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Music is well-known to elicit ergogenic effects on exercise performance; however, the moderating role of application timing remains unclear. This study examined the effects of the timing of music on fatigue perception and performance during isometric strength exercises. Using a within-subject, randomised crossover design, twelve recreationally active young adults performed two isometric strength tasks (plank-hold and wall-sit) in three separate conditions (MEE: music played during the entire exercise task; MDF: music played during fatigue alone; CON: no music). The total time to volitional exhaustion (TTE), time to the onset of fatigue perception (TFP), heart rate, and blood lactate responses were assessed during each trial. MEE resulted in a significantly longer TTE than CON in both the plank-hold (p < 0.05, d = 0.76) and wall-sit exercises (p < 0.05, d = 0.72), whereas MDF led to a significantly longer TTE than CON in wall-sit exercises alone (p < 0.05, d = 0.60). TFP was significantly longer in MEE than in CON in both the plank-hold (p < 0.05, d = 0.54) and wall-sit exercises (p < 0.05, d = 0.64). The music condition did not influence the heart rate or blood lactate changes in any of the trials. Our results suggest that listening to music during the entire exercise can delay the onset of fatigue perception in isometric strength tasks, whereas listening to music during fatigue has only a modest effect. Athletes and exercisers should consider extending music exposure throughout the entire exercise task to maximise performance benefits., (© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.)

Chloroquine was among the first of several effective drug treatments against malaria until the onset of chloroquine resistance. In light of diminished clinical efficacy of chloroquine as an antimalarial therapeutic, there is potential in efforts to adapt chloroquine for other clinical applications, such as in combination therapies and in diagnostics. In this context, we designed and synthesized a novel asymmetrical squaraine dye coupled with chloroquine (SQR1-CQ). In this study, SQR1-CQ was used to label live Plasmodium falciparum ( P. falciparum ) parasite cultures of varying sensitivities towards chloroquine. SQR1-CQ positively stained ring, mature trophozoite and schizont stages of both chloroquine⁻sensitive and chloroquine⁻resistant P. falciparum strains. In addition, SQR1-CQ exhibited significantly higher fluorescence, when compared to the commercial chloroquine-BODIPY (borondipyrromethene) conjugate CQ-BODIPY. We also achieved successful SQR1-CQ labelling of P. falciparum directly on thin blood smear preparations. Drug efficacy experiments measuring half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) showed lower concentration of effective inhibition against resistant strain K1 by SQR1-CQ compared to conventional chloroquine. Taken together, the versatile and highly fluorescent labelling capability of SQR1-CQ and promising preliminary IC50 findings makes it a great candidate for further development as diagnostic tool with drug efficacy against chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum .

We recently reported that an Au/TiO 2 photonic crystal device for photochemical energy conversion showed a sub-bandgap photoresponse centered at the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) resonant wavelength of this device. Here we developed a theoretical modeling of the internal photoemission in this device by incorporating the effects of anisotropic hot electron momentum distribution caused by SPP. The influences of interband and intraband transition, anisotropic momentum distribution of hot electrons by SPP are integrated to model the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of this device. Near resonant wavelength, SPP dominates the electric field in the thin Au layer, which generates hot electrons with high enough momentum preferentially normal to the Schottky interface. Compared with the widely used Fowler's theory of internal photoemission, our model better predicts hot electron collection in Schottky devices. This model will provide a design guidance for tuning and enhancing photoresponse of Schottky hot carrier devices.

We report the use of a phenylalkyl side chain modified donor molecule to increase the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of an organic photovoltaic device. The bulky side chain is able to alter the donor/acceptor interface without interfering in the molecular packing. As a result, both Voc and device performance are improved.

We report the development of a heterogeneous catalyst system on continuous flow chemistry. A palladium (Pd) coated tubular reactor was placed in line with copper (Cu) tubing using a continuous flow platform, and a Sonogashira C-C coupling reaction was used to evaluate the performance. The reactions were favorably carried out in the Cu reactor, catalyzed by the traces of leached Pd from the Pd reactor. The leached Pd and Cu were trapped with a metal scavaging resin at the back-end of the continuous flow system, affording a genuine approach toward green chemistry.

A multi-source/component spray coating process to fabricate the photoactive layers in polymer solar cells is demonstrated. Well-defined domains consisting of polymer:fullerene heterojunctions are constructed in ambient conditions using an alternating spray deposition method. This approach preserves the integrity of the layer morphology while forming an interpenetrating donor (D)/acceptor (A) network to facilitate charge transport. The formation of multi-component films without the prerequisite of a common solvent overcomes the limitations in conventional solution processes for polymer solar cells and enables us to process a wide spectrum of materials. Polymer solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene):[6,6]-phenyl C(61) butyric acid methyl ester spray-coated using this alternating deposition method deliver a power conversion efficiency of 2.8%, which is comparable to their blend solution counterparts. More importantly, this approach offers the versatility to independently select the optimal solvents for the donor and acceptor materials that will deliver well-ordered nanodomains. This method also allows the direct stacking of multiple photoactive polymers with controllable absorption in a tandem structure even without an interconnecting junction layer. The introduction of multiple photoactive materials through multisource/component spray coating offers structural flexibility and tenability of the photoresponse for future polymer solar cell applications.

Multi-layer stackable polymer memory architecture is an interesting new direction for polymer memory. The memory density can be increased by increasing the number of stacked layers without reducing the minimum feature size. To achieve multi-level stacking, the polymer used must be able to be cross-linked so that it will not be dissolved upon deposition of additional layers. This requirement also makes the polymer robust enough to withstand conventional lithographic processes. In this paper, the various approaches to achieve cross-linkable polymer memory are discussed. Device fabrication and performance are also reported.