Search

As global supply is still inadequate to address the worldwide requirements for HPV vaccines, we assessed the safety and immunogenicity of a new bivalent HPV16/18 vaccine. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial, healthy 9–45-year-old Chinese females in three age cohorts (600 aged 9–17 years; 240 aged 18–26 years; 360 aged 27–45 years) were randomized 1:1 to receive three doses (0,2,6 months) of HPV16/18 vaccine or placebo. We measured neutralizing antibodies against HPV 16 and 18 at 7 months and monitored safety to 12 months in all age cohorts; 9–17-year-old girls were monitored for safety and immunogenicity to 48 months. In vaccinees, 99.8% seroconverted for HPV 16 and 18 types at 7 months; respective GMTs of 5827 (95% CI: 5249, 6468) and 4223 (3785, 4713) were significantly (p

Comprehensive Summary: ZnO nanoparticles (nps) among metal oxide (MOs) are proven to be essential electron transporting layers (ETLs) applied in organic solar cells (OSCs). However, intrinsic defects, interfacial charge recombination, and catalytic behavior towards the active layer restrict the applications of ZnO nps for efficient and long‐term stable OSCs. The commonly available biomolecule cytidine 5'‐monophosphate (CMP‐OH) with phosphonic acid, its salt cytidine 5'‐monophosphate disodium salt (CMP‐ONa) with a phosphate group as an anchoring group and conjugated terminal functional in both analogous molecules provide carrier transfer bridge at bottom interface of the active layer. Systematized theoretical investigations and characterizations have discovered the multi‐site coordination of CMP‐OH towards acceptor molecules and ZnO nps. The dual‐side alignment of CMP analogous molecules hinders interfacial charge recombination and enhances charge transfer potential at once. Inevitably, PM6:L8‐BO‐based OSCs with modified ETL obtain 18.13% efficiency, 12% higher than that of unmodified nps. Besides higher efficiency, CMP‐OH‐based OSC devices illustrate remarkably improved thermal stability for 500 h at 85 °C with 72% of initial PCE and operation stability for 2000 h with 90.1% of initial PCE. This work reveals the passivation mechanism of multi‐anchoring groups towards MOs and single‐functional groups towards the active layer to optimize the interface for efficient and highly stable OSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Sheng Mai San (SMS) has been proven to exhibit cardio-protective effects. This study aimed to explore the molecular mechanisms of SMS on hyperglycaemia (HG)-induced apoptosis in H9C2 cells. Methods HG-induced H9C2 cells were established as the experimental model, and then treated with SMS at 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL. H9C2 cell viability and apoptosis were quantified using MTT and Annexin V-FITC assays, respectively. Furthermore, Bcl-2/Bax signalling pathway protein expression and Fas and FasL gene expression levels were quantified using western blotting and RT-PCR, respectively. Results SMS treatments at 25, 50, 100 μg/mL significantly improved H9C2 cell viability and inhibited H9C2 cell apoptosis (p

Circularly polarized photocurrent, observed in p-doped bulk GaAs, varies nonlinearly with the applied bias voltage at room temperature. It has been explored that this phenomenon arises from the current-induced spin polarization in GaAs. In addition, we found that the current-induced spin polarization direction of p-doped bulk GaAs grown in the (001) direction lies in the sample plane and is perpendicular to the applied electric field, which is the same as that in GaAs quantum well. This research indicates that circularly polarized photocurrent is a new optical approach to investigate the current-induced spin polarization at room temperature.

Eight new stigmasterol derivatives possessing 1,2,3-triazoles moiety were synthesized by a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. All the compounds were characterized by IR, NMR, and HR-MS. In addition, human cervical cancer cells (HeLa), human gastric cancer cells (HGC-27), and human renal epithelial cells (HEK-293T) were selected to study the antitumor activity of the synthesized compounds. The results demonstrated that compounds 3c and 3d exhibited better inhibitory activity against the tested tumor cell lines. The IC50 value of the inhibitory activity on HeLa was 52.3 μmol·L–1 and 31.4 μmol·L–1, and 40.6 μmol·L–1 and 44.6 μmol·L–1 for HGC-27, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New multiphase Wound-Field Doubly Salient Machines (WFDSMs) for electrical actuators with symmetric phases are investigated and compared in this paper. With a comparative study of the pole number and pole arc coefficient, the salient pole topology of the three-phase, four-phase, five-phase, and six-phase WFDSMs with little cogging torque is presented. A new winding configuration that can provide symmetrical phases for the multiphase WFDSMs is proposed. Suitable fault-tolerant converters for the multiphase WFDSM are presented. With the simulated results in terms of the pole topology, flux linkage, back EMF and converters, it can be concluded that the pole numbers of the new five-phase WFDSM are very large. The high accuracy position sensors should be required to make the five-phase WFDSM commutate frequently and accurately at a high speed. The four-phase and the six-phase WFDSM can be divided into two isolated channels, and both of them have a good performance as a fault-tolerant machine. All of the investigations are verified by finite element analysis results.

Heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials are highly desired for supercapacitors. Herein, we report the preparation of such material from polybenzoxazine (PBZ), a kind of phenolic resin. Four different N- and O-codoped microporous carbon materials were obtained by changing carbonization temperature (600, 700, 800, and 900 °C). Their structures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen isothermal absorption and desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and their electrochemical performances were evaluated by cyclovoltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) test in a three-electrode system. It was found that the carbon material (C-700) prepared at the carbonization temperature of 700 °C possesses the largest specific surface area (SSA), total pore volume and average pore size among the family, and thus displays the highest specific capacitance with a value of 205 F g−1 at a current density of 0.25 A g−1 and good cycling stability. The work demonstrates that the N- and O-codoped microporous carbon materials with high electrochemical performance can be derived from benzoxazine polymers and are promising for supercapacitor application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tremendous personal and economic burden worldwide caused by low back pain (LBP) has been surging in recent years. While intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) is the leading cause of LBP and vast efforts have been made to develop effective therapies, this problem is far from being resolved, as most treatments, such as painkillers and surgeries, mainly focus on relieving the symptoms rather than reversing the cause of IVDD. However, as stem/progenitor cells possess the potential to regenerate IVD, a deeper understanding of the early development and role of these cells could help to improve the effectiveness of stem/progenitor cell therapy in treating LBP. Single-cell RNA sequencing results provide fresh insights into the heterogeneity and development patterns of IVD progenitors; additionally, we compare mesenchymal stromal cells and IVD progenitors to provide a clearer view of the optimal cell source proposed for IVD regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: The development of conjugated polymer photocatalysts for efficient solar‐to‐hydrogen energy conversion is highly desirable for the sustainability of our society. Although the construction of donor‐acceptor (D‐A) structure in conjugated polymer photocatalysts for solar‐to‐hydrogen energy conversion has been well documented, less attention has been paid on how large D and how large A units combined together could achieve the best performance. Herein, a series of D‐A copolymers P(BDT‐DBTSOx) (x = 7, 19, 39, and 79) composed of a benzodithiophene (BDT) donor unit and an oligomeric dibenzo[b,d]thiophene sulfone (DBTSO) acceptor segment were synthesized and studied. It was found that the polymer photocatalytic stabilities under full‐arc irradiation improved upon shortening the length of the acceptor segment. Under visible light irradiation and in the presence of 3 wt% Pt cocatalyst, P(BDT‐DBTSO79) displayed the best performance with an optimal hydrogen evolution rate of 119.3 ± 5.8 mmol·g–1·h–1. This is 1.4‐fold as that of DBTSO homopolymer and 22.5‐fold as that of BDT/DBTSO alternative copolymer, highlighting the