Atmospheric and Aqueous Deposition of Polycrystalline Metal Oxides Using Mist-CVD for Highly Efficient Inverted Polymer Solar Cells

Large scale, cost-effective processing of metal oxide thin films is critical for the fabrication of many novel thin film electronics. To date, however, most of the reported solution-based techniques require either extended thermal anneals or additional synthetic steps. Here we report mist chemical vapor deposition as a solution-based, readily scalable, and open-air method to produce high-quality polycrystalline metal oxide thin films. Continuous, smooth, and conformal deposition of metal oxide thin films is achieved by tuning the solvent chemistry of Leidenfrost droplets to promote finer control over the surface-local dissociation process of the atomized zinc-bearing precursors. We demonstrate the deposited ZnO as highly efficient electron transport layers for inverted polymer solar cells to show the power of the approach. A highest efficiency of 8.7% is achieved with a fill factor of 73%, comparable to that of conventional so-gel ZnO, which serves as an indication of the efficient vertical transport and electron collection achievable using this material

FoxM1 Is Associated with Poor Prognosis of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients through Promoting Tumor Metastasis

<div><p>Background</p><p>FoxM1 has been reported to be important in initiation and progression of various tumors. However, whether FoxM1 has any indication for prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer patients remains unclear.</p> <p>Methodology/Principal Findings</p><p>In this study, FoxM1 expression in tumor cells was examined first by immunohistochemistry in 175 NSCLC specimens, the result of which showed that FoxM1 overexpression was significantly associated with positive smoking status (P = 0.001), poorer tissue differentiation (P = 0.0052), higher TNM stage (P<0.0001), lymph node metastasis (P<0.0001), advanced tumor stage (P<0.0001), and poorer prognosis (P<0.0001). Multivariable analysis showed that FoxM1 expression increased the hazard of death (hazard ratio, 1.899; 95% CI, 1.016–3.551). Furthermore, by various <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> experiments, we showed that targeted knockdown of FoxM1 expression could inhibit the migratory and invasive abilities of NSCLC cells, whereas enforced expression of FoxM1 could increased the invasion and migration of NSCLC cells. Finally, we found that one of the cellular mechanisms by which FoxM1 promotes tumor metastasis is through inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) program.</p> <p>Conclusions</p><p>These results suggested that FoxM1 overexpression in tumor tissues is significantly associated with the poor prognosis of NSCLC patients through promoting tumor metastasis.</p> </div

FoxM1 overexpression induced the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of NSCLC cells.

<p>(A) Representative phase-contrast images of the H292-vector and H292-FoxM1 cells (Magnification: 200×). (B) quantitive real-time PCR analysis of the relative expression of EMT markers as indicated. GADPH were used as loading control. Data are expressed as Mean ±s.d., *<i>p</i><0.05. (C) The relative expression of EMT markers as indicated was determined by immunoblotting (left), and the results of which was further quantified (right). β-actin served as a loading control. (D) The relative expression of Slug as indicated was determined by immunoblotting (left), and the results of which was further quantified (right). β-actin served as a loading control.</p

Ectopic expression of FoxM1 increased the in vitro metastatic potentials of NSCLC cells.

<p>(A, B) The detection of lentivirus-mediated overexpression of FoxM1 in PC-9 and H292 cells by WB and q-PCR, respectively. (C, D) A representative result of the trans-well migration assays for the effects of FoxM1 on the <i>in vitro</i> migratory and invasive abilities of PC-9 and H292 cells. The results are shown as the mean ± s.d., *<i>p</i><0.05.</p

Enforced expression of FoxM1 promoted the in vivo metastatic abilities of NSCLC cells.

<p>(A, B) Visual inspection and fluorescence imaging analysis of lung metastatic nodules in two groups (PC-9-Vector and PC-9-FoxM1) of mouse models by tail vein injection of tumor cells, respectively. (C) The effects of <i>FoxM1</i> on the <i>in vivo</i> metastatic abilities of PC-9 cells in xenograft models of nude mice (n = 6) as determined by examination of mouse lungs for microscopic nodules. Representative results of histological examination of mouse lungs for metastatic nodules (left). The number of lung metastatic noudels in two groups of mouse models (right). The results are shown as the mean ± s.d., *<i>p</i><0.05.</p

FoxM1 overexpression correlated with substantially poor prognosis of NSCLC patients.

<p>(A) Representative results of FoxM1 staining in NSCLC tumor tissues analyzed by immunohistochemistry (a, negative; b, weak; c, moderate; d, intense, respectively). Representative results of FoxM1 expression levels between lymph node positive (e) and lymph node negative (f) (a-f, left, magnification: ×100; right, magnification: ×400). (B) Overall survival analyses for all patients (a), patients with stage I/II (b) and patients with stage III/IV (c) according to the results of immunohistochemistry analysis. The log-rank test was used to test the two survival distributions. P<0.05 was considered to have statistical significance.</p

Targeted knockdown of FoxM1 expression inhibited the in vitro metastatic potentials of NSCLC cells.

<p>(A, B) The detection of lentivirus-mediated knockdown of FoxM1 in PC-9 and H1299 cells by WB and q-PCR, respectively. (C, D) A representative result of the trans-well migration assays for the effects of FoxM1 on the <i>in vitro</i> migratory and invasive abilities of PC-9 and H1299 cells. The results are shown as the mean ± s.d., *<i>p</i><0.05.</p

Multivariable analysis for the effect of FoxM1 expression on survival.

<p>Abbreviation: No., number; TNM, tumor node metastasis.</p>*<p>significant.</p

The effects of rs199618935 on PTPN11 transcriptional activity as determined by luciferase reporter assay.

<p>In three tested cell lines, significant difference was observed for the relative luciferase activity among allele 12, 14 and 15 constructs. * indicates <i>P</i><0.05, ** indicates <i>P</i><0.01 compared with construct containing allele 12 within the same group.</p

Logistic regression analyses for the association between rs199618935 and risk of HCC in HBV positive and negative groups.

a<p>Adjusted for sex, age, smoking status, drinking status and HBV infection.</p><p>Logistic regression analyses for the association between rs199618935 and risk of HCC in HBV positive and negative groups.</p