Cervical Cancer Prevention Through HPV Vaccination in Low- and Middle-Income Countries in Asia

Cervical cancer is ranked the first or second most common cancer in women of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia. Cervical cancer is almost exclusively caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), and majority of the cases can be prevented with the use of HPV vaccines. The HPV vaccines have demonstrated high vaccine efficacies against HPV infection and cervical cancer precursors in clinical and post-marketing studies, and are in use in most high-income countries. However, their use in LMICs are limited mainly due to the high costs and logistics in delivering multiple doses of the vaccine. Other issues such as the safety of the vaccines, social and cultural factors, as well as poor knowledge and awareness of the virus have also contributed to the low uptake of the vaccine. This mini-review focuses on the need for HPV vaccine implementation in Asia given the substantial disease burden and underuse of HPV vaccines in LMICs in this region. In addition, the progress towards HPV vaccine introduction, and barriers preventing further rollout of these essential, life-saving vaccines are also discussed in this article

Ambient Fabrication of Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their high‐power conversion efficiency, simple fabrication, and low material cost. However, due to their high sensitivity to moisture and oxygen, high efficiency PSCs are mainly constructed in an inert environment. This has led to significant concerns associated with the long‐term stability and manufacturing costs, which are some of the major limitations for the commercialization of this cutting‐edge technology. Over the past few years, excellent progress in fabricating PSCs in ambient conditions has been made. These advancements have drawn considerable research interest in the photovoltaic community and shown great promise for the successful commercialization of efficient and stable PSCs. In this review, after providing an overview to the influence of an ambient fabrication environment on perovskite films, recent advances in fabricating efficient and stable PSCs in ambient conditions are discussed. Along with discussing the underlying challenges and limitations, the most appropriate strategies to fabricate efficient PSCs under ambient conditions are summarized along with multiple roadmaps to assist in the future development of this technology

Carbon nanotubes in TiO2 nanofiber photoelectrodes for high-performance perovskite solar cells

1D semiconducting oxides are unique structures that have been widely used for photovoltaic (PV) devices due to their capability to provide a direct pathway for charge transport. In addition, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have played multifunctional roles in a range of PV cells because of their fascinating properties. Herein, the influence of CNTs on the PV performance of 1D titanium dioxide nanofiber (TiO2 NF) photoelectrode perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is systematically explored. Among the different types of CNTs, single‐walled CNTs (SWCNTs) incorporated in the TiO2 NF photoelectrode PSCs show a significant enhancement (≈40%) in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) as compared to control cells. SWCNTs incorporated in TiO2 NFs provide a fast electron transfer within the photoelectrode, resulting in an increase in the short‐circuit current (J sc) value. On the basis of our theoretical calculations, the improved open‐circuit voltage (V oc) of the cells can be attributed to a shift in energy level of the photoelectrodes after the introduction of SWCNTs. Furthermore, it is found that the incorporation of SWCNTs into TiO2 NFs reduces the hysteresis effect and improves the stability of the PSC devices. In this study, the best performing PSC device constructed with SWCNT structures achieves a PCE of 14.03%

Ambient fabrication of organic-inorganic hybrid Perovskite solar cells

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their high‐power conversion efficiency, simple fabrication, and low material cost. However, due to their high sensitivity to moisture and oxygen, high efficiency PSCs are mainly constructed in an inert environment. This has led to significant concerns associated with the long‐term stability and manufacturing costs, which are some of the major limitations for the commercialization of this cutting‐edge technology. Over the past few years, excellent progress in fabricating PSCs in ambient conditions has been made. These advancements have drawn considerable research interest in the photovoltaic community and shown great promise for the successful commercialization of efficient and stable PSCs. In this review, after providing an overview to the influence of an ambient fabrication environment on perovskite films, recent advances in fabricating efficient and stable PSCs in ambient conditions are discussed. Along with discussing the underlying challenges and limitations, the most appropriate strategies to fabricate efficient PSCs under ambient conditions are summarized along with multiple roadmaps to assist in the future development of this technology

Efficient and Fast Synthesis of Few-Layer Black Phosphorus via Microwave-Assisted Liquid-Phase Exfoliation

