All‐inorganic CsPbX3 (X=I, Br, Cl) perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) have been investigated because of their optical properties, such as tunable wavelength, narrow band, and high quantum efficiency. ...These features have been used in light emitting diode (LED) devices. LED on‐chip fabrication uses mixed green and red quantum dots with silicone gel. However, the ion‐exchange effect widens the narrow emission spectrum. Quantum dots cannot be mixed because of anion exchange. We address this issue with a mesoporous PQD nanocomposite that can prevent ion exchange and increase stability. We mixed green quantum‐dot‐containing mesoporous silica nanocomposites with red PQDs, which can prevent the anion‐exchange effect and increase thermal and photo stability. We applied the new PQD‐based LEDs for backlight displays. We also used PQDs in an on‐chip LED device. Our white LED device for backlight display passed through a color filter with an NTSC value of 113 % and Rec. 2020 of 85 %.
Points of light: Green CsPbBr3 perovskite quantum dots (PQDs), embedded in mesoporous silica (MP), were mixed with red CsPb(Br0.4I0.6)3 quantum dots in a silicone resin and placed on an InGaN blue chip. The green and red QDs were excited by blue light with λ=450 nm. The resulting PQD white light emitting diode (LED) exhibits a wide color gamut because of its narrow emission wavelength.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that manifests with movement dysfunction. The expression of mutant Huntingtin (mHTT) disrupts the functions of brain cells. Galectin-3 (Gal3) ...is a lectin that has not been extensively explored in brain diseases. Herein, we showed that the plasma Gal3 levels of HD patients and mice correlated with disease severity. Moreover, brain Gal3 levels were higher in patients and mice with HD than those in controls. The up-regulation of Gal3 in HD mice occurred before motor impairment, and its level remained high in microglia throughout disease progression. The cell-autonomous up-regulated Gal3 formed puncta in damaged lysosomes and contributed to inflammation through NFκB- and NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent pathways. Knockdown of Gal3 suppressed inflammation, reduced mHTT aggregation, restored neuronal DARPP32 levels, ameliorated motor dysfunction, and increased survival in HD mice. Thus, suppression of Gal3 ameliorates microglia-mediated pathogenesis, which suggests that Gal3 is a novel druggable target for HD.
Cytosolic lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) bind directly to caspase-4/5/11 through their lipid A moiety, inducing inflammatory caspase oligomerization and activation, which is identified as the ...noncanonical inflammasome pathway. Galectins, β-galactoside-binding proteins, bind to various gram-negative bacterial LPS, which display β-galactoside-containing polysaccharide chains. Galectins are mainly present intracellularly, but their interactions with cytosolic microbial glycans have not been investigated. We report that in cell-free systems, galectin-3 augments the LPS-induced assembly of caspase-4/11 oligomers, leading to increased caspase-4/11 activation. Its carboxyl-terminal carbohydrate-recognition domain is essential for this effect, and its N-terminal domain, which contributes to the self-association property of the protein, is also critical, suggesting that this promoting effect is dependent on the functional multivalency of galectin-3. Moreover, galectin-3 enhances intracellular LPS-induced caspase-4/11 oligomerization and activation, as well as gasdermin D cleavage in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells, and it additionally promotes interleukin-1β production and pyroptotic death in macrophages. Galectin-3 also promotes caspase-11 activation and gasdermin D cleavage in macrophages treated with outer membrane vesicles, which are known to be taken up by cells and release LPSs into the cytosol. Coimmunoprecipitation confirmed that galectin-3 associates with caspase-11 after intracellular delivery of LPSs. Immunofluorescence staining revealed colocalization of LPSs, galectin-3, and caspase-11 independent of host
-glycans. Thus, we conclude that galectin-3 amplifies caspase-4/11 oligomerization and activation through LPS glycan binding, resulting in more intense pyroptosis-a critical mechanism of host resistance against bacterial infection that may provide opportunities for new therapeutic interventions.
High reliability and wide color gamut light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that use composite quantum dot films (CQDFs) protected by chip-scale package (CSP) structures are presented. CQDFs containing ...CdZnSeS/ZnS core-shell QDs and the K
SiF
:Mn
phosphors were mixed with silicone gel and used as color converters in the CSP QD-LEDs. The CSP QD-LEDs, used for backlight displays, transmitted through a color filter and exhibited ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020 of approximately 86% (a National Television System Committee value of 115%). Furthermore, we performed a long-term reliability analysis test on the CSP QD-LEDs for 2352 h to verify whether the optical performance of CSP QD-LEDs does not significantly degrade relative to that of a conventional plastic leaded chip carrier QD-LEDs. We implemented a highly reliable package technology that can protect the QDs, solve the moisture/oxygen problems in defective QD-LEDs, and produce a backlight source for display with a wide color gamut.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, UL, UM, UPUK
Galectin-4, a member of the galectin family of animal glycan-binding proteins (GBPs), is specifically expressed in gastrointestinal epithelial cells and is known to be able to bind microbes. However, ...its function in host-gut microbe interactions remains unknown. Here, we show that intracellular galectin-4 in intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) coats cytosolic
serovar Worthington and induces the formation of bacterial chains and aggregates. Galectin-4 enchains bacteria during their growth by binding to the O-antigen of lipopolysaccharides. Furthermore, the binding of galectin-4 to bacterial surfaces restricts intracellular bacterial motility. Galectin-4 enhances caspase-1 activation and mature IL-18 production in infected IECs especially when autophagy is inhibited. Finally, orally administered
serovar Worthington, which is recognized by human galectin-4 but not mouse galectin-4, translocated from the intestines to mesenteric lymph nodes less effectively in human galectin-4-transgenic mice than in littermate controls. Our results suggest that galectin-4 plays an important role in host-gut microbe interactions and prevents the dissemination of pathogens. The results of the study revealed a novel mechanism of host-microbe interactions that involves the direct binding of cytosolic lectins to glycans on intracellular microbes.
