Cell spray printing combined with Lycium barbarum glycopeptide promotes repair of corneal epithelial injury.

The corneal epithelium, located as the outermost layer of the cornea, is inherently susceptible to injuries that may lead to corneal opacities and compromise visual acuity. Rapid restoration of corneal epithelial injury is crucial for maintaining the transparency and integrity of the cornea. Cell spray treatment emerges as an innovative and effective approach in the field of regenerative medicine. In our study, a cell spray printing platform was established, and the optimal printing parameters were determined to be a printing air pressure of 5 PSI (34.47 kPa) and a liquid flow rate of 30 ml/h. Under these conditions, the viability and phenotype of spray-printed corneal epithelial cells were preserved. Moreover, Lycium barbarum glycopeptide (LBGP), a glycoprotein purified from wolfberry, enhanced proliferation while simultaneously inhibiting apoptosis of the spray-printed corneal epithelial cells. We found that the combination of cell spray printing and LBGP facilitated the rapid construction of multilayered cell sheets on flat and curved collagen membranes in vitro. Furthermore, the combined cell spray printing and LBGP accelerated the recovery of the rat corneal epithelium in the mechanical injury model. Our findings offer a therapeutic avenue for addressing corneal epithelial injuries and regeneration.

High performance solar-blind UV detector with Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O double layer structure on MgO substrate.

Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O double layer structure UV detectors are made on single structure MgO substrate by PLD method, and the effect of different thickness top MgZnO layer on the UV response characteristics of the detector are studied. Compared with the single layer MgZnO detector that made by Mg0.3Zn0.7O target, the Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O double layer detector with 30 nm top layer, shows much higher deep UV response (21.3 A W-1at 265 nm), much smaller dark current(66.9 pA) and much higher signal-to-noise ratio (2.8 × 105) at 25 V bias voltage. And the device also shows relative high response (23.1 A W-1) at 235 nm deep UV light at 25 V bias voltage, which is mainly attributed by the bottom MgZnO layer with higher Mg composition. When the top layer is 66.7 nm thick, the response of the Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O detector reached 228.8 A W-1at 255 nm under 25 V bias voltage, the signal-to-noise ratio of which is 10573 under 20 V bias voltage, and the near UV response of the device is also big because of more h-MgZnO in top MgZnO layer. When the top layer reached 90.2 nm, there are much more h-MgZnO in the top MgZnO layer, the peak response of the Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O detector is just 6.65 A W-1at 320 nm under 25 V bias voltage, the signal-to-noise ratio of which is 1248. The high Mg composition bottom MgZnO decrease the dark current of the Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O detector, both the 2DEG effect of the double layer structure and the amplify effect of the mix-phase MgZnO top layer, increased theIuvand deep UV response of the Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O detector. Therefore, the double layer Mg0.472Zn0.528O/Mg0.447Zn0.553O detector is more sensitive at faint deep UV light compared with previous reported MgZnO detectors, and the MgxZn1-xO/MgyZn1-yO detector shows similarIuvand signal-noise-ratio at faint deep UV light as high-temperature fabricated AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN detectors.

Aqueous Solution-Grown Crystalline Phosphorus Doped Indium Oxide for Thin-Film Transistors Applications.

Solution-grown indium oxide (In2O3) based thin-film transistors (TFTs) hold good prospects for emerging advanced electronics due to their excellent mobility, prominent transparency, and possibility of low-cost and scalable manufacturing; however, pristine In2O3 TFTs suffer from poor switching characteristics due to intrinsic oxygen-vacancy-related defects and require external doping. According to Shanmugam's theory, among potential dopants, phosphorus (P) has a large dopant-oxygen bonding strength (EM-O) and high Lewis acid strength (L) that would suppress oxygen-vacancy related defects and mitigate dopant-induced carrier scattering; however, P-doped In2O3 (IPO) TFTs have not yet been demonstrated. Here, we report aqueous solution-grown crystalline IPO TFTs for the first time. It is suggested that the incorporation of P could effectively inhibit oxygen-vacancy-related defects while maintaining high mobility. This work experimentally demonstrates that dopant with high EM-O and L is promising for emerging oxide TFTs.

UV response characteristics of mixed-phase MgZnO thin films with different structure distribution and high Iuv/Idarkratio and fast speed MgZnO UV detector with tunneling breakdown mechanism.

