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The neutrophil : lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet : lymphocyte ratio (PLR), C-reactive protein : albumin ratio (CAR), and albumin : fibrinogen ratio (AFR) have been considered as useful inflammatory biomarkers. However, their roles in Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS)/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) still remain unclear. This study aimed to test whether NLR, PLR, CAR, and AFR serve as predictive markers of disease severity and systemic inflammation in patients with SJS/TEN. This retrospective study included 40 patients with SJS/TEN and 60 healthy controls. The correlation between these markers and severity-of-illness score for toxic epidermal necrolysis (SCORTEN), ABCD-10, procalcitonin (PCT), C-reactive protein (CRP) were analyzed and compared. Univariable and multivariable analysis were used to assess associations of variables with mortality. The receiver-operator curves (ROC) were used to evaluate the predictive value of variables for mortality in SJS/TEN patients. The results demonstrated that the NLR and PLR of SJS/TEN patients were significantly higher and the AFR was significantly lower when compared with healthy controls (p 0.05). The NLR and CAR were positively correlated with SCORTEN, ABCD-10, PCT, and CRP. The NLR in SCORTEN of ≥3 group was significantly higher than that in SCORTEN3 group (p 0.05) and there were no significant differences between PLR, CAR, and AFR between the two groups. The univariate analysis suggested that NLR of5.79 was a risk factor for mortality (odds ratio, 10.5; p 0.05), but the association was no longer statistically significant in multivariable analysis. The ROC showed that NLR had a sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 63.6% for predicting death with a cut-off value of 5.79 (p 0.05) in SJS/TEN patients. In conclusion, among the four markers, NLR and CAR can partially reflect severity and inflammatory status in patients with SJS/TEN. NLR was also a predictor of death.

Background: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a major subtype of esophageal cancers. The five-year survival rate of ESCC is low, and molecular targets for ESCC treatment and prognosis assessment are very limited. T cells are critical for the clearance of cancer cells, and blockade of co-inhibitory molecules for T cell activation has emerged as a promising therapy to treat cancer patients. However, in ESCC patients, co-inhibitory molecules regulating T cell activation are poorly documented. Objective: We aim to evaluate how the presence of inhibitory check-point molecules in T cells could impact the survival of patients. Methods: We performed a follow-up study of 161 patients undergoing resection of esophageal carcinoma from February 2014 to December 2015, by immunohistochemical staining of six co-inhibitory molecules for T cell activation, namely PD-1, CTLA-4, TIM-3, LAG-3, BTLA and A2AR. Expression of each of the six co-inhibitory molecules was analyzed for its correlation with patient survival by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. We also applied Kaplan-Meier analyses to evaluate the concomitant expression of co-inhibitory molecules and their correlation with patient survival. Results: We found that levels of PD-1, TIM-3 and BTLA can be used as independent prognostic factors for the overall survival of patients with ESCC. More importantly, our study found that the co-expression of PD-1 and TIM-3, PD-1 and BTLA, TIM-3 and BTLA significantly reduced the survival of patients with ESCC (P Conclusion: Therefore, our results suggest the necessity of evaluating the tumor tissue expression of co-inhibitory molecules and targeting co-expressed molecules in immunotherapies for ESCC patients.

In this manuscript, a method of generating an ultra-long optical needle (depth-to-width ratio 37.5:1) is proposed and demonstrated by focusing an azimuthally polarized beam. In theory, the action mechanism between the incident beam and the amplitude modulation element, the spiral phase modulation element, the focusing lens were studied based on the Richards and Wolf's theory. The relationship between the intensity distribution of the optical needle and the structure parameter of the element were obtained, thus leading to the complete design model and design standard. In experiment, the annular amplitude modulation element and spiral phase modulation element were fabricated by lithography. The optical needle was obtained based on a custom-designed optical setup in our laboratory. The optical system consists of an annular aperture (3.9-mm inner diameter, 80-μm annular width), a spiral phase plate (topological charge of 1), and an objective lens with numerical aperture of 0.95. Finally, an optical needle with a subwavelength size (0.416λ) and an ultra-long depth of focus (15.6λ) was obtained, showing an excellent agreement with our theoretical model.

BACKGROUND Studies suggested that remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) may effectively lessen the harmful effects of ischemia reperfusion injury during organ transplantation surgery. AIM To investigate the protective effects of RIPC on living liver donors and recipients following pediatric liver transplantation. METHODS From January 2016 to January 2019 at Renji Hospital Affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 208 donors were recruited and randomly assigned to four groups: S-RIPC group (no intervention; n = 55), D-RIPC group (donors received RIPC; n = 51), R-RIPC group (recipients received RIPC, n = 51) and DR-RIPC group (both donors and recipients received RIPC; n = 51). We primarily evaluated postoperative liver function among donors and recipients and incidences of early allograft dysfunction, primary nonfunction and postoperative complications among recipients. RESULTS RIPC did not significantly improve alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase levels among donors and recipients or decrease the incidences of early allograft dysfunction, primary nonfunction, and postoperative complications among recipients. Limited protective effects were observed, including a lower creatinine level in the D-RIPC group than in the S-RIPC group on postoperative day 0 (P < 0.05). However, no significant improvements were found in donors who received RIPC. Furthermore, RIPC had no effects on the overall survival of recipients. CONCLUSION The protective effects of RIPC were limited for recipients who received living liver transplantation, and no significant improvement of the prognosis was observed in recipients.

The imaging quality of sparse aperture telescope systems is degraded by several factors including design, manufacturing, and arrangement errors. To achieve a high-resolution, the optical system requires an accurate control of not only the wave-front errors such as the piston and tip-tilt but also the decenter errors. Decenter diminishes the field of view of synthetic systems heavily and causes frequency shifting as well. In this paper, we firstly present an approach to sense the decenter of the sparse aperture telescope using the multi-beam interference method based on phase shift and centroid extraction algorithm. The most attractive point of our method is that it can sense not only the decenter but also the other wave-front errors simultaneously, but does not need to install any additional sensors. The numerical simulations are described and preliminary experiments are performed for validation, demonstrating that this technique is efficient and accurate and could be used to guide future sparse aperture telescope error correction.

