Fabrication of Flexible Transparent Conductive Films via an Energy-Efficient In Situ Chemical Welding and Reinforcement Strategy.

Recently, flexible transparent conductive films composed of metal nanowires have received significant interest, particularly for flexible electronics. However, the high contact resistance among metal nanowires and the weak bonding effect between metal nanowires and substrates often result in films whose conductivity, adhesion, and flexibility fall short of the stringent requirements demanded by real-world uses. We developed a simple method to fabricate high-performance flexible transparent conductive films via successively spin-coating silver nanowires (AgNWs) and acidic silica sol onto the surface of the substrate. Under the capillary force of ethanol and the etching effect of hydrochloric acid, the adjacent AgNWs are induced to chemically weld in situ to form a stable network. The resulting composite film exhibits a sheet resistance of only 8.5 Ω/sq, marking an impressive 80% decrease compared with the pristine AgNW film. Meanwhile, the silica sol acts as a filler, improving light transmittance while further reinforcing the network structure and firmly bonding it to the substrate. Thus, the delamination of the nanowires under bending motion is effectively inhibited, and the resulting film was endowed with resistance remaining below 15 Ω/sq after 3000 bending and 200 tape peeling. The energy-efficient in situ chemical welding and reinforcement method for nanowires provides an innovative strategy for the batch preparation of flexible transparent conductive films.

[Study on the facial and body terminal hair growth in women in Guangdong by using modified Ferriman-Gallwey scoring system].

OBJECTIVE: To study growth of facial and body terminal hair of women in Guangdong province and its relationship with age, menstrual irregularities and polycystic ovary, and determine normative cut-off score of modified Ferriman and Gallwey (mFG). METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2988 women at age of 20-45 years from 16 communities of two urban and two rural regions in Guangdong province from June 2008 to July 2009. Terminal body hair growth was assessed by using the modified Ferriman and Gallwey (mFG) scoring system. The normative cut-off value of mFG were calculated by using the K-means cluster analysis (K=2). Those women were classified into following groups, including 982 women at group of ages of 20- years, 765 women at group of 26- years, 597 women at group of 31- years, 384 women at group of 36- years, 260 women at group of 41-45 years. Due to absence or errors of medical records, some cases were excluded from this study. Based on menses irregularities (MI), polycystic ovaries (PCO), there were 488 cases in MI group, 2413 cases in normal menses group, 568 cases in PCO group, and 2207 cases in non-PCO group finally. The incidences of acne, MI, acanthosis nigricans, and polycystic ovaries were also analyzed in all the hirsute groups. RESULTS: (1) among 2988 women, it was observed 149 women (5%) with mFG≥7,314 women (10.5%) with ≥5,747 women with mFG≥2. (2) Cluster analysis identified an mFG score of 5 as the cut-off value that define abnormal hirsute in the total population and all the sub-groups with/without MI or PCO; (3) Based on age classification, it was found that increased age was associated with decreased trends of the percentile and cut-off value of hirsutism. The value of hirsutism of mFG were 6 in group of 20- years, 5 in group of 26- years, 4 in groups of 31- years, 36- years and 41-45 years. (4) The prevalence of acne, menstrual irregularities and POC were 45.5% (143/314), 73.6% (231/314), 25.8% (81/314) in total population, 25.1% (671/2674), 16.1% (431/2674), 19.8% (529/2674) in normal hair women, which reached statistical difference (P<0.05). The prevalence of acne, menstrual irregularities and acanthosis nigricans were 44.4% (130/293), 23.2% (68/293), 4.1% (12/293) in those age hirsute groups, 25.3% (681/2695), 16.2% (437/2695), 1.9% (51/2695) in normal hair women, which reached statistical difference (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: (1) among women in Guangdong province, mFG scoring showed decreased trends in women with increasing age. (2) An mFG score≥5 was cut-off value in diagnosis of hirsutism. (3) The hirsute women exhibited higher incidence of acne, menses irregularity, and acanthosis nigricans than those of women with normal hair growth.

The Effect of Replacing Ni with Mn on the Microstructure and Properties of Al2O3-Forming Austenitic Stainless Steels: A Review.

