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Despite being heralded as the “holy grail” of anodes for their high theoretical specific capacity, lithium (Li) metal anodes still face practical challenges due to difficulties in fabricating ultrathin Li with controllable thickness and suppressing Li dendrites growth. Herein, we introduce a simple and cost-effective dip-coating method to fabricate ultrathin lithium–tin (LiSn) anode with adjustable thicknesses ranging from 4.5 to 45 μm. The in situ formation of Li22Sn5alloy improves the wettability of the molten Li, enabling the casting of ultrathin Li metal layers on different substrates. More importantly, the abundant Li22Sn5lithiophilic sites significantly lower the nucleation overpotential, inducing uniform Li deposition and accelerating the electrochemical reaction at the interface. As a result, the symmetric cell assembled with LiSn–Cu electrodes can cycle stably for more than 120 h with a charge/discharge depth of 50%, which is 1.5 times longer than the lifespan of the pure Li anode. In the full cells paired with NCM cathode, the discharge specific capacity is improved from 13.84 to 70.31 mA h g–1with the LiSn–Cu anode at 8 C. The LiSn–Cu||NCM full cell realized a high energy density of 724.9 Wh kg–1at the active material level with an N/Pratio of 1.4.

Purpose: Radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy (rESWT) has been used in clinical and rehabilitation fields. However, the formulation of related clinical treatment protocols and the full potential of its therapeutic efficacy are constrained due to limited understanding of shock wave sources. This study aimed to further clarify the characteristics of shock wave sources generated at different medium interfaces. Methods: Shock wave generated by rESWT device at the interface of different media (soft tissue-mimicking-phantom, water and air) was measured based on flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) sensors. The temporal and spectral characteristics of the shock wave source were analyzed. Results: The wave generated at the phantom interface was similar to that at the water interface under the same impact pressure, both being largely different from that at the air interface, where the absolute value of the peak pressure was significantly reduced. The spectral properties of the shock wave generated in different media were similar, with distinct peak frequencies, varying modulation frequencies in phantom (12.2 kHz), water (8.5 kHz), and air (7.2 kHz), and a relatively constant carrier frequency (between 82 and 83 kHz). Under the different impact pressures, there were no variations in the peak frequency at the same medium interface, indicating that the impact pressure mainly impacts the shock wave amplitude, but not the peak frequency. Conclusion: The shock waves generated at different medium interfaces exhibited temporal and spectral differences. Therefore, measurement results in biological soft tissues cannot be simply replaced by the measurement results in air or water. The results of this study are expected to provide important information for evaluating rESWT devices and optimizing clinical shock wave treatment protocols.

Object contour plays an important role in fields such as semantic segmentation and image classification. However, the extraction of contour is a difficult task, especially when the contour is incomplete or unclosed. In this paper, the existing contour detection approaches are reviewed and roughly divided into three categories: pixel-based, edge-based, and region-based. In addition, since the traditional contour detection approaches have achieved a high degree of sophistication, the deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have good performance in image recognition, therefore, the DCNNs based contour detection approaches are also covered in this paper. Moreover, the future development of contour detection is analyzed and predicted.

With the rapid development of applications with different use cases and service demands for edge network, network slicing is an emerging solution for satisfying service-oriented requirements, while the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite caching-assisted communication has been considered as one of the key elements for effective services. With limited resources at the edge of the radio access network (RAN), it is challenging to take advantage of the LEO content cache to joint allocation of communication, computing and caching space (3C) resources. To this end, we investigate the problem of resource slicing and scheduling of joint 3C resources in RAN edge scenario assisted by LEO content caching. A hierarchical resource slicing framework is proposed for dynamic allocation of multidimensional resources. The optimization variables are relaxed and the constraints are adjusted. The sequential quadratic programming (SQP) iteration algorithm is proposed as theoretical offline baseline. Due to its complex solving process and limited real-time performance, we incorporate Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) into the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) algorithm to aware extract the distribution characteristics of historical information and propose the deep reinforcement learning algorithm of LSTM-SAC. Meanwhile, the proportional priority based scheduling algorithm is employed in the intra-slice. Compared to SAC, TD3 and DDPG algorithms, the proposed algorithm is the closest to the theoretical value, improves the objective function by 6.95%, 9.52% and 11.52% respectively, which can significantly improve the system rate while satisfying the service level agreements.

To provide high-precision timing services of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), this work performs a detailed investigation of integrated BDS-3 and BDS-2 real-time precise point positioning (PPP) time transfer with the ultrarapid products. Compared with the final precise clock products, the average standard deviation (STD) of estimated BDS-3 MEO/IGSO satellites is 0.1 ns, while the corresponding value of BDS-2 is 0.2 ns. The precision of real-time BDS-3/2 PPP time transfer can achieve better than 0.5 ns. The phenomenon of reconvergence and abnormal jumps in receiver clock series can be effectively reduced because of the evenly distributed MEO satellites.

This study proposes a novel method for generating virtual orbital angular momentum (OAM) using a synthetic uniform circular array (SUCA). In the proposed method, the base array is rotated to various spatial locations, with the feeding phases modified accordingly, and the generated fields at various spatial locations are superimposed. The proposed method exchanges the cost of the time domain for more spatial degrees of freedom, which can overcome the limit of space and configure more virtual array elements to generate vortex electromagnetic (EM) waves carrying virtual multimode OAMs. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a radially placed SUCA is designed with four actual elements of a circularly polarized (CP) horn antenna and sixteen virtual elements. The SUCA is then simulated and measured, and it successfully generates fifteen virtual OAMs in the frequency range of 5–6.5 GHz. Furthermore, 2-D object detection experiments of three metal targets with different scales at different positions based on the SUCA were conducted. The experimental results show that the three targets can be distinguished clearly, indicating that our work has the potential to generate more virtual OAMs and improve object detection resolution in practical applications.

