Passive solar vapor generation represents a promising and environmentally benign method of water purification/desalination. However, conventional solar steam generation techniques usually rely on costly and cumbersome optical concentration systems and have relatively low efficiency due to bulk heating of the entire liquid volume. Here, an efficient strategy using extremely low‐cost materials, i.e., carbon black (powder), hydrophilic porous paper, and expanded polystyrene foam is reported. Due to the excellent thermal insulation between the surface liquid and the bulk volume of the water and the suppressed radiative and convective losses from the absorber surface to the adjacent heated vapor, a record thermal efficiency of ≈88% is obtained under 1 sun without concentration, corresponding to the evaporation rate of 1.28 kg (m2 h)−1. When scaled up to a 100 cm2 array in a portable solar water still system and placed in an outdoor environment, the freshwater generation rate is 2.4 times of that of a leading commercial product. By simultaneously addressing both the need for high‐efficiency operation as well as production cost limitations, this system can provide an approach for individuals to purify water for personal needs, which is particularly suitable for undeveloped regions with limited/no access to electricity.

Abstract100% efficiency is the ultimate goal for all energy harvesting and conversion applications. However, no energy conversion process is reported to reach this ideal limit before. Here, an example with near perfect energy conversion efficiency in the process of solar vapor generation below room temperature is reported. Remarkably, when the operational temperature of the system is below that of the surroundings (i.e., under low density solar illumination), the total vapor generation rate is higher than the upper limit that can be produced by the input solar energy because of extra energy taken from the warmer environment. Experimental results are provided to validate this intriguing strategy under 1 sun illumination. The best measured rate is ≈2.20 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun illumination, well beyond its corresponding upper limit of 1.68 kg m−2 h−1 and is even faster than the one reported by other systems under 2 sun illumination.

ImportanceSARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with persistent, relapsing, or new symptoms or other health effects occurring after acute infection, termed postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), also known as long COVID. Characterizing PASC requires analysis of prospectively and uniformly collected data from diverse uninfected and infected individuals.ObjectiveTo develop a definition of PASC using self-reported symptoms and describe PASC frequencies across cohorts, vaccination status, and number of infections.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsProspective observational cohort study of adults with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection at 85 enrolling sites (hospitals, health centers, community organizations) located in 33 states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Participants who were enrolled in the RECOVER adult cohort before April 10, 2023, completed a symptom survey 6 months or more after acute symptom onset or test date. Selection included population-based, volunteer, and convenience sampling.ExposureSARS-CoV-2 infection.Main Outcomes and MeasuresPASC and 44 participant-reported symptoms (with severity thresholds).ResultsA total of 9764 participants (89% SARS-CoV-2 infected; 71% female; 16% Hispanic/Latino; 15% non-Hispanic Black; median age, 47 years [IQR, 35-60]) met selection criteria. Adjusted odds ratios were 1.5 or greater (infected vs uninfected participants) for 37 symptoms. Symptoms contributing to PASC score included postexertional malaise, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms, palpitations, changes in sexual desire or capacity, loss of or change in smell or taste, thirst, chronic cough, chest pain, and abnormal movements. Among 2231 participants first infected on or after December 1, 2021, and enrolled within 30 days of infection, 224 (10% [95% CI, 8.8%-11%]) were PASC positive at 6 months.Conclusions and RelevanceA definition of PASC was developed based on symptoms in a prospective cohort study. As a first step to providing a framework for other investigations, iterative refinement that further incorporates other clinical features is needed to support actionable definitions of PASC.

A fundamental strategy is developed to enhance the light-matter interaction of ultra-thin films based on a strong interference effect in planar nanocavities, and overcome the limitation between the optical absorption and film thickness of energy harvesting/conversion materials. This principle is quite general and is applied to explore the spectrally tunable absorption enhancement of various ultra-thin absorptive materials including 2D atomic monolayers.

HIF-α activation by PHD inhibitor L-Mim has dual roles in the development of CKD in the rat RK model depending on the timing of the administration and possibly the activated isoform of HIF-α.

