To meet the requirements for indoor organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications, it is imperative to minimize charge recombination loss and enhance photovoltaic performance toward commercially compelling ...levels. Here, morphological modification in non‐fullerene blends is demonstrated to boost the efficiency and stability of indoor OPVs. For morphological modification, a ternary blend is devised by utilizing two well‐miscible non‐fullerene acceptors, which improve morphological features in the photoactive layer and suppress charge recombination loss. Morphological modification enhances OPV performance, particularly under low‐intensity indoor irradiation conditions, at which trap‐assisted recombination mainly governs the photovoltaic performance. The optimum ternary OPV shows a new record power conversion efficiency of 30.11% at a 500 lux light‐emitting diode, accompanied by excellent morphological durability under thermal stress, despite the use of “existing” photovoltaic materials designed for AM 1.5 G operation. This study elucidates the effects of morphology on OPV performance under low‐light conditions and suggests an ideal morphology for non‐fullerene OPVs with enhanced performance for indoor applications.
Morphological modification is demonstrated to overcome the efficiency and lifetime limitations in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) for low‐light applications. Ternary OPVs employing two well‐miscible non‐fullerene acceptors benefit from morphological optimization, which leads to suppressed charge recombination, and show exceptionally high efficiencies under low‐intensity indoor light irradiation, offering guidance for indoor OPVs to surpass the currently dominant photovoltaic technologies.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified, the world has vehemently worked to develop treatments and vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome ...coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at an unprecedented speed. Few of the repositioned drugs for COVID-19 have shown that they were efficacious and safe. In contrast, a couple of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 will be ready for mass rollout early next year. Despite successful vaccine development for COVID-19, the world will face a whole new set of challenges including scale-up manufacturing, cold-chain logistics, long-term safety, and low vaccine acceptance. We highlighted the importance of knowledge sharing and collaboration to find innovative answers to these challenges and to prepare for newly emerging viruses.
Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) is the most common malignant tumor of the canine urinary tract and tends to have a poor prognosis due to its invasive potential. Recent studies have reported that up ...to 80% of canine urothelial carcinoma has the BRAF V595E mutation, which is homologous to the human V600E mutation. Activating the BRAF mutation is an actionable target for developing effective therapeutic agents inhibiting the BRAF/mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in canine cancer as well as human cancer. We established novel canine TCC cell lines from two tumor tissues and one metastatic lymph node of canine TCC patients harboring the BRAF V595E mutation. Tumor tissues highly expressed the BRAF mutant and phosphorylated extracellular signal-related kinases (ERK)1/2 proteins. The derived cell lines demonstrated activated MAPK pathways. We also evaluated the cell lines for sensitivity to BRAF inhibitors. Sorafenib, a multiple kinase inhibitor targeting RAF/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), successfully inhibited the BRAF/MAPK pathway and induced apoptosis. The established canine TCC cell lines responded with greater sensitivity to sorafenib than to vemurafenib, which is known as a specific BRAF inhibitor in human cancer. Our results demonstrated that canine TCC cells showed different responses compared to human cancer with the BRAF V600E mutation. These cell lines would be valuable research materials to develop therapeutic strategies for canine TCC patients.
This study investigated bioaccumulation and toxicity derived from heavy metals in laying hens. The 160 52-week old laying hens were divided into 5 treatments with 8 replicates of 4 birds per pen. The ...treatments consisted of the control diet (without heavy metals), control diet with half the available dosage (AD, 5 ppm lead and 0.2 ppm mercury), AD (10 ppm lead and 0.4 ppm mercury), 2-fold AD (20 ppm lead and 0.8 ppm mercury), and 3-fold AD (30 ppm lead and 1.2 ppm mercury), and were provided to the laying hens for 8 weeks. Food and water were provided on an ad libitum basis at all times. Body weight and food intake were recorded once every two weeks, and eggs were collected and recorded daily. Two birds from each pen were euthanized to collect blood and organ samples on week 4 and 8. The 3-fold AD diet reduced food intake compared to that of the control and AD diets (P<0.05). Hens fed the half AD diet had darker yolk compared to those fed the control and AD diet on week 4 (P<0.05). Hens fed the 2- and 3-fold AD diets had increased relative liver weight, blood glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase levels (P<0.05), while F1 follicle weights decreased on week 4 and 8. No difference was found in egg production rate, egg quality, ovarian follicle, blood metabolites including protein, globulin, albumin, and urea nitrogen throughout the study (P>0.05). Heavy metal concentrations in the liver, eggs, and feathers were not detected at both week 4 and 8. Our results indicate that in-feed heavy metals for layer diets up to 30 ppm of lead and 1.2 ppm of mercury brought on hepatic dysfunction increasing blood metabolites that are associated with liver inflammation.
