The energy storage performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) depends on the electrode capacity and electrode/cell design parameters, which have previously been addressed separately, leading to a ...failure in practical implementation. Here, we show how conformal graphene (Gr) coating on Ni-rich oxides enables the fabrication of highly packed cathodes containing a high content of active material (~99 wt%) without conventional conducting agents. With 99 wt% LiNi
Co
Al
O
(NCA) and electrode density of ~4.3 g cm
, the Gr-coated NCA cathode delivers a high areal capacity, ~5.4 mAh cm
(~38% increase) and high volumetric capacity, ~863 mAh cm
(~34% increase) at a current rate of 0.2 C (~1.1 mA cm
); this surpasses the bare electrode approaching a commercial level of electrode setting (96 wt% NCA; ~3.3 g cm
). Our findings offer a combinatorial avenue for materials engineering and electrode design toward advanced LIB cathodes.
Polypropylene (PP) is a synthetic polymer with excellent physical properties useful for various industries. However, its flammability in air limits its applications. In the present work, lignin ...filler was modified by phosphorylation, and characterized through chemical, structural, thermal, and morphological analyses. The resultant products were incorporated into PP to increase the flame retardancy of PP‐based composites. Although, the mechanical properties of the PP composites containing 30 wt% filler deteriorated, the tensile strength was maintained. An addition of phosphorylated lignin (pL) into PP decreased the heat release rate from 1136.5 to 777.2 kW/m2 and the total smoke release from 25.1 to 9.6 m2/m2. Furthermore, scanning electron microscopy images of the pL incorporated composites after the combustion test revealed that the solid char formed on the composites acted as a protective layer for PP. Thus, incorporating pL into PP is a feasible approach for improving its flame retardancy.
In this paper, we revisit a two-user space-time line coded uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (STLC-NOMA) system for Internet-of-things (IoT) networks and propose a novel low-complexity STLC-NOMA ...system. The basic idea is that both IoT devices (stations: STAs) employ amplitude-shift keying (ASK) modulators and align their modulated symbols to in-phase and quadrature axes, respectively, before the STLC encoding. The phase distortion caused by wireless channels becomes compensated at the receiver side with the STLC, and thus each STA’s signals are still aligned on their axes at the access point (AP) in the proposed uplink STLC-NOMA system. Then, the AP can decode the signals transmitted from STAs via a single-user maximum-likelihood (ML) detector with low-complexity, while the conventional uplink STLC-NOMA system exploits a multi-user joint ML detector with relatively high-complexity. We mathematically analyze the exact BER performance of the proposed uplink STLC-NOMA system. Furthermore, we propose a novel expectation-maximization (EM)-based blind energy estimation (BEE) algorithm to jointly estimate both transmit power and effective channel gain of each STA without the help of pilot signals at the AP. Somewhat interestingly, the proposed BEE algorithm works well even in short-packet transmission scenarios. It is worth noting that the proposed uplink STLC-NOMA architecture outperforms the conventional STLC-NOMA technique in terms of bit-error-rate (BER), especially with high-order modulation schemes, even though it requires lower computation complexity than the conventional technique at the receiver.
Novel subtypes of Asian-origin (Goose/Guangdong lineage) H5 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses belonging to clade 2.3.4, such as H5N2, H5N5, H5N6, and H5N8, have been identified in ...China since 2008 and have since evolved into four genetically distinct clade 2.3.4.4 groups (A-D). Since 2014, HPAI clade 2.3.4.4 viruses have spread rapidly via migratory wild aquatic birds and have evolved through reassortment with prevailing local low pathogenicity avian influenza viruses. Group A H5N8 viruses and its reassortant viruses caused outbreaks in wide geographic regions (Asia, Europe, and North America) during 2014-2015. Novel reassortant Group B H5N8 viruses caused outbreaks in Asia, Europe, and Africa during 2016-2017. Novel reassortant Group C H5N6 viruses caused outbreaks in Korea and Japan during the 2016-2017 winter season. Group D H5N6 viruses caused outbreaks in China and Vietnam. A wide range of avian species, including wild and domestic waterfowl, domestic poultry, and even zoo birds, seem to be permissive for infection by and/or transmission of clade 2.3.4.4 HPAI viruses. Further, compared to previous H5N1 HPAI viruses, these reassortant viruses show altered pathogenicity in birds. In this review, we discuss the evolution, global spread, and pathogenicity of H5 clade 2.3.4.4 HPAI viruses.
