Novel compact ultra-wideband (UWB) bandpass filter (BPF) using stub-loaded multiple-mode resonator (MMR) is presented in this letter. The MMR is constructed by loading three open stubs in a ...uniform-impedance resonator, i.e., one stepped-impedance stub at the center and two uniform-impedance stubs at the symmetrical side locations. Five modes, including two odd modes and three even modes, could be designed within UWB band, and two transmission zeros generated by the stepped-impedance stub improve the passband selectivity greatly. The letter shows modal resonant frequencies against the step-impedance-stub-loaded parameters, which can control the even modes flexibly, while the odd modes remain the same. A compact planar UWB BPF is simulated, fabricated and measured. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement and show good in-band filtering performance and sharp selectivity.
Interfacial dynamics within chemical systems such as electron and ion transport processes have relevance in the rational optimization of electrochemical energy storage materials and devices. Evolving ...the understanding of fundamental electrochemistry at interfaces would also help in the understanding of relevant phenomena in biological, microbial, pharmaceutical, electronic, and photonic systems. In lithium‐ion batteries, the electrochemical instability of the electrolyte and its ensuing reactive decomposition proceeds at the anode surface within the Helmholtz double layer resulting in a buildup of the reductive products, forming the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This review summarizes relevant aspects of the SEI including formation, composition, dynamic structure, and reaction mechanisms, focusing primarily on the graphite anode with insights into the lithium metal anode. Furthermore, the influence of the electrolyte and electrode materials on SEI structure and properties is discussed. An update is also presented on state‐of‐the‐art approaches to quantitatively characterize the structure and changing properties of the SEI. Lastly, a framework evaluating the standing problems and future research directions including feasible computational, machine learning, and experimental approaches are outlined.
This review summarizes solid electrolyte interphase formation, composition, and reaction mechanisms primarily on graphite anodes, with insights into lithium metal anodes; the influence of electrolyte and electrode materials is discussed. A critical evaluation of the existing problems and a framework for future research directions, including feasible computational, machine learning, and operando experimental approaches are presented.
Lithium metal anodes are ideal for realizing high-energy-density batteries owing to their advantages, namely high capacity and low reduction potentials. However, the utilization of lithium anodes is ...restricted by the detrimental lithium dendrite formation, repeated formation and fracturing of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), and large volume expansion, resulting in severe “dead lithium” and subsequent short circuiting. Currently, the researches are principally focused on inhibition of dendrite formation toward extending and maintaining battery lifespans. Herein, we summarize the strategies employed in interfacial engineering and current-collector host designs as well as the emerging electrochemical catalytic methods for evolving-accelerating-ameliorating lithium ion/atom diffusion processes. First, strategies based on the fabrication of robust SEIs are reviewed from the aspects of compositional constituents including inorganic, organic, and hybrid SEI layers derived from electrolyte additives or artificial pretreatments. Second, the summary and discussion are presented for metallic and carbon-based three-dimensional current collectors serving as lithium hosts, including their functionality in decreasing local deposition current density and the effect of introducing lithiophilic sites. Third, we assess the recent advances in exploring alloy compounds and atomic metal catalysts to accelerate the lateral lithium ion/atom diffusion kinetics to average the spatial lithium distribution for smooth plating. Finally, the opportunities and challenges of metallic lithium anodes are presented, providing insights into the modulation of diffusion kinetics toward achieving dendrite-free lithium metal batteries.
Display omitted
Rutaecarpine is a bioactive alkaloid isolated from Evodia rutaecarpa (Wu Zhu Yu, Family: Rutaceae), a versatile medicinal herb which is clinically used to treat headache, abdominal ...pain, postpartum hemorrhage, dysentery, and amenorrhea in China. As one of the most representative indolopyridoquinazoline alkaloids of Evodia rutaecarpa, rutaecarpine has broad pharmacological actions in treating various cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and metabolic diseases. The cardiovascular actions of rutaecarpine have aroused intense research interest due to its purported inotropic and chronotropic, vasodilatory, anti-platelet activation, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and lipid-lowering effects. Biochemical and pharmacological studies have illustrated the molecular targets of rutaecarpine, such as TRPV1, CGRP, AMPK, ABCA1, and β1-AR. Furthermore, several rutaecarpine derivatives (such as bromorutaecarpine and fluororutaecarpine) have been shown to possess cardioprotective and vasculoprotective effects with improved safety profile. Hereby, we provide a systematic overview of pharmacological actions, toxicological effects, and molecular targets of rutaecarpine in cardiovascular disease prevention/treatment, aiming to exploit the therapeutic potential of rutaecarpine and its derivatives in treating cardiovascular diseases.
Spin thermoelectrics represents a new paradigm of thermoelectricity that has a potential to overcome the fundamental limitation posed by the Wiedmann-Franz law on the efficiency of conventional ...thermoelectric devices. A typical spin thermoelectric device consists of a bilayer of a magnetic insulator and a high spin-orbit coupling (SOC) metal coated over a non-magnetic substrate. Pt is the most commonly used metal in spin thermoelectric devices due to its strong SOC. In this paper, we found that an alloy of Cu and Pt can perform much better than Pt in spin thermoelectric devices. A series of CuPt alloy films with different Pt concentrations were deposited on yttrium iron garnet (YIG) films coated gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrate. Through spin Seebeck measurements, it was found that the Cu
Pt
/YIG/GGG device shows almost 3 times higher spin Seebeck voltage compared to Pt/YIG/GGG under identical conditions. The improved performance was attributed to the higher resistivity as well as enhanced spin hall angle of the CuPt layer.
