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Vehicle organic gas emissions are becoming an increasingly significant pollution source in many cities, leading to serious negative impacts on human health and the environment. However, interest in vehicular emissions is currently mostly focused on the emission characteristics of regulated gas, while little information is available on the systematic overview of organic gas emissions, particularly under different conditions. This review classifies the current status of research and control measures regarding organic gas emissions from light-duty vehicles. The key factors influencing tailpipe and evaporative emissions, including temperature, fuel composition, vehicle mileage, driving conditions, and road conditions, are identified. Building upon this review, we conducted a case study to comprehensively assess the impact of temperature and fuel on organic gas emissions. Looking ahead, future research on organic gas emissions from motor vehicles could delve deeper into the component characteristics, evaporative emissions, and model applications. Better understanding the effects of crucial factors on organic gas emissions from vehicles would aid in effectively managing and regulating tailpipe and evaporative emissions, thereby improving atmospheric air quality., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ammonia (NH 3 ), which is a precursor of secondary particulate matter (PM), can be produced through three-way catalyst (TWC) side reactions in light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs), posing a threat to human health and air quality. To explore ammonia emission characteristics, 8 LDGVs and 1 hybrid electric light-duty vehicle (HEV) with various mileages traveled were analyzed with a chassis dynamometer system during regulation driving cycles. The emission factors of the adopted China VI in-use LDGVs were 7.04 ± 2.61 mg/km under cold-start conditions and 4.94 ± 1.69 mg/km under hot-start conditions. With increasing mileage traveled, the total ammonia emissions increased, and the difference between the cold/hot-start results decreased. The emissions of in-use LDGVs with bi-fuel engines were analyzed, and more ammonia was generated in the compressed natural gas (CNG) mode through the hydrocarbon (HC) reforming reaction. The relationship between the emissions of ammonia and conventional pollutants was established. During the initial cold-start phase, a delay in ammonia formation was observed, and the ammonia emissions conformed with the CO and HC emissions after exhaust heating. Vehicle specific power (VSP) analysis revealed that the interval of highest ammonia emissions corresponded to acceleration events at high speeds. For the HEV, the transition from motor to engine drive conditions contributed to ammonia emission occurrence because of the more pronounced cold-start events. The use of HEV technology could introduce additional uncertainties in controlling urban ammonia emissions. Detailed analysis of emission characteristics could provide data support for future research on ammonia emission standards and control strategies for LDGVs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Carbon quantum dots (C-dots) have emerged as efficient fluorescent materials for solid-state lighting devices. However, it is still a challenge to obtain highly bright solid-state C-dots because of the aggregation caused quenching. Compared to the encapsulation of as-prepared C-dots in matrices, one-step preparation of C-dots/matrix complex is a good method to obtain highly bright solid-state C-dots, which is still quite limited. Here, an efficient and controllable vacuum-boosting gradient heating approach is demonstrated for in situ synthesis of a stable and efficient C-dots/matrix complex. The addition of boric acid strongly bonded with urea, promoting the selectivity of the reaction between citric acid and urea. Benefiting from the high reaction selectivity and spatial-confinement growth of C-dots in porous matrices, in situ synthesize C-dots bonded can synthesized dominantly with a crosslinked octa-cyclic compound, biuret and cyanuric acid (triuret). The obtained C-dots/matrix complex exhibited bright green emission with a quantum yield as high as 90% and excellent thermal and photo stability. As a proof-of-concept, the as-prepared C-dots are used for the fabrication of white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a color rendering index of 84 and luminous efficiency of 88.14 lm W -1 , showing great potential for applications in LEDs., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Carbon quantum dots (C-dots) have developed into potential nanomaterials for lighting, catalysis and bioimaging because of their excellent optical properties and good biocompatibility. However, it is still a challenge to produce efficient red emitting carbon quantum dots (R-C-dots) due to their obscure formation mechanism. This work offered a method to reveal the formation process from the precursor o -phenylenediamine ( o -PDA) to R-C-dots. Different from traditional hydrothermal reactions, R-C-dots were synthesized at relatively low temperature and ambient pressure. The pre-oxidation intermediate aminophenol played an important role in the synthesis of R-C-dots, which further cross-linked and polymerized with o -PDA in an acid environment to form R-C-dots. The obtained R-C-dots had a photoluminescence quantum yield of up to 33.26% and excellent two-photon fluorescence properties. A white light-emitting diode (WLED) based on R-C-dots as the red phosphor exhibited standard white light CIE color coordinates of (0.33, 0.33) with a correlated color temperature of 5342 K and a high color rendering index (CRI) of 94.5. The obtained rendering index is the highest value among WLEDs with color coordinates of (0.33, 0.33) based on C-dots. This work provides a new perspective for the controllable large-scale synthesis of red C-dots., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

The Chinese central government has initiated pilot projects to promote the adoption of gasoline containing 10%v ethanol (E10). Vehicle emissions using ethanol blended fuels require investigation to estimate the environmental impacts of the initiative. Five fuel formulations were created using two blending methods (splash blending and match blending) to evaluate the impacts of formulations on speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from exhaust emissions. Seven in-use vehicles covering China 4 to China 6 emission standards were recruited. Vehicle tests were conducted using the Worldwide Harmonized Test Cycle (WLTC) in a temperature-controlled chamber at 23 °C and -7 °C. Splash blended E10 fuels led to significant reductions in VOC emissions by 12%-75%. E10 fuels had a better performance of reducing VOC emissions in older model vehicles than in newer model vehicles. These results suggested that E10 fuel could be an option to mitigate the VOC emissions. Although replacing methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) with ethanol in regular gasoline had no significant effects on VOC emissions, the replacement led to lower aromatic emissions by 40%-60%. Alkanes and aromatics dominated approximately 90% of VOC emissions for all vehicle-fuel combinations. Cold temperature increased VOC emissions significantly, by 3-26 folds for all vehicle/fuel combinations at -7 °C. Aromatic emissions were increased by cold temperature, from 2 to 26 mg/km at 23 °C to 33-238 mg/km at -7 °C. OVOC emissions were not significantly affected by E10 fuel or cold temperature. The ozone formation potential (OFP) and secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP) of splash blended E10 fuels decreased by up to 76% and 81%, respectively, compared with those of E0 fuels. The results are useful to update VOC emission profiles of Chinese vehicles using ethanol blended gasoline and under low-temperature conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are shown to be effective as light-harvesting sensitizers of metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen (H 2 ) generation. The CdSe/CdS core/shell architecture is widely studied due to their tunable absorption range and band alignment via engineering the size of each composition, leading to efficient carrier separation/transfer with proper core/shell band types. However, until now the effect of core size on the PEC performance along with tailoring the core/shell band alignment is not well understood. Here, by regulating four types of CdSe/CdS core/shell QDs with different core sizes (diameter of 2.8, 3.1, 3.5, and 4.8 nm) while the thickness of CdS shell remains the same (thickness of 2.0 ± 0.1 nm), the Type II, Quasi-Type II, and Type I core/shell architecture are successfully formed. Among these, the optimized CdSe/CdS/TiO2 photoelectrode with core size of 3.5 nm can achieve the saturated photocurrent density (J ph ) of 17.4 mA cm -2 under standard one sun irradiation. When such cores are further optimized by capping alloyed shells, the J ph can reach values of 22 mA cm 2 which is among the best-performed electrodes based on colloidal QDs., (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

