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Introduction: Alterations in red blood cell deformability (RBC-df) provide important information for the diagnosis of various diseases. Aim: We evaluated individual differences of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced oxidative damage of RBC-df and analyzed the correlation between RBC-df and biochemical parameters. Methods: A microfluidic chip was developed to detect inter-individual variability of different concentrations of LPS-induced oxidative damage of RBC-df in 9 healthy volunteers. The relationships between various biochemical indicators (Na+-K+-ATPase activity, lipid peroxide (LPO) content, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) content, and hemoglobin (HB) content) and RBCsdf were investigated. Results: The obvious inter-individual variability of LPS-induced oxidative damage of RBC-df was revealed. The Na+-K+-ATPase activity, LPO content, GSH-PX activity, and CAT activity of RBCs showed significant correlations with RBC-df (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Oxidative damage and energy metabolism are the critical factors of RBC-df impairment induced by LPS, and the individual dependence on RBC-df is an important indicator for the treatment of infection-associated sepsis since antibiotics can kill pathogenic bacteria, which results in the release of LPS from the cell wall.

Household surveys are a vital component of national statistical systems. They are the basis for official statistics on social and economic phenomena and are key to tracking progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, despite their importance, household surveys face various challenges, including problems with data quality, timeliness, and policy relevance, among others. Prepared by the United Nations Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Household Surveys (ISWGHS), this paper identifies eight technical priority areas for innovations in household survey design, implementation, and analysis. With these in mind, the paper also presents a set of recommendations for fostering enabling environments at the national and international levels to support the production of more and higher-quality household survey data that are affordable and responsive to policy needs. The paper aims to inform both the considerations of national statistical offices as they weigh priorities and pursue innovations to transform their household survey systems, as well as the work of ISWGHS in executing its mandate to support countries in achieving the SDGs.

With the comprehensive deepening of the new round of rural land reform and the acceleration of urbanization, we urgently need to pre-judge and protect the risks in the process of homestead transfer, to clarify, correct and summarize the deficiencies of the transfer system, and to develop, perfect and innovate in practice, so as to reduce the risks encountered by farmers in the process of transferring Homestead, and strengthen farmers' willingness to transfer. Taking Nanhai District of Foshan City, one of the 33 pilot projects of the System for Separating the Ownership rights as an example, this paper analyzes and summarizes the risk factors in the process of rural idle homestead transfer from the perspective of farmers by using the method of questionnaire survey and binary logistic regression analysis model. Through logistic regression analysis, it is found that farmers' willingness to transfer homestead in Nanhai District are significantly connected with six variables including farmer's occupation and number of homestead. Based on the regression results, this paper will put forward countermeasures to local government to avoid the risk of homestead transfer for the sake of better homestead circulation.

Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are linked with bacterial infection, local inflammation in osteoarthritis and the increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Here, a sensitive and label-free CRP assay is developed by combining cyclic enzymatic signal amplification and capillary electrophoresis (CE) with UV detection. This assay is constructed of base pairing and target recognition. Thereinto, nicking endonuclease (NEase) can recognize the specific nucleotide sequences in double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), which is formed by a CRP aptamer and its complementary DNA (cDNA). Sequentially, NEase cleaves only cDNA to produce signal DNAs. Therefore, a large number of signal DNAs are generated through continuous enzyme cleavage. In the presence of CRP, the aptamer recognizes and binds to CRP with high affinity and selectivity, which results in a decrease in signal DNAs, and thus the UV absorption value of CE significantly decreases, too. A wide linear range was obtained between 0.0125 and 15 μg mL

The endoplasmic reticulum is one of the most important organelles in eukaryotic cells, it serves lots of functions. It is a site for protein synthesis as well as modification and folding. The accumulation of unfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and calcium instability can trigger endoplasmic reticulum stress, which can be corrected by unfolded protein response. Excessive endoplasmic reticulum stress or abnormal endoplasmic reticulum stress mechanism will lead to cell damage and death. Recent studies have found that the disease of cancer, inflammation, osteoporosis and neurodegeneration is related to abnormal endoplasmic reticulum stress. Taking endoplasmic reticulum stress as a breakthrough point to study the pathogenesis of various diseases will greatly benefit the better treatment of these diseases and promote the development of medical technology. This article reviews some articles published in recent years and summarizes the relationship between endoplasmic reticulum stress and disease, and its possible mechanism.

