A novel active transposon creates allelic variation through altered translation rate to influence protein abundance.

Protein translation is tightly and precisely controlled by multiple mechanisms including upstream open reading frames (uORFs), but the origins of uORFs and their role in maize are largely unexplored. In this study, an active transposition event was identified during the propagation of maize inbred line B73. The transposon, which was named BTA for 'B73 active transposable element hAT', creates a novel dosage-dependent hypomorphic allele of the hexose transporter gene ZmSWEET4c through insertion within the coding sequence in the first exon, and results in reduced kernel size. The BTA insertion does not affect transcript abundance but reduces protein abundance of ZmSWEET4c, probably through the introduction of a uORF. Furthermore, the introduction of BTA sequence in the exon of other genes can regulate translation efficiency without affecting their mRNA levels. A transposon capture assay revealed 79 novel insertions for BTA and BTA-like elements. These insertion sites have typical euchromatin features, including low levels of DNA methylation and high levels of H3K27ac. A putative autonomous element that mobilizes BTA and BTA-like elements was identified. Together, our results suggest a transposon-based origin of uORFs and document a new role for transposable elements to influence protein abundance and phenotypic diversity by affecting the translation rate.

Dual-Ligand Strategy to Construct Metal Organic Gel Catalyst with the Optimized Electronic Structure for High-Efficiency Overall Water Splitting and Flexible Metal-Air Battery.

Non-noble metal catalysts are known for their efficient catalytic performance for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Metal organic gels (MOGs) can be considered as a promising electrocatalyst owing to the diverse physicochemical properties but usually suffer from its poor electrical conductivity and catalytic stability. Here, a FeCo-MOG is constructed with considerable trifunctional activity. The optimal P-CoFe-H3 prepared by using phytic acid (PA) and 2,4,6-Tris[(p-carboxyphenyl)amino]-1,3,5-triazine benzoic acid (H3TATAB) as dual ligands), exhibits outstanding ORR, OER, and HER activities as well as stability, exceeding most of state-of-the-art catalysts. As expected, the flexible Zn-air battery applied with P-CoFe-H3 as air cathode displays considerable power density, discharge voltage plateau, and cycling stability. Impressively, it is also capable of driving the overall water-splitting device by applying the P-CoFe-H3 as anode and cathode. Furthermore, theoretical calculations reveal that dual ligands can optimize the coordination environment and charge density of active sites, thereby reducing the absorption energy of intermediate species and boosting the catalytic performance. This work endows the dual-ligands coordination strategy with great potentiality for MOGs-based electrocatalysts in energy conversion devices.

Calcineurin B-like protein ZmCBL8-1 promotes salt stress resistance in Arabidopsis.

MAIN CONCLUSION: ZmCBL8-1 enhances salt stress tolerance in maize by improving the antioxidant system to neutralize ROS homeostasis and inducing Na+/H+ antiporter gene expressions of leaves. Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) as plant-specific calcium sensors have been explored for their roles in the regulation of abiotic stress tolerance. Further, the functional variations in ZmCBL8, encoding a component of the salt overly sensitive pathway, conferred the salt stress tolerance in maize. ZmCBL8-1 is a transcript of ZmCBL8 found in maize, but its function in the salt stress response is still unclear. The present study aimed to characterize the protein ZmCBL8-1 that was determined to be composed of 194 amino acids (aa) with three conserved EF hands responsible for binding Ca2+. However, a 20-aa fragment was found to be missing from its C-terminus relative to another transcript of ZmCBL8. Results indicated that it harbored a dual-lipid modification motif MGCXXS at its N-terminus and was located on the cell membrane. The accumulation of ZmCBL8-1 transcripts was high in the roots but relatively lower in the leaves of maize under normal condition. In contrast, its expression was significantly decreased in the roots, while increased in the leaves under NaCl treatment. The overexpression of ZmCBL8-1 resulted in higher salt stress resistance of transgenic Arabidopsis in a Ca2+-dependent manner relative to that of the wild type (WT). In ZmCBL8-1-overexpressing plants exposed to NaCl, the contents of malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide were decreased in comparison with those in the WT, and the expression of key genes involved in the antioxidant defense system and Na+/H+ antiporter were upregulated. These results suggested that ZmCBL8-1 played a positive role in the response of leaves to salt stress by inducing the expression of Na+/H+ antiporter genes and enhancing the antioxidant system to neutralize the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. These observations further indicate that ZmCBL8-1 confers salt stress tolerance, suggesting that transcriptional regulation of the ZmCBL8 gene is important for salt tolerance.

