A solution processed flexible nanocomposite electrode with efficient light extraction for organic light emitting diodes.

Highly efficient organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on multiple layers of vapor evaporated small molecules, indium tin oxide transparent electrode, and glass substrate have been extensively investigated and are being commercialized. The light extraction from the exciton radiative decay is limited to less than 30% due to plasmonic quenching on the metallic cathode and the waveguide in the multi-layer sandwich structure. Here we report a flexible nanocomposite electrode comprising single-walled carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires stacked and embedded in the surface of a polymer substrate. Nanoparticles of barium strontium titanate are dispersed within the substrate to enhance light extraction efficiency. Green polymer OLED (PLEDs) fabricated on the nanocomposite electrode exhibit a maximum current efficiency of 118 cd/A at 10,000 cd/m(2) with the calculated external quantum efficiency being 38.9%. The efficiencies of white PLEDs are 46.7 cd/A and 30.5%, respectively. The devices can be bent to 3 mm radius repeatedly without significant loss of electroluminescent performance. The nanocomposite electrode could pave the way to high-efficiency flexible OLEDs with simplified device structure and low fabrication cost

Induction of Cellular Immune Response by DNA Vaccine Coexpressing E. acervulina 3-1E Gene and Mature CHIl-15 Gene

We previously reported that the chimeric DNA vaccine pcDNA-3-1E-linker-mChIL-15, fused through linking Eimeria acervulina 3-1E encoding gene and mature chicken IL-15 (mChIL-15) gene with four flexible amino acid SPGS, could significantly offer protection against homologous challenge. In the present study, the induction of cellular immune response induced by the chimeric DNA vaccine pcDNA-3-1E-linker-mChIL-15 was investigated. Spleen lymphocyte subpopulations were characterized by flow cytometric analysis. The spleen lymphocyte proliferation assays were measured by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-y1]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method. The mRNA profiles of ChIL-2 and ChIFN-γ in spleen were characterized by means of real-time PCR. Chickens immunized with pcDNA-3-1E-linker-mChIL-15 exhibited significant upregulated level of ChIL-2 and ChIFN-γ transcripts in spleen following two immunizations compared with chickens in other groups (P < 0.01). In comparison with pcDNA3.1-immunized and control groups, lymphocyte proliferation, percentage of CD8α+ cell, and levels of ChIL-2 and ChIFN-γ transcripts in the group immunized with pcDNA-3-1E-linker-mChIL-15 were significantly increased on day 6 following challenge (P < 0.05, P < 0.01, and P < 0.01, resp.). Our data suggested that the fusion antigen 3-1E-linker-mChIL-15 could be a potential candidate for E. acervulina vaccine development

Multiscale Investigation of Low Intensity Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation in in-vivo Rodent Models

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. December 2017. Major: Biomedical Engineering. Advisor: Bin He. 1 computer file (PDF); iv, 27 pages.Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation method that modulates neural activity using mechanical pressure waves. tFUS has emerged as a promising noninvasive neuromodulation method with millimeter scale resolution and propensity to stimulate deep structures. Researchers have reported tFUS induced short term excitation or inhibition at cortical or deep brain. Currently, there are no reports of long term effects elicited by tFUS. The ability to use tFUS to non-invasively induce long term changes in the brain expands the clinical utility of tFUS. In order to explore the long term effects of tFUS on synaptic connectivity, we first evaluated our setup by examining the ability of tFUS to reliably induce short term changes to in vivo rats. After establishing our setup, we applied pulsed ultrasound to encode temporal information into the hippocampus to induce long term depression in 5 adult rats. Further investigations are needed to explore the underlying mechanisms

Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Functional Connectivity of Brain Regions after High-Intensity Exercise in Adolescents

