Search

Objectives Non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL ± P) is one of the most common birth malformations. Currently, numerous susceptibility SNPs have been reported by GWA studies, however, the replications of them among NSCL ± P from Han Chinese were very limited. Design In this study, we selected 16 SNPs around 1q32.2 based on the published GWA studies and replicated them among 302 trios with NSCL ± P from Han Chinese Population. The genotypic data was analyzed with FBAT, PLINK and R package. Setting The study was conducted in a tertiary medical center. Patients, participants 302 patients with CL ± P and their parents. Main outcome measures To ascertain the genetic variants in 1q32.2 in patients with CL ± P in Han Chinese Population. Interventions Blood samples were collected. Results We found T allele ( Z = 4.26, p = 0.00002) and T/T homozygotes ( Z = 4.4, p = 0.000011) at rs12063989 was significantly over-transmitted among non-syndromic cleft lip with or without cleft palate (NSCL ± P). Conclusions We found rs12063989 exhibited significant association with the occurrence of NSCL ± P, which would provide new evidence for the future study in the etiology of NSCL ± P.

This study aimed to establish a novel gouty ulcer rat model induced by monosodium urate (MSU) deposition and preliminarily explored how MSU crystals affected wound healing. MSU crystals were subcutaneously injected into the back of rats to simulate tophi formation and ulceration. Ultrasound was used to detect the formation of gouty tophi. MSU crystal deposition and histopathological changes were analysed by haematoxylin-eosin staining. After the skin over the tophi became broken in the model group, a full-thickness tissue defect of the same area was made on the backs of the phosphate buffered saline (PBS) controls. On Days 3, 7, and 14 after wounding, the infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages and the expression of inflammatory markers, including interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), were examined by immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting, respectively. After the first subcutaneous injection in rats, local tissues showed redness and swelling, indicating inflammation on approximately Day 14. Tophi-like manifestations appeared on approximately Day 18. Tophi appeared heterogeneously hyperechoic by ultrasound. Swelling and redness in injured tissue areas increased on approximately Day 22, skin tissue necrosis was seen in a small area on approximately Day 26, and skin necrosis was enlarged and the tophi were ulcerated on approximately Day 32, accompanied by yellowish-white, chalky secretions. Haematoxylin and eosin staining showed dermal deposition of needle-like crystals with surrounding granulomatous inflammation. On Days 3, 7, and 14 after wounding, immunohistochemical staining showed the infiltration of neutrophils and macrophages, and the expression of inflammation-related proteins (IL-1β, TNF-α, and NLRP3) were upregulated in gouty ulcers compared with those of PBS controls. The gouty ulcers were not completely healed by Day 14 compared with those in the PBS controls. In this study, a novel gouty ulcer rat model was constructed, which also revealed the existence of persistent chronic inflammation.

Sleep is a natural phenomenon controlled by the central nervous system. The sleep-wake pattern, which functions as an essential indicator of neurophysiological organization in the neonatal period, has profound meaning in the prediction of cognitive diseases and brain maturity. In recent years, unobtrusive sleep monitoring and automatic sleep staging have been intensively studied for adults, but much less for neonates. This work aims to investigate a novel video-based unobtrusive method for neonatal sleep-wake classification by analyzing the behavioral changes in the neonatal facial region. A hybrid model is proposed to monitor the sleep-wake patterns of human neonates. The model combines two algorithms: deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) and support vector machine (SVM), where DCNN works as a trainable feature extractor and SVM as a classifier. Data was collected from nineteen Chinese neonates at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. The classification results are compared with the gold standard of video-electroencephalography scored by pediatric neurologists. Validations indicate that the proposed hybrid DCNN-SVM model achieved reliable performances in classifying neonatal sleep and wake states in RGB video frames (with the face region detected), with an accuracy of 93.8 ± 2.2% and an F1-score 0.93 ± 0.3.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a pandemic with serious clinical manifestations including death. A pandemic at the large-scale like COVID-19 places extraordinary demands on the world's health systems, dramatically devastates vulnerable populations, and critically threatens the global communities in an unprecedented way. While tremendous efforts at the frontline are placed on detecting the virus, providing treatments and developing vaccines, it is also critically important to examine the technologies and systems for tackling disease emergence, arresting its spread and especially the strategy for diseases prevention. The objective of this article is to review enabling technologies and systems with various application scenarios for handling the COVID-19 crisis. The article will focus specifically on 1) wearable devices suitable for monitoring the populations at risk and those in quarantine, both for evaluating the health status of caregivers and management personnel, and for facilitating triage processes for admission to hospitals; 2) unobtrusive sensing systems for detecting the disease and for monitoring patients with relatively mild symptoms whose clinical situation could suddenly worsen in improvised hospitals; and 3) telehealth technologies for the remote monitoring and diagnosis of COVID-19 and related diseases. Finally, further challenges and opportunities for future directions of development are highlighted.

The dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) has been recognized as a key cortical area for nociceptive modulation. However, the underlying neural pathway and the function of specific cell types remain largely unclear. Here, we show that lesions in the dmPFC induced an algesic and anxious state. Using multiple tracing methods including a rabies-based transsynaptic tracing method, we outlined an excitatory descending neural pathway from the dmPFC to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Specific activation of the dmPFC/vlPAG neural pathway by optogenetic manipulation produced analgesic and antianxiety effects in a mouse model of chronic pain. Inhibitory neurons in the dmPFC were specifically activated using a chemogenetic approach, which logically produced an algesic and anxious state under both normal and chronic pain conditions. Antagonists of the GABA(A) receptor (GABA(A)R) or mGluR1 were applied to the dmPFC, which produced analgesic and antianxiety effects. In summary, the results of our study suggest that the dmPFC/vlPAG neural pathway might participate in the maintenance of pain thresholds and antianxiety behaviors under normal conditions, while silencing or suppressing the dmPFC/vlPAG pathway might be involved in the initial stages and maintenance of chronic pain and the emergence of anxiety-like behaviors.