Al2O3-forming austenitic steel (AFA steel) is an important candidate material for advanced reactor core components due to its excellent corrosion resistance and high temperature strength. Al is a strong ferrite-forming element. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the Ni content to stabilize austenite. Ni is expensive and highly active, and so increasing the Ni content not only increases the costs but also damages the radiation resistance. Mn is a low-cost austenitic stable element. Its substitution for Ni will not only help to improve the irradiation resistance of austenitic steel, but also reduce the cost. In order to explore the feasibility of Mn-substituted Ni-stabilized austenite in AFA steel, this paper summarized the research progress of Mn-added AFA steels, whilst the research status of traditional Mn-added austenitic steels are also referred to and compared herein. The effect of the addition of Mn on the microstructure and properties of AFA steel was analyzed. The results show that Mn can promote the precipitation of the M23C6 phase and inhibit the precipitation of the B2-NiAl phase and secondary NbC phase. With the increase in Mn content, the strength of AFA steel at room temperature and high temperature decreased slightly, the room temperature elongation increased slightly, while the high temperature elongation and creep resistance decreased obviously. In addition, for austenitic steel free of Al, the addition of Mn will destroy the oxide layer of Cr2O3, which will decrease the oxidation resistance of the steel. But the preliminary study shows that Mn has little effect on the Al2O3 oxide layer. It is worth studying the effect of Mn-substituted Ni on the oxidation resistance of AFA steel. In summary, more efforts are necessary to investigate the optimal Mn content to balance the advantages and disadvantages of introducing Mn instead of Ni.

Insertional mutagenesis in ChordinA induced by endogenous ΔTgf2 transposon leads to bifurcation of axial skeletal systems in grass goldfish.

The grass goldfish appeared early in the evolutionary history of goldfish, and shows heritable stability in the development of the caudal fin. The twin-tail phenotype is extremely rare, however, some twin-tail individuals were produced in the process of breeding for ornamental value. From mutations in the twin-tail goldfish genome, we identified two kinds of Tgf2 transposons. One type was completely sequenced Tgf2 and the other type was ΔTgf2, which had 858 bp missing. We speculate that the bifurcation of the axial skeletal system in goldfish may be caused by an endogenous ΔTgf2 insertion mutation in Chordin A, as ΔTgf2 has no transposition activity and blocks the expression of Chordin A. The twin-tail showed doubled caudal fin and accumulation of red blood cells in the tail. In addition, in situ hybridization revealed that ventral embryonic tissue markers (eve1, sizzled, and bmp4) were more widely and strongly expressed in the twin-tail than in the wild-type embryos during the gastrula stage, and bmp4 showed bifurcated expression patterns in the posterior region of the twin-tail embryos. These results provide new insights into the artificial breeding of genetically stable twin-tail grass goldfish families.

Identification of duplicated Midkine genes and their functional regulation in blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala).

Midkine (Mdk) is a heparin-binding growth factor that is involved in regulating cell growth, differentiation and migration. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of duplicated mdk genes in blunt snout bream (Megalobrama amblycephala). The mdka and -b genes encode 146 aa and 147 aa peptides, respectively, sharing a sequence identity of 64%. During embryogenesis, mdka mRNA is detectable after 12 h post-fertilization (hpf) and mdkb mRNA can be detected after 8 hpf, about 4 h prior to mdka mRNA. Whole-mount in situ hybridization demonstrated that two paralogs of mdk mRNA were detected in the brain and dorsal neural tube at 16 hpf. At 22 hpf, mdka mRNA was abundant in the brain and dorsal neural tube, whereas mdkb mRNA were transcribed in the brain and tailbud. Later, at 55 hpf, both paralogs were mainly expressed in the brain. Furthermore, both the mdk genes were highly expressed in multiple adult tissues except in the skin and a low expression of mdka in the muscle. In addition, they were differentially inhibited in the liver and intestine with exogenous recombinant human growth hormone, while their mRNA levels were up-regulated in the brain. During starvation, both the mdk genes were significantly up-regulated in the intestine, brain and liver and returned to the control levels following 6 days of refeeding. Our results suggest that duplicated mdk genes may play conserved and divergent roles in embryonic development and tissue growth regulation in blunt snout bream.

Potential Positive Effects of Pesticides Application on Sesamia inferens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Insecta).

In China, the pink stem borer (PSB) Sesamia inferens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) has become a rice pest in some rice-producing regions. The cause of this shift from secondary to major pest is unknown. The major purpose of this study was to examine the effect of five commonly used pesticides in rice fields on reproduction of PSB and on biochemical substances of rice plants. The results showed that the weight of pupae developed from 1st instar larvae treated with 2 mg/L triazophos and the number of eggs laid by emerged females from the treatment were significantly greater than those of the control, increasing by 26.2% and 47%, respectively. In addition, a nontarget insecticide, pymetrozine 100 mg/L, and a target insecticide, chlorantraniliprole 2 mg/L, stimulated reproduction of PSB. Biochemical measurement showed that foliar sprays of these pesticides resulted in significant reductions of contents of resistant substances, flavonoids and phenolic acids, in rice plants. For example, flavonoids and phenolic acids of rice plants treated with triazophos reduced by 48.5% and 22.4%, respectively, compared to the control. Therefore, we predicted that the application of some pesticides, eg triazophos and chlorantraniliprole, may be the cause of the increase in the population numbers of PSB in rice fields.