Ba
0.65
Sr
0.35
TiO
3
(BST) ceramics were synthesized by sol–gel route. The diffusion phase transition (DPT) characteristic was found in the temperature range from 150 to − 35 °C. The value of the ...DPT parameter
γ
values are 1.53 and 1.75, respectively at applied dc field of 0 and 16.7 kV/cm. It is implied that the phase transition of BST ceramics become more diffuse under the applied electric field. Temperature dependent polarization–electric field hysteresis loops were studied. It was found that the energy storage properties and electrocaloric effect near room temperature were the function of electric fields. The maximum value of recoverable energy density was 0.2812 J/cm
3
with energy storage efficiency (
η
) of 78.67% obtained at room temperature under an electric field of 75 kV/cm. The largest
η
can achieve 98% under low electric field of 50 kV/cm. A large electrocaloric temperature change (Δ
T
max
= 0.49 K) near room temperature was obtained by indirect method. Taken together, the ceramics have a promising candidate for energy-storage applications and cooling systems in the room temperature.
The current clinical methods for detecting skeletal muscle complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are invasive and insensitive. There is an urgent need for noninvasive assessment of ...skeletal muscle microstructure changes during the disease progression and treatment to assist the clinical management.
This work aimed to investigate the T2DM caused changes in the fast-twitch tibialis anterior (TA) and slow-twitch soleus (SOL) skeletal muscles using T1ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
This cross-sectional study took place from December 2014 to December 2020 at Zhongda Hospital Southeast University. A total of 26 new-onset and 15 long-term T2DM patients were enrolled, with the addition of 20 young and 13 older healthy volunteers as age-matched controls. T1ρ relaxation times of SOL and TA muscles in different groups were measured. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used to analyze the relationship between the T1ρ values in SOL and TA muscles and the length of illness, level of fasting blood glucose, and status of homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).
T1ρ relaxation times of SOL and TA muscles both of new-onset and long-term T2DM patients were significantly higher than those of the young (P < .01, P < .05) and older healthy controls (P < .05, P < .01). Positive correlations were observed between the T1ρ relaxation times of the TA or SOL and the duration of T2DM (R2 = 0.420, R2 = 0.326), the level of fasting blood glucose (R2 = 0.253, R2 = 0.071) and HOMA-IR (R2 = 0.232, R2 = 0.414).
Quantitative MRI measurement of T1ρ provides a noninvasive tool to assess T2DM-induced changes in the skeletal muscles of T2DM patients.
Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) have been shown to have significant interactions in plants. Previous study reported the specific-species phytotoxicity of CeO2 NPs by lettuce (Lactuca sativa), ...but their physiological impacts and vivo biotransformation are not yet well understood, especially in relative realistic environment. Butterhead lettuce were germinated and grown in potting soil for 30 days cultivation with treatments of 0, 50, 100, 1000 mg CeO2 NPs per kg soil. Results showed that lettuce in 100 mg·kg-1 treated groups grew significantly faster than others, but significantly increased nitrate content. The lower concentrations treatment had no impact on plant growth, compared with the control. However, the higher concentration treatment significantly deterred plant growth and biomass production. The stress response of lettuce plants, such as Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Peroxidase (POD), Malondialdehyde(MDA) activity was disrupted by 1000 mg·kg-1 CeO2 NPs treatment. In addition, the presence of Ce (III) in the roots of butterhead lettuce explained the reason of CeO2 NPs phytotoxicity. These findings demonstrate CeO2 NPs modification of nutritional quality, antioxidant defense system, the possible transfer into the food chain and biotransformation in vivo.
Ba (Zr
0.2
Ti
0.8
) O
3
ceramics were prepared by a sol–gel process. Temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity
ε
γ
and loss
tanδ
were investigated with different grain sizes. High-temperature ...dielectric relaxation behaviors were observed both in dielectric permittivity and loss spectra. Impedance spectroscopic data presented that both grain and grain boundary responses are responsible for the dielectric relaxation, which was closed with the migrations of oxygen vacancies. The effects of grain size on ferroelectric properties were further investigated. The sample sintered at 1450 °C exhibited excellent ferroelectric properties with a maximum saturated polarization of 8.7 µC/cm
2
at the electric field of 40 kV/cm. Pyroelectric energy harvesting performance was investigated for the first time by using Olsen cycle for Ba(Zr
0.2
Ti
0.8
)O
3
ceramic. The result shows that the sample sintered at 1450 °C obtained a maximum pyroelectric energy harvesting density of 110 kJ/m
3
near room temperature, indicating that the ceramic was a promising candidate for the application of pyroelectric energy harvesting.
