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Hybrid tin halides with formamidinium cations become a promising candidate for eco‐friendly solar cells, which achieves the best photovoltaic performance among various lead‐free perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Unfortunately, the low quality of perovskite layers and the oxidation of Sn2+ ions degrade the performance of devices, leading to an obviously lower power conversion efficiency (PCE) compare to hybrid lead halides. Additive engineering is a facile strategy for improving the quality of perovskite layers. In this work, the 2‐aminopyrazine (APZ) additive is investigated for depositing FA0.8PEA0.2SnI2.8Br0.2 layers, and corresponding PSCs are examined. It is found that the melting point of APZ additives drops below the annealing temperature of perovskite layers by the intermolecular interaction with formamidinium iodide (FAI). The melt phase at the grain boundaries encourages the diffusion of ions in the annealing process, leading to an improved quality of perovskite layers. And the formation of APZ‐SnI2 complex also inhibits the oxidation of Sn2+ ions. Consequently, the defect density and the recombination are significantly reduced in PSCs, resulting in an increase of PCEs from 11.4% to 13.0% and a simultaneous improvement of device stability. This work demonstrates a strategy for improving tin‐based PSCs based on melt assisted annealing and coordination interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar‐driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) has attracted great attention by offering a zero‐carbon‐emission solution for clean water production. The manipulation of the surface structure of the evaporator markedly promotes the enhancement of light capture and the improvement of evaporation performance. Herein, inspired by seedless lotus pod, a flexible pristine polypyrrole (PPy) membrane with macro/micro‐bubble and nanotube asymmetric structure is fabricated through template‐assisted interfacial polymerization. The macro‐ and micro‐hierarchical structure of the open bubbles enable multiple reflections inner and among the bubble cavities for enhanced light trapping and omnidirectional photothermal conversion. In addition, the multilevel structure (macro/micro/nano) of the asymmetric PPy (PPy‐A) membrane induces water evaporation in the form of clusters, leading to a reduction of water evaporation enthalpy. The PPy‐A membranes achieve a full‐spectrum light absorption of 96.3% and high evaporation rate of 2.03 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun. Long‐term stable desalination is also verified with PPy‐A membranes by applying one‐way water channel. This study demonstrates the feasibility of pristine PPy membranes in SDIE applications, providing guidelines for modulation of the evaporator topologies toward high‐efficient solar evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe comprehensive thermo-hydraulic performance of a helical tube (HT) is improved in this study by proposing a new type of helical bead-groove tube (HBGT). The heat transfer performance and friction factor of HBGT, helical groove tube, and HT under the same conditions were compared by the numerical simulation method. The effects of different bead-groove positions, bead-groove density ratios, and depth ratios on the HBGT heat transfer and friction factor properties are analyzed. The research introduced the field synergy theory to investigate the enhanced heat transfer mechanism. The results show that the HBGT can strengthen the vortex and secondary flow intensity. Meanwhile, this structure can also reduce the average field synergy angle. Its performance evaluation criterion is increased by a maximum of 8.5% and 28.2% compared to the HBGT and the HT, respectively. Compared with the bead-groove position, the bead-groove density ratio and depth ratio have more significantly influenced the thermal performance of the HBGT. The Nusselt (Nu) and friction factor (f) correlations were calculated from simulation data with error limits of ±5% and ±10%, respectively, to forecast the Nusselt (Nu) and friction factor (f). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Geological movements and climatic fluctuations stand as pivotal catalysts driving speciation and phylogenetic evolution. The genus Polyspora Sweet (Theaceae), prominently found across the Malay Archipelagos and Indochina Peninsula in tropical Asia, exhibits its northernmost distribution in China. In this study, we investigated the evolutionary and biogeographical history of the genus Polyspora in China, shedding light on the mechanisms by which these species respond to ancient geological and climatic fluctuations. Methods: Phylogenetic relationships of 32 representative species of Theaceae were reconstructed based on the chloroplast genome and ribosome 18-26 S rRNA datasets. Species divergence time was estimated using molecular clock and five fossil calibration. The phylogeography and population genetics in 379 individuals from 32 populations of eight species were analyzed using chloroplast gene sequences (trnH-psbA, rpoB-trnC and petN-psbM), revealing the glacial refugia of each species, and exploring the causes of the phylogeographic patterns. Results: We found that Chinese Polyspora species diverged in the middle Miocene, showing a tropical-subtropical divergence order. A total of 52 haplotypes were identified by the combined chloroplast sequences. Chinese Polyspora exhibited a distinct phylogeographical structure, which could be divided into two clades and eight genealogical subdivisions. The divergence between the two clades occurred approximately 20.67 Ma. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that the genetic variation mainly occurred between species (77.91%). At the species level, Polyspora axillaris consists of three lineages, while P. speciosa had two lineages. The major lineages of Chinese Polyspora diverged between 12 and 15 Ma during the middle to late Miocene. The peak period of haplotype differentiation in each species occurred around the transition from the last interglacial to the last glacial period, approximately 6 Ma ago. Conclusion: The primary geographical distribution pattern of Chinese Polyspora was established prior to the last glacial maximum, and the population historical dynamics were relatively stable. The geological and climatic turbulence during the Quaternary glacial period had minimal impact on the distribution pattern of the genus. The genus coped with Quaternary climate turbulence by glacial in situ survival in multiple refuges. The Sino-Vietnam border and Nanling corridor might be the genetic mixing center of Polyspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomaly detection is a challenging task, especially detecting and segmenting tiny defect regions in images without anomaly priors. Although deep encoder‐decoder‐based convolutional neural networks have achieved good anomaly detection results, existing methods operate uniformly on all extracted image features without considering disentangling these features. To fully explore the texture and semantic information of images, A novel unsupervised anomaly detection method is proposed. Specifically, discriminative features are extracted