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Aims/BackgroundPrenatal diagnosis is a crucial tool in reducing birth defects. Research indicates that whole-exome sequencing (WES) is particularly effective for detecting abnormalities associated with structural ultrasound findings. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of WES in the genetic diagnosis of prenatal ultrasound abnormalities.MethodsA total of 50 pregnant women with prenatal ultrasound abnormalities, diagnosed at Rizhao People’s Hospital between January 2023 and May 2024, were enrolled. Amniocytes, abortion tissues, and peripheral blood samples from the couples were collected for family-based WES.ResultsWES revealed genetic abnormalities in 20 out of 50 cases, resulting in a detection rate of 40%. The detection rates for specific abnormalities were as follows: skeletal abnormalities (41.7%), cardiovascular abnormalities (54.5%), central nervous system abnormalities (30%), urinary system abnormalities (50%), nuchal translucency thickening/hygroma colli (20%), and facial anomalies/cleft lip and palate (25%). The genetic detection rates for monosystemic and multisystemic abnormalities were 34.2% and 50%, respectively.ConclusionWES is crucial in the genetic diagnosis of prenatal ultrasound abnormalities, enhancing the accuracy of prenatal diagnostics and facilitating informed genetic counseling.

This letter presents a novel approach called energy harvesting and acceleration measuring (EHAM) using a single piezoelectric transducer (PZT). The energy-harvesting (EH) subsystem is a synchronous electric charge extraction (SECE) interface combining with an energy management circuit, which can harvest energy from PZT. The acceleration-measuring (AM) subsystem is for measuring acceleration-related signals. A time-division multiplexing strategy is employed in the EHAM system, where vibration energy is harvested during one period and vibration acceleration is measured in another period, and the harvested energy also powers the AM circuit. The prototyped EHAM system is implemented based on discrete components and tested with a conventional cantilever-based PZT harvester. Experimental results show that the EHAM system can perform EH and AM operations in a time-division multiplexing way. The EH circuit can harvest 1.76 mJ energy during 22 s with a PZT open-circuit voltage of 6 V. The AM circuit can measure accelerations with an accuracy of 95% under the mechanical resonance condition. The EHAM solution can be a candidate for self-powered acceleration measurement.

When compared with pure water, hydrogen produced by seawater electrolysis has a better practical application potential. By replacing the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and competitive chlorine evolution reaction (ClER) with the thermodynamically favorable anodic hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) in alkaline seawater, energy-saving hydrogen production can be achieved. In this study, Fe/Co dual-doped Ni2P and MIL-FeCoNi heterostructures (FeCo-Ni2P@MIL-FeCoNi) arrays with simultaneous cation doping and hetero-engineering provide excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic performance for HzOR and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline seawater electrolyte. Overall hydrazine splitting (OHzS) in seawater is impressive, with a low cell voltage of only 400 mV required to reach 1000 mA cm−2and stable operation for 1000 h to maintain above 500 mA cm−2. As a proof-of-concept, the OHzS system can save 3.03 kW h when producing 1.0 L of H2when compared with the N2H4-free seawater system, resulting in energy-saving H2production. Density functional theory calculations show that the combination of Co-doping and the fabrication of FeCo-Ni2P and MIL-FeCoNi heterointerfaces can result in a low water dissociation barrier, optimized hydrogen adsorption free energy toward HER, and favorable adsorbed dehydrogenation kinetics for HzOR. This processing route paves the way for a practical approach to the efficient utilization of hydrogen, which is abundant in the ocean energy field, to achieve a carbon-neutral hydrogen economy.

ABSTRACTCOVID-19 has become a global pandemic, and an effective vaccine is needed. During the outbreak, the urgency for developing candidate vaccines has brought distinct challenges to clinical development. An efficacy trial, which measures whether the vaccine reduces the incidence of disease, is ordinarily required to fully evaluate vaccine efficacy. However, emergency use may be possible if promising immunogenicity results are observed. A ring vaccination trial, which recruits subjects connected to a known case either socially or geographically, is a solution to evaluate vaccine efficacy and control the spread of the disease simultaneously although its conduct is challenging. Nevertheless, when COVID-19 becomes a recurrent epidemic, an ‘individual-level’ efficacy trial is preferred. Innovative statistical designs, including seamless design, platform trial, master protocol design, are helpful to accelerate clinical development. A seamless Phase I/II design has been applied in multiple COVID-19 vaccine studies to date. However, Phase II/III design should be done very carefully. The control of type I error, maintaining trial blinding and statistical methods leading to unbiased estimates should be pre-specified in the clinical protocol. A Data Safety Monitoring Board is especially important, given the need to assure an adequate level of safety when society want a safe and effective vaccine.

