NiCo2V2O8@NC Spheres with Mesoporous Yolk- Bilayer Hierarchical Structure for Enhanced Lithium Storage.

Metal vanadates as negative electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries have attracted widespread attention, attributed to their substantial capacity, broad availability, and exceptional safety. In this study, NiCo2V2O8@NC microspheres featuring a yolk-double shell structure were successfully synthesized via ion exchange reactions and surface deposition techniques, employing metal glycerolate as a template. Owing to the bimetallic cobalt-nickel synergistic effect and the N-doped carbon network, this configuration not only optimizes the pore structure but also enhances conductivity, thereby augmenting the stability of the overall structure. The unique yolk-double shell design significantly enhances the utilization of active components and reduces the ion transport distance, thereby achieving high capacity. Thanks to the synergistic effects of this bimetallic and intricate structure, the material demonstrates exceptional capacity and cycle stability in lithium storage. The initial discharge capacity possesses 1522 mAh g-1 at a current density of 0.2 A g-1, with the reversible capacity still maintained at 1197 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles. In addition, at a high current density of 0.5 A g-1, the initial discharge capacity is 1487 mAh g-1, with a reversible capacity of 747 mAh g-1 maintained after 500 cycles. This study offers a perspective and methodology for the design and fabrication of complex porous double shell nanostructures.

Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Benzaldehyde on Gold Nanoparticles Supported on Titanium Dioxide.

The electrooxidation of organic compounds offers a promising strategy for producing value-added chemicals through environmentally sustainable processes. A key challenge in this field is the development of electrocatalysts that are both effective and durable. In this study, we grow gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) on the surface of various phases of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as highly effective electrooxidation catalysts. Subsequently, the samples are tested for the oxidation of benzaldehyde (BZH) to benzoic acid (BZA) coupled with a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). We observe the support containing a combination of rutile and anatase phases to provide the highest activity. The excellent electrooxidation performance of this Au-TiO2 sample is correlated with its mixed-phase composition, large surface area, high oxygen vacancy content, and the presence of Lewis acid active sites on its surface. This catalyst demonstrates an overpotential of 0.467 V at 10 mA cm-2 in a 1 M KOH solution containing 20 mM BZH, and 0.387 V in 100 mM BZH, well below the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) overpotential. The electrooxidation of BZH not only serves as OER alternative in applications such as electrochemical hydrogen evolution, enhancing energy efficiency, but simultaneously allows for the generation of high-value byproducts such as BZA.

Hierarchical Ni3V2O8@N-Doped Carbon Hollow Double-Shell Microspheres for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Storage.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are highly dense in energy and considered as promising anode materials for a new generation of alkaline ion batteries. However, their electrode structure is disrupted due to significant volume changes during charging and discharging, resulting in the short cycle life of batteries. In this paper, the hierarchical Ni3V2O8@N-doped carbon (Ni3V2O8@NC) hollow double-shell microspheres were prepared and used as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The utilization efficiency and ion transfer rate of Ni3V2O8 were improved by the hollow microsphere structure formed through nanoparticle self-assembly. Furthermore, the uniform N-doped carbon layer not only enhanced the structural stability of Ni3V2O8, but also improved the overall electrical conductivity of the composite. The Ni3V2O8@NC electrode has an initial discharge capacity of up to 1167.3 mAh g-1 at a current density of 0.3 A g-1, a reversible capacity of up to 726.5 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles, and still has a capacity of 567.6 mAh g-1 after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 A g-1, indicating that the material has good cycle stability and high-rate capability. This work presents new findings on the design and fabrication of complex porous double-shell nanostructures.

Semantically Adaptive JND Modeling with Object-Wise Feature Characterization, Context Inhibition and Cross-Object Interaction.

Performance bottlenecks in the optimization of JND modeling based on low-level manual visual feature metrics have emerged. High-level semantics bear a considerable impact on perceptual attention and subjective video quality, yet most existing JND models do not adequately account for this impact. This indicates that there is still much room and potential for performance optimization in semantic feature-based JND models. To address this status quo, this paper investigates the response of visual attention induced by heterogeneous semantic features with an eye on three aspects, i.e., object, context, and cross-object, to further improve the efficiency of JND models. On the object side, this paper first focuses on the main semantic features that affect visual attention, including semantic sensitivity, objective area and shape, and central bias. Following that, the coupling role of heterogeneous visual features with HVS perceptual properties are analyzed and quantified. Second, based on the reciprocity of objects and contexts, the contextual complexity is measured to gauge the inhibitory effect of contexts on visual attention. Third, cross-object interactions are dissected using the principle of bias competition, and a semantic attention model is constructed in conjunction with a model of attentional competition. Finally, to build an improved transform domain JND model, a weighting factor is used by fusing the semantic attention model with the basic spatial attention model. Extensive simulation results validate that the proposed JND profile is highly consistent with HVS and highly competitive among state-of-the-art models.

