Rechargeable batteries have a profound impact on our daily life so that it is urgent to capture the physical and chemical fundamentals affecting the operation and lifetime. The phase-field method is a powerful computational approach to describe and predict the evolution of mesoscale microstructures, which can help to understand the dynamic behavior of the material systems. In this review, we briefly introduce the theoretical framework of the phase-field model and its application in electrochemical systems, summarize the existing phase-field simulations in rechargeable batteries, and provide improvement, development, and problems to be considered of the future phase-field simulation in rechargeable batteries.

Transport characteristics of ionic conductors play a key role in the performance of electrochemical devices such as solid‐state batteries, solid‐oxide fuel cells, and sensors. Despite the significance of the transport characteristics, they have been experimentally measured only for a very small fraction of all inorganic compounds, which limits the technological progress. To address this deficiency, a database containing crystal structure information, ion migration channel connectivity information, and 3D channel maps for over 29 000 inorganic compounds is presented. The database currently contains ionic transport characteristics for all potential cation and anion conductors, including Li+, Na+, K+, Ag+, Cu(2)+, Mg2+, Zn2+, Ca2+, Al3+, F−, and O2−, and this number is growing steadily. The methods used to characterize materials in the database are a combination of structure geometric analysis based on Voronoi decomposition and bond valence site energy (BVSE) calculations, which yield interstitial sites, transport channels, and BVSE activation energy. The computational details are illustrated on several typical compounds. This database is created to accelerate the screening of fast ionic conductors and to accumulate descriptors for machine learning, providing a foundation for large‐scale research on ion migration in inorganic materials.

Hereditary tyrosinemia type I (HTI) is a metabolic genetic disorder caused by mutation of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH). Because of the accumulation of toxic metabolites, HTI causes severe liver cirrhosis, liver failure, and even hepatocellular carcinoma. HTI is an ideal model for gene therapy, and several strategies have been shown to ameliorate HTI symptoms in animal models. Although CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing is able to correct the mutation in mouse models, WT Cas9 induces numerous undesired mutations that have raised safety concerns for clinical applications. To develop a new method for gene correction with high fidelity, we generated a mutant rat model to investigate whether Cas9 nickase (Cas9n)-mediated genome editing can efficiently correct the First, we confirmed that Cas9n rarely induces indels in both on-target and off-target sites in cell lines. Using WT Cas9 as a positive control, we delivered Cas9n and the repair donor template/single guide (sg)RNA through adenoviral vectors into HTI rats. Analyses of the initial genome editing efficiency indicated that only WT Cas9 but not Cas9n causes indels at the on-target site in the liver tissue. After receiving either Cas9n or WT Cas9-mediated gene correction therapy, HTI rats gained weight steadily and survived. Fah-expressing hepatocytes occupied over 95% of the liver tissue 9 months after the treatment. Moreover, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene therapy prevented the progression of liver cirrhosis, a phenotype that could not be recapitulated in the HTI mouse model. These results strongly suggest that Cas9n-mediated genome editing is a valuable and safe gene therapy strategy for this genetic disease.

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To evaluate the importance of specific driver mutations to the development and outcome of lung squamous cell cancer (SQCC) in never-smokers, we assessed the clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes of 597 patients who underwent complete resection of SQCCs. In total, 88 (14.7%) never-smokers and 509 (85.3%) ever-smokers were compared. The never-smokers included more females (42.05% vs. 1.57%, P < 0.001) and more often had a personal history of malignant disease (9.09% vs. 2.36%, P = 0.003). The tumors of never-smokers were more often poorly differentiated (70.45% vs. 53.24%, P = 0.010) and more often contained oncogenic mutations (21.05% vs 11.05%, P = 0.023), particularly EGFR mutations (13.16% vs 3.40%, P = 0.001). Never-smokers also tended to have poorer OS than smokers. Our results suggest lung SQCCs in never-smokers are a subtype distinct from SQCCs occurring in smokers.

