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As an alternative disinfection technology, air plasma is limited to achieve wider application due to its restricted disinfection level and hazardous by‐products including O3 and NOx. In this work, a time‐sharing synergy strategy is proposed, where NO and NO2 are first generated by a dielectric barrier discharge reactor in NOx mode, and then the discharge is switched into O3 mode by increasing flowrate, thus producing large amounts of high‐valence NOx for efficient disinfection in sealed space. The disinfection effect of time‐sharing synergy is about 2 logs higher than using single O3 or NOx mode with the same discharge power. The concentration of high‐valence NOx is highly correlated with disinfection effect. Finally, all disinfection ingredients are removed after 2‐min gas‐washing and heating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microneedles offer minimally invasive, user-friendly, and subcutaneously accessible transdermal drug delivery and have been widely investigated as an effective transdermal delivery system. Ibuprofen is a common anti-inflammatory drug to treat chronic inflammation. It is crucial to develop microneedle patches capable of efficiently delivering ibuprofen through the skin for the effective treatment of arthritis patients requiring repeated medication. In this study, the mechanical properties of a new type of polymer microneedle were studied by finite element analysis, and the experimental results showed that the microneedle could effectively deliver drugs through the skin. In addition, a high ibuprofen-loaded microneedle patch was successfully prepared by micromolding and subjected to evaluation of its infrared spectrum morphology and dissolve degree. The morphology of microneedles was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, and the mechanical properties were assessed using a built linear stretching system. In the in-vitro diffusion cell drug release test, the microneedle released 85.2 ± 1.52% (210 ± 3.7 μg) ibuprofen in the modified Franz diffusion within 4 h, exhibiting a higher drug release compared to other drug delivery methods. This study provides a portable, safe and efficient treatment approach for arthritis patients requiring daily repeated medication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis of formate from hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an atom‐economic reaction but is confronted with challenges in developing high‐performance non‐precious metal catalysts for application of the process. Herein, we report a highly durable edge‐rich molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to formate at 200 °C, which delivers a high selectivity of over 99 % with a superior turnover frequency of 780.7 h−1 surpassing those of previously reported non‐precious metal catalysts. Multiple experimental characterization techniques combined with theoretical calculations reveal that sulfur vacancies at MoS2 edges are the active sites and the selective production of formate is enabled via a completely new water‐mediated hydrogenation mechanism, in which surface OH* and H* species in dynamic equilibrium with water serve as moderate hydrogenating agents for CO2 with residual O* reduced by hydrogen. This study provides a new route for developing low‐cost high‐performance catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to formate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesis of formate from hydrogenation of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an atom‐economic reaction but is confronted with challenges in developing high‐performance non‐precious metal catalysts for application of the process. Herein, we report a highly durable edge‐rich molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to formate at 200 °C, which delivers a high selectivity of over 99 % with a superior turnover frequency of 780.7 h−1 surpassing those of previously reported non‐precious metal catalysts. Multiple experimental characterization techniques combined with theoretical calculations reveal that sulfur vacancies at MoS2 edges are the active sites and the selective production of formate is enabled via a completely new water‐mediated hydrogenation mechanism, in which surface OH* and H* species in dynamic equilibrium with water serve as moderate hydrogenating agents for CO2 with residual O* reduced by hydrogen. This study provides a new route for developing low‐cost high‐performance catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to formate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The correlation between smoking and alcohol consumption and the development of Dupuytren's disease (DD) has been acknowledged. However, the definitive causal relationship between these two factors and DD remains elusive. In order to establish a causal connection, we employed the two-sample Mendelian randomization method to evaluate the relationship between smoking and alcohol consumption and DD. Methods: Based on publicly available genome-wide association studies (GWAS), two-sample univariate MR analyses were performed to assess the causal effects of drinks per week, cigarettes per day, smoking initiation, age of initiation, and smoking cessation on DD. We used inverse variance weighted (IVW) to generate the primary results for the MR analysis. Furthermore, we performed sensitivity MR analyses based on various methods to assess the robustness of estimations. Bidirectional MR analyses were used to study the interaction between smoking and alcohol consumption. Multivariate MR analyses were used to obtain independent causal effects of smoking or drinking on DD. Results: Our two-sample MR, which was predominately based on IVW, revealed a causal relationship between drinks per week and DD (OR = 2.948, 95%CI: 1.746–4.975, P = 5.16E-05). In addition, there is no causal association between cigarettes per day, smoking initiation, age of initiation, smoking cessation and DD. Similar conclusions were reached by other MR methods. The results of the bidirectional MR analyses showed that the causal relationships between age of initiation and drinks per week were robust and significant. Multivariate MR results indicated that the causal effect of alcohol consumption on DD was independent of smoking. Conclusion: Our Mendelian Randomization study indicated that there is a causality between drinking alcohol and DD, but no such causality was found between smoking and DD. This is the first study to prove that drinking alcohol could cause DD. This could help people who are trying to prevent DD from happening in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous monitoring of body movements or physicochemical health indicators by various wearable devices with intriguing geometries has attracted increasing research attention. Among them, fiber-based wearable devices have been intensively investigated due to the ease of fabrication, excellent flexibility and adaptability, and abundant applicable working mechanisms. Although various spinning methods can prepare composite fibers, obtaining highly conductive fibers at high filler-loading fractions has always been difficult. In addition, most synthetic fibers are designed only for specific applications, exhibiting narrow applicability. This work proposed a dual-functional smart fiber-based sensor that could work based on either piezoresistive or electrochemical mechanisms. Through the wet spinning of dopes containing nanosized carbon black and thermoplastic polyurethane, nanocomposite fibers with decent electrical conductivities (2.10 × 102 S m−1 or 4.77 × 10−3 Ω·m), high mechanical stretch abilities and toughness (εmax~2400%, KIC = 61.44 MJ m−3), as well as excellent self-heal abilities (η ≥ 64.8%), could be obtained. Such coupled electromechanical properties endowed the