The traditional textile degumming process produces abundant wastewater, which contains a lot of monosaccharides and oligosaccharides. It is of great economic and environmental significance to utilize these carbohydrates in high value. In this study, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyze the carbohydrate components in kenaf degumming wastewater, and then the production of C-dots using the wastewater was explored. The results showed that the types and content in the degumming wastewater were monosaccharides (glucose, xylose and arabinose) and oligosaccharides (dextran, xylan and araban). The carbohydrate (mainly glucan and xylan) content in wastewater accounted for 91.16 % of the total carbohydrates weight loss in kenaf degumming process. By using hydrolysis and hydrothermal reaction on kenaf degumming wastewater, blue-green carbon dots (C-dots) with good performance were prepared and successfully applied to anti-counterfeiting printing. In particular, the as-prepared C-dots prepared from kenaf degumming wastewater with urea added (WUC-dots) showed an excitation-dependent photoluminescence (PL) spectrum and quantum yield (QY) of 2.4 % in aqueous solution. The fluorescent code exhibited a clear outline, excitation-tunable color and good stability, showing a great potential for anti-counterfeiting system., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no conflicts to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Carbon dots (C-dots) as promising fluorescent materials have attracted much attention because of their low toxicity and excellent optoelectronic properties. However, the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) of the solid-state C-dots has limited their potential applications in anti-counterfeiting and optoelectronic devices. In this work, C-dot powder was prepared by directly dispersing the as-prepared C-dots in a polymer matrix or in situ formation of the C-dot/Ca-complex by vacuum heating in the presence of boric acid. The as-prepared C-dots have high quantum yields (QYs) in the range of 40-67% with temperature-dependent photoluminescent (PL) properties. As a proof of concept, the as-synthesized C-dots were used to produce a flexible anti-counterfeiting code and showed high-level security. This highlights the potential of C-dots in solid-state information, anti-information encryption and anti-counterfeiting., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of minimally invasive 980 nm laser-assisted lipolysis and skin tightening in lower eyelid blepharoplasty of Asian patients., Methods: Patients with mild and moderate degree of eyebags underwent 980 nm laser-assisted lipolysis via lower eyelid stab incision between December 2017 and December 2019. Evaluation criteria was reviewed by photographs taken preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively in accordance with guidelines of Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale, the patient's perspective from the questionnaire with the perception of reduction in eyebags size, the average perception of improvement in skin tightening, and the patient overall satisfaction, all with a score of 1 to 5 (5 being the most noticeable and very satisfied) and complications such as dyspigmentation, hematoma, prolonged edema, skin bump and thermal burn were documented as well., Results: A total of 178 cases with 137 women and 41 men (age range from 23 to 50 years) were included. Total energy of 1200 J to 2000 J was delivered to both eyebags at 6 to 10 W. They were followed up for at least 6 months. A total of 166 patients (93.26%) revealed an improvement in Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale, with the 12 patients (6.74%) complaint no change 6 month postoperatively. Perception of improvement in eye bag protrusion scored 4.39 ± 0.59, improvement in skin tightening scored 4.42 ± 0.58 and the overall patient's satisfaction scored 4.59 ± 0.53. The patients' average recovered swelling from 4.35 ± 2.3 days. There were 5 patients (2.8%) with dyspigmentation, 3 patients (1.69%) with prolonged edema and 2 patients (1.12%) with skin bump and none of the patients had thermal burn. All of them resolve after 6 months of follow up., Conclusion: Patients with mild to moderate degree of eyebags who resist surgery are good candidates for laser-assisted lower eyelid blepharoplasty., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest: none declared., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Colloidal carbon dots (C-dots) have attracted a great deal of attention for their unique optical properties. However, it is still a challenge to obtain highly purified C-dots without using multiple-step purification or postsize selection. In this work, a self-precipitation hydrothermal reaction was used to synthesize red-emitting C-dots (R-C-dots) using o -phenylenediamine ( o -PDA) as a precursor without using any catalyst. The R-C-dots are able to precipitate on the wall of the reactor, which enables us to obtain solid-state C-dots with high purity. The R-C-dots have a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of as high as 36.75%, which is among the highest PLQY values reported previously for R-C-dots without using catalysts. The transient PL and transient absorption spectra revealed that 5,14-dihydroquinoxalino[2,3- b ]phenazine linked on the surface of the C-dots determined the red luminescence behavior. This work provides a new path for the controllable synthesis of high-purity R-C-dots, showing potential applications in optoelectronic devices.

Purpose: Micro-focused ultrasound (MFU) is commonly used to improve facial relaxation and wrinkles. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of MFU for facial rejuvenation and patients' satisfaction with the treatment., Method: Articles published before December 2022 were retrieved using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases. The retrieved literature was screened according to strict criteria, and the risk of bias of each study was assessed., Result: A total of 13 MFU studies for facial rejuvenation and tightening were included, involving 477 participants. Efficacy was assessed using the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS), and meta-analysis showed an overall response rate of 0.77 (95%CI: 0.58, 0.96) at 90 days after intervention and 0.69 (95%CI: 0.51, 0.87) at 180 days. 0.78 (95%CI: 0.61, 0.95) and 0.71 (95%CI: 0.54, 0.87) patients were satisfied and very satisfied overall at 90 days and 180 days, respectively. The pain score was on a 10-point scale, and the overall score was 3.10 (95%CI: 2.71, 3.94). There were no instances during treatment where patients could not tolerate pain. Sensitivity analysis showed that the results were robust., Conclusion: In conclusion, MFU is an effective way to treat facial rejuvenation and tightening. More large-sample, multicenter and randomized studies are needed to determine the optimal treatment parameters in the future., Level of Evidence I: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 ., (© 2023. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature and International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.)

Ammonia emissions from motor vehicles have great effect on air pollution and human health in urban areas. Recently, many countries have focus on ammonia emission measurement and control technologies for light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs). To analyze ammonia emission characteristics, three conventional LDGVs and one hybrid electric light-duty vehicle (HEV) were evaluated over different driving cycles. The average ammonia emission factor at 23℃ was 4.5 ± 1.6 mg/km over Worldwide harmonized light vehicles test cycle (WLTC). Most ammonia emissions mainly concentrated in low and medium speed sections at cold-start stage, which were related to rich burn conditions. The increasing ambient temperatures led to the decrease of ammonia emissions, but high load caused by extremely elevated ambient temperature led to obvious ammonia emissions. The ammonia formation is also related to three-way catalytic converter (TWC) temperatures, and underfloor TWC catalyst could eliminate ammonia partly. The ammonia emission from HEV, which are significant less than LDGV, corresponded to the engine working state. The large temperature difference in the catalysts caused by power source shifts were the main reason. Exploring the effects of various factors on the ammonia emission is beneficial for revealing the instinct formation conditions, providing theoretical support for the future regulations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The development of high-efficiency non-precious metal electrocatalysts for alkaline electrolyte hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) is of great significance in energy conversion to overcome the limited supply of fossil fuels and carbon emission. Here, a highly active electrocatalyst is presented for hydrogen production, consisting of 2D CoSe 2 /Co 3 S 4 heterostructured nanosheets along Co 3 O 4 nanofibers. The different reaction rate between the ion exchange reaction and redox reaction leads to the heterogeneous volume swelling, promoting the growth of 2D structure. The 2D/1D heteronanostructures enable the improved the electrochemical active area, the number of active sites, and more favorable H binding energy compared to individual cobalt chalcogenides. The roles of the different composition of the heterojunction are investigated, and the electrocatalysts based on the CoSe 2 /Co 3 S 4 @Co 3 O 4 exhibited an overpotential as low as 165 mV for 10 mA cm -2 and 393 mV for 200 mA cm -2 in 1 m KOH electrolyte. The as-prepared electrocatalysts remained active after 55 h operation without any significant decrease, indicating the excellent long-term operation stability of the electrode. The Faradaic efficiency of hydrogen production is close to 100% at different voltages. This work provides a new design strategy toward Co-based catalysts for efficient alkaline HER., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

InP quantum dots (QDs) are promising building blocks for use in solar technologies because of their low intrinsic toxicity, narrow bandgap, large absorption coefficient, and low-cost solution synthesis. However, the high surface trap density of InP QDs reduces their energy conversion efficiency and degrades their long-term stability. Encapsulating InP QDs into a wider bandgap shell is desirable to eliminate surface traps and improve optoelectronic properties. Here, we report the synthesis of "giant" InP/ZnSe core/shell QDs with tunable ZnSe shell thickness to investigate the effect of the shell thickness on the optoelectronic properties and the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance for hydrogen generation. The optical results demonstrate that ZnSe shell growth (0.9-2.8 nm) facilitates the delocalization of electrons and holes into the shell region. The ZnSe shell simultaneously acts as a passivation layer to protect the surface of InP QDs and as a spatial tunneling barrier to extract photoexcited electrons and holes. Thus, engineering the ZnSe shell thickness is crucial for the photoexcited electrons and hole transfer dynamics to tune the optoelectronic properties of "giant" InP/ZnSe core/shell QDs. We obtained an outstanding photocurrent density of 6.2 mA cm -1 for an optimal ZnSe shell thickness of 1.6 nm, which is 288% higher than the values achieved from bare InP QD-based PEC cells. Understanding the effect of shell thickness on surface passivation and carrier dynamics offers fundamental insights into the suitable design and realization of eco-friendly InP-based "giant" core/shell QDs toward improving device performance.

Benefiting from the wide-range absorption and adjustable energy gap, carbon dots (C-dots) have attracted a great deal of attention and they have been used to sensitize semiconductor nanocomposites to boost the efficiency of energy conversion devices, while there is still a lack of fundamental understanding of the interaction between such materials and their influence on the catalytic activity on the reaction process. In this study, C-dots were used to modify TiO 2 to form a direct Z-scheme (DZS) junction for enhancement of the photocatalytic activity. The C-dot/TiO 2 composite was prepared by ultrasonication at room temperature through coupling between the Ti-O-C bond and electrostatic interaction. The C-dots can dramatically enhance the absorption of the composite by forming the DZS, and the composite is enabled to generate more free radicals, which facilitate ∼10 times higher photocatalytic activity compared to that of TiO 2 . As a proof of concept, the as-prepared C-dot/TiO 2 was used for textile wastewater dye degradation. This study provides an efficient approach for room-temperature preparation of C-dot/TiO 2 composites with high photocatalytic activity.

Vehicles emit substantial amounts of pollutants during start periods. Engine starts mainly occur in urban areas, causing serious harm to humans. To investigate the impacts on extra cold start emissions (ECSEs), eleven China 6 vehicles with various control technologies (fuel injection, powertrain, and aftertreatment) were monitored with a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) at different temperatures. For conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), the average ECSEs of CO 2 increased by 24%, while the average ECSEs of NOx and particle number (PN) decreased by 38% and 39%, respectively, with air conditioning (AC) on. Gasoline direct injection (GDI) vehicles had 5% lower CO 2 ECSEs, but 261% higher NOx ECSEs and 318% higher PN ECSEs than port fuel injection (PFI) vehicles at 23 °C. The average PN ECSEs were significantly reduced by gasoline particle filters (GPFs). The GPF filtration efficiency was higher in GDI than PFI vehicles due to particle size distribution. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) generated excessive PN extra start emissions (ESEs), resulting in a 518% increase compared to ICEVs. The start times of the GDI-engine HEV accounted for 11% of the whole test time, but the proportion of PN ESEs relative to total emissions were 23%. Linear simulation based on the decrease in ECSEs with increasing temperature underestimated the PN ECSEs from PFI and GDI vehicles by 39% and 21%, respectively. For ICEVs, CO ECSEs varied with temperature in a U shape with a minimum at 27 °C; NOx ECSEs decreased as ambient temperature increased; PFI vehicles generated more PN ECSEs at 32 °C than GDI vehicles, stressing the significance of ECSEs at high temperature. These results are useful for improving emission models and assessing air pollution exposure in urban aeras., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Manipulating the separation and transfer behaviors of charges has long been pursued for promoting the photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen generation based on II-VI quantum dot (QDs), but remains challenging due to the lack of effective strategies. Herein, a facile strategy is reported to regulate the recombination and transfer of interfacial charges through tuning the surface stoichiometry of heterostructured QDs. Using this method, it is demonstrated that the PEC cells based on CdSe-(Se x S 1- x ) 4 -(CdS) 2 core/shell QDs with a proper S surface /Cd surface ratio exhibits a remarkably improved photocurrent density (≈18.4 mA cm -2 under one sun illumination), superior to the PEC cells based on QDs with Cd-rich or excessive S-rich surface. In-depth electrochemical and spectroscopic characterizations reveal the critical role (hole traps) of surface S atoms in suppressing the recombination of photogenerated charges, and further attribute the inferior performance of excessive S-rich QDs to the impeded charge transfer from QDs to TiO 2 and electrolyte. This work puts forward a simple surface engineering strategy for improving the performance of QDs PEC cells, providing an efficient method to guide the surface design of QDs for their applications in other optoelectronic devices., (© 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are able to collect sunlight from a large-area to generate electric power with a low cost, showing great potential in building-integrated photovoltaics. However, the low efficiency of large-area LSCs caused by the reabsorption losses is a critical issue that hampers their practical applications. In this work, we synthesized novel yellow emissive carbon dots (CDs) with a large Stokes shift of 193 nm, which exhibit nearly zero reabsorption. The quantum yield (QY) of the yellow emitting CDs is up to 61%. The yellow emitting CDs can be employed to fabricate high-performance large-area LSCs due to successful suppression of the reabsorption losses. The as-prepared LSCs are able to absorb 14% of the sunlight as the absorption of the CDs matches well with the sun's spectrum. The large-area LSC (10 × 10 cm 2 ) with a laminated structure based on the yellow emitting CDs achieves an optical conversion efficiency ( η opt ) of 4.56% and power conversion efficiency ( η PCE ) of 4.1% under natural sunlight (45 mW cm -2 ), which are significantly higher than other previously reported works with similar sizes. Furthermore, the prepared high-performance LSCs show good stability. This method of synthesizing novel CDs for high-efficiency LSCs provides a useful platform for future study and practical application of LSCs.

Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are benign vascular tumors commonly observed in children. A small number of cases can manifest as organ or system dysfunction, permanent scarring, or even disfigurement. Currently, diagnosis is mainly based on clinical history, physical examination, and auxiliary inspection. In the treatment of a hemangioma, the functional damage caused by the lesion and complications that may endanger the patient's life should be given priority. This suggests that identification, diagnosis, and referral to specialists during the early stages of IHs are important factors in preventing related complications and obtaining a better prognosis. During the past few decades, researchers have explored different treatments according to the condition, including oral or topical drugs, topical drug injections, laser surgery, and surgical treatment. However, oral propranolol remains a well-accepted first-line treatment. This article will primarily focus on the recent advances in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of hemangiomas, along with a literature review on the subject., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Xu and Zhao.)

With the widespread use of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs), their potential toxicity to the environment and biological health has attracted close attention. Heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) are an innate immune mechanism of chicken heterophils against adverse stimuli, but excessive HETs cause damage. Here, we explored the effect and mechanism of CuO-NPs on HETs formation in vitro and further evaluated the potential role of HETs in chicken liver and kidney injury. Heterophils were exposed to 5, 10, and 20 µg/mL of CuO-NPs for 2 h. The results showed that CuO-NPs induced typical HETs formation, which was dependent on NADPH oxidase, P38 and extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK 1/2 ) pathways, and glycolysis. In in vivo experiments, fluorescence microplate and morphological analysis showed that CuO-NPs elevated the level of HETs in chicken serum and caused liver and kidney damage. Meanwhile, CuO-NPs caused hepatic oxidative stress (MDA, SOD, CAT, and GSH-PX imbalance), and also induced an increase in mRNA expression of their inflammatory and apoptosis-related factors (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, COX-2, iNOS, NLRP3, and Caspase-1, 3, 11). However, these results were significantly altered by DNase I (HETs degradation reagent). In conclusion, the present study demonstrates for the first time that CuO-NPs induce the formation of HETs and that HETs exacerbate pathological damage in chicken liver and kidney by promoting oxidative stress and inflammation, providing insights into immunotoxicity and potential prevention and treatment targets caused by CuO-NPs overexposure., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Road vehicles have become the primary source of fine particles in many large cities. Vehicle hot-start PN emissions at various ambient temperatures were studied previously. Still, these studies used the same rolling resistance setting at different ambient temperatures and the tests at various ambient temperatures have similar PN emissions. Vehicles get larger resistance at cold ambient temperatures, so this experimental setting (same resistance at various ambient temperatures) is beyond the natural conditions. To evaluate how ambient temperatures affect the PN emissions from fully warmed vehicles, two vehicles were tested at four ambient temperatures: -10 °C, 0 °C, 23 °C, and 40 °C. Vehicle resistance variations under different ambient temperatures were taken into consideration. The observed results proved that PN emission would significantly deteriorate under cold conditions even when the vehicles are thoroughly warmed. The PN emission factor at -10 °C could be six times higher than at 23 °C. The deteriorated PN emission is caused by enhanced fuel enrichment and GPF regeneration, and larger vehicle resistance under cold ambient temperatures is the underlying reason for the increased PN emission. For the first time, this study proved that PN emission from fully warmed vehicles would significantly deteriorate when the ambient temperature decreases. The results could be used for emission models, inventory, and regulations., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Carbon dots (C-dots) are fluorescent nanomaterials, exhibiting excellent structure-dependent optical properties for various types of optical and electrical applications. Although many precursors were used for C-dots production, it is still a challenge to produce high-quality C-dots using environmentally-friendly natural precursors. In this work, multiple-colored colloidal C-dots were synthesized via a heating reaction using natural plant dyes as precursors, for example, Indigo, Carcuma longa , and Sophora japonica L. The as-prepared C-dots have absorption in the UV range of 220 to 450 nm with the typical emission ranging from 350 to 600 nm. The as-obtained C-dots have a quantum yield as high as 3.8% in an aqueous solution. As a proof-of-concept, we used the as-prepared C-dots as fluorescence inks for textile secure printing. The printed patterns are almost invisible under daylight and have distinct and clear patterns under 365 and 395 nm light, proving the great potential in optical anti-counterfeiting. This work demonstrates the advanced strategy for high-performance C-dots production from natural dyes and their potential application in flexible secure printing systems.

Identification of air toxics emitted from light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs) is expected to better protect human health. Here, the volatile organic compound (VOC) and intermediate VOC (IVOC) emissions in the high-emitted start stages were measured on a chassis dynamometer under normal and extreme temperatures for China 6 LDGVs. Low temperature enhanced the emission rates (ERs) of both VOCs and IVOCs. The VOC ERs were averaged 5.19 ± 2.74 times higher when the temperature dropped from 23 °C to 0 °C, and IVOCs were less sensitive to temperature change with an enlargement of 2.27 ± 0.19 times. Aromatics (46.75 ± 2.83%) and alkanes (18.46 ± 1.21%) dominated the cold start VOC emissions under normal temperature, which was quite different from hot running emission profiles. From the perspective of emission inventories, changes in the speciated composition of VOCs and IVOCs were less important than that in the actual magnitude of ERs under cold conditions. However, changes in the ERs and emission profiles were equally important at high temperatures. Furthermore, high time-resolved measurements revealed that low temperature enhanced both the emission peak and peak duration of fuel components and incomplete combustion products during cold start, while high temperature only increased the peak concentration of fuel components., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nanosilver is a metallic silver monomer with a diameter of <100 nm, which has excellent antibacterial activity and is widely used in the fields of medicine and sanitation, disinfection of drinking water in daily life and feed additives in livestock and poultry farming. Heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) are an important part of innate immunity in chickens and have an excellent antimicrobial effect, but their excessive release caused tissue damage. Nanosilver overdose caused toxic effects in chickens, while immunotoxic effects of nanosilver on chickens have not been reported. In this study, we explored the effects of nanosilver-induced HETs on chicken liver and kidney damage and further investigated the molecular mechanism of nanosilver-induced HETs release. The results showed that nanosilver significantly upregulated serum HETs and caused liver and kidney damage. The classical structure of nanosilver-induced HETs was also observed, and nanosilver-induced HETs were dependent on reactive oxygen species (ROS), extracellular regulatory protein kinase (ERK) 1/2 , p38 and glycolysis pathways. In summary, this research suggests that nanosilver induced HETs release, but excessive HETs release also caused damage to chicken. It also helps to understand the importance of moderate application of nanosilver, which may improve animal immunity but avoid negative effects in safeguarding the economic efficiency of poultry farming., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Widely used alumina nanoparticles (Al 2 O 3 NPs) exposed to the environment pose a serious threat to human and animal health. The formation of heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) is a mechanism of innate immune defense against infection, but excessive HETs cause pathological damage. Here, we aim to explore the influence and mechanism of Al 2 O 3 NPs on the formation of HETs in vitro, and further investigate the role of HETs release in histopathological damage after Al 2 O 3 NPs treatment. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that Al 2 O 3 NPs induced the formation of HETs, which was characterized by modified histones and elastase in the DNA backbone. Fluorescence microplate analysis showed that HETs formation was dependent on NADPH oxidase, P38, extracellular regulated protein kinases (ERK 1/2 ) pathways and glycolysis. In vivo investigation showed that Al 2 O 3 NPs significantly caused HETs release and liver damage. Biochemical analysis showed that Al 2 O 3 NPs inhibited the activity of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX). Real-time fluorescence quantification results showed that Al 2 O 3 NPs caused the overexpression of inflammation-related molecules interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), caspase-1 and caspase-11. All these changes were significantly changed by DNase I (Degradation reagent for HETs). Together, these suggest that Al 2 O 3 NPs-induced HETs exacerbate liver injury by regulating oxidative stress and inflammatory responses, which provide a new perspective and potential prophylaxis and treatment targets for Al 2 O 3 NPs toxicological research., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Large scale solar-driven hydrogen production is a crucial step toward decarbonizing society. However, the solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, long-term stability, and cost-effectiveness in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) still need to be improved. Herein, an efficient approach is demonstrated to produce low-dimensional Pt/graphene-carbon nanofibers (CNFs)-based heterostructures for bias-free, highly efficient, and durable HER. Carbon dots are used as efficient building blocks for the in situ formation of graphene along the CNFs surface. The presence of graphene enhances the electronic conductivity of CNFs to ≈3013.5 S m -1  and simultaneously supports the uniform Pt clusters growth and efficient electron transport during HER. The electrode with a low Pt loading amount (3.4 µg cm -2 ) exhibits a remarkable mass activity of HER in both acidic and alkaline media, which is significantly better than that of commercial Pt/C (31 µg cm -2  of Pt loading). In addition, using a luminescent solar concentrator-coupled solar cell to provide voltage, the bias-free water splitting system exhibits an STH efficiency of 0.22% upon one-sun illumination. These results are promising toward using low-dimensional heterostructured catalysts for future energy storage and conversion applications., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a mycotoxin with strong toxicity and play a large proportion in aspergillosis. Heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) was considered as an innate immune response of chickens to resist pathogens. AFB1 has been reported to trigger macrophages extracellular traps (METs) in THP-1 cells and RAW264.7 cells, but whether AFB1 could also activate HETs release, and the mechanism underlying AFB1-activated HETs in chicken remains unclear. In this study, we confirmed that AFB1could induce HETs release, which was a network of DNA-based structures consist of citrullinated histone 3 (citH3) and elastase. Meanwhile, AFB1-activated HETs rely on the glycolytic process to provide energy, NADPH oxidase and p38 signaling pathway. Moreover, it has been verified that AFB1-activated HETs release could significantly increase the biochemical indexes of liver (ALT and AST) and kidney (CRE and BUN) in serum. In addition, histopathological observation showed that AFB1 caused swelling, necrosis and vacuolation of hepatocytes in liver, and necrosis, exfoliated of nephrocyte in kidney. Further investigation demonstrated that AFB1 significantly decreased the levels of SOD and GSH-PX but increased the level of MDA, and meanwhile induced the mRNA expressions of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β, iNOS, COX-2, NLRP3, caspase-1, caspase-3 and caspase-11. However, all these AFB1-induced biochemical indexes and histopathological changes were effectively alleviated by DNase I (the standard degradant for HETs). In conclusion, it has preliminary confirmed that AFB1-activated HETs formation contributed to the immunotoxicity in chicken and provide new strategies for the therapy in aspergillosis., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Compared to noble metals, transition metal oxides (TMOs) have positive development prospects in the field of electrocatalysis, and the synergy between the elements in multi-element TMO-based materials can improve their catalytic activity. However, it is still a challenge to synthesize multi-component TMO-based catalysts and deeply understand the effects of components on the catalytic performance of the catalysts. Here, we demonstrate multi-element ultra-small-sized nanofibers for efficient hydrogen production. The ternary NiFeCoO nanofiber-based electrode reached an overpotential of 82 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm -2 with a Tafel slope of 56 mV dec -1 in 1 M KOH, which are close to those of Pt plate (66 mV at 10 mA cm -2 ; the Tafel slope is 32 mV dec -1 ). In addition, the current density maintained 97% of its initial value after 10 h operation. We used the ternary NiFeCoO nanofiber-based electrode as an efficient counter electrode in photoelectrochemical hydrogen production to demonstrate the versatility of these nanofibers., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a secondary metabolite produced by Aspergillus flavus and parasitic aspergillus, mainly existing in cereals, peanuts, corn, and other crops, which seriously endanger poultry, human health, and environment. Morin, a flavonoid compound extracted from moraceae plants, possess antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, whether morin has a protective effect on AFB1-induced liver and kidney damage in chicks has not been specifically reported. In this study, we mainly confirmed the protective effect of morin on AFB1-induced liver and kidney damage in chicks and clarified its mechanism. It was found that morin can significantly reduce the liver biochemical indicators of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and kidney indicators of creatinine (CRE) and urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. Meanwhile, histopathological examination showed that morin effectively relieved AFB1-caused liver damage, including hepatocyte disruption, swelling, and inflammatory cell infiltration, and effectively relieved kidney damage, including renal cell necrosis, exfoliation, and vacuolization. Further investigation of its mechanism demonstrated that morin significantly inhibited AFB1-induced heterophil extracellular traps (HETs) release, and decreased the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) but increased the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and catalase (CAT) in vivo. Moreover, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that morin also significantly decreased AFB1-induced mRNA expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), caspase-1, caspase-3, and caspase-11. In conclusion, all results confirmed that morin could protect AFB1-caused liver and kidney damage by inhibiting HETs release, regulating oxidative stress, and inhibiting inflammatory response, suggesting that morin can be utilized as a potential drug for prevention and treatment of aflatoxicosis in poultry breeding industry., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a secondary metabolite produced by fungi such as Fusarium and Fusarium flavum, which is classified as a mycotoxin. Crops and feed in a humid surrounding are widely polluted by ZEA, which further endangering the healthful aquaculture of poultry and even human health. Up to now, prevention and cure of mycotoxicosis is still a crucial subject of poultry husbandry. Baicalin (BAI) is a flavonoid refined from dried roots of Scutellaria baicalensis possessing the function of hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-atherosclerotic efficacies.etc. But whether Baicalin also has a protective effect against ZEA intoxication is unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to establish a model of ZEA-induced toxic injury in chicks, and then to investigate the way in which Baicalin plays a protective role in the mechanism of ZEA-induced liver and kidney injury in chicks. The results exhibit that Baicalin could not only significantly decrease aspartate aminotransferase (AST) , alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and creatinine (Cre) levels in serum, but also ameliorate ZEA-induced pathologic changes of liver and kidney. Baicalin could also significantly regulate ZEA-induced the changes of catalase (CAT) , malondialdehyde (MDA) , total sulfhydryl group , except for glutathione peroxidase (GSH-px) , and inhibit the mRNA levels of inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) , interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) with caspase-3 and caspase-11 in the caspase signaling pathway , meanwhile inhibit the cell apoptosis in immunohistochemistry. In summary, we successfully established a model of ZEA-induced liver injury in chicks, and confirm that Baicalin can reduce ZEA-induced liver and kidney injury in chicks. The mechanism of these effects is via inhibiting inflammation, oxidative stress and apoptosis, which also indicates the potential applicability of Baicalin for the prevention and treatment of ZEA-induced toxicity in chicks., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

