Enhancing the sodium storage performance of hard carbon by constructing thin carbon coatings via esterification reactions.

Hard carbons derived from pitch are considered a competitive low-cost anode for sodium-ion batteries. However, the preparation of pitch-based hard carbon (PHC) requires the aid of a pre-oxidation strategy, which introduces unnecessary defects and oxygen elements, which leads to low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and poor cycling stability. Herein, we demonstrate a new surface engineering strategy by grafting chemically active glucose molecules on the PHC surface via esterification reactions, which can achieve low-cost nano-scaled carbon coating. Thin glucose coating can be carbonized at a lower temperature, which results in a more closed pore structure and fewer functional groups. The as prepared PHC exhibits a high reversible capacity of 328.5 mAh/g with a high ICE of 92.08 % at 0.02 A/g. It is noteworthy that the PHC can be adapted to a variety of cathode materials for full-cell assembling without pre-sodiation, which maintains the characteristics of high capacity and excellent cycling stability. The performance of resin-based hard carbon coated with a similar method was also improved, demonstrating the universality of the technique.

Acne treatment: research progress and new perspectives.

Acne is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that primarily affects adolescents and is attributed to various factors, including hormonal changes, genetic predisposition, and environmental influences. It typically manifests in areas rich in sebaceous glands such as the face, chest, and back. Symptoms of acne can range from mild to severe and may present as pimples, pustules, nodules, cysts, and scarring. The appearance of acne can significantly impact both the physical and mental well-being of patients, potentially leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal. The pathogenesis of acne is multifaceted involving genetic predisposition as well as environmental factors such as hormonal imbalances, inflammation, abnormal follicular sebaceous unit keratinization, proliferation of follicular microorganisms like Propionibacterium acnes, increased sebum production, and dietary influences. Traditional treatment methods for acne include topical drug therapy, oral drug therapy, photoelectric therapy, and chemical peeling. With ongoing research into the pathogenesis of acne, treatment methods are rapidly evolving with novel antibiotics, probiotics, biological agents, topical anti-androgen drugs, topical vitamin A acid metabolism blockers, antimicrobial peptides, immunotherapy, micro-needling, and micro-needling patches. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of recent advancements in acne treatment.

Non-aqueous Liquid Electrolyte Additives for Sodium-Ion Batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have been recognized as one of the most promising new energy storage devices for their rich sodium resources, low cost and high safety. The electrolyte, as a bridge connecting the cathode and anode electrodes, plays a vital role in determining the performance of SIBs, such as coulombic efficiency, energy density and cycle life. Therefore, the overall performance of SIBs could be significantly improved by adjusting the electrolyte composition or adding a small number of functional additives. In this review, the fundamentals of SIB electrolytes including electrode-electrolyte interface and solvation structure are introduced. Then, the mechanisms of electrolyte additive action on SIBs are discussed, with a focus on film-forming additives, flame-retardant additives and overcharge protection additives. Finally, the future research of electrolytes is prospected from the perspective of scientific concepts and practical applications.

Predictive value of liver and spleen stiffness measurement based on two-dimensional shear wave elastography for the portal vein pressure in patients with compensatory viral cirrhosis.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the predictive value of liver and spleen stiffness measurement based on two-dimensional shear wave elastography for the portal vein pressure in patients with compensatory viral cirrhosis. Methods: From January 2017 to August 2019, 107 patients with compensatory viral cirrhosis and 76 patients with viral hepatitis were enrolled as cirrhosis group and hepatitis group, respectively. Patient data were obtained during admission, and this study was a review and analysis of patient data. Liver stiffness measurement (LSM), spleen stiffness measurement (SSM), portal vein diameter and spleen thickness were compared between the two groups, and their diagnostic value for compensatory viral cirrhosis was analyzed. According to the hepatic vein pressure, the cirrhosis group patients were divided into non-hypertensive group (no portal hypertension, hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) < 5 mmHg), mild group (mild portal hypertension, 5 mmHg ≤ HVPG ≤ 10 mmHg) and severe group (clinically significant portal hypertension group, HVPG > 10 mmHg). LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness of the three groups were compared, and the correlation between SSM and hepatic vein pressure was analyzed. Results: LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness in the cirrhosis group were higher than those in hepatitis group (all P < 0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of combined detection was larger than that of LSM, SSM and spleen thickness detection alone in liver cirrhosis diagnosis (all P < 0.05). LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness increased with the increase of hepatic vein pressure in patients with liver cirrhosis (all P < 0.05). LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness were all positively correlated with hepatic vein pressure (P < 0.05). ROC curve showed that AUC of combined detection was greater than that of LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness alone detection in the diagnosis of clinically significant portal hypertension (all P < 0.05). The increase of LSM, SSM, portal vein diameter and spleen thickness were the influencing factors for hepatic vein pressure rising (all P < 0.05). Conclusion: There was an increase of LSM and SSM in patients with compensatory viral cirrhosis, which were positively correlated with hepatic venous pressure, and combined index detection has diagnostic and predictive value for the change of portal venous pressure.

