Involving eight electron transfer process and multiple intermediates of nitrate (NO3−) reduction reaction leads to a sluggish kinetic and low Faradaic efficiency, therefore, it is essential to get an insight into the reaction mechanism to develop highly efficient electrocatalyst. Herein, a series of reduced‐graphene‐oxide‐supported RuCu alloy catalysts (RuxCux/rGO) are fabricated and used for the direct reduction of NO3− to NH3. It is found that the Ru1Cu10/rGO shows the ammonia formation rate of 0.38 mmol cm−2 h−1 (loading 1 mg cm−2) and the ammonia Faradaic efficiency of 98% under an ultralow potential of −0.05 V versus Reversible Hydrogen Electode (RHE), which is comparable to Ru catalyst. The highly efficient activity of Ru1Cu10/rGO can be attributed to the synergetic effect between Ru and Cu sites via a relay catalysis, in which the Cu shows the exclusively efficient activity for the reduction of NO3− to NO2− and Ru exhibits the superior activity for NO2− to NH3. In addition, the doping of Ru into Cu tunes the d‐band center of alloy and effectively modulates the adsorption energy of the NO3− and NO2−, which promotes the direct reduction of NO3− to NH3. This synergetic electrocatalysis strategy opens a new avenue for developing highly efficient multifunctional catalysts.

The crystal structures of all layered ternary carbides called '312' phases including Ti 3 AlC 2 , Ti 3 SiC 2 and Ti 3 GeC 2 have been fully optimized by means of ab initio total-energy calculations. The equilibrium lattice parameters, the atomic positions in the unit cell and interatomic distances have been determined. The differences between the calculated and the measured lattice constants are generally less than 1%. It is also shown that c/a of the hexagonal lattices decreases from Ti 3 AlC 2 to Ti 3 GeC 2 . The calculated bulk moduli are 190 GPa for Ti 3 AlC 2 , 202 GPa for Ti 3 SiC 2 and 198 GPa for Ti 3 GeC 2 , respectively, which are comparable to that of TiC. The electronic structures reveal that the Ti(1, 2) and C atoms form a strong Ti(2)-C-Ti(1)-C-Ti(2) covalent bond chain, while the bonding between Ti(2) and M (M = Al, Si, Ge) is relatively weak. The strong Ti(2)-C-Ti(1)-C-Ti(2) covalent bond chain corresponds to the high strength and modulus, while the metallic bond corresponds to the metallic conductivity of these ternaries.

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Genetic variants in the 22q11 gene ZDHHC8, which encodes a putative transmembrane palmitoyltransferase, has been associated to schizophrenia in family-based linkage disequilibrium (LD) studies. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs175174 (A/G), which had the strongest association, has been shown recently to regulate the level of the fully functional transcript by modulating the retention of intron 4 of ZDHHC8. In this work, we genotyped three genetic variants within the ZDHHC8 locus and conducted association studies in both population- and family-based samples of the Han Chinese population. The three polymorphisms spanning approximately 5.5 Kb were detected to be in significant LD. Our results provided compelling supportive evidence for association of the variants within the ZDHHC8 locus with schizophrenia but revealed different risk allele at SNP rs175174. The G allele was significantly more common in cases than in controls (69.47 : 59.96%; P=0.000018) and excess transmission of the same allele was confirmed in the family-based transmission disequilibrium test (transmitted/non-transmitted=87 : 54; P=0.0055). Both sample sets even shared the same risk haplotype with similar frequency. Our current data presents consistent association results obtained from both case-control and family-based samples in a same laboratory under the same experimental condition. Despite the potential genetic heterogeneity, our independent findings further support that the 22q11 region is likely to harbor candidate schizophrenia susceptibility genes.

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PurposeHospitalization brings considerable economic pressure on COPD patients in China. A clear understanding of hospitalization costs for patients with COPD is warranted to improve treatment strategies and to control costs. Currently, investigation on factors contributing to hospitalization costs for patients with COPD in China is limited. This study aimed to measure the hospitalization costs of COPD and to determine the contributing factors.Patients and methodsMedical record data from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from January 2016 to December 2016 were used for a retrospective analysis. Patients who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of COPD were included. Patient characteristics, medical treatment, and hospitalization costs were analyzed by descriptive statistics and multivariable regression.ResultsAmong the 1,943 patients included in this study, 87.85% patients were male; the mean (SD) age was 71.15 (9.79) years; 94.49% patients had comorbidities; and 82.30% patients had health insurance. Regarding medical treatment, the mean (SD) length of stay was 9.38 (7.65) days; 11.12% patients underwent surgery; 87.91% used antibiotics; and 4.53% underwent emergency treatment. For hospitalization costs, the mean (SD) of the total costs per COPD patient per admission was 24,372.75 (44,173.87) CNY (3,669.33 [6,650.38] USD), in which Western medicine fee was the biggest contributor (45.53%) followed by diagnosis fee (27.00%) and comprehensive medical fee (12.04%). Regression found that reimbursement (−0.032; 95% CI −0.046 to 0.007), length of stay (0.738; 95% CI 0.832–0.892), comorbidity (0.044; 95% CI 0.029–0.093), surgery (0.145; 95% CI 0.120–0.170), antibiotic use (0.086; 95% CI 0.060–0.107), and emergency treatment (0.121; 95% CI 0.147–0.219) were significantly (P<0.01) associated with total hospitalization costs.ConclusionTo control hospitalization costs for COPD patients in China, the significance of comorbidity, length of stay, antibiotic use, surgery, and emergency treatment suggests the importance of controlling the COPD progression and following clinical guidelines for inpatients. Interventions such as examination of pulmonary function for early detection, quality control of medical treatment, and patient education warrant further investigation.