Polyiodide-assisted fabrication of hybrid perovskite thin films from lead nanolayers on flexible substrates

Despite remarkable progress in solvent-assisted processing of hybrid perovskite thin films, the scalable fabrication of their uniform and pin-hole free layers remains a difficult task, especially on flexible substrates. In contrast, we have demonstrated that the polyiodide-assisted conversion of Pb nanolayers into MAPbI3 results in the formation of crystalline MAPbI3 thin films on large flexible substrates already at the room temperature. The exposure of stoichiometric Pb/MAI bilayers to iodine vapor leads to the formation of highly reactive polyiodide melts MAI3(L), which instantly react with the Pb nanolayers converting them into pure MAPbI3 films without byproducts or unreacted components.

A Review of economic analysis of climate change impacts and adaptation in fisheries and aquaculture

Focusing on economic methods, this study provides a comprehensive review of the current research in fisheries and aquaculture within the context of climate change. We find there has been remarkable progress in evaluating the biophysical impacts of climate change on fish. However, the effect those impacts have on future fish stocks, yields, and dynamics are less understood. Climate change adaptation strategies in fisheries and aquaculture lack quantitative assessment, while current vulnerability indices rely heavily on subjective weighting schemes. Economic studies involving fisheries and aquaculture have seen some recent advancements but can be improved through incorporating methods from other disciplines, notably agricultural economics. Relative to its increasingly large role in global fish supply, the aquaculture sector is found to be under-represented in the economic literature. We suggest that future research in fisheries and aquaculture should further incorporate methods from agricultural economics, focus on the economics of aquaculture, and refine interdisciplinary research methods such as bioeconomic modelling.

Cross-Talk between Amyloid, Tau Protein and Free Radicals in Post-Ischemic Brain Neurodegeneration in the Form of Alzheimer’s Disease Proteinopathy

Recent years have seen remarkable progress in research into free radicals oxidative stress, particularly in the context of post-ischemic recirculation brain injury. Oxidative stress in post-ischemic tissues violates the integrity of the genome, causing DNA damage, death of neuronal, glial and vascular cells, and impaired neurological outcome after brain ischemia. Indeed, it is now known that DNA damage and repair play a key role in post-stroke white and gray matter remodeling, and restoring the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. This review will present one of the newly characterized mechanisms that emerged with genomic and proteomic development that led to brain ischemia to a new level of post-ischemic neuropathological mechanisms, such as the presence of amyloid plaques and the development of neurofibrillary tangles, which further exacerbate oxidative stress. Finally, we hypothesize that modified amyloid and the tau protein, along with the oxidative stress generated, are new key elements in the vicious circle important in the development of post-ischemic neurodegeneration in a type of Alzheimer’s disease proteinopathy.

Smart Mobility in the Mediterranean Cities

Smart mobility is linked to the ability to create transport efficiency in cities. Indeed, the increase of smart mobility within cities has a positive impact on citizens. The ability to create new projects related to smart mobility and its ability to involve the ecosystem, especially citizens, is part of urban planning in many countries and carries out this work. This study presents the urban projects in some Mediterranean cities and their impact on the externalities of smart mobility. The results show that the deployment of smart mobility has a positive impact on urban development and there is remarkable progress in connecting citizens, especially in cities where smart mobility is the result of investments in sustainable development. Based on the latest projects in smart cities in the Mediterranean and the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, the study will help to evaluate urban projects but also to understand how cities increase the well-being of citizens.

Safety and Security Issues of Media Professional: A Case Study of Freelance Journalists in Pakistan

In the last twenty years’ Pakistani media have experienced remarkable progress and transformation in its role. There have been serious setbacks in current years. Almost more than one hundred private TV channels are currently broadcasting. Pakistan is one of the unsafe counties of the world for journalists as per the 2020 report of the International Federation of Journalists Pakistan. Pakistan has been a war zone for almost forty years, where 140 journalists were killed in Pakistan from 2000 to 2020 but still, Pakistani law does not guarantee journalists' safety. Are they feeling safe and secure and which steps will be important for journalists’ security and safety? This researcher is qualitative. The data have been collected by conducting interviews and applying the social responsibility theory to investigate, what is about the freedom of speech because this theory describes the claims that the journalist always plays a responsible role of passing the information with freedom and the task of the press is to make journalism better.