Ketamine exhibits anti-gastric cancer activity via induction of apoptosis and attenuation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR.

INTRODUCTION: Gastric cancer (GC) is the most widespread type of cancer after lung and liver cancer in men and after breast cancer in women. Thus, the present study was intended to evaluate the effect of ketamine (KET) on gastric cancer cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The effect of KET was analyzed in vitro by the MTT assay against human gastric cancer cell lines BGC-823, MKN-45 and MKN-28. The effect KET on apoptosis, cell migration and cell cycle arrest was also quantified. Western blot analysis was performed to estimate the effect of KET on apoptosis mediators and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway mediators. A mouse xenograft assay was also conducted to further confirm the anticancer activity. RESULTS: KET causes reduction of cellular viability of BGC-823, MKN-45 and MKN-28, with a more significant effect against BGC-823 cells. The KET treatment showed a dose-dependent increase in apoptotic cells among BGC-823 cells. KET causes a significant dose-dependent decline in migration of treated cells. It causes induction of apoptosis mediated via the mitochondrial pathway, where it causes a decline in Bcl2 and mitochondrial cytochrome c level together with increase in expression of Bax, cytosolic cytochrome c and cytosolic apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1). The level of p-PI3K, p-mTOR, p-GSK3ß and p-AKT was found to be downregulated in a dose-dependent manner in KET-treated cells. In a mouse xenograft model, KET causes a reduction in relative tumour volume and tumour weight. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that ketamine has the ability to inhibit progression of gastric cancer via induction of apoptosis and attenuation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR.

Effects of gamma ray irradiation-induced protein hydrolysis and oxidation on tenderness change of fresh pork during storage.

This study investigated the effect of irradiation (0, 3, 5 or 7 kGy) on the tenderness changes of pork during storage at 4 °C for two weeks by determining the total carbonyl, sulfhydryl groups, peptidomic profiles, Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear force value and by gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) experiment. The results showed that, irradiation significantly increased total carbonyl content of pork but had no significant effect on sulfhydryl groups. Protein thiol loss induced by irradiation was greatly promoted after storage for 3 days. Increasing irradiation dose level could significantly decrease the WB shear force value of samples (P < .05) by provoking degradation of myofibrillar protein and collagen fragments. During refrigerated conditioning, however, the WB shear force values increased significantly despite irradiation (P < .05). This was attributed to increasing amount of collagen solubilized from muscle, protein aggregation induced by carbonylation of troponin T (at 7 days of storage) and further cross-linking of myosin heavy chain (MHC) (at 14 days of storage).

Ru nanoparticles supported on nitrogen-doped porous carbon derived from ZIF-8 as an efficient catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of p-chloronitrobenzene and p-bromonitrobenzene.

Ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles (NPs) are supported on nitrogen-doped porous carbon (NPC) derived from metal-organic-framework (MOF) ZIF-8 for the first time. NPC is prepared by the direct carbonization of ZIF-8 crystals, which not only retains the original morphology of ZIF-8 but also provides a high surface area and stable chemical-physical properties. Ru NPs were supported by different methods. Four types of Ru-based catalysts are tested in the selective hydrogenation of p-chloronitrobenzene (p-CNB) and p-bromonitrobenzene (p-BNB) to haloanilines. Different catalytic activities and selectivities are obtained through these catalysts. After the screening of the catalysts and reaction conditions, high conversion and selectivity were obtained. The hydrogen pressure is limited to 1.5 MPa, which is much lower than most previous reports, and the dehalogenation reaction is restricted to a very low level. Furthermore, the dehalogenation properties of the Ru/NPC catalysts are also studied.

Nia1 and Nia2 are involved in exogenous salicylic acid-induced nitric oxide generation and stomatal closure in Arabidopsis.

Phytohormone salicylic acid (SA) plays important roles in plant responses to environmental stress. However, knowledge about the molecular mechanisms for SA affecting the stomatal movements is limited. In this paper, we demonstrated that exogenous SA significantly induced stomatal closure and nitric oxide (NO) generation in Arabidopsis guard cells based on genetic and physiological data. These effects were significantly inhibited by the NO scavenger c-PTIO, NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor L-NAME or nitrate reductase suppressor tungstate respectively, implying that NOS and nitrate reductase (NR) participate in SA-evoked stomatal closing. Furthermore, the effects of SA promotion of stomatal closure and NO synthesis are significantly suppressed in NR single mutants of nia1, nia2 or double mutant nia1/nia2, compared with the wild type plants. This suggests that both Nia1 and Nia2 are involved in SA-stimulated stomatal closure. In addition, pharmacological experiments showed that protein kinases, cGMP and cADPR are involved in SA-mediated NO accumulation and stomatal closure induced by SA in Arabidopsis.