Two-dimensional hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites (2D-HOIPs) that form natural multiple quantum wells have attracted increased research interest due to their interesting physics and potential ...applications in optoelectronic devices. Recent studies have shown that spintronics applications can also be introduced to 2D-HOIPs upon integrating chiral organic ligands into the organic layers. Here we report spin-dependent photovoltaic and photogalvanic responses of optoelectronic devices based on chiral 2D-HOIPs, namely, (R-MBA)2PbI4 and (S-MBA)2PbI4. The out-of-plane photocurrent response in vertical photovoltaic devices exhibits ∼10% difference upon right and left circularly polarized light (CPL) excitation, which originates from selective spin transport through the chiral multilayers. In contrast, the in-plane photocurrent response generated by CPL excitation of planar photoconductive devices shows a typical response of chirality-induced circular photogalvanic effect that originates from the Rashba splitting in the electronic bands of these compounds. Our studies may lead to potential applications of chiral 2D-HOIPs in optoelectronic devices that are sensitive to the light helicity.
Recently the hybrid organic-inorganic trihalide perovskites have shown remarkable performance as active layers in photovoltaic and other optoelectronic devices. However, their spin characteristic ...properties have not been fully studied, although due to the relatively large spin-orbit coupling these materials may show great promise for spintronic applications. Here we demonstrate spin-polarized carrier injection into methylammonium lead bromide films from metallic ferromagnetic electrodes in two spintronic-based devices: a 'spin light emitting diode' that results in circularly polarized electroluminescence emission; and a 'vertical spin valve' that shows giant magnetoresistance. In addition, we also apply a magnetic field perpendicular to the injected spins orientation for measuring the 'Hanle effect', from which we obtain a relatively long spin lifetime for the electrically injected carriers. Our measurements initiate the field of hybrid perovskites spin-related optoelectronic applications.
As the challenge of mental health problems such as anxiety and depression increasing today, more convenient, objective, real-time assessing techniques of mental state are in need. The Microsoft ...Kinect camera is a possible option for contactlessly capturing human gait, which could reflect the walkers' mental state. So we tried to propose a novel method for monitoring individual's anxiety and depression based on the Kinect-recorded gait pattern. In this study, after finishing the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), 179 participants were required to walked on the footpath naturally while shot by the Kinect cameras. Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) were conducted to extract features from the Kinect-captured gait data after preprocessing, and different machine learning algorithms were used to train the regression models recognizing anxiety and depression levels, and the classification models detecting the cases with specific depressive symptoms. The predictive accuracies of the regression models achieved medium to large level: The correlation coefficient between predicted and questionnaire scores reached 0.51 on anxiety (by epsilon-Support Vector Regression, e-SVR) and 0.51 on depression (by Gaussian Processes, GP). The predictive accuracies could be even higher, 0.74 on anxiety (by GP) and 0.64 on depression (by GP), while training and testing the models on the female sample. The classification models also showed effectiveness on detecting the cases with some symptoms. These results demonstrate the possibility to recognize individual's questionnaire measured anxiety/depression levels and some depressive symptoms based on Kinect-recorded gait data through machine learning method. This approach shows the potential to develop non-intrusive, low-cost methods for monitoring individuals' mental health in real time.
Hypercontractility of the cardiac sarcomere may be essential for the underlying pathological hypertrophy and fibrosis in genetic hypertrophic cardiomyopathies. Aficamten (CK-274) is a novel cardiac ...myosin inhibitor that was discovered from the optimization of indoline compound 1. The important advancement of the optimization was discovery of an Indane analogue (12) with a less restrictive structure–activity relationship that allowed for the rapid improvement of drug-like properties. Aficamten was designed to provide a predicted human half-life (t 1/2) appropriate for once a day (qd) dosing, to reach steady state within two weeks, to have no substantial cytochrome P450 induction or inhibition, and to have a wide therapeutic window in vivo with a clear pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship. In a phase I clinical trial, aficamten demonstrated a human t 1/2 similar to predictions and was able to reach steady state concentration within the desired two-week window.
