Capillary Encapsulation of Metallic Potassium in Aligned Carbon Nanotubes for Use as Stable Potassium Metal Anodes

Metallic potassium (K) is a desirable anode for potassium secondary batteries due to its low electrode potential in nonaqueous electrolytes and high theoretical capacity. Nevertheless, instability caused by dendritic growth, large volume changes, and parasitic side reactions hamper its practical application. Here, an anode containing metallic K is fabricated by infiltrating an aligned carbon nanotube membrane (ACM) with molten K because of its good wettability to molten K due to the strong capillary forces. The K metal is spatially distributed on the 3D ACM framework, which offers sufficient electrode/electrolyte contact for charge transfer. The robust ACM host provides a large number of K nucleation sites and physically confines the K deposited there, thus mitigating dimensional changes during cycling. The pathways for electrons and ions in the anode are associated to form a mixed conducting network, which is beneficial for the electrochemical redox. Consequently, the anode shows stable plating/stripping profiles with low polarization in symmetric cells using conventional carbonate‐based electrolytes. In addition, dendrite growth is suppressed, and the anode demonstrates excellent suitability when paired with a Prussian blue cathode in a full cell. This design strategy is expected to provide a way to address the problems with using metallic K anodes.     

Localized High‐Concentration Electrolytes Boost Potassium Storage in High‐Loading Graphite

Reversible intercalation of potassium‐ion (K⁺) into graphite makes it a promising anode material for rechargeable potassium‐ion batteries (PIBs). However, the current graphite anodes in PIBs often suffer from poor cyclic stability with low coulombic efficiency. A stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is necessary for stabilizing the large interlayer expansion during K⁺ insertion. Herein, a localized high‐concentration electrolyte (LHCE) is designed by adding a highly fluorinated ether into the concentrated potassium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide/dimethoxyethane, which forms a durable SEI on the graphite surface and enables highly reversible K⁺ intercalation/deintercalation without solvent cointercalation. Furthermore, this LHCE shows a high ionic conductivity (13.6 mS cm^?1) and excellent oxidation stability up to 5.3 V (vs K⁺/K), which enables compatibility with high‐voltage cathodes. The kinetics study reveals that K⁺ intercalation/deintercalation does not follow the same pathway. The potassiated graphite exhibits excellent depotassiation rate capability, while the formation of a low stage intercalation compound is the rate‐limiting step during potassiation.     

Inhibition of the adenosinergic pathway: the indispensable part of oncological therapy in the future

Purinergic Signalling - In recent years, immunotherapy has produced many unexpected breakthroughs in oncological therapy; however, it still has many deficiencies. For example, the number of...     

Genome Characteristics and Evolution of Pseudorabies Virus Strains in Eastern China from 2017 to 2019

Since late 2011, outbreaks of pseudorabies virus(PRV) have occurred in southern China causing major economic losses to the pig industry. We previously reported that variant PRV forms and recombination in China could be the source of continued epidemics. Here, we analyzed samples from intensive pig farms in eastern China between 2017 and 2019, and sequenced the main glycoproteins(gB, gC, gD, and gE) to study the evolution characteristics of PRV. Based on the g C gene, we found that PRV variants belong to clade 2 and detected a founder effect during by the PRV epidemic. In addition,we detected inter-and intra-clade recombination; in particular, inter-clade recombination in the g B genes of strains FJ-ZXF and FJ-W2, which were recombinant with clade 1 strains. We also found specific amino-acid changes and positively selected sites, possibly associated with functional changes. This analysis of the emergence of PRV in China illustrates the need for continuous monitoring and the development of vaccines against specific variants of PRV.     

Identification of senescent cells in multipotent mesenchymal stromal cell cultures: Current methods and future directions

Regardless of their tissue of origin, multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are commonly expanded in vitro for several population doublings to achieve a sufficient number of cells for therapy. Prolonged MSC expansion has been shown to result in phenotypical, morphological and gene expression changes in MSCs, which ultimately lead to the state of senescence. The presence of senescent cells in therapeutic MSC batches is undesirable because it reduces their viability, differentiation potential and trophic capabilities. Additionally, senescent cells acquire senescence-activated secretory phenotype, which may not only induce apoptosis in the neighboring host cells following MSC transplantation, but also trigger local inflammatory reactions. This review outlines the current and promising new methodologies for the identification of senescent cells in MSC cultures, with a particular emphasis on non-destructive and label-free methodologies. Technologies allowing identification of individual senescent cells, based on new surface markers, offer potential advantage for targeted senescent cell removal using new-generation senolytic agents, and subsequent production of therapeutic MSC batches fully devoid of senescent cells. Methods or a combination of methods that are non-destructive and label-free, for example, involving cell size and spectroscopic measurements, could be the best way forward because they do not modify the cells of interest, thus maximizing the final output of therapeutic-grade MSC cultures. The further incorporation of machine learning methods has also recently shown promise in facilitating, automating and enhancing the analysis of these measured data.     

