Growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by arcing from graphite electrodes does not demand a noble gas atmosphere: water will do! CO and H2 bubbles generated by reaction of C vapor with water provide a quasi‐inert atmosphere in which multiwalled carbon nanotubes grow from the cathode. Using cobalt salt solutions instead of plain water, the authors obtained CNTs filled with metallic cobalt and elemental sulfur (see Figure), potentially useful as nanoprobes for magnetic force microscopy.

Iridium dioxide (IrO 2 ) nanorods with pointed tips have been grown on Si(100) and transition-metal-coated-Si(100) substrates, via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), using (MeCp)Ir(COD) as the source reagent. The as-deposited nanorods were characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). FESEM micrographs revealed that the majority of the nanorods are a wedge shape in cross section and converge at top; occasionally several of them pack into a column of a spiral tip. The vertical alignment and packing density are significantly improved by prior deposition of a thin layer of Ti on Si. TEM and XRD results indicate that the sputtered Ti thin layer erects the nanorods in the c-axis direction. XPS spectra show that iridium in IrO 2 nanorods also exist in a higher oxidation state.

Pancreatic stellate cell (PSC) is a type of pluripotent cell located between pancreatic lobules and the surrounding area of acinars. When activated, PSC can be transformed into myofibroblast-like cell. A number of evidences suggest that activated PSC is the main source of the accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) protein under the pathological conditions, which lead to pancreatic fibrosis in chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Recent studies have found that PSC also plays an important role in the endocrine cell function, islet fibrosis and diabetes. In order to provide new strategies for the treatment of pancreatic diseases, this paper systematically summarizes the recent researches about the biological behaviors of PSC, including its stem/progenitor cell characteristics, secreted exosomes, cellular senescence, epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT), energy metabolism and direct mechanical reprogramming.

We present a theoretical analysis of spatial correlations in a one-dimensional driven-dissipative nonequilibrium condensate. Starting from a stochastic generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation, we derive a noisy Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation for the phase dynamics. For sufficiently strong interactions, the coherence decays exponentially in close analogy to the equilibrium Bose gas. When interactions are small on a scale set by the nonequilibrium condition, we find through numerical simulations a crossover between a Gaussian and exponential decay with peculiar scaling of the coherence length on the fluid density and noise strength.