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Yang, Fan

Publications and source records attributed to Yang, Fan.

At least 145 records · Page 8

Rapid Stoichiometry Control in Cu 2 Se Thin Films for Room-Temperature Power Factor Improvement

Cu 2 Se thin films provide a promising route toward relatively safe, sustainable and solution processed thermoelectric (TE) modules in contrast to more expensive and toxic materials currently on the market such as Bi2Te3. Cu 2 Se is known in the TE community for its high performance at high temperature and has recently attracted attention from its large theoretically predicted figure of merit at room temperature. Unfortunately, one of the main limitations encountered so far in Cu 2 Se thin films is that the carrier concentrations are not optimized for TE operation after solution processing. In this work, we conduct a comprehensive study of the structural, optical, and TE properties of Cu 2 Se thin films and demonstrate that nonoptimized carrier concentrations in these films lead to observations of poor performance at room temperature. Through a simple soaking procedure in a Cu+ ion solution for only a few minutes, we demonstrate a 200-300% increase in power factor. This soaking process pushes the carrier concentration of the Cu 2 Se thin film toward its optimal value for TE operation and marks the highest TE performance for any solution processed Cu 2 Se thin film at room temperature thus far. If the performance can be further optimized at room temperature, Cu 2 Se thin films will be the material of choice to utilize in TE modules for powering miniature electronics and sensors, which has been an increasingly popular and rapidly expanding market.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Machine Learning Applied to Star–Galaxy–QSO Classification and Stellar Effective Temperature Regression

In modern astrophysics, machine learning has increasingly gained popularity with its incredibly powerful ability to make predictions or calculated suggestions for large amounts of data. We describe an application of the supervised machine-learning algorithm, random forests (RF), to the star/galaxy/QSO classification and the stellar effective temperature regression based on the combination of Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic data. This combination enables us to obtain reliable predictions with one of the largest training samples ever used. The training samples are built with a nine-color data set of about three million objects for the classification and a seven-color data set of over one million stars for the regression. The performance of the classification and regression is examined with validation and blind tests on the objects in the RAdial Velocity Extension, 6dFGS, UV-bright Quasar Survey and Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment surveys. We demonstrate that RF is an effective algorithm, with classification accuracies higher than 99% for stars and galaxies, and higher than 94% for QSOs. These accuracies are higher than machine-learning results in former studies. The total standard deviations of the regression are smaller than 200 K, which is similar to those of some spectrum-based methods. The machine-learning algorithm with the broad-band photometry provides us with a more efficient approach for dealing with massive amounts of astrophysical data than do traditional color cuts and spectral energy distribution fits.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Beyond the wall: High-throughput quantification of plant soluble and cell-wall bound phenolics by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Plants accumulate several thousand of phenolic compounds, including lignins and flavonoids, which are mainly synthesized through the phenylpropanoid pathway, and play important roles in plant growth and adaptation. A novel high-throughput ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was established to quantify the levels of 19 flavonoids and 15 other phenolic compounds, including acids, aldehydes, and alcohols. The chromatographic separation was performed in 10 minutes, allowing for the resolution of isomers such as 3-, 4-, and 5-chlorogenic acids, 4-hydroxybenzoic and salicylic acids, isoorientin and orientin, and luteolin and kaempferol. The linearity range for each compound was found to be in the low fmol to the high pmol. Furthermore, this UHPLC-MS/MS approach was shown to be very sensitive with limits of detection between 1.5 attomoles to 300 fmoles, and limits of quantification between 5 attomoles to 1,000 fmoles. Extracts from maize seedlings were used to assess the robustness of the method in terms of recovery efficiency, matrix effect, and accuracy. The biological matrix did not suppress the signal for 32 out of the 34 metabolites under investigation. Additionally, the majority of the analytes were recovered from the biological samples with an efficiency above 75 %. All flavonoids and other phenolic compounds had an intra- and inter-day accuracy within a ± 20 % range, except for coniferyl alcohol and vanillic acid. Finally, the quantification of flavonoids, free and cell wall-bound phenolics in seedlings from two maize lines with contrasting phenolic content was successfully achieved using this methodology.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Alkali-free Ce-doped and co-doped fluorophosphate glasses for future HEP experiments

