These data support the hypothesis that PsA may be associated with obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and insulin resistance because of the shared inflammatory pathway.

Objective. To examine the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) compared with healthy controls, and to identify clinical and biologic markers for atherosclerotic disease in this patient population. Methods. Subclinical atherosclerosis was defined as the average of intima-media thickness (IMT) measures in the common carotid artery, bifurcation, and internal carotid artery on both sides above the 95th percentile of healthy controls. IMT was measured using carotid ultrasonography in 82 consecutive PsA patients and 82 healthy controls matched on age, sex, and ethnicity. We also ascertained traditional and novel cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, Framingham risk score (FRS), disease severity, treatment, and inflammatory markers in all PsA patients. Results. No PsA patients had clinically overt CV diseases. After adjusting for traditional CV risk factors, PsA patients had a higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis. PsA patients with subclinical atherosclerosis had significantly increased sugar, total triglyceride levels, total cholesterol/high-density cholesterol, white cell count, and patients' global assessment score compared with those without subclinical atherosclerosis. Using logistic regression analysis, independent explanatory variables associated with subclinical atherosclerosis in PsA included increased sugar and total triglyceride levels. The FRS was similar in PsA patients with or without subclinical atherosclerosis. Twenty-six (35%) of 74 patients had subclinical atherosclerosis despite having a low CV risk. Conclusion. PsA is associated with subclinical atherosclerosis after adjusting for traditional CV risk factors. Independent explanatory variables associated with subclinical atherosclerosis in PsA included increased sugar and total triglyceride levels. Carotid IMT can identify PsA patients with subclinical atherosclerosis who may benefit from early intervention.

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Constructing heterojunction is an effective strategy to develop high-performance non-precious-metal-based catalysts for electrochemical water splitting (WS). Herein, we design and prepare an N-doped-carbon-encapsulated Ni/MoO2 nano-needle with three-phase heterojunction (Ni/MoO2@CN) for accelerating the WS under industrial alkaline condition. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the electrons are redistributed at the three-phase heterojunction interface, which optimizes the adsorption energy of H- and O-containing intermediates to obtain the best ΔGH* for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and decrease the ΔG value of rate-determining step for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thus enhancing the HER/OER catalytic activity. Electrochemical results confirm that Ni/MoO2@CN exhibits good activity for HER (ƞ-10 = 33 mV, ƞ-1000 = 267 mV) and OER (ƞ10 = 250 mV, ƞ1000 = 420 mV). It shows a low potential of 1.86 V at 1000 mA cm−2 for WS in 6.0 M KOH solution at 60 °C and can steadily operate for 330 h. This good HER/OER performance can be attributed to the three-phase heterojunction with high intrinsic activity and the self-supporting nano-needle with more active sites, faster mass diffusion, and bubbles release. This work provides a unique idea for designing high efficiency catalytic materials for WS.

Urea electrolysis has prospects for urea-containing wastewater purification and hydrogen (H 2 ) production, but the shortage of cost-effective catalysts restricts its development. In this work, the tomentum-like FeNi 3 -MoO 2 heterojunction nanosheets array self-supported on nickel foam (NF) as bifunctional catalyst is prepared by facile hydrothermal and annealing method. Only 1.29 V and −50.8 mV is required to obtain ±10 mA cm −2 for urea oxidation and hydrogen evolution reaction (UOR and HER), respectively, showing great bifunctional catalytic activity. For overall urea electrolysis, it only needs 1.37 V to reach 10 mA cm −2 and can last at 100 mA cm −2 for 70 h without obvious activity attenuation, showing outstanding durability. Coupling interface constructions of FeNi 3 -MoO 2 heterostructures, novel morphology with a mesoporous and self-supporting structure could be the reason for this good performance. This work thus proposes a promising catalyst for boosting UOR and HER to realize efficient overall urea electrolysis.

Developing efficient bifunctional water electrolysis catalysts applied at large current density is desirable. Herein, an amorphous CoO xdecorated crystalline RuO 2 nanosheet catalyst self-supported on nickel foam (CoO x −RuO 2 /NF) with high performance for both oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction (OER and HER) is prepared successfully by hydrothermal method and annealing. The overpotentials at ±1500 mA cm −2 for OER and HER are 420 and 215 mV, respectively, in 1.0 M KOH solution. Remarkably, it shows good durability with small decline in performance after 48 h durability test for OER and HER at ±1500 mA cm −2 . Furthermore, it only needs 1.49 V to reach 10 mA cm −2 for overall water splitting (OWS); the decline of activity is satisfactory after 48 h durability test at 1500 mA cm −2 . The reason could be because of the sufficient active sites generated by the crystalline−amorphous combination and self-supporting nanosheet structure. This work therefore proposes an effective strategy for preparing a high-performance OWS catalyst, especially at large current density.

The study adds more evidence that exposure to air pollution has adverse effects on lung function growth in schoolchildren.

Developing highly effective and stable non-noble metal-based bifunctional catalyst working at high current density is an urgent issue for water electrolysis (WE). Herein, we prepare the N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy coupled with mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet grown on 3D nickel foam (NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF) for water splitting. NiCo@C-NiCoMoO/NF exhibits outstanding activity with low overpotentials for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reaction (HER: 39/266 mV; OER: 260/390 mV) at ± 10 and ± 1000 mA cm−2. More importantly, in 6.0 M KOH solution at 60 °C for WE, it only requires 1.90 V to reach 1000 mA cm−2 and shows excellent stability for 43 h, exhibiting the potential for actual application. The good performance can be assigned to N-doped graphene-decorated NiCo alloy and mesoporous NiCoMoO nano-sheet, which not only increase the intrinsic activity and expose abundant catalytic activity sites, but also enhance its chemical and mechanical stability. This work thus could provide a promising material for industrial hydrogen production.