Enhanced Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution of In2S3 by Decorating In2O3 with Rich Oxygen Vacancies.

The hydrogen (H2) evolution rates of photocatalysts suffer from weak oxidation and reduction ability and low photogenerated charge carrier separation efficiency. Herein, by combining band-gap structure optimization and vacancy modulation through a one-step hydrothermal method, In2O3 containing oxygen vacancy (Ov/In2O3) is simply introduced into In2S3 to promote photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Specifically, the change in the sulfur source ratio can induce the coexistence of Ov/In2O3 and In2S3 in a high-temperature hydrothermal process. Under light irradiation, In2S3@Ov/In2O3-0.1 nanosheets hold a remarkable average H2 evolution rate up to 4.04 mmol g-1 h-1, which is 32.14, 11.91, and 2.25-fold better than those of pristine In2S3, In2S3@Ov/In2O3-0.02, and In2S3@Ov/In2O3-0.25 nanosheets, respectively. The ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence (PL) spectra reveal that the formation of Ov/In2O3 in In2S3 optimizes the band-gap structure and accelerates the migration of the photogenerated charge carrier of In2S3@Ov/In2O3-x nanosheets, respectively. Both the enhancement of oxidation and reduction ability and photogenerated charge carrier separation ability are responsible for the remarkable improvement in photocatalytic H2 evolution performance. This work provides a new strategy to prepare a composite of metal sulfide and metal oxide through a one-step hydrothermal method.

The contribution of small heterodimer partner to the occurrence and progression of cholestatic liver injury.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Small heterodimer partner (SHP, encoded by NR0B2) plays an important role in maintaining bile acid homeostasis. The loss of the hepatic farnesoid X receptor (FXR)/SHP signal can cause severe cholestatic liver injury (CLI). FXR and SHP have overlapping and nonoverlapping functions in bile acid homeostasis. However, the key role played by SHP in CLI is unclear. METHODS: In this study, an alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced cholestasis mouse model was established. The effect of SHP knockout (SHP-KO) on liver and ileal pathology was evaluated. 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis combined with untargeted metabolomics was applied to reveal the involvement of SHP in the pathogenesis of CLI. RESULTS: The results showed that ANIT (75 mg/kg) induced cholestasis in WT mice. No significant morphological changes were found in the liver and ileal tissue of SHP-KO mice. However, the serum metabolism and intestinal flora characteristics were significantly changed. Moreover, compared with the WT + ANIT group, the serum levels of ALT and AST in the SHP-KO + ANIT group were significantly increased, and punctate necrosis in the liver tissue was more obvious. The ileum villi showed obvious shedding, thinning, and shortening. In addition, SHP-KO-associated differential intestinal flora and differential biomarkers were significantly associated. CONCLUSION: In this study, we elucidated the serum metabolic characteristics and intestinal flora changes related to the aggravation of CLI in SHP-KO mice induced by ANIT.

Correlation between serum biomarkers, brain volume, and retinal neuronal loss in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

PURPOSE: To compare the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL), retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), and ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness measurement in early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD) and controls using spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). We also assessed the relationship between SD-OCT measurements and cognitive measures, serum biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and cerebral microstructural volume. METHODS: pRNFL, RNFL, and GCC thicknesses were measured in 43 EOAD and 42 controls using SD-OCT. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to assess cognitive status, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tool was used to quantify cerebral microstructural volume, and serum biomarkers were quantified from peripheral blood. RESULTS: EOAD patients had thinner pRNFL (P < 0.001), RNFL (P = 0.008), and GCC (P = 0.018) thicknesses compared to controls after adjusting for multiple factors. pRNFL thickness correlated (P = 0.016) with serum t-tau level. Serum Aß42 (P < 0.05) concentration correlated with RNFL thickness. Importantly, occipital lobe volume (P = 0.010) correlated with GCC thicknesses in EOAD patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that retinal thickness may be useful markers for assessing neurodegenerative process in EOAD.

Accurate Robot Arm Attitude Estimation Based on Multi-View Images and Super-Resolution Keypoint Detection Networks.

