Search

Hexagonal boron nitride and silicone rubber (h-BN/SR) composites were prepared by the mechanical stirring method, and their crystal morphology, chemical structure, thermal properties, and compression stress–strain performance were investigated. The experimental results suggest that silicone rubber combined with h-BN exhibits better thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. When the proportion of h-BN is 30 wt%, the thermal conductivity of the h-BN/SR composite material is 0.58 W/m∙K, which is 3.4 times that of pure silicone rubber. At the same time, the compressive strength of h-BN/SR is 4.27 MPa, which is 6.7 times that of pure silicone rubber. Furthermore, the finite element model was employed to numerically analyze the thermal behavior of a battery with a h-BN/SR composite as the thermal interface material. The analytical results show that the highest temperature of the battery decreased when using h-BN/SR as the thermal interface material in the battery thermal management system. The h-BN/SR composite can thus effectively improve the safety properties of batteries.

Additional file 4. Comparison of overall survival probability between patients with or without ATRX mutation in non-GC cohorts with ATRX mutation frequency over 10% from TCGA database.

Additional file 2. The differences of ATRX mutation frequency between female and male tumor patients

Additional file 5. Comparison of the TMB and anticancer immunity scores between female and male GC patients. a. Boxplot showing the TMB and anticancer immunity scores between female and male GC patients. Only TMB showed the significantly differences between female and male. b. The differences of TMB between female and male GC patients disappeared when excluding the TMB of ATRX mutant female patients.

Additional file 6. Comparison of the expression of DDR-related core genes between four subgroups. Sub1: female patients with ATRX mutation; Sub2: female patients without ATRX mutation; Sub3: male patients with ATRX mutation; Sub4: male patients without ATRX mutation

Additional file 1. The gene list of ssGSEA

Additional file 3. The impact of ATRX missense mutation on protein structure

In order to realize the automatic classification of sonar waveform and noise interference, a Sonar Noise Discriminator based on DeepGBM (SNDD) is proposed. First, the sonar waveform is characterized by feature extraction; Then, according to the actual needs, SNDD-R, SNDD-P or SNDD-G sub-models are selected to conduct dimensionality reduction processing on the data set; Finally, the data set is entered into DeepGBM for classifier training to complete the classification of the sonar waveform. Validation experiments on the actual sonar waveform data set show that the SNDD model has a better classification effect than other models.

Background: Genetic alterations have been proven to be the promising biomarkers for ICI response. However, sex biases in genetic alterations have been often ignored in the field of immunotherapy, which might specially influence the anticancer immunity and immunotherapy efficacy in male or female patients. Here, we have systematically evaluated the effect of the sex biases in somatic mutation of gastric cancer (GC) patients on the anticancer immunity and clinical benefit to immunotherapy. Methods: Genomic and transcriptomic data of gastric cancer were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC). We also obtained the genomic and clinical data of a MSKCC ICI-treated cohort from cbioportal database. GC male and female-derived tumor somatic mutation profiles were compared by maftools R package. Single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was conducted to calculate the score of the anticancer immunity indicators including IFN-γ signaling, cytolytic activity (CYT) and antigen presenting machinery (APM). Results: ATRX was found to mutate more frequently in female GC patients compared to male patients (FDR = 0.0108). Female GC patients with ATRX mutation manifested significantly more MSI-high subtypes, increased TMB and PDL1 expression as well as higher scores of IFN-γ signaling, CYT and APM. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) has shown that ATRX mutation might enhance the immunogenicity and anticancer immunity through affecting DNA damage repair pathways. In the ICI-treated cohort from MSKCC, GC patients with ATRX mutation were associated with prolonged overall survival. When stratifying the entire ICI-treated cohort by sex, female patients with ATRX mutation obtained significantly better survival benefits than that of ATRX mutant male patients (Female patients, HR of ATRX MT vs WT = 0.636, 95%CI = 0.455-0.890, P = 0.023; Male patients, HR of ATRX MT vs WT = 0.929, 95%CI = 0.596-1.362, P = 0.712). Conclusions: ATRX mutation might serve as a potential predictive biomarker for favorable clinical benefit to ICI in female GC patients. ATRX mutation could be applied in combination with other biomarkers of ICI response to better identify the female GC patients who will derive greater benefits from ICI therapy.

Chinese college students’ level of health literacy is low, so, we explored the effect of knowledge contests on health literacy (HL) among Chinese college students. Participants: Students from unive...

In this work, expanded graphite/paraffin/silicone rubber composite phase-change materials (PCMs) were prepared by blending the expanded graphite (EG), paraffin wax (PW) and silicone rubber (SR) matrix. It has been shown that PW fully penetrates into the three dimensional (3D) pores of EG to form the EG/PW particles, which are sealed by SR and evenly embedded in the SR matrix. As a result of the excellent thermal stability of SR and the capillary force from the 3D pores of EG, the EG/PW/SR PCMs are found to have good shape stability and high reliability. After being baked in an oven at 150 &deg, C for 24 h, the shape of the EG/PW/SR PCMs is virtually unchanged, and their weight loss and latent heat drop are only 7.91 wt % and 11.3 J/g, respectively. The latent heat of the EG/PW/SR composites can reach up to 43.6 and 41.8 J/g for the melting and crystallizing processes, respectively. The super cooling of PW decreased from 4.2 to 2.4 due to the heterogeneous nucleation on the large surface of EG and the sealing effect of the SR. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity of the EG/PW/SR PCMs reaches 0.56 W&middot, m&minus, 1&middot, K&minus, 1, which is about 2.8 times and 3.73 times of pure PW and pristine SR, respectively. The novel EG/PW/SR PCMs with superior shape and thermal stabilities will have a potential application in heat energy storage and thermal interface materials (TIM) for electronic devices.

Western logic was introduced into China for the second time by Chinese intellectuals such as Yan Fu 严复, Wang Guowei王国维, Hu Maoru胡茂如 and Liang Qichao梁启超 during the late Qing Dynasty. They made this contribution after fully recognizing the importance of logic to China, especially to Chinese academia. For example, in Mill’s Logic (《穆勒名学》), the Chinese translation of J. S. Mill’s A System of Logic, the translator YAN Fu rephrased Francis Bacon to state that “logic is the law of all laws and the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge”, (Yan 1981:2) In recognition of the contribution of these far-sighted scholars, western logic was ultimately included in university courses and even high school courses in Chinese modern education, from where it was diffused widely. In 1920, Bertrand Russell was invited to give lectures in China. Wu Fanhuan 吴范寰 organized and compiled Russell’s lectures on mathematical logic before the book Mathematical Logic was published by Peking University Xinzhi Press in 1921. Mathematical logic has since been introduced into China.

The formal language of a logical system usually contains several types of symbols. In infix notation, two different kinds of symbols are used to construct compound formula and to indicate the order of combination. The logical constants such as Ø, Ú are used to construct compound formula, and auxiliary symbols such as ( ) are used to indicate the order of a combination. In Polish notation, there is no need for auxiliary symbols such as ( ), and only one class of symbols, N, C, K, etc., is used as a conjunction to make it function as a parenthesis. Contrary to Polish notation, a new parenthesis notation is put forward in this paper. Parenthesis notation uses only parentheses, and empowers them the function of connectives. More importantly, it is proved in this paper that we can define logical constants such as propositional connectives, quantifiers, modal operators and temporal operators in the same formula by using only parenthesis, which can greatly simplify the initial connectives needed to construct the formal system.

First-principles calculation has been used to comparatively investigate that the stability of Re and Cr at the Fe/W interface, as well as cohesion characteristics and fracture toughness. It is found that Re atom prefers to situate at the Fe position at the interface layer, and the reason is due to the surrounding W–Re and Fe–Re bond lengths are much shorter than other substitution positions of Fe/W interface. Our calculations also reveal that the different effects of the additions of Re and Cr on the cohesion properties and fracture toughness of Fe/W interface, i.e.,substituting Re for interfacial Fe position could increase cohesion strength and fracture toughness, which appeared the volatile changes by the Cr substitutions for Fe. The derived results are deeply understood by means of electronic structures, and sufficiently compare with experimental observations in the literature.

Comprehensive data on hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes distribution is critical for treatment regimen selection, vaccine design, and drug development. This study aimed to understand the dynamic distribution of HCV genotypes in Mainland China. Three hundred sixty-two studies published from January 1993 to December 2017 involving 64 891 samples (5133 injecting drug users, 2748 volunteer blood donors, 1509 former paid plasma donors, 160 sexually encounters, and 1992 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/HCV coinfection patients) were eligible for the quantitative synthesis estimation. Pooled proportion of HCV genotypes (and 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) was estimated through the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation by period, region, and risk group. A sharp decline of the subtype 1b was observed in all regions except in northwestern and central regions. The genotypes 3 and 6 showed an obvious increase in southern and southwestern regions and have already spread nationwide. After 2010, subtype 1b was the most dominant variant in all regions and risk groups, accounting for 54.0% (95% CI, 51.9-56.1) of all national infections. Subtype 2a was the second most prevalent strain in all regions except in the south and southwest, with 15.4% (95% CI, 13.1-17.8) national infections. The subtype 6a in southern region and 3b and 3a in southwestern region had a higher proportion of infections than that in other regions. In addition, the genotypes 3 and 6 are already prevalent in almost all risk groups. The distribution of HCV genotypes were sharply shifting in China in the past three decades. The HCV subtype 1b posed a sharp decline, whereas genotypes 3 and 6 played an increasing role in the regional and populational HCV pandemic.

Developing polymer composites with high thermal conductivity is a must to improve the thermal-management ability for modern electronic applications, in which power densities rapidly increase. Boron nitride nanotubes are one of the most promising fillers due to their high thermal conductivity and electrical insulator, but the overall thermal conductivity of the obtained polymer composites is limited by high interfacial thermal resistances. Here, we present an approach to reduce the interfacial thermal resistance between adjacent boron nitride nanotubes through low-melting effect of nanoscale silver particles. A sharp increase in thermal conductivity (20.9 Wm−1K−1) is observed in cellulose nanofibers (CNFs)/boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) composites, which is approximately 14.3 times larger than that of conventional polymers. The underlying mechanism is understood through Foygel model, and demonstrated that the interfacial thermal resistances play key role in the thermal conductivity. This strategy can become a quotable method for design and prepared of highly thermal conductivity materials in the future.

In this work, we developed a facile method to prepare FeOOH directly deposited on the Ni foam through one-pot hydrothermal route. The as-prepared FeOOH/Ni foams (FN) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Electrochemical performances of the as-prepared FN as electrodes were also evaluated using cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) and electrochemical impedance spectrometry (EIS) in 1 M KOH aqueous solution. The results indicate that the flocculent amorphous FeOOH flakes homogeneously grown on the surface of Ni foams construct a three-dimensional (3D) porous structure, which not only provides easy penetration of liquid electrolyte, facilitating fast electron transfer and ion diffusion, but also alleviates the volume change of FN electrodes during the charge-discharge process. The optimized FN electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 1300 F/g at a current density of 2 A/g, and excellent capacitance retention of 91% after 2000 cycle tests at a current density of 4 A/g. This work would open an avenue for designing high-performance amorphous electrode materials for supercapacitors.

Starting from “fuzziness” as a character of pronunciation, this paper proposes the possibility of referencing between different phonetic symbols, and explores the general standards and specific standards of reference. Using the logical quantification tool MMTD, with the qualitative and quantitative analysis, the true value of the reference of the Chinese vowels to the English monophthong is displayed and calculated, and the reference system of the “Chinese Character Reference Frame of English Monophthong” is established. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the phonetic learning method of “Learning English phonetic with Chinese Character pronunciation”, aiming to provide a path for the development of the phonetic learning concept of learning a foreign phonetic with native language phonetic” and the establishment of other language phonetic pronunciation reference frame.

Clinical value and safety of the use of gastroscopy as oral choledochoscopy in the treatment of biliary diseases was explored. Clinical data of 55 patients with biliary diseases who underwent gastroscopy were retrospectively analyzed. The types of gastroscopy, size of duodenal papilla incision, balloon dilatation, the success rate of gastroscopy entry, depth of gastroscopy entering into bile duct, endoscopic diagnosis and postoperative complications were recorded. Simple insertion-by-hand was performed, and insertion into common bile duct was successfully achieved in 53 cases, and the overall technical success rate was 96.4%. Residual bile duct stones in 25 patients (45.5%) after endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP) were removed through endoscopy. Nine cases of benign stenosis and 2 cases of malignant stenosis were confirmed as 'cholangiocarcinoma' or 'duodenal papilla well-differentiated adenocarcinoma' by biopsy. Balloon oppression under intraoperative endoscopy was performed for 2 cases (3.6%) with biliary hemorrhage, and argon ion coagulation was successfully performed. No obvious abnormalities were found in 13 cases (23.6%) through gastroscopic biliary exploration. Complications occurred in 15 patients with a complication rate of 27.3%, including 2 cases of cholecystitis (3.6%), 8 cases of amyloidosis (14.6%) and 4 cases of acute pancreatitis (7.3%), and all those complications were cured. One case (1.8%) had perforation of biliary tract and was discharged after conservative treatment. The use of gastroscopy as oral choledochoscopy is safe as effective. However, this technique causes some rare and serious complications. Therefore, further studies are needed to improve this technique.

