Addressing practical challenges of LiB cells in their pack applications.

In a battery pack, several lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are connected in series and parallel so that sufficient voltage, current and power can be provided for applications. To ensure safe operation, when one of the LiB cells in a pack has its SoH below 80%, the entire pack will have to be discarded. Thus, ensuring all the LiB cells degrade similarly in a pack is crucial to maximize the potential of all the cells in a pack. There are several methods to perform screening on the LiB cells for such purpose, but there exist many practical challenges for estimating and predicting the degradation rate of the cells before they are chosen to be put in a pack which will be described in this work. This work provides solutions to some of these challenges and shows through experiments that one can screen the weak cells from production batch with just the first discharge cycle, and one can also predict the statistical distribution of the degradation rates of LiB cells in a production batch. On-line in-situ determination of the SoH of each cell connected in a pack is also made possible with a solution presented in this work, and this method is verified over many different types of LiB from various manufacturers.

Microbial Diversity of Anaerobic-Fermented Coffee and Potential for Inhibiting Ochratoxin-Produced Aspergillus niger.

Coffee flavor considerably depends on the fermentation process, with contributing factors including fermentation temperature, oxygen concentration, and microbial diversity. Efficient controlling of the fermentation can improve the quality of coffee beverages. Therefore, several studies on coffee fermentation processes have been conducted in various regions. The objective of this study was to assess the microbial diversity of coffee beans undergoing anaerobic fermentation at various temperatures (4 °C or 37 °C) and fermentation durations (12 h or 36 h) using full-length 16S rRNA sequencing. This analysis aimed to evaluate the inhibitory effects of the fermented metabolites against ochratoxin-producing Aspergillus niger. From our results, Acetobacter was identified as the dominant microbial community at higher fermentation temperatures, whereas Leuconostoc and Gluconobacter were the dominant genera at lower temperatures. However, at lower temperatures, changes in microbial communities were relatively slow. This study expands our knowledge of the microbial diversity involved in the anaerobic fermentation of coffee beans in Taiwan. The findings of this study can be used in future research to cultivate microorganisms linked to the quality and improve the quality of coffee beverages through fermentation.

Postural and muscular responses while viewing different heights of screen.

This study aimed to examine the effects of visual display terminal (VDT) viewing angle on human postural angle and muscular activity. The participants' neck, thoracic bending, and trunk inclination angles; and the activity of sternocleidomastoid, trapezius, splenius capitis, and erector spinae at 5 viewing angles (+40°, +20°, 0°, -20°, and -40°) of a VDT screen were collected for 1 min. This study showed that neck and thoracic bending angles increased with viewing angle, while viewing angle did not significantly affect trunk inclination angle. In addition, the activity of trapezius and erector spinae increased when viewing a higher or lower VDT screen height compared with viewing a horizontal VDT screen height; however, the activity of splenius capitis decreased with viewing angle.

Reconstruction of the skin defect of the knee using a reverse anterolateral thigh island flap: cases report.

A reverse anterolateral thigh island flap with the dimensions of 6 x 3, 15 x 6, and 26 x 8 cm, respectively, was elevated in 3 patients to repair the skin defects in the knee resulting from crush injuries. The pedicle of the flap was isolated in a retrograde fashion along the descending branch of the lateral circumflex femoral artery to obtain sufficient length until the pivot point was reached. The distal point of the defect to which the flap could reach for the reconstruction was 12 cm below the knee. All flaps survived, but skin necrosis occurred in the margins of those 2 large flaps. With a wide arc of rotation and sufficient skin paddle, the reverse anterolateral thigh island flap based on reverse flow is a good option for repairing skin defect around the knee; however, a staged or delayed operation might be considered in elevating a large flap.