Study Purpose Malignant central airway obstruction (CAO) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with high morbidity and requires endobronchial palliative treatment to re-establish a free air passage. We investigate intratumoral therapy combining anti-angiogenic and cytotoxic as a feasible therapeutic modality to treat malignant CAO. Study Design Ten NSCLC subjects with symptomatic malignant CAO underwent endobronchial intratumoral cisplatin and Endostar co-injection after tumour debulking next to systemic cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Injection was performed immediately after debulking surgery and was then carried out on day 2, day 6 and day 10 past systemic chemotherapy. Nine subjects of control group constantly received traditional cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Bronchoscopy, CT scanning, histology, FEV1/FVC ratio, Karnofsky performance (KPS) and shortness of breath scores were analysed to assess therapeutic efficacy. Results All 10 subjects benefited from the intratumoral cisplatin and endostar co-injection and systemic chemotherapy combination therapy. Bronchoscopy and CT scanning analyses showed a massive airway widening after treatment. Increased KPS and reduced shortness of breath score were also observed. A substantial improvement of lung function was further confirmed by increased FEV1/FVC ratio. For subjects of control group, the improvement was moderate and obviously not as optimal as the 10 subjects with intratumoral injection. Conclusions We have shown that the intratumoral injection of cytotoxic cisplatin plus anti-angiogenic Endostar is an effective and safe adjuvant therapeutic option to treat malignant CAO in clinical practice. This time-staggered local and systemic treatment combination improves quality of life and clinical parameters, thus may provide a feasible therapeutic option for symptomatic CAO.

Hydrogenolysis of xylitol can produce value-added glycols and alcohols for industrial chemicals. However, it is often carried out under elevated temperature and pressure, causing unfavorable cataly...

A temperature-insensitive magnetic field sensor with high interrogation performance and large measurement range based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) merging a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the OEO loop, a finite impulse response (FIR)-microwave photonic filter (MPF) and an infinite impulse response-MPF are cascaded to select the oscillating frequency and further suppress the side mode. The center frequency of the FIR-MPF, which is composed of a non-coherent broadband optical source, a MZI, a dispersion compensating fiber (DCF), and a photodetector, is determined by dispersion of DCF and the free spectral range (FSR) of the MZI jointly. In one arm of the MZI, a section of optical fiber is bonded with a giant magnetostrictive material (GMM) to achieve the magnetic field sensing, where the GMM is acted as a magnetic field-strain transducer. When the magnetic field varies, the FSR of the MZI will be changed, resulting in an oscillating frequency shift of the OEO. Therefore, a high interrogation performance magnetic field measurement can be achieved by simply monitoring frequency change of microwave signal generated by OEO in the microwave domain. Moreover, by placing a section of unprocessed fiber with appropriate length in the other arm of the MZI, the temperature cross-talk for the magnetic field can be alleviated greatly. In the experiment, the magnetic field sensitivity of 1.33 MHz/mT with a large range of 20.9 mT to 58 mT is obtained and the measurement error induced by temperature is as low as 0.09 mT.

Most industrial hydrogenation processes are conducted under elevated temperature and pressure. Catalytic transfer hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis, in the absence of externally added hydrogen, is known...

BackgroundDermatitis is an important global health problem that not only affects social interaction and physical and mental health but also causes economic burden. Health problems or distress caused by dermatitis may be easily overlooked, and relevant epidemiological data are limited. Therefore, a better understanding of the burden of dermatitis is necessary for developing global intervention strategies.MethodsAll data on dermatitis, including atopic dermatitis (AD), contact dermatitis (CD) and seborrhoeic dermatitis (SD), were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 (GBD2019) database. The extracted age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) rates (ASDR) data were analysed by stratification, including by sex, country or region, and sociodemographic index (SDI) indicators. Finally, we analysed the correlation between the global burden of dermatitis and socioeconomic development status.ResultsAccording to the GBD 2019 estimate, the ASIR and ASDR for the three major types of dermatitis in 2019 were 5244.3988 (95% CI 4551.7244–5979.3176) per 100,000 person-years and 131.6711 (95% CI 77.5876–206.8796) per 100,000 person-years. The ASIR and ASDR of atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and seborrhoeic dermatitis are: Incidence (95%CI,per 100,000 person-years), 327.91 (312.76-343.67), 3066.04 (2405.38-3755.38), 1850.44 (1706.25- 1993.74); DALYs (95%CI, per 100,000 person-years), 99.69 (53.09-167.43), 28.06 (17.62-41.78), 3.93 (2.24-6.25). In addition, among the three dermatitis types, the greatest burden was associated with AD. According to the ASDR from 1990 to 2019, the burden of dermatitis has exhibited a slow downward trend in recent years. In 2019, the ASIR showed that the USA had the greatest burden, while the ASDR showed that Asian countries (such as Japan, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan) and some European countries (France, Estonia) had the greatest burden. According to SDI stratification and the three major dermatitis types, high ASIR and ASDR corresponded to high SDI areas (especially for AD).ConclusionThe burden of dermatitis is related to socioeconomic development status, especially for AD, which is positively correlated with the SDI. The results based on GBD2019 data are valuable for formulating policy, preventing and treating dermatitis and reducing the global burden of dermatitis.

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a malignant epithelial tumor originating from the bronchial epithelium that shows keratosis and/or intercellular bridges. Papillary squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is an extremely rare subtype of SCC that manifests with a unique intrabronchial papillary growth pattern. Surgical resection is still the first recommendation for localized noninvasive SCC. However, some patients are not candidates for surgical resection. With the development of interventional pulmonology, bronchoscopic interventional therapy has played a key role in the treatment of central airway tumors. Here, we report a case of noninvasive PSCC in the airway treated with an electric snare, argon plasma coagulation (APC), and cryotherapy. After removing the tumor by electrotomy, cryotherapy, and APC, the tumor was injected with Endostar 15 mg (3 ml) and cisplatin 20 mg (diluted to 3 ml with 0.9% normal saline) in six separate sites, once every 21 days. The tumor was eliminated, and the treatment was stopped after four treatment cycles. During the 1-year follow-up, there was no recurrence of PSCC in the airway. In this case, submucosal injections of Endostar combined with cisplatin was a feasible and effective endoscopic method for treating a low-grade intratracheal malignant tumor.