Inducing cancer differentiation is a promising approach to treat cancer. Here, we identified chlorogenic acid (CA), a potential differentiation inducer, for cancer therapy, and elucidated the ...molecular mechanisms underlying its differentiation-inducing effects on cancer cells.
Cancer cell differentiation was investigated by measuring malignant behavior, including growth rate, invasion/migration, morphological change, maturation, and ATP production. Gene expression was analyzed by microarray analysis, qRT-PCR, and protein measurement, and molecular biology techniques were employed for mechanistic studies. LC/MS analysis was the method of choice for chemical detection. Finally, the anticancer effect of CA was evaluated both
and
Results: Cancer cells treated with CA showed reduced proliferation rate, migration/invasion ability, and mitochondrial ATP production. Treating cancer cells with CA resulted in elevated SUMO1 expression through acting on its 3'UTR and stabilizing the mRNA. The increased SUMO1 caused c-Myc sumoylation, miR-17 family downregulation, and p21 upregulation leading to G
/G
arrest and maturation phenotype. CA altered the expression of differentiation-related genes in cancer cells but not in normal cells. It inhibited hepatoma and lung cancer growth in tumor-bearing mice and prevented new tumor development in naïve mice. In glioma cells, CA increased expression of specific differentiation biomarkers Tuj1 and GFAP inducing differentiation and reducing sphere formation. The therapeutic efficacy of CA in glioma cells was comparable to that of temozolomide. CA was detectable both in the blood and brain when administered intraperitoneally in animals. Most importantly, CA was safe even at very high doses.
CA might be a safe and effective differentiation-inducer for cancer therapy. "Educating" cancer cells to differentiate, rather than killing them, could be a novel therapeutic strategy for cancer.
In this paper we conduct a validation study on the factors affecting the practice modes of open peer review. Taking the Open Access Journals (OAJ) in Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) as the ...research objects, we crawled the internet to gather their relevant data. Based on the method of categorical variable assignment, a quantitative analysis was performed on the qualitative factors that affect the practice modes of open peer review. A multi-dimensional analysis chart is used to illustrate the relationships between the factors. Optimal scale regression modeling and discriminant analysis were also employed to reveal the degrees of influences by the factors. The public categories of “type of open peer review” and “reviewer identity” are closely related to each other. “Reviewer identity” has evident positive influence on “type of open peer review”, and the degree of influence is the highest. Therefore, “reviewer identity” is the primary and most crucial factor affecting open peer review practice modes. “Review report” and “order of review report and publication” are the secondary ones. Whether or not the identities of review experts are open has become the most important factor affecting the practice modes of open peer review. Transparent peer review is currently the most effective practice mode of open peer review. Technologies like block chain can be used to address the psychological uneasiness for the peer review experts who are concerned with privacy issues. The fact that most OAJs use “pre-publication review” shows that open peer review still plays the traditional role of “academic goalkeeper”. Publication of peer review reports actually helps peer review experts augment their reputation, which in turn practically promotes the development of open peer review.
Since the 21st century, with the rapid development of various modes of transportation, the network integrated transportation hub planning is undergoing new changes. Comprehensive hub is not only an ...important carrier to connect multiple transportation modes, but also reflects the overall transportation efficiency and service level of different transportation modes. How to improve the passenger flow organization efficiency of urban comprehensive transportation hub is of great practical significance. Based on the proportion of traffic hub functional areas as the breakthrough point, relying on a comprehensive traffic hub in Binhai New Area of Tianjin, this paper aims to optimize the weight relationship among the functional areas of the comprehensive traffic hub, allocate the location and spatial sequence relationship of each functional area based on the weight relationship, and discuss the problem of improving the passenger flow organization efficiency of the comprehensive traffic hub and the corresponding measures. The research results show that intercity station buildings have high proportion and large scale in the comprehensive hub, and should be arranged in an important central position.
Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are critical to a range of applications from oceanographic data collection to submarine surveillance. In these networks, efficient energy management is ...critical due to the limited power resources of underwater sensors. The LEACH protocol, a popular cluster-based protocol, has been widely used in UASNs to minimize energy consumption. Despite its widespread use, the conventional LEACH protocol faces challenges such as an unoptimized cluster number and low transmission efficiency, which hinder its performance. This paper proposes an improved LEACH protocol for cluster-based UASNs, where the cluster number is optimized with an underwater energy propagation model to reduce energy consumption, and a transmission scheduling algorithm is also employed to achieve conflict-free parallel data transmission. Replication computing is introduced to the LEACH protocol to reduce the signaling in the clustering and data transmission phases. The simulation results show that the proposed protocol outperforms several conventional methods in terms of normalized average residual energy, average number of surviving nodes, average round when the first death node occurs, and the number of packets received by the base station.
PDF
