Publications by authors named "Lixin Niu"

Molecular doping plays a crucial role in modulating the performance of polymeric semiconductor (PSC) materials and devices. Despite the development of numerous molecular dopants and doping methods over the past few decades, achieving highly efficient doping of PSCs remains challenging, primarily because of the inadequate matching of frontier energy levels between the host polymers and the dopants, which is critical for facilitating charge transfer. In this work, we introduce a novel doping method termed photoexcitation-assisted molecular doping (PE-MD), capable of transcending limitations imposed by energy level disparities through the mediation of efficient photoinduced electron transfer between polymers and dopants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The unique porous structure minimizes thermal conductivity by over 50%, improving charge transport and significantly boosting the materials' figure of merit (ZT) to 0.52 at 363 K.
  • * This innovative approach highlights the versatility of microstructural engineering in developing advanced plastic thermoelectric materials across various polymer systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bionic tentacle sensors are important in various fields, including obstacle avoidance, human‒machine interfaces, and soft robotics. However, most traditional tentacle sensors are based on rigid substrates, resulting in difficulty in detecting multidirectional forces originating from the external environment, which limits their application in complex environments. Herein, we proposed a high-sensitivity flexible bionic tentacle sensors (FBTSs).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In cross-country skiing, ski poles play a crucial role in technique, propulsion, and overall performance. The kinematic parameters of ski poles can provide valuable information about the skier's technique, which is of great significance for coaches and athletes seeking to improve their skiing performance. In this work, a new smart ski pole is proposed, which combines the uniaxial load cell and the inertial measurement unit (IMU), aiming to provide comprehensive data measurement functions more easily and to play an auxiliary role in training.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is an important economic oil and medicinal crop. Its anthers are often used to make tea in China with beneficial effects on human health. However, the metabolite profiles, as well as potential biological activities of anthers and the pollen within anthers have not been systematically analyzed, which hinders the improvement of utilization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The tree peony, a novel woody oil crop extensively cultivated in China, necessitates further investigation into artificial pollination technology to enhance seed yield. In this study, we conducted artificial pollination experiments with 6-year-old 'Feng Dan' seedings for suitable pollen sources, pollen concentration, pollination timing, and pollination frequency. By evaluating seed yields, active ingredients, and oil quality, we derived the following significant conclusions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the deposition of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques. Aβ is generated from the cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein by β and γ-secretases and cleared by neuroglial cells mediated autophagy. The imbalance of the intracellular Aβ generation and clearance is the causative factor for AD pathogenesis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

α-Linolenic acid (ALA), an essential fatty acid (FA) for human health, serves as the precursor of 2 nutritional benefits, docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, and can only be obtained from plant foods. We previously found that phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (PrPDAT2) derived from ALA-rich tree peony (Paeonia rockii) can promote seed ALA accumulation. However, the regulatory mechanism underlying its promoting effect on ALA accumulation remains unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aromatic plants of the family Lamiaceae, especially of the genus Thymus, have promising antioxidant applications in pharmacology, medicine, food, cosmetology, and aromatherapy. Hydrosols (HDs) were extracted by hydrodistillation from seven species of Lamiaceae, including , , , , , , and . In total, 369 volatile components were determined and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Flower senescence is commonly enhanced by the endogenous hormone ethylene and suppressed by the gibberellins (GAs) in plants. However, the detailed mechanisms for the antagonism of these hormones during flower senescence remain elusive. In this study, we characterized one up-regulated gene , belonging to the basic leucine zipper transcription factor family, in senescing petals of petunia ().

