Volume Shrinkage Research Articles

Oxidation behavior and mechanism of Al4O4C powders at 1000–1300 °C

The high temperature non–isothermal and isothermal oxidation behavior of Al4O4C powders were investigated in the temperature range of 1000 to 1300 °C. The phase composition, micro–structure evolution, and the thickness of the oxide scale were characterized. The Al4O4C powders showed a good oxidation resistance at 1000 and 1100 °C, owing to the generation of the dense nanoscale rod–like and worm–like α–Al2O3 layer. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation illustrated that Al4O4C performed a high–temperature stability due to the strong covalent bond. The grain sizes of α–Al2O3 increased evidently at 1200 °C, and the staggered growth of α–Al2O3 particles and their corresponding volume shrinkage dominated the generation of the porous surface structure of oxidized Al4O4C powders. Subsequently, the gas phase diffused quickly through these porous structures, and thus resulted in rapid and complete oxidation of Al4O4C powders at 1300 °C. The isothermal oxidation kinetics of Al4O4C powders can be accurately described by the Carter model, and their corresponding apparent activation energy was calculated to be 350.93 kJ/mol at 1000–1300 °C.

Comparative Assessment of Total Versus Hemi Glossectomy Defects Reconstructed With Anterolateral Thigh Free Flap

Free tissue transfers for reconstruction following tongue resection has become standard practice. This study sought to evaluate volume shrinkage of the anterolateral thigh free (ALTF) reconstructing tongue defects at 6months postoperative. The aim was to estimate a shrinkage factor for ALTF reconstructing hemi and total glossectomy. This was an IRB-approved retrospective cohort study conducted at the head and neck service at the University of Florida, College of Medicine, Jacksonville (FL). This study targeted patients with tongue cancer from January 2018 to April 2022. patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) who were surgically treated by either hemi or total glossectomy and reconstructed with ALTF. Patients had to have a postoperative computer tomography scans at 1 and 6months post-surgery. Patients with constant body mass index during 6months postreconstruction. Additionally, the patients were to have been treated with adjuvant radiotherapy. patients with recurrent tongue cancer and those who weren't reconstructed or managed with other treatment modalities. Type of tongue resection hemi versus total glossectomy for treatment of tongue SCC. Shrinkage percentage of ALTF reconstructing tongue defects at 6months postoperatively. Age and gender. Paired t-test and student t-test with level of significance P≤.05 were used to statistically analyze ALTF volume changes at 1 and 6months postoperatively and ALTF shrinkage percentage at 6months postreconstruction, respectively. We identified 85 patients who were treated for tongue SCC during the time period of study. Out of the 85 patients, 11 patients were reconstructed with an ALTF. Eight males and 3 females with a mean age of 62.3years old. Six patients had total glossectomy and 5 had hemi glossectomy. Patients with hemi glossectomy had a significant difference in mean average flap shrinkage of 39.6%, while in those with total glossectomy had 17.7% (P=.004). According to our results, we recommend that the flap size should be larger than the defect to adjust for volume shrinkage (1.4 times and 1.2 times for cases of hemi and total glossectomy, respectively).

Effect of Target Changes on Target Coverage and Dose to the Normal Brain in Fractionated Stereotactic Radiation Therapy for Metastatic Brain Tumors

We evaluated the dosimetric effect of tumor changes in patients with fractionated brain stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) on the tumor and normal brain using repeat verification magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the middle of the treatment period. Fifteen large intracranial metastatic lesions with fractionated SRT were scanned employing standardized planning MRI (MRI-1). Repeat verification MRI (MRI-2) were performed during the middle of the irradiation period. Gross tumor volume (GTV) was defined as the volume of the contrast-enhancing lesion on T1-weighted MRI with gadolinium contrast agent. The doses to the tumor and normal brain were evaluated on the MRI-1 scan. Beam configuration and intensity on the initial volumetric modulated arc therapy plan were used to evaluate the dose to the tumor and the normal brain on MRI-2. We evaluated the effect of D98% (percent dose irradiating 98% of the volume) on the GTV using the plans on the MRI-1 and MRI-2 scans. For the normal brain, the V90%, V80%, and V50% (volume of the normal brain receiving >90%, 80%, and 50% of the prescribed dose, respectively) were investigated. Three (20% of the total) and 4 (26% of the total) tumors exhibited volume shrinkage or enlargement changes of >10%. Five (33% of the total) tumors exhibited volume shrinkage and enlargement changes of <10%. Three tumors (20% of the total) showed no volume changes. D98% of the GTV increased in patients with tumor shrinkage because of dose inhomogeneity and decreased in patients with tumor enlargement, with a coefficient of determination of 0.28. The V90%, V80%, and V50% increase with decreasing tumor volumes and were linearly related to the tumor volume difference with a coefficient of determination values of 0.97, 0.98, and 0.97, respectively. Repeat verification MRI for brain fractionated SRT during the treatment period should be considered to reduce the magnitude of target underdosing or normal brain overdosing.

