The immunomodulatory effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on macrophages have been reported, however, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the ...anti-inflammatory effects of MSCs on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages and the subsequent downregulation of their inflammatory mediators. Macrophages were treated with conditioned media from MSCs, without a subsequent change of MSCs responding to the inflammation state. This study also evaluated whether the interleukin (IL) 4 stimulation of MSCs can improve their anti-inflammatory effects. Results demonstrated that the MSC-conditioned medium (MSC-CM) stimulated with IL4 significantly inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein expression of LPS-activated macrophages. MSC-CM treatment inhibited the mRNA transcription of the cytokines IL1β and IL6, the chemokines C-C motif ligand (CCL) 2, CCL3, CCL4, and CCL5, and the chemokine receptors CCR2 and CCR5, in LPS-stimulated macrophages. As revealed through western blot and immunofluorescence analyses, the phosphorylation of p38, JNK, and ERK MAPKs, as well as phosphorylation of NF-κB in stimulated macrophages, were also inhibited by the MSC-CM. Further, more potent anti-inflammatory effects were observed with the IL4-stimulated cells, compared with those observed with the non-stimulated cells. The MSC-CM demonstrated a potent anti-inflammatory effect on LPS-activated macrophages, while the IL4 stimulation improved this effect. These findings indicate that MSCs could exert anti-inflammatory effects on macrophages, and may be considered as a therapeutic agent in inflammation treatment.
2D MoS2 nanostructures have recently attracted considerable attention because of their outstanding electrocatalytic properties. The synthesis of unique Co–Ru–MoS2 hybrid nanosheets with excellent ...catalytic activity toward overall water splitting in alkaline solution is reported. 1T′ phase MoS2 nanosheets are doped homogeneously with Co atoms and decorated with Ru nanoparticles. The catalytic performance of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is characterized by low overpotentials of 52 and 308 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and Tafel slopes of 55 and 50 mV decade−1 in 1.0 m KOH, respectively. Analysis of X‐ray photoelectron and absorption spectra of the catalysts show that the MoS2 well retained its metallic 1T′ phase, which guarantees good electrical conductivity during the reaction. The Gibbs free energy calculation for the reaction pathway in alkaline electrolyte confirms that the Ru nanoparticles on the Co‐doped MoS2 greatly enhance the HER activity. Water adsorption and dissociation take place favorably on the Ru, and the doped Co further catalyzes HER by making the reaction intermediates more favorable. The high OER performance is attributed to the catalytically active RuO2 nanoparticles that are produced via oxidation of Ru nanoparticles.
Metallic 1T′ phase Co–Ru–MoS2 hybrid nanosheets are synthesized for bifunctional catalytic water splitting in alkaline solution. Their excellent catalytic performance is a result of their optimized electronic structures. Gibbs free energy calculation for the reaction pathways confirms that the Ru nanoparticles on the Co‐doped MoS2 greatly enhance the catalytic activity toward hydrogen evolution reaction.
Protecting group‐controlled regioselective functionalization of 3,5‐dibromo‐2‐pyridones has been studied for preparation of unsymmetrical 3,5‐disubstituted 2‐pyridones. A bulky ...di‐tert‐butyl(isobutyl)silyl (BIBS) group was utilized for C5 regioselective arylation in Suzuki‐Miyaura reactions. Meanwhile, the p‐toluenesulfonyl (Ts) group was used to maximize C3 selective halogen‐lithium exchange employing flow chemistry. Most of the reactions proceeded well, with yields of 76 to 95% and excellent regioselectivity. A one‐pot synthesis of unsymmetrical 3,5‐diaryl‐2‐pyridones starting from 3,5‐dibromo‐2‐silyloxypyridine was conducted to demonstrate the practical convenience. Further functionalization onto the remaining bromine group, such as transition metal‐catalyzed C−C and C−N bond‐forming reactions and retro‐Brook rearrangement for C−Si bond formation, was accomplished for synthesis of biologically relevant 3,5‐disubstituted 2‐pyridones. Finally, amrinone and milrinone, commonly used for congestive heart failure, were synthesized in three steps from 3,5‐dibromo‐2‐pyridones in 41% and 56% overall yields, respectively.
