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Background: Nationwide evidence linking maternal ozone exposure with fetal growth restriction (FGR) was extensively scarce, especially in the Middle East with dry climate and distinct religious culture. Methods: We carried out a national retrospective birth cohort study using registry-based records from 749 hospitals across 31 provinces in Iran from 2013 to 2018. Monthly concentrations of maximum daily average 8-hour (MDA8) ozone at 0.125° × 0.125° resolution were extracted from well-validated spatiotemporal grid dataset. Linear and logistic regression models were employed to evaluate associations of maternal MDA8 ozone exposure with birthweight outcomes. Assuming causality, the comparative risk assessment framework was utilized to estimate the burden of low birthweight (LBW), small for gestational age (SGA), and birthweight loss per livebirth (BLL) attributable to ambient ozone pollution. Results: Of 4030383 livebirths included in the study, 264304 (6.6%) were LBW and 484405 (12.0%) were SGA. Each 10-ppb increase in MDA8 ozone exposure was associated with an odds ratio of 1.123 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.104 to 1.142) for LBW and 1.210 (95% CI: 1.197 to 1.223) for SGA, and a 30.5-g (95% CI: 29.0 to 32.0) reduction in birthweight. We observed approximately linear exposure-response relationships of maternal MDA8 ozone exposure with LBW (Pnonlinear= 0.786), SGA (Pnonlinear= 0.156), and birthweight reduction (Pnonlinear= 0.104). Under the premise of causal association, we estimated 6.6% (95% CI: 5.7 to 7.5) of LBW, 10.1% (95% CI: 9.6 to 10.6) of SGA, and 18.8 g (95% CI: 17.9 to 19.7) of BLL could be attributable to maternal ozone exposure in Iran. Considerably greater risk and burden of ozone-related FGR were observed among younger, less-educated, and rural-dwelling mothers. Conclusions: Our study provided compelling evidence that maternal ozone exposure was associated with heightened FGR risk and burden, particularly among socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers. These findings underscored the urgent need for government to incorporate socioeconomic factors into future ozone-related health policies, not only to mitigate pollution, but also minimize inequality.

Background: Evidence linking nitrogen dioxide (NO2) air pollution to life span of high-vulnerability older adults is extensively scarce in low- and middle-income countries. This study seeks to quantify mortality risk, excess deaths, and loss of life expectancy (LLE) associated with long-term exposure to NO2 among elderly individuals in China. Methods: A nationwide dynamic cohort of 20352 respondents ≥65 years old were enrolled from the China Longitudinal Health and Longevity Survey during 2005–2018. Residential exposures to NO2 and co-pollutants were assessed by well-validated spatiotemporal prediction models. A Cox regression model with time-dependent covariates was utilized to quantify the association of all-cause mortality with NO2 exposure, controlling for confounders such as demographics, lifestyle, health status, and ambient temperature. NO2-attributable deaths and LLE were evaluated for the years 2010 and 2020 based on the pooled NO2-mortality relation derived from multi-national cohort investigations. Decomposition analyses were conducted to dissociate net shift in NO2-related deaths between 2010 and 2020 into four primary contributing factors. Results: A total of 14313 deaths were recorded during follow-up of approximately 100 hundred person-years (median 3.6 years). We observed an approximately linear relationship (nonlinear P = 0.882) of NO2 exposure with all-cause death across a broad range from 6.6 to 95.7 μg/m3. Every 10-μg/m3 rise in yearly average NO2 concentration was linked to a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.045 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.031–1.059). In the updated meta-analysis of this study and 9 existing cohorts, we estimated a pooled HR of 1.043 (95% CI: 1.023–1.063) for each 10-μg/m3 growth in NO2. Reaching a 10-μg/m3 counterfactual target of NO2 concentration in China could avoid 0.33 (95% empirical CI: 0.19–0.49) million premature deaths and an LLE of 0.40 (95% empirical CI: 0.23–0.59) years in 2010, which greatly dropped to 0.24 (95% empirical CI: 0.14–0.36) million deaths and 0.21 (95% empirical CI: 0.12–0.31) years of LLE in 2020. The net fall in NO2-attributable deaths (–26.8%) between 2010 and 2020 was primarily driven by the declines in both NO2 concentration (–41.6%) and mortality rate (–27.1%) under population growth (+41.0%) and age structure transition (+0.9%). Conclusions: Our findings provide national evidence for increased risk of premature death and loss of life expectancy attributed to later-life NO2 exposure among the elderly in China. In an accelerated aging society, strengthened clean air actions should be formulated to minimize the health burden and regional inequality in NO2-attributable mortality.