Quercetin protected against isoniazide‐induced HepG2 cell apoptosis by activating the SIRT1/ERK pathway

Isoniazid (INH) is one of the most commonly used antituberculosis drugs, but its clinical applications have been limited by severe hepatic toxicity. Quercetin (Que), a natural flavonoid, has been proved to have many medicinal properties. This study aimed to clarify the possible protective effects of Que against INH‐induced hepatotoxicity using HepG2 cells. Our results indicated that Que significantly increased cell viability, superoxide dismutase, and GSH levels, while decreased alanine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransferase levels. Besides, Que significantly abrogated INH‐induced cell apoptosis by upregulating the expression levels of Bcl‐2 and decreasing the levels of Bax, cleaved caspase‐3, and cleaved caspase‐9. Furthermore, Que obviously reversed the inhibition of INH on Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) expression and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation. Next, the SIRT1 inhibitor EX527 blocked the enhancement of Que upon ERK phosphorylation. Notably, EX527 partially abolished the beneficial effects of Que. In brief, our results provided the first evidence that Que protected against INH‐induced HepG2 cells by regulating the SIRT1/ERK pathway.     

Root-specific expression of rice OsHMA3 reduces shoot cadmium accumulation in transgenic tobacco

Molecular Breeding - Apple mildew, caused by the fungus Podosphaera leucotricha, is an ongoing problem for apple growers in most world production regions. To manage apple foliar mildew with less...     

千岛湖生态系统服务价值评估

本研究在湖泊尺度上对千岛湖水生生态系统服务功能价值开展了定量评估和趋势分析,建立了千岛湖生态系统服务功能评估的10类l6项指标体系,得出千岛湖2007和2017年水生态服务总价值分别为493和572 亿元.千岛湖生态系统服务功能价值主要体现在调节功能上,其调节功能在其生态系统服务功能中占有绝对主导地位.千岛湖生态系统服务价值依次为:洪水调蓄>地表水资源调蓄>固(减)碳>释氧>旅游>水质净化>渔业>湖水利用节能>水电用水>农林牧用水>城镇公共与生态用水>工业用水>货物周转>居民用水>冷源贯流水>旅客周转.2007和2017年千岛湖单位面积提供的生态系服务价值分别为8.6×l0⁷和9.98×l0⁷ 元·km^-2,分别为淳安县当年单位面积国民生产总值(GDP)的47.6和17.3倍.     

有机污染土壤电动修复过程中微生物的分布特征及模型构建

外加电场下土壤微生物会发生快速繁殖和定向迁移.本研究在十四烷污染土壤中不同位置投加十四烷高效降解菌,并施加1 V·cm^-1的单向直流电场,考察目标菌群的迁移分布及降解特征.结果表明:微生物受电渗析和电泳作用分别向阴极和阳极迁移,电渗析迁移量是电泳的3.5倍.同时,施加电场还会使土壤环境在空间上存在差异进而影响微生物生长,施加电场的土壤中微生物数量平均值为1.16×10⁸ CFU·g^-1 (6 d),是不施加电场处理组的2.3倍;S₂～S₄区是微生物的高效生长区域,电动30 d后,区域平均数量是阴阳极的2.8～3.5倍,是对照处理组的2.1倍.十四烷降解率与微生物数量呈显著正相关关系(r=0.895, P<0.05),最佳降解区域在近阴极区(S₄),可达94.6%.基于试验结果模拟,建立了环境因子修正的电动区域微生物分布模型.该模型结合电动激活和电动运移作用对土壤微生物的叠加影响,实现了定点投加微生物在电动过程中数量的分布模拟.研究结果可为外源功能菌在电动-微生物修复有机污染土壤中的高效引入提供理论依据.