Characterization of Laser-Resistant Port Wine Stain Blood Vessels Using In Vivo Reflectance Confocal Microscopy.

Background and objectivesPort wine stain (PWS) is a congenital vascular malformation of the human skin. Laser is the treatment of choice for PWS. Laser-resistant PWS is one crucial factor accounting for inadequate treatment outcome, which needs to be fully characterized. This study aims to quantitatively characterize the morphology of laser-resistant PWS blood vessels in the upper papillary dermis using in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM).Study design/materials and methodsA total of 42 PWS subjects receiving laser treatment from August 2016 through July 2018 were enrolled into this study. Thirty-three subjects had facial PWS; nine had extremity PWS. All subject's PWS received multiplex 585/1,064 nm laser treatment. RCM images were taken before and after treatment. The density, diameter, blood flow, and depth of PWS blood vessels were analyzed.ResultsWe found 44.4% PWS on the extremities (four out of nine subjects) were laser-resistant, which was significantly higher (P < 0.001) when compared with those PWS on the face (15.2%, 5 out of 33 subjects). The laser-resistant facial PWS blood vessels had significantly higher blood flow (1.35 ± 0.26 U vs. 0.89 ± 0.22 U, P < 0.001), larger blood vessel diameters (109.60 ± 18.24 µm vs. 84.36 ± 24.04 µm, P = 0.033) and were located deeper in the skin (106.01 ± 13.87 µm vs. 87.82 ± 12.57 µm, P < 0.001) in the skin when compared with laser-responsive PWS on the face. The average PWS blood vessel density (17.01 ± 4.63/mm2 vs. 16.61 ± 4.44/mm2 , P = 0.857) was not correlated to the laser resistance.ConclusionsLaser-resistant PWS blood vessels had significantly higher blood flow, larger diameters, and were located deeper in the skin. RCM can be a valuable tool for a prognostic evaluation on laser-resistant lesions before treatment, thereby providing guidance for tailored laser treatment protocols, which may improve the therapeutic outcome. The limitations for this study include relative small sample size and acquisitions of different blood vessels before and after 2 months of treatment. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

An injectable scaffold based on crosslinked hyaluronic acid gel for tissue regeneration

An injectable scaffold of crosslinked hyaluronic acid gel for tissue regeneration.</p

Solvent-molecule interaction induced gating of charge transport through single-molecule junctions

To explore solvent gating of single-molecule electrical conductance due to solvent-molecule interactions, charge transport through single-molecule junctions with different anchoring groups in various solvent environments was measured by using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. We found that the conductance of single-molecule junctions can be tuned by nearly an order of magnitude by varying the polarity of solvent. Furthermore, gating efficiency due to solvent–molecule interactions was found to be dependent on the choice of the anchor group. Theoretical calculations revealed that the polar solvent shifted the molecular-orbital energies, based on the coupling strength of the anchor groups. For weakly coupled molecular junctions, the polar solvent–molecule interaction was observed to reduce the energy gap between the molecular orbital and the Fermi level of the electrode and shifted the molecular orbitals. This resulted in a more significant gating effect than that of the strongly coupled molecules. This study suggested that solvent–molecule interaction can significantly affect the charge transport through single-molecule junctions

Impaired long-term potentiation and long-term memory deficits in xCT-deficient sut mice

xCT is the functional subunit of the cystine/glutamate antiporter system xc−, which exchanges intracellular glutamate with extracellular cystine. xCT has been reported to play roles in the maintenance of intracellular redox and ambient extracellular glutamate, which may affect neuronal function. To assess a potential role of xCT in the mouse hippocampus, we performed fear conditioning and passive avoidance for long-term memories and examined hippocampal synaptic plasticity in wild-type mice and xCT-null mutants, sut mice. Long-term memory was impaired in sut mice. Normal basal synaptic transmission and short-term presynaptic plasticity at hippocampal Schaffer collateral–CA1 synapses were observed in sut mice. However, LTP (long-term potentiation) was significantly reduced in sut mice compared with their wild-type counterparts. Supplementation of extracellular glutamate did not reverse the reduction in LTP. Taken together, our results suggest that xCT plays a role in the modulation of hippocampal long-term plasticity

Anti-resonance features of destructive quantum interference in single-molecule thiophene junctions achieved by electrochemical gating

基于单个有机分子来构筑电子器件为电子器件微型化提供潜在技术方案。本研究发展了可集成电化学门控的单分子电子器件测试芯片技术和科学仪器方法，在实验和理论两个层面对具有相消量子干涉效应的噻吩衍生物分子器件的电输运过程进行了电化学调控研究，从而首次在室温下实现了对单分子电子器件中量子干涉效应的反共振现象的直接观测和调控，为制备基于量子干涉效应的新型分子材料和器件提供了全新的设计思路和策略。该研究充分展示了电化学调控技术在信息材料和器件领域的重要应用潜力，也体现了我校固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室在电化学研究和科学仪器研发领域的技术积累，以及面向科学前沿开展交叉学科探索的研究特色。 该研究工作是在洪文晶教授、上海电力大学陈文博教授、英国兰卡斯特大学Colin Lambert教授指导下完成的。化学化工学院博士生白杰和李晓慧为论文的共同第一作者，刘俊扬副研究员、师佳副教授、研究生唐永翔、刘帅、黄晓娟、谭志冰和萨本栋微纳研究院的杨杨副教授等也参与了研究工作。田中群教授和毛秉伟教授为该工作提供了重要指导。【Abstract】Controlling the electrical conductance and in particular the occurrence of quantum interference in single-molecule junctions through gating effects, has potential for the realization of high-performance functional molecular devices. In this work, we used an electrochemically-gated, mechanically-controllable break junction technique to tune the electronic behaviour of thiophene-based molecular junctions that show destructive quantum interference (DQI) features. By varying the voltage applied to the electrochemical gate at room temperature, we reached a conductance minimum that provides direct evidence of charge transport controlled by an anti-resonance arising from DQI. Our molecular system enables conductance tuning close to two orders of magnitude within the non-faradaic potential region, which is significantly higher than that achieved with molecules not showing DQI. Our experimental results, interpreted using quantum transport theory, demonstrate that electrochemical gating is a promising strategy for obtaining improved in-situ control over the electrical performance of interference-based molecular devices.This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0204902), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21722305, 21673195, 21503179, 21703188), the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning, Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (17ZR1447100), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (14DZ2261000), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M622060) for funding work in Xiamen. It was also supported by EU Horizon 2020 project QuIET under grant agreement no. 767187EC FP7 ITN ‘MOLESCO’ project no. 606728 and UK EPSRC grants EP/N017188/1 and EP/M014452/1 and Leverhulme Trust (Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships no. ECF-2017-186 and ECF-2018-375) for funding instrumentation used in Lancaster. It was also supported by Hungarian and Czech Academies of Sciences (P2015-107) and Hungarian Research Foundation (OTKA 112034) for funding instrumentation used in Hungary. The authors thank Z.-Q. Tian and B.-W. Mao, Xiamen University, for useful discussions. 该工作获得科技部国家重点研发计划课题（2017YFA0204902），国家自然科学基金委优秀青年科学基金等项目（21722305、21673195、21703188、21503179）以及中国博士后科学基金（2017M622060）等项目的资助，也得到了固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室、能源材料化学协同创新中心的支持

Anti-resonance features of destructive quantum interference in single-molecule thiophene junctions achieved by electrochemical gating

Controlling the electrical conductance and in particular the occurrence of quantum interference in single-molecule junctions through gating effects has potential for the realization of high-performance functional molecular devices. In this work we used an electrochemically gated, mechanically controllable break junction technique to tune the electronic behaviour of thiophene-based molecular junctions that show destructive quantum interference features. By varying the voltage applied to the electrochemical gate at room temperature, we reached a conductance minimum that provides direct evidence of charge transport controlled by an anti-resonance arising from destructive quantum interference. Our molecular system enables conductance tuning close to two orders of magnitude within the non-faradaic potential region, which is significantly higher than that achieved with molecules not showing destructive quantum interference. Our experimental results, interpreted using quantum transport theory, demonstrate that electrochemical gating is a promising strategy for obtaining improved in situ control over the electrical performance of interference-based molecular devices. © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions

钙钛矿材料由于其高量子产率、载流子迁移率和独特的光致发光特性而在光电材料领域存在诸多潜在的重要应用。研究钙钛矿材料在纳米尺度下电荷输运的独特尺寸效应对钙钛矿光电器件的设计和开发具有重要的指导意义。洪文晶教授课题组基于机械可控裂结技术自主研发了具有皮米级位移调控灵敏度和飞安级电学测量精度的精密科学仪器，对南开大学李跃龙副教授团队合成的钙钛矿量子点进行了深入表征，研究工作成功将量子干涉的研究体系拓展至在光电领域具有重要应用的钙钛矿材料领域，为未来制备基于量子干涉效应的新型钙钛矿器件提供了一种全新的思路。 这一跨学科国际合作研究工作是在化学化工学院洪文晶教授、英国Lancaster 大学物理系Colin J. Lambert教授以及南开大学电子信息与光电工程学院李跃龙副教授的共同指导下完成的。化工系硕士研究生郑海宁、Lancaster University大学Songjun Hou博士、南开大学硕士研究生辛晨光为论文第一作者。博士后林禄春，博士研究生谭志冰、郑珏婷，硕士研究生蒋枫、张珑漪，本科生何文翔、李庆民等参与了论文的研究工作。刘俊扬特任副研究员、师佳副教授和萨本栋微纳米研究院杨扬副教授也参与了部分指导工作。The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of roomtemperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Auhalogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ‘jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ‘jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials.This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0204902, 2014DFE60170, 2018YFB1500105), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21673195, 21503179, 21490573, 61674084, 61874167), the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Optical Information Science & Technology (Nankai University) of China, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (63181321, 63191414, 96173224), and the 111 Project (B16027), the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (17JCYBJC41400), FET Open project 767187—QuIET, the EU project BAC-TO-FUEL and the UK EPSRC projects EP/N017188/1, EP/M014452/1. 该工作得到国家重点研发计划课题（2017YFA0204902）、国家自然科学基金（21673195、21503179、21490573）、厦门大学“人工智能分析引擎”双一流重大专项等项目的资助，也得到了固体表面物理化学国家重点实验室、能源材料化学协同创新中心的支持

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions

The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of room-temperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Au-halogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ‘jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ‘jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials

Room-temperature quantum interference in single perovskite quantum dot junctions.

The studies of quantum interference effects through bulk perovskite materials at the Ångstrom scale still remain as a major challenge. Herein, we provide the observation of room-temperature quantum interference effects in metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. Single-QD conductance measurements reveal that there are multiple conductance peaks for the CH3NH3PbBr3 and CH3NH3PbBr2.15Cl0.85 QDs, whose displacement distributions match the lattice constant of QDs, suggesting that the gold electrodes slide through different lattice sites of the QD via Au-halogen coupling. We also observe a distinct conductance ’jump’ at the end of the sliding process, which is further evidence that quantum interference effects dominate charge transport in these single-QD junctions. This conductance ’jump’ is also confirmed by our theoretical calculations utilizing density functional theory combined with quantum transport theory. Our measurements and theory create a pathway to exploit quantum interference effects in quantum-controlled perovskite materials