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Objective: To characterize carotid wall shear stress (WSS)following carotid artery stenting (CAS) in patients with carotid stenosis. Methods: Twenty-eight patients with carotid stenosis treated with CAS between March 2021 to May 2022 in the eighth medical center of the PLA General Hospital were selected for our study. Carotid ultrasound was performed before the operation, one week post-operation, and six months post-operation. Carotid artery WSS was detected by blood flow vector imaging, and the changes in WSS before and after the operation were collected. Genetic testing of drugs was detected for patients with restenosis. Results: Pre-operative WSS of the proximal, narrowest region, and distal carotid arteries in patients with ischemic carotid artery stenosis was 7.88±3.18Pa, 14.36±6.66Pa, and 1.55±1.15Pa, respectively. Comparatively, pre-operative WSS of the proximal, narrowest region and distal carotid arteries in patients without ischemic symptoms was 5.02±1.99Pa, 9.68±4.23Pa, and 1.10±0.68Pa, respectively, with a significant difference between the two groups (p 0.05). Conclusion: Changes in carotid WSS are closely related to carotid stenosis, which can provide important hemodynamic information for the treatment of CAS. The technique has important application value in pre-operative evaluation, curative effect evaluation, and long-term follow-up.

In this work, a doubly resonant photonic crystal (PhC) cavity using the merged bound states in the continuum (BICs) is proposed to obtain a higher second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency. Firstly by scanning geometry parameters the accidental BICs and a band-edge mode outside the light cone can be obtained. Then as the lattice constant or the thickness of the slab is adjusted the accidental BICs will merge. A supercell with large and small holes is constructed and the band-edge mode outside the light cone can be mode-matched with the merged BICs mode. Finally the heterostructure PhC cavity is designed. The merged BICs show a high quality factor for the photonic crystal with finite size. Consequently, the SHG efficiency of the lattice constant near merged BICs of ~6000% W-1 is higher than the one of the isolated BIC.

A sensitive and selective gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the identification and quantification of five potential genotoxic impurities (PGIs), i.e., chloromethane, 2-chloropropane, 2-bromopropane, 4-chloro-1-butanol and diethyl sulfate, in abiraterone acetate. The method was validated according to the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. The linearity was established for the concentration range of 30–480 ng/mL (2-chloropropane, 2-bromopropane, 4-chloro-1-butanol and diethyl sulfate) and 90–1440 ng/mL (chloromethane). The correlation coefficient of each PGIs was >0.995. The extraction recoveries ranged from 90.49 to 106.79% for the five PGIs. The quantitation limit, detection limit, accuracy, precision, repeatability and stability of the method demonstrated that the method was an adequate quality control tool for quantitation and identification of chloromethane, 2-chloropropane, 2-bromopropane, 4-chloro-1-butanol and diethyl sulfate at trace levels in drug substances and drug products.

