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Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (denoted hereinafter CO2RR) using renewable electric power from carbon-free sources shows high potential to transform CO2 into value-added commodity chemicals, such as carbon monoxide and formic acid. The ultimate goal of research activities in this field is to achieve a commercial scale of CO2 conversion, which requires not only the development of effective catalysts but relies also on the design of appropriate electrochemical reactors to reach the high target product partial current density with long-term operation stability. There are still challenges towards industrial application, such as CO2 mass transport limitations, and severe system stability issues due to flooding, and precipitation phenomena occurring in the gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) during operation. Colloidal catalysts are typically prepared by reducing metal precursors in the presence of capping agents which are used to control the size distribution of the colloidal particles, their shape and composition. These well-defined colloidal catalysts have already showed excellent electrocatalytic performance for CO2RR. However, most of research has prioritized the activity and selectivity of catalysts, while the stability received less attention, especially in the presence of surfactants. In addition, the studies on the residual capping agents that may block the active site from colloidal synthesis processes are few for CO2RR. For this PhD project, various colloidal Ag catalysts with different sizes, morphologies and capping agents were employed for electrochemical CO2RR. The capping agents (i.e. polyvinylpyrrolidone, PVP) were demonstrated to severely affect the CO2RR performance on Ag catalysts due to its coverage of active site. Electrochemical looping has been proved herein to be a suitable and effective method for surfactant removal in particular when using H-type electrolysis cells where the catalysts are exposed to a liquid electrolyte solution; this leads the Ag catalysts to perform close 100% of faradaic efficiency for CO. More importantly, the excess capping agents (e.g. PVP) not only changed the degradation pathway of Ag catalysts but they also reduced the stability of gas-fed electrolyzer systems. Ag catalysts with distinct sizes, morphologies and capping agents showed dissimilar degradation pathways for CO2RR when using these gas-fed flow cells. However, the loss of CO2RR performance could be in many cases regained after removing precipitate formed on the GDEs. It is further demonstrated herein that cracks often appearing as defects in the gas-diffusion layers (GDLs) and the removal of excess PVP from the catalyst inks could effectively mitigate flooding phenomena and prolong the life-time of the electrolyzer systems. In conclusion, to advance electrochemical CO2RR towards commercial scale, durability is currently more reliant upon the reactor and GDE design rather than the catalyst itself in this stage. The influence of capping agents, especially the excess surfactant, should not be neglected.

Anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 antibody-positive dermatomyositis (MDA5+DM) is typically characterized by cutaneous manifestations, amyopathic or hypomyopathic muscle involvement, and a high incidence of rapid progressive interstitial lung disease (RP-ILD). However, the exact etiology and pathogenesis of this condition has yet to be fully elucidated. Melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5), as the autoantigen target, is a member of the retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I) family. The MDA5 protein can function as a cytosolic sensor that recognizes viral double-strand RNA and then triggers the transcription of genes encoding type I interferon (IFN). Therefore, it was presumed that viruses might trigger the overproduction of type I IFN, thus contributing to the development of MDA5+DM. Emerging evidence provides further support to this hypothesis: the increased serum IFNα level was detected in the patients with MDA5+DM, and the type I IFN gene signature was upregulated in both the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the skin tissues from these patients. In particular, RNA sequencing revealed the over-expression of the type I IFN genes in blood vessels from MDA5+DM patients. In addition, Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors achieved the promising therapeutic effects in cases with interstitial lung disease (ILD) associated with MDA5+DM. In this review, we discuss the role of the type I IFN system in the pathogenesis of MDA5+DM.

