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This study explored the relationship between the design of calf compression sleeves and the comfort of young women in long sitting and standing work environments. By studying the relationship between material elongation and comfort pressure, a prediction model was obtained. The characteristics of the calf models of 94 women were classified, and the influence of different calf characteristics on the pressure distribution and tensile value design was objectively analyzed through simulation tests. The samples were then produced based on the simulation results, and subjective and objective try-on tests and evaluations were carried out. The results show that the difference in the shape of the calf has a certain impact on the pressure distribution and comfort. The predicted value of the theoretical model is in good agreement with the actual test value. The sample can bring a suitable gradient pressure and meet the comfort requirements and safety standards.

Heat dissipation plays a crucial role in the performance and reliability of high-power GaN-based electronics. While AlN transition layers are commonly employed in the heteroepitaxial growth of GaN-on-SiC substrates, concerns have been raised about their impact on thermal transport across GaN/SiC interfaces. In this study, we present experimental measurements of the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) across GaN/SiC interfaces with varying thicknesses of the AlN transition layer (ranging from 0 to 73 nm) at different temperatures. Our findings reveal that the addition of an AlN transition layer leads to a notable increase in the TBC of the GaN/SiC interface, particularly at elevated temperatures. Structural characterization techniques are employed to understand the influence of the AlN transition layer on the crystalline quality of the GaN layer and its potential effects on interfacial thermal transport. To gain further insights into the trend of TBC, we conduct molecular dynamics simulations using high-fidelity deep learning-based interatomic potentials, which reproduce the experimentally observed enhancement in TBC even for atomically perfect interfaces. These results suggest that the enhanced TBC facilitated by the AlN intermediate layer could result from a combination of improved crystalline quality at the interface and the “phonon bridge” effect provided by AlN that enhances the overlap between the vibrational spectra of GaN and SiC.

BackgroundHigh myopia (HM) refers to an eye refractive error exceeding −5.00 D, significantly elevating blindness risk. The underlying mechanism of HM remains elusive. Given the extensive genetic heterogeneity and vast genetic base opacity, it is imperative to identify more causative genes and explore their pathogenic roles in HM.MethodsWe employed exome sequencing to pinpoint the causal gene in an HM family. Sanger sequencing was used to confirm and analyse the gene mutations in this family and 200 sporadic HM cases. Single-cell RNA sequencing was conducted to evaluate the gene’s expression patterns in developing human and mouse retinas. The CRISPR/Cas9 system facilitated the gene knockout cells, aiding in the exploration of the gene’s function and its mutations. Immunofluorescent staining and immunoblot techniques were applied to monitor the functional shifts of the gene mutations at the cellular level.ResultsA suspected nonsense mutation (c.C172T, p.Q58X) in CCDC66was found to be co-segregated with the HM phenotype in the family. Additionally, six other rare variants were identified among the 200 sporadic patients. CCDC66was consistently expressed in the embryonic retinas of both humans and mice. Notably, in CCDC66-deficient HEK293 cells, there was a decline in cell proliferation, microtube polymerisation rate and ace-tubulin level. Furthermore, the mutated CCDC66 failed to synchronise with the tubulin system during Hela cell mitosis, unlike its wild type counterpart.ConclusionsOur research indicates that the CCDC66variant c.C172T is associated with HM. A deficiency in CCDC66 might disrupt cell proliferation by influencing the mitotic process during retinal growth, leading to HM.

This paper presents a gel-based three-dimensional (3D) substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) mediated by photonic nanojets (PNJs) to enhance the sensitivity of SERS detection. The porous structure of the gel-based substrate allowed small molecules to diffuse into the substrate, while the placement of silica beads on the substrate surface resulted in the generation of photonic nanojets during SERS measurements. Because the gel-based SERS substrate had electromagnetic (EM) hot spots along the Z-direction for several tens of microns, the focuses of the PNJs, which were located a few microns away from the substrate surface, could excite the EM hot spots located within the substrate. Our objective was to maximize SERS signal intensity by coating the substrate with a close-packed array of silica beads to enable the generation of multiple PNJs. The bead array was formed using an optical fiber decorated with gold nanorods (AuNRs) to create a temperature gradient in a mixture containing silica beads, thereby enabling their arrangement and deposition in arbitrary locations across the substrate. In experiments, the Raman enhancement provided by multiple PNJs significantly exceeded that provided by single PNJs. The proposed PNJ-mediated SERS method reduced the limit of detection for malachite green by 100 times, compared to SERS results obtained using the same substrate without beads. The proposed enhancement scheme using a gel-based 3D SERS substrate with a close-packed array of silica beads could be utilized to achieve high-sensitivity SERS detection for a variety of molecules in a diverse range of applications.

The emergence of wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductors has revolutionized the advancement of next-generation power, radio frequency, and opto- electronics, paving the way for chargers, renewable energy inverters, 5G base stations, satellite communications, radars, and light-emitting diodes. However, the thermal boundary resistance at semiconductor interfaces accounts for a large portion of the near-junction thermal resistance, impeding heat dissipation and becoming a bottleneck in the devices’ development. Over the past two decades, many new ultrahigh thermal conductivity materials have emerged as potential substrates, and numerous novel growth, integration, and characterization techniques have emerged to improve the TBC, holding great promise for efficient cooling. At the same time, numerous simulation methods have been developed to advance the understanding and prediction of TBC. Despite these advancements, the existing literature reports are widely dispersed, presenting varying TBC results even on the same heterostructure, and there is a large gap between experiments and simulations. Herein, we comprehensively review the various experimental and simulation works that reported TBCs of wide and ultrawide bandgap semiconductor heterostructures, aiming to build a structure–property relationship between TBCs and interfacial nanostructures and to further boost the TBCs. The advantages and disadvantages of various experimental and theoretical methods are summarized. Future directions for experimental and theoretical research are proposed.