High performance UV detector with both high response and fast speed is hard to made on homogeneous crystal semiconductor materials. Here, the UV response characteristics of mix-phase MgZnO thin films with different internal structure distribution are studied, the mix-phase MgZnO based detector with given crystal composition own high response at both deep UV light (96 A/W at 240nm) and near UV light (80 A/W at 335nm). Meanwhile, because of quasi-tunneling breakdown mechanism within the device, the high response UV detector also show fast response speed (tr= 0.11 µs) and recovery speed (td1=26 µs) at deep UV light, which are much faster than the both low response mix-phase MgZnO based UV detectors with other structure constitution and reported high response UV devices on homogenous crystal materials. The Idarkof the device is just 4.27 pA under a 5 V bias voltage, so the signal to noise ratio of the device reached 23852 at 5.5uW/cm2 235nm UV light. Therefore, new quasi-tunneling breakdown mechanism is observed in some mix-phase MgZnO thin film that contains both c-MgZnO and h-MgZnO parts, which introduced high response, signal to noise ratio and fast speed into mix-phase MgZnO based UV detector at weak deep UV light.

Electric field controlled near-infrared high-speed electro-optic switching modulator integrated with 2D MgO.

The electro-optic effect in two-dimensional (2D) MgO nanoflakes synthesized by a microwave-assisted process is demonstrated using a designed optical fiber modulator. The guiding properties of intense core modes excited by the material cavity are modulated by the external electric field. The feasibility of 2D MgO nanoflakes as an effective electro-optic modulator and switching are experimentally verified for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The proposed optical-fiber-based electro-optic modulator achieves a linear wavelength shift with a high sensitivity of 12.87 pm/V(77.22 nm/kV/mm, in the electric field). The results show that MgO, as a metal oxide 2D material, is a very promising material for electro-optic modulators and switching.

Electric field modulation in the auxetic effect of BP-analog monolayer As and Sb by first-principles calculations.

In this paper, we have introduced the auxetic effect in black phosphorus (BP) analog Sb and achieved auxetic modulations in monolayer As and Sb via first-principles calculations. Compared with monolayer As, the monolayer Sb is phonon unstable. By applying uniaxial strain along each direction, we discovered zigzag-vertical reversibility on out-of-plane auxeticity, and the negative Poisson's ratios for monolayer As and Sb were simulated to be -0.125/-0.172 and -0.036/-0.063, respectively, by applying the strain along zigzag/vertical directions. The negative Poisson's ratio could be significantly manipulated by applying a vertical electric field as it can be increased up to 70.3% for monolayer As and decreased up to 55.6% for monolayer Sb. Such an intrinsic negative Poisson's ratio and electric field modulation could endow these monolayers with potential applications in auxetic optoelectronic devices, electrodes and sensors, leading to novel multi-functionalities.

In vivo detecting mouse persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous by Spectralis Optical Coherence Tomography.

To identify imaging characteristics of mouse persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (PHPV) by Spectralis Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), as well as to assess and compare the sensitivity and precision of OCT with color photography (CP) and Fundus Fluorescein Angiography (FFA) imaging in detecting mouse PHPV. Notch4-/- C57BL/6J mice (224 eyes) aged from 3 months to 7 months were examined in this study. CP, FFA and OCT imaging were utilized to examine vitreous cavity and retina of mouse eyes. Horizontal and radial OCT scan volume was centered on the optic nerve head. Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining was performed to validate PHPV. For color photography and FFA imaging, retrolental irregular fibrovascular membrane-like tissues were found in 33 eyes with/without blood vessels in vitreous cavity. Among them, 31 eyes were visualized with lateral and oblique linear hyperreflective opacities in vitreous cavity using Spectralis OCT. Position of PHPV in posterior segment of eyes was also measured via OCT. Mouse PHPV was validated by H&E staining. Typical hyperreflective opacities in vitreous cavity were detected in PHPV mouse using Spectralis OCT. Spectralis OCT imaging can effectively detect mouse PHPV as color photography and FFA.

Fast Response Solar-Blind Photodetector with a Quasi-Zener Tunneling Effect Based on Amorphous In-Doped Ga2O3 Thin Films.

