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Over the past few years, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) exhibiting high ecotoxicity have been widely detected in the environment. Persulfate-oxidation hybrid system is one of the most widely used novel advanced oxidation techniques and is based on the persulfate generation of SO

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic intestinal inflammation that is currently incurable. Increasing evidence indicates that supplementation with probiotics could improve the symptoms of IBD. It is scientifically significant to identify novel and valid strains for treating IBD. It has been reported that the probiotic Lactobacillus paracasei L9 (L9), which is identified from the gut of healthy centenarians, can modulate host immunity and plays an anti-allergic role. Here, we demonstrated that L9 alleviates the pathological phenotypes of experimental colitis by expanding the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria. Oral administration of sodium butyrate in experimental colitis recapitulates the L9 anti-inflammatory phenotypes. Mechanistically, sodium butyrate ameliorated the inflammatory responses by inhibiting the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway in colitis. Overall, these findings demonstrated that L9 alleviates the DSS-induced colitis development by enhancing the abundance of butyrate-producing bacterial strains that produce butyrate to suppress the IL-6/STAT3 signaling pathway, providing new insight into a promising therapeutic target for the remission of IBD.

This study aims at investigating the electrocatalytic oxidation of sodium pentachlorophenate (PCP-Na) using a novel nano-PbO2 powder anode. The nano-PbO2 powder (marked as HL-PbO2) was prepared by a simple hydrolysis process, and hydrothermal treatment was followed to improve the activity of HL-PbO2. The HL-PbO2 treated for 24 h by hydrothermal process (HL/HT-PbO2–24) was confirmed to possess higher crystallinity, higher oxygen evolution potential, and more active sites, resulting in stronger OH radical generation capacity and higher electrochemical activity. Compared with conventional electrodeposited PbO2 (ED-PbO2) anode, the HL/HT-PbO2-24 anode showed higher PCP-Na degradation rate. Under the same operating conditions, the mineralization current efficiency at HL/HT-PbO2-24 was 2.7 times than that at ED-PbO2. Five intermediates were detected in PCP-Na degradation solution and possible degradation mechanism of PCP-Na was discussed. In addition, the acute toxicity of PCP-Na degradation solution to zebrafish embryos and the oxidative stress induced in zebrafish embryos/larvae were studied to evaluate the ecological security of electrocatalytic oxidation of PCP-Na.

In present work, SnO2 nanoparticles were synthesized using simple hydrothermal process, and then a novel PbO2/SnO2 electrode was successfully fabricated using obtained SnO2 nanoparticles for electrochemical oxidation of 3-chlorophenol (3-CP). The microstructure, element distribution, crystal structure and chemical composition of samples were characterized by the analytical techniques including SEM, EDS, XRD and XPS. The electrochemical performances of electrodes were evaluated using LSV and CV measurements. The ·OH radicals generation capacity of electrodes was determined using terephthalic acid as trapping agent. Moreover, the PbO2/SnO2 electrodes were applied in the electrochemical degradation of 3-CP in aqueous solution. The results show that the doping of SnO2 nanoparticles reduced the grain size of PbO2 crystal and improved the content of Oads on the surface of electrode. In contrast with the pure PbO2 electrode, the PbO2/SnO2-1.0 electrode (the concentration of SnO2 in electroplating solution was 1.0 g/L) exhibited higher oxygen evolution potential, stronger direct oxidation capacity and ·OH radicals generation capacity, and superior electrochemical activity for degradation of 3-CP. The intermediates formed in electrochemical degradation of 3-CP were revealed by HPLC and a plausible degradation pathway was proposed. Furthermore, PbO2/SnO2-1.0 electrode also showed a high reusability for 3-CP degradation.

