The practical application of the Zn‐metal anode for aqueous batteries is greatly restricted by catastrophic dendrite growth, intricate hydrogen evolution, and parasitic surface passivation. Herein, a ...polyanionic hydrogel film is introduced as a protective layer on the Zn anode with the assistance of a silane coupling agent (denoted as Zn–SHn). The hydrogel framework with zincophilic –SO3− functional groups uniformizes the zinc ions flux and transport. Furthermore, such a hydrogel layer chemically bonded on the Zn surface possesses an anti‐catalysis effect, which effectively suppresses both the hydrogen evolution reaction and formation of Zn dendrites. As a result, stable and reversible Zn stripping/plating at various currents and capacities is achieved. A full cell by pairing the Zn–SHn anode with a NaV3O8·1.5 H2O cathode shows a capacity of around 176 mAh g−1 with a retention around 67% over 4000 cycles at 10 A g−1. This polyanionic hydrogel film protection strategy paves a new way for future Zn‐anode design and safe aqueous batteries construction.
A unique polyanionic hydrogel is employed as an artificial protective layer for reversible Zn‐metal anodes. The polyanions in the hydrogel framework facilitate a homogeneous zinc‐ion flux, and the Zn–O bonding strengthens the interface and suppresses surface corrosion and irregular Zn dendrites growth. This strategy could apply also to other aqueous metal batteries.
Zinc‐ion batteries are under current research focus because of their uniqueness in low cost and high safety. However, it is still desirable to improve the rate performance by improving the Zn2+ ...(de)intercalation kinetics and long‐cycle stability by eliminating the dendrite formation problem. Herein, the first paradigm of a high‐rate and ultrastable flexible quasi‐solid‐state zinc‐ion battery is constructed from a novel 2D ultrathin layered zinc orthovanadate array cathode, a Zn array anode supported by a conductive porous graphene foam, and a gel electrolyte. The nanoarray structure for both electrodes assures the high rate capability and alleviates the dendrite growth. The flexible Zn‐ion battery has a depth of discharge of ≈100% for the cathode and 66% for the anode, and delivers an impressive high‐rate of 50 C (discharge in 60 s), long‐term durability of 2000 cycles at 20 C, and unprecedented energy density ≈115 Wh kg−1, together with a peak power density ≈5.1 kW kg−1 (calculation includes masses of cathode, anode, and current collectors). First principles calculations and quantitative kinetics analysis show that the high‐rate and stable properties are correlated with the 2D fast ion‐migration pathways and the introduced intercalation pseudocapacitance.
New electrodes of Zn‐ion batteries. Strategies of novel layered mesoporous zinc orthovanadate, a Zn nanoarray, and a solid‐state electrolyte (SSE) are used to alleviate the dendrite growth problem. Intercalation pseudocapacitance in the cathode improves the rate capability. High energy and power densities are achieved with a depth of discharge of 100% for the cathode and 66% for the zinc anode.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a significant role in cancer initiation and metastasis, sometimes by releasing exosomes that mediate cell communication by delivering microRNAs (miRNAs). This study ...aimed to investigate the effects of exosomal miR-133b derived from MSCs on glioma cell behaviors.
Microarray-based analysis identified the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in glioma. The expression patterns of EZH2 and miR-133b along with interaction between them were clarified in glioma. The expression of miR-133b and EZH2 in glioma cells was altered to examine their functions on cell activities. Furthermore, glioma cells were co-cultured with MSC-derived exosomes treated with miR-133b mimic or inhibitor, and EZH2-over-expressing vectors or shRNA against EZH2 to characterize their effect on proliferation, invasion, and migration of glioma cells in vitro. In vivo assays were also performed to validate the in vitro findings.
miR-133b was downregulated while EZH2 was upregulated in glioma tissues and cells. miR-133b was found to target and negatively regulate EZH2 expression. Moreover, EZH2 silencing resulted in inhibited glioma cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. Additionally, MSC-derived exosomes containing miR-133b repressed glioma cell proliferation, invasion, and migration by inhibiting EZH2 and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Furthermore, in vivo experiments confirmed the tumor-suppressive effects of MSC-derived exosomal miR-133b on glioma development.
Collectively, the obtained results suggested that MSC-derived exosomes carrying miR-133b could attenuate glioma development via disrupting the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway by inhibiting EZH2, which provides a potential treatment biomarker for glioma.
