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Sb2Se3 is an emerging and promising thin-film photovoltaic absorber material. However, for commonly CdS/Sb2Se3 heterojunction device structure, low carrier concentration and back contact barrier will prevent the further improvement of device efficiency. Here we have successfully applied Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) nanoparticles (NPs) as a hole-transport layer (HTL) to construct a low-cost n-i-p Sb2Se3 solar cell with FTO/CdS/Sb2Se3/CZTS/Carbon configuration. We found that CZTS HTL can effectively suppress the back interface carrier recombination and improve carrier collection efficiency in the Sb2Se3 solar cells. The average Jsc, FF, and efficiency of Sb2Se3 solar cells with an optimum CZTS HTL are increased by 10.64%, 7.91%, and 17.14%, respectively, compared with Sb2Se3 solar cells without a HTL. Consequently, with CZTS NPs as HTL and carbon as electrode, the n-i-p Sb2Se3 solar cells have achieved a champion efficiency of 6.06%.

Background Meat quality is a prerequisite to the consumer's acceptability and industrial profitability. Post-translational modifications, changes in myofibrillar protein degradation and myoglobin oxidation have a great impact on meat quality during post-mortem aging of muscle. Applying proteomics to search for protein biomarkers to accurately assess meat quality is a new strategy to ensure high-quality meat. Scope and approach The current progress of using proteomics to identify potential protein biomarkers of meat quality traits during post-mortem aging of muscles has been reviewed in this paper. The advantages and disadvantages of different methods of protein separation, identification and quantitative analysis are summarized. Some potential protein biomarkers of meat quality traits belonging to different biological pathways involved in muscle contraction, metabolism, heat stress, oxidation, proteolysis and apoptosis are debated. Recently, biomarkers have been used to characterize meat tenderness, color and water-holding capacity to better understand the biological processes and pathways occurring in post-mortem muscles, and their detailed molecular mechanisms are discussed in this review. Key finding and conclusion Post-mortem aging of muscle is a complex process that involves physical and biochemical changes at the cellular level. Clarifying the changes and mechanisms of muscle-to-meat conversion is of great significance in identifying protein markers for assessing meat quality. Previous studies of the biomarkers linked to meat tenderness, color and water-holding capacity are summarized. We found that some great challenges still exist in characterizing and predicting the accuracy, stability and industrial application of meat quality biomarkers. Based on these studies, future research about biomarkers of meat quality traits are proposed to tackle these challenges and to assess the meat quality more accurately. Therefore, applying proteomics as an emerging technology can be helpful to ensure high-quality meat and provide economic benefits for the meat industry.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy has achieved remarkable clinical efficacy against hematological cancers and has been approved by FDA for treatment of B-cell tumors. However, the complex manufacturing process and limited success in solid tumors hamper its widespread applications, thus prompting the development of new strategies for overcoming the abovementioned hurdles. In the last decade, nanotechnology has provided sustainable strategies for improving cancer immunotherapy through vaccine development and delivery of immunomodulatory drugs. Nanotechnology can boost CAR-T therapy and may overcome the existing challenges by emerging as a carrier for CAR-T therapy or in combination with CAR-T, it may inhibit solid tumors more effectively than conventional approaches. The revealing of cellular mechanisms, barriers and potential strategies that could be used to manipulate and/or modify cells would enable unprecedented advances in nanotechnology for biologics delivery. This review outlines the journey and barriers of nanoparticles (NPs) across the cell. Subsequently, the approaches to tackle the barriers and strategies to modulate NPs as a carrier for CAR-T therapy are discussed. Finally, the role of NPs in CAR-T therapy and the potential challenges are summarized. This review aims to provide the readers with a detailed overview of NP-based CAR-T therapy research and distil this information into an accessible form conducive to design desired CAR-T therapy using NP approach. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is the most vibrant field in immuno-oncology today, with enormous benefits to patients with B-cell malignancies. However, a rapid and straightforward procedure for CAR-T generation is an exigent need to broaden its therapeutic avenue. Nanotechnology has emerged as a novel alternative approach for CAR-T generation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first in-depth review that briefly highlights the various aspects of nanotechnology in CAR-T therapy, including the strategies to brand NPs as an effective carrier for CAR cargo, its potential advantages, challenges, and future roadmap. It provides readers with a detailed overview of NP-based CAR-T therapy research, and researchers would be able to distill this information into an accessible form conducive to design the desired CAR therapy using the nanotechnology approach.

