Explore the vast range of titles available.

Windows are the least energy efficient part of the buildings, as building accounts for 40% of global energy consumption. Traditional smart windows can only regulate solar transmission, while all the solar energy on the window is wasted. Here, for the first time, the authors demonstrate an energy saving and energy generation integrated smart window (ESEG smart window) in a simple way by combining louver structure solar cell, thermotropic hydrogel, and indium tin oxides (ITO) glass. The ESEG smart window can achieve excellent optical properties with ≈90% luminous transmission and ≈54% solar modulation, which endows excellent energy saving performance. The outstanding photoelectric conversion efficiency (18.24%) of silicon solar cells with louver structure gives the smart window excellent energy generation ability, which is more than 100% higher than previously reported energy generation smart window. In addition, the solar cell can provide electricity to for ITO glass to turn the transmittance of hydrogel actively, as well as the effect of antifreezing. This work offers an insight into the design and preparation together with a disruptive strategy of easy fabrication, good uniformity, and scalability, which opens a new avenue to realize energy storage, energy saving, active control, and antifreezing integration in one device. The authors develop a revolutionary smart window with a multi‐layer louver structure, containing a silicon solar cell, thermotropic hydrogel, and ITO active layer, which combine both an energy saving and energy generation ability (ESEG smart window) with leverages high solar energy modulation together with high photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE).

Iron–chromium redox flow batteries (ICRFB) possess the advantage of low raw material cost, intrinsic safety, long charge–discharge cycle life, good life-cycle economy, and environmental friendliness, which has attracted attention from academia and industry over time. The proton exchange membrane (PEM) is an important part of the ICRFB system, impacting the efficiency and lifetime of the battery. Currently, the most widely used PEMs in the market are per-fluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) membranes, which possess high electrolyte stability and achieve the separation of positive and negative electrolytes. In addition, the complex preparation process and extremely high market price limited the usage of PEM in ICRFB. In this paper, we developed a remanufactured membrane (RM) strategy from waste PFSA resins. The RM has higher electrical conductivity and better proton transport ability than the commodity membrane N212. In the cell performance test, the RM exhibits similar coulombic efficiency (CE) as N212 at different current densities, which is stabilized at over 95%. Furthermore, the voltage efficiency (VE) and energy efficiency (EE) of the RM are improved compared to N212. At a current strength of 140 mA cm−2, the degree of energy loss is lower in the RM, and after 60 cycles, the capacity decay rate is lower by only 16.66%, leading to long-term battery life. It is a cost-effective method for membrane recovery and reformulation, which is suitable for large-scale application of ICRFB in the future.

Purpose Ample evidence has revealed that the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), albumin-to-globulin ratio (AGR), and mean platelet volume (MPV) are cancer-related inflammatory markers. The present study aimed to combine these indicators to better assess the progression of colon cancer. Methods This retrospective study enrolled 251 patients with colon cancer, 171 patients with benign colon diseases, and 187 healthy control subjects. The receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the curve (AUC) were used to determine the diagnostic values of the selected inflammatory index. Results The levels of LMR, AGR, and MPV were decreased in the colon cancer group compared with the healthy control and benign colon disease groups. The LMR, AGR, and MPV were all correlated with tumor size. Moreover, LMR and AGR was associated with lymph node metastasis and clinical stage, AGR was related to distant metastasis. Both the LMR (P = .030) and AGR (P = .005) were negatively correlated with the concentration of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). The AUC value of MPV combined with CEA had a good diagnostic ability for distinguishing colon cancer cases (AUC = .950) and patients with benign colon diseases (AUC = .886) from controls. Meanwhile, the combination of LMR or AGR with CEA could enhance larger AUC (.746 for LMR + CEA, .737 for AGR + CEA) than CEA, LMR, or AGR alone in detecting colon cancer from benign colon diseases. Conclusions CEA combined with the LMR, AGR, or MPV may be used as better blood-based biomarkers in the progression of colon cancer patients.

