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Promoting the Li2O2 particles formation in the electrolyte by soluble catalysts could achieve high capacities for Li–O2 cell. However, side reactions between the soluble catalysts and lithium metal anode and more importantly, the deposition of the solid Li2O2 particle on which side (lithium anode or oxygen cathode) is inevitable for the solution phase discharge process in Li–O2 batteries, leading to the obvious capacity decay. Here we design and create a partial soluble metal nitroxides frameworks (MNOFs) to promote the “marriage” between the soluble and solid catalysts to overcome the most stubborn of these challenges. Taking advantage of the partial soluble property in the electrolyte, the prepared MNOFs can be simultaneously applied as the soluble and solid catalysts. MNOFs dissolving balance between electrolyte and cathode could construct a bridge between the electrolyte and cathode, which can not only suppress the corrosion reactions on Li anode, but also target discharge products deposition on the cathode. A 1Ah Li–O2 cell with a high areal specific capacity of 40 ​mA ​h ​cm-2 was demonstrated under a relatively low overpotential (~ 0.6 ​V). By ideally bridging the soluble and solid catalyst, the reversibility is significantly improved.

Metformin causes metabolic encephalopathy in some patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease, resulting in impaired consciousness and parkinsonism. This encephalopathy has a very characteristic magnetic resonance imaging feature in lentiform nuclei known as the “lentiform fork sign”. However, the mechanism is unknown. Here, we report a case of metformin-induced encephalopathy with a novel observation of lactate accumulation in the lentiform nuclei on magnetic resonance spectroscopy without systemic lactic acidosis. Since metformin is an inhibitor of mitochondrial complex-I, this focal brain lactate accumulation implies that a part of the pathogenesis of metformin-induced encephalopathy is the focal vulnerability of mitochondria to metformin in the lentiform nuclei. When metformin causes encephalopathy, not only testing for serum lactic acidosis and performing routine magnetic resonance imaging but also evaluation of brain lactate accumulation by magnetic resonance spectroscopy should be required to elucidate the etiology., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • Metformin-induced encephalopathy with lactate accumulation in lentiform fork sign was reported. • Lentiform nuclei might be more vulnerable to metformin than other organs. • This case suggested an etiology for the lentiform fork sign because metformin is a mitochondrial inhibitor.

Owing to its high theoretical capacity and energy density, lithium sulfur battery represents one of the most promising candidates for future energy storage. However, the dissolution of polysulfide in the electrodes results in shuttle effect and rapid fading of capacity, which impedes practical application of lithium sulfur battery. To inhibit the shuttle effect, in this work, an integrated, highly conductive metal-organic-framework-derived porous nitrogen-carbon-cobalt (N-C-Co) interlayer is designed and prepared to suppress polysulfides lost in electrolyte. Owing to the novel MOFs precursor, N-C-Co composite possesses hierarchical pores, pyridinic and pyrrolic nitrogen groups. This coating interlayer acts effectively through three aspects: as a physical blocking layer to prevent most polysulfides from dissolving out of the cathode, physical and chemical adsorption to confine free polysulfides in the electrolyte, and a second pseudo-upper current collector to enhance the utilization of sulfur. As a result, the improvement of battery performance is achieved by the well-designed interlayer. The initial discharge capacity of composite cathode with the interlayer is 1216.9 mAh g−1 at 1C and can retain capacity of 660.3 mAh g−1 after 250 cycles at the sulfur loading of 1.5 mg cm−2. At the same time, the Coulombic efficiency maintains above 99% during cycling, demonstrating an effective inhibition of the shuttle effect. Even at a high sulfur mass loading of 5.2 mg cm−2, the battery can still deliver 678.8 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles and an areal discharge capacity is of above 3.53 mAh cm−2.

Nickel foam supported mesoporous FeCo 2 O 4 nanosheets (FCO-NSs-Ni) are synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method, with a subsequent annealing process at a rather low temperature. The three dimensional microstructure, crystal phase and electrochemical performance of the as-prepared FeCo 2 O 4 were investigated systematically. The results show that this material is composed of highly mesoporous nanosheet clusters with large specific surface area. The FCO-NSs-Ni as anode material for sodium ion battery maintains a discharge capacity of 422 mA h g −1 with a coulombic efficiency of 95% after 100 cycles at a current density of 50 mA g −1 . Even at higher current densities of 100 mA g −1 , it still remains a reversible capacity of 338 mA h g −1 after 300 cycles. This FCO-NSs-Ni could be considered as a promising candidate for anode material of sodium-ion batteries.

