Earth-abundant MoS 2 is widely reported as a promising HER electrocatalyst in acidic solutions, but it exhibits extremely poor HER activities in alkaline media due to the slow water dissociation process. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental approach to improve the sluggish HER kinetics of MoS 2 electrocatalysts through engineering the water dissociation sites by doping Ni atoms into MoS 2 nanosheets. The Ni sites thus introduced can effectively reduce the kinetic energy barrier of the initial water-dissociation step and facilitate the desorption of the À OH that are formed. As a result, the developed Ni-doped MoS 2 nanosheets (Ni-MoS 2 ) show an extremely low HER overpotential of B98 mV at 10 mA cm À2 in 1 M KOH aqueous solution, which is superior to those (4220 mV at 10 mA cm À2 ) of reported MoS 2 electrocatalysts.

To achieve sustainable production of H 2 fuel through water splitting,low-cost electrocatalysts for the hydrogen-evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) are required to replace Pt and IrO 2 catalysts. Herein, for the first time,w ep resent the interface engineering of novel MoS 2 /Ni 3 S 2 heterostructures,i nw hicha bundant interfaces are formed. ForOER, such MoS 2 /Ni 3 S 2 heterostructures showa ne xtremely lowo verpotential of ca. 218 mV at 10 mA cm À2 ,w hichi ss uperior to that of the state-of-the-art OER electrocatalysts.U sing MoS 2 /Ni 3 S 2 heterostructures as bifunctional electrocatalysts,a na lkali electrolyzer delivers acurrent density of 10 mA cm À2 at avery lowcell voltage of ca. 1.56 V. In combination with DFT calculations,t his study demonstrates that the constructed interfaces synergistically favor the chemisorption of hydrogen and oxygen-containing intermediates,t hus accelerating the overall electrochemical water splitting.

Three G protein alpha subunit genes have been cloned and characterized from Magnaporthe grisea: magA is very similar to CPG-2 of Cryphonectria parasitica; magB is virtually identical to CPG-1 of Cryphonectria parasitica, to gna1 of Neurospora crassa, and to fadA of Emericella nidulans; and magC is most similar to gna2 of Neurospora crassa. Homologous recombination resulting in targeted deletion of magA had no effect on vegetative growth, conidiation, or appressorium formation. Deletion of magC reduced conidiation, but did not affect vegetative growth or appressorium formation. However, disruption of magB significantly reduced vegetative growth, conidiation, and appressorium formation. magB- transformants, unlike magA- and magC- transformants, exhibited a reduced ability to infect and colonize susceptible rice leaves. G protein alpha subunit genes are required for M. grisea mating. magB- transformants failed to form perithecia, whereas magA- and magC- transformants did not produce mature asci. These results suggest that G protein alpha subunit genes are involved in signal transduction pathways in M. grisea that control vegetative growth, conidiation, conidium attachment, appressorium formation, mating, and pathogenicity.

Objectives: This review fills the paucity of information on K. pneumoniae as a nosocomial pathogen by providing pooled data on epidemiological risk factors, resistant trends and profiles and resistant and virulent genes of this organism in Asia. Methods:Exhaustive search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, and Google scholar for most studies addressing the prevalence, risk factors, drug resistant-mediated genes and/or virulent factors of K. pneumoniae in Asia. Data extracted for meta-analysis were analyzed using comprehensive meta-analysis version 3. Trends data for the isolation rate and resistance rates were entered into Excel spread sheet and the results were presented in graphs. Results: The prevalence rate of drug resistance in K. pneumoniae were; amikacin (40.8%) [95% CI 31.9-50.4], aztreonam (73.3%) [95% CI 59.9-83.4], ceftazidime (75.7%) [95% CI 65.4-83.6], ciprofloxacin (59.8%) [95% CI 48.6-70.1], colistin (2.9%) [95% CI 1.8-4.4], cefotaxime (79.2%) [95% CI 68.0-87.2], cefepime (72.6) [95% CI 57.7-83.8] and imipenem (65.6%) [95% CI 30.8-89.0]. TEM (39.5%) [95% CI 15.4-70.1], SHV-11 (41.8%) [95% CI 16.2-72.6] and KPC-2 (14.6%)[95% CI 6.0-31.4] were some of the resistance mediated genes observed in this study. The most virulent factors utilized by K. pneumoniae are; hypermucoviscous phenotype and mucoviscosity-related genes, genes for biosynthesis of lipopolysaccharide, iron uptake and transport genes and finally, adhesive genes. Conclusion:It can be concluded that, antimicrobial resistant in K. pneumoniae is a clear and present danger in Asia which needs strong surveillance to curb this menace. It is very important for public healthcare departments to monitor and report changes in antimicrobial-resistant isolates.

Graphene-based compact nanohybrid films made by alternate deposition of electrochemically exfoliated graphene and mesoporous graphene-conducting polymer nanosheets are constructed for high-energy micro-supercapacitors. They are shown to have a landmark areal capacitance of 368 mF cm(-2) and volumetric capacitance of 736 F cm(-3) .