Highly Active and Selective Electroreduction of N2 by the Catalysis of Ga Single Atoms Stabilized on Amorphous TiO2 Nanofibers.

The electroreduction of N2 under ambient conditions has emerged as one of the most promising technologies in chemistry, since it is a greener way to make NH3 than the traditional Haber-Bosch process. However, it is greatly challenged with a low NH3 yield and faradaic efficiency (FE) because of the lack of highly active and selective catalysts. Inherently, transition (d-block) metals suffer from inferior selectivity due to fierce competition from H2 evolution, while post-transition (p-block) metals exhibit poor activity due to insufficient "π back-donation" behavior. Considering their distinct yet complementary electronic structures, here we propose a strategy to tackle the activity and selectivity challenge through the atomic dispersion of p-block metal on an all-amorphous transition-metal matrix. To address the activity issue, lotus-root-like amorphous TiO2 nanofibers are synthesized which, different from vacancy-engineered TiO2 nanocrystals reported previously, possess abundant intrinsic oxygen vacancies (VO) together with under-coordinated dangling bonds in nature, resulting in significantly enhanced N2 activation and electron transport capacity. To address the selectivity issue, well-isolated single atoms (SAs) of Ga are successfully synthesized through the confinement effect of VO, resulting in Ga-VO reactive sites with the maximum availability. It is revealed by density functional theory calculations that Ga SAs are favorable for the selective adsorption of N2 at the catalyst surface, while VO can facilitate N2 activation and reduction subsequently. Benefiting from this coupled activity/selectivity design, high NH3 yield (24.47 µg h-1 mg-1) and FE (48.64%) are achieved at an extremely low overpotential of -0.1 V vs RHE.

Downregulation of microRNA-9 reduces inflammatory response and fibroblast proliferation in mice with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis through the ANO1-mediated TGF-ß-Smad3 pathway.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease with increasing occurrence, high death rates and unfavorable treatment regimens. In the current study, we identified the expression of microRNA-9 (miR-9) and anoctamin-1 (ANO1) in IPF mouse models induced by bleomycin, and their effects on inflammation and fibroblast proliferation through the transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß)-Smad3 pathway. To verify the targeting relationship between miR-9 and ANO1, we used bioinformatics prediction and conducted a dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. The underlying regulatory mechanisms of miR-9 and the target gene ANO1 were investigated mainly with the treatment of miR-9 mimic, miR-9 inhibitor, or siRNA against ANO1 in fibroblasts isolated from IPF mice. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to investigate the effect of miR-9 or ANO1 on inflammatory factors. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and flow cytometry were used to detect fibroblast proliferation and apoptosis. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were applied to measure the expression of the TGF-ß-Smad3 pathway-related genes. The determination of luciferase activity suggested that miR-9 targets ANO1. Upregulation of miR-9 or silencing of ANO1 intensified inflammation in IPF, promoted proliferation and inhibited apoptotic ability of lung fibroblasts. MiR-9 negatively modulated ANO1, and thus activated the TGF-ß-Smad3 pathway. These findings suggest that miR-9 can indirectly activate the TGF-ß-Smad3 pathway by inhibiting the expression of ANO1, thereby aggravating inflammation, promotes proliferation and suppressing apoptosis of lung fibroblasts in mice models of IPF.

Populating surface-trapped electrons towards SERS enhancement of W18O49 nanowires.

The population of surface-trapped electrons is found to be in a close relationship with the SERS performance of a nanostructured W18O49 substrate, as proved by construction of metal-semiconductor interfaces or organic-semiconductor coordination. Therefore, further improvement in the SERS performance of semiconductors could be expected by populating the surface-trapped electrons.

First-principles prediction of a rising star of solar energy material: SrTcO3.

