A high-efficiency multimode Li-ion battery charger with variable current source and controlling previous-stage supply voltage is presented in this paper. Using variable current source can achieve the ...goal of constant-current mode to charge the battery and control previous-stage supply voltage which could increase the efficiency of the multimode battery charger. Moreover, the charging mode adopted in this charger is applied by two types of dual-mode strategy decided by the value of the equivalent series resistance of the Li-ion battery. This technique will reduce the damage of Li-ion battery. The Li-ion battery charger is designed with 0.35-mum CMOS double-poly four-metal processes. The experimental results show that the charger works well and the theoretical analysis can be confirmed. The average power efficiency of the multimode Li-Ion battery charger can be up to 91.2% under the average power of 1.24 W, and the accuracy of the adaptive reference voltage is up to 97.3%. The chip area is only 1.32 times 0.95 mm 2 .
Continuous‐wave (CW) room‐temperature (RT) laser operation with low energy consumption is an ultimate goal for electrically driven lasers. A monolithically integrated perovskite laser in a chip‐level ...fiber scheme is ideal. However, because of the well‐recognized air and thermal instabilities of perovskites, laser action in a perovskite has mostly been limited to either pulsed or cryogenic‐temperature operations. Most CW laser operations at RT have had poor durability. Here, crystal fibers that have robust and high‐heat‐load nature are shown to be the key to enabling the first demonstration of ultralow‐threshold CW RT laser action in a compact, monolithic, and inexpensive crystal fiber/nanoperovskite hybrid architecture that is directly pumped with a 405 nm diode laser. Purcell‐enhanced light–matter coupling between the atomically smooth fiber microcavity and the perovskite nanocrystallites gain medium enables a high Q (≈1500) and a high β (0.31). This 762 nm laser outperforms previously reported structures with a record‐low threshold of 132 nW and an optical‐to‐optical slope conversion efficiency of 2.93%, and it delivers a stable output for CW and RT operation. These results represent a significant advancement toward monolithic all‐optical integration.
Purcell‐enhanced light–matter coupling between an atomically smooth fiber microcavity and perovskite gain nanocrystallites enables a high Q (≈1500) and a high β (0.31), outperforming previously reported structures with a 132 nW record‐low threshold. This is thought to be the first demonstration of monolithic integration of a perovskite laser into a compact and inexpensive fiber platform.
Objective
To evaluate Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) infection risk in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Taiwan.
Methods
We identified 24,367 patients with SLE from the ...National Health Insurance research database between 1997 and 2012 and compared the PJP incidence rates (IRs) with those in 243,670 age‐ and sex‐matched non‐SLE controls. PJP risk in the patients was evaluated using a Cox multivariate proportional hazards model.
Results
The SLE patients exhibited a significantly higher PJP risk than the controls, with an IR of 2.63 per 10,000 person‐years and IR ratio of 27.65 (95% confidence interval 17.2–45.3; P < 0.001). Male sex (hazard ratio HR 2.42, P < 0.01), end‐stage renal disease (ESRD; HR 1.74, P = 0.01), recent use of mycofenolate mofetil (MMF; HR 4.43, P < 0.001), intravenous steroid pulse therapy (HR 108.73, P < 0.001), and average oral dosage of >7.5 mg/day prednisolone or equivalent treatment (HR 4.83, P < 0.001) were associated with PJP in SLE, whereas hydroxychloroquine use reduced its risk (HR 0.51, P = 0.01). Of note, cyclophosphamide was not associated with PJP infection in the multivariate Cox proportional hazard model.
Conclusion
Patients with SLE have a considerably high PJP risk. Cyclophosphamide does not increase PJP risk. Male sex, ESRD, MMF use, intravenous steroid pulse therapy, and oral prednisolone or equivalent treatment (>7.5 mg/day) are risk factors for PJP, whereas hydroxychloroquine use reduces PJP risk.
Objective
Phthalates induce inflammation and are ubiquitously used in daily life. We aim to study the impact of di‐(2‐ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) exposure on inflammation and osteoporosis in ...premenopausal and postmenopausal females.
Methods
Female 8‐week‐old C57BL/6JNarl mice received an ovariectomy (OVX) or a sham operation and were fed with DEHP or vehicle by oral gavage for 4 or 8 weeks. Their femurs were isolated for micro‐computed tomography, and their serum was collected for inflammatory cytokine assays. Correlations between urinary phthalate metabolites and the lumbar spine bone mineral density (BMD) in premenopausal and postmenopausal volunteers were performed.
