[Occurrence Characteristic and Risk Assessment of Microplastics in Sishui River (Xingyang Section)].

Urban rivers are the main receptors and transporters of microplastic pollution. Understanding the occurrence and environmental risk of microplastics in urban rivers can provide theoretical basis for further control of microplastic pollution. The Sishui River, a tributary of the Yellow River, was selected as the research object. A total of nine water samples were collected from sewage outlets of the Sishui River (Xingyang section). The microplastics in the collected samples were characterized by their sizes, shapes, and colors using a microscope. It was found that microplastics were mostly in the form of transparent fibers and fragments in the water body of sewage outlets, of which the size below 500 µm was relatively high. In addition, PET and PE polymers were identified as the main types using a laser infrared imager. The correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the PET and PE, indicating that they were similar in origin. The results of the environmental risk assessment showed that the type of microplastics was the main factor affecting the assessment results, whereas the risk values of six sewage samples containing PVC were high. However, the value of pollution load index revealed a low risk level of pollutants in the study area.

[Chinese medicine dispensing granules: history, status quo, and development prospect in "post-pilot era"].

Chinese medicine dispensing granules, the result of the efforts to transform Chinese medicinal decoction pieces in China, features portability and ease of storage. Thus, it is destined to be an indispensible dosage form in the modernization drive of Chinese medicine. The Announcement on Ending the Pilot Project of Chinese Medicine Dispensing Granules was released in February 2021 and relevant regulations went into force in November 2021, which marks the a new journey for the development of Chinese medicine dispensing granules and the beginning of the "post-pilot era". However, it faces the challenges in quality and standard. This study reviewed the history of Chinese medicine dispensing granules, analyzed the technical progress, market, and main problems in development, and proposed suggestions and prospects for its development in the "post-pilot era", which is expected to serve as a reference for its industry development and rational use.

Accuracy Assessment of GW Starting Points for Calculating Molecular Excitation Energies Using the Bethe-Salpeter Formalism.

The performance of the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) approach for the first-principles computation of singlet and triplet excitation energies of small organic, closed-shell molecules has been assessed with respect to the quasiparticle energies used on input, obtained at various levels of GW theory. In the corresponding GW computations, quasiparticle energies have been computed for all orbital levels by means of using full spectral functions. The assessment reveals that, for valence excited states, quasiparticle energies obtained at the levels of eigenvalue-only self-consistent (ev GW) or quasiparticle self-consistent theory (qs GW) are required to obtain results of comparable accuracy as in time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) using a hybrid functional such as PBE0. In contrast to TDDFT, however, the BSE approach performs well not only for valence excited states but also for excited states with Rydberg or charge-transfer character. To demonstrate the applicability of the BSE approach, computation times are reported for a set of aromatic hydrocarbons. Furthermore, examples of computations of ordinary photoabsorption and electronic circular dichroism spectra are presented for (C60)2 and C84, respectively.