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Lithium ion battery electrodes were manufactured using a new, completely dry powder painting process. The solvents used for conventional slurry-cast electrodes have been completely removed. Thermal activation time has been greatly reduced due to the time and resource demanding solvent evaporation process needed with slurry-cast electrode manufacturing being replaced by a hot rolling process. It has been found that thermal activation time to induce mechanical bonding of the thermoplastic polymer to the remaining active electrode particles is only a few seconds. Removing the solvent and drying process allows large-scale Li-ion battery production to be more economically viable in markets such as automotive energy storage systems. By understanding the surface energies of various powders which govern the powder mixing and binder distribution, bonding tests of the dry-deposited particles onto the current collector show that the bonding strength is greater than slurry-cast electrodes, 148.8 kPa as compared to 84.3 kPa. Electrochemical tests show that the new electrodes outperform conventional slurry processed electrodes, which is due to different binder distribution.

Previous studies have explored the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) in reducing cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetes. Here we show that GLP-1 RAs are associated with lower risks of mortality, major cardiovascular events (MACEs), and major adverse kidney events (MAKEs) in type 2 diabetes patients with acute kidney disease (AKD). Utilizing global data from the TriNetX database (2002/09/01-2022/12/01) and propensity score matching, we compare 7511 GLP-1 RAs users to non-users among 165,860 AKD patients. The most common causes of AKI are sepsis (55.2%) and cardiorenal syndrome (34.2%). After a median follow-up of 2.3 years, GLP-1 RAs users exhibit reduced risks of mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.57), MACEs (aHR: 0.88), and MAKEs (aHR: 0.73). External validation in a multicenter dataset of 1245 type 2 diabetes patients with AKD supports the favorable outcomes. These results emphasize the potential of GLP-1 RAs in individualized treatment for this population. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have been studied for their cardiovascular benefits in type 2 diabetes. Here, the authors show that GLP-1 RAs are associated with reduced mortality and improved cardio-renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes patients with acute kidney disease.

Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) have demonstrated efficacy in reducing cardiovascular events and potentially improving kidney function in diabetic patients. This investigation analyzes the TriNetX database to assess the efficacy of SGLT-2i in diabetic kidney transplant recipients (KTR) concerning all-cause mortality, major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and major adverse kidney events (MAKE). The study includes type 2 diabetic patients over 18 who underwent kidney transplants between June 1, 2015, and June 1, 2023, with a focus on SGLT-2i use within the first three months post-transplant. After propensity score matching, the study compares 1970 SGLT-2i users with matched non-users. With a median follow-up of 3.4 years, SGLT-2i users showed significantly lower rates of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]: 0.32), MACE (aHR: 0.48), and MAKE (aHR: 0.52). These findings indicate that SGLT-2i significantly reduces mortality and adverse events in diabetic KTR, underscoring its potential to improve post-transplant outcomes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2i) have demonstrated efficacy in reducing cardiovascular events and potentially improving kidney function in diabetic patients. Here, using the TriNetX platform, the authors show that SGLT-2 inhibitors reduce all-cause mortality and major adverse cardiac and kidney events in diabetic kidney transplant recipients.

This letter proposes a direction of arrival (DOA) and time of delay (TOA) joint estimation algorithm with deep transfer learning. Recently deep learning technique has been applied to solve the joint estimation problem by using the pretrained network and perform well. But in real applications, different scenarios require to cost much time to obtain different pretrained network. In order to overcome these problems, a transfer scheme for DOA and TOA joint estimation is proposed based on a multi‐task network, which uses a shared‐private structure to enhance the transferability of the pretrained network in different signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) scenarios. Thus, for different target scenarios, the proposed transferring scheme just uses a few of data from new scenario to fine‐tune pretrained network, which can effectively reduce the computation complexity with satisfied estimation accuracy. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to other traditional methods in estimation accuracy and efficiency under different SNR testing scenarios. This article proposed direction of arrival and time of delay joint estimation algorithm with deep transfer method. Proposed method can promote AI development and application in indoors position and outdoors localization.