To improve the electrocatalytic performance of PbO2 anode, the titanium mesh was used as substrate to fabricate a three-dimensional networked PbO2 (3DN-PbO2) anode. The morphology, structure, composition, and electrochemical performance of 3DN-PbO2 anode were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, ·OH radicals generation test, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, as well as electrochemical oxidation of p-nitrophenol (p-NP). Compared with traditional two-dimensional planar PbO2 (2DP-PbO2) anode, the 3DN-PbO2 anode possessed smaller crystal size, more compact structure, more chemisorption oxygen, stronger ·OH radicals generation ability, more abundant active sites, and smaller electron transfer resistance, resulting in better electrocatalytic performance for degradation of p-NP. The degradation rate constant (kapp) of p-NP on 3DN-PbO2 anode was 0.0489 min–1, more than 2 times that of 2DP-PbO2 anode (0.0229 min–1). In addition, the influence of operating parameters (current density, pH and temperature) on the p-NP degradation and the degradation pathway of p-NP were also investigated. Finally, the stability of electrodes was estimated using 15-cycle electrochemical oxidation test and accelerated lifetime test, and both of 3DN-PbO2 and 2DP-PbO2 electrodes exhibited high reusability for p-NP degradation.

Background: Deferoxamine (DFO) is a commonly used iron chelator, which can reduce the iron levels in cells. DFO is normally used to treat iron-overload disease, including some types of cancer. However, our previous studies revealed that DFO treatment significantly increased the iron concentrations in triple-negative breast cancer cells (TNBCs) resulting in enhanced cell migration. But the mechanism of DFO-induced increasing iron uptake in aggressive TNBCs still remained unclear. Materials and methods: Iron metabolism-related proteins in aggressive breast cancer MDA-MB-231, HS578T and BT549 cells and nonaggressive breast cancer MCF-7 and T47D cells were examined by immunofluorescence and Western blotting. The possible regulatory mechanism was explored by Western blotting, co-incubation with neutralizing antibodies or inhibitors, and transwell assay. Results: In this study, we found that DFO treatment significantly increased the levels of iron uptake proteins, DMT1 and TfR1, in aggressive TNBCs. Moreover, both TfR1 and DMT1 expressed on cell membrane were involved in high iron uptake in TNBCs under DFO-induced iron deficient condition. For the possible regulatory mechanism, we found that DFO treatment could promote a high expression level of IL-6 in aggressive MDA-MB-231 cells. The activated IL-6/PI3K/AKT pathway upregulated the expression of iron-uptake related proteins, TfR1 and DMT1, leading to increased iron uptakes. Conclusion: We demonstrated that DFO could upregulate expression of TfR1 and DMT1 , which enhanced iron uptake via activating IL-6/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in aggressive TNBCs.

Electrochemical oxidation is an effective mean to degrade non-biodegradable organics from the contaminated waters. However, its current efficiency is very low for the low-concentration organic pollutants treatment. In this work, combining with the outstanding adsorption property of CNT and the effective electrocatalytic oxidation performance of β-PbO2, we constructed novel layer-by-layer carbon nanotube/PbO2 anodes (CNT/PbO2-3, CNT/PbO2-4 and CNT/PbO2-5) with high adsorbability to enhance the electrochemical degradation efficiency of low-concentration sodium pentachlorophenate (PCP Na). In electrochemical oxidation tests, the PCP-Na was rapidly enriched in the CNT/PbO2 film through adsorption/electrosorption and then efficiently degraded in site. The removal efficiency of low-concentration PCP-Na (5 mg/L) on CNT/PbO2-4 reached 73.8% after only 5 min of electrolysis, whereas that on pure PbO2 was only 9.9%. To further clarify the mechanism of improvement of PCP-Na removal on CNT/PbO2-4 anode, the generation capacity of·OH radicals, oxygen evolution overpotential, voltammetric charge quantity, interface resistance, and specific surface area of CNT/PbO2-4 anode were also assessed and compared with those of other three anodes. Results showed that, in addition to the synergistic effect of adsorption/electrosorption and electrocatalysis, the more active sites, smaller electron transfer resistance and higher direct oxidation capacity of CNT/PbO2-4 anode also contributed to improving degradation rate of PCP-Na on CNT/PbO2-4 anode. Additionally the electrochemical degradation pathway of PCP-Na was also proposed based on the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Finally, CNT/PbO2-4 electrode exhibited longer accelerated lifetime of 116 h than pure PbO2 electrode (91 h). Thus, these findings provide a new anode to improve the removal of low-concentration organic pollutants through combining electrochemical oxidation and adsorption/electrosorption processes.

Fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) is challenging but more critical than traditional classification tasks. It requires distinguishing different subcategories with the inherently subtle intra-class object variations. Previous works focus on enhancing the feature representation ability using multiple granularities and discriminative regions based on the attention strategy or bounding boxes. However, these methods highly rely on deep neural networks which lack interpretability. We propose an Interpretable Attention Guided Network (IAGN) for fine-grained visual classification. The contributions of our method include: i) an attention guided framework which can guide the network to extract discriminitive regions in an interpretable way; ii) a progressive training mechanism obtained to distill knowledge stage by stage to fuse features of various granularities; iii) the first interpretable FGVC method with a competitive performance on several standard FGVC benchmark datasets.

A novel nano powdered PbO2 (NP-PbO2) electrode was fabricated in our previous study as a highly efficient anode material for electrocatalytic oxidation, but it is still challenged by its high charge transfer resistance. Herein, three-dimensional graphene (3DG) was composited with NP-PbO2 to solve this problem. Due to the multidimensional electrical transmission channels provided by 3DG, the charge transfer resistance of NP-PbO2 was greatly reduced from 3.08 × 105 to 7.74 × 103 Ω/cm2, thereby significantly boosting the hydroxyl radical generation capacity of NP-PbO2 electrode. In electrocatalytic oxidation process of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), the optimal 3DG-PbO2 composite anode exhibited excellent eletrocatalytic activity. After 60 min of electrolysis, the mineralization current efficiency at 3DG-PbO2 electrode was 1.68 and 3.38 times higher than those at NP-PbO2 and electrodeposited PbO2 (ED-PbO2) electrodes, respectively. The influence of several important operation parameters on the 2,4-DCP removal efficiency was examined. The results show that the 2,4-DCP removal reached 97.67% after 80 min of electrolysis under the conditions of current density 4 mA/cm2, initial 2,4-DCP concentration 50 mg/L, pH 3 and Na2SO4 concentration 0.05 M. In addition, the degradation mechanism of 2,4-DCP was explored via theoretical computation (frontier molecular orbitals, molecular electrostatic potential, total charges, Fukui functions and transient states) and experimental identification of intermediates. Accordingly, we proposed the mineralization pathway of 2,4-DCP at the 3DG-PbO2 anode.

In this work, a three-dimension grapnene-PbO

In present work, a hydrophobic PbO2 electrode modified by sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS-PbO2) was fabricated using electrodeposition method. The effect of SDBS concentration in electroplating bath on the surface morphology, structure, electrochemical properties, hydrophilicity, OH generation ability and stability of SDBS-PbO2 electrodes was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), water contact angle, fluorescence probe technique, and accelerated life test, respectively. Results showed that SDBS modification not only increased the electro-catalytic activity, but also prolonged the service life of PbO2 electrode. The electrode prepared from the electroplating bath containing 10 mg/L SDBS (SDBS-PbO2-10 mg/L) showed the highest electrocatalytic activity and the longest service life. The electrochemical degradation of nitrobenzene (NB) in simulated wastewater was used to evaluate the potential application of SDBS-PbO2 electrodes for wastewater treatment. The highest NB removal efficiency and total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency of 89.35% and 52.62% were both obtained by SDBS-PbO2-10 mg/L anode. Thus, the SDBS-PbO2-10 mg/L anode was used to systematically investigate the effects of applied current density, initial NB concentration, temperature, and pH value on the reaction kinetics and mineralization current efficiency (MCE) of NB degradation. It was found that the increase of applied current density and the reduction of initial NB concentration exerted a prominent effect on the degradation of NB, but caused the decrease of MCE, while high temperature and low pH value improved both NB degradation rate and MCE. These results show that the SDBS-PbO2-10 mg/L electrode may become a promising anode for organic pollutant degradation.

