The three-dimensional (3D) macroporous anodes were constructed by coating carbon nanoparticles (graphene, carbon nanotube, or activated carbon) on stainless steel fiber felts (SSFFs) that have an ...open, solid and macroporous structure. These modified electrodes provided large surface area for reaction, interfacial transport and biocompatible interface available for bacterial colonization and substrate transport. Graphene modified anode delivered a maximum power density of 2142 mW m super(-2) at a current density of 6.1 A m super(-2) in MFC, greatly improved the performance of MFC compared with the unmodified SSFF-MFC. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements together with the polarization curves demonstrated that carbon nanoparticles modified anodes could greatly decrease MFCs' internal resistance. Our experimental results also proved that embedding carbon nanoparticles into 3D macroporous metallic scaffold is a promising method for MFC anode fabrication.
Rapid environment change and urbanization process have profoundly altered the socio-ecological relationships and influenced on how local residents perceive ecosystem services (ES) and human ...well-being (HW). However, the quantified socio-cultural valuation of rural-urban comparison is still insufficient. In this study, we investigated the perception on provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES importance and HW satisfaction degree of basic materials, health, security, and social relations. Subsequently, we explored the linkages between and within ES and HW by face-to-face interviews with urban and rural residents. The results showed that rural residents valued more genetic resources, flood regulation, erosion regulation, and aesthetics ES, while urban residents gave high importance to wood & fiber ES. Overall, urban residents valued provisioning ES, while rural residents valued regulating ES. No difference was observed in cultural ES. For HW, rural residents felt more satisfied with security and health, while urban residents were more satisfied with basic materials. We observed strong relationships among provisioning and regulating ES in rural and urban communities, and the same was observed as in health and security HW. Principal component analysis (PCA) results showed the different variable associations in rural ES and urban HW as well as different groups in urban ES and rural HW. Through confirmation factor analysis (CFA), we screened out freshwater, water purification, air purification, and cultural value as dominant ES indicators for rural and urban population according to the framework of Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in Yanhe watershed. The assessment of people's perception can contribute to the integration of socio-cultural values into the policymaking process.
•We quantified ecosystem service and human well-being perception in rural and urban.•Regulating ecosystem service was valued by rural people while provisioning by urban.•Rural people satisfied with security and health while urban people with materials.•Both synergies and trade-offs existed in ecosystem service and human well-being.•Policy decision should focus on important services and unsatisfied well-being.
Organic redox compounds are emerging electrode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries. However, their electrically insulating nature plagues efficient charge transport within the electroactive ...bulk. Alternative to the popular solution of elaborating nanocomposite materials, herein we report on a molecular‐level engineering strategy towards high‐power organic electrode materials with multi‐electron reactions. Systematic comparisons of anthraquinone analogues incorporating fused heteroaromatic structures as cathode materials in rechargeable lithium batteries reveal that the judicious incorporation of heteroaromatics improves the cell performance in terms of specific gravimetric capacity, working potential, rate capability, and cyclability. Combination studies with morphological observation, electrochemical impedance characterization, and theoretical modeling provide insight into the advantage of heteroaromatic building blocks. In particular, benzofuro5,6‐bfuran‐4,8‐dione (BFFD) bearing furan moeities shows a reversible capacity of 181 mAh g−1 when charged/discharged at 100C, corresponding to a power density of 29.8 kW kg−1. These results have pointed to a general design route of high‐rate organic electrode materials by rational functionalization of redox compounds with appropriate heteroaromatic units as versatile structural tools.
Structural incorporation of heteroaromatic moieties into organic compounds is a versatile yet unexplored strategy for the design of organic electrode materials of lithium batteries with high power density.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been shown to be associated with structural abnormalities in a variety of spatially diverse brain regions. However, the correlation between brain structural ...changes in MDD and gene expression is unclear. Here, we examine the link between brain-wide gene expression and morphometric changes in individuals with MDD, using neuroimaging data from two independent cohorts and a publicly available transcriptomic dataset. Morphometric similarity network (MSN) analysis shows replicable cortical structural differences in individuals with MDD compared to control subjects. Using human brain gene expression data, we observe that the expression of MDD-associated genes spatially correlates with MSN differences. Analysis of cell type-specific signature genes suggests that microglia and neuronal specific transcriptional changes account for most of the observed correlation with MDD-specific MSN differences. Collectively, our findings link molecular and structural changes relevant for MDD.