from images by using a deep pre‐trained network, where shallow and deep features are aggregated into texture and semantic modules, respectively. Then, a feature fusion module is developed to interactively enable feature information in two different modules. The texture and semantic segmentation results are obtained by comparing the texture features and semantic features before and after reconstruction, respectively. Finally, an anomaly segmentation module is designed to generate anomaly detection results by integrating the results of the texture and semantic modules by setting a threshold. Experimental results on benchmark datasets for anomaly detection demonstrate that our proposed method can efficiently and effectively detect anomalies, outperforming some state‐of‐the‐art methods by 2.7% and 0.6% in classification and segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of three-way decision has been widely utilized across various disciplines and fields as an efficient method for both knowledge reasoning and decision making. However, the application of the three-way decision theory to partially labeled data has received relatively less attention. In this study, we propose a semi-supervised co-training model based on the three-way decision and pseudo labels. We first present a simple yet effective method for producing two views by assigning pseudo labels to unlabeled data, based on which a heuristic attribute reduction algorithm is developed. The three-way decision is then combined with the concept of entropy to form co-decision rules for classifying unlabeled data into useful, uncertain, or useless samples. Finally, some useful samples are iteratively selected to improve the performance of the co-decision model. The experimental results on UCI datasets demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms other semi-supervised models, exhibiting its potential for partially labeled data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic semiconductor single crystals, with the unique advantages of high carrier transport properties, high optical quality, and low defect density, are ideal candidates for constructing high‐performance organic light‐emitting transistors (OLETs) and advancing their related potential applications, including smart displays, micro‐nano light sources, organic electrically pumped lasers, and integrated photonic circuits. Recently, significant progress has been made in organic semiconductor single‐crystal light‐emitting transistors (OSSCLETs), particularly high‐mobility emissive organic semiconductor single crystals, high‐performance light‐emitting transistors, and color‐tunable organic semiconductor single crystals and OLETs. In this review, the exciting advances in OSSCLETs are summarized in terms of advanced organic semiconductor materials, high‐quality organic semiconductor single crystals, advanced device technologies, and high‐performance light‐emitting transistors. Finally, the challenges and prospects of OSSCLETs as well as promising research directions in this field are briefly summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid flows at the solid surface and drains at the margin under gravity are ubiquitous in our daily lives. Previous research mainly focuses on the effect of substantial margin's wettability on liquid pinning and has proved that hydrophobicity inhibits liquids from overflowing margins while hydrophilicity plays the opposite role. However, the effect of solid margins' adhesion properties and their synergy with wettability on the overflowing behavior of water and resultant drainage behaviors are rarely studied, especially for large-volume water accumulation on the solid surface. Here, we report the solid surfaces with high-adhesion hydrophilic margin and hydrophobic margin stably pin the air-water-solid triple contact lines at the solid bottom and solid margin, respectively, and then drain water faster through stable water channels termed water channel-based drainage over a wide range of water flow rates. The hydrophilic margin promotes the overflowing of water from top to bottom. It constructs a stable "top + margin + bottom" water channel, and a high-adhesion hydrophobic margin inhibits the overflowing from margin to bottom and constructs a stable "top + margin" water channel. The constructed water channels essentially decrease marginal capillary resistances, guide top water onto the bottom or margin, and assist in draining water faster, under which gravity readily overcomes the surface tension resistance. Consequently, the water channel-based drainage mode achieves 5–8 times faster drainage behavior than the no-water channel drainage mode. The theoretical force analysis also predicts the experimental drainage volumes for different drainage modes. Overall, this article reveals marginal adhesion and wettability-dependent drainage modes and provides motivations for drainage plane design and relevant dynamic liquid-solid interaction for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The geometrical structure is explored in two different ways. • Self-expressive learning is seamlessly integrated into LPP. • The cluster interweaving problem of LPP is alleviated. Locality preserving projection (LPP) is a subspace learning method that uses pairwise distance to measure the similarity between data points. However, when data points from different clusters are adjacent, the pairwise distance may not accurately reflect the similarity between data points. In this study, a novel graph learning model is proposed to alleviate this problem; it is called adaptive graph learning with geometrical structure preservation and self-expression maintenance (GEAGL), in which a discriminative LPP method is used to extract the geometrical structure of data. By integrating self-expressive learning into the LPP method, a similarity graph that preserves the geometrical structure and self-expressive properties of data can be adaptively learned. The learned similarity graph tends to consist of a block diagonal structure when data points are extracted from independent linear subspaces, which alleviates the cluster interweaving problem. In this study, the relationship between the proposed method and k-means clustering was revealed, and the geometrical structure preservation property of the proposed method was theoretically analyzed. Finally, a graph-based clustering method was developed based on the similarity graph produced by GEAGL. Experimental results of benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method in comparison with state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The emerging of solar-driven interfacial evaporation provides new opportunities to alleviate the shortage of fresh water resource. Nevertheless, in practical solar desalination, salt precipitation will lead to the decrease of evaporation rate due to reduced light absorption and blocked evaporation channels of evaporator. It still remains a challenge to eliminate salt accumulation and simultaneously maintain high-efficient evaporation. In this work, a solar evaporator was prepared based on reduced graphene oxide and chitosan coated honeycomb-structured fabric (rCHF). The rCHF showed a high light absorbance of 97.2% due to enhanced light trapping of the