Constructing Cooperative Interface via Bi-Functional COF for Facilitating the Sulfur Conversion and Li+ Dynamics.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries stand out for their high theoretical specific capacity and cost-effectiveness. However, the practical implementation of Li-S batteries is hindered by issues such as the shuttle effect, tardy redox kinetics, and dendrite growth. Herein, an appealingly designed covalent organic framework (COF) with bi-functional active sites of cyanide groups and polysulfide chains (COF-CN-S) is developed as cooperative functional promoters to simultaneously address dendrites and shuttle effect issues. Combining in situ techniques and theoretical calculations, it can be demonstrated that the unique chemical architecture of COF-CN-S is capable of performing the following functions: 1) The COF-CN-S delivers significantly enhanced Li+ transport capability due to abundant ion-hopping sites (cyano-groups); 2) it functions as a selective ion sieve by regulating the dynamic behavior of polysulfide anions and Li+ , thus inhibiting shuttle effect and dendrite growth; 3) by acting as a redox mediator, the COF-CN-S can effectively control the electrochemical behavior of polysulfides and enhance their conversion kinetics. Based on the above advantages, the COF-CN-S endows Li-S batteries with excellent performance. This study highlights the significance of interface modification and offers novel insights into the rational design of organic materials in the Li-S realm.

Research hotspots and theme trends in post-traumatic growth: A co-word analysis based on keywords.

Objectives: To analyze and summarize the research hotspots and advancement of post-traumatic growth (PTG) over the past 15 years based on co-word analysis of keywords, and provide references for PTG-related research and clinical intervention. Methods: All studies related to PTG were retrieved from PubMed and Web of Science (WOS) from January 2013 to July 2022. A total of 11 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and keywords were used to identify qualified studies. Bibliographic Item Co-occurrence Matrix Builder (BICOMB; version 2.0) was used to conduct high-frequency keywords extraction and matrix setup, Graphical Clustering Toolkit (gCLUTO; version 1.0) was employed to perform clustering analysis, and SPSS (version 25.0) was used to carry out strategic diagram analysis. Results: A total of 2,370 publications were selected, from which 38 high-frequency keywords were extracted. The results revealed six research hotspots on PTG during the period from 2013 to 2022, including research on i) emotional reactions after negative life events, ii) PTG among cancer survivors, iii) rumination and resilience after trauma, iv) PTG among children and adolescents, v) role of social support and coping strategy in PTG, and vi) association between PTG and quality of life. Conclusions: This co-word analysis effectively reveals an overview of PTG over the past 15 years. The six research categories deduced from this study can reflect that the research content in the field of PTG is abundant, but some research topics have not yet been mature. The findings of this study are of great value to future investigations associated with PTG.

One-Step Calcination Synthesis of Bulk-Doped Surface-Modified Ni-Rich Cathodes with Superlattice for Long-Cycling Li-Ion Batteries.

Nickel-rich (Ni≥90 %) layered cathodes are critical materials for achieving higher-energy-density and lower-cost next-generation Li-ion batteries (LIBs). However, their bulk and interface structural instabilities significantly impair their electrochemical performance, thus hindering their widespread adoption in commercial LIBs. Exploiting Ti and Mo diffusion chemistry, we report one-step calcination to synthesize bulk-to-surface modified LiNi0.9 Co0.09 Mo0.01 O2 (NCMo90) featuring a 5 nm Li2 TiO3 coating on the surface, a Mo-rich Li+ /Ni2+ superlattice at the sub-surface, and Ti-doping in the bulk. Such a multi-functional structure effectively maintains its structural integrity upon cycling. As a result, such NCMo90 exhibits a high initial capacity of 221 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C, excellent rate performance (184 mAh g-1 at 5 C), and high capacity retention of 94.0 % after 500 cycles. This work opens a new avenue to developing industry-applicable Ni-rich cathodes for next-generation LIBs.

[Progress on epigenetic regulation of iron homeostasis].

Iron homeostasis plays an important role for the maintenance of human health. It is known that iron metabolism is tightly regulated by several key genes, including divalent metal transport-1(DMT1), transferrin receptor 1(TFR1), transferrin receptor 2(TFR2), ferroportin(FPN), hepcidin(HAMP), hemojuvelin(HJV) and Ferritin H. Recently, it is reported that DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and microRNA (miRNA) epigenetically regulated iron homeostasis. Among these epigenetic regulators, DNA hypermethylation of the promoter region of FPN, TFR2, HAMP, HJV and bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) genes result in inhibitory effect on the expression of these iron-related gene. In addition, histone deacetylase (HADC) suppresses HAMP gene expression. On the contrary, HADC inhibitor upregulates HAMP gene expression. Additional reports showed that miRNA can also modulate iron absorption, transport, storage and utilization via downregulation of DMT1, FPN, TFR1, TFR2, Ferritin H and other genes. It is noteworthy that some key epigenetic regulatory enzymes, such as DNA demethylase TET2 and histone lysine demethylase JmjC KDMs, require iron for the enzymatic activities. In this review, we summarize the recent progress of DNA methylation, histone acetylation and miRNA in regulating iron metabolism and also discuss the future research directions.