Robot arm monitoring is often required in intelligent industrial scenarios. A two-stage method for robot arm attitude estimation based on multi-view images is proposed. In the first stage, a super-resolution keypoint detection network (SRKDNet) is proposed. The SRKDNet incorporates a subpixel convolution module in the backbone neural network, which can output high-resolution heatmaps for keypoint detection without significantly increasing the computational resource consumption. Efficient virtual and real sampling and SRKDNet training methods are put forward. The SRKDNet is trained with generated virtual data and fine-tuned with real sample data. This method decreases the time and manpower consumed in collecting data in real scenarios and achieves a better generalization effect on real data. A coarse-to-fine dual-SRKDNet detection mechanism is proposed and verified. Full-view and close-up dual SRKDNets are executed to first detect the keypoints and then refine the results. The keypoint detection accuracy, PCK@0.15, for the real robot arm reaches up to 96.07%. In the second stage, an equation system, involving the camera imaging model, the robot arm kinematic model and keypoints with different confidence values, is established to solve the unknown rotation angles of the joints. The proposed confidence-based keypoint screening scheme makes full use of the information redundancy of multi-view images to ensure attitude estimation accuracy. Experiments on a real UR10 robot arm under three views demonstrate that the average estimation error of the joint angles is 0.53 degrees, which is superior to that achieved with the comparison methods.

Direct Growth of Polymeric Carbon Nitride Nanosheet Photoanode for Greatly Efficient Photoelectrochemical Water-Splitting.

A general method for the direct synthesis of highly homogeneous and dense polymerized carbon nitride (PCN) nanosheet films on F: SnO2 (FTO) is developed. Detailed photoelectrochemical (PEC) water-splitting studies reveal that the as-synthesized PCN films exhibit outstanding performance as photoanode for PEC water-splitting. The optimal PCN photoanode exhibits excellent photocurrent density of 650 µA cm-2 , and monochromatic incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) value up to 30.55% (λ = 400 nm) and 25.97% (λ = 420 nm) at 1.23 VRHE in 0.1 m KOH electrolyte. More importantly, the PCN photoanode has an excellent hole extraction efficiency of up to 70 ± 3% due to the abundance of active sites provided by the PCN photoanode nanosheet, which promotes the transport rates of OER-relevant species. These PCN films provide a new benchmark for PCN photoanode materials.

Fast and Reversible Quasi-Solid-State Anion Exchange in Highly Luminescent CsPbX3 Perovskite Nanocrystals for Dual-Mode Encryption-Decryption.

Solid-state anion exchange method is easy to handle and beneficial to improve stability of CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, I) perovskites nanocrystals (NCs) with respect to anion exchange in liquid phase. However, the corresponding exchange rate is rather slow due to the limited diffusion rate of anions from solid phases, resulting in mixed-halide perovskite NCs. Herein,  a fast and reversible post-synthetic quasi-solid-state anion exchange method in CsPbX3 NCs with inorganic potassium halide KX salts/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) thin film is firstly reported. Original morphology of the exchanged NCs is well-preserved for all samples. Complete anion exchange from Br- to Cl- or I- is successfully achieved in CsPbX3 NCs within ≈20 min through possible vacancies-assisted ion exchange mechanism, under ambient conditions and vice versa. Particularly, Br- -exchanged CsPbCl3 and CsPbI3 NCs exhibit improved optical properties. Encouraged by the attractive fluorescence and persistent luminescence as well as good stability of the resulted CsPbX3 NCs, an effective dual-mode information storage-reading application is demonstrated.  It is believed that this method can open a new avenue for the synthesis of other direct-synthesis challenging quantum-confined perovskite NCs/nanoplates/nanodisks or CsSnX3 NCs/thin film and provide an opportunity for advanced information storage compatible for practical applications.

Multilineage contribution of CD34+ cells in cardiac remodeling after ischemia/reperfusion injury.

