Optical Properties and Enhanced Photothermal Conversion Efficiency of SiO2/A-Dlc Selective Absorber Films for A Solar Energy Collector Fabricated by Unbalance Sputter

AbstractSolar energy could become the most attractive alternative energy source. In this study we test an attractive new candidate material for solar energy collectors. It can be found that the higher the gas pressure is, the higher the sp2/sp3 area ratio, the greater the sputtering rate and the greater the optical absorption. The photothermal conversion efficiency of a SiO2 coating on the amorphous diamond-like carbon (a-DLC) selective absorber films deposited on the Cr/mirror like Al substrate is 93.2% as the film thickness of a SiO2 coating is 105nm. The coatings also increase the protective properties for a longer service life. This makes the SiO2 coated a-DLC film a promising new candidate material for solar selective absorber films. The SiO2/a-DLC selective absorber films also were deposited on the Al extrusion substrates

Impact of Ancestral Differences and Reassessment of the Classification of Previously Reported Pathogenic Variants in Patients With Brugada Syndrome in the Genomic Era: A SADS-TW BrS Registry

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a heritable disease that results in sudden cardiac death. In the exome/genomic era, certain reported pathogenic variants in some genetic diseases have been reclassified as benign owing to their high frequency in some ancestries. In the present study, we comprehensively reassessed all previously reported pathogenic variants of BrS. We collected all pathogenic variants of BrS reported in the Human Gene Mutation Database and ClinVar throughout April 2017. We compared the minor allele frequency (MAF) of each variant among different ancestries by searching public whole-genome and exome databases. After considering the maximum credible allele frequency, variants with a MAF ≥ 0.001 were considered to be of questionable pathogenicity. We also investigated the percentage of SCN5A variants with a MAF ≥ 0.001 in 124 BrS patients from the Han Chinese population. We collected a total of 440 BrS variants, of which 18 had a MAF ≥ 0.001. There was a greater percentage of non-SCN5A variants with a MAF ≥ 0.001 than of SCN5A variants (21.8 versus 1.6%, p < 0.0001). There were fewer frameshift and nonsense mutations than missense mutations (0.9 versus 5.6%, p = 0.032). Of the 18 variants, 14 (77.8%) were present only in the reference Asian population. In our cohort, we identified two SCN5A variants (p.A226V and p.V1340I) with MAFs ≥ 0.001 (0.45%). In conclusion, ancestral differences are important when considering the pathogenicity of BrS variants, especially in the case of missense variants and non-SCN5A variants, which may be pathogenic in some ancestries but only disease-predisposing in others

Effect of Annealing Temperature on the Water Contact Angle of PVD Hard Coatings

material

Performance investigation of hard coatings deposited using unbalanced magnetron sputtering

[[abstract]]硬質膜通常應具備耐磨耗、脫膜性、耐腐蝕及耐氧化等性能以符合工程應用的要求。傳統Cr-N硬質膜的性能已逐漸不符合需求，如何改善以增進Cr-N硬質膜的性能是一個重要的課題。本研究中討論多層膜結構設計及添加第三元素Al或C於Cr-N鍍膜中對性能的影響。兩種多層膜結構的設計，分別為Al-N/Cr-N/… /Cr-N/Al-N(結構A)及 Cr-N/Al-N/…/Al-N/Cr-N (結構C)。兩種結構設計對於提升耐磨耗性能都有明顯助益，而且結構A鍍膜的耐磨耗及腐蝕性能表現比結構C鍍膜更優異。親疏水性能的表現直接與表層的鍍膜相組成及粗度有關，結構C具有比結構A鍍膜更佳的疏水性能。於Cr-N中添加少量Al原子，對於Cr -N的磨耗、親疏水及耐熱性能都有影響。當添加1 2 at %的少量鋁原子於Cr-N時，具有比添加1 6或1 9 at %更好的耐磨耗性能。當氮氣流量率為30%、40%及50%時分別會形成β–(CrAl)2N+Cr(N)、(CrAl)2N及CrAlN等不同的相組成。β–(CrAl)2N+Cr(N)及(CrAl)2N在不同的基板偏壓時都具有疏水性能，而CrAlN則具有親水性能，(CrAl)2N也有比Cr2N更佳的耐熱性能。於Cr-N中添加C原子，對於磨擦係數、親疏水性能及耐熱性也有影響。當C原子含量增加至約90 at %時，Cr-C-N膜會形成非晶質的類鑽結構而具有偏低的磨擦係數，具有較低磨擦係數的Cr-C-N膜也具有較佳的耐磨耗性能。退火處理前後的Cr-C-N都具有親水性能。[[abstract]]For use in engineering applications hard coatings should generally possess characteristics including wear resistance mold release (WCA anti-sticking) behavior corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance However the properties of conventional Cr-N coatings are quite limited and the performance of these coatings should be improved This study discusses the effect of multilayer architecture design and the addition of a third component (Al or Carbon) on the properties of Cr-N coatings Two multilayer architecture coatings were designed: Al–N/Cr–N/…/Cr–N/Al–N (Architecture A) and Cr–N/Al–N/…/Al–N /Cr–N (Architecture C) The layer thickness of the new multilayer architecture coatings is easier to control than that of nano-structured multilayer coatings Both architectures significantly improve wear resistance but architecture A consistently outperforms architecture C in terms of wear and corrosion resistance The hydrophobic property of multilayer coatings is found to be strongly related to the top layer phase and roughness Architecture C coatings exhibit significant hydrophobic behavior The addition of a small amount of Al is found to have a impact on the wear resistance WCA and thermal resistance of Cr-N The CrAlN coatings with Al content of 1 2 at % exhibit better wear resistance than those with Al content of 1 6 and 1 9 at % The various phases of β–(CrAl)2N + Cr(N) (CrAl)2N and CrAlN are respectively formed with N2 flow rate ratios of 30% 40% and 50% The β-(CrAl)2N + Cr(N) and (CrAl)2N phases with various substrate biases show a hydrophobic property while the CrAlN phase with various substrate biases exhibits hydrophilic behavior The addition of Carbon into Cr-N affects the friction coefficient WCA and thermal resistance As the C content increases to about 90% the Cr-C-N coating exhibits an amorphous DLC structure and a lower friction coefficient The Cr–C–N coatings with a lower friction coefficient exhibit a lower wear rate Both the as-deposited and annealed Cr-C-N coatings exhibit hydrophilic behavior The surface oxide retained compound and roughness affect the WCA of the annealed coatings The annealed Cr2N and (CrAl)2N coatings are characterized by hydrophobic behavior while the annealed hcp-AlN Si-DLC and Cr-DLC coatings are hydrophilic The (CrAl)2N offers better thermal resistance than the Cr2N coatin

