TY - JOUR A1 - He, Jing A1 - Liu, Zhi-Wei A1 - Lu, Yong-Ping A1 - Li, Tao-Yuan A1 - Liang, Xu-Jing A1 - Arck, Petra A1 - Huang, Si-Min A1 - Hocher, Berthold A1 - Chen, You-Peng T1 - A systematic review and meta-analysis of influenza a virus infection during pregnancy associated with an increased risk for stillbirth and low birth weight JF - Kidney & blood pressure research : official organ of the Gesellschaft für Nephrologie ; official organ of the Deutsche Liga zur Bekämpfung des Hohen Blutdruckes e.V., Deutsche Hypertonie-Gesellschaft N2 - Background/Aims: Impaired pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight are associated with increased disease risk in later life, however little is known about the impact of common infectious diseases during pregnancy on birth weight. The study had two aims: a) to investigate risk factors of influenza virus infection during pregnancy, and b) to analyze the impact of influenza virus infection on pregnancy outcome, especially birth weight. Methods: Prospective and retrospective observational studies found in PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Google Scholar, and WangFang database were included in this meta analysis. Data of included studies was extracted and analyzed by the RevMan software. Results: Pregnant women with anemia (P=0.004, RR=1.46, 95% CI: 1.13-1.88), obesity (P<0.00001, RR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.25-1.46) and asthma (P<0.00001, RR=1.99, 95% CI: 1.67-2.37) had higher rates of influenza virus infection. Regarding birth outcomes, influenza A virus infection did not affect the likelihood for cesarean section. Mothers with influenza had a higher rate of stillbirth (P=0.04, RR=2.36, 95% CI: 1.05-5.31), and their offspring had low 5-minute APGR Scores (P=0.009, RR=1.39, 95% CI: 1.08-1.79). Furthermore, the rate for birth weight < 2500g (P=0.04, RR=1.71, 95% CI: 1.03-2.84) was increased. Conclusion: Results of this study showed that anemia, asthma and obesity during pregnancy are risk factors influenza A virus infection during pregnancy. Moreover, gestational influenza A infection impairs pregnancy outcomes and increases the risk for low birth weight, a known risk factor for later life disease susceptibility. KW - Apgar score KW - Influenza virus KW - Offspring KW - Outcome KW - Pregnancy KW - Stillbirth KW - Birth weight Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1159/000477221 SN - 1420-4096 SN - 1423-0143 VL - 42 IS - 2 SP - 232 EP - 243 PB - Karger CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lu, Yong-Ping A1 - Zeng, De-Ying A1 - Chen, You-Peng A1 - Liang, Xu-Jing A1 - Xu, Jie-Ping A1 - Huang, Si-Min A1 - Lai, Zhi-Wei A1 - Wen, Wang-Rong A1 - von Websky, Karoline A1 - Hocher, Berthold T1 - Low birth weight is associated with lower respiratory tract infections in children with hand, foot, and mouth disease JF - Clinical laboratory : the peer reviewed journal for clinical laboratories and laboratories related to blood transfusion N2 - Background: Low birth weight (LBW) might be a risk factor for acquiring lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) associated with disease related complications in early childhood. HFMD, a frequent viral infection in southern China, is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children. We analyzed whether LBW is a risk factor for children with HFMD to develop lower respiratory tract infections. Methods: A total of 298 children with HFMD, admitted to a hospital in Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, were recruited. Demographic data and clinical parameters such as serum glucose level and inflammatory markers including peripheral white blood cell count, serum C-reactive protein, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate were routinely collected on admission. Birth weight data were derived from birth records. Results: Mean birth weight (BW) was 167 g lower in patients with HFMD and LRTIs as compared to patients with solely HFMD (p = 0.022) and the frequency of birth weight below the tenth percentile was significantly higher in patients with HFMD and LRTIs (p = 0.002). Conclusions: The results of the study show that low birth weight is associated with a higher incidence of lower respiratory tract infections in young children with HFMD. KW - hand KW - foot and mouth disease (HFMD) KW - low birth weight (LBW) KW - lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) KW - pneumonia KW - children Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7754/Clin.Lab.2012.120725 SN - 1433-6510 VL - 59 IS - 9-10 SP - 985 EP - 992 PB - Clin Lab Publ., Verl. Klinisches Labor CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lu, Yong-Ping A1 - Lung, Xu-Jing A1 - Xiao, Xiao-Min A1 - Huang, Si-Min A1 - Liu, Zhi-Wei A1 - Li, Jian A1 - Hocher, Berthold A1 - Chen, You-Peng T1 - Telbivudine during the second and third trimester of pregnancy interrupts HBV intrauterine transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis JF - Clinical laboratory : the peer reviewed journal for