Achieving Highly Electrocatalytic Performance by Constructing Holey Reduced Graphene Oxide Hollow Nanospheres Sandwiched by Interior and Exterior Platinum Nanoparticles

Two-dimensional (2D) graphene nanosheets are considered as an attractive support to load metal nanoparticles for applications in fuel cells due to their extraordinary physicochemical properties arising from the 2D nanostructure. However, fabricating graphene/metal nanoparticle nanohybrids with superior electrochemical performance remains a great challenge to date. In this work, we, for the first time, demonstrate a novel and ingenious approach to fabricate holey reduced graphene oxide hollow nanospheres sandwiched by interior and exterior Pt nanoparticles (denoted as Pt@holey r-GO@Pt hollow nanospheres), using uniform SiO₂ nanospheres as the templates. The Pt@holey r-GO@Pt hollow nanospheres represent a new type of metal/graphene heteroarchitecture due to their rich porosity, abundant active sites, facilitated reaction kinetics, and outstanding structural stability. Thanks to these distinguished merits, the as-prepared Pt@holey r-GO@Pt hollow nanospheres exhibit greatly enhanced electrocatalytic performances toward the oxygen reduction reaction and methanol oxidation reaction as compared with the intact counterparts and commercial Pt/C catalyst, showing great potential in fuel cell devices. The smart strategy outlined here should be readily applicable to rational design of other graphene/metal nanoparticle nanohybrids for energy storage and conversion applications in the future

Research Data for A case series of constrictive pericarditis and suggested echocardiographic diagnostic criteria

Research Data for A case series of constrictive pericarditis and suggested echocardiographic diagnostic criteria by Junfang Li, Rong Li, Guangting Cheng, Changhong Lu, Weigang Liu, Dongmei Sun, Xue Li and Zhibin Wang in Journal of International Medical Research</p

Porous AgPt@Pt Nanooctahedra as an Efficient Catalyst toward Formic Acid Oxidation with Predominant Dehydrogenation Pathway

For direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFCs), the dehydrogenation pathway is a desired reaction pathway, to boost the overall cell efficiency. Elaborate composition tuning and nanostructure engineering provide two promising strategies to design efficient electrocatalysts for DFAFCs. Herein, we present a facile synthesis of porous AgPt bimetallic nanooctahedra with enriched Pt surface (denoted as AgPt@Pt nanooctahedra) by a selective etching strategy. The smart integration of geometric and electronic effect confers a substantial enhancement of desired dehydrogenation pathway as well as electro-oxidation activity for the formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR). We anticipate that the obtained nanocatalyst may hold great promises in fuel cell devices, and furthermore, the facile synthetic strategy demonstrated here can be extendable for the fabrication of other multicomponent nanoalloys with desirable morphologies and enhanced electrocatalytic performances

Quantitative Proteome of Medulla Oblongata in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

We performed an extensive quantitative proteomic analysis on the pooled medulla sample of the 11-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) compared to age-matched normotensive Wistar rats, using iTRAQ technology coupled with nano two-dimentional liquid chromatography followed by high resolution mass spectrometric abundance indexes techniques. Many differentially expressed proteins identified were involved in energy metabolism, such as mitochondrial part, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, and respiratory chain. These proteins were included in citrate cycle (TCA cycle), pyruvate metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation. The proteomic analysis and subsequent Western blotting on two independent cohorts of animials indicated that the dysregulation of energy metabolism existed in the medulla of the SHR rats. The differentially expressed proteins in the dysregulation of energy metabolism in the medulla of SHR rats included down-regulated ATP6V1D, ATP6VOA1, ATP5L, DLD proteins and up-regulated AK1 protein. MAO-A protein also exhibited decreased regulation, as well as the other 3 above-mentioned energy-relative proteins (ATP6V1D, ATP5L and DLD proteins) belonging to the heterocycle metabolic process. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis on 4 of the differentially expressed proteins respectively resulted in an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.95, 0.90, 0.92, and 0.81 for differentiating the SHR rats from the normotensive rats. This dysfunction in energy metabolism localizes to the medulla, the lower part of brain stem, and is, therefore, likely to contribute to the development, as well as to pathophysiological complications of hypertension

Quantitative Proteome of Medulla Oblongata in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

We performed an extensive quantitative proteomic analysis on the pooled medulla sample of the 11-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) compared to age-matched normotensive Wistar rats, using iTRAQ technology coupled with nano two-dimentional liquid chromatography followed by high resolution mass spectrometric abundance indexes techniques. Many differentially expressed proteins identified were involved in energy metabolism, such as mitochondrial part, pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, and respiratory chain. These proteins were included in citrate cycle (TCA cycle), pyruvate metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation. The proteomic analysis and subsequent Western blotting on two independent cohorts of animials indicated that the dysregulation of energy metabolism existed in the medulla of the SHR rats. The differentially expressed proteins in the dysregulation of energy metabolism in the medulla of SHR rats included down-regulated ATP6V1D, ATP6VOA1, ATP5L, DLD proteins and up-regulated AK1 protein. MAO-A protein also exhibited decreased regulation, as well as the other 3 above-mentioned energy-relative proteins (ATP6V1D, ATP5L and DLD proteins) belonging to the heterocycle metabolic process. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis on 4 of the differentially expressed proteins respectively resulted in an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.95, 0.90, 0.92, and 0.81 for differentiating the SHR rats from the normotensive rats. This dysfunction in energy metabolism localizes to the medulla, the lower part of brain stem, and is, therefore, likely to contribute to the development, as well as to pathophysiological complications of hypertension

Summary of clinical and molecular data for 4 Han Chinese subjects carrying the putative deafness-associated mutations in <i>GJB2</i> gene.

<p>^a F female, M male.</p><p>^b PTA pure-tone audiometry.</p><p>^c dB decibel.</p><p>^d The (putative) pathogenic mutations were in bold.</p><p>Summary of clinical and molecular data for 4 Han Chinese subjects carrying the putative deafness-associated mutations in <i>GJB2</i> gene.</p

Genotypes and phenotypes of <i>GJB2</i> in the 216 hearing-impaired subjects with two pathogenic mutations.

<p>^a PTA pure-tone audiometry.</p><p>^b The pathogenic mutations were in bold.</p><p>Genotypes and phenotypes of <i>GJB2</i> in the 216 hearing-impaired subjects with two pathogenic mutations.</p

Three Han Chinese pedigrees with hearing loss carrying the <i>GJB2</i> putative mutations.

<p>Affected individuals are indicated by filled symbols. An arrow denotes probands. The interviewed and sequenced individuals are marked by asterisks. +/- denotes heterozygote; +/+ denotes wild type.</p

Variants in the <i>GJB2</i> gene among 1067 Han Chinese subjects with hearing loss.

<p>^a The conservation index (CI) was calculated by comparing the human amino acid variants with other 22 species (See <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0128691#pone.0128691.s002" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>). The CI was then defined as the percentage of species from the list of 23 different species that have the wild-type nucleotide at that position.</p><p>^b The novel variants.</p><p>Variants in the <i>GJB2</i> gene among 1067 Han Chinese subjects with hearing loss.</p