Results
Among the OVX mice treated for 4 weeks, significant lower bone volume, bone volume/tissue volume, and trabecular number but significant higher trabecular bone pattern factor and structure model index were identified in the mice treated with DEHP than with vehicle. The OVX mice treated with DEHP for 4 weeks had significantly higher serum interleukin (IL)‐1β, IL‐10, IL‐17A, interferon (IFN)‐γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)‐α, and Dickkopf‐1 levels than those treated with vehicle. The sham mice treated with DEHP for 8 weeks showed an impaired femur trabecular microstructure and had significantly higher serum IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐10, IL‐17A, IFN‐γ, and TNF‐α than those treated with vehicle. DEHP metabolites were inversely correlated with the BMD of premenopausal women and the T‐score of postmenopausal women.
Conclusion
DEHP treatment in OVX and sham mice results in osteoporosis and impairs the microstructure of the femur trabecula through inflammation. Phthalate exposure negatively affects the bone mass in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Thus, long‐term avoidance is suggested.
Sol–gel-processed nickel oxide (NiO
x
) is a promising hole transport layer (HTL) for inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because of its excellent carrier transport properties, low costs, and high ...stability. Annealing temperature plays a vital role in the sol–gel process as different temperatures can alter the physicochemical properties of the materials. In the present study, we investigated the effect of annealing temperature on NiO
x
thin films prepared through sol–gel processing from predominantly used precursors: (1) nickel acetate tetrahydrate (Ni-ac) and (2) nickel acetylacetonate (Ni-acac). X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that the crystallinity and stoichiometry of both NiO
x
thin films improve with an increase in annealing temperature, indicating the formation of a standard Ni–O octahedral in a cubic rock NiO structure. Higher annealing temperatures have been shown to improve film optical transparency and electrical conductivity due to the complete decomposition of precursors and improved crystallinity. The device characterization has shown both films can work as an effective HTL for PSCs and showed the best device performance for films annealed at 400 °C. It is believed that this study can provide a basic understanding and strategy for developing highly efficient NiO
x
HTL in PSCs.
Two–dimensional (2D) 4H‐polytype tin disulfide (SnS2) flakes are synthesized using the chemical vapor transport technique. The weak Van der Waals force between the 2D SnS2 layers offers an easy ...exfoliation of flakes down to a bilayer of thickness ≈2.02 (±0.1) nm using a mechanical exfoliation technique. The optical and field effect transistor (FET) characteristics of the exfoliated 2D 4H‐SnS2 layers are studied. The exfoliated layers are used to fabricate the ≈13‐layered SnS2 FET. The 4H‐SnS2 exhibits a high on/off ratio of ≈106 and mobility ≈1–4 cm2 V−1 s−1. The low mobility of the 4H‐SnS2 FET devices shows an insulating state concordant with the 2D Motts variable range hopping mechanism at varying temperatures. Moreover, it is found that the optical bandgap of the 2D SnS2 single‐crystal layers is largely widened for the bilayers and tri‐layers. The optical bandgap energies vary in the range of 2.56–1.99 eV. The significant alteration in bandgap energies of ≈0.57 eV offers downscaling of the 2D nanoscale semiconducting devices. Such layer‐sensitive changes in optical transmittance, absorbance, and bandgap energies are reflected in Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity, showing the distinct color of transmittance through various 2D 4H‐SnS2 layers.
Layer‐dependent optical modulation and field‐effecttransistor (FET) characteristics in two–dimensional (2D) 4H‐SnS2 are investigated. The ≈13 layered 4H‐SnS2 FETs show a high mobility (1–4 cm2 V−1 S−1) and on/off ratio (106). The high transmittance (90%) in bi‐layer 4H‐SnS2 and a distinctive layer‐dependent optical modulation sensible to human eyes can be potentially useful in nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices.
Detecting changes in land use and land cover (LULC) from space has long been the main goal of satellite remote sensing (RS), yet the existing and available algorithms for cloud classification are not ...reliable enough to attain this goal in an automated fashion. Clouds are very strong optical signals that dominate the results of change detection if they are not removed completely from imagery. As various architectures of deep learning (DL) have been proposed and advanced quickly, their potential in perceptual tasks has been widely accepted and successfully applied to many fields. A comprehensive survey of DL in RS has been reviewed, and the RS community has been suggested to be leading researchers in DL. Based on deep residual learning, semantic image segmentation, and the concept of atrous convolution, we propose a new DL architecture, named CloudNet, with an enhanced capability of feature extraction for classifying cloud and haze from Sentinel-2 imagery, with the intention of supporting automatic change detection in LULC. To ensure the quality of the training dataset, scene classification maps of Taiwan processed by Sen2cor were visually examined and edited, resulting in a total of 12,769 sub-images with a standard size of 224 × 224 pixels, cut from the Sen2cor-corrected images and compiled in a trainset. The data augmentation technique enabled CloudNet to have stable cirrus identification capability without extensive training data. Compared to the traditional method and other DL methods, CloudNet had higher accuracy in cloud and haze classification, as well as better performance in cirrus cloud recognition. CloudNet will be incorporated into the Open Access Satellite Image Service to facilitate change detection by using Sentinel-2 imagery on a regular and automatic basis.