Oral diseases have received considerable attention worldwide as one of the major global public health problems. The development of oral diseases is influenced by socioeconomic, physiological, traumatic, biological, dietary and hygienic practices factors. Currently, the main prevention strategy for oral diseases is to inhibit the growth of biofilm-producing plaque bacteria. Tooth brushing is the most common method of cleaning plaque, aided by mouthwash and sugar-free chewing gum in the daily routine. As the global nutraceutical market grows, marine bioactive compounds are becoming increasingly popular among consumers for their antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. However, to date, few systematic summaries and studies on the application of marine bioactive compounds in oral health exist. This review provides a comprehensive overview of different marine-sourced bioactive compounds and their health benefits in dental caries, gingivitis, periodontitis, halitosis, oral cancer, and their potential use as functional food ingredients for oral health. In addition, limitations and challenges of the application of these active ingredients are discussed and some observations on current work and future trends are presented in the conclusion section.

Objectives. To describe the incidence, risk factors, and potential causes of preterm birth (PTB) in China between 2015 and 2016.Methods. The China Labor and Delivery Survey was a population-based multicenter study conducted from 2015 to 2016. We assigned each birth a weight based on the sampling frame. We calculated the incidence of PTB and the multivariable logistic regression, and we used 2-step cluster analysis to examine the relationships between PTB and maternal, fetal, and placental conditions.Results. The weighted nationwide incidence of PTB was 7.3% of all births and 6.7% of live births at 24 or more weeks of gestation. Of the PTBs, 70.5% were born after 34 weeks and 42.7% were iatrogenic. Nearly two thirds of all preterm births were attributable to maternal, fetal, or placental conditions, and one third had unknown etiology.Conclusions. This study provided information on the incidence of PTB in China and identified several factors associated with PTB. The high frequency of iatrogenic PTB calls for a careful assessment and prudent management of such pregnancies, as PTB has short- and long-term health consequences.

High control bandwidth is usually restricted in a finite sampling rate of a charge-coupled device (CCD)-based tracking loop, which hinders a good closed-loop performance. Conventionally, a rate feedforward controller is usually used to improve the control performance; however, it is restricted by the line-of-sight (LOS) rate, which is required to be estimated due to only the LOS error available in the CCD-based tracking control system. Besides that, it is also affected by the inverse of the control model. A new error-based feedforward (EBF) control mode is proposed to overcome these difficulties. Due to being plugged into an existing feedback control loop, the closed-loop performance of the CCD-based control system can be minimized by optimizing a Q-filter. The closed-loop stability and robustness with this EBF control system are investigated on the condition of the gain margin and the phase margin of the open-loop transfer function. Furthermore, this paper proposes a new criterion to enhance the robustness of the EBF control system and reveals the sensitivity function property. Because of not being restricted by an accurate model, this new feedforward controller cannot lead to a compromise between error attenuation and noise propagation in the control loop. Simulations and experiments are both used to testify the effectiveness of the improved control mode.

Purpose For the purpose of reducing the incidence of hazardous materials transport accident, eliminating the potential threats and ensuring their safety, aiming at the shortcomings in the process of current hazardous materials transportation management, this paper aims to construct the framework of hazardous materials transportation safety management system under the vehicle-infrastructure connected environment. Design/methodology/approach The system takes the intelligent connected vehicle as the main supporter, integrating GIS, GPS, eye location, GSM, networks and database technology. Findings By analyzing the transportation characteristics of hazardous materials, this system consists of five subsystems, which are vehicle and driver management subsystem, dangerous sources and hazardous materials management subsystem, route analysis and optimization subsystem, early warning and emergency rescue management subsystem, and basic information query subsystem. Originality/value Hazardous materials transportation safety management system includes omnibearing real-time monitoring, timely updating of system database, real-time generation and optimization of emergency rescue route. The system can reduce the transportation cost and improve the ability of accident prevention and emergency rescue of hazardous materials.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as three-dimensional printing, is gaining increasing attention from academia and industry due to the unique advantages it has in comparison with traditional subtractive manufacturing. However, AM processing parameters are difficult to tune, since they can exert a huge impact on the printed microstructure and on the performance of the subsequent products. It is a difficult task to build a process–structure–property–performance (PSPP) relationship for AM using traditional numerical and analytical models. Today, the machine learning (ML) method has been demonstrated to be a valid way to perform complex pattern recognition and regression analysis without an explicit need to construct and solve the underlying physical models. Among ML algorithms, the neural network (NN) is the most widely used model due to the large dataset that is currently available, strong computational power, and sophisticated algorithm architecture. This paper overviews the progress of applying the NN algorithm to several aspects of the AM whole chain, including model design, in situ monitoring, and quality evaluation. Current challenges in applying NNs to AM and potential solutions for these problems are then outlined. Finally, future trends are proposed in order to provide an overall discussion of this interdisciplinary area. Keywords: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, Neural network, Machine learning, Algorithm

This overview firstly introduces the state-of-the-art research progress in length scale-related fatigue performance of conventionally-fabricated metals evaluated by miniature specimens. Some key factors for size effects sensitive to microstructures including the specimen thickness, grain size and a ratio between them are highlighted to summarize some general rules for size effects. Then, ongoing research progress and new challenges in evaluating the fatigue performance of additive manufactured parts controlled by location-specific defects, microstructure heterogeneities as well as mechanical anisotropy using miniature specimen testing technique are discussed and addressed. Finally, a potential roadmap to establish a data-driven evaluation platform based on a large number of miniature specimen-based experiment data, theoretical computations and the ‘big data’ analysis with machine learning is proposed. It is expected that this overview would provide a novel strategy for the realistic evaluation and fast qualification of fatigue properties of additive manufactured parts we have been facing to.

