Abstract Gene apterous (ap), chip (chi) and beadex (bx) play important roles in the dorsal-ventral compartmentalization in Drosophila wing discs. Meanwhile, Notch signaling is essential to the same process. It has been reported that Ap and Chi function as a tetramer to regulate Notch signaling. At the same time, dLMO (the protein product of gene bx ) regulates the activity of Ap by competing its binding with Chi. However, the detailed functions of Chi and dLMO on Notch signaling and the relevant mechanisms remain largely unknown. Here, we report the detailed functions of Chi and dLMO on Notch signaling. Different Chi protein levels in adjacent cells could activate Notch signaling mainly in the cells with higher level of Chi. dLMO could induce antagonistical phenotypes on Notch signaling compared to that induced by Chi. These processes depend on their direct regulation of fringe ( fng ) transcription.
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is one of the most common drug-resistant forms of epilepsy in adults and usually originates in the hippocampal formations. However, both the network mechanisms that support the seizure spread and the exact directions of ictal propagation remain largely unknown. Here we report the dissection of ictal propagation in the hippocampal-entorhinal cortex (HP-EC) structures using optogenetic methods in multiple brain regions of a kainic acid-induced model of TLE in VGAT-ChR2 transgenic mice. We perform highly temporally precise cross-area analyses of epileptic neuronal networks and find a feed-forward propagation pathway of ictal discharges from the dentate gyrus/hilus (DGH) to the medial entorhinal cortex, instead of a re-entrant loop. We also demonstrate that activating DGH GABAergic interneurons can significantly inhibit the spread of ictal seizures and largely rescue behavioural deficits in kainate-exposed animals. These findings may shed light on future therapeutic treatments of TLE.
Interfacial solar evaporation (ISE) has emerged as a promising technology to alleviate global water scarcity via energy-efficient purification of both wastewater and seawater. While ISE was originally identified and developed during studies of simple double-layered two-dimensional (2D) evaporators, observed limitations in evaporation rate and functionality soon led to the development of three-dimensional (3D) evaporators, which is now recognized as one of the most pivotal milestones in the research field. 3D evaporators significantly enhance the evaporation rates beyond the theoretical limits of 2D evaporators. Furthermore, 3D evaporators could have multifaceted functionalities originating from various functional evaporation surfaces and 3D structures. This review summarizes recent advances in 3D evaporators, focusing on rational design, fabrication and energy nexus of 3D evaporators, and the derivative functions for improving solar evaporation performance and exploring novel applications. Future research prospects are also proposed based on the in-depth understanding of the fundamental aspects of 3D evaporators and the requirements for practical applications.
In situ measurement of residual stress is a challenge, and it is a source of many defects during additive manufacturing (AM). Usually, postmortem measurement is too late to save the product once a defect appears. Most of the existing technologies are predictive simulations and postmortem analysis. However, these technologies cannot directly reflect the stress evolution during the fabrication process. This paper introduces a computer vision-based stress monitoring system combined with finite element method (FEM) technology to estimate the stress development inside of the deposition layer. The system uses a CCD camera and a line laser beam to measure the height of the melt pool and solidified layer, forms a real-time FEM model, and uses the surface displacement between the two states to calculate the stress development during the solidification process. The results show that there is no obvious shape change after solidification. The shape of the melt pool and its solid state is similar. The stress distribution obtained through online monitoring is similar to that from the traditional thermal-stress simulation.
A novel single-ended travelling wave fault location method applicable to the distribution network with multi-branches is presented in this paper. The method only depends on the arrival times of the initial aerial-mode and zero-mode travelling wave, and it can solve the truncation error problem caused by discrete sampling mechanism. In addition, the method is not affected by structure of a distribution system. The feasibility and effectiveness of the presented method is verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation results.
Two indaceno[1,2-b:5,6-b′]difuran-based non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) IDF-IC and IDF-4F were designed and synthesized. IDF-IC and IDF-4F showed strong absorptions in the visible and near-infrared (NIR) region with narrow bandgaps of 1.56–1.62 eV. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of PM6:IDF-IC and PM6:IDF-4F devices were 7.80% and 7.81%, respectively, with open-circuit voltages (Voc's) of 0.905 and 0.736 V, short-circuit current densities (Jsc's) of 14.55 and 17.49 mA/cm2, and fill factors (FFs) of 59% and 61%. These results demonstrate that the fused-ring furan-based NFAs could be one of the promising building blocks in constructing high performance NFAs.
Cathode interfacial materials (CIMs) are important to boost the device performance of perovskite solar cells (PVSCs). Herein, we reported two perylenediimide oligomers, PDI-D and PDI-T, which could play the role of an efficient multifunctional cathode interfacial layer (CIL) in the inverted PVSC. With the combinations of good orthogonal solvent solubility, interfacial dipole, self-doping, and interfacial doping in the PDI-T molecule, the contact barrier between the electron-transport layer and the metal cathode is obviously reduced. Adding to the induced good conductivity, the corresponding inverted PVSC with PDI-T as a CIL shows a promising power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.06% with simultaneously enhanced open-circuit voltage, current density, and fill factor. Moreover, thickness insensitivity of PDI-T CIL to PCE is also observed. Furthermore, good stability with a PCE loss of only 3.3% after 1032 h is also obtained. As such, it is concluded that the multifunctionalities from a single molecule in the CIM provide a new molecular insight for pursuing high-performance and stable inverted PVSCs.
Nature Communications 7: Article number:10962 (2016); Published 21 March 2016; Updated 14 June 2016 In Fig. 1m of this Article, the y axis label has incorrect units and should read ‘Amplitude (μV)’. The correct version of Fig. 1 appears below.