A nickel-catalyzed cyanation of unactivated secondary alkyl chlorides or bromides using less toxic Zn(CN)2 as the cyanide source has been developed. The reaction features the use of air-stable and inexpensive NiCl2·6H2O or Ni(acac)2 as the precatalysts and offers an efficient synthesis of a broad range of alkyl nitriles. Cyanation of primary alkyl chlorides or bromides was also achieved by reaction with Zn(CN)2 in the presence of n-Bu4NCl without the need of nickel catalyst.

Weipeng Zheng,1,* Yuanping Huang,1,* Haoyi Chen,2 Ning Wang,1 Wende Xiao,3 YingJie Liang,3 Xin Jiang,1 Wenzhou Su,4 Shifeng Wen4 1Department of Orthopedics, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510180, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Orthopedics, Guangzhou Chest Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510180, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Orthopedics, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510180, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Orthopedics, Guangzhou First People’s Hospital, Guangzhou Medical University, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510180, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: A prognostic nomogram was applied to predict survival in osteosarcoma patients.Patients and methods: Data collected from 2,195 osteosarcoma patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 1983 and 2014 were analyzed. Independent prognostic factors were identified via univariate and multivariate Cox analyses. These were incorporated into a nomogram to predict 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates. Internal and external data were used for validation. Concordance indices (C-indices) were used to estimate nomogram accuracy.Results: Patients were randomly assigned into a training cohort (n=1,098) or validation cohort (n=1,097). Age at diagnosis, tumor site, histology, tumor size, tumor stage, use of surgery, and tumor grade were identified as independent prognostic factors via univariate and multivariate Cox analyses (all P

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays an important role in the assessment of spinal cord status for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) also is a novel investigation tool with good sensitivity to detect changes in CSM, but it is not routinely used in spinal cord evaluation.Sixty-six patients with CSM who required surgical decompression were included. All the patients were divided into 4 subgroups according to Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) recovery rate. A 3.0T MR system was applied to obtain DTI of the spinal cord. Clinical assessment was performed with the JOA scores system.DTI data of 61 patients were available for further analysis in this study. No significant differences in age, sex, cervical curvature, surgical approach, and preoperative JOA score between the 4 subgroups were found (P 0.05). Significant differences in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) (P 0.0001), mean diffusivity (MD), (P0.0001), axial diffusivity (AD) (P = 0.0459), and radial diffusivity (RD) (P0.0001) values were found between the 4 groups. The ADC (P0.0001), MD (P 0.0001), AD (P = 0.0434), and RD (P0.0001) values were significantly correlated with JOA recovery rate. Cutoff values of ADC, MD, AD, and RD in this study were 1.378*10DTI was closely related to the severity of CSM, and cutoff values of DTI enabled the surgeons to predict the surgical outcomes in patients with CSM. These evaluation metrics may reflect the pathologic conditions of the spinal cord quantitatively, and potentially evaluate the functional status of spinal cords.

BackgroundSpinal Tuberculosis was the most affected region in bone tuberculosis. There were variant hemostatic medicines of different mechanisms reported in spinal surgery previously. The effect of Tanexamic Acid (TXA) in anterior spinal tuberculosis surgery is still obscure. The aim of current study is to elucidate the hemostatic effect of tranexamic acid in anterior thoracic tuberculosis surgery.MethodsRetrospective study was performed with 169 thoracic tuberculosis patients underwent one-stage anterior operation. Eighty patients were performed TXA peri-operation prescription. Forty patients (Pre-operation group, Pre-OP group) started TXA after corpectomy and other forty patients (Intra-operation group, Intra-OP group) were started with the induction of anesthesia. The second dose was 3 hours after the first dose. Pre-operation, 1 day post-operation, and 1 week post-operation blood routine test and blood coagulation test were recorded. Hemoglobin(HGB) variance was the difference value between pre-operation HGB and pos-operation HGB; Blood per level was the value of operation bleeding divided level. Health related quality of life parameters included Visual Analogue Scale score (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index(ODI). Comparison study was performed among each groups. Correlation study was performed among each parameters in different groups. ResultsCompared to control group, TXA group showed significant decreased on Post-OP Bleeding, and increased on Post-OP HGB, Post-OP HCT and HGB variance. There were no significantly differences among all parameters between Pre-OP group and Intra-OP group. Significant correlation were shown between operation bleeding and post-operation bleeding in control group while the correlation were not significant in TXA group, Pre-OP group and Intra-OP group. Operation bleeding was significantly correlated with Operation Level, Operation Time and HGB variance in all groups. Post-OP Bleeding was significantly correlated with HGB variance in control group, TXA group and Pre-OP group, expect Intra-OP group. There were no significantly difference among all groups, although VAS and ODI showed reduction post-operation.ConclusionsTranexamic acid can effectively preserve surgical hemoglobin loss and reduce post-operation drainage in one-stage anterior thoracic tuberculosis surgery. But the effect of reducing intra-operation bleeding is not significant. Health related quality of life is not influenced by TXA.