as-synthesized fibers with strain-sensing or biomarker monitoring capabilities based on piezoresistive or electrochemical mechanisms. The proposed novel dual-functional smart fibers demonstrated potential for multifunctional wearable health monitoring devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A continuous risk from microbial infections poses a major environmental and public health challenge. As an emerging strategy for inhibiting bacterial infections, plasma‐activated water (PAW) has proved to be highly effective, environmental‐friendly, and non‐drug resistant to a broad range of microorganisms. However, the relatively short lifetime of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) and the high spreadability of liquid PAW inevitably limit its real‐life applications. In this study, plasma‐activated hydrogel (PAH) is developed to act as reactive species carrier that allow good storage and controlled slow‐release of RONS to achieve long‐term antibacterial effects. Three hydrogel materials, including hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC), carbomer 940 (Carbomer), and acryloyldimethylammonium taurate/VP copolymer (AVC) are selected, and their antibacterial performances under different plasma activation conditions are investigated. It is shown that the composition of the gels plays the key role in determining their biochemical functions after the plasma activation. The antimicrobial performance of AVC is much better than that of PAW and the other two hydrogels, along with the excellent stability to maintain the antimicrobial activity for more than 14 days. The revealed mechanism of the antibacterial ability of the PAH identifies the unique combination of short‐lived species (1O2, ∙OH, ONOO− and O2−) stored in hydrogels. Overall, this study demonstrates the efficacy and reveals the mechanisms of the PAH as an effective and long‐term disinfectant capable of delivering and preserving antibacterial chemistries for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gliding arc is a promising plasma technology for water activation due to its high energy efficiency for producing reactive nitrogen species (RNS), which is believed as the key agent for the sustained bactericidal effect of plasma-activated water (PAW). Nitric oxide (NO) is the major product of gliding arc and also widely exists in PAW, but the production mechanism of aqueous NO and its role in sterilization have been little investigated before. In this paper, NO-rich plasma effluent gas is produced by gliding arc discharge and introduced into water to produce PAW. The concentrations of gaseous and aqueous reactive species are detected, which decrease with the increasing air flowrate of the gliding arc. To clarify the contribution of plasma-induced RNS on water activation, the NO + air mixed gas is used to simulate the plasma effluent gas, and the results show that the two gases have similar gaseous composition and aqueous NO yield. Compared with the NO + Ar mixed gas with the same NO proportion, the NO + air mixed gas produces much more aqueous NO, implying that the presence of O2 significantly enhances the production of aqueous NO. The sterilization experiments demonstrate the key role of aqueous NO in sterilization, but an acidic environment is necessary for aqueous NO to achieve a potent bactericidal effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gliding arc is a promising plasma technology for water activation due to its high energy efficiency for producing reactive nitrogen species (RNS), which is believed as the key agent for the sustained bactericidal effect of plasma-activated water (PAW). Nitric oxide (NO) is the major product of gliding arc and also widely exists in PAW, but the production mechanism of aqueous NO and its role in sterilization have been little investigated before. In this paper, NO-rich plasma effluent gas is produced by gliding arc discharge and introduced into water to produce PAW. The concentrations of gaseous and aqueous reactive species are detected, which decrease with the increasing air flowrate of the gliding arc. To clarify the contribution of plasma-induced RNS on water activation, the NO + air mixed gas is used to simulate the plasma effluent gas, and the results show that the two gases have similar gaseous composition and aqueous NO yield. Compared with the NO + Ar mixed gas with the same NO proportion, the NO + air mixed gas produces much more aqueous NO, implying that the presence of O2 significantly enhances the production of aqueous NO. The sterilization experiments demonstrate the key role of aqueous NO in sterilization, but an acidic environment is necessary for aqueous NO to achieve a potent bactericidal effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This work proposes a new method for the rapid preparation of MXenes. • It takes only 3 h to etch the MAX phase by the HIUE method to obtain MXene. • Ti 3 C 2 T x etched by the method can be used as an effective nanocomposite substrate. • Ti 3 C 2 T x etched by the method show good selectivity and excellent response to NH 3. MXenes are widely studied two-dimensional materials and have been attracting increasing research attention on exploring their applications. However, the preparation for MXene materials is still cumbersome and time-consuming, significantly limiting their utilization. In this work, a high-intensity ultrasonic exfoliation (HIUE) environment is constructed for efficient preparation of the Ti 3 C 2 T x -MXene, which drastically shortens the etching time to 3 h with a yield of more than 90 % after adjusting the temperature, dosage, and ultrasonic power. The delamination of the MXene occurs during etching due to the ultrasound, which promotes the yield of few-layered MXenes of 20 % in one step after centrifuging. The characteristics of the HIUE-prepared MXenes are compared with those obtained by conventional wet etching methods. The feasibility of the proposed HIUE method is further verified by constructing MXene-based nanocomposites and exploring their gas-sensing applications. The as-prepared Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene obtained by the proposed rapid preparation method show good selectivity and an excellent response of 21.1 % to 100 ppm NH 3. In contrast, the MXene/MoS 2 nanocomposites obtained by the rapid preparation method also exhibit enhanced gas-sensing performance. Such experiments demonstrate the efficiency and the excellent potential for rapid preparation and compositing of MXene-based materials by the proposed HIUE method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifelong Learning (LL) refers to the ability to continually learn and solve new problems with incremental available information over time while retaining previous knowledge. Much attention has been given lately to Supervised Lifelong Learning (SLL) with a stream of labelled data. In contrast, we focus on resolving challenges in Unsupervised Lifelong Learning (ULL) with streaming unlabelled data when the data distribution and the unknown class labels evolve over time. Bayesian framework is natural to incorporate past knowledge and sequentially update the belief with new data. We develop a fully Bayesian inference framework for ULL with a novel end-to-end Deep Bayesian Unsupervised Lifelong Learning (DBULL) algorithm, which can progressively discover new clusters without forgetting the past with unlabelled data while learning latent representations. To efficiently maintain past knowledge, we develop a novel knowledge preservation mechanism via sufficient statistics of the latent representation for raw data. To detect the potential new clusters on the fly, we develop an automatic cluster discovery and redundancy removal strategy in our inference inspired by Nonparametric Bayesian statistics techniques. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using image and text corpora benchmark datasets in both LL and batch settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air plasma is commonly used to treat water for activation or purification, and plasma-activated water (PAW) is a promising green disinfectant that has attracted much attention in recent years. However, either the O3 discharge mode or the NO x discharge mode of air plasma lacks efficiency for water activation, mainly due to the low solubility of O3, NO and NO2. The transition process between those two modes could produce high-valence NO x such as N2O5 which should be more efficient for water activation, but this process is not easily controlled and water activation by N2O5 has rarely been reported before. In this letter, N2O5 is found to be produced effectively and stably by mixing the effluent gases of a NO x mode air plasma, produced by gliding arc discharge, and an O3 mode air plasma, produced by dielectric barrier discharge. The mixed gas rich in N2O5 is found to be very efficient for water activation. A colony-forming unit reduction of nearly 6 logs was achieved for a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus suspension by using PAW treated by the mixed gas, and the high bactericidal effect of the PAW could persist for more than 1 h after the plasma activation. The main reactive species for the bactericidal effect in the PAW are discussed, and the chemical pathways for N2O5 production and its usage for water activation are illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma‐activated media (PAM), the product of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) acting on aqueous media, has similarly strong biological activity and some unique advantages compared with CAP for biomedical targets. However, no reliable PAM‐preparing device with high safety for medical uses has yet been developed, limiting the advancement of PAM clinical trials. Herein, an integrated device for PAM preparation with a maximum yield of 4.8 L/hr is reported in detail. A large‐area CAP is generated by the plasma‐generating module based on the surface dielectric barrier discharge. Several sensors and controllers are applied in this device to stabilize the discharge environment and PAM consistency. In the in vitro experiments, PAM prepared in this device exhibits the bactericidal property of up to 6 logs reduction against various clinical pathogens with multi‐drug resistance. The high bactericidal effect of PAM can be preserved for ∼10 min. After constructing the mice model by cecal ligation and puncture, it is found that the abdominal injection of PAM can effectively relieve sepsis‐induced systemic toxicity and maintain homeostasis, which is mainly attributed to the anti‐infective efficacy of PAM. The third‐party testing confirms that the soaking bactericidal rates of PAM to S. aureus and E. coli are respectively higher than 99.99% and 99.999%, while the acute oral toxicity, skin irritation, and oral genotoxicity of PAM are negligible. This study provides a practical approach for preparing PAM with high reliability, which shows an excellent prospect of clinical applications and commercialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual understanding on construction sites by deep learning, such as semantic segmentation, is hardly mentioned in the literature due to the severe lack of labeled data sets. To resolve this issue, we collect and label 859 images, including 12 classes of objects in construction activities, from different construction sites. We then adopt DeepLabV3+ on this data set with modifications. We leverage the Cityscape data set to pretrain the model, and then fine‐tune it on our collected data set. Moreover, multiple data augmentation techniques are utilized to expand the training data set. Our model reaches 0.6467 mean intersection over union (mIoU) and 92.62% mean pixel accuracy (mPA) in the out‐of‐sample test with the capability of processing over 45 frames per second with a resolution of 480×640 pixels. In addition, we develop a synthetic robotic system integrated with red–green–blue (RGB)‐depth camera for visual understanding on sites. It can detect the depth information of objects and has high potential in automated construction and visual surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold atmospheric plasma, a promising technology for cancer therapy, can simultaneously induce electrochemistry, which has been widely demonstrated to be effective against cancer. Herein, the anticancer effects of direct current plasma jets and electrochemical circuit are comparatively studied with similar topological structures and average currents. The cell inactivation patterns formed by plasma and electrochemical treatment (EChT) are disparate, and the inactivation is mainly caused by the emission of charged species, helium flow, in situ OH radical production, or local alkalization. The culture medium treated by EChT exerted no sustained anticancer effect, whereas the medium treated by plasma could maintain a strong effect due to the production of more reactive species, suggesting that the electrochemistry does not dominate the plasma inactivation of cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most predictive models based on gene expression data do not leverage information related to gene splicing, despite the fact that splicing is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic gene expression. Cigarette smoking is an important environmental risk factor for many diseases, and it has profound effects on gene expression. Using smoking status as a prediction target, we developed deep neural network predictive models using gene, exon, and isoform level quantifications from RNA sequencing data in 2,557 subjects in the COPDGene Study. We observed that models using exon and isoform quantifications clearly outperformed gene-level models when using data from 5 genes from a previously published prediction model. Whereas the test set performance of the previously published model was 0.82 in the original publication, our exon-based models including an exon-to-isoform mapping layer achieved a test set AUC (area under the receiver operating characteristic) of 0.88, which improved to an AUC of 0.94 using exon quantifications from a larger set of genes. Isoform variability is an important source of latent information in RNA-seq data that can be used to improve clinical prediction models. Author summary: Predictive models based on gene expression are already a part of medical decision making for selected situations such as early breast cancer treatment. Most of these models are based on measures that do not capture critical aspects of gene splicing, but with RNA sequencing it is possible to capture some of these aspects of alternative splicing and use them to improve clinical predictions. Building on previous models to predict cigarette smoking status, we show that measures of alternative splicing significantly improve the accuracy of these predictive models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steep-slope switching is effective to reduce the required energy for switching, however, at least 60 mV of gate voltage is required to modulate the current by an order of magnitude at room temperature. In this article, a numerical study of cold-source transistors based on chiral graphene nanoribbons (CGNRs) is presented. In cold-source transistors, the high-energy electrons are filtered out to break the room-temperature limitation, which can be realized by using CGNRs with narrow density of states (DOS) distribution. Our numerical results indicate that CGNR transistors can achieve sub-60 mv/decade subthreshold swing and similar ON-state current to conventional transistor. Moreover, the effect of the DOS distribution of CGNRs on the