Synthesis and Photo-Response of CuS Thin Films by an In Situ Multi-Deposition Process at Room Temperature: A Facile and Eco-Friendly Approach

Weiyan Liu,Huiming Ji,Jian Wang,Xuerong Zheng,Junyun Lai,Junna Ji,Tongfei Li,Yuanliang Ma,Haiqin Li,Suqin Zhao,Zhengguo Jin 성균관대학교(자연과학캠퍼스) 성균나노과학기술원 2015 NANO Vol.10 No.3

"Uniform hexagonal covellite CuS thin films were deposited at room temperature by an in situ solution chemical reaction using copper precursor solid films as cationic source and ammonium sulfide ethanol solution as anionic reaction medium. We investigated the influence of both ethanolamine and butanol contents used in copper nitrate/ethylene glycol monomethylether (EGME) cationic solution for the preparation of copper precursor solid films, deposition cycle numbers and annealing treatment of the as-grown thin films by X-ray diffraction (XRD), FESEM, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence EDX, transmission electron microscopy–Selected area electronic diffraction (TEM–SAED), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared (UV-Vis–NIR) measurements. Photo-response of the CuS thin films was characterized by linear sweep voltammetry. The deposited CuS thin films were used to sensitize TiO2 anodes for solar cell application. The results showed that the CuS films had two-dimension oriented, half-sheet shaped growing morphology standing disorderly but vertically to substrates, and the calculated texture coefficient TC(102) verified that the half-sheet shaped crystallites had (102) plane orientation. This in situ multi-deposition process had an average deposited rate of 9 nm per cycle, and a selfperfect function to grow smooth, uniform and 2D oriented morphology with increase in the dip-cycle numbers. The photocurrent density was 14.5 Ma/cm2 at 1 V versus Ag/AgCl electrode for the annealed CuS thin films. CuS-sensitized TiO2 solar cells had a maximum conversion efficiency of 0.224%."

Research on Thermal Refocusing System of High-resolution Space Camera

Weiyan Li,Qunbo Lv,Jian Wei Wang,Na Zhao,Zheng Tan,Linlin Pei 한국광학회 2022 Current Optics and Photonics Vol.6 No.1

A high-resolution camera is a precise optical system. Its vibrations during transportation and launch, together with changes in temperature and gravity field in orbit, lead to different degrees of defocus of the camera. Thermal refocusing is one of the solutions to the problems related to in-orbit defocusing, but there are few relevant thermal refocusing mathematical models for systematic analysis and research. Therefore, to further research thermal refocusing systems by using the development of a high-resolution micro-nano satellite (CX6-02) super-resolution camera as an example, we established a thermal refocusing mathematical model based on the thermal elasticity theory on the basis of the secondary mirror position. The detailed design of the thermal refocusing system was carried out under the guidance of the mathematical model. Through optical–mechanical–thermal integration analysis and Zernike polynomial calculation, we found that the data error obtained was about 1%, and deformation in the secondary mirror surface conformed to the optical index, indicating the accuracy and reliability of the thermal refocusing mathematical model. In the final ground test, the thermal vacuum experimental verification data and in-orbit imaging results showed that the thermal refocusing system is consistent with the experimental data, and the performance is stable, which provides theoretical and technical support for the future development of a thermal refocusing space camera.

Effects of Long-Term Fertilizer Practices on Rhizosphere Soil Autotrophic CO₂-Fixing Bacteria under Double Rice Ecosystem in Southern China

( Haiming Tang ),( Li Wen ),( Lihong Shi ),( Chao Li ),( Kaikai Cheng ),( Weiyan Li ),( Xiaoping Xiao ) 한국미생물생명공학회 2022 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.32 No.10

Soil autotrophic bacterial communities play a significant role in the soil carbon (C) cycle in paddy fields, but little is known about how rhizosphere soil microorganisms respond to different long-term (35 years) fertilization practices under double rice cropping ecosystems in southern China. Here, we investigated the variation characteristics of rhizosphere soil RubisCO gene cbbL in the double rice ecosystems of in southern China where such fertilization practices are used. For this experiment we set up the following fertilizer regime: without any fertilizer input as a control (CK), inorganic fertilizer (MF), straw returning (RF), and organic and inorganic fertilizer (OM). We found that abundances of cbbL, 16S rRNA genes and RubisCO activity in rhizosphere soil with OM, RF and MF treatments were significantly higher than that of CK treatment. The abundances of cbbL and 16S rRNA genes in rhizosphere soil with OM treatment were 5.46 and 3.64 times higher than that of CK treatment, respectively. Rhizosphere soil RubisCO activity with OM and RF treatments increased by 50.56 and 45.22%, compared to CK treatment. Shannon and Chao1 indices for rhizosphere soil cbbL libraries with RF and OM treatments increased by 44.28, 28.56, 29.60, and 23.13% compared to CK treatment. Rhizosphere soil cbbL sequences with MF, RF and OM treatments mainly belonged to Variovorax paradoxus, uncultured proteobacterium, Ralstonia pickettii, Thermononospora curvata, and Azoarcus sp.KH33C. Meanwhile, cbbL-carrying bacterial composition was obviously influenced by soil bulk density, rhizosphere soil dissolved organic C, soil organic C, and microbial biomass C contents. Fertilizer practices were the principal factor influencing rhizosphere soil cbbL-carrying bacterial communities. These results showed that rhizosphere soil autotrophic bacterial communities were significantly changed under conditions of different long-term fertilization practices Therefore, increasing rhizosphere soil autotrophic bacteria community with crop residue and organic manure practices was found to be beneficial for management of double rice ecosystems in southern China.

Effects of short-term soil tillage management on activity and community structure of denitrifiers under double-cropping rice field

Haiming Tang,Chao Li,Kaikai Cheng,Lihong Shi,Li Wen,Xiaoping Xiao,Yilan Xu,Weiyan Li,Ke Wang 한국미생물·생명공학회 2020 Journal of microbiology and biotechnology Vol.30 No.11

Soil physical and chemical characteristics, soil potential denitrification rates (PDR), community composition and nirK-, nirS- and nosZ-encoding denitrifiers were studied by using MiSeq sequencing, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and terminal restriction fragment polymorphism (T-RFLP) technologies base on short-term (5-year) tillage field experiment. The experiment included four tillage treatments: conventional tillage with crop residue incorporation (CT), rotary tillage with crop residue incorporation (RT), no-tillage with crop residue retention (NT), and rotary tillage with crop residue removed as control (RTO). The results indicated that soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and NH4 +-N contents were increased with CT, RT and NT treatments. Compared with RTO treatment, the copies number of nirK, nirS and nosZ in paddy soil with CT, RT and NT treatments were significantly increased. The principal coordinate analysis indicated that tillage management and crop residue returning management were the most and the second important factors for the change of denitrifying bacteria community, respectively. Meanwhile, this study indicated that activity and community composition of denitrifiers with CT, RT and NT treatments were increased, compared with RTO treatment. This result showed that nirK, nirS and nosZ-type denitrifiers communities in crop residue applied soil had higher species diversity compared with crop residue removed soil, and denitrifying bacteria community composition were dominated by Gammaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Betaproteobacteria. Therefore, it is a beneficial practice to increase soil PDR level, abundance and community composition of nitrogen-functional soil microorganism by combined application of tillage with crop residue management.

Metallothionein MT1M Suppresses Carcinogenesis of Esophageal Carcinoma Cells through Inhibition of the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and the SOD1/PI3K Axis

Li, Dandan,Peng, Weiyan,Wu, Bin,Liu, Huan,Zhang, Ruizhen,Zhou, Ruiqin,Yao, Lijun,Ye, Lin Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology 2021 Molecules and cells Vol.44 No.4

Metallothionein (MT1M) belongs to a family of cysteinerich cytosolic protein and has been reported to be a tumor suppressor gene in multiple cancers. However, its role in esophageal carcinoma carcinogenesis remains unclear. In this study, MT1M expression was correlated with tumor type, stage, drinking and smoking history, as well as patient survival. We also studied the regulation and biological function of MT1M in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We have found that MT1M is significantly downregulated in ESCC tissues compared with adjacent non-cancer tissues. Furthermore, restoration of expression by treatment with the demethylation agent A + T showed that MT1M downregulation might be closely related to hypermethylation in its promoter region. Over-expression of MT1M in ESCC cells significantly altered cell morphology, induced apoptosis, and reduced colony formation, cell viability, migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Moreover, based on reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, a superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) activity assay and protein analysis, we verified that the tumor-suppressive function of MT1M was at least partially caused by its upregulation of ROS levels, downregulation of SOD1 activity and phosphorylation of the SOD1 downstream pathway PI3K/AKT. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that MT1M was a novel tumor-suppressor in ESCC and may be disrupted by promoter CpG methylation during esophageal carcinogenesis.

Rapid Screen of IL-5/IL-5Rα Blocking Antibodies in the HEK293-IL-5Rα-CSF2RB Transfected Cell Line

Shijie Li,Fei Han,Chang Liu,Weiyan Dai,Wenfeng Ke,Yongqi Chen,Eric Fordjour,Yankun Yang,Zhonghu Bai 한국생물공학회 2023 Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering Vol.28 No.4

Interleukin-5 (IL-5) binding to interleukin-5 receptor subunit alpha (IL-5Rα) increases the number of eosinophils and enhances eosinophil activity. This leads to eosinophil tissue infiltration and damage to the lungs, ultimately resulting in exacerbation of asthma. Antibodies that block IL-5 binding to IL-5Rα are thought to play an important role in advanced asthma. Currently, key methods used to screen for targeted drugs are Surface Plasmon Resonance which is costly and anti-proliferation assays which are tedious and have a low signal-to-noise ratio. Here we describe a Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) assay, based on human embryonic kidney (HEK)- 293 cells with stable expression of IL-5Rα and the cytokine receptor common subunit beta (CSF2RB). Cells co-expressing IL-5Rα and CSF2RB had a 16% increase in the ability to bind IL-5 compared to cells expressing only IL-5Rα. The optimal concentration of IL-5 for the FACS assay was 0.1 μg/mL. The established FACS was used to screen anti IL-5 nanobodies and hybridoma supernatants for candidate antibodies that block the IL-5/IL-5α interaction. When compared to anti-proliferation assays, this method saved up to 90% of the assay time, offering the advantage of rapidity and accuracy in vitro. The assay described here provides a novel approach for rapid screening of IL-5/IL- 5Rα blocking antibodies in vitro to accelerate the development of drugs for asthma.

Comparison of Six Automated Immunoassays With Isotope-Diluted Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Total Thyroxine Measurement

Songlin Yu,Weiyan Zhou,Xinqi Cheng,Qinghui Meng,Honglei Li,Li’an Hou,Jun Lu,Shaowei Xie,Qian Cheng,Chuanbao Zhang,Ling Qiu 대한진단검사의학회 2019 Annals of Laboratory Medicine Vol.39 No.4

Background: Accurate serum total thyroxine (TT4) measurement is important for thyroid disorder diagnosis and management. We compared the performance of six automated immunoassays with that of isotope-diluted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (ID-LC-MS/MS) as the reference method. We also evaluated the correlation of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) with TT4 measured by ID-LC-MS/MS and immunoassays. Methods: Serum was collected from 156 patients between October 2015 and January 2016. TT4 was measured by immunoassays from Abbott (Architect), Siemens (ADVIA Centaur XP), Roche (E601), Beckman-Coulter (Dxi800), Autobio (Autolumo A2000), and Mindray (CL-1000i), and by ID-LC-MS/MS. Results were analyzed using Passing–Bablok regression and Bland–Altman plots. Minimum requirements based on biological variation were as follows: a mean bias of ≤4.5% and total imprecision (CV) of ≤3.7%. Results: All immunoassays showed a correlation >0.945 with ID-LC-MS/MS; however, the slope of the Passing–Bablok regression line varied from 0.886 (Mindray) to 1.23 (Siemens) and the intercept from -12.8 (Siemens) to 4.61 (Mindray). Only Autobio, Beckman-Coulter, and Roche included the value of one in the 95% confidence interval for slope. The mean bias ranged from -10.8% (Abbott) to 9.0% (Siemens), with the lowest value noted for Roche (3.5%) and the highest for Abbott (-10.8%). Only Abbott and Roche showed within-run and total CV ≤3.7%. Conclusions: Though all immunoassays correlated strongly with ID-LC-MS/MS, most did not meet the minimum clinical requirement. Laboratories and immunoassay manufacturers must be aware of these limitations.

