Taiwan is situated less than 200 kilometers from the first COVID‐19 outbreak state, China, and it has millions of international visitors yearly. Taiwan's collective efforts to block and eliminate the ...invisible enemy (COVID‐19) from the island have resulted in relatively low infection and death numbers and have been hailed as a successful anomaly amid the global pandemic. This review provides some background on the systems and organizations that helped Taiwan streamline a task force (command center) in a timely manner to launch related initiatives, mobilize the public, and engage private resources to implement strategies and policies that were further enhanced by collaborative behaviors and volunteers. Even subject to threatening conditions such as cruise ship stopover and numerous foreign immigrant workers, there were no outbreaks of community infection in Taiwan similar to those in Singapore, Japan, and other countries. Taiwan's successful measures offer a good example for future comparative studies.
The application of platinum supported on polytetrafluoroethylene (Pt/PTFE) as a composite catalyst for the separation of hydrogen isotopes holds much promise but warrants further refinement for ...improved performance. The objective of the present study was to examine the performance of a new hydrophobic Pt/PTFE catalyst during hydrogen-water exchange-based deuterium separation. The influence of diverse factors such as flow rate, column height, temperature, the volume ratio of filler to catalyst, and flow mode (co-current or counter-current), and so on, on catalytic performance was investigated. The deuterium conversion rate from co-current exchange was superior to that from counter-current exchange. Decreasing the hydrogen flow rate, increasing the feed water flow rate, and decreasing the molar flow ratio of hydrogen to water improved the deuterium conversion rate. In terms of layered filling of the catalyst column, adding more hydrophilic fillers improved the deuterium conversion rate. The characterization results highlight the high catalytic activity of the Pt/PTFE catalyst for hydrogen-water exchange, as well as its high stability in water.
•The performance of Pt/PTFE fabricated by simple compression molding was assessed.•The diverse factors significantly affected the separation efficiency of Pt/PTFE.•The Pt/PTFE was highly active and highly stable for liquid phase catalytic exchange.
Lifestyle modification is the standard of care for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of a short‐term lifestyle modification program in the ...disease course of Taiwanese nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients with paired biopsies. All patients received a 6‐month, strict multidisciplinary program of lifestyle modifications led by physicians, dieticians, and nursing staff. The histopathological and clinical features were assessed. The endpoints were normalization of transaminase levels, metabolic parameters, a decrease in the NAFLD activity score (NAS) ≥1, and a decrease in the fibrosis stage ≥1. We also aimed to elucidate the predictors associated with disease progression. A total of 37 patients with biopsy‐proven NASH were enrolled. The normalization of transaminase levels increased from 0% to 13.5%. There were also significantly increased proportions of patients with normal total cholesterol, triglyceride, and hemoglobin A1c levels. Fifteen (40.5%) patients had an increased NAS ≥1, whereas 10 (27.0%) patients had NAS regression. Twelve (32.4%) patients had increased fibrosis ≥1 stage. Only 2 (5.4%) patients experienced fibrosis regression. A high fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level was associated with NAS progression. Older age and higher transaminase and FPG levels were factors associated with fibrosis progression. Seven (18.9%) patients achieved a body weight reduction >3%, and 4 (57.1%) of them experienced NAS regression. No significant effect of weight reduction on the progression of fibrosis was observed. The short‐term lifestyle modification program significantly decreased liver enzymes and metabolic parameters in NASH patients. A more precise or intensive program may be needed for fibrosis improvement.
The conversion, storage, and utilization of renewable energy have all become more important than ever before as a response to ever‐growing energy and environment concerns. The performance of ...energy‐related technologies strongly relies on the structure and property of the material used. The earth‐abundant family of tungsten oxides (WOx≤3) receives considerable attention in photocatalysis, electrochemistry, and phototherapy due to their highly tunable structures and unique physicochemical properties. Great breakthroughs have been made in enhancing the optical absorption, charge separation, redox capability, and electrical conductivity of WOx≤3 through control of the composition, crystal structure, morphology, and construction of composite structures with other materials, which significantly promotes the efficiency of processes and devices based on this material. Herein, the properties and synthesis of WOx≤3 family are reviewed, and then their energy‐related applications are highlighted, including solar‐light‐driven water splitting, CO2 reduction, and pollutant removal, electrochromism, supercapacitors, lithium batteries, solar and fuel cells, non‐volatile memory devices, gas sensors, and cancer therapy, from the aspect of function‐oriented structure design and control.
