| 1. |
- Tang, Ting-Ting, et al.
(författare)
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Impaired thymic export and apoptosis contribute to regulatory T-cell defects in patients with chronic heart failure.
- 2011
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203 .- 1932-6203. ; 6:9, s. e24272-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Animal studies suggest that regulatory T (T(reg)) cells play a beneficial role in ventricular remodeling and our previous data have demonstrated defects of T(reg) cells in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). However, the mechanisms behind T(reg-)cell defects remained unknown. We here sought to elucidate the mechanism of T(reg-)cell defects in CHF patients.
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| 2. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(författare)
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Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
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Ingår i: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data.
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| 3. |
- Klionsky, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy
- 2012
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Ingår i: Autophagy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1554-8635 .- 1554-8627. ; 8:4, s. 445-544
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Han, Xin-Bao, et al.
(författare)
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Ultrasmall Abundant Metal-Based Clusters as Oxygen-Evolving Catalysts
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 141:1, s. 232-239
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The oxygen evolution reaction is a crucial step in water electrolysis to develop clean and renewable energy. Although noble metal-based catalysts have demonstrated high activity for the oxygen evolution reaction, their application is limited by their high cost and low availability. Here we report the use of a molecule-to-cluster strategy for preparing ultrasmall trimetallic clusters by using the polyoxometalate molecule as a precursor. Ultrafine (0.8 nm) transition-metal clusters with controllable chemical composition are obtained. The transition-metal clusters enable highly efficient oxygen evolution through water electrolysis in alkaline media, manifested by an overpotential of 192 mV at 10 mA cm–2, a low Tafel slope of 36 mV dec–1, and long-term stability for 30 h of electrolysis. We note, however, that besides the excellent performance as an oxygen evolution catalyst, our molecule-to-cluster strategy provides a means to achieve well-defined transition-metal clusters in the subnanometer regime, which potentially can have an impact on several other applications.
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| 7. |
- Huang, Xing, et al.
(författare)
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Semiconducting Conjugated Coordination Polymer with High Charge Mobility Enabled by "4+2" Phenyl Ligands
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of the American Chemical Society. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 0002-7863 .- 1520-5126. ; 145:4, s. 2430-2438
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Electrically conductive coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks are attractive emerging electroactive materials for (opto-)electronics. However, developing semiconducting coordination polymers with high charge carrier mobility for devices remains a major challenge, urgently requiring the rational design of ligands and topological networks with desired electronic structures. Herein, we demonstrate a strategy for synthesizing high-mobility semiconducting conjugated coordination polymers (c-CPs) utilizing novel conjugated ligands with D2h symmetry, namely, "4 + 2" phenyl ligands. Compared with the conventional phenyl ligands with C6h symmetry, the reduced symmetry of the "4 + 2" ligands leads to anisotropic coordination in the formation of c-CPs. Consequently, we successfully achieve a single-crystalline three-dimensional (3D) c-CP Cu4DHTTB (DHTTB = 2,5-dihydroxy-1,3,4,6-tetrathiolbenzene), containing orthogonal ribbon-like pi-d conjugated chains rather than 2D conjugated layers. DFT calculation suggests that the resulting Cu4DHTTB exhibits a small band gap (similar to 0.2 eV), strongly dispersive energy bands near the Fermi level with a low electron-hole reduced effective mass (similar to 0.2m0*). Furthermore, the four-probe method reveals a semiconducting behavior with a decent conductivity of 0.2 S/cm. Thermopower measurement suggests that it is a p-type semiconductor. Ultrafast terahertz photoconductivity measurements confirm Cu4DHTTB's semiconducting nature and demonstrate the Drude-type transport with high charge carrier mobilities up to 88 +/- 15 cm2 V-1 s-1, outperforming the conductive 3D coordination polymers reported till date. This molecular design strategy for constructing high-mobility semiconducting c-CPs lays the foundation for achieving high-performance c-CP-based (opto-)electronics.
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| 8. |
- Liao, Chenyue, et al.
