Development of Food-Luring Baited Traps for Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Monitoring in the Field in Southern China

Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), a red imported fire ant that originated from South America, is a worldwide invasive pest. This study investigated the efficacy of the newly designed baited trap to detect red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta Buren, under field conditions in China. Among the five food lures tested for red imported fire ants, the ants preferred ham sausage and fish powder, followed by mixed powder (50% fish powder + 50% black soldier fly powder) and black soldier fly powder. These lures were compared to sugar water (control) to determine their efficacy in trapping red imported fire ants. Field data revealed that the ham sausage powder trap was more efficient than the fish powder trap based on its ability to trap more red imported fire ants under field conditions and ease of use. Thus, it was concluded that the baited traps are efficient for longterm red imported fire ants monitoring

Advances in design engineering and merits of electron transporting layers in perovskite solar cells

The emerging photovoltaic technology, namely perovskite photovoltaics, follows a style to the blooming flower with superficial prosperity described by the ancient poet Yuxi Liu. Metal-halide perovskite has become one of the most promising photovoltaic materials for thin-film solar-cell applications, mainly due to its exellent visible light capture capability, large diffusion coefficients and long diffusion lengths of charge carriers (both electrons and holes). The reported power conversion efficiency of laboratory produced perovskite solar cells (PSCs) has exceeded 25%. However, this value was only achieved for devices of less than 0.1 cm2 dimensions, and decreases significantly with the increase in area (for example, down to 11.6% for a device area of ∼800 cm2, showing the issues with the scalability). In PSCs, the electron transport layer (ETL) has to perform two essential functions, which are related: (i) to collect and transfer charges after the injection of electrons from the perovskite light harvester; and (ii) to block the backflow of holes, thus realizing effective charge separation and suppressing charge carrier recombination. However, there are several critical issues associated with the ETLs which limit the further development of the PSCs. For example, the experimentally obtained open-circuit voltages in PSCs are typically much lower compared to the theoretical voltage limit with their optical bandgaps between 1.59 and 1.63 eV. This is mainly attributed to inefficient charge transport in the PSCs due to inhomogeneous charge accumulation and serious interfacial recombination at the interfaces between the ETL and the perovskite active layer. We scan recent developments of ETLs in PSCs, and discuss design methodologies, mechanisms, processing and characterization of new types of ETLs. High power conversion efficiency with large open-circuit voltages/photo-currents could be achieved through designing materials and microstructures for high-quality ETLs with a high electron mobility, high electrical conductivity and pinhole-free film morphology. It is crucial to balance the charge diffusion processes in the respective charge collective layers of PSCs as the interfaces between the ETLs and perovskites along with their interfacial structures play key roles in achieving new solid-state mesoscopic solar cells optimized open circuit voltages and output photocurrents

Baseline BMI is associated with clinical symptom improvements in first-episode schizophrenia: a longitudinal study

Background: There is sufficient evidence of the high prevalence of obesity in schizophrenia (SZ) compared to the general population. Previous studies have reported that weight gain correlated with the response to antipsychotics in patients with SZ. Nonetheless, the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and therapeutic benefits remains unclear. This study was designed to investigate the association between baseline BMI and improvements in clinical symptoms after treatment with antipsychotics in first-episode and medication-naïve SZ (FEMNS).Methods: A total of 241 FEMNS patients were enrolled and received risperidone over 12 weeks. The severity of symptoms was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and BMI was measured at baseline and 12-week follow-up.Results: We found that risperidone treatment raised the body weight of FEMNS patients and baseline BMI was negatively correlated with the improvement in negative symptoms (r = −0.14, p = 0.03) after 12-week treatment. Linear regression analysis indicated that baseline BMI was an independent predictor of response to risperidone in the early stage of SZ.Conclusion: The current study suggests a close relationship between baseline BMI and improvement in negative symptoms in SZ