Active Area Research Articles

Overcoming volumetric capacitance-rate performance tradeoff with 0D/2D conductive carbon nitride/phosphorene heterostructure for flexible supercapacitor

Few-layer black phosphorus (FL-BP) is considered a rising star 2D material for flexible supercapacitors (FSCs) due to its exceptional properties, including mechanical flexibility and high active surface area. However, the disordered deposition of FL-BP nanoflakes often leads to face-to-face restacking, which diminishes the effective active area and ion transport channels. This poses a huge challenge in simultaneously achieving high volumetric capacitance and rate capability. To address this, a 3D porous 0D/2D FL-BP/conductive carbon nitride (FL-BP/c-CN) film has been developed. The introduction of 0D c-CN nanoparticles effectively prevents the restacking of FL-BP nanoflakes and expands the nanofluidic channels, thus facilitating charge transport and ions diffusion. Additionally, the highly conductive c-CN nanoparticles embedded into the FL-BP layers significantly improve overall conductivity. As a result, the FL-BP/c-CN film-based FSC demonstrates a remarkable rate performance, retaining 70% capacitance as the scan rate increases from 10 to 100 mV/s. Moreover, the incorporation of 0D c-CN nanoparticles increases the available space for charge accumulation, yielding a volumetric capacitance of 28.5 F/cm3 at a scan rate of 10 mV/s, which is three times higher than that of a pure FL-BP film electrode (9.2 F/cm3). This work presents an innovative approach for developing high-performance FL-BP-based FSCs.

Enhanced Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Water Electrolysis Using Bimetallic NiFe Metal-Organic Frameworks Integrated with Carbon Nanotubes

Hydrogen is considered a very clean and highly available renewable energy resource for the future. Water electrolysis (WE) is a conspicuous promising technology to produce hydrogen on a large scale, without generating carbon dioxide. In this study, we prepared bimetallic NiFe-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) integrated with CNTs (NiFe–BTC@CNTs) as highly efficient electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline water electrolysis. Combining NiFe MOFs and CNTs significantly enhanced the electrochemical performance and structural integrity of the catalyst. The NiFe–BTC@CNT (30 wt.% CNTs) demonstrates a significant low overpotential of 230 mV at 10 mA·cm⁻2, superior catalytic activity with a Tafel slope of 36 mV·dec⁻1, and excellent stability under both constant and dynamic operating conditions. These unique characteristics are attributed to the high surface area and abundant active sites provided by the bimetallic MOF structure, combined with the exceptional electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of CNTs. Furthermore, the integration of CNTs improves the dispersion while preventing the agglomeration of MOF particles, ensuring a more uniform and accessible active surface area. This research highlights the potential of the NiFe–BTC@CNT catalysts as high-performance durable electrocatalysts for sustainable hydrogen production, offering a significant advance in the development of advanced materials for energy conversion and storage applications.

Silver doping effect on the electrochromic performance of the WO3 thin films produced by thermal evaporation in vacuum

Ag doped WO3 thin films are successfully fabricated by thermal evaporation method in vacuum as precursor, and then annealed at 450 °C in nitrogen gases atmosphere. Cyclic voltammetry, repeating chronoamperometry, chronocolumetry and optical transmittance are recorded in 1 M LiClO4/propylene carbonate electrolyte. The color of the WO3 thin films changes from transparent to the blue under the applied potential of -1.8 and +1.9 V. XRD studies show that all the films have a polycrystalline structure of WO3. The molecular formation is also confirmed by Raman and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The EDS elemental mappings clearly confirm the homogeneous distribution of Ag, W and O elements into the WO3 network. From the optical studies, indirect band gap energy of the WO3 decreases as Ag doping level increases. The best coloration and bleaching times (2.33 and 1.25 s) are obtained for the Ag(2%):WO3 thin films, compared to the pure WO3 (3.79 and 1.96 s). The produced WO3 films exhibit high reversibility (39.6/69.1%), high coloration efficiency values (26.3/141.2 cm2/C), and good cycling stability. From the EIS measurements, the charge-transfer resistance is Ag(2%):WO3 < the pure WO3 < Ag(5%):WO3 < Ag(8%):WO3, which means that Ag(2%):WO3 has the biggest electrochemically active surface area. Electronic energy levels of the pure WO3 and the Ag:WO3 thin films are also given. From the Mott-Schottky studies, it is determined that the donor concentration of the materials is of the order of 1014-1015 cm−3. In the literature, there are very limited studies related to electrochromic thin films by thermal evaporation in vacuum. In this sense, the reported results in this study are promising for the electrochromic applications.

