Solid composite electrolytes (SCEs) that combine the advantages of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) and inorganic ceramic electrolytes (ICEs) present acceptable ionic conductivity, high mechanical ...strength, and favorable interfacial contact with electrodes, which greatly improve the electrochemical performance of all‐solid‐state batteries compared to single SPEs and ICEs. However, there are many challenges to overcome before the practical application of SCEs, including the low ionic conductivity less than 10−3 S cm−1 at ambient temperature, poor interfacial stability, and high interfacial resistance, which greatly restrict the room temperature performance. Herein, the advances of SCEs applied in all‐solid‐state lithium batteries are presented, including the Li ion migration mechanism of SCEs, the strategies to enhance the ionic conductivity of SCEs by various morphologies of ICEs, and construction methods of the low resistance and stable interfaces of SCEs with both cathode and anode. Finally, some typical applications of SCEs in lithium batteries are summarized and future development directions are prospected. This work presents how it is quite significant to further enhance the ionic conductivity of SCEs by developing the novel SPEs with the special morphology of ICEs for advanced all‐solid‐state lithium batteries.
Herein, the advantages and ionic transport mechanisms of solid composite electrolyte (SCE) as well as the relationship between morphology of ceramic fillers and ionic conductivity of SCE are reviewed. Recent progress and strategies to settle interfacial issues for high‐performance all‐solid‐state lithium metal batteries with SCE are also concluded and future research directions of SCEs are proposed.
Discharge of antibiotic‐containing wastewater causes environmental pollution and threatens biological and human health. An efficient treatment method for this wastewater is urgently required. We ...prepared inorganic–organic hybrid MXene–pillararene nanosheets with a large lateral size (5–8 μm). The hybrid nanosheets were stacked on supports via vacuum‐assisted filtration to prepare membranes with regular parallel slits and an interlayer spacing of 1.36 nm, which were used to purify antibiotic‐containing water. Permeance through the membrane increased 100‐fold compared with most polymeric and other two‐dimensional nanofiltration membranes with similar rejection. This high permeance and rejection was attributed to the large lateral size of the nanosheets, regular interlayer spacing, and electrostatic interaction between the membrane and antibiotics. These membranes will broaden the applications of lamellar materials for the separation of high‐value‐added drugs in academia and industry.
A strategy to prepare a series of inorganic–organic hybrid nanosheets based on pillararene‐intercalated MXene nanosheets is reported, which have larger lateral size compared with the original MXene nanosheets, in which a membrane was formed through vacuum‐assisted filtration. The as‐prepared membranes exhibited relatively high water permeance, rejection, and stability for treating water containing antibiotics under dead‐end filtration and cross‐flow filtration conditions.
Scope
Little is known about the effect of blood vitamin D status on the gut mycobiota (i.e., fungi), a crucial component of the gut microbial ecosystem. The study aims to explore the association ...between 25‐hydroxyvitamin D 25(OH)D and gut mycobiota and to investigate the link between the identified mycobial features and blood glycemic traits.
Methods and results
The study examines the association between serum 25(OH)D levels and the gut mycobiota in the Westlake Precision Birth Cohort, which includes pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The study develops a genetic risk score (GRS) for 25(OH)D to validate the observational results. In both the prospective and cross‐sectional analyses, the vitamin D is associated with gut mycobiota diversity. Specifically, the abundance of Saccharomyces is significantly lower in the vitamin D‐sufficient group than in the vitamin D‐deficient group. The GRS of 25(OH)D is inversely associated with the abundance of Saccharomyces. Moreover, the Saccharomyces is positively associated with blood glucose levels.
Conclusion
Blood vitamin D status is associated with the diversity and composition of gut mycobiota in women with GDM, which may provide new insights into the mechanistic understanding of the relationship between vitamin D levels and metabolic health.
There is limited research conducted on the relationship between vitamin D and gut mycobiota. This study reveals that individuals with sufficient serum vitamin D exhibit a decreased abundance of fecal Saccharomyces. The results obtain from the vitamin D genetic risk score analysessupport this relationship. The study also identifies the abundance of Saccharomyces is positively associated with fasting glucose.
Photoresponsive metal–organic frameworks (PMOFs) are of interest for tailorable CO2 adsorption. However, modulation of CO2 adsorption on PMOFs is based on steric hindrance or structural change owing ...to weak interactions between CO2 and active sites. It is challenging to fabricate PMOFs with strong but tailorable sites for CO2 adsorption. Now, the construction of PMOFs with target‐specific (strong) active sites is achieved by introducing tetraethylenepentamine into azobenzene‐functionalized MOFs for tailorable CO2 adsorption. Amines are specific active sites for CO2, contributing to capture CO2 selectively. Cis/trans isomerization of azobenzene motifs trigged by UV/Vis light adjusts the electrostatic potential of amines significantly, leading to exposure/shelter of amines and modulation of CO2 adsorption on strong active sites. This system enables us to design adsorption processes for CO2 capture from mixtures, which is impossible to realize by traditional PMOFs.
