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The overall aim of this research was to investigate the differences in the expression of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) in human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) between a periodontal healthy group and a periodontal inflammatory group. and explore the possible mechanism involved.Differences in PD-L1 mRNA and protein expression in HGFs from a periodontal healthy group and a periodontal inflammatory group were examined by qPCR and western blotting, respectively, and were further tested after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in both groups. The effects of a p38 pathway inhibitor on the changes in p38 phosphorylation levels and PD-L1 expression after LPS stimulation were investigated in both groups.PD-L1 mRNA and protein levels in HGFs in the periodontal inflammatory group were significantly higher than those in the periodontal healthy group (p0.05). After 10 μg/mL LPS stimulation, PD-L1 mRNA levels in HGFs from both groups increased significantly (p0.05), peaking at 4 h, and the peak was significantly higher in the periodontal inflammatory group than in the periodontal healthy group (p0.05). However, PD-L1 protein expression was upregulated only in the inflammatory group (p0.05). Inhibition of the p38 pathway in HGFs decreased p38 phosphorylation in both groups (p0.05) but this treatment reversed the LPS-induced increase in PD-L1 mRNA and protein levels only in the inflammatory group (p0.05).In the periodontal inflammatory state, the expression of PD-L1 in HGFs is more easily activated, and may be influenced by the p38 pathway.

Large numbers of viable cells cannot be obtained from periodontal ligament tissues of patients with periodontitis. Therefore, it is imperative to establish an ex vivo environment that can support cell proliferation and delay senescence. Here, we have successfully reconstructed a native extracellular matrix (ECM), derived from early-passage human periodontal ligament cells (PDLCs) using the NH4 OH/Triton X-100 protocol. The ECM was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and immunostaining for specific ECM proteins (collagen I and fibronectin). Late-passage ECM-expanded PDLCs exhibited a much higher proliferation index and lower levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), confirmed by the increased expression of pluripotent markers and enhanced osteogenic capacity. Interestingly, the Wnt pathway was suppressed during the ECM expansion-mediated increase in pluripotency, but was activated in an osteogenic differentiation environment, as confirmed by treatment with the XAV-939 β-catenin inhibitor or the SP600125 c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) inhibitor. Cell sheets formed by ECM-expanded PDLCs exhibited an enhanced periodontal tissue regeneration capacity compared to those formed on tissue culture polystyrene (TCP) surfaces in vivo. Taken together, the cell-free ECM provides a tissue-specific cell niche for the ex vivo expansion of PDLCs while retaining stemness and osteogenic potential, partially via the Wnt pathway. This represents a promising matrix for future applications in periodontal tissue regeneration therapy. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 272-284, 2018.

Objective: To investigate the effects of tripterygium wilfordii combined with Salvia Miltiorrhiza therapy on renal function, coagulation function and immune response in children with purpura nephritis. Methods: A total of 70 children with purpura nephritis who were treated in the hospital between October 2013 and March 2017 were divided into control group (n=35) and Salvia Miltiorrhiza group (n=35) by random number table. Control group received routine + tripterygium wilfordii therapy, Salvia Miltiorrhiza group received routine + tripterygium wilfordii + Salvia Miltiorrhiza therapy, and the therapies lasted for 3 courses. The differences in renal function, coagulation function and immune response were compared between the two groups before and after treatment. Results: Before treatment, there was no statistically significant difference in renal function, coagulation function and immune response function between the two groups. After 3 courses of treatment, renal function indexes CysC, β 2 MG and 24 h UmAlb levels in Salvia Miltiorrhiza group were lower than those in control group; coagulation function indexes FIB and D-D levels in peripheral blood were lower than those of control group; immune response indexes Th1 cytokines IL-2 and IFN-γ contents in peripheral blood were higher than those of control group whereas Th2 cytokines IL-5 and IL-10 contents were lower than those of control group. Conclusion: Tripterygium wilfordii combined with Salvia Miltiorrhiza therapy can effectively optimize the renal function, reduce the hypercoagulation state and reduce the Th1/Th2 immune imbalance in children with purpura nephritis.

We report a pulsed wavelength-agile laser near 765 nm, which was frequency doubled from an erbium-doped fiber amplifier for oxygen A-band spectroscopy. A single frequency distributed feedback laser around 1529.6 nm was employed as the seed. After three stages of amplification, its average power was boosted to 610 mW and was then frequency doubled via a 15-mm-long MgO:PPLN crystal with the highest conversion efficiency of 34%. Thanks to the short crystal length expanding the acceptance bandwidth, a power difference of only 36% for the second harmonic output was achieved within the whole wavelength tuning range benefitting low-noise remote sensing. The measured oxygen transmission spectra using a 0.5-meter-long gas cell with multiple passes were mostly in good agreement with the calculations from HITRAN 2012 database indicating the capability of our laser for oxygen A-band related remote sensing.

