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Objectives. This in vitro study is aimed at assessing the oral all-ceramic materials energy transmission and temperature changes after Er:YAG laser irradiation of monolithic zirconia all-ceramic materials with varying optical properties. Materials and Methods. Two monolithic zirconia materials, Zenostar T and X-CERA TT (monolithic Zirconia), were studied. Specimens were divided into four groups, with a thickness of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 mm, respectively. The chemical elemental composition of the two materials was determined using X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The light transmittance of specimens with different thicknesses was measured using a spectrophotometer at three wavelength ranges: 200–380, 380–780, and 780–2500 nm. Irradiation with Er:YAG laser was performed, and the resultant temperature changes were measured using a thermocouple thermometer. Results. Compositional analysis indicated that Si content in X-CERA TT was higher than that in Zenostar T. The light transmittance of both materials decreased as specimen thickness increased. Er:YAG laser irradiation led to temperature increase at both Zenostar T (26.4°C–81.7°C) and X-CERA TT (23.9°C–53.5°C) specimens. Both optical transmittance and temperature changes after Er:YAG laser irradiation were consistent with exponential distribution against different thickness levels. Conclusion. Er:YAG laser penetration energy and resultant temperature changes were mainly determined by the thickness and composition of the examined monolithic zirconia materials.

This is the preprint of the accepted article: Klöcking, M., et. al. (2023). Community recommendations for geochemical data, services and analytical capabilities in the 21st century. In Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.04.024 Abstract The majority of geochemical and cosmochemical research is based upon observations and, in particular, upon the acquisition, processing and interpretation of analytical data from physical samples. The exponential increase in volumes and rates of data acquisition over the last century, combined with advances in instruments, analytical methods and an increasing variety of data types analysed, has necessitated the development of new ways of data curation, access and sharing. Together with novel data processing methods, these changes have enabled new scientific insights and are driving innovation in Earth and Planetary Science research. Yet, as approaches to data-intensive research develop and evolve, new challenges emerge. As large and often global data compilations increasingly form the basis for new research studies, institutional and methodological differences in data reporting are proving to be significant hurdles in synthesising data from multiple sources. Consistent data formats and descriptions as well as appropriate information on data quality are becoming crucial to enabling reproducibility and integration of results and fostering confidence for data reuse. Here, we explore the key challenges faced by the geo- and cosmochemistry community and, by drawing comparisons from other communities, recommend possible approaches to overcome them. The first challenge is bringing together the numerous sub-disciplines within our community. One key factor for this convergence will be gaining endorsement from the international geochemical, cosmochemical and analytical societies and associations, journals and institutions. Increased education and outreach, spearheaded by ambassadors recruited from leading scientists across disciplines, will further contribute to raising awareness, and to uniting and mobilising the community. Appropriate incentives, recognition and credit for good data management as well as an improved, user-oriented technical infrastructure will be essential for achieving a cultural change towards an environment in which the effective use and real-time interchange of large datasets is common-place. Finally, the development of best practices for standardised data reporting and exchange, driven by expert working groups, will be a crucial step towards making geo- and cosmochemical data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable by both humans and machines (FAIR).

Organic electrode materials with environmentally friendly, design flexibility at the molecular level are promising substitutes for inorganic intercalation materials as cathode for SIBs. However, traditional electrode materials usually perform poor cycling stability and rate performance, mainly due to the dissolution in electrolytes and low electronic conductivity. Herein, conjugated porous polyimide poly(2,6-diaminoanthraquinone) benzamide (CP-PDAB), was prepared from 2,6-diaminoanthraquinone and pyromellitic dianhydride by a simple polycondensation reaction. The obtained CP-PDAB has disordered aggregates with porous and loose structure, facilitating the penetration of electrolyte and volume change during charging/discharging. And the constructed conjugated skeleton with electron delocalization is beneficial for structural stability, insolubility in electrolyte and high electronic conductivity. When evaluated as cathode for sodium ion batteries, it can retain a high reversible discharge capacity of 141 mAh g-1 at 500 mA g-1 for 100 cycles, and can maintain the high specific capacity of 71 mAh g-1 at 10 A g-1 after 500 cycles. This work demonstrates the potential application of organic materials containing conjugated skeleton, porous and loose structure, and multiple redox active units for next generation electrochemical energy storage devices.

