Air-Stable and Low-Cost High-Voltage Hydrated Eutectic Electrolyte for High-Performance Aqueous Aluminum-Ion Rechargeable Battery with Wide-Temperature Range.

Aqueous aluminum-ion batteries (AAIBs) are considered as a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries due to their large theoretical capacity, high safety, and low cost. However, the uneven deposition, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and corrosion during cycling impede the development of AAIBs, especially under a harsh environment. Here, a hydrated eutectic electrolyte (AATH40) composed of Al(OTf)3, acetonitrile (AN), triethyl phosphate (TEP), and H2O was designed to improve the electrochemical performance of AAIBs in a wide temperature range. The combination of molecular dynamics simulations and spectroscopy analysis reveals that AATH40 has a less-water-solvated structure [Al(AN)2(TEP)(OTf)2(H2O)]3+, which effectively inhibits side reactions, decreases the freezing point, and extends the electrochemical window of the electrolyte. Furthermore, the formation of a solid electrolyte interface, which effectively inhibits HER and corrosion, has been demonstrated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction tests, and in situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry. Additionally, operando synchrotron Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring reveal a three-electron storage mechanism for the Al//polyaniline full cells. Consequently, AAIBs with this electrolyte exhibit improved cycling stability within the temperature range of -10-50 °C. This present study introduces a promising methodology for designing electrolytes suitable for low-cost, safe, and stable AAIBs over a wide temperature range.

Porous Organic Polymer with Hierarchical Structure and Limited Volume Expansion for Ultrafast and Highly Durable Sodium Storage.

Sustainable organic electrode materials, as promising alternatives to conventional inorganic electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), are still challenging to realize long-lifetime and high-rate batteries because of their poor conductivity, limited electroactivity, and severe dissolution. It is also urgent to deeply reveal their electrochemical mechanism and evolution processes. A porous organic polymer (POP) with a conjugated and hierarchical structure is designed and synthesized here. The unique molecule and structure endow the POP with electron delocalization, high ionic diffusivity, plentiful active sites, exceptional structure stability, and limited solubility in electrolytes. When evaluated as an anode for SIBs, the POP exhibits appealing electrochemical properties regarding reversible capacity, rate behaviors, and long-duration life. Importantly, using judiciously combined experiments and theoretical computation, including in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ex situ spectroscopy, we reveal the Na-storage mechanism and dynamic evolution processes of the POP, including 12-electron reaction process with Na, low volume expansion (125-106% vs the initial 100%), and stable composition and structure evolution during repeating sodiation/de-sodiation processes. This quantitative design for ultrafast and highly durable sodium storage in the POP could be of immediate benefit for the rational design of organic electrode materials with ideal electrochemical properties.

Mucor indicus caused disseminated infection diagnosed by metagenomic next-generation sequencing in an acute myeloid leukemia patient: A case report.

Background: Mucormycosis commonly occurs in immunosuppressed patients with hematological diseases, which can be life-threatening. However, many cases are often misdiagnosed due to lack of specific clinical manifestations. Additionally, the traditional blood culture or serological testing, with a high false-negative rate, is time-consuming. Thus, precise and timely diagnosis of infections is essential for the clinical care of infected patients. Case presentation: We report a 29-year-old Chinese man with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who developed febrile neutropenia after the first course of induction chemotherapy. He received empirical antibiotics, which did not relieve his symptoms. No pathogen was detected by traditional microbiologic assays, while Mucor indicus was identified by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in the blood specimen. Liposomal amphotericin B (LAmB) was used, resulting in the patient's temperature returning to normal. A few days later, abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed multiple liver abscesses; fluorescence staining, histopathology, and mNGS identified the causative agent-M. indicus. Posaconazole was combined with LAmB as long-term antifungal treatment. Finally, the patient received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation successfully after controlled infection. During follow-up 1 year after transplantation, the number of liver abscesses was reduced to one and remained stable. Conclusion: This report described the first case of an AML patient diagnosed with culture-negative disseminated infections caused by M. indicus leading to rare hepatic manifestations using mNGS of peripheral blood and liver biopsy. LAmB combined with posaconazole was given in time, resulting in a favorable outcome. mNGS is a new method that assists in detecting the probable pathogen and increases the accuracy of identifying an etiology.

An effective treatment and suspicious adverse reaction to Ibrutinib in a patient diagnosed with splenic B-cell lymphoma/leukaemia with prominent nucleoli: A first case report.

RATIONALE: Splenic B-cell lymphoma/leukemia with prominent nucleoli (SBLPN) is a new classification, which is so rare that it lacks clinical data. PATIENT CONCERNS: An increased proportion of prolymphocytes (84%) in the bone marrow smear. Whole exon sequence analysis revealed a TP53 mutation. DIAGNOSES: Combining the clinical features with laboratory test results led to a diagnosis of SBLPN which was made according to the 5th edition of the WHO classification of hematolymphoid tumors, although the patient was diagnosed with B-PLL when guided by the 4th edition of the WHO classification. INTERVENTIONS: The use of Ibrutinib as an effective treatment. OUTCOMES: The patient was in complete remission after 5 months of Ibrutinib and then died of sudden aortic dissection. LESSONS: Ibrutinib was an effective regimen for SBLPN. Aortic dissection might be considered as a suspicious adverse reaction to Ibrutinib.

14N NMR as a General Tool to Characterize the Nitrogen-Containing Species and Monitor the Nitration Process.