Aims Circular RNA (circRNA) is involved in the regulation of articular cartilage degeneration induced by inflammatory factors or oxidative stress. In a previous study, we found that the expression of circStrn3 was significantly reduced in chondrocytes of osteoarthritis (OA) patients and OA mice. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to explore the role and mechanism of circStrn3 in osteoarthritis. Methods Minus RNA sequencing, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of circStrn3 in human and mouse OA cartilage tissues and chondrocytes. Chondrocytes were then stimulated to secrete exosomal miR-9-5p by cyclic tensile strain. Intra-articular injection of exosomal miR-9-5p into the model induced by destabilized medial meniscus (DMM) surgery was conducted to alleviate OA progression. Results Tensile strain could decrease the expression of circStrn3 in chondrocytes. CircStrn3 expression was significantly decreased in human and mouse OA cartilage tissues and chondrocytes. CircStrn3 could inhibit matrix metabolism of chondrocytes through competitively ‘sponging’ miRNA-9-5p targeting Kruppel-like factor 5 ( KLF5), indicating that the decrease in circStrn3 might be a protective factor in mechanical instability-induced OA. The tensile strain stimulated chondrocytes to secrete exosomal miR-9-5p. Exosomes with high miR-9-5p expression from chondrocytes could inhibit osteoblast differentiation by targeting KLF5. Intra-articular injection of exosomal miR-9-5p alleviated the progression of OA induced by destabilized medial meniscus surgery in mice. Conclusion Taken together, these results demonstrate that reduction of circStrn3 causes an increase in miR-9-5p, which acts as a protective factor in mechanical instability-induced OA, and provides a novel mechanism of communication among joint components and a potential application for the treatment of OA. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2023;12(1):33–45.

The purpose of this study was to investigate critical genes in multiple sclerosis (MS) using microarray data from brain tissue in MS.The expression profile data set of MS (GSE38010) downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database contained gene information from five plaque tissues from MS brains and two white matter tissues from healthy controls. An R package was applied to process these raw chip data. Gene Ontology (GO) functional analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis were performed to investigate interactions between differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in MS brain tissues.This study identified a total of 1065 DEGs, including 530 up-regulated genes and 535 down-regulated genes, in MS brain tissue samples compared to those in normal white matter tissue samples. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses showed that the up-regulated DEGs were mainly related to neuron development, neuron projection morphogenesis and neuron differentiation. Furthermore, the down-regulated DEGs were largely related to axon ensheathment, ensheathment of neurons and nervous system development. Seven key genes were found as hub genes in the maintenance of the PPI network.Several key target genes and their GO and KEGG pathway enrichment identified in the present study may serve as feasible targets for MS therapies.

Many modern ionospheric studies rely on incoherent scatter radars (ISR) since this kind of radar is able to detect various ionospheric parameters over very long ranges. The performance of ISR significantly depends on its coding system. In recent decades, a new type of coding system, which is the so-called composite coding, was presented. It used to be constructed by using a certain code to modulate alternating code to achieve better detection resolution and anti-noise performance for ISRs. In the present study, a new composite coding system was presented, which is constructed based on complementary codes and alternating codes. In this paper, the performance of the new composite code will be compared with that of several traditional codes to show that the new composite code can help to improve the detection performance of the ISR. According to the analysis based on the ambiguity function, the present composite coding system helps to improve the range resolution and detection range for ISR detections. In addition, numerical tests on anti-noise performance show that the complementary composite coding system has a good anti-noise performance and helps to reduce the necessary times of incoherent integration. As a result, the composite coding system can improve the time resolution.

