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Recent advances in inverse-design approaches for discovering optical structures based on desired functional characteristics have reshaped the landscape of nanophotonic structures, where most studies have focused on how light interacts with nanophotonic structures only. When quantum emitters (QEs), such as atoms, molecules, and quantum dots, are introduced to couple to the nanophotonic structures, the light–matter interactions become much more complicated, forming a rapidly developing field – quantum nanophotonics. Typical quantum functional characteristics depend on the intrinsic properties of the QE and its electromagnetic environment created by the nanophotonic structures, commonly represented by a scalar quantity, local-density-of-states (LDOS). In this work, we introduce a generalized inverse-design framework in quantum nanophotonics by taking LDOS as the bridge to connect the nanophotonic structures and the quantum functional characteristics. We take a simple system consisting of QEs sitting on a single multilayer shell–metal–nanoparticle (SMNP) as an example, apply fully-connected neural networks to model the LDOS of SMNP, inversely design and optimize the geometry of the SMNP based on LDOS, and realize desirable quantum characteristics in two quantum nanophotonic problems: spontaneous emission and entanglement. Our work introduces deep learning to the quantum optics domain for advancing quantum device designs; and provides a new platform for practicing deep learning to design nanophotonic structures for complex problems without a direct link between structures and functional characteristics.

Dissipation, often associated with plasmons, leads to decoherence and is generally considered fatal for quantum nonlinearities and entanglement. Counterintuitively, by introducing a dissipative plasmonic nanoantenna into a typical cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) system, we unveil the wide existence of the atom-photon quasi-bound state (qBS), a kind of exotic eigenstate with anomalously small decay, in the hybrid plasmonic-photonic cavity. To derive the analytical condition of atom-photon qBS, we formulate a quantized two-mode model of the local density of states by connecting the interacting uncoupled cavity modes to the macroscopic QED. With resonant plasmon-photon coupling, we showcase the single-atom qBS that improves the efficiency of single-photon generation over one order of magnitude; and the two-atom qBS that significantly enhances spontaneous entanglement generation compared with a bare photonic cavity. Notably, such single-atom and multi-atom qBS can be simultaneously accessed in realistic plasmonic-photonic cavities, providing a versatile platform for advanced quantum technologies, such as quantum light sources, quantum computation, and quantum information.

Exceptional points (EPs) are the singularities of a non-Hermitian system where the eigenenergies and eigenstates simultaneously coalesce, a topological property that gives rise to a plethora of exotic phenomena. Probing the EPs and associated effects requires the system to go through the EPs. However, the ultrahigh sensitivity of an isolated EP to the external disturbances makes accessing the EPs difficult. To overcome this limit, many approaches have been presented to form the exceptional line/ring and surface. Here, we demonstrate that a quantum exceptional chamber, which is a three-dimensional collection of the EPs, can be constructed in the coupled plasmon-quantum dot (QD) systems by the nondipole effect of the QD. For an asymmetric QD adjacent to a plasmonic nanoparticle, it is found that the contributions of multipole transitions to the coupling strength can be larger than that of dipole transition. The orientation-dependent quantum interference between the dipole and multipole transitions can lead to controllable switch between the weak and strong coupling, and provides an extra degree of freedom to form a high-dimension EP space. Our approach provides a robust platform for accessing the quantum EPs and related applications.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) generally arises from a background of liver cirrhosis (LC). Patients with cirrhosis and suspected HCC are recommended to undergo serum biomarker tests and imaging diagnostic evaluation. However, the performance of routine diagnostic methods in detecting early HCC remains unpromising. Methods: Here, we conducted a large-scale, multicenter study of 1675 participants including 490 healthy controls, 577 LC patients, and 608 HCC patients from nine clinical centers across nine provinces of China, profiled gene mutation signatures of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) using Circulating Single-Molecule Amplification and Resequencing Technology (cSMART) through detecting 931 mutation sites across 21 genes. Results: An integrated diagnostic model called "Combined method" was developed by combining three mutation sites and three serum biomarkers. Combined method outperformed AFP in the diagnosis of HCC, especially early HCC, with sensitivities of 81.25% for all stages and 66.67% for early HCC, respectively. Importantly, the integrated model exhibited high