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Applying an asymmetric strategy to construct non-fullerene small-molecule acceptors (NFSMAs) in organic solar cells (OSCs) plays a vital role in the development of organic photovoltaic materials. In the past several years, taking advantage of the larger dipole moment and stronger intermolecular interactions, asymmetric NFSMAs have witnessed tremendous progress in OSCs with a power conversion efficiency of over 18%. From a structural point of view, besides the possible changes in the conformation effect on molecular packing, asymmetric acceptors can also achieve a balance between the solubility and the crystallinity. Herein, we systematically investigate the structure–property–performance relationships of asymmetric NFSMAs that have recently emerged and try to clarify the feasibility and practicality of an asymmetric strategy for the design of higher-performance NFSMAs. Finally, we put forward our views and a concise outlook on the asymmetric strategy., An asymmetric strategy to construct non-fullerene small-molecule acceptors in organic solar cells exhibits excellent potential and plays a vital role in the development of organic photovoltaic materials.

A ternary strategy is viable to minimize the trade-off between short-circuit current density (

To investigate the influence of thiophene-fused indanone or thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-fused indanone on acceptors, we designed and synthesized three molecules BTP-CC, BTP-TTC and BTP-TC. Impressively, a high open-circuit voltage (V oc) of 0.98 V was achieved in BTP-CC based device, which is one of the highest values based on A-DA′D-A type acceptors to date. The small ΔE HOMO (0.05 eV) between PBDB-T and BTP-TTC resulted in the inefficient exciton dissociation and charge transfer. Despite obtaining a relatively high V oc of 0.95 V, BTP-TTC based organic solar cell (OSC) displayed poor short-circuit current density (J sc) and efficiency. Compared with BTP-CC and BTP-TTC, BTP-TC exhibited red-shifted absorption and down-shifted energy levels. Benefiting from the increased crystallinity and the stronger intermolecular interaction, the device of PBDB-T:BTP-TC achieved improved charge dissociation, enhanced charge transport and suppressed charge recombination. Eventually, BTP-TC based OSC realized a higher efficiency of 13.57% with V oc of 0.86 V, J sc of 22.64 mA cm–2 and fill factor of 0.70. This systematic work provides an approach to improving V oc and establishes a guideline for developing A-DA′D-A type acceptors with thiophene- or thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-containing end group.

The actin cytoskeleton plays an important role in cell shape determination, adhesion and cell cycle progression. Ezrinradixin-moesin (ERM)-binding phosphoprotein 50 (EBP50), also known as Na(+)-H(+) exchanger regulatory factor 1 (NHERF1), associates with actin cytoskeleton and is related to cell cycle progression. Its Ser279 and Ser301 residues are phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (cdc2)/cyclin B during the mitosis phase. However, the biological significance of EBP50 phosphorylation mediated by cdc2/cyclin B is not clear. In the present study, MDA-MB-231 cells with low levels of endogenous EBP50 protein were stably transfected with constructs of EBP50 wild type (WT), phosphodeficient (serine 279 and serine 301 mutated to alanine-S279A/S301A) or phospho-mimetic (serine 279 and serine 301 mutated to aspartic acid-S279D/S301D) mutants. Subsequently, multiple phenotypes of these cells were characterized. Failure of cdc2/cyclin B-mediated EBP50 phosphorylation in cells expressing S279A/S301A (AA cells) significantly increased F-actin content, enhanced the adherence of cells to the extracellular matrix, altered cell morphology and caused defects in cytokinesis, as reflected in the formation of giant cells with heteroploid DNA and multinucleation or giant nuclei. Furthermore, knockdown of EBP50 expression in AA cells rescued cell defects such as the cytokinesis failure and abnormal cell morphology. EBP50 S279A/ S301A had a weaker binding affinity with actin than EBP50 S279D/S301D, which might explain the increase of F-actin content in the AA cells. The present results suggest that cdc2/cyclin B-mediated EBP50 phosphorylation may play a role in the regulation of various cell functions by affecting actin cytoskeleton reorganization.

This paper investigates the optimal taxi fleet size structure under monopoly and oligopoly market regimes when taxis are charged with the link-based toll. We proposed a bilevel programming model to take account of the interaction between taxi fleet size and different traffic modes in the network. The upper level is to determine the optimal taxi fleet structure so as to maximize the profit of each taxi firm. The lower-level is a combined network equilibrium model (CNEM) representing the travelers’ response to the equilibrium taxi fleet size structure when congestion toll is imposed on taxis. We show that the lower level problem can be formulated as an equivalent variational inequality formulation, which considers the hierarchical logit-based mode split, route choice, elastic demand, and vacant taxi distributions. The bilevel problem can be solved by an iterative heuristic solution algorithm, whereas the lower level model is solved by the block Gauss-Seidel decomposition approach together with method of successive averages. An application with numerical examples is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm, and some interesting findings are also provided.

The backgrounds and concepts of supply chain and value chain are systematically summarized and the viewpoints about the relations between supply chain and value chain of other literatures are introduced. By the means of comparison on their ranges, characters, aims and operation methods, a new viewpoint that supply chain is dynamic value chain has been brought forward and the developing tendency under context of the new economy has been discussed.

The development of China's logistics Industry has been affected by many factors in its Exterior service circumstance. system dynamics method has been used to analyze the relationships of theirs from the new angle. Via this way, a systemic frame has been presented. We can get the result that logistics industry and some factors of its service circumstance, such as market demand & supply, logistics infrastructure, service price and industry policy, are interactive and restrictive. There exists some basic positive or negative feedback loop.

The beta-2 adrenergic receptor (β2AR) has a carboxyl terminus motif that can interact with PSD-95/discs-large/ZO1 homology (PDZ) domain-containing proteins. In this paper, we identified membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted-3 (MAGI-3) as a novel binding partner of β2AR. The carboxyl terminus of β2AR binds with high affinity to the fifth PDZ domain of MAGI-3, with the last four amino acids (D-S-L-L) of the receptor being the key determinants of the interaction. In cells, the association of full-length β2AR with MAGI-3 occurs constitutively and is enhanced by agonist stimulation of the receptor. Our data also demonstrated that β2AR-stimulated extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) activation was substantially retarded by MAGI-3 expression. These data suggest that MAGI-3 regulates β2AR-mediated ERK activation through the physical interaction between β2AR and MAGI-3.Structured summaryMINT-7716556: beta2AR (uniprotkb:P07550) physically interacts (MI:0915) with MAGI-3 (uniprotkb:Q5TCQ9) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)MINT-7716593: beta2AR (uniprotkb:P18762) physically interacts (MI:0915) with MAGI-3 (uniprotkb:Q9EQJ9) by anti bait coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0006)MINT-7716630: MAGI-3 (uniprotkb:Q5TCQ9) and beta2AR (uniprotkb:P07550) colocalize (MI:0403) by fluorescence microscopy (MI:0416)MINT-7716382, MINT-7716335: MAGI-3 (uniprotkb:Q5TCQ9) physically interacts (MI:0915) with beta2AR (uniprotkb:P07550) by pull down (MI:0096)MINT-7716320, MINT-7716422, MINT-7716502, MINT-7716450, MINT-7716470: beta2AR (uniprotkb:P07550) binds (MI:0407) to MAGI-3 (uniprotkb:Q5TCQ9) by pull down (MI:0096)