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tree peony () is an excellent woody oilseed crop, known for its high α-linolenic acid (ALA, ~45%) content, which is of great value for human health. However, the mechanisms underlying this high-level ALA accumulation in tree peony seeds are poorly understood. In this study, we evaluated the dynamic changes in the lipidomic profile of seeds during development.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is an important woody oil crop mainly cross-pollinated. However, the low yield has become an important factor restricting the industrial development of Cross-pollination has become one of the important measures to increase the seed yield. Therefore, conservation of pollen with high vitality is crucial to ensure successful pollination of .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tree peonies ( Section )-including nine wild species, which belong to subsections and -are economically important plants with ornamental, nutritional, and medicinal applications. In this study, for the first time, we determined the bioactive components and antioxidant activities and antibacterial activities of the newly grown leaves of nine wild tree peony species (WTPS). A total of 276 bioactive components were identified through non-targeted metabolomics; more than 80% of the 276 metabolites identified are terpenoids and flavonoids.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Seed oil not only provides energy for seed postgermination development but also provides essential nutrients and raw materials for human products. However, the transcriptional regulatory mechanism controlling seed oil accumulation remains largely unknown. Tree peony (Paeonia rockii) is an emerging woody oilseed crop in China that is known for its high-quality seed oil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal borides (TMBs) are especially expected to exhibit excellent performance in various fields among electricity, superconductivity, magnetism, mechanics, biotechnology, battery, and catalysis. However, the synthesis of ultrathin TMB single crystals with ultrahigh phase purity was deemed extremely challenging and has not been realized till date. That is because TMBs have the most kinds of crystal structures among inorganic compounds, which possess generous phase structures with similar formation energies compared with other transition-metal compounds, attributing to the metalloid and electron-deficient characteristics of boron.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Herbaceous peony is an important cut-flower plant cultivated worldwide, but its short vase life substantially restricts its economic value. It is well established that endogenous hormones regulate the senescence process, but their molecular mechanism in flower senescence remains unclear. Here, we isolated a MYB transcription factor gene, , from herbaceous peony flowers, based on transcriptome data.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gallotannins (GTs) are a series of hydrolyzable tannins with multiple health-promoting effects. In this study, an integrated liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) strategy was developed for unveiling the spatial distribution pattern of GTs in the emerging oilseed crops and . According to the fragmentation behavior of the representative GT (1,2,3,4,6-penta--galloyl-β--glucose, PGG), the diagnostic neutral loss (NL) of 170 Da was chosen for the non-targeted screening of GT precursors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is a wild species of tree peony native to China. Its leaves are purplish red from the bud germination to the flowering stage, and anthocyanin is the main pigment in purplish red leaves. However, the anthocyanin synthesis regulation mechanism in tree peony leaves remains unclear.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In many higher plants, seed oil accumulation is governed by complex multilevel regulatory networks including transcriptional regulation, which primarily affects fatty acid biosynthesis. Tree peony (), a perennial deciduous shrub endemic to China is notable for its seed oil that is abundant in unsaturated fatty acids. We discovered that a tree peony trihelix transcription factor, PrASIL1, localized in the nucleus, is expressed predominantly in developing seeds during maturation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Germanium, the prime applied semiconductor, is widely used in solid-state electronics and photoelectronics. Unfortunately, since the 3D diamond-like structure with strong covalent bonds impedes the 2D anisotropic growth, only the examples of ultrathin Ge along the (111) plane have been investigated, much less to the controllable synthesis along another crystal surface. Meanwhile, Ge(111) flakes are limited in semiconductor applications because of their gapless property.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.) is a popular ornamental plant in China due to its showy and colorful flowers. However, yellow-colored flowers are rare in both wild species and domesticated cultivars.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based on 2D semiconductors has been rapidly developed due to their chemical stability and molecule-specific SERS activity. High signal reproducibility is urgently required towards practical SERS applications. 2D gallium nitride (GaN) with highly polar Ga-N bonds enables strong dipole-dipole interactions with the probe molecules, and abundant DOS (density of states) near its Fermi level increases the intermolecular charge transfer probability, making it a suitable SERS substrate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A concise and environmentally friendly protocol was developed for the synthesis of 6-phenylbenzo[]quinolines. 6-Phenylbenzo[]quinolines were obtained in good yields irradiation of ()-2-phenyl-3-styrylpyridines with a 254 nm UV light (64 W) in EtOH under an argon atmosphere in the presence of TFA. The reaction is a dehydrogenative annulation reaction that proceeds through 6π-electrocyclization, a [1,5]-H shift, 1,3-enamine tautomerization, and elimination of a hydrogen molecule to afford 6-phenylbenzo[]quinolines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tree peony seed, traditionally used for edible oil production, is rich in α-linolenic acid. However, little attention is given to the fruit by-products during seed oil production. The present work aimed to comprehensively investigate the phytochemical constituents and multiple biological activities of different parts of tree peony fruits harvested from Paeonia ostii and Paeonia rockii.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionnd0cbn82u3f75mha9g657te8u3uh0521): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once