Sheet-like Co(OH) 2 /Al(OH) 3 or Co(OH) 2 nanomaterial has been synthesized on conducting carbon fiber paper (CFP) by a facile one-step electrochemical deposition. The binder-free Co(OH) 2 /Al(OH) 3 /CFP displays an improved electrical conductivity, electrochemical activity and material utilization than solitary Co(OH) 2 , therefore Co(OH) 2 /Al(OH) 3 nanomaterial exhibits improved electrochemical properties (a maximum capacitance of 1006 Fg −1 at 2 Ag −1 , with 77% retention even at a high current density of 32 Ag −1 , and more than 87% of the capacitance retention after 10000 cycles at 32 Ag −1 ) in comparison to that of the Co(OH) 2 /CFP (709 Fg −1 , 65%, 79%). In addition, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) fabricated with Co(OH) 2 /Al(OH) 3 /CFP positive electrode and AC/CFP negative electrode demonstrates ultrahigh specific capacitance (75.8 Fg −1 ) and potential window (1.7 V). These encouraging results make these low-cost and eco-friendly materials promising for high-performance energy storage application.

To improve the electrochemical activity and stability of PbO2 electrode, In2O3 particles were doped into β-PbO2 active layer by composite electrodeposition technology. When the In2O3 concentration in electrodeposition solution was 2 mM, the In2O3-PbO2 electrode had larger specific surface area, tighter crystal structure, higher oxygen evolution potential (2.09 V vs. SCE), smaller charge transfer resistance (64.32 Ω/cm2), stronger ability to generate hydroxyl radicals (0.213 μM/min) and thereby the better electrocatalytic activity and stability. In electrochemical oxidation of norfloxacin (NOR), the NOR removal rate at the In2O3-PbO2 anode was 1.388 times faster than that at pristine PbO2 electrode. Additionally, the effects of current density, initial pH, initial NOR concentration and electrolyte concentration on NOR removal efficiency were investigated by the principle of single variable. With the increase of current density and the decrease of initial NOR concentration, the NOR removal efficiency increased significantly; the better degradation effect was obtained under pH 3 and Na2SO4 concentration of 0.2 M. Finally, the degradation mechanism of NOR was discussed and five possible degradation pathways were proposed.

In this study, the Indium doped Ti/PbO2 electrode (marked as Ti/In-PbO2) was prepared via simple electrodeposition technology for electrochemical degradation of cefalexin (CLX). To obtain the effect of Indium on the electrochemical activity and stability of Ti/PbO2 electrode and optimize the doping amount of Indium, the morphology, crystal structure, element state, electrochemical activity and stability of Ti/In-PbO2 electrodes with different Indium amounts were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fluorescence spectroscopy, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronoamperometry (CA), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel curve. The results showed that when the InNO3 concentration in electrodeposition solution was 15 mM/L, the Ti/In-PbO2 electrode possessed the best electrocatalytic activity and the highest stability due to its denser structure, finer grains, larger specific surface area, and stronger ability to generate hydroxyl radicals. The electrochemical degradation rate constant of CLX at Ti/In-PbO2 anode was 1.93 times faster than that at pristine Ti/PbO2 electrode. Additionally, the influence of current density, initial pH, initial CLX concentration and electrolyte concentration on removal efficiency of CLX was investigated and the degradation pathway of CLX was proposed.

