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Exploration of electrocatalysts suitable for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is essential for electrocatalytic hydrogen production. In this work, a ligand substitution strategy is used to synthesize ultrathin-nanosheet electrocatalysts of Cl-doped NiSe2(NiSe2-a and NiSe2-b), which exhibit high-electrocatalytic activity during OER and UOR. NiSe2-a and NiSe2-b only need an overpotential of 227 and 268 mV, respectively, to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm–2during OER. Furthermore, NiSe2-a with its smaller steric effects exhibits excellent catalytic performance for UOR, requiring an ultralow potential of 1.360 V to deliver a current density of 100 mA cm–2. This excellent performance can be attributed to the nonmetallic elements (Se and Cl) modulating and optimizing the charge state of the metal sites, thereby increasing the electrocatalytic activity. Overall, this work provides an unparalleled example of tuning space structures to design efficient electrocatalysts and has promising industrial applications.

Surface wrinkling structures based on a bilayer system are widely employed in storing and encrypting specific optical information. However, constructing a stable wrinkling structure with high-level security remains an extensive challenge due to the delamination issue between the skin layer and the substrate. Herein, a double cross-linking strategy is introduced between a hydrogel layer doped with fluorescent molecules and polydimethylsiloxane to establish a stable interfacial wrinkling structure with dual-mode functionality, in which the light reflection of the wrinkles and fluorescence intensity of fluorescent molecules can be simultaneously regulated by the modulus ratio between the two layers. The spontaneous wrinkling structures with a physically unclonable function can enhance the photoluminescence emission intensity of the wrinkling area under ultraviolet radiation. Meanwhile, the skin layer constructed of acrylamide and acrylic acid copolymer protects the interfacial wrinkling patterns from the loss of a detailed structure for authentication due to external damage. The stable interfacial wrinkling structures with fluorescence can find potential applications in the fields of information storage and encryption.

This paper studies the task of vision-based MAV-catching-MAV, where a catcher MAV (micro aerial vehicle) can detect, localize, and pursue a target MAV autonomously. Since it is challenging to develop detectors that can effectively detect unseen MAVs in complex environments, the main novelty of this paper is to propose a real-to-sim-to-realapproach to address this challenge. In this method, images of real-world environments are first collected. Then, these images are used to construct a high-fidelity simulation environment, based on which a deep-learning detector is trained. The merit of this approach is that it allows efficient automatic collection of large-scale and high-quality labeled datasets. More importantly, since the simulation environment is constructed from real-world images, this approach can effectively bridge the sim-to-real gap, enabling efficient deployment in real environments. Another contribution of this paper lies in the successful implementation of a fully autonomous vision-based MAV-catching-MAV system including proposed estimation and pursuit control algorithms. While the previous works mainly focused on certain aspects of this system, we developed a completely autonomous system that integrates detection, estimation, and control algorithms on real-world robotic platforms.

Recent studies have revealed a high diversity of pleurostomatid ciliates in brackish habitats. Here, a novel species, Pseudolitonotus spirelisgen. et sp. n., isolated from a mangrove wetland of southern China, was investigated based on living observation, protargol staining, and molecular analyses. The new genus Pseudolitonotusgen. n. is characterized by the last left somatic kinety (LKn) being shortened and none of the right somatic kineties extending to the anterior end of the cell, thus distinguishing it from all known pleurostomatid genera. The type species, Pseudolitonotus spirelissp. n., is characterized by the possession of two macronuclear nodules, 11–15 right and 7–9 left kineties, a single contractile vacuole subterminally located, extrusomes evenly spaced along the entire ventral margin and some forming an “apical group”, two types of cortical granules, and the bottom of the oral slit invariably being twisted. Litonotus gracilis(Pan et al. Eur J Protistol 51:494–506, 2015) is believed to be another member of this new genus as its LKn and right somatic kineties are all shortened. Hence, a new combination, Pseudolitonotus gracilis(Pan et al., 2015) comb. n., is suggested and its diagnosis is improved. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rDNA sequence data reveal that Pseudolitonotusgen. n. is monophyletic and groups with Apolitonotus(Pan et al. J Eukaryot Microbiol 67:252–262, 2020) of the family Protolitonotidae (Wu et al. Zool Scr 46:245–253, 2017). However, the familial assignment of this new genus is uncertain based on current data.

Self-matting acrylate has attracted much interest due to excellent weather resistance, hardness, water resistance, and chemical resistance. However, the poor mechanical properties of acrylate limit its application in coatings. To overcome this problem, a series of self-matting acrylate emulsions (SMAE) modified by xylitol-based hyperbranched urethane acrylate (HP-IH) were successfully synthesized. The results revealed that the amount of emulsifier was the primary factor affecting the gloss of the films. Upon the incorporation of HP-IH, the elongation at break and fracture energy of the SMAE films were significantly improved by 52.6% and 59.6%, respectively, due to the internal plastic effect and increased crosslink density induced by HP-IH. The S-2-1.5 sample exhibited the excellent comprehensive performance, i.e., tensile strength of 12.7 MPa, elongation at break of 952%, fracture energy of 71.1 MJ/m3, adhesion of 5B, temperature of 5% weight loss at 350 °C, and gloss at 60° of 14.8, respectively, indicating its great application potential in the field of low-gloss coatings.

Early control of elevated blood pressure is the most promising treatment for acute intracerebral haemorrhage. We aimed to establish whether implementing a goal-directed care bundle incorporating protocols for early intensive blood pressure lowering and management algorithms for hyperglycaemia, pyrexia, and abnormal anticoagulation, implemented in a hospital setting, could improve outcomes for patients with acute spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage.

Developing a shape memory polyurethane with high mechanical properties, excellent self-healing has become a huge challenge for the development of smart materials. Herein, we report the design and fabrication of a shape memory polyurethane network terminated with coumarin units (HEOMC-PU) to address this conundrum. The synthesized HEOMC-PU exhibits exceptional mechanical performance with a breaking elongation of 746% and toughness of 55.5 MJ·m–3. By utilizing the dynamically reversible behavior of coumarin units to repair the damaged network, the efficient self-healing performance (99.2%) of HEOMC-PU is obtained. In addition, the prepared network and light-induced dynamic reversibility endow the HEOMC-PU with both liquid-state remoldability and solid-state plasticity, respectively, enabling polyurethane to be recycled and processed multiple times. Furthermore, based on the fluorescence responsive characteristic of coumarin, HEOMC-PU with a fluorescent pattern can be deformed into specific three-dimensional configurations by combining photolithography, self-healing, and the shape memory effect. Such a multilevel and multidimensional anti-counterfeiting platform with rewritable fluorescent patterns and reconfigurable shapes can open up a new encryption approach for future intelligent anti-counterfeiting.

Dopamine, a pivotal excitatory neurotransmitter, plays a crucial role in metabolic, cardiovascular, renal, central nervous, and endocrine systems. Abnormal dopamine within the human body can cause various diseases. Therefore, the precise quantification of dopamine levels, both in vivoand in vitro, holds paramount significance for clinical applications and physiological investigations. Carbon dots (CDs) exhibit a plethora of remarkable properties, including a substantial specific surface area, robust electrical conductivity, commendable biocompatibility, minimal toxicity, and high photostability. Considering these unique characteristics, CDs demonstrate substantial potential for fluorescent sensors, colorimetric sensors, and electrochemical sensors for dopamine detection. This review systematically examined the challenges and prospects for the utilization of CDs-based fluorescent sensors, electrochemical biosensors, and colorimetric sensors for monitoring dopamine levels in recent years. These findings unveil promising avenues for further advancements in the field of dopamine detection.