Separating digestive and urinary outlets is a critical step during mammalian embryogenesis. However, the natural history of these structures is poorly studied, and little is known about their ...embryonic origin. Here, we show that peri-cloacal mesenchymal (PCM) progenitors are the major source of these structures. Surprisingly, PCM progenitors also contribute to perineum, a structural barrier separating the urinary and digestive tracts, suggesting a potential role of PCM progenitors in establishing independent urinary and digestive outlets. We demonstrate that Six1 and Six2 are complementarily but asymmetrically expressed in the PCM progenitors. Deletion of these genes results in decreased cell survival and proliferation, and consequently in agenesis of the perineum and severe hypoplasia of the genital tubercle. Together, these findings suggest that PCM progenitors are the unexpected source of perineum and genital tubercle, and establish a basic framework for investigating normal and abnormal development of anorectal and genitourinary structures.
Health authorities in the United States and Europe reported an increasing number of travel-associated episodes of sexual transmission of Zika virus (ZIKV) following the 2015-2017 ZIKV outbreak. This, ...and other scientific evidence, suggests that ZIKV is sexually transmissible in addition to having its primary mosquito-borne route. The objective of this systematic review and evidence synthesis was to clarify the epidemiology of sexually transmitted ZIKV.
We performed a living (i.e., continually updated) systematic review of evidence published up to 15 April 2018 about sexual transmission of ZIKV and other arthropod-borne flaviviruses in humans and other animals. We defined 7 key elements of ZIKV sexual transmission for which we extracted data: (1) rectal and vaginal susceptibility to infection, (2) incubation period following sexual transmission, (3) serial interval between the onset of symptoms in a primary and secondary infected individuals, (4) duration of infectiousness, (5) reproduction number, (6) probability of transmission per sex act, and (7) transmission rate. We identified 1,227 unique publications and included 128, of which 77 presented data on humans and 51 presented data on animals. Laboratory experiments confirm that rectal and vaginal mucosae are susceptible to infection with ZIKV and that the testis serves as a reservoir for the virus in animal models. Sexual transmission was reported in 36 human couples: 34/36 of these involved male-to-female sexual transmission. The median serial symptom onset interval in 15 couples was 12 days (interquartile range: 10-14.5); the maximum was 44 days. We found evidence from 2 prospective cohorts that ZIKV RNA is present in human semen with a median duration of 34 days (95% CI: 28-41 days) and 35 days (no CI given) (low certainty of evidence, according to GRADE). Aggregated data about detection of ZIKV RNA from 37 case reports and case series indicate a median duration of detection of ZIKV of 40 days (95% CI: 30-49 days) and maximum duration of 370 days in semen. In human vaginal fluid, median duration was 14 days (95% CI: 7-20 days) and maximum duration was 37 days (very low certainty). Infectious virus in human semen was detected for a median duration of 12 days (95% CI: 1-21 days) and maximum of 69 days. Modelling studies indicate that the reproduction number is below 1 (very low certainty). Evidence was lacking to estimate the incubation period or the transmission rate. Evidence on sexual transmission of other flaviviruses was scarce. The certainty of the evidence is limited because of uncontrolled residual bias.
The living systematic review and sexual transmission framework allowed us to assess evidence about the risk of sexual transmission of ZIKV. ZIKV is more likely transmitted from men to women than from women to men. For other flaviviruses, evidence of sexual transmissibility is still absent. Taking into account all available data about the duration of detection of ZIKV in culture and from the serial interval, our findings suggest that the infectious period for sexual transmission of ZIKV is shorter than estimates from the earliest post-outbreak studies, which were based on reverse transcription PCR alone.
Chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) occurs when the chirality of the transporting medium selects one of the two spin ½ states to transport through the media while blocking the other. Monolayers of ...chiral organic molecules demonstrate CISS but are limited in their efficiency and utility by the requirement of a monolayer to preserve the spin selectivity. We demonstrate CISS in a system that integrates an inorganic framework with a chiral organic sublattice inducing chirality to the hybrid system. Using magnetic conductive-probe atomic force microscopy, we find that oriented chiral 2D-layered Pb-iodide organic/inorganic hybrid perovskite systems exhibit CISS. Electron transport through the perovskite films depends on the magnetization of the probe tip and the handedness of the chiral molecule. The films achieve a highest spin-polarization transport of up to 86%. Magnetoresistance studies in modified spin-valve devices having only one ferromagnet electrode confirm the occurrence of spin-dependent charge transport through the organic/inorganic layers.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown mixed results for depression treatment. The efficacies of tDCS combination therapies have not been investigated deliberately. This review aims ...to evaluate the clinical efficacy of tDCS as a monotherapy and in combination with medication, psychotherapy, and ECT for treating adult patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and identified the factors influencing treatment outcome measures (i.e. depression score, dropout, response, and remission rates).
