A polymer-like ultrahigh-strength metal alloy.

Futuristic technologies such as morphing aircrafts and super-strong artificial muscles depend on metal alloys being as strong as ultrahigh-strength steel yet as flexible as a polymer. However, achieving such 'strong yet flexible' alloys has proven challenging because of the inevitable trade-off between strength and flexibility. Here we report a Ti-50.

Toughening Ceramics down to Cryogenic Temperatures by Reentrant Strain-Glass Transition.

Ceramics, often exhibiting important functional properties like piezoelectricity, superconductivity, and magnetism, are usually mechanically brittle at room temperature and even more brittle at low temperature due to their ionic or covalent bonding nature. The brittleness in their working temperature range (mostly from room down to cryogenic temperatures) has been a limiting factor for the usefulness of these ceramics. In this Letter, we report a surprising "low-temperature toughening" phenomenon in a La-doped CaTiO_{3} perovskite ceramic, where a 2.

A lightweight strain glass alloy showing nearly temperature-independent low modulus and high strength.

Fast development of space technologies poses a strong challenge for elastic materials, which need to be not only lightweight, strong and compliant, but also able to maintain stable elasticity over a wide temperature range. Here we report a lightweight magnesium-scandium strain glass alloy (Mg with 21.3 at.

Creating Virtual Hematoxylin and Eosin Images using Samples Imaged on a Commercial CODEX Platform.

Multiparametric fluorescence imaging through CODEX allows the simultaneous imaging of many biomarkers in a single tissue section. While the digital fluorescence data thus obtained can provide highly specific characterizations of individual cells and microenvironments, the images obtained are different from those usually interpreted by pathologists (i.e.

Insulin-Like Peptide and FoxO Mediate the Trehalose Catabolism Enhancement during the Diapause Termination Period in the Chinese Oak Silkworm ().

In insects, trehalose accumulation is associated with the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signalling (IIS) pathway. However, whether insulin-like peptide is involved in the regulation of the trehalose metabolism during diapause termination remains largely unknown. This study assessed whether insulin-like peptide () enhances the trehalose catabolism in the pupae of during their diapause termination process.

Trirelaxor Ferroelectric Material with Giant Dielectric Permittivity over a Wide Temperature Range.

Advanced ferroelectrics with a combination of large dielectric response and good temperature stability are crucial for many technologically important electronic devices and electrical storage/power equipment. However, the two key factors usually do not go hand in hand, and achieving high permittivity is normally at the expense of sacrificing temperature stability. This trade-off relation is eased but not fundamentally remedied using relaxor-type materials which are known to have a diffuse permittivity peak at their relaxor transition temperatures.

Polarization Spinodal at Ferroelectric Morphotropic Phase Boundary.

Here, we report a new phenomenon of uniform and continuous transformation of a single polarization domain into alternating nanodomains of two polarization vectors with the same magnitude but different directions at ferroelectric morphotropic phase Boundary (MPB). The transformation is fully reversible and could enhance the piezoelectric coefficient d_{33}. Further free energy calculations illustrate that such a polarization "decomposition" process occurs within the region on the Landau free energy curve with respect to the polarization direction where the second derivative becomes negative, which is similar to spinodal instability in phase transformations such as spinodal ordering or isostructural phase separation (e.

Adipocytokine expression, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and TGF-1/Smad signaling activity in diabetic patients complicated with pulmonary infection.

Objective: To investigate adipocytokine expression levels, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/Smad signaling activity in diabetic patients with pulmonary infection.

Methods: Eighty-two type 2 diabetic patients with pulmonary infection were included in the observation group and 75 patients with simple type 2 diabetes were recruited into the control group. The fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and PLR in the two groups were compared.

Investigation on Adsorption and Decomposition Properties of CL-20/FOX-7 Molecules on MgH(110) Surface by First-Principles.

Metal hydrides are regarded as promising hydrogen-supplying fuel for energetic materials while CL-20 (Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane) and FOX-7 (1,1-Diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene) are typical principal components commonly used in energetic materials. Hence, it is interesting to explore the interactions between them for development of new energetic systems. In this paper, the adsorption and decomposition of CL-20 or FOX-7 molecules on the MgH (110) crystal surface were investigated by employing the First-Principles.

Effective Strategy to Achieve Excellent Energy Storage Properties in Lead-Free BaTiO-Based Bulk Ceramics.

Although extensive studies have been done on lead-free dielectric ceramics to achieve excellent dielectric behaviors and good energy storage performance, the major problem of low energy density has not been solved so far. Here, we report on designing the crossover relaxor ferroelectrics (CRFE), a crossover region between the normal ferroelectrics and relaxor ferroelectrics, as a solution to overcome the low energy density. CRFE exhibits smaller free energy and lower defect density in the modified Landau theory, which helps to obtain ultrahigh energy density and efficiency.

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices and the analysis of risk factors regarding schistosomiasis among fishermen and boatmen in the Dongting Lake Basin, the People's Republic of China.

Background: Fishermen and boatmen are a population at-risk for contracting schistosomiasis due to their high frequency of water contact in endemic areas of schistosomiasis in the People's Republic of China (P. R. China).