Background Tai Chi has been shown to improve motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD), but its long-term effects and the related mechanisms remain to be elucidated. In this study, we investigated the effects of long-term Tai Chi training on motor symptoms in PD and the underlying mechanisms. Methods Ninety-five early-stage PD patients were enrolled and randomly divided into Tai Chi (n = 32), brisk walking (n = 31) and no-exercise (n = 32) groups. At baseline, 6 months and 12 months during one-year intervention, all participants underwent motor symptom evaluation by Berg balance scale (BBS), Unified PD rating-scale (UPDRS), Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and 3D gait analysis, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), plasma cytokine and metabolomics analysis, and blood Huntingtin interaction protein 2 (HIP2) mRNA level analysis. Longitudinal self-changes were calculated using repeated measures ANOVA. GEE (generalized estimating equations) was used to assess factors associated with the longitudinal data of rating scales. Switch rates were used for fMRI analysis. False discovery rate correction was used for multiple correction. Results Participants in the Tai Chi group had better performance in BBS, UPDRS, TUG and step width. Besides, Tai Chi was advantageous over brisk walking in improving BBS and step width. The improved BBS was correlated with enhanced visual network function and downregulation of interleukin-1β. The improvements in UPDRS were associated with enhanced default mode network function, decreased L-malic acid and 3-phosphoglyceric acid, and increased adenosine and HIP2 mRNA levels. In addition, arginine biosynthesis, urea cycle, tricarboxylic acid cycle and beta oxidation of very-long-chain fatty acids were also improved by Tai Chi training. Conclusions Long-term Tai Chi training improves motor function, especially gait and balance, in PD. The underlying mechanisms may include enhanced brain network function, reduced inflammation, improved amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism and neurotransmitter metabolism, and decreased vulnerability to dopaminergic degeneration. Trial registration This study has been registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (Registration number: ChiCTR2000036036; Registration date: August 22, 2020).

Introduction: Long-term diabetes may cause oculomotor nerve palsy and anxiety disorder. Diabetic oculomotor nerve palsy is usually accompanied by diplopia, ptosis and eye movement disorders. The oculomotor nerve is often separated into superior and inferior divisions; diabetic third cranial nerve palsy may affect either division in isolation. However, anxiety disorder and alternating bilateral ptosis as the first symptoms of diabetes are extremely rare. Case Presentation: This case report describes a 63-year-old female patient who was admitted to the hospital for anxiety disorder with bilateral alternating ptosis. The patient had no diplopia or other new focal neurological symptoms. A neurological examination revealed left upper eyelid ptosis; other findings were negative. Except for hyperglycemia (13.96 mmol/L) and glycated hemoglobin (7.9%), laboratory tests showed no other abnormalities. The patient eventually recovered in a short time after a comprehensive treatment, including effective blood glucose control, microcirculation improvement and anxiety management. Conclusion: The upper eyelid droop caused by long-term diabetes may result in anxiety disorder. A comprehensive treatment may be considered for the patients admitted to the hospital for diabetes and its vascular neuropathy.

Objective: Classification of sleep-wake states using multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) data that reliably work for neonates. Methods: A deep multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network is developed to classify sleep-wake states using multichannel bipolar EEG signals, which takes an input vector of size 108 containing the joint features of 9 channels. The network avoids any post-processing step in order to work as a full-fledged real-time application. For training and testing the model, EEG recordings of 3525 30-second segments from 19 neonates (postmenstrual age of 37 ± 05 weeks) are used. Results: For sleep-wake classification, mean Cohen's kappa between the network estimate and the ground truth annotation by human experts is 0.62. The maximum mean accuracy can reach up to 83% which, to date, is the highest accuracy for sleep-wake classification.

We report a dual-wavelength fiber laser sensor based on a uniform fiber Bragg grating (UFBG) and a Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film-coated long-period grating (LPG) as sensor probe for simultaneous detection of relative humidity (RH) and temperature. Two UFBGs and the LPG were inscribed in three single mode fibers utilizing phase/amplitude mask technology and mobile scanning technique via the 248 nm UV laser. In our experiment, the RH function based on the differential intensity measurement at dual-wavelength output from 30% to 85% is in a quadratic equation, and the RH sensitivity coefficient of 0.358 dB/% shows good linear relationship and stability from 55% to 85%. Meanwhile, the temperature sensitivity coefficients based on wavelength detection and differential intensity detection are 9.1 pm/°C and 0.21 dB/°C, respectively. The structure of dual-wavelength fiber laser sensor with high signal to noise ratio (SNR), narrow spectral width and good stability enables simultaneous measurement of the RH and temperature with high accuracy and good repeatability.

Objective: In a randomised controlled trial, we investigated the blood pressure (BP) lowering effect of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in patients with moderate-severe obstructive sleep...

To investigate the impact of preoperative immunological and nutritional status, using the prognostic nutritional index (PNI), on completion of planned adjuvant chemotherapy (AC), and the potential additive effects of low PNI and incomplete AC on gastric cancer-specific survival (CSS) after curative resection of stage II/III gastric cancer (GC). Medical records of 1288 consecutive stage II/III GC patients who underwent curative resection and planned to receive AC between November 2010 and December 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The optimal cut-off value of PNI for CSS was determined by X-tile. The independent predictive factors for incomplete AC were identified using univariate and multivariate analyses. Cox regression analyses assessed the association of low PNI, incomplete AC and CSS. Of the 1288 patients, 406 (31.5%) completed at least six cycles of AC within 6 months following initial of AC (complete AC). Low PNI (

Purpose – As the well-known Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm implies, risk structure of a corporation may affect its risk management activity and the activity may in turn determine its performance. Depending on its goal, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can shape its risk structure, risk management and its performance. Under this assumption, we investigate the relationship between the goals of FDI and risk management for the first time in academics. Design/methodology – This empirical research uses a survey of 279 current Korean enterprises’ FDIs in China with the recently developed business risk quadrant model. Companies are classified into either a market- or an efficiency-seeking group, to identify how each group perceives and manages risks, and values the performance of risk management. Also, we apply integrated risk management method that multinational corporations have introduced in China, then verify the mediating effect between risk factors and performance. Findings – Our research shows the FDIs can expose themselves to differing risk structure although risk management activities simply represent the level of empowerment given to local management by headquarter due to limit of sample size despite diversity of risk and risk management tools. To sum, market seekers are found to have more strategic risk (revenue related risk) than efficiency seekers with financial risk (cost related risk). The market seekers can manage their risk by empowering their local organisation while the efficiency does the opposite ways. The risk management appears to be successful in general. Originality/value – Previous studies on small and medium enterprises’ FDIs to China have concentrated on the analysis of entry determinants, withdrawal factors and individual risk management. Meanwhile, this research establishes enterprise-wide risk factors faced by the companies that advance into China, according to the method of the classification by ERM and verifies if they could synthetically improve performance through risk corresponding measures.