An Li2B4O7 cladded carbon nanofiber membrane has been designed as an interlayer for Li–S batteries. Due to abundant electronic deficiencies [BO3] in Li2B4O7, the enhanced electrochemical performance of Li–S batteries was achieved.

With gradually increasing cost and shrinking crustal abundance for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), it is necessary to develop potassium ion batteries (PIBs) and explore suitable electrode materials for advanced PIBs. In this work, nanoscale BiOCl nanoparticles encapsulated in N-doped carbon nanotubes (BiOCl@N-CNTs) are designed and used as the anode material for K ion storage. The BiOCl@N-CNT composite is composed of BiOCl nanoparticles (≈ 5 nm) and N-doped carbon nanotubes. The ultralsmall BiOCl nanoparticles offer excellent electrochemical activity for K ion storage and short ion diffusion path for rapid reaction kinetics, while the outer layer of N-CNTs can effectively improve the conductivity and provide space to accommodate volume expansion. Due to this synergistic effect of small size and a highly conductive skeleton, the BiOCl@N-CNT composite delivers good rate capability and long-term cycling stability when evaluated as an anode for PIBs. The special structure of embedding ultrasmall active materials with high performance in highly conductive N-CNTs represents an effective way of improving the activity of the electrode material, facilitating ion/charge transfer, and alleviating volume change towards excellent energy storage technology.

Episodic fluid expulsion through fractures is widely expected during hydrocarbon generation, yet direct evidence for this process is lacking in the case of organic-rich shales. We investigated the formation of antitaxial, bed-parallel fibrous calcite veins hosted in organic-rich shales of the Eocene Dongying Depression, Bohai Bay Basin, China. Our results from detailed, in situ geochemical traverses show that while some symmetric veins exhibit broadly synchronous and steady-state opening, other asymmetric veins consist of two geochemically distinct generations of calcite to either side of the median zone, suggesting asymmetric and asynchronous growth in two discrete episodes during hydrocarbon expulsion. Thus, we argue that each asymmetric vein recording two stages of opening implies that hydrocarbons were expelled from shales episodically.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted attention for their low cost and environmental friendliness. Unfortunately, commercialization has been hampered by several problems with dendrite growth and side reactions. Herein, we select sodium tartrate (TA-Na) as a dual-functional electrolyte additive to enhance the reversibility of AZIBs. The tartrate anions are preferentially adsorbed on the Zn surface, and then the highly nucleophilic carboxylate will coordinate with Zn

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) is increasingly studied because of their suitable redox potential and high natural abundance. However, potential anode materials with long-term cycling stability are still in high demand because of the large radius of K+. Herein, an MOF-derived hierarchical carbon structure and the self-assembly of CNTs on hollow carbon polyhedrons are used as carbon matrices to disperse and stabilize metal selenides(Co-Se@CNNCP). When the hybrid is utilized in PIBs, it displays a specific capacity of 410 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 after 80 cycles and 253 mA h g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 after 200 cycles with a capacity retention of 100%, while the metal selenides dispersed on hollow carbon polyhedrons without CNTs (Zn-Co-Se@NCP) lose 86% of their capacity after 200 cycles. The superior cycling stability of the hybrid is mainly attributed to the large amounts of CNTs suppressing the agglomeration of the metal selenide nanoparticles on the surface, and the hollow carbon polyhedrons cause a high structural integrity during the repreated K+ insertion and extraction process. This work offers a feasible route to design a hierarchical carbon matrix for use as the anode materials of PIBs with long-term cycling stability.