Coupling between phase transitions and glassy magnetic behaviour in Heusler alloy NiMnInGa.

The transition sequence in the Heusler alloy NiMnInGahas been determined from measurements of elasticity, heat flow and magnetism to be paramagnetic austenite → paramagnetic martensite → ferromagnetic martensite at ∼335 and ∼260 K, respectively, during cooling. The overall pattern of elastic stiffening/softening and acoustic loss is typical of a system with bilinear coupling between symmetry breaking strain and the driving structural/electronic order parameter, and a temperature interval below the transition point in which ferroelastic twin walls remain mobile under the influence of external stress. Divergence between zero-field-cooling and field-cooling determinations of DC magnetisation below ∼220 K indicates that a frustrated magnetic glass develops in the ferromagnetic martensite.

Morphotropic Relaxor Boundary in a Relaxor System Showing Enhancement of Electrostrain and Dielectric Permittivity.

In ferroelectric and relaxor-ferroelectric materials, piezoelectric and dielectric properties are significantly enhanced at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), a boundary between different ferroelectric phases with different macroscopic symmetries. By contrast, in relaxor systems, such an MPB does not exist because relaxors of different compositions possess the same macroscopic symmetry. Here, we report the existence of a morphotropic relaxor boundary (MRB) in the single phase relaxor region of a K_{0.

Thermal Expansion and Magnetostriction of Laves-Phase Alloys: Fingerprints of Ferrimagnetic Phase Transitions.

The magneto-elastic coupling effect correlates to the changes of moment and lattice upon magnetic phase transition. Here, we report that, in the pseudo-binary Laves-phase TbDyCo system ( = 0.0, 0.

Mechanical relaxation and freezing in the room temperature strain glass alloy Ti(PdCr).

The alloy Ti(PdCr) undergoes a strain glass transition around room temperature evidenced by frequency dispersion of dynamic mechanical properties and lack of average structure change from that of the high symmetry austenite phase. However, since the strain glass transition is not a thermodynamic phase transition but a dynamic freezing process governed by the kinetics, a quantitative characterization of the slowing down of dynamics during the strain glass transition is still lacking. In the present study, the probability distribution function (PDF) of the relaxation time of the strain glass alloy is investigated spanning the whole transition temperature range (253 K-313 K).

Amorphous martensite in β-Ti alloys.

Martensitic transformations originate from a rigidity instability, which causes a crystal to change its lattice in a displacive manner. Here, we report that the martensitic transformation on cooling in Ti-Zr-Cu-Fe alloys yields an amorphous phase instead. Metastable β-Ti partially transforms into an intragranular amorphous phase due to local lattice shear and distortion.

Low-Field-Triggered Large Magnetostriction in Iron-Palladium Strain Glass Alloys.

Development of miniaturized magnetostriction-associated devices requires low-field-triggered large magnetostriction. In this study, we acquired a large magnetostriction (800 ppm) triggered by a low saturation field (0.8 kOe) in iron-palladium (Fe-Pd) alloys.

Super-strong dislocation-structured high-carbon martensite steel.

High-carbon martensite steels (with C > 0.5 wt.%) are very hard but at the same time as brittle as glass in as-quenched or low-temperature-tempered state.

Enhancing dielectric permittivity for energy-storage devices through tricritical phenomenon.

Although dielectric energy-storing devices are frequently used in high voltage level, the fast growing on the portable and wearable electronics have been increasing the demand on the energy-storing devices at finite electric field strength. This paper proposes an approach on enhancing energy density under low electric field through compositionally inducing tricriticality in Ba(Ti,Sn)O ferroelectric material system with enlarged dielectric response. The optimal dielectric permittivity at tricritical point can reach to ε = 5.

Highly thermal-stable ferromagnetism by a natural composite.

All ferromagnetic materials show deterioration of magnetism-related properties such as magnetization and magnetostriction with increasing temperature, as the result of gradual loss of magnetic order with approaching Curie temperature T. However, technologically, it is highly desired to find a magnetic material that can resist such magnetism deterioration and maintain stable magnetism up to its T, but this seems against the conventional wisdom about ferromagnetism. Here we show that a Fe-Ga alloy exhibits highly thermal-stable magnetization up to the vicinity of its T, 880 K.

Strain glass state as the boundary of two phase transitions.

A strain glass state was found to be located between B2-B19' (cubic to monoclinic) phase transition and B2-R (cubic to rhombohedral) phase transition in Ti49Ni51 alloys after aging process. After a short time aging, strong strain glass transition was observed, because the size of the precipitates is small, which means the strain field induced by the precipitates is isotropic and point-defect-like, and the distribution of the precipitates is random. After a long time aging, the average size of the precipitates increases.

A new mechanism for low and temperature-independent elastic modulus.

The first Elinvar alloy, FeNiCr, which has invariant elastic modulus over a wide temperature range, was discovered almost 100 years ago by Guillaume. The physical origin of such an anomaly has been attributed to the magnetic phase transition taking place in the system. However, the recent discovery of non-magnetic Elinvar such as multi-functional β-type Ti alloys has imposed a new challenge to the existing theories.