transport characteristics is investigated. This work provides a potential option for low-power electron devices and provides guidance for the design of cold-source transistors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3-Nitro-1,2,4-triazole-5-one (NTO) has received wide attention and has applications owing to its excellent detonation performance and low sensitivity. A new crystal form of NTO was prepared via the solvent evaporation method and named γ-NTO. Its crystal properties were studied through single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and the results indicated that the unit cell of γ-NTO belongs to the monoclinic space group Pc, with eight molecules in the single unit cell. The density of this crystal is calculated to be 1.907 g cm−3, which is higher than that of β-NTO and similar to that of α-NTO. The crystal morphology was calculated to be a polygonal shape with a symmetrical growth pattern using the reactive force field. Based on the analysis of reactive molecular dynamics, the thermal decomposition mechanism of different crystal forms of NTO was elucidated, and the results showed that γ-NTO demonstrates higher gas production, providing a successful way to enhance detonation performance. The results of IR and differential thermal analysis (DTA) support the above conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cold‐chain transport is a crucial cross‐regional transmission pathway for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and other microorganisms. In this study, the mode‐combination method is adopted for sterilization in a 1.138 m3 freezer by mixing effluent gases of NOx and O3 mode air discharges. The mixed gas can effectively inactivate Staphylococcus aureus in 10 mm ice within 3 h, which significantly surpasses O3 gas. Moreover, the inactivation effect of the mixed gas can penetrate deep into ice, contrasting with the surface effect of O3 gas. This disparity is linked to the difference in penetration depth of strong oxidizing long‐lived reactive species. This study validates the sterilization efficacy of cold atmospheric plasma in practical cold‐chain environment, critical for curbing infectious disease transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor based on MXene fibers was proposed in this work. Firstly, the wet spinning technique prepared MXene fibers with a large aspect ratio, which can make the sheet-like MXene uniformly arranged, avoiding the agglomeration of MXene and improving the electrical conductivity. Afterwards, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) with specific recognition sites were synthesized on the surface of MXene fibers using the electro-polymerization method. The electrochemical sensor utilized the advantages of MXene fibers and molecular imprinting techniques to gain superior selectivity and sensitivity of hydrocortisone (HC). Electrochemical tests with different concentrations of HC (0.5 nM–10.0 μM) under optimal measurement conditions exhibited excellent linearity and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.17 nM. Furthermore, the electrochemical sensor displayed excellent selectivity, interference resistance, reproducibility, stability and outstanding application performance in serum. This work has promising applications in trace analysis in real sample. A molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor based on MXene fibers was constructed for HC detection. This is the first attempt to combine wet spinning with MIPs to construct the sensor. [Display omitted] • A portable and on-site MIPs-electrochemical sensor was fabricated for the rapid detection of HC. • The MXene fibers/MIPs was coupled with disposable screen-printed electrode. • The electrochemical sensor exhibited wide linear range, good sensitivity, selectivity, and applicability. • This is the first attempt to combine wet spinning with MIPs to construct the sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Carbon Dioxide Conversion; Heterogeneous Catalysis; Materials Science; Reaction Mechanisms; Reduction EN Carbon Dioxide Conversion Heterogeneous Catalysis Materials Science Reaction Mechanisms Reduction 1 1 1 10/31/23 20231106 NES 231106 B CO SB 2 sb hydrogenation to formate b is an attractive route for the utilization of this greenhouse gas. Comprehensive mechanism studies reveal that selective production of formate is enabled at MoS SB 2 sb edge sulfur vacancies via a new water-mediated hydrogenation mechanism. Carbon Dioxide Conversion, Heterogeneous Catalysis, Materials Science, Reaction Mechanisms, Reduction. [Extracted from the article]

Keywords: Carbon Dioxide Conversion; Heterogeneous Catalysis; Materials Science; Reaction Mechanisms; Reduction EN Carbon Dioxide Conversion Heterogeneous Catalysis Materials Science Reaction Mechanisms Reduction 1 1 1 10/31/23 20231106 NES 231106 B Sn-based perovskite oxides b have shown intriguing potential in CO SB 2 sb electroreduction. Carbon Dioxide Conversion, Heterogeneous Catalysis, Materials Science, Reaction Mechanisms, Reduction In their Research Article (e202307086), Jiawei Zhu and co-workers report an effective strategy to promote CO SB 2 sb -to-HCOOH conversion of Sn-based perovskite oxides by A-site-radius-controlled Sn-O bond lengths. [Extracted from the article]

• Short-pulse-width lasers are more suitable for patterning single-layer MoS 2 than long-pulse-width lasers. • Short-pulse-width laser and long-pulse-width laser have different removal mechanisms when machining single-layer MoS 2. • Wrinkles and defects during long-pulse-width laser machining of single-layer MoS 2 affect the energy transfer mechanism from the light to the material. The single-layer Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2) was subtracted by using pulsed lasers with different parameters. The machining results were tested by optical microscopy, Raman spectrum, photoluminescent (PL) spectrum, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), indicating that the femtosecond laser machining has a better boundary effect than the nanosecond laser. Molecular dynamics (MD) were used to simulate the subtractive manufacturing effect and thermal transfer under different pulse widths and energy conditions. It has been proved that the short-width pulsed laser is more suitable for patterning MoS 2. During the MD simulation, wrinkles and defects were found during the laser machining of long-width pulsed laser. The band structure of MoS 2 was calculated by density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the effect of different wrinkle and defect conditions on the nonlinear laser absorption. The effect of defects on MoS 2 thermal transfer was explored by plasma construction defects. The energy transfer during long-width pulsed laser machining was obtained. This work provides fundamental understanding of laser patterning and machining of MoS 2 for future device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economy and efficiency are two important indexes of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) materials. In this work, nitrogen doped hollow porous coaxial carbon fiber/Co 3 O 4 composite (N-PHCCF/Co 3 O 4 ) is fabricated using the fibers of waste bamboo leaves as the template and carbon resource by soaking and thermal treatment, respectively. The N-PHCCF/Co 3 O 4 exhibits an outstanding electrochemical performance as anode material for lithium ion batteries, due to the nitrogen doping, coaxial configuration and porous structure. Specifically, it delivers a high discharge reversible specific capacity of 887 mA h g −1 after 100 cycles at the current density of 100 mA g −1 . Furthermore a high capability of 415 mA h g −1 even at 1 A g −1 is exhibited. Most impressively, the whole process is facile and scalable，exhibiting recycling of resource and turning waste into treasure in an eco-friendly way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing environment friendly and low cost methods of fabricating advanced anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is very important. Using nori as the precursor, we designed and synthesized the composite of nitrogen-phosphorus-codoped carbon matrixes and cobaltic oxide nanoparticles (N, P-codoped C/Co 3 O 4 ) via hydrolysis of CoCl 2 and calcination method. It is interested that the nori not only provided the dopant of N and P elements but also formed the sponge-like porous carbon matrices which exhibited a large specific surface area as 246.4 m 2 g −1 . Both the dopants and the 3D porous carbon matrix are significantly helpful in improving the electrochemical performance of the product. Used as the anode material of LIB, N, P-codoped C/Co 3 O 4 offered a high reversible specific capacity of 927 mA h g −1 (the theoretical capacity of Co 3 O 4 is 890 mA h g −1 ) after 100 cycles at the current density of 100 mA g −1 and a good rate capability of 454 mA h g −1 at the current density of 1 A g −1 . Thus it is a promising alternative advanced anode material for LIB. In addition, the whole process is green, simple, economical and scalable and the method may be applied to synthesize other N, P-codoped carbon based composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution is becoming increasingly serious with rapid economic development in China, and the primary pollutant has converted from PM10 to PM2.5, which is associated with more adverse impacts on human health. Satellite remote sensing, with help of its quantitative observations over large spatial and temporal extent, has become a significant supplement to the in situ measurements. This study exploits the aerosol optical depth (AOD) product retrieved from the Medium Resolution Spectrum Imager (MERSI) onboard Fengyun-3C satellite to estimate PM2.5 estimation over the major urban areas of Chongqing, a metropolitan city in the Southwestern China. A semi-empirical model and the linear mixed effect (LME) model are combined based on in situ observations from local air quality and meteorological networks from May 2014 to May 2015. This combined model is able to explain about 90% of the variation of the estimated PM2.5, and performs better than LME model by achieving higher correlation and smaller deviations between the satellites estimated PM2.5 and in situ measurements. Benefiting from the high resolution of 1 km × 1 km, MERSI AOD achieves much more detailed spatial distribution of ground-level PM2.5 over the major urban areas of Chongqing, compared to most of concurrent satellite products, such as the MODIS L2 AOD. According to the estimation, PM2.5 concentration is higher in cold seasons than in warm seasons in Chongqing. Peak levels of PM2.5 is found in Yuzhong District, the center of Chongqing urban area, while the concentration gradually decreases in surrounding areas, indicating that air pollution in Chongqing is highly contributed by local anthropogenic emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MXene-based gas-sensitive nanocomposites are an area of high interest in developing high-performance gas sensors that operate at room temperature. Combining MXene with different nano-sized metal oxides is a strategy to improve sensing performance, but poor chemical stability, especially in humid environments, is the biggest obstacle to practical applications. Recently we demonstrated a method to prepare a ternary heterostructure gas sensor by decorating a stable TiO 2 /Ti 3 C 2 T x composite with MoO 3 which also provided selectivity. Here, we develop the proposed concept by synthesizing a Cr 2 O 3 /TiO 2 /Ti 3 C 2 T x gas-sensitive material that shows a unique rapid and selective response to Triethylamine. In addition, the sensor offers excellent chemical stability and can maintain its morphology and gas sensing performance even after ageing at 500 °C for two months. This work demonstrates the validity of the proposed approach for an additional metal oxide and yields a sensor that exhibits potential for excellent practical application in harsh environment. • Cr 2 O 3 /TiO 2 /Ti 3 C 2 T x are prepared and its gas sensing properties are investigated. • The introduced Cr 2 O 3 and TiO 2 tightly wrap MXene with a hydrophobic surface. • The improve Triethylamine sensing performance was achieved based on oxidized MXene. • The sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity, selectivity, and stability to TEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Co-MOF/reduced graphene oxide (Co-MOF/rGO) composite was prepared, and showed enhanced electrochemical performance compared with bare Co-MOF. Notably, the areas of CV curves witness the increase with the augment of cycle numbers and the redox peaks experience shifts, providing obvious transformation evidence. After a long term transformation process, the composite achieves a pretty high specific capacitance of 1521.6 F g −1 at 0.2 A g −1 and 1117.6 F g −1 even at the high current density of 12 A g −1 . This phenomenon could be attributed to the transformation of Co-MOF into CoOOH under the synergy effects of weak alkaline solution and electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epoxy resin has been intensively used as an electronic packaging material for its good mechanical strength and electrical insulativity. However, the low thermal conductivity of epoxy resin limits its applications. Inorganic fillers with a high loading fraction (>30 vol%) is typically used to enhance the thermal conductivity. But the high loading fraction could degrade the mechanical property and challenge the processing. In this work, we develop a new class of epoxy composites comprising very long (up to tens of micrometers) single-crystalline copper nanowires (a diameter of ∼20 nm and a length of up to ∼40 μm) as filler. A high thermal conductivity of 2.59 W/mK was obtained at a very low loading fraction of Cu nanowires at 0.12 vol%, corresponding to an 8-fold enhancement in thermal conductivity of plain epoxy resins. We also demonstrate that ytterbium and erbium codoped sodium yttrium tetra-fluoride (NaYF 4 :Yb/Er) upconversion nanoparticles can be concomitantly incorporated into the epoxy composite, providing an accurate temperature of the composite. The dual functionality should render the epoxy composite an attractive candidate in electronic device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple method for synthesizing highly wrinkled and less layered structure of graphene sheets by using a mechano-thermal exfoliation method was developed. During this process, graphite and ammonium chloride (NH 4 Cl) powders were loaded by milling and followed with heating at a quartz tube under a nitrogen gas flow. The method is facile and easy for scaling up. Consequently, such microstructure merits of structure endowed graphene super strong adsorption ability, which should have great potential for water purification and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanomaterials with layered structures, with their intriguing properties, are of great research interest nowadays. As one of the primary two-dimensional nanomaterials, the hexagonal boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS, also called white graphene), which is an analogue of graphene, possesses various attractive properties, such as high intrinsic thermal conductivity, excellent chemical and thermal stability, and electrical insulation properties. After being discovered, it has been one of the most intensively studied two-dimensional non-carbon nanomaterials and has been applied in a wide range of applications. To support the exploration of applications of BNNSs, exfoliation, as one of the most promising approaches to realize large-scale production of BNNSs, has been intensively investigated. In this review, methods to yield BNNSs by exfoliation will be summarized and compared with other potential fabrication methods of BNNSs. In addition, the future prospects of the exfoliation of h-BN will also be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double-water-in-oil-emulsion procedure was designed to synthesize cadmium, lead and copper alginate nanobeads less than 200 nm diameter under mild conditions. The cadmium, lead and copper alginate nanobeads can be activated to immobilize biomacromolecules and can directly produce distinctive electrochemical signals. Using the novel alginate nanobeads labeled with antibodies as electrochemical probes, a sandwich-type immunosensor was constructed using AFP, CEA and PSA as model analytes. This proposed immunosensor shows wide linear range with detection limits of 0.01, 0.0086 and 0.0075 ng mL −1 for AFP, CEA and PSA, respectively. Analysis of clinical serum samples using this immunosensor was well consistent with the data determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It suggested that the alginate nanobeads electrochemical probes could be generally extended to other multiple analytes detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, Cd 3[Co(CN)6]2 and Cu3[Co(CN)6]2 (CdNCs and CuNCs) nanocubes were synthesized simply by a one-step process at room temperature in the presence of chitosan (CS). It was found that CdNCs and CuNCs produced obviously distinctive anodic peak currents at -0.7V and -0.1V (vs. Ag/AgCl), whose separation enabled differentiation between two analytes. They were used as novel electrochemical probes in multiplex electrochemical detection for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in a single run. The good performance of the new electrochemical probes was obtained. The linearity range was from 0.025 to 250ngmL-1 for both CEA and AFP. The detection limit of CEA was 0.0175ngmL-1 and that of AFP was 0.0109ngmL-1 at a signal-to-noise of 3. Analysis of clinical serum samples using this immunosensor was well consistent with the data determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The novel electrochemical probes could be generally used in multiplex protein detections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this work, platinum porous nanoparticles (PtPNPs) absorbed metal ions as electrochemical signals were fabricated. Clean-surface PtPNPs were prepared by a surfactant-free method and decorated with amino groups via 2-aminoethanethiol. Amino capped PtPNPs complexation with Cd2+ and Cu2+ to form PtPNPs-Cd2+ and PtPNPs-Cu2+ hybrids, respectively. Anti-CEA and Anti-AFP separately labeled with PtPNPs-Cd2+ and PtPNPs-Cu2+ were used as distinguishable signal tags for capturing antigens. The metal ions were detected in a single run through differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) without acid dissolution, electric potentials and peak heights of which reflected the identity and concentrations of the corresponding antigen. Ionic liquid reduced graphene oxide (IL-rGO) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was used as a substrate, which was rich in amino groups to immobilize antibodies by glutaraldehyde through cross-link between aldehyde groups and amino groups. Using the proposed probes and platform, a novel sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor for simultaneous detecting carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was successfully developed. This immunoassay possessed good linearity from 0.05ngmL−1 to 200ngmL−1 for both CEA and AFP. The detection limit of CEA was 0.002ngmL−1 and that of AFP was 0.05ngmL−1 (S/N=3). Furthermore, analysis of clinical serum samples using this immunosensor was well consistent with the data determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It suggested that the proposed electrochemical immunoassay provided a potential application of clinical screening for early-stage cancers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

B Outside Front Cover b : Electrochemical treatment (EChT), an effective therapy for tumors, is also one of the physicochemical processes coupled in plasma treatment. Further details can be found in the article by Dingxin Liu, Zifeng Wang, Zeyu Chen, Dehui Xu, Min Chen, Jinkun Chen, Mengying Zhu, Hao Zhang, Xiaohua Wang, Michael G. Kong, and Mingzhe Rong (e2100087). It is found that the electrochemical process plays an important role in the immediate anticancer effect during the plasma treatment, but it contributes little on the sustained anticancer effect after the plasma treatment. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are members of non-coding RNAs. They are involved in diverse biological functions. MiRNAs are precisely regulated in a tissue- and developmental-specific manner, but dysregulated in many human diseases, in particular cancers. Transcriptional regulation, post-transcriptional regulation, as well as genetic alterations, are the three major mechanisms controlling the spatial and temporal expression of miRNAs. Emerging evidence now indicates that transcriptional and epigenetic regulations play major roles in miRNA expression. This review summarizes the current knowledge and discusses the future challenges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The aerosol vertical distribution is an important factor in determining the relationship between satellite retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) and ground-level fine particle pollution concentrations. We evaluate how aerosol profiles measured by ground-based lidar and simulated by models can help improve the association between AOD retrieved by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and fine particle sulfate (SO4) concentrations using matched data at two lidar sites. At the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) site, both lidar and model aerosol profiles marginally improve the association between SO4 concentrations and MISR fractional AODs, as the correlation coefficient between cross-validation (CV) and observed SO4 concentrations changes from 0.87 for the no-scaling model to 0.88 for models scaled with aerosol vertical profiles. At the GSFC site, a large amount of urban aerosols resides in the well-mixed boundary layer so the column fractional AODs are already excellent indicators of ground-level particle pollution. In contrast, at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM) site with relatively low aerosol loadings, scaling substantially improves model performance. The correlation coefficient between CV and observed SO4 concentrations is increased from 0.58 for the no-scaling model to 0.76 in the GEOS-Chem scaling model, and the model bias is reduced from 17% to 9%. In summary, despite the inaccuracy due to the coarse horizontal resolution and the challenges of simulating turbulent mixing in the boundary layer, GEOS-Chem simulated aerosol profiles can still improve methods for estimating surface aerosol (SO4) mass from satellite-based AODs, particularly in rural areas where aerosols in the free troposphere and any long-range transport of aerosols can significantly contribute to the column AOD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Theoretical analysis based on the atmospheric radiative transfer indicated a positive correlation between the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and the surface-level particulate matter (PM) concentrations, and this correlation is improved significantly using vertical-and-RH correcting method. The correlative analysis of the ground-based measurement indicates that, (a) the correlation between AOT and the aerosol extinction coefficient at surface level (k a,0) is improved as a result of the vertical correction, with the coefficient of determination R 2 increasing from 0.35 to 0.56; (b) the correlation between k a,0 and PM concentrations can be significantly improved by the RH correction with the R 2 increasing from 0.43 to 0.77 for PM10, and from 0.35 to 0.66 for PM2.5. Based on the in-situ measurements in Beijing, two linear correlative models between the ground-based AOT and PMs (e.g. PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations were developed. These models are used to estimate the regional distribution of PM10 and PM2.5 using the satellite-retrieved AOT in Beijing area. Validation against the in-situ measurements in Beijing shows that both of the correlations of the satellite-estimated PM10 and PM2.5 with the measurements are R 2 =0.47, and the biases are 26.33% and 6.49% respectively. When averaged in the urban area of Beijing, the R 2 between the estimated PM10 and the measurements increased to 0.66. These results suggest that by using the vertical-and-RH correcting method we can use the MODIS data to monitor the regional air pollution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study integrates hollow microneedle arrays (HMNA) with a novel jellyfish-shaped electrochemical sensor for the detection of key biomarkers, including uric acid (UA), glucose, and pH, in artificial interstitial fluid. The jellyfish-shaped sensor displayed linear responses in detecting UA and glucose via differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and chronoamperometry, respectively. Notably, the open circuit potential (OCP) of the system showed a linear variation with pH changes, validating its pH-sensing capability. The sensor system demonstrates exceptional electrochemical responsiveness within the physiological concentration ranges of these biomarkers in simulated epidermis sensing applications. The detection linear ranges of UA, glucose, and pH were 0~0.8 mM, 0~7 mM, and 4.0~8.0, respectively. These findings highlight the potential of the HMNA-integrated jellyfish-shaped sensors in real-world epidermal applications for comprehensive disease diagnosis and health monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral diseases stemming from oral pathogenic bacteria pose a significant global health concern, and current methods for managing these pathogens have limitations. Plasma‐activated water (PAW), containing various reactive species, emerges as a promising disinfectant with impressive inactivation capabilities. In this study, PAW prepared by mixed‐mode plasma‐activated gases was applied to inactivate oral pathogenic bacteria, including Streptococcus mutans and Porphyromonas gingivalis. The PAW could reduce more than 6.1‐log10 planktonic bacteria and 4.1‐log10 bacteria within biofilm, respectively, and PAW treatment of planktonic bacteria effectively inhibited biofilm formation. Compared to chlorhexidine, PAW exhibited superior inactivation effects in both planktonic bacteria and biofilm. This study presented a potent strategy for bacteria eradication to reduce the incidence of oral diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraction of drainage networks is an important element of river flow routing in hydrology and large-scale estimates of river behaviors in Earth sciences. Emerging studies with a focus on greenhouse gases reveal that small rivers can contribute to more than half of the global carbon emissions from inland waters (including lakes and wetlands). However, large-scale extraction of drainage networks is constrained by the coarse resolution of observational data and models, which hinders assessments of terrestrial hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. Recognizing that Sentinel-2 satellite can detect surface water up to a 10-m resolution over large scales, we propose a new method named Remote Sensing Stream Burning (RSSB) to integrate high-resolution observational flow location with coarse topography to improve the extraction of drainage network. In RSSB, satellite-derived input is integrated in a spatially continuous manner, producing a quasi-bathymetry map where relative relief is enforced, enabling a fine-grained, accurate, and multitemporal extraction of drainage network. RSSB was applied to the Lancang-Mekong River basin to derive a 10-m resolution drainage network, with a significant reduction in location errors as validated by the river centerline measurements. The high-resolution extraction resulted in a realistic representation of meanders and detailed network connections. Further, RSSB enabled a multitemporal extraction of river networks during wet/dry seasons and before/after the formation of new channels. The proposed method is fully automated, meaning that the network extraction preserves basin-wide connectivity without requiring any postprocessing, hence facilitating the construction of drainage networks data with openly accessible imagery. The RSSB method provides a basis for the accurate representation of drainage networks that maintains channel connectivity, allows a more realistic inclusion of small rivers and streams, and enables a greater understanding of complex but active exchange between inland water and other related Earth system components. • A new method is developed to extract high-resolution drainage network. • The proposed method integrates 10-m Sentinel-2 imagery and 90-m resolution DEM. • A large basin-scale application demonstrates effective and robust extractions. • The inclusion of small streams at high-resolution improves drainage density scaling. • The results have implications for potential use in hydromorphologic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma-activated water can efficiently inactivate pathogenic microorganisms and is considered to be a potent disinfectant in the medical, food, and agricultural industries. In this study, the air discharged by the gliding arc was mixed with different gases including O2, ambient air, synthetic air, and N2 at different flow rates to produce the activated gases, which were then activated gases were inducted into saline to prepare plasma-activated saline (PAS). The gaseous reactive species in the activated gases were composed of NO, NO2, and N2O5 and the aqueous reactive species in the PAS included H2O2, NO2−, NO3–, ⋅ OH , and 1O2 with different intensities, while the inactivation effects of the PAS also varied with the type and the flow rates of the mixed gases in the activated gases. The inactivation effects of the PAS treated by the discharged air mixed with O2, ambient air, and synthetic air started to become weak after 3 h placement. Scavenger analysis demonstrated that the 1O2 played a critical role in the inactivation process. This study indicated that air discharged by the gliding arc mixed with different gases could regulate the reactive species and the biological effects of PAS, providing insight into the preparation of PAS applied for disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) in cancer therapy has recently received extensive attention. However, researchers have mainly studied the effects of CAP on plasma-irradiated cancer cells and have not determined whether CAP affects surrounding or distant non-irradiated cancer cells. Here, the viability and intracellular reactive oxygen species levels of plasma-irradiated and non-irradiated cancer cells were monitored in vitro. Our results showed that CAP may induce plasma-irradiated cancer cells (A549 cells, A375 cells, J82 cells and HT29 cells) to secrete soluble factors into the cell culture medium, which can transmit plasma-induced anticancer effects from plasma-irradiated cancer cells to non-irradiated cancer cells. Our research confirmed that plasma-induced anticancer effects can be transmitted between cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface urban heat island (SUHI) shows higher surface thermal intensification in urban areas than suburban areas