One-pot synthesis of Pd-Pt@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with enhanced electrocatalytic activity for formic acid oxidation

NSFC [21361005, 21073152, 21373175]; Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology [2008F3099]; Foundation for the Talents by the Guizhou University [X060025]; Natural Science Foundation of Guizhou Province [20072013]Well-defined Pd-Pt@Pd core-shell nanocrystals with a Pd-Pt alloy core and a conformal Pd shell of similar to 2-3 nm were directly synthesized through a one-pot, aqueous solution approach without any preformed Pd or Pt seeds. These Pd-Pt@Pd core-shell nanocrystals show an enhanced electrocatalytic activity for formic acid oxidation compared with commercial Pd black

Circulating plasma and exosome levels of the miR-320 family as a non-invasive biomarker for methamphetamine use disorder

The neurobiological mechanism underlying methamphetamine (MA) use disorder was still unclear, and no specific biomarker exists for clinical diagnosis of this disorder. Recent studies have demonstrated that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the pathological process of MA addiction. The purpose of this study was to identify novel miRNAs for the diagnosis biomarkers of MA user disorder. First, members of the miR-320 family, including miR-320a-3p, miR-320b, and miR-320c, were screened and analyzed in the circulating plasma and exosomes by microarray and sequencing. Secondly, plasma miR-320 was quantified by real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in eighty-two MA patients and fifty age-gender-matched healthy controls. Meanwhile, we also analyzed exosomal miR-320 expression in thirty-nine MA patients and twenty-one age-matched healthy controls. Furthermore, the diagnostic power was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The expression of miR-320 significantly increased in plasma and exosomes of MA patients compared with healthy controls. The AUC of the ROC curves of miR-320 in plasma and exosomes of MA patients were 0.751 and 0.962, respectively. And the sensitivities of miR-320 were 0.900 and 0.846, respectively, whereas the specificities of miR-320 were 0.537 and 0.952, respectively, in plasma and exosomes in MA patients. And the increased plasma miR-320 was positively correlated with cigarette smoking, age of onset, and daily use of MA in MA patients. Finally, cardiovascular disease, synaptic plasticity, and neuroinflammation were predicted to be the target pathways related to miR-320. Taken together, our findings indicated that plasma and exosomal miR-320 might be used as a potential blood-based biomarker for diagnosing MA use disorder

The Gas6 gene rs8191974 and Ap3s2 gene rs2028299 are associated with type 2 diabetes in the northern Chinese Han population

Previous studies in other countries have shown that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the growth arrest-specific gene 6 (Gas6; rs8191974) and adapter-related protein complex 3 subunit sigma-2 (Ap3s2; rs2028299) were associated with an increasedrisk for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the association of these loci with T2DM has not been examined in Chinese populations. We performed a replication study to investigate the association of these susceptibility loci with T2DM in the Chinese population.We genotyped 1968 Chinese participants (996 with T2DM and 972controls) for rs8191974 in Gas6 and rs2028299 near Ap3s2, and examined their association with T2DM using a logistic regression analysis. We also analyzed the correlation of genotypes and clinical phenotypes. The distribution of the T allele of SNP rs8191974 in the Gas6 gene was significantly different between T2DM cases and controls when compared with the C allele (P<0.05, OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.69-0.94). The occurrence of the CT genotype and the dominant model was also significantly less frequent in the T2DM cases vs. controls when compared with the CC genotype (CT vs. CC: P<0.05, OR: 0.75, 95% CI:0.62-0.90; TT+CT vs. CC: P<0.05, OR:0.75, 95% CI:0.63-0.90). In SNP rs2028299, the allele C showed no statistically significant differencein distribution between the control and T2DM groups when compared with allele A. However, in male populations, the dominant model was statistically more frequent when compared with genotype AA (CC+CA vs. AA: P<0.05, OR:1.29, 95% CI:1.02-1.64), and in obesity-stratified analysis, we also observed a significant difference in the distribution of the dominant model between the T2DM cases and controls in subjects with BMI≥24 kg/m2 and BMI<28kg/m2 (CC+CA vs. AA: P<0.05, OR: 6.33, 95% CI:4.17-9.61). In conclusion, our study shows that SNPsrs8191974 and rs2028299 are significantly associated with T2DM in the Chinese population