This article focuses on the effects of urbanization and economic development on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in non-high income countries using the extended STIRPAT model. Following the building ...idea of the IPAT model, CO2 emissions (I) are decomposed into nine factors: population, affluence, technology level, urbanization level, urban employment level, industrialization level, population carrying intensity of the real economy built on goods and services, CO2 emission intensity and energy intensity. Then the extended IPAT model is reconstructed as the extended STIRPAT model. Furthermore, based on panel data from 1991 to 2013 and using the extended STIRPAT model, this article respectively analyzes the effects of the driving forces, especially urbanization and real economic development, on CO2 emissions for non-high income countries, upper and lower middle-income countries. The results indicate that urbanization and real economic development have a small impact on CO2 emissions in non-high income countries. Accelerating urbanization and real economic development will not result in a significant increase in CO2 emissions. In fact, for upper middle-income countries, real economic development will lead to a decrease in CO2 emissions, and acceleration of the urbanization process will only cause a small increase in emissions. The main driving factors of CO2 emissions remain population, affluence, energy intensity and CO2 emission intensity. This article also quantitatively calculates the actual contribution rate of each driving force for the 1991–2013 period. The study contributes to understanding the emission characteristics and key driving forces in each type of countries, allowing for appropriate policy recommendations.
•The extended STIRPAT model includes nine influencing factors.•Population, energy intensity and carbon emission intensity are the main driving factors.•Urbanization and real economic development produce small effects.
The pursuit of harmonic combination of technology and fashion intrinsically points to the development of smart garments. Herein, we present an all-solid tailorable energy textile possessing ...integrated function of simultaneous solar energy harvesting and storage, and we call it tailorable textile device. Our technique makes it possible to tailor the multifunctional textile into any designed shape without impairing its performance and produce stylish smart energy garments for wearable self-powering system with enhanced user experience and more room for fashion design. The “threads” (fiber electrodes) featuring tailorability and knittability can be large-scale fabricated and then woven into energy textiles. The fiber supercapacitor with merits of tailorability, ultrafast charging capability, and ultrahigh bending-resistance is used as the energy storage module, while an all-solid dye-sensitized solar cell textile is used as the solar energy harvesting module. Our textile sample can be fully charged to 1.2 V in 17 s by self-harvesting solar energy and fully discharged in 78 s at a discharge current density of 0.1 mA.
Innovative measure is a urgent requirement for managing the huge volume of municipal sewage sludge. The hydrothermal carbonation （HTC） shows some potential advantages for using hydrochar as a soil ...conditioner. The aim of this work was to investigate the properties of hydrochars, by means of the HTC of municipal sewage sludge under different temperatures （190 and 260~C） and reaction hours （1, 6, 12, 18 and 24 h）. The HTC led to the decreases of N, O and H contents by more than 54.6, 37.9 and 10.0%, respectively, and slight changes of C content. The Py-GC-MS analysis showed that a large proportion of fatty acids, in particular hexadecanoic acid, transferred into alkenes, olefins and aromatic compounds. The 13C-NMR and fourier transform infrared spectra （FTIR） confirmed the transformation and changes in chemical structure in which hydrochar contained lower oxygen-containing organic C of O-alkyl, carboxylic and carbonyl C and aliphaticity, but higher aromatic C and aromaticity. The rich hydrophobic functions induced in high positive charges in the charred sludge. The HTC facilitated the pore structure development, proved by higher specific surface area and specific pore volume, with a maximum of 17.30 and 0.83 cm^3 g^-1, respectively. The availabilities of N, P and K markedly reduced during HTC treatment. The activities of most heavy metals were depressed though they accumulated in the hydrochar. Further work is required to investigate the values and risk of the charred sludge amended to soil.
