Mechanical characteristics of hydrogen-implanted crystalline silicon after post-implantation annealing

202402 bcchAccepted ManuscriptOthersThe Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; Canada Foundation for InnovationPublishedGreen (AAM

GDF15 in the Physiological Human Pregnancy: Novel Data and A Systematic Review

The involvement of GDF15 protein in modulating the processes of cellular migration and adhesion, tissue remodeling and inflammatory responses suggests that this factor may be of high importance for pregnancy establishment and its further maintenance. Analyzing pregnancy-associated dynamics of the factor confers a valuable addition to the case-control studies and can help advance our understanding of the fundamentals of the factor’s involvement in pregnancy. However, as seen from the systematic literature review presented in this paper, current data set significant questions on roles of GDF15 in pregnancy. Additionally, a significant controversy is seen in the literature regarding the gestational dynamics of GDF15. Thus, we tried to contribute to the field by assessing the dynamics of serum GDF15 protein in the course of the physiological human pregnancy. We found that serum maternal GDF15 levels increase by almost two orders of magnitude with progression of pregnancy from the mid-first trimester towards the early second trimester and then towards the term. These data were further compared with those found in the literature

Water–ethanol CuOx nanoparticle colloids prepared by laser ablation: Colloid stability and catalytic properties in nitrophenol hydrogenation

Colloidal nanoparticle catalysts play a decisive role both in the implementation of a number of important industrial processes, including the hydrogenation of nitro compounds, and in fundamental studies of catalytic reactions on nanoparticles. The laser ablation in liquid (LAL) is a promising method to prepare nanoparticle colloids, and the use of mixed solutions as a medium can be attractive for both preparation of stable colloids and their application in catalysis. While using the LA in water-ethanol solutions, the stable colloids of CuOx NPs demonstrating high catalytic activity in the 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) hydrogenation were prepared. The reasons for the instability of colloids obtained in water and alcohol as well as the stabilization of colloids in water-ethanol solutions were considered. The results obtained contribute to the understanding of the lower catalytic activity of the studied CuOx catalyst in ethanol and other non-aqueous solvents. The presence of ethanol in the reaction medium was found to have an inhibitory effect on the 4-NP reduction kinetics due to the alcohol adsorption on the catalyst surface that is well described within the framework of the Langmuir-Hinshelwood model