Dynamic range is one of the primary limitations that restricts digital image sensors from acquiring more visual information. Current high dynamic range (HDR) imaging techniques entail a trade-off between dynamic range and visual fidelity. In this work, we propose a HDR imaging method, termed PE-HDR, to achieve both a wide dynamic range and high visual fidelity without additional complex post-processing algorithms. Instead of merging a bracketed exposure sequence, the PE-HDR captures HDR images in a single shot using optical coded pixel-wise exposure control, enabling cost-effective and flexible HDR imaging. By incorporating a differentiable optical encoder and a neural network decoder, we jointly optimize the imaging pipeline from light irradiance to digital image signals, thereby refining the pixel-wise exposure control strategy and improving image fidelity. Both simulations and experiments demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a dynamic range of up to 120 dB and an excellent visual fidelity with spatial resolution of up to 2560 × 1600 pixels.

This study aimed to enhance the mechanical properties of high pressure die casting (HPDC) Al9Si0.6Mn alloys by incorporating in-situ TiB2 particles. The effects of TiB2 addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of as-HPDC Al9Si0.6Mn alloys were investigated. The results showed that TiB2 addition refined the bimodal grain structure and eutectic Si morphology in the central region of the as-HPDC alloys, which was the primary contributor to the mechanical properties. The thickness of the skin region and band zone increased with increasing TiB2 addition, while the central region exhibited a reduced thickness but remained dominant on the entire cross-section. The optimal TiB2 content was found to be 1 wt%, resulting in the 23.4 % reduction in grain size and 10.7 % enhancement in yield strength. The modified strengthening model based on the microstructure features of the central region accurately predicted the yield strengths of as-HPDC alloys. Finally, the morphological strengthening factors induced by TiB2 particles were analytically illustrated in the HPDC Al9Si0.6Mn–TiB2 alloys.

Abstract Background The placenta serves as the sole maternal organ responsible for transmitting nutrients to the fetus, playing a crucial role in supporting standard fetal growth and development. To date, only a small number of studies have investigated the impact of maternal gestational weight gain and lipid concentrations on placental development. This study aimed to explore the influence of weight gain during pregnancy and lipid levels in the second trimester on placental weight, volume, and the placental weight ratio. Methods This birth cohort study encompassed 1,358 mother-child pairs. Placental data for each participant was gathered immediately post-delivery, and the study incorporated data on gestational weight gain throughout pregnancy and lipid profiles from the mid-trimester. A linear regression model was employed to assess the correlations between gestational weight gain, mid-trimester lipid levels, and metrics such as placental weight, placental volume, and the placental-to-birth weight ratio (PFR). Results In the study groups of pre-pregnancy underweight, normal weight, and overweight, the placental weight increased by 4.93 g (95% CI: 1.04–8.81), 2.52 g (95% CI: 1.04–3.99), and 3.30 g (95% CI: 0.38–6.22) per 1 kg of gestational weight gain, respectively. Within the pre-pregnancy underweight and normal weight groups, the placental volume increased by 6.79 cm^3 (95% CI: 3.43–10.15) and 2.85 cm^3 (95% CI: 1.31–4.39) per 1 kg of gestational weight gain, respectively. Additionally, placental weight exhibited a positive correlation with triglyceride (TG) levels (β = 9.81, 95% CI: 3.28–16.34) and a negative correlation with high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) levels (β = − 46.30, 95% CI: − 69.49 to − 23.11). Placental volume also showed a positive association with TG levels (β = 14.54, 95% CI: 7.69–21.39). Conversely, PFR demonstrated a negative correlation with increasing HDL-C levels (β = − 0.89, 95% CI: − 1.50 to − 0.27). Conclusions Gestational weight gain was significantly correlated with both placental weight and volume. This association was especially pronounced in women who, prior to pregnancy, were underweight or of normal weight. Additionally, TG and HDL-C levels during the mid-trimester were linked to placental development.