Insight into the Natural Biomolecules (BMs): Promising Candidates as Zika Virus Inhibitors.

Zika virus (ZIKV) is among the relatively new infectious disease threats that include SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, monkeypox (Mpox) virus, etc. ZIKV has been reported to cause severe health risks to the fetus. To date, satisfactory treatment is still not available for the treatment of ZIKV infection. This review examines the last five years of work using natural biomolecules (BMs) to counteract the ZIKV through virtual screening and in vitro investigations. Virtual screening has identified doramectin, pinocembrin, hesperidins, epigallocatechin gallate, pedalitin, and quercetin as potentially active versus ZIKV infection. In vitro, testing has shown that nordihydroguaiaretic acid, mefloquine, isoquercitrin, glycyrrhetinic acid, patentiflorin-A, rottlerin, and harringtonine can reduce ZIKV infections in cell lines. However, in vivo, testing is limited, fortunately, emetine, rottlerin, patentiflorin-A, and lycorine have shown in vivo anti- ZIKV potential. This review focuses on natural biomolecules that show a particularly high selective index (>10). There is limited in vivo and clinical trial data for natural BMs, which needs to be an active area of investigation. This review aims to compile the known reference data and discuss the barriers associated with discovering and using natural BM agents to control ZIKV infection.

Interface Engineering of Flower-like Co 2 P/WO 3-x /Carbon Cloth Catalysts with Oxygen Vacancies for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

The Constructing an efficient and low-cost oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalyst is critical for improving the performance of electrolysis in alkaline water. In this study, a self-supported electrocatalyst of flower-like cobalt phosphide and tungsten oxide (Co2P/WO3-x/CC) was prepared on carbon cloth (CC)surface by hydrothermal reaction with solution immersion etching and phosphorization annealing under H2/Ar atmosphere. This strategy can generate oxygen vacancies (OV), improving the speed of charge transfer between cobalt phosphide (Co2P) and tungsten oxide (WO3-x) components. The catalyst greatly increases the electrochemical active surface area, which is beneficial for efficient oxygen evolution. Electrochemical testing studies show that in 1.0 M KOH solution, Co2P-WO3-x/CC catalyst exhibits good OER activity, with a low overpotential of 254 mV at 10 mA cm-2, a small Tafel slope of 58.32 mV dec-1. The synergistic effect of oxygen vacancies and Co2P with WO3-xcan regulate electronic structures, expose more active sites, and cooperatively enhancing the OER activity. This study provides a workable strategy for preparing efficient non-noble metal OER electrocatalysts on engineered interfaces and OV.

A 24–30‐GHz Modified Gilbert‐Cell Downconverter With High Linearity and Isolation

ABSTRACTThis paper introduces a downconverter mixer employing a modified double‐balanced Gilbert‐cell topology, designed using IHP's 0.13‐m SiGe BiCMOS technology. Distinct from the conventional topology, a resonator was employed at the emitter of the transconductance stage, which enables the utilization of transconductance stage as an active balun, allowing for direct feeding of the single‐ended input without sacrificing the advantageous of the double‐balanced topology. The integration of the resonator reduces the amplitude and phase errors within the active balun segment, thereby enhancing port‐to‐port isolation. The area occupied by the resonator is approximately 1.7 times smaller than that of an RF transformer balun typically employed in conventional double‐balanced topologies. The LO and IF differential signals are converted to single‐ended ones through transformer baluns for measurement purposes. The frequencies of operation for RF, LO, and IF are 24–30, 18–24, and 6 GHz, respectively. The conversion loss is 7.7 dB at 26 GHz, with port‐to‐port isolations exceeding 35 dB. The input 1‐dB compression point is 5.7 dBm, while the circuit consumes 65‐mW power from a 3.3‐V voltage supply. Excluding the pads, the active area of the design spans 1 mm2.