BACKGROUND Owing to the growing consumption of oil and the negative environmental impacts, the production of p‐xylene (PX) from renewable biomass has gained significant attention recently. However, the major challenge for the production of PX from biomass or furans is how to improve the yield and selectivity of PX, along with reducing coke. RESULTS The para selectivity in the catalytic conversion of furans was greatly enhanced owing to the deactivation of external surface and the adjustment of pore entrance. Co‐catalytic conversion of furans and methanol significantly enhanced the production of PX by the Diels–Alder reactions between furans and olefins and the alkylation of benzene/toluene with methanol. The highest PX yield of 17.8 C‐mol% with a p‐xylene/xylene ratio of 94.5% was obtained by the co‐conversion of 2‐methylfuran with methanol over the 15%La/10%Ce/HZ catalyst. CONCLUSION This work proved that furans (2‐methylfuran, 2,5‐dimethylfuran, furfural and furan) were able to be selectively converted into a high‐value chemical (PX) over the 15%La/10%Ce/HZ catalyst. The transformation mainly involved four key reactions: the catalytic cracking of furans, the Diels–Alder reactions, the alkylation of aromatics and the isomerization of xylenes over the surface‐modified zeolite. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

BackgroundHealth care maldistribution is a long-term problem in China. Telemedicine is an efficient way to deliver medical resources to remote areas; however, there are few studies on the effectiveness and challenges in providing health care from rural to urban areas in China.ObjectiveThe objective was to describe the effectiveness and challenges of telemedicine for providing health care from Guangzhou to rural areas in Guangdong Province.MethodsWe designed surveys and conducted them immediately after the consultation and 2-4 weeks later. Data were collected from June 2015 to May 2016 including patients’ demographic features, patient satisfaction, medicine effect, patient compliance, acceptability of prescription expenses, patients’ desire to revisit the department, the top 10 diseases, and self-reported difficulties in telemedicine experience. The monthly average prescription expense was described using a line chart. The monthly consultation and prescription, as well as monthly prescriptions of Western medicines and herbs, were described using a bar chart.ResultsWomen comprised majority (45,386/67,740, 67.00%) of participants and men comprised the minority (22,354/67,740, 33.00%). The top 3 diseases were upper respiratory diseases (12,371/36,311, 34.07%), laryngopharyngitis (4938/36,311, 13.60%), and menstrual disorders (4669/36,311, 12.86%). The monthly prescription for Western medicine was much more than that for Chinese herbs. The annual average medicine expense per prescription was 62.9 ¥. The participants’ perception of expense was acceptable (8775/12,450, 70.48%), mostly acceptable (2497/12,450, 20.01%), accepted but somewhat expensive (980/12,450, 7.9%), and unacceptable because of high cost (198/12,450, 1.6%). The surveys on patient satisfaction demonstrated very satisfied (55,687/67,740, 82.21%), satisfied (5891/67,740, 8.70%), basic satisfaction (3561/67,740, 5.26%), dissatisfaction (1454/67,740, 2.15%), and no comment (1147/67,740, 1.69%). Participants reported their treatment outcome as follows: full recovery (5008/12,450, 40.22%), recovering (4873/12,450, 39.14%), no effect (2153/12,450, 17.29%), or worsening (416/12,450, 3.3%). Approximately 89.01% (20,240/22,740) of participants will revisit the department, whereas 10.99% (2500/22,740) will not. Most patients complied with the doctors’ advice completely (5430/10,290, 52.77%), whereas the rest reported partial compliance (3684/10,290, 35.80%) or no compliance at all (1176/10,290, 11.43%). The participants reported poor computer skills (4980/22,740, 21.90%), transportation inconvenience (4670/22,740, 20.50%), unstable internet connection (3820/22,740, 16.80%), language barriers (3708/22,740, 16.30%), medication and medical hardware shortage (2459/22,740, 10.82%), tiring commute (2068/22,740, 9.08%), family care burdens (679/22,740, 3.0%), and other unclassified difficulties (356/22,740, 1.6%) as difficulties in using telemedicine.ConclusionsTelemedicine has a wide disease spectrum, similar to ordinary medicine in China. It saves costs, has high patie...

ObjectiveB-cell-lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) is a proto-oncogene that plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis and cell survival. However, there are much conflicting data in the literature concerning the association between Bcl-2 and prognosis in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). There is little in the way of meta-analysis focused on Bcl-2 and its effect on NSCLC prognosis. This study was performed to provide an assessment of whether expression levels of Bcl-2 are associated with prognosis in patients with NSCLC.Materials and methodsWe searched PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure for all eligible studies. The combined hazard ratios (HRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in terms of overall survival were evaluated.ResultsFifty published studies including 6,863 patients with lung cancer were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, Bcl-2 was expressed in 33% of the NSCLC tumors studied. Our analysis indicates that NSCLC patients with Bcl-2-positive expression have a better prognosis than those with Bcl-2-negative expression in both Asian and non-Asian study populations (HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.72–0.87, P<0.00001). However, Bcl-2-positive expression seems to have no significant impact on survival of stage I NSCLC patients.ConclusionOur results indicated that Bcl-2 might be a useful prognostic marker for NSCLC generally. Larger clinical trials are needed to confirm the prognostic value of Bcl-2 in stage I NSCLC.