Here we report status of alkali-free cerium-doped and co-doped fluorophosphate glasses as a potential inorganic scintillator for future high energy physics experiments. Optical and scintillation properties, such as emission, transmittance, light output, decay time and their degradation after $\gamma$-ray irradiations, are measured for glass samples produced at AFO Research Inc. Further developments are needed for this potential cost-effective glass scintillator to be used for the HHCAL detector concept.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Short-term effects of particulate matter in metro cabin on heart rate variability in young healthy adults: Impacts of particle size and source

Highlights: • Exposure to metro PM was associated with decreased HRV in young healthy adults. • The strength and lag time for effects of PM on HRV varied by particle size. • Greater decreases in HRV suggested that females were more susceptible to the effects of PM exposure. • Ambient PM from combustion source (indicated by black carbon) has adverse health effects on passengers in cabin. Metro system has become popular in urban areas. However, short-term effects of size-fractionated particulate matter (PM) on cardiac autonomic function in metro system remain unexplored.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Renal tubules transcriptome reveals metabolic maladaption during the progression of ischemia-induced acute kidney injury

Highlights: • We used the most common AKI model caused by renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) and established a severe AKI model with progressive renal pathology. • This study is the first to isolate renal tubules and charaterize tubular specific transcriptome during AKI progression. • Tubule specific transcriptome revealed that the deregulation of lipid metabolism occurred in multi-step wise, particularly in the process of lipid transport and FAO inhibition, which may result in TECs apoptosis, dedifferentiation and renal fibrogenesis. Renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs) play a critical role in driving acute kidney injury (AKI) progression, but the key molecular features in TECs during this process is not clear. To better understand the molecular characteristics in renal TECs during AKI and renal fibrogenesis, an irreversible AKI mouse model induced by ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) was used in this study. The renal tubules were isolated and tubule specific transcriptome was detected by RNA-seq at different stages in the progression of AKI in this model. The overall transcriptome indicated injury and repair process of TEC after renal IRI. In addition, metabolism maladaption was observed during AKI progression to chronic fibrosis. Particularly, we found dysregulation of multiple steps of lipid metabolism in tubule transcriptomes. Oil red O staining revealed massive lipid droplets accumulation in TECs at day 10, thus confirming the defect of lipid metabolism. This is the first study to charaterize renal tubule specific transcriptome during AKI progression. The results shed light on the molecular features in TECs for progressive AKI.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

pH low insertion peptide mediated cell division cycle-associated protein 1 -siRNA transportation for prostatic cancer therapy targeted to the tumor microenvironment

Highlights: • Expression of CDCA1 in prostatic cancer cells and tissues. • Intracellular translocation of CDCA1-siRNA mediated by pHLIP. • pHLIP-CDCA1-siRNA suppresses xenograft prostatic tumor growth in vivo. • pHLIP-CDCA1-siRNA promote xenograft prostatic tumor cells apoptosis in vivo. Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common malignancy in male urinary system. Cell division cycle-associated protein 1 (CDCA1) is expressed highly in many cancer cells. Yet, whether CDCA1 play an important role in PCa progression is uncertain. pH low insertion peptide (pHLIP), a PH-induced transmembrane structure, can pass through the cell membrane into intracellular in an acidic environment. In this study, we try to confirm the expression status of CDCA1 in the PCa patients' tissues and PCa cell line. In addition, to make the CDCA1-siRNA efficiently targeting the PCa cells, pHLIP and CDCA1-siRNA were combined with disulfide bond to become effector molecules. By the characteristics of the pHLIP allosteric occurring in cancer tissue acidic microenvironment, CDCA1-siRNA may be transported specificity into prostatic cancer cells and released in the cytoplasm. The interference effect of the effector molecules on the CDCA1 was detected in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that CDCA1 was highly expressed in PCa cell line and human PCa clinical samples. Knock down CDCA1 significantly inhibit the growth and promote the apoptosis of prostatic cancer cells. In the intracellular translocation experiment, CDCA1-siRNA could be delivered into cytoplasma at pH 6.2, but not at pH 7.4. In the in vivo test, the tumor size was reduced obviously in the NOD/SCID mice treated with pHLIP-CDCA1-siRNA compared to the CDCA1-siRNA and the bioluminescent signal of Cy5-pHLIP-CDCA1-siRNA was focused detected in the tumor site. Our findings indicated that CDCA1 might be a very key molecule regulating survival and proliferation of PCa. pHLIP-CDCA1-siRNA might be a promising targeting therapy for PCa.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