Abstract
Non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) based on non-fused conjugated structures have more potential to realize low-cost organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells. However, their power conversion efficiencies ...(PCEs) are much lower than those of the fused-ring NFAs. Herein, a new bithiophene-based non-fused core (TT-P
i
) featuring good planarity as well as large steric hindrance was designed, based on which a completely non-fused NFA, A4T-16, was developed. The single-crystal result of A4T-16 reveals that a three-dimensional interpenetrating network can be formed due to the compact π–π stacking between the adjacent end-capping groups. A high PCE of 15.2% is achieved based on PBDB-TF:A4T-16, which is the highest value for the cells based on the non-fused NFAs. Notably, the device retains ~84% of its initial PCE after 1300 h under the simulated AM 1.5 G illumination (100 mW cm
−2
). Overall, this work provides insight into molecule design of the non-fused NFAs from the aspect of molecular geometry control.
The ionosphere crucially impacts on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning accuracy and integrity. Recently some network-based methods have shown the potential to construct a ...regional/global vertical total electron content (VTEC) or grid ionospheric vertical delay (GIVD) map for accuracy augmentation purposes. However, how to use these advanced methods for integrity augmentation has not been adequately investigated. The authors have investigated a regional ionospheric integrity monitoring strategy based on the radial basis function neural network (RBF-NN), using GNSS TEC observations. Similar to the SBAS approach, the GIVD map is constructed so as to enhance positioning accuracy, and the corresponding grid ionospheric vertical error (GIVE) map is constructed for protection level calculation to enhance positioning integrity. To reduce the GIVD residuals and the GIVE values, the local ionospheric spatial activity index (LISAI) is proposed as an indicator of local ionospheric spatial activity level. The RBF-NN structure parameters are able to be adaptively determined via hierarchical clustering. Modeling results in the China region have verified that the proposed GIVD modeling method is slightly better than the classical WAAS-Kriging method. The proposed GIVE modeling method significantly outperforms WAAS-Kriging, achieving an improvement of around 46% and 25% during the ionospheric calm and active periods, respectively.
Text-guided image processing has made tremendous progress in recent years. Most existing methods generally focus on using visual-language pre-training models for text-guided image processing. ...However, their applications to achieve text-guided fine-grained attribute face image processing (e.g., editing a smiling face to change from showing teeth to a closed-mouth smile) lead to poor performance due to the limited fine-grained semantic knowledge learned by existing visual-language pre-training models. To alleviate this problem, we propose a novel visual-language pre-training model based on fine-grained facial attribute features, which we call GrainedCLIP. Based on GrainedCLIP, we further propose a new text-guided fine-grained attribute face image processing model, which we call DiffusionGrainedCLIP. Our experimental results showed that GrainedCLIP outperformed existing methods, achieving <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">12.61 R </tex-math></inline-formula>@1 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">12.17 R </tex-math></inline-formula>@1 in text-to-image and image-to-text retrieval evaluation metrics, respectively, on the FFHQ dataset. Furthermore, compared to state-of-the-art text-guided face image processing methods, DiffusionGrainedCLIP significantly improved 55.37% in semantic consistency and 49.38% in face identity preservation on the FFHQ dataset.
Chitinase genes, as a class of cell wall hydrolases, are essential for the development and pathogenesis of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. vasinfectum (F. ox) in cotton, but related research focused on ...chitinase genes are limited. This study explored two island cotton root secretions from the highly resistant cultivar Xinhai 41 and sensitive cultivar Xinhai 14 to investigate their interaction with F. ox by a weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA). As a result, two modules that related to the fungal pathogenicity emerged. Additionally, a total of twenty-five chitinase genes were identified. Finally, host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) of FoChi20 was conducted, and the cotton plants showed noticeably milder disease with a significantly lower disease index than the control. This study illuminated that chitinase genes play crucial roles in the pathogenicity of cotton wilt fungi, and the FoChi20 gene could participate in the pathogenesis of F. ox and host–pathogen interactions, which establishes a theoretical framework for disease control in Sea Island cotton.
