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Self-ordered polymeric Lewis acid–base adduct formation for a dual role of passivated CsPbBr3–Cs4PbBr6 perovskite grain morphology modulation and exciton dielectric confinement, thereby exhibiting high performances and stability in PeLEDs.

Plasma enhanced atomic layer deposited indium tin oxide films using InCp, TDMASn and O2 plasma as metal and oxygen precursors exhibit a single-crystalline-like structure, high carrier mobility and low resistivity.

The resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is a basic problem in project management. The net present value (NPV) of discounted cash flow is used as a criterion to evaluate the financial aspects of RCPSP in many studies. But while most existing studies focused on only the contractor's NPV, this article addresses a practical extension of RCPSP, called the payment scheduling negotiation problem (PSNP), which considers both the interests of the contractor and the client. To maximize NPVs of both sides and achieve a win-win solution, these two participants negotiate together to determine an activity schedule and a payment plan for the project. The challenges arise in three aspects: 1) the client's NPV and the contractor's NPV are two conflicting objectives; 2) both participants have special preferences in decision making; and 3) the RCPSP is nondeterministic polynomial-time hard (NP-Hard). To overcome these challenges, this article proposes a new approach with the following features. First, the problem is reformulated as a biobjective optimization problem with preferences. Second, to address the different preferences of the client and the contractor, a strategy of multilevel region interest is presented. Third, this strategy is integrated in the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) to solve the PSNP efficiently. In the experiment, the proposed algorithm is compared with both the double-level optimization approach and the multiobjective optimization approach. The experimental results validate that the proposed method can focus on searching in the region of interest (ROI) and provide more satisfactory solutions.

In this study, tin oxide (SnO2) films are prepared by using plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) with tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin(IV) (TDMA-Sn) as the Sn metal source and O2/Ar mixture as the oxidant. The plasma power is varied from 1000 to 3000 W to investigate its influence of oxygen vacancies and defects on the SnO2 film properties. The experimental results show that the plasma power plays an important role in the deposition of SnO2 films. Unwanted Sn3O4 formation is observed at both of low and high powers. The optical emission spectra of the plasma with different power are analyzed to obtain the insight of the mechanism of the PEALD SnO2 films growth. The optimal plasma power of 1500 W is found to be very close to the threshold where the oxygen radical intensity starts to sharply increase. Lower and higher powers can lead to insufficient oxidation and strong ion bombardment, respectively, resulting in reduced SnO2 film quality.

CsPbBr3 is a promising light-emitting material due to its wet solution processability, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), narrow color spectrum, and cost-effectiveness. Despite such advantages, the morphological defects, unsatisfactory carrier injection, and stability issues retard its widespread applications in light-emitting devices (LEDs). In this work, we demonstrated a facile and cost-effective method to improve the morphology, efficiency, and stability of the CsPbBr3 emissive layer using a dual polymeric encapsulation governed by an interface-assisted grain control process (IAGCP). An eco-friendly low-cost hydrophilic polymer poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was blended into the CsPbBr3 precursor solution, which endows the prepared film with a better surface coverage with a smoothened surface. Furthermore, it is revealed that inserting a thin PVP nanothick interlayer at the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)/emissive layer interface further promotes the film quality and the performance of the derived LED. It is mainly attributed to three major consequences: (i) reduced grain size of the emissive layer, which facilitates charge recombination, (ii) reduced current leakage due to the enhanced electron-blocking effect, and (iii) improved color purity and air stability owing to better defect passivation. As a result, the optimized composite emissive film can retain the luminescence properties even on exposure to ambient conditions for 80 days and ∼62% of its initial PL intensity can be preserved after 30 days of storage without any encapsulation.

Indium oxide (In2O3) film has excellent optical and electrical properties, which makes it useful for a multitude of applications. The preparation of In2O3 film via atomic layer deposition (ALD) method remains an issue as most of the available In-precursors are inactive and thermally unstable. In this work, In2O3 film was prepared by ALD using a remote O2 plasma as oxidant, which provides highly reactive oxygen radicals, and hence significantly enhancing the film growth. The substrate temperature that determines the adsorption state on the substrate and reaction energy of the precursor was investigated. At low substrate temperature (100–150 °C), the ratio of chemically adsorbed precursors is low, leading to a low growth rate and amorphous structure of the films. An amorphous-to-crystalline transition was observed at 150–200 °C. An ALD window with self-limiting reaction and a reasonable film growth rate was observed in the intermediate temperature range of 225–275 °C. At high substrate temperature (300–350 °C), the film growth rate further increases due to the decomposition of the precursors. The resulting film exhibits a rough surface which consists of coarse grains and obvious grain boundaries. The growth mode and properties of the In2O3 films prepared by plasma-enhanced ALD can be efficiently tuned by varying the substrate temperature.

In this study, silicon oxide (SiO2) films were deposited by remote plasma atomic layer deposition with Bis(diethylamino)silane (BDEAS) and an oxygen/argon mixture as the precursors. Oxygen plasma powers play a key role in the quality of SiO2 films. Post-annealing was performed in the air at different temperatures for 1 h. The effects of oxygen plasma powers from 1000 W to 3000 W on the properties of the SiO2 thin films were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that the SiO2 thin film growth per cycle was greatly affected by the O2 plasma power. Atomic force microscope (AFM) and conductive AFM tests show that the surface of the SiO2 thin films, with different O2 plasma powers, is relatively smooth and the films all present favorable insulation properties. The water contact angle (WCA) of the SiO2 thin film deposited at the power of 1500 W is higher than that of other WCAs of SiO2 films deposited at other plasma powers, indicating that it is less hydrophilic. This phenomenon is more likely to be associated with a smaller bonding energy, which is consistent with the result obtained by Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the influence of post-annealing temperature on the quality of the SiO2 thin films was also investigated. As the annealing temperature increases, the SiO2 thin film becomes denser, leading to a higher refractive index and a lower etch rate.

In this study, the effect of radical intensity on the deposition mechanism, optical, and electrical properties of tin oxide (SnO2) thin films is investigated. The SnO2 thin films are prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition with different plasma power from 1000 to 3000 W. The experimental results show that plasma contains different amount of argon radicals (Ar*) and oxygen radicals (O*) with the increased power. The three deposition mechanisms are indicated by the variation of Ar* and O* intensities evidenced by optical emission spectroscopy. The adequate intensities of Ar* and O* are obtained by the power of 1500 W, inducing the highest oxygen vacancies (OV) ratio, the narrowest band gap, and the densest film structure. The refractive index and optical loss increase with the plasma power, possibly owing to the increased film density. According to the Hall effect measurement results, the improved plasma power from 1000 to 1500 W enhances the carrier concentration due to the enlargement of OV ratio, while the plasma powers higher than 1500 W further cause the removal of OV and the significant bombardment from Ar*, leading to the increase of resistivity.

BackgroundIt has been well known that the surface antigen 1(SAG 1) of T.gondii plays an important role in the invasion of Tachyzoite into host cells. However whether it also play a role in the intracellular parasitism of T.gondii remains unclear. The main purpose of this study was to determine the effect of SAG1 on host cells and investigate the underlying mechanism. MethodsSAG1 was overexpressed in human embryonic kidney cell 293(HEK) by transfection. Autophagy was determined by fluorescent microscope and flow cytometry (FCM) in HEK293 cells co-transfected with Flag-SAG1 and EGFP-LC3. The interaction of SAG1 and RACK1 was measured by co-immunoprecipitation(Co-IP), GST pulldown and fluorescent microscope. The expression of cytokines including IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-12 was determined by qRT-PCR. The expression of LC3, Ki67 and RACK1 was detected by Western blot. Cellular senescence was measured by β-galactosidase staining.ResultsWe found that overexpression of SAG1 in human embryonic kidney cells (HEK293) induces non-canonical autophagy and inhibition of autophagy using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) significantly decreases the cell viability of HEK293 cells. Mechanically, we identified RACK1, an intracellular multifunctional protein as a binding partner of SAG1. Depletion of RACK1 inhibited SAG1 induces non-autophagy and decreases the enhanced expression of cytokines including IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12 and TNF-α in SAG1 overexpressing cells. ConclusionThese data showed that SAG1 could induce non-canonical autophagy and facilitate the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12 and TNF-α by interacting with RACK1, maintaining the viability of host cells. Our results suggests a new contribution of SAG1 in the intracellular parasitism.

