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The compactness and particular optical design make metasurface a competitive candidate for holographic display and storage. Recently, the selection and optimization for the used metasurface structures and types have become research spots. Now the most researched and demonstrated meta-holograms are often based on discrete structures, which can achieve high efficiency but comparatively narrow working bandwidths or a wide wavelength range but low power efficiency. Therefore, contemporary meta-holograms struggle for realizing simultaneous broadband and high efficiency. In this paper, all-dielectric quasi-continuous metasurfaces composed of nanostrips are introduced to expand the operating bandwidth for high efficiency meta-holography. Benefiting from the associated Pancharatnam–Berry phase, the nanostrips with spatially orientation angles continuous changes can realize arbitrary phase modulation. For the first time, the average power efficiency of a meta-hologram is experimentally measured to be 56.63% over a broad wavelength band ranging from 500 to 1000 nm. In addition, based on this kind of all-dielectric quasi-continuous nanostrips, we also design and experimentally achieve multicolor three-dimensional (3D) holographic images. Actually, such all-dielectric quasi-continuous methodology proposed here can be used to design other functional meta-devices, including optical metalens, nanoprinting, and information encryption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Negative emotions induced by chronic pain are a serious clinical problem. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a clinically proven safe and effective method to manage pain‐related negative emotions. However, the circuit mechanisms underlying the effect of EA treatment on negative emotions remain unclear. Methods: Plantar injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) was performed to establish a rat model of chronic inflammatory pain‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors. Adeno‐associated virus (AAV) tracing was used to identify excitatory synaptic transmission from the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) to the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). Employing chemogenetic approaches, we examined the role of the rACC‐DRN circuit in chronic pain‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors and investigated whether EA could reverse chronic pain‐induced dysfunctions of the rACC‐DRN circuit and anxiety‐like behaviors. Results: We found that chemogenetic activation of the rACC‐DRN circuit alleviated CFA‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors, while chemogenetic inhibition of the rACC‐DRN circuit resulted in short‐term CFA‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors. Further research revealed that the development of CFA‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors was attributed to the dysfunction of rACC CaMKII neurons projecting to DRN serotonergic neurons (rACCCaMKII‐DRN5‐HT neurons) but not rACC CaMKII neurons projecting to DRN GABAergic neurons (rACCCaMKII‐DRNGABA neurons). This is supported by the findings that chemogenetic activation of the rACCCaMKII‐DRN5‐HT circuit alleviates anxiety‐like behaviors in rats with chronic pain, whereas neither chemogenetic inhibition nor chemogenetic activation of the rACCCaMKII‐DRNGABA circuit altered CFA chronic pain‐evoked anxiety‐like behaviors in rats. More importantly, we found that EA could reverse chronic pain‐induced changes in the activity of rACC CaMKII neurons and DRN 5‐HTergic neurons and that chemogenetic inhibition of the rACCCaMKII‐DRN5‐HT circuit blocked the therapeutic effects of EA on chronic pain‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the reversal of rACCCaMKII‐DRN5‐HT circuit dysfunction may be a mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of EA on chronic pain‐induced anxiety‐like behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comorbid chronic neuropathic pain and anxiety is a common disease that represents a major clinical challenge. The underlying mechanisms of chronic neuropathic pain and anxiety are not entirely understood, which limits the exploration of effective treatment methods. Glutamatergic neurons in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) have been implicated in regulating pain, but the potential roles of the vlPAG in neuropathic pain-induced anxiety have not been investigated. Herein, whole-cell recording and immunofluorescence showed that the excitability of CamkIIα neurons in the vlPAG (vlPAG CamkIIα+ neurons) was decreased in mice with spared nerve injury (SNI), while electroacupuncture (EA) activated these neurons. We also showed that chemogenetic inhibition of vlPAG CamkIIα+ neurons resulted in allodynia and anxiety-like behaviors in naive mice. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation of vlPAG CamkIIα+ neurons reduced anxiety-like behaviors and allodynia in mice with SNI, and EA had a similar effect in alleviating these symptoms. Nevertheless, EA combined with chemogenetic activation failed to further relieve allodynia and anxiety-like behaviors. Artificial inhibition of vlPAG CamkIIα+ neurons abolished the analgesic and anxiolytic effects of EA. Overall, our study reveals a novel mechanism of neuropathic pain-induced anxiety and shows that EA may relieve comorbid chronic neuropathic pain and anxiety by activating vlPAG CamkIIα+ neurons., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2024 Zhu et al.)

Background: This study aimed to analyze the effect of preoperative fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) combined with BRAF V600E mutation detection as compared to that of fine needle aspiration cytology alone on the diagnostic performance of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) combined with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT)., Method: Patients with thyroid nodules in Hashimoto's thyroiditis, who underwent fine-needle aspiration cytology examination and BRAF V600E mutation detection in the puncture eluate at the outpatient clinic, were selected. Finally, 122 patients received surgical treatment and were included in the study. We used postoperative pathological results as the gold standard. Accordingly, we compared the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of preoperative FNAC alone and FNAC combined with BRAF V600E mutation detection in for the diagnosis of PTC combined with HT., Results: For PTC patients with HT, the sensitivity of FNAC diagnosis was 93.69%, the specificity was 90.90% and the accuracy was 93.44%. However, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FNAC combined with BRAF V600E mutation detection were 97.30%, 90.90% and 96.72%, respectively. Therefore, combined detection can improve the sensitivity and accuracy of diagnosis (p<0.05)., Conclusion: FNAC combined with eluent BRAF V600E mutation detection can improve the sensitivity and accuracy of diagnosis of PTC in the background of HT., 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 © 2024 Fu, Yin, Wang, Xiao, Wu, Duan, Yu and Zhang.)