Garnet-type Li7La3Zr2O12(LLZO) is regarded as one of the most promising solid-state electrolytes due to its good thermal stability, high mechanical strength, wide electrochemical window, and good stability against Li metal. However, Li and LLZO have poor physical contact, leading to a large interfacial resistance and poor electrochemical performance. It is recognized that LLZO is intrinsic lithiophilic. But LLZO easily reacts with H2O and CO2in air and generates Li2CO3and other inevitable surface contaminants. The contaminated surface results in poor interfacial wettability against Li metal. Herein, an air-stable surface layer is introduced to Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12(LLZTO) by simply reacting LLZTO with a LiPF6-based liquid electrolyte. During the reacting process, Li2CO3is removed and a lithiophilic and ion-conductive modified layer is formed. The layer helps to build a uniform and intimate contact between Li and LLZTO. The interfacial resistance is reduced to 15.675 Ω cm2, less than one fifth of that between bare LLZTO and Li. Benefiting from the favorable interface, stable Li plating and stripping can be conducted for over 1000 h at a current density of 0.22 mA cm–2. Even after being exposed to air for 3 days, the interfacial resistance of surface-modified LLZTO against Li remains as low as 36.29 Ω cm2and performs stable Li plating and stripping for 1000 h. Moreover, the quasi-solid-state Li metal batteries of Li/LLZTO/LiCoO2, Li/LLZTO/LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2,and Li/LLZTO/LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4exhibit excellent cycling performances, which confirms the feasibility of the strategy in the practical manufacture.

In vehicular edge computing (VEC) networks, the rapid expansion of intelligent transportation and the corresponding enormous numbers of tasks bring stringent requirements on timely task offloading. However, many tasks typically appear within a short period rather than arriving simultaneously, which makes it difficult to realize effective and efficient resource scheduling. In addition, some key information about tasks could be learned due to the regular data collection and uploading processes of sensors, which may contribute to developing effective offloading strategies. Thus, in this paper, we propose a model that considers the deterministic demand of multiple tasks. It is possible to generate effective resource reservations or early preparation decisions in offloading strategies if some feature information of the deterministic demand can be obtained in advance. We formulate our scenario as a 0‐1 programming problem to minimize the average delay of tasks and transform it into a convex form. Finally, we proposed an efficient optimal offloading algorithm that uses the interior point method. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has great advantages in optimizing offloading utility.

• A 3D lithophilic carbon paper/current collector integrated Li metal anode (Li@LCP-Cu) is prepared by hot-pressing method, which can precisely control the Li content and thickness. • The in-situ formed lithiophilic layer on the surface of CP can exist stably and reduce the nucleation overpotential, inducing uniform and dense Li deposition. • 3D CP skeleton can reduce local current density to suppress dendrite growth and limit anode volume change. • The solid-state battery assembled with Li@LCP-Cu, PVDF-based polymer electrolyte and PEO functional layer exhibits the best electrochemical and safety performance. Safety issues induced by infinite anode volume change and uncontrolled lithium (Li) dendrite growth have become the biggest obstacle to the practical application of Li metal batteries. In addition, the traditional rolling method makes it difficult to manufacture thin Li foil with high mechanical strength and low Li content. Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) lithophilic carbon paper/copper (Cu) current collector hybrid anode with ultra-low Li metal content is prepared by a hot-pressing method. The highly reversible and stable lithiophilic layer LiC x formed in situ by heating/pressing treatment provides abundant nucleation sites and reduces the Li nucleation overpotential, thereby effectively suppressing Li dendrite growth. Moreover, the volume change and pulverization problems of Li metal anode during deposition/stripping also can be accommodated by the 3D skeleton. The optimization effect has been directly confirmed by in-situ optical and ex-situ scanning electron microscope observation. Therefore, highly stable performance (158.4 mA h g−1 at 2 C after 200 cycles with a capacity retention of 95.24%) in Li@LCP-Cu||NCM811 coin cell can be achieved. Furthermore, the solid-state battery assembled with the hybrid anode, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-based polymer electrolyte and polyethylene oxide (PEO) interface functional layer also exhibits the best electrochemical and safety performance, which also proves that the Li@LCP-Cu anode has great potential for application in solid-state batteries. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate to NH3(NO3RR) on Cu offers sustainable NH3production and nitrogen recycling from nitrate-contaminated water. However, Cu affords limited NO3RR activity owing to its unfavorable electronic state and the slow proton transfer on its surface, especially in neutral/alkaline media. Furthermore, although a synchronous “NO3RR and NH3collection” system has been developed for nitrogen recycling from nitrate-laden water, no system is designed for natural water that generally contains low-concentration nitrate. Herein, we demonstrate that depositing Cu nanoparticles on a TiO2support enables the formation of electron-deficient Cuδ+species (0 < δ ≤ 2), which are more active than Cu0in NO3RR. Furthermore, TiO2–Cu coupling induces local electric-field enhancement that intensifies water adsorption/dissociation at the interface, accelerating proton transfer for NO3RR on Cu. With the dual enhancements, TiO2–Cu delivers an NH3-N selectivity of 90.5%, mass activity of 41.4 mg-N h gCu–1, specific activity of 377.8 mg-N h–1m–2, and minimal Cu leaching (<25.4 μg L–1) when treating 22.5 mg L–1of NO3–-N at −0.40 V, outperforming most of the reported Cu-based catalysts. A sequential NO3RR and NH3collection system based on TiO2–Cu was then proposed, which could recycle nitrogen from nitrate-contaminated water under a wide concentration window of 22.5–112.5 mg L–1at a rate of 209–630 mgNm–2h–1. We also demonstrated this system could collect 83.9% of nitrogen from NO3–-N (19.3 mg L–1) in natural lake water.

This paper investigates the frictional thermoelastic contact of a rigid spherical punch and functionally graded material (FGM) coated half-space with arbitrarily varying material properties. These material parameters include the elastic modulus, Poisson’s ratio, heat conduction parameter, and thermal expansion coefficient. The material parameters of the FGM coating and half-space are assumed to be temperature dependent. The spherical punch is rotated in the FGM-coated half-space at a constant angular speed. The generated frictional heat is related to the friction coefficient, contact radius, angular velocity, and contact pressure. A theoretical formula for the thermoelastic rotating contact problem is established and solved using the finite element method. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of temperature dependence, gradient index, friction coefficient, angular velocity, and gradient form on the surface temperature and stresses.

Novel structured lithium metal anodes with vertically arrayed holes and insulating layer are fabricated by in-situ blade coating and mechanical punching to modulate the electric field/Li+gradient for the excellent electrochemical performance of quasi-solid-state batteries.

