Search

Recent advances in 3D pathology offer the ability to image orders of magnitude more tissue than conventional pathology methods while also providing a volumetric context that is not achievable with 2D tissue sections, and all without requiring destructive tissue sectioning. Generating high-quality 3D pathology datasets on a consistent basis, however, is not trivial and requires careful attention to a series of details during tissue preparation, imaging and initial data processing, as well as iterative optimization of the entire process. Here, we provide an end-to-end procedure covering all aspects of a 3D pathology workflow (using light-sheet microscopy as an illustrative imaging platform) with sufficient detail to perform well-controlled preclinical and clinical studies. Although 3D pathology is compatible with diverse staining protocols and computationally generated color palettes for visual analysis, this protocol focuses on the use of a fluorescent analog of hematoxylin and eosin, which remains the most common stain used for gold-standard pathological reports. We present our guidelines for a broad range of end users (e.g., biologists, clinical researchers and engineers) in a simple format. The end-to-end workflow requires 3–6 d to complete, bearing in mind that data analysis may take longer.

The medium and long-term supply-demand imbalance of the power system in the context of the new power system is becoming more and more prominent due to the fluctuation and intermittency brought about by the high proportion of new energy sources connected to the grid. In this regard, a multi-objective power supply-demand balance optimization method considering the spatiotemporal correlation of source and load is proposed in this work. First, the autocorrelation and inter-correlation characteristics of source and load are analyzed. On this basis, a multi-dimensional scenario set construction method considering the spatiotemporal correlation of source and load is proposed. Then, the planning capacity of each regional power source and the system operation under each scenario are taken as the optimization variables. Renewable energy electricity curtailment, equivalent annual total cost, and inter-region transmission electricity are taken as the optimization objectives. Various constraints such as power source planning and operation, power balance, inter-region power transmission, and renewable energy power curtailment rate are considered comprehensively. The optimization method for the medium and long-term power supply and demand balance is proposed. Finally, the method is applied to Hunan Province, China to guide power planning. The results show that compared with traditional multi-dimensional correlation scene construction methods, the average probability density functions error of wind turbine output, photovoltaic output, and load constructed in this work decrease by 44.08 %, 73.64 %, and 57.54 %, respectively. It takes into account the regional, temporal, temporal autocorrelation, and inter-correlation of the source and load, and has similar characteristics to historical data. Compared with traditional planning that only considers economy, the optimization plan for power supply and demand balance in this work reduces electricity curtailment and inter-region transmission by 97.04 % and 72.71 %, respectively, balancing renewable energy consumption, economy, and regional independent balancing indicators.

Light-sheet microscopy has emerged as the preferred means for high-throughput volumetric imaging of cleared tissues. However, there is a need for a flexible system that can address imaging applications with varied requirements in terms of resolution, sample size, tissue-clearing protocol, and transparent sample-holder material. Here, we present a ‘hybrid’ system that combines a unique non-orthogonal dual-objective and conventional (orthogonal) open-top light-sheet (OTLS) architecture for versatile multi-scale volumetric imaging. We demonstrate efficient screening and targeted sub-micrometer imaging of sparse axons within an intact, cleared mouse brain. The same system enables high-throughput automated imaging of multiple specimens, as spotlighted by a quantitative multi-scale analysis of brain metastases. Compared with existing academic and commercial light-sheet microscopy systems, our hybrid OTLS system provides a unique combination of versatility and performance necessary to satisfy the diverse requirements of a growing number of cleared-tissue imaging applications.

Mobile devices have been an integral part of our everyday lives. Users’ increasing interaction with mobile devices brings in significant concerns on various types of potential privacy leakage, among which location privacy draws the most attention. Specifically, mobile users’ trajectories constructed by location data may be captured by adversaries to infer sensitive information. In previous studies, differential privacy has been utilized to protect published trajectory data with rigorous privacy guarantee. Strong protection provided by differential privacy distorts the original locations or trajectories using stochastic noise to avoid privacy leakage. In this article, we propose a novel location inference attack framework, iTracker, which simultaneously recovers multiple trajectories from differentially private trajectory data using the structured sparsity model. Compared with the traditional recovery methods based on single trajectory prediction, iTracker, which takes advantage of the correlation among trajectories discovered by the structured sparsity model, is more effective in recovering multiple private trajectories simultaneously. iTracker successfully attacks the existing privacy protection mechanisms based on differential privacy. We theoretically demonstrate the near-linear runtime of iTracker, and the experimental results using two real-world datasets show that iTracker outperforms existing recovery algorithms in recovering multiple trajectories.