clinical laboratories and laboratories related to blood transfusion N2 - Beckground: Evaluate the efficacy and safety of telbivudine during the 2nd and 3rd trimester of pregnancy in intrauterine transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV). Based on the principle of Cochrane systematic reviews, a database was constructed from Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, the US National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the China Biological Medicine Database (CBM-disc), and contact with Chinese experts in the field from November 2006 to February 2013. Results: Either the Mantel-Haenszel or Inverse Variance fixed-effects model or Mantel-Haenszel or Inverse Variance random-effects model was applied for all analyses indicated by odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The meta-analysis based on new onset of HBsAg seropositivity of infants at 6 - 12 months postpartum revealed that the control group had an intrauterine transmission rate of 8.25 - 42.31%. This rate was reduced to 0 - 14.29% in the telbivudine treatment group (OR 0.09, 95% CI 0.04 - 0.22, including seven trials, p < 0.001). The rates of intrauterine transmission based on new onset of HBV DNA seropositivity of infants at 6 - 12 months postpartum were 8.25 - 19.23% in the control group and 0 - 3.57% in the treatment group (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.02 - 0.22, p < 0.001, including only five trials, since two trials had no data on HBV DNA in infants). With the exception of CK elevations, adverse effect frequencies were similar in both groups. Conclusions: Telbivudine is an effective and safe drug for preventing intrauterine transmission of HBV. KW - telbivudine KW - meta-analysis KW - intrauterine KW - transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) KW - clinical studies KW - safety efficacy Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7754/Clin.Lab.2013.130408 SN - 1433-6510 VL - 60 IS - 4 SP - 571 EP - 586 PB - Clin Lab Publ., Verl. Klinisches Labor CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chen, You-Peng A1 - Lu, Yong-Ping A1 - Li, Jian A1 - Liu, Zhi-Wei A1 - Chen, Wen-Jing A1 - Liang, Xu-Jing A1 - Chen, Xin A1 - Wen, Wang-Rong A1 - Xiao, Xiao-Min A1 - Reichetzeder, Christoph A1 - Hocher, Berthold T1 - Fetal and maternal angiotensin (1-7) are associated with preterm birth JF - Journal of hypertension N2 - Background: Recent studies show that preterm birth is associated with hypertension in later life. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) during pregnancy influences fetal growth and development. In the current study, we investigated the impact of fetal as well as maternal angiotensin (1-7) [Ang (1-7)] and angiotensin II (Ang II) plasma concentrations on the risk of preterm birth. Methods: Three hundred and nine pregnant women were prospectively included into the study. The pregnant women were divided into two groups, for example, preterm birth of lower than 37 gestational weeks (n = 17) and full-term birth of 37 gestational weeks or more (n = 292). Maternal and neonatal plasma Ang (1-7) and Ang II concentrations were analyzed at birth from maternal venous blood and umbilical cord blood, respectively. Risk factors for premature birth were determined by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: Fetal and maternal plasma Ang (1-7) concentrations in the preterm group were lower than those of the term group fetal Ang (1-7) preterm birth: 486.15 +/- 337.34 ng/l and fetal Ang (1-7) term birth: 833.84 +/- 698.12 ng/l and maternal Ang (1-7) preterm birth: 399.86 +/- 218.93 ng/l; maternal Ang (1-7) term birth: 710.34 +/- 598.22 ng/l. Multiple logistic regression analysis considering confounding factors revealed that preeclampsia (P < 0.001), premature rupture of membranes (P = 0.001), lower concentration of maternal Ang (1-7) (P = 0.013) and fetal plasma Ang (1-7) (P = 0.032) were independently associated with preterm birth. We could furthermore demonstrate that the maternal Ang (1-7)/Ang II ratio is independently associated with gestational hypertension or preeclampsia, factors causing preterm birth. Conclusions: Lower concentrations of maternal and fetal Ang (1-7) are independently associated with preterm birth - a risk factor of hypertension in later life. KW - angiotensin (1-7) KW - angiotensin II KW - cardiovascular disease KW - fetal programming KW - intrauterine fetal growth KW - pregnancy KW - preterm delivery Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1097/HJH.0000000000000251 SN - 0263-6352 SN - 1473-5598 VL - 32 IS - 9 SP - 1833 EP - 1841 PB - Lippincott Williams & Wilkins CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kelly, Mary Allison A1 - Roland, Steffen A1 - Zhang, Qianqian A1 - Lee, Youngmin A1 - Kabius, Bernd A1 - Wang, Qing A1 - Gomez, Enrique D. A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - You, Wei T1 - Incorporating Fluorine Substitution into Conjugated Polymers for Solar Cells BT - three Different Means, Same Results JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - Fluorinating conjugated polymers is a proven strategy for creating high performance materials in polymer solar cells, yet few studies have investigated the importance of the fluorination method. We compare the performance of three fluorinated systems: a poly(benzodithieno-dithienyltriazole) (PBnDT-XTAZ) random copolymer where 50% of the acceptor units are difluorinated, PBnDT-mFTAZ where every acceptor unit is monofluorinated, and a 1:1 physical blend of the difluorinated and nonfluorinated polymer. All systems have the same degree of fluorination (50%) yet via different methods (chemically vs physically, random vs regular). We show that these three systems have equivalent photovoltaic behavior:,similar to 5.2% efficiency with a short-circuit current (J(sc)) at,similar to 11 mA cm(-2), an open-circuit voltage (v(oc)) at 0.77 V, and a fill factor (FF) of similar to 60%. Further investigation of these three systems demonstrates that the charge generation, charge extraction, and charge transfer state are essentially identical for the three studied systems. Transmission electron microscopy shows no significant differences in the morphologies. All these data illustrate that it is possible to improve performance not only via regular or random fluorination but also by physical addition via a ternary blend. Thus, our results demonstrate the versatility of incorporating fluorine in the active layer of polymer solar cells to enhance device performance. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b10993 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 121 IS - 4 SP - 2059 EP - 2068 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Li, Wentao A1 - Abrecht, Steve A1 - Yang, Liqiang A1 - Roland, Steffen A1 - Tumbleston, John R. A1 - McAfee, Terry A1 - Yan, Liang A1 - Kelly, Mary Allison A1 - Ade, Harald W. A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - You, Wei T1 - Mobility-controlled performance of thick solar cells based on fluorinated copolymers JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society N2 - Developing novel materials and device architectures to further enhance the efficiency of polymer solar cells requires a fundamental understanding of the impact of chemical structures on photovoltaic properties. Given that device characteristics depend on many parameters, deriving structureproperty relationships has been very challenging. Here we report that a single parameter, hole mobility, determines the fill factor of several hundred nanometer thick bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices based on a series of copolymers with varying amount of fluorine substitution. We attribute the steady increase of hole mobility with fluorine content to changes in polymer molecular ordering. Importantly, all other parameters, including the efficiency of free charge generation and the coefficient of nongeminate recombination, are nearly identical. Our work emphasizes the need to achieve high mobility in combination with strongly suppressed charge recombination for the thick devices required by mass production technologies. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/ja5067724 SN - 0002-7863 VL - 136 IS - 44 SP - 15566 EP - 15576 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Roland, Steffen A1 - Yan, Liang A1 - Zhang, Qianqian A1 - Jiao, Xuechen A1 - Hunt, Adrian A1 - Ghasemi, Masoud A1 - Ade, Harald A1 - You, Wei A1 - Neher, Dieter T1 - Charge Generation and Mobility-Limited Performance of Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells with a Higher Adduct Fullerene JF - The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces N2 - Alternative electron acceptors are being actively explored in order to advance the development of bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) organic solar cells (OSCs). The indene-C-60 bisadduct (ICBA) has been regarded as a promising candidate, as it provides high open-circuit voltage in BHJ solar cells; however, the photovoltaic performance of such ICBA-based devices is often inferior when compared to cells with the omnipresent PCBM electron acceptor. Here, by pairing the high performance polymer (FTAZ) as the donor with either PCBM or ICBA as the acceptor, we explore the physical mechanism behind the reduced performance of the ICBA-based device. Time delayed collection field (TDCF) experiments reveal reduced, yet field-independent free charge generation in the FTAZ:ICBA system, explaining the overall lower photocurrent in its cells. Through the analysis of the photoluminescence, photogeneration, and electroluminescence, we find that the lower generation efficiency is neither caused by inefficient exciton splitting, nor do we find evidence for significant energy back-transfer from the CT state to singlet excitons. In fact, the increase in open circuit voltage when replacing PCBM by ICBA is entirely caused by the increase in the CT energy, related to the shift in the LUMO energy, while changes in the radiative and nonradiative