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Ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors play an important role in numerous commercial and scientific applications. The UV photodetectors based on binary‐cation indium zinc oxide (InZnO) thin films exhibit great performance enhancement, compared with their single‐cation counterparts. However, UV photodetectors based on 1D InZnO nanowires could potentially exhibit more superior optoelectrical performance, due to the large surface‐to‐volume ratio and favorable carrier transport characteristics of nanowires. This work has combined combustion synthesis with electrospinning technique to efficiently fabricate InZnO nanowire‐based UV photodetectors. At the annealing temperature of 375 °C, the newly designed InZnO nanowire photodetectors exhibit excellent photoelectric performance under the irradiation of 310 nm UV light, including a photo‐to‐dark current ratio of 1.2 × 104, a photo responsivity of 2.8 × 103 A W–1, and a high detectivity of 2.4 × 1016 Jones. This study not only demonstrates the opportunity to construct new‐generation transparent electronics based on 1D metal oxide nanowires but also sheds new light on how to further decrease the annealing temperature of metal oxide nanowire devices for low‐temperature fabrication processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional metal-oxides (1D-MO) nanostructure has been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for high-performance photodetectors due to their outstanding electronic properties, low-cost and environmental stability. However, the current bottlenecks are high energy consumption and relatively low sensitivity. Here, Schottky junctions between nanotubes (NTs) and FTO were fabricated by electrospinning SnO2 NTs on FTO glass substrate, and the bias voltage of SnO2 NTs photodetectors was as low as ∼1.76 V, which can effectively reduce energy consumption. Additionally, for improving the response and recovery speed of SnO2 NTs photodetectors, the NTs were covered with organic/inorganic hybrid perovskite. SnO2 NTs/perovskite heterostructure photodetectors exhibit fast response/recovery speed (∼0.075/0.04 s), and a wide optical response range (∼220–800 nm). At the same time, the bias voltage of heterostructure photodetectors was further reduced to 0.42 V. The outstanding performance is mainly attributed to the formation of type-II heterojunctions between SnO2 NTs and perovskite, which can facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers, as well as Schottky junction between SnO2 NTs and FTO, which reduce the bias voltage. All the results indicate that the rational design of 1D-MO/perovskite heterostructure is a facile and efficient way to achieve high-performance photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although SnO2 nanofibers (NFs) are one of the good candidates as active materials for next-generation consumable electronics, these NFs based devices still suffer from insufficient on-off current ratios, large and negative threshold voltages ($\text{V}_{\mathbf {TH}}$), leading to high energy consumption and rather complicated circuit design. Here, SnO2 NFs field-effect transistors (FET) were fabricated by an electrospinning technique. The device performance can be precisely manipulated by controlling the crystal grain size in the NFs. This is done by simply adjusting the annealing holding time to achieve high-performance enhancement mode. For the optimal annealing holding time of 60 min, the grain size of NFs is about 11 nm, and the devices exhibit the best electrical performance, including a small and positive VTH (≈ 2.2 V), a large switching current ratio (ION/IOFF ≥ 106), and proper carrier mobility ($\mu _{\text{FE}}$) (≈ 2.3 cm2 V−1 s−1). Moreover, this approach is universal and can be applied to optimize other metal oxide semiconductors such as ZnO NFs. This simple and facile method indicates that adjusting annealing holding time is a potential way to control the grain size to achieve low voltage operation and enhancement mode 1D metal oxide FETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium–sulfur batteries (LSBs) have shown great potential for application in high-density energy storage systems. However, the performance of LSBs is severely hindered by the shuttle effect and the sluggish reaction kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs). Here, a Janus Fe3C/N-CNF@RGO electrode consisting of a 1D Fe3C-decorated N-doped carbon nanofibers (Fe3C/N-CNFs) side and a 2D reduced graphene oxide (RGO) side was applied as a free-standing carrier for the Li2S6 catholyte to improve the overall electrochemical performance of LSBs. The Fe3C/N-CNF layer endows the cathode with strong chemisorption abilities for LiPSs and accelerated the redox kinetics via catalyzing the conversion of LiPSs. The 2D RGO sheets serve as a microscopic physical barrier and further resist the shuttling of LiPSs. Like a hunter's trap, behind the trap lies a net. Moreover, the 3D hierarchical conductive network based on 1D N-CNF and 2D RGO sheets enables fast electron transfer. Based on the synergetic effects of chemical immobilization, catalytic abilities, and a physical barrier in a 3D conductive network, LSBs with optimal Fe3C/N-CNF@RGO electrodes exhibit robust long-term cycling stability (a decay rate of only 0.0089% per cycle at 0.5C for 300 cycles), superior rate capabilities (821.7 mA h g−1 at 2.0C), and stable cycling performance at high sulfur loading (6.29 mg cm−2). This work defines an emerging viewpoint relating to the design of novel sulfur carriers with multiple synergistic effects for application in LSBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional nanostructured SnO2 has attracted intense research interest due to its advantageous properties, including a large surface-to-volume ratio, high optical transparency and