Herein, a conceptual approach for significantly enhancing a bead-supported assay is proposed. For the fluorescence imaging technology, optical tweezers are introduced to overcome the fluid viscosity interference and immobilize a single tested bead at the laser focus to guarantee a fairly precise imaging condition. For the selection of fluorescent materials and the signal acquisition means, a type of innovative luminescence confined upconversion nanoparticle with a unique sandwich structure is specially designed to act as an efficient energy donor to trigger the luminescent resonance energy transfer (LRET) process. By further combining the double breakthrough with a molecular beacon model, the newly developed detection strategy allows for achieving a pretty high LRET ratio (≈ 88%) to FAM molecules and offering sound assay performance toward miRNA analysis with a detection limit as low as the sub-fM level, and is capable of well identifying single-base mismatching. Besides, this approach not only is able to accurately qualify the low-abundance targets from as few as 30 cancer cells but also can be employed as a valid cancer early warning tool for performing liquid biopsy.

Nowadays giant segmented telescopes and multiaperture telescopes have grown out of the quest for high-resolution observations in astronomy. One of the major issues is the phasing of such telescopes. A concept of multispectral piston sensing technology is, therefore, re-examined and studied experimentally for the first time. Based on the phase-shifting “Telescope-Interferometer” technology and multispectral information, the multispectral piston sensing technology was assumed to be feasible with the segmented telescopes and multiaperture telescopes. In this paper, the optical scheme for this method has been designed and realized. Experimental tests have been carried out and demonstrated that the method is effective for piston sensing in a large capture range with high-precision despite some instrument-related limitations that can be eliminated. In our tests, the shortest coherent length of the three working spectrums we chose was less than 17.5 μm. Results show that the method successfully handled an amplitude of correction of about ±8 μm with an accuracy of about λ/30 (λ = 535 nm) RMS in our tests, and we can foresee that the capture range can be enlarged if we choose working spectrums with larger coherent lengths.

Acute gut graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) is a leading threat to the survival of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) recipients. Abnormal gut microbiota is correlated with poor prognosis in allo-HSCT recipients. A disrupted intestinal microenvironment exacerbates dysbiosis in GVHD patients. We hypothesized that maintaining the integrity of the intestinal barrier may protect gut microbiota and attenuate aGVHD. This hypothesis was tested in a murine aGVHD model and an in vitro intestinal epithelial culture. Millipore cytokine array was utilized to determine the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in the serum. The 16S rRNA sequencing was used to determine the abundance and diversity of gut microbiota. Combining Xuebijing injection (XBJ) with a reduced dose of cyclosporine A (CsA) is superior to CsA alone in improving the survival of aGVHD mice and delayed aGVHD progression. This regimen also reduced interleukin 6 (IL-6) and IL-12 levels in the peripheral blood. 16S rRNA analysis revealed the combination treatment protected gut microbiota in aGVHD mice by reversing the dysbiosis at the phylum, genus, and species level. It inhibited enterococcal expansion, a hallmark of GVHD progression. It inhibited enterococcal expansion, a hallmark of GVHD progression. Furthermore, Escherichia coli expansion was inhibited by this regimen. Pathology analysis revealed that the combination treatment improved the integrity of the intestinal tissue of aGVHD mice. It also reduced the intestinal permeability in aGVHD mice. Besides, XBJ ameliorated doxorubicin-induced intestinal epithelial death in CCK-8 assay. Overall, combining XBJ with CsA protected the intestinal microenvironment to prevent aGVHD. Our findings suggested that protecting the intestinal microenvironment could be a novel strategy to manage aGVHD. Combining XBJ with CsA may reduce the side effects of current aGVHD prevention regimens and improve the quality of life of allo-HSCT recipients.

Objective: To understand the mental health status and its risk factors among discharged COVID-19 patients during the first month of centralized quarantine and the subsequent home isolation.Methods: The scales of the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used to measure the symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, and depression in 782 COVID-19 patients during the first month of centralized quarantine (March 16 to 26, 2020) and then during home isolation (April 3 to 10, 2020).Results: During the centralized quarantine, the prevalence rates of insomnia, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were 44.37, 31.59, and 27.62%, respectively, and those during the home isolation decreased significantly at 27.11, 17.26, and 16.11%, respectively. In both waves, women showed a higher prevalence of symptoms of poor mental health compared to men, and middle-aged (40–59 years old) and elderly (≥60 years old) showed a higher risk of symptoms of poor mental health compared to the younger. In addition, the severity of COVID-19 revealed no significant relationship to symptoms of poor mental health, whereas, the interaction analysis revealed that those with other underlying diseases showed more symptoms of poor mental health during the centralized quarantine and a greater decrease during the follow-up home isolation.Conclusion: The discharged COVID-19 patients suffered from mental health problems such as, insomnia, depression, and anxiety, and this was especially so for women, the middle-aged and elderly, and those with underlying diseases, but along with the rehabilitation and the environmental change from centralized quarantine to home isolation, all the mental symptoms were significantly alleviated. Based on a follow-up investigation, the current results provide critical evidence for mental health and early rehabilitation upon the discharged COVID-19 patients.

A broadband and high-gain circularly polarized antenna based on electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures is proposed by analyzing the influence of EBG layouts on antenna performances. Compared with the reference circularly polarized antenna, the impedance bandwidth, the axial ratio bandwidth and the broadside gain of the proposed EBG antenna are significantly improved. In addition, the method of optimizing the layout of EBG structures provides a general strategy for designing broadband and high-gain EBG antenna.

