Chimeric contribution of human extended pluripotent stem cells to monkey embryos ex vivo.

Interspecies chimera formation with human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represents a necessary alternative to evaluate hPSC pluripotency in vivo and might constitute a promising strategy for various regenerative medicine applications, including the generation of organs and tissues for transplantation. Studies using mouse and pig embryos suggest that hPSCs do not robustly contribute to chimera formation in species evolutionarily distant to humans. We studied the chimeric competency of human extended pluripotent stem cells (hEPSCs) in cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) embryos cultured ex vivo. We demonstrate that hEPSCs survived, proliferated, and generated several peri- and early post-implantation cell lineages inside monkey embryos. We also uncovered signaling events underlying interspecific crosstalk that may help shape the unique developmental trajectories of human and monkey cells within chimeric embryos. These results may help to better understand early human development and primate evolution and develop strategies to improve human chimerism in evolutionarily distant species.

Facet-switching of rate-determining step on copper in CO2-to-ethylene electroreduction.

Reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) by renewable electricity to produce multicarbon chemicals, such as ethylene (C2H4), continues to be a challenge because of insufficient Faradaic efficiency, low production rates, and complex mechanistic pathways. Here, we report that the rate-determining steps (RDS) on common copper (Cu) surfaces diverge in CO2 electroreduction, leading to distinct catalytic performances. Through a combination of experimental and computational studies, we reveal that C─C bond-making is the RDS on Cu(100), whereas the protonation of *CO with adsorbed water becomes rate-limiting on Cu(111) with a higher energy barrier. On an oxide-derived Cu(100)-dominant Cu catalyst, we reach a high C2H4 Faradaic efficiency of 72%, partial current density of 359 mA cm-2, and long-term stability exceeding 100 h at 500 mA cm-2, greatly outperforming its Cu(111)-rich counterpart. We further demonstrate constant C2H4 selectivity of >60% over 70 h in a membrane electrode assembly electrolyzer with a full-cell energy efficiency of 23.4%.

Enrichment of reactants and intermediates for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction.

The electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) presents a sustainable route to convert renewable electricity to value-added fuels and feedstocks in the form of chemical energy. However, the selectivity and rate of conversion of CO2 to desirable carbon-based products, especially multicarbon products, remain below the requirement for its implementation at the commercial scale, which primarily originates from inadequate reactants and intermediates near catalytic surfaces during the CO2RR. The enrichment of reactants and intermediates provides one of the coping guidelines to improve CO2RR performance by accelerating the reaction rate and improving product selectivity. Herein, we discuss strategies to achieve the enrichment of reactants and intermediates through catalyst design, local microenvironment modulation, electrolyte regulation, and electrolyzer optimization. The structure and properties of CO2 are first presented, showing the necessity and feasibility of enriching reactants and intermediates. Next, the influence of the enrichment effect on CO2 electrolysis, i.e., accelerating the reaction rate and improving product selectivity, are comprehensively discussed. Then, catalyst design from micrometer scale to atom scale, including wettability and morphology regulation, surface modification, and tandem structure construction, as well as surface atom engineering, is highlighted to implement the enrichment of reactants and intermediates. Catalyst restructuring during the CO2RR process and its impact on the enrichment of intermediates and reactants are also discussed. Subsequently, enriching CO2 reactants and intermediates by modulating the local microenvironment to achieve high carbon utilization for the CO2RR to produce multicarbon products is reviewed. After that, insights into enriching reactants and intermediates through electrolyte regulation are provided by investigating various electrolytes, including aqueous solutions, organic solvents, and ionic liquids. Additionally, the key role of electrolyzer optimization in promoting the enrichment effect is considered. We end the review by outlining the remaining technological challenges and providing feasible suggestions aimed at directing the future employment of enrichment strategies to propel the practical implementation of CO2 electrolysis technology.

Meta-Analysis of Efficacy of Platelet-Rich Plasma Combined with Minoxidil for Androgenetic Alopecia.