Coordination cages with a well-defined nanocavity are a class of promising supramolecular materials for molecular recognition and sensing. However, their applications in sequential sensing of multiple types of pollutants are highly desirable yet extremely limiting and challenging. Herein, we demonstrate a convenient strategy to develop a supramolecular fluorescence sensor for sequentially detecting environmental pollutants of aluminum ions and nitrofurantoin. A coordination cage (Ni-NTB), adopting an octahedral structure with triphenylamine chromophores occupying on the faces, is weakly emissive in solution due to the intramolecular rotations of the phenyl rings. Ni-NTBexhibits sensitive and selective fluorescence “off–on–off” processes during consecutive sensing of Al3+and nitrofurantoin, an antibacterial drug. These sequential detection processes are highly interference-tolerant and visually observable with the naked eye. Mechanism studies reveal that the fluorescence switch is controllable by tuning the degree of intramolecular rotations of the phenyl rings and the pathway of intermolecular charge transfer, which is associated with the host–guest interaction. Moreover, the fabrication of Ni-NTBon test strips enabled a quick naked-eye sequential sensing of Al3+and nitrofurantoin in seconds. Hence, this novel supramolecular fluorescence “off–on–off” sensing platform provides a new approach to developing supramolecular functional materials for monitoring environmental pollution.

In real industrial applications, intelligent methods are recently emerging for remaining useful life (RUL) prediction. However, their development is hindered by two obstacles. First, it is hard for an ordinary edge client to achieve RUL prediction owing to its weak computing capacity and limited data volume. Second, as for all edge clients, it is unrealistic to share data with each other due to the potential conflict of interests. Therefore, a federated learning-based RUL prediction method namely FedRUL is proposed to solve these problems. In this method, multiple edge clients and a cloud server are applied to train a global encoder and an RUL predictor without data sharing. Each client includes a convolutional autoencoder (CAE) comprised of an encoder and a decoder while the server includes a same encoder and an RUL predictor. During each epoch, CAEs are trained in all clients through their corresponding local training datasets first. Then, all local encoders are uploaded to the server and aggregated to a global encoder through assigning weights for all clients according to their performance on a validation dataset in the server. At last, this global encoder is sent back to all clients for extracting low-level features from their datasets and uploading these features to train the RUL predictor for each client one by one. Two experiments suggest FedRUL offers a promising solution on confidential decentralized learning for RUL prediction.

Preparation of high acidity coefficient slag wool fiber with molten slag and modifying agents is considered to be a positive approach for value-added utilization of blast furnace slag. In order to achieve the multi-purposes of fiber-forming, energy saving, and waste heat recovery, the modifying agents that can improve the acidity coefficient of slag effectively, economically, and environmentally were investigated. Three agents with different acidity coefficients were adopted to modify slag and manufacture wool fibers. The effect of agent and slag proportion on the melting temperature and viscosity of molten slag was studied at a fixed acidity coefficient of 1.8 and 2.0. The results indicate that the sample modified with high acidity coefficient agent and high slag proportion has lower melting temperature and viscosity. The effect of agent and slag temperature on the fiber diameter was also investigated when the acidity coefficient of slag is 2.0. At a fixed slag proportion of 50 wt.%, the mean diameter decreases with increasing temperature and decreasing viscosity coefficient. Besides, the temperature drops caused by the addition of agents and energy consumption of samples for heating the slag were also analyzed.

Magnetometry sensors have wide applications across science and technology. A magnetometer at room temperature can be made by coupling a magnetostrictive material to a high-Q optical cavity, which is crucial for achieving the high sensitivity in detecting the magnetic field. In this work, we have designed a hybrid structure based on the high-Q optical capillary microresonator filled with a yttrium iron garnet (YIG) microsphere to realize highly sensitive magnetic field sensing in the range of kHz. The device shows a peak magnetic field sensitivity of 146 pT Hz $^{-1/2}$ at frequency of 16.85 kHz. This sensor structure provides high sensitivity in the range of 9 kHz to 100 kHz, thus allowing applications in magnetic anomaly detection and other fields.

The high-temperature operation of the AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and direct-coupled FET logic (DCFL) inverters, NOR gates, and NAND gates are demonstrated. The ${p}$ -GaN-gate HEMTs which are used as drivers in DCFL circuits exhibit proper E-mode operation with a relatively stable threshold voltage ${V}_{\text {TH}}$ (drift −0.31 V) and high electron mobility $\mu $ of 587 cm2/ $\text{V}\cdot \text{S}$ at 300 °C. The fabricated logic gates have a small switching time at room temperature (RT). As the temperature increases to 300 °C, these logic gates exhibit a slight increase in switching time, wherein the fall time and rise time of the inverter from room temperature to 300 °C increases from 16 ns to 129 ns and 128 ns to $0.864~\mu \text{s}$ , respectively. The logic gates herein exhibit accurate and stable operation at 300 °C. Furthermore, the reason for the switching time increase at high temperature is revealed from the perspective of devices.

In order to assess the health condition of machines, it is necessary to construct a suitable health indicator (HI) for detecting the initial degeneration point (IDP). However, there are two limitations aimed at existing HIs: 1) manually extracted feature-based construction methods strongly rely on the expert knowledge and experience and 2) most HIs are insensitive to the early faults of machines the fault component is unobvious and even overwhelmed by noises whether in the time domain or the frequency domain. For addressing these problems, a deep metric learning-based HI construction method is proposed for detecting IDPs of machines. The proposed method is mainly comprised of three steps. First, a multiscale deep metric learning model with self-attention modules is built to extract features according to an improved contrastive loss (ICL). Then, the relative similarity of extracted features between the baseline sample data and the currently acquired sample data is calculated as the current HI to represent the health condition of machines. Finally, an optimization algorithm, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO)-genetic algorithm (GA), is designed to search for the optimal model parameters. The performance of the proposed method is verified in two different experiments and compared with other methods. Results show that this method is able to identify IDPs more precisely for machines.

