Ionic liquids (ILs) are important electrolytes for applications in electrochemical devices. An emerging trend in ILs research is their hybridization with solid matrices, named ionogels. These ...ionogels can not only overcome the fluidity of ILs but also exhibit high mechanical strength of the solid matrix. Therefore, they show promise for applications in building lithium batteries. In this review, various types of solid matrices for confining ILs are summarized, including nonmetallic oxides, metal oxides, IL‐tethered nanoparticles, functionalized SiO2, metal–organic frameworks, and other structural materials. The synthetic strategies for ionogels are first documented, focusing on physical confinement and covalent grafting. Then, the structure, ionic conductivity, thermal stability, and electrochemical stability of ionogels are addressed in detail. Furthermore, the authors highlight the potential applications of state‐of‐art ionogels in lithium batteries. The authors conclude this review by outlining the remaining challenges as well as personal perspectives on this hot area of research.
Ionogels are a new class of hybrid materials made by the immobilization of ionic liquids in solid matrix. They are a promising quasi‐solid electrolyte for high‐performance lithium batteries. This review summarizes recent advances in rational design of ionogel electrolytes, with a particular emphasis on their preparation methods, structures, thermal and electrochemical properties, as well as potential applications in lithium batteries.
The lipid body (LB) formation in the host coral gastrodermal cell cytoplasm is a hallmark of the coral-Symbiodinium endosymbiosis, and such lipid-based entities are not found in endosymbiont-free ...cnidarian cells. Therefore, the elucidation of lipogenesis regulation in LBs and how it is related to the lipid metabolism of the host and endosymbiont could provide direct insight to understand the symbiosis mechanism. Herein, the lipid composition of host cells of the stony coral Euphyllia glabrescens, as well as that of their cytoplasmic LBs and in hospite Symbiodinium populations, was examined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and six major lipid species were identified: wax esters, sterol esters, triacylglycerols, cholesterols, free fatty acids, and phospholipids. Their concentrations differed significantly between host coral cells, LBs, and Symbiodinium, suggesting compartmental regulation. WE were only present in the host coral and were particularly highly concentrated in LBs. Amongst the four species of WE, the monoene R = C18:1/R = C16 was found to be LB-specific and was not present in the host gastrodermal cell cytoplasm. Furthermore, the acyl pool profiles of the individual LB lipid species were more similar, but not equal to, those of the host gastrodermal cells in which they were located, indicating partially autonomous lipid metabolism in these LBs. Nevertheless, given the overall similarity in the host gastrodermal cell and LB lipid profiles, these data suggest that a significant portion of the LB lipids may be of host coral origin. Finally, lipid profiles of the in hospite Symbiodinium populations were significantly distinct from those of the cultured Symbiodinium, potentially suggesting a host regulation effect that may be fundamental to lipid metabolism in endosymbiotic associations involving clade C Symbiodinium.
Lithium–air batteries are promising devices for electrochemical energy storage because of their ultrahigh energy density. However, it is still challenging to achieve practical Li–air batteries ...because of their severe capacity fading and poor rate capability. Electrolytes are the prime suspects for cell failure. In this Review, we focus on the opportunities and challenges of electrolytes for rechargeable Li–air batteries. A detailed summary of the reaction mechanisms, internal compositions, instability factors, selection criteria, and design ideas of the considered electrolytes is provided to obtain appropriate strategies to meet the battery requirements. In particular, ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes and solid‐state electrolytes show exciting opportunities to control both the high energy density and safety.
Performance enhancers: Electrolytes for Li–air batteries include non‐aqueous liquid electrolytes, solid‐state electrolytes, aqueous electrolytes, and hybrid electrolytes. This Review shows the importance of electrolytes to the mechanisms and performance of lithium–air batteries and provides a basis for selecting suitable electrolytes. The existing challenges, solutions, as well as guidance for the future direction of this field are also considered.