Effects of vacuum microwave combined with freeze-drying on the physicochemical properties, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity of pear fruit slices.

The effects of freeze-drying (FD), vacuum microwave drying after freeze-drying (FD-VMD), and freeze-drying after vacuum microwave drying (VMD-FD) on the physicochemical properties, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity of pear fruit slices were investigated. The results showed that FD samples had the highest crispness value (116.30 N·sec) and the lowest volume shrinkage ratio value (5.48%). Compared to FD, the VMD-FD and FD-VMD methods could save drying time without affecting the color of dried samples. FD-VMD samples had the lowest rehydration capacity and maintained a homogeneous porous structure, while the VMD-FD samples had obvious collapse. Compared to VMD-FD samples, FD-VMD samples had higher contents of ascorbic acid (20.91 mg/100 g), total phenolic (7.62 mg/g), total anthocyanin (0.21 mg/g), and gallic acid (1.21 µg/g). Moreover, FD-VMD samples showed the highest antioxidant capacity as evaluated by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl) hydrazyl scavenging activity, 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) scavenging capacity, and H2 O2 content. Compared with FD and VMD-FD, FD-VMD was most effective in maintaining better quality and shortening drying time of pear fruit slices. These findings suggested that FD-VMD might be a promising drying technique in the fruits and vegetable processing industries.

Enhanced stability and high-rate performance of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 by surface topological synthesis of rare earth polymetallic oxides coating

The rapid capacity fading of the Ni-rich cathode has become the main obstacle to its development. Generally, the coating method can be used for modification, which can effectively isolate side reactions and maintain the original structure. In this study, novel rare earth (La, Ho, Tm) polymetallic oxide (REPMO) coating is topologically prepared on the surface of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) by using high speed shearing with reduction method. After modification, the high-rate capacity at 5 C enhanced a lot (100.3 mA h g−1 vs 31.2 mA h g−1) which is 3.2 times higher. This is because the Ni2+ of the cathode could be changed into Ni3+ to reduce the mixing of Li+/Ni2+ and the structural stability has been improved. Moreover, the synergistic effect of REPMO coating can increase ionic conductivity, accelerate Li+ diffusion rate and inhibit the phase transition, cation mixing and volume shrinkage. Our work provides an innovative idea at this moment for the selection and synthesis method of coating material for modification of cathode material.

Cellulolytic Bacteria as Decomposers in Dry Empty Fruit Bunches Composting

Empty fruit bunches (EFB) contain macro and micronutrients, so they can be used as compost. EFB takes a long time to be composted because it has high cellulose. Used cellulolytic bacteria decomposers are a solution to boost EFB composting. The goal of this research is to get cellulolytic bacteria with a high potential for accelerating composting and producing high-quality compost. The study used a completely randomized design with several types of cellulolytic bacteria and was repeated three times. Data is presented in qualitative and quantitative formats. The qualitative data were analyzed descriptively, the quantitative data were analyzed using analysis of variance, and the Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test was run at a 5% significance level. Temperature, volume shrinkage, color, smell, C-organic, N-total, C/N ratio, and pH parameters of the compost were analyzed. The results showed that the application of cellulolytic bacterial isolates could improve the quality of OPEFB compost (in accordance with SNI Compost Quality Standards: 19-7030-2004) and speed up composting time. Consortium I was the best treatment with reduced compost volume up to 74.53%, decreased C-organic content up to 23.32%, increased total N content up to 1.88% and decreased C/N ratio up to 12.44.

