Chemically Welding Silver Nanowires toward Transferable and Flexible Transparent Electrodes in Heaters and Double-Sided Perovskite Solar Cells.

Silver nanowires (AgNWs) are important materials for flexible transparent electrodes (FTEs). However, the loose stacking of nanowire junctions greatly affects the electric conductivity across adjacent nanowires. Soldering can effectively reduce the wire-wire contact resistance of AgNWs by epitaxially depositing nanosolders at the junctions, but the process normally needs to be performed with high energy consumption. In this work, we proposed a simple room-temperature method to achieve precise welding of junctions by adjusting the wettability of the soldered precursor solution on the surfaces of AgNWs. The nanoscale welding at nanowire cross junctions forms efficient conductive networks. Furthermore, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was used to improve the stability of FTEs by wrapping the rGO around the AgNW surface. The obtained FTE shows a figure-of-merit (FoM) of up to 439.3 (6.5 Ω/sq at a transmittance of 88%) and has significant bending stability and environmental and acidic stability. A flexible transparent heater was successfully constructed, which could reach up to 160 °C within a short response time (43 s) and exhibit excellent switching stability. When laminating this FTE onto half perovskite solar cells as the top electrodes, the obtained double-side devices achieved power conversion efficiencies as high as 16.15% and 13.91% from each side, pointing out a convenient method for fabricating double-sided photovoltaic devices.

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)-assisted surgery for traumatic bronchial rupture: a report of three cases.

Background: Traumatic tracheal rupture is a severe closed chest injury that often causes major respiratory and circulatory disturbances requiring emergency surgery. We have found that veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) employs lung-protective ventilation strategies to facilitate lung rest, aiming to minimize the risk of ventilator-induced lung injury, while ensuring adequate oxygenation. Case Description: We presented 3 critically ill patients who presented with traumatic bronchial rupture between 2019 and 2021, and underwent emergency thoracic surgery with the help of VV-ECMO. The ECMO support time, the operative time, the duration of postoperative hospital stay, and the postoperative mechanical ventilation time were collected in this study. All patients were successfully treated and discharged home. The duration of surgery ranged from 135 to 180 min, the duration of ECMO use ranged from 98 to 123 h, the duration of postoperative ventilator use ranged from 5 to 8 days, and the duration of postoperative hospital stay ranged from 14 to 30 days. All 3 patients had good postoperative pulmonary re-expansion, with no residual tracheal or bronchial stenosis, and good physical activity following the surgery. Conclusions: We reported successful use of VV-ECMO in critically ill patients with traumatic bronchial rupture presenting in acute respiratory and circulatory failure. Performing emergency surgery with ECMO-assisted support can provide more time to stabilize the patient and ensure the safety of the procedure. However, considering the small sample size of this study, larger cohorts with long-term follow-up data are needed to further evaluate its application.

Strain Relaxation on Perovskite Surface via Light-Enhanced Ionic Homogeneity.

The efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can be either deteriorated or enhanced by strain at interfaces, which is sensitive to various external conditions, particularly light illumination. Here we investigated the vertical strain distribution in perovskite films synthesized under light illumination with various wavelengths. The films were formed by reacting formamidinium iodide (FAI)/methylammonium chloride (MACl) vapor with vapor-deposited PbI2 (CsBr) films. Strain in the films was evaluated with incident-angle-dependent grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, which showed out-of-plane compressive and in-plane tensile strains, particularly on the surface. Short-wavelength light relaxed the strain on the perovskite surface via promotion of ionic diffusion, including FA, MA, Cs, and I, to reach vertical ionic homogeneity. With the charge trap concentration being reduced, both the efficiency and stability were greatly improved. This finding provides deep insight into the effect of light on strain in PSCs.

Surface-Orientation Elimination of Vapor-Deposited PbI2 Flakes for Efficient Perovskite Synthesis on Curved Solar Cells.