An arbitrary unknown quantum state cannot be precisely measured or perfectly replicated. However, quantum teleportation allows faithful transfer of unknown quantum states from one object to another over long distance, without physical travelling of the object itself. Long-distance teleportation has been recognized as a fundamental element in protocols such as large-scale quantum networks and distributed quantum computation. However, the previous teleportation experiments between distant locations were limited to a distance on the order of 100 kilometers, due to photon loss in optical fibres or terrestrial free-space channels. An outstanding open challenge for a global-scale "quantum internet" is to significantly extend the range for teleportation. A promising solution to this problem is exploiting satellite platform and space-based link, which can conveniently connect two remote points on the Earth with greatly reduced channel loss because most of the photons' propagation path is in empty space. Here, we report the first quantum teleportation of independent single-photon qubits from a ground observatory to a low Earth orbit satellite - through an up-link channel - with a distance up to 1400 km. To optimize the link efficiency and overcome the atmospheric turbulence in the up-link, a series of techniques are developed, including a compact ultra-bright source of multi-photon entanglement, narrow beam divergence, high-bandwidth and high-accuracy acquiring, pointing, and tracking (APT). We demonstrate successful quantum teleportation for six input states in mutually unbiased bases with an average fidelity of 0.80+/-0.01, well above the classical limit. This work establishes the first ground-to-satellite up-link for faithful and ultra-long-distance quantum teleportation, an essential step toward global-scale quantum internet., 16 pages, 3 figures

Shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging technology attracts more and more attention by its fascinating ability of penetrating haze and smoke. For application of spaceborne remote sensing, spatial resolution of SWIR is lower compared with that of visible light (VIS) wavelength. It is difficult to balance between the spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio (SNR). Some conventional methods, such as enlarging aperture of telescope, image motion compensation, and analog time delay and integration (TDI) technology are used to gain SNR. These techniques bring in higher cost of satellite, complexity of system or other negative factors. In this paper, time delay and digital accumulation (TDDA) method is proposed to achieve higher spatial resolution. The method can enhance the SNR and non-uniformity of system theoretically. A prototype of SWIR imager consists of opto-mechanical, 1024 × 128 InGaAs detector, and electronics is designed and integrated to prove TDDA method. Both of measurements and experimental results indicate TDDA method can promote SNR of system approximated of the square root of accumulative stage. The results exhibit that non-uniformity of system is also improved by this approach to some extent. The experiment results are corresponded with the theoretical analysis. Based on the experiments results, it is proved firstly that the goal of 1 m ground sample distance (GSD) in orbit of 500 km is feasible with the TDDA stage of 30 for SWIR waveband (0.9–1.7 μm).

Optic disc (OD) and optic cup (OC) segmentation are important steps for automatic screening and diagnosing of optic nerve head abnormalities such as glaucoma. Many recent works formulated the OD and OC segmentation as a pixel classification task. However, it is hard for these methods to explicitly model the spatial relations between the labels in the output mask. Furthermore, the proportion of the background, OD and OC are unbalanced which also may result in a biased model as well as introduce more noise. To address these problems, we developed an approach that follows a coarse-to-fine segmentation process. We start with a U-Net to obtain a rough segmenting boundary and then crop the area around the boundary to form a boundary contour centered image. Second, inspired by sequence labeling tasks in natural language processing, we regard the OD and OC segmentation as a sequence labeling task and propose a novel fully convolutional network called SU-Net and combine it with the Viterbi algorithm to jointly decode the segmentation boundary. We also introduced a geometric parameter-based data augmentation method to generate more training samples in order to minimize the differences between training and test sets and reduce overfitting. Experimental results show that our method achieved state-of-the-art results on 2 datasets for both OD and OC segmentation and our method outperforms most of the ophthalmologists in terms of achieving agreement out of 6 ophthalmologists on the MESSIDOR dataset for both OD and OC segmentation. In terms of glaucoma screening, we achieved the best cup-to-disc ratio (CDR) error and area under the ROC curve (AUC) for glaucoma classification on the Drishti-GS dataset.