In the research of intelligent grids, people usually pay attention to the interaction between power source and load to absorb more new energy. In contrast, the utilization of power source and load on grid resources is less considered, and energy-grid-load is not fully explored. The profound benefits and value of the three interactions. To this end, the paper proposes the interactive mode and method of power supply, power grid, and load based on full-cost electricity price. The power source side needs to consider the impact of transmission costs when optimizing economic dispatch; the load side needs to calculate the full-cost electricity price based on the power flow tracking method, clarify the load’s use of power and grid resources, and reflect the “who benefits, who bears the cost” Principles and introduce demand-side response to reflect the meaning and value of full-cost electricity prices. The research found that the calculation example analysis based on the IEEE30-node system verifies that the method in this paper can reasonably allocate the cost of the power grid according to the user’s utilization of power grid resources, thereby improving the efficiency, fairness, orderliness and safety of power grid investment and operation.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic disease characterized by mucosal and submucosal inflammation, which has a low cure rate and is prone to relapse, due to the immune imbalance of the body. Inhibition of inflammation‐related pathways can delay the progression of UC. Toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway is considered to be one of the important signaling pathways involved in colon inflammation. Eriodictyol (EDT) is a natural flavonoid widely distributed in foodborne plants. EDT plays an important role in the regulation of inflammation and related signaling pathways. However, whether EDT plays a role in UC remains unknown. Herein, we established a TNBS induced animal model of enteritis in Wistar rats. Our data confirmed the establishment of TNBS induced animal model of enteritis and the administration Eriodictyol in Wistar rats. EDT treatment alleviated TNBS‐induced intestinal tissue injury in rats. We further found that EDT reduced MPO expression and regulated the cytokine parameters in TNBS‐induced intestinal tissues of rats. The levels of TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐6, IL‐10, IL‐2, and IL‐12 were also affected by the treatment of EDT. EDT also affected SOD, CAT, GSH‐Px, and MDA level in rats with colitis. Moreover, EDT regulated TNBS‐induced TLR4/NF‐κB pathway activation, therefore inhibiting the progression of UC. Our results suggest that EDT could be a potential therapeutic agent for UC.

The modern equipment is developing in the direction of complexity and integration, and the traditional diagnosis methods can’t adapt to the changes of equipment. With the development of deep learning, deep learning algorithms are gradually used in the field of fault diagnosis. Most of these algorithms ignore the correlation between data when extracting features from multi-source data. In response to the above problem, this paper proposes a fault diagnosis algorithm based on Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory, which can extract the correlation features between multi-source data. Through the experiment on the simulated operating data of the heating furnace of steel rolling, the algorithm of this paper has a high fault recognition rate.

Background: Decubitus ulcers (DUs) have no cure and are of significant health and economic concern worldwide. Data about the global and regional variations in the levels and trends of decubitus ulcer are required to learn the burden of this disease and help decision makers effectively allocate resources. Here we aimed to summarize the incidence, mortality and disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) caused by decubitus ulcer and evaluate its association with socioeconomics in 204 countries and territories between 1990 and 2019. Methods: The incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) rates attributed to decubitus ulcer were obtained from GBD 2019, which were stratified by country and territory, sex, and level of Socio-demographic Index (SDI). The association between burden of decubitus ulcers and socioeconomic development status, represented in SDI, was also described. All of the estimates are reported as counts and age-standardized rates per 100 000 person-years. Results: In 2019, the age-standardized incidence rate of DU was 41·8 (95% CI 37·8-46·2) per 100,000 persons, which decreased from 46·5 to 41·8 per 100,000 persons from 1990 to 2019. DU was also responsible for 481422·8 (374,333·9-583,429·1) DALYs globally in 2019, with its deaths accounted for 24,388·6 (17,299·1-31,260·8) at the global level. Between 1990 and 2019, the age-standardized DALYs rate decreased from 7·8 to 6·2 per 100,000 persons and the age-standardized death rate decreased from 0·4 to 0·3 per 100,000 persons. From 1990 to 2019, males exhibited higher incidence and DALYs rates for DU than females, whereas females have higher death rate than males in the same period. The incidence, death and DALYs rates of DU increased non-linearly with age. Stratified using SDI, high, high-middle and middle SDI locations recorded the highest age-standardized incidence and DALYs rates compared to that were lower in low-middle and low SDI locations. The age-standardized DALYs rate in the high SDI locations showed particularly decreasing trend (−40·2% [-47·4 to -29·9]) compared to that in low, low-middle, middle, and high-middle SDI locations. Interpretation: There is a pronounced association between socioeconomic development status and global burden of decubitus ulcer. Higher burden of DU-related incidence rate noted for rich countries, and the highest decreasing trend of DALYs rate was also identified in high SDI countries. Data of GBD 2019 are valuable for the development and evaluation of DU-specific prevention measures and resource allocation, particularly in countries with high incidence or increasing burden. Funding: This work was supported by grants from Starting Package of Xiang'an Hospital of Xiamen University (PM201809170010). Declaration of Interest: We declare no competing interests.

Deep brain stimulation of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a therapeutic option for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in whom medical therapies have been ineffective. This retrospective cohort study analyzed the motor function of 27 patients with advanced PD, from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China, who received deep brain stimulation of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus and evaluated its therapeutic effects. The 10-year follow-up data of patients was analyzed in Qingyuan People’s Hospital, Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China. The follow-up data were divided into two categories based on patients during levodopa treatment (on-medication) and without levodopa treatment (off-medication). Compared with baseline, the motor function of on-medication PD patients improved after deep brain stimulation of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus. Even 2 years later, the motor function of off-medication PD patients had improved. On-medication PD patients exhibited better therapeutic effects over the 5 years than off-medication PD patients. On-medication patients’ akinesia, speech, postural stability, gait, and cognitive function worsened only after 5 years. These results suggest that the motor function of patients with advanced PD benefitted from treatment with deep brain stimulation of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus over a period up to 5 years. The overall therapeutic effects were more pronounced when levodopa treatment was combined with deep brain stimulation of the bilateral subthalamic nucleus. This study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Qingyuan People’s Hospital, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China (approval No. QPH-IRB-A0140) on January 11, 2018.

