Search

The Sn-doped MnOx(0.25)/CoSn3Al-LDO catalyst by hydrothermal and impregnation methods achieves 100% NO conversion at 120–330 °C.

Many herbs and herbal formulae have been proven to offer safe and effective treatment for hyperlipidemia. However, the molecular mechanisms of their treatment have not been fully elucidated. Here, a total of 103 herbal formulae, including 146 individual herbs used to treat hyperlipidemia, were screened. Next, 40 common targets of core herbs and hyperlipidemia were extracted, representing potential targets of the herbal medicines for the treatment of hyperlipidemia. Further analysis revealed that the seven proteins most relevant to hyperlipidemia treatment were IL6, AKT1, IL1B, PTGS2, VEGFA, PPARG, and NOS3. Surprisingly, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis suggested that the herbs may treat hyperlipidemia by influencing the lipid and atherosclerosis pathway and the pathway in cancer. Molecular docking revealed significant affinity between bioactive compounds such as physciondiglucoside and baicalin with proteins involved in cancer pathways. Three active compounds, including 3-beta-hydroxymethyllenetanshiquinone, dan-shexinkum d, and physciondiglucoside have good binding ability with AKT1, PTGS2, and PPARG. The anti-hyperlipidemia activity of herbal medicines may be mediated via regulating proteins with roles in cancer. This study provides further evidence supporting the potential pharmacotherapeutic candidates for the combined treatment of hyperlipidemia and cancer in the future.

Both the canonical Wnt and androgen receptor (AR) signaling pathways are important for prostate organogenesis and homeostasis. How they crosstalk to regulate prostate stem cell behaviors remains unclear. Here, we show in lineage-tracing mouse models that although Wnt is essential for basal stem cell multipotency, ectopic Wnt activity promotes basal cell over-proliferation and squamous phenotypes, which are counteracted by elevated levels of androgen. In prostate basal cell organoids, dihydrotestosterone (DHT) antagonizes R-spondin-stimulated growth in a concentration-dependent manner. DHT down-regulates the expressions of a Wnt reporter and target genes, and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses identify Wnt signaling as a key altered pathway. Mechanistically, DHT enhances AR and β-catenin protein binding, and CUT&RUN analyses reveal that ectopic AR sequesters β-catenin away from its Wnt-related cistrome. Our results suggest that an intermediate level of Wnt activity in prostate basal stem cells, achieved via AR-β-catenin interaction, is essential for normal prostate homeostasis.

International audience; The (100) surface of alpha-MoO3 (α-MoO3) should possess overwhelmingly more exposed Mo than the (010), and the exposed Mo has been extensively considered as active site for amine adsorption. However, α-MoO3 (100) has drawn little attention concerning amine sensing mechanism. In this research, adsorption of ammonia (NH3), monomethylamine (MMA), dimethylamine (DMA), and trimethylamine (TMA) is systematically investigated by density functional theory (DFT). All of these four molecules have high affinity to α-MoO3 (100) through interaction between the N and the exposed Mo, and the affinity is mainly influenced by number of methyl group and number of N-connected H. Adsorption and dissociation of water and oxygen molecule on stoichiometric or defective α-MoO3 (100) surface are then simulated to fully understand surface chemistry of α-MoO3 (100) in practical condition. At low temperature α-MoO3 (100) must be covered with lots of water molecule; the water can desorb or dissociate into hydroxyl groups at high temperature. Oxygen vacancy (VO) can be generated considering the annealing process during sensor device fabrication; VO must be filled with O2 molecule, which can further interact with adsorbed water nearby to form hydroxyl groups. According to this research, α-MoO3 (100) must be the active surface for amine sensing and its surface chemistry is well understood. In near future, further reaction and interaction will be simulated at α-MoO3 (100), and much more attention should be paid to α-MoO3 (100) not only theoretically but also experimentally.

Dual-atom catalysts possess a significant potential for promoting CO2 photoreduction to lucrative solar fuels. However, the precise construction of the diatomic sites that simultaneously foster light absorption and catalytic activity is a formidable challenge, as both processes follow distinct pathways in the photocatalyst. Herein, a facile electrostatic-driven self-assembling approach is employed to realize a bifunctional architecture of a diatomic LaNi-Phen (Phenanthroline)/covalent organic framework (COF-5) photocatalyst. The La site acts as an optically active center for the photoinduced generation of carriers, while the Ni site serves as the catalytically active center for highly selective CO2-to-CO reduction enabled by directional charge transfer via COF-5. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations and in-situ characterization reveal the efficient synergistic effect of the La-Ni double-atomic sites, leading to decreased reaction energy barriers of *COOH intermediate and enhanced CO2-to-CO conversion. As a result, in the absence of any additional photosensitizers, a 15.2 times enhancement of the CO2 reduction rate (605.8 µmol·g− 1·h− 1) over that of pristine COF-5 colloid (39.9 µmol·g− 1·h− 1) and an improvement in CO selectivity to 98.2% are achieved. This work presents a novel strategy for integrating optically and catalytically active centers, which results in a diatomic synergy effect enabling high-performance photocatalytic CO2 reduction.

We obtain that a weak solution $(u,d)$ to the Liquid Crystal system is strong, if any two components of $u$ and $\nabla d$ satisfy Ladyzhenskaya-Prodi-Serrin’s condition, that is $$\|u^1\|_{L^{r,s}}+\|u^2\|_{L^{r,s}}+\|\nabla d\|_{L^{r,s}}\leq \infty, \qquad\frac{3}{r}+\frac{2}{s}\leq1.$$ We also prove that the velocity $u$ is bounded locally if any two comonents of $u$ and $\nabla d$ belong to $L^{6,\infty}$ and $u$ belongs to $L^{2+\delta}$ ($\delta>0$).

Halide perovskite quantum dots (HP QDs) have been widely used in the field of photocatalysis due to their excellent performance. However, the issues of lead toxicity and instability prevent their process in the photocatalysis application. Herein, the lead-free Cs2AgInCl6 perovskite quantum dots (CAIC QDs) are synthesized by the hot-injection method, and CAIC QDs@Ag composites with various Ag loading amounts are self-assembled by adjusting the Cl source in the synthesis process, which is used to improve the CO2 photoreduction efficiency by using the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of Ag nanoparticles. In addition, the surface ligand density of CAIC QDs@Ag composites is regulated by the purification processing treatment to release the influence of organic ligands on the charge transport performance. It is found that the CAIC QDs@Ag composite with the optimal ligands density possesses fast electron transport and effective carrier separation efficiency, which are crucial for the improvement of the photocatalysis reaction. As a result, the CAIC QDs@Ag-2 composite after purification processing achieves the highest yield of 26.4 μmol g−1 and 28.9 μmol g−1 for CO and CH4, respectively, during the CO2 photoreduction process. In addition, there is no significant decline of CO2 photoreduction performance after the photocatalysis cycling test for 9 h, indicating the good stability of the CAIC QDs@Ag composite in the photocatalysis process.

The regularity for the 3-D nematic liquid crystal equations is considered in this paper, it is proved that the Leray–Hopf weak solutions (u, d) is in fact smooth, if the velocity field $$u\in L^\infty (0,T;L^{3,\infty }_x(\mathbb {R}^3))$$ satisfies some addition local small condition $$\begin{aligned} r^{-3}\left| \left\{ x\in B_r(x_0): |u(x,t_0)|>\varepsilon r^{-1}\right\} \right| \le \varepsilon , \end{aligned}$$ which is inspired by the papers [2, 35].

Telemedicine provides an attractive vision for tele-monitoring human health conditions and, thus, offers the opportunity for timely preventing chronic disease. A key limitation of promoting telemedicine in clinic application is the lack of a noninvasive med-tech and effective monitoring platform, which should be wearable and capable of high-performance tele-monitoring of health risk. Here we proposed a volatolomics-based telemedicine for continuously and noninvasively assessing human health status through continuously tracking the variation of volatile markers derived from human breath or skin. Particularly, a nanosensor-based flexible electronic was specifically designed to serve as a powerful platform for implementing the proposed cost-effective healthcare. An all-flexible and highly packed makeup (all functional units were integrated in a 2*2*0.19 cm3 plate) enables an electronic, compact configuration and the capability of resisting negative impact derived from customers' daily movement. Notably, the nanosensor-based electronic demonstrates high specificity, quick response rate (t90% = 4.5 s), and desirable low detection limit (down to 0.117 ppm) in continuous tele-monitoring chronic-disease-related volatile marker (e.g., acetone). Assisted by the power saved light fidelity (Li-Fi) communicating technology, a clinic proof on the specifically designed electronic for noninvasively and uninterrupted assessing potential health risk (e.g., diabetics) is successfully implemented, with the accuracy of around 81%. A further increase in the accuracy of prewarning is predicted by excluding the impact of individual differences such as the gender, age, and smoking status of the customer. These promising pilot results indicate a bright future for the tailor-made nanosensing-device-supported volatolomics-based telemedicine in preventing chronic diseases and increasing patients' survival rate.

All-inorganic zero-dimensional (0D) tetrahedrite (Cu12Sb4S13, CAS) quantum dots (QDs) have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent optical properties, bandgap tunability, and carrier mobility. In this paper, various sized CAS QDs (5.1, 6.7, and 7.9 nm) are applied as a switching layer with the structure F:SnO2 (FTO)/CAS QDs/Au, and in doing so, the nonvolatile resistive-switching behavior of electronics based on CAS QDs is reported. The SET/RESET voltage tunability with size dependency is observed for memory devices based on CAS QDs for the first time. Results suggest that differently sized CAS QDs result in different band structures and the regulation of the SET/RESET voltage occurs simply and effectively due to the uniform size of the CAS QDs. Moreover, the presented memory devices have reliable bipolar resistive-switching properties, a resistance (ON/OFF) ratio larger than 104, high reproducibility, and good data retention ability. After 1.4 ×106 s of stability testing and 104 cycles of quick read tests, the change rate of the ON/OFF ratio is smaller than 0.1%. Furthermore, resistive-witching stability can be improved by ensuring a uniform particle size for the CAS QDs. The theoretical calculations suggest that the space-charge-limited currents (SCLCs), which are functioned by Cu 3d, Cu 3p and S 3p to act as electron self-trapping centers due to their quantum confinement and form conduction pathways under an electric field, are responsible for the resistive-switching effect. This paper demonstrates that CAS QDs are promising as a novel resistive-switching material in memory devices and can be used to facilitate the application of next-generation nonvolatile memory.

In the work, rGO nanosheet is synthesized using the typical Hummer’s method, then Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots@rGO composites are prepared by solvent thermal method, and Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots with the average size of 5 nm are densely distributed on the surface of rGO sheet. NH3 gas response of Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots@rGO nanosheet composites at room temperature of 25 °C is enhanced compared with the pure Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots and rGO nanosheet, and the composites possess an excellent stability during the humidity range of 45%–80% with a low detection limit of 1 ppm, which is related with the intrinsic hydrophobicity characteristic of Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots. It also proves that Cu12Sb4S13 quantum dots@rGO nanosheet composites have a quite high selectivity towards ammonia compared with ethanol, methanol, acetone, toluene, hydrogen sulfide and nitrogen dioxide at room temperature. The gas sensing mechanism of the composites is discussed primarily.

Conical bamboo-like TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) electrodes, instead of the traditional TiO2 NTs and conical TiO2 NTs electrodes, are employed as the photo-electrodes for the fabrication of CuInS2 quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs), which have improved deposition content of QDs in solar cells. The distances between each bamboo ring are modulated by the different anodization holding times. In addition, the optical properties of different TiO2 NTs electrodes and CuInS2 quantum dots sensitized photo-electrodes are investigated, which reveals that the deposition content of QDs have been improved by the bamboo rings of conical bamboo-like TiO2 NTs based photo-electrodes to obtain better optical absorption property and charge separation property. More importantly, the bamboo rings in the conical bamboo-like TiO2 NTs structure can provide more paths for the charge transfer, which results in improved charge transfer rate in the QDSSCs. Finally, the optimized conical bamboo-like TiO2 NTs prepared by anodization holding time of 20 min exhibits higher current density, which leads to a significant increasing of the photovoltaic conversion efficiency from 4.65% to 5.98%.

In this paper, we study the following nonlinear magnetic Schrödinger-Poisson type equation ( ε i ∇ − A ( x ) ) 2 u + V ( x ) u + ϵ − 2 ( | x | − 1 ∗ | u | 2 ) u = f ( | u | 2 ) u in R 3 , u ∈ H 1 ( R 3 , C ) , $$\begin{array}{} \displaystyle \left\{\!\begin{aligned}&\Big(\frac{\varepsilon}{i}\nabla-A(x)\Big)^{2}u+V(x)u+\epsilon^{-2}(\vert x\vert^{-1}\ast \vert u\vert^{2})u = f(|u|^{2})u\quad\hbox{in }\mathbb{R}^3,\\&u\in H^{1}(\mathbb{R}^{3}, \mathbb{C}),\end{aligned}\right. \end{array}$$ where ϵ > 0, V : ℝ3 → ℝ and A : ℝ3 → ℝ3 are continuous potentials. Under a local assumption on the potential V, by variational methods, penalization technique, and Ljusternick-Schnirelmann theory, we prove multiplicity and concentration properties of nontrivial solutions for ε > 0 small. In this problem, the function f is only continuous, which allow to consider larger classes of nonlinearities in the reaction.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have developed rapidly in the past 10 years. However, they are faced with a huge challenge for stability improvement because of the volatile organic components in the ...

A set of 3D-printed analytical devices were developed to investigate erythrocytes (ERYs) processed in conventional and modified storage solutions used in transfusion medicine. During storage prior to transfusion into a patient recipient, ERYs undergo many chemical and physical changes that are not completely understood. However, these changes are thought to contribute to an increase in post-transfusion complications, and even an increase in mortality rates. Here, a reusable fluidic device (fabricated with additive manufacturing technologies) enabled the evaluation of ERYs prior to, and after, introduction into a stream of flowing fresh ERYs, thus representing components of an in vivo ERY transfusion on an in vitro platform. Specifically, ERYs stored in conventional and glucose-modified solutions were assayed by chemiluminescence for their ability to release flow-induced ATP. The ERYs deformability was also determined throughout the storage duration using a novel membrane transport approach housed in a 3D-printed scaffold. Results show that hyperglycemic conditions permanently alter ERY deformability, which may explain the reduced ATP release, as this phenomenon is related to cell deformability. Importantly, the reduced deformability and ATP release were reversible in an in vitro model of transfusion; specifically, when stored cells were introduced into a flowing stream of healthy cells, the ERY-derived release of ATP and cell deformability both returned to states similar to that of non-stored cells. However, after 1–2 weeks of storage, the deleterious effects of the storage were permanent. These results suggest that currently approved hyperglycemic storage solutions are having adverse effects on stored ERYs used in transfusion medicine and that normoglycemic storage may reduce the storage lesion, especially for cells stored for longer than 14 days.

Androgen receptor (AR) is expressed in both the prostate epithelium and the prostate stroma and plays diverse roles in prostate physiology. Although low expression of stromal AR is clinically associated with advanced cancer stage and worse outcome, whether stromal AR inhibits or promotes prostate cancer progression remains controversial. Here, we specifically delete AR in smooth muscle cells of the adult mouse prostate under two tumorigenic conditions, namely, the Hi-Myc genetic model and the T+ E2 hormonal carcinogenesis model. Histology analyses show that stromal AR deletion exacerbates tumor progression phenotypes in both models. Furthermore, single-cell analyses of the tumor samples reveal that secretory luminal cells are the cell population particularly affected by stromal AR deletion, as they transition to a cellular state of potentiated PI3K-mTORC1 activities. Our results suggest that stromal AR normally inhibits prostate cancer progression by restraining secretory luminal cells and imply possible unintended negative effects of androgen deprivation therapy.

