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Carotid jugular fistula and pseudoaneurysm are easy to form after gunshot injury of carotid artery. Endovascular therapy, such as stent graft implantation, can successfully block the fistula and pseudoaneurysm cavity. However, the possibility of in-stent restenosis or occlusion will lead to treatment failure. The authors describe the case of a 30-year-old man with carotid jugular fistula and pseudoaneurysm after gunshot injury of left carotid artery who had received stent graft placement. However, two years after stent graft, the stenosis of proximal carotid artery near stent was found and gradually aggravated. During the follow-up, transient amaurosis of his left eye occurred intermittently and in-stent occlusion and severe stenosis of proximal carotid artery were found by computed tomography angiography (CTA) in our center. Carotid endarterectomy (CEA)with stent graft removal and end to end bypass using vascular graft was performed to reconstruct the blood flow of left carotid artery. To the extent of the authors’ knowledge, this case illustrates a rare CEA and vascular graft bypass in the treatment of in-stent occlusion following the gunshot injury to the carotid artery. The successful treatment of this rare case provides an option to deal with this kind of tricky problem.

Background: Montgomery T-tube (MTT) is a useful airway device but is seldom used. Owing to its specific shape and structure, it is challenging for anesthesiologists to manage airway in patients with MTT in situ who require general anesthesia and continuous positive-pressure ventilation (CPPV). Case: A 48-year-old 74-kg man with an MTT in situ was scheduled for local pancreatic resection under general anesthesia. We transorally inserted a cuffed endotracheal tube into the intratracheal limb of the MTT to achieve CPPV and to deliver the inhalation anesthetic. The endotracheal tube was removed successfully after the patient fully recovered from anesthesia. No tracheal injury or hemorrhage occurred after intubation or extubation, and the location of the MTT remained unchanged.Conclusions: Transoral insertion of a cuffed endotracheal tube into the intratracheal limb of the MTT could therefore be considered as a safe and feasible approach for airway management.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has the characteristics of chronic relapse and remission, which makes early diagnosis and effective evaluation of disease activity especially crucial. With the development of ultrasound technology, its role in the diagnosis and treatment of IBD is increasing. This study aimed to explore the value of multimodal ultrasound in the assessment of disease activity and complications in IBD.Patients with clinically confirmed IBD were selected and examined with two-dimensional ultrasound, Doppler ultrasound, contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), elastography, endoscopy with biopsies, and whole-abdominal enhanced computed tomography (CT). Collect relevant laboratory data, including C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, etc. Endoscopy is used as the gold standard for disease activity assessment, and the diagnostic value of each ultrasound parameter is compared separately, and correlation analysis is made.Intestinal maximum wall thickness in patients in the disease activity group (active group) was significantly thicker than that in patients in remission group (7.93±2.65 vs. 4.16±1.08 mm, P0.001). The mean values of Peak Enhancement (PE) and the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) were higher in the active stage than in remission, with a significant difference (-40.66±4.81 vs. -50.47±5.03 db, 356.44±170.67 vs. 194.42±92.09 dBsec, both P0.05). Time To Peak (TTP) showed no significant difference between the active stage and remission (20.04±8.74 vs. 20.09±11.13 s, P0.05). Twenty cases of intestinal stricture were detected by ultrasound, and no fistula or abscesses were detected. CEUS and elastography could distinguish inflammatory bowel stenosis and fibrous bowel stenosis in patients with IBD. In the fibrosis group and inflammation group, the mean shear wave velocity, Young's modulus, TTP, PE, and AUC were statistically significantly different (P0.05). The mean maximum wall thickness and disease extent assessed by ultrasound and CT were strongly correlated (r=0.799, 0.831). Wall thickness showed a moderate positive correlation with CRP and ESR and a strong positive correlation with Mayo score (P0.05), but no significant correlation with CDAI (P0.05).Multimodal ultrasound provides more detailed clinical reference values for the comprehensive evaluation of IBD.

This paper investigates the shock isolation characteristics of an electromagnetic bistable vibration isolator (BVI) with tunable magnetic controlled stiffness. The theoretical model of the BVI is established. The maximum acceleration ratio (MAR), maximum absolute displacement ratio (MADR), and maximum relative displacement ratio (MRDR) are introduced to evaluate the shock isolation performance of the BVI. The kinetic and potential energy are observed to further explore the performance of the BVI. The effects of the potential barrier, shape of potential well, and damping ratio on the BVI are discussed compared with the linear vibration isolators (LVIs). The results demonstrate that the intrawell oscillations and snap-through oscillations are determined by the excitation amplitude and duration time of main pulse. MADR and MRDR of the BVI are smaller than those of the LVI. The maximum acceleration peak amplitude of the BVI is far below that of the LVI, especially when the snap-through oscillation occurs. In brief, the proposed BVI has a better shock isolation performance than the LVI and has the potential to suppress the shock of space structures during the launch and on-orbit deploying process.

