A series of isoindigo‐based conjugated polymers (PII2F‐CmSi, m = 3–11) with alkyl siloxane‐terminated side chains are prepared, in which the branching point is systematically “moved away” from the ...conjugated backbone by one carbon atom. To investigate the structure–property relationship, the polymer thin film is subsequently tested in top‐contact field‐effect transistors, and further characterized by both grazing incidence X‐ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. Hole mobilities over 1 cm2 V−1 s−1 is exhibited for all soluble PII2F‐CmSi (m = 5–11) polymers, which is 10 times higher than the reference polymer with same polymer backbone. PII2F‐C9Si shows the highest mobility of 4.8 cm2 V−1 s−1, even though PII2F‐C11Si exhibits the smallest π–π stacking distance at 3.379 Å. In specific, when the branching point is at, or beyond, the third carbon atoms, the contribution to charge transport arising from π–π stacking distance shortening becomes less significant. Other factors, such as thin‐film microstructure, crystallinity, domain size, become more important in affecting the resulting device's charge transport.
Alkyl siloxane‐terminated side chains equipped isoindigo‐based conjugated polymers (PII2F‐CmSi, m = 3–11) are prepared to evaluate the structure–property relationship as the branching point is systematically “moved away” from the conjugated backbone one carbon atom at a time. An improved charge carrier mobility of 4.76 cm2 V−1 s−1 (PII2F‐C9Si) is exhibited.
The canine anti‐tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) monoclonal antibody is a potential therapeutic option for treating canine arthritis. The current treatments for arthritis in dogs have limitations ...due to side effects, emphasizing the need for safer and more effective therapies. The crystal structure of canine TNF‐α (cTNF‐α) was successfully determined at a resolution of 1.85 Å, and the protein was shown to assemble as a trimer, with high similarity to the functional quaternary structure of human TNF‐α (hTNF‐α). Adalimumab (Humira), a known TNF‐α inhibitor, effectively targets and neutralizes TNF‐α to reduce inflammation and has been used to manage autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. By comparing the structure of cTNF‐α with the complex structure of hTNF‐α and adalimumab‐Fab, the epitope of adalimumab on cTNF‐α was identified. The significant structural similarities of epitopes in cTNF‐α and hTNF‐α indicate the potential of using adalimumab to target cTNF‐α. Therefore, a canine/human chimeric antibody, Humivet‐R1, was created by grafting the variable domain of adalimumab onto a canine antibody framework derived from ranevetmab. Humivet‐R1 exhibits potent neutralizing ability (IC50 = 0.05 nM) and high binding affinity (EC50 = 0.416 nM) to cTNF‐α, comparable to that of adalimumab for both hTNF‐α and cTNF‐α. These results strongly suggest that Humivet‐R1 has the potential to provide effective treatment for canine arthritis with reduced side effects. Here, we propose a structure‐guided antibody design for the use of a chimeric antibody to treat canine inflammatory disease. Our successful development strategy can speed up therapeutic antibody discovery for animals and has the potential to revolutionize veterinary medicine.
Abstract
Monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, such as MoS
2
and WSe
2
, have been known as direct gap semiconductors and emerged as new optically active materials for novel device ...applications. Here we reexamine their direct gap properties by investigating the strain effects on the photoluminescence of monolayer MoS
2
and WSe
2
. Instead of applying stress, we investigate the strain effects by imaging the direct exciton populations in monolayer WSe
2
–MoS
2
and MoSe
2
–WSe
2
lateral heterojunctions with inherent strain inhomogeneity. We find that unstrained monolayer WSe
2
is actually an indirect gap material, as manifested in the observed photoluminescence intensity–energy correlation, from which the difference between the direct and indirect optical gaps can be extracted by analyzing the exciton thermal populations. Our findings combined with the estimated exciton binding energy further indicate that monolayer WSe
2
exhibits an indirect quasiparticle gap, which has to be reconsidered in further studies for its fundamental properties and device applications.
Aims and objectives
To investigate whether the sleep quality and fatigue of female nurses working rotating shifts could be used to predict future turnover status.
Background
Female nurses working ...rotating shifts often suffer from sleep problems and fatigue, and the turnover rates of nurses are generally higher than those of other hospital personnel.
Design
A prospective study.
Methods
We recruited a total of 198 female nurses working rotating shifts from December 2017 to March 2019. The nurses completed the Checklist Individual Strength (CIS) scale and wore an actigraph for seven consecutive days in order to collect their sleep parameters. Their turnover status was tracked until 31 May 2021 at which time 55 participants (27.8%) had resigned. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyse the factors influencing turnover. In addition, the study adhered to the STROBE checklist.
Results
The results revealed significant differences between the nurses in the still‐working group and the resigned group in terms of the sleep quality parameters sleep efficiency (SE) and wake after sleep onset (WASO) as well as CIS scores. WASO was significantly correlated with intensity of fatigue, and fatigue was common among all of the nurses working rotating shifts. As time progressed, the sleep quality parameter WASO and CIS scores could be used to predict turnover status after 2.4 years.
Conclusion
The results of this study indicated more sleep fragmentation and poor sleep efficiency in the resigned group. Sleep fragmentation was highly correlated with fatigue, and sleep fragmentation and fatigue could be used to predict turnover status.
Relevance to clinical practice
We suggest that relevant hospital management pay more attention to the sleep conditions and fatigue of female nurses working rotating shifts when arranging personnel and schedules and offer them more understanding.
Quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect is promising for achieving dissipationless transport devices which can be achieved only at extremely low temperature presently. The research for new large-gap QSH ...insulators is critical for their realistic applications at room temperature. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a QSH insulator with a sizable bulk gap as large as ∼0.22 eV in stanene film functionalized with the organic molecule ethynyl (SnC2H), whose topological electronic properties are highly tunable by the external strain. This large-gap is mainly due to the result of the strong spin-orbit coupling related to the pxy orbitals at the Γ point of the honeycomb lattice, significantly different from that consisting of the pz orbital as in free-standing group IV ones. The topological characteristic of SnC2H film is confirmed by the Z2 topological order and an explicit demonstration of the topological helical Dirac type edge states. The SnC2H film on BN substrate is observed to support a nontrivial large-gap QSH, which harbors a Dirac cone lying within the band gap. Owing to their high structural stability, this two-dimensional large-gap QSH insulator is promising platforms for topological phenomena and new quantum devices operating at room temperature in spintronics.
A nanolaser is a key component for on-chip optical communications and computing systems. Here, we report on the low-threshold, continuous-wave operation of a subdiffraction nanolaser based on surface ...plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The plasmonic nanocavity is formed between an atomically smooth epitaxial silver film and a single optically pumped nanorod consisting of an epitaxial gallium nitride shell and an indium gallium nitride core acting as gain medium. The atomic smoothness of the metallic film is crucial for reducing the modal volume and plasmonic losses. Bimodal lasing with similar pumping thresholds was experimentally observed, and polarization properties of the two modes were used to unambiguously identify them with theoretically predicted modes. The all-epitaxial approach opens a scalable platform for low-loss, active nanoplasmonics.
Estrogen Effects on Wound Healing Horng, Huann-Cheng; Chang, Wen-Hsun; Yeh, Chang-Ching ...
International journal of molecular sciences,
11/2017, Letnik:
18, Številka:
11
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Wound healing is a physiological process, involving three successive and overlapping phases-hemostasis/inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling-to maintain the integrity of skin after trauma, ...either by accident or by procedure. Any disruption or unbalanced distribution of these processes might result in abnormal wound healing. Many molecular and clinical data support the effects of estrogen on normal skin homeostasis and wound healing. Estrogen deficiency, for example in postmenopausal women, is detrimental to wound healing processes, notably inflammation and re-granulation, while exogenous estrogen treatment may reverse these effects. Understanding the role of estrogen on skin might provide further opportunities to develop estrogen-related therapy for assistance in wound healing.
In this study, a new type of field-effect transistor (FET)-based biosensor is demonstrated to be able to overcome the problem of severe charge-screening effect caused by high ionic strength in ...solution and detect proteins in physiological environment. Antibody or aptamer-immobilized AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) are used to directly detect proteins, including HIV-1 RT, CEA, NT-proBNP and CRP, in 1X PBS (with 1%BSA) or human sera. The samples do not need any dilution or washing process to reduce the ionic strength. The sensor shows high sensitivity and the detection takes only 5 minutes. The designs of the sensor, the methodology of the measurement, and the working mechanism of the sensor are discussed and investigated. A theoretical model is proposed based on the finding of the experiments. This sensor is promising for point-of-care, home healthcare, and mobile diagnostic device.
Summary
As a vibration control technique, tuned mass damper (TMD) system has been shown to be effective in reducing the human‐induced vibration of a cross‐laminated timber (CLT) floor. However, the ...lightweight property of such a floor means there could be off‐tuning when its mass varies. This study therefore developed a steel‐based multi‐TMD (MTMD) system and a shape memory alloy (SMA)‐based MTMD system to reduce human‐induced vibration of the CLT floor. The superelastic SMA components can give the MTMD system more resilience and thus improve the robustness. Two 3‐TMD systems in different locations and 5‐TMD systems were designed to be effective within a certain bandwidth. The results show that SMA‐based 5‐TMDs are the most effective in reducing human‐induced vibration, for example, single‐person and two‐person slow walking, fast walking and running, as they can cover a wider frequency band. By contrast, the effectiveness of the steel‐based MTMD systems was unsatisfactory owing to permanent deformation of the steel components. When the loads on the CLT floor changed, the SMA‐based 5‐TMDs exhibited high robustness and were able to maintain the response at a low level. Test results show that a high‐frequency excitation could degrade the effectiveness of the MTMD, as this is beyond the effective bandwidth. Therefore, future investigations should focus on developing strategies to enlarge the bandwidth of the MTMD.
Herein, interfacial engineering is demonstrated to improve the thermal stability of non‐fullerene bulk‐heterojunction (BHJ) OPVs to a practical level. An amphiphilic dendritic block copolymer (DBC) ...is developed through a facile coupling method and employed as the surface modifier of ZnO electron‐transporting layer in inverted OPVs. Besides showing distinct self‐assembly behavior, the synthesized DBC possesses high compatibility with plasmonic gold nanoparticles (NPs) due to the constituent malonamide and ethylene oxide units. The hybrid DBC@AuNPs interlayer is shown to improve device's performance from 14.0% to 15.4% because it enables better energy‐level alignment and improves interfacial compatibility at the ZnO/BHJ interface. Moreover, the DBC@AuNPs interlayer not only improves the interfacial thermal stability at the ZnO/BHJ interface but also endows a more ideal BHJ morphology with an enhanced thermal robustness. The derived device reserves 77% of initial PCE after thermal aging at 65 °C for 3000 h and yields an extended T80 lifetime of >1100 h when stored at a constant thermal condition at 65 °C, outperforming the control device. Finally, the device is evaluated to possess a T80 lifetime of over 1.79 years at room temperature (298 K) when stored in an inert condition, showing great potential for commercialization.
An amphiphilic dendritic block copolymer is developed to serve as an efficient surface modifier of ZnO electron‐transporting layer in an organic photovoltaic device. When using an interlayer based on its hybridization with gold nanoparticles, the device can deliver improved performance and possess a lifetime of over 1.79 years when stored at room temperature in inert conditions.
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