Low temperature and cold damage seriously hinder the growth, development, and morphogenesis of cotton seedlings. However, the response mechanism of cotton seedlings under cold stress still lacks ...research. In this study, transcriptome sequencing, gas exchange parameters, and rapid chlorophyll fluorescence parameters were analyzed in leaves of cold-tolerant upland cotton variety "ZM36" under different temperature stress 25°C (T25, CK), 15°C (T15), 10°C (T10), and 4°C (T4). The results showed that the net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), PSII potential maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), and performance index (PIabs) of cotton leaves significantly decreased, and the intercellular CO
concentration (Ci) and Fo/Fm significantly increased under cold stress. The transcriptome sequencing analysis showed that a total of 13,183 DEGs were involved in the response of cotton seedlings at each temperature point (T25, T15, T10, and T4), mainly involving five metabolic pathways-the phosphatidylinositol signaling system, photosynthesis, photosynthesis antenna protein, carbon fixation in photosynthetic organisms, and carotenoid synthesis. The 1,119 transcription factors were discovered among all the DEGs. These transcription factors involve 59 families, of which 15.8% of genes in the NAC family are upregulated. Through network regulatory analysis, the five candidate genes
(
),
(
),
(
),
(
), and
(
) were identified in response to cold stress. Furthermore, suppressing the expression level of
by virus-induced gene silencing led to the reduction of low temperature resistance, implying
as a positive regulator of low temperature tolerance. The findings of the study revealed a piece of the complex response mechanism of the cold-tolerant variety "ZM36" to different cold stresses and excavated key candidate genes for low temperature response, which provided support for accelerating the selection and breeding of cotton varieties with low temperature tolerance.
WRKY transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in regulating the mechanism of plant self-defense. However, the function of most WRKY TFs in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is still ...unknown. Hence, studying the molecular mechanism of WRKY TFs in the resistance of cotton to Verticillium dahliae is of great significance to enhancing cotton disease resistance and improving its fiber quality. In this study, Bioinformatics has been used to characterize the cotton WRKY53 gene family. we analyzed the GhWRKY53 expression patterns in different resistant upland cotton cultivars treated with salicylic acid (SA) and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Additionally, GhWRKY53 was silenced using a virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) to determine the contribution of GhWRKY53 to V. dahliae resistance in cotton. The result showed that GhWRKY53 mediated SA and MeJA signal transduction pathways. After VIGS of the GhWRKY53, the ability of cotton to resist V. dahliae decreased, indicating that the GhWRKY53 could be involved in the disease resistance mechanism of cotton. Studies on the levels of SA and jasmonic acid (JA) and their related pathway genes demonstrated that the silencing of GhWRKY53 inhibited the SA pathway and activated the JA pathway, thereby reducing the resistance of plants to V. dahliae. In conclusion, GhWRKY53 could change the tolerance of upland cotton to V. dahliae by regulating the expression of SA and JA pathway-related genes. However, the interaction mechanism between JA and SA signaling pathways in cotton in response to V. dahliae requires further study.
In China, cotton is a significant cash crop, and cold stress negatively impacts the crop’s development, production, and quality formation. Recent studies have shown that melatonin (MT) can alleviate ...the damage to plants under cold stress and promote good growth and development. In this study, the morphological and physiological changes induced by exogenous melatonin pretreatment on ‘Xinluzao 33’ cotton seedlings under cold stress were examined to investigate its defensive effects. The results showed that 100 μM MT pretreatment improved the cold resistance of cotton most significantly. It also improved the wilting state of cotton under cold stress, greatly increased the photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), and photosynthetic performance index (PIabs) by 116.92%, 47.16%, 32.30%, and 50.22%, respectively, and mitigated the adverse effects of low-temperature. In addition, MT supplementation substantially reduced the accumulation of superoxide anion (O2•−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) by 14.5% and 45.49%, respectively, in cold-stressed cotton leaves by modulating the antioxidant system, thereby mitigating oxidative damage. Furthermore, MT pretreatment increased the endogenous melatonin content (23.80%) and flavonoid content (21.44%) and considerably induced the expression of biosynthesis enzyme-related genes. The above results indicate that exogenous melatonin improves the low-temperature resistance of cotton seedlings by regulating photosynthetic performance, antioxidant enzyme activity, antioxidant content, endogenous melatonin and flavonoid content, and the expression levels of genes related to their synthesis.
Chromatin remodelers are essential for regulating plant growth, development, and responses to environmental stresses.
