19.2% Efficient InP Heterojunction Solar Cell with Electron-Selective TiO2 Contact.

We demonstrate an InP heterojunction solar cell employing an ultrathin layer (∼10 nm) of amorphous TiO2 deposited at 120 °C by atomic layer deposition as the transparent electron-selective contact. The TiO2 film selectively extracts minority electrons from the conduction band of p-type InP while blocking the majority holes due to the large valence band offset, enabling a high maximum open-circuit voltage of 785 mV. A hydrogen plasma treatment of the InP surface drastically improves the long-wavelength response of the device, resulting in a high short-circuit current density of 30.5 mA/cm2 and a high power conversion efficiency of 19.2%

Phenomic analysis of chronic granulomatous disease reveals more severe integumentary infections in X-Linked compared with autosomal recessive chronic granulomatous disease

BACKGROUND : Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is an inborn error of immunity (IEI), characterised by recurrent bacterial and fungal infections. It is inherited either in an Xlinked (XL) or autosomal recessive (AR) mode. Phenome refers to the entire set of phenotypes expressed, and its study allows us to generate new knowledge of the disease. The objective of the study is to reveal the phenomic differences between XL and AR-CGD by using Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) terms. METHODS : We collected data on 117 patients with genetically diagnosed CGD from Asia and Africa referred to the Asian Primary Immunodeficiency Network (APID network). Only 90 patients with sufficient clinical information were included for phenomic analysis. We used HPO terms to describe all phenotypes manifested in the patients. RESULTS : XL-CGD patients had a lower age of onset, referral, clinical diagnosis, and genetic diagnosis compared with AR-CGD patients. The integument and central nervous system were more frequently affected in XL-CGD patients. Regarding HPO terms, perianal abscess, cutaneous abscess, and elevated hepatic transaminase were correlated with XL-CGD. A higher percentage of XL-CGD patients presented with BCGitis/BCGosis as their first manifestation. Among our CGD patients, lung was the most frequently infected organ, with gastrointestinal system and skin ranking second and third, respectively. Aspergillus species, Mycobacterium bovis, and Mycobacteirum tuberculosis were the most frequent pathogens to be found. CONCLUSION : Phenomic analysis confirmed that XL-CGD patients have more recurrent and aggressive infections compared with AR-CGD patients. Various phenotypic differences listed out can be used as clinical handles to distinguish XL or AR-CGD based on clinical features.The Society for Relief of Disabled Children and Jeffrey Modell Foundation.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunologydm2022Paediatrics and Child Healt

Human germline heterozygous gain-of-function STAT6 variants cause severe allergic disease

STAT6 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 6) is a transcription factor that plays a central role in the pathophysiology of allergic inflammation. We have identified 16 patients from 10 families spanning three continents with a profound phenotype of early-life onset allergic immune dysregulation, widespread treatment-resistant atopic dermatitis, hypereosinophilia with esosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, asthma, elevated serum IgE, IgE-mediated food allergies, and anaphylaxis. The cases were either sporadic (seven kindreds) or followed an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern (three kindreds). All patients carried monoallelic rare variants in STAT6 and functional studies established their gain-of-function (GOF) phenotype with sustained STAT6 phosphorylation, increased STAT6 target gene expression, and TH2 skewing. Precision treatment with the anti-IL-4Rα antibody, dupilumab, was highly effective improving both clinical manifestations and immunological biomarkers. This study identifies heterozygous GOF variants in STAT6 as a novel autosomal dominant allergic disorder. We anticipate that our discovery of multiple kindreds with germline STAT6 GOF variants will facilitate the recognition of more affected individuals and the full definition of this new primary atopic disorder

Targeted gene sanger sequencing should remain the first-tier genetic test for children suspected to have the five common X-linked inborn errors of immunity