Aiming at the low mining rate in mines, Xingelao, Dabianyao, and Dongliang Coal Mines in Shenmu Mining Area, Shaanxi Province, China were taken as research objects. Based on this, this study constructed an evaluation index system for the mining capacity of the mines from the perspectives of geological factors, mechanical equipment, humans, and mining design. Moreover, the factors influencing the mining capacity of the mines were evaluated using a combination weighting approach based on an improved analytic hierarchy process and an entropy weight method. A standard cloud was generated based on the mapping standards of each index and a comprehensive cloud was obtained according to comprehensive weight and a backward cloud algorithm. Finally, by combining the comprehensive cloud with local and overall scores of the mines, the mining capacities of the mines were evaluated. The research results demonstrate that the key factor restricting the mining capacity of the mines is the geological environment and five major third-grade indexes affecting mining capacity are igneous rock intrusion, collapse column, scouring zone of the ancient river bed, mechanization level and coal pillar width. In addition, the corresponding suggestions and measures were put forward according to the main factors influencing the mining rate of the mines. In accordance with the weights and scores of each index, the overall scores of the mines were calculated. Dongliang, Dabianyao, and Xingelao Coal Mines were ranked in order based on scores. The research results provide a theoretical basis for improving the mining capacity of the mines under similar geological conditions.

A new and straightforward method for the synthesis of 5-bromotetracenes through PBr3-mediated cyclization of 1,7-diyn-3,6-bis(propargyl carbonate)s has been developed. This method offers several advantages such as easily accessible starting materials, high efficiency, and wide functional group compatibility. In addition, chloro- and iodo-substituted tetracenes were also synthesized using appropriate halogenating reagents. The utility of the 5-bromotetracene products has been illustrated by their efficient transformations through various palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions.

A new and general nickel-catalyzed cyanation of hetero(aryl) chlorides using less toxic Zn(CN)2 as the cyanide source has been developed. The reaction relies on the use of inexpensive NiCl2·6H2O/dppf/Zn as the catalytic system and DMAP as the additive, allowing the cyanation to occur under mild reaction conditions (50–80 °C) with wide functional group tolerance. DMAP was found to be crucial for successful transformation, and the reaction likely proceeds via a Ni(0)/Ni(II) catalysis based on mechanistic studies. The method was also successfully extended to aryl bromides and aryl iodides.

A Ni/BPh3 catalyzed [2+2+2] cycloaddition of alkyne-nitriles with alkynes has been developed, which provides an efficient route to fused pyridines under mild reaction conditions. Mechanistic studies indicate that an azanickelacycle via heterocoupling of an alkyne with a nitrile moiety is possibly formed as a key reaction intermediate. The Lewis acid catalyst is crucial to the successful transformation, which is suggested to promote the oxidative cyclization process.

Chronic spinal cord compression is the most common cause of spinal cord impairment in patients with nontraumatic spinal cord damage. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) plays an important role in both confirming the diagnosis and evaluating the degree of compression. However, the anatomical detail provided by conventional MRI is not sufficient to accurately estimate neuronal damage and/or assess the possibility of neuronal recovery in chronic spinal cord compression patients. In contrast, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can provide quantitative results according to the detection of water molecule diffusion in tissues. In the present study, we develop a methodological framework to illustrate the application of DTI in chronic spinal cord compression disease. DTI fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs), and eigenvector values are useful for visualizing microstructural pathological changes in the spinal cord. Decreased FA and increases in ADCs and eigenvector values were observed in chronic spinal cord compression patients compared to healthy controls. DTI could help surgeons understand spinal cord injury severity and provide important information regarding prognosis and neural functional recovery. In conclusion, this protocol provides a sensitive, detailed, and noninvasive tool to evaluate spinal cord compression.

A nickel-catalyzed cyanation of unactivated secondary alkyl chlorides or bromides using less toxic Zn(CN)

