A look at rechargeable lithium and sodium ion batteries is presented. The principles of lithium and sodium ion batteries are among the topics discussed.
Lithium (Li)‐ion batteries (LIB) have governed the current worldwide rechargeable battery market due to their outstanding energy and power capability. In particular, the LIB's role in enabling ...electric vehicles (EVs) has been highlighted to replace the current oil‐driven vehicles in order to reduce the usage of oil resources and generation of CO2 gases. Unlike Li, sodium is one of the more abundant elements on Earth and exhibits similar chemical properties to Li, indicating that Na chemistry could be applied to a similar battery system. In the 1970s‐80s, both Na‐ion and Li‐ion electrodes were investigated, but the higher energy density of Li‐ion cells made them more applicable to small, portable electronic devices, and research efforts for rechargeable batteries have been mainly concentrated on LIB since then. Recently, research interest in Na‐ion batteries (NIB) has been resurrected, driven by new applications with requirements different from those in portable electronics, and to address the concern on Li abundance. In this article, both negative and positive electrode materials in NIB are briefly reviewed. While the voltage is generally lower and the volume change upon Na removal or insertion is larger for Na‐intercalation electrodes, compared to their Li equivalents, the power capability can vary depending on the crystal structures. It is concluded that cost‐effective NIB can partially replace LIB, but requires further investigation and improvement.
Electrode materials for sodium‐ion batteries (NIBs) are briefly introduced. The cost‐effective NIB is believed to be a potential alternative for the current lithium‐ion battery (LIB) in large‐scale applications. Current NIB technology is not suitable to replace LIB, however, there may be undiscovered possibilities in sodium chemistry which promise excellent performance, opening new a NIB generation.
To find a significant predictive factor for the efficacy of endovascular treatment of peripheral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).
One hundred seventy-six patients (73 male patients and 103 female ...patients; mean age, 29.4 y) who underwent treatment for AVMs in the body or extremities were included. Per Schobinger classification, lesions in 31 patients (18%) were stage II, those in 136 (77%) were stage III, and those in nine (5%) were stage IV. AVMs were located in the extremities in 130 patients (74%) and in the trunk in 46 patients (26%). AVMs were angiographically classified as type I (n = 1), type II (n = 36), type IIIa (n = 6), type IIIb (n = 9 1), or complex type (n = 42). Demographic factors, clinical data, and imaging data were analyzed to determine a statistically significant relationship with overall clinical outcomes.
Overall, 68 patients (39%) were cured, 91 patients (52%) showed a partial response, nine patients (5%) showed no response, treatment failed in seven patients (4%), and treatment aggravated the condition in one patient (1%). The overall complication rate was 45% (79 of 176 patients). Minor complications developed in 62 patients (35%) and major complications developed in 17 (10%). Statistically, the extent of AVMs (odds ratio, 0.199) and angiographic classification (odds ratio, 0.162) were significant predictive factors for overall clinical outcome.
Endovascular treatment of peripheral AVMs, planned with consideration of anatomic extent and angiographic subtypes, is likely to yield good clinical results with low complication rates.
In pathophysiology, reactive oxygen species oxidize biomolecules that contribute to disease phenotypes
. One such modification, 8-oxoguanine
(o
G), is abundant in RNA
but its epitranscriptional role ...has not been investigated for microRNAs (miRNAs). Here we specifically sequence oxidized miRNAs in a rat model of the redox-associated condition cardiac hypertrophy
. We find that position-specific o
G modifications are generated in seed regions (positions 2-8) of selective miRNAs, and function to regulate other mRNAs through o
G•A base pairing. o
G is induced predominantly at position 7 of miR-1 (7o
G-miR-1) by treatment with an adrenergic agonist. Introducing 7o
G-miR-1 or 7U-miR-1 (in which G at position 7 is substituted with U) alone is sufficient to cause cardiac hypertrophy in mice, and the mRNA targets of o
G-miR-1 function in affected phenotypes; the specific inhibition of 7o
G-miR-1 in mouse cardiomyocytes was found to attenuate cardiac hypertrophy. o
G-miR-1 is also implicated in patients with cardiomyopathy. Our findings show that the position-specific oxidation of miRNAs could serve as an epitranscriptional mechanism to coordinate pathophysiological redox-mediated gene expression.
