Chlorinated Narrow Bandgap Polymer Suppresses Non-Radiative Recombination Energy Loss Enabling Perylene Diimides-Based Organic Solar Cells Exceeding 10% Efficiency.

The scarcity of narrow bandgap donor polymers matched with perylene diimides (PDI)-based nonfullerene acceptors (NFAs) hinders improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) value of organic solar cells (OSCs). Here, it is reported that a narrow bandgap donor polymer PDX, the chlorinated derivative of the famous polymer donor PTB7-Th, blended with PDI-based NFA boosts the PCE value exceeding 10%. The electroluminescent quantum efficiency of PDX-based OSCs is two orders of magnitude higher than that of PTB7-Th-based OSCs;therefore, the nonradiative energy loss is 0.103 eV lower. This is the highest PCE value for OSCs with the lowest energy loss using the blend of PTB7-Th derivatives and PDI-based NFAs as the active layer. Besides, PDX-based devices showed larger phase separation, faster charge mobilities, higher exciton dissociation probability, suppressed charge recombination, elevated charge transfer state, and decreased energetic disorder compared with the PTB7-Th-based OSCs. All these factors contribute to the simultaneously improved short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, and fill factor, thus significantly improving PCE. These results prove that chlorinated conjugated side thienyl groups can efficiently suppress the non-radiative energy loss and highlight the importance of fine-modifying or developing novel narrow bandgap polymers to further elevate the PCE value of PDI-based OSCs.

Efficient soluble PTCBI-type non-fullerene acceptor materials for organic solar cells.

Single perylene diimide (PDI) used as a non-fullerene acceptor (NFA) in organic solar cells (OSCs) is enticing because of its low cost and excellent stability. To improve the photovoltaic performance, it is vital to narrow the bandgap and regulate the stacking behavior. To address this challenge, we synthesize soluble perylenetetracarboxylic bisbenzimidazole (PTCBI) molecules with a bulky side chain at the bay region, by replacing the widely used "swallow tail" type alkyl chains at the imide position of PDI molecules with a planar benzimidazole structure. Compared with PDI molecules, PTCBI molecules exhibit red-shifted UV-vis absorption spectra with larger extinction coefficient, and one magnitude higher electron mobility. Finally, OSCs based on one soluble PTCBI-type NFA, namely MAS-7, exhibit a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.34%, which is significantly higher than that of the corresponding PDI-based OSCs and is the highest PCE of PTCBI-based OSCs reported. These results highlight the potential of soluble PTCBI derivatives as NFAs in OSCs.

Promotion of Aerobic Exercise Induced Angiogenesis Is Associated With Decline in Blood Pressure in Hypertension: Result of EXCAVATION-CHN1.

[Figure: see text].

Y-chromosome evidence confirmed the Kerei-Abakh origin of Aksay Kazakhs.

Aksay Kazakhs are the easternmost branch of Kazakhs, residing in Jiuquan city, the forefront of the ancient Silk Road. However, the genetic diversity of Aksay Kazakhs and its relationships with other Kazakhs still lack attention. To clarify this issue, we analyzed the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome from 93 Aksay Kazakhs samples, using a high-resolution analysis of 106 biallelic markers and 17 STRs. The lowest haplogroup diversity (0.38) was observed in Aksay Kazakhs among all studied Kazakh populations. The social and cultural traditions of the Kazakhs shaped their current pattern of genetic variation. Aksay Kazakhs tended to migrate with clans and had limited paternal admixture with neighboring populations. Aksay Kazakhs had the highest frequency (80%) of haplogroup C2b1a3a1-F3796 (previous C3*-Star Cluster) among the investigated Eurasian steppe populations, which was now seen as the genetic marker of Kerei clan. Furthermore, NETWORK analysis indicated that Aksay Kazakhs originated from sub-clan Kerei-Abakh in Kazakhstan with DYS448 = 23. TMRCA estimates of three recent descent clusters detected in C2*-M217 (xM48) network, one of which incorporate nearly all of the C2b1a3a1-F3796 Aksay Kazakhs samples, gave the age range of 976-1405 YA for DC1, 1059-1314 YA for DC2, and 1139-1317 YA for DC3, respectively; this is coherent with the 7th to the 11th centuries Altaic-speaking pastoral nomadic population expansion.