(författare)
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Numerical and experimental analysis of chloride and iodide transports in concrete under natural diffusion
- 2023
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Ingår i: Construction and Building Materials. - 0950-0618. ; 392
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates the natural diffusion laws of chloride ions and iodide ions in concrete and proposes their correlations during the process of diffusion. By measuring the free ion concentration at different exposure times and diffusion depths, time-varying laws related to the ion diffusion coefficient D and surface ion concentration Cs were proposed. The linear proportional relationship between two kinds of ions is explored and fills the relevant research gaps. Natural diffusion models of ions are established via the finite element software COMSOL and the adjustment parameters K and λ are innovatively proposed. Thus, this enables the effective conversion of the ion resistance permeability coefficients measured by the RCM and RIM methods, especially for the concrete containing chloride. The results of numerical calculation and experimental measurement have a strong correlation. Furthermore, a two-dimensional concrete model with different aggregates is used to simulate the ion diffusion characteristics. It is confirmed that the increase in aggregate volume ratio and tortuosity inhibited ion diffusion, and the ion concentration in the local area was greatly reduced.
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| 9. |
- Liao, Guihua, et al.
(författare)
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Preparation and characterization of new fluorotellurite glasses for photonics application
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. - : Elsevier BV. - 0022-3093 .- 1873-4812. ; 355:7, s. 447-452
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Glasses based on (85 − x)TeO2–xZnF2–12PbO–3Nb2O5 (x = 0–40) system have been studied for the first time for fabricating mid-infrared optical fiber lasers. The thermal and optical properties including UV–Vis, Raman as well as FTIR spectra are reported. It is demonstrated that increasing the ZnF2 concentration to 30 mol% significantly increased the thermal stability of the glass. Adding ZnF2 also reduced the hydroxyl (OH) content of the glass resulting in lower optical absorption in the mid-infrared region, which is crucial for infrared laser applications. The glass absorption cut-off edge near 400 nm blue-shifts with increasing ZnF2 addition. Raman spectra show a depolymerization of the glass network with increasing transformation of TeO3+1 to TeO3 structures.
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| 10. |
- Liao, Xunfan, et al.
(författare)
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Regulating Favorable Morphology Evolution by a Simple Liquid-Crystalline Small Molecule Enables Organic Solar Cells with over 17% Efficiency and a Remarkable J(sc) of 26.56 mA/cm(2)
- 2021
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Ingår i: Chemistry of Materials. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0897-4756 .- 1520-5002. ; 33:1, s. 430-440
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Liquid crystal small molecules (LCSMs) are manifested as the effective additives to regulate the morphology of active layers and elevate the performance of ternary organic solar cells (TOSCs) in fullerene systems. However, the current studies for TOSCs based on efficient LCSMs are most out of the LC phase transition temperature, which is not conducive to accurately disclosure the effect of LCSMs on the morphology evolution. Besides, the inner working mechanism of LCSMs has not been investigated systematically and in-depth. Herein, a structurally simple donor-acceptor-donor type LCSM DFBT-TT6 with a low liquid crystal phase transition temperature is utilized as the third component to construct TOSCs based on a highly efficient nonfullerene system PM6:Y6. To unveil the work mechanism of LCSMs on the TOSCs performance and eliminate other interferences simultaneously, a structurally similar non-LCSM DFBT-DT6 with a low glass-transition temperature is further synthesized for a more clear comparison. Interestingly, the addition of DFBT-TT6 can delicately control the crystallinity and phase separation of PM6:Y6, rendering the optimized morphology with only 3 wt % DFBT-TT6. In contrast, the non-LCSM DFBT-DT6 shows a negligible effect on morphology regulation, indicating the unique ability of LC molecules in morphology control. The underlying working mechanism is revealed by the combined study of miscibility and the wetting coefficient of the blends, elucidating that the LCSM DFBT-TT6 has good compatibility with PM6 and Y6. Therefore, DFBT-TT6 is more prone to being located at the interface of PM6 and Y6, and it is energetically favorable for charge transfer. The aforementioned favorable morphology evolution is associated with improved crystallinity, phase separation, charge transfer, exciton dissociation, and collection efficiency, ultimately boosting the power conversion efficiency of TOSCs from 15.76% to 17.05% with a remarkable short-circuit current density of 26.56 mA/cm(2). This work not only offers deep insight into the LCSM induced morphology evolution but also puts forward an affordable strategy to achieve high-performance TOSCs.
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