The Cu, Co and Ni nanometal embedded ordered mesoporous carbons (NM-OMCs) were fabricated by a soft-template method using phenol/formaldehyde as carbon source and triblock copolymer F127 as template agent. The morphology, structure, surface physicochemical properties and pore structure of the NM-OMCs were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. Their potential application to the electrocatalytic degradation of aniline was investigated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and OH radicals generation test. Furthermore, the electrochemical oxidation process of aniline was also investigated in the presence of the OMC-based catalyst particles suspended in a Na 2 SO 4 solution using a PbO 2 anode. Results revealed that the NM-OMCs inherited the ordered mesostructure of pristine OMC and the metal nanoparticles (Cu, Co or Ni) were embedded in the carbon framework. The Cu-OMC exhibited significantly higher catalytic activity than OMC and other NM-OMCs for the electrooxidation of aniline. In electrochemical oxidation process of aniline, nearly all of aniline could be degraded after 120 min of electrolysis with Cu-OMC particles as catalyst, while 89%, 92%, and 97% with OMC, Co-OMC and Ni-OMC catalysts, respectively, obviously higher than 76% of electrochemical oxidation without assistance of catalysts. After characterization of intermediates, a possible electrochemical degradation pathway of aniline was proposed.

A novel PbO2 electrode with a graphene nanosheet interlayer (marked as GNS-PbO2) was prepared combining electrophoretic deposition and electro-deposition technologies. The micro morphology, crystal structure and surface chemical states of GNS-PbO2 electrodes were characterized using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Their electrochemical properties and stability were determined using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), ·OH radicals test and accelerated life test, and compared with traditional PbO2 electrodes. Besides, their potential application in the electrochemical degradation of 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) was investigated. The GNS-PbO2 electrode possessed perfect octahedral β-PbO2 microcrystals, and its grain size was much smaller than that of traditional PbO2 electrode. It exhibited higher electrochemical activity than traditional PbO2 electrode due to its larger electrochemical active surface area and stronger ·OH radicals generation ability. The service lifetime of GNS-PbO2 electrode (107.9 h) was 1.93 times longer than that of traditional PbO2 electrode (55.9 h). The electrochemical degradation rate constant of 2-CP on GNS-PbO2 electrode (kapp = 2.75 × 10−2 min−1) is much higher than for PbO2 electrode (kapp = 1.76 × 10−2 min−1). 2-CP oxidation yielded intermediates including aromatic compounds (catechol, phenol and ortho-benzoquinone) and organic acids (oxalic acid, maleic acid and glutaconic acid), and a possible degradation pathway for 2-CP was proposed accordingly.

We have previously reported that radix Angelica sinensis (RAS) suppressed body weight and altered the expression of the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene in mice with high fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity. In the present study we performed RNA sequencing-mediated transcriptome analysis to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-obesogenic effects of RAS in mice. The results revealed that 36 differentially-expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in adipose tissues from the RAS supplementation group (DH) and control group (HC). These 36 DEGs were clustered into 297 functional gene ontology (GO) categories, among which several GO annotations and signaling pathways were associated with lipid homeostasis. Six out of the 36 DEGs were identified to be involved in lipid metabolism, with the APOA2 gene a potential anti-obesogenic influence. The expression pattern revealed by RNA-Seq was identical to the results of quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). Therefore, RAS supplementation in HFD-induced obese mice was associated with an anti-obesogenic global transcriptomic response. This study provides insight into potential applications of RAS in obesity therapy.

In this work, a three-dimension grapnene-PbO2 (3DG-PbO2) composite anode was prepared using coelectrodeposition technology for electrocatalytic oxidation of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). The effect of 3DG on the surface morphology, structure and electrocatalytic activity of PbO2 electrode was investigated. The results indicated that the 3DG-PbO2-0.08 anode (3DG concentration in electrodeposition solution was 0.08 g L−1) possessed the best electrocatalytic activity due to its stronger ·OH radicals generation capacity, more active sites and smaller charge-transfer resistance. The degradation rate constant of PFOS on 3DG-PbO2-0.08 anode was 2.33 times than that of pure PbO2 anode. Additionally, the by-products formed in electrocatalytic degradation of PFOS were identified and a PFOS degradation pathway was proposed accordingly, which was dominated by the dissociation of –CF2- groups via the attack of ·OH radicals. Finally, the toxicity evolution of degradation solution was examined to evaluate the ecological risk of electrocatalytic oxidation of PFOS by acute toxicity assays to zebrafish embryos.

