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The shortage of pure-water and high-energy consumption of low-grade water treatments force the development of direct seawater-electrolysis. Herein, experiments and calculations reveal the redistribution of electron density due to doping and vacancy defects, and confirm the contribution of multiple active sites to the dissociation and desorption of water with favorable thermodynamics. The Co/Ni-doped defect-rich Cu-based oxides (CNC-MO) nanoarrays promote water dissociation and hydrogen desorption via bonding with *OH and *H respectively, thus accelerating hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The Ni/Co-doped defect-rich Cu-based sulfides (CNC-MS) nanorods modulate the adsorption state of *OH while effectively adsorbing and isolating *H to improve the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics. Asymmetric electrodes can achieve alkaline seawater electrolysis with 100 mA cm−2 at a voltage of 1.61 V. The corrosion resistance, high efficiency, and selectivity of electrodes can remain stable for 1200 h in a saline-alkali medium, and then gradually decline with sites blocking and deep corrosion. The aim of this work is to propose design strategies for the construction of high-performance electrocatalysts for seawater splitting while balancing multiple factors such as cost, efficiency, and durability.

Detecting the adverse effects of major emergencies on financial markets and real economy is of great importance not only for short-term policy reactions but also for economic and financial stability. This is the lesson we learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses on the risk spillover effect of the COVID-19 on Chinese energy industry using a high-dimensional and time-varying factor-augmented VAR model. The results show that the net volatility spillovers of the pandemic remain positive to all underlying energy sectors during January to June of 2020 and February to April of 2021. For the former sub-period, the volatility spillover of the COVID-19 is not only the highest, but also lasts longest for oil exploitation sector, followed by the power and gas sectors. While for the latter sub-period, the COVID-19 has relatively higher volatility spillovers to the power, coal mining and petrochemical sectors. These findings suggest that the COVID-19 has significant risk spillover effects on Chinese energy sectors, and the effects vary among different energy sub-sectors and across different periods of time.

This paper analyzes the causal relationship between trade policy uncertainty, government subsidies, and the role of political connections using annual data on Chinese energy firms from 2003 to 2018. The results show that when trade policy uncertainty increases, the Chinese government tends to increase subsidies for energy firms, and firms with political ties may receive more subsidies. Furthermore, firms with poor sales performance and in less marketized regions will be granted even more subsidies when uncertainty rises and firms are politically connected. We also observe that subsidies promote firms' fixed asset investments and innovations but decrease their overall investment efficiency.

In this study, we demonstrated the role of W1/O/W2 double emulsion with alginate-Ca-EDTA system on the gastrointestinal digestion viability of Lactobacillus Plantarum strain liquid. The W1/O/W2 double emulsion was prepared by WPI-EGCG covalent conjugate nanoparticles with compartmented multiple-emulsion nature. The effects of preparation parameters containing polyglycerol polyricinoleate content, oil fraction, and WPI-EGCG covalent conjugate particle concentration on the formation of W1/O/W2 double emulsions were systematically studied. Then, the rheological properties of alginate-Ca-EDTA system in the external aqueous phase of the W1/O/W2 double emulsions as the pH changes were investigated. The W1/O/W2 double emulsion maintained in the hydrogel state at pH below 4.0 because of Ca2+ coupled with G residues of alginate. In contrast, the W1/O/W2 double emulsion transformed to solution state at neutral pH condition, which caused the dissociation of Ca2+ from the Ca-alginate hydrogel and resulted in Ca-EDTA chelation. A pH-sensitive carrier based on an alginate-Ca-EDTA system in a set-type W1/O/W2 double emulsion model was exploited by regulating the release of Ca2+. Based on the pH-sensitive alginate-Ca-EDTA system and middle oil phase resistance, such a double emulsion supplied a colon-targeted release carrier for the Lactobacillus Plantarum strain liquid encapsulation into inner aqueous phase with the functional protection effect. The results offer a promising strategy for probiotics strain liquid encapsulation of double emulsion delivery systems in oral applications of foods (such as yogurt, fruit juice or cheese) and pharmaceuticals.

The precipitation behavior of nanometer-sized carbides in ferrite in Nb–V-bearing low-carbon steel was studied by electron microscopy and nanoindentation hardness measurements. The results indicated that interphase precipitation and random precipitation could occur simultaneously for the specimen isothermally treated at 700 °C for 60 min, while in other specimens, only random precipitation was observed. This phenomenon might be explained by mass balance criterion during the diffusional phase transformation. Nanohardness result indicated that the average hardness of the specimens isothermally held at 600 °C for 20 min was 3.87 GPa. For the specimen isothermally holding at 650 °C for 20 min, the average hardness was 4.10 GPa and the distribution of the nanohardness was in a narrower range compared with that of the specimen isothermal holding at 600 °C for 20 min. These implied that the carbides in the specimens isothermal treated at 650 °C were more uniformly dispersed, and the number density of the carbides was greater than that treated at 600 °C. Using Ashby–Orowan model, the contribution of precipitation strengthening to yield strength was estimated to be ~110 MPa for the specimen isothermally treated at the temperature of 650 °C for 20 min.