Proton-conducting reversible solid oxide cells (PC-RSOCs) have attracted much attention for their advantages of working as energy storage devices. In this study, orthorhombic-perovskite structure BaCe0.8−xZr0.2InxO3−δ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) materials have been synthesized. The effect of different indium doping contents on the stability and electrical properties has been investigated. Experimental results reveal that the BaCe0.5Zr0.2In0.3O3−δ possesses the highest proton conductivity with desirable density. Besides, the stability of BaCe0.5Zr0.2In0.3O3−δ is obviously improved in moist air (20 vol% H2O) atmosphere. Anode-supported PC-RSOC with BaCe0.5Zr0.2In0.3O3−δ membrane as an electrolyte displays a maximum power density of 151 mW·cm−2 at 700 °C in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) mode. Meanwhile, the PC-RSOC with BaCe0.5Zr0.2In0.3O3−δ electrolyte membrane in solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) mode can also manifest high current density of −729 mA cm−2 at 700 °C with an applied voltage of 1.5 V, and maintains a stable current density of around −124 mA·cm−2 at 700 °C with an applied voltage of 1.1 V for more than 60 h. These encouraging results suggest the potential application of BaCe0.5Zr0.2In0.3O3−δ as electrolyte material for intermediate-temperature PC-RSOCs.

High temperature sodium batteries with inorganic electrolytes are attracting increasing attention due to their high thermal stability, reliability, long-cycle life and safety. Despite the intensive investigation of Na-NiCl 2 batteries during last decades, designing a stable conducting network in the cathode is still challenging but desirable. In this work, a new cathode structure composed of Ni nanowires with an effective electron conducting network is proposed for planar sodium–nickel chloride batteries. During the first stage of charge, Ni nanowires reacted with Cl ion to form NiCl 2 on the surface and the excessive Ni nanowires inside can serve as conducting framework to facilitate the fast electron transport. As expected, the metal nanowires show a high specific capacity of 130 mA h g −1 (∼14 mAh cm −2 ) at 0.05 C after 100 cycles. Meanwhile, the batteries show stable cycling performance at 0.05 C with a high cut-off energy density of 360 W h kg −1 , much higher than the traditional tubular sodium-nickel chloride batteries (∼100 Wh kg −1 ). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the cathode after long cycling reveal the ultra-slow growth of Ni particles, confirming the excellent stability of the prepared nanowires cathode.

The efficient reversible formation of discharge products for Li-O 2 batteries is still challenging. Meanwhile, the question of the nature of the discharge products and their decomposition mechanism are still remain. Implanting oxygen vacancies on the metal oxides can create negative-charge surface to provide strong adsorption of active oxygen and at the same time, the exposed metal sites can serve as an efficient substrate for decomposed reaction of discharge products. In this work, we apply the graphene-like MoO 3 ultrathin nanosheets as a matrix. By controlling the reduction time, the MoO 3 nanosheets with different concentration of oxygen vacancy are obtained. Experimental results reveal that the MoO 3 nanosheets with the high-concentration oxygen vacancies can significantly decrease the overpotential and get enhanced electrochemical response, namely, a low overpotential of ~0.5 V can be delivered with ultra-stable cycles (over 60 cycles). Moreover, the Li-O 2 batteries demonstrate an interesting four-step discharge and charge process. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy analyses are carried out for the four typical states of the cathode to reveal the reaction mechanism for the unique electrochemical behavior.

Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose-styrene butadiene rubber (CMC-SBR), sodium alginate (SA) and LA132 are utilized as the polymer binders for the cathodes of Li-S batteries to study their dispersion mechanism on the cathode materials and the consequent influence on the performance of Li-S batteries. Zeta potential tests, differential scanning calorimetry analysis and calculations of the rotational barriers of the links of the polymer chains by General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS) reveal that higher charge densities and better chain flexibility of the binders promise the dispersion of the downsized cathode materials. LA132 is found to have optimal characteristic for dispersing and stabilizing the cathode materials in aqueous environment. The cycling performance and SEM images of the cathodes demonstrate that cathodes with higher dispersion degree achieve higher discharge capacities. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results further support that better dispersed cathodes have lower impedance resulting from their well established conducting frameworks.

Several studies have suggested that non-stenotic carotid plaque was a risk factor for embolic stroke of undetermined source in some patients. However, individual backgrounds of these patients is unclear. We encountered a 64-years-old female with cerebral emboli, from an apparently stable non-stenotic carotid plaque (only 1.42mm thick) at the distal left common carotid artery, caused by violent tic movement of thyroid cartilage under well controlled dyslipidemia. Even though the plaque appeared thin and stable, mechanical stimulation could cause multiple, unnaturally localized emboli by stimulation-induced atherogenesis and plaque rupture, resulting in a misdiagnose of embolic stroke of undetermined source with non-stenotic carotid plaque.

We propose an optical encryption framework that can encrypt and decrypt large-sized images beyond the size of the encrypted image using our two methods: random phase-free method and scaled diffraction. In order to record the entire image information on the encrypted image, the large-sized images require the random phase to widely diffuse the object light over the encrypted image; however, the random phase gives rise to the speckle noise on the decrypted images, and it may be difficult to recognize the decrypted images. In order to reduce the speckle noise, we apply our random phase-free method to the framework. In addition, we employ scaled diffraction that calculates light propagation between planes with different sizes by changing the sampling rates.

Sorafenib is a multi-kinase inhibitor applicable to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its limited therapeutic effects are a major problem to be solved. Here, we show that blockade of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) improves the antitumor effects of sorafenib. When hepatoma cell lines HepG2 and PLC/PRF/5 were treated with sorafenib plus ATM small inhibitory RNAs, ATM inhibitor KU55933 or caffeine, Akt signaling was suppressed and the cytotoxic effects were significantly potentiated. Moreover, ATM inhibition effectively suppressed the sorafenib-induced cell migration. Taken together, manipulation of ATM activity might be a useful strategy for improving sorafenib treatment of HCC.

Waxy wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.), a type of wheat that was first developed in Japan, produces grain amylopectin. I carried out three researches. Firstly, using Japanese adults, we carried out sensory evaluation of three types of mochi (a dumpling-like cake made of steamed and pounded grains) prepared from waxy wheat, normal wheat and waxy rice, and demonstrated that waxy wheat mochi had low adhesiveness and had the greatest ease of swallowing among the samples tested. Secondly, using the members of the JSDR (the Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation) who attended the annual meeting, we performed another texture evaluations between waxy wheat and waxy rice mochi . The respondents reported waxy wheat mochi was less sticky and thus easier to chew and swallow than waxy rice mochi . Thirdly, to explain the relative ease of swallowing waxy wheat mochi , we investigated the mechanical behavior of mochi samples using videoendoscopy. The results suggested waxy wheat mochi was broken down into particles through mastication, transported to the epiglottic vallecula, and then propelled into the esophagus in a manner similar to that generally observed with other foods. On the other hand, waxy rice mochi was poorly disintegrated into particles, and the highly glutinous food mass was directly passed down to the esophagus, leading to lower ease of swallowing.

The paper gives explicit formulae for analysing an experiment carried out in an affine resolvable proper block design. They follow from a randomization model, decomposed into stratum submodels. Analyses within the four relevant strata, and then the combined analysis, are considered in details. The paper is essentially an extension of some results presented in recent books, by Calinski and Kageyama [2000. Block Designs: A Randomization Approach, Volume I: Analysis. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol. 150. Springer, New York; 2003. Block Designs: A Randomization Approach, Volume II: Design. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol. 170. Springer, New York].

The concept of affine α -resolvability has been discussed for block designs in literature since 1942 for α = 1 and in particular since 1963 for α ⩾ 2 . Among group divisible (GD) designs, affine α -resolvable designs are known for both classes of singular GD and semi-regular GD designs. However, no example has been found for an affine α -resolvable regular GD design in literature. In this paper, the validity of such concept will be disproved for regular GD designs in general. Thus the regular GD design does not possess any property of the affine α -resolvability.