BACKGROUND: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is a prevalent type of hair loss that impacts individuals of both genders. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and minoxidil have been employed as therapeutic interventions for AGA, yet the efficacy of their concurrent use remains ambiguous. OBJECTIVE: To perform a comprehensive review and meta-analysis aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in combination with minoxidil for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia (AGA). METHODS: We conducted a comprehensive search of the databases PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, encompassing their complete records up until December 2023. Eligible studies were randomized controlled trials that compared the combination of PRP and minoxidil with minoxidil or PRP alone in patients with AGA. The primary outcome measure was the change in hair growth as assessed by the hair density or hair thickness. Secondary outcome measures included patient satisfaction, and global photographic assessment. RESULTS: A total of 6 studies involving 343 participants were included in this meta-analysis. The results showed that PRP combined with minoxidil significantly improved hair growth compared to minoxidil or PRP alone. The pooled analysis demonstrated a significant increase in hair density (weighted mean difference [WMD] = 9.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.57-11.70) and hair diameter (WMD = 4.72; 95% CI 3.21-6.23) in the PRP combined with minoxidil group. Moreover, patients receiving PRP combined with minoxidil reported higher satisfaction rates compared to those using minoxidil or PRP alone. CONCLUSIONS: This meta-analysis suggests that PRP combined with minoxidil is an effective treatment for AGA, providing significant improvement in hair growth and patient satisfaction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

Unraveling Stoichiometry Effect in Nickel-Tungsten Alloys for Efficient Hydrogen Oxidation Catalysis in Alkaline Electrolytes.

Anion-exchange membrane fuel cells provide the possibility to use platinum group metal-free catalysts, but the anodic hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) suffers from sluggish kinetics and its source is still debated. Here, over nickel-tungsten (Ni-W) alloy catalysts, we show that the Ni : W ratio greatly governs the HOR performance in alkaline electrolyte. Experimental and theoretical studies unravel that alloying with W can tune the unpaired electrons in Ni, tailoring the potential of zero charge and the catalytic surface to favor hydroxyl adsorption (OHad). The OHad species coordinately interact with potassium (K+) ions, which break the K+ solvation sheath to leave free water molecules, yielding an improved connectivity of hydrogen-bond networks. Consequently, the optimal Ni17W3 alloy exhibits alkaline HOR activity superior to the state-of-the-art platinum on carbon (Pt/C) catalyst and operates steadily with negligible decay after 10,000 cycles. Our findings offer new understandings of alloyed HOR catalysts and will guide rational design of next-generation catalysts for fuel cells.

Efficient NH3-Tolerant Nickel-Based Hydrogen Oxidation Catalyst for Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells.

Converting hydrogen chemical energy into electrical energy by fuel cells offers high efficiencies and environmental advantages, but ultrapure hydrogen (over 99.97%) is required; otherwise, the electrode catalysts, typically platinum on carbon (Pt/C), will be poisoned by impurity gases such as ammonia (NH3). Here we demonstrate remarkable NH3 resistivity over a nickel-molybdenum alloy (MoNi4) modulated by chromium (Cr) dopants. The resultant Cr-MoNi4 exhibits high activity toward alkaline hydrogen oxidation and can undergo 10,000 cycles without apparent activity decay in the presence of 2 ppm of NH3. Furthermore, a fuel cell assembled with this catalyst retains 95% of the initial peak power density even when NH3 (10 ppm)/H2 was fed, whereas the power output reduces to 61% of the initial value for the Pt/C catalyst. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that the Cr modifier not only creates electron-rich states that restrain lone-pair electron donation but also downshifts the d-band center to suppress d-electron back-donation, synergistically weakening NH3 adsorption.

Highly Enhanced Chloride Adsorption Mediates Efficient Neutral CO2 Electroreduction over a Dual-Phase Copper Catalyst.

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction (CO2R) in neutral electrolytes can mitigate the energy and carbon losses caused by carbonate formation but often experiences unsatisfied multicarbon selectivity and reaction rates because of the kinetic limitation to the critical carbon monoxide (CO)-CO coupling step. Here, we describe that a dual-phase copper-based catalyst with abundant Cu(I) sites at the amorphous-nanocrystalline interfaces, which is electrochemically robust in reducing environments, can enhance chloride-specific adsorption and consequently mediate local *CO coverage for improved CO-CO coupling kinetics. Using this catalyst design strategy, we demonstrate efficient multicarbon production from CO2R in a neutral potassium chloride electrolyte (pH ∼6.6) with a high Faradaic efficiency of 81% and a partial current density of 322 milliamperes per square centimeter. This catalyst is stable after 45 h of operation at current densities relevant to commercial CO2 electrolysis (300 mA per square centimeter).

Gerhardtite as a Precursor to an Efficient CO-to-Acetate Electroreduction Catalyst.

