In modern baseball, the relative contributions of velocity, spin, and pitch location to swinging-strike outcomes are still not well understood, and many earlier studies mix up location-driven outcomes with actual pitch quality. This study uses MLB Statcast pitch-level data from 2024–2025, drawn from 221,982 pitches thrown by World Baseball Classic 2026 roster pitchers across 16 countries, to analyze what physical factors predict pitch effectiveness. To separate pitch quality from location effects, this study defines a zone-controlled binary target: in-zone swinging strikes versus in-zone hard-hit contact, while excluding out-of-zone pitches, called strikes, foul balls, and other ambiguous outcomes. This yields a modeling sample of 24,710 pitches with a balanced 45.0%/55.0% class split that needs no resampling. Using a stratified 70/30 split that preserves this class ratio, three classification models are trained and compared: logistic regression, decision tree and random forest, with the two tree models tuned by cross-validated grid search. Exploratory data analysis shows that pitch velocity and vertical plate location separate the two classes most clearly. The random forest classifier achieves the best performance with an accuracy of 67.84%, an ROC AUC of 0.7359, and an F1-score of 0.62, outperforming the decision tree (accuracy 65.72%, AUC 0.7042) and the logistic regression baseline (accuracy 57.37%, AUC 0.5759). Notably, feature importance analysis shows that stuff-related features together account for 46.7% of importance in the random forest—nearly as much as the two location features (53.3%)—showing that pitch quality, not just placement, is an important and often overlooked driver of swinging strikes.

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The continuous advancement of integrated circuit (IC) technology and the constant miniaturization of device feature sizes have placed higher demands on the electrical, thermal, and reliability performance of semiconductor materials. This paper traces the development history of core semiconductor materials in IC manufacturing, following the technological trajectory from the first to the fourth generation. It analyzes their current applications and research progress in material preparation methods such as epitaxial growth and thin-film processing. The research shows that silicon-based semiconductors remain the core foundational material for IC manufacturing; second-generation compound semiconductors, represented by gallium arsenide and indium phosphide, have irreplaceable advantages in radio frequency and optoelectronic fields; third-generation wide-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride, are in the accelerated industrialization phase; and fourth-generation ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductors demonstrate enormous application potential in ultra-high voltage and ultra-high frequency applications. This paper points out that different generations of semiconductor materials will coexist and complement each other for a considerable period of time, jointly meeting the diverse performance requirements of ICs for high-frequency, high-voltage, and low-power consumption.

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With the environmental problems caused by traditional plastic packaging becoming increasingly serious, degradable packaging films have attracted growing attention in the fields of food packaging and preservation. Compared with conventional petroleum-based plastics, bio-based films prepared from natural polymers show advantages such as renewability, biodegradability, environmental friendliness and potential food-preservation functions. Focusing on cellulose, starch, chitosan and carrageenan as well as their derivatives and composite films, this paper sorts out their basic material characteristics, film-forming properties and functional advantages. It further summarizes several common preparation methods such as solution casting, extrusion blown film, coating, electrospinning, multilayer compounding and hot pressing. In addition, the applications of degradable composite films in meat preservation, fruit preservation and paper-based food packaging are discussed. By integrating material selection, processing methods and practical application, this paper aims to provide useful references for the development of bio-based composite films in the fields of food preservation and green packaging.

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With high electrical conductivity and tunable surface chemistry, MXenes, a class of two-dimensional transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, have been employed in energy storage, electromagnetic interference shielding, and catalysis. However, synthesis routes strongly influence their structural features, surface terminations, and functional properties, and the effects of different preparation strategies have not been fully clarified. Accordingly, this paper compares six major MXene preparation strategies, including HF etching, LiF/HCl in situ etching, alkali-hydrothermal synthesis, electrochemical exfoliation, Lewis acid molten salt etching, and bottom-up direct growth, by linking etchant chemistry with surface termination evolution and defect formation. The effects of these strategies on yield, flake size, electrical conductivity, and dominant defect types are systematically analyzed. In addition, an Al-assisted solid-state A-site extraction route for Ti 2 SnC is evaluated through experimental evidence of thermally driven Sn extraction into Al substrates at 650 °C and spontaneous Sn whisker growth. The comparison shows that etchant-induced defects limit top-down MXene synthesis, whereas fluoride-free routes enable diverse surface terminations. Moreover, solid-state A-site extraction provides an alternative to conventional chemical etching.

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