This research was carried out to assess inhibitory effect of UV-C (0.88 kJ m−2) against four isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, causal agent of carrot rot, in vitro and in vivo. A bank of seven germicidal tubes was used to produce UV-C radiation with peak emission at 254 nm. The carrot roots were subjected to UV-C irradiation for five min. The tubes were located 40 cm above the roots. In order to be exposed to UV radiation on all sides, the carrot roots were rotated five times at the interval of one min. Based on the results, UV radiation was able to significantly increase levels of pathogenesis-related proteins (chitinases, peroxidases, β-1,3-glucanases) as well as polyphenoloxidase, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase and 6-methoxymellein (6-m) in carrot roots. The levels of enzymes and 6-m were found to be higher in the whole treated carrots than half treated carrots in most of treatments. Despite increase of systemic acquired resistance (SAR) related enzymes in half treated carrots, the results of in vivo tests showed that UV-C irradiation can not reduce severity of carrot rot after 15 d. In addition, UV-C radiation for 5 min markedly decreased myceliogenic and carpogenic germination of sclerotia in four isolates. This study showed that UV-C cannot be considered as abiotic inducer of SAR.

A new species, Scopulariopsis gossypii, was found to be present in the vascular bundles of cotton plants (Gossypium hirsutum) infected by Verticillium dahliae which is an economically important pathogen in Hangzhou, China. The fungus was only present in the diseased plants, but it never became isolated from the healthy plants. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the fungus was present in parenchyma cells enclosing vessels in dark brown vascular tissues of stems, and produced asexual conidia within the tissues. Phylogenetic analysis of combined nuclear ribosomal D1/D2 region of the 28S rDNA as well as translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1) and beta-tubulin (TUB) gene showed that S. gossypii represents an undescribed species of Scopulariopsis, Microascaceae. In this study, characteristics of sexual and asexual stages of the fungus were described, illustrated and compared with similar taxa. In addition, the molecular and morphological analyses indicated that S. gossypii was a distinct species of Scopulariopsis. The pathogenicity tests proved by inoculation of wounded roots confirmed that S. gossypii was an opportunistic pathogen causing leaf interveinal chlorosis and vascular browning of cotton plants. However S. gossypii did not infect host with undamaged roots. Moreover, coinoculation with S. gossypii and V. dahliae significantly increased disease severity.

This paper applies recently developed Fourier quantile unit root test to investigate time-series property of inflation in seven Eastern European countries. This method combines the quantile unit ro...

Despite promising characteristics such as high specific energy and low cost, current Li–S batteries fall short in cycle life. Improving the cycling stability of S cathodes requires immobilizing the lithium polysulfide (LPS) intermediates as well as accelerating their redox kinetics. Although many materials have been explored for trapping LPS, the ability to promote LPS redox has attracted much less attention. Here, we report for the first time on transition metal phosphides as effective host materials to enhance both LPS adsorption and redox. Integrating MoP-nanoparticle-decorated carbon nanotubes with S deposited on graphene oxide, we enable Li–S battery cathodes with substantially improved cycling stability and rate capability. Capacity decay rates as low as 0.017% per cycle over 1,000 cycles can be realized. Stable and high areal capacity (>3 mAh·cm−2) can be achieved under high mass loading conditions. Comparable electrochemical performance can also be achieved with analogous material structures based on CoP, demonstrating the potential of metal phosphides for long-cycle Li–S batteries.

Transition-metal phosphosulfides represent an emerging category of earth-abundant electrocatalyst materials, and some metal phosphosulfides have been shown to outperform the corresponding sulfides and phosphides. To fully realize the potential and benefit energy storage and conversion, it is necessary to study the chemistry of unknown phosphosulfide materials. In this article, we report on the materials chemistry of iron phosphosulfides. We systematically investigate the materials synthesis, solid state chemistry, surface structures, and electrocatalytic properties of iron phosphosulfide nanoparticles supported on carbon nanotubes. Two types of iron phosphosulfide nanomaterials, adopting either the FeS or the FeP crystal structure, have been successfully synthesized by two distinct synthetic routes designed in accordance with the different thermodynamic properties of the two structures. The compositions (i.e., P/S ratios) of the phosphosulfides can be adjusted within certain ranges without phase separatio...

