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Interfacial resistance at electrode‐high Li+ conductive solid electrolytes must be reduced well to develop high‐power all‐solid‐state batteries using oxide‐based solid electrolytes (Ox‐SSBs). Herein, crystalline electrode films of LiCoO2 (LCO) are formed on a high Li+ conductive crystalline‐glass solid electrolyte sheet, Li1.3Al0.3Ti2(PO4)3 (LATP) (σ25 °C = 1 × 10−4 S cm−1), at room temperature by aerosol deposition (AD), and the effects of the annealing temperature on the interfacial resistivities (Rint) at the LCO/LATP are investigated. The Rint visibly increases by annealing over 500 °C with the growth of Co3O4 as a reactant. In contrast, Rint is reduced to ≈100 Ω cm2 by low‐temperature annealing at 250–350 °C due to superior contact through the structural rearrangement of an artificial metastable interface formed by the AD. These results are applied to bulk‐type Ox‐SSB, Li/Li7La3Zr2O12(LLZ)/LCO–LATP, and our best Ox‐SSB delivers a discharge capacity of 100 mA cm−2 at 100 °C.

The leaves of Aster yomena (Kitam.) Honda have long been used as a traditional herb for treating disorders including coughs, asthma, and insect bites. According to recent studies, A. yomena leaf extracts have several pharmacological properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-asthmatic activities. However, little information is available regarding their anti-obesity effect. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of the ethanol extracts of A. yomena leaves (EEAY) on adipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis using 3T3-L1 preadipocytes. When 3T3-L1 preadipocytes were treated with various concentrations of EEAY (ranging from non-toxic), the number of lipid droplets, lipid content, and triglyceride production, the typical characteristics of adipocytes, were suppressed in a concentration-dependent manner. During this process, EEAY significantly reduced the expression of adipogenic transcription factors, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ, CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein α and β, and sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c. In addition, EEAY was also found to potently inhibit the expression of adipocyte-specific genes, including adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein and leptin. In particular, EEAY treatment effectively enhanced the activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway; however, the co-treatment with compound C, an inhibitor of AMPK, significantly restored the EEAY-induced inhibition of pro-adipogenic transcription factors and adipocyte-specific genes. These results indicate that EEAY may exert an anti-obesity effect by controlling the AMPK signaling pathway, suggesting that the leaf extract of A. yomena may be a potential anti-obesity agent.

COVID-19 pandemic has brought tremendous environmental burden due to huge amount of medical wastes (about 54,000 t/d as of November 22, 2020), including face mask, gloves, clothes, goggles, and sanitizer/disinfectant containers. A proper waste management is urgently required to mitigate the spread of the disease, minimize the environmental impacts, and take their potential advantages for further utilization. This work provides a prospective review on the possible thermochemical treatments for those COVID-19 related medical wastes (CMW), as well as their possible conversion to fuels. The characteristics of each waste are initially analyzed and described, especially their potential as energy source. It is clear that most of CMWs are dominated by plastic polymers. Thermochemical processes, including incineration, torrefaction, pyrolysis, and gasification, are reviewed in terms of applicability for CMW. In addition, the mechanical treatment of CMW into sanitized refuse-derived fuel (SRDF) is also discussed as the preliminary stage before thermochemical conversion. In terms of material flexibility, incineration is practically applicable for all types of CMW, although it has the highest potential to emit the largest amount of CO2 and other harmful gasses. Furthermore, gasification and pyrolysis are considered promising in terms of energy conversion efficiency and environmental impacts. On the other hand, carbonization faces several technical problems following thermal degradation due to insufficient operating temperature.

To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of a new liquid embolic material, Embol, in embolization of the renal artery.Embol is a new embolic material obtained by partial hydrolysis of polyvinyl acetate mixed in absolute ethanol and Iopromide 370 and manufactured by Schering Korea, Kyonggido, Korea. Six patients who underwent embolization of the renal artery using Embol were evaluated. Four were male and two were female and their ages ranged from 11 to 70 (mean, 53) years. Clinical and radiologic diagnoses referred for renal artery embolization were renal cell carcinoma (n = 3), renal angiomyolipoma (n = 2) and pseudoaneurysm of the renal artery (n = 1). After selective renal angiography, Embol was injected through various catheters, either with or without a balloon occlusion catheter. Changes in symptoms and blood chemistry which may have been related to renal artery embolization with Embol were analyzed.The six patients showed immediate total occlusion of their renal vascular lesions. One of the three in whom renal cell carcinoma was embolized with Embol underwent radical nephrectomy, and the specimen thus obtained revealed 40% tumor necrosis. In the two patients with angiomyolipomas, the tumors decreased in size and abdominal pain subsided. Bleeding from pseudoaneurysm of the renal artery was successfully controlled. Four patients showed symptoms of post-embolization syndrome, and one of these also showed increased levels of blood urea nitrogen and creatinine. One patient experienced transient hypertension.Embol is easy to use, its radiopacity is adequate and it is a safe and effective embolic material which provides immediate and total occlusion of renal vascular lesions.

