A Patternable and In Situ Formed Polymeric Zinc Blanket for a Reversible Zinc Anode in a Skin-Mountable Microbattery

Owing to their high safety and reversibility, aqueous microbatteries using zinc anodes and an acid electrolyte have emerged as promising candidates for wearable electronics. However, a critical limitation that prevents implementing zinc chemistry at the microscale lies in its spontaneous corrosion in an acidic electrolyte that causes a capacity loss of 40% after a ten-hour rest. Widespread anti-corrosion techniques, such as polymer coating, often retard the kinetics of zinc plating/stripping and lack spatial control at the microscale. Here, a polyimide coating that resolves this dilemma is reported. The coating prevents corrosion and hence reduces the capacity loss of a standby microbattery to 10%. The coordination of carbonyl oxygen in the polyimide with zinc ions builds up over cycling, creating a zinc blanket that minimizes the concentration gradient through the electrode/electrolyte interface and thus allows for fast kinetics and low plating/stripping overpotential. The polyimide's patternable feature energizes microbatteries in both aqueous and hydrogel electrolytes, delivering a supercapacitor-level rate performance and 400 stable cycles in the hydrogel electrolyte. Moreover, the microbattery is able to be attached to human skin and offers strong resistance to deformations, splashing, and external shock. The skin-mountable microbattery demonstrates an excellent combination of anti-corrosion, reversibility, and durability in wearables. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH Gmb

I4U Submission to NIST SRE 2018: Leveraging from a Decade of Shared Experiences

The I4U consortium was established to facilitate a joint entry to NIST speaker recognition evaluations (SRE). The latest edition of such joint submission was in SRE 2018, in which the I4U submission was among the best-performing systems. SRE'18 also marks the 10-year anniversary of I4U consortium into NIST SRE series of evaluation. The primary objective of the current paper is to summarize the results and lessons learned based on the twelve sub-systems and their fusion submitted to SRE'18. It is also our intention to present a shared view on the advancements, progresses, and major paradigm shifts that we have witnessed as an SRE participant in the past decade from SRE'08 to SRE'18. In this regard, we have seen, among others, a paradigm shift from supervector representation to deep speaker embedding, and a switch of research challenge from channel compensation to domain adaptation.Comment: 5 page

Early Non-Response as a Predictor of Later Non-Response to Antipsychotics in Schizophrenia: A Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND: It remains a challenge to predict the long-term response to antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia who do not respond at an early stage. This study aimed to investigate the optimal predictive cut-off value for early non-response that would better predict later non-response to antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: This multicenter, 8-week, open-label, randomized trial was conducted at 19 psychiatric centers throughout China. All enrolled participants were assigned to olanzapine, risperidone, amisulpride, or aripiprazole monotherapy for 8 weeks. The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) was evaluated at baseline, week 2, week 4, and week 8. The main outcome was the prediction of nonresponse. Nonresponse is defined as a \u3c 20% reduction in the total scores of PANSS from baseline to endpoint. Severity ratings of mild, moderate, and severe illness corresponded to baseline PANSS total scores of 58, 75, and 95, respectively. RESULTS: At week 2, a reduction of \u3c 5% in the PANSS total score showed the highest total accuracy in the severe and mild schizophrenia patients (total accuracy, 75.0% and 80.8%, respectively), and patients who were treated with the risperidone and amisulpride groups (total accuracy, 82.4%, and 78.2%, respectively). A 10% decrease exhibited the best overall accuracy in the moderate schizophrenia patients (total accuracy, 84.0%), olanzapine (total accuracy, 79.2%), and aripiprazole group (total accuracy, 77.4%). At week 4, the best predictive cut-off value was \u3c 20%, regardless of the antipsychotic or severity of illness (total accuracy ranging from 89.8 to 92.1%). CONCLUSIONS: Symptom reduction at week 2 has acceptable discrimination in predicting later non-response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia, and a more accurate predictive cut-off value should be determined according to the medication regimen and baseline illness severity. The response to treatment during the next 2 weeks after week 2 could be further assessed to determine whether there is a need to change antipsychotic medication during the first four weeks. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03451734)