The ambiguous results of multiple CD34+ cell-based therapeutic trials for patients with heart disease have halted the large-scale application of stem/progenitor cell treatment. This study aimed to delineate the biological functions of heterogenous CD34+ cell populations and investigate the net effect of CD34+ cell intervention on cardiac remodeling. We confirmed, by combining single-cell RNA sequencing on human and mouse ischemic hearts and an inducible Cd34 lineage-tracing mouse model, that Cd34+ cells mainly contributed to the commitment of mesenchymal cells, endothelial cells (ECs), and monocytes/macrophages during heart remodeling with distinct pathological functions. The Cd34+-lineage-activated mesenchymal cells were responsible for cardiac fibrosis, while CD34+Sca-1high was an active precursor and intercellular player that facilitated Cd34+-lineage angiogenic EC-induced postinjury vessel development. We found through bone marrow transplantation that bone marrow-derived CD34+ cells only accounted for inflammatory response. We confirmed using a Cd34-CreERT2; R26-DTA mouse model that the depletion of Cd34+ cells could alleviate the severity of ventricular fibrosis after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury with improved cardiac function. This study provided a transcriptional and cellular landscape of CD34+ cells in normal and ischemic hearts and illustrated that the heterogeneous population of Cd34+ cell-derived cells served as crucial contributors to cardiac remodeling and function after the I/R injury, with their capacity to generate diverse cellular lineages.

Nonbone Marrow CD34+ Cells Are Crucial for Endothelial Repair of Injured Artery.

[Figure: see text].

Controlling internal nutrients loading at low temperature using oxygen-loading zeolite and submerged macrophytes enhances environmental resilience to subsequent high temperature.

Nutrients releasing from anoxic sediment can be enhanced in summer because the dissolved oxygen (DO) consumption, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) migration are susceptible to temperature. Herein, we proposed a method to hinder the aquatic environmental deterioration in warm seasons through consecutive application of oxygen- and lanthanum-modified zeolite (LOZ) and submerged macrophytes (V. natans) at low temperature scenario (5 °C, with depleted DO in water), and the effect was examined with drastic increasing the ambient temperature to 30 °C. The investigation was conducted in a microcosm scale including sediment cores (with a diameter of 11 cm, height of 10 cm) and overlying water (with depth of 35 cm). During the 60 days experiment, application of LOZ at 5 °C facilitated slower releasing and diffusion of oxygen from LOZ and the growth of V. natans. Thereby, when the temperature was increased to 30 °C and maintained for 35 days, the DO reached 10.01 mg/L, and the release of P and N from the sediment was reduced by 86% and 92%, respectively. This was achieved from the joint efforts of adsorption, biological conversion, chemical inactivation, and assimilation. Also, the LOZ inhibited 80% N2O, 75% CH4, and 70% CO2 emissions primary by promoting V. natans growth and reshaping microbiota. Meanwhile, the colonization of V. natans benefited the sustainable improvement in the water quality. Our results addressed the time that the remediation of anoxic sediment can be applied.

Flavonoid Components, Distribution, and Biological Activities in Taxus: A review.

Taxus, also known as "gold in plants" because of the famous agents with emphases on Taxol and Docetaxel, is a genus of the family Taxaceae, distributed almost around the world. The plants hold an important place in traditional medicine in China, and its products are used for treating treat dysuria, swelling and pain, diabetes, and irregular menstruation in women. In order to make a further study and better application of Taxus plants for the future, cited references from between 1958 and 2022 were collected from the Web of Science, the China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), SciFinder, and Google Scholar, and the chemical structures, distribution, and bioactivity of flavonoids identified from Taxus samples were summed up in the research. So far, 59 flavonoids in total with different skeletons were identified from Taxus plants, presenting special characteristics of compound distribution. These compounds have been reported to display significant antibacterial, antiaging, anti-Alzheimer's, antidiabetes, anticancer, antidepressant, antileishmaniasis, anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive and antiallergic, antivirus, antilipase, neuronal protective, and hepatic-protective activities, as well as promotion of melanogenesis. Flavonoids represent a good example of the utilization of the Taxus species. In the future, further pharmacological and clinical experiments for flavonoids could be accomplished to promote the preparation of relative drugs.

[Interpretation on Consensus on drug-induced liver injury by CIOMS Working Group:liver injury attributed to herbal and dietary supplements].

