A High Efficiency Aluminum-Ion Battery Using an AlCl3-Urea Ionic Liquid Analogue Electrolyte

In recent years, impressive advances in harvesting renewable energy have led to pressing demand for the complimentary energy storage technology. Here, a high coulombic efficiency (~ 99.7%) Al battery is developed using earth-abundant aluminum as the anode, graphite as the cathode, and a cheap ionic liquid analogue electrolyte made from a mixture of AlCl3 and urea in 1.3 : 1 molar ratio. The battery displays discharge voltage plateaus around 1.9 V and 1.5 V (average discharge = 1.73 V) and yielded a specific cathode capacity of ~73 mAh g-1 at a current density of 100 mA g-1 (~ 1.4 C). High coulombic efficiency over a range of charge-discharge rates and stability over ~150-200 cycles was easily demonstrated. In-situ Raman spectroscopy clearly showed chloroaluminate anion intercalation/deintercalation of graphite in the cathode side during charge/discharge and suggested the formation of a stage 2 graphite intercalation compound when fully charged. Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance suggested the existence of AlCl4-, Al2Cl7- anions, and [AlCl2. (urea)n]+ cations in the urea/AlCl3 electrolyte when an excess of AlCl3 was present. Aluminum deposition therefore proceeded through two pathways, one involving Al2Cl7- anions and the other involving [AlCl2.(urea)n]+ cations. This battery is a promising prospect for a future high performance, low cost energy storage device

The Research Value of Biphasic Registration Quantitative Computed Tomography Emphysema Index in the Evaluation of Mild to Moderate COPD

Objective: To find the optimal quantitative index of emphysema by comparing and analyzing the quantitative indexes of emphysema in patients with mild to moderate chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD) via registered biphasic quantitative computed tomography (QCT). Methods: We retrospectively collected 55 healthy controls, 21 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (GOLD) 1 case, and 31 GOLD 2 cases in our hospital. We imported the CT raw DICOM data into the "Digital Lung" analysis platform and measured the LAA-950% at the end of deep inspiration and the LAA-910% at the end of deep expiration. The expiratory and inspiratory CT images were registered. Then, the percentage of emphysema area (PRMEmph%), the percentage of functional small airway disease area (PRMfSAD%), and the percentage of the normal area (PRMNormal%) were calculated according to the threshold method. Pulmonary function indicators included FVC, FEV1%, and FEV1/FVC. Differences in general data, CT quantitative indexes, and pulmonary function between groups were assessed using the independent sample t-test, Mann–Whitney U test, or chi-square test, and the correlation was analyzed using Spearman correlation. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn to analyze the diagnostic performance of CT quantitative parameters for emphysema in patients with mild to moderate COPD. Results: There were significant differences in sex, smoking index, FEV1%, FEV1/FVC, inspiratory phase LAA%-950, expiratory phase LAA%-910, PRMEmph%, PRMfSAD%, and PRMNormal% between the mild to moderate COPD patients and normal control groups. The inspiratory phase LAA%-950 was negatively correlated with FEV1/FVC, the expiratory phase LAA%-910 and PRMEmph% were negatively correlated with FVC, FEV1%, and FEV1/FVC. ROC curve analysis results showed that the areas under the curve of inspiration phase LAA%-950, expiratory phase LAA%-910, and PRMEmph% were 0.742, 0.861, and 0.876, respectively. Among them, the area under the curve of the PRMEmph% index was the largest, with a corresponding critical value of 9.84%, a sensitivity of 76.90%, and a specificity of 94.50%. Conclusion: Quantitative CT emphysema index LAA%-950 in the inspiratory phase, LAA%-910 in the expiratory phase, and PRMEmph% in biphasic can objectively evaluate emphysema in patients with mild to moderate COPD, among which PRMEmph% is the best evaluation index

The value of diffusion-weighted imaging in assessing the ADC changes of tissues adjacent to breast carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To define a threshold value of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) with which malignant breast lesions can be distinguished from benign lesions, and to evaluate the ADC change of peri-tumor tissue in breast carcinoma by echo planar-diffusion weighted imaging (EPI-DWI).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>57 breast lesions were scanned by routine MRI and EPI-DWI. The ADC values were compared between malignant and benign lesions. The sensitivity and specificity of EPI-DWI and the threshold ADC value were evaluated by Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC). The ADC values of malignant lesion and layered peri-tumor tissues (from innermost layer 1 to outermost layer 4 with 5 mm every layer) in different directions were compared and the ADC values among different layers were compared.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ADC value of 35 malignant lesions was statistically lower than that of 22 benign lesions (P < 0.05). In ROC curve, the threshold value was 1.24 +/- 0.25*10E-3 mm²/s (b = 500) or 1.20 +/- 0.25*10E-3 mm²/s (b = 1000). The ADC value of malignant lesions was statistically lower than that of peri-tumor tissues in different directions (P < 0.05). For peri-tumor tissues, the ADC values increased gradually from layer 1 to layer 4 and there was a significant difference between the ADC values of layer 1 and layer 2 (P < 0.05); while from layer 2 outwards, there was no statistical difference among different layers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ADC value was a sensitive and specific parameter that could help to differentiate benign and malignant breast lesions. ADC changes in tissues adjacent to breast carcinoma could be detected by EPI-DWI, which made EPI-DWI a promising method for helping to determine surgical scope of breast carcinoma.</p

