Multifunctional Interlayer Engineering for Silkworm Excrement-Derived Porous Carbon Enabling High-Energy Lithium Sulfur Batteries.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries show advantage of high theoretical capacity. However, the shuttle effect of polysulfides and sluggish sulfur redox kinetics seriously reduce their service life. Inspired by the porous structural features of biomass materials, herein, a functional interlayer is fabricated by silkworm excrement-derived three-dimensional porous carbon accommodating nano sized CoS2 particles (SC@CoS2 ). The porous carbon delivers a high specific surface area, which provides adequate adsorption sites, being responsible for suppressing the shuttle effect of polysulfides. Meanwhile, the porous carbon is favorable for hindering the aggregation of CoS2 and maintaining its high activity during extended cycles, which effectively accelerates the polysulfides conversion kinetics. Moreover, the SC@CoS2 functional interlayer effectively limits the formation of Li dendrites and promotes the uniform deposition of Li on the Li electrode surface. As a result, the CMK-3/S cathode achieves a high initial capacity of 1599.1 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C rate assisted by the polypropylene separator coated with the functional interlayer and 1208.3 mAh g-1 is maintained after the long cycling test. This work provides an insight into the designing of long-lasting catalysts for stable functional interlayer, which encourages the application of biomass-derived porous carbon in high-energy Li-S batteries.

Amorphous Ni-Fe-Mo Suboxides Coupled with Ni Network as Porous Nanoplate Array on Nickel Foam: A Highly Efficient and Durable Bifunctional Electrode for Overall Water Splitting.

It is a great challenge to fabricate electrode with simultaneous high activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, a high-performance bifunctional electrode formed by vertically depositing a porous nanoplate array on the surface of nickel foam is provided, where the nanoplate is made up by the interconnection of trinary Ni-Fe-Mo suboxides and Ni nanoparticles. The amorphous Ni-Fe-Mo suboxide and its in situ transformed amorphous Ni-Fe-Mo (oxy)hydroxide acts as the main active species for HER and OER, respectively. The conductive network built by Ni nanoparticles provides rapid electron transfer to active sites. Moreover, the hydrophilic and aerophobic electrode surface together with the hierarchical pore structure facilitate mass transfer. The corresponding water electrolyzer demonstrates low cell voltage (1.50 V @ 10 mA cm-2 and 1.63 V @ 100 mA cm-2) with high durability at 500 mA cm-2 for at least 100 h in 1 m KOH.

Guiding Uniform Li Plating/Stripping through Lithium-Aluminum Alloying Medium for Long-Life Li Metal Batteries.

The uncontrolled growth of Li dendrites upon cycling might result in low coulombic efficiency and severe safety hazards. Herein, a lithiophilic binary lithium-aluminum alloy layer, which was generated through an in situ electrochemical process, was utilized to guide the uniform metallic Li nucleation and growth, free from the formation of dendrites. Moreover, the formed LiAl alloy layer can function as a Li reservoir to compensate the irreversible Li loss, enabling long-term stability. The protected Li electrode shows superior cycling over 1700 h in a Li|Li symmetric cell.

Investigating ego modules involved in TGFß3-induced chondrogenesis in mesenchymal stem cells based on ego network.

OBJECTIVE: This paper aimed to investigate ego modules for TGFß3-induced chondrogenesis in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) using ego network algorithm. METHODS: The ego network algorithm comprised three parts, extracting differential expression network (DEN) based on gene expression data and protein-protein interaction (PPI) data; exploring ego genes by reweighting DEN; and searching ego modules by ego gene expansions. Subsequently, permutation test was carried out to evaluate the statistical significance of the ego modules. Finally, pathway enrichment analysis was conducted to investigate ego pathways enriched by the ego modules. RESULTS: A total of 15 ego genes were obtained from the DEN, such as PSMA4, HNRNPM and WDR77. Starting with each ego genes, 15 candidate modules were gained. When setting the thresholds of the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) ≥0.9 and gene size ≥4, three ego modules (Module 3, Module 8 and Module 14) were identified, and all of them had statistical significances between normal and TGFß3-induced chondrogenesis in MSCs. By mapping module genes to confirmed pathway database, their ego pathways were detected, Cdc20:Phospho-APC/C mediated degradation of Cyclin A for Module 3, Mitotic G1-G1/S phases for Module 8, and mRNA Splicing for Module 14. CONCLUSIONS: We have successfully identified three ego modules, evaluated their statistical significances and investigated their functional enriched ego pathways. The findings might provide potential biomarkers and give great insights to reveal molecular mechanism underlying this process.

