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With the rapid increase in the usage of lithium ion batteries, recovering Li 2 CO 3 from LiFePO 4 black powder has become an issue of public concern. Nowadays, the widely used acid leaching technology has some obvious disadvantages, such as complex recovery process, serious equipment corrosion and unavoidable secondary pollution. In this work, a novel acid-free leaching route of recovering Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 from LiFePO 4 black powder is proposed. This novel route does not include inorganic or organic acid leaching, complex pH adjustment and wastewater treatment processes. After optimizing the technological conditions, Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 with high purity are recovered with high recovery rate of over 96%. Then, the recovered Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 are used as iron and lithium sources to regenerate LiFePO 4 and the electrochemical performances are compared in detail. When the molar ratio of Li 2 CO 3 :FePO 4 :C 6 H 12 O 6 (glucose) is 1.03:2:0.35, the regenerated LiFePO 4 (R-LFP-0.35) cathode displays the optimal electrochemical performance with the discharge capacity of 163.9 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, 120 mAh g−1 at 4 C and excellent capacity retention ratio of 98.0% after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. This work provides a new green and environmentally friendly strategy for the recycling of LiFePO 4 black powder. • A novel acid-free leaching route of recovering Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 is proposed. • The closed-loop recycling route improves the recovery rate of Li 2 CO 3. • The recovered Li 2 CO 3 and FePO 4 are of high purity. • The regenerated LiFePO 4 cathode displays excellent electrochemical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgroud There is an unmet need for the development of new biomarkers for idiopathic inflammatory myopathy-associated interstitial lung disease (IIM-ILD). Methods Peripheral CD4+CXCR4+ T cells, stromal cell-derived factor-1 and Krebs von den Lungen-6 were measured in patients with IIM-ILD (n = 85) and controls. The relation to pulmonary functions, high-resolution CT scores, specific clinical phenotypes and survival was analysed. Cytokine-expression profiling of these CD4+CXCR4+ T cells and their co-culture with pulmonary fibroblasts were conducted. Results The peripheral percentages of CD4+CXCR4+ T cells were significantly elevated in IIM-ILD patients, and correlated with high-resolution CT score (r = 0.7136, P < 0.0001) and pulmonary function impairments, such as percentage of forced volume vital capacity (r = −0.4734, P = 0.0005). They were associated with anti-melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 autoantibodies and the amyopathic DM phenotype. In IIM-ILD, peripheral percentages of CD4+CXCR4+ T cells ⩾30% revealed a 6-month mortality as high as 47%. These CD4+CXCR4+ T cells express high levels of IL-21 and IL-6. In vitro blockade of IL-21 signalling by neutralization of IL-21 or Janus kinase inhibitor could abolished the fibroblast proliferation. Conclusion Overall, peripheral CD4+CXCR4+ T cells appear to be a potentially valuable novel biomarker associated with the severity and prognosis of IIM-ILD. They promote pulmonary fibroblast proliferation via IL-21, which may herald future targeted treatments for this severe disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In this paper, we compared the F2-Layer critical frequency (foF2) derived from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio occultation (RO) and ionosondes at Chiang Mai, Chumphon and Kototabang during the years 2008–2015 to evaluate the performance of COSMIC RO over Southeast Asia region. The results show that the time development of foF2 values derived from COSMIC RO generally agrees well with those from ionosonde measurements. However, the differences between the foF2 derived from COSMIC RO and that derived from ionosonde observations display latitudinal dependence. COSMIC RO tends to underestimate foF2 at Chiang Mai and Kototabang, which is near to the north EIA crest and the south one, respectively, while a little overestimate foF2 at Chumphon, which is close to the geomagnetic equator. COSMIC RO agrees best with ionosonde at Chumphon and worst at Chiang Mai. At each ionosonde station, the quality of COSMIC RO data degrades with the increase of solar activity. In addition, at the station Chiang Mai and Kototabang, COSMIC RO performs better in summer than in equinox and winter. Furthermore, the differences in foF2 derived from COSMIC RO and that from ionosonde measurements vary with local time, i.e., the differences in foF2 are generally smaller at night and larger in noontime when equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) is well developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly influenced the global economy, international travel, global supply chains, and how people interact, and subsequently affect globalization in coming years. In order to understand the impact of COVID-19 on globalization and provide potential guidance to policymakers, the present study predicted the globalization level of the world average and 14 specific countries in scenarios with and without COVID-19 based on a new Composite Indicator method which contains 15 indicators. Our results revealed that the world average globalization level is expected to decrease from 2017 to 2025 under the scenario without COVID-19 by −5.99%, while the decrease of globalization under the COVID-19 scenario is predicted to reach −4.76% in 2025. This finding implies that the impact of COVID-19 on globalization will not be as severe as expected in 2025. Nevertheless, the downward trend of globalization without COVID-19 is due to the decline of the Environmental indicators, whereas the decline under the COVID-19 scenario is attributed to Economic aspects (almost −50%). The impact of COVID-19 on globalization varies across individual countries. Among the countries investigated, COVID-19 had a positive impact on the globalization of Japan, Australia, the United States, the Russian Federation, Brazil, India and Togo. In contrast, the globalization in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Qatar, Egypt, China and Gabon are expected to decrease. The variation of impact induced by COVID-19 on those countries is attributed to the weighting of economic, environmental and political aspects of globalization is different across these countries. Our results can help governments take suitable measures to balance economic, environmental and political policies, which may better support their decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous supercapacitors have occupied a significant position among various types of stationary energy storage equipment, while their widespread application is hindered by the relatively low energy density. Herein, N/F co-doped carbon materials activated by manganese clusters (NCM) are constructed by the straightforward experimental routine. Benefiting from the elevated conductivity structure at the microscopic level, the optimized NCM-0.5 electrodes exhibited a remarkable specific capacitance of 653 F g−1 at 0.4 A g−1 and exceptional cycling stability (97.39% capacity retention even after 40,000 cycles at the scanning rate of 100 mV s−1) in a neutral 5 M LiCl electrolyte. Moreover, we assembled an asymmetric device pairing with a VOx anode (NCM-0.5//VOx), which delivered a durable life span of 95% capacity retention over 30,000 cycles and an impressive energy density of 77.9 Wh kg−1. This study provides inspiration for transition metal element doping engineering in high-energy storage equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]