Co3O4 has received ever-growing interest as an electro-active material for supercapacitors due to its high theoretical specific capacitance (3560 F g−1) and simple synthesis process.

Amyloid diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are linked to a poorly understood progression of protein misfolding and aggregation events that culminate in tissue-selective deposition and human pathology. Elucidation of the mechanistic details of protein aggregation and the structural features of the aggregates is critical for a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of protein oligomerization and fibrillization. Vibrational spectroscopies, such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman, are powerful tools that are sensitive to the secondary structure of proteins and have been widely used to investigate protein misfolding and aggregation. We address the application of the vibrational approaches in recent studies of conformational dynamics and structural characteristics of protein oligomers and amyloid fibrils. In particular, introduction of isotope labelled carbonyl into a peptide backbone, and incorporation of the extrinsic unnatural amino acids with vibrational moieties on the side chain, have greatly expanded the ability of vibrational spectroscopy to obtain site-specific structural and dynamic information. The applications of these methods in recent studies of protein aggregation are also reviewed.

There has been a highly active area in the pain management of osteoarthritis (OA) over the past 2 decades. The study aims to unmask the global status and trends in this field. Publications on pain management of OA from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WOS) database. The data were analyzed using bibliometric statistical methodology. The software VOS viewer was used for bibliographic coupling, co-authorship, co-citation, co-occurrence analysis and to investigate the publication trends in pain management of OA. A total of 8207 researches in amount were included. The relative research interests and number of publications indicated a rising trend. The USA made the greatest contribution to this field, with the most publications, total citations and the highest H-index, while Sweden had the highest average citation per publication. The most contributive organization was Boston University. The journal OA and Cartilage published the most relative articles. Researches could be grouped into 5 clusters based on co-occurrence network map: Health and Epidemiology; Sport Medicine; Clinical Study; Mechanism Research and Medical Technology and Science. Medical Technology and Science was predicted as the next research topic in this field. The number of publications about pain management of OA would be increasing based on current global trends. The USA made the largest contribution to this field. The development of Medical Technology and Science may be the next popular topics in the pain management of OA research.

Nowadays, it is a matter of great concern to design electrode materials with excellent electrochemical performance for supercapacitors by a safe, efficient and simple method. And these characteristics are usually related to the vacancies and impurities in the electrode. To investigate the effect of the vacancies on the electrochemical properties of the supercapacitor cathode material, the uniform reduced CoNi 2 S 4 (r-CoNi 2 S 4 ) nanosheets with sulfur vacancies have been successfully prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method. And the formation of sulfur vacancies are characterized by Raman, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and other means. As the electrode for supercapacitor, the r-CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheet electrode delivers a high capacity of 1918.9 F g −1 at a current density of 1 A g −1 , superior rate capability (87.9% retention at a current density of 20 A g −1 ) and extraordinary cycling stability. Compared with the original CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheet electrode (1226 F g −1 at current density of 1 A g −1 ), the r-CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheet electrode shows a great improvement. The asymmetric supercapacitor based on the r-CoNi 2 S 4 positive electrode and activated carbon negative electrode exhibits a high energy density of 30.3 W h kg −1 at a power density of 802.1 W kg −1 , as well as excellent long-term cycling stability. The feasibility and great potential of the device in practical applications have been successfully proved by lightening the light emitting diodes of three different colors.