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Utilizing a bifunctional organic linker, the first crystalline organic framework based on dative B←N bonds with permanent porosity was synthesized in one step. It sets a benchmark for C2H2 uptake and shows effective C2H2/CO2 separation.

Reducing sulfur poisoning is significant for maintaining the catalytic efficiency and durability of heterogeneous catalysts. We screened PdAu nanoclusters with specific Pd : Au ratios based on Monte Carlo simulations and then carried out density functional calculations to reveal how to reduce sulfur poisoning via alloying. Among various nanoclusters, the core-shell structure Pd13Au42 (Pd@Au) exhibits a low adsorption energy of SO2 (-0.67 eV), comparable with O2 (-0.45 eV) and lower than CO (-1.25 eV), thus avoiding sulfur poisoning during the CO catalytic oxidation. Fundamentally, the weak adsorption of SO2 originates from the negative d-band center of the shell and delocalized charge distribution near the Fermi level, due to the appropriate charge transfer from the core to shell. Core-shell nanoclusters with a different core (Ni, Cu, Ag, Pt) and a Pd@Au slab model were further constructed to validate and extend the results. These findings provide insights into designing core-shell catalysts to suppress sulfur poisoning while optimizing catalytic behaviors.

Rice kernel smut (RKS), caused by the basidiomycete fungus Tilletia horrida, is one of the most devastating diseases affecting the production of male sterile lines of rice (Oryza sativa) worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms of resistance to T. horrida have not yet been explored. In the present study, RNA sequencing analysis of rice male sterile lines, that are resistant and susceptible to RKS (Jiangcheng 3A and 9311A, respectively) was conducted after T. horrida infection. Transcriptomic analysis showed that a greater number of differentially expressed gene (DEGs) was observed in Jiangcheng 3A compared with 9311A after T. horrida inoculation. Furthermore, 4, 425 DEGs were uniquely detected in Jiangcheng 3A, and Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses of these DEGs revealed that oxidoreductase activity, peroxidase activity, cutin, suberine and wax biosynthesis, and flavonoid biosynthesis were key pathways for T. horrida resistance. In summary and based on transcriptome analysis, we suggest a preliminary regulatory mechanism for Jiangcheng 3A cultivar resistance response to T. horrida inoculation.

Revealing the catalytic oxidation mechanism of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is insightful for the development of efficient catalysts. However, because of the complicated interactions and a lar...

As visible light photocatalysts, narrow bandgap semiconductors can effectively convert solar energy to chemical energy, exhibiting potential applications in alleviating energy shortage and environmental pollution. Cu2O hollow spheres with a narrow band gap and uniform hierarchical structures have been fabricated in a controlled way. The one-pot solvothermal method without any template is simple and facile. The morphologies, crystal structures, composition, specific surface areas, and optical and photoelectric properties of the products were analyzed by various techniques. The hollow and solid Cu2O spheres could be fabricated by controlling the reaction time, and a possible growth process of the Cu2O hollow spheres was revealed. The degradation of methyl orange (MO) was used to investigate the visible-light catalytic properties of the Cu2O samples. More than 90% of MO is degraded under visible light illumination of 20 min, exhibiting a quick catalytic reaction. The rate constant of the Cu2O hollow spheres was 2.54 times and 46.6 times larger than those of the Cu2O solid spheres and commercial Cu2O powder, respectively. The possible photocatalytic mechanism of MO was revealed over Cu2O hollow spheres through the detection of active species. The as-prepared Cu2O hollow spheres display improved visible-light catalytic activity and stability, indicating their potential application in wastewater treatment.

A graphene-based magnetic composite (Fe3O4/GO) was prepared and used for simultaneous removal of Cu(II) and 1-naphthol. The composite was characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, FT-IR and Raman. Electron microscopy reflected that Fe3O4 spheres were dispersed on graphene layers. The pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models could best describe the sorption kinetics and isotherms. The sorption of Cu(II) and 1-naphthol increased with increasing temperature, and thermodynamic parameters calculated from temperature dependent sorption revealed that sorption of Cu(II) and 1-naphthol on Fe3O4/GO was spontaneous and endothermic. The results indicated that Fe3O4/GO can be utilized as potential adsorbents for purification of co-contaminated water systems.