importance of acceptor length in D‐A structure for achieving high photocatalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strategy involving bulky and "embracing"-type side chains for keeping the planarity of non-fused units was proposed and applied to the design of a non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) molecule. The NFA molecule iPrBT-NFA bearing a 2,2′-bithiophene core with two bulky and embracing-type 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl substituents at its 3,3′ positions was demonstrated to display a planar core structure, red-shifted light absorption, finely regulated aggregation and much better photovoltaic performance than that shown by a reference molecule (DeBT-NFA) having the same backbone but with long alkyl side chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electron transport layer (ETL) plays an important role in promoting both photovoltaic performance and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). n-Type conjugated polymers have been developed to replace the widely explored phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as an ETL, especially in p-i-n inverted planar PSCs, owing to their high-quality film features and excellent electron transport ability. Herein, a series of electron-deficient conjugated polymers (P(DTCDI-T), P(DTCDI-2T) and P(DTCDI-3T)) consisting of dithieno[3,2-a:3′,2′-j][5,6,11,12]chrysene diimides (DTCDI) and different thiophene based units (thiophene (T), 2,2′-bithiophene (2T) and 2,2′:5′,2′′-terthiophene (3T)) are reported as effective ETLs for inverted PSCs. Compared to control devices based on the PCBM ETL, these polymer-based devices display better photovoltaic performance, which is mainly due to the optimized electron extraction and transport properties of these DTCDI-based polymers, resulting in a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.88% for P(DTCDI-2T) ETL based devices. Moreover, thanks to better film features, more effective interfacial passivation, lower trap-state density and hydrophobicity, these polymeric ETL based devices exhibit considerably improved stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the postoperative progression of multilevel thoracic posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) at circumferential decompression (CD) levels and evaluate the long‐term results after CD via the posterior approach. Methods: Clinical data from 16 patients with thoracic myelopathy secondary to OPLL who underwent CD at a single center were evaluated retrospectively from 2007 to 2014 and were followed up for more than 60 months. Patients of all sexes and ages were included in the study. Thin‐slice computed tomography scans obtained at the time of surgery and the most recent follow‐up were analyzed. The ossified area was measured on the axial reconstructed scan of the most obvious protrusion of ossification at the CD level. The neurological outcomes were evaluated using modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores and Hirabayashi recovery rates (HRRs). Continuous variables were presented as the mean ± standard deviation and were analyzed using the Student's t‐test, while categorical variables were tested using Fisher's exact test. Results: Among all patients, the most predominant type was the mixed type (9/16, 56.3%), while the circumscribed type was only found in two patients (12.5%), and the continuous type was found in five patients (31.2%). Six cases were associated with ossification of the ligamentum flavum, and two cases were combined with cervical OPLL. The OPLL area at the CD level increased in all patients. The mean follow‐up period was 5.5 ± 0.92 years (range 5–8 years). The mean area of ossification increased from 35.63 ± 39.23 mm2 at the time of surgery to 99.94 ± 65.39 mm2 at the last follow‐up visit (P < 0.01). There was no internal fixation disorder on any computed tomography scan after the operation. The average JOA score of all patients improved from 4.2 ± 2.2 points before surgery to 8.4 ± 2.6 points at the final follow‐up (P < 0.01). The overall HRR was 61.8%. None of the patients exhibited any neurological deterioration due to OPLL progression. One patient developed a severe gait disturbance due to worsening lumbar canal stenosis, an unrelated cause, but the other 15 experienced gait disturbance improvements. Conclusions: According to the long‐term follow‐up results, although OPLL progression did not decrease or stop after removing the OPLL mass, CD is a safe and effective procedure that can provide adequate reserve ventral space to cope with postoperative OPLL progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small amount of the 3-(hexyldimethylammonio)propane-1-sulfonate zwitterionic side chain was integrated into a diketopyrrolopyrrole ambipolar polymer to modulate its field-effect carrier-transport characteristics. It was found that such a modification can strengthen the interchain interaction, promote crystallization, and thus improve the hole and electron mobilities by 3.9- and 8.2-fold, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A side-chain-extended conjugation strategy is demonstrated here