| 1. |
- 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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| 2. |
- Aguado, D. S., et al.
(författare)
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The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys : First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library
- 2019
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - : Institute of Physics Publishing (IOPP). - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 240:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July-2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA-we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020-2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data.
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| 3. |
- Kim, Yonghee, et al.
(författare)
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Integrated Microfluidic Preconcentration and Nucleic Amplification System for Detection of Influenza A Virus H1N1 in Saliva
- 2020
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Ingår i: Micromachines. - : MDPI. - 2072-666X. ; 11:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Influenza A viruses are often present in environmental and clinical samples at concentrations below the limit of detection (LOD) of molecular diagnostics. Here we report an integrated microfluidic preconcentration and nucleic amplification system (mu FPNAS) which enables both preconcentration of influenza A virus H1N1 (H1N1) and amplification of its viral RNA, thereby lowering LOD for H1N1. H1N1 virus particles were first magnetically preconcentrated using magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with an antibody specific for the virus. Their isolated RNA was amplified to cDNA through thermocycling in a trapezoidal chamber of the mu FPNAS. A detection limit as low as 100 TCID50 (50% tissue culture infective dose) in saliva can be obtained within 2 hours. These results suggest that the LOD of molecular diagnostics for virus can be lowered by systematically combining immunomagnetic separation and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in one microfluidic device.
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| 4. |
- Abafogi, Abdurhaman Teyib, et al.
(författare)
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3D-Printed Modular Microfluidic Device Enabling Preconcentrating Bacteria and Purifying Bacterial DNA in Blood for Improving the Sensitivity of Molecular Diagnostics
- 2020
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Ingår i: Sensors. - : MDPI. - 1424-8220. ; 20:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Molecular diagnostics for sepsis is still a challenge due to the presence of compounds that interfere with gene amplification and bacteria at concentrations lower than the limit of detection (LOD). Here, we report on the development of a 3D printed modular microfluidic device (3Dpm mu FD) that preconcentrates bacteria of interest in whole blood and purifies their genomic DNA (gDNA). It is composed of a W-shaped microchannel and a conical microchamber. Bacteria of interest are magnetically captured from blood in the device with antibody conjugated magnetic nanoparticles (Ab-MNPs) at 5 mL/min in the W-shaped microchannel, while purified gDNA of the preconcentrated bacteria is obtained with magnetic silica beads (MSBs) at 2 mL/min in the conical microchamber. The conical microchamber was designed to be connected to the microchannel after the capturing process using a 3D-printed rotary valve to minimize the exposure of the MSBs to interfering compounds in blood. The pretreatment process of spiked blood (2.5 mL) can be effectively completed within about 50 min. With the 3Dpm mu FD, the LOD for the target microorganism Escherichia coli O157:H7 measured by both polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with electrophoresis and quantitative PCR was 10 colony forming unit (CFU) per mL of whole blood. The results suggest that our method lowers the LOD of molecular diagnostics for pathogens in blood by providing bacterial gDNA at high purity and concentration.
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| 5. |
- Gillett, Alexander J., et al.
(författare)
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The role of charge recombination to triplet excitons in organic solar cells
- 2021
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Ingår i: Nature. - : NATURE PORTFOLIO. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 597:7878, s. 666-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) in organic solar cells has led to power conversion efficiencies as high as 18%(1). However, organic solar cells are still less efficient than inorganic solar cells, which typically have power conversion efficiencies of more than 20%(2). A key reason for this difference is that organic solar cells have low open-circuit voltages relative to their optical bandgaps(3), owing to non-radiative recombination(4). For organic solar cells to compete with inorganic solar cells in terms of efficiency, non-radiative loss pathways must be identified and suppressed. Here we show that in most organic solar cells that use NFAs, the majority of charge recombination under open-circuit conditions proceeds via the formation of non-emissive NFA triplet excitons; in the benchmark PM6:Y6 blend(5), this fraction reaches 90%, reducing the open-circuit voltage by 60 mV. We prevent recombination via this non-radiative channel by engineering substantial hybridization between the NFA triplet excitons and the spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons. Modelling suggests that the rate of back charge transfer from spin-triplet charge-transfer excitons to molecular triplet excitons may be reduced by an order of magnitude, enabling re-dissociation of the spin-triplet charge-transfer exciton. We demonstrate NFA systems in which the formation of triplet excitons is suppressed. This work thus provides a design pathway for organic solar cells with power conversion efficiencies of 20% or more. A substantial pathway for energy loss in organic solar cells may be suppressed by engineering hybridization between non-fullerene acceptor triplet excitons and spin-triplet charge transfer excitons.
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| 6. |
- Ginés, Laia, et al.