BackgroundThe ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has forced the development of vaccines. Reports have suggested that vaccines play a role in inducing autoimmune diseases (AIDs). Scattered cases have reported that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines may promote thyroid disease, including Graves’ disease (GD). However, the effect of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on GD remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the response of thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAB) to inactivated SARS-COV-2 vaccines.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study to observe the differences in thyroid function and TRAB trends between pre-vaccination (n=412) and post-vaccination (n=231) groups at an interval of 2 months. We then retrospectively observed the differences in serum thyroid function and TRAB levels at 3 months before (n=280), 1 month before (n=294), 1 month after (n=306), and 3 months after (n=250) vaccination. Subsequently, 173 GD patients who were not vaccinated with inactivated SARS-COV-2 vaccines were selected for a prospective study. Thyroid function and TRAB assessment were performed before 3 and 1 months and 1 and 3 months after the first dose of vaccination and were then compared by repeated measures ANOVA to explore their dynamic changes.ResultsA retrospective study preliminarily observed that the trend of TRAB post-vaccination was opposite of that pre-vaccination (p=0.000), serum TRAB levels decreased before vaccination and increased after vaccination. In this prospective study, repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant differences in serum FT3 (p=0.000), FT4 (p=0.000), TSH (p=0.000), and TRAB (p=0.000) levels at different time points before and after vaccination. Serum TRAB levels showed dynamic changes that decreased significantly at 1 month before vaccination (p=0.000), no significant differences at 1 month after vaccination (p=0.583), and reflected an upward trend at 3 months after vaccination (p=0.034). Serum FT3 and FT4 levels showed similar trends to serum TRAB levels before and after vaccination. Instead, the serum TSH levels showed a continuous upward trend over time.ConclusionBased on the results obtained in both retrospective and prospective studies, we concluded that serum TRAB levels decreased less after inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and showed an upward trend, which may be related to humoral immunity induced by vaccination.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to summarize the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with anti- acetylcholine receptor (AChR) positive myasthenia gravis (MG) with a combination of anti-LRP4 or Titin antibodies.MethodsA total of 188 patients with generalized MG before immunotherapy were retrospectively collected and then divided into three groups: single anti-AChR positive-MG (AChR-MG, 101 cases), anti-AChR combined with anti-low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein four-positive MG (AChR+LRP4-MG, 29 cases), and anti-AChR combined with anti-Titin-positive MG (AChR+Titin-MG, 58 cases). Clinical manifestations, therapeutic responses to immunotherapy, and follow-up information were analyzed.ResultsOf the 188 seropositive MG patients, 29 (15.4%) were positive for both AChR and LRP4 antibodies, and 58 (30.9%) were positive for both AChR and Titin antibodies. The mean disease onset ages in the three groups were 47.41 ± 7.0, 49.81 ± 9.2, and 48.11 ± 6.5 years, respectively. AChR+LRP4-MG showed female predominance (27.6% were males and 72.4% were females), with mild overall clinical symptoms. The AChR+Titin-MG group showed shorter times for conversion to generalized MG (5.14 ± 0.0 months) than the AChR-MG group (11.69 ± 0.0 months) and the AChR+LRP4-MG group (13.08 ± 0.5 months; P < 0.001 in both cases). Furthermore, AChR+Titin-MG group had increased bulbar dysfunction, higher incidences of thymoma (32.8 vs. 19.8% and 3.4%, P=0.035), more severe quantitative MG scores, as assessed by both QMG scores [15.5 (11.75–22.5) vs. 13 (8–19), P = 0.005; and 9 (6–14) P < 0.001], and MG-ADL scores [10 (8–13) vs. 8 (5–13), P = 0.018; and 6 (4–8), P < 0.001]. Treatment for AChR+Titin-MG was largely dependent on corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents (56.7 vs. 19.2% and 16.7%, p = 0.028). The rates of achieving s(MMS) or better within 2 years following immunotherapy in the three groups were 51.5, 62.1, and 51.7%, respectively (P = 0.581).ConclusionClinical symptoms of anti-AChR positive MG combined with Titin antibody were more severe and progressed faster than those in the AChR + LRP4 and AChR groups. Regardless of antibody status, all patients responded well to immunotherapy and had relatively good prognoses.

On-chip efficient nonlinear functions are instrumental in escalating the utilities and performance of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), especially for a wide range of classical and quantum applications, such as tunable coherent radiation, optical frequency conversion, spectroscopy, quantum science, etc. Lithium tantalate (LT) has been widely used in nonlinear wavelength converters, surface acoustic wave resonators, and electro-optic, acoustic-optic devices owing to its excellent optical properties. Here, we fabricated a Z-cut lithium tantalate on insulator (LTOI) microdisk with high quality(Q) factors in both telecom (10$^{6}$) and visible (10$^{5}$) bands by optimizing the fabrication. With the Q factor of the LTOI microdisk increasing, we can obtain higher pump light intensity in the cavity which is beneficial to get more optical nonlinear effect easily. By making use of the mode phase matching of interacting waves and inputting high pump power, we experimentally observed on-chip near-infrared light, visible (red, green), and ultraviolet (UV) from microresonator-based $ χ^{(2)}-χ^{(2)}$, $ χ^{(2)}-χ^{(3)}$, and $χ^{(2)}$ nonlinear processes such as cascaded four-wave mixing (cFWM), cascaded sum-frequency generation (cSFG), third harmonic generation (THG), second harmonic generation (SHG). It is believed that the LTOI can support a variety of on-chip optical nonlinear processes, which heralds its new application potential in integrated nonlinear photonics.

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Although silk proteins are considered promising in building a scaffold for tissue engineering, one of the silk proteins, Bombyx mori silk sericin (BS), has limited processability in producing nanofibrous scaffolds because its surface charge anisotropy promotes gelation instead. To overcome this daunting challenge, we developed a mild and simple procedure for assembling BS into nanofibers and nanofibrous scaffolds. Briefly, arginine was added to the aqueous BS solution to reduce the negative charge of BS, thereby inducing BS to self-assemble into nanofibers in the solution. Circular dichroism (CD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed that arginine promoted the formation of β-sheet conformation in BS and increased its thermal stability. Furthermore, the arginine-induced BS nanofiber solution could be casted into scaffolds made of abundant network-like nanofibrous structures. The BS scaffolds promoted cell adhesion and growth and stimulated osteogenic differentiation of the bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in the absence of differentiation inducers in culture media. Our study presents a new strategy for assembling proteins into osteogenic nanofibrous scaffolds for inducing stem cell differentiation in regenerative medicine.