ABSTRACTTo measure the neutron spectra in a wide energy range at the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), a time of flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer based on a fast ionization chamber (FIC) containing 6Li and 235U has been developed. Verification experiments have been performed at the BL09 test beam line at the CSNS, which demonstrated that the measured neutron spectra, analyzed with a spectrum-splicing technique, ranging from sub-meV to 10 keV with a limited flight path. Comparisons demonstrated that the integral thermal neutron fluence obtained by the TOF spectrometer and the cadmium difference activation measurements used were in good agreement. Moreover, the measured neutron spectra agreed well with the Monte Carlo simulations. This shows that the developed equipment and the measurement methods are reliable.

Age‐associated sarcopenia is characterized of progressed loss of skeletal muscle power, mass, and function, which affects human physical activity and life quality. Besides, accompanied with sarcopenia, aged population also faces a series of metabolic dysfunctions. Irisin, the cleaved form of fibronectin type III domain‐containing protein 5 (FNDC5), is a myokine induced by exercise and has been shown to exert multiple beneficial effects on health. The goal of the study is to investigate the alterations of Fndc5/irisin in skeletal muscles during ageing and whether irisin administration could ameliorate age‐associated sarcopenia and metabolic dysfunction. The mRNA and protein levels of FNDC5/irisin in skeletal muscle and serum from 2‐ and 24‐month‐old mice or human subjects were analysed using qRT‐PCR and western blot. FNDC5/irisin knockout mice were generated to investigate the consequences of FNDC5/irisin deletion on skeletal muscle mass, as well as morphological and molecular changes in muscle during ageing via histological and molecular analysis. To identify the therapeutic effects of chronic irisin treatment in mice during ageing, in vivointraperitoneal administration of 2 mg/kg recombinant irisin was performed three times per week in ageing mice (14‐month‐old) for 4 months or in aged mice (22‐month‐old) for 1 month to systematically investigate irisin's effects on age‐associated sarcopenia and metabolic performances, including grip strength, body weights, body composition, insulin sensitivity, energy expenditure, serum parameters and phenotypical and molecular changes in fat and liver. We showed that the expression levels of irisin, as well as its precursor Fndc5, were reduced at mRNA and protein expression levels in muscle during ageing. In addition, via phenotypic analysis of FNDC5/irisin knockout mice, we found that FNDC5/irisin deficiency in aged mice exhibited aggravated muscle atrophy including smaller grip strength (−3.23%, P< 0.05), muscle weights (quadriceps femoris [QU]: −20.05%; gastrocnemius [GAS]: −17.91%; tibialis anterior [TA]: −19.51%, all P< 0.05), fibre size (QU: P< 0.01) and worse molecular phenotypes compared with wild‐type mice. We then delivered recombinant irisin protein intraperitoneally into ageing or aged mice and found that it could improve sarcopenia with grip strength (+18.42%, P< 0.01 or +13.88%, P< 0.01), muscle weights (QU: +9.02%, P< 0.01 or +16.39%, P< 0.05), fibre size (QU: both P< 0.05) and molecular phenotypes and alleviated age‐associated fat tissues expansion, insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis (all P< 0.05), accompanied with altered gene signatures. Together, this study revealed the importance of irisin in the maintenance of muscle physiology and systematic energy homeostasis during ageing and suggested a potent therapeutic strategy against age‐associated metabolic diseases via irisin administration.

The front deployed deep learning is a promising technology of the next generation industrial applications, which can extract essential information from high dimension sensors. However, part of these heavy computation tasks at resource constrained front devices have to be offloaded to the edge or cloud devices, which forms the cooperative deep learning system through the exchange of intermediate data. The inference efficiency of cooperative deep learning system will then be highly correlated with the communication latency caused by the non-stationary industrial multipath-rich fading channel. This paper proposes a novel method to control the distribution of communications latency, which is able to support efficient cooperative deep learning architecture in the harsh industrial environment. The proposed method is essentially an inverse process of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), which adjusts latency samples to approach the given arbitrary shape function. To achieve this objective, a new variation of Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm in analytical domain is derived to decompose arbitrary distribution shape with multiple Gaussian kernels and an optimized stochastic resource allocation algorithm is proposed to approximate each Gaussian kernels. The performance of proposed method is verified by both classical Rician channel model and field measured industrial fading channel responses.

In industrial defect segmentation tasks, while pixel accuracy and Intersection over Union (IoU) are commonly employed metrics to assess segmentation performance, the output consistency (also referred to as equivalence) of the model is often overlooked. Even a small shift in the input image can yield significant fluctuations in the segmentation results. Existing methodologies primarily focus on data augmentation or antialiasing to enhance the network’s robustness against translational transformations, but their shift equivalence performs poorly on the test set or is susceptible to nonlinear activation functions. In addition, the variations in boundaries resulting from the translation of input images are consistently disregarded, thus imposing further limitations on the shift equivalence. In response to this particular challenge, a novel pair of downsampling/upsampling layers called component attention polyphase sampling (CAPS) is proposed as a replacement for the conventional sampling layers in CNNs. To mitigate the effect of image boundary variations on the equivalence, an adaptive windowing module is designed in CAPS to adaptively filter out the border pixels of the image. Furthermore, a component attention module is proposed to fuse all downsampled features to improve the segmentation performance. The experimental results on the micro surface defect (MSD) dataset and four real-world industrial defect datasets demonstrate that the proposed method exhibits higher equivalence and segmentation performance compared to other state-of-the-art methods. Our code will be available at https://github.com/xiaozhen228/CAPS.

The efficient fractionation and recovery of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) constituents, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, are ideal for LCB utilization. In this study, we prepared a solid acid catalyst (SPS120-40) with high acid density using polystyrene resin (PS) as precursor. The synthesized catalyst was characterized by XPS, 13C NMR, TG-FTIR-MS, and so on to investigate its structural properties and thermal stability. During process optimization using FeCl3-assisted SPS120-40, a total of 78.9% xylose yield with 96.6% monosaccharide selectivity was achieved. Moreover, the catalyst showed extraordinary catalytic activity until five runs without significant loss in xylose yield. The pretreated residue was further treated with NaOH-1-butanol to effectively remove the lignin deposited on the residue surface and eventually 89.5% hydrolysis rate was obtained. At the same time, 64.4% lignin was obtained in the residue of enzymatic hydrolysis. This work provides important guidance for utilizing the whole components of lignocellulose.