The impact of short-term exposure to air pollutants on the morbidity of schizophrenia, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, remains inadequately explored. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and the risk of schizophrenia hospitalization in Jingmen, China. We performed a time-stratified case-crossover study using daily records of hospital admissions due to schizophrenia in Jingmen Mental Health Center from 2015 to 2017. Environmental exposures to air pollutants and meteorological conditions on case and control days were estimated on the basis of measurements from ground monitoring stations. To investigate the relationship between short-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and the risk of hospitalization for schizophrenia, a conditional logistic regression model was employed. We performed subgroup analyses stratified according to sex, age groups, and season. In total, 4079 schizophrenia hospitalizations were recorded during the designated period. Increased risk of schizophrenia was merely associated with short-term exposure to SO2 and NO2. The estimated odds per interquartile range (IQR) increase in exposure was 1.112 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.033, 1.196) for SO2 (IQR = 12 µg/m3) and 1.112 (95% CI: 1.033, 1.197) for NO2 (IQR = 18 µg/m3) on lag-0 day. Greater air pollution-schizophrenia associations were observed among middle-aged and older adults (over 45 years of age) and during the cold season. This study added case-crossover evidence indicating that short-term exposure to ambient air pollution, specifically SO2 and NO2, is linked to a higher risk of hospital admissions for schizophrenia. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the detrimental effects of air pollution on neuropsychiatric health conditions.

The desire to explore the natural resources and geopolitical patterns of the North and South Poles has significantly increased the interest of experts and researchers in the development and utilization of the polar regions. In this article, we comprehensively analyzed the current state of the development of polar low-temperature steel around the world. We highlighted the challenges that must be addressed in the ongoing development efforts and summarized the expected future trends in this field. The main theme of this article involves the challenges encountered in polar environments primarily caused by the low-temperature toughness and seawater corrosion of marine steel.

The significant impact of Nb on ferrite transformation, both in terms of solute drag effect (SDE) and interphase precipitation, was investigated quantitatively. Ferrite transformation kinetics were characterized using thermal expansion experiments and theoretical calculations. The microstructures were characterized using high−temperature confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), a field−emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Under a higher driving force, interphase precipitations were observed in the sample with a higher Nb content. A three−dimensional (3D) reconstruction method was used to convert the two−dimensional (2D) image of interphase precipitation into a three−dimensional model for a more typical view. The SDE and interphase precipitation had opposite effects on the kinetics of ferrite transformation. A lower Nb content showed a strong contribution to the SDE, which delayed ferrite transformation. A higher concentration of Nb was expected to enhance the SDE, but the inhibition effect was eliminated by the interphase precipitation of NbC during interfacial migration. Both the experimental results and theoretical calculations confirmed this phenomenon.

The present study investigated the effects of the austempering process far below Ms (martensite start temperature) on the microstructural evolution and impact toughness of bainitic steel with ultrahigh impact toughness and compared the results with the tempered martensitic steel. The results revealed that the lamellar bainitic steel composed of bainitic ferrite laths and retained austenite films is obtained by austempering far below Ms temperature. The obtained steel exhibited the Charpy V-notch impact absorbed energy of up to 131 ± 6 J, which was 2.7 times higher than that of the tempered martensitic steel (49 ± 1 J). The ultra-high impact toughness of bainitic steel was attributed to the deflection of the crack propagation direction by the refined bainitic ferrite laths and the passivation of the crack tip by the retained austenite films. Furthermore, the proportion of V2, V3, and V5 variants increased and formed HAGBs (high-angle grain boundaries) with the V1 variant in the austempered bainitic steel B-32. These HAGBs inhibited crack propagation effectively, thereby significantly improving the impact toughness of the austempered bainitic steel.