Freezing is a frequently used way to expand the storage life of foods with high water content. Under suitable cooling rates, frozen systems attain a condition of maximum freeze concentration, which ...is characterized by the glass transition temperature (Tg′), end point of freezing or onset of melting (Tm′), and concentration of solids (Xs′) in the maximum‐freeze‐concentrated matrix. The value of Tg′, Tm′, and Xs′ depends on the chemical composition of frozen system. Below Tg′, the rates of deteriorative reactions are significantly reduced. In this article, the data for Tg′, Tm′, and Xs′ of different frozen systems including sugars, starches, proteins, and food are collected and compiled. The trends in Tg′ and Tm′ data of food are investigated using molecular weight (MW) of food components. The Tg′ and Tm′ of most starches (increased by 2.46% to 87.3% and 10.8% to 85.0%) and some protein‐rich foods (increased by 5.00% to 53.4% and 25.0% to 52.9%) were higher than the maximum values of sugar‐rich foods. Both Tg′ and Tm′ values increased with increasing MW of solids in frozen food, reaching an asymptotic value. Moreover, there were exponential relationships between Tg′ or Tm′ values and MW for sugar and starch‐rich foods taken together. Some studies found that frozen storage below Tg′ maintains the higher quality of food that was achieved by fast freezing. However, other studies found that there was no significant difference in the quality of frozen foods between storage temperature below and above Tg′. Therefore, storage below Tg′ is not the only factor for predicting the stability of frozen foods.
The high performance of a pseudocapacitor electrode relies largely on a scrupulous design of nanoarchitectures and smart hybridization of bespoke active materials. We present a powerful two-step ...solution-based method for the fabrication of transition metal oxide core/shell nanostructure arrays on various conductive substrates. Demonstrated examples include Co3O4 or ZnO nanowire core and NiO nanoflake shells with a hierarchical and porous morphology. The “oriented attachment” and “self-assembly” crystal growth mechanisms are proposed to explain the formation of the NiO nanoflake shell. Supercapacitor electrodes based on the Co3O4/NiO nanowire arrays on 3D macroporous nickel foam are thoroughly characterized. The electrodes exhibit a high specific capacitance of 853 F/g at 2 A/g after 6000 cycles and an excellent cycling stability, owing to the unique porous core/shell nanowire array architecture, and a rational combination of two electrochemically active materials. Our growth approach offers a new technique for the design and synthesis of transition metal oxide or hydroxide hierarchical nanoarrays that are promising for electrochemical energy storage, catalysis, and gas sensing applications.
The effect of drying temperature (60, 65, 70, and 75 °C) on drying characteristics, shrinkage, rehydration kinetics, microstructure and color profiles of lemon slices were investigated using a ...far-infrared radiation heating assisted pulsed vacuum dryer. Results showed that the drying time of lemon slices was reduced from 10.5 to 5.5 h when the drying temperature was increased from 60 to 75 °C. Weibull model could precisely describe the drying of samples under different drying temperatures (R2 > 0.99). Moisture effective diffusivity (Deff), which was determined by taking shrinkage effect into consideration, varied with moisture content. At the initial drying stages, the volume shrinkage of samples followed a linear relationship with decreasing moisture content as the volume shrinkage is approximately equal to the volume of evaporated water. Microstructure observation illustrated that the “skeleton” was fixed when moisture content decreased to approximate 60% w.b. Page model could well model the rehydration kinetics (R2 > 0.98). In terms of color evaluation, temperature of 75 °C significantly caused color deterioration and it recorded the highest color change (ΔE) of 14.23, Browning Index (BI) of 27.14 and lowest Hue Angle (H0) of 79.46. The findings indicate that FIR-pulsed vacuum drying is a promising alternative method for lemon slices as it can enhance drying process as well as preserve the quality attributes of lemon slices.
•Moisture diffusion was studied by taking shrinkage effect into consideration.•Microstructure observation verified the shrinkage changes of samples under different temperatures.•Page model describes rehydration kinetics well.•Temperature of 75 °C significantly caused color deterioration.
During mammalian evolution, the Myodural Bridges (MDB) have been shown to be highly conserved anatomical structures. However, the putative physiological function of these structures remains unclear. ...The MDB functionally connects the suboccipital musculature to the cervical spinal dura mater, while passing through the posterior atlanto-occipital and atlanto-axial interspaces. MDB transmits the tensile forces generated by the suboccipital muscles to the cervical dura mater. Moreover, head movements have been shown to be an important contributor to human CSF circulation. In the present study, a 16-week administration of a Myostatin-specific inhibitor, ACE-031, was injected into the suboccipital musculature of rats to establish an experimental animal model of hyperplasia of the suboccipital musculature. Using an optic fiber pressure measurement instrument, the present authors observed a significant increase in intracranial pressure (ICP) while utilizing the hyperplasia model. In contrast, surgically severing the MDB connections resulted in a significant decrease in intracranial pressure. Thus, these results indicated that muscular activation of the MDB may affect CSF circulation, suggesting a potential functional role of the MDB, and providing a new research perspective on CSF dynamics.
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