Designed with electron-donating and electron-withdrawing moieties as donors and acceptors, respectively, a series of novel organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are simulated using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) methods The interacting dye/TiO 2 systems are also studied to further explore the interfacial injection process of photo-excited electron. The model dye C275 is featured with donor/acceptor (D/A) molecular architecture, which is primary to achieve the easy charge-transfer excitation and suitable energy levels alignment. To date, considerable efforts are devoted to the design and synthesis of D/A type organic dyes, and the initial configurations are typically comprised of N-annulated perylene donor, porphyrin linker, and carboxylic acid acceptor. Our results show that, the electronic levels and optical absorption properties can be tuned gradually by introducing auxiliary donor units or electron-deficient spacer in acceptor groups. Moreover, the designed dyes also exhibit good performance in terms of photoinduced charge transfer, electron injection, and dye regeneration, etc . Through structural modification of donor moieties, the new tailored dyes provide appropriate energy levels, strong light-harvesting and easy charge separation. Meanwhile, the distinct red-shift of optical absorption and large amount of transferred charges are also obtained by structural tailoring of acceptor groups, whereas the large values of injection time may be harmful for the interfacial photoelectron injection. Therefore, comparing with donor modification, it should be more carefully to choose appropriate acceptor group with the balance of various energetic and kinetic factors for the rational design of high-efficient organic dyes.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy has achieved remarkable clinical efficacy against hematological cancers and got FDA approval for B cells tumor. However, the complex manufacturing process and limited success in solids tumors hamper its widespread applications and provoke new strategies to overcome above-mentioned hurdles. In last decade, nanotech provides sustainable strategies to improve cancer immunotherapy for vaccine development, and in delivery of immunomodulatory drugs. Nanotech can boost the CAR-T therapy and may overcome the existing challenges by emerging as a carrier for CAR therapy, or in a joint venture it may defeat the solid tumor more effectively than the conventional approaches. However, the unraveling of cellular mechanisms, barriers, and the potential strategies that could be used to manipulate and/or educate cells would enable unprecedented advances in nanotech for biologics delivery. This review outlines the journey and barriers of nanoparticles (NPs) across the cell. Afterward, the approaches to tackle those barriers and strategies to modulate NPs as a carrier for CAR therapy are discussed. Finally, the role of NPs in CAR-T therapy and the potential challenges are summarized. The main purpose of this review is to provide the readers with a detailed overview of NPs based CAR-T therapy research, and distill this information into an accessible form conducive to design desired CAR therapy by NPs approach.

A novel mode division multiplexer with low loss, low crosstalk is proposed for a type of few mode ring-core fiber (FM-RCF) in our paper. A novel FM-RCF with pure silica ring-core and larger effective refractive index difference (>1 × 10−3) between the modes is proposed as mode transmission channel of our multiplexer. The ring-core channel structure and the larger effective refractive index difference (>1 × 10−3) between the modes are used to effectively reduce the mode crosstalk and improve the mode extinction ratio. Pure silica ring-core is employed to effectively reduce the transmission attenuation and splicing loss. The (de)multiplexing of LP01, LP11a and LP11b modes for FM-RCF is realized. In this paper, the performance of mode division multiplexer is studied by using the beam propagation method and finite element method. The coupling efficiency and extinction ratio of the mode division multiplexer is better than −7.83 dB and 28.13 dB in the range of 1400 nm–1700 nm. The coupling efficiency of the mode division multiplexer is better than −1.39 dB in C band, which is better than −1.69 dB in the previous reference. The extinction ratio of the LP01 mode is more than 48.13 dB in the C band, which is 11.76 dB higher than the average extinction ratio of LP11 mode. The extinction ratios of the three modes are better than 35.42 dB, which is 15.42 dB higher than those of the modes in the previous reference. The intrinsic losses of few mode ring-core transmission channels are all 0.154 dB/km at 1. 54 μ m.