Explicitly representing the world's most frequently cultivated winter wheat in land surface model (LSM) is important for understanding carbon and energy cycling over cropland and its interactions with climate, which is crucial for global food security. However, in the latest version of Noah‐MP‐Crop LSM, winter wheat is significantly underrepresented. This study improved the winter‐wheat parameterization in Noah‐MP‐Crop model by optimizing the phenological scheme, incorporating vernalization process, and calibrating several key parameters associated with winter wheat photosynthesis and carbon allocations. Focusing on the North China Plain as area representative region, model performance in simulating crop dynamic growth, carbon flux, and energy fluxes was validated at both site and regional scales. Results showed that the simulated phenological development matched well with the real‐world phenological records. A comparison between the simulated results by the default and developed parameterizations revealed the significant improvements in the reproductions of leaf area index (LAI) and gross primary production (GPP). The determination coefficient (R2) value of GPP was increased from 0.15 to 0.46 to 0.39–0.91. Simulations of energy fluxes showed smaller improvements, with R2values increasing from 0.46 to 0.67 to 0.61–0.84 for latent heat (LE) and 0.18–0.55 to 0.25–0.61 for sensible heat. Additionally, the mean average error of net radiation was reduced. Improvements in spatial and temporal variations of LAI, GPP, and LEin regional simulation were also observed. This work can facilitate incorporating winter wheat cultivation and its interactions with climate system, particularly when coupling the Noah‐MP‐Crop model with the widely used Weather Research and Forecasting model. Winter wheat is a widely cultivated staple food that plays a crucial role in ensuring food security worldwide. However, its representation in land surface models (LSMs), for example, in the latest version of the Noah‐MP‐Crop LSM, is less developed compared to spring wheat due to the longer growing season and over‐wintered growth characteristics. This hinders the application of these models in studying surface carbon and energy cycling, which have a significant impact on climate, particularly in regions dominated by winter wheat production. To address this issue, we improved the parameterization of winter wheat in the Noah‐MP‐Crop model by redefining the phenological stages, adjusting the thresholds for entering each stage, incorporating the vernalization process, and optimizing key parameters related to photosynthesis and carbon allocations. We evaluated the improved parameterization by comparing simulated winter wheat growth, carbon and energy cycles with in situ observations and satellite‐derived products. The results demonstrated significant improvements in leaf area index and gross primary productivity of winter wheat, but only minor improvements in energy fluxes at both sites and regional scales. In the future, coupling this enhanced crop module with the Weather Research and Forecasting model will better our understanding of the interconnections between winter wheat croplands and climate. Phenological scheme, vernalization process, and key parameters associated with winter wheat photosynthesis and carbon allocations were developed and optimizedThe developed parameterization of winter wheat was evaluated in both site‐level and regional simulations in the North China PlainSimulations of winter‐wheat phenological development, yield, carbon, and energy fluxes were significantly improved Phenological scheme, vernalization process, and key parameters associated with winter wheat photosynthesis and carbon allocations were developed and optimized The developed parameterization of winter wheat was evaluated in both site‐level and regional simulations in the North China Plain Simulations of winter‐wheat phenological development, yield, carbon, and energy fluxes were significantly improved

In this work, tris(oxiran-2-ylmethyl) benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (TOTC) was synthesized by a new two-step method without using harmful epichlorohydrin and served as a curing agent for polyester powder coatings. The chemical structure of TOTC was determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The curing behavior and the curing reaction kinetics of TOTC/polyester resin (NH-3307) system were studied by dynamic differential scanning calorimetry. The activation energy Eawas 71.75 kJ mol-1according to Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method, and the curing reaction of TOTC/NH-3307 system was described by Friedman method. It was found that the curing reaction of TOTC/NH-3307 system was a two-parameter autocatalysis which followed the Šestάk–Berggrenmodel. The nonisothermal curing reaction rate was simulated according to the Šestάk–Berggrenmodel and the experimentally parameters. What is more, the thermogravimetric analysis results showed that the TOTC/NH-3307 system had good thermal stability with an initial decomposition temperature of 374.92°C. The TOTC/NH-3307 cured film exhibited excellent leveling performance by SEM. The results demonstrated that TOTC has efficient curing ability and huge market potential.

