The mitigation of pitch-derived carbon with different structures on the volume expansion of silicon in Si/C composite anode

The microstructures of carbon precursors significantly affect the electrochemical performance of Si/C composite anodes.However,the interaction between Si and carbon materials with different structures is still unclear.Pitch-based materials undergoing different thermal treatments are superior sources for synthesizing carbons with different structures.Herein,different types of mesophase pitch(domain,flow-domain and mosaic structure) obtained from controllable thermal condensation are utilized to prepare Si/C composite materials and the corresponding models are established through finite element simulation to explore the correlation between the lithium storage properties of Si/C composites and the structures of carbon materials.The results indicate that the flow-domain texture pitch P2 has a better ability to buffer the volume expansion of silicon particles for its highly ordered arrangement of carbon crystallites inside could disperse the swelling stress uniformly alongside the particle surface.The sample Si@P2 exhibits the highest capacity of 1328 mA h/g after 200 cycles at a current density of 0.1 A/g as well as the best rate performance and stability.While sample Si@P3 in which the mosaic texture pitch P3 composed of random orientation of crystallites undergoes the fastest capacity decay.These findings suggest that highly ordered carbon materials are more suitable for the synthesis of Si/C composite anodes and provide insights for understanding the interaction between carbon and silicon during the charging/discharging process.

A Validation Study of the Deep-Learning-Based Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System Scoring Algorithm

Purpose: The Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) was introduced to standardize prostate cancer diagnosis by MRI. However, the inter-reader agreement by PI-RADS scoring is not always high. The purpose of this study was to validate a deep-learning-based diagnostic algorithm of PI-RADS. Methods: We applied a Siemens Healthineers Prostate Artificial Intelligence (AI) prototype (work in progress) for fully automated prostate lesion detection, classification and reporting. More than 2000 bi-parametric MRI studies along with the PI-RADS reports were included as training, validation, and test data. This prospective validation study includes 101 consecutive patients suspected of prostate cancer, and 100 patients were included in the analysis. All subjects underwent a noncontrast-enhanced bi-parametric MRI including T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging. Two board-certified radiologists independently scored the PI-RADS, and if there were disagreements;another radiologist confirmed the diagnosis. We compared the AI results with the interpretation results by the radiologists. Results: The sensitivity of our AI model for PI-RADS ≥ 4 was 0.76, and the specificity was 0.76. For the cases with PI-RADS ≥ 3, the sensitivity was 0.69, and the specificity was 0.76. In the lesion-based analysis, AI detection rates of PI-RADS 3, 4, 5 lesions in the peripheral zone were 43%, 63%, and 100%, respectively. In the transition zone, AI detection rates of PI-RADS 3, 4, 5 were 30%, 54%, and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: Our deep-learning-based algorithm has been validated and shown to help score PI-RADS.

Numerical and experimental research of flow control on an NACA 0012 airfoil by local vibration

A flow control technique by local vibration is proposed to improve the aerodynamic performance of a typical airfoil NACA 0012. Both wind-tunnel experiments and a large eddy simulation(LES) are carried out to study the effects of local vibration on drag reduction over a wide range of angles of attack. The application parameters of local vibration on the upper surface of the airfoil are first evaluated by numerical simulations.The mounted position is chosen at 0.065–0.09 of chord length from the leading edge.The influence of oscillation frequency is investigated both by numerical simulations and experiments. The optimal frequencies are near the dominant frequencies of shear layer vortices and wake vortices. The patterns of shear vortices caused by local vibration are also studied to determine the drag reduction mechanism of this flow control method. The results indicate that local vibration can improve the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil. In particular, it can reduce the drag by changing the vortex generation patterns.

Impact of short-term ambient air pollution exposure on the risk of severe COVID-19

Ecological studies suggested a link between air pollution and severe COVID-19 outcomes,while studies accounting for individual-level characteristics are limited.In the present study,we aimed to investigate the impact of short-term ambient air pollution exposure on disease severity among a cohort of 569 laboratory confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to designated hospitals in Zhejiang province,China,from January 17 to March 3,2020,and elucidate the possible biological processes involved using transcriptomics.Compared with mild cases,severe cases had higher proportion of medical conditions as well as unfavorable results in most of the laboratory tests,and manifested higher air pollution exposure levels.Higher exposure to air pollutants was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 with odds ratio(OR)of 1.89(95%confidence interval(CI):1.01,3.53),2.35(95%CI:1.20,4.61),2.87(95%CI:1.68,4.91),and 2.01(95%CI:1.10,3.69)for PM_(2.5),PM_(10),NO_(2)and CO,respectively.OR for NO_(2)remained significant in two-pollutant models after adjusting for other pollutants.Transcriptional analysis showed 884 differentially expressed genes which mainly were enriched in virus clearance related biological processes between patients with high and low NO_(2)exposure levels,indicating that compromised immune response might be a potential underlying mechanistic pathway.These findings highlight the impact of shortterm air pollution exposure,particularly for NO_(2),on COVID-19 severity,and emphasize the significance in mitigating the COVID-19 burden of commitments to improve air quality.

The proatherosclerotic function of indoleamine 2, 3- dioxygenase 1 in the developmental stage of atherosclerosis

The discrepancy of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1(IDO1)function in atherosclerosis has been noted.Compared to the protective effect of IDO1 against established atherogenesis,the role of IDO1 in the developmental process of atherosclerosis is still unclear.Here,the expression patterns and activities of IDO1 and its isoenzyme tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase(TDO)in aortas and blood samples of patients with atherosclerosis were investigated.IDO1 and TDO were colocalized with CD3-positive lymphocytes and CD68-positive macrophages in atherosclerotic lesions.The expression and activity of IDO1 and TDO increased with the grade of the histological classification in early atherosclerosis(grade I,II),but the increase did not continue in advanced atherosclerosis(grade III).Treatment of THP-1 macrophages(THP-M)with oxidized low-density lipoprotein(oxLDL)induced the expression of IDO1 via the PI3K/Akt/NF-κB pathway,indicating the potential function of IDO1 in foam cells.Before and after treatment with oxLDL on THP-M,IFN-γ-induced IDO1 exhibited different degrees of promotion on foaming,inflammatory factor production and cell apoptosis.Finally,we found that the IDO1 inhibitor 1-methyl-tryptophan could elevate the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level in serum and reduce the area of the aortic atherosclerotic lesions in high-fat diet-fed ApoE−/−mice.Our study indicated that IDO1 played a complicated and unfixed role in the entire process of atherogenesis,despite the atheroprotective role in established atherosclerosis.IDO1 also had proatherosclerotic functions in the developmental stages of atherosclerosis.Modulation of IDO1 could be a good method for alleviating atherosclerosis.

An intelligent serological SERS test toward early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis through ultrasensitive nanobiosensing

Early or very early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is an effective means to resolve the low cure rates,but there currently lacks a method that fulfills clinical requirements.One of the most prospective approaches to detecting early-stage HCC is directly testing a compendium of disease-relevant biomolecules contained within human serum through surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)nanobiosensing and recognizing the biomolecular patterns.We report a novel Si-based bimetallic nanoensembles-functionalized SERS substrate(its analytical enhancement factor reaches 1.47×10^(12))and introduce an ultrasensitive nanobiosensing for capturing the subtle characteristic changes in SERS spectra caused by HCC,hepatitis B,or cirrhosis.Toward early diagnosis,we created an intelligent serological test with this nanobiosensing and the deep learning algorithm to gain key biomolecular phenotypes of early-stage HCC.Using clinical samples from four target populations(normal,HCC,cirrhosis,and hepatitis B),the proof-of-principle result indicates that the test yielded a predictive accuracy of 98.75%on a held-out dataset(randomly drew 4 out of 28 samples per population).On the same held-out dataset,the sensitivity and specificity of the test were both 100%for distinguishing HCC.Such a new-concept liquid biopsy could provide an opportunity for early diagnosis of HCC.

Effects of angiotensin Ⅱ receptor blocker usage on viral load,antibody dynamics, and transcriptional characteristics among COVID-19 patients with hypertension

Epidemiological evidence suggests that patients with hypertension infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)are at increased risk of acute lung injury.However,it is still not clear whether this increased risk is related to the usage of renin-angiotensin system(RAS)blockers.We collected medical records of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)patients from the First Affiliated Hospital,Zhejiang University School of Medicine(Hangzhou,China),and evaluated the potential impact of an angiotensin II receptor blocker(ARB)on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients with hypertension.A total of 30 hypertensive COVID-19 patients were enrolled,of which 17 were classified as non-ARB group and the remaining 13 as ARB group based on the antihypertensive therapies they received.Compared with the non-ARB group,patients in the ARB group had a lower proportion of severe cases and intensive care unit(ICU)admission as well as shortened length of hospital stay,and manifested favorable results in most of the laboratory testing.Viral loads in the ARB group were lower than those in the non-ARB group throughout the disease course.No significant difference in the time of seroconversion or antibody levels was observed between the two groups.The median levels of soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2(sACE2)in serum and urine samples were similar in both groups,and there were no significant correlations between serum sACE2 and biomarkers of disease severity.Transcriptional analysis showed 125 differentially expressed genes which mainly were enriched in oxygen transport,bicarbonate transport,and blood coagulation.Our results suggest that ARB usage is not associated with aggravation of COVID-19.These findings support the maintenance of ARB treatment in hypertensive patients diagnosed with COVID-19.