The safe operation of converter transformer, whose major insulating structures is comprised of oil-pressboard composite insulation, could be the important guarantee for the reliable power transmission of HVDC system. Due to the presence of DC voltage operating condition, the interface charge accumulation could fail the validity of RC (Resistivity-capacitance) simulation model in the insulation design and optimization. Thus, there has been arising the research focus for the electric field and interface charge characteristics of oil-pressboard insulation structures. Kerr electro-optic effect method, benefiting from the non-contacting laser measuring approach, has been widely adopted for the electric field measurement. However, the common experiment platforms by using Kerr electro-optic effect are mainly based on single-point photodetector indicating. The present paper developed a high-sensitivity photodetector array to accomplish the synchronous and regional measurement for electric field distribution in oil-pressboard insulation with a parallel-plain electrode under DC voltage. The electric fields in oil show a quite uneven distribution characteristics when voltage is applied, and the maximum deviation from different measuring photodiodes could reach 16.6%. With the time prolonging, the electric field in oil tended to decrease, but there witnessed different field strength reduction in different positions in oil, the maximum rate could reach 41.1% with a saturation time of 2960s, while the minimum one is 32.1% and 2530s, respectively. Such witnessed great differences in both distribution and time-dependent characteristics of electric field in different measuring photodiodes were explained by the non-uniformity and anisotropic of resistivity of pressboard. Hopefully, the experiment results in this paper could provide meaningful technical supports for the insulation design of converter transformer.

Norepinephrine (NE) is often administered during the perioperative period of liver transplantation to address hemodynamic instability and to improve organ perfusion and oxygen supply. However, its role and safety profile have yet to be evaluated in pediatric living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). We hypothesized that intraoperative NE infusion might affect pediatric LDLT outcomes. A retrospective study of 430 pediatric patients (median [interquartile range] age, 7 [6.10] months; 189 [43.9%] female) receiving LDLT between 2014 and 2016 at Renji Hospital was conducted. We evaluated patient survival among recipients who received intraoperative NE infusion (NE group, 85 recipients) and those that did not (non-NE group, 345 recipients). The number of children aged over 24 months and weighing more than 10 kg in NE group was more than that in non-NE group. And children in NE group had longer operative time, longer anhepatic phase time and more fluid infusion. After multivariate regression analysis and propensity score regression adjusting for confounding factors to determine the influence of intraoperative NE infusion on patient survival, the NE group had a 169% more probability of dying. Although there was no difference in mean arterial pressure changes relative to the baseline between the two groups, we did observe increased heart rates in NE group compared with those of the non-NE group at anhepatic phase (P=0.025), neohepatic phase (P=0.012) and operation end phase (P=0.017) of the operation. In conclusion, intraoperative NE infusion was associated with a poorer prognosis for pediatric LDLT recipients. Therefore, we recommend the application of NE during pediatric LDLT should be carefully re-considered.

The next generation of optical telescopes will provide high-resolution imaging of celestial objects by using the aperture synthesis technique. To preserve the quality of the image, fast corrections of the pistons among subapertures have to be applied, namely, the co-phasing of the array. The image-based co-phasing method via an optimization procedure has been newly developed. Despite simplicity and strong commonality, when dealing with large piston errors, this correction method is also faced with a problem in which the metric function easily falls into the local convergence, especially in the case of broadband imaging with many subapertures. In this study, an improved stochastic parallel gradient descent (SPGD) algorithm based on heuristic search is proposed for co-phasing, termed the metaheuristic SPGD algorithm. The heuristic research scheme assists the original SPGD algorithm in getting rid of local extrema. By iterations of this algorithm, the synthetic system can be co-phased without any additional instruments and operations. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by means of simulation. Given the efficiency and superiority, it is expected that the method proposed in this study may find wide applications in multi-aperture imaging.

The movable super-diffraction optical needle (MSON) is a tightly focused beam like a &ldquo, needle&rdquo, which can realize vector scanning on the focusing plane. Not only does it have a long focal depth, but its resolution also exceeds the diffraction limit. The modulation and control technology required for generating MSON by oblique incidence is explored in this manuscript for the purpose of processing high-aspect-ratio, sub-wavelength structures. As the optical needle generated by traditional methods is static and sensitive to variation of the angle information of the incident beam, here we introduce a confocal scanning system by using a two-dimensional galvanometer system, a scan lens, and a tube lens to control the oblique incidence angle. The effects of the oblique incidence angle on the resolution, depth of focus, uniformity, and side lobes of the MSON were analyzed. Further, the voltage-controlled liquid crystal located between the scan lens and the 2D galvanometer system can be used to compensate for the additional phase difference caused by oblique incidence. The aspect ratio is defined as the ratio of depth of focus to resolution. By modulating and controlling the light field, the MSON with high aspect ratio (7.36), sub-diffractive beam size (0.42&lambda, ), and long depth of focus (3.09&lambda, ) has been obtained with homogeneous intensity, and suppressed side lobes. High speed, high axial positioning tolerance, and high-resolution laser processing can also be achieved, which removes the restrictions presented by traditional laser processing technology, for which high resolution and long depth of focus cannot be achieved simultaneously.

A frequency tripler is designed based on a dual-mode hybrid coupler for wireless sensing applications. The dual modes of a hybrid coupler are analyzed according to the odd-even mode theory, whose S-parameters are simulated in the advanced design system. Due to the nonlinearities of two diodes at the direct and coupled ports, 3rd harmonics are generated, and entirely coupled to the isolation port while the input port maintains isolated. Two quarter-wavelength short stubs are implemented to reflect all 2nd harmonics with an enhancement of 3rd-harmonic generation. The frequency carrier detuning effect is evaluated from 1.95 to 2.05 GHz, which indicates that the frequency tripler can have more than 100 MHz bandwidth. Theory analysis and simulations have both validated the proposed frequency tripler design for wireless sensing applications.

