does not require an activation energy but it is certainly characterized by dissipation associated with the viscosity at the boundary between the crystalline domains and the amorphous matrix. A detailed description of this process goes well beyond the scope of this introductory communication.The recording speed of the holograms in our samples is of the order of tens of seconds, much slower than in the photorefractive composites with the smallest response times, [18,19] and this represents the main limit of our materials. Improvement in response time may require tighter control of the shape of the dispersed domains and of their surface dissipative properties. An increase in the holographic writing time was also observed as the AZPON content was lowered. This can be attributed to an increase in the surface/volume ratio of smaller domains, corresponding to an increased effect of the viscosity torques relative to the reorienting field torques. The stability towards further phase separation, corresponding to an increase in domain size beyond the limit of scattering in the visible, is relatively good, with little or no decrease of efficiency over a period of several months. An increase in the scattering is however observed after a 5±10 months period at room temperature, although the original performance is regained after a heating±cooling cycle during which phase separation is repeated. An improvement in the stability of the nanodispersions can, in principle, be obtained through well established techniques (vulcanization, reinforcement, etc.) of polymer stabilization. In summary, our data indicate that, at a given applied electric field, controlled phase separation can increase the orientational contribution to the dynamic range by orders of magnitude. As the improvement in performance that we describe here can in principle be obtained in most photoconductive composites, this method considerably broadens the range of potentially useful photorefractive materials for applications ranging from holographic storage to medical imaging. ExperimentalSamples consisted of thin amorphous films between two indium tin oxidecoated conducting glasses. They were obtained by mixing the required amounts of substances in chloroform and evaporating the solvent. Empty cells containing only glass spacers to control the thickness were prepared, placed on a hot plate, filled by capillary action, and cooled rapidly to room temperature. Alternatively, for solutions with higher viscosity, the hot melt was sandwiched between two hot glasses and then rapidly cooled.Light transmission was measured for a p-polarized laser beam at 633 nm, incident at a 60 angle with respect to the sample normal.Diffraction efficiency was measured by degenerate four-wave mixing experiments, carried out by overlapping two writing beams on a circular area of the sample with a 1 mm diameter. Writing beams had equal intensity and were s-polarized, with a power density of 0.4 W cm ±2, and the beam ratio was b = 1. The grating period was K = 3 lm in all cases. A reading bea...

The challenges of solid‐state supercapacitors (SCs) for flexible and wearable electronics still remain in well balancing the electrochemical performance, mechanical stability, and processing technologies. Herein, a high‐performance, tailorable and foldable solid‐state asymmetric supercapacitor is developed via one‐step scalable chemical oxidization and MXene ink painting of N‐doped carbon fiber textile (NCFT) substrate. The employed O/N‐functionalized NCFT (ONCFT) and MXene materials under opposite potentials both incorporate excellent electrochemical behaviors of carbon‐like materials and pseudocapacitive materials, namely high rate capability and pseudocapacitance. By regulating oxidization time and MXene loading, the active layer of MXene decorated NCFT (MNCFT) and ONCFT electrodes analogously present tight skin structure, fundamentally avoiding the risk of active materials detaching from the support during mechanical deformation. As a result, the assembled MNCFT//ONCFT device not only achieves an extended voltage window of 1.6 V, high areal energy density of 277.3 μWh cm−2 and 90% capacitance retention after 30 000 cycles, but also experiences repeated folding tests. Additionally, the design makes it possible to tailor the textile‐based energy storage device (TEESD) into a designed size or shape without impairing its performance for device integration or shape conformable integration. Owing to the whole component fabrication being simple and scalable, the TEESD shows potential practical application.

Lowering power output and radiation time during radiofrequency (RF) ablation is still a challenge. Although it is documented that metal-based magnetothermal conversion and microbubbles-based inertial cavitation have been tried to overcome above issues, disputed toxicity and poor magnetothermal conversion efficiency for metal-based nanoparticles and violent but transient cavitation for microbubbles are inappropriate for enhancing RF ablation. In this report, a strategy, i.e., continuous cavitation, has been proposed, and solid menthol-encapsulated poly lactide-glycolide acid (PLGA) nanocapsules have been constructed, as a proof of concept, to validate the role of such a continuous cavitation principle in continuously enhancing RF ablation. The synthesized PLGA-based nanocapsules can respond to RF to generate menthol bubbles via distinctive radiofrequency solidoid vaporization (RSV) process, meanwhile significantly enhance ultrasound imaging for HeLa solid tumor, and further facilitate RF ablation via the continuous cavitation, as systematically demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, this RSV strategy can overcome drawbacks and limitations of acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV) and optical droplet vaporization (ODV), and will probably find broad applications in further cancer theranostics.

With well-matched groups and consistent procedure design, our results demonstrated that the volume reduction ratio, therapeutic success rate, symptom and cosmetic score, and complications related to treatment for the two techniques are equivalent. Radiofrequency ablation and microwave ablation are both effective and safe methods in treating benign thyroid nodules.

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The purpose of the study was to explore the diagnostic performance of acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography in differential diagnosis between benign and malignant thyroid nodules in patients with coexistent Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). A total of 141 pathological proven nodules in 141 HT patients (7 males and 134 females, mean age 50.1 years, range 23-75 years) received conventional ultrasound (US), elasticity imaging (EI) and ARFI elastography, including virtual touch tissue imaging (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ), before surgery. Shear wave velocity (SWV) and SWV ratio were measured for each nodule on VTQ. The US, EI and ARFI elastography features were compared between benign and malignant nodules in HT patients. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses and area under curve (AUC) were performed to assess the diagnostic performance. Pathologically, 70 nodules were benign and 71 nodules were malignant. Significant differences were found between benign and malignant nodules in HT patients for EI (EI score) and ARFI (VTI grade and SWV) (all P value <0.05). The AUCs for EI, VTI, SWV and SWV ratio were 0.68 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59-0.77], 0.90 (95% CI: 0.84-0.95), 0.77 (95%CI: 0.70-0.85) and 0.74 (95%CI: 0.66-0.82), respectively. The cut-off points were EI score ≥3, VTI grade ≥4, SWV ≥2.58 m/s and SWV ratio ≥1.03, respectively. In conclusion, ARFI elastography is useful for differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid nodules in HT patients. The diagnostic performance of ARFI elastography is better than EI.

The restacking hindrance of MXene films restricts their development for high volumetric energy density of flexible supercapacitors toward applications in miniature, portable, wearable or implantable electronic devices. A valid solution is construction of rational heterojunction to achieve a synergistic property enhancement. The introduction of spacers such as graphene, CNTs, cellulose and the like demonstrates limited enhancement in rate capability. The combination of currently reported pseudocapacitive materials and MXene tends to express the potential capacitance of pseudocapacitive materials rather than MXene, leading to low volumetric capacitance. Therefore, it is necessary to exploit more ideal candidate materials to couple with MXene for fully expressing both potentials. Herein, for the first time, high electrochemically active materials of ultrathin MoO3 nanobelts are intercalated into MXene films. In the composites, MoO3 nanobelts not only act as pillaring components to prevent restacking of MXene nanosheets for fully expressing the MXene pseudocapacitance in acidic environment but also provide considerable pseudocapacitive contribution. As a result, the optimal M/MoO3 electrode not only achieves a breakthrough in volumetric capacitance (1817 F cm−3 and 545 F g−1), but also maintains good rate capability and excellent flexibility. Moreover, the corresponding symmetric supercapacitor likewise shows a remarkable energy density of 44.6 Wh L−1 (13.4 Wh kg−1), rendering the flexible electrode a promising candidate for application in high-energy-density energy storage devices.