Glioma is a severe malignant brain tumor marked by an exceedingly dire prognosis and elevated incidence of recurrence. The resilience of such tumors to chemotherapeutic agents, coupled with the formidable obstacle the blood-brain barrier (BBB) presents to most pharmacological interventions are major challenges in anti-glioma therapy. In an endeavor to surmount these impediments, we have synergized pH-sensitive nanoparticles carrying doxorubicin and apatinib to amplify the anti-neoplastic efficacy with cyclic arginine–glycine–aspartate acid (cRGD) modification. In this study, we found that the combination of doxorubicin (DOX) and apatinib (AP) showed a significant synergistic effect, achieved through cytotoxicity and induction of apoptosis, which might be due to the increased intracellular uptake of DOX following AP treatment. Besides, polycaprolactone-polyethylene glycol-cRGD (PCL-PEG-cRGD) drug carrier could cross the BBB by its targeting ability, and then deliver the drug to the glioma site viapH-responsive release, increasing the concentration of the drugs in the tumor. Meanwhile, DOX/AP-loaded PCL-PEG-cRGD nanoparticles effectively inhibited cell proliferation, enhanced glioma cell apoptosis, and retarded tumor growth in vivo. These results collectively identified DOX/AP-loaded PCL-PEG-cRGD nanoparticles as a promising therapeutic candidate for the treatment of glioma.

Open-top light-sheet (OTLS) microscopes have been developed for user-friendly and versatile high-throughput 3D microscopy of thick specimens. As with all imaging modalities, spatial resolution trades off with imaging and analysis times. A hierarchical multi-scale imaging workflow would therefore be of value for many volumetric microscopy applications. We describe a compact multi-resolution OTLS microscope, enabled by a novel solid immersion meniscus lens (SIMlens), which allows users to rapidly transition between air-based objectives for low- and high-resolution 3D imaging. We demonstrate the utility of this system by showcasing an efficient 3D analysis workflow for a diagnostic pathology application.

Single-crystal microscopic absorption spectroscopy was used to clarify the effect of a bulky substituent on the photochromic properties of salicylideneanilines. We discovered that 3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylideneaniline (1), exhibiting debatable chromic properties, had at least three crystalline polymorphs, α1, α1, and β. α1-1is thermochromic from −75 to 45 °C and also photochromic, particularly from −75 to 0 °C; α2-1is photochromic but considerably unstable and transforms into the β form; β-1is thermochromic from −75 to 90 °C but not photochromic. The 4′-methyl analogue of 1(2) is simultaneously thermochromic and photochromic, especially around 75 °C, and the 4′-chloro analogue (3) is thermochromic from −75 to 90 °C and is more strongly photochromic at lower temperatures. Comparison of the crystal structures facilitated the identification of some common features among the photochromic species. We demonstrated a quantitative temperature-dependent photochromic response profile for the first time. The observed temperature dependence of photoinduced spectral changes presents an intrinsic challenge to the conventional dualistic classification of compounds as photo- or thermochromic.

A series of alkylamine Schiff bases of 5-bromo- and 5-chlorosalicylaldehydes showed a striking difference in the chromic properties depending on their carbon chain length: compounds with an odd number of aliphatic carbon atoms were thermochromic, while those with even number were photochromic. The odd–even effect also segregated the crystal structures into two types with respect to the arrangement of the salicylidene rings. The even group had polymorphs, the structures of some of which are still unknown. The photochromic behavior was closely related to the polymorphs—type A polymorphs exhibited high photoresponse over a wide temperature range, while type B polymorphs exhibited a rapid drop in photoresponse at room temperature or higher. The decay curves of the photoproduct could be well-fitted by a second-order kinetic model to afford the two optimized kinetic parameters. Further analysis of the data collected under light of varying intensities suggested that the parameters could be decomposed into contributions from the thermal and photochemical processes, uncovering the clear difference between type A and type B polymorphs. To examine the relationship between the crystal structure and chromic properties, our present strategy, the homologue approach, was remarkably effective because an increase in the number of methylene units hardly influenced the electronic state of the chromophore but altered the molecular arrangement in the crystalline state.

Partial Discharge (PD) detection aiming at finding the insulation defects make great effort for ensuring the reliability of the electrical equipment. Thus the performances, such as sensitivity and classification and recognition of PD pattern of PD detector need verified. This paper offers an effective tool to evaluate these performances of PD detectors. Design of the system consists of three modules, including PD pattern simulation module, PD pulse sequence generating module, and high voltage simulation module. Example of realization is also given in detail, which takes advantage of Tesla coil structure to generate programmable pulse sequence under the control of embedded system according to PD pattern. After that, the performance analysis of this proposed evaluation system is discussed, the performance evaluation system can simulate PD pulse sequence with controllability of pulse position distribution and randomness of amplitude in a range referring to PRPD pattern from database.

Intensive study of Partial Discharge (PD) phenomenon is of great importance for detecting and distinguishing different types of partial discharge. A portable device for partial discharge generation is designed and developed in this paper, which possesses advantage of miniaturization, dependability and flexibility. Such device is composed of power supply module, PD generating module and PD output interface. An implementing example of the partial discharge generator is given here in detail. Simulated high voltage signal is generated by a waveform generator and applied on physical PD generating model after being amplified by power amplifier and being boosted by a high voltage transformer with high transformation ratio. The generated PD pulse sequence are acquired and further analysed by MATLAB. Point to plane discharge is used as an example and verifies the performances of this device.