Correction to: Systemic microvascular rarefaction is correlated with dysfunction of late endothelial progenitor cells in mild hypertension: a substudy of EXCAVATION-CHN1.

Upon publication of the original article [1], it was noticed that Jun Tao's affiliation information is not complete. The full affiliation information for Jun Tao can be found below and in the complete affiliation list of this Correction article.

Systemic microvascular rarefaction is correlated with dysfunction of late endothelial progenitor cells in mild hypertension: a substudy of EXCAVATION-CHN1.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension often presents with microvascular rarefaction (MVR), which is closely associated with impaired angiogenesis. Early detection of MVR is essential for systemic assessment in patient with hypertension. We aimed to determine the systemic MVR through both optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and intravital capillaroscopy, and to investigate their respective efficacies and related mechanisms associated with late endothelial progenitor cells (LEPCs) dysfunction. METHODS: Seventy-one hypertensive and sixty-nine age-match normotensive subjects were included in this study. All subjects received intravital capillaroscopy for skin capillary density (SCD) and OCTA for retinal capillary density (RCD) and non-perfused areas (R-NPA). Subsequently, correlation of LEPCs activities and microvascular rarefaction were examined. RESULTS: Compared with normotensive subjects, hypertensive patients had significantly lower RCD [(52.9 ± 2.9)% vs. (57.8 ± 1.6)%, P < 0.01] and higher R-NPA [(0.12 ± 0.07) mm2 vs. (0.053 ± 0.020) mm2, P < 0.01]. SCD correlated positively with RCD but negatively with R-NPA [(RCD: OR = 0.40, 95% CI 0.25-0.67, P < 0.01); (R-NPA: OR = 0.39, 95% CI - 0.0029 to 0.0011, P < 0.01)]. The discriminative powers of RCD performed best (AUC 0.79 versus SCD AUC 0.59, P < 0.001) followed by R-NPA (AUC 0.73 versus SCD AUC 0.59, P < 0.001) for systolic blood pressure. Similar pattern is also found for diastolic blood pressure (RCD AUC 0.80 versus SCD AUC 0.54, P < 0.001; R-NPA AUC 0.77 versus SCD AUC 0.54, P < 0.001). Furthermore, LEPCs tube formation was impaired in hypertensive patients (36.8 ± 2.3 vs. 28 ± 3.7, P < 0.01). After multivariate adjustments, positive correlation existed between RCD or R-NPA with LEPCs tube formation (RCD: ß = 0.64, 95% CI 0.34-0.91, P < 0.01; R-NPA: ß = - 24.67, 95% CI - 43.14 to - 4.63, P < 0.05) but not with SCD (ß = 0.082, 95% CI 0.01-0.18, P = 0.085). CONCLUSION: Compared to intravital capillaroscopy, OCTA is a more precise technique for early detection of hypertensive microvascular rarefaction, which is associated with the fall in LEPC-mediated angiogenesis. Both of OCTA and LEPCs function can help identify hypertension-related capillary abnormality. Trail Registration The trial is a substudy of EXCAVATION-CHN1, registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02817204 (June 26, 2016).

Molecular genealogy of Tusi Lu's family reveals their paternal relationship with Jochi, Genghis Khan's eldest son.

Genghis Khan's lineage has attracted both academic and general interest because of its mystery and large influence. However, the truth behind the mystery is complicated and continues to confound the scientific study. In this study, we surveyed the molecular genealogy of Northwestern China's Lu clan who claim to be the descendants of the sixth son of Genghis Khan, Toghan. We also investigated living members of the Huo and Tuo clans, who, according to oral tradition, were close male relatives of Lu clan. Using network analysis, we found that the Y-chromosomal haplotypes of Lu clan mainly belong to haplogroup C2b1a1b1-F1756, widely prevalent in Altaic-speaking populations, and are closely related to the Tore clan from Kazakhstan, who claim to be the descendants of the first son of Genghis Khan, Jochi. The most recent common ancestor of the special haplotype cluster that includes the Lu clan and Tore clan lived about 1000 years ago (YA), while the Huo and Tuo clans do not share any Y lineages with the Lu clan. In addition to the reported lineages, such as C3*-Star Cluster, R1b-M343, and Q, our results indicate that haplogroup C2b1a1b1-F1756 might be another candidate of the true Y lineage of Genghis Khan.

The massive assimilation of indigenous East Asian populations in the origin of Muslim Hui people inferred from paternal Y chromosome.

