National Key Basic Research Program Research Articles

Towards the establishment of the light J P (C )=1–(+) hybrid nonet * *Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11425525, 11521505), DFG and NSFC funds to the Sino-German CRC 110 "Symmetries and the Emergence of Structure in QCD'' (NSFC 12070131001, DFG Project-ID 196253076), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB34030302), and the National

The observation of the light hybrid candidate by the BESIII Collaboration offers great opportunities for advancing our knowledge on exotic hadrons in terms of flavor sector. We demonstrate that this observation provides a crucial clue for establishing the hybrid nonet. Based on the flux tube model picture, the production and decay mechanisms for the hybrid nonet in the radiative decays into two pseudoscalar mesons are investigated. In the sector, we deduce that the SU(3) flavor octet and singlet mixing is non-negligible and apparently deviates from the flavor ideal mixing. Because only signals for one isoscalar are observed in the channel, we investigate two schemes of the nonet structure in which can either be the higher or lower mass state that strongly couples to . Possible channels for detecting the multiplets are suggested. In particular, a combined analysis of the hybrid production in , where and denote the light vector mesons and hybrid states, respectively, may provide further evidence for this nonet structure and ultimately establish these mysterious exotic species in the experiment.

Optimal convergence of finite element approximation to an optimization problem with PDE constraint* *Wei Gong was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB 41000000), the National Key Basic Research Program (Grant No. 2018YFB0704304) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 12071468, 11671391). Zhaojie Zhou was supported by the National

We study in this paper the optimal convergence of finite element approximation to an optimization problem with PDE constraint. Specifically, we consider an elliptic distributed optimal control problem without control constraints, which can also be viewed as a regularized inverse source problem. The main contributions are two-fold. First, we derive a priori and a posteriori error estimates for the optimization problems, under an appropriately chosen norm that allows us to establish an isomorphism between the solution space and its dual. These results yield error estimates with explicit dependence on the regularization parameter α so that the constants appeared in the derivation are independent of α. Second, we prove the contraction property and rate optimality for the adaptive algorithm with respect to the error estimator and solution errors between the adaptive finite element solutions and the continuous solutions. Extensive numerical experiments are presented that confirm our theoretical results.

Deep learning-enabled pelvic ultrasound images for accurate diagnosis of ovarian cancer in China: a retrospective, multicentre, diagnostic study

Ultrasound is a critical non-invasive test for preoperative diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Deep learning is making advances in image-recognition tasks; therefore, we aimed to develop a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model that automates evaluation of ultrasound images and to facilitate a more accurate diagnosis of ovarian cancer than existing methods. In this retrospective, multicentre, diagnostic study, we collected pelvic ultrasound images from ten hospitals across China between September 2003, and May 2019. We included consecutive adult patients (aged ≥18 years) with adnexal lesions in ultrasonography and healthy controls and excluded duplicated cases and patients without adnexa or pathological diagnosis. For DCNN model development, patients were assigned to the training dataset (34 488 images of 3755 patients with ovarian cancer, 541 442 images of 101 777 controls). For model validation, patients were assigned to the internal validation dataset (3031 images of 266 patients with ovarian cancer, 5385 images of 602 with benign adnexal lesions), external validation datasets 1 (486 images of 67 with ovarian cancer, 933 images of 268 with benign adnexal lesions), and 2 (1253 images of 166 with ovarian cancer, 5257 images of 723 benign adnexal lesions). Using these datasets, we assessed the diagnostic value of DCNN, compared DCNN with 35 radiologists, and explored whether DCNN could augment the diagnostic accuracy of six radiologists. Pathological diagnosis was the reference standard. For DCNN to detect ovarian cancer, AUC was 0·911 (95% CI 0·886-0·936) in the internal dataset, 0·870 (95% CI 0·822-0·918) in external validation dataset 1, and 0·831 (95% CI 0·793-0·869) in external validation dataset 2. The DCNN model was more accurate than radiologists at detecting ovarian cancer in the internal dataset (88·8% vs 85·7%) and external validation dataset 1 (86·9% vs 81·1%). Accuracy and sensitivity of diagnosis increased more after DCNN-assisted diagnosis than assessment by radiologists alone (87·6% [85·0-90·2] vs 78·3% [72·1-84·5], p<0·0001; 82·7% [78·5-86·9] vs 70·4% [59·1-81·7], p<0·0001). The average accuracy of DCNN-assisted evaluations for six radiologists reached 0·876 and were significantly augmented when they were DCNN-assisted (p<0·05). The performance of DCNN-enabled ultrasound exceeded the average diagnostic level of radiologists matched the level of expert ultrasound image readers, and augmented radiologists' accuracy. However, these observations warrant further investigations in prospective studies or randomised clinical trials. National Key Basic Research Program of China, National Sci-Tech Support Projects, and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Temperature and current sensitivity extraction of optical superconducting transition-edge sensors based on a two-fluid model* *Project supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0304003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1831202, U1731119, U1931123, 11773083, and 11873099), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. QYZDJ-SSWSLH043 and GJJSTD20180003), and Jiangsu Province, China