accuracy in differentiating AFP-negative, AFP-L3-negative, and PIVKA-II-negative HCCs from LCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant decoherence of the plasmon-emitter (i.e., plexcitonic) strong coupling systems hinders the progress towards their applications in quantum technology due to the unavoidable lossy nature of the plasmons. Inspired by the concept of spectral-hole-burning (SHB) for frequency-selective bleaching of the emitter ensemble, we propose ‘cavity SHB’ by introducing cavity modes with moderate quality factors to the plexcitonic system to boost its coherence. We show that the detuning of the introduced cavity mode with respect to the original plexcitonic system, which defines the location of the cavity SHB, is the most critical parameter. Simultaneously introducing two cavity modes of opposite detunings, the excited-state population of the emitter can be enhanced by 4.5 orders of magnitude within 300 fs, and the attenuation of the emitter’s population can be slowed down by about 56 times. This theoretical proposal provides a new approach of cavity engineering to enhance the plasmon-emitter strong coupling systems’ coherence, which is important for realistic hybrid-cavity design for applications in quantum technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ischemic stroke (IS) is a common cause of death from vascular diseases. Studies have found that smoking increases the risk of ischemic stroke, but the association of smoking with the outcome of IS remains unclear. This meta-analysis aims to investigate the effect of smoking on the prognosis of IS. Methods: We searched four electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library and Web of science for papers, published before January 2019. In this meta-analysis, Review Manager 5.3 software was used to calculate for the pooled estimate effect, as well as the inverse-variance method for pooled mean difference (MD) and odds ratio (OR) of incidence in two groups of population. Results: A total of 14,789 citations were identified during the literature search, 21 studies were included in the meta-analyses after screening. The full-adjusted OR of poor prognostic outcome in smoking and nonsmoking patients with stroke was pooled as 0.96 (95% CI 0.77–1.21), suggested that smoking or not has no impact on prognosis of IS. The pooled MD of onset age between smoking and nonsmoking IS patients was − 10.05 (− 12.91, − 7.19), indicated that smoking causes first onset of IS to occur 10 years earlier. Conclusions: This meta-analysis showed that smoking was not a protective factor for poor prognosis of IS. Smoking patients with IS are 10 years younger than nonsmoking patients at time of the first onset of stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore whether plasma circular RNAs (circRNAs) can diagnose hepatitis B virus (HBV)‐related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), microarray and qPCR were used to identify plasma circRNAs that were increased in HBV‐related HCC patients compared to controls (including healthy controls, chronic hepatitis B and HBV‐related liver cirrhosis). A logistic regression model was constructed using a training set (n = 313) and then validated using another two independent sets (n = 306 and 526, respectively). Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. We identified a plasma circRNA panel (CircPanel) containing three circRNAs (hsa_circ_0000976, hsa_circ_0007750 and hsa_circ_0139897) that could detect HCC. CircPanel showed a higher accuracy than AFP (alpha‐fetoprotein) to distinguish individuals with HCC from controls in all three sets (AUC, 0.863 [95% confidence interval, CI: 0.819–0.907] vs. 0.790 [0.738–0.842], p = 0.036 in training set; 0.843 [0.796–0.890] vs. 0.747 [0.691–0.804], p = 0.011 in validation set 1 and 0.864 [0.830–0.898] vs. 0.769 [0.728–0.810], p < 0.001 in validation set 2). CircPanel also performed well in detecting Small‐HCC (solitary, ≤3 cm), AFP‐negative HCC and AFP‐negative Small‐HCC. What's new? To date, one limitation in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the lack of serum biomarkers with satisfactory diagnostic accuracy. Here, the authors explored whether plasma circRNAs can be biomarkers to diagnose hepatitis B virus‐related HCC in 1155 participants from three hospitals in China. They identified a plasma circRNA panel (CircPanel, including hsa_circ_0000976, hsa_circ_0007750, and hsa_circ_0139897) that showed higher accuracy than the clinically‐used serum biomarker AFP in distinguishing individuals with HCC or Small‐HCC from controls and performed well in diagnosing AFP‐negative HCC and AFP‐negative Small‐HCC. Altogether, the findings point to CircPanel as a promising potential biomarker in HCC diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantum states of plasmon-exciton polariton are generally revealed through its scattering spectra in experiments. Here, we present the exact quantum-electrodynamics results of the spectra of plasmon-exciton composite, considering the multimode features of the plasmonic cavity. Different from a single-mode cavity, we find that the existence of higher-order modes leads to incoherent plasmon-exciton coupling, which saturates the cooperativity as the dipole moment of the quantum emitter (QE) increases. Furthermore, the competition of the coherent and incoherent coupling yields an optimal dipole moment for maximum spectral splitting. Though the higher-order modes are nonradiative, they modify the local dynamics of the QE, which present in the scattering spectra through the interplay between the dipolar plasmonic mode and the QE. We demonstrate that the scattering spectra are dominant by the cavity radiation and essentially different from the spontaneous emission (SE) spectrum. However, we show that the photoluminescence spectra of the QE coincide with its SE spectrum, which is a more reliable way to demonstrate the vacuum Rabi splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To develop and validate a decision aid to help make individualized estimates of tumor recurrence for patients with resected combined hepatocellular cholangiocarcinoma (CHC). Patients and methods: Risk factors of recurrence were identified in the derivation cohort of 208 patients who underwent liver resection between 1995 and 2014 at Zhongshan Hospital to develop a prediction score. The model was subsequently validated in an external cohort of 101 CHC patients using the C concordance statistic and net reclassification index (NRI). Results: On multivariate analysis, five independent predictors associated with tumor recurrence were identified, including sex, γ-glutamyl transferase, macrovascular invasion, hilar lymphoid metastasis and adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization. The prediction score was constructed using these 5 variables, with scores ranging from 0 to 5. A patient with a score of 0 had a predicted 1- and 5-year recurrence risk of 11.1% and 22.2%, respectively. In the validation cohort, the NRIs of prediction score vs American Joint Committee on Cancer 7th, TNM staging system at 1-year and 5-year were 0.185 (95% CI, 0.090–0.279, P<0.001) and 0.425 (95% CI, 0.044–0.806, P=0.03), respectively. Conclusion: Our developed and validated prediction score might be a simple and reliable method in postoperative CHC patients and help clinicians identify candidates who may benefit from future adjuvant therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a major threat to human health. The condition carries a high risk of death; 45% of new cases occur in China. Surgical resection is the first choice for treatment of HCC, but 30.9% of patients experience recurrence within 6 months after the operation. To improve patient survival, we must determine how to reduce the probability of recurrence and metastasis and elucidate the underlying mechanism of disease. We therefore studied the effect of somatostatin octapeptide (octreotide) on the invasion and metastasis of HCC. Methods: The migration and invasion cytological tests were used to detect the effect of octreotide on liver cancer cells (SK-Hep-1 and HepG2). PEBP1 RNAi was used to knockdown expression. Invasion and metastasis were measured with transwell migration and wound-healing assays. Western blotting was used to detect changes in levels of PEBP1 and invasion pathway proteins after octreotide treatment. The effect of octreotide was studied in vivo by establishing a pulmonary metastasis model using SK-Hep-1 cells in nude mice. In-vivo bioluminescence imaging and hematoxylin and eosin staining of lung tissue were used to verify the results. Results: Increasing concentrations of octreotide were progressively more effective in halting the invasion and metastasis of liver cancer cells. Octreotide may upregulate PEBP1, TIMP-2, and E-cadherin while downregulating MMP-2 and Twist to inhibit cell invasion and metastasis. And downregulation of PEBP1 would also change the expression of MMP-2, TIMP-2 and Twist. The in-vivo experiments showed no cancer cell metastasis in 4 of the 6 mice in the octreotide-treatment group, while all of the mice in the control group displayed pulmonary metastasis of human HCC cells. And the survival period of the mice in the octreotide-treatment group was significantly prolonged. Conclusions: Octreotide may weaken invasion and metastasis through the upregulation of PEBP1. Octreotide may reduce the risk of recurrence and metastasis after surgery for liver cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This mixed treatment comparison is used to compare the adverse effects of eleven different drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease ( PD). The drugs that we compare include the following: ropinirole, rasagiline, rotigotine, entacapone, apomorphine, pramipexole, sumanirole, bromocriptine, piribedil, pergolide, and levodopa. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library were searched from the inception to December 2015. Our analysis combines the evidences of direct comparison and indirect comparison between various literatures. We evaluated the merging odds ratios ( OR) value and surface under the cumulative ranking curves ( SUCRA) of each of the drugs and used this as a mode of comparison. Results Twenty-four randomized controlled trials ( RCTs) were included in this study. Our results demonstrated that the incidence of adverse reactions of ropinirole, rotigotine, entacapone, and sumanirole were obviously higher in terms of nausea compared to the placebo. Ropinirole produced the highest incidence rates of dyskinesia side effects, whereas pramipexole was significantly higher in terms of patients' hallucination. In addition, the SUCRA values of all the drugs showed that the incidence of adverse reaction of pergolide was relatively high (nausea: 83.5%; hallucination: 79.8%); for dyskinesia and somnolence, the incidence of ropinirole was higher (dyskinesia: 80.5%; somnolence: 69.4%); the incidence of adverse reaction of piribedil was higher on PD in terms of dizziness (67.0%); and the incidence of bromocriptine was relatively high in terms of constipation (62.3%). Conclusions This mixed treatment comparison showed that the drugs ropinirole, bromocriptine, and piribedil produced the highest incidence rates of nausea, dyskinesia, hallucination, dizziness, constipation, and somnolence symptoms. Thus, we conclude that as these three drugs produced the most frequent symptoms, they are not recommended for the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims Choline kinase α (CHKA) catalyzes conversion of choline to phosphocholine and can contribute to carcinogenesis. Little is known about the role of CHKA in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods We performed whole-exome and transcriptome sequence analyses of 9 paired HCC and non−tumor-adjacent tissues. We performed tissue chip analyses of 120 primary HCC and non−tumor-adjacent tissues from patients who received surgery in Shanghai, China from January 2006 through December 2009; 48 sets of specimens (HCC and non−tumor-adjacent tissues) were also analyzed. CHKA gene copy number was quantified and findings were validated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis. CHKA messenger RNA and protein levels were determined by polymerase chain reaction, immunohistochemical, and immunoblot analyses. CHKA was examined in 2 hepatocyte cell lines and 7 HCC-derived cell lines, and knocked down with small interfering RNAs in 3 HCC cell lines. Cells were analyzed in proliferation, wound healing, migration, and invasion assays. Cells were injected into tail veins of mice and tumor growth and metastasis were quantified. Immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence assays were conducted to determine interactions between CHKA and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2. Results Levels of CHKA messenger RNA were frequently increased in HCC tissues compared with nontumor tissues; increased expression was associated with amplification at the CHKA loci. Tumors that expressed high levels of CHKA had more aggressive phenotypes, and patients with these tumors had shorter survival times after surgery compared to patients whose tumors expressed low levels of CHKA. HCC cell lines that stably overexpressed CHKA had higher levels of migration and invasion than control HCC cells, and formed larger xenograft tumors with more metastases in mice compared to HCC cells that did not overexpress CHKA. CHKA was required for physical interaction between EGFR and mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2. This complex was required for HCC cells to form metastatic xenograft tumors in mice and to become resistant to EGFR inhibitors. Conclusions We found levels of CHKA to be increased in human HCCs compared to nontumor tissues, and increased expression to be associated with tumor aggressiveness and reduced survival times of patients. Overexpression of CHKA in HCC cell lines increased their invasiveness, resistance to EGFR inhibitors, and ability to form metastatic tumors in mice by promoting interaction of EGFR with mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We have already discovered 23 patients during the work of the outpatient department and operations whose unstable signs on the posterolateral ankle. The anterior drawer test demonstrated normal during the physical examinations while the spaces of the posterior tibiotalar joints increased in stress X-ray plain films. ATFL intact and posterolateral ligaments lax were found during operations too. It is important to make existence claims and illuminate the mechanism of posterolateral ankle instability.Methods: A finite element model of the ankle was established for simulating to cut off posterolateral ligaments in turn. Ankle movements with tibia rotation under load on five forefoot positions were simulated as well.Results: The difference values with tibia external rotation were negative, and the positive results occurred with tibia internal rotation. The tibia-talus difference values in some forefoot positions were 2 ~ 3 mm after PTFL together with CFL or/and PITFL were cut off. The tibula-talus difference values were 2.21 ~ 2.76 mm after both PTFL and CFL were cut off. The tibia-fibula difference values were small. The difference values increased by 2 ~ 5 mm after cutting off the PITFL.Conclusions: Posterolateral ankle ligaments, especially CFL and PITFL, play a significant role in maintaining ankle stability. The serious injuries of both CFL and PITFL would affect posterolateral ankle stabilities. PITFL was important to subtalar joint stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous emission lifetime orientation distributions of a two-level quantum emitter in metallic nanorod structures are theoretically investigated by the rigorous electromagnetic Green function method. It was found that spontaneous emission lifetime strongly depended on the transition dipole orientation and the position of the emitter. The anisotropic factor defined as the ratio between the maximum and minimum values of the lifetimes along different dipole orientations can reach up to 10. It is much larger than those in dielectric structures which are only several times usually. Our results show that the localized plasmonic resonance effect provides a new degree of freedom to effectively control spontaneous emission by the dipole orientation of the quantum emitters. PACS: 78.67.Qa; 73.20.Mf; 42.50.