Elucidating the Limit of Li Insertion into the Spinel Li4Ti5O12

In this work, we show that the well-known lithium-ion anode material, Li4Ti5O12, exhibits exceptionally high initial capacity of 310 mAh g-1 when it is discharged to 0.01 V. It maintains a reversible capacity of 230 mAh g-1, far exceeding the "theoretical" capacity of 175 mAh g-1 when this anode is lithiated to the composition Li7Ti5O12. Neutron diffraction analyses identify that additional Li reversibly enters into the Li7Ti5O12 to form Li8Ti5O12. density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal the average potentials of the Li4Ti5O12 to Li7Ti5O12 step and the Li7Ti5O12 to Li8Ti5O12 step are 1.57 and 0.19 V, respectively, which are in excellent agreement with experimental results. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies confirm that the irreversible capacity of Li4Ti5O12 during its first cycle originates from the formation of a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer. This work clarifies the fundamental lithiation mechanism of the Li4Ti5O12, when lithiated to 0.01 V vs Li

Walks on weighted networks

We investigate the dynamics of random walks on weighted networks. Assuming that the edge's weight and the node's strength are used as local information by a random walker, we study two kinds of walks, weight-dependent walk and strength-dependent walk. Exact expressions for stationary distribution and average return time are derived and confirmed by computer simulations. We calculate the distribution of average return time and the mean-square displacement for two walks on the BBV networks, and find that a weight-dependent walker can arrive at a new territory more easily than a strength-dependent one.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. minor modifications. Comments and suggestions are favored by the author

Photosynthesis-assisted remodeling of three-dimensional printed structures

The mechanical properties of engineering structures continuously weaken during service life because of material fatigue or degradation. By contrast, living organisms are able to strengthen their mechanical properties by regenerating parts of their structures. For example, plants strengthen their cell structures by transforming photosynthesis-produced glucose into stiff polysaccharides. In this work, we realize hybrid materials that use photosynthesis of embedded chloroplasts to remodel their microstructures. These materials can be used to three-dimensionally (3D)-print functional structures, which are endowed with matrix-strengthening and crack healing when exposed to white light. The mechanism relies on a 3D-printable polymer that allows for an additional cross-linking reaction with photosynthesis-produced glucose in the material bulk or on the interface. The remodeling behavior can be suspended by freezing chloroplasts, regulated by mechanical preloads, and reversed by environmental cues. This work opens the door for the design of hybrid synthetic-living materials, for applications such as smart composites, lightweight structures, and soft robotics

Pt Nanoparticles on Beta zeolites for Catalytic Toluene Oxidation: Effect of the Hydroxyl Groups of Beta Zeolite**

Stabilisation of metal species using hydroxyl-rich dealuminated zeolites is a promising method for catalysis. However, insights into the interactions between the hydroxyl groups in zeolite and noble metals and their effects on catalysis are not yet fully understood. Herein, comparative studies were conducted using Pt catalysts supported on hydroxyl-rich dealuminated Beta (deAl-Beta) and the pristine proton-form Beta (H-Beta) for catalytic oxidation of toluene. The findings suggest that during impregnation the Pt precursor (i. e., Pt(NH3)4(NO3)2) interacted with different sites on deAl-Beta and H-Beta, leading to the formation of supported Pt nanoparticles with different physicochemical properties. In detail, for H-Beta, the Pt precursor interacted with Al-OH and isolated external Si-OH sites, yielding Pt NPs with a higher Pt0 proportion of ~71 % compared to ~57 % Pt0 on deAl-Beta. Comparatively, abundant hydroxyl groups on deAl-Beta such as silanol nest and isolated internal Si-OH stabilised highly active Pt-O species. The resulting Pt/deAl-Beta exhibited improved activity and anti-coking ability than Pt/H-Beta in catalytic toluene oxidation. For example, the temperature for 50 % toluene conversion was 193 °C for Pt/deAl-Beta vs. 232 °C for Pt/H-Beta, and the coke deposition was 1.7 % vs. 6.7 % (after the 24-h longevity test), respectively. According to the toluene-temperature programmed desorption (toluene-TPD), 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) relaxation and in situ diffuse reflection Fourier transform spectroscopy (in situ DRIFTS) characterisation, the enhanced performance of Pt/deAl-Beta could be ascribed to (i) the active Pt-O sites stabilised by hydroxyl groups, which interact with toluene easily for conversion, and (ii) the acid-free feature of the deAl-Beta support, which avoids the formation of coke precursors (such as benzoate species) on the catalyst surface. Findings of the work can serve as the design guidelines for making effective supported metal catalysts using zeolitic carriers

Anisotropic Magnetotransport and Exotic Longitudinal Linear Magnetoresistance in WTe2 Crystals

WTe2 semimetal, as a typical layered transition-metal dichalcogenide, has recently attracted much attention due to the extremely large, non-saturating parabolic magnetoresistance in perpendicular field. Here, we report a systematic study of the angular dependence of the magnetoresistance in WTe2 single crystal. The violation of the Kohler rule and a significant anisotropic magnetotransport behavior in different magnetic field directions are observed. Surprisingly, when the applied field is parallel to the tungsten chains of WTe2, an exotic large longitudinal linear magnetoresistance as high as 1200% at 15 T and 2 K is identified. Violation of the Kohler rule in transverse magnetoresistance can be understood based on a dual effect of the excitons formation and thermal activation, while large longitudinal linear magnetoresistance reflects perfectly the scattering and nesting of quasi-1D nature of this balanced hole-electron system. Our work will stimulate studies of such double-carrier correlated material and corresponding quantum physics