In this paper, a trusted multi-task distribution mechanism for Internet of Vehicles based on smart contract is proposed to improve the security and efficiency for the task distribution in Internet of Vehicles. Firstly, a three-tier trusted multi-task distribution framework is presented based on smart contract. The smart contract will be triggered by the task request. As the important part of the smart contract, the task distribution algorithm is stored on the blockchain and run automatically. In the process of the task distribution, the cost of the task distribution and the system stability play a critical role. Therefore, the task distribution problem is formulated to minimize the cost of the task distribution whilst maintaining the stability of the system based on Lyapunov theorem. Unfortunately, this problem is a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem with NP-hard characteristics. To tackle this, the optimization problem is decomposed into two sub problems of computing resource allocation and task distribution decision, and an effective task distribution algorithm is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively improves system performance.

The composite membrane with porous structure applied in gel polymer electrolytes is fabricated by UV cross-linking PVDF-HFP with PAN assisted by N-CQDs and TiO2, enabling supercapacitors with superb electrochemical performance.

Purpose To study the effects of a bandage contact lens immersed in 0.1% diclofenac on pain management for patients undergoing transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy (TPRK).Methods In a prospective, comparative, contralateral, randomized, double-masked study, we assessed a total of 51 patients. The eyes of each patient were randomly divided into two groups. After TPRK, a normal soft bandage contact lens was placed on one eye as the control group, and a bandage contact lens soaked in diclofenac was placed on the other eye as the experimental group. When the bandage contact lens was not removed, postoperative pain and other ocular discomforts were compared at 2, 18, and 24 h and 2, 3, 4, and 5 postoperative days. Patients were then examined after 1 month. Visual acuity and subepithelial haze were also evaluated.Results The mean pain score was 2.69 ± 1.96 in the control group, which was significantly higher than that in the experimental group, which received the diclofenac-soaked bandage contact lens at 2 postoperative hours. The statistical difference between the two groups’ mean foreign body sensation at 2 postoperative hours was detected (p = 0.035). No differences were detected between the two groups’ subepithelial haze scores or visual acuity.Conclusion A bandage contact lens soaked in 0.1% diclofenac solution can be used as a potential drug-delivery system to relieve early postoperative pain and foreign body sensation after TPRK.

Low-light images incur several complicated degradations such as low brightness, poor contrast, and higher noise. Retinex theory, which decomposes a low-light image into illumination and reflection components based on local image derivatives, is widely used in the field of shimmering image enhancement. In this paper, we propose a new low-light image enhancement model based on the Retinex theory to reduce the above distortions. To be more specific, we first introduce a new structural texture extractor (NSTE) based on the local image derivatives properties to generate the texture and structure maps of the observed images. Compared to existing structural texture extractors, NSTE has two key designs: anisotropic weighting and adaptive exponential term. The aim is to generate structural maps with clear edge and texture maps with salient details. Subsequently, these two images are used to regularize the illumination and reflection components of the variational decomposition model, respectively. Finally, we developed a luminance correction function and a detail enhancement function to enhance the illumination and reflectance, respectively. This aims to improve the viewing experience, mitigate over-enhancement, and minimize detail distortion. We choose the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to solve the optimization model. Experimental results on several low-light datasets demonstrate that our proposed method can achieve better quantitative and qualitative performance than state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the population ages, the pursuit of extended lifespan and improved healthspan has gained significance. This study assessed the anti-aging properties of sea cucumber peptides derived from Acaudina leucoprocta(SCP) through microbiome and metabolome analyses in Drosophila melanogaster. Supplementation with 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, and 0.8% of SCP significantly boosted the survival rate and extended the mean and median lifespans in both male and female flies. Among them, 0.6% SCP treatment extended the mean and median lifespans of male flies by 21.01% and 25.48 %, which showed the most prominent lifespan-prolonging effect. Moreover, SCP enhanced the healthspan of male flies by improving their climbing ability, intestinal barrier function, and memory performance. Additionally, SCP boosted the survival rate of flies subjected to oxidative, starvation, and heat stress, with no significant effect observed under cold stress conditions. The lifespan-extension effect of SCP remained unaffected by dietary restriction, but was partially inhibited when provided with antibiotic-supplemented food. SCP modulated microbiota with increased the abundance of Lactobacillus, Rhodococcus, and Propioniciclavaand decreased Acetobacter, Achromobacter, Pedobacter, and norank_f_Saprospiraceae, which closely related with lifespan-extension effect. Furthermore, SCP induced a metabolic profile in 30-day-old flies more akin to that of 3-day-old flies, impacted 13 significantly regulated metabolites associated with amino acid, nucleotide, and carbohydrate metabolisms. These findings highlight SCP intervention as a promising anti-aging strategy.

Li7La3Zr2O12(LLZO) is considered as one of the most promising solid-state electrolytes for lithium (Li) metal batteries due to its wide electrochemical window and good electrochemical stability against Li metal. However, undesired lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) contamination cannot be avoided and it turns the LLZO surface to a lithophobic surface. The consequent large interfacial resistance limits its electrochemical performances. Herein, a drop-casting method using metal oxides is introduced to remove Li2CO3and improve the interfacial contact between Li metal and Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12(LLZTO). For example, due to the reduction and alloying reactions between gallium oxide (Ga2O3) and molten Li, a Li-Ga-O layer is formed, which exhibits an excellent wetting property on the LLZTO surface. During the alloying process of the lithiophilic Li-Ga-O interlayer, it breaks the Li2CO3contamination layer into fragments by alloying expansion force, allowing the Li-Ga-O interlayer to spread to the LLZTO surface. Benefiting from the improved interfacial contact, the interfacial resistance decreases from 1789 to 4.35 Ω/cm2. The Li symmetric cell cycles over 2000 hs under 0.235 mA/cm2and the Li|Ga2O3@LLZTO|LiCoO2full cell works for 100 cycles at room temperature.