(författare)
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High Extraction Efficiency Source of Photon Pairs Based on a Quantum Dot Embedded in a Broadband Micropillar Cavity
- 2022
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 129:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The generation of photon pairs in quantum dots is in its nature deterministic. However, efficient extraction of photon pairs from the high index semiconductor material requires engineering of the photonic environment. We report on a micropillar device with 69.4(10)% efficiency that features broadband operation suitable for extraction of photon pairs. Opposing the approaches that rely solely on Purcell enhancement to realize the enhancement of the extraction efficiency, our solution exploits a suppression of the emission into the modes other than the cavity mode. Furthermore, the design of the device can be further optimized to allow for an extraction efficiency of 85%.
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| 7. |
- Kulshreshtha, Chandramouli, et al.
(författare)
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Excitation Intensity Dependent Carrier Dynamics of Chalcogen Heteroatoms in Medium-Bandgap Polymer Solar Cells
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The excitation intensity dependent carrier dynamics of blends with PC[70]BM of three new medium-band gap conjugated polymers with central chalcogen heteroatoms, PBDTfDTBX (X = O, T(Sulphur), Se) were studied. The PBDTfDTBX polymers (Poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-butyloctyl)thiophene-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b′]dithiophene-alt-4,7-bis(4-(2-ethylhexyl)-2-thienyl)-dithieno[3′,2′:3,4;2″,3″:5,6]benzo[1,2-c][1,2,5] furazan or thiadiazole or selenadiazole]) have symmetrical structures but exhibit different solar cell performances. In this study, we determined how the photogenerated charge carrrier dynamics of the PBDTfDTBX:PC[70]BM blends varies with the heteroatom by performing transient absorption measurements at various excitation intensities. It was found that the charge carrier dynamics of the PBDTfDTBX blends with X = T or Se heteroatoms are dependent on the excitation intensity whereas that of the PBDTfDTBO blend is independent of the intensity. The photogenerated charge carrier dynamics of the PBDTfDTBO:PCBM, PBDTfDTBT:PCBM, and PBDTfDTBSe:PCBM blends were all modeled globally and rates were estimated for different photophysical processes occurring on different time scales.
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| 8. |
- Lee, Jaewon
(författare)
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Using engineered broadband micropillar cavity photon pair source based on quantum dots to study two-photon interference and its dependency on temporal correlation, decoherence, and postselection
- 2024
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Entangled photon pairs play a crucial role in quantum information processing such as quantumkey distribution, linear optical quantum computation, quantum teleportation, entanglement swapping, etc. Quantum dots have gathered much attention due to their deterministic generation of the photon pairs. The emission process of the photon pair in a quantum dot relies on the cascaded spontaneous emission of a three-level system. Time correlations between emitted photons arise because of their time-ordered emissions. The time correlations lead to low purities of photonic states, resulting in deteriorated photon indistinguishability. We explore the visibility of the two-photon interference depending on the coherence times. Furthermore, we investigate the photon indistinguishability in the cascade emissions by executing the temporal post-selection from a triggered two-photon interference. Low photon collection efficiency calls for a photonic structure such as a micropillar cavity. The usual technique is to adopt the Purcell enhancement. However, this benchmark is not suitable for biexciton-exciton photon pairs because biexciton and exciton photons have different energies. We developed a new paradigm to increase the collection efficiency based on suppression of the emission into the outside of cavity mode using the low-quality factor cavity, which contradicts the conventional method relying on the Purcell enhancement.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Sun, Huiliang, et al.
(författare)
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A Narrow-Bandgap n-Type Polymer with an Acceptor-Acceptor Backbone Enabling Efficient All-Polymer Solar Cells
- 2020
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Ingår i: Advanced Materials. - : WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH. - 0935-9648 .- 1521-4095. ; 32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Narrow-bandgap polymer semiconductors are essential for advancing the development of organic solar cells. Here, a new narrow-bandgap polymer acceptor L14, featuring an acceptor-acceptor (A-A) type backbone, is synthesized by copolymerizing a dibrominated fused-ring electron acceptor (FREA) with distannylated bithiophene imide. Combining the advantages of both the FREA and the A-A polymer, L14 not only shows a narrow bandgap and high absorption coefficient, but also low-lying frontier molecular orbital (FMO) levels. Such FMO levels yield improved electron transfer character, but unexpectedly, without sacrificing open-circuit voltage (V-oc), which is attributed to a small nonradiative recombination loss (E-loss,E-nr) of 0.22 eV. Benefiting from the improved photocurrent along with the high fill factor andV(oc), an excellent efficiency of 14.3% is achieved, which is among the highest values for all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). The results demonstrate the superiority of narrow-bandgap A-A type polymers for improving all-PSC performance and pave a way toward developing high-performance polymer acceptors for all-PSCs.
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