Genotypes and Toxin Gene Profiles of Staphylococcus aureus Clinical Isolates from China

A total of 108 S. aureus isolates from 16 major hospitals located in 14 different provinces in China were characterized for the profiles of 18 staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) genes, 3 exfoliatin genes (eta, etb and etd), and the toxic shock syndrome toxin gene (tsst) by PCR. The genomic diversity of each isolate was also evaluated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and accessory gene regulator (agr) typing. Of these strains, 90.7% (98/108) harbored toxin genes, in which tsst was the most prevalent toxin gene (48.1%), followed by sea (44.4%), sek (42.6%) and seq (40.7%). The see and etb genes were not found in any of the isolates tested. Because of high-frequency transfer of toxin gene-containing mobile genetic elements between S. aureus strains, a total of 47 different toxin gene combinations were detected, including a complete egc cluster in 19 isolates, co-occurrence of sea, sek and seq in 38 strains, and sec and sel together in 11 strains. Genetic typing by PFGE grouped all the strains into 25 clusters based on 80% similarity. MLST revealed 25 sequence types (ST) which were assigned into 16 clonal complexes (CCs) including 2 new singletons. Among these, 11 new and 6 known STs were first reported in the S. aureus strains from China. Overall, the genotyping results showed high genetic diversity of the strains regardless of their geographical distributions, and no strong correlation between genetic background and toxin genotypes of the strains. For genotyping S. aureus, PFGE appears to be more discriminatory than MLST. However, toxin gene typing combined with PFGE or MLST could increase the discriminatory power of genotyping S. aureus strains

I4U Submission to NIST SRE 2018: Leveraging from a Decade of Shared Experiences

The I4U consortium was established to facilitate a joint entry to NIST speaker recognition evaluations (SRE). The latest edition of such joint submission was in SRE 2018, in which the I4U submission was among the best-performing systems. SRE'18 also marks the 10-year anniversary of I4U consortium into NIST SRE series of evaluation. The primary objective of the current paper is to summarize the results and lessons learned based on the twelve subsystems and their fusion submitted to SRE'18. It is also our intention to present a shared view on the advancements, progresses, and major paradigm shifts that we have witnessed as an SRE participant in the past decade from SRE'08 to SRE'18. In this regard, we have seen, among others , a paradigm shift from supervector representation to deep speaker embedding, and a switch of research challenge from channel compensation to domain adaptation

I4U Submission to NIST SRE 2018: Leveraging from a Decade of Shared Experiences

International audienceThe I4U consortium was established to facilitate a joint entry to NIST speaker recognition evaluations (SRE). The latest edition of such joint submission was in SRE 2018, in which the I4U submission was among the best-performing systems. SRE'18 also marks the 10-year anniversary of I4U consortium into NIST SRE series of evaluation. The primary objective of the current paper is to summarize the results and lessons learned based on the twelve subsystems and their fusion submitted to SRE'18. It is also our intention to present a shared view on the advancements, progresses, and major paradigm shifts that we have witnessed as an SRE participant in the past decade from SRE'08 to SRE'18. In this regard, we have seen, among others , a paradigm shift from supervector representation to deep speaker embedding, and a switch of research challenge from channel compensation to domain adaptation

The Mechanical Properties of Granite under Ultrasonic Vibration

The new technique of using ultrasonic vibration to break hard rock is still in the experimental stage, but it has significant potential for improving the efficiency of hard rock crushing. We have analyzed the mechanical properties of granite under ultrasonic vibration and the characteristics of the damage produced. This was achieved by using an ultraloading device to apply continuous and discontinuous ultrasonic vibrations, respectively, to 32 mm diameter and 72 mm high granite samples. An ultradynamic data acceptor combined with strain gauges was used to monitor the strain of the granite in real time, and the elastic-plastic deformation behavior of the granite under ultrasonic vibration was observed. The results of this experiment indicate that the granite samples underwent elastic deformation, plastic deformation, and damage during this process. The samples first experienced compressive deformation with no obvious rupturing. As the vibration continued, the deformation finally became tensile, and significant fragmentation occurred. The mechanical properties of granite under ultrasonic vibration are analyzed in detail on the basis of these results, and the basis for selecting a vibration frequency is discussed