A high-performance solar-blind photodetector with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure was fabricated based on amorphous In-doped Ga2O3 thin films prepared at room temperature by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The photodetector shows a high responsivity (18.06 A/W) at 235 nm with a fast rise time (4.9 µs) and a rapid decay time (230 µs). The detection range was broadened compared with an individual Ga2O3 photodetector because of In doping. In addition, the uneven In distribution at different areas in the film results in different resistances, which causes a quasi-Zener tunneling internal gain mechanism. The quasi-Zener tunneling internal gain mechanism has a positive impact on the fast response speed and high responsivity.

An Omni-Healable and Highly Sensitive Capacitive Pressure Sensor with Microarray Structure.

Capacitive pressure sensors with high flexibility, sensitivity, and excellent healable properties are desirable for a wide variety of applications, such as e-skin. However, implementing these characteristics onto a device presently remains a great challenge. In this work, a flexible pressure sensor with high sensitivity and strong healable properties has been developed based on healable polyurethane (HPU), silver nanowires and graphene. The HPU-based microstructured capacitive pressure sensor exhibited a high sensitivity of 1.9 kPa-1 (<3 kPa), a fast response time (<100 ms), low detection limit (10 Pa), and long-term durability (1000 cycles). Touch-finger and vocal-cord vibration detection have been demonstrated and exhibit a high sensitivity to both static and dynamic pressure. More notably, the entire pressure sensor including the dielectric layer and electrodes is omni-healable after complete separation. The prototype has experimentally shown tremendous potential for wearable, healable applications, such as healthcare monitoring and human-machine interfaces.

Matrigel and Activin A promote cell-cell contact and anti-apoptotic activity in cultured human retinal pigment epithelium cells.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a leading cause of blindness among the aging population. Currently, replacement of diseased retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells with transplanted healthy RPE cells could be a feasible approach for AMD therapy. However, maintaining cell-cell contact and good viability of RPE cells cultured in vitro is difficult and fundamentally determines the success of RPE cell transplantation. This study was conducted to examine the role of Matrigel and Activin A (MA) in regulating cell-cell contact and anti-apoptotic activity in human RPE (hRPE) cells, as assessed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), immunofluorescence staining, quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis, Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) analysis, mitochondrial membrane potential (â–³Ψ m) assays, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays and Western blotting. hRPE cells cultured in vitro could maintain their epithelioid morphology after MA treatment over at least 4 passages. The contact of N-cadherin to the lateral cell border was promoted in hRPE cells at P2 by MA. MA treatment also enhanced the expression of tight junction-associated genes and proteins, such as Claudin-1, Claudin-3, Occludin and ZO-1, as well as polarized ZO-1 protein distribution and barrier function, in cultured hRPE cells. Moreover, MA treatment decreased apoptotic cells, ROS and Bax and increased â–³Ψ m and Bcl2 in hRPE cells under serum withdrawal-induced apoptosis. In addition, MA treatment elevated the protein expression levels of ß-catenin and its target proteins, including Cyclin D1, c-Myc and Survivin, as well as the gene expression levels of ZO-1, ß-catenin, Survivin and TCF-4, all of which could be down-regulated by the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway inhibitor XAV-939. Taken together, MA treatment could effectively promote cell-cell contact and anti-apoptotic activity in hRPE cells, partly involving the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. This study will benefit the understanding of hRPE cells and future cell therapy.

Universal Way to Enhance Solution-Processed High-κ Oxide Dielectrics Performance by Sulfate Incorporation.

Vacuum-free, solution-processable high-κ-oxide dielectrics are considered to be a key element for emerging low-cost flexible electronics. However, they usually suffer from low breakdown strength and frequency-dependent capacitance, which limit their broader applications. Here, we report a universal way to improve solution-based high-κ oxide dielectric properties (e.g., Al2O3, ZrO2, Ga2O3, Sc2O3, Ho2O3, and Sm2O3) by sulfate incorporation. In-depth characterization shows that sulfate incorporation could reduce hydrogen and oxygen vacancy-related defects in high-κ oxides, thereby improving the dielectric performance. The optimized S-doped high-κ oxides show smooth surface (rms < 0.20 nm), low leakage current (∼10-7 A/cm2@4 MV/cm), excellent dielectric breakdown strength (>10 MV/cm), and stable capacitance-frequency characteristics. Besides, oxide thin-film transistors based on these high-κ dielectrics exhibit excellent performance (e.g., mobility >20 cm2 V-1 s-1, on/off ratio of ∼107, threshold swing of ∼0.14 V dec-1, threshold voltage of ∼0 V, and hysteresis of ∼0.02 V). Thus, this work provides a general approach for the development of high-quality solution-based high-κ oxides for transistor circuitry.

