New Anthracene‐Fused Nonfullerene Acceptors for High‐Efficiency Organic Solar Cells: Energy Level Modulations Enabling Match of Donor and Acceptor

Two new nonfullerene small molecule acceptors (NF‐SMAs) AT‐NC and AT‐4Cl based on heptacyclic anthracene(cyclopentadithiophene) (AT) core and different electron‐withdrawing end groups are designed and synthesized. Although the two new acceptor molecules use two different end groups, naphthyl‐fused indanone (NINCN) and chlorinated INCN (INCN‐2Cl) demonstrate similar light absorption. AT‐4Cl with chlorinated INCN as end groups are shifted significantly due to the strong electron‐withdrawing ability of chlorine atoms. Thus, desirable V_oc and photovoltaic performance are expected to be achieved when polymer PBDB‐T is used as the electron donor with AT‐NC as the acceptor, and fluorinated analog PBDB‐TF with down‐shifted energy levels is selected to blend with AT‐4Cl. Consequently, the device based on PBDB‐TF:AT‐4Cl yields a high power conversion efficiency of 13.27% with a slightly lower V_oc of 0.901 V, significantly enhanced J_sc of 19.52 mA cm^?2 and fill factor of 75.5% relative to the values based on PBDB‐T:AT‐NC. These results demonstrate that the use of a new electron‐rich AT core, together with energy levels modulations by end‐group optimizations enabling the match with polymer donors, is a successful strategy to construct high‐performance NF‐SMAs.     

Harnessing Case Isolation and Ring Vaccination to Control Ebola

As a devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues, non-pharmaceutical control measures including contact tracing, quarantine, and case isolation are being implemented. In addition, public health agencies are scaling up efforts to test and deploy candidate vaccines. Given the experimental nature and limited initial supplies of vaccines, a mass vaccination campaign might not be feasible. However, ring vaccination of likely case contacts could provide an effective alternative in distributing the vaccine. To evaluate ring vaccination as a strategy for eliminating Ebola, we developed a pair approximation model of Ebola transmission, parameterized by confirmed incidence data from June 2014 to January 2015 in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Our results suggest that if a combined intervention of case isolation and ring vaccination had been initiated in the early fall of 2014, up to an additional 126 cases in Liberia and 560 cases in Sierra Leone could have been averted beyond case isolation alone. The marginal benefit of ring vaccination is predicted to be greatest in settings where there are more contacts per individual, greater clustering among individuals, when contact tracing has low efficacy or vaccination confers post-exposure protection. In such settings, ring vaccination can avert up to an additional 8% of Ebola cases. Accordingly, ring vaccination is predicted to offer a moderately beneficial supplement to ongoing non-pharmaceutical Ebola control efforts.     

大气颗粒物污染对土地覆盖变化的响应

土地利用-覆盖变化(LUCC)直接或间接影响颗粒物污染。了解颗粒物污染对LUCC的响应,对维护和改善生态环境具有重要的意义。基于卫星遥感技术,从广域的空间尺度分析颗粒物污染对LUCC的响应。使用MODIS数据分别提取与颗粒物污染相关性较高的城市用地、林地等土地利用类型,确定土地利用类型的变化趋势,利用长时间序列MODIS气溶胶光学厚度(AOD,Aerosol optical depth)产品分析颗粒物污染与土地利用类型的变化的相关性。以山东省青岛市、淄博市、济南市3个典型城市为例,研究了AOD随土地利用类型的变化趋势。同时,考虑并分析了颗粒物污染对土地利用变化响应的敏感性,以及城市区域变化对环境的影响。研究结果表明,不同的城市类型,由于决定环境变化主导因素的差异,颗粒物污染对LUCC的响应具有明显的差异。青岛市地区,由于受海洋影响显著,大气颗粒物污染与LUCC的相关性较低,如中度污染天气与林地的相关系数为-0.451;而淄博市和济南市的相关系数分别为-0.473、-0.507。     

Evolutionary change in testes tissue composition among experimental populations of house mice

Theory assumes that postcopulatory sexual selection favors increased investment in testes size because greater numbers of sperm within the ejaculate increase the chance of success in sperm competition, and larger testes are able to produce more sperm. However, changes in the organization of the testes tissue may also affect sperm production rates. Indeed, recent comparative analyses suggest that sperm competition selects for greater proportions of sperm‐producing tissue within the testes. Here, we explicitly test this hypothesis using the powerful technique of experimental evolution. We allowed house mice (Mus domesticus) to evolve via monogamy or polygamy in six replicate populations across 24 generations. We then used histology and image analysis to quantify the proportion of sperm‐producing tissue (seminiferous tubules) within the testes of males. Our results show that males that had evolved with sperm competition had testes with a higher proportion of seminiferous tubules compared with males that had evolved under monogamy. Previously, it had been shown that males from the polygamous populations produced greater numbers of sperm in the absence of changes in testes size. We thus provide evidence that sperm competition selects for an increase in the density of sperm‐producing tissue, and consequently increased testicular efficiency.     

