Anchoring Active Li Metal in Oriented Channel by In Situ Formed Nucleation Sites Enabling Durable Lithium-Metal Batteries.

Lithium metal is the ultimate anode material for pursuing the increased energy density of rechargeable batteries. However, fatal dendrites growth and huge volume change seriously hinder the practical application of lithium metal batteries (LMBs). In this work, a lithium host that preinstalled CoSe nanoparticles on vertical carbon vascular tissues (VCVT/CoSe) is designed and fabricated to resolve these issues, which provides sufficient Li plating space with a robust framework, enabling dendrite-free Li deposition. Their inherent N sites coupled with the in situ formed lithiophilic Co sites loaded at the interface of VCVT not only anchor the initial Li nucleation seeds but also accelerate the Li+ transport kinetics. Meanwhile, the Li2 Se originated from the CoSe conversion contributes to constructing a stable solid-electrolyte interphase with high ionic conductivity. This optimized Li/VCVT/CoSe composite anode exhibits a prominent long-term cycling stability over 3000 h with a high areal capacity of 10 mAh cm-2 . When paired with a commercial nickel-rich LiNi0.83 Co0.12 Mn0.05 O2 cathode, the full-cell presents substantially enhanced cycling performance with 81.7% capacity retention after 300 cycles at 0.2 C. Thus, this work reveals the critical role of guiding Li deposition behavior to maintain homogeneous Li morphology and pave the way to stable LMBs.

Vishniacozyma pseudocarnescens sp. nov., a new anamorphic tremellomycetous yeast species.

Three strains belonging to the basidiomycetous yeast genus Vishniacozyma were isolated from marine water samples collected from intertidal zones in Liaoning province, northeast China. Phylogenetic analyses based on the sequences of the small subunit (SSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA), the D1/D2 domain of the large subunit (LSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA), the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS), the two subunits of DNA polymerase II (RPB1 and RPB2), the translation elongation factor 1-α (TEF1), and the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b (CYTB) showed that these strains together with 20 strains from various geographic and ecological origins from other regions of the world represent a novel species in the genus Vishniacozyma. We propose the name Vishniacozyma pseudocarnescens sp. nov. (holotype CGMCC 2.6457) for the new species, which differs phenotypically from its close relatives V. carnescens, V. tephrensis, and V. victoriae by its ability to grow at 30 °C and on 50 % (w/v) glucose-yeast extract agar.

Cystofilobasidium josepaulonis sp. nov., a novel basidiomycetous yeast species.

A yeast strain belonging to the basidiomycetous yeast genus Cystofilobasidium was isolated from a marine sediment sample collected in an intertidal zone in Shandong province, PR China. The results of phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of the D1/D2 domain of the 26S ribosomal RNA gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region indicate that this strain, together with three other strains isolated from basal ice collected in Norway, the gut of an insect and an alga collected in Russia, represent a novel species of the genus, for which the name Cystofilobasidium josepaulonis sp. nov. (holotype strain CGMCC 2.6672T) is proposed. The novel species differs from the known species of the genus Cystofilobasidium by 1.7 %-4.1 and 11.3 %-17.1 % mismatches in the D1/D2 domain and the ITS region, respectively. This species forms teliospores on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and 10 % V8 juice agar, but teliospore germination with basidia was not observed.

Record-High Electron Mobility Exceeding 16 cm2 V- 1 s- 1 in Bisisoindigo-Based Polymer Semiconductor with a Fully Locked Conjugated Backbone.

Polymer semiconductors with mobilities exceeding 10 cm2 V- 1 s- 1 , especially ambipolar and n-type polymer semiconductors, are still rare, although they are of great importance for fabricating polymer field-effect transistors (PFETs) toward commercial high-grade electronics. Herein, two novel donor-acceptor copolymers, PNFFN-DTE and PNFFN-FDTE, are designed and synthesized based on the electron-deficient bisisoindigo (NFFN) and electron-rich dithienylethylenes (DTE or FDTE). The copolymer PNFFN-DTE, containing NFFN and DTE, possesses a partially locked polymeric conjugated backbone, whereas PNFFN-FDTE, containing NFFN and FDTE, has a fully locked one. Fluorine atoms in FDTE not only induce the formation of additional CH∙∙∙F hydrogen bonds, but also lower frontier molecular orbitals for PNFFN-FDTE. Both PNFFN-DTE and PNFFN-FDTE form more ordered molecular packing in thin films prepared from a polymer solution in bicomponent solvent containing 1,2-dichlorobenzene (DCB) and 1-chloronaphthalene (with volume ratio of 99.2/0.8) than pure DCB. The two copolymers-based flexible PFETs exhibit ambipolar charge-transport properties. Notably, the bicomponent solvent-processed PNFFN-FDTE-based PFETs afford a high electron mobility of 16.67 cm2 V-1 s-1 , which is the highest electron-transport mobility for PFETs reported so far. The high electron mobility of PNFFN-FDTE is attributed to its fully locked conjugated backbone, dense molecular packing, and much matched LUMO energy level.

