The abundant reserve and low cost of sodium have provoked tremendous evolution of Na-ion batteries (SIBs) in the past few years, but their performances are still limited by either the specific capacity or rate capability. Attempts to pursue high rate ability with maintained high capacity in a single electrode remains even more challenging. Here, an elaborate self-branched 2D SnS (B-SnS) nanoarray electrode is designed by a facile hot bath method for Na storage. This interesting electrode exhibits areal reversible capacity of ca. 3.7 mAh cm (900 mAh g) and rate capability of 1.6 mAh cm (400 mAh g) at 40 mA cm (10 A g). Improved extrinsic pseudocapacitive contribution is demonstrated as the origin of fast kinetics of an alloying-based SnS electrode. Sodiation dynamics analysis based on first-principles calculations, ex-situ HRTEM, in situ impedance, and in situ Raman technologies verify the S-edge effect on the fast Na migration and reversible and sensitive structure evolution during high-rate charge/discharge. The excellent alloying-based pseudocapacitance and unsaturated edge effect enabled by self-branched surface nanoengineering could be a promising strategy for promoting development of SIBs with both high capacity and high rate response.

-Robust fault estimation plays an important role in real-time monitoring, diagnosis and fault-tolerance control. Accordingly, this paper aims to develop an effective fault estimation technique to simultaneously estimate the system states and the concerned faults, while minimizing the influences from process/sensor disturbances. Specifically, an augmented system is constructed by forming an augmented state vector composed of the system states and the concerned faults. Next, an unknown input observer is designed for the augmented system by decoupling the partial disturbances and attenuating the disturbances that cannot be decoupled, leading to a simultaneous estimate of the system states and the concerned faults. In order to be close to the practical engineering situations, the process disturbances in this study are assumed not to be completely decoupled. In the first part of the paper, the existence condition of such an unknown input observer is proposed to facilitate the fault estimation for linear systems subjected to process disturbances. In the second part, robust fault estimation techniques are addressed for Lipschitz nonlinear systems subjected to both process and sensor disturbances. The proposed technique is finally illustrated by the simulation studies of a three-shaft gas turbine engine and a single-link flexible joint robot.

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BackgroundThe features and survival of stage IV breast cancer patients with different metastatic sites are poorly understood. This study aims to examine the clinicopathological features and survival of stage IV breast cancer patients according to different metastatic sites.MethodsUsing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database, we restricted our study population to stage IV breast cancer patients diagnosed between 2010 to 2015. The clinicopathological features were examined by chi-square tests. Breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) were compared among patients with different metastatic sites by the Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank test. Univariable and multivariable analyses were also performed using the Cox proportional hazard model to identify statistically significant prognostic factors.ResultsA total of 18,322 patients were identified for survival analysis. Bone-only metastasis accounted for 39.80% of patients, followed by multiple metastasis (33.07%), lung metastasis (10.94%), liver metastasis (7.34%), other metastasis (7.34%), and brain metastasis (1.51%). The Kaplan-Meier plots showed that patients with bone metastasis had the best survival, while patients with brain metastasis had the worst survival in both BCSS and OS (p < 0.001, for both). Multivariable analyses showed that age, race, marital status, grade, tumor subtype, tumor size, surgery of primary cancer, and a history of radiotherapy or chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors.ConclusionStage IV breast cancer patients have different clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes according to different metastatic sites. Patients with bone metastasis have the best prognosis, and brain metastasis is the most aggressive subgroup.

We have shown previously that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) synthesized by the cellular constituents of small vessels per se, viz. endothelial cells and pericytes, participates in the hypoxia-driven proliferation of both cell types (Nomura, M., Yamagishi, S.,

BackgroundThe exact mechanism of the effects of hypoxia on the proliferation and apoptosis in carcinoma cells is still conflicting. This study investigated the variation of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α(HIF-1α) expression and the apoptosis effect of hypoxia stimulated by cobalt chloride (CoCl2) in pancreatic cancer PC-2 cells.MethodsPC-2 cells were cultured with different concentration (50-200 μmol/L) of CoCl2 after 24-120 hours to simulate hypoxia in vitro. The proliferation of PC-2 cells was examined by MTT assay. The cellular morphology of PC-2 cells were observed by light inverted microscope and transmission electron microscope(EM). The expression of HIF-1α on mRNA and protein level was measured by semi-quantitive RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Apoptosis of PC-2 cells were demonstrated by flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining.ResultsMTT assay showed that the proliferation of PC-2 cells were stimulated in the first 72 h, while after treated over 72 h, a dose- dependent inhibition of cell growth could be observed. By using transmission electron microscope, swollen chondrosomes, accumulated chromatin under the nuclear membrane and apoptosis bodies were observed. Flow cytometer(FCM) analysis showed the apoptosis rate was correlated with the dosage of CoCl2. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis indicated that hypoxia could up-regulate the expression of HIF-1α on both mRNA and protein levels.ConclusionHypoxic microenvironment stimulated by CoCl2 could effectively induce apoptosis and influence cell proliferation in PC-2 cells, the mechanism could be related to up-expression of HIF-1α.

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