| 1. |
- Beal, Jacob, et al.
(author)
-
Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density
- 2020
-
In: Communications Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2399-3642. ; 3:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)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.
|
|
| 2. |
- Cheng, Ming, et al.
(author)
-
Efficient Perovskite Solar Cells Based on a Solution Processable Nickel(II) Phthalocyanine and Vanadium Oxide Integrated Hole Transport Layer
- 2017
-
In: Advanced Energy Materials. - : Wiley-VCH Verlagsgesellschaft. - 1614-6832 .- 1614-6840. ; 7:14
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An organic-inorganic integrated hole transport layer (HTL) composed of the solution-processable nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc) abbreviated NiPc-(OBu)(8) and vanadium(V) oxide (V2O5) is successfully incorporated into structured mesoporous perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The optimized PSCs show the highest stabilized power conversion efficiency of up to 16.8% and good stability under dark ambient conditions. These results highlight the potential application of organic-inorganic integrated HTLs in PSCs.
|
|
| 3. |
- Cai, Jing, et al.
(author)
-
Elucidating the mechanisms of atmospheric new particle formation in the highly polluted Po Valley, Italy
- 2024
-
In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 24:4, s. 2423-2441
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- New particle formation (NPF) is a major source of aerosol particles and cloud condensation nuclei in the troposphere, playing an important role in both air quality and climate. Frequent NPF events have been observed in heavily polluted urban environments, contributing to the aerosol number concentration by a significant amount. The Po Valley region in northern Italy has been characterized as a hotspot for high aerosol loadings and frequent NPF events in southern Europe. However, the mechanisms of NPF and growth in this region are not completely understood. In this study, we conducted a continuous 2-month measurement campaign with state-of-the-art instruments to elucidate the NPF and growth mechanisms in northern Italy. Our results demonstrate that frequent NPF events (66% of all days during the measurement campaign) are primarily driven by abundant sulfuric acid (8.5×106cm-3) and basic molecules in this area. In contrast, oxygenated organic molecules from the atmospheric oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) appear to play a minor role in the initial cluster formation but contribute significantly to the consecutive growth process. Regarding alkaline molecules, amines are insufficient to stabilize all sulfuric acid clusters in the Po Valley. Ion cluster measurements and kinetic models suggest that ammonia (10ppb) must therefore also play a role in the nucleation process. Generally, the high formation rates of sub-2nm particles (87cm-3s-1) and nucleation-mode growth rates (5.1nmh-1) as well as the relatively low condensational sink (8.9×10-3s-1) will result in a high survival probability for newly formed particles, making NPF crucial for the springtime aerosol number budget. Our results also indicate that reducing key pollutants, such as SO2, amine and NH3, could help to substantially decrease the particle number concentrations in the Po Valley region.
|
|
| 4. |
- Cao, Yuanyuan, et al.
(author)
-
Improving the surveillance and response system to achieve and maintain malaria elimination : a retrospective analysis in Jiangsu Province, China
- 2022
-
In: INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF POVERTY. - : Springer Nature. - 2095-5162 .- 2049-9957. ; 11:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Following initiation of China's National Malaria Elimination Action Plan (NMEAP) in 2010, the '1-3-7' approach was developed and rolled out in China to facilitate the malaria elimination programme and accelerate malaria elimination. This study aims to summarize and condense these experiences through a retrospective analysis in Jiangsu Province, which could be adapted and applied in other malaria elimination settings worldwide.Methods: A retrospective analysis of imported malaria cases into China identified through an improved surveillance and response system in Jiangsu Province was carried out for the period of 2001-2020. To improve the malaria surveillance and response system, Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention from the prefectures and counties in Jiangsu province conducted population-level health education to improve healthcare seeking behavior, strengthened capacity of health facilities to improve performance of malaria diagnosis and treatment, and raised the capacity of public health providers to improve implementation of the '1-3-7' approach. Categorical variables were carried out by Chi square tests with Fisher's exact correction.Results: From 2001 to 2020, a total of 9,879 malaria cases were reported in Jiangsu Province. Since 2012, no indigenous malaria cases have been reported in Jiangsu Province. However, in recent years, there has been a substantial increase of imported falciparum malaria cases. Between 2012 and 2020, an estimated 61.57 million individuals have benefited from population-level health education in Jiangsu Province. For healthcare-seeking services among the 2,423 imported malaria cases, 687 (28.4%) and 1,104 (45.6%) cases visited hospitals on the first day and the second day from symptom onset, respectively. A total of 1,502 (61.9%) cases were diagnosed on the first day at medical facilities. Jiangsu Province achieved 100%, 99.4% and 98.3% completion rate in terms of case detection and notification (within one day), case investigation (within three days) and foci response and disposition (within seven days), respectively. The improved surveillance and response system in Jiangsu Province plays an important role in preventing the re-introduction of malaria and maintaining the malaria-free status.Conclusions: Jiangsu Province has maintained its malaria-free status since 2012. The continuous improvement of a surveillance and response system plays an important role in the early detection and rapid response of potential malaria-related outbreaks in Jiangsu, China, and has important lessons for other malaria eliminating settings. Remaining vigilant in the detection of imported malaria cases and maintaining an active surveillance and response system is critical to sustain the success of malaria elimination.