Taking inspiration from beautiful colors in nature, structural colors produced from nanostructured metasurfaces have shown great promise as a platform for bright, highly saturated, and ...high-resolution colors. Both plasmonic and dielectric materials have been employed to produce static colors that fulfil the required criteria for high-performance color printing, however, for practical applications in dynamic situations, a form of tunability is desirable. Combinations of the additive color palette of red, green, and blue enable the expression of further colors beyond the three primary colors, while the simultaneous intensity modulation allows access to the full color gamut. Here, we demonstrate an electrically tunable metasurface that can represent saturated red, green, and blue pixels that can be dynamically and continuously controlled between on and off states using liquid crystals. We use this to experimentally realize ultrahigh-resolution color printing, active multicolor cryptographic applications, and tunable pixels toward high-performance full-color reflective displays.
Top‐gate ferroelectric memory transistors with single‐ to triple‐layered MoS2 nanosheets adopting poly(vinylidenefluoride‐trifluoroethylene) P(VDF‐TrFE) are demonstrated. The nonvolatile memory ...transistor with a single‐layer MoS2 channel exhibits excellent retention properties for more than 1000 s, maintaining ~5 × 103 for the program/erase ratio and displaying a high mobility of ~220 cm2/(V·s).
Dietary antigens are normally rendered nonimmunogenic through a poorly understood "oral tolerance" mechanism that involves immunosuppressive regulatory T (Treg) cells, especially Treg cells induced ...from conventional T cells in the periphery (pTreg cells). Although orally introducing nominal protein antigens is known to induce such pTreg cells, whether a typical diet induces a population of pTreg cells under normal conditions thus far has been unknown. By using germ-free mice raised and bred on an elemental diet devoid of dietary antigens, we demonstrated that under normal conditions, the vast majority of the small intestinal pTreg cells are induced by dietary antigens from solid foods. Moreover, these pTreg cells have a limited life span, are distinguishable from microbiota-induced pTreg cells, and repress underlying strong immunity to ingested protein antigens.
UVB radiation changes several photoaging pathway in the body, thereby prompting skin injury. Besides, chronic UVB radiation leads to photoaging, sustained immunosuppression, and photocarcinogenesis. ...We investigated the protective effect of Timosaponin AIII (TA-III), a naturally occurring steroidal saponin separated from Anemarrhena asphodeloides, against UVB-induced invasive properties of human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDF). No cytotoxicity was observed up to 50 nM concentration of TA-III. Similarly, TA-III inhibited UVB-induced cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) transcription level and protein expression in a dose-dependent manner at non-cytotoxic dose. Further, TA-III decreased UVB-induced invasion in primary skin cells. Additionally, TA-III suppressed UVB-stimulates mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, activator protein-1 (AP-1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) activation, thereby preventing the overexpression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and COX-2 in human epidermal keratinocytes cells. Furthermore, TA-III prevented UVB-mediated formation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) and activation of DNA repair enzymes and, cell cycle arrest genes like as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), structural maintenance of chromosomes protein 1 (SMC1). This results support that understanding into the molecular action of TA-III, which can be useful for developing photoprotective agents.
Peptide Self‐Assembly for Lithium Ion Batteries: Nanostructures of transition metal phosphates were fabricated through biomimetic mineralization of self‐assembled peptide hydrogel nanofibers. ...FePO4‐mineralized peptide nanofibers were readily converted to carbon‐coated FePO4 nanotubes after heat treatment and exhibited a high and reversible charge/discharge capacity as Lithium ion battery cathodes.
Several CRISPR-Cas9 orthologues have been used for genome editing. Here, we present the smallest Cas9 orthologue characterized to date, derived from Campylobacter jejuni (CjCas9), for efficient ...genome editing in vivo. After determining protospacer-adjacent motif (PAM) sequences and optimizing single-guide RNA (sgRNA) length, we package the CjCas9 gene, its sgRNA sequence, and a marker gene in an all-in-one adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector and produce the resulting virus at a high titer. CjCas9 is highly specific, cleaving only a limited number of sites in the human or mouse genome. CjCas9, delivered via AAV, induces targeted mutations at high frequencies in mouse muscle cells or retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. Furthermore, CjCas9 targeted to the Vegfa or Hif1a gene in RPE cells reduces the size of laser-induced choroidal neovascularization, suggesting that in vivo genome editing with CjCas9 is a new option for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration.