Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have caught considerable attention in last few years owing to the abundance of sodium in comparison to lithium. The commercial graphite anode is demonstrated unsuitable as an anode material for SIBs due to the larger radius of Na ions, whereas the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) show great potential as anodes for SIBs because of their high achievable capacity. The sluggish kinetics, large volume expansion, and aggregation of those materials however results in severe decay of the electrochemical performance. In this work, a flower-like MoSe /C composite is synthesized with ethylenediamine and cassava starch (denoted as MoSe /C ) and designed based on these principles: 1) expand the d-spacing of (0 0 2) planes of MoSe to enhance the kinetics for the intercalation-deintercalation of Na ions and 2) embed MoSe into the carbon matrix to enhance the conductivity and restrict the volume expansion and aggregation of MoSe . As a result, MoSe /C exhibits superior cycle performance and rate capability for sodium storage. It shows durable long-life cycle capability with a reversible capacity of 360 mAh g after 350 cycles at 0.5 Ag . At the current density of 4 Ag , the reversible capacity is still maintained at 266 mAh g .
Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) show great potential as alternative energy storage devices for next generation energy storage systems due to the deficiency of lithium resources. MoS is a promising anode material for SIBs due to its high theoretical sodium storage capability and large interspace for accommodating sodium ions with a larger ionic radius than lithium ions. However, bulk MoS exhibits a sluggish kinetics for the intercalation-deintercalation of sodium ions and large volume expansion, which result in poor cyclability and rate performance. In this study, we designed few-layered MoS/C nanoflowers with expanded interspacing of MoS-MoS planes using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as an intercalating reagent and a carbon precursor. Due to the unique nanostructure and larger interlayer spacing, the MoS/C nanoflower electrode achieves a high reversible specific capacity of 400 mA h g after 300 cycles at 500 mA g for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), showing a good cycling stability. The improved electrochemical performance suggests that the MoS/C composite is a promising anode material for sodium ion storage.
A facile and scalable method is realized for the in situ synthesis of N/S co-doped 3 D porous carbon nanosheet networks (NSPCNNs) as anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. During the synthesis, NaCl is used as a template to prepare porous carbon nanosheet networks. In the resultant architecture, the unique 3 D porous architecture ensures a large specific surface area and fast diffusion paths of both electrons and ions. In addition, the import of N/S produces abundant defects, increased interlayer spacings, more active sites, and high electronic conductivity. The obtained products deliver a high specific capacity and excellent long-term cycling performance, specifically, a capacity of 336.2 mA h g at 0.05 A g , remaining as large as 214.9 mA h g after 2000 charge/discharge cycles at 0.5 A g . This material has great prospects for future applications of scalable, low-cost, and environmentally friendly sodium-ion batteries.
This paper presents an overview of the sixth AIBIRDS competition, held at the 26th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. This competition tasked participants with developing an intelligent agent which can play the physics-based puzzle game Angry Birds. This game uses a sophisticated physics engine that requires agents to reason and predict the outcome of actions with only limited environmental information. Agents entered into this competition were required to solve a wide assortment of previously unseen levels within a set time limit. The physical reasoning and planning required to solve these levels are very similar to those of many realworld problems. This year's competition featured some of the best agents developed so far and even included several new AI techniques such as deep reinforcement learning. Within this paper we describe the framework, rules, submitted agents and results for this competition. We also provide some background information on related work and other video game AI competitions, as well as discussing some potential ideas for future AIBIRDS competitions and agent improvements.
Although the original purpose of the systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) classification criteria was to distinguish SLE from other mimic diseases, and to facilitate sample selection in scientific research, they have become widely used as diagnostic criteria in clinical situations. It is not known yet if regarding classification criteria as diagnostic criteria, what problems might be encountered? This is the first study comparing the three sets of classification criteria for SLE, the 1997 American College of Rheumatology (ACR’97), 2012 Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics (SLICC’12) and 2019 European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology (EULAR/ACR’19), for their ability to distinguish patients with SLE from patients with pure mucocutaneous manifestations (isolated cutaneous lupus erythematosus without internal disease, i-CLE) in the lupus disease spectrum. 1,865 patients with SLE and 232 patients with i-CLE were recruited from a multicenter study. We found that, due to low specificity, none of the three criteria are adept at distinguishing patients with SLE from patients with i-CLE. SLICC’12 performed best among the original three criteria, but if a positive ANA was removed as an entry criterion, EULAR/ACR’19 would performed better. A review of previous studies that compared the three sets of criteria was presented in this work.
The acrosome is single, large, dense-core secretory granule overlying the nucleus of most mammalian spermatozoa. Its exocytosis, the acrosome reaction, is a crucial event during fertilisation. In this study we identified a new acrosome-associated gene, namely IQ motif containing D (IQCD), expressed nearly in multiple tissues with highest expression levels in the testis. In mouse testis, Iqcd transcript accumulated from Postnatal Day (PND) 1 to adulthood. However, expression of IQCD protein at the testicular development stage started primarily from PND 18 and increased in an age-dependent manner until plateauing in adulthood. IQCD was primarily accumulated in the acrosome area of round and elongating spermatids within seminiferous tubules of the testes during the late stage of spermiogenesis; this immunolocalisation pattern is similar in mice and humans. IQCD levels in spermatozoa were significantly lower in IVF patients with total fertilisation failure or a low fertilisation rate than in healthy men. Anti-IQCD antibody significantly inhibited the acrosome reaction and slightly reduced protein tyrosine phosphorylation levels in human spermatozoa, but specifically blocked murine IVF. IQCD interacted with mammalian homolog of C. elegans uncoordinated gene 13 (Munc13) in spermatozoa and may participate in acrosome exocytosis. In conclusion, this study identified a new acrosomal protein, namely IQCD, which is involved in fertilisation and the acrosome reaction.
Demethylation of CD11a (ITGAL; GeneID:3683; HGNC: 6148) and CD70 (TNFSF7; GeneID:970; HGNC:11937) regulatory regions in CD4(+) T cells contributes to the development of autoreactivity and autoantibody overstimulation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). In this study, we present a novel approach for measuring the methylation status of CD11a and CD70 promoter sequences. The procedure combines the standard method of bisulfite conversion of methylated CpG pairs with high-throughput oligonucleotide microarray-based technology that allows for rapid quantification of deoxycytosine and deoxymethylcytosine content in bisulfite-treated DNA samples. The microarrays were first used to generate a standard curve from fully methylated and fully unmethylated DNA samples using a one-dimensional linear regression equation that calculated fluorescence emission as a function of methylation levels. The methylation status of the CD70 and CD11a promoters in SLE and control CD4(+) T cell samples were measured, and the microarray prediction was found to be highly accurate when compared to bisulfite sequencing. Furthermore, the microarrays were able to detect differences in the methylation status between SLE patient and healthy control samples. These results indicate that our new microarray-based assay could prove to be a highly reliable, rapid, and cost effective diagnostic and prognostic test for SLE.
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