|
|
| 5. |
- Chen, Min, et al.
(author)
-
Highly stable and efficient all-inorganic lead-free perovskite solar cells with native-oxide passivation
- 2019
-
In: Nature Communications. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2041-1723. ; 10
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There has been an urgent need to eliminate toxic lead from the prevailing halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs), but the current lead-free PSCs are still plagued with the critical issues of low efficiency and poor stability. This is primarily due to their inadequate photovoltaic properties and chemical stability. Herein we demonstrate the use of the lead-free, all-inorganic cesium tin-germanium triiodide (CsSn(0.5)Ge(0.5)l(3)) solid-solution perovskite as the light absorber in PSCs, delivering promising efficiency of up to 7.11%. More importantly, these PSCs show very high stability, with less than 10% decay in efficiency after 500 h of continuous operation in N-2 atmosphere under one-sun illumination. The key to this striking performance of these PSCs is the formation of a full-coverage, stable native-oxide layer, which fully encapsulates and passivates the perovskite surfaces. The native-oxide passivation approach reported here represents an alternate avenue for boosting the efficiency and stability of lead-free PSCs.
|
|
| 6. |
- Cheng, Ming, et al.
(author)
-
A Perylenediimide Tetramer-Based 3D Electron Transport Material for Efficient Planar Perovskite Solar Cell
- 2017
-
In: Solar RRL. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 2367-198X. ; 1:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A perylenediimide (PDI) tetramer-based three dimensional (3D) molecular material, termed SFX-PDI4, has been designed, synthesized, and characterized. The low-lying HOMO and LUMO energy levels, high electron mobility and good film-formation property make it a promising electron transport material (ETM) in inverted planar perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The device exhibits a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.3% with negligible hysteresis, which can rival that of device based on PC61BM. These results demonstrate that three dimensional PDI-based molecular materials could serve as high performance ETMs in PSCs.
|
|
| 7. |
- Cheng, Peirui, et al.
(author)
-
Highly Efficient Ruddlesden–Popper Halide Perovskite PA2MA4Pb5I16 Solar Cells
- 2018
-
In: ACS Energy Letters. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2380-8195. ; 3:8, s. 1975-1982
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Two-dimensional (2D) Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) organic-inorganic perovskites have emerged as promising candidates for solar cells with technologically relevant stability. Herein, a new RP perovskite, the fifth member («n» = 5) of the (CH3(CH2)2NH3)2(CH3NH3)n-1PbnI3n+1 family (abbreviated as PA2MA4Pb5I16), was synthesized and systematically investigated in terms of photovoltaic application. The obtained pure PA2MA4Pb5I16 crystal exhibits a direct band gap of Eg = 1.85 eV. Systematic analysis on the solid film highlights the key role of the precursor-solvent interaction in the quantum well orientation, phase purity, grain size, surface quality, and optoelectronic properties, which can be well-tuned with addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) into the N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) precursor solution. These findings present opportunities for designing a high-quality RP film with well-controlled quantum well orientation, micrometer-sized grains, and optoelectronic properties. As a result, we achieved power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 10.41%.
|
|
| 8. |
- Gemmell, Neil J., et al.
