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High-performance eco-friendly all-polymer solar cells were realized by balancing the crystallinity and domain size via hot halogen-free solvent slot-die coating.

The morphology with strong molecular packing order and gradient vertical composition distribution associated with efficient charge transport and collection is critical to achieve high performance in nonfullerene solar cells. However, the rapid solidification process of the active layer upon the fast removal of solvent usually results in a kinetically trapped state with undesired morphology. Herein, we proposed a strategy to extend the crystal growth time of the acceptor via a high-boiling-point additive that selectively dissolved the acceptor. This was enabled by adding dibenzyl ether (DBE) to the poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT):O-IDTBR blend in chlorobenzene (CB) solution. The combination of the kinetic study by time-resolved ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption spectra and detailed morphological characterization allows us to correlate the crystallization kinetics with the microstructural transition. The results show that the crystal growth time of O-IDTBR increases from 3 to 60 s upon the addition of 0.75% DBE, leading to further evolution of the molecular order of O-IDTBR during the DBE-dominated drying period. Meanwhile, O-IDTBR has more time to migrate toward the substrate owing to the larger surface energy. In addition, the onset of the crystallization process of P3HT is brought forward from 8 to 6 s due to the reduced solvent quality, which favors P3HT to crystallize into a fibril network. As a result, an optimized morphology that features the enhanced molecular packing order of P3HT and O-IDTBR as well as the vertical compositional gradient of O-IDTBR is obtained. Devices based on the optimized blend show more balanced charge transport and suppressed bimolecular recombination, giving rise to an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 4.29 ± 0.04 to 7.30 ± 0.12%.

According to the vehicle dynamics model and the requirements of reliable safety and minimal time, the path planning problem of parking in different types of parking spaces is solved by obstacle avoidance analysis and motion analysis in the case of the optimal solution, and the parking trajectory from the initial position to the designated parking space is obtained. In the static situation, different parking spaces in the parking space are occupied; analyze the parking space type, parking space left and right occupancy situation, and the distance between the vacant parking space and the starting point location of unoccupied cars; and establish the attribute information matrix R0 of the vacant parking space and calculate the KMO value of the matrix R0. This is completed to determine the weak correlation between the attributes of the vacant parking space and use the matrix R0 as the original evaluation matrix of the entropy weight method, using the entropy weight method to calculate the three attributes of parking space type, parking space left and right occupancy situation, and distance between starting point and parking space. These results are weighted in the optimal parking space selection process, the difficulty score of the vacant parking space is determined, and the optimal parking space is determined through the ranking of the scores. In the dynamic case, the number of parking spaces and parking space usage will change over time, with the help of the Bayesian network, the existing parking spaces and number of spaces in the parking lot at the previous moment are learned according to the computer clock, which can be used to reason about the number of parking spaces and parking space availability in the parking lot at the next moment. The weights of the three attributes of parking space type, parking space left and right situation, and distance between the starting point and parking space are updated in the case of a dynamic change of parking space, and then the parking difficulty score of a new vacant parking space using the entropy weight method is used to select the optimal parking space in the dynamic situation. The optimized parking path planning and parking space selection method could contribute to enhancing parking efficiency for the sustainable management of indoor parking lots.

(1) The defects were passivated and the energy levels aligned at the SnO2/perovskite interface by using EOAI. (2) A champion efficiency of 22.61% was realized for the 1.57 eV PSC and a PCE close to 20% was realized for the 1.68 eV PSC with higher stability.

Siloxane with low surface tension can regulate the intermolecular interactions, and optimize the phase separation morphology and molecule stacking, finally contributing to an excellent PCE of 16.4% with small energy loss for ASM-OSCs.

Highly efficient organic solar cells were fabricated by slot-die coating in an open-air environment without additives and any additional treatment by modulating kinetic processes of phase separation and aggregation behaviors.

An efficient organic solar cell with superior deformability with an efficiency of 17.3% and a crack-onset strain of 8.8% is fabricated by diluting the small molecule content through incorporating another polymer donor with suitable miscibility.