"Giant" core/shell quantum dots (g-QDs) are promising candidates for emerging optoelectronic technologies thanks to their facile structure/composition-tunable optoelectronic properties and outstanding photo-physical/chemical stability. Here, we synthesized a new type of CuInTeSe (CITS)/CdS g-QDs and regulated their optoelectronic properties by controlling the shell thickness. Through increasing the shell thickness, as-prepared g-QDs exhibited tunable red-shifted emission (from 900 to 1200 nm) and prolonged photoluminescence (PL) lifetimes (up to ∼14.0 μs), indicating a formed band structure showing efficient charge separation and transfer, which is further testified by theoretical calculations and ultrafast time-resolved transient absorption (TA) spectroscopy. These CITS/CdS g-QDs with various shell thicknesses can be employed to fabricate photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells, exhibiting improved photoresponse and stability as compared to the bare CITS QD-based devices. The results indicate that the rational design and engineering of g-QDs is very promising for future QD-based optoelectronic technologies.

Developing functional materials integrating multi-tasking oil/water separation performances is significant but challenging for the remediation of large-scale oil spills causing pernicious environmental damages. Herein, a novel Concus Finn Capillary driven oil sorbent (OSCPF) fabricated by aligning superhydrophobic cruciate polyester fibers based on yarn spinning mechanism is designed to realize the clean-up of oil spills and various oil/water mixtures at high speeds. Instantaneous oil diffusion is achieved by abrupt Concus Finn Capillary driven oil-flows along aligned channels. This advance reduces the penetrating time for viscous crude oils by 95.00% comparing with that of non-oriented circular polyester fibers. The OSCPF possess great oil sorption capacity of 54.36-124.71 g/g and can separate oils from immiscible oil/water mixtures, including seawater, soap-water, CuCl 2 -water, and KMnO 4 -water, and surfactant-stabilized O/W emulsions by the way of adsorption with satisfactory separation efficiency (99.41-99.83%). Especially, the OSCPF is effectively used to enclose oil spills to prevent rapid oil diffusion and in-situ continuously collect the spillages from water surface and underwater by pumping device with recovery rates of 15,727-104,227 L·m -2 ·h -1 . Considering the unique structural design, fast oil sorption speed, and low operating cost, this work provides a prospective oil remover addressing the remediation of catastrophic multi-tasking oil/water pollutions., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Colloidal carbon quantum dots (C-dots) have attracted a lot of attention because of their excellent optical properties for various types of applications. Due to the complicated structure of C-dots, the photoluminescence (PL) mechanism of C-dots is still unclear. In particular, it is still a big challenge to understand well the surface chemistry of C-dots. In this work, we used a vacuum-heating approach to produce high-quality C-dots. With different purification procedures, the surface chemistry of C-dots can be well-controlled. Removal of Ca 2+ by Na 2 CO 3 led to the disappearance of the absorption at 405 nm and a decrease of the quantum yield. In addition, the Na 2 CO 3 treated C-dots exhibited an excitation-dependent PL behavior. These results confirmed that Ca 2+ can interact with the surface functional group of C[double bond, length as m-dash]O of the C-dots, forming a stable structure surrounding the C-dot core, which contributed to a high quantum yield (QY) of 65%, excitation-independent PL behavior and absorption at 405 nm. Furthermore, the PL of the C-dots is strongly dependent on the pH, indicating that the Ca 2+ capped C-dots could be used as pH indicators. Our finding provides clear evidence for the surface-chemistry dependent PL behavior of C-dots.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) can collect solar light from a large area and concentrate it on their small-area edges mounted with solar cells for efficient solar-to-electricity conversion. Thus, LSCs show huge promise for realizing building-integrated photovoltaics because of their semi-transparency and light weight. However, the low optical efficiency of LSCs becomes a great obstacle for their application in real energy conversion. Herein, yellow emissive carbon dots with a record-breaking ultrahigh quantum yield of up to 86.4% were prepared via a simple hydrothermal approach using low-cost precursors. By combining them with red emissive carbon dots (quantum yield of 17.6%), a large area (∼100 cm2) tandem LSC was fabricated. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the large-area carbon dot-integrated tandem LSC reaches up to 3.8%, which is among the best reported in literature for a similar lateral size of LSCs. In particular, the tandem structure based on two laminated layers is novel, and is fit for the real structural application of keeping windows warm, where two glass slides are usually used. The high-efficiency tandem LSC using eco-friendly carbon dots as fluorophores paves way for real applications of LSCs.