Silk fibroin (SF) is a biomacromolecule that can be assembled into nanostructures and induce biomimetic nucleation of inorganic materials. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), a metal-organic framework (MOF), can be dissolved selectively under acidic pH. Here, we integrated SF and ZIF-8 to develop novel drug carriers that selectively release drug in the acidic intracellular environment of cancer cells. Specifically, SF was assembled into nanoparticles (SF-NPs), which were then loaded with an antitumor drug, doxorubicin (DOX), to form DSF-NPs. Due to the SF-mediated organization of ZIF-8 precursors such as zinc ions, the DSF-NPs further templated the nucleation of ZIF-8 onto their surface to generate core-shell-structured NPs (termed DSF@Z-NPs) with ZIF-8 as a shell and DSF-NP as a core. We found that the DSF@Z-NPs, highly stable under neutral conditions, could be uptaken by breast cancer cells, release DOX selectively owing to dissolution of ZIF-8 shells in the acidic intracellular environment in a controlled manner, and induce cell apoptosis. We also confirmed that the DSF@Z-NPs could inhibit tumor growth more efficiently to reach a higher survival rate than their controls by inducing cell apoptosis in vivo. Our study suggests that SF and MOF could be combined to design a new type of cancer therapeutics.

Due to their capacity for non-classical light generation, high-efficiency second-order nonlinear parametric processes play an important role in quantum photonic technology, and chip-scale realization of these processes is recognized as the key to building efficient light sources for integrated quantum photonic circuits. To achieve ultra-high nonlinear conversion efficiency, traditional method uses quasi-phase matching (QPM) technology. However, QPM requires electric field poling, which is incompatible with the CMOS fabrication process, and this hinders the wafer-scale production of integrated photonic circuits. In this paper, we demonstrate efficient spontaneous quasi-phase matched (SQPM) frequency conversion in a micro-racetrack resonator. Our approach does not involve poling, but exploits the anisotropy of the ferroelectric crystals to allow the phase-matching condition to be fulfilled spontaneously as the TE-polarized light circulates in a specifically designed racetrack resonator. SQPM second harmonic generation is observed with a normalized intracavity conversion efficiency of 0.85%/W, corresponding to the 111st-order QPM. This could theoretically reach 186,000%/W by first-order QPM. In this case such high intracavity conversion efficiency can be implemented in practice with an optimized outward coupling. Our configurable SQPM approach will benefit the application of nonlinear frequency conversion in chip-scale integrated photonics with CMOS-compatible fabrication processes, and is applicable to other on-chip nonlinear processes such as quantum frequency conversion or frequency-comb generation.

BackgroundAlthough cognitive deficit is a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the mechanism and valid biomarkers of it have not been identified. To our best knowledge, this was the first study to investigate the intrinsic dysconnectivity pattern of whole-brain functional networks in early-stage drug-naive (ESDN) PD patients and its association with cognitive deficit of PD using voxel-wise Degree Centrality (DC) approach.MethodsA total of 53 ESDN PD patients and 53 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data were acquired, and voxel-wise DC approach was applied. Electrophysiological testing at P300 amplitude was recorded. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was conducted to evaluate cognitive performance.ResultsESDN PD patients had lower MoCA scores and P300 amplitudes, but higher P300 latency, than HC (all p < 0.0001). PD patients displayed higher DC in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left medial frontal gyrus (MFG) and left precentral gyrus (PreCG); but lower DC in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG), right occipital lobe, and right postcentral gyrus (PoCG) (pBonferroni correction < 0.0001). Interestingly, the DC values of left MFG, right PoCG and right occipital lobe were negatively associated with P300 latency but positively associated with P300 amplitudes and MoCA scores (all pBonferroni correction < 0.0001).ConclusionsOur results indicate the cognitive deficit and abnormal intrinsic brain functional network in ESDN PD patients. The damage of Default Mode Network (DMN) may be contributes to the pathogenesis of cognitive dysfunction in ESDN PD.

