Overweight and obesity have become a world-wide problem. However, effective intervention approaches are limited. Brown adipose tissue, which helps maintain body temperature and contributes to ...thermogenesis, is dependent on uncoupling protein1. Over the last decade, an in-creasing number of studies have found that activating brown adipose tissue and browning of white adipose tissue can protect against obesity and obesity-related metabolic disease. Brown adipose tissue has gradually become an appealing therapeutic target for the prevention and re-versal of obesity. However, some important issues remain unresolved. It is not certain whether increasing brown adipose tissue activity is the cause or effect of body weight loss or what the risks might be for sympathetic nervous system-dependent non-shivering thermogenesis. In this review, we comprehensively summarize approaches to activating brown adipose tissue and/or browning white adipose tissue, such as cold exposure, exercise, and small-molecule treatment. We highlight the functional mechanisms of small-molecule treatment and brown adipose tissue transplantation using batokine, sympathetic nervous system and/or gut microbiome. Finally, we discuss the causality between body weight loss induced by bariatric surgery, exercise, and brown adipose tissue activity.
Nursing work is associated with great pressure, and nurses are often overwhelmed. Therefore, correct emotional regulation is essential to improve nurses' job well-being and promote better engagement ...in nursing work. The purpose of this study was to establish a structural model to estimate the impact of Chinese clinical nurses' emotional intelligence on job well-being, using multiple intermediaries to explain the internal mechanisms underlying the relationship.
This was a cross-sectional study of 1475 registered nurses from a Chinese hospital who provided responses to emotional intelligence, empathy, communication satisfaction, and job well-being scales. Path analysis using a multiple mediation model was performed using AMOS 23.0.
Among all clinical nurses who participated in the survey, 1475 (98.33 %) completed the questionnaire. The nurses' job well-being score was 83.61 ± 12.63. There was a significant positive correlation between job well-being and communication satisfaction, emotional intelligence, and empathy ability (r = 0.346-0.570, P < 0.001). Empathy and communication satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and job well-being, with effect sizes of 0.047 and 0.227, respectively. The chain mediating effect of empathy and communication satisfaction had a value of 0.045.
It is recommended that hospital managers take actions to improve nurses' emotional intelligence level, and conduct professional psychological training to improve nurses' empathy and communication satisfaction, and ultimately improve their job well-being.
Soluble redox mediators (RMs), an alternative to conventional solid catalysts, have been considered an effective countermeasure to ameliorate sluggish kinetics in the cathode of a lithium–oxygen ...battery recently. Nevertheless, the high mobility of RMs leads to serious redox shuttling, which induces an undesired lithium‐metal degeneration and RM decomposition during trade‐off catalysis against the sustainable operation of batteries. Here, a novel carbon family of graphdiyne matrix is first proposed to decouple the charge‐carrying redox property of ferrocene and the shuttle effects. It is demonstrated that a ferrocene‐anchored graphdiyne framework can function as stationary RM, not only preserving the redox‐mediating capability of ferrocene, but also promoting the local orientated three‐dimensional (3D) growth of Li2O2. As a result, the RM‐assisted catalysis in lithium–oxygen battery remains of remarkable efficiency and stability without the depletion of oxidized RMs or lithium degradation, resulting in a significantly enhanced electrochemical performance.
Ferrocene‐anchored graphdiyne framework decouples the charge‐carrying redox property of ferrocene‐redox mediators and the shuttle effects, suppressing the consumption of oxidized ferrocene and degradation of the Li‐metal anode. Such ferrocene‐assisted catalysis results in a significantly enhanced electrochemical performance of LiO2 batteries.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are highly promising energy‐conversion devices because of their zero‐emission and high efficiency. A great deal of Pt is of significant necessity on the ...cathode to accelerate the rate of kinetically sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and maintain the long‐term operation, leading to the prohibitive cost of PEMFCs and limiting their widespread deployment. In the past decades, numerous efforts including manipulation of composition, morphology, and structure have been devoted to improving their higher activity and stability, but still lag behind the actual requirement. ORR is a typical surface‐sensitive electrochemical reaction and its process is mainly determined by surface/near‐surface structure. Herein, the recent advances in the manipulation of surface structure are summarized. The ORR mechanism and evaluation method for activity and stability are introduced. Then, solutions toward the engineering of surface structure and its effect on activity and stability are presented. Finally, comments on the future direction of nanocatalysts for ORR are presented in terms of engineered surface structure.