Graphical abstract: Effective adsorption removal of HCHO with FNM-0.2

The conventional architecture of smart home is usually server-centric and this may cause many problems. The distributed architecture presented in this paper is based on multiple OSGi (Open Service Gateway Initiative) platforms. Relative home appliance services which are compliant with R-OSGi middleware for the home network system are also developed. The important aspect of R-OSGi is that it offers distribution transparency and uses the natural boundaries between software modules to establish the potential boundaries for distribution of the application. Experimental results obtained from the demo room show that the architecture is practical and reliable. Index Terms--Smart Home, R-OSGi, OSGi, Consumer Electronics, Residential Service Gateway.

Flexible piezoresistive‐sensing materials with high sensitivity and stable sensing signals are highly required to meet the accurate detecting requirement for human motion. Herein, a conductive poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) / polydimethylsiloxane foam (P:P@p‐PSF) composite with strong interfacial action is designed. The porous structures and good interface combination not only show outstanding mechanical flexibility and reliability but also possess high sensitivity at a relatively wide strain range. The P:P@p‐PSF sensor achieves extreme sensitivity (Gauge Factor) of 6.25 in the subtle strain range of 1%–8%. Furthermore, the sensor forms a highly interconnected conductive network induced by the serious deformation of elastic‐interconnect pores, thus providing extremely sensitive sensing behavior for a relatively wide strain range (97.4% resistance change rate at 60% compressive strain). Moreover, the sensor presents repeatable stability and good thermal adaptation, which would meet the critical requirements of subtle vital signs, human motion monitoring, and so on. This work supplies insight into the design of a new flexible sensor material to overcome the weak interface problem and the flexible mismatch between conductive filler and matrix, showing great application potential in the field of electronic skin. The surface of PDMS foam is activated by oxygen plasma treatment technology, and then the PEDOT:PSS firmly coats the pore surface of the foam via forming sulfonic ester covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds. The obtained conductive foam composites by combining these two flexible materials show excellent piezoresistivity with high sensitivity and good cyclic reliability.

Recent advances in wearable and implantable electronics have increased the demand for biocompatible integrated energy storage systems. Conducting polymers, such as polyaniline (PANi), have been suggested as promising electrode materials for flexible biocompatible energy storage systems, based on their intrinsic structural flexibility and potential polymer chain compatibility with biological interfaces. However, due to structural disorder triggering insufficient electronic conductivity and moderate electrochemical stability, PANi still cannot fully satisfy the requirements for flexible and biocompatible energy storage systems. Herein, we report a biocompatible physiological electrolyte activated flexible supercapacitor encompassing crystalline tetra-aniline (c-TANi) as the active electrode material, which significantly enhances the specific capacitance and electrochemical cycling stability with chloride electrochemical interactions. The crystallization of TANi endows it with sufficient electronic conductivity (8.37 S cm−1) and a unique Cl−dominated redox charge storage mechanism. Notably, a fully self-healable and biocompatible supercapacitor has been assembled by incorporating polyethylene glycol (PEG) with c-TANi as a self-healable electrode and a ferric-ion cross-linked sodium polyacrylate (Fe3+-PANa)/0.9 wt% NaCl as a gel electrolyte. The as-prepared device exhibits a remarkable capacitance retention even after multiple cut/healing cycles. With these attractive features, the c-TANi electrode presents a promising approach to meeting the power requirements for wearable or implantable electronics.

Sn–Sb lead-free solders are considered to substitute the tin–lead solders due to their great mechanical properties. At room temperature, the mechanical properties of Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb/Au/Ni and Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb–0.3Ag–0.05Cu/Au/Ni linear solder joints were investigated by nanoindentation experiments at different loads. The results showed that the Sn–Sb intermetallic compound (IMC) was distributed in the β-Sn matrix in Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb/Au/Ni solder joints. Co-addition of Cu and Ag resulted in the formation of the rod-shaped Cu6Sn5and the fine granular Ag3Sn IMCs. At the same load and loading/unloading rate, the indentation depth and residual indentation morphologies of Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb–0.3Ag–0.05Cu/Au/Ni solder joints were smaller than those of Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb/Au/Ni solder joints. The hardness of the two kinds of solder joints decreased with the increase in load, while the Young’s modulus was independent of load. In addition, compared to the Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb/Au/Ni solder joints, the hardness, Young’s modulus and stress exponents of Ni/Au/Sn–5Sb–0.3Ag–0.05Cu/Au/Ni solder joints achieved an improvement due to the co-addition of Ag and Cu.

Dendritic Li growth is the root hurdle against the implementation of a Li metal anode because it brings safety issues and unsatisfactory efficiency. In this work, a beaded-chain-like polyimide (PI) coating is designed on the commercial polyethylene (PE) separator to suppress the Li dendrite. Owing to the compactly stacking structure and high Li-ion absorption of the PI coating, the wettability of the prepared PI-PE separator is improved and a Li-ion-rich layer with uniform Li-ion transfer channels forms on the surface of the Li metal anode. Therefore, the planar Li deposition rather than dendrite growth has been achieved using this custom separator. The life spans of Cu||PI-PE||Li half-cells have been extended to 7 and 4 times longer than that of Cu||PE||Li half-cells at a current density of 1 mA/cm2with deposition capacities of 0.5 and 1 mA h/cm2, respectively. Besides suppressing Li dendrites, the multifunctional PI-PE separator also delivers a higher thermal stability to 120 °C than commercial PE and Al2O3-PE separators. This facile approach provides a feasible strategy to realize smooth lithium deposition, and the fundamental mechanism underlying the combination of pore structure and surface chemistry may lead to new approaches to tackle the dendritic problem of Li deposition.

MXenes are an emerging class of highly conductive two-dimensional (2D) materials with electrochemical storage features. Oriented macroscopic Ti3C2Txfibers can be fabricated from a colloidal 2D nematic phase dispersion. The layered conductive Ti3C2Txfibers are ideal candidates for constructing high-speed ionic transport channels to enhance the electrochemical capacitive charge storage performance. In this work, we assemble Ti3C2Txfibers with a high degree of flake orientation by a wet spinning process with controlled spinning speeds and morphology of the spinneret. In addition to the effects of cross-linking of magnesium ions between Ti3C2Txflakes, the electronic conductivity and mechanical strength of the as-prepared fibers have been improved to 7200 S cm–1and 118 MPa, respectively. The oriented Ti3C2Txfibers present a volumetric capacitive charge storage capability of up to 1360 F cm–3even in a Mg-ion based neutral electrolyte, with contributions from both nanofluidic ion transport and Mg-ion intercalation pseudocapacitance. The oriented 2D Ti3C2Txdriven nanofluidic channels with great electronic conductivity and mechanical strength endows the MXene fibers with attributes for serving as conductive ionic cables and active materials for fiber-type capacitive electrochemical energy storage, biosensors, and potentially biocompatible fibrillar tissues.