N–H activation is crucial for NH3-assisted selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) of NH3 in exhaust emission treatment of the diesel engine. Copper-exchanged CHA-type zeolites show high performance for N–H activation, however, the atomic-level understanding of the activation mechanism is inaccessible. In this work, we use density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate the origin of high activity through electronic structures, magnetic properties and the N–H bond of NH3 activation on the naked Cu2+ as the active site in Cu-SSZ-13. Fe, Co and Ni-SSZ-13 were also systematically studied for comparison. The incorporation of transition metal ions leads to high-spin d-states around the Fermi level. The magnetic moment of 3.858, 2.889, 1.920 and 0.946 μB is observed for Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu-SSZ-13, respectively. A distorted square planar crystal field is found. For Cu-SSZ-13, the electronic configuration of Cu2+ ensures the lowest unoccupancy of b1g (dx2−y2), enabling to receive electrons from base NH3 and thus activate the N–H bond with a barrier of 1.26 eV significantly lower than that in Fe, Co and Ni-SSZ-13. These findings may provide fundamental insights into the high activity and selectivity of Cu-SSZ-13 catalysts for NOx removal and NH3 oxidation at high temperature.

MXenes are experimentally proved to be one of the promising supercapacitor materials; nevertheless, the theoretical limit of their supercapacitance and its redox origin are not accessible yet, which largely inhibits the future explorations on MXenes to be applied in the capacitors. Here, via first-principles calculations and our developed rigid band approximation (RBA), we systematically investigate charged electrodes Ti3C2T2 (T = bare, O, S) to reveal a theoretical limit of supercapacitance and the relevant origin of the capacitance. It is found that the theoretical gravimetric capacitance value of pure Ti3C2 surprisingly reaches 2131 F g−1 due to the high continuous density of states near the Fermi level (EF) and large difference of electronegativity between surface atoms and solvent ions. When considering the groups O and S with H coverage from 0 to 100%, we note that these groups significantly suppress the density of states around EF, i.e., the capability of storing charge. To explore the ion binding influence on the capacitance, the phase diagram of hydrogen binding energy and capacitance is provided for the screening and optimization of the next generation of electrode materials. These findings offer a comprehensive understanding of the supercapacitance of MXenes and guidance of further improvements of the capacitance in realistic charged environments.

Te-doped Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) was prepared by a ball milling-assisted solid-state method in air. The as-prepared powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Li4Ti4.95Te0.05O12 powder sintered at 850 °C presented improved ionic and electronic conductivities of 2.20×10-7 S·cm-1 and 2.40×10-9 S·cm-1 at room temperature, respectively, an order of magnitude higher than those of intrinsic LTO. Electrochemical analysis showed that the discharge specific capacities of Li4Ti4.95Te0.05O12 in Li half cells at 1 C and 5 C were 162.49 mAh·g-1 and 143.5 mAh·g-1, respectively, with capacity retention rates of 98.8% and 98.2% after 100 cycles. The Li4Ti4.95Te0.05O12/LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 full cells also showed a good specific capacity of 101.8 mAh·g-1 at 1 C and delivered good temperature adaptability. This study provides an effective strategy for the preparation of high-performance LTO anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

BackgroundRice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important cereal crops, providing the daily dietary intake for approximately 50% of the global human population. To needs of the rapidly increasing human population worldwide, cultivation of rice varieties with high yield and quality, more genes or QTLs association with yield traits are required.ResultsCurrently, correlations among different traits and gene interactions both affect the rice breeding. Here, we re-sequenced 259 rice accessions, generating 1, 371.65 Gb of raw data. Furthermore, we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 13 agronomic traits using 2.8 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) characterized in 259 rice accessions. Phenotypic data and best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) values of each of the 13 traits over two years of each trait were used for GWAS. The result showed that 816 SNP signals were significantly associated (−log10P≥5) with the 13 agronomic traits. We detected candidate genes related to target traits within 200 kb upstream and downstream of the associated SNP loci, based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks in the whole rice genome. These candidate genes were further identified though haplotype block construction. ConclusionsThis study provides an important genomic resource and valuable new information for breeding high yielding breeding rice cultivars through genomic selection.

