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Solid-state fluorescent switches with reversible luminescence characteristics have attracted considerable attention because of their broad applications in advanced photonics, such as anticounterfei...

Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials have potential applications in 3D optical displays, information security encryption, sensors, and photoelectric devices because of their inherent a...

Background Peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) DNA methylation may serve as a surrogate marker to evaluate the susceptibility to and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). In this study, blood-derived DNA methylation levels of two tumour-related genes, namely, ZNF331 and WIF1, and their impacts on the risk and prognosis of GC were evaluated. Methods In total, 398 GC cases and 397 controls were recruited for the study. Then, all cases were followed up for 5 years. ZNF331 and WIF1 promoter methylation status in PBLs was measured using a methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting method. Logistic and Cox regression models were used to analyse the correlation between gene methylation and the risk and prognosis of GC. Confounders were balanced through propensity score (PS) matching. Results High ZNF331 methylation significantly decreased GC risk after PS adjustment (OR = 0.580, 95% CI: 0.375–0.898, P = 0.015), which also presented in males (OR = 0.577, 95% CI: 0.343–0.970, P = 0.038). However, WIF1 methylation was not associated with GC risk. Additionally, significant combined effects between ZNF331 methylation and the intake of green vegetables and garlic were observed (OR = 0.073, 95% CI: 0.027–0.196, P P ZNF331 and WIF1 methylation had no impact on the prognosis of GC. Conclusion ZNF331 methylation in PBLs may affect GC risk in combination with the consumption of green vegetables and garlic and may act as a potential biomarker of GC.

Fluorescent photoswitches are highly attractive, because they hold great promises for photonic devices and imaging. However, a limited number of reversible switches with a response to light have been achieved in the solid state. Here, we report reversible dual fluorescent photoswitching characteristics in the solid state of spiropyran (SP)-functionalized tetraphenylethene (TPE) derivatives. These photoswitches exhibit two distinct and selectively addressable states, a cyan fluorescence and a red fluorescence, which can be conveyed into each other in a reversible feature upon irradiation with alternating UV and visible light. Detailed spectroscopic and theoretical studies suggest that the nonplanar molecular conformation of TPE moieties leads to large free volumes, which facilitates the reversible photoisomerization of SP. The excellent reversibility and high-contrast fluorescence of solid-state photoswitches enable great applications in multimodality anticounterfeiting and optical writing and erasing fluorescent devices.

Aberrant DNA methylation could regulate the expression of tumor suppressor gene DLEC1 and oncogene PBX3 and was related to the occurrence and prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). In this study, the associations between DLEC1 and PBX3 promoter methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) and the risk and prognosis of GC were investigated. The methylation status of DLEC1 and PBX3 promoter in PBLs of 368 GC cases and 382 controls was detected by the methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting (MS-HRM) method. Logistic and Cox regression were adopted to analyze the associations of DLEC1 and PBX3 methylation with GC risk and prognosis, respectively. Confounding biases were controlled by propensity score (PS). Compared with negative methylation (Nm), DLEC1-positive methylation (Pm) was associated with increased GC risk in PS (OR 2.083, 95% CI 1.220–3.558, P = 0.007), but PBX3 Pm was not associated with GC risk. In the elderly group (≥ 60 years), DLEC1 Pm was associated with increased GC risk (OR 2.951, 95% CI 1.426–6.104, P = 0.004). The combined effects between DLEC1 methylation and consumption of dairy products, fried food intake and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection on GC risk were discovered (ORc 3.461, 95% CI 1.847–6.486, P

The early diagnosis and accurate prognosis prediction of esophageal cancer is an essential part of improving survival. However, these diseases lack effective and specific markers. A total of 1,744 samples of HumanMethylation450 data were integrated to identify and validate specific methylation markers for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) as well as for Barrett's esophagus (BE) using The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Gene Expression Omnibus. The diagnostic and prognostic methylation classifiers were constructed by moderated t-statistics and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method. The diagnostic methylation classifier using 12 CpG sites was constructed in training set (377 samples) that could effectively discriminate samples of BE, EAC, and ESCC from normal tissue (AUC = 0.992), which achieved highly predictive ability in both internal (187 samples, AUC = 0.990) and external validation (184 samples, AUC = 0.978). The prognostic methylation classifier with 3 CpG and 2 CpG sites for EAC and ESCC respectively, could accurately estimate the prognosis of an individual patient and improved the predictive ability of the tumor node metastasis staging system. Overall, our study systematically analyzed large-scale methylation data and provided promising markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer.

BackgroundTumor-infiltrating immune cells (TIICs) play a key role in immunoregulatory networks and are related to tumor development. Emerging evidence shows that these cells are associated with sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the predictive role of TIICs in the outcomes of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) is unclear.MethodsImaging mass cytometry (IMC) was performed to comprehensively assess the immune status before nCRT in 6 patients with LARC (3 achieved pathological complete response (pCR), 3 did not) with matched clinicopathological parameters. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CD8, CD163 and Foxp3 on biopsy samples from 70 patients prior to nCRT and logistic regression analysis were combined to further evaluate its predictive value for treatment responses in an independent validation group.ResultsA trend of increased CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and decreased CD163+ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the pCR group was revealed by IMC. In the validation group, CTLs and TAMs were strong predictors of the clinical response to nCRT. High levels of CTLs were positively associated with the pCR ratio (OR=1.042; 95% CI: 1.015~1.070, p=0.002), whereas TAMs were correlated with a poor response (OR=0.969; 95% CI: 0.941~0.998, p=0.036). A high density of TAMs was also associated with an advanced cN stage.ConclusionCTLs in the tumor microenvironment (TME) may improve the response to nCRT, whereas TAMs have the opposite effect. These results suggest that these cells might be potential markers for the clinical outcomes of nCRT and aid in the clinical decision-making of LARC for improved clinical outcomes.

