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Many sequence variants have been linked to complex human traits and diseases1, but deciphering their biological functions remains challenging, as most of them reside in noncoding DNA. Here we have systematically assessed the binding of 270 human transcription factors to 95,886 noncoding variants in the human genome using an ultra-high-throughput multiplex protein-DNA binding assay, termed single-nucleotide polymorphism evaluation by systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SNP-SELEX). The resulting 828 million measurements of transcription factor-DNA interactions enable estimation of the relative affinity of these transcription factors to each variant in vitro and evaluation of the current methods to predict the effects of noncoding variants on transcription factor binding. We show that the position weight matrices of most transcription factors lack sufficient predictive power, whereas the support vector machine combined with the gapped k-mer representation show much improved performance, when assessed on results from independent SNP-SELEX experiments involving a new set of 61,020 sequence variants. We report highly predictive models for 94 human transcription factors and demonstrate their utility in genome-wide association studies and understanding of the molecular pathways involved in diverse human traits and diseases.

BACKGROUND: Occupational health factors such as shift work, sleep, fatigue, and work environment jeopardise the health and safety of gas station workers. This calls for new research to investigate how the working environment and characteristics impact the occupational health of workers at gas stations. However, minimal research has been conducted in this field, especially those involving psychological and behavioural factors, occupational stress, and so forth. OBJECTIVE: This review was performed to investigate the present condition of the occupational risk of gas station workers in this safety-critical position. METHODS: Five databases (Web of Science, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO) were searched for relevant peer-reviewed studies. Results were selected according to these criteria: studies on fatigue, shift work, sleep, and physical and mental health of gas station employees; published on or before November 11, 2021; papers in English. RESULTS: Twenty studies were considered for the final analysis. The results showed that shift work at gas stations leads to psychological and physiological problems. The psychological consequences included anxiety, stress, and depression, while the physiological consequences included biochemical changes and lifestyle consequences. CONCLUSION: Shift work and the specific working environment of gas station employees adversely affect their sleep, stress levels, physical and mental health, and turnover intention. This systematic review allowed us to consider the occupational risk factors that can lead to sickness or accidents and contribute to reducing these risk factors. Realistic countermeasures ought to be established and interventions must be explored to mitigate risks to life, property, and the environment in operating gas stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorine species, widely presented in industrial flue gas such as the waste incineration plants, can poison the catalysts and affect the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) performance. In this work, effects of Cl on the SCR performance of V2O5–WO3/TiO2 (VW/Ti) catalysts were investigated by NH4Cl deposition. The results showed that the NOx conversion efficiency at low reaction temperature (< 300 °C) decreased with the loading of NH4Cl after calcination. It was found that instead of causing the chlorination of VW/Ti catalyst the NH4Cl decomposed into volatile Cl species due to the weak V–Cl bonding. Such decomposition reduced significantly the surface non-lattice oxygen species to inhibit NO adsorption and activation, but hardly affected the redox ability and acidity of VW/Ti catalyst. Time–resolved in situ DRIFTs results indicated that NH3 activation and the SCR process predominated by Eley–Rideal mechanism were not influenced with NH4Cl impregnation, while the SCR at low temperature following a Langmuir–Hinshelwood path was limited by the decreased and weaker binding sites for NO activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective catalytic reduction of NOx by ammonia (NH3‐SCR) was affected by HCl, which was widely present in industrial flue gas. In this study, the SCR performances over MOx‐WO3/TiO2 (MW/Ti, M=Mn, Ce and V) catalysts after HCl treatment were investigated. It was found that HCl poisoning showed inhibition and promotion in NOx conversion over MnW/Ti and CeW/Ti catalysts, respectively. While the SCR activity over VW/Ti catalyst was hardly affected by HCl. Over MnW/Ti catalyst, the rupture of the Mn−O bond by the strong Mn−Cl binding induced the formation of amorphous MnCl2 species. This Cl‐containing species with Mn in a low oxidation state exhibited poorer redox ability and NO activation, resulting in a decrease in low‐temperature SCR activity. However, instead of directly affecting the CeOx and VOx sites, gaseous HCl reacted with NH3 to form NH4Cl species on the surface of CeW/Ti and VW/Ti catalysts. As a result, the SCR activity of VW/Ti catalyst was scarcely influenced by HCl, taking the unchanged redox ability and NH3 adsorption. With a further accumulation of NH4Cl on CeW/Ti catalyst, the NOx conversion at low temperature was evidently enhanced due to the promotion in NO‐to‐NO2 conversion (Fast‐SCR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides (NOx) with C3H6 (C3H6‐SCR) was investigated over NiO catalysts supported on different metal‐oxides. A NiAlOx mixed oxide phase was formed over NiO/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst, inducing an immediate interaction between NiOx and AlOx species. Such interaction resulted in a charge transfer from Ni to Al site and the formation of Ni species in high oxidation state. In comparison to other NiO‐loaded catalysts, NiO/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst exhibited the highest NOx conversion at temperature higher than 450 °C, but a poor C3H6 oxidation activity due to the decreased nucleophilicity for surface oxygen species. By temperature‐programed NO oxidation, it is indicated that nitrate species were rapidly formed and stably maintained at high temperature over NiO/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst. In situ transient reactions further verified the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism for C3H6‐SCR, where both gaseous NO and C3H6 were adsorbed and activated on catalyst surface and reacted to generate N2. Due to the strong metal‐support interaction over NiO/γ‐Al2O3 catalyst, both nitrate and CxHyOz intermediates were well preserved to attain high C3H6‐SCR activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]