nanoporous lithography methods, [18][19][20][21] etc. However, these techniques are still expensive and complicated for the fabrication of high quality SERS substrates over large areas, thus resulting in high prices for commercial SERS substrates. Furthermore, most commercial SERS substrates can only work for individual excitation wavelengths, i.e., one particular product works at one or two excitation wavelengths only. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] When one wants to identify anonymous trace molecules or mixed samples, multiple excitation wavelengths will be required. [29][30][31] In this case, different substrates have to be used for different wavelength excitation, which consumes more biological/chemical materials, substrates, and measurement time. This is an obvious disadvantage for conventional SERS substrates. On the contrary, the SERS EF is proportional to the product of the fi eld intensity enhancements at both excitation and Raman scattering wavelengths. It was predicted that the maximum SERS enhancement can be achieved when localized surface plasmon resonance is located between the excitation and Raman scattering wavelengths. [ 32 ] To realize higher EF, double-resonance SERS substrates were proposed to realize strong enhancements for excitation and Raman scattered signals simultaneously using expensive e-beam lithography processes. [ 23 ] Due to the narrowband absorption spectra for both resonant bands, the enhanced SERS signal is still limited within narrow spectral regions. To address this problem, broadband resonant nanostructures are highly desired. For instance, a relatively broadband 1D metal-dielectric-metal metasurface (i.e., ≈70% optical absorption from 420 to 550 nm) was fabricated using e-beam lithography to realize uniform enhancement for SERS sensing. [ 24 ] However, the top-down lithography technique imposed a signifi cant fabrication cost barrier for large-scale practical applications. In addition, 1D grating structures are polarization dependent which can only work for given polarization states (usually transverse magnetic polarization). To overcome these limitations, here we report an ultrabroadband super absorbing metasurface substrate that can enhance the SERS signal for excitation wavelengths in a broad spectral region using lithography-free processes. [ 33 ] Most frequently used excitation wavelengths for SERS (e.g., from 450 to 1100 nm [23][24][25][26][27][28]34 ] are all covered due to the broadband light trapping and fi eld concentration within deep subwavelength Most reported surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates can work for individual excitation wavelengths only. Therefore, different substrates have to be used for different excitation wavelengths, which consumes more biological/chemical materials, substrates, and measurement time. Here, an ultrabroadband super absorbing metasurface that can work as a universal substrate for low cost and high performance SERS sensing is reported. Due to broadband light trapping and localized fi eld enhancement, this structure can...

Plasmodium spp. parasites cause malaria in 300 to 500 million individuals each year. Disease occurs during the blood-stage of the parasite's life cycle, where the parasite is thought to replicate exclusively within erythrocytes. Infected individuals can also suffer relapses after several years, from Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale surviving in hepatocytes. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium malariae can also persist after the original bout of infection has apparently cleared in the blood, suggesting that host cells other than erythrocytes (but not hepatocytes) may harbor these blood-stage parasites, thereby assisting their escape from host immunity. Using blood stage transgenic Plasmodium bergheiexpressing GFP (PbGFP) to track parasites in host cells, we found that the parasite had a tropism for CD317 + dendritic cells. Other studies using confocal microscopy, in vitro cultures, and cell transfer studies showed that blood-stage parasites could infect, survive, and replicate within CD317 + dendritic cells, and that small numbers of these cells released parasites infectious for erythrocytes in vivo. These data have identified a unique survival strategy for blood-stage Plasmodium, which has significant implications for understanding the escape of Plasmodium spp. from immune-surveillance and for vaccine development.immune evasion | rodent malaria M alaria commences when an infected female anopheline mosquito bites and deposits, up to 125 Plasmodium sporozoites under the skin of the host (1). Studies using Plasmodium berghei sporozoites, showed that a proportion will remain in the skin and infect keratinocytes (2), others are drained by the lymphatic system and are trapped in lymph nodes, and a fraction of the deposited sporozoites enter blood vessels to migrate to the liver (3). In the liver, typically between 1 and 10 sporozoites invade hepatocytes. Other studies have shown that sporozoites can invade and migrate through other cell types, including macrophages (4), Kupffer cells (5, 6), epithelial cells, and fibroblasts (7).The sporozoites within hepatocytes develop by a process of schizogony into merozoite forms, which escape from an infected liver cell into the sinusoid lumen (8) to invade RBC. Within RBC, the merozoites then develop into "ring" trophozoites, then mature trophozoites, and finally a schizont containing up to 32 new merozoites. These schizont-infected RBC then rupture to release merozoites that are able to invade new RBCs, resulting in an increase of parasite biomass. The Plasmodium life cycle continues when some merozoites develop into the sexual parasite stages, the male and female gametocytes, which can be taken up by mosquitoes during blood meals (9).Some Plasmodium infections, such as Plasmodium malariae (10) and Plasmodium inui (11), persist for years and sometimes for the life of the host (12), and the reasons for this are not understood. To date, the blood-stage parasites of mammalian Plasmodium spp. are thought to survive and replicate only within RBC, but it has long been suspecte...

Pseudocapacitance plays an important role in high-power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, it is still lack of effective methods to tailor the pseudocapacitance contribution in electrode materials for LIBs. Herein, pseudocapacitance tuned by the strength of C-S bonding has been rendered in WS nanorods anchored on the N,S codoped three-dimensional graphene hybrid (WS@N,S-3DG) for the first time. The pseudocapacitive contributions in the charge storage can be enhanced effectively with the increased strength of C-S bonding. As expected, the enhanced extrinsic pseudocapacitance makes WS@N,S-3DG a fascinating electrode material for high-power LIBs, with a high reversible capacity of 509 mA h g over 500 cycles at a current density as high as 2 A g. These encouraging results of pseudocapacitance tailored by chemical bonding provide new opportunities for designing advanced electrode materials.