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Severe viral pneumonia can induce rapid expansion of [KRT5.sup.+] basal-like cells in small airways and alveoli; this forms a scar-like structure that persists in the injured alveoli and impedes normal alveolar epithelium regeneration. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which viral infection induced this remodeling response. Through comparing different lung-injury models, we demonstrated that infection induced strong IFN-[gamma] signal-stimulated dysplastic [KRT5.sup.+] cell formation. Inactivation of interferon receptor 1 (Ifngrl) reduced dysplastic cell formation, ameliorated lung fibrosis, and improved lung-function recovery. Mechanistically, IFN-[gamma] regulated dysplastic cell formation via the focal adhesion kinase (FAK)/Yesassociated protein 1 (YAP) pathway. Inhibiting FAK/Src diminished IFN-[gamma]-induced YAP nuclear translocation and dysplastic cell formation. Inhibiting YAP during viral infection prevented dysplastic cell formation, whereas inhibiting YAP in persistent [KRT5.sup.+] cells led to their conversion into distal club cells. Importantly, human dysplastic cells exhibited elevated FAK and YAP activity, and IFN-[gamma] treatment promoted the transformation of human alveolar progenitor cells into dysplastic cells. These findings uncover the role of infection-induced inflammatory response in alveolar remodeling and may provide potential therapeutic avenues for the treatment of alveolar remodeling in patients with severe viral pneumonia., Introduction Pathogen invasion and environmental insults are common causes of lung injury. The regeneration of injured lung epithelium is mediated by lung progenitor cells. Although several types of progenitor cells [...]

Although increased neuropeptides are often detected in lungs that exhibit respiratory distress, whether they contribute to the condition is unknown. Here, we show in a mouse model of neuroendocrine cell hyperplasia of infancy, a pediatric disease with increased pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs), excess PNEC-derived neuropeptides are responsible for pulmonary manifestations including hypoxemia. In mouse postnatal lung, prolonged signaling from elevated neuropeptides such as calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) activate receptors enriched on endothelial cells, leading to reduced cellular junction gene expression, increased endothelium permeability, excess lung fluid, and hypoxemia. Excess fluid and hypoxemia were effectively attenuated by either prevention of PNEC formation, inactivation of CGRP gene, endothelium-specific inactivation of CGRP receptor gene, or treatment with CGRP receptor antagonist. Neuropeptides were increased in human lung diseases with excess fluid such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. Our findings suggest that restricting neuropeptide function may limit fluid and improve gas exchange in these conditions.

Pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNECs) are rare airway epithelial cells whose function is poorly understood. Here we show that Ascl1-mutant mice that have no PNECs exhibit severely blunted mucosal type 2 response in models of allergic asthma. PNECs reside in close proximity to group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) near airway branch points. PNECs act through calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) to stimulate ILC2s and elicit downstream immune responses. In addition, PNECs act through the neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) to induce goblet cell hyperplasia. The instillation of a mixture of CGRP and GABA in Ascl1-mutant airways restores both immune and goblet cell responses. In accordance, lungs from human asthmatics show increased PNECs. These findings demonstrate that the PNEC-ILC2 neuroimmunological modules function at airway branch points to amplify allergic asthma responses.