Electrochemical-mechanical coupling failure mechanism of composite cathode in all-solid-state batteries

Composite cathode composed of active particles and solid electrolytes (SEs) can considerably enlarge the particle-SE contact areas and achieve high areal loadings in all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). However, the challenging interfacial instability and particle damage problems remain unsolved. Herein, we establish a 3D electrochemical-mechanical coupled model to investigate the underlying failure mechanism by considering the governing electrochemical and physics processes. Micro-scale heterogeneous primary particles with random crystallographic orientation and size inside the LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 (NCM111) secondary particle of the model result in the anisotropic Li diffusion and volume variation within the secondary particle, leading to significant nonuniformity of the Li concentration, and GPa-level stress distributions at primary particle boundaries, and finally causing the particle internal cracks. The particle volume shrinkage under the constraint of stiff Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) SE triggers the interface debonding (gap>50 nm) with increased interfacial impedance to degrade cell capacity. Higher C-rates result in larger residual stress (∼100 MPa)/strain/debonding gap at discharging end, more likely to deteriorate the cell performance. Increasing the interfacial strength between the particle and SE can suppress the interface debonding but induces high stress (up to 10 GPa). Results reveal the underlying mechanism of the electrochemical-mechanical coupling failure mechanism for composite cathode and provide promising guidance on the further improvement of a more robust composite cathode for ASSBs.

Effects of sintering temperature on the characteristics of aluminum oxide ceramics obtained without pressure using sintering additives of the Al2O3‒SiO2‒CaO system

The alumina ceramics with high compressive strength were prepared by pressureless sintering, and the kaolinite and calcium carbonate were added as Al2O3‒SiO2‒CaO sintering additives. The effects of sintering temperature on the volume shrinkage, bulk density, water absorption and compressive strength of the alumina ceramics were studied. The phase composition, crystal cell parameters, average grain size and microstructure of the ceramic were analyzed by XRD, SEM and EDS. The results show that the lattice tends to packed with the increase of sintering temperature. The bonding between grains is the most compact after sintering at 1700 ℃. The volume shrinkage increases with the increase of sintering temperature. The water absorption of alumina ceramics after sintering at 1700 °С reaches the minimum value of 0,06 %. The bulk density and compressive strength increase first and then decrease with the increase of sintering temperature. At 1700 ℃, optimized mechanical properties of alumina ceramics is obtained, with a bulk density of 3,80 g/cm3 and a compressive strength of 1323 MPa. Ill. 10. Ref. 41. Tab. 4.

Responsive photonic hydrogel for colorimetric detection of formaldehyde

Formaldehyde (FA) can damage DNA, cause liver and kidney dysfunction, and ultimately lead to malignant tumors. Therefore, it is essential to develop a method that can conveniently detect FA with high detection sensitivity. Here, a responsive photonic hydrogel was prepared by embedding three-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) into amino-functionalized hydrogel to construct a colorimetric sensing film for FA. The amino groups on the polymer chains of the photonic hydrogel reacts with FA to increase the crosslinking density of the hydrogel, resulting in its volume shrinkage and a decrease in microsphere spacing of the PC. That causes the reflectance spectra blue-shift of more than 160 nm and color change from red to cyan for the optimized photonic hydrogel, achieving the sensitive, selective and colorimetric detection of FA. The constructed photonic hydrogel shows good accuracy and reliability for practical determination of FA in air and aquatic products, providing a new strategy for designing other target analytes responsive photonic hydrogels.

Study on the Effect of PVAc and Styrene on the Properties and Microstructure of MMA-Based Repair Material for Concrete.

Methyl methacrylate (MMA) material is considered to be a suitable material for repairing concrete crack, provided that its large volume shrinkage during polymerization is resolved. This study was dedicated to investigating the effect of low shrinkage additives polyvinyl acetate and styrene (PVAc + styrene) on properties of the repair material and further proposes the shrinkage reduction mechanism based on the data of FTIR spectra, DSC testing and SEM micrographs. The results showed that PVAc + styrene delayed the gel point during the polymerization, and the formation of two-phase structure and micropores compensated for the volume shrinkage of the material. When the proportion of PVAc + styrene was 12%, the volume shrinkage could be as low as 4.78%, and the shrinkage stress was reduced by 87.4%. PVAc + styrene improved the bending strength and fracture toughness of most ratios investigated in this study. When 12% PVAc + styrene was added, the 28 d flexural strength and fracture toughness of MMA-based repair material were 28.04 MPa and 92.18%, respectively. After long-term curing, the repair material added with 12% PVAc + styrene showed a good adhesion to the substrate, with a bonding strength greater than 4.1 MPa and the fracture surface appearing at the substrate after the bonding experiment. This work contributes to the obtaining of a MMA-based repair material with low shrinkage, while its viscosity and other properties also can meet the requirements for repairing microcracks.