Thermal Expansion Neutralization Enhancing the Cycling Stability of Ni-Rich LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 Cathode Material.

As promising cathode candidates with advantageous capacity and price superiority for lithium-ion batteries, Ni-rich materials are severely impeded in the practical application due to their poor microstructural stability induced by the intrinsic Li+/Ni2+ cation mixing and mechanical stress accumulation upon cycling. In this work, a synergetic approach is demonstrated to improve the microstructural and thermal stabilities of Ni-rich LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622) cathode material through taking advantage of the thermal expansion offset effect of the LiZr2(PO4)3 (LZPO) modification layer. The optimized NCM622@LZPO cathode exhibits a significantly enhanced cyclability with a capacity retention of 67.7% after 500 cycles at 0.2 C and delivers a specific capacity of 115 mAh g-1 with a capacity retention of 64.2% after 300 cycles under 55 °C. Exploiting the chemical environment analysis of the Ni element detected by the synchrotron radiation technique, it is found that the mixing degree of Li+/Ni2+ cations in the bulk Ni-rich material can be effectively depressed through interfacial Zr4+ doping during the preparation of the LZPO-modified material. Additionally, time- and temperature-dependent powder diffraction spectra were collected to monitor the structure evolutions of pristine NCM622 and NCM622@LZPO cathodes in the initial cycles and under various temperatures, revealing the contribution of negative thermal expansion LZPO coating in promoting microstructural stability of the bulk NCM622 cathode. The introduction of NTE functional compounds might provide a universal strategy to address the stress accumulation and volume expansion issues of various cathode materials for advanced secondary-ion batteries.

Constructing LiF/Li2CO3-rich heterostructured electrode electrolyte interphases by electrolyte additive for 4.5 V well-cycled lithium metal batteries.

The cycling performance of promising high-voltage Li||LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) batteries is determined by the interfacial stability between electrodes and electrolyte. However, it is challenging to achieve them under high voltage. Herein, we stabilized 4.5 V Li||NCM811 batteries via electrolyte engineering with pentafluorostyrene (PFBE) as the additive. PFBE contributes to the formation of highly Li+ conductive and mechanically robust LiF/Li2CO3-rich heterostructured interphases on NCM811 cathode and Li metal anode (LMA) surfaces. Such electrode-electrolyte interphases (EEIs) obviously alleviate irreversible phase transition, microcracks induced by stress accumulation and transition metal dissolution in the Ni-rich layered cathode. Meanwhile, the growth of Li dendrites on the LMA surface is effectively controlled. As expected, 4.5 V Li||NCM811 batteries sustain a capacity retention rate of 61.27% after 600 cycles at 0.5 C (100 mA g-1). More importantly, ∼6.69 Ah Li||NCM811 pouch cells with such electrolytes could represent a stable energy density of ∼485 Wh kg-1 based on all cell components.

Investigating small molecule compounds targeting psoriasis based on cMAP database and molecular dynamics simulation.