Abstract
In this study, modifications of the Held scaling (Held) are proposed and tested against simulations of
f
-plane, two-layer quasigeostrophic turbulence. The aim is to better constrain the ...eddy mixing length and rms barotropic velocity in response to varied quadratic and linear bottom drag. The proposed modifications allow eddies to be partially barotropized, to relax the commonly invoked barotropization approximation, and consider a drag-dependent cascade rate per energy input, to account for the lack of an inertial range. Quantitative comparisons with the vortex gas scaling are also carried out. It is shown that the progressively weakened sensitivity in eddy scales to increased drag strength is mainly a result of eddy partial barotropization. For both drag forms except toward the limit of weak linear drag, accounting for partial barotropization alone leads to good predictions of eddy velocity, although not of mixing length. It also partly resolves the degeneracy of balance constraints for linear drag because partial barotropization acts like scale-dependent damping. Adding a cascade correction, which is interpreted as allowing for changes in spectral room for cascade, further improves the mixing length representation. Overall, the proposed theory can augment the existing scalings by extending the eddy scale predictions to
O
(1) quadratic drag and has skills generally comparable to the vortex gas scaling for linear drag. However, toward the weak linear drag limit where eddies approach complete barotropization, the proposed theory breaks down but the vortex gas performs well. Potential issues concerning the applicability of vortex gas to this limit are discussed.
Retinoblastoma (RB) is one of the most common primary intraocular malignancies in children. Emerging researches have shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play critical roles in a variety of cancers. ...As a novel circRNA, the function of circ_0000527 in RB remains unknown. In this work, expression level of circ_0000527 and miR‐646 in RB tissues and cell lines were detected by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR). RB cell lines (SO‐Rb50 and WERI‐Rb‐1) were used as cell models in functional experiments. CCK‐8 assay, TUNEL assay and transwell assay were employed to detect the biological influence of circ_0000527 and miR‐646 on cancer cells in vitro. qRT‐PCR, luciferase reporter assay, RIP assay and western blot were used for exploring the interactions among circ_0000527, miR‐646 and BCL‐2. It was demonstrated that expression level of circ_0000527 in RB samples was significantly up‐regulated compared to normal tissues, while miR‐646 was markedly down‐regulated. Overexpression of circ_0000527 promoted the viability, migration and invasion of RB cells, while miR‐646 transfection had the opposite effects. Circ_0000527 sponged miR‐646 to regulate the expression of BCL‐2. In conclusion, circ_0000527 could promote the development of RB by indirectly modulating BCL‐2 via absorbing miR‐646.
Significance of the study
Expression level of circ_0000527 in RB samples was significantly up‐regulated compared to normal tissues, while miR‐646 was markedly down‐regulated. Overexpression of circ_0000527 promoted the viability, migration and invasion of RB cells, while miR‐646 transfection had the opposite effects. Circ_0000527 sponged miR‐646 to regulate the expression of BCL‐2.
Rechargeable Li‐O2 batteries have aroused much attention for their high energy density as a promising battery technology; however, the performance of the batteries is still unsatisfactory. Lithium ...anodes, as one of the most important part of Li‐O2 batteries, play a vital role in improving the cycle life of the batteries. Now, a very simple method is introduced to produce a protective film on lithium surface via chemical reactions between lithium metals and 1,4‐dioxacyclohexane. The film is mainly composed of ethylene oxide monomers and endows Li‐O2 batteries with enhanced cycling stability. The film could effectually reduce the morphology changes and suppress the parasitic reactions of lithium anodes. This simple approach provides a new strategy to protect lithium anodes in Li‐O2 batteries.
Protective coating: The stability of lithium anodes plays a vital role in improving the cycle life of Li‐O2 batteries. A convenient method is presented to produce a film on a lithium surface by chemical reactions between lithium metal and 1,4‐dioxacyclohexane. The protective film could reduce the morphology changes and suppress the parasitic reactions of lithium anodes and endow Li‐O2 batteries with enhanced cycling stability.
Predicting complex nonlinear turbulent dynamical systems is an important and practical topic. However, due to the lack of a complete understanding of nature, the ubiquitous model error may greatly ...affect the prediction performance. Machine learning algorithms can overcome the model error, but they are often impeded by inadequate and partial observations in predicting nature. In this article, an efficient and dynamically consistent conditional sampling algorithm is developed, which incorporates the conditional path-wise temporal dependence into a two-step forward-backward data assimilation procedure to sample multiple distinct nonlinear time series conditioned on short and partial observations using an imperfect model. The resulting sampled trajectories succeed in reducing the model error and greatly enrich the training data set for machine learning forecasts. For a rich class of nonlinear and non-Gaussian systems, the conditional sampling is carried out by solving a simple stochastic differential equation, which is computationally efficient and accurate. The sampling algorithm is applied to create massive training data of multiscale compressible shallow water flows from highly nonlinear and indirect observations. The resulting machine learning prediction significantly outweighs the imperfect model forecast. The sampling algorithm also facilitates the machine learning forecast of a highly non-Gaussian climate phenomenon using extremely short observations.