A lot of previous studies have recently reported that the gut microbiota influences the development of colorectal cancer (CRC) in Western countries, but the role of the gut microbiota in Chinese population must be investigated fully. The goal of this study was to determine the role of the gut microbiome in the initiation and development of CRC. We collected fecal samples of 206 Chinese individuals: 59 with polyp (group P), 54 with adenoma (group A), 51 with colorectal cancer (group CC), and 42 healthy controls (group HC).16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was used to compare the microbiota community structures among healthy controls, patients with polyp, and those with adenoma or colorectal cancer. Our study proved that intestinal flora, as a specific indicator, showed significant differences in its diversity and composition. Sobs, Chao, and Ace indexes of group CC were significantly lower than those of the healthy control group (CC group: Sobs, Chao, and Ace indexes were 217.3 ± 69, 4265.1 ± 80.7, and 268.6 ± 78.1, respectively; HC group: Sobs, Chao, and Ace indexes were 228.8 ± 44.4, 272.9 ± 58.6, and 271.9 ± 57.2, respectively). When compared with the healthy individuals, the species richness and diversity of intestinal flora in patients with colorectal cancer were significantly reduced: PCA and PCoA both revealed that a significant separation in bacterial community composition between the CC group and HC group (with PCA using the first two principal component scores of PC1 14.73% and PC2 10.34% of the explained variance, respectively; PCoA : PC1 = 14%, PC2 = 9%, PC3 = 6%). Wilcox tests was used to analyze differences between the two groups, it reveals that Firmicutes (P=0.000356), Fusobacteria (P=0.000001), Proteobacteria (P=0.000796), Spirochaetes (P=0.013421), Synergistetes (P=0.005642) were phyla with significantly different distributions between cases and controls. The proportion of microorganism composition is varying at different stages of colon cancer development: Bacteroidetes (52.14%) and Firmicutes (35.88%) were enriched in the healthy individuals; on the phylum level, the abundance of Bacteroidetes (52.14%-53.92%-52.46%–47.06%) and Firmicutes (35.88%-29.73%-24.27%–25.36%) is decreasing with the development of health-polyp-adenomas-CRC, and the abundance of Proteobacteria (9.33%-12.31%-16.51%–22.37%) is increasing. PCA and PCOA analysis showed there was no significant (P<0.05) difference in species similarity between precancerous and carcinogenic states. However, the composition of the microflora in patients with precancerous lesions (including patients with adenoma and polyp) was proved to have no significant disparity (P<0.05). Our study provides insights into new angles to dig out potential biomarkers in diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer and to provide scientific advice for a healthy lifestyle for the sake of gut microbiota.

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of the periodontal continuing educational delivery mode via a periodontal alliance. Methods An innovative continuing educational delivery mode via a periodontal alliance has been conducted using a periodontal alliance of 30 hospitals in 18 provinces of China. This delivery mode integrates several instructional methods, including lectures, case presentations, and interactive question and answer sessions, all of which were conducted through online platforms. The effectiveness of the mode was evaluated via a questionnaire that was administered to the participants. The questionnaire consisted of 13 closed-ended questions and 2 open-ended questions. Results Of the 450 participants, 343 (76%) returned the questionnaire. Of the returned surveys, more than 92% provided positive feedback regarding the instructional methods of the program, stating that the techniques helped them study more efficiently and saved them time and money. More than 85% of the participants were satisfied with the instructional content and more than 90% of the participants considered the educational value of the program to be high, as it helped them identify gaps in knowledge, promoted their ability to establish treatment plans, and encouraged them to network with one another and thereby establish a supportive environment. With respect to the responses to the open-ended questions, the participants claimed that the most useful aspects of the program were related to time and cost savings. The most frequent feedback with respect to improving the program was to include hands-on courses and to divide the program into different levels. Conclusions The participants responded positively to the program. The periodontal alliance delivery mode was determined to be an effective way to improve the quality of continuing dental education.