Objective In this paper, we propose to evaluate the use of pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) as a features extractor followed by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to find the best discriminant features to perform classification using support vector machine (SVM) algorithm for neonatal sleep and wake states using Fluke® facial video frames. Using pre-trained CNNs as a feature extractor would hugely reduce the effort of collecting new neonatal data for training a neural network which could be computationally expensive. The features are extracted after fully connected layers (FCL’s), where we compare several pre-trained CNNs, e.g., VGG16, VGG19, InceptionV3, GoogLeNet, ResNet, and AlexNet. Results From around 2-h Fluke® video recording of seven neonates, we achieved a modest classification performance with an accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 65.3%, 69.8%, 61.0%, respectively with AlexNet using Fluke® (RGB) video frames. This indicates that using a pre-trained model as a feature extractor could not fully suffice for highly reliable sleep and wake classification in neonates. Therefore, in future work a dedicated neural network trained on neonatal data or a transfer learning approach is required.

As one of the thalamic midline nuclei, the thalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVT) is considered to be an important signal integration site for many descending and ascending pathways that modulate a variety of behaviors, including feeding, emotions, and drug-seeking. A recent study has demonstrated that the PVT is implicated in the acute visceral pain response, but it is unclear whether the PVT plays a critical role in the central processing of chronic pain. Here, we report that the neurons in the posterior portion of the PVT (pPVT) and their downstream pathway are involved in descending nociceptive facilitation regarding the development of neuropathic pain conditions in male rats. Lesions or inhibition of pPVT neurons alleviated mechanical allodynia induced by spared nerve injury (SNI). The excitability of pPVT-central amygdala (CeA) projection neurons was significantly increased in SNI rats. Importantly, selective optogenetic activation of the pPVT-CeA pathway induced obvious mechanical hypersensitivity in naive rats. In addition, we used rabies virus (RV)-based and cell-type-specific retrograde transsynaptic tracing techniques to define a novel neuronal circuit in which glutamatergic neurons in the vlPAG were the target of the pPVT-CeA descending facilitation pathway. Our data suggest that this pPVTGlu+-CeA-vlPAGGlu+circuit mediates central mechanisms of descending pain facilitation underlying persistent pain conditions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTStudies have shown that the interactions between the posterior portion of the thalamic paraventricular nucleus (pPVT) and central amygdala (CeA) play a critical role in pain-related emotional regulation. However, most reports have associated this circuit with fear and anxiety behaviors. Here, an integrative approach of behavioral tests, electrophysiology, and immunohistochemistry was used to advance the novel concept that the pPVT-CeA pathway activation facilitates neuropathic pain processing. Using rabies virus (RV)-based and cell-type-specific retrograde transsynaptic tracing techniques, we found that glutamatergic neurons in the vlPAG were the target of the pPVT-CeA pathway. Thus, this study indicates the involvement of a pPVTGlu+-CeA-vlPAGGlu+pathway in a descending facilitatory mechanism underlying neuropathic pain.

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, interrogation scheme based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) with high sensitivity and high speed response for a fiber optical current sensor utilizing a reflective interferometer is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Due to the Faraday effect, a magneto-optic phase shift induced by current variation is generated between two orthogonal light waves. The polarization-dependent properties of the Mach–Zehnder modulator are used to convert the magneto-optic phase shift into the phase difference between the optical carrier and sideband, which is then mapped to the oscillating frequency shift by closing an OEO loop. A high current sensitivity of 152.5 kHz/A with a range of 0–2.5 A is obtained in the experiment.

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common neoplastic disease originating from the pancreas. Increasing evidence indicates that platelets activation plays a prominent role in tumor and T2DM. Mean platelet volume (MPV) is an indicator of activated platelets and is altered in several cancers. The current study aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of MPV in resectable PDAC patients with T2DM. Methods Eight hundred and three patients with PDAC were included in this retrospective study. We determined the optimal cutoff value of MPV for 5-year overall survival (OS) using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) method. The associations between MPV levels and clinical characteristics were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox’s proportional hazard regression model were used to evaluate the prognostic value of MPV for OS. Results Compared to the PDAC patients without T2DM, MPV levels were significantly higher in the PDAC patients with T2DM. Moreover, MPV was significantly associated with the differentiation between T2DM and non-T2DM. In addition, Kaplan-Meier analysis found that patients with low MPV levels had a poorer 5-year OS than patients with high MPV levels in diabetic patients. Multivariate analyses revealed that MPV was an independent prognostic factor for OS in patients with T2DM. However, the independent prognostic role of MPV was not observed in patients without T2DM. Conclusion MPV independently predicts poor survival in PDAC patients with T2DM. Prospective studies are required to confirm the role of MPV in PDAC.

OBJECTIVES Non-syndromic cleft lip with or without palate is one of the most common birth malformations. TP63 and GREM1 were recently reported to be associated with NSCL/P. However, there were few studies focused on their associations in non-syndromic cleft lip only (NSCLO). DESIGN Initial screening and replication in large cohorts were used to locate the susceptible SNPs of TP63 and GREM1. Firstly, variations were screened among 192 NSCLO cases by the Sanger sequencing. Then, we selected five associated SNPs in initial screening phase and replicated among 1,006 NSCLO cases and 1,823 normal controls. RESULTS Initial chi-square test showed that rs7653848, rs7624324, rs6790167, and rs1345186 in TP63 and rs2280738 in GREM1 achieved statistical significance (p

Objectives This study aimed to initially screen more susceptible variations at PAX9 gene in non-syndromic cleft palate only cases and then test their associations in independent non-syndromic orofacial cleft subtypes from Western Han Chinese population. Design Initially exons at PAX9 gene were screened for variations among 180 non-syndromic cleft palate only patients by the Sanger sequencing method, and the genotype data from 1000 Genomes Project Database was taken as control to perform Chi-square test. Subsequently, we performed association analysis among 2202 non-syndromic orofacial cleft patients (938 non-syndromic cleft palate only cases, 456 non-syndromic cleft lip only cases and 808 non-syndromic cleft lip and palate cases) and 1823 normal controls to replicate the role of two significant single nucleotide polymorphisms. Results Two intronic single nucleotide polymorphism rs12885612 (P = 0.047, OR = 0.671 and 95−0.996) and rs12881248 (P = 0.047, OR = 1.006 and 95 %CI: 0.443−0.995) were associated non-syndromic cleft palate only in the initial screen phase. Surprisingly, in replication analysis rs12885612 (P = 0.048, OR = 1.25, 95 %CI: 1.0–1.56) and rs12881248 (P = 0.037, OR = 1.26, 95 %CI: 1.01−1.57) exhibited significant association signal in non-syndromic cleft lip only group, but not in non-syndromic cleft palate only group. Conclusion In summary, this study firstly revealed that rs12885612 and rs12881248 at PAX9 gene associated with non-syndromic cleft lip only from Western Han Chinese population, which indicated that PAX9 is a promising susceptible gene for non-syndromic cleft lip only in Western Han Chinese population.

