V-shaped electron acceptor, BTP-2Br enables more effective in exciton dissociation at near zero HOMO-offset, over those of linear acceptor, SN6-2Br in organic solar cells with PBDT-TF polymer, herein ...yielding the power conversion efficiencies of 13.84 % with low voltage-loss of 0.46 V in opaque device, and efficiency of 9.62 % with an AVT of 20.1 % in semitransparent devices.
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The recent evolution of active components yielded brilliant progresses for organic solar cells (OSCs), yet the mechanism is needed to be clearly understood. In this work, two electron acceptors, a linear SN6-2Br and a V-shaped BTP-2Br, are developed with nitrogen atoms introduced to replace the traditional sp3-hybridized carbon in the fused ring. BTP-2Br possesses an electron-deficient central core, which exhibits slightly blue-shifted absorption as well as deepened HOMO-level compared with SN6-2Br. The corresponding photovoltaic performance from V-shaped BTP-2Br based devices exhibit superior performance especially in short-circuit current (Jsc), despite an enhanced absorption and charge carrier mobilities for SN6-2Br. The primary reason for the higher Jsc from BTP-2Br is faster exciton diffusion and dissociation in blends, than those of SN6-2Br. As a result, PBDB-TF:BTP-2Br based devices achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.84% with an voltage-loss of only 0.46 V, which is one of the lowest values ever reported. Moreover, we fabricated semitransparent OSCs that exhibit an excellent PCE of 9.62% with average visible transparency of 20.1%.
Ferredoxin-dependent glutamate synthase (Fd-GOGAT, EC 1.4.7.1) plays major roles in photorespiration and primary nitrogen assimilation. However, due to no mutant or knockdown lines of
OsFd-GOGAT
have ...been reported in rice (
Oryza sativa
L.), the contribution of OsFd-GOGAT to rice foliar nitrogen metabolism remains little up-to-date. Here, we isolated a rice premature leaf senescence mutant named
gogat1
, which was reduced in 67% of the total GOGAT enzyme activity in leaves. The
gogat1
mutant exhibited chlorosis under natural condition, while showed less extent premature leaf senescence under low light treatment. The
gogat1
locus was mapped to a 54.1 kb region on chromosome 7, and the sequencing of
OsFd-GOGAT
showed one substitution (A to T) at the 3017th nucleotide of the open reading frame, leading to the amino-acid substitution of leucine changed to histidine. The
gogat1
mutant showed reduced seed setting rate, while the grain protein content in
gogat1
mutant was significantly higher than that in wild type. Meanwhile, during the grain-filling stage, total amino acids in the up three leaves and the upmost internode were increased dramatically. The results in this study suggested that OsFd-GOGAT might participate in nitrogen remobilization during leaf senescence, which provides a potential way to improve nitrogen use efficiency in rice.
Eucommia leaf contains large amounts of natural active products. In extracting the substances, the most important is the removal of the cuticle layer on the leaves and the cell wall in the leaves of ...Eucommia ulmoides. But the removal of the cuticle layer is a technical difficulty now. Cutinase (EC3.1.1.74) is a multifunctional enzyme with a common alpha/beta fold structure belonging to hydroplane that can make a substantial degradation of horny fatty acids. So this study isolated bacteria capable of producing cutinase from the lesion of Eucommia leaves and identified the bacteria. The identification using PCR-RFLP method confirmed that the strain belongs to Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. The fermentation conditions of the strain-producing cutinase were optimized in this study. The finding of cutinase-producing R. mucilaginosa is significant because the yeast is more secure than plant pathogens, being suitable for mass production.
Field measurements of the thermal infrared (TIR) reflectance from drill hole samples proved to be an effective method to map variations in garnet species associated with hydrothermal alteration ...zonation of the Jiama porphyry-skarn Cu deposit 1# skarn orebody, Tibetan Plateau, China. The TIR mineral spectral information was combined with electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) measurements to provide geological insights on effectively determining (a) garnet end components and providing a format for further research on the type and genesis of the deposit; (b) the significance of the characteristic spectrum of garnet to the variation of mineralization environment; (c) the relationship between the characteristic spectrum of garnet and Fe/Al content; (d) the garnet characteristic spectrum to the economic mineralization. The results suggest that garnet characteristics of the thermal infrared spectrum can be used as an indicator for skarn deposit prospecting.