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•Sulfonated humic acid (SHA) is the important pollutant in oilfield wastewater.•SHA could be adsorbed onto modified fly ash with good removal efficiency.•The equilibrium and kinetic ...studies on SHA adsorption by fly ash were conducted.•The adsorption process could be influenced by aqueous ionic strength.•Sustainable development can be achieved for oil and power industries.
Sulfonated humic acid (SHA) is a representative organic pollutant in oilfield wastewater. This study investigated the performance of modified fly ash in removal of SHA from aqueous solution. Two types of raw fly ash, including Shand fly ash (class C) and BD fly ash (class F) were used. X-ray diffraction and surface area analyses were also implemented to characterize the change of fly ash after modification. The results showed suitable acid- and microwave-assisted modification could enhance adsorption capacity of fly ash. The efficiency for SHA removal by treated Shand fly ash was higher than that by treated BD fly ash under the same conditions. Among different factors, pH was the most critical factor which could influence the adsorption performance of treated fly ash. The SHA removal efficiency increased as modified fly ash dosage increased up to 1 and 6g/L for Shand and BD fly ash, respectively. Langmuir isotherm could better fit equilibrium data. Kinetic analysis results showed this process could be well described by pseudo-second-order model. There was higher adsorption capacity at higher temperature when temperature varied between 15 and 35°C. The addition of NaCl also had influence on the adsorption performance of modified fly ash. The results of this study can help reveal the interactions of SHA pollutant and fly ash characteristics, which have important implications for the application of adsorption technologies in the treatment of oilfield wastewater.
Numerous global-scale land-cover datasets have greatly contributed to the study of global environmental change and the sustainable management of natural resources. However, land-cover datasets ...inevitably experience information loss because of the nature of the uncertainty in the interpretation of remote-sensing images. Therefore, analyzing the spatial consistency of multi-source land-cover datasets on the global scale is important to maintain the consistency of time and consider the effects of land-cover changes on spatial consistency. In this study, we assess the spatial consistency of five land-cover datasets, namely, GLC2000, CCI LC, MCD12, GLOBCOVER and GLCNMO, at the global and continental scales through climate and elevation partitions. The influencing factors of surface conditions and data producers on the spatial inconsistency are discussed. The results show that the global overall consistency of the five datasets ranges from 49.2% to 67.63%. The spatial consistency of Europe is high, and the multi-year value is 66.57%. In addition, the overall consistency in the EF climatic zone is very high, around 95%. The surface conditions and data producers affect the spatial consistency of land-cover datasets to different degrees. CCI LC and GLCNMO (2013) have the highest overall consistencies on the global scale, reaching 67.63%. Generally, the consistency of these five global land-cover datasets is relatively low, increasing the difficulty of satisfying the needs of high-precision land-surface-process simulations.
Metastasis leads to a high mortality rate in colorectal cancer (CRC). Increased neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) formation is one of the main causes of metastasis. However, the mechanism of ...NETs-mediated metastasis remains unclear and effective treatments are lacking. In this study, we found neutrophils from CRC patients have enhanced NETs formation capacity and increased NETs positively correlate with CRC progression. By quantitative proteomic analysis of clinical samples and cell lines, we found that decreased secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) results in massive NETs formation and integrin α5β1 is the hub protein of NETs-tumor cell interaction. Mechanistically, SPARC regulates the activation of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase (NADPH oxidase) pathway by interacting with the receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1). Over-activated NADPH oxidase generates more reactive oxygen species (ROS), leading to the release of NETs. Then, NETs upregulate the expression of integrin α5β1 in tumor cells, which enhances adhesion and activates the downstream signaling pathways to promote proliferation and migration. The combination of NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI) and integrin α5β1 inhibitor ATN-161 (Ac-PHSCN-NH2) effectively suppresses tumor progression in vivo. Our work reveals the mechanistic link between NETs and tumor progression and suggests a combination therapy against NETs-mediated metastasis for CRC.
