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Objectives: This study examined a case of an 80-year-old woman with extensive ascites and hypervolemic hyponatremia due to decompensated liver cirrhosis.Methods: The patient was first treated with a diuretic to treat her ascites. However, during hospitalization, she developed hypervolemic hyponatremia due to liver cirrhosis. Therefore, we discontinued the diuretic and treated her with Korean herbal medicine (Insamyangyoung-tang with Oryeong-san). We measured her abdominal circumference, followed by radiography, to evaluate the effect of Korean herbal medicine.Result: We treated the patient only with Korean medicine and without diuretics, and her ascites was successfully reduced. No recurrence was observed.Conclusion: Korean herbal medicine can be used as an adjuvant therapy for patients with ascites and hyponatremia.

Objective: In this case report, we address the case of a 22-year-old man complaining of generalized tonic-clonic seizures due to drug-resistant epilepsy.Methods: A patient was treated with Korean medicine, including herbal medication, Shihogyeji-tang (SGT), and acupuncture. We evaluated improvements in symptoms using the Korean version of the Epilepsy Self-Efficacy Scale and quality of life.Results: After 37 days of Korean medicine treatment, there were improvements in the patient’s quality of life and self-efficacy in seizure control.Conclusions: This case report suggests that SGT and acupuncture might be effective in drug-resistant epilepsy via action on neurons. SGT showed excellent tolerability for drug-resistant epilepsy patients. Our experience provides evidence that SGT and acupunctue may be used as alternative treatment options when antiepileptic drugs do not work in epilepsy patients.

Rheological properties of a natural rubber based magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) with spherical carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) and plate-like Sendust particles as soft magnetic particles were investigated. Isotropic and anisotropic MRE samples were prepared by molding in the absence or presence of magnetic field. Different shape of magnetic particles provided significant effect on mechanical properties of the MRE samples. The rheological properties of the MRE samples were measured in shear mode through a modified Dynamic Mechanical Analysis system equipped with an electromagnet. MRE samples containing plate-like Sendust particles showed higher shear storage modulus than MRE samples with spherical CIPs. Isotropic structures of the two types of magnetic particles contributed to improvement in MRE's performance, such as absolute and relative MR effect. The relative MR effect had a strain-dependent behavior that increased with increasing strain amplitude due to the Payne effect.

With the development and wide applicability of rubber materials, it is imperative to determine their performance under various conditions. In this study, the effect of cyclic shear fatigue on natural-rubber-based anisotropic magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) with carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) was investigated under a magnetic field. An anisotropic MRE sample was prepared by moulding under a magnetic field. Cyclic shear fatigue tests were performed using a modified electromechanical fatigue system with an electromagnet. The storage modulus (G′) and loss factor in the absence or presence of a magnetic field were measured using a modified dynamic mechanical analysis system. Under a magnetic field, fatigue exhibited considerable effects to the MRE, such as migration and loss of magnetised CIPs and suppressed increase in stiffness by reducing the energy loss in the strain cycle. Therefore, the G′ of the MRE after fatigue under a magnetic field was lower than that after fatigue in the zero field. The performance of the MRE, such as absolute and relative magnetorheological effects, decreased after subjecting to cyclic shear fatigue. In addition, all measured results exhibited strain-dependent behaviour owing to the Payne effect.

We report a defect-engineered self-assembly route to a mesoporous ternary ZnCo 2 O 4 /nitrogen-doped graphene nanoarchitecture as an anode material for lithium ion batteries through a hydrothermal and thermal annealing process. A hetero-nanostructure showed flower-like ZnCo 2 O 4 nanosheets which were well dispersed and firmly decorated on nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide, as atomic-scale defects such as nitrogen-doped sites and oxygen-functional groups in chemically modified graphene oxide can be more reactive nucleation sites to anchor metallic nanoparticles strongly. Strong synergy between N-doped graphene and ZnCo 2 O 4 is observed as a high-performance anode electrode material for much higher capacity levels and more durable electrochemical stability in lithium ion batteries. The mesoporous nanoarchitecture electrode shows enhanced reversible performance in cyclic anode tests, maintaining a specific energy capacity of 998 mAh g −1 after 30 cycles at current density of 100 mA g −1 .

We report a microwave-assisted synthesis of a self-assembled three-dimensional graphene-carbon nanotube-nickel (3D G-CNT-Ni) nanostructure, which can be used as a high capacity anode material in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The unique 3D G-CNT-Ni nanostructure shows that CNTs are grown on graphene sheets through tip growth mechanism by Ni nano-particles. Bunches of CNTs and graphene sheets produce 3D network nanostructures with ultrahigh surface area, a large number of activation sites, and efficient ion pathways, all of which are crucial for high capacity anode materials in LIBs. The synthesized 3D nanostructure maintains a reversible specific capacity of 648.2 mA h/g after 50 cycles at a current density of 100 mA/g, as high capacity electrode structures in LIBs.

Bioinspired soft ionic actuators, which exhibit large strain and high durability under low input voltages, are regarded as prospective candidates for future soft electronics. However, due to the intrinsic drawback of weak blocking force, the feasible applications of soft ionic actuators are limited until now. An electroactive artificial muscle electro-chemomechanically reinforced with 3D graphene-carbon nanotube-nickel heteronanostructures (G-CNT-Ni) to improve blocking force and bending deformation of the ionic actuators is demonstrated. The G-CNT-Ni heteronanostructure, which provides an electrically conductive 3D network and sufficient contact area with mobile ions in the polymer electrolyte, is embedded as a nanofiller in both ionic polymer and conductive electrodes of the ionic actuators. An ionic exchangeable composite membrane consisting of Nafion, G-CNT-Ni and ionic liquid (IL) shows improved tensile modulus and strength of up to 166% and 98%, respectively, and increased ionic conductivity of 0.254 S m-1 . The ionic actuator exhibits enhanced actuation performances including three times larger bending deformation, 2.37 times higher blocking force, and 4 h durability. The electroactive artificial muscle electro-chemomechanically reinforced with 3D G-CNT-Ni heteronanostructures offers improvements over current soft ionic actuator technologies and can advance the practical engineering applications.

Electrochemical splitting of water is an attractive way to produce hydrogen fuel as a clean and renewable energy source. However, a major challenge is to accelerate the sluggish kinetics of the anodic half-cell reaction where oxygen evolution reaction (OER) takes place. Here, a seamlessly conductive 3D architecture is reported with a carbon-shelled Ni-Co nanowire network as a highly efficient OER electrocatalyst. Highly porous and granular Ni-Co nanowires are first grown on a carbon fiber woven fabric utilizing a cost-effective hydrothermal method and then conductive carbon shell is coated on the Ni-Co nanowires via glucose carbonization and annealing processes. The conductive carbon layer surrounding the nanowires is introduced to provide a continuous pathway for facile electron transport throughout the whole of the integrated 3D catalyst. This 3D hierarchical structure provides several synergistic effects and beneficial functions including a large number of active sites, easy accessibility of water, fast electron transport, rapid release of oxygen gas, enhanced electrochemical durability, and stronger structural integrity, resulting in a remarkable OER activity that delivers an overpotential of 302 mV with a Tafel slope of 43.6 mV dec−1 at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in an alkaline medium electrolyte (1 m KOH).