Spatially and Temporally Resolved Dynamic Response of Co-Based Composite Interface during the Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

Interfacial interaction dictates the overall catalytic performance and catalytic behavior rules of the composite catalyst. However, understanding of interfacial active sites at the microscopic scale is still limited. Importantly, identifying the dynamic action mechanism of the "real" active site at the interface necessitates nanoscale, high spatial-time-resolved complementary-operando techniques. In this work, a Co3O4 homojunction with a well-defined interface effect is developed as a model system to explore the spatial-correlation dynamic response of the interface toward oxygen evolution reaction. Quasi in situ scanning transmission electron microscopy-electron energy-loss spectroscopy with high spatial resolution visually confirms the size characteristics of the interface effect in the spatial dimension, showing that the activation of active sites originates from strong interfacial electron interactions at a scale of 3 nm. Multiple time-resolved operando spectroscopy techniques explicitly capture dynamic changes in the adsorption behavior for key reaction intermediates. Combined with density functional theory calculations, we reveal that the dynamic adjustment of multiple adsorption configurations of intermediates by highly activated active sites at the interface facilitates the O-O coupling and *OOH deprotonation processes. The dual dynamic regulation mechanism accelerates the kinetics of oxygen evolution and serves as a pivotal factor in promoting the oxygen evolution activity of the composite structure. The resulting composite catalyst (Co-B@Co3O4/Co3O4 NSs) exhibits an approximately 70-fold turnover frequency and 20-fold mass activity than the monomer structure (Co3O4 NSs) and leads to significant activity (η10 ∼257 mV). The visual complementary analysis of multimodal operando/in situ techniques provides us with a powerful platform to advance our fundamental understanding of interfacial structure-activity relationships in composite structured catalysts.

Correlation between small-cell lung cancer serum protein/peptides determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and chemotherapy efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Currently, no effective measures are available to predict the curative efficacy of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) chemotherapy. We expect to develop a method for effectively predicting the SCLC chemotherapy efficacy and prognosis in clinical practice in order to offer more pertinent therapeutic protocols for individual patients. METHODS: We adopted matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) and ClinPro Tools system to detect serum samples from 154 SCLC patients with different curative efficacy of standard chemotherapy and analyze the different peptides/proteins of SCLC patients to discover predictive tumor markers related to chemotherapy efficacy. Ten peptide/protein peaks were significantly different in the two groups. RESULTS: A genetic algorithm model consisting of four peptides/proteins was developed from the training group to separate patients with different chemotherapy efficacies. Among them, three peptides/proteins (m/z 3323.35, 6649.03 and 6451.08) showed high expression in the disease progression group, whereas the peptide/protein at m/z 4283.18 was highly expressed in the disease response group. The classifier exhibited an accuracy of 91.4% (53/58) in the validation group. The survival analysis showed that the median progression-free survival (PFS) of 30 SCLC patients in disease response group was 9.0 months; in 28 cases in disease progression group, the median PFS was 3.0 months, a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 46.98, P < 0.001). The median overall survival (OS) of the two groups was 13.0 months and 7.0 months, a statistically significant difference (χ2 = 40.64, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These peptides/proteins may be used as potential biological markers for prediction of the curative efficacy and prognosis for SCLC patients treated with standard regimen chemotherapy.

Bi-level gene selection of cancer by combining clustering and sparse learning.

The diagnosis of cancer based on gene expression profile data has attracted extensive attention in the field of biomedical science. This type of data usually has the characteristics of high dimensionality and noise. In this paper, a hybrid gene selection method based on clustering and sparse learning is proposed to choose the key genes with high precision. We first propose a filter method, which combines the k-means clustering algorithm and signal-to-noise ratio ranking method, and then, a weighted gene co-expression network has been applied to the reduced data set to identify modules corresponding to biological pathways. Moreover, we choose the key genes by using group bridge and sparse group lasso as wrapper methods. Finally, we conduct some numerical experiments on six cancer datasets. The numerical results show that our proposed method has achieved good performance in gene selection and cancer classification.

Fluorine-Modulated MXene-Derived Catalysts for Multiphase Sulfur Conversion in Lithium-Sulfur Battery.