Efficacy and safety of eszopiclone combined with drug therapy in the treatment of insomnia after stroke: A network meta-analysis and systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of multi-drug therapy based on eszopiclone in the treatment of insomnia after stroke using a network meta-analysis method and to provide evidence for clinical practice. METHOD: Computer searches of PubMed, Excerpt Medica Database (Embase), Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials, APA PsycInfo, CNKI, WanFang, Sinomed and other databases were performed to search for clinical randomized controlled studies (RCTs) on multi-drug therapy based on eszopiclone in the treatment of insomnia patients after stroke. The search time was from the establishment of each database until July 2023. The bias risk assessment tool recommended by Cochrane was used to evaluate the quality of the included RCTs. Stata 14.0 was applied to perform network meta-analysis using Review Manager 5.3 software for traditional meta-analysis. RESULT: Eighteen RCTs and 1646 patients were ultimately included, involving 11 treatment options. The results of the network meta-analysis showed that the ranking of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) decline was eszopiclone combined with sweet dream oral liquid (ESZ+SDOL)>eszopiclone combined with a shugan jieyu capsule (ESZ+SGJYC)>eszopiclone combined with agomelatine (ESZ+AGO)>eszopiclone combined with flupentixol and melitracen tablets (ESZ+FMT)>eszopiclone combined with yangxue qingnao granules (ESZ+YXQNG)>eszopiclone combined with mirtazapine (ESZ+MIR)>ESZ>FMT; the modified Edinburgh Scandinavia Stroke Scale (MESSS) decline ranking was ESZ+SDOL>ESZ+AGO>ESZ; and the clinical total effective rate ranking was eszopiclone combined with a xuefu zhuyu capsule (ESZ+XFZYC)>ESZ+MIR>ESZ+SGJYC>ESZ+SDOL> ESZ+FMT>ESZ+YXQNG>ESZ>FMT. In terms of clinical adverse reactions, in addition to ESZ therapy, ESZ+ESC had the highest number of adverse reactions, with abdominal pain being the most common. ESZ+YXQNG had the most types of adverse reactions, with 8 types. CONCLUSION: Multi-drug therapy based on eszopiclone can effectively improve the sleep quality of patients with insomnia after stroke, and ESZ+SDOL has significant efficacy and safety. However, due to the limitations of this study, efficacy ranking cannot fully explain the superiority or inferiority of clinical efficacy. In the future, more multicentre, large sample, double-blind randomized controlled trials are needed to supplement and demonstrate the results of this study.

The Emotion Regulation of Acupuncture in Chronic Low Back Pain: A Clinical Neuroimaging Protocol.

Introduction: Acupuncture is effective for patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP), which can relieve pain intensity and regulate negative emotional states such as pain-related anxiety and depression. Previous studies mainly discuss the analgesic mechanism of acupuncture treatment of CLBP, but there are multiple dimensions to pain, including sensation, emotion and cognition. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the central mechanism of acupuncture for CLBP from the perspective of emotional regulation by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods and Analysis: A total of 72 patients with CLBP will be recruited in the study and randomly assigned to the verum acupuncture group or the sham acupuncture group. The trail will last for 18 weeks including a 2-week baseline, a 4-week treatment and a 12-week for follow-up period. The primary outcomes are the visual analog scale (VAS) and the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores (JOA) score. The secondary outcomes are the 12-item short form health survey (SF-12), the state trait anxiety inventory (STAI), the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS). The VAS, JOA, STAI SAS and SDS will be collected at baseline, week 2, week 4, and after follow-up. The SF-12 will be evaluated at baseline, week 2 and week 4. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data will be collected at baseline and the end of treatment. Emotion-related brain regions will be chosen as regions of interest (ROIs). The gray matter volume (GMV), amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), functional connectivity (FC), and large-scale functional brain network based on these ROIs will be analyzed within and between the two groups. Discussion: This study will verify the emotional regulation of acupuncture and explore the mechanism of acupuncture for emotion regulation in patients with CLBP. Trial Registration Number: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=195486, identifier: ChiCTR2300070557.