typical n-type properties. However, how to fabricate high-performance and multifunctional electronic devices based on 1D nanostructured SnO2 via low-cost and efficient preparation techniques is still a huge challenge. In this work, a low-cost, one-step electrospun technology was employed to synthesize the SnO2 nanofiber (NF) and nanotube (NT) arrays. The electrical and photoelectrical parameters of SnO2 NTs-based devices were effectively controlled through simple changes to the amount of Sn in the precursor solution. The optimal 0.2 SnO2 NTs-based field effect transistors (FETs) with 0.2 g SnCl2*4H2O per 5 ml in the precursor solution exhibit a high saturation current (∼9 × 10−5 A) and a large on/off ratio exceeding 2.4 × 106. Additionally, 0.2 SnO2 NTs-based FET also exhibit a narrowband deep-UV photodetectivity (240–320 nm), including an ultra-high photocurrent of 307 μA, a high photosensitivity of 2003, responsibility of 214 A W−1 and detectivity of 2.19 × 1013 Jones. Furthermore, the SnO2 NTs-based transparent photodetectors were as well be integrated with fluorine-doped tin oxide glass and demonstrated a high optical transparency and photosensitivity (∼199). All these results elucidate the significant advantages of these electrospun SnO2 NTs for next-generation multifunctional electronics and transparent photonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose. This study is aimed at evaluating the clinicopathological features and prognostic significance of gastric outlet obstruction (GOO) in patients with distal gastric cancer. Methods. A retrospective review of 1564 individuals with distal gastric cancer from 2002 to 2010 was performed. In total, 157 patients had GOO. The clinicopathological features of the patients with GOO were compared with those of the patients without GOO. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard model were used to assess the overall survival. Results. The patients with distal gastric cancer with GOO generally presented more aggressive pathologic features, a poorer nutritional status, more duodenal infiltration, and peritoneal dissemination than those with cancer without GOO. In the univariate analysis, curability, GOO, age, prealbumin, albumin, hemoglobin (Hb), the tumor size, the macroscopic type, lymph node metastasis, and the depth of invasion had a statistically significant influence on prognosis. The multivariate analysis showed that curability, GOO, the tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and the depth of invasion were independent prognostic factors. Conclusions. Gastric cancer with GOO exhibits aggressive biological features and has poor outcomes. The multivariate analysis showed that curability, GOO, the tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and the depth of invasion were independent prognostic factors. The gastric outlet status should be considered in the selection of surgical treatment methods for patients with gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver segmentation from CT is regarded as a prerequisite for computer-assisted clinical applications. However, automatic liver segmentation technology still faces challenges due to the variable shapes and low contrast. In this paper, a patient-specific probabilistic atlas (PA)-based method combing modified distance regularized level set for liver segmentation is proposed. Firstly, the similarities between training atlases and testing patient image are calculated, resulting in a series of weighted atlas, which are used to generate the patient-specific PA. Then, a most likely liver region (MLLR) can be determined based on the patient-specific PA. Finally, the refinement is performed by the modified distance regularized level set model, which takes advantage of both edge and region information as balloon force. We evaluated our proposed scheme based on 35 public datasets, and experimental result shows that the proposed method can be deployed for robust and precise liver segmentation, to replace the tedious and time-consuming manual method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to propose a novel subclassification of pT4 gastric cancers according to the width of serosal changes and to investigate the validity and clinical utility of this subclassification as a predictor of prognosis. Methods: A total of 780 pT4 stage gastric cancer patients classified according to the 7th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system were reviewed. Clinicopathologic features were compared between patients with narrow serosal changes (nSE), wide serosal changes (wSE) and invasions of adjacent structures (SI). Prognostic factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. The 7th AJCC and novel pT4 subclassification were compared for prognostic performance using the linear trend chi-square test, likelihood ratio chi-square test, and Akaike information criterion (AIC) in the Cox regression analysis. Results: The appropriate serosa infiltrate cutoff value was 8 cm. Most of the evaluated clinicopathologic features significantly differed between nSE and SI cancers. Only 3 factors were significantly different between wSE and SI cancers. The 5-year survival rates for patients with the novel pT4a and pT4b cancers were 47.2% and 14.52%, respectively, while they were 41.66% and 16.34% for the 7th AJCC pT4a and pT4b cancers, respectively. The novel pT4 subclassification had better discriminatory ability, monotonicity of gradients, and homogeneity and had smaller AIC values compared with the 7th AJCC pT4. Conclusions: It is reasonable to subclassify pT4 to pT4a (nSE) and pT4b (wSE/SI) because the novel pT4 subclassification had more potential to identify the different prognoses for patients with gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered as one of the most promising energy storage devices owing to the high theoretical specific capacity and high theoretical specific energy, as well as natural abundance of sulfur. However, the soluble lithium polysulfide intermediates (LPSs) in electrolyte cause undesirable shuttle effect, resulting in the loss of sulfur and poor cycling stability. Herein, a novel tungsten oxide-decorated N, S co-doped carbon nanofibers (WO 3 @NS-CNFs) functional interlayer is applied to restrain the shuttle effect and enhance the cycling performance of LSBs. On the one hand, the uniformly distributed WO 3 can provide strong chemical anchoring sites for binding the LPSs and enhance the redox reaction kinetics. On the other hand, the NS-CNFs can also serve as the polysulfide trappers and enhance the electronic conductivity of sulfur electrodes. Therefore, benefiting from the synergy effect of WO 3 and NS-CNFs, the LSBs exhibit excellent cycling performance with a high initial capacity of 1444 mA h g−1 and reversible capacity of 1080 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C, and superior rate capability of 946 mA h g−1 at 2 C. Image 1 • A novel WO 3 @NS-CNFs interlayer is firstly applied as anchor of polysulfides. • Synergistic WO 3 @NS-CNFs can inhibit shuttle effect and enhance redox kinetics. • The LSBs with WO 3 @NS-CNFs interlayers show remarkable electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indium oxide nanofibers (In 2 O 3 NFs) are considered to be one of the possible channel materials for future electronic devices, however, these NFs devices suffer from low on/off current ratio (I on /I off), large negative threshold voltage (V TH), and high leakage current due to the excess carriers in NFs. A facile one-step electrospinning technique is employed to synthesize metal element (aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr) or gallium (Ga)) highly-doped In 2 O 3 NFs to both improve the electrical performance of the NFs field effect transistors (FETs) and reduce the consumption of indium. The devices exhibit optimal performance at 10 mol% doping concentration (Al, Cr and Ga): small and positive V TH (<6.0 V), large I on /I off (∼108), high saturation current (∼10−4 A), and decent carrier mobility (∼2.0 cm2/V−1s−1). When a high-k AlO x thin-film is employed as the gate dielectric for the NFs FETs (10 mol% Al–In 2 O 3 NFs), the gate voltage and drain voltage is reduced to 5 V and 3 V, respectively, and the μ fe is increased by 6X. Furthermore, 10 mol% Al–In 2 O 3 NFs FETs with enhancement-mode operation were integrated into highly efficient NMOS inverters. All the results indicate that the highly metal-doped In 2 O 3 NFs have practical application for next-generation low-cost, large-area, energy-efficient and high-performance nanoelectronic devices. Image 1 • A facile method to both improve the electrical performance of the NFs FETs and reduce the consumption of indium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional metal-oxides (1D-MO) nanostructure has been regarded as one of the most promising candidates for high-performance photodetectors due to their outstanding electronic properties, low-cost and environmental stability. However, the current bottlenecks are high energy consumption and relatively low sensitivity. Here, Schottky junctions between nanotubes (NTs) and FTO were fabricated by electrospinning SnO 2 NTs on FTO glass substrate, and the bias voltage of SnO 2 NTs photodetectors was as low as ∼1.76 V, which can effectively reduce energy consumption. Additionally, for improving the response and recovery speed of SnO 2 NTs photodetectors, the NTs were covered with organic/inorganic hybrid perovskite. SnO 2 NTs/perovskite heterostructure photodetectors exhibit fast response/recovery speed (∼0.075/0.04 s), and a wide optical response range (∼220-800 nm). At the same time, the bias voltage of heterostructure photodetectors was further reduced to 0.42 V. The outstanding performance is mainly attributed to the formation of type-II heterojunctions between SnO 2 NTs and perovskite, which can facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers, as well as Schottky junction between SnO 2 NTs and FTO, which reduce the bias voltage. All the results indicate that the rational design of 1D-MO/perovskite heterostructure is a facile and efficient way to achieve high-performance photodetectors., (© 2021 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

One-dimensional nanostructured SnO 2 has attracted intense research interest due to its advantageous properties, including a large surface-to-volume ratio, high optical transparency and typical n-type properties. However, how to fabricate high-performance and multifunctional electronic devices based on 1D nanostructured SnO 2 via low-cost and efficient preparation techniques is still a huge challenge. In this work, a low-cost, one-step electrospun technology was employed to synthesize the SnO 2 nanofiber (NF) and nanotube (NT) arrays. The electrical and photoelectrical parameters of SnO 2 NTs-based devices were effectively controlled through simple changes to the amount of Sn in the precursor solution. The optimal 0.2 SnO 2 NTs-based field effect transistors (FETs) with 0.2 g SnCl 2 *4H 2 O per 5 ml in the precursor solution exhibit a high saturation current (∼9 × 10 -5 A) and a large on/off ratio exceeding 2.4 × 10 6 . Additionally, 0.2 SnO 2 NTs-based FET also exhibit a narrowband deep-UV photodetectivity (240-320 nm), including an ultra-high photocurrent of 307 μA, a high photosensitivity of 2003, responsibility of 214 A W -1 and detectivity of 2.19 × 10 13 Jones. Furthermore, the SnO 2 NTs-based transparent photodetectors were as well be integrated with fluorine-doped tin oxide glass and demonstrated a high optical transparency and photosensitivity (∼199). All these results elucidate the significant advantages of these electrospun SnO 2 NTs for next-generation multifunctional electronics and transparent photonics.

Background/aims: The prognostic value of age on patients with gastric cancer is not well defined. The aim of this retrospective study is to analyze the impact of age on survival in patients with gastric cancer., Methodology: A total of 1800 patients with gastric carcinoma, who had undergone gastrectomy between 1997-2007 years were included. They were divided into six different age groups (21-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51- 60, 61-70 and 71-80 years). We reviewed patient's clinico-pathological characteristics and the prognosis with special reference to their ages., Results: Among the six age groups, the younger patients have more female-dominated patients and poorly differentiated carcinoma, whereas the older patients have a higher incidence of large tumors (≥5 cm) and more patients with stage T3. Moreover, there were more liver metastases in the older age groups. Univariate analysis showed that there were significant differences in 5-year survival rates among the six age groups. Multivariate analysis confirmed age, tumor size, pT stage, pN stage and curability were independent prognostic factors., Conclusion: There are several distinctive properties related to age of patients with gastric cancer, the older patients have more aggressive features and poorer prognosis than the younger patients.

The prognostic value of histological types in gastric cancer is not well defined. This study aims to clarify the clinicopathologic features of various WHO histological types and their prognostic significance in advanced gastric cancer (AGC). We retrospectively reviewed 741 patients with gastric cancer in our hospital from 1997 to 2007. The AGC (741 cases) were divided into five histological types: well-differentiated carcinoma (WD), moderately differentiated carcinoma (MD), poorly differentiated carcinoma (PD), mucinous carcinoma (MC), and signet ring cell carcinoma (SRC). The various AGC histological types presented significant differences in their clinical and tumor features. The five-year survival rates of patients with WD, MD, PD, MC, and SRC were 87.1%, 57.1%, 50.6%, 62.7%, and 43.4%, respectively (P=0.012). Multivariate analysis showed that cell differentiation, age, depth of invasion, and lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors in AGC, whereas MC and SRC were not. Cell differentiation is related to tumor aggression or patient stage. Advanced stage SRC carcinoma had more aggressive features and worse prognosis than the other types. MC carcinoma survival is correlated with the stage at diagnosis. The degree of cell differentiation is an important predictor of survival in AGC.

Background: The prognostic significance of tumor size in gastric cancer is not well defined. The objective of this study was to identify the prognostic value of tumor size in patients with gastric cancer., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed a total of 1800 patients with gastric cancer admitted to our hospital between 1997 and 2007. These patients were divided into two groups according to tumor size: small size group (SSG, tumor ≤5 cm) and large size group (LSG, tumor >5 cm). We compared clinico-pathologic features of the two groups and investigated the prognostic factors by performing univariate, multivariate, and stage- stratified analyses according to tumor size., Results: LSG had more aggressive clinico-pathologic features than SSG. Tumor size was an independent prognostic indicator in patients with gastric cancer. In a stratified-pT, pN, and pTNM analysis, survival of patients with LSG was significantly worse than that of patients with SSG and advanced stage. Tumor size was not a significant predictor of survival in patients with early stage tumors. Large tumor size was associated with shorter survival in patients with stages N0, N1, N2, and N3, and stages I, II, III, and IV., Conclusions: Tumor size is a simple and practical prognostic factor in patients with gastric cancer. Tumor size could supplement clinical staging in the future.