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Improvement on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been a major research topic for the past thirty years. Several research efforts on increasing the efficiency of DSSC have mainly focused on the synthesis of novel sensitizers, with the continuous employment of the traditional mesoporous TiO films as semiconductor, and the iodide/triiodide (I-/I3-) electrolyte as redox couple. Since not so much have been done in exploring other mesoporous semiconductors and redox electrolytes beyond these two, TiO2 and I-/I3- couple, this paper concisely chronicles the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of DSSCs of different dye sensitizers, where only TiO2 nanofilm and iodide/triiodide redox couple have been used as the semiconductor and electrolyte systems respectively. This list was used to obtain possible relationship between the optical properties of dyes and the PCE of the DSSC. Dye sensitizers with PCE values > 1.00% were employed. The spectral properties of each of the selected sensitizers were used to obtain their spectrum power, I(λ). An increase in PCE value as I(λ) increases was observed for 81.25% of the sixteen sensitizers considered, which suggests that a direct correlation could exist between the I(λ) of a sensitizer and the PCE of the DSSC of that sensitizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A link has been shown between patent foramen ovale (PFO) and migraine, particularly migraine with aura. However, it is unknown if PFO might cause migraine by altering cortical excitability and neural network, which may lower the threshold of cortical spreading depression (CSD). This study aims to compare the spectrum power and functional connectivity of the alpha and beta bands of electroencephalography (EEG) across migraine patients with and without PFO. Methods: Thirty-five migraine patients with PFO (PFO +), 35 migraine patients without PFO (PFO -) and 20 PFO patients without migraine (control) were enrolled in this cross-sectional analysis. 19-channel EEG was recorded for all patients under resting state and intermittent photic stimulation. Power spectrum density (PSD) and phase lag index (PLI) of alpha and beta bands were then calculated and compared between the three groups. Results: During photic stimulation, the beta band PSD at the occipital area was substantially higher in PFO + migraine patients compared to PFO-migraine patients (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Subgroup analysis showed that both migraine with and without aura patients with PFO had increased PSD in the alpha and beta bands at the occipital region during photic stimulation (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Meanwhile, the beta band PLI during photic stimulation was significantly elevated (adjusted p = 0.008, utilizing the network-based statistic technique) in PFO + group compared to PFO-group. Furthermore, although failed to pass the correction, the beta band power in the occipital area during photic stimulation at 20 Hz on O1 (R = 0.392, p = 0.024) and O2 channel (R = 0.348, p = 0.047) was prone to positively correlated with MIDAS score, and during photic stimulation at 12 Hz on O2 channel (R = 0.396, p = 0.022) and 20 Hz (R = 0.365, p = 0.037) on O1 channel was prone to positively correlated to HIT-6 score in PFO+ migraineurs, whereas no similar correlation was found in the PFO-group patients. Conclusion: The outcomes of this investigation suggested that PFO may change the cortical excitability in the occipital lobe of both migraineurs with and without aura. Meanwhile, the beta band PSD on the occipital area during photic stimulation might be an objective measure of severity in migraineurs with PFO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some physiological parameters of human body have the possibility to characterize the change of human thermal sensation. The correlation between human skin temperature, electroencephalogram (EEG) and thermal sensation changes in cold environment, neutral environment and hot environment was analyzed to explore the relationship between human physiological parameters(skin temperature, EEG) and thermal sensation changes in different room temperature environments through objective experiments and human subjective questionnaire surveys. It was found that the mean skin temperature, forehead temperature were significantly related to the changes of thermal sensation and the trend is consistent. During energy analysis of EEG data, the overall thermal sensation of human body at different room temperature is significantly correlated with the spectral power changes of δ band (0.5～4 Hz) and α band (8～13 Hz) and moderately correlated with the spectral power changes of β band (13～30 Hz) using the fast Fourier transform method. Particularly, the average spectral power of the δ, α, and β bands changes more significantly when the human body responds to a cold environment. The variation range of average spectral power per unit thermal sensation vote(TSV) scale in the transition from cold environment to neutral environment is higher than that in hot environment. Human body is more sensitive to the cold environment and also revealed at the aspect of energy physiological parameters of EEG spectral power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migraine is a common disease of the nervous system that seriously affects the quality of life of patients and constitutes a growing global health crisis. However, many limitations and challenges exist in migraine research, including the unclear etiology and the lack of specific biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a neurophysiological technique for measuring brain activity. With the updating of data processing and analysis methods in recent years, EEG offers the possibility to explore altered brain functional patterns and brain network characteristics of migraines in depth. In this paper, we provide an overview of the methodology that can be applied to EEG data processing and analysis and a narrative review of EEG-based migraine-related research. To better understand the neural changes of migraine or to provide a new idea for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of migraine in the future, we discussed the study of EEG and evoked potential in migraine, compared the relevant research methods, and put forwards suggestions for future migraine EEG studies.