The performance of SOI SiGe HBT structure was enhanced by introducing a buried oxide layer and Si 1-y Ge y collector. Both the base region and the emitter region are subjected to the action of stress, so the characteristic frequency and the current gain are improved. The effects of different step type distributions of Ge mole fraction in the Si 1-x Ge x base and different Ge fraction contents in the Si 1-y Ge y collector on the frequency, the Early voltage, and the current gain are analyzed by employing SILVACO TCAD tools. The results show that the current gain and frequency characteristics of the device can be improved by introducing biaxial stress in the Si 1-x Ge x base region. The step type distribution of Ge components in the Si 1- x Ge x base region can improve the Early voltage. The best performance is achieved when Ge component $y$ is 15% in the collector region. The best current gain is 2386, the Early voltage is 170V, and the cut-off frequency is 240GHz.

In this work, we use ultra-thin thickness-controllable spatial atomic layer deposited (ALD) aluminium oxide (AlOx) tunnel layers, which contain high negative fixed charges (Qf), capped by highly boron-doped polysilicon layers to form tunnel layer passivated contacts. The high Qf of the tunnel layers is expected to enhance the carrier selectivity of these passivated hole-extracting contacts. The dependence of the ALD AlOx tunnel layer contact passivation performance on its thickness is investigated. Furthermore, two different thermal charge activation conditions, i.e., fast firing using a belt furnace at 700 and 800 °C are compared. The best measured recombination current density J0 and implied open-circuit voltage iVoc of the developed AlOx/polysilicon passivated contacts with a symmetrical AlOx/SiNx stack passivation are 6.6 fA/cm2 and 723 mV, respectively. Based on the measured J0 and on the measured total contact resistivity of the passivated contact, the practical efficiency limit of a rear-side full area passivated contact solar cell with a conventionally diffused front side is calculated to be as high as 23.2%. Additionally, three rear-side metallization schemes: (1) thermally evaporated full-area silver contacts; (2) screen-printed non-firing-through aluminium contacts and (3) screen-printed firing-through silver-aluminium contacts, are compared. Finally, rear-emitter solar cells, using a rear-side hole-selective AlOx tunnel layer passivated contact, are fabricated, which shows an efficiency of up to 20.5%. While the proposed hole-selective passivated contact scheme appears to be promising based on the simulation prediction, the efficiency of the fabricated cells is largely limited by the non-optimized front-side reflectance and recombination losses as well as the use of non-optimized rear-side metallization schemes.

Atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials has been reported in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors to be one of the potential technological enablers to achieve scaling sizes of 5 nm and lower, digressing away from the conventional silicon material. Given the uniqueness of these 2D materials, with properties ranging from semi-metal to semiconductors to insulating, research scale efforts have demonstrated promising new opportunities for both rigid and flexible nanoelectronics and optoelectronics applications, in numerous fields such as imaging and sensing, medical, industrial, environmental, biological, field-effect transistors, solar cells, batteries, thermoelectrics, light emitting diodes, lasers and ultra-fast optical communications. It is the focus of this chapter to provide an overall review of this fascinating world of atomically thin 2D novel materials, the physics underlying these materials, the recent applications surrounding these novel 2D materials and their devices, and the progressive efforts at large scale commercialization.

With the increase of washing raw coal, the rapid increase of coal slime (CS) production has become an urgent environmental problem. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the pyrolysis behavior and product distribution of CS by using thermogravimetric analyzer coupled to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) and Pyrolyzer-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis (Py-GC/MS). The results showed that the pyrolysis of CS can be divided into three stages. The maximum weight loss of CS occurred in the main devolatilization stage at 178-680 oC. The pyrolysis kinetic mechanism of CS was predicted to be f(α)=(1-α)5.4 via the master-plots method. The increase of inorganic minerals significantly increased the order of CS pyrolysis reaction, indicating that minerals have a great influence on pyrolysis chemical reaction. Compared to raw coal, the alkene contents decreased significantly, while the contents of CO2 and aromatics increased significantly, illustrating that the minerals in CS promoted polymerization and cyclization reactions of alkene as well as the formation of macrocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in CS tar. This study provided theoretical and practical guidance on efficient thermochemical conversion and utilization of CS.

In immunotherapy, 'cold' tumors, with low T cells infiltration, hardly benefit from the treatment of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). To address this issue, we screened two 'cold' tumor models for mice with high expression of galectin-3 (Gal-3) and designed a cocktail strategy to actively recruit CD8+ T cells into the tumor microenvironment (TME), which reversed 'cold' tumors into 'hot' and remarkably elevated their ICIs-responsiveness. Gal-3, an important driving force of tumorigenesis, inhibits T cell infiltration into tumor tissue that shapes 'cold' tumor phenotype, and promotes tumor metastasis. In this respect, Gal-3 antagonist G3-C12 peptide was chosen and further loaded into poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres, with the prepared G3-C12@PLGA playing a dual role of antitumor, namely, killing two birds with one stone. Specifically, G3-C12@PLGA actively recruit T cells into 'cold' tumors by rescuing IFN-γ, and simultaneously inhibit tumor metastasis induced by Gal-3. Moreover, when combined with chemotherapeutic agent (Oxaliplatin) and anti-PD-1 peptide (APP), the immunopotentiating effect of dendritic cells (DCs) was extremely improved, with T-cell depletion dramatically reversed. In vivo experiments showed that such cocktail therapy exerted remarkable antitumor effect on 'cold' breast cancer (BC) and ovarian serous cancer (OSC). These results indicated that our strategy might be promising in treating 'cold' tumors with high expression of Gal-3, which not only enhance cancer treatment outcome, but provide a new platform for the prevention of postoperative tumor recurrence/metastasis.

In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility and attractiveness of combining an ultra-thin atomic layer deposited aluminium oxide (ALD-AlOx) tunnel oxide layer with a commercially available low cost doped organic capping layer with high workfunction, PEDOT:PSS, to form an excellent hole-selective passivated contact for solar cell applications. We present a systematic methodology of measuring the most important parameters, i.e. determining the passivation quality (the saturation current density) and the contact resistance for our investigated hole-selective passivated contacts, and incorporating those into our developed solar cell efficiency potential prediction model to assess their performance at the final device level. In particular, we had studied in detail the impact of the choice of a suitable tunnel layer (ALD-AlOx, as compared to a “standard” wet-chemically formed wet-SiOx tunnel layer), the impact of tunnel layer thickness and tunnel layer anneal conditions (no-anneal, ambient anneal, forming gas anneal, fast-firing), as well as the influence of different capping layers (PEDOT:PSS, as compared to a “standard” p+-poly-Si capping layer) on the extracted parameters. Due to its high negative interface charges, it is advantageous to use an ultra-thin ALD-AlOx tunnel oxide instead of a commonly reported wet-SiOx tunnel oxide for hole carrier extraction. Combining that with either a highly p-doped poly-silicon capping layer or a commercially available low cost, high workfunction, doped organic capping layer like PEDOT:PSS, it is possible to achieve a practical cell efficiency potential exceeding 21%, if integrating the tunnel layer passivated hole contact at the rear-side of an otherwise conventionally processed solar cell.

The evolution mechanism and energy conversion of volatile in low-rank coal with pyrolysis temperatures still remain uncertain. The experimental results on gas products and light tar pyrolyzed from Shenfu coal at various pyrolysis temperatures reflect the complex correlation between volatiles and coal structure affected by temperatures. Thermodynamic competitive evolution towards CO from oxygen-containing structures are analyzed by density functional theory. The formation mechanisms of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from by-product cyclopentadienyl through Diels-Alder reaction and C–H β-scission are confirmed at the CBS-QB3//M06–2X/def2-TZVP level of theory. Kinetic rate coefficients of the rate-limiting step are computed. Thermodynamic and kinetic calculation results indicate that phenols pyrolysis have to cross a higher energy barrier. Moreover, cyclopentadienyl thermodynamically tends to form indene at 645 °C, while forming PAHs such as naphthalene, even fluorene, phenanthrene, and anthracene at 855 °C, which is consistent with the experimental results. A hydrogen-rich environment can kinetically facilitate the formation of PAHs.

With the fast-paced urbanization and the development of sightseeing agriculture in China, the issues of energy shortage and worsening environment gradually began looming large. Solar-biomass energy hybrid absorption cooling system was designed for saving the energy and protecting the environment which could be widely used in the areas of the remote rural living, ecological agriculture, etc. In this paper, the suitability of the hybrid energy system of 6 cities from China, India and America had been tested. The heating source suitability study was based on TRNSYS whose data was collected from an ecological restaurant. According to the distributions of the solar energy resources, the optimal solar fractions of different cities ranged 17%~32%. It could be concluded that different cities have their respective mode due to the energy distribution and weather parameters. It indicated that solar-biomass hybrid operating mode (Mode B,C) has been widely used in these cities. In addition, the prediction model was used to analyze the calorific values of biomass fuel and get the daily self-sufficiency rate in different cities. The results of the study provided a reference for the performance of solar-biomass hybrid absorption cooling system applied to different cities. The energy consumption utilization rate and a daily energy plan would be improved.