to improve the photocatalytic performance of a linear conjugated polymer for hydrogen production from water. For this, polymers P0, P1, and P2 were designed and synthesized based on benzodithiophene and dibenzothiophene S,S-dioxide. Compared with P0, P1 and P2 have two additional thiophene units conjugated in the polymer skeleton along the main-chain and side-chain directions, respectively. Studies found that side chain-conjugated functionalization in P2 enhances thermal stability, redshifts light-absorption bands, narrows the polymer bandgap, prolongs the exciton lifetime, enlarges the photocatalytic over-potential, increases charge mobility, reduces charge transport resistance, and thus improves the hydrogen evolution rate (HER) by a factor of 160 fold. Although performance improvement is still observed in P1, the factor is only 3.6 fold. Thus, P2 exhibits the most promising performance among the three polymers with a HER of 20 314 μmol g−1 h−1 in the presence of 3 wt% Pt cocatalyst and a record apparent quantum yield of 7.04% at 500 nm, rendering it an excellent green light photocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have achieved great success in recent years. However, one obstacle that impedes the industrialization of PSCs is the lack of a suitable dopant-free hole transport layer (HTL). An effective strategy to achieve suitable HTLs with satisfying properties is to amend the conjugated frameworks in the existing organic semiconductors. The precision of this strategy requires improving the targeted properties without greatly affecting other important optical and electrical features. Here, we have presented a simple and facile method that could solely improve the mobility of the as-synthesized polymeric HTL without greatly affecting other important electrical properties. By elaborately combining the repeat units, the mobility of the polymer has been improved while other properties of the modified polymer almost remained unchanged in a complicated photoelectric environment (as the HTL for PSCs). The as-fabricated PSC with the as-synthesized HTL maintained a very high fill factor of 83.1% with an efficiency of 18.1%. Our work proposed a method for meticulously controlling the single property of the polymeric HTL without affecting other properties, proving that structural engineering is feasible to achieve the desired functional materials for practical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary of main observation and conclusion: High performance ambipolar organic semiconductors are highly desirable for organic logic circuits. Herein, we demonstrate the integration of sodium sulfonate (SS)‐tethered sidechains into a diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based ambipolar polymer (PDPP3T) can simultaneously improve its hole and electron transport performances either parallel or perpendicular to polymer film. Three SS‐functionalized polymers (PDPP3T‐xSS, x = 0.025, 0.05 and 0.10) were synthesized and studied. It was found that SS functionalization can reinforce interchain π‐π interactions, slightly lower frontier orbital energy levels, produce more rod‐like structures in film, and change chain‐packing from edge‐on to face‐on fashion, but has little influence on thermal properties. More interestingly, organic field‐effect transistors reported hole mobility of 0.27 ± 0.066 cm2·V–1·s–1 and electron mobility of 0.038 ± 0.016 cm2·V–1·s–1 for PDPP3T, while increased 2.4 and 5 folds to 0.64 ± 0.087 and 0.19 ± 0.051 cm2·V–1·s–1 for PDPP3T‐0.025SS, respectively. Moreover, PDPP3T‐xSS devices displayed reduced threshold voltages for both hole and electron transports. Meanwhile, space charge‐limited current method found SS functionalization achieved an order of magnitude increase in electron mobility and slight enhancement in hole mobility transporting perpendicular to polymer film. In‐depth investigations suggest such enhancements may originate from the joint actions of chain‐stacking modulation and ionic doping effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the low energy density bottleneck of graphene‐based supercapacitors and to organically endow them with high‐power density, ultralong‐life cycles, etc., one rational strategy that couple graphene sheets with multielectron, redox‐reversible, and structurally‐stable organic compounds. Herein, a graphene‐indanthrone (IDT) donor–π–acceptor heterojunction is conceptualized for efficient and smooth 6H+/6e− transfers from pseudocapacitive IDT molecules to electrochemical double‐layer capacitive graphene scaffolds. To construct this, water‐processable graphene oxide (GO) is employed as a graphene precursor, and to in situ exfoliate IDT industrial dyestuff, followed by a hydrothermally‐induced reduction toward GO and self‐assembly between reduced GO (rGO) donors (D) and IDT acceptors (A), affording rGO‐π‐IDT D–A heterojunctions. Electrochemical tests indicate that rGO‐π‐IDT heterojunctions deliver a gravimetric capacitance of 535.5 F g−1 and an amplified volumetric capacitance of 685.4 F cm−3. The assembled flexible all‐solid‐state supercapacitor yields impressive volumetric energy densities of 31.3 and 25.1 W h