Emodin (1,3,8-trihydroxy-6-methylanthraquinone), as an active ingredient in rhubarb roots and rhizomes, has been reported to possess various pharmacological properties including anti-tumor effects. Recent studies have confirmed that emodin inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis of cancer cells. However, the inhibitory effect of emodin on the migration and invasion of melanoma cells and its underlying mechanism are still unclear. In the study, we observed the impercipient effects of emodin in B16F10 and A375 melanoma cells with strong metastatic abilities, focusing on the functions and mechanisms of migration and invasion of B16F10 and A375 melanoma cells. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation test and Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)/propidium iodide (PI) staining tests confirmed that emodin possessed anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic activities in B16F10 and A375 cells. The inhibitory effects on the migration and invasion of B16F10 and A375 cells were proved by wound healing assay and Transwell methods. Moreover, immunofluorescence assay approved the decrease in protein expression of matrix metalloproteinas (MMP)-2/-9 by emodin, and Western blot analyses revealed that emodin could increase the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and inhibit the MMP-2/-9 protein expression and Wnt/β-catenin pathway in a dose-depended manner. BML-284, as an agonist of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, reversed the effects of emodin on cell growth, migration and invasion in B16F10 cells. These findings may suggest that emodin treatment can be a promising therapeutic strategy for melanoma with highly metastatic abilities.

Optical nanothermometers have attracted much attention due to their non-contact and precise measurement with high spatial resolution at the micro- and nanoscales. They can be applied in various fields such as micro-opto-electronics, photonics, and biomedical thermal and pH sensing, while most thermal sensors reported so far contain heavy metals or have low sensitivity. Herein, we demonstrate a highly sensitive ratiometric thermal sensor based on colloidal C-dots. C-dots exhibit dual emission originating from the band gap emission and surface-dominant emission, which show a different temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) response. Among different surface-functionalized C-dots, C-dots@OH exhibit an absolute thermal sensitivity of -0.082 °C-1, which is the highest among various types of ratiometric thermosensors, making it a very promising candidate for high-sensitivity, self-calibrated nanoscale thermometry. As a proof-of-concept, C-dots@OH were employed to monitor the intracellular temperature (32-42 °C), showing a clear trend for temperature variation in a single cell, indicating that C-dots could offer a powerful tool for a potential precise measurement of the intracellular temperature. They could also be used as thermal sensors for nano-electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production is one of the most effective strategies for solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion. Among various types of semiconductors used for PEC anodes, colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have been widely used as new and promising absorbers for PEC and other optoelectronic devices. However, currently, most efficient optoelectronic devices contain toxic Pb/Cd elements or non-earth-abundant elements (In/Ag). It is still a challenge to produce Pb/Cd-free QDs without using any toxic and non-earth-abundant elements. Here, we synthesized SnSe QDs via a diffusion-controlled hot injection approach and further stabilized the as-prepared SnSe QDs via a cation exchange reaction. The as-synthesized Zn-stabilized SnSe QDs (SnSe/ZnSe) have an orthorhombic crystal structure with indirect bandgaps ranging from 1 to 1.37 eV. Zn stabilization can significantly decrease the number of QD surface metallic Sn bonds, thereby decreasing the number of recombination centers of defects/traps. As a proof-of-concept, SnSe/ZnSe QDs are used as light absorbers for PEC hydrogen production, leading to a saturated photocurrent density of 7 mA cm -2 , which is comparable to best values reported for PEC devices based on toxic-metal-free QDs. Our results indicate that Zn-stabilized SnSe QDs have great potential for use in emerging optoelectronic devices.

An increasing number of Asian people are seeking nonsurgical facial aesthetic treatments. Ethnic Asians differ from Western populations in both facial appearance and baseline structural facial anatomy. And there is a lack of clinical instruction to doctors who provide facial aesthetic treatment for Asian patients. The authors proposed the " Future Codes" design in Chinese calligraphy describing the art of facial injection in Asians to help doctors perform well. "" are pictograph of 2 Chinese characters, translated into English as "Future," which represent beautiful meanings and vividly describe the procedure and operating area of the design methods. The concept encompasses a systematic overall design for the art of facial injection in Asians, and these procedures are easy to learn and perform safely. This is the first systematic solution available in the clinic that can be used to design facial aesthetics and rejuvenation in Asians through Eastern philosophy and culture., (© 2021 The Aesthetic Society.)

Background: Emodin, extracted from the rhizomes of various Chinese herbs, is a natural anthraquinone derivative with the formula C15H10O5. Many recent studies have shown that emodin has an antitumour effect. In this study, emodin was investigated in vitro to observe its effect on the proliferation, migration, and apoptosis of the B16F10 melanoma cell line., Methods: B16F10 cells were treated with 20, 40, 60, or 80 µM emodin for 24 h. A Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to measure the effect of emodin on cell proliferation. After 24 h of emodin treatment, a scratch test was used to detect the wound healing rate of each group. A Transwell test was used to measure the effect of emodin on cell migration ability. The apoptosis rate of the B16F10 cells was determined by a TUNEL assay. The expression of caspase-3 was measured by western blot analysis., Results: Compared with the control group, emodin significantly inhibited the proliferation and migration of the B16F10 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Emodin also inhibited the migration of the B16F10 cells and induced their apoptosis., Conclusions: Emodin can effectively suppress the viability and migration of B16F10 cells and may induce apoptosis through the mitochondrial pathway or death receptor-mediated pathway., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/tcr-20-1040). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2020 Translational Cancer Research. All rights reserved.)