Key Points Question Does treatment with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus surgery improve the long-term survival of patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) compared with surgery alone? Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 451 patients with locally advanced ESCC, treatment with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus surgery showed significantly improved 5-year overall survival of 59.9% compared with 49.1% for surgery alone, as well as improved disease-free survival. Meaning In this study, long-term outcomes demonstrated a survival benefit from neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery compared with surgery alone for the treatment of patients with locally advanced ESCC, indicating that this combination may be considered a standard of care in this patient population., Importance The prognosis of patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains poor after surgery. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NCRT) has been shown to potentially improve survival. Objective To compare the treatment efficacy of NCRT plus surgery with surgery alone for long-term survival among patients with locally advanced ESCC. Design, Setting, and Participants The Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer 5010 study was a multicenter open-label randomized phase 3 clinical trial that enrolled patients between June 1, 2007, and December 31, 2014. Follow-up ended on December 31, 2019. The study was conducted at 8 centers in China. A total of 451 patients aged 18 to 70 years with thoracic ESCC stage T1-4N1M0/T4N0M0 were enrolled and randomized. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. Interventions Patients randomized to receive NCRT plus surgery (NCRT group) received preoperative chemotherapy (25 mg/m2 of vinorelbine on days 1 and 8 and 75 mg/m2 of cisplatin on day 1 or 25 mg/m2 of cisplatin on days 1 to 4) every 3 weeks for 2 cycles and concurrent radiotherapy (40.0 Gy, administered in 20 fractions of 2.0 Gy for 5 days per week) followed by surgery. Patients randomized to receive surgery alone (surgery group) underwent surgery after randomization. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary end point was overall survival in the intention-to-treat population. The secondary end point was disease-free survival. Results A total of 451 patients (mean [SD] age, 56.5 [7.0] years; 367 men [81.4%]) were randomized to the NCRT (n = 224) and surgery (n = 227) groups and were eligible for the intention-to-treat analysis. By December 31, 2019, 224 deaths had occurred. The median follow-up was 53.5 months (interquartile range, 18.2-87.4 months). Patients receiving NCRT plus surgery had prolonged overall survival compared with those receiving surgery alone (hazard ratio, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.57-0.97; P = .03), with a 5-year survival rate of 59.9% (95% CI, 52.9%-66.1%) vs 49.1% (95% CI, 42.3%-55.6%), respectively. Patients in the NCRT group compared with the surgery group also had prolonged disease-free survival (hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.45-0.80; P, This randomized clinical trial provides updated outcomes of the Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Esophageal Cancer 5010, which examined the long-term efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy plus surgery vs surgery alone for the treatment of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Wound dressings are important materials for the successful recovery of skin trauma. Traditional wound dressings such as gauzes are not efficient in wound healing. Here we show that silk fibroin, spun from a wild silkworm Antheraea pernyi (A. pernyi) and rich in Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequences, can be developed into a wound dressing after proper modification for improving the cell adhesion to accelerate the skin repair. Specifically, polydopamine (PDA) was coated on an A. pernyi silk fibroin (AF) film to form the PAF film to achieve enhanced cell adhesion and would healing. The PDA coating significantly increased the roughness and hydrophilicity of the AF film and thus its protein absorption capability. Furthermore, the PAF films promoted the adhesion and migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in the in vitro wound healing assay. In vivo testing confirmed that wound covered with the PAF film was completely healed with the formation of the new skin and hair within 14 days post trauma. Histological examination indicated that, compared to the AF film and gauze control, the PAF film did not cause significant inflammation in the wound but promoted the epithelialization and well-organized collagen deposition in the dermis. This work indicates that AF films coated with PDA are promising wound dressings for skin tissue repair.

Renewable energy electricity is being developed and utilized on a large scale in many countries because of the fossil fuel pollution and the energy shortage. But the uncertainty of renewable energy output caused by intermittency, as well as the uncertainty of consumers’ electricity demand both bring difficulty to the grid-connection even with government support. There are interest conflicts between the power producer and grid company under the government’s fixed-pricing mechanism in renewable energy market. Therefore, this paper takes uncertainties of output and demand as well as the government subsidy into consideration, and then solves the problems of power grid-connection by designing a revenue-sharing contract between upstream and downstream enterprises. In this supply chain model which consists of one type of upstream firms, power generators, and a single dominant downstream grid company, the government plays a third-party role and subsidizes all the firms based on the grid-connected quantity. Consequently, the theoretical research and numerical simulation show that the revenue-sharing contract can realize the collaboration of renewable energy supply chain effectively with different market demand price elasticity. The profits of all supply chain members and the sales price both decrease with the growth of price elasticity in a lower range. Meanwhile, renewable energy power investment is hindered dramatically by a higher price elasticity. The results figure that the revenue-sharing contract is mainly influenced by the grid-connected wholesale price, the output intensity of renewable energy and the government subsidy. Specially, the revenue-sharing ratio of grid will exceed 80% when the renewable power generators receives all the government subsidies. This study provides an alternative approach for the renewable energy grid-connection and the power supply chain collaboration.

Natural polymer-based wound dressings have gained great attention in skin tissue engineering. Silk fibroin (SF) spun from Bombyx mori (B. mori) is a potential wound dressing material due to its outstanding biocompatibility and biodegradability, however, its wound healing effect is still limited. To maximize the wound healing effect of SF-based wound dressing, we first fabricated fibrous electrospun SF (ESF) membranes with large porosity and specific surface area, and then formed polydopamine (PDA) coating on the ESF fibers to form PESF membranes. We found that PDA coating enabled the PESF membranes to outperform the ESF membranes in enhancing the hydrophilicity and protein adsorption ability of the membranes as well as the attachment, spreading and proliferation of fibroblasts on the membranes in vitro. Our further in vivo histological analysis confirmed that the PESF membranes accelerated wound healing in a rat skin wound model more effectively within 2 weeks than both the ESF membrane and a commercial dressing (3M™ Tegaderm™). The enhanced wound healing effect of the PESF membranes was further proved by the increase in the content of hydroxyproline (a constituent in collagen) in the wound treated by the PESF membranes. Therefore, the PESF membranes could be used as a promising wound dressing for wound healing and skin regeneration.

Integrated optical amplifiers and light sources are of great significance for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and have attracted many research interests. Doping rare-earth ions in materials as a solution to realize efficient optical amplifiers and lasing has been investigated a lot. We investigate the erbium-doped lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI). Here, spiral waveguide amplifiers were fabricated on a 1-mol\% erbium-doped LNOI by CMOS-compatible technique. We demonstrated a maximum internal net gain of 8.3 dB at 1530 nm indicating a net gain per unit length of 15.6 dB/cm with a compact spiral waveguide of 5.3 mm length and $ \sim $0.06 mm$ ^{2} $ footprint. The erbium-doped integrated lithium niobate spiral waveguide amplifiers would pave the way in the PICs of the lithium niobate platform, especially in achieving efficient integration of active and passive devices on a lithium niobate thin film, which will make full use of its excellent physical properties such as remarkable photoacoustic, electro-optic, and piezoelectric characteristics.

Phenotype switching is a characteristic response of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs) to the dynamic microenvironment and contributes to all stages of atherosclerotic plaque. Here, we immersed pure magnesium and AZ31 alloy in the completed medium under cell culture condition, applied the resultant leaching extracts to the isolated contractile rat aortic vSMCs and investigated how vSMCs phenotypically responded to the degradation of the magnesium-based stent materials. vSMCs became more proliferative and migratory but underwent more apoptosis when exposed to the degradation products of pure magnesium; while the AZ31 extracts caused less cell division but more apoptosis, thus slowing cell moving and growing. Noticeably, both leaching extracts dramatically downregulated the contractile phenotypic genes at mRNA and protein levels while significantly induced the inflammatory adhesive molecules and cytokines. Exogenously added Mg ions excited similar transformations of vSMCs. With the liberation or supplementation of Mg2+ , the expression patterns of the pro-contractile transactivator myocardin and the pro-inflammatory transcriptional factor kruppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) were reversed. Overall, the degradation of the Mg-based materials would evoke a shift of the contractile vSMCs to an inflammatory phenotype via releasing Mg ions to induce a transition from the phenotypic control of vSMCs by the myocardin to that by the KLF4. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 107B: 988-1001, 2019.

PCHE (Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger) is a promising candidate for vaporizer in volume-limited vaporization processes, and the thermal-hydraulic performance of crossflow PCHE for liquefied gas vaporization has been investigated under different conditions. In this study, we herein focused on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of supercritical nitrogen in the PCHE cold channel, so the same flow through a single channel of PCHE cold side was numerically treated. Numerical simulation was performed using FLUENT. The mass flow rate was 0.000493 kg/s, corresponding to the turbulence flow regimes. The SST model with enhanced wall treatment method was utilized by comparing with the experimental data. The thermal properties of supercritical nitrogen at different pressures were studied by using piecewise polynomial functions of temperature. After validation of the method, the influences of nitrogen inlet pressure and mass flux on the heat transfer and flow characteristics were discussed in detail. Then the Nusselt number and Fanning friction factor were proposed using numerical data for the Reynolds number from 19,379 to 40,171. The experimental data were utilized to validate the correlation of Fanning friction factor. The Nusselt number calculated by the proposed Nusselt number was validated with the numerical data and the developed empirical correlations for the experimental condition. In addition, the overall heat transfer coefficient was obtained by two methods. The indirect method, which predicted the overall heat transfer coefficient by using the proposed Nusslet number correlation, was compared with the direct method, that used the experimental data.