In this work, porous carbon (PC) powders were prepared by carbonizing a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8), and developed as the electrode material for capacitive deionization (CDI). The influence of carbonization temperature on the morphology, crystal structure, specific surface area and pore structure of PC powders were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherms. The results revealed that the carbonization temperature had remarkable effect on the textural of PC powders. The PC powder carbonized at 900 °C (PC-900) exhibited the highest specific surface area and micropore volume. In addition, the PC electrodes also were also fabricated using PC powders for the measurements of contact angle of glycerin, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The experimental results revealed that the PC-900 electrode had excellent wettability, the highest specific capacity and the lowest charge-transfer resistance. As expected, in CDI process, the PC-900 electrode exhibited a high CDI capacity up to 10.90 mg/g when the initial NaCl solution concentration is 500 mg/L, more than double that of commercial activated carbon (5.29 mg/g). Additionally, the PC-900 electrode also presented excellent regeneration performance for CDI.

PbO 2 and SnO 2 are two promising anode materials for electrochemical oxidation. In order to highlight the difference between two kinds of electrodes in an electrochemical oxidation process, their morphology, structural, oxygen evolution overpotential (OEP), electrochemical activity and service life-time were compared in detail in this paper. Surface characterization by scanning electron microscope shows that the film of the PbO 2 electrode is even, compact, non-porous, and non-cracked, while many cracks are present on the film of the SnO 2 electrode. Electrochemical studies based on linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) prove that the OEP for the SnO 2 electrode was much higher than that of the PbO 2 electrode, and the electron-transfer kinetics and the reversibility of electrode reaction of the SnO 2 electrode were superior to those of the PbO 2 electrode. In electrochemical decomposition of p -nitrophenol, the degradation ratios at PbO 2 and SnO 2 anodes achieved 86.9% and 96.5%, respectively, after 120 min electrolysis, which verified the results of LSV and CV. The accelerated lifetime tests show that the service life time of the SnO 2 electrode is far shorter than that of the PbO 2 electrode, even though it was shown to be superior to the PbO 2 in electrocatalytic activity.

A novel PbO2 electrode (marked as CNT–PbO2) with a carbon nanotube (CNT) interlayer was prepared by electrophoretic deposition and electro-deposition. The surface morphology, structure, electrochemical activity and stability of the CNT–PbO2 electrodes were characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), ·OH production test, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), bulk electrolysis and accelerated life test. The results show that, compared with the traditional PbO2 electrode, the CNT–PbO2 electrodes electrodeposited β-PbO2 outer layer above the CNT interlayer had a higher crystallinity. The CNT–PbO2-5 min electrode had a higher active surface area and lower charge transfer resistance than traditional PbO2, CNT–PbO2-10 min, and CNT–PbO2-15 min electrodes due to a large number of exposed CNTs. However, the CNT–PbO2-10 min electrode exhibited a stronger ability of ·OH production, higher direct oxidation capacity for degradation of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) and longer service lifetime than other electrodes, whose apparent rate constant for 4-CP degradation and service lifetime was 2.7 times and 1.7 times those of traditional PbO2 electrode, respectively. Thus, the proposed CNT–PbO2-10 min electrode in this study is a promising anode for the electrochemical oxidation of refractory toxic organic pollutants.

Cu and rare earth composite catalysts (Cu–rare earth/Al2O3) were prepared on Al2O3 particles using an impregnation method for the electro-catalytic oxidation of p-nitrophenol in this study. The surface topography and crystal structure of the products were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Results show that the Cu–rare earth/Al2O3 particles have a beneficial effect on p-nitrophenol removal by improving the ˙OH radical generation rate, especially the Cu–Bi/Al2O3 catalyst. The effects of the heat treatment conditions for the Cu–Bi/Al2O3 catalyst on its electro-catalytic activity were investigated. For a temperature of 550 °C and a time of 5 h, the obtained Cu–Bi/Al2O3 catalyst exhibited the highest p-nitrophenol removal, nearly 100% after 60 min electrolysis, and this was decreased by only 4.5% after 10 cycles. In addition, the intermediates formed during degradation were identified using high-performance liquid chromatography, and the major intermediates formed during degradation were benzoquinone, hydroquinone, catechol, p-aminophenol, phenol, maleic acid, succinic acid, and oxalic acid. On the basis of the reaction products identified, a possible degradation pathway for p-nitrophenol was proposed.

