It is challenging to develop alloying anodes with ultrafast charging and large energy storage using bulk anode materials because of the difficulty of carrier‐ion diffusion and fragmentation of the ...active electrode material. Herein, a rational strategy is reported to design bulk Bi anodes for Na‐ion batteries that feature ultrafast charging, long cyclability, and large energy storage without using expensive nanomaterials and surface modifications. It is found that bulk Bi particles gradually transform into a porous nanostructure during cycling in a glyme‐based electrolyte, whereas the resultant structure stores Na ions by forming phases with high Na diffusivity. These features allow the anodes to exhibit unprecedented electrochemical properties; the developed Na–Bi half‐cell delivers 379 mA h g−1 (97% of that measured at 1C) at 7.7 A g−1 (20C) during 3500 cycles. It also retained 94% and 93% of the capacity measured at 1C even at extremely fast‐charging rates of 80C and 100C, respectively. The structural origins of the measured properties are verified by experiments and first‐principles calculations. The findings of this study not only broaden understanding of the underlying mechanisms of fast‐charging anodes, but also provide basic guidelines for searching battery anodes that simultaneously exhibit high capacities, fast kinetics, and long cycling stabilities.
With the difficulty in simultaneously achieving a large capacity, ultrafast charging capability, and long cycling stability in a battery anode, a bulk Bi anode is presented for Na‐ion batteries that provides a simple yet practical route to address this issue without using expensive nanoscale materials and additional complex modifications.
Flammulina velutipes is a fungus with health and medicinal benefits that has been used for consumption and cultivation in East Asia. F. velutipes is also known to degrade lignocellulose and produce ...ethanol. The overlapping interests of mushroom production and wood bioconversion make F. velutipes an attractive new model for fungal wood related studies. Here, we present the complete sequence of the F. velutipes genome. This is the first sequenced genome for a commercially produced edible mushroom that also degrades wood. The 35.6-Mb genome contained 12,218 predicted protein-encoding genes and 287 tRNA genes assembled into 11 scaffolds corresponding with the 11 chromosomes of strain KACC42780. The 88.4-kb mitochondrial genome contained 35 genes. Well-developed wood degrading machinery with strong potential for lignin degradation (69 auxiliary activities, formerly FOLymes) and carbohydrate degradation (392 CAZymes), along with 58 alcohol dehydrogenase genes were highly expressed in the mycelium, demonstrating the potential application of this organism to bioethanol production. Thus, the newly uncovered wood degrading capacity and sequential nature of this process in F. velutipes, offer interesting possibilities for more detailed studies on either lignin or (hemi-) cellulose degradation in complex wood substrates. The mutual interest in wood degradation by the mushroom industry and (ligno-)cellulose biomass related industries further increase the significance of F. velutipes as a new model.
The increased interest in outdoor activities has prompted the demand for water-repellent fabrics that can withstand various environmental factors. In this study, the water repellency and physical ...properties, namely thickness, weight, tensile strength, elongation, and stiffness, of cotton woven fabrics were analyzed according to various treatments with different types of household water-repellent agents and number of coating layers. Fluorine-, silicone-, and wax-based water-repellent agents were coated on cotton woven fabrics once, thrice, and five times. Thickness, weight, and stiffness increased with the number of coating layers, which may reduce comfort. These properties increased minimally for the fluorine- and silicone-based water-repellent agents, whereas they considerably increased for the wax-based water-repellent agent. The fluorine-based water-repellent agent had a low water repellency rating of 2.2 even after five coating layers, and the silicone-based water-repellent agent had a higher rating of 3.4 with the same five coating layers. Meanwhile, the wax-based water-repellent agent had the highest water repellency rating of 5 even with only one coating layer, which was maintained with repeated coatings. Therefore, fluorine- and silicone-based water-repellent agents minimally altered the fabric properties even with repeated coatings; multiple coating layers, especially five or more layers for the fluorine-based water-repellent agent, are recommended to attain excellent water repellency. Conversely, one coating layer of the wax-based water-repellent agent is recommended to retain the comfort of the wearer.