Small clinical studies have suggested that individuals with insufficient sleep could experience taste dysfunction. However, this notion has not been examined in a large-scale, population-based study.This study aimed to examine whether overall sleep quality, as assessed by insomnia, daytime sleepiness, snoring, and sleep duration, was associated with the odds of having altered taste perception in a large population-based study.This was a cross-sectional study that used data from a subcohort of the Kailuan study, an ongoing multicenter cohort study that began in 2006 in Tangshan City, China.The participants were 11,030 adults aged 25 years or older (mean age 53.7 ± 10.7 years), who were free of neurodegenerative diseases. All the participants had undergone questionnaire assessments and medical examinations at Kailuan General Hospital from June 2012 to October 2013.Altered taste and olfactory perception were assessed via a questionnaire with two questions regarding whether participants had any problems with sense of taste or smell for ≥3 months.The association between sleep quality and altered taste/olfactory perception was examined using a logistic regression model, adjusting for age, sex, lifestyle factors (eg, obesity, smoking, alcohol intake, and physical activity) and health status (eg, lipid profiles, blood pressure, modification use, and presence of chronic diseases).Poor overall sleep quality was associated with a higher risk of having altered taste perception (adjusted odds ratio for low vs high sleep quality 2.03, 95% CI 1.42 to 2.91; P0.001). Specifically, insomnia, daytime sleepiness, and short sleep duration, but not prolonged sleep duration and snoring, were significantly associated with altered taste perception. A significant association between overall sleep quality and the risk of having altered olfactory perception was also observed (adjusted odds ratio for low vs high sleep quality 2.17, 95% CI 1.68 to 2.80; P0.001).In this population-based study, poor sleep quality was associated with a high likelihood of altered taste perception.

Background Radiology reports are a permanent record of patient's health information often used in clinical practice and research. Reading radiology reports is common for clinicians and radiologists. However, it is laborious and time-consuming when the amount of reports to be read is large. Assisting clinicians to locate and assimilate the key information of reports is of great significance for improving the efficiency of reading reports. There are few studies on information extraction from Chinese medical texts and its application in radiology information systems (RIS) for efficiency improvement. Objectives The purpose of this study was to explore methods for extracting, grouping, ranking, delivering, and displaying medical-named entities in radiology reports which can yield efficiency improvement in RISs. Methods A total of 5,000 reports were obtained from two medical institutions for this study. We proposed a neural network model called Multi-Embedding-BGRU-CRF (bidirectional gated recurrent unit-conditional random field) for medical-named entity recognition and rule-based methods for entity grouping and ranking. Furthermore, a methodology for delivering and displaying entities in RISs was presented. Results The proposed neural named entity recognition model has achieved a good F1 score of 95.88%. Entity ranking achieved a very high accuracy of 99.23%. The weakness of the system is the entity grouping approach which yield accuracy of 91.03%. The effectiveness of the overall solution was proved by an evaluation task performed by two clinicians based on the setup of actual clinical practice. Conclusions The neural model shows great potential in extracting medical-named entities from radiology reports, especially for languages, that lack lexicons and natural language processing tools. The pipeline of extracting, grouping, ranking, delivering, and displaying medical-named entities could be a feasible solution to enhance RIS functionality by information extraction. The integration of information extraction and RIS has been demonstrated to be effective in improving the efficiency of reading radiology reports.

Objective To explore whether cumulative serum urate (cumSU) is correlated with diabetes type II mellitus incidence. Methods In this study, we recruited individuals participating in all Kailuan health examinations from 2006 to 2013 without stroke, cancer, gestation, myocardial infarction, and diabetes type II diagnosis in the first three examinations. CumSU was calculated by multiplying the average serum urate concentration and the time between the two examinations (umol/L × year). CumSU levels were categorized into five groups: Q1–Q5. The effect of cumSU on diabetes type II incidence was estimated by logistic regression. Results A total of 36,277 individuals (27,077 men and 9200 women) participated in the final analysis. The multivariate logistic regression model showed the odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of diabetes type II from Q1 to Q5 were 1.00 (reference), 1.25 (1.00 to 1.56), 1.43 (1.15 to 1.79), 1.49 (1.18 to 1.87), and 1.80 (1.40 to 2.32), respectively. Multivariable odds ratios per 1-standard deviation increase in cumSU were 1.26 (1.17 to 1.37) in all populations, 1.20 (1.10 to 1.32) for men, and 1.52 (1.27 to 1.81) for women, respectively. Conclusions CumSU is a significant risk factor for diabetes type II. Individuals with higher cumSU, especially women, are at a higher risk of diabetes type II independent of other known risk factors.Key Points• Cumulative exposure to serum urate is a significant risk factor for diabetes type II.• Individuals with higher cumSU, especially women, are at a higher risk of diabetes type II.

