A thermally durable all-solid-state lithium ion battery composed of a complex hydride, oxide electrolytes, and LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 active material is developed. This battery exhibits a discharge ...capacity of 56 mAh g−1, and the tenth capacity retention ratio is 29% at 150 °C owing to the large contact resistance between the electrolyte layer and the composite positive electrode layer. This large contact resistance is reduced by introducing an adhesive layer comprised of a mixture of LiBH4 and LiNH2 that is easily melted by thermal treatment and fills the voids and pores at the interface between the two layers. As a result, repeated charge-discharge cycles are successfully demonstrated at 150 °C with a high discharge capacity and discharge capacity retention ratio. The first discharge capacity is enhanced to 114 mAh g−1 and the capacity retention ratio at the tenth cycle is improved to 71%. These results demonstrate that using an adhesive layer is an effective measure to reduce the contact resistance and thereby enhance the performance of the battery.
•All-solid-state battery with oxide and complex hydride electrolyte was developed.•Low melting point LiBH4+2LiNH2 reduced contact resistance among these electrolytes.•Repeated operation was demonstrated at 150 °C due to the reduced contact resistance.•Our battery realized a discharge capacity of 114 mAh g−1.
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•The coordination number of Ca2+ is 7–8 in liquid Ca(NO3)2·4H2O.•An NO3− links two Ca2+ in monodentate to form a long chain or a short ring structure.•Edge-sharing mono-oxygen bridge ...bonds between NO3− and two Ca2+.•An underlying mechanism of deep supercooling of liquid Ca(NO3)2·4H2O is revealed.
Calcium nitrate tetrahydrate, Ca(NO3)2·4H2O, has the potential prospects as a room temperature phase change material due to appropriate melting point and high enthalpy. However, the supercooling problem prevents its widespread use in an energy storage field. In this work, the microscopic structure of liquid Ca(NO3)2·4H2O at different temperatures are studied by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy and compared with that of Ca(NO3)2·4H2O crystal. The first coordination layer of a calcium ion contains 3 water molecules and 4–5 nitrate ions. A nitrate ion acts as a dioxygen bridge to link two calcium ions in a monodentate fashion and form a longer chain or a shorter ring structure in the liquid state. In the crystalline state, two oxygen atoms of a nitrate ion bind with a calcium ion in a bidentate manner. The structure and stability of Ca2+m(NO3−)n(H2O)q clusters are examined by DFT calculations to confirm the results obtained by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The key factor of severe supercooling problem would be the conversion from edge-sharing mono-oxygen bridge bonds of Ca-NO3 (Ca-O(NO)O-Ca) in liquid to corner-sharing dioxygen bridge bonds of Ca-NO3 (Ca-O(NO2)-Ca) in solid. This work provides a theoretical basis for solving the supercooling problem.
TRIM21 is one of the autoantigens that reacts with an anti-SS-A antibody (Ab) present in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and Sjögren's syndrome. TRIM21 is thought to play a role in ...B-cell proliferation and apoptosis, among other activities. Here we examined a pathological role of TRIM21 in SLE.
-deficient MRL/
mice were generated by backcrossing
-deficient C57BL/6 mice to MRL/
mice. The levels of serum anti-dsDNA Ab and urine protein at 28 weeks of age were significantly higher in
-deficient MRL/
mice as compared to wild-type MRL/
mice (
= 0.029 and 0.003, respectively). Resting B cells from
-deficient mice showed significantly higher abilities to differentiate into plasmablasts and to produce Ab as compared with control mice. Due to the reduction of TRIM21-mediated ubiquitylation, IRF5 protein expression was increased in
-deficient MRL/
mice (
= 0.021), which correlated with increased plasmablast generation and immunoglobulin production. B cells from SLE patients with anti-TRIM21 Ab seropositivity also showed a significantly higher ability to differentiate into plasmablasts as compared with those without anti-TRIM21 Ab or healthy controls. These results suggest that TRIM21 dysfunction contributes to SLE pathogenesis by promoting B-cell differentiation, for which anti-TRIM21 Ab may be partly responsible.
Purpose
This study aimed to assess whether short repetition time (TR) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) could improve diffusion contrast in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) compared with long TR ...(conventional) reference standard DWI.
Materials and methods
Our Institutional Review Board approved this retrospective study and waived the need for informed consent. Twenty-five patients with suspected PCa underwent multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) using a 3.0-T system. DWI was performed with TR of 1850 ms (short) and 6000 ms (long) with b-values of 0, 1000, and 2000s/mm
2
. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), visual score, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and diagnostic performance were compared between short and long TR DWI for both b-values. The statistical tests included paired t-test for SNR and CNR; Wilcoxon signed-rank test for VA; Pearson's correlation and Bland–Altman plot analysis for ADC; and McNemar test and receiver operating characteristic analysis and Delong test for diagnostic performance.
Results
Regarding b1000, CNR and visual score were significantly higher in short TR compared with long TR (
P
= .003 and
P
= .002, respectively), without significant difference in SNR (
P
= .21). Considering b2000, there was no significant difference in visual score between short and long TR (
P
= .07). However, SNR and CNR in long TR were higher (
P
= .01 and
P
= .04, respectively). ADC showed significant correlations, without apparent bias for ADC between short and long TR for both b-values. For diagnostic performance of DWI between short and long TR for both b-values, one out of five readers noted a significant difference, with the short TR for both b-values demonstrating superior performance.
Conclusions
Our data showed that the short TR DWI
1000
may provide better image quality than did the long TR DWI
1000
and may improve visualization and diagnostic performance of PCa for readers.
