Sodium (Na)-metal batteries (SMBs) are considered one of the most promising candidates for the large-scale energy storage market owing to their high theoretical capacity (1,166 mAh g
) and the ...abundance of Na raw material. However, the limited stability of electrolytes still hindered the application of SMBs. Herein, sulfolane (Sul) and vinylene carbonate (VC) are identified as effective dual additives that can largely stabilize propylene carbonate (PC)-based electrolytes, prevent dendrite growth, and extend the cycle life of SMBs. The cycling stability of the Na/NaNi
Mn
Co
O
(NaNMC) cell with this dual-additive electrolyte is remarkably enhanced, with a capacity retention of 94% and a Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.9% over 600 cycles at a 5 C (750 mA g
) rate. The superior cycling performance of the cells can be attributed to the homogenous, dense, and thin hybrid solid electrolyte interphase consisting of F- and S-containing species on the surface of both the Na metal anode and the NaNMC cathode by adding dual additives. Such unique interphases can effectively facilitate Na-ion transport kinetics and avoid electrolyte depletion during repeated cycling at a very high rate of 5 C. This electrolyte design is believed to result in further improvements in the performance of SMBs.
Lai Giang River basin, Central Vietnam
The Digital Elevation Models (DEM) is essential in hydrological modeling and water cycle understanding. There are several unanswered questions regarding the ...impact of DEM on the models’ quality of hydrological applications. This study develops a comprehensive framework for evaluating impacts of six global DEM products: MERIT, NASA, SRTM, ASTER GDEM2, AW3D30, and TanDEM-X using the semi-distributed model SWAT for the Lai Giang River basin, Central Vietnam, in which four criteria have been used (i) statistical analysis, (ii) river basin characteristics, (iii) effects of DEM uncertainty on streamflow using hydrological simulations, and (iv) cross-validation’s impacts on hydrological applications.
(1) NASA and SRTM 30 DEM were ranked as most accurate DEMs among the chosen products; (2) ASTER GDEM2 performed the worst, with more uncertainty in river networks delineation; (3) MERIT, ASTER GDEM2, and SRTM 90 m provided inaccurate basin delineations, particularly for the intersection subbasin; (4) DEM resolution and source are insensitive to most of the hydrological components, except for lateral flow, groundwater flow, water percolation, and sediment yield. Moreover, a proposed cross-validation approach for the DEM performance has been introduced, showing that the calibrating parameters of higher-resolution DEM would positively impact the hydrological simulations of lower-resolution DEMs and the opposite, especially in terms of flood peak observation.
•NASADEM was overall ranked as the most accurate among the DEM products.•In watershed delineation, NASADEM is more accurate than SRTM.•ASTER GDEM2 performed the worst in river networks delineation.
The aim of this paper is to study the bit-loading and power allocation problem in the presence of interference (Inter-carrier Interference (ICI) and Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)) in Orthogonal ...Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. ISI and ICI significantly degrade the performance of OFDM systems and make the resource management optimized without the assumption of interference less efficient. To solve this problem, an initial solution based on the greedy approach is proposed in this paper. Then, several reduced complexity approaches, which yield a little degradation compared to the initial solution, have been developed. Simulation results presented in the context of Power Line Communication (PLC) show that the performance of proposed algorithms is tight with their upper bound. Moreover, these algorithms efficiently improve the system performance as compared to the constant power water-filling allocation algorithm as well as maximum power allocation algorithm.
Lenalidomide (LEN) has been used as an immunomodulatory drug with direct and indirect anti-tumor effects. In this study, we evaluated the effect of LEN on the differentiation, maturation, and ...function of dendritic cells (DCs) in patients with multiple myeloma in vitro. Various doses of LEN were added after the monocytes had differentiated into immature DCs and were activated into mature DCs. LEN (5 μg/mL) was the optimal concentration to promote differentiation and maturation of DCs. Immature DCs treated with LEN exhibited enhanced endocytic capacity. Mature DCs treated with LEN produced higher levels of interleukin-12p70, possessed stronger allogeneic T-cell stimulation capacity, reduced the number of suppressor cells, and generated antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes more potently compared with control DCs. These results suggest that LEN enhanced the function of DCs generated from patients with multiple myeloma by stimulating the capacity of allogeneic T cells, inhibiting the generation of immunosuppressive cells, inducing naïve T cells toward Th1 polarization, and generating potent myeloma-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
This letter aims to solve the power minimization problem for interference-free OFDM systems under achievable throughput and spectral mask constraints. To this end, we use a general analytic formula ...to yield an efficient initial bit vector, i.e., given a total number of bits, the total power use corresponding to an efficient bit vector is minimum. We propose a low-complexity algorithm that achieves the global optimum of the problem. We theoretically prove that the number of bits required to add/remove, starting from the efficient initial bit vector, is upper bounded by the sum of half the number of active subcarriers and an arbitrary tolerance value. Simulation results show that the total power consumption is minimized with significant reduction of the computation cost as compared to other optimum algorithms.
