An Overview of Plant Phenolic Compounds and Their Importance in Human Nutrition and Management of Type 2 Diabetes

In this paper, the biosynthesis process of phenolic compounds in plants is summarized, which includes the shikimate, pentose phosphate and phenylpropanoid pathways. Plant phenolic compounds can act as antioxidants, structural polymers (lignin), attractants (flavonoids and carotenoids), UV screens (flavonoids), signal compounds (salicylic acid and flavonoids) and defense response chemicals (tannins and phytoalexins). From a human physiological standpoint, phenolic compounds are vital in defense responses, such as anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities. Therefore, it is beneficial to eat such plant foods that have a high antioxidant compound content, which will cut down the incidence of certain chronic diseases, for instance diabetes, cancers and cardiovascular diseases, through the management of oxidative stress. Furthermore, berries and other fruits with low-amylase and high-glucosidase inhibitory activities could be regarded as candidate food items in the control of the early stages of hyperglycemia associated with type 2 diabetes

Optimization of Ni0.95−xZnxCo0.05Fe1.90Mn0.02O4 ceramics with promising magneto-dielectric properties for VHF antenna miniaturization

Magnetic, dielectric and DC conductive properties of Ni0.95−xZnxCo0.05Fe1.90Mn0.02O4 (with x=0-0.20 at an interval of 0.05) ferrite ceramics were studied, in order to develop magneto-dielectric materials with almost equal values of relative permeability and permittivity, for the miniaturization of HF (3–30MHz) and VHF (30–90MHz and 100–300MHz) antennas. The ferrite ceramics were prepared by using the conventional two-step sintering process. The real part of relative permeability is increased almost linearly with increasing concentration of Zn, while that of relative permittivity keeps nearly unchanged. It is found that promising magneto-dielectric materials, with close values of real permeability and permittivity over 30–90 MHz (VHF), can be obtained for the samples at Zn concentrations between x=0.05 and x=0.10

Chinese ink-facilitated fabrication of paper-based composites as electrodes for supercapacitors

Commercial Chinese ink was employed to disperse pristine vapor-grown carbon nanofibers (VGCNFs) in aqueous suspensions via horizontal ball milling. The obtained suspension was used to fabricate conductive paper-based composites through filtration-deposition onto filter paper. It was found that the carbon black particles from the Chinese ink helped separate VGCNFs and acted as connection points between the VGCNFs, while the glue reinforced the conduction network. Thus, the VGCNF-ink/paper ternary composite showed sufficiently low sheet resistance. With merely 2.5 mg·cm⁻² VGCNFs, the sheet resistance could be reduced to 4.5 Ω·sq⁻¹. As a proof of concept, these paper-based composites were directly used as electrodes of solid-state symmetric electronic double-layer capacitors (EDLCs) and the substrate for the electrodeposition of MnO₂ to achieve higher electrochemical performances. The EDLCs fabricated with 2.5 mg·cm⁻² VGCNFs showed a specific capacitance of 224 mF·cm⁻² at a current density of 1 mA·cm⁻², which was retained by 86.4% after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. Moreover, thanks to the high electrical conductivity and the porous structure, the MnO₂ decorated paper-based composites exhibited dramatically enhanced specific capacitance. It is believed that our finding offers an idea to directly utilize commercial Chinese ink for the fabrication of electrode materials.Published versio

Rapid processing of ferrite ceramics with promising magneto-dielectric characteristics

Ferrite ceramics, Ni0.88Zn0.07Co0.05Fe1.98O4, with the addition of 4wt.% Bi2O3 as sintering aid, were fabricated by using a simple one-step processing without involving the step of calcination. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicated that single phase ferrite ceramics can be achieved after sintering at 1000∘C for 2h. The samples demonstrated relative densities in the range of 97–99%. Desired magneto-dielectric properties have been approached by adjusting the sintering temperature and sintering time duration. This technique is believed to be applicable to other ceramic materials.Published versio

Fabrication and characterization of lightweight foam ceramics from rare earth tailings

Utilization of waste resources is currently a hot research topic in materials science and engineering. In this work, by using tailings of ionabsorption rare earth as the main raw material, supplemented by potassium feldspar, black soil, lithium porcelain stone and talc, together with silicon carbide abrasive waste as foaming agent, lightweight foam ceramics were prepared through high temperature foaming. The effects of sintering temperature on the structure and properties of the foam ceramics were elaborated. It is found that the maximum amount of the rare earth tailings can reach 60 wt.% and the sintering temperatures can be optimized in the range of 1160 ~ 1180 °C. Both density and thermal conductivity of the foam ceramics are reduced with increasing sintering temperature. The main crystal phase in the foam ceramics is quartz, whose content is decreased rapidly with increasing sintering temperature. Specifically, the sample sintered at 1180 °C for 10 min has a bulk density of 0.37 g/cm3 , thermal conductivity of 0.021 W/m·K and compressive strength of 11.2 MPa.Published versio