SrTcO3 as a new star of solar energy material is investigated in terms of its band gap evolution with biaxial strain from first-principles calculations. Compared to the theoretical equilibrium lattice constant a(b) of bulk SrTcO3, a set of lattice constants with a deviation of -8.75% to +3.35% are considered to include the strain effect. Since the in-plane lattice constant of SrTcO3 is larger than that of the commonly used substrate SrTiO3(STO)/La0.3Sr0.7Al0.35Ta0.35O9 (LSAT)/NdGaO3(NGO)/LaAlO3(LAO), we mainly focus on the modulation of compressive strain. It is found that the band gap decreases with increasing compressive/tensile strain. When the compressive strain reaches 8.75%, the band gap drops to zero and an insulator-metal phase transition appears. Particularly, upon a compressive strain of 1.3%/2.2%/2.4%/4.1%, which can be realized by growing SrTcO3 on substrate STO/LSAT/NGO/LAO, the band gap becomes 1.56/1.47/1.43/1.12 eV, which falls in the range for efficient solar cell materials. Our work suggests that SrTcO3 is a good candidate for a new solar energy material.

[Risk factors for acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in patients who survived the Wenchuan earthquake].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the major risk factors for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the role of mental status in patients who survived the Wenchuan Earthquake. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted in 301 COPD patients from the earthquake and non-earthquake areas in Sichuan one month, three months and 12 months after the Wenchuan Earthquake. RESULTS: A total of 269 patients with COPD completed this study, which included 133 patients earthquake area and 136 from non-earthquake area. (1) Patients from earthquake area had significant higher incidence of acute exacerbations of COPD than those from non-earthquake area 3 months (0.57 +/- 0.688 vs. 0.40 +/- 0.601) and 12 months (1.82 +/- 1.375 vs. 1.47 +/- 1.366) after the earthquake. (2) Patients from earthquake area had significant higher Modified British Medical Research Council (mMRC) grades of COPD than those from non-earthquake area 12 months (P < 0.05) after the earthquake. (3) Patients from earthquake area had significant higher prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and higher scores of Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) than those from non-earthquake area within one month and 3 months after the earthquake. The difference in PTSD prevalence remained significant 12 months after the earthquake. (4) No significant differences in the prevalence of PTSD and the scores of SAS and SDS were found within one month and 3 months after the earthquake, though significant improvements were observed 12 months after the earthquake for both participants from the earthquake and non-earthquake areas (P < 0.01). (5) Patients from earthquake area lived in worse environment than those from non-earthquake area during the first 3 months after the earthquake (P < 0.001). The living environments of both groups improved significantly 12 months later (P < 0.001). (6) Binary logistic regression showed that older age, worse pulmonary function, psychological disorder, worse living environment were risk factors of acute exacerbation of COPD after the Wenchuan Earthquake. CONCLUSION: The earthquake caused serious psychological trauma in COPD patients. Older age, worse pulmonary function, psychological disorder, worse living environment are risk factors associated with acute exacerbation of COPD. COPD patients should receive psychotherapy and better living arrangement as early as possible after serious disasters.

Association between fibroblast growth factor 7 and the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

AIM: Fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7) is involved in a number of physiological and pathological processes, including lung disease. However, relatively little is known about the effect of FGF7 gene polymorphisms on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) susceptibility. This study aimed to investigate the association between FGF7 polymorphisms with COPD susceptibility in a Chinese Han population. METHODS: We conducted a case-control study of 279 COPD patients and 367 age- and gender-distribution-matched control subjects. The tagging SNPs rs10519225 and rs7170426 in FGF7 were genotyped by SNaPshot. The associations of each SNP genotype and haplotype constructed by these loci with COPD were analyzed. RESULTS: A multivariate analysis showed that rs10519225 was significantly associated with an increased risk of COPD (P=0.011, OR=1.535, FDR q=0.022), whereas no association was found for rs7170426. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis showed that these loci were in weak LD, with an r(2) of 0.033 and a D' of 0.232 (95% CI: 0.150-0.520). The haplotype constructed by allele G at rs10519225 and allele A at rs7170426 was associated with a decreased susceptibility to COPD (P=0.012, OR=0.751, FDR q=0.048). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that FGF7 may be one susceptibility factor for COPD.