Mn(III)-iodosylarene porphyrin adducts, Mn(III)(ArIO)(Porp)+, were synthesized by reacting electron-deficient Mn(III) porphyrin complexes with iodosylarene (ArIO) at −60 °C and characterized ...using various spectroscopic methods. The Mn(III)(ArIO)(Porp)+ species were then investigated in the epoxidation of olefins under stoichiometric conditions. In the epoxidation of olefins by the Mn(III)-iodosylarene porphyrin species, epoxide was formed as the sole product with high chemoselectivities and stereoselectivities. For example, cyclohexene oxide was formed exclusively with trace amounts of allylic oxidation products; cis- and trans-stilbenes were oxidized to the corresponding cis- and trans-stilbene oxides, respectively. In the catalytic epoxidation of cyclohexene by an electron-deficient Mn(III) porphyrin complex and sPhIO at low temperature (e.g., −60 °C), the Mn(III)-iodosylarene porphyrin species was evidenced as the active oxidant that effects the olefin epoxidation to give epoxide as the product. However, at high temperature (e.g., 0 °C) or in the case of using an electron-rich manganese(III) porphyrin catalyst, allylic oxidation products, along with cyclohexene oxide, were yielded, indicating that the active oxidant(s) was not the Mn(III)-iodosylarene adduct but probably high-valent Mn-oxo species in the catalytic reactions. We also report the conversion of the Mn(III)-iodosylarene porphyrins to high-valent Mn-oxo porphyrins under various conditions, such as at high temperature, with electron-rich porphyrin ligand, and in the presence of base (OH–). The present study reports the first example of spectroscopically well-characterized Mn(III)-iodosylarene porphyrin species being an active oxidant in the stoichiometric and catalytic oxidation reactions. Other aspects, such as one oxidant versus multiple oxidants debate, also were discussed.
Video deblurring aims at removing the motion blur caused by the movement of objects or camera shake. Traditional video deblurring methods have mainly focused on frame-based deblurring, which takes ...only blurry frames as the input to produce sharp frames. However, frame-based deblurring has shown poor picture quality in challenging cases of video restoration where severely blurred frames are provided as the input. To overcome this issue, recent studies have begun to explore the event-based approach, which uses the event sequence captured by an event camera for motion deblurring. Event cameras have several advantages compared to conventional frame cameras. Among these advantages, event cameras have a low latency in imaging data acquisition (0.001 ms for event cameras vs. 10 ms for frame cameras). Hence, event data can be acquired at a high acquisition rate (up to one microsecond). This means that the event sequence contains more accurate motion information than video frames. Additionally, event data can be acquired with less motion blur. Due to these advantages, the use of event data is highly beneficial for achieving improvements in the quality of deblurred frames. Accordingly, the results of event-based video deblurring are superior to those of frame-based deblurring methods, even for severely blurred video frames. However, the direct use of event data can often generate visual artifacts in the final output frame (e.g., image noise and incorrect textures), because event data intrinsically contain insufficient textures and event noise. To tackle this issue in event-based deblurring, we propose a two-stage coarse-refinement network by adding a frame-based refinement stage that utilizes all the available frames with more abundant textures to further improve the picture quality of the first-stage coarse output. Specifically, a coarse intermediate frame is estimated by performing event-based video deblurring in the first-stage network. A residual hint attention (RHA) module is also proposed to extract useful attention information from the coarse output and all the available frames. This module connects the first and second stages and effectively guides the frame-based refinement of the coarse output. The final deblurred frame is then obtained by refining the coarse output using the residual hint attention and all the available frame information in the second-stage network. We validated the deblurring performance of the proposed network on the GoPro synthetic dataset (33 videos and 4702 frames) and the HQF real dataset (11 videos and 2212 frames). Compared to the state-of-the-art method (D2Net), we achieved a performance improvement of 1 dB in PSNR and 0.05 in SSIM on the GoPro dataset, and an improvement of 1.7 dB in PSNR and 0.03 in SSIM on the HQF dataset.
Graphene provides outstanding properties that can be integrated into various flexible and stretchable electronic devices in a conventional, scalable fashion. The mechanical, electrical, and optical ...properties of graphene make it an attractive candidate for applications in electronics, energy‐harvesting devices, sensors, and other systems. Recent research progress on graphene‐based flexible and stretchable electronics is reviewed here. The production and fabrication methods used for target device applications are first briefly discussed. Then, the various types of flexible and stretchable electronic devices that are enabled by graphene are discussed, including logic devices, energy‐harvesting devices, sensors, and bioinspired devices. The results represent important steps in the development of graphene‐based electronics that could find applications in the area of flexible and stretchable electronics.