and countryside. Green spaces are widely recognized as the dominant nature-based strategy to mitigate thermal stress. In contrast, natural cooling processes of urban blue spaces are seldom addressed. In this study, we applied the Google Earth Engine (GEE) to map SUHI intensity and blue spaces in order to explore the cooling effect and efficiency of blue spaces in the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD). Significant in-situ cooling is observed, with a 10% increase in water-body coverage leading to a depression of SUHI intensity by 11.33%. The irregular shape of lakes and reservoirs may weaken the cooling effect, but the reshaping of rivers may not. Our results indicate ex-situ cooling spillover of water bodies that will benefit the surrounding areas within an envelope of 100-m effective cooling distance. Such findings underline the importance of urban blue infrastructure in alleviating the thermal discomfort and advocate blue spaces as an essential component of urban infrastructure to minimize the SUHI effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper proposes an unsupervised risk assessment framework via clustering algorithm which is free of either expert rating as the Indexing models or elementary events probability estimation as the Bayesian Networks methods. It is easy-to-use and scalable for large-scale data. • Instead of treating clustering as preprocessing step to reduce samples as how the previous works have done, this paper builds a novel data mining framework for risk level assignment via clustering with its results validated by a designed statistical test. • A case study is conducted on an urban gas pipeline network consisting of more than 13,000 (over 1700 km) pipelines, demonstrating the capability of the proposed method to recognize and distinguish the patterns representing the different risk level. The existing infrastructure system has collected multi-source attribute data for the Urban Pipeline Network (UPN) from sensors, while the failure records are much rare in a relatively short period. Supervised machine learning model confronts challenges for UPN risk assessment because of dramatic class imbalance between the major normal samples and the minor abnormal failures. The previous works apply the clustering as a pre-processing tool, by classifying samples to clusters for simplicity of the following manual risk level rating or failure prediction. In contrast, this work proposes a method based on clustering and statistical test for evaluating risk state via small volume of historical failure records. This framework achieves totally data-driven risk assessment in an unsupervised way, avoiding expensive manual labeling for pipelines' risk states and probabilities estimation of elementary events in the probabilistic Bayesian approach. A case study is finally conducted on an urban gas pipeline network from a city, consisting of more than 13,000 pipelines (over 1700 km). The results demonstrate that the cluster of pipelines with highest risk have seven times higher accident rate than the lowest one. This method is hopeful to support decision-making regarding to routine inspection and restoration plan for the pipeline networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ever-growing demand of portable and wearable electric devices requires energy storage devices with flexibility and wearable compatibility while not sacrificing the performance too much. This requires the electrode and electrolyte materials becoming robust and durable under mechanical deformations, which grants the polymers with inherent advantages. Therefore, polymers for supercapacitors, either as substrate/matrix or active materials have received prime concerns. Viewing from the requirements of the flexible and wearable supercapacitors, this review provides an essential guidance to choose and/or design the proper polymer materials for both electrode and electrolyte. More importantly, supercapacitors with additional functions that are achieved by utilizing polymer materials are also specifically highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MXene, exemplified by Ti 3 C 2 T x , was obtained as a viable candidate for sensing gases at room temperature. However, in the current study, increased power consumption and poor process reproducibility resulted from the long cycle times to prepare MXene and MXene-based gas-sensitive materials. In this study, a six-sided high-intensity ultrasonic wave was applied to the etching environment, and a series of MAX-MXene heterostructures were effectively obtained in one step by adjusting the etchant content. Due to the unique structure of MXene flake and the generation of endogenous MAX-MXene heterostructure, the MAM gas sensor exhibits a response value of 4.1% to 10 ppm TEA at room temperature (23 °C) and relative humidity of 84%, providing fast response recovery time, low electric noise and excellent selectivity, with a comprehensive gas sensing performance superior to that of the pristine MXene materials reported before. This study provides new ideas for designing and applying new substrate materials based on MAX and MXene. • Controlled etching of Ti 3 AlC 2 -MAX phases assisted by six-sided high-intensity ultrasonics. • The MAX-MXene heterostructures allow the highly selective detection of triethylamine at room temperature. • This work shows the potential to enhance the efficiency of MXene preparation. • This work provides new ideas for the design and application of novel substrate materials based on MAX and MXene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortening the duration of the viral shedding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is critical to controlling viral transmission, alleviating the burden on the healthcare system, and ultimately mitigating the impact of the pandemic. This randomized, single‐blind, placebo‐controlled clinical trial aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of gargling with plasma‐activated water (PAW) on prolonged viral shedding in patients infected with SARS‐CoV‐2 Delta and Omicron variants. Sixty‐two subjects, aged 18–80 years and infected with SARS‐CoV‐2, were recruited at two coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)‐designated hospitals in Shaanxi from January to March 2022. Primary outcomes included cumulative conversion rates, incidence of adverse reactions, and biosafety parameters. Results suggested that PAW gargling treatment might contribute to reducing the duration of SARS‐CoV‐2 Delta and Omicron variant infections and alleviating symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strong development of mankind is inseparable from the proper use of drugs, and the electroanalytical research of drugs occupies an important position in the field of analytical chemistry. This review mainly elaborates the research progress of drugs electroanalysis based on direct electrochemical redox on various electrodes for the recent decade from 2011 to 2021. At first, we summarize some frequently used electrochemical data processing and electrochemical mechanism research derivation methods in the literature. Then, according to the drug therapeutic and application/usage purposes, the research progress of drugs electrochemical analysis is classified and discussed, where we focus on drugs electrochemical reaction mechanism. At the same time, the comparisons of electrochemical sensing performance of the drugs on various electrodes from recent studies are listed, so that readers can more intuitively compare and understand the electroanalytical sensing performance of each modified electrode for each of the drug. Finally, this review discusses the shortcomings and prospects of the drugs electroanalysis based on direct electrochemical redox research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]