In this brief, a scaled In $_{{0}.{17}}$ Al $_{{0}.{83}}\text{N}$ /GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) was fabricated on sapphire substrate with 47-nm ${T}$ -gate length, 300-nm source–drain distance, and selective area regrown $\text{n}^{+}$ -GaN. The device exhibits cutoff frequencies ${f}_{\text {T}}/{f}_{\text {max}}$ of 190/301 GHz, which gives a record sqrt ( ${f}_{\text {T}} \times {f}_{\text {max}}{)}$ = 239 GHz among reported Ga-polar GaN-on-sapphire HEMTs. The device shows a maximum current density, a peak external direct current transconductance, and an ${I}_{\text {on}}/{I}_{\text {off}}$ ratio of 1.45 A/mm, 610 mS/mm, and $2.9\times 10^{6}$ , respectively. Drain-induced barrier lowering of 75 mV/V is measured at ${I}_{\text {ds}}$ = 1 mA/mm between ${V}_{\text {ds}}$ = 1 V and 5 V. The three-terminal OFF-state breakdown voltage is 14.7 V. The effective electron velocity of the 2-D electron gas (2DEG) under the gate foot is estimated to be $1.4\times 10^{7}$ cm/s. These characteristics of this Ga-polar millimeter wave (mm-wave) GaN-on-sapphire HEMT are comparable with those state-of-the-art counterparts on SiC substrates.

N-p-n AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) on sapphire substrates with high current gain $\beta $ of 129, low specific ON-resistance ( ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON},\text {sp}}{)}$ of 0.28 $\text{m}\sf \Omega \cdot $ cm2 and high current density ${J}_{C}$ of ~15 kA/cm2 (if normalized to emitter area, ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON},\text {sp}} \sim 0.15 \text{m}\sf \Omega \cdot \text{m}^{{2}}$ and ${J}_{C} \sim 28.4$ kA/cm2) have been demonstrated. The analysis of component of ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON},\text {sp}}$ yields the collector resistance is ~5.2% of the total ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON},\text {sp}}$ , showing the low ON-resistance advantage of GaN HBTs. The open-base avalanche breakdown voltage (BVCEO) is ~160 V. High-temperature performance of GaN HBT is also evaluated. The ${R}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON},\text {sp}}$ is reduced as temperature increasing in the range of 25 °C–100 °C due to enhanced hole concentration in the base layer. The cutoff frequency ( ${f}_{T}{)}$ of greater than 4 GHz is determined at ${V}_{\text {CE}} =$ 9 V. These results dominate that GaN HBTs have been anticipated to become a new technology for next-generation power switches and RF power amplifier circuit.

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OBJECTIVE--Berberine (BBR) activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and improves insulin sensitivity in rodent models of insulin resistance. We investigated the mechanism of activation of AMPK by BBR and explored whether derivatization of BBR could improve its in vivo efficacy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS--AMPK phosphorylation was examined in L6 myotubes and [LKB1.sup.-/-] cells, with or without the [Ca.sup.2+]/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase (CAMKK) inhibitor STO-609. Oxygen consumption was measured in L6 myotubes and isolated muscle mitochondria. The effect of a BBR derivative, dihydroberberine (dhBBR), on adiposity and glucose metabolism was examined in rodents fed a high-fat diet. RESULTS--We have made the following novel observations: 1) BBR dose-dependently inhibited respiration in L6 myotubes and muscle mitochondria, through a specific effect on respiratory complex I, similar to that observed with metformin and rosiglitazone; 2) activation of AMPK by BBR did not rely on the activity of either LKB1 or CAMKKβ, consistent with major regulation at the level of the AMPK phosphatase; and 3) a novel BBR derivative, dhBBR, was identified that displayed improved in vivo efficacy in terms of counteracting increased adiposity, tissue triglyceride accumulation, and insulin resistance in high-fat-fed rodents. This effect is likely due to enhanced oral bioavailability. CONCLUSIONS--Complex I of the respiratory chain represents a major target for compounds that improve whole-body insulin sensitivity through increased AMPK activity. The identification of a novel derivative of BBR with improved in vivo efficacy highlights the potential importance of BBR as a novel therapy for the treatment of type 2 diabetes., Insulin resistance is a major metabolic abnormality leading to type 2 diabetes, and, as such, there is considerable interest in the discovery of insulin-sensitizing agents to aid in the treatment [...]

In the postharvest processing of tea leaves, withering is the first indispensable manufacturing process which produces the mellow, umami and sweet taste of white tea. In this study, we aimed to determine the dynamic changes of the main metabolites and clarify the key differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in forming the characteristic taste of white tea during withering. Phytochemical analyses revealed that the contents of total catechins and starch decreased continuously, whereas the contents of theaflavin, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), maltose, and soluble sugars increased significantly during withering (from 0–48 h). Meanwhile, the elevation of α-amylase (AMY), β-amylase (BAM), total amylase, and glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activities may be correlated with the accumulation of GABA and maltose. By transcriptome sequencing, we detected 9 707, 15 921, 17 353, and 17 538 DEGs at 12, 24, 36, and 48 h of the withering process, respectively, compared with 0 h sample (fresh leaves). The transcript levels of most of the DEGs involved in catechin biosynthesis were significantly inhibited, whereas those involved in catechin oxidation were significantly up-regulated, which could be correlated to a decrease in catechin content and an increase in theaflavin content. The DEGs involved in GABA biosynthesis were considerably up-regulated, and the down-regulation of SPMScould reduce the competition for converting spermidine to GABA. The up-regulation of the AMYand BAMgenes could trigger starch degradation, resulting in the increase of soluble sugar content. These results provide new insights into the importance of the withering process to the characteristic taste of white tea.

Nowadays the development of high-field magnets strongly relies on the performance of superconducting materials. Iron-based superconductors (IBSs) exhibit high upper critical fields and low electromagnetic anisotropy, making them particularly attractive for high-field applications, especially in particle accelerator magnets, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, medical magnetic resonance imaging systems and nuclear fusion reactors. Herein, through an industrially scalable manufacturing strategy, a practical-level critical current density up to 1.1×105A cm−2at 4.2 K in an external magnetic field of 10 T was achieved in Cu/ Ag composite-sheathed Ba1−xKxFe2As2(Ba122) superconducting tapes. The preparation strategy combines flat rolling to induce grain texture and subsequent hot-isostatic-pressing densification. By varying the parameters of rolling, the degree of grain texture was engineered. It is found that the transport properties of the Ba122 tapes can be enhanced by applying a large amount of deformation during rolling, which can be attributed to the improved degree of c-axis texture. Microstructure characterizations on the highest-performance tape demonstrate that the Ba122 phase has a uniform element distribution and small grains with good connectivity. Grain boundary pinning is consequently enhanced as proved by large currents circulating through the sample even at 25 K. Our work proves that Cu/Ag composite-sheathed Ba122 superconducting tapes can be a promising competitor for practical high-field applications in terms of the viable, scalable and cost-effective fabrication strategy applied and the high transport properties achieved in this work.

The application of a coordination container in biomedicine is hindered by single binding domains and unsatisfactory biostability and biocompatibility. Herein, we designed a sulfonylcalix[4]arene-based decahexanuclear zinc(II) coordination container employing a flexible tetracarboxylate ligand as a linker and utilized it as a novel drug delivery system. The coordination container consisting of one endo and four exo cavities provides multiple binding domains for efficient encapsulation of drug molecules as clearly revealed by systematic host–guest studies using NMR techniques of 1H NMR titration experiments and 2D NOESY and diffusion-ordered NMR spectroscopy studies. Incorporation of a flexible p-phenylene-bis(methanamino) spacer into the container via the carboxylate linker allowed a stepwise drug loading process through sequential binding at endo and exo cavities, as well as enabling pH-responsive stepwise drug release. The drug-loaded coordination container not only exhibits excellent biostability and biocompatibility but also provides encouraging therapeutic efficiency toward inflammatory macrophages as revealed by in vitro studies. The novel strategy for engineering the endo cavity of a coordination container provides a new approach to achieving controlled drug delivery and opens up new opportunities for designing novel functional supramolecular materials.

In this work, we study the thermal transport at β-Ga2O3/metal interfaces, which play important roles in heat dissipation and as electrical contacts in β-Ga2O3devices. A theoretical Landauer approach was used to model and elucidate the factors that impact the thermal transport at these interfaces. Experimental measurements using time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) provided data for the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) between β-Ga2O3and a range of metals used to create both Schottky and ohmic electrical contacts. From the modeling and experiments, the relation between the metal cutoff frequency and the corresponding TBC is observed. Moreover, the effect of the metal cutoff frequency on TBC is seen as the most significant factor followed by chemical reactions and defects between the metal and the β-Ga2O3. Among all β-Ga2O3/metal interfaces, for Schottky contacts, Ni/β-Ga2O3interfaces show the highest TBC, while for ohmic contacts, Cr/β-Ga2O3interfaces show the highest TBC. While there is a clear correlation between TBC and the phonon cutoff frequency of metal contacts, it is also important to control the chemical reactions and other defects at interfaces to maximize the TBC in this system.

High thermal conductivity materials show promise for thermal mitigation and heat removal in devices. However, shrinking the length scales of these materials often leads to significant reductions in thermal conductivities, thus invalidating their applicability to functional devices. In this work, we report on high in-plane thermal conductivities of 3.05, 3.75, and 6 μm thick aluminum nitride (AlN) films measured viasteady-state thermoreflectance. At room temperature, the AlN films possess an in-plane thermal conductivity of ∼260 ± 40 W m–1K–1, one of the highest reported to date for any thin film material of equivalent thickness. At low temperatures, the in-plane thermal conductivities of the AlN films surpass even those of diamond thin films. Phonon–phonon scattering drives the in-plane thermal transport of these AlN thin films, leading to an increase in thermal conductivity as temperature decreases. This is opposite of what is observed in traditional high thermal conductivity thin films, where boundaries and defects that arise from film growth cause a thermal conductivity reduction with decreasing temperature. This study provides insight into the interplay among boundary, defect, and phonon–phonon scattering that drives the high in-plane thermal conductivity of the AlN thin films and demonstrates that these AlN films are promising materials for heat spreaders in electronic devices.

