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Gel polymer electrolyte with improved adhesion property based on poly (4-hydroxybutyl acrylate) for lithium-ion batteries
No full textGel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have emerged as a promising candidate in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to address safety issues of liquid electrolytes and to realize flexible batteries. For GPEs, good adhesion between electrolyte and electrodes is highly important to secure performance and stability of the LIBs. Here, new GPEs based on the poly(4-hydroxybutyl acrylate) network are presented. The 4-hydroxybutyl acrylate is a versatile monomer providing excellent adhesion characteristics for various applications, however, there have been no studies for GPEs. We investigated from GPE materials design to their gelation, adhesion, rheology, electrochemical stability, and ion conductivities. In materials design, we gradually controlled liquid content (80-95 vol%) and monomer: crosslinker ratio (99:1-80:20), simultaneously. From the investigation of 16 GPE candidates, we categorized the GPEs based on tan delta change during photopolymerization, into no gelation, viscous gel formation, and stable gel formation. The mechanical properties of the GPEs can be efficiently controlled based on GPE materials design, by showing range of storage modulus from 0.92 kPa to 19.01 kPa. From adhesion characterization, the prepared GPEs indeed present up to 10.92 times higher lap shear strength compared to reference GPEs with conventional ethylene oxide linkage. Also, the GPEs exhibit excellent electrochemical stabilities without significant electrochemical current generation compared to liquid electrolyte, and show reasonable ion conductivities above 10(-3) S center dot cm(-1). We applied GPE8 in half-cell LIB to investigate the electrochemical performance. The initial Coulombic efficiency and discharge capacity were 99.69% and 212.37 mAh center dot g(-1), and exhibited capacity retention of 87.43% upon varied C rate from 0.1 C to 1 C
A Planar-Type Micro-Biopsy Tool for a Capsule-Type Endoscope Using a One-Step Nickel Electroplating Process
No full textMillimeter-scale biopsy tools combined with an endoscope instrument have been widely used for minimal invasive surgery and medical diagnosis. Recently, a capsule-type endoscope was developed, which requires micromachining to fabricate micro-scale biopsy tools that have a sharp tip and other complex features, e.g., nanometer-scale end-tip sharpness and a complex scalpel design. However, conventional machining approaches are not cost-effective for mass production and cannot fabricate the micrometer-scale features needed for biopsy tools. Here, we demonstrate an electroplated nickel micro-biopsy tool which features a planar shape and is suitable to be equipped with a capsule-type endoscope. Planar-type micro-biopsy tools are designed, fabricated, and evaluated through in vitro tissue dissection experiments. Various micro-biopsy tools with a long shaft and sharp tip can be easily fabricated using a thick photoresist (SU8) mold via a simple one-step lithography and nickel electroplating process. The characteristics of various micro-biopsy tool design features, including a tip taper angle, different tool geometries, and a cutting scalpel, are evaluated for efficient tissue extraction from mice intestine. These fabricated biopsy tools have shown appropriate strength and sharpness with a sufficient amount of tissue extraction for clinical applications, e.g., cancer tissue biopsy. These micro-scale biopsy tools could be easily integrated with a capsule-type endoscope and conventional forceps
Multivariable Disturbance Observer-Based Finite-Time Sliding Mode Attitude Control for Fixed-Wing UAVs Under Matched and Mismatched Disturbances
No full textIn this letter, we propose a multivariable disturbance observer-based finite-time sliding mode attitude control (MDOB-FT-SM-AC) for fixed-wing UAVs in the presence of both matched and mismatched disturbances. Compared with existing sliding mode attitude controllers, the significant improvements of the proposed MDOB-FT-SM-AC are the multivariable control structure, strong robustness, and high precision performance with continuous control input signal. In the proposed MDOB-FT-SM-AC, we first develop multivariable finite-time disturbance observers such that the precise estimation of both matched and mismatched disturbances is ensured. Next, a nonsingular terminal sliding manifold is designed such that the fixed-wing UAV is driven to track its desired attitude command in finite time. We finally present a multivariable super-twisting reaching law such that the finite-time convergence of the sliding variable and its derivative to zero is guaranteed. Attentive finite-time convergence analysis is derived based on the Lyapunov and homogeneity theories. Simulation results are given to illustrate the superiority of the proposed MDOB-FT-SM-AC. ?? 2017 IEEE