In spite of the impressive progresses regarding perovskite-type solar cells, a clear understanding about underlying mechanisms therein is still sparse, especially because of the absence of spatially resolved device characteristics which should be linked to exciton formation efficiency, morphology, and crystallinity being estimated as functions of positions within active layers. Here, the planar CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) with ZnO as the electron-transporting layer (ETL) were fabricated. By varying the wide range of MAPbI3 active-layer thickness, we estimate their device parameters and external quantum efficiencies in addition to internal absorption spectra (Q) by means of the transfer matrix method. Furthermore, the spectrally and spatially resolved internal quantum efficiencies (IQEs) as a function of the active-layer thickness within PeSCs were calculated, and the relationship between IQE and device parameters extracted from the current-voltage ( J- V) behaviors was discussed. It was found that the PeSC with MAPbI3 film thickness around 303 nm has a relatively high IQE and PCE, indicating that there is more power loss of PeSCs when the thickness of the MAPbI3 layer is either less or more than about 300 nm. Furthermore, time-resolved photoluminescence together with the thickness-dependent morphology and crystallinity of the MAPbI3 film demonstrate that there are two power loss processes in the fabricated PeSCs: one at the ZnO/MAPbI3 interface and the other in bulk. The present research is beneficial for further understanding of the fundamental physics for the PeSCs based on the ZnO ETL.

Aiming at the problem that the lack of key semantic information in text infilling leads to weak semantic coherence of the filled text, this paper designs a text infilling method based on a Bi-directional long-short term memory network with a key semantic information selection mechanism. First, this paper uses the Bi-directionallong-short term memory network to capture the characteristics of potential long-distance dependencies and obtain context hiding features; then, we design an information selection mechanism to obtain context-critical semantic features by calculating the semantic distribution weight of words in the text; and finally, through the multi-head attention mechanism the key information of the local context and the global semantic information will be captured to fill the missing parts one by one, thereby improving the logic of the semantics and making the generated text more coherent. The experimental results show that testing on the Yelp dataset, Grimm dataset and Chinese poetry dataset, the value of the semantic fluency evaluation index perplexity has all decreased, indicating that the method proposed in this paper significantly improves the semantic coherence of the text, which significantly outperform the state-of-the-art text infilling model.

The existing cross-domain person re-identification technology has a large difference between the source domain and the target domain, and the performance of the model trained in single-domain is significantly reduced when directly used on another domain. In this paper, a person image style conversion method is used to increase the sample diversity, which narrows the difference between the source domain and the target domain sample. By Cycle Generative Adversarial Networks, the similarity of the source domain image combined with the image style of another domain is closer to the similarity of the target domain data, and the sample diversity is enhanced before the unconverted, which reduces the inter-domain difference of the sample and makes the model have better generalization ability. The experimental results show that after translating the styles of the Market-1501, DukeMTMC-reID and MSMT17 datasets, and then extracting global features through ResNet-50, the accuracy of cross-domain re-identification is significantly improved. At the same time, the model can achieve better re-recognition results without incorporating the style of the target domain dataset or when there are fewer target datasets, which is better than other cross-domain pedestrian re-recognition methods that currently perform well.

Here, we design and synthesize an organic laser molecule, 2,7-diphenyl-9H-fluorene (LD-1), which has state-of-the-art integrated optoelectronic properties with a high mobility of 0.25 cm2 V-1 s-1, a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 60.3%, and superior deep-blue laser characteristics (low threshold of Pth = 71 μJ cm-2 and Pth = 53 μJ cm-2 and high quality factor (Q) of ∼3100 and ∼2700 at emission peaks of 390 and 410 nm, respectively). Organic light-emitting transistors based on LD-1 are for the first time demonstrated with obvious electroluminescent emission and gate tunable features. This work opens the door for a new class of organic semiconductor laser molecules and is critical for deep-blue optical and laser applications.

A comprehensive study of the intrinsic properties including internal absorption, charge recombination and internal quantum efficiency of lead iodide perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) based on CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) and HC(NH2)2PbI3 (FAPbI3) perovskites is presented. The optical simulation of PeSCs shows that FAPbI3 layer exhibits a wider internal absorption spectra than MAPbI3 layer due to its lower bandgap determined by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopic (UPS) and band structure calculation. The photo-induced charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (photo-CELIV) investigation and photocurrent density (Jph) versus effective voltage (Veff) measurement indicate that FAPbI3 PeSCs possess lower charge recombination and higher charge collection efficiency because of the superior transport property of FAPbI3 perovskite, leading to higher internal quantum efficiency (IQE) than MAPbI3 PeSCs. In addition, by comparing the calculated short-circuit current (JSC) by Spectroscopic Limited Maximum Efficiency (SLME) mathematical models, the predicted JSC by transfer matrix optical model (TMM) and the experimental JSC from current density versus voltage (J-V) characteristics, we find that the light losses from the absorption of non-perovskite layers and the reflection at the incident interface of device, and the charge recombination in perovskite layer are the main factors limiting the photocurrent of PeSCs based on these two perovskites.

Electron transport layers (ETLs) in perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are a key factor to determine the photovoltaic performance. Herein, we demonstrate preparation of ZnO/ZnS core-shell composites through directly synthesizing ZnS on the ZnO nanoparticles in solution. We confirmed the formation of ZnO/ZnS core-shell composites by the uses of X-ray diffraction patterns and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. ZnO/ZnS composites exhibit much homogeneous surface morphology as compared with the bare ZnO as revealed in the scanning electronic microscopy. Moreover, the upper shift of conduction band level upon composition of the ZnO/ZnS film results in a better alignment of energy level, which facilitates cascade charge extraction and thus improves the current density of perovskite solar cell. The shift of conduction band also improves the voltage of the PSCs. The photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies measured in both steady and transient states were carried out to characterize the charge extraction at the interface between CH3NH3PbI3 and the electron transport layers of either ZnO or ZnO/ZnS composite. The ZnO/ZnS composite can more efficiently quench the PL signal of perovskite absorber than bare ZnO resulting in enhanced photocurrent generation in PSCs.

