Search

Background: COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. It is transmitted either directly through respiratory droplets or indirectly through contacting contaminated surfaces objects. Dental offices can carry the risk of disease transmission owing to the generation of aerosol and droplets. Objective: The current study aims to assess parental attitude toward children’s dental treatment and care during the current COVID-19 Pandemic. Method: A web- based questionnaire was created on 15th of June 2020 using Google forms application and the link was circulated through social media. 267 parent having children less than 16 years old responded. The collected data were then statistically analyzed. The Main outcome measure was to assess how comfortable parents are about their children dental visit during COVID-19 Pandemic. Results: 12(4.49%) of the parents included in the survey were totally comfortable with children’s dental visit for both regular check-up and non-emergency dental treatment, 35(13.11%) were totally comfortable with emergency dental treatment. 17(6.37%), 24(8.99%) and 58(21.72%) were somewhat comfortable, 40(14.98%), 47(17.60%) and 78(29.21%) were somewhat uncomfortable, 185(69.29%), 173(64.79%) and 89(33.33%) were totally uncomfortable with regular check-ups, non- emergency, and emergency dental treatment respectively. Conclusion: Most of the Parents are reluctant to seek children’s dental treatment during this pandemic, even in cases of emergency and still unaware of the measures and precautions implemented by dental health care workers to stop COVID-19 transmission through dental offices. Portals like social media, specialized medical sites or official health ministry website and official television may be utilized to spread reassurance between the parents urging them to resume their child’s dental care visits. Clinical Significance of the Manuscript: We think this study is significant to shed the light on parental worries and concerns regarding their children dental treatment during the current Covid 19- Pandemic. By knowing parental worries and concerns, dental health care professional will be able to address these worries and implement additional safety measures to reassure parents, helping in continuity of their children dental care, resulting in overall improvement of children oral and dental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed intelligence involving a large number of smart sensors and edge computing are highly demanded under the backdrop of increasing cyber‐physical interactive applications including internet of things. Here, the progresses on ferroelectric materials and their enabled devices promising energy autonomous sensors and smart systems are reviewed, starting with an analysis on the basic characteristics of ferroelectrics, including high dielectric permittivity, switchable spontaneous polarization, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and bulk photovoltaic effects. As sensors, ferroelectrics can directly convert the stimuli to signals without requiring external power supply in principle. As energy transducers, ferroelectrics can harvest multiple forms of energy with high reliability and durability. As capacitors, ferroelectrics can directly store electrical charges with high power and ability of pulse‐mode signal generation. Nonvolatile memories derived from ferroelectrics are able to realize digital processors and systems with ultralow power consumption, sustainable operation with intermittent power supply, and neuromorphic computing. An emphasis is made on the utilization of the multiple extraordinary functionalities of ferroelectrics to enable material‐critical device innovations. The ferroelectric characteristics and synergistic functionality combinations are invaluable for realizing distributed sensors and smart systems with energy autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally based on phenomenological observations, the Janovec–Kay–Dunn (JKD) scaling law has been historically used to describe the dependence of the ferroelectric coercive fields (Ec) on a critical length scale of the material, wherein the film thickness (t) is considered the length scale, and Ec ∝ t−2/3. Here, for the first time, a JKD‐type scaling behavior is reported in an antiferroelectric material, using the ultra‐thin films of prototypical flourite‐structure binary oxide, zirconia. In these films, a decrease in the ZrO2 layer thickness from 20 nm to 5.4 nm leads to an increase in critical fields for both nonpolar‐to‐polar (Ea), and polar‐to‐nonpolar (Ef) transitions, accompanied by a decrease in the average crystallite size, and an increase in the tetragonal distortion of the non‐polar P42/nmc ground state structure. Notably, the ‐2/3 power law as in the JKD law holds when average crystallite size (d), measured from glancing‐incident X‐ray diffraction, is considered as the critical length scale—i.e., Ea, Ef ∝ d−2/3. First principles calculations suggest that the increase of tetragonality in thinner films contributes to an increase of the energy barrier for the transition from the non‐polar tetragonal ground state to the field‐induced polar orthorhombic phase, and in turn, an increase in Ea critical fields. These results suggest a de‐stabilization of the ferroelectric phase with a decreasing thickness in antiferroelectric ZrO2, which is contrary to the observations in its fluorite‐structure ferroelectric counterparts. With the recent interests in utilizing antiferroelectricity for advanced semiconductor applications, our fundamental exposition of the thickness dependence of functional responses therein can accelerate the development of miniaturized, antiferroelectric electronic memory elements for the complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor based high‐volume manufacturing platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Ultra-High Density Memory b Antiferroelectric oxides are a promising candidate for next-generation, ultra-high density memory technologies. In article 2100485, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, Asif Islam Khan, and colleagues show that the critical polar - antipolar transition voltages in prototypical fluorite-structured antiferroelectric ZrO SB 2 sb thin films show a -2/3 power law dependence on the average crystallite size, in analogy to the Janovec-Kay-Dunn Law for ferroelectrics. A Janovec-Kay-Dunn-Like Behavior at Thickness Scaling in Ultra-Thin Antiferroelectric ZrO2 Films (Adv. [Extracted from the article]

Lead-free potassium and sodium niobate (KNN) nanofiber webs with random and aligned configurations were prepared by the electrospinning process from polymer-modified chemical solution. The crystallization process, structure, composition, dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of the nanofibers and nanofiber webs were investigated. Theoretical analysis and experimental results showed that the surface-induced heterogeneous nucleation resulted in the remarkable lower crystallization temperature for the KNN nanofibers with the {100} orientation of the perovskite phase in contrast to the bulk KNN gel and thus well-controlled chemical stoichiometry. Low dielectric loss, large electric polarization, and high piezoelectric performance were obtained in the nanofiber webs. In particular, the aligned nanofiber web exhibited further improved piezoelectric strain and voltage coefficients and higher FOM than their thin film counterparts and is promising for high-performance electromechanical sensor and transducer applications.