(author)
-
The tuatara genome reveals ancient features of amniote evolution
- 2020
-
In: Nature. - : Springer Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 584:7821, s. 403-409
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)—the only living member of the reptilian order Rhynchocephalia (Sphenodontia), once widespread across Gondwana1,2—is an iconic species that is endemic to New Zealand2,3. A key link to the now-extinct stem reptiles (from which dinosaurs, modern reptiles, birds and mammals evolved), the tuatara provides key insights into the ancestral amniotes2,4. Here we analyse the genome of the tuatara, which—at approximately 5 Gb—is among the largest of the vertebrate genomes yet assembled. Our analyses of this genome, along with comparisons with other vertebrate genomes, reinforce the uniqueness of the tuatara. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that the tuatara lineage diverged from that of snakes and lizards around 250 million years ago. This lineage also shows moderate rates of molecular evolution, with instances of punctuated evolution. Our genome sequence analysis identifies expansions of proteins, non-protein-coding RNA families and repeat elements, the latter of which show an amalgam of reptilian and mammalian features. The sequencing of the tuatara genome provides a valuable resource for deep comparative analyses of tetrapods, as well as for tuatara biology and conservation. Our study also provides important insights into both the technical challenges and the cultural obligations that are associated with genome sequencing.
|
|
| 9. |
- Karawita, Anjana C., et al.
(author)
-
The swan genome and transcriptome, it is not all black and white
- 2023
-
In: Genome Biology. - : BioMed Central (BMC). - 1465-6906 .- 1474-760X. ; 24:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundThe Australian black swan (Cygnus atratus) is an iconic species with contrasting plumage to that of the closely related northern hemisphere white swans. The relative geographic isolation of the black swan may have resulted in a limited immune repertoire and increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, notably infectious diseases from which Australia has been largely shielded. Unlike mallard ducks and the mute swan (Cygnus olor), the black swan is extremely sensitive to highly pathogenic avian influenza. Understanding this susceptibility has been impaired by the absence of any available swan genome and transcriptome information.ResultsHere, we generate the first chromosome-length black and mute swan genomes annotated with transcriptome data, all using long-read based pipelines generated for vertebrate species. We use these genomes and transcriptomes to show that unlike other wild waterfowl, black swans lack an expanded immune gene repertoire, lack a key viral pattern-recognition receptor in endothelial cells and mount a poorly controlled inflammatory response to highly pathogenic avian influenza. We also implicate genetic differences in SLC45A2 gene in the iconic plumage of the black swan.ConclusionTogether, these data suggest that the immune system of the black swan is such that should any avian viral infection become established in its native habitat, the black swan would be in a significant peril.
|
|
| 10. |
- Langan, Laura, et al.
(author)
-
Empirically supported out-of-the-box strategies for science communication by environmental scientists
- 2019
-
In: Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management. - Hoboken : Wiley-Blackwell. - 1551-3777 .- 1551-3793. ; 15:4, s. 499-504
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Scientists are expected to communicate their research to a wide audience, while often lacking appreciable training. Environmental science poses many value-laden and ethical questions. This necessitates the identification and use of specific strategies or guidelines, which encourage 2-way communication and enable trust in both the experts and the scientific results. The objective of this paper is to give environmental scientists tools for effective science communication based on sound scientific evidence that does not require further specialization in communication studies. Using common scientific search engines in Europe, scientific communication literature that met specific parameters was identified. The summarized data contextualize the importance of science communication in environmental sciences but also highlight the need of scientists for communication experts to aid in establishing objectives for particularly complex topics and audiences.
|
|
| 11. |
- Lensink, Marc F., et al.
(author)
-
Impact of AlphaFold on structure prediction of protein complexes: The CASP15-CAPRI experiment
- 2023
-
In: Proteins. - : WILEY. - 0887-3585 .- 1097-0134.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the results for CAPRI Round 54, the 5th joint CASP-CAPRI protein assembly prediction challenge. The Round offered 37 targets, including 14 homodimers, 3 homo-trimers, 13 heterodimers including 3 antibody-antigen complexes, and 7 large assemblies. On average similar to 70 CASP and CAPRI predictor groups, including more than 20 automatics servers, submitted models for each target. A total of 21 941 models submitted by these groups and by 15 CAPRI scorer groups were evaluated using the CAPRI model quality measures and the DockQ score consolidating these measures. The prediction performance was quantified by a weighted score based on the number of models of acceptable quality or higher submitted by each group among their five best models. Results show substantial progress achieved across a significant fraction of the 60+ participating groups. High-quality models were produced for about 40% of the targets compared to 8% two years earlier. This remarkable improvement is due to the wide use of the AlphaFold2 and AlphaFold2-Multimer software and the confidence metrics they provide. Notably, expanded sampling of candidate solutions by manipulating these deep learning inference engines, enriching multiple sequence alignments, or integration of advanced modeling tools, enabled top performing groups to exceed the performance of a standard AlphaFold2-Multimer version used as a yard stick. This notwithstanding, performance remained poor for complexes with antibodies and nanobodies, where evolutionary relationships between the binding partners are lacking, and for complexes featuring conformational flexibility, clearly indicating that the prediction of protein complexes remains a challenging problem.
|
|
| 12. |
- Li, Linjie, et al.
