Inorganic films possess much higher thermoelectric performance than their organic counterparts, but their poor flexibilities limit their practical applications. Here, Sb2Te3/Tex hybrid thin films ...with high thermoelectric performance and flexibility, fabricated via a novel directional thermal diffusion reaction growth method are reported. The directional thermal diffusion enables rationally tuning the Te content in Sb2Te3, which optimizes the carrier density and leads to a significantly enhanced power factor of >20 µW cm–1 K–2, confirmed by both first‐principles calculations and experiments; while dense boundaries between Te and Sb2Te3 nanophases, contribute to the low thermal conductivity of ≈0.86 W m–1 K–1, both induce a high ZT of ≈1 in (Sb2Te3)(Te)1.5 at 453 K, ranking as the top value among the reported flexible films. Besides, thin films also exhibit extraordinary flexibility. A rationally designed flexible device composed of (Sb2Te3)(Te)1.5 thin films as p‐type legs and Bi2Te3 thin films as n‐type legs shows a high power density of >280 µW cm–2 at a temperature difference of 20 K, indicating a great potential for sustainably charging low‐power electronics.
A high ZT of ≈1 at 453 K is achieved in an inorganic Sb2Te3/Te hybrid thin film via a novel directional thermal diffusion reaction growth method with extraordinary flexibility, and the rationally designed flexible device shows a high power density by a low‐temperature difference.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Dysregulated extravillous trophoblast invasion and proliferation are known to increase the risk of recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA); however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Herein, in ...our retrospective observational case-control study we show that villous samples from RSA patients, compared to healthy controls, display reduced succinate dehydrogenase complex iron sulfur subunit (SDHB) DNA methylation, elevated SDHB expression, and reduced succinate levels, indicating that low succinate levels correlate with RSA. Moreover, we find high succinate levels in early pregnant women are correlated with successful embryo implantation. SDHB promoter methylation recruited MBD1 and excluded c-Fos, inactivating SDHB expression and causing intracellular succinate accumulation which mimicked hypoxia in extravillous trophoblasts cell lines JEG3 and HTR8 via the PHD2-VHL-HIF-1α pathway; however, low succinate levels reversed this effect and increased the risk of abortion in mouse model. This study reveals that abnormal metabolite levels inhibit extravillous trophoblast function and highlights an approach for RSA intervention.
Semiconducting quantum dots (QDs) have recently triggered a huge interest in constructing efficient hydrogen production systems. It is well established that a large fraction of surface atoms of QDs ...need ligands to stabilize and avoid them from aggregating. However, the influence of the surface property of QDs on photocatalysis is rather elusive. Here, the surface regulation of CdSe QDs is investigated by surface sulfide ions (S2−) for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Structural and spectroscopic study shows that with gradual addition of S2−, S2− first grows into the lattice and later works as ligands on the surface of CdSe QDs. In‐depth transient spectroscopy reveals that the initial lattice S2− accelerates electron transfer from QDs to cocatalyst, and the following ligand S2− mainly facilitates hole transfer from QDs to the sacrificial agent. As a result, a turnover frequency (TOF) of 7950 h−1 can be achieved by the S2− modified CdSe QDs, fourfold higher than that of original mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) capped CdSe QDs. Clearly, the simple surface S2− modification of QDs greatly increases the photocatalytic efficiency, which provides subtle methods to design new QD material for advanced photocatalysis.
To unravel how surface sulfide ions (S2−)regulate photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of CdSe quantum dots (QDs), the different roles of introduced S2− on QDs are revealed. The results show that S2− at an earlier stage grows into the lattice and accelerates electron transfer, while afterward the S2− works as ligands and promotes hole transfer, and thus greatly improves the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Photocatalysts based on g-C3N4 by loading cocatalysts or constructing heterojunctions have shown great potential in solar-driven water oxidation. However, the intrinsic drawbacks of g-C3N4, such as ...poor mass diffusion and charge separation efficiency, remain as the bottleneck to achieve highly efficient water oxidation. Here we report a simple protonation method to improve the activity of g-C3N4. Studies using valence band X-ray photoelectron spectra and steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy reveal that the promotion of catalytic ability originates from the higher thermodynamical driving force and longer-lived charge separation state, which may provide guidance in designing efficient polymeric semiconductor photocatalysts with desirable kinetics for water oxidation.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
Abstract
Although type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are very important in many astrophysical fields, such as cosmology, their explosion mechanisms and progenitor systems still remain unclear. In physics, ...the relative equivalent width (REW) of the Si
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635.5 nm absorption feature reflects the velocity interval of the silicon in the SN ejecta, which may then provide constraints on the explosion mechanisms of SNe Ia. In this paper, we divide the SNe Ia into broad-line (BL) and normal-line (NL) subsamples, based on the REW of the Si
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635.5 nm absorption lines around their maximum lights, and we find that the BL SNe Ia have a dimmer mean brightness than the NL ones, which is possibly a result of their different metallicities. However, based on a pixel statistics study of the environments of the two subsamples, we do not find any significant potential differences in the environments of the BL and NL SNe Ia, which implies that the explosion mechanisms of SNe Ia could be independent of their progenitor populations.
Abstract Background Pathogenesis and diagnostic biomarkers for diseases can be discovered by metabolomic profiling of human fluids. If the various types of coronary artery disease (CAD) can be ...accurately characterized by metabolomics, effective treatment may be targeted without using unnecessary therapies and resources. Objectives The authors studied disturbed metabolic pathways to assess the diagnostic value of metabolomics-based biomarkers in different types of CAD. Methods A cohort of 2,324 patients from 4 independent centers was studied. Patients underwent coronary angiography for suspected CAD. Groups were divided as follows: normal coronary artery (NCA), nonobstructive coronary atherosclerosis (NOCA), stable angina (SA), unstable angina (UA), and acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Plasma metabolomic profiles were determined by liquid chromatography–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and were analyzed by multivariate statistics. Results We made 12 cross-comparisons to and within CAD to characterize metabolic disturbances. We focused on comparisons of NOCA versus NCA, SA versus NOCA, UA versus SA, and AMI versus UA. Other comparisons were made, including SA versus NCA, UA versus NCA, AMI versus NCA, UA versus NOCA, AMI versus NOCA, AMI versus SA, significant CAD (SA/UA/AMI) versus nonsignificant CAD (NCA/NOCA), and acute coronary syndrome (UA/AMI) versus SA. A total of 89 differential metabolites were identified. The altered metabolic pathways included reduced phospholipid catabolism, increased amino acid metabolism, increased short-chain acylcarnitines, decrease in tricarboxylic acid cycle, and less biosynthesis of primary bile acid. For differential diagnosis, 12 panels of specific metabolomics-based biomarkers provided areas under the curve of 0.938 to 0.996 in the discovery phase (n = 1,086), predictive values of 89.2% to 96.0% in the test phase (n = 933), and 85.3% to 96.4% in the 3-center external sets (n = 305). Conclusions Plasma metabolomics are powerful for characterizing metabolic disturbances. Differences in small-molecule metabolites may reflect underlying CAD and serve as biomarkers for CAD progression.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Many in vitro studies have shown that tea catechins had vevarious health beneficial effects. However, inconsistent results between in vitro and in vivo studies or between laboratory tests and ...epidemical studies are observed. Low bioavailability of tea catechins was an important factor leading to these inconsistencies. Research advances in bioavailability studies involving absorption and metabolic biotransformation of tea catechins were reviewed in the present paper. Related techniques for improving their bioavailability such as nanostructure-based drug delivery system, molecular modification, and co-administration of catechins with other bioactives were also discussed.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
According to the expression of miRNA in pathological processes, miRNAs can be divided into oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Prediction of the regulation relations between miRNAs and small molecules ...(SMs) becomes a vital goal for miRNA-target therapy. But traditional biological approaches are laborious and expensive. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a computational model. In this study, we proposed a computational model to predict whether the regulatory relationship between miRNAs and SMs is up-regulated or down-regulated. Specifically, we first use the Large-scale Information Network Embedding (LINE) algorithm to construct the node features from the self-similarity networks, then use the General Attributed Multiplex Heterogeneous Network Embedding (GATNE) algorithm to extract the topological information from the attribute network, and finally utilize the Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) algorithm to predict the regulatory relationship between miRNAs and SMs. In the fivefold cross-validation experiment, the average accuracies of the proposed model on the SM2miR dataset reached 79.59% and 80.37% for up-regulation pairs and down-regulation pairs, respectively. In addition, we compared our model with another published model. Moreover, in the case study for 5-FU, 7 of 10 candidate miRNAs are confirmed by related literature. Therefore, we believe that our model can promote the research of miRNA-targeted therapy.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Transition metal‐catalyzed direct functionalization of C−H bonds is an economical and efficient way to construct complex molecules that is currently attracting tremendous attention. In particular, ...the strategy involving transition metal‐catalyzed regioselective C−H activation assisted by sulfur‐containing directing groups has been realized in the past few years in spite of sulfur's ability to poison many transition metal catalysts. This review describes the rational development of sulfur‐containing directing groups including thioethers, sulfoxides, thioamides, alkoxythiocarbonyl groups, and thioketones. Through collective efforts in the community, a range of transition metal‐catalyzed C−H activation transformations using this type of directing group has been developed.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
To realize the molecular design of new functional silver(I) clusters, a new synthetic approach has been proposed, by which the weakly coordinating ligands NO3 – in a Ag20 thiolate cluster precursor ...can be substituted by carboxylic ligands while keeping its inner core intact. By rational design, novel atom-precise carboxylic or amino acid protected 20-core Ag(I)-thiolate clusters have been demonstrated for the first time. The fluorescence and electrochemical activity of the postmodified Ag20 clusters can be modulated by alrestatin or ferrocenecarboxylic acid substitution. More strikingly, when chiral amino acids were used as postmodified ligands, CD-activity was observed for the Ag20 clusters, unveiling an efficient way to obtain atom-precise chiral silver(I) clusters.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
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