Urchin like inverse spinel manganese doped NiCo2O4 microspheres as high performances anode for lithium-ion batteries.

The ternary transition metal oxides are promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, their practical applications are greatly hindered by the poor conductivity and huge volume changes. To solve the issues, urchin-like inverse spinel manganese (Mn) doped NiCo2O4 hierarchical microspheres were fabricated through a facile hydrothermal approach and subsequent annealing treatment. The as-obtained Mn-doped NiCo2O4 hold microsphere and sharp fiber-shaped needle multilevel nanoscale architecture, which effectively shortened Li ions (Li+) transmission path and improved the conductivity. In addition, the hierarchical urchin-like Mn-doped NiCo2O4 synthesized at annealing temperature (600 °C) manifested a larger capacity and better cycling performance by controlling the crystallinities and morphologies. As expected, it displays an outstanding cycling performance with a reversible capacity of about 945 mAh g-1 after 500 cycles at 2000 mA g-1. The kinetic analysis and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) testing also verifies the superior pseudocapacitance contribution and fast elevated ion migration of Li+. Our work provides a promising design to develop suitable anode materials based on transition metal oxides for high-performance LIBs.

Observation of positive-negative sub-wavelength interference without intensity correlation calculation.

We report an experimental demonstration of positive-negative sub-wavelength interference without correlation. Typically, people can achieve sub-wavelength effects with correlation measurement no matter by using bi-photon or thermal light sources. In this paper, we adopt a thermal light source, and we count the realizations in which the intensities of the definite symmetric points are above or below a certain threshold. The distribution of numbers of these realizations which meet the restriction will show a sub-wavelength effect. With proper constrictions, positive and negative interference patterns are demonstrated.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection induces endoplasmic reticulum stress, facilitates virus replication, and contributes to autophagy and apoptosis.

During viral infection, the host cell synthesizes high amounts of viral proteins, which often causes stress to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). To manage abnormal ER stress, mammalian cells trigger a response called the unfolded protein response (UPR). Previous studies have indicated that porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), an Arterivirus that has been devastating the swine industry worldwide, can induce ER stress and activate UPR, however, the activation pathways and the biological significance requires further investigation. In this study, we demonstrated that, among the three types of UPR pathways, PRRSV infection induced PERK and IRE1 pathways, but not the ATF6 pathway. Furthermore, the induction of UPR promoted PRRSV replication. We also found that PRRSV-induced UPR, particularly the PERK pathway, was involved in the induction of autophagy, a cellular degradation process that can alleviate cell stress. Besides, we also provided insights into the ER stress-mediated apoptosis in response to PRRSV infection. PRRSV infection induced the expression of the transcription factor CHOP, which activated caspase 3 and PARP led to ER stress-mediated apoptosis. Using 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) to inhibit autophagy, the increased ER stress and cell apoptosis were observed in the PRRSV infected cell. Taken together, our results revealed the associations of ER stress, autophagy, and apoptosis during PRRSV infection, helping us to further understand how PRRSV interacts with host cells.

Two-photon Lau effect.

The Lau effect is an interference phenomenon in which two transmission gratings are located in tandem and illuminated incoherently. Here we report the experimental observation of the quantum Lau effect using a two-photon entangled source. Two experimental schemes are proposed and performed. In one scheme, two gratings are nonlocally set in two different paths of two field modes. However, in the other scheme, only one grating is employed to receive the two-mode photons. In both schemes, the Lau interference patterns can be reproduced in a two-photon coincidence measurement where one photon is collected by a bucket detector.