In this study, we aim to automatically construct a test dataset for testing the performance of spelling error correction systems. The Google Web 1T corpus, which includes data on 10 quadrillion ...phrases, is used for this purpose. Therefore, error words used in the test dataset use error words generated by real web users. There are seven types of error words. In order to obtain the error word, a word set that appears simultaneously with the surrounding context (3‐g range) of the location of the error word generation is searched. In this calculation, we exclude error words with wide edit distances that cause the resolution of original words to become exceedingly difficult. In order to select the final error word from the word set, a word with a high value is selected by calculating the context probability using 3‐g. In the experiment, the performance was measured for two systems (grammarly, MS Word) in service and the recently announced spelling error correction system (Neuspell). The highest performance was the F1 score of 56%, which shows the overall performance, indicating the need for research on spelling errors.
The layered sodium transition metal oxide, NaTMO2 (TM = transition metal), with a binary or ternary phases has displayed outstanding electrochemical performance as a new class of strategy cathode ...materials for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs). Herein, an in‐depth phase analysis of developed Na1−xTMO2 cathode materials, Na0.76Ni0.20Fe0.40Mn0.40O2 with P2‐ and O3‐type phases (NFMO‐P2/O3) is offered. Structural visualization on an atomic scale is also provided and the following findings are unveiled: i) the existence of a mixed‐phase intergrowth layer distribution and unequal distribution of P2 and O3 phases along two different crystal plane indices and ii) a complete reversible charge/discharge process for the initial two cycles that displays a simple phase transformation, which is unprecedented. Moreover, first‐principles calculations support the evidence of the formation of a binary NFMO‐P2/O3 compound, over the proposed hypothetical monophasic structures (O3, P3, O′3, and P2 phases). As a result, the synergetic effect of the simultaneous existence of P‐ and O‐type phases with their unique structures allows an extraordinary level of capacity retention in a wide range of voltage (1.5–4.5 V). It is believed that the insightful understanding of the proposed materials can introduce new perspectives for the development of high‐voltage cathode materials for SIBs.
In‐depth phase analysis of developed Na1−xTMO2 cathode materials, NFMO with P2‐ and O3‐type phases (NFMO‐P2/O3) is offered. As a result, the synergetic effect of the simultaneous existence of P‐ and O‐type phases with their unique structures allows an extraordinary level of capacity retention in a wide range of voltage (1.5–4.5 V).
In this paper, we propose a novel interference alignment (IA) technique for an in-band full-duplex (IBFD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cellular network where a base station (BS) and user ...equipment (UE) are equipped with multiple antennas, and the local channel state information (CSI) is available at all nodes. Considering a practical IBFD MIMO cellular network, it is assumed that only the BS operates with full-duplex (FD) communication while UE operate in half-duplex (HD) mode. These IBFD networks introduce a new type of interference called cross-link interference (CLI), in which uplink UE affects downlink UE. The proposed IA technique consists of two symmetric IA schemes according to the number of antennas in the uplink and downlink UE, and both schemes effectively mitigate CLI in the IBFD MIMO network. It is worth noting that both IA schemes are adaptively applicable according to the network's quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, such as uplink and downlink traffic demands. Furthermore, we theoretically characterize and prove the achievable sum-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) of the proposed IA technique. Simulation results show that the proposed IA technique significantly improves the sum rate performance compared to conventional HD communications (multi-user MIMO) while achieving the same achievable DoF as the interference-free IBFD MIMO network.
