Modeling the Mesoscale Transport of Lithium-Magnetite Electrodes Using Insight from Discharge and Voltage Recovery Experiments

A multi-scale mathematical model, which accounts for mass transport on the crystal and agglomerate length-scales, is used to investigate the electrochemical performance of lithium-magnetite electrochemical cells. Experimental discharge and voltage recovery data are compared to three sets of simulations, which incorporate crystal-only, agglomerate-only, or multi-scale transport effects. Mass transport diffusion coefficients are determined by fitting the simulated voltage recovery times to experimental data. In addition, a further extension of the multi-scale model is proposed which accounts for the impact of agglomerate size distributions on electrochemical performance. The results of the study indicate that, depending on the crystal size, the low utilization of the active material is caused by transport limitations on the agglomerate and/or crystal length-scales. For electrodes composed of small crystals (6 and 8 nm diameters), it is concluded that the transport limitations in the agglomerate are primarily responsible for the long voltage recovery times and low utilization of the active mass. In the electrodes composed of large crystals (32 nm diameter), the slow voltage recovery is attributed to transport limitations on both the agglomerate and crystal length-scales

Momentum Distribution in Nuclear Matter and Finite Nuclei

A simple method is presented to evaluate the effects of short-range correlations on the momentum distribution of nucleons in nuclear matter within the framework of the Green's function approach. The method provides a very efficient representation of the single-particle Green's function for a correlated system. The reliability of this method is established by comparing its results to those obtained in more elaborate calculations. The sensitivity of the momentum distribution on the nucleon-nucleon interaction and the nuclear density is studied. The momentum distributions of nucleons in finite nuclei are derived from those in nuclear matter using a local-density approximation. These results are compared to those obtained directly for light nuclei like $^{16}O$.Comment: 17 pages REVTeX, 10 figures ps files adde

FUS mutations dominate TBK1 mutations in FUS/TBK1 double-mutant ALS/FTD pedigrees

Mutations in FUS and TBK1 often cause aggressive early-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or a late-onset ALS and/or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) phenotype, respectively. Co-occurrence of mutations in two or more Mendelian ALS/FTD genes has been repeatedly reported. However, little is known how two pathogenic ALS/FTD mutations in the same patient interact to shape the final phenotype. We screened 28 ALS patients with a known FUS mutation by whole-exome sequencing and targeted evaluation for mutations in other known ALS genes followed by genotype–phenotype correlation analysis of FUS/TBK1 double-mutant patients. We report on new and summarize previously published FUS and TBK1 double-mutant ALS/FTD patients and their families. We found that, within a family, mutations in FUS cause ALS while TBK1 single mutations are observed in FTD patients. FUS/TBK1 double mutations manifested as ALS and without a manifest difference regarding age at onset and disease duration when compared to FUS single-mutant individuals. In conclusion, TBK1 and FUS variants do not seem to interact in a simple additive way. Rather, the phenotype of FUS/TBK1 double-mutant patients appears to be dominated by the FUS mutation