Supplemental Material for Dose-Response Association of Low and Normal Ankle Brachial Index With the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Morbidity and Mortality by Jinli Zhang, Haohang Sun, Xingjin Yang, Yifei Feng, Yang Li, Minghui Han, Ranran Qie, Shengbing Huang, Lijun Yuan, Tianze Li, Huifang Hu, Xi Li, Dechen Liu, Xiaoyan Wu, Yanyan Zhang, Yuying Wu, Fulan Hu, Ming Zhang, Liang Sun, Dongsheng Hu, and Yang Zhao in Angiology

Purpose. To evaluate the effectiveness of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors for the treatment of patients with autoimmune disease and associated inflammatory ocular diseases. Methods. We identified relevant literature by screening the MEDLINE, PubMed, and Cochrane databases for randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, case controls, and case reports. Results. Seven studies, including 11 patients, were included in the final systematic analysis. Of the 11 patients, there were 5 cases of juvenile idiopathic arthritis- (JIA-) associated uveitis, 1 case of rheumatoid arthritis- (RA-) associated keratitis, 1 case of RA-associated scleritis, 1 case of psoriasis-associated conjunctivitis, 2 cases of noninfectious scleritis, and 1 case of uveitis with suspected autoimmune disease. None of these 11 patients responded adequately to conventional treatments, including biological agents; these were all refractory cases and switched to JAK inhibitor therapy. Irrespective of whether they were suffering from uveitis, scleritis, or other types of ocular inflammation, all 11 patients showed an improvement to JAK inhibitors without significant side effects. Different types of JAK inhibitors might be associated with different responses when used to treat ocular inflammation. Conclusions. JAK inhibitors may represent an alternative treatment option for patients with autoimmune ocular inflammation.

Nanotechnology has become a novel subject with impact in many research and technology areas. Nanoparticles (NPs), as a key component in nanotechnology, are widely used in many areas such as optical, magnetic, electrical, and mechanical engineering. The biomedical and pharmaceutical industries have embraced NPs as a viable drug delivery modality. As such, the potential for NP-induced cytotoxicity has emerged as a major concern for NP drug delivery systems. Thus, it is important to understand how NPs affect the innate immune system. As the most abundant myeloid cell type in innate immune responses, neutrophils are critical for concerns about potentially toxic side effects of NPs. When activated by innate immune stimuli, neutrophils may initiate NETosis to release neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Herein, we have reviewed the relationship between NPs and the induction of NETosis and release of NETs.

As a consequence of increases in aerosols,air pollutants and population density,dimming or shading have become major challenges to crop production in China.And during the last several decades,significant increase in the concentrations of tropospheric ozone(O3) have been reported.The increased tropospheric O3 concentrations and induced solar irradiance may concomitantly occur and lead to reductions in yield of crops and economic plants.Especially,there are a great variety large-scale industries in the Yangtze River delta where is the major producting area of winter wheat.Which will enlarge the high-potential risks on growth and yield of winter wheat for their heavy air pollution. Although the influences of each individual stress on plant performance have been widely studied,much less is known about the interactions of O3 stress and solar irradiance on the winter wheat.In order to analysis this focus question in the varied growth stages of crop including jointing stage,booting stage,blooming stage,grain filling stage and mature stage,a experiment based on open top chambers(OTC) was conducted from November 18 of 2010 to June 5 of 2011 in Nanjing University of information Science Technology(32°14′ N,118°42′ E),located at North suburb of Nanjing,Jiang Su Province.And the YangMai13 as a tested variety was a pillar in our study. Winter wheat are exposed to unfiltered air(CK),shaded 40% of nature solar irradiance(T1),enhanced increased O3 concentration(100nL/L O3,T2) and combined treatment(100nL/LO3 +shading 40%,T3).The results are showed as follows: the treatments of T1,T2 and T3 all cause the changes of growth period and the plant premature aging.The grain filling stage and the growth period are all shortened in T2 treatment;T1 and T3 treatments,however,prolong the growth stage of winter wheat.In addition,a significant reduction of dry matter production under T1,T2 and T3 treatments compared to CK(P0.05) with declined 23.37%(P0.05),35.61%(P0.05) and 55.29%(P0.05),respectively.Besides,compared with CK,the grain weight、1000-grain weight and ear weight of each treatment are all reduced(P0.05) under the treatments.And it clearly shows that ear number of T1 and T3 are both declined(P0.05).We can preliminary conclude that compared with shading and O3 alone,the combination between shading 40% and O3 concentration enhanced can enlarge the negative effects on wheat growth and yield.Moreover,the effects of growth and growth period of under the combination are closer to 40% solar irradiance treatment.And the major reason for declined grain weight under the combination is decrease of grain filling rate instead of decreases of grain filling duration.It also obviously demonstrated that the number of spikelet,the grain weight per spike and the 1000-grain weight of the composite treatments decreased significantly(P0.05) 35.15%,39.32% and 34.38%,separately.As a result,the grain yield decreased by 64.65% compared with the control,but the value is less than two factors accumulate alone.

