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Paragonimus proliferus (P. proliferus), one of 46 Paragonimus species registered in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database, may be much more widely distributed in Southeast Asia than previously thought, as its reported natural foci have increased in the past decades. However, very little is known about its molecular biology, especially at the transcriptome level. For the first time, the transcriptome of this species was sequenced and compared with four other common Paragonimus species, namely Paragonimus skrjabini, Paragonimus kellicotti, Paragonimus miyazakii, and Paragonimus westermani, to predict homologous genes and differentially expressed homologous genes to explore interspecies differences of Paragonimus proliferus.

Fertility restoration for Triticum timopheevi Zhuk. cytoplasmic male sterility in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is controlled by both major fertility restorer (Rf) genes and modifier genes together with environment effects. Therefore, the breeding of efficient and stable male-fertility restorer lines (R-lines) should be facilitated by marker-assisted selection. This study was conducted to identify restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers for the Rf genes, Rf1 and Rf4 in restorer line R113, and Rf3 and a Rf gene on 5D in cultivar Primepi. Polymorphic markers were mapped in testcross [F.sub.1] populations and their association with fertility restoration was analyzed by analysis of variance. The results indicated that Rf4 was linked to Xksug48 located on 6BS in R113, Rf3 was linked to Xbcd249 and Xcdo442 on lBS, and Xcdo786 may be associated with the 5D Rf gene in Primepi. In addition, in R113 two other chromosome regions with fertility restoration-associated loci were detected by CD0786 and H1 on 5AL and CDO1189 on 7BS. A locus on 5DS, detected by BCD1871, showed significant epistatic effect on the expression of Rf genes. In Primepi, a locus on 5AL, detected by Xbcd183 and Xbcd876, had effects similar to Xcdo786. Two loci in 'Qu Xian Early A', identified by Xbcd871 and Xwg1026, may be associated with genes controlling ease of restoration in this male-sterile line (A-line). Except for Xbcd1871 and Xwg1026, the effects of other significant RFLP loci were additive in both populations.

Interfacial oxide layer plays a crucial role in a MoOx/ n -Si heterojunction (MSHJ) solar cell; however, the nature of this interfacial layer is not yet clarified. In this study, based on the experimental results, we theoretically analyzed the role of the interfacial oxide layer in the charge carrier transport of the MSHJ device. The interfacial oxide layer is regarded as two layers: a quasi p -type semiconductor interfacial oxide layer (SiOx(Mo))1 in which numerous negatively charged centers existed due to oxygen vacancies and molybdenum–ion-correlated ternary hybrids and a buffer layer (SiOx(Mo))2 in which the quantity of Si-O bonds was dominated by relatively good passivation. The thickness of (SiOx(Mo))1 and the thickness of (SiOx(Mo))2 were about 2.0 nm and 1.5 nm, respectively. The simulation results revealed that the quasi p -type layer behaved as a semiconductor material with a wide band gap of 2.30 eV, facilitating the transport of holes for negatively charged centers. Additionally, the buffer layer with an optical band gap of 1.90 eV played a crucial role in passivation in the MoOx/ n -Si devices. Furthermore, the negative charge centers in the interfacial layer had dual functions in both the field passivation and the tunneling processes. Combined with the experimental results, our model clarifies the interfacial physics and the mechanism of carrier transport for an MSHJ solar cell and provides an effective way to the high efficiency of MSHJ solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of introducing a high work-function layer to improve the implied voltage in asymmetric silicon-based heterojunction photovoltaic devices, molybdenum oxide (MoOx, 0 < x < 3) is applied to the device. However, besides the role of extracting holes on one side, another singularity behavior presented itself in the nonequilibrium state, i.e. a worsened photovoltaic peformance (an 'S-shape') of current density versus voltage (J–V) was revealed with an inappropriate chemical state of the MoOx film. The source of the 'S-shaped' behavior of an MoOx/a-Si: H(i)/n-Si heterojunction device was co-analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with depth profiling, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, current density-voltage representation, a minority carrier lifetime survey and automat for simulation of heterostructures software simulation. It was found that an amorphous SiOx interlayer was spontaneously formed during the deposition of MoOx film onto a-Si: H(i)/n-Si substrate, blocking the transport of holes. The decrease in the work-function of the MoOx layer is attributed to an oxidation reaction at the MoOx/a-Si: H(i) boundary zone, which results in the decline of hole selectivity. A rising O/Si ratio in the SiOx interlayer induces an augmentation of valence band offsets, which could be the best