(author)
-
Gas-to-Particle Partitioning of Products from Ozonolysis of Δ3-Carene and the Effect of Temperature and Relative Humidity
- 2024
-
In: JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A. - 1089-5639 .- 1520-5215. ; 128:5, s. 918-928
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Formation of oxidized products from Delta(3)-carene (C10H16) ozonolysis and their gas-to-particle partitioning at three temperatures (0, 10, and 20 degrees C) under dry conditions (<2% RH) and also at 10 degrees C under humid (78% RH) conditions were studied using a time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (ToF-CIMS) combined with a filter inlet for gases and aerosols (FIGAERO). The Delta(3)-carene ozonolysis products detected by the FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS were dominated by semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs). The main effect of increasing temperature or RH on the product distribution was an increase in fragmentation of monomer compounds (from C-10 to C-7 compounds), potentially via alkoxy scission losing a C-3 group. The equilibrium partitioning coefficient estimated according to equilibrium partitioning theory shows that the measured SVOC products distribute more into the SOA phase as the temperature decreases from 20 to 10 and 0 degrees C and for most products as the RH increases from <2 to 78%. The temperature dependency of the saturation vapor pressure (above an assumed liquid state), derived from the partitioning method, also allows for a direct way to obtain enthalpy of vaporization for the detected species without accessibility of authentic standards of the pure substances. This method can provide physical properties, beneficial for, e.g., atmospheric modeling, of complex multifunctional oxidation products.
|
|
| 13. |
- Li, Yuanyuan, et al.
(author)
-
Optically Transparent Wood Substrate for Perovskite Solar Cells
- 2019
-
In: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2168-0485. ; 7:6, s. 6061-6067
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Transparent wood is a candidate for use as an energy-saving building material due to its low density (ca. 1.2 g/cm(3)), high optical transmittance (over 85% at 1 mm thickness), low thermal conductivity (0.23 W m(-1) K-1), and good load-bearing performance with tough failure behavior (no shattering). High optical transmittance also makes transparent wood a candidate for optoelectronic devices. In this work, for the first time, perovskite solar cells processed at low temperature (<150 degrees C) were successfully assembled directly on transparent wood substrates. A power conversion efficiency up to 16.8% was obtained. The technologies demonstrated may pave the way for integration of solar cells with light transmitting wood building structures for energy-saving purposes.
|
|
| 14. |
- Li, Zheng, et al.
(author)
-
Inkjet Printed Disposable High-Rate On-Paper Microsupercapacitors
- 2022
-
In: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 32:1, s. 2108773-
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- On-paper microsupercapacitors (MSCs) are a key energy storage component for disposable electronics that are anticipated to essentially address the increasing global concern of electronic waste. However, nearly none of the present on-paper MSCs combine eco-friendliness with high electrochemical performance (especially the rate capacity). In this work, highly reliable conductive inks based on the ternary composite of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), graphene quantum dots and graphene are developed for scalable inkjet printing of compact (footprint area ≈ 20 mm2) disposable MSCs on commercial paper substrates. Without any post treatment, the printed patterns attain a sheet resistance as low as 4 Ω ▫−1. The metal-free all-solid-state MSCs exhibit a maximum areal capacitance > 2 mF cm−2 at a high scan rate of 1000 mV s−1, long cycle life (>95% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles), excellent flexibility, and long service time. Remarkably, the “totally metal-free” MSC arrays are fully inkjet printed on paper substrates and also exhibit high rate performance. The life cycle assessment indicates that these printed devices have much lower eco-toxicity and global warming potential than other on-paper MSCs.
|
|
| 15. |
- Wang, Linqin, et al.
(author)
-
Design and synthesis of dopant-free organic hole-transport materials for perovskite solar cells
- 2018
-
In: Chemical Communications. - : ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY. - 1359-7345 .- 1364-548X. ; 54:69, s. 9571-9574
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Two novel dopant-free hole-transport materials (HTMs) with spiro[dibenzo[c,h]xanthene-7,9-fluorene] (SDBXF) skeletons were prepared via facile synthesis routes. A power conversion efficiency of 15.9% in perovskite solar cells is attained by using one HTM without dopants, which is much higher than undoped Spiro-OMeTAD-based devices (10.8%). The crystal structures of both new HTMs were systematically investigated to reveal the reasons behind such differences in performance and to indicate the design principles of more advanced HTMs.
|
|