Yeast Diversity in the Qaidam Basin Desert in China with the Description of Five New Yeast Species.

The Qaidam Basin is the highest and one of the largest and driest deserts on Earth. It is considered a mars analog area in China. In contrast to numerous studies concerning its geology, geophysical, and chemistry, relatively few studies have reported microbial diversity and distribution in this area. Here, we investigated culturable yeast diversity in the northeast Qaidam Basin. A total of 194 yeast strains were isolated, and 12 genera and 21 species were identified, among which 19 were basidiomycetous yeasts. Naganishia albida, N. adeliensis, and Filobasidium magnum were the three most dominant species and were distributed in thirteen samples from eight locations. Five new species (Filobasidium chaidanensis, Kondoa globosum, Symmetrospora salmoneus, Teunia nitrariae, and Vishniacozyma pseudodimennae) were found and described based on ITS and D1D2 gene loci together with phenotypic characteristics and physiochemical analysis. Representative strains from each species were chosen for the salt-tolerant test, in which species showed different responses to different levels of NaCl concentrations. Further, the strain from soil can adapt well to the higher salt stress compared to those from plants or lichens. Our study represents the first report of the yeast diversity in the Qaidam Basin, including five new species, and also provides further information on the halotolerance of yeasts from the saline environment in mars analog.

Stenotrophomonas nematodicola sp. nov., isolated from Caenorhabditis elegans.

A Gram stain-negative, coccoid rod-shaped, motile by gliding, facultatively aerobic bacterium, designated W5, was isolated from Caenorhabditis elegans samples in Baotianman Natural Reserve (33° 27' 47'' N; 111° 48' 32'' E), Nanyang, China. The isolate was characterized taxonomically using a polyphasic approach. The 16S rRNA gene of strain W5 exhibited 98.1-99.7% similarity to the 16S rRNA genes of members of the genus Stenotrophomonas, and < 98.0% similarities to those of other bacterial species in the family Lysobacteraceae. The most closely related strains were Stenotrophomonas rhizophila JCM 13333T (99.7%) and Stenotrophomonas bentonitica DSM 103927T (99.2%). The predominant respiratory quinone of the isolate is Q-8. The major fatty acids are iso-C15:0 (38.2%) and antesio-C15:0 (16.6%). The draft genome of strain W5 had a length of 4,402,751 bp and a DNA G + C content of 67.3 mol%. The ANI values between the draft genomes of strain W5 and its closest phylogenetic neighbors S. rhizophila JCM 1333T and S. bentonitica DSM 103927T were 84.7% and 85.0%, respectively. The DDH value between W5 and S. rhizophila JCM 13333T was 30.8%, which was the highest DDH level. We propose that strain W5 represents a novel bacterial species with the name Stenotrophomonas nematodicola sp. nov. and W5 as the type strain. The type strain is W5 (= CPCC 101271T = CGMCC 19401T = KCTC XXXT).

Bioselective Synthesis of a Porous Carbon Collector for High-Performance Sodium-Metal Anodes.

Biomass-derived carbon materials prepared via pyrolysis from natural wood structures show potential for a storage application. Natural wood is composed of multiple carbon sources, including lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose, which influence the formation and microstructure of pyrolysis carbon. However, the mechanism is not fully understood. In this work, vast lignin is selectively consumed via biodegradation with fungi from basswood. The results demonstrate that the as-prepared carbon material has a short-range ordered graphitic structure after thermal treatment. The improved graphitization degree of carbon suggests that cellulose is beneficial to graphite formation during pyrolysis. The elevated graphitization degree helps to improve the charge transfer and the thermodynamic stability of the electrode reaction. As a proof of concept, the obtained carbon current collector as a sodium-metal anode can undergo cycling at an areal capacity of 10 mAh cm-2 for over 4500 h and yield an excellent Coulombic efficiency of >99.5%.

Online compensation detecting for real-time reduction of compensatory motions during reaching: a pilot study with stroke survivors.

BACKGROUND: Compensations are commonly observed in patients with stroke when they engage in reaching without supervision; these behaviors may be detrimental to long-term functional improvement. Automatic detection and reduction of compensation cab help patients perform tasks correctly and promote better upper extremity recovery. OBJECTIVE: Our first objective is to verify the feasibility of detecting compensation online using machine learning methods and pressure distribution data. Second objective was to investigate whether compensations of stroke survivors can be reduced by audiovisual or force feedback. The third objective was to compare the effectiveness of audiovisual and force feedback in reducing compensation. METHODS: Eight patients with stroke performed reaching tasks while pressure distribution data were recorded. Both the offline and online recognition accuracy were investigated to assess the feasibility of applying a support vector machine (SVM) based compensation detection system. During reduction of compensation, audiovisual feedback was delivered using virtual reality technology, and force feedback was delivered through a rehabilitation robot. RESULTS: Good classification performance was obtained in online compensation recognition, with an average F1-score of over 0.95. Based on accurate online detection, real-time feedback significantly decreased compensations of patients with stroke in comparison with no-feedback condition (p < 0.001). Meanwhile, the difference between audiovisual and force feedback was also significant (p < 0.001) and force feedback was more effective in reducing compensation in patients with stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate online recognition validated the feasibility of monitoring compensations using machine learning algorithms and pressure distribution data. Reliable online detection also paved the way for reducing compensations by providing feedback to patients with stroke. Our findings suggested that real-time feedback could be an effective approach to reducing compensatory patterns and force feedback demonstrated a more enviable potential compared with audiovisual feedback.