Fibroblast activation in cardio-oncology

Abstract Introduction Carcinoid heart disease is a rare disease affecting the right sided heart valves (1) while anthracycline cardiotoxicity is a dreaded sequelae of a common chemotherapeutic agent that can occur early or even years after exposure (2). Activated fibroblasts, a key factor in these diseases, can be imaged with 68Gallium-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (68Ga-FAPI). Method 12 patients with carcinoid syndrome, 12 patients with previous anthracycline exposure and 10 healthy volunteers underwent hybrid 68Ga-FAPI positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Areas of fibroblast activation were quantified as mean and maximum target-to-background ratios (TBRmean and TBRmax). Results Carcinoid syndrome: 2 of the 12 patients had carcinoid heart disease [mean age 70, 50% female] (CHD) (Figure 1A). 68Ga-FAPI uptake was seen in the liver lesions of all patients with known carcinoid liver tumours. Of the 10 patients without cardiac involvement, 6 had significant tricuspid valve 68Ga-FAPI uptake (CHD- FAPI+) (Figure 1B) and 4 did not (CHD- FAPI-). Median tricuspid TBRmax was significantly higher in CHD + [2.38 (IQR 2.35-2.42)], than CHD- patients [CHD- FAPI+: 1.68 (IQR 1.65-1.73), CHD- FAPI-: 1.55 (IQR 1.53-1.65)], although this was higher than healthy volunteers [1.45 (IQR 1.43- 1.61; p&amp;lt;0.05). CHD- FAPI+ patients had significantly elevated urinary 5-HIAA levels compared to CHD- FAPI- patients [Median =188 mg/24hr (IQR 151-196) in CHD- FAPI+ vs 32mg/24hr ( IQR 12-73); p=0.03]. Anthracycline chemotherapy: 3 of the 12 patients had cardiotoxicity [mean age 61, 67% female]. Anthracycline patients had higher left ventricular myocardial 68Ga-FAPI uptake than healthy volunteers with cardiotoxicity patients having the highest. [TBRmean: Cardiotoxicity 1.46 (IQR 1.36- 1.53), No cardiotoxicity 1.37 (IQR 1.19- 1.49), Healthy volunteers 0.73 (IQR 0.66 - 0.81); p&amp;lt;0.01 (Figure 1E). Across the cohort a moderate negative correlation was observed between Left ventricular ejection fraction and 68Ga-FAPI activity (LV TBRmean r =-0.46 and TBRmax (r= -0.66) Discussion 68 Ga-FAPI provides us the ability to assess fibroblast activation and for the first time demonstrated the key role of these cells in both these cardio-oncology conditions. Increased fibroblast activation is observed around the tricuspid valve in patients with carcinoid syndrome both in those with and without overt clinical disease. Similarly increased myocardial fibroblast activation is observed in patients exposed to anthracyclines even many years after exposure and where there is no overt evidence of cardiotoxicity. Conclusion 68Ga-FAPI imaging holds promise in evaluating the role of activated fibroblasts in the pathology of both carcinoid heart disease and cardiotoxicity, providing information beyond the current resolution of current clinical approaches.