Boronization: A General Strategy for Rare Earth Oxides with Enhanced High-κ Gate Dielectric Performance.

Rare earth oxides (REOs) can be used as high-κ gate dielectrics that are at the core of electronic devices. However, a bottleneck remains with regard to obtaining high-performance REO dielectrics due to the serious hygroscopic issue and high defect states. Here, a general boronization strategy is reported to enhance the high-κ REO gate dielectric performance. Complementary characterization reveals that boronization is capable of reducing oxygen vacancies/hydroxyl defects in REOs and suppressing moisture absorption, leading to the improvement of leakage current, breakdown strength (up to 9 MV/cm), and capacitance-frequency stability. Furthermore, oxide transistors based on boronized REO dielectrics demonstrate state-of-the-art device characteristics with a high mobility of 40 cm2/V s, a current on/off ratio of 108, a subthreshold swing of 82 mV/dec, a hysteresis of 0.05 V, and superior bias stress stability.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies of fibromyalgia.

Objective: Although neuroimaging investigations have revealed significant changes in brain structure in fibromyalgia (FM) patients, these findings are inconsistent. The current study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometric studies in order to comprehend those alterations in brain structure in FM patients. Methods: Voxel-based morphometric (VBM) studies published up to January 17, 2023 were searched in the Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chongqing VIP, Wanfang Database. Two independent researchers carried out study screening, quality assessment, clinical data and neuroimaging data extraction. The whole-brain voxel-based gray matter (GM) data of FM patients were collected from eligible studies, and meta-analyzed using anisotropic effect size-signed differential mapping (AES-SDM). Results: Twelve researches were included in this study, including 289 FM patients (mean age: 47.36 years) and 272 HS (mean age: 47.34 years). According to the meta-analysis, FM patients had increased GM in the right postcentral gyrus and left angular gyrus, and decreased GM in the right cingulate gyrus, right paracingulate gyrus, left cerebellum, and left gyrus rectus. Conclusion: Our study suggests that fibromyalgia patients have altered gray matter in several brain regions that are involved in affective, cognitive functions, and in motor adaptations to pain processing.

High-Performance Thin-Film Transistors with ZnO:H/ZnO Double Active Layers Fabricated at Room Temperature.

H doping can enhance the performance of ZnO thin-film transistors (TFTs) to a certain extent, and the design of double active layers is an effective way to further improve a device's performance. However, there are few studies on the combination of these two strategies. We fabricated TFTs with ZnO:H (4 nm)/ZnO (20 nm) double active layers by magnetron sputtering at room temperature, and studied the effect of the hydrogen flow ratio on the devices' performance. ZnO:H/ZnO-TFT has the best overall performance when H2/(Ar + H2) = 0.13% with a mobility of 12.10 cm2/Vs, an on/off current ratio of 2.32 × 107, a subthreshold swing of 0.67 V/Dec, and a threshold voltage of 1.68 V, which is significantly better than the performance of single active layer ZnO:H-TFTs. This exhibits that the transport mechanism of carriers in double active layer devices is more complicated. On one hand, increasing the hydrogen flow ratio can more effectively suppress the oxygen-related defect states, thus reducing the carrier scattering and increasing the carrier concentration. On the other hand, the energy band analysis shows that electrons accumulate at the interface of the ZnO layer close to the ZnO:H layer, providing an additional path for carrier transport. Our research exhibits that the combination of a simple hydrogen doping process and double active layer construction can achieve the fabrication of high-performance ZnO-based TFTs, and that the whole room temperature process also provides important reference value for the subsequent development of flexible devices.

Regulation of the Keratocyte Phenotype and Cell Behavior Derived from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells by Substrate Stiffness.

