High relative contact electrical resistance and poor flexibility in inorganic thin‐film thermoelectric devices significantly limit their practical applications. To overcome this challenge, a one‐step ...thermal diffusion method to fabricate assembly‐free inorganic thin‐film thermoelectric devices is developed, where the in situ grown electrode delivers an excellent leg‐electrode contact, leading to high output power and flexibility in the prepared p‐type Sb2Te3/n‐type Bi2Te3 thin‐film device, which is composed of 8 pairs of p‐n junctions. Such a device shows a very low relative contact electrical resistance of 7.5% and a high power density of 1.42 mW cm–2 under a temperature difference of 60 K. Less than 10% change of the whole electrical resistance before and after bending test indicates the robust bending resistance and stability of the device. This study indicates that the novel assembly‐free one‐step thermal diffusion method can effectively enhance the leg‐electrode contact, the device thermoelectric performance, bending resistance, and stability, which can inspire the development of thin‐film thermoelectric devices.
In this study, highly flexible inorganic thin‐films device through one‐step thermal diffusion synthesis process is successfully prepared. It secures good contact between the electrodes and the thermoelectric legs through in situ growth of the electrode, together with the highly crystallized Sb2Te3 and Bi2Te3 thermoelectric legs, contributing to ultralow relative contact resistance and high thermoelectric device performance.
•Review covers current state-of-the-art of PAA-based AOPs.•Various methods of PAA activation as well as their activation mechanisms are summarized.•PAA-based AOPs hold great promise for applications ...in contaminant degradation.•UV/PAA is the most promising technology for water disinfection among PAA-based AOPs.•Existing problems, challenges and solutions for research in PAA-based AOPs are discussed.
Peracetic acid (PAA) has attracted growing attention as an alternative oxidant and disinfectant in wastewater treatment due to the increased demand to reduce chlorine usage and control disinfection byproducts (DBPs). These applications have stimulated new investigations on PAA-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which can enhance water disinfection and remove micropollutants. The purpose of this review is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of scientific information and experimental data reported in recent years on the applications of PAA-based AOPs for the removal of chemical and microbiological micropollutants from water and wastewater. Various methods of PAA activation, including the supply of external energy and metal/metal-free catalysts, as well as their activation mechanisms are discussed. Then, a review on the usage of PAA-based AOPs for contaminant degradation is given. The degradation mechanisms of organic compounds and the influence of the controlling parameters of PAA-based treatment systems are summarized and discussed. Concurrently, the application of PAA-based AOPs for water disinfection and the related mechanisms of microorganism inactivation are also reviewed. Since combining UV light with PAA is the most commonly investigated PAA-based AOP for simultaneous pathogen inactivation and micropollutant oxidation, we have also focused on PAA microbial inactivation kinetics, together with the effects of key experimental parameters on the process. Moreover, we have discussed the advantages and disadvantages of UV/PAA as an AOP against the well-known and established UV/H2O2. Finally, the knowledge gaps, challenges, and new opportunities for research in this field are discussed. This critical review will facilitate an in-depth understanding of the PAA-based AOPs for water and wastewater treatment and provide useful perspectives for future research and development for PAA-based technologies.
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Flexible Bi2Te3‐based thermoelectric devices can function as power generators for powering wearable electronics or chip‐sensors for internet‐of‐things. However, the unsatisfied performance of n‐type ...Bi2Te3 flexible thin films significantly limits their wide application. In this study, a novel thermal diffusion method is employed to fabricate n‐type Te‐embedded Bi2Te3 flexible thin films on flexible polyimide substrates, where Te embeddings can be achieved by tuning the thermal diffusion temperature and correspondingly result in an energy filtering effect at the Bi2Te3/Te interfaces. The energy filtering effect can lead to a high Seebeck coefficient ≈160 µV K−1 as well as high carrier mobility of ≈200 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room‐temperature. Consequently, an ultrahigh room‐temperature power factor of 14.65 µW cm−1 K−2 can be observed in the Te‐embedded Bi2Te3 flexible thin films prepared at the diffusion temperature of 623 K. A thermoelectric sensor is also assembled through integrating the n‐type Bi2Te3 flexible thin films with p‐type Sb2Te3 counterparts, which can fast reflect finger‐touch status and demonstrate the applicability of as‐prepared Te‐embedded Bi2Te3 flexible thin films. This study indicates that the thermal diffusion method is an effective way to fabricate high‐performance and applicable flexible Te‐embedded Bi2Te3‐based thin films.