In this study, three kinds of SnO2 particles were synthesized by hydrothermal treatment with the assistance of three different surfactants of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The synthesized SnO2-CTAB, SnO2-SDBS and SnO2-SDS microparticles were successfully doped into β-PbO2 film of PbO2 electrode through composite electrodeposition technology to obtain PbO2/SnO2-CTAB, PbO2/SnO2-SDBS and PbO2/SnO2-SDS electrodes. Physical characterizations, electrochemical measurements and electrocatalytic oxidation of m-nitrophenol (m-NP) were conducted to explore the electrocatalytic activity of prepared electrodes. The results showed that doping SnO2 was favorable to improve electro-catalytic activity of PbO2 electrode, which was attributed to that the SnO2 particles in β-PbO2 films improved the active sites on the surface, oxygen evolution potential and •OH radicals generation rate of the electrodes. The experimental results also revealed that the PbO2/SnO2-CTAB was most efficient in three PbO2/SnO2 electrodes due to the higher zeta potential, smaller particle size and higher specific surface area of SnO2-CTAB than those of SnO2-SDBS and SnO2-SDS. Besides, the accelerated lifetime test shows that the PbO2/SnO2-CTAB electrode possessed longer service lifetime than PbO2/SnO2-SDBS, PbO2/SnO2-SDS and pristine PbO2 electrodes. Overall, the PbO2/SnO2-CTAB electrode is promising for environmental remediation.

Significance To investigate the epigenetic mechanism of pregnancy failure in mammals, we exploited the high rate of fetal loss in pig induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) nuclear transfer. We generated methylomes of pig iPSCs and associated nuclear transfer embryos from reciprocal crosses between two distinct pig breeds. Our methylome analysis revealed that misregulation of RTL1 as the principal basis of pregnancy failure using pig iPSCs. Remarkably, RTL1 has broad fertility implications across mouse, rat, pig, cattle, and human from nuclear transfer cloning, tetraploid complementation, and artificial insemination, to natural fertilization. In all of these procedures, low RTL1 expression consistently corresponds to pregnancy failures., Substantial rates of fetal loss plague all in vitro procedures involving embryo manipulations, including human-assisted reproduction, and are especially problematic for mammalian cloning where over 90% of reconstructed nuclear transfer embryos are typically lost during pregnancy. However, the epigenetic mechanism of these pregnancy failures has not been well described. Here we performed methylome and transcriptome analyses of pig induced pluripotent stem cells and associated cloned embryos, and revealed that aberrant silencing of imprinted genes, in particular the retrotransposon-derived RTL1 gene, is the principal epigenetic cause of pregnancy failure. Remarkably, restoration of RTL1 expression in pig induced pluripotent stem cells rescued fetal loss. Furthermore, in other mammals, including humans, low RTL1 levels appear to be the main epigenetic cause of pregnancy failure.

Porous carbon (PC) was easily prepared by synthesis of a metal–organic framework (MOF-5) followed by carbonization step. The morphology, structure, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface areas, wettability, and electrochemical performance for PCs carbonized at different temperatures from 500 to 1000 °C were characterized by the techniques of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), N2 adsorption-desorption, contact angle of glycerin, cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and compared with a commercially available activated carbon (AC). The results showed that MOF-5 was fully carbonated at 900 °C, having the highest specific surface area of 1563.09 m2 g−1 and the largest pore volume of 1.07 cm3 g−1. The PC carbonized at 900 °C (PC-900) exhibited better wettability, a higher specific capacity and a lower charge transfer resistance than other PCs and AC. In further capacitive deionization (CDI) process, the PC-900 electrode exhibited 9.39 mg g−1 CDI capacity, significantly higher than 5.47 mg g−1 of AC electrode. More importantly, easy and good repeatability could be obtained for PC-900 electrode. This study suggests that the PC-900 derived from MOF-5 may be a potential electrode material for CDI.

