A single‐junction polymer solar cell with an efficiency of 10.1% is demonstrated by using deterministic aperiodic nanostructures for broadband light harvesting with optimum charge extraction. The ...performance enhancement is ascribed to the self‐enhanced absorption due to collective effects, including pattern‐induced anti‐reflection and light scattering, as well as surface plasmonic resonance, together with a minimized recombination probability.
The challenges of developing neuromorphic vision systems inspired by the human eye come not only from how to recreate the flexibility, sophistication, and adaptability of animal systems, but also how ...to do so with computational efficiency and elegance. Similar to biological systems, these neuromorphic circuits integrate functions of image sensing, memory and processing into the device, and process continuous analog brightness signal in real-time. High-integration, flexibility and ultra-sensitivity are essential for practical artificial vision systems that attempt to emulate biological processing. Here, we present a flexible optoelectronic sensor array of 1024 pixels using a combination of carbon nanotubes and perovskite quantum dots as active materials for an efficient neuromorphic vision system. The device has an extraordinary sensitivity to light with a responsivity of 5.1 × 10
A/W and a specific detectivity of 2 × 10
Jones, and demonstrates neuromorphic reinforcement learning by training the sensor array with a weak light pulse of 1 μW/cm
.
Summary
Plant roots secrete a significant portion of their assimilated carbon into the rhizosphere. The putative sugar transporter SWEET2 is highly expressed in Arabidopsis roots. Expression patterns ...of SWEET2–β‐glucuronidase fusions confirmed that SWEET2 accumulates highly in root cells and thus may contribute to sugar secretion, specifically from epidermal cells of the root apex. SWEET2–green fluorescent protein fusions localized to the tonoplast, which engulfs the major sugar storage compartment. Functional analysis of SWEET2 activity in yeast showed low uptake activity for the glucose analog 2‐deoxyglucose, consistent with a role in the transport of glucose across the tonoplast. Loss‐of‐function sweet2 mutants showed reduced tolerance to excess glucose, lower glucose accumulation in leaves, and 15–25% higher glucose‐derived carbon efflux from roots, suggesting that SWEET2 has a role in preventing the loss of sugar from root tissue. SWEET2 root expression was induced more than 10‐fold during Pythium infection. Importantly, sweet2 mutants were more susceptible to the oomycete, showing impaired growth after infection. We propose that root‐expressed vacuolar SWEET2 modulates sugar secretion, possibly by reducing the availability of glucose sequestered in the vacuole, thereby limiting carbon loss to the rhizosphere. Moreover, the reduced availability of sugar in the rhizosphere due to SWEET2 activity contributes to resistance to Pythium.
Significance Statement
Sugar efflux from plant roots accounts for significant carbon loss but may benefit interactions with microbiota. The vacuolar sugar transporter SWEET2 facilitates retention of glucose, thereby limiting sugar efflux from roots, and in turn contributes to resistance to rhizospheric pathogens.
Summary
Abiotic stresses affect plant growth and development by causing cellular damage and/or restricting resources. Plants often respond to stresses through abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. Exogenous ...ABA application can therefore be used to mimic stress responses, which can be overridden by glucose (Glc) addition during seed germination. It remains unclear whether ABA‐mediated germination inhibition is due to regional or global suppression of Glc availability in germinating Arabidopsis seeds.
We used a genetically engineered Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) sensor to ascertain whether ABA affects the spatiotemporal distribution of Glc, 14C‐Glc uptake assays to track potential effects of ABA on sugar import, and transcriptome and mutant analyses to identify genes associated with Glc availability that are involved in ABA‐inhibited seed germination.
Abscisic acid limits Glc in the hypocotyl largely by suppressing sugar allocation as well as altering sugar metabolism. Mutant plants carrying loss‐of‐function ABA‐inducible sucrose‐phosphate synthase (SPS) genes accumulated more Glc, leading to ABA‐insensitive germination. We reveal that Glc antagonizes ABA by globally counteracting the ABA influence at the transcript level, including expansin (EXP) family genes suppressed by ABA.
This study presents a new perspective on how ABA affects Glc distribution, which likely reflects what occurs when seeds are subjected to abiotic stresses such as drought and salt stress.
Overexpression of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been observed in various cancers, which indicates that H19 exert important roles in the progression of carcinogenesis. MiR‐326 has been reported ...to play tumor suppressive roles in multiple tumors. Recently, the competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) hypothesis has implied that lncRNAs might function as molecular sponges for microRNAs in various cancers. However, the roles of H19/miR‐326 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) still remain unclear. The aim of our study was to determine H19/miR‐326 expression in HCC cells and investigate their roles in HCC development. We found that H19 was significantly elevated and miR‐326 was decreased in HCC cells including Hep3B, HepG2, MHCC‐97L, SK‐hep1, Hun7, SMCC‐7721 compared with LO2 cells, respectively. In the subsequent experiments, we observed that inhibition of H19 can repress HCC cell growth, migration, and invasion in vitro. H19 downregulation can increase miR‐326 expression in HCC cells. Meanwhile, miR‐326 mimics can also inhibit HCC progression, whereas miR‐326 inhibitors exhibited a reverse phenomenon by modulating H19 expression. In addition, a negative association between H19 and miR‐326 was predicted and confirmed. Furthermore, the transcription factor TWIST1 has been recognized as a significant regulator in tumor progression. Here, by performing bioinformatics analysis, TWIST1 was identified as a downstream target of miR‐326. The findings of our study implied that lncRNA H19 can serve as a ceRNA to sponge miR‐326 and modulate TWIST1 levels in HCC pathogenesis. Taken these together, these findings indicated that H19/miR‐326/TWIST1 axis was involved in HCC development and can indicate a novel HCC target.