In this study, flexible n‐type Bi2Te3‐based thin‐films are successfully prepared through facile thermal diffusion method and further induce Te/Bi2Te3 heterojunctions and energy filtering effect at the Te/Bi2Te3 interfaces to optimize the thermoelectric performance through tuning the diffusion temperature.
Abstract
Background
The triglyceride-glucose index (TyG index) has been regarded as a reliable alternative marker of insulin resistance and an independent predictor of cardiovascular outcomes. ...Whether the TyG index predicts adverse cardiovascular events in patients with diabetes and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the TyG index in patients with diabetes and ACS.
Methods
A total of 2531 consecutive patients with diabetes who underwent coronary angiography for ACS were enrolled in this study. Patients were divided into tertiles according to their TyG index. The primary outcomes included the occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), defined as all-cause death, non-fatal myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke. The TyG index was calculated as the ln (fasting triglyceride level mg/dL × fasting glucose level mg/dL/2).
Results
The incidence of MACE increased with TyG index tertiles at a 3-year follow-up. The Kaplan–Meier curves showed significant differences in event-free survival rates among TyG index tertiles (P = 0.005). Multivariate Cox hazards regression analysis revealed that the TyG index was an independent predictor of MACE (95% CI 1.201–1.746; P < 0.001). The optimal TyG index cut-off for predicting MACE was 9.323 (sensitivity 46.0%; specificity 63.6%; area under the curve 0.560; P = 0.001). Furthermore, adding the TyG index to the prognostic model for MACE improved the C-statistic value (P = 0.010), the integrated discrimination improvement value (P = 0.001) and the net reclassification improvement value (P = 0.019).
Conclusions
The TyG index predicts future MACE in patients with diabetes and ACS independently of known cardiovascular risk factors, suggesting that the TyG index may be a useful marker for risk stratification and prognosis in patients with diabetes and ACS.
This paper proposes a novel method for ship detection and discrimination in complex background from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. It first implements a pixel-level land-sea segmentation with ...the aid of a global 250-m water mask. Then, an efficient multiscale constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector with generalized Gamma distribution clutter model is designed to detect candidate targets in the sea. At last, eigenellipse discrimination and maximum-likelihood (ML) discrimination are designed to further exclude false alarm nonship objects in nearshore and harbor area. The proposed land-sea segmentation method is compared with multilevel Otsu method. The proposed multiscale ship detector is compared with conventional CFAR detectors. These contrast experiments show the good performance of our method. Finally, experiments undertaken on actual ALOS-2 SAR data show the efficacy of the proposed approach in detecting nearshore ship targets in a complex coastal environment.
Owing to the earth-abundancy, eco-friendliness and high thermoelectric performance, CoSb3 skutterudites have been employed in thermoelectric devices with a high energy conversion efficiency. However, ...the thermoelectric performance of CoSb3-based thin films is still relatively low within the medium temperature range. In this work, we report a record high ZT of ~0.65 at 623 K in the n-type Ag/In co-doped CoSb3 thin films, fabricated by a facile magnetron sputtering technique. Extensive characterizations and computational results indicate both Ag and In as fillers prefer to occupy the interstitial sites in the CoSb3 lattice. A 0.2% Ag doping induces impurity states in the band structure of CoSb3, boosts the density-of-states near the Fermi level and enhances the absolute Seebeck coefficient up to ~198 μV K−1. Simultaneously, a 4.2% In doping further tunes the bandgap, increases the electrical conductivity up to ~75 S cm−1, and contributes to an optimized power factor of ~2.94 μW cm−1 K−2 at 623 K. In addition, these interstitial dopants accompanying with dense grain boundaries contribute an ultra-low thermal conductivity of ~0.28 W m−1 K−1 at 623 K, leading to a high ZT in the film system. This work demonstrates that rational band engineering and structural manipulations can achieve high performance in n-type CoSb3-based thin films, which possess full potential for applying to miniature thermoelectric devices.