GP IIb/IIIa receptor activation plays an important role in thrombosis. The mechanism of early activation of GP IIb/IIIa receptors in diabetic conditions remains unknown. The purpose of this study was ...to investigate the release of Endothelial microparticle (EMP)-associated protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) after endothelial cell injury induced in diabetes and the changes in platelet activation. We produced an animal model of type 2 diabetes mellitus using ApoE
mice. Normal ApoE
and diabetic mice were allocated to four groups (n = 15): normal diet, normal diet plus rutin, diabetic, and diabetes plus rutin. The EMP-PDI content and GP IIb/IIIa expression of mice platelets were determined. In addition, EMPs obtained from the four groups were pretreated with the PDI inhibitor rutin; then, their effects on the platelets of normal C57 mice were characterized. Compared with the normal diet group, the diabetic group had significantly increased plasma EMP-PDI content and accelerated platelet activation by increased GP IIb/IIIa expression. In conclusion, EMP-PDI promotes early platelet activation through glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptors present on platelet surface in the diabetic state. However, this process could be partially suppressed by the administration of rutin.
Measurement of hepatic venous pressure gradients is the gold standard for assessing portal hypertension (PH) but is invasive with potential complications. We aimed to assess the performance in liver ...and spleen stiffness measurement (LSM and SSM, respectively) by two-dimensional shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) and composite scores including liver stiffness-spleen diameter to platelet ratio score (LSPS), platelet (PLT) count/spleen diameter ratio (PSR), aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR), and AST-to-PLT ratio index (APRI) for diagnosing PH in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) rat models.
Animal models with PH in NAFLD were established in 65 rats, which then underwent 2D-SWE measurements. Morphological and biological parameters were collected for calculation of four composite scores. Correlations of noninvasive methods with portal venous pressure were evaluated by Spearman correlation analysis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to assess the performance of noninvasive methods in predicting PH.
LSM and SSM were significantly associated with portal venous pressure (
= 0.636 and 0.602, respectively; all
< 0.001). The AUCs of LSM and SSM in the diagnosis of PH were 0.906 (95% confidence interval CI:0.841-0.97) and 0.87 (95% CI:0.776-0.964), respectively, and were significantly higher than those in composite scores. The AUCs for LSPS, PSR, AAR, and APRI were 0.793, 0.52, 0.668, and 0.533, respectively, for diagnosing PH. The AUCs of the combined models of LSM and SSM, LSM and PLT, SSM and PLT, and LSM, SSM and PLT were 0.923, 0.913, 0.872, and 0.923, respectively. The four combined models showed no statistical differences compared to LSM and SSM in evaluating PH (all
> 0.05).
LSM and SSM by 2D-SWE can be used as promising noninvasive parameters for diagnosing PH in NAFLD and have higher accuracy than composite scores. The combined models, compared to LSM and SSM, did not significantly improve the performance in diagnosing PH.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate whether overexpression of
STAMP
2 improves insulin resistance by regulating angiogenesis in adipose tissues. The characteristics of diabetic mice ...were measured by serial metabolite and pathology tests. Samples were obtained from epididymal, subcutaneous and brown adipose tissues. Histological and morphological analysis demonstrated that
STAMP
2 gene overexpression reduced adipocyte size, angiogenesis in epididymal and brown adipose tissues. On aortic ring assay, microvessels sprouting from aortas were significantly inhibited after
STAMP
2 gene overexpression. The cellular effect of
STAMP
2 on angiogenesis was explored in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (
HUVEC
s) model. Correlation of
STAMP
2 and angiogenesis was validated by Ad‐
STAMP
2 transfection and
STAMP
2 si
RNA
inhibition.
In vitro
, overexpression of
STAMP
2 significantly inhibited endothelial cell migration, tube formation. The effects of Ad‐
STAMP
2 transfection on
HUVEC
s were abolished by treatment with
PPAR
γ antagonist
GW
9662 (2.5 μM), and the roles of
STAMP
2 si
RNA
on
HUVEC
s were also reversed by treatment with
PPAR
γ agonist rosiglitazone (
RSG
) (0.1 mM).
RT
‐
PCR
indicated that
STAMP
2 could regulate levels of adhesion molecules, vascular endothelial growth factor A and
CD
36. The expression of
PPAR
γ and
CD
36 was decreased when
STAMP
2 was inhibited by si
RNA
, while
PPAR
γ and
CD
36 were highly expressed after overexpression of
STAMP
2. Our results suggested that
STAMP
2 gene overexpression may improve insulin resistance
via
attenuating angiogenesis in epididymal and brown adipose tissues through the
PPAR
γ/
CD
36 signalling pathway.
