Aqueous rechargeable zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted considerable attention as a promising candidate for low‐cost and high‐safety electrochemical energy storage. However, the advancement of ...ZIBs is strongly hindered by the sluggish ionic diffusion and structural instability of inorganic metal oxide cathode materials during the Zn2+ insertion/extraction. To address these issues, a new organic host material, poly(2,5‐dihydroxy‐1,4‐benzoquinonyl sulfide) (PDBS), has been designed and applied for zinc ion storage due to its elastic structural factors (tunable space and soft lattice). The aqueous Zn‐organic batteries based on the PDBS cathode show outstanding cycling stability and rate capability. The coordination moieties (O and S) display the strong electron donor character during the discharging process and can act as the coordination arms to host Zn2+. Also, under the electrochemical environment, the malleable polymer structure of PDBS permits the rotation and bending of polymer chains to facilitate the insertion/extraction of Zn2+, manifesting the superiority and uniqueness of organic electrode materials in the polyvalent cation storage. Finally, quasi‐solid‐state batteries based on aqueous gel electrolyte demonstrate highly stable capacity under different bending conditions.
A new organic polymer has been identified as a cathode material for efficient zinc ion storage due to its elastic structural factors. The coordination moieties (O and S) display strong electron donor character during the charging process and can act as the coordination arms to synergistically host Zn2+, manifesting the superiority and uniqueness of organic electrode materials in the multi‐valence cation storage.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Daily and monthly maximum and minimum surface air temperatures at 66 weather stations over the eastern and central Tibetan Plateau with elevations above 2000 m were analyzed for temporal trends and ...spatial variation patterns during the period 1961–2003. Statistically significant warming trends were identified in various measures of the temperature regime, such as temperatures of extreme events and diurnal temperature range. The warming trends in winter nighttime temperatures were among the highest when compared with other regions. We also confirmed the asymmetric pattern of greater warming trends in minimum or nighttime temperatures as compared to the daytime temperatures. The warming in regional climate caused the number of frost days to decrease significantly and the number of warm days to increase. The length of the growing season increased by approximately 17 days during the 43‐year study period. Most of the record‐setting months for cold events were found in the earlier part of the study period, while that of the warm events occurred mostly in the later half, especially since the 1990s. The changes in the temperature regime in this region may have brought regional‐specific impacts on the ecosystems. It was found that grain production in Qinghai Province, located in the area of prominent warming trends, exhibited strong correlations with the temperatures, although such relationships were obscured by the influence of precipitation in this arid/semiarid environment in juniper tree ring records. In western Sichuan Province under a more humid environment, the tree growth (spruces) was more closely related to the changing temperatures.
Acute kidney injury (AKI) may develop in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and is associated with in‐hospital death. We investigated the incidence of AKI in 223 hospitalized COVID‐19 ...patients and analyzed the influence factors of AKI. The incidence of cytokine storm syndrome and its correlation with other clinicopathologic variables were also investigated. We retrospectively enrolled adult patients with virologically confirmed COVID‐19 who were hospitalized at three hospitals in Wuhan and Guizhou, China between February 13, 2020, and April 8, 2020. We included 124 patients with moderate COVID‐19 and 99 with severe COVID‐19. AKI was present in 35 (15.7%) patients. The incidence of AKI was 30.3% for severe COVID‐19 and 4.0% for moderate COVID‐19 (p < 0.001). Furthermore, cytokine storm was found in 30 (13.5%) patients and only found in the severe group. Kidney injury at admission (odds ratio OR: 3.132, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.150–8.527; p = 0.025), cytokine storm (OR: 4.234, 95% CI: 1.361–13.171; p = 0.013), and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (OR: 7.684, 95% CI: 2.622–22.523; p < 0.001) were influence factors of AKI. Seventeen (48.6%) patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation developed AKI, of whom 64.7% (11/17) died. Up to 86.7% of AKI patients with cytokine storms may develop a secondary bacterial infection. The leukocyte counts were significantly higher in AKI patients with cytokine storm than in those without (13.0 × 10⁹/L, interquartile range IQR 11.3 vs. 8.3 × 10⁹/L, IQR 7.5, p = 0.005). Approximately 1/6 patients with COVID‐19 eventually develop AKI. Kidney injury at admission, cytokine storm and ARDS are influence factors of AKI. Cytokine storm and secondary bacterial infections may be responsible for AKI development in COVID‐19 patients.
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Reference evapotranspiration (RET), an indicator of atmospheric evaporating capability over a hypothetical reference surface, was calculated using the Penman‐Monteith method for 75 stations across ...the Qinghai‐Tibetan Plateau between 1971 and 2004. Generally, both annual and seasonal RET decreased for most part of the plateau during the study period. Multivariate linear models were used to determine the contributions of climate factors to RET change, including air temperature, air humidity, solar radiation, and wind speed. Spatial differences in the causes of RET change were detected by K‐means clustering analysis. It indicates that wind speed predominated the changes of RET almost throughout the year, especially in the north of the study region, whereas radiation was the leading factor in the southeast, especially during the summertime. Although the recent warming trend over the plateau would have increased RET, the combined effect of the reduced wind speed and shortened sunshine duration negated the effect of rising temperature and caused RET to decrease in general. The significant decrease in surface wind speed corresponded to the decreasing trends of upper‐air zonal wind and the decline of pressure gradient, possibly as a result of the recent warming.
