Through a facile hydrothermal method with a special surfactant triethanolamine (TEA) followed by thermal treatment, monodispersed micro-/nanostructured Co3O4 powders with unique morphology (cube) have been synthesized successfully as anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). The regular Co3O4 microcubes (∼2.37 μm in the average side length) consist of many irregular nanoparticles (20-200 nm in diameter, 30-40 nm in thickness) bonded to each other, which greatly inherit the morphology and size of the precursor CoCO3. The specific surface area of Co3O4 powders is about 5.10 m(2)·g(-1) by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, and the average pore size is about 3.08 nm by the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method. In addition, the precursor is verified as a single-crystal, while the mesoporous cubic Co3O4 is a polycrystalline characteristic assembled by numerous single-crystal nanoparticles. More remarkable, the high performance of the micro-/nanostructured cubic Co3O4 powders has been obtained by the electrochemical measurements including high initial discharge capacities (1298 mAhg(-1) at 0.1 C and 1041 mAhg(-1) at 1 C), impressive rate capability, and excellent capacity retention (99.3%, 97.5%, 99.2%, and 89.9% of the first charge capacities after 60 cycles at 0.1 C, 0.2 C, 0.5 C, and 1 C, respectively).

Cytoglobin (Cygb), a member of the hexacoordinate globin superfamily (hxHb), is expressed in fibroblasts from a broad range of tissues. The physiological functions of hxHb are still unclear, but biochemical studies reveal that they can scavenge toxic species, such as nitric oxide, peroxynitrite, and hydrogen peroxide. We demonstrate that the overexpression of Cygb in rat hepatic stellate cells, both in vitro and in vivo, protects against oxidative stress, inhibiting their differentiation into a myofibroblast-like phenotype. Accordingly, the overexpression of Cygb reduces extracellular matrix deposition in both toxic and cholestatic models of liver injury. The overexpression of Cygb also promotes recovery from previously initiated damage-induced fibrogenesis. By inhibiting free radical-induced activation of hepatic stellate cells, Cygb plays an important role in controlling tissue fibrosis. Therefore, the normal upregulation of Cygb during tissue injury has a homeostatic effect, inhibiting free radical-induced fibroblast activation and tissue fibrosis.

Three bismuth borates, Bi[B4O6(OH)2]OH (I), BiB2O4F (II), and Bi3[B6O13(OH)] (III), were obtained in boric acid flux at low temperatures and their structures were determined by using single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction techniques. All these three bismuth borates contain one-dimensional borate chains and crystallize in noncentrosymmetric space groups. I is a hydrated borate, crystallizing in the space group P1 with lattice constants a = 4.300(1) Å, b = 8.587(2) Å, c = 10.518(2) Å, α = 113.11(3)°, β = 100.50(3)°, and γ = 90.36(3)°, and the borate chain consists of a 3-ring (2BO3 + BO4) and a BO3 group. II is a fluoroborate, which crystallizes in the trigonal space group P32 with a = 6.7147(1) Å and c = 6.4688(1) Å, and the borate anion is a 3-fold helix chain formed by extensive linkage of three-membered borate rings (3BO4). III is also a hydrated borate with a structure that is closely related to II, in which one-sixth of the borate groups are in triangular geometry (BO3), which reduces the symmetry to P1, a = 6.6257(1) Å, b =6.6238(1) Å, c = 6.6541(1) Å, and α = 89.998(3)°, β = 89.982(2)°, and γ = 119.992(2)°. All these three bismuth borates exhibit nonlinear optical (NLO) properties.

The 16 April 2016, M W 7.8 (M s 7.5) Ecuador earthquake: a quasi-repeat of 1 the 1942 M S 7.5 earthquake and partial re-rupture of the 1906 M S 8.6  Re-rupture of 1942 event 22  Source rupture model 23  Ecuador-Colombia earthquake sequence 24 25 Abstract 26 The 2016 Ecuador M W 7.8 earthquake ruptured the subduction zone boundary between 27 the Nazca and South American plates. Joint modeling of seismic and tsunami observations 28 indicates an ~120 km long rupture area beneath the coastline north of the 1998 M W 7.2 29 rupture. The slip distribution reveals two discrete asperities near the hypocenter and 30 around the equator. Their locations and the patchy pattern are consistent with the prior 31