The development of silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries has been largely impeded by poor interfacial stability against liquid electrolytes. Here, we enabled the stable operation of a 99.9 weight ...% microsilicon anode by using the interface passivating properties of sulfide solid electrolytes. Bulk and surface characterization, and quantification of interfacial components, showed that such an approach eliminates continuous interfacial growth and irreversible lithium losses. Microsilicon full cells were assembled and found to achieve high areal current density, wide operating temperature range, and high areal loadings for the different cells. The promising performance can be attributed to both the desirable interfacial property between microsilicon and sulfide electrolytes and the distinctive chemomechanical behavior of the lithium-silicon alloy.
Post-treatment of a perovskite film is known to be an efficient way to passivate surface defects in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Conventionally, post-treatment with organic iodides has been ...performed on the annealed perovskite phase (abbreviated as APP-PT) which, however, forms undesirable excess iodides on the surface that can generate interstitial iodine defects causing poor stability. Here, we report an efficient post-treatment process that is performed on the as-deposited un-annealed intermediate phase (abbreviated as UIP-PT). This method enables an effective passivation of the perovskite film surface with a minimal organic iodide passivation agent (100-fold reduced concentration compared with the conventional method) to prevent the surplus iodides. The trap density (
n
t
) of the perovskite film is substantially decreased from 1.62 × 10
16
cm
−3
(untreated sample) to 1.24 × 10
16
cm
−3
after UIP-PT, while little change in
n
t
is observed for the conventional method (
n
t
= 1.41 × 10
16
cm
−3
). Furthermore, negligible current-voltage hysteresis is observed in the UIP-PT sample because of the increased activation energy for ion migration. As a result of suppressed ion migration and the reduced traps, the device based on the UIP-PT demonstrates improved stability in the dark and under illumination, maintaining 96.37% of the initial PCE after 1750 h of storage.
Post-treatement of an unannealed perovskite film is found to be more efficienct way to passivate defects of perovskite solar cells.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a dominant cause of chronic liver disease, but the exact mechanism of progression from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) remains ...unknown. Here, we investigated the role of exosomes in NAFLD progression. Exosomes were isolated from a human hepatoma cell line treated with palmitic acid (PA) and their miRNA profiles examined by microarray. The human hepatic stellate cell (HSC) line (LX-2) was then treated with exosome isolated from hepatocytes. Compared with controls, PA-treated hepatocytes displayed significantly increased CD36 and exosome production. The microarray analysis showed there to be distinctive miRNA expression patterns between exosomes from vehicle- and PA-treated hepatocytes. When LX-2 cells were cultured with exosomes from PA-treated hepatocytes, the expression of genes related to the development of fibrosis were significantly amplified compared to those treated with exosomes from vehicle-treated hepatocytes. In conclusion, PA treatment enhanced the production of exosomes in these hepatocytes and changed their exosomal miRNA profile. Moreover, exosomes derived from PA-treated hepatocytes caused an increase in the expression levels of fibrotic genes in HSCs. Therefore, exosomes may have important roles in the crosstalk between hepatocytes and HSCs in the progression from simple steatosis to NASH.
The microbiome is vital for immune system development and homeostasis. Changes in microbial composition and function, termed dysbiosis, in the skin and the gut have recently been linked to ...alterations in immune responses and to the development of skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (AD). In this review, we summarize the recent findings on the gut and skin microbiome, highlighting the roles of major commensals in modulating skin and systemic immunity in AD. Although our understanding of the gut-skin axis is only beginning, emerging evidence indicates that the gut and skin microbiome could be manipulated to treat AD.
Organic–inorganic or inorganic metal halide materials have emerged as a promising candidate for a resistive switching material owing to their ability to achieve low operating voltage, high on–off ...ratio, and multi‐level switching. However, the high switching variation, limited endurance, and poor reproducibility of the device hinder practical use of the memristors. In this study, a universal approach to address the issues using a van der Waals metal contact (vdWC) is reported. By transferring the pre‐deposited metal contact onto the active layers, an intact junction between the metal halide and contact layer is formed without unintended damage to the active layer caused by a conventional physical deposition process of the metal contacts. Compared with the thermally evaporated metal contact (EVC), the vdWC does not degrade the optoelectronic quality of the underlying layer to enable memristors with reduced switching variation, significantly enhanced endurance, and reproducibility relative to those based on the EVC. By adopting various metal halide active layers, versatile utility of the vdWC is demonstrated. Thus, this vdWC approach can be a useful platform technology for the development of high‐performance and reliable memristors for future computing.
Conventional physical vapor deposition of metal contacts causes unintended damage to the underlying organic–inorganic hybrid active layers. Herein, a systematic investigation reveals the detrimental effects of the metal contact deposition processes on the performance, stability, and reliability of memristor devices. The van der Waals metal contact approach is found to be universally applicable for dramatically relieving these issues.
Operation of membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment is hampered by the membrane biofouling resulting from microbial activities. However, the knowledge of the microbial ecology of both ...biofilm and activated sludge in MBRs has not been sufficient. In this study, we scrutinized microbial communities of biofilm and activated sludge from 10 full-scale MBR plants. Overall, Flavobacterium, Dechloromonas and Nitrospira were abundant in order of abundance in biofilm, whereas Dechloromonas, Flavobacterium and Haliscomenobacter in activated sludge. Community structure was analyzed in either biofilm or activated sludge. Among MBRs, as expected, not only diversity of microbial community but also its composition was different from one another (p < 0.05). Between the biofilm and activated sludge, community composition made significant difference, but its diversity measures (i.e., alpha diversity, e.g., richness, diversity and evenness) did not (p > 0.05). Effects of ten environmental factors on community change were investigated using Spearman correlation. MLSS, HRT, F/M ratio and SADm explained the variation of microbial composition in the biofilm, whereas only MLSS did in the activated sludge. Microbial networks were constructed with the 10 environmental factors. The network results revealed that there were different topological characteristics between the biofilm and activated sludge networks, in which each of the 4 factors had different associations with microbial nodes. These results indicated that the different microbial associations were responsible for the variation of community composition between the biofilm and activated sludge.
