Intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia in the lungs of a wild Korean raccoon dog.

A male Korean raccoon dog of unknown age was rescued and placed at the Daejeon Wildlife Rescue Center, Korea. Physical examination revealed severe emaciation and dehydration, as well as thick crusts and alopecia over most of the body. During medical care, the animal died and was submitted for postmortem examination. Firm, brown-red lesions of various sizes were observed on the surface of the lungs. In cross-sections of the lungs, pulmonary vessels were thickened and dilated, with white irregular papillary luminal projections. Histologically, pulmonary blood vessels were severely hyperplastic, characterized by thickened dilated walls and fibrous papillary projections covered with a single layer of endothelial cells (ECs). Hyperplastic fibrous connective tissue was confirmed by Masson trichrome staining. The ECs expressed CD31. We diagnosed the lesion as intravascular papillary endothelial hyperplasia, a unique non-neoplastic reactive process that has not been reported previously in pulmonary vessels of canids, equids, or felids, to our knowledge.

Effect of morphological change of copper-oxide fillers on the performance of solid polymer electrolytes for lithium-metal polymer batteries.

Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) for Li-metal polymer batteries are prepared, in which poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI), and copper-oxide fillers are formulated. Their structural and electrochemical properties are analyzed when the morphology of the copper-oxide fillers has been modulated to spherical or dendritic structure. The ionic conductivity obtained by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been increased to 1.007 × 10-4 S cm-1 at 30 °C and 1.368 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 60 °C, as the 5 wt% dendritic fillers have been added to the SPEs. This ionic conductivity value is 1.3 times higher than that of 5 wt% spherical filler-contained SPEs. The analyses of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicate that the increase of ionic conductivity is due to the remarkable decrease of crystallinity upon the addition of copper-oxide filler into PEO matrix of SPEs. The fabricated SPEs with the dendritic copper-oxide fillers present a total ionic transference number of 0.99 and a lithium-ion transference number of 0.38. More importantly, it presents a stable potential window of 2.0-4.8 V at 25 °C and high thermal stability up to 300 °C. The specific discharge capacity of the prepared cell with the dendritic filler-contained SPEs is measured to be 51 mA h g-1 and 125 mA h g-1 under 0.1 current-rate (C-rate) at 25 °C and 60 °C, respectively. In this study, the ionic conductivity and the electrochemical performance of the PEO-based polymer electrolyte have been evaluated when morphologically different copper-oxide fillers have been incorporated into the PEO matrix. We have also confirmed the safety and the flexibility of the prepared solid polymer electrolytes when they are used in flexible lithium-metal polymer batteries (LMPBs).

Dendritic Ni(Cu)-polypyrrole hybrid films for a pseudo-capacitor.

Dendritic Ni(Cu)-polypyrrole hybrid films are fabricated for a pseudo-capacitor in a unique morphology using two simple methods: electro-deposition and electrochemical de-alloying. Three-dimensional structures of porous dendrites are prepared by electro-deposition within the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at a high cathodic potential; the high-surface-area structure provides sufficient redox reactions between the electrodes and the electrolyte. The dependence of the active-layer thickness on the super-capacitor performance is also investigated, and the 60 µm-thick Ni(Cu)PPy hybrid electrode presents the highest performance of 659.52 F g(-1) at the scan rate of 5 mV s(-1). In the thicker layers, the specific capacitance became smaller due to the diffusion limitation of the ions in an electrolyte. The polypyrrole-hybridization on the porous dendritic Ni(Cu) electrode provides superior specific capacitance and excellent cycling stability due to the improvement in electric conductivity by the addition of conducting polypyrrole in the matrices of the dendritic nano-porous Ni(Cu) layer and the synergistic effect of composite materials.

Surfactant Effects on the Morphology and Pseudocapacitive Behavior of V2 O5 ⋠H2 O.

To overcome the drawback of low electrical conductivity within supercapacitor applications, several surfactants are used for nanoscale V2 O5 to enhance the specific surface area. Polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG-6000), sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), and Pluronic P-123 (P123) controllers, if used as soft templates, easily form large specific surface area crystals. However, the specific mechanism through which this occurs and the influence of these surfactants is not clear for V2 O5 ⋅H2 O. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the mechanism of crystal growth through hydrothermal processes and the pseudocapacitive behavior of these crystals formed by using diverse surfactants, including PEG-6000, SDBS, and P123. Our results show that different surfactants can dramatically influence the morphology and capacitive behavior of V2 O5 ⋅H2 O powders. Linear nanowires, flower-like flakes, and curly bundled nanowires can be obtained because of electrostatic interactions in the presence of PEG-6000, SDBS, and P123, respectively. Furthermore, the electrochemical performance of these powders shows that the nanowires, which are electrodes mediated by PEG-6000, exhibit the highest capacitance of 349 F g(-1) at a scan rate of 5 mV s(-1) of all the surfactants studied. However, a symmetric P123 electrode comprising curly bundled nanowires with numerous nanopores showed an excellent and stable specific capacitance of 127 F g(-1) after 200 cycles. This work is beneficial to understanding the fundamental role of the surfactant in the assisted growth of V2 O5 ⋅H2 O and the resulting electrochemical properties of the pseudocapacitors, which could be useful for the future design of appropriate materials.