Responsible for the metabolism of ~21% of clinically used drugs, CYP2D6is a critical component of personalized medicine initiatives. Genotyping CYP2D6is challenging due to sequence similarity with its pseudogene paralog CYP2D7and a high number and variety of common structural variants (SVs). Here we describe a novel bioinformatics method, Cyrius, that accurately genotypes CYP2D6using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data. We show that Cyrius has superior performance (96.5% concordance with truth genotypes) compared to existing methods (84–86.8%). After implementing the improvements identified from the comparison against the truth data, Cyrius’s accuracy has since been improved to 99.3%. Using Cyrius, we built a haplotype frequency database from 2504 ethnically diverse samples and estimate that SV-containing star alleles are more frequent than previously reported. Cyrius will be an important tool to incorporate pharmacogenomics in WGS-based precision medicine initiatives.

Complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of plants are valuable resources for nucleocytoplasmic interactions, plant evolution, and plant cytoplasmic male sterile line breeding. However, the complete assembly of plant mitogenomes is challenging due to frequent recombination events and horizontal gene transfers. Previous studies have adopted Illumina, PacBio, and Nanopore sequencing data to assemble plant mitogenomes, but the poor assembly completeness, low sequencing accuracy, and high cost limit the sampling capacity. Here, we present an efficient assembly toolkit (PMAT) for de novoassembly of plant mitogenomes using low-coverage HiFi sequencing data. PMAT has been applied to the de novoassembly of 13 broadly representative plant mitogenomes, outperforming existing organelle genome assemblers in terms of assembly accuracy and completeness. By evaluating the assembly of plant mitogenomes from different sequencing data, it was confirmed that PMAT only requires 1× HiFi sequencing data to obtain a complete plant mitogenome. The source code for PMAT is available at https://github.com/bichangwei/PMAT. The developed PMAT toolkit will indeed accelerate the understanding of evolutionary variation and breeding application of plant mitogenomes.

For high-viscosity wastewater containing crude oil, the membrane material is easily clogged with contaminations, resulting in decreased flux and potentially loss of separation ability. In this study, a superhydrophilic/underwater superoleophobic PVDF membrane (PVDF-PC-εPL) was designed by the self-polymerization of proanthocyanidins (PC) and the grafting reaction of ε-polylysine (εPL), which showed a rough micro-nano structure without adding the inorganic particles. The PVDF-PC-εPL membrane displayed outstanding self-cleaning ability for high-viscosity crude oil, and the separation efficiency of the crude oil-in-water emulsion could be greater than 99.4%. The underwater oil contact angle (UWOCA) of the PVDF-PC-εPL membrane was 165°, after the PVDF-PC-εPL membrane had been exposed to air or water for 6 weeks, or soaked in different pH or seawater for 24 h, the UWOCA remained above 154° and the water contact angle was always 0°. The modification method on the PVDF membrane proposed in this study offers a fresh perspective and choice for preparing the oil-water separation materials.

•The outcomes of resistance training are dependent on time of exercise in humans.•FNDC5/irisin mediates skeletal muscle strength and time-of-day-dependent resistance training outcomes.•FNDC5 is transcriptionally regulated by BMAL1/PGC1α4.•Irisin increases muscle hypertrophy via αV class of integrins and FAK-AKT-CREB signaling.

With balanced spatial resolution, imaging depth, and functional sensitivity, photoacoustic tomography (PAT) hold great promise for human brain imaging. However, the strong acoustic attenuation and aberration of the human skull (∼8?mm thick) are longstanding technical challenges for PAT of the human brain. In this work, we numerically investigated the impacts of the stratified human skull on photoacoustic wave propagation (i.e., the forward model) and PAT image formation (i.e., the inverse model). We simulated two representative transcranial PAT implementations: photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) and photoacoustic macroscopy (PAMac). In the forward model, we simulated the detailed photoacoustic wave propagation from a point or line source through a digital human skull. The wave attenuation, refraction, mode conversation, and reverberation were thoroughly investigated. In the inverse model, we reconstructed the transcranial PACT and PAMac images of a point or line target enclosed by the human skull. Our results demonstrate that transcranial PAMac suffers mainly from wave reverberation within the skull, leading to prolonged signal duration and reduced axial resolution. Transcranial PACT is more susceptible to the skull’s acoustic distortion, mode conversion, and reverberation, which collectively lead to strong image artifacts and deteriorated spatial resolutions. We also found that PACT with a ring-shaped transducer array shows more tolerance of the skull’s adverse impacts and can provide more accurate image reconstruction. Our results suggest that incorporating the skull’s geometry and acoustic properties can improve transcranial PAT image reconstruction. We expect that our results have provided a more comprehensive understanding of the acoustic impact of the human skull on transcranial PAT.

The demand for high rate energy storage systems is continuously increasing driven by portable electronics, hybrid/electric vehicles and the need for balancing the smart grid. Accordingly, Nb2O5based materials have gained great attention because of their fast cation intercalation faradaic charge storage that endows them with high rate energy storage performance. In this review, we describe the crystalline features of the five main phases of Nb2O5and analyze their specific electrochemical characteristics with an emphasis on the intrinsic ion intercalation pseudocapacitive behavior of T-Nb2O5. The charge storage mechanisms, electrochemical performance and state-of-the-art characterization techniques for Nb2O5anodes are summarized. Next, we review recent progress in developing various types of Nb2O5based fast charging electrode materials, including Nb2O5based mixed metal oxides and composites. Finally, we highlight the major challenges for Nb2O5based materials in the realm of high rate rechargeable energy storage and provide perspectives for future research.