In China, the current high reliance on chemical nitrogen (N) in agriculture has resulted in low N use efficiency and high N loss. Reducing N fertilizer input is necessary for environmental protection, but it has not been attractive to Chinese farmers because of insufficient increase in net income. Reduced use of N fertilizer might be attractive if reduced N combined with organic fertilizer could increase rice yield. Therefore, a three-year field trial and a 15N micro-plot experiment were conducted to study the effect of organic fertilizer combined with chemical N on rice yield, NH3 loss and the fate of 15N in an intensive rice cropping system in Taihu Lake region. Six treatments were used: control (0 N, zero N application), organic N alone (OrgN, 41 kg N ha−1), local farmers’ N practice (FN, 300 kg N ha−1), reduced N (RN, 225 kg N ha−1), organic fertilizer combined with FN (FN + OrgN) and organic fertilizer combined with RN (RN + OrgN). Compared to chemical N, organic fertilizer markedly increased soil organic matter content, promoted grain N accumulation, and improved rice production. Organic fertilizer treatments showed 11%–13% higher yield and 4%–5% higher net economic benefit over FN for three years. Organic fertilizer produced high NH4+ in the floodwater and increased NH3 loss. Although FN + OrgN had significantly higher 15N-NH3 loss than FN, it increased soil residual 15N and decreased 15N loss by 29%. There was no significant difference of yield and NEB between FN + OrgN and RN + OrgN, while RN + OrgN was superior to FN + OrgN because of the lower NH3 loss and higher N recovery efficiency (NRE). Therefore, organic fertilizer is an economically attractive practice to increase NRE and rice yield without increasing chemical N input.

The present study investigates the effects of heat stress on the kidney in broilers, based on previous findings which showed that heat stress caused cardiac damage in broilers. Further, the possible renoprotective role of aspirin and the heat shock proteins HSP60 and HSP47 was also investigated. The enzyme levels of urea and uric acid, which are indicators of renal damage, and lactate dehydrogenase, an indicator of oxidative damage, were measured in chickens that were only exposed to heat stress, chickens that were pretreated with aspirin before heat stress, and chickens that were only treated with aspirin. Further, histological examination of renal tissue from the three groups was also performed. Finally, expression of HSP60 and HSP47 was also examined. In the heat stress group, the enzyme measurements were indicative of renal dysfunction and oxidative damage, and the histological findings were indicative of renal ischemia and damage. Aspirin seemed to have a protective effect against the renal damage caused by the stress, based on the enzyme measurements and histopathological findings in the aspirin-treated group. The findings also indicate that aspirin may induce HSP60 and HSP47 expression in renal cells. Finally, the expression patterns of HSP60 and HSP47 indicated that they may play a renoprotective role, as their expression was higher in the aspirin-treated groups. In conclusion, the present findings show that heat stress causes renal damage in poultry and that aspirin may play a protective role against this damage via pathways that involve HSP60 and HSP47.

Purpose Allogeneic blood transfusions (BTF) are sometimes inevitable during radical gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy for advanced gastric cancer. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the association between BTF and post-operative infections, focusing on the impact of timing, amount of transfusion and the role of leukocyte depletion. Methods The study cohort was 2064 patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer from November 2010 to August 2017. The association between BTF and post-operative infections was estimated by univariate and multivariate analyses after propensity score matching. Subgroup analysis was performed according to the timing and amount of transfusion, and leukocyte depletion or not. Results Out of a total 2064 patients, 426 (20.6%) received peri-operative BTF. After one-to-one matching, 361 pairs of patients were included for further analysis, of who 68 (9.4%) developed infections. Multivariate analysis identified that an operation time ≥ 240 min, combined multi-organ resection, BTF and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 were independent risk factors for post-operative infection. Patients given a high-volume (> 7.5 U), intra-operatively of leukocyte-non-depleted BTF had the highest risk of developing infections clarified by subgroup analysis. Conclusion Infection was the most common complication following gastrectomy for gastric cancer and BTF was identified as an independent risk factor by propensity score matching and multivariate analyses. The timing, amount of transfusion and leukocyte depletion had an impact on the incidence of infection. To decrease infection, BTF should be avoided where possible, particularly during operation, with a large amount and leukocyte-not-depleted blood.

Antireflection sub-wavelength structures (SWSs) on ZnS were designed and ZnS SWSs with HfO2 protective film were prepared, and their properties in long-wave infrared applications were examined and compared to AR coatings. The SWS has good antireflection performance and exhibits less polarization sensitivity than the AR coating. At temperatures above 500 °C, the SWS with HfO2 protective film has a better thermal endurance property than the multilayer AR coating. Moreover, the HfO2 protective film significantly improved the mechanical properties of the ZnS SWS and was similar to HfO2 covered AR coating when the HfO2 film was not broken. This study shows that the ZnS SWS with HfO2 protective film has promising application prospects in infrared optical windows.

One of the classical features observed in patients with burn injury is hyperglycemia. There have been previous reports that a cohort of microRNAs (miRNAs) is differentially expressed in the dermis of patients with burn injury. More specifically, it has been shown that the miR-194 can target the insulin-like growth factor receptor 1 (IGF1R) and silence its protein expression resulting in hyperglycemia. The objective of the current study was to discover if additional miRNA-mediated post-transcriptional mechanism exists that lead to suppression of IGF1R protein expression post-burn injury. Using the 30% total body surface area (TBSA) model of burn injury in rats we found that the miRNA let-7b can target IGF1R and downregulate its protein expression, in turn attenuating PI3K/Akt and Gsk3β activation leading to hyperglycemia. Increased let-7b expression was significantly more than the previously reported miR-194 both in the burn rats compared to sham and in patients with burn injury compared to healthy subjects. Serum from burn rats also resulted in decreased IGF1R protein expression in rat L6 myotubes. In vivo targeting of let-7b by antagomir mitigated the effect of increased let-7b expression on IGF1R protein expression and hyperglycemia. Thus targeting let-7b might be a promising approach to treat hyperglycemia in patients with burn injury.

