Search

Psychologists are interested in how humans process faces of their own-race and Other-races, and there are plenty of previous research on this topic. This paper will summarize previous paper about Other-race Effect (ORE), and how do ORE develop racial bias in children. Researchers used Implicit Association Test (IAT) to assess implicit racial bias and found that implicit racial bias are different in different cultures and counties.

A novel fluorescent probe was constructed by the self-assembly of monosubstituted BODIPY and a novel targeted hydrophobin named hereafter as HFBI-RGD. Optical measurements and theoretical calculations confirmed that the spectral properties of the probe were greatly influenced by the BODIPY structure, the appropriate volume of BODIPY and the cavity of HFBI-RGD. The experiments in vivo and ex vivo demonstrated that the probe had excellent ability for tumor labelling.

Fluorescent probes have been demonstrated to be promising candidates as biomarkers and biological carriers. Our study focuses on the development of a novel amphiphilic fluorescent probe with good photostability, high water solubility, excellent specificity and promising loading capability for tumor diagnosis and treatment. At first, BODIPY dye and O-carboxymethyl chitosan were prepared via a chemical reaction. Then, the prepared BODIPY dye and cRGD were bonded to O-carboxymethyl chitosan successively via an acylation reaction. Finally, we obtained the desired amphiphilic fluorescent probe: BODIPY–O-CMC–cRGD, which was based on the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) principle for selective visualization of tumors in vitro. Through a series of experiments, we found that this fluorescent probe possessed better fluorescence characteristics and tumor targeting properties. Simultaneously, by self-assembly, the amphiphilic probe encapsulated the other flexible structure of BODIPY2 and the rigid structure of porphyrin, which formed distinct nanoparticles with different particle sizes. Hence, we could observe different phagocytosis processes of the two nanoparticles in the tumor cells via the fluorescence of dyes by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Therefore, the results suggest that the fluorescent probe has advantages in tumor detection, and the constructed tumor-specific nanoparticles show high clinical potential to be utilized not only in visual and precise diagnosis but also in excellent drug delivery for tumor treatment. Henceforth, we will prepare new targeted and visualized pharmaceuticals by replacing BODIPY2 and porphyrin with antineoplastic drugs for future tumor treatment.

Low water solubility and poor selectivity are two fundamental limitations that compromise applications of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes. Methods: Here, a simple strategy that can resolve these problems simultaneously was developed by using a novel hybrid protein named RGD-HFBI that is produced by fusion of hydrophobin HFBI and arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptide. This unique hybrid protein inherits self-assembly and targeting functions from HFBI and RGD peptide respectively. Results: Boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) used as a model NIR dye can be efficiently dispersed in the RGD-HFBI solution by simple mixing and sonication for 30 min. The data shows that self-assembled RGD-HFBI forms a protein nanocage by using the BODIPY as the assembly template. Cell uptake assay proves that RGD-HFBI/BODIPY can efficiently stain αvβ3 integrin-positive cancer cells. Finally, in vivo affinity tests fully demonstrate that the soluble RGD-HFBI/BODIPY complex selectively targets and labels tumor sites of tumor-bearing mice due to the high selectivity of the RGD peptide. Conclusion: Our one-step strategy using dual-functional RGD-HFBI opens a novel route to generate soluble and targeted NIR fluorescent dyes in a very simple and efficient way and may be developed as a general strategy to broaden their applications.

Herein, a simple one-step immersion plating method is firstly used to prepare Cu6Sn5/Sn composite film electrode for lithium ion battery and thiourea (TU) is used as potential adjustment agent in the deposition process. The films with different morphologies are obtained by changing the content of tin(II) chloride (SnCl2). After a series of physical and electrochemical characterizations, the results demonstrate that the content of SnCl2 in the plating solution plays an important role in determining the morphology and component of film electrode. In the condition of SnCl2 6.5 g L−1, film electrode obtains both void space to accommodate volume expansion and stable structure which could inhibit abscission of active material from current collector. Therefore, the film electrode has an excellent areal capacity of 0.84 mA h cm−2 after 70 cycles. In comparison with reported Sn–Cu alloy planar film electrodes for lithium ion battery in recent decade, the film electrode in this work exhibits a higher areal capacity.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated with poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) composite gel electrolytes containing variable amounts of modified kaolin were studied in this work. The kaolin was modified with silane coupling agent γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH550), and the modified kaolin (M-KL) was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated that the crystallinity of polymer membranes decreased with the addition of M-KL nanoparticles. The ionic conductivity and diffusion coefficient (I3−) of polymer gel electrolytes (PGEs) reached optimum values of 9.452 × 10−3 S cm−1 and 10.37 × 10−6 cm2 s−1 for 3 wt% M-KL, respectively, which contributed to higher short-circuit current density (Jsc) and photoelectric conversion efficiency (η) of the corresponding DSSCs. The optimum level of η reached 7.48% under the illumination of 100 mW cm−2, an increase of 16.3% compared with the DSSC without M-KL.