Breast cancer (BC) is a serious threat to women’s health and metastasis is the major cause of BC-associated mortality. Various techniques are currently used to preoperatively describe the metastatic status of tumors, based on which a comprehensive treatment protocol was determined. However, accurately staging a tumor before surgery remains a challenge, which may lead to the miss of optimal treatment options. More severely, the failure to detect and remove occult micrometastases often causes tumor recurrences. There is an urgent need to develop a more precise and non-invasive strategy for the detection of the tumor metastasis in lymph nodes and distant organs. Based on the facts that tumor metastasis is closely related to the primary tumor microenvironment (TME) evolutions and that metabolomics profiling of the circulatory system can precisely reflect subtle changes within TME, we suppose whether metabolomic technology can be used to achieve non-invasive and real-time monitoring of BC metastatic status. In this study, the metastasis status of BC mouse models with different tumor-bearing times was firstly depicted to mimic clinical anatomic TNM staging system. Metabolomic profiling together with metastasis-related changes in TME among tumor-bearing mice with different metastatic status was conducted. A range of differential metabolites reflecting tumor metastatic states were screened and in vivo experiments proved that two main metastasis-driving factors in TME, TGF-β and hypoxia, were closely related to the regular changes of these metabolites. The differential metabolites level changes were also preliminarily confirmed in a limited number of clinical BC samples. Metabolite lysoPC (16:0) was found to be useful for clinical N stage diagnosis and the possible cause of its changes was analyzed by bioinformatics techniques.

In contrast to classical bulk heterojunction (BHJ) in organic solar cells (OSCs), the quasi-homojunction (QHJ) with extremely low donor content (≤10 wt.%) is unusual and generally yields much lower device efficiency. Here, representative polymer donors and nonfullerene acceptors are selected to fabricate QHJ OSCs, and a complete picture for the operation mechanisms of high-efficiency QHJ devices is illustrated. PTB7-Th:Y6 QHJ devices at donor:acceptor (D:A) ratios of 1:8 or 1:20 can achieve 95% or 64% of the efficiency obtained from its BHJ counterpart at the optimal D:A ratio of 1:1.2, respectively, whereas QHJ devices with other donors or acceptors suffer from rapid roll-off of efficiency when the donors are diluted. Through device physics and photophysics analyses, it is observed that a large portion of free charges can be intrinsically generated in the neat Y6 domains rather than at the D/A interface. Y6 also serves as an ambipolar transport channel, so that hole transport as also mainly through Y6 phase. The key role of PTB7-Th is primarily to reduce charge recombination, likely assisted by enhancing quadrupolar fields within Y6 itself, rather than the previously thought principal roles of light absorption, exciton splitting, and hole transport.

Efficient exciton diffusion and charge transport play a vital role in advancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, a facile strategy is presented to simultaneously enhance exciton/charge transport of the widely studied PM6:Y6-based OSCs by employing highly emissive trans-bis(dimesitylboron)stilbene (BBS) as a solid additive. BBS transforms the emissive sites from a more H-type aggregate into a more J-type aggregate, which benefits the resonance energy transfer for PM6 exciton diffusion and energy transfer from PM6 to Y6. Transient gated photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements indicate that addition of BBS improves the exciton diffusion coefficient of PM6 and the dissociation of PM6 excitons in the PM6:Y6:BBS film. Transient absorption spectroscopy measurements confirm faster charge generation in PM6:Y6:BBS. Moreover, BBS helps improve Y6 crystallization, and current-sensing atomic force microscopy characterization reveals an improved charge-carrier diffusion length in PM6:Y6:BBS. Owing to the enhanced exciton diffusion, exciton dissociation, charge generation, and charge transport, as well as reduced charge recombination and energy loss, a higher PCE of 17.6% with simultaneously improved open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, and fill factor is achieved for the PM6:Y6:BBS devices compared to the devices without BBS (16.2%).