Background Urinary C–C motif chemokine ligand 14 (CCL14) has been described as an effective marker for delayed recovery of acute kidney injury (AKI), yet its efficacy has been found to vary between different trials. The goal of this research was to assess the predictive performance of urinary CCL14 as a marker for persistent AKI. Methods In accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases up to April 2023 for studies of adults (> 18 years) that reported the diagnostic performance of urinary CCL14. The sensitivity, specificity, number of events, true positive, and false positive results were extracted and evaluated. Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves (HSROCs) were used to summarize the pooled test performance, and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations criteria were used to appraise the quality of evidence. Results We included six studies with 952 patients in this meta-analysis. The occurrence of persistent AKI among these patients was 39.6% (377/952). The pooled sensitivity and specificity results of urinary CCL14 in predicting persistent AKI were 0.81 (95% CI 0.72–0.87) and 0.71 (95% CI 0.53–0.84), respectively. The pooled positive likelihood ratio (LR) was 2.75 (95% CI 1.63–4.66), and the negative LR was 0.27 (95% CI 0.18–0.41). The HSROC with pooled diagnostic accuracy was 0.84. Conclusion Our results suggest that urinary CCL14 can be used as an effective marker for predicting persistent AKI.

There are a series of challenges in microgrid transactions, and blockchain technology holds the promise of addressing these challenges. However, with the increasing number of users in microgrid transactions, existing blockchain systems may struggle to meet the growing demands for transactions. Therefore, this paper proposes an efficient and secure blockchain consensus algorithm designed to meet the demands of large-scale microgrid electricity transactions. The algorithm begins by utilizing a Spectral clustering algorithm to partition the blockchain network into different lower-level consensus set based on the transaction characteristics of nodes. Subsequently, a dual-layer consensus process is employed to enhance the efficiency of consensus. Additionally, we have designed a secure consensus set leader election strategy to promptly identify leaders with excellent performance. Finally, we have introduced an authentication method that combines zero-knowledge proofs and key sharing to further mitigate the risk of malicious nodes participating in the consensus. Theoretical analysis indicates that our proposed consensus algorithm, incorporating multiple layers of security measures, effectively withstands blockchain attacks such as denial of service. Simulation experiment results demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms similar blockchain algorithms significantly in terms of communication overhead, consensus latency, and throughput.

Comparison between using either sFlt-1/PlGF ratio or proposed panel of biomarkers. The latter is proposed by using statistical and machine learning methods. The levels of both sFlt-1 and PlGF are measured in pg/mL. sFlt-1 soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, PlGF placental growth factor, PPV positive predictive value, NPV negative predictive value.

Background Several biomarkers have been proposed to predict the occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI); however, their efficacy varies between different trials. The aim of this study was to compare the predictive performance of different candidate biomarkers for AKI. Methods In this systematic review, we searched PubMed, Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for papers published up to August 15, 2022. We selected all studies of adults (> 18 years) that reported the predictive performance of damage biomarkers (neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), liver-type fatty acid-binding protein (L-FABP)), inflammatory biomarker (interleukin-18 (IL-18)), and stress biomarker (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-2 × insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-7 (TIMP-2 × IGFBP-7)) for the occurrence of AKI. We performed pairwise meta-analyses to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) individually. Hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves (HSROCs) were used to summarize the pooled test performance, and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations criteria were used to appraise the quality of evidence. Results We identified 242 published relevant studies from 1,803 screened abstracts, of which 110 studies with 38,725 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Urinary NGAL/creatinine (diagnostic odds ratio [DOR] 16.2, 95% CI 10.1–25.9), urinary NGAL (DOR 13.8, 95% CI 10.2–18.8), and serum NGAL (DOR 12.6, 95% CI 9.3–17.3) had the best diagnostic accuracy for the risk of AKI. In subgroup analyses, urinary NGAL, urinary NGAL/creatinine, and serum NGAL had better diagnostic accuracy for AKI than urinary IL-18 in non-critically ill patients. However, all of the biomarkers had similar diagnostic accuracy in critically ill patients. In the setting of medical and non-sepsis patients, urinary NGAL had better predictive performance than urinary IL-18, urinary L-FABP, and urinary TIMP-2 × IGFBP-7: 0.3. In the surgical patients, urinary NGAL/creatinine and urinary KIM-1 had the best diagnostic accuracy. The HSROC values of urinary NGAL/creatinine, urinary NGAL, and serum NGAL were 91.4%, 85.2%, and 84.7%, respectively. Conclusions Biomarkers containing NGAL had the best predictive accuracy for the occurrence of AKI, regardless of whether or not the values were adjusted by urinary creatinine, and especially in medically treated patients. However, the predictive performance of urinary NGAL was limited in surgical patients, and urinary NGAL/creatinine seemed to be the most accurate biomarkers in these patients. All of the biomarkers had similar predictive performance in critically ill patients. Trial registration CRD42020207883 , October 06, 2020.