Carbon-carbon coupling electrochemistry on a conventional copper (Cu) catalyst still undergoes low selectivity among many different multicarbon (C2+) chemicals, posing a grand challenge to achieve a single C2+ product. Here, we demonstrate a laser irradiation synthesis of a gerhardtite mineral, Cu2(OH)3NO3, as a catalyst precursor to make a Cu catalyst with abundant stacking faults under reducing conditions. Such structural perturbation modulates electronic microenvironments of Cu, leading to improved d-electron back-donation to the antibonding orbital of *CO intermediates and thus strengthening *CO adsorption. With increased *CO coverage on the defect-rich Cu, we report an acetate selectivity of 56 ± 2% (compared to 31 ± 1% for conventional Cu) and a partial current density of 222 ± 7 mA per square centimeter in CO electroreduction. When run at 400 mA per square centimeter for 40 h in a flow reactor, this catalyst produces 68.3 mmol of acetate throughout. This work highlights the value of a Cu-containing mineral phase in accessing suitable structures for improved selectivity to a single desired C2+ product.

Biofilm-Based Biocatalysis for Galactooligosaccharides Production by the Surface Display of ß-Galactosidase in Pichia pastoris.

Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are one of the most important functional oligosaccharide prebiotics. The surface display of enzymes was considered one of the most excellent strategies to obtain these products. However, a rough industrial environment would affect the biocatalytic process. The catalytic process could be efficiently improved using biofilm-based fermentation with high resistance and activity. Therefore, the combination of the surface display of ß-galactosidase and biofilm formation in Pichia pastoris was constructed. The results showed that the catalytic conversion rate of GOS was up to 50.3% with the maximum enzyme activity of 5125 U/g by screening the anchorin, and the number of the continuous catalysis batches was up to 23 times. Thus, surface display based on biofilm-immobilized fermentation integrated catalysis and growth was a co-culture system, such that a dynamic equilibrium in the consolidated integrative process was achieved. This study provides the basis for developing biofilm-based surface display methods in P. pastoris during biochemical production processes.

Interfacial Engineering of Ni/V2 O3 Heterostructure Catalyst for Boosting Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction in Alkaline Electrolytes.

Alkaline fuel cells can permit the adoption of platinum group metal-free (PGM-free) catalysts and cheap bipolar plates, thus further lowering the cost. With the exploration of PGM-free hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) catalysts, nickel-based compounds have been considered as the most promising HOR catalysts in alkali. Here we report an interfacial engineering through the formation of nickel-vanadium oxide (Ni/V2 O3 ) heterostructures to activate Ni for efficient HOR catalysis in alkali. The strong electron transfer from Ni to V2 O3 could modulate the electronic structure of Ni sites. The optimal Ni/V2 O3 catalyst exhibits a high intrinsic activity of 0.038 mA cm-2 and outstanding stability. Experimental and theoretical studies reveal that Ni/V2 O3 interface as the active sites can enable to optimize the hydrogen and hydroxyl bindings, as well as protect metallic Ni from extensive oxidation, thus achieving the notable activity and durability.

The genome of medicinal leech (Whitmania pigra) and comparative genomic study for exploration of bioactive ingredients.

BACKGROUND: Leeches are classic annelids that have a huge diversity and are closely related to people, especially medicinal leeches. Medicinal leeches have been widely utilized in medicine based on the pharmacological activities of their bioactive ingredients. Comparative genomic study of these leeches enables us to understand the difference among medicinal leeches and other leeches and facilitates the discovery of bioactive ingredients. RESULTS: In this study, we reported the genome of Whitmania pigra and compared it with Hirudo medicinalis and Helobdella robusta. The assembled genome size of W. pigra is 177 Mbp, close to the estimated genome size. Approximately about 23% of the genome was repetitive. A total of 26,743 protein-coding genes were subsequently predicted. W. pigra have 12346 (46%) and 10295 (38%) orthologous genes with H. medicinalis and H. robusta, respectively. About 20 and 24% genes in W. pigra showed syntenic arrangement with H. medicinalis and H. robusta, respectively, revealed by gene synteny analysis. Furthermore, W. pigra, H. medicinalis and H. robusta expanded different gene families enriched in different biological processes. By inspecting genome distribution and gene structure of hirudin, we identified a new hirudin gene g17108 (hirudin_2) with different cysteine patterns. Finally, we systematically explored and compared the active substances in the genomes of three leech species. The results showed that W. pigra and H. medicinalis exceed H. robusta in both kinds and gene number of active molecules. CONCLUSIONS: This study reported the genome of W. pigra and compared it with other two leeches, which provides an important genome resource and new insight into the exploration and development of bioactive molecules of medicinal leeches.