Herein, a dual-mode sensing platform using cationic N,N-bis(2-(trimethylammonium iodide)propylene)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxydiimide (PDA+)-assembled DNA strands as a quencher was suggested for estradiol (E2) detection. The aptamer chain was initially anchored with the Ru(II) novel molecule (Ru complex), which was recombined with carbohydrazide (CON4H6) and tris(4,4'-dicarboxylicacid-2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) dichloride [Ru(dcbpy)32+] modified on copper oxide (CuO) nanospheres. Intramolecular electrochemiluminescence (ECL) occurring between CON4H6 and Ru(dcbpy)32+ effectively improved the reaction rate and increased the ECL efficiency. By employing effective van der Waals' force, PDA+ was endowed with an efficient ECL quenching probe on an electrode. The signal on the ECL interface can be converted into quenching because of energy transfer between the intercalator and the emitter. Notably, cationic PDA+ possessing a large planar π-π skeleton improved advantageous activity of redox and DNA aptamer indurative loading capacity and directly generated a well-defined cathodic peak to execute the EC bio-detection. This method not only avoids the difficulty of assembling various signal indicators but also improves the sensitivity greatly using the quenching mechanism. In addition, disparate double-response signals coming from different principles of transduction are in a position to verify each other to improve the accuracy. Hence, examination areas of 0.001-100 nM with E2 for ECL and EC were obtained, supplying a novel sensing strategy with promising ideas and perspectives of detection platform construction.

Organic solar cells (OSCs) are promising candidates for next-generation photovoltaic technologies, with their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) reaching 19%. However, the typically used spin-coating method, toxic halogenated processing solvents, and the conventional bulk-heterojunction (BHJ), which causes excessive charge recombination, hamper the commercialization and further efficiency promotion of OSCs. Here, a simple but effective dual-slot-die sequential processing (DSDS) strategy is proposed to address the above issues by achieving a continuous solution supply, avoiding the solubility limit of the nonhalogen solvents, and creating a graded-BHJ morphology. As a result, an excellent PCE of 17.07% is obtained with the device processed with o-xylene in an open-air environment with no post-treatment required, while a PCE of over 14% is preserved in a wide range of active-layer thickness. The unique film-formation mechanism is further identified during the DSDS processing, which suggests the formation of the graded-BHJ morphology by the mutual diffusion between the donor and acceptor and the subsequent progressive aggregation. The graded-BHJ structure leads to improved charge transport, inhibited charge recombination, and thus an excellent PCE. Therefore, the newly developed DSDS approach can effectively contribute to the realm of high-efficiency and eco-friendly OSCs, which can also possibly be generalized to other organic photoelectric devices.

Short half-life is one of the main causes of drug attrition in clinical development, which also leads to the failure of many leading compounds and hits to become drug candidates. Nowadays, nanomaterials have been applied to drug development to address this problem. In fact, the clinical application of nanoparticles (NPs) is severely limited due to their rapid elimination by the reticuloendothelial system (RES) in vivo. In this paper, we aim to summarize representative strategies on prolonging the circulation time for bridging the gap between excellent pharmaceutics and proper half-life and encourage clinical translation.

Object detectors using deep learning are currently used in various situations, including robot demonstration experiments, owing to their high accuracy. However, there are some problems in the creation of training data, such as the fact that a lot of labor is required for human annotations, and the method of providing training data needs to be carefully considered because the recognition accuracy decreases due to environmental changes such as lighting. In the Nakanoshima Challenge, an autonomous mobile robot competition, it is challenging to detect three types of garbage with red labels. In this study, we developed a garbage detector by semi-automating the annotation process through detection of labels using colors and by preparing training data by changing the lighting conditions in three ways depending on the brightness. We evaluated the recognition accuracy on the university campus and addressed the challenge of using the discriminator in the competition. In this paper, we report these results.

This work outlines an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) platform with versatile and high-performance, which using the complex luminescent molecules [Ru(Ⅱ) complex] formed by carbohydrazide (...

