The nonlinear Hall effect, which is the second-order harmonic charge Hall effect from the Berry curvature dipole in momentum space, has received much attention recently. As the responses to higher ...harmonics of the driving ac electric field are prominent and measurable, we develop a general nonlinear theory by taking the charge and spin currents as well as the longitudinal and transverse effects into account. We introduce the expansion order of the electric field and Berry curvature multipole moment, where the Berry curvature dipole is a particular one manifesting itself at the second harmonic order and the second expansion order of the electric field. There are four cases with conserving or breaking the time-reversal symmetry (TRS) and inversion symmetry (IS). We find a specific "selection rule" that only longitudinal odd harmonic order charge currents exist for conserving both the TRS and IS, and with breaking both symmetries, all harmonic order charge and spin currents are nonzero. With conserving TRS and breaking IS, the charge Hall current exists at even harmonic order, and the longitudinal charge current occurs at odd harmonic order. Only the longitudinal spin current survives at even harmonic order. With breaking TRS and conserving IS, only odd harmonic order charge and spin currents can appear. Moreover, we observe that every harmonic order current contains a series of infinite-order expansion of the electric field. We further show that the Berry curvature dipole and quadrupole can be determined by measuring the second and fourth harmonic order currents in experiments. This may open a way to explore the higher responses of an ac driving system.
Organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells have enormous potential to impact the existing photovoltaic industry. As realizing a higher conversion efficiency of the solar cell is still the most ...crucial task, a great number of schemes were proposed to minimize the carrier loss by optimizing the electrical properties of the perovskite solar cells. Here, we focus on another significant aspect that is to minimize the light loss by optimizing the light management to gain a high efficiency for perovskite solar cells. In our scheme, the slotted and inverted prism structured SiO2 layers are adopted to trap more light into the solar cells, and a better transparent conducting oxide layer is employed to reduce the parasitic absorption. For such an implementation, the efficiency and the serviceable angle of the perovskite solar cell can be promoted impressively. This proposal would shed new light on developing the high-performance perovskite solar cells.
Organic–inorganic halide perovskites are quite promising in applications of large scale photovoltaic technology. However, toxicity is one of the crucial issues in these materials, and searching for ...environmentally friendly perovskite materials for green energy applications is in high demand. Here we present a systematic ab initio study on the replacement of toxic Pb in the perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) with possible mono- and a few binary replacements. In the mono-replacements study, Ge and Sn are the best alternatives to Pb. In the binary replacements, we replace Pb by mixing Ca/Si and Zn/Si. In case of Ca/Si, a monotonic decrease in band gaps with a monotonic increase in the optical absorption was observed with increasing the Ca concentration. It is observed for the first time that the substitution of Ca/Si (or Zn/Si) at the B-site with various ratios would lead to remarkably high device absorption efficiencies. The band gaps of the studied mixed replacements are in the ideal ranges for single-junction solar cell and one cell in tandem architecture. As a result of the smaller effective masses, the mixed replacements could have better carrier mobility. An ab initio molecular dynamic simulation demonstrates the stability of the mixed replacements. More importantly, the mixed substituting elements are highly abundant in the earth. This work is helpful to gain further insights into developing green solar cells with low cost and high performance and would lead to wide applications in the future.
The spin and valley-dependent anomalous Nernst effects are analyzed for monolayer MoS_{2} and other group-VI dichalcogenides. We find that pure spin and valley currents can be generated perpendicular ...to the applied thermal gradient in the plane of these two-dimensional materials. This effect provides a versatile platform for applications of spin caloritronics. A spin current purity factor is introduced to quantify this effect. When time reversal symmetry is violated, e.g., two-dimensional materials on an insulating magnetic substrate, a dip-peak feature appears for the total Nernst coefficient. For the dip state it is found that carriers with only one spin and from one valley are driven by the temperature gradient.