Surface‐sensitive oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of considerable importance electrochemical reaction. Surface structure of advanced Pt‐based catalysts for ORR can be classified into smooth surface, distorted surface, and hetero‐structural surface. The surface structure manipulating mechanism and its effect on activity and stability is particularly reviewed. The relationship between the surface structure of catalysts and their electro‐catalytical performance is discussed detailly.
The actual operating boundary conditions under different Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) power outputs are considered to evaluate the performance of a confocal twin-nozzle ejector and ...optimize its geometric parameters through the experimentally verified 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics model. The effects of primary and outlet pressures, anode gas relative humidity (RH), and nitrogen mole fraction (XN2) on its recirculation ratio are investigated. Besides, two key geometric parameters, mixing chamber diameter Dm and length Lam, are optimized under variable operating conditions. The results show that the two-nozzle (TN) mode can operate over a wider range of outlet pressure variation than single-nozzle (SN) mode, and an optimum primary pressure exists for both two modes. Considering the overall performance of SN and TN modes over the entire investigated PEMFC power range, the optimal Dm and Lam are 5.50 and 22.00 mm, respectively. The recirculation ratio at the rated power of 84 kW is improved by 14.10% compared to the initial structure. The ejector’s total recirculation capability is positively correlated with both RH and XN2, while the hydrogen recirculation capability is negatively correlated with them. The impact of RH on the recirculation ratio of confocal twin-nozzle ejector is consistent with that of the conventional nozzle ejector. This work may provide useful ways for designing novel-type nozzle ejectors to expand the narrow operating range of ejectors used for PEMFC hydrogen supply and recirculation systems.
•Confocal twin-nozzle ejector performance is assessed by actual PEMFC conditions.•Three evaluation indexes are proposed to evaluate the ejector performance.•The impact of primary flow pressure, outlet pressure, and anode gas RH are studied.•Two key geometric parameters, mixing chamber diameter and length, are optimized.
Single atom tailored metal nanoparticles represent a new type of catalysts. Herein, we demonstrate a single atom‐cavity coupling strategy to regulate performance of single atom tailored ...nano‐catalysts. Selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) was conducted to deposit Ru single atoms on the surface concavities of PtNi nanoparticles (Ru‐ca‐PtNi). Ru‐ca‐PtNi exhibits a record‐high activity for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) with 2.01 A mg−1Pt. Also, Ru‐ca‐PtNi showcases a significant durability with only 16 % activity loss. Operando electrochemical Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and theoretical calculations demonstrate Ru single atoms coupled to cavities accelerate the CO removal by regulating d‐band center position. Further, the high diffusion barrier of Ru single atoms in concavities accounts for excellent stability. The developed Ru‐ca‐PtNi via single atom‐cavity coupling opens an encouraging pathway to design highly efficient single atom‐based (electro)catalysts.
Single atom‐cavity coupling enables the superior activity and stability of Ru single atoms tailored PtNi nano‐catalysts towards methanol oxidation, synthesized by the selective ALD. The modulated d‐band center and higher diffusion barrier accounts for the unparalleled activity and stability on the Ru single atoms coupled to PtNi cavities, respectively.
Single-atom catalysts have been paid more attention to improving sluggish reaction kinetics and anchoring polysulfide for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. It has been demonstrated that d-block ...single-atom elements in the fourth period can chemically interact with the local environment, leading to effective adsorption and catalytic activity toward lithium polysulfides. Enlightened by theoretical screening, for the first time, we design novel single-atom Nb catalysts toward improved sulfur immobilization and catalyzation. Calculations reveal that Nb–N4 active moiety possesses abundant unfilled antibonding orbitals, which promotes d-p hybridization and enhances anchoring capability toward lithium polysulfides via a “trapping–coupling–conversion” mechanism. The Nb–SAs@NC cell exhibits a high capacity retention of over 85% after 1000 cycles, a superior rate performance of 740 mA h g–1 at 7 C, and a competitive areal capacity of 5.2 mAh cm–2 (5.6 mg cm–2). Our work provides a new perspective to extend cathodes enabling high-energy-density Li–S batteries.
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