Seawater electrolysis still faces harsh challenges especially at elevated current densities, which has to be ensured by highly-efficient and stable electrocatalyst. Recently, strategy involving hydrogen spillover between metal clusters and carriers has emerged as a means to enhance the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) efficiency. In this study, we present a heterogeneous Ru/F-FeCoOOH catalyst to dissect the mechanism of hydrogen spillover between these two constituents. The DFT calculations and in-situ Raman analysis confirm the spillover of hydrogen species (H*) from Ru to F-FeCoOOH carrier. Furthermore, the introduction of F-doping narrows the work function disparity between the Ru metal and the F-FeCoOOH carrier, fostering a milieu that curtails interface H* capture and augments the potential for interface hydrogen spillover. Moreover, in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) corroborate that Ru/F-FeCoOOH exhibits extensive H* adsorption coverage and hydrogen transfer influences reaction rates. Leveraging the hydrogen spillover mechanism, the resultant Ru/F-FeCoOOH heterogeneous catalyst manifests a low overpotential of 260mV at 2Acm-2and with long-term stability at least for 400h in alkaline seawater.

Exploring Ru-based materials with strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) is a promising method to develop superb activity and long-term durability electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a heterojunction substrates strategy is proposed to stimulate the intrinsic activity of Ru nanoparticles loading on FeTeO (Ru/FeTeO) by activating the strong metal-heterojunction substrate interaction (SMHSI). Density functional theory (DFT) and in-situ tests uncover that FeTeO heterojunction substrates can further boost the HER activity by modulating the electronic structure and H adsorption energy. Consequently, the as-prepared Ru/FeTeO possesses outstanding HER activity with low overpotentials of 244 and 311mV to drive 1.0 and 3.0Acm-2current densities in 1.0M KOH seawater solution, respectively, and displays a long-term stability more than 150h. This work supplies an effective way to stimulate the intrinsic activity of precious metals.

Under the condition of industrial ampere-level current density seawater splitting, the electrocatalyst for hydrogen production needs two characteristics of superb activity and long-term durability. In this work, P vacancies enriched CoxPv@NC with unique multilevel structure was synthesized and applied to ampere-level current density for seawater splitting process. The coupled CoxPv@NC seawater electrolyzer requires low voltages of 1.88 and 1.74 V to provide 1.0 A cm−2in 1.0 M KOH seawater solution at room temperature and 6.0 M KOH seawater solution at 60 °C, respectively, exhibiting no obvious decline over 100 h test at 1.0 A cm−2. In-situ Raman spectra and theoretical calculations uncover that the outstanding catalytic performance originates from the P vacancy induced optimization of intermediate adsorption energy for HER and rapid reconstruction of active species for OER. The electrocatalyst devised in this work supplies an effective way to settle the insufficient of ampere-level current-density-tolerant bifunctional electrocatalysts in industrial seawater splitting.

Chronic viral hepatitis B (CHB) is a major global health problem. A therapeutic vaccine for CHB comprised of yeast-derived recombinant HBsAg-anti-HBs immunogenic complexes (YIC) has been devloped by us. A series of clinical trials has shown its therapeutic efficacy in decreasing HBV viral load and converting serum HBeAg-positive to anti-HBe-positive status in a subpopulation of CHB patients. Herein, we present a study of the immuno-potentiating mechanisms of YIC revealed by live-cell imaging technology. We studied internalization and dissociation of YIC in cells in vitro, and antigen presentation and T cell stimulation in mice. We found that after YIC was internalized via the Fcγ receptors (FcγR) of antigen presenting cells, it was subsequently transferred through early and late endosomal into lysosomal compartments. The dissociation of YIC was mainly observed in the late endosome. Furthermore when YIC were injected into mice, the populations of IFN-γ- and TNF-α-producing CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were higher in the YIC group than in controls receiving antigen or antibody alone. These observations supplement the known mechanisms of YIC action as a therapeutic vaccine for CHB.

Enhanced oil recovery by imbibition (IEOR) is the key technology to effectively develop tight reservoirs with “three lows” characteristics. It can be valuable for practical development to investigate the process of fracturing fluid imbibition in steady and unsteady states and quantitatively assess the impact of fracturing fluid imbibition in various pores under various circumstances. By combining NMR technology with indoor physical simulation experiments, this paper quantitatively evaluates the differences in imbibition characteristics of various pores in different conditions under high temperature and high pressure. Further research is done into how the imbibition effect is affected by permeability, pore size, imbibition duration, steady-state, and unsteady-state (pressure change). The results indicate that micropore (0.1–1 ms) imbibition efficiency is the fastest at the early stages, though it initially tends to be stable. Throughout the process of unsteady imbibition, it typically becomes stable at 48 h. However, in the steady-state imbibition process, the stabilization time lags far behind and tends to be stable at 108 h. Additionally, the mesopore (1–10 ms) has a faster imbibition rate, which is the main contributor in the middle and late stages of imbibition. As well, imbibition occurs mainly in nanopores (0.01–0.1 ms) and micropores (0.1–1 ms), followed by mesopores (1–10 ms), and finally macropores (>10 ms). For permeability <0.1 × 10−3 μm2, micropores (0.1–1 ms) are the main contributors. For the permeability of 0.1–1 × 10−3 μm2, micropores (0.1–1 ms) and mesopores (1–10 ms) are the main contributors. And for permeability >1 × 10−3 μm2, the mesopores (1–10 ms) make up the majority of the contribution. In addition, Imbibition productivity is positively associated with permeability and differential pressure in both steady and unsteady imbibition. As differential pressure and permeability increase, imbibition occurs more effectively.