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Dendrite growth of alkali metal anodes limited their lifetime for charge/discharge cycling. Here, we report near-perfect anodes of lithium, sodium, and potassium metals achieved by electrochemical polishing, which removes microscopic defects and creates ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase layers at metal surfaces for providing a homogeneous environment. Precise characterizations by AFM force probing with corroborative in-depth XPS profile analysis reveal that the ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase can be designed to have alternating inorganic-rich and organic-rich/mixed multi-layered structure, which offers mechanical property of coupled rigidity and elasticity. The polished metal anodes exhibit significantly enhanced cycling stability, specifically the lithium anodes can cycle for over 200 times at a real current density of 2 mA cm –2 with 100% depth of discharge. Our work illustrates that an ultra-smooth ultra-thin solid-electrolyte interphase may be robust enough to suppress dendrite growth and thus serve as an initial layer for further improved protection of alkali metal anodes. The dendrite growth of alkali metal anodes leads to charge/discharge cycling instability. Here, the authors show that electrochemical polishing can yield near-perfect anodes of three alkali metals by constructing smooth and thin solid-electrolyte interphase layers.

Full-carbon electronics at the scale of several angstroms is an expeimental challenge, which could be overcome by exploiting the versatility of carbon allotropes. Here, we investigate charge transport through graphene/single-fullerene/graphene hybrid junctions using a single-molecule manipulation technique. Such sub-nanoscale electronic junctions can be tuned by band gap engineering as exemplified by various pristine fullerenes such as C 60 , C 70 , C 76 and C 90 . In addition, we demonstrate further control of charge transport by breaking the conjugation of their π systems which lowers their conductance, and via heteroatom doping of fullerene, which introduces transport resonances and increase their conductance. Supported by our combined density functional theory (DFT) calculations, a promising future of tunable full-carbon electronics based on numerous sub-nanoscale fullerenes in the large family of carbon allotropes is anticipated. All-carbon electronics holds promise beyond the conventional silicon-based electronics, but it remains challenging to manufacture them with well-defined structures thus tunability. Tan et al. control charge transport in single-molecule junctions using different fullerenes between graphene electrodes.

Background Hospitalization over the last one year, an indicator of health service utilization, is an important and costly resource in older adult care. However, data on the relationship between functional status and annual hospitalization among older Chinese people are sparse, particularly for those with and without multimorbidity. In this study,we aimed to examine the association between functional status and annual hospitalization among community-dwelling older adults in Southern China, and to explore the independent contributions of socio-demographic variables, lifestyle and health-related factors and functional status to hospitalization in multimorbid and non-multimorbid groups. Methods This cross-sectional, community-based survey, studied 2603 older adults aged 60 years and above. Functional status was assessed by Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The outcome variable was any hospitalization over the last one year (annual hospitalization). Clustered logistic regression was used to analyze the independent contributions of FIM domains to annual hospitalization. Results Only in the multimorbid group, did the risk of annual hospitalization decrease significantly with increasing FIM score in walk domain (adjusted OR = 0.80 per SD increase, 95% CI = 0.70–0.91, P  = 0.001) and its independent contribution accounted for 24.62%, more than that of socio-demographic variables (18.46%). However, among individuals without multimorbidity, there were no significant associations between FIM domains and annual hospitalization; thus, no independent contribution to the risk of hospitalization was observed. Conclusions There exist some degree of correlation between functional status and annual hospitalization among older adults in Southern China, which might be due to the presence of multimorbidity with advanced age.

We present a systematic search for changing-look (CL) quasars at high redshift z > 0.9 by crossmatching the spectroscopic data sets from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Data Release 1 and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 18. We identify 97 CL quasars showing significant variability in high-ionization broad emission lines, including 45 turn-on and 52 turn-off events, corresponding to a detection rate of ∼0.042%. The low rate relative to low-ionization CL quasar searches is likely due to selection and physical effects in high-ionization lines. Based on the CL quasar sample, we find that CL quasars generally exhibit lower accretion rates compared to typical quasars, with average Eddington ratios of logλEdd ∼ −1.14 in the bright state and ∼−1.39 in the dim state, compared to ∼−0.65 for typical quasars. Furthermore, while high-ionization lines in CL quasars follow the Baldwin effect on a population level, some sources can display inverse Baldwin trends. In addition, we find a positive correlation between the variability in high-ionization lines (e.g., Mg ii, C iii]) and the change in bolometric luminosity. We also estimate a characteristic rest-frame timescale of ∼3 yr for CL transitions, with no significant difference between turn-on and turn-off cases. Taken as a whole, these findings support an accretion-driven origin of the CL phenomenon, and provide new insights into the variability of high-ionization emission lines.

