Surface-Controlled CdS/Ti3 C2 MXene Schottky Junction for Highly Selective and Active Photocatalytic Dehydrogenation-Reductive Amination.

Photocatalytic valorization and selective transformation of biomass-derived platform compounds offer great opportunities for efficient utilization of renewable resources under mild conditions. Here, the novel three-dimensional hierarchical flower-like CdS/Ti3 C2 Schottky junction (MCdS) composed of surface-controlled CdS and pretreated Ti3 C2 MXene is created for photocatalytic dehydrogenation-reductive amination of biomass-derived amino acid production under ambient temperature with unprecedented activity and selectivity. Schottky junction efficiently promotes photoexcited charge migration and separation and inhibits photogenerated electron-hole recombination, which results in a super-high activity. Meanwhile, CdS with the reduced surface energy supplies sufficient hydrogen sources for imine reduction and induces the preferential orientation of alanine, thus contributing superior selectivity. Moreover, a wide range of hydroxyl acids are successfully converted into corresponding amino acids and even one-pot conversion of glucose to alanine is easily achieved over MCdS. This work illustrates the mechanism of crystal orientation control and heterojunction construction in controlling catalytic behavior of photocatalytic nanoreactor, providing a paradigm for construction of MXene-based heterostructure.

The effects of energy intake of four different feeding patterns in rats.

Energy intake can affect the metabolism. But it is not very clear that how and to what degree the metabolism can be changed by energy intake quantity and change. Here we applied four feeding patterns in male Sprague-Dawley rats--normal ad libitum diet (NFal), high-fat diet (HFal), caloric restriction (CR) after HFal (HFal-NFcr), and refeeding from CR to ad libitum (HFal-NFcr-NFal). Food intake and body weight, along with fat mass, insulin sensitivity, fasting plasma insulin, and glucose level were used to calculate the energy efficiency and compared the quantitative effects of energy intake. Energy intake changed little in NFal or HFal group; while it changed greatly and suddenly in HFal-NFcr or HFal-NFcr-NFal group. All the parameters we detected were different between these four feeding patterns. Excess of energy intake from high-fat diet induced adverse outcomes with low energy efficiency. CR reversed the impairment of high-fat diet with very high energy efficiency in a short period. However, dramatic response with high energy efficiency induced by recovery to feeding ad libitum after CR, which was possible harmful to health. In conclusion, energy intake quantity and change are key determinants of metabolism. Different energy intake quantity and change affect body weight, white adipose tissue weight, insulin sensitivity, etc. at different degrees and speeds because of different energy efficiency.

Analysis on health information extracted from an urban professional population in Beijing.

BACKGROUND: The assembled data from a population could provide information on health trends within the population. The aim of this research was to extract and know basic health information from an urban professional population in Beijing. METHODS: Data analysis was carried out in a population who underwent a routine medical check-up and aged > 20 years, including 30 058 individuals. General information, data from physical examinations and blood samples were collected in the same method. The health status was separated into three groups by the criteria generated in this study, i.e., people with common chronic diseases, people in a sub-clinic situation, and healthy people. The proportion of both common diseases suffered and health risk distribution of different age groups were also analyzed. RESULTS: The proportion of people with common chronic diseases, in the sub-clinic group and in the healthy group was 28.6%, 67.8% and 3.6% respectively. There were significant differences in the health situation in different age groups. Hypertension was on the top of list of self-reported diseases. The proportion of chronic diseases increased significantly in people after 35 years of age. Meanwhile, the proportion of sub-clinic conditions was decreasing at the same rate. The complex risk factors to health in this population were metabolic disturbances (61.3%), risk for tumor (2.7%), abnormal results of morphological examination (8.2%) and abnormal results of lab tests of serum (27.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Health information could be extracted from a complex data set from the heath check-ups of the general population. The information should be applied to support prevention and control chronic diseases as well as for directing intervention for patients with risk factors for disease.