Mulberry Extracts Alleviate A β

Mulberry, which contained high amounts of anthocyanins, has been used in traditional Chinese medicine. Mulberry fruit extracts (ME) have demonstrated the antioxidant activity and neuroprotection. The study was to investigate the neuroprotective efficacy of ME against β-amyloid 25–35- (Aβ25–35-) induced PC12 cells injury. Cells preincubated with or without ME (200 μg/mL) for 24 h were treated with Aβ25–35 (20 μmol/L) for another 24 h. Cell viability was assessed by MTT, gene expression profiles were examined by cDNA microarrays, and RT-PCR were used to confirm the results of microarray assays. ME pretreatment was found to neutralize the cytotoxicity and prevent Aβ25–35-induced cells injury. Analyses of gene expression profile revealed that genes involving cell adhesion, peptidase activity, cytokine activity, ion binding activity, and angiogenesis regulation were significantly modulated by ME pretreatment. Among those genes, Apaf1, Bace2, and Plcb4 were enriched in the “Alzheimer’s disease-reference pathway” and downregulated after ME intervention. RT-PCR results showed that ME preincubation could significantly inhibit Aβ25–35 increased mRNA levels of these three genes. Overall, ME pretreatment could substantially alleviate PC12 cells injury and downregulate expression of AD-related genes, such as Apaf1, Bace2, and Plcb4. This study has a great nutrigenomics interest and brings new and important light in the field of AD intervention

Ionic liquid stabilized perovskite solar modules with power conversion efficiency exceeding 20%

Metal-halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) exhibit outstanding power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) when fabricated as mm-sized devices, but creation of high-performing large-area modules that are stable on a sufficiently long timescale still presents a significant challenge. Herein, the quality of large-area perovskite film is improved by using ionic liquid additives via forming a new Pb-N bonding between the ionic liquid and Pb2+. This new bond can be modulated by a critical screening of the anion structure of the ionic liquid. The selected ionic liquid effectively reduces the defects of the perovskite films and markedly elongate their carrier lifetimes. As a result, a champion PCE of 24.4% for small-area (0.148 cm2) devices and 20.4% for larger-area (10.0 cm2) modules under AM 1.5G irradiation is achieved. More importantly, the modified devices retain 90% of their peak PCE after aging for 1900 h at 65 ± 5 °C (ISOS-T-1) and 80% after continuous light soaking for 750 h. The non-encapsulated modules maintained 80% of their peak PCE after 1100 h of aging in the air with a relative humidity of 35 ± 5% and temperature of 25 ± 5 °C under dark (ISOS-D-1), showing great potential for future commercialization.This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91963209, 52002302, 22075221), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Provincial (2020CFB172, 2020CFA087), Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory (XHD2020-001), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT: 2020III032, 2021VA101, 2021IVB038). M.H. acknowledges the support from State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing (Wuhan University of Technology) and SRR acknowledges the support from ‘laCaixa’ Foundation (ID 100010434) with fellowship code LCF/BQ/PI20/11760024.Peer reviewe

Lead halide–templated crystallization of methylamine-free perovskite for efficient photovoltaic modules

Upscaling efficient and stable perovskite layers is one of the most challenging issues in the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here, a lead halide–templated crystallization strategy is developed for printing formamidinium (FA)–cesium (Cs) lead triiodide perovskite films. High-quality large-area films are achieved through controlled nucleation and growth of a lead halide•N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone adduct that can react in situ with embedded FAI/CsI to directly form α-phase perovskite, sidestepping the phase transformation from δ-phase. A nonencapsulated device with 23% efficiency and excellent long-term thermal stability (at 85°C) in ambient air (~80% efficiency retention after 500 hours) is achieved with further addition of potassium hexafluorophosphate. The slot die–printed minimodules achieve champion efficiencies of 20.42% (certified efficiency 19.3%) and 19.54% with an active area of 17.1 and 65.0 square centimeters, respectively

Electrokinetic transport in heterogeneous micro and nano-channels

Bibliography: p. 122-13

Assessment of Multiple Anaerobic Co-Digestions and Related Microbial Community of Molasses with Rice-Alcohol Wastewater

