Comparing the pertussis antibody levels of healthy children immunized with four doses of DTap-IPV/Hib (Pentaxim) combination vaccine and DTaP vaccine in Quzhou, China

Despite the high coverage of pertussis vaccines in high-income countries, pertussis resurgence has been reported in recent years, and has stimulated interest in the effects of vaccines and vaccination strategies. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against pertussis toxoid (PT), filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA), and pertactin (PRN) after immunization with four doses of co-purified or component vaccines were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serological data of PT-IgG geometric mean concentrations (GMCs) over time since vaccination were used to fit the mathematical models. A total of 953 children were included in this study; 590 participants received four doses of the component acellular vaccine and 363 participants received four doses of the co-purified acellular vaccine. The GMCs and the seropositivity rate of pertussis IgG were significantly influenced by the production methods, and the immunogenicity of the component acellular vaccine was superior to that of the co-purified acellular vaccine. The fitted mathematical models for the component acellular vaccine and the co-purified acellular vaccine were Y=91.20e-0.039x and Y=37.71x-0.493, respectively. The initial GMCs of the component acellular vaccine was higher than that of the co-purified acellular vaccine, but both were similar at 72 months after immunization. Pertussis IgG levels waned over time after four doses of acellular pertussis vaccine, regardless of whether component or co-purified vaccine was used. The development and promotion of component acellular pertussis vaccines should be accelerated in China, and booster doses of pertussis vaccine in adolescents, adults, and pregnant women should be employed

Giant Hall Switching by Surface-State-Mediated Spin-Orbit Torque in a Hard Ferromagnetic Topological Insulator

Topological insulators (TI) can apply highly efficient spin-orbit torque (SOT) and manipulate the magnetization with their unique topological surface states, and their magnetic counterparts, magnetic topological insulators (MTI) offer magnetization without shunting and are one of the highest in SOT efficiency. Here, we demonstrate efficient SOT switching of a hard MTI, V-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3 (VBST) with a large coercive field that can prevent the influence of an external magnetic field and a small magnetization to minimize stray field. A giant switched anomalous Hall resistance of 9.2 $k\Omega$ is realized, among the largest of all SOT systems. The SOT switching current density can be reduced to $2.8\times10^5 A/cm^2$, and the switching ratio can be enhanced to 60%. Moreover, as the Fermi level is moved away from the Dirac point by both gate and composition tuning, VBST exhibits a transition from edge-state-mediated to surface-state-mediated transport, thus enhancing the SOT effective field to $1.56\pm 0.12 T/ (10^6 A/cm^2)$ and the spin Hall angle to $23.2\pm 1.8$ at 5 K. The findings establish VBST as an extraordinary candidate for energy-efficient magnetic memory devices

Sampled-data synchronization of coupled harmonic oscillators with controller failure and communication delays

AbstractIn this letter, a distributed protocol for sampled-data synchronization of coupled harmonic oscillators with controller failure and communication delays is proposed, and a brief procedure of convergence analysis for such algorithm over undirected connected graphs is provided. Furthermore, a simple yet generic criterion is also presented to guarantee synchronized oscillatory motions in coupled harmonic oscillators. Subsequently, the simulation results are worked out to demonstrate the efficiency and feasibility of the theoretical results

Single-Atom Heterogeneous Catalysts: Human- and AI-Driven Platform for Augmented Designs, Analytics and Reality-Enabled Manufacturing

Heterogeneous catalysts with targeted functionality can be designed with atomic precision, but it is challenging to retain the structure and performance upon the scaled-up manufacturing. Particularly challenging is to ensure the “atomic economy”, where every catalytic site is most gainfully utilized. Given the emerging synergistic integration of human- and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven augmented designs (AD), augmented analytics (AA), and augmented reality manufacturing (AM) platforms, this minireview focuses on single-atom heterogeneous catalysts (SAHCs) and examines the current status, challenges, and future perspectives of translating atomic-level structural precision and data-driven discovery to next-generation industrial manufacturing. We critically examine the atomistic insights into structure-driven SAHCs functionality and discuss the opportunities and challenges on the way towards the synergistic human-AI collaborative data-driven platform capable of monitoring, analyzing, manufacturing, and retaining the atomic-scale structure and functions. Enhanced by the atomic-level AD, AA, and AM, evolving from the current high-throughput capabilities and digital materials manufacturing acceleration, this synergistic human-AI platform is promising to enable atom-efficient and atomically precise heterogeneous catalyst production.</p