Nonlinear analysis of three-dimensional hyperelastic problems using radial point interpolation method

Hyperelastic materials are primarily common in real life as well as in industry applications, and studying this kind of material is still an active research area. Naturally, the characteristic of hyperelastic material will be expressed when it undergoes large deformation, so the geometrical nonlinear effect should be considered. To analyze the behavior of hyperelastic material, the Neo-Hookean model is imposed in this study because of its simplicity. The model shows the nonlinear behavior when the deformation becomes large due to the nonlinear displacement-strain relation. This constitutive relation also gives a good correlation with experimental data. This study performs a meshless method, namely the radial point interpolation method (RPIM), to analyze the nonlinear behavior of Neo-Hookean hyperelastic material under a finite deformation state in three-dimensional space. The standard Newton-Raphson technique is applied to obtain the nonlinear solutions. Unlike mesh-based approaches, the meshless method shows its advantages in large deformation problems due to its mesh independence. In this paper, the numerical results of three-dimensional problems that undergo large deformation will be calculated and validated with solutions derived from previous studies. By investigating the obtained results, the superior ability of RPIM in hyperelastic problems can be proved.

A standards-based software tool to support prognostic modelling: application to exemplar heart failure risk scores

Abstract Introduction Heart failure prognosis is an active research area, with the development of several new risk scores each year. While risk score derivation and evaluation have become common practices, these processes currently lack standardisation. Purpose We aimed to: i) develop a standards-based software tool to support prognostic modelling; and ii) apply the tool to derive, evaluate and compare exemplar heart failure risk models to address a hypothetical question of whether using only non-invasive measurements provides similar prognosis value compared to adding invasive measurements. Methods A software tool was developed based on a prognostic modelling workflow defined using the Common Workflow Language and containing 7 steps: univariate Cox proportional hazard (PH) regression, multivariable Cox PH regression with assessment of proportional hazards and linearity with outcome (Schoenfeld and Martingale residuals), derivation of points per risk factor, risk calculation and stratification, discrimination and calibration assessment. Using data from the PEOPLE heart failure cohort [1], two integer-based risk scores were developed to predict 2-year all-cause mortality. The first model utilised 12 variables available at recruitment informed by prior analysis of the PEOPLE cohort to provide a benchmark for comparison, while the second model is based on 9 non-invasive parameters. The analysis was conducted on cases with complete data (n=781), with no internal or external validation. Results By inputting the dataset and indicating the variables of interest for each model, our software tool automatically generated the patient-specific risk scores, risk strata, c-index, and discrimination and calibration plots. A 12-parameter model based on age, sex, ejection fraction, hypertension, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, ischaemic history, NYHA class, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, creatinine and NT-proBNP yielded reasonable discrimination (c-index=0.77). Graphical assessment of risk strata and calibration (Fig. 1.a and c) revealed good performance overall, apart from the highest risk decile where survival was overestimated. The reduced 9-parameter model excluded creatinine, NT-proBNP, and automatically dropped diabetes status for non-linearity. It showed a substantial drop in discrimination (c-index=0.67), confirmed in graphical assessment of risk strata (Fig. 1.b). Calibration was more variable per decile than seen with the 12-parameter model but was more robust to survival overestimation (Fig. 1.d). Conclusion Our software tool ensures the uniformity and comparability of the two risk models derived by a common statistical process. In this example, we showed how the addition of NT-proBNP, creatinine, and diabetes status improves discrimination for predicting heart failure survival. This tool can be leveraged to test new hypotheses in a standardised and reproducible manner to enhance research in heart failure prognosis.

Preclinical development of SGN-CD47M: Protease-activated antibody technology enables selective tumor targeting of the innate immune checkpoint receptor CD47.

