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Abstract: The analytical expression for the spectrum of spatially and spectrally partially coherent cosh-Gaussian pulsed (ChGP) beams focused by an aperture lens is derived and used to study their spectral properties at the focal plane and on the axis. The effect of the truncation parameter, spatial correlation parameter, decentered parameter and temporal coherence length on the spectral shifts and spectral switches of spatially and spectrally partially coherent ChGP beams is stressed. The results are illustrated numerically and interpreted physically. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The spectral and spatiotemporal properties of Bessel–Gauss pulsed beams focused by a dispersive aperture lens are studied, where the dispersion of the first, second, and higher orders is taken into consideration. It is shown that the spectral switches take place at the geometrical focal plane, and the dispersion of the first order leads to a shift of the critical position towards the z-axis. The dispersion plays a noticeable role in the spatiotemporal intensity distribution. The dispersion of the first order results in a decrease of the peak intensity, in a shift and a broadening of the pulse form, and the effect becomes more noticeable with increasing waist width. The dispersion of the second order results in a further broadening and a decrease of the peak intensity, and the effect is larger as the thickness of the lens increases. However, the dispersion of the higher order plays a relatively minor role. The results are illustrated by numerical examples and interpreted physically. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The spherical MgCl2 supports treated by methylaluminoxane (named MAO-supports) were prepared using MgCl2·2.56C2H5OH adducts as support material subjected to elimination of EtOH by thermal dealcoholization treatments. Then bis(phenoxy-imine) zirconium complex, bis-[N-(3-tert-butylsalicylidence)cyclohexylaminato] zirconium(IV) dichloride (1), was directly impregnated onto these MAO-supports. ICP, EDX, GC, N2-BET, IR and XRD analyses indicated that the texture of the supports and MAO-supports, the elements on solid catalysts, and so on, were greatly relied on dealcoholization temperature. Meanwhile, it was also found that the activities of the supported catalysts for ethylene polymerization and the properties of resultant polymers were strongly dependent on dealcoholization temperature. Finally, PEs with spherical morphology and high bulk density (over 0.35g/ml) were obtained, without reactor fouling. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background Global disparities in prostate cancer (PCa) incidence highlight the urgent need to identify genomic abnormalities in prostate tumors in different ethnic populations including Asian men. Objective To systematically explore the genomic complexity and define disease-driven genetic alterations in PCa. Design, setting, and participants The study sequenced whole-genome and transcriptome of tumor-benign paired tissues from 65 treatment-naive Chinese PCa patients. Subsequent targeted deep sequencing of 293 PCa-relevant genes was performed in another cohort of 145 prostate tumors. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis The genomic alteration landscape in PCa was analyzed using an integrated computational pipeline. Relationships with PCa progression and survival were analyzed using nonparametric test, log-rank, and multivariable Cox regression analyses. Results and limitations We demonstrated an association of high frequency of CHD1 deletion with a low rate of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion and relatively high percentage of mutations in androgen receptor upstream activator genes in Chinese patients. We identified five putative clustered deleted tumor suppressor genes and provided experimental and clinical evidence that PCDH9 , deleted/loss in approximately 23% of tumors, functions as a novel tumor suppressor gene with prognostic potential in PCa. Furthermore, axon guidance pathway genes were frequently deregulated, including gain/amplification of PLXNA1 gene in approximately 17% of tumors. Functional and clinical data analyses showed that increased expression of PLXNA1 promoted prostate tumor growth and independently predicted prostate tumor biochemical recurrence, metastasis, and poor survival in multi-institutional cohorts of patients with PCa. A limitation of this study is that other genetic alterations were not experimentally investigated. Conclusions There are shared and salient genetic characteristics of PCa in Chinese and Caucasian men. Novel genetic alterations in PCDH9 and PLXNA1 were associated with disease progression. Patient summary We reported the first large-scale and comprehensive genomic data of prostate cancer from Asian population. Identification of these genetic alterations may help advance prostate cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive molecular analyses of metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are lacking. Here, we generate multi-omic profiling of 257 primary and 176 metastatic regions from 182 HCC patients. Primary tumors rich in hypoxia signatures facilitated polyclonal dissemination. Genomic divergence between primary and metastatic HCC is high, and early dissemination is prevalent. The remarkable neoantigen intratumor heterogeneity observed in metastases is associated with decreased T cell reactivity, resulting from disruptions to neoantigen presentation. We identify somatic copy number alterations as highly selected events driving metastasis. Subclones without Wnt mutations show a stronger selective advantage for metastasis than those with Wnt mutations and are characterized by a microenvironment rich in activated fibroblasts favoring a pro-metastatic phenotype. Finally, metastases without Wnt mutations exhibit higher enrichment of immunosuppressive B cells that mediate terminal exhaustion of CD8+ T cells via HLA-E:CD94-NKG2A checkpoint axis. Collectively, our results provide a multi-dimensional dissection of the complex evolutionary process of metastasis. [Display omitted] • Multi-regional and multi-omic profiles of paired primary and metastatic HCC tumors • Polyclonal, early dissemination and APM defects result in high ITH in metastases • Wnt-wt subclones show stronger selection for metastasis than Wnt-mut counterparts • Focal and arm-level SCNA deletion events are genomic drivers of HCC metastasis Sun et al. characterize multi-regional and multi-omics (genomics, transcriptomics, scRNA-seq, spatial transcriptomics, and IHC) profiles for paired primary and metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma from 182 patients. They reveal high intratumor heterogeneity in metastatic HCCs, complex evolutionary trajectories, subclonal selection, and crucial roles of tumor microenvironment (cancer-associated fibroblast and B cells) during metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to the widely used monochromatic X-ray source, the polychromatic X-ray source may also be used in many cases of propagation-based phase-contrast imaging (PB-PCI). It is not sufficient to investigate the optimization procedure only for the monochromatic applications. The focus of this paper is to investigate the effects of spectrum and imaging geometry on the image quality of PB-PCI, for applications involving propagation in vacuum and air. The quality of phase contrast image has been quantitatively characterized by using contrast and SNR as quality metrics in this paper. The optimal geometry has been investigated in three situations, where four cases are considered. Based on the numerical simulation, it is observed that the contrast and SNR in the case of polychromatic X-ray are lower than the monochromatic X-ray. Therefore, the influence of the X-ray spectrum on the contrast and SNR must not be neglected. The contrast in the case of polychromatic X-ray, and the SNR in both polychromatic and monochromatic X-ray, is lower for propagation in air compared to the propagation in vacuum. Evidently, the air absorption is an important factor in the propagation-based phase-contrast imaging. The experimental and numerical results for all three situations are presented to verify the effect of the geometry on the image quality in the air condition. It is found that the experimental results confirm the validity of numerical results for both the quality metrics. The object specification and the X-ray scattering have obvious influence on the image quality, as seen in the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]