IMPORTANCE: A significant proportion of patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) are treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Sequencing of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after surgery, along with enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), may be used to detect minimal residual disease and assess which patients may experience disease recurrence. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the presence of ctDNA and CTCs after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early-stage TNBC is independently associated with recurrence and clinical outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A preplanned secondary analysis was conducted from March 26, 2014, to December 18, 2018, using data from 196 female patients in BRE12-158, a phase 2 multicenter randomized clinical trial that randomized patients with early-stage TNBC who had residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy to receive postneoadjuvant genomically directed therapy vs treatment of physician choice. Patients had blood samples collected for ctDNA and CTCs at time of treatment assignment; ctDNA analysis with survival was performed for 142 patients, and CTC analysis with survival was performed for 123 patients. Median clinical follow-up was 17.2 months (range, 0.3-58.3 months). INTERVENTIONS: Circulating tumor DNA was sequenced using the FoundationACT or FoundationOneLiquid Assay, and CTCs were enumerated using an epithelial cell adhesion molecule–based, positive-selection microfluidic device. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Primary outcomes were distant disease–free survival (DDFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Among 196 female patients (mean [SD] age, 49.6 [11.1] years), detection of ctDNA was significantly associated with inferior DDFS (median DDFS, 32.5 months vs not reached; hazard ratio [HR], 2.99; 95% CI, 1.38-6.48; P = .006). At 24 months, DDFS probability was 56% for ctDNA-positive patients compared with 81% for ctDNA-negative patients. Detection of ctDNA was similarly associated with inferior DFS (HR, 2.67; 95% CI, 1.28-5.57; P = .009) and inferior OS (HR, 4.16; 95% CI,1.66-10.42; P = .002). The combination of ctDNA and CTCs provided additional information for increased sensitivity and discriminatory capacity. Patients who were ctDNA positive and CTC positive had significantly inferior DDFS compared with those who were ctDNA negative and CTC negative (median DDFS, 32.5 months vs not reached; HR, 5.29; 95% CI, 1.50-18.62; P = .009). At 24 months, DDFS probability was 52% for patients who were ctDNA positive and CTC positive compared with 89% for those who were ctDNA negative and CTC negative. Similar trends were observed for DFS (HR, 3.15; 95% CI, 1.07-9.27; P = .04) and OS (HR, 8.60; 95% CI, 1.78-41.47; P = .007). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this preplanned secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, detection of ctDNA and CTCs in patients with early-stage TNBC after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was independently associated with disease recurrence, which represents an important stratification factor for future postneoadjuvant trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02101385

Garnet-type Li7La3Zr2O12(LLZO) is among the most attractive candidates for achieving solid-state lithium batteries. LLZO pellets with high density are preferred because of their potential to prevent dendritic Li growth and penetration. However, the presence of pores inside the LLZO electrolyte is inevitable if it is prepared by a traditional solid-state reaction. Large numbers of pores have an adverse influence on both the ionic conductivity and density of the LLZO pellets. In this work, we studied the origin of pore formation in Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12(LLZTO) and introduced a fast oxygen-assisted sintering method to eliminate the pores. All of the basic physical properties of the LLZTO sintered in oxygen for only 1 h are better than those of the LLZTO sintered in air. The conductivity and Vickers hardness of the LLZTO increased to 6.13 × 10–4S cm–1and 9.82 GPa, corresponding to 12.3% and 62.8% enhancement, respectively, even at a low precalcined temperature of 600 °C. A Li||Li symmetric cell with the LLZTO sintered in oxygen also showed more stable and longer cycling at a higher current density (0.4 mA cm–2).

Recently, Pickering emulsion stabilized by Janus particles has received considerable attention for interfacial reactions and droplet manipulation. However, its potential interests have been rarely explored because of the difficulties in designing and fabricating Janus particles for Pickering emulsion with suitable applications. Also, photocatalytic materials are scarcely applied as emulsifiers in Pickering emulsions because of their photogenerated hydrophilicity. This work reports the synthesis of methyl-capped Janus TiO2–SiO2particles (MJTSs), which can be used as a novel emulsifier and photocatalyst simultaneously. The MJTSs, composed of an anatase TiO2sphere and silica rod, are prepared by inverse emulsion-based step-by-step growth. We demonstrate that the Pickering emulsion stabilized by MJTSs represents extraordinary ability of emulsification, excellent stability, and tunable emulsion type (water in oil or oil in water). In addition, the MJTSs exhibit photocatalytic activity in decomposition of pollutants in the water phase while maintaining the stability of the Pickering emulsion.

ABSTRACTIn recent years, studies have revealed HOXA2 as a new oncogene, but its function is unknown in gliomas. We aimed to reveal the relationship between HOXA2 and glioma based on the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas(CGGA) and the cancer genome atlas (TCGA). HOXA2 expression data and clinically relevant information of glioma patients were obtained from the CGGA and TCGA containing 1447 glioma tissues and five non-tumor brain tissues. The Wilcox or Kruskal tests were used to detect the correlation between the HOXA2 expression level and clinical data of glioma patients. the Kaplan–Meier method were used to examine the relationship between HOXA2 and overall patient survival. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was conducted to indirectly reveal the signaling pathways involved in HOXA2, and RT-PCR was used to detect HOXA2 expression in gliomas and non-tumor brain tissues. High HOXA2 expression was found to be positively correlated with clinical grade, histological type, age, and tumor recurrence, but negatively correlated with 1p19 codeletion and isocitrate dehydrogenase mutation status.RT-PCR results showed that HOXA2 expression levels were significantly higher in tumor tissues than in non-tumor brain tissues. GSEA showed that HOXA2 promoted the activation of the activation of the JAK-STAT-signaling pathway, focal adhesion, cell-adhesion-molecules-CAMS pathway, cytosolic DNA sensing pathway, and natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity. This study revealed for the first time that the novel oncogene,HOXA2, leads to poor prognosis in gliomas, and can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of gliomas.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been reported to play indispensable roles in regulating various developmental processes via the posttranscriptional repression of target genes in insect species. In the present paper, we studied the miRNAs in Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella(Hübener)), one of the most economically important stored grains pests around the world. In total, 12 small RNA libraries from four developmental stages of P. interpunctellawere constructed, and 178 known and 23 novel miRNAs were identified. In addition, the expression profiles of these miRNAs were assessed across different developmental stages and miRNAs that were highly expressed in eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults were identified. Specifically, 100, 61, and 52 miRNAs were differentially expressed between eggs and larvae, larvae and pupae, and pupae and adults, respectively. The KEGG and GO analysis of the predicted target genes suggested the essential roles of miRNAs in the regulation of complex development of P. interpunctella. Importantly, we also found a set of miRNAs might be involved in the larval metamorphic molting process, with their expressions increasing and then decreasing during the larva-pupa-adult stages of P. interpunctella. In conclusion, the current paper has discovered numerous miRNAs, and some key miRNAs that might be responsible for regulating development in P. interpunctella. To our knowledge, this is the first study to document miRNAs and their expression patterns in interpunctella, and those findings would lay an important molecular foundation for future functional analysis of these miRNAs in P. interpunctella.