Spectroscopic Limited Maximum Efficiency (SLME) model is a powerful tool to estimate theoretical PCEs of solar cells, in which AM1.5G and DFT calculated absorption spectra are two important input parameters and an ideal diode circuit is used. However, SLME is an entirely theoretical model and just puts forward a maximum PCE, and it is difficult to evaluate the practical devices and move in the positive direction to reach the maximum PCE. We improved SLME and developed Spectroscopic Limited Practical Efficiency (SLPE) model by replacing the two input parameters with the light source spectrum of solar simulator used in the experiment and the absorption spectra measured by ellipsometry, and the equivalent circuit was also changed to a classical equivalent circuit with a diode and resistances. By using SLPE, 5597 sets of I-V data for 26 different types of hybrid lead iodide perovskite devices were fitted and five output parameters, current coefficient f1, voltage coefficient f2, diode ideality factor n, series resistance RS and shunt resistance RSH, which quantify the difference between the actual I-V curve and the ideal one for a practical perovskites solar cell, were obtained. The analysis of the output parameters indicated that RSH was close to the ideal value followed by f2, n and f1, but RS performed large difference due to the different carrier mobility of HTL. For HTL with carrier mobility less than or equal to 10−5 cm2V−1s−1, ∼10−4 cm2V−1s−1 and ∼10−3 cm2V−1s−1, RS is larger than 103 Ω, 102–103 Ω and 101–102 Ω, leading to the devices loss more than 85%, 20–85% and less than 20% efficiency, respectively. SLPE model offers a systematic analysis tool to understand and quantify efficiency loss of perovskite solar cells.

KIBRA was reported to be involved in various types of cancer and can be detected in blood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the status of KIBRA methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes and gastric cancer (GC) risk. A case–control study was carried out to evaluate the association of blood cell‐derived KIBRA methylation with the risk of GC using methylation‐sensitive high‐resolution melting analysis. A total of 393 cases and 393 controls were detected, respectively. Compared with the subjects in the KIBRA negative methylation (NM) group, positive methylation (PM) subjects exhibited a 1.52‐fold (95% CI: 1.030–2.251, P = 0.035) increased risk for GC. Stratified analyses demonstrated that the significant association of KIBRA methylation with GC risk existed in the older group (≥ 60 years; ORa = 1.846, 95% CI: 1.037–3.287, P = 0.037) and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) positive subjects (ORa = 1.933, 95% CI: 1.103–3.386, P = 0.021). Statistically significant combination effects between the environmental factors and KIBRA methylation on the GC risk were observed except for storing food under refrigeration. KIBRA methylation derived from blood cells and combinations thereof with environmental factors may be associated with the risk of GC.

Femtosecond (fs-) laser induced subwavelength and deep-subwavelength periodic structures have attracted attention due to their sub-diffraction feature size and rich physics of laser-matter interaction. However, the formation mechanisms of fs-laser induced deep-subwavelength structures on organic materials have not been reported nor systematically studied. Herein, based on the degree of laser induced free-carrier excitation, the formation of deep-subwavelength structures by fs-laser ablation was systematically studied on popular materials: negative tone resists SU8 and conductive polymer poly-3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene: poly-(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS). A weak propensity to form deep-subwavelength structures was found on poly-methylmethacrylate and polyvinyl alcohol. The photo-excited electrons forming the surface plasmonic wave contributed to energy localization and absorption, which led to the imprinting of deep-subwavelength structures on polymers. It has been found that materials with $\pi $ -bonds and benzene rings were most susceptible to deep-subwavelength structure formation. Based on a laser-induced surface plasmonic model, the period of regular patterns was estimated and was in a good accordance with experimental results. The proposed formation mechanism of the deep-subwavelength structures on organic materials extends an application field of fs-laser micro/nanomachining of polymers.

Background: Aberrant DNA methylation, especially tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation, is a well-recognized biomarker of initial tumorogenesis stages. FAT4 and SOX11 are putative tumor suppressor genes and can be down-regulated by hypermethylation in various cancers tissues. However, in peripheral blood leukocytes, the association between these two genes methylation status, as well as the effects of gene-environment interactions, and gastric cancer (GC) risk remain unclear. Methods: A hospital-based case-control study including 375 cases and 394 controls was conducted. Peripheral blood leukocytes DNA methylation status were detected by methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting (MS-HRM) assay. Logistic regression was adopted to analyze the relationship of FAT4 and SOX11 methylation with GC susceptibility. Results: Positive methylation (Pm) and total positive methylation (Tpm) of FAT4 were significantly increased the risk of GC (OR = 2.204, 95% CI: 1.168-4.159, P = 0.015; OR = 1.583, 95% CI: 1.031-2.430, P = 0.036, respectively). Compared with controls, cases exhibited higher SOX11 Pm frequencies with OR of 2.530 (95% CI: 1.289-4.969, P = 0.007). Nonetheless, no statistically significant association between SOX11 Tpm and GC risk was observed. Additionally, interactions between FAT4 Tpm and increased consumption of freshwater fish (≥1 times/week) displayed an antagonistic effect on GC (OR = 0.328, 95% CI: 0.142-0.762, P = 0.009), and high salt intake interacted with SOX11 Tpm also showed statistically significant (OR = 0.490, 95% CI: 0.242-0.995, P = 0.048). Conclusions:FAT4 aberrant methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes and gene-environment interactions were associated with the risk of GC, while SOX11 was controversial and needed to be more investigated.

