into visible light. Phosphor plays an important role in determining the performance of white LEDs, such as, their color rendering, luminous effi ciency, lifetime, and so on. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] A number of promising phosphors have already been explored and their suitability for white LEDs has been demonstrated. In particular, nitride phosphors have drawn much attention due to their high chemical and high thermal stability. [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] At the operating temperature of current white LEDs (ca. 150 °C), nitride phosphors can maintain 80-90% of the room temperature luminescence intensity, [ 18,[21][22][23][24][25] and some of them can even reach 95% at 200 °C. [ 31 ] Nitride phosphors are usually synthesized via solid-state reaction (SSR), gas reduction and nitridation (GRN), carbothermal reduction and nitridation (CRN), or high-pressure ammonothermal methods. [ 21,22 ] These synthesis techniques are often complex, require expensive and moisture-sensitive raw materials, a long processing time at a high temperature (1400-2000 °C), and a high nitrogen or ammonia pressure (100 MPa), leading to very high costs associated with the production of these phosphors. It is therefore necessary to search for novel phosphors with high effi ciency and low thermal degradation that can be synthesized easily.In this work, we report on a novel orthosilicate phosphor, Ba 9 Lu 2 Si 6 O 24 :Ce 3+ , which is synthesized by a simple SSR process at a relatively low reaction temperature of 1400 °C. The optical properties of this phosphor are comparable with those of nitride phosphors. Ba 9 Lu 2 Si 6 O 24 :Ce 3+ exhibits a main excitation band around 400 nm, which matches the emission light of near-UV chips. Under this excitation, it shows a green emission band around 490 nm with a width of 120 nm. Its internal quantum effi ciency (QE) can be as high as 82% with an absorbance of 0.60, resulting in an external QE of about 50%, which is equivalent to that of most nitride phosphors. Moreover, this green phosphor shows a very high thermal stability, and its luminescence intensity at 160 °C preserves nearly 94% of the initial luminescence intensity at room temperature. This is very superior to that of most nitride phosphors. In this paper, the synthesis and the crystal structure analysis of Ba 9 Lu 2 Si 6 O 24 are reported. The origins of the excellent thermal stability are also investigated by using classical thermal quenching theory.Among the inorganic phosphors used in advanced solid-state lighting technologies, nitridosilicates have drawn signifi cant attention because of their superior photoluminescence properties with high effi ciency and high thermal stabilities. However, the synthesis of nitride phosphors usually requires strict processing conditions and a long processing time, leading to very high manufacturing costs. Herein, a novel orthosilicate green phosphor, Ba 9 Lu 2 Si 6 O 24 :Ce 3+ , is synthesized via a simple solid-state reaction. The photoluminescence char...

BackgroundThe prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide and significantly affects fertility and reproduction in both men and women. Our recent study has shown that excess body fat accelerates ovarian follicle development and follicle loss in rats. The aim of the present study is to explore the effect of SIRT1 activator SRT1720 on the reserve of ovarian follicle pool and ovarian lifespan of obese mice and the underlying mechanism associated with SIRT1 and mTOR signaling.MethodsAdult female Kunming mice (n = 36) were randomly divided into three groups: the normal control (NC) group (n = 8), the caloric restriction (CR) group (fed 70% food of the NC group, n = 8) and the high-fat diet (HF) group (fed a rodent chow containing 20% fat, n = 20). After 4 months, the HF mice were further randomly divided into three groups: the control high-fat diet (CHF, n = 8) group (treated every day with an intraperitoneal injection of vehicle), the SRT1720 (SRT, n = 6) group (treated every other day with an intraperitoneal injection of SRT1720 (50 mg/kg)), the SRT1720 and nicotinamide (NAM, n = 6) group (treated every other day with an intraperitoneal injection of SRT1720 (50 mg/kg) and every day with an intraperitoneal injection of nicotinamide (100 mg/kg)). After 6 weeks of treatment, ovaries were harvested for histological and Western blotting analyses.ResultsThe body weight, ovary weight and visceral fat in the SRT group were significantly lower than those in the CHF group at the end of treatment. Histological analysis showed that the SRT mice had significantly greater number and percentage of primordial follicles, but lower number and percentage of corpora lutea and atretic follicles than the CHF mice and NAM mice. Western blot analysis demonstrated that the levels of SIRT1, SIRT6, FOXO3a and NRF-1 protein expression significantly increased in the ovaries of SRT mice, whereas those of mTORC1, p-mTOR, p-p70S6K, NFκB and p53 decreased compared to the CHF and NAM mice.ConclusionsOur study suggests that SRT1720 may improve the follicle pool reserve in HF diet-induced obese female mice via activating SIRT1 signaling and suppressing mTOR signaling, thus extending the ovarian lifespan.

Yale University holds rights to patents that describe the potential utility of MIF inhibition and MIF genotype determination. RB has applied for a patent related to MIF modulators (9540322). RB and LL have applied for a patent related to the method of inhibiting binding or activity of MIF by administering a MIF antagonist (9221903). RB has applied for a patent related to MIF promoter polymorphism in inflammatory disease (9139877).