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.To address inborn errors of immunity (IEI) which were underdiagnosed in resource-limited regions, our centre developed and offered free genetic testing for the most common IEI by Sanger sequencing (SS) since 2001. With the establishment of The Asian Primary Immunodeficiency (APID) Network in 2009, the awareness and definitive diagnosis of IEI were further improved with collaboration among centres caring for IEI patients from East and Southeast Asia. We also started to use whole exome sequencing (WES) for undiagnosed cases and further extended our collaboration with centres from South Asia and Africa. With the increased use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), we have shifted our diagnostic practice from SS to WES. However, SS was still one of the key diagnostic tools for IEI for the past two decades. Our centre has performed 2,024 IEI SS genetic tests, with in-house protocol designed specifically for 84 genes, in 1,376 patients with 744 identified to have disease-causing mutations (54.1%). The high diagnostic rate after just one round of targeted gene SS for each of the 5 common IEI (X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) 77.4%, Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome (WAS) 69.2%, X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (XCGD) 59.5%, X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) 51.1%, and X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome (HIGM1) 58.1%) demonstrated targeted gene SS should remain the first-tier genetic test for the 5 common X-linked IEI.The Hong Kong Society for Relief of Disabled Children and Jeffrey Modell Foundation.http://www.frontiersin.org/Immunologyam2023Paediatrics and Child Healt

Hybrid optimization assisted deep convolutional neural network for hardening prediction in steel

Hardness is a property that prevents forced scraping or surface penetration of material surfaces against deformation. Indeed, some methods in the tradition of forecasting the mechanical properties of the steel used to recommend a new hardening forecast using a profound learning model. More particularly, an Optimized Deep Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) framework is used that makes the prediction more accurate and precise. The input given to the model is the chemical composition of steel along with the distance from the quenched end, which directly predicts the hardening of steel as the model already knows of it. Moreover, to make the prediction more accurate, this paper aims to make a fine-tuning of Convolutional layers in DCNN. This paper suggests a new hybrid algorithm for optimal tuned, which is then hybridized Sea Lion Optimization (SLNO), Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), and Sea Lion insisted on Dragon Fly Modification (SL-DU). This is an optimal tuning. Finally, the performance of the proposed work is compared and validated over other state-of-the-art models for error measures. Finally, the performance of the adopted system was evaluated compared with other traditional systems and the results were achieved. According to the analysis, the MAE of the pattern used for distance 1.5 was 77.16%, 9.84%, 12.71%, and 23.36% better than regression, MVR, ANN, and CNN

Boosting efficiency of planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells by a low temperature TiCl4 treatment

It is well known that electron transport layer (ETL) plays an indispensable role in the planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells (PSCs). TiO2 is widely used as an ETL material due to its excellent transport properties, however, the presence of defects in the TiO2 layer diminishes the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the devices. Herein, we introduce a method of low-temperature TiCl4 treatment to deposit a TiOx layer on the surface of TiO2 film, which can effectively passivate trap states at the TiO2 surface. Moreover, the treating process is optimized to be 30min using a 40mM TiCl4 aqueous solution. Benefiting from this, we obtain the champion device with the highest PCE of 18.47%, which is mainly due to the reduction of surface defects and the deposition of the well-crystallized perovskite films. Besides, the modified PSCs exhibit an average PCE of 17.59%, which is much better than the control devices

A general salt-resistant hydrophilic/hydrophobic nanoporous double layer design for efficient and stable solar water evaporation distillation

A novel and elegant hydrophilic/hydrophobic nanoporous double layer structure was designed and developed for efficient long-term water desalination. It contained a hydrophobic salt-resistant hierarchical layer of well-defined Cu2SnSe3 (or Cu2ZnSnSe4) nanosphere arrays for broad solar harvesting and water vapor evaporation, and a hydrophilic filter membrane for continuous water supply and vapor generation. The as-fabricated self-floatable devices achieve remarkable solar water evaporation performances (average evaporation rate: 1.657 kg m−2 h−1 and solar thermal conversion efficiency: 86.6% under one sun) with super stability for water distillation from seawater and wastewater containing organic dyes, heavy metals and bacteria.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61774122), the Science and Technology Developing Project of Shaanxi Province under Grant No. 2015KW-001, and the 111 Project from China (B18013, B14040). Y. P. Du gratefully acknowledge the NSFC (Grant No. 21371140), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0208000), 111 Project (B18030) from China, and the China National Funds for Excellent Young Scientists (Grant No. 21522106)