The systematic review was performed in PubMed/Medline, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Sciences, and OpenGrey. Two authors performed independent literature screening and data extraction. The primary outcomes were the standardized mean difference (SMD) for continuous depression scores after treatment and odds ratio (OR) dropout rate; secondary outcomes included ORs for response and remission rates. Random effects models with 95% confidence intervals were employed in all outcomes. The overall effect of tDCS was investigated by meta-analysis. Sources of heterogeneity were explored via subgroup analyses, meta-regression, sensitivity analyses, and assessment of publication bias.
Twelve randomised, sham-controlled trials (active group: N = 251, sham group: N = 204) were included. Overall, the integrated depression score of the active group after treatment was significantly lower than that of the sham group (g = - 0.442, p = 0.017), and further analysis showed that only tDCS + medication achieved a significant lower score (g = - 0.855, p < 0.001). Moreover, this combination achieved a significantly higher response rate than sham intervention (OR = 2.7, p = 0.006), while the response rate remained unchanged for the other three therapies. Dropout and remission rates were similar in the active and sham groups for each therapy and also for the overall intervention. The meta-regression results showed that current intensity is the only predictor for the response rate. None of publication bias was identified.
The effect size of tDCS treatment was obviously larger in depression score compared with sham stimulation. The tDCS combined selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors is the optimized therapy that is effective on depression score and response rate. tDCS monotherapy and combined psychotherapy have no significant effects. The most important parameter for optimization in future trials is treatment strategy.
While depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting more than 300 million people across the world, it is often left undiagnosed. This paper investigated the association between ...depression and gait characteristics with the aim to assist in diagnosing depression. Our dataset consisted of 121 healthy people and 126 patients with depression who diagnosed by psychiatrists according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Spatiotemporal, temporal-domain, and frequency-domain features were extracted based on the walking data of 247 participants recorded by Microsoft Kinect (Version 2). Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the variance of spatiotemporal (12.55%), time-domain (58.36%), and frequency-domain features (60.71%) on recognizing depression based on Nagelkerke's
R
2
measure, respectively. The contributions of the different types of features were further explored by building machine learning models by using support vector machine algorithm. All the combinations of the three types of gait features were used as training data of machine learning models, respectively. The results showed that the model trained using only time- and frequency-domain features demonstrated the same best performance compared to the model trained using all the features (sensitivity = 0.94, specificity = 0.91, and AUC = 0.93). These results indicated that depression could be effectively recognized through gait analysis. This approach is a step forward toward developing low-cost, non-intrusive solutions for real-time depression recognition.
In plant-microbe interactions, plant sugars produced by photosynthesis are not only a carbon source for pathogens, but may also act as signals that modulate plant defense responses. Here, we report ...that decreasing sorbitol synthesis in apple (Malus domestica) leaves by antisense suppression of ALDOSE-6-PHOSPHATE REDUCTASE (A6PR) leads to downregulation of 56 NUCLEOTIDE BINDING/LEUCINE-RICH REPEAT(NLR) genes and converts the phenotypic response to Alternaria alternata from resistant to susceptible. We identified a resistance protein encoded by the apple MdNLR16 gene and a small protein encoded by the fungal HRIP1 gene that interact in both a yeast two-hybrid assay and a bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay. Deletion of HRIP1 in A. alternata enables gain of virulence on the wild-type control plant. Overexpression of MdNLR16 in two antisense A6PR lines increases resistance, whereas RNAi suppression of MdNLR16 in the wild-type control decreases resistance against A. alternata. MdWRKY79 transcriptionally regulates MdNLR16 by binding to the promoter of MdNLR16 in response to sorbitol, and exogenous sorbitol feeding partially restores resistance of the antisense A6PR lines to A. alternata. These findings indicate that sorbitol modulates resistance to A. alternata via the MdNLR16 protein that interacts with the fungal effector in a classic gene-for-gene manner in apple.
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