植物对土壤中铀的吸收与富集

核工业发展导致重金属铀排放和扩散,并造成了地表土壤的污染,对人类的生存环境产生了极其不利的影响。如何修复铀污染土壤成为亟待解决的问题。近年来发展起来的植物修复技术以其成本低廉、安全和环保的特点成为修复铀污染土壤的新选择。寻找理想的铀富集植物是这一技术的基础和关键。该文通过实验模拟铀污染的土壤（土壤中铀的浓度为100 mg.kg–1）,进行一次和二次铀污染土壤的植物修复后,从4个方面对植物修复铀污染土壤效果进行评估,即富集铀的浓度、生物提取量、生物富集系数（BFS）和转运系数（TFS）。实验结果表明：第1次修复时,四季香油麦菜（Lactuca dolichophylla）地上部富集铀的浓度为1.67×103 mg.kg–1,生物富集系数和转移系数均大于3;第2次修复时,麦冬（Ophiopogon japoni-cus）富集铀的浓度与第1次修复相比变化不大,而吊兰（Chlorophytum comosum）、四季豆（Phaseolus vulgaris）和艾蒿（Artemisia lavandulaefolia）富集铀的浓度与第1次修复相比均减少4–8倍;施加土壤改良剂鸡粪肥、海藻肥和柠檬酸后发现海藻肥和柠檬酸能够增强植物对铀污染土壤的修复;对两次修复土壤中铀的形态进行对比分析,发现二次修复时土壤中生物有效态铀的含量降低,造成第2次修复的难度增加。     

甘南地区二氧化碳施肥效应对生态系统的影响

陆地生态系统是全球第二大碳库,其碳收支一直是气候变化研究的热点领域,而研究二氧化碳（CO₂）施肥效应又是全球变化碳循环领域较为关注的前沿部分。CO₂与生态系统关系复杂,当前仍无法厘清CO₂对陆地生态系统碳循环的影响作用。基于太阳辐射数据、气温数据及归一化植被指数数据等,利用光能利用率遥感模型,模拟2019年甘南地区的碳循环,选取三个指标,即GPP （陆地生态系统总初级生产力）、NPP （净初级生产力）和NEP （净生态系统生产力）来分析甘南地区植被固碳的时空变化特征及CO₂施肥效应。结果表明：（1）甘南地区2019年植被固碳总量约为2611 tC。甘南地区生态系统GPP、NPP和NEP季节性特征明显,其值均在夏季达到最高;而在空间上,GPP、NPP表现为东高西低的特征,NEP呈现出北高南低的分布特征。（2） CO₂对GPP、NPP存在正向的施肥效应,分别增加了14.4%和14.3%;而对NEP具有负向反馈效应,使其减少了0.3%,并且CO₂对NEP的影响整体也表现为北高南低的特征。研究揭示出：虽然CO₂在提升GPP和NPP时,正向的施肥效应明显,但是对甘南地区的NEP,即固碳量来说,CO₂的影响却很有限。因此在研究CO₂施肥效应时不应一概而论,生态地理环境对其的影响不可忽视。研究可以为揭示陆地生态系统碳循环的动态机制提供一定的理论依据。     

An anticoagulant peptide from the human hookworm, Ancylostoma duodenale that inhibits coagulation factors Xa and XIa

A full-length cDNA encoding an anticoagulant peptide, named AduNAP4, was cloned and identified from the human hookworm Ancylostoma duodenale. AduNAP4 has 104 amino acids including a predicted 23-residue signal peptide and shows ?50% similarity with other known nematode anticoagulant protein/peptide (NAP). AduNAP4 is extremely efficient at prolonging the activated partial thromboplastin time, and is an inhibitor of both fXa (K_i = 7.34 ± 1.74 nM) and fXIa (K_i = 42.45 ± 3.25 nM). No fXIa inhibitor has previously been described from other blood-feeding animals. Our results suggest that hookworms have evolved a potent mechanism that interferes with coagulation by inhibition of fXIa to facilitate its blood-feeding lifestyle.     

陆地生态系统碳平衡主要研究方法评述

陆地生态系统碳平衡是全球变化科学中的核心问题之一,目前也是生态科学中的前沿与热点问题,而陆地生态系统的复杂性与不确定性决定了对陆地生态系统碳平衡估测的复杂性和不确定性。为研究这一复杂性问题,已发展了许多研究方法。可分为“自下而上”与“自上而下”两种,各种方法都有其自身的优势和劣势。相关方向也已经有了大量的研究报道,但是,不同的研究由于在方法、时间与空间尺度等存在的差异,使得许多研究结果和预测很难被有效的整合或适用于大范围甚至全球水平。综述了陆地碳平衡的主要研究方法,分析和比较了各方法的特点,指出在研究中对不同方法的结果进行分析和比较,以及采用综合方法的必要性。