Uncoupling Protein 2 Increases Susceptibility to Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Mice

Uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) is upregulated in patients with systemic inflammation and infection, but its functional role is unclear. We up- or downregulated UCP2 expression using UCP2 recombinant adenovirus or the UCP2 inhibitor, genipin, in lungs of mice, and investigated the mechanisms of UCP2 in ALI. UCP2 overexpression in mouse lungs increased LPS-induced pathological changes, lung permeability, lung inflammation, and lowered survival rates. Furthermore, ATP levels and mitochondrial membrane potential were decreased, while reactive oxygen species production was increased. Additionally, mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) activity was elevated, which increased the sensitivity to LPS-induced apoptosis and inflammation. LPS-induced apoptosis and release of inflammatory factors were alleviated by pretreatment of the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor SP600125 or the p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580, but not by the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor PD98059 in UCP2-overexpressing mice. On the other hand, LPS-induced alveolar epithelial cell death and inflammation were attenuated by genipin. In conclusion, UCP2 increased susceptibility to LPS-induced cell death and pulmonary inflammation, most likely via ATP depletion and activation of MAPK signaling following ALI in mice

Roadmap on Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes

In recent years, the field of metal-halide perovskite emitters has rapidly emerged as a new community in solid-state lighting. Their exceptional optoelectronic properties have contributed to the rapid rise in external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) in perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) from <1% (in 2014) to approaching 30% (in 2023) across a wide range of wavelengths. However, several challenges still hinder their commercialization, including the relatively low EQEs of blue/white devices, limited EQEs in large-area devices, poor device stability, as well as the toxicity of the easily accessible lead components and the solvents used in the synthesis and processing of PeLEDs. This roadmap addresses the current and future challenges in PeLEDs across fundamental and applied research areas, by sharing the community's perspectives. This work will provide the field with practical guidelines to advance PeLED development and facilitate more rapid commercialization.Comment: 103 pages, 29 figures. This is the version of the article before peer review or editing, as submitted by an author to Journal of Physics: Photonics. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from i

Turn-on fluorescent detection of cyanide based on the inner filter effect of silver nanoparticles

A simple, sensitive fluorescent method for detecting cyanide has been developed based on the inner filter effect (IFE) of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs). With a high extinction coefficient and tunable plasmon absorption feature, Ag NPs are expected to be a powerful absorber to tune the emission of the fluorophore in the IFE-based fluorescent assays. In the present work, we developed a turn-on fluorescent assay for cyanide based on the strong absorption of Ag NPs to both excitation and emission light of an isolated fluorescence indicator. In the presence of cyanide, the absorber Ag NPs will dissolve gradually, which then leads to recovery of the IFE-decreased emission of the fluorophore. The concentration of Ag NPs in the detection system was found to affect the fluorescence response toward cyanide greatly. Under the optimum conditions, the present IFE-based approach can detect cyanide ranging from 5.0 Â 10 À7 to 6.0 Â 10 À4 M with a detection limit of 2.5 Â 10 À7 M, which is much lower than the corresponding absorbance-based approach and compares favorably with other reported fluorescent methods. In addition, the present method possesses a good selectivity for cyanide over other common anions and further application in cyanide-spiked water samples suggested a recovery between 98.2 and 101.4%. Therefore, our proposed IFE-based fluorescent method is expected to be applied for cyanide determination in practical applications

Deep-Red Amplified Spontaneous Emission from <i>cis</i>-Configured Squaraine

We report deep-red amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) from <i>cis</i>-configured squaraine (<i>cis</i>-DCSQ1) under optical pumping. Doping of <i>cis</i>-DCSQ1 into a 4,4′-bis­(9-carbazolyl)-2,2′-biphenyl (CBP) host film at an appropriate concentration (0.5 wt % for this system) led to a marked increase of photoluminescence quantum yield because of efficient CBP-to-<i>cis</i>-DCSQ1 Förster resonance energy transfer and suppression of aggregation-caused quenching. Thus, this doped film showed clear ASE with a threshold of around 10 μJ cm^–2 and peak wavelength of 687 nm. These results proved that <i>cis</i>-configured squaraine derivatives are promising as gain materials for future applications as deep-red organic lasers

Centrifugal-Coated Quasi-Two-Dimensional Perovskite CsPb₂Br₅ Films for Efficient and Stable Light-Emitting Diodes

The optical, structural, and electroluminescent (EL) characteristics of pure quasi-2D CsPb₂Br₅ were reported. We fabricated continuous, compact, well-crystallized CsPb₂Br₅ films by centrifugal coating from a colloidal solution containing CsPb₂Br₅ nanoparticles. The centrifugal-coated CsPb₂Br₅ films have a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of ∼35% because of its low-dimensional structure. Taking advantage of the high PLQY, we fabricated perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) with a centrifugal-coated CsPb₂Br₅ emitting layer exhibiting bright green EL, a maximum luminance of 7317 cd m^–2, an and external quantum efficiency of 1.1%. Additionally, the EL color could be changed easily from green to red using a halogen exchange method. The half lifetime of our CsPb₂Br₅ PeLEDs reached around 6 h under continuous operation at 10 mA cm^–2