STYXL1 promotes proliferation and epithelial mesenchymal transition of gastric cancer cells via activating the PI3K/AKT pathway

Chen Silu,Yu Weiyan,Li Ziyue,Wang Yadong,Peng Bo 대한독성 유전단백체 학회 2024 Molecular & cellular toxicology Vol.20 No.2

Background Gastric cancer (GC) is a common and grievous disorder with high heterogeneity. Serine/threonine/tyrosine-interacting-like protein 1 (STYXL1), a pseudophosphatase without catalytic activity, plays a important roles in cellular pathways and various cancers. However, its role and mechanism in GC remain unclear. Objectives This study aimed to explore the role and possible mechanism of STYXL1 in GC cells. Results The results showed that STYXL1 expression was elevated in GC. Both loss- and gain-of-function results showed that STYXL1 enhanced cell viability, colony formation, cell invasion and migration, and the protein expression of BCL-2 and Vimentin, but reduced the apoptosis rate and the protein level of BAX, cleaved caspase 3 and E-Cadherin in vitro. Mechanically, the levels of p-PI3K/PI3K and p-AKT/AKT were observably elevated by overexpression of STYXL1, and markedly reduced by silencing of STYXL1 in both SNU-1 and HGC-27 cells. Conclusion STYXL1 promoted cell growth, migration, invasion and EMT with decreased apoptosis, which was closely related with the activation of PI3K/AKT pathway in GC.

Interleukin-6 signaling regulates hematopoietic stem cell emergence

Ruxiu Tie,Honghu Li,Shuyang Cai,Zuyu Liang,Wei Shan,Binsheng Wang,Yamin Tan,Weiyan Zheng,He Huang 생화학분자생물학회 2019 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.51 No.-

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) produce all lineages of mature blood cells for the lifetime of an organism. Invertebrates, HSCs derive from the transition of the hemogenic endothelium (HE) in the floor of the embryonic dorsalaorta. Most recently, a series of proinflammatory factors, such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, and Toll-likereceptor 4, have been confirmed to play a key role in HSC specification. However, the full complement of necessarysignaling inputs remains unknown to date. Here, we show that interleukin-6R (IL6R) via IL6 is required and sufficient forHSC generation. We found that Notch activates IL6R by regulating its expression in the HE and in HSCs. The secretionof IL6 mainly originates from HSC-independent myeloid cells, but not from HSCs and their adjacent vascularendothelial cells. In addition, blocking IL6 signaling does not affect vascular development or the production ofprimitive erythrocytes. Taken together, our results uncover a previously obscure relationship between IL6 signaling andHSC production and provide new insights into HSC regeneration using proinflammatory factors in vitro.

Dynamic processes of hyporheic exchange and temperature distribution in the riparian zone in response to dam-induced water fluctuations

Dongsheng Liu,Jian Zhao,Xiaobing Chen,Yingyu Li,Shipan Weiyan,Mengmeng Feng 한국지질과학협의회 2018 Geosciences Journal Vol.22 No.3

We examined the dynamic processes of hyporheic exchange and temperature distribution in a riparian zone in response to low-temperature water fluctuations downstream of the Xin’an River Dam, China, using analytical and mainly hydrodynamic methods. For this purpose, we installed six HM21 piezometers (R, P1–P5) between the river water and the groundwater at an interval of approximately 2 m perpendicular to the flow path. We also installed 20 PT100 thermistors (T1–T20) along the transect at depths of 1.19 m to 3.58 m and monitored the temperatures of river and air. Water levels and temperatures were automatically logged every 5 min by the real-time system from November to December 2014 and sent to the remote platform through the remote terminal unit. Results revealed that the intensity and direction of the hyporheic exchange (Q) between the river water and the groundwater varied periodically (t = 1 d) with the water level of the river. In each cycle, the Q was in a counterclockwise loop curve with the water level of the river and with the non-uniform distribution along the transect perpendicular to the river, which showed that the farther the lateral exchange was away from the river, the lower its intensity and the more hysteretic the alteration of its direction. The daily exchange width and residence time had no necessary connection with the average river stage, but mainly depended on the amplitude of the fluctuating river stage and the duration of river infiltration and established a strong linear relationship with their product. The temperature distribution of the riparian aquifer was mainly affected by the surface radiation and river water infiltration. It was characterized as “cool on the surface and warm at the bottom” in the vertical direction and could be divided into low-, medium-, and high-temperature zones along the horizontal direction. The horizontal infiltration distance (L) increased by power functions with the increase in infiltration rate (v) and decrease in river temperature (T).