It remains challenging for pure-phase catalysts to achieve high performance during the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction to overcome the sluggish kinetics without the assistance of extrinsic conditions. Herein, a series of pristine perovskites, i.e., AMnO

As visible light photocatalysts, narrow bandgap semiconductors can effectively convert solar energy to chemical energy, exhibiting potential applications in alleviating energy shortage and environmental pollution. Cu

For oxides with octahedron ligand field, such as perovskite, spinel, and mullite, unit occupancy of eg orbital plays a key role in governing the catalytic performance of oxygen redox in the application of renewable energy storage and conversion. The magnetic configurations greatly influence the eg occupancy of these oxides. In this work, using the perovskite LaCoO3 as an example, we use density functional theory (DFT) calculations to achieve an intermediate spin configuration corresponding to unit-like eg occupancy via strain schemes. We determined that the introduction of strain by changing lattice constants effectively tailors electronic configurations. The low-spin (t2⁢g6⁢eg0), intermediate-spin (t2⁢g5⁢eg1), and high-spin (t2⁢g4⁢eg2) configurations are obtained with the strain γ < 1.0%, 1.0% ≤ γ < 4.0%, and γ ≥ 4.0%, respectively. To obtain the eg unit occupancy practically, Ba with a larger ionic radius relative to La is inserted into A site to replace La elements, introducing tensile strain to the pristine LaCoO3. The Ba substitution of La leads to the desirable spin configuration with the unit-like eg occupancy. These findings provide a scenario on how to precisely control the unit occupancy of eg via defect induced strain.

A memristor is very important for the development of an artificial neuromorphic system. However, the breakthrough of the limit of a work region for memristors remains challenging. Herein, a BiVO4 nanoparticle is proposed to be a high-performance artificial synapse for a neuromorphic system. A BiVO4-based artificial synapse exhibits superior bidirectional analog switching properties. Furthermore, the fundamental neurobiological synaptic functions in the BiVO4-based artificial synapse can be achieved, such as potentiation, a depression, nonlinear transmission, spike-time-dependent plasticity, pair-pulse facilitation, and the transition from short-term to long-term potentiation. Moreover, the movement of oxygen vacancies by an electric field is responsible for resistance switching. This work provides different insights into the design of an artificial synapse based on memristors.

Seeking an electrochemical catalyst to accelerate the liquid-to-solid conversion of soluble lithium polysulfides to insoluble products is crucial to inhibit the shuttle effect in lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries and thus increase their practical energy density. Mn-based mullite (SmMn

The plant-specific IQ67 DOMAIN (IQD) gene family is a possible targeted interacting protein of calmodulin that plays important roles in calcium signaling transduction and that functions in various biotic and abiotic stresses. However, no systematic analysis of the IQD gene family has been performed in Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.). In the current study, 20 ZjIQDs were first identified in Chinese jujube and found to be evenly distributed on 12 chromosomes (chr) except chr 9 through a series of bioinformatic analyses. Phylogenetic analysis of 20 ZjIQDs with the IQDs in rice and Arabidopsis showed that all of the IQDs could be classified into four groups and that each group could be divided into two or three other subgroups. In addition, gene structure and motif composition analysis showed that 20 ZjIQDs had similar/respective gene structures in the same group and that the IQ calmodulin binding motif was conserved. Prediction of calmodulin binding sites revealed that all of the ZjIQDs contained at least one calmodulin binding site, which might indicate that they could be targeted by calmodulin. Syntenic analysis indicated that eight ZjIQDs showed syntenic relationships with those in Arabidopsis and four ZjIQDs showed syntenic relationships with those in rice. The expression profiles of ZjIQDs in response to cold, salt and alkaline stresses showed that most ZjIQDs were up- or downregulated, but ZjIQD15 and 16 were significantly upregulated under these stresses. In addition, ZjIQD15 was significantly regulated by oryzalin treatment (a microtubule disruption drug). Moreover, several ZjIQDs were differentially expressed between diploid and autotetraploid ‘Dongzao’ in response to cold stress, which might have important functions in the regulation of the differential cold resistance between diploid and autotetraploid ‘Dongzao’. This systematic analysis of ZjIQDs could provide important information for further functional characterization of key ZjIQDs in response to cold stress with the aim of breeding cold-resistant cultivars, especially improving the cold tolerance of autotetraploid ‘Dongzao’.

