Arsenic Monolayers Formed by Zero-Dimensional Tetrahedral Clusters and One-Dimensional Armchair Nanochains.

One-dimensional (1D) arsenene nanostructures are predicted to host a variety of interesting physical properties including antiferromagnetic, semiconductor-semimetal transition and quantum spin Hall effect, which thus holds great promise for next-generation electronic and spintronic devices. Herein, we devised a surface template strategy in a combination with surface-catalyzed decomposition of molecular As cluster toward the synthesis of the superlattice of ultranarrow armchair arsenic nanochains in a large domain on Au(111). In the low annealing temperature window, zero-dimensional As nanoclusters are assembled into continuous films through intermolecular van der Waals and molecule-substrate interactions.

Five-fold symmetry in Au-Si metallic glass.

The first metallic glass of Au-Si alloy for over half a century has been discovered, but its atomic structure is still puzzling. Herein, AuSi dodecahedrons with local five-fold symmetry are revealed as building blocks in Au-Si metallic glass, and the interconnection modes of AuSi dodecahedrons determine the medium-range order. With dimensionality reduction, the surface ordering is attributed to the motif transformation of AuSi dodecahedrons into planar AuSi pyramids with five-fold symmetry, and thus the self-assembly of AuSi pyramids leads to the formation of the ordered AuSi monolayer with the lowest energy.

Theoretical Design of Inorganic Flexible Bulk Photovoltaic Materials.

Current flexible photovoltaics (PVs) are usually based on low-dimensional structures of inorganic semiconductors and hybrid perovskites, as well as organic materials. Here, we propose a type of inorganic flexible bulk PV material, evaluating its structure flexibility, electronic structure, and PV efficiency in the framework of density functional theory, suggesting α-AgS as the best candidate. It is found that the band structure and effective masses of α-AgS can be significantly modulated by external strain, whereas leaving the high PV efficiency was not affected much.

All-boron planar ferromagnetic structures: from clusters to monolayers.

Ferromagnetism in all-boron planar clusters is revealed based on high-throughput first-principles calculations. Magnetic boron clusters induced from p electrons have been confirmed with large spins, e.g.

Energy landscape of Au: a global view of structure transformation.

It has long been a challenge in physics and chemistry to acquire a global picture of the energy landscape of a specific material, as well as the kinetic transformation process between configurations of interest. Here we have presented a comprehensive approach to deal with the structure transformation problem, along with the illustration of the energy landscape, as exemplified with the case of Au13. A configuration space based on interatomic distances was proposed and demonstrated to have a strong correlation between structure and energy, with application in structure analysis to screen for trial transition pathways.

Influence of Ceramic Debris on Osteoblast Behaviors: An In Vivo Study.

Objective: Wear-induced aseptic loosening has been accepted as one of the main reasons for failure of total hip arthroplasty. Ceramic wear debris is generated following prosthesis implantation and plays an important part in the upregulation of inflammatory factors in total hip arthroplasty. The present study investigates the influence of ceramic debris on osteoblasts and inflammatory factors.

Insights into the unusual semiconducting behavior in low-dimensional boron.

Elementary semiconductors are rare and attractive, especially for low-dimensional materials. Unfortunately, most of the boron nanostructures have been found to be metallic, despite their typical semiconducting bulk structure. Herein, we propose a general recipe to realize low-dimensional semiconducting boron.

An electron compensation mechanism for the polymorphism of boron monolayers.

Boron monolayers have been increasingly attractive, while it is still a challenge to understand their structural stabilities, due to electron deficiency and multi-center bonds. In this work, we propose the average electron compensation (AEC) mechanism for boron monolayers based on high-throughput first-principles calculations. It is found that the AEC parameter (λ) tends to be zero for the stable free-standing boron monolayers.

Two-Dimensional Semiconducting Boron Monolayers.

The two-dimensional boron monolayers were reported to be metallic both in previous theoretical predictions and experimental observations. Unexpectedly, we have first found a family of boron monolayers with the novel semiconducting property as confirmed by the first-principles calculations with the quasi-particle GW approach. We demonstrate that the connected network of hexagonal vacancies dominates the gap opening for both the in-plane s+p and p orbitals, with which various semiconducting boron monolayers are designed to realize the band gap engineering for the potential applications in electronic devices.

An intrinsic representation of atomic structure: From clusters to periodic systems.

We have improved our distance matrix and eigen-subspace projection function (EPF) [X.-T. Li et al.

Hypersensitivity toward bacterial stimuli in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

Although the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is unclear, genetic screening has revealed that polymorphisms in the complement system may be associated with AMD development. Production of autoantibodies was also found in AMD patients. In this study, we analyzed the antibody response in AMD patients.

[Effects of water temperature and feeding on respiratory metabolism of juvenile Salvelinus fontinalus].

The oxygen consumption and ammonia excretion rates of juvenile brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalus) under satiation and starvation were measured at different levels of water temperature [(5.5 +/- 0.5), (8.