Neutral polyelectrolyte interfacial layers in organic solar cells are well-known for their ability to tailor the work function of electrodes, improve charge carrier extraction and maximize open circuit voltage. However, they also suffer from low charge carrier conductivity, and therefore the interlayer must be kept thin, which in turn requires very precise deposition. This prerequisite significantly reduces the robustness of the fabrication process and makes such structures difficult to up-scale for roll-to-roll mass production. Herein, we find that by washing the polyelectrolyte layer with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) after deposition, solar cell efficiency jumps to near optimum levels, no matter what the original thickness of the polyelectrolyte layer. Subsequent characterization of the DMF-washed ZnO/PEI interlayer reveals a changed surface structure, passivated surface trap states, and thus improved transport properties and lower recombination losses. We demonstrate the general applicability of the method to other state-of-the-art material systems, namely P3HT:ICBA, PTB7:PC71BM and PTB7-Th:PC71BM. We find that the more efficient the material system, the larger the improvement in efficiency after DMF washing. Thus, this method represents a general way to relax the fabrication criteria for high efficiency organic solar cells. We anticipate that this method could be of use in other classes of devices such as OTFTs and OLEDs.

A comprehensive study of the internal absorption, charge recombination and collection in HC(NH2)2PbI3 (FAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) with poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenyl-amino)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) as the hole transport layers (HTLs) is presented. The optical simulation shows that the optical-field distribution and internal absorption of the perovskite layer are different in the cavity region for wavelength > 500 nm in PeSCs with HTLs of P3HT and spiro-OMeTAD. The transient photo-current (TPC) and photoinduced charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (photo-CELIV) investigations reveal that the charge recombination in PeSCs is much better restrained by using spiro-OMeTAD as the HTL. The light intensity dependent J–V performance indicates that spiro-OMeTAD is more favorable for efficient charge collection due to its suppressed charge recombination. These results manifest that the HTL can affect the internal absorption of the perovskite layer, and the spiro-OMeTAD HTL is beneficial for reducing the recombination and enhancing the charge collection in PeSCs.

We demonstrate an optical filter using multistage of second-order microring resonators (2nd-order MRRs) for a box-like filter response. All stages have identical structure parameters elaborately designed to obtain a flat-top spectrum. The maximally flat condition is deduced in consideration of loss and compared with those reported in literature. We present the insertion loss, extinction ratio, bandwidth, and roll-off rate of the maximally flat response. We find that for the flat response of a 2nd-order MRR, the product of bandwidth and roll-off rate is constant. We compare the cascading 2nd-order MRRs with single-stage high-order filters with the same number of ring cavities. We find that the cascading structure has comparable performances in the aspects of insertion loss and roll-off rate for small radius. This cascading structure relaxes the fabrication tolerance and mitigates the difficulty of electrical wiring difficulty since there are only two ring cavities in each stage. As a proof of concept, we fabricate this kind of optical filter with ten stages on silicon-on-insulator platform, with each ring cavity tunable and each stage measurable. We obtain five flat-top responses corresponding to one to five cascading stages. The five-stage filter response has a 3 dB bandwidth of ∼17 GHz, a roll-off rate of ∼−5 dB/GHz at −3 dB point, and an on-chip insertion loss of ∼−6 dB.

Organic single crystals with excellent optical and electrical properties are critical for the development of organic optoelectronics. Herein, two compounds 9,10-bis([N,N-diphenyl]-4'-phenylethynyl)anthracene (TPA-An) and 9,10-bis([1',3'-diphenyl]-5'-phenylethynyl)anthracene (TBA-An) are synthesized by introducing two different luminescent groups, triphenylamine and 1,3-diphenylbenzene, at the 9,10 positions of anthracene via triple bond connection. Single crystals based on TPA-An and TBA-An with a ribbon morphology obtained through the slow solvent-evaporation method exhibit high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of 98% and 99% at room temperature, and remarkable hole mobilities of 0.45 and 0.15 cm2 V-1 s-1 in single-crystal organic field-effect transistors (SC-OFETs). Furthermore, UV phototransistors based on the two single crystals obtain photosensitivities of 1.03 × 103 and 3.45 × 104 , ultrahigh photoresponsivities of 7.19 × 105 and 1.50 × 105 A W-1 , and the detectivities exceeding 1.40 × 1016 and 1.60 × 1017 Jones.

The electrical properties, optical properties and stabilities of hybrid lead iodide perovskite homologous semiconductors with 0D, 1D, 2D and 3D structures have been investigated based on their electronic structures calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The results indicated that the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) estimated according to the absorption spectra of 1D perovskite homologues (1.9–10.9%) and 2D perovskite homologues (4.4–6.9%) are similar. However, the charge transport properties of 1D perovskite homologues (only ∼0% of that of the reference, CH3NH3PbI3) are entirely different from those of 2D perovskite homologues (reaching 43% of that of the reference) when a polycrystalline model has been introduced, although both of them are anisotropic materials. More charge transport paths of 2D perovskite homologues have been found in the polycrystalline state, compared with those of 1D perovskite homologues. Our findings have a great realistic significance to understand the properties of polycrystalline perovskite homologues.

BACKGROUND AND AIM DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that can promote the development of various cancers. The STAT1 and SOCS3 have been observed to be hypermethylated in tumor tissues and peripheral blood. This study aimed to explore the relationship between the methylation status of the STAT1 and SOCS3 in peripheral blood and gastric cancer (GC). METHODS This hospital-based case-control study involved 372 patients with GC and 379 controls. The methylation status of the STAT1 and SOCS3 was semiquantitatively determined using the methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting method. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the STAT1 and SOCS3 methylation status and GC susceptibility. Moreover, propensity scores were used to control confounding factors. RESULTS Compared with negative methylation, the positive methylation of SOCS3 significantly increased the risk of GC (ORa = 1.820, 95% CI: 1.247-2.658, P = 0.002). This trend was also found via stratified analysis, and methylation positivity of the SOCS3 significantly increased the risk of GC in the