Post treatment and 3 month contrast enhanced MRI findings following HIFU of submucosal fibroids: a retrospective study

Purpose This study used contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI) examination to assess the efficacy of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for submucosal fibroids. Methods A total of 81 submucosal fibroids, including 33 cases of type 1, 29 cases of type 2, and 19 cases of type 2–5, treated by HIFU were retrospectively reviewed. CE-MRI was performed in all cases immediately after HIFU, the non-perfused volume ratio (NPVR) and the degree of endometrial impairment were recorded. Thereafter, CE-MRI was repeated in all cases after three months, and the change of fibroid volume shrinkage rate (FVSR), NPVR and the degree of endometrial impairment were recorded. Results The immediate NPVR was 86.4 ± 19.3% in type 1, 90.0 ± 13.3% in type 2 and 90.3 ± 7.2% in type 2–5. Among 81 fibroids, grades 0, 1, 2 and 3 endometrial impairments were observed in 38.3%, 16.1%, 14.8% and 30.9%, respectively. Three months later, NPVR was 68.0 ± 36.4% in type 1, 74.3 ± 27.7% in type 2 and 85.0 ± 16.1% in type 2–5. Grades 0, 1, 2 and 3 endometrial impairments were observed in 64.2%, 23.5%, 9.9% and 2.4%.FVSR was 49.0 ± 1.3% in type 1, 39.6 ± 1.7% in type 2 and 37.2 ± 2.1% in type 2–5. The FVSR in submucosal fibroid type 1 was superior to type 2 and type 2–5 (p < 0.05). The NPVR of submucosal fibroids in type 2–5 were higher than type 1 (p < 0.05) .There was no difference among different types of submucosal fibroids in endometrial impairment (p > 0.05) three months after HIFU. Conclusions At three months after HIFU, FVSR was better for submucosal fibroid type 1 than for type 2 and type 2–5. And there was no difference in endometrial impairment among the different types of submucosal fibroid groups.

Antitumor Efficacy of the Novel KIT Inhibitor IDRX-42 (Formerly M4205) in Patient- and Cell Line-Derived Xenograft Models of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST).

The majority of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are driven by constitutively activated KIT/PDGFRA kinases and are susceptible to treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. During treatment, most of these tumors will develop secondary mutations in KIT or PDGFRA inducing drug resistance, so there is an unmet need for novel therapies. We tested the efficacy of IDRX-42, a novel selective KIT inhibitor with high activity toward the most relevant KIT mutations, in 4 GIST xenograft models. NMRI nu/nu mice were transplanted with patient-derived GIST xenograft models UZLX-GIST9 (KIT:p.P577del;W557LfsX5;D820G), UZLX-GIST2B (KIT:p.A502_Y503dup), UZLX-GIST25 (KIT:p.K642E), and the cell line-derived model GIST882 (KIT:p.K642E). Mice were treated daily with vehicle (control), imatinib (100 mg/kg), sunitinib (20 mg/kg), avapritinib (5 mg/kg), or IDRX-42 (10 mg/kg, 25 mg/kg). Efficacy was assessed by tumor volume evolution, histopathology, grading of histologic response, and IHC. The Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon matched-pairs tests were used for statistical analysis, with P < 0.05 considered as significant. IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg) caused tumor volume shrinkage in UZLX-GIST25, GIST882, and UZLX-GIST2B, with a relative decrease to 45.6%, 57.3%, and 35.1% on the last day as compared with baseline, and tumor growth delay (160.9%) compared with control in UZLX-GIST9. Compared with controls, IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg) induced a significant decrease in mitosis. In UZLX-GIST25 and GIST882 grade 2-4 histologic response with myxoid degeneration was observed in all IDRX-42 (25 mg/kg)-treated tumors. IDRX-42 showed significant antitumor activity in patient- and cell line-derived GIST xenograft models. The novel kinase inhibitor induced volumetric responses, decreased mitotic activity, and had antiproliferative effects. In models with KIT exon 13 mutation IDRX-42 induced characteristic myxoid degeneration.

The macroscopic mechanical characteristics and microscopic evolution mechanism of plastic concrete

Plastic concrete has been extensively used in the underground anti-seepage engineering. Due to its complexity, there are notably discrepant between the uniaxial and triaxial mechanical behavior of plastic concrete, and the mechanism investigation on its mechanical performance remains an ongoing endeavor. In this paper, to understand the mechanical performance mechanism of plastic concrete, uniaxial tests and triaxial tests were employed to evaluate the macroscopic mechanical characteristics of plastic concrete. Moreover, the Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-Ray diffraction(XRD) were utilized to probe the microstructure and composition of plastic concrete. The result of macroscopic tests showed that plastic concrete acts like strain-hardening materials and presents typical shear failure with obvious banded shear surface in higher confining pressure. The higher cement dosage and the lower bentonite content or w/c ratio increased the strength and peak strain. The E/f28 increased firstly followed by decreased with the increment of cement dosage and w/c ratio, while it increased with the addition of bentonite. As increasing the confining pressure, the strength and volume shrink deformation were enhanced while the modulus increased then decreased followed by increasing. The result of micro-test showed that the porosity of microstructure increased with the addition of bentonite and the voids of ITZ were packed up with the cementitious productions. It is suggested that the evolution of mechanical properties and microstructural features of plastic concrete are mainly driven by the synergistic effect of plasticization and solidification. The plasticization effect increased the microstructure porosity and weakened the mechanical properties of plastic concrete, while the solidification effect enhanced the bonding performance of particles in ITZ region and improved the shear strength of plastic concrete.

Stability and optimization of small-spacing two-well (SSTW) gas storage salt caverns in bedded salt formation

Many rock salts in China have a bedded structure, consisting of several thin interlayers and salt layers. To eliminate the limitations of the conventional single-well gas storage caverns, the small-spacing two-well (SSTW) salt caverns can be utilized. In this paper, under the geological conditions of Pingdingshan salt formation in Henan province, China, a geomechanical model was established to evaluate the stability of the SSTW salt cavern. The deformation, volume shrinkage rate, and safety factor were used for the cavern stability evaluation. The optimal cavern roof shape, two-well spacing, and cavern roof height were determined by analyzing the salt cavern stability under constant pressure conditions. Based on the optimal salt cavern morphology, the stability of the salt cavern and interlayers under various injection and withdrawal cycle frequencies are investigated. The results show that the rampant arch-shaped SSTW salt cavern has good feasibility in Pingdingshan salt formation. The cavern roof vertical displacement and volume shrinkage decrease with the increase of cavern roof height, and it is suggested that the ratio of cavern roof height to cavern height is at least 0.26. With the continuous increase of the two-well spacing, the cavern volume shrinkage also increases. It is recommended that the ratio of the two-well spacing to the single cavern radius should be no more than 0.625. The increase in cycle frequency reduces the duration of salt caverns under low-pressure conditions, thus improving the mechanical stability of the cavern and interlayers. This paper provides design and operation parameters for the SSTW salt cavern in Pingdingshan salt formation and can also be a reference for the construction of other SSTW salt caverns.

Effect of cryogenic treatment on B2 nanophase, dislocation and mechanical properties of Al1.4CrFe2Ni2 (BCC) high entropy alloy

In this paper, cryogenic treatment (at 77K) was first applied to solve the problem of strength and plasticity balance of body-centered cubic (BCC) type Al1.4CrFe2Ni2 high entropy alloy (HEA). The microstructure and mechanical properties of the HEAs after cryogenic treatment was studied systematically. The results show that cryogenic treatment has an intensive effect on the nanophases (B2), dislocations and mechanical properties. The nanophase is refined to 126.05 nm with cryogenic treatment for 24 h, which is 42.7% lower than the matrix alloy. The number of the nanophase is increased by 60%. With the increasing of cryogenic treatment time, the dislocation morphology evolves from short linear shape to long curved shape and ring shape in turn, and the dislocation density increases significantly. Al1.4CrFe2Ni2 HEA exhibits excellent mechanical properties (480 HV hardness and 3107 MPa fracture strength) after cryogenic treatment for 24 h, which increase 9.1% and 24.33% than the matrix alloy (440 HV and 2499 MPa) while maintain high fracture strain, up to 40.8%. This is attributed to the volume shrinkage and lattice distortion superposition of HEAs cause the extrusion effect between grains. Under the effect of cryogenic treatment, the internal stress increased with volume shrinkage and the dislocation strengthening obviously.