Recent breakthroughs on structure control and modification of the WOx≤3 family for energy‐related applications are summarized, including for solar‐light‐driven water splitting, CO2 reduction, pollutant removal, electrochromism, supercapacitors, lithium batteries, solar and fuel cells, non‐volatile memory devices, gas sensors, and cancer therapy, from the aspects of function‐oriented structure design and control.
Abstract
Developing efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction is crucial in realizing practical energy systems for sustainable fuel production and energy storage from ...renewable energy sources. However, the inherent linear scaling relation for most catalytic materials imposes a theoretical overpotential ceiling, limiting the development of efficient electrocatalysts. Herein, using modeled Na
x
Mn
3
O
7
materials, we report an effective strategy to construct better oxygen evolution electrocatalyst through tuning both lattice oxygen reactivity and scaling relation via alkali metal ion mediation. Specifically, the number of Na
+
is linked with lattice oxygen reactivity, which is determined by the number of oxygen hole in oxygen lone-pair states formed by native Mn vacancies, governing the barrier symmetry between O–H bond cleavage and O–O bond formation. On the other hand, the presence of Na
+
could have specific noncovalent interaction with pendant oxygen in *OOH to overcome the limitation from linear scaling relation, reducing the overpotential ceiling. Combining in situ spectroscopy-based characterization with first-principles calculations, we demonstrate that an intermediate level of Na
+
mediation (NaMn
3
O
7
) exhibits the optimum oxygen evolution activity. This work provides a new rational recipe to develop highly efficient catalyst towards water oxidation or other oxidative reactions through tuning lattice oxygen reactivity and scaling relation.
The past several decades have witnessed significant advances in the synthesis and applications of PIEZOelectric semiconductors, an important class of materials, including piezoelectric, pyroelectric, ...and ferroelectric semiconductors. The intriguing combination of physical and chemical phenomena in PIEZOelectric semiconductors has triggered much interest in PIEZOcatalysis, that is, catalysis enabled by PIEZOpotential (i.e., piezopotential, pyropotential, and ferropotential)‐induced built‐in electric fields, which is the focus of this Minireview. First, the PIEZOelectric materials are briefly introduced. Second, recent developments in PIEZOcatalysis are highlighted, including the introduction of representative PIEZOelectric semiconductors, their possible catalytic mechanisms, novel techniques to produce their PIEZOelectric effects during the catalytic process, and several examples of PIEZOcatalysis. Finally, the challenges in the field and exciting opportunities to further improve the PIEZOcatalytic efficiency are discussed.
Piezo de résistance: This Minireview summarizes recent advances in PIEZOelectric‐semiconductor‐enabled PIEZOcatalysis resulting from PIEZOpotential (i.e., piezopotential, pyropotential, and ferropotential)‐induced built‐in electric fields. The challenges in this field and various opportunities for further improvement in the PIEZOcatalytic efficiency are also discussed.
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•A vegetation suitability index is proposed using Clayton copula function.•A cellular automata module is developed for modeling oasis spatial dynamics.•The module is reasonably ...structured, practical, and reliable.•Ecological water diversion successfully recovered oasis in arid inland basins.•Predicting oasis dynamics provides implications for management.
Assessing the impact of ecological water diversion on oasis restoration is critical for water resources and environmental management in arid inland basins. This study proposed a copula incorporated cellular automata (CA) module for modeling the oasis’s spatial distribution driven by ecological water diversion. Given the effects of groundwater depth and community expansion on oasis evolution, a water availability index and a neighbor vegetation index were proposed. These two indices were joint using the Clayton copula function, producing a vegetation suitability index that quantified vegetation growth’s habitat quality and provided the CA module’s basis to identify cellular categories. The CA module was integrated into a previously developed conceptual lumped ecohydrological model (CLEM), resulting in an improved CA-CLEM that outputted groundwater depth, oasis area, oasis NDVI, and oasis distribution data. The CLEM provided the oasis area changes for the CA module, which specified the spatial distribution of these changes. The CA-CLEM had a simple structure, low computation cost, and good performance, indicated by the application in the Shiyang River basin in Northwest China. Results show that an ecological water diversion of 30 million m3, with an average groundwater depth of 2.95 m, an oasis area of 25 km2, and an oasis NDVI of 0.36, would successfully recover the terminal Qingtu Oasis in 2020. The oasis distribution and its dynamic evolution processes were irregular because of the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation habitat suitability. The present Qingtu Oasis was fragile, and its sustainability relied on ecological water diversion. The reduction in water diversion would cause water table decline, oasis area shrinkage, vegetation degradation, and oasis fragmentation. The CA-CLEM combined with scenario analysis provides practical and reliable implications for managers and policymakers to improve ecological water diversion strategies.
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