Surface plasmon enhanced ethylene glycol electrooxidation based on hollow platinum-silver nanodendrites structures.

The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect on noble metals to convert solar energy into chemical has attracted a lot of interest. However, the lack of highly efficient photocatalysts is still the forbidden obstacle as well as their large-scale development. Therefore, we focus on plasmon resonance enhanced electrocatalytic oxidation of liquid fuel employing photocatalysts to develop unique hollow platinum-silver (Pt-Ag) nanocrystals. The hollow Pt-Ag is formed of nanodendrites (Pt1-Ag1) which display a great enhancement in catalytic activity towards ethylene glycol oxidation with the mass and specific activity found to be: 7045.2?mA/mg and 14.1?mA/cm2, respectively. This is due to: the SPR effect, efficient electronic distribution and synergistic properties, together with the unique hollow dendritic nanostructures. Impressively, the SPR effect also induces the optimum Pt-Ag nanocatalsyst under visible light irradiation conditions to display 1.7-fold enhancements in catalytic activity compared to that under dark conditions. In addition, 6.2 and 7.0-fold enhancements were obtained when the optimized Pt-Ag was employed as photoelectrocatalyst compared to the commercial Pt/C. Therefore, we present a unique catalyst which produces a high catalytic activity and long-term stability compared to those previously reported. More importantly, we also introduce a promising approach towards the designing of a plasmonic metal nanocatalyst with ideal nanostructures for liquid fuel oxidations

Sophisticated construction of binary PdPb alloy nanocubes as robust electrocatalysts toward ethylene glycol and glycerol oxidation.

The design of nanocatalysts by controlling pore size and particle characteristics is crucial to enhance the selectivity and activity of the catalysts. Thus, we have successfully demonstrated the synthesis of binary PdPb alloy nanocubes (PdPb NCs) by controlling pore size and particle characteristics. In addition, the as-obtained binary PdPb NCs exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity of 4.06 A mg-1 and 16.8 mA cm-2 towards ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR) and 2.22 A mg-1 and 9.2 mA cm-2 towards glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) when compared to the commercial Pd/C. These astonishing characteristics are attributed to the attractive nanocube structures as well as the large number of exposed active areas. Furthermore, the bifunctional effects originated from Pd and Pb interactions help to display high endurance with less activity decay after 500 cycles, showing a great potential in fuel cells applications

Combined landscape of single-nucleotide variants and copy number alterations in clonal hematopoiesis

クローン性造血の臨床予後への影響を解明 --遺伝子変異とコピー数異常の統合的な知見--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2021-07-09.Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) in apparently healthy individuals is implicated in the development of hematological malignancies (HM) and cardiovascular diseases. Previous studies of CH analyzed either single-nucleotide variants and indels (SNVs/indels) or copy number alterations (CNAs), but not both. Here, using a combination of targeted sequencing of 23 CH-related genes and array-based CNA detection of blood-derived DNA, we have delineated the landscape of CH-related SNVs/indels and CNAs in 11, 234 individuals without HM from the BioBank Japan cohort, including 672 individuals with subsequent HM development, and studied the effects of these somatic alterations on mortality from HM and cardiovascular disease, as well as on hematological and cardiovascular phenotypes. The total number of both types of CH-related lesions and their clone size positively correlated with blood count abnormalities and mortality from HM. CH-related SNVs/indels and CNAs exhibited statistically significant co-occurrence in the same individuals. In particular, co-occurrence of SNVs/indels and CNAs affecting DNMT3A, TET2, JAK2 and TP53 resulted in biallelic alterations of these genes and was associated with higher HM mortality. Co-occurrence of SNVs/indels and CNAs also modulated risks for cardiovascular mortality. These findings highlight the importance of detecting both SNVs/indels and CNAs in the evaluation of CH

Association of variations in HLA class II and other loci with susceptibility to EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma

Lung adenocarcinoma driven by somatic EGFR mutations is more prevalent in East Asians (30-50%) than in European/Americans (10-20%). Here we investigate genetic factors underlying the risk of this disease by conducting a genome-wide association study, followed by two validation studies, in 3,173 Japanese patients with EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma and 15,158 controls. Four loci, 5p15.33 (TERT), 6p21.3 (BTNL2), 3q28 (TP63) and 17q24.2 (BPTF), previously shown to be strongly associated with overall lung adenocarcinoma risk in East Asians, were re-discovered as loci associated with a higher susceptibility to EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma. In addition, two additional loci, HLA class II at 6p21.32 (rs2179920; P =5.1 × 10(-17), per-allele OR=1.36) and 6p21.1 (FOXP4) (rs2495239; P=3.9 × 10(-9), per-allele OR=1.19) were newly identified as loci associated with EGFR mutation-positive lung adenocarcinoma. This study indicates that multiple genetic factors underlie the risk of lung adenocarcinomas with EGFR mutations

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (P interaction  = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

Genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma in East Asia and comparison with a European population.

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer. Known risk variants explain only a small fraction of lung adenocarcinoma heritability. Here, we conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study of lung adenocarcinoma of East Asian ancestry (21,658 cases and 150,676 controls; 54.5% never-smokers) and identified 12 novel susceptibility variants, bringing the total number to 28 at 25 independent loci. Transcriptome-wide association analyses together with colocalization studies using a Taiwanese lung expression quantitative trait loci dataset (n = 115) identified novel candidate genes, including FADS1 at 11q12 and ELF5 at 11p13. In a multi-ancestry meta-analysis of East Asian and European studies, four loci were identified at 2p11, 4q32, 16q23, and 18q12. At the same time, most of our findings in East Asian populations showed no evidence of association in European populations. In our studies drawn from East Asian populations, a polygenic risk score based on the 25 loci had a stronger association in never-smokers vs. individuals with a history of smoking (Pinteraction = 0.0058). These findings provide new insights into the etiology of lung adenocarcinoma in individuals from East Asian populations, which could be important in developing translational applications

pH-dependent color change of colloidal dispersions of gold nanoclusters: Effect of stabilizer

Gold nanoclusters protected by 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA-Au nanoclusters) were prepared by citrate-reduction of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate(III) in the presence of sodium 3-mercaptopropionate. Color of the dispersions of MPA-Au nanoclusters changed from red to purple by addition of hydrochloric acid and returned from purple to red by addition of an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. This reversible response can be attributed to synchronized changes between dispersion and ordering of MPA-Au nanoclusters, determined by transmission electron microscopy. Gold nanoclusters protected by poly(acrylic acid) (PAA-Au nanoclusters) were prepared by UV irradiation of an aqueous solution of hydrogen tetrachloroaurate(III) in the presence of poly(sodium acrylate). The pH-dependent spectral change observed for MPA-Au was not observed for PAA-Au. UV-Vis absorption spectra of colloidal dispersions of PAA-Au nanoclusters after addition of hydrochloric acid and an aqueous sodium hydroxide solution were in good agreement with each other, suggesting the stability of PAA-Au nanoclusters to pH change