In this study, the effect of radical intensity on the deposition mechanism, optical, and electrical properties of tin oxide (SnO2) thin films is investigated. The SnO2 thin films are prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition with different plasma power from 1000 to 3000 W. The experimental results show that plasma contains different amount of argon radicals (Ar*) and oxygen radicals (O*) with the increased power. The three deposition mechanisms are indicated by the variation of Ar* and O* intensities evidenced by optical emission spectroscopy. The adequate intensities of Ar* and O* are obtained by the power of 1500 W, inducing the highest oxygen vacancies (OV) ratio, the narrowest band gap, and the densest film structure. The refractive index and optical loss increase with the plasma power, possibly owing to the increased film density. According to the Hall effect measurement results, the improved plasma power from 1000 to 1500 W enhances the carrier concentration due to the enlargement of OV ratio, while the plasma powers higher than 1500 W further cause the removal of OV and the significant bombardment from Ar*, leading to the increase of resistivity.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has drawn much attention due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. In this study, ZnO film was prepared by a high-deposition-rate spatial atomic layer deposition (ALD) and subjected to a post-annealing process to suppress the intrinsic defects and improve the crystallinity and film properties. The results show that the film thickness increases with annealing temperature owing to the increment of oxide layer caused by the suppression of oxygen vacancy defects as indicated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra. The film transmittance is seldom influenced by annealing. The refractive index increases with annealing temperature at 300&ndash, 700 &deg, C, possibly due to higher density and crystallinity of the film. The band gap decreases after annealing, which should be ascribed to the decrease in carrier concentration according to Burstein&ndash, Moss model. The carrier concentration decreases with increasing annealing temperature at 300&ndash, C since the oxygen vacancy defects are suppressed, then it increases at 800 &deg, C possibly due to the out-diffusion of oxygen atoms from the film. Meanwhile, the carrier mobility increases with temperature due to higher crystallinity and larger crystallite size. The film resistivity increases at 300&ndash, C then decreases at 800 &deg, C, which should be ascribed primarily to the variation of carrier concentration.

In this paper, indium oxide (In2O3) thin films are prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) using cyclopentadienylindium(I) (InCp) as the metal precursor and O2 plasma as the oxidant. The mechanism and effects of annealing temperature under the air atmosphere on optical, structural, and electrical properties of the films are investigated. The experimental results show that both of the as-deposited and annealed films are polycrystalline bixbyite-cubic structure. No significant influences on the optical properties are observed when the annealing temperature increases from 300 to 600 °C. However, it is confirmed the filling of oxygen vacancy defects by the in-diffused oxygen atoms from the annealing ambient. The carbon impurities resulting from the incompletely reacted InCp are found to be at the interstitial sites in the In2O3 lattice, which can be greatly removed by the annealing treatment. As a consequence, the electrical resistivity increases with increasing annealing temperature mainly related to the reduced carrier concentration. This paper is helpful for PEALD In2O3 films to be applied to optoelectronic devices where the suppression of the oxygen defects, carrier concentration, and carbon impurities are required.

Low-dimensional perovskites have been widely studied as a promising candidate for realizing stable light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, blue-light-emitting devices generally possess low stability associated with gradually red-shifted emission. To overcome this issue, the effect of zinc bromide (ZnBr2) addition on the regulation of the crystal structures of phenethylammonium and bromine-chlorine mixed inorganic perovskites (PEA-CsPbBrxCl3-x) is investigated. With the ZnBr2 addition, low-dimensional perovskite structures undergo morphological changes, such as thickening of their crystal structures and higher degree of crystal arrangement. Stoichiometric selective characterization reveals that perovskite bonding forces changed from Van der Waals with PEA to ionic with ZnBr2. Meanwhile, ZnBr2 can effectively address the ion defect filling and dimensional structure property switching. Consequently, the optimized ZnBr2-assisted PEA-CsPbBrxCl3-x LED is shown to deliver a high luminance of 1245 cd/m2 along with a high external quantum efficiency of 1.30%. Furthermore, this blue LED exhibits excellent spectral stability, for which only 3-nm red-shift on external excitation (0.1 to 5.0 mA) is observed. Our result clearly shows that ZnBr2 addition effectively improves the stability of blue light-emitting perovskites.

Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) is well known to disrupt normal functionality of endothelium, which plays a prominent role in endothelial dysfunction in many cardiovascular diseases. CO-releasing molecule 2 (CORM-2) is a promising candidate for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, it has not been defined whether CORM-2 might improve endothelial injury induced by ox-LDL. The present study was undertaken to determine the regulatory role of CORM-2 in cell injury of ox-LDL-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our results showed that ox-LDL inhibited the cell proliferation, but promoted apoptosis and release of cytochrome c (cytc) from mitochondrion into cytoplasm, stimulated the cleavage of caspase-3 and mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening. In addition, ox-LDL-incubated HUVECs exhibited excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS), increased protein levels of NADPH oxidase subunits p22phox, p47phox, NOX-2 and activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, pretreatment with CORM-2 significantly reduced cell apoptosis, release of cytc from mitochondrion into cytoplasm, MPTP opening and cleavage of caspase-3, suppressed the superoxide anion generation and Wnt/β-catenin pathway activation in HUVECs response to ox-LDL. Collectively, we provide the evidence that CORM-2 attenuated ox-LDL-mediated endothelial apoptosis and oxidative stress by recovering the mitochondrial function and blocking Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

The pathophysiological mechanisms for vascular lesions in diabetes mellitus (DM) are complex, among which endothelial dysfunction plays a vital role. Therapeutic target against endothelial injury may provide critical venues for treatment of diabetic vascular diseases. We recently identified that salusin-β contributed to high glucose-induced endothelial cell apoptosis. However, the roles of salusin-β in DM-induced endothelial dysfunction remain largely elusive. Male C57BL/6J mice were used to induce type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured in high glucose/high fat (HG/HF) medium. We demonstrated increased expression of salusin-β in diabetic aortic tissues and high-glucose/high-fat- (HG/HF-) incubated HUVECs. Disruption of salusin-β by shRNA abrogated the reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, inflammation, and nitrotyrosine content of HUVECs cultured in HG/HF medium. The HG/HF-mediated decrease in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) expression was restored by salusin-β shRNA, and PPARγ inhibitor T0070907 abolished the protective actions of salusin-β shRNA on endothelial injury in HG/HF-treated HUVECs. Salusin-β silencing obviously improved endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and nitrative stress in diabetic aorta. Taken together, our results highlighted the essential role of salusin-β in pathological endothelial dysfunction, and salusin-β may be a promising target in treatment of vascular complications of DM.

A low profile and broadband sequential rotation array of circularly-polarized metasurface antenna elements at Ka-band is proposed in this paper. The antenna element includes a circularly-polarized patch antenna loaded with a strongly truncated metasurface, which is fed through a coupling aperture. An array of four elements is further constructed using the sequential rotation technique to achieve broadband circularly-polarized radiation at broadside. The final optimized and fabricated antenna array exhibits an $S_{11} bandwidth of 28.7% and an axial ratio < 3 dB bandwidth of 27.2%. In addition, within this bandwidth, the proposed structure yields a broadside gain of 9.8 dBic with a fluctuation of less than 2 dB. It is a promising candidate for wideband millimeter-wave wireless and satellite communications.

Pr3+-doped NaGd(WO4)2 phosphors with deep red emission in pure phase were prepared via high temperature solid-state reaction. Photoluminescence properties of those phosphors were investigated. Deep red emission bands with central wavelength at 649 nm were observed under the excitation of 430–500 nm, which is suitable for excitation of the blue LED chips. The optimum doping concentration of Pr3+ ions in NaGd(WO4)2 is 4.0 at.%. The fluorescence concentration quenching could be attributed to the phonon-assisted cross-relaxation energy transfer between the Pr3+ ions. The CIE color coordinates of Pr3+-doped NaGd(WO4)2 phosphors with different Pr3+ concentration can be tuned from deep red to light red. The present work suggests that Pr3+-doped NaGd(WO4)2 exhibit great potential for using as deep red phosphors for the blue LED.

