Hierarchical Atomic Layer Deposited V2O5 on 3D Printed Nanocarbon Electrodes for High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ARZIBs) are promising energy storage systems owing to their ecofriendliness, safety, and cost-efficiency. However, the sluggish Zn²⁺ diffusion kinetics originated from its inherent large atomic mass and high polarization remains an ongoing challenge. To this end, electrodes with 3D architectures and high porosity are highly desired. This work reports a rational design and fabrication of hierarchical core–shell structured cathodes (3D@V₂O₅) for ARZIBs by integrating fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D-printing with atomic layer deposition (ALD). The 3D-printed porous carbon network provides an entangled electron conductive core and interconnected ion diffusion channels, whereas ALD-coated V₂O₅ serves as an active shell without sacrificing the porosity for facilitated Zn²⁺ diffusion. This endows the 3D@V₂O₅ cathode with high specific capacity (425 mAh g^?1 at 0.3 A g^?1), competitive energy and power densities (316 Wh Kg^?1 at 213 W kg^?1 and 163 Wh Kg^?1 at 3400 W kg^?1), and good rate performance (221 mAh g^?1 at 4.8 A g^?1). The developed 3D@V₂O₅ cathode provides a promising model for customized and scalable battery electrode engineering technology. As the ALD-coated layer determines the functional properties, the proposed strategy shows a promising prospect of FDM 3D printing using 1D carbon materials for future energy storage.     

Effect of pulsed laser annealing on optical and structural properties of ZnO:Eu thin film

Journal of Materials Science - ZnO:Eu thin film fabricated by pulsed laser deposition was treated by pulsed UV laser. The effect of laser fluence from 70 to 125 mJ cm?2 on film...     

Effects of spontaneous bilayer curvature on influenza virus-mediated fusion pores

Cells expressing the hemagglutinin protein of influenza virus were fused to planar bilayer membranes containing the fluorescent lipid probes octadecylrhodamine (R18) or indocarbocyanine (DiI) to investigate whether spontaneous curvature of each monolayer of a target membrane affects the growth of fusion pores. R18 and DiI lowered the transition temperatures for formation of an inverted hexagonal phase, indicating that these probes facilitate the formation of negative curvature structures. The probes are known to translocate from one monolayer of a bilayer membrane to the other in a voltage-dependent manner. The spontaneous curvature of the cis monolayer (facing the cells) or the trans monolayer could therefore be made more negative through control of the polarity of voltage across the planar membrane. Electrical admittance measurements showed that the open times of flickering fusion pores were shorter when probes were in trans monolayers and longer when in cis monolayers compared with times when probe was symmetrically distributed. Open times were the same for probe symmetrically distributed as when probes were not present. Thus, open times were a function of the asymmetry of the spontaneous curvature between the trans and cis monolayers. Enriching the cis monolayer with a negative curvature probe reduced the probability that a small pore would fully enlarge, whereas enriching the trans monolayer promoted enlargement. Lysophosphatidylcholine has positive spontaneous curvature and does not translocate. When lysophosphatidylcholine was placed in trans leaflets of planar membranes, closing of fusion pores was rare. The effects of the negative and positive spontaneous curvature probes do not support the hypothesis that a flickering pore closes from an open state within a hemifusion diaphragm (essentially a "flat" structure). Rather, such effects support the hypothesis that the membrane surrounding the open pore forms a three-dimensional hourglass shape from which the pore flickers shut.     

Quantitative fine-grained human evaluation of machine translation systems: a case study on English to Croatian

This paper presents a quantitative fine-grained manual evaluation approach to comparing the performance of different machine translation (MT) systems. We build upon the well-established multidimensional quality metrics (MQM) error taxonomy and implement a novel method that assesses whether the differences in performance for MQM error types between different MT systems are statistically significant. We conduct a case study for English-to-Croatian, a language direction that involves translating into a morphologically rich language, for which we compare three MT systems belonging to different paradigms: pure phrase-based, factored phrase-based and neural. First, we design an MQM-compliant error taxonomy tailored to the relevant linguistic phenomena of Slavic languages, which made the annotation process feasible and accurate. Errors in MT outputs were then annotated by two annotators following this taxonomy. Subsequently, we carried out a statistical analysis which showed that the best-performing system (neural) reduces the errors produced by the worst system (pure phrase-based) by more than half (54%). Moreover, we conducted an additional analysis of agreement errors in which we distinguished between short (phrase-level) and long distance (sentence-level) errors. We discovered that phrase-based MT approaches are of limited use for long distance agreement phenomena, for which neural MT was found to be especially effective.     

Effect of artificial weathering and temperature cycling on the performance of coating systems used for wooden windows

The effects of ultraviolet light irradiation and water spray and temperature cycling on the color stability of waterborne coating systems on spruce were investigated. The test samples were treated with three coating systems (white and brown pigmented acrylate waterborne coatings systems with different layering) from six producers. The artificial weathering was carried out based on standardized (504 h) and increased weathering parameters (504 h). Thirty cycles of temperature changes were performed. Discoloration suggesting the rate of degradation process and color stability was measured by a spectrophotometer in L*a*b* color space. The results showed greater color stability of white coating systems during both experiments. The producer of acrylate coatings with iodopropynyl butyl carbamate and permethrin as biocides and benzotriazole, silicon dioxide and methylsiloxane as additives was characterized by the best coatings performance. The most sensitive color parameter to describe the surface quality as a result of irradiation and water spray has proven to be a change of lightness. A tendency towards degradation with increasing lightness was observed during weathering. The effect of temperature itself on color change was minimal. Scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy revealed microscopic changes of coatings caused by artificial weathering.     