Associations between hepatitis C virus (HCV) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have been reported; however, differences of renal progression between general and CKD population remain to be elucidated in prospective studies. A total of 1179 participants, who have tested for anti-HCV antibody, were enrolled and prospectively followed for 3 years. The risks associated with HCV infection, in terms of incidence of CKD, annual estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) changes and 50% decline of eGFR at 3-year from baseline, were compared between normal renal function subjects and CKD patients. Overall, 111 of 233 (47.6%) CKD patients and 167 of 946 (17.7%) non-CKD subjects had HCV infection. The crude incidence rates of CKD were 226.9 per 1000 person-years and 14.8 per 1000 person-years in in HCV and non-HCV infected patients, respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio of HCV infection for incident CKD was 7.9 (95% CI 5–12.7). The HCV-infected normal renal function subjects were independently associated with increased risks of eGFR decline in the 1-year, 2-year and 3-year, respectively. The risk associations remained significant in 50% decline of eGFR at 3 years models and in different subgroup analyses. The increases of risks of eGFR decline were also notorious among overall HCV-infected CKD patients. However, the risk associations were less prominent in subgroup analyses (elderly, women and diabetic patients). The findings highlighted the importance of viral diagnosis with not only prognostic but also public health implications for preserving kidney function.

Background Chemotherapy can induce premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). POI causes multiple sequelae and is currently incurable. As shown in our previous studies, systemically transplanted human amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAD-MSCs) home to ovaries with chemotherapy-induced POI and subsequently reduce ovarian injury and improve ovarian function in rats with POI. However, the cellular mechanisms that direct the migration and homing of hAD-MSCs to ovaries with chemotherapy-induced POI are incompletely understood. This study investigated the role of the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis in the migration and homing of systemically transplanted hAD-MSCs to ovaries with chemotherapy-induced POI and its relevant downstream signalling pathways. Methods CXCR4 expression in hAD-MSCs was assessed using Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. hAD-MSC migration was tested using Transwell migration assays. SDF-1 levels were detected using ELISA. Seventy-two female SD rats were randomly divided into the control, POI, hAD-MSCs and hAD-MSCs + AMD3100 groups. Cyclophosphamide was used to establish rat POI models. For inhibitor treatment, hAD-MSCs were pretreated with AMD3100 before transplantation. PKH26-labeled hAD-MSCs were injected into the tail vein of POI rats 24 h after chemotherapy. After hAD-MSC transplantation, the homing of hAD-MSCs to ovaries and ovarian function and pathological changes were examined. We further investigated the molecular mechanisms by detecting the PI3K/Akt and ERK1/2 signalling pathways. Results hAD-MSCs expressed CXCR4. SDF-1 induced hAD-MSC migration in vitro. SDF-1 levels in ovaries and serum were significantly increased in rats with chemotherapy-induced POI, and ovaries with POI induced the homing of hAD-MSCs expressing CXCR4. Blocking the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis with AMD3100 significantly reduced the number of hAD-MSCs homing to ovaries with POI and further reduced their efficacy in POI treatment. The binding of SDF-1 to CXCR4 activated the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway, and LY294002 significantly inhibited hAD-MSC migration induced by SDF-1 in vitro. Moreover, inhibition of the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway significantly reduced the number of systemically transplanted hAD-MSCs homing to chemotherapy-induced ovaries in rats with POI. Conclusions SDF-1/CXCR4 axis partially mediates the migration and homing of systemically transplanted hAD-MSCs to the ovaries of rats with chemotherapy-induced POI, and the PI3K/Akt signalling pathway might be involved in the migration and homing of hAD-MSCs mediated by the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis.