Ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes with concentrated Li salt can ensure safe, high‐performance Li metal batteries (LMBs) but suffer from high viscosity and poor ionic transport. A locally concentrated IL (LCIL) electrolyte with a non‐solvating, fire‐retardant hydrofluoroether (HFE) is presented. This rationally designed electrolyte employs lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI), 1‐methyl‐1‐propyl pyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (P13FSI) and 1,1,2,2‐tetrafluoroethyl 2,2,3,3‐tetrafluoropropyl ether (TTE) as the IL and HFE, respectively (1:2:2 by mol). Adding TTE enables a Li‐concentrated IL electrolyte with low viscosity and good separator wettability, facilitating Li‐ion transport to the Li metal anode. The non‐flammability of TTE contributes to excellent thermal stability. Furthermore, synergy between the dual (FSI/TFSI) anions in the LCIL electrolyte can help modify the solid electrolyte interphase, increasing Li Coulombic efficiency and decreasing dendritic Li deposition. LMBs (Li||LiCoO2) employing the LCIL electrolyte exhibit good rate capability (≈89 mAh g−1 at 1.8 mA cm−2, room temperature) and long‐term cycling (≈80% retention after 400 cycles).

Objective To investigate the expression level of prostaglandins (PGs) and their de novo synthesis in dry eye (DE) disease. Design Cross-sectional case-control study and in vivo mouse experimental study. Participants Forty-six eyes from 23 DE patients and 33 eyes from 17 age- and sex-matched controls were studied. Also, DE-induced murine eyes were compared with control eyes. Methods Patients completed a symptom questionnaire using a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS). Nanoliquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was used for the quantification of PGE2 and PGD2. A DE disease environmental chamber was used to induce DE in mice. One week after induction, enzyme expressions of cyclooxygenase-1, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), PG E synthase (PGES), and PG D synthase (PGDS) in the lacrimal glands, meibomian glands, and corneas were examined using immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Main Outcome Measures The mean PGE2 and PGD2 levels in the tears of DE patients were measured and compared with symptom severity scores. Immunohistochemistry staining patterns and qRT-PCR data of DE mice were quantified. Results The mean PGE2 level in the tears of DE patients (2.72±3.42 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that in the control group (0.88±0.83 ng/ml; P = 0.003). However, the mean PGD2 level in the tears of DE patients (0.11 ±0.22 ng/ml) was significantly lower (0.91 ±3.28 ng/ml; P = 0.028). The mean PGE2-to-PGD2 ratio correlated strongly with VAS scoring (P = 0.008). In DE mice, COX-2 mRNA was significantly higher in ocular surface tissue and lacrimal glands. Furthermore, PGES mRNA was significantly higher in ocular surface tissue, whereas PGDS mRNA was decreased. Immunohistochemistry staining showed elevated COX-2 expression in the lacrimal glands, meibomian glands, corneas, and conjunctivas. Furthermore, PGES expression was found in periductal infiltrated cells of the lacrimal glands and conjunctival epithelium. Also, PGDS expression was decreased in meibomian glands and increased focally in the conjunctival epithelium. Conclusions A reciprocal change in PGE2 and PGD2 levels was found in the tears of DE patients, which correlated with patients’ symptom scores. These clinical results were supported by increased COX-2 and PGES expression levels found in tear-producing tissues of DE mice. Financial Disclosure(s) The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

Most electrolytes for rechargeable Mg batteries require time-consuming conditioning or precycling process to achieve a fully reversible Mg deposition/dissolution, which hinders the normal operation of Mg batteries. This study details a simple and effective method for eliminating this conditioning behavior using heptamethyldisilazane (HpMS) as an electrolyte additive. It was found that the HpMS additive greatly increases the current density and Coulombic efficiency of Mg deposition/dissolution from the initial cycles in various sulfone and glyme solutions containing MgCl 2 or Mg(TFSI) 2 . The beneficial effect of HpMS was ascribed to its ability to scavenge trace water in the electrolytes and remove Mg(OH) 2 and Mg(TFSI) 2 -decomposition products from the Mg surface. Considering its applicability for a wide range of Mg electrolytes, the use of HpMS is expected to accelerate the development of practical Mg batteries.

The global pool of intracellular metabolites is a reflection of all the metabolic functions of an organism. In the absence of in situ methods capable of directly measuring metabolite pools, intracellular metabolite measurements need to be performed after an extraction procedure. In this study, we evaluated the optimization of technologies for generation of a global metabolomics profile for intracellular metabolites in Klebsiella oxytoca. Intracellular metabolites of K. oxytoca were extracted at the early stationary phase using six different common extraction procedures, including cold methanol, boiling ethanol, methanol/chloroform combinations, hot water, potassium hydroxide, and perchloric acid. The metabolites were subsequently collected for further analysis, and intracellular metabolite concentration profiles were generated using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. During analysis, the stability of metabolites extracted using cold methanol was clearly higher than that obtained by other extraction methods. For the majority of metabolites, extracts generated in this manner exhibited the greatest recovery, with high reproducibility. Therefore, the use of cold ethanol was the best extraction method for attaining a metabolic profile. However, in another parallel extraction method, perchloric acid may also be required to maximize the range of metabolites recovered, particularly to extract glucose 1-phosphate and NADPH.

In the present study, we demonstrate that SRM LC-MS/MS method developed by Luo et al. (ref. 10) can be successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of intracellular metabolites in E. coli that are collected at the exponential and stationary growth phases. A focus is given on measuring the changes in the concentrations of intracellular metabolites in batch cultures, which were induced during both the dynamically changing exponential and stationary growth phases. The following intracellular metabolites are quantified in the exponential and stationary phases of E. coli growth, using the SRM mode of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer: glucose-1-phosphate, fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, phosphoenolpyruvate, pyruvate, acetyl-coenzyme A, 6-phosphogluconate, ribulose-5-phosphate, xylulose-5-phosphate, erythrose-4-phosphate. The determined intracellular metabolite concentration profiles are shown to be in a good agreement with the growth profiles of E. coli, which clearly indicates that SRM LC-MS/MS can be successfully used for following the metabolite changes induced at different growth stages.