For potassium-ion battery (PIB), it remains a huge challenge to develop an appropriate anode material to compensate the large radius of K+. MoSe2 shows great potential for efficient K+ insertion/extraction due to its unique lamellar structures with an interlayer spacing of 6.46 A. However, pure MoSe2 has low electronic conductivity and agglomerates during long-term cycling. In the present work, MoSe2 nanosheets were fabricated on the N-doped porous carbon polyhedron (NPCP). The obtained product was designated as NPCP@MoSe2 and functioned as anode materials for PIBs. NPCP@MoSe2 displayed a promising reversible capacity (325 mAh/g at 100 mA/g after 80 cycles), long-term cycling performance (128 mAh/g at 500 mA/g after 800 cycles), and superior rate property at 5000 mA/g. The enhanced electrochemical performance of NPCP@MoSe2 could be attributed to the rational design of hybrid structures. Notably, the hollow NPCP provide a large contact area for the interactions among the electrolytes and electro-active materials as well as partly buffer the volume expansion. The synergistic effects between MoSe2 and NPCP could mitigate the agglomeration of MoSe2 nanosheets. Besides, the uniformly doping N elements enhanced the conductivity of the carbon matrix, and the N-group also provided potential binding active sites for K-ion accommodation. This work paves the ideas for the design of novel anode materials with high specific capacity, good cycling stability and outstanding rate capability for PIBs.

Organic compounds are promising electrode materials because of their resource sustainability, environmental friendliness, and highly tailorable properties. The porous conjugated polymer shows great potential as an electrode material for its tunable redox nature, conjugated skeleton, and porous structure. Herein, a novel conjugated porous polymer, polydiaminophenylsulfone-triazine, was synthesized by a simple nucleophilic substitution reaction. The conjugated structure and triazine ring can improve the conductivity, charge-transfer efficiency, and physicochemical stability. Also, the porous polymeric framework shows a large specific surface area and high porosity, providing a large contact area with electrolytes and reducing diffusion distance. The polymer demonstrates highly stable cycling performance and good rate capability as an anode for lithium-ion batteries, suggesting a promising strategy to design a competitive electrode material.

IntroductionEndovascular treatment is the standard of care for acute large vessel occlusion (LVO) in the anterior circulation. However, successful complete recanalisation is considerably difficult when the vessels are severely tortuous. At the bend, the stent retriever can distort, collapse and lose its ability to capture the clot due to structural change. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the new thrombectomy device multisegment Mechanical Thrombectomy (MT) System for endovascular treatment of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS).Methods and analysisThe present study is a prospective, multicentre, randomised controlled trial conducted in 11 stroke centres in China. The safety and efficacy of vascular recanalisation in patients with AIS who will be treated with a new thrombectomy device-multi-segment MT System or with Solitare FR within 8 hours of symptom onset will be compared. A total of 238 subjects who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria will be randomised into either a treatment group or a control group by an internet-based Central Random System in a 1:1 manner, and 30 subjects will be recruited into the small sample study. SAS V.9.4 statistical software will be used for statistical analysis of the primary endpoint indicators and other indicators.Ethics and disseminationThe study involving human participants was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Drugs (devices) Clinical Experiment in Henan Provincial People’s Hospital (reference number: AF/SC-07/04.0) and other research centres participating in the clinical trial. The results yielded from this study will be presented at international conferences and sent to a peer-review journal to be considered for publication. The Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials checklist was utilised when drafting the study protocol.Trial registration numberRegistry on 10 September 2021 with Chinese clinical trial registry: ChiCTR2100051048.

Over two years, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has evolved by producing several variants by RNA polymerase mutation. This mutation created many virus variants that five of them are designated by WHO. These are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron, among them Alpha, Delta, and Omicron spread faster. Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped in positive-sense RNA viruses and contain huge RNA virus genomes. RNA polymerase controls the replication in which the genomic material is copied, and it often makes errors that lead to create a new mutation. Most mutations create a virus that cannot replicate and spread among people. However, some mutations lead to a virus that can replicate and create a variant. This chapter will discuss the mechanism of the mutations during the last two years and the future of these mutations in SARS-CoV-2.