Temporal cloaks have inspired the innovation of research on security and efficiency of quantum and fiber communications for concealing temporal events. The existing temporal cloaking approaches possessing ps ~ns cloaking windows employed the third-order nonlinearity mostly. Here we explore a temporal cloak for perpetually concealing pulse events using high efficiency second-order nonlinearity. A temporal pulse event was cloaked as a continuous wave with constant intensity and restored by polarization dependent sum frequency generation processes between the continuous wave and probe. The variety of quasi phase-matching second-order nonlinear processes in periodically poled lithium niobate make sure the pulse event cannot be filched during transmission. The proposed temporal cloak predicts hopeful applications in information security of photonic integrated circuit on lithium niobite thin film., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

Lithium niobate(LN) microresonator is a key component in photonic integrated circuits. An intriguing phenomenon was observed that the quality factor for specific modes of the resonator can be further improved by femtosecond laser irradiation. The high repetition laser pulses scatters into the cavity by forming a defect on the surface and is confined in the edge. A localized coupled laser refining process will then repair the lattice disorders and tiny burrs on the periphery. The intrinsic quality factor of a measured mode can be promoted from 2.17$\times$10$^5$ to 1.84$\times$10$^6$ indicating one order of magnitude improvement. This highly controllable method has its own unique advantages in improving the quality of an integrated resonator which opens new prospects for single component engineering of LN photonic integrated circuits.

Future quantum information networks operated on telecom channels require qubit transfer between different wavelengths while preserving quantum coherence and entanglement. Qubit transfer is a nonlinear optical process, but currently the types of atoms used for quantum information processing and storage are limited by the narrow bandwidth of up-conversion available. Here we present the first experimental demonstration of broadband and high-efficiency quasi-phase matching second harmonic generation (SHG) in a chip-scale periodically poled lithium niobate thin film. We achieve large bandwidth of up to 2 THz for SHG by satisfying quasi-phase matching and group-velocity matching simultaneously. Furthermore, by changing film thickness, the central wavelength of quasi-phase matching SHG bandwidth can be modulated from 2.70 um to 1.44 um. The reconfigurable quasi-phase matching lithium niobate thin film provides a significant on-chip integrated platform for photonics and quantum optics.

This technical note describes an effective method for monitoring temperature based on the minimum curvature surface fitting (MCSF) referenceless proton resonance frequency shift (PRFs) at 0.35 T. Experimental tests on phantom, ex vivo porcine livers and human brain were conducted. A comparison study between the proposed method and a fiber optic temperature probe was conducted for microwave (MW) ablation. Experimental results showed that temperature root mean square error (RMSE) calculated by MCSF model were lower than those computed by high-order polynomial fitting. For ablation experiments, the temperature errors between temperature probe and MCSF method were all less than 2∘C.

Background Noninvasive magnetic resonance thermometry (MRT) at low-field using proton resonance frequency shift (PRFS) is a promising technique for monitoring ablation temperature, since low-field MR scanners with open-configuration are more suitable for interventional procedures than closed systems. In this study, phase-drift correction PRFS with first-order polynomial fitting method was proposed to investigate the feasibility and accuracy of quantitative MR thermography during hyperthermia procedures in a 0.35 T open MR scanner. Methods Unheated phantom and ex vivo porcine liver experiments were performed to evaluate the optimal polynomial order for phase-drift correction PRFS. The temperature estimation approach was tested in brain temperature experiments of three healthy volunteers at room temperature, and in ex vivo porcine liver microwave ablation experiments. The output power of the microwave generator was set at 40 W for 330 s. In the unheated experiments, the temperature root mean square error (RMSE) in the inner region of interest was calculated to assess the best-fitting order for polynomial fit. For ablation experiments, relative temperature difference profile measured by the phase-drift correction PRFS was compared with the temperature changes recorded by fiber optic temperature probe around the microwave ablation antenna within the target thermal region. Results The phase-drift correction PRFS using first-order polynomial fitting could achieve the smallest temperature RMSE in unheated phantom, ex vivo porcine liver and in vivo human brain experiments. In the ex vivo porcine liver microwave ablation procedure, the temperature error between MRT and fiber optic probe of all but six temperature points were less than 2 °C. Overall, the RMSE of all temperature points was 1.49 °C. Conclusions Both in vivo and ex vivo experiments showed that MR thermometry based on the phase-drift correction PRFS with first-order polynomial fitting could be applied to monitor temperature changes during microwave ablation in a low-field open-configuration whole-body MR scanner.