(
) is a novel stress-induced chromatin remodeling factor that has been less ...studied in abiotic stress and stress resistance, particularly in cotton. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the members of the HIT4 gene family in
using bioinformatics methods, including phylogenetic relationships, gene organization, transcription profiles, phylogenetic connections, selection pressure, and stress response. A total of 18
genes were identified in four cotton species, with six
gene members in upland cotton. Based on the evolutionary relationships shown in the phylogenetic tree, the 18 HIT4 protein sequences were classified into four distinct subgroups. Furthermore, we conducted chromosome mapping to determine the genomic locations of these genes and visually represented the structural characteristics of
in
. In addition, we predicted the regulatory elements in
in
and conducted an analysis of repetitive sequences and gene collinearity among
in four cotton species. Moreover, we calculated the Ka/Ks ratio for homologous genes to assess the selection pressure acting on
. Using RNA-seq, we explored the expression patterns of
genes in
and
. Through weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we found that
belonged to the MEblue module, which was mainly enriched in pathways such as DNA replication, phagosome, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, steroid biosynthesis, and starch and sucrose metabolism. This module may regulate the mechanism of upland cotton resistance to Verticillium wilt through DNA replication, phagosome, and various metabolic pathways. In addition, we performed heterologous overexpression of
(
) in tobacco, and the results showed a significant reduction in disease index compared to the wild type, with higher expression levels of disease resistance genes in the transgenic tobacco. After conducting a VIGS (virus-induced gene silencing) experiment in cotton, the results indicated that silencing
had a significant impact, the resistance to Verticillium wilt weakened, and the internode length of the plants significantly decreased by 30.7% while the number of true leaves increased by 41.5%. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that
mainly enhanced cotton resistance to Verticillium wilt by indirectly regulating the
,
, and
genes. The subcellular localization results revealed that
was predominantly distributed in the mitochondria and nucleus. This study offers preliminary evidence for the involvement of the
in cotton resistance to Verticillium wilt and lays the foundation for further research on the disease resistance mechanism of this gene in cotton.
For the industry applications of zeolites, the pore sizes are limited between 8, 10 and 12-rings. Although there are many extra-large pore zeolites, the studies of their applications are very limited ...due to their low stabilities or limited catalytic sites. Here, we successfully synthesized the extra-large pore zeolite materials RZM-3 with the EWT topology with the template of TDDH in a very wide range of SiO2, Al2O3, H2O and NaOH content. The proton form of RZM-3 exhibits exceptionally high thermal and hydrothermal stability with reasonable amount of acid catalytic sites. Compared to H-ZSM-5, H-Y and KC111 resin, RZM-3 zeolite displays good catalytic activity and shape/size selectivity for the glycerol and isobutylene etherification reaction. This work shows that extra-large pore zeolites can be potentially used in industrial macromolecular conversion processes with great selectivity for the first time.
Display omitted
•The RZM-3 could be synthesized with TDDH.•The RZM-3 exhibits high thermal and hydrothermal stability.•The RZM-3 shows good catalytic property in the etherification reaction.
High thermally conductive polymer composites have garnered significant attention due to their exceptional performance, given the ever‐decreasing size of electronic devices and the rise in power ...densities. Herein, a new three‐dimensional (3D) thermal conductivity network structure has been successfully prepared using double fillers of nickel foam (NF) and modified silicon carbide particles (KSiC). The study compared the effect of different filler contents on the thermal conductivity of composites. Compared to conventional composites, those based on 3D filling networks have significantly improved thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of the NF/KSiC/PU composite containing 50 wt% KSiC was 1.18 Wm−1 K−1, exceeding the cumulative thermal conductivity of the NF/PU and KSiC/PU 50 wt% composites, and 637.5% greater than that of neat PU. Meanwhile, the synthesized NF/KSiC/PU composite maintained a high electrical resistivity above 1012 Ω·cm and good mechanical properties. This approach might offer novel solutions for developing high‐quality packaging materials for advanced electronic devices with exceptional thermal and mechanical properties.
Highlights
Using SiC and NF Constructs a dual filler network.
The dual filler thermal conductivity network can generate synergistic effects.
Improving thermal conductivity compared to original polyurethane.
Maintaining a high electrical resistivity and good mechanical properties.
In this work, a new three‐dimensional thermal conductivity network structure has been successfully prepared using double fillers of nickel foam (NF) and modified silicon carbide particles (KSiC). The thermal conductivity of the NF/KSiC/PU composite could reach 1.18 Wm‐1K‐1.
PDF