OBJECTIVES: The Hui people are the adherents of Muslim faith and distributing throughout China. There are two contrasting hypotheses about the origin and diversification of the Hui people, namely, the demic diffusion involving the mass movement of people or simple cultural diffusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected 621 unrelated male individuals from 23 Hui populations all over China. We comprehensively genotyped more than 100 informative Y-chromosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms and 17 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) on those samples. RESULTS: Co-analyzed with published worldwide populations, our results suggest the origin of Hui people has involved massive assimilation of indigenous East Asians with about 70% in total of the paternal ancestry could be traced back to East Asia and the left 30% to various regions in West Eurasia. DISCUSSION: The genetic structure of the extant Hui populations was primarily shaped by the indigenous East Asian populations as they contribute the majority part of the paternal lineages of Hui people. The West Eurasian admixture was probably a sex-biased male-driven process since we have not found such a high proportion of West Eurasian gene flow on autosomal STRs and maternal mtDNA.

Chronic remote ischemic preconditioning-induced increase of circulating hSDF-1α level and its relation with reduction of blood pressure and protection endothelial function in hypertension.

Although previous data showed that remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) has beneficial effect on blood pressure (BP) reduction, the efficacy of RIPC-induced decline in BP and the favorable humoral factors in hypertension is elusive. This present study is performed to evaluate whether RIPC reduces BP, improves microvascular endothelial function and increases circulating hSDF-1α generation in hypertension. Fifteen hypertensive patients received 3 periods of 5-min inflation/deflation of the forearm with a cuff on the upper arm daily for 30 days. Clinic and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) were examined before and after the end of this procedure. Microvascular endothelial function was measured by finger reactive hyperemia index (RHI) using the Endo-PAT 2000 device. The circulating hSDF-1α level was tested by ELISA. RIPC significantly decreased systolic BP (139.13 ± 6.68 versus 131.45 ± 7.45 mmHg) and diastolic BP (89.67 ± 4.98 versus 83.83 ± 6.65 mmHg), meanwhile 24-h ambulatory systolic and diastolic BP dropped from 136.33 ± 9.10 mmHg to 131.33 ± 7.12 mmHg and 87.60 ± 6.22 mmHg to 82.47 ± 4.47 mmHg respectively. RHI was improved (1.95 ± 0.34 versus 2.47 ± 0.44). Plasma hSDF-1α level was markedly increased after RIPC (1585.86 ± 167.17 versus 1719.54 ± 211.17 pg/ml). The increase in hSDF-1α level was associated with the fall in clinic and 24-h ABPM and rise in RHI. The present data suggests that RIPC may be a novel alternative or complementary intervention means to treat hypertension and protect endothelial function.

Dispersals of the Siberian Y-chromosome haplogroup Q in Eurasia.

The human Y-chromosome has proven to be a powerful tool for tracing the paternal history of human populations and genealogical ancestors. The human Y-chromosome haplogroup Q is the most frequent haplogroup in the Americas. Previous studies have traced the origin of haplogroup Q to the region around Central Asia and Southern Siberia. Although the diversity of haplogroup Q in the Americas has been studied in detail, investigations on the diffusion of haplogroup Q in Eurasia and Africa are still limited. In this study, we collected 39 samples from China and Russia, investigated 432 samples from previous studies of haplogroup Q, and analyzed the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) subclades Q1a1a1-M120, Q1a2a1-L54, Q1a1b-M25, Q1a2-M346, Q1a2a1a2-L804, Q1a2b2-F1161, Q1b1a-M378, and Q1b1a1-L245. Through NETWORK and BATWING analyses, we found that the subclades of haplogroup Q continued to disperse from Central Asia and Southern Siberia during the past 10,000 years. Apart from its migration through the Beringia to the Americas, haplogroup Q also moved from Asia to the south and to the west during the Neolithic period, and subsequently to the whole of Eurasia and part of Africa.