Static analysis is an efficient approach for software assurance. It is indicated that its most effective usage is to perform analysis in an interactive way through the software development process, which has a high performance requirement. This paper concentrates on rule-based static analysis tools and proposes an optimized rule-checking algorithm. Our technique improves the performance of static analysis tools by filtering vulnerability rules in terms of characteristic objects before checking source files. Since a source file always contains vulnerabilities of a small part of rules rather than all, our approach may achieve better performance. To investigate our technique’s feasibility and effectiveness, we implemented it in an open source static analysis tool called PMD and used it to conduct experiments. Experimental results show that our approach can obtain an average performance promotion of 28.7% compared with the original PMD. While our approach is effective and precise in detecting vulnerabilities, there is no side effect.

Background Big endothelin-1 (ET-1) has been proposed as a novel prognostic indicator of acute coronary syndrome, while its predicting role of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear. Methods and results A total of 3154 consecutive patients with stable CAD were enrolled and followed up for 24months. The outcomes included all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke and unplanned revascularization (percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting). Baseline big ET-1 was measured using sandwich enzyme immunoassay method. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis and Kaplan–Meier analysis were used to evaluate the prognostic value of big ET-1 on cardiovascular outcomes. One hundred and eighty-nine (5.99%) events occurred during follow-up. Patients were divided into two groups: events group ( n =189) and non-events group ( n =2965). The results indicated that the events group had higher levels of big ET-1 compared to non-events group. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that big ET-1 was positively and statistically correlated with clinical outcomes (Hazard Ratio: 1.656, 95% confidence interval: 1.099–2.496, p =0.016). Additionally, the Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that patients with higher big ET-1 presented lower event-free survival ( p =0.016). Conclusions The present study firstly suggests that big ET-1 is an independent risk marker of cardiovascular outcomes in patients with stable CAD. And more studies are needed to confirm our findings.

BackgroundHypercholesterolemia is the accepted causal risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). 2013 ACC/AHA guideline on the treatment of cholesterol advised to tailor high-intensity statin for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, its impact of real clinical practice has not been examined in China.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, 3592 patients with CAD were consecutively enrolled who were receiving statins in outpatient department (at least 4weeks) before they were admitted to the ward at five University hospitals from April 2011 to December 2015. Patients were divided into two groups according to the admission time before (group A, n=1521) or after (group B, n=2071) online announcement date of 2013 ACC/AHA guideline. The situation of statin application and LDL-C target achievement (LDL-C

Objective Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an autosomal dominant genetic disorder, is often diagnosed in young age and cholesterol accumulation in tissues produces common clinical manifestations including cutaneous xanthomas, premature atherosclerosis, and poor response to medical therapy. The main objective was to investigate the patients of hoFH from China. Patients Over the past 4 years, a cohort of 8 patients with severe FH phenotype due to the characteristic cutaneous xanthomas and extremely high low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels from the national lipid clinics were enrolled. Genotype information was obtained. Results Of them, 7 patients had severe coronary atherosclerosis, 6 had family history of hypercholesterolemia, 2 had family history of premature coronary atherosclerosis. The patients had untreated LDL-C of > 13 mmol/L, and received maximal medical therapy. Importantly but not surprisingly, the lipid profile was not significantly improved by the current available concomitant use of rosuvastatin and ezetimibe. In genetic analysis, all patients had the mutations responsible to the FH phenotype and showed to be more heterogeneous than their clinical phenotype. Conclusion In a conclusion, we found a relatively common recruitment of this type of patients in our hospital, which might have an important clinical implication for the identification and management of the patients with FH in China.

Our study explored the effects of SOST gene silencing on the proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, and migration of human osteosarcoma cells through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Fresh tissues were obtained from 108 patients with osteosarcoma and 46 patients with osteochondroma. Human osteosarcoma cells (MG-63, U2-OS, HOS, and Saos-2) and normal osteoblast (hFoB1.19) were selected and cultured. Osteosarcoma cells were grouped randomly into the blank group, the scrambled control group, and the SOST-siRNA group. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay. Cell cycle and apoptosis were tested by flow cytometry. Transwell and scratch test were performed to determine cell invasion and migration. The qRT-PCR and Western blotting were used to detect mRNA and protein expression level of sclerostin, Wnt1, β-catenin, C-Myc, Cyclin D1, and MMP-7. The activity of caspase-3 was assessed by immunocytochemistry. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was measured using P-nitrophenylphosphate as a substrate. Low SOST mRNA and sclerostin protein expression levels were observed in osteosarcoma tissues and cells. Compared with the blank and scrambled control groups, sclerostin expression, apoptotic cells, ALP activity, and caspase-3 activity were down-regulated, while the proliferation, invasion, and migration abilities of osteosarcoma cells were evidently enhanced in the SOST-siRNA group. After SOST gene silencing, the mRNA and protein expression levels of Wnt1, β-catenin, C-Myc, Cyclin D1, and MMP-7 in osteosarcoma cells and β-catenin protein expression levels in the nucleus and cytoplasm were significantly elevated. SOST gene silencing promotes the proliferation, invasion, and migration, and inhibits apoptosis of osteosarcoma cells by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.