Vapor deposition of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has attracted considerable interest for its dry processing characteristics. However, a two-step sequential vapor deposition method suffers from ineffective conversion of PbI2 to perovskite with reasons still unclear. In this report, we carefully investigated the crystallization orientation of PbI2 films deposited by physical vapor deposition via synchrotron grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) and observed an asymmetric scattering pattern with respect to the qz-axis. The observed oriented morphology and texture hinder the diffusion of MAI molecules in the PbI2 films synthesized by vapor deposition, resulting in over 15% PbI2 remaining at the buried interface after reaction with MAI vapor. As a result, the MAPbI3 synthesized in this way was also highly oriented, especially in the surface layers. Surface fumigation (SF) step was introduced to decrease the orientational anisotropy of PbI2, which successfully breaks the diffusion barriers of MAI molecules by forming a complex layer on the PbI2 surface with polar solvent vapors, like dimethyl sulfoxide or 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone. We infer that the SF treatment changes the vapor-solid reaction mechanism from reaction-crystallization to dissolution-recrystallization, which largely promotes the conversion of PbI2 to perovskite. Defects were reduced in perovskite synthesized in this way, and a p-i-n device with 19.56% efficiency was fabricated, which is among the highest efficiencies reported for sequential-vapor-deposited PSCs. Notably, this method enables the fabrication of conformal perovskite layers on uneven substrates. An exemplary PSC showing efficiency of 8.93% was fabricated on a precurved substrate. We believe that the method is applicable to the fabrication of tandem or curved PSCs that are compatible with wearable or building/autocar-integrated photovoltaics in the future.

Identifying Lung Cancer Patients Suitable for Segmentectomy: A Brief Review.

Background: In 1995, a clinical randomized controlled study (RCT) conducted by the Lung Cancer Study Group (LCSG) pointed out that the lobectomy was the gold standard for treating early lung cancer. However, with the development of technology, the results of several retrospective studies have shown that the efficacy of pulmonary segmentectomy is equivalent to that of lobectomy. Currently, it is still controversial whether segmental resection or lobectomy should be performed for early lung cancer. Thus, we aim to summarize the indications of segmentectomy. Methods: To conduct the review, previous researches involving indications of segmentectomy were collected from the literature using Pubmed. These articles were published and accepted in English in the medical literature from 2013 to 2020. We have focused on segmentectomy and its indications. Results: A total of 176 articles were retrieved from the Pubmed database, of which 31 articles included indications for segmentectomy. We summarized the relevant content, and the potential and prospect of segmentectomy for the treatment of lung cancer were emphasized. Conclusions: These findings have a number of important implications for future practice. Pulmonary segmentectomy is a very vital surgical procedure for select patients with lung cancer, which provides a novel approach for the treatment of lung cancer and the survival of lung cancer patients.

The role of SOCS3 in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus in rat model of inflammatory pain.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory molecular signals are modulated by a variety of intracellular transduction pathways, the activation of which may induce and amplify the spread of inflammatory response. Suppresser of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is an established negative feedback regulation transcription factor associated with tumor, diabetes mellitus, inflammation and anaphylaxis. Herein, we investigated whether SOCS3 in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) can attenuate pro-inflammatory responses, and thereby relieve the inflammatory pain. METHODS: Adeno-associated virus (AAV) overexpressing SOCS3 was pre-injected into the PVN. Three weeks later, rat model of chronic inflammatory pain was established via subcutaneous injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the plantar center of hind paws. The therapeutic effect of SOCS3 was tested by the measurement of thermal and mechanical allodynia. In mechanistic study, the protein level of SOCS3 was evaluated by Western blotting, and the expression of c-fos and Iba-1 were assessed by immunofluorescent staining. RESULTS: Inflammatory pain was associated with upregulated interleukin 6 (IL-6) and SOCS3 in PVN in the acute phase. Thermal hyperalgesia can be relieved by intra-PVN injection of IL-6 neutralizing antibody (NA). Meanwhile, the upregulated c-fos and microglial activation was reversed. Furthermore, SOCS3 expression in PVN was downregulated in the chronic phase. Intra-PVN injection of AAV overexpressing SOCS3 suppressed the activation of neurons and attenuated thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia. CONCLUSION: Inhibition of IL-6 signaling attenuated inflammatory hyperalgesia in the acute phase. SOCS3 overexpression in the PVN attenuated inflammatory pain in the chronic phase via suppression of neuronal activation.

New Insight on the Interface between Polythiophene and Semiconductors via Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Polythiophene is considered as an effective dry adhesive and is promising to be a conductive adhesive due to its excellent properties. Here, we used steered molecular dynamics to investigate the interfacial strength between polythiophene and various semiconductors with similar structures including silicon, silicon carbide, and diamond. Energy decomposition was done to have a detailed insight into the adhesive mechanism. Particularly, we laid stress on the entropy difference of the polythiophene chain in different systems. Van der Waals interaction and electrostatic interaction both positively contributed to the adhesion between polythiophene and semiconductors, while the entropy change of polythiophene, including vibrational entropy change and conformational entropy change, weakened the adhesion to some extent. Our results indicated that the combined effect of these three factors made the adhesion between polythiophene and silicon carbide the strongest among the systems we studied. Additionally, it was found that such adhesion was scarcely influenced by temperature. This simple polythiophene-semiconductor interfacial study can help optimize the choice of the semiconductor when applying the polythiophene adhesive.