Effect of Intensive Periodontal Therapy on Blood Pressure and Endothelial Microparticles in Patients With Prehypertension and Periodontitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Although some studies show a positive association between periodontitis and blood pressure (BP) elevation, research on the effect of intensive periodontal treatment on decline in BP levels and endothelial microparticles (EMPs) without any antihypertensive management is lacking. Therefore, the present clinical trial explores whether intensive periodontal therapy would lower BP levels and EMPs of patients with prehypertension with periodontitis. METHODS: From a total 107 patients, 95 underwent randomization (47 assigned to control-treatment [CT] group and 48 assigned to intensive-treatment [IT] group) and completed the trial. Patients received intervention for 4 consecutive weeks and were followed for 6 months. Levels of BP and EMPs were evaluated at baseline and 1, 3, and 6 months after intervention. RESULTS: Periodontal conditions were significantly improved (P <0.05) 6 months after intensive periodontal treatment. In parallel, the primary outcomes including systolic and diastolic BP and EMPs were markedly reduced in the IT group compared with the CT group (absolute difference: 12.57 and 9.65 mm Hg and 581.59/µL, respectively; 95% confidence intervals: 10.45 to 14.69, 7.06 to 12.24, and 348.12 to 815.06, respectively; P <0.05). Reduction in BP levels and EMPs was related to improvement in probing depth (r = 0.358, 0.363, and 0.676, respectively, by the Pearson product-moment correlation; P = 0.009, 0.008, and P <0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: To the best knowledge of the authors, the present study demonstrates for the first time that intensive periodontal intervention without any antihypertensive medication therapy may be an effective means to lower levels of BP and EMPs in patients with prehypertension with periodontitis.

BMP4/Id2 signaling pathway is a novel therapeutic target for late outgrowth endothelial progenitor cell-mediated endothelial injury repair.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) play a pivotal role in endothelial repair following artery injury, however, the molecular mechanism of late outgrowth EPCs (LEPCs) in endothelial repair remained to be studied. Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) is involved in vascular injury-mediated mobilization and homing of LEPCs. Here, we investigated the influence of BMP4-modified signaling pathway in LEPC-related endothelial repair of human and underlying molecular mechanism. METHODS AND RESULTS: In vitro, after a 28day culture, human LEPCs were pretreated with different concentrations of recombinant BMP4 (0, 10, 50, or 100ng/mL), which markedly augmented the migration and adhesion in vitro and demonstrated a significantly accelerated in vivo endothelial repair capacity of human LEPCs after transplantation into nude mice with carotid artery denudation injury. Moreover, the main Id gene (Id2), a well-characterized down-streaming target of BMP4, upregulated in LEPCs incubated with recombinant BMP4. The BMP4-induced enhancement in in vitro functional activities and in vivo endothelial repair capacity of human LEPCs were abolished by pretreatment with BMP antagonist Noggin or shRNA-mediated knockdown of BMP4 expression. Furthermore, BMP4 gene transfer remarkably activated BMP4-mediated signaling pathway and facilitated therapeutic endothelial repair capacity of LEPCs, and the improved functional activities of human LEPCs could be inhibited by Noggin. CONCLUSION: Thus, the present study demonstrates for the first time that BMP4-related signaling pathway is essential with endothelial repair capacity of LEPCs in human. The upregulation of BMP4-modified signaling pathway in human LEPCs may be a novel therapeutic strategy for endothelial repair after injury.

CXCR7/p-ERK-Signaling Is a Novel Target for Therapeutic Vasculogenesis in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is characterized by insufficient vasculogenic response to ischemia, which is typically accompanied by dysfunction of endothelial outgrowth cells (EOCs). CXC chemokine receptor 7 (CXCR7) is a key modulator of the neovascularization of EOCs to perfusion defect area. However, the mechanism underlying the role of EOCs in CAD-related abnormal vasculogenesis is still not clear. Here, we investigated the alteration of EOCs-related vasculogenic capacity in patients with CAD and its potential mechanism. Compared with EOCs isolated from healthy subjects, EOCs from CAD patients showed an impaired vasculogenic function in vitro. CXCR7 expression of EOCs from CAD patients was downregulated. Meanwhile, the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), downstream of CXCR7 signaling, was also reduced. CXCR7 expression introduced by adenovirus increased the phosphorylation of ERK, which was parallel to improved function of EOCs. The enhanced adhesion and vasculogenesis of EOCs can be blocked by short interfering RNA (siRNA) against CXCR7 and ERK inhibitor PD098059. Therefore, our study demonstrates that the upregulation of CXCR7 signaling contributes to increased vasculogenic capacity of EOCs from CAD patients, indicating that CXCR7 signaling may be a novel therapeutic vasculogenic target for CAD.