The pathophysiological mechanisms for vascular lesions in diabetes mellitus (DM) are complex, among which endothelial dysfunction plays a vital role. Therapeutic target against endothelial injury may provide critical venues for treatment of diabetic vascular diseases. We recently identified that salusin-β contributed to high glucose-induced endothelial cell apoptosis. However, the roles of salusin-β in DM-induced endothelial dysfunction remain largely elusive. Male C57BL/6J mice were used to induce type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) model. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured in high glucose/high fat (HG/HF) medium. We demonstrated increased expression of salusin-β in diabetic aortic tissues and high-glucose/high-fat- (HG/HF-) incubated HUVECs. Disruption of salusin-β by shRNA abrogated the reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, inflammation, and nitrotyrosine content of HUVECs cultured in HG/HF medium. The HG/HF-mediated decrease in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) expression was restored by salusin-β shRNA, and PPARγ inhibitor T0070907 abolished the protective actions of salusin-β shRNA on endothelial injury in HG/HF-treated HUVECs. Salusin-β silencing obviously improved endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation, oxidative stress, inflammatory response, and nitrative stress in diabetic aorta. Taken together, our results highlighted the essential role of salusin-β in pathological endothelial dysfunction, and salusin-β may be a promising target in treatment of vascular complications of DM.

Background There is little information on which pattern should be chosen to perform lymph node dissection for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer. This study aimed to develop a model for predicting lymph node metastasis using pathologic features of patients intraoperatively diagnosed as stage I non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods We collected pathology data from 284 patients intraoperatively diagnosed as stage I non-small-cell lung cancer who underwent lobectomy with complete lymph node dissection from 2013 through 2014, assessing various factors for an association with metastasis to lymph nodes (age, gender, pathology, tumour location, tumour differentiation, tumour size, pleural invasion, bronchus invasion, multicentric invasion and angiolymphatic invasion). After analysing these variables, we developed a multivariable logistic model to estimate risk of metastasis to lymph nodes. Results Univariate logistic regression identified tumour size >2.65 cm (p 2.65 cm (p 0.80, 0.43 2 cm and ŷ ≤0.43 plus tumour size ≤2 cm yielded positive lymph node metastasis predictive values of 44%, 18%, 14% and 0%, respectively. Conclusions A non-invasive prediction model including tumour size, tumour differentiation and bronchus invasion may be useful to give thoracic surgeons recommendations on lymph node dissection for patients intraoperatively diagnosed as Stage I non-small cell lung cancer. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-017-3273-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Based on 3D digital model of motorcycle constructed in UGNX, motorcycle multi-body model was established for dynamic behavior analysis under inbuilt assembling of coefficient matrix of dynamical equation in computation code of ADAMS. Through the comparison of simulation analysis for dynamics of different models in accelerations in time and frequency domains, it is concluded that realistic multi-body model better represents the dynamic behavior of motorcycle while simplified one with less physical parameters only provides qualitative analysis for the dynamic behavior. The simulation results shows that model IV with accurate parameters of components influences the dynamic response of frame, simplified models could not represent the influence of mass and inertia moment of subsystems on dynamic behavior, which means advanced motorcycle multi-body improves simulation effectiveness and approximates the dynamic behavior of motorcycle well so that the simulation developed to replace experiments in bad working conditions will promote the advancement of engineering.

In this paper, two fly ash samples from a popular of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) incinerators operated in spring and winter were detected. The organic pollutants of PAHs and Dioxins were 8.647 mg/kg and 778.859 pgI-TEQ/g respectively for the sample in spring, 11.008 mg/kg and 888.318 pgI-TEQ/g for the sample in winter. The distribution of Dioxins was analyzed, 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF,2,3,7,8-TCDF and 2,3,7,8-TCDD were found to gave the great contribution to the total I-TEQ.

The properties of slag and ash generated from a biomass power plant were analyzed by various characterization methods and the sulfur was tracked. The results showed that the slag and ash contain major elements like Si, S, K and Ca etc and primary substances like SiO2, CaCO3etc. Sulfur is in the form of amorphous soluble salts and insoluble materials in residual carbon.

In this paper, the energy balance of black liquor gasification (BLG) and coal-water slurry (CWS) gasification was analyzed. The results showed that the conversion efficiency of BLG (43.71%) process was slightly lower than that of CWS gasification (44.71%). Meanwhile, the material cost of BLG to synthesis gas was 0.36 Yuan/ m3 while CWS gasification was 0.69 Yuan/ m3. On account of above analysis, BLG was expected to have similar industrial applied prospect like CWS gasification