The current mainstream energy storage systems are in urgent need of performance improvements to meet novel application requirements. In pursuit of a higher energy density in Li-ion and Na-ion ...batteries, the conventional electrode materials have reached the upper limit of their theoretical specific capacities. Hence, facile methods of reducing irreversible lithium-ion/sodium-ion loss are developed to further boost the battery energy density. Herein, we review studies that use polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons for wet chemical prelithiation and presodiation. The molecular structures of arenes and solvents used for solution-based prelithiation/presodiation have a substantial impact on the prelithiation/presodiation power and effectiveness. Multiple reports have already shown excellent initial Coulombic efficiency and streamlined processes by using this type of wet chemical prelithiation/presodiation strategy. This review article will cover how to select appropriate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon prelithiation/presodiation reagents for various materials/electrodes and provide possible directions and guidelines for future works.
The cathodic reactions in Li–S batteries can be divided into two steps. Firstly, elemental sulfur is transformed into long‐chain polysulfides (S8↔Li2S4), which are highly soluble in the electrolyte. ...Next, long‐chain polysulfides undergo nucleation reaction and convert into solid‐state Li2S2 and Li2S (Li2S4↔Li2S) by slow processes. As a result, the second‐step of the electrochemical reaction hinders the high‐rate application of Li–S batteries. In this report, the kinetics of the sulfur/long‐chain‐polysulfide redox couple (theoretical capacity=419 mA h g−1) are experimentally demonstrated to be very fast in the Li–S system. A Li–S cell with a blended carbon interlayer retains excellent cycle stability and possesses a high percentage of active material utilization over 250 cycles at high C rates. The meso‐/micropores in the interlayer are responsible for accommodating the shuttling polysulfides and offering sufficient electrolyte accessibility. Therefore, utilizing the sulfur/long‐chain polysulfide redox couple with an efficient interlayer configuration in Li–S batteries may be a promising choice for high‐power applications.
More juice: The kinetics of the sulfur/long‐chain polysulfide redox couple (S8↔Li2S4; theoretical capacity= 419 mA h g−1) are experimentally demonstrated to be very fast in the Li–S system. A Li–S battery with a blended‐carbon interlayer retains excellent cycle stability and high discharge capacity over 250 cycles at 10 C and 15 C rates. The meso‐/micropores in the interlayer are responsible for storing the migrating polysulfides and offering sufficient electrolyte accessibility.
Objectives
To explore the trends in Fournier's gangrene (FG) incidence and mortality rate in Taiwan and to investigate the contributing factors to such changes.
Methods
Between 2002 and 2016, ...hospitalized FG patients who underwent subsequent surgical intervention were included in this retrospective study. Incidence, outcomes, age‐adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (ACCI), hospitalization cost, surgical timing, and the number of multidisciplinary specialists involved in the first‐line management of FG in each year were collected. Simple linear regression and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) were used for the subsequent analysis.
Results
The national cohort enrolled 2183 FG patients from 2002 to 2016 in Taiwan. The age‐standardized incidence rate of FG was between 0.4 and 0.8 per 100 000 population, and overall mortality was 7.8% in these 15 years. We illustrated the downward trendline of FG mortality with a 0.62 coefficient of determination. The mortality of FG patients who underwent surgery within 24 h and after 24 h were found to be 8.3 ± 3.9% and 14.6 ± 25.2%, respectively (p = 0.02). The numbers of urologists, anesthesiologists, emergency doctors, and physicians per 100 000 population had a strong negative linear correlation with FG mortality (r = 0.8, p < 0.001). ACCI score had a moderate linear relationship with FG mortality (r = 0.57, p = 0.027). The hospitalization cost showed a weak linear correlation with FG mortality (r = −0.03, p = 0.92).
Conclusions
We demonstrated the downward trend of the FG mortality rate in Taiwan from 2002 to 2016. Besides underlying comorbidities and surgical timing, sufficient multidisciplinary specialists are essential for the survival benefit of FG patients in Taiwan experience.
In this paper, the study aims to inquire into the impact of integrating creative thinking teaching through project-based learning in the engineering course. In the beginning, the quasi-experiment is ...implemented in the engineering course. The lecture-based teaching strategy is applied to the control group, while the experimental group applied the project-based learning strategy. All of the students are asked to propose their draft scheme of final project in the middle term, and then implement one system prototype as the final project in the end of semester. The draft scheme and prototype are reviewed by experts for measuring whether creativity has increased or not. Finally, a satisfaction questionnaire is delivered to evaluate the students’ opinions about the experimental classroom. The results show that the project-based learning approach is able to promote the creative thinking of students, especially with regard to fluency and flexibility. Moreover, the students in their interview thought suitable creativity thinking tools are an approach that can promote their creativity significantly. Hence, the various creative thinking tools must be provided for students in order to take advantage of developing creativity thinking habits.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the activation of experiential marketing, satisfaction with sponsored sporting events, brand equity, and subsequent product ...purchase intentions in a small-scale sponsorship campaign. Survey data were collected from 238 actual runners in the terminal rest area after they had completed a race. Structural equation modeling with the bootstrap method was carried out to examine the proposed hypotheses. Results revealed that in terms of product purchase intention, brand equity was the most influential factor, followed by experiential marketing activation and satisfaction with the sponsorship. Specifically, experiential marketing activation significantly influenced the sports sponsorship and the sponsor's brand equity; however, satisfaction showed an insignificant effect on purchase intention. In addition, the mediation test shows that brand equity is an important mediator of experience marketing and satisfaction to product purchase intention. Findings provide some empirical insights into how small-scale sponsorship can benefit sponsoring companies, including intangible brand assets and tangible product consumption. The results could encourage more companies to organize small-scale sponsorship races and to present brand-related experiences (e.g., experiencing product packaging, on-the-spot experience areas). In this way, opportunities may be provided to attract more runners (or potential consumers) to participate in the event and have a deeper brand experience. This study contributes to a better understanding of the effectiveness of small-scale sponsorship in Asia to increase the generalization of the small sponsorship literature. Small-scale sporting events can bring public attention and economic benefits to the host company, and encourage more people to participate, thereby resulting in long-term social and health benefits in the community.