In this work, a malonate polyester suitable for Michael addition reaction was prepared by melting polycondensation of neopentyl glycol, terephthalic acid, and diethyl malonate, and its structure was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Then, Michael addition reaction between malonate polyester and diphenylmethane bismaleimide (BDM), catalyzed by 1, 8-diazabicyclo [5.4.0] undec-7-ene (DBU)/benzoic acid salt, was carried out to prepare the films with different contents of curing agent. The thermal and mechanical properties of the films were characterized by dynamic thermomechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. We found that glass transition temperature (Tg) of the films increased with the increase in BDM amount. The Tgcould reach up to 80°C, which indicated that the fabricated films show excellent thermal stability.

Purpose: Radioactive seed implantation is an effective invasive treatment method for malignant liver tumors in hepatocellular carcinomas. However, challenges of the manual procedure may degrade the efficacy of the technique, such as the high accuracy requirement and radiation exposure to the surgeons. This paper aims to develop a robotic system and its control methods for assisting surgeons on the treatment. Method: We present an interventional robotic system, which consists of a 5 Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) positioning robotic arm (a 3-DoF translational joint and a 2-DoF revolute joint) and a needle actuator used for needle insertion and radioactive seeds implantation. Control strategy is designed for the system to ensure the safety of the motion. In the designed framework, an artificial potential field (APF)-based motion planning and an ultrasound (US) image-based contacting methods are proposed for the control. Result: Experiments were performed to evaluate position and orientation accuracy as well as validate the motion planning procedure of the system. The mean and standard deviation of targeting error is 0.69 mm and 0.33 mm, respectively. Needle placement accuracy is 1.10 mm by mean. The feasibility of the control strategy, including path planning and the contacting methods, is demonstrated by simulation and experiments based on an abdominal phantom. Conclusion: This paper presents a robotic system with force and US image feedback in assisting surgeons performing brachytherapy on liver tumors. The proposed robotic system is capable of executing an accurate needle insertion task with by optical tracking. The proposed methods improve the safety of the robot’s motion and automate the process of US probe contacting under the feedback of US-image.

•A CT-based deep learning signature was extracted with a 3D residual neural network.•The deep learning model was effective in predicting lymphovascular invasion.•The model independently predicted prognosis in clinical stage IA adenocarcinoma.•The deep learning signature has wide potential clinical application.

In this work, Au nanoparticle (AuNP) arrays on shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) substrates serve as flexible materials for tunable localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). AuNP arrays prepared by diblock copolymer self-assembly are transferred from rigid silicon wafers onto flexible SMPU substrates with ultrasonic treatment rather than peeling off directly. The resultant AuNP array SMPU films have excellent mechanical properties and stable thermodynamic properties. The LSPR arising from AuNP arrays is increased by negative bending on SMPU substrates, whereas the LSPR is decreased by positive bending. Besides, upon uniaxial tension, the vertical LSPR is increased first then decreased, whereas the parallel LSPR is similar, resulting in the overall LSPR of AuNP arrays being increased first and then decreased with the mechanical uniaxial tension of SMPU. Moreover, the resultant AuNP array SMPU films exhibit excellent flexibility, stability, and homogeneity in practical surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) application. This approach of incorporating AuNP arrays on SMPU substrates for tuning plasmonic properties have great potential applications in SERS, fluorescence enhancement, and newly optoelectronic materials.

Background/Objectives: Streptococcus is a common cause of post-traumatic endophthalmitis in children. This study aimed to analyse the clinical features, antibiotic susceptibilities and outcomes of traumatic endophthalmitis caused by streptococcus in preschool children. Subjects/Methods: Patients aged ≤6 years with traumatic streptococcal endophthalmitis seen at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center between January 2013 and December 2018 were included in this retrospective study. Results: In total, 21 patients (21 eyes) were included. The mean age of the patients was 3.3 ± 1.7 years, where 57.1% were males. Scissors (28.6%, n= 6) were the most common cause of injury; 86.7% of patients were injured at home. Zone I (80.9%) was the most common wound site; 90.5% of patients presented with a traumatic cataract. In general, Streptococcus pneumoniae(47.6%) was the most common isolate. Viridans group streptococci accounted for 58.3% of cases in children aged 0–3 years, while S. pneumoniaeaccounted for 66.7% of cases in children aged 4–6 years. The susceptibility rates of streptococcus to cefuroxime, levofloxacin and ofloxacin were 100%, 95.0% and 90.5%, respectively. Although all the patients underwent vitrectomy combined with silicone oil tamponade, the final visual outcomes were no better than counting fingers. Conclusions: Although S. pneumoniaewas the most prevalent organism in general, the dominant species varied between different age groups. The commonly used antibiotics, cefuroxime and fluoroquinolone, showed higher antibiotic susceptibility. Despite prompt treatment, the visual outcomes of paediatric post-traumatic endophthalmitis in preschool children were poor.