Background Perioperative ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury during liver transplantation is strongly associated with early allograft dysfunction (EAD), graft loss, and mortality. Hepatic I/R injury also causes remote damage to other organs including the renal and pulmonary systems. Dexmedetomidine (DEX), a selective α2-adrenoceptor agonist which is used as an adjuvant to general anesthesia, has been shown in preclinical studies to provide organ protection by ameliorating the effects of I/R injury in a range of tissues (including the liver). However, prospective clinical evidence of any potential benefits in improving outcomes in liver transplantation is lacking. This study aimed to verify the hypothesis that the application of dexmedetomidine during the perioperative period of liver transplantation can reduce the incidence of EAD and primary graft non-function (PNF). At the same time, the effects of dexmedetomidine application on perioperative renal function and lung function were studied. Methods This is a prospective, single-center, randomized, parallel-group study. Two hundred participants (18–65 years) scheduled to undergo liver transplantation under general anesthesia will be included in this study. For participants in the treatment group, a loading dose of DEX will be given after induction of anesthesia (1 μg/kg over 10 min) followed by a continuous infusion (0.5 μg/kg /h) until the end of surgery. For participants in the placebo group, an equal volume loading dose of 0.9% saline will be given after the induction of anesthesia followed by an equal volume continuous infusion until the end of surgery. All other supplements, e.g., opioids, sedatives, and muscle relaxant, will be identical in both arms and administered according to routine clinical practice. Discussion The present trial will examine whether DEX confers organoprotective effects in the liver, in terms of reducing the incidence of EAD and PNF in orthotopic liver transplantation recipients. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03770130. Registered on 10 December 2018. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03770130

Sepsis is the main cause of death in critically ill patients with no effective treatment. Sepsis is lifethreatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection. As a novel medical gas, molecular hydrogen (H2) has a therapeutic effect on many diseases, such as sepsis. H2 treatment exerts multiple biological effects, which can effectively improve multiple organ injuries caused by sepsis. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of hydrogen involved in the treatment of sepsis remain elusive, which are likely related to anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-apoptosis, regulation of autophagy and multiple signaling pathways. This review can help better understand the progress of hydrogen in the treatment of sepsis, and provide a theoretical basis for the clinical application of hydrogen therapy in sepsis in the future.

To enhance signal acquisition stability and diminish background interference for conventional flow bead-based fluorescence detection methods, we demonstrate here an exceptional microfluidic chip assisted platform by integrating near-infrared optical tweezers with upconversion luminescence encoding. For the former, a single 980 nm laser is employed to perform optical trapping and concurrently excite upconversion luminescence, avoiding the fluctuation of the signals and the complexity of the apparatus. By virtue of the favorable optical properties of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), the latter is carried out by employing two-color UCNPs (Er-UCNPs and Tm-UCNPs) with negligible spectral overlaps. With the assistance of the double key techniques, we fabricated complex microbeads referred to a UCNPs-miRNAs-microbead sandwich construct by a one-step nucleic acid hybridization process and then obtained uniform terrace peaks for the automatic and simultaneous quantitative determination of miRNA-205 and miRNA-21 sequences with a detection limit of pM level on the basis of a special home-built flow bead platform. Furthermore, the technique was successfully applied for analyzing complex biological samples such as cell lysates and human tissue lysates, holding certain potential for disease diagnosis. In addition, it is expected that the flow platform can be utilized to investigate many other biomolecules of single cells and to allow analysis of particle heterogeneity in biological fluid by means of optical tweezers.

Establishment of a stable analytical methodology with high-quality results is an urgent need for screening cancer biomarkers in early diagnosis of cancer. In this study, we incorporate holographic optical tweezers with upconversion luminescence encoding to design an imageable suspension array and apply it to conduct the detection of two liver cancer related biomarkers, carcinoembryonic antigen and alpha fetal protein. This bead-based assay is actualized by forming a bead array with holographic optical tweezers and synchronously exciting the upconversion luminescence of corresponding trapped complex beads fabricated with a simple one-step sandwich immunological recognition. Owing to the fact that these flowing beads are stably trapped in the focal plane of the objective lens which tightly converges the array of the laser beams by splitting a 980 nm beam using a diffraction optical element, a fairly stable excitation condition is achieved to provide reliable assay results. By further taking advantage of the eminent encoding capability of upconversion nanoparticles and the extremely low background signals of anti-Stokes luminescence, the two targets are well-identified and simultaneously detected with quite sound sensitivity and specificity. Moreover, the potential on-demand clinical application is presented by employing this approach to respond the targets toward complex matrices such as serum and tissue samples, offering a new alternative for cancer diagnosis technology.

Gyrotron performance is sensitive to cavity structure parameters, and the cavity shape is temperature dependent due to thermal deformation induced by temperature rise from ohmic loss power on finite-conductivity cavity wall. Accordingly, this paper studies a frequency-tuning scheme for terahertz gyrotron by properly controlling the cavity thermal deformation. By combining gyrotron nonlinear theory and finite-element method software, controllable thermal-frequency-tuning capability of a continuous-wave 263-GHz gyrotron is systematically investigated, toward maintaining gyrotron operating under gyromonotron condition in frequency-tuning band, and achieving high efficiency in broadband frequency-tuning range. After studying cavity thermal distribution, structure deformation, and electron beam–wave interaction, an optimized cavity structure with transition sections on both ends is proposed. Simulation predicts that with the two-transition-section cavity, via additional thermal tuning, the continuous-frequency-tuning band is capable of reaching 1.75 GHz, which is 5 times of the initial bandwidth. Furthermore, using the thermal-frequency-tuning technology, impressive high efficiency above 17% is obtainable in the whole frequency-tuning range.

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) detecting technology is used to locate and track a hidden object through scattered light after three reflections. This technology is expected to be applied in automatic driving, danger rescue, etc. Herein, we improve the real-time performance of NLOS detection in two aspects. Firstly, we introduce the method of dynamic programming to detect extremely weak signals from the hidden object based on current and previous information, which can unmix the target signal from noise at a shorter exposure time. Secondly, we simplify the positioning method by extracting the time difference from the histogram and training a feed-forward network that speeds up the process of spatial positioning. Based on the improvements, we demonstrated fast tracking experiments in a corridor 20 m away, tracking a moving hidden object at framerates of 50 Hz. These improvements make NLOS fast detection a step forward.