Global methane emission from coal mines were estimated to be approximately 584 MMTCO2 E in 2010, which is a huge waste of energy resources and is an important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Coal mine methane (CMM) whose methane content is 30∼60% with the rest of air is difficult to use directly. A novel process for CMM utilization is developed in this work. CMM is used as the feedstock for urea synthesis. This process does not require separation or further purification of CMM, but converts the methane into hydrogen through the oxygen in it and by adding steam. The reformate can be further processed into a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen with a molar ratio of H2:N2 = 3:1, which can then be used for urea synthesis. This process has been analyzed by Aspen Plus. It is found that the optimal CMM composition for urea production is 42% of methane in the air system, with water added at an H2O/CH4 ratio of 3.26. Reforming catalyst has been developed and tested in a simulated industrial reactor, with CMM simulated by mixing civil use grade methane and air. The reformate composition was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and the results match the simulation very well. A 10-day test showed high stability of the catalyst. In addition, the reforming catalyst after 10 days of operation was characterized using XRD and Laser Raman. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier, but does not occur naturally. Here we reported a novel process to get instant hydrogen from a mixture of methanol and dilute hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen can be obtained instantly once the fuel mixture is in contact with the platinum catalyst without any external heating or any energy input. The catalyst can be started and stopped more than 100 times before a new load of catalyst is required. Pure hydrogen is produced by combining the reforming catalyst with a water gas shift catalyst bed, which is driven by heat from the reforming process. Interestingly we discovered that only platinum catalysts can synergistically activate methanol and hydrogen peroxide to give hydrogen spontaneously. The preparation conditions and impurities have significant effects on the reforming process. This work overcomes the various hurdles of on-board reforming for hydrogen production and provides a way to catalyse the utilization of fuel cells.

The cyano-Schmittel cyclization of in situ-generated cyano-allenes has been carried out. The DFT calculation results suggest that the diradical pathway plays a major role in this cyclization. The reactions can be conveniently performed in a one-pot manner through cascade Sonogashira coupling of terminal cyano-ynes with organic halides, followed by base-promoted propargyl-allenyl isomerization/cyclization, leading to an efficient access to pyridine-fused polycyclic architectures. In particular, a large variety of aryl or heteroaryl rings such as furans, thiophenes and pyridines can be incorporated into the follow-up cyano-Diels-Alder reactions, highlighting the great synthetic utility of this chemistry.

Background Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides information about water molecule diffusion in spinal cord. Purpose This study was aimed to investigate DTI changes in the different stages of compressive spinal cord induced by water-absorbing material implantation. Material and Methods The spinal cord compression was administered over the fourth cervical vertebral level in rat. Rat models were divided into five subgroups according to compression stages: sham group, group A: three-day compression rat models; group B: 12-day compression rat models; group C: 20-day compression rat models; group D: 60-day compression rat models. DTI including fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in the compressive spinal cord were collected. The relationship between the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) scores and DTI metrics was further explored. Results Compared with the sham group, BBB scoring of rat model showed a decreased tendency from group A ( P Conclusion DTI is an optimal pre-clinical imaging tool to reflect locomotor performance and pathological status of compressive spinal cord epicenter in chronic spinal cord compression rat model.

Highlights • Age of diagnosis, primary site, histology, tumor stage, use of surgery and tumor size were identified as independent prognostic factors for both overall and cancer-specific survival of chordoma patients. • The optimal age cutoff values of chordoma patients were 38, 54 and 66 years. • The optimal cutoff values of chordoma tumor size were identified as 2.9 and 10.0 cm. • The nomogram constructed in present study can serve as an effective and convenient evaluation tool to help surgeons to perform personalized survival evaluation and mortality risk identification in chordoma patients., Background The survival prediction of patients with chordoma is difficult to make due to the rarity of this oncologic disease. Our objective was to apply a nomogram to predict survival outcomes in individuals with chordoma of the skull base, vertebral column, and pelvis. Methods A total of 558 patients with chordoma between 1973 and 2014 were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Independent prognostic factors in patients with chordoma were identified via univariate and multivariate Cox analysis. Then these prognostic factors were incorporated into a nomogram to predict 3- and 5-year overall survival and cancer-specific survival rates. Internal and external data were used to validate the nomograms. Concordance indices (C-indices) were used to estimate the accuracy of this nomogram system. Results A total of 558 patients were randomly assigned into a training cohort (n = 372) and a validation cohort (n = 186). Age, surgical stage, tumor size, histology, primary site, and use of surgery were identified as independent prognostic factors via univariate and multivariate Cox analysis (all p

Sulfur recovery is an important industrial process for fossil fuel clean consumption, in which H2S is firstly separated from the gas stream from the hydrodesulfurization process or gasified gas of coal or biomass. Meanwhile, almost equivalent half amount of SO2 is produced from the boiler on-site due to the power and steam generation or the fluid catalytic cracking process in a refinery. Currently, H2S is converted into elemental sulfur using Claus process, which is being used worldwide, and SO2 is removed from the flue gas using lime or lime water. The two sulfur removal technologies require lots of capital investment and operating cost. Here, we have developed a novel process for SO2 in flue gas to react with H2S from the gasified gas stream, to convert them elemental sulfur by washing the flue gas and H2S with liquid catalyst containing water stream, the sulfur in SO2 and H2S is converted into elemental sulfur and floated in the washed solution pool, which can be filtered out.