At present, frequent oily wastewater pollution has become one of the most concerning environmental issues. Typically, such a global challenge calls for the development of efficient and durable separation materials for oil spill cleanups. Inspired by hydrogels, the physical crosslinking of PVP with chitosan was utilized in this work to enhance the surface properties; in addition, a facile approach was described to prepare the superhydrophilic/superoleophobic surface for oil–water separation on various substrates through one-step spraying. The surface morphology, elementary composition, and wettability were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (XEDS), and contact angle measurement, respectively. The results suggested that the coating exhibited both superhydrophilicity and superoleophobicity on the stainless steel mesh (SSM), glass, and copper mesh. Particularly, the contact angle (CA) of edible oil on SSM reached up to 156°. The as-prepared coating also possessed excellent mechanical and chemical durability. Furthermore, the separating efficiencies of three kinds of oil–water mixtures, including diesel oil, edible oil, and lubricating oil, were higher than 98%, 97%, and 94%, respectively, at various oil–water ratios. Of note, the separation efficiency remained 96% after 15 separation cycles, indicating that the surface might serve as a promising repeatable material for oily wastewater.

High nickel(II) electroplating wastewater is difficult to remove through traditional processes. A combined process, which was pre-precipitation, combined with Fenton-like-precipitation or Fentonprecipitation reaction, for treating high nickel complexing wastewater was investigated in this paper. The pre-precipitation pH, initial concentrations of Fe2+or Fe3+and H2O2, oxidation reaction pH, and precipitation pH were investigated, and the degradation processes of organic compounds in the treatment were analyzed. Results indicated that the combination of the two processes can effectively remove the high nickel ions. At the optimal experimental conditions, nickel(II) concentrations can be reduced from 2,240 to 0.25 mg/Lor 0.31 mg/L by the pre-precipitation combined with Fenton-like-precipitation or Fenton-precipitation process. It demonstrated that the combination of the two processes is an economically and environmentally friendly process to remove the metal from the electroplating wastewater.

Solid-state refrigeration based on caloric effect has been regarded as an attractive alternative to the conventional gas compression technique. Boosting the caloric effect of a system to its optimum is a long-term pursuit. Here, we report enhanced magnetocaloric effect (MCE) and barocaloric effect (BCE) by hydrostatic pressure in La(Fe0.92Co0.08)11.9Si1.1with a NaZn13-type structure. The entropy change ΔSMCEis almost doubled under 11.31 kbar, while the ΔSBCEis more than tripled under 9 kbar. To disclose the essence from the atomic level, neutron powder diffraction studies were performed. The results revealed that hydrostatic pressure sharpens the magnetoelastic transition and enlarges the volume change, ΔV/V, during the transition through altering the intra-icosahedral Fe–Fe bonds rather than the inter-icosahedral distances in the NaZn13-type structure. First-principles calculations were performed, which offers a theoretical support for the enlarged caloric effect related to the evolution of phase transition nature. Moreover, the enhanced lattice entropy change was calculated by Debye approximation, and a reliable way to evaluate BCE is demonstrated under a high pressure that DSC cannot reach. The present study proves that remarkable caloric effect enhancement can be achieved through tackling specific atomic environments by physical pressure, which may also be used to tailor other pressure-related effects, such as controllable negative thermal expansion.

The bottom ash residue derived from biomass power generation was characterized by alkalinity and contained about 35 mineral elements, which offered a possibility to improve anaerobic digestion of lignocellulose biomass via providing mineral nutrients for microorganisms and alkali conditions for pretreatment. Technically, bottom ash was mixed with distilled water to prepare the extracting solution for this investigation. To check the function as a nutrient provider of bottom ash, the increased bottom ash loading from 0.37 to 2.96% was employed to achieve the extracting solutions with different concentrations of mineral elements. Rice straw was mixed with these extracting solutions for 7 days and then employed for the anaerobic digestion in batch. Results indicated that 314.38 mL/g of total solid biogas was achieved by 0.37% bottom ash, which was 21.2 and 15.8% higher than that of the blank and 0.12% NaOH (equivalent alkalinity of 0.37% bottom ash), respectively, proving that bottom ash substantially functioned as a nutrient provider with the resultant improvement. However, the decreased biogas production at higher loadings suggested potential inhibitions. Besides, to check the potential function of alkali pretreatment using bottom ash, the soaking duration of rice straw in the extracting solution (the calculated bottom ash loading of 0.37%) was prolonged from 0 to 7 days to achieve the different intensities, and the results indicated that the lignin and hemicellulose removal was promoted to 20.1 and 25.3% after 7 days of pretreatment, respectively, and the corresponding biogas production and biomethane yield were increased by 63.1 and 28.3%, respectively, proving that the bottom ash can work as a base provider for alkali-pretreating rice straw to facilitate anaerobic digestion.

A porous polyimide (PI) membrane is successfully prepared via nonsolvent-induced phase separation with two porogens: dibutyl phthalate and glycerin. The as-prepared uniform porous PI membrane shows excellent separator properties for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Compared with the commercial polyethylene (PE) separator, the PI separator exhibits significant thermal stability, better ionic conductivity, and wettability both in carbonate and ether electrolytes for LIBs. The battery coin-cells assembled with the PI separator is more robust and still works even after heating at 140 °C for 1 h, while the cells with the commercial PE separator could not charge any more due to the shrinkage of the PE under the same condition.