Designing Metallic and Insulating Nanocrystal Heterostructures to Fabricate Highly Sensitive and Solution Processed Strain Gauges for Wearable Sensors

All‐solution processed, high‐performance wearable strain sensors are demonstrated using heterostructure nanocrystal (NC) solids. By incorporating insulating artificial atoms of CdSe quantum dot NCs into metallic artificial atoms of Au NC thin film matrix, metal–insulator heterostructures are designed. This hybrid structure results in a shift close to the percolation threshold, modifying the charge transport mechanism and enhancing sensitivity in accordance with the site percolation theory. The number of electrical pathways is also manipulated by creating nanocracks to further increase its sensitivity, inspired from the bond percolation theory. The combination of the two strategies achieves gauge factor up to 5045, the highest sensitivity recorded among NC‐based strain gauges. These strain sensors show high reliability, durability, frequency stability, and negligible hysteresis. The fundamental charge transport behavior of these NC solids is investigated and the combined site and bond percolation theory is developed to illuminate the origin of their enhanced sensitivity. Finally, all NC‐based and solution‐processed strain gauge sensor arrays are fabricated, which effectively measure the motion of each finger joint, the pulse of heart rate, and the movement of vocal cords of human. This work provides a pathway for designing low‐cost and high‐performance electronic skin or wearable devices.     

A simulation study on the US rehabilitation service process for patients with modest-to-severe traumatic brain injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a devastating injury with severe consequences. In this paper, we conduct a simulation study on the commonly implemented care delivery process for TBI rehabilitation in the US, which covers three care categories: inpatient acute, outpatient sub-acute and general residential care. Our investigation is focused on assessing how coverage duration of publicly funded rehabilitation impacts two key system outcomes: sub-acute rehabilitation readmission and total rehabilitation spending. We develop prediction models on the above two outcomes for patients of different conditions. We introduce the notions of forceful transition and medical necessity adjustment, and embed the notions in a state-transition simulation model. Our simulation results suggest that to minimise the care spending, the duration of publicly insured outpatient sub-acute rehab be set smaller than what is currently implemented but not to the point where coverage should be completely removed. Our sensitivity analysis justifies the robustness of our results under variations on model parameters.     

Crystallization‐Induced Emission Enhancement of a Deep‐Blue Luminescence Material with Tunable Mechano‐ and Thermochromism

Organic luminescent materials with the ability to reversibly switch the luminescence when subjected to external stimuli have attracted considerable interest in recent years. However, the examples of luminescent materials that exhibit multiresponsive properties are rarely reported. In this work, a new stimuli‐responsive dye P1 is designed and synthesized with two identical chromophores of naphthalimide, one at each side of an amidoamine‐based spacer. This amide‐rich molecule offers many possibilities for forming intra‐ and intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions. Particularly, P1 has an intrinsic property of cocrystallizing with methanol. Compared with the pristine P1 sample, the as‐prepared two‐component cocrystalline material displays an exceptive deep‐blue emission, which is extremely rare among naphthalimide‐based molecules in the solid state. Furthermore, the target material exhibits an obvious mechanochromic fluorescent behavior and a large spectral shift under force stimuli. On the other hand, the cocrystalline material shows an unusual “turn off” thermochromic luminescence accompanied by solvent evaporation. Moreover, using external stimuli to reversibly manipulate fluorescent quantum yields is rarely reported to date. The results demonstrate the feasibility of a new design strategy for solid‐state luminescence switching materials: the incorporation of solvents into organic compounds by cocrystallization to obtain a crystalline state luminescence system.     

Evaluation of hydrogels for soft tissue adhesives <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vivo</Emphasis> analyses

In this study, natural materials (sodium alginate, dextran, gelatin and carboxymethyl chitosan) were modified to get aldehyde components and amino components. Upon mixing the two-component solutions together, four kinds of Schiff base hydrogels formed successfully within 5-300 s and could seal the wound tissue. The cytotoxicity tests of hydrogel extraction solution confirmed that the hydrogels are nontoxic materials. The adhesive ability was evaluated in vivo by measuring the adhesive strength after sealing the skin incisions on the back of rats. All the hydrogels showed higher adhesive strength than that of commercial fibrin glue and the blank control. The histological staining observation by hematoxylin and eosin staining (HE) and Masson’s trichrome staining (MTC) methods suggested that the hydrogels had good biocompatibility and biodegradation in vivo. They have only normal initial inflammation to skin tissue and could improve the formation of new collagen in the incision section. So, the prepared hydrogels were both safe and effective tissue adhesive, which had the great potentials to be used as skin tissue adhesive.     

企业兼并的意义 现状 问题及对策

以企业兼并为主要方式的企业资产重组是当前我团经济体制改革的热点之一。本文从实际出发,阐明企业兼并对我国经济建设的意义,分析近十多年来我国企业兼并的基本特征及存在的问题,并提出相关的解决问题的对策建议。     

H.264解码器设计与算法优化

为了降低嵌入式平台下视频编解码的预测搜索算法复杂度,文章给出了基于达芬奇TMS320DM6446平台的H.264解码器设计,并对H.264帧内帧间预测模式做了分析,提出了一种对H.264帧内预测和帧间预测模式选择的算法,该算法通过计算并比较各种模式下的SAE(SumofAbsoluteError,绝对误差和)值,并选取SAE值最小的模式作为最佳预测模式的方法来达到优化算法的目的。实验结果表明,在峰值信噪比基本不变的条件下,可以有效避免重复帧内搜索,使预测搜索算法复杂度平均降低78%左右。     

论吡咯与双卤分子间的卤键

运用量子化学微扰理论MP2方法,采用6-311++G(d,p)基组,对吡咯与双卤分子XY(XY=ClF,BrF,BrCl)形成的卤键复合物进行构型全优化,得到各分子的稳定几何构型和分子间相互作用能.利用电子密度拓扑分析方法分析卤键复合物的拓扑性质,探讨了该类分子间卤键的作用本质.证明吡咯与双卤分子间存在Y-X...N和Y-X...π2类相互作用,且后者比前者强.复合物中的卤键介于共价键与离子键之间,偏于静电作用成分为主.形成卤键后,2种类型卤键复合物中的电子受体X-Y键伸长,其振动频率发生红移.用电子密度拓扑分析程序GTA-2000,将π型卤键体系中π电子与σ电子分开处理,绘制出π电子密度等值线图和Laplacian量等值线图,更加形象地说明π型卤键的存在和作用本质.利用AIM程序计算了卤键复合物中各原子电子积分的性质,原子积分性质随着卤键形成发生了改变.     

Improving traversability of quadruped walking robots using body movement in 3D rough terrains

This paper presents a study on improving the traversability of a quadruped walking robot in 3D rough terrains. The key idea is to exploit body movement of the robot. The position and orientation of the robot are systematically adjusted and the possibility of finding a valid foothold for the next swing is maximized, which makes the robot have more chances to overcome the rough terrains. In addition, a foothold search algorithm that provides the valid foothold while maintaining a high traversability of the robot, is investigated and a gait selection algorithm is developed to help the robot avoid deadlock situations. To explain the algorithms, new concepts such as reachable area, stable area, potential search direction, and complementary kinematic margin are introduced, and the effectiveness of the algorithms is validated via simulations and experiments.