Effective Slogan Generation with Noise Perturbation
No full textSlogans play a crucial role in building the brand's identity of the firm. A slogan is expected to reflect firm's vision and the brand's value propositions in memorable and likeable ways. Automating the generation of slogans with such characteristics is challenging. Previous studies developed and tested slogan generation with syntactic control and summarization models which are not capable of generating distinctive slogans. We introduce a novel approach that leverages pre-trained transformer T5 model with noise perturbation on newly proposed 1:N matching pair dataset. This approach serves as a contributing factor in generating distinctive and coherent slogans. Furthermore, the proposed approach incorporates descriptions about the firm and brand into the generation of slogans. We evaluate generated slogans based on ROUGE-1, ROUGE-L and Cosine Similarity metrics and also assess them with human subjects in terms of slogan's distinctiveness, coherence, and fluency. The results demonstrate that our approach yields better performance than baseline models and other transformer-based models
Open microfluidic platform for co-culturing tumor spheroids and endothelial cells in a 3D environment
No full textInteractive Mechanisms of Delamination and In-Plane Failure Modes Revealed From Digital Volume Correlation Assisted In Situ Tensile Test on a Single Edge-Notched Cross-Ply Laminate
No full textMolecular mechanisms linking obesity, diabetes, and cancer
No full textThe past few years have provided substantial evidence for the vital role of the local tumor microenvironment for various aspects of tumor progression. With obesity and its pathophysiological sequelae still on the rise, the adipocyte is increasingly moving center stage in the context of tumor stroma-related studies. To date, we have limited insight into how the systemic metabolic changes associated with obesity and the concomitant modification of the paracrine and endocrine panel of stromal adipocyte-derived secretory products (???adipokines???) influence the incidence and progression of obesity-related cancers. Here, we discuss the role of extracellular matrix proteins, Type VI collagen and its cleavage peptide endotrophin, associated with obesity and its potential impact on cancer biology. Furthermore, a number of cancers such as pancreatic, liver, breast, and female reproductive cancers have shown an increased prevalence and a higher mortality rate in patients with diabetes compared to healthy subjects, suggesting an association between diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes and cancer incidence and progression. We discuss our current understanding how diabetes mellitus and cancer risk may be linked, and what the implications are for the treatment of diabetic cancer patients, particularly with a focus on hyperglycemic memory effects in cancer cells
Fluctuating levels of Fam3c in cancer-associated adipocytes contribute to breast cancer cell survival and metastasis
No full textAdipose tissue within the tumor microenvironment (TME) plays a critical role in breast cancer progression. Here, we identified FAM3 metabolism-regulating signaling molecule C (Fam3c), produced in cancer-associated adipocytes (CAAs), as a regulator of tumor development. Fam3c overexpression in cultured adipocytes significantly decreased cell death in both the adipocytes and co-cultured cancer cells, while inhibiting fibrosis. Conversely, Fam3c depletion in CAAs underwent adipocyte-mesenchymal transition (AMT) in association to increased fibrosis in the TME. Adipocyte Fam3c expression was driven by TGF-?? signaling from breast cancer cells and was ameliorated upon treatment with a TGF-??-neutralizing antibody. Early Fam3c knockdown in CAAs in a tumorigenic mouse model led to significant inhibition of primary and metastatic tumor growth. Our results suggest that therapeutic inhibition of high levels of Fam3c in CAAs during early tumor development could be beneficial in treatment of breast cancer patients