The outstanding properties of graphene enable a novel form of electronics in a conventional, scalable fashion. Recent progress in graphene‐based flexible and stretchable electronics is reviewed, from the production of the graphene to its applications, including logic gates, energy‐harvesting devices, sensors, and bioinspired devices.
Among smart construction technologies, 3D laser scanning technology is used in a variety of applications, including progress measurement, quantity management, reverse engineering (RE), health ...monitoring, mechanical electronic plumbing (MEP), and so on, using point clouds data (PCD) in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) field. This technology is one of the important data acquisition technologies in construction status to perform active project management through the complete and accurate three-dimensional and visual judgment of building acts. The surveying work for setting out a building is the first step in constructing a building; the location of the building must match the design plan for a building to be sustainable. This is because, if a location deviation exceeds the permitted range, the building must be demolished and rebuilt. When this happens, sustainable construction management is impossible due to delays in the construction schedule, increased construction costs, waste generation, and so on. The purpose of this study is to investigate a case where the accuracy of setting out a building was measured in the construction stage of a building and the building layout design was modified by RE. Although the foundation construction of the case building was in progress, it was confirmed that the setting out of the building measured using a 3D laser scanner did not match with the building layout plan. Therefore, there was no legal problem even if the layout plan is modified according to the measured results, so the building layout plan was modified through RE. Consequently, it was confirmed that a case building under construction became sustainable through RE, and that sustainable construction management was possible by preventing construction schedule delays, increased construction costs, and waste generation.
This study focuses on improving progress monitoring in construction projects through the integration of 3D laser scanning technology and component-specific data identification. The conventional ...method of measuring progress using cost-based rates and on-site factors often leads to discrepancies between actual progress and reported rates. Additionally, data collection challenges in real construction sites further hinder accurate progress assessment. To address these issues, the study utilizes 3D laser scanning to gather real-time construction progress data and introduces a method to identify specific components by comparing 3D models with positional information. The method used in this study shows how to obtain powerful location information from BIM. This prevents direct duplicate operations from proceeding between models during execution. The comparison enables accurate identification, and an algorithm extracts additional details for construction status verification. The outcomes offer a promising solution for acquiring precise and reliable progress data, enabling stakeholders to make well-informed decisions. By implementing this approach, construction projects can achieve enhanced management and overall success.
Despite the recent considerable progress, the reversibility and cycle life of silicon anodes in lithium-ion batteries are yet to be improved further to meet the commercial standards. The current ...major industry, instead, adopts silicon monoxide (SiO x , x ≈ 1), as this phase can accommodate the volume change of embedded Si nanodomains via the silicon oxide matrix. However, the poor Coulombic efficiencies (CEs) in the early period of cycling limit the content of SiO x , usually below 10 wt % in a composite electrode with graphite. Here, we introduce a scalable but delicate prelithiation scheme based on electrical shorting with lithium metal foil. The accurate shorting time and voltage monitoring allow a fine-tuning on the degree of prelithiation without lithium plating, to a level that the CEs in the first three cycles reach 94.9%, 95.7%, and 97.2%. The excellent reversibility enables robust full-cell operations in pairing with an emerging nickel-rich layered cathode, LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2, even at a commercial level of initial areal capacity of 2.4 mAh cm–2, leading to a full cell energy density 1.5-times as high as that of graphite-LiCoO2 counterpart in terms of the active material weight.
The integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) into the future Smart Distribution Network (SDN) has challenging issues regarding the successful development of smart grids. The SDN offers new ...opportunities in the improvement of the efficiency of power distribution networks. The DERs will be distributed in the existing distribution networks, interconnected in customer areas and operated on its own schedule without communication to the control center of the existing distribution system. The DER units have both positive and negative effects regarding SDN operations. With the appropriate operation of the DER units in the SDN, losses can be reduced during normal operations and they can support local loads during abnormal conditions. Thus, the positive effects of the DER units need to be enabled in the SDN by adopting advanced operation schemes. In this paper, the smart control functions for the DER units in the SDN are defined and classified. In addition, the integration schemes for the SDN with DER units are introduced. The proposed operation strategies will be implemented into the Korean Smart Distribution Management System (KSDMS) as operation schemes used for loss reduction and service restoration. A sample case study shows the effectiveness of the proposed operation schemes to achieve smart operation functions for the SDN with DER units.
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