In planar heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs), broad spectral coverage can be realized by incorporating multiple molecular absorbers in an energy-cascade architecture. Here, this ...approach is combined with a host–guest donor layer architecture previously shown to optimize exciton transport for the fluorescent organic semiconductor boron subphthalocyanine chloride (SubPc) when diluted in an optically transparent host. In order to maximize the absorption efficiency, energy-cascade OPVs that utilize both photoactive host and guest donor materials are examined using the pairing of SubPc and boron subnaphthalocyanine chloride (SubNc), respectively. In a planar heterojunction architecture, excitons generated on the SubPc host rapidly energy transfer to the SubNc guest, where they may migrate toward the dissociating, donor–acceptor interface. Overall, the incorporation of a photoactive host leads to a 13% enhancement in the short-circuit current density and a 20% enhancement in the power conversion efficiency relative to an optimized host–guest OPV combining SubNc with a nonabsorbing host. This work underscores the potential for further design refinements in planar heterojunction OPVs and demonstrates progress toward the effective separation of functionality between constituent OPV materials.
During the development of a new beam current and position display system, the quality of the signals and the convenience of the display have been of most importance. The quiality of the signals from ...the ferriteloaded toroids and solenoids has been improved by careful noise shielding from modulator and beam return currents, and by steps taken against beam-induced microwave signals. The beam display is a set of edgewise meters showing beam current and position along the linac: logarithmic scales for current and variable gain amuplifiers for the position channels allow convenient use of the system.
Background
Lower urinary tract symptoms occur in 27% to 86% of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), however, the mechanisms responsible for bladder dysfunction are not fully understood. This study ...utilized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the hypothesis that key brainstem bladder control areas (including the pontine micturition center and the pontine continence center (PCC) and their links with the basal ganglia are important in the development of urinary storage symptoms in PD.
Methods
Seventeen patients with PD completed a “bladder symptom questionnaire” and underwent diffusion‐weighted MRI (1.5 T). Storage symptom severity and MRI measures of white matter microstructural integrity were correlated using tract‐based spatial statistics.
Results
Mean diffusivity in the ventral brainstem correlated significantly with the bladder symptom severity in areas close to the predicted anatomical co‐ordinates of the PCC. Tracts seeded from these regions passed via areas involved in pelvic floor musculature control and urinary voiding including the cerebellum, pallidum, and precentral gyrus.
Conclusion
We used diffusion‐weighted MRI to investigate the role of the brainstem and its structural connections in the development of urinary storage symptoms in PD. Our data suggest that the brainstem degenerative change in the vicinity of the PCC may be implicated in the pathogenesis of storage symptoms in these patients.
Plants use autophagy to safeguard against infectious diseases. However, how plant pathogens interfere with autophagy-related processes is unknown. Here, we show that PexRD54, an effector from the ...Irish potato famine pathogen Phytophthora infestans, binds host autophagy protein ATG8CL to stimulate autophagosome formation. PexRD54 depletes the autophagy cargo receptor Joka2 out of ATG8CL complexes and interferes with Joka2's positive effect on pathogen defense. Thus, a plant pathogen effector has evolved to antagonize a host autophagy cargo receptor to counteract host defenses.
A severe and challenging complication in the treatment of hemophilia A is the development of inhibiting antibodies (inhibitors) directed towards factor VIII (FVIII). Inhibitors aggravate bleeding ...complications, disabilities and costs. The etiology of inhibitor development is incompletely understood.
In a large cohort study in patients with mild/moderate hemophilia A we evaluated the role of genotype and intensive FVIII exposure in inhibitor development.
Longitudinal clinical data from 138 mild/moderate hemophilia A patients were retrospectively collected from 1 January 1980 to 1 January 2008 and analyzed by multivariate analysis using Poisson regression.
Genotyping demonstrated the Arg593Cys missense mutation in 52 (38%) patients; the remaining 86 patients had 26 other missense mutations. Sixty-three (46%) patients received intensive FVIII concentrate administration, 41 of them for surgery. Ten patients (7%) developed inhibitors, eight of them carrying the Arg593Cys mutation. Compared with the other patients, those with the Arg593Cys mutation had a 10-fold increased risk of developing inhibitors (RR 10; 95% CI, 0.9-119).The other two inhibitor patients had the newly detected mutations Pro1761Gln and Glu2228Asp. In both these patients and in five patients with genotype Arg593Cys, inhibitors developed after intensive peri-operative use of FVIII concentrate (RR 186; 95% CI, 25-1403). In five of the 10 inhibitor patients FVIII was administered by continuous infusion during surgery (RR 13; 95% CI, 1.9-86).
The Arg593Cys genotype and intensive peri-operative use of FVIII, especially when administered by continuous infusion, are associated with an increased risk for inhibitor development in mild/moderate hemophilia A.
Many of the world’s most devastating crop diseases are caused by fungal pathogens that elaborate specialized infection structures to invade plant tissue. Here, we present a quantitative ...mass-spectrometry-based phosphoproteomic analysis of infection-related development by the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which threatens global food security. We mapped 8,005 phosphosites on 2,062 fungal proteins following germination on a hydrophobic surface, revealing major re-wiring of phosphorylation-based signaling cascades during appressorium development. Comparing phosphosite conservation across 41 fungal species reveals phosphorylation signatures specifically associated with biotrophic and hemibiotrophic fungal infection. We then used parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) to identify phosphoproteins regulated by the fungal Pmk1 MAPK that controls plant infection by M. oryzae. We define 32 substrates of Pmk1 and show that Pmk1-dependent phosphorylation of regulator Vts1 is required for rice blast disease. Defining the phosphorylation landscape of infection therefore identifies potential therapeutic interventions for the control of plant diseases.
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•Phosphoproteomic landscape of infection-related development by a plant pathogenic fungus•Conserved phosphorylation mapped in 41 fungal species with distinct pathogenic lifestyles•Thirty-two substrates of Pmk1 identified•Developmental regulator Vts1 requires phosphorylation by Pmk1 for its virulence activity
A comprehensive phosphoproteomic analysis of infection-related development by a pathogenic fungus that aims to characterize cellular signaling during plant infection to inform future disease control.
Fast synchrotron-based X-ray microtomography was used to image the injection of super-critical
CO
2
under subsurface conditions into a brine-saturated carbonate sample at the pore-scale with a voxel ...size of
3.64
μ
m
and a temporal resolution of 45 s. Capillary pressure was measured from the images by finding the curvature of terminal menisci of both connected and disconnected
CO
2
clusters. We provide an analysis of three individual dynamic drainage events at elevated temperatures and pressures on the tens of seconds timescale, showing non-local interface recession due to capillary pressure change, and both local and distal (non-local) snap-off. The measured capillary pressure change is not sufficient to explain snap-off in this system, as the disconnected
CO
2
has a much lower capillary pressure than the connected
CO
2
both before and after the event. Disconnected regions instead preserve extremely low dynamic capillary pressures generated during the event. Snap-off due to these dynamic effects is not only controlled by the pore topography and throat radius, but also by the local fluid arrangement. Whereas disconnected fluid configurations produced by local snap-off were rapidly reconnected with the connected
CO
2
region, distal snap-off produced much more long-lasting fluid configurations, showing that dynamic forces can have a persistent impact on the pattern and sequence of drainage events.
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