Real-Time Detection of Compensatory Patterns in Patients With Stroke to Reduce Compensation During Robotic Rehabilitation Therapy.

OBJECTIVES: Compensations are commonly employed by patients with stroke during rehabilitation without therapist supervision, leading to suboptimal recovery outcomes. This study investigated the feasibility of the real-time monitoring of compensation in patients with stroke by using pressure distribution data and machine learning algorithms. Whether trunk compensation can be reduced by combining the online detection of compensation and haptic feedback of a rehabilitation robot was also investigated. METHODS: Six patients with stroke did three forms of reaching movements while pressure distribution data were recorded as Dataset1. A support vector machine (SVM) classifier was trained with features extracted from Dataset1. Then, two other patients with stroke performed reaching tasks, and the SVM classifier trained by Dataset1 was employed to classify the compensatory patterns online. Based on the real-time monitoring of compensation, a rehabilitation robot provided an assistive force to patients with stroke to reduce compensations. RESULTS: Good classification performance (F1 score > 0.95) was obtained in both offline and online compensation analysis using the SVM classifier and pressure distribution data of patients with stroke. Based on the real-time detection of compensatory patterns, the angles of trunk rotation, trunk lean-forward and trunk-scapula elevation decreased by 46.95%, 32.35% and 23.75%, respectively. CONCLUSION: High classification accuracies verified the feasibility of detecting compensation in patients with stroke based on pressure distribution data. Since the validity and reliability of the online detection of compensation has been verified, this classifier can be incorporated into a rehabilitation robot to reduce trunk compensations in patients with stroke.

Molecular mechanism of the smart attack of pathogenic bacteria on nematodes.

Nematode-bacterial associations are far-reaching subjects in view of their impact on ecosystems, economies, agriculture and human health. There is still no conclusion regarding which pathogenic bacteria sense nematodes. Here, we found that the pathogenic bacterium Bacillus nematocida B16 was sensitive to C. elegans and could launch smart attacks to kill the nematodes. Further analysis revealed that the spores of B. nematocida B16 are essential virulence factors. Once gaseous molecules (morpholine) produced from C. elegans were sensed, the sporulation of B16 was greatly accelerated. Then, B16 showed maximum attraction to C. elegans during the spore-forming process but had no attraction until all the spores were formed. The disruption of either the spore formation gene spo0A or the germination gene gerD impaired colonization and attenuated infection in B16. In contrast, complementation with the intact genes restored most of the above-mentioned deficient phenotypes, which indicated that the spo0A gene was a key factor in the smart attack of B16 on C. elegans. Further, transcriptome, molecular simulations and quantitative PCR analysis showed that morpholine from C. elegans could promote sporulation and initiate infection by increasing the transcription of the spo0A gene by decreasing the transcription of the rapA and spo0E genes. The overexpression of rapA or spo0E decreased the induced sporulation effect, and morpholine directly reduced the level of phosphorylation of purified recombinant RapA and Spo0E compared to that of Spo0A. Collectively, these findings further support a 'Trojan horse-like' infection model. The significance of our paper is that we showed that the soil-dwelling bacterium B. nematocida B16 has the ability to actively detect, attract and attack their host C. elegans. These studies are the first report on the behaviours, signalling molecules and mechanism of the smart attack of B16 on nematodes and also reveal new insights into microbe-host interactions.

Multisubstituted Azaisoindigo-Based Polymers for High-Mobility Ambipolar Thin-Film Transistors and Inverters.

Ambipolar semiconducting materials have great potential in complementary-like organic logic circuits. Accessing such logic circuits demands balanced hole and electron mobilities. However, the lack of ambipolar high-mobility polymer semiconductors with balanced charge carrier-transporting properties precludes the rapid development of organic logic circuits. In this context, structural modification of semiconductor materials to enhance the electron/hole transport is of great urgency. Herein, a multifunctionalization strategy is used to achieve this goal. Combined electron-withdrawing moieties involving fluorine and pyridinic nitrogen atoms can not only reduce the frontier molecular orbital energies but also planarize the polymer backbone, demonstrating synergetic effects on the control over the carrier injection process at the metal-semiconductor interface and microstructure-sensitive charge transport in the channel. A balanced ambipolar behavior with electron/hole mobilities of 3.88/3.44 cm2 V-1 s-1 was observed, and complementary-like inverters with high gains of greater than 200 were achieved. Microstructure and thin-film morphology were characterized to further reveal the relationship between device performances and macroscopic observables. This multifunctionalization strategy bodes well for developing new ambipolar semiconducting materials.