With the increase in the medical level, the improvement of adverse drug reaction(ADR) monitoring systems, and the enhancement of public awareness of safe medication, drug safety incidents have been frequently reported. Drug-induced liver injury(DILI), especially liver injury attributed to herbal and dietary supplements(HDS), has globally attracted high attention, bringing great threats and severe challenges to the people for drug safety management such as clinical medication and medical supervision. Consensus on drug-induced liver injury had been published by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences(CIOMS) in 2020. In this consensus, liver injury attributed to HDS was included in a special chapter for the first time. The hot topics, including the definition of HDS-induced liver injury, epidemiological history, potential risk factors, collection of related risk signals, causality assessment, risk prevention, control and management were discussed from a global perspective. Based on the previous works, some experts from China were invited by CIOMS to undertake the compilation of this chapter. Meanwhile, a new causality assessment in DILI based on the integrated evidence chain(iEC) method was widely recognized by experts in China and abroad, and was recommended by this consensus. This paper briefly introduced the main contents, background, and characteristics of the Consensus on drug-induced liver injury. Significantly, a brief interpretation was illustrated to analyze the special highlights of Chapter 8, "Liver injury attributed to HDS", so as to provide practical references for the medical staff and the researchers who worked on either Chinese or Western medicine in China.

Endothelial repair by stem and progenitor cells.

The integrity of the endothelial barrier is required to maintain vascular homeostasis and fluid balance between the circulatory system and surrounding tissues and to prevent the development of vascular disease. However, the origin of the newly developed endothelial cells is still controversial. Stem and progenitor cells have the potential to differentiate into endothelial cell lines and stimulate vascular regeneration in a paracrine/autocrine fashion. The one source of new endothelial cells was believed to come from the bone marrow, which was challenged by the recent findings. By administration of new techniques, including genetic cell lineage tracing and single cell RNA sequencing, more solid data were obtained that support the concept of stem/progenitor cells for regenerating damaged endothelium. Specifically, it was found that tissue resident endothelial progenitors located in the vessel wall were crucial for endothelial repair. In this review, we summarized the latest advances in stem and progenitor cell research in endothelial regeneration through findings from animal models and discussed clinical data to indicate the future direction of stem cell therapy.

Electronic Structure Regulation of Iron Phthalocyanine Induced by Anchoring on Heteroatom-Doping Carbon Sphere for Efficient Oxygen Reduction Reaction and Al-Air Battery.

Aluminum-air batteries (AABs) are deemed as a potential clean energy storage device. However, exploiting high-efficiency and stable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts in AABs is still a challenge. Iron phthalocyanine (FePc) shows a great prospect in ORR but still far from Pt-based catalysts. Here, the hybrid electrocatalysts of monolayer FePc and hollow N,S-doped carbon spheres (HNSCs) are innovatively constructed through π-π stacking to achieve high dispersion. The resulting FePc@HNSC catalyst exhibits an outstanding ORR activity, outperforming that of pristine FePc and even most Fe-based catalysts reported to date. Moreover, the AAB using FePc@HNSC catalyst not only demonstrates a superior power density than the battery with Pt/C, but also displays stable discharge voltages and excellent durability. Furthermore, the theoretical calculations confirm that the charge distribution and d-band center of the Fe atom in FePc are efficiently optimized by hybrid configuration via the introduction of N,S-doped carbon substrate. The design leads to an enriched electron density around Fe active sites and significant reduction of energy barrier for OH* formation, which are favorable for the improvement of electrocatalytic ORR performance. This work provides a chance to expand the application of metallic macrocyclic compound electrocatalysts in various energy technologies.

Anchoring Highly Dispersed Pt Electrocatalysts on TiOx with Strong Metal-Support Interactions via an Oxygen Vacancy-Assisted Strategy as Durable Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Pt electrocatalysts with high activity and durability have still crucial issues for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, a novel catalyst consisting of Pt nanoparticles (NPs) on TiOx/C composites (TiOx-Vo-H/C) with abundant oxygen vacancies (Vo) is proposed, which is abbreviated as PTO-Vo-H/C. The introduction of Vo helps anchor highly dispersed Pt NPs with low loading and strengthen the strong metal-support interaction (SMSI), which benefits to the enhanced ORR catalytic activity. Moreover, the accelerated durability test (ADT) demonstrates the higher retention of ORR activity for PTO-Vo-H/C. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that electronic interactions between Pt NPs and TiOx/C composite support give rise to an electron-rich Pt NPs and strong SMSI effect, which is favorable for the electron transfer and stabilization of Pt NPs. More importantly, the assembled PEMFC with PTO-Vo-H/C shows only 6.9% of decay on maximum power density after 3000 ADT cycles while the performance of Pt/C sharply decreased. This work provides a new insight into the unique vacancy regulation of dispersive Pt on metal oxides for superior ORR performance.