Fluorescent probes have been demonstrated to be promising candidates as biomarkers and biological carriers. Our study focuses on the development of a novel amphiphilic fluorescent probe with good photostability, high water solubility, excellent specificity and promising loading capability for tumor diagnosis and treatment. At first, BODIPY dye and

Several mesoporous TiO2 (MT) materials were synthesized under different conditions following a hydrothermal procedure using poly(ethylene-glycol)-block-poly(propylene-glycol)-block-poly(ethylene-glycol) (P123) as the template and titanium isopropoxide as the titanium source. The molar ratios of Ti/P123, and the pH values of the reaction solution in an autoclave were investigated. Various techniques such as Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), laser Raman spectrometry (LRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to characterize the products. Then, these materials were assembled into dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Analysis of the J–V curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were applied to characterize the cells. The results indicated that the specific surface area and crystalline structure of these materials provide the possibility of high photocurrent for the cells, and that the structural characteristics of the specimens led to increased electron transfer resistance of the cells, which was beneficial for the improvement of the photovoltage of the DSSCs. The highest photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cells involving MT materials reached 8.33%, which, compared with that of P25-based solar cell (5.88%), increased by 41.7%.

In this paper, we first investigated the optimal amount of ammonia to add, using ammonia as the single dopant for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Using this optimal amount of ammonia, urea was introduced as the second N dopant. The DSSCs produced by double-N doped samples combine the advantages of increased visible light absorption with ammonia as the nitrogen dopant and enlarged interface area with urea as the second nitrogen dopant. Not only was Voc increased, but Jsc was also enhanced. We observed that the double-N doped sample forms a new microstructure with more mesopores, which enhance the transfer of electrolyte. Because these mesopores are the combination core of generated electrons and holes, they need to be kept in delicate balance. When urea is brought in as the double-N dopant, the doped amount of N atoms was improved. As a result, η is increased to 7.58%, a 14% improvement compared with single-N doped TiO2.

Low water solubility and poor membrane permeability are major disadvantages that compromise applications of most fluorescent dyes. To resolve these problems, herein, using Boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) as a model fluorescent dye, for the first time, we provide a new strategy for the rapid and efficient production of a water-soluble and membrane-permeable dye by mixing with an amphiphilic protein named hydrophobin. Data shows BODIPY could be effectively solubilized and dispersed in 200 μg/mL hydrophobin by simple mixing and sonication. Subsequent experiments indicated that hydrophobin self-assembled into a protein film on the surface of BODIPY forming stable hydrophobin-BODIPY complexes with a size range of 10–30 nm. Furthermore, we demonstrated hydrophobin-functionalized BODIPY are toxicity free to cells. The hydrophobin-BODIPY complex could pass through both the cell plasma membrane and nuclear membrane efficiently. Our work opens a novel route to modify and functionalize fluorescent dyes and may be developed as a general strategy for broadening their applications.

Development of reporter genes for multimodality molecular imaging is highly important. In contrast to the conventional strategies which have focused on fusing several reporter genes together to serve as multimodal reporters, human tyrosinase (TYR) – the key enzyme in melanin production – was evaluated in this study as a stand-alone reporter gene for in vitro and in vivo photoacoustic imaging (PAI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Human breast cancer cells MCF-7 transfected with a plasmid that encodes TYR (named as MCF-7-TYR) and non-transfected MCF-7 cells were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. Melanin targeted N-(2-(diethylamino)ethyl)-18F-5-fluoropicolinamide was used as a PET reporter probe. In vivo PAI/MRI/PET imaging studies showed that MCF-7-TYR tumors achieved significant higher signals and tumor-to-background contrasts than those of MCF-7 tumor. Our study demonstrates that TYR gene can be utilized as a multifunctional reporter gene for PAI/MRI/PET both in vitro and in vivo.