Hydrogel is a versatile material that can be manipulated to achieve the desired physicochemical properties, such as stiffness, pore size, and viscoelasticity. Traditionally, these properties have ...been controlled through parameters such as concentration and pH adjustments. In this study, we focused on exploring the potential of hydrolyzed silk fibroin (HSF) as a molecular weight-modulating agent to control the physicochemical properties of double-composite hydrogels. We developed a synergistic dual-crosslinked hydrogel by combining ionically crosslinked silk fibroin with gellan gum (GG). The hydrolysis of silk fibroin not only enhanced its hydrophilicity but also enabled adjustments in its mechanical properties, including the pore size, initial modulus elasticity, and relaxation time. Moreover, biocompatibility assessments based on cell viability tests confirmed the potential of these hydrogels as biocompatible materials. By highlighting the significance of developing an HSF/GG dual-crosslinked hydrogel, this study contributes to the advancement of novel double-composite hydrogels with remarkable biocompatibility. Overall, our findings demonstrate the capability of controlling the mechanical properties of hydrogels through molecular weight modulation via hydrolysis and highlight the development of a biocompatible HSF/GG dual-crosslinked hydrogel with potential biomedical applications.
The prevalence and clinical characteristics of depressive disorders differ between women and men; however, the genetic contribution to sex differences in depressive disorders has not been elucidated. ...To evaluate sex-specific differences in the genetic architecture of depression, whole exome sequencing of samples from 1000 patients (70.7% female) with depressive disorder was conducted. Control data from healthy individuals with no psychiatric disorder (n = 72, 26.4% female) and East-Asian subpopulation 1000 Genome Project data (n = 207, 50.7% female) were included. The genetic variation between men and women was directly compared using both qualitative and quantitative research designs. Qualitative analysis identified five genetic markers potentially associated with increased risk of depressive disorder in females, including three variants (rs201432982 within PDE4A, and rs62640397 and rs79442975 within FDX1L) mapping to chromosome 19p13.2 and two novel variants (rs820182 and rs820148) within MYO15B at the chromosome 17p25.1 locus. Depressed patients homozygous for these variants showed more severe depressive symptoms and higher suicidality than those who were not homozygotes (i.e., heterozygotes and homozygotes for the non-associated allele). Quantitative analysis demonstrated that the genetic burden of protein-truncating and deleterious variants was higher in males than females, even after permutation testing. Our study provides novel genetic evidence that the higher prevalence of depressive disorders in women may be attributable to inherited variants.
Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) is an enzyme targeted for the treatment of inflammation and cardiovascular diseases. Activated inflammatory cells produce nitric oxide (NO), which induces oxidative ...stress and exacerbates inflammation. We identify an inhibitor able to suppress sEH and thus NO production. Five flavonoids
-
isolated from
flowers were evaluated for their abilities to inhibit sEH with IC
values of 12.1 ± 0.1 to 62.8 ± 1.8 µM and for their effects on enzyme kinetics. A simulation study using computational chemistry was conducted as well. Furthermore, five inhibitors (
-
) were confirmed to suppress NO levels at 10 µM. The results showed that flavonoids
-
exhibited inhibitory activity in all tests, with compound
exhibiting the most significant efficacy. Thus, in the development of anti-inflammatory inhibitors, compound
is a promising natural candidate.
The clinical significance of pleural effusion in Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) pneumonia in children has not yet been elucidated. Herein, we investigated the clinical implications of pleural effusion in ...children with MP pneumonia. Overall, 150 children with MP pneumonia transferred to a tertiary hospital were enrolled in this study. Information on their clinical, laboratory, and radiological features was retrospectively obtained from medical chart reviews. In total, 24 (16.0%) children had pleural effusion at the time of admission. The duration of fever and length of hospitalization were significantly longer in the pleural effusion group than in the non-pleural effusion group. A significantly higher proportion of individuals in the pleural effusion group had a poor response to stepwise treatment for MP pneumonia. The mean C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, and aspartate aminotransferase levels were significantly higher in the pleural effusion group than in the non-pleural effusion group at admission. The prevalence of severe pneumonia, defined on the basis of the extent of pneumonic lesions on chest radiography, was higher in the pleural effusion group than in the non-pleural effusion group. However, there was no significant intergroup difference in the proportion of macrolide-resistant MP cases or respiratory viral coinfections. The presence of pleural effusion in children with MP pneumonia indicated a more severe clinical course and poor treatment response. The results of the present study would help in the creation of a therapeutic plan and prediction of the clinical course of MP pneumonia in children.
