Running synthesis and control for monopods and bipeds with articulated

Bibliography: p. 179-20

General synthesis of porous mixed metal oxide hollow spheres with enhanced supercapacitive properties

Porous mixed metal oxide (MMO) hollow spheres present high specific surface areas, abundant electrochemically active sites, and outstanding electrochemical properties, showing potential applications in energy storage. A hydro/solvothermal process, followed by a calcination process, can be a viable method for producing uniform porous metal oxide hollow spheres. Unfortunately, this method usually involves harsh synthetic conditions such as high temperature and intricate processing. Herein, we report a general and facile ion adsorption-annealing approach for the fabrication of uniform porous MMO hollow spheres. The size and shell thickness of the as-obtained hollow spheres can be adjusted by the carbohydrate sphere templates and the solution concentration. Electrochemical measurements of the MMO hollow spheres demonstrate excellent supercapacitive properties, which may be due to the small size, ultrathin shells, and fine porous structure

Recent advances in heterogeneous selective oxidation catalysis for sustainable chemistry

National Basic Research Program of China [2010CB732303, CB2013CB933102]; Program for Innovation Research Team in Chinese Universities [IRT1036]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [21373170, 21033006]Oxidation catalysis not only plays a crucial role in the current chemical industry for the production of key intermediates such as alcohols, epoxides, aldehydes, ketones and organic acids, but also will contribute to the establishment of novel green and sustainable chemical processes. This review is devoted to dealing with selective oxidation reactions, which are important from the viewpoint of green and sustainable chemistry and still remain challenging. Actually, some well-known highly challenging chemical reactions involve selective oxidation reactions, such as the selective oxidation of methane by oxygen. On the other hand some important oxidation reactions, such as the aerobic oxidation of alcohols in the liquid phase and the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in hydrogen, have attracted much attention in recent years because of their high significance in green or energy chemistry. This article summarizes recent advances in the development of new catalytic materials or novel catalytic systems for these challenging oxidation reactions. A deep scientific understanding of the mechanisms, active species and active structures for these systems are also discussed. Furthermore, connections among these distinct catalytic oxidation systems are highlighted, to gain insight for the breakthrough in rational design of efficient catalytic systems for challenging oxidation reactions

Characterization of LC-MS based urine metabolomics in healthy children and adults

Previous studies reported that sex and age could influence urine metabolomics, which should be considered in biomarker discovery. As a consequence, for the baseline of urine metabolomics characteristics, it becomes critical to avoid confounding effects in clinical cohort studies. In this study, we provided a comprehensive lifespan characterization of urine metabolomics in a cohort of 348 healthy children and 315 adults, aged 1 to 78 years, using liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry. Our results suggest that sex-dependent urine metabolites are much greater in adults than in children. The pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis and alanine metabolism pathways were enriched in early life. Androgen and estrogen metabolism showed high activity during adolescence and youth stages. Pyrimidine metabolism was enriched in the geriatric stage. Based on the above analysis, metabolomic characteristics of each age stage were provided. This work could help us understand the baseline of urine metabolism characteristics and contribute to further studies of clinical disease biomarker discovery

Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and safety of prandial oral insulin (N11005) in healthy subjects

AimsTo verify whether the oral insulin N11005 is administered as a prandial insulin by assessing the pharmacokinetics (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD), and safety profiles of N11005 with a short-acting biosynthetic human insulin (Novolin R) as reference.MethodsThis was a randomized, open-label, single-dose, crossover hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp study in healthy Chinese male subjects. A total of 12 subjects were enrolled in the test (T) group (N11005, 300 IU, p.o.) and the reference (R) group (Novolin R, 0.1 IU/Kg, i.h.) with a washout period of 14 days. All subjects were administered on the same day of the clamp study. Glucose Infusion Rates (GIR), serum insulin, and C-peptide concentration were determined during every 8-hour clamp cycle. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT04975022.ResultsAfter administration, the ratios of mean serum C-peptide concentration to baseline concentration in both T and R groups were lower than 50%, which confirmed the stability of the clamp platform. T group (N11005) showed a more rapid onset of action (tGIR10%max≈11 min) and a comparable duration of action to the R group, which was basically in line with the characteristics of prandial insulins. No adverse events (AEs) occurred throughout the study, which demonstrated that N11005 and Novolin R are safe and well-tolerated.ConclusionsThe PD profiles of the single-dose N11005 in the human body are similar to those of prandial insulins, with an excellent safety profile.Clinical trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04975022