Several methods of constructing group divisible (GD) designs are given by use of rectangular designs and nested balanced incomplete block designs. The GD designs obtained here are rather large, but as series they appear to be new. In the process, some series of rectangular designs, balanced arrays, and orthogonal arrays are also provided.

We investigated how child patients take in information from a dentist's face and whether there is any age difference in the way of scanning the face. For this purpose, we used a non-contact type of eye movement measuring apparatus tradenamed FreeView ® and an upright photograph of a male dentist's face as the test image. The subjects consisted of a total of 90 children between the ages of 2 years 11 months and 12 years 11 months. The subjects were divided into three age groups-group A (below 7 years), group B (7–9 years) and group C (10 years or above), and their eye movements were measured and analyzed. Our findings are as follows. 1.The saccadic movements to the background of the photo and the fixation points in the background decreased most in group C, followed by group B and group A, in that order. 2.The overlapping of saccadic movements to the features of the face (the eyes, nose and mouth) was remarkably in all age groups. However, the subjects did not scan the whole of the appearance of the face (the hair, forehead, cheeks, ears and chin). 3.The fixation points on the appearance of the face were unevenly distributed. Many fixation points were found close to the features of the face. This peculiarity was common to all the groups. 4.The fixation points on the features of the face increased most in group C, followed by group B and group A, in that order.

It is known that group divisible designs (GDDs) with [email protected]"1+1 are regular and symmetric, and that the combinatorial structure of these designs is characterized in terms of Hadamard tournaments and strongly regular graphs. In this paper, it is shown that GDDs without @a-resolution classes in each group are also specified by Hadamard tournaments and strongly regular graphs. The result given by Jimbo and Kageyama (ICA Bull. 32 (2001) 29) is included in the present result as a special case.

Balanced nested designs are closely related to other combinatorial structures such as balanced arrays and balanced n-ary designs. In particular, the existence of symmetric balanced nested designs is equivalent to the existence of some balanced arrays. In this paper, various constructions for symmetric balanced nested designs are provided. They are used to determine the spectrum of symmetric balanced nested balanced incomplete block designs with block size 3 and 4.

It is shown that a group divisible design with r = λ 1 +1 is regular and symmetric. Some block structure of the design is also determined. This characterization is given by a constructive approach.

Some rectangular designs are presented along with a table of new designs in the range of parameters r,k⩽10. Some of these are E-optimal designs. A subclass of designs produced by Theorem 2.6 are E-optimal. A series of E-optimal designs, two series of group divisible (GD) designs and a new cyclic solution of a GD design are also obtained.

A sufficient condition for an incomplete split-block design to be universally optimal is given. Optimal properties are examined under two linear models, i.e., with interaction effects and without these effects. Furthermore, some methods of constructing universally optimal incomplete split-block designs are presented.

A (k,λ)-frame of type hu is a (k,λ)-GDD ( X , G , A ) of type hu in which the collection of blocks A can be partitioned into partial parallel classes each of which partitions X −G i for some G i ∈ G . In this paper, we investigate the existence of (4,3)-frames of type hu and show that the necessary conditions are also sufficient with a small number of possible exceptions.

The BELLE detector for experiments at KEKB, a high luminosity, energy asymmetric B-factory, is now being constructed at KEK. An overview of the detector systems and their status is presented.

The block designs considered here are nested in the unified sense of Preece (Biometrika 54 (1967) 479–486) and Federer (in: T.A. Baneroft (Ed.), Statistical Papers in Honor of George W. Snedecor, 1972, pp. 91–114), that is, each block of the larger balanced incomplete block design contains several distinguished families of mutually disjoint sub-blocks, the sub-blocks of the same family belonging to the same system, such that each system forms the collection of blocks of some balanced incomplete block design. In this paper, it is shown that the necessary conditions for the existence of such designs are also sufficient for block size 5 and sub-block sizes 2 and 3. This, together with known results, implies the entire existence of such designs with block size 5 in general.