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In this paper, we propose a state estimation method called the Extended Parallelotope Set-Membership Filter that provides a higher estimation accuracy than existing methods for discrete-time nonlinear systems. The Extended Parallelotope Set-Membership Filter is motivated by the fact that the iteration operations in existing methods generate much redundancy, and will deteriorate the accuracy of the state estimation. To account for this issue, an innovative parallelotope envelope method is proposed for the purpose of reducing the redundancy arising from the process of the noise envelope. In addition, a cofactor separation method is designed for nonlinear systems to obtain a tight envelope of the parallelotope set. Furthermore, we develop a novel parallelotope intersection method suitable for the parallelotope envelope to update the state set. The simulation results verified the effectiveness of the proposed method as well as its superiority over conventional methods in terms of both the maximum and average accuracies of the state estimation.

Specific delivery of NCEH1 plasmid is a promising approach to boost the cholesterol removal from lipid-laden macrophages for antiatherosclerosis. Polyethylenimine (PEI) is one of the most efficient gene carriers among nonviral vectors. However, the high transfection activity of PEI is always accompanied by profound cytotoxicity. To tackle the paradox between transfection efficiency and safety, we constructed a novel ATP-responsive multifunctional supramolecular polymer by cross-linking functionalized low-molecular-weight PEI via a boronic ester bond for NCEH1 plasmid delivery. The supramolecular polymer could condense NCEH1 plasmids to form stable nanosized polyplexes when the w/w ratios of the polymer and gene were higher than 2. ATP-triggered degradation of the polymer and pDNA release were characterized by a series of studies, including 1H NMR, 31P NMR, XPS, agarose gel electrophoresis, and ethidium bromide exclusion tests. In addition, the changes in particle size and morphology were observed in the presence of ATP. Interestingly, the supramolecular polymer showed broad spectrum antioxidant activities by measuring the elimination rates of different reactive oxygen species. In addition, the supramolecular polymer displayed a high buffering capability and good cytocompatibility as demonstrated by the results of the buffering capacity, a hemolysis assay, and a cytotoxicity test. Importantly, it was revealed that the supramolecular polymer/NCEH1 plasmid polyplex formulated at a w/w ratio of 20 was most effective in enhancing cholesterol removal from lipid-laden macrophages and reducing the accumulation of lipid droplets as evidenced by transfection study, cholesterol efflux assay, and oil red O staining studies. Collectively, the ATP-responsive multifunctional supramolecular polymer holds great potential for safe and efficient gene delivery for antiatherosclerosis.

Evaluating the capability of smart information service and exploring the smart information service elements in scenic areas can accelerate the smart tourism industry progress to a highly effective administrative and high quality of smart tourism service. This study aims to exploring the connections of a variety of smart information service elements in scenic areas, analyzing and evaluating the capability of smart information service, mapping a positive resolution to improve the capability of information service in scenic spots. Based on a synthetic method that combining Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Analytic Network Process (ANP), explicitly using the SEM to extracting the key factors and mapping each factors’ co-relations, and in further step, using the ANP to carry a fuzzy evaluation of weighing the information service capability and each element in the case of Jiangxi Province in China, the result shows that the method of “SEM-ANP” is better fit than single ”SEM” or ”ANP”, the evaluating system for smart information service in scenic areas is significantly innovative and scientific to supply effective suggestions for policy makers.

IntroductionThe nutritional status of patients with gastric cancer (GC) after total gastrectomy continues to deteriorate and lasts a long time after discharge, which is an independent risk factor for mortality. Recent guidelines have recommended appropriate nutritional support after discharge for cancer surgery patients with malnutrition or nutritional risk. The evidence on the efficacy of oral immunonutritional supplement (INS) and its effect on long-term disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with GC is limited. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that oral INS compared to diet alone may improve 3-year DFS of GC patients with pathological stage III after total gastrectomy (Nutrition Risk Screening 2002 score ≥3 at discharge).Methods and analysisThis is a pragmatic, open-label, multicentre, randomised controlled study. 696 eligible GC patients with pathological stage III after total gastrectomy will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to oral INS group or normal diet group for 6 months. The primary endpoint is 3-year DFS after discharge. The following secondary endpoints will be evaluated: 3-year overall survival; unplanned readmission rate at 3 and 6 months after discharge; quality of life, body mass index and haematological index at 3, 6 and 12 months after discharge; incidence of sarcopenia at 6 and 12 months after discharge; and the tolerance to chemotherapy. The adverse events of oral INS will also be evaluated during the intervention.Ethics and disseminationThis study was approved by the ethics committee of Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University (number 2021NZKY-069-01). The present study may validate the effectiveness of oral immunonutritional therapy in improving 3-year DFS for GC patients with pathological stage III after total gastrectomy for the first time. The results of this trial will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific conferences.Trial registration numberNCT05253716.