Summary: Quartic anharmonicity is of vital significance in accurately determining thermal conductivity (κL). Here, using first‐principles calculation method combined with Boltzmann transport equation (BTE), compressive sensing techniques and self‐consistent phonon (SCP) theory, we investigate the heat transport properties of five hydride‐based cubic antiperovskites A3HB (A = Li, Na; B = S, Se, Te) with the inclusion of scattering rates and phonon frequency shifts induced by quartic anharmonicity, which do not contain orthorhombic Na3HS. It is worth noting that only the values of κL obtained by SCP theory are valid for Li3HS and Na3HS, because there is imaginary frequency in HA phonon mode, which makes the conventional calculation of BTE invalid. We also find that quartic anharmonicity is important to capture the reasonable temperature dependence of the κL, while only taking phonon frequency shifts (4 ph scattering processes) into account will result in weaker (stronger) temperature dependence. The calculated κL based SCP theory exhibits a remarkably low value at 300 K, which indicates that the cubic antiperovskites A3HB (A = Li, Na; B = S, Se, Te) are potential thermoelectric materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electro‐oxidative organic upgrading, as an ideal alternative to sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, can effectively decrease energy consumption to boost hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. However, developing highly active electrocatalysts for long‐term durable organic upgrading with high selectivity at large and steady current density remains challenging. Herein, hollow NiSe nanocrystals heterogenized with carbon nanotubes (h‐NiSe/CNTs) are fabricated via a facile one‐pot approach. The highly dispersed h‐NiSe/CNTs 3D network can efficiently facilitate rapid mass/electron diffusion, thus achieving highly active and long‐term stable electrocatalysis for catalyzing methanol to value‐added formate at high and steady current density (≈345 mA cm−2) with high Faradaic efficiency (>95%). This reaction replaces sluggish OER performance to reduce the energy consumption for boosting H2 generation by six times. The critical active species and methanol activation mechanism are systematically studied using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X‐ray absorption fine structure analysis, in situ Raman, and density functional theory calculations, indicating that the non‐ignorable SeOx collaborated with in situ formed NiOOH species can synergistically modulate the d band center to achieve an optimal adsorption for methanol selective oxidation and suppress the further oxidation to CO2, thus leading to active and stable electrolysis for producing value‐added formate with high selectivity and co‐generating H2 with less energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to value-added products with high selectivity has attracted significant research interest. The development of earth-abundant and low-cost electrocatalysts is the key in this process. Herein, an efficient CO2 reduction electrocatalyst, comprising Ni and N in situ co-doped into porous and Ni nanoparticle-embedded carbon nanotubes (NiNxCNT), is developed from a sustainable and representative bioligand – folic acid. The synthesis process is straightforward, with the crucial step being the chelation of folic acid and Ni ions into uniform tubular metal–organic complex precursor. The resulted NiNxCNT catalyst exhibits a CO partial current density of 9.0 mA cm−2 at −0.676 V versus RHE and a high selectivity towards CO (>98%) in a wide potential range of −0.676 to −0.976 V versus RHE. Furthermore, the electrode shows little current decay over a period of total 44 h continuous operation at different potentials. The notable performance here is attributed to the synergistic effect of rich Ni–Nx sites and hierarchically porous nanotube structure. The findings of this study will open new avenues for developing inexpensive and high-performance CNT-based electrocatalysts for CO2 utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the influence of CO2 partial pressure, flow rate and water cut on N80 steel corrosion behaviors in the displacement process of oil in glutenite reservoir by CO2 injection. Design/methodology/approach: A self-made 3 L high-temperature and high-pressure autoclave was used to conduct corrosion simulation experiments of N80 steel in different CO2 partial pressures, flow rates and water cut (the independently developed oil and water mixing approach can ensure the uniform mixing of oil and water in experiments). Techniques like weight loss and surface analysis were used to analyze the corrosion behaviors of N80 steel under different conditions. Findings: Results showed that the average corrosion rate of N80 steel accelerated at varying degrees with the increase of CO2 partial pressure, flow rate and water cut. Excluding that the samples showed uniform corrosion under the two conditions of 0.5MPa CO2 partial pressure and static corrosion, they displayed mesa attack corrosion under other conditions. Besides, with the increase of CO2 partial pressure, the pH value of solution dropped and the matrix corrosion speed rose, hence leading to the increased Fe2+ and CO32− concentration. Meanwhile, a lowered pH value improved the FeCO3 critical supersaturation, thereby leading to an increased nucleation rate/growth rate and ultimately causing the decrease of the dimension of FeCO3 crystallites formed on the surface of the samples. Originality/value: The results can be helpful in targeted anti-corrosion measures for CO2/oil/water corrosive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]