Activated graphene/sulfur structure sheathed in a flexible graphene layer is presented as the cathode material of lithium–sulfur battery. The surface coating graphite oxide sheets are reduced by a ...one-step in situ sulfur reduction method under vacuum at 600 °C without any additional reductant. The high reduction degree of in situ sulfur reduced graphite oxide (RGO) coating layer will facilitate the rapid charge transfer at high current rate. The flexible encapsulated RGO structure will retard the diffusion of polysulfides and adjust the volume change of sulfur in cycling. As a result, the electrochemical evaluation of the RGO–activated graphene (AG)/S electrode demonstrates superior capacity, cycling and rate performance. The RGO–AG/S electrode with 60 wt% sulfur loading achieves a stable cyclability over 2000 galvanostatic charge/discharge process (capacity-fade rate of only 0.03% per cycle at 1600 mA·g
−1
). The average Coulombic efficiency remains at ~ 96% with no electrolyte additives (such as LiNO
3
). The outstanding property of RGO–AG/S electrode is attributed to the distinctive in situ sulfur RGO-coated hierarchical texture.
In existing quantum key distribution protocols, two legitimate peers, Alice and Bob, must monitor the signal disturbance to place a bound on the potential information leakage. However, in the ...round-robin differential phase shift (RRDPS) protocol, monitoring of the signal disturbance is unnecessary. Here, we present the first active implementation of the RRDPS protocol. In our experiment, Alice prepares packets of pulses, where each packet is a train with 65 pulses and the global phase of each packet is randomized. Bob uses a novel actively controlled variable-delay interferometer to realize the random switching of different delays. Benefiting from the large pulse number of each packet, and the high stability and low insertion loss of the interferometer, the system can distribute a secret key over a distance of 90 km. Our experimental demonstration and results confirm the feasibility of the RRDPS protocol, particularly in high-error situations.
Droughts are natural disasters that pose significant threats to agricultural production as well as living conditions, and a spatial-temporal difference analysis of agricultural drought risk can help ...determine the spatial distribution and temporal variation of the drought risk within a region. Moreover, this type of analysis can provide a theoretical basis for the identification, prevention, and mitigation of drought disasters. In this study, the overall dispersion and local aggregation of projection points were based on research by Friedman and Tukey (IEEE Trans on Computer 23:881–890, 1974). In this work, high-dimensional samples were clustered by cluster analysis. The clustering results were represented by the clustering matrix, which determined the local density in the projection index. This method avoids the problem of determining a cutoff radius. An improved projection pursuit model is proposed that combines cluster analysis and the projection pursuit model, which offer advantages for classification and assessment, respectively. The improved model was applied to analyze the agricultural drought risk of 13 cities in Heilongjiang Province over 6 years (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014). The risk of an agricultural drought disaster was characterized by 14 indicators and the following four aspects: hazard, exposure, sensitivity, and resistance capacity. The spatial distribution and temporal variation characteristics of the agricultural drought risk in Heilongjiang Province were analyzed. The spatial distribution results indicated that Suihua, Qigihar, Daqing, Harbin, and Jiamusi are located in high-risk areas, Daxing’anling and Yichun are located in low-risk areas, and the differences among the regions were primarily caused by the aspects exposure and resistance capacity. The temporal variation results indicated that the risk of agricultural drought in most areas presented an initially increasing and then decreasing trend. A higher value for the exposure aspect increased the risk of drought, whereas a higher value for the resistance capacity aspect reduced the risk of drought. Over the long term, the exposure level of the region presented limited increases, whereas the resistance capacity presented considerable increases. Therefore, the risk of agricultural drought in Heilongjiang Province will continue to exhibit a decreasing trend.
Prostate cancer shows remarkable clinical heterogeneity, which manifests in spatial and clonal genomic diversity. By contrast, the transcriptomic heterogeneity of prostate tumours is poorly ...understood. Here we have profiled the transcriptomes of 36,424 single cells from 13 prostate tumours and identified the epithelial cells underlying disease aggressiveness. The tumour microenvironment (TME) showed activation of multiple progression-associated transcriptomic programs. Notably, we observed promiscuous KLK3 expression and validated the ability of cancer cells in altering T-cell transcriptomes. Profiling of a primary tumour and two matched lymph nodes provided evidence that KLK3 ectopic expression is associated with micrometastases. Close cell-cell communication exists among cells. We identified an endothelial subset harbouring active communication (activated endothelial cells, aECs) with tumour cells. Together with sequencing of an additional 11 samples, we showed that aECs are enriched in castration-resistant prostate cancer and promote cancer cell invasion. Finally, we created a user-friendly web interface for users to explore the sequenced data.
A wide area quantum key distribution (QKD) network deployed on communication infrastructures provided by China Mobile Ltd. is demonstrated. Three cities and two metropolitan area QKD networks were ...linked up to form the Hefei-Chaohu-Wuhu wide area QKD network with over 150 kilometers coverage area, in which Hefei metropolitan area QKD network was a typical full-mesh core network to offer all-to-all interconnections, and Wuhu metropolitan area QKD network was a representative quantum access network with point-to-multipoint configuration. The whole wide area QKD network ran for more than 5000 hours, from 21 December 2011 to 19 July 2012, and part of the network stopped until last December. To adapt to the complex and volatile field environment, the Faraday-Michelson QKD system with several stability measures was adopted when we designed QKD devices. Through standardized design of QKD devices, resolution of symmetry problem of QKD devices, and seamless switching in dynamic QKD network, we realized the effective integration between point-to-point QKD techniques and networking schemes.