L−1, respectively, at low and high power densities of 767 and 38 554 W L−1, while exhibiting an exceptional rate capability, cycling stability, and enduring mechanically‐challenging bending and distortions. The concept and methodology may open up opportunities for other two‐dimensional materials and other energy‐related devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic conjugated porous polymers, triazine-Ph-CPP and triazine-Th-CPP, are synthesized and characterized. Without further addition of co-catalysts, triazine-Ph-CPP exhibits a HER of 16 287 μmol g−1 h−1 and an apparent quantum yield of 61.5% at 365 nm, which demonstrates that the dibenzo[b,d]thiophene sulfone and 1,3,5-triazine based polymer is a unique prototype of a highly efficient hydrogen evolution photocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, dithieno[3,2-a:3′,2′-j][5,6,11,12]chrysene diimides (DTCDI), an electron-deficient π-building block, were firstly incorporated into polymer main chains by using the 3,9-positions of chrysene and the α,α′-positions of thiophene units of DTCDI to connect with the 2,2′-bithiophene unit, affording copolymers P1 and P2, respectively. Due to their different connection ways the two polymers feature different optoelectronic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most graphene electrodes, there is usually a disappointing trade-off relationship between gravimetric and volumetric capacitive characteristics, which is definitely a major stumbling block in the development of real-life supercapacitors with high energy density. Herein, we rationally designed a hierarchically porous and modestly packed diamine pillared graphene, which is achieved by a facile and straightforward reaction between commercialized bulk graphite fluoride and in situ generated diamine anions. Combined reliable characterization studies demonstrate that an advantageous reductive defluorination of the unsubstituted carbon–fluorine units (C–Fx) accompanies the foreseen substitution of C–Fx by diamines, endowing the resultant products with recovered 2D π-conjugation and high conductivity. In comparison to ethylenediamine and p-phenylenediamine, pseudocapacitive 4,4′-oxydianiline (ODA) molecular pillars, having a bulky and rigid geometry, provide the ODA-G product with a greatly widened d-spacing (6.2 Å), large wettable and electrolyte-accessible specific surface area (1985 m2 g−1), hierarchically porous and interconnected structuration, heavyweight nature (density of 1.08 g cm−3), etc. Consequently, the symmetric supercapacitor fabricated using ODA-G as both electrodes delivers an impressive gravimetric capacitance of 328.5 F g−1 and a maximized volumetric capacitance of 354.8 F cm−3 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1, whilst exhibiting a remarkable rate capability and cycling stability. Apart from an exceptional gravimetric energy density, the volumetric energy density of the ODA-G device is as high as 19.5 W h L−1 at a large power density of 9093 W L−1. It is notable that this contribution deepens our insight into the chemistry of graphite fluoride, and can guide the judicious design and synthesis of versatile functionalized graphene applicable to other electrochemical energy-storage systems, or the newly-emerging photothermal water evaporation, desalination, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Donor–acceptor (D–A) conjugated polymers bearing non‐covalent configurationally locked backbones have a high potential to be good photovoltaic materials. Since 1,4‐dithienyl‐2,5‐dialkoxybenzene (TBT) is a typical moiety possessing intramolecular S…O interactions and thus a restricted planar configuration, it was used in this work as an electron‐donating unit to combine with the following electron‐accepting units: 3‐fluorothieno[3,4‐b]thiophene (TFT), thieno‐[3,4‐c]pyrrole‐4,6‐dione (TPD), and diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) for the construction of such D–A conjugated polymers. Therefore, the so‐designed three polymers, PTBTTFT, PTBTTPD, and PTBTDPP, were synthesized and investigated on their basic optoelectronic properties in detail. Moreover, using [6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as acceptor material, polymer solar cells (PSCs) were fabricated for studying photovoltaic performances of these polymers. It was found that the optimized PTBTTPD cell gave the best performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.49%, while that of PTBTTFT displayed the poorest one (PCE = 1.96%). The good photovoltaic behaviors of PTBTTPD come from its lowest‐lying energy level of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) among the three polymers, and good hole mobility and favorable morphology for its PC71BM‐blended film. Although PTBTDPP displayed the widest absorption spectrum, the largest hole mobility, and regular chain packing structure when blended with PC71BM, its unmatched HOMO energy level and disfavored blend film morphology finally limited its solar cell performance to a moderate level (PCE: 3.91%). © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018, 56, 689–698 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]