Background Peripheral blood leukocyte DNA methylation status has been proposed to be a surrogate marker for evaluating susceptibility to gastric cancer (GC). Helicobacter pylori (H pylori) infection, smoking, and alcohol consumption are known to induce gene methylation. A case-control study was performed to investigate the interactions between the methylation of two candidate genes and H pylori infection, smoking, and alcohol consumption in the risk of GC. Methods A total of 400 GC cases and 402 controls were included in this study. The methylation status of WT1 and IGF2 was semiquantitatively determined by using methylation-sensitive high-resolution melting assays. H pylori IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA method. Results Based on the area under the curve (AUC), 0% methylated DNA and 0.5% methylated DNA were used as the cutoff values for WT1 and IGF2, respectively. WT1 methylation was significantly associated with increased GC risk (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.09-2.51, P = .019), especially in males (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.10-2.95, P = .019) and older individuals (≥60 years) (OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.15-3.57, P = .014). A significant combination was observed between WT1 methylation and H pylori infection, alcohol consumption, and smoking for the risk of GC (ORc = 2.28, 95% CI = 1.47-3.55, P = .003, ORc = 2.19, 95% CI = 1.37-3.51, P = .001, ORc = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.39-3.51, P = .001, respectively). However, no association between IGF2 methylation and the risk of GC was found in this study. Conclusions WT1 methylation may serve as a new potential biomarker for GC susceptibility and can combine with H pylori infection, smoking, and alcohol consumption to influence GC risk.

Background Previous studies have shown that Lactobacillus plantarum LIP-1 (hereafter LIP-1) has an obvious hypolipidemic effect, and microencapsulated probiotics can ensure the strains live through the gastrointestinal tract. Although there has been much research on both preparation and assessment methods for probiotics microcapsules, most assessments were made in vitro and few were validated in vivo. In this study, the protective effect of microencapsulation and the possible hypolipidemic mechanisms of probiotic LIP-1 were evaluated in rats. Treatments included rats fed on a normal diet, a high-fat diet, and a high-fat diet with an intragastric supplement of either non-microencapsulated LIP-1 cells (NME LIP-1) or microencapsulated LIP-1 (ME LIP-1). Lipid metabolism indicators were measured during the experiment and following euthanasia. Results Microencapsulation increased survival and colonization of LIP-1 in the colon. ME LIP-1 was superior to NME LIP-1 in reducing cholesterol. The mechanisms behind the hypolipidemic effect exerted by LIP-1 are possibly due to promoting the excretion of cholesterol, improving antioxygenic potentials, enhancing recovery from the injury in the liver, cardiovascular intima and intestinal mucosa, promoting the generation of short-chain fatty acids, and improving lipid metabolism. Conclusions This study confirms that microencapsulation provides effective protection of LIP-1 in the digestive system and the role of LIP-1 in the prevention and cure of hyperlipidaemia, providing theoretical support for probiotics to enter clinical applications. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

Despite the potential of ZnO as the electron collection material for low-temperature processed perovskite solar cells (PSCs), previous investigations revealed that the CH3NH3PbI3-based perovskite rapidly decomposes on ZnO at elevated temperature through a deprotonation process (base-induced reaction) that reduces thermal stability. To solve this thermal instability issue and to further enhance the photovoltaic performance, we employed a (FA)-based perovskite, i.e., FAPbI3 as the light absorber in ZnO-based PSCs. The photovoltaic performance of the investigated FAPbI3 solar cells was clearly dependent on both the pre-heating of the PbI2 precursor and post-annealing of the FAPbI3 film in the solar cell fabrication procedure. The highest power conversion efficiency of up to 16.1% was achieved under AM 1.5 simulated sunlight illumination, in which the pre-heating and post-annealing temperatures were 100 °C and 145 °C, respectively. Importantly, the thermostability of the perovskite film on ZnO was substantially improved with FAPbI3 owing to basically the robust nature of FA compared with methylammonium (MA) in CH3NH3PbI3. Moreover, FAPbI3-based PSCs exhibited excellent photostability and small J–V hysteresis, which are all useful characteristics for further commercialization of low-temperature processed ZnO solar cells.

Fluorescent nanoparticles (FNPs) have recently attracted increasing attention in the biomedical field because of their unique optical properties, easy fabrication and outstanding performance in imaging. Compared with conventional molecular probes including small organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, FNPs based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorogens have shown significant advantages in tunable emission and brightness, good biocompatibility, superb photo- and physical stability, potential biodegradability and facile surface functionalization. In this review, we summarize the latest advances in the development of fluorescent nanoparticles based on AIE fluorogens including polymer nanoparticles and silica nanoparticles over the past few years, and the various biomedical applications based on these fluorescent nanoparticles are also elaborated.

We report on a low work-function (WF), high-conductivity poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) electrode by a two-step dipping process. The first dipping into the sulfuric acid is to enhance its conductivity and the second dipping into PEI solution is to lower its work function. After the first dipping, the conductivity of PEDOT:PSS film reaches 1561 S/cm under dipping time of 1 min and the temperature of 60 °C. After dipping into sulfuric acid, the thickness of PEDOT:PSS is reduced to about half but the transmittance was lowered. After the dipping into the PEI solution, the WF of PEDOT:PSS is reduced from 4.9 to 4.0 eV. Although the conductivity were lowered slightly after treated with PEI solution, an electrode with a high conductivity of 1140 S/cm was achieved. The low WF and high-conductivity PEDOT:PSS film is used to fabricate ITO-free, metal-electrode-free and vacuum-free organic solar cells with a simple structure of glass/low-WF PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:ICBA/high WF-PEDOT:PSS, the cells display a fill factor of 61% and a power conversion efficiency of 4.0% under 100 mW/cm 2 white light illumination.

Baijiu is one of the traditional distilled liquor made from grains in China and occupies a vital position in China's food industry. In 2018, the total sales revenue of baijiu industry were reached 536.383 billion yuan, respectively. According to the aroma characteristics, baijiu is artificially divided into 12 aroma types. Especially, although sesame-aroma type of baijiu is widely recognized for a short time compared with strong-aroma and light-aroma type of baijiu, sesame-aroma type of baijiu is becoming more and more popular among consumers due to its unique roasted sesame aroma recently. With its unique aroma of roasted sesame (similar to roasted coffee), sesame-aroma type of baijiu has drawn the attention of consumers and researchers. The researches on the trace components in sesame-aroma type of baijiu and their influences on the aroma profile of sesame-aroma type of baijiu have been carried out gradually. This perspective mainly introduces the production process and development process of sesame-aroma type of baijiu, summarizes recent progress in the research on the trace components in sesame-aroma type of baijiu, especially for the influences of trace components on the aroma profile of sesame-aroma type of baijiu. It provides ideas for the research direction of sesame-aroma type of baijiu, and lays a foundation for the improvement of baijiu quality and the development of sesame-aroma type of baijiu in the future.

