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International audience; Understanding the size effect of each component on battery performance is essential for designing high-performance Li2S/S cathode for all-solid-state Li-S batteries. However, the size effects of different components are always coupled because ball-milling, an indispensable process to synthesize reversible cathode, simultaneously and uncontrollably reduces the particle size of all the components. Here, a liquid-phase method, without ball-milling, is developed to synthesize the Li2S composite cathode, so that the particle size of the active material Li2S and the solid electrolyte Li3PS4 (LPS) can be independently controlled at nano- or microscale. This helps reveal that compositing Li2S and the conductive agent at nanoscale is essential for enhancing the reaction kinetics, whereas the nanoscale particle size and homogenous distribution of LPS is important for accommodating the large volume change of the cathode. By reducing the particle size of Li2S to 9.4 nm and that of LPS to 44 nm, the liquid-phase-synthesized composite cathode exhibits reversible capacity and 100% utilization of Li2S under 0.1 C rate.

International audience; Reducing particle size of sulfide electrolytes to nanoscale is essential for preparing ultrathin sulfide electrolyte membrane of all-solid-state batteries. However, there lacks effective way to synthesize sulfide electrolyte nanoparticles with good morphology uniformity. In this work, a dual precursor sol route is developed to speed up the synthesis of lithium thiophosphate (LPS) from tens of hours by conventional liquid-phase routes to

With the rapid development of urbanization, many housing constructions are being built in southwest China, which resulted in tremendous use of building materials, posing a potential threat to the environment. In order to formulate policies for low-carbon, green and sustainable development of buildings, it is necessary to explore the driving factors behind it. Taking the bottom-up material flow analysis as a framework, this research calculates the embodied carbon emissions of buildings on the basis of quantifying the stock of building materials in Southwest China from 2001 to 2020 and adopts the Logarithmic mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition analysis method to investigate the contribution of factors such as technological level, economic structure, per capita GDP and population density to the embodied carbon emissions of buildings. The research shows that: (1) The total embodied carbon emissions of building materials in Southwest China increased by 218.62%, of steel and cement contributed the most of carbon emissions. (2) In the past 20 years, the degree of decoupling in Southwest China has fluctuated greatly. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the provinces and cities in southwest China have an enormous degree of decoupling: Yunnan (-0.141) > Guizhou (-0.013) > Chongqing (0.047) > Tibet (0.120) > Sichuan (0.256). (3) The technological level is the first leading factor in the reduction of the embodied carbon emissions of buildings in southwest China, and the per capita GDP is the key factor to promote the growth of embodied carbon emissions. These findings could serve as a foundation for Southwest China's government to develop low-carbon building policies.

Retrofitting methods for transmission tower on-service conditions should avoid punching and welding. This paper presents a non-destructive retrofitting method, the T-shaped composite angles method, to meet the demand. The original angle was combined with retrofitting components by V-shaped clamps. Both numerical analysis and static loading test were carried out to verify the effectiveness of this retrofitting method. The test results show that compared with the lateral stiffness of the original transmission tower segment, the stiffness of the reinforced one increased. The load-bearing capacity of the reinforced transmission tower segment almost doubled that before the reinforcement. The proposed retrofitting method is non-destructive and effective.

To investigate the association between the failure pattern and the proportion of external load in the tower segment, the capacity experiment of the scaled segment model is designed in this paper, and the FE model of the experiment of the segment is build and compared with experiment results. The pattern of the tower segment failed is evaluated by the relationship of PH(horizontal load) and MP (bending moment). The critical points of P-MP curve were analyzed by selecting the capacity of diagonal and main elements. And the failure assessment theory for the tower segment was established. The results indicate that the FE model of the experiment segment can reflect the experiment loading process effectively. The capacity of the diagonal element has a significant impact on the tower’s PH, and the main element’s bearing capacity is an important factor affecting the flexural capacity. Using the proposed method, the weak positions and elements of the structure can be judged.

Controlling the composition and microstructure of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer is critical to improving the cycling stability of the high-energy-density lithium-metal electrode. It is a quite tricky task to control the properties of the SEI layer which is conventionally formed by the chemical reactions between a Li metal and the additives. Herein, we develop a new route to synthesize a lithium-compatible sol of the sulfide electrolyte Li

International audience; Understanding the electrochemical processes in all-solid-state lithium‑sulfur batteries is essential for designing high-performance devices. Here, the evolution of the electrochemical impedance spectra of an all-solid-state lithium‑sulfur battery during one charge/discharge cycle was quantitatively investigated with a reasonably established equivalent circuit. The impedance spectra could be decomposed into several parts as follows: the bulk resistance of solid electrolyte and current collector at highest frequency, three semicircles from high to low frequency corresponding to the dynamic processes at different interfaces and a 45° straight line followed by an inclined small tail at low frequency. It is found that the middle frequency semicircle, corresponding to charge transfer at the cathode, varied obviously during the charge/discharge cycle. Moreover, the 45° straight line, which is attributed to the Li diffusion in the cathode material LixS based on qualitative analysis, dominates the impedance spectra, revealing that the main kinetics-limiting factor is the Li diffusion in the active materials. Finally, an electrochemical model of the battery is proposed which provides insight for the designing of high-performance all-solid-state lithium‑sulfur batteries.

Clusterin/apolipoprotein J (Clu) is a ubiquitously expressed secreted heterodimeric glycoprotein that is implicated in several physiological processes. It has been reported that the elevated level of secreted clusterin (sClu) protein is associated with poor survival in breast cancer patients and can induce metastasis in rodent models. In this study, we investigated the effects of sClu inhibition with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) on cell motility, invasion, and growth in vitro and in vivo. MDA-MB-231 cells were transfected with pSuper-siRNA/sClu. Cell survival and proliferation were examined by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium and clonogenic survival assay. The results showed that sClu silencing significantly inhibited the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 cells. The invasion and migration ability were also dramatically decreased, which was detected by matrigel assays. TUNEL staining and caspase-3 activity assay demonstrated that sClu silencing also could increase the apoptosis rate of cells, resulting in the inhibition of cell growth. We also determined the effects of sClu silencing on tumor growth and metastatic progression in an orthotopic breast cancer model. The results showed that orthotopic primary tumors derived from MDA-MB-231/pSuper sClu siRNA cells grew significantly slower than tumors derived from parental MDA-MB-231 or MDA-MB-231/pSuper scramble siRNA cells, and metastasize less to the lungs. These data suggest that secretory clusterin plays a significant role in tumor growth and metastatic progression. Knocking-down sClu gene expression may provide a valuable method for breast cancer therapy.

The antishock effect of anisodamine (654-2) was observed in different kinds of experimental shock in groups of rabbits--due to late hemorrhage, superior mesenteric artery occlusion, and septic shock from peritonitis. The drug 654-2 significantly alleviated the progress of shock and increased the survival rate of the animals. The therapeutic effect of 654-2 was much better than that of other vasoactive drugs commonly used, such as norepinephrine, phenoxybenzamine, dopamine, and aramine. The antishock mechanism of 654-2 is probably partly due to its protective action on intestinal shock in preventing its effects becoming irreversible. The antishock action of 654-2 both by basic research workers and clinicians merits further study.