollutants. However, the use of biomass fuel reduces the sintering layer temperature, which results in the deterioration of the sinter properties. In order to ensure the quality of sintering base on biomass fuel, the thermodynamic calculation and related experiments were carried out, the effects of different basicity, MgO and Al₂O₃ content on the formation of low melting point minerals in sintered mixture were studied, and the suitable composition of sintered mixture was determined in this paper, so as to reduce the liquid phase formation temperature of sinter and increase in biomass fuel addition, which provided theoretical support for the application of biomass fuel in sintering. Experimental results indicate that the suitable conditions for the low-temperature sintering were a basicity of 2.0, and MgO and Al₂O₃ contents of 1.0% and 1.8%, respectively. Under this condition, more biomass fuel can be used to replace coke breeze, and the emission of flue gas pollutants can be greatly reduced.

High content amorphous phase blast furnace slag beads were prepared by gas quenching blast furnace slag (BFS), which could not only avoid a series of environmental problems caused by traditional water quenching methods, but also significantly increase the added value of BFS subsequent products. In this paper, the granulation mechanism of BFS and the amorphous phase formation mechanism of slag beads were studied by combining the physical properties of BFS and the granulation effect. The results showed that the viscosity of BFS decreased with the increase of basicity; the bigger the basicity, the higher the bead formation rate, the smaller the particle size and the more regular the slag shape. The smaller the basicity, the greater the crystallization activation energy and the smaller the Avrami exponent, which indicated that the crystal was more difficult to nucleate and grow. The increase of the cooling rate could effectively inhibit crystal precipitation. Therefore, the high basicity and cooling rate could not only guarantee the high bead formation rate of BFS, but also ensure the high content amorphous phase of slag beads.

Slag beads with different crystal content could be obtained through the gas quenching blast furnace slag (BFS) process. In order to increase the additional value of the slag beads as much as possible, it was necessary to restrain the crystallization of the slag beads as much as possible. In this paper, the mineral types and crystallization temperatures of BFS with different basicities and cooling rates were studied by using Factsage thermodynamic software, XRD, and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) experiments, which obtained the gas quenching temperature and the cooling rate needed to restrain crystallization behavior in the gas quenching process; The crystallization mechanism was studied by calculating crystallization activation energy (Ec) using the DSC experiment, at the same time, the thermodynamic results were verified. The proper basicity and cooling rate of BFS were found to be conducive to the preparation of amorphous slag beads. The results showed that the initial crystallization temperature decreased with decreasing the basicity and increasing the cooling rate, which could increase the amorphous content of slag beads in the gas quenching process. The crystallization activation energy (Ec) increased with decreasing basicity, which increased the crystallization barrier.