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The abundant defects on the perovskite surface greatly impact the efficiency improvement and long-term stability of carbon-based perovskite solar cells. Molecules with electron-donating or electron-withdrawing functional groups have been cited for passivating various defects. However, few studies have investigated the potential adverse effects arising from the synergistic interactions among functional groups. Herein, we investigate the correlation between functional group configurations and passivation strength as well as the potential adverse impacts of strong electrostatic structures by methodically designing three distinct interface molecules functionalized with different ending groups, which both belong to biguanide derivatives, including 1-(3,4-dichlorophenyl) biguanide hydrochloride (DBGCl), metformin hydrochloride (MFCl), and biguanide hydrochloride (BGCl). The results indicate that DBGCl establishes comparatively mild active sites, not only passivates defects but also aids in forming a surface with a uniform potential. Conversely, MFCl exerts a more pronounced adverse effect on the perovskite surface, which is attributable to the electronic state perturbations induced by its functional groups. Due to the lack of hydrophobic groups, devices treated with BGCl demonstrate insufficient moisture resistance. Devices passivated with DBGCl demonstrate superior average efficiency, showcasing a 12% enhancement relative to the pristine. Furthermore, DBGCl-treated devices exhibit enhanced stability in three different environments, respectively, achieving the highest PCE retention rates under nitrogen conditions (25 °C), room-temperature air conditions (25 °C, RH = 40 ± 2%), and high-temperature air conditions (65 °C, RH = 40 ± 2%).

Human activities are increasingly pressuring the land system and biosphere integrity, highlighting the urgency to manage this pressure—measured as human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP)—within a safe limit (planetary boundary) to avoid catastrophic consequences. Prior studies have suggested that solutions lie in demand management, yet the HANPP consumption by country and its future trends remain unclear. Understanding these aspects is vital for identifying hotspot regions and proposing potential solutions. Here, by developing a model for country-level HANPP consumption accounting and projections, we find that nearly half of high-income countries have surpassed their per-capita HANPP limits. Meanwhile, HANPP consumption in low- and middle-income countries is set to rise rapidly, posing future challenges. We emphasize the necessity for global cooperation in restructuring supply chains and sharing agricultural technologies. Our findings offer insights into how to diminish stresses on the land system and biosphere integrity from the demand side.

There has been a longstanding debate about the impact of international trade on the environment and human well-being, yet there is little known about such environment and human well-being trade-off. Here, we explore the effect of international trade on the carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB) globally under the current global trade system and a hypothetical no-trade scenario. We found that between 1995 and 2015, CIWB of 41% of countries declined and 59% of countries increased, caused by international trade, and this resulted in a reduction of the global CIWB and a decline in CIWB inequality between countries. International trade decreased CIWB for high- and upper-middle-income countries and increased CIWB for lower- and middle-income countries. In addition, our results also show that decreases in emission intensity are the most important driver of lower CIWB and the percentage contribution of emission intensity to the improvement in CIWB increases with income. The reduction of emission intensity, population growth, and increase in life expectancy all contribute to CIWB reduction, while the consumption level is the primary factor driving CIWB growth. Our results underscore the importance of studying the impact of international trade on the CIWB of countries at different stages of development.

Lithium-ion battery cells are widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) due to their high energy density and long lifespan. However, these cells are sensitive to temperature and can age at different rates depending on the temperature they are subjected to. While EV battery packs are equipped with a battery thermal management system (BTMS) to regulate the temperature of the pack, it cannot completely eliminate temperature gradient within the pack due to the limited cooling capabilities. As a result, a maximum temperature gradient of 5°C is allowed in BTMS designs for EVs, which leads to uneven ageing speeds within the pack. Due to practical limitations of battery management system (BMS), it is difficult to directly measure the currents flowing through each parallel-connected cell, making it challenging to actively balance the cells. To investigate the pack-level current distribution and ageing trends caused by temperature gradient, this paper adopts the low computational cost Lumped Single Particle Model (LSPM) coupled with Arrhenius dependency to investigate the influence of temperature on current distribution as well as the resulting unbalanced ageing rates among parallel-connected cells in a 4s6p Panasonic NCR18650PF battery pack.

Depression is a serious public-health issue. Recent reports have suggested higher susceptibility to viral infections in depressive patients. However, how depression affects antiviral innate immune signaling remains unknown. Here, we revealed a reduction in expression of Abelson helper integration site 1 (AHI1) in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and macrophages from the patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), which leads to attenuated antiviral immune response. We found that depression-related arginine vasopressin (AVP) induces reduction of AHI1 in macrophages. Further studies demonstrated that AHI1 is a critical stabilizer of basal type-I-interferon (IFN-I) signaling. Mechanistically, AHI1 recruits OTUD1 to deubiquitinate and stabilize Tyk2, while AHI1 reduction downregulates Tyk2 and IFN-I signaling activity in macrophages from both MDD patients and depression model mice. Interestingly, we identified a clinical analgesic meptazinol that effectively stimulates AHI1 expression, thus enhancing IFN-I antiviral defense in depression model mice. Our study promotes the understanding of the signaling mechanisms of depression-mediated antiviral immune dysfunction, and reveals meptazinol as an enhancer of antiviral innate immunity in depressive patients.