Membrane‐based separation technologies have attracted significant interest from various industries owing to their high process efficiency. However, the wider applications of conventional polyamide ...(PA) thin‐film composite (TFC) membranes are limited by their poor pH stability and low cation selectivity, necessitating the development of membranes with advanced chemistries. Herein, an extreme pH‐resistant, highly cation‐selective TFC membrane is fabricated by synthesizing a crosslinked poly(quaternary ammonium) (PQA) selective layer on a polyethylene support via Menshutkin reaction‐based interfacial polymerization (Men‐IP). The Men‐IP process produces a thin, densely crosslinked, and positively charged PQA permselective layer without hydrolysis‐prone functional groups. The fabricated PQA membrane features a highly selective molecular density that significantly exceeds those of previously reported membranes with non‐PA chemistries. Moreover, the PQA membrane exhibits remarkably high rejection (>90%) and selectivity for divalent cations owing to the exceptionally strong positive charge imparted by its abundant cationic QA groups. More importantly, the PQA membrane displays ultrahigh pH stability under both extremely acidic (1.5 m H2SO4) and alkaline (5 m NaOH) conditions for 28 days. No other membrane reported in the literature demonstrates such excellent pH stability. This strategy opens a new route for fabricating highly selective membranes that can be used in harsh pH environments.
A poly(quaternary ammonium) (PQA)‐based nanofiltration membrane with ultrahigh pH stability and excellent cation selectivity is fabricated via Menshutkin reaction‐based interfacial polymerization. A densely crosslinked, highly positively charged PQA layer leads to remarkably high cation selectivity for divalent cations. Furthermore, the designed PQA chemistry with no hydrolysis‐prone functional groups displays unprecedentedly high stability in extreme pH environments.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer‐related deaths. LIM domain kinase (LIMK) 1 is a member of serine/threonine kinase family and highly expressed in various cancers. Luteolin, a polyphenolic ...plant flavonoid, has been reported to suppress tumour proliferation through inducing apoptosis and autophagy via MAPK activation in glioma. However, the mechanism of luteolin on suppressing lung cancer growth is still unclear. We found that luteolin targeted LIMK1 from the in silico screening and significantly inhibited the LIMK1 kinase activity, which was confirmed with pull‐down binding assay and computational docking models. Treatment with luteolin inhibited lung cancer cells anchorage‐independent colony growth and induced apoptosis and cell cycle arrest at G1 phase. Luteolin also decreased the expression of cyclin D1 and increased the levels of cleaved caspase‐3 by down‐regulating LIMK1 signalling related targets, including p‐LIMK and p‐cofilin. Furthermore, luteolin suppressed the lung cancer patient‐derived xenograft tumour growth by decreasing Ki‐67, p‐LIMK and p‐cofilin expression in vivo. Taken together, these results provide insight into the mechanism that underlies the anticancer effects of luteolin on lung cancer, which involved in down‐regulation of LIMK1 and its interaction with cofilin. It also provides valuable evidence for translation towards lung cancer clinical trials with luteolin.