Li-rich layered oxides have attracted intense attention for lithium-ion batteries, as provide substantial capacity from transition metal cation redox simultaneous with reversible oxygen-anion redox. However, unregulated irreversible oxygen-anion redox leads to critical issues such as voltage fade and oxygen release. Here, we report a feasible NiFe2O4 (NFO) surface-coating strategy to turn the nonbonding coordination of surface oxygen into metal-oxygen decoordination. In particular, the surface simplex M-O (M = Ni, Co, Mn from MO6 octahedra) and N-O (N = Ni, Fe from NO6 octahedra) bonds are reconstructed in the form of M-O-N bonds. By applying both in operando and ex situ technologies, we found this heterostructural interface traps surface lattice oxygen, as well as restrains cation migration in Li-rich layered oxide during electrochemical cycling. Therefore, surface lattice oxygen behavior is significantly sustained. More interestingly, we directly observe the surface oxygen redox decouple with cation migration. In addition, the NFO-coating blocks HF produced from electrolyte decomposition, resulting in reducing the dissolution of Mn. With this strategy, higher cycle stability (91.8% at 1 C after 200 cycles) and higher rate capability (109.4 mA g-1 at 1 C) were achieved in this work, compared with pristine Li-rich layered oxide. Our work offers potential for designing electrode materials utilizing oxygen redox chemistry.

Facilitating charge separation and increasing surface active sites have always been the goals of photocatalysis. Herein, we synthesized a Ni-doped Zn0.8Cd0.2S hollow sphere photocatalyst with a facile one-step hydrothermal method. Energy-dispersive spectroscopy mapping showed the high dispersion of Ni ions in the Zn0.8Cd0.2S hollow spheres. The experimental results confirmed that Ni doping reduced the band structure of the substrate, suppressed the recombination of photo-induced electrons and holes, and provided more reactive sites. Therefore, the photocatalytic activity had been greatly improved. As a consequence, the detected photocatalytic H2 evolution rate increased up to 33.81 mmol·h-1·g-1 over an optimal Ni doping (5 wt %) of Zn0.8Cd0.2S hollow spheres, which was 20.87-fold higher than that of pure CdS. Elemental mapping showed that the Zn element was mainly distributed in the outermost layer of the hollow spheres; this might be the critical factor that enabled Ni-doped Zn x Cd1-x S to maintain excellent stability.

Background. The first-pass (FP) effect, defined by successful cerebral reperfusion from a single pass of an endovascular stentriever, was associated with shorter procedural times and possible improved outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke secondary to large vessel occlusion. The adjunctive use of balloon guide catheter (BGC) may increase the rates of the first-pass effect. In this retrospective study we examined the impact of BGC on the first-pass effect in acute stroke patients. Methods. We included patients with acute ischemic stroke with large vessel occlusion treated by endovascular thrombectomy from 2018 to 2019. We categorized the cases into BGC and non-BGC groups. Differences in time metrics and outcomes were compared. Result. One hundred and thirty-two patients were included, and sixty-two were in BGC group (47.0%). The median procedural time was shorter (83.0 minutes vs 120.0 minutes, P = 0.000 ), and FP rate was higher in BGC group (58.1% vs 32.9%, P = 0.004 ) compared with non-BGC group. Proportion of modified Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (mMTICI) 3 was higher (66.1% vs 37.1%, P = 0.001 ), and modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 0 to 2 was higher (59.7% vs 41.4%, P = 0.036 ) in BGC group compared with non-BGC group. In addition, BGC was associated with successful reperfusion odds ratio, 0.383; 95% confidence interval: 0.174-0.847; P = 0.018 ). The FP rate of BGC in the distal ICA was higher than that in the proximal ICA (87.5% vs 39.5%, P = 0.000 ), and the good clinical outcome rate at 90 days in the distal ICA was also higher than that in the proximal ICA (91.7% vs 39.5%, P = 0.000 ). Conclusion. We showed that BGC shortened the procedural time and increased the rate of the successful FP. We recommend that BGC could be considered the preferred technique for endovascular intervention in stroke.

The search for alternatives to traditional Li-ion batteries is a continuous quest for the chemistry and materials science communities. One representative group is the family of rechargeable liquid metal batteries, which were initially exploited with a view to implementing intermittent energy sources due to their specific benefits including their ultrafast electrode charge-transfer kinetics and their ability to resist microstructural electrode degradation. Although conventional liquid metal batteries require high temperatures to liquify electrodes, and maintain the high conductivity of molten salt electrolytes, the degrees of electrochemical irreversibility induced by their corrosive active components emerged as a drawback. In addition, safety issues caused by the complexity of parasitic chemical reactivities at high temperatures further complicated their practical applications. To address these challenges, new paradigms for liquid metal batteries operated at room or intermediate temperatures are explored to circumvent the thermal management problems, corrosive reactions, and challenges related to hermetic sealing, by applying alternative electrodes, manipulating the underlying electrochemical behavior via electrolyte design concepts, and engineering the electrode–electrolyte interfaces, thereby enabling both conventional and completely new functionalities. This report briefly summarizes previous research on liquid metal batteries and, in particular, highlights our fresh understanding of the electrochemistry of liquid metal batteries that have arisen from researchers’ efforts, along with discovered hurdles that have been realized in reformulated cells. Finally, the feasibility of new liquid metal batteries is discussed along with their distinct chemistries and performance characteristics to answer the question of how liquid metals can be accessible for next-generation battery systems.

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered as one of the most promising next-generation high-energy rechargeable batteries due to their ultrahigh energy density and low cost, however, their practical application has been severely hindered due to the rigorous shuttle effect of soluble polysulfides and sluggish reaction kinetics. Here, a novel flexible 3D nitrogen-doped graphene supported V2O3/VN heterogeneous host was constructed by a facile topochemical nitridation strategy. Such unique architecture endowed the V2O3 with strong adsorption activity and the highly conductive VN with superior catalytic capability, synergistically promotes the redox kinetics and effectively restrains the shuttle effect of polysulfides. Impressively, the designed V2O3@VN-20 electrode exhibited a high reversible capacity of 1130 mA h g−1 and 980 mA h g−1 at 1C and 2C respectively, and maintained long-term cyclability with a low capacity decay of 0.1% per cycle after 300 cycles at 5C. More importantly, the heterostructured electrode still retained a high capacity of 862 mA h g−1 with a high sulfur loading of 5 mg cm−2 after 100 cycles at 0.5C. Our work might provide a general approach for guiding the rational design of heterostructured materials with multifunctionality towards high-energy flexible Li–S batteries.

The recommendation task with a textual corpus aims to model customer preferences from both user feedback and item textual descriptions. It is highly desirable to explore a very deep neural network to capture the complicated nonlinear preferences. However, training a deeper recommender is not as effortless as simply adding layers. A deeper recommender suffers from the gradient vanishing/exploding issue and cannot be easily trained by gradient-based methods. Moreover, textual descriptions probably contain noisy word sequences. Directly extracting feature vectors from them can harm the recommender’s performance. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a new recommendation method named the HighwAy recoMmender (HAM). HAM explores a highway mechanism to make gradient-based training methods stable. A multi-head attention mechanism is devised to automatically denoise textual information. Moreover, a block coordinate descent method is devised to train a deep neural recommender. Empirical studies show that the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art methods significantly in terms of accuracy.

A new two-dimensional material (MXene) has been compounded lately with silicon as anodes for lithium-ion batteries to achieve excellent lithium storage performances on account of its unique propert...