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•A record high ZT of ~0.65 at 623 K is achieved in the n-type CoSb3 thin films.•Both Ag and In prefer to occupy the interstitial sites in the CoSb3 lattice.•Ag induces impurity states in the band structure, and In further tunes the bandgap.•Interstitial dopants with dense grain boundaries contribute ultra-low thermal conductivities.•Strengthened mechanical properties were realized by Ag/In co-doping.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive cancers. Recent research has demonstrated that chronic pancreatitis (CP) is associated with an increased risk of PDAC, partly due ...to acinar‐to‐ductal metaplasia (ADM). Baicalein has been shown to exert anti‐inflammatory and anti‐tumor effects for CP or PDAC, respectively. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of baicalein, and the putative underlying mechanism, on inflammatory cytokines‐induced ADM of rat pancreatic acinar cell line AR42J. To investigate ADM and baicalein effects in vitro, AR42J were treated with recombinant rat Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (rTNFα) with or without baicalein for 5 days. Results showed that rTNFα‐induced AR42J cells switched their phenotype from dominantly amylase‐positive acinar cells to dominantly cytokeratin 19‐positive ductal cells. Moreover, expression of the transcripts for TNFα or Hes‐1, a Notch target, was up‐regulated in these cells. Interestingly, baicalein reduced the population of ADM as well as cytokines gene expression but not Hes‐1. Baicalein inhibited NF‐κB activation induced by rTNFα in AR42J, but no effect on Notch 1activation. Moreover, baicalein suppressed the secretion of TNFα and Nitric Oxide (NO) in macrophages stimulated with LPS and further inhibited ADM of conditional medium‐treated AR42J cells. Baicalein also suppressed the inflammatory response of LPS‐activated macrophages, thereby inhibited ADM of AR42J by altering their microenvironment. Taken together, our study indicates that baicalein reduces rTNFα‐induced ADM of AR42J cells by inhibiting NF‐κB activation. It also sheds new light on Chinese material medica therapy of pancreatitis and thereby prevention of PDAC.
Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is associated with an increased risk of PDAC, partly due to acinar‐to‐ductal metaplasia (ADM). Baicalein, an active compound isolated from the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi, exert anti‐inflammatory and anti‐tumor effects for CP or PDAC. Our research showed that baicalein could suppress the acinar‐to ductal metaplasia (ADM) of pancreatic acinar cell AR42J via inhibition of NF‐κB activation. Furthermore, Baicalein also suppressed the inflammatory response of LPS‐activated macrophages, thereby inhibited ADM of AR42J through an altered microenvironment. Together, our study may provide new light on Chinese material medica therapy of pancreatitis and thereby prevention of PDAC.
The 1T-rich MoS2@PC materials were rationally constructed and evaluated as an efficient polysulfide promotor for high-performance Li-S batteries. The constructed 1T-rich MoS2 nanosheets not only have ...strong adsorption capacity for polysulfide, but also can catalyze the conversion of polysulfide rapidly.
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The practical applications of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have severely been hindered by notorious shuttle effect and sluggish redox kinetics of lithium polysulfide intermediates (LiPSs), which bring about rapid capacity degradation, low coulombic efficiency and poor cycling stability. In this work, 1T-rich MoS2 nanosheets are in-situ developed onto the conductive porous carbon matrix (1T-rich MoS2@PC) as efficient polysulfide promotors for high-performance Li-S batteries. The porous carbon skeleton tightly anchors MoS2 nanosheets to prevent their reaggregation and ensures accessible electrical channels, and at the same time provides a favorable confined space that promotes the generation of 1T-rich MoS2 structure. More importantly, the uniformly distributed metallic 1T-rich MoS2 nanosheets not only affords rich sulfphilic sites and high binding energy for immobilizing LiPSs, but also favors rapid electron transfer and LiPSs conversation kinetics, substantially regulating sulfur chemistry in working cells. Consequently, the Li-S cell assembled with 1T-rich MoS2@PC modified separator delivers a remarkable cycling stability with ultralow capacity decay rate of 0.067% over 500 cycles at 1C. Encouragingly, under harsh conditions (high sulfur loading of 4.78 mg cm−2 and low E/S ratio of 8 μL mg−1), a favorable electrochemical performance can still be demonstrated. This study highlights the profitable design of 1T-rich MoS2/carbon based electrocatalyst for suppressing shuttle effect and promoting catalytic conversation of LiPSs, and has the potential to be applied to in other energy storage systems.
ObjectivesOver the past decade, the incidence and global burden of coronary heart disease (CHD) have increased in the young population. We aimed to identify patient characteristics and risk factors ...for premature CHD, including single-vessel disease (SVD) and multivessel disease (MVD).DesignRetrospective, cross-sectional study.SettingDemographic and clinical data of patients with CHD were collected from the patient medical records of a tertiary hospital in Tianjin, China, between 2014 and 2017.ParticipantsA total of 2846 patients were enrolled in the study.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPremature CHD, which is the primary outcome, was defined as men<45 years and women<55 years. MVD, which is the secondary outcome, was defined as at least two vessels with ≥50% stenosis. Logistic regression models were applied to analyse the characteristics and risk factors of premature CHD and MVD.ResultsMost of the characteristics between patients with premature and mature CHD were not statistically significant. A significantly higher dyslipidaemia prevalence was found in female patients with premature CHD (OR=1.412, 95% CI: 1.029 to 1.936). In the crude model, instead of premature SVD, premature (OR=2.065, 95% CI: 1.426 to 2.991) or mature (OR=1.837, 95% CI: 1.104 to 3.056) MVD was more common in female patients with the highest triglyceride–glucose (TyG) index quartile than those with the lowest TyG index quartile. In male patients, the same trend was observed for mature MVD (OR=2.272, 95% CI: 1.312 to 3.937). The significance of the TyG index was not revealed in multivariate analyses; however, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking, old myocardial infarction and lipoprotein (a) showed a positive association with MVD.ConclusionsDyslipidaemia should be considered as an effective factor for the prediction and prevention of premature CHD in women. The TyG index can be a simple auxiliary indicator that can be used in population-based cardiovascular disease screening for the early identification of vascular disease severity.
Multi-view clustering based on graph learning has attracted extensive attention due to its simplicity and efficiency in recent years. However, there are still some issues in most of the existing ...graph-based multi-view clustering methods. First, most of those methods require post-processing such as K-means or spectral rotation to get the final discrete clustering result. Second, graph-based clustering methods perform clustering on a fixed input similarity graph, which could induce bad clustering results if the initial graph is with low quality. Third, these methods have high computation cost, which hinders them for dealing with large-scale data. In order to solve these problems, we propose a multi-view spectral clustering method via joint Adaptive Graph Learning and Matrix Factorization (AGLMF). In this method, to reduce computational cost, we adopt the anchor-based strategy to construct the input similarity graphs. Then, we use the l1-norm to learn a high quality similarity graph adaptively from original similarity graphs which can make the final graph more robust than original ones. In addition, AGLMF uses symmetric non-negative matrix factorization to learn the final clustering indicators which can show the final consistent clustering result directly. Finally, experimental results on multiple multi-view datasets validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm when compared with previous multi-view spectral clustering algorithms. The demo code of this work is publicly available at https://github.com/theywq/AGLMF.git.
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