The usefulness of 14N NMR spectroscopy was highly underestimated compared with 15N NMR, which usually required tedious and expensive 15N-labeling manipulations. It is of great significance to make the 14N NMR spectroscopy convenient and useful considering 14N nuclei's high natural abundance of 99.6%. Herein, lots of efforts have been made to generalize routine 14N NMR to characterize nitrogen-containing species by tuning the balance between the solubility and viscosity of the samples. Satisfactory 14N NMR spectra of more than 60 nitrogen-containing compounds have been recorded, and the chemical shifts and the peaks' full width at half-maxima of more than 10 nitrogen-based functionalities have been summarized. Successful monitoring of the ortho-selective nitration of aniline has been demonstrated using the 14N NMR protocol developed in this paper, which will help realize the visualization of nitration processes in the industry.

15N Solid-State NMR as Bright Eyes to See the Isomerization of the Azo Bond: Revision of Tris(ß-hydroxyl-azo)-benzene to Tris(ß-keto-hydrazo)-cyclohexane in Porous Organic Polymers.

Porous organic polymers (POPs) have aroused great and wide attention from the materials community, while the identification of their precise structures is still very challenging. The well-defined structures are of great importance in understanding the relationship between the structure and function of the polymer materials, though they are sometimes ignored and do not receive enough attention. In this letter, an efficient 15N labeling technique and 15N solid-state NMR (15N-SSNMR) were combined to obtain strong evidence for the presence of the azo bond and keto-hydrazone structure in the solid state. Thus, the structure of tris(ß-hydroxyl-azo)-benzene in previously proposed hydroxylazobenzene polymers was revised to tris(ß-keto-hydrazo)-cyclohexane in TKH-POPs for the first time. In contrast, similar tautomerization did not occur in the azo coupling polymerization of 1,3,5-triaminobenzene and diazonium salts, i.e., tris(ß-amino-azo)-benzene remained in Azo-POPs. This work will open up a window to develop innovative porous organic polymers more efficiently with the aid of 15N-SSNMR.

Irreversible tautomerization as a powerful tool to access unprecedented functional porous organic polymers with a tris(ß-keto-hydrazo)cyclohexane subunit (TKH-POPs).

Porous organic polymers (POPs) have received much attention, due to their multiple potential applications and flexibility in chemical structure design. Creation of a novel chemical structure has been the central task in the research of POPs, which are usually constructed by direct coupling polymerizations. The fascinating rearrangement/tautomerization could lead to some novel structures, which are hard to access by conventional direct coupling polymerizations. Herein, the tautomerization from tris(ß-hydroxyl-azo)benzene to the tris(ß-keto-hydrozo)cyclohexane structure has been proved unambiguously based on an advanced 2D NMR technique such as 15N-1H-HSQC and 1H-1H-NOESY. The crucial tautomerization was used to synthesize TKH-POPs for the first time. The as-synthesized TKH-POP-1 was found to have an adsorption capacity as high as 66.3 mmol g-1 (at 273 K and P/P0 = 0.98) towards acetonitrile vapor, which was the highest among all the reported materials. The general and flexible strategy to make functional POPs with tunable pores such as ultramicropores, micropores and mesopores will help develop interesting functional POPs in the near future.

Treatment of refractory secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis with umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an aggressive and life-threatening syndrome of excessive immune activation. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) generate an immunosuppressive microenvironment by secreting cytokines and have been used to treat autoimmune diseases. We report the first case of refractory secondary HLH treated with umbilical cord MSCs. A 52-year-old Chinese female patient with a history of type 2 diabetes was diagnosed with refractory secondary HLH based upon the HLH-2004 protocol and was treated by infusion of third-party umbilical cord MSCs (1.4 × 106 cells/kg of body weight, 70 × 106 cells in total) from the stem cell bank of Hainan Province. Body temperature recovered to normal on the sixth day after infusion with umbilical cord MSCs, and the levels of inflammatory factors macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α, interleukin (IL)-12p70, stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1α, and IL-7 decreased significantly. Blood glucose levels were significantly lower than before treatment, and the amount of insulin needed was significantly reduced. Umbilical cord MSCs can relieve the symptoms of refractory secondary HLH and have a therapeutic effect on insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Distinguishing iron deficiency anemia from thalassemia by the red blood cell lifespan with a simple CO breath test: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Extant indices for distinguishing between iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia (Thal) have substantial practical limitations. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the predictive value of red blood cell lifespan (RBCLS), as determined by an automated CO breath test analysis approach, in the differential diagnosis of these two common forms of microcytic hypochromic anemia (MHA). METHODS: RBCLS measurements were conducted in 35 healthy controls (HCs) and 114 patients diagnosed with MHA (IDA, N = 59; and Thal, N = 55) with ELS TESTER that provides a direct RBCLS value read-out. RBCLS between IDA and Thal was compared and evaluated by referring to normal cut-off from the instrument. RESULTS: Compared with that in HCs, RBCLS in IDA and Thal groups was shortened; and median RBCLS was shorter in the Thal group than that in IDA group (33 d versus 79 d, p < 0.001). The median RBCLS in IDA patients with chronic gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding was shorter than that those without GI bleeding (38 d versus 100 d, p < 0.001). Using 75 d as a cut-off, RBCLS had a sensitivity of 96.4% and a specificity of 50.8% for detecting Thal. When GI bleeding patients were excluded from the IDA group, discriminant efficiency of RBCLS was further improved. CONCLUSIONS: MHA with a normal RBCLS is suggestive of IDA, whereas MHA with a significantly shortened RBCLS without signs of chronic GI bleeding is suggestive of Thal.