Gastric cancer (GC) is commonly treated by chemotherapy using 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) derivatives and platinum combination, but predictive biomarker remains lacking. We develop patient-derived ...xenografts (PDXs) from 31 GC patients and treat with a combination of 5-FU and oxaliplatin, to determine biomarkers associated with responsiveness. When the PDXs are defined as either responders or non-responders according to tumor volume change after treatment, the responsiveness of PDXs is significantly consistent with the respective clinical outcomes of the patients. An integrative genomic and transcriptomic analysis of PDXs reveals that pathways associated with cell-to-cell and cell-to-extracellular matrix interactions enriched among the non-responders in both cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME). We develop a 30-gene prediction model to determine the responsiveness to 5-FU and oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy and confirm the significant poor survival outcomes among cases classified as non-responder-like in three independent GC cohorts. Our study may inform clinical decision-making when designing treatment strategies.
Through an integration of genomic and proteomic approaches to advance understanding of long noncoding RNAs, we investigate the function of the telomeric transcript, TERRA. By identifying thousands ...of TERRA target sites in the mouse genome, we demonstrate that TERRA can bind both in cis to telomeres and in trans to genic targets. We then define a large network of interacting proteins, including epigenetic factors, telomeric proteins, and the RNA helicase, ATRX. TERRA and ATRX share hundreds of target genes and are functionally antagonistic at these loci: whereas TERRA activates, ATRX represses gene expression. At telomeres, TERRA competes with telomeric DNA for ATRX binding, suppresses ATRX localization, and ensures telomeric stability. Depleting TERRA increases telomerase activity and induces telomeric pathologies, including formation of telomere-induced DNA damage foci and loss or duplication of telomeric sequences. We conclude that TERRA functions as an epigenomic modulator in trans and as an essential regulator of telomeres in cis.
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•Epigenomic mapping shows that mouse TERRA RNA binds telomeres and select genes•iDRiP proteomics reveals that ATRX is a major TERRA-interacting protein•TERRA and ATRX antagonize each other functionally•Loss of TERRA results in telomere dysfunction and instability
The functions of the long noncoding RNA TERRA are revealed through a combination of genomic and proteomic approaches, and the helicase ATRX is an important binding partner for its ability to regulate telomere function.
Although the introduction of human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2‐directed therapy including trastuzumab, pertuzumab, lapatinib and trastuzumab emtansine (T‐DM1) in the treatment of ...HER2‐positive metastatic breast cancers (mBCs) favorably changed the natural history of this disease, most cases of HER2‐positive mBC will eventually progress. Poziotinib is an oral pan‐HER kinase inhibitor showing potent activity through irreversible inhibition of these kinases. This open‐label, multicenter phase II study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of poziotinib monotherapy in patients with HER2‐positive mBC who had progressed from more than two HER2‐directed therapies. Patients received 12 mg poziotinib once daily on a 14‐day on/7‐day off schedule. Progression‐free survival (PFS) as the primary endpoint, the objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and safety were evaluated. From April 2015 to February 2016, 106 patients were enrolled in the trial from seven institutes in South Korea. They had a median age of 51 years (range 30–76) and had received a median of four prior therapies including two HER2‐directed therapies for advanced or metastatic cancers. The median follow‐up duration was 12 months. The median PFS was 4.04 months (95% confidence interval CI, 2.94–4.40 months), and median overall survival has not been reached. The most common treatment‐related adverse events were (total/grade ≥3) diarrhea (96.23%/14.15%), stomatitis (92.45%/12.26%) and rashes (63.21%/3.77%). Poziotinib showed meaningful activity in these heavily treated HER2‐positive mBCs. Diarrhea and stomatitis were the major toxicities. Biomarker studies analyzed are warranted to support further evaluation of this treatment in such cases.
What's new?
Targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has revolutionized treatment of HER2‐positive cancers but rapid resistance development causes significant clinical problems. In this phase II study, the authors tested poziotinib, a new oral pan‐HER inhibitor, in patients with metastatic breast cancer after two prior HER2‐directed therapies. Treatment with poziotinib achieved on average a progression‐free survival of ~4 months with relatively mild side effects (skin rash and diarrhoea), an encouraging result for patients with repeated treatment failure.
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