Quantum key distribution (QKD)1–3 is a theoretically secure way of sharing secret keys between remote users. It has been demonstrated in a laboratory over a coiled optical fibre up to 404 kilometres long4–7. In the field, point-to-point QKD has been achieved from a satellite to a ground station up to 1,200 kilometres away8–10. However, real-world QKD-based cryptography targets physically separated users on the Earth, for which the maximum distance has been about 100 kilometres11,12. The use of trusted relays can extend these distances from across a typical metropolitan area13–16 to intercity17 and even intercontinental distances18. However, relays pose security risks, which can be avoided by using entanglement-based QKD, which has inherent source-independent security19,20. Long-distance entanglement distribution can be realized using quantum repeaters21, but the related technology is still immature for practical implementations22. The obvious alternative for extending the range of quantum communication without compromising its security is satellite-based QKD, but so far satellite-based entanglement distribution has not been efficient23 enough to support QKD. Here we demonstrate entanglement-based QKD between two ground stations separated by 1,120 kilometres at a finite secret-key rate of 0.12 bits per second, without the need for trusted relays. Entangled photon pairs were distributed via two bidirectional downlinks from the Micius satellite to two ground observatories in Delingha and Nanshan in China. The development of a high-efficiency telescope and follow-up optics crucially improved the link efficiency. The generated keys are secure for realistic devices, because our ground receivers were carefully designed to guarantee fair sampling and immunity to all known side channels24,25. Our method not only increases the secure distance on the ground tenfold but also increases the practical security of QKD to an unprecedented level. An efficient entanglement-based quantum key distribution is sent from the Micius satellite to two ground observatories 1,120 kilometres apart to establish secure quantum cryptography for the exchange of quantum keys.

OBJECTIVES: Previous studies have shown that regular breakfast consumption was associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but this remains controversial. Chronic inflammation is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We, thus, examined whether breakfast frequency was associated with inflammation, assessed by high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration, among individuals without CVD. METHODS: Included were 71,748 participants of the Kailuan Study, an ongoing Chinese cohort, who were free of CVD and cancer.Breakfast frequency was assessed via questionnaire in 2014, and participants were categorized into four groups in the current analysis –no breakfast, 1–2 times/week, 3–5 times/week, or breakfast every day. Plasma CRP concentration was measured using a high-sensitivity, particle-enhanced immunonephelometry assay. General linear models were used to calculate adjusted means with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CRP, and logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) of chronic inflammation (CRP concentration ≥1.0 mg/L or ≥3.0 mg/L), across the four breakfast groups. We adjusted for age, sex, diet quality score, body mass index, education level, occupation type, marital status, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the models. RESULTS: Greater breakfast frequency was associated with lower CRP concentration (P-trend

For this paper, chamber experiments were carried out to investigate the oxidation of secondary organic tracers of toluene and isoprene by ozone under different conditions (relative humidity, mixing state, etc.) using a relative rate constants approach. The uncertainty of the tracer-based method due to the ozone oxidation of secondary organic tracers was also addressed. The results showed that the effective rate constants of analogue of 2-methyl erythritol (AME) and 2,3-dihydroxy-4-oxopentanoic acid (DHOPA) were (4.60±0.66)×10

To collect information and statistical data regarding the current oral health care and dental education resources in China.Electronic databases were searched and a literature review conducted. The homepages of relevant universities and colleges were visited to collect dental education information. In addition, private conversations with related experts were conducted.Compared with the 3rd National Oral Health Survey (2005), the ratio of gingival bleeding in individuals aged 33 to 44 years has increased in the last 10 years. The average percentage of residents visiting departments of dentistry in public hospitals is less than 10%. The total number of dentists and assistant dentists increased to 167,227 in 2016, with a ratio of 1.21 per 10,000 people. There is a great imbalance in the distribution of dental practitioners among the provinces. There are 101 dental schools or departments of stomatology that provide 5-year dental training courses and offer bachelor's degrees in dentistry, with another 93 dental institutions offering shorter 3-year training courses for assistant dentists.The results of the present study show that there has been significant change during recent years in China. However, the ratio of dental practitioners to the population as well as the number of dental visits carried out is still much lower than in developed countries and does not satisfy the demand for dental care in China. The quality and quantity of dental education, including continuing dental education, calls for improvement in the future.

By virtue of a dual-ligand strategy, two transition metal coordination polymers of {[Ni2(NDC)2(L1)(H2O)2(H2O)]·(DMF)2(H2O)}n (1, L1 = 3,3′-azobis pyridine) and [Mn(NDC)(L2)(H2O)]n (2, L2 = 1,4-bis(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)butane) have been synthesized via the corresponding metal salts reacting with the 1,4-naphthalene dicarboxylic acid (H2NDC) in the existence of distinct nitrogen-donor co-ligands. Given the permanently microporous nature, moderate CO2 sorption capacity as well as high density of the open metals positions, the activated 1 revealed the chemical fixation of the cyclic carbonates and carbon dioxide or an efficient activity of catalysis in the existence of the cocatalyst under the mild and solvent-free conditions. To evaluate the activity of the compound against intestinal polyps, following experiments were conducted. The Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) method was implemented to evaluate the inhibitory effects of these two compounds against the intestinal epithelial cells. Next, the western blotting was conducted and the apoptotic protein Bcl-2 expression levels was determined as well.

We have developed an amplified frequency double-shifting loop with a bidirectionally operated acousto-optic modulator as the in-loop frequency shifter to generate a frequency-stepped pulse train (FSPT) with frequency spacing twice as much as its operation frequency. Based on this configuration, a FSPT with 51 equidistant optical frequencies and 800 MHz frequency spacing around 1572 nm was generated, covering the whole R16 absorption peak of C O 2 for direct spectral measurement in the time domain. The retrieved transmission curve from a C O 2 gas cell with concentration of 4.02% is in good agreement with the calculated Voigt lineshape from the HITRAN database. The maximal relative errors between the measured and calculated results are within 0.5% for each optical frequency, indicating its great potential for practical C O 2 monitoring.

In the past decades various categories of chemometrics for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis have been developed, among which an important category is that based on artificial neural network (ANN). The most common ANN scheme employed in LIBS researches so far is back-propagation neural network (BPNN), while there are also several other kinds of neural networks appreciated by the LIBS community, including radial basis function neural network (RBFNN), convolutional neural network (CNN), self-organizing map (SOM), etc. In this paper, we introduce the principles of some representative ANN methods, and offer criticism on their features along with comparison between them. Then we afford an overview of ANN-based chemometrics applied in LIBS analysis, involving material identification/classification, component concentration quantification, and some unconventional applications as well. Furthermore, a comprehensive discussion on ANN-LIBS methodologies is provided from four aspects. First, a few general progressing trends are displayed. Next we expound some specific implementation techniques, including variable selection, network construction, data set utilization, network training, model evaluation, and chemometrics selection. In addition, the limitations of ANN approaches are remarked, mainly concerning overfitting and interpretability. Finally a prospect of future development of ANN-LIBS chemometrics is presented. Throughout the discussion quite a few good practices have been highlighted. This review is expected to shed light on the further upgrade of ANN-based LIBS chemometrics in the future.

We have demonstrated a Yb-doped fiber laser (YDFL) based on a multifunctional acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) with flexible wavelength generation capability. The number of channels, as well as their diffracted wavelengths and corresponding peak transmittances of the AOTF, can be widely tuned by changing the composite drive signal from a homemade arbitrary wave generation (AWG) board enabling single-/multi-wavelength lasing with different central wavelengths and relative intensities. The maximal wavelength tuning range and minimal resolved wavelength spacing are ∼ 80 n m and ∼ 1.5 n m , respectively, with 3 dB bandwidth less than 0.15 nm for each laser line, showing great potential for further nonlinear frequency conversion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of flexible wavelength generation from a multifunctional AOTF-based YDFL directly driven by an AWG board.

The aging periodontium may be vulnerable to periodontal pathogens and poor response to inflammation and susceptible to tumorigenesis. Human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs) through continuously replicative culture served as an in vitro surrogate for aging. To investigate the effects of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibition on the aging gingiva, we stimulated the high-passage hGFs with rapamycin (20 nmol/L) for 3 days and 30 days. The cellular and biological changes were examined by immunofluorescence, real-time PCR, ELISA, Western blotting, and flow cytometry. The data demonstrated that the inhibition of mTOR signaling led to fewer senescence-associated beta-galactosidase- (SA-β-Gal-) positive cells, delayed the onset of senescence, preserved the capability of proliferation, and lowered the expression levels of relevant senescence-associated markers, such as p16INK4a, p21CIP1a, interleukin-6 (IL-6), and IL-8. In addition, when infected by prominent periodontal pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis (ATCC 33277), rapamycin-pretreated groups decreased the expression of inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-8) compared with the control group. mTOR inhibition upregulated the gene expression of antioxidant components (Cat, Sod2, and Prdx3; P<0.05) and consequently neutralized the excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS). In conclusion, our results indicated that mTOR inhibition might rejuvenate the aging gingiva to some extent and relieve inflammation through eliminating oxidative stress.

