Despite progress in solid-state battery engineering, our understanding of the chemo-mechanical phenomena that govern electrochemical behaviour and stability at solid-solid interfaces remains limited ...compared to at solid-liquid interfaces. Here, we use operando synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography to investigate the evolution of lithium/solid-state electrolyte interfaces during battery cycling, revealing how the complex interplay among void formation, interphase growth and volumetric changes determines cell behaviour. Void formation during lithium stripping is directly visualized in symmetric cells, and the loss of contact that drives current constriction at the interface between lithium and the solid-state electrolyte (Li
SnP
S
) is quantified and found to be the primary cause of cell failure. The interphase is found to be redox-active upon charge, and global volume changes occur owing to partial molar volume mismatches at either electrode. These results provide insight into how chemo-mechanical phenomena can affect cell performance, thus facilitating the development of solid-state batteries.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK, ZAGLJ
Abstract
As the complexity of organic molecules utilized by mankind increases, the phenomenon of atropisomerism is more frequently encountered. While a variety of well-established methods enable the ...control of a stereogenic center, a catalytic method for controlling a stereogenic axis in one substrate is typically unavailable for controlling axial chirality in other substrates with a similar structure. Herein, we report
o
-amidobiaryl as a flexible platform for chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed atroposelective dynamic kinetic resolution. To demonstrate our strategy, three distinct types of arylindoles were utilized and reacted intermolecularly with ketomalonate in the presence of chiral phosphoric acid. An investigation of 46 substrates having an aromatic ring in different positions yields the desired products with excellent enantioselectivities. Computational investigation into the origin of enantioselectivity highlights the importance of the NH group. Given the biological significance of indoles, antiproliferative effects have been investigated; our scaffold exhibits good efficacy in this regard.
Unmanaged long-term mental stress in the workplace can lead to serious health problems and reduced productivity. To prevent this, it is important to recognize and relieve mental stress in a timely ...manner. Here, we propose a novel stress detection algorithm based on end-to-end deep learning using multiple physiological signals, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiration (RESP) signal. To mimic workplace stress in our experiments, we used Stroop and math tasks as stressors, with each stressor being followed by a relaxation task. Herein, we recruited 18 subjects and measured both ECG and RESP signals using Zephyr BioHarness 3.0. After five-fold cross validation, the proposed network performed well, with an average accuracy of 83.9%, an average F1 score of 0.81, and an average area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.92, demonstrating its superiority over conventional machine learning models. Furthermore, by visualizing the activation of the trained network's neurons, we found that they were activated by specific ECG and RESP patterns. In conclusion, we successfully validated the feasibility of end-to-end deep learning using multiple physiological signals for recognition of mental stress in the workplace. We believe that this is a promising approach that will help to improve the quality of life of people suffering from long-term work-related mental stress.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
The modern concept of diet formulation for protein is to balance for amino acids (AA). The expectation of feeding a diet with balanced AA is better dietary N utilization, leading to ...decreased protein content in a diet and less N excretion. Feeding rumen protected (RP) AA can be a good option to increase some of AA that are short in supply. RP-Met and -Lys have been largely studied with early- and mid-lactation cows, and meta-analyses are available. Although studies that showed no responses to RP-AA exist, results of meta-analyses were consistent that RP-Met is effective to increase milk protein and fat yield. When RP-Met and -Lys were fed together, positive effects on milk yield and composition were also shown. If a diet adequate or slightly deficient in protein is fed especially at commercial farms, RP-His has large potential to increase production of high producing cows. Although cows have the ability to utilize digestible His efficiently for milk protein when the supply is short, studies consistently showed that additional supply of His increased milk yield and milk protein yield when His supply is insufficient. However, RP-His is not commercially available yet. Studies about transition cows with RP-AA are relatively limited, and results are variable. The inclusion of RP-Met and Lys in prepartum and postpartum diets were determined assuming that the requirements of AA are the same as early- or mid-lactating cows. In the transition cow studies, if positive production effects (e.g., milk and milk protein yield) were observed, DMI was often increased with RP-AA. If DMI was not affected, then production was not affected by RP-AA or milk fat yield was sometimes increased. The inconsistent results likely indicate potential differences in AA requirements between transition cows and early lactation cows. Because of the negative energy and protein balance postpartum, studies showed positive production responses consistently to increased dietary protein concentration. One study compared production responses between a postpartum diet with increased protein without considering AA profile and diet with increased protein with considering AA profile (casein AA). No difference in milk yield and composition was found, suggesting that the quantity of protein supply is more important than quality, or digestible AA mimicking casein AA is not ideal for transition cows. There are key components to consider when RP-AA are fed to cows to potentially increase responses. Because utilization efficiency of AA for protein synthesis decreases as the supply increases, excessive supply of AA should be avoided. To adequately supply certain AA via RP-AA, knowing accurate bioavailability of RP-AA is essential. However, recent studies questioned in vitro and in situ methods about its accuracy. Development of a gold standard in vivo method to calibrate in vitro or in situ methods is necessary.