The emerging pathogen severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused social and economic disruption worldwide, infecting over 9.0 million people and killing over 469 000 by ...24 June 2020. Unfortunately, no vaccine or antiviral drug that completely eliminates the transmissible disease coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been developed to date. Given that coronavirus nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1) is a good target for attenuated vaccines, it is of great significance to explore the detailed characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 nsp1. Here, we first confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 had a conserved function similar to that of SARS-CoV nsp1 in inhibiting host-protein synthesis and showed greater inhibition efficiency, as revealed by ribopuromycylation and Renilla luciferase (Rluc) reporter assays. Specifically, bioinformatics and biochemical experiments showed that by interacting with 40S ribosomal subunit, the lysine located at amino acid 164 (K164) was the key residue that enabled SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 to suppress host gene expression. Furthermore, as an inhibitor of host-protein expression, SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 contributed to cell-cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase, which might provide a favourable environment for virus production. Taken together, this research uncovered the detailed mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 K164 inhibited host gene expression, laying the foundation for the development of attenuated vaccines based on nsp1 modification.
•GGE-GTCS possessed an extended principal gradient, suggesting an excessive functional segregation.•GGE-GTCS showed an altered principal gradient score in both transmodal and unimodal systems.•Both ...principal and secondary connectome gradients were associated with clinical features.•The main results were reproduced using multiple processing configurations and were validated using an independent sample.
Genetic generalized epilepsy is a network disorder typically involving distributed areas identified by classical neuroanatomy. However, the finer topological relationships in terms of continuous spatial arrangement between these systems are still ambiguous. Connectome gradients provide the topological representations of human macroscale hierarchy in an abstract low-dimensional space by embedding the functional connectome into a set of axes. Leveraging connectome gradients, we systematically scrutinized abnormalities of functional connectome gradient in patients with genetic generalized epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizure (GGE-GTCS, n = 78) compared to healthy controls (HC, n = 85), and further examined the reproducibility across multiple processing configurations and in an independent validation sample (patients with GGE-GTCS, n = 28; HC, n = 31). Our findings demonstrated an extended principal gradient at different spatial scales, network-level and vertex-level, in patients with GGE-GTCS. We found consistent results across processing parameters and in validation sample. The extended principal gradient revealed the excessive functional segregation between unimodal and transmodal systems associated with duration of epilepsy and age at seizure onset in patients. Furthermore, the connectivity profile of regions with abnormal principal gradients verified the disrupted functional hierarchy revealed by gradients. Together, our findings provided a novel view of functional system hierarchy alterations, which facilitated a continuous spatial arrangement of macroscale networks, to increase our understanding of the functional connectome hierarchy in generalized epilepsy.
The human thalamus is an integrative hub richly connected with cortical networks, involving diverse cognitive functions. Emerging evidence suggests that multiscale structural and functional gradients ...integrate various information across modalities into an abstract representation. However, the presence of functional gradients in the thalamus and its relationship to structural properties and cognitive functions remain unknown. We estimated the functional gradients of the thalamus in two independent normal cohorts using a novel diffusion embedding analysis. We identified two main axes of the functional connectivity patterns, and examined associations with thalamic anatomy, morphology, intrinsic geometry, and specific behavioral relevance. We found that the dominant gradient indicated a lateral/medial axis across the thalamus and captured associations with anatomical nuclei and gray matter volume. The second gradient was an anterior/posterior axis and provided a behavioral characterization from lower level perception to higher level cognition. Furthermore, these two gradients strongly correlated with spatial distance, indicating the prominence of intrinsic geometry in functional hierarchies. These findings were replicated in an independent dataset. Overall, our findings suggested that macroscale gradients showed a coordination of structural and functional interactions, with hierarchical organization contributing to behavior characterization.
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•The thalamic gradients describe lateral/medial and anterior/posterior axes.•The first gradient captures associations to thalamic structural properties.•The second gradient provides a framework for behavioral relevance.•Gradients emphasize a prominence of intrinsic geometry in functional hierarchy.