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All-solid-state lithium (Li) batteries with high energy density are a promising solution for the next-generation energy storage systems in large-scale devices. To simultaneously overcome the challenges of poor ionic conduction of solid electrolytes and shuttling of active materials, we introduce a functional electrolyte-cathode bilayer framework with interconnected LLAZO channels from the electrolyte into the cathode for advanced solid-state Li-S batteries. Differing from the traditional solid-state batteries with separated layer compositions, the introduced bilayer framework provides ultrafast and continuous ion/electron conduction. Instead of transferring Li+ across the polymer and garnet phases which involve huge interfacial resistance, Li+ is directly conducted through the LLAZO channels created continuously from the cathode layer to the solid electrolyte layer, significantly shortening the diffusion distance and facilitating the redox reaction of sulfur and sulfides. A stable cycle life is demonstrated in the prototype Li-S solid-state batteries assembled with the introduced LLAZO-LLAZO@CNF interconnected bilayer framework. High capacity is obtained at room temperature, indicating the superior electrochemical properties of the bilayer framework that result from the unique design of the interconnected LLAZO garnet phase.

Environmentally focused social network analysis (Env. SNA) has increasingly benefited from engagement, which refers to the process of incorporating the individuals, organizations, actors, stakeholders or other study participants into the research process. Research about engagement in the wider field of environmental management shows that successful engagement often requires significant planning and exchange among researchers and stakeholders. While there is no one size fits all approach, several important guiding principles have been established. To date, this engagement literature has not focused specifically on SNA, even though several examples of engaged SNA exist in the literature and point to some specific challenges to engagement when working with relational data. Drawing upon data from a survey of researchers who have incorporated engagement into Env. SNA, we focus specifically on the goals, scope, effectiveness, benefits and challenges of doing engaged Env. SNA research. We additionally highlight four case studies and demonstrate that researchers and participants find engagement to be a valuable experience with benefits in the researchers’ understanding of the context and meaning of their findings. Finally, we provide recommendations to scholars looking to embark on engaged Env. SNA research.

Tumor mutation burden (TMB) is an emerging biomarker of immunotherapy response. RNA sequencing in FFPE tissue samples was used for determining TMB in microsatellite-stable (MSS) and microsatellite instability–high (MSI-H) tumors in patients with colorectal or endometrial cancer. Tissue from tumors and paired normal tissue from 46 MSI-H and 12 MSS cases were included. Of the MSI-H tumors, 29 had defective DNA mismatch–repair mutations, and 17 had MLH1 promoter hypermethylation. TMB was measured using the expressed somatic nucleotide variants (eTMB). A method of accurate measurement of eTMB was developed that removes FFPE-derived artifacts by leveraging mutation signatures. There was a significant difference in the median eTMB values observed between MSI-H and MSS cases: 27.3 versus 6.7 mutations/megabase (mut/Mb) (P = 3.5 × 10−9). Among tumors with defective DNA-mismatch repair, those with mismatch-repair mutations had a significantly higher median eTMB than those with hypermethylation: 28.1 versus 17.5 mut/Mb (P = 0.037). Multivariate analysis showed that MSI status, tumor type (endometrial or colorectal), and age were significantly associated with eTMB. Additionally, using whole-exome sequencing in a subset of these patients, it was determined that DNA TMB correlated well with eTMB (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.83). These results demonstrate that RNA sequencing can be used for measuring eTMB in FFPE tumor specimens.