Molasses is a highly dense and refined byproduct produced in the sugarcane industry, and it contains high amounts of degradable compounds. Through bioconversion, these compounds can be transformed into renewable products. However, the involved biological process is negatively influenced by the high chemical oxygen demand (COD) of molasses and ion concentration. The co-digestion of molasses with rice-alcohol wastewater (RAW) was compared with its mono-digestion at an increasing organic loading rate (OLR). Both processes were assessed by detecting the COD removal rate, the methane contents of biogas, and the structure and composition of microbial communities at different stages. Results showed that the co-digestion is stable up to a maximum OLR of 16 g COD L−1 d−1, whereas after the acclimatization phase, the mono-digestion process was disturbed two times, which occurred at a maximum OLR of 9 and 10 g COD L−1 d−1. The volatile fatty acids (VFAs) observed were 2059.66 mg/L and 1896.9 mg/L, which in mono-digestion causes the inhibition at maximum OLRs. In the co-digestion process, the concomitant COD removal rates and methane content recorded was 90.72 ± 0.63% 64.47% ± 0.59% correspondingly. While in the mono-digestion process, high COD removal rate and methane contents observed were 89.29 ± 0.094% and 61.37 ± 1.06% respectively. From the analysis of microbial communities, it has been observed that both the bacterial and archaeal communities respond differently at unlike stages. However, in both processes, Propionibacteriaceae was the most abundant family in the bacterial communities, whereas Methanosaetaceae was abundant in the archaeal communities. From the current study, it has been concluded that that rice-alcohol wastewater could be a good co-substrate for the anaerobic digestion of molasses in terms of COD removal rate and methane contents production, that could integrate molasses into progressive biogas production with high OLR

Analysis of Pre-Earthquake Space Electric Field Disturbance Observed by CSES

In order to explore the abnormal disturbance of the space electric field caused by earthquakes using the electric field data of the ULF and VLF frequency bands of the electric field observed by the ZH-1 satellite, and taking the Mw7.7 earthquake in the Caribbean Sea in the southern sea area of Cuba on 29 January 2020 as an example, the signal-to-noise ratio of the NAA and NLK artificial source VLF transmitting stations in the Northern Hemisphere and the height of the lower ionosphere was calculated. The disturbance of the electric field in the ULF band was extracted using the S-G filtering method. The results indicate that: (1) The ionospheric anomaly caused by this earthquake appeared 20 days before the earthquake, and before the earthquake, there were significant anomalous changes in all parameters within the pregnant seismic zone. The signal-to-noise ratios of the NAA and NLK artificial source transmitter stations decreased by 30%, and the height of the low ionosphere decreased by 5–10 km, while there were anomalous perturbations in several orbits of the ULF electric field, and the magnitude of the perturbations exceeded three times the standard deviation. (2) The SNR of the artificial source transmitting stations before and after the earthquake was significantly reduced in the third period before the earthquake and recovered after the earthquake. (3) The low ionospheric height appears to be reduced before the earthquake and recovers after the earthquake. (4) The decrease in the S/N ratio occurred simultaneously with the decrease in ionospheric height 15 days–10 days before the earthquake. This provides a reference for extracting pre-earthquake ionospheric precursor anomalies

Analysis of Pre-Earthquake Space Electric Field Disturbance Observed by CSES

In order to explore the abnormal disturbance of the space electric field caused by earthquakes using the electric field data of the ULF and VLF frequency bands of the electric field observed by the ZH-1 satellite, and taking the Mw7.7 earthquake in the Caribbean Sea in the southern sea area of Cuba on 29 January 2020 as an example, the signal-to-noise ratio of the NAA and NLK artificial source VLF transmitting stations in the Northern Hemisphere and the height of the lower ionosphere was calculated. The disturbance of the electric field in the ULF band was extracted using the S-G filtering method. The results indicate that: (1) The ionospheric anomaly caused by this earthquake appeared 20 days before the earthquake, and before the earthquake, there were significant anomalous changes in all parameters within the pregnant seismic zone. The signal-to-noise ratios of the NAA and NLK artificial source transmitter stations decreased by 30%, and the height of the low ionosphere decreased by 5–10 km, while there were anomalous perturbations in several orbits of the ULF electric field, and the magnitude of the perturbations exceeded three times the standard deviation. (2) The SNR of the artificial source transmitting stations before and after the earthquake was significantly reduced in the third period before the earthquake and recovered after the earthquake. (3) The low ionospheric height appears to be reduced before the earthquake and recovers after the earthquake. (4) The decrease in the S/N ratio occurred simultaneously with the decrease in ionospheric height 15 days–10 days before the earthquake. This provides a reference for extracting pre-earthquake ionospheric precursor anomalies