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The CO2 gasification of South Open-pit Mines coal from Zhundong Field of China using Ca(OH)2 or K2CO3 as catalyst with different loading methods and contents were conducted in thermogravimetric analysis. Comparison of the gasification reactivity and rate of coal loaded various concentration of Ca(OH)2 concluded that the increase of Ca(OH)2 loading pronouncedly improved the reactivity and rate for grinding method; nevertheless, for impregnation and high pressure method the increase of Ca(OH)2 loading observed a similar catalytic effect on char gasification. However, the catalytic effect of K2CO3 revealed that the catalytic activity increased with the increase of K2CO3 loading for three loading method. For the same catalyst loading, the highest catalytic gasification reactivity achieved for Ca(OH)2 and K2CO3 were the loading methods of high pressure and grinding, respectively. In addition, the gasification of raw char, K2CO3 loaded char and Ca(OH)2 loaded char were quantitatively evaluated by kinetic analysis using shrinking core, random pore and modified random pore models.

Background: Though imaging manifestations of COVID-19 and other types of viral pneumonia are similar, their clinical treatment methods differ. Accurate, non-invasive diagnostic methods using CT imaging can help develop an optimal therapeutic regimen for both conditions. Objectives: To compare the initial CT imaging features in COVID-19 with those in other types of viral pneumonia. Methods: Clinical and imaging data of 51 patients with COVID-19 and 69 with other types of viral pneumonia were retrospectively studied. All significant imaging features (Youden index >0.3) were included for constituting the combined criteria for COVID-19 diagnosis, composed of two or more imaging features with a parallel model. McNemar's chi-square test or Fisher's exact test was used to compare the validity indices (sensitivity and specificity) among various criteria. Results: Ground glass opacities (GGO) dominated density, peripheral distribution, unilateral lung, clear margin of lesion, rounded morphology, long axis parallel to the pleura, vascular thickening, and crazy-paving pattern were more common in COVID-19 (p Conclusion: The initial CT imaging features are helpful for the differential diagnosis of COVID-19 and other types of viral pneumonia.

Background:: A major challenge in cervical cancer radiotherapy is tailoring the radiation doses efficiently to eliminate malignant cells and reduce the side effects in normal tissues. Oncolytic adenovirus drug H101 was recently tested and approved as a topical adjuvant treatment for several malignancies. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the potential neoadjuvant radiotherapy benefits of H101 by testing the inhibitory function of H101 in combination with radiation in different cervical cancer cells. Methods: Human cervical cancer cell lines C33a, SiHa, CaSki, and HeLa were treated with varying concentrations of H101 alone or in combination with radiation (2 Gy or 4 Gy). Cell viability and apoptosis were measured at the indicated time intervals. HPV16 E6 and cellular p53 mRNA expression alteration was measured by qRT-PCR. In situ RNA scope was used to determine HPV E6 status. P53 protein alterations were detected by Western blot. Results: Cell viability and apoptosis assays revealed that the combination of a high dose of H101 (MOI=1000, 10000) with radiation yielded a synergistic anticancer effect in all tested cervical cancer cell lines (P Conclusions: Oncolytic adenovirus H101 effectively enhances the antitumor efficacy of radiation in cervical cancer cells and may serve as a novel combination therapy for cervical cancer.

In multi-chip integrated photonic micro-systems, it is important to protect the laser source from reflection because the semiconductor laser is sensitive to the back reflection induced by the roughness of the waveguide sidewall or other on-chip optical structures. In order to maintain the stable operation of the light source, an additional micro-ring resonator coupled with the laser source is design before the optical circuit which enables the laser diode to enter a self-injection locking state and improves the reflection tolerance. It is experimentally demonstrated in the hybrid system that by tuning the phase shifter and the micro-ring resonate wavelength, the distributed feedback (DFB) laser enters a self-injection locking state, resulting significant improvement of the critical reflection ratio from −18.69 dB to −4.31 dB. The method can isolate the external reflection of laser diode without using heterogeneous integration, which provides a new idea for on-chip source isolation. The parameters design of the micro-ring and the coupling method with the laser are also introduced in the letter.

Nanomedicine usually refers to nanoparticles that deliver the functional drugs and siRNAs to treat cancer. Recent research has suggested that cancer cells can also make nanoparticles that also deliver functional molecules in promoting cancer metastasis, which is the leading cause of various cancer mortalities. This nanoparticle is called tumor-derived vesicles, or better-known as tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs). TEXs are nanoscale membrane vesicles (30–140 nm) that are released continuously by various types of cancer cells and contain tumor-derived functional biomolecules, including lipids, proteins, and genetic molecules. These endogenous TEXs can interact with host immune cells and epithelial cells locally and systemically. More importantly, they can reprogram the recipient cells in favor of promoting metastasis through facilitating tumor cell local invasion, intravasation, immune evasion, extravasation, and survival and growth in distant organs. Growing evidence suggests that TEXs play a key role in cancer metastasis. Here, we will review the most recent findings of how cancer cells harness TEXs to promote cancer metastasis through modulating vascular permeability, suppressing systemic immune surveillance, and creating metastatic niches. We will also summarize recent research in targeting TEXs to treat cancer metastasis., Graphical abstract We reviewed recent progress on understanding how tumor-derived exosomes (TEXs) promote metastasis through facilitating tumor cell local invasion, intravasation, immune evasion, extravasation, and growth in distant organs.Image 1

With the development of image recognition technology, face, body shape, and other factors have been widely used as identification labels, which provide a lot of convenience for our daily life. However, image recognition has much higher requirements for image conditions than traditional identification methods like a password. Therefore, image enhancement plays an important role in the process of image analysis for images with noise, among which the image of low-light is the top priority of our research. In this paper, a low-light image enhancement method based on the enhanced network module optimized Generative Adversarial Networks(GAN) is proposed. The proposed method first applied the enhancement network to input the image into the generator to generate a similar image in the new space, Then constructed a loss function and minimized it to train the discriminator, which is used to compare the image generated by the generator with the real image. We implemented the proposed method on two image datasets (DPED, LOL), and compared it with both the traditional image enhancement method and the deep learning approach. Experiments showed that our proposed network enhanced images have higher PNSR and SSIM, the overall perception of relatively good quality, demonstrating the effectiveness of the method in the aspect of low illumination image enhancement.