DNA junctions (DNAJs) frequently impact clinically relevant genes in tumors and are important for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Although routinely screened through fluorescence in situ hybridization assays, such testing only allows the interrogation of single-gene regions or known fusion partners. Comprehensive assessment of DNAJs present across the entire genome can only be determined from whole-genome sequencing. Structural variance analysis from whole-genome paired-end sequencing data is, however, frequently restricted to copy number changes without DNAJ detection. Through optimized whole-genome sequencing and specialized bioinformatics algorithms, complete structural variance analysis is reported, including DNAJs, from formalin-fixed DNA. Selective library assembly from larger fragments (500 bp) and economical sequencing depths (300 to 400 million reads) provide representative genomic coverage profiles and increased allelic coverage to levels compatible with DNAJ calling (40× to 60×). Although consistently fragmented, more recently formalin-fixed, specimens (2 years' storage) revealed consistent populations of larger DNA fragments. Optimized bioinformatics efficiently detected90% of DNAJs in two prostate tumors (approximately 60% tumor) previously analyzed by mate-pair sequencing on fresh frozen tissue, with evidence of at least one spanning-read in 99% of DNAJs. Rigorous masking with data from unrelated formalin-fixed tissue progressively eliminated many false-positive DNAJs, without loss of true positives, resulting in low numbers of false-positive passing current filters. This methodology enables more comprehensive clinical genomics testing on formalin-fixed clinical specimens.

Despite several theoretically proposed two-dimensional (2D) diamond structures, experimental efforts to obtain such structures are in initial stage. Recent high-pressure experiments provided significant advancements in the field, however, expected properties of a 2D-like diamond such as sp3 content, transparency and hardness, have not been observed together in a compressed graphene system. Here, we compress few-layer graphene samples on SiO2/Si substrate in water and provide experimental evidence for the formation of a quenchable hard, transparent, sp3-containing 2D phase. Our Raman spectroscopy data indicates phase transition and a surprisingly similar critical pressure for two-, five-layer graphene and graphite in the 4–6 GPa range, as evidenced by changes in several Raman features, combined with a lack of evidence of significant pressure gradients or local non-hydrostatic stress components of the pressure medium up to ≈ 8 GPa. The new phase is transparent and hard, as evidenced from indentation marks on the SiO2 substrate, a material considerably harder than graphene systems. Furthermore, we report the lowest critical pressure ( ≈ 4 GPa) in graphite, which we attribute to the role of water in facilitating the phase transition. Theoretical calculations and experimental data indicate a novel, surface-to-bulk phase transition mechanism that gives hint of diamondene formation.

The characterization of cancer genomes has provided insight into somatically altered genes across tumors, transformed our understanding of cancer biology, and enabled tailoring of therapeutic strategies. However, the function of most cancer alleles remains mysterious, and many cancer features transcend their genomes. Consequently, tumor genomic characterization does not influence therapy for most patients. Approaches to understand the function and circuitry of cancer genes provide complementary approaches to elucidate both oncogene and non-oncogene dependencies. Emerging work indicates that the diversity of therapeutic targets engendered by non-oncogene dependencies is much larger than the list of recurrently mutated genes. Here we describe a framework for this expanded list of cancer targets, providing novel opportunities for clinical translation.

Conductive carbon nanotube-thermoplastic polyurethane (CNT-TPU) composite thin films are patterned and integrated onto knitted textile substrates to form electronic textile (E-Textile) dry electrodes. Vertically aligned CNT arrays are mechanically drawn into thin CNT sheets and infiltrated with a TPU solution to form the CNT-TPU thin films. The CNT-TPU thin films are then heat laminated onto knitted textile substrates to form dry E-Textile electrodes. To understand the wearability of our CNT-TPU thin films we perform an in-depth analysis of the films’ electromechanical properties, electrical impedance, and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing performance. The electromechanical coupling between the CNT thin films and knitted textile substrates show a strong anisotropic dependence between the CNT film alignment and textile knit structure. Further analysis into the CNT thin films reveal that larger electrode sizes with a larger number of CNT sheet layers in the film, lead to more favorable impedance behaviors and ECG sensing capabilities. As a wearable demonstration, we fabricate a textile arm sleeve integrated with CNT thin film electrodes to form an ECG sensing E-Textile system. The proposed E-Textile sleeve demonstrates the practicality of our CNT thin films and show promise for other E-Textile and wearable applications.