Lanthanide ion doped nanoparticles can coordinate with some organic ligands to form the inorganic-organic hybrid nanoparticles, which exhibit greatly enhanced luminescence as a result of the energy transfer from the organic ligands to the lanthanide ions. However, when coordinating with a single type of organic ligand, their luminescence excitation spectral bandwidth is still quite limited. In this work, Eu3+-doped LaF3 (LaF3:Eu3+) nanoparticles, as the model inorganic material, were synthesized using the hydrothermal method. Instead of coordinating with a single type of organic ligand as previously studied, the LaF3:Eu3+ nanoparticles simultaneously coordinate with both benzoic acid and 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone to form the inorganic-organic mixed hybrid nanoparticles. The mixed hybrid nanoparticles possess a broadband excitation spectrum (200~400 nm) which perfectly covers the entire ultraviolet (UV) spectral range of the solar radiation. By down-converting the UV light to visible light, their broadband UV excitation spectrum will be extremely beneficial to the enhancement of the conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells.

Developing highly efficient and low-cost oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts is highly demanded, as the OER is recognized as a key half-reaction in water splitting for producing hydrogen; however, this still remains a great challenge. Herein, we design three-dimensional (3D) tubular hierarchical core–shell electrocatalysts for the OER using a simple and highly controllable two-step method. The large-scale tubular Cu(OH)2 arrays are directly grown on Cu foam (CF) at room temperature, followed by the growth of highly porous CoNi carbonate hydroxides (CH) via a low-temperature hydrothermal method on the walls of these Cu(OH)2 nanotubes (NTs). The hollow and open-structured core–shell hierarchical Cu(OH)2@CoNiCH NTs/CF electrode with a large surface area and numerous mesoporous and short diffusion paths can provide many active sites, fast electron transport and easy accessibility of water, leading to an excellent OER activity in an alkaline electrolyte with an overpotential of 288 mV and 326 mV at a current density of 30 mA cm−2 and 100 mA cm−2, respectively, also with robust durability. This new structure would open an avenue for the advancement of highly efficient OER electrocatalysts.

Effects of Ni 2+ doping at A and B sites of BaTiO 3 ceramics on the crystal structures, microstructures, chemical bonding characteristics and dielectric and ferroelectric properties were studied. Both the A-site doped Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 and B-site doped BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 ceramics ( x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.08 and 0.10) were prepared using the solid state reaction method at 1300 °C. For Ni 2+ doping at A sites, no change in the crystal structure of Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 was observed. The Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 ceramics remained to be of tetragonal structure, but their tetragonality consistently decreased with x . For Ni 2+ doping at B sites, a change in the crystal structure from tetragonal to hexagonal was observed for the BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 ceramics. The hexagonal structure started to appear when x = 0.03, and BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 ceramics completely transformed from tetragonal to hexagonal structure when x =0.08. Ni 2+ doping introduced more oxygen vacancies to Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 and BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 , and the latter had higher concentration of oxygen vacancies. It was found that Ni 2+ doping, either at A or B sites, strongly decreased their dielectric and ferroelectric properties. The Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 ceramics remained to be ferroelectric for x up to 0.10, although it was weak, while the BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 ceramics became paraelectric when x = 0.03. The Ba 1−x Ni x TiO 3 ceramics exhibited higher dielectric constant than the BaTi 1−x Ni x O 3 .

Different doping elements have been used to reduce the dielectric losses of CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics, but their dielectric constants usually are undesirably decreased. This work intends to reduce their dielectric losses and simultaneously enhance their dielectric constants by co-doping Y 3+ as a donor at A site and Al 3+ as an acceptor at B site for substituting Ca 2+ and Ti 4+ , respectively. Samples with different doping concentrations x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.05 and 0.07 have been prepared. It has been shown that their dielectric losses are generally reduced and their dielectric constants are simultaneously enhanced across the frequency range up to 1 MHz. The doped sample with x = 0.05 exhibits the highest dielectric constant, which is well over 10 4 for frequency up to 1 MHz and is about 20% higher than the undoped sample. Impedance spectra indicate that the doped samples have much higher grain boundary resistance than the undoped one.

Ti(C,N)-based cermets were prepared by vacuum hot-pressing sintering enhanced by the second phase of ZrO2 whiskers via sulfate flux. The effects of ZrO2 whiskers on the material properties of Ti(C,N)-based cermets at high temperature are discussed, including the room temperature microstructure, high-temperature oxidation resistance, and microstructure and mechanical properties at high temperature. The experimental result indicated that the addition of ZrO2 whiskers improves the bending strength, fracture toughness, and oxidation resistance of Ti(C,N)-based cermets at high temperature. At a temperature of 1000 °C, the hardness, flexural strength, fracture toughness and elasticity modulus of the cermets with 7.5 wt% ZrO2 whiskers were 9.32 GPa, 1032 MPa, 6.71 MPa m1/2 and 193.5 GPa, respectively. The high-temperature strength and toughness of Ti(C,N)-based cermets with ZrO2 whiskers were weakened by the softening of grain boundaries, the decrease in elastic modulus, and oxidation. Conversely, the high-temperature strength and toughness of Ti(C,N)-based cermets were increased by maintaining the rod crystal shape of ZrO2 whiskers at a high temperature, enhanced the elastic modulus of cermets through the whiskers, and improved oxidation resistance.

Thermal runaway in battery induced by rapid charging/discharging process and collision due to car accident are the two major safety issues. Therefore, we designed phase change materials (PCM) with collision energy absorption properties. The paraffin wax (PW) was mixed with expanded graphite (EG) to obtain an EG/PW composite material. After that, the EG/PW powder was pressed into the foamed aluminum (Al-f) hole to obtain an EG/PW/ Al-f sandwich structured PCM. The EG/PW/Al-f PCM was applied to a battery for thermal management and collision performance research. The results show that when the PCM was attached to the battery and the discharge is kept constant at 1 C/1.5 C (capacity) discharge rate, the battery temperature dramatically decreased; moreover, its temperature difference was more uniform than it was in the absence of PCM. Particularly, the EG/PW/Al-f PCM showed good impact energy absorption performance. The results of the impact experiment showed that when the battery suffered from a high-speed steel ball impact, the EG/PW/Al-f PCM attached to the surface of the battery could protect the battery well without any internal short circuit. Furthermore, the finite element model was developed to analyze the impact process of the battery. The results of the numerical solution match well with the experimental results; the experiment measured the indentation depth of a battery due to the steel ball falling from 2 m height. The results provide a new way to design PCM with both impact energy and heat absorption properties for battery application.

Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) are an ideal platform to construct electroactive materials for electrochemical energy storage due to their unique structure and excellent porosity. However, it is still a challenge to make full use of their structural advantages to rationally design multi-component electrode materials for high-performance supercapacitors. Herein, carbon-coated spherical sulfide nanoparticles are reported by simultaneous carbonization and sulfurization using bimetal/monometal-based MOFs as the precursors. The NiCo2S4@C and NiS@C composite nanoparticles have excellent electronic conductivity, large porosity and high electrochemical reaction activity. In particular, the bimetallic NiCo2S4@C-based electrode exhibits a high specific capacity of 948.9 C g−1 at 1 A g−1. Furthermore, a hybrid supercapacitor assembled with NiCo2S4@C as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode achieves a high energy density of 43.8 Wh kg−1 with power density at 799.1 W kg−1, and a capacitance retention rate of 81.9% after being subjected to 5000 cycles of charge and discharge. The results suggests using MOFs as precursors is a feasible strategy to synthesize advanced sulfide-based multi-component materials for electrochemical energy storage.

Polymer composites have been widely employed as electronic packaging materials, due to their low cost, flexibility, chemical stability, and high malleability, etc. However, the thermal conductivity of polymer composites becomes increasingly requirement, with the rapid growth of electronics toward miniaturization and high-power density. Conventional method to enhance the thermal conductivity of polymer is addition of high-content thermally conductive fillers, but it will deteriorate other significant properties of polymers, such as optical, electrical, and mechanical performance. Herein, we report an ice-templated assembly strategy to construct three-dimensional thermally conductive networks of BN nanosheets (BNNS) and silver nanowires (AgNWs) in epoxy resin composites. The thermal-conduction pathway can be easily built by the synergistic effects between two-dimensional BNNS and one-dimensional AgNW. Furthermore, the welding of the adjacent AgNWs through low-temperature sintering process enlarges the total contact area per unit filler volume. The resulted polymer composite thus exhibits a through-plane thermal conductivity of 1.10 Wm −1K−1 at only about 5.0 vol% fillers content, which is six times higher than that of the pure epoxy resin. This work shows great potential in advanced packaging materials, such as substrate materials and printed circuit board materials.

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs), used in hybrid supercapacitors (HSCs) as battery–type electrodes, have gain tractions for balancing the requirements for both power and energy; however, their poor structural integrity, inferior conductivity and low porosity restrict the achievable performance. Developing an elaborate material architecture for electrodes that endows mechanical robustness, superior conductivity and large surface area is a pressing need for TMPs to achieve boosted performance in supercapacitors. Here, we report a coral–like interconnected Ni2P nanoparticles dispersed on porous amorphous carbon matrix (Ni2P@C) as the electrode material with superior electrochemical performance. The Ni2P@C electrode exhibits a superior specific capacity of 3,631mC cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2 (979 C g−1 at 1 A g−1). Impressively, the assembly of Ni2P@C and active carbon (AC) electrodes result in an advanced HSC with energy density of 44.0 Wh kg−1 at 800 W kg−1 and cycling stability of 90.5% retention after 10,000 cycles, demonstrating this unique Ni2P@C structure is promising for developing practical HSC technology.

Low temperature preparation of CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics with large permittivity is of practical interest for cofired multilayer ceramic capacitors. Although CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics have been prepared at low temperatures as previously reported, they have rather low permittivity. This work demonstrates that CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics can not only be prepared at low temperatures, but they also have large permittivity. Herein, CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics were prepared by the solid state reaction method using B 2 O 3 as the doping substance. It has been shown that B 2 O 3 dopant can considerably lower the calcination and sintering temperatures to 870 °C and 920 °C, respectively. The relative permittivity of the low temperature prepared CaCu 3 Ti 4−x B x O 12 ceramics is about 5 times larger than the previously reported results in the literature. Furthermore, the dielectric loss of the CaCu 3 Ti 4−x B x O 12 ceramics is found to be as low as 0.03. This work provides a beneficial base for the future commercial applications of CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics with large permittivity for the cofired multilayer ceramic capacitors.

Although the CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics have colossal dielectric constants, their relative high dielectric losses are one of the limiting factors for commercial applications. Various doping elements and additive compounds have been extensively used to reduce their dielectric losses with only limited success. Instead of using such doping elements, this work shows that a facile air quenching technique can considerably reduce the dielectric losses of the CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics over a wide frequency range. In the meantime, their colossal dielectric constants can be simultaneously enhanced. It was found that the dielectric loss of the air-quenched CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 ceramics is as low as 0.03 at 12 kHz, and the dielectric constant is over 1×10 4 across the frequency range up to 1 MHz.

B2O3-SiO2-ZnO-BaO-Al2O3 glass with different Al2O3 contents (1mol%, 3mol%, 5mol%, and 7mol%) was prepared, and it was intended to be used as lead-free and low-melting glass sealants for solid oxide fuel cells. The effects of Al2O3 content on the structures, thermal properties, and sintering behaviors of the B2O3-SiO2-ZnO-BaO-Al2O3 glass were investigated in detail. The Al2O3 content largely influenced the structures and thermal properties of the glass. When the Al2O3 content 5mol%, the transition temperature of the glass decreased with the Al2O3 content, while the crystallization temperature increased with the Al2O3 content. However, higher Al2O3 content degraded the stability of the glass. The B2O3-SiO2-ZnO-BaO-Al2O3 glass with 5 mol% Al2O3 content exhibits the optimal sintering densification characteristics and can be used as glass sealants for solid oxide fuel cells.

Health literacy (HL) has become an important public health issue and received growing attention in recent years. However, knowledge about the HL of adolescents and young adults is limited.[1] This study aimed to investigate the awareness rate of HL and its related factors among college freshmen in Jiangsu, China. And the results were used to support the promotion intervention to improve the HL of at-risk groups among this population. A total of 25,272 freshmen were surveyed through multi-stage stratified random sampling from 20 colleges and universities in Jiangsu province between 2016 to 2018. Data were obtained using the “Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire” (2013 edition). Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the factors influencing HL levels. The awareness rate of HL of college freshmen in Jiangsu province was 26.6% among the 25,272 subjects. The awareness rate of HL tended to increase from 2016 to 2018, which was 17.9%, 21.5%, and 39.6%, respectively (P

For many optoelectronic applications, it is desirable for the lanthanide-doped phosphors to have broad excitation spectrum. The excitation mechanism of the lanthanide-doped YVO4, a high quantum efficient lasing material, primarily originates from the energy transfer process from the host VO43&minus, complexes to the lanthanide ions, which has an excitation spectral bandwidth range of 230&ndash, 330 nm. For applications in silicon solar cells, such phosphors can convert ultraviolet light to visible light for more efficient power generation, but this spectral range is still not broad enough to cover the entire ultraviolet spectrum of solar light. In this work, a novel core-shell and inorganic&ndash, organic hybridization strategy has been employed to fabricate Eu3+-doped YVO4 nanoparticles to broaden their photoluminescence excitation spectral bandwidth to the range of 230&ndash, 415 nm, covering the entire ultraviolet spectrum of solar light and enabling their potential applications in silicon solar cells.

Flexible thermoelectric materials that can harvest waste heat energy have attracted great attention because of the rapid progress of flexible electronics. Ag2Te nanowires (Ag2Te NWs) are considered...

Background: Accumulating evidence showed that the expression of miR-122 was abnormal in NAFLD patients; however, the role of miR-122 on lipid accumulation and inflammation in NAFLD is not clear. Methods: RT-qPCR was applied to detect the expression levels of miR-122 and pro-inflammatory cytokines following transfected with miR-122 inhibitor or treated with oleic acid (OA). Detection of lipid accumulation was performed by triglyceride content test and oil red o staining assay. Western blotting was applied to detect the protein levels of TLR7, TLR4, MyD88 and NF-κBp65. Results: We found that the OA promoted lipid accumulation and pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion and activated TLR4/MyD88/NF-κBp65 signalling pathway, which were restored following transfected with miR-122 inhibitor. Conclusions: These results suggested that miR-122 inhibition alleviates lipid accumulation and inflammation in L02 cell induced by OA may through inhibiting TLR4/MyD88/NF-κBp65 signalling pathway. The protective mechanism of miR-122 inhibition in NAFLD must be explored in future studies.

Background. Submucosal tumors (SMTs) are primarily benign tumors, but some may have a malignant potential. Endoscopic submucosal dissection that has been used for removing esophageal SMTs could cause perforation. Submucosal tunnel endoscopic resection (STER) is an improved and an effective technique for treating esophageal SMTs.Aims. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of STER for treating esophageal SMTs.Methods. A retrospective study design was adopted to analyze the baseline characteristics, clinical outcomes, and follow-up data of patients with esophageal SMTs, which originated from the muscularis propria layer and were treated with STER from September 2011 to May 2018.Results. A total of 119 lesions were included from 115 patients who were successfully treated with STER. The mean age of the patients was 49.7 ± 10.7 years. The lesions were primarily located in the middle and lower esophagus. The mean size of the lesions was 19.4 ± 10.0 mm. The mean operation duration was 46.7 ± 25.6 min, and the mean duration of hospitalization was 5.9 ± 2.8 days. The total en bloc resection rate and the complete resection rate were 97.5% and 100%, respectively. Regarding complications, there were 9 (7.8%) cases of perforation, 2 (1.7%) cases of pneumothorax, and 9 (7.8%) cases of subcutaneous emphysema. Histopathological results revealed 113 (95.0%) cases of leiomyoma, 5 (4.2%) cases of gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and 1 (0.8%) case of a granular cell tumor. During the mean 15-month follow-up, there were no cases of recurrence and distant metastasis.Conclusions. STER is a safe and feasible technique for treating esophageal SMTs originating from the muscularis propria layer.

Insulating materials for electronic packaging should ideally have high strength and thermal conductivity. Ceramic/polymer composite is one of the candidates for such materials. In this work, Al2O3/epoxy composites with very high flexural strength and thermal conductivity were prepared using a new processing technique consisting of the gelcasting, sintering and vacuum infiltration methods. Al2O3 green bodies were first formed by gelcasting. After being degreased at 600 °C, the green bodies were sintered at different temperatures from 1200 °C to 1500 °C, and porous Al2O3 ceramic skeletons with different porosity were resulted. The porosity was readily controlled by the sintering temperature. Higher sintering temperature resulted in lower porosity and larger average grain size in the Al2O3 ceramic skeletons. Epoxy was vacuum infiltrated into the sintered porous Al2O3 ceramic skeletons to form Al2O3/epoxy composites by curing. High Al2O3 loadings up to 70 vol.% in the composites were achieved. The flexural strength and thermal conductivity of the Al2O3/epoxy composites were found to reach 305 MPa and 13.46 W m−1 K−1, respectively. These results are remarkably higher than those previously reported in the literature. This work provides an effective approach for fabricating high performance ceramic/polymer composites for electronic packaging.

YVO4:Ba2+ nanoparticles with a Ba2+ doping concentration x=0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% were synthesized by a solvothermal method and then they were codoped with Eu3+ ions by an ion exchange method to form the YVO4:Eu3+,Ba2+ nanoparticles. It was found that the photoluminescence intensity of the as-prepared YVO4:Eu3+,Ba2+ nanoparticles steadily increased with x until x=7%, and then decreased for higher x. Thermal annealing resulted in considerable enhancement in their photoluminescence, and higher annealing temperature led to stronger photoluminescence enhancement. The emission intensity of the YVO4:Eu3+,Ba2+ (x=7%) nanoparticles annealed at 500 °C was about 205% stronger than the sample without Ba2+ doping. Thermal annealing of the ion-exchanged YVO4:Eu3+,Ba2+ nanoparticles at 500 °C and 700 °C resulted in photoluminescence enhancement of about 14 times and 27 times, respectively. The asymmetric ratio of Eu3+ in the ion-exchanged YVO4:Eu3+,Ba2+ nanoparticles was found to increase after annealing.

Metal organic framework (MOF)-based electrode materials, which could be rapidly synthesized in ambient environment with low cost but also provide a remarkable high-energy density, are ideal candidates for developing high-performance and cost-effective supercapacitors. Herein, a facile room-temperature solution-phase based method is employed for fast and large-scale synthesis of Ni/Co-based MOFs with low crystallinity, which surprisingly exhibit extraordinary charge storage capability. In particular, the Ni2Co-MOF shows the highest structure disorder and the smallest nanosheet feature size among these MOFs, offers a specific capacity of 2149 mC cm−2 (or 1074.5 C g−1) at a discharge current of 1 mA cm−2, and 1654 mC cm−2 (or 827 C g−1) at 20 mA cm−2. Moreover, with Ni2Co-MOF as the positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode, hybrid supercapacitors operating at 1.6 V deliver superior energy densities of 66.1 and 41.3 W h kg−1 at power densities of 800 and 8000 W kg−1, respectively. The findings in this study provide a promising electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors, and possibly break a new path toward MOF material synthesis in a cost-effective way but with outstanding charge storage capability.

In this work, YVO4: Eu3+ phosphors with and without Ba2+ doping (having the formula of Y1-x-y (EuxBay)VO4) were prepared by the high-temperature solid-state reaction method, and their photoluminescence and relevant physical mechanism were studied. A large enhancement in the photoluminescence of the YVO4: Eu3+ phosphors by Ba2+ doping has been observed. When the Ba2+ doping concentration is at 3 at%, the YVO4: Eu3+ phosphors have the strongest photoluminescence. It has been found that the Ba2+ doping extends the luminescence decay lifetimes of YVO4: Eu3+. In addition, the Ba2+ doping also makes the charge transfer state absorption band of VO43− blue shifted and widens the 5D0→7F2 emission of Eu3+. The underlying mechanism for these results has been investigated using the first principles calculations. It has been shown that the Ba2+ doping increases the bandgap value of YVO4 and causes the energy level of the Eu-d orbit to split, and the individual atomic orbitals move toward higher energy after Ba2+ doping. A higher energy transfer efficiency from VO43− to Eu3+ has been predicted by the first principles calculations. The theoretical calculation results explain the photoluminescence enhancement of YVO4: Eu3+ by Ba2+ doping, and the mechanism has been revealed.

First-principles calculation, quasi-harmonic approximation and thermal electronic excitation have been combined to examine ideal strengths and thermodynamic properties of W and W-Re alloys. It is found that the ideal tensile and shear strengths of W are decreased due to Re alloying, with the easy cleavage plane of both W and W-Re alloys found in (100) plane. Moreover, the derived temperature-dependent elastic properties explain the “Re softening effect”, and provide a deep understanding of the ductility of W-Re alloys as a function of the temperature. The results also reveal that Re alloying significantly increases the ductility of W, which is rare at low temperature in the temperature range 0−2000 K. The calculated results agree well with similar experimental observations in the literatures, and could explore their fundamental properties as well as various potential applications.