Crystal Growth Regulation of Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskites via Self-Assembly of Semiconductor Spacers for Efficient Solar Cells.

The crystal growth and orientation of two-dimensional (2D) perovskite films significantly impact solar cell performance. Here, we incorporated robust quadrupole-quadrupole interactions to govern the crystal growth of 2D Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskites. This was achieved through the development of two unique semiconductor spacers, namely PTMA and 5FPTMA, with different dipole moments. The ((5FPTMA)0.1 (PTMA)0.9 )2 MAn-1 Pbn I3n+1 (nominal n=5, 5F/PTMA-Pb) film shows a preferred vertical orientation, reduced grain boundaries, and released residual strain compared to (PTMA)2 MAn-1 Pbn I3n+1 (nominal n=5, PTMA-Pb), resulting in a decreased exciton binding energy and reduced electron-phonon coupling coefficients. In contrast to PTMA-Pb device with an efficiency of 15.66 %, the 5F/PTMA-Pb device achieved a champion efficiency of 18.56 %, making it among the best efficiency for 2D RP perovskite solar cells employing an MA-based semiconductor spacer. This work offers significant insights into comprehending the crystal growth process of 2D RP perovskite films through the utilization of quadrupole-quadrupole interactions between semiconductor spacers.

Orbital Interactions in 2D Dion-Jacobson Perovskites Using Oligothiophene-Based Semiconductor Spacers Enable Efficient Solar Cells.

2D Dion-Jacobson (DJ) perovskites have emerged as promising photovoltaic materials, but the insulating organic spacer has hindered the efficient charge transport. Herein, we successfully synthesized a terthiophene-based semiconductor spacer, namely, 3ThDMA, for 2D DJ perovskite. An interesting finding is that the energy levels of 3ThDMA extensively overlap with the inorganic components and directly contribute to the band formation of (3ThDMA)PbI4, leading to enhanced charge transport across the organic spacer layers, whereas no such orbital interactions were found in (UDA)PbI4, a DJ perovskite based on 1,11-undecanediaminum (UDA). The devices based on (3ThDMA)MAn-1PbnI3n+1 (nominal n = 5) obtained a champion efficiency of 15.25%, which is a record efficiency for 2D DJ perovskite solar cells using long-conjugated spacers (conjugated rings ≥ 3) and a 22.60% efficiency for 3ThDMA-treated 3D PSCs. Our findings provide an important insight into understanding the orbital interactions in 2D DJ perovskite using an organic semiconductor spacer for efficient solar cells.

Selenophene-Based 2D Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Solar Cells with an Efficiency Exceeding 19.

Two-dimensional (2D) Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) perovskites have emerged as attractive candidates for high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) thanks to their superior environmental and structural stability. However, 2D RP PSCs exhibit larger exciton binding energy due to the dielectric mismatch between the organic and inorganic layers, resulting in poorer photovoltaic performance compared to their 3D analogs. Here, we developed a selenophene-based spacer, namely, 2-selenophenemethylammonium (SeMA), for stable and efficient 2D RP PSCs. The 2D perovskite film using methylammonium (MA) as the A-site cation (nominal n = 5) shows excellent film quality with large grain size and a preferred vertical orientation relative to the substrate. Furthermore, we have successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of a predeposition transport layer (PDTL) consisting of [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) in passivating surface defects of the perovskite film and inducing densification of the upper PCBM electron transport layer. This densification promotes efficient extraction and transport of electrons. The optimized PSCs based on 2D RP perovskite using MA as A-site cation (nominal n = 5) achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 17.25%, which was further boosted to 19.03% when using formamidinium (FA) as A-site cation. This represents a record PCE of 2D RP PSCs by using the selenophene-based spacer. Moreover, these 2D RP PSCs significantly improve thermal, moisture, and light stability. Our results provide significant implications for the synergistic strategy of developing selenophene-based spacers and device engineering methods for achieving highly efficient and stable 2D RP perovskite solar cells.

Dimensional Tuning of Perylene Diimide-Based Polymers for Perovskite Solar Cells with Over 24% Efficiency.

The hygroscopic dopants used in Spiro-OMeTAD hole transport material (HTM) in state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells (PSCs) inevitably induce premature degradation of the devices. Here, two multifunctional polymer interface materials based on the perylene diimides (PDI) unit are developed. It is found that quasi-two-dimensional (2D) polymer 2DP-PDI can form a denser film and exhibit better hydrophobicity than linear polymer P-PDI. Importantly, 2DP-PDI can passivate the surface defects and extract hole carriers of perovskite film more effectively, leading to much reduced nonradiative recombination loss. With polymer interface material between the perovskite and HTM layers, the optimized device using 2DP-PDI and P-PDI yields a champion PCE of 24.20% and 23.09%, respectively, along with significantly improved stability, whereas the control device shows a lower efficiency of 22.23%. These results suggest that developing multifunctional polymer interface materials can be a promising strategy to improve the efficiency and stability of PSCs.