// Zhi-na Wang 1, * , Dan Liu 1, 2, * , Bin Yin 3 , Wen-yi Ju 3 , Hui-zhong Qiu 4 , Yi Xiao 4 , Yuan-jia Chen 1 , Xiao-zhong Peng 3 and Chong-mei Lu 1 1 Department of Gastroenteology and Hepatology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China 2 Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China 3 National Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China 4 Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Chong-mei Lu, email: lcm5788@163.com Xiao-zhong Peng, email: pengxiaozhong@pumc.edu.cn Keywords: polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1, cortactin, colorectal cancer, splicing, invasion Received: June 13, 2016 Accepted: January 23, 2017 Published: March 03, 2017 ABSTRACT Polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (PTBP1) involving in almost all steps of mRNA regulation including alternative splicing metabolism during tumorigenesis due to its RNA-binding activity. Initially, we found that high expressed PTBP1 and poor prognosis was interrelated in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with stages II and III CRC, which widely different in prognosis and treatment, by immunohistochemistry. PTBP1 was also upregulated in colon cancer cell lines. In our study, knockdown of PTBP1 by siRNA transfection decreased cell proliferation and invasion in vitro . Denovirus shRNA knockdown of PTBP1 inhibited colorectal cancer growth in vivo . Furthermore, PTBP1 regulates alternative splicing of many target genes involving in tumorgenesis in colon cancer cells. We confirmed that the splicing of cortactin exon 11 which was only contained in cortactin isoform-a, as a PTBP1 target. Knockdown of PTBP1 decreased the expression of cortactin isoform-a by exclusion of exon 11. Also the mRNA levels of PTBP1 and cortactin isoform-a were cooperatively expressed in colorectal cancer tissues. Knocking down cortactin isoform-a significantly decreased cell migration and invasion in colorectal cancer cells. Overexpression of cortactin isoform-a could rescue PTBP1-knockdown effect of cell motility. In summary the study revealed that PTBP1 facilitates colorectal cancer migration and invasion activities by inclusion of cortactin exon 11.

Edge caching is a promising technology to alleviate the burden on backhaul and improve the quality of experience (QoE) of users in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled mobile edge networks, which has played an important role in wireless communication systems. However, owing to the selfish nature and limited battery life of the user equipments (UEs), only a limited part of the caching resources will be shared by the UEs. To drive the UEs to share more caching resources to improve the social welfare of the UAV-enabled mobile edge network, in this paper, we jointly design an edge caching strategy and reward contract optimization scheme. Aiming to maximize the utility of the UAV, a joint edge caching and contract optimization problem is formulated. Firstly, a novel edge caching strategy is proposed based on the content popularity. Then, an optimal reward contract is designed by reducing the restrictions. Finally, the system performance of the designed caching strategy and reward contract is evaluated compared with two benchmark caching schemes with no incentives. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme performs better than the other two schemes in terms of the utilities of the UAV and UEs, which proves the efficiency of our proposed scheme.

Neurological manifestations are frequently reported in the COVID-19 patients. Neuromechanism of SARS-CoV-2 remains to be elucidated. In this study, we explored the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 neurotropism via our established non-human primate model of COVID-19. In rhesus monkey, SARS-CoV-2 invades the CNS primarily via the olfactory bulb. Thereafter, viruses rapidly spread to functional areas of the central nervous system such as hippocampus, thalamus and medulla oblongata. The infection of SARS-CoV-2 induces the inflammation possibly by targeting neurons, microglia and astrocytes in the CNS. Consistently, SARS-CoV-2 infects neuro-derived SK-N-SH, glial-derived U251 and brain microvascular endothelial cells in vitro. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental evidence of SARS-CoV-2 neuroinvasion in the NHP model, which provides important insights into the CNS-related pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. Funding Statement: This study was supported by the National Research and Development Project of 5 China (2020YFC0841100, 2020YFC0846400, 2020YFA0707600), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2016-I2M-2-006, 2020-I2M-CoV19-012) and Major special Projects in Yunnan Province (Establishment of animal model of novel coronavirus infection and development of emergency vaccine). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests. Ethics Approval Statement: All animal procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Institute of Medical Biology, Chinese Academy of Medical Science (ethics number: DWSP202002001).

The aim of this retrospective study was to develop and validate a nomogram for predicting the risk of post-operative pulmonary infection (POI) in gastric cancer (GC) patients following radical gastrectomy. 2469 GC patients who underwent radical gastrectomy were enrolled, and randomly divided into the development and validation groups. The nomogram was constructed based on prognostic factors using logistic regression analysis, and was internally and crossly validated by bootstrap resampling and the validation dataset, respectively. Concordance index (C-index) value and calibration curve were used for estimating the predictive accuracy and discriminatory capability. Sixty-five (2.63%) patients developed POI within 30 days following surgery, with higher rates of requiring intensive care and longer post-operative hospital stays. The nomogram showed that open operation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), intra-operative blood transfusion, tumor located at upper and/or middle third and longer operation time (≥4 h) in a descending order were significant contributors to POI risk. The C-index value for the model was 0.756 (95% CI: 0.675−0.837), and calibration curves showed good agreement between nomogram predictions and actual observations. In conclusion, a nomogram based on these factors could accurately and simply provide a picture tool to predict the incidence of POI in GC patients undergoing radical gastrectomy.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the gene mutation characteristics of chronic neutrophilic leukaemia (CNL).Method: This study retrospectively analyses the molecular biological char...

Simple Summary Feline mammary tumor (FMT) is a relatively commonly diagnosed neoplasm in the cat. Development of new veterinary cancer therapies is limited by the shortage of in vivo models that reproduce tumor microenvironment and metastatic progression. In this study, FMT patient-derived xenografts (PDX) model were established and primary cell line isolated from orthotopic PDX. The tumor grafts conserve original tumor essential features, including distant metastasis. FMT-PDX represents an available resource for bridging the biology of FMT with preclinical studies of FMT in cats. Abstract Feline mammary tumor is a relatively commonly diagnosed neoplasm in the cat. Development of new veterinary cancer therapies is limited by the shortage of in vivo models that reproduce tumor microenvironment and metastatic progression. Four feline mammary tumor orthotopic patient-derived xenograft model (PDX) successfully established in NOD-SCID gamma (NSG) mice. The overall success rate of PDX establishment was 36% (4/11). Histological, immunohistochemical, and short tandem repeat analysis showed a remarkable similarity between patient’s tumor and xenograft. The tumor grafts conserve original tumor essential features, including distant metastasis. Primary FMT-1807 cell line isolated from FMT-1807PDX tumor tissue. Tumorigenicity of FMT-1807 cells expanded from PDX was assessed by orthotopic injection into NSG mice. Mice yielded tumors which preserve the lung and liver metastasis ability. This work provides a platform for FMT translational investigation.