Organic photodetectors with UV-sensitivity are of great potential for various optoelectronic applications. Integration of high charge carrier mobility, long exciton diffusion length as well as unique UV-sensitivity for active materials is crucial for construction of UV-sensitive devices with high performance, however, very few organic semiconductors can integrate these properties simultaneously. Herein, two novel organic semiconductors containing large steric hindrance triphenylamine groups, 1,6-distriphenylamineethynylpyrene (1,6-DTEP) and 2,7-distriphenylamineethynylpyrene (2,7-DTEP) are designed and synthesized. It demonstrates that the single crystals of both 1,6-DTEP and 2,7-DTEP exhibit superior integrated optoelectronic properties of high charge carrier mobility, unique UV absorption, high photoluminescence quantum yields as well as small exciton binding energies. Organic phototransistors constructed using 1,6-DTEP and 2,7-DTEP single crystals show ultrasensitive performance with ultra-high photoresponsivity of 2.86 × 106 and 1.04 × 105 A W-1 , detectivity (D*) of above 1.49 × 1018 and 5.28 × 1016 Jones under 370 nm light illumination, respectively. It indicates the great potential of 1,6-DTEP and 2,7-DTEP-based phototransistors for organic UV-photodetector applications and also provides a new design strategy to develop series of better performance UV photoelectric organic materials for related research in organic optoelectronics.

Despite the rapid development of perovskite solar cells (PeSCs) in photovoltaic field, clear understanding about fundamental mechanisms of PeSCs is still sparse. For PeSCs, the thermal annealing temperature of perovskite layer has a great influence on the physical processes of PeSCs. Here, the effect of annealing temperature at 100 °C, 120 °C, 145 °C and 150 °C for the perovskite layer on the internal absorption, charge recombination and internal quantum efficiency of formamidinium lead triiodide (HC(NH2)2PbI3, or FAPbI3) PeSCs was investigated by transfer matrix method (TMM), photo-induced charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (photo-CELIV) and photocurrent density (Jph) versus effective voltage (Veff) (Jph-Veff) measurements. We obtained the internal absorption (Q) spectra of PeSCs by TMM, and estimated the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) spectrum of PeSC devices from Q spectra and external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectrum. It was found that the PeSC with FAPbI3 film annealed at 145 °C has relatively higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) and IQE. Furthermore, the analysis of photo-CELIV and Jph-Veff characteristics demonstrated that the PeSC with FAPbI3 film annealed at 145 °C possesses relatively low charge recombination and high charge collection. In a word, there is less power loss of PeSCs when the annealing temperature for the FAPbI3 layer is 145 °C because of the better internal absorption, suppressed charge recombination and higher charge collection.

We demonstrate physical random bit (PRB) generation from two chaotic optoelectronic oscillators (OEOs) with silicon Mach–Zehnder and microring resonator modulators. The carrier-injection modulation and the beam interference provide the nonlinearity for the OEO. We digitalize the chaotic waveforms from the two OEOs at 40 GS/s with 8-bit resolution and use self-delay bitwise exclusive-or operation as a post-processing method. The randomness of the resulting 320 Gbps PRB sequences is verified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology Special Publication 800-22 statistical tests. With the progress of silicon photonic circuits, there is a potential to fabricate a monolithic chaotic OEO chip for compact PRB generation.

Rationale: Chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (CPEO) is a classical mitochondrial ocular disorder characterized by bilateral progressive ptosis and ophthalmoplegia. Kearns -Sayre syndrome (KSS) is a multisystem disorder with PEO, cardiac conduction block, and pigmentary retinopathy. A few individuals with CPEO have other manifestations of KSS, but do not meet all the clinical diagnosis criteria, and this is called “CPEO plus.” Patient concerns: We report a 48-year-old woman exhibiting limb weakness, ptosis, ophthalmoparesis, and cerebellar dysfunctions. Diagnoses: The patient was diagnosed as exhibiting CPEO plus syndrome. Interventions: The patient underwent clinical, genetic, histological, and histochemical analysis. She was treated orally with CoQ10, vitamin Bs, L-carnitine, and vitamin E. Outcomes: The patient's serum creatine kinase levels, electrocardiography, and nerve conduction study results were normal; an electromyogram revealed myopathic findings. Magnetic resonance imaging showed global brain atrophy, particularly in the brainstem and cerebellum areas. A muscle biopsy showed the presence of abundant ragged red fibers. Sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA from the skeletal muscle biopsy revealed C960del mutation in 12S rRNA and homozygous mutation C2835T in 16S rRNA. She took medicines on schedule, the clinical features were similar as 2 years ago. Lessons: This is the first report of 2 rRNA mutations in a patient with MRI findings showing global brain atrophy, particularly in brainstem and cerebellum areas. Early recognition and appropriate treatment is crucial. This case highlights the cerebellar ataxia can occur in CPEO plus.

The intriguing properties of extremely efficient delocalization and migration of excitons in chlorophyll (Chl) J-type aggregates have inspired intense research activities toward their structural understanding, functional interpretation and mimicry synthesis. Herein, we demonstrated the J-aggregates of zinc methyl 3-devinyl-3-hydroxymethyl-pyropheophorbide a (ZnChl-1) generated by spin-coating method for the application as a hole transporter in titania-based solar cells using methyl trans -3 2 -carboxypyropheophorbide a (H 2 Chl-2) or its zinc complex (ZnChl-2) as the sensitizer. The effective carrier mobility of the J-aggregates films was determined by the organic field-effect transistor to be 6.2 × 10 −4 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . Solar cells sharing the architecture of FTO/H 2 Chl-2 or ZnChl-2 on TiO 2 /(ZnChl-1) n /Ag were fabricated and the factors that presumably determine their photovoltaic performances were discussed. The photovoltaic devices studied herein employing inexpensive and pollution-free biomaterials provide a unique solution of utilizing solar energy with a care of the important environmental issue.