Antagonistic effects on mechanical properties of microfibrillar composites with dual reinforcement: Explanation by FEA model of soft interface

Nanofillers (NF) in microfibrillar composites support melt‐drawing and may lead to improved performance. However, antagonistic effects have also been found. The deterioration of mechanical properties by drawing in the presence of NF, as found by other authors in analogous undrawn systems, has not yet been explained. Experiments indicating the importance of NF migration between the HDPE matrix and the PA6 fibrils in the course of drawing have led to a tentative conclusion of changed crystallinity in the interfacial area resulting in a layer with reduced modulus. This was confirmed by the finite element analysis considering the formation of a “soft” interface as a result of reduced content of HDPE spherulites at the fiber surfaces. The results show a marked impact of this phenomenon on modulus. This original concept presents a basis for explaining some antagonistic effects in multicomponent polymer systems and a tool for the more rational design of composite materials. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44712.     

Longitudinal involvement of the spinal cord in a patient with lupus related transverse myelitis

Arachidonic acid is suggested to play a role in the expression of long-term potentiation (LTP), a synaptic analog of memory and learning. However, it is unknown whether this free fatty acid is actually released during LTP or not. To address this question, we assayed arachidonic acid with an HPLC system using 9-anthryldiazomethane (ADAM) as a fluorescent probe. High frequency stimulation (tetanic stimulation) to a hippocampal slice from the guinea pig brain caused a huge increase in the release of glutamate from presynaptic terminals and in turn, a gradual increase in the release of arachidonic acid. A similar increase in the release of arachidonic acid was induced by application of glutamate and the increase was inhibited by either the selective AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist, DNQX, or to a lesser extent by the selective NMDA receptor antagonist, APV. These findings suggest that arachidonic acid is produced by activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors involving expression of LTP. Arachidonic acid exerted a long-lasting facilitatory action on synaptic transmission in the CA1 region of rat hippocampal slices and the facilitation occluded the tetanic LTP. Arachidonic acid, thus, appears to be a significant factor for the expression of LTP.     

Detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in wild mammals of mainland Britain

This paper combines the results from a preliminary survey of occurrence of Cryptosporidium species in faecal samples from a range of wild mammal species inhabiting mainland Britain with a tabulated literature review of world-wide reports of the parasite in those British mammals. In the literature, C. parvum was reported from 11 wild mammals found in Britain and elsewhere, mainly in rodents but also in insectivores, lagomorphs and ungulates. C. muris has been reported only in wild rodents. The sample survey detected C. parvum in seven additional British species, including carnivores. Overall, 12% of 184 faecal samples tested with a genus-specific monoclonal antibody contained oocysts of C. parvum. The results further emphasise the widespread distribution of Cryptosporidium amongst wild mammals in Britain, highlight the potential for transmission between host species and warn of the possibility of direct exposure for anybody using the countryside for professional or recreational purposes (e.g. farmers and ramblers) to previously unregarded sources of infection. It seems increasingly likely that most, if not all, mammalian species can be infected with C. parvum.     

Thymic stromal lymphopoietin: a cytokine that promotes the development of IgM+ B cells in vitro and signals via a novel mechanism

A novel cytokine from a thymic stromal cell line (thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP)) promotes the development of B220+/IgM+ immature B cells when added to fetal liver cultures, long term bone marrow cultures, or bone marrow cells plated in semisolid medium. Because the activities of TSLP overlap with those of IL-7 in some in vitro assays, we compared the signaling mechanisms employed by TSLP and IL-7. Proliferation of a factor-dependent pre-B cell line (NAG8/7) in response to either TSLP or IL-7 was inhibited by anti-IL-7R alpha mAbs, suggesting that the functional TSLP receptor complex uses IL-7R alpha. In contrast, three different Abs to the common cytokine receptor gamma-chain had no effect on the response of these cells to TSLP, indicating that the functional TSLP receptor complex does not use the common cytokine receptor gamma-chain. Both cytokines induced activation of Stat5, but only IL-7 induced activation of the Janus family kinases Jak1 and Jak3. In fact, TSLP failed to activate any of the four known Janus family kinases, suggesting that Stat5 phosphorylation is mediated by a novel mechanism. Taken together, these data support the idea that TSLP can make unique contributions to B lymphopoiesis and indicate that it does so by mechanisms distinct from IL-7.     

Cloning and expression of a novel juvenile hormone-metabolizing epoxide hydrolase during larval-pupal metamorphosis of the cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni

This study explored the pattern of memory functioning in 58 patients with chronic schizophrenia and compared their performance with 53 normal controls. Multiple domains of memory were assessed, including verbal and non-verbal memory span, verbal and non-verbal paired associate learning, verbal and visual long-term memory, spatial and non-spatial conditional associative learning, recognition memory and memory for temporal order. Consistent with previous studies, substantial deficits in long-term memory were observed, with relative preservation of memory span. Memory for temporal order and recognition memory was intact, although significant deficits were observed on the conditional associative learning tasks. There was no evidence of lateralized memory impairment. In these respects, the pattern of memory impairment in schizophrenia is more similar in nature to that found in patients with memory dysfunction following mesiotemporal lobe lesions, rather than that associated with focal frontal lobe damage.