Highly Efficient and Stable FA-Based Quasi-2D Ruddlesden-Popper Perovskite Solar Cells by the Incorporation of ß-Fluorophenylethanamine Cations.

2D Ruddlesden-Popper (2D RP) perovskite, with attractive environmental and structural stability, has shown great application in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, the relatively inferior photovoltaic efficiencies of 2D PSCs limit their further application. To address this issue, ß-​fluorophenylethanamine (ß-​FPEA) as a novel spacer cation is designed and employed to develop stable and efficient quasi-2D RP PSCs. The strong dipole moment of the ß-​FPEA enhances the interactions between the cations and [PbI6 ]4- octahedra, thus improving the charge dissociation of quasi-2D RP perovskite. Additionally, the introduction of the ß-​FPEA cation optimizes the energy level alignment, improves the crystallinity, stabilizes both the mixed phase and a-FAPbI3 phase of the quasi-2D RP perovskite film, prolongs the carrier diffusion length, increases the carrier lifetime and decreases the trap density. By incorporating the ß-​FPEA, the quasi-2D RP PSCs exhibit a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.77% (vs phenylethylammonium (PEA)-based quasi-2D RP PSCs of 12.81%) on PEDOT:PSS substrate and achieve a champion PCE of 19.11% on the PTAA substrate. It is worth noting that the unencapsulated ß-​FPEA-based quasi-2D RP PSCs exhibit considerably improved thermal and moisture stability. These findings provide an effective strategy for developing novel spacer cations for high-performance 2D RP PSCs.

Diagnosis and management of vaginal leiomyoma: a case report and literature review.

OBJECTIVES: Leiomyomas are benign mesenchymal tumors that consist of smooth muscle cells and varying amounts of fibrous stroma. Uterine leiomyomas are the most common, affecting 20% to 30% of reproductive-age women, but vaginal leiomyomas are rare. Treatments gradually diversify with increased awareness of vaginal leiomyoma, but transvaginal fibroid resection remains the commonly used scheme. CASE REPORT: Herein, we present the case of a 50-year-old asymptomatic woman who had a mass in the left anterior wall of the vagina discovered by gynecological examination and ultrasound. We used oxytocin diluent injection during surgery to create a water pad in the tissue space and then performed a transvaginal myomectomy. There was little or negligible intraoperative bleeding and no peripheral tissue injury, early or late postoperative complications, incision dehiscence, and no surgical site infection. CONCLUSIONS: Transvaginal ultrasonography is the preferred examination for vaginal leiomyomas, and transvaginal myomectomy is the classic treatment method. The formation of a water pad with oxytocin dilution can effectively reduce intraoperative bleeding and shorten surgery time.

Orbital Interactions between the Organic Semiconductor Spacer and the Inorganic Layer in Dion-Jacobson Perovskites Enable Efficient Solar Cells.

2D Dion-Jacobson (DJ) perovskites have become emerging photovoltaic materials owing to their intrinsic structure stability. However, as insulating aliphatic cations are widely used as spacers, the interactions between the spacers and inorganic layers in DJ perovskites have rarely been studied. Here, an organic semiconductor spacer with two covalently connected thiophene rings, namely bithiophene dimethylammonium (BThDMA), is successfully developed for 2D DJ perovskite solar cells (PSCs). An important finding is that there are strong orbital interactions between the conjugated organic spacer and adjacent inorganic layers, whereas no such interactions exist in DJ perovskite using an aliphatic octane-1,8-diaminium (ODA) spacer with similar length. The BThDMA spacer with multiple conjugated aromatic rings can also induce crystal growth with large grain size and preferred vertical orientation, resulting in reduced trap density and improved charge-carrier mobility. As a result, the optimized device based on (BThDMA)MAn -1 Pbn I3 n +1 (nominal n = 5) shows an excellent PCE of 18.1% with negligible hysteresis, which is a record efficiency for 2D DJ PSCs using a spacer with two or more covalently linked aromatic rings. These findings provide a novel and important insight on achieving efficient and stable 2D DJ perovskite solar cells by developing organic semiconductor spacers.

Versatile nanorobot hand biosensor for specific capture and ultrasensitive quantification of viral nanoparticles.