The maternal or paternal dietary composition can have important effects on various aspects of their offspring's physiology. Studies from animal models and humans showed that a maternal high-fiber diet protected offspring against fat accumulation. However, little is known about how a maternal low-fiber diet modifies the metabolism of offspring in herbivorous rodents. We hypothesized that a maternal low-fiber diet would confer long-lasting beneficial effects on offspring metabolic phenotypes in herbivorous Brandt's vole (Lasiopodomys brandtii). Female voles were fed either a control (12.4% fiber) or a low-fiber (3.5% fiber) diet throughout pregnancy and lactation, and all offspring were fed the control diet after weaning till 14 wk old. Offspring were sampled from each litter at 18 d and 14 wk of age. Another subset of adult offspring at 15 wk of age was fed a high-fat diet for 8 wk. We found that there was no difference in litter size, litter mass, or pup mass before weaning between the two maternal diet groups. Offspring from the maternal low-fiber diet increased energy intake, body mass, and lean mass; suppressed fat accumulation; and improved glucose tolerance compared with those from the control diet. Moreover, the maternal low-fiber diet alleviated high-fat diet-induced obesity in the adult offspring. Serum leptin concentration and uncoupling protein 1 content in brown adipose tissue of offspring were not affected by a maternal low-fiber diet. We demonstrate that herbivorous females fed a low-fiber diet during pregnancy and lactation may predispose their offspring to accelerated growth of lean tissue, which may increase the opportunity for survival and reproduction in offspring.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are two major omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) with antimicrobial properties. In this study, we evaluated the potential antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of DHA and EPA against two periodontal pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum). MTT assay showed that DHA and EPA still exhibited no cytotoxicity to human oral tissue cells when the concentration came to 100 μM and 200 μM, respectively. Against P. gingivalis, DHA and EPA showed the same minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12.5 μM, and a respective minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 12.5 μM and 25 μM. However, the MIC and MBC values of DHA or EPA against F. nucleatum were both greater than 100 μM. For early-stage bacteria, DHA or EPA displayed complete inhibition on the planktonic growth and biofilm formation of P. gingivalis from the lowest concentration of 12.5 μM. And the planktonic growth of F. nucleatum was slightly but not completely inhibited by DHA or EPA even at the concentration of 100 μM, however, the biofilm formation of F. nucleatum at 24 h was significantly restrained by 100 μM EPA. For exponential-phase bacteria, 100 μM DHA or EPA completely killed P. gingivalis and significantly decreased the viable counts of F. nucleatum. Meanwhile, the morphology of P. gingivalis was apparently damaged, and the virulence factor gene expression of P. gingivalis and F. nucleatum was strongly downregulated. Besides, the viability and the thickness of mature P. gingivalis biofilm, together with the viability of mature F. nucleatum biofilm were both significantly decreased in the presence of 100 μM DHA or EPA. In conclusion, DHA and EPA possessed antibacterial activities against planktonic and biofilm forms of periodontal pathogens, which suggested that DHA and EPA might be potentially supplementary therapeutic agents for prevention and treatment of periodontal diseases.

We report the optimization of tunable nanosecond cascaded optical parametric oscillators (COPOs) based on monolithic tandem lithium niobate superlattices. The nonlinear crystal is designed with a uniform grating section for the optical parametric oscillation process and a linearly chirped grating section for the different frequency generation process. By employing couplers with proper reflectivities and crystals with optimized structures, such tunable COPOs can generate idler waves more efficiently than conventional optical parametric oscillators. It is concluded that higher pump pulse energy and tighter pump beam focus can further improve the pump-to-idler conversion efficiency of such tunable COPOs, particularly for those with wider idler wavelength tuning ranges.

A facile method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mosses is reported using ultrasonic-assisted extraction and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The efficiency ...

We have demonstrated, to the best of our knowledge, the first photon-counting shallow-water bathymetric Lidar based on a fiber-laser-pumped green laser. An Ytterbium-doped, fiber master oscillator power amplifier is developed as the fundamental laser, delivering 2.3 W pulses with widths of 450 ps at 500 kHz and bandwidths of 0.04 nm centered at 1064.1 nm. Its wavelength is frequency doubled to 532 nm, located within the transparent window of water, with an average power of 0.95 W. A coaxial transmitting and receiving photon-counting shallow-water bathymetric Lidar is constructed based on the fiber-laser-pumped green laser. Subsequent daytime shipborne experiments in Thousand-Island Lake show that the largest slope distance of ~3.1 m, more than twice as much as the Secchi depth (~1.5 m), can be achieved indicating its capability of practical shallow-water bathymetry.

