The growth of epitaxial graphene on SiC and its metal intercalation: a review.

High-quality epitaxial graphene (EG) on SiC is crucial to high-performance electronic devices due to the good compatibility with Si-based semiconductor technology. Metal intercalation has been considered as a basic technology to modify EG on SiC. In the past ten years, there have been extensive research activities on the structural evolution during EG fabrication, characterization of the atomic structure and electronic states of EG, optimization of the fabrication process, as well as modification of EG by metal intercalation.

Self-efficacy and well-being in the association between caregiver burden and sleep quality among caregivers of elderly patients having multiple chronic conditions in rural China: a serial multiple mediation analysis.

Background: Caregivers of elderly patients with multiple chronic conditions have heavy caregiver burden and poor sleep quality, which has an important impact on both caregivers and patients. This study aimed to examine among rural caregivers of elderly patients who have multiple chronic conditions in China, whether self-efficacy and well-being mediate the link between caregiver burden and sleep quality.

Methods: The study recruited 325 caregivers of elderly patients having multiple chronic conditions in rural China.

Chicken cecal microbiota reduces abdominal fat deposition by regulating fat metabolism.

Cecal microbiota plays an essential role in chicken health. However, its contribution to fat metabolism, particularly in abdominal fat deposition, which is a severe problem in the poultry industry, is still unclear. Here, chickens at 1, 4, and 12 months of age with significantly (p < 0.

Multifunctional CaF: Yb, Ho, Gd Nanocrystals: Insight into Crystal Growth and Properties of Upconversion Luminescence, Magnetic, and Temperature Sensing Properties.

The upconversion (UC) emission intensity of Ln-doped CaF nanomaterials is not ideal, which limits their application in some advanced scientific fields. Hence, it is extremely imperative to enhance the emission intensity of UC nanocrystals. In this work, an ionic-liquid-assisted hydrothermal method based on an ethylene glycol (EG) and ionic liquid (IL) two-phase system was used to synthesize CaF doped with Yb and Ho.

A universal CRISPR/Cas12a nucleic acid sensing platform based on proximity extension and transcription-unleashed self-supply crRNA.

The extraordinary genome-editing tool CRISPR/Cas12a has also been utilized as a powerful sensing technology owing to its highly-specificity and isothermal signal amplification. Nevertheless, the widespread application of Cas12a-based sensing methods in nucleic acid detection is limited by the targeting range and high undesired background. Herein, we established a universal Cas12a-based nucleic acid sensing strategy by using proximity extension and transcription-unleashed self-suppling of crRNA.

Nanostructured Bi Grown on Epitaxial Graphene/SiC.

Controllable growth of metal nanostructures on epitaxial graphene (EG) is particularly interesting and important for the applications in electric devices. Bi nanostructures on EG/SiC are fabricated through thermal decomposition of SiC and subsequent low-flux evaporation of Bi. The orientation, atomic structure, and thickness-dependent electronic states of Bi are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy.

Thickness dependent Raman spectra and interfacial interaction between Ag and epitaxial graphene on 6H-SiC(0001).

Graphene as the thinnest material has an extremely large specific surface area, and thus the physical properties of graphene based devices should be sensitively dependent on the contacted metals. Moreover, the interfacial interaction between graphene and metals is complicated and it is difficult to probe. In this paper, epitaxial graphene is prepared by thermal decomposition of 6H-SiC(0001), and then Ag is deposited on it.