Lack of sleep causes central fatigue in the body, which in turn affects brain function, and similarly, intense exercise causes both central and peripheral fatigue. This study aims to characterize the brain state, and in particular the functional changes in the relevant brain regions, after intense exercise in sleep-deprived conditions by detecting EEG signals. Thirty healthy adolescents were screened to participate in the trial, a sleep-deprivation model was developed, and a running exercise was performed the following morning. Meanwhile, pre-exercise and post-exercise Electroencephalogram (EEG) data were collected from the subjects using a 32-conductor electroencephalogram acquisition system (Neuroscan), and the data were analyzed using MATLAB (2013b) to process the data and analyzed Phase Lag Index (PLI) and graph theory metrics for different brain connections. Compared with the control group, the pre-exercise sleep-deprivation group showed significantly lower functional brain connectivity in the central and right temporal lobes in the Delta band (p &lt; 0.05), significantly lower functional brain connectivity in the parietal and occipital regions in the Theta band (p &lt; 0.05), and significantly higher functional brain connectivity in the left temporal and right parietal regions in the Beta2 band (p &lt; 0.05). In the post-exercise sleep-deprivation group, functional brain connectivity was significantly lower in the central to right occipital and central regions in the Delta band (p &lt; 0.05), significantly higher in the whole brain regions in the Theta, Alpha2, and Beta1 bands (p &lt; 0.05 and 0.001), significantly higher in the right central, right parietal, and right temporal regions in the Alpha1 band (p &lt; 0.05), and in the Beta2 band, the functional brain connections from the left frontal region to the right parietal region were significantly lower (p &lt; 0.05). The results of the brain functional network properties showed that the clustering coefficients in the Delta band were significantly lower in the pre-exercise sleep-deprivation group compared to the control group (p &lt; 0.05); the characteristic path length and global efficiency in the Theta band were significantly lower (p &lt; 0.05 and 0.001). The post-exercise sleep-deprivation group showed significantly higher clustering coefficients, input lengths, and local efficiencies (p &lt; 0.001), and significantly lower global efficiencies in the Delta and Theta bands (p &lt; 0.001), and significantly higher clustering coefficients and local efficiencies (p &lt; 0.001) and significantly lower input lengths and global efficiencies in the Alpha1 band compared with the control group (p &lt; 0.001). After sleep deprivation, the pre-exercise resting state reduces the rate of information transfer in the functional networks of the adolescent brain, slowing the transfer of information between brain regions. After performing strenuous exercise, sleep deprivation leads to decreased athletic performance in adolescents. After a prolonged period of intense exercise, brain activity is gradually suppressed, resulting in even slower work efficiency and, eventually, increased information transfer in adolescents

Assessment of Air-Pollution Control Policy’s Impact on China’s PV Power: A System Dynamics Analysis

Recently, China has brought out several air-pollution control policies, which indicate the prominent position that PV power hold in improving atmosphere environment. Under this policy environment, the development of China’s PV power will be greatly affected. Firstly, after analyzing the influencing path of air-pollution control policies on PV power, this paper built a system dynamics model, which can be used as a platform for predicting China’s PV power development in every policy scenario during 2015–2025. Secondly, different model parameters are put into the SD model to simulate three scenarios of air-pollution control policies. Comparisons between the simulated results of different policy scenarios measure the air-pollution control policy’s impact on China’s PV power in the aspect of generation, installed capacity, power curtailment and so on. This paper points out the long-term development pattern of China’s PV power under latest incentive policies, and provides reference for the policymakers to increase the effect and efficiency of air-pollution control policies

The Driving Forces of Changes in CO2 Emissions in China: A Structural Decomposition Analysis

Understanding the drivers of changes in CO2 emissions is vital for a range of stakeholders. Hence, this paper explores the main drivers of CO2 emissions in China using structural decomposition analysis based on constant price and non-comparative input-output tables. The driving forces at both nationwide and industrial levels are divided into nine effects. To investigate the effects from an energy perspective, all nine effects are further decomposed into three kinds of fossil fuels. Our empirical results show that the energy intensity effect can significantly stimulate emission reduction. Though the energy structure effect is weak, the trend of which over time shows that the energy structure is shifting to low carbon. Additionally, among final demand effect, the urban consumption, investment, and export expansion effects predominantly overwhelm other effects and contribute significantly to CO2 emissions. Although the short term Leontief effects fluctuate greatly, the total Leontief effect in 1997–2010 reveals that it can significantly contribute to CO2 emissions. Finally, detailed and concrete policy implications for CO2 emission reduction are provided