Accelerate the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction of the heterostructural Ni2P@Ni(OH)2/NF by dispersing a trifle of Ru on the surface

Electrocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production plays a vital role in the development of new energy field, but there is still a lack of low-content precious metal or cost-effective non-noble metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, how to develop the catalysts with a smaller amount of precious metal to achieve higher performance is still a major challenge. Herein, we have fabricated Ru–Ni₂P@Ni(OH)₂/NF-2 heterostructure by phosphating Ni(OH)₂/NF and then anchoring Ru on the surface through wet chemical strategy. Benefiting from its optimal ΔG_H1 and synergistic effect, this Ru–Ni₂P@Ni(OH)₂/NF-2 catalyst shows superior electrocatalytic HER kinetics in alkaline electrolyte. A small overpotential of 31 mV is needed for this electrocatalyst to obtain the current densities of 10 mA cm^?2 with remarkable durability over 24 h. This work provides a new strategy for the preparation of effective HER electrocatalyst with a low precious metal content.     

Fruit softening correlates with enzymatic activities and compositional changes in fruit cell wall during growing in Lycium barbarum L.

The present study aims to examine fruit cell wall-associated fruit softening in Lycium barbarum L. by the microstructure of the fruit cells and the changes in the contents of cell wall components, molecular weights of cell wall polysaccharides and the activities of related cell wall degrading enzymes at different development stages of L. barbarum L. fruit. Fruit firmness significantly declined during ripening, with the greatest reduction between the 28 and 35 days stages. The decrease in firmness correlated with an extensively deformed microstructure in the parenchyma tissues and positively correlated with reductions in the contents of fruit cell wall materials and molecular weight in cell wall polysaccharide. Cellulase, α-galactosidase, polygalactosidase and pectin methylesterase showed higher activities during 28 days; whereas, the activities of β-galactosidase were higher during 35 days. These results indicate that cell wall-related processes are a key feature of early softening in L. barbarum L.     

Four phenolic acids from purple sweet potato and their effects on physicochemical,digestive and structural characteristics of starch

Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) was employed to investigate free phenols that were released from purple sweet potato (PSP) by alkaline, acid and enzymatic hydrolysis. Four phenolic acids, including ferulic, isoferulic, 4-hydroxybenzoic and caffeic acids, were identified. Based on their effects on the characteristics of purple sweet potato starch (PSPS), the four phenolic acids were studied. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were employed to explore the microstructures of the complexes of the phenolic acids and PSPS. The obtained results demonstrated that the pasting, thermal, retrogradation, as well as digestive properties of PSPS were all influenced by the phenolic acids which interacted with PSPS through noncovalent hydrogen bonds. The influence of the four phenolic acids on the properties of PSPS was in the descending order: 4-hydroxybenzoic acid > ferulic acid > caffeic acid > isoferulic acid.     

Alginate hydrogels crosslinked with different strontium-calcium ratios as injectable scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

The easy loss of crosslinking ions in alginate can result in a structural collapse of the physiological environment, thereby losing its characteristics as a bone scaffold. Meanwhile, alginate lacks osteoconductive properties, which are necessary for ideal bone scaffolds. In this study, strontium (Sr) in combination with calcium (Ca) at different ratios were used as a crosslinking agent for the alginate to investigate the effect of Ca–Sr ratio on the physicochemical properties and biological preformation of alginate hydrogel. Here, Ca and Sr in different weight ratios (4:0, 3:1, 2:2, 1:3, and 0:4) were employed as crosslinking agents. The physicochemical properties of hydrogels, including pore size, elastic modulus, degradation rate and swelling ratio, could be effectively tuned by controlling the amount of Sr. The ion release experiment revealed a burst release of Sr²⁺ in the first day after crosslinking. However, after 3 days, the amount of Sr²⁺ release had significantly declined and was proportional to the total strontium initially introduced into the alginate. Meanwhile, the live/dead results exhibited higher cell viability for alginate with 2:2 Ca–Sr weight ratio. The alginate with 2:2 Ca–Sr ratio not only improved osteoblastic attachment, but also up-regulated the alkaline phosphatase activity, the expression of osteogenic marker genes, and relative growth factors. These findings indicate that alginate with 2:2 Ca–Sr ratio might be a promising scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

Graphical abstract

     

Comparisons of adaptive fault‐tolerant insensitive control methods for a class of linear systems

In this paper, the problem of fault‐tolerant insensitive control is addressed for a class of linear time‐invariant continuous‐time systems against bounded time‐varying actuator faults and controller gain variations. Adaptive mechanisms are developed to adjust controller gains in order to compensate for the detrimental effects of partial loss of control effectiveness and bias‐actuator faults. Variations of controller gains arise from time‐varying and bounded perturbations that are supposed to always exist in adaptive mechanisms. Based on the disturbed outputs of adaptive mechanisms, three different adaptive control strategies are constructed to achieve bounded stability results of the closed‐loop adaptive fault‐tolerant control systems in the presence of actuator faults and controller gain variations. Furthermore, comparisons of convergence boundaries of states and limits of control inputs among adaptive strategies are developed in this paper. The efficiency of the proposed adaptive control strategies and their comparisons are demonstrated by a rocket fairing structural‐acoustic model.     

Hepatitis B Virus-Like Particle: Targeted Delivery of Plasmid Expressing Short Hairpin RNA for Silencing the Bcl-2 Gene in Cervical Cancer Cells

Gene therapy research has advanced to clinical trials, but it is hampered by unstable nucleic acids packaged inside carriers and there is a lack of specificity towards targeted sites in the body. This study aims to address gene therapy limitations by encapsidating a plasmid synthesizing a short hairpin RNA (shRNA) that targets the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene using truncated hepatitis B core antigen (tHBcAg) virus-like particle (VLP). A shRNA sequence targeting anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was synthesized and cloned into the pSilencer 2.0-U6 vector. The recombinant plasmid, namely PshRNA, was encapsidated inside tHBcAg VLP and conjugated with folic acid (FA) to produce FA-tHBcAg-PshRNA VLP. Electron microscopy revealed that the FA-tHBcAg-PshRNA VLP has an icosahedral structure that is similar to the unmodified tHBcAg VLP. Delivery of FA-tHBcAg-PshRNA VLP into HeLa cells overexpressing the folate receptor significantly downregulated the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 at 48 and 72 h post-transfection. The 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay demonstrated that the cells’ viability was significantly reduced from 89.46% at 24 h to 64.52% and 60.63%, respectively, at 48 and 72 h post-transfection. As a conclusion, tHBcAg VLP can be used as a carrier for a receptor-mediated targeted delivery of a therapeutic plasmid encoding shRNA for gene silencing in cancer cells.     

Phosphorus-doped silicon nanoparticles as high performance LIB negative electrode

Journal of Materials Science - Silicon is getting much attention as the promising next-generation negative electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries with the advantages of abundance, high...     

Modelling vicious networks with P-graph causality maps

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - P-graph causality maps were recently proposed as a methodology for systematic analysis of intertwined causal chains forming network-like structures....