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Summary: Background: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a disabling and life-threatening, X-linked recessive disorder caused by mutations in dystrophin. Natural history studies can inform the disease characteristics of DMD, and data from these studies can be used to plan and design clinical trials and as external controls for long-term studies. We report 12-month results from the largest natural history study of individuals with DMD in China receiving standard of care treatment. Methods: This ongoing, multicentre, prospective, single-cohort study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03760029) was conducted in Chinese male participants with DMD (ambulatory aged

A CS2-filled Er-doped fiber, which can provide high nonlinearity and gain, low and flat all-normal dispersion profile, low loss and single-mode operation in the wavelength range of 1500-2500 nm, is proposed and analyzed by numerical simulation. When the 1900-nm 0.1-ps initial pulse with a peak power of 30 kW is injected into the active fiber, the generated supercontinuum (SC) spectrum has a double-hump structure in the 1550-nm window and covers about 800-nm wavelength range spanning from 1400 to 2200 nm at -20 dB level. Furthermore, the 1550-nm pulse can be obtained synchronously with the 1900-nm initial pulse when the amplified pulse with a temporal double-peak shape is passed through a band-pass filter with its center wavelength at 1550 nm.

The three-core photonic crystal fiber (TC-PCF) is proposed to obtain large group-velocity dispersion (GVD) because of the coupling effects between the fundamental modes (FMs) of the central core and higher-order modes (HOMs) of the two side cores. The supermodes of the TC-PCF can provide concave anomalous- and normal-GVD profiles with large peak values at the maximum dispersion wavelengths (MDWs), which can be shifted in three wavelength windows of 1030 nm, 1550 nm and 1900 nm by properly tuning the refractive indexes of the cores or the air-hole diameters. Furthermore, the numerical results show that two segments of the TC-PCFs with large anomalous GVDs and opposite values of the third-order dispersion (TOD) can provide much higher efficiency of pulse compression than one segment of the TC-PCF. Additionally, the TC-PCFs with large normal GVDs can be used to stretch pulses due to their low nonlinearities and short fiber lengths.

Municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash contains highly toxic heavy metals and polychlorinated dibenzo dioxins/furans (PCDD/Fs), which are a type of hazardous waste. The pollution characteristics of fly ash have changed with the development of stoker grate incinerators and the fly ash treatment technology; however, no research has been focused on this in recent years. In this study, 12 fly ash samples were collected from 9 grate power plants in southeastern China, and their PCDD/Fs and heavy metal concentrations were determined and compared to previous fly ash data. The PCDD/Fs concentration in fly ash was in the range of 0.002–0.051 ngI-TEQ/g, with an average of 0.027 ngI-TEQ/g. Furthermore, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD and OCDD made the most significant contributions to PCDDs. The distribution of 10 dioxins exhibited bimodal, unimodal, and normal characteristics. Linear fitting demonstrated a strong correlation between toxicity and 1,2,3,7,8-PentaCDD, 1,2,3,7,8-PentaCDF, and 2,3,4,7,8-PentaCDF. Concerning heavy metals, Pb poses a significant environmental risk. This is the first time that fly ash treated with a chelating agent has been thoroughly analyzed, which is vital for understanding the pollution level and treatment of fly ash derived from current power plants.

Abstract Background Lung dose-volume histogram (DVH) in radiotherapy could be calculated from multiple normal lung definitions. The lung dosimetric parameters generated from various approaches are significantly different. However, limited evidence shows which definition should be used to more accurately predict radiation pneumonitis (RP). We aimed to compare the RP prediction accuracy of dosimetric parameters from three lung volume methods in lung cancer patients treated with Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Methods We retrospectively reviewed 183 consecutive lung cancer patients treated with IMRT from January 2014 to October 2017. The normal lungs were defined by total bilateral lung volume (Total Lung), excluding PTV (Lung-PTV) or PGTV (Lung-PGTV). V5, V20, and mean lung dose (MLD) have been extracted from three definitions. The primary endpoint was acute grade 2 or higher RP (RP2). Correlation between RP2 and dose parameters were analyzed by logistic regression. We evaluated prediction performance using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model. Results Twenty-six patients (14.2%) developed acute RP2 after IMRT treatment. Significant dosimetric differences were found between any 2-paired lung volumes (Ps