Structured electrode additive manufacturing for lithium-ion batteries

A thick electrode with high areal capacity has been developed as a strategy for high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries, but thick electrodes have difficulties in manufacturing and limitations in ion transport. Here, we reported a new manufacturing approach for ultra-thick electrode with aligned structure, called structure electrode additive manufacturing or SEAM, which aligns active materials to the through-thicknesses direction of electrodes using shear flow and a designed printing path. The ultra-thick electrodes with high loading of active materials, low tortuous structure, and good structure stability resulting from a simple and scalable SEAM lead to rapid ion transport and fast electrolyte infusion, delivering a higher areal capacity than slurry-casted thick electrodes. SEAM shows strengths in design flexibility and scalability, which allows the production of practical high energy/power density structure electrodes

Clinical Observation of Erlotinib in the Treatment of Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Report of 92 Eases

Background and objective Erlotinib, a selective inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase, has been approved effective in local advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of erlotinib for the treatment of advanced NSCLC. Methods Ninety-two patients with advanced NSCLC who had failed or not tolerated or refused chemotherapy received 150 mg oral doses of erlotinib once daily until the disease progression or intolerable toxicity. Results Among the 92 NSCLC patients, 2 patient got complete response (2.2%), 22 partial response (23.9%), 48 stable disease (52.2%) and 20 progressive disease (21.7%). The overall response rate and the disease controlled rate of erlotinib was 26.1% (24/92) and 78.3% (72/92), respectively. The response rate of erlotinib were significantly higher in rash and ECOG 0-1 than no rash and ECOG ≥ 2. The disease controlled rate of erlotinib was significantly higher in female and non-smokers than male and smokers (P < 0.05). The response rate of erlotinib did not show significant differences within pathological type or previous treatment. The most common side effects were rash and diarrhea with 84.8% and 31.5%, respectively, but usually were mild. Conclusion Erlotinib is effective and safe in the treatment of advanced NSCLC patients

A Novel Algorithm to Optimize the Energy Consumption Using IoT and Based on Ant Colony Algorithm

Internet of Things (IoT) is a new concept in the information and communication technology studies which indicates that any creature (human, animal, or object) can send and receive data through communication networks, such as the internet or intranet platform. Wireless sensors have limited energy resources due to the use of batteries to supply energy, and since it is usually not possible to replace the batteries of these sensors. In addition, the lifespan of the wireless sensor network is limited and short. Therefore, reducing the energy consumption of sensors in IoT networks for increasing network lifespan is one of the fundamental challenges and issues in these networks. In this paper, a routing protocol is proposed and simulated based on an ant colony optimization algorithm’s performance. The clustering is performed with a routing method based on energy level criteria, collision reduction, distance from the cluster-head to the destination, and neighborhood energy in the proposed method. The cluster head is selected based on the maximum residual energy, minimum distance with other clusters, and consumed energy. This energy is minimized to reach the base station. The node with more energy than the threshold is selected as the new cluster head. Then, four conditions are applied for routing: the shortest path, the leading path, the shortest distance to the source node and the destination node, and routing. Results show that after about 50 cycles of transferring information, only the average of 19.4% of the initial energy is consumed in the network nodes. Therefore, obtained results illustrate that the proposed method helps to retain the energy more than 40% comparing the available methods

Remote Sensing Image Fusion Scheme using Directional Vector in NSCT Domain

This paper is under in-depth investigation due to suspicion of possible plagiarism on a high similarity indexA novel remote sensing image fusion scheme is presented for panchromatic and multispectral images, which is based on NonSubsampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The fusion principles of the different subband coefficients obtained by the NSCT decomposition are discussed in detail. A PCA-based weighted average principle is presented for the lowpass subbands, and a selection principle based on the variance of the directional vector is presented for the bandpass directional subbands, in which the directional vector is assembled by the NSCT coefficients of the different directional subbands but the same coordinate. The proposed scheme is tested on two sets of remote sensing images and compared with some traditional multiscale transform-based image fusion methods, such as discrete wavelet transform, stationary wavelet transform, dual-tree complex wavelet transform, contourlet transform. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides superior fused image in terms of several relevant quantitative fusion evaluation indexes

