Over the past several decades, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) has continued to increase. Projections estimate that worldwide, more than 125 million EVs will be on the road by 2030. At the ...heart of these advanced vehicles is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery which provides the required energy storage. This paper presents and compares key components of Li-ion batteries and describes associated battery management systems, as well as approaches to improve the overall battery efficiency, capacity, and lifespan. Material and thermal characteristics are identified as critical to battery performance. The positive and negative electrode materials, electrolytes and the physical implementation of Li-ion batteries are discussed. In addition, current research on novel high energy density batteries is presented, as well as opportunities to repurpose and recycle the batteries.
Animal development depends on not only the linear genome sequence that embeds millions of
cis
-regulatory elements, but also the three-dimensional (3D) chromatin architecture that orchestrates the ...interplay between
cis
-regulatory elements and their target genes. Compared to our knowledge of the
cis
-regulatory sequences, the understanding of the 3D genome organization in human and other eukaryotes is still limited. Recent advances in technologies to map the 3D genome architecture have greatly accelerated the pace of discovery. Here, we review emerging concepts of chromatin organization in mammalian cells, discuss the dynamics of chromatin conformation during development, and highlight important roles for chromatin organization in cancer and other human diseases.
Ultrathin, molecular-sieving membranes have great potential to realize high-flux, high-selectivity mixture separation at low energy cost. Current microporous membranes pore size < 1 nanometer (nm), ...however, are usually relatively thick. With the use of current membrane materials and techniques, it is difficult to prepare microporous membranes thinner than 20 nm without introducing extra defects. Here, we report ultrathin graphene oxide (GO) membranes, with thickness approaching 1.8 nm, prepared by a facile filtration process. These membranes showed mixture separation selectivities as high as 3400 and 900 for H₂/CO₂ and H₂/N₂ mixtures, respectively, through selective structural defects on GO.
Benzofuran compounds are a class of compounds that are ubiquitous in nature. Numerous studies have shown that most benzofuran compounds have strong biological activities such as anti-tumor, ...antibacterial, anti-oxidative, and anti-viral activities. Owing to these biological activities and potential applications in many aspects, benzofuran compounds have attracted more and more attention of chemical and pharmaceutical researchers worldwide, making these substances potential natural drug lead compounds. For example, the recently discovered novel macrocyclic benzofuran compound has anti-hepatitis C virus activity and is expected to be an effective therapeutic drug for hepatitis C disease; novel scaffold compounds of benzothiophene and benzofuran have been developed and utilized as anticancer agents. Novel methods for constructing benzofuran rings have been discovered in recent years. A complex benzofuran derivative is constructed by a unique free radical cyclization cascade, which is an excellent method for the synthesis of a series of difficult-to-prepare polycyclic benzofuran compounds. Another benzofuran ring constructed by proton quantum tunneling has not only fewer side reactions, but also high yield, which is conducive to the construction of complex benzofuran ring systems. This review summarizes the recent studies on the various aspects of benzofuran derivatives including their important natural product sources, biological activities and drug prospects, and chemical synthesis, as well as the relationship between the bioactivities and structures.
Benzofuran compounds are a class of compounds that are ubiquitous in nature.
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The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-colitis effect and underlying mechanisms of cardamonin, a natural flavone isolated from Alpinia katsumadai Hayata. The results showed that ...oral cardamonin significantly inhibited dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)- and 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis in mice, evidenced by improvement of disease activity index scores, myeloperoxidase activity, length shortening and histopathological changes of colons. A rectal administration of cardamonin also exhibited marked anti-colitis effect, suggesting that oral cardamonin might function in a prototype form. Cardamonin down-regulated levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, NLRP3, cleaved caspase-1, ASC, cleaved IL-1β in colons of colitis mice. In vitro, cardamonin inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation in THP-1 and bone marrow-derived macrophages. It acted as an AhR activator, enhanced dissociation of AhR/HSP90 complexes, association of AhR/ARNT complexes, AhR nuclear translocation, XRE reporter gene activity, and AhR/ARNT/XRE DNA binding activity in THP-1 cells. The AhR antagonist CH223191 obviously abolished NLRP3 inflammasome activation inhibited by cardamonin. Furthermore, cardamonin elevated levels of Nrf2 and its target genes NQO1, Trx1, SOD2, HO-1, and the effect on NQO1 was the most obvious. The relationship of cardamonin-adjusted AhR activation, expressions of Nrf2 and NQO1, and NLRP3 inflammasome activation was confirmed by using CH223191, siAhR, ML385 and siNQO1, respectively. Finally, CH223191 was shown to abolish amelioration of cardamonin on DSS- and TNBS-induced colitis, inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and up-regulation of Nrf2 and NQO1 levels in colons. Taken together, cardamonin ameliorated colitis in mice through the activation of AhR/Nrf2/NQO1 pathway and consequent inhibition of NLRP3 inflammasome activation.