Urban flooding is serious in China. More than 360 cities have suffered rainstorm floods from 2007 to 2013. Floods in Beijing, Guangzhou, Jinan, et al. have caused serious casualties. In recent years, sea-views in cities have repeated here and there, and rainstorm induced flood has gradually become a chronic illness in many large and medium-sized cities in China. Simulation model for floods is a key technology for urban flood control and land use planning, and play a crucial role in the construction of urban water conservancy projects and infrastructures such as urban drainage system and sponge city. With the continuous and rapid development of the economics and society, urban flood risk warning and management requires a higher demand on the efficiency and elaboration of flood simulation. Obviously, the degree of elaboration on flood simulation highly depends on the temporal and spatial resolution of the basic input data. Rainfall data with smaller time intervals will present more comprehensive rainfall characteristics and further reflect the characteristics of flood processes. Meanwhile, higher resolution terrain data can reflect subtle ground features of urban surface such as buildings, curbs, bridges, etc. By summarizing and analyzing the literature on the researches of hydrological modeling with the utilization of remote sensing data, the application of remote sensing data (including meteorological and hydrological data, and surface information based on remote sensing) in flood simulation is reviewed. Frequently used remote sensing data sources with relatively high precision such as LiDAR (light imaging, detection, and ranging), InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar), oblique photography and hyperspectral remote sensing as well as their applications are presented. Advanced technologies and methods (airborne LiDAR and UAV Oblique Photography) producing basic remote sensing information used in urban flood modeling are presented. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the extraction framework of the basic information of urban flood simulation based on remote sensing, and the prospect to apply remote sensing technology in urban flood simulation is also presented. It is pointed out that flood simulation will be more effective and refined with the support of massive multi-source data in the future. At the same time, rich data sources also bring the following challenges and opportunities: (1) Rapidly increasing amount of high-resolution remote sensing data poses greater challenges to data storage and management, while high-performance distributed storage technologies and data processing technologies can provide solutions for this objective. (2) Massive data and the relatively low processing and utilization capacity will cause a huge waste of resources. Based on data analysis methods such as machine learning and data assimilation, massive multi-source data will be integrated to form a comprehensive database for urban flood modeling, which can provide scientific and technological support for modern urban construction and management. (3) Urban flood simulation with high resolution is extremely computational intensive that the time consumption will exponentially increase. However, this is unacceptable for rapid and efficient urban flood forecasting and early warning. High-performance computing technology such as GPU-based parallelization on CUDA platform will greatly benefit for urban flood simulation.

The Ras-association domain family (RASSF) proteins have been involved in many important biological processes. RASSF7 is recently reported to be up-regulated in several types of cancer. However, the function of RASSF7 remain unknown in human cancers. To explore the role of RASSF7 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells proliferation and molecular mechanism. RASSF7 expression was examined using public database TCGA, qRT-PCR and Western blot. The correlation between RASSF7 and clinicopathological features was measured. Overexpression and silencing of RASSF7 were performed to measure the impact on HCC cell proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis. Futhermore, the molecular mechanism of MEK1/2-ERK1/2 signaling pathway regulation by RASSF7 was explored. RASSF7 was significantly up-regulated in HCC tissues and cell lines, and correlated with AFP, poor tumor histology and T stage. Overexpression of RASSF7 promoted HCC cell proliferation, drived G1-S phase cell cycle transition and inhibited apoptosis. Knockdown of RASSF7 suppressed cell growth, induced G1-S phase cell cycle arrest and cell apoptosis. Furthermore, our findings also demonstrated that RASSF7 promoted HCC cell proliferation through activating MEK1/2-ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Taken together, this study provides a novel evidence for clinical significance of RASSF7 as a potential biomarker, and demonstrates that RASSF7- MEK1/2-ERK1/2 signaling pathway might be a novel pathway involved in HCC progression.

Biochar is increasingly used as a low-cost and effective adsorbent for heavy metals in wastewater. Herein, biochar pyrolyzed from rice straw was employed as an adsorbent for the removal of Th(IV) f...