Notch 3 Protein, not its Gene Polymorphism, is Associated with the Chemotherapy Response and Prognosis of Advanced NSCLC Patients

Aim: To study the relation of NOTCH3 and its gene polymorphisms with the chemotherapy response and the prognosis of patients with Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A total of 594 patients with advanced stage of NSCLC (IIIA, IIIB and IV) NSCLC were enrolled. All patients received Platinum-based chemotherapy. The NOTCH3 expression in tumors and its gene polymorphisms were determined. In vitro, several NSCLC cell lines received the NOTCH3 over-expression vector and small interfering RNA (siRNA) to study the role of NOTCH3 in regulation the cellular biological behaviors. Results: The genotype and the allele frequencies of NOTCH3 gene polymorphisms at 605C>T and 1735T>C were not significantly different between good responders and poor responders to chemotherapy. However, high NOTCH3 expression in tumor represented a significantly higher possibility of being resistant to chemotherapy. Also, patients with high NOTCH3 expression had a poorer prognosis than those with low NOTCH3 expression. In vitro studies showed that NOTCH3 inhibition dramatically suppressed the proliferation, migration, invasiveness abilities and prompted apoptosis in NSCLC cells. Conclusion: NOTCH3 regulates the cellular behavior, including, proliferation, marker to predict the chemotherapy response and prognosis of advanced NSCLC. marker to predict the chemotherapy response and prognosis of advanced NSCLC

PZT-Based Detection of Compactness of Concrete in Concrete Filled Steel Tube Using Time Reversal Method

A smart aggregate-based approach is proposed for the concrete compactness detection of concrete filled steel tube (CFST) columns. The piezoceramic-based smart aggregates (SAs) were embedded in the predetermined locations prior to the casting of concrete columns to establish a wave-based smart sensing system for the concrete compactness detection purpose. To evaluate the efficiency of the developed approach, six specimens of the CFST columns with the rectangular cross-section were produced by placing some artificial defects during casting of concrete for simulating various uncompacted voids such as cavities, cracks, and debond. During the test, the time reversal technology was applied to rebuild the received signals and launch the reversed signals again by SAs, to overcome the issue of the lack of the prototype. Based on the proposed nonprototype, two indices of time reversibility (TR) and symmetry (SYM) were applied to relatively evaluate the level of concrete compactness in the range of the two SAs. The experimental results show that the developed method can effectively detect the compactness of concrete in CFST columns

A Review on Wine Flavour Profiles Altered by Bottle Aging

The wine flavour profile directly determines the overall quality of wine and changes significantly during bottle aging. Understanding the mechanism of flavour evolution during wine bottle aging is important for controlling wine quality through cellar management. This literature review summarises the changes in volatile compounds and non-volatile compounds that occur during wine bottle aging, discusses chemical reaction mechanisms, and outlines the factors that may affect this evolution. This review aims to provide a deeper understanding of bottle aging management and to identify the current literature gaps for future research

Self-Assembled Morphologies of Lamella-Forming Block Copolymers Confined in Conical Nanopores

Block copolymers (BCPs) under nanoscale confinement can self-assemble to form novel nanostructures that are not available in the bulk state. Particularly, the ordering process of block copolymers and the resulting morphologies depend sensitively on the dimensionality, geometry, and surface property of the confining environment. In this study, we report on the self-assembled morphologies of polystyrene-block-1,4-polybutadiene (PS-b-PB) confined in conical pores of various sizes, shapes, and surface properties. Based on the experimental observations from transmission electron microscopy and theoretical calculation using the simulated annealing method, we found that the phase separation of PS-b-PB under the conical confinement is competitively determined by three thermodynamic factors: (1) the interfacial energy between two blocks, (2) the surface energy between the blocks and the surrounding environment (i.e., air and substrates), and (3) the entropic penalty associated with the large curvature at the vertices of conical pores. In addition, three-dimensional imaging of transmission electron microtomography was also performed in an attempt to gain more detailed information on the internal nanostructures of the BCP.N