Development of advanced hydrogen storage materials with high capacity and stability is vital to achieve an envisaged hydrogen economy. Here, we report a uniformly dispersed Pd nanoparticles on the boron-doped reduced graphene oxide (Pd/B-rGO) as a novel nanocomposite for efficient hydrogen storage. The effects of the incorporation of Pd NPs and the substitution of boron atoms into the graphene-based nanomaterial matrix on the electrochemical hydrogen up-taking and releasing were comparatively studied using electrochemical techniques, and duly supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The discharge capacities of the Pd-rGO and Pd/B-rGO nanocomposites were determined to be over 45 and 128 times higher than that of the Pd NPs, respectively, showing that the B doping and the rGO support played significant roles in the enhancement of the hydrogen storage capability. Moreover, the galvanostatic charging and discharging cycling tests demonstrated a high stability and efficient kinetics of the Pd/B-rGO nanocomposite in the H2SO4 electrolyte for hydrogen up-taking and release.

Aqueous electrochemical energy storage systems that rely on earth-abundant elements are considered as cost-effective alternatives to current lithium-ion batteries which have dominated the technological landscape. For zinc-based energy storage, dendrite growth is an underlying challenge that needs to be addressed to enact high performance and long-term stability. In the present study, we employ atomic layer deposition to produce a thin tin oxide layer that allows dendrite-free cycling for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Tin oxide is particularly interesting as it provides two distinct advantages—dendrite-free cycling and mitigation of parasitic hydrogen gas evolution. The presence of the tin oxide layer leads to hydrogen gas suppression and homogeneous zinc plating/stripping, both of which are essential to improve the performance of zinc-ion batteries. When paired in a full-cell configuration with manganese oxide, this anode delivers a high specific capacity of 250 mAh g–1 at an imposed current rate of 30 mA g–1. Through density functional theory calculations, we elucidate further that the adsorption energy of Zn for bare Zn is higher than that in the presence of a tin oxide layer.

Different from the western paintings, Chinese ink-wash paintings (IWPs) have own distinctive art styles. Furthermore, Chinese IWPs can be divided into two classes, Gongbi (traditional Chinese realistic painting) and Xieyi (freehand style). The extraction of Chinese IWP features with good classification results is challenging because of similar content. This paper presents a novel framework by combining a discrete cosine transformation (DCT) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). In this framework, a CNN automatically extracts Chinese IWP features from a small subset of the DCT coefficients of an image instead of raw pixels commonly because of its good performance. We evaluate the proposed framework on a dataset including 1400 Chinese IWPs. Experimental results show that the proposed framework achieves competitive classification performance compared to existing benchmark methods.

Earth and planetary science letters 507, 166 - 174 (2019). doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.11.038, The pressure-induced amorphization of the two endmembers of the plagioclase ((Na$_{1−x}$Cax)Al$_{1+x}$Si$_{3−x}$O$_8$) solid-solution, anorthite (CaAl$_2$Si$_2$O$_8$) and albite (NaAlSi$_3$O$_8$), has been studied as a function of compression rate by means of time-resolved powder diffraction. Anorthite and albite were compressed in a diamond anvil cell to 80 GPa at multiple rates from 0.05 GPa/s to 80 GPa/s. The amorphization pressure decreases with increasing compression rate. This negative strain rate sensitivity indicates a change in deformation mechanism in the plagioclase solid-solution endmembers from brittle to ductile with increasing compression rate. The presented data support the previously proposed shear deformation mechanism for the amorphization of plagioclase. Furthermore, amorphization progresses over a wide pressure range suggesting heterogeneous amorphization, similar to observations based on recovered material from shock-compression experiments of plagioclase. Our experiments support the contention that amorphization pressures for plagioclase may occur at lower pressures than usually considered., Published by Elsevier, Amsterdam [u.a.]

Electrochemical energy storage (EES) systems rely on novel materials to meet stringent performance demands in terms of both high energy and high power. Although several new materials have been identified for EES, one method that seeks to amplify material properties has been to modulate morphologies at the nanoscale. This improvement in electrochemical properties is in large part due to the enhancement in surface area and mitigation of solid-state diffusion at the nanoscale domain. By using sodium titanate (Na2Ti3O7) as a model compound, we employ efficient synthetic routes to prepare titanate nanosheets and nanotubes, and assess their charge-storage properties in both Li- and Na-ion non-aqueous electrolytes. Moreover, nanocomposites comprising reduced graphene oxide are constructed to further enhance rate capability. We perform a fundamental electroanalytical treatment of the charge-storage properties for titanate nanosheets and nanotubes and identify the underlying rate-determining mechanisms by kinetic analysis. In both Li- and Na-ion electrolytes, the nanotube–reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite exhibits pseudocapacitive behavior, indicated by broad voltammetric features and sloping charge-discharge voltage profiles under galvanostatic mode. This corresponding charge-storage process supports high capacities of 170 and 80 mAh g−1 in a Li- and Na-ion system, respectively, based on constant current measurements at a C-rate of 5C.

