Magnetically Induced Metallic Phase in Superconducting Tantalum Films

We have studied the electronic transport properties of homogeneously disordered superconducting tantalum thin films in magnetic fields. The films exhibit three distinct transport regimes in the zero temperature limit which we identify as superconducting, metallic, and insulating phases. The metallic phase is unexpected. The transport characteristics of this metallic phase are found to be similar to those of MoGe films and high mobility dilute two-dimensional electrons or holes confined in semiconductor interface or transistor geometry.Comment: four pages, four figure

Chemical Dealloying Synthesis of CuS Nanowire-on-Nanoplate Network as Anode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries

CuS is a metal sulfide anode material used in constructing lithium ion batteries (LIBs) with great promise. However, its practical application is limited by rapid capacity decline, poor cycling, and rate performance. In this work, the CuS nanowire-on-nanoplate network is synthesized through an improved dealloying method under two contrasting reaction temperatures. When used as an LIB anode, the as-obtained CuS network exhibits superior cycling performance (420 mAh·g −1 retained after 100 cycles at 0.2 C). When at 3 C, it still delivers a capacity of around 350 mAh·g −1 . The improved electrochemical performances of the CuS anode should be attributed to the well-designed nanowire-on-nanoplate network structure in which the introduction of nanowires improves Li storage sites, shortens Li-ion diffusion distance, enhances the conductivity of active materials, and offers multiscale spaces for buffering the volume variation. The fabrication route adopted in this paper has an important significance for developing the dealloying technique and designing more suitable anode structures for LIBs

Evidence of spatial inhomogeneity near the onset of magnetically induced insulating state in superconducting thin films

Non-monotonic differential resistance (dV/dI) is observed in magnetically induced insulating films which exhibit apparent superconductor-metal-insulator transitions in the low temperature limit; at low bias currents the nonlinear transport is insulator-like while at high bias currents it is characteristic of metallic phase. The non-monotonic dV/dI may be evidence that the insulating state consists of metallic domains connected by point contacts (insulating gaps), implying that spatial inhomogeneities play a dominant role in determining the nature of the apparent metal-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Volumetry of low-contrast liver lesions with CT: Investigation of estimation uncertainties in a phantom study

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of lesion volumetry in hepatic CT as a function of various imaging acquisition parameters. Methods: An anthropomorphic abdominal phantom with removable liver inserts was designed for this study. Two liver inserts, each containing 19 synthetic lesions with varying diameter (6–40 mm), shape, contrast (10–65 HU), and both homogenous and mixed-density were designed to have background and lesion CT values corresponding to arterial and portal-venous phase imaging, respectively. The two phantoms were scanned using two commercial CT scanners (GE 750 HD and Siemens Biograph mCT) across a set of imaging protocols (four slice thicknesses, three effective mAs, two convolution kernels, two pitches). Two repeated scans were collected for each imaging protocol. All scans were analyzed using a matched-filter estimator for volume estimation, resulting in 6080 volume measurements across all of the synthetic lesions in the two liver phantoms. A subset of portal venous phase scans was also analyzed using a semi-automatic segmentation algorithm, resulting in about 900 additional volume measurements. Lesions associated with large measurement error (quantified by root mean square error) for most imaging protocols were considered not measurable by the volume estimation tools and excluded for the statistical analyses. Imaging protocols were grouped into distinct imaging conditions based on ANOVA analysis of factors for repeatability testing. Statistical analyses, including overall linearity analysis, grouped bias analysis with standard deviation evaluation, and repeatability analysis, were performed to assess the accuracy and precision of the liver lesion volume biomarker. Results: Lesions with lower contrast and size ≤10 mm were associated with higher measurement error and were excluded from further analysis. Lesion size, contrast, imaging slice thickness, dose, and scanner were found to be factors substantially influencing volume estimation. Twenty-four distinct repeatable imaging conditions were determined as protocols for each scanner with a fixed slice thickness and dose. For the matched-filter estimation approach, strong linearity was observed for all imaging data for lesions ≥20 mm. For the Siemens scanner with 50 mAs effective dose at 0.6 mm slice thickness, grouped bias was about −10%. For all other repeatable imaging conditions with both scanners, grouped biases were low (−3%–3%). There was a trend of increasing standard deviation with decreasing dose. For each fixed dose, the standard deviations were similar among the three larger slice thicknesses (1.25, 2.5, 5 mm for GE, 1.5, 3, 5 mm for Siemens). Repeatability coefficients ranged from about 8% to 75% and showed similar trend to grouped standard deviation. For the segmentation approach, the results led to similar conclusions for both lesion characteristic factors and imaging factors but with increasing magnitude in all the error metrics assessed. Conclusions: Results showed that liver lesion volumetry was strongly dependent on lesion size, contrast, acquisition dose, and their interactions. The overall performances were similar for images reconstructed with larger slice thicknesses, clinically used pitches, kernels, and doses. Conditions that yielded repeatable measurements were identified and they agreed with the Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance’s (QIBA) profile requirements in general. The authors’ findings also suggest potential refinements to these guidelines for the tumor volume biomarker, especially for soft-tissue lesions