A uniaxially oriented crystal based on 9,10-bis(2,2-di-p-tolylvinyl)anthracene (BDTVA) with an excellent waveguide and polarization performance has been prepared. The low loss coefficient (2.75 cm–1) and the high polarization contrast (0.72) may result from the uniaxially oriented packing and layer-by-layer molecular structure in the BDTVA crystal. Moreover, amplified spontaneous emission is observed from the BDTVA crystal with a low threshold of 265 μJ/cm2, and the gain coefficient is 52 cm–1 at the peak wavelength of 509 nm. These features indicate that the BDTVA crystal may be potentially applied in the field of optical waveguides and organic solid-state lasers.

Recently, Gao et al. reported being able to measure significant quantities of photogenerated charge up to one hour after it had been generated in an organic semiconductor device. The aim of this paper is twofold; (a) to provide conclusive experimental evidence to support the picture of device operation; and (b) to understand and demonstrate how changes to the device structure and materials can be used to tune the charge carrier lifetime. By tuning both the materials used, and the device structure we are able to observe a charge carrier life time of over 2 hours and still extract significant amounts of charge from the device after 5 hours. This is achieved by engineering the band structure of the device to control the spatial overlap of the stored photoexcited electron and hole populations and thus the recombination rate. By performing lifetime measurements as a function of charge carrier density and applied voltage we find the recombination rate has a 0th order dependence on carrier density, and elucidate the mechanisms responsible for these long charge carrier life times. This work is of technological significance for the development of organic electronic high sensitivity photodetectors and memory elements.

Formation of ripples by ablation of surfaces of laser-irradiated materials is an example of ultrafast energy delivery. Herein, we report on fs-laser optical imprinting of periodic nano-grooves on silica substrate at only 25% of the laser ablation threshold via an interface plasmonic light localization at the ZnS film (top) interface with silica (bottom) by plasmonic surface wave. The nano-grooves were formed throughout ZnS with the same period and orientation imprinted onto the underlying silica. Based on a detailed account of the multi-photon and avalanche ionization using the Drude model, laser-induced plasmonic ablation describes quantitatively the energy deposition from the top ZnS to the substrate of silica.

Solid-state organic photoswitches with reversible luminescence modulation property are highly attractive because of their wide prospects in advanced photonic applications, such as optical data storage, anticounterfeiting and bioimaging. Yet, developing such materials has long been a significant challenge. In this work, we construct an efficient solid-state photoswitch based on a spiropyran-functionalized distyrylanthracene derivative (DSA-2SP) that exhibits exceptional reversible absorption/luminescence modulation ability. Efficient photoswitching between DSA-2SP and its photoisomer DSA-2MC are facilitated by large free volumes induced by nonplanar molecular structures of DSA moieties, as well as the intramolecular hydrogen bonds between the DSA and MC moieties. Consequently, the excellent solid-state photochromic property of DSA-2SP is highly applicable as both anticounterfeiting inks and super-resolution imaging agents.

The four previously reported Parkinson's disease (PD)-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - rs1775143, rs823114, rs2071746 and rs62063857 - have rarely been studied in Chinese Han populations. To examine the association between these SNPs and PD, we conducted a case-control study of 158 patients with PD and 210 controls. All participants were Chinese Han from Northern China. With covariate adjustment for clinical characteristics, logistic regression analysis revealed no differences in genotype or allele frequencies for the four SNPs. Stratified by age of disease onset, sex, smoking status, duration of disease, baseline UPDRS, Hoehn-Yahr Stage, PD subtypes, scores of Hamilton anxiety scale, Hamilton depression scale and activity of daily living, all of the p values did not remain significant after Bonferroni correction. However, the haplotype rs1775143T-rs823114G-rs2071746T-rs62063857A was associated with increased risk of developing PD (p = 0.003, OR = 456.88, 95% CI: 27.40-7619.75) in our case-control sample set. The haplotype rs1775143T-rs823114G-rs2071746T was also associated with increased risk of developing PD (p = 0.003, OR = 338.43, 95% CI: 20.68-5538.27). Although the haplotype rs1775143T-rs823114G-rs62063857A was associated with increased risk of PD (p = 0.03), the 95% CI was 0.993-22.469. Our data demonstrate that although specific SNPs were not related with PD patients, certain haplotypes were associated with increased risk for PD in the Chinese Han population. These results provide further evidence that the etiology of PD is multifactorial, although the underling mechanism needs further study.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2-DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by high blood glucose levels. T2-DM patients suffer from many complications, such as diabetic fatty liver and diabetic nephropathy. The liver, the pivotal organ involved in both glucose and lipid metabolism, is primarily damaged in T2-DM patients, especially in those with high levels of blood lipid. In this study, the hepatoprotective activity of ginsenoside Rg1 was investigated in a T2-DM rat model. The results revealed a potent hepatoprotective effect of ginsenoside Rg1. This effect was primarily mediated by the antiapoptotic effect, inhibition of JNK activity, and suppression of inflammation after ginsenoside Rg1 treatment. Ginsenoside Rg1 also lowered the blood glucose level and insulin resistance index in T2-DM rats. Moreover, the blood lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels) and liver function (aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase levels) improved after ginsenoside Rg1 treatment. The aforementioned hepatoprotective effects of ginsenoside Rg1 in the T2-DM rat model suggests its clinical potential as an adjuvant drug for T2-DM therapy, especially for T2-DM patients with fatty liver disease.