Synergetic Effect of MoS₂ and Graphene as Cocatalysts for Enhanced Photocatalytic H₂ Production Activity of TiO₂ Nanoparticles

The production of H₂ by photocatalytic water splitting has attracted a lot attention as a clean and renewable solar H₂ generation system. Despite tremendous efforts, the present great challenge in materials science is to develop highly active photocatalysts for splitting of water at low cost. Here we report a new composite material consisting of TiO₂ nanocrystals grown in the presence of a layered MoS₂/graphene hybrid as a high-performance photocatalyst for H₂ evolution. This composite material was prepared by a two-step simple hydrothermal process using sodium molybdate, thiourea, and graphene oxide as precursors of the MoS₂/graphene hybrid and tetrabutylorthotitanate as the titanium precursor. Even without a noble-metal cocatalyst, the TiO₂/MoS₂/graphene composite reaches a high H₂ production rate of 165.3 μmol h^–1 when the content of the MoS₂/graphene cocatalyst is 0.5 wt % and the content of graphene in this cocatalyst is 5.0 wt %, and the apparent quantum efficiency reaches 9.7% at 365 nm. This unusual photocatalytic activity arises from the positive synergetic effect between the MoS₂ and graphene components in this hybrid cocatalyst, which serve as an electron collector and a source of active adsorption sites, respectively. This study presents an inexpensive photocatalyst for energy conversion to achieve highly efficient H₂ evolution without noble metals

In-Plane Palladium and Interplanar Copper Dual Single-Atom Catalyst in Bulk-Like Carbon Nitride for Cascade CO2 Photoreduction

Dual single-atom catalysts (DSACs) are promising for breaking the scaling relationships and ensuring synergistic effects compared with conventional single-atom catalysts (SACs). Nevertheless, precise synthesis and optimization of DSACs with specific locations and functions remain challenging. Herein, dual single-atoms are specifically incorporated into the layer-stacked bulk-like carbon nitride, featuring in-plane three-coordinated Pd and interplanar four-coordinated Cu (Pd1-Cu1/b-CN) atomic sites, from both experimental results and DFT simulations. Using femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (fs-TA) spectroscopy, it is found that the in-plane Pd features a charge decay lifetime of 95.6 ps which is much longer than that of the interplanar Cu (3.07 ps). This finding indicates that the in-plane Pd can provide electrons for the reaction as the catalytically active site in both structurally and dynamically favorable manners. Such a well-defined bi-functional cascade system ensures a 3.47-fold increase in CO yield compared to that of bulk-like CN (b-CN), while also exceeding the effects of single Pd1/b-CN and Cu1/b-CN sites. Furthermore, DFT calculations reveal that the inherent transformation from s–p coupling to d–p hybridization between the Pd site and CO2 molecule occurs during the initial CO2 adsorption and hydrogenation processes and stimulates the preferred CO2-to-CO reaction pathway.</p

Assessment of mumps-containing vaccine effectiveness by dose during 2006 to 2020 in Quzhou, China

Mumps cases were reported frequently when a routine dose measles–mumps–rubella(MMR) achieved high coverage in Quzhou. The supplementary immunization activities (SIA) using measles mumps (MM) was conducted to control mumps outbreaks. The effectiveness of one and two doses of mumps-containing vaccine (MuCV) was assessed using surveillance data in this study. Mumps cases and immunization information were retrieved from the National Notifiable Disease Reporting System (NNDRS) and the Zhejiang Provincial Immunization Information System (ZJIIS), respectively. Mumps cases of children born from 2006 to 2010 were included. Vaccine effectiveness by dose was calculated using the screening method. A total of 956 mumps cases were identified, of whom 754 (78.9%) had received one dose of MuCV; 108 (11.3%) had received two doses; 94 (9.8%) were unvaccinated. The coverage of one-dose MuCV in the 2006–2010 birth cohorts ranged from 91.6% to 98.9%. Except the 2009 birth cohort in which the coverage of two doses of MuCV was 55.1%, the others were less than 10%. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) of one dose ranged from 47.4% to 86.0%, while VE of two doses ranged from 64.0% to 92.4%. The VE of one and two doses of MuCV waned over time, but the VE of two doses was consistently higher than that of one dose in the same period. The vaccine schedule with two-dose MMR should be implemented among children in Quzhou. The optimal age for the second dose needs to be further evaluated