Search

Cushing syndrome (CS) is a rare disease caused by hypercortisolemia. Although surgical treatment is the first-line treatment in CS, the appropriate medication for the patient’s condition should be selected when medical treatment is needed. Etomidate is an adrenal-blocking drug used to treat CS and the most suitable for severe hypercortisolemia and adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), due to cardiovascular stability and an anti-tumorigenic effect. However, its use and safe recommended dosage in infants with CS is unreported. Here we describe the case of a 2-month-old girl treated with etomidate for CS caused by ACC. Even though radical mass excision was performed, severe hypercortisolemia persisted, resulting from metastatic lesions in the liver, and medical treatment was considered. The etomidate doses, no bolus dose and infusion rate of 0.03 mg/kg/hour, may be an appropriate dose for severe hypercortisolemia in infants. This case will help determine future treatment strategies for similar cases in infants.

Effective channel control with low contact resistance can be accomplished through selective ion implantation in Si and III-V semiconductor technologies; however, this approach cannot be adopted for ultrathin van der Waals materials. Herein, we demonstrate a self-aligned fabrication process based on self-terminated p-doping and layer-by-layer chemical etching to achieve low contact resistance as well as a high on/off current ratio in ultrathin tungsten diselenide (WSe

Multi-functionality plays a decisive role in tuning and improving fundamental properties of active molecules, and grafting polymerization/conjugation development imparts properties of active molecules to the backbones. Recently, metal-polyphenol coordination networks have attracted a great deal of attention. A variety of transition metal ions can freely combine with catechol/keto-enol containing polyphenols to form metal-polyphenol networks. Herein, the recently studied conjugated polyphenols were summarized and compared to dopamine-conjugated polymers with evaluation of their properties and gelation behaviors. The biomimetic understanding of bioinspired adhesion, metal ion coordination of hydroxyl groups, and their rearrangement within aglycone could expand the ability for the development of biomimetic, eco-friendly, and biocompatible polymers.

β-Ga2O3, an emerging ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor, offers promising properties for next-generation power electronics, chemical sensors, and solar-blind optoelectronics. Scaling down of β-Ga2O3 to the atomic level affords the advantages of two-dimensional (2D) materials, while maintaining the inherent properties of the parent bulk counterpart. Here, we demonstrate a simple approach to synthesize ultrathin millimeter-size β-Ga2O3 sheets using a liquid gallium squeezing technique. The GaOx nanolayer produced by stamping liquid gallium under the Cabrera–Mott oxidation was converted into few-atom-thick β-Ga2O3 via thermal annealing under atmospheric conditions. This approach was also applied to various substrates such as SiO2, Si, graphene, quartz, and sapphire to heteroepitaxially synthesize 2D β-Ga2O3 on a target substrate. Finally, we propose a patterning strategy combining the squeezing technique with conventional lithography to obtain a β-Ga2O3 layer with a controllable thickness and shape. Our synthetic method has the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional β-Ga2O3 growth methods, paving a path for applications in UWBG-based (opto-)electronics with a high throughput in a cost-effective manner.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has an ultra-wide bandgap energy of 6.2 eV and is resistant to chemical etching owing to its high chemical stability, making it intractable in the device fabrication process. We developed a facile method of electrochemical (EC) etching of a high-quality AlN epitaxial layer, where both spatial selectivity and a controllable etch rate were achieved. Underneath porous metal electrodes, the lateral etch rate increased with the increasing external anodic bias, from 400 nm/min at 5 V to 700 nm/min at 15 V. Nonporous metal electrodes protected the AlN from etching in hot H3PO4, enabling the spatial selectivity. The high EC etch rate is attributed to the enhanced hole-assisted oxidation at the interface between the AlN and the etchant. The etch pit formed by EC etching exhibited an inverse hexagonal pyramid structure with {1 0 –1 −1} face. As an alternative to dry etching, our method can be applied to the low-damage patterning of AlN with a controllable etch rate.