honeycomb structure and ultra-low thermal conductivity of 0.044 W m−1 K−1. Furthermore, the temperature gradient generated inside the honeycomb unit can induce the Marangoni effect, which led to the site-specific salt crystallization on rCHF in seawater evaporation. As a result, the rCHF realized an excellent solar evaporation rate of 2.02 kg m-2h−1 under one sun irradiation (1 kW m−2). The site-specific salt crystallization on the surface of rCHF ensured stable evaporation even in 20% brine, and the isolated salt can be removed by natural dissolution owing to the excellent hydrophilicity of rCHF. This work provides a new perspective for the design of solar evaporator for practical solar seawater desalination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Color filters (CF) are essential integral parts of the liquid crystal display (LCD) and image sensor. Compared to traditional pigment colorants, organic dyes offer a promising alternative to realize CF with improved optical properties and higher resolution. However, organic dyes usually suffer from inferior thermal and photo-stability, limiting their applications in CF. Herein, four robust donor-acceptor organic dyes based on phenanthrenequinone chromophore were designed and synthesized by introducing aromatic amine derivatives as the electron donors. The strong donor-acceptor interactions in these dyes contribute to intense broad charge-transfer absorption bands from 375 nm to 600 nm with high molar extinction coefficients, thus realizing red color. Also, these dyes exhibit high thermal and photo-stability, good compatibility with the polymer binder and low aggregation tendencies, resulting in high thermal and photo-stability for the fabricated CF films. Remarkably, among these phenanthrenequinone dyes, DTPAP with multi-donor substitution and extended π-conjugation exhibited the best performance in terms of molar extinction coefficient, thermal and photo-stability, contributing to the highest thermal and photo-stability for the CF film with color difference values (Δ E ab) below 0.75 under simulated industrial manufacturing processes. This work confirms that phenanthrenequinone is a robust chromophore and is conducive to developing thermal and photo-stable CF dyes, and paves a way to improve the optical properties and stability of donor-acceptor dyes for CF. [Display omitted] • Robust phenanthrenequinone chromophore with high bond dissociation energies. • High thermal and photo-stability via multi-donor substitution and π-conjugation extension. • Improved optical properties and stability of donor-acceptor dyes for color filters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral hypoglycemic drugs for the treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are still controversial because they can pass through the placenta. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of oral hypoglycemic drugs. PubMed, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases were systematically searched (inception to 20 April 2021). Rev Man 5.0 was used to analyze the data. A random-effects model was used to compute the summary risk estimates. There were 26 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 4921 GDM patients which were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with metformin, insulin had a significant increase in the risk of preeclampsia (odds ratio [OR], 1.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06 to 2.45; I2=40%; p <.05), hypertension (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.99; I2=0%; p <.05), hypoglycemia (OR, 3.93; 95% CI, 1.27 to 12.19; I2=0%; p <.05), neonatal hypoglycemia (OR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.34 to 2.76; I2=41%; p <.0001), neonatal jaundice (OR, 2.70; 95% CI, 1.12 to 6.52; I2=0%; p <.05), and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Admission (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.95; I2=39%; p <.05), but the risk of neonatal macrosomia (OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.12 to 2.40; I2=0%; p <.05) and neonatal injury (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.89; I2=0%; p <.01) is lower. Metformin is comparable with insulin in glycemic control and neonatal outcomes and has the potential to replace insulin therapy in clinical practice. Glyburide is behind metformin and insulin, and more RCTs are needed to verify its safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bivalves hold an important role in marine aquaculture and the identification of growth-related genes in bivalves could contribute to a better understanding of the mechanism governing their growth, which may benefit high-yielding bivalve breeding. Somatostatin receptor (SSTR) is a conserved negative regulator of growth in vertebrates. Although SSTR genes have been identified in invertebrates, their involvement in growth regulation remains unclear. Here, we identified seven SSTRs (PySSTRs) in the Yesso scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis, which is an economically important bivalve cultured in East Asia. Among the three PySSTRs (PySSTR-1, -2, and -3) expressed in adult tissues, PySSTR-1 showed significantly lower expression in fast-growing scallops than in slow-growing scallops. Then, the function of this gene in growth regulation was evaluated in dwarf surf clams (Mulinia lateralis), a potential model bivalve cultured in the lab, via RNA interference (RNAi) through feeding the clams Escherichia coli containing plasmids expressing double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) targeting MlSSTR-1. Suppressing the expression of MlSSTR-1, the homolog of PySSTR-1 in M. lateralis, resulted in a significant increase in shell length, shell width, shell height, soft tissue weight, and muscle weight by 20%, 22%, 20%, 79%, and 92%, respectively. A transcriptome analysis indicated that the up-regulated genes after MlSSTR-1 expression inhibition were significantly enriched in the fat digestion and absorption pathway and the insulin pathway. In summary, we systemically identified the SSTR genes in P. yessoensis and revealed the growth-inhibitory role of SSTR-1 in bivalves. This study indicates the conserved function of somatostatin signaling in growth regulation, and ingesting dsRNA-expressing bacteria is a useful way to verify gene function in bivalves. SSTR-1 is a candidate target for gene editing in bivalves to promote growth and could be used in the breeding of fast-growing bivalves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual-atom catalysts (DACs) have attracted growing research interest recently because of their higher metal atom loading and more flexible active sites compared to single-atom catalysts (SACs). Transitional metal dichalcogenides have been regarded as effective substrates. However, the corresponding research in transition metal dichalcogenides is insufficient for oxygen reactions. In this work, a prototype investigation of dual transition-metal (TM) atoms doped MoTe2 (CoM/MoTe2, M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pd, Pt) is performed with density functional theory (DFT). The results indicate that proper dual doping configuration can effectively enhance the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic activity of MoTe2 compared