Danielsboyette6684

The development of efficient sulfur host materials to address the shuttle effect issues of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) is crucial in the lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, but still challenging. In the present study, a novel yolk shell structured MgCo-LDH/ZIF-67 composite is designed as Li-S battery cathode. In this composite, the shell layer is MgCo layered double hydroxide constructed by partially etching ZIF-67 nanoparticle by Mg2+, and the core is the unreacted ZIF-67 particle. The unique yolk shell structure not only provides abundant pores for sulfur accommodation, but also facilitates the electrolyte penetration and ion transport. The ZIF-67 core exhibits strong polar adsorption to LiPSs through the Lewis acid-base interactions, and the micropores/mesoporous can further trap LiPSs. Meanwhile, the MgCo-LDH shell exposes enough sulfur-philic sites for enhancing chemisorption and catalyzes the LiPSs conversion. As a result, when MgCo-LDH/ZIF-67 is used as sulfur host in the cathode, the cell achieves a high discharge capacity of 1121 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C, and an areal capacity of 5.0 mAh cm-2 under the high sulfur loading of 5.8 mg cm-2. The S/MgCo-LDH/ZIF-67 electrode holds a promising potential for the development of Li-S batteries.For the electrochemcial hydrogen production, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a pivotal half-reaction in water splitting. However, OER suffers sluggish kinetics and high overpotential, leading to the increase of overall energy consumption and decrease of the energy efficiency. In this work, high-quality cobalt oxide porous nanotubes (Co3O4-PNTs) are easily obtained by simple self-template approach. One-dimensional (1D) porous structure provides the large specific surface area, enough abundant active atoms and effective mass transfer. In addition, Co3O4-PNTs also own self-stability of 1D architecture, benefitting the their durability for electrocatalytic reaction. Thus, Co3O4-PNTs with optimal annealing temperature and time reveal the attractive alkaline OER performance (Tafel slope of 56 mV dec-1 and 323 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm-2), which outperform the Co3O4 nanoparticles and benchmark commercial RuO2 nanoparticles. Furthermore, Co3O4-PNTs also exhibit excellent OER durability for least 10 h at the 10 mA cm-2. Overall, Co3O4-PNTs with low cost can be serve as a highly reactive and economical catalyst for OER.Robotic systems for complex tasks, such as search and rescue or exploration, are limited for wheeled designs, thus the study of legged locomotion for robotic applications has become increasingly important. To successfully navigate in regions with rough terrain, a robot must not only be able to negotiate obstacles, but also climb steep inclines. Following the principles of biomimetics, we developed a modular bio-inspired climbing robot, named X4, which mimics the lizard's bauplan including an actuated spine, shoulders, and feet which interlock with the surface via claws. We included the ability to modify gait and hardware parameters and simultaneously collect data with the robot's sensors on climbed distance, slip occurrence and efficiency. We first explored the speed-stability trade-off and its interaction with limb swing phase dynamics, finding a sigmoidal pattern of limb movement resulted in the greatest distance travelled. By modifying foot orientation, we found two optima for both speed and stability, suggesting multiple stable configurations. We varied spine and limb range of motion, again showing two possible optimum configurations, and finally varied the centre of pro- and retraction on climbing performance, showing an advantage for protracted limbs during the stride. We then stacked optimal regions of performance and show that combining optimal dynamic patterns with either foot angles or ROM configurations have the greatest performance, but further optima stacking resulted in a decrease in performance, suggesting complex interactions between kinematic parameters. The search of optimal parameter configurations might not only be beneficial to improve robotic in-field operations but may also further the study of the locomotive evolution of climbing of animals, like lizards or insects.Increasing evidence from cancer cell fusion with different cell types in the tumor microenvironment has suggested a probable mechanism for how metastasis-initiating cells could be generated in tumors. TRC051384 molecular weight Although human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) have been known as promising candidates to create hybrid cells with cancer cells, the role of hMSCs in fusion with cancer cells is still controversial. Here, we fabricated a liver-on-a-chip platform to monitor the fusion of liver hepatocellular cells (HepG2) with hMSCs and study their invasive potential. We demonstrated that hMSCs might play dual roles in HepG2 spheroids. The analysis of tumor growth with different fractions of hMSCs in HepG2 spheroids revealed hMSCs' role in preventing HepG2 growth and proliferation, while the hMSCs presented in the HepG2 spheroids led to the generation of HepG2-hMSC hybrid cells with much higher invasiveness compared to HepG2. These invasive HepG2-hMSC hybrid cells expressed high levels of markers associated with stemness, proliferation, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and matrix deposition, which corresponded to the expression of these markers for hMSCs escaping from hMSC spheroids. In addition, these fused cells were responsible for collective invasion following HepG2 by depositing Collagen I and Fibronectin in their surrounding microenvironment. Furthermore, we showed that hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) could also be fused with HepG2, and the HepG2-HSC hybrid cells possessed similar features to those from HepG2-hMSC fusion. This fusion of HepG2 with liver-resident HSCs may propose a new potential mechanism of hepatic cancer metastasis.Visual detection based on gold nanorods (AuNRs) has gained tremendous attention in sensing applications owing to the potential for simple, inexpensive, instrument-free, and on-site detection. The proper selection of the mechanism involved in the interaction between the analyte and the nanostructure plays a significant role in designing a selective and multicolorimetric probe for visual purposes. A winning mechanism to develop multicolorimetric probes is the silver metalization of AuNRs. Herein, an unprecedented idea is presented to expand the variety of multicolorimetric sensors relying on the mechanism of silver deposition. We introduce the anti-silver deposition mechanism in which the analyte directly or indirectly restrains the silver coating of AuNRs. To ascertain the anti-silver deposition mechanism, we have exploited the proposed idea for the direct detection of nitrate. The presence of nitrate (as restrainer agent), which was firstly treated with ascorbic acid (as reducing agent), induced a decrease in the spectral blueshift of AuNRs along with diverse sharp color transitions from reddish-orange (blank) to maroon, wine, berry/purple, dark blue, teal, green, seafoam, and mint. The difference in the surface area of the probe's spectra in the absent (Sₒ) and presence (S) of nitrate were linearly proportional to nitrate concentration in the range of 0.5 to 5.5 mmol L-1 and the limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 465 µmol L-1. Furthermore, the practicability of the multicolor probe was assessed by the determination of nitrate in complex environmental samples.Objective.Magnetorelaxometry imaging (MRXI) is an experimental imaging technique applicable for noninvasive, qualitative and quantitative imaging of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Accurate reconstructions of nanoparticle distributions are crucial for several novel treatment methods employing MNPs such as magnetic drug targeting or magnetic hyperthermia therapy. Hence, it is desirable to design MRXI setups such that the reconstruction accuracy is maximized for a given set of design parameters. Several attempts exist in literature that focus on the improvement of MRXI and other related linear inverse problems with respect to various figures of merit. However, to date it remains unclear, which approach leads to the largest benefit for the reconstruction accuracy. Thus, the aim of this study is to compare the different figures of merit, thereby determining the most reliable and effective optimization approach for magnetorelaxometry setups.Approach.In the present simulation study, we translate these figures of merit to various cost functions, allowing us to optimize the electromagnetic coil positions and radii of two distinct MRXI setups with an adapted tabu search algorithm. Multiple artificial MNP phantoms are reconstructed employing the optimized setups and the resulting imaging qualities are subsequently compared.Main results.The extensive amount of generated synthetic data unprecedented in previous MRXI studies identifies the condition number as the most reliable indicator for good imaging results. This is the case for both the qualitative as well as the quantitative reconstruction accuracies.Significance.The results of this study show that optimized coil configurations increase the reconstruction quality compared to the state-of-the-art. The insights obtained here can also be extended to other design parameters of MRXI setups, thus enabling more reliable reconstructions of MNP ensembles which will ultimately render the aforementioned treatment methods safer and more efficient.

The purpose of this study was to perform preliminary pre-clinical tests to compare the dosimetric quality of two approaches to treating moving tumors with ion beams synchronously delivering the beam with the motion of a moving planning target volume (PTV) using the recently developed multi-phase 4D dose delivery (MP4D) approach, and asynchronously delivering the ion beam to a motion-encompassing internal tumor volume (ITV) combined with rescanning.

We created 4D optimized treatment plans with proton and carbon ion beams for two patients who had previously received treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. For each patient, we created several treatment plans, using approaches with and without motion mitigation MP4D, ITV with rescanning, static deliveries to a stationary PTV, and deliveries to a moving tumor without motion compensation. Two sets of plans were optimized with margins or robust uncertainty scenarios. Each treatment plan was delivered using a recently-developed motion-synchronized dose deliveryings suggest that the MP4D approach, using an M-DDS, provides conformal motion mitigation, with full target coverage and lower OAR doses.

Neuromodulation of visceral nerves is being intensively studied for treating a wide range of conditions, but effective translation requires increasing the efficacy and predictability of neural interface performance. Here we use computational models of rat visceral nerve to predict how neuroanatomical variability could affect both electrical stimulation and recording with an experimental planar neural interface.

We developed a hybrid computational pipeline, Visceral Nerve Ensemble Recording & Stimulation (ViNERS), to couple finite-element modelling of extracellular electrical fields with biophysical simulations of individual axons. Anatomical properties of fascicles and axons in rat pelvic and vagus nerves were measured or obtained from public datasets. To validate ViNERS, we simulated pelvic nerve stimulation and recording with an experimental four-electrode planar array.

Axon diameters measured from pelvic nerve were used to model a population of myelinated and unmyelinated axons and simulate recordings of electrically evoked single-unit field potentials (SUFPs).