Expression of the E3 ligase TRIM21 is increased in a broad spectrum of cancers; however, the functionally relevant molecular pathway targeted by TRIM21 overexpression remains largely unknown. Here, we show that TRIM21 directly interacts with and ubiquitinates CLASPIN, a mediator for ATR-dependent CHK1 activation. TRIM21-mediated K63-linked ubiquitination of CLASPIN counteracts the K6-linked ubiquitination of CLASPIN which is essential for its interaction with TIPIN and subsequent chromatin loading. We further show that overexpression of TRIM21, but not a TRIM21 catalytically inactive mutant, compromises CHK1 activation, leading to replication fork instability and tumorigenesis. Our findings demonstrate that TRIM21 suppresses CHK1 activation by preferentially targeting CLASPIN for K63-linked ubiquitination, providing a potential target for cancer therapy.

Improving charge extraction and suppressing charge recombination are critically important to minimize the loss of absorbed photons and improve the device performance of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this work, highly efficient PSCs are demonstrated by progressively improving the charge extraction and suppressing the charge recombination through the combination of side-chain engineering of new nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs), adopting ternary blends, and introducing volatilizable solid additives. The 2D side chains on BTP-Th induce a certain steric hindrance for molecular packing and phase separation, which is mitigated by fluorination of side chains on BTP-FTh. Moreover, by introducing two highly crystalline molecules as the second acceptor and volatilizable solid additive, respectively, into the BTP-FTh-based host blend, the molecular crystallinity is significantly improved and the blend morphology is finely optimized. As expected, enhanced charge extraction and suppressed charge recombination are progressively realized, contributing to the largely improved fill factor (FF) of the resultant devices. Accompanied by the enhanced open-circuit voltage (V

The high density of defects in MAPbI

A highly efficient quench-type electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was proposed for the trace detection of amyloid β-protein (Aβ1–42). In this work, tin disulfide nanoflowers (SnS2 NFs) with large specific surface area, favorable catalytic property and chemical stability were prepared and used as substrate material. Taking advantage of the excellent catalytic ability and biocompatibility, palladium nanoparticles (Pd NPs) were in situ reduced on SnS2 NFs to obtain SnS2-Pd. Moreover it could combine with large amounts of luminol and achieve a strong ECL signal output. In addition, copper doped mesoporous tungsten trioxide (Cu:WO3) nanoparticles were selected to quench ECL emission of luminol@SnS2-Pd via resonance energy transfer, where luminol@SnS2-Pd was the donor and Cu:WO3 was the acceptor. On this basis, a quench-type ECL immunosensor was constructed for detection of Aβ1–42. Under optimum conditions, the fabricated ECL immunosensor showed sensitive response to Aβ1–42 concentration from 0.1 pg/mL to 50 ng/mL with a low detection limit of 5.4 fg/mL (S/N = 3). It is expected to be a promising analytical tool for the sensitive detection of Aβ1–42 and other biomarkers with high specificity, good reproducibility and long-term stability.

Nowadays, the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor with the unique superiority of tunable luminescence and ultrahigh sensitivity has become one of the most promising immunoassay techniques, especially for low-abundance biomarkers analysis. However, the use of signal probes with high excited potential and applied emitters which owned good intensity but biotoxicity limited its application. Herein, an ECL resonance energy transfer strategy was developed based on protein bioactivity protection utilizing europium-doped phosphoric acid gadolinium (GdPO

The expansion of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology to immunoassay at the core of care emphasizes all immune molecules will not be inactivated in the analysis process. That poses a major challenge to ECL-based biosensors due to the deoxynucleotide sequences of an antigen or antibody could be oxidized through a route of excessive cyclic potential. Herein, an ultrasensitive ECL biosensor was developed based on a novel bioactivity-protected sensing strategy utilizing Au nanoclusters (Au NCs) as low-potential luminophor for detection of procalcitonin (PCT). Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-templated Au NCs exhibited a low-potential anodic ECL signal in triethylamine (TEA) solution at 0.87 V, where it is suitable for the survival of immune molecules. Taking advantage of good conductivity and high surface area, a Cu

Herein, a highly efficient dual-quenching biosensor based on electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) is designed utilizing Ru-In

