Recently, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted widespread attention due to their outstanding advantages. Hole-transport-material-free carbon-based PSCs (C-PSCs) are some of the most potential ...devices. However, intrinsically inferior contact at perovskite/carbon interfaces and low conductivity of carbon electrode are restricting the commercial application of C-PSCs. In this study, an N, O co-doped biomass porous composite carbon electrode based on KOH-activated soybean dregs carbon, conductive carbon black and polymethylmethacrylate—N-KSDC—is prepared via a spraying method to efficiently improve perovskite/carbon interface qualities as well as enhance the efficiency and stability of C-PSCs. The results showed that the best power conversion efficiencies of N-KSDC-based C-PSCs with an active area of 0.08 and 1 cm2 were 13.45% and 11.08%, respectively. In addition, unencapsulated PSCs retained 92% of their initial power conversion efficiencies under ambient conditions without intentionally controlling humidity for 62 days. In this study, we propose a feasible and effective strategy to improve the performance and stability of perovskite/carbon interfaces in C-PSCs.
Display omitted
•An N, O co-doped biomass porous composite carbon electrode was prepared.•PMMA was used to improve adhesion and passivate to the perovskite film.•Spraying method effectively improved the interface quality.•The PCE of up to 13.45% (0.08 cm2) and 11.08% (1 cm2) were achieved.•The prepared C-PSCs had excellent long-term stability.
Abstract
Aim
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is common in different human pathologies, including cardiac diseases. Sphingosine kinase‐1 (SPHK1) represents an important player in cardiac growth and ...function. Nevertheless, its function in cardiomyocyte ER stress remains vague. This study sought to evaluate the mechanism through which SPHK1 might influence ER stress during myocardial infarction (MI).
Methods
MI‐related GEO data sets were queried to screen differentially expressed genes. Murine HL‐1 cells exposed to oxygen‐glucose deprivation (OGD) and mice with MI were induced, followed by gene expression manipulation using short hairpin RNAs and overexpression vectors. The activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) and SPHK1 expression was examined in cells and tissues. Cell counting kit‐8, TUNEL, DHE, HE, and Masson's staining were conducted in vitro and in vivo. The inflammatory factor concentrations in mouse serum were measured using ELISA. Finally, the transcriptional regulation of SPHK1 by ATF3 was validated.
Results
ATF3 and SPHK1 were upregulated in vivo and in vitro. ATF3 downregulation reduced the SPHK1 transcription. ATF3 and SPHK1 downregulation increased the viability of OGD‐treated HL‐1 cells and decreased apoptosis, oxidative stress, and ER stress. ATF3 and SPHK1 downregulation narrowed the infarction area and attenuated myocardial fibrosis in mice, along with reduced inflammation in the serum and ER stress in the myocardium. In contrast, SPHK1 reduced the protective effect of ATF3 downregulation in vitro and in vivo.
Conclusions
ATF3 downregulation reduced SPHK1 expression to attenuate cardiomyocyte injury in MI.
Total flavonoids of Rhizoma Drynariae (TFRD), extracted from the kidney-tonifying traditional Chinese medicine Rhizoma Rrynariae, has been proved to be effective in treating osteoporosis, bone ...fractures and defects. However, pharmacological effects of TFRD on type H vessels, angiogenic-osteogenic coupling in distraction osteogenesis (DO) and the mechanism remain unclear. This study aims at investigating whether type H vessels exist in the DO model, effects of TFRD on angiogenic-osteogenic coupling and further elucidating the underlying mechanism.
Rats models of DO and bone fracture (FR) were established, and then were separately divided into TFRD and control subgroups. Imageological and histological analyses were performed to assess bone and vessel formation. Immunofluorescent staining of CD31 and endomucin (Emcn) was conducted to determine type H vessel formation. Matrigel tube formation, ALP and Alizarin Red S staining assays were performed to test the effects of TFRD on angiogenesis or osteogenesis of endothelial precursor cells (EPCs) or bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Additionally, expression levels of HIF-1α, VEGF, PDGF-BB, RUNX2 and OSX were determined by ELISA, qPCR or western blot, respectively.
The
results indicated more formed type H vessels in DO groups than in FR groups and TFRD obviously increased the abundance of type H vessels. Moreover, groups with higher abundance of type H vessels showed better angiogenesis and osteogenesis outcomes. Further
experiments showed that TFRD significantly promoted while blocking PDGF-BB remarkably suppressed the angiogenic activity of EPCs under stress conditions. The levels of
-AKT and
-ERK1/2, downstream mediators of the PDGF-BB pathway, were up-regulated by TFRD but blocked by function blocking anti-PDGF-BB antibody. In contrast, the activated AKT and ERK1/2 and corresponding tube formation were not affected by the HIF-1α inhibitor. Besides, blocking PDGF-BB inhibited the osteogenic differentiation of the stretched BMSCs, but TFRD enhanced the osteogenic activity of BMSCs and ameliorated the inhibition, with more calcium nodes, higher ALP activity and mRNA and protein levels of RUNX2 and OSX.