Deep Semi-Supervised Image Classification Algorithms: a Survey

Semi-supervised learning is a branch of machine learning focused on improving the performance of models when the labeled data is scarce, but there is access to large number of unlabeled examples. Over the past five years there has been a remarkable progress in designing algorithms which are able to get reasonable image classification accuracy having access to the labels for only 0.1% of the samples. In this survey, we describe most of the recently proposed deep semi-supervised learning algorithms for image classification and identify the main trends of research in the field. Next, we compare several components of the algorithms, discuss the challenges of reproducing the results in this area, and highlight recently proposed applications of the methods originally developed for semi-supervised learning.

Wave-based optical coherence elastography: the 10-year perspective

After ten years of progress and innovation, optical coherence elastography (OCE) based on the propagation of mechanical waves has become one of the major and, perhaps, one of the most studied OCE branches, producing a fundamental impact in the quantitative and nondestructive biomechanical characterization of tissues. Preceding previous progress made in ultrasound and magnetic resonance elastography; wave-based OCE has pushed to the limit the advance of three major pillars: (1) implementation of novel wave excitation methods in tissues, (2) understanding new types of mechanical waves in complex boundary conditions by proposing advance analytical and numerical models, and (3) the development of novel estimators capable of retrieving quantitative 2D/3D biomechanical information of tissues. This remarkable progress promoted a major advance in answering basic science questions and improving medical disease diagnosis and treatment monitoring in several types of tissues leading, ultimately, to the first attempts of clinical trials and translational research. This paper summarizes the fundamental up-to-date principles and categories of wave-based OCE, revises the timeline and the state-of-the-art techniques and applications lying in those categories, and concludes with a discussion of current challenges and future directions, including clinical translation research.

Asymmetric electrode geometry induced photovoltaic behavior for self-powered organic artificial synapses

Optoelectronic synapses have attracted considerable attention because of their promising potential in artificial visual perception systems for neuromorphic computing. Despite remarkable progress in mimicking synaptic functions, reduction of energy consumption of artificial synapses is still a substantial obstacle that is required to be overcome to promote advanced emerging applications. Herein, we propose a zero-power artificial optoelectrical synapses using ultrathin organic crystalline semiconductors, which can be self-driven by exploiting the photovoltaic effect induced by asymmetric electrode geometry contacts. The photogenerated charge carrier collection at the two electrodes is unbalanced due to the asymmetric contacts, leading to the in-plane current without bias voltage. Our devices successfully mimic a range of important synaptic functions, such as paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) and spike rate-dependent plasticity (SRDP). Furthermore, we demonstrate that our devices can realize the simulation of image sharpening under self-driven optical-sensing synaptic operations, offering prospects for the development of retinomorphic visual systems.

Linking Ethanol-Addictive Behaviors With Brain Catecholamines: Release Pattern Matters

Using a variety of animal models that simulate key features of the alcohol use disorder (AUD), remarkable progress has been made in identifying neurochemical targets that may contribute to the development of alcohol addiction. In this search, the dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) systems have been long thought to play a leading role in comparison with other brain systems. However, just recent development and application of optogenetic approaches into the alcohol research field provided opportunity to identify neuronal circuits and specific patterns of neurotransmission that govern the key components of ethanol-addictive behaviors. This critical review summarizes earlier findings, which initially disclosed catecholamine substrates of ethanol actions in the brain and shows how the latest methodologies help us to reveal the significance of DA and NE release changes. Specifically, we focused on recent optogenetic investigations aimed to reveal cause-effect relationships between ethanol-drinking (seeking and taking) behaviors and catecholamine dynamics in distinct brain pathways. These studies gain the knowledge that is needed for the better understanding addiction mechanisms and, therefore, for development of more effective AUD treatments. Based on the reviewed findings, new messages for researches were indicated, which may have broad applications beyond the field of alcohol addiction.

Emerging immunological strategies: recent advances and future directions

Immunotherapy plays a compelling role in cancer treatment and has already made remarkable progress. However, many patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors fail to achieve clinical benefits, and the response rates vary among tumor types. New approaches that promote anti-tumor immunity have recently been developed, such as small molecules, bispecific antibodies, chimeric antigen receptor T cell products, and cancer vaccines. Small molecule drugs include agonists and inhibitors that can reach the intracellular or extracellular targets of immune cells participating in innate or adaptive immune pathways. Bispecific antibodies, which bind two different antigens or one antigen with two different epitopes, are of great interest. Chimeric antigen receptor T cell products and cancer vaccines have also been investigated. This review explores the recent progress and challenges of different forms of immunotherapy agents and provides an insight into future immunotherapeutic strategies.