Developing highly efficient and low‐cost photocatalysts for overall water splitting has long been a pursuit for converting solar power into clean hydrogen energy. Herein, we demonstrate that a ...nonstoichiometric nickel–cobalt double hydroxide can achieve overall water splitting by itself upon solar light irradiation, avoiding the consumption of noble‐metal co‐catalysts. We employed an intensive laser to ablate a NiCo alloy target immersed in alkaline solution, and produced so‐called L‐NiCo nanosheets with a nonstoichiometric composition and O2−/Co3+ ions exposed on the surface. The nonstoichiometric composition broadens the band gap, while O2− and Co3+ ions boost hydrogen and oxygen evolution, respectively. As such, the photocatalyst achieves a H2 evolution rate of 1.7 μmol h−1 under AM 1.5G sunlight irradiation and an apparent quantum yield (AQE) of 1.38 % at 380 nm.
A single‐phase photocatalyst, a hydrogen‐deficient nickel–cobalt double hydroxide, was generated by laser ablation. This photocatalyst can drive overall water splitting under solar light irradiation in the absence of sacrificial agents and noble metal co‐catalysts because of its unique composition and structure, with partially removed hydrogen atoms as well as O2− and Co3+ ions exposed on the surface.
Abstract
Background
Virtual reality (VR) is a frequently used intervention for the rehabilitation of individuals with neurological disorders.
Purpose
The aims of this review were to identify the ...short-term effect of VR on balance and to compare it with the effect of active interventions in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD).
Data Sources
Searches for relevant articles available in English were conducted using the MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Physiotherapy Evidence Database databases from inception until March 2019.
Study Selection
All randomized controlled trials comparing the effect of training with VR and the effect of training without VR on balance in individuals with PD were included.
Data Extraction
Two authors independently extracted data, assessed the methodological quality, and evaluated the evidence quality of the studies.
Data Synthesis
Fourteen randomized controlled trials including 574 individuals were eligible for qualitative analyses, and 12 of the studies involving 481 individuals were identified as being eligible for meta-analyses. Compared with active interventions, the use of VR improved the Berg Balance Scale score (mean difference = 1.23; 95% CI = 0.15 to 2.31; I2 = 56%). The Dynamic Gait Index and Functional Gait Assessment results were also significant after the sensitivity analyses (mean difference = 0.69; 95% CI = 0.12 to 1.26; I2 = 0%). Both provided moderate statistical evidence. However, the Timed “Up & Go” Test and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale did not differ significantly.
Limitations
Publication bias and diversity in the interventions were the main limitations.
Conclusions
Existing moderate evidence of the effectiveness of VR with the Berg Balance Scale, Dynamic Gait Index, and Functional Gait Assessment for individuals with PD was promising. Although the differences did not reach the clinically important change threshold, VR was comparable to active interventions and could be considered an adjuvant therapy for balance rehabilitation in individuals with PD.
Discharge of antibiotic‐containing wastewater causes environmental pollution and threatens biological and human health. An efficient treatment method for this wastewater is urgently required. We ...prepared inorganic–organic hybrid MXene–pillararene nanosheets with a large lateral size (5–8 μm). The hybrid nanosheets were stacked on supports via vacuum‐assisted filtration to prepare membranes with regular parallel slits and an interlayer spacing of 1.36 nm, which were used to purify antibiotic‐containing water. Permeance through the membrane increased 100‐fold compared with most polymeric and other two‐dimensional nanofiltration membranes with similar rejection. This high permeance and rejection was attributed to the large lateral size of the nanosheets, regular interlayer spacing, and electrostatic interaction between the membrane and antibiotics. These membranes will broaden the applications of lamellar materials for the separation of high‐value‐added drugs in academia and industry.
A strategy to prepare a series of inorganic–organic hybrid nanosheets based on pillararene‐intercalated MXene nanosheets is reported, which have larger lateral size compared with the original MXene nanosheets, in which a membrane was formed through vacuum‐assisted filtration. The as‐prepared membranes exhibited relatively high water permeance, rejection, and stability for treating water containing antibiotics under dead‐end filtration and cross‐flow filtration conditions.
Water electrolysis in alkaline electrolyte is an attractive way toward clean hydrogen energy via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), whereas the sluggish water dissociation impedes the following ...hydrogen evolution. Noble metal oxides possess promising capability for catalyzing water dissociation and hydrogen evolution; however, they are never utilized for the HER due to the instability under the reductive potential. Here it is shown that compressive strain can stabilize RhO2 clusters and promote their catalytic activity. To this end, a strawberry‐like structure with RhO2 clusters embedded in the surface layer of Rh nanoparticles is engineered, in which the incompatibility between the oxide cluster and the metal substrate causes intensive compressive strain. As such, RhO2 clusters remain stable at a reduction potential up to −0.3 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode and present an alkaline HER activity superior to commercial Pt/C.
Water electrolysis in an alkaline electrolyte is an attractive way toward clean hydrogen energy via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A strawberry‐like structure with RhO2 clusters embedded in the surface layer of the Rh nanoparticle presents an alkaline HER activity superior to commercial Pt/C; meanwhile, the RhO2 clusters remain stable at a reduction potential up to −0.3 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE).
A major challenge is the development of multifunctional metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), wherein magnetic and electronic functionality can be controlled simultaneously. Herein, we rationally ...construct two 3D MOFs by introducing the redox active ligand tetra(4‐pyridyl)tetrathiafulvalene (TTF(py)4) and spin‐crossover FeII centers. The materials exhibit redox activity, in addition to thermally and photo‐induced spin crossover (SCO). A crystal‐to‐crystal transformation induced by I2 doping has also been observed and the resulting intercalated structure determined. The conductivity could be significantly enhanced (up to 3 orders of magnitude) by modulating the electronic state of the framework via oxidative doping; SCO behavior was also modified and the photo‐magnetic behavior was switched off. This work provides a new strategy to tune the spin state and conductivity of framework materials through guest‐induced redox‐state switching.
A 3D FeII metal–organic framework (MOF) based on the tetrathiafulvalene tetrapyridyl ligand and its I2‐doped analogue were prepared. The TTF moieties provide redox activity, and I2 doping improves the conductive properties. Doping or light irradiation significantly alters the magnetic properties, indicating the material has electronically and photo‐switchable spin‐crossover properties.
Ultrasmall size and abundant defects are two crucial factors for improving the performance of catalysts. However, it is a big challenge to introduce defects into ultrafine catalysts because of the ...surface tension and self‐purification effect of the nanoparticles. In the present work, physical laser fragmentation with chemical oxidization reaction is combined to synthesize Co3O4 nanoparticles (L‐CO) with ultrasmall size (≈2.1 nm) as well as abundant oxygen vacancies, thus providing an effective solution to the long‐standing contradiction between the size reduction and defect generation. The ultrasmall particle size allows more catalytic sites to be exposed. The surficial oxygen vacancies enhance the intrinsic activity, while the internal oxygen vacancies improve the electron transfer, and all of these benefits make L‐CO an active and durable bifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction/evolutions. As the air cathode of zinc–air battery, L‐CO displays excellent rechargeable performance with a power density of ≈337 mW cm−2, outperforming the commercial noble metal couple (Pt/C+RuO2).
Physical laser fragmentation is combined with a chemical oxidization reaction to synthesize Co3O4 nanoparticles (L‐CO) with ultrasmall size as well as abundant oxygen vacancies, thus providing an effective solution to the long‐standing contradiction between size reduction and defect generation. The ultrasmall particle size and surficial oxygen vacancies make L‐CO an active and durable bifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction/evolution.
Developing low‐cost and high‐activity pH‐universal hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts is very crucial to the industrialization of water electrolysis. However, the high price, low yield, and ...poor stability of current HER catalysts make them difficult to meet practical requirements. Herein, a plasma spraying technique is employed to prepare self‐supported Cu catalysts with tensile strain for the first time. The tensile strain upshifts the d‐band of Cu, improves the water dissociation and H* adsorption, eventually improves the intrinsic HER catalytic activity. As such, Cu electrode achieves overpotentials of 182 mV in 0.5 m H2SO4, 261 mV in 1 M PBS, and 121 mV in 1 M KOH at 10 mA cm–2. In addition, Cu electrode also performs well at high current densities, the overpotentials at 1 A cm–2 are much lower than those of Pt foil in acid, neutral, and alkaline solutions.
The Cu electrode prepared by plasma spraying exhibits an excellent pH‐universal HER catalytic activity, superb long‐term stability, and marvelous corrosion resistance. The superb HER activity is attributed to self‐supported porous structure, abundant active sites, tensile strain enhanced intrinsic catalytic activity, and small charge transfer resistance.
Traditional biometric recognition systems often utilize physiological traits such as fingerprint, face, iris, etc. Recent years have seen a growing interest in electrocardiogram (ECG)-based biometric ...recognition techniques, especially in the field of clinical medicine. In existing ECG-based biometric recognition methods, feature extraction and classifier design are usually performed separately. In this paper, a multitask learning approach is proposed, in which feature extraction and classifier design are carried out simultaneously. Weights are assigned to the features within the kernel of each task. We decompose the matrix consisting of all the feature weights into sparse and low-rank components. The sparse component determines the features that are relevant to identify each individual, and the low-rank component determines the common feature subspace that is relevant to identify all the subjects. A fast optimization algorithm is developed, which requires only the first-order information. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated through experiments using the MIT-BIH Normal Sinus Rhythm database.
Facing the demand for decoupling and filtering for large-scale antenna arrays in modern communication systems, a transmission-line-based scheme is proposed and studied in this article. Different from ...other decoupling networks published recently featuring narrow decoupling bandwidths and high spurious levels, the proposed approach uses simple T-shaped networks where decoupling and filtering responses are realized simultaneously, leading to high-frequency selectivity and improved decoupling bandwidth. The proposed design is a simple 1-D configuration but powerful for 2-D arrays. Based on the study case of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">4\times {4} </tex-math></inline-formula> dual-polarized patch array, theoretical analysis and full-wave simulation are carried out to verify the performance in decoupling and frequency selectivity of this method. A prototype is further fabricated, assembled, and measured to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method in practice. The measured and simulated results are consistent with each other where a low insertion loss of around 0.6 dB is observed. The results denote that the proposed method is easily realized with a very small effect on the radiation performance of antenna elements, making it to be a potential and valuable decoupling and filtering solution for large-scale arrays.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease. However, early RA is difficult to diagnose due to the lack of effective biomarkers. This study aimed to ...identify new biomarkers and mechanisms for RA disease progression at the transcriptome level through a combination of microarray and bioinformatics analyses.
Microarray datasets for synovial tissue in RA or osteoarthritis (OA) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by R software. Tissue/organ-specific genes were recognized by BioGPS. Enrichment analyses were performed and protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed to understand the functions and enriched pathways of DEGs and to identify hub genes. Cytoscape was used to construct the co-expressed network and competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks. Biomarkers with high diagnostic value for the early diagnosis of RA were validated by GEO datasets. The ggpubr package was used to perform statistical analyses with Student's t-test.
A total of 275 DEGs were identified between 16 RA samples and 10 OA samples from the datasets GSE77298 and GSE82107. Among these DEGs, 71 tissue/organ-specific expressed genes were recognized. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis indicated that DEGs are mostly enriched in immune response, immune-related biological process, immune system, and cytokine signal pathways. Fifteen hub genes and gene cluster modules were identified by Cytoscape. Eight haematologic/immune system-specific expressed hub genes were verified by GEO datasets. GZMA, PRC1, and TTK may be potential biomarkers for diagnosis of early RA. NEAT1-miR-212-3p/miR-132-3p/miR-129-5p-TTK, XIST-miR-25-3p/miR-129-5p-GZMA, and TTK_hsa_circ_0077158- miR-212-3p/miR-132-3p/miR-129-5p-TTK might be potential RNA regulatory pathways to regulate the disease progression of early RA.
This work identified three haematologic/immune system-specific expressed genes, namely, GZMA, PRC1, and TTK, as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis and treatment of RA and provided insight into the mechanisms of disease development in RA at the transcriptome level. In addition, we proposed that NEAT1-miR-212-3p/miR-132-3p/miR-129-5p-TTK, XIST-miR-25-3p/miR-129-5p-GZMA, and TTK_hsa_circ_0077158-miR-212-3p/miR-132-3p/miR-129-5p-TTK are potential RNA regulatory pathways that control disease progression in early RA.
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