In this Perspective we discuss the implications of employing metal particles of different shape, size, and composition as absorption enhancers in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite solar cells, ...with the aim of establishing some guidelines for the future development of plasmonic resonance-based photovoltaic devices. Hybrid perovskites present an extraordinarily high absorption coefficient which, as we show here, makes it difficult to extrapolate concepts and designs that are applied to other solution-processed photovoltaic materials. In addition, the variability of the optical constants attained from perovskite films of seemingly similar composition further complicates the analysis. We demonstrate that, by means of rigorous design, it is possible to provide a realistic prediction of the magnitude of the absorption enhancement that can be reached for perovskite films embedding metal particles. On the basis of this, we foresee that localized surface plasmon effects will provide a means to attain highly efficient perovskite solar cells using films that are thinner than those usually employed, hence facilitating collection of photocarriers and significantly reducing the amount of potentially toxic lead present in the device.
Full text
Available for:
IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Countries endemic for parasitic infestations have a lower incidence of Crohn’s disease (CD) than nonendemic countries, and there have been anecdotal reports of the beneficial effects of helminths in ...CD patients. Tuft cells in the small intestine sense and direct the immune response against eukaryotic parasites. We investigated the activities of tuft cells in patients with CD and mouse models of intestinal inflammation.
We used microscopy to quantify tuft cells in intestinal specimens from patients with ileal CD (n = 19), healthy individuals (n = 14), and TNFΔARE/+ mice, which develop Crohn’s-like ileitis. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing, mass spectrometry, and microbiome profiling of intestinal tissues from wild-type and Atoh1-knockout mice, which have expansion of tuft cells, to study interactions between microbes and tuft cell populations. We assessed microbe dependence of tuft cell populations using microbiome depletion, organoids, and microbe transplant experiments. We used multiplex imaging and cytokine assays to assess alterations in inflammatory response following expansion of tuft cells with succinate administration in TNFΔARE/+ and anti-CD3E CD mouse models.
Inflamed ileal tissues from patients and mice had reduced numbers of tuft cells, compared with healthy individuals or wild-type mice. Expansion of tuft cells was associated with increased expression of genes that regulate the tricarboxylic acid cycle, which resulted from microbe production of the metabolite succinate. Experiments in which we manipulated the intestinal microbiota of mice revealed the existence of an ATOH1-independent population of tuft cells that was sensitive to metabolites produced by microbes. Administration of succinate to mice expanded tuft cells and reduced intestinal inflammation in TNFΔARE/+ mice and anti-CD3E-treated mice, increased GATA3+ cells and type 2 cytokines (IL22, IL25, IL13), and decreased RORGT+ cells and type 17 cytokines (IL23) in a tuft cell-dependent manner.
We found that tuft cell expansion reduced chronic intestinal inflammation in mice. Strategies to expand tuft cells might be developed for treatment of CD.
Display omitted
Solar batteries capable of harvesting sunlight and storing solar energy present an attractive vista to transition our energy infrastructure into a sustainable future. Here we present an integrated, ...fully earth-abundant solar battery based on a bifunctional (light absorbing and charge storing) carbon nitride (K-PHI) photoanode, combined with organic hole transfer and storage materials. An internal ladder-type hole transfer cascade
via
a transport layer is used to selectively shuttle the photogenerated holes to the PEDOT:PSS cathode. This concept differs from previous designs such as light-assisted battery schemes or photocapacitors and allows charging with light during both electrical charge and discharge, thus substantially increasing the energy output of the cell. Compared to battery operation in the dark, light-assisted (dis)charging increases charge output by 243%, thereby increasing the electric coulombic efficiency from 68.3% in the dark to 231%, leading to energy improvements of 94.1% under illumination. This concept opens new vistas towards compact, highly integrated devices based on multifunctional, carbon-based electrodes and separators, and paves the way to a new generation of earth-abundant solar batteries.
We present an integrated solar battery with a bifunctional carbon nitride (K-PHI) photoanode, combined with polymeric hole transport and cathode materials. Light charging enables energy storage and increases battery round-trip efficiency by 94%.