interpretation of the 'S-shaped' response, because of a barrier that hinders the thermionic emission of holes. Meanwhile, the thicker (>4 nm) SiOx layer leads to a lower tunneling probability for holes. The characteristic analysis of the MoOx/a-Si: H(i)/n-Si heterojunction device deepens the understanding of the hole transport mechanism of the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using ab initio density function theory total energy calculations, we have investigated the mechanism of Fe segregation into Si Σ5(310) grain boundary (GB). We find that the segregation is site selective at the GB-Fe will only segregate to specific sites. We further find that the choice of the segregation site is determined by the segregation-induced stress and effective crystal-field-induce splitting of Fe d orbital at that site. Our results suggest that the revealed mechanism of Fe segregation into the GB should be general for other 3d transition metals with partially filled 3d orbits and for other grain boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To explore the retinoic acid receptor-β (RAR-β) expression in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) tissues and its prognosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: SP assay was used to detect the RAR-β expression in 100 cases of surgically resected LSCC tissues and 20 cases of peritumoral normal lung tissues, and prognosis follow-up was conducted. RESULTS: The overall positive expression rate of RAR-β was 54.00%, which was not correlated with age, gender, phase and pathological type (p>0.05). Stratified analysis showed that the prognosis of patients with positive IRAR-β expression in phase I was significantly better than that of those with negative IRAR-β expression, in which the median survival times were 31 and 22 months respectively (p=0.022). In contrast, the prognosis of patients with negative RAR-β expression was better than that of those with positive RAR-β expression in phase II and III A. The median survival times were 23 and 16 months respectively in phase II p = 0.008, and 19 and 7 months respectively in phase III A (p=0.019). CONCLUSIONS: RAR-β is expressed in LSCC tumor tissues. RAR-β expression, which is not significantly correlated with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients, affects the postoperative survival of LSCC patients in phase I and II-III A dually. RAR-β expression state is one of the independent factors for the prognosis of LSCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carriers' behavior in neutral region (NTR) and space charged region (SCR) of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film based solar cells has been investigated by temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL-T), electroluminescence (EL-T) and current-voltage (IV-T) from 10 to 300 K. PL-T spectra show that three kinds of defects, namely VSe, InCu and (InCu+VCu), are localized within the band gap of NTR and SCR of CIGS layer, corresponding to the energy levels of EC-0.08, EC-0.20 and EC-0.25 eV, respECtively. The InCu and (InCu+VCu) deep level defects are non-radiative recombination centers at room temperature. The IV-T and EL-T analysis reveals that the injection modes of electrons from ZnO conduction band into Cu(In,Ga)Se2 layer are tunneling, thermally-excited tunneling and thermionic emission under 10-40, 60-160, and 180-300 K, respectively. At 10-160 K, the electrons tunnel into (InCu+VCu) and Vse defect levels in band gap of SCR and the drifting is involved in the emission bands at 0.96 and 1.07 eV, which is the direct evidence for a tunneling assisted recombination. At 180-300 K, the electrons are directly injected into the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 conduction band, and the emission of 1.13 eV are ascribed to the transitions from the conduction band to the valence band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone pollution has become one of the top environmental concerns in eastern China. Quantifying temporal trend of surface ozone concentrations is very meaningful to assess the impacts of the anthropogenic precursor reductions and the effects of emission control strategies. The level of surface ozone is impacted by both emissions of precursors and meteorological conditions. In order to examine the variation trend of ozone from 2003 to 2015 in Shangdianzi regional atmosphere background station, the modified KZ filter method was performed in this study to remove the influence of meteorological fluctuations on ozone concentrations. Results reveal that the short-term component, seasonal component and long-term component of ozone account for 36.4, 57.6 and 2.2% of the total variance, respectively. The long-term trend shows that the surface daily maximum 8-h O3 has undergone a significant increase during 2003-2015, with a rate of 1.1 ppb yr-1. We find that the increase was completely resulted from the change of the emissions when the influence of the meteorological factors was elim inated. Furthermore, the variation of NO2 indicated that VOCs seemed to play more important role in the increase trend of the surface ozone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]