Summary Zinc-based batteries are experiencing a resurgence in interest owing to their promising energy and power metrics, and inherent safety advantages compared with lithium-ion batteries. As scientists worldwide address the remaining obstacles to realizing competitive performance across the family of zinc batteries, the enthusiasm to report new “breakthroughs” at the materials or small-device level must be tempered by a realistic understanding of how such improvements will translate to practical energy-storage devices. Framing early-stage results in such a context will advance the prospects of next-generation Zn batteries while avoiding the “hype cycle” that has plagued research and development for other energy-storage technologies. Herein, we present guidelines by which to evaluate and report data derived from new electrode formulations and cell components such that the results will directly inform which breakthroughs are technologically relevant to scale up.

BACKGROUND CONTEXT Facet joint interventions include medial branch blocks (MBB), radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and facet joint intra-articular injections (IA). Currently, American Society for Regional Anesthesia (ASRA) guidelines list these procedures as intermediate risk for the cervical and thoracic spine and low risk for lumbar spine. Accordingly, these guidelines recommend many anticoagulation (AC) medications and antiplatelet (AP) medications to be held or consideration made to hold for these procedures, presumably to mitigate the theoretical risk of a major bleeding complication. This is despite the fact there are few if any reports of serious bleeding complications that occur with these procedures, regardless of a patients AP or AC status. On the other hand, there is growing evidence suggests that the thrombotic complication risk of stopping these AC/AP medications for patients undergoing these facet joint interventions may exceed the hemorrhagic risk of maintaining them. PURPOSE The primary objective is to determine the risk of serious bleeding complications in patients undergoing facet targeted injections. The secondary objective is to determine if this is affected by the management of AC/AP medications. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING Retroscpective observational study. PATIENT SAMPLE A total of 6,598 facet joint interventions. OUTCOME MEASURES Bleeding or hemorrhagic complications within 90 days of intervention. METHODS A retrospective observational study was conducted in a private pain practice. Consecutive patients were identified between September 19, 2009 and June 16, 2017, and it was noted if they were taking AC/AP medications prior to a procedure and how these medications were managed. In patients on AC/AP medications, charts were thoroughly reviewed for thrombotic and/or hemorrhagic complications occurring within 90 days of the procedure. For all other patients not on AC/AP medications, only the rate of clinically significant hemorrhagic events were considered given there is no inherent risk of thrombosis related to facet targeted interventions. RESULTS A total of 6,598 facet joint interventions were identified. No clinically significant bleeding complications were noted noted. Of the patient sample, 581 interventions were performed on patients prescribed AC/AP medications, with only one patient was lost to follow up. In 126 of these cases, they were performed after patients ceased AC/AP medications, with no complications noted. AC/AP medications were continued in 455 cases, also with no bleeding complications noted. Interestingly, of the 581 cases three thrombotic complications were noted in the group that had maintained AC/AP medications. CONCLUSIONS In this large cohort of 6,598 cervical, thoracic, and lumbar facet targeted interventions, no cases of clinically significant bleeding complications were noted. This include no cases of clinically significant bleeding in the 581 cases in which patients were on AC/AP medications, of which 455 were continued on such medications. This suggests the overall risk of significant bleeding complications with these procedures is exceedingly low. This must be considered when managing patients on AC/AP medications, as while preventing bleeding complications is important, the risk of thrombotic complications in this patient populations may be higher. This data builds upon previous research and supports individualized perioperative risk assessment when making the decision to stop or continue AC/AP medications. FDA DEVICE/DRUG STATUS This abstract does not discuss or include any applicable devices or drugs.