ABSTRACTThe biological modulatory roles of many circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been validated in glioma. The current study was designed to research the functional mechanism of circ_0001162 in glioma progression. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used for assaying the levels of circ_0001162 and microRNA-936 (miR-936). Cell proliferation and colony formation abilities were evaluated via 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and colony formation assay, respectively. Transwell assay was applied to assess cell migration and invasion. The impact of circ_0001162 on glioma growth in vivo was performed using xenograft tumor assay. The target binding was affirmed via the dual-luciferase reporter and RNA pull-down assays. All protein expression levels were examined via Western blot. Circ_0001162 was an overexpressed circRNA in glioma. Circ_0001162 promoted glioma cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in vitro. Tumorigenesis of glioma in vivo was also enhanced by circ_0001162. Circ_0001162 could directly target miR-936 and the biological function of circ_0001162 in glioma was related to the inhibition of miR-936. ErbB2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 (ERBB4) was a direct target of miR-936. Additionally, miR-936 inhibited the glioma development via targeting ERBB4. The miR-936/ERBB4 axis was responsible for the oncogenic role of circ_0001162 in glioma. The effects of circ_0001162 on glioma cells were also associated with the positive regulation of ERBB4. These results indicated that circ_0001162 contributed to the glioma progression via regulating the miR-936/ERBB4 axis, which laid a foundation for the pathomechanism and molecular treatment of glioma.

Background/AimsTo analyse the clinical characteristics of intraocular foreign body (IOFB) injury in children and evaluate factors associated with endophthalmitis development.MethodsPatients aged <18 years with IOFB attending Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center between January 2003 and July 2016 were included retrospectively. Demographic features, clinical characteristics and factors associated with endophthalmitis development were analysed.ResultsConsecutive subjects (n=484, 484 eyes) were included: mean age 10.12±4.54 years, 86.4% male. Fireworks (28.5%) were the most common cause of injury. Injury of uncertain cause (17.5%), fireworks (36.7%) and metal splatter (31.7%) accounted for most injuries in the 0–3, 4–12 and 13–17 years age groups, respectively. Plant branches (16.7%) and fireworks (31.1%) were the most common causes of injuries in females and males, respectively. Endophthalmitis occurred in 116 patients (24.0%), with metallic IOFB (OR=0.338, p=0.001), intraocular haemorrhage (OR=0.100, p<0.001) and uveal tissue prolapse (OR=0.206, p<0.001) conferring lower risk, while zone II wound (OR=4.336, p<0.001) and traumatic lens rupture (OR=2.567, p=0.028) were associated with higher risk.ConclusionClinical characteristics of children with IOFB injury differ from those of adults. Fireworks are the most common cause of injury, indicating a ban on children igniting fireworks should be advocated. Safety education and protective measures should vary by age and sex. Endophthalmitis is associated with zone II wound, traumatic lens rupture, IOFB material, intraocular haemorrhage and uveal tissue prolapse, which has clinical relevance.

(S)-1-(4-Methoxybenzyl)-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8-octahydroisoquinoline ((S)-1-(4-methoxybenzyl)-OHIQ) is the key intermediate of the nonopioid antitussive dextromethorphan. In this study, (S)-IR61-V69Y/P123A/W179G/F182I/L212V (M4) was identified with a 766-fold improvement in catalytic efficiency compared with wide-type IR61 through enzyme engineering. M4 could completely convert 200 mM of 1-(4-methoxybenzyl)-3,4,5,6,7,8-hexahydroisoquinoline into (S)-1-(4-methoxybenzyl)-OHIQ in 77% isolated yield, with >99% enantiomeric excess and a high space–time yield of 542 g L–1day–1, demonstrating a great potential for the synthesis of dextromethorphan intermediate in industrial applications.