Background: A link has been shown between patent foramen ovale (PFO) and migraine, particularly migraine with aura. However, it is unknown if PFO might cause migraine by altering cortical excitability and neural network, which may lower the threshold of cortical spreading depression (CSD). This study aims to compare the spectrum power and functional connectivity of the alpha and beta bands of electroencephalography (EEG) across migraine patients with and without PFO., Methods: Thirty-five migraine patients with PFO (PFO +), 35 migraine patients without PFO (PFO -) and 20 PFO patients without migraine (control) were enrolled in this cross-sectional analysis. 19-channel EEG was recorded for all patients under resting state and intermittent photic stimulation. Power spectrum density (PSD) and phase lag index (PLI) of alpha and beta bands were then calculated and compared between the three groups., Results: During photic stimulation, the beta band PSD at the occipital area was substantially higher in PFO + migraine patients compared to PFO-migraine patients ( p  < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Subgroup analysis showed that both migraine with and without aura patients with PFO had increased PSD in the alpha and beta bands at the occipital region during photic stimulation ( p  < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Meanwhile, the beta band PLI during photic stimulation was significantly elevated (adjusted p  = 0.008, utilizing the network-based statistic technique) in PFO + group compared to PFO-group. Furthermore, although failed to pass the correction, the beta band power in the occipital area during photic stimulation at 20 Hz on O1 ( R  = 0.392, p  = 0.024) and O2 channel ( R  = 0.348, p  = 0.047) was prone to positively correlated with MIDAS score, and during photic stimulation at 12 Hz on O2 channel ( R  = 0.396, p  = 0.022) and 20 Hz ( R  = 0.365, p  = 0.037) on O1 channel was prone to positively correlated to HIT-6 score in PFO+ migraineurs, whereas no similar correlation was found in the PFO-group patients., Conclusion: The outcomes of this investigation suggested that PFO may change the cortical excitability in the occipital lobe of both migraineurs with and without aura. Meanwhile, the beta band PSD on the occipital area during photic stimulation might be an objective measure of severity in migraineurs with PFO., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Lei, Wei, Qi, Wang, Liu, Guo, Xu, Cao, Liu and Luo.)

Migraine is a common disease of the nervous system that seriously affects the quality of life of patients and constitutes a growing global health crisis. However, many limitations and challenges exist in migraine research, including the unclear etiology and the lack of specific biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a neurophysiological technique for measuring brain activity. With the updating of data processing and analysis methods in recent years, EEG offers the possibility to explore altered brain functional patterns and brain network characteristics of migraines in depth. In this paper, we provide an overview of the methodology that can be applied to EEG data processing and analysis and a narrative review of EEG-based migraine-related research. To better understand the neural changes of migraine or to provide a new idea for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of migraine in the future, we discussed the study of EEG and evoked potential in migraine, compared the relevant research methods, and put forwards suggestions for future migraine EEG studies., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Zhang, Pan, Chen, Zhai, Liu, Huang, Sun, Lin, He, Hou, Yu, Li and Chen.)