Carbon dots (CDs), a new zero-dimensional material, have ignited a revolution in the fields of sensing, bioimaging, and biomedicine. However, the difficulty of preparing CDs with Fenton-like catalytic properties has seriously hindered their application in the diagnosis of oxidation/reduction biomolecules or metal ions. Here, an innovative method was successfully established to synthesize Mn 3+ /Mn 4+ ion-doped blue-green fluorescent CDs with Fenton-like catalytic properties using manganese acetate as the manganese source. Specifically, the CDs prepared here were equipped with functional groups of -COOH, NH 2 , C=O, and Mn-O, offering the possibility to function as a fluorescence sensor. More importantly, the introduction of manganese acetate resulted in the preparation of CDs with Fenton-like catalytic properties, and the dual-signal fluorescence detection of dopamine (DA) was realized with linear ranges of 100–275 nM and 325–525 nM, and the detection limits were 3 and 12 nM, respectively. In addition, due to the Fenton-like catalytic activity of Mn 3+ /Mn 4+ ion-doped CDs, the material has broad application prospects in the detection of oxidation/reduction biomolecules or metal ions related to disease diagnosis and prevention.

Iron-chromium redox flow batteries (ICRFBs) have emerged as promising energy storage devices due to their safety, environmental protection, and reliable performance. The carbon cloth (CC), often used in ICRFBs as the electrode, provides a suitable platform for electrochemical processes owing to its high surface area and interconnected porous structure. However, the CC electrodes have issues, such as, insufficient electron transfer performance, which limits their industrial application. Here, we employed silicic acid etching to carve dense nano-porous structures on the surface of CC electrodes based on the favorable design of ICRFBs and the fundamental principles of electrode polarization losses. As a result, we developed a multifunctional carbon cloth electrode with abundant vacancies, notably enhancing the performance of the battery. The fabricated electrode showcased a wealth of defect sites and superior electronic transport properties, offering an extensive and effective reaction area for rapidly flowing electrolytes. With an electrode compression ratio of 40% and the highest current density in ICRFBs so far (140 mA·cm −2 ), the battery achieved the average energy efficiency of 81.3%, 11.24% enhancement over the previously published work. Furthermore, throughout 100 charge–discharge cycles, the average energy efficiency degradation was negligible (∼ 0.04%), which has the potential to become the most promising candidate for large-scale and long-term electrochemical energy storage applications.

The environmental problems of global warming and fossil fuel depletion are increasingly severe, and the demand for energy conversion and storage is increasing. Ecological issues such as global warming and fossil fuel depletion are increasingly stringent, increasing energy conversion and storage needs. The rapid development of clean energy, such as solar energy, wind energy and hydrogen energy, is expected to be the key to solve the energy problem. Several excellent literature works have highlighted quantum dots in supercapacitors, lithium-sulfur batteries, and photocatalytic hydrogen production. Here, we outline the latest achievements of quantum dots and their composites materials in those energy storage applications. Moreover, we rationally analyze the shortcomings of quantum dots in energy storage and conversion, and predict the future development trend, challenges, and opportunities of quantum dots research.

A total of 398 chili pepper germplasms were used as test materials and genetic diversity and correlation analysis were performed on 17 botanical traits. The results of diversity analysis showed that the diversity indexes of the 17 botanical traits ranged from 0.15 to 5.97 with the average value of 4.12. The data distributions of 11 quantitative traits were more dispersed than qualitative traits. The average value of eoefficient of variation was 36.90% and the variation ranges were one to six times larger than the average value. The results of correlation analysis showed that plant height had significantly positive correlations with plant breadth, leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, the frrst flower node and carpopodium length. The In＇st flower node was significantly negatively correlated with fruit length, fruit width, flesh thickness and weight per fruit and signifieantly positively correlated with plant height and plant breadth. The flesh thickness was significantly positively correlated with leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, fruit length, fruit width and carpopodium length. The weight per fruit was significantly positively correlated with leaf length, leaf width, petiole length, fruit length, fruit width, carpopodium length and flesh thickness. Materials with low first flower node, moderate plant height and width and large fruit should be selected for the breeding of early-maturing and high-yield chili pepper varieties. The genetic distances between chili pepper traits were calculated based on the genotypic values of the 11 quantitative traits. The genetic distances between different traits ranged from 14.26 to 32.99. The 11 quantitative traits were divided into seven groups when the rescaled distance was ten, which further clarified the relationships between different traits. The research results laid a solid foundation for the new variety breeding of chili pepper.

