An ovary-specific mucin is associated with choriogenesis mediated by prostaglandin signaling in Spodoptera exigua.

Polytrophic ovarioles of Spodoptera exigua, a lepidopteran insect, begins with the development of oocytes and differentiation of nurse cells followed by vitellogenesis and choriogenesis. Compared with previtellogenic and vitellogenic developments, choriogenesis has not been clearly understood yet in endocrine control. This study investigated the expression and function of a mucin-like structural protein of S. exigua called Se-Mucin1 in choriogenesis. It was highly expressed in ovarioles containing chorionated oocytes. The expression level of Se-Mucin1 was increased during adult stage as early as 18 h after adult emergence, reaching the maximal level at 24 h and later. Interestingly, DNA amount of Se-Mucin1 was increased by almost four folds during early adult stage while other genes (hexokinase and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) not directly associated with chorion formation did not show genomic DNA increase, suggesting specific gene amplification of Se-Mucin1. RNA interference (RNAi) suppressed Se-Mucin1 expression by injecting 1 µg of double-strand RNA to teneral females (<5 h after emergence), which exhibited significantly impaired fecundity and egg hatching rate. Eggs laid by RNAi-treated females were malformed in eggshell structures with loss of mesh-like fibers. Treatment with aspirin, a prostaglandin (PG) biosynthesis inhibitor, suppressed the induction of Se-Mucin1 expression during early adult stage and impaired egg development. An addition of PGE2 significantly rescued such impairment in Se-Mucin1 expression and subsequent egg development. These results suggest that PGs mediate choriogenesis of S. exigua by activating the expression of chorion-associated genes including Se-Mucin1.

Effect of Mg ion bioactivity on the TiO2 nano-network surface.

Magnesium (Mg) ion is well known for improving the Ca-P nucleation and growth. TiO2 nano-network (NT) surface was prepared by alkali-treatment. To introduce the Mg ion to TiO2 NT surface, acrylic acid plasma polymerization was used. Bioactivity of the Mg ions coated samples was evaluated by immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF). Surface morphology and chemical composition of all samples were characterized by SEM, XRD and XPS. Mg ion promotes hydroxyapatite (HA) nucleation and growth on TiO2 NT in SBF and improves crystallinity of HA deposited layer.

All-in-One Process for Color Tuning and Patterning of Perovskite Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes.

Although post-synthetic anion exchange allows halide perovskite quantum dots to easily change the optical bandgap of materials, additional exchange of shorter ligands is required to use them as active materials in optoelectronic devices. In this study, a novel all-in-one process exchanging ligands and halide anions in film-state for facile color tuning and patterning of cesium lead halide perovskite colloidal quantum dot (PeQD) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is proposed. The proposed all-in-one process significantly enhances the performances of PeQD LEDs by passivating the PeQD with shorter ligands. In addition, the all-in-one process is repeated more stably in the film state. Red, green, and blue LEDs with extremely narrow emission spectra using cesium lead bromide PeQDs and appropriate butylammonium halide solutions are fabricated. Furthermore, the proposed all-in-one process in film-state facilitated rapid color change in localized areas, thereby aiding in realizing fine patterns of narrow widths (300 µm) using simple contact masks. Consequently, various paint-over red/green/blue patterns in PeQD LEDs by applying halide solutions additively are fabricated.

Enhanced stretchability of metal/interlayer/metal hybrid electrode.

Despite the excellent electrical conductivity of metal thin film electrodes, their poor mechanical stretchability makes it extremely difficult to apply them as stretchable interconnect electrodes. Thus, we propose a novel stretchable hybrid electrode (SHE) by adopting two strategies to overcome the metal thin film electrode limitations: grain size engineering and hybridization with conductive interlayers. The grain size engineering technique improves the inherent metal thin film stretchability according to the Hall-Petch theory, and the hybridization of the conductive interlayer materials, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) and carbon nanotube (CNT), suppresses crack propagation. Especially, the CNT-inserted SHE exhibits a decreased resistance change of approximately 32% in tensile test and 75% in a 10 000 cycle fatigue test because of the rough surface of the designed electrode, which relieves maximum stress by redistributing it more evenly to prevent penetrating crack propagation.

Enhanced bendability of nanostructured metal electrodes: effect of nanoholes and their arrangement.

