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Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has a high incidence rate and high mortality. Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is correlated with the severity of CAP. Albumin (ALB) is correlated with its prognosis. However, the role of HBP and ALB together (HBP–ALB) in assessing the severity of CAP is unclear. This study investigates the correlation between HBP–ALB and the severity of CAP. Methods: A total of 91 patients with CAP admitted to the Emergency Department of Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, between March 1, 2021 and March 1, 2022 were enrolled. The patients were placed into two groups: mild CAP (mCAP; n = 69) and severe CAP (sCAP; n = 22). Patient characteristics and laboratory data were obtained. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and the value of area under the curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the predictive values of both HBP and ALB. Results: The white blood cell (WBC) count, procalcitonin (PCT), HBP, creatinine (Cr), and D-dimer were higher in the sCAP group, while ALB was lower in the sCAP group (P < .05) than those of the mCAP group. The AUCs of WBC, PCT, HBP, and HBP–ALB were 0.674 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.544–0.803, P < .05), 0.677 (95% CI: 0.538–0.816, P <.05), 0.776(95% CI: 0.671–0.881, P < .05), and 0.805(95% CI: 0.692–0.918, P < .05). Conclusions: HBP–ALB has a higher predictive value than that of HBP, PCT, and WBC used alone for the early assessment of CAP.

A new synthetic strategy has been developed for the facile fabrication of a N-doped porous carbon (NC-800) material via a facile carbonization of functionalized poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF). The prepared NC-800 exhibits good specific capacitance of 205 F/g at 1 A/g and cycle stability (95.2% retention after 5000 cycles at 1 A/g). The adsorption capacity of NC-800 on methylene blue and methyl orange was 780 mg/g and 800 mg/g, respectively. The facile and economical method and good performance (supercapacitor and adsorption) suggest that the NC-800 is a promising material for energy storage and adsorption.

Thermoelectrics is the simplest technology applicable for direct energy conversion between heat and electricity. After over 60 years of fruitful research efforts, recent boom in flexible electronics has promoted the rapid development of flexible thermoelectrics with rising performances, discovery of new materials and concepts, unconventional device configuration, and emerging applications not possible for traditional thermoelectric (TE) semiconductors. In this Perspective, we first overview representative flexible TE materials, then discuss recent breakthroughs for flexible TE devices assembled from various types of TE materials employing different technical routes. They exhibit promising power generation and sensing performances, and aim for applications in wearable electronics, such as the power supply harvesting heat from body for low-power electronics, temperature sensors for tactile e-skin, and newly emerged application as a thermo-haptic device in an extended reality system.

Polymer-based capacitors are very promising for high-power systems due to their high power density and ultrafast charge–discharge speed, yet reaching high dielectric constant and high breakdown strength simultaneously in dielectric polymers required by high-performance capacitors still remains a huge challenge. Herein, poly(vinylidene fluoride- co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) and poly(vinylidene fluoride- co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) were coaxial electrospun in core–shell structured fibers to create locally inhomogeneous microstructures deliberately. Through adjusting the functional group HFP/TrFE monomer ratio, P(VDF-HFP)/P(VDF-TrFE) hybrid polymer films with topological composition distribution have been elaborately designed, enabling gradient polarization distribution from core to shell. Compared with homogeneous hybrid films of the same composition, the core–shell structure significantly boosts breakdown strength, thus resulting in a significantly improved energy storage capacity. At an HFP/TrFE monomer ratio of 10:1, an optimal comprehensive energy storage performance has been achieved with Ue ∼ 20.7 J/cm3 and efficiency 67.8%; moreover, the film could maintain its energy storage performance after 106 charge/discharge cycles without reduction. Molecular dynamic simulation and finite element analysis have been employed in combination to reveal the dipole moments distribution at the molecular level and polarization distribution at the microscale, which further demonstrates that elaborate polarization distribution adjustment is an effective strategy toward high-performance electrostatic energy storage capacitors.

The preparation of N-doped porous carbon (NC-800) is presented via facile mango stone carbonization at 800 °C. The NC-800 material exhibits good cycle stability (the capacity retention is 97.8% after 5000 cycles) and high specific capacitance of 280 F/g at 1 A/g. Furthermore, the assembled symmetric device of NC-800//NCs-800 exhibits about 31.1 Wh/kg of energy density at 800 W/kg in a voltage range of 0–1.6 V. The results of the study suggest that NC-800 may be a promising energy storage material for practical application.