Organic-inorganic halide perovskite-based thin film solar cells show excellent light-to-power conversion efficiency. The high performance for the devices requires the preparation of well-crystallized perovskite absorbers. In this paper, we used the postannealing process to treat the perovskite films under different solvent vapors and observed that the solvent vapors have a strong effect on the film growth. A model regarding the perovskite film growth was proposed as well. Intensive characterizations including scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and admittance spectroscopy allowed us to attribute the improved performance to reduced recombination loss and defect density. Solar cell based on the DMSO-treated films delivered a power conversion efficiency of over 13% with negligible photocurrent hysteresis.

Abstract. Over past decades, a lot of global land-cover products have been released; however, these still lack a global land-cover map with a fine classification system and spatial resolution simultaneously. In this study, a novel global 30 m land-cover classification with a fine classification system for the year 2015 (GLC_FCS30-2015) was produced by combining time series of Landsat imagery and high-quality training data from the GSPECLib (Global Spatial Temporal Spectra Library) on the Google Earth Engine computing platform. First, the global training data from the GSPECLib were developed by applying a series of rigorous filters to the CCI_LC (Climate Change Initiative Global Land Cover) land-cover and MCD43A4 NBAR products (MODIS Nadir Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function-Adjusted Reflectance). Secondly, a local adaptive random forest model was built for each 5∘×5∘ geographical tile by using the multi-temporal Landsat spectral and texture features and the corresponding training data, and the GLC_FCS30-2015 land-cover product containing 30 land-cover types was generated for each tile. Lastly, the GLC_FCS30-2015 was validated using three different validation systems (containing different land-cover details) using 44 043 validation samples. The validation results indicated that the GLC_FCS30-2015 achieved an overall accuracy of 82.5 % and a kappa coefficient of 0.784 for the level-0 validation system (9 basic land-cover types), an overall accuracy of 71.4 % and kappa coefficient of 0.686 for the UN-LCCS (United Nations Land Cover Classification System) level-1 system (16 LCCS land-cover types), and an overall accuracy of 68.7 % and kappa coefficient of 0.662 for the UN-LCCS level-2 system (24 fine land-cover types). The comparisons against other land-cover products (CCI_LC, MCD12Q1, FROM_GLC, and GlobeLand30) indicated that GLC_FCS30-2015 provides more spatial details than CCI_LC-2015 and MCD12Q1-2015 and a greater diversity of land-cover types than FROM_GLC-2015 and GlobeLand30-2010. They also showed that GLC_FCS30-2015 achieved the best overall accuracy of 82.5 % against FROM_GLC-2015 of 59.1 % and GlobeLand30-2010 of 75.9 %. Therefore, it is concluded that the GLC_FCS30-2015 product is the first global land-cover dataset that provides a fine classification system (containing 16 global LCCS land-cover types as well as 14 detailed and regional land-cover types) with high classification accuracy at 30 m. The GLC_FCS30-2015 global land-cover products produced in this paper are free access at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3986872 (Liu et al., 2020).

Low-temperature, solution processed metal sulfide is introduced as an electron transport layer for perovskite solar cells.

The small GTPase Rab family, which cycles between GTP-bound active and GDP-bound inactive states, plays an important role in membrane trafficking. Among them, Rab5 is involved in early endocytic pathway, and several Rab5-binding proteins have been identified as regulators or effectors to coordinate the docking and fusion processes of endocytic vesicles. We describe a novel binding protein exhibiting unique biochemical properties for Rab5. The Rab5-binding protein enhances GDP-GTP exchange reaction on Rab5 but preferentially interacts with its GTP-bound form. Gel filtration and immunoprecipitation analyses indicate that the Rab5-binding protein functions as a tetramer composed of anti-parallel linkage of two parallel dimers. These results suggest that the newly identified protein may function as an upstream activator and/or downstream effector for Rab5 in endocytic pathway. Possible roles of the quaternary structure have been discussed in terms of the Rab5-mediated signaling.Recent studies (1-5) on endocytosis and exocytosis have indicated that vesicular transport between various membrane compartments is very complex and strictly regulated. Common steps in each pathway include membrane budding to form vesicles, their transport to a particular destination, and the docking and fusion of vesicles to their target membranes. Specificity of vesicular transport seems to be ensured by a number of factors including soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor-1 attachment protein receptor molecules and the small GTPase Rab family. The proper pairing and complex formation between target and vesicular soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor-1 attachment receptor proteins are responsible for the stable attachment of the vesicles to the target membranes. On the other hand, the small GTPase Rab family, which cycles between GTP-bound active and GDP-bound inactive states, appears to be involved in the membrane-tethering step in concert with their binding proteins (1-5). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the coupling of these processes are not fully understood.At present, more than 40 members of the Rab family have been identified, and several members appear to be involved in each specific step of endocytic pathways (6 -12). Rab5 has been principally implicated in the fusion process of endosomes and is known as a rate-limiting factor for homotypic endosome fusion (10, 13). GDP-bound Rab5 is mostly abundant in endosome membranes and is extracted by GDI 1 (10, 14 -17). Recent studies have revealed that p38 activates the extraction of Rab5 by phosphorylating GDI (18). After extraction, GDI-Rab5 complex is delivered to the appropriate target membrane where Rab5 is reloaded via a yet unidentified GDI displacement factor (19,20). GDP-Rab5 in the target membrane is subsequently activated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEF). As one of Rab5 stimulators, the 60-kDa Rabex-5, which is homologous to the yeast vacuolar protein-sorting 9 (Vps9) protein, has been identified (21, 22). GTP-Rab5 then interacts with several Rab5 e...

A fraction of each secreted protein is retained and degraded by the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) quality control apparatus that restricts export to correctly folded proteins. The intrinsic biophysical attributes that determine efficiency of escape from this proofreading process have been examined by expressing mutants of bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) in yeast. Secretion efficiency is strongly correlated with thermodynamic stability for a series of six point mutations of BPTI. No correlation of secretion efficiency with either oxidative folding or refolding rates in vitro is found; both the rapidly folded Y35L BPTI mutant and the slowly unfolded G36D BPTI mutant exhibit low secretion efficiency. Elimination of cysteines 14 and 38 by mutagenesis does not increase secretion efficiency, indicating that intramolecular thiol/disulfide rearrangements are not primarily responsible for retention and degradation of destabilized BPTI variants. Mutant yeast strains with diminished ER-associated degradation do not secrete BPTI more efficiently, indicating that retention and degradation are separable processes. These data support a model for ER quality control, wherein protein folding is functionally reversible and the relative rates of folding, unfolding, vesicular export, and retention determine secretion efficiency.

One of the main objectives when planning paths for unmanned aerial vehicles in adversarial environments is to arrive at the given target, while maximizing the safety of the vehicles. If one has perfect information of the threats that will be encountered, a safe path can always be constructed by solving an optimization problem. If there are uncertainties in the information, however, a different approach must be taken. In this paper we propose a path planning algorithm based on a map of the probability of threats, which can be built from a priori surveillance data. An extension to this algorithm for multiple vehicles is also described, and simulation results are provided.

A self-powered, visible-blind ultraviolet photodetector based on n-ZnO nanorods/i-MgO/p-GaN structure light-emitting diode.

FA-based perovskite devices with reduced Pb contents were prepared.