Transparent conducting electrodes are essential components for numerous flexible optoelectronic devices, including touch screens and interactive electronics. Thin films of indium tin oxide-the prototypical transparent electrode material-demonstrate excellent electronic performances, but film brittleness, low infrared transmittance and low abundance limit suitability for certain industrial applications. Alternatives to indium tin oxide have recently been reported and include conducting polymers, carbon nanotubes and graphene. However, although flexibility is greatly improved, the optoelectronic performance of these carbon-based materials is limited by low conductivity. Other examples include metal nanowire-based electrodes, which can achieve sheet resistances of less than 10Ω □(-1) at 90% transmission because of the high conductivity of the metals. To achieve these performances, however, metal nanowires must be defect-free, have conductivities close to their values in bulk, be as long as possible to minimize the number of wire-to-wire junctions, and exhibit small junction resistance. Here, we present a facile fabrication process that allows us to satisfy all these requirements and fabricate a new kind of transparent conducting electrode that exhibits both superior optoelectronic performances (sheet resistance of ~2Ω □(-1) at 90% transmission) and remarkable mechanical flexibility under both stretching and bending stresses. The electrode is composed of a free-standing metallic nanotrough network and is produced with a process involving electrospinning and metal deposition. We demonstrate the practical suitability of our transparent conducting electrode by fabricating a flexible touch-screen device and a transparent conducting tape.

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Recently, hybrid Si/organic solar cells have been studied for low-cost Si photovoltaic devices because the Schottky junction between the Si and organic material can be formed by solution processes at a low temperature. In this study, we demonstrate a hybrid solar cell composed of Si nanocones and conductive polymer. The optimal nanocone structure with an aspect ratio (height/diameter of a nanocone) less than two allowed for conformal polymer surface coverage via spin-coating while also providing both excellent antireflection and light trapping properties. The uniform heterojunction over the nanocones with enhanced light absorption resulted in a power conversion efficiency above 11%. Based on our simulation study, the optimal nanocone structures for a 10 μm thick Si solar cell can achieve a short-circuit current density, up to 39.1 mA/cm(2), which is very close to the theoretical limit. With very thin material and inexpensive processing, hybrid Si nanocone/polymer solar cells are promising as an economically viable alternative energy solution.

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Background: Experimental laboratory evidence suggests that bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disruptor, is a neurodevelopmental toxicant. However, there have been limited and inconclusive results with respect to sex-specific BPA effects on child behavior.Objective: We examined the association between prenatal BPA exposure and child behavior, adjusting for postnatal BPA exposure and hypothesizing sex-specific effects.Methods: We followed African-American and Dominican women and their children from pregnancy to child’s age 5 years, collecting spot urine samples from the mothers during pregnancy (34 weeks on average) and from children between 3 and 4 years of age to estimate BPA exposure. We assessed child behavior between 3 and 5 years of age using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and used generalized linear models to test the association between BPA exposure and child behavior, adjusting for potential confounders.Results: The analysis was conducted on 198 children (87 boys and 111 girls). Among boys, high prenatal BPA exposure (highest quartile vs. the lowest three quartiles) was associated with significantly higher CBCL scores (more problems) on Emotionally Reactive [1.62 times greater; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.13, 2.32] and Aggressive Behavior syndromes (1.29 times greater; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.53). Among girls, higher exposure was associated with lower scores on all syndromes, reaching statistical significance for Anxious/Depressed (0.75 times as high; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.99) and Aggressive Behavior (0.82 times as high; 95% CI: 0.70, 0.97).Conclusion: These results suggest that prenatal exposure to BPA may affect child behavior, and differently among boys and girls.

Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) protocol and its variants, e.g. phase-matching (PM) QKD and TF-QKD based on sending or not sending, are highly attractive since they are able to overcome the well-known rate-loss limit for QKD protocols without repeater: R = O(η) with η standing for the channel transmittance. However, all these protocols require active phase randomization and post-selection that play an essential role together in their security proof. Counterintuitively, we find that in TF-QKD, beating the rate-loss limit is still possible even if phase randomization and post-selection in the coding mode are both removed, which means our final secure key rate R = O( √ η). Furthermore, our protocol is more feasible in practice and more promising according to its higher final key rate in the valid distance. Our security proof counters collective attack and can also counter coherent attack in asymptotical case.

In this population, there was no detectable additional benefit of hand sanitizer or face masks over targeted education on overall rates of URIs, but mask wearing was associated with reduced secondary transmission and should be encouraged during outbreak situations. During the study period, community concern about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was occurring, perhaps contributing to the use of hand sanitizer in the Education control group, and diluting the intervention's measurable impact.

SUMMARYPurpose: Fast ripples are reported to be highly localizing to the epileptogenic or seizure-onset zone (SOZ) but may not be readily found in neocortical epilepsy, whereas ripples are insufficiently localizing. Herein we classified interictal neocortical ripples by associated characteristics to identify a subtype that may help to localize the SOZ in neocortical epilepsy. We hypothesize that ripples associated with an interictal epileptiform discharge (IED) are more pathologic, since the IED is not a normal physiologic event. Methods: We studied 35 patients with epilepsy with neocortical epilepsy who underwent invasive electroencephalography (EEG) evaluation by stereotactic EEG (SEEG) or subdural grid electrodes. Interictal fast ripples and ripples were visually marked during slow-wave sleep lasting 10-30 min. Neocortical ripples were classified as type I when superimposed on epileptiform discharges such as paroxysmal fast, spike, or sharp wave, and as type II when independent of epileptiform discharges. Key Findings: In 21 patients with a defined SOZ, neocortical fast ripples were detected in the SOZ of only four patients. Type I ripples were detected in 14 cases almost exclusively in the SOZ or primary propagation area (PP) and marked the SOZ with higher specificity than interictal spikes. In contrast, type II ripples were not correlated with the SOZ. In 14 patients with two or more presumed SOZs or nonlocalizable onset pattern, type I but not type II ripples also occurred in the SOZs. We found the areas with only type II ripples outside of the SOZ (type II-O ripples) in SEEG that localized to the primary motor cortex and primary visual cortex. Significance: Neocortical fast ripples and type I ripples are specific markers of the SOZ, whereas type II ripples are not. Type I ripples are found more readily than fast ripples in human neocortical epilepsy. Type II-O ripples may represent spontaneous physiologic ripples in the human neocortex.