With the continuous development of the technology of underground coal gasification (UGC), it gradually moves into commercial development. However, there is limited measured data and related research on the overlying strata and surface movement rule caused by underground coal gasification, which has severely restricted the further application of underground coal gasification. In order to solve the problem of surface subsidence prediction of underground coal gasification, this numerical simulation software, FLAC 3D , is adopted to study the differences of overlying strata and the surface movement rule of UGC strip mining (UCG mining) and strip mining, and the differences of prediction parameters under different recovery ratios. The model is established according to the geological and mining conditions of the underground coal gasification experiment area in China. The research results show that overlying strata and surface movement rules of UCG mining and strip mining are similar. So, the surface subsidence prediction of UCG mining can refer the prediction method of strip mining. Meanwhile, the difference values of surface movement extrema under different recovery ratios are less than 5 mm and the difference values of surface subsidence boundary are not more than 10 m. Therefore, the surface subsidence prediction parameters of UCG mining can be chosen as the corresponding prediction parameters of strip mining. Finally, the surface subsidence prediction method of UCG mining is proposed based on the above research results and prediction software is compiled for engineering application. Research results have important theoretical and practical significance for promoting the application of underground coal gasification.

With the rapid development of urban, the scale of the city is expanding day by day. The road environment is becoming more and more complicated. The vehicle ego-localization in complex road environment puts forward imperative requirements for intelligent driving technology. The reliable vehicle ego-localization, including the lane recognition and the vehicle position and attitude estimation, at the complex traffic intersection is significant for the intelligent driving of the vehicle. In this article, we focus on the complex road environment of the city, and propose a pose and position estimation method based on the road sign using only a monocular camera and a common GPS （global positioning system）. Associated with the multi-sensor cascade system, this method can be a stable and reliable alternative when the precision of multi-sensor cascade system decreases. The experimental results show that, within 100 meters distance to the road signs, the pose error is less than 2 degrees, and the position error is less than one meter, which can reach the lane-level positioning accuracy. Through the comparison with the Beidou high-precision positioning system L202, our method is more accurate for detecting which lane the vehicle is driving on.

Large coal resources occur under buildings in the Iron Third District of Tangshan Mine, which not only greatly reduces the service life of the coal mine, but also wastes the coal resources. To ensure the safety of ground buildings and maximize exploitation of the coal resources, solid backfill mining technology is proposed. This paper studies the compression ratio of the coal seam during backfill mining with a global numerical model based on the finite difference software, FLAC3D. The compression ratio of the coal seam was also similarly studied based on theoretical analysis and the local model.

With the rapid development of urban, the scale of the city is expanding day by day. The road environment is becoming more and more complicated. The vehicle ego-localization in complex road environment puts forward imperative requirements for intelligent driving technology. The reliable vehicle ego-localization, including the lane recognition and the vehicle position and attitude estimation, at the complex traffic intersection is significant for the intelligent driving of the vehicle. In this article, we focus on the complex road environment of the city, and propose a pose and position estimation method based on the road sign using only a monocular camera and a common GPS (global positioning system). Associated with the multi-sensor cascade system, this method can be a stable and reliable alternative when the precision of multi-sensor cascade system decreases. The experimental results show that, within 100 meters distance to the road signs, the pose error is less than 2 degrees, and the position error is less than one meter, which can reach the lane-level positioning accuracy. Through the comparison with the Beidou high-precision positioning system L202, our method is more accurate for detecting which lane the vehicle is driving on.

The conductance of single-molecule junctions may be governed by the structure of the molecule in the gap or by the way it bonds with the leads, and the information contained in a Raman spectrum is ideal for examining both. Here we demonstrate that molecule-to-surface bonding may be characterized during electron transport by 'fishing-mode' tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (FM-TERS). This technique allows mutually verifiable single-molecule conductance and Raman signals with single-molecule contributions to be acquired simultaneously at room temperature. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the most significant spectral change seen for a gold-4,4′-bipyridine-gold junction results from the deformation of the pyridine ring in contact with the drain electrode at high voltage, and these calculations suggest that a stronger bonding interaction between the molecule and the drain may account for the nonlinear dependence of conductance on bias voltage. FM-TERS will lead to a better understanding of electron-transport processes in molecular junctions. The conductance of single-molecule junctions is affected by the structure of the molecule and how it is bound to the electrodes, which may be examined using Raman spectroscopy. Liu et al . have developed 'fishing-mode' tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, which allows the simultaneous determination of conductance and Raman spectra.