An electroless ternary Ni–Sn–P transition layer with high corrosion resistance was applied for acid electroless nickel plating on magnesium alloys. The surface morphologies and microstructure of the traditional alkaline electroless Ni–P and novel Ni–Sn–P transition layers were compared by SEM and XRD, and the bonding strengths between the transition layers and AZ31 magnesium alloys were tested. The corrosion resistance of the samples was analyzed by porosity test, potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in acid electroless solution at pH 4.5 and immersion test in 10% HCl. The results indicate that the transition layer is essential for acid electroless plating Ni–P coatings on magnesium alloys. Under the same thin thickness (~6 μm), the electroless Ni–Sn–P transition layer possesses superior properties to the traditional Ni–P transition layer, including high amorphization, smooth and dense surface without pores, enhanced bonding strength and corrosion resistance. Most importantly, acid electroless Ni–P coatings can be successfully deposited on magnesium alloys by using Ni–Sn–P transition layer.

Modification of PbO 2 electrode was carried out by carbon nanotube (CNT) and Ce co-deposition. The surface morphology and crystal structure of CNT and Ce modified PbO 2 (CNT–Ce–PbO 2 ) electrode was characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area, respectively, and compared with pure PbO 2 , Ce–PbO 2 , and CNT–PbO 2 electrodes. The results indicate that the CNT and Ce were both doped into PbO 2 film and the CNT–Ce–PbO 2 electrode had smaller grain size and higher specific surface area than those of other three kinds of electrodes. The electrochemical properties of electrodes were tested by linear sweep voltammetry and cyclic voltammetry, and the results show that the CNT–Ce–PbO 2 electrode had higher electro-catalytic activity than pure PbO 2 , Ce–PbO 2 , and CNT–PbO 2 electrodes. The accelerated lifetime tests demonstrate that the service life of CNT–Ce–PbO 2 electrode was 4.76 times longer than that of pure PbO 2 electrode. The CNT–Ce–PbO 2 electrode was also used in electrochemical degradation of p -nitrophenol ( p -NP) in aqueous solution. The degradation kinetics and mechanism of p -NP were discussed. Besides, the variation of biodegradability of p -NP degradation solution was also investigated, and the results obtained revealed a feasible combination between electrochemical oxidation and conventional bio-treatment for the treatment of p -NP wastewater.

Interactions between organic toxicants and nano-particles in the aquatic environment may modify toxicant bioavailability and consequently the toxicant's fate and toxicity. To evaluate the potential impact of nano-titanium dioxide (TiO

The root of Angelica sinensis (RAS) is a traditional Chinese medicine used for preventing and treating various diseases. In this study, we assessed RAS supplementation effects on body weight and the FTO gene expression and methylation status in a high-fat-diet (HFD) induced obese mouse model. Female obese mice were divided into groups according to RAS dosage in diet as follows: normal diet, HFD diet (HC), HFD with low-dosage RAS (DL), HFD with medium-dosage RAS (DM), and HFD with high-dosage RAS (DH). After RAS supplementation for 4 weeks, body weight suppression and FTO expression in DH mice were significantly higher than in HC mice, whereas no significant change in FTO expression was detected between DM and DL mice or in their offspring. Bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) revealed that the CpG island in the FTO promoter was hypermethylated up to 95.44% in the HC group, 91.67% in the DH group, and 90.00% in the normal diet group. Histological examination showed that adipocytes in the DH group were smaller than those in the HC group, indicating a potential role of RAS in obesity. This study indicated that RAS could ameliorate obesity induced by HFD and that the molecular mechanism might be associated with the expression of the FTO gene.