Smart adsorbents were fabricated by introducing target‐specific active sites (amines) into photoresponsive metal–organic frameworks (PMOFs). The cis/trans isomerization of azobenzene motifs trigged by UV/Vis light irradiation adjusts the electrostatic potential of amines significantly. This leads to exposure/shelter of amines and successful modulation of CO2 adsorption on strong active sites, which is impossible to realize by traditional PMOFs.
•MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar significantly improved ozonization of ATZ.•Enhanced formation of •OH was observed in the catalytic ozonation systems.•Increased Lewis acid sites and electron transfer ...contributed for the O3 catalyzation.•Toxicity of ATZ had been largely eliminated after the heterogeneous catalytic ozonation.
After reaction with permanganate or ferrate, the resulted Mn-loaded and Fe-loaded biochar (MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar) exhibited excellent catalytic ozonation activity. O3 (2.5 mg/L) eliminated 48% of atrazine (ATZ, 5 μM) within 30 min at pH 7.0, while under identical conditions, ozonation efficiency of ATZ increased to 83% and 100% in MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar (20 mg/L) heterogeneous catalytic systems, respectively. Radical scavenger experiment and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis confirmed that hydroxyl radical (•OH) was the dominant oxidant. Total Lewis acid sites on MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar were 3.5 and 4.1 times of that on the raw biochar, which induced enhanced adsorption of O3 and its subsequent decomposition into •OH. Electron transfer via redox pairs on MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar was observed by cyclic voltammetry scans, which also functioned in the improved catalytic capacity. Degradation pathways of ATZ in MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar ozonation systems were proposed, with 34.6% and 44.8% of dechlorination effect accomplished within 30 min of reaction, which was improved by 4.1 and 5.3 times compared to pure ozonation. After 12-hour treatment, acute toxicity of ATZ oxidation products was reduced from 38.3% of pure ozonation system to 14.5% and 6.3% of activated ozonation systems with MnOx/biochar and FeOx/biochar, respectively. Mn-loaded biochar and Fe-loaded biochar have great potential for heterogeneous catalytic ozonation of polluted water.
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Stenotrophomonas maltophilia An, Shi-qi; Berg, Gabriele
Trends in microbiology (Regular ed.),
July 2018, 2018-07-00, 20180701, Volume:
26, Issue:
7
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
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This infographic describes the key regulated traits of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, important for beneficial plant interactions, and also its increasing incidence as a nosocomial and ...community-acquired infection.
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a cosmopolitan and ubiquitous bacterium found in a range of environmental habitats, including extreme ones, although in nature it is mainly associated with plants. S. maltophilia fulfils important ecosystem functions in the sulfur and nitrogen cycles, in degradation of complex compounds and pollutants, and in promoti on of plant growth and health. Stenotrophomonas can also colonize extreme man-made niches in hospitals, space shuttles, and clean rooms. S. maltophilia has emerged as a global opportunistic human pathogen, which does not usually infect healthy hosts but is associated with high morbidity and mortality in severely immunocompromised and debilitated individuals. S. maltophilia can also be recovered from polymicrobial infections, most notably from the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis patients. Close relatives of S. maltophilia, for example, S. rhizophila, provide a harmless alternative for biotechnological applications without human health risks.
Wearable touch panels, a typical flexible electronic device, can recognize and feed back the information of finger touch and movement. Excellent wearable touch panels are required to accurately and ...quickly monitor the signals of finger movement as well as the capacity of bearing various types of deformation. High‐performance thermistor materials are one of the key functional components, but to date, a long‐standing bottleneck is that inorganic semiconductors are typically brittle while the electrical properties of organic semiconductors are quite low. Herein, a high‐performance flexible temperature sensor is reported by using plastic Ag2S with ultrahigh temperature coefficient of resistance of −4.7% K−1 and resolution of 0.05 K, and rapid response/recovery time of 0.11/0.11 s. Moreover, the temperature sensor shows excellent durability without performance damage or loss during force stimuli tests. In addition, a fully flexible intelligent touch panel composed of a 16 × 10 Ag2S‐film‐based temperature sensor array, as well as a flexible printed circuit board and a deep‐learning algorithm is designed for perceiving finger touch signals in real‐time, and intelligent feedback of Chinese characters and letters on an app. These results strongly show that high‐performance flexible inorganic semiconductors can be widely used in flexible electronics.
A fully flexible intelligent thermal touch panel based on the intrinsically plastic Ag2S semiconductor can well perceive finger touch signals in real‐time and displays intelligent feed back of Chinese characters and letters on an app.