The human diet contains low amounts of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and high amounts of ω-6 PUFAs, which has been reported to contribute to the incidence of cancer. Epidemiological studies ...have shown that a high consumption of fish oil or ω-3 PUFAs reduced the risk of colon, pancreatic, and endometrial cancers. The ω-3 PUFA, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), shows anticancer activity by inducing apoptosis of some human cancer cells without toxicity against normal cells. DHA induces oxidative stress and oxidative DNA adduct formation by depleting intracellular glutathione (GSH) and decreasing the mitochondrial function of cancer cells. Oxidative DNA damage and DNA strand breaks activate DNA damage responses to repair the damaged DNA. However, excessive DNA damage beyond the capacity of the DNA repair processes may initiate apoptotic signaling pathways and cell cycle arrest in cancer cells. DHA shows a variable inhibitory effect on cancer cell growth depending on the cells' molecular properties and degree of malignancy. It has been shown to affect DNA repair processes including DNA-dependent protein kinases and mismatch repair in cancer cells. Moreover, DHA enhanced the efficacy of anticancer drugs by increasing drug uptake and suppressing survival pathways in cancer cells. In this review, DHA-induced oxidative DNA damage, apoptotic signaling, and enhancement of chemosensitivity in cancer cells will be discussed based on recent studies.
Replacement with nonvaccine serotypes (NVTs) among invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPDs) after the introduction of extended-valency pneumococcal conjugate vaccines varies in predominant serotypes ...across countries. This study analyzed changes in serotype distribution through serotyping, multilocus sequence typing, and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of 168 pediatric IPD isolates obtained from a multihospital-based surveillance system during 2014–2019 in South Korea. Vaccine serotypes (VTs) accounted for 16.1% (19A, 10.1%; 6A, 1.8%; and 19F 1.8%), 82.1% were NVTs (10A, 23.8%; 15A, 8.3%; 12F, 6.5%; 15C, 6.5%; and 15B, 6.0%), and three (1.8%) were nontypeable. Serotype 10A was the most common serotype, with a significant increase from 11.5% in 2014 to 33.3% in 2019 (p < 0.05 for the trend). Other NVTs decreased from 70.4% to 41.7% between 2015 and 2019, most notably in serotype 12F (from 14.8% to 0%). Almost all (95.0%) serotype 10A isolates were ST11189, which were multidrug resistant.
The human gut harbors a vast range of microbes that have significant impact on health and disease. Therefore, gut microbiome profiling holds promise for use in early diagnosis and precision medicine ...development. Accurate profiling of the highly complex gut microbiome requires DNA extraction methods that provide sufficient coverage of the original community as well as adequate quality and quantity. We tested nine different DNA extraction methods using three commercial kits (TianLong Stool DNA/RNA Extraction Kit (TS), QIAamp DNA Stool Mini Kit (QS), and QIAamp PowerFecal DNA Kit (QP)) with or without additional bead-beating step using manual or automated methods and compared them in terms of DNA extraction ability from human fecal sample. All methods produced DNA in sufficient concentration and quality for use in sequencing, and the samples were clustered according to the DNA extraction method. Inclusion of bead-beating step especially resulted in higher degrees of microbial diversity and had the greatest effect on gut microbiome composition. Among the samples subjected to bead-beating method, TS kit samples were more similar to QP kit samples than QS kit samples. Our results emphasize the importance of mechanical disruption step for a more comprehensive profiling of the human gut microbiome.
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