-p [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous emission of emitters governing the performance of optoelectronic devices is a fundamental phenomenon, and it has strong environment-dependent characteristics. In this article, we mainly review the experimental and theoretical progresses in the control of spontaneous emission by manipulating optical modes with photonic crystals, optical microcavities and metallic nanostructures. The spontaneous emission from emitters in photonic crystals can be modified by the local density of states, and by employing photonic crystals, the devices’ efficiency is enhanced, the angular radiation pattern can be engineered, and highly efficient optoelectronic devices are achieved through decreasing the radiative lifetime. In quantum optical devices, microcavities would alter the lifetime of an excited state through tuning the resonance in the frequency and positioning between the emitters and cavity field, and inducing the emitters to emit spontaneous photons in a desired direction. The emerging enhanced electromagnetic field near metallic nanostructures can help to control and manipulate the spontaneous emission of an emitter. The use of micro- and nano-structures to manipulate spontaneous emission will open unprecedented opportunities for realizing functional photonic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light-matter interaction in the strong coupling regime enables light control at the single-photon level. We develop numerical method and analytical expressions to calculate the decay kinetics of an initially excited two-level quantum emitter in dielectric nanostructure and single-mode cavity, respectively. We use these methods to discover the dual effects of disorder on the stronglycoupled system composed of a single quantum dot and a photonic crystal L3 cavity. The quality factor is sensitive to disorder, while the g factor and vacuum Rabi splitting are robust against disorder. A small amount of disorder may either decrease or increase the light localization and the light-matter interaction. Our methods offer flexible and efficient theoretical tools for the investigation of light-matter interaction, especially cavity quantum electrodynamics. Our findings significantly lower the requirements for optimization effort and fabrication precision and open up many promising practical possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrate that low refractive-index three-dimensional photonics crystals with a planar defect, fabricated with the direct laser writing method, can be used to effectively enhance the spontaneous emission (SE) of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs). To achieve this, we develop a controllable and reliable method to integrate quantum dots into the defect-embedded photonic crystals (PCs). Although the overlapping of different direction stop gaps in low refractive-index defect-free three-dimensional photonic crystals imposes a challenge to realize spontaneous emission enhancement at the band edge wavelength, we achieve a 15% enhancement of the spontaneous emission by introducing a tailored planar defect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aromatic hydrocarbons are usually metabolized to the central intermediate benzoyl-coenzyme A (CoA) prior to ring cleavage. 6-Oxocyclohex-1-ene-1-carbonyl-CoA hydrolase, a key enzyme involved in the reductive benzene ring cleavage, encoded by the bam A gene can serve as a functional biomarker for detecting anaerobic degradation of aromatic compounds in different environments. In the present study, we examined the diversity the bacterial bam A gene in oil field. We sequenced bam A fragments that were PCR amplified from the microbial biomass of two mesophilic oil producing reservoirs during a period of four months. The results showed the presence and a higher diversity of bam A gene than previous studies, indicating its potential involvement in degrading aromatic hydrocarbons through anaerobic biochemical pathways in oil fields. The bam A gene sequences were affiliated to bacteria that are known to degrade aromatics, including Azoarcus , Georgfuchsia , Sulfuritalea , Peptococcaceae and Syntrophus . Differences of composition and diversity of bam A gene sequences over a period of four months in these oil reservoirs showed that it is necessary to monitor functional genes over a period of time to fully establish their significance to any specific process at any site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]