© The Royal Society of Chemistry. Metal oxide contact layers such as ZnO and TiOx are commonly used in third generation solar cells as they can be solution processed and have a relatively high conductivity. It is well known that by ultraviolet (UV) light-soaking such devices, their overall device efficiency can be boosted. This improvement in efficiency is due to high energy UV light exciting hot carriers which then fill the trap states in the metal oxide film. Unfortunately, UV causes degradation of the active layer and thus must be filtered out if long lifetimes are to be achieved. In this work, we use plasmonically excited metal nano-structures embedded in a ZnO metal oxide layer to generate hot charge carriers from visible light alone, thus removing the need for UV light soaking. Using this approach, the solar cells also exhibit better charge transport/recombination properties as well as enhanced light trapping behavior. We demonstrate that the power conversion efficiency of a low-bandgap thieno[3,4-b]thiophene/benzodithiophene (PTB7) based solar cell can be increased from 7.91% to 9.36%.

An understanding of the behaviors of photo-generated charge carriers (CCs) has a crucial meaning for establishing a reliable model to describe the operating concept of photovoltaic devices. One of the most-widely used techniques to characterize transport behavior of CCs is a transient photocurrent measurement using a short laser pulse excitation. However, conventional transient photocurrent measurements, often referred to as the time-of-flight method, have a drawback due to the demand for relatively thicker active layers. This is mainly to observe a clear transit time for the CCs; however, some uncertainties can arise when the properties of a thicker active layer are adapted to the properties of conventionally thin active layer of an optimized device configuration. Therefore, we studied two models, one based on a polythiophene derivative and the other based on a narrow band-gap polymer derivative of an organic bulk heterojunction system, by using a transient photocurren t method with a conventional active layer thickness. This comparative study has shown clearly different transient photocurrent behaviors between the two systems when the excitation intensity, as well as the applied electric field, is varied.

The charge transport property of two triisopropylsilylethynyl anthracene (TIPSAnt) derivatives TIPSAntBt and TIPSAntNa (bithiophene and naphthalene are introduced at the 2, 6-positions of the TIPSAnt core) were explored through quantum chemical method. To gain a better understanding of the substituent effect on the charge transport property, the results of the parent molecule TIPSAnt was also provided here for comparison. The substituent effect on the molecular geometry, reorganization energy, frontier orbitals, ionization potential (IP) and electronic affinity (EA), crystal property, transfer integrals and charge mobility, band structure and effective mass of the two compounds were investigated to establish the relationship between structures and properties. The introduced bulky TIPS groups made the two compounds adopt two-dimensional, face-to-face, π-stacking structures. The efficient overlaps of π-orbital and smaller π-stacking distance are proved to be the main reason for the high charge mobility of TIPSAntBt and TIPSAntNa. The hole mobilities of TIPSAntBt and TIPSAntNa are 0.88 and 3.60 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , respectively, which is well consistent with experiment values (0.2 and 3.7 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , respectively). For TIPSAntBt, the electron mobility (1.29 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ) is a little higher than that of hole due to the more effective transfer integrals of electron. On the contrary, the hole mobility of TIPSAntNa is 20 times larger than that of electron because of the smaller reorganization energy and larger transfer integral of hole, indicating that TIPSAntNa could be used as p -type semiconductor. For TIPSAntBt, the transfer integral is smaller than the reorganization energy, so the hopping mechanism plays a key role in the charge transport property. While the bandwidths and effective mass of TIPSAntNa agreed well with the calculated transfer integrals and charge mobility results. The introduced small substituents to TIPSAnt core contributed to the dramatically different charge transport property from an n -type semiconductor of TIPSAntBt to p -type semiconductor of TIPSAntNa, which shed light on molecular design for an n -type semiconductor through simple chemical structural modification.

The present study of structure-property relationships and disclosure of fascinating amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) behavior of an organic molecule not only exhibits the individual effect of molecular conformation and arrangement on the emission properties of the crystal separately, but also indicates that some concealed elegant properties of organic solids can be achieved through manipulating the polymorphic form.

In this study, we attempted to develop a protocol for fabricating efficient solid-state organic photovoltaics based on materials used currently for dye-sensitized solar cells. Three typical indoline dyes, namely, D131, D102, and D149, were employed as electron donors in conjunction with C70 fullerene in solution-processed planar-heterojunction (PHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). The PHJ cells based on these dyes exhibited similar external quantum efficiencies over the entire spectral range, resulting in identical short-circuit photocurrents. The open-circuit voltages of the PHJ cells were consistent with the highest occupied molecular orbital level of the corresponding indoline dye. The D102-based PHJ cell exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency, of up to 3.1%. The efficiency was limited by the light-harvesting capability of the solar cell, given that the short diffusion length (∼5 nm) of D102 limited the thickness of the active layer; the diffusion length was determined through an optical simulat...

ZnO thin films prepared by spin-coating of nanoparticles at low temperature were utilized as the electron collection layer in CH3NH3PbI3-based perovskite solar cells having a planar heterojunction ...

and low-work-function metals. [ 8 ] Generally, these interlayers have the function of bridging the Fermi energy of the electrode and the energy levels of the organic semiconductor and increasing the built-in electric fi eld in the devices. [ 6 ] Recently, we reported a new category of air stable material, ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidenefl uoride-trifl uoroethylene) (P(VDFTrFE)), as a universal interlayer, which has tunable and highdensity, aligned dipoles controlled by the external applied bias. [ 9 ] This ferroelectric interlayer can effectively increase or decrease the work function of any electrode to serve as both anode and cathode due to the switchable dipole direction. A strong electric fi eld can be induced in the semiconducting polymers by the unscreened polarization charges of the P(VDF-TrFE), which has been demonstrated to improve the PCE of several types of organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) to unprecedented values, superior to many other methods. In our previous studies, it was also shown that the polarization of P(VDF-TrFE) on the organic semiconductor fi lms is stable [ 10,11 ] and the surface charges are not screened by photogenerated carriers. [ 10 ]