Potassium‐based energy storage technologies, especially potassium ion batteries (PIBs), have received great interest over the past decade. A pivotal challenge facing high‐performance PIBs is to identify advanced electrode materials that can store the large‐radius K+ ions, as well as to tailor the various thermodynamic parameters. Metal chalcogenides are one of the most promising anode materials, having a high theoretical specific capacity, high in‐plane electrical conductivity, and relatively small volume change on charge/discharge. However, the development of metal chalcogenides for PIBs is still in its infancy because of the limited choice of high‐performance electrode materials. However, numerous efforts have been made to conquer this challenge. In this article, we overview potassium storage mechanisms, the technical hurdles, and the optimization strategies for metal chalcogenides and highlight how the adjustment of the crystalline structure and choice of the electrolyte affect the electrochemical performance of metal‐chalcogenide‐based electrode materials. Other potential potassium‐based energy storage systems to which metal chalcogenides can be applied are also discussed. Finally, future research directions focusing on metal chalcogenides for potassium storage are proposed.

A series of imidazolinium functionalized metal complexes were prepared as efficient and recyclable homogeneous catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates via the coupling reaction of carbon dioxide and epoxides in the absence of co-catalysts and solvent. Due to the synergistic effect between the metal center as Lewis acid and the imidazolinium groups with halide anions as Lewis base, these catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic capability. Particularly, high turnover frequency (TOF) values of (1174, 1240 and 1262 h−1) for bifunctional catalysts (2c, 2i and 2j, respectively) were achieved via adjusting reaction parameters. These catalysts also showed excellent catalytic performances under atmospheric pressure. Recyclability test showed that this kind of bifunctional catalyst can be easily recovered and reused for at least five times without dramatic loss of activity and selectivity. The optimum reaction conditions were also screened as (120 °C, 1.0 MPa CO2 and 2 h). The catalyst could also be applied to a variety of substrates and be used for a long time with high catalytic activities. We also performed the Kinetic studies, which suggested that the activity of catalysts following the order I− > Br− > Cl−. Moreover, a plausible reaction mechanism by imidazolinium functionalized metal complexes was proposed.

BACKGROUND: Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is associated with poor outcome. Previous studies only reported the association of mean ischemic severity or total infarct volume with HT after endovascular therapy (EVT). We aimed to investigate the predictive value of preoperative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map for HT by combinated ischemic severity and corresponding volume in AIS after successful recanalization with EVT. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 119 consecutive cases of AIS with large vessel occlusion of anterior circulation within 24 hours after symptom onset and successful recanalization after EVT. All cases had baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), follow-up computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) or computed tomography angiography (CTA). Volumes of ADC

The aim of this study was to investigate the related influencing factors of neuropathic pain (NP) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).Patients diagnosed with SCI between January 2016 and December 2019 in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, were screened for NP by using the Douleur Neuropathique 4 (DN4) questionnaire. A total of 133 patients diagnosed with SCI with NP were finally included in the study. We collected the patients' basic information, including gender, age, body mass index (BMI), disease course, injury segment, American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) grade, occupation, educational level, whether painkillers were used, stability of economic support, and pain level. Univariate and multiple ordered logistic regression analyses were used to examine the influencing factors of NP in the patients with SCI.The chi-square test revealed that disease course, injury level, severity of SCI (ASIA classification), stable economic support during hospitalization, and the use of painkillers had statistical significance (In this study, we found no significant correlation between NP after SCI and sex, age, BMI, disease course, injury level, and occupation. However, the injury severity was an independent risk factor, and stable economic support and painkiller use were protective factors.

High volumetric capacity and durability anode materials for sodium ion batteries have been urgently required for practical applications. Herein, we reported a Sn-pillared pyknotic graphene conductive network with high-level N-doping. This densely stacked block offers high volumetric Na-ion storage capacity, rapid electrochemical reaction kinetics, and robust structural stability during cycling owing to the high capacity component (metallic Sn ≈847 mAh g