Atomically Incorporating Ni into Mesoporous CeO2 Matrix via Synchronous Spray-Pyrolysis as Efficient Noble-Metal-Free Catalyst for Low-Temperature CO Oxidation.

Low-temperature catalytic CO oxidation is an important chemical process in versatile applications, such as the H2 utilization for low-temperature H2 air fuel cells. Pt-group metal catalysts are efficient but highly cost-consuming. This work demonstrates an excellent and sixpenny catalyst with earth-abundant Ni and Ce, in which Ni ions are atomically incorporated into the CeO2 matrix (Ni-Ce-Ox) by synchronous spray-pyrolysis (SSP) of mixture nitrates of Ni and Ce. The Ni-Ce-Ox catalyst presents a mesoporous structure. Revealed by a model reaction of 1% CO, 1% O2, and 98% balance He at a space velocity of 13,200 mL/gcat/h, Ni-Ce-Ox catalysts display a typical volcano-shaped relationship between reactivity and Ni incorporation amount. The optimized Ni incorporation appears with a high Ni/Ce atomic ratio of 0.25, endowing the T50 (temperature corresponding to a CO conversion of 50%), which is lower-shifted by 165 °C than that of pristine CeO2 (266 °C). The density functional theory (DFT) calculations further indicate that the much-reduced oxygen vacancy formation energy at Ni-Ce single-atom sites boosted the adsorption activation of the CO molecule and therefore promoted the CO oxidation process. Besides, the2 Ni-Ce-Ox from the SSP method presents better performance than the counterparts from immersion and hydrothermal methods. This work paves a way to access efficient noble-metal-free catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation.

Boosting the Activity of Single-Atom Pt1/CeO2 via Co Doping for Low-Temperature Catalytic Oxidation of CO.

The properties of supports have a significant effect on the activity of noble metal single atoms. In this work, Co-doped CeO2-supported single-atom Pt catalysts (Pt1/Co-CeO2) have been acquired by a synchronous pyrolysis/deposition route and demonstrated to promote low-temperature oxidation of CO. Revealed by a model reaction of 1% CO + 1% O2 + 98% He at a space velocity of 12,000 mL/gcat/h, CO conversion (100 °C) acquired on a (0.5% Pt)/(10% Co-CeO2) catalyst (36.6%) was 3.6 and 4.9 times those of 0.5% Pt/CeO2 (10.0%) and 10% Co-CeO2 (7.4%) catalysts and 2.1 times that of their conversion sum (17.4%), confirming the positive role of the Co dopant in boosting the low-temperature oxidation of CO. The consistent results are also verified in the comparison of Pt1/Co-ZnO with Pt1/ZnO and Pt1/Co-Al2O3 with Pt1/Al2O3. In addition, the activity of single-atom Pt1/Co-CeO2 catalysts can be facilely modified by changing the loading of Pt and/or doping amount of Co. These reasonable data will provide a methodology to access more applicable catalysts for CO oxidation at low temperature.

Association between EZH2 Genetic Variants and Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Chinese Han Population.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Studies have shown that EZH2, as the member of the Polycomb groups (PcGs) family, plays an important biological role in the occurrence and development of HCC. The association between the genetic variants of EZH2 and HCC is not yet fully established. METHODS: In this study, we used 175 patients with HCC and 209 healthy volunteers' blood samples of Chinese Han population to further analyze the relationship between EZH2 variants and HCC susceptibility. RESULTS: The results showed significant differences in distribution of alleles rs2302427 and rs3757441 between patients and the controls (p < 0.05). The three SNPs of EZH2 investigated show significant association with the elevated risk of HCC (p < 0.05) in addition to the overdominant model of rs3757441 and recessive model of rs41277434 (p > 0.05). The haplotype analysis of the three EZH2 SNPs revealed that the CCA and GTA haplotypes were associated with a higher risk of HCC (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results of these experiments indicated that the presence of EZH2 variants was significantly associated with HCC, and these variants could be useful genetic markers for predicting susceptibility to HCC in a Chinese Han population.

