Ultrasmall Ru nanoparticles-decorated nickel/nickel oxide three phase heterojunctions to boost alkaline hydrogen evolution.

The rational design and optimization of heterogeneous interface for low loading noble metal HER eletrocatalysts to facilitate the upscaling of alkaline water/seawater electrolysis is highly challenging. Herein, we present a facile deep corrosion strategy induced by NaBH4 to precisely construct an ultrasmall Ru nanoparticle-decorated Ni/NiO hybrid (r-Ru-Ni/NiO) with highly dispersed triple-phase heterostructures. Remarkably, it exhibits superior activity with only 53 mV and 70 mV at 100 mA cm-2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline water and seawater, respectively, surpassing the performance of Pt/C (109.7 mV, 100 mA cm-2, 1 M KOH). It is attributed to collaborative optimization of electroactive interfaces between well-distributed ultrasmall Ru nanoparticles and Ni/NiO hybrid. Moreover, the assembled r-Ru-Ni/NiO system just require 2.03 V at 1000 mA cm-2 in anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyzer, outperforming a RuO2/NF || Pt/C system, while exhibiting outstanding stability at high current densities. This study offers a logical design for accurate construction of interfacial engineering, showing promise for large-scale hydrogen production via electrochemical water splitting.

Noninvasive carbon dioxide monitoring in pediatric patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery: transcutaneous vs. end-tidal techniques.

PURPOSE: The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between transcutaneous carbon dioxide partial pressure (PtcCO2) and arterial carbon dioxide pressure (PaCO2) and the accuracy of PtcCO2 in predicting PaCO2 during laparoscopic surgery in pediatric patients. METHODS: Children aged 2-8 years with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class I or II who underwent laparoscopic surgery under general anesthesia were selected. After anesthesia induction and tracheal intubation, PtcCO2 was monitored, and radial arterial catheterization was performed for continuous pressure measurement. PaCO2, PtcCO2, and end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure (PetCO2) were measured before pneumoperitoneum, and 30, 60, and 90 min after pneumoperitoneum, respectively. The correlation and agreement between PtcCO2 and PaCO2, PetCO2, and PaCO2 were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 32 patients were eventually enrolled in this study, resulting in 128 datasets. The linear regression equations were: PtcCO2 = 7.89 + 0.82 × PaCO2 (r2 = 0.70, P < 0.01); PetCO2 = 9.87 + 0.64 × PaCO2 (r2 = 0.69, P < 0.01). The 95% limits of agreement (LOA) of PtcCO2 - PaCO2 average was 0.66 ± 4.92 mmHg, and the 95% LOA of PetCO2 - PaCO2 average was -4.4 ± 4.86 mmHg. A difference of ≤ 5 mmHg was noted between PtcCO2 and PaCO2 in 122/128 samples and between PetCO2 and PaCO2 in 81/128 samples (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: In pediatric laparoscopic surgery, a close correlation was established between PtcCO2 and PaCO2. Compared to PetCO2, PtcCO2 can estimate PaCO2 accurately and could be used as an auxiliary monitoring indicator to optimize anesthesia management for laparoscopic surgery in children; however, it is not a substitute for PetCO2. REGISTRATION NUMBER OF CHINESE CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRY: ChiCTR2100043636.

Age at first birth and risk of urinary incontinence after delivery: a dose-response meta-analysis.

Studies investigating the impact of age at first birth on urinary incontinence after delivery have reached inconsistent conclusions. We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis of studies assessing the risk of urinary incontinence after delivery, regardless of the type, with age at first birth. MEDLINE via PubMed and Web of science databases were searched up to March 13, 2021. Restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose-response association. Twelve publications were included in this meta-analysis. The summary odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) per 1-year increase in age at first birth were 1.01 (95% CI (0.99, 1.02)) for urinary incontinence (America: 1.00 (0.99, 1.00); Europe: 1.03 (1.00, 1.06); Asian: 0.99 (0.89, 1.10)). A non-linear dose-response (Pnonlinearity < 0.01) indicated that age at first birth older than 32 (P < 0.05) increases the risk of urinary incontinence. First birth before age 32 make decrease the risk of urinary incontinence after delivery.

The top 5 causes of death in China from 2000 to 2017.

Limited information is available on the epidemiological characteristics of major causes of death in the last 18 years. In this study, we investigated the epidemiological characteristics of the top 5 causes of death in China from 2000 to 2017. Data were obtained from the 18-year reports of Ministry of Health and analyzed by Grid Search Method, Permutation test, and log-linear regression model. The top 5 consistent causes of death, malignant tumor, cerebrovascular disease, heart trouble, respiratory disease, trauma and toxicosis accounted for 82.6% in 2000, 86.49% in 2017 in urban areas and 83.31% in 2000, 88.34% in 2017 in rural areas. The increasing trends (P < 0.05) of proportions of death of malignant tumor, cerebrovascular disease, and heart trouble have average annual percent change (AAPC) = 0.5%, 0.3%, 2.4% in urban areas and 1.7%, 1.5%, 4.3% in rural areas. The AAPCs of respiratory disease are - 1.4% in urban areas and - 3.6% in rural areas. Cardio-cerebrovascular disease increased (Urban: 39.02% to 43.56%, AAPC = 1.3%, P < 0.05; Rural: 32.03% to 45.91%, AAPC = 2.7%, P < 0.05) steeply from 2000 to 2017 which are higher than that of malignant tumor (P < 0.05). The top 5 causes of death in China accounted for more than 85% of all deaths in 2017, in which cardio-cerebrovascular disease accounted for the largest proportion with the steepest increasing trend.

De novo Transcriptome Assembly of Common Wild Rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.) and Discovery of Drought-Response Genes in Root Tissue Based on Transcriptomic Data.

BACKGROUND: The perennial O. rufipogon (common wild rice), which is considered to be the ancestor of Asian cultivated rice species, contains many useful genetic resources, including drought resistance genes. However, few studies have identified the drought resistance and tissue-specific genes in common wild rice. RESULTS: In this study, transcriptome sequencing libraries were constructed, including drought-treated roots (DR) and control leaves (CL) and roots (CR). Using Illumina sequencing technology, we generated 16.75 million bases of high-quality sequence data for common wild rice and conducted de novo assembly and annotation of genes without prior genome information. These reads were assembled into 119,332 unigenes with an average length of 715 bp. A total of 88,813 distinct sequences (74.42% of unigenes) significantly matched known genes in the NCBI NT database. Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis showed that 3617 genes were up-regulated and 4171 genes were down-regulated in the CR library compared with the CL library. Among the DEGs, 535 genes were expressed in roots but not in shoots. A similar comparison between the DR and CR libraries showed that 1393 genes were up-regulated and 315 genes were down-regulated in the DR library compared with the CR library. Finally, 37 genes that were specifically expressed in roots were screened after comparing the DEGs identified in the above-described analyses. CONCLUSION: This study provides a transcriptome sequence resource for common wild rice plants and establishes a digital gene expression profile of wild rice plants under drought conditions using the assembled transcriptome data as a reference. Several tissue-specific and drought-stress-related candidate genes were identified, representing a fully characterized transcriptome and providing a valuable resource for genetic and genomic studies in plants.

De novo assembly of transcriptome sequencing in Caragana korshinskii Kom. and characterization of EST-SSR markers.

Caragana korshinskii Kom. is widely distributed in various habitats, including gravel desert, clay desert, fixed and semi-fixed sand, and saline land in the Asian and African deserts. To date, no previous genomic information or EST-SSR marker has been reported in Caragana Fabr. genus. In this study, more than two billion bases of high-quality sequence of C. korshinskii were generated by using illumina sequencing technology and demonstrated the de novo assembly and annotation of genes without prior genome information. These reads were assembled into 86,265 unigenes (mean length = 709 bp). The similarity search indicated that 33,955 and 21,978 unigenes showed significant similarities to known proteins from NCBI non-redundant and Swissprot protein databases, respectively. Among these annotated unigenes, 26,232 a unigenes were separately assigned to Gene Ontology (GO) database. When 22,756 unigenes searched against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway (KEGG) database, 5,598 unigenes were assigned to 5 main categories including 32 KEGG pathways. Among the main KEGG categories, metabolism was the biggest category (2,862, 43.7%), suggesting the active metabolic processes in the desert tree. In addition, a total of 19,150 EST-SSRs were identified from 15,484 unigenes, and the characterizations of EST-SSRs were further compared with other four species in Fabraceae. 126 potential marker sites were randomly selected to validate the assembly quality and develop EST-SSR markers. Among the 9 germplasms in Caranaga Fabr. genus, PCR success rate were 93.7% and the phylogenic tree was constructed based on the genotypic data. This research generated a substantial fraction of transcriptome sequences, which were very useful resources for gene annotation and discovery, molecular markers development, genome assembly and annotation. The EST-SSR markers identified and developed in this study will facilitate marker-assisted selection breeding.

De novo assembly of the desert tree Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) based on RNA-Seq data provides insight into drought response, gene discovery and marker identification.

BACKGROUND: Haloxylon ammodendron (C. A. Mey.) is widely distributed across a range of habitats, including gravel desert, clay desert, fixed and semi-fixed sand, and saline land in Asian and African deserts. To date, no genomic information or expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) marker has been reported for H. ammodendron plants. RESULTS: Using Illumina sequencing technology, we generated over two billion bases of high-quality sequence data on H. ammodendron and conducted de novo assembly and annotation of genes without prior genome information. These reads were assembled into 79,918 unigenes (mean length = 728 bp). Based on similarity searches comparing these unigenes with known proteins in the non-redundant (nr) protein database, 25,619 unigenes were functionally annotated with a cut-off E-value of 10-5. In addition, DGE reads were mapped to the assembled transcriptome for gene expression analysis under drought stress. In total, 1,060 differentially expressed genes were identified. Among these genes, 356 genes were upregulated after drought treatment, and 704 genes were downregulated. We used the KEGG database to annotate these drought-induced genes; 207 unigenes were identified in the KEGG pathway annotation, and approximately 12.1% of the unigenes with known function fell into categories related to fatty acid metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, and nitrogen metabolism, suggesting that these pathways or processes may be involved in the drought response. Together, a total of 35 drought-inducible transcription factors were identified, including WRKY, MYB and bZIP family members. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to provide a transcriptome sequence resource for H. ammodendron plants and to determine its digital gene expression profile under drought conditions using the assembled transcriptome data for reference. These data provide a valuable resource for genetic and genomic studies of desert plants under abiotic conditions.