Optical superconducting transition-edge sensor (TES) has been widely used in quantum information, biological imaging, and fluorescence microscopy owing to its high quantum efficiency, low dark count, and photon number resolving capability. The temperature sensitivity (αI ) and current sensitivity (βI ) are important parameters for optical TESs, which are generally extracted from the complex impedance. Here we present a method to extract αI and βI based on a two-fluid model and compare the calculated current–voltage curves, pulse response, and theoretical energy resolution with the measured ones. This method shows qualitative agreement that is suitable for further optimization of optical TESs.

Measurement of Superconductivity and Edge States in Topological Superconductor Candidate TaSe3 Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFA0305400), the Shanghai Technology Innovation Action Plan 2020-Integrated Circuit Technology Support Program (Grant No. 20DZ1100605), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52072168, 21733001, 51861145201, U1932217, and 11974246), the National Key Basic Research Program of China

Topological superconductors (TSCs) have been widely investigated in recent years due to their novel physics and ability to host Majorana fermions (MFs) which are key to topological quantum computation. Despite the great interest, only a few compounds have been proposed as candidates of intrinsic TSCs, such as iron-based superconductor FeSe0.55Te0.45 and 2M-WS2. Among them, quasi-one-dimensional superconductor TaSe3 possesses fascinating properties such as its simple stoichiometry, layered nature and chemical stability. Here, using scanning tunneling microscope/spectroscopy (STM/STS), we systematically investigate the topography and electronic structure of TaSe3. Our STM/STS measurement reveals large atomically flat, defect-free surfaces suitable for the search of MF; electronic density of states consistent with our angle-resolved photoemission result and band-structure calculations, and a uniform superconducting gap with a typical size of ∼ 0.25 meV. Remarkably, additional edge states are observed in the vicinity of the terrace edge, suggesting they may have a topological origin. Our result proves the coexistence of superconductivity and topological electronic structure in TaSe3, making it an intriguing platform to investigate topological superconductivity.

Factors Associated with Durable Progression-Free Survival in Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma Patients after Potent Anti-BCMA CAR-T Cell Therapy

Background: B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy results in high remission rates in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma (MM). However, the factors associated with prognosis following CAR-T cell therapy are unknown. Methods: Between July 1, 2018, and July 31, 2020, 61 patients with R/R MM received anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy (Chictr.org number, ChiCTR1800017404). Stepwise multivariate Cox regression and competing risk analyses were conducted to identify poor prognosis-associated risk factors. Findings: Sixty patients (98·4%) experienced cytokine release syndrome (CRS), including seven, 26, 23, and four cases of CRS grades 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Only five cases of reversible neurological toxicities occurred. The objective response rate (ORR) was 98·3%, and the complete response (CR) rate was 70·3%. With a median follow-up period of 21·1 months, the one-year overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) rates were 78·0% and 50·2%, respectively. The median PFS was 12·7 months. Multivariate Cox modeling revealed that poor PFS was associated with extramedullary disease (hazard ratio (HR)=2 ·59, 95% confidence interval (95%CI)=1·29–5·21, P =0·008), light chain MM (HR=2·53, 95%CI=1·03–5·97, P =0·035), high-risk cytogenetics (HR=2·80, 95%CI=1·27–6·14, P =0·01), and prior treatment with >3 therapeutic lines (HR=3·14, 95%CI=1·34–7·34, P =0·008). Among the 41 complete remission cases, competing risk analyses demonstrated higher relapse predispositions in those with extramedullary disease (HR=4·51, 95%CI=1·86 –10·9, P =0·001), light chain MM (HR=4·89, 95%CI=1·52 –15·7, P =0·008), or high-risk cytogenetics (HR=5·09, 95%CI=1·63 –15·9, P =0·005). Furthermore, patients with more risk factors had worse outcomes. Interpretation: Anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy is safe and effective for R/R MM. For patients with high-risk factors, improvements to extend remission and more specific individualized therapies are needed. Funding: Natural Science Foundation of China, Key Project of Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province, Key R&D Project of Zhejiang Science and Technology Department, National Key Basic Research Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China. Declaration of Interest: AHC is a founding member of Shanghai YaKe Biotechnology Ltd., a biotechnology company focused on research and development of tumor cellular immunotherapy. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval: The protocol was approved by the 1st Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University Institutional Review Board. All patients provided written informed consent to participate in the study.

Development of Cell Culture Infectious Hepatitis C Virus Genotype 1b Clones and 1b-Induced Angiogenesis and Cholesterol Disorders

Globally, hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1b is most prevalent, and its infection has been found to associate with a higher risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than other genotype viruses. However, an efficient infectious HCV genotype 1b culture system is unavailable, which has largely hampered the study of this important genotype virus. In this study, by using a systematic approach combining adaptive mutations and infectious 1a TNcc sequences, we succeeded in culture adaption of two full-length 1b clones for the reference strain Con1 and a clinical isolate A6, and designated as Con1cc and A6cc, respectively. Con1cc and A6cc replicated efficiently in hepatoma Huh7.5.1 cells, released HCV infectivity titers of 104.1 and 103.72 focus forming units per milliliter, respectively, and maintained the engineered mutations after passages. Both viruses responded to sofosbuvir and velpatasvir in a dose-dependent manner. With culture infectious 1b clones, we characterized the transcriptomes of 1b Con1cc-infected cells. Con1cc infection activated angiogenesis and disturbed cholesterol homeostasis compared with uninfected cells. In conclusion, we have developed infectious clones for genotype 1b and shown a novel strategy for culture adaptation of HCV isolates by using a genetically close backbone sequence. Besides, this study provides transcriptional landscape of HCV 1b-infected hepatoma cells facilitating the study of genotype 1b infection. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81971938 for Y.-P.L.; 81772923 for Y.Z.), The Innovation Research Team for Basic and Clinical Studies on Chronic Liver Diseases of 2018 High-Level Health Teams of Zhuhai (for Y.-P.L. and F.X.), National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2015CB554301 for Y.-P.L.), Entrepreneurial Talent Team Award of Guangdong Province (No. 2016ZT06S252 for Y.-P.L.). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The use of patient serum was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee at the Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University (No. 2014-072).

Analysis of properties of krypton ion-implanted Zn-polar ZnO thin films* *Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11875088) and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB921003).

The optical properties of materials are of great significance for their device applications. Different numbers of krypton ions are doped into high-quality Zn-polar ZnO films fabricated by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on sapphire substrates through ion implantation. Krypton is chemically inert. The structures, morphologies, and optical properties of films are measured. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra confirm the wurtzite structures of Zn-polar ZnO films. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) results show that the films have pit surface structure and higher roughness after Kr ion implantation. A detailed investigation of the optical properties is performed by using the absorption spectrum, photoluminescence (PL), and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The absorption spectrum is measured by UV-visible spectrophotometer and the bandgap energy is estimated by the Tauc method. The results show that the absorption increases and the bandgap decreases after Kr ion implantation. Moreover, the Kr ion implantation concentration also affects the properties of the film. The ellipsometry results show that the films’ refractive index decreases with the Kr ion implantation concentration increasing. These results can conduce to the design and optimization of Kr ion-implanted polar ZnO films for optoelectronic applications.

Erasable Ferroelectric Domain Wall Diodes* *Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFA0308500), the Basic Research Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Action (Grant No. 17JC1400300), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61674044 and 61904034).

The unipolar diode-like domain wall currents in LiNbO3 single-crystal nanodevices are not only attractive in terms of their applications in nonvolatile ferroelectric domain wall memory, but also useful in half-wave and full-wave rectifier systems, as well as detector, power protection, and steady voltage circuits. Unlike traditional diodes, where the rectification functionality arises from the contact between n-type and p-type conductors, which are unchanged after off-line production, ferroelectric domain wall diodes can be reversibly created, erased, positioned, and shaped, using electric fields. We demonstrate such functionality using ferroelectric mesa-like cells, formed at the surface of an insulating X-cut LiNbO3 single crystal. Under the application of an in-plane electric field above a coercive field along the polar Z axis, the domain within the cell is reversed to be antiparallel to the unswitched bottom domain via the formation of a conducting domain wall. The wall current was rectified using two interfacial volatile domains in contact with two side Pt electrodes. Unlike the nonvolatile inner domain wall, the interfacial domain walls disappear to turn off the wall current path after the removal of the applied electric field, or under a negative applied voltage, due to the built-in interfacial imprint fields. These novel devices have the potential to facilitate the random definition of diode-like elements in modern large-scale integrated circuits.

Study of BESIII trigger efficiencies with the 2018 J/ψ data * *Supported in part by National Key Basic Research Program of China (2015CB856700); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (11625523, 11635010, 11735014, 11822506, 11835012, 11935015, 11935016, 11935018, 11961141012); the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Large-Scale Scientific Facility Program; Joint Large-Scale Scientific Facility Funds of the NSFC and CAS (U1732263,

Using a dedicated data sample taken in 2018 on the J/ψ peak, we perform a detailed study of the trigger efficiencies of the BESIII detector. The efficiencies are determined from three representative physics processes, namely Bhabha scattering, dimuon production and generic hadronic events with charged particles. The combined efficiency of all active triggers approaches 100% in most cases, with uncertainties small enough not to affect most physics analyses.

Hyperon weak radiative decay * *Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11425525, 11521505), DFG and NSFC funds to the Sino-German CRC 110 “Symmetries and the Emergence of Structure in QCD” (NSFC) (11261130311), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB34030302), National Key Basic Research Program of China (2015CB856700); Q.W. is also supported by the research

We revisit the hyperon weak radiative decays in the framework of the non-relativistic constituent quark model. This study confirms the nonlocal feature of the hyperon weak radiative transition operators, which are dominated by the pole terms, and an overall self-consistent description of the available experimental data for the Cabibbo-favored hyperon weak radiative decays is presented. It provides a natural mechanism for evading the Hara theorem, where sizeable parity-violating contributions can come from the intermediate orbital excitations. Cancellations between pole terms also explain the significant SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking manifested by the experimental data. We also discuss several interesting selection rules arising from either the electromagnetic or the weak interaction vertices. These features suggest nontrivial relations among various hyperon decays.

Intercalation of van der Waals layered materials: A route towards engineering of electron correlation**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2013CBA01603, 2016YFA0300600, and 2016YFA0300903), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574005, 11774009, 11222436, and 11574283), and the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents of China (Grant No. BX201700012) funded by China

Being parent materials of two-dimensional (2D) crystals, van der Waals layered materials have received revived interest. In most 2D materials, the interaction between electrons is negligible. Introducing the interaction can give rise to a variety of exotic properties. Here, via intercalating a van der Waals layered compound VS2, we find evidence for electron correlation by extensive magnetic, thermal, electrical, and thermoelectric characterizations. The low temperature Sommerfeld coefficient is 64 mJ⋅K−2⋅mol−1 and the Kadowaki–Woods ratio rKW ∼ 0.20a0. Both supports an enhancement of the electron correlation. The temperature dependences of the resistivity and thermopower indicate an important role played by the Kondo effect. The Kondo temperature TK is estimated to be around 8 K. Our results suggest intercalation as a potential means to engineer the electron correlation in van der Waals materials, as well as 2D materials.

Study of optical clocks based on ultracold 171Yb atoms**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFA0302103, 2017YFF0212003, and 2016YFB0501601), the Municipal Science and Technology Major Project of Shanghai, China (Grant No. 2019SHDZX01), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11134003), and the Excellent Academic Leaders Program of Shanghai, China (Grant

The optical atomic clocks have the potential to transform global timekeeping, relying on the state-of-the-art accuracy and stability, and greatly improve the measurement precision for a wide range of scientific and technological applications. Herein we report on the development of the optical clock based on 171Yb atoms confined in an optical lattice. A minimum width of 1.92-Hz Rabi spectra has been obtained with a new 578-nm clock interrogation laser. The in-loop fractional instability of the 171Yb clock reaches 9.1 × 10−18 after an averaging over a time of 2.0 × 104 s. By synchronous comparison between two clocks, we demonstrate that our 171Yb optical lattice clock achieves a fractional instability of .

Electrical and thermoelectric study of two-dimensional crystal of NbSe2**Project supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0300600) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574005 and 11774009).

We report experimental investigation of the resistivity and Nernst effect in two-dimensional (2D) NbSe2 crystals. A strongly enhanced Nernst effect, 100 times larger than that in bulk NbSe2, caused by moving vortices is observed in thin film. It is found that in the low temperature, high magnetic field regime, pinning effects show little dependence on the thickness and resistivity of the superconductor films. Strong Nernst signals persist above the superconducting transition, suggesting that the Nernst effect is a sensitive probe to superconducting fluctuations. A magnetic field induced superconductor--insulator transition (SIT) is evident, which is surprising in that such a SIT usually takes place in disordered dirty superconductors, while our samples are highly crystalline and close to the clean limit. Hence, our results expand the scope of SIT into 2D crystal clean superconductors.

A Risk Scoring System for Predicting Overall Survival in Patients with Liver Cancer

Background: Conventional strategies for assessing clinical and pathological risk factors have been adopted to predict clinical outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We hypothesized that an ensemble learning approach that incorporates multidimensional features would enable the construction of an effective prediction model for patient-specific risk profiles. Methods: We analyzed data from 222 stage II-III HCC patients who underwent surgical resection at Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital (Shanghai, China). We developed five machine learning-based estimation models for patient overall survival. The models were trained on 155 patients with 48 features (included clinical and pathological risk factors, laboratory tests and in situ immunological profiles), and validated on the remaining 67 patients. Findings: A risk scoring system incorporating multiple machine learning methods was developed for survival prediction. For all models tested, immune features such as CD68+ and CD8+ immune cell infiltration played a crucial role in predicting patient overall survival. The risk scoring system stratified patients into high-risk and low-risk subgroups (validation cohort: HR, 6.5; 95% CI, 2.4-18; p = 3.4e-05). In the validation set, the scoring system predicted the half-year mortality of patients with an AUC of 0.9 (95% CI, 0.771-1.029) and 1-year mortality with an AUC of 0.897 (95% CI, 0.816-0.978). The system was also predictive of the time to recurrence (p <0.0001). Interpretation: The machine learning-based risk scoring system offers a novel strategy that incorporates multidimensional risk factors to predict clinical outcomes and may help medical practitioners optimize clinical follow-up or therapeutic interventions. Funding Statement: This study was supported by grants from The National Key Sci-Tech Special Project of China (No. 2018ZX10302204003, No. 2018ZX10302207), the Shanghai Education Committee of Shuguang Plan (No. 18SG32), the National Key Basic Research Program “973 project” (No. 2015CB555400), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81472282, No. 81672899). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the ethics committee of Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital.

Noise temperature distribution of superconducting hot electron bolometer mixers**Project supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. GJJSTD20180003 and QYZDJ-SSW-SLH043), the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2017YFA0304003 and 2018YFA0404701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11603081, 11673073, U1831202, and 11873099), and PICS projects between the CAS and the CNRS.

We report on the investigation of optimal bias region of a wide-band superconducting hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixer in terms of noise temperature performance for multi-pixel heterodyne receiver application in the 5-meter Dome A Terahertz Explorer (DATE5) telescope. By evaluating the double sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature (Trec) across a wide frequency range from 0.2 THz to 1.34 THz and with a large number of bias points, a broad optimal bias region has been observed, illustrating a good bias applicability for multipixel application since the performance of the HEB mixer is uniquely determined by each bias point. The noise temperature of the HEB mixer has been analyzed by calibrating the noise contribution of all RF components, whose transmissions have been measured by a time-domain spectroscopy. The corrected noise temperature distribution shows a frequency independence relation. The dependence of the optimal bias region on the bath temperature of the HEB mixer has also been investigated, the bath temperature has limited effect on the lowest receiver noise temperature until 7 K, however the optimal bias region deteriorates obviously with increasing bath temperature.

Two types of highly efficient electrostatic traps for single loading or multi-loading of polar molecules**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11834003, 91536218, 11034002, 11274114, 11504112, and 11874151), the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB921602), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China, Shanghai Pujiang Talents Plan, China

Two novel electrostatic traps named octopole-based disk electrostatic trap (ODET) and tubular-based disk electrostatic trap (TDET) are proposed for trapping cold polar molecules in low-field-seeking states. Using MgF as the target molecule, single loading and multi-loading methods are numerically simulated with varied incident velocities of slow molecular beams in the two types of traps, respectively. In ODET, with an incident velocity of 10 m/s, a highest loading efficiency of 78.4% or 99.9% has been achieved under the single loading or multi-loading operation mode. In TDET, with an incident velocity of 11 m/s, a highest loading efficiency of 81.6% or 106.5% has been achieved using the two loading methods, respectively. With such high loading efficiencies, the trapped cold molecules can be applied in the researches of cold collisions, high precision spectroscopy, and precision measurements. Especially, together with a blue-detuned hollow beam, the new electrostatic traps proposed here offer a new platform for the following gradient-intensity cooling of MgF molecules, which may provide a new way to produce high density ultracold molecules.

Effect of Zr Content on Formation and Optical Properties of the Layered PbZrxTi1–xO3 Films**Supported by the Frontier Science Research Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. QYZDJ-SSW-SLH018), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11174307 and 11933006), and the National Key Basic Research Program of China (No. 2016YFB0402405).

PbZrxTi1–xO3 (PZT) films are fabricated on F-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates using chemical solutions containing PVP polymer and rapid thermal annealing processing. The dependence of the layered PZT multilayer formation and their optical properties on the Zr content x are examined. It is found that all the PZT films are crystallized and exhibit 110-preferred orientation. When x varies in the region of 0–0.8, the PZT films display lamellar structures, and a high reflection band occurs in each optical reflectance spectrum curve. Especially, those PZT films with Zr/Ti atomic ratio of 35/65–65/35 show clearly layered cross-sectional morphologies arranged alternatively by porous and dense PZT layers, and have a peak optical reflectivity of >70% and a band width of >45 nm. To obtain the optimal Bragg reflection performance of the PZT multilayers, the Zr content should be selected in the range of 0.35–0.65.

Gender-Specific Disparity in Prognostic Factors and Survival Prediction for Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Undergoing Resection

Background: There is no information whether gender-associated prognostic factor disparity exists in patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). Methods: A total of 732 ICC patients with pathological confirmation who underwent surgical resection between Nov 2011 and Apr 2015 was studied. Detection of prognostic factors was respectively performed for male and female patients using the Cox model. Gender-dependent nomograms were generated for survival prediction. Predictive performance was validated by receiver operating curves with area under curve (AUC) and calibration curves. Spearman’s rank correlation test was performed to identify gender-associated demographic and clinical factors. Results: There were 469 (64.1%) male and 263 (35.9%) female patients with ICC. Males achieved more favorable prognosis compared to females (overall survival; hazard ratio [HR], 1.23; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.48; P = 0.032; recurrence-free survival; HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.94-1.33; P = 0.197). Survival prediction was validated to be excellent for both genders (AUC, 0.71 and 0.68). Nomograms-stratified high risk showed a HR of 2.06 (P < 0.001) and 2.08 (P = 0.006) for male and female, respectively. Male showed nearest correlation with smoking, alpha fetoprotein, hepatitis B virus infection, and liver cirrhosis, whereas serum platelet count, tumor size, carbohydrate antigen (CA) 242, CA19-9, CA125, lymph node metastasis, and carcinoembryonic antigen were mostly correlated with female. Conclusions: There is a gender-associated disparity in prognostic factors for ICC after resection. Gender-dependent respective survival prediction seems to improve predictive accuracy. Large-scale prospective studies are needed to evaluate impact of gender on outcomes of other treatment modalities. Funding Statement: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81772529, 81970453), the State Key Project of China (2017YFA0504503), International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology (2011DFA32980), National Key Basic Research Program of China 973 Program (2012CB526706). Declaration of Interests: The authors who have taken part in this study declared that they do not have anything to disclose regarding funding or conflict of interest with respect to this manuscript. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the local ethics committee and informed consents were obtained from all patients.

Hysteresis effect in current–voltage characteristics of Ni/n-type 4H-SiC Schottky structure**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61804118, 61774117, and 61774119), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant Nos. 20101185935 and 20106186647), the National Key Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB759600), the Shaanxi Key Research and Development Program, China (Grant No.

Hysteresis current–voltage (I–V) characteristics are often observed in a highly non-ideal (n > 2) as-deposited nickel (Ni)/4H-SiC Schottky contact. However, we find that this kind of hysteresis effect also exists in an as-deposited Ni/n-type 4H-SiC Schottky structure even if the ideality factor (n) is less than 1.2. The hysteresis I–V characteristics is studied in detail in this paper by using the various measurements including the hysteresis I–V, sequential I–V sweeping, cycle I–V, constant reverse voltage stress (CRVS). The results show that the hysteresis I–V characteristics are strongly dependent on the sweeping voltage and post-deposition annealing (PDA). The high temperature PDA (800 °C) can completely eliminate this hysteresis. Meanwhile, the magnitude of the hysteresis effect is shown to decrease in the sequential I–V sweeping measurement, which is attributed to the fact that the electrons tunnel from the 4H-SiC to the localized states at the Ni/n-type 4H-SiC interface. It is found that the application of the reverse bias stress has little effect on the emission of those trapped electrons. And a fraction of the trapped electrons will be gradually released with the time under the condition of air and with no bias. The possible physical charging mechanism of the interface traps is discussed on the basis of the experimental findings.