Accurate determination of the concentration and viability of the viral vaccine vectors is urgently needed for preventing the spread of the viral infections, but also supporting the development and assessment of recombinant virus-vectored vaccines. Herein, we describe a nanoplasmonic biosensor with nanoscale robot hand structure (Nano RHB) for the rapid, direct, and specific capture and quantification of adenovirus particles. The nanorobot allows simple operation in practical applications, such as real-time monitoring of vaccine quantity and quality, and evaluation of vaccine viability. Modification of the Nano RHB with branched gold nanostructures allow rapid and efficient assessment of human adenovirus viability, with ultrahigh detection sensitivity of only 100 copies/mL through one-step sandwich method. Nano RHB detection results were consistent with those from the gold standard median tissue culture infectious dose and real-time polymerase chain reaction assays. Additionally, the Nano RHB platform showed high detection specificity for different types of viral vectors and pseudoviruses. Altogether, these results demonstrate that the Nano RHB platform is a promising tool for efficient and ultrasensitive assessment of vaccines and gene delivery vectors.

Management of Donor and Acceptor Building Blocks in Dopant-Free Polymer Hole Transport Materials for High-Performance Perovskite Solar Cells.

The dominant hole transport material (HTM) in state-of-the-art perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is Spiro-OMeTAD, which needs to be doped using hydrophilic dopants to improve its hole mobility and conductivity, resulting in inferior device stability. Here, we propose an effective molecular design strategy to construct dopant-free polymer HTMs by selecting four structurally related polymers and investigating their structure-property relationship. It is found that the donor and acceptor units with longitudinal conjugate extension, such as BDT-T and BDD, could not only enhance the planarity of the conjugated polymer backbone and tune the energy levels but also promote the face-on orientation, resulting in superior charge extraction and transport. The optimized device utilizing dopant-free polymer HTM shows a high open-circuit voltage of 1.19 V and a champion efficiency of 24.04 % with greatly improved operational stability, making it among the best performance PSCs based on dopant-free HTMs.

Association of admission blood glucose level and clinical outcomes in elderly community-acquired pneumonia patients with or without diabetes.

INTRODUCTION: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the major cause of infection-related mortality worldwide. Patients with CAP frequently present with admission hyperglycemia. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between admission blood glucose (ABG) level and clinical outcomes in elderly CAP patients (≥80 years of age) with or without diabetes. METHODS: In this single center retrospective study, 290 elderly patients diagnosed with CAP were included. Demographic and clinical information were collected and compared. The associations between admission blood glucose level and the 30-day mortality as well as intensive care unit (ICU) admission and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in elderly CAP patients with or without diabetes were assessed. RESULTS: Of the 290 eligible patients with CAP, 159 (66.5%) patients were male, and 64 (22.1%) had a known history of diabetes at hospital admission. After adjusting for age and sex, the logistic regression analysis had identified several risk factors that might be associated with clinical outcomes in elderly patients with CAP. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that admission glucose level > 11.1 mmol/L was significant associated with ICU admission, IMV, and 30-day mortality both in non-diabetic and diabetic patients. Furthermore, Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with higher admission glucose level were correlated statistically significantly with 30-day mortality in patients with CAP (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Admission blood glucose is correlated with 30-day hospital mortality, ICU admission, and IMV of CAP in elderly patients with and without diabetes. Specially, admission glucose > 11.1 mmol/L was a significant risk factor for 30-day hospital mortality.

Highly Efficient and Stable Dion-Jacobson Perovskite Solar Cells Enabled by Extended π-Conjugation of Organic Spacer.

2D Dion-Jacobson (DJ) perovskites have become an emerging photovoltaic material with excellent structure and environmental stability due to their lacking van der Waals gaps relative to 2D Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites. Here, a fused-thiophene-based spacer, namely TTDMAI, is successfully developed for 2D DJ perovskite solar cells. It is found that the DJ perovskite using TTDMA spacer with extended π-conjugation length exhibits high film quality, large crystal size and preferred crystal vertical orientation induced by the large crystal nuclei in precursor solution, resulting in lower trap density, reduced exciton binding energy and oriented charge transport. As a result, the optimized 2D DJ perovskite device based on TTDMA (nominal n = 4) delivers a champion PCE up to 18.82%. Importantly, the unencapsulated device based on TTDMA can sustain average 99% of their original efficiency after being stored in N2 for 4400 h (over 6 months). Moreover, light, thermal, environmental and operational stabilities are also significantly improved in comparison with their 3D counterparts.