To identify the differential methylation sites (DMS) and their according genes associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR) development in type 1 diabetes (T1DM) children.
This study consists of two ...surveys. A total of 40 T1DM children was included in the first survey. Because no participant has DR, retina thinning was used as a surrogate indicator for DR. The lowest 25% participants with the thinnest macular retinal thickness were included into the case group, and the others were controls. The DNA methylation status was assessed by the Illumina methylation 850K array BeadChip assay, and compared between the case and control groups. Four DMS with a potential role in diabetes were identified. The second survey included 27 T1DM children, among which four had DR. The methylation patterns of the four DMS identified by 850K were compared between participants with and without DR by pyrosequencing.
In the first survey, the 850K array revealed 751 sites significantly and differentially methylated in the case group comparing with the controls (|Δβ|>0.1 and Adj.
<0.05), and 328 of these were identified with a significance of Adj.
<0.01. Among these, 319 CpG sites were hypermethylated and 432 were hypomethylated in the case group relative to the controls. Pyrosequencing revealed that the transcription elongation regulator 1 like (
, cg07684215) gene was hypermethylated in the four T1DM children with DR (
=0.018), which was consistent with the result from the first survey. The methylation status of the other three DMS (cg26389052, cg25192647, and cg05413694) showed no difference (all
>0.05) between participants with and without DR.
The hypermethylation of the
gene is a risk factor for DR development in Chinese children with T1DM.
It is promising, yet challenging, to employ molecules of slight synthetic complexity to construct efficient and low-cost organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, two unfused acceptors, DF-TCIC and ...HF-TCIC, were developed for OSC applications, in which the 3,4-difluorothiophene core connected through a cyclopentadithiophene (CPDT) bridge to 1,1-dicyanomethylene-3-indanone derivatives (IC for DF-TCIC and DFIC for HF-TCIC, respectively). As mediated by intramolecular non-covalent interactions, these unfused acceptors exhibited a nearly planar structure, and a strong charge transfer effect. HF-TCIC-based OSCs showed a high short-circuit current density ( J sc ) of 20.04 mA cm −2 and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.86%, thereby outperforming DF-TCIC-based devices ( J sc of 16.39 mA cm −2 and PCE of 8.23%). This work suggests that unfused acceptors of slight synthetic complexity are promising for OSC applications.
•Displacement cascades generated by PKAs with energies 1~10 keV for 3C-SiC with temperatures 300~1800 K were studied with one modified Tersoff potential.•The number of various point defects and their ...clusters were analyzed. C defects dominate most of these defects and their clusters formed in cascades, while the dominance becomes less significant with the increase of temperature.•The number of point defects and their distribution are affected by PKA energy, but the PKA type and the temperature show little influence.
We use molecular dynamics (MD) methods to study collision cascades in cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC), which is a candidate for various applications in nuclear industries. One Tersoff potential, which can reproduce the thermal and elastic properties of 3C-SiC, was firstly connected with ZBL potential. Collison cascades were generated by primary knock-on atoms (PKAs) with damage energies ranging between 1 keV and 10 keV at 300–1800 K. It was found that the temperature weakly influences the production of defects in the temperature range (300–1800 K). However, the number of point defects increases significantly as the PKA-energy increases. Carbon defects dominate most of the defects formed in collision cascades, and the dominance becomes less significant with the increase of temperature. Some high-density interstitial point defects were observed in the evolution of the collision cascade. As the PKA-energy increases, more and more defect clusters with larger sizes can be observed. For the current PKA energy range (≤10 keV), clusters with 1–5 vacancies and with 1–4 interstitials can be found, and clusters with a larger size are rare at the end of the quenching stage. The number of these defect clusters with various sizes is temperature independent. In these defect clusters, the carbon content exceeds 50% in most conditions. In addition, the carbon ratio in interstitial clusters is usually higher than the carbon site ratio in vacancy clusters. This work not only enriches the knowledge of the the number, size distribution and compositions of point defects and their clusters induced by neutron irradiation, but also can be input for the long-term simulation methods to understand the evolution of irradiated defects in 3C-SiC. Furthermore, the defect information can be used to study the thermal and elastic properties of 3C-SiC in future work.
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