Effects of different low temperature conditions on anaerobic digestion efficiency of pig manure and composition of archaea community.

To explore the effect of low temperature on the anaerobic digestion of pig manure, the anaerobic digestion experiment was carried out under the conditions of inoculum concentration of 30% and TS of 8%. Five low-temperature gradients of 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 °C were set to study the activities of gas production, pH, solluted chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), volatile fatty acids (VFAs), coenzymes F420 and archaea community composition in the digestion process. The results were demonstrated: as the temperature decreased, the more unstable the gas production became, the less gas production produced, and the later the gas peak occurred. There were no significant peaks at either 4 °C or 8 °C, and the SCOD was unstable over time. From 12 °C, the SCOD increased over time, and the higher the temperature, the faster the growth trend. The pH was always greater than 7.6. 8, 12, 16, 20 °C had different degrees of VFAs accumulation at the late digestion stage. The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of volatile acid accumulation. When the VFAs of each reactor reached the maximum, the proportion of acetic acid also reached the highest. The digestion system of the five treatment groups was dominated by hydrogen-nutrient methanogenic pathway. The results could provide a further reference for the mechanism of anaerobic digestion of pig manure at low temperatures.

LncRNA H19 activates cell pyroptosis via the miR-22-3p/NLRP3 axis in pneumonia.

OBJECTIVE: Pneumonia is an infectious pulmonary disease with a high morbidity and mortality. It has been reported that multiple long noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) are involved in the progression of pneumonia, such as LncRNA SNHG16. However, the role and underlying mechanism of LncRNA H19 in the pyroptosis of pneumonia has not been elucidated. The purpose of this research was to explore the mechanism by which LncRNA H19 regulates LPS-induced pneumonia in WI-38 cells. METHODS: An LPS induced pneumonia model in WI-38 cells was established. Total RNA extracted from WI-38 cells was analyzed using RT-qPCR, and the total proteins isolated from the WI-38 cells were analyzed using Western blotting. MTT assays, TUNEL staining, bioinformatics, and luciferase reporter assays were subsequently conducted. RESULTS: In the LPS induced pneumonia model, LncRNA H19 silences inhibited LPS-induced WL-38 cell pyroptosis, and LncRNA H19 overexpression promotes LPS-induced WL-38 cell pyroptosis. Also, LncRNA H19 acts as a sponge of miR-22-3p, which targets NLRP3, and NLRP3 attenuates the effect of LncRNA H19 silencing on LPS-induced WL-38 cell pyroptosis. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrated the roles and potential mechanisms of LncRNA H19 in the regulation of pneumonia cell pyroptosis, indicating that LncRNA H19 is an efficient predictive and curative target for pneumonia.

Deciphering the Enigma of Li2CO3 Oxidation Using a Solid-State Li-Air Battery Configuration.

Li2CO3 is a ubiquitous byproduct in Li-air (O2) batteries, and its accumulation on the cathode could be detrimental to the devices. As a result, much efforts have been devoted to investigating its formation and decomposition, in particular, upon cycling of Li-O2 batteries. At high voltages, Li2CO3 is expected to decompose into CO2 and O2. However, as recognized from the work of many authors, only CO2, and no O2, has been identified, and the underlying mechanism remains uncertain so far. Herein, a solid-state Li-O2 battery (Li|Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12|Au) has been designed to interrogate the Li2CO3 oxidation without interferences from the decomposition of other battery components (organic electrolyte, binder, and carbon cathode) widely applied in conventional Li-O2 batteries. It is revealed that Li2CO3 can indeed be oxidized to CO2 and O2 in a more stable solid-state Li-O2 battery configuration, highlighting the feasibility of reversible operation of Li-O2 batteries with ambient air as the feeding gas.

Impact of RSV Coinfection on Human Bocavirus in Children with Acute Respiratory Infections.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess epidemiological and clinical features of human bocavirus (HBoV) coinfection with other viruses. METHOD: Children coinfected with HBoV between January 2012 and December 2014 were enrolled and retrospectively reviewed. RESULT: A total of 984 patients were stratified into five groups: HBoV infection alone (n = 249), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection alone (n = 649), HBoV coinfection with RSV (n = 28), with human rhinovirus (HRV) (n = 39) and with other virus (n = 19). Length of hospitalization was longer in HBoV coinfection with RSV group than HBoV (9.0 days vs. 7.0 days, p = 0.001), RSV (9.0 days vs. 8.0 days, p = 0.016) infection alone group. Pneumonia was more common in the HBoV coinfection with RSV group compared with the HBoV, RSV infection alone group, respectively (75.0% vs. 44.2%, 31.3%, p < 0.001). HBoV DNA copy numbers (383 000 copies/ml) were positively correlated with the length of hospitalization (r = 0.334, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: HBoV coinfection with RSV increases HBoV infection severity.

Formation of Nanosized Defective Lithium Peroxides through Si-Coated Carbon Nanotube Cathodes for High Energy Efficiency Li-O2 Batteries.