High Versatility of Niobium Alloyed AHSS

The effect of processing parameters on the final microstructure and properties of advanced high strength CMnSiNb steel was investigated. Several processing strategies with various numbers of deformation steps and various cooling schedules were carried out, namely heat treatment without deformation, conventional quenching and TRIP steel processing with bainitic hold or continuous cooling. Obtained multiphase microstructures consisted of the mixture of ferrite, bainite, retained austenite and M-A constituent. They possessed ultimate tensile strength in the range of 780-970 MPa with high ductility A5mm above 30%. Volume fraction of retained austenite was for all the samples around 13%. The only exception was reference quenched sample with the highest strength 1186 MPa, lowest ductility A5mm = 20% and only 4% of retained austenite

Association of CDKN2BAS Polymorphism rs4977574 with Coronary Heart Disease: A Case-Control Study and a Meta-Analysis

The goal of our study was to explore the significant association between a non-protein coding single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4977574 of CDKN2BAS gene and coronary heart disease (CHD). A total of 590 CHD cases and 482 non-CHD controls were involved in the present association study. A strong association of rs4977574 with CHD was observed in females (genotype: p = 0.002; allele: p = 0.002, odd ratio (OR) = 1.57, 95% confidential interval (CI) = 1.18–2.08). Moreover, rs4977574 was more likely to be a risk variant of CHD under the recessive model in females (χ2 = 10.29, p = 0.003, OR = 2.14, 95% CI = 1.31–2.77). A breakdown analysis by age had shown that there was an 87% increased risk of CHD for females younger than 65 years (genotype: χ2 = 14.64, degrees of freedom (df) = 2, p = 0.0002; allele: χ2 = 11.31, df = 1, p = 0.0008, OR = 1.87, 95% CI = 1.30–2.70). Similar observation was also found in males younger than 65 years (genotype: χ2 = 8.63, df = 2, p = 0.04; allele: χ2 = 7.55, df = 1, p = 0.006, OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.11–1.90). p values were adjusted by age, sex, smoking, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Meta-analysis of 23 studies among 36,452 cases and 39,781 controls showed a strong association between rs4977574 and the risk of CHD (p &lt; 0.0001, OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.22–1.31)

Heterogeneity and Memory Effect in the Sluggish Dynamics of Vacancy Defects in Colloidal Disordered Crystals and Their Implications to High‐Entropy Alloys

Abstract Vacancy dynamics of high‐density 2D colloidal crystals with a polydispersity in particle size are studied experimentally. Heterogeneity in vacancy dynamics is observed. Inert vacancies that hardly hop to other lattice sites and active vacancies that hop frequently between different lattice sites are found within the same samples. The vacancies show high probabilities of first hopping from one lattice site to another neighboring lattice site, then staying at the new site for some time, and later hopping back to the original site in the next hop. This back‐returning hop probability increases monotonically with the increase in packing fraction, up to 83%. This memory effect makes the active vacancies diffuse sluggishly or even get trapped in local regions. Strain‐induced vacancy motion on a distorted lattice is also observed. New glassy properties in the disordered crystals are discovered, including the dynamical heterogeneity, the presence of cooperative rearranging regions, memory effect, etc. Similarities between the colloidal disordered crystals and the high‐entropy alloys (HEAs) are also discussed. Molecular dynamics simulations further support the experimental observations. These results help to understand the microscopic origin of the sluggish dynamics in materials with ordered structures but in random energy landscapes, such as high‐entropy alloys

Distinguishing Lung Adenocarcinoma from Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma by Two Hypomethylated and Three Hypermethylated Genes: A Meta-Analysis

<div><p>Significant differences in the aberrant methylation of genes exist among various histological types of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which includes adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Different chemotherapeutic regimens should be administered to the two NSCLC subtypes due to their unique genetic and epigenetic profiles. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to generate a list of differentially methylated genes between AC and SCC. Our meta-analysis encompassed 151 studies on 108 genes among 12946 AC and 10243 SCC patients. Our results showed two hypomethylated genes (<i>CDKN2A</i> and <i>MGMT</i>) and three hypermethylated genes (<i>CDH13</i>, <i>RUNX3</i> and <i>APC</i>) in ACs compared with SCCs. In addition, our results showed that the pooled specificity and sensitivity values of <i>CDH13</i> and <i>APC</i> were higher than those of <i>CDKN2A</i>, <i>MGMT</i> and <i>RUNX3</i>. Our findings might provide an alternative method to distinguish between the two NSCLC subtypes.</p></div