A stable transition from free-motion to contact phase is extremely significant for a UAV interacting with its objects and environment. Oscillations may occur at the contact point if the force controller of the UAV fails to accommodate to the environment parameters, which are usually unknown to the UAV. In this paper, the acceleration feedback control is proposed to enhance the robustness of a classic force controller. This intends to achieve a smooth and stable contact transition of the UAV while interacting with different stiffness environments with non-zero approaching velocity. Extensive flight tests are conducted on a quadrotor UAV to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm with respect to different-stiffness environments. The experimental results are also compared with those without the acceleration feedback enhancement, to demonstrate the improvement of the proposed scheme.

The tourism economy has become a new driving force for economic growth, and film-induced tourism in particular has been widely proven to promote economic and cultural development. Few studies focus on analyzing the inherent characteristics of the economic and cultural effects of film-induced tourism, and the research on the dynamic mechanism of the sustainable development of film-induced tourism is relatively limited. Therefore, from the perspective of the integration of culture and industry, the research explores the dynamic mechanism of sustainable development between film-induced culture and film-induced industry through a questionnaire survey of 1,054 tourism management personnel, combined with quantitative empirical methods. The conclusion shows that the degree of integration of culture and tourism is an important mediating role that affects the dynamic mechanism of sustainable development of film-induced tourism, and the development of film-induced tourism depends on the integration of culture and industry. Constructing a diversified industrial integration model according to local conditions and determining the development path of resource, technology, market, product integration, and administrative management can become the general trend of the future development of film-induced tourism.

With the advent of the information age and advancement of digital technology, film and television tourism is developing rapidly under the joint action of the film industry and tourism industry, and has become a crucial form of cultural and entertainment consumption for individuals to pursue a better life in the new age. This study designs three experiments from the perspectives of identity conversion, motivation transfer, and demand change to conduct an empirical study on the mediating role of empathy for further exploring the internal mechanism of film-induced tourism in film and television tourism. The findings suggest that the three mediation hypotheses are all valid, indicating that film-induced tourism involves identity conversion from audiences to visitors, motivation transfer from watching to traveling, and demand change from interest to expectation through emotional media.

We report on a novel starting design structure of highly-dispersive mirror (HDM) which combines quarter-wavelength structure and multi-cavities, introducing more wavelength-dependent storage times of incident radiation and group delay (GD). Based on such structure, a HDM with new advanced group delay dispersion (GDD) of −20 000 fs2 in the wavelength range of 1035–1045 nm is designed, fabricated and characterized. Our proposed initial multilayer structure is instructive in designing HDM aiming at introducing large GDD. Our HDM further pushes the maximum negative GDD allowed by the design’s total physical thickness to its limitation. It offers an ideal trade-off between GDD and total mirror thickness. The HDM has been applied in a fiber-chirped system, providing a considerable compensation of GDD reaching −200 000 fs2 with only 10 reflections between two mirrors, and laser pulse compression from 2.8 ps to 213 fs is realized.

With the advent of the post-COVID-19 era, corporate managers of import and export trade are now more sensitive in their daily work, and their decisions are more likely to be influenced by the emotional bias of public opinions, especially regarding cooperation with trade ports of frequent circulation. Therefore, how to manage public opinion and sentiment in the post-COVID-19 era will be a new opportunity and challenge for the marketing management of ports. For the above considerations, through the same frequency verification between public opinions and sentiment on ports and corporate choice of import and export trade, and through analysis of the influence mechanism, the present study demonstrates the positive effects of public opinions and sentiment on ports in corporate choice of import and export trade in the post-COVID-19 era, verifies the significance of shaping word of mouth in port management, puts forward the great role of public opinions and sentiment in the cognitive and emotional empathy in the choice of import and export trade, and provides theoretical guidance for port managers' strategic choices in the post-COVID-19 era.

This study aims to uncover the relationship among multicultural differences, empathy, and the behaviors of risk prevention and control in the context of crisis events by using a sample of 300 individuals in 10 different multicultural countries. A theoretical logic model was applied to empirical analysis, and the results indicated that cultural differences positively influenced the behavior of empathy communication and risk prevention and control. Further analyses revealed that real-time monitoring of changes in empathy could provide better options of measures for local risk prevention and control when the same crisis event occurred in a multicultural context. With user-generated content (UGC) emerging in the web 2.0 era, this paper proposed a more profound empathy code regarding the periodicity of risk prevention and control. This paper expects to contribute to the circumvention of cognitive errors caused by cultural differences, and to further provide effective conduction for individuals' risk prevention and control behaviors.

A low-dispersion mirror (LDM), an important component in ultrafast laser systems, requires both a broad low-dispersion laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT). It is difficult for a traditional quarter-wavelength-based dielectric LDM to achieve these characteristics at the same time. We propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, low-dispersion mirror (NLDM) that combines periodic chirped layers at the top and alternating quarter-wavelength layers at the bottom. Low dispersion is achieved by introducing a large same group delay (GD) for different wavelengths, so the bandwidth is broadened greatly. In addition, owing to the staggered electric field intensity peak effect in the structure, the NLDM shows the potential for high laser damage resistance. The experiments demonstrated that the NLDM doubles the low-dispersion bandwidth, while the LIDT is also increased compared with the LDM. This novel concept results in improved performance and paves the way toward a new generation of the LDM for ultrafast bandwidth and a high laser applications.

Previous studies have shown that the empathy process is the main driving factor that triggers tourists’ intention to visit Internet celebrity spots. However, the academic community has not yet formed a unified understanding of the concrete mechanism. Based on this, this study combines the connotations of meme theory and empathy theory and applies Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to empirically analyze 340 valid samples of Internet celebrity spots visitors to explore the influence mechanism of attributional factors on travel intention. The result shows that mechanism of travel intention can be presented as a psychological model in which travel attribution of tourists to visit Internet celebrity spots is the independent variable, the travel intention is the dependent variable, and the empathy process is the intermediary variable. The influence intensity of internal attribution on affective empathy is higher than that of external attribution, while the influence intensity of external attribution on cognitive empathy has a comparative advantage, and there is a significant difference between them. Empathy process has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between travel attribution and travel intention of tourists to visit Internet celebrity spots, and the mediating effect of affective empathy is significantly greater than that of cognitive empathy. Overall, this study reveals the segmentation elements with strong explanatory power in the behavior of “internet celebrity spots punch in,” examines the practical effect of empathy process in the behavioral intention of traveling, and provides a theoretical reference for the transformation and upgrading of tourist destinations and marketing planning of online communication in the future.

Antireflection (AR) coatings are deposited on UV grade fused silica substrates, which are cleaned in the dual ion beam sputtering device. Compared to ultrasonic and acid etching cleaning progress, ion beam etching improves the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of substrates and AR coatings significantly at 355 nm. Ion beam etching declines the low LIDT defects drastically and removes lots of the impurity elements (Ce, Fe, K, and Na). Roughness test shows that the AR coatings and substrates with ion beam etching are very flat and of low roughness. Ion beam etching reduces the density of deep defect from substrates greatly. Damage morphologies show double layers delamination, which is explained via calculation of layer stress. This study will be helpful for preparation of high LIDT optical coatings.

Laser-induced damage of ultraviolet (UV) coatings poses a great challenge and restricts its application in space. Coatings prepared by ion beam sputtering are dense and possess high laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT), which are absence of structural nodule defects. Subsurface damage defects easily exposed by etching are inevitable under substrate grinding and polishing processes, which are usually ignored in electron-beam evaporation coatings. In our experiments, we find that LIDT of 355-nm high-reflection (HR) coatings sputtered on etched substrates declines dramatically, meanwhile defect density increases. Pits are found on the surface of the substrates and the coatings, and the pits that induce laser damage are very small (submicron-scale). Laser damage morphologies reveal that damage sites are prone to occur around the pits caused by acid etching. Finite element analysis shows consistent results, enhancement of electric field and rise of temperature are obvious, and the most significant part is around the pits, which is prone to induce damage. To conclude, small structural defects are sensitive to laser-induced damage of HR coatings prepared by dual ion beam sputtering (DIBS). This work contributes to finding new ways of improving the LIDT of sputtering coatings.

Metal-dielectric low dispersion mirrors (MLDM) have a promising application prospect in petawatt (PW) laser systems. We studied the damage characteristics of MLDM and found that the damage source of MLDM (Ag + Al2O3+SiO2) is located at the metal-dielectric interface. We present the effect of the interface on the femtosecond laser damage of MLDM. Finite element analysis shows that thermal stress is distributed at the interface, causing stress damage which is consistent with the damage morphology. After enhancing the interface adhesion and reducing the residual stress, the damage source transfers from the interface to a surface SiO2 layer, and the damage threshold can be increased from 0.60 J/cm2 to 0.73 J/cm2. This work contributes to the search for new techniques to improve the damage threshold of MLDM used in PW laser systems.

Background Excess lipid accumulation can accelerate the development of various metabolic diseases. Blossoms of Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Engl. (CAVA) have been reported to possess inhibitory capacities on lipid deposition. However, the constituents responsible for the observed bioactivity and the underlying mechanisms are still not clearly understood. Purpose To screen constituents from blossoms of CAVA with inhibitory effects on lipid accumulation and to explore the action mechanism. Methods The chloroform (CHL) extracts are prepared from blossoms of CAVA by fractional extraction and are characterized using LC-MS assay. 3T3-L1 preadipocytes are induced with differentiation medium (DMI) and treated with CHL extracts. High fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice are further established and administrated with CHL extracts for 12 weeks. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, Oil Red O staining, ELISA, RT-qPCR, western blot and 16S rRNA gene sequence methods are employed. Results 14 compounds are identified in CHL extracts and trigonelline hydrochloride, nobiletin and 7-demethylsuberosin are most abundant. CHL extracts treatment significantly inhibit differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells by regulating expression of preadipocyte factor-1 (Pref-1), fatty acid synthase (FAS) and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (C/EBPα). CHL extracts intervention also significantly attenuate features of obesity and improved plasma biochemical profiles in HFD-fed mice. HFD-triggered hepatic steatosis and epididymal adipose tissues (EATs) hypertrophy are also reversed by CHL extracts administration through enhancing antioxidant responses and modulating lipogenesis and energy expenditure-related genes and proteins. 16S rRNA gene sequence data further show that CHL extracts enhance the diversity of gut microbiota. CHL extracts at lower concentrations reduce the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes and the abundance of Erysipelotrichaceae. CHL extracts at higher doses markedly increase the abundance of Lachnospiraceae. Conclusion These findings suggest that CHL extracts probably suppress lipid accumulation through inhibiting differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells and attenuating metabolic syndromes in HFD-fed mice.

Large-scale layers peeling after the laser irradiation of dual ion beam sputtering coatings is discovered and a model is established to explain it. The laser damage morphologies relate to the laser fluence, showing thermomechanical coupling failure at low energy and coating layers separation at high energy. High-pressure gradients appear in the interaction between laser and coatings, resulting in large-scale layer separation. A two-step laser damage model including defect-induced damage process and ionized air wave damage process is proposed to explain the two phenomena at different energy. At relatively high energies (higher than 20 J/cm2), ionization of the air can be initiated, leading to a peeling off effect. The peeling effect is related to the thermomechanical properties of the coating materials.

The evaluating indicators on the benefits of innovative technology to media companies are preliminarily analyzed and evaluated, according to the research review and evaluating criteria of self-organization and ecosystem selection. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling are used to further explore and select the indicators. According to the results, from the perspective of technology ecosystem, innovative technology performance of media companies can be measured through a two-factor structure—the input of innovative technology and its output. On this basis, ANP (analytic network process) is used to establish a weighted evaluation of indicators. At the end of the paper, a complete set of evaluation systems was created to measure the performance of technology innovation.

This study reports that SiO2 was selected to fabricate broadband anti-reflection (AR) films on fused silica substrates by using glancing angle deposition and substrate rotation. Through accurate control of the graded index of the SiO2 layer, the average residual reflectance of the graded broadband AR film can achieve an average value of 0.59% across a spectral range of 400-1800nm. By comparing the performance, the broadband anti-reflection film with substrate speed has higher stability compared with the broadband anti-reflection film without substrate speed and a higher damage threshold than the traditional anti-reflection film.

Obesity is a significant public health problem worldwide that is characterized by abnormal or excessive fat accumulation. Unfortunately, the application of available weight-loss drugs has been restricted because of their serious adverse effects. Browning of white adipose tissue (WAT), which refers to the transformation of white adipocytes to beige adipocytes under certain stimulations, is regarded as a new strategy to solve the obesity problem. Numerous studies have recently evidenced that traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) could promote browning of WAT with multi-component and multi-target characteristics. This article summarizes natural constituents from TCM with stimulatory effects on browning of WAT in the past two decades. The active ingredients can be generally divided into polyphenols, saponins, alkaloids, terpenoids, phenylpropanoids and others, such as resveratrol, quercetin, curcumin, genistein, capsaicin, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), berberine, menthol, emodin and ginsenosides. Simultaneously, the chemical structures, source, model, efficacy and mechanism of these monomeric compounds are also described. And the mechanisms of these active ingredients are mainly involved in the regulation of PRDM16, PGC-1α, PPARγ, SIRT1, AMPK, β3-adrenergic receptors, TRPV1 and TRPM8 channels, FGF21 and miRNAs. The present article opens opportunities for developing novel drugs or supplements from TCM with wide acceptability to prevent obesity progression and its associated metabolic disorders.

MICE (meeting, incentive, conference, and exhibition) industry shows a great potential in the demand side and interacts with the supply side of tourism industry. The optimization of driving MICE into tourism strategy is an important issue in Chinese tourism industry development, which is an effective choice to stimulate tourism industry innovation. This paper aims to explore an effective integration of driving MICE into tourism industry in Jiangxi province in China, based on Gravity model and Wilson model to calculate radiation radius of MICE industry in Jiangxi. According to the calculation result, this paper proposes three integration model of driving MICE into tourism industry, namely, urban MICE-driven model, tourism-driven model, and featured integration model. Five strategies are also proposed, including government leadership, establishment of service platform, rational planning and positioning, demonstration of cultural values, and financial support.

Zhang, L.G.; Yi, K., and Zhang, D., 2020. The Classification of Environmental Crisis in the Perspective of Risk Communication: A Case Study of Coastal Risk in Mainland China. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 88–93. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.This study explores the classification of environmental crisis in order to improve the policy maker, public's environmental literacy, boost to the individuals' perception of complex scientific information on coastal crisis in the case of Chinese coastal problems. It investigates how to classify the environmental crisis on the dimension of crisis source, crisis form, crisis information diffusion, crisis assessment, crisis response. An ANP method was conducted to collect interviews data to evaluate the coastal crisis.

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Overall survival (OS) of patients is largely dependent on disease stage at diagnosis and/or surgical resection. TCN1 mainly encodes the vitamin B12 transporter, transcobalamin. Early studies show that TCN1 is a marker of CRC progression, but the impact of TCN1 on survival is unclear. MATERIAL AND METHODS We reviewed and analyzed colorectal tumor records, summarized the clinicopathological data, performed immunohistochemical detection of TCN1 again, and semi-quantitatively analyzed protein expression in tumor tissue, non-tumor tissue, and lymph nodes. We followed up patients for 5-year survival. RESULTS Of 123 patients, 60 (48.7%) had a strong TCN1 immunohistochemical reaction, 36 (29.3%) had a moderate immune response, and 27 (22.0%) had weak expression. The level of immunohistochemical reactivity of TCN1 was correlated with the degree of histological differentiation (H (2.92)=4.976; P=0.083). Survival analysis showed that OS in patients with low TCN1 expression was significantly longer than that in the medium and high TCN1 expression groups (P=0.045). Five-year OS in patients with low, medium, and high TCN1 expression was 88.9%, 50.0%, and 40.0%, respectively. In univariate analysis, TCN1 immune expression was significantly correlated with the 5-year survival rate. CONCLUSIONS Although independent risk factors affecting survival of patients with CRC are age, serum CA125, CA19-9, lymph node metastasis, and nerve invasion, negative factors affecting overall 5-year survival in TCN1 should not be ignored, because its high expression suggests a worse clinical prognosis.

The dispersion oscillation and damage threshold of a dispersive mirror (DM) are the key influencing factors for high-quality pulses and outputting high power density. Here, we studied the femtosecond damage behavior of low-oscillation DMs(LODM) with SiO2 sculptured layer. The monochromatic standing wave field(SWF) distribution widely used in ultrafast laser damage analysis is sufficient in Bragg mirror. In more complex systems, the actual electric field intensity(typically smaller) will dynamically change due to the broad bandwidth and the time difference of pulse propagation. Time-domain dynamic electric field intensity displays that the spatio-temporal evolution of the pulse within the stacks averages the electric field intensity, especially the electric field in the deeper layers. The dynamic effect of few-cycle pulses or attosecond pulses damage will be more meaningful. The time-domain dynamic electric field model can elucidate the ultrafast laser damage behavior. Introducing the time-domain dynamic electric model into the merit function can help us design optical coatings with high damage thresholds.

A comparative study of anti-reflection microstructures (ARMs) and ARMs with Al2O3 coatings (Al2O3/ARMs) on zinc selenide (ZnSe) has been carried out. The transmittance and electric field intensities were analyzed and presented using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. ARMs were successfully fabricated on ZnSe surfaces by reactive ion etching and an Al2O3 layer was deposited onto the ARMs by an ion beam sputtering method. The theoretical analysis and experimental results showed that the transmittance of Al2O3/ARMs-treated ZnSe had a close relationship with the thickness of Al2O3 layer and was higher than that of ARMs-treated ZnSe in the 2–5 μm wavelength range, which was due to the fact that the Al2O3/ARMs had a better graded refractive index profile. The angle-dependent reflectance of ZnSe with Al2O3/ARMs was lower than that with ARMs. A difference of the spatial distribution of the electric field intensity between ARMs and Al2O3/ARMs was observed due to the surface Al2O3 coating, which predicted qualitative laser damage thresholds for both structures. The results of this study provide potential applications in high-efficiency IR optoelectronic devices and high power mid-infrared laser systems.

As important part of components for 193 nm lithography, AlF3 coatings deposited by resistive heating method acquire advantages like lower optical loss and higher laser damage threshold, but they also possess some disadvantages like worse stability, which is what aging effect focuses on. AlF3 single-layer coatings were deposited; optical property, surface morphology and roughness, and composition were characterized in different periods. Owing to aging effect, refractive index and extinction coefficient increased; larger and larger roughness caused more and more scattering loss, which was in the same order with absorption at 193.4 nm and part of optical loss; from composition analysis, proportional substitution of AlF3 by alumina may account for changes in refractive index as well as absorption.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Oviductus Ranae (OR) is a traditional Chinese medicine derived from Rana temporaria chensinensis David, and is known to have a wide variety of pharmacological effects. Aim of the study To investigate the function and mechanism of OR-containing serum in protecting rat ovarian granulosa cells from hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 )-induced oxidative damage. Materials and methods H 2 O 2 -treated granulosa cells were pretreated with OR-containing serum, and viability and proliferation assays were carried out using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). Apoptotic granulosa cells were observed microscopically using 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), and the apoptotic ratio was quantified via Annexin V/ propidium iodide (PI) staining combined with flow cytometry. The levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) in the cells were measured using 2,7-dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) and rhodamine 123, respectively, and analyzed by flow cytometry. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), including ERK1/2, JNK, and p38, and other apoptosis-related proteins (p53, Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-9, caspase-3), were detected by western blot analysis, and the related mRNA levels were detected using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results The results revealed that treatment with OR-containing serum reduced apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane damage in H 2 O 2 -treated granulosa cells. The OR-containing serum interfered with H 2 O 2 -induced intracellular generation of ROS and loss of ΔΨm, which typically lead to apoptosis. Furthermore, the OR-containing serum down-regulated pro-apoptotic proteins such as p53, Bax, caspase-9, and caspase-3, while up-regulating the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2. Finally, the OR-containing serum increased phosphorylation of ERK1/2, and reduced JNK and p38 phosphorylation. Conclusions OR-containing serum protected rat ovarian granulosa cells against H 2 O 2 -induced apoptosis, by reducing ROS production and improving mitochondrial membrane potential, through down-regulation of negative regulators of proliferation, activation of ERK1/2, and inhibition of the activity of JNK and p38.

This study aims to fabricate a porous anode coating for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) by the flame spraying. Flame spraying is an easy low-temperature process and offers the advantage of a reduced thermal stress. Due to the low-temperature, the initial selection of the feedstock will affect the deposition of the coating. In this study, two kinds of feedstocks were used. One was the commonly used NiO/8YSZ for anode fabrication. The second was the Ni metal with 8YSZ design for the low temperature flame spray. The special nickel-coated graphite (NiGr) was employed as the pore former. The results show that NiO/8YSZ forms a uniform and flat coating with small-sized pores. The Ni/8YSZ powder forms a rough coating containing large-scale pores. The addition of NiGr into the composite powder increases the porosity and permeability of the anode after graphite burn out and hydrogen reduction. In summary, the use of a Ni/8YSZ/NiGr feedstock yields higher porosity (35–40%), gas permeability (1.37 Darcy), bonding strength (45.6 ± 3.18 MPa) and better anode conductivity.

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) reflective coatings play an important role in many high-tech fields including cosmic physics, space research, life science and synchrotron radiation. In this research, the emphasis are focused on the aging effect of 135.6nm high reflective coatings. The coatings were deposited by resistive heating method based on Lanthanum fluoride (LaF3) and Aluminum fluoride (AlF3). Optical property, surface morphology and roughness, and composition were characterized in different period after deposited. Due to the porous structure and the worse stability of lanthanum fluoride, the content of C and O element increased in LaF3 thin films during aging process. On one hand, the content of C and O are the hydrocarbon contamination from environment and packing boxes. On the other hand, due to the oxidation of film materials, the fluorides will turn into oxyfluoride, which will increase O content. As a result, there will be an increase of absorption and a decrease of reflectance of the 135.6nm high reflective coating. The surface roughness decreased which led to the reduction of scattering and the rise of reflectivity. There will be LaF3-AlF3 mixed layers between interfaces because of interface diffusion, which will further reduce the film performance.

Multiple-pulse laser-induced damage is an important topic for many applications of optical coatings. In this work, we study the performance of multiple and single pulse laser-induced damage of anti-reflection (AR) coatings with ns-pulsed laser irradiation at a wavelength of 355 nm. LIDT of AR coatings changes little under multiple and single pulse irradiation, around 15 J/cm2. The damage probability curve of multiple pulse is extremely steep. The defect density in the irradiated area is quite high, a large amount of pin-point or cone-shaped pits are observed. The absorption coefficient and defect density increase a lot under multiple pulse irradiation. Material modification of the precursor under multiple pulse is thought as the main reason of high absorption coefficient. Once damage occurs, the damage increases fast and soon grows catastrophic damage. The initial damage morphologies are similar, pin-point or cone-shaped pits, which indicates the initial precursor or defect of multiple and single pulse are the same.

Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) has been widely used in microelectronics due to its precise coating thickness control and high uniformity. Coating qualities are strongly affected by deposition parameters and can be tailored accordingly. In this work, SiO2 and HfO2 monolayers were deposited by PEALD on fused silica and BK7 substrates for different measurement. The influence of deposition temperature and precursor pulse time on both coatings were studied. Coating thickness was obtained by ellipsometer and coating roughness was extracted by atomic force microscope. Laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) and damage morphology were also studied. By optimizing the process parameters, coatings with desired properties can be deposited.

Low dispersive with broad bandwidth mirrors serve as indispensable elements in ultrafast laser systems. We report on three coatings, quarter-wave high reflection mirror, metal-dielectric mirror and ternary composite mirror, which are suitable for broad bandwidth high reflection (BBHR) with 800nm center wavelength. Mirrors based on quarterwave Ta2O5/SiO2 layers are designed and fabricated. By depositing the quarter-wave HfO2/SiO2 layers on the metallic material, we have achieved the mirror with lager low-dispersive bandwidth, this design takes advantage of broad high reflection bandwidth of metal and high laser induced damage threshold (LIDT) of HfO2. Moreover, we have deposited HfO2/SiO2 layers on Ta2O5/SiO2 layers, since HfO2 demonstrates higher damage threshold than Ta2O5, such combination reach an ideal trade-off between the low-dispersive bandwidth and high LIDT comparing with traditional quarter-wave Ta2O5/SiO2 layers. Our BBHR mirrors are produced by means of dual-ion-beam sputtering technique. The designs afford low group delay dispersion (GDD) for reflected light over the broad bandwidth in order to minimize temporal broadening of the fs pulses. The design’s GDD behaves in a smooth way, and its electric field intensities show promise for high LIDTs. Reflectivity and GDD measurements indicate good performance of the BBHR design. LIDTs of the produced BBHR mirrors are also tested and compared.

Prepared by electron beam evaporation with argon plasma assistance, ultrathin Ge films on JGS1, CaF2 and Si substrates at different deposition temperatures has been investigated by grazing incidence X-ray reflectivity (GIXRR), spectrophotometer, atomic force microscopy. By investigation of the influence of deposition temperature ranging from 100 to 300degC and annealing treatment on transmittance, morphologies of Ge thin films. It can be seen that both deposition temperature exchange and annealing treatment can significantly affect the thickness of Ge thin films. And there is an enhancement of attenuation on films transmittance with the increasing of deposition temperature on JGS1 and CaF2 substrates, while it’s not significant on Si substrate. In addition, it can be seen that the roughness of Ge films on JGS1 and CaF2 substrates has similar variation, which is different from the roughness of Ge films on Si substrate.

In order to analyze the thermal damage process under high energy laser irradiation, this paper focused on the high temperature condition and designed experimental device for coatings heating at different temperature. Ellipsometer was applied to measure the ellipsometric parameter (Ψ, u) of SiO2, HfO2 and Al2O3 single layer (prepared by electron beam (EB) evaporation on BK7 glass) at different temperatures, so the variation of optical constants with temperatures was obtained by inversion calculation. With the increase of temperature, the refractive index (n) of SiO2, HfO2 and Al2O3 single layer first decreased and then increased, the thickness (d) of these layers first increase and then decreased. However, the inflection point occurred at different temperature, and the amount of change was different for the layer with different material. The physical processes of thermal expansion and water evaporation were applied to explain the temperature dependent properties of the dielectric coatings.

We propose an initial multilayer structure to design high dispersive mirror (HDM) and aim at introducing large group delay dispersion (GDD). In film deposition, based on the uniformity, a HDM pair reduce the GDD oscillation effectively.

Hydrophobic antireflective coating is fabricated by physical vapor deposition. The optical, contact angle and laser damage resistance properties are investigated, respectively. The transmittance of the antireflective coating with hydrophobic layer is 99.58% at 1064 nm with normal incidence. The contact angle with water is 115.6[Formula: see text]. The laser damage threshold of the zero probability is 22 J/cm2 at 1064 nm with the 12 ns pulse width. This new hydrophobic antireflective coating can be applied in the areas of astronomical optics, laser medical equipment and solar energy, etc.