Alumina-supported NiMoPOx catalysts have been prepared using urea matrix combustion–decomposition method. The effect of urea/metal ratios on the metal oxide dispersion, the conversion of the metal precursor to oxide and the structure and catalyst performance for diesel HDS has been studied. It is shown that the addition of urea adjusts the metal–support interaction, leading to the easy reduction of the metal oxide over the catalyst surface. It also changes the surface cluster of the oxide and the oxide structure. The addition of urea to metal matrix significantly improves the catalytic diesel HDS performance and increases the catalyst stability. The urea to Ni metal ratio of 2 gives the highest sulfur removal rate in the real diesel HDS process.

A titanium-catalyzed cis-hydroalumination of propargylic amines with Red-Al is described, which provides an efficient way to produce Z-configured allylic amines in good to excellent yields with high stereoselectivity and good regioselectivity. The hydride-bridged Al/Ti bimetallic species may act as a real catalyst in this reaction.

A new and general nickel-catalyzed cyanation of hetero(aryl) chlorides using less toxic Zn(CN)

Series of adsorbents based on Al2O3 supported Cu and Mn have been prepared and tested for mercury removal from gas streams under various conditions. The metal content, impregnating sequence and the gas composition have significant effect on the performance of the adsorbents. Co-impregnation of Cu and Mn solutions is simple but also of help to improve the Hg pickup capacity, due to the synergic effect of the CuMn oxide, the sorbent prepared using incipient wetness method containing 20% CuO and 20% wt MnO2 has Hg pick capacity of 12.0% wt. It is showed that the oxide form the adsorbent can reduce Hg from more than 11,600 ppb to 0.1 ppb in a single pass. The presence of H2S in the gas stream changes the Hg sorption mechanism and increase Hg pickup capacity. XRD and electron microscope characterization results of the fresh and spent sorbent show that the active phases of the sorbent are CuMn(OH)3Cl and the presence of Mn2O3 catalyses the metallic Hg to convert into HgCl2 or HgCl. There are no elemental Hg present in the spent sorbent, but in the chemical states.

The reaction of imines with low-valent titanium species, generated in situ by using Ti(OiPr)4/2 c-C5H9MgCl reagent, affords titanium–imine complex, which can couple with nitriles to provide 2,5-diazatitanacyclopentenes. α-Aminoketones are obtained in good yields by quenching the corresponding 2,5-diazatitanacyclopentenes with aqueous HCl solution. However, when the reaction is first quenched with MeOH in air followed by addition of aqueous HCl solution, 1,2-diketones are formed in good to high yields.

Ti(OiPr)4/2 nBuLi-mediated highly efficient cross-coupling reactions of 1,3-butadiynes with α-iminonitriles are described. The method provides convenient access to functionalized 3-aminopyrroles with a wide diversity of substituents in a highly regioselective manner. When optically pure α-iminonitrile is employed in this reaction, a chiral pyrrole derivative is obtained without loss of enantiopurity. Mechanistic study indicates that the 3-aminopyrroles are formed upon treatment of the crude hydrolysis products with silica gel or Lewis acid. A novel imino aza-Nazarov cyclization reaction is proposed to account for the formation of the pyrrole products. Employing the titanium-monoyne complex in this reaction resulted in the homocoupling of α-iminonitriles, leading to the formation of 1,2-diimines.

Silica supported cobalt catalysts have been prepared using urea containing cobalt nitrate solution impregnation method, which can give high loading Co3O4 with relatively smaller crystallite size. Compared to the conventional impregnation method, the catalyst prepared with urea added to the cobalt nitrate solution provides higher activity for CO conversion and C5+ selectivity. To optimize the catalyst activation and simulate the industrial activation, TPO–TPR cycle treatment with or without steam has been applied to the prepared catalysts under various conditions. It is shown that reduction of pure hydrogen with high flow rate leads to a sharp temperature rise in the catalyst bed, which results in the sintering of the cobalt particles. A slow temperature rise with dilute hydrogen helps stabilize the cobalt particles, and the cycle treatment of the catalyst using TPO–TPR without steam induction has little effect on the size of cobalt particles. When steam is included in the reduction stream with hydrogen the TPR–TPO cycle treatment can help increase the Co dispersion, which increases the catalyst activity and selectivity to C5+.