Effective treatment of water pollution is an economic and social requirement globally. Humic acid (HA) is a popular mitigator for such waters. However, the combined effect of HA and restorative ...plants on cadmium (Cd) remediation is not well understood. Therefore, we experimented on Cd remediation using HA along with vetiver grass and HA-vetiver grass. We observed that vetiver grass effectively removed Cd at 15～30 mg/L. The accumulation capacity of the root was significantly higher than the shoots (P < 0.05), and Cd distribution followed the trend: cell wall > organelle > soluble substance (F1 > F2 > F3). The plant’s accumulation capacity against 25 mg/L Cd was higher than for other treatments. The root accumulation capacity was much higher (702.3 mg/L) than those without added HA. However, upon adding 200 and 250 mg/L HA, the phytoremediation of Cd in the root and shoot significantly reduced (P < 0.05). Conversely, HA improved the Cd removal efficiency of the plants, notably at a lower HA concentration (150 mg/L). In addition, HA (especially at 150 mg/L) influences Cd distribution in vetiver cells (P < 0.05) and can significantly increase the proportion of Cd in the root cytoplasm. Consequently, a low HA concentration can significantly improve Cd accumulation in the vetiver, shorten the metal’s bioremediation cycle, and improve the biological absorption efficiency.
Display omitted
•The distribution of enriched Cd was not affected by environmental Cd concentration.•HA induced changes in Cd subcellular distribution of vetiver grass.•HA significantly improve the removal efficiency of Cd in aquatic plants at the dose of 150 mg/L
The purpose of the study was to non-invasively characterize and discriminate brown adipose tissue (BAT) from white adipose tissue (WAT) in rats using spectral computed tomography (CT) with ...histological validation.
A lipid-containing phantom (lipid fractions from 0% to 100%) was imaged with spectral CT. An
, non-enhanced spectral CT scan was performed on 24 rats, and fat concentrations of BAT and WAT were measured. The rats were randomized to receive intraperitoneal treatment with norepinephrine (NE) (n = 12) or saline (n = 12). Non-enhanced and enhanced spectral CT scans were performed after treatment to measure the elevation of iodine in BAT and WAT. The BAT/aorta and WAT/aorta ratios were calculated and compared, after which isolated BAT and WAT samples were subjected to histological and uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) analyses.
The ex-vivo phantom study showed excellent linear fit between measured fat concentration and the known gravimetric reference standard (
² = 0.996).
, BAT had significantly lower fat concentration than WAT (
< 0.001). Compared to the saline group, the iodine concentration of BAT increased significantly (
< 0.001) after injection of NE, while the iodine concentration of WAT only changed slightly. The BAT/aorta ratio also increased significantly after exposure to NE compared to the saline group (
< 0.001). Histological and UCP1 expression analyses supported the spectral CT imaging results.
The study consolidates spectral CT as a new approach for non-invasive imaging of BAT and WAT. Quantitative analyses of BAT and WAT by spectral CT revealed different characteristics and pharmacologic activations in the two types of adipose tissue.
A wholly aromatic polypyrene was synthesized by direct chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrene with ferric chloride as oxidant in hexane/nitromethane. Successful synthesis of polypyrene was ...thoroughly confirmed by IR, UV/Vis, 1D 1H NMR, 2D 1H–1H COSY, 2D 1H–13C HSQC, MALDI‐TOF MS, elemental analysis, and X‐ray diffraction methods. The results indicated that the polypyrene was formed mainly through dehydro coupling between 2‐ or 1‐ and 2′‐ or 1′‐positions on pyrene rings having a degree of polymerization of around 24. The polypyrene was purified and then separated into THF‐soluble (ca. 10 %) and THF‐insoluble (ca. 90 %) fractions. Compared with insulating pyrene monomer, the polypyrene is a controllably conducting polymer that has low conductivity of 3.4×10−8 S cm−1 in its virgin state, moderate conductivity of 2.28×10−4 S cm−1 upon iodine doping, but much higher conductivity of up to 81.2 S cm−1 after the insoluble polypyrene was heated up to 1300 °C in nitrogen with a high char yield of 70.6 %. In particular, the soluble polypyrene demonstrates much stronger visible color fluorescence and much lower toxicity than pyrene. The soluble polypyrene would be advantageous for detecting Fe3+ with almost no interference of other metal ions. The soluble and insoluble polypyrene fractions have potential applications as intrinsically luminescent and highly conducting carbon materials, respectively.