A plane wave aspheric surfaces test is simpler and easier to assemble than a spherical wave test. An optical system combining Dall with Offner null compensation using a plane wave is proposed for measuring large-aperture and large-relative-aperture aspheric concave surfaces. One back compensation lens and one front compensation lens are used in the system, which can realize a high-precision null test. Based on the third-order aberration theory, the normalized theoretical parameters are calculated by formula derivation, and then are optimized after analysis. The design characteristic is compared with the classical plane wave Offner null test. A prototype experiment of the proposed method is carried out with a parabolic mirror of 500 mm diameter, at relative aperture 1/1, showing that RMS surface error of λ / 40 can be obtained.

Lidar technology is playing an important role in the application of autonomous navigation and hazard avoidance for the landing and cruising exploration on planetary bodies, such as landing on the moon, Mars, and asteroids. We report a Doppler lidar developed for Chang’E-5 mission in this paper. To meet high reliability and resource constraints, time-sharing measuring and in-phase and quadrature processing in this Doppler lidar system was provided and tested. Compared with the traditional linear frequency modulated systems, this lidar system provides excellent detection probabilities of false alarms, especially for the determination of velocity directions. Flight and vibration tests and plume experiments were carried out to further demonstrate the performance and feasibility during the landing mission in late 2020.

Hybrid poplars are important economic plants and sources of biofuel all over the world. Poplars are subjected to a wide range of diseases (Cellerino 1999). In September 2019, powdery mildew was observed on the hybrid poplar Populus davidiana × P. alba var. pyramidalis, a fast-growing elite poplar cultivar widely planted in the northeast of China, in one poplar nursery room in the Northeast Forestry University in China (45.7266°N, 126.6380°E). Disease incidence during September and October was only 5 to 15% but gradually increased to 100% during November and December. The symptom of white circular powdery spots with diameters of up to 12 mm appeared on the upper surface of the mature leaves of poplar plants over 40 days old. Under nursery conditions (50 to 65% humidity, 20 to 25°C, and 16-h/8-h day/night cycles), the diameter of a mildew spot could develop from merely visible to 10 mm in 3 days. The mildew site was observed with a stereomicroscope (Leica DVM6S, Germany). A single fungal species demonstrating characteristics of the obligate pathogens Erysiphe spp. was observed. The conidiophores grew straight upward on the leaf surface until reaching 102 to 165 μm in length (n = 30). Then, even-looking, ellipse-shaped conidia were developed, forming a singular, curved string of up to tens of conidia, on top of each conidiophore. Conidia (n = 30) measured 29.4 to 35.1 × 18.1 to 21.0 μm. Appressoria were lobed or nipple-shaped and appeared in pairs or singular. The germ tubes were slightly curly unbranched tubes pointing at one direction near the long axis of the conidium. We carefully collected the mildew by scraping it off the upper surfaces of fresh diseased leaves with a scalpel and extracted the genomic DNA. The internal transcribed spacer rDNA region was amplified according to the method of Siahmard et al. (2017). The resulting nucleotide sequence (deposited in GenBank as MN998572) displayed 99.84% identity with that of Erysiphe adunca (KY653179.1). Hence, we identified the causal pathogen of this poplar powdery mildew as an E. adunca strain. Furthermore, an Mcm7 sequence (deposited as MN998573) and a Chs sequence (deposited as MN998574) were cloned according to the method of Ellingham et al. (2019). A voucher specimen and the sequence information have been deposited in the Northeast Forestry University Culture Collection (NECC) and named as NECCFP001. Pathogenicity was tested in the nursery, by merely placing healthy 40-day-old plants next to diseased plants (n = 10, with a 15 cm distance between plants), and by pressing the mildew sites of diseased leaves onto each mature leaf of the healthy plants (n = 10, also with 15 cm distance). The same symptoms appeared on heathy plants after 10 to 15 days, and 6 to 8 days, respectively. The induced mildew was confirmed morphologically to be NECCFP001 by microscopic examination. E. adunca occurs on aspen, willow, and Populus spp. throughout temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and forms fruiting bodies (chasmothecia) to overwinter (Horst 2001; Sinclair and Lyon 2005). However, chasmothecia were not observed in our case, suggesting no sexual morph under the nursery conditions. Incidents of powdery mildew on hybrid poplars caused by Phyllactinia populi had been reported in Jiangsu and Shandong provinces of China (Zhao et al. 2013). This is the first report of E. adunca causing poplar powdery mildew in Heilongjiang, China.