Spherical carbons have been prepared through hydrothermal treatment of three carbohydrates (glucose, saccharose and cellulose). Preparation variables such as treatment time, treatment temperature and ...concentration of carbohydrate have been analyzed to obtain spherical carbons. These spherical carbons can be prepared with particle sizes larger than 10μm, especially from saccharose, and have subsequently been activated using different activation processes (H3PO4, NaOH, KOH or physical activation with CO2) to develop their textural properties. All these spherical carbons maintained their spherical morphology after the activation process, except when KOH/carbon ratios higher than 4/1 were used, which caused partial destruction of the spheres. The spherical activated carbons develop interesting textural properties with the four activating agents employed, reaching surface areas up to 3100m2/g. Comparison of spherical activated carbons obtained with the different activating agents, taking into account the yields obtained after the activation process, shows that phosphoric acid activation produces spherical activated carbons with higher developed surface areas. Also, the spherical activated carbons present different oxygen groups’ content depending on the activating agent employed (higher surface oxygen groups content for chemical activation than for physical activation).
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The use of electrokinetic Fenton (EK Fenton) process, as promising soil remediation approach, was investigated by using an iron electrode with different supporting electrolytes (tap water, H2O2, and ...citric acid) to depollute soil spiked with petroleum where kaolin was selected as low hydraulic conductivity. The results clearly confirm that, the combination of electrokinetic remediation (EK) and Fenton technologies, is an efficient oxidizing approach for removing hydrocarbons from this kind of soil. In fact, the electrokinetic Fenton reactions and the control of the soil pH conditions by adding citric acid enhanced the oxidation process because the addition of the H2O2 with iron electrode resulted in higher removal efficiencies (89%) for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs). These figures allowed to confirm that EK Fenton process with pH control contributed for the transport of H2O2 and Fe2+ ions in the soil by electromigration and eletro-osmotic phenomena. Conversely, no control of pH conditions when only EK was applied, achieved lower hydrocarbons removal (27%) after 15 d of treatment due to the precipitation of iron ions. Finally, the efficiency of the EK Fenton remediation prevented the generation of secondary effluent with higher organic content, avoiding its treatment by other advanced oxidation process.
•Electrokinetic-Fenton remediation was investigated to removal petroleum in low hydraulic conductivity soil.•The addition of H2O2 and citric acid favor the oxidation of the organic compounds in the soil.•The use of an iron electrode and the control of the soil pH contributed to removal TPH from soil.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In the context of near surface seismic imaging (a few hundreds of metres), we propose an alternative approach for inversion of surface waves in 2-D media with laterally varying velocities. It is ...based on Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) but using an alternative objective function formulated in the frequency–wavenumber f − k domain. The classical FWI objective function suffers from severe local minima problems in the presence of surface waves. It thus requires a very accurate initial model. The proposed objective function is similar to the one used in classical surface wave analysis. In this approach, the data are first split using sliding windows in the time–space t − x domain. For each window, the amplitude of the f − k spectrum is computed. The objective function measures the least-squares misfit between the amplitude of observed and modelled 2-D Fourier transformed data sets. We call this formulation the windowed-amplitude waveform inversion (w-AWI).
The w-AWI objective function reduces some local minima problems as shown here through numerical examples. The global minimum basin is wider in the w-AWI approach than in FWI. Synthetic examples show that w-AWI may achieve convergence if the lowest data frequency content is twice higher than the one needed by FWI. For elastic inversion, w-AWI can be used to reconstruct a velocity model explaining surface waves. This surface wave inversion procedure can be used to retrieve near-surface model parameters in lateral-varying media.
Lactobacilli have been shown to promote health functions. In this study, we analyzed the mechanism by which four different strains of probiotics affected innate immunity, such as regulation of ROS, ...cytokines, phagocytosis, bactericidal activity, signaling by NF-κB pp65, and TLR2 activation. The production of ROS was dependent on the concentration and species of Lactobacillus. The results obtained from the tested strains (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, L. rhamnosus KLSD, L. helveticus IMAU70129, and L. casei IMAU60214) showed that strains induced early proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-8,TNF-α, IL-12p70, and IL-6. However, IL-1β expression was induced only by L. helveticus and L. casei strains (after 24 h stimulation). Phagocytosis and bactericidal activity of macrophages against various pathogens, such as S. aureus, S. typhimurium, and E. coli, were increased by pretreatment with Lactobacillus. The nuclear translocation NF-κB pp65 and TLR2-dependent signaling were also increased by treatment with the probiotics. Taken together, the experiments demonstrate that probiotic strains of Lactobacillus exert early immunostimulatory effects that may be directly linked to the initial inflammation of the response of human macrophages.