In order to isolate and identify the pathogens causing Fusarium wilt in bitter gourd in Hainan Province, China, four bitter gourd plants exhibiting symptoms of Fusarium wilt were collected from Tunchang County, Hainan Province. Four pathogen strains （HNTC-01, HNTC-02, HNTC-03 and HNTC-04） were isolated from the four plants, and identified via morphological observation and molecular techniques. The results showed that HNTC--01, HNTC-03 and HNTC-04 were F. oxysporum, while HNTC-02 was F. graminearum. The tests on pathogenicity and host specificity showed that HNTC-01, HNTC-03 and HNTC-04 were F. oxysporum Schl. f. sp. momordicae. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that HNTC-01, HNTC-03, HNTC-04 were clustered together with 14 strains of F. oxysporum, and HNTC-02 was clustered together with six strains of F. graminearum. In addition, rDNA-ITS region can be used to distinguish different Fusarium species, but can not be used to distinguish different biotypes within a Fusarium species. This study could provide a scientific basis for the diagnosis and prevention of wilt in bitter gourd.

[ Objective] This study aimed to identify and evaluate the resistance of bitter gourd germplasms to Meloidogyne incognita. [ Method] A total of 71 bit-ter gourd germplasms were artificially inoculated with M. incognita at seedling stage to investigate the effects of M. incognita on resistance indexes of bitter gourd seedlings. Cluster analysis and subordinate function analysis were performed to identify and evaluate the resistance of experimental materials. [ Result] The infec-tion of M. incognita increased the variation coefficients of resistance indexes. The resistance to M. incognita varied significantly among different bitter gourd germ- plasms. Based on gall index, 71 bitter gourd germplasms were divided into five types by cluster analysis, including resistant materials, moderately resistant materi-als ,moderately susceptible materials, susceptible materials and highly susceptible materials. The subordinate function analysis showed that total subordinate func-tion values of Y107, Y109, Y108, Y51, Y105, Y81, Y89, Y140 and Y94 exceeded 1.95 , indicating high resistance to M. incognita. [ Conclusion] This study could provide resistant materials for breeding root-knot nematode resistant varieties of bitter gourd.

Kagome lattice composed of transition-metal ions provides a great opportunity to explore the intertwining between geometry, electronic orders and band topology. The discovery of multiple competing orders that connect intimately with the underlying topological band structure in nonmagnetic kagome metals A V 3 Sb 5 ( A  = K, Rb, Cs) further pushes this topic to the quantum frontier. Here we report a new class of vanadium-based compounds with kagome bilayers, namely A V 6 Sb 6 ( A  = K, Rb, Cs) and V 6 Sb 4 , which, together with A V 3 Sb 5 , compose a series of kagome compounds with a generic chemical formula ( A m -1 Sb 2 m )(V 3 Sb) n ( m  = 1, 2; n  = 1, 2). Theoretical calculations combined with angle-resolved photoemission measurements reveal that these compounds feature Dirac nodal lines in close vicinity to the Fermi level. Pressure-induced superconductivity in A V 6 Sb 6 further suggests promising emergent phenomena in these materials. The establishment of a new family of layered kagome materials paves the way for designer of fascinating kagome systems with diverse topological nontrivialities and collective ground states. Kagome lattices composed of transition-metal ions have recently attracted great interest. Here, the authors report a new class of vanadium-based compounds with kagome bilayers which show lines of Dirac nodes in reciprocal space and superconductivity under pressure.