Strong turquoise luminescence in various solvents (see picture), selective quenching by Fe3+, controllable conductivity between 3.4×10−8 and 81.2 S cm−1, and a high carbon yield of 70.6 % at 1300 °C are exhibited by polypyrene synthesized by direct chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrene with FeCl3 in n‐C6H14/CH3NO2. It has potential applications as a luminescent material, an Fe3+ detector, and intrinsically electrical conducting functional and ablative materials.
is the genus that exhibits the highest number of species within the
/
complex. Numerous species of
demonstrate edibility, and some of these species have been domesticated and cultivated. During an ...extensive survey carried out in Henan and Jilin Provinces, China, a substantial quantity of
specimens was gathered as a component of the macrofungal resource inventory. Based on the findings of morphological and molecular phylogenetic studies, a new species,
, has been identified. A new record species,
has been discovered in China. Additionally, two new record species,
and
, have been found in Henan Province. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and large subunit ribosomal (nrLSU) were used to establish a phylogeny for species identification. Detailed descriptions, field habitat maps and line drawings of these species are presented. The discussion focuses on the relationships between newly discovered species and other related taxa. Additionally, this study provides and a key to the documented species of
and
found in China.
Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most important clinical complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) and is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease. Currently, there is no highly ...effective medicine that can prevent, halt, or reverse the progressive course of DN. Initial clinical data showed that Tripterygium glycosides (TGs), a traditional Chinese medicine, can decrease proteinuria in patients with DN.
The objective of the present study is to investigate the efficacy and safety of TGs for the treatment of DN through meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
All RCTs of TGs for DN were collected from The China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, Web of Science, Wanfang Data, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) by setting the study inclusion and elimination standards. Two reviewers evaluated the quality of the trials and extracted the data independently. RevMan 5.4 software was used for meta-analyses. The primary outcome was a change in 24-hours urinary total protein (24 h TUP).
26 RCTs with 1824 participants were identified. Studies were assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The overall effects showed that TGs was compared with the controls, TGs showed significant effects in reducing 24 h TUP WMD = -0.84, 95 % CI (-1.09, -0.59), elevating serum albumin WMD = 2.88, 95 % CI (1.87, 3.90), and the total efficiency OR = 4.08, 95 % CI (2.37, 7.04). This effect was consistent across the subgroups of period of intervention.
The present research showed that TGs was significantly associated with improvement of renal function in patients with DN. TGs offers a novel approach to the treatment of DN, more high-quality RCTs are needed for a better understanding of the role of TGs in DN therapy.
Purpose
To prospectively investigate age‐ and gender‐related changes in the fast‐twitch (tibialis anterior, TA) and slow‐twitch (soleus, SOL) skeletal muscle of healthy rats and volunteers and to ...compare the exercise‐related difference in health volunteers with T1ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Materials and Methods
In all, 18 rats and 70 humans were involved in this study. For the animal study, T1ρ relaxation times were measured in the TA and SOL rat muscle with a 3.0T MRI scanner and compared to histological data. For the human study, three groups (young, middle‐aged, and elderly) of volunteers underwent T1ρ MRI scans (3.0T) of their calves. To further differentiate the human scans, 18 volunteers were recruited, half of them (n = 9) routinely trained with high‐intensity sports, while the other half (n = 9) with no physical training. Statistical analysis was performed via paired t‐test, independent‐sample t‐test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Correlations between T1ρ and age/gender/physical endurance were calculated.
Results
The average T1ρ relaxation times of the TA and SOL of female rats were higher than that of male rats (P < 0.001). The T1ρ relaxation time of TA was significantly lower compared to SOL (P < 0.001). A significant linear correlation was observed between T1ρ and the type I slow‐twitch fiber proportion (%) in SOL (R2 = 0.837, P < 0.001). Similarly, in human studies the average T1ρ relaxation times of TA were significantly lower than SOL for all age groups (P < 0.001). The higher T1ρ relaxation times of TA and SOL in the elderly volunteers (P < 0.001) and in the females (P < 0.05) indicated significant age‐ and gender‐dependent differences. In high‐intensity sports groups, the higher T1ρ in SOL (P < 0.01) and lower in TA (P < 0.05) were observed compared with the control group.
Conclusion
This study demonstrated that T1ρ MRI can be used to display the differences in fast‐ and slow‐twitch skeletal muscle as well as potentially age‐, gender‐, and exercise‐related differences.
Level of Evidence: 2
Technical Efficacy: Stage 1
J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2017;46:61–70
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