Objective To report the performance of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) based prenatal noninvasive fetal trisomy test based on cell-free DNA sequencing from maternal plasma in a routine clinical setting in China. MethodThe MPS-based test was offered as a prenatal screening test for trisomies 21 and 18 to pregnant women in 49 medical centers over 2 years. A total of 11 263 participants were recruited and the MPS-based test was performed in 11 105 pregnancies. Fetal outcome data were obtained after the expected date of confinement.Results One hundred ninety cases were classified as positive, including 143 cases of trisomy 21 and 47 cases of trisomy 18.With the karyotyping results and the feedback of fetal outcome data, we observed one false positive case of trisomy 21, one false positive case of trisomy 18 and no false negative cases, indicating 100% sensitivity and 99.96% specificity for the detection of trisomies 21 and 18.Conclusion Our large-scale multicenter study proved that the MPS-based test is of high sensitivity and specificity in

Topological insulators are an intriguing class of materials with an insulating bulk state and gapless Dirac-type edge/surface states. Recent theoretical work predicts that few-layer topological insulators are promising candidates for broadband and high-performance optoelectronic devices due to their spin-momentum-locked massless Dirac edge/surface states, which are topologically protected against all time-reversal-invariant perturbations. Here, we present the first experimental demonstration of near-infrared transparent flexible electrodes based on few-layer topological-insulator Bi(2)Se(3) nanostructures epitaxially grown on mica substrates by means of van der Waals epitaxy. The large, continuous, Bi(2)Se(3)-nanosheet transparent electrodes have single Dirac cone surface states, and exhibit sheet resistances as low as ~330 Ω per square, with a transparency of more than 70% over a wide range of wavelengths. Furthermore, Bi(2)Se(3)-nanosheet transparent electrodes show high chemical and thermal stabilities as well as excellent mechanical durability, which may lead to novel optoelectronic devices with unique properties.

The orientation- and position-controlled synthesis of single-crystal topological insulator (Bi(2)Se(3) and Bi(2)Te(3)) nanoplate arrays on mica substrates was achieved using van der Waals epitaxy. Individual ultrathin nanoplates with the lateral dimension up to ~0.1 mm or uniform thickness down to 1-2 nm were produced. Single-Dirac-cone surface states of nanoplate aggregates were confirmed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements. The large-grain-size, single-crystal nanoplate arrays grown on mica can act as facile platforms for a combination of spectroscopy and in situ transport measurements, which may open up new avenues for studying exotic physical phenomena, surface chemical reactions, and modification in topological insulators.