In order to enhance operation safety of unit, at present, state monitoring of large-scale rotary machine has been universally applied. Failure diagnosis technology receives universal emphasis and it is continually developing from machine maintenance at fixed time to maintenance according to actual condition. With the development in communication and network technology, people are no longer satisfy with diagnosis technology of single machine, and they hope diagnosis technology can be share by all so as to solve more and more machine failure. So networking has become to be the inevitable trend for the development of diagnosis technology. Failure diagnosis and maintenance decision auxiliary system of large-scale turbine unit is one distributed network system towards the whole enterprises, it makes networking on 18 sets of large-scale tribune compressor unit of enterprises. System can not only make online monitoring and failure diagnosis on operation state of theses machines, but also it can provide the basic state and artificial monitoring information at fixed time, it combines with vibration data, process parameter and existing artificial periodic monitoring information together to realize periodic evaluation of machine at normal state and comprehensive failure diagnosis analysis at abnormal state, so it provides important base for the early failure discovery and maintenance decision of machine. It fundamentally changes the backward key unit inspection as well as maintenance management way and increases management level of equipment.

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) control cell division in eukaryotes by phosphorylating proteins involved in division. But successful proliferation requires co-ordination between division and cellular growth in mass. Previous proteomic studies suggested that metabolic proteins, as well as cell division proteins, could potentially be substrates of cyclin-dependent kinases. Here we focus on two metabolic enzymes of the yeast S. cerevisiae, neutral trehalase (Nth1) and glycogen phosphorylase (Gph1), and show that their activities are likely directly controlled by CDK activity, thus allowing co-ordinate regulation of carbohydrate metabolism with cell division processes. In this case, co-ordinate regulation may optimize the decision to undertake a final cell division as nutrients are being exhausted. Co-regulation of cell division processes and metabolic processes by CDK activity may be a general phenomenon important for co-ordinating the cell cycle with growth.

Audiovisual translation not only involves meaning transmission at the linguistic level, but closely relates to the interplay among a range of non-verbal modes. Recently, semiotic interrelations have been recognized as significant elements that have influenced the subtitling process. Focusing on the role of semiotic interplay in subtitling, this study draws upon Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-informed multimodality and semiotic translation to examine Chinese subtitle translation in ten English language films with the aim of exploring the semiotic interplay between the visual and the verbal modes. This study examines three metafunctional meanings in subtitle translation with three research foci, i.e. the main types of cross-modal interrelations, the primary function of the semiotic interplay and the key linguistic components influencing the subtitles. This study arrives at the findings in three main areas. First, subtitling should relate to filmic units beyond stills or shots and consider all the filmic units such as scenes, sequences, stages and even the whole film. In this way, the semiotic interplay in subtitle translation ensures the holistic entity of subtitled films in the construction of the compositional meanings. Second, subtitling should facilitate film viewers’ comprehension by building up a close and direct relation between viewers and subtitled films through synchronization between the visual and the verbal information. This point is primarily demonstrated in the interactive meanings in subtitling. Third, one of the key functions of semiotic interplay in subtitle translation is to maintain the narrative flow. This is demonstrated in the representational, compositional and interactive meanings of the subtitle translation. In sum, this study goes beyond traditional textual analysis in translation studies and addresses subtitle translation from the perspective of multimodality. It breaks the linguistic confinement of subtitling research by emphasizing the role of semiotic interplay. In the field of multimodality, this study bridges subtitling and multimodality through investigating the interweaving relationships among different semiotic modes and the corresponding impacts on subtitle translation.

ZnO nanorods are prepared by a hydrothermal process with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and zinc powder at 182 °C. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The gas sensing properties of the materials have been investigated. The results indicate that the as-prepared ZnO nanorods show much better sensitivity and stability than the conventional materials. The PdO doping can improve the sensitivity and selectivity of the sensors. ZnO nanorods are excellent potential candidates for gas sensors.

ZnO whiskers were prepared by a solvothermal process with Zn(OH)2−4, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), n-amyl alcohol and n-hexane at 140 °C. The influence of preparation condition on the morphology of the resultant sample was investigated through change zinc salts, co-surfactants, surfactants, reaction temperature, and reaction time. Experimental results revealed that the morphology of as-obtained ZnO was affected strongly by the zinc salts and surfactants. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron diffraction (ED). Results showed that ZnO whiskers had the diameters of 100–500 nm, the lengths of several μm, and grown along orientation of [0001]. The gas sensitivities of the as-prepared ZnO whiskers were detected. The results revealed that the ZnO whiskers had excellent potential application for gas sensor.