A temperature self-calibrated potential of hydrogen (pH) sensor based on the single mode fiber-tapered dual core photonic crystal fiber-single mode fiber (SMF-TDCPCF-SMF) structure cascaded with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and demonstrated. The TDCPCF structure formed Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is modified with a coating of graphene oxide/polyvinyl alcohol (GO/PVA) hybrid hydrogel to realize the measurement of pH, and the uncoated FBG is used to calibrate temperature. In our experiment, the sensitivity coefficient of 0.69 nm/pH with R2=0.99 and the hysteresis loss of less than 0.007 are achieved within the pH range from pH 4.00 to pH 9.85. The measured response time from pH 7.00 to pH 4.00, 6.00 and 9.85 are no higher than 10s. Moreover, the resonant wavelengths of MZI and FBG also exhibit good linear relationship with the temperature sensitivity coefficient of 0.15 nm/°C (R2=0.99) and 0.09 nm/°C (R2=0.97) respectively. It is demonstrated successfully that the proposed sensor has broad application prospects in the field of environmental monitoring, biological sensing and chemical analysis, due to the good performance of the temperature self-calibrated pH monitoring, repeatability, linearity, response time and reversibility.

We carried out a detailed investigation on a compact in-line multimode single-mode multimode (MSM) fiber structure. Both theoretical modal and experimental setup were established to demonstrate the transmission characteristics and the corresponding responses of the applied strain and temperature. The proposed structure simply involves a section of the single-mode fiber (SMF) spliced to two sections of multimode fiber (MMF) and lead-in and lead-out SMFs. The excited environment-sensitive cladding modes together with the fundamental mode in the central SMF form a typical Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI). We analyzed the transmission characteristics of the different length of the middle SMF and the MMF in detail. In the experiment, we obtained the extinction ratio of the MSM fiber structure based MZI comb spectrum which was up to 20 dB, and sensitivities of 0.7096 pm/μe (0–2000 μe) and 44.12 pm/°C (10–70 °C), which proved the potential sensing applications of the proposed fiber structure.

A switchable single-polarization (SP), dual-wavelength thulium-doped fiber laser using polarization maintaining (PM) Fabry–Perot (F–P) filter is proposed. A combination of the PM F–P filter, a polarization controller (PC) and a polarizer is used to ensure the SP lasing operation. A stable dual-wavelength lasing operation is obtained at 1941.82 nm and 1942.21 nm. By adjusting the PCs, the proposed laser can achieve SP single-wavelength lasing operation; the polarization extinction ratios are higher than 33 dB. When the pump power is higher than 2.98 W, the optical signal-to-noise ratios of the SP single-wavelength operation can reach 60 dB, and the output power variations are less than 0.32 dB ( X -polarization) and 0.30 dB ( Y -polarization). The slope efficiencies of SP lasing operation are 6.26% ( X -polarization) and 8.79% ( Y -polarization), respectively.

A novel approach to the optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) for the generation of a microwave signal with simultaneously frequency and phase tunability is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed OEO, a carrier phase-shifted double-sideband modulated optical signal generated using a dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) is split into two parts. For one part, the signal is injected into a photodetector (PD) after passing through a section of high nonlinear fiber and then fed back into the DPMZM to form an OEO loop. The stimulated Brillouin scattering effect is used to select the oscillation frequency which equals to the Brillouin frequency shift. For the other part, a carrier phase-shifted single-sideband modulated signal is achieved by a tunable filter, and then converts to a microwave signal by a second PD. The tunable phase of the generated microwave signal is achieved by controlling the bias voltage of the DPMZM to change the phase difference between the optical carrier and the sideband. Thanks to the wavelength-dependent effect of the Brillouin frequency shift, the tunable frequency is realized by tuning the frequency of the laser source. Microwave signals with a tunable frequency from 8.950 to 9.351 GHz and a tunable phase from 0° to 360° are experimentally generated.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is threatening human physical and mental health. The features of mild and severe cases of COVID-19 may be different, and the impact of psychological intervention is not clear. It is necessary to analyze clinical and psychological characteristics of COVID-19 patients simultaneously. Objective: To evaluate the clinical and psychological differences between mild and severe COVID-19 patients and determine the efficacy of psychological intervention on the patients. Methods: Clinical and psychological data of the patients with COVID-19 were collected. The patients were grouped into mild and severe groups according to their clinical symptoms, and subdivided into psychological intervention group and non-psychological intervention group according to whether they received psychological intervention. The efficiency of psychological interventions in patients with emotional disorder was further explored. Results: 162 participants were included in this study (severe group: 41 patients, mild group: 121 patients), 72 of them received psychological assessment. The demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of mild and severe cases were quite different. Most patients in both groups showed mild to moderate anxiety and depression at admission. After psychological intervention for about three weeks, psychological scale scores (HAMA and HAMD score) of patients in the psychological intervention group (n=54) were significantly lower than those in the non-psychological intervention group (n=18) (P

The virtual disassembly and assembly system based on computer virtual reality technology has been rapidly developed and applied. However, the current virtual disassembly system and assembly based on the hierarchy model and association model does not consider the problem of selective disassembly, which leads to inconsistency between virtual disassembly and actual disassembly. Aiming to solve the problem, introduces the concept of skipping disassembly path on the basis of the original disassembly system based on the hierarchical relationship and the association relationship model, and perfects and optimizes the disassembly and assembly structure model based on the hierarchical relationship model and the association relationship model. The sequence planning of the disassembly model after introducing the shipping disassembly path was carried out．And the combination and reduction of disassembling units in the course of disassembly decision was described. Finally, a selective disassembly algorithm based on the association relationship model is established. With the marine oil separator for example verification. The results show that the model can better solve the actual problem of selective disassembly which improved the authenticity and user experience of the virtual disassembly and assembly system, and has great influence on the application development of the virtual disassembly and assembly system.