to single Co doping. Further research suggests that the regulated electronic property and moderated adsorption strength of reaction intermediates could help to accelerate the OER and ORR processes. This investigation provides an effective strategy for TMD-based catalysts designing by dual transition-metal atoms doping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Multifunctional fabric was facilely prepared by in-situ synthesis of PPy-Ag/AgCl nanocomposites on cotton fabric. • The multifunctional fabric demonstrated highly efficient solar evaporation and photodegradation of pollutants. • Excellent antibacterial activities against E. Coli and S.aureus. • Efficient rejection of pollutants and reliable stability in compound wastewater treatment. Solar-driven water evaporation is considered as promising and eco-friendly technology for freshwater acquisition. Yet, hazardous substances such as organic pollutants and bacteria present in wastewater can adversely deteriorate the quality of clean water and consequently take a toll on human health. Herein, multifunctional fabrics were fabricated by embedding polypyrrole-silver/silver chloride (PPy-Ag/AgCl) nanocomposites in situ on the surface of cotton fabric, thus integrating photothermal effect, photodegradation of organic contaminants and antibacterial activity. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect of Ag nanoparticles and π-electron delocalization structures of PPy not only enhanced the light absorbance and photothermal performances, but also promoted the generation and separation of photogenerated charge-carriers of the multifunctional fabrics. Therefore, the multifunctional fabrics demonstrated a notable solar evaporation rate of 1.73 kg m−2h−1 for freshwater production and high photodegradation efficiency for typical organic pollutants such as rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO). Meanwhile, multifunctional fabrics showed good antibacterial activities (100% against E. coli and 99.76 ± 0.4% against S. aureus). When treating compound wastewater, the multifunctional fabric could remain efficient rejection rate of organic and inorganic pollutants and showed reliable stability. The multifunctional fabric shows great advantages for comprehensive wastewater purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic–inorganic hybrid halide perovskites are highly promising candidates for efficient photovoltaics, however, the long-term stability in ambient air still limits their further practical applications. Herein, the enhancement of both performance and stability of perovskite solar cells is reported by employing two-dimension (2D)/three-dimension (3D) planar perovskite films. The 2D/3D planar perovskites combine the advantages of the high-performance from the 3D perovskite and the stability from 2D-perovskite. It is found that the benefits of the 2D perovskite are attributed to ultrathin coverage on the 3D perovskite surface, which not only passivates the grain boundaries of the underlayer 3D perovskite, but also aligns the energy level between the perovskite and hole transport layers from a microscopic point of view. This work demonstrates that modulating 2D/3D planar films by hybridizing different species of perovskite is a feasible way to simultaneously enhance both efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells. Image 1 • The enhancement of both performance and stability of perovskite solar cells is reported. • 2D perovskite is formed by the reaction between PEAI and PbI 2 from 3D perovskite. • 2D/3D perovskite passivates grain boundaries and optimized energy band alignment. • Ultrathin 2D perovskite/3D perovskite layer exerts the function like the 2D:3D mixed layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solution process is the most widely used method to prepare perovskite films for efficient solar cells due to its facile fabrication and low-cost. However, the aged perovskite precursor solutions usually suffer from degradation, which impedes the reproducibility of the solution. In this paper, we demonstrate the direct formed tri-iodide ions stabilizing colloidal precursor solution for efficient halide perovskite solar cells. The added I 2 molecules dissolved in perovskite precursor sustain the dynamic balance between I− ions and I 3 − ions by the reversible reaction: I− + I 2 ⇌ I 3 −, which effectively stabilizes the whole I− ion concentration in perovskite solution and prevents the colloidal particles from aggregation. The resulting perovskite films with better crystallization have less bulk defects that act as carrier recombination centers. As a result, the devices using the aged solution with the additional tri-iodide ions show the less efficiency drop from ∼19% to ∼16% with the increased aging time up to 15 days, compared with the devices using the as-prepared precursor solution degrading from ∼18% to ∼6%. Our results represent an important advance in the stabilization of perovskite colloidal precursor and promote the reproducibility of perovskite solar cells by solution process. • I 3 − ions are used to stabilize the perovskite precursor solution. • The added I 3 − ions prevent the colloidal particles from aggregation. • The perovskite solution with I 3 − ions result in high-quality films for high efficiency. • The devices using the aged solution with I 3 − ions show the less efficiency drop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of tetraphenylethene 9,10‐diphenylanthracene (TPE‐DPA) derivatives have been synthesized, and their photophysical properties studied. Photoluminescence measurements in PMMA, neat films and nanoparticle dispersions reveal that different aggregation states are formed, which leads to different photophysical behavior. The triplet excited state properties were studied using Pt(II) octaethylporphyrin (PtOEP) as triplet sensitizer. Upconverted emission from the DPA moiety is observed in nanoparticle dispersions of each derivative. A higher upconverted emission intensity is observed in aerated (compared to deaerated) solutions of the derivatives following irradiation, which is attributed to oxidation of the TPE moiety. These results provide valuable insight for the design of AIE luminogens for triplet‐triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA‐UC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A uniform and compact hole blocking layer is necessary for high-performance perovskite solar cells, since it not only serves as an electron collector but also suppresses the carrier recombination. So far, high efficient perovskite solar cells have been obtained by using a blocking layer TiO 2 that requires an additional TiCl 4 treatment. In this paper, a comprehensive understanding of TiCl 4 treatment on the TiO 2 layer was investigated in planar perovskite solar cells. Scanning electron microscope, atomic force microscope, and Kelvin probe force microscopy were applied to investigate the morphology of the TiCl 4 treated TiO 2 , and steady-state photo luminescence spectroscopy and electrical impedance spectroscopy were conducted to study charge carrier dynamics. The TiCl 4 treated TiO 2 layer can result in high efficiency over 20% in planar perovskite solar cells. Our results demonstrate that the TiCl 4 treatment on the compact TiO 2 prior to the perovskite deposition was necessary for achieving high-performance solar cells. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • TiCl 4 treatment on the TiO 2 layer was investigated comprehensively. • TiCl 4 treatment fills the cracks and pinholes of the TiO 2 layer. • TiCl 4 treatment depresses the surface work function of the TiO 2 layer. • Perovskite solar cells with the TiCl 4 treated TiO 2 result in high efficiency over 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Lab-on-a-foil devices are fabricated using plastic films and tapes. • Microstructures are created inside microchannels using two-photon polymerization. • Through holes under DOMES can improve acoustic performance. • Rapid mixing is achieved for the first time on a lab-on-a-foil device. Abstract In this paper, off-the-shelf materials such as polyethylene terephthalate films and double-sided tapes are applied to create lab-on-a-foil microfluidic devices via a cutting plotter. Microstructures termed defended oscillating membrane equipped structures (DOMES) are integrated in the microchannels. These dome-shaped pore-containing DOMES are created above a through hole on the films using two-photon polymerization. As the bottom side of the air-liquid interfaces trapped in DOMES' pores is always facing ambient air, bubble instability that compromises acoustofluidic performance in conventional cases is alleviated or avoided. The acoustically induced flow is observed to be stronger with increasing pore size on DOMES. An acoustofluidic micromixer is proposed to further investigate the capabilities of DOMES, and it is the first time active micromixer is achieved on lab-on-a-foil devices, with good performance competitive to reported microfluidic mixers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The Janus fabric prepared by the pre-wet coating method enables reversed vapor generation and efficient solar distillation. • Comprehensive thermal management greatly improves the freshwater yield (1.17 kg m−2h−1) and energy efficiency (77.8 %) of the distillation system. • Salt accumulation of the Janus fabric evaporator is perfectly solved in seawater desalination. • Derived from waste cotton textiles, the Janus fabric offers the potential in industrialized fabrication with low cost of USD 4.234 per m2. Interfacial solar steam generation, with high energy efficiency, promotes the solar desalination technology to a new era. However, the problem of low freshwater yield in enclosed distillation system owing to optical loss and insufficient condensation capability remains a challenge. In this work, a reversed interfacial solar distillation system is proposed by combining Janus fabric with comprehensive thermal management to significantly enhance the freshwater yield. Recycled cotton fabric is used to fabricate the low-cost Janus fabric with carbon black@silicone on the top side via a simple and scalable pre-wet coating method. The Janus fabric with high sunlight absorbance (98.0 %) and good sealing properties remarkably guarantees the downward vapor generation to eliminate the optical loss, resulting in the improved freshwater collection of the distiller. Comprehensive thermal management is designed for the distillation system to reduce the heat loss of the evaporator and enhance the condensation effect of the condenser. The optimal Janus fabric-based interfacial solar distiller achieves an outstanding water yield of 1.17 kg m−2h−1 and an efficiency of 78 % under one sun (1 kW m−2) illumination. This work presents a novel design of a high-performance interfacial solar distillation system, offering the potential for large-scale and low-cost industrial production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision-theoretic rough set model, as a probabilistic generalization of the Pawlak rough set model, is an effective method for decision making from vague, uncertain or imprecise data. Attribute reduction is one of the most important problems in the decision-theoretic rough set model and several uncertainty measures for attribute reduction have been presented. However, the monotonicity of the uncertainty measures does not always hold. In this paper, a novel monotonic uncertainty measure is introduced for attribute reduction in the decision-theoretic rough set model. More specifically, based on the concepts of the maximum inclusion degree and maximum decision, a new uncertainty measure, named maximum decision entropy, is first proposed, and the definitions of the positive, boundary and negative region preservation reducts are then provided by using the proposed uncertainty measure. Theoretically, it is proved that the proposed uncertainty measure is monotonic when adding or deleting the condition attributes. Additionally, a heuristic attribute reduction algorithm based on the maximum decision entropy is developed, which maximizes the relevance of the reduct to the class attribute and also minimizes the redundancy of the condition attributes within the reduct. The experimental results on artificial as well as real data sets demonstrate the competitive performance of our proposal in comparison with the state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A microgrid (MG) has been regarded as an efficient way for integrating distributed generation sources (DGSs) into distribution systems, and the corresponding effective energy management is crucial to realize the benefits associated with MG. In general, most of the researches ignored the inherent coupling among the dispatch intervals. This study aims to establish a dynamic dispatch optimization model for reasonably scheduling the DGSs in the MG and to identify the optimal solution based on a swarm intelligence algorithm. With the introduction of the dynamic system theory, a dynamic multi-objective optimization model is established for minimizing the operation and maintenance cost of the MG, decreasing the pollutant emissions, and reducing the deprivation cost of the DGSs. In order to deal with this complex optimization problem with high-dimension variables and multiple constraints, an enhanced quorum sensing based particle swarm optimization (QS-PSO) algorithm, whose competitiveness has been verified, is successively applied for determining the optimal dispatch solution of the whole period, instead of dividing the entire dispatch period into a number of small time intervals via a static optimization approach. The results based on a series of numerical simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed dispatching model and QS-PSO application and demonstrate the superiority of dynamic operation optimization over the static optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic semiconductors have received broad attention and research interest due to their unique integration of semiconducting properties with structural tunability, intrinsic flexibiltiy and low cost. In order to meet the requirements of organic electronic devices and their integrated circuits, p-type, n-type and ambipolar organic semiconductors are all necessary. However, due to the limitation in both material synthesis and device fabrication, the development of n-type and ambipolar materials is quite behind that of p-type materials. Recent development in synthetic