Structural hysteresis of dilute fluorine salt aqueous solutions

In contrast with the generally accepted picture for most of the dilute salt aqueous solutions, which defaults that only one structural state/form exists at the given values of system/thermodynamic parameters, in this work, combining characterization of 19F nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopies with theoretical calculations, we found that the F−-bearing aqueous solutions with identical component, but prepared by both different pathways, one of which is by mixing subsaturated MF2 solutions and Na//ClO4−(SO42−) solutions (path 1) and another is by mixing concentrated M2+//ClO4−(SO42−) solutions (M = Zn, Cd, Co and Cu) and NaF solution (path 2), can long-termly exist spectrographic distinguishable different thermodynamic steady states, in which the F− in the former preferentially exists in the form of more M2+-F− contact ion pairs (CIP), whereas in the form of more, even all M2+-F− solvent-separated/shared ion pairs (SIP) for the latter. This results from the different solution initial states, where path 1 solutions contain certain amounts of CIPs, whereas there is no CIPs initially in path 2 solutions, the high energy barrier of conversion between SIP and CIP, coupling with the low concentration gradient and thereby small conversion driving force. This makes the solutions exhibit an unusual “apparent” structural hysteresis. Due to the universality of the causes, present findings can expand to other sparingly soluble salts and enhance the significance of solution preparation bias on the thermodynamic studies in solution chemistry domain of sparingly soluble salts

Numerical Simulation on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Water Flowing through the Fracture of High-Temperature Rock

Deep geothermal resources are becoming an increasingly important energy source worldwide. To achieve the optimal efficiency of this resource, the heat transfer characteristics between flowing water and rock need to be further studied. Using the stereotopometric scanning system 3D CaMega, the fracture geometry data of five cuboid granite rocks were obtained to determine the effects of fracture roughness on the heat transferability of rock. A 3-D model was built based upon the scanned geometry data to assess the effects of rock temperature, water velocity, and roughness, and aperture size of fracture surface on the heat transfer coefficient. The simulation tests show that water velocity has the most noticeable effect, followed by aperture size and rock roughness. On the other hand, the initial rock temperature has the least influence. A new heat transfer coefficient was proposed considering aperture size, water flow velocity, and rock fracture roughness. The calculated values of Reynolds, Prandtl, and Nusselt numbers obtained using this coefficient are in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. This study provides a reference for enhancing the heat transfer coefficient to benefit the exploitation of heat energy of hot dry rock

A Co3O4-CeO2 functionalized SBA-15 monolith with a three-dimensional framework improves NOx-assisted soot combustion

In this work, a cobalt and cerium composite oxide functionalized SBA-15 monolith (SM) with an inner three-dimensional (3D) network structure (CoCe/SM) was prepared by isovolumetric impregnation. Its catalytic activities towards NOx-assisted soot combustion were evaluated and the loading and Co/Ce ratio were optimized. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersed spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, N-2 adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, H-2 temperature-programmed reduction and O-2 temperature-programmed desorption were employed to characterize the samples. It was revealed that, compared with unsupported Co3O4-CeO2 particles, the CoCe/SM catalysts with optimized Co3O4-CeO2 loading showed much higher catalytic ability, achieving a complete oxidation of the soot to CO2 below 400 degrees C in the presence of NOx, which is attributed to the high dispersion of Co3O4-CeO2 on SM and the cross-linked macroporous structure of SM that can house the soot particulates, thus providing closer contact between the soot and catalytically active sites.</p