This study determined the potential of formic acid plus monolaurin (FA + ML) as an alternative to antibiotics in diet when piglets are challenged with ETEC. Piglets fed the FA + ML diet had lower fecal score and rectal temperature after the ETEC challenge. In addition, FA + ML supplementation induced lower plasma TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β concentration postchallenge, downregulated the mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and TLR4 in the ileum and TLR4 and CFTR in the jejunum. Phosphorylation levels of NF-κB p65 and MAPK p38 were reduced in the ileum of piglets fed FA + ML diet. Supplementation of FA + ML increased the relative abundance of genera Lactobacillusespecially Lactobacillus amylovorusspecies and decreased the genus abundances of Actinobacillus, unidentified Enterobacteriaceae, Moraxella. Collectively, the combination of formic acid and monolaurin in diets have the potential to be an antibiotic alternative to mitigate inflammatory response in piglets challenged with ETEC.

Currently, there have been widespread investigation conducted into responsive photonic crystal hydrogels (RPCHs) characterized by high selectivity and sensitivity for colorimetric indicators and physical/chemical sensors. In spite of this, it remains challenging to use RPCHs for sensing due to their limited mechanical property and molding capability. In the present study, a double-network structure is proposed to design highly stretchable, sensitive, and reusable ion-detection photonic papers (IDPPs) for assessing the quality of visual and portable comestible liquids (e.g., soy sauce). It is constructed by integrating polyacrylamide and poly-methacryloxyethyl trimethyl ammonium chloride with highly ordered polystyrene microspheres. The double-network structure improves the mechanical properties of IDPPs with their elongation at break increasing from 110 to 1600%. Meanwhile, the optical properties of photonic crystals are retained. The IDPPs achieve a fast ion response by applying control on the swelling behavior of the hydration radius of the counter ions through ion exchange. Given a certain concentration range (0.01–0.10 M), chloride ions can be detected fast (3–30 s) by exchanging ions with a small hydration radius through an IDPP, which is clearly observable. Due to the improvement of mechanical properties and the reversible exchange of ions derived from IDPPs, their reusability is significantly enhanced (>30 times). Characterized by a simple operation, high durability, and excellent sustainability, these IDPPs are promising for practical application in food security and human health assessment.

Strategies to increase feed intake are of great importance for producing more meat in swine production. Intestinal and hypothalamic amino acid receptors are found to largely participate in feed intake regulation. The purpose of the current research is to study the function of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation in the regulation of feed intake through sensors that can detect amino acids in piglets. Twenty-four piglets were assigned one of four treatments and fed one of the experimental diets for either a short period (Expt. 1) or a long period (Expt. 2): a normal protein diet (NP, 20.04% CP), a reduced-protein diet (RP, 17.05% CP), or a reduced-protein test diet supplemented with one of two doses of BCAAs (BCAA1, supplemented with 0.13% l-isoleucine, 0.09% l-leucine, and 0.23% l-valine; BCAA2, supplemented with the 150% standardized ileal digestibility BCAA requirement, as recommended by the National Research Council (2012)). In Expt. 1, no differences were observed in the feed intake among piglets fed different diets (P> 0.05). In Expt. 2, compared with the RP group, the feed intake of piglets was significantly increased after sufficient BCAAs were supplemented in the BCAA1 group, which was associated with decreased cholecystokinin secretion (P< 0.05), down-regulated expression of type-1 taste receptors 1/3 (T1R1/T1R3) in the intestine, as well as increased expression of pro-opiomelanocortin, activated general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2), and eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) in the hypothalamus (P< 0.05). However, the feed intake was decreased for unknown reasons when the piglets were fed a BCAA over-supplemented diet. Our study confirmed that a BCAA-deficient diet inhibited feed intake through two potential ways: regulating the amino acid T1R1/T1R3 receptor in the intestine or activating GCN2/eIF2α pathways in the hypothalamus.