•Traffic operation and safety should be monitored simultaneously using Big Data.•Traffic congestion should be examined in real-time through Big Data.•Multiple methods are applied in real-time safety ...evaluation applying Big Data.•Traffic congestion significantly impact rear-end crash likelihood.•We propose real-time congestion and operation warning strategy for improvement.
The advent of Big Data era has transformed the outlook of numerous fields in science and engineering. The transportation arena also has great expectations of taking the advantage of Big Data enabled by the popularization of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In this study, the viability of a proactive real-time traffic monitoring strategy evaluating operation and safety simultaneously was explored. The objective is to improve the system performance of urban expressways by reducing congestion and crash risk. In particular, Microwave Vehicle Detection System (MVDS) deployed on an expressway network in Orlando was utilized to achieve the objectives. The system consisting of 275 detectors covers 75 miles of the expressway network, with average spacing less than 1 mile. Comprehensive traffic flow parameters per lane are continuously archived on one-minute interval basis. The scale of the network, dense deployment of detection system, richness of information and continuous collection turn MVDS as the ideal source of Big Data. It was found that congestion on urban expressways was highly localized and time-specific. As expected, the morning and evening peak hours were the most congested time periods. The results of congestion evaluation encouraged real-time safety analysis to unveil the effects of traffic dynamics on crash occurrence. Data mining (random forest) and Bayesian inference techniques were implemented in real-time crash prediction models. The identified effects, both indirect (peak hour, higher volume and lower speed upstream of crash locations) and direct (higher congestion index downstream to crash locations) congestion indicators confirmed the significant impact of congestion on rear-end crash likelihood. As a response, reliability analysis was introduced to determine the appropriate time to trigger safety warnings according to the congestion intensity. Findings of this paper demonstrate the importance to jointly monitor and improve traffic operation and safety. The Big Data generated by the ITS systems is worth further exploration to bring all their full potential for more proactive traffic management.
Biochar draws increasing attention as soil amendment, carbon sink, slow-release fertilizer, and adsorbent. Herein, it was interesting to find out that among 11 kinds of commercial biochar, 3 of them ...facilitated ferrate oxidation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX). With the addition of biochar, oxidation rates of 5 kinds of organic pollutants (including antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, and personal care product) increased by 3–14 times, and the total organic carbon (TOC) removal ratio increased by 2.4–8 times. Radical scavenging experiment, electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis, and probe compound (sulfoxide) oxidation experiment showed that no radical but intermediate iron species Fe(IV) and Fe(V) participated in the oxidation reactions. Redox-active moieties (phenolic hydroxyl) on biochar interact with ferrate as electron shuttle and enhance the formation of intermediate iron species through electron transfer. The intermediate iron species not only interacted with organic pollutants and accelerated their transformation, but also corrupted (oxidized) the physical structure of biochar and expanded its surface area and pore volume. Increase of surface area and pore volume of the spent biochar in turn resulted in the improved adsorption capacity. In addition to eliminating emerging organic pollutants, ferrate/biochar removed 8.7%–31.6% of TOC in authentic water and decreased the formation potential of 20 kinds of chlorinated disinfection by-products (DBPs) by 9.2%–23.9%.
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•Biochar reacted with Fe(VI) with the formation of Fe(IV)/Fe(V).•Fe(IV)/Fe(V) was more reactive with organic pollutants compared with Fe(VI).•Biochar enhanced Fe(VI) oxidation of SMX, CBZ, CIP, DCF, and DEET.•Fe(IV)/Fe(V) corrupted structure of biochar and facilitated the adsorption of TOC.
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•Sonication-induced changes of albumins from Moringa oleifera seed (MOWP) was explored.•Changes in the secondary and tertiary structure of MOWP was observable.•The MOWP was aggregated ...but not significantly degraded by ultrasound.•Ultrasonic treatment could effectively improve the thermal stability of MOWP.•Solubility, foaming and emulsifying properties of MOWP were improvement by sonication.
Effect of ultrasonic power on the structure and functional properties of water-soluble protein extracted from defatted Moringa oleifera seed were explored. The results showed that ultrasonic treatment could reduce β-sheet and β-turn content of water-soluble protein from Moringa oleifera seed (MOWP) and increase the content of random coil and α-helix. Changes in intrinsic fluorescence spectra, surface hydrophobicity (H0) and thermal behaviors indicated that ultrasonic had significant effect on the tertiary structure of MOWP. The results of SEM and SDS-PAGE showed that the MOWP was aggregated but not significantly degraded by ultrasound. The solubility, foaming properties and emulsifying properties of MOWP increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of ultrasonic power. Ultrasonic treatment altered the functional properties of MOWP, which might be attributed to the exposure of hydrophilic group and the change of and secondary and tertiary structure.
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