Dopant‐free organic hole transport materials (HTMs) remain highly desirable for stable and efficient n‐i‐p perovskite solar cells (pero‐SCs) but rarely succeed. Here, we propose a molecular assembly ...strategy to overcome the limited optoelectronic properties of organic HTMs by precisely designing a linear organic small molecule BDT‐DPA‐F from the atomic to the molecular levels. BDT‐DPA‐F can assemble into a fibril network, showing an obviously improved hole mobility and decreased energy disorder. The resultant pero‐SCs showed a promising efficiency of 23.12 % (certified 22.48 %), which is the highest certified value of pero‐SCs with dopant‐free HTMs, to date. These devices also showed a weak‐dependence of efficiency on size, enabling a state‐of‐the‐art efficiency of 22.50 % for 1‐cm2 device and 20.17 % for 15.64‐cm2 module. For the first time, the pero‐SCs based on dopant‐free HTMs realized ultralong stabilities with T80 lifetimes over 1200 h under operation or thermal aging at 85 °C.
A hole transport material (BDT‐DPA‐F) is designed, and it can assemble into a fibril network, showing an obviously improved hole mobility, a decreased energy disorder and high scalability. The perovskite solar cells based on BDT‐DPA‐F without any dopant obtain promising power conversion efficiencies of 23.12 % (certified 22.48 %) for small‐area devices (0.062 cm2) and 20.17 % for large‐area modules (15.64 cm2).
Background
The clinical characteristics of novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐2019) patients outside the epicenter of Hubei Province are less understood.
Methods
We analyzed the epidemiological and ...clinical features of all COVID‐2019 cases in the only referral hospital in Shenzhen City, China, from January 11, 2020, to February 6, 2020, and followed until March 6, 2020.
Results
Among the 298 confirmed cases, 233 (81.5%) had been to Hubei, while 42 (14%) did not have a clear travel history. Only 218 (73.15%) cases had a fever as the initial symptom. Compared with the nonsevere cases, severe cases were associated with older age, those with underlying diseases, and higher levels of C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Slower clearance of the virus was associated with a higher risk of progression to critical condition. As of March 6, 2020, 268 (89.9%) patients were discharged and the overall case fatality ratio was 1.0%.
Conclusions
In a designated hospital outside Hubei Province, COVID‐2019 patients could be effectively managed by properly using the existing hospital system. Mortality may be lowered when cases are relatively mild, and there are sufficient medical resources to care and treat the disease.
This study analyzes the epidemiological and clinical features of all 298 COVID‐19 cases in the only referral hospital of Shenzhen City. Slower clearance of virus is associated with a higher progression to severe critical condition. Compared with the nonsevere cases, severe cases are associated with older age, underlying diseases, higher levels of C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Abbreviations: CRP, C‐reactive protein; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate.
The doped Spiro‐OMeTAD hole transport layer (HTL) formed using the lithium bis(trifluoromethane) sulfonimide salt and 4‐tert‐butylpyridine with phenethylammonium iodide surface treatment on a ...perovskite film has continuously dominated the record power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of perovskite solar cells (pero‐SCs). However, unstable HTL compositions and iodide salts can cause severe device degradation. In this study, an HTL composition‐conditioning agent (CCA), Spiro‐BD‐2OEG, is designed, which contains a Spiro‐OMeTAD‐like backbone, functional pyridine units, and oligo (ethylene glycol) chains. This finely designed CCA presents good miscibility with Spiro‐OMeTAD and its dopants and acts as a conditioning agent through weak bond interactions. As a result, the CCA‐regulated HTL shows a pinhole‐free and smooth morphology with enhanced Spiro‐OMeTAD ordering and improves dopant stability. In addition, the gradient‐distributed CCA in the HTL can narrow the energy level offset with the valence band of the perovskite. The resultant pero‐SCs exhibit an excellent PCE of 24.19% without any interface treatment and weak size dependence. A remarkable PCE of 22.63% is obtained even for a 1.004‐cm2 device. Importantly, the strategy shows good universality and significantly promotes the long‐term stability of the pero‐SCs based on the classical doped Spiro‐OMeTAD.
The Spiro‐BD‐2OEG with composition‐conditioning agent functionality is designed to improve the composition stability in the doped‐Spiro‐OMeTAD hole transport layer (HTL). By employing this strategy, the HTL shows a pinhole‐free and smooth morphology with an enhanced Spiro‐OMeTAD ordering. Finally, the resultant perovskite solar cells show an excellent power conversion efficiency of 24.19% and improved thermal, moisture, and operational stabilities.
Nepenthes plants are regarded as a kind of Traditional Chinese Medicine for several diseases but its anticancer activity remain unclear. The subject of this study is to evaluate the antiproliferation ...effects on oral cancer cells by Nepenthes plants using ethyl acetate extract of Nepenthes adrianii x clipeata (EANA). Cell viability was detected using MTS assay. Its detailed mechanisms including cell cycle, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and DNA damage were explored by flow cytometry or western blotting. For 24 hours EANA treatment, five kinds of oral cancer cells (CAL 27, Ca9‐22, OECM‐1, HSC‐3, and SCC9) show IC50 values of cell viability ranging from 8 to 17 μg/mL but the viability of normal oral cells (HGF‐1) remains over 80%. Subsequently, CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cells with high sensitivity to EANA were chosen to investigate the detailed mechanism. EANA displays the time course and concentration effects for inducing apoptosis based on flow cytometry (subG1 and annexin V analyses) and western blotting cleaved poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (c‐PARP). Oxidative stress and DNA damage were induced by EANA treatments in oral cancer cells through reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential disruption, mitochondrial superoxide, and γH2AX. All these changes of EANA treatments in oral cancer cells were reverted by the ROS scavenger N‐acetylcysteine pretreatment. Therefore, EANA induces preferential killing, apoptosis, and DNA damage against oral cancer cells through oxidative stress.
We report novel carbonaceous absorbent derived from Banana Peels affording superhighest adsorptive property and selectivity toward capturing polluted VOCs gas including benzene and toluene, far ...outperforming other some reported adsorbents.
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•Activator implant-optimized approach extremely improves porous property of absorbent.•Absorbent with excellent structural property was developed from waste banana peels.•BC3.5-800 exhibits a record-high adsorption capacity for benzene and toluene.•The rational adsorption selectivity of C7H8/H2O(189) and C6H6/H2O(135) was obtained.•This study provides possibility for VOCs removal in the practical humid environment.
This work developed a super-high performance of engineering carbonaceous adsorbents from waste banana-peel via an optimized KOH-impregnated approach, which affords outstanding structural property (SBET = 3746.5 m2 g−1, Vtotal = 2.50 cm3 g−1), far outperforming KOH-grinding method-induced counterpart and other known banana peel-derived those. Thereby, this triggers a record-high capture value of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) specific to benzene (27.55 mmol g−1) and toluene (23.82 mmol g−1) in the all known results. The structural expression characters were accurately correlated with excellent adsorption efficiency of VOCs by investigating the synthetic factor-controlling comparative samples. Ulteriorly, the adsorption selectivity prediction at different relative humidity was demonstrated through the DIH (difference of the isosteric heats), highlighting the good superiority in selective adsorption of toluene compared to benzene even under humid atmosphere. Our findings provide the possibility for the practical application and fabrication of waste biomass (banana peel)-derived functional biochar adsorbent in the environmental treatment of threatening VOCs pollutants.
To achieve preferential effects against cancer cells but less damage to normal cells is one of the main challenges of cancer research. In this review, we explore the roles and relationships of ...oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis, DNA damage, ER stress, autophagy, metabolism, and migration of ROS-modulating anticancer drugs. Understanding preferential anticancer effects in more detail will improve chemotherapeutic approaches that are based on ROS-modulating drugs in cancer treatments.
Meconopsis (Papaveraceae) is an interesting alpine herb, mainly distributed in the mountainous area of southwest China and high altitude zone in Tibetan-Himalaya. Different Meconopsis species showed ...a flower color alteration in different anthesis stages, Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ is one of the localized species whose petal color changes from purple to blue during the flowering process. In general, the blue color flower is a rare kind, and usually hard to cultivate artificially. The molecular mechanism of flower color formation and color alteration of alpine flowers were reported by many research workers. To find critical genes that regulate Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ color alteration and the mechanism of environmental adaptation, the current study performed transcriptome sequencing by using Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ petals from different anthesis stages. There were totally 91,615 unigenes obtained from 31.4 Gb sequencing data, and differentially expressed genes between two consecutive flowering stages were obtained. Bioinformatics studies showed genes regulating petal color alteration were activated. Moreover, the functional analysis showed that Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ showed a stress response to mechanical damage, non-biological stimulation and water deficiency in the bud stage, as well as showed a stress response to the cold from cracking stage to blooming stage. Furthermore, RNA-Seq results were verified using nine randomly selected genes by qPCR, which showed same expression trend with sequencing results. During this study, 20 candidate genes identified for further studies, which included five petal color related genes and 15 environmental response genes.
•Obtaining transcriptome data of Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ flower petals at five different anthesis phases•Filtering critical genes that regulate Meconopsis ‘Lingholm’ petal color alteration•Illustrating that anthocyanin metabolism pathway was activated during flower color alteration.•Finding candidate genes and pathways relating to environmental stimulus
A new clay-cement composite grouting material (CCGM) for tunnelling in underwater karst area was developed through the excellent synergistic interactions among cement, clay, meta-aluminate and ...lignin. The probable formation mechanism of the material was proposed based on a series of experimental tests. The results show that with an optimal mass ratio (2:1:1:0.024) for water, cement, clay and additives, the obtained CCGM displayed an excellent grouting performance for karst in an underwater condition. Compared with neat cement grouts and clay-cement grouts, CCGM has faster gel time, lower bleeding rate and bulk shrinkage rate, greater initial viscosity, and a strong resistance to water dispersion. A successful engineering application indicates that CCGM not only fulfils a better grouting performance for karst in underwater conditions but also reduces the engineering cost and environmental pollution.
Background
Combination treatment with transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), lenvatinib, and anti-programmed death-1 (anti-PD-1) antibodies (triple therapy) has a high rate of tumor ...response and converted resection for initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC) patients. This study aimed to assess the outcomes of salvage surgery in uHCC patients after conversion therapy with triple therapy.
Methods
uHCC patients who met the criteria for hepatectomy after receiving triple therapy as first-line treatment were eligible for inclusion in this study. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates in patients who received salvage surgery (SR group) and those who did not (non-SR group) were compared.
Results
Of the 144 patients assessed, 91 patients underwent salvage surgery and 53 did not. The OS rates in the SR group were significantly better than those in the non-SR group. The 1- and 2-year OS rates in the SR group were 92.0% and 79.9%, respectively, whereas those in the non-SR group were 85.5% and 39.6 %, respectively (
p
= 0.007); however, there was no significant difference in the PFS rates. Upon further stratification, OS and PFS were significantly better in the SR group than in the non-SR group in patients who were assessed as partial responses (PR), while there was no significant difference in patients who were assessed as complete response (CR).
Conclusions
Salvage surgery is recommended and is associated with a favorable prognosis for uHCC patients who were assessed as PR after conversion therapy, however it may not be necessary for uHCC if CR was achieved.
The antibiotic antimycin A (AMA) is commonly used as an inhibitor for the electron transport chain but its application in anticancer studies is rare. Recently, the repurposing use of AMA in ...antiproliferation of several cancer cell types has been reported. However, it is rarely investigated in oral cancer cells. The purpose of this study is to investigate the selective antiproliferation ability of AMA treatment on oral cancer cells. Cell viability, flow cytometry, and western blotting were applied to explore its possible anticancer mechanism in terms of both concentration‐ and exposure time‐effects. AMA shows the higher antiproliferation to two oral cancer CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cell lines than normal oral HGF‐1 cell lines. Moreover, AMA induces the production of higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and pan‐caspase activation in oral cancer CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cells than in normal oral HGF‐1 cells, providing the possible mechanism for its selective antiproliferation effect of AMA. In addition to ROS, AMA induces mitochondrial superoxide (MitoSOX) generation and depletes mitochondrial membrane potential (MitoMP). This further supports the AMA‐induced oxidative stress changes in oral cancer CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cells. AMA also shows high expressions of annexin V in CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cells and cleaved forms of poly (ADP‐ribose) polymerase (PARP), caspase 9, and caspase 3 in CAL 27 cells, supporting the apoptosis‐inducing ability of AMA. Furthermore, AMA induces DNA damage (γH2AX and 8‐oxo‐2′‐deoxyguanosine 8‐oxodG) in CAL 27 and Ca9‐22 cells. Notably, the AMA‐induced selective antiproliferation, oxidative stress, and DNA damage were partly prevented from N‐acetylcysteine (NAC) pretreatments. Taken together, AMA selectively kills oral cancer cells in an oxidative stress‐dependent mechanism involving apoptosis and DNA damage.
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