Cathode interlayers (CILs) with low-cost, low-toxicity, and excellent cathode modification ability are necessary for the large-scale industrialization of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this contribution, we demonstrated one-pot synthesized carbon quantum dots (C-dots) with high production to serve as efficient CIL for inverted PSCs. The C-dots were synthesized by a facile, economical microwave pyrolysis in a household microwave oven within 7 min. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) studies showed that the C-dots possessed the ability to form a dipole at the interface, resulting in the decrease of the work function (WF) of cathode. External quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements and 2D excitation–emission topographical maps revealed that the C-dots down-shifted the high energy near-ultraviolet light to low energy visible light to generate more photocurrent. Remarkably improvement of power conversion efficiency (PCE) was attained by incorporation of C-dots as CIL. The PCE was boosted up from 4.14% to 8.13% with C-dots as CIL, which is one of the best efficiency for i-PSCs used carbon based materials as interlayers. These results demonstrated that C-dots can be a potential candidate for future low cost and large area PSCs producing.

With the rapid growth of network bandwidth, increases in CPU cores on a single machine, and application API models demanding more short-lived connections, a scalable TCP stack is performance-critical. Although many clean-state designs have been proposed, production environments still call for a bottom-up parallel TCP stack design that is backward-compatible with existing applications. We present Fastsocket, a BSD Socket-compatible and scalable kernel socket design, which achieves table-level connection partition in TCP stack and guarantees connection locality for both passive and active connections. Fastsocket architecture is a ground up partition design, from NIC interrupts all the way up to applications, which naturally eliminates various lock contentions in the entire stack. Moreover, Fastsocket maintains the full functionality of the kernel TCP stack and BSD-socket-compatible API, and thus applications need no modifications. Our evaluations show that Fastsocket achieves a speedup of 20.4x on a 24-core machine under a workload of short-lived connections, outperforming the state-of-the-art Linux kernel TCP implementations. When scaling up to 24 CPU cores, Fastsocket increases the throughput of Nginx and HAProxy by 267% and 621% respectively compared with the base Linux kernel. We also demonstrate that Fastsocket can achieve scalability and preserve BSD socket API at the same time. Fastsocket is already deployed in the production environment of Sina WeiBo, serving 50 million daily active users and billions of requests per day.

We present a simple yet efficient method for orienting cellulose nanofibrils in layer-by-layer assembled films through spray-assisted alignment. While spraying at 90° against a receiving surface produces films with homogeneous in-plane orientation, spraying at smaller angles causes a macroscopic directional surface flow of liquid on the receiving surface and leads to films with substantial in-plane anisotropy when nanoscale objects with anisotropic shapes are used as components. First results with cellulose nanofibrils demonstrate that such fibrils are easily aligned by grazing incidence spraying to yield optically birefringent films over large surface areas. We show that the cellulosic nanofibrils are oriented parallel to the spraying direction and that the orientational order depends for example on the distance of the receiving surface from the spray nozzle. The alignment of the nanofibrils and the in-plane anisotropy of the films were independently confirmed by atomic force microscopy, optical microscopy between crossed polarizers, and the ellipsometric determination of the apparent refractive index of the film as a function of the in-plane rotation of the sample with respect to the plane of incidence of the ellipsometer.

In the context of green development, the use of solar cells with renewable and environment-friendly characteristics has been rapidly growing. There has been a continuous search for materials that can enhance their performance. Black phosphorus, a new type of semiconductor material, has garnered significant attention due to its distinctive properties, particularly its direct band gap with tunable layers and high optoelectronic efficiency. This review summarizes the properties of black-phosphorus-based materials and focuses on their use as doping materials in various components of solar cells, such as the electron transport layer, hole transport layer, active layer, etc. The current challenges faced by black phosphorus materials and outlook on their future development have also been discussed.