The formation and decomposition of lithium peroxides (Li2O2) during cycling is the key process for the reversible operation of lithium-oxygen batteries. The manipulation of such products from the large toroidal particles about hundreds of nanometers to the ones in the scale of tens of nanometers can improve the energy efficiency and the cycle life of the batteries. In this work, we carry out an in situ morphology tuning of Li2O2 by virtue of the surface properties of the n-type Si-modified aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) cathodes. With the introduction of an n-type Si coating layer on the CNT surface, the morphology of Li2O2 formed by discharge changes from large toroidal particles (∼300 nm) deposited on the pristine CNT cathodes to nanoparticles (10-20 nm) with poor crystallinity and plenty of lithium vacancies. Beneficial from such changes, the charge overpotential dramatically decreases to 0.55 V, with the charge plateau lying at 3.5 V even in the case of a high discharge capacity (3450 mA h g-1) being delivered, resulting in the high electrical energy efficiency approaching 80%. Such an improvement is attributed to the fact that the introduction of the n-type Si coating layer changes the surface properties of CNTs and guides the formation of nanosized amorphous-like lithium peroxides with plenty of defects. These results demonstrate that the cathode surface properties play an important role in the formation of products formed during the cycle, providing inspiration to design superior cathodes for the Li-O2 cells.

Rheological characterisation of biologically treated and non-treated putrescible food waste.

Food waste is gaining increasing attention worldwide due to growing concerns over its environmental and economic costs. Understanding the rheological behaviour of food waste is critical for effective processing so rheological measurements were carried out for different food waste compositions at 25, 35 and 45 °C. Food waste samples of various origins (carbohydrates, vegetables & fruits, and meat), anaerobically digested and diluted samples were used in this study. The results showed that food waste exhibits shear-thinning flow behaviour and viscosity of food waste is a function of temperature and composition. The composition of food waste affected the flow properties. Viscosity decreased at a given temperature as the proportion of carbohydrate increased. This may be due to the high water content of vegetable & fruits as the total solids fraction is likely to be a key controlling factor of the rheology. The Herschel-Bulkley model was used successfully to model food waste flow behaviour. Also, a higher strain was needed to break down the structure of the food waste as digestion time increased.

Monodispersed Carbon-Coated Cubic NiP2 Nanoparticles Anchored on Carbon Nanotubes as Ultra-Long-Life Anodes for Reversible Lithium Storage.

In search of new electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries, metal phosphides that exhibit desirable properties such as high theoretical capacity, moderate discharge plateau, and relatively low polarization recently have attracted a great deal of attention as anode materials. However, the large volume changes and thus resulting collapse of electrode structure during long-term cycling are still challenges for metal-phosphide-based anodes. Here we report an electrode design strategy to solve these problems. The key to this strategy is to confine the electroactive nanoparticles into flexible conductive hosts (like carbon materials) and meanwhile maintain a monodispersed nature of the electroactive particles within the hosts. Monodispersed carbon-coated cubic NiP2 nanoparticles anchored on carbon nanotubes (NiP2@C-CNTs) as a proof-of-concept were designed and synthesized. Excellent cyclability (more than 1000 cycles) and capacity retention (high capacities of 816 mAh g-1 after 1200 cycles at 1300 mA g-1 and 654.5 mAh g-1 after 1500 cycles at 5000 mA g-1) are characterized, which is among the best performance of the NiP2 anodes and even most of the phosphide-based anodes reported so far. The impressive performance is attributed to the superior structure stability and the enhanced reaction kinetics incurred by our design. Furthermore, a full cell consisting of a NiP2@C-CNTs anode and a LiFePO4 cathode is investigated. It delivers an average discharge capacity of 827 mAh g-1 based on the mass of the NiP2 anode and exhibits a capacity retention of 80.7% over 200 cycles, with an average output of ∼2.32 V. As a proof-of-concept, these results demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy on improving the electrode performance. We believe that this strategy for construction of high-performance anodes can be extended to other phase-transformation-type materials, which suffer a large volume change upon lithium insertion/extraction.

A Rechargeable Li-Air Fuel Cell Battery Based on Garnet Solid Electrolytes.

Non-aqueous Li-air batteries have been intensively studied in the past few years for their theoretically super-high energy density. However, they cannot operate properly in real air because they contain highly unstable and volatile electrolytes. Here, we report the fabrication of solid-state Li-air batteries using garnet (i.e., Li6.4La3Zr1.4Ta0.6O12, LLZTO) ceramic disks with high density and ionic conductivity as the electrolytes and composite cathodes consisting of garnet powder, Li salts (LiTFSI) and active carbon. These batteries run in real air based on the formation and decomposition at least partially of Li2CO3. Batteries with LiTFSI mixed with polyimide (PI:LiTFSI) as a binder show rechargeability at 200 °C with a specific capacity of 2184 mAh g-1carbon at 20 µA cm-2. Replacement of PI:LiTFSI with LiTFSI dissolved in polypropylene carbonate (PPC:LiTFSI) reduces interfacial resistance, and the resulting batteries show a greatly increased discharge capacity of approximately 20300 mAh g-1carbon and cycle 50 times while maintaining a cutoff capacity of 1000 mAh g-1carbon at 20 µA cm-2 and 80 °C. These results demonstrate that the use of LLZTO ceramic electrolytes enables operation of the Li-air battery in real air at medium temperatures, leading to a novel type of Li-air fuel cell battery for energy storage.