A Multiscale-Porous Anion Exchange Membrane for Convenient and Scalable Electrokinetic Concentration of Cationic Species

A device able to electrokinetically concentrate cationic samples has many potential medical and industrial applications, but until now has remained undeveloped due to the lack of a commercial anion-permselective material leading to a prohibitively complex fabrication procedure. Herein, a novel multiscale-porous anion exchange membrane (MP-AEM) that enables the convenient and scalable electrokinetic concentration of cationic species is proposed. A mechanically enhanced multiscale-porous structure with a solid framework is realized by adopting polyester resin as an additive to overcome the intrinsic limitations of the AEM material. The scalable MP-AEM-embedded electrokinetic concentrator is devised based on the peculiar properties of the MP-AEM that for allow both ion and fluid transport. With the MP-AEM, the concentrator is fabricated in a highly streamlined manner consisting only of a simple insertion and assembly. The concentration performance of the MP-AEM-embedded electrokinetic concentrator is demonstrated with a positively charged fluorescent dye and a fluorescein-labeled protein, and the results show enrichment factors of 250 and 500, respectively. The MP-AEM makes cationic electrokinetic concentration more accessible and scalable, thereby enabling further progress in a wide range of fields.     

Understanding trust in ms-commerce: The roles of reported experience,linguistic style,profile photo,emotional, and cognitive trust

This paper examines what influences trust in mobile social commerce environment. Drawing on trust-based acceptance model (i.e. cognitive and emotional trust) and online review features (i.e. profile photo, linguistic style, and reported experience), we examine how these factors affect trust in mobile social commerce. Hypotheses were tested using survey data. The results of our model showed that there are significant influences of profile photo, reported experience, cognitive, and emotional trust towards trust in ms-commerce. This work contributes to existing literature by examining the roles of previous trust in mobile payments and online reviews on trust in mobile social commerce.     

Mechanophysical Cues in Extracellular Matrix Regulation of Cell Behavior

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a macromolecular network that can provide biochemical and structural support for cell adhesion and formation. It regulates cell behavior by influencing biochemical and physical cues. It is a dynamic structure whose components are modified, degraded, or deposited during connective tissue development, giving tissues strength and structural integrity. The physical properties of the natural ECM environment control the design of naturally or synthetically derived biomaterials to guide cell function in tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is an important field that explores physical cues of the ECM to produce new viable tissue for medical applications, such as in organ transplant and organ recovery. Understanding how the ECM exerts physical effects on cell behavior, when cells are seeded in synthetic ECM scaffolds, is of utmost importance. Herein we review recent findings in this area that report on cell behaviors in a variety of ECMs with different physical properties, i.e., topology, geometry, dimensionality, stiffness, and tension.     

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.     

Algorithmic Fairness in Mortgage Lending: from Absolute Conditions to Relational Trade-offs

Minds and Machines - To address the rising concern that algorithmic decision-making may reinforce discriminatory biases, researchers have proposed many notions of fairness and corresponding...