Osteosarcoma (OS), the commonest primary malignant tumour originating from bone, affects a substantial number of people, mostly during adolescent growth, and leads to a very poor prognosis as a result of the high rate of early metastases. Consequently, there is urgent demand for a novel treatment for this disease. There are growing concerns focused on OS-induced pro-angiogenic effects, but to date, the mechanism of OS-induced pro-angiogenesis is still insufficiently well-understood. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have attracted increasing interest due to their strong correlation with a variety of diseases and their powerful capacity for epigenetic regulation. Recently, metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1), a lncRNA, has been discovered to be closely related to OS progression and hypoxia responses which are associated with angiogenesis. In this study, we confirm that MALAT1 induces pro-angiogenic effects, and demonstrate that the underlying mechanism involves a MALAT1/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)/hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) loop. With the help of chemically-modified small interfering RNAs targeting MALAT1 (siMALAT1), we confirm that siMALAT could provide a potential strategy to block the abnormally active OS-induced pro-angiogenic effect, and ultimately successfully suppress progression of OS tumours.

The graded refractive index waveguides can perform Fourier transform for an optical wave. According to this characteristic, simpler optical metamaterials with three waveguides are theoretically proposed, in which all of the waveguides are materials with a positive refractive index. By selecting the appropriate refractive index and structure size, the theory and simulations demonstrated that these metamaterials can perform mathematical operations for the outline of incident optical waves, including the first-order derivative, second-order derivative and the integral.

Objective Azathioprine (AZA) is widely used in Crohn's disease (CD) patients with a recommended dose, 2-2.5 mg/kg/d, for Westerners. Asian patients are suggested with a lower dose. However, many clinicians reported a poor efficacy with a reduced dose. Our prospective study aims to find a safe dose providing the best efficacy for Chinese CD patients. Methods Fifty active Chinese CD patients were enrolled in our test and randomly split into 2 groups, 25 each. All other treatments were the same except that group A took 1 mg/kg/d and group B took 2 mg/kg/d of AZA. We analysed the complete remission (CR) rate and the response rate on week 12, 24, 48 and with the method of intent-to-treat (ITT) and Per-Protocol (PP) analysis to evaluate the efficacy. Meantime, we evaluated the adverse events and the recurrence rate in both groups. Results On week 48, the CR rate and response rate in group B (ITT: 50.0% and 59.1%; PP: 57.9% and 68.4%) were significantly higher than those in group A (ITT: 13.0% and 17.4%; PP: 16.7% and 22.2%) (P

Recent guidelines recommended both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) are the primary target of lipid modulating therapy. However, which lipid measure is most closely related to the severity of coronary atherosclerosis has not yet been assessed.We studied 1757 consecutive subjects undergoing coronary angiography who were not receiving any lipid-lowering therapy. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol was measured directly, and non-HDL-C was calculated. The severity of coronary stenosis was determined using the Gensini Score (GS) system.In the overall population, LDL-C and non-HDL-C were all dramatically increased according to the quartiles of GS (p0.001, both). In patients with coronary atherosclerosis (n=1097), non-HDL-C (r=0.138, p0.001) was more closely related to GS than LDL-C (r=0.113, p0.001) tested by Spearman correlation analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis suggested that non-HDL-C (OR=1.326, 95% CI 1.165-1.508, p0.001) was slightly superior to LDL-C (OR=1.286, 95% CI 1.130-1.463, p0.001) in predicting high GS after adjusting for potential confounders. Among patients with LDL-C less than the median, discordant non-HDL-C could not provide extra value in predicting high GS (OR=0.759, 95% CI 0.480-1.201). However, among patients with LDL-C greater than or equal to the median, the cardiovascular risk was overestimated for patients with discordant non-HDL-C (OR=0.458, 95% CI 0.285-0.736).Our data support the use of non-HDL-C ahead of LDL-C in predicting the severity of coronary atherosclerosis, especially among patients with LDL-C greater than or equal to the median.

To investigate the protective effect and mechanism of resveratrol on oxidative stress of MC3T3-E1.The levels of reactive oxygen species in the cells were observed by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry. The expression of SOCS-1 protein was detected by Western blot. SOCS-1 transient transfected cell line was established, and the levels of reactive oxygen species in transfected cells were observed by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. The data were analyzed using SPSS22.0 software package.The level of ROS in LPS group was significantly higher than that in the blank group and LPS+RES group (P0.05). The expression level of SOCS-1 protein was increased after LPS stimulation for 30 min (P0.05). The level of ROS in the siSOCS-1+LPS+RES group was significantly higher than that in the untransfected group (P0.05).Resveratrol may counteract LPS-mediated oxidative stress in MC3T3E1 cells by modulating SOCS-1 protein.

To investigate the effect of lipopolysaccharides(LPS) extracted from Porphyromonas endodontalis(P.e) on the expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) mRNA and protein levels in MC3T3-E1 cells and the influence of resveratrol on the expression of MIP-2 protein in P.e-LPS induced cells.MC3T3-E1 cells were treated with different concentrations of P.e-LPS(0-50 mg/L) and 20 mg/L P.e-LPS for different time (0-48 h). The expression of MIP-2 mRNA and protein was detected by real-time RT-PCR and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). MC3T3-E1 cells were pretreated with resveratrol for 1 h in the presence of 20 mg/L P.e-LPS for 24 h，which was detected by ELISA. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA and Dunnett t test with SPSS 13.0 software package.Treatment of MC3T3-El cells with different concentrations of P.e-LPS(0-50 mg/L) caused a significantly increase in MIP-2 mRNA and protein expression in dose-dependent manners.The expression of MIP-2 protein increased from (41.86±2.49) ng/L to (3126.74±158.30) ng/L, and the difference was significant(P0.05). In the observation time (0-48 h), the impact of 20 mg/L P.e-LPS on induction of MIP-2 in MC3T3-El cells exhibited a time-dependent manner. At 48 h, the maximal induction of MIP-2 protein expression was (2102.55±123.27) ng/L(P0.01). Incubation of cells with 10 μmol/L resveratrol for 1h significantly decreased the expression of MIP-2 protein from (1805.33±67.54) ng/L to（813.82±47.21) ng/L, and the difference was significant(P0.05).The results suggest that P.e-LPS may mediate MIP-2 expression in MC3T3-E1 cells, and resveratrol has a significant inhibitory effect on this process.

It has been demonstrated that pitavastatin can significantly reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (LDL-C), but its impact on lipoprotein subfractions and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) has not been determined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the potential effects of pitavastatin on subfractions of LDL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) as well as oxLDL in untreated patients with coronary atherosclerosis (AS). Thirty-six subjects were enrolled in this study. Of them, 18 patients with AS were administered pitavastatin 2 mg/day for 8 weeks and 18 healthy subjects without therapy served as controls. The plasma lipid profile, lipoprotein subfractions and circulating oxLDL were determined at baseline and 8 weeks respectively. The results showed that pitavastatin treatment indeed not only decreased LDL-C, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB) levels, and increased HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), but also reduced the cholesterol concentration of all of the LDL subfractions and the percentage of intermediate and small LDL subfractions. Meanwhile, pitavastatin could decrease plasma oxLDL levels. Furthermore, a more close correlation was found between oxLDL and LDL-C as well as LDL subfractions after pitavastatin treatment. We concluded that a moderate dose of pitavastatin therapy not only decreases LDL-C and oxLDL concentrations but also improves LDL subfractions in patients with AS.

The concentrations of Al, Ti, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Hg and chemical speciation of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in four short cores sampled from the Yilong Lake, Yunnan Province were analyzed. The vertical and spatial features in the pollution levels and potential ecological risks of heavy metals in the sediments were studied. Except for the wide concentration ranges of Cd, the metals in the sediments showed narrow variations in their concentrations with coefficients of variation less than 0.3. According to the cluster analysis results, all metals could be classified into two groups:metals in group Ⅰ included As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, while metals in group Ⅱ included Al, Ti, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn. The metals in each group exhibited similar vertical variations in each core, but their variations were highly different between the cores. The correlation analysis results demonstrated that the variations in metal concentrations in the sediments were greatly regulated by the sediment texture. Therefore, the enrichment factor (EF) method was used for the differentiation of metals from the natural and anthropogenic sources and for the pollution assessment based on the total metal concentrations. The Cd and Pb in the sediments were mainly presented in the reducible speciation with percentages of 48% and 42%, respectively; Cr, Cu, Zn, and Ni were primarily (68%-82%) associated with the residual speciation. Based on the EF and chemical speciation of metals and their enrichment coefficients of the secondary phase, Cd was the typical pollutant with moderate pollution on average, and the other elements were observed in non-to weak pollution levels. Anthropogenic metals were mainly associated with the extractable speciation in the sediment. Combining the ecological risk index, the sediment quality guidelines, as well as the pollution level and chemical speciation of metals, As, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the surface sediments of Yilong Lake should have low potential ecological risk. However, Cd may pose a high potential ecological risk.

In this article, we investigate numerical solution of a class of multi-order fractional differential equations with error correction and convergence analysis. According to fractional differential definition in Caputo’s sense, fractional differential operator matrix is deduced. The problem is reduced to a set of algebraic equations, and we apply MATLAB to solve the equation. In order to improve the precision of numerical solution, the process of error correction for multi-order fractional differential equation is introduced. By constructing the multi-order fractional differential equation of the error function, the approximate error function is obtained so that the numerical solution is corrected. Then, we analyze the convergence of the shifted Chebyshev polynomials approximation function. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate the applicability of the method and the validity of error correction.

An improved moving least square meshless method is developed for the numerical solution of the nonlinear improved Boussinesq equation. After the approximation of temporal derivatives, nonlinear systems of discrete algebraic equations are established and are solved by an iterative algorithm. Convergence of the iterative algorithm is discussed. Shifted and scaled basis functions are incorporated into the method to guarantee convergence and stability of numerical results. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the high convergence rate and high computational accuracy of the method.

This paper investigates the effects of financial deregulation on the energy enterprises' operational risks in China, based on 230 Chinese energy enterprises' yearly data spanning from 2003 to 2018. The results show that financial deregulation can lower the energy enterprise's operational risks through easing financing constraints and reversing the financialization tendency of energy enterprises. In addition, the impact of financial deregulation is heterogeneous across different features of energy enterprises. After replacing core indicators, changing model settings, and solving endogenous problems, the above conclusions are still robust, which provides robust evidence from the perspective of the interest rates liberalization.

Heretofore, the metal elements constituting the electrolyzed water catalysts are almost all Fe, Co, and Ni, and the accelerator elements are V, W, Ce, etc., but there is a lack of exploration for other elements. Niobium (Nb) is a promising promoter due to its complex chemical properties and the ability to react with many elements to form abundant compounds. Taking Co4N as the research case, this work incorporates Nb atoms to tune the d orbital of metallic Co4N nanowires. Experimental results and density functional theory calculations show that due to the adjustment of Nb atoms, the d-band center of Co4N moves down, which helps facilitate the desorption of H2. At the same time, abundant Co3+ active sites are generated on the surface of Nb–Co4N, which is crucial for the formation of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) intermediates (∗OOH). Nb-regulated Co4N nanosheets on the three-dimensional Ni foam (Nb–Co4N/NF) drives the current density of 20 mA cm−2 at a low overpotential of 90 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction and 273 mV for OER, respectively. This work inspires a novel idea for the rational design and synthesis of highly efficient electrocatalysts composed of novel less used elements for overall water splitting.

The rational design of highly efficient catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline solutions is of great significance for water splitting. In this work, we deliberately devise a series of steps to obtain nickel oxide nanosheets on carbon nanotubes (NiO/CNT) for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and nickel oxide and nickel disulfide heterogeneous structures on CNTs (NiS2/NiO/CNT) for HER in alkaline conditions, respectively. The NiO/CNT sample shows an efficient OER activity in 1.0 M KOH and requires an overpotential of 310 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2. The NiS2/NiO/CNT sample with a heterogeneous structure drives a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 93 mV in the 1.0 M KOH, presenting a significantly enhanced HER activity compared with that of the pure NiO and NiS2 phases. The potential of 1.62 V allows achieving a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for overall water splitting with the NiS2/NiO/CNT and NiO/CNT catalysts as the cathode and anode, respectively.

Introduction Granulocytic sarcoma (GS) is a commonly occurring tumor comprising immature myeloid cells, which are usually related to acute or chronic myelocytic leukemia. The tumor rarely precedes leukemia without bone marrow involvement and is called primary GS. Although primary GS can occur in any body part, the involvement of the oral cavity is uncommon. Patient concerns A 49-year-old woman hospitalized at the Department of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery presented with a growing mass in her left maxillary hard palate dating two months back. No obvious physical findings were noted during general examination. She was diagnosed with an oral ulcer at a local clinic, and received antibiotics. However, the symptoms did not improve; the mass became bigger and painful. Diagnosis An incisional biopsy of the oral mass was performed, the immunohistochemistry showed that the tumor cells tested positive for myeloperoxidase, CD4, BCL-2, KI-67. Bone marrow aspiration was negative for malignant cells, and the laboratory test results revealed only monocytosis. Standard bone marrow cytogenetic analysis showed a normal karyotype and leukemia-related fusion gene detection was normal. Therefore, the final diagnosis was intraoral primary GS. Interventions The patient was treated with a chemotherapy regimen based on idarubicin and cytarabine arabinoside. Outcomes After 2 cycles of idarubicin and cytarabine arabinoside regimen chemotherapy, the patient achieved complete remission. The tumor was barely visible in the left maxillary hard palate. There has been no evidence of disease spread and progression after 1 year of follow-up. Conclusions Careful morphological and immunohistochemical analyses, correlating with clinical data are necessary to establish the diagnosis of oral primary GS. Early aggressive systemic chemotherapy can effectively relieve symptoms, significantly reducing primary GS conversion into acute myelocytic leukemia and prolonging overall survival.

Achieving overall water splitting in the same electrolyte remains a challenge for a cost-effective and durable bifunctional catalyst. Doping foreign element into intrinsic materials is an effective way to enhance the electrocatalytic activity, thus we design a facile method to synthesize a novel vanadium doped mixture of CoP and Co2P nanoparticles encapsulated in zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) derived nitrogen doped carbon (V-CoxP@NC NPs) in this work for the first time. Benefiting from the protection of carbon shell and regulation of electronic structure through doping vanadium and phase-mixing CoP and Co2P, the V-CoxP@NC NPs show excellent electrocatalytic performance in both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in 1.0 M KOH. Using V-CoxP@NC NPs to construct overall water splitting (OWS) device, the electrolyzer achieves the current density of 10 mA cm-2 with a small cell voltage of 1.54 V, exhibiting remarkable activity and continuous work for 20 h without obvious fluctuation.

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is regarded as a perfect catalyst for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the active sites are usually concealed due to the unique two dimensional structure of MoS2. Herein, we propose a facile surface engineering modus to improve the HER activity of MoS2. This strategy is demonstrated by in-situ growth of amorphous MoS2 layer on the molybdenum phosphide (MoP) nanoparticles anchored on the carbon nanotubes (MoS2/MoP/CNT). The HER activity is significantly promoted both through the defect engineering of amorphous MoS2 and the synergistic effect between the MoS2 and MoP phases. The MoS2/MoP/CNT sample presents significantly higher HER performance than the pure phase of MoP/CNT and MoS2/CNT samples, requiring overpotentials of 73 and 141 ​mV to drive a current density of 10 and 100 ​mA ​cm-2.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is considered incurable despite advances in management strategies. New drugs targeting cell pathways are currently being developed for the efficient management of CLL. Various strategies involving different targets have been developed, or are currently in the developing stage. A search was conducted in the electronic database PubMed, for pre-clinical as well as clinically controlled trials reporting various strategies against CLL currently under investigation. Novel strategies included use of antibodies, small cell inhibitors, such as spleen tyrosine kinase, LYN, cyclin-dependent kinase, and histone deacetylase inhibitors. The present review examined these new and emerging strategies for the efficient management of CLL. The review involves a discussion of novel strategies being examined worldwide against CLL, including anti-CD20, anti-CD37, anti-CD23, anti-CD40, SYK/LYN inhibitors, BTK inhibitors, p13k inhibitors and recent developments such as the use of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors/histone deacetylase inhibitors.

Potato white mold caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is an important plant disease occurring in many potato-producing areas worldwide. This disease causes considerable yield losses in a large number of potato fields of Hamedan province, Iran. Although several non-chemical methods have been suggested against the pathogen, application of chemicals is considered a major method employed by the growers in Hamedan fields leading to considerable pollution of underground water. Therefore, it is necessary to find techniques to help growers make a more timely decision for chemical application. In this research, a pair of PCR primers was designed according to the nucleotide sequence of a region of DNA amplified by the primer M13. This primer set amplified a 352-bp fragment from all isolates of S. sclerotiorum collected from Hamedan, Iran, and Hangzhou, China. However, this situation was not observed in other tested fungi. A real-time PCR assay was conducted to detect early infection of the pathogen on potato petals. This real-time PCR assay is suggested for growers to make timely decisions on chemical application.

Aim: DCK is a rate-limiting enzyme in cytarabine activation. rs4643786 and rs67437265 (P122S) variants are reported to affect DCK activity. Patients & methods: A total of 282 newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients were treated with cytarabine combined chemotherapy and genotyped for rs4643786 and rs67437265. Prognosis data were obtained through regular follow-up. DCK mRNA expression was detected in pretreatment blood or bone marrow mononuclear cells. Results: rs4643786 showed strong linkage disequilibrium with rs67437265. rs4643786 CT heterozygotes showed significantly higher complete remission rate (p = 0.028), superior overall survival (p = 0.006) and relapse-free survival (p = 0.020) than wild-type TT homozygotes. rs4643786 polymorphism was an independent predictor for AML prognosis. Conclusion: DCK rs4643786 may serve as an independent predictor of drug response and AML outcome.