A polymorphism near osteoprotegerin gene confer risk of obesity in Uyghurs.

To investigate the association of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4355801 near osteoprotegerin (OPG) gene and rs3736228 in low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 (LRP5) gene with metabolic phenotypes [body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio, glucose, total cholesterol (CHO), and triglyceride], we carried out a population-based association study in Uyghur population living in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. We observed a significant higher level of BMI in AG/AA carriers than in GG carriers (P = 0.022) for rs4355801. Subjects with the AG/GG genotype significantly increased the risk of BMI related obesity than subjects with the AA genotype, with an odds ratio of 1.31 (95% CI 1.09-1.56, P = 0.005). The association remained significant after controlling for covariates of age and gender. In addition, we observed a significant higher level of CHO in CT/TT carriers than in CC carriers (P = 0.021) for rs3736228. Our observations provide the first evidence that rs4355801 near OPG gene may confer susceptibility to obesity. In addition, SNP rs3736228 in LPR5 gene may affects the level of CHO in Uyghur population.

Association of ER-alpha gene polymorphism with metabolic phenotypes in Chinese Hans.

Recently, two polymorphisms (rs1884052 and rs3778099) of estrogen receptor alpha (ER-alpha) gene were identified as being associated with primary quantitative bone mineral density (BMD) in a genome-wide association (GWA) study in Framingham cohorts. In this study we aimed at investigating the association of rs1884052 and rs3778099, and another polymorphism (rs2234693) located at intron 1 of the ER-alpha gene with BMD, body mass index (BMI), glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterol (CHO) levels in Chinese Hans. We recruited 425 consecutive adult volunteers who had a physical examination in the Jinan Maternity and Child Care Hospital. We did not observe significant association of rs1884052 and rs3778099 with BMD, BMI, glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterol (CHO) levels. For rs2234693, increased levels of BMD for hip, spine or whole-body regions were consistently observed in TT/TC genotype carriers than in CC genotype carriers, although the board line significance diminished after adjusting for age and gender. However, significant association of rs2234693 with glucose and CHO levels were observed in our sample. Subjects with TC/CC genotypes were associated with an increased level of glucose (p = 0.013) and CHO (p = 0.032) levels than subjects with TT genotypes. In conclusion, we did not confirm the association of rs1884052 and rs3778099 with BMD originally discovered in a GWA study; however, we made novel discoveries that rs2234693 was associated with glucose and CHO levels in Chinese Hans.

[Associations of the genetic polymorphisms in CYP11B2 gene with nonfamilial structural atrial fibrillation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether polymorphisms in CYP11B2 gene are associated with nonfamilial structural atrial fibrillation (AF) in Chinese Han population. METHODS: A fine-designed pair-matched hospital based case-control study was performed in 297 cases and 297 controls. We investigated two tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tSNPs)-rs4545, rs3802228 in CYP11B2 gene by using GenomeLab SNPstream technique. RESULTS: Two tSNPs were consistent with Hardy-Weinberg expectations in case and control groups. Compared with controls, the left atrial diameter of cases was significantly higher (P < 0.0001). No significant difference in genotype or allele frequencies of tSNPs in CYP11B2 gene was observed. However, at the site of rs3802228 in 3'UTR of the case group, the left atrial diameter in AF patients with GG genotype was significantly higher than others. After adjusted for covariates age, smoking, Body mass index and hypertension, we did not observe the association of rs4545, rs3802228 with AF. CONCLUSION: Our result suggested that polymorphisms of rs4545 in CYP11B2 gene might not be associated with atrial fibrillation but polymorphism of 3'UTR rs3802228 locus in CYP11B2 gene might be associated with atrial structural remodeling.