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The problem of lower total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) has become a bottleneck for economic growth, and how to break this bottleneck and achieve high-quality development is one of the urgent issues to be solved nowadays. The study selects 30 provincial units in mainland China during 13 years, from 2008 to 2020; then adopts slack-based measure (SBM) method to measure the TFEE values of each province; and on this basis, finally explores the impact of educational human capital and green finance on regional TFEE in China; It concludes as follows: (1) The average value of TFEE in China is 0.776, which is at a lower level, and TFEE shows a gradual increase during the study period; the mean value decreases from east to west in descending order. (2) Educational human capital's impact on the TFEE of the whole country and all regions is negative, and it does not show a significant U-shaped relationship; the effect of eastern region is the smallest; green finance's impact on TFEE shows a U-shaped relationship, except in eastern regions, where it is not significant; and the coefficient of the central region is stronger. (3) Environmental regulation's impact on TFEE show a U-shaped relationship in all regions; science and technology investment can improve TFEE all regions; and in the eastern region, it is most significant. Industrial structure is positively correlated with TFEE in all regions, and it has the most obvious effect on the improvement of TFEE in the central region; economic development can promote TFEE in all regions. This research has important theoretical implications for achieving regional TFEE improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing semiconductor catalysts with high catalytic activity and good economic benefits is an important and challenging task in the field of photocatalysis. In this study, CdS nanosheets with a three-dimensional hollow structure were grown on MoS2 nanosheets by a hydrothermal method. The hydrogen production of the CdS@MoS2-25 wt% composites is 8.2 mmol in 3 h, which is 43.71 times that of pure CdS and 4.7 times that of Pt. Density functional theory (DFT) was used to further study the band structure of the composites. The experimental and calculation results show that the addition of co-catalyst MoS2 reduces the band gap of CdS and accelerates the transfer rate of photogenerated electrons. The construction of a n–n homogeneous structure reduces the interface transmission resistance of the carriers, and the photocatalytic performance of the composite material has been significantly improved. Therefore, the composite material is an excellent semiconductor photocatalyst that can replace precious metals in the reaction. In addition, after adding the promoter MoS2 to participate in the photocatalytic reaction for 12 h, the composite material still maintains high photocatalytic activity, and the recombination rate of photogenerated carriers is greatly reduced, which proves that the photocatalyst has good stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CdS is widely used in the field of photocatalysis owing to its excellent photocatalytic H2 evolution (PHE) activity, but the photocatalytic stability of CdS is inhibited because of the drawback of photocorrosion. Under light, the introduction of WS2 cocatalysts induces the growth of layered CdS on the WS2 nanosheets. Through the photocatalytic activity measurement, after adding ultrathin WS2 nanosheets, the amount of H2 released can reach 139.15 mmol g−1 after 7 h, which is 11.3 times higher than that of pure CdS nanoparticles. Furthermore, these composites illustrate excellent light absorption performance in the near-infrared region. A heterojunction is formed between WS2 and CdS under light, which greatly promotes the mobility of interface carriers and limits the recombination of photogenerated carriers. The hydrogen evolution output remains stable after 42 h, and the photocorrosion problem is effectively suppressed. In this work, we provide an effective and simple method to improve photocatalytic activity and stability, which is beneficial to the practical development of photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HfO 2 -based ferroelectric materials as the most promising candidate for the ferroelectric memories, have been widely studied for more than a decade due to their excellent ferroelectric properties and CMOS compatibility. In order to realize its industrialization as soon as possible, researchers have been devoted to improving the reliability performance, such as wake up, imprint, limited endurance, et al. Among them, the breakdown characteristic is one of main failure mechanisms of HfO 2 -based ferroelectric devices, which limits the write/read reliability of the devices. Based on this, we systematically studied the effect of thickness on the time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) tolerate capability of HfO 2 -ZrO 2 (HZO) FE films under both forward and reverse electrical stress conditions. The thickness of HZO FE film ranged from 6 to 20 nm. Our findings reveal that decreasing the thickness of the HZO FE film leads to an improvement in TDDB tolerance capability which is attributed to the fact that higher density of oxygen vacancies in thinner HZO FE films can effectively inhibit the generation of new oxygen vacancies and the growth of conductive filaments, thus effectively improving the TDDB characteristics. These results provide a potential solution for mitigating breakdown characteristics of HfO 2 -based ferroelectric devices in memory applications., (© 2024 IOP Publishing Ltd.)

Background: There have been lingering controversies reported decompression and plus fusion. And the relative safety of fusion in addition to standard decompression remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of decompression alone or combined with fusion in lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) with degenerative spondylolisthesis (DS)., Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched the databases of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science for relevant literature from their inception to 28th December 2021. We identified the eligible studies based on the PICOS principles, populations (LSS with DS), interventions (decompression alone), controls (decompression combined with fusion), outcomes [overall reoperation rate, complications, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), operative time, the amount of blood lost, length of stay (LOS), and visual analog scales (VAS)], study design (cohort studies). Quality assessment for individual study was performed with the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS)., Results: In all, 12 articles involving a total of 14,693 patients were finally included in the study, the majority of patients underwent decompression alone (DA group: n=11,598) and the rest underwent decompression associated with fusion (FU group: n=3,095). The quality of most of the included studies was regarded as high quality. The results indicated that the FU group had a higher rate of complication [relative risk (RR): 1.770, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.485 to 2.110], longer operative time [weighted mean difference (WMD): 51.037, 95% CI: 13.743 to 88.330], and increased blood loss (WMD: 258.354, 95% CI: 150.468 to 366.239) than the DA group (all P<0.05), with no significant differences for overall reoperation rate (RR: 0.879, 95% CI: 0.432 to 1.786), ODI (WMD: -2.569, 95% CI: -6.548 to 1.409), LOS (WMD: 3.838, 95% CI: -2.172 to 9.848), and VAS found between the two groups (P>0.05)., Conclusions: In patients with LSS + DS, the effectiveness and safety of decompression alone may be superior to decompression plus fusion in terms of complication rate, operative time, and the amount of bleeding. However, more high-quality literature is needed in the future to confirm the best treatment choice for patients with LSS + DS., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://atm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/atm-22-2208/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2022 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.)