The human body is inhabited by a diverse microbial community that is collectively coined as commensal microbiota. Recent research has greatly advanced our understanding of how the commensal ...microbiota affects host health. Among the various kinds of pathogenic infections of the host, viral infections constitute one of the most serious public health problems worldwide. During the infection process, viruses may have substantial and intimate interactions with the commensal microbiota. A plethora of evidence suggests that the commensal microbiota regulates and is in turn regulated by invading viruses through diverse mechanisms, thereby having stimulatory or suppressive roles in viral infections. Furthermore, the integrity of the commensal microbiota can be disturbed by invading viruses, causing dysbiosis in the host and further influencing virus infectivity. In the present article, we discuss current insights into the regulation of viral infection by the commensal microbiota. We also draw attention to the disruption of microbiota homeostasis by several viruses.
Osteocytes, the most abundant and long-lived cells in bone, are the master regulators of bone remodeling. In addition to their functions in endocrine regulation and calcium and phosphate metabolism, ...osteocytes are the major responsive cells in force adaptation due to mechanical stimulation. Mechanically induced bone formation and adaptation, disuse-induced bone loss and skeletal fragility are mediated by osteocytes, which sense local mechanical cues and respond to these cues in both direct and indirect ways. The mechanotransduction process in osteocytes is a complex but exquisite regulatory process between cells and their environment, between neighboring cells, and between different functional mechanosensors in individual cells. Over the past two decades, great efforts have focused on finding various mechanosensors in osteocytes that transmit extracellular mechanical signals into osteocytes and regulate responsive gene expression. The osteocyte cytoskeleton, dendritic processes, Integrin-based focal adhesions, connexin-based intercellular junctions, primary cilium, ion channels, and extracellular matrix are the major mechanosensors in osteocytes reported so far with evidence from both in vitro and in vitro studies. This review aims to give a systematic introduction to osteocyte mechanobiology, provide details of osteocyte mechanosensors, and discuss the roles of osteocyte mechanosensitive signaling pathways in the regulation of bone homeostasis.
Conventional robots are mainly made of rigid materials, such as steel and aluminum. Recently there has been a surge in the popularity of soft robots owing to their inherent compliance, strong ...adaptability and capability to work effectively in unstructured environments. Of the multitude of soft actuation technologies, dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), also nicknamed 'artificial muscles', exhibit fast response, large deformation and high energy density, and can simply be actuated with electric voltage. In this paper, we will discuss applications of DEAs to soft robots, including robotic grippers, terrestrial robots, underwater robots, aerial robots and humanoid robots. We will survey the state of the art regarding these interesting applications and outline the challenges and perspectives. As we know, there have been extensive studies on dielectric elastomer technology in the aspects of materials, mechanics, design, fabrication and controls. To enable practical applications, efforts are underway to decrease operational voltages, improve reliability, and impart new functionalities. Key challenges include the development of freestanding actuators, untethered operation, smart/electronics free actuators, solid and stretchable electrodes, miniaturization, combination of synergistic actuation technologies to impart novel functionalities, development of effective control strategies, etc. We hope that this review can facilitate and enhance applications of dielectric elastomer technology to soft robots.
Reversible intercalation of potassium‐ion (K+) into graphite makes it a promising anode material for rechargeable potassium‐ion batteries (PIBs). However, the current graphite anodes in PIBs often ...suffer from poor cyclic stability with low coulombic efficiency. A stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is necessary for stabilizing the large interlayer expansion during K+ insertion. Herein, a localized high‐concentration electrolyte (LHCE) is designed by adding a highly fluorinated ether into the concentrated potassium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide/dimethoxyethane, which forms a durable SEI on the graphite surface and enables highly reversible K+ intercalation/deintercalation without solvent cointercalation. Furthermore, this LHCE shows a high ionic conductivity (13.6 mS cm−1) and excellent oxidation stability up to 5.3 V (vs K+/K), which enables compatibility with high‐voltage cathodes. The kinetics study reveals that K+ intercalation/deintercalation does not follow the same pathway. The potassiated graphite exhibits excellent depotassiation rate capability, while the formation of a low stage intercalation compound is the rate‐limiting step during potassiation.
A localized high‐concentration electrolyte is designed by adding a highly fluorinated ether into the concentrated potassium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide/dimethoxyethane, which forms a durable potassium fluoride (KF)‐rich passivation layer on the graphite surface and enables highly reversible K+ intercalation/deintercalation without solvent cointercalation. The potassium‐ion batteries with the high‐loading graphite (≈8 mg cm−2) anode can operate over 300 cycles with negligible capacity decay.
Lithium metal is used to achieve high‐energy‐density batteries due to its large theoretical capacity and low negative electrochemical potential. The introduction of quasi‐solid electrolytes ...simultaneously overcomes the safety problems induced by the liquid electrolytes and the high interfacial resistance issues confronted by all solid‐state electrolytes. In‐depth investigations involving interfacial behaviors in quasi‐solid lithium metal batteries are inadequate. Herein an ultrathin Li3OCl quasi‐solid‐state electrolyte layer (500 nm thickness) is used to cover a lithium anode. The polarization of the anode is remarkably reduced by introducing the Li3OCl quasi‐solid‐state electrolyte. In contrast to the decomposition of solvents in a standard electrolyte (EC‐DEC,1.0 m LiPF6), the established quasi‐solid‐state electrolyte interfaces can significantly inhibit the decomposition of solvents when the cut‐off voltage is 4.5 V.
The interfacial behavior of the quasi‐solid‐state electrolyte layer Li3OCl was investigated with a three‐electrode setup. An ultrathin Li3OCl layer can remarkably reduce the over‐potential of the lithium anode and inhibit solvent decomposition, significantly prolonging the service life of a high‐voltage (4.5 V) lithium metal battery.
In this article, a high-efficiency high-power-density wide-bandgap-based CLLC resonant converter with a low-stray-capacitance and well-heat-dissipated planar transformer is presented, which is used ...as the isolated dc-dc stage for an electric vehicle on-board charger. A generalized planar transformer design methodology is proposed and validated by practical designs and experimental tests. A novel and simple transformer configuration is proposed to reduce the winding stray capacitance and enhance the winding thermal dissipation. The proposed transformer configuration is compared with different planar transformer designs, and the tradeoffs of employing the proposed design are well analyzed. Moreover, the system design and optimization of the high-efficiency high-power-density CLLC resonant converter is studied. The proposed transformer design and the system optimization approach are employed in a 6.6-kW/500-kHz CLLC resonant converter prototype. The prototype achieves a peak efficiency of 97.85% and a power density of 114 W/in<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">^\text {3}</tex-math></inline-formula>.
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•Porous carbon nanospheres gel is adopted as carrier for SMIP preparation.•3D monolithic imprinted adsorbent material is obtained.•The boron–carbon grid provides excellent stability ...and durability.•The 3D monolithic structure ensures outstanding operability.
By adopting porous carbon nanospheres gel (PCNS-gel) carrier, the corresponding 3D monolithic surface molecularly imprinted polymer adsorbent (SMIP@PCNS-gel) possesses unique advantages of excellent stability and efficient renewability besides its outstanding selectivity towards target phenol molecules. Carrier PCNS-gel is fabricated through the hydrothermal reaction of glucose, borax, and polyvinyl alcohol mixture. Based on the PCNS-gel, the functional adsorbent SMIP@PCNS-gel is obtained via surface molecular imprinting technology, with phenol as template molecule and methacrylic acid as functional monomer. Owing to the surface imprinted layer, SMIP@PCNS-gel performances a good adsorption capacity of 64.02 mg g−1 towards phenol. In addition, SMIP@PCNS-gel has good selectivity towards phenol in the quaternary mixture solution of phenol, hydroquinone, p-nitrophenol, and p-tert-butylphenol with relative selectivity factors of 3.04, 16.50, and 3.93, respectively. More importantly, thanks to the 3D monolithic PCNS-gel carrier, the SMIP@PCNS-gel adsorbent exhibits exceptional separation and recovery efficiency as well as outstanding stability and durability. The adsorption capacity only decreases by 10% after 10 repeated adsorption–desorption cycles. The adsorption capacity of SMIP@PCNS-gel towards phenol in alkaline wastewater with complex composition is 58.4 mg g−1. The prepared novel 3D monolithic SMIP@PCNS-gel adsorbent shows a promising application prospect for the deep and selective adsorption removal of phenol from wastewater.
Solar-driven water splitting using powdered catalysts is considered as the most economical means for hydrogen generation. However, four-electron-driven oxidation half-reaction showing slow kinetics, ...accompanying with insufficient light absorption and rapid carrier combination in photocatalysts leads to low solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiency. Here, we report amorphous cobalt phosphide (Co-P)-supported black phosphorus nanosheets employed as photocatalysts can simultaneously address these issues. The nanosheets exhibit robust hydrogen evolution from pure water (pH = 6.8) without bias and hole scavengers, achieving an apparent quantum efficiency of 42.55% at 430 nm and energy conversion efficiency of over 5.4% at 353 K. This photocatalytic activity is attributed to extremely efficient utilization of solar energy (~75% of solar energy) by black phosphorus nanosheets and high-carrier separation efficiency by amorphous Co-P. The hybrid material design realizes efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversion in suspension, demonstrating the potential of black phosphorus-based materials as catalysts for solar hydrogen production.
Facilitating phase conversion efficiency of Li polysulfides to Li2S and restraining the dissolution of Li polysulfides are critical for stable lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. Herein, an in situ ...formed sulfiphilic superfine Fe2O3 nanocrystals confined in lithiophilic N‐doped microporous carbon (Fe2O3/N‐MC) is derived from one‐step hypercrosslinked polymerization. Uniquely, the dual active sites (Fe2O3 and N) in Fe2O3/N‐MC tend to form “FeS, LiO or LiN” bonding, and then synchronically enhancing the chemisorption and interface conversion ability of Li polysulfides. As a result, 80 wt% S is loaded on Fe2O3/N‐MC and the hybrid cathode delivers high mass capacity (730 mA h g‐1) and excellent cycling stability (87.1% capacity retention over 1000 cycles at 5.0 C). Especially, the cathode also exhibits a high reversible areal capacity of 3.69 mA h cm‐2 at a high areal loading (5.1 mg cm‐2) and a lean electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio (7.5 µL mg‐1) over 500 cycles. This work is anticipated to deepen the comprehension of complex Li polysulfides interphase conversion processes and afford new thoughts for designing new host materials.
Facilitating phase conversion efficiency of Li polysulfides to Li2S and restraining the dissolution of Li polysulfides are critical for stable lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries. The as‐prepared Fe2O3/N‐microporous carbon (MC) is in favor of enhancing sulfur content, releasing volume expansion, immobilizing soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs), and optimizing Li2S nucleation, hence accommodating the S@Fe2O3/N‐MC cathode with excellent cycling stability.
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