Gliomas are a group of brain cancers with high mortality and morbidity. Understanding the molecular mechanisms is important for the prevention or treatment of gliomas. The present study was to ...investigate the effects and mechanisms of long noncoding RNA TRPM2‐AS in gliomas proliferation, migration, and invasion. We first compared the levels of TRPM2‐AS in 111 patients with glioma to that of the normal control group by a quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The results indicated a significant increase of TRPM2‐AS in patients with glioma (2.43 folds of control, p = .0135). MTT methods, wound healing assays, transwell analysis, and clone formation analysis indicated the overexpression of TRPM2‐AS promoted the proliferation, migration, and invasion of U251 and U87 cells, while downregulation of TRPM2‐AS inhibited the cell proliferation, migration, and invasion significantly (p < .05). To further uncover the mechanisms, bioinformatics analysis was conducted on the expression profiles, GSE40687 and GSE4290, from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. One hundred fifty‐six genes were differentially expressed in both datasets (FC > 2.0; p = .05). Among these differentially expressed genes, the level of RGS4 messenger RNA was drastically regulated by TRPM2‐AS. Further western‐blot analysis indicated the increase of RGS4 protein expression and decrease of p‐JNK/JNK and p‐c‐Jun/c‐Jun ratio after TRPM2‐AS overexpression. On the other hand, inhibition of TRPM2‐AS by small interfering RNA suppressed the expression of RGS4 and promoted the ratios of p‐JNK/JNK and p‐c‐Jun/c‐Jun. The present work indicated the mechanisms of the participation of TRPM2‐AS in the progression of gliomas might, at least partly, be related to JNK, c‐Jun, and RGS4. Our work provided new insights into the underlying mechanisms of glioma cellular functions.
TRPM2‐AS was increased significantly in patients with glioma, especially in older patients and higher‐grade cancer. TRPM2‐AS upregulation promotes glioma cell line U251 and U87 proliferation, migration, and invasion. The mechanisms of TRPM2‐AS might, at least partly, be related to JNK, c‐Jun, and RGS4. Our present work provided a new insight into the mechanism of gliomas.
The mutualism pattern of the dark septate endophyte (DSE) Harpophora oryzae in rice roots and its biocontrol potential in rice blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae were investigated. ...Fluorescent protein-expressing H. oryzae was used to monitor the colonization pattern. Hyphae invaded from the epidermis to the inner cortex, but not into the root stele. Fungal colonization increased with root tissue maturation, showing no colonization in the meristematic zone, slight colonization in the elongation zone, and heavy colonization in the differentiation zone. H. oryzae adopted a biotrophic lifestyle in roots accompanied by programmed cell death. Real-time PCR facilitated the accurate quantification of fungal growth and the respective plant response. The biocontrol potential of H. oryzae was visualized by inoculation with eGFP-tagged M. oryzae in rice. H. oryzae protected rice from M. oryzae root invasion by the accumulation of H2O2 and elevated antioxidative capacity. H. oryzae also induced systemic resistance against rice blast. This systemic resistance was mediated by the OsWRKY45-dependent salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway, as indicated by the strongly upregulated expression of OsWRKY45. The colonization pattern of H. oryzae was consistent with the typical characteristics of DSEs. H. oryzae enhanced local resistance by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and high antioxidative level and induced OsWRKY45-dependent SA-mediated systemic resistance against rice blast.
Dark septate endophytes (DSEs) are the typical representatives of root endophytic fungi in heavy metal (HM)-contaminated environments. However, little is known about their roles in the HMs tolerance ...of hosts and the underlying mechanism. Here, we investigated the biological roles and molecular mechanisms of a DSE strain Falciphora oryzae in alleviating cadmium (Cd) toxicities in rice. It was found that F. oryzae possessed a capacity of accumulating Cd in its vacuoles and chlamydospores. During symbiosis, F. oryzae conferred improved Cd tolerance to rice, decreasing Cd accumulation in roots and translocation to shoots. F. oryzae alleviated Cd toxicity to rice by sequestering Cd in its vacuoles. Further application of F. oryzae as fertilizer in the field could reduce Cd content in rice grains. We identified a SNARE Syntaxin 1 gene through proteomics, which participated in Cd tolerance of F. oryzae by regulating chlamydospore formation and vacuole enlargement. This study provided novel insights into how the DSEs and their host plants combat Cd stress.