Bacterial cellulose nanofiber (BCNF) with high thermal stability produced by an ecofriendly process has emerged as a promising solution to realize safe and sustainable materials in the large-scale ...battery. However, an understanding of the actual thermal behavior of the BCNF in the full-cell battery has been lacking, and the yield is still limited for commercialization. Here, we report the entire process of BCNF production and battery manufacture. We systematically constructed a strain with the highest yield (31.5%) by increasing metabolic flux and improved safety by introducing a Lewis base to overcome thermochemical degradation in the battery. This report will open ways of exploiting the BCNF as a “single-layer” separator, a good alternative to the existing chemical-derived one, and thus can greatly contribute to solving the environmental and safety issues.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Hepatic fibrosis is the first stage of liver disease, and can progress to a chronic status, such as cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Excessive production of extracellular matrix (ECM) ...components plays an important role in the development of fibrosis. Mechanistically, transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ)-induced phosphorylation of Smad is thought to be a key signaling pathway in the development of liver fibrosis. Although the natural isoquinoline alkaloid oxoglaucine (1,2,9,10-tetramethoxy-7H-dibenzo(de,g)quinolin-7-one) exerts numerous beneficial effects, including anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-osteoarthritic effects in diverse cell types, the effects of oxoglaucine on liver fibrosis and fibrogenic gene expression have not been fully elucidated. The aim of this study is to evaluate the signaling pathway and antifibrotic activity of isoquinoline alkaloid oxoglaucine in TFGβ-induced hepatic fibrosis in vitro. Using Hepa1c1c7 cells and primary hepatocytes, we demonstrated that oxoglaucine treatment resulted in inhibition of the expression of fibrosis markers such as collagen, fibronectin, and alpha-SMA. Subsequent experiments showed that oxoglaucine suppressed TGFβ-induced phosphorylation of Smad2 and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, without altering cell proliferation. We further determined that the increase in Smad7 by oxoglaucine treatment is responsible for the inhibition of Smad2 phosphorylation and the anti-fibrogenic effects. These findings indicate that oxoglaucine plays a crucial role in suppression of fibrosis in hepatocytes, thereby making it a potential drug candidate for treatment of liver fibrosis.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
•An MR-compatible system for mice MRI was fabricated via optimization of ultrasound transducer components.•EPI was conducted concurrently with ultrasound sonication using a 9.4 T high resolution MRI ...scanner.•Visualization of ultrasound-induced heat effects was shown as local EPI signal changes at the beam focus.