During the last several decades,significant reductions in the concentrations of stratospheric ozone(O3) have been reported.This reduced ozone concentration causes an increment in ultraviolet-B radiation approaching to the surface earth.The elevated UV-B radiation and increased tropospheric O3 concentrations maybe occur together and cause reductions in physiological and biochemical characteristics of crops and economic plants.The effects of UV-B and O3 on plant growth and productivity have been reported separately for a large number of species by filed experiment,but only few experiments have focused on their interaction,it is not clear whether UV-B and O3 induced damages are brought about with similar mechanisms.This uncertainty has largely been due to the lack of an experimental approachs to investigate the responses of a single species exposed to UV-B and O3 under well-defined experimental conditions.Studies were conducted under the open-top-chambers conditions so as to assess photosynthesis changes of soybean(Glycine max,Bayuehuang) with supplemental UV-B radiation(10%—10.9% higher than control group,T1) and enhanced ozone [(100±9) nmol/mol,T2],separately and in combination(combination treatment,T3),by investigating photosynthetic pigment,flavonoid content and gas exchange parameters with application of LCpro+ Portable Photosynthesis System.Results indicate that net photosynthetic rate(Pn),maximum photosynthetic rate(Pmax),somatic conductance(Gs),half-saturation light intensity(Ik)and stomatal limitation(Ls)of T1 treatment decreased significantly compared with CK(control group,natural air and UV-B radiant intensity condition).With same references,inter-cellular CO2 concentration(Ci)and flavonoid content increased,the apparent quantum yield(AQY) and the dark respiration rate(Rd)raised first and then decreased,and the cartenoid content decreased first and then raised while the content of chlorophyll had faint decrease if compared with CK.The change pattern of Pn,Pmax,Ik,Gs,Ci and Ls of T2 treatment was similar to those of T1 treatment while the content of chlorophyll and cartenoid decreased significantly compared with CK;flavonoid content of T2 showed slightly decrease at early stages,but sharp increase at latter stages.The change pattern of Pn,Pmax,Ik,Gs,Ls,Ci and Rd of T3 treatment was also similar to those of T1 treatment while the content of cartenoid and chlorophyll decreased obviously compared with CK with lower chlorophyll content than that of T1 and T2.Obviously,enhanced ozone caused significant decrease in chlorophyll content,but supplemental UV-B radiation had no impressive effect on it.Compared with UV-B and O3 alone,UV-B and O3 in combination enhanced the negative effects on soybean chlorophyll content,and ozone stress dominated the combination stress effect of O3 and UV-B.The decrease of photosynthesis was mainly due to non-stomatal factors.UV-B and O3 in combination enhanced the negative effects on soybean compared with UV-B and O3 alone.

We investigate the electronic properties of semi-metallic (12,0) carbon nanotubes in the presence of a variety of mono-, di- and hexa-vacancy defects, by using first principle DFT combined with non-equilibrium Green's function technique. We show that defect states related to the vacancies hybridize with the extended states of the nanotubes to modify the band edge, and change the energy gap, resulting from the curvature effect. As a consequence, the nanotube conductance is not a monotonic function of the defect size and geometry. Paradoxically, hexa-vacancy nanotubes have higher conductance than di-vacancy nanotubes, which is due to the presence of mid-gap states originating from the defect, thereby enhancing the conductance., 15 pages, 5 figures