Excellent photocatalytic properties for hydrogen production in water splitting under simulated solar light (with AM1.5G filter) with Au nanoparticles (NPs)/ZnxCd1-xS nanowires (NWs) have been ...demonstrated. The ZnxCd1-xS NWs photocatalyst shows much higher photocatalytic activity for H2-production than ZnS and CdS NWs with Na2S and Na2SO3 as sacrificial reagents. The high photocatalytic H2-production activity, as high as 57.07 mmol g−1h−1, is attributed to appropriate band gap width and suitable conduction band edge potential of the ZnxCd1-xS NWs. The H2-production efficiency was further significantly enhanced to 96.04 mmol g−1h−1 by decorating ZnxCd1-xS NWs with appropriate size and distribution of Au NPs to induce localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) in visible and near infrared region. The work represents significant advance with a totally green and novel approach of enhancing H2-production efficiency in water splitting under simulated solar light (with AM1.5G filter).
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•Band gap engineering of ZnxCd1-xS nanowires to enhance photocatalytic hydrogen production in water splitting.•Enhancement of photocatalytic hydrogen production by localized surface plasmon resonance of ZnxCd1-xS nanowires decorated by Au nanoparticles.•The excellent performance points to an effective strategy for the design and development of nanomaterials for photocatalytic applications.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disorder with systemic inflammation and may be induced by oxidative stress that affects an inflamed joint. Our objectives were to examine isotypes of ...autoantibodies against 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (HNE) modifications in RA and associate them with increased levels of autoantibodies in RA patients.
Serum samples from 155 female patients 60 with RA, 35 with osteoarthritis (OA), and 60 healthy controls (HCs) were obtained. Four novel differential HNE-modified peptide adducts, complement factor H (CFAH)
, haptoglobin (HPT)
, immunoglobulin (Ig) kappa chain C region (IGKC)
, and prothrombin (THRB)
, were re-analyzed using tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) spectra (ProteomeXchange: PXD004546) from RA patients vs. HCs. Further, we determined serum protein levels of CFAH, HPT, IGKC and THRB, HNE-protein adducts, and autoantibodies against unmodified and HNE-modified peptides. Significant correlations and odds ratios (ORs) were calculated.
Levels of HPT in RA patients were greatly higher than the levels in HCs. Levels of HNE-protein adducts and autoantibodies in RA patients were significantly greater than those of HCs. IgM anti-HPT
HNE, IgM anti-IGKC
, and IgM anti-IGKC
HNE may be considered as diagnostic biomarkers for RA. Importantly, elevated levels of IgM anti-HPT
HNE, IgM anti-IGKC
, and IgG anti-THRB
were positively correlated with the disease activity score in 28 joints for C-reactive protein (DAS28-CRP). Further, the ORs of RA development through IgM anti-HPT
HNE (OR 5.235, p < 0.001), IgM anti-IGKC
(OR 12.655, p < 0.001), and IgG anti-THRB
(OR 5.761, p < 0.001) showed an increased risk. Lastly, we incorporated three machine learning models to differentiate RA from HC and OA, and performed feature selection to determine discriminative features. Experimental results showed that our proposed method achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.92, which demonstrated that our selected autoantibodies combined with machine learning can efficiently detect RA.
This study discovered that some IgG- and IgM-NAAs and anti-HNE M-NAAs may be correlated with inflammation and disease activity in RA. Moreover, our findings suggested that IgM anti-HPT
HNE, IgM anti-IGKC
, and IgG anti-THRB
may play heavy roles in RA development.
To maximize the performance of energy storage systems more effectively, modern batteries/supercapacitors not only require high energy density but also need to be fully recharged within a short time ...or capable of high-power discharge for electric vehicles and power applications. Thus, how to improve the rate capability of batteries or supercapacitors is a very important direction of research and engineering. Making low-tortuous structures is an efficient means to boost power density without replacing materials or sacrificing energy density. In recent years, numerous manufacturing methods have been developed to prepare low-tortuous configurations for fast ion transportation, leading to impressive high-rate electrochemical performance. This review paper summarizes several smart manufacturing processes for making well-aligned 3D microstructures for batteries and supercapacitors. These techniques can also be adopted in other advanced fields that require sophisticated structural control to achieve superior properties.
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