Incoherent Pattern-illuminated Fourier ptychography (IFP) is a newly developed super-resolution method, where accurate prior knowledge of translation positions is essential for image reconstruction. To release this limitation, we propose a pre-processing algorithm capable of extracting translation positions of the structure light directly from raw images of IFP, termed translation position extracting (TPE). TPE mainly involves two steps. First, the speckle parts mixed in the acquired raw images, in which the illumination motion is encoded, are isolated by intensity averaging and division. Then the cross-correlations of the speckle dataset are computed to determine the shift positions. TPE-IFP improves the previous IFP by removal of the requirement for prior knowledge of translation positions. Its effectiveness is demonstrated by obtaining high-quality super-resolution images in absence of location information in both simulations and experiments. By further relaxing the practical conditions, the proposed TPE may accelerate the applications of IFP. What's more, as a pre-processing approach, TPE might also contribute to the estimation of pattern positions for the similar speckle-based imaging.

The Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) equipment observes surface charge accumulation under DC or AC voltage in real operation, which could distort the electric field and incur flashover eventually. With a 3D high-resolution surface charge measurement system established on actual 220 kV GIS basin insulator, the present research captured the surface charge distribution characteristics of the insulator under DC and AC voltage through high-precision probe scanning on the insulator surface. The test results show that: 1) Surface charge demonstrates obvious polarity effect under DC voltage. Under positive DC voltage, there accumulated mainly positive surface charges. Under negative DC voltage, the polarity of accumulated surface charges is all negative. Regardless of charge polarities, the surface charge density increases as the voltage amplitudes mounts and the voltage application duration prolongs. 2) Surface charge accumulation also takes place under AC voltage application. All charges are negative and distribute in a uniformed manner but in smaller density comparing to the DC scenario. As the voltage amplitudes increase, the surface charge density first increases, then decreases and finally reaches a near saturation state. As voltage application goes on, the surface charge accumulation becomes more obvious. Above all, the insulation issues in relation to surface charge accumulation require due attention in the application and maintenance of GIS equipment, and the present research attempts to provide useful reference for the optimal design of GIS/GIL insulators.

Terahertz applications urgently require high performance and room temperature terahertz sources. The gyrotron based on the principle of electron cyclotron maser is able to generate watt-to-megawatt level terahertz radiation, and becomes an exceptional role in the frontiers of energy, security and biomedicine. However, in normal conditions, a terahertz gyrotron could generate terahertz radiation with high efficiency on a single frequency or with low efficiency in a relatively narrow tuning band. Here a frequency tuning scheme for the terahertz gyrotron utilizing sequentially switching among several whispering-gallery modes is proposed to reach high performance with broadband, coherence and high power simultaneously. Such mode-switching gyrotron has the potential of generating broadband radiation with 100-GHz-level bandwidth. Even wider bandwidth is limited by the frequency-dependent effective electrical length of the cavity. Preliminary investigation applies a pre-bunched circuit to the single-mode wide-band tuning. Then, more broadband sweeping is produced by mode switching in great-range magnetic tuning. The effect of mode competition, as well as critical engineering techniques on frequency tuning is discussed to confirm the feasibility for the case close to reality. This multi-mode-switching scheme could make gyrotron a promising device towards bridging the so-called terahertz gap.

In this paper, prebreakdown streamers in transformer oil and transformer oil-based TiO2 nanofluid were observed by the schlieren method under positive lightning impulse voltage. Streamers in the nanofluid have numerous branches with much shorter length, whereas in the pure oil, they exhibit only certain filaments with longer length. The discrepancy in positive streamer pattern of both oils is further investigated under a range of applied voltages. The complexity of streamer patterns was quantitatively described using the fractal analysis method. Results indicate that the fractal dimension of streamer patterns shows different changing tendencies in both oils, and it keeps higher value in the nanofluid than that in pure oil during the whole propagation process, well corresponding with streamer propagating structures. Moreover, a new parameter, the ratio of fractal dimension to propagation length (D/L), is introduced to classify the complex streamer patterns for the first time. Three propagation zones in both nanofluid and pure oil are clearly categorized by the value of D/L, providing a quantitative way to distinguish the streamer patterns.

The electric field distribution of the oil-pressboard structure under impulse voltage provides vital reference for the design of transformer insulation. The electric field distribution under impulse voltage is usually held equivalent to that of the capacitive field and calculated by simulation software. An appropriate margin to the calculation results is then selected according to the allowable strength. The design value identified in such a manner, however, falls short of support and verification of actual measurement. The present paper proposes a non-contact real-time measuring method to explore the electric field distribution of the oil-pressboard structure under impulse voltage, using a created measuring apparatus that is composed of optical system, photoelectric converter device, sealed cavity, and impulse voltage generator. Calibrated and verified by a pair of plate electrodes which generated uniform electric field along the propagating direction of the laser beam, the measured values proved to tally well with the actual values of the electric field in terms of both variation trend and numerical value. The minimum sensitivity of the established measuring apparatus was recorded as 3.5 kV/mm and the maximum deviation was 3.6%.

A minigyrotron scheme controlled by a compact pulse magnet to excite broadband terahertz (THz) radiation is presented here. In comparison to an open-cavity circuit, the adopted prebunched backward-wave interaction circuit can expand tuning bandwidth tenfold under the control of time-varying magnetic field strength, which also significantly extends the available duration time of the pulse magnet for gyrotron operation. A quasi-optical mode convertor and a Brewster window constitute the output system to transfer the broadband radiation from the circuit into free space. A systematic gyrotron design is also presented. Driven by a low-voltage electron beam, the minigyrotron is predicted to generate radiation with 10-GHz tuning bandwidth around 0.33 THz and a maximum peak power of 2.1 kW with 6-ms pulse duration, using a TE6,2 mode interaction. Such a THz gyrotron with broad tunable bandwidth, kilowatt level power, and with the unique advantage of a compact configuration is the key to high-power THz scientific and industrial applications.

In this Letter, we report a Golay3 sparse-aperture telescope newly built in the Key Laboratory of Optical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and present the experimental results of enhanced resolution. The telescope consisting of 3 collector telescopes of 127 mm diameter can achieve a theoretical resolution corresponding to a monolithic aperture of 245 mm diameter. It is shown by the experimental results that the resolution is improved to 3.33 μrad with respect to the diffraction limit of 6.07 μrad for a single aperture using the Rayleigh criteria at 632 nm. The compact optical configuration and cophasing approach are also described.

In this paper, our recently developed spatial modulation diversity technology (SMDT) is first used to correct the blurring and restore the lost midband contrast of synthetic images based upon an actual sparsely filled aperture system, specifically a binocular telescope testbed consisting of two horizontally arranged collector telescopes with 127 mm diameter. Synthetic images are obtained with the testbed cophased by an optimization algorithm. Diversity images are generated by using electronic shutter to modulate the transmittance of each subaperture, alternately. We capture two independent datasets corresponding to different objects regarded as the reference of each other. Then an improved algorithm of SMDT for real sparse aperture systems is proposed to restore the synthetic imagery by processing the datasets. The experimental results that the reconstructed images present high quality and contrast and that the repeatable wavefront measurements show a good agreement demonstrate the availability of SMDT for image restoration in actual multiaperture systems.

Aiming at the fact that distributed multi-channel hybrid network-induced delays and noise interference may deteriorate the control performance of hybrid networked control systems, distributed event-triggered hybrid wired-wireless networked control with $${H_2}/{H_\infty }$$ filtering is proposed. A distributed event-triggered mechanism is firstly employed to reduce communication burden, and two Markov chains are used to respectively describe different characters of network-induced delays of hybrid wired-wireless networks. Then, a $${H_2}/{H_\infty }$$ filter is employed to improve the input signal precision of the controller, where a general closed-feedback filtering and control system model with distributed event-triggered parameters and network-induced delays of hybrid wired-wireless networks is proposed. Furthermore, the designed filter and controller enable the closed-feedback filtering and control system to be stochastic stability and to achieve a prescribed $${H_2}/{H_\infty }$$ performance, and the relationships between the stability criteria and the maximum network-induced delays, distributed event-triggered parameters, the filter and controller parameters and the system performance parameter are established. Finally, simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Compared with the overhead transmission line, gas insulated transmission lines (gil) occupies less land area, has higher insulation reliability, and is increasingly widely used in the field of power transmission. under actual working conditions, gil will withstand a variety of voltages, such as ac, dc and impulse voltages. under such conditions, electric charges will accumulate on the surface of the gil tri-post insulator, which will enhance local electric field and affect the surface flashover voltage. based on the measurement method of electrostatic capacitance probe, a surface charge measurement device for gil tri-post insulator was developed in this paper to capture the surface charge accumulation characteristics of tri-post insulator under different voltages insf6. according to the structural characteristics of the tri-post insulator, a set of three-dimensional motion control mechanism is designed to control four probes to scan the surface of insulator in the post zone, the sphere zone and the junction zone of post and sphere with high precision. the calibration experimental results show that the system has high sensitivity and accuracy. for the side probe of post zone, the charge resolution is 0.0290c/(m2·nv) and the spatial resolution is 4.6mm2, for the 1# arc probe of post zone, the charge resolution is 0.0237c/(m2·nv) and the spatial resolution is 5.1mm2, for the 2# arc probe of post zone, the charge resolution is 0.0245c/(m2·n v) and the spatial resolution is 5.0mm2, for the sphere probe, the charge resolution is 0.0165c/(m2·n v) and the spatial resolution is 6.7mm2

The flashover phenomenon of insulator is the main cause for the insulating failure of GIS. One of the most critical factors that impacts the surface flashover voltage is the accumulation of surface charge which can even severely restrict the performance of insulators. Therefore, it is very necessary to find a way to restrain the accumulation of surface charge on the insulators. The common methods to restrain the surface charge accumulation on the insulators were reviewed in this paper. Through the reasonable comparison and analysis for those methods, the way of nano-coatings for insulators was selected to restrain the accumulation of surface charge on the basin insulators of GIS. The raw materials and formula of nano-coating materials were developed in this paper. The effective experiments were also carried out to test the suppression of nano-coatings for the surface charge accumulation on the GIS basin insulators. The experimental results indicated that, the nano-coatings can effectively restrain the accumulation of surface charge and improve the distribution of electric field on the insulator under DC and AC voltage, the maximum degree of the suppression for the surface charge under DC voltage can reach 51.2%, while under AC voltage it is 9.3%.

Progressive neurological deterioration poses enormous burden on the aging population with ischemic stroke and neurodegenerative disease patients, such as Alzheimers’ disease and Parkinson’s disease. The past two decades have witnessed remarkable advances in the research of neurovascular unit dysfunction, which is emerging as an important pathological feature that underlies these neurological disorders. Dysfunction of the unit allows penetration of blood-derived toxic proteins or leukocytes into the brain and contributes to white matter injury, disturbed neurovascular coupling and neuroinflammation, which all eventually lead to cognitive dysfunction. Recent evidences suggest that aging-related oxidative stress, accumulated DNA damage and impaired DNA repair capacities compromises the genome integrity not only in neurons, but also in other cell types of the neurovascular unit, such as endothelial cells, astrocytes and pericytes. Combating DNA damage or enhancing DNA repair capacities in the neurovascular unit represents a promising therapeutic strategy for vascular and neurodegenerative disorders. In this review, we focus on aging related mechanisms that underlie DNA damage and repair in the neurovascular unit and introduce several novel strategies that target the genome integrity in the neurovascular unit to combat the vascular and neurodegenerative disorders in the aging brain.

