Interfacial engineering toward the perovskite layer/electron transporting layer (ETL) interface has been demonstrated to be critical for achieving highly efficient perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In ...this work, PSCs with ETL/perovskite interfacial modification by benzoic acid derivatives are fabricated. No obvious influence of this interfacial modification on optical properties, crystal structure and surface morphology of perovskite films are found. Enhancement of the charge extracting ability of treated TiO
2
and passivation toward trap states of the TiO
2
surface are confirmed from transient PL spectra and EIS measurements. Besides, the effect of different groups on the
para
-position is also investigated. A PCE as high as 18.43% with a maximal steady-state output PCE of 17.19% has been achieved for the PSCs treated with
para
-Cl substituted benzoic acid.
Enhanced performance of a perovskite solar cell
via
simple interfacial modification onto a mesoporous TiO
2
layer.
SiC@SiO
2
nanowires, as a functional nanocomposite, have attracted widespread attention due to their fascinating performance and broad application prospect. However, the low-cost, high yield ...preparation of large-scale SiC@SiO
2
nanowires is still a bottleneck, which hinders their industrial application. Herein, a carbothermal reduction strategy has been developed to synthesize SiC@SiO
2
nanowires, which breaks through the handicap of the traditional growth pattern that uses the aid of a substrate. Systematic characterization results illustrate that the yield of the as-obtained products greatly depends on the heating rate, and ten-gram scale SiC@SiO
2
nanowires (∼27.2 g) composed of a cubic β-SiC core and homogeneous amorphous SiO
2
coating are achieved under the optimum process parameters. The
in situ
mechanisms of expansion-insertion-growth and inhibition of expansion-package-obstruction are proposed to rationally interpret the growth process of SiC@SiO
2
nanowires and the effect of various heating rates, respectively. Furthermore, the SiC@SiO
2
nanowires display violet-blue photoluminescence and electromagnetic wave absorption properties. This study not only provides some beneficial suggestions for the commercial production of SiC@SiO
2
nanowires, but also reveals promising applications of SiC@SiO
2
nanowires in the optical and electromagnetic shielding fields. Moreover, the developed novel
in situ
growth mechanism enriches the growth theory of one-dimension nanomaterials and offers inspiration for their industrial-scale production.
SiC@SiO
2
nanowires, as a functional nanocomposite, have attracted widespread attention due to their fascinating performance and broad application prospect.
β-Catenin (
gene coding protein) is a component of the Wnt signaling pathway that has been shown to play an important role in the formation of certain cancers. Abnormal accumulation of
contributes to ...most cancers. This research studied the involvement of β-catenin in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. Proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis were analyzed by using Cell Counting Kit-8 and by flow cytometry. Migration and invasion assays were measured by transwell analysis. Real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analysis were used to detect the expression of CTNNB1, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, CXCR4, and CCL18 in RCC cell lines. It was found that
knockdown inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and induced apoptosis of A-498 cells.
overexpression promoted cell proliferation, migration, and invasion and inhibited apoptosis of 786-O cells. Moreover, knockdown of
decreased the levels of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, CXCR4, and CCL18 expression, but
overexpression increased the expression of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, CXCR4, and CCL18. Further in vivo tumor formation study in nude mice indicated that inhibition of
delayed the progress of tumor formation through inhibiting PCNA and Ki67 expression. These results indicate that
could act as an oncogene and may serve as a promising therapeutic strategy for RCC.
We report a paper‐based aptasensor platform that uses two reaction zones and a connecting bridge along with printed multifunctional bio/nano materials to achieve molecular recognition and signal ...amplification. Upon addition of analyte to the first zone, a fluorescently labelled DNA or RNA aptamer is desorbed from printed graphene oxide, rapidly producing an initial fluorescence signal. The released aptamer then flows to the second zone where it reacts with printed reagents to initiate rolling circle amplification, generating DNA amplicons containing a peroxidase‐mimicking DNAzyme, which produces a colorimetric readout that can be read in an equipment‐free manner or with a smartphone. The sensor was demonstrated using an RNA aptamer for adenosine triphosphate (a bacterial marker) and a DNA aptamer for glutamate dehydrogenase (Clostridium difficile marker) with excellent sensitivity and specificity. These targets could be detected in spiked serum or feacal samples, demonstrating the potential for testing clinical samples.
A paper sensor is designed to have two reaction zones and a connecting bridge to enable two signal outputs: a fluorescence signal in Zone 1 upon target‐induced desorption of fluorescent aptamers from a graphene surface, and a colorimetric signal as a result of DNA amplification following sample transfer over the bridge.
Guanidine hydrochloride-denatured creatine kinase (CK) can very quickly form a dimer with reactivity when the denaturant is diluted into the reaction system in the presence of DTT or EDTA. Tsou's ...method and its applied equation Tsou (1988), Adv. Enzymol. Rel. Areas Mol. Biol. 61, 381-436; Yang and Zhou (1998), Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1388, 190-198 were used to measure the kinetic reactivation rate constants and the reactivation degree for reassociated CK dimers. Partial reactivation (about 50% at best) occurred following a monophasic course during the substrate reaction when compared with previous time interval measurements. The reactivation degree increased with increasing DTT (0.1-5 mM) and EDTA (0.1-1 mM) concentrations. The apparent forward rate constants do not change with concentration, showing that the reactivation is a reversible first-order reaction, but not of complex formation type. However, the apparent forward rate constants do change with EDTA concentration, showing that the reactivation with EDTA is a reversible first-order reaction as well as of complex formation type. Excess DTT concentrations have an inhibitory effect, indicating that the excessive EDTA acts as a metal chealate not only for free Mg2+, but also for MgATP during the enzyme catalysis. This study shows that additional information about the reactivation of CK can be obtained from examining the substrate reaction. The possible refolding pathway of CK is discussed.
Creatine kinase (ATP: creatine N-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.3.2) was completely denatured using 3 M guanidine hydrochloride for 2 h as in previous studies Yao et al. (1982), Sci. Sin. 25B, 1296-1302; ...Yao et al. (1984), Biochemistry 23, 2740-2744; Yao et al. (1982), Sci. Sin. 25B, 1186-1193. Under suitable conditions, about 60-70% of the activity can be recovered in the presence of different Mg2+ concentrations. Both the reactivation and the refolding processes follow two-phase courses after dilution in the proper solutions. A comparison of the rate constants for the refolding of unfolded creatine kinase with those for the recovery of its catalytic activity at various Mg2+ concentrations shows that these are not synchronized. The reactivity of guanidine hydrochloride-denatured creatine kinase can be inhibited by Mg2+; however, the rates of reactivation are independent of the Mg2+ concentration. In addition, Mg2+ affects the fluorescence intensity, but the rate constants of refolding are independent of Mg2+ concentration. Although the reactivation of GdHCl-denatured creatine kinase is complete about 3 h after dilution with reactivation solutions, the conformational changes during refolding occur in a much slower reaction. Mg2+ can induce complex changes in the relative fluorescence intensity during refolding over a broad range of concentrations.
Background
Throughout the world, drug administration error remains a known and significant threat to patients undergoing anaesthesia. Estimates of the extent of the problem vary, but few are based on ...large prospectively collected datasets. Furthermore, little is known about whether differences in work culture are important in error rates.
Methods
A prospective incident monitoring study was conducted at a large tertiary hospital in China to estimate the frequency of drug administration error during anaesthesia. Anaesthetists were asked to return a study form anonymously for every anaesthetic, indicating whether or not a drug administration error had occurred, including incident details if affirmative.
Results
From 24,380 anaesthetics, 16,496 study forms were returned (67.7% response rate), reporting 179 errors. The frequency (95% confidence interval) of drug administration error was 0.73% (0.63% to 0.85%) based on total study anaesthetics and 1.09% (0.93% to 1.26%) based on total forms returned. The largest categories of error were omissions (27%), incorrect doses (23%) and substitutions (20%). Errors resulted in prolonged stay in recovery for 21 patients, transfer to the ICU for five and one case each of haemorrhagic shock and asthmatic attack. More respondents who were not fully rested reported inattention as a contributing factor to error (21%) than those who were fully rested (7%, P = 0.04).
Conclusion
Our results are comparable with other international prospective estimates indicating that drug administration error is of concern in China as elsewhere. These results will form a baseline from which to detect the effects of countermeasures.
We report the observation of new properties of primary cosmic rays, neon (Ne), magnesium (Mg), and silicon (Si), measured in the rigidity range 2.15 GV to 3.0 TV with 1.8 × 106 Ne , 2.2 × 106 Mg , ...and 1.6 × 106 Si nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment on the International Space Station. The Ne and Mg spectra have identical rigidity dependence above 3.65 GV. The three spectra have identical rigidity dependence above 86.5 GV, deviate from a single power law above 200 GV, and harden in an identical way. Unexpectedly, above 86.5 GV the rigidity dependence of primary cosmic rays Ne, Mg, and Si spectra is different from the rigidity dependence of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O. This shows that the Ne, Mg, and Si and He, C, and O are two different classes of primary cosmic rays.
The schematic of the energy band gap figure of the graded optical band gap (Egopt) in p-i-n layer in na-Si:H solar cells was given in the paper. The intrinsic hydrogenated nanoamorphous ...silicon(na-Si:H) thin films with the graded band gap as a function of depth through the films were prepared by varying the processing power, gas pressure, gas composition, and etc., We have carried out a investigation of the relationships between the Egopt with the crystallization ratio (Xc) and the Egopt with the nanocrystalline grain size (D) in na-Si:H thin films grown by PECVD on glass substrates through XRD, Raman scattering, transmission. The Egopt increase with the decreases of the crystallization ratio (Xc) and the nanocrystalline grain size (D). The hydrogen dilution ratio is found to increase basically both the crystallization ratio (Xc) and the nanocrystalline grain size (D). Two relationships in na-Si:H are discussed by the etching effect of atomic hydrogen in the framework of the growth mechanism and the quantum size effect (QSE).
Systemic metabolic alterations associated with increased consumption of saturated fat and obesity are linked with increased risk of prostate cancer progression and mortality, but the molecular ...underpinnings of this association are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate in a murine prostate cancer model, that high-fat diet (HFD) enhances the MYC transcriptional program through metabolic alterations that favour histone H4K20 hypomethylation at the promoter regions of MYC regulated genes, leading to increased cellular proliferation and tumour burden. Saturated fat intake (SFI) is also associated with an enhanced MYC transcriptional signature in prostate cancer patients. The SFI-induced MYC signature independently predicts prostate cancer progression and death. Finally, switching from a high-fat to a low-fat diet, attenuates the MYC transcriptional program in mice. Our findings suggest that in primary prostate cancer, dietary SFI contributes to tumour progression by mimicking MYC over expression, setting the stage for therapeutic approaches involving changes to the diet.
PDF