All-inorganic α-CsPbI3 perovskite quantum dots (QDs) are attracting great interest as solar cell absorbers due to their appealing light harvesting properties and enhanced stability due to the absence of volatile organic constituents. Moreover, ex situ synthesized QDs significantly reduce the variability of the perovskite layer deposition process. However, the incorporation of α-CsPbI3 QDs into mesoporous TiO2 (m-TiO2) is highly challenging, but these constitute the best performing electron transport materials in state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells. Herein, the m-TiO2 surface is engineered using an electron-rich cesium-ion containing methyl acetate solution. As one effect of this treatment, the solid-liquid interfacial tension at the TiO2 surface is reduced and the wettability is improved, facilitating the migration of the QDs into m-TiO2. As a second effect, Cs+ ions passivate the QD surface and promote the charge transfer at the m-TiO2/QD interface, leading to an enhancement of the electron injection rate by a factor of 3. In combination with an ethanol-environment smoothing route that significantly reduces the surface roughness of the m-TiO2/QD layer, optimized devices exhibit highly reproducible power conversion efficiencies exceeding 13%. The best cell with an efficiency of 14.32% (reverse scan) reaches a short-circuit current density of 17.77 mA cm-2, which is an outstanding value for QD-based perovskite solar cells.

The previous decades have witnessed increasing prevalence of research on chemiresistive gas sensors due to their high response, simple configuration and low cost. Chemiresistive gas sensors based on low-dimensional (0D, 1D and 2D) nanomaterials are remarkable because their high specific areas, abundant active sites and quantum effects in a certain dimension endow them with extraordinary gas sensing performance. Additionally, it has been gradually demonstrated that fabricating nanocomposites from various low-dimensional nanomaterials can further improve their sensing performance. The nanocomposites are generally in the form of 0D nanostructure-functionalized 1D or 2D nanomaterials. This review aims to elaborate the functionalization of 0D nanomaterials, including metal oxide semiconductors (MOSs), noble metals (NMs), metal chalcogenides (MCs), metal organics, conductive polymers (CPs) and others, on various 1D or 2D backbone nanomaterials. The content includes methods for depositing 0D nanomaterials on 1D or 2D backbones as well as the gas sensing performance and underlying mechanisms of 0D–1D and 0D–2D nanocomposites.

Accurate and timely traffic flow forecasting is the key technology to address the issue of urban traffic congestion, which is significant for intelligent transportation system. However, it is a quite challenging task to develop an efficient, robust and automatically generated forecasting model. In this paper, we propose a novel model, ensemble forecasting architecture based on non-negative constrained sparse autoencoder and extreme learning machine(NCAE-ELM-EA). This model is designed using NCAE to extract traffic characteristics layer-by-layer through a greedy unsupervised algorithm, and the prediction network formed by connecting NCAE and ELM serves as base learner of each lag pool. Then, employing adaptive enhanced integration algorithm to build an ensemble optimized forecasting model with scalable size suitable for each road segment. The model was applied to the actual data collected from I5 NB highways in Portland, USA, and J6-J7(N) freeways in the United Kingdom, with higher accuracy and lower labor costs compared with existing predictors.

The photocatalytic activities of nonpolar crystal facets are different from those of polar crystal facets. It is important to directly observe photocatalytic activities of the photocatalysts with the different facets. ZnO nanoparticles are synthesized through a sol-gel method and studied by in-situ vacuum Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy for photo-induced decomposition of formaldehyde. It is found that the annealing of ZnO nanoparticles results in redistribution of crystal facets with the partial transformation from polar facets to nonpolar ones, which is evidenced by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and in-situ vacuum Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activities of ZnO nanoparticles with different crystal facets are characterized by the evolution rate of IR absorption band of the adsorbates under UV light irradiation. Compared with the nonpolar crystal facets on ZnO nanoparticles, the polar crystal facets exhibit higher photocatalytic activities toward CH2O decomposition, revealing that the photocatalytic activity can be strongly affected by the crystal facet polarities.

