60 research outputs found
Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)
In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field
Information Disclosure Ranking, Industry Production Market Competition, and Mispricing: An Empirical Analysis
Improving the transparency of corporate information disclosure is a key principle of corporate governance in Taiwan. This study uses the information disclosure assessment system established by the information disclosure and transparency ranking system to explore whether information transparency can reduce the degree of mispricing. The study uses the data of 10,686 listed companies in Taiwan for the period from 2005 to 2014. We find that a higher information disclosure ranking (IDR) of rated companies corresponds to a more substantial reduction in the degree of mispricing. Moreover, we discover that product market competition affects mispricing in that smaller degrees of mispricing reflect greater exclusivity; this suggests that lower industry transaction and competition costs lead to less substantial mispricing. Finally, we observe that the effect of information disclosure score on the degree of mispricing is lower in more exclusive industries. Furthermore, a regression process using instrumental variables reveals that IDRs have the significant effect of reducing the degree of mispricing
Information Disclosure Ranking, Industry Production Market Competition, and Mispricing: An Empirical Analysis
Distribution of Crystalline Polymer and Fullerene Clusters in Both Horizontal and Vertical Directions of High-Efficiency Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells
In this study, we used (i) synchrotron
grazing-incidence small-/wide-angle X-ray scattering to elucidate
the crystallinity of the polymer PBTC<sub>12</sub>TPD and the sizes
of the clusters of the fullerenes PC<sub>61</sub>BM and ThC<sub>61</sub>BM and (ii) transmission electron microscopy/electron energy loss
spectroscopy to decipher both horizontal and vertical distributions
of fullerenes in PBTC<sub>12</sub>TPD/fullerene films processed with
chloroform, chlorobenzene and dichlorobezene. We found that the crystallinity
of the polymer and the sizes along with the distributions of the fullerene
clusters were critically dependent on the solubility of the polymer
in the processing solvent when the solubility of fullerenes is much
higher than that of the polymer in the solvent. In particular, with
chloroform (CF) as the processing solvent, the polymer and fullerene
units in the PBTC<sub>12</sub>TPD/ThC<sub>61</sub>BM layer not only
give rise to higher crystallinity and a more uniform and finer fullerene
cluster dispersion but also formed nanometer scale interpenetrating
network structures and presented a gradient in the distribution of
the fullerene clusters and polymer, with a higher polymer density
near the anode and a higher fullerene density near the cathode. As
a result of combined contributions from the enhanced polymer crystallinity,
finer and more uniform fullerene dispersion and gradient distributions,
both the short current density and the fill factor for the device
incorporating the CF-processed active layer increase substantially
over that of the device incorporating a dichlorobenzene-processed
active layer; the resulting power conversion efficiency of the device
incorporating the CF-processed active layer was enhanced by 46% relative
to that of the device incorporating a dichlorobenzene-processed active
layer
Structural Evolution of Crystalline Conjugated Polymer/Fullerene Domains from Solution to the Solid State in the Presence and Absence of an Additive
The power conversion efficiencies
of polymer/fullerene solar cells
are critically dependent on the nanometer-scale morphologies of their
active layers, which are typically processed from solution. Using
synchrotron wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering, we have elucidated
the intricate mechanism of the structural transitions from solutions
to solid films of the crystalline polymer poly[bis(dodecyl)thiophene-thieno[3,4-<i>c</i>]pyrrole-4,6-dione] (PBTTPD) and [6,6]-phenyl-C<sub>71</sub>-butyric acid methyl ester (PC<sub>71</sub>BM), including the effect
of the solvent additive 1,6-diiodohexane (DIH). We found that the
local assembly of rigid-rod PBTTPD segments that formed in solution
instantly and then relaxed within several hundred seconds upon cooling
to room temperature from 90 °C could re-emerge and develop into
seeds for subsequent crystallization of the polymer in the solid films.
At room temperature (25 °C), the presence of DIH in chlorobenzene
slightly enhanced the formation of local assembly PBTTPD segments
in the supersaturated PBTTPD in PBTTPD/PC<sub>71</sub>BM blend solution.
Two cases of films were subsequently developed from these blend solutions
with drop-casted and spin-coated methods. For spin-coated thin films
(90 nm thick), which evolve quickly, polymer’s crystallinity
and the fullerene packing in the solid-state thin films were enhanced
in the case of involving DIH. Regarding the effect of DIH for processing
the drop-casted thick films (2.5 μm thick), which evolve slowly,
DIH has no observable effect on PBTTPD/PC<sub>71</sub>BM structure.
Our results provide some understanding of the mechanism behind the
structural development of polymer/fullerene blends upon their transitions
from solution to the solid state, as well as the key functions of
the additive
Quantitative Characterization and Mechanism of Formation of Multilength-scale Bulk Heterojunction Structures in Highly Efficient Solution-Processed Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells
The Intended and Unintended Consequences of Housing Reform Policies in the Pearl River Delta
Quantitative Characterization and Mechanism of Formation of Multilength-scale Bulk Heterojunction Structures in Highly Efficient Solution-Processed Small-Molecule Organic Solar Cells
In this study we used simultaneous
grazing-incidence small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS and
GIWAXS, respectively) to probe the multilength-scale structures of
thin active layers comprising the linear A–D–A-type
π-conjugated donor molecule TBDTCNR and the fullerene acceptor
molecule PC<sub>61</sub>BM for use in solution-processed small-molecule-based
organic solar cells (SMOSCs). We found that the pseudo-two-dimensional
fractal-like networks in the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure were
determined by mutual interactions between the small-molecule (SM)
crystallites and the nanoscale PC<sub>61</sub>BM clusters during their
formation and phase separation, and deduced quantitatively, at multiple
length scales, the BHJ structures comprising these SM crystallites
and PC<sub>61</sub>BM clusters. We also conducted in situ GIWAXS measurements
to study the temporal behavior and kinetics of SM crystallization
from solution to the solid film state. Our GISAXS/GIWAXS study revealed
that the multilength-scale BHJ structures in the thin films could
be tuned effectively by varying the amount of incorporated PC<sub>61</sub>BM and the annealing temperature. This study provides fundamental
information relating to the mechanism of formation of hierarchical
BHJ structures through relatively rapid crystallization of a highly
crystalline SM, as well as the relationships among the hierarchical
structure, the photovoltaic performance, and the mechanism of formation,
thereby allowing greater control over BHJ structures in SMOSCs with
optimized fabrication and performance
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