The dynamic properties of one kind of Inter-Connected Hydro-Pneumatic Struts (IC HPS), which is designed based on the developed double-gas-chamber compacted Hydro-Pneumatic Struts (HPS) integrating double inner gas chambers, will be investigated in this research. Comparing with the traditional IC HPS designs based on single gas chamber compacted HPS, the proposed IC HPS can postpone the force distortion, and then increase the working envelop, provide good stiffness performance and be stable in both In-Phase and Out-of-Phase working condition. The equation of motion of the proposed IC HPS will be derived firstly. And then based on the established dynamic model, the related simulating model will be established utilizing the AMEsim software, and the validity of the established simulating model will be verified on the basis of experimental data and available literatures. The validity and performance of the proposed IC HPS will be verified and investigated through comprehensive comparison with traditional IC HPS designs. Finally, the detailed sensitivity analysis of the essential design parameter of the proposed IC HPS will be presented to illustrate the advantage of the proposed IC HPS design.

Photoetchable glasses (PEGs) have been widely used in three-dimensional integrated circuits as interposers. However, the high costs associated with laser through-hole technology have limited their utilization in high-frequency circuitry and packaging. Ultraviolet lithography may reduce the cost and improve through-hole properties allowing PEGs to become a preferred practice and lend them to wider usage. Herein, we investigate the viability of PEGs by systematically studying the structural, compositional, and morphological properties of their through-hole composite structures as a function of several key process parameters including exposure energy and annealing conditions. Results indicate that both exposure energy and annealing temperature and duration have compensating effects. Optimized through-glass vias (TGVs) were determined to result from an annealing temperature of 560 °C, an annealing time of 60 min, and an exposure energy of 6 J/cm2. Metallization of through-holes was carried out using magnetron sputtering of an adhesion layer of Ti followed by a Cu layer. The morphology and composition of through-hole metallization, analyzed by electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, revealed surfaces to have sharp, well-defined edges with smooth surfaces. The proposed PEG interposer processing methodologies described here offer renewed optimism for the efficient fabrication of channels and through-vias for microfluidic and integrated circuits and other three-dimensional electronic and hybrid systems.

BackgroundHuman papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with multiple types of cancer, but the evidence has not yet been fully elucidated in bladder cancer.MethodsFrozen tissue samples collected from 146 patients aged 32 to 89 years with bladder cancer pathological diagnosis between 2015 and 2019 were analyzed. HPV genotyping and integration status determination were performed by capture-based next generation sequencing. Statistical analysis of HPV type distributions was performed according to stage, grade, sex, and age group of patients.ResultsMean (SD) age of the 146 patients was 66.64 ± 10.06 years and 83.56% were men. Overall HPV infection rate was 28.77% (37.50% in women and 27.05% in men), with 11.90% HPV integration events. Among them, 17.12% single and 11.65% coinfections were observed. HPV18 (24.66%) was the most prevalent genotype, followed by HPV33, 16, and 39. All HPV were European lineage (A). HPV16 was more prevalent in women (P = .04).ConclusionsHPV infection may contribute to the etiology both in men and women with bladder cancer. HPV18, followed by HPV33, 16, and 39 genotypes, potentially represent the predominant oncogenic risk types for bladder carcinogenesis.

Ghost imaging is a fascinating framework which constructs the image of an object by correlating measurements between received beams and reference beams, none of which carries the structure information of the object independently. Recently, by taking into account spacetime duality in optics, computational temporal ghost imaging has attracted attention. Here, we propose a novel Fourier temporal ghost imaging (FTGI) scheme to achieve single-shot nonreproducible temporal signals. By sinusoidal coded modulation, ghost images are obtained and recovered by applying Fourier transformation. For demonstration, non-repeating events are detected with single-shot exposure architecture. It is shown in experimental results that the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of FTGI is significantly better (13 dB increase) than traditional temporal ghost imaging in the same condition. In addition, by using the obvious physical meaning of the Fourier spectrum, we show some potential applications of FTGI, such as frequency division multiplexing demodulation in the visible light communications.

We propose and demonstrate a rectangular optical lattice filter with reconfigurable bandwidth and wavelength. The proposed reconfigurable rectangular lattice filter consists of three-stage cascaded ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometers (RAMZIs), and each RAMZI unit serves as an approximate optical elliptical filter with optimized shape factor. The scheme and design principle are presented with the method of zero-pole theory. As a proof of concept, the proposed structure is fabricated on the Si3 N4 waveguide platform. In the experiment, the 3-dB bandwidth of the proposed filter can be continuously tuned from 14.1 GHz to 4.1 GHz, maintaining a rectangular transmission response, and the wavelength can also be continuously tuned. This reconfigurable rectangular optical lattice filter shows the potential in many practical applications for reconfigurable optical signal processing due to flexibility and reconfigurability.

Objective: Del Nido cardioplegia solution provides a depolarized hyperkalemic arrest lasting up to 60 minutes. Single-dose del Nido cardioplegia solution may offer an alternative myocardial protection strategy to conventional whole blood cardioplegia following acute aortic dissection surgery. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 122 consecutive patients with acute aortic dissection undergoing arch reconstruction surgery procedure with cardioplegia arrest from January 2017 to December 2019. Patients exclusively received with whole blood cardioplegia (n = 60, January 2017–December 2018) or del Nido cardioplegia (n = 62, January 2018–December 2019). Preoperative and postoperative data were retrospectively reviewed. Results: No significant difference between two groups in mortality (4/60 vs 3/62, p = 0.964), cardiopulmonary bypass time (168.0 ± 10.5 minute vs 165.0 ± 12.5 minute, p = 0.154), aortic cross-clamp time (91.8 ± 9.0 minute vs 93.2 ± 9.5 minute, p = 0.405), selective antegrade cerebral perfusion time (21.8 ± 5.0 minute vs 22.4 ± 4.7 minute, p = 0.496) and postoperative vasoactive inotropic score (34.8 ± 1.9 vs 35.2 ± 2.1, p = 0.272), neurological complications rate (8/60 vs 12/62, p = 0.523), renal insufficiency rate (5/60 vs 7/62, p = 0.807) and the troponin T level (304.8 ± 111.3 vs 315.0 ± 94.9, p = 0.588), respectively. Mean volume of crystalloid was significantly higher in the del Nido group compared to the whole blood cardioplegia group (1010.2 ± 20.3 mL vs 300.0 ± 19.6 mL, p Conclusion: Short-term outcomes in acute aortic dissection surgery using del Nido cardioplegia solution were acceptable and comparable to conventional multi-dose whole blood cardioplegia. Del Nido cardioplegia technique is associated with lower defibrillations rate and requires a reduced frequency of infusions that results in longer durations between infusions and may be a feasible alternative to conventional whole blood cardioplegia solution in acute aortic dissection surgery.

Purpose To evaluate the effect of hyperthermia combined with concurrent radiochemotherapy (RCT) and treatment-related toxicity in patients with cervical cancer (CC) stage IB-IV. Methods and Materials This study was conducted between 2009 and 2013 in patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage IB-IV CC. The patients were randomly assigned into 2 treatment groups: RCT and RCT plus hyperthermia (RCHT). Five-year survival, treatment-related toxicity, and other prognostic factors were evaluated. Results Three hundred seventy-three patients completed treatment and were analyzed by per-protocol (PP) analysis. The 5-year overall survival (OS) in the RCHT group (81.9%) was better than that in RCT group (72.3%), and the log-rank test showed a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups (P = .040). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis for 5-year OS showed a statistically significant difference (P = .043, P = .045, respectively). The 5-year local relapse-free survival in RCHT (86.8%) was also better than that in RCT (82.7%), but the difference was not significant. Acute or late toxicity was not significantly different between the 2 groups. Advanced clinical stage (FIGO) and larger tumor size showed higher risk of death and a relatively poor prognosis in univariate and multivariate analysis. Conclusions The study confirmed that hyperthermia combined with RCT yielded a better 5-year OS in CC. Acute and late toxicity was similar between the RCT and RCHT groups. Clinical stage (FIGO) and tumor size were independent prognostic factors in CC.

40CrNi steel is a low alloy steel with medium hardenability and has been widely used in the manufacturing of crankshafts, wind turbine forgings, etc. As forging is usually involved in the manufacturing of these components, optimization of the hot deformation process of 40CrNi steel is quite critical. Towards this, the prediction of flow stress and the determination of optimal processing parameter windows are of great importance. In this research, isothermal uniaxial hot compression tests were carried out for 40CrNi steel with true strain rates of 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10 and 30 s−1 and temperatures of 850–1200 °C. Both the strain compensated hyperbolic sine constitutive equation and the modified Johnson-Cook model were adopted to predict the flow stress curves, with average absolute relative errors of 0.034 and 0.061, respectively. Processing maps of the tested steel were constructed to determine the optimal deformation parameter windows, and the characteristics of the prior austenite microstructure generally correspond very well to the processing map established. Furthermore, different processing map construction methods were compared and it was found that power-dissipation efficiency maps strongly rely on the σ- e ˙ relationship. Assuming a certain type of constitutive equations leads to monotonic efficiency value patterns. Calculation methods based on experimental results are helpful to reflect the meaningful information carried by the experimental σ- e ˙ relationships.

Higher dimensional optical imaging has seen remarkable growth in the past decade. As a representative method, multiplexed structured illumination (MSI) has been widely introduced for its ultra-high resolution of high-dimensional information. In this letter, an imaging framework for recovering higher dimensional image data, which terms quadrature multiplexed structured illumination (QMSI), is proposed and demonstrated. QMSI incorporates the illumination pattern spatial phase information as a new parameter into the encoding process. This strategy can double the frequency spectrum utilization without any overhead compared to MSI, which means it can double the image sequence depth or image spatial resolution. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the performance of QMSI by experiments on multispectral imaging.

High recurrence and metastasis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) after operation is a leading cause of breast cancer related death. The pre-metastatic niche (PMN) is an environment in a secondary organ conducive to the metastasis of a primary tumor. Herein, we identify exosomes from autologous breast cancer cells that show effective lung targeting ability. Based on this, we developed the biomimetic nanoparticles (cationic bovine serum albumin (CBSA) conjugated siS100A4 and exosome membrane coated nanoparticles, CBSA/siS100A4@Exosome) to improve drug delivery to the lung PMN. CBSA/siS100A4@Exosome self-assembled nanoparticles formed homogeneous sizes of ~200 nm, protected siRNA from degradation, and showed excellent biocompatibility. Further in vivo studies showed that CBSA/siS100A4@Exosome had a higher affinity toward lung in comparison to the CBSA/siS100A4@Liposome, and exhibited outstanding gene-silencing effects that significantly inhibited the growth of malignant breast cancer cells. Taken together, these results indicate that CBSA/siS100A4@Exosome self-assembled nanoparticles are a promising strategy to suppress postoperative breast cancer metastasis.

Optical phased array (OPA) can achieve beam steering by controlling the phase distribution of each channel. In traditional OPA, 2π phase tuning range is required to achieve beam steering. However, large phase tuning range can lead to large size, high power consumption, high operating voltage and low speed. Moreover, the performance of OPA with small phase tuning range, such as metasurface OPA, degrades greatly in traditional method. Here, we propose a design method of OPA with insufficient phase tuning range (10 dB side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) can be achieved with any phase tuning range.

Aim: We aim to demonstrate that a local nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia can effectively eliminate tumor-associated Tregs and thereby boost checkpoint blockade-based immunotherapy. Materials & methods: Photothermal therapy (PTT), mediated with systemically administered stealthy iron-oxide nanoparticles, was applied to treat BALB/c mice bearing 4T1 murine breast tumors. Flow cytometry was applied to evaluate both Treg and CD8+ T-cell population. Tumor growth following combination therapy of both PTT and anti-CTLA-4 was further evaluated. Results: Our data reveal that tumor-associated Tregs can be preferentially depleted via iron-oxide nanoparticles-mediated PTT. When combining PTT with anti-CTLA-4 immunotherapy, we demonstrate a significant inhibition of syngeneic 4T1 tumor growth. Conclusion: This study offers a novel strategy to overcome Treg-mediated immunosuppression and thereby to boost cancer immunotherapy.

The resolution of analog to digital converter (ADC) and the power consumption of digital signal processing (DSP) are becoming the bottleneck of optical communication system. To acquire and recover signals with low resolution ADCs, we propose a binarized coherent optical receiver based on opto-electronic neural network, which consists of three layers, the broadcast layer, the optical neural layer, and the electronic neural layer. The broadcast layer that composed of Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) is to duplicate and select the input optical signal into the opto-electronic neural network. The optical neural layer is constituted by specially designed structures to map the binarized weights into optical domain, which can be integrated on silicon together with the broadcast layer. The one-bit vertical resolution ADCs act as the binarized activation after the optical neural layer. This binarized coherent optical receiver is demonstrated in simulation of 50-Gb/s single polarization (SP) QPSK system and 100-Gb/s polarization multiplexing (PDM) QPSK system. The one-bit vertical resolution ADCs can be utilized to recover the complex modulation format signal successfully. The broadcast layer and the optical neural layer can be integrated based on silicon, which could increase the calculation speed and reduce the energy consumption of the total system.

We report the first demonstration of a fully integrated hybrid microwave photonic receiver (FIH-MWPR), to the best of our knowledge. In FIH-MWPR, All the optoelectronic components, including a laser source, phase modulators, tunable photonic filters based on microring resonators, and photodetectors, are hybrid integrated into the same substrate. Here, all the functionalities except the laser source are monolithically integrated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chip, whereas the light is provided by a III-V distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser chip. These two photonic integration platforms are combined through the hybrid integration method to demonstrate a completely packaged FIH-MWPR module, which occupies a compact volume of 30mm × 20mm × 10mm. In the experiment, we evaluate the system performance of the FIH-MWPR by measuring critical system performance metrics, including link gain, noise figure (NF), and spur free dynamic range (SFDR). When the FIH-MWPR operates at S-Ku bands (2-18 GHz), its link gain is measured to be -51.9 ~ -58.6 dB, its NF is measured to be 59.7~75.2 dB, and its SFDR is measured to be 89.0~94.1 dB*Hz2/3. This FIH-MWPR shows the advantages of broad operation bandwidth, tunable microwave photonic signal filtering, and superiority in size, weight, and power efficiency (SWaP), and it would provide a promising path to realize a practical microwave photonic receiver.

We demonstrate a hybrid integrated laser with nearly two folds of direct modulation bandwidth enhancement and 150 folds of linewidth reduction, by introducing the photon-photon resonance effect and self-injection locking effect to a commercial DFB laser simultaneously through an external high-Q silicon nitride microring reflector (MRR). Different from the widely studied passive feedback lasers, the proposed high-Q MRR keeps the DFB laser in the strong self-injection locking state, which can achieve stable narrow linewidth single-mode output with high Side-Mode Suppression Ratio. After packaging the proposed hybrid laser, we measure its direct modulation bandwidth and linewidth, which are increased from 7.70GHz to 15.28GHz, and reduced from 600kHz to 4kHz, respectively. This work explores a compact footprint and low-cost modulation bandwidth enhancement and linewidth reduction scheme for many applications such as high-speed coherent optical communication and microwave photonics.

We report a compact and robust laser linewidth reduction solution for commercially available distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor lasers by butt-coupling a high-Q Si3N4 microring reflector to a DFB semiconductor laser. We fabricate the microring reflector on the 80nm-thick high-aspect-ratio Si3N4 waveguide platform. The 3-dB bandwidth and the free spectral range of the fabricated Si3N4 microring reflector are measured to be 50 MHz and 14.13 GHz, respectively, corresponding to a Q factor of over 3.8 million and finesse of 283. In the experiment, the intrinsic linewidth of the hybrid integrated laser is reduced to an ultra-low level of 2.86 Hz. The proposed hertz-linewidth hybrid integrated laser has great potentials in high-speed coherent optical communications systems and high-resolution optical metrology.

A hybrid integrated tunable narrow-linewidth laser is demonstrated in this paper. The hybrid laser comprises a commercial DFB laser butt-coupled to an external cavity with a micro-ring resonator. A transfer matrix model has been presented and the wavelength performance of the laser has been analyzed. In the experiment, the hybrid laser Lorentzian linewidth is ~5KHz and the tuning range is ~2.75 nanometer.

Precision interventional brachytherapy is a radiotherapy technique that combines radiation therapy medicine with computer network technology, physics, etc. It can solve the limitations of conventional brachytherapy. Radioactive drugs and their carriers change with each passing day, and major research institutions and enterprises worldwide have conducted extensive research on them. In addition, the capabilities of interventional robotic systems are also rapidly developing to meet clinical needs for the precise delivery of radiopharmaceuticals in interventional radiotherapy. This study reviews the main radiopharmaceuticals, drug carriers, dispensing and fixation technologies, and interventional robotic precision delivery systems used in precision brachytherapy of malignant tumors. We then discuss the current needs in the field and future development prospects in high-precision interventional brachytherapy.

An integrated physical diffractive optical neural network (DONN) is proposed based on a standard silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. This DONN has compact structure and can realize the function of machine learning with whole-passive fully-optical manners. The DONN structure is designed by the spatial domain electromagnetic propagation model, and the approximate process of the neuron value mapping is optimized well to guarantee the consistence between the pre-trained neuron value and the SOI integration implementation. This model can better ensure the manufacturability and the scale of the on-chip neural network, which can be used to guide the design and manufacturing of the real chip. The performance of our DONN is numerically demonstrated on the prototypical machine learning task of prediction of coronary heart disease from the UCI Heart Disease Dataset, and accuracy comparable to the state-of-the-art is achieved.

Machine learning models for exploring structure-property relation for hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HANPs) are still lacking. A multiscale multisource dataset is presented, including both experimental data (TEM/SEM, XRD/crystallinity, ROS, anti-tumor effects, and zeta potential) and computation results (containing 41,976 data samples with up to 9768 atoms) of nanoparticles with different sizes and morphologies at density functional theory (DFT), semi-empirical DFTB, and force field, respectively. Three geometric descriptors are set for the explainable machine learning methods to predict surface energies and surface stress of HANPs with satisfactory performance. To avoid the pre-determination of features, we also developed a predictive deep learning model within the framework of graph convolution neural network with good generalizability. Energies with DFT accuracy are achievable for large-sized nanoparticles from the learned correlations and scale functions for mapping different theoretical levels and particle sizes. The simulated XRD spectra and crystallinity values are in good agreement with experiments.

Background Identifying or prioritizing genes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one type of complex disease, is particularly important for its prevention and treatment. Methods In this paper, a novel method was proposed to Prioritize genes using Expression information in Protein–protein interaction networks with disease risks transferred between genes (abbreviated as PEP). A weighted COPD PPI network was constructed using expression information and then COPD candidate genes were prioritized based on their corresponding disease risk scores in descending order. Results Further analysis demonstrated that the PEP method was robust in prioritizing disease candidate genes, and superior to other existing prioritization methods exploiting either topological or functional information. Top-ranked COPD candidate genes and their significantly enriched functions were verified to be related to COPD. The top 200 candidate genes might be potential disease genes in the diagnosis and treatment of COPD. Conclusions The proposed method could provide new insights to the research of prioritizing candidate genes of COPD or other complex diseases with expression information from sequencing or microarray data.

Based on the limitations of the traditional artificial bee colony algorithm in employed bee, onlooker bee and scout bee phase search strategy. The article proposes a dynamic balance factor strategy that uses the combination of Gauss-Cauchy distribution to further optimize the shortcomings of the original algorithm in global search and local search. The dynamic balance factor combines the characteristics of Gaussian distribution and Cauchy distribution, enriches the population diversity in the stage of scout bee and employed bee, and improves the accuracy of local search in the stage of onlooker bee. In the later stage of the algorithm, adaptive influence coefficients are introduced based on the characteristics of mathematical functions to change the algorithm’s convergence speed, so as to realize the optimization of the algorithm’s search breadth and accuracy, as well as the convergence speed. The results of simulation experiments show that the artificial bee colony algorithm base on Normal-Cauchy distribution (ABC-NCD) based on Gauss-Cauchy distribution is superior to other similar algorithms in terms of global search breadth and local convergence accuracy.

Autoreactive T cells play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). TGF-β type I receptor (TGFβRI) is pivotal in determining T cell activation. Here, we showed that TGFβRI expression in naïve CD4+ T cells was decreased in SLE patients, especially in those with high disease activity. Moreover, IL-6 was found to downregulate TGFβRI expression through JAK/STAT3 pathway in SLE patients. In vitro, the JAK inhibitor tofacitinib inhibited SLE T cell activating by upregulating TGFβRI expression in a dose-dependent manner. In MRL/lpr mice, tofacitinib treatment ameliorated the clinical indicators and lupus nephritis, as evidenced by reduced plasma anti-dsDNA antibody levels, decreased proteinuria, and lower renal histopathological score. Consistently, tofacitinib enhanced TGFβRI expression and inhibited T cell activation in vivo. TGFβRI inhibitor SB431542 reversed the effects of tofacitinib on T cell activation. Thus, our results have indicated that tofacitinib can suppress T cell activation by upregulating TGFβRI expression, which provides a possible molecular mechanism underlying clinical efficacy of tofacitinib in treating SLE patients.

In order to accurately extract AutoCAD drawing information when 3D printing in the construction industry, this paper proposes a method for extracting information from AutoCAD format files. In this way, 3D printing equipment can directly use this information for work.

A fiber optical parametric oscillator (FOPO) is an effective way of generating new wavelength lasers in non-conventional wavelength bands, but the complex nature behind it is challenging for both theoretical and experimental studies. Luckily, dispersive Fourier transformation, which has been emerging in recent years, provides us with a good method of demystifying this complexity. In this letter, we capture and report, for the first time, the instantaneous dynamics of the initiating process in a fiber optical parametric oscillator. We directly observe that the initiating process experiences three stages. The FOPO fully establishes the parametric oscillation during nearly 2000 round-trips, i.e., nearly 93 $\mu \text{s}$ . In the meantime, the spectrum of the amplifier spontaneous emission noise gradually narrows down and evolves into the characteristic spectrum of the parametric oscillation. In order to start parametric oscillation, the pump power needs to exceed a certain threshold, after reaching which the power of the residual pump decreases while the signal and idle light grow. As we expect, due to the four-wave mixing effect, the signal and idle light are completely synchronous. Moreover, the stability of the oscillation is very sensitive to a slight fluctuation of the pumping pulses.

Background Defective clearance of apoptotic cells (ACs) has been suggested to be involved in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit promising therapeutic effects on SLE, but whether MSCs phagocytose ACs and contributes to the underlying mechanism in the treatment of SLE remain unknown. Methods Human umbilical cord (UC) MSCs were co-cultured with ACs, and the engulfment of ACs by MSCs was either detected by flow cytometry or observed under confocal laser scanning microscope. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy controls (HCs) were cultured in MSC conditioned medium (MCM) or MSC exposed to ACs (AC-MSC) conditioned medium (ACMCM), and then CD4+ T cell proliferation was detected. Soluble factors including prostaglandin (PG)E2 in the supernatants of MSCs and AC-MSCs, as well as in the mouse peritoneal lavage fluids (PLF) were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cyclooxygenase (COX)2 inhibitors and siRNA transfection were utilized to determine the function of COX2/PGE2 in AC-MSC-mediated immunosuppression. PGE2 metabolites (PGEM) in the plasma of SLE patients were measured before and 24 h after MSC transplantation respectively. Findings Human UC MSCs possessed the ability to engulf ACs. AC-MSCs increased MSC-mediated suppression of CD4+ T cell proliferation compared to MSCs alone. Mechanistically, ACs stimulated MSCs to express COX2 and consequently produced PGE2 that inhibited T cell responses. NF-κB signalling pathway mediated the activation of COX2/PGE2 in AC-MSCs. Importantly, in patients with SLE, the plasma PGEM levels increased significantly in those with reduced apoptotic mononuclear cells in peripheral blood after MSC transplantation. Interpretation Clearance of ACs by MSCs contributes to immunosuppressive function via increasing PGE2 production. These findings reveal a previously unrecognized role of MSC-mediated phagocytosis of ACs in MSC-based immunotherapy. Fund This study was supported by grants from the Chinese Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project (No. 81720108020), the Jiangsu Province Major Research and Development Program (No. BE2015602) and the Jiangsu Province 333 Talent Grant (BRA2016001). WJ. Chen was supported by the Intramural Research Program of NIH, NIDCR.

Barium strontium titanate (BaxSr1–xTiO3, BST) thin films have large dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, especially the high dielectric tunability, which make them prospective candidates for microwave tunable applications. Resent developments in BST thin films by doping modification are reviewed. The A-site doping, B-site doping, and both sites codoping modifications are summarized and analyzed, respectively. The comparison of dielectric properties and microstructure of the BST thin films with different sites doping modifications is critically analyzed. The single A-site or B-site doping modification cannot obtain the BST thin films with balanced enhancement of the dielectric properties. However, the different elements codoping in both A-site and B-site of BST thin films is demonstrated to be an effective method to achieve balanced dielectric property optimization.

Triptolide is a biologically active component of the Chinese antirheumatic herbal remedy Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, which has been shown to be effective in treating murine lupus. However, its immunological mechanisms are poorly understood. Regulatory T cells (Treg) are pivotal for maintaining peripheral self-tolerance and controlling autoimmunity. This study was undertaken to examine the therapeutic effect of triptolide in lupus mice and the related molecular mechanisms. Our results showed that triptolide treatment ameliorated serum anti-dsDNA, proteinuria and renal histopathologic assessment in MRL/lpr mice, induced the miR-125a-5p expression and enhanced the proportion of Treg in vivo. In vitro, triptolide upregulated the proportion of Treg and the miR-125a-5p expression. Down-regulation of the miR-125a-5p expression reversed the effect of triptolide on Treg. In conclusion, triptolide could induce Treg and the miR-125a-5p expression in vivo and in vitro. Inhibiting the effect of miR-125a-5p could counteract the effect of triptolide on inducing Treg. The study has strong implications for the therapeutic applications of triptolide in systemic lupus erythematosus.

The large-scale hydraulic fracturing technology is commonly employed to significantly improve oil recovery in shale. An exceptional phenomenon from many field tests is worthy of attention that the majority of fracturing fluid (mainly water) does not return to the surface during hydraulic fracturing, but flows into shale matrix. As a consequence of this phenomenon, oil-water two-phase flow would happen. However, the fluid transportation in nano-pores is different from that of the conventional sandstone reservoirs. To understand oil-water two-phase flow in shale, an integrated pore network model (PNM) framework including network construction and flow simulation is developed. In the network construction, combined with a pore-size distribution (PSD) curve of shale system, a shale multiscale random pore network model is proposed, where organic pores and inorganic pores can be distinguished appropriately. In the flow simulation, considering that the traditional Hagen-Poiseuille equation may not be applicable in shale system, new bulk fluid and corner film flow models with slip length in various geometric pores (circular, square, equilateral triangle) are developed using the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. Through the quasi-static simulation technique, we estimate the flow properties in shale including capillary pressure and relative permeability. Simulation results confirm the slip effect would significantly affect oil-water two-phase flow in shale. And then, influences of shale pore structure on two-phase flow are further investigated. Through coupling network construction and two-phase flow simulation, we believe our work could shed light on the further research for multi-phase transportation in shale.

Purpose: Oncotype DX recurrence score (Oncotype DX RS) is applied in the prognostic stage in T1-2N0M0 ER+/HER2- breast cancer. But its significance is unclear in cases with T1-2N1M0 ER+/HER2- disease. Our study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of Oncotype DX RS in combination with the prognostic stage in the updated AJCC 8th edition. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was searched to identify invasive ductal breast cancer cases in T1-2N1M0 stage with ER positive HER2 negative status and Oncotype DX RS diagnosed between 2004 and 2012. Patients with unknown histologic grade or PR status, no or unknown surgery performed, or less than 6 months of follow up were excluded. Patients with RS 0-10, 11-25, >25 were categorized into low risk, midrange risk and high risk groups respectively. Comparisons of the distribution of RS groups among prognostic stages were performed using Pearson's chi-square. Breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared across RS groups using the log-rank statistic. Cox models were fitted to compare the association between RS groups, prognostic stages and BCSS or OS after adjusting for other characteristics. Results: Altogether 4059 cases were enrolled, which were categorized into prognostic stage IA-IIIA (only 357 cases in stage IIB and 35 cases in stage IIIA). More than 60% cases in prognostic stage IA-IIA had their RS in midrange risk group. There were decreasing proportion of low risk RS group and increasing proportion of high risk RS group with the ascending of prognostic stages (P Citation Format: Chen H, Wang M, Zhang P, Zhang M, Wu K. The significance of Oncotype DX recurrence score in T1-2N1M0 ER positive HER2 negative breast cancer: An analysis combined with the prognostic stage in the updated AJCC 8th edition [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-08-33.

Bismuth-based cubic pyrochlore thin films, such as Bi1.5ZnNb1.5O7 (BZN) and Bi1.5MgNb1.5O7 (BMN) thin films show attractive properties for microwave tunable system due to their medium dielectric constant, low dielectric loss, and high dielectric tunability. Several deposition technologies are used for preparing bismuth-based cubic pryochlore thin films. The effects of different thin film deposition approaches on the structure and dielectric properties of BZN/BMN thin films are summarized. The advantages and limitations of bismuth-based cubic pyrochlore thin films deposited by different deposition technologies are also discussed from the viewpoint of dielectric properties.

A novel integrated on-chip wavelength-based beam emitter is proposed and fabricated to realize two-dimensional optical scanning. By combining both wavelength division filters and emission array, 80 × 8 far-field optical beam spots are achieved with a field of view of 6° × 4°. Both collimation and projection modes are tested and 64 wavelength channels are realized in 10 nm bandwidth from 1550 to 1560 nm. This device can be used for LIDAR, optical wireless communication, and high-speed infrared imaging applications.

Background Immunoglobulin A (IgA) and IgG are major components in human intestinal mucosal surface and sera, and IgA- or IgG-coated bacteria play a vital role in the intestinal homeostasis. However, the correlation of IgA, IgG and their coated bacteria with the clinical characteristics of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not been fully clarified. Methods The levels of soluble IgA and IgG in sera and feces were detected by ELISA, and the percentage of IgA- and IgG-coated bacteria in feces was analyzed by flow cytometry. Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) and Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn’s disease (SES-CD) for Crohn’s disease (CD) or Mayo score and ulcerative colitis endoscopic index of severity (UCEIS) for ulcerative colitis (UC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were used to evaluate the disease activity. Results 178 patients with CD, 75 patients with UC and 41 healthy donors were recruited in this study. We found that the concentrations of soluble IgA and IgG in feces of active IBD patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls and that the levels of soluble IgA and IgG in feces from IBD patients were positively correlated with CRP, ESR, Mayo score, UCEIS, SES-CD, and CDAI, respectively. Moreover, we also observed that the percentage of IgA- and IgG-coated bacteria markedly increased in feces of IBD patients, especially in CD patients at the age of 17 to 40 years old, with terminal ileal lesions and perianal lesions, as well as from E2 UC patients, and was closely associated with disease activities. Conclusions The levels of soluble IgA and IgG and the percentage of IgA- and IgG-coated bacteria strikingly increase in feces of IBD patients and correlate with disease activity.

Currently, due to the exponential growth of online images, it is necessary to consider image retrieval among large number of images, which is very time-consuming and unscalable. Although many hashing methods has been proposed, they did not show excellent performance in decreasing semantic loss during the process of hashing. In this paper, we propose a novel Deep Linear Discriminant Analysis Hashing(DLDAH) algorithm, which consists of Hash label generation stage and Deep hash model construction stage. In hash label generation stage, using extract image features, we construct an objective function based on Linear Discriminant Analysis(LDA), and minimize it to map image features into hash labels. In deep hash model construction stage, we use the generated hash labels to train a simple deep learning network for image hashing and get discriminative hash codes corresponding to training images. Then the deep hash model is used to map a new image feature into hash code for fast image retrieval. The scheme obtain a deep hash model which obtains deep semantic information without using network with a lot of layers, simplifying the process of mapping new images into hash codes. Experimental results show that our approach significantly outperforms state-of-art methods.

Objectives To investigate risk factors contributing to early death in patients diagnosed with primary malignant cardiac tumors (PMCTs) and derive better understanding of these poorly characterized individuals. Method Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End-Results (SEER) registries on 564 patients diagnosed with PMCTs between 1973 and 2014 were analyzed. Early death was defined as survival of ≤3 months from the time of diagnosis. Two-tailed χ2 or fisher's exact test were used for association between categorical variables and occurrence of early death. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess independent risk factors of early death. Time trends in early death rates of PMCTs were described using scatter plot. Results Of the 564 patients with PMCTs, early death was identified in 214 individuals (37.9%). Patients with unspecified soft tissue sarcomas and blood vessel tumors had the highest risk of early death. Age > 80 years and non-consent for surgery were strong predictors of early death in all PMCT subtypes. In sarcomas, disadvantaged income was associated with an increase in early mortality, while black race was associated with a reduction in early mortality. In mesotheliomas and others, male sex was a risk factor for early mortality, while Hispanic ethnicity was associated with a reduction in early mortality. Percentages of early death slightly decreased over the past 40 years. Conclusions Predictors of early death are primarily related to age older than 80 years, no surgery and specific histopathology types but also include disadvantaged socioeconomic status and male sex. Initiatives to identify those at risk and develop preventive interventions should be prioritized.

Objective: To optimize the antiplatelet therapy by observing the clinical outcomes in patients after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) treated with 60 mg ticagrelor twice daily plus 100 mg aspirin once daily for 1 year.Methods: The observation group was composed of patients receiving 60 mg ticagrelor twice daily plus 100 mg aspirin once daily for antiplatelet therapy after CABG, whereas the control group comprised patients taking 90 mg ticagrelor twice daily plus 100 mg aspirin once daily after CABG. Results: In the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis of saphenous vein grafts (SVGs) patency, the difference was not statistically significant [RR=0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.29–2.71; P=0.84] between the two groups. The per-protocol (PP) analysis results of the 1-year SVGs patency rates were consistent with ITT analysis. There were no notable differences in the rates of bleeding, mild dyspnea or dyspnea leading to discontinuation of the study drug between the two groups (P=0.211).Conclusions: In patients undergoing CABG, treatment with 60 mg ticagrelor twice daily plus 100 mg aspirin once daily can achieve satisfactory clinical outcomes. Besides, the rates of dyspnea in 60 mg ticagrelor treatment are significantly lower than that in 90 mg ticagrelor treatment. As a result, the 60 mg dose leads to a markedly lower discontinuation rate of the study drug and a better safety profile, which tends to provide a more attractive benefit-risk profile.

Inspired by the concept of system-in-a-package (SiP) in electronics, here we report a hybrid microwave photonic receiver prototype by integrating lithium niobate (LiNbO3) dual-parallel phase modulators with silicon nitride (Si3N4) integrated tunable microring filters. In particular, we experimentally characterize these employed key elements and evaluate the down-conversion performance of RF signals from 4-20 GHz to the intermediate frequency. With the advantages of the tunable microwave photonic signal filtering, uniform system performance within a broad operation bandwidth, and low SWaP, the demonstrated hybrid microwave photonic receiver module shows a potential setup to satisfy the requirements of wireless communication systems, phased-array radar systems, and electronic warfare.

Obesity-induced colonic inflammation-stimulated colitis is one of the main causes of colorectal cancer. Dietary phytochemicals are considered to be an effective strategy for relieving obesity-induced inflammatory diseases such as diabetes and colitis. Ginsenoside Rk3 (Rk3) is the main bioactive component of ginseng. Our previous study has demonstrated that Rk3 can effectively alleviate obesity-induced type 2 diabetes, but whether it plays a beneficial role in obesity-induced colitis remains poorly understood. Here, we found that Rk3 intervention repaired the intestinal barrier dysfunction by increasing the expression of the tight junction proteins (zonula occludens-1, claudin, and occludin), and reduced colonic inflammatory cytokine levels, oxidative stress, and macrophage infiltration in high-fat diet-induced mice. Importantly, Rk3 effectively ameliorated the metabolic dysbiosis of intestinal flora with significantly decreased Firmicute/Bacteroidete ratios and suppressed the inflammatory cascade by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway. Taken together, our findings indicate that Rk3 can be used as a potential natural anti-inflammatory agent to reduce chronic obesity-induced colitis.

Panoptic segmentation is an important method for UAV platforms to implement road condition monitoring and urban planning. In recent years, the panoptic segmentation technology provides more comprehensive information than the current semantic segmentation technology. In this paper, the framework of the panoptic segmentation algorithm is designed for the UAV application scenario. Due to the large target scene and small target of UAV, resulting in the lack of foreground targets in the segmentation results and the poor quality of the segmentation mask. To solve these problems, this paper introduces deformable convolution in the feature extraction network to improve the ability of network feature extraction. In addition, the MaskIoU module is introduced in the instance segmentation branch to improve the overall quality of the foreground target mask. In this paper, a series of data are collected by UAV and organized into UAV_OUC panoptic segmentation dataset. We tested on the UAV_OUC panoptic segmentation dataset. The experimental results on UAV_OUC panoptic benchmark validate the effectiveness of our proposed method.

In this paper, a new architecture of optoelectronic convolutional neural networks (CNNs) based on time-stretch method is proposed. In this loop-shaped structure mainly composed of fiber optical and electronic devices, computations of data from each layer of CNN which are carried by light pulses with high repetition rate can be accomplished in a serial way. Therefore, a 5-layer CNN with two convolution layers, two mean pooling layers and one fully-connected layer are implemented. Under the test of handwriting digit recognition, its accuracy can reach up to 95% under ideal circumstances. Tests under different relative noise levels have been conducted and analyzed as well.

We implemented a high-resolution (0.1nm) on-chip spectrometer in C-band based on CMOS compatible silicon nitride microring array and convex optimized spectral reconstruction algorithm. The wide operation bandwidth and high precision make it promising in next generation optical communication network.