Metallic thin films often exhibit poor mechanical robustness, which makes them unsuitable for use as electrodes in flexible and stretchable electronic devices. This prompted us to investigate the effect of creating a pattern of nanoholes in a metallic thin film to its mechanical and electrical properties. The adoption of nanonetwork structures is shown to confer significantly improved bendability to the films, with a change in electrical resistance of only 21% after 10 000 bending cycles, under a bending strain of 6.3%. In contrast to the planar silver (Ag) films in which large cracks are formed, structures that contain nanoholes act as barriers that block the growth of cracks; consequently, only short cracks are formed in these films and therefore changes in their resistance are much lower. In this paper, we suggest a novel model based on random grain boundaries to simulate the behavior of various nanopattern arrangements when the film is subjected to mechanical stress. Our modeling studies revealed that nanoholes secure the electrical current pathways by effectively blocking crack propagation, and that optimizing orientation, size, and coverage of these nanoholes can further improve the mechanical properties. Although diamond patterns exhibit superior characteristics to those of rectangular ones, their directional dependence is shown to be reduced by adopting randomly dispersed nanostructures. We additionally verified experimentally that an array of holes (rectangular, diamond-shaped, and randomly patterned) significantly affects crack propagation and resistance change.

Highly Efficient (>10%) Flexible Organic Solar Cells on PEDOT-Free and ITO-Free Transparent Electrodes.

A novel approach to fabricate flexible organic solar cells is proposed without indium tin oxide (ITO) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) using junction-free metal nanonetworks (NNs) as transparent electrodes. The metal NNs are monolithically etched using nanoscale shadow masks, and they exhibit excellent optoelectronic performance. Furthermore, the optoelectrical properties of the NNs can be controlled by both the initial metal layer thickness and NN density. Hence, with an extremely thin silver layer, the appropriate density control of the networks can lead to high transmittance and low sheet resistance. Such NNs can be utilized for thin-film devices without planarization by conductive materials such as PEDOT:PSS. A highly efficient flexible organic solar cell with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.6% and high device yield (93.8%) is fabricated on PEDOT-free and ITO-free transparent electrodes. Furthermore, the flexible solar cell retains 94.3% of the initial PCE even after 3000 bending stress tests (strain: 3.13%).

Indium-free, highly transparent, flexible Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrodes for flexible touch screen panels.

We report on an indium-free and cost-effective Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrode grown by room temperature roll-to-roll sputtering as a viable alternative to ITO electrodes for the cost-effective production of large-area flexible touch screen panels (TSPs). By using a low resistivity metallic Cu interlayer and a patterned mesh structure, we obtained Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrodes with a low sheet resistance of 15.1 Ohm/square and high optical transmittance of 89% as well as good mechanical flexibility. Outer/inner bending test results showed that the Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrode had a mechanical flexibility superior to that of conventional ITO films. Using the diamond-patterned Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrodes, we successfully demonstrated TSPS of the flexible film-film type and rigid glass-film-film type TSPs. The TSPs with Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrode were used to perform zoom in/out functions and multi-touch writing, indicating that these electrodes are promising cost-efficient transparent electrodes to substitute for conventional ITO electrodes in large-area flexible TSPs.

Moritella dasanensis sp. nov., a psychrophilic bacterium isolated from the Arctic ocean.

An aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, ice-active substance-producing, rod-shaped psychrophile, designated strain ArB 0140T, was isolated from seawater collected from near a glacier in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain ArB 0140T showed a distinct phyletic line within the genus Moritella. Characteristic chemotaxonomic data [predominant isoprenoid quinone, Q8; major fatty acids, C14 : 0, C14 : 1, C16 : 0, C16 : 1 and C22 : 6 (docosahexaenoic acid; DHA)] also corroborated the affiliation of strain ArB 0140T to the genus Moritella. The maximal growth rate of the novel strain was observed at 9 degrees C, with a maximum temperature for growth of 18 degrees C. The genomic DNA G+C content was 46.9 mol%. Based on the data obtained from this polyphasic study, including DNA-DNA relatedness, physiological and biochemical tests and ice-controlling activity, strain ArB 0140T was found to be genetically and phenotypically different from other recognized species of the genus Moritella. Therefore strain ArB 0140T represents a novel species, for which the name Moritella dasanensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is ArB 0140T (=KCTC 10814T=KCCM 42845T=JCM 14759T).