The aim of the present study was to determine the correlation between adiponectin (APN) gene polymorphism, metabolic syndrome incidence, and degree of atherosclerosis in patients with this disease. The study was conducted on 369 unrelated patients, diagnosed with metabolic abnormalities. The patients were divided into the metabolic syndrome group (MS group, n=182), the metabolic abnormality group (n=187) and the control group with metabolic normality (n=134), as per the degree of metabolic abnormality. The gene polymorphism of rs121917815 site of APN gene was detected by TaqMAN probe technique, and the OR values of different genotypes and alleles were calculated. The APN protein, C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-1 and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) 2a and 2b expression level changes were detected by immunoblotting. The atherosclerosis index (AI) of each allele in patients with MS was calculated. Compared with the control group, the expression levels of APN protein in the metabolic abnormality and MS groups were significantly decreased. However, there was no distinct difference in the comparison of gene polymorphism between the control and metabolic abnormality groups. The CC genotype frequency and C allele frequency of rs121917815 polymorphic site in the MS group were significantly increased, compared with the control group. The TT genotype frequency and T allele frequency were significantly decreased and the OR values of the CC genotype and C allele were increased. The results of immunoblotting showed that there was no obvious change of CRP, IL-1, HDL-2a and HDL-2b in the three groups, and there was no statistically significant difference in the comparison of AI between the MS and control groups as well as the metabolic abnormality group. The APN gene polymorphic site rs121917815 is associated with MS. The occurrence of CC genotype and C allele increased the incidence of MS, but it did not increase the degree of atherosclerosis in MS patients.

Herein, we used biochar pyrolyzed from rice straw to adsorb uranium (U) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption of U(VI) on biochar was strongly dependent on pH but independent on ionic strength. HA/FA enhanced the sorption at pH 6.8. The sorption reached equilibrium within 3 h, which was not mediated by pH. The adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic, and enhanced at higher temperature. However, the influence of temperature was negligible at low initial U(VI) concentrations. Therefore, biochar derived from rice straw may be a promising adsorbent for the removal of U(VI).

Background Rice kernel smut (RKS), caused by the basidiomycete fungus Tilletia horrida , is one of the most devastating diseases affecting the production of male sterile lines of rice ( Oryza sativa ) worldwide. However, molecular mechanisms of resistance to T. horrida have not yet been explored.Results In the present study, analysis of the amount of T. horrida biomass in rice kernels and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of rice male sterile lines resistant and susceptible to RKS (Jiangcheng 3A and 9311A, respectively) were conducted after T. horrida infection. Transcriptomic analysis showed that 9, 840 and 7, 902 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were observed in Jiangcheng3A and 9311A, respectively, after T. horrida inoculation, compared with the control. KEGG analyses of DEGs revealed that cutin, suberine and wax biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, glutathione metabolism, tyrosine metabolism, and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids were enriched by T. horrida inoculation in Jiangcheng 3A; however, not significantly enriched in 9311A. Furthermore, the DEGs related to plant-pathogen interaction, plant hormone signal transduction, and transcriptional factor genes were identified in both rice male sterile lines.Conclusions This is the first comparative transcriptome analysis of two rice genotypes with different responses to T. horrida infection, revealing DEGs with potentially important roles in defense against T. horrida infection. Ours results will serve as a strong foundation for developing effective strategies for T. horrida -resistance breeding.

The development of high efficient oxide catalyst is crucial to remove the aromatics pollutants. Herein, we propose a ternary mullite SmMn2O5 to catalytically oxidize benzene and toluene at a low temperature. Through a joint exploration of experimental characterizations and density functional theory calculations, the active species on the surface of the material are accessed. In the presence of the two-coordinated surface labile oxygen (Olab), the hydrothermal-synthesized mullite achieves a remarkable deep oxidation performance with T90 at 223 °C (benzene) and 228 °C (toluene), superior to most reported oxide catalysts. Simultaneously, SmMn2O5 displays no deactivation after 150 h reactions with repeating water vapor. Combining in situ DRIFTS and DFT calculations, the dissociation of maleic anhydride into acetic anhydride species on Olab active sites turns out to be the rate-controlled step with a calculated kinetic barrier of 1.253 eV. These findings of Olab allow to understand the catalytic oxidation of metal oxides at the atomic level and are thus imperative for the catalyst development.