•Fatigue and fracture behaviour of laser powder bed fusion stainless steel 316L.•Neuro-fuzzy method for fatigue life prediction.•Fuzzy representation of the fatigue fracture modes.
Variations in the ...high cycle fatigue response of laser powder bed fusion materials can be caused by the choice of processing and post-processing strategies. The numerous influencing factors arising from the process demand an effective and unified approach to fatigue property assessment. This work examines the use of a neuro-fuzzy-based machine learning method for predicting the high cycle fatigue life of laser powder bed fusion stainless steel 316L. A dataset, consisting of fatigue life data for samples subjected to varying processing conditions (laser power, scan speed and layer thickness), post-processing treatments (annealing and hot isostatic pressing) and cyclic stresses, was constructed for simulating a complex nonlinear input-output environment. The associated fracture mechanisms, including the modes of crack initiation and deformation, were characterised. Two models, by employing the processing/post-processing parameters and the static tensile properties respectively as the inputs, were developed from the training data. Despite the diverse fatigue and fracture properties, the models demonstrated good prediction accuracy when checked against the test data, and the computationally-derived fuzzy rules agree well with understanding of the fracture mechanisms. Direct application of the model to literature results, however, yielded a range of prediction accuracies because of the variability in the reported data. Retraining the model by incorporating the literature results into the dataset led to improved modelling performance.
Cervical cancer (CC) continues to be a global burden for women, with higher incidence and mortality rates reported annually. Many countries have witnessed a dramatic reduction in the prevalence of CC ...due to widely accessed robotic radical hysterectomy (RRH). This network meta-analysis aims to compare intraoperative and postoperative outcomes in way of RRH, laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (LTH) and open radical hysterectomy (ORH) in the treatment of early-stage CC.
A comprehensive search of PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases was performed from inception to June 2016. Clinical controlled trials (CCTs) of above three hysterectomies in the treatment of early-stage CC were included in this study. Direct and indirect evidence were incorporated for calculating values of weighted mean difference (WMD) or odds ratio (OR), and drawing the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA).
Seventeen 17 CCTs were ultimately enrolled in this network meta-analysis. The network meta-analysis showed that patients treated by RRH and LRH had lower estimated blood loss compared to patients treated by ORH (WMD = -399.52, 95% CI = -600.64~-204.78; WMD = -277.86, 95%CI = -430.84 ~ -126.07, respectively). Patients treated by RRH and LRH had less hospital stay (days) than those by ORH (WMD = -3.49, 95% CI = -5.79~-1.24; WMD = -3.26, 95% CI = -5.04~-1.44, respectively). Compared with ORH, patients treated with RRH had lower postoperative complications (OR = 0.21, 95%CI = 0.08~0.65). Furthermore, the SUCRA value of three radical hysterectomies showed that patients receiving RRH illustrated better conditions on intraoperative blood loss, operation time, the number of resected lymph nodes, length of hospital stay and intraoperative and postoperative complications, while patients receiving ORH demonstrated relatively poorer conditions.
The results of this meta-analysis confirmed that early-stage CC patients treated by RRH were superior to patients treated by LRH and ORH in intraoperative blood loss, length of hospital stay and intraoperative and postoperative complications, and RRH might be regarded as a safe and effective therapeutic procedure for the management of CC.
Graphene Platform for Sensing Biomolecules Lu, Chun-Hua; Yang, Huang-Hao; Zhu, Chun-Ling ...
Angewandte Chemie (International ed.),
June 15, 2009, Volume:
48, Issue:
26
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Sensitive platform: The use of graphene oxide (GO) as a platform for the sensitive and selective detection of DNA and proteins is presented. The interaction of GO and dye-labeled single-stranded DNA ...leads to quenching of the dye fluorescence. Conversely, the presence of a target DNA or protein leads to the binding of the dye-labeled DNA and target, releasing the DNA from GO, thereby restoring the dye fluorescence (see picture).
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