iRGD-reinforced,photo-transformable nanoclusters toward cooperative enhancement of intratumoral penetration and antitumor efficacy

Nano Research - Insufficient intratumoral penetration greatly hurdles the anticancer performance of nanomedicine. To realize highly efficient tumor penetration in a precisely and spatiotemporally...     

Blocked crystallization in capped ultrathin polymer films studied by molecular simulations

The crystallization of capped ultrathin polymer films is closely dependent on film thickness and interfacial interaction. Using dynamic Monte Carlo simulations, the crystallization behaviors of polymer films confined between two substrates were investigated. The crystallization rate of confined polymers is reduced with high interfacial interactions. Above a critical strength of interfacial interaction, polymer crystallization in the thin film is inhibited within the simulation time scales. An increase in film thickness leads to a rise in critical interfacial interaction. In thicker films, the chains have more space to change conformation to form crystal stems. In addition, there are fewer absorbed segments in confined chains for the thicker films, and thus the chains have stronger ability to adjust their conformation. Therefore an increase in film thickness can cause a reduction in the entropic barrier required for the formation of crystals and thus an increase in the critical interfacial interaction. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sustainable ammonia production through process synthesis and global optimization

Current ammonia production technologies have a significant carbon footprint. In this study, we present a process synthesis and global optimization framework to discover the efficient utilization of renewable resources in ammonia production. Competing technologies are incorporated in a process superstructure where biomass, wind, and solar routes are compared with the natural gas-based reference case. A deterministic global optimization-based branch-and-bound algorithm is used to solve the resulting large-scale nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP). Case studies for Texas, California, and Iowa are conducted to examine the effects of different feedstock prices and availabilities. Results indicate that profitability of ammonia production is highly sensitive to feedstock and electricity prices, as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) restrictions. Under strict 75% GHG reductions, biomass to ammonia route is found to be competitive with natural gas route, whereas wind and solar to ammonia routes require further improvement to compete with those two routes. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: e16498 2019     

Chemotherapy response of pancreatic cancer by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and intravoxel incoherent motion DWI (IVIM-DWI) in an orthotopic mouse model

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - To investigate the value of using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and intravoxel incoherent motion DWI (IVIM-DWI) to assess the...     

Multilevel Recording in Ge2Sb2Te5 Thin Films

Semiconductors - The current–voltage characteristics measured on Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films in the current mode are studied. The effect of multilevel recording is established when applying...     

Scanning tunneling spectroscopic study of monolayer 1T-TaS2 and 1T-TaSe2

Nano Research - The isostructural and isoelectronic transition-metal-dichalcogenides 1T-TaS2 and 1T-TaSe2 are layered materials with intricate electronic structures. Combining the molecular beam...