Electrochemical properties of alkali ions (Li+, Na+, and K+) intercalating into FeSe have been studied based on first-principles calculations within density functional theory. The intercalation sites of lithium ions are found to be different from sodium and potassium ions due to the small ionic radius of lithium. Calculations of minimum energy path on the diffusions of Li+, Na+, and K+ in FeSe show that the activation energies for those alkali ions increase with their ionic radii. Lithium ions have a rather smaller diffusion barrier of about 0.20 eV, which leads to a bigger diffusion coefficient of about 6.3 × 10 - 6 cm 2 / s . We also show that FeSe has a flat discharging stage at about 1.0 V with lithium ions. These results indicate that XFe2Se2 (X = Li, Na, K) may be potential electrochemical active materials, especially for solid-state electrolyte and supercapacitors.

It remains challenging for pure-phase catalysts to achieve high performance during the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction to overcome the sluggish kinetics without the assistance of extrinsic conditions. Herein, a series of pristine perovskites, i.e., AMnO3 (A = Ca, Sr, and Ba), are proposed with various octahedron stacking configurations to demonstrate the cooperative catalysis over SrMnO3 jointly explored by experiments and first-principles calculations. Comparing with the unitary stacking of coordination units in CaMnO3 or BaMnO3 , the intrinsic SrMnO3 with a mixture of corner-sharing and face-sharing octahedron stacking configurations demonstrates superior activity (Ehalf-wave = 0.81 V), and charge-discharge stability over 400 h without the voltage gap (≈0.8 V) increasing in zinc-air batteries. The theoretical study reveals that, on the SrMnO3 (110) surface, the active sites switch from coordinatively unsaturated atop Mn (*OO, *OOH) to Mn-Mn bridge (*O, *OH). Therefore, the intrinsic dual coordination environments of Mn-Ocorner and Mn-Oface enable cooperative modulation of the interaction strength of the oxygen intermediates with the surface, inducing the decrease of the *OH desorption energy (rate-limiting step) unrestricted by scaling relationships with the overpotential of ≈0.28 V. This finding provides insights into catalyst design through screening intrinsic structures with multiple coordination unit stacking configurations.

Mn-based mullite catalyst GdMn2O5 is developed via the hydrothermal method to efficiently remove volatile organic compound acetone with a high efficiency and stability in total oxidation. The T90 over GdMn2O5 approaches to 160 s°C in contrast to 191 °C over 1 wt % Pt/Al2O3. The catalytic performance maintains after reaction at 200 °C for 260 h with 5.0 % H2O. The surface labile oxygen is the key to superior catalytic performance. According to the in situ DRIFTS and the oxidation pathway proposed by DFT calculations, the acetate species decomposition is assigned as the rate-limiting step. And the calculated kinetic barrier for the rate-limiting step, 151.7 kJ/mol (1.58 eV), is in line with the apparent activation energy from acetone oxidation over GdMn2O5 of 150.0 kJ/mol (1.56 eV). This work provides insights into developing highly efficient and hydrothermally stable volatile organic compounds removal catalysts via surface oxygen activation.

NiAl surfaces frequently serve as a platform for studying a broad range of physical and chemical phenomena including chemisorption, catalysis, oxidation, alloy growth, and surface nanostructure formation. Knowledge of precise values for low-index surface energies of NiAl, the most fundamental quantities characterizing surface thermodynamics, is often invaluable for understanding of these phenomena. In all previous analyses for NiAl(100) and NiAl(111), Ni- and Al-terminations are not distinguished, and half of the cleavage energy (or equivalently, the average of the surface energies of two differently terminated surfaces) is always identified as the “surface energy”. No values are available for individual surface energies of Ni- or Al-terminated NiAl(100) or NiAl(111) surfaces, whereas knowledge of only cleavage energy is often insufficient for analyzing surface-associated behavior. In this work, we perform extensive first-principles density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations for surface energies and cleavage energies of NiAl(110), NiAl(100) and NiAl(111) by considering the chemical-potential-based formulations to clarify the ambiguity in their surface energies and cleavage energies. We obtain a surface energy phase diagram for these three low-index surfaces versus the relevant chemical potential, as well as the chemical-potential-dependent Wulff plots for NiAl crystal equilibrium shapes. We also provide the surface-relaxation information from our DFT calculations for comparison with previous experimental data.