With the consistent improvement of the laser power and energy, further enhancement of the laser resistant ability of the target board is becoming a more and more crucial task in high energy laser diagnostics and irradiation effect studies. Applications of ceramic materials in high energy laser damage were studied. An aluminum panel was coated with ZrO2 ceramic for high power laser proof. Reflectivity and diffuse reflection characteristics of the coating were investigated at different wavelengths. Numerical simulation was conducted to analyze the thermal response of the coating under high power laser radiation. And, related experiments were carried out with high power fiber lasers. Irradiation experiments indicate that the ceramic layer helps to delay the heat conduction and reduce the peak temperature of the target board.

Raman mapping and petrography analysis of three two-dimensional planes including typical coal macerals in a lignite were done and coupled. The self-correlations between Raman spectral parameters and the relationship between Raman spectral parameters and random reflectivity (Rf) of coal maceral particles were set up. The results indicate that the area ratio of D band to G band (AD/AG) and intensity ratio of D band to G band (ID/IG) should not be equal, and they were not well related to Rf of coal maceral particles. Good self-correlations between full width at half maximum intensity of G band (G FWHM), the total area of first-order Raman spectrum (SAll) and fluorescence interference degree defined as drift coefficient α were found. G FWHM, SAll and α are also well related to Rf and can act as good indicators for chemical structure characteristics of coal maceral particles. With the increase of Rf, the relative amount of polyolefin, small aromatic rings, C–H, C-O, O–H etc. substitutional groups in vitrinite and liptinite decreases drastically, while the increase of aromatic ring size mainly takes place in inertinite. Chemical imaging of two-dimensional coal planes at a very high resolution was realized by drift coefficient α, and reproduction of the distribution of coal macerals in micro-scale is reasonable. The Raman mapping technology developed can be further used to deeply study the chemical structures of detailed coal macerals. This study can be further extended for rapid identification and detection of coal macerals by micro-Raman spectroscopy.

Chemokine‐like factor (CKLF)‐like, MAL and related proteins for vesicle trafficking and membrane link (MARVEL) transmembrane domain‐containing family proteins (CMTMs) have significant roles in the immune system, in male reproduction, as well as in tumorigenesis. Previous studies have shown that CMTM family member 7 (CMTM7) was broadly expressed in various normal tissues, but not in lung, gastric, esophageal, pancreas, and cervix cancers. To explore its relationship with liver cancer, we examined the expression of CMTM7 in liver cancers and its correlation with clinical and pathological conditions. We found that CMTM7 expression was markedly reduced in liver cancer tissues, and negatively correlated with TNM staging and tumor metastasis. In vitro studies showed that enforced expression of CMTM7 inhibited the cell growth and migration of liver cancer cells. Further analysis revealed that CMTM7 suppressed AKT signaling and induced cell cycle arrest at the G0/G1 phase in the liver cancer cells, likely as the consequent of decreased levels of cyclin D1, cyclin‐dependent kinase 4 (CDK4), and CDK6, and increased p27 expression. Thus, CMTM7 functions as a tumor suppressor in liver cancer through suppressing cell cycle progression.

This paper presents an approach for an intelligent speed validation and adaptation. The approach focuses on formal modelling of the corresponding smart vehicle units, to increase the road safety as well as to allow formal analysis of the smart vehicle behaviour. We suggest a number of models for speed check/limitation units, which reflect differences in the speed limits in several countries.We also present our results from the case studies, based on two implementations of the model as an iOS and an Android app for Intelligent Speed Adaptation.

Generally, metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are widely employed in polymer solar cells (PSCs) to enhance power conversion efficiency (PCE) via the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect. Herein, a significant performance enhancement is demonstrated in inverted PSCs by incorporating two kinds of metallic NPs on the rear side of photoactive layer. The Au nanorods (NRs) capped with ∼2 nm ultrathin SiO2 shells, with plasmonic absorption peaks of 520 nm for the transverse axis and 615 nm for the longitudinal axis (in deionized water), and 1 nm-ultrathin Ag NPs with an absorption peak of 517 nm, are in sequence spin-coated on a photoactive layer and thermally evaporated onto MoO3. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that Au NRs are directly spin-coated on a photoactive layer. The dual-plasmon device exhibits an improved short-circuit current density (JSC) of 10.36 mA cm−2 and an increased fill factor (FF) of 0.64, generating a PCE of 4.11% with a ∼30% enhancement factor compared with that of the reference device. The enhancement is attributed to the light absorption improvement in the photoactive layer over a wide wavelength range of 500–650 nm, induced by the LSPR of Au@SiO2 NRs and Ag NPs. In addition to the excitation of the LSPR effect, the incorporation of Ag NPs into MoO3 also contributes to the increase in FF value through enhancing the electric conductivity of MoO3.

Crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based photovoltaics have dominated the global market share over the past decade. To progress toward utility-scale adoption, cost reduction plans are necessary, in which one option is to reduce the silicon material used. This comes at a cost of lower photo-absorption and generation, particularly for near-infrared photons due to their much higher absorption depth as compared to short-wavelength photons. In this chapter, the different methods to enhance light trapping for near-infrared photons are mentioned, and in particular the methodology on the proper design of a one-dimensional conductive distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) scheme is introduced. Both experimental and simulation results in this chapter consistently demonstrate the feasibility of integrating a conductive DBR scheme at the rear of a heterojunction silicon wafer solar cell (a type of c-Si-based photovoltaics technology) for enhanced photo-generation at the target long-wavelength regions (i.e., 900 ± 200 nm). The methodology presented here can be easily extended to other target wavelengths of interest and also not limited to solar cells applications alone.

Previous studies have raised interest in using the genotyping of CYP2C9 and VKORC1 to guide warfarin dosing. However, there is lack of solid evidence to prove that genotype plus clinical algorithm provides improved clinical outcomes than the single clinical algorithm. The results of recent reported clinical trials are paradoxical and needs to be systematically evaluated. In this study, we aim to assess whether genotype plus clinical algorithm of warfarin is superior to the single clinical algorithm through a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). All relevant studies from PubMed and reference lists from Jan 1, 1995 to Jan 13, 2014 were extracted and screened. Eligible studies included randomized trials that compared clinical plus pharmacogenetic algorithms group to single clinical algorithm group using adult (≥ 18 years) patients with disease conditions that require warfarin use. We further used fix-effect models to calculate the mean difference or the risk ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs to analyze the extracted data. The statistical heterogeneity was calculated using I(2). The percentage of time within the therapeutic INR range was considered to be the primary clinical outcome. The initial search strategy identified 50 citations and 7 trials were eligible. These seven trials included 1,910 participants, including 960 patients who received genotype plus clinical algorithm of warfarin dosing and 950 patients who received clinical algorithm only. We discovered that the percentage of time within the therapeutic INR range of the genotype-guided group was improved compared with the standard group in the RCTs when the initial standard dose was fixed (95% CI 0.09-0.40; I(2) = 47.8%). However, for the studies using non-fixed initial doses, the genotype-guided group failed to exhibit statistically significant outcome compared to the standard group. No significant difference was observed in the incidences of adverse events (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.84-1.04; I(2) = 0%, p = 0.647) and death rates (RR 1.36, 95% CI 0.46-4.05; I(2) = 10.4%, p = 0.328) between the two groups. Allocation to genotype plus clinical algorithm may be associated with a significant improvement of the percentage of time within the therapeutic INR range for patients adopting fixed dose of warfarin. The incidence of total adverse events and death rates did not differ between these two groups. Further experiments need to be conducted to confirm these findings.

Timely assessment of acute postoperative pain is very important for pain management. No objective and reliable method to assess postoperative pain intensity exists till now. The aim of the study was to investigate the feasibility of photoplethysmography (PPG) signals in postoperative pain assessment.Thirty patients scheduled for elective abdominal surgery under general anesthesia were examined. Finger PPG signals and visual analogue scale (VAS) score were acquired before and 5, 10, 20, and 30 min after sufentanil administration when the patients were awake and transferred to the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU). During each pain rating, the patient's blood pressure, heart rate, and pulse oxygen saturation were recorded. The amplitude of alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) extracted from finger PPG signals were analyzed, and the ratio of AC and DC (AC/DC) was calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were built to assess the performance of AC and AC/DC to detect patients with VAS4 in the PACU.After administration of sufentanil, VAS scores decreased significantly (p0.05), as did blood pressure and heart rate. Simultaneously, both values of AC and AC/DC increased significantly. The VAS score had significant correlations with AC (r = -0.477; p0.01), AC/DC (r = -0.738; p0.01) and heart rate (r = 0.280; p0.01). In contrast, no statistical correlations between VAS score and blood pressure were found. Further analysis found significant differences in both AC and AC/DC among different pain levels, but no obvious differences in blood pressures and heart rate. The area under the ROC curves were 0.754 for AC and 0.795 for AC/DC, respectively.The finger PPG signal can be used in acute postoperative pain assessment. Both AC/DC and AC had significant correlations with the pain rating levels, while blood pressure and heart rate were unreliable in pain assessment.

A comprehensive energy and exergy analysis for traditional steam power plant (TSPP) and supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) power plants is constructed. The exergy distribution analysis and optimization methods of the Cycle-Internal-Split-Flow (CISF) and Connected-Top-Bottom-Cycle (CTBC) units of the S-CO2 partial flow power plant are conducted. The energy analysis reveals that the S-CO2 power plant (SCO2PP) has the remarkable characteristics of higher average endothermic temperature and overall power plant energy efficiency compared with traditional steam power plant. The results show that the exergy loss of the heat exchange surface of SCO2PP is obviously lower than that of TSPP. And the exergy loss of the heat exchange surface and S-CO2 Brayton cycle has more remarkable effect on the overall power plant exergy efficiency compared with other subsystems. Besides the main findings are the following: the exergy loss of FGC and HTR takes up considerably high percentages in CISF unit and connected-bottom-cycle turbine (CBT) has relatively lower exergy efficiency in CTBC unit. The innovative S-CO2 boiler layouts including adjacent double flue gas cooler (ADFGC) and staggered double flue gas cooler (SDFGC) layouts are presents in the CISF and CTBC units, respectively. From the perspective of system performance and layout complexity, the 1000 MW single reheat S-CO2 partial flow coal-fired power plant using the CISF and the ADFGC boiler layouts offers more interesting advantages: the 48.22% overall plant exergy efficiency (LHV) and simpler system configuration.

Progress of gain-switched Tm-doped fiber lasers is reported. Different pump schemes including 1μm, 790nm, 1.6μm, 1.9μm and combined pump are described in detail. Comparisons among these different pump schemes are given. Discussions are made and other possible pump schemes are proposed.

In this paper, several nonwoven and woven clothing are be selected for tested their protective, strength and comfortable. Through analysis their properties, the result can be seen that the nonwoven fabrics have better protective properties than woven fabrics, especially PVA nonwoven through water resistance finish. So, varies nonwoven clothing is used in hospital and family protective daily.

Determination of parameters is presented in the modeling of Tm-doped fiber lasers. The thesis chooses parameters, numerical simulation to examine the performance of the laser system for different pump schemes and cavity parameters. Their impacts on the laser performance are discussed.

Ultra Wideband Real-Time Location System (UWB RTLS) is a real-time positioning system with high precision, which contains a number of positioning tags and anchors, and the collision between multi tags is the main reason that affects the communication efficiency and positioning accuracy in UWB RTLS. The ALOHA algorithm and the binary tree algorithm are the mainstream of the anti-collision algorithm. Therefore, the ALOHA anti-collision algorithm is proposed in the UWB multi-tags positioning system. This algorithm is suitable for the dynamic change of the tag's capacity and the system, and it can effectively improve the system efficiency.

We report the realization of high performance BP transistors integrated with an ultra-thin HfO 2 high-k gate dielectric using a low temperature CMOS process. The fabricated devices were shown to demonstrate an enhanced hole mobility of >400 cm2/Vs and subthreshold swing (SS) of ∼69 mV/dec at room temperature. These figure-of-merits are benchmarked to be the best-of-its-kind, which outperform previously reported BP transistors realized on traditional SiO 2 gate dielectric. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis further reveals the evidence of a more chemically stable BP interface when formed on HfO 2 high-k as opposed to SiO 2 , which gives rise to a lower interface states density that accounts for the SS and hole mobility improvement. These results unveil the potential of BP as a new channel material for future nanoelectronics applications.

Black phosphorus (BP) is the most stable allotrope of phosphorus which exhibits strong in-plane anisotropic charge transport. Discovering its interface properties between BP and high-k gate dielectric is fundamentally important for enhancing the carrier mobility and electrostatics control. Here, we investigate the impact of interface engineering on the transport properties of BP transistors with an ultra-thin hafnium-dioxide (HfO2) gate dielectric of ~3.4 nm. A high hole mobility of ~536 cm2V−1s−1 coupled with a near ideal subthreshold swing (SS) of ~66 mV/dec were simultaneously achieved at room temperature by improving the BP/HfO2 interface quality through thermal treatment. This is attributed to the passivation of phosphorus dangling bonds by hafnium (Hf) adatoms which produces a more chemically stable interface, as evidenced by the significant reduction in interface states density. Additionally, we found that an excessively high thermal treatment temperature (beyond 200 °C) could detrimentally modify the BP crystal structure, which results in channel resistance and mobility degradation due to charge-impurities scattering and lattice displacement. This study contributes to an insight for the development of high performance BP-based transistors through interface engineering.

The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of transesophageal photoplethysmography detected from the descending aorta (dPPG) for predicting low descending aortic stroke volume (dSV) level in cardiac surgical patients.Fifteen patients scheduled for elective cardiac surgery were enrolled in our study. A transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) probe with an attached oximetry sensor was placed into the esophagus for paired dPPG signal and descending aortic Doppler blood flow signal acquisition. Metrics, including alternating current (AC), direct current (DC), area under the curve (AUC) and width (W), were extracted from the dPPG signals. The TEE-measured dSV, which was defined as the blood flow through the descending aorta during a cardiac cycle, was chosen as the standard reference. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was built to evaluate the performance of dPPG metrics in predicting low dSV level, and dSV measuring agreement between TEE and dPPG was analyzed by the Bland-Altman method.A total of 644 paired dPPG and Doppler signals of the descending aorta were acquired. Significant correlations were found between the dPPG metrics and TEE-measured dSV, and the correlation coefficients between TEE-measured dSV and AUC or AC were 0.64 and 0.66, respectively. AUC and AC values obviously decreased with the reduction of dSV level among the three groups (20 mL, from 20-40 mL, and40 mL). The areas under the ROC curve for AUC and AC in predicting low dSV level (20 mL) were 0.85 and 0.88, respectively. Bland-Altman plot showed a small bias (0.02 mL) but a wide limit of agreement (-18.62 to 18.66 mL) in dSV measurement between dPPG and Doppler technology.The AC and AUC extracted from the dPPG signal provided a sensitive and qualitative prediction for dSV level. The dSV value could not be accurately measured by dPPG metrics.Chinese Clinical Trials Register Identifier: ChiCTR-OCS-12002789.

A near-infrared detecting array is developed combining photoelectric and calorimetric method together to measure CW beam profile of high energy lasers. Detailed structure and functional modules of this system are described. The system is widely sensitive to the wavelength range of 0.9~1.7μm and the power density range of W/cm2～kW/cm2. It has an effective detecting area of 22cm×22cm with a spatial resolution of 1.1cm and a temporal resolution of 20ms. Experiments show that the uncertainty of the total energy measurement is 10% and the uncertainty of the power density distribution measurement is less than 15%.The measuring system has been successfully applied in the measurement for the far-field beam of high energy lasers.

Heterojunction silicon wafer solar cells, using a microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) thin-film emitter and a very thin intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) passivation layer between the crystalline silicon wafer and the emitter layer, have been reported to exhibit stable performance and high efficiency. Desired properties for the emitter layer include wide bandgap, low surface and interface recombination, and good doping efficiency. In this study, we report on the thin-film properties of p-doped μc-Si:H emitter layers deposited using RF (13.56 MHz) PECVD, at different SiH4/H2 gas flow ratios, pressures, and temperatures at the same RF power. Trends relating deposition conditions to relevant film characteristics such as thickness, crystalline fraction and conductivity are discussed. Finally, device relevant symmetrical p+/i/c-Si/i/p+ heterojunction lifetime test structures are investigated, using the optimised parameters for p-doped μc-Si:H layers (discussed in this paper) and for intrinsic a-Si:H layers (discussed in a companion paper [1] ). These exhibit promising effective lifetimes of up to 2.4 ms at an injection level of 1015 cm-3.

We demonstrate a new contact technology for realizing a near band edge contact Schottky barrier height (FB) in black phosphorus (BP) p- channel transistors. This is achieved via the use of high work function nickel (Ni) and thermal anneal to produce a novel nickelphosphide (Ni2P) alloy which enables a record low hole FB of 12 meV. The formation of reactive Ni2P/ BP contact was found to further improve the transmission probability as compared to the Ni/ BP contact. Moreover, the penetration of Ni2P in the source and drain regions could additionally reduce the parasitic series resistance, leading to drive current improvement.

Black phosphorus (BP) is a new class of 2D material which holds promise for next generation transistor applications owing to its intrinsically superior carrier mobility properties. Among other issues, achieving good ohmic contacts with low source-drain parasitic resistance in BP field-effect transistors (FET) remains a challenge. For the first time, we report a new contact technology that employs the use of high work function nickel (Ni) and thermal anneal to produce a metal alloy that effectively reduces the contact Schottky barrier height (ΦB) in a BP FET. When annealed at 300 °C, the Ni electrode was found to react with the underlying BP crystal and resulted in the formation of nickel-phosphide (Ni2P) alloy. This serves to de-pin the metal Fermi level close to the valence band edge and realizes a record low hole ΦB of merely ~12 meV. The ΦB at the valence band has also been shown to be thickness-dependent, wherein increasing BP multi-layers results in a smaller ΦB due to bandgap energy shrinkage. The integration of hafnium-dioxide high-k gate dielectric additionally enables a significantly improved subthreshold swing (SS ~ 200 mV/dec), surpassing previously reported BP FETs with conventional SiO2 gate dielectric (SS > 1 V/dec).

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals emerge as a new class of semiconducting material which may potentially revolutionize future electronic devices. Unlike graphene, black phosphorus (BP) is a semiconductor which has a predicted direct bandgap that can be tuned from 0.3 eV in its bulk form to 2.0 eV when reduces to a monolayer thinness. The presence of a bandgap in BP makes it advantageous over graphene in facilitating good transistor switching action. Here, field-effect transistors based on multi-layer BP and high-k gate dielectric (HfO 2 ) are demonstrated using CMOS-compatible processes. Respectable transistor characteristics are achieved including a room temperature hole mobility of ∼413 cm2/Vs and a subthreshold slope of ∼200 mV/dec. Good ohmic contacts with a low Schottky barrier height of ∼130 meV is realized using nickel (Ni), which can be further reduced to ∼20 meV through thermal annealing. The potential of achieving low contact resistance coupled with enhanced carrier transport properties makes BP a promising channel material for next generation nanoelectronic device applications.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between continuous electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring patterns and prognosis for children with severe brain damage. Patients and METHODS The different patterns of EEG were analyzed for 103 children (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] score < 8) who were monitored with continuous video-EEG (CVEEG) within 72 hours after the onset of coma. The clinical outcomes were scored and evaluated at hospital discharge by the modified Pediatric Cerebral and Overall Performance Category Scale (PCOPCS). EEG parameters of the different prognosis groups were compared and risk factors for prognosis were identified. RESULTS Of the 103 children, 36 were in the good prognosis group (PCOPCS scores 1 and 2) and 67 were in the poor prognosis group (PCOPCS scores 3-6). The poor prognosis group had the lower proportion of events in reactive EEG patterns and sleep architecture, and a higher proportion of low-voltage events. Multivariate analyses showed that the lower GCS score and no sleep architecture were significantly associated with poor prognosis. CONCLUSIONS Comatose children with higher GCS score and sleep architecture have better clinical outcomes in terms of morbidity and mortality.

Two-dimensional (2D) materials with innate thinness exhibit unique electronic properties different from their bulk form could open up new opportunities in a diverse electronics and photonics field. To integrate 2D layered materials for scalable manufacturing, large-area synthesis to produce high quality film with precise control of thickness and uniformity is necessary. This work reported the first demonstration of high performance 2D-TMD photodetectors realized on a large area MoS 2 crystal synthesized by magnetron sputtering. Due to an inherent film strain and through MoS 2 thickness tuning, the photodetectors achieved an improved performance over a wide spectral range from the visible to the near-infrared band, making it potentially useful for optical communication applications. Through integration with optical waveguides, the light-matter interactions between incident photons and 2D absorption materials could be further enhanced. When coupled with the use of 2D heterostructures where a narrow bandgap black phosphorous (BP) is sandwiched between TMDs, efficient lasing with tunable wavelengths could be achieved via radiative recombination in the active BP emission material.

With the development of Chinese economic growth, energy consumption is growing. Among them, the gas is an important energy source of urban living, and its consumption has increased year by year. In this paper, based on the data aggregation platform, and residents daily natural gas consumption data in SSTEC(Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City)(1), considering the time series correlation of data, a time series prediction model ARMA was used to predict the daily consumption of gas in SSTEC.

The surface passivation performance of atomic layer deposited ultra-thin aluminium oxide layers with different thickness in the tunnel layer regime, i.e., ranging from one atomic cycle (~0.13 nm) to 11 atomic cycles (~1.5 nm) on n-type silicon wafers is studied. The effect of thickness and thermal activation on passivation performance is investigated with corona-voltage metrology to measure the interface defect density D it(E) and the total interface charge Q tot. Furthermore, the bonding configuration variation of the AlO x films under various post-deposition thermal activation conditions is analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Additionally, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrene sulfonate) is used as capping layer on ultra-thin AlO x tunneling layers to further reduce the surface recombination current density to values as low as 42 fA/cm2. This work is a useful reference for using ultra-thin ALD AlO x layers as tunnel layers in order to form hole selective passivated contacts for silicon solar cells.

Excellent c-Si tunnel layer surface passivation has been obtained recently in our lab, using atomic layer deposited aluminium oxide (ALD AlO x ) in the tunnel layer regime of 0.9 to 1.5 nm, investigated to be applied for contact passivation. Using the correspondingly measured interface properties, this paper compares the theoretical collection efficiency of a conventional metal–semiconductor (MS) contact on diffused p+ Si to a metal–semiconductor–insulator–semiconductor (MSIS) contact on diffused p+ Si or on undoped n-type c-Si. The influences of (1) the tunnel layer passivation quality at the tunnel oxide interface (Q f and D it), (2) the tunnel layer thickness and the electron and hole tunnelling mass, (3) the tunnel oxide material, and (4) the semiconductor capping layer material properties are investigated numerically by evaluation of solar cell efficiency, open-circuit voltage, and fill factor.