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody vasculitis-associated interstitial lung disease (AAV-ILD) is a potentially life-threatening disease. However, very little research has been done on the condition’s mortality risk. Hence, our objective is to find out the factors influencing the prognosis of AAV-ILD and employ these findings to create a nomogram model. Patients with AAV-ILD who received treatment at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University during the period from March 1, 2011, to April 1, 2022 were selected for this research. The development of nomogram entailed a synergistic integration of univariate, Lasso, and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Internal validation ensued through bootstrap techniques involving 1000 re-sampling iterations. Discrimination and calibration were assessed utilizing Harrell’s C-index, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and calibration curve. Model performance was evaluated through integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), net reclassification improvement (NRI), and likelihood ratio test. The net benefit of the model was evaluated using decision curve analysis (DCA). A cohort comprising 192 patients was enrolled for analysis. Throughout observation period, 32.29% of the population died. Key factors such as cardiac involvement, albumin, smoking history, and age displayed substantial prognostic relevance in AAV-ILD. These factors were incorporated to craft a predictive nomogram. Impressively, the model exhibited robust performance, boasting a Harrell’s C index of 0.826 and an AUC of 0.940 (95% CI 0.904–0.976). The calibration curves depicted a high degree of harmony between predicted outcomes and actual observations. Significantly enhancing discriminative ability compared to the ILD-GAP model, the nomogram was validated through the IDI, NRI, and likelihood ratio test. DCA underscored the superior predictive value of the predictive model over the ILD-GAP model. The internal validation further affirmed this efficacy, with a mean Harrell’s C-index of 0.815 for the predictive model. The nomogram model can be employed to predict the prognosis of patients with AAV-ILD. Moreover, the model performance is satisfactory. In the future, external datasets could be utilized for external validation.

Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) can destroy tumor vasculature and lead to tumor ischemia and hypoxia, resulting in tumor necrosis. However, VDAs are easy to induce the upregulation of genes that are associated with drug resistance and angiogenesis in tumor cells. Hypoxia-activated chemotherapy will be an ideal supplement to VDAs therapy since it can help to fully utilize the ischemia and hypoxia induced by VDAs to realize a synergistic antitumor therapeutic outcome. Here, we design a liposome whose surface is modified with a tumor-homing peptide Cys-Arg-Glu-Lys-Ala (CREKA, which can specifically target tumor vessels and stroma) and whose inner cavity is loaded by a hypoxia-activated drug banoxantrone dihydrochloride (AQ4N) as well as a VDA combretastatin A4 (CA4). CA4 can selectively target vascular endothelial cells and destroy the tumor blood vessels, which will cause the rapid closure of blood flow in tumor and enhance the hypoxia in the tumor region. As a consequence, AQ4N can exert its boosted cytotoxicity under the enhanced hypoxic environment. The as-prepared liposome with a uniform particle size exhibits good stability and high cancer cell killing efficacy in vitro. In addition, in vivo experiments confirm the excellent tumor-targeting/accumulation, tumor vascular damaging, and tumor inhibition effects of the liposome. This work develops CA-TL which can achieve safe and effective tumor suppression without external stimulus excitation by only single injection, and is expected to benefit the future development of effective antitumor liposomal drugs.

High-power GaN-based electronics are limited by high channel temperatures induced by self-heating, which degrades device performance and reliability. Increasing the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) between GaN and SiC will aid in the heat dissipation of GaN-on-SiC devices by taking advantage of the high thermal conductivity of SiC substrates. For the typical growth method, there are issues concerning the transition layer at the interface and low-quality GaN adjacent to the interface, which impedes heat flow. In this work, a room-temperature bonding method is used to bond high-quality GaN to SiC directly, which allows for the direct integration of high-quality GaN with SiC to create a high TBC interface. Time-domain thermoreflectance is used to measure the GaN thermal conductivity and GaN–SiC TBC. The measured GaN thermal conductivity is larger than that of grown GaN-on-SiC by molecular beam epitaxy. High TBC is observed for the bonded GaN–SiC interfaces, especially for the annealed interface (∼230 MW m–2K–1, close to the highest value ever reported). Thus, this work provides the benefit of both a high TBC and higher GaN thermal conductivity, which will impact the GaN-device integration with substrates in which thermal dissipation always plays an important role. Additionally, simultaneous thermal and structural characterizations of heterogeneous bonded interfaces are performed to understand the structure–thermal property relation across this new type of interface.

In this work, we synthesized carbon nanodots (CNDs) by a one-pot hydrothermal method to carbonize precursors of dry carnation petals and polyethylenimine. The obtained CNDs possess favorable photostability, good biocompatibility, and excellent water solubility, which can serve as a dual-responsive nanosensor for the determination of vitamin B2(VB2) and pH. A unique ratiometric fluorescence resonance energy transfer probe was developed through a strong interaction between VB2and surface moieties of CNDs. CNDs emitted at 470 nm; however, in the presence of VB2, an enhanced emission peak was clearly observed at 532 nm. The value of I532/I470exhibits a stable response to the VB2concentration from 0.35 to 35.9 μM with a detection limit of 37.2 nM, which has been used for VB2detection in food and medicine samples and ratiometric imaging of VB2in living cells with satisfying performance. In addition, the proposed CNDs also displayed pH-sensitive behavior and can be a turn-off fluorescent sensor to monitor pH. The fluorescent intensity at 470 nm is a good linear response against pH values from 3.6 to 8, affording the capability as a single-emissive nanoprobe for intracellular pH sensing.

The ultrawide band gap, high breakdown electric field, and large-area affordable substrates make β-Ga2O3promising for applications of next-generation power electronics, while its thermal conductivity is at least 1 order of magnitude lower than other wide/ultrawide band gap semiconductors. To avoid the degradation of device performance and reliability induced by the localized Joule-heating, proper thermal management strategies are essential, especially for high-power high-frequency applications. This work reports a scalable thermal management strategy to heterogeneously integrate wafer-scale monocrystalline β-Ga2O3thin films on high thermal conductivity SiC substrates by the ion-cutting technique and room-temperature surface-activated bonding technique. The thermal boundary conductance (TBC) of the β-Ga2O3–SiC interfaces and thermal conductivity of the β-Ga2O3thin films were measured by time-domain thermoreflectance to evaluate the effects of interlayer thickness and thermal annealing. Materials characterizations were performed to understand the mechanisms of thermal transport in these structures. The results show that the β-Ga2O3–SiC TBC values are reasonably high and increase with decreasing interlayer thickness. The β-Ga2O3thermal conductivity increases more than twice after annealing at 800 °C because of the removal of implantation-induced strain in the films. A Callaway model is built to understand the measured thermal conductivity. Small spot-to-spot variations of both TBC and Ga2O3thermal conductivity confirm the uniformity and high quality of the bonding and exfoliation. Our work paves the way for thermal management of power electronics and provides a platform for β-Ga2O3-related semiconductor devices with excellent thermal dissipation.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has garnered much attention due to its intrinsically high thermal conductivity. However, engineering thin films of AlN with these high thermal conductivities can be challenging due to vacancies and defects that can form during the synthesis. In this work, we report on the cross-plane thermal conductivity of ultra-high-purity single-crystal AlN films with different thicknesses (∼3–22 μm) via time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) and steady-state thermoreflectance (SSTR) from 80 to 500 K. At room temperature, we report a thermal conductivity of ∼320 ± 42 W m–1K–1, surpassing the values of prior measurements on AlN thin films and one of the highest cross-plane thermal conductivities of any material for films with equivalent thicknesses, surpassed only by diamond. By conducting first-principles calculations, we show that the thermal conductivity measurements on our thin films in the 250–500 K temperature range agree well with the predicted values for the bulk thermal conductivity of pure single-crystal AlN. Thus, our results demonstrate the viability of high-quality AlN films as promising candidates for the high-thermal-conductivity layers in high-power microelectronic devices. Our results also provide insight into the intrinsic thermal conductivity of thin films and the nature of phonon-boundary scattering in single-crystal epitaxially grown AlN thin films. The measured thermal conductivities in high-quality AlN thin films are found to be constant and similar to bulk AlN, regardless of the thermal penetration depth, film thickness, or laser spot size, even when these characteristic length scales are less than the mean free paths of a considerable portion of thermal phonons. Collectively, our data suggest that the intrinsic thermal conductivity of thin films with thicknesses less than the thermal phonon mean free paths is the same as bulk so long as the thermal conductivity of the film is sampled independent of the film/substrate interface.

The wide bandgap, high-breakdown electric field, and high carrier mobility makes GaN an ideal material for high-power and high-frequency electronics applications, such as wireless communication and radar systems. However, the performance and reliability of GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are limited by the high channel temperature induced by Joule heating in the device channel. Integration of GaN with high thermal conductivity substrates can improve the heat extraction from GaN-based HEMTs and lower the operating temperature of the device. However, heterogeneous integration of GaN with diamond substrates presents technical challenges to maximize the heat dissipation potential brought by the ultrahigh thermal conductivity of diamond substrates. In this work, two modified room-temperature surface-activated bonding (SAB) techniques are used to bond GaN and single-crystal diamond. Time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) is used to measure the thermal properties from room temperature to 480 K. A relatively large thermal boundary conductance (TBC) of the GaN/diamond interfaces with a ∼4 nm interlayer (∼90 MW/(m2K)) was observed and material characterization was performed to link the interfacial structure with the TBC. Device modeling shows that the measured TBC of the bonded GaN/diamond interfaces can enable high-power GaN devices by taking full advantage of the ultrahigh thermal conductivity of single-crystal diamond. For the modeled devices, the power density of GaN-on-diamond can reach values ∼2.5 times higher than that of GaN-on-SiC and ∼5.4 times higher than that of GaN-on-Si with a maximum device temperature of 250 °C. Our work sheds light on the potential for room-temperature heterogeneous integration of semiconductors with diamond for applications of electronics cooling, especially for GaN-on-diamond devices.

Nanomaterials for Immunotherapy The development and application of nanomaterials in tumor immunotherapy is promising. Nanomaterials used for tumor immunotherapy can be distinguished as organic and inorganic nanomaterials. Although both can achieve the purpose of tumor immunotherapy, the differences in their composition and structural properties lead to differences in their mechanisms and modes of action. Such various nanomaterials for immunotherapy are reviewed in article 2300882by Xiaofeng Zhou, Shenglong Li, and co‐workers.

The development of electronic devices, especially those that involve heterogeneous integration of materials, has led to increased challenges in addressing their thermal operational temperature demands. The heat flow in these systems is significantly influenced or even dominated by thermal boundary resistance at the interface between dissimilar materials. However, controlling and tuning heat transport across an interface and in the adjacent materials has so far drawn limited attention. In this work, we grow chemical vapor-deposited diamond on silicon substrates by graphoepitaxy and experimentally demonstrate tunable thermal transport across diamond membranes and diamond–silicon interfaces. We observed the highest diamond–silicon thermal boundary conductance (TBC) measured to date and increased diamond thermal conductivity due to strong grain texturing in the diamond near the interface. Additionally, nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and a Landauer approach are used to understand the diamond–silicon TBC. These findings pave the way for tuning or increasing thermal conductance in heterogeneously integrated electronics that involve polycrystalline materials and will impact applications including electronics thermal management and diamond growth.

Four new sulfonylcalix[4]arene-supported coordination containers have been designed and synthesized through the self-assembly of Co(II)/Ni(II), p-tert-butylsulfonylcalix[4]arene, and ortho-dicarboxylate linkers, i.e., 1,2-benzenedicarboxylate or 2,3-naphthalenedicarboxylate. Due to the combined effects of rigid directionality of sulfonylcalixarene-capped tetranuclear subunits and the steric repellent between two ortho carboxylate groups, these synthetic coordination containers suffer from a distorted bonding between the tetranuclear units and dicarboxylate linkers. With the extension of the aromatic system from benzene to naphthalene, significant multiple intermolecular hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking interactions were enhanced, leading to maintaining solid state porosities for small gas molecules. Moreover, they exhibit similar guest binding behaviors toward bulkier dye guests, showing selectively cationic dye adsorption from an aqueous solution of either methylene blue or a methylene blue–eosin Y mixture at the solid–liquid interface. The results not only provide a new designing approach for construction of calixarene-based coordination containers, but also indicate a promising opportunity of these new materials for the application of guest recognition and separation.

VTE has emerged as a major public health problem. However, data on VTE burden in China are seldom reported.

We present experimental measurements of the thermal boundary conductance (TBC) from 78–500 K across isolated heteroepitaxially grown ZnO films on GaN substrates. This data provides an assessment of the underlying assumptions driving phonon gas-based models, such as the diffuse mismatch model (DMM), and atomistic Green’s function (AGF) formalisms used to predict TBC. Our measurements, when compared to previous experimental data, suggest that TBC can be influenced by long wavelength, zone center modes in a material on one side of the interface as opposed to the ‘“vibrational mismatch”’ concept assumed in the DMM; this disagreement is pronounced at high temperatures. At room temperature, we measure the ZnO/GaN TBC as 490[+150,–110] MW m–2K–1. The disagreement among the DMM and AGF, and the experimental data at elevated temperatures, suggests a non-negligible contribution from other types of modes that are not accounted for in the fundamental assumptions of these harmonic based formalisms, which may rely on anharmonicity. Given the high quality of these ZnO/GaN interfaces, these results provide an invaluable, critical, and quantitative assessment of the accuracy of assumptions in the current state of the art computational approaches used to predict phonon TBC across interfaces.

Through the investigation of bridges along Shanghai Suzhou Creek, we find a lot of problems. Firstly, Bridge layout is unreasonable. Secondly, mobiles occupy the main traffic volume. Thirdly, slow-traffic and lingering space isn’t comfortable. This study proposes the bridge planning and design idea oriented by slow-traffic and lingering space. Learning from overseas experiences, we put forward the bridge layout suggestions for Suzhou Creek from three aspects. First is to construct the reasonable distance between slow-traffic and lingering bridges. Second is to build the bridge system suitable for fast and slow-traffic. The last is to connect the cross-river attracted sources and bridges. Based on the above, we propose the bridges layout suggestion plan of Suzhou Creek.

The maximum output power of GaN-based high-electron mobility transistors is limited by high channel temperature induced by localized self-heating, which degrades device performance and reliability. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond is an attractive candidate to aid in the extraction of this heat and in minimizing the peak operating temperatures of high-power electronics. Owing to its inhomogeneous structure, the thermal conductivity of CVD diamond varies along the growth direction and can differ between the in-plane and out-of-plane directions, resulting in a complex three-dimensional (3D) distribution. Depending on the thickness of the diamond and size of the electronic device, this 3D distribution may impact the effectiveness of CVD diamond in device thermal management. In this work, time-domain thermoreflectance is used to measure the anisotropic thermal conductivity of an 11.8 μm-thick high-quality CVD diamond membrane from its nucleation side. Starting with a spot-size diameter larger than the thickness of the membrane, measurements are made at various modulation frequencies from 1.2 to 11.6 MHz to tune the heat penetration depth and sample the variation in thermal conductivity. We then analyze the data by creating a model with the membrane divided into ten sublayers and assume isotropic thermal conductivity in each sublayer. From this, we observe a two-dimensional gradient of the depth-dependent thermal conductivity for this membrane. The local thermal conductivity goes beyond 1000 W/(m K) when the distance from the nucleation interface only reaches 3 μm. Additionally, by measuring the same region with a smaller spot size at multiple frequencies, the in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities are extracted. Through this use of multiple spot sizes and modulation frequencies, the 3D anisotropic thermal conductivity of CVD diamond membrane is experimentally obtained by fitting the experimental data to a thermal model. This work provides an improved understanding of thermal conductivity inhomogeneity in high-quality CVD polycrystalline diamond that is important for applications in the thermal management of high-power electronics.

AbstractIndustrial parks enjoy significant importance in many countries and regions. This study presents a multi-stage operational process to evaluate the efficiency of parks at each stage using an empirical study of Beijing. The study finds that only three of 22 parks were efficient overall during 2006–2008 and two of 22 were efficient during 2009–2012. The promotion of business, facilitation of production, and rewards of economic returns are highly correlated stages for efficiency performance. The results suggest that Beijing’s government should expend more effort developing the potential to generate outputs given current land and investment inputs. In addition, it provides a tool to strengthen the organisational capacity development of industrial parks by emphasising their multi-dimensions in inputs and outputs, selecting the right competitors at the right organisational stage, locating sources of efficiency and inefficiency, and understanding progression and balance of internal stages during operation.

The electrochemical response of proton conducting solid oxide fuel cells (PC-SOFC) with Ni-BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3-d (BZCYYb) cermet anode by low-ppm(v) level hydrogen sulfide (H2S) was studied using both electrolyte-supported cells and anode symmetrical cells at 750-450degC. Upon the introduction of H2S, both types of cells show small but observable increase in the electrode apparent interfacial resistance (Rai) with no change in ohmic resistance. In addition, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis on Ni-BZCYYb composite pellets after exposure to H2S showed a strong correlation between the distributions of barium and sulfur species, yet both were complementary to the distribution of nickel species. The results indicate that PC-SOFC are still subjected to poisoning by low ppm(v)-level H2S at intermediate temperature. However, the H2S poisoning effect (in terms of relative increase in interfacial resistance) for PC-SOFC appears much smaller than for conventional oxide-ion conducting SOFC with Ni-yttria stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) cermet anode and YSZ electrolyte. Such a difference in H2S poisoning behavior is hypothesized to be related to the different anode reaction process for PC-SOFC versus conventional oxide-ion conducting SOFC and the potential (electro-)catalytic role that proton conducting ceramic electrolyte might play in the anode reaction. The directions for future study are also pointed out.

The hotel industry is a sector of growing significance, and its development is closely related to the regional economy; however, the industry's performance, especially its segment markets are seldom evaluated considering both the hotel and regional situation, which leads to inappropriate business decisions. This paper provides a conceptual understanding of the influence of regional factors on hotel development. Using a super-efficiency slack-based measure in a data envelopment analysis method, this study examines the regional operational efficiency of the mainland China hotel industry, an emerging hospitality market. Key regional factors are screened out by principal component analysis. This study provides an approach for improving the decision-making process of hotel managers by identifying the best performers in the sector to understand and discriminate between different occupancy rates and room prices as sources of performance enhancement. The findings elucitate that there are versatile efficiencies in China's regional hotel market segments.

The presented research deals with the development of comfortable male underwear taking into account the development of pattern block methods and the analysis of the relationships existing between the compression pressure, the knitted materials properties, and some push-up effects. The main aim of this study is to achieve the technical selection of the materials based on KES-FB evaluations.The ease value has been used as the main index to connect the structural design of underwear, on one hand, and the body sizes, on other hand. A “bodyshell” system for testing the soft tissue of male bodies by FlexiForce sensor has been implemented. The pressures under the shells at six different places on the male body with ease changing have been tested.The collected results including maximum-possible pressure and material tensile indexes measured thanks to KES-FB have been analyzed in order to find the most relevant indexes of the material properties. A mathematical equations based on relationships combining theoretical model with practical application have been established. These equations will be helpful for the consumers and designers to select “the suitable knitting materials for male underwear” and they can be used too in the perspective of parameterization in CAD, in order to improve product developments efficiency.

Proton conducting intermediate temperature (400-700degC) solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) have attracted great interest recently. However, for SOFC operation at intermediate temperature, cathode is often considered to be the main factor limiting the overall cell performance. In this study, Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-d (BSCF), which is one of the most active cathode materials and shows significant hydration effect suggesting possible proton conductivity, was investigated as the cathode for proton conducting IT-SOFC at temperature down to [?]450degC. The stability and compatibility of BSCF cathode with BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3-d (BZCYYb), one of the leading proton conducting electrolyte materials, were studied at intermediate temperature in various atmospheres. In addition, experiments were carried out to understand the electrochemical behaviors of BSCF as a mixed proton, oxide ion and electron conducting cathode using BSCF/BZCYYb/BSCF symmetrical cells in simulated air containing different concentrations of water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2), especially at lower temperature of [?]450degC. The results are analyzed from the underlying oxygen electrode reaction mechanism point of view, and the direction for future research to further improve the cathode for proton conducting IT-SOFC is pointed out.

The electrochemical behaviors of Ag, La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-d(LSCF), and Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-d (BSCF) as potential cathodes for proton-conducting intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC) are studied using symmetrical cells based on a leading proton conducting electrolyte of BaZr0.1Ce0.7Y0.1Yb0.1O3-d (BZCYYb) at 450-650degC. The influences of different testing conditions including oxygen and water (H2O) content as well as cell configuration (i.e., symmetrical cells versus full cells) on the electrochemical behaviors are systematically investigated. It was found that pure LSCF performs rather poorly like Ag and gives very high interfacial resistance, suggesting sluggish electrode reaction and greatly hindered oxide ion transport between LSCF cathode and BZCYYb electrolyte even under dry condition. In comparison, the LSCF-BZCYYb composite and pure BSCF both show much higher activity toward oxygen electrode reaction, and BSCF outperforms the LSCF composite cathode, suggesting BSCF behaves like a mixed oxide ion-electron conductor in dry atmospheres and a mixed proton-electron conductor in humidified atmospheres. The implication of the experimental observations especially in terms of the similarity and differences in electrochemical behaviors between different electrode materials to the overall cathode reaction mechanism for proton conducting IT-SOFC is discussed, and the directions for further improving the cathode performance for proton conducting IT-SOFC are pointed out.

In this work, we report the results of in situ Raman monitoring of copper zinc tin sulfide [Cu 2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)], phase under relevant processing conditions at elevated temperatures. CZTS films are prepared from a simple sol-gel method, followed by sulfurization. Raman microspectroscopy measurements are carried out using a 514.5-nm excitation laser on CZTS samples at room temperature and under in situ conditions in sealed chamber and in open air at elevated temperatures. Preliminary results of in situ Raman showed that CZTS phase is Raman active at elevated temperatures up to ~600 °C. In addition, important information regarding CZTS phase oxidation and related decomposition at high temperatures is revealed. Coupled with X-ray diffraction analysis of the in situ Raman examined CZTS samples, a two-step oxidation/decomposition reaction is suggested. CZTS oxidizes first at ~400 °C to form tin oxide (SnO) and binary sulfides mainly copper sulfide (Cu2-xS) and zinc sulfide (ZnS). Then, at temperatures higher than 400 °C, the remaining sulfides oxidize to form zinc oxide (ZnO) and copper sulfate (CuSO4). The study demonstrates that in situ Raman, combined with other ex situ characterization techniques, could provide valuable insights that help understand the complex processes involving phase formation and degradation for CZTS and other related chalcogenides as solar absorber materials.