A panel of autoantibodies as potential early diagnostic serum biomarkers in patients with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Specific circulating autoantibodies are produced by host immune systems to respond to antigens that arise during tumorigenesis. To achieve auxiliary diagnosis, the present study was designed to test whether circulating autoantibodies against tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) were altered in early breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 102 breast cancer patients and 146 age-matched healthy volunteers were recruited to participate in this study. Autoantibody expression was tested using in-house developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with linear peptide envelope antigens derived from TAAs. RESULTS: Student's t tests showed that expression of autoantibodies against the panel (p16, c-myc, TP53, and ANXA-1) was significantly higher in the breast cancer group, stage I and II breast cancer group, and stage III and IV breast cancer group than in the healthy control group (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p < 0.001). The sensitivities of detection of the panel (90% specificity) in these groups were 33.3%, 31.7%, and 33.3%, respectively, significantly higher than that of any single autoantibody. CONCLUSION: The panel of autoantibodies is more sensitive than single TAA autoantibody detection and may be used as biomarkers for early diagnosis of breast cancer.

Microdrop-confined synthesis and regulation of porous hollow Ir-based catalysts for the mass transfer-enhanced electrolysis of pure water.

Maximally exploiting the active sites of iridium catalysts is essential for building low-cost proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers for green H2 production. Herein, we report a novel microdrop-confined fusion/blasting (MCFB) strategy for fabricating porous hollow IrO1-x microspheres (IrO1-x-PHM) by introducing explosive gas mediators from a NaNO3/glucose mixture. Moreover, the developed MCFB strategy is demonstrated to be general for synthesizing a series of Ir-based composites, including Ir-Cu, Ir-Ru, Ir-Pt, Ir-Rh, Ir-Pd, and Ir-Cu-Pd and other noble metals such as Rh, Ru, and Pt. The hollow structures can be regulated using different organics with NaNO3. The assembled PEM electrolyzer with IrO1-x-PHM as the anode catalyst (0.5 mg/cm2) displays an impressive polarization voltage of 1.593 and 1.726 V at current densities of 1 and 2A/cm2, respectively, outperforming commercial IrOx catalysts and most of the ever-reported iridium catalysts with such low catalyst loading. More importantly, the breakdown of the polarization loss indicates that the improved performance is due to the facilitated mass transport induced by the hollowness. This study offers a versatile platform for fabricating efficient Ir-based catalysts for PEM electrolyzers and beyond.

Carbon-Supported High-Loading Sub-4 nm PtCo Alloy Electrocatalysts for Superior Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Increasing the loading density of nanoparticles on carbon support is essential for making Pt-alloy/C catalysts practical in H2-air fuel cells. The challenge lies in increasing the loading while suppressing the sintering of Pt-alloy nanoparticles. This work presents a 40% Pt-weighted sub-4 nm PtCo/C alloy catalyst via a simple incipient wetness impregnation method. By carefully optimizing the synthetic conditions such as Pt/Co ratios, calcination temperature, and time, the size of supported PtCo alloy nanoparticles is successfully controlled below 4 nm, and a high electrochemical surface area of 93.8 m2/g is achieved, which is 3.4 times that of commercial PtCo/C-TKK catalysts. Demonstrated by electrochemical oxygen reduction reactions, PtCo/C alloy catalysts present an enhanced mass activity of 0.465 A/mg at 0.9 V vs. RHE, which is 2.0 times that of the PtCo/C-TKK catalyst. Therefore, the developed PtCo/C alloy catalyst has the potential to be a highly practical catalyst for H2-air fuel cells.

Phylogeny and molecular evolution of the first local monkeypox virus cluster in Guangdong Province, China.

The first local mpox outbreak in Guangdong Province, China occurred in June 2023. However, epidemiological data have failed to quickly identify the source and transmission of the outbreak. Here, phylogeny and molecular evolution of 10 monkeypox virus (MPXV) genome sequences from the Guangdong outbreak were characterized, revealing local silent transmissions that may have occurred in Guangdong whose mpox outbreaks suggested a molecular epidemiological correlation with Portugal and several regions of China during the same period. The lineage IIb C.1, which includes all 10 MPXV from Guangdong, shows consistent temporal continuity in both phylogenetic characteristics and unique molecular evolutionary mutation spectrum, reflected in the continuous increase of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and shared mutations over time. Compared with the Japan MPXV, the Guangdong MPXV showed higher genomic nucleotide differences and separated 14 shared mutations from the B.1 lineage, comprising 6 non-synonymous mutations in genes linked to host regulation, virus infection, and virus life cycle. The unique mutation spectrum with temporal continuity in IIb C.1, related to apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing catalytic polypeptide-like 3, promotes rapid viral evolution and diversification. The findings contribute to understanding the ongoing mpox outbreak in China and offer insights for developing joint prevention and control strategies.