The high optical performance and laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of broadband hafnium oxide/silica (HfO2/SiO2) dichroic coatings with high transmittance and reflectance around 532 and 1064 nm, respectively, are essential for the efficiency of a harmonic separation system. However, the transmittance of dichroic coatings tends to drop rapidly at 532 nm because of the half-wave hole effect. Moreover, an intense electric field penetrates the coating (~6 μm thick) to the substrate, thereby generating a challenge to improve the LIDT at 532 nm. In this paper, we study the methods to improve the optical performance and LIDT of HfO2/SiO2 dichroic coatings prepared by electron-beam evaporation. The inhomogeneity in the growth characteristics of the HfO2 layer is studied and considered in the design of dichroic coatings, which can improve spectral performance, especially by broadening the transmittance bandwidth around 532 nm. Additionally, the effects of the different treatment procedures, including ultrasonic cleaning, acid-solution etching, and argon-ion-beam etching, of the fused silica substrate on the LIDT of dichroic coatings are investigated by the raster-scan damage test method. We observe that the LIDT of dichroic coatings at 532 nm is limited by the surface and subsurface defects of the substrate. Etching ~200 nm of the surface of the fused silica substrate can effectively inhibit the occurrence of low-energy catastrophic growth damage. Compared with acid-solution etching, argon-ion-beam etching can yield improved substrate surface quality and increased LIDTs of dichroic coatings at 532 nm.

We conducted an 8-week feeding trial to evaluate the effects of dietary leucine on growth performance, body and muscle composition, hepatic and plasma components, gut morphology, and relative expression levels of genes in the mTOR pathway. Six isonitrogenous and isolipidic diets with increasing levels of Leu (1.88%, 2.84%, 3.51%, 4.45%, 5.27%, and 6.06%, respectively) were formulated. Each diet was fed to 4-replicate groups of 20 groupers (average initial body weight of 35.0 g/fish) twice daily, to apparent satiety. Weight gain and specific growth rates; feed intake; body protein, lipid, and muscle protein content; and liver GOT and branched chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase kinase activities showed positive linear and/or quadratic responses to dietary Leu levels. In contrast, body moisture and ash content, liver triglyceride and total-cholesterol content, and plasma GOT and GTP activity had negative linear and/or quadratic responses to different dietary Leu levels. There were no differences in the feed conversion ratio and hepatosomatic index, condition factor, plasma GOT activity, and plasma triglyceride and total-cholesterol content among treatments. The mucosal fold number in three gut segments (proximal intestine (PI), middle intestine (MI), and distal intestine (DI)) and mucosal fold length and muscle layer thickness in the DI showed positive quadratic responses to dietary Leu levels. In addition, mucosal fold length and number, and muscle layer thickness in the PI were greater that those observed for the MI and DI. The mRNA level of SLC3A2, SLC7A5, RagC/D, Ragulator, Raptor, mTOR, mLST8, and Tel2 in the muscle and/or gut showed positive quadratic responses to dietary Leu levels, whereas negative quadratic responses were observed for mRNA levels of RagA/B and V-ATPase in the muscle and/or gut, and SLC7A5 in the liver. The optimal amount of Leu required for this fish was estimated to be 8.88% of the dietary protein content, based on the regression analysis of percent weight gains against dietary Leu levels. The results indicate that appropriate dietary Leu levels (range 3.51%–4.45%) could help to improve growth performance and nutrient deposition, maintain gut structural integrity and positively regulate genes in the mTOR signaling pathway in the fish.

In recent years, mid-infrared window is steadily growing popularity due to the development of mid-infrared technology. Mid-infrared antireflection coating with UV–vis-shortwave near infrared cut-off is critical important in the infrared detector, which can improve quality of signal in mid-infrared and avoid noise introduced by non-working wavelength band. Based on electron beam evaporation technique with argon plasma assistance, a mid-infrared antireflection coating with UV–vis-shortwave near infrared cut-off on oxyflouride substrate, has been designed, fabricated and characterized. The coating on the first side of substrate is composed of 7-layer alternative stacking high-index layer of germanium and low-index coating material of magnesium fluoride. The coating on the second side of substrate is composed of 2-layer alternative stacking high-index layer of alumina and low-index coating material of silicon oxide. This coating shows below 1% average transmittance from 300 nm to 900 nm and above 92 % average transmittance from 3.7 um to 4.8 um in mid-infrared region. The error analysis shows that thickness errors are the main reasons for the deviations between theoretical design and experimental results. In addition, the adhesion strength of the coating is quantitatively characterized by scratch-adhesion test.