Liquefaction, which can be defined as a loss of strength and stiffness in soils, is one of the major causes of damage to buildings and infrastructure during an earthquake. To overcome a lack of ...comprehensive analyses of seismically induced liquefaction, this study reviews the characteristics of liquefaction and its related damage to soils and foundations during earthquakes in the first part of the twenty-first century. Based on seismic data analysis, macroscopic phenomena of liquefaction (e.g., sand boiling, ground cracking, and lateral spread) are summarized, and several new phenomena related to earthquakes from the twenty-first century are highlighted, including liquefaction in areas with moderate seismic intensity, liquefaction of gravelly soils, liquefaction of deep-level sandy soils, re-liquefaction in aftershocks, liquid-like behavior of unsaturated sandy soils. Additionally, phenomena related to damage in soils and foundations induced by liquefaction are investigated and discussed.
Abstract Subject and purpose of work This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the digital economy in Southeast Asia (SEA). It evaluates SEA’s digital economy industry from various ...perspectives, analysing the reasons for its rapid development as a non-core innovation area of the digital economy. Material and methods A comprehensive literature review and descriptive methodology were used to produce this paper. The methods used included defining the evaluation criteria of the digital economy and summarising and sorting out the development of SEA’s digital economy. Results With respect to theory, this paper analyses the current status of SEA’s digital economy, which helps deepen our understanding of the new trends in SEA’s economic development. As regards practicalities, it provides suggestions for how SEA countries can further improve the development model of the digital economy. Conclusions The paper assesses SEA’s digital economy and identifies the driving factors that enable the region to rapidly develop digital economy industries. The first set of factors are national-level policies, a unified market, population structure, and mobile penetration rate. The second set of factors are regional, as SEA can benefit from digital economic spillover from countries such as China and the United States. The third set of factors is global. The transfer of the global industrial chain has also facilitated the development of the digital economy in the region. This paper hypothesises that national-level factors are decisive, enabling a non-core innovation area such as SEA to develop rapidly, while regional-level and global-level factors are auxiliary.
In this study, we extracted the in‐situ soil dynamic parameters that contains shear wave velocity, shear modulus degradation curve and damping ratio from seismic data recorded at the Delaney Park ...Digital Array (DPDA) during the 2018 Mw 7.0 Anchorage earthquake. Based on these parameters, a one‐dimensional finite element model in DEEPSOIL is constructed to simulate the propagation of seismic waves in near‐surface, and the simulated pseudo‐spectral accelerations with 5% damping from the in‐situ soil dynamic parameters are compared with those from different velocity profiles and damping models. The results show that: (1) it is necessary to consider the effects of downward waves on the estimation of shear strain when extracting the modulus degradation curve, otherwise the shear strain will be overestimated by several times at this site; (2) the validity and reliability of the use of the in‐situ soil dynamic parameters in reproducing and predicting nonlinear ground response are verified, in which the Pearson correlation coefficients between the simulated and observed spectral accelerations at different depths for five selected events are generally higher than 0.95; (3) the ground response analysis exhibits relatively high sensitivity to both velocity profiles and damping models, where the velocity profile extracted from vertical seismic data obviously outperforms other velocity profiles, and the Rayleigh damping provides an alternative to the constant damping model in this study.
•Research status and trends over 25years were analyzed by bibliometric analysis.•Focuses on pretreatment, co-digestion, and process optimization were reviewed.•Ethanol and aerobic prefermentation as ...new pretreatment methods were clarified.•Biorefinery and new anaerobic digestion model will be new research directions.
Anaerobic digestion has been practically applied in agricultural and industrial waste treatment and recognized as an economical-effective way for food waste disposal. This paper presented an overview on the researches about anaerobic digestion of food waste. Technologies (e.g., pretreatment, co-digestion, inhibition and mitigation, anaerobic digestion systems, etc.) were introduced and evaluated on the basis of bibliometric analysis. Results indicated that ethanol and aerobic prefermentation were novel approaches to enhance substrates hydrolysis and methane yield. With the promotion of resource recovery, more attention should be paid to biorefinery technologies which can produce more useful products toward zero emissions. Furthermore, a technological route for food waste conversion based on anaerobic digestion was proposed.
Perovskite light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) have recently attracted great research interest for their narrow emissions and solution processability. Remarkable progress has been achieved in green ...perovskite LEDs in recent years, but not blue or red ones. Here, highly efficient and spectrally stable red perovskite LEDs with quasi‐2D perovskite/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) composite thin films as the light‐emitting layer are reported. By controlling the molar ratios of organic salt (benzylammonium iodide) to inorganic salts (cesium iodide and lead iodide), luminescent quasi‐2D perovskite thin films are obtained with tunable emission colors from red to deep red. The perovskite/polymer composite approach enables quasi‐2D perovskite/PEO composite thin films to possess much higher photoluminescence quantum efficiencies and smoothness than their neat quasi‐2D perovskite counterparts. Electrically driven LEDs with emissions peaked at 638, 664, 680, and 690 nm have been fabricated to exhibit high brightness and external quantum efficiencies (EQEs). For instance, the perovskite LED with an emission peaked at 680 nm exhibits a brightness of 1392 cd m−2 and an EQE of 6.23%. Moreover, exceptional electroluminescence spectral stability under continuous device operation has been achieved for these red perovskite LEDs.
Highly efficient red‐emitting light‐emitting diodes based on quasi‐2D perovskite/polymer composite thin films are demonstrated. They are shown to have maximal brightness of 1392 cd m−2 and external quantum efficiencies of 6.23%.
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