Toward the High-Voltage Stability of Layered Oxide Cathodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries: Challenges, Progress, and Perspectives.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have garnered significant attention as ideal candidates for large-scale energy storage due to their notable advantages in terms of resource availability and cost-effectiveness. However, there remains a substantial energy density gap between SIBs and commercially available lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), posing challenges to meeting the requirements of practical applications. The fabrication of high-energy cathodes has emerged as an efficient approach to enhancing the energy density of SIBs, which commonly requires cathodes operating in high-voltage regions. Layered oxide cathodes (LOCs), with low cost, facile synthesis, and high theoretical specific capacity, have emerged as one of the most promising candidates for commercial applications. However, LOCs encounter significant challenges when operated in high-voltage regions such as irreversible phase transitions, migration and dissolution of metal cations, loss of reactive oxygen, and the occurrence of serious interfacial parasitic reactions. These issues ultimately result in severe degradation in battery performance. This review aims to shed light on the key challenges and failure mechanisms encountered by LOCs when operated in high-voltage regions. Additionally, the corresponding strategies for improving the high-voltage stability of LOCs are comprehensively summarized. By providing fundamental insights and valuable perspectives, this review aims to contribute to the advancement of high-energy SIBs.

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in Non-Obese Patients with Schizophrenia: A Retrospective Study.

Background: To assess the prevalence and risk factors of NAFLD in non-obese patients with schizophrenia in a public psychiatric hospital in China. Methods: A total of 1,305 adult inpatients with schizophrenia in 2019 were included in this retrospective study. Body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 was considered obese, and BMI < 25 kg/m2 was considered non-obese. We obtained the data from electronic records of the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. Results: A total of 1,045 non-obese patients and 260 obese patients were included in this study. The prevalence of NAFLD in non-obese patients was 25.0%, and it was much lower that in the obese patients (25.0% vs 64.6%, p < 0.001). Among the non-obese patients, there were significant differences in age, BMI, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), metabolic indices, and the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension between patients with NAFLD and patients without NAFLD. According to the results of binary logistic regression analysis, age, BMI, ALT, triglyceride (TG) and diabetes were significantly related to NAFLD among non-obese patients with schizophrenia. In contrast, HDL-C was was negatively associated with NAFLD among non-obese patients. Conclusion: This study suggested that NAFLD was common in patients with schizophrenia, even in non-obese patients with schizophrenia. In non-obese patients with schizophrenia, age, BMI, ALT, TG and diabetes are significantly associated with NAFLD. Moreover, HDL-C level was an independent protective factor against NAFLD. Given the adverse outcomes of NAFLD, it is necessary to increase awareness of NAFLD in patients with schizophrenia, especially in non-obese patients with schizophrenia.

Integrated Multi-Omic Characterization of the Detachment Process of Adherent Vero Cells with Animal-Based and Animal-Origin-Free Enzymes.

Cell detachment techniques using animal-derived enzymes are necessary for the production of biopharmaceuticals that are made with the help of adherent cell cultures, although the majority of protein therapeutics (>USD 100 billion of income per year) are made under suspension cultures that do not require animal-derived proteins for manufacture. In this study, we establish the optimal Vero cell detachment process, and analyze physiological changes during cell detachment at the cellular and molecular levels. Using flow cytometry, we find that animal-based enzymes are more likely to induce apoptosis than animal-origin-free enzymes. We analyze the levels of RNAs, proteins, and metabolites in cells treated with two detachment strategies, and identify 1237 differentially expressed genes, 2883 differential proteins, and 210 differential metabolites. Transcriptomic analysis shows that animal-origin-free enzymes have a less significant effect on gene expression levels. Combined with proteomic analysis, animal-based enzymes affect the oxidative phosphorylation process and reduce the mRNA and protein levels of Cytochrome C Oxidase Assembly Protein 17 (COX17), which is a Cytochrome C Oxidase Copper Chaperone involved in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Metabolomics analysis indicates that the levels of spermine and spermidine, which are involved in the glutathione metabolism pathway and apoptosis inhibition, are significantly reduced. Therefore, COX17, spermine, and spermidine may be biomarkers for evaluating the cell subculture process. In conclusion, we have deeply characterized the cell subculture process through multi-omics, which may provide important guidance for research and process evaluation to optimize cell detachment processes.

The Role of Iron Competition in the Antagonistic Action of the Rice Endophyte Streptomyces sporocinereus OsiSh-2 Against the Pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae.

Rice blast caused by Magnaporthe oryzae severely impacts global rice yield stability. The rice endophyte Streptomyces sporocinereus OsiSh-2, with strong antagonistic activity towards M. oryzae, has been reported in our previous study. To decipher the model of the antagonistic action of OsiSh-2 towards M. oryzae, we compared the iron-capturing abilities of these two strains. The cultivation of OsiSh-2 and a M. oryzae strain under iron-rich and iron-starved conditions showed that M. oryzae depended more on iron supplementation for growth and development than did OsiSh-2. Genomic analysis of the S. sporocinereus and M. oryzae species strains revealed that they might possess different iron acquisition strategies. The actinobacterium OsiSh-2 is likely to favor siderophore utilization compared to the fungus M. oryzae. In addition, protein annotations found that OsiSh-2 contains the highest number of the siderophore biosynthetic gene clusters among the 13 endophytic actinomycete strains and 13 antifungal actinomycete strains that we compared, indicating the prominent siderophore production potential of OsiSh-2. Additionally, we verified that OsiSh-2 could excrete considerably more siderophores than Guy11 under iron-restricted conditions and displayed greater Fe3+-reducing activity during iron-supplemental conditions. Measurements of the iron mobilization between the antagonistic OsiSh-2 and Guy11 showed that the iron concentration is higher around OsiSh-2 than around Guy11. In addition, adding iron near OsiSh-2 could decrease the antagonism of OsiSh-2 towards Guy11. Our study revealed that the antagonistic capacity displayed by OsiSh-2 towards M. oryzae was related to the competition for iron. The highly efficient iron acquisition system of OsiSh-2 may offer valuable insight for the biocontrol of rice blast.