Lithium (Li) metal is promising in the next‐generation energy storage systems. However, its practical application is still hindered by the poor cycling performance and serious safety issues for the ...consequence of dendritic Li. Herein, a dendrite‐free Li/carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid is proposed, which is fabricated by direct coating molten Li on CNTs, for Li‐metal batteries. The favorable thermodynamic and kinetic conditions are the powerful force to drive the rapid lift upwards and infusion of molten Li into CNTs network, which is the key to form a uniform metallic layer in Li/CNTs hybrid. The obtained hybrid indicates super‐stable functions even at an ultrahigh current density of 40 mA cm−2 for 2000 cycles with a stripping/plating capacity of 2 mAh cm−2 in symmetric cells. Subsequently, this hybrid also demonstrates a significantly decreased resistance, excellent cycling stability at high current density and flexibility in the full Li‐S battery. This work provides valuable concepts in fabricating Li anodes toward Li‐metal batteries and beyond for their high‐level services.
A dendrite‐free Li/carbon nanotube (CNT) hybrid is fabricated by direct coating of molten Li on CNTs for Li‐metal batteries. Favorable thermodynamic and kinetic conditions are a powerful force to drive the rapid lift upward and infusion of molten Li into CNTs network. The obtained hybrid exhibits superstable function even at an ultrahigh current density.
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Global warming has obtained more and more attention because the global mean surface temperature has increased since the late 19th century. As more than 50% of the human population lives in cities, ...urbanization has become an important contributor for global warming. Pearl River Delta (PRD) in Guangdong Province, southern China, is one of the regions experiencing rapid urbanization that has resulted in remarkable Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which will be sure to influence the regional climate, environment, and socio-economic development. In this study, Landsat TM and ETM+ images from 1990 to 2000 in the PRD were selected to retrieve the brightness temperatures and land use/cover types. A new index, Normalized Difference Bareness Index (NDBaI), was proposed to extract bare land from the satellite images. Additionally, Shenzhen, which has experienced the fastest urbanization in Guangdong Province, was taken as an example to analyze the temperature distribution and changes within a large city as its size expanded in the past decade. Results show that the UHI effect has become more prominent in areas of rapid urbanization in the PRD region. The spatial distribution of heat islands has been changed from a mixed pattern, where bare land, semi-bare land and land under development were warmer than other surface types, to extensive UHI. Our analysis showed that higher temperature in the UHI was located with a scattered pattern, which was related to certain land-cover types. In order to analyze the relationship between UHI and land-cover changes, this study attempted to employ a quantitative approach in exploring the relationship between temperature and several indices, including the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Normalized Difference Bareness Index (NDBaI) and Normalized Difference Build-up Index (NDBI). It was found that correlations between NDVI, NDWI, NDBaI and temperature are negative when NDVI is limited in range, but positive correlation is shown between NDBI and temperature.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
It remains unclear whether and how cardiomyocytes contribute to the inflammation in chronic heart failure (CHF). We recently reviewed the capacity of cardiomyocytes to initiate inflammation, by means ...of expressing certain immune receptors such as toll‐like receptors (TLRs) that respond to pathogen‐ and damage‐associated molecular patterns (PAMP and DAMP). Previous studies observed TLR4‐mediated inflammation within days of myocardial infarction (MI). This study examined TLR4 expression and function in cardiomyocytes of failing hearts after 4 weeks of MI in rats. The increases of TLR4 mRNA and proteins, as well as inflammatory cytokine production, were observed in both the infarct and remote myocardium. Enhanced immunostaining for TLR4 was observed in cardiomyocytes but not infiltrating leucocytes. The injection of lentivirus shRNA against TLR4 into the infarcted heart decreased inflammatory cytokine production and improved heart function in vivo. Accordingly, in cardiomyocytes isolated from CHF hearts, increases of TLR4 mRNA and proteins were detected. More robust binding of TLR4 with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a PAMP ligand for TLR4, and heat shock protein 60 (HSP60), a DAMP ligand for TLR4, was observed in CHF cardiomyocytes under a confocal microscope. The maximum binding capacity (Bmax) of TLR4 was increased for LPS and HSP60, whereas the binding affinity (Kd) was not significantly changed. Furthermore, both LPS and HSP60 induced more robust production of inflammatory cytokines in CHF cardiomyocytes, which was reduced by TLR4‐blocking antibodies. We conclude that the expression, ligand‐binding capacity and pro‐inflammatory function of cardiomyocyte TLR4 are up‐regulated after long‐term MI, which promote inflammation and exacerbate heart failure.