Automatic Multiscale Method of Building up a Cross-linked Polymer Reaction System: Bridging SMILES to the Multiscale Molecular Dynamics Simulation

An automatic method is introduced to generate the initial configuration and input file from SMILES for multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of cross-linked polymer reaction systems. Inputs are a modified version of SMILES of all the components and conditions of coarse-grained (CG) and all-atom (AA) simulations. The overall process comprises the following steps: (1) Modified SMILES inputs of all the components are converted to 3-dimensional coordinates of molecular structures. (2) Molecular structures are mapped to the coarse-grained scale, followed by a CG reaction simulation. (3) CG beads are backmapped to the atomic scale after the CG reaction. (4) An AA productive run is finally performed to analyze volume shrinkage, glass transition, and atomic detail of network structure. The method is applied to two common epoxy resin reactions, that is, the cross-linking process of DGEVA (diglycidyl ether of vanillyl alcohol) and DHAVA (dihydroxyaminopropane of vanillyl alcohol) and that of DGEBA (diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A) and DETA (diethylenetriamine). These components form network structures after the CG cross-linking reaction and are then backmapped to calculate properties in the atomic scale. The result demonstrates that the method can accurately predict volume shrinkage, glass transition, and all-atom structure of cross-linked polymers. The method bridges from SMILES to MD simulation trajectories in an automatic way, which shortens the time of building up cross-linked polymer reaction model and suitable for high-throughput computations.

Y3+ doping and electrochemical properties of LiFe0.5Mn0.5PO4@C cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

LiFe0.5Mn0.5−xYxPO4@C (x = 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.03) cathode materials were synthesized by a carbothermal solid-state reaction method, and the microstructure and the surface morphology were investigated by XRD, XPS, TEM and SEM technologies. The results show that Y3+ ions are successfully doped into the olivine structure, leading to cell volume shrinkage and an amorphous carbon coating on the particle surface, while the size and dispersion of the particles are also improved. The electrochemical properties of the preferred LiFe0.5Mn0.49Y0.01PO4@C sample were measured by galvanostatic charge-discharge, CV, EIS and GITT methods. The results show that Y3+ doping can significantly decrease its potential polarization, promotes the reduction kinetics of Mn3+ ions and effectively enhances the Li+ diffusion coefficient at 4.1 V. It can provide a discharge specific capacity of 160 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C with an initial coulombic efficiency of 90.1%, 122.93 mAh g−1 at 1 C with a capacity retention of 87.74% after 300 cycles, and 44.89 mAh g−1 at 10 C.

The perspectives of a novel operative procedure for free gingival graft

Graft shrinkage, epithelial disintegration, and even necrosis are the well-known clinical complications during initial healing stage of free gingival graft (FGG) procedure. This article presented a novel operative prodecure for FGG in a dental implant with insufficient keratinized tissue over a 3-year follow-up period. Briefly, donor site for FGG harvested from maxillary tuberosity would minimize the volume of graft shrinkage. The new periosteum suture technique could secure FGG firmly adapted on the recipient site. With 1 mm gap between FGG and muco-gingival junction may improve plasmatic circulation and revascularization. The clinical findings of case report demonstrated that this novel operative procedure may provide a viable therapeutic alternative for FGG.

Scalable High-Precision Trimming of Photonic Resonances by Polymer Exposure to Energetic Beams.

Integrated photonic circuits (PICs) have seen an explosion in interest, through to commercialization in the past decade. Most PICs rely on sharp resonances to modulate, steer, and multiplex signals. However, the spectral characteristics of high-quality resonances are highly sensitive to small variations in fabrication and material constants, which limits their applicability. Active tuning mechanisms are commonly employed to account for such deviations, consuming energy and occupying valuable chip real estate. Readily employable, accurate, and highly scalable mechanisms to tailor the modal properties of photonic integrated circuits are urgently required. Here, we present an elegant and powerful solution to achieve this in a scalable manner during the semiconductor fabrication process using existing lithography tools: by exploiting the volume shrinkage exhibited by certain polymers to permanently modulate the waveguide's effective index. This technique enables broadband and lossless tuning with immediate applicability in wide-ranging applications in optical computing, telecommunications, and free-space optics.

Promising Energetic Melt-Castable Material with Balanced Properties.

As one of the most widely used energetic materials to date, trinitrotoluene (TNT) suffers from several generally known drawbacks such as high toxicity, oil permeability, and poor mechanical properties, which are driving researchers to explore new high-performance energetic melt-castable materials for replacing TNT. However, it still remains a great challenge to discover a promising TNT alternative due to the multidimensional requirements for practical applications. Herein, we reported a new promising energetic melt-castable molecule, 4-methoxy-1-methyl-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazole (named as DMDNP). Besides a reasonable melting point (Tm: 94.8 °C), good thermostability (Td: 293.2 °C), and excellent chemical compatibility, DMDNP exhibits some obvious advantages over TNT including more environmentally friendly synthesis, high yield, low toxicity, low volume shrinkage, low mechanical and electrostatic sensitivities, etc., demonstrating well-balanced properties and great promise as a TNT replacement.