Bioceramic Resonance Effect on Meridian Channels: A Pilot Study

Bioceramic is a kind of material which emits nonionizing radiation and luminescence, induced by visible light. Bioceramic also facilitates the breakup of large clusters of water molecules by weakening hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bond weakening, which allows water molecules to act in diverse ways under different conditions, is one of the key mechanisms underlying the effects of Bioceramic on biophysical and physical-chemical processes. Herein, we used sound to amplify the effect of Bioceramic and further developed an experimental device for use in humans. Thirteen patients who suffered from various chronic and acute illnesses that severely affected their sleep patterns and life quality were enrolled in a trial of Bioceramic resonance (i.e., rhythmic 100-dB sound waves with frequency set at 10 Hz) applied to the skin surface of the anterior chest. According to preliminary data, a “Propagated Sensation along Meridians” (PSM) was experienced in all Bioceramic resonance-treated patients but not in any of the nine control patients. The device was believed to enhance microcirculation through a series of biomolecular and physiological processes and to subject the specific meridian channels of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to coherent vibration. This noninvasive technique may offer an alternative to needle acupuncture and other traditional medical practices with clinical benefits

AutoZOOM: Autoencoder-Based Zeroth Order Optimization Method for Attacking Black-Box Neural Networks

Recent studies have shown that adversarial examples in state-of-the-art image classifiers trained by deep neural networks (DNN) can be easily generated when the target model is transparent to an attacker, known as the white-box setting. However, when attacking a deployed machine learning service, one can only acquire the input-output correspondences of the target model; this is the so-called black-box attack setting. The major drawback of existing black-box attacks is the need for excessive model queries, which may give a false sense of model robustness due to inefficient query designs. To bridge this gap, we propose a generic framework for query-efficient blackbox attacks. Our framework, AutoZOOM, which is short for Autoencoder-based Zeroth Order Optimization Method, has two novel building blocks towards efficient black-box attacks: (i) an adaptive random gradient estimation strategy to balance query counts and distortion, and (ii) an autoencoder that is either trained offline with unlabeled data or a bilinear resizing operation for attack acceleration. Experimental results suggest that, by applying AutoZOOM to a state-of-the-art black-box attack (ZOO), a significant reduction in model queries can be achieved without sacrificing the attack success rate and the visual quality of the resulting adversarial examples. In particular, when compared to the standard ZOO method, AutoZOOM can consistently reduce the mean query counts in finding successful adversarial examples (or reaching the same distortion level) by at least 93% on MNIST, CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets, leading to novel insights on adversarial robustness

Determination of Tear Lipid Film Thickness Based on a Reflected Placido Disk Tear Film Analyzer

This study aims at determining the thickness of the tear lipid layer (LL) observed from a placido-disc-based tear film analyzer. We prospectively collected reflections of placido-disk LL images using a tear film analyzer (Keratograph® 5M, Oculus) from subjects with dry eye symptoms. The LL thickness (LLT) over the inferior half of the cornea was estimated with the use of interference color analysis and the preprocessing of images with and without ring segmentation were obtained and analyzed. Moreover, LLTs before and after 1 h of applying topical ointment (Duratears, Alcon) were compared to validate the estimation of LLT. Our results suggested that the tear LLT can be assessed using a placido-disk-based tear film analyzer and interference color analysis. We verified a high correlation between non-segmented and segmented LL images and estimated LLT increase after applying ointment. In addition, we concluded that LLT can be evaluated by direct interference analysis without segmentation preprocessing

Identification of DNA Damage Repair-Associated Prognostic Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer Using Transcriptomic Data Analysis

In the recent decade, the importance of DNA damage repair (DDR) and its clinical application have been firmly recognized in prostate cancer (PC). For example, olaparib was just approved in May 2020 to treat metastatic castration-resistant PC with homologous recombination repair-mutated genes; however, not all patients can benefit from olaparib, and the treatment response depends on patient-specific mutations. This highlights the need to understand the detailed DDR biology further and develop DDR-based biomarkers. In this study, we establish a four-gene panel of which the expression is significantly associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in PC patients from the TCGA-PRAD database. This panel includes DNTT, EXO1, NEIL3, and EME2 genes. Patients with higher expression of the four identified genes have significantly worse OS and PFS. This significance also exists in a multivariate Cox regression model adjusting for age, PSA, TNM stages, and Gleason scores. Moreover, the expression of the four-gene panel is highly correlated with aggressiveness based on well-known PAM50 and PCS subtyping classifiers. Using publicly available databases, we successfully validate the four-gene panel as having the potential to serve as a prognostic and predictive biomarker for PC specifically based on DDR biology