BACKGROUND LncRNA CASC2 has been established to have critical functions in tumorigenesis but, while its involvement in high-glucose-induced chronic renal failure remains unclear. MATERIAL AND METHODS We included patients with type 2 diabetes combined with chronic renal failure, as well as patients with diabetic retinopathy, diabetic ketoacidosis, diabetic foot infections or diabetic cardiomyopathy, and diabetic patients without any obvious complication, as well as healthy controls. Blood samples and renal tissues were obtained from each participant and expression of lncRNA CASC2 in those tissues was detected by qRT-PCR. Diagnostic value of lncRNA CASC2 for type 2 diabetes combined with chronic renal failure was evaluated by ROC curve analysis. All patients were followed up for 5 years and the occurrence of chronic renal failure was recorded. RESULTS Compared with healthy controls, expression of lncRNA CASC2 in serum and renal tissue was specifically downregulated in patients with type 2 diabetes combined with chronic renal failure but not in type 2 diabetic patients combined with other complications. Follow-up showed that patients with low serum level of lncRNA CASC2 had significantly higher incidence of chronic renal failure. CONCLUSIONS lncRNA CASC2 is a reliable diagnostic biomarker for type 2 diabetes combined with chronic renal failure and low serum level of lncRNA CASC2 predicts the occurrence of chronic renal failure in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Monocyte chemotactant protein-1 (MCP-1), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, plays an important role in inflammatory process. In present study, we evaluated the association of MCP-1 gene rs1024611 polymorphism with risk and clinical characteristics of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). This study recruited 116 patients with DFUs, 135 patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) without complications (non-DFU), and 149 healthy controls (HCs). MCP-1 gene rs1024611 polymorphism was genotyped by direct sequencing. The expression of MCP-1 was analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to assume the association strength. Individuals with rs1024611 AG and GG genotypes exhibited significantly higher susceptibility to DFUs, in the comparison with HCs (AG vs AA, OR = 2.364, 95% CI = 1.021–5.470; GG vs AA, OR = 2.686, 95% CI = 1.154–6.255). Meanwhile, G allele was associated with increased DFUs susceptibility (OR = 1.457, 95% CI = 1.014–2.093). Besides, rs1024611 SNP was slightly correlated with increased DFUs susceptibility in patients with DM. GG genotype of rs1024611 was significantly correlated with higher epidermal thickness and lower dermis thickness in patients with DFUs (P

MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) play crucial roles in human breast cancer. Although miR-1254 has been shown to have oncogenic activity in several cancer types, its biological function in breast cancer and its mechanisms of action remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of miR-1254 in human breast cancer and sought to elucidate the relevant underlying mechanisms. We found that miR-1254 expression was markedly increased in breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Additionally, miR-1254 overexpression accelerated breast cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle G1-S phase transition and inhibited apoptosis. Nevertheless, the inhibition of miR-1254 suppressed cell proliferation and induced apoptosis. Further analyses revealed that miR-1254 expression negatively correlated with RASSF9 expression in breast cancer tissues. We verified that RASSF9 was a direct target of miR-1254 using a luciferase reporter assay. The overexpression of miR-1254 reduced the RASSF9 mRNA and protein levels, and the suppression of miR-1254 promoted RASSF9 expression. Notably, the knockdown or overexpression of RASSF9 corroborated the biological effects observed upon miR-1254 overexpression or inhibition. Taken together, these results demonstrate that miR-1254 accelerates breast cancer cell growth by activating the AKT signaling pathway and suppresses apoptosis by inhibiting p53 expression through the targeting of RASSF9. The data indicate that miR-1254 plays a crucial role in human breast cancer, and may represent a novel therapeutic target for this malignancy.

Monoclinic bismuth vanadium oxide (BiVO 4 ) hierarchical microtubes self-assembled by several nanowires have been successfully fabricated by a template-free approach. The morphology and structure of the as-prepared sample were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and UV–vis spectroscopy. BiVO 4 microtubes have monoclinic structure with energy band gap of 2.36 eV. Based on the time-dependent experiments, the possible formation mechanism of BiVO 4 microtubes was proposed. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of the as-prepared BiVO 4 samples was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO) and various reactive dyes (RDs) under xenon lamp irradiation. In comparison with BiVO 4 microrods, BiVO 4 microtubes with hollow and porous structures showed higher photocatalytic activities and universality under visible-light irradiation. Due to the unique hierarchical hollow structures contributing to the increase of photocatalytic activities, BiVO 4 microtubes exhibited the potential application as the promising visible-light photocatalyst.