methods of organic semiconductors greatly enriches the range of n-type and ambipolar materials. Moreover, the newly developed materials with multiple functions also put forward multi-functional device applications, including some emerging research areas. In this review, we give a timely summary on these impressive advances in n-type and ambipolar organic semiconductors with a special focus on their synthesis methods and advanced materials with enhanced properties of charge carrier mobility, integration of high mobility and strong emission and thermoelectric properties. Finally, multi-functional device applications are further demonstrated as an example of these developed n-type and ambipolar materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Scaffolds of the post-synaptic density (PSD) organize glutamate receptor complexes. [•] Genetic manipulations of PSD scaffolds alter synaptic plasticity and complex behavior. [•] PSD scaffolds control distinct cognitive and affective behaviors. [•] Mutations of PSD scaffolds contribute to symptoms of psychiatric diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering categorical data arising as an important problem of data mining has recently attracted much attention. In this paper, the problem of unsupervised dimensionality reduction for categorical data is first studied. Based on the theory of rough sets, the attributes of categorical data are decomposed into a number of rough subspaces. A novel clustering ensemble algorithm based on rough subspaces is then proposed to deal with categorical data. The algorithm employs some of rough subspaces with high quality to cluster the data and yields a robust and stable solution by exploiting the resulting partitions. We also introduce a cluster index to evaluate the solution of clustering algorithm for categorical data. Experimental results for selected UCI data sets show that the proposed method produces better results than those obtained by other methods when being evaluated in terms of cluster validity indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High ambipolar mobility emissive conjugated polymers (HAME‐CPs) are perfect candidates for organic optoelectronic devices, such as polymer light emitting transistors. However, due to intrinsic trade‐off relationship between high ambipolar mobility and strong solid‐state luminescence, the development of HAME‐CPs suffers from high structural and synthetic complexity. Herein, a universal design principle and simple synthetic approach for HAME‐CPs are developed. A series of simple non‐fused polymers composed of charge transfer units, π bridges and emissive units are synthesized via a two‐step microwave assisted C−H arylation and direct arylation polymerization protocol with high total yields up to 61 %. The synthetic protocol is verified valid among 7 monomers and 8 polymers. Most importantly, all 8 conjugated polymers have strong solid‐state emission with high photoluminescence quantum yields up to 24 %. Furthermore, 4 polymers exhibit high ambipolar field effect mobility up to 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1, and can be used in multifunctional optoelectronic devices. This work opens a new avenue for developing HAME‐CPs by efficient synthesis and rational design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High ambipolar mobility emissive conjugated polymers (HAME‐CPs) are perfect candidates for organic optoelectronic devices, such as polymer light emitting transistors. However, due to intrinsic trade‐off relationship between high ambipolar mobility and strong solid‐state luminescence, the development of HAME‐CPs suffers from high structural and synthetic complexity. Herein, a universal design principle and simple synthetic approach for HAME‐CPs are developed. A series of simple non‐fused polymers composed of charge transfer units, π bridges and emissive units are synthesized via a two‐step microwave assisted C−H arylation and direct arylation polymerization protocol with high total yields up to 61 %. The synthetic protocol is verified valid among 7 monomers and 8 polymers. Most importantly, all 8 conjugated polymers have strong solid‐state emission with high photoluminescence quantum yields up to 24 %. Furthermore, 4 polymers exhibit high ambipolar field effect mobility up to 10−2 cm2 V−1 s−1, and can be used in multifunctional optoelectronic devices. This work opens a new avenue for developing HAME‐CPs by efficient synthesis and rational design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spherical targets are widely used in coordinate unification of large-scale combined measurements. Through its central coordinates, scanned point cloud data from different locations can be converted into a unified coordinate reference system. However, point cloud sphere detection has the disadvantages of errors and slow detection time. For this reason, a novel method of spherical object detection and parameter estimation based on an improved random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm is proposed. The method is based on the RANSAC algorithm. Firstly, the principal curvature of point cloud data is calculated. Combined with the k-d nearest neighbor search algorithm, the principal curvature constraint of random sampling points is implemented to improve the quality of sample points selected by RANSAC and increase the detection speed. Secondly, the RANSAC method is combined with the total least squares method. The total least squares method is used to estimate the inner point set of spherical objects obtained by the RANSAC algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the method outperforms the conventional RANSAC algorithm in terms of accuracy and detection speed in estimating sphere parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General or brain-region-specific decreases in spine number or morphology accompany major neuropsychiatric disorders. It is unclear, however, whether changes in spine density are specific for an individual mental process or disorder and, if so, which molecules confer such specificity. Here we identify the scaffolding protein IQGAP1 as a key regulator of dendritic spine number with a specific role in cognitive but not emotional or motivational processes. We show that IQGAP1 is an important component of NMDAR multiprotein complexes and functionally interacts with the NR2A subunits and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 (ERK1) and ERK2 signaling pathway. Mice lacking the IQGAP1 gene exhibited significantly lower levels of surface NR2A and impaired ERK activity compared to their wild-type littermates. Accordingly, primary hippocampal cultures of IQGAP1-/-neurons exhibited reduced surface expression of NR2A and disrupted ERK signaling in response to NR2A-dependent NMDAR stimulation. These molecular changes were accompanied by region-specific reductions of dendritic spine density in key brain areas involved in cognition, emotion, and motivation. IQGAP1 knock-outs exhibited marked long-term memory deficits accompanied by impaired hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) in a weak cellular learning model; in contrast, LTP was unaffected when induced with stronger stimulation paradigms. Anxiety- and depression like behavior remained intact. On