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We propose a 2.1 μm high-energy dissipative soliton resonant (DSR) fiber laser system based on a mode-locked seed laser and dual-stage amplifiers. In the seed laser, the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror technique is employed to realize mode-locking. The utilization of an in-band pump scheme and long gain fiber enables effectively exciting 2.1 μm pulses. A section of ultra-high numerical aperture fiber (UHNAF) with normal dispersion and high nonlinearity and an output coupler with a large coupling ratio are used to achieve a high-energy DSR system. By optimizing the UHNAF length to 55 m, a 2103.7 nm, 88.1 nJ DSR laser with a 3-dB spectral bandwidth of 0.48 nm and a pulse width of 17.1 ns is obtained under a proper intracavity polarization state and pump power. The output power and conversion efficiency are 0.233 W and 4.57%, respectively, both an order of magnitude higher than those of previously reported holmium-doped DSR seed lasers. Thanks to the high output power and nanosecond pulse width of the seed laser, the average power of the DSR laser is linearly scaled up to 50.4 W via a dual-stage master oscillator power amplifier system. The 3-dB spectral bandwidth broadens slightly to 0.52 nm, and no distortion occurs in the amplified pulse waveform. The corresponding pulse energy reaches 19.1 μJ, which is the highest pulse energy in a holmium-doped mode-locked fiber laser system to the best of our knowledge. Such a 2.1 μm, high-energy DSR laser with relatively wide pulse width has prospective applications in mid-infrared nonlinear frequency conversion.

In this article, the normally- OFF etching-free p-GaN stripe array gate AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility-transistors (PSAG-HEMTs) are designed and experimentally demonstrated through hydrogen plasma treatment. The unique threshold voltage ( ${V}_{TH}$ ) modulation technique based on the PSAG structure is proposed and simulated. Using this method, the ${V}_{TH}$ can be continuously shifted from −0.14 to +1.03 V by just tuning the widths of p-GaN ( ${W}_{p}$ ) and hydrogenated p-GaN (HR-GaN) stripes. To improve breakdown voltage (BV), the PSAG is extended to the drain side based on the 3-D simulation results so that a new electric-field peak is introduced at the edge of the PSAG in the drain side and then the surface electric field is optimized. Besides this, an enhanced conductivity effect is observed and results in a low ON-resistance. The fabricated PSAG-HEMT with $0.75~\mu \text{m}~{W}_{p}$ and 4- $\mu \text{m}$ extension length ( ${L}_{E}$ ) exhibits a positive ${V}_{TH}$ of +0.8 V, a low specific ON-resistance ( ${R}_{\text {ON,sp}}$ ) of 2.73 $\text{m}\Omega \cdot cm^{2}$ , a high BV of 852 V (1449 V) at ${I}_{D} = 1 ~\mu \text{A}$ /mm, and BFOM of 266 MW/cm2 (769 MW/cm2) with substrate grounded (floating), which demonstrate significant improvements over Reference single-gate E-mode and D-mode devices. This work provides a promising architecture for future high voltage normally- OFF p-GaN HEMT devices.

Progress have been made in brain function recovery after long-term abstinence in person with heroin addiction (PHA). However, less is known about whether the nucleus accumbens (NAc) white matter pathways can recover in PHA by prolonged abstinence.Forty-two PHA and Thirty-nine age- and gender- matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Two MRI scans were obtained at baseline (PHA1) and 8-month follow-up (PHA2). We employed tractography atlas-based analysis (TABS) method to investigate fractional anisotropy (FA) changes in NAc fiber tracts (i.e., Insula-NAc, ventral tegmental area (VTA)-NAc, medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)-NAc) in PHA. A partial least square regression (PLSR) analysis was carried to explore whether FA of NAc fiber tracts can predict longitudinal craving changes.Relative to HCs, lower FA was found in the right Insula-NAc and VTA-NAc fiber tracts in PHA1, and PHA2 showed increased FA values in these tracts compared with PHA1. Furthermore, changes of FA of NAc fiber tracts can predict longitudinal craving changes (r = 0.51). Additionally, craving changes can also be predicted from FA changes in the left Insula-NAc (r = 0.601) and VTA-NAc (r = 0.384) fiber alone.Results indicated that the right Insula-NAc and VTA-NAc fiber tracts are potential biomarkers for brain recovery. Prediction of craving changes highlighted the utility of structural markers to inform clinical decision-making of treatment for PHA.

We demonstrate spectrally flat high-power mid-infrared supercontinuum (MIR SC) generation with record-breaking power of 33.1 W and power conversion efficiency of 75.06%. It is pumped by a 2 µm master oscillator power amplifier system consisting of a figure-8 mode-locked noise-like pulse seed laser and dual-stage Tm-doped fiber amplifiers with repetition rate of 4.08 MHz. Through cascading a piece of ZBLAN fiber with 13.5 µm large core diameter by direct-low-loss fusion splicing, SCs with spectral ranges of 1.9–3.68 µm, 1.9–3.84 µm, 1.9–4.02 µm and average powers of 33.1 W, 29.8 W, 25.9 W are generated. To the best of our knowledge, all of them have achieved the highest output power under the same condition of MIR spectrum range. This high-power all-fiber MIR SC laser system has relatively simple architecture, high efficiency and flat spectrum, demonstrating the advantages of 2 µm noise-like pulse pump in high-power MIR SC generation.

Background Current findings on the impact of weather conditions on osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are sparse and not conclusive. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between temperature change and OA/RA admission. Methods Daily OA/RA admission, meteorological data and pollutants from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017 in Hefei, China, were collected. We quantified the relationship between ambient temperature and OA/RA admission using a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM). Stratified analyses by gender and age were also examined. Results Temperature decrease was significantly associated with RA admission (25th percentile of temperature versus 50th percentile of temperature), with the acute and largest effect at current days lag (RR: 1.057, 95%CI: 1.005–1.111). However, no significant association between temperature and OA admission was observed. When conducting subgroup analyses by individual characteristics, we found that females and patients aged 41–65 years were more vulnerable to temperature decrease than males, patients aged 0–40 and ≧66 years, respectively. Conclusions This study suggested that temperature decrease was a risk factor for increases in RA admission. Females and patients aged 41–65 years were particularly vulnerable to the effect of temperature decrease.

We report the demonstration of a mid-infrared (MIR) supercontinuum (SC) laser delivering a record-breaking average output power of more than 40 W with a long-wavelength edge up to 3.5 μm. The all-fiberized configuration was composed of a thulium-doped fiber amplifier system emitting a broadband spectrum covering 1.9–2.6 μm with pulse repetition rate of 3 MHz, and a short piece of germania fiber. A 41.9 W MIR SC with a whole spectrum of 1.9–3.5 μm was generated in a piece of 0.2-m-long germania fiber, with a power conversion efficiency of 71.4%. For an even shorter germania fiber (0.1 m), an SC with even higher output power of 44.9 W (corresponding to a conversion efficiency of 76.5%) was obtained, but the energy conversion toward the long-wavelength region was slightly limited. A continuous operation for 1 hour with output power of 32.6 W showed outstanding power stability (root mean square 0.17%) of the obtained SC laser. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time, this work demonstrates the feasibility of germania fiber on generating a 40-W level MIR SC with high efficiency and excellent power stability, paving the way to real applications requiring high power and high reliability of MIR SC lasers.

Pulse evolution and multi-pulse state of coherently coupled polarization domain walls (PDW) is experimentally demonstrated in a novel fiber ring laser. Versatile pulse shapes benefit by wide range moving of PDW in the weakly birefringent fiber. The 8.6 m short-cavity structure is more compact and accessible based on a 976 nm pump with nearly zero negative dispersion (-0.0002 ps2). Besides, multi-pulse patterns such as PDW splitting, harmonic mode-locking, and periodic soliton collision are also observed under larger net negative dispersion (-3.09 ps2) and 151m-longer cavity. This is the first demonstration of coherently coupled PDW in a fiber laser using a bandpass filter and the formation of coherently coupled PDW is ascribed to the BPF’s force filtering.

Background The relationship between environmental factors and allergic rhinitis (AR) has become a focal point recently. However, few studies have investigated the adverse effects of both high relative humidity (RH) and low relative humidity. Moreover, the laged effect and disease burden of RH on AR were also neglected. Objectives To explore the association of both high and low RH on daily AR hospital outpatients, and to quantify the corresponding disease burden attributable to RH. Methods In our study, we define 95th as high RH and 5th as low RH. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) combined with a Poisson generalized linear regression model were applied to analyze the relationship between RH and hospital outpatients for AR. All patients were retrieved from Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital (n = 37,221) from January 2015 to December 2016. Daily meteorological and air pollutant data were collected by Hefei Meteorological Bureau and Environmental Protection Agency. Subgroup analyses were conducted by gender and occupational groups. Results Acute adverse effects of high and low RH on AR were explored respectively, with an increase of daily AR outpatients when encountered high and low RH. The low RH presented a risk effect at current day and lasted up to the eighth day. However, high RH began to appear a risk effect on the fourth day. Notably, the fraction of hospital outpatients attributable to low RH was 5.22% (95% CI: 1.92%, 8.33%) and high RH was 4.07% (95% CI: 1.13%, 7.30%) in the backward perspective. Additionally, male and students apparent to be more sensitive to the effects of low RH. Conclusion This study suggests that both high and low RH are potential trigger for AR hospital outpatients in Hefei, China. Our studies might offer valuable messages to health practitioners and useful direction to decisions-makers respectively.

We report on improvements of mode-locked soliton pulse energy and peak power in a thulium-doped fiber laser. At the pump power of 370 mW, conventional soliton can be first generated using nonlinear polarization rotation technology. By increasing the pump power to 550 mW and appropriately adjusting cavity polarization state, the conventional soliton pulse can be converted into the Gaussian pulse. Due to dispersion management, excess accumulation of nonlinear phase shifts in the cavity can be avoided. In this case, the pulse energy and peak power can be increased from 77 pJ to 1.38 nJ and from 106.9 W to 2.67 kW, respectively. These improvements indicate that the Gaussian pulse operation can effectively enhance the pulse energy and peak power of the thulium-doped fiber laser.

We propose and demonstrate a high repetition-rate passively mode-locking Tm-doped fiber laser. Mode-locking operation is achieved by using a conventional nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) structure. Fundamental frequency soliton laser is obtained with the repetition-rate of 5.05 MHz and the pulse width of 54.7 ps. 3-dB bandwidth and signal and noise ratio (SNR) are 3.1 nm and 53.03 dB, respectively. In order to improve repetition-rate of the mode-locking pulse, a narrow band filter is adopted. In this case, maximum repetition-rate of the output pulse can be up to 7.75 GHz (1534 orders). Pulse width and 3-dB bandwidth of mode-locking laser are compressed to 67.2 ps and 0.2 nm, respectively, and SNR is 19.71 dB. In addition, the laser center wavelength can be tuned from 1882 nm to 1925 nm by adjusting the filter.

We report on the experimental observations of stable single soliton and soliton molecules in an anomalous-dispersion thulium-doped passively mode-locked fiber laser by using the nonlinear polarization rotation technology. The stable single soliton operation can convert to the soliton pair operation by cautiously adjusting the PCs, at the pump power of 350 mW. It is experimentally demonstrated that the formation of stationary soliton pairs is related to the interaction between solitons and dispersive waves. By appropriately adjusting the cavity parameters, more complex soliton molecules composed of three, four, and five bound solitons can be observed. Meanwhile, we experimentally analyze complex nonlinear dynamics of soliton molecules around 2- ${\mu }\text{m}$ .

Purpose We conducted the meta-analysis to respectively evaluate the risk of prenatal antibiotics use during specific trimesters (first, second, and third trimester) on childhood asthma or wheeze and to explore whether the association was biased by potential confounding. Methods The quality of included articles was assessed according to Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale and the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology. A random effects model was used to calculate pooled risk ratios and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI), and publication bias was tested by Egger statistical test. Results Eight studies were included finally. We found a crude positive association of prenatal antibiotics use during each pregnancy trimester and risk of childhood asthma or wheeze with RRs of 1.28 (95% CI, 1.09–1.51) for the first trimester of pregnancy, 1.25 (95% CI, 1.02–1.52) for the second trimester, and 1.25 (95% CI, 1.05–1.49) for the third trimester. However, when considering potential factors of maternal infections and presence of siblings, the relationship for each trimester was insignificant. Conclusions This systemic review and meta-analysis proposed a crude positive association between prenatal antibiotic use in every specific trimester and risk of childhood asthma or wheeze. However, adjustment for confounders decreased the relative risk estimates, supporting the concept that these associations are, at least in part, because of confounding by indication.

We propose and demonstrate a multi-wavelength actively mode-locked fiber laser around $2.07~\mu \text{m}$ . A holmium-doped fiber is used as the gain medium which is pumped by a 1.93- $\mu \text{m}$ fiber laser. The multi-wavelength laser is achieved by employing a fiber Lyot filter in cavity, and actively mode-locking is achieved by driving a sinusoidal radio frequency signal on the electro-optic modulator. Stable actively mode-locked pulses can be obtained with up to 10.078-GHz repetition rate. The shortest measured pulse width is 16 ps. The wavelength channels can be accurately tuned under a fixed pump power by adjusting the polarization controllers and the BIAS voltage. Up to 27 channels can be obtained under a stable mode-locked operation. However, the increase of output channels leads to a significant increase in the threshold, and the maximum output channels have a strong dependence on the repetition rate.

We demonstrate a high power Yb-doped burst-mode all-fiber laser system operating at GHz intra-burst repetition rate. To our knowledge, it is the first report utilizing dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) to generate tunable burst-mode rectangular pulses. Due to the tunable duration and the rapid rise/fall time for DSR pulses, a 1-10 ns adjustable burst pulse duration is achieved. The intra-burst with sinusoidal waveform can be tuned from 0.8 GHz to 1.5 GHz and actively modulated by an electro-optic modulator (EOM). Amplified by a three-stage Yb-doped fiber amplifier (YDFA), the output power achieves 304 W at 10 ns of burst duration, and the maximum peak power reaches over 50 kW at 2 ns of burst duration. This laser system is anticipated to be applied to generate high power arbitrary microwave signal.

A 2.1 μm, high energy square-wave noise-like pulse (NLP) in an all-fiber Ho-doped fiber laser is proposed, which consists of an oscillator and a single-stage amplifier. In the figure-of-9 oscillator, mode-locking is achieved based on the nonlinear amplifying loop mirror, employing a long gain fiber to provide sufficient gain in 2.1 μm band and optimizing the cavity length to obtain maximum pulse energy output. With appropriate pump power and polarization state, the oscillator emits a 175.1 nJ square-wave NLP with center wavelength of 2102.2 nm and spike width of 540 fs. The 3-dB spectral width and pulse envelope width are 11.2 nm and 6.95 ns, respectively. The single-stage amplifier employs a bi-directional pump scheme. After amplification, 5.8 W NLP with a slope efficiency of 56.8% is obtained. The pulse energy of NLP is scaled to 1.52 μJ, which is the highest pulse energy of NLP at 2.1 μm to the best of our knowledge. The obtained high-energy square-wave NLP-fiber laser has great potential in mid-infrared laser generation.

A low temperature fine pitch wafer scale bonding process through Au-In solid liquid inter diffusion bonding is discussed in this paper. 20 μm fine pitch gold and indium miro-bumps with 10 μm diameter are fabricated on two oxidized silicon wafers. Then the wafer bonding process is accomplished at 180 °C with less than 2 μm alignment accuracy. Daisy chains of nearly 2500 interconnects with a fixed contact size of 10×10 μm2 connected successfully. Besides, there is no significant change of the daisy chain resistance after temperature cycling test. An average die shear strength of more than 20 MPa is also achieved. This work shows great potential of Au-In solid liquid inter diffusion bonding for future high density wafer level packaging and heterogeneous integration.

Background Many studies have shown an association of childhood respiratory diseases with short-term temperature variability such as diurnal temperature range (DTR) and temperature change between two neighboring days (TCN). However, the impact of temperature variability on allergic rhinitis (AR) has not been investigated so far. This study sought to evaluate the short-term effect of temperature variability (i.e., TCN and DTR) on AR, as well as to identify vulnerable subpopulations. Method We collected daily data on emergency room visits and outpatients for AR and weather variables in Hefei, China during 2014–2016. A distributed lag non-linear model that controlled for long-term trend and seasonality, mean temperature, relative humidity, day of week was used to fit the associations of AR with DTR and TCN. Stratified analyses by age, sex and occupation were also performed. Results During the study period, there were a total of 53,538 cases and the average values of DTR and TCN were 8.4 °C (range: 1.0 °C to 21.2 °C) and 0 °C (range: − 12.2 °C to 5.9 °C), respectively. While we did not observe an adverse effect of DTR on AR, TCN was significantly associated with increased risk of AR. Specifically, a large temperature drop between two adjacent days (3.8 °C, 5th percentile of TCN) has a delayed and short-lasting effect on AR, with the estimated relative risk of 1.02 (95% confidence interval: 1.01 to 1.04) at lag 12. Moreover, boys and children older than 15 years seemed to be more vulnerable to the effect of TCN. Conclusions This study provided evidence of an adverse effect of large temperature drops between two adjacent days on childhood AR. Attention paid to boys and older children may help prevent AR attacks.

We report on the switchable generation of a dissipative soliton (DS) pulse and a noise-like pulse (NLP) in an all-fiberized Tm-doped fiber laser in the normal-dispersion region. Mode-locking operation is achieved through a nonlinear polarization rotation component, and the cavity dispersion is compensated using ultra-high numerical aperture (UHNA4) fiber that is easy to integrate and low in cost. At a pump threshold of 510 mW, DS operation can first be achieved without additional filter. The 3 dB spectrum bandwidth of the DS pulse is greater than 50 nm, and the duration of the de-chirped pulse is 193 fs. By increasing the pump power to 880 mW, the mode-locking state can evolve into NLP operation with proper cavity polarization state. The 3 dB spectrum bandwidth and duration of de-chirped coherence spike are 105.6 nm and 121 fs, respectively. Meanwhile, ultra-broadband NLP (over 150 nm considering 3 dB spectrum width) can also be observed with the appropriate cavity parameters. All the proposed pulse patterns present good capacity for achieving narrow pulse width and withstanding high pulse energy.

An ongoing outbreak of pneumonia associated with the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) started in Wuhan, China, with cases now confirmed in multiple countries. The clinical course of patients remains to be fully characterized, clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute renal failure, and no pharmacological therapies of proven efficacy yet exist. We report a case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a renal transplant recipient with excellent outcome. This case states the importance of close monitoring of the concentration of cyclosporine in patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir; the routine treatment of corticosteroid can be continued. This is a rare report of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a renal transplant recipient. Further data are needed to achieve better understanding of the impact of immunosuppressive therapy on the clinical presentation, severity, and outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infections in solid organ transplant recipients.

Background The relationship between ambient temperature, humidity and hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has been highlighted in East and Southeast Asia, which showed multiple different results. Therefore, our goal is to conduct a meta-analysis to further clarify this relationship and to quantify the size of these effects as well as the susceptible populations. Methods PubMed, Web of science, and Cochrane library were searched up to November 22, 2017 for articles analyzing the relationships between ambient temperature, humidity and incidence of HFMD. We assessed sources of heterogeneity by study design (temperature measure and exposed time resolution), population vulnerability (national income level and regional climate) and evaluated pooled effect estimates for the subgroups identified in the heterogeneity analysis. Results We identified 11 studies with 19 estimates of the relationship between ambient temperature, humidity and incidence of HFMD. It was found that per 1 °C increase in the temperature and per 1% increase in the relative humidity were both significantly associated with increased incidence of HFMD (temperature: IRR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02–1.08; relative humidity: IRR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00–1.02). Subgroup analysis showed that people living in subtropical and middle income areas had a higher risk of incidence of HFMD. Conclusions Ambient temperature and humidity may increase the incidence of HFMD in Asia-Pacific regions. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationship between ambient temperature, humidity and incidence of HFMD in various settings with distinct climate, socioeconomic, and demographic features.

We report on the experimental observation of wavelength-switchable stretched pulse and bound-state pulse in a dispersion-managed Tm-doped laser. At a pump power of 572 mW, a stretched pulse with a pulse duration of 389 fs can be first obtained at 1961 nm. By increasing the pump power and appropriately adjusting the cavity polarization state, the mode-locking wavelength can be switched from 1961 nm to 1980 nm caused by the birefringence filtering effect based on nonlinear polarization rotation, and the corresponding pulse duration is 371 fs. Meanwhile, loosely bound states of two pulses and three pules at 1980 nm can be observed with appropriate cavity parameters.

BackgroundAcute bronchitis (AB) is one of the principal causes of childhood morbidity. Increasing number of studies has shown that air pollution is an important environmental contributor of respiratory disease. However, evidence so far is scarce regarding the effects of air pollution on childhood AB, and it also remains unclear how the risk of AB will change by season and age.MethodsData on hospital visits for AB in children, air pollution and meteorological factors from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016 were collected in Hefei, China. Time-series analysis was applied to assess the short-term effects of traffic-related air pollution on childhood AB outpatient visits. A Poisson generalised linear regression model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was used to estimate the relationships, controlling for long-term trends, seasonal patterns, meteorological factors and other possible confounders.ResultsWe found that an IQR increase in concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter ConclusionA significant association of traffic-related air pollution and increased department visits for childhood AB was observed, notably in school-age children and during the cold season.

A 2-D thermal-electric coupling model has been developed, which enables us to evaluate the current distribution of monolithically integrated light-emitting diode (MI-LED). Based on the experimental IR images, the current distributions have been evaluated for the MI-LEDs on two types’ heat sinks. For the MI-LED on poor thermal conductive chip-on-board heat sink, although there is a large junction temperature variation of 40 °C all over the chip, the current only varies from −16% to 11% due to the high parasitic series resistance and the topological design of MI-LED. The experiments show that the impact of the heat-crowding-induced uneven current distribution on the wall-plug efficiency is negligible at a power density of 1 W/mm2. The average junction temperature is still the dominant issue. With a high thermal conductive copper heat sink, the average junction temperature could be suppressed below 50 °C, and there is no obvious heat crowding and uneven current distribution observed.

Objectives To determine the relationship between diurnal temperature range (DTR) and outpatient visits for childhood acute bronchitis (AB) in Hefei, China, to analyze whether DTR effect was delayed, and to explore the susceptible populations. Study design An ecological study. Methods A Poisson generalized linear regression model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was used to analyze the relationship between DTR and childhood AB from Hefei, China during 2010–2013, after adjusting for long-term trend and seasonality, mean temperature and relative humidity. Results An adverse effect of DTR on childhood AB was observed, and the impact of DTR was greatest at three days lag, with a 1.0% (95% confidence interval = 0.5–1.6%) increase of AB cases per 1 °C increment of DTR. Female children and children aged 0–4 years appeared to be more vulnerable to DTR effect than other children. Conclusions Our study suggests that large DTR may increase the incidence of childhood AB in Hefei, particularly for those who are female and young. Caregivers and health practitioners should be made aware of the potential threat posed by large DTR.

Background: Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is one of the major infectious diseases among children and remains a health threat, especially among Asian countries. Many epidemiologic studies suggested significant association of air temperature and humidity with childhood HFMD; however, evidence on the temperature effects on childhood HFMD in temperate cities is limited, and the interactive effects of temperature and humidity have not been studied yet.Methods: Daily counts of HFMD in children younger than 15 years of age and daily meteorologic variables during 2010 to 2012 were obtained in Hefei, China. A distributed lag nonlinear model was applied to estimate the potential nonlinear association between temperature and childhood HFMD. The interactive effects between temperature and humidity on childhood HFMD were also investigated.Results: Temperature rise was associated with higher risk of childhood HFMD. Within the incubation period of HFMD, temperature rise appeared to have the acute effects on childhood HFMD, and a 5 degrees C increase of temperature at lag 0-6 days was associated with 24.8% (95% confidence interval: 11.94%-39.10%) increase of childhood HFMD. Females and children of 0-4 years of agewere more vulnerable to temperature rise. Notably, there were obvious combined effects between temperature and humidity on childhood HFMD-the risk of childhood HFMD elevated at higher temperature and humidity level.Conclusions: This study provides evidence that temperature and humidity may jointly affect childhood HFMD, and such interactive impact needs to be considered when evaluating the temperature-childhood HFMD relationship.

In this paper, we report a thulium-doped fiber based on nonlinear polarization rotation technology. Increasing the pump power to 600mW and adjusting the polarization controllers, Gaussian pulse with high pulse energy can be achieved. The pulse duration of de-chirped pulse is 553 fs. Due to dispersion management, excessive nonlinear phase shift accumulation can be avoided. The maximum output power of the resonant cavity is 86.3mW, and the corresponding pulse energy is 2.96nJ.

Copyright held by the owner/author(s). GameLight is a smart bicycle light that overlays a virtual game projected on the ground, within the user’s natural field of view while cycling. The system aims to enhance the cycling exertion experience by augmenting it with various game elements presented in two game modes: (1) an “Arcade" mode that implements a virtual coin collecting mechanic, and (2) a “Challenge" mode that provides timed effort challenges. The system consists of a pico-projector and mobile phone wirelessly connected to cadence, speed and heart rate sensors that serve as input to the virtually projected game to achieve a fun and playful effect while cycling in a controlled environment. This demo will be appealing to attendees interested in designing playful technology to support exertion.

We report the experimental results of various soliton molecules in a passively mode-locked thulium-doped fiber laser based on nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) technology. Not only stable single solitons but also soliton molecules can be observed in the same cavity. With the increase of the pump power, soliton triplets composed of three solitons can also be observed. It is found that the ratio of the pulse separation to the pulse width is less than 5, which indicates that the direct soliton interaction leads to the formation of bound states. On the other hand, the effect of the dispersive wave is to suppress the random relative phase change between the solitons and leads to phase-locking. Meanwhile, we analyzed the complex nonlinear interactions that form soliton molecules and enriched the nonlinear dynamics of soliton molecules at 2-μm.

The stretched pulse has narrower pulse duration and high pulse energy than conventional soliton, so that the stretched pulse can improve the potential application values of 2 μm mode-locked fiber laser in remote sensing, mid-infrared source, material processing and other applications. In this paper, the dispersion management method is adopted to accurately manage the dispersion in the cavity using a commercial ultra-high numerical aperture fiber and a common single-mode fiber. Based on the nonlinear polarization rotation technology to achieve mode-locking, when the pump power is set to 645 mW, the polarization controller is adjusted to achieve stretched pulse output with a de-chirped pulse duration of 581 fs. The center wavelength is 1939.26 nm and the 3-dB bandwidth is 21.8 nm. The repetition rate is 28.9 MHz and the signal to noise ratio is 54.21 dB. At the maximum pump power, the direct output power of the resonant cavity is 9.98 mW, and the corresponding single pulse energy is 0.34 nJ.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is one of the most common communicable diseases in China, and current climate change had been recognized as a significant contributor. Nevertheless, no reliable models have been put forward to predict the dynamics of HFMD cases based on short-term weather variations. The present study aimed to examine the association between weather factors and HFMD, and to explore the accuracy of seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model with local weather conditions in forecasting HFMD. Weather and HFMD data from 2009 to 2014 in Huainan, China, were used. Poisson regression model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was applied to examine the relationship between weather factors and HFMD. The forecasting model for HFMD was performed by using the SARIMA model. The results showed that temperature rise was significantly associated with an elevated risk of HFMD. Yet, no correlations between relative humidity, barometric pressure and rainfall, and HFMD were observed. SARIMA models with temperature variable fitted HFMD data better than the model without it (sR2 increased, while the BIC decreased), and the SARIMA (0, 1, 1)(0, 1, 0)52 offered the best fit for HFMD data. In addition, compared with females and nursery children, males and scattered children may be more suitable for using SARIMA model to predict the number of HFMD cases and it has high precision. In conclusion, high temperature could increase the risk of contracting HFMD. SARIMA model with temperature variable can effectively improve its forecast accuracy, which can provide valuable information for the policy makers and public health to construct a best-fitting model and optimize HFMD prevention.

Diurnal temperature range (DTR) and temperature change between neighboring days (TCN) are important meteorological indicators closely associated with global climate change. However, up to date, there have been no studies addressing the impacts of both DTR and TCN on emergency hospital admissions for schizophrenia. We conducted a time-series analysis to assess the relationship between temperature variability and daily schizophrenia onset in Hefei, an inland city in southeast China. Daily meteorological data and emergency hospital admissions for schizophrenia from 2005 to 2014 in Hefei were collected. After stratifying by season of birth, Poisson generalized linear regression combined with distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) was used to examine the relationship between temperature variability and schizophrenia, adjusting for long-term trend and seasonality, mean temperature, and relative humidity. Our analysis revealed that extreme temperature variability may increase the risk for schizophrenia onset among patients born in spring, while no such association was found in patients born in summer and autumn. In patients born in spring, the relative risks of extremely high DTR comparing the 95th and 99th percentiles with the reference (50th, 10 °C) at 3-day lag were 1.078 (95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.025-1.135) and 1.159 (95 % CI 1.050-1.279), respectively. For TCN effects, only comparing 99th percentile with reference (50th, 0.7 °C) was significantly associated with emergency hospital admissions for schizophrenia (relative risk (RR) 1.111, 95 % CI 1.002-1.231). This study suggested that exposure to extreme temperature variability in short-term may trigger later days of schizophrenia onset for patients born in spring, which may have important implications for developing intervention strategies to prevent large temperature variability exposure.

Ambulance dispatch is a proxy of acute health outcomes, and growing epidemiological evidence documented its relation to extreme temperature events. Research, however, on short-term temperature change and ambulance dispatches is scarce. We aimed to investigate the effect of short-term temperature change on ambulance dispatches and potential modification by season. Daily data on ambulance dispatch and weather factors were collected in Huainan, a Chinese inland city from December 2011 through December 2013. A Poison generalized linear regression model combined with distributed lag nonlinear model was constructed to examine the association of temperature change between neighboring days (TCN) with ambulance dispatches. The effect modification by season was also examined. There were 48,700 ambulance attendances during the study period. A statistically significant association of TCN with ambulance dispatches was observed. Temperature rise between neighboring days (TCN 0) was associated with elevated adverse risk of ambulance dispatches, and the effects appeared to be acute (lag0, on the current day) and could last for at least a week, while temperature drop between neighboring days (TCN 0) had a protective effect. For a 1 °C increase of TCN at lag0 and lag06 (on the 7-day moving average), the risk of ambulance dispatches increased by 2 % (95 % CI 1-3 %) and 7 (95 % CI 1-13 %), respectively. Extreme TCN increase (95th percentile, 3.3 °C vs. 0 °C) at lag0 and lag05 was accompanied by 6 (95 % CI 3-8 %) and 27 % (95 % CI 12-44 %) increase in ambulance dispatches. Ambulance dispatches were more vulnerable to extremely great temperature rise in summer and autumn. TCN was adopted for the first time to quantify the impact of short-term temperature change on ambulance dispatches. Temperature drop between neighboring days (TCN 0) had a protective effect on ambulance dispatches, while temperature rise between neighboring days (TCN 0) could acutely trigger the increase in ambulance dispatches, and TCN effect differs by season.