Preclinical comparison of mTHPC and verteporfin for intracavitary photodynamic therapy of malignant pleural mesothelioma

Efficacy and tumour selectivity of photodynamic therapy with two clinically approved sensitizers (mTHPC, verteporfin) were assessed for focal intracavitary photodynamic therapy (PDT) in rodents with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) at recommended drug-light conditions and at escalating sensitizer dosages. MPM tumours were generated in 15 Fischer rats by subpleural mediastinal tumour cell injection followed after 5 days by intracavitary PDT with light delivery monitored by in situ dosimetry. Animals were intravenously sensitized either with mTHPC (0.1 mg/kg, n = 3; 0.2 mg/kg, n = 3) followed after 4 days by illumination with 20 J/cm(2) at 652 nm, or with verteporfin (0.6 mg/kg, n = 3; 1.2 mg/kg, n = 3) followed after 20 min by illumination with 100 J/cm(2) at 689 nm. Three untreated tumour-bearing animals served as controls. Histological evaluation of the treated tumour and of adjacent normal organs was performed 10 days after tumour implantation. The extent of PDT-induced tumour necrosis was compared to the non-necrosed area and expressed in percentage. A locally invasive growing MPM tumour (3.1 +/- 1 mm diameter) without spontaneous necrosis diameter was found in all animals. For both sensitizers, focal intracavitary PDT was well tolerated at drug-light conditions recommended for clinical applications. Mediastinal organs were spared for both sensitizers but verteporfin resulted in a higher extent of tumour necrosis (80%) than mTHPC (50%). Drug dose escalation revealed a higher extent of PDT-related tumour necrosis for both sensitizers (mTHPC 55%, verteporfin 88%), however, verteporfin-PDT was associated with a higher toxicity than mTHPC-PDT

Effect of hypothyroidism on the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis and reproductive function of pregnant rats

Abstract Background This study aimed to detect changes in hormone levels in the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with hypothyroidism, and identify differences in the pregnancy and abortion rates of female adult rats. The potential role of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) as the link between the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis and reproductive function regulated by thyroid hormones was also investigated. Methods Female SD rats (n = 136) were causally classified into two groups: the normal-drinking-water group (n = 60) and the 0.05% propylthiouracil-drinking-water group (PTU 2 mg/kg/day, n = 76) to establish an adult rat model of hypothyroidism (6 weeks). Female and male rats at a ratio of 1:2 were used to establish a hypothyroidism pregnancy model. GnRH mRNA and GnRH receptor (GnRHR) expression in rats was detected using real time quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results The abortion rate differed significantly between the hypothyroidism pregnancy group and the normal pregnancy group (P  0.05). Hypothyroidism had no significant effect on GnRH mRNA expression in the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis in the four groups (normal control group, normal pregnancy group, hypothyroidism pregnancy group, and hypothyroidism group) (P > 0.05). Conclusions Hypothyroidism had an adverse impact on pregnancy in rats and may affect the distribution of pituitary GnRHR, whereas it did not obviously affect the distribution of GnRHR in the nuclei of the hypothalamus and ovary. Hypothyroidism had no effect on GnRH mRNA expression

A new genotype imputation method with tolerance to high missing rate and rare variants

We report a novel algorithm, iBLUP, to impute missing genotypes by simultaneously and comprehensively using identity by descent and linkage disequilibrium information. The simulation studies showed that the algorithm exhibited drastically tolerance to high missing rate, especially for rare variants than other common imputation methods, e.g. BEAGLE and fastPHASE. At a missing rate of 70%, the accuracy of BEAGLE and fastPHASE dropped to 0.82 and 0.74 respectively while iBLUP retained an accuracy of 0.95. For minor allele, the accuracy of BEAGLE and fastPHASE decreased to -0.1 and 0.03, while iBLUP still had an accuracy of 0.61.We implemented the algorithm in a publicly available software package also named iBLUP. The application of iBLUP for processing real sequencing data in an outbred pig population was demonstrated

Additional file 1: of Effect of hypothyroidism on the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis and reproductive function of pregnant rats

Figure S1. Relative integral optical density values of pituitary GnRHR in the four groups. *P < 0.05, compared with normal pregnancy group; #P < 0.05, compared with normal pregnancy group. (TIF 1863 kb

Correlation of photodynamic activity and fluorescence signaling for free and pegylated mTHPC in mesothelioma xenografts

Correlation of photodynamic activity (PDT) and fluorescence signaling for free and pegylated meta-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (mTHPC) in nude mice with mesothelioma xenografts