Hepatic transferrin plays a role in systemic iron homeostasis and liver ferroptosis.

Although the serum-abundant metal-binding protein transferrin (encoded by the Trf gene) is synthesized primarily in the liver, its function in the liver is largely unknown. Here, we generated hepatocyte-specific Trf knockout mice (Trf-LKO), which are viable and fertile but have impaired erythropoiesis and altered iron metabolism. Moreover, feeding Trf-LKO mice a high-iron diet increased their susceptibility to developing ferroptosis-induced liver fibrosis. Importantly, we found that treating Trf-LKO mice with the ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 potently rescued liver fibrosis induced by either high dietary iron or carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) injections. In addition, deleting hepatic Slc39a14 expression in Trf-LKO mice significantly reduced hepatic iron accumulation, thereby reducing ferroptosis-mediated liver fibrosis induced by either a high-iron diet or CCl4 injections. Finally, we found that patients with liver cirrhosis have significantly lower levels of serum transferrin and hepatic transferrin, as well as higher levels of hepatic iron and lipid peroxidation, compared with healthy control subjects. Taken together, these data indicate that hepatic transferrin plays a protective role in maintaining liver function, providing a possible therapeutic target for preventing ferroptosis-induced liver fibrosis.

Effect of Matrix and Graphite Filler on Thermal Conductivity of Industrially Feasible Injection Molded Thermoplastic Composites.

To understand how the thermal conductivity (TC) of virgin commercial polymers and their composites with low graphite filler amounts can be improved, the effect of material choice, annealing and moisture content is investigated, all with feasible industrial applicability in mind focusing on injection molding. Comparison of commercial HDPE, PP, PLA, ABS, PS, and PA6 based composites under conditions minimizing the effect of the skin-core layer (measurement at half the sample thickness) allows to deduce that at 20 m% of filler, both the (overall) in- and through-plane TC can be significantly improved. The most promising results are for HDPE and PA6 (through/in-plane TC near 0.7/4.3 W·m-1K-1 for HDPE and 0.47/4.3 W·m-1K-1 for PA6 or an increase of 50/825% and 45/1200% respectively, compared to the virgin polymer). Testing with annealed and nucleated PA6 and PLA samples shows that further increasing the crystallinity has a limited effect. A variation of the average molar mass and moisture content is also almost without impact. Intriguingly, the variation of the measuring depth allows to control the relative importance of the TC of the core and skin layer. An increased measurement depth, hence, a higher core-to-skin ratio measurement specifically indicates a clear increase in the through-plane TC (e.g., factor 2). Therefore, for basic shapes, the removal of the skin layer is recommendable to increase the TC.

Facile and Low-Cost Route for Sensitive Stretchable Sensors by Controlling Kinetic and Thermodynamic Conductive Network Regulating Strategies.

Highly sensitive conductive polymer composites (CPCs) are designed employing a facile and low-cost extrusion manufacturing process for both low- and high-strain sensing in the field of, for example, structural health/damage monitoring and human body movement tracking. Focus is on the morphology control for extrusion-processed carbon black (CB)-filled CPCs, utilizing binary and ternary composites based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and olefin block copolymer (OBC). The relevance of the correct CB amount, kinetic control through a variation of the compounding sequence, and thermodynamic control induced by annealing is highlighted, considering a wide range of experimental (e.g., static and dynamic resistance/scanning electron microscopy/rheological measurements) and theoretical analyses. High CB mass fractions (20 m %) are needed for OBC (or TPU)-CB binary composites but only lead to an intermediate sensitivity as their conductive network is fully packed and therefore difficult to be truly destructed. Annealing is needed to enable a monotonic increase of the relative resistance with respect to strain. With ternary composites, a much higher sensitivity with a clearer monotonic increase results, provided that a low CB mass fraction (10-16 m %) is used and annealing is applied. In particular, with CB first dispersed in OBC and annealing, a less compact, hence, brittle conductive network (10-12 m % CB) is obtained, allowing high-performance sensing.