Display omitted
•Microbial communities of ten actual MBRs were scrutinized using Miseq sequencing.•Both microbial composition and structure differed among the MBRs.•Some environmental factors could explain the compositional variation among the MBRs.•Both microbial composition and networks were different between the biofilm and activated sludge.•It was confirmed that the variation in microbial association resulted in the compositional difference.
The dry process is a promising fabrication method for all‐solid‐state batteries (ASSBs) to eliminate energy‐intense drying and solvent recovery steps and to prevent degradation of solid‐state ...electrolytes (SSEs) in the wet process. While previous studies have utilized the dry process to enable thin SSE films, systematic studies on their fabrication, physical and electrochemical properties, and electrochemical performance are unprecedented. Here, different fabrication parameters are studied to understand polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) binder fibrillation and its impact on the physio‐electrochemical properties of SSE films, as well as the cycling stability of ASSBs resulting from such SSEs. A counter‐balancing relation between the physio‐electrochemical properties and cycling stability is observed, which is due to the propagating behavior of PTFE reduction (both chemically and electrochemically) through the fibrillation network, resulting in cell failure from current leakage and ion blockage. By controlling PTFE fibrillation, a bilayer configuration of SSE film to enable physio‐electrochemically durable SSE film for both good cycling stability and charge storage capability of ASSBs is demonstrated.
Physical and electrochemical properties as well as cycling stability of dry‐processed solid‐state electrolyte films are systematically evaluated by using polytetrafluoroethylene binder. This study provides insight into binder fibrillation in designing all‐solid‐state architecture to achieve ease of fabrication and stable cycling performance.
In this paper, we consider a network reconstruction problem using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) where stationary ad hoc networks are severely damaged in a post-disaster scenario. The main objective ...of this paper is to repair the network by supplementing aerial wireless links into the isolated ground network using UAVs. Our scheme performs network probing from the air and finds out crucial spots where both local and global routing performance can significantly be recovered if deployed. First, we propose a novel distributed coverage path planning algorithms with independent and computationally lightweight navigation based on adaptive zigzag patterns. Second, we present route topology discovery schemes that capture both local and non -local network connectivity by extracting inherent route skeletons via stitching partial local paths obtained from the simple packet probing by UAVs. Finally, we find the optimal UAV relay deployment positions that can improve network-wide data delivery most effectively based on three novel approaches of an optimization technique, an iterative heuristic algorithm, and a topology partitioning of strongly connected component . Simulation results demonstrate that our distributed traversing algorithms reduce the complete coverage time, the travel distance, and the duplicate coverage compared to other counterpart algorithms. Our deployment algorithms recover severely impaired routes, incurring reasonable computational overhead.
Radiotherapy (RT) is a highly effective multimodal nonsurgical treatment that is essential for patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, cell subpopulations displaying intrinsic ...radioresistance survive after RT. The reactivation of their proliferation and successful colonization at local or distant sites may increase the risk of poor clinical outcomes. Recently, radioresistant cancer cells surviving RT were reported to exhibit a more aggressive phenotype than parental cells, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.
By investigating public databases containing CRC patient data, we explored potential radioresistance-associated signaling pathways. Then, their mechanistic roles in radioresistance were investigated through multiple validation steps using patient-derived primary CRC cells, human CRC cell lines, and CRC xenografts.
Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) signaling was activated in radioresistant CRC tissues in correlation with local and distant metastases. JAK2 was preferentially overexpressed in the CRC stem cell subpopulation, which was accompanied by the phosphorylation of STAT proteins, especially STAT3. JAK2/STAT3 signaling played an essential role in promoting tumor initiation and radioresistance by limiting apoptosis and enhancing clonogenic potential. Mechanistically, the direct binding of STAT3 to the cyclin D2 (CCND2) promoter increased CCND2 transcription. CCND2 expression was required for persistent cancer stem cell (CSC) growth via the maintenance of an intact cell cycle and proliferation with low levels of DNA damage accumulation.
Herein, we first identified JAK2/STAT3/CCND2 signaling as a resistance mechanism for the persistent growth of CSCs after RT, suggesting potential biomarkers and regimens for improving outcomes among CRC patients.
Metabolomic pathways in food allergy Lee, So‐Yeon; Park, Yoon Mee; Yoo, Hyun Ju ...
Pediatric allergy and immunology,
20/May , Letnik:
35, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Food allergy (FA) is a widespread issue, affecting as many as 10% of the population. Over the past two to three decades, the prevalence of FA has been on the rise, particularly in industrialized and ...westernized countries. FA is a complex, multifactorial disease mediated by type 2 immune responses and involving environmental and genetic factors. However, the precise mechanisms remain inadequately understood. Metabolomics has the potential to identify disease endotypes, which could beneficially promote personalized prevention and treatment. A metabolome approach would facilitate the identification of surrogate metabolite markers reflecting the disease activity and prognosis. Here, we present a literature overview of recent metabolomic studies conducted on children with FA.
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