Probing Distinctive Electron Conduction in Multilayer Rhenium Disulfide

Charge carrier transport in multilayer van der Waals (vdW) materials, which comprise multiple conducting layers, is well described using Thomas–Fermi charge screening (λ_TF) and interlayer resistance (R_int). When both effects occur in carrier transport, a channel centroid migrates along the c‐axis according to a vertical electrostatic force, causing redistribution of the conduction centroid in a multilayer system, unlike a conventional bulk material. Thus far, numerous unique properties of vdW materials are discovered, but direct evidence for distinctive charge transport behavior in 2D layered materials is not demonstrated. Herein, the distinctive electron conduction features are reported in a multilayer rhenium disulfide (ReS₂), which provides decoupled vdW interaction between adjacent layers and much high interlayer resistivity in comparison with other transition‐metal dichalcogenides materials. The existence of two plateaus in its transconductance curve clearly reveals the relocation of conduction paths with respect to the top and bottom surfaces, which is rationalized by a theoretical resistor network model by accounting of λ_TF and R_int coupling. The effective tunneling distance probed via low‐frequency noise spectroscopy further supports the shift of electron conduction channel along the thickness of ReS₂.     

Water-soluble MnO nanocolloid for a molecular T1 MR imaging: a facile one-pot synthesis, in vivo T1 MR images, and account for relaxivities

A facile one-pot synthesis of a water-soluble MnO nanocolloid (i.e., D-glucuronic acid-coated MnO nanoparticle) is presented. The MnO nanoparticle in the MnO nanocolloid was coated with a biocompatible and hydrophilic D-glucuronic acid, and its particle diameter was nearly monodisperse and ranged from 2 to 3 nm. The average hydrodynamic diameter of the MnO nanocolloid was estimated to be 5 nm. The MnO nanoparticle was nearly paramagnetic down to T=3 K. The MnO nanocolloid showed a high longitudinal water proton relaxivity of r1=7.02 s(-1) mM(-1) with the r2/r1 ratio of 6.83 due to five unpaired S-state electrons of Mn(II) ion (S=5/2) as well as a high surface to volume ratio of the MnO nanoparticle. High contrast in vivo T1 MR images were obtained for various organs, showing the capability of the MnO nanocolloid as a sensitive T1 MRI contrast agent. The suggested three key-parameters which control the r1 and r2 relaxivities of nanocolloids (i.e., the S value of a metal ion, the spin structure, and the surface to volume ratio of a nanoparticle) successfully accounted for the observed r1 and r2 relaxivities of the MnO nanocolloid.     

Gait recognition using active shape model and motion prediction

This study presents a novel, robust gait recognition algorithm for human identification from a sequence of segmented noisy silhouettes in a low-resolution video. The proposed recognition algorithm enables automatic human recognition from model-based gait cycle extraction based on the prediction-based hierarchical active shape model (ASM). The proposed algorithm overcomes drawbacks of existing works by extracting a set of relative model parameters instead of directly analysing the gait pattern. The feature extraction function in the proposed algorithm consists of motion detection, object region detection and ASM, which alleviate problems in the baseline algorithm such as background generation, shadow removal and higher recognition rate. Performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated by using the HumanID Gait Challenge data set, which is the largest gait benchmarking data set with 122 objects with different realistic parameters including viewpoint, shoe, surface, carrying condition and time.     

Creation of Faceted Polyhedral Microgels from Compressed Emulsions

Compressed monodisperse emulsions in confined space exhibit highly ordered structures. The influence of the volume fraction and the confinement geometry on the organized structures is investigated and the mechanism by which structural transition occurs is studied. Based on the understanding of ordering behavior of compressed emulsions, a simple and high‐throughput method to fabricate monodisperse polyhedral microgels using the emulsions as the template is developed. By controlling the geometry of the confined spaces, a variety of shapes such as hexagonal prism, Fejes Toth honeycomb prism, truncated octahedron, pyritohedron, and truncated hexagonal trapezohedron are implemented. Moreover, the edge sharpness of each shape is controllable by adjusting the drop volume fraction. This design principle can be readily extended to other shapes and materials, and therefore provides a useful means to create polyhedral microparticles for both fundamental study and practical applications.     

Manufacture of Syntactic Foams: Pre-Mold Processing

Manufacturing processes for syntactic foams made of hollow microspheres and starch were studied. Various manufacturing parameters in relation to the “buoyancy method” were identified and inter-related. An equation based on unit-cell models with the minimum inter-microsphere distance concept for a relation between volume expansion rate of bulk microspheres in aqueous starch and microsphere size was derived and successfully used to predict experimental data. It was demonstrated that the inter-microsphere distance can be calculated numerically for microspheres with known statistical data. The equation relating between volume expansion rate and microsphere size was further extended to accommodate a relation between inter-microsphere distance and microsphere size but with limited accuracy for binders of low starch content. An alternative empirical linear equation for the relation between inter-microsphere distance and microsphere size is proposed for wider applications. A simple method for estimation of syntactic foam density prior to completion of manufacture is suggested. Shrinkage after molding of syntactic foam is discussed in relation with different stages such as slurry, dough and solid. A two-step manufacturing process involving molding and then forming is suggested for syntactic foam dimensional control.     

Effect of surface structure on biomechanical properties and osseointegration

The purpose of this study is to improve the bone-bonding ability between titanium implants and living bone through the control of geometric design and chemical compositions of an implant surface. We compared the tissue healing response and resulting implant stability for three surface designs by characterizing the histological and mechanical properties of the healing tissue around smooth-surfaced Ti–6Al–4V (SS), CP-Ti plasma-spray-coated (PSC), alkali- and heat-treated (AHT) implants. The implants were transversely inserted into a dog thighbone and evaluated at 4, 8, and 12 weeks. Histological examination indicated that initial matrix mineralization leading to osseointegration occurred more rapidly with the AHT implant. During the 4, 8, and 12 week healing periods, new bone on the surface of AHT implant showed denser growth than that on the SS and PSC implants. The more extensive tissue integration and more rapid matrix mineralization with the AHT implant were reflected in the mechanical test data, which demonstrated superior attachment strength and interfacial stiffness for the AHT implant after healing for 4, 8 and 12 weeks of healing because of the mechanical interlocking in the micrometer sized rough surface and the large bonding area between bone and implant caused by the nanosized porous surface structure. Histological and mechanical data demonstrate that with the appropriate surface design selection, bone bone-bonding ability can be improved and can induce acceleration of the healing response, thereby improving the potential for implant osseointegration.     

Direct vapor phase growth process and robust photoluminescence properties of large area MoS2 layers

There has been growing research interest in the use of molybdenum disulfide in the fields of optoelectronics and energy harvesting devices, by virtue of its indirect-to-direct band gap tunability. However, obtaining large area thin films of MoS2 for future device applications still remains a challenge. In the present study, the amounts of the precursors （S and MOO3） were varied systematically in order to optimize the growth of highly crystalline and large area MoS2 layers by the chemical vapor deposition method. Careful control of the amounts of precursors was found to the key factor in the synthesis of large area highly crystalline flakes. The thickness of the layers was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The optical properties and chemical composition were studied by photoluminescence （PL） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The emergence of strong direct excitonic emissions at 1.82 eV （A-exciton, with a normalized PL intensity of -55 × 10^3） and 1.98 eV （B-exciton, with a normalized PL intensity of -5 × 10^3） of the sample at room temperature clearly indicates the high luminescence quantum efficiency. The mobility of the films was found to be 0.09 cm^2/（V.s） at room temperature. This study provides a method for the controlled synthesis of high-quality two-dimensional （2D） transition metal dichalcogenide materials, useful for applications in nanodevices, optoelectronics and solar energv conversion.     

Cactus‐Like Hollow Cu2‐xS@Ru Nanoplates as Excellent and Robust Electrocatalysts for the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The development of Pt‐free electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) recently is a focus of great interest. While several strategies are developed to control the structural properties of non‐Pt catalysts and boost their electrocatalytic activities for the HER, the generation of highly reactive defects or interfaces by combining a metal with other metals, or with metal oxides/sulfides, can lead to notably enhanced catalytic performance. Herein, the preparation of cactus‐like hollow Cu_2‐x S@Ru nanoplates (NPs) that contain metal/metal sulfide heterojunctions and show excellent catalytic activity and durability for the HER in alkaline media is reported. The initial formation of Ru islands on presynthesized Cu_1.94S NPs, via cation exchange between three Cu⁺ ions and one Ru³⁺, induces the growth of the Ru phase, which is concomitant with the dissolution of the Cu_1.94S nanotemplate, culminating in the formation of a hollow nanostructure with numerous thin Ru pillars. Hollow Cu_2‐x S@Ru NPs exhibit a small overpotential of 82 mV at a current density of ?10 mA cm^?2 and a low Tafel slope of 48 mV dec^?1 under alkaline conditions; this catalyst is among state‐of‐the‐art HER electrocatalysts in alkaline media. The excellent performance of hollow Cu_2‐x S@Ru NPs originates from the facile dissociation of water in the Volmer step.     

An optimization of composite lattice cylinder using the approximate method

Recently, the approximate methods based on continuous models have been developed to perform structural analysis of composite lattice structures due to their relative simplicity and computational efficiency. This paper defines the modified effective stiffness considering the directionally dependent mechanical properties to an intersection of ribs and mode shape function of a composite lattice cylinder. It subsequently presents an approximate method based on the continuous model of conducting a buckling analysis of the composite lattice cylinder with various boundary conditions under uniform compression. This method considers the coupled buckling mode as well as the global and local buckling modes. The validity of the present method is verified by comparing the results of the finite element analysis. In addition, a parametric analysis is performed to investigate the effects of the design parameters on the critical load and buckling mode shape of the composite lattice cylinder based on the present method. Finally, we apply the present method to perform the optimization of a composite lattice cylinder for a high-speed vehicle to minimize the mass. Consequently, it is concluded that the present method is very suitable to optimization of composite lattice cylinders due to their relative simplicity and computational efficiency.