At the end of December 2019, a novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, caused an outbreak of pneumonia spreading from Wuhan, Hubei province, to the whole country of China, which has posed great threats to ...public health and attracted enormous attention around the world. To date, there are no clinically approved vaccines or antiviral drugs available for these human coronavirus infections. Intensive research on the novel emerging human infectious coronaviruses is urgently needed to elucidate their route of transmission and pathogenic mechanisms, and to identify potential drug targets, which would promote the development of effective preventive and therapeutic countermeasures. Herein, we describe the epidemic and etiological characteristics of 2019-nCoV, discuss its essential biological features, including tropism and receptor usage, summarize approaches for disease prevention and treatment, and speculate on the transmission route of 2019-nCoV.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Identifying effective means to improve the electrochemical performance of oxygen‐evolution catalysts represents a significant challenge in several emerging renewable energy technologies. Herein, we ...consider metal–nitrogen–carbon sheets which are commonly used for catalyzing the oxygen‐reduction reaction (ORR), as the support to load NiO nanoparticles for the oxygen‐evolution reaction (OER). FeNC sheets, as the advanced supports, synergistically promote the NiO nanocatalysts to exhibit superior performance in alkaline media, which is confirmed by experimental observations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Our findings show the advantages in considering the support effect for designing highly active, durable, and cost‐effective OER electrocatalysts.
Sitting on the FeNC: Metal–nitrogen–carbon sheets are used as the supports for metal oxide catalysts for the oxygen‐evolution reaction (OER). Iron–nitrogen–carbon (FeNC) sheets loaded with NiO nanoparticles give superior performance in alkaline media. The improved performance originates from a synergistic effect between the FeNC sheets and NiO.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The active sites for CO
electroreduction (CO
R) to multi-carbon (C
) products over oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) catalysts are under long-term intense debate. This paper describes the atomic structure ...motifs for product-specific active sites on OD-Cu catalysts in CO
R. Herein, we describe realistic OD-Cu surface models by simulating the oxide-derived process via the molecular dynamic simulation with neural network (NN) potential. After the analysis of over 150 surface sites through NN potential based high-throughput testing, coupled with density functional theory calculations, three square-like sites for C-C coupling are identified. Among them, Σ3 grain boundary like planar-square sites and convex-square sites are responsible for ethylene production while step-square sites, i.e. n(111) × (100), favor alcohols generation, due to the geometric effect for stabilizing acetaldehyde intermediates and destabilizing Cu-O interactions, which are quantitatively demonstrated by combined theoretical and experimental results. This finding provides fundamental insights into the origin of activity and selectivity over Cu-based catalysts and illustrates the value of our research framework in identifying active sites for complex heterogeneous catalysts.
The basolateral amygdala (BLA) and ventral hippocampal CA1 (vCA1) are cellularly and functionally diverse along their anterior-posterior and superficial-deep axes. Here, we find that anterior BLA ...(aBLA) and posterior BLA (pBLA) innervate deep-layer calbindin1-negative (Calb1-) and superficial-layer calbindin1-positive neurons (Calb1+) in vCA1, respectively. Photostimulation of pBLA-vCA1 inputs has an anxiolytic effect in mice, promoting approach behaviours during conflict exploratory tasks. By contrast, stimulating aBLA-vCA1 inputs induces anxiety-like behaviour resulting in fewer approaches. During conflict stages of the elevated plus maze task vCA1
neurons are preferentially activated at the open-to-closed arm transition, and photostimulation of vCA1
neurons at decision-making zones promotes approach with fewer retreats. In the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, which shows anxiety-like behaviour, photostimulating the pBLA-vCA1
circuit ameliorates the anxiety in a Calb1-dependent manner. These findings suggest the pBLA-vCA1
circuit from heterogeneous BLA-vCA1 connections drives approach behaviour to reduce anxiety-like behaviour.
The electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2ER) to multi‐carbon chemical feedstocks over Cu‐based catalysts is of considerable attraction but suffers with the ambiguous nature of active sites, which hinder ...the rational design of catalysts and large‐scale industrialization. This paper describes a large‐scale simulation to obtain realistic CuZn nanoparticle models and the atom‐level structure of active sites for C2+ products on CuZn catalysts in CO2ER, combining neural network based global optimization and density functional theory calculations. Upon analyzing over 2000 surface sites through high throughput tests based on NN potential, two kinds of active sites are identified, balanced Cu−Zn sites and Zn‐heavy Cu−Zn sites, both facilitating C−C coupling, which are verified by subsequent calculational and experimental investigations. This work provides a paradigm for the design of high‐performance Cu‐based catalysts and may offer a general strategy to identify accurately the atomic structures of active sites in complex catalytic systems.
The synergistic effect between Cu and Zn enabling optimal adsorption of CO is reported. Through high throughput screening for optimal CO adsorption, two types of active sites were identified that effectively facilitated the C−C coupling, thus boosting the electroreduction of CO2 to C2+ products.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Silicon is a promising photocathode material in photoelectrochemical water splitting for hydrogen production, but it is primarily limited by photocorrosion in aqueous electrolytes. As an extensively ...used protective material, crystalline TiO2 could protect Si photoelectrode against corrosion. However, a large number of grain boundaries (GBs) in polycrystalline TiO2 would induce excessive recombination centers, impeding the carrier transport. This paper describes the introduction of oxygen vacancies (Ovac) with controllable spatial distribution for GBs to promote carrier transport. Two kinds of Ovac distribution, Ovac along GBs and Ovac inside grains, are compared, where the latter one is demonstrated to facilitate carrier transport owing to the formation of tunneling paths across GBs. Consequently, a simple p‐Si/TiO2/Pt heterojunction photocathode with controllable Ovac distribution in TiO2 shows a +400 mV onset potential shift and yields an applied bias photon‐to‐current efficiency of 5.9 %, which is the best efficiency reported among silicon photocathodes except for silicon homojunction.
This communication describes the carrier transport mechanism employing conductive atomic force microscopy (c‐AFM) by controlling the oxygen vacancies (Ovac) distribution for grain boundaries (GBs) in crystalline TiO2. Compared to Ovac distributed along the GBs, the Ovac inside the grains could narrow the depletion layer in grain‐GB‐grain junction to facilitate electron tunneling across GBs, improving the electron collection at the photoelectrode surface.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The search for efficient nontoxic catalysts able to perform industrial hydrogenations is a topic of interest, with relevance to many catalytic processes. Herein, we describe a mechanistic phenomenon ...for the activation and spillover of hydrogen for remarkable selectivity in the semi‐hydrogenation of acetylene over sub‐1 nm Pd nanoclusters confined within sodalite (SOD) zeolite (Pd@SOD). Specifically, hydrogen is dissociated on the Pd nanoclusters to form hydrogen species (i.e., hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl groups) that spill over the SOD surfaces. The design and utilization of the small‐pore zeolite SOD (six‐membered rings with 0.28×0.28 nm channels) is crucial as it only allows H2 diffusion into the channels to reach the encapsulated Pd nanoclusters and thus avoids over‐hydrogenation to form ethane. Pd@SOD exhibits an ethylene selectivity of over 94.5 %, while that of conventional Pd/SOD is approximately 21.5 %.
An unusual mechanistic phenomenon for the activation and spillover of hydrogen is described, which leads to remarkable selectivity in the semi‐hydrogenation of acetylene over sub‐1 nm palladium nanoclusters confined within sodalite (SOD) zeolite (Pd@SOD).
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Titanium dioxide is a promising photocatalyst for water splitting, but it suffers from low visible light activity due to its wide band gap. Doping can narrow the band gap of titanium dioxide; ...however, new charge-carrier recombination centres may be introduced. Here we report the design of sub-10 nm rutile titanium dioxide nanoparticles, with an increased amount of surface/sub-surface defects to overcome the negative effects from bulk defects. Abundant defects can not only shift the top of the valence band of rutile titanium dioxide upwards for band-gap narrowing but also promote charge-carrier separation. The role of titanium(III) is to enhance, rather than initiate, the visible-light-driven water splitting. The sub-10 nm rutile nanoparticles exhibit the state-of-the-art activity among titanium dioxide-based semiconductors for visible-light-driven water splitting and the concept of ultra-small nanoparticles with abundant defects may be extended to the design of other robust semiconductor photocatalysts.
We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study of IgA nephropathy (IgAN) in Han Chinese, with 1,434 affected individuals (cases) and 4,270 controls in the discovery phase and follow-up of the ...top 61 SNPs in an additional 2,703 cases and 3,464 controls. We identified associations at 17p13 (rs3803800, P = 9.40 × 10(-11), OR = 1.21; rs4227, P = 4.31 × 10(-10), OR = 1.23) and 8p23 (rs2738048, P = 3.18 × 10(-14), OR = 0.79) that implicated the genes encoding tumor necrosis factor (TNFSF13) and α-defensin (DEFA) as susceptibility genes. In addition, we found multiple associations in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region (rs660895, P = 4.13 × 10(-20), OR = 1.34; rs1794275, P = 3.43 × 10(-13), OR = 1.30; rs2523946, P = 1.74 × 10(-11), OR = 1.21) and confirmed a previously reported association at 22q12 (rs12537, P = 1.17 × 10(-11), OR = 0.78). We also found that rs660895 was associated with clinical subtypes of IgAN (P = 0.003), proteinuria (P = 0.025) and IgA levels (P = 0.047). Our findings show that IgAN is associated with variants near genes involved in innate immunity and inflammation.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Recent studies in animal models and humans show that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the development of atherosclerosis, which contributes to the pathological foundation of coronary ...artery disease (CAD). LncRNAs in plasma and serum have been considered as promising novel biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, especially CAD. We here measured the circulating levels of 8 individual lncRNAs which are known to be relevant to atherosclerosis in the plasma samples from 300 patients with CAD and 180 control subjects by using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) methods. We found that the plasma level of H19 and long intergenic non-coding RNA predicting cardiac remodeling (LIPCAR) were significantly increased in patients with CAD. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.631 for H19 and 0.722 for LIPCAR. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated that plasma H19 and LIPCAR were independent predictors for CAD, even after adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Further studies identified that plasma levels of H19 and LIPCAR were also increased in CAD patients with heart failure compared to those with normal cardiac function. Taken together, our results suggest that increased plasma levels of H19 and LIPCAR are associated with increased risk of CAD and may be considered as novel biomarkers for CAD.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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