Fluorine owing to its inherently high electronegativity exhibits charge delocalization and ion dissociation capabilities; as a result, there has been an influx of research studies focused on the utilization of fluorides to optimize solid electrolyte interfaces and provide dynamic protection of electrodes to regulate the reaction and function performance of batteries. Nonetheless, the shuttle effect and the sluggish redox reaction kinetics emphasize the potential bottlenecks of lithium-sulfur batteries. Whether fluorine modulation regulate the reaction process of Li-S chemistry? Here, the TiOF/Ti3C2 MXene nanoribbons with a tailored F distribution were constructed via an NH4F fluorinated method. Relying on in situ characterizations and electrochemical analysis, the F activates the catalysis function of Ti metal atoms in the consecutive redox reaction. The positive charge of Ti metal sites is increased due to the formation of O-Ti-F bonds based on the Lewis acid-base mechanism, which contributes to the adsorption of polysulfides, provides more nucleation sites and promotes the cleavage of S-S bonds. This facilitates the deposition of Li2S at lower overpotentials. Additionally, fluorine has the capacity to capture electrons originating from Li2S dissolution due to charge compensation mechanisms. The fluorine modulation strategy holds the promise of guiding the construction of fluorine-based catalysts and facilitating the seamless integration of multiple consecutive heterogeneous catalytic processes.

Mazabraud's syndrome in female patients: Two case reports.

BACKGROUND: Mazabraud's syndrome (MS) is a rare and slowly progressive benign disease characterized by the concurrent presence of fibrous dysplasia of bone and intramuscular myxoma, and is thought to be associated with mutations of the GNAS gene. To date, only about 100 cases of MS have been reported in the literature, but its standard treatment strategy remains unclear. CASE SUMMARY: We report two cases of MS in young women who underwent different treatments based on their symptoms and disease manifestations. The first patient, aged 37, received internal fixation and intravenous bisphosphonate for a pathological fracture of the right femoral neck, excision of a right vastus medialis myxoma was subsequently performed for pain control, and asymptomatic psoas myxomas were monitored without surgery. Genetic testing confirmed a GNAS gene mutation in this patient. The second patient, aged 24, underwent right vastus intermedius muscle myxoma resection, and conservative treatment for fibrous dysplasia of the ilium. These patients were followed-up for 17 months and 3 years, respectively, and are now in a stable condition. CONCLUSION: Various treatments have been selected for MS patients who suffer different symptoms. The main treatment for myxomas is surgical resection, while fibrous dysplasia is selectively treated if the patient experiences pathological fracture or severe pain. However, given the documented instances of malignant transformation of fibrous dysplasia in individuals with MS, close follow-up is necessary.

A Nonsynonymous Substitution of Lhx3 Leads to Changes in Body Size in Dogs and Mice.

Lhx3 is a LIM-homeodomain transcription factor that affects body size in mammals by regulating the secretion of pituitary hormones. Akita, Shiba Inu, and Mame Shiba Inu dogs are Japanese native dog breeds that have different body sizes. To determine whether Lhx3 plays a role in the differing body sizes of these three dog breeds, we sequenced the Lhx3 gene in the three breeds, which led to the identification of an SNP in codon 280 (S280N) associated with body size. The allele frequency at this SNP differed significantly between the large Akita and the two kinds of smaller Shiba dogs. To validate the function of this SNP on body size, we introduced this change into the Lhx3 gene of mice. Homozygous mutant mice (S279N+/+) were found to have significantly increased body lengths and weights compared to heterozygous mutant (S279N+/-) and wild-type (S279N-/-) mice several weeks after weaning. These results demonstrate that a nonsynonymous substitution in Lhx3 plays an important role in regulating body size in mammals.

Selective Upcycling of Polyethylene over Ru/H-ZSM-5 Bifunctional Catalyst into High-Quality Liquid Fuel at Mild Conditions.

It has been known that plastics with undegradability and long half-times have caused serious environmental and ecological issues. Considering the devastating effects, the development of efficient plastic upcycling technologies with low energy consumption is absolutely imperative. Catalytic hydrogenolysis of single-use polyethylene over Ru-based catalysts to produce high-quality liquid fuel has been one of the current top priority strategies, but it is restricted by some tough challenges, such as the tendency towards methanation resulting from terminal C-C cleavage. Herein, we introduced Ru nanoparticles supported on hollow ZSM-5 zeolite (Ru/H-ZSM-5) for hydrocracking of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) under mild reaction conditions. The implication of experimental results is that the 1Ru/H-ZSM-5 (~1 wt % Ru) acted as an effective and reusable bifunctional catalyst providing higher conversion rate (82.53 %) and liquid fuel (C5-C21) yield (62.87 %). Detailed characterization demonstrated that the optimal performance in hydrocracking of PE could be attributed to the moderate acidity and appropriate positively charged Ru species resulting from the metal-zeolite interaction. This work proposes a promising catalyst for plastic upcycling and reveals its structure-performance relationship, which has guiding significance for catalyst design to improve the yield of high-value liquid fuels.