Heterostructure MoS2 nanosheets decorated CdS nanoparticles were successfully prepared by a facile two-step solvothermal method. The growth of ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets on CdS surface in terms of thickness and interlayers of (002) MoS2 was controlled by changing solvothermal reaction temperature. A series of MoS2 nanosheets decorated CdS nanoparticles were prepared at different temperature. The synthesized composites were characterized with XRD, FESEM, TEM, UV–vis DRS, BET, PL, XPS, EPR and I-T. TEM observations revealed the growth of ultrathin MoS2 nanosheets over the CdS nanoparticles, the thickness of MoS2 sheets and interlayers distance of (002) in composite was found to decrease with increasing the reaction temperature to 220 °C, under the same conditions. Photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared MoS2/CdS nanocomposites for the MO degradation were evaluated under the visible light irradiation. The ultrathin MoS2/CdS nanocomposites 1–220 with thinner sheets prepared at 220 °C exhibits higher photocatalytic efficiency for degradation of MO under visible light than all the other synthesized samples at different temperature. Furthermore, it was found that this catalyst retains remarkable photocatalytic activity after five cycles. The PL spectrum and photocurrent responses results suggest that the MoS2/CdS nanocomposite 1–220 possess higher separation efficiency and minimum recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes than pure CdS. The photocatalytic degradation mechanism of the MO over MoS2/CdS nanocomposite was proposed.

Novel CuSbS2 quantum dots (QDs)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composites are self-assembled via a hot-injection method, and CuSbS2 QDs exhibit a near monodispersion on the rGO surface. The gas sensors based on CuSbS2 QDs/rGO composites show the relatively good gas responses toward NH3 with an outstanding detection limit of 500 ppb and an average response time of 50 s at room temperature, and visible light illumination is proven to further promote the sensing performance of the composites. The study of the sensing mechanism reveals that the acidic sites on the surface play an extremely important role in NH3 adsorption of the composites, and the reaction between NH3 molecules and the pre-adsorbed oxygen ions finally leads to the generation of NO molecules. The synergistic effect existing between CuSbS2 QDs and rGO, in terms of electron transfer, is certified as well.

In the present work, V2O5 microspheres with the diameters ranging from 1 to 2 μm are prepared by a facile hydrothermal progress, and then V2O5@TiO2 core-shell microspheres are successfully synthesized by a solution method. It is found that the light absorption intensity of V2O5@TiO2 core-shell microspheres is greatly enhanced compared with those of V2O5 microspheres and P25 in UV and visible light ranges. The photodegradation rate towards gaseous benzene of V2O5@TiO2-20% core-shell microspheres is the best one, and it will increase from 27.8% and 10% (pure V2O5 microspheres) to be 100% and 71.8% after 75 min’ irradiation under UV and visible light irradiation, respectively. The reason lies in the fact that the formation of V2O5@TiO2 core-shell microspheres may favor for the light absorption as well as the effective separation of the photoexcited electrons and holes.

This work reports the hydrothermal synthesis of silver decorated sandwiched-like vanadium pentoxide (Ag–V2O5) nanosheets and their investigation for sensing of ethanol, acetone, n-propylamine and ammonia vapors at room temperature. Sandwich-type architectured (MI–MIO–MIIO) Ag–Ag2O–V2O5 nanosheets have been synthesized here. Structure, morphology and oxidation states of the material were analyzed using X-rays diffraction, FESEM and XPS studies, respectively. Gas sensing characteristics of the sensors based on Ag–V2O5 nanosheets were evaluated both in static and dynamic modes. It was figured out that the behavior of the sensing material is of p-type semiconducting nature with a high sensitivity value (≈22), fast response speed (in seconds) and high selectivity toward ethanol at room temperature which has been explained on the basis of semiconductors models. High sensitivity, quick response and significant selectivity of the sensors confirm their potential applications for environmental, security, food preservation and other industrial purposes.