Separator Dependency on Cycling Stability of Lithium Metal Batteries Under Practical Conditions

Development of practical lithium(Li)metal batteries(LMBs)remains challenging despite promises of Li metal anodes(LMAs),owing to Li dendrite formation and highly reactive surface nature.Polyolefin separators used in LMBs may undergo severe mechanical and chemical deterioration when contacting with LMAs.To identify the best polyolefin separator for LMBs,this study investigated the separator-deterministic cycling stability of LMBs under practical conditions,and redefined the key influencing factors,including pore structure,mechanical stability,and chemical affinity,using 12 different commercial separators,including polyethylene(PE),polypropylene(PP),and coated separators.At extreme compression triggered by LMA swelling,isotropic stress release by balancing the machine direction and transverse direction tensile strengths was found to be crucial for mitigating cell short-circuiting.Instead of PP separators,a PE separator that possesses a high elastic modulus and a highly connected pore structure can uniformly regulate LMA swelling.The ceramic coating reinforced short-circuiting resistance,while the cycling efficiency degraded rapidly owing to the detrimental interactions between ceramics and LMAs.This study identified the design principle of separators for practical LMBs with respect to mechanical stability and chemical affinity toward LMAs by elucidating the impacts of separator modification on the cycling performance.

Programmable Logic Controller Block Monitoring System for Memory Attack Defense in Industrial Control Systems

Cyberattacks targeting industrial control systems(ICS)are becoming more sophisticated and advanced than in the past.A programmable logic controller(PLC),a core component of ICS,controls and monitors sensors and actuators in the field.However,PLC has memory attack threats such as program injection and manipulation,which has long been a major target for attackers,and it is important to detect these attacks for ICS security.To detect PLC memory attacks,a security system is required to acquire and monitor PLC memory directly.In addition,the performance impact of the security system on the PLC makes it difficult to apply to the ICS.To address these challenges,this paper proposes a system to detect PLC memory attacks by continuously acquiring and monitoring PLC memory.The proposed system detects PLC memory attacks by acquiring the program blocks and block information directly from the same layer as the PLC and then comparing them in bytes with previous data.Experiments with Siemens S7-300 and S7-400 PLC were conducted to evaluate the PLC memory detection performance and performance impact on PLC.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system detects all malicious organization block(OB)injection and data block(DB)manipulation,and the increment of PLC cycle time,the impact on PLC performance,was less than 1 ms.The proposed system detects PLC memory attacks with a simpler detection method than earlier studies.Furthermore,the proposed system can be applied to ICS with a small performance impact on PLC.

CD200Rhigghh neutrophils with dysfunctional autophagy establish systemic immunosuppression by increasing regulatory T cells

Distinct neutrophil populations arise during certain pathological conditions.The generation of dysfunctional neutrophils during sepsis and their contribution to septicemia-related systemic immune suppression remain unclear.In this study,using an experimental sepsis model that features immunosuppression,we identified a novel population of pathogenic CD200R^(high) neutrophils that are generated during the initial stages of sepsis and contribute to systemic immune suppression by enhancing regulatory T(T_(reg))cells.Compared to their CD200R^(low)counterparts,sepsis-generated CD200Rhigh neutrophils exhibit impaired autophagy and dysfunction,with reduced chemotactic migration,superoxide anion production,and TNF-αproduction.Increased soluble CD200 blocks autophagy and neutrophil maturation in the bone marrow during experimental sepsis,and recombinant CD200 treatment in vitro can induce neutrophil dysfunction similar to that observed in CD200R^(high) neutrophils.The administration of anα-CD200R antibody effectively reversed neutrophil dysfunction by enhancing autophagy and protecting against a secondary infection challenge,leading to increased survival.Transcriptome analysis revealed that CD200R^(high) neutrophils expressed high levels of Igf1,which elicits the generation of Treg cells,while the administration of anα-CD200R antibody inhibited Treg cell generation in a secondary infection model.Taken together,our findings revealed a novel CD200R^(high) neutrophil population that mediates the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced systemic immunosuppression by generating Treg cells.