Visualization of focused ultrasound in high spatial and temporal resolution is crucial for accurately and precisely targeting brain regions noninvasively. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the most widely used noninvasive tool for whole-brain imaging. However, focused ultrasound studies employing high-resolution (> 9.4 T) MRI in small animals are limited by the small size of the radiofrequency (RF) volume coil and the noise sensitivity of the image to external systems such as bulky ultrasound transducers. This technical note reports a miniaturized ultrasound transducer system packaged directly above a mouse brain for monitoring ultrasound-induced effects using high-resolution 9.4 T MRI. Our miniaturized system integrates MR-compatible materials with electromagnetic (EM) noise reduction techniques to demonstrate echo-planar imaging (EPI) signal changes in the mouse brain at various ultrasound acoustic intensities. The proposed ultrasound-MRI system will enable extensive research in the expanding field of ultrasound therapeutics.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract
Background
Health space (HS) is a statistical way of visualizing individual’s health status in multi-dimensional space. In this study, we propose a novel HS in two-dimensional space based on ...scores of metabolic stress and of oxidative stress.
Methods
These scores were derived from three statistical models: logistic regression model, logistic mixed effect model, and proportional odds model. HSs were developed using Korea National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey data with 32,140 samples. To evaluate and compare the performance of the HSs, we also developed the Health Space Index (HSI) which is a quantitative performance measure based on the approximate 95% confidence ellipses of HS.
Results
Through simulation studies, we confirmed that HS from the proportional odds model showed highest power in discriminating health status of individual (subject). Further validation studies were conducted using two independent cohort datasets: a health examination dataset from Ewha-Boramae cohort with 862 samples and a population-based cohort from the Korea association resource project with 3,199 samples.
Conclusions
These validation studies using two independent datasets successfully demonstrated the usefulness of the proposed HS.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Recent progress in molecular analysis has advanced the understanding of medulloblastoma (MB) and is anticipated to facilitate management of the disease. MB is composed of 4 molecular subgroups: WNT, ...SHH, Group 3, and Group 4. Macrophages play a crucial role in the tumor microenvironment; however, the functional role of their activated phenotype (M1/M2) remains controversial. Herein, we investigate the correlation between tumor-associated macrophage (TAM) recruitment within the MB subgroups and prognosis.
Molecular subgrouping was performed by a nanoString-based RNA assay on retrieved snap-frozen tissue samples. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) assays were performed on subgroup identified samples, and the number of polarized macrophages was quantified from IHC. Survival analyses were conducted on collected clinical data and quantified macrophage data.
TAM (M1/M2) recruitment in SHH MB was significantly higher compared to that in other subgroups. A Kaplan-Meier survival curve and multivariate Cox regression demonstrated that high M1 expressers showed worse overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) than low M1 expressers in SHH MB, with relative risk (RR) values of 11.918 and 6.022, respectively.
M1 rather than M2 correlates more strongly with worse outcome in SHH medulloblastoma.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) is used to provide centimeter-level positioning accuracy. There are several ways to implement RTK but a Kalman ...filter-based RTK is preferred because of its superior capability to resolve GNSS carrier phase integer ambiguities. However, the positioning performance of the Kalman filter-based RTK is often compromised by various factors when it comes to determining a precise relative position vector between moving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with low-cost GNSS receivers and antennas, where the locations of both GNSS antennas are not accurately known and change over time. Some of the critical factors that lead to a high rate of incorrect resolutions of carrier phase integer ambiguities are measurement time differences between GNSS receivers, frequent cycle slips with high noise in code and carrier phase measurements, and an improper Kalman filter gain due to a newly risen satellite. In this paper, effective methods to deal with those factors to achieve a seamless Kalman filter-based RTK performance in moving UAVs are presented. Using our extensive 45 flight tests data sets, conducted over a duration of 3 to 12 min, the RTK positioning results showed that the root-mean-square position error (RMSE) decreased by up to 95.13%, with an average of 65.31%, and that the percentage of epochs that passed the ratio test, which is the most common method for validating double differenced carrier phase integer ambiguity resolution, increased by up to 130%, with an average of 23.54%.
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