Promoting efficiency, deformability, and life expectancy of stretchable organic solar cells (OSCs) have always been key concerns that researchers are committed to solving. However, how to improve them simultaneously remains challenging, as morphology parameters, such as ordered molecular arrangement, beneficial for highly efficient devices actually limits mechanical stability and deformability. In this study, the unfavorable trade-off among these properties has been reconciled in an all-polymer model system utilizing a mechanically deformable guest component. The success of this strategy stems from introducing a highly ductile component without compromising the pristine optimized morphology. Preferable interaction between two donors can maintain the fiber-like structure while enhancing the photocurrent to improve efficiency. Morphology evolution detected via grazing incidence X-ray scattering and in situ UV-vis absorption spectra during stretching have verified the critical role of strengthened interaction on stabilizing morphology against external forces. The strengthened interaction also benefits thermal stability, enabling the ternary films with small efficiency degradation after heating 1500 h under 80 °C. This work highlights the effect of morphology evolution on mechanical stability and provides new insights from the view of intermolecular interaction to fabricate highly efficient, stable, and stretchable/wearable OSCs.

A highly efficient quench-type electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was proposed for the trace detection of amyloid β-protein (Aβ

Organic and inorganic drug delivery systems both demonstrate their own advantages and challenges in practical applications. Combining these two drug delivery strategies in one system is expected to solve their current issues and achieve desirable functions. In this paper, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and liposomes have been chosen as the model systems to construct a hybrid system and investigate its performance for the tumor therapy of Paclitaxel (PTX). The thiol-terminated polyethylene glycol (PEG400)-PTX derivative has been covalently modified on the surface of GNPs, followed by the encapsulation of PTX-conjugated GNPs (PTX-PEG400@GNPs) in liposomes. The hybrid liposomes solve the solubility and stability problems of gold conjugates and show high drug loading capacity. In vitro PTX release from the hybrid system maintains the similar sustained behavior demonstrated in its conjugates. Under the protection of a biocompatible liposome shell, encapsulated PTX shows enhanced circulation longevity and liver targetability compared to Taxol(®) and PTX-PEG400@GNPs suspension in the pharmacokinetic and biodistribution studies. These indicate that encapsulating drug-conjugated inorganic nanoparticles inside organic carriers maintains the superiority of both vehicles and improves the performance of hybrid systems. Although these attributes of hybrid liposomes lead to a better therapeutic capacity in a murine liver cancer model than that of the comparison groups, it shows no significant difference from Taxol(®) and conjugate suspension. This result could be due to the delayed and sustained drug release from the system. However, it indicates the promising potential for these hybrid liposomes will allow further construction of a compound preparation with improved performance that is based on their enhanced longevity and liver targetability of Paclitaxel.

In order to find the vitamin D receptor (VDR) ligand whose VDR agonistic activity is separated from the calcemic activity sufficiently, novel nonsecosteroidal analogs with phenyl–pyrrolyl pentane skeleton were synthesized and evaluated for the VDR binding affinity, antiproliferative activity in vitro and serum calcium raising ability in vivo (tacalcitol used as control). Among them, several compounds showed varying degrees of VDR agonistic and growth inhibition activities of the tested cell lines. The most effective compound 2g (EC 50 : 1.06 nM) exhibited stronger VDR agonistic activity than tacalcitol (EC 50 : 7.05 nM), inhibited the proliferations of HaCaT and MCF-7 cells with IC50 of 2.06 μM and 0.307 μM (tacalcitol: 2.07 μM and 0.057 μM) and showed no significant effect on serum calcium.

Tiopronin-conjugated gold nanoparticles (TPN@GNPs), with glutathione (GSH)-responsive drug release property, were developed for acute liver injury therapy. The TPN@GNPs were prepared using a one-pot synthesis method and characterized by UV-vis and transmission electronic microscopy methods. The TPN@GNPs displayed typical surface plasmon resonance of nanogold with a narrow size distribution (ca. 2 nm). The in vitro drug release profiles of the conjugates indicated that TPN@GNPs were able to release TPN in a sustained fashion for 4 h at a simulated intracellular level of GSH. pH values or ionic strengths of the release media had no obvious influence on TPN release from the surface of nanoparticles. The pharmacokinetic studies in rats showed that the TPN@GNPs had longer MRT (7.71 h) than TPN (3.96 h), indicating sustained release pattern of TPN@GNPs in vivo. The sustained release of TPN at the relative high GSH concentration could ameliorate the instability of TPN and enable the drug release in the target cells. Although the IC50 value of TPN@GNPs with TPN/AuCl4(-) of 3:1 (mol/mol) showed slight increase in comparison with that of the free TPN in HepG2 cells (1.26±1.07 vs. 1.73±1.16 mg/mL), the TPN@GNPs displayed better effects over TPN in the treatment of acute liver injury in vivo. In a liver injury mice model induced by CCl4, the histological analysis showed both the TPN@GNPs and free TPN group could repair the liver injury. In addition, the biochemical parameters showed TPN@GNPs could reduced the aminotransferase to a lower level compared with TPN, which might be due to the sustained drug release and passive liver targeting properties of TPN@GNPs. It demonstrated that gold nanoparticle-based drug delivery system allowed smart functions and superior properties by taking advantages of the unique small size effects and surface chemical properties.

Toonaciliatin K is a natural limonoid purified from the Toona ciliata Roem. var. ciliata (Meliaceae). This study is to reveal the inflammatory suppression effect of toonaciliatin K and further the intrinsic mechanism. Firstly, anti-inflammatory effect of toonaciliatin K was evaluated in lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced RAW264.7 cells. RT-PCR results indicated that the mRNA expressions of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β were downregulated by toonaciliatin K. The toonaciliatin K inhibited TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β levels stimulated by LPS. Furthermore, LPS elicited the excess iNOS and COX-2 mRNA and protein production and toonaciliatin K attenuated the excess production. Western blot assay demonstrated that MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways play critical roles in the toonaciliatin K’s anti-inflammatory activity. Secondly, toonaciliatin K inhibited carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats. Thirdly, toonaciliatin K alleviated the paw swelling and improved arthritis clinical scores in the adjuvant arthritis rats. Toonaciliatin K decreased the proinflammatory cytokines levels and Mankin scores in adjuvant arthritis rats. The HE staining, safranin O-fast green, and toluidine blue staining results demonstrated that toonaciliatin K alleviated the histological changes of paw, for example, pannus formation, focal loss of cartilage, bone erosion, and presence of extra-articular inflammation. Hence, toonaciliatin K is a promising agent for treatment of arthritis.

In this study, a novel amphiphilic copolymer designed as N-octyl-N-phthalyl-3,6-O-(2-hydroxypropyl) chitosan (OPHPC) were synthesized and then conjugated with folic acid (FA-OPHPC) to produce a targeted drug carrier for tumor-specific drug delivery. OPHPC and FA-OPHPC were characterized by FT-IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and elemental analysis. Paclitaxel (PTX) loaded OPHPC micelles (PTX-OPHPC) with well-defined spherical shape and homogeneous distribution exhibited drug-loading rate ranging from 33.6% to 45.3% and entrapment efficiency from 50.5% to 82.8%. In the cellular uptake studies, PTX-OPHPC brought about a significantly higher amount of PTX accumulated in human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7 cells) compared with Taxol. Moreover, the cellular uptake of PTX in PTX loaded FA-OPHPC micelles (PTX-FA-OPHPC) was 3.2-fold improved in comparison with that of PTX-OPHPC. The results revealed that OPHPC micelle might be a promising drug carrier for promoting PTX cellular uptake and FA-OPHPC micelle could be used as a potential tumor-targeted drug vector.

Zwitterionic oligopeptide liposomes (HHG2C(18)-L) containing a smart lipid (1,5-dioctadecyl-L-glutamyl 2-histidyl-hexahydrobenzoic acid, HHG2C(18)) are developed to overcome the barriers faced by anticancer drugs on the route from the site of injection into the body to the final antitumor target within transport steps with multiple physiological and biological barriers. HHG2C(18)-L show the multistage pH-responsive to the tumor cell (the mitochondria in this case). Their multistage pH response leads to more effective entry of the tumor cell, improved escape from the endolysosomes, and accumulation at the mitochondria (see picture).