recombination losses are nearly absent. On the other hand, space charge limited current (SCLC) and bias-assisted charge extraction (BACE) measurements consistently reveal a severely lower electron mobilitiy in the FTAZ:ICBA blend. Studies of the blends with resonant soft X-ray scattering (R-SoXS), grazing incident wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS), and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) reveal very little differences in the mesoscopic morphology but significantly less nanoscale molecular ordering of the fullerene domains in the ICBA based blends, which we propose as the main cause for the lower generation efficiency and smaller electron mobility. Calculations of the JV curves with an analytical model, using measured values, show good agreement with the experimentally determined JV characteristics, proving that these devices suffer from slow carrier extraction, resulting in significant bimolecular recombination losses. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of high charge carrier mobility for newly synthesized acceptor materials, in addition to having suitable energy levels. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b02288 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 121 SP - 10305 EP - 10316 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Würfel, Uli A1 - Perdigón-Toro, Lorena A1 - Kurpiers, Jona A1 - Wolff, Christian Michael A1 - Caprioglio, Pietro A1 - Rech, Jeromy James A1 - Zhu, Jingshuai A1 - Zhan, Xiaowei A1 - You, Wei A1 - Shoaee, Safa A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin T1 - Recombination between Photogenerated and Electrode-Induced Charges Dominates the Fill Factor Losses in Optimized Organic Solar Cells JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - Charge extraction in organic solar cells (OSCs) is commonly believed to be limited by bimolecular recombination of photogenerated charges. However, the fill factor of OSCs is usually almost entirely governed by recombination processes that scale with the first order of the light intensity. This linear loss was often interpreted to be a consequence of geminate or trap-assisted recombination. Numerical simulations show that this linear dependence is a direct consequence of the large amount of excess dark charge near the contact. The first-order losses increase with decreasing mobility of minority carriers, and we discuss the impact of several material and device parameters on this loss mechanism. This work highlights that OSCs are especially vulnerable to injected charges as a result of their poor charge transport properties. This implies that dark charges need to be better accounted for when interpreting electro-optical measurements and charge collection based on simple figures of merit. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b01175 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 10 IS - 12 SP - 3473 EP - 3480 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Samson, Stephanie A1 - Rech, Jeromy A1 - Perdigón-Toro, Lorena A1 - Peng, Zhengxing A1 - Shoaee, Safa A1 - Ade, Harald A1 - Neher, Dieter A1 - Stolterfoht, Martin A1 - You, Wei T1 - Organic solar cells with large insensitivity to donor polymer molar mass across all acceptor classes JF - ACS applied polymer materials N2 - Donor polymer number-average molar mass (M-n) has long been known to influence organic photovoltaic (OPV) performance via changes in both the polymer properties and the resulting bulk heterojunction morphology. The exact nature of these M-n effects varies from system to system, although there is generally some intermediate M-n that results in optimal performance. Interestingly, our earlier work with the difluorobenzotriazole (FTAZ)-based donor polymer, paired with either N2200 (polymer acceptor) or PC61BM (fullerene acceptor), PcBm demonstrated <10% variation in power conversion efficiency and a consistent morphology over a large span of M-n (30 kg/mol to over 100 kg/mol). Would such insensitivity to polymer M-n still hold true when prevailing small molecular acceptors were used with FTAZ? To answer this question, we explored the impact of FTAZ on OPVs with ITIC, a high-performance small-molecule fused-ring electron acceptor (FREA). By probing the photovoltaic characteristics of the resulting OPVs, we show that a similar FTAZ mn insensitivity is also found in the FTAZ:ITIC system. This study highlights a single-donor polymer which, when paired with an archetypal fullerene, polymer, and FREA, results in systems that are largely insensitive to donor M. Our results may have implications in polymer batch-to-batch reproducibility, in particular, relaxing the need for tight M-n control during synthesis. KW - polymer solar cells KW - conjugated polymers KW - fullerenes KW - fluorination KW - molecular weight KW - non-fullerene acceptors KW - power conversion efficiency Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.0c01041 SN - 2637-6105 VL - 2 IS - 11 SP - 5300 EP - 5308 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -