Spine 29(8):914–919CrossRef Gross DP, Battié MC, Asante A (2006) Development and validation of a short-form functional https://www.selleckchem.com/products/lcl161.html capacity evaluation for use in claimants with low back disorders. J Occup Rehabil 16(1):53–62CrossRef Hazard RG, Bendix

A, Fenwick JW (1991) Disability exaggeration as a predictor of functional restoration outcomes for patients with chronic low-back pain. Spine 16(9):1062–1067CrossRef Innes E, Straker L (1999) Validity of work-related assessments. Work 13:125–152 Kool JP, Oesch PR, Defactinib de Bie RA (2002) Predictive tests for non-return to work in patients with chronic low back pain. Eur Spine J 11(3):258–266CrossRef Lechner DE, Page JJ, Sheffield G (2008) Predictive validity of a functional capacity evaluation: the physical work performance evaluation. Work 31:21–25 Mahmud N, Schonstein E, Schaafsma F, Lehtola MM, Fassier JB, Verbeek JH, Reneman MF (2010) Functional capacity evaluations for the prevention of occupational re-injuries in injured workers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 7(7):CD007290 Martimo KP, Varonen H, Husman K, Viikari-Juntura

E (2007) Factors associated with self-assessed work ability. Occup Med 57(5):380–382CrossRef Matheson LN, Isernhagen SJ, Hart DL (2002) Relationships among lifting ability, grip force, and return to work. Phys Ther 82:249–256 Mayer TG, Gatchel RJ, Kishino N, Keeley J, Mayer H, Capra P, Mooney V (1986) A prospective short-term study of chronic low back pain patients selleck chemicals llc utilizing novel objective functional measurement. Pain 25:53–68CrossRef Reneman MF, Soer R (2010) Was predictive validity

of a job-specific FCE established? J Occup Environ Med 52(12):1145 Reneman MF, Geertzen JH, Groothoff JW, Brouwer S (2008) General and specific self-efficacy reports of patients with chronic low back pain: are they related to performances in a functional capacity evaluation? J Occup Rehabil 18(2):183–189CrossRef Schaafsma F, Hulshof Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease C, Verbeek J, Bos J, Dyserinck H, van Dijk F (2006) Developing search strategies in medline on the occupational origin of diseases. Am J Ind Med 49(2):127–137CrossRef Schiphorst Preuper HR, Reneman MF, Boonstra AM, Dijkstra PU, Versteegen GJ, Geertzen JHB et al (2008) The relationship between psychological factors and performance based and self reported disability measures in patients with chronic low back pain. Eur Spine J 17:1448–1456CrossRef Scholten-Peeters GG, Verhagen AP, Bekkering GE, van der Windt DA, Barnsley L, Oostendorp RA et al (2003) Prognostic factors of whiplash-associated disorders: a systematic review of prospective cohort studies.

Five isolates, Sphingomonas sp. strain O12, Sphingomonas sp. strain A32, Sphingomonas

sp. strain A55, Stenotrophomonas sp. strain C21 and Arthrobacter sp. strain O4, were resistant to high Cu2+ concentration (≥ 2.8 mM) and other heavy metals. Bacteria that tolerate Cu concentrations higher than 2 mM should Luminespib supplier possess an effective resistance system for Cu detoxification. The isolates Sphingomonas sp. strain O12, Sphingomonas sp. strain A32 and Sphingomonas sp. strain A55, showed a high MIC to Cu2+ (ranged from 3.9 to 4.7 mM), Co2+ (2.5 mM), Ni2+ (17 mM), Zn2+ (8.5 mM) and Hg2+ (0.4 mM) (Table 2). The MIC of the heavy metal www.selleckchem.com/products/fosbretabulin-disodium-combretastatin-a-4-phosphate-disodium-ca4p-disodium.html resistant bacterium C. metallidurans strain MSR33 to Cu2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Zn2+ and Hg2+ is 3.8, 20, 6.0, 17 and 0.1 mM, respectively. Stenotrophomonas MK0683 sp. strain C21 and Arthrobacter sp. strain O4 showed a high MIC to Cu2+ (ranged from 3.1 to 3.9 mM) and CrO4 2- (4.3 mM). C. metallidurans strain MSR33 has a MIC to CrO4 2- of 0.7 mM. These high levels of heavy metal resistances may be useful for surviving and adapting to acute heavy metal contamination events in the soil. The mechanisms involved in heavy metal resistance of the strains isolated should be studied. Sphingomonas macrogoltabidus strain S1n isolated from rhizosphere of Alyssum murale, showed a high MIC to Cu2+ (5

mM) and Ni2+ (15 mM) [38]. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia strain SM777 isolated from a contaminated culture, showed high MIC to Cu2+ (5 mM), Ni2+ (10 mM), Zn2+ (4 mM), and Hg2+ (0.05 mM) [39]. Arthrobacter sp. strain E9 isolated from a battery-manufacturing contaminated site, showed a high MIC to Cu2+ (5.8 mM), Co2+ (2.5 mM), Zn2+ (3 mM) and Hg2+ (0.06 mM) [40]. Arthrobacter sp. strain S189 isolated from rhizosphere of Alyssum murale, showed a high MIC to Cu2+ (10 mM), Co2+ (5 mM), Ni2+ (15 mM), Zn2+ (10 mM) and Hg2+ (0.5 mM)

[38]. Docetaxel The high level of heavy metal resistance of Sphingomonas sp. strain O12, Sphingomonas sp. strain A32, Sphingomonas sp. strain A55, Stenotrophomonas sp. strain C21 and Arthrobacter sp. strain O4 suggests that these strains possess diverse heavy metal determinants. The use of specific primers based on heavy metal determinants from C. metallidurans strain MSR33 did not yield amplicons. In future studies, the presence of heavy metal resistance genes will be studied using more general primers. In this study, the presence of multi-copper oxidase gene was evaluated in the five isolates using degenerated primers designed for copA sequences from Proteobacteria. The presence of multi-copper oxidase copA genes in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria was determined. The presence of copA gene in both bacterial groups suggests that the cop system involved in Cu-resistance could be widespread in soil probably through horizontal genes transfer among soil bacteria.

ALA has documented efficacy in treatment of diabetic neuropathy [17], where it reduces pain and symptoms of peripheral neuropathy [18, 19] and improves nerve conduction [13, 20]. Recent studies have shown that ALA also reduces pain, paresthesia, and numbness in patients with compressive radiculopathy syndrome see more from disc–nerve root conflict [21] and other types of neuropathies, such as carpal tunnel syndrome [22]. In addition, combination treatment with ALA and γ-linolenic acid within a rehabilitation program for 6 weeks reduced sensory symptoms and neuropathic pain in patients with compressive radiculopathy syndrome from disc–nerve root conflict, compared

with patients undergoing a rehabilitation

program alone for 6 weeks [23, 24]. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is one of the most important antioxidant enzymes, being responsible for neutralization of superoxide, the free radical occurring in the cellular respiration. SOD is endowed with a powerful anti-inflammatory action due to its antioxidant property and direct action on neutrophils, inducing their apoptosis; thus, SOD has a key role in inhibiting the inflammatory response, which is closely correlated with attenuation of hyperalgesia [25]. Furthermore, SOD inhibits biosynthesis of some principal inflammatory cytokines and avoids apoptosis of nerves [26]. Since during inflammation—whether acute or chronic—endogenous SOD is not Savolitinib sufficient to completely neutralize oxygen free radicals, dietary supplementation of SOD has been investigated in some diseases, such as arthritis [27], and it has been shown that orally administered SOD not only has antioxidant activity but also works as an effective nerve protector [28, 29]. With this background Celecoxib in mind, our attention was captured by a marketed combination of ALA 600 mg and SOD 140 IU and, therefore, we aimed to investigate its efficacy on sensory symptoms and neuropathic pain in patients

with CNP, when added to a standard rehabilitation program (physiotherapy), compared with the rehabilitation program alone. We hypothesized that the proposed multimodal approach would improve most of the clinical parameters and that it would be more effective than physiotherapy alone. 2 Patients and Methods In accordance with a prospective, randomized, open study design, patients were screened between March 2010 and April 2011 in the Rehabilitation Unit of the Department of Surgical and Oncological Sciences at the University Policlinic in Palermo, Italy. All participants were recruited from consecutive new patients presenting to an interventional pain management practice with CNP. Patients with a history of chronic function-limiting neck pain lasting at least 3 months were AMN-107 molecular weight included in the study.

Clinical strains isolated from different patients have adapted to distinct host environments since patients vary in their ages, find more infection histories and medical treatments (e.g. different kinds of antibiotics

and their dosages). Therefore, researchers need to reduce dimensionality and extract the underlying features from the multi-variable transcriptomic dataset. Principle component analysis (PCA) is a classic projection method which is widely used to accomplish the above mentioned tasks [9]. PCA transforms a number of correlated Quisinostat clinical trial variables into a smaller number of uncorrelated variables called principal components (PC). The first PC captures as much of the variability in the data as possible, and each succeeding PCs capture as much of the remaining variability as possible. However, the constraint of mutual orthogonality of components implied in classical PCA methods may not be appropriate for the biological systems. Recently, independent component analysis (ICA), which decomposes input data into statistically independent components, was shown to be able to classify gene expressions into biologically meaningful groups and relate them to specific biological processes [10]. ICA has been successfully https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ag-881.html applied by different research groups to analyze transcriptomic data from yeast, cancer, Alzheimer samples and is shown to be more powerful at feature extraction than PCA and other traditional methods

for microarray data analysis [11–13]. In a study by Zhang et al., ICA was used to extract specific gene expression patterns of normal and tumor tissues,

which can serve as biomarkers for molecular diagnosis of human cancer type [14]. Yet to the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of application of ICA to the study of bacterial transcriptomic data from chronic infections. In this study, we applied ICA to project the transcriptomic data of 26 CF P. aeruginosa isolates into independent components. P. aeruginosa genes are unsupervisedly clustered into non-mutually exclusive groups. Each retrieved IKBKE independent component is considered as a putative adaptation process, which is revealed by the functional annotations of genes that give heavy loadings to the component. Results The P. aeruginosa microarray dataset is mainly generated from two studies (Figure 1). In the first study, P. aeruginosa strains were collected from a group of patients since 1973 (Figure 1A) [8]. Those isolates represent different P. aeruginosa clonal lineages adapted from early stage infection to chronic stage infection. In the second study, P. aeruginosa strains were collected from a group of CF children since 2006, except the B38-2NM is an isogenic non-mucoid strain of the mucoid B38-2M isolate generated in vitro by allelic replacement of its mucA allele (Figure 1B) [5]. Those isolates represent different P. aeruginosa clonal linages adapted in early stage infection at nowadays.

2009). Defining “strongholds” is not easy, as our “Discussion” Selleckchem GSK2399872A section elaborates. Methods Rainfall We obtained rainfall data from WorldClim (Global Climate Data http://​www.​worldclim.​org/​) (Hijmans et al. 2005).

Lion population assessment We compiled all of the most current available estimates of lion populations—see supplementary materials. Three continent-wide assessments provide the core of these data (Chardonnet 2002; Bauer and Van Der Merwe 2004; IUCN 2006a, b). Supplementing these continent-wide reports, we added lion conservation strategies and action plans that highlight the status of lions in specific countries. We searched the primary articles these Pexidartinib clinical trial reports cite and newly published lion population surveys to obtain the most up-to-date data on lion numbers and distribution. Most of these reports include expert opinions on lion numbers or structured surveys, not formal counts. We also include individual personal comments from the authors and colleagues on the numbers in supplementary materials. FK228 mw Given how difficult it is to count lions this inevitably

begs the question of how good are these expert opinions, an issue we address in “Discussion” section. Lion area mapping We mapped the protected areas within savannah Africa using the 2010 World Database on Protected Areas (IUCN and WDPA 2010). This database includes the six different IUCN classifications of protected areas. These range from strict protection to multiple use and extractive reserves that inter alia, permit hunting. While the delineations of national parks are usually clear, the boundaries Idoxuridine of areas with

less protection, especially hunting areas are not. In some countries, IUCN categories encompass some of these areas; in others, they do not. Hunting areas can be very extensive: for instance, Tanzania gazettes more land for hunting than for national parks. Moreover, some areas have no protection at all, but still house lions. In short, the difficult issue is to what extent lions move beyond and between the well-known protected areas. To address this issue, the IUCN (2006a, b) delineated LCUs. They include national parks, hunting zones and other forms of land use. To determine the current extent and distribution of lion areas we further refined these LCUs using additional data that we will describe in the sections to come: (1) user-identified land conversion, (2) human population density, (3) lion distribution from country-specific reports, and (4) additional data from recent lion population surveys. We utilised these four data layers to refine lion areas using the following, rule-based hierarchical system (Rule #2 takes precedence over the information in Rule #1, etc.): 1. Retain the boundaries of LCUs as originally mapped by IUCN (2006a, b), if additional data are lacking to modify them.   2.

New Microbiol 2005, 28:67–73.PubMed 13. Michos AG, Daikos GL, Tzanetou K, Theodoridou M, Moschovi M, Nicalaidou P, Petrikkos

G, Syriopoulos T, Kanavaki S, Syriopoulou VP: ABT-263 cell line Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA in respiratory and nonrespiratory specimens by the Amplicor MTB PCR. Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis 2006, 54:121–126.PubMedCrossRef 14. Ozkutuk A, Kirdar S, Ozden S, Esen N: Evaluation of Cobas Amplicor MTB test to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pulmonary and extrapulmonary specimens. New Microbiol 2006, 29:269–273.PubMed 15. Guerra RL, Hooper NM, Baker JF, this website Alborz R, Armstrong DT, Maltas G, Kiehlbauch JA, Dorman SE: Use of the amplified mycobacterium tuberculosis direct test in a public health laboratory: test performance and impact on clinical care. Chest 2007, 132:946–951.PubMedCrossRef 16. Franco-Álvarez de Luna F, Ruiz P, Gutiérrez J, Casal M: Evaluation of the GenoType Mycobacteria Direct assay for detection of Mycobacterium BIRB 796 tuberculosis complex

and four atypical mycobacterial species in clinical samples. J Clin Microbiol 2006, 44:3025–3027.PubMedCrossRef 17. Flores LL, Pai M, Colford JM, Riley LW: In-house nucleic acid amplification tests for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum specimens: meta-analysis and meta-regression. BMC Microbiol 2005, 5:55.PubMedCrossRef 18. D’Amato RF, Wallman AA, Hochstein LH, Colaninno PM, Scardamaglia M, Ardila E, Ghouri M, Kim K, Patel RC, Miller A: Rapid diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis by using Roche AMPLICOR Mycobacterium

tuberculosis PCR test. J Clin Microbiol 1995, 33:1832–1834.PubMed 19. Lebrun L, Mathieu D, Saulnier C, Nordmann P: Limits of commercial molecular tests for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis. Eur Respir J 1997, 10:874–1876.CrossRef 20. Iinuma Y, Senda K, Fujihara N, Saito T, Takakura S, Shimojima M, Kudo T, Ichiyama S: Comparison of the BDProbeTec unless ET system with the Cobas Amplicor PCR for direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in respiratory samples. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 2003, 22:368–371.PubMedCrossRef 21. Vuorinen P, Miettinen A, Vuento R, Hällström O: Direct Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in respiratory specimens by Gen-Probe Amplified Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Direct test and Roche Amplicor Mycobacterium Tuberculosis test. J Clin Microbiol 1995, 33:1856–1859.PubMed 22. Mazzarelli G, Rindi L, Piccoli P, Scarpaio C, Garzelli C, Tortoli E: Evaluation of the BDProbeTec ET system for direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pulmonary and extrapulmonary samples: a multicenter study. J Clin Microbiol 2003, 41:1779–1782.PubMedCrossRef 23. Barrett A, Magee JG, Freeman R: An evaluation of the BD ProbeTec ET system for the direct detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in respiratory samples. J Med Microbiol 2002, 51:895–898.PubMed Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions S.H.-T.

SVF, stromal-vascular fraction; PP, periprostatic; VIS, visceral. Figure 7 Representative example of cell tracking and cancer cell trajectories after stimulation with periprostatic adipose tissue-derived CM. Sequential www.selleckchem.com/products/px-478-2hcl.html displacements of cells were captured by manual cell tracking and are represented as color lines.

SVF, stromal-vascular fraction. Discussion Prostate cancers frequently have a indolent course even if left without active treatment [18]. However, clinically relevant disease with significant morbidity and mortality also occurs in a significant number of patients [19]. The mechanisms responsible for this aggressive behavior remain elusive, albeit it is well established that the supporting tumor microenvironment has a decisive role in controlling prostate cancer growth, invasion and metastasis [20]. Cancer-implicated mammary and colonic fat pads [11, 21] are physically close to epithelial cells, whereas in prostate there is initially a capsular-like structure separating

the PP fat from tumor cells. Nevertheless, frequently prostate tumors infiltrate the PP fat pad by transposing or infiltrating the physical barriers, resulting in immediate proximity to adipose tissue. Once extension beyond the capsule occurs, the PP adipose tissue-secreted factors, extracellular matrix components or direct cell-cell contact may influence the phenotypic behavior of malignant cells. Recent studies observed that PP adipose tissue thickness was linked to prostate cancer severity [8], while

its secretory profile associated with advanced disease [7]. In the present until study, we found that VX 809 PP adipose tissue-derived conditioned media may potentiate prostate cancer aggressiveness through modulation of metalloproteinases activity, and by buy XL184 promoting cancer cell proliferation and migration. In tumors, cancer cells are not the only source of MMPs. In our study, MMP9 activity was significantly elevated in the PP adipose tissue of overweight/obese men (BMI ≥ 25 Kg/m2), implying excess body fat and the PP fat depot in the modulation of extra-capsular cancer cells’ microenvironment. Concordantly, other studies found MMP9 to be positively correlated with BMI [22]. Further research is warranted to uncover the effects of MMPs in association with distinct obesity grades. In our sample only two subjects presented BMI > 30 Kg/m2, limitating such approach. Matrix metalloproteinases are proteolytic enzymes that regulate many cell mechanisms with prominence in cancer biology [23]. Their expression in prostate tumors is related with disease progression and metastasis [24], whereas MMP9 was shown to increase growth factors bioavailability and to elicit epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in tumor cells [25, 26], therefore promoting an aggressive phenotype. A recent report indicated that oesophageal tumors from obese patients express more MMP9 and that co-culture of VIS adipose tissue explants with tumor cells up-regulated MMP2 and MMP9 [27].

The Selleck Akt inhibitor different chlamydial species each produce a set of proteins, termed Incs, that are localized to the chlamydial inclusion membrane and exposed to the cytosol of the host cell [19]. Each sequenced chlamydial genome encodes over 40 candidate Incs, and there are both conserved and species-specific Incs among the different chlamydiae. The demonstrated function of a limited number

of Inc proteins is known [9, 20–23], but most are poorly characterized. Chlamydia https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ly3039478.html trachomatis encodes a species-specific set of Incs within orfs CT223-CT229. CT224 and CT225 have no clear homologs in any other chlamydiae, while CT223, and CT226-CT229 have homologs only in C. muridarum, a closely related chlamydial species [24]. The localization to the inclusion membrane of the products of CT223, CT225, CT226, and CT229 was confirmed via fluorescence microscopy [25]. Transcription of CT228 and CT229 is initiated very early following infection of cells [26] and, therefore, the encoded proteins are hypothesized to be essential to early inclusion development. Recent work by Rzomp et al. demonstrated that CT229p associated with Rab4 in a two-hybrid assay and in mammalian cells [20], but the

function Salubrinal price of any of the proteins encoded by the other orfs in this group is not known. To address possible functions of candidate C. trachomatis Incs, we used a plasmid transfection system to introduce genes encoding different Incs into mammalian cells, and then characterized any resulting phenotypes with fluorescence microscopy.

These investigations demonstrated that transfection with plasmids expressing CT223, and to a lesser extent, CT224 and CT225, led to a block in host cell cytokinesis. Cells transfected with plasmids encoding CT223p led to an inhibition of cytokinesis that was similar to that seen in C. trachomatis-infected cells. The block was shown Tideglusib to be associated with the carboxy-terminal end of CT223p, the region of the protein hypothesized to be exposed to the host cell cytosol at the surface of the inclusion. Alleles of CT223 from different strains yielded similar inhibition of cytokinesis, consistent with the inhibitory effect on cytokinesis by all tested C. trachomatis serovars [13]. Methods Chlamydial strains, DNA preparation, and host cell lines Elementary bodies (EB) of Chlamydia trachomatis strains D/UW3, J/UW36, J9235, J(s)1980, J(s)6686 and LGV-434, C. caviae strain GPIC, and C. muridarum strain Nigg were used in infections and/or for preparation of genomic DNA samples that were used as PCR templates. Genomic DNA was prepared by boiling EB suspensions in a water bath for 10 minutes followed by removal of bacterial debris via centrifugation.

[25] because of the difference of incubation temperature used. The temperature variations can affect gene expression and consequently the level of virulence of Candida strains [35]. Of note is that this is the first study to inoculate species of C. lusitaniae, C. norvegensis and C. dubliniensis in the G. mellonella model. Single isolates for C. lustaniae and C. norvegensis and two isolates of C. dubliniensis were included in our study. C. lusitaniae is considered an emerging non-albicans Candida species and isolates show resistance

to amphotericin B. C. norvegensis P5091 appears to be a rare cause of human infection and the most of the isolates are resistant to fluconazole [36, 37]. There are limited data on the comparative virulence of C. lusitaniae and C. norvegensis in relation to C. albicans. In this study, C. lusitaniae and C. norvegensis SCH727965 molecular weight were less virulent in G. mellonella than C. albicans. Finally, in our study, C. dubliniensis isolates showed that the ability of biofilm formation and killing G. mellonella was similar to C. albicans. C. dubliniensis has been implicated in oropharyngeal candidiasis in HIV-infected patients, althought it has also been

isolated from other anatomical sites, including lungs, vagina, blood, and feces [38, 39]. Despite Pictilisib nmr the significant phenotypic and genotypic similarities shared between C. albicans and C. dubliniensis, the comparative virulence of the two species is clearly a very complex topic [40, 41]. Borecká-Melkusová [42] verified that the biofilm formation in C. albicans was significantly lower than in C. dubliniensis, and Koga-Ito et al. [43] observed that the survival rate and dissemination capacity of C. dubliniensis in mice were lower than C. albicans. Conclusion In summary, in Candida spp., the ability of biofilm formation and virulence in the G. mellonella model were dependent on the species studied. For C. albicans the pathogenicity of oral isolates was similar to that of systemic isolates, suggesting that

oral Candida infections should be taken seriously Hydroxychloroquine cost as they have the potential to be as equally morbid if they become systemic infections. Of note is that the penetration by C. albicans filaments is critical during the course of the infection in the Galleria tissue [17]. However, this model does not focus on invasion. Further studies are needed in order to study the ability of oral isolates to colonize and penetrate tissues. Acknowledgements This study was supported by the São Paulo Council of Research – FAPESP, Brazil (Grant n° 09/52283-0) and Univ Estadual Paulista – PROPG/UNESP. References 1. Donnely RF, McCarron PA, Tunney MM: Antifungal photodynamic therapy. Microbiological Research 2008, 163:1–12.CrossRef 2. Johnson DW, Cobb JP: Candida infection and colonization in critically ill surgical patients. Virulence 2010, 1:355–356.PubMedCrossRef 3.

In these organic–inGW2580 organic hybrid solar cells, the polymer as the donor can be excited by solar light, resulting in the generation of strong-bound excitons Apoptosis inhibitor that can be dissociated at the interface between the polymer and inorganic nanocrystals [23]. Thus, the interface between the polymer and inorganic nanocrystals plays a very important role. Unfortunately, inorganic nanocrystals used as the acceptor are typically capped with organic aliphatic ligands, such as trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) [24] and oleic acid (OA) [16]. The presence of organic aliphatic ligands prevents electron transferring from the photoexcited polymer to the nanoparticles [25]. To solve this problem, three strategies have been developed. The first strategy

is to prepare inorganic nanocrystals capped with thermally cleavable solubilizing ligands and then

heat the nanocrystals for shortening the ligands [26]. However, there are very MGCD0103 clinical trial limited kinds of thermally cleavable solubilizing ligands. The second strategy involves replacing the original long organic layer with short ligands. For example, pyridine [16, 24, 27], tert-butylthiol, [28, 29], or acetate acid [9] treatment methods have been used to remove TOPO and OA. However, these processes may be costly and complicated, and precise control of some factors (such as exchange rates) may be difficult. The last strategy is to directly synthesize hybrid inorganic nanocrystals that are capped with donor polymer such as P3HT [30] or PPV [31]. The negative effects of the capping organic aliphatic ligands on charge exchange are eliminated, and the step of

transferring inorganic nanocrystals into the polymer solution for exchange can be bypassed, achieving direct synthesis of nanoparticles with photoelectronic polymers as ligands. To this day, several kinds of hybrid inorganic nanocrystals have been well developed for BHJ solar cells, Molecular motor including P3HT-capped CdS single-crystal nanorods [30], MDMO-PPV-capped PbS quantum dots [31], MEH-PPV-capped PbS nanorods [1], and MEH-PPV-capped PbS nanocrystals [32]. It should be noted that these nanoparticles usually have very small diameters (2 to 5 nm), and thus, it is difficult for them to form a well continuous inorganic network, leading to the difficulty of electron transfer and low photoelectric conversion efficiency [33]. Fortunately, it has been found that the shapes of inorganic nanocrystals have a strong effect on the formation of continuous inorganic network in BHJ solar cells [34]. For example, the BHJ solar cells based on CdSe inorganic nanostructures including nanorods [17, 35] or nanobranches [36, 37] have better continuous interpenetrating networks and thus exhibit more superior photoelectric performances compared with the cells based on CdSe nanoparticles. Furthermore, compared with CdSe nanorods and nanobranches, spherical superstructures constructed by nanosubstructures may be more suitable to form well continuous inorganic network.