The major challenge in COVID‐19 vaccine effectiveness is immune escape by SARS‐CoV‐2 variants. To overcome this, an Omicron‐specific messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine was designed. The extracellular ...domain of the spike of the Omicron variant was fused with a modified GCN4 trimerization domain with low immunogenicity (TSomi). After immunization with TSomi mRNA in hamsters, animals were challenged with SARS‐CoV‐2 virus. The raised nonneutralizing antibodies or cytokine secretion responses can recognize both Wuhan S and Omicron S. However, the raised antibodies neutralized SARS‐CoV‐2 Omicron virus infection but failed to generate Wuhan virus neutralizing antibodies. Surprisingly, TSomi mRNA immunization protected animals from Wuhan virus challenge. These data indicated that non‐neutralizing antibodies or cellular immunity may play a more important role in vaccine‐induced protection than previously believed. Next‐generation COVID‐19 vaccines using the Omicron S antigen may provide sufficient protection against ancestral or current SARS‐CoV‐2 variants.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Silicon carbide (SiC) is ideal for making powerful, high-frequency chips for 5 G and electric vehicles due to its wide band gap and resistance to high voltage. However, its powerful chemical bond ...strength and extreme hardness make it difficult for die separation in the post-wafer process. A hybrid process technology is proposed, where die scribing is performed on SiC wafer using a femtosecond pulsed laser-assisted ablation. The extremely short energy pulses forced the ablation of traces of SiC at extreme speed, breaking chemical bonds and thereby reducing strength and hardness for easy high-speed cutting along the scribed lanes with a polycrystalline diamond wheel. The experiment showed that the average stage current dropped from 0.90 A to 0.45 A and kerf chipping ratio from 11.7 to 4.1 during die separation, proving that the process removed materials along the separation lanes using a wheel tool at low grinding force, creating separation lanes of outstanding straightness and minimal kerf chippings and SiC dies of high integrity. Furthermore, thanks to the on-line rotational machining and dressing of the wheel tool, the blunt diamond abrasive cutting edge could be redressed to expose chip pockets of appropriate depth and protruding grinding edges with a favorable negative rake angle. The established grinding regime utilizing a pressure-grinding force in cutting and material removal reduced cracking at the SiC surface. In this paper, the laser energy density, scanning speed, number of ablations, focus position, as well as the speed, feed-rate and grinding depth of the wheel tool are also discussed in detail.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
Human galectins are promising targets for cancer immunotherapeutic and fibrotic disease-related drugs. We report herein the binding interactions of three thio-digalactosides (TDGs) including TDG ...itself, TD139 (3,3'-deoxy-3,3'-bis-(4-m-fluorophenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)-thio-digalactoside, recently approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis), and TAZTDG (3-deoxy-3-(4-m-fluorophenyl-1H-1,2,3-triazol-1-yl)-thio-digalactoside) with human galectins-1, -3 and -7 as assessed by X-ray crystallography, isothermal titration calorimetry and NMR spectroscopy. Five binding subsites (A-E) make up the carbohydrate-recognition domains of these galectins. We identified novel interactions between an arginine within subsite E of the galectins and an arene group in the ligands. In addition to the interactions contributed by the galactosyl sugar residues bound at subsites C and D, the fluorophenyl group of TAZTDG preferentially bound to subsite B in galectin-3, whereas the same group favored binding at subsite E in galectins-1 and -7. The characterised dual binding modes demonstrate how binding potency, reported as decreased Kd values of the TDG inhibitors from μM to nM, is improved and also offer insights to development of selective inhibitors for individual galectins.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
While Hod’s conjecture is demonstrably restrictive, the link he observed between black hole (BH) area quantisation and the large overtone (
n
) limit of quasinormal frequencies (QNFs) ...motivated intense scrutiny of the regime, from which an improved understanding of asymptotic quasinormal frequencies (aQNFs) emerged. A further outcome was the development of the ‘monodromy technique’, which exploits an anti-Stokes line analysis to extract physical solutions from the complex plane. Here, we use the monodromy technique to validate extant aQNF expressions for perturbations of integer spin, and provide new results for the aQNFs of half-integer spins within higher-dimensional Schwarzschild, Reissner–Nordström, and Schwarzschild (anti-)de Sitter BH spacetimes. Bar the Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter case, the spin-1/2 aQNFs are purely imaginary; the spin-3/2 aQNFs resemble spin-1/2 aQNFs in Schwarzschild and Schwarzschild de Sitter BHs, but match the gravitational perturbations for most others. Particularly for Schwarzschild, extremal Reissner–Nordström, and several Schwarzschild de Sitter cases, the application of
n
→ ∞ generally fixes
R
e
{
ω
}
and allows for the unbounded growth of
I
m
{
ω
}
in fixed quantities.
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