The ephemeral flora of northern Xinjiang, China, plays an important role in the desert ecosystems. However, the evolutionary history of this flora remains unclear. To gain new insights into its ...origin and evolutionary dynamics, we comprehensively sampled ephemeral plants of Brassicaceae, one of the essential plant groups of the ephemeral flora.
We reconstructed a phylogenetic tree using plastid genomes and estimated their divergence times. Our results indicate that ephemeral species began to colonize the arid areas in north Xinjiang during the Early Miocene and there was a greater dispersal of ephemeral species from the surrounding areas into the ephemeral community of north Xinjiang during the Middle and Late Miocene, in contrast to the Early Miocene or Pliocene periods.
Our findings, together with previous studies, suggest that the ephemeral flora originated in the Early Miocene, and species assembly became rapid from the Middle Miocene onwards, possibly attributable to global climate changes and regional geological events.
For extending graphene aerogels for broad applications, here we demonstrate a simple and universal approach for scalable fabricating novel dual carbon three-dimensional (3D) hybrid structures, where ...the interspace of a 3D carbon texture has been modified by in situ generating graphene aerogels. Owing to the unique exceptional 3D carbon bi-frameworks of enhanced electrical conductivity and flexibility, the as-prepared graphene aerogel–carbon texture hybrid presents an ultra-light feature (0.07gcm−3 in density), with highly effective electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance up to 27dB and 37dB (in the X band region) at thicknesses of 2 and 3mm, respectively. According to the mechanisms in EMI shielding, the fundamental criteria for evaluating a shielding material has been discussed and the excellent shielding performance coupled with the ultra-low density allows such 3D all-carbon hybrids to show more advantageous than the other carbon-based shielding composites. Implication of the results suggests that the strategy of various advantages could be widely extended to a variety of applications, promising a great platform for large-scale fabricating porous graphene-based materials into high-performance products.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) metastasis is largely responsible for HCC-associated recurrence and mortality. We aimed to identify metastasis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) to understand the ...molecular mechanism of HCC metastasis. We first identified that miR-1258 was downregulated in HCC tissues both in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) dataset. MiR-1258 expression negatively correlated with recurrence-free survival and overall survival of HCC patients. MiR-1258 overexpression inhibited migration and invasion of HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo, whereas miR-1258 downregulation promoted cell metastasis. Luciferase assays verified direct binding of miR-1258 to Smad2 and Smad3, thereby attenuating TGF-β/Smad signaling. We further established that lncRNA LINC01278 was a negative regulator of miR-1258. In vivo and in vitro assays demonstrated that LINC01278-mediated HCC metastasis was dependent on miR-1258 expression. Furthermore, miR-1258 downregulation in turn increased LINC01278 expression. We also observed that TCF-4 could bind to the LINC01278 promoter site. In addition, LINC01278 downregulation decreased migration and invasion of HCC cells induced by β-catenin and TGF-β1 both in vitro and in vivo. We uncovered a novel mechanism for β-catenin/TCF-4-LINC01278-miR-1258-Smad2/3 feedback loop activation in HCC metastasis, and the study indicated that LINC01278 could serve as a therapeutic target for HCC metastasis.
Measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) is a substantial step toward practical information-theoretic security for key sharing between remote legitimate users (Alice and ...Bob). As with other standard device-dependent quantum key distribution protocols, such as BB84, MDI QKD assumes that the reference frames have been shared between Alice and Bob. In practice, a nontrivial alignment procedure is often necessary, which requires system resources and may significantly reduce the secure key generation rate. Here, we propose a phase-coding reference-frame-independent MDI QKD scheme that requires no phase alignment between the interferometers of two distant legitimate parties. As a demonstration, a proof-of-principle experiment using Faraday-Michelson interferometers is presented. The experimental system worked at 1 MHz, and an average secure key rate of 8.309 bps was obtained at a fiber length of 20 km between Alice and Bob. The system can maintain a positive key generation rate without phase compensation under normal conditions. The results exhibit the feasibility of our system for use in mature MDI QKD devices and its value for network scenarios.
Metformin, the most prescribed antidiabetic medicine, has shown other benefits such as anti-ageing and anticancer effects
. For clinical doses of metformin, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has a ...major role in its mechanism of action
; however, the direct molecular target of metformin remains unknown. Here we show that clinically relevant concentrations of metformin inhibit the lysosomal proton pump v-ATPase, which is a central node for AMPK activation following glucose starvation
. We synthesize a photoactive metformin probe and identify PEN2, a subunit of γ-secretase
, as a binding partner of metformin with a dissociation constant at micromolar levels. Metformin-bound PEN2 forms a complex with ATP6AP1, a subunit of the v-ATPase
, which leads to the inhibition of v-ATPase and the activation of AMPK without effects on cellular AMP levels. Knockout of PEN2 or re-introduction of a PEN2 mutant that does not bind ATP6AP1 blunts AMPK activation. In vivo, liver-specific knockout of Pen2 abolishes metformin-mediated reduction of hepatic fat content, whereas intestine-specific knockout of Pen2 impairs its glucose-lowering effects. Furthermore, knockdown of pen-2 in Caenorhabditis elegans abrogates metformin-induced extension of lifespan. Together, these findings reveal that metformin binds PEN2 and initiates a signalling route that intersects, through ATP6AP1, the lysosomal glucose-sensing pathway for AMPK activation. This ensures that metformin exerts its therapeutic benefits in patients without substantial adverse effects.
PDF
