Carbon/Polymer Bilayer-Coated Si-SiO Electrodes with Enhanced Electrical Conductivity and Structural Stability.

Si-based electrodes offer exceptionally high capacity and energy density for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs),but suffer from poor structural stability and electrical conductivity that hamper their practical applications. To tackle these obstacles, we design a C/polymer bilayer coating deposited on Si-SiO microparticles. The inner C coating is used to improve electrical conductivity.

Freestanding Needle Flower Structure CuCoS on Carbon Cloth for Flexible High Energy Supercapacitors With the Gel Electrolyte.

A facile hydrothermal approach was adopted to the direct synthesis of bimetallic sulfide (CuCoS) on carbon cloth (CC) without binders for the supercapacitor's electrodes. A possible formation mechanism was proposed. The prepared bimetallic electrode exhibited a high specific capacitance (Csp) of 1,312 F·g at 1 A·g, and an excellent capacitance retention of 94% at 5 A·g over 5,000 cycles.

Effects of Stromal Cell-Derived Factor-1 Secreted in Degenerative Intervertebral Disc on Activation and Recruitment of Nucleus Pulposus-Derived Stem Cells.

Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) plays a significant role in mobilizing and recruiting mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to the sites of injury. This study investigated the potential of SDF-1 released in the degenerative intervertebral disc (IVD) to activate and recruit endogenous nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells (NPSCs) for regeneration . We found SDF-1 was highly expressed and secreted by the native disc cells when cultured in the proinflammatory mediators mimicking the degenerative settings.

Evaluation of intervertebral disc regeneration with injection of mesenchymal stem cells encapsulated in PEGDA-microcryogel delivery system using quantitative T2 mapping: a study in canines.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD), the primary cause of low back pain, is still a great challenge to spinal surgeons and clinicians. T2 mapping, a biochemical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to calculate relaxation time, has the potential to offer a quantitative assessment of IDD. The aim of the study was to evaluate the regenerative effects of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) encapsulated in PEGDA-microcryogels (PMs) reinforced alginate hydrogel (AH) on the degenerative intervertebral disc (IVD) in a canine model using T2 mapping.

Stromal cell-derived factor-1α promotes recruitment and differentiation of nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells.

Background: Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a condition characterized by a reduction in the water and extracellular matrix content of the nucleus pulposus (NP) and is considered as one of the dominating contributing factors to low back pain. Recent evidence suggests that stromal cell-derived factor 1α (SDF-1α) and its receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) direct the migration of stem cells associated with injury repair in different musculoskeletal tissues.

Aim: To investigate the effects of SDF-1α on recruitment and chondrogenic differentiation of nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells (NPSCs).

Successful Conservative Management of Delayed Cervical Spondylodiscitis with Epidural Abscess Caused by Esophageal Diverticulitis: A Case Report and Review of Literature.

Background: Cervical spondylodiscitis with spinal epidural abscess (SEA) is not a rare medical condition and usually requires urgent decompression of neural structures and stabilization of the spine followed by antibiotic therapy for the prevention of severe neurologic deficits.

Case Description: In this report, we present a 43-year-old male patient with the chief complaint of neck pain and intermittent fever accompanying by slight dysphagia. After 2 weeks, he felt mild and transient numbness on the left upper limb.

A new strategy to enhance low-temperature capacitance: combination of two charge-storage mechanisms.

By combining two pseudocapacitance charge-storage mechanisms occurring on the electrode and in the electrolyte, respectively, the specific capacitance of NiO at -20 °C in an alkaline electrolyte containing Fe(CN)6(3-)/Fe(CN)6(4-) couple increases twice, superior to the level at room temperature.

Improvement of the capacitive performances for Co-Al layered double hydroxide by adding hexacyanoferrate into the electrolyte.

This paper reports on the improvement on the capacitive properties of Co-Al layered double hydroxide (Co-Al LDH) by adding hexacyanoferrate(II) and (III) solely or jointly into 1 M KOH aqueous solution. Owing to the high reversibility, the Fe(CN)(6)(3-)/Fe(CN)(6)(4-) ion pair acts as an electron relay at the electrode/electrolyte interface during charge and discharge by coupling in the redox transition of Co(II)/Co(III) in the Co-Al LDH electrode. Electrochemical impedance spectra and Tafel curves provide direct evidences with decreased charge-transfer resistance and increased exchange current density in the alkaline solution containing hexacyanoferrate ions, respectively.

Interface synthesis of mesoporous MnO2 and its electrochemical capacitive behaviors.

Mesoporous MnO(2) has been synthesized by means of a novel, facile, and template-free method by virtue of a soft interface between CCl(4) and H(2)O without any surfactants or organometallic precursors or ligands. X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and an ASAP2010 autoadsorption analyzer were applied to investigate the composition and microstructure of the as-synthesized MnO(2). The structure characterizations indicated a good mesoporous structure for as-prepared MnO(2) with an adsorption average pore diameter of 9.