Volumetry of low-contrast liver lesions with CT: Investigation of estimation uncertainties in a phantom study

Purpose: To evaluate the performance of lesion volumetry in hepatic CT as a function of various imaging acquisition parameters. Methods: An anthropomorphic abdominal phantom with removable liver inserts was designed for this study. Two liver inserts, each containing 19 synthetic lesions with varying diameter (6–40 mm), shape, contrast (10–65 HU), and both homogenous and mixed-density were designed to have background and lesion CT values corresponding to arterial and portal-venous phase imaging, respectively. The two phantoms were scanned using two commercial CT scanners (GE 750 HD and Siemens Biograph mCT) across a set of imaging protocols (four slice thicknesses, three effective mAs, two convolution kernels, two pitches). Two repeated scans were collected for each imaging protocol. All scans were analyzed using a matched-filter estimator for volume estimation, resulting in 6080 volume measurements across all of the synthetic lesions in the two liver phantoms. A subset of portal venous phase scans was also analyzed using a semi-automatic segmentation algorithm, resulting in about 900 additional volume measurements. Lesions associated with large measurement error (quantified by root mean square error) for most imaging protocols were considered not measurable by the volume estimation tools and excluded for the statistical analyses. Imaging protocols were grouped into distinct imaging conditions based on ANOVA analysis of factors for repeatability testing. Statistical analyses, including overall linearity analysis, grouped bias analysis with standard deviation evaluation, and repeatability analysis, were performed to assess the accuracy and precision of the liver lesion volume biomarker. Results: Lesions with lower contrast and size ≤10 mm were associated with higher measurement error and were excluded from further analysis. Lesion size, contrast, imaging slice thickness, dose, and scanner were found to be factors substantially influencing volume estimation. Twenty-four distinct repeatable imaging conditions were determined as protocols for each scanner with a fixed slice thickness and dose. For the matched-filter estimation approach, strong linearity was observed for all imaging data for lesions ≥20 mm. For the Siemens scanner with 50 mAs effective dose at 0.6 mm slice thickness, grouped bias was about −10%. For all other repeatable imaging conditions with both scanners, grouped biases were low (−3%–3%). There was a trend of increasing standard deviation with decreasing dose. For each fixed dose, the standard deviations were similar among the three larger slice thicknesses (1.25, 2.5, 5 mm for GE, 1.5, 3, 5 mm for Siemens). Repeatability coefficients ranged from about 8% to 75% and showed similar trend to grouped standard deviation. For the segmentation approach, the results led to similar conclusions for both lesion characteristic factors and imaging factors but with increasing magnitude in all the error metrics assessed. Conclusions: Results showed that liver lesion volumetry was strongly dependent on lesion size, contrast, acquisition dose, and their interactions. The overall performances were similar for images reconstructed with larger slice thicknesses, clinically used pitches, kernels, and doses. Conditions that yielded repeatable measurements were identified and they agreed with the Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance’s (QIBA) profile requirements in general. The authors’ findings also suggest potential refinements to these guidelines for the tumor volume biomarker, especially for soft-tissue lesions

A COVID-19 Risk Score Combining Chest CT Radiomics and Clinical Characteristics to Differentiate COVID-19 Pneumonia From Other Viral Pneumonias

With the continued transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) throughout the world, identification of highly suspected COVID-19 patients remains an urgent priority. In this study, we developed and validated COVID-19 risk scores to identify patients with COVID-19. In this study, for patient-wise analysis, three signatures, including the risk score using radiomic features only, the risk score using clinical factors only, and the risk score combining radiomic features and clinical variables, show an excellent performance in differentiating COVID-19 from other viral-induced pneumonias in the validation set. For lesion-wise analysis, the risk score using three radiomic features only also achieved an excellent AUC value. In contrast, the performance of 130 radiologists based on the chest CT images alone without the clinical characteristics included was moderate as compared to the risk scores developed. The risk scores depicting the correlation of CT radiomics and clinical factors with COVID-19 could be used to accurately identify patients with COVID-19, which would have clinically translatable diagnostic and therapeutic implications from a precision medicine perspective

Silver Nanocluster-Embedded Zein Films as Antimicrobial Coating Materials for Food Packaging

Highly efficient antimicrobial agents with low toxicity and resistance have been enthusiastically pursued to address public concerns on microbial contamination in food. Silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) are known for their ultrasmall sizes and unique optical and chemical properties. Despite extensive studies of AgNCs for biomedical applications, previous research on their application as antimicrobials for food applications is very limited. Here, for the first time, by incorporating AgNCs (~2 nm in diameter) into zein films that are widely used as food packaging materials, we developed a novel coating material with potent antimicrobial activity, low toxicity to human cells, and low potential to harm the environment. In addition, we systematically evaluated the antimicrobial activities and cytotoxicity of AgNCs-embedded zein films and compared them to zein films embedded with AgNO3 or Ag nanoparticles with diameters of 10 and 60 nm (AgNP10 and AgNP60, respectively). At equivalent silver concentrations, AgNCs and AgNO3 solutions exhibited considerably higher antimicrobial activities than those of AgNP10 and AgNP60 solutions. Moreover, AgNCs exhibited less cytotoxicity to human cells than AgNO3, with a half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 34.68 μg/mL for AgNCs, compared to 9.14 μg/mL for AgNO3. Overall, the novel AgNCs coating developed in this research has great potential for antimicrobial applications in food packaging materials due to its high antimicrobial efficacy, ultrasmall size, and low cytotoxicity

Nanoporous GeO2/Cu/Cu2O network synthesized by dealloying method for stable Li-ion storage

Transition metal oxide Cu2O anode is still not meeting the current market demands due to the low theoretical capacity and poor cycle stability. We herein report the synthesis of a nanoporous GeO2/Cu/ Cu2O network by a straightforward dealloying method. The resulting material possesses high porosity which served to alleviate the stress incurred during lithiation/delithiation volume variation and presents good conductivity for fast electron transfer. Enhanced electrochemical performance is observed when measured as an anode material, delivering 715mAh g1 at 200mA g1 after 50 cycles and offered 504mAh g1 even at a high current density of 1600 mA g1 after 150 cycles. Furthermore, the material also demonstrates excellent rate performance of 812, 782, 741, 695, 635 and 552 mAh g1 at 100, 200, 500, 800, 1600 and 3200 mA g1 current densities, respectively. The enhanced Li storage performances could be ascribed to the reticular ligament with high porosity, the increased conductivity by Cu as well as the improved capacity from GeO2. Moreover, this work provides us a new material design strategy to fabricate various porous composite anodes with high capacity through a straightforward dealloying method in future for lithium-ion battery applications