We address a robotic flow shop scheduling problem where two part types are processed on each given set of dedicated machines. A single robot moving on a fixed rail transports one part at a time, and ...the processing times of the parts vary on the machines within a given time interval. We use a reinforcement learning (RL) approach to obtain efficient robot task sequences to minimise makespan. We model the problem with a Petri net used for a RLenvironment and develop a lower bound for the makespan. We then define states, actions, and rewards based on the Petri net model; further, we show that the RL approach works better than the first-in-first-out (FIFO) rule and the reverse sequence (RS), which is extensively used for cyclic scheduling of a robotic flow shop; moreover, the gap between the makespan from the proposed algorithm and a lower bound is not large; finally, the makespan from the RL method is compared to an optimal solution in a relaxed problem. This research shows the applicability of RL for the scheduling of robotic flow shops and its efficiency by comparing it to FIFO, RS and a lower bound. This work can be easily extended to several other variants of robotic flow shop scheduling problems.
Advances in bronchoscopy and CT-guided lung biopsy have improved the evaluation of small pulmonary lesions (PLs), leading to an increase in preoperative histological diagnosis. We aimed to evaluate ...the efficacy and safety of transbronchial lung biopsy using radial endobronchial ultrasound and virtual bronchoscopic navigation (TBLB-rEBUS&VBN) and CT-guided transthoracic needle biopsy (CT-TNB) for tissue diagnosis of small PLs.
A systematic search was performed in five electronic databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and Scopus, for relevant studies in May 2016; the selected articles were assessed using meta-analysis. The articles were limited to those published after 2000 that studied small PLs ≤ 3 cm in diameter.
From 7345 records, 9 articles on the bronchoscopic (BR) approach and 15 articles on the percutaneous (PC) approach were selected. The pooled diagnostic yield was 75% (95% confidence interval CI, 69-80) using the BR approach and 93% (95% CI, 90-96) using the PC approach. For PLs ≤ 2 cm, the PC approach (pooled diagnostic yield: 92%, 95% CI: 88-95) was superior to the BR approach (66%, 95% CI: 55-76). However, for PLs > 2 cm but ≤ 3 cm, the diagnostic yield using the BR approach was improved to 81% (95% CI, 75-85). Complications of pneumothorax and hemorrhage were rare with the BR approach but common with the PC approach.
CT-TNB was superior to TBLB-rEBUS&VBN for the evaluation of small PLs. However, for lesions greater than 2 cm, the BR approach may be considered considering its diagnostic yield of over 80% and the low risk of procedure-related complications.
Silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-incorporated thin film nanocomposite (Ag-TFN) membranes with enhanced reverse osmosis (RO) separation and anti-biofouling performance were fabricated via a rationally ...designed in-situ hybridization technique based on the dual action of reactant materials: (1) m-phenylenediamine (MPD) monomer, conventionally employed to form a polyamide (PA) selective layer, can also reduce Ag precursors (AgNO3) to form AgNPs; (2) sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, widely used to facilitate PA formation, can also stabilize AgNPs and transfer them to the interface where the PA layer is formed. The simple addition of AgNO3 to an MPD solution containing SDS during interfacial polymerization enabled the simultaneous formation of the PA layer and AgNPs, which led to the uniform incorporation of AgNPs into the PA matrix, creating the PA-AgNP interfacial free volume (nanovoids) without impairing PA crosslinking. Hence, the Ag-TFN membrane exhibited remarkably higher water permeance with similar NaCl rejection in comparison with the pristine thin film composite (TFC) and commercial membranes, mainly owing to its enhanced interfacial free volume and increased hydrophilicity. The Ag-TFN membrane also exhibited better anti-biofouling performance than control TFC owing to the antibacterial ability of AgNPs and reinforced anti-adhesion enabled by its reduced surface roughness and enhanced surface hydrophilicity.
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•AgNP-incorporated TFN (Ag-TFN) RO membranes were prepared via in-situ hybridization.•Adding AgNO3 during membrane formation led to the uniform incorporation of AgNPs.•Ag-TFN membranes have better performance than pristine and commercial RO membranes.•Ag-TFN membranes also exhibit excellent anti-biofouling performance.
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