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•Falciphora oryzae sequesters Cd in vacuoles and chlamydospores.•Falciphora oryzae confers Cd tolerance to rice, decreases Cd content in grains.•Syntaxin 1 gene regulates chlamydospore formation and vacuole enlargement.•Syntaxin 1 is related to Cd tolerance.
We theoretically analyze the nonlinear anomalous Nernst effect as the second-order response of temperature gradient by using the semiclassical framework of electron dynamics. We find that a nonlinear ...current can be generated transverse to the applied temperature gradient in time-reversal-symmetry materials with broken inversion symmetry. This effect has a quantum origin arising from the Berry curvature of states near the Fermi surface. We discuss the nonlinear Nernst effect in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) under the application of uniaxial strain. In particular, we predict that under fixed chemical potential in TMDCs, the nonlinear Nernst current exhibits a transition from T−2 temperature dependence in low temperature regime to a linear T dependence in high temperature.
Autophagy is the major intracellular degradation system by which cytoplasmic materials are delivered to and degraded in the vacuole/lysosome in eukaryotic cells. MoAtg14 in M. oryzae, a hitherto ...uncharacterized protein, is the highly divergent homolog of the yeast Atg14 and the mammal BARKOR. The MoATG14 deletion mutant exhibited collapse in the center of the colonies, poor conidiation and a complete loss of virulence. Significantly, the ΔMoatg14 mutant showed delayed breakdown of glycogen, less lipid bodies, reduced turgor pressure in the appressorium and impaired conidial autophagic cell death. The autophagic process was blocked in the ΔMoatg14 mutant, and the autophagic degradation of the marker protein GFP-MoAtg8 was interrupted. GFP-MoAtg14 co-localized with mCherry-MoAtg8 in the aerial hypha. In addition, a conserved coiled-coil domain was predicted in the N-terminal region of the MoAtg14 protein, a domain which could mediate the interaction between MoAtg14 and MoAtg6. The coiled-coil domain of the MoAtg14 protein is essential for its function in autophagy and pathogenicity.
Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis, the dried stem and branch of Lonicera japonica Thunb., is a Chinese Materia Medica known as Ren Dong Teng in Chinese with long use history in the traditional Chinese ...medicine (TCM) prescriptions. Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis possesses heat-clearing and detoxifying functions according to the TCM theory. In recent years, a large amount of experimental and clinical studies proved good anti-inflammatory effects of some heat-clearing and detoxifying herbs. The present study aims to reveal the anti-inflammatory property and functional substances of Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis.
For anti-inflammatory activity test, LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages, DSS-induced SPF male C57BL/6J mice model, and LPS-induced SPF male ICR mice model were used in vitro and in vivo, respectively. The behavioral changes, organ damage, and the expression of inflammatory factors such as TNT-α and IL-6 mRNA expression were measured for activity evaluation. Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis samples were prepared by solvent extraction and subsequent column chromatography. The main components were identified and determined using UPLC-UV analysis as well as NMR interpretation after purification. To testify the contribution of main components for the anti-inflammatory activity, different samples were also prepared by compound-knockout strategy.
Ethanol extract of Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis could attenuate sickness symptoms in mice such as diarrhea, less activity, and depression. It could also alleviate multiple organ damage, and significantly inhibit the expression of pro-inflammatory factors such as TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IFN-γ in mice. Furthermore, the isochlorogenic acid-rich and biflavonoid-rich fractions and isochlorogenic acids A and C, and ochnaflavone could significantly down-regulate the mRNA expression of TNF-α and IL-6 in LPS-induced RAW 264.7 macrophages.
Lonicerae Japonicae Caulis possesses anti-inflammatory property. Its isochlorogenic acid-rich and biflavonoid-rich fractions do the major contribution. And their main components, isochlorogenic acids A and C, and ochnaflavone, take main responsibility for the anti-inflammatory property.