The recent advancement of water stable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) expands the application of this unique porous material. This review article aims at studying their applications in terms of five major areas: adsorption, membrane separation, sensing, catalysis, and proton conduction. These applications are either conducted in a water-containing environment or directly targeted on water treatment processes. The representative and significant studies in each area were comprehensively reviewed and discussed for perspectives, to serve as a reference for researchers working in related areas. At the end, a summary and future outlook on the applications of water stable MOFs are suggested as concluding remarks.

Temperature-dependent Raman scattering is performed on unsupported vertical graphene sheets, which are approximate to free graphene without supporting the substrate. Here the observed G peak line shift with temperature is completely consistent with the theoretical prediction based on the first-principles calculation on free graphene, and our result is helpful to understand intrinsic anharmonic phonon characteristics of free graphene and the divergence on the G peak line shift with temperature. However, the observed linewidth variation is different from the prediction. To reveal the origins, a simplified Klemens model is used, and the dominating anharmonic phonon scattering mechanism is explored. In addition, line shift and linewidth variations of D and 2D peaks of the graphene sheets with temperature are revealed, and the possible mechanisms dominating the results are discussed.

Abstract. Image segmentation is essential for many automated microscopy image analysis systems. Rather than treating microscopy images as general natural images and rushing into the image processing warehouse for solutions, we propose to study a microscope's optical properties to model its image formation process first using phase contrast microscopy as an exemplar. It turns out that the phase contrast imaging system can be relatively well explained by a linear imaging model. Using this model, we formulate a quadratic optimization function with sparseness and smoothness regularizations to restore the "authentic" phase contrast images that directly correspond to specimen's optical path length without phase contrast artifacts such as halo and shade-off. With artifacts removed, high quality segmentation can be achieved by simply thresholding the restored images. The imaging model and restoration method are quantitatively evaluated on two sequences with thousands of cells captured over several days.

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Nickel oxide (NiO x ) is a promising hole-transporting material for perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) because of its low cost, excellent stability, and simple fabrication process. However, the electroluminescence efficiencies of NiO x -based PeLEDs are greatly limited by inefficient hole injection and exciton quenching at the NiO x –perovskite interfaces. Here, a novel interfacial engineering method with sodium dodecyl sulfate-oxygen plasma (SDS-OP) is demonstrated to simultaneously overcome the aforementioned issues. Experimental results reveal that a short OP treatment on the top of the SDS-coated NiO x significantly deepens the NiO x work function (from 4.23 to 4.85 eV) because of the formation of a large surface dipole, allowing for efficient hole injection. Moreover, the SDS-OP layer passivates the electronic surface trap states of perovskite films and suppresses the exciton quenching by NiO x . These improvements inhibit the nonradiative decays at the NiO x –perovskite interface. As a result, the external quantum efficiency of CsPbBr3 LEDs is increased from 0.052 to 2.5%; that of FAPbBr3 nanocrystals LEDs is increased from 5.6 to 7.6%.

Metabolites are the end products of cellular regulatory processes. Squamous cervical cancer (SCC) can alter the level of certain small molecular metabolite in plasma through modulating gene expression. In this study, we identified two metabolites, phosphatidylcholine (PC) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), which are significantly down- and upregulated in plasma of SCC as compared to uterine fibroid (UF) patients via ultra-performance liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). In external prospective cohort, our assay has a sensitivity of 93.2 %, a specificity of 91.3 %, and an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.972. The level of LPC is significantly higher in SCC than in UF patients. An opposite result was observed in PC level. Our findings suggest that the PC and lysoPC could be used as novel biomarkers to facilitate SCC diagnosis.

bPreviously, a small study showed that 14f was the predominant subtype of Treponema pallidum in Shanghai, China. The result was quite different from the genotype distribution in other areas of China. This study aimed to identify the strain types of Treponema pallidum in samples collected over a 5-year period in Shanghai. From 2007 to 2011, genital swabs were collected from patients with syphilis from the Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital. Positive specimens were typed by the enhanced typing method by adding a tp0548 gene to the existing arp and tpr genotype system. In total, 304 of the 372 enrolled patients yielded fully typeable DNA. Ten arp types (4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 19), 3 tpr types (a, d, and o), and 5 tp0548 types (a, c, f, g, and i) were identified. In total, 12 subtypes were identified with a combination of the arp and tpr genes. Subtype 14d was found in 270 samples (88.8%). When the combination included the tp0548 gene, the 12 CDC subtypes identified were divided into 14 strain types. The predominant type was 14d/f (88.8%), followed by 15d/f (3.6%), 13d/f (1.3%), and 19d/c (1.3%). Two of the 44 14d/f-infected patients and both of the 19d/c-infected patients who underwent a lumbar puncture were diagnosed with neurosyphilis. This study showed that the predominant type in Shanghai was 14d/f. While this is in keeping with data from other areas in China, it is different from an earlier report showing that 14f is the most common genotype in Shanghai. Further studies are needed to better understand the association between strain types and neurosyphilis.

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