Intrathecal Administration of the α1 Adrenergic Antagonist Phentolamine Upregulates Spinal GLT-1 and Improves Mirror Image Pain in SNI Model Rats.

Mirror image pain (MIP) is a type of extraterritorial pain that results in contralateral pain or allodynia. Glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) is expressed in astrocytes and plays a role in maintaining low glutamate levels in the synaptic cleft. Previous studies have shown that GLT-1 dysfunction induces neuropathic pain. Our previous study revealed bilateral GLT-1 downregulation in the spinal cord of a spared nerve injury (SNI) rat. We hypothesized that spinal GLT-1 is involved in the mechanism of MIP. We also previously demonstrated noradrenergic GLT-1 regulation. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of an α1 adrenergic antagonist on the development of MIP. Rats were subjected to SNI. Changes in pain behavior and GLT-1 protein levels in the SNI rat spinal cords were then examined by intrathecal administration of the α1 adrenergic antagonist phentolamine, followed by von Frey test and western blotting. SNI resulted in the development of MIP and bilateral downregulation of GLT-1 protein in the rat spinal cord. Intrathecal phentolamine increased contralateral GLT-1 protein levels and partially ameliorated the 50% paw withdrawal threshold in the contralateral hind paw. Spinal GLT-1 upregulation by intrathecal phentolamine ameliorates MIP. GLT-1 plays a role in the development of MIPs.

Roles of CD3, CD4 and CD8 in synovial lymphocytes of rheumatoid arthritis.

In this study, the immunohistochemical EnVision method was applied to detect CD3, CD4 and CD8 in synovial tissues of 40 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 10 patients with osteoarthritis (OA). In 92.5% (37/40) RA cases, lymphocytes were focally aggregated, and even germinal centers appeared, forming lymphoid follicle-like structures. The expression of CD3, CD4, and CD8 were high in synovial tissue of RA group, but low in OA group. The number of CD3, CD4+, and CD8+ lymphocytes in OA group were significantly lower than that in RA group (p < 0.05); CD4+lymphocytes in RA accounted for the majority, and mostly were focally distributed. The number of CD8+lymphocytes in the synovial tissue were small, and were mostly scattered. The number of CD4+lymphocytes were significantly higher than CD8+lymphocytes (p<0.05). Compared with the OA group, the number of CD4+T and CD8+T lymphocytes in RA group were higher, and the ratio of CD4/CD8 was higher in RA group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the CD3, CD4 and CD8 with high level may promote the occurrence and development of RA. The ratio of CD4+/CD8+ may be used as a reference index for the diagnosis and prognosis of RA.

Adsorption Equilibrium and Mechanism and of Water Molecule on the Surfaces of Molybdenite (MoS2) Based on Kinetic Monte-Carlo Method.

The oxidation/weathering of molybdenite (MoS2) is too slow to be monitored, even under pure oxygen and high temperatures, while it proceeds rapidly through humid air. The adsorption of water molecules on molybdenite is necessary for the wet oxidation/weathering of molybdenite. Therefore, we employ kinetic Monte Carlo modeling to clarify the adsorption isotherm, site preferences and kinetics of water on different surfaces of molybdenite. Our results indicate that (1) the adsorption capacity and adsorption rate coefficient of H2O on the (110) surface are significantly larger than those on the (001) surface at a temperature of 0~100 °C and a relative humidity of 0~100%, suggesting that the (110) surface is the predominant surface controlling the reactivity and solubility of molybdenite in its interaction with water; (2) the kinetic Monte Carlo modeling considering the adsorption/desorption rate of H2O, dissociation/formation rate of H2O and adsorption/desorption of dissociated H indicates that the adsorption and dissociation of H2O on the (110) surface can be completed in one microsecond (ms) at 298 K and in wet conditions; (3) the adsorption and dissociation of H2O on molybdenite are not the rate-limiting steps in the wet oxidation/weathering of molybdenite; and (4) kinetic Monte Carlo modeling explains the experimental SIMS observation that H2O and OH (rather than H+/H- or H2O) occupy the surface of MoS2 in a short time. This study provides new molecular-scale insights to aid in our understanding of the oxidation/weathering mechanism of molybdenite as the predominant mineral containing molybdenum in the Earth's crust.