SummaryFollowing ovulation, oocytes undergo a time-dependent deterioration in quality referred to as post-ovulatory ageing. Although various factors influence the post-ovulatory ageing of oocytes, oxidative stress is a key factor involved in deterioration of oocyte quality. Artemisia asiatica Nakai ex Pamp. has been widely used in East Asia as a food ingredient and traditional medicine for the treatment of inflammation, cancer, and microbial infections. Recent studies have shown that A. asiatica exhibits antioxidative effects. In this study, we investigated whether A. asiatica has the potential to attenuate deterioration in oocyte quality during post-ovulatory ageing. Freshly ovulated mouse oocytes were cultured with 0, 50, 100 or 200 μg/ml ethanol extracts of A. asiatica Nakai ex Pamp. After culture for up to 24 h, various ageing-induced oocyte abnormalities, including morphological changes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, apoptosis, chromosome and spindle defects, and mitochondrial aggregation were determined. Treatment of oocytes with A. asiatica extracts reduced ageing-induced morphological changes. Moreover, A. asiatica extracts decreased ROS generation and the onset of apoptosis by preventing elevation of the Bax/Bcl-2 expression ratio during post-ovulatory ageing. Furthermore, A. asiatica extracts attenuated the ageing-induced abnormalities including spindle defects, chromosome misalignment and mitochondrial aggregation. Our results demonstrate that A. asiatica can relieve deterioration in oocyte quality and delay the onset of apoptosis during post-ovulatory ageing.

In 16 patients with unifocal thyroid autonomy suffering from hyperthyroidism and in 2 patients and euthyrosis 2-4 ml 96% alcohol was instilled to destroy the autonomous thyroid tissue while permanently monitoring the procedure by means of sonography. 17 of the patients were suffering from struma nodosa. Localization of the focally autonomous adenoma was possible, together with differentiation against concomitant thyroid nodes with normal or reduced function, by coinciding the findings obtained via colour Doppler sonography and scintiscanning. In one female patient local pain occurred during instillation that had to be alleviated by means of analgetics; there were no other noticeable side effects. 12 of 16 patients suffering from hyperthyroidism were euthyrotic 5 weeks after the first alcohol instillation; the thyrostatic dose had to be reduced in 4 patients. B-image sonography showed a reduction in size of the instilled adenomas and echo-poor and partly cystic transformation. Colour Doppler sonography revealed a marked reduction of internal vascularisation with preserved marginal vessels. Scintiscan control no longer visualised the autonomic foci (n = 10) or only with reduced activity (n = 7). Sonographically monitored on-target instillation of alcohol into autonomic thyroid adenoma is an effective, low-risk and low-cost procedure that can also be applied to outpatients by physicians well-versed in colour Doppler sonography and sonographic puncture technique. Colour Doppler sonographic localization of autonomic foci is methodically mandatory in patients suffering from struma multinodosa.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients are composed of single-component or multicomponent crystals. Multicomponent crystals include salts, co-crystals, and solvates. Indinavir sulfate is the ethanol solvate form of indinavir that is known to deliquesce through moisture absorption. However, the detailed behavior of solvent molecules in the crystal has not been investigated. In this study, we studied the desolvation mechanism of indinavir sulfate ethanol and investigated the behavior of solvent molecules in the solid from. Indinavir sulfate ethanol contained 1.7 molecules of ethanol, 0.7 of which desolvated at room temperature. They were originally two ethanol solvent molecules; one molecule of ethanol desolvated at room temperature, and the conformation of the remaining ethanol and t-butyl groups changed in conjunction with the removal of one ethanol molecule. Desolvation could hardly be detected by powder X-ray diffraction; however, it was detected using terahertz spectroscopy. Terahertz measurement of desolvation showed a high correlation with thermogravimetry data, suggesting that desolvation could be observed non-destructively using terahertz spectroscopy. We concluded that indinavir sulfate 1 ethanol deliquesced at 60% relative humidity, and it turned into an amorphous solid after drying.

Tolerance of microorganisms to diverse stresses (i.e., multistress tolerance) is a very useful property with industrial applications. We have developed a simple method for isolating multistress-tolerant semidominant mutants of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by one-step selection under lethal hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) stress condition, which we named the lethal concentration of H(2)O(2) (LCH) method. This method involves simply isolating colonies after plating of mutagenized S. cerevisiae cells, which are cultivated overnight in liquid media, on agar plates containing a lethal concentration of H(2)O(2) for the wild-type strain. Phenotypic and genetic analyses of the ten strains isolated by this method revealed that two strains exhibiting stress tolerance to H(2)O(2), ethanol, heat shock, salt, organic solvent, freeze-thaw, chronological aging, and high concentrations of glucose possess semidominant and distinct single-gene mutations designated as MLT1-1 (multistress tolerance) and MLT2-1, which are responsible for multistress tolerance. From these results, we expect this method to confer multistress tolerance on industrial yeasts.