Introduction:
Infections are a leading cause of mortality in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Among various infections, invasive fungal infections (IFIs) have a particularly high ...mortality rate; however, studies examining IFIs in patients with SLE are limited.
Methods:
Patients diagnosed as having SLE between 1997 and 2012 were enrolled from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database along with age- and sex-matched non-SLE controls at a ratio of 1:10. IFIs were identified based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes and validated by the prescriptions of systemic antifungal agents. The incidence rate (IR), incidence rate ratio (IRR), and all-cause mortality rate of IFIs and its subtypes were analyzed. A Cox multivariate regression model with time-dependent covariates was applied to analyze independent risk factors for IFIs.
Results:
A total of 24,541 patients with SLE and 245,410 non-SLE controls were included. We observed 445 IFI episodes in the SLE cohort, with an all-cause mortality rate of 26.7%. Candida spp. (52.8%) was the most common pathogen, followed by Cryptococcus spp. (18.2%) and Aspergillus spp. (18.2%). The IR of IFIs in the SLE cohort was 20.83 per 10,000 person-years, with an IRR of 11.1 95% confidence interval (CI): 9.8–12.6 relative to the non-SLE controls. Juvenile patients with SLE aged ⩽18 years had the highest IRR of 47.2 (95% CI: 26.9–86.8). Intravenous steroid therapy administered within 60 days (hazard ratio: 29.11, 95% CI: 23.30–36.37) was the most critical risk factor for overall IFIs and each of the three major fungal pathogens. Distinct risk factors were found among different IFI subtypes.
Conclusion:
Patients with SLE had a higher risk of IFIs, especially juvenile patients. Intravenous steroid therapy is the most critical risk factor for IFIs. This study provides crucial information for the risk stratification of IFIs in SLE.
Plain Language Summaries
Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and physicians treating this patient group should be aware of the risk of invasive fungal infections.
Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) are a severe complication with a high mortality rate among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE); however, studies on this topic are scant. We performed a nationwide population-based study in Taiwan to estimate the incidence and mortality of and risk factors for IFIs. We found an incidence rate of 20.83 per 10,000 person-years for IFIs, with a mortality rate of 26.7%. Juvenile patients aged ⩽18 years had the highest relative risk of IFIs. Although candidiasis was the most common IFI, cryptococcosis and aspergillosis should be concerned in juvenile patients as well. Intravenous steroid therapy was the most critical risk factor for all IFIs, and different immunosuppressive agents posed different risks in patients for acquiring certain fungal pathogens.
Our findings provide pivotal epidemiological information and indicate risk factors for IFIs in patients with SLE. Age and exposure to specific immunosuppressants and steroids might help predict the risk of IFIs. Because the manifestation of these infections is sometimes indistinguishable from a lupus flare, physicians should be aware of this fatal complication, especially when patients are not responsive to immunosuppressive therapy. Early recognition, implication of diagnostic tools, and empirical antimicrobial agents can be the key to treating patients with IFIs. Additional studies are required to develop a risk management program for patients with SLE.
The metal-semiconductor heterojunction is imperative for the realization of electrically driven nanolasers for chip-level platforms. Progress in developing such nanolasers has hitherto rarely been ...realized, however, because of their complexity in heterojunction fabrication and the need to use noble metals that are incompatible with microelectronic manufacturing. Most plasmonic nanolasers lase either above a high threshold (10
-10
MW cm
) or at a cryogenic temperature, and lasing is possible only after they are removed from the substrate to avoid the large ohmic loss and the low modal reflectivity, making monolithic fabrication impossible. Here, for the first time, record-low-threshold, room-temperature ultraviolet (UV) lasing of plasmon-coupled core-shell nanowires that are directly grown on silicon is demonstrated. The naturally formed core-shell metal-semiconductor heterostructure of the nanowires leads to a 100-fold improvement in growth density over previous results. This unprecedentedly high nanowire density creates intense plasmonic resonance, which is outcoupled to the resonant Fabry-Pérot microcavity. By boosting the emission strength by a factor of 100, the hybrid photonic-plasmonic system successfully facilitates a record-low laser threshold of 12 kW cm
with a spontaneous emission coupling factor as high as ≈0.32 in the 340-360 nm range. Such architecture is simple and cost-competitive for future UV sources in silicon integration.
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