Acetate Ions Facilitated Immobilization of Highly Dispersed Transition Metal Oxide Nanoclusters in Mesoporous Silica.

The immobilization of tiny active species within inert mesoporous silica imparts a range of functions, enhancing their applicability. A significant obstacle is the spontaneous migration and aggregation of these species within the mesopores, which threaten their uniform distribution. To address this, we propose a postmodification method that involves grafting transition metal oxide nanoclusters into silica mesopores via interfacial condensation, catalyzed by acetate ions. Specifically, CuO nanoclusters, in the form of oligomeric [O1-x-Cu2-(OH) 2x]n2+, have a strong interaction with the silica framework. This interaction inhibits their growth and prevents mesopore blockage. Theoretical calculation results reveal that the acetate ion promotes proton transfer among various hydroxy species, lowering the free energy and thereby facilitating the formation of Cu-O-Si bonds. This technique has also been successfully applied to the encapsulation of four other types of transition metal oxide nanoclusters. Our encapsulation strategy effectively addresses the challenge of dispersing transition metal oxides in mesoporous silica, offering a straightforward and widely applicable method for enhancing the functionality of mesoporous materials.

Psychometric validation of the children's environmental health questionnaires in community nurses.

OBJECTIVES: To translate, cross-cultural adapt and psychometrically validate the Children's Environmental Health Knowledge Questionnaire (ChEHK-Q) and the Children's Environmental Health Skills Questionnaire (ChEHS-Q) for community nurses in China. DESIGN: This was an observational, cross-sectional study undertaken in two phases: (1) translation and cultural adaptation process; (2) psychometric evaluation. SAMPLE: A total of 294 nurses from 23 community health service centers in cities of Henan province participated in the study. METHODS: These two questionnaires were analysed psychometrically based on IRT. ChEHK-Q was analyzed based on basic Rasch Model, and ChEHS-Q based on Rating Scale Model (RSM). EFA, expert validity, threshold analysis, retest reliability, item and individual reliability were used to evaluate the psychometric attributes of these two questionnaires. RESULTS: The Infit and Outfit values for most items are within reasonable limits. The person reliability of ChEHK-Q was 0.85 and the item reliability was 0.97. The person reliability of ChEHS-Q was 0.94 and the item reliability was 0.93. The test-retest reliability of the ChEHK-Q was 0.85 and the ChEHS-Q was 0.87. CONCLUSIONS: ChEHK-Q and ChEHS-Q are reliable and valid instruments with satisfactory psychometric properties for nurses in China. Future studies should recruit a more representative sample to verify the applicability of these two questionnaires.

The relationship between moral sensitivity and professional values and ethical decision-making in nursing students.

BACKGROUND: More researchers have paid attention to the ethical decision-making in nursing worldwidely due to the increasing complexity of ethical issues and dilemmas. Ethical decision-making ability is regarded as one of the core competences of nursing practice and has the potential to resolve ethical issues. It is important to identify the key variables related to ethical decision-making and understand their relationship between them respectively. It is also helpful to design interventions to promote nursing students' ability to resolve ethical dilemmas. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the relationship between moral sensitivity, professional values and ethical decision-making respectively, and to explore whether professional values have mediating effect on the relationship between moral sensitivity and ethical decision-making among nursing undergraduates in Chinese nursing education context. DESIGN: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive correlational design. METHODS: 263 nursing undergraduates from Nursing and Health School, Zhengzhou University in Henan province of China participated in the study and received the investigation. Their ethical decision-making, moral sensitivity and professional values were measured through the following three questionnaires, including the Judgement About Nursing Decision (JAND), Chinese Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire-Revised Version (MSQ-R-CV) and Chinese Nurses' Professional Values Scale-Revised Version (NPVS-R-CV). The data were processed and analysed by SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0. The statistical methods included descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analyses and structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Moral sensitivity is positively correlated with ethical decision-making (P < 0.01). Professional values is positively correlated with ethical decision-making (P < 0.01) and also has a mediating effect on the relationship between moral sensitivity and ethical decision-making (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The investigation contributes to a broader understanding of the factors that influence nursing students' ethical decision-making. Developing ethics education around nursing students' professional values and moral sensitivity can improve their ethical decision-making ability.

Efficient and stable catalysis of hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres in the Fenton-like degradation of organic dyes.

The development of new heterogeneous catalysts with stable catalytic activity in a wide pH range to prevent polluting precipitation plays a vital role in large-scale wastewater treatment. Here, a facile anion exchange strategy was designed to fabricate hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres by using Cu2O nanospheres as hard-templates. The structural and compositional transformation from Cu2O nanospheres to hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres were investigated via X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The Fenton-like degradation of organic dyes was used to evaluate the catalytic performance of the obtained Cu-containing catalysts. Results reveal that the hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres have the best catalytic activity among five kinds of Cu-containing catalysts. Hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres can effectively accelerate the decomposition of H2O2 into hydroxyl radicals and superoxide radical, which have been proven to be mainly oxidative species in the Fenton-like degradation of organic pollutants. Hollow Cu9S5 nanospheres have a wide pH application range of 5.0-9.0, and their extremely stable activity can be maintained in at least 15 catalytic cycles with a Cu2+ ion leaching rate of less than 1.0 %. The outstanding catalytic performance of the Cu9S5 catalyst is expected to enhance the practical applications of copper sulfide catalysts in Fenton-like wastewater treatment.