Type H vessels exist in the DO model and TFRD enhances angiogenic-osteogenic coupling during DO by promoting type H vessel formation via PDGF-BB/PDGFR-β instead of HIF-1α/VEGF axis.
Bone defects can be seen everywhere in the clinic, but it is still a challenge for clinicians. Bibliometrics tool CiteSpace is based on the principle of "co-citation analysis theory" to reveal new ...technologies, hotspots, and trends in the medical field. In this study, CiteSpace was used to perform co-citation analysis on authors, countries (regions) and institutions, journals and cited journals, authors and cited literature, as well as keywords to reveal leaders, cooperative institutions, and research hotspots of bone defects and predict development trends.
Data related to bone defect from 1994 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection; then, we use Excel to construct an exponential function to predict the number of annual publications; conduct a descriptive analysis on the top 10 journals with the largest number of publications; and perform co-citation analysis on authors, countries (regions) and institutions, journals and cited journals, authors and cited reference, and keywords using CiteSpace V5.5 and use the Burst Detection Algorithm to perform analysis on the countries (regions) and institutions and keywords, as well as cluster the keywords using log-likelihood ratio.
A total of 5193 studies were retrieved, and the number of annual publications of bone defects showed an exponential function Y = 1×10
(R
= 0.9778). The high-yield author was Choi Seong-Ho at Yonsei University in South Korea. The high-yielding countries were the USA and Germany, and the high-yielding institutions were the Sao Paulo University and China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences which were the emerging research countries and institutions. The research results were mainly published in the fields of dentistry, bone, and metabolism. Among them, the Journal of Dental Research and Journal of Bone and Mineral Research were high-quality journals that report bone defect research, but the most cited journal was the Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Hot keywords were regeneration, repair, in vitro, bone regeneration, reconstruction, and graft. The keywords that were strongly cited in 2010-2019 were transportation, osteogenic differentiation, proliferation, and biomaterials. After 2018, proliferation, osteogenic differentiation, stromal cells, transmission, and mechanical properties have become new vocabulary. The drug delivery, vascularization, osteogenic differentiation and biomaterial properties of bone defects were expected to be further studied.
The application of CiteSpace can reveal the leaders, cooperating institutions and research hotspots of bone defects and provide references for new technologies and further research directions.
This paper discusses using ground-based imagery to determine the attitude of a flying projectile assuming prior knowledge of its external geometry. It presents a segmentation-based approach to follow ...the object and evaluates it quantitatively with simulated data and qualitatively with both simulated and real data. Two experimental cases are considered: One assumes reliable target distance measurement from an auxiliary range sensor, while the other assumes no range information. The results show that in the case of an unknown projectile–camera distance, with projectile dimensions of 1.378 m and 0.08 m in length and diameter, the estimated distance, in-plane location, and pitch angle accuracies are about 50 m, 0.15 m, and 6 degrees, respectively. Yaw angle estimation is ambiguous. In the second case, assuming that the projectile–camera distance is known resolves the ambiguity of yaw estimation, resulting in accuracies of about 0.15 m, 3 degrees, and 20 degrees for in-plane location, pitch, and yaw angles, respectively. These accuracies were normalized to a 1-km projectile–camera distance.
Fulvestrant (ICI 182 780, ICI) has been used in treating patients with hormone-sensitive breast cancer, yet initial or acquired resistance to endocrine therapies frequently arises and, in particular, ...cancer recurs as metastasis. We demonstrate here that both 17-beta-estradiol (E2) and ICI enhance cell adhesion to matrigel in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, with increased autolysis of calpain 1 (large subunit) and proteolysis of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), indicating calpain activation. Additionally, either E2 or ICI induced down-regulation of estrogen receptor α without affecting G protein coupled estrogen receptor 30 (GPR30) expression. Interestingly, GPR30 agonist G1 triggered calpain 1 autolysis but not calpain 2, whereas ER agonist diethylstilbestrol caused no apparent calpain autolysis. Furthermore, the actions of E2 and ICI on calpain and cell adhesion were tremendously suppressed by G15, or knockdown of GPR30. E2 and ICI also induced phosphorylation of extracellular regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2), and suppression of ERK1/2 phosphorylation by U0126 profoundly impeded calpain activation triggered by estrogenic and antiestrogenic stimulations indicating implication of ERK1/2 in the GPR30-mediated action. Lastly, the E2- or ICI-induced cell adhesion was dramatically impaired by calpain-specific inhibitors, ALLN or calpeptin, suggesting requirement of calpain in the GPR30-associated action. These data show that enhanced cell adhesion by E2 and ICI occurs via a novel GPR30-ERK1/2-calpain pathway. Our results indicate that targeting the GPR30 signaling may be a potential strategy to reduce metastasis and improve the efficacy of antiestrogens in treatment of advanced breast cancer.
Display omitted
•Estrogen and ICI augment adhesion to matrigel with calpain activation in MCF-7 cells.•GPR30 mediates cell–matrigel adhesion and calpain activation via ERK1/2.•Calpain is required in the cell–matrigel adhesion induced by E2 and ICI.
Nata de coco, known as bacterial cellulose (BC), has been given much attention in the food industry and biomaterial areas due to its specific properties such as low calorie content, high content of ...fiber, high purity and high biocompatibility. Komagataeibacter spp. are indispensable microorganisms for BC production due to their highly efficient production. Here, proteomics was applied to investigate the metabolism regulation mechanisms of BC yield improvements in K. nataicola Y19 by 48 ± 3% after ethanol supplementation. The results evidenced that differentially expressed proteins involved in the BC biosynthesis system, glycolytic pathway, TCA cycle and oxidative phosphorylation process were up-regulated. The proteins accelerated the BC biosynthesis by providing more energy and via intermediate metabolites. Furthermore, the elongation factor Tu, chaperone DnaK and translocase subunit SecB may be involved in the BC synthesis procedure by regulating electron transfer, hydrolysis of ATP and protein transformation. Moreover, the ethanol-enhanced BC biosynthesis may be associated with the decreased expression of endoglucanase. This research elucidates the proteomics mechanism of higher BC production based on ethanol addition, providing references for nata de coco production efficiency and the synthetic regulation of bacterial cellulose in the future.
Although Pt/C has long been regarded as the most effective HER catalyst, the use of complicated water systems is challenged by high costs and contaminant interference. Therefore, it was shown in this ...paper that a low-cost perovskite oxide, SrCo0.7Fe0.3O3-δ(SCF-X, where X denotes annealing temperature), could be used in oil-field wastewater to promote electrochemical reactions for hydrogen production and that its catalytic activity can be impacted by calcination temperature. And, the outstanding catalytic activity of SCF-800 and 850 is primarily caused by crystal structure distortions and the presence of Co3+/Co4+ coupling pairs as a result of electron transfer between Co and Fe, which increases the concentration of reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, there is now more interest in SCF-850 due to its exceptional stability. In complicated systems, the current work provides a feasible route for perovskite catalysts to produce hydrogen.
Display omitted
•Perovskite oxides successfully catalyze the electrolytic hydrogen production from oilfield wastewater.•The catalytic activity of perovskite electrocatalysts is regulated by controlling the calcination temperature.•More oxygen vacancies in the lattice are beneficial to accelerate the reaction kinetics.
In order to explore the optimal culture conditions for adventitious bud regeneration of stem explants in Aoectochilus formosanus , the stem segments from the sterile seedlings were used as explants, ...and different concentrations of diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate (DA-6), kinetin (KT), Cu 2+ and glutamine (Gln) were separately added into MS medium containing 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BA) and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), and the induction rate and the induction multiple of adventitious buds were recorded and analyzed. The results showed that the regeneration of adventitious buds could be promoted, when 2 mg/L DA-6, 0.4 mg/L KT and 15 mg/L Gln were added in mediums. However, the effect of Cu 2+ on the regeneration of adventitious buds in A. formosanus was enhanced by low concentration and suppressed by high concentration, and the best concentration of Cu 2+ was 5 mg/L.
The carbon-based CsPbI2Br perovskite solar cells via tetrabutylammonium iodide surface passivation, which helps the cells achieve a champion efficiency of 12.29% and enhanced stability.
Display ...omitted
•All-inorganic C-PSCs were successfully prepared at lower temperature.•Improved the performance of CsPbI2Br PSCs through TBAI surface passivation.•All operations are carried out under atmospheric conditions.•The carbon-based HTM-free CsPbI2Br PSCs achieved a champion efficiency of 12.29%.•The device showed enhanced long-term air stability in ambient air.
All-inorganic carbon-based perovskite solar cells (C-PSCs) with CsPbI2Br as photosensitizer have attracted great attention due to their low cost, high efficiency, and good stability. However, the CsPbI2Br film prepared by the solution method usually has many defects, which reduces the charge extraction rate and photoelectric performance. In this paper, intermediate gradient annealing and antisolvent ethyl acetate treatment are combined to prepare CsPbI2Br films with good crystallinity and few voids. The surface of the obtained CsPbI2Br film is then treated using tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI), which can interact with the Pb-I framework to passivate defect states and extend the carrier lifetime. Finally, the champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the optimized C-PSCs with a structure of FTO/SnO2/CsPbI2Br/carbon electrode prepared in the air reach 12.29%. At the same time, TBAI molecules also effectively enhance the stability of the PSCs, and the unencapsulated device can still maintain 90% of the initial efficiency after 300 h of storage in an ambient air atmosphere with a relative humidity of 20%-30%. This work provides a simple and effective strategy for the preparation of cheap, high-performance, and stable all-inorganic C-PSCs under atmospheric conditions, and also increases the feasibility of PSCs commercialization.