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Chloride‐ion batteries (CIBs) have drawn growing attention in large‐scale energy storage applications owing to their comprehensive merits of high theoretical energy density, dendrite‐free ...characteristic, and abundance of chloride‐containing materials. Nonetheless, cathodes for CIBs are plagued by distinct volume effect and sluggish Cl− diffusion kinetics, leading to inferior rate capability and short cycling life. Herein, an unconventional Ni5Ti‐Cl LDH is reported with a high nickel ratio as a cathode material for CIB. The reversible capacity of Ni5Ti‐Cl LDH retains 127.9 mAh g−1 over 1000 cycles at a large current density of 1000 mA g−1, which exceeds that of ever reported CIBs, with extraordinary low volume change of 1.006% during a whole charge/discharge process. Such superior Cl‐storage performance is attributed to synergetic contributions consisting of high redox activity from Ni2+/Ni3+ and pinning Ti that restrains local structural distortion of LDH host layers and enhances adsorption intensity of chloride atoms during the reversible Cl− intercalation/de‐intercalation in LDH gallery, which are revealed by a comprehensive study including X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, kinetic investigations, and DFT calculations. This work provides an effective strategy to design low‐cost LDHs materials for high‐performance CIBs, which are also applicable to other types of halide‐ion batteries (e.g., fluoride‐ion and bromide‐ion batteries).
Accurate modulation of Ti pinning in host layer is achieved in layered double hydroxides cathode to obtain a low‐strain cathode material via the pinning effect for Chloride‐ion batteries (CIBs), which exhibits a superior electrochemical performance better than previously reported CIBs, especially long‐term cycling capacity even at ultra‐high current rate.
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Elevation dependency of climate change signals has been found over major mountain ranges such as the European Alps and the Rockies, as well as over the Tibetan Plateau. In this study we examined the ...temporal trends in monthly mean minimum temperatures from 116 weather stations in the eastern Tibetan Plateau and its vicinity during 1961–2006. We also analyzed projected climate changes in the entire Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings from two sets of modeling experiments under future global warming conditions. These analyses included the output of the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM3) with approximately 150 km horizontal resolution for the scenario of annual 1% increase in atmospheric CO
2 for future 100 years and physically-based downscaling results from the NCAR CAM3/CLM3 model at 10'
×
10' resolution during three 20-year mean periods (1980–1999, 2030–2049 and 2080–2099) for the IPCC mid-range emission (A1B) scenario. We divided the 116 weather stations and the regional model grids into elevation zones of 500 m interval to examine the relationship of climatic warming and elevation. With these corroborating datasets, we were able to confirm the elevation dependency in monthly mean minimum temperature in and around the Tibetan Plateau. The warming is more prominent at higher elevations than at lower elevations, especially during winter and spring seasons, and such a tendency may continue in future climate change scenarios. The elevation dependency is most likely caused by the combined effects of cloud-radiation and snow-albedo feedbacks among various influencing factors.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Previous studies have shown that the addition of carboplatin to neoadjuvant chemotherapy improved the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in patients suffering from triple‐negative breast cancer ...(TNBC) and patients who obtained a pCR could achieve prolonged event‐free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS). However, no studies have assessed the effects of the combination of docetaxel and carboplatin without anthracycline with taxane‐based and anthracycline‐based regimens. The NeoCART study was designed as a multicenter, randomized controlled, open‐label, phase II trial to assess the efficacy and safety of docetaxel combined with carboplatin in untreated stage II‐III TNBC. All eligible patients were randomly assigned, at a 1:1 ratio, to an experimental docetaxel plus carboplatin (DCb) for six cycles group (DCb group) or an epirubicin plus cyclophosphamide for four cycles followed by docetaxel for four cycles group (EC‐D group). PCR (ypT0/is ypN0) was evaluated as the primary outcome. Between 1 September 2016 and 31 December 2019, 93 patients were randomly assigned and 88 patients were evaluated for the primary endpoint (44 patients in each group). In the primary endpoint analysis, 27 patients in the DCb group (61.4%, 95% CI 47.0‐75.8) and 17 patients in the EC‐D group achieved a pCR (38.6%, 95% CI 24.3‐53.0; odds ratio 2.52, 95% CI 2.4‐43.1; Pnoninferiority = .004). Noninferiority was met, and the DCb regimen was confirmed to be superior to the EC‐D regimen (P = .044, superiority margin of 5%). At the end of the 37‐month median follow‐up period, OS and EFS rates were equivalent in both groups.
What's new?
In triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC), neoadjuvant chemotherapy based on anthracycline and taxane can improve survival, if pathologic complete response (pCR) is achieved. The addition of carboplatin to this neoadjuvant regimen for TNBC potentially improves pCR rate. The randomized trial reported here shows that, compared to a standard taxane‐ and anthracycline‐based regimen without carboplatin, pCR rate is significantly improved by combining docetaxel and carboplatin and leaving out anthracycline. Survival rates were similar between the different regimens. The findings suggest that docetaxel plus carboplatin is a promising alternative approach, particularly in TNBC patients who have a contraindication to treatment with an anthracycline.
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