University of Alberta CARDIAC VIDEO ANALYSIS USING HODGE HELMHOLTZ FIELD DECOMPOSITION By

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is an extremely rapid, highly irregular heart arrhythmia originating in the ventricles. When the VF occurs, the heart loses its capability of pumping blood, and the patients die within minutes unless the VF is immediately stopped. The mechanisms of the VF are still not completely understood. Several hypotheses suggest that it is important to extract the pure expanding component and the pure rotational component from the cardiac electrical patterns. In this thesis, we first implement the 2-D discrete Hodge-Helmholtz field decomposition (DHHFD) based on regular triangular grids such that it can be directly used for video analysis. We then analyze the optical flow of the cardiac electrical patterns using the 2-D DHHFD. The pure expanding and the pure rotational motion components of the cardiac electrical signals are extracted. Analyses of the decomposed motion components have shown that the VF might be caused by the strong rotational components of the dynamical cardiac electrical patterns. Techniques have also been developed to detect the dominant critical points such as sources, sinks, and rotational centers in the cardiac electrical patterns. The critical points provide important clues for describing and understanding the abnormal propagation of the cardiac electrical signals

Constructing CoO/Co3S4 Heterostructures Embedded in N-doped Carbon Frameworks for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries

Heterostructures are attractive for advanced energy storage devices due to their rapid charge transfer kinetics, which is of benefit to the rate performance. The rational and facile construction of heterostructures with satisfactory electrochemical performance, however, is still a great challenge. Herein, ultrafine hetero-CoO/Co3S4 nanoparticles embedded in N-doped carbon frameworks (CoO/Co3S4@N-C) are successfully obtained by employing metal-organic frameworks as precursors. As anodes for sodium ion batteries, the CoO/Co3S4@N-C electrodes exhibit high specific capacity (1029.5 mA h g−1 at 100 mA g−1) and excellent rate capability (428.0 mA h g−1 at 5 A g−1), which may be attributed to their enhanced electric conductivity, facilitated Na+ transport, and intrinsic structural stability. Density functional theoretical calculations further confirm that the constructed heterostructures induce electric fields and promote fast reaction kinetics in Na+ transport. This work provides a feasible approach to construct metal oxide/sulfide heterostructures toward high-performance metal-ion batteries

In Situ Construction of 3D Interconnected FeS@Fe3C@Graphitic Carbon Networks for High-Performance Sodium-Ion Batteries

Iron sulfides have been attracting great attention as anode materials for high-performance rechargeable sodium-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity and low cost. In practice, however, they deliver unsatisfactory performance because of their intrinsically low conductivity and volume expansion during charge-discharge processes. Here, a facile in situ synthesis of a 3D interconnected FeS at Fe 3 C at graphitic carbon (FeS at Fe 3 C at GC) composite via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) followed by a sulfuration strategy is developed. The construction of the double-layered Fe 3 C/GC shell and the integral 3D GC network benefits from the catalytic effect of iron (or iron oxides) during the CVD process. The unique nanostructure offers fast electron/Na ion transport pathways and exhibits outstanding structural stability, ensuring fast kinetics and long cycle life of the FeS at Fe 3 C at GC electrodes for sodium storage. A similar process can be applied for the fabrication of various metal oxide/carbon and metal sulfide/carbon electrode materials for high-performance lithium/sodium-ion batteries