CD47 is a cell surface glycoprotein that is expressed on normal human tissues and has a key role as a marker of self. Tumor cells have coopted CD47 overexpression to evade immune surveillance and thus blockade of CD47 is a highly active area of clinical exploration in oncology. However, clinical development of CD47-targeted agents has been complicated by its robust expression in normal tissues and the toxicities that arise from blocking this inhibitory signal. Further, pro-phagocytic signals are not uniformly expressed in tumors and antibody blockade alone is often not sufficient to drive antitumor activity. The inclusion of an IgG1 antibody backbone into therapeutic design has been shown to serve as an additional pro-phagocytic signal but also exacerbates toxicities in normal tissues. Therefore, a need persists for more selective therapeutic modalities targeting CD47. To address these challenges, we developed SGN-CD47M, a humanized anti-CD47 IgG1 monoclonal antibody linked to novel masking peptides through linkers designed to be cleaved by active proteases enriched in the tumor microenvironment. Masking technology has the potential to increase the amount of drug that reaches the tumor microenvironment, while concomitantly reducing systemic toxicities. We demonstrate that SGN-CD47M is well tolerated in cynomolgus monkeys and displays a 20-fold improvement in tolerability to hematologic toxicities when compared to the unmasked antibody. SGN-CD47M also displays preferential activation in the tumor microenvironment that leads to robust single-agent antitumor activity. For these reasons, SGN-CD47M may have enhanced antitumor activity and improved tolerability relative to existing therapies that target the CD47-SIRPα interaction.

Implications for Paleontological Heritage Conservation: The Spatial Distribution and Potential Factors Controlling the Location of Fossil Sites of Shandong Province in China

Shandong Province in China is rich in paleontological fossils and has a long history of fossil research. However, research on the distribution characteristics and potential factors of discovered fossil sites in Shandong Province is limited and insufficient, making it difficult to comprehensively plan for the protection and utilization of fossil sites in Shandong Province. The study constructs a basic geographical information system (GIS) database with 133 discovered fossil sites and geological and socio-economic data of Shandong Province and studies fossil sites’ spatial distribution characteristics and the spatial relationship with potential factors at a regional scale. The results are as follows: (1) The fossil sites in Shandong Province are concentrated in the mountainous area of central Shandong and the hilly area of the Shandong Peninsula, with significant uneven distribution characteristics, including two agglomeration areas and seven sub-agglomeration areas. (2) Natural geographical conditions, such as topography, paleogeography, and stratigraphy, play a positive role in the distribution of fossil sites, and there are apparent concentrations in the following areas: at an altitude greater than 100 m; the Lower Paleozoic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks; and the active areas of paleo-tectonics. (3) A certain degree of negative correlation exists between socio-economic conditions, such as roads and population density, and the number of fossil sites, and a positive correlation exists between disposable personal income and those fossil sites. The operational procedure presented here is a simple, objective, applicable method that can enhance our understanding of the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors of the discovered fossil sites of Shandong Province and support more effective and appropriate planning for paleontological heritage conservation.

External Bleeding and Advanced Biomacromolecules for Hemostasis.

Hemorrhage is a significant medical problem that has been an active area of research over the past few decades. The human body has a complex response to bleeding that leads to blood clot formation and hemostasis. Many biomaterials based on various biomacromolecules have been developed to either accelerate or improve the body's natural response to bleeding. This review examines the mechanisms of hemostasis, types of bleeding, and the in vitro or in vivo models and techniques used to study bleeding and hemostatic materials. It provides a detailed overview of the diverse hemostatic materials, including those that are highly absorbent, wet adhesives, and those that accelerate the biochemical cascade of blood clotting. These materials are currently marketed, under preclinical testing, or being researched. In exploring the latest advancements in hemostatic technologies, this paper highlights the potential of these materials to significantly improve bleeding control in clinical and emergency situations.

Unravelling the Effect of Crystal Facet of Derived-Copper Catalysts on the Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide under Unified Mass Transport Condition.

Altering the physical structure and chemical property of copper, i.e., particle size, surface morphology, composition or crystal facet, has been demonstrated to be effective in steering the selectivity of products in electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. However, these modifications generally result in the change of active surface area, leading to differences in the geometric current density and local pH, which are also demonstrated to be the key factors for observed selectivity change. In this work, we deconvolute the effect of mass transport and local pH from the effect of crystal facet by investigating five copper-based catalysts with identical roughness factors for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide in an H-cell. Interestingly, CuO-derived catalyst stands out as the best catalyst for C-C coupling. At -1.07 V vs. RHE, the faradaic efficiency of C2+ product reaches 44.3%, with a partial current density of -10.8 mA cm-2. Electrochemical adsorption of *OH reveals that the C2+ product selectivity of derived-copper catalysts correlates positively with the ratio of Cu(100)/Cu(110) of five catalysts. Additionally, in situ Raman spectroscopy reveals that the percentage of low-frequency band linear CO (LFB-CO), which is attributed to the adsorbed *CO on Cu(100) facet, increases with the C-C coupling efficiency.

Unravelling the Effect of Crystal Facet of Derived‐Copper Catalysts on the Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide under Unified Mass Transport Condition

Altering the physical structure and chemical property of copper, i.e., particle size, surface morphology, composition or crystal facet, has been demonstrated to be effective in steering the selectivity of products in electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. However, these modifications generally result in the change of active surface area, leading to differences in the geometric current density and local pH, which are also demonstrated to be the key factors for observed selectivity change. In this work, we deconvolute the effect of mass transport and local pH from the effect of crystal facet by investigating five copper‐based catalysts with identical roughness factors for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide in an H‐cell. Interestingly, CuO‐derived catalyst stands out as the best catalyst for C‐C coupling. At ‐1.07 V vs. RHE, the faradaic efficiency of C2+ product reaches 44.3%, with a partial current density of ‐10.8 mA cm‐2. Electrochemical adsorption of *OH reveals that the C2+ product selectivity of derived‐copper catalysts correlates positively with the ratio of Cu(100)/Cu(110) of five catalysts. Additionally, in situ Raman spectroscopy reveals that the percentage of low‐frequency band linear CO (LFB‐CO), which is attributed to the adsorbed *CO on Cu(100) facet, increases with the C‐C coupling efficiency.

The Best DFT Functional Is the Ensemble of Functionals.

The development of better density functional theory (DFT) methods is one of the most active research areas, given the importance of DFT for ubiquitous molecular and materials simulations. However, this research primarily focuses on improving a specific exchange-correlation Kohn-Sham density functional. Here, a robust procedure is proposed for constructing transferable ensembles of density functionals that perform superior to any constituent individual density functional. It is shown that such ensembles built only with the density functionals predating the GMTKN55 benchmark of 2017 can reach a record-low weighted error of 1.62kcal mol-1 on this benchmark compared to 3.08kcal mol-1 of the best constituent density functional. The DENS24 density functional ensembles are also introduced as practical DFT methods with consistently accurate performance for various simulations at affordable cost. DENS24 ensembles are open-source and can be used for simulations online. Additionally, it is shown that the ensembles can be integrated into the SCF procedure by creating mixed DENS24 functionals, which have the same accuracy but are faster than ensembles of independent functionals.

23.5–27.5 GHz Band Doherty Power Amplifier Integrated Circuit Using 28 nm Bulk CMOS Process Based on Dynamic Power Dividing Network

This paper presents a Doherty power amplifier (DPA) integrated circuit (IC) designed to have enhanced gain, efficiency, and AM-AM characteristics through a dynamic power dividing technique, which can control the power dividing ratio according to the input power. Since this multi-purpose dynamic power dividing network also provides the phase offset and impedance matching at the interstage network needed for appropriate DPA operation, the active IC area could be reduced. To verify the proposed technique and its analysis, the DPA was implemented with a 28 nm bulk CMOS process for the fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) millimeter-wave frequency band of 23.5–27.5 GHz. The measured results showed a gain of 20.3–21.9 dB, saturated output power of 14.0–15.2 dBm, power added efficiency (PAE) of 22.8–26.7% at the peak power, and PAE of 14.6–17.6% at the 6 dB output power back-off (OBO).

Towards a Taxonomy Machine: A Training Set of 5.6 Million Arthropod Images

The taxonomic identification of organisms from images is an active research area within the machine learning community. Current algorithms are very effective for object recognition and discrimination, but they require extensive training datasets to generate reliable assignments. This study releases 5.6 million images with representatives from 10 arthropod classes and 26 insect orders. All images were taken using a Keyence VHX-7000 Digital Microscope system with an automatic stage to permit high-resolution (4K) microphotography. Providing phenotypic data for 324,000 species derived from 48 countries, this release represents, by far, the largest dataset of standardized arthropod images. As such, this dataset is well suited for testing the efficacy of machine learning algorithms for identifying specimens into higher taxonomic categories.