Here, a facile approach to enhance the performance of solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is described by means of the synergistic effects of a hybrid network of plasmonic Au nanoparticles (NPs) decorated on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The device based on TiO 2 -Au:CNTs hybrid network sensitized with colloidal CdSe/(CdSe x S 1- x ) 5 /(CdS) 1 core/alloyed shell quantum dots (QDs) yields a saturated photocurrent density of 16.10 ± 0.10 mA cm -2 [at 1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] under 1 sun illumination (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm -2 ), which is ≈26% higher than the control device. The in-depth mechanism behind this significant improvement is revealed through a combined experimental and theoretical analysis for QDs/TiO 2 -Au:CNTs hybrid network and demonstrates the multifaceted impact of plasmonic Au NPs and CNTs: i) hot-electron injection from Au NPs into CNTs and TiO 2 ; ii) near-field enhancement of the QDs absorption and carrier generation/separation processes by the plasmonic Au NPs; iii) enhanced photoinjected electron transport due to the highly directional pathways offered by CNTs. These results provide fundamental insights on the properties of QDs/TiO 2 -Au:CNTs hybrid network, and highlights the possibility to improve the performance of other solar technologies., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Despite significant advances in the development of high-efficiency and stable quantum dot (QD) solar cells (QDSCs), recent synthetic and fabrication routes still require improvements to render QDSCs commercially feasible. Here, we describe a low-cost, industrially viable fabrication method of QDSCs under an ambient atmosphere (humid air and room temperature) using stable, high-quality, and small-sized PbS QDs prepared with low-cost, greener precursors [i.e., thioacetamide (TAA)] compared to the widely used bis(trimethylsilyl)sulfide [(TMS) 2 S], at low temperatures without requiring any stringent conditions. The low reaction temperature, medium reactivity of TAA, and diffusion-controlled particle growth adopted in this approach provide an opportunity to synthesize ultrasmall (emission peak ∼700 nm) to larger PbS QDs (emission peak ∼1050 nm). This also enables well-controlled large-scale (multigram) synthesis with a rough estimated production cost of PbS of 8.11 $ per gram (based on materials cost), which is the lowest among the available PbS QDs produced using wet chemistry routes. QDSCs fabricated using 3.25 nm PbS QDs (bandgap 1.29 eV) under ambient conditions yield a high circuit current density ( J sc ) of 32.4 mA/cm 2 (one of the highest values of J sc ever reported) with a power conversion efficiency of 7.8% under 1 sun simulated sunlight at AM 1.5 G (100 mW/cm 2 ). These devices exhibit better photovoltaic performance compared to devices fabricated with more traditional PbS QDs synthesized with (TMS) 2 S under an ambient atmosphere, confirming the quality of PbS QDs produced with our method. The diffusion-controlled TAA-based synthetic route developed herein is found to be very promising for synthesizing size-tunable PbS QDs for photovoltaic and other optoelectronic applications.

Resistance change under mechanical stimuli arouses mass operational heat, damaging the performance, lifetime, and reliability of stretchable electronic devices, therefore rapid thermal heat dissipating is necessary. Here we report a stretchable strain sensor with outstanding thermal management. Besides a high stretchability and sensitivity testified by human motion monitoring, as well as long-term durability, an enhanced thermal conductivity from the casted thermoplastic polyurethane-boron nitride nanosheets layer helps rapid heat transmission to the environments, while the porous electrospun fibrous thermoplastic polyurethane membrane leads to thermal insulation. A 32% drop of the real time saturated temperature is achieved. For the first time we in-situ investigated the dynamic operational temperature fluctuation of stretchable electronics under repeating stretching-releasing processes. Finally, cytotoxicity test confirms that the nanofillers are tightly restricted in the nanocomposites, making it harmless to human health. All the results prove it an excellent candidate for the next-generation of wearable devices.

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are a fascinating class of semiconducting nanocrystals, thanks to their optical properties tunable through size and composition, and simple synthesis methods. Recently, colloidal double-emission QDs have been successfully applied as competitive optical temperature sensors, since they exhibit structure-tunable double emission, temperature-dependent photoluminescence, high quantum yield, and excellent photostability. Until now, QDs have been used as nanothermometers for in vivo biological thermal imaging, and thermal mapping in complex environments at the sub-microscale to nanoscale range. In this Review, recent progress for QD-based nanothermometers is highlighted and perspectives for future work are described., (© 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The rapid development of modern electronics has accelerated the demand for stretchable components with high thermal management capability because increasing the power density and miniaturization of electronic devices generate greater heat. However, stretchable electronics with enhanced heat dissipation have been rarely reported. In this study, a stretchable laminated nanocomposite-based conductor with both robust electric conductivity and enhanced thermal management capability was fabricated. With the optimized GNRs and BNNS contents, this conductor exhibited a thermal conductivity enhancement of 266%, leading to a decrease in the working temperature from 57.4 °C to 29.2 °C. Even under 100% strain, the fluctuation of the equilibrium operational temperature was within 10%. Moreover, the conductor showed outstanding electric performance under 200% strain with an R/R 0 value of 1.46. Whether stretched and tested in a Moebius-belt shape or under hard-environmental conditions such as in seawater, crude oil, and even integrated in a wireless charging circuit, the significant reliability of this conductor was recorded. Thus, our results are promising to provide a practical approach for the fabrication of stretchable electronic devices working in high temperature environments associated with extreme thermal stresses and under extreme circumstances such as sea rescue operations and marine oil pollution remediation.

Heterostructured quantum dots (hetero-QDs) have outstanding optical properties and chemical/photostability, which make them promising building blocks for use in various optoelectronic devices. Here, CuInSe x S 2-x /CdSeS/CdS hetero-QDs were synthesized through a facile two-step method. Their particle size, three-dimensional (3D) shapes and the epitaxial relationship between the CuInSe x S 2-x /CdSeS core and CdS shell were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Our investigation proves that the as-synthesized hetero-QDs have a regular tetrahedron 3D shape with four {111} crystal facets. The epitaxial relationship between the CuInSe x S 2-x /CdSeS core and CdS shell is determined to be [110] core //[110] shell , {112} core //{111} shell . In situ HRTEM observations show that the screw dislocation inside the hetero-QDs can be efficiently repaired using e-beam irradiation. These results may help in designing hetero-QDs with high-quality interfaces and identifying the strategies for synthesizing defect-free hetero-QDs.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are light-weight, semitransparent and large-area sunlight collectors for solar-to-electricity conversion. To date, carbon quantum dots (C-QDs) have attracted a lot of attention due to their size/shape/composition tunable optical properties, high quantum yield, excellent photostability, lower toxicity and simple synthetic methods using earth-abundant and low-cost precursors. However, due to the overlap between their absorption and emission spectra, it is still challenging to fabricate high-efficiency LSCs based on C-dots. In this work, we used C-QDs to fabricate semi-transparent large-area laminated LSCs (10 × 10 cm 2 ). C-QDs have the absorption spectrum ranging from 300 to 550 nm with a Stokes shift of 0.6 eV. By optimizing the concentration of C-QDs, the laminated LSC exhibits a highest η opt of 1.6%, which is 1.6 times higher than that of a single-layer LSC (100 mW cm -2 ). In addition, the laminated LSC exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 0.7% under natural sunlight illumination (62 mW cm -2 ) with excellent photostability. These findings suggest that laminated structured LSCs could be used for efficient solar energy harvesting compared to single layer or tandem structured LSCs based on colloidal C-QDs., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)