OBJECTIVE: Psoriasis (PSO) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that severely affects the physical and mental health of patients. Drug resistance has been developed upon current drug treatments, and there is no specific therapy. The aim of this study was to screen promising novel drug candidates for PSO using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. METHODS: The data of PSO were downloaded from gene expression omnibus (GEO) database and subjected to variance analysis. Target proteins and small molecule compounds targeting PSO were predicted in the connective map (cMAP) database. Molecular docking, MD simulation, and trajectory analysis were conducted to predict the binding of target proteins to compounds. RESULTS: 1999 differentially expressed genes in PSO were obtained by differential analysis. Through cMAP database prediction, a low Score value of -45.69 for lymphocyte cell-specific protein-tyrosine kinase (LCK) was revealed, and aminogenistein was identified as the compound targeting LCK, and LCK was notably highly expressed in the PSO samples. The drugScore of the binding pocket P_0 was 0.814656, which was docked with aminogenistein. The results showed that there were more than one binding site between LCK and aminogenistein with binding energy less than -7.0 kJ/mol, and the docking was relatively stable. The results of root-mean-square deviation (RMSD), root-mean-square fluctuation (RMSF), Gyrate, number of hydrogen bonds and total free binding energy in MD simulations showed that the binding of aminogenistein to LCK was relatively solid. CONCLUSION: Aminogenistein has good protein-ligand interaction and stability with LCK, a target of PSO, and is a novel drug candidate for PSO.

Enhanced microstructure stability of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode with negative thermal expansion shell for long-life battery.

With high specific energy density, Ni-rich layered LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM) material has become one promising cathode candidate for advanced lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, severe capacity fading induced by microstructure degradation and deteriorated interfacial Li+ transportation upon repeated cycling makes the commercial application of NCM cathode in dilemma. To address these issues, LiAlSiO4 (LASO), one unique negative thermal expansion (NTE) composite with high ionic conductivity, is utilized as a coating layer to improve the electrochemical performances of NCM material. Various characterizations demonstrate that LASO modification can endow NCM cathode with significantly enhanced long-term cyclability, through reinforcing the reversibility of phase transition and restraining lattice expansion, as well as depressing microcrack generation during repeated delithiation-lithiation processes. The electrochemical results indicate that LASO-modified NCM cathode can deliver an excellent rate capability of 136 mAh g-1 at a high current rate of 10 C (1800 mA g-1), larger than that of the pristine cathode (118 mAh g-1), especially higher capacity retention of 85.4% concerning the pristine NCM cathode (65.7%) over 500 cycles under 0.2 C. This work provides a feasible strategy to ameliorate the interfacial Li+ diffusion and suppress the microstructure degradation of NCM material during long-term cycling, which can effectively promote the practical application of Ni-rich cathode in high-performance LIBs.

DNA demethylation of CD40l in CD4+ T cells from women with systemic sclerosis: a possible explanation for female susceptibility.

OBJECTIVE: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease with a predilection for women. The interaction between CD40 and CD154 (CD40L) is known to be involved in the development of SSc. Although CD40L is overexpressed in patients with SSc, the mechanisms leading to this overexpression are not well understood. We previously demonstrated that DNA demethylation reactivates the silent X chromosome, resulting in CD40L overexpression in healthy women. We hypothesized that CD40L up-regulation by DNA demethylation and subsequent reactivation of the silent X chromosome in female patients with SSc explain the susceptibility of women to SSc. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of DNA demethylation on CD40L expression in CD4+ T cells from female patients with SSc. METHODS: CD40L expression in CD4+ T cells from patients with SSc and healthy control subjects was measured by flow cytometry and real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Bisulfite sequencing was performed to determine the methylation status of the CD40L regulatory region. RESULTS: CD40L expression was significantly elevated in female patients with SSc. The methylation levels of the DNA regulatory sequences were reduced in female patients with SSc compared with healthy women, and there was a significant inverse correlation between the average methylation level and CD40L mRNA expression in female patients with SSc. In contrast, no significant difference was observed in the expression of CD40L between male patients with SSc and male control subjects. The DNA regulatory regions in both male patients and male control subjects were largely unmethylated. CONCLUSION: Demethylation of CD40L regulatory elements on the inactive X chromosome contributes to CD40L overexpression in CD4+ T cells from female patients with SSc.