Asymmetric catalytic vinylogous Michael addition of 2-methyl-3,5-dinitrobenzoates to unsaturated ketones catalyzed by chiral rhodium catalysts has been established. This strategy allowed the synthesis of a variety of optically pure compounds containing imidazole and 3,5-dinitrobenzene skeletons in 64–98% yields with 88–98% ee. The developed reaction not only represents highly asymmetric catalytic enantioselective vinylogous Michael addition employing 2-methyl-3,5-dinitrobenzoates as a building block but also enriches the chemistry of catalytic asymmetric vinylogous Michael addition of 2-methyl-3,5-dinitrobenzoates. Furthermore, the protocol showed obvious advantages in reaction activity and enantioselectivity. When the chiral rhodium catalyst was reduced to 0.06 mol %, the gram-level reaction was still achieved to provide the desired product with 95% ee.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease with nearly 1.6 billion patients worldwide and an incidence of 0.5–1%. In recent years, basic and clinical studies have revealed that immune cell responses and corresponding secretion of inflammatory factors are important in the control of RA development. Our study found that a natural plant ingredient, menthone, could be used as a potential antirheumatism compound. In vivoobservations demonstrated that menthone alleviates collagen II-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. Furthermore, we found that menthone regulates the number of Th1 and Th17 cells in CIA mice. Importantly, menthone significantly inhibits the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, in CIA mice. Our study suggests a potential component for the development of drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Pentatrichomonas hominis, a flagellated parasitic protozoan, predominantly infects the mammalian digestive tract, often causing symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. However, studies investigating its pathogenicity are limited, and the mechanisms underlying P. hominis-induced diarrhea remain unclear. Establishing an in vitrocell model for P. hominisinfection is imperative. This study investigated the interaction between P. hominisand IPEC-J2 cells and its impact on parasite growth, adhesion, morphology, and cell viability. Co-cultivation of P. hominiswith IPEC-J2 cells resulted in exponential growth of the parasite, with peak densities reaching approximately 4.8 × 105cells/mL and 1.2 × 106cells/mL at 48 h for initial inoculation concentrations of 104cells/mL and 105cells/mL, respectively. The adhesion rate of P. hoministo IPEC-J2 cells reached a maximum of 93.82% and 86.57% at 24 h for initial inoculation concentrations of 104cells/mL and 105cells/mL, respectively. Morphological changes in IPEC-J2 cells co-cultivated with P. hominiswere observed, manifesting as elongated and irregular shapes. The viability of IPEC-J2 cells exhibited a decreasing trend with increasing P. hominisconcentration and co-cultivation time. Additionally, the mRNA expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were upregulated, whereas those of CAT and CuZn-SOD were downregulated. These findings provide quantitative evidence that P. hominiscan promote its growth by adhering to IPEC-J2 cells, inducing morphological changes, reducing cell viability, and triggering inflammatory responses. Further in vivostudies are warranted to confirm these results and enhance our understanding of P. hominisinfection.

Efforts to stabilize the global climate change while also continuing human development depend upon “decoupling” economic growth from fossil fuel CO2emissions. However, evaluations of such decoupling have typically relied on production-based emissions, which do not account for emissions embodied in international trade. Yet international trade can greatly change emissions accounting and reshape the decoupling between emissions and economic growth. Here, we evaluate decoupling of economic growth from different accounts of emissions in each of the 159 countries and analyze the drivers of decoupling. We find that between 1995 and 2015, although 29 countries exhibited strong decoupling of territorial emissions (growing economies and decreasing emissions), only 19 countries achieved economic growth while their consumption-based emissions decreased. Most developed countries have achieved decoupling of emissions related to domestic goods and services, but have not achieved decoupling of emissions related to imported goods and services. The U-test confirms that the domestic component of consumption-based emissions exhibits a stronger decoupling trend from gross domestic product (GDP) growth than consumption-based emissions, and emissions from imports continue to rise with GDP per capita without a corresponding decline, providing a statistical validation of the decoupling analysis. Moreover, in the countries where economic growth and consumption-based emissions are most decoupled, a key driver is decreasing emissions intensity due to technological progress─and especially reductions in the intensity of imported goods and services. Our results reveal the importance of assessing decoupling using consumption-based emissions; successful decoupling may require international cooperation and coordinated mitigation efforts of trading partners.

•Adding CAES to wind farm was economically investigated for Egyptian grid.•Economic investigation was carried out based on calculation of net present value.•Egyptian tariff for renewables was used to perform numerical analysis using MATLAB.•Operation of CAES system was compared for load-levelling and profit maximization.•Wind + CAES ($306 m) yield higher NPV compared to wind alone ($207 m), payback of 18 years.

•32 of 116 countries achieved absolute decoupling between GDP and PBE 2015–2018.•23 countries achieved absolute decoupling between GDP and CBE 2015–2018.•Decoupling is temporary, decoupled countries may switch back to increasing emissions.•Decoupling depends on reducing emission intensity along domestic and import supply chains.

•The proposed system creatively incorporates a polymer hollow fiber dehumidifier.•Air- to- solution specific humidity ratio, solution concentration are the most sensitive factors.•The numerical model is validated against experimental, analytical data and published literature.•The energy saving potential and dehumidification effectiveness have been reported.•A user-friendly table has been included as a design friendly tool without iterative modelling involved.