A Preamble Re-utilizing Access Scheme for Machine-Type Communications with Optimal Access Class Barring

Wireless Personal Communications - The existing long term evolution networks originally designed for human-to-human communications are hard to tackle numerous and bursty random access requests from...     

Multiply Charged Conjugated Polyelectrolytes as a Multifunctional Interlayer for Efficient and Scalable Perovskite Solar Cells

A series of anionic conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) is synthesized based on poly(fluorene-co-phenylene) by varying the side-chain ionic density from two to six per repeat units (MPS2-TMA, MPS4-TMA, and MPS6-TMA). The effect of MPS2, 4, 6-TMA as interlayers on top of a hole-extraction layer of poly(bis(4-phenyl)-2,4,6-trimethylphenylamine (PTAA) is investigated in inverted perovskite solar cells (PeSCs). Owing to the improved wettability of perovskites on hydrophobic PTAA with the CPEs, the PeSCs with CPE interlayers demonstrate a significantly enhanced device performance, with negligible device-to-device dependence relative to the reference PeSC without CPEs. By increasing the ionic density in the MPS-TMA interlayers, the wetting, interfacial defect passivation, and crystal growth of the perovskites are significantly improved without increasing the series resistance of the PeSCs. In particular, the open-circuit voltage increases from 1.06 V for the PeSC with MPS2-TMA to 1.11 V for the PeSC with MPS6-TMA. The trap densities of the PeSCs with MPS2,4,6-TMA are further analyzed using frequency-dependent capacitance measurements. Finally, a large-area (1 cm²) PeSC is successfully fabricated with MPS6-TMA, showing a power conversion efficiency of 18.38% with negligible hysteresis and a stable power output under light soaking for 60 s.     

In vivo Kinetic Biodistribution of Nano‐Sized Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Bacteria

Evaluation of kinetic distribution and behaviors of nanoparticles in vivo provides crucial clues into their roles in living organisms. Extracellular vesicles are evolutionary conserved nanoparticles, known to play important biological functions in intercellular, inter‐species, and inter‐kingdom communication. In this study, the first kinetic analysis of the biodistribution of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)—bacterial extracellular vesicles—with immune‐modulatory functions is performed. OMVs, injected intraperitoneally, spread to the whole mouse body and accumulate in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney within 3 h of administration. As an early systemic inflammation response, increased levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6 are observed in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, the number of leukocytes and platelets in the blood is decreased. OMVs and cytokine concentrations, as well as body temperature are gradually decreased 6 h after OMV injection, in concomitance with the formation of eye exudates, and of an increase in ICAM‐1 levels in the lung. Following OMV elimination, most of the inflammatory signs are reverted, 12 h post‐injection. However, leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased as a late reaction. Taken together, these results suggest that OMVs are effective mediators of long distance communication in vivo.     

Densification mechanism during reactive hot pressing of B4C-ZrO2 mixtures

The densification behaviors of pure B₄C and B₄C-ZrO₂ mixtures were compared during hot pressing. The results showed that in-situ formed ZrB₂ effectively enhanced the densification process of B₄C-ZrO₂ mixtures, more significantly during the intermediate stage. Within the relative density ranging from 0.75 to 0.90, the B₄C-15?wt%ZrO₂ mixture (B15Z) achieved the maximum densification rate as twice much as that of pure B₄C. The stress exponent n>3 indicated plastic deformation was the dominant densification mechanism of B15Z. The viscosities of plastic flow were evaluated using Murray-Rodger-William equation and the viscosity of B15Z was only a quarter of that in pure B₄C. The sintering activation energy was calculated to be 305.9?kJ/mol for pure B₄C and 197?kJ/mol for B15Z, respectively. It was proposed that the lower viscosity of plastic flow and activation energy accelerated the sliding and propagating motions of plastic flow, by which underlain the enhanced densification behaviors of B₄C-ZrO₂ mixtures.     

Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Ethylene by Molecular Cu‐Complex Immobilized on Graphitized Mesoporous Carbon

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to hydrocarbons is a challenging task because of the issues in controlling the efficiency and selectivity of the products. Among the various transition metals, copper has attracted attention as it yields more reduced and C2 products even while using mononuclear copper center as catalysts. In addition, it is found that reversible formation of copper nanoparticle acts as the real catalytically active site for the conversion of CO₂ to reduced products. Here, it is demonstrated that the dinuclear molecular copper complex immobilized over graphitized mesoporous carbon can act as catalysts for the conversion of CO₂ to hydrocarbons (methane and ethylene) up to 60%. Interestingly, high selectivity toward C2 product (40% faradaic efficiency) is achieved by a molecular complex based hybrid material from CO₂ in 0.1 m KCl. In addition, the role of local pH, porous structure, and carbon support in limiting the mass transport to achieve the highly reduced products is demonstrated. Although the spectroscopic analysis of the catalysts exhibits molecular nature of the complex after 2 h bulk electrolysis, morphological study reveals that the newly generated copper cluster is the real active site during the catalytic reactions.     

Combination of vegetable soup and glucan demonstrates synergistic effects on macrophage-mediated immune responses

Vegetable soup (VS), a plant-based functional food, has been used as a traditional folk medicine and is attracting attention for its ability to enhance the immune response. β-Glucan, a well-established and effective immunomodulator, has synergistic effects when used in combination with some bioactive compounds. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the synergistic immunomodulatory effects of the combination of VS and β-glucan on macrophage-mediated immune responses. β-Glucan was demonstrated to synergistically enhance the VS-stimulated immune response, including the production of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and nitric oxide, mainly through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in macrophages. In addition, this combination has the potential for further development in functional foods with immune-enhancing activity.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-021-00888-x.