EDTA-Induced Self-Assembly of 3D Graphene and Its Superior Adsorption Ability for Paraquat Using a Teabag

In the past two years, three-dimensional graphene (3DG) was introduced to the environmental treatment area as a promising new material. Despite much progress in its synthesis and applications, 3DG is still limited in terms of green large-scale synthesis and practical environmental applications. In this work, a 3DG synthetic method was developed at 95 °C in an EDTA-induced self-assembly process. Because little EDTA was found to be consumed during synthesis, which might be due to its great stability and poor reducibility, 3DG with complete structure can be successively obtained by reusing the EDTA solution more than 10 times. Furthermore, 3DG was found to possess a superior adsorption capacity of 119 mg g^–1 (pH 6.0) for paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide with positive charges and a conjugated system of π bonds in its molecular structure. The adsorption capacity was much higher than those in classic paraquat adsorbents, such as clay and activated carbon. To address the problem of 3DG damage by stirring, a pyramid-shaped nylon teabag was adopted to protect the soft hydrogel during the repeated adsorption–desorption processes. After five cycles, the 3DG teabag still maintained 88% of the initial adsorption capacity. This facile method may be easily applied in other environmental treatment conditions

Additional file 2: of Laboratory tests as short-term correlates of stroke

The Relative Risk (with confidence intervals), the correlations computed between different tests, the description and range of observed values for each test. (XLSX 48 kb

Intrinsic Point Defects in Inorganic Cesium Lead Iodide Perovskite CsPbI₃

Cesium lead iodide (CsPbI₃) has recently emerged as a promising solar photovoltaic absorber. However, the cubic perovskite (α-phase) remains stable only at high temperature and reverts to a photoinactive nonperovskite (δ-phase) CsPbI₃ at room temperature. In this work, the formation energies and transition energy levels of intrinsic point defects in γ- (more stable than α-phase) and δ-phases have been studied systematically by first-principles calculations. It is found that CsPbI₃ exhibits a unipolar self-doping behavior (p-type conductivity), which is in contrast to CH₃NH₃PbI₃. Most of the intrinsic defects induce deeper transition energy levels in δ-phase than in γ-phase. This is due to the small Pb–I–Pb bond angles in δ-phase that results in the weak antibonding character of valence band maximum (VBM). However, the strong antibonding character of VBM plays a critical role in keeping defect tolerance in semiconductors. Therefore, these results indicate the importance of the large metal–halide–metal bond angle for the performance of perovskite solar cells

Additional file 1: Table S1. of Laboratory tests as short-term correlates of stroke

Racial/ethnic distribution of patients in the dataset. Table S2. Correlations between different laboratory tests. (PDF 277 kb

Proton-Insertion-Enhanced Pseudocapacitance Based on the Assembly Structure of Tungsten Oxide

The capacitances of supercapacitors with carbon and metal oxides as electrodes are usually associated with the available surface areas of the electrode materials. However, in this paper, we report that proton insertion, an unusual capacitive mechanism, may effectively enhance the capacitance of metal oxides with low surface area but specific structures. Tungsten trioxide (WO₃) as the electrode material for supercapacitors has always suffered from low capacitance. Nevertheless, enhanced by the proton insertion mechanism, we demonstrate that electrodes fabricated by an assembly structure of hexagonal-phase WO₃ (<i>h</i>-WO₃) nanopillars achieve a high capacitance of up to 421.8 F g^–1 under the current density of 0.5 A g^–1, which is the highest capacitance achieved with pure WO₃ as the electrodes so far, to the best of our knowledge. Detailed analyses indicate that proton insertion dominates the electrochemical behavior of <i>h</i>-WO₃ and plays the key role in reaching high capacitance by excluding other mechanisms. In addition, a thorough investigation on the temperature-dependent electrochemical performance reveals excellent performance stability at different temperatures. This study provides a new approach to achieving high capacitance by effective proton insertion into ordered tunnels in crystallized metal oxides, which is primarily important for the fabrication of compact high-performance energy storage devices

Highly Isoselective and Active Zinc Catalysts for <i>rac</i>-Lactide Polymerization: Effect of Pendant Groups of Aminophenolate Ligands

Highly isoselective and active ring-opening polymerization of <i>rac</i>-lactide to obtain stereocomplexed polylactide is a long-standing challenge. In this contribution, zinc catalysts with good isoselectivities and high activities (<i>P</i>_m = 0.87, TOF = 3312 h^–1 at 25 °C; <i>P</i>_m = 0.92, TOF = 117 h^–1 at −20 °C, toluene) for <i>rac</i>-lactide polymerization are reported. These catalysts are coordinated by a well-designed chiral oxazolinyl or achiral benzoxazolyl aminophenolate ligand. Both types of zinc complexes afforded multiblock isotactic PLAs, proving to be formed via a chain-end control mechanism regardless of the existence of a chiral group or not. Preliminary studies suggested that the dihedral angle between the phenoxy and oxazolinyl/benzoxazolyl planes in these complexes reflects the steric bulkiness of the ligand and has a close relation with the isoselectivity of the complex, which might serve as a guide in obtaining new isoselective catalysts of similar types. Furthermore, unprecedented combination of excellent activity (TOF up to 44 000 h^–1) and sufficient isoselectivity (<i>P</i>_m = 0.80) could be achieved under solvent-free immortal conditions with catalyst loadings as low as 0.005 mol % (vs monomer), which shows the potential of industrial application

Mixed Starter Culture Regulates Biogenic Amines Formation via Decarboxylation and Transamination during Chinese Rice Wine Fermentation

The utilization of amine-negative starter based on an understanding of nitrogen metabolism is a useful method for controlling biogenic amine (BA) in Chinese rice wine (CRW) fermentation. The contribution of brewing materials to protein degradation was analyzed; wheat Qu protein had no effect, and yeast autolysis generated 10% amino nitrogen. Milling degree of rice was strongly correlated with BAs formation (<i>R</i>² = 0.99). Subsequently, Lactobacillus plantarum and Staphylococcus xylosus were coinoculated as amine-negative starter at an optimized ratio of 1:2. Coinoculation induced a significant reduction in total BAs (43.7%, 44.5 mg L^–1), putrescine (43.0%, 20.4 mg L^–1), tyramine (42.8%, 14.3 mg L^–1), and histamine (42.6%, 3.5 mg L^–1) content. Notably, BAs degradation ability of Staphylococcus xylosus was stronger than the suppression effect of Lactobacillus plantarum, and higher lactic acid bacteria (LAB) amount has a positive correlation with lower BAs content. Overall, mixed strains exerted a synergistic effect in lowering BAs accumulation via decarboxylation and transamination

The three bio-markers expression in well, moderate and pooly differentiated tumor tissues.

<p>(G) COX-2 expression in well differentiated tumor tissues. (H) COX-2 expression in moderate differentiated tumor tissues. (I) COX-2 expression in poorly differentiated tumor tissues. (J) CD44v6 expression in well differentiated tumor tissues. (K) CD44v6 expression in moderate differentiated tumor tissues. (L) CD44v6 expression in poorly differentiated tumor tissues. (M) CD147 expression in well differentiated tumor tissues. (N) CD147 expression in moderate differentiated tumor tissues. (O) CD147 expression in poorly differentiated tumor tissues.</p

The three bio-markers expression by immunohistochemistry.

<p>(A) High levels of COX-2 expression in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: diffuse cytoplasmic staining. (B) Low levels of COX-2 expression in epithelium adjacent to carcinoma. (C) High levels of CD44v6 expression in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: cell membrane staining. (D) High levels of CD44v6 expression in epithelium adjacent to carcinoma as well as staining in carcinoma tissues. (E) High levels of CD147 expression in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: diffuse cytoplasmic staining. (F) Low level of CD147 expression in epithelium adjacent to carcinoma.</p

Correlation of clinicopathologic characteristics of the patients with immunohistochemistry results.

*<p><i>P</i><0.001.</p