Neural mechanisms of fear responses to emotional stimuli: a preliminary study combining early posterior negativity and electroencephalogram source network analysis

Fear emotion is a typical negative emotion that is commonly present in daily life and significantly influences human behavior. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying negative emotions contributes to the improvement of diagnosing and treating disorders related to negative emotions. However, the neural mechanisms of the brain when faced with fearful emotional stimuli remain unclear. To this end, this study further combined electroencephalogram (EEG) source analysis and cortical brain network construction based on early posterior negativity (EPN) analysis to explore the differences in brain information processing mechanisms under fearful and neutral emotional picture stimuli from a spatiotemporal perspective. The results revealed that neutral emotional stimuli could elicit higher EPN amplitudes compared to fearful stimuli. Further source analysis of EEG data containing EPN components revealed significant differences in brain cortical activation areas between fearful and neutral emotional stimuli. Subsequently, more functional connections were observed in the brain network in the alpha frequency band for fearful emotions compared to neutral emotions. By quantifying brain network properties, we found that the average node degree and average clustering coefficient under fearful emotional stimuli were significantly larger compared to neutral emotions. These results indicate that combining EPN analysis with EEG source component and brain network analysis helps to explore brain functional modulation in the processing of fearful emotions with higher spatiotemporal resolution, providing a new perspective on the neural mechanisms of negative emotions.

Chromium oxide nanoparticles in‐situ immobilized onto nitrogen‐doped carbon plates with boosted catalytic activity toward nitrogen reduction reaction

AbstractA chromium oxide‐based nanocomposite (Cr2O3@NC) is designed and prepared via a simple pyrolysis route with Cr‐based metal organic framework (MOF) as a template. The research results indicate that Cr2O3 nanoparticles have an average size of ~70 nm and are in situ formed and imbedded onto the Cr‐based MOF‐derived 2D N‐doped carbon microplates. When employed as an inexpensive electrocatalyst for nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to synthesize ammonia, Cr2O3@NC demonstrates an improved and stable catalytic activity in comparison with bare Cr2O3. A large ammonia production rate of 29.42 μg mg−1cat h−1 under a lower potential of −0.4 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) can be acquired with a Faradic efficiency of 9.89% in sodium sulphate solution. Additionally, a satisfactory selectivity can also be achieved without hydrazine byproduct. The greatly promoted catalytic activity of Cr2O3@NC is regarded to be concerned with its desirable structures such as 2D planar topological structure with expanded active surface area, abundant catalytic sites, and effective combination with conductive carbon.

Research Trends and Hot Topics of Nursing Studies on Hypertension: A Retrospective Bibliometric Analysis From 1979 to 2024.

This study aimed to evaluate research trends and hot topics in the 45-year history of nursing studies on hypertension (1979-2024). This retrospective bibliometric analysis study was conducted with 2678 data obtained from the WoSCC database on April 1, 2024. Data analysis and graphical presentation were presented using the Bibliometrix Package in R software, VOSviewer, and WoSCC. The study revealed that nursing studies on hypertension were growing rapidly in the scientific world. The most productive journal in the field was the Journal of Clinical Nursing, while the most productive and collaborative country was the United States. "Frailty," "COVID-19," "complications," "Meta-analysis," "vital signs," "systematic review", "self-care," and "chronic disease" were determined as hot topics. "COVID-19" and "mhealth" were global trends. Additionally, the issues of "anxiety, pair, vital signs" and "elderly, nursing home, mortality" needed to be addressed more by nurses. Nursing studies on hypertension have increased to date. This area is likely to continue to be an active area of study for nursing researchers in the coming years. Focusing on the topics "anxiety, pair, vital signs" and "elderly, nursing home, mortality" will contribute to filling the gap in the field.