High‐quality, few‐layer black‐phosphorus (BP) flakes are prepared in a common organic solvent with very short processing times using microwave‐assisted liquid‐phase exfoliation. A comprehensive range of analysis, combined with density‐functional theory calculations, confirms that the product prepared using the microwave technique is few‐layer BP with small‐ and large‐area flakes. The suspended exfoliated BP sheets show excellent stability, while samples dispersed onto silicon from the suspensions exhibit low oxidation levels after several days in ambient conditions. This straightforward synthesis method is facile, efficient, and extremely fast, and does not involve use of any surfactant or ultrasonication steps and will facilitate future development of phosphorene research

Confucius and herding behaviour in the stock markets in China and Taiwan

It has been argued in the literature that financial markets with a Confucian background tend to exhibit herding behaviour, or correlated behavioural patterns in individuals. This paper applies the return dispersion model to investigate financial herding behaviour by examining index returns from the stock markets in China and Taiwan. The sample period is from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2014, and the data were obtained from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Although the sample period finishes in 2014, the data are more than sufficient to test the three hypotheses relating to the stock markets in China and Taiwan, both of which have Confucian cultures. The empirical results demonstrate significant herding behaviour under both general and specified markets conditions, including bull and bear markets, and high-low trading volume states. This paper contributes to the herding literature by examining three different hypotheses regarding the stock markets in China and Taiwan, and showing that there is empirical support for these hypotheses

Confucius and herding behaviour in the stock markets in China and Taiwan

It has been argued in the literature that financial markets with a Confucian background tend to exhibit herding behaviour, or correlated behavioural patterns in individuals. This paper applies the return dispersion model to investigate financial herding behaviour by examining index returns from the stock markets in China and Taiwan. The sample period is from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2014, and the data were obtained from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Although the sample period finishes in 2014, the data are more than sufficient to test the three hypotheses relating to the stock markets in China and Taiwan, both of which have Confucian cultures. The empirical results demonstrate significant herding behaviour under both general and specified markets conditions, including bull and bear markets, and high-low trading volume states. This paper contributes to the herding literature by examining three different hypotheses regarding the stock markets in China and Taiwan, and showing that there is empirical support for these hypotheses

Origin of performance enhancement in TiO2-carbon nanotube composite perovskite solar cells

Carbon nanotubes are shown to be beneficial additives to perovskite solar cells, and the inclusion of such nanomaterials will continue to play a crucial role in the push toward developing efficient and stable device architectures. Herein, titanium dioxide/carbon nanotube composite perovskite solar cells are fabricated, and device performance parameters are correlated with spectroscopic signatures of the materials to understand the origin of performance enhancement. By probing the charge carrier dynamics with photoluminescence and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, the results indicate that charge transfer is not improved by the presence of the carbon nanotubes. Instead, carbon nanotubes are shown to passivate the electronic defect states within the titanium dioxide, which can lead to stronger radiative recombination in the titanium dioxide/carbon nanotube films. The defect passivation allows the perovskite solar cells made using an optimized titanium dioxide/carbon nanotube composite to achieve a peak power conversion efficiency of 20.4% (19% stabilized), which is one of the highest values reported for perovskite solar cells not incorporating a mixed cation light absorbing layer. The results discuss new fundamental understandings for the role of carbon nanomaterials in perovskite solar cells and present a significant step forward in advancing the field of high‐performance photovoltaics

Genome-wide association analysis with selective genotyping identifies candidate loci for adult height at 8q21.13 and 15q22.33-q23 in Mongolians

We performed a genome-wide association study with 23,465 microsatellite markers to identify genes related to adult height. Selective genotyping was applied to extremely tall and extremely short individuals from the Khalkh-Mongolian population. Two loci, 8q21.13 and 15q22.33, which showed the strongest association with microsatellites were subjected to further analyses of SNPs in 782 tall and 773 short individuals. The most significant association was observed with SNP rs2220456 at 8q21.13 (P = 0.000016). In the LD block at 15q22.32, SNP rs8038652 located in intron 1 of IQCH was strongly associated (P = 0.0003), especially the AA genotype of the SNP under a recessive model was strongly associated with adult height (P = 0.000046)