the basis of these findings, we propose that a dysfunctional IQGAP1 gene contributes to the cognitive deficits in brain disorders characterized by fewer dendritic spines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activation of NMDA receptors (NMDAR) in the hippocampus is essential for the formation of contextual and trace memory. However, the role of individual NMDAR subunits in the molecular mechanisms contributing to these memory processes is not known. Here we demonstrate, using intrahippocampal injection of subunit-selective compounds, that the NR2A-preferring antagonist impaired contextual and trace fear conditioning as well as learning-induced increase of the nuclear protein c-Fos. The NR2B-specific antagonist, on the other hand, selectively blocked trace fear conditioning without affecting c-Fos levels. Studies with cultured primary hippocampal neurons, further showed that synaptic and extrasynaptic NR2A and NR2B differentially regulate the extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2/mitogen- and stress-activated protein kinase 1 (ERK1/2/MSK1)/c-Fos pathway. Activation of the synaptic population of NMDAR induced cytosolic, cytoskeletal, and perinuclear phosphorylation of ERK1/2 (pERK1/2). The nuclear propagation of pERK1/2 signals, revealed by upregulation of the downstream nuclear targets pMSK1 and c-Fos, was blocked by a preferential NR2A but not by a specific NR2B antagonist. Conversely, activation of total (synaptic and extrasynaptic) NMDAR engaged receptors with NR2B subunits, and resulted in membrane retention of pERK1/2 without inducing pMSK1 and c-Fos. Stimulation of extrasynaptic NMDAR alone was consistently ineffective at activating ERK signaling. The discrete contribution of synaptic and total NR2A- and NR2B-containing NMDAR to nuclear transmission vs. membrane retention of ERK signaling may underlie their specific roles in the formation of contextual and trace fear memory. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of thermal energy storage (TES) unit and solar air heater is one of the most efficient methods for long-term utilization of solar energy. In this study, a series of stable SrCl 2 @SG composite sorbents were prepared based on silica gel (SG) pellets and strontium chloride hexahydrate (SrCl 2 ·6H 2 O) to store low-grade solar thermal energy for space heating application. Composite characteristics, kinetic hydration/dehydration performance of SG and SrCl 2 @SG sorbents were thoroughly studied. Results demonstrated that the SrCl 2 @SG_10 sorbent has the largest sorption capacity of 0.34 g/g at the temperature of 25 °C and relative humidity (RH) of 90% without any liquid leakage. Additionally, kinetic hydration experiments showed that RH has a great impact on the water sorption performance of the TES materials, while the temperature effect is relatively insignificant. The TES performance of sorbents was further investigated in a laboratory prototype reactor with a multilayer structure, which was designed following an open sorption system concept. 800 g of sorbent pellets were evenly distributed on each layer of the sieve. Maximum instant output power and energy storage density of the SrCl 2 @SG_10 sorbent at 70% RH are 19.7 W and 100 kWh/m3 respectively. Furthermore, the open TES system still maintains a comparatively high TES performance after fifteen charging/discharging cycles. • Preparation of stabilized SrCl 2 @SG composite sorbent for low-grade thermal energy storage. • Kinetic hydration/dehydration behavior of reversible SrCl 2 ⸱6H 2 O are investigated. • Sorption mechanism of SrCl 2 @SG composite sorbents is proposed. • Thermal energy storage performance of SrCl 2 @SG_10 sorbent is tested in an open sorption system. • SrCl 2 @SG_10 sorbent has discharging efficiency of 58.5% and can be recycled stably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transcription factor cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) plays an important role in opioids dependence. To better understand the role of CREB in opioids dependence and underlying signal pathways, we compared the effects of three ohmfentanyl stereoisomers ((−)-cis-(3R,4S,2′R) OMF (F9202), (+)-cis-(3R,4S,2′S) OMF (F9204), (−)-cis-(3S,4S,2′R) OMF (F9203)) and morphine on CREB phosphorylation and the expression of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CaMKIV) in hippocampus derived from mice which displayed conditioned place preference (CPP) behavior by Western blot, and immunohistochemistry analyses. Moreover, we studied the effects of OMF and morphine on CREB phosphorylation and colocalization of phosphorylated CREB (P-CREB) with CaMKIV in cultured rat hippocampal neurons by Western blot, and confocal fluorescence microscopy analyses. The results showed that F9202, F9204 or morphine, which could induce CPP, enhanced CREB phosphorylation and the expression of CaMKIV in hippocampus from CPP mice without affecting total CREB protein level. The CREB phosphorylation of cultured hippocampal neurons was also enhanced and reached its peak level at 30 min upon exposure to F9202 (100 nM), F9204 (100 nM) or morphine (1 μM), while the total CREB protein level was not altered. KN-62 (10 μM), an inhibitor of CaM kinases, prevented CREB phosphorylation induced by morphine, F9202, and F9204 without change of total CREB level. The results of confocal fluorescence microscopy further demonstrated that the activated CREB (P-CREB) was colocalized with CaMKIV in nucleus. F9203, which could not induce CPP, failed to increase the CREB phosphorylation and the colocalization of P-CREB with CaMKIV both in hippocampus from CPP mice and in cultured hippocampal neurons. This is the first evidence to suggest that the increased CREB phosphorylation via CaMKIV signal pathway in hippocampus is relevant to opioids psychological dependence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Internalization and recycling of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), such as the μ-opioid receptor, largely depend on agonist stimulation. Agonist-promoted internalization of some GPCRs has been shown to mediate receptor desensitization, resensitization, and down-regulation. In this study, we investigated whether different μ opioid agonists displayed different effects in receptor internalization and recycling, the potential mechanisms involved in ohmefentanyl-induced internalization process. In transfected Sf9 insect cells expressing 6His-tagged wild type μ opioid receptor, exposure to 100 nM ohmefentanyl caused a maximum internalization of the receptor at 30 min and receptors seemed to reappear at the cell membrane after 60 min as determined by radioligand binding assay. Ohmefentanyl-induced human μ opioid receptor internalization was concentration-dependent, with about 40% of the receptors internalized following a 30-min exposure to 1 μM ohmefentanyl. 10 μM morphine and 1 μM DAMGO could also induce about 40% internalization. The antagonist naloxone and pretreatment with pertussis toxin both blocked ohmefentanyl-induced internalization without affecting internalization themselves. Incubation with sucrose 0.45 M significantly inhibited ohmefentanyl-induced internalization of the μ receptor. The removal of agonists ohmefentanyl and morphine resulted in the receptors gradually returning to the cell surface over a 60 min period, while the removal of agonist DAMGO only partly resulted in the receptor recycling. The results of this study suggest that ohmefentanyl-induced internalization of human μ opioid receptor in Sf9 insect cells occurs via Gi/o protein-dependent process that likely involves clathrin-coated pits. In addition, the recycling process displays the differential modes of action of different agonists. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Integrating high charge‐carrier mobility and low‐threshold lasing action in an organic semiconductor is crucial for the realization of an electrically pumped laser, but remains a great challenge. Herein, we present an organic semiconductor, named as 2,7‐di(2‐naphthyl)‐9H‐fluorene (LD‐2), which shows an unexpected high charge‐carrier mobility of 2.7 cm2 V−1 s−1 and low‐threshold lasing characteristic of 9.43 μJ cm−2 and 9.93 μJ cm−2 and high‐quality factor (Q) of 2131 and 1684 at emission peaks of 420 and 443 nm, respectively. Detailed theoretical calculations and photophysical data analysis demonstrate that a large intermolecular transfer integral of 10.36–45.16 meV together with a fast radiative transition rate of 8.0×108 s−1 are responsible for the achievement of the superior integrated optoelectronic properties in the LD‐2 crystal. These optoelectronic performances of LD‐2 are among the highest reported low‐threshold lasing organic semiconductors with efficient charge transport, suggesting its promise for research of electrically pumped organic lasers (EPOLs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating high charge‐carrier mobility and low‐threshold lasing action in an organic semiconductor is crucial for the realization of an electrically pumped laser, but remains a great challenge. Herein, we present an organic semiconductor, named as 2,7‐di(2‐naphthyl)‐9H‐fluorene (LD‐2), which shows an unexpected high charge‐carrier mobility of 2.7 cm2 V−1 s−1 and low‐threshold lasing characteristic of 9.43 μJ cm−2 and 9.93 μJ cm−2 and high‐quality factor (Q) of 2131 and 1684 at emission peaks of 420 and 443 nm, respectively. Detailed theoretical calculations and photophysical data analysis demonstrate that a large intermolecular transfer integral of 10.36–45.16 meV together with a fast radiative transition rate of 8.0×108 s−1 are responsible for the achievement of the superior integrated optoelectronic properties in the LD‐2 crystal. These optoelectronic performances of LD‐2 are among the highest reported low‐threshold lasing organic semiconductors with efficient charge transport, suggesting its promise for research of electrically pumped organic lasers (EPOLs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High intensity fear training induced increasd activity in VTA glutmatergic neurons. • VTA glutamatergic neurons are involved in mediating fear response. • VTA glutamatergic neurons instead of dopaminergic neurons send outputs into ZI. • Manipulation of VTA-ZI glutamatergic projection is a stragy for treating excessive fear response. Innate defensive behavior is important for animal survival. The Vglut2+ neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have been demonstrated to play important roles in innate defensive behaviors, but the neural circuit mechanism is still unclear. Here, we find that VTA – zona incerta (ZI) glutamatergic projection is involved in regulating innate fear responses. Combining calcium signal recording and chemogentics, we find that VTA-Vglut2+ neurons respond to foot shock stimulus. Inhibition of VTA-Vglut2+ neurons reduces foot shock-evoked freezing, while chemogentic activation of these neurons results in an enhanced fear response. Using viral tracing and immunofluorescence, we show that VTA – Vglut2+ neurons send direct excitatory outputs to the ZI. Moreover, we find that the activity of VTAVglut2 – ZI projection is pivotal in modulating fear response. Together, our study reveals a new VTA – ZI glutamatergic circuit in mediating innate fear response and provides a potential target for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic light‐emitting transistors (OLETs) are highly integrated and minimized optoelectronic devices with significant potential superiority in smart displays and optical communications. To realize these various applications, it is urgently needed for color‐tunable emission in OLETs, but remains a great challenge as a result of the difficulty for designing organic semiconductors simultaneously integrating high carrier mobility, strong solid‐state emission, and the ability for potential tunable colors. Herein, a high mobility emissive excimer organic semiconductor, 2,7‐di(2‐anthryl)‐9H‐fluorene (2,7‐DAF) was reasonably designed by introducing a rotatable carbon–carbon single bond connecting two anthracene groups at the 2,7‐sites of fluorene, and the small torsion angles simultaneously guarantee effective conjugation and suppress fluorescence quenching. Indeed, the unique stable dimer arrangement and herringbone packing mode of 2,7‐DAF single crystal enables its superior integrated optoelectronic properties with high carrier mobility of 2.16 cm2 ⋅ V−1 ⋅ s−1, and strong excimer emission with absolute photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 47.4 %. Furthermore, the voltage‐dependent electrically induced color‐tunable emission from orange to blue was also demonstrated for an individual 2,7‐DAF single crystal based OLETs for the first time. This work opens the door for a new class of high mobility emissive excimer organic semiconductors, and provides a good platform for the study of color‐tunable OLETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic light‐emitting transistors (OLETs) are highly integrated and minimized optoelectronic devices with significant potential superiority in smart displays and optical communications. To realize these various applications, it is urgently needed for color‐tunable emission in OLETs, but remains a great challenge as a result of the difficulty for designing organic semiconductors simultaneously integrating high carrier mobility, strong solid‐state emission, and the ability for potential tunable colors. Herein, a high mobility emissive excimer organic semiconductor, 2,7‐di(2‐anthryl)‐9H‐fluorene (2,7‐DAF) was reasonably designed by introducing a rotatable carbon–carbon single bond connecting two anthracene groups at the 2,7‐sites of fluorene, and the small torsion angles simultaneously guarantee effective conjugation and suppress fluorescence quenching. Indeed, the unique stable dimer arrangement and herringbone packing mode of 2,7‐DAF single crystal enables its superior integrated optoelectronic properties with high carrier mobility of 2.16 cm2 ⋅ V−1 ⋅ s−1, and strong excimer emission with absolute photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 47.4 %. Furthermore, the voltage‐dependent electrically induced color‐tunable emission from orange to blue was also demonstrated for an individual 2,7‐DAF single crystal based OLETs for the first time. This work opens the door for a new class of high mobility emissive excimer organic semiconductors, and provides a good platform for the study of color‐tunable OLETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]