// Xiao-Qing Yuan 1, 2 , Dao-Yu Zhang 1, 2 , Han Yan 1, 2 , Yong-Long Yang 3 , Ke-Wei Zhu 1, 2 , Yan-Hong Chen 1, 2 , Xi Li 1, 2 , Ji-Ye Yin 1, 2 , Xiao-Lin Li 4 , Hui Zeng 4 , Xiao-Ping Chen 1, 2, 5 1 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, P. R. China 2 Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Central South University, Hunan Key Laboratory of Pharmacogenetics, Changsha 410078, P. R. China 3 Department of Pharmacy, Haikou People’s Hospital and Affiliated Haikou Hospital of Xiangya Medical School, Central South University, Haikou 570311, P. R. China 4 Department of Hematology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, P. R. China 5 Hunan Province Cooperation Innovation Center for Molecular Target New Drug Study, Hengyang 421001, P. R. China Correspondence to: Xiao-Ping Chen, email: chenxp74@hotmail.com Hui Zeng, email: androps2011@hotmail.com Keywords: DNMT3A, polymorphism, AML, chemosensitivity, prognosis Received: January 15, 2016 Accepted: July 26, 2016 Published: August 09, 2016 ABSTRACT DNMT3A mutation is known as a recurrent event in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients. However, association between DNMT3A genetic polymorphisms and AML patients’ outcomes is unknown. DNMT3A 11 SNPs (rs11695471, rs2289195, rs734693, rs2276598, rs1465825, rs7590760, rs13401241, rs7581217, rs749131, rs41284843 and rs7560488) were genotyped in 344 diagnostic non-FAB-M3 AML patients from southern China. Patients underwent combined chemotherapy with cytarabine and anthracyclines. DNMT3A mRNA expression was analyzed in PBMCs from randomly selected AML patients. Multivariate analysis and combined genotype analysis showed that rs2276598 was associated with increased while rs11695471 and rs734693 were associated with decreased chemosensitivity ( P

Coronary collateral circulation (CCC) plays an important role in protecting myocardium from ischemic damage. The studies on factors which impact on CCC might be of great clinical interest. The aim of the present study was to evaluate endothelin-1 (ET-1) as a potential predictor for poor or good CCC in patients with angiography-proven ≥95% coronary occlusion.We screened 1038 consecutive patients with ≥95% occlusion in at least one major epicardial coronary artery detected by coronary angiography. Of these, 663 patients were classified into the poor CCC group with Rentrop 0-2 grade collateral circulation and 375 patients into the good CCC group with Rentrop 3 grade. The association of plasma ET-1 levels with collateral status was assessed.We found that patients in the poor CCC group had a higher ET-1 level than those in the good CCC group (0.59±0.48 vs. 0.39±0.32pmol/L, p0.001), and the ET-1 values increased with the descent of the Rentrop grades (p for trend0.001). Moreover, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed an independent association between ET-1 and collateral status (odds ratio [95% CI] for poor CCC 2.27 [1.60-3.22], p0.001). Additionally, the association presented significance in both men (odds ratio [95% CI] for poor CCC 3.18 [2.20-4.74], p0.001) and women (odds ratio [95% CI] for poor CCC 3.10 [1.36-7.85], p=0.011) when the sex-specific analysis was performed.Plasma ET-1 level may be a useful, easily available marker for predicting the degree of CCC in patients with ≥95% coronary chronic occlusion.

This study examines the causal relationship between Chinese money supply growth and inflation, using the bootstrap Granger full-sample causality test and sub-sample rolling-window estimation test to determine whether such a relationship in China supports the quantity theory of money. The result indicates that there is a unidirectional relationship from inflation to money supply growth. However, considering structural changes in two series, we find that short-run relationships using full-sample data are unstable, which suggests that full-sample causality tests cannot be relied upon. Then, we use a time-varying rolling-window approach to revisit the dynamic causal relationship, and the results show that money supply growth has both positive and negative impacts on inflation in several sub-periods, and in turn, inflation has the same effects on money supply growth for China. These findings are basically consistent with the modern quantity theory of money from the perspective of money supply and price level. When money supply growth does not outweigh output growth, inflation should not be curbed only by decreasing money supply. It notes that a stable money supply growth is critical to price level stability and economic development in China.

Using a bootstrap Granger full-sample causality test and a sub-sample rolling window estimation, this paper examines the causal link between inflation and inflation uncertainty in China. The results show that high inflation leads to high inflation uncertainty, supporting Friedman-Ball’s hypothesis (1992) and Holland’s theory (J Money Credit Bank 27:827–837, 1995). Furthermore, significant feedback exists from inflation uncertainty to inflation in some periods, supporting Holland’s theory (J Money Credit Bank 27:827–837, 1995) that inflation uncertainty has a negative effect on inflation. We find that the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty varies across time. The Chinese monetary authority needs to ensure a quick and effective policy response to inflation development because doing so will help reduce inflation, eliminate many of the costs associated with high inflation and therefore minimize the marginal effect of inflation on inflation uncertainty. However, quantitative tools for China’s monetary policy are also warranted. In the long term, the importance of keeping inflation low, stable, and predictable cannot be overemphasized.