Identification of Cu(100)/Cu(111) Interfaces as Superior Active Sites for CO Dimerization During CO2 Electroreduction.

The electrosynthesis of valuable multicarbon chemicals using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock has substantially progressed recently but still faces considerable challenges. A major difficulty lines in the sluggish kinetics of forming carbon-carbon (C-C) bonds, especially in neutral media. We report here that oxide-derived copper crystals enclosed by six {100} and eight {111} facets can reduce CO2 to multicarbon products with a high Faradaic efficiency of 74.9 ± 1.7% at a commercially relevant current density of 300 mA cm-2 in 1 M KHCO3 (pH ∼ 8.4). By combining the experimental and computational studies, we uncovered that Cu(100)/Cu(111) interfaces offer a favorable local electronic structure that enhances *CO adsorption and lowers C-C coupling activation energy barriers, performing superior to Cu(100) and Cu(111) surfaces, respectively. On this catalyst, no obvious degradation was observed at 300 mA cm-2 over 50 h of continuous operation.

Hierarchical Copper with Inherent Hydrophobicity Mitigates Electrode Flooding for High-Rate CO2 Electroreduction to Multicarbon Products.

Copper is currently the material with the most promise as catalyst to drive carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction to produce value-added multicarbon (C2+) compounds. However, a copper catalyst on a carbon-based gas diffusion layer electrode often has poor stability-especially when performing at high current densities-owing to electrolyte flooding caused by the hydrophobicity decrease of the gas diffusion layer during operation. Here, we report a bioinspired copper catalyst on a gas diffusion layer that mimics the unique hierarchical structuring of Setaria's hydrophobic leaves. This hierarchical copper structure endows the CO2 reduction electrode with sufficient hydrophobicity to build a robust gas-liquid-solid triple-phase boundary, which can not only trap more CO2 close to the active copper surface but also effectively resist electrolyte flooding even under high-rate operation. We consequently achieved a high C2+ production rate of 255 ± 5.7 mA cm-2 with a 64 ± 1.4% faradaic efficiency, as well as outstanding operational stability at 300 mA cm-2 over 45 h in a flow reactor, largely outperforming its wettable copper counterparts.

Dual-Domain Fusion Convolutional Neural Network for Contrast Enhancement Forensics.

Contrast enhancement forensics techniques have always been of great interest for the image forensics community, as they can be an effective tool for recovering image history and identifying tampered images. Although several contrast enhancement forensic algorithms have been proposed, their accuracy and robustness against some kinds of processing are still unsatisfactory. In order to attenuate such deficiency, in this paper, we propose a new framework based on dual-domain fusion convolutional neural network to fuse the features of pixel and histogram domains for contrast enhancement forensics. Specifically, we first present a pixel-domain convolutional neural network to automatically capture the patterns of contrast-enhanced images in the pixel domain. Then, we present a histogram-domain convolutional neural network to extract the features in the histogram domain. The feature representations of pixel and histogram domains are fused and fed into two fully connected layers for the classification of contrast-enhanced images. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves better performance and is robust against pre-JPEG compression and antiforensics attacks, obtaining over 99% detection accuracy for JPEG-compressed images with different QFs and antiforensics attack. In addition, a strategy for performance improvements of CNN-based forensics is explored, which could provide guidance for the design of CNN-based forensics tools.

An Efficient Turing-Type Ag2 Se-CoSe2 Multi-Interfacial Oxygen-Evolving Electrocatalyst*.

Although the Turing structures, or stationary reaction-diffusion patterns, have received increasing attention in biology and chemistry, making such unusual patterns on inorganic solids is fundamentally challenging. We report a simple cation exchange approach to produce Turing-type Ag2 Se on CoSe2 nanobelts relied on diffusion-driven instability. The resultant Turing-type Ag2 Se-CoSe2 material is highly effective to catalyze the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolytes with an 84.5 % anodic energy efficiency. Electrochemical measurements show that the intrinsic OER activity correlates linearly with the length of Ag2 Se-CoSe2 interfaces, determining that such Turing-type interfaces are more active sites for OER. Combing X-ray absorption and computational simulations, we ascribe the excellent OER performance to the optimized adsorption energies for critical oxygen-containing intermediates at the unconventional interfaces.

Strongly Coupled Cobalt Diselenide Monolayers for Selective Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction to H2 O2 under Acidic Conditions.

Electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) in the acidic environment could largely prevent its decomposition to water, but efficient catalysts that constitute entirely earth-abundant elements are lacking. Here we report the experimental demonstration of narrowing the interlayer gap of metallic cobalt diselenide (CoSe2 ), which creates high-performance catalyst to selectively drive two-electron oxygen reduction toward H2 O2 in an acidic electrolyte. The enhancement of the interlayer coupling between CoSe2 atomic layers offers a favorable surface electronic structure that weakens the critical *OOH adsorption, promoting the energetics for H2 O2 production. Consequently, on the strongly coupled CoSe2 catalyst, we achieved Faradaic efficiency of 96.7 %, current density of 50.04 milliamperes per square centimeter, and product rate of 30.60 mg cm-2 h-1 . Moreover, this catalyst shows no sign of degradation when operating at -63 milliamperes per square centimeter over 100 hours.

Protecting Copper Oxidation State via Intermediate Confinement for Selective CO2 Electroreduction to C2+ Fuels.

Selective and efficient catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added fuels and feedstocks provides an ideal avenue to high-density renewable energy storage. An impediment to enabling deep CO2 reduction to oxygenates and hydrocarbons (e.g., C2+ compounds) is the difficulty of coupling carbon-carbon bonds efficiently. Copper in the +1 oxidation state has been thought to be active for catalyzing C2+ formation, whereas it is prone to being reduced to Cu0 at cathodic potentials. Here we report that catalysts with nanocavities can confine carbon intermediates formed in situ, which in turn covers the local catalyst surface and thereby stabilizes Cu+ species. Experimental measurements on multihollow cuprous oxide catalyst exhibit a C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 75.2 ± 2.7% at a C2+ partial current density of 267 ± 13 mA cm-2 and a large C2+-to-C1 ratio of ∼7.2. Operando Raman spectra, in conjunction with X-ray absorption studies, confirm that Cu+ species in the as-designed catalyst are well retained during CO2 reduction, which leads to the marked C2+ selectivity at a large conversion rate.

High-Curvature Transition-Metal Chalcogenide Nanostructures with a Pronounced Proximity Effect Enable Fast and Selective CO2 Electroreduction.

A considerable challenge in the conversion of carbon dioxide into useful fuels comes from the activation of CO2 to CO2 .- or other intermediates, which often requires precious-metal catalysts, high overpotentials, and/or electrolyte additives (e.g., ionic liquids). We report a microwave heating strategy for synthesizing a transition-metal chalcogenide nanostructure that efficiently catalyzes CO2 electroreduction to carbon monoxide (CO). We found that the cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoneedle arrays exhibit an unprecedented current density of 212 mA cm-2 with 95.5±4.0 % CO Faraday efficiency at -1.2 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE; without iR correction). Experimental and computational studies show that the high-curvature CdS nanostructured catalyst has a pronounced proximity effect which gives rise to large electric field enhancement, which can concentrate alkali-metal cations resulting in the enhanced CO2 electroreduction efficiency.

Genetic diversity and drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Yunnan, China.

BACKGROUND: China is a country with high burden of tuberculosis (TB), especially drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), which is still a serious health problem in Yunnan Province. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is the pathogenic microorganism of TB. The epidemiological characteristics of MTB strains in local areas need to be described. METHODS: A total of 430 clinical MTB isolates were collected from Yunnan Province and genotyped through the method of 24-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem DNA repeats (MIRU-VNTR). RESULTS: The genotypes of the 24 loci showed abundantly genetic diversity, and allelic diversity index (h) of these loci varied from 0.012 to 0.817. Among the 430 strains, 30 clusters and 370 unique genotypes were identified. Beijing family was the predominant lineage (70.47%) in Yunnan MTB strains, and the other lineages contained T family (5.81%), MANU2 (0.70%), LAM (3.26%), CAS (0.23%), New-1 (8.37%), and some unknown clades (11.16%). A total of 74 TB strains were identified as drug resistance through drug susceptibility testing (DST), including 38 multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and 36 single-drug-resistant TB (SDR-TB). The frequency of MDR-TB strains was significantly higher in Beijing family (10.89%) than that in non-Beijing family (3.94%, P = 0.032). CONCLUSIONS: Although MTB strains showed high genetic diversity in Yunnan, China, the Beijing family was still the dominant strain. A high frequency of MDR-TB strains was recorded in the Beijing family.