Solid lithium and sodium closo-polyborate-based salts are capable of superionic conductivities surpassing even liquid electrolytes, but often only at above-ambient temperatures where their ...entropically driven disordered phases become stabilized. Here we show by X-ray diffraction, quasielastic neutron scattering, differential scanning calorimetry, NMR, and AC impedance measurements that by introducing “geometric frustration” via the mixing of two different closo-polyborate anions, namely, 1-CB9H10 – and CB11H12 –, to form solid-solution anion-alloy salts of lithium or sodium, we can successfully suppress the formation of possible ordered phases in favor of disordered, fast-ion-conducting alloy phases over a broad temperature range from subambient to high temperatures. This result exemplifies an important advancement for further improving on the remarkable conductive properties generally displayed by this class of materials and represents a practical strategy for creating tailored, ambient-temperature, solid, superionic conductors for a variety of upcoming all-solid-state energy devices of the future.
The dynamic structure factors S(Q,ω) of liquid acetone were measured in a wide Q range 1.9–41.2 nm−1 with a high-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering (IXS) spectrometer installed at BL35XU of the ...SPring-8. Highly damped collective excitations of the longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonons are observed. The IXS spectra were analyzed by using a generalized Langevin formalism with the help of a sparse modeling to deduce reasonable Q dependences of the fitting parameters. The dispersion relation of the LA phonon excitations shows a highly positive deviation by about 65% from the adiabatic velocity of sound, which is larger than that in non-polar liquids such as CCl4 and benzene with van der Waals interactions, due probably that the acetone is a polar liquid. Microscopic dynamic parameters, such as viscoelastic relaxation rates and viscosity, are discussed by comparing with existing macroscopic dynamic properties. The fast and slow viscoelastic relaxations correspond to the vibration dynamics and reorientation correlations, respectively.
Dynamical velocity of sound of longitudinal acoustic phonons in liquid acetone obtained from inelastic X-ray scattering, which exceeds about 65% in the low Q region from hydrodynamic value of 1161 m/s. Display omitted
•Phonon dynamics of acetone as a polar liquid is investigated by inelastic X-ray scattering.•Obtained data are analyzed by using generalized Langevin formalism.•Dispersion of longitudinal phonon shows highly positive deviation from hydrodynamics.•Viscoelastic relaxations in memory function are related to macroscopic correlations.
It is known that the gait changes in accordance with the travel velocity by exploiting the body dynamics in the study of quadruped robots. For instance, some studies attained passive dynamic ...quadruped gaits such as a pace with a rigid trunk and a trot with a roll joint. The quadruped gait by the decentralized phase oscillator was reported, which exhibited a gait transition due to the intrinsic oscillator frequency. The robots had relatively short legs, which provides a stable upright posture, and the locomotion would not be influenced strongly by body dynamics. In this study, the quadruped RW06-Duo based on the passive dynamic walking mechanism, in which CoM is located at a high position, is developed and attains quadruped locomotion by the phase oscillator. The limb joints except for the knee (elbow) can rotate freely and passively; therefore, intralimb coordination is attained passively, and the phase oscillator and spine stiffness provide interlimb coordination. RW06-Duo exhibits different gaits according to travel velocity and demonstrates the gait transition from pace to trot or DS walk for the same oscillator frequency and stiffness.
Various control systems for robot arms using surface myoelectric signals have been developed. Abundant pattern-recognition techniques have been proposed to predict human motion intent based on these ...signals. However, it is laborious for users to train the voluntary control of myoelectric signals using those systems. In this research, we aim to develop a rehabilitation support system for hemiplegic upper limbs with a robot arm controlled by surface myoelectric signals. In this study, we construct a simple one-link robot arm that is controlled by estimating the wrist motion from the surface myoelectric signals on the forearm. We propose a training scheme with gradually increasing difficulty level for robot arm manipulation to evoke surface myoelectric signals. Subsequently, we investigate the possibility of facilitative exercise for the voluntary surface myoelectric activity of the desired muscles through trial experiments.
Cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs) regulate cancer progression through the modulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) and cancer cell adhesion. While undergoing a series of phenotypic changes, CAFs ...control cancer–stroma interactions through integrin receptor signaling. Here, we isolated CAFs from patients with non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and examined their gene expression profiles. We identified collagen type XI α1 (COL11A1), integrin α11 (ITGA11), and the ITGA11 major ligand collagen type I α1 (COL1A1) among the 390 genes that were significantly enriched in NSCLC‐associated CAFs. Increased ITGA11 expression in cancer stroma was correlated with a poor clinical outcome in patients with NSCLC. Increased expression of fibronectin and collagen type I induced ITGA11 expression in CAFs. The cellular migration of CAFs toward collagen type I and fibronectin was promoted via ERK1/2 signaling, independently of the fibronectin receptor integrin α5β1. Additionally, ERK1/2 signaling induced ITGA11 and COL11A1 expression in cancer stroma. We, therefore, propose that targeting ITGA11 and COL11A1 expressing CAFs to block cancer–stroma interactions may serve as a novel, promising anti‐tumor strategy.
Here, we analyzed gene expression profiles of non‐small‐cell lung cancer‐associated fibroblasts (CAFs). TGF‐β1 induced production of fibronectin and collagen type I in the cancer stroma, which next promoted the combined expression of integrin α11 and collagen type XI α1 in CAFs. Integrin α11+/collagen type XI α1+ CAFs relocalized within the cancer stroma in a fibronectin‐ and collagen type I‐dependent manner and promoted cancer cell migration.
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