Hot‐carrier devices are promising alternatives for enabling path breaking photoelectric conversion. However, existing hot‐carrier devices suffer from low efficiencies, particularly in the infrared ...region, and ambiguous physical mechanisms. In this work, the competitive interfacial transfer mechanisms of detrapped holes and hot electrons in hot‐carrier devices are discovered. Through photocurrent polarity research and optical‐pump–THz‐probe (OPTP) spectroscopy, it is verified that detrapped hole transfer (DHT) and hot‐electron transfer (HET) dominate the low‐ and high‐density excitation responses, respectively. The photocurrent ratio assigned to DHT and HET increases from 6.6% to over 1133.3% as the illumination intensity decreases. DHT induces severe degeneration of the external quantum efficiency (EQE), especially at low illumination intensities. The EQE of a hot‐electron device can theoretically increase by over two orders of magnitude at 10 mW cm−2 through DHT elimination. The OPTP results show that competitive transfer arises from the carrier oscillation type and carrier‐density‐related Coulomb screening. The screening intensity determines the excitation weight and hot‐electron cooling scenes and thereby the transfer dynamics.
Existing hot‐carrier devices suffer from low efficiencies, particularly in the infrared region, and ambiguous physical mechanisms. In this work, the competitive interfacial transfer mechanisms of detrapped holes and hot electrons in hot‐carrier devices are discovered. By eliminating the adverse detrapped‐hole transfer, the external quantum efficiency of a hot‐electron device can increase by over two orders of magnitude at 10 mW cm−2.
Cadmium (Cd) pollution in soil is a serious problem affecting environmental safety and human health, and the majority of Cd in human body comes from edible vegetables, especially leafy vegetables. ...Therefore, it is necessary to understand the absorption and transport of Cd soil by leafy vegetables. In this study, the meta-analysis method was firstly employed to study the relationship of Cd in leafy vegetables and soil systems. The results showed that different kinds of leafy vegetables have different abilities of Cd accumulation (measured by bioconcentration factor (BCF)) and transportation (measured by translocation factor (TF)): Brassica juncea (BCF = 5.10) and Brassica pekinensis (BCF = 1.90) had significantly higher ability to absorb cadmium in soil among the 19 studied species, Brassica pekinensis (TF = 2.52), Coriandrum sativum (TF = 2.18) had significantly higher cadmium transport capacity than other 11 species. To further clarify the influence of the three main factors of soil pH, Cd content and leafy vegetable species on the Cd enrichment ability of leafy vegetables, the regression equation was obtained by meta-regression analysis. BCF is affected by species, soil pH, soil cadmium content in the order from high to low. It was found that the estimated range of SOM for safe production of leafy vegetables is 20–30 g/kg. It could also be observed that soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) had a negative correlation with BCF, while soil salinity had a strong positive correlation with BCF. This study can provide a reliable reference for leafy vegetable security production in the Cd polluted field and aids in selecting species suitable for avoiding the absorption of heavy metals from polluted soil.
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•Cd transfer in different leafy vegetables-soil systems was studied by meta-analysis.•Cd absorption of leafy vegetables was mainly affected by species, soil pH and Cd content in descending order.•To ensure safe production of leafy vegetables, the suggested SOM range is 20–30 g/kg.•In the studied species, Brassica juncea absorbs Cd most easily while Brassica pekinensis transports Cd most readily.
The transcriptional regulators Ebf2 and Prdm16 establish and maintain the brown and/or beige fat cell identity. However, the mechanisms operating in white adipocytes to suppress the thermogenic gene ...program and maintain an energy-storing phenotype are less understood. Here, we report that the transcriptional regulator Zfp423 is critical for maintaining white adipocyte identity through suppression of the thermogenic gene program. Zfp423 expression is enriched in white versus brown adipocytes and suppressed upon cold exposure. Doxycycline-inducible inactivation of Zfp423 in mature adipocytes, combined with β-adrenergic stimulation, triggers a conversion of differentiated adiponectin-expressing inguinal and gonadal adipocytes into beige-like adipocytes; this reprogramming event is sufficient to prevent and reverse diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Mechanistically, Zfp423 acts in adipocytes to inhibit the activity of Ebf2 and suppress Prdm16 activation. These data identify Zfp423 as a molecular brake on adipocyte thermogenesis and suggest a therapeutic strategy to unlock the thermogenic potential of white adipocytes in obesity.
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•Deletion of adipocyte Zfp423 triggers a white-to-beige fat cell conversion•Converted beige fat cells, when activated, reverse diet-induced obesity•Zfp423 inhibits the adipocyte thermogenic gene program through repression of Ebf2•The Zfp423-Ebf2 protein complex is inhibited by BMP7-Smad signaling
How white adipocytes suppress their thermogenic gene program has remained unclear. Here, Shao et al. identify Zfp423 as a molecular brake on adipocyte thermogenesis through inhibition of Ebf2 activity. Inducible deletion of Zfp423 in obese mice triggers white-to-beige adipocyte reprogramming and reversal of obesity and insulin resistance.
Dermal adipose tissue (also known as dermal white adipose tissue and herein referred to as dWAT) has been the focus of much discussion in recent years. However, dWAT remains poorly characterized. The ...fate of the mature dermal adipocytes and the origin of the rapidly reappearing dermal adipocytes at different stages remain unclear. Here, we isolated dermal adipocytes and characterized dermal fat at the cellular and molecular level. Together with dWAT's dynamic responses to external stimuli, we established that dermal adipocytes are a distinct class of white adipocytes with high plasticity. By combining pulse-chase lineage tracing and single-cell RNA sequencing, we observed that mature dermal adipocytes undergo dedifferentiation and redifferentiation under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Upon various challenges, the dedifferentiated cells proliferate and redifferentiate into adipocytes. In addition, manipulation of dWAT highlighted an important role for mature dermal adipocytes for hair cycling and wound healing. Altogether, these observations unravel a surprising plasticity of dermal adipocytes and provide an explanation for the dynamic changes in dWAT mass that occur under physiological and pathophysiological conditions, and highlight the important contributions of dWAT toward maintaining skin homeostasis.
In this paper, a holographic display system with adjustable viewing angle is proposed. The system consists of a collimated beam, a spatial light modulator (SLM), a multi-focus optofluidic (MFO) lens ...and an aperture. The MFO lens with high focal power is produced and it consists of two substrates, one multilayer substrate and two chambers. When the liquids are pulled in/out from the channels, the curvature of the liquid-liquid interface changes due to the surface tension and adsorption between the liquids and the multilayer substrate. The relationship between the parameters of the MFO lens and the holographic display viewing angle is revealed for the first time. Based on the theoretical analysis, the mechanisms of the high focal power and mechanical stability of the proposed MFO lens are also clarified. The experiments show that the focal power of the proposed MFO lens can be varied from -20 D (m
) to 4 D (m
), respectively. By using the MFO lens, the viewing angle of the holographic display system can be adjusted without moving any components mechanically. Meanwhile the setup of the system is greatly simplified. The experimental results verify the feasibility of the system, and it is expected to bring new ideas to the holographic display with large viewing angle.
In this work, manganese (Mn)-doped YFeO3, i.e., YFMxO powders with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1, was synthesized by a hydrothermal method to study the influences of doping on its structural, morphological, optical, ...magnetic, and local electrical properties. The experimental results show that all the samples exhibit an orthorhombic structure with space group Pnma. Refined structure parameters are presented. Morphology images show the shape evolution from layered to multilayered with increasing Mn content. Infrared spectra reveal the characteristic vibrations of the obtained YFMxO samples. From the magnetic study, an increased magnetic moment in the range of 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.075 is observed. The Fe and Y K-edge local structure studies indicate that the valency of Fe and Y is mainly found in the trivalent state, which also indicates that the substitution of Mn ions not only affects the nearest neighbor atomic shell of Fe but also affects the nearest neighbor’s local structure of Y atoms. Our results show that the addition of Mn exhibits an evident influence on the local structural and magnetic properties.
In this paper, we demonstrate a multifunctional optofluidic (MO) lens with beam steering, which is actuated by electrowetting effect. A liquid lens chamber and a liquid prism chamber are stacked to ...form the MO lens. When the liquid lens chamber is actuated with voltage, the curvature of liquid-liquid interface changes accordingly and the focal length of the liquid lens can be varied. In the liquid prism chamber, a navigation sheet is just placed on the position of the liquid-liquid interface. When the liquid prism chamber is applied with voltage, the navigation sheet can be tilted to different angles in order to adjust the beam steering angle and keep high beam quality. Thereby, the MO lens has the zoom lens and the beam steering functions. The experiments show that the focal length can be tuned from -180 mm to -∞ and +∞ to 161 mm and the maximum beam tilt angle can be adjusted from 0° to 22.8° when the voltage is applied on one side of the electrode. The proposed MO lens can be applied in zoom imaging system, laser detecting system, and lighting system.
Abstract
Integral imaging is a promising three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that captures and reconstructs light field information. Microlens arrays are usually used for the reconstruction ...process to display 3D scenes to the viewer. However, the inherent chromatic aberration of the microlens array reduces the viewing quality, and thus, broadband achromatic imaging remains a challenge for integral imaging. Here, we realize a silicon nitride metalens array in the visible region that can be used to reconstruct 3D optical scenes in the achromatic integral imaging for white light. The metalens array contains 60 × 60 polarization-insensitive metalenses with nearly diffraction-limited focusing. The nanoposts in each high-efficiency (measured as 47% on average) metalens are delicately designed with zero effective material dispersion and an effective achromatic refractive index distribution from 430 to 780 nm. In addition, such an achromatic metalens array is composed of only a single silicon nitride layer with an ultrathin thickness of 400 nm, making the array suitable for on-chip hybrid-CMOS integration and the parallel manipulation of optoelectronic information. We expect these findings to provide possibilities for full-color and aberration-free integral imaging, and we envision that the proposed approach may be potentially applicable in the fields of high-power microlithography, high-precision wavefront sensors, virtual/augmented reality and 3D imaging.
We have developed an electrolysis approach that allows effective and uniform incorporation of sulfur inside the micropores of carbon nanosheets for advanced lithium–sulfur batteries. The ...sulfur–carbon hybrid can be prepared with a 70 wt % sulfur loading, in which no nonconductive sulfur agglomerations are formed. Because the incorporated sulfur is electrically connected to the carbon matrix in nature, the hybrid cathode shows excellent electrochemical performance, including a high reversible capacity, good rate capability, and good cycling stability, as compared to one prepared using the popular melt-diffusion method.
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