Disordered materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries: A review

Disordered materials (DMs) have become promising materials in the advancement of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Their disordered, open structure is conductive to facilitate efficiency lithium-ion storage. DMs with tunable compositions also possess abundant defects that can interact with Li+, further enhancing their electrochemical performances in LIBs. Yet, revealing the structural origin of the superior electrochemical properties of DM-based LIBs remains a challenge. In this article, we review recent advances in the development of DM-based components for LIBs, such as anodes, cathodes, coating layers, and solid-state electrolytes. We give an overview on the primary methods utilized in preparing and characterizing DMs, while also describing the mechanisms involved in DM synthesis. This review article also addresses the correlation between the structural properties of DMs and their electrochemical performances. Moreover, we elucidate the challenges and future perspectives in the advancement of DM-based LIBs. We outline the key advantages of DMs in enhancing LIB performance over their crystalline counterparts, providing insights for developing superior LIBs through tailored DM development.</p

The Effect of Insomnia on Cortical Excitability in Patients With Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The high rate of comorbidity between insomnia and anxiety disorders have been confirmed by previous studies. However, the underlying neurobiological correlates of the relationship between insomnia and anxiety disorders are largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of insomnia on cortical excitability in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) by examining the recovery functions of median nerve somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in patients with GAD without insomnia and patients with GAD comorbid with insomnia. We studied the recovery functions of median nerve SEPs in 12 medication-naive patients with GAD without insomnia, 15 medication-naive patients with GAD comorbid with insomnia, and 15 age and sex matched healthy controls. SEPs in response to single stimulus and paired stimuli at interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 20, 60, 100, and 150 ms were recorded. The recovery function of the P25 component showed significantly reduced suppression in patients with GAD without insomnia as compared to patients with GAD comorbid with insomnia and healthy controls. There were no significant differences in the recovery functions of median nerve SEPs between patients with GAD comorbid with insomnia and healthy controls. The present study suggested that the cortical excitability of right parietal cortex increased in patients with GAD without insomnia, and cortical excitability in patients with GAD comorbid with insomnia was modulated by insomnia. Our findings provide new insights into the underlying neurobiological correlates of the effects of insomnia on GAD, which could ultimately be used to inform clinical intervention

Quinidine Therapy for Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome With KCNT1 Mutation. A Case Report and Literature Review

Mutations in the Potassium channel subfamily T member 1 (KCNT1) gene have been reported in a range of epileptic encephalopathies. Here we report the case of a 12-year-old male suffering from multiple types of epileptic seizures and cognitive decline from the age of 10. The patient had four types of epileptic seizures, including tonic seizures, atypical absence seizures, myoclonic seizures, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures. The electroencephalogram showed generalized slow spike-and-slow-waves, mutiple-spike-and-slow-waves, as well as short-term fast rhythms bursts. Thus, he was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. The patient had failed to control seizures after using five first-line antiepileptic drugs. Whole exome sequencing revealed a missense KCNT1 mutation (c.625 C&gt;T). Previous studies revealed that quinidine could block the KCNT1 channel. Therefore, we assumed that quinidine might be effective for him. Add-on treatment with quinidine was started when the patient was 12 years old. After an 8-month treatment, the frequency of seizures and epileptiform discharges were significantly reduced. In conclusion, quinidine therapy may offer a new choice for the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome with KCNT1 mutations

Intron retention-induced neoantigen load correlates with unfavorable prognosis in multiple myeloma

Neoantigen peptides arising from genetic alterations may serve as targets for personalized cancer vaccines and as positive predictors of response to immune checkpoint therapy. Mutations in genes regulating RNA splicing are common in hematological malignancies leading to dysregulated splicing and intron retention (IR). In this study, we investigated IR as a potential source of tumor neoantigens in multiple myeloma (MM) patients and the relationship of IR-induced neoantigens (IR-neoAg) with clinical outcomes. MM-specific IR events were identified in RNA-sequencing data from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation CoMMpass study after removing IR events that also occurred in normal plasma cells. We quantified the IR-neoAg load by assessing IR-induced novel peptides that were predicted to bind to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. We found that high IR-neoAg load was associated with poor overall survival in both newly diagnosed and relapsed MM patients. Further analyses revealed that poor outcome in MM patients with high IR-neoAg load was associated with high expression levels of T-cell co-inhibitory molecules and elevated interferon signaling activity. We also found that MM cells exhibiting high IR levels had lower MHC-II protein abundance and treatment of MM cells with a spliceosome inhibitor resulted in increased MHC-I protein abundance. Our findings suggest that IR-neoAg may represent a novel biomarker of MM patient clinical outcome and further that targeting RNA splicing may serve as a potential therapeutic strategy to prevent MM immune escape and promote response to checkpoint blockade

Systematic study of touch-feel perception : surface affective engineering aspects