Prognostic Implication of a Novel Metabolism-Related Gene Signature in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main causes of cancer-associated deaths globally, accounts for 90% of primary liver cancers. However, further studies are needed to confirm the metabolism-related gene signature related to the prognosis of patients with HCC. METHODS: Using the "limma" R package and univariate Cox analysis, combined with LASSO regression analysis, a metabolism-related gene signature was established. The relationship between the gene signature and overall survival (OS) of HCC patients was analyzed. RT-qPCR was used to evaluate the expression of metabolism-related genes in clinical samples. GSEA and ssGSEA algorithms were used to evaluate differences in metabolism and immune status, respectively. Simultaneously, data downloaded from ICGC were used as an external verification set. RESULTS: From a total of 1,382 metabolism-related genes, a novel six-gene signature (G6PD, AKR1B15, HMMR, CSPG5, ELOVL3, FABP6) was constructed based on data from TCGA. Patients were divided into two risk groups based on risk scores calculated for these six genes. Survival analysis showed a significant correlation between high-risk patients and poor prognosis. ROC analysis demonstrated that the gene signature had good predictive capability, and the mRNA expression levels of the six genes were upregulated in HCC tissues than those in adjacent normal liver tissues. Independent prognosis analysis confirmed that the risk score and tumor grade were independent risk factors for HCC. Furthermore, a nomogram of the risk score combined with tumor stage was constructed. The calibration graph results demonstrated that the OS probability predicted by the nomogram had almost no deviation from the actual OS probability, especially for 3-year OS. Both the C-index and DCA curve indicated that the nomogram provides higher reliability than the tumor stage and risk scores. Moreover, the metabolic and immune infiltration statuses of the two risk groups were significantly different. In the high-risk group, the expression levels of immune checkpoints, TGF-ß, and C-ECM genes, whose functions are related to immune escape and immunotherapy failure, were also upregulated. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, we developed a novel metabolism-related gene signature to provide more powerful prognostic evaluation information with potential ability to predict the immunotherapy efficiency and guide early treatment for HCC.

Protein binding kinetics quantification via coupled plasmonic-photonic resonance nanosensors in generic microplate reader.

Almost no analytical assays, either colorimetric or fluorescence assays, for generic microplate readers is capable of dynamic measurements of protein-protein binding or the quantification of kinetic association and dissociation constants of protein interactions. On the other hand, protein binding kinetics quantification can be uniquely done on special expensive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing equipment. Here we report the integration of coupled plasmonic-photonic resonance nanosensors in standard 96-well plate format and by using which, for the very first time, the demonstration of label-free dynamic SPR-like protein binding measurement and kinetics quantification in a generic microplate reader. Our low-cost label-free nanosensor plate enables very sensitive detection of immobilized protein interactions based on the transmission optical density (OD) value changes at specific wavelengths measured in a generic microplate reader. The relative end-point OD value changes show a good linear response with protein concentrations (from 0.05 to 50 µg/ml). And the protein quantification in serum results are consistent with the concurrent hospital lab tests. Most importantly, the kinetic association and dissociation constants of protein interactions in our sensor plate wells are determined by time-lapse dynamic OD value measurement in the generic microplate reader. Enabled by our unique nanosensor plate, SPR-like measurement of protein binding kinetics is now available using generic microplate reader ubiquitous in many chemistry and biomedical research labs.

Characteristics of the Cross-Sectional Vorticity of the Natural Spawning Grounds of Schizothorax prenanti and a Vague-Set Similarity Model for Ecological Restoration.

Schizothorax prenanti is an endemic fish in the mountain rivers of southwestern China with unique protection value. To further explore the vortex motion of hydraulic habitats, which is closely related to the fish breeding process, the cross-sectional vorticity was used to evaluate the hydraulic conditions of the natural spawning habitat of S. prenanti. A coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) three-dimensional (3D) model was applied to simulate the hydraulic habitat of the Weimen reach, a typical natural spawning ground for S. prenanti in the upper Yangtze River. The model was used in conjunction with the Wilcoxon rank sum test to distinguish the distributions of vertical vorticity in spawning and non-spawning reaches. Statistical analysis revealed that the cross-sectional vorticity in spawning reaches was significantly greater than in non-spawning reaches, with likely biological significance in the spawning process. The range of cross-sectional mean values of vorticity was 0.17 s(-1)-0.35 s(-1) in areas with concentrated fish sperm and eggs; the minimum value was 0.17 s(-1), and the majority of values were greater than 0.26 s(-1). Based on this study, a vague-set similarity model was used to assess the effectiveness of ecological restoration by evaluating the similarity of the cross-sectional vorticity of the natural spawning reach and rehabilitated spawning reach after implementing ecological restoration measures. The outcome might provide a theoretical basis for the recovery of damaged S. prenanti spawning grounds and act as an important complement for the assessment of recovery effectiveness and as a useful reference for the coordination of ecological water use with the demands of hydraulic and hydropower engineering.