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer mission

The DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), one of the four scientific space science missions within the framework of the Strategic Pioneer Program on Space Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a general purpose high energy cosmic-ray and gamma-ray observatory, which was successfully launched on December 17th, 2015 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The DAMPE scientific objectives include the study of galactic cosmic rays up to $\sim 10$ TeV and hundreds of TeV for electrons/gammas and nuclei respectively, and the search for dark matter signatures in their spectra. In this paper we illustrate the layout of the DAMPE instrument, and discuss the results of beam tests and calibrations performed on ground. Finally we present the expected performance in space and give an overview of the mission key scientific goals.Comment: 45 pages, including 29 figures and 6 tables. Published in Astropart. Phy

Genes of Both Parental Origins Are Differentially Involved in Early Embryogenesis of a Tobacco Interspecies Hybrid

BACKGROUND: In animals, early embryonic development is largely dependent on maternal transcripts synthesized during gametogenesis. However, in higher plants, the extent of maternal control over zygote development and early embryogenesis is not fully understood yet. Nothing is known about the activity of the parental genomes during seed formation of interspecies hybrids. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we report that an interspecies hybridization system between SR1 (Nicotiana tabacum) and Hamayan (N. rustica) has been successfully established. Based on the system we selected 58 genes that have polymorphic sites between SR1 and Hamayan, and analyzed the allele-specific expression of 28 genes in their hybrid zygotes (Hamayan x SR1). Finally the allele-specific expressions of 8 genes in hybrid zygotes were repeatedly confirmed. Among them, 4 genes were of paternal origin, 1 gene was of maternal origin and 3 genes were of biparental origin. These results revealed obvious biparental involvement and differentially contribution of parental-origin genes to zygote development in the interspecies hybrid. We further detected the expression pattern of the genes at 8-celled embryo stage found that the involvement of the parental-origin genes may change at different stages of embryogenesis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We reveal that genes of both parental origins are differentially involved in early embryogenesis of a tobacco interspecies hybrid and functions in a developmental stage-dependent manner. This finding may open a window to seek for the possible molecular mechanism of hybrid vigor

Direct detection of a break in the teraelectronvolt cosmic-ray spectrum of electrons and positrons

High energy cosmic ray electrons plus positrons (CREs), which lose energy quickly during their propagation, provide an ideal probe of Galactic high-energy processes and may enable the observation of phenomena such as dark-matter particle annihilation or decay. The CRE spectrum has been directly measured up to $\sim 2$ TeV in previous balloon- or space-borne experiments, and indirectly up to $\sim 5$ TeV by ground-based Cherenkov $\gamma$-ray telescope arrays. Evidence for a spectral break in the TeV energy range has been provided by indirect measurements of H.E.S.S., although the results were qualified by sizeable systematic uncertainties. Here we report a direct measurement of CREs in the energy range $25~{\rm GeV}-4.6~{\rm TeV}$ by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) with unprecedentedly high energy resolution and low background. The majority of the spectrum can be properly fitted by a smoothly broken power-law model rather than a single power-law model. The direct detection of a spectral break at $E \sim0.9$ TeV confirms the evidence found by H.E.S.S., clarifies the behavior of the CRE spectrum at energies above 1 TeV and sheds light on the physical origin of the sub-TeV CREs.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, Nature in press, doi:10.1038/nature2447

Pairing symmetry and properties of iron-based high temperature superconductors

Pairing symmetry is important to indentify the pairing mechanism. The analysis becomes particularly timely and important for the newly discovered iron-based multi-orbital superconductors. From group theory point of view we classified all pairing matrices (in the orbital space) that carry irreducible representations of the system. The quasiparticle gap falls into three categories: full, nodal and gapless. The nodal-gap states show conventional Volovik effect even for on-site pairing. The gapless states are odd in orbital space, have a negative superfluid density and are therefore unstable. In connection to experiments we proposed possible pairing states and implications for the pairing mechanism.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, polished versio

Rapid Assembly of Multiple-Exon cDNA Directly from Genomic DNA

Backgrouud. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is extensively applied in gene cloning. But due to the existence of introns, low copy number of particular genes and high complexity of the eukaryotic genome, it is usually impossible to amplify and clone a gene as a full-length sequence directly from the genome by ordinary PCR based techniques. Cloning of cDNA instead of genomic DNA involves multiple steps: harvest of tissues that express the gene of interest, RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis (reverse transcription), and PCR amplification. To simplify the cloning procedures and avoid the problems caused by ubiquitously distributed durable RNases, we have developed a novel strategy allowing the cloning of any cDNA or open reading frame (ORF) with wild type sequence in any spliced form from a single genomic DNA preparation. Methodology. Our Genomic DNA Splicing technique contains the following steps: first, all exons of the gene are amplified from a genomic DNA preparation, using software-optimized, highly efficient primers residing in flanking introns. Next, the tissue-specific exon sequences are assembled into one full-length sequence by overlapping PCR with deliberately designed primers located at the splicing sites. Finally, software-optimized outmost primers are exploited for efficient amplification of the assembled full-length products. Conclusions. The Genomic DNA Splicing protocol avoids RNA preparation and reverse transcription steps, and the entire assembly process can be finished within hours, Since genamic DNA is more stable than RNA, it may be a more practical cloning strategy for many genes, especially the ones that are very large and difficult to generate a full length cDNA using oligo-dT primed reverse transcription. With this technique, we successfully doned the full-length wild type coding sequence of human polymeric immunoglobulin receptor, which is 2295 bp in length and composed of 10 exons. © 2007 An et al.published_or_final_versio