Substrate stiffness has been indicated as an important factor to control stem cell fate, including proliferation and differentiation. To optimize the stiffness for the differentiation process from h-iPSCs (human induced pluripotent stem cells) into h-iCSCs (human corneal stromal cells derived from h-iPSCs) and the phenotypic maintenance of h-iCSCs in vitro, h-iPSCs were cultured on matrigel-coated tissue culture plate (TCP) (106 kPa), matrigel-coated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) 184 (1250 kPa), and matrigel-coated PDMS 527 (4 kPa) before they were differentiated to h-iCSCs. Immunofluorescence staining, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and western blot demonstrated that the stiffer substrate TCP promoted the h-iCSCs' differentiation from h-iPSCs. On the contrary, softer PDMS 527 was more effective to maintain the phenotype of h-iCSCs cultured in vitro. Finally, we cultured h-iCSCs on PDMS 527 until P3 and seeded them on a biomimetic collagen membrane to form the single-layer and multiple-layer bioengineered corneal stroma with high transparency properties and cell survival rate. In conclusion, the study is helpful for differentiating h-iPSCs to h-iCSCs and corneal tissue engineering by manipulating stiffness mechanobiology.

PLSCR1 promotes apoptosis and clearance of retinal ganglion cells in glaucoma pathogenesis.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. In the pathogenesis of glaucoma, activated microglia can lead to retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) apoptosis and death, however, the molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. We demonstrate that phospholipid scramblase 1 (PLSCR1) is a key regulator promoting RGCs apoptosis and their clearance by microglia. As evidenced in retinal progenitor cells and RGCs of the acute ocular hypertension (AOH) mouse model, overexpressed PLSCR1 induced its translocation from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and cytomembrane, as well as elevated phosphatidylserine exposure and reactive oxygen species generation with subsequent RGCs apoptosis and death. These damages were effectively attenuated by PLSCR1 inhibition. In the AOH model, PLSCR1 led to an increase in M1 type microglia activation and retinal neuroinflammation. Upregulation of PLSCR1 resulted in strongly elevated phagocytosis of apoptotic RGCs by activated microglia. Taken together, our study provides important insights linking activated microglia to RGCs death in the glaucoma pathogenesis and other RGC-related neurodegenerative diseases.

MSLF-Net: A Multi-Scale and Multi-Level Feature Fusion Net for Diabetic Retinopathy Segmentation.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a diabetic complication that predisposes patients to visual impairments that could lead to blindness. Lesion segmentation using deep learning algorithms is an effective measure to screen and prevent early DR. However, there are several types of DR with varying sizes and high inter-class similarity, making segmentation difficult. In this paper, we propose a supervised segmentation method (MSLF-Net) based on multi-scale-multi-level feature fusion to achieve accurate end-to-end DR lesion segmentation. MSLF-Net builds a Multi-Scale Feature Extraction (MSFE) module to extract multi-scale information and provide more comprehensive features for segmentation. This paper further introduces the Multi-Level Feature Fusion (MLFF) module to improve feature fusion using a cross-layer structure. This structure only fuses low- and high-level features of the same class based on category supervision, avoiding feature contamination. Moreover, this paper produces additional masked images for the dataset and performs image enhancement operations to ensure that the proposed method is trainable and functional on small datasets. The extensive experiments are conducted on public datasets IDRID and e_ophtha. The results showed that our proposed feature enhancement method can perform feature fusion more effectively. Therefore, In the end-to-end DR segmentation neural network model, MSLF Net is superior to other similar models in segmentation, and can effectively improve the DR lesion segmentation performance.

Water-Induced Nanometer-Thin Crystalline Indium-Praseodymium Oxide Channel Layers for Thin-Film Transistors.

We report water-induced nanometer-thin crystalline indium praseodymium oxide (In-Pr-O) thin-film transistors (TFTs) for the first time. This aqueous route enables the formation of dense ultrathin (~6 nm) In-Pr-O thin films with near-atomic smoothness (~0.2 nm). The role of Pr doping is investigated by a battery of experimental techniques. It is revealed that as the Pr doping ratio increases from 0 to 10%, the oxygen vacancy-related defects could be greatly suppressed, leading to the improvement of TFT device characteristics and durability. The optimized In-Pr-O TFT demonstrates state-of-the-art electrical performance with mobility of 17.03 ± 1.19 cm2/Vs and on/off current ratio of ~106 based on Si/SiO2 substrate. This achievement is due to the low electronegativity and standard electrode potential of Pr, the high bond strength of Pr-O, same bixbyite structure of Pr2O3 and In2O3, and In-Pr-O channel's nanometer-thin and ultrasmooth nature. Therefore, the designed In-Pr-O channel holds great promise for next-generation transistors.