Low temperature sintered cordierite ceramics from MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass powder

Cordierite ceramics are widely used in electronic and information fields due to their excellent electrical, thermal and mechanical properties. In the present work, cordierite ceramics with both low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and high flexural strength were successfully derived from MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass powder. The effects of sintering temperature on phase composition and microstructure of the ceramics were elaborated, while the relationships among sintering temperature, CTE, mechanical strength and density were comprehensively discussed. It has been shown that the MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass powder can be well sintered into cordierite ceramics at temperatures in the range of 1050-1150°C, which are much lower than the commonly reported sintering temperatures that are over 1400°C. Specifically, the cordierite ceramic sample sintered at 1150°C exhibits a CTE of 2.123×10-6 °C-1 and a flexural strength of 97.05 MPa.Published versio

Sintering and electrical properties of commercial PZT powders modified through mechanochemical activation

The effect of high-energy ball mechanochemical activation on microstructure and electrical properties of PZT from commercial PZT powder has been studied in this paper. The mechanochemical treatment destroys the large particles and refines the grains of the commercial PZT powder. The milled PZT powder can be fully sintered at a very low temperature of 950 °C, which is much lower than that of the pristine powder. More importantly, the grain growth is effectively prevented, while electrical properties of the final PZT ceramics are well maintained, due to the significant reduction in sintering temperature. It is believed that this technique can be readily extended to other materials

Towards detecting need for empathetic response in motivational interviewing

Empathetic response from the therapist is key to the success of clinical psychotherapy, especially motivational interviewing. Previous work on computational modelling of empathy in motivational interviewing has focused on offline, session-level assessment of therapist empathy, where empathy captures all efforts that the therapistmakes to understand theclient's perspective and convey that understanding to the client. In this position paper, we propose a novel task of turn-level detection of client need for empathy. Concretely, we propose to leverage pre-trained language models and empathy-related general conversation corpora in a unique labeller-detector framework, where the labeller automatically annotates a motivational interviewing conversation corpus with empathy labels to train the detector that determines the need for therapist empathy. We also lay out our strategies of extending the detector with additional-input and multi-task setups to improve its detection and explainability

Phase Transformation of GeO₂ Glass to Nanocrystals under Ambient Conditions

Theoretically, the accomplishment of phase transformation requires sufficient energy to overcome the barriers of structure rearrangements. The transition of an amorphous structure to a crystalline structure is implemented traditionally by heating at high temperatures. However, phase transformation under ambient condition without involving external energy has not been reported. Here, we demonstrate that the phase transformation of GeO₂ glass to nanocrystals can be triggered at ambient conditions when subjected to aqueous environments. In this case, continuous chemical reactions between amorphous GeO₂ and water are responsible for the amorphous-to-crystalline transition. The dynamic evolution process is monitored by using in situ liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy, clearly revealing this phase transformation. It is the hydrolysis of amorphous GeO₂ that leads to the formation of clusters with a size of ∼0.4 nm, followed by the development of dense liquid clusters, which subsequently aggregate to facilitate the nucleation and growth of GeO₂ nanocrystals. Our finding breaks the traditional understanding of phase transformation and will bring about a significant revolution and contribution to the classical glass-crystallization theories

Phase Transformation of GeO₂ Glass to Nanocrystals under Ambient Conditions

Theoretically, the accomplishment of phase transformation requires sufficient energy to overcome the barriers of structure rearrangements. The transition of an amorphous structure to a crystalline structure is implemented traditionally by heating at high temperatures. However, phase transformation under ambient condition without involving external energy has not been reported. Here, we demonstrate that the phase transformation of GeO₂ glass to nanocrystals can be triggered at ambient conditions when subjected to aqueous environments. In this case, continuous chemical reactions between amorphous GeO₂ and water are responsible for the amorphous-to-crystalline transition. The dynamic evolution process is monitored by using in situ liquid-cell transmission electron microscopy, clearly revealing this phase transformation. It is the hydrolysis of amorphous GeO₂ that leads to the formation of clusters with a size of ∼0.4 nm, followed by the development of dense liquid clusters, which subsequently aggregate to facilitate the nucleation and growth of GeO₂ nanocrystals. Our finding breaks the traditional understanding of phase transformation and will bring about a significant revolution and contribution to the classical glass-crystallization theories