Rational Designs for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Low Electrolyte/Sulfur Ratio

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered a promising next-generation energy storage device owing to their high theoretical energy density. However, their overall performance is limited by several critical issues such as lithium polysulfide (PS) shuttles, low sulfur utilization, and unstable Li metal anodes. Despite recent huge progress, the electrolyte/sulfur ratio (E/S) used is usually very high (≥20 µL mg⁻¹), which greatly reduces the practical energy density of devices. To push forward LSBs from the lab to the industry, considerable attention is devoted to reducing E/S while ensuring the electrochemical performance. To date, however, few reviews have comprehensively elucidated the possible strategies to achieve that purpose. In this review, recent advances in low E/S cathodes and anodes based on the issues resulting from low E/S and the corresponding solutions are summarized. These will be beneficial for a systematic understanding of the rational design ideas and research trends of low E/S LSBs. In particular, three strategies are proposed for cathodes: preventing PS formation/aggregation to avoid inadequate dissolution, designing multifunctional macroporous networks to address incomplete infiltration, and utilizing an imprison strategy to relieve the adsorption dependence on specific surface area. Finally, the challenges and future prospects for low E/S LSBs are discussed.     

Neutrophils in Tuberculosis: Cell Biology,Cellular Networking and Multitasking in Host Defense

Neutrophils readily infiltrate infection foci, phagocytose and usually destroy microbes. In tuberculosis (TB), a chronic pulmonary infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), neutrophils harbor bacilli, are abundant in tissue lesions, and their abundances in blood correlate with poor disease outcomes in patients. The biology of these innate immune cells in TB is complex. Neutrophils have been assigned host-beneficial as well as deleterious roles. The short lifespan of neutrophils purified from blood poses challenges to cell biology studies, leaving intracellular biological processes and the precise consequences of Mtb–neutrophil interactions ill-defined. The phenotypic heterogeneity of neutrophils, and their propensity to engage in cellular cross-talk and to exert various functions during homeostasis and disease, have recently been reported, and such observations are newly emerging in TB. Here, we review the interactions of neutrophils with Mtb, including subcellular events and cell fate upon infection, and summarize the cross-talks between neutrophils and lung-residing and -recruited cells. We highlight the roles of neutrophils in TB pathophysiology, discussing recent findings from distinct models of pulmonary TB, and emphasize technical advances that could facilitate the discovery of novel neutrophil-related disease mechanisms and enrich our knowledge of TB pathogenesis.     

Backtesting portfolio value-at-risk with estimated portfolio weights

This article theoretically and empirically analyzes backtesting portfolio value-at-risk (VaR) with estimation risk in an intrinsically multi-variate framework. It particularly takes into account the estimation of portfolio weights in forecasting portfolio VaR and its impact on backtesting. It shows that the estimation risk from estimating portfolio weights and that from estimating the multi-variate dynamic model make the existing methods in a univariate framework inapplicable. It proposes a general theory to quantify estimation risk applicable to the present problem and suggests practitioners a simple but effective way to implement valid inference to overcome the effect of estimation risk in backtesting portfolio VaR. In particular, we apply our theory to the efficient mean-variance-skewness portfolio for a multi-variate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model with multi-variate general hyperbolic distributed innovations. Some Monte Carlo simulations and an empirical application demonstrate the merits of our method.     

畜禽骨蛋白质材料化利用的研究现状与发展趋势分析

作为畜禽屠宰的副产物,动物骨因其丰富的蛋白质和广阔的深加工利用的发展前景而成为当今环境、农业和能源等领域的研究热点.受自身骨骼结构和综合利用技术的制约,骨骼的深加工利用率不足2％,造成了严重的资源浪费与环境污染.蛋白水解作为蛋白质资源深加工领域最有效的技术手段,可实现大宗蛋白质资源的高效回收利用;而蛋白水解物优异的溶解性、可降解性、生物相容性和独特的生物功能活性使其具有开发高值材料的潜力.随着石化资源的短缺和人们健康环保意识的增强,人们对环保型可再生型新材料的需求逐渐迫切,而畜禽骨蛋白质材料的开发利用紧密结合国家新型战略产业——生物制造业,将促进农副产品加工业的持续健康发展.针对畜禽骨蛋白质材料化开发利用的发展历程及当前的研究热点,本文阐述了絮凝剂、粘结剂、可降解塑料、表面活性剂、医用材料等近年来研究较广的畜禽骨蛋白质材料化利用途径,并总结了各种利用途径的应用效果和局限性;同时,总结分析了现今利用蛋白水解物开发新型材料的相关理论及研究成果,为开发畜禽骨蛋白质材料提供了理论支持;最后,基于目前生物基材料的发展趋势及畜禽骨深加工技术的难点问题,客观展望了畜禽骨蛋白质材料的制备及应用发展方向.     

Visual Detection of Adenosine Triphosphate by Taylor Rising: A Simple Point-of-Care Testing Method Based on Rolling Circle Amplification

Rapid and sensitive point-of-care testing (POCT) is an extremely critical mission in practical applications, especially for rigorous military medicine, home health care, and in the third world. Here, we report a visual POCT method for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) detection based on Taylor rising in the corner of quadratic geometries between two rod surfaces. We discuss the principle of Taylor rising, demonstrating that it is significantly influenced by contact angle, surface tension, and density of the sample, which are controlled by ATP-dependent rolling circle amplification (RCA). In the presence of ATP, RCA reaction effectively suppresses Taylor-rising behavior, due to the increased contact angle, density, and decreased surface tension. Without addition of ATP, untriggered RCA reaction is favorable for Taylor rising, resulting in a significant height. With this proposed method, visual sensitive detection of ATP without the aid of other instruments is realized with only a 5 μL droplet, which has good selectivity and a low detection limit (17 nM). Importantly, this visual method provides a promising POCT tool for user-friendly molecular diagnostics.     

不同孔形下豆类透筛效果对比及圆筒筛优化

以大豆为对象,推导了筛孔透筛区域的面积计算公式,对比了不同孔型圆筒筛的大豆透筛效果,得出大豆在正方形筛孔的圆筒筛中透筛效果最好,并通过仿真计算对其进行了验证。在此基础上对正方形筛孔的圆筒筛进行优化,用筛分比和除杂比计算筛分效果,通过正交仿真试验分析得到不同工艺参数对圆筒筛的豆类筛分效果的影响次序,并得出最佳工艺参数为圆筒倾角5°、圆筒转速16r/min、进料速度14t/h、筛孔边长9mm,该条件下筛分效果为0.935,比原始模型提高了3.89%。