Early diagnosis of thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy using label-free Raman spectroscopy and multivariate analysis.

Thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) is the most common orbital disease in adults, with complex clinical manifestations and significant impacts on the life quality of patients. The current diagnosis of TAO lacks reliable biomarkers for early and non-invasive screening and detection, easily leading to poor prognosis. Therefore, it is essential to explore new methods for accurately predicting TAO development in its early stage.

Microwave bag cooking affects the quality, glucosinolates content and hydrolysate production of broccoli florets.

Appropriate processing and cooking technologies can effectively improve the content of bioactive compounds in vegetables. The effects of microwave bag cooking on broccoli floret quality attributes, glucosinolates (GLSs) content and hydrolysate production were investigated in this study. Microwave bag cooking not only preserved the color of the florets, but also enhanced the total phenolic and flavonoid content, as well as total chlorophyll and ascorbic acid content.

Discovery of Lead-Free Perovskites for High-Performance Solar Cells via Machine Learning: Ultrabroadband Absorption, Low Radiative Combination, and Enhanced Thermal Conductivities.

Exploring lead-free candidates and improving efficiency and stability remain the obstacle of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite-based devices commercialization. Traditional trial-and-error methods seriously restrict the discovery especially for large search space, complex crystal structure and multi-objective properties. Here, the authors propose a multi-step and multi-stage screening scheme to accelerate the discovery of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites A BB'X from a large number of candidates through combining machine learning with high-throughput calculations for pursuing excellent efficiency and thermal stability in solar cells.

The Critical Role of Stereochemically Active Lone Pair in Introducing High Temperature Ferroelectricity.

In this paper, a comparative structural, dielectric, and magnetic study of two langasite compounds BaTeCoPO (absence of lone pair) and PbTeCoPO (Pb 6s lone pair) have been carried out to precisely explore the development of room temperature spontaneous polarization in the presence of a stereochemically active lone pair. In the case of PbTeCoPO, mixing of both Pb 6s with Pb 6p and O 2p helps the lone pair to be stereochemically active. This stereochemically active lone pair brings a large structural distortion within the unit cell and creates a polar geometry, while the BaTeCoPO compound remains in a nonpolar structure due to the absence of any such effect.

Effect of high mobility group box 1 on the human retinal pigment epithelial cell in high-glucose condition.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) remains a prevalent complication of diabetes and one of the leading causes of blindness among working-age adults. However, the detailed molecular mechanism of the development of DR was still unclear by now. HMGB1 is a non-histone DNA-binding protein and serves as a structural component to facilitate the assembly of nucleoprotein complexes in the nucleus.

Phase diagram and piezoelectric response of (Ba₁-xCax)(Zr₀.₁Ti₀.₉)O₃ solid solution.

We report the phase diagram of (Ba1-xCax)(Zr0.1Ti0.9)O3 solid solution.

Ferroelectricity of Li-doped silver niobate (Ag, Li)NbO3.

Phase evolution in (Ag(1-x)Li(x))NbO(3) (ALN) solid solution was investigated by the x-ray diffraction technique, dielectric and polarization measurements. It is shown that a small substitution of Ag with Li gives rise to an orthorhombic-rhombohedral structural transformation in ABO(3)-perovskite silver niobate at room temperature. Structural refinements indicate that both the A- and B-site displacements contribute to the spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric phase with symmetry R3c.

Invariant lattice strain and polarization in BaTiO3-CaTiO3 ferroelectric alloys.

We report the lattice strain and polarization of the BaTiO(3)-CaTiO(3) solid solution. We found that the lattice strain evaluated by the tetragonality of the tetragonal phase at room temperature is nearly independent of the composition within the limit of the solid solution. In association with this variation, the saturation polarization remains nearly unchanged.

Relaxor Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O3: a ferroelectric with multiple inhomogeneities.

Despite intensive studies on Pb(Mg(1/3)Nb(2/3))O(3) (PMN) relaxor, understanding the exact nature of its giant dielectric response and of its physical ground state is a fundamental issue that has remained unresolved for decades. Here, we report a comprehensive study of PMN relaxor crystal, and show that (i) its anomalous dielectric behavior in a broad temperature range results from the reorientation of polarization in the crystal, and (ii) the PMN relaxor is essentially a nanosized ferroelectric material with multiscale inhomogeneities of domain structure in addition to the well-known inhomogeneities of chemical composition and local symmetry. Such inhomogeneities are believed to play a crucial role in producing the huge and enigmatic physical effects in relaxor system, and may be used to design other new systems with giant effects such as a relaxor system.

Skeletal muscle-derived stem cells exhibit cardiocyte competences.

Adult stem cells from skeletal muscle cells were induced to differentiate into cardiocytes to see if stem cells from another different but histologically-comparable tissues can differentiate to the target cells. Skeletal muscles-derived stem cells (MDSCs) were isolated from adult skeleton muscle tissues by differential adhesion, and immunocytochemically identified by using Sca-1. In order to induce the proliferation but not differentiation of MDSCs, the cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium/F12 (DMEM/F12) supplemented with 1:50 B27, 20 ng/mL basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), 20 ng/mL epidermal growth factor (EGF) in a suspension for 6 days.

Lattice distortion under an electric field in BaTiO(3) piezoelectric single crystal.

Lattice distortions under an electric field in a mono-domain of BaTiO(3) ferroelectric crystal have been detected with synchrotron x-ray radiation. The variation of the lattice constant with an electric field observed with high angle diffraction shows a linear response nature of the piezoelectric effect. When an electric field is applied along the spontaneous polarization direction, the c-axis of the lattice elongates and the a-axis of the lattice shrinks at a rate of d(33) = 149 ± 54 pm V(-1) and d(31) = -82 ± 61 pm V(-1); these represent the longitudinal and transverse piezoelectric coefficients of BaTiO(3) crystal, respectively.

Positive and negative magnetodielectric effects in A-site ordered (BiMn3)Mn4O12 perovskite.

A-site ordered perovskite (BiMn3)Mn4O12 was synthesized through a high-pressure synthesis route at 5 GPa and found to exhibit two magnetic transitions and to show either a positive or a negative magnetodielectric effect depending on the temperature range/magnetic state.

Anomalous phase diagram of ferroelectric (Ba,Ca)TiO3 single crystals with giant electromechanical response.

We report the anomalous phase evolution in ferroelectric single crystals Ba1-xCaxTiO3 (0.02 View Article and Find Full Text PDF