We report on a theoretical analysis for the broadened bandwidth of the fundamental waves in aperiodic gratings. The sequences and the length of the domains are optimized to realize the pre-designed wide bandwidth in the quasi-phase-matched (QPM) second-harmonic generation (SHG) by the simulated annealing (SA) method. About 3 nm prescribed flattop bandwidth as the full width at 95% maximum with 25% reduction of the nonlinear coefficient relative to that of a perfectly periodic QPM grating are obtained. Domains overgrown owing to the room-temperature electric poling technique show little influence on the broad bandwidth of the fundamental waves.

ZnO nanorods are prepared by a hydrothermal process with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and zinc powder at 182°C. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The gas sensing properties of the materials have been investigated. The results indicate that the as-prepared ZnO nanorods are uniform with diameters of 40–80 nm and lengths about 1 μm, the relatively high sensitivity and stability of these sensors made from ZnO nanorods demonstrate the potential for developing a new class of stable and very sensitive sensors.

We theoretically investigate the evolvement of dark spatial soliton with cascading quadratic nonlinearity in quasi-phase-matched second harmonic generation. It is shown that the dark solitary wave can propagate stably when background intensity is large enough, in which diffraction of beam can be balanced by the cascading quadratic nonlinearity. We also analyze the influence of phase-mismatch on the stability of dark soliton propagation.

The formation of the dark spatial solitary wave in cascaded second harmonic generation processes is numerically studied based on the nonlinear-coupled equations. It is shown that the solitary wave exists when the effective three-order nonlinearity induced by cascaded second-order nonlinearity is negative.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) typically develop in cirrhosis, a condition characterized by Hedgehog (Hh) pathway activation and accumulation of Hh-responsive myofibroblasts (MF). Although Hh signaling generally regulates stromal-epithelial interactions that support epithelial viability, the role of Hh-dependent MF in hepatocarcinogenesis is unknown. Here we used human HCC samples, a mouse HCC model, and hepatoma cell/MF co-cultures to examine the hypothesis that Hh signaling modulates MF metabolism to generate fuels for neighboring malignant hepatocytes. The results identify a novel paracrine mechanism whereby malignant hepatocytes produce HH-ligands to stimulate glycolysis in neighboring MF, resulting in release of MF-derived lactate that the malignant hepatocytes use as an energy source. This discovery reveals new diagnostic and therapeutic targets that might be exploited to improve the outcomes of cirrhotic patients with HCC.

Winter food constitution and favorite level of domestic sheep were studied with the microhistological analysis technique of feces in Hulunbeir Grassland. some problems were inquired into, such as the quality state of local herbage resource, improvement of pasture, rational use of herbage, etc. The results showed that the staple food of domestic sheep in winter was Gramineae, which made up 73.3 percent of the total foraging species. Fabaceae was second, 11.6 per cent. Composite took third place, 7.4 per cent. The proportion of other species were very small.

We present in this paper a method to recover the refractive index profile of graded waveguide from the effective indices by cubic spline interpolation function. It is proved by numerical analysis of several typical index distributions that the refractive index profile can be reconstructed closely to its exact profile with the presented interpolation model. This method can reliably retrieve index profile of both more-mode (more than 4 guiding mode) and fewer-mode (2-4) waveguides., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures

The necessary condition for the formation of strong lightning current and the lightning discharge process before and after flashover of a semiconductor lightning eliminator (SLE) rod are given. It is indicated that SLE has the capability to limit the main discharge lightning current and its rapid current changing rate. The corresponding triggered test oscillograms are presented.

Objective To probe into the significance of Nitric Oxide (NO) in ischemic cerebral damage and effect of ligustrazine on it. Methods The NO contents in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma of 20 controls and 62 patients with arteriosclerotic thrombotic cerebral infarction (ligustrazine group and common treatment group) were determined with Griess method before and after treatment. Results The NO content in CSF before treatment was higher in severe type, it was higher than that in moderate type, and than that in mild type, again higher than that in control group (all P 0.05), but there was a trend that plasma NO content decreased as the patient's condition worsened. After treatment, the curative effect and plasma NO content of ligustrazine group were both markedly higher than those of common treatment group (P 0.05). Conclusions Excessive NO produced in brain tissue and insufficient plasma NO participate the course of ischemic brain damage. Ligustrazine could increase the contents of plasma NO selectively.