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Ionic liquids (ILs) with remarkable performance offer opportunities to advance green and low-carbon chemical processes. Thus, much work is focused on building an innovative theory and knowledge framework to unravel the nature of ILs. Moreover, there is an increasing trend to utilize ILs in rapidly emerging fields. Aiming to provide an overview of the recent advances and challenges of ILs in the development of green processes for renewable resources, this review highlights the properties and functions of ILs in IL gating and as electrolyte additives, modifiers, exfoliation agents, nucleation substrates, tunable solvents, versatile carriers and biosensor components in three representative and revolutionary production processes, namely, new energy, electronic information materials, and biotechnologies. The innovative applications of ILs demonstrate their potential to create a landscape of low-carbon, high-end and smart technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) contamination is a serious threat to nutritional safety and public health. The CotA-laccase from Bacillus licheniformis ANSB821 previously reported by our laboratory showed great potential to degrade AFB1 without redox mediators. However, the use of this CotA-laccase to remove AFB1 in animal feed is limited because of its low catalytic efficiency and low expression level. In order to make better use of this excellent enzyme to effectively degrade AFB1, twelve mutants of CotA-laccase were constructed by site-directed mutagenesis. Among these mutants, E186A and E186R showed the best degradation ability of AFB1, with degradation ratios of 82.2% and 91.8% within 12 h, which were 1.6- and 1.8-times higher than those of the wild-type CotA-laccase, respectively. The catalytic efficiencies (kcat/Km) of E186A and E186R were found to be 1.8- and 3.2-times higher, respectively, than those of the wild-type CotA-laccase. Then the expression vectors pPICZαA-N-E186A and pPICZαA-N-E186R with an optimized signal peptide were constructed and transformed into Pichia pastoris GS115. The optimized signal peptide improved the secretory expressions of E186A and E186R in P. pastoris GS115. Collectively, the current study provided ideal candidate CotA-laccase mutants for AFB1 detoxification in food and animal feed and a feasible protocol, which was desperately needed for the industrial production of CotA-laccases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The level of measurable residual disease (MRD) before and after transplantation is related to inferior transplant outcomes, and post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation measurable residual disease (post-HSCT MRD) has higher prognostic value in determining risk than pre-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation measurable residual disease (pre-HSCT MRD). However, only a few work has been devoted to the risk factors for positive post-HSCT MRD in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). This study evaluated the risk factors for post-HSCT MRD positivity in patients with ALL who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT)., Methods: A total of 1683 ALL patients from Peking University People's Hospital between January 2009 and December 2019 were enrolled to evaluate the cumulative incidence of post-HSCT MRD. Cox proportional hazard regression models were built for time-to-event outcomes. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine independent influencing factors from the univariate analysis., Results: Both in total patients and in T-cell ALL or B-cell ALL, pediatric or adult, human leukocyte antigen-matched sibling donor transplantation or haploidentical SCT subgroups, positive pre-HSCT MRD was a risk factor for post-HSCT MRD positivity (P <0.001 for all). Disease status (complete remission 1 [CR1] vs. ≥CR2) was also a risk factor for post-HSCT MRD positivity in all patients and in the B cell-ALL, pediatric, or haploidentical SCT subgroups (P = 0.027; P = 0.003; P = 0.035; P = 0.003, respectively). A risk score for post-HSCT MRD positivity was developed using the variables pre-HSCT MRD and disease status. The cumulative incidence of post-HSCT MRD positivity was 12.3%, 25.1%, and 38.8% for subjects with scores of 0, 1, and 2-3, respectively (P <0.001). Multivariate analysis confirmed the association of the risk score with the cumulative incidence of post-HSCT MRD positivity and relapse as well as leukemia-free survival and overall survival., Conclusion: Our results indicated that positive pre-MRD and disease status were two independent risk factors for post-HSCT MRD positivity in patients with ALL who underwent allo-HSCT., (Copyright © 2024 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.)

The sustainable development of proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) requires a dramatic reduction in Ir while maintaining good catalytic activity and stability for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, high-surface-area Ta 2 O 5 with abundant oxygen vacancies is synthesized via a facile process, followed by anchoring IrRuO x onto a Ta 2 O 5 support (IrRuO x /Ta 2 O 5 ). IrRuO x and Ta 2 O 5 work synergistically to afford excellent catalytic performance for the acidic OER. At 0.3 mg Ir cm -2 , IrRuO x /Ta 2 O 5 only needed an overpotential of 235 mV to deliver 10 mA cm -2 in an acidic half cell and needed a cell potential of 1.91 V to deliver 2 A cm -2 in a PEM water electrolyzer. The characterization results show that doping Ir into RuO x significantly improves the stability and the electrochemically active surface area of RuO x . In IrRuO x /Ta 2 O 5 , IrRuO x interacts with Ta 2 O 5 through more electron-rich Ir, indicating strong synergy between the catalyst and the support. The use of a metal oxide support improves the catalyst dispersion, optimizes electronic structures, facilitates mass transport, and stabilizes active sites. This work demonstrates that compositing Ir with less expensive Ru and anchoring catalyst nanoparticles on platinum-group metal (PGM)-free metal oxide supports represents one of the most promising strategies to reduce Ir loading and achieve an activity-stability trade-off. Such a strategy can benefit future catalyst design for other energy storage and conventional processes.