Noise estimation for image sensor is a key technique in many image pre-processing applications such as blind de-noising. The existing noise estimation methods for additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Poisson-Gaussian noise (PGN) may underestimate or overestimate the noise level in the situation of a heavy textured scene image. To cope with this problem, a novel homogenous block-based noise estimation method is proposed to calculate these noises in this paper. Initially, the noisy image is transformed into the map of local gray statistic entropy (LGSE), and the weakly textured image blocks can be selected with several biggest LGSE values in a descending order. Then, the Haar wavelet-based local median absolute deviation (HLMAD) is presented to compute the local variance of these selected homogenous blocks. After that, the noise parameters can be estimated accurately by applying the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to analyze the local mean and variance of selected blocks. Extensive experiments on synthesized noised images are induced and the experimental results show that the proposed method could not only more accurately estimate the noise of various scene images with different noise levels than the compared state-of-the-art methods, but also promote the performance of the blind de-noising algorithm.

Fatigue life scattering and prediction of Inconel 718 fabricated by selective laser melting were investigated using miniature specimen tests combined with statistical method and machine learning algorithms. The relationship between pore features and fatigue life of the selective laser melting-fabricated specimens was analyzed statistically. The results show that the increase in the size and/or the number of the pores in the specimens, and/or the decrease in the distance from a pore center to the specimen surface degraded the fatigue life. The machine learning and statistical analysis results reveal that the fatigue life are most closely related to the location of the pores compared with the size and the number of pores in the specimens. The finding may provide a potential way to get high-throughput statistical data helping in evaluating defect-dominated scattering and prediction of fatigue life of additive manufactured metallic parts using miniature specimen testing assisted by the machine learning approach.

In order to meet the surface modification and repair requirements of 8407 hot extrusion die, Y2O3 powder and WC powder were added as strengthening phases into an H13 powder. The coatings were strengthened through laser-cladding and then applied on the surface of 8407 steel. XRD, SEM, EDS, and Vickers high-temperature hardness tests were used to analyze the properties of the laser-cladding coating, such as its phase composition, microstructure, high-temperature hardness, and high-temperature stability. The M7C3 composite strengthening phase was evenly distributed throughout the entire coating in a three-dimensional reticular shape, resulting in a uniform hardness distribution. The addition of Y2O3 accelerated the decomposition of WC particles, which increased the uniformity of the laser-cladding coating. The hardness of the laser-cladding coating at room temperature was 818.7 HV, which was 48.4% higher than that of the substrate, and its hardness at 500 °C was 555.6 HV, which was 32.3% higher than that of the substrate. The hardness values of the laser-cladding coatings at different holding times were roughly the same as 8407 steel. After holding for a certain time at different high temperatures, the hardness of the laser-cladding coatings was double that of 8407 steel.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an awful threat to human health. Early-stage HCC may be detected by isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood samples, which is beneficial to the diagnosis and therapy. However, the extreme rarity and high heterogeneity of HCC CTCs have been restricting the relevant research. To achieve an efficient isolation, reliable detection and subtype analyses of heterogeneous HCC CTCs, herein, we present a cell sorting strategy based on anti-CD45 antibody-modified magnetic nanospheres. By this strategy, leukocyte depletion efficiency was up to 99.9% within 30min in mimic clinical samples, and the purity of the spiked HCC cells was improved 265-317-fold. Besides, the isolated HCC cells remained viable at 92.3% and could be directly recultured. Moreover, coupling the convenient, fast and effective cell sorting strategy with specific ICC identification via biomarkers AFP and GPC3, HCC CTCs were detectable in peripheral blood samples, showing the potential for HCC CTC detection in clinic. Notably, this immunomagnetic cell sorting strategy enabled isolating more heterogeneous HCC cells compared with the established EpCAM-based methods, and further achieved characterization of three different CTC subtypes from one clinical HCC blood sample, which may assist clinical HCC analyses such as prognosis or personalized treatment.

Theoretical investigation of a broadband quasi-optical mode converter for 330-GHz TE62 mode gyrotron application is presented. The converter consists of a Vlasov launcher and three reflector mirrors. Special considerations, including a Vlasov launcher with reasonably large aperture radius and optimized combination of two elliptic reflectors and a bifocal parabolic reflector, are the keys to achieve broadband mode converting. The optimized internal converter is well compatible with the gyrotron electron-optical system and generates Gaussian beam with efficiency higher than 80% in an extraordinary broadband range between 310 and 340 GHz. The principle of the broadband converter can also be applied to gyrotron amplifiers.

Terahertz (THz) gyrotron with broadband tuning capability is attractive for advanced applications, such as dynamic nuclear polarization enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance (DNP-NMR). However, it is challenging to realize broadband continuous frequency tuning (CFT) in a conventional open cavity, in which the quality ( $Q$ ) factor scaling law results in abrupt axial-mode $Q$ -factor differences and narrow tuning range because of power switch off during higher order axial mode transition. In this paper, a novel cavity scheme based on formation of a local field is proposed to break the $Q$ -factor scaling law and expand the CFT band. The field shaping with a local standing-wave formation is constructive in enhancing the $Q$ factor of high-order axial modes in a low- $Q$ open cavity, which obviously extends the CFT band and simultaneously reduces ohmic loss. Besides, a nonlinear up-tapered section of a parabolic-tapered waveguide is applied to reduce the power fluctuation in the axial mode transition process. In the preliminary design, a CFT band wider than 2 GHz with a minimum output power of 1 W is theoretically demonstrated in the TE8,2 mode 0.33-THz second-harmonic DNP-gyrotron with an ultralow voltage of 2.1 kV via magnetic field tuning.