Full text
Available for:
DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The fragmentation mechanisms of the naphthalene molecular ion to M-C4H2(+•), M-C2H2(+•), M-H2(+•), and M-H(•)(+) were obtained at the UB3LYP/6-311+G(3df,2p)//UB3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory and were ...subsequently used to calculate the microcanonical rate constants, k(E)'s, for all the steps by the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus formalism. The pre-equilibrium and steady state approximations were applied on different regions of the potential energy profiles to obtain the fragmentation k(E)'s and calculate the relative abundances of the ions as a function of energy. These results reproduce acceptably well the imaging photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectra of naphthalene, in the photon-energy range 14.0-18.8 eV that was previously reported by our group. Prior to dissociation, the molecular ion rapidly equilibrates with a set of isomers that includes the Z- and E-phenylvinylacetylene (PVA) radical cations. The naphthalene ion is the predominant isomer below 10 eV internal energy, with the other isomers remaining at steady state concentrations. Later on, new steady-state intermediates are formed, such as the azulene and 1-phenyl-butatriene radical cations. The naphthalene ion does not eject an H atom directly but eliminates an H2 molecule in a two-step fragmentation. H(•) loss occurs instead from the 1-phenyl-butatriene ion. The PVA ions initiate the ejection of diacetylene (C4H2) to yield the benzene radical cation. Acetylene elimination yields the pentalene cation at low energies (where it can account for 45.9%-100.0% of the rate constant of this channel), in a three-step mechanism starting from the azulene ion. However, above 7.6 eV, the major M-C2H2(+•) structure is the phenylacetylene cation.
G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) present specific activation pathways and signaling among receptor subtypes. Hence, an extensive knowledge of the structural dynamics of the receptor is critical ...for the development of therapeutics. Here, we target the adenosine A
1
receptor (A
1
R), for which a negligible number of drugs have been approved. We combine molecular dynamics simulations, enhanced sampling techniques, network theory, and pocket detection to decipher the activation pathway of A
1
R, decode the allosteric networks, and identify transient pockets. The A
1
R activation pathway reveals hidden intermediate and pre-active states together with the inactive and fully-active states observed experimentally. The protein energy networks computed throughout these conformational states successfully unravel the extra and intracellular allosteric centers and the communication pathways that couple them. We observe that the allosteric networks are dynamic, being increased along activation and fine-tuned in the presence of the trimeric G-proteins. Overlap of transient pockets and energy networks uncovers how the allosteric coupling between pockets and distinct functional regions of the receptor is altered along activation. Through an in-depth analysis of the bridge between the activation pathway, energy networks, and transient pockets, we provide a further understanding of A
1
R. This information can be useful to ease the design of allosteric modulators for A
1
R.
Recent advancements in sensing and communication facilitate obtaining high-frequency real-time data from various physical systems like power networks, climate systems, biological networks, etc. ...However, since the data are recorded by physical sensors, it is natural that the obtained data is corrupted by measurement noise. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for online real-time learning of dynamical systems from noisy time-series data, which employs the Robust Koopman operator framework to mitigate the effect of measurement noise. The proposed algorithm has three main advantages: (a) it allows for online real-time monitoring of a dynamical system; (b) it obtains a linear representation of the underlying dynamical system, thus enabling the user to use linear systems theory for analysis and control of the system; (c) it is computationally fast and less intensive than the popular extended dynamic mode decomposition (EDMD) algorithm. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm by applying it to identify the Van der Pol oscillator, the chaotic attractor of the Henon map, the IEEE 68 bus system, and a ring network of Van der Pol oscillators.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
PDF