We observed that H19 was elevated and miR‐326 was decreased in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. TWIST1 was found to be upregulated in HCC cells and it can serve as a direct target of miR‐326. In conclusion, we indicated that H19/miR‐326/TWIST1 axis was involved in HCC and it can provide a new insight in to HCC pathogenesis.
Neutrophils are powerful effector leukocytes that play an important role in innate immune systems for opposing tumor progression and ameliorating pathogen infections. Inspired by their distinct ...functions against tumors and infections, the artificial “super neutrophils” are proposed with excellent inflammation targeting and hypochlorous acid (HClO) generation characteristics for targeting and eliminating malignant tumor cells and pathogens. The “super neutrophils” are fabricated by embedding glucose oxidase (GOx) and chloroperoxidase (CPO) into zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) for HClO generation via enzymatic cascades, and then encapsulating them with the neutrophil membrane (NM) for inflammation targeting. In vitro and in vivo results indicate that these artificial “super neutrophils” can generate seven times higher reactive HClO than the natural neutrophils for eradicating tumors and infections. The “super neutrophils” demonstrated here with easy fabrication and good neutrophil‐mimicking property exhibit great potential for biomedical applications.
Artificial “super neutrophils” (GCZM) are designed to simulate the inflammation targeting and HClO generation functions of natural neutrophils. GCZM can accumulate in inflammation sites and exhibit high efficacy to generate highly toxic HClO for complete tumor and pathogen elimination.
Highly power‐efficient white organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs) are still challenging to make for applications in high‐quality displays and general lighting due to optical confinement and energy ...loss during electron‐photon conversion. Here, an efficient white OLED structure is shown that combines deterministic aperiodic nanostructures for broadband quasi‐omnidirectional light extraction and a multilayer energy cascade structure for energy‐efficient photon generation. The external quantum efficiency and power efficiency are raised to 54.6% and 123.4 lm W−1 at 1000 cd m−2. An extremely small roll‐off in efficiency at high luminance is also obtained, yielding a striking value of 106.5 lm W−1 at 5000 cd m−2. In addition to a substantial increase in efficiency, this device structure simultaneously offers the superiority of angular color stability over the visible wavelength range compared to conventional OLEDs. It is anticipated that these findings could open up new opportunities to promote white OLEDs for commercial applications.
Highly efficient, white, organic light‐emitting diodes are achieved by combining deterministic aperiodic nanostructures for broadband light extraction with a multilayer energy cascade structure for energy‐efficient photon generation. This results in light‐emitting diodes with a record power efficiency of 123.4 lm W−1 at 1000 cd m−2 with superior color stability and extremely small efficiency roll‐off.
During the last decade, peptide‐based nanomaterials are recognized as upcoming biomedical materials for tumor imaging and therapy. The rapid expansion of peptides and peptide derivatives is almost ...owing to their excellent biocompatibility, diverse bioactivity, potential biodegradability, specific biological recognition ability, and easy chemical modification characteristic. The present review outlines the development up to now concerning the design and biomedical applications of peptide‐based multifunctional nanomaterials, with an emphasis on their variegated therapeutic methods.
Peptide‐based multifunctional nanomaterials are promising for tumor diagnosis and therapy. This review is divided into three parts based on the major functions of peptides, and developments concerning the design and biomedical applications of peptide‐based multifunctional nanomaterials are discussed.
•Thermal property of coal during pyrolysis, oxidation, and re-oxidation was studied.•Stage characteristic of thermophysics parameters during oxidation was found.•The differences of thermal property ...between oxidized and fresh coal were analyzed.•The sensitivity of thermophysics parameters to temperature was investigated.
During heat transfer in coal, the thermal properties parameters (thermal diffusivity, specific heat capacity, and thermal conductivity) play a key role. The thermal properties of coal during pyrolysis, oxidation, and re-oxidation were investigated by laser-flash apparatus LFA457 from 30 to 300°C. Thermogravimetric (TG) experiments were conducted to analyze the variation of coal mass. The results showed that during oxidation, the thermal properties of coal presented stage characteristics. As temperature increased, the thermal diffusivity decreased first and then increased; the specific heat capacity rose first and then performed steadily; the thermal conductivity presented a slow increment first and then rapidly grew. During pyrolysis and re-oxidation, the thermal diffusivity decreased as temperature increased, while the specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity increased. The thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity during re-oxidation were higher than those during primary oxidation, while the specific heat capacity was lower. Meanwhile, the sensitivity of thermal diffusivity to temperature during re-oxidation decreased, while the sensitivity of thermal conductivity increased compared with that during pyrolysis and oxidation. The results are meaningful for an understanding of heat transfer in coal seam during spontaneous combustion of coal and fire spread.
Galactose is an abundant and essential sugar used for the biosynthesis of many macromolecules in different organisms, including plants. Galactose metabolism is tightly and finely controlled, since ...excess galactose and its derivatives are inhibitory to plant growth. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), root growth and pollen germination are strongly inhibited by excess galactose. However, the mechanism of galactose-induced inhibition during pollen germination remains obscure. In this study, we characterized a plasma membrane-localized transporter, Arabidopsis Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter 5, that transports glucose and galactose. SWEET5 protein levels started to accumulate at the tricellular stage of pollen development and peaked in mature pollen, before rapidly declining after pollen germinated. SWEET5 levels are responsible for the dosage-dependent sensitivity to galactose, and galactokinase is essential for these inhibitory effects during pollen germination. However, sugar measurement results indicate that galactose flux dynamics and sugar metabolism, rather than the steady-state galactose level, may explain phenotypic differences between sweet5 and Col-0 in galactose inhibition of pollen germination.
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