In this study, we investigated efficacy of lenalidomide in combination with tumor antigen-loaded dendritic cells (DCs) in murine colon cancer model. MC-38 cell lines were injected subcutaneously to ...establish colon cancer-bearing mice. After tumor growth, lenalidomide (50 mg/kg/day) was injected intraperitoneally on 3 consecutive days in combination with tumor antigen-loaded DC vaccination on days 8, 12, 16, and 20. The tumor antigen-loaded DCs plus lenalidomide combination treatment exhibited a significant inhibition of tumor growth compared with the other groups. These effects were associated with a reduction in immune suppressor cells, such as myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells, with the induction of immune effector cells, such as natural killer cells, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells in spleen, and with the activation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cells. This study suggests that a combination of tumor antigen-loaded DC vaccination and lenalidomide synergistically enhanced antitumor immune response in the murine colon cancer model, by inhibiting the generation of immune suppressive cells and recovery of effector cells, and demonstrated superior polarization of Th1/Th2 balance in favor of Th1 immune response. This combination approach with DCs and lenalidomide may provide a new therapeutic option to improve the treatment of colon cancer.
Objective
To examine the value of ultrasound (US) in the diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) in the Vietnamese population.
Methods
This prospective cross-sectional study involved 42 wrists of ...25 patients with idiopathic CTS evaluated by US. In addition, 38 wrists of 22 healthy volunteers were included as the control group.
Results
Significant differences in the median nerve cross-sectional area (CSA) at different levels were found between patients with CTS and controls. Using a cut-off value of 9.5 mm2 for the median nerve CSA at the pisiform (p-CSA), US had a sensitivity and specificity of 95.2% and 97.4%, respectively, for the diagnosis of CTS. Area under the curve analysis revealed a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 95.4%, respectively, for the prediction of severe CTS using a p-CSA of >15.5 mm2.
Conclusions
The median nerve CSA is a highly accurate parameter in the diagnosis of CTS. We recommend using a p-CSA of >9.5 mm2 as a diagnostic criterion for CTS and a p-CSA of >15.5 mm2 as a marker for severe CTS in the Vietnamese population.
Research Registry number: 7261
We investigated the efficacy of lenalidomide (LEN) in combination with dendritic cell (DC) vaccination in the MOPC-315 murine myeloma model. After tumor growth, LEN was injected intraperitoneally for ...4 consecutive days in combination with DC vaccination. The combination of LEN and vaccination efficiently inhibited tumor growth compared with the single agents alone. A cytotoxic assay revealed that the anticancer effects of DC vaccination plus LEN involved not only generation of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes but also NK cells. Vaccinated mice had reduced numbers of suppressor cells, including both myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells, in the spleen. The proportions of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells increased in the spleen, and a Th1 cytokine (interferon-γ) rather than a Th2 cytokine (interleukin-10) was synthesized in response to tumor antigens. LEN enhanced the innate immune response by modulating NK cell numbers and function. In addition, LEN reduced the production levels of angiogenesis-inducing factors in tumor-bearing mice. Together, these results suggest that a combination of LEN and DC vaccination may synergistically enhance anticancer immunity in the murine myeloma model, by inhibiting immunosuppressor cells and stimulating effector cells, as well as effectively polarizing the Th1/Th2 balance in favor of a Th1-specific immune response.
In the present paper, we deal with the global regularity estimates for the p-Laplace equations with data in divergence form div(|∇u|
p−2∇u)=div(|F|
p−2
F) in Ω, in Morrey spaces with natural data F ∈ ...Lp
(Ω; ℝ
n
) and nonhomogeneous boundary data belongs to W
1,p
(Ω). Motivated by the work of M.-P. Tran, T.-N. Nguyen, New gradient estimates for solutions to quasilinear divergence form elliptic equations with general Dirichlet boundary data, J. Differential Equations 268 (2020), no. 4, 1427–1462, this paper extends that of global Lorentz–Morrey radient estimates in which the ‘good-λ’ technique was undertaken for a class of more general equations, and further, global regularity of weak solutions will be given in terms of fractional maximal operators.