The objective of this Ph.D work is to establish an affective engineering system for general surface tactile evaluation, which fits in the current knowledge gap between the micro-surface physical properties and the customers’ peceptual responses to surface tactile senses as well as their affective preferences. Drawing upon a broad multidisciplinary review, this research identifies the value of such affective system for tactile evaluation in both academic research and industry application. A concept framework of surface tactile evaluation system is specified, including three substructs: instrumentation, sensory evaluation and database construction & mining. The framework is implemented to investigate how surface tribological factors such as topography, hardness and friction against skin affect the tactile attributes and general preference, with regard to 'soft-touch' polymer coatings and patterns. Works were done in three major folds: Firstly, two instrumentation features for tribological test and surface characterisation have been developed. The works include (1) a novel tribometer with flexible configurations of in-vivo friction test by finger touch and dry sliding Roller-on-Block test and (2) a Hot-tip Tribological Probe Microscope (hot-tip TPM) with localized surface thermal measurement. Their novelty in design and performance are presented and discussed in detail. Some preliminary tactile studies on car interior materials and regular machined surfaces are also performed on tribolgical aspects. To help interpreting the data acquired from TPM and to improve the understanding of the limitation of surface characterization at micro/nano scale, fidelity issues are considered on two aspects: (a) finite tip size effect on topography measurement and (b) probe misalignment effect on nanoindentation test. Secondly, a database of ‘soft-touch’ polymer surfaces has been constructed at both physical level and psychophysical level. On one hand, the surface microstrutures are physically characterized by the home-made instruments and other commercial ones, in terms of topography, surface nanohardness and friction coefficient. Internal correlations among the measured surface properties are observed. Attempts have been made to explain these correlations by the aforementioned fidelity issues and classical tribology theory. On the other hand, the tactile perception towards the polymer samples are evaluated and quantified in the four major tactile sensory modes (Smooth-rough , soft-hard , slippery-grippy , cool-warm) and the general preference (Like-dislike). Nonparametric statistical tests such as Kendall’s W test and Wilcoxon test are applied to study the evaluation effectiveness among the subjects and the perceptual difference among the samples. Gender difference is identified in the tactile evaluation effectiveness of polymer coatings. Last but not least, this research further explored the complex relationships among the perceived attributes and measured surface properties by using a range of classical data mining techniques such as cross correlation analysis, factor analysis and regression methods. It was noted that the perceived attributes such as smooth/rough and grippy/slippy are influenced by surface topography with parameters of roughness and average spacing while the perceived softness largely depends on the ratio of hardness to modulus H/E. A regression model is established to describe the psychophysical relationships in relation to surface tactile design of the ‘soft-touch’ polymers.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of WarwickGBUnited Kingdo

Quantifying touch-feel perception : tribological aspects

We report a new investigation into how surface topography and friction affect human touch–feel perception. In contrast with previous work based on micro-scale mapping of surface mechanical and tribological properties, this investigation focuses on the direct measurement of the friction generated when a fingertip is stroked on a test specimen. A special friction apparatus was built for the in situ testing, based on a linear flexure mechanism with both contact force and frictional force measured simultaneously. Ten specimens, already independently assessed in a 'perception clinic', with materials including natural wood, leather, engineered plastics and metal were tested and the results compared with the perceived rankings. Because surface geometrical features are suspected to play a significant role in perception, a second set of samples, all of one material, were prepared and tested in order to minimize the influence of properties such as hardness and thermal conductivity. To minimize subjective effects, all specimens were also tested in a roller-on-block configuration based upon the same friction apparatus, with the roller materials being steel, brass and rubber. This paper reports the detailed design and instrumentation of the friction apparatus, the experimental set-up and the friction test results. Attempts have been made to correlate the measured properties and the perceived feelings for both roughness and friction. The results show that the measured roughness and friction coefficient both have a strong correlation with the rough–smooth and grippy–slippery feelings

Systematic study of touch-feel perception : surface affective engineering aspects

The objective of this Ph.D work is to establish an affective engineering system for general surface tactile evaluation, which fits in the current knowledge gap between the micro-surface physical properties and the customers’ peceptual responses to surface tactile senses as well as their affective preferences. Drawing upon a broad multidisciplinary review, this research identifies the value of such affective system for tactile evaluation in both academic research and industry application. A concept framework of surface tactile evaluation system is specified, including three substructs: instrumentation, sensory evaluation and database construction & mining. The framework is implemented to investigate how surface tribological factors such as topography, hardness and friction against skin affect the tactile attributes and general preference, with regard to 'soft-touch' polymer coatings and patterns. Works were done in three major folds: Firstly, two instrumentation features for tribological test and surface characterisation have been developed. The works include (1) a novel tribometer with flexible configurations of in-vivo friction test by finger touch and dry sliding Roller-on-Block test and (2) a Hot-tip Tribological Probe Microscope (hot-tip TPM) with localized surface thermal measurement. Their novelty in design and performance are presented and discussed in detail. Some preliminary tactile studies on car interior materials and regular machined surfaces are also performed on tribolgical aspects. To help interpreting the data acquired from TPM and to improve the understanding of the limitation of surface characterization at micro/nano scale, fidelity issues are considered on two aspects: (a) finite tip size effect on topography measurement and (b) probe misalignment effect on nanoindentation test. Secondly, a database of ‘soft-touch’ polymer surfaces has been constructed at both physical level and psychophysical level. On one hand, the surface microstrutures are physically characterized by the home-made instruments and other commercial ones, in terms of topography, surface nanohardness and friction coefficient. Internal correlations among the measured surface properties are observed. Attempts have been made to explain these correlations by the aforementioned fidelity issues and classical tribology theory. On the other hand, the tactile perception towards the polymer samples are evaluated and quantified in the four major tactile sensory modes (Smooth-rough , soft-hard , slippery-grippy , cool-warm) and the general preference (Like-dislike). Nonparametric statistical tests such as Kendall’s W test and Wilcoxon test are applied to study the evaluation effectiveness among the subjects and the perceptual difference among the samples. Gender difference is identified in the tactile evaluation effectiveness of polymer coatings. Last but not least, this research further explored the complex relationships among the perceived attributes and measured surface properties by using a range of classical data mining techniques such as cross correlation analysis, factor analysis and regression methods. It was noted that the perceived attributes such as smooth/rough and grippy/slippy are influenced by surface topography with parameters of roughness and average spacing while the perceived softness largely depends on the ratio of hardness to modulus H/E. A regression model is established to describe the psychophysical relationships in relation to surface tactile design of the ‘soft-touch’ polymers