Background: The type of anaesthesia and choice of anaesthetic drugs may affect the quality of recovery after surgery. Remimazolam is a new benzodiazepine with rapid onset and offset, specifically antagonised by flumazenil. This study aimed to compare remimazolam with propofol on the quality of recovery in patients undergoing ambulatory arthroscopic surgery. Methods: Patients aged 18–65 yr and scheduled for ambulatory arthroscopic meniscus repair were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either continuous i.v. infusion of remimazolam or plasma target-controlled infusion of propofol. The quality of recovery-15 (QoR-15) scale was administered on postoperative day 1 (POD1) as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) scores and cardiovascular variables. Results: In total, 120 patients were randomly assigned to the remimazolam or propofol groups and 114 patients were included in the analysis. The remimazolam group had higher total QoR-15 scores on POD1 (125 [120–127.5] vs 121.5 [119–124], with a median difference of 3 (95% confidence interval: 1–5; P=0.002). Physical independence and psychological support were higher in the remimazolam group (8.5 [8–10] vs 8 [7–9], P=0.043; 17 [13–17] vs 12.5 [12–14], P

Integrating diffractive optical neural networks (DONN) would reduce errors due to bulky components and calibration. Here, the authors exploit integrated 1D dielectric metasurfaces to realise an on-chip DONN device with 90% classification accuracy, computing at 10^16 flops/mm^2 and consuming 10E-17 J/Flop.

The phase transformation temperature plays an important role in the design, production and heat treatment process of steels. In the present work, an improved version of the gradient-boosting method LightGBM has been utilized to study the influencing factors of the four phase transformation temperatures, namely Ac1, Ac3, the martensite transformation start (MS) temperature and the bainitic transformation start (BS) temperature. The effects of the alloying element were discussed in detail by comparing their influencing mechanisms on different phase transformation temperatures. The training accuracy was significantly improved by further introducing appropriate features related to atomic parameters. The melting temperature and coefficient of linear thermal expansion of the pure metals corresponding to the alloying elements, atomic Waber–Cromer pseudopotential radii and valence electron number were the top four among the eighteen atomic parameters used to improve the trained model performance. The training and prediction processes were analyzed using a partial dependence plot (PDP) and Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) methods to reveal the relationships between the features and phase transformation temperature.

We elucidate here the grain orientation/grain boundary dependence on the deformation behavior of high-Mn steel via tensile tests. The ultra-fine grained/fine grained (UFG/FG) specimen was characterized by superior strength-ductility combination as compared to the as-received specimen. In order to establish the relationship between macro and micro/nano, nanoscale deformation experiments and post-mortem microscopy of the deformed region were conducted on near-defect-free (NDF) specimen, avoiding the influence of defects. Weak anisotropy in elastic modulus and hardness was observed for NDF specimen. The modulus and hardness of grain boundary were 163 GPa and 4.32 GPa, respectively, which were relatively greater as compared to the grain interior, revealing significant grain boundary effect. Indentations in the “grain interior” had highest frequency of ratio of c/d (c - the plastic zone radius, d - distance of the indent from the grain boundary) of ∼1.2, irrespective of the orientation the indents located, implying that the ratio is a property related to the grain boundary. The higher strengthening effect at the high angle grain boundary could be attributed to higher strain and geometry necessary dislocation density surrounded the grain boundary. The strain rate sensitivity (m) and activation volume (v) obtained from nanoindentation had weak dependence on grain orientation and v was ∼5–15 b3, indicating that neither diffusional creep processes nor conventional dislocation by-pass governs plastic deformation independently. With the increase of v, the deformation mechanism transfers from dislocation slip dominant to SFs dominant, and finally twining dominant.

Different scale microstructures at different scales were obtained by one and two-step isothermal transformation. The deformation behavior and stability of retained austenite under the action of nanoindentation stress was investigated in these different microstructures. The results demonstrate that the boundary fraction and density of the K–S relationship increase significantly after two-step isothermal transformation, promoting the nucleation of bainite and resulting in a refined microstructure. Changes in the nano-hardness as a function of indentation depth and morphology confirmed the quantity of RA transformation and the composite deformation/transformation behavior of blocky martensite/retained austenite (M/RA). A higher dislocation density is enriched in RA with higher KAM with the two-step isothermal process. This resulted in higher stability to delay the occurrence of the pop-in phenomenon. The stability of RA is highly dependent on the crystal orientation, with (001) oriented RA having an increased propensity to undergo mechanical transformation to martensite, with additional pop-ins generated during loading.

This work highly decreases the size, power, and computation for machine vision with novel joint-optimized opto-electronic neural networks.

Real-world evidence on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines marketed in China against the Omicron BA.2.2 variant remains scarce. A case–control study was conducted to estimate the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of COVID-19 vaccines marketed in China (inactivated vaccines, an Ad5-nCoV vaccine, and a recombinant protein vaccine). There were 414 cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 and 828 close contacts whose test results were consecutively negative as controls during the outbreak of the Omicron variant in Lu’an City, Anhui Province, China, in April 2022. The overall adjusted VE against Omicron BA.2.2 variant infection in the vaccinated group with any COVID-19 vaccine was 35.0% (95% CI: −9.1–61.3%), whereas the adjusted VE for booster vaccination was 51.6% (95% CI: 15.2–72.4%). Subgroup analysis showed that the overall adjusted VE of the Ad5-nCoV vaccine (65.8%, 95% CI: 12.8–86.6%) during the outbreak while any dose of inactivated vaccines and recombinant protein vaccine offered no protection. The adjusted VE of three-dose inactivated vaccines was 48.0% (95% CI: 8.0–70.6%), and the two-dose Ad5-nCoV vaccine was 62.9% (95% CI: 1.8–86%). There is no protection from a three-dose recombinant protein vaccine. COVID-19 vaccines offered 46.8% (95% CI: 9.5–68.7%) protection from infection within six months. There were statistically significant differences between the VEs of heterologous booster (VE = 76.4%, 95% CI: 14.3–93.5%) and homologous booster vaccination (VE = 51.8%, 95% CI: 9.6–74.3%) (P = .036). Booster vaccination of COVID-19 vaccines offered more protection than full vaccination. A booster vaccination campaign for a booster dose after three doses of a recombinant protein vaccine must be urgently conducted.

In order to probe the superior nano/micron scale mechanical behaviors of ultra-fine grain (UFG) austenitic stainless steel as compared with coarse grain (CG) counterpart, systematic nanoindentation tests were carried out together with post-mortem EBSD characterizations. Relatively higher nanohardness (Hn) was obtained in UFG in both grain interior and grain boundary. This phenomenon had a relationship with the grain refinement. In the “grain interior” nanoindentation, the matrix strength in UFG was higher than CG, resulting from the pre-existing dislocations in UFG were lower, leading to higher stress close to the ideal strength was required to nucleate dislocations and cause plastic deformation. In the case of “on grain boundary”, the average Pc for UFG grain boundary was higher, corresponding to the higher shear stress required for dislocation activation, revealing higher grain boundary effect, attributed to the higher strain surrounded the grain boundary. The activation volume (v) obtained from nanoindentation had weak dependence on grain orientation but strong dependence on grain size. The relatively higher v was obtained (greater than 1 b3, but smaller than 103 b3), indicating that neither only diffusional creep processes nor only conventional dislocation segments passing through dislocation forests governed plastic deformation in our cases. The grain boundary effect coefficient k of UFG grain boundary was higher than that of CG. Therefore, the higher macron-strength of the UFG was mainly determined by the higher grain boundary strength, and the fine grain size with less contribution from the grain interior. The mechanical behaviors could be governed by different grain boundary effects in microstructure.

Background: Oxidative stress and the resultant hyperpermeability play a vital role in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). Poldip2 has been implicated in H2O2 production, but the effects of capsaicin on poldip2 have not been reported. Methods: Diabetic Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats induced with STZ were treated with capsaicin or AAV9-poldip2-shRNA, and human retinal microvascular endothelial cells (HRMECs) were treated with capsaicin or poldip2 siRNA. Results: Current data indicated that the expression of PPARγ, poldip2, Nox4, VCAM-1, HIF-1α, and VEGF increased in rat retinas with DR and in HRMECs treated with high glucose. The production of ROS or H2O2 in the tissues, serum, and cells increased, and the paracellular permeability of cultured HRMECs with high glucose significantly increased. In addition, overt hyperpermeability of retinal microvessels and increased retinal neovascularization in diabetic rats were observed. However, capsaicin treatment inhibited these increases and suppressed the expression of PPARγ by enhancing its phosphorylation and ubiquitination in the retinas of DR rats. Poldip2 knockdown in HRMECs or its silencing in the retina of DR rats concomitantly led to reduced levels of Nox4, VCAM-1, HIF-1α, VEGF, ROS, and H2O2, and the paracellular permeability of HRMECs or the hyperpermeability of retinal microvessels in diabetic rat retinas decreased. Similarly, after PPARγ knockdown in HRMECs, poldip2, Nox4, HIF-1α, VEGF, ROS, and H2O2 decreased, and the monolayer paracellular permeability was reduced accordingly. Conclusion: Capsaicin may ameliorate diabetic retinopathy by activating TRPV1 and suppressing the PPARγ-poldip2-Nox4 pathway.

Phthalates are commonly found in a wide range of environments and have been linked to several negative health outcomes. While earlier research indicated a potential connection between phthalate exposure and blood pressure (BP) during pregnancy, the results of these studies remain inconclusive. The objective of this meta-analysis was to elucidate the relationship between phthalate exposure and BP in pregnancy. A comprehensive literature search was carried out with PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science, and pertinent studies published up until 5 March 2023 were reviewed. Random-effects models were utilized to consolidate the findings of continuous outcomes, such as diastolic and systolic BP, as well as the binary outcomes of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). The present study included a total of 10 studies. First-trimester MBP exposure exhibited a positive association with mean systolic and diastolic BP during both the second and third trimesters (β = 1.05, 95% CI: 0.27, 1.83, I2 = 93%; β = 0.40, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.74, I2 = 71%, respectively). Second-trimester monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) exposure was positively associated with systolic and diastolic BP in the third trimester (β = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.01, 1.13, I2 = 0; β = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.27, 1.13, I2 = 0, respectively). Conversely, first-trimester mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP) exposure demonstrated a negative association with mean systolic and diastolic BP during the second and third trimesters (β = −0.32, 95% CI: −0.60, −0.05, I2 = 0; β = −0.32, 95% CI: −0.60, −0.05, I2 = 0, respectively). Additionally, monoethyl phthalate (MEP) exposure was found to be associated with an increased risk of HDP (OR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.23, I2 = 26%). Our study found that several phthalate metabolites were associated with increased systolic and diastolic BP, as well as the risk of HDP across pregnancies. Nevertheless, given the limited number of studies analyzed, additional research is essential to corroborate these findings and elucidate the molecular mechanisms linking phthalates to BP changes during pregnancy.

The application of Nb microalloying to high-carbon pearlite bridge cable wire rod steel has always been controversial, especially in the actual production process, which will be affected by the cooling rate, holding temperature and final bonding temperature. In this paper, the experimental characterization, finite element simulation and phase diagram calculation of the test steel were carried out, then the microstructure and properties of different parts of Nb microalloying of bridge cable wire rods were compared and analyzed. The phase transition interval of pearlite during the water-cooling process of bridge cable wire rods is increased due to the refinement of austenite grains, and the significant increase in the end temperature of the phase transition makes the average interlamellar spacing of pearlite increase. The cooling rate of different parts of bridge cable wire rods simulated by Abaqus has little difference. At the same time, Nb microalloying effectively increases the proportion of low-angle grain boundaries, so that the overall average misorientation representing the surface defects is reduced. This helps to reduce the surface energy and increase the stability of the microstructure. Combined with the mechanical properties of microtensile rods, it is found that the grain refinement effect of Nb is greater than that of coarsening interlamellar spacing during hot rolling deformation in actual production, which makes the tensile strength at the 1/4 section increase significantly. The overall tensile strength and area shrinkage of the steel wire have also been effectively improved.

Background: Yogurt is known to be nutrient-rich and probiotic content, which gather optimism due to their potential role in preventing and managing cancers. The effect of yogurt consumption on colorectal cancer (CRC) is inconsistent.Objective: This study aims to investigate the association of yogurt consumption with the risk of CRC.Methods: Three databases, namely, PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase, were searched for all relevant studies from July 2021 on the association of yogurt consumption with CRC risk. We pooled the odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% CIs using a random-effects meta-analysis to assess the association.Results: Finally, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria and were chosen in the meta-analysis. Yogurt consumption was significant with lower risk of CRC risk in the overall comparison (OR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.81–0.94), in the cohort studies (OR = 0.91, 95% CI: 0.86–0.97), and case-control studies (OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.65–0.85). With regard to subgroup analyses by study region, cancer type, publication year, and sex, yogurt consumption significantly decreased overall CRC, colon cancer, and distal colon cancer risks. In stratified analyses, we observed significantly decreased CRC risk in Europe and Africa and published after 2010 and overall population. Sensitivity analysis indicated the result is stable and there is no publication bias in the meta-analysis.Conclusions: Overall, this study indicated that yogurt intake was related to a decreased risk of CRC.

Higher dimensional optical imaging has seen remarkable growth in the past decade. As a representative method, multiplexed structured illumination (MSI) has been widely introduced for its ultra-high resolution of high-dimensional information. In this letter, an imaging framework for recovering higher dimensional image data, which terms quadrature multiplexed structured illumination (QMSI), is proposed and demonstrated. QMSI incorporates the illumination pattern spatial phase information as a new parameter into the encoding process. This strategy can double the frequency spectrum utilization without any overhead compared to MSI, which means it can double the image sequence depth or image spatial resolution. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the performance of QMSI by experiments on multispectral imaging.

Ghost imaging is a fascinating framework which constructs the image of an object by correlating measurements between received beams and reference beams, none of which carries the structure information of the object independently. Recently, by taking into account spacetime duality in optics, computational temporal ghost imaging has attracted attention. Here, we propose a novel Fourier temporal ghost imaging (FTGI) scheme to achieve single-shot nonreproducible temporal signals. By sinusoidal coded modulation, ghost images are obtained and recovered by applying Fourier transformation. For demonstration, non-repeating events are detected with single-shot exposure architecture. It is shown in experimental results that the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of FTGI is significantly better (13 dB increase) than traditional temporal ghost imaging in the same condition. In addition, by using the obvious physical meaning of the Fourier spectrum, we show some potential applications of FTGI, such as frequency division multiplexing demodulation in the visible light communications.

A two-step bainitic treatment with a final isothermal temperature below MS was adopted to obtain bainitic steel with abundant retained austenite (RA). Nanoindentation testing was used to investigate the stability of RA in bainite steel and clarify the effect of RA on the deformation of medium-carbon steel. The results showed that, in contrast to the traditional one-step approach, a greater amount of nanoscale RA film was obtained using the two-step treatment. This was due to a lower final bainitic transformation temperature, which induced a higher carbon concentration in the untransformed austenite in the stasis stage; this resulted in untransformed austenite with a higher carbon content existing as RA rather than forming martensite in the subsequent cooling process. In addition, it was determined that the increased stability of RA during the two-step transformation delayed the pop-in point.

An opto-electronic neural network is designed for video object detection from a long-exposure blurred image. This network combines an optical encoder, convolutional neural network decoder, and object detection module, which are jointly optimized end-to-end. The joint loss is adopted for updating the network according to the physical constraints of hardware via back-propagation. A high-speed refreshed spatial light modulator is used as the encoder part of the network to generate coded sub-images, and then, a single blurred image is obtained after a common camera. The rest of the network is used for video object detection. Both simulations and experiments demonstrate that our framework can successfully retrieve object labels and bounding boxes at different moments in the long exposure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work investigating video object detection from a single motion-degraded image.

A novel integrated on-chip wavelength-based beam emitter is proposed and fabricated to realize two-dimensional optical scanning. By combining both wavelength division filters and emission array, 80 × 8 far-field optical beam spots are achieved with a field of view of 6° × 4°. Both collimation and projection modes are tested and 64 wavelength channels are realized in 10 nm bandwidth from 1550 to 1560 nm. This device can be used for LIDAR, optical wireless communication, and high-speed infrared imaging applications.

Context: Sleep has been assessed as a risk factor for health consequences. Among adults, excessively longer and shorter sleep durations are associated with high blood pressure (BP), but knowledge of the association between sleep duration and high BP among adolescents is limited. Objectives: To estimate the associations between sleep duration and high BP in adolescents. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases were searched for eligible publications up until 20 November 2017. This study reviewed the reference lists from retrieved articles to search for relevant studies. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using a random-effects meta-analysis. Sub-group and sensitivity analyses were conducted to identify heterogeneity. Publication bias was evaluated using Egger’s test. Results: Seven studies involving 21,150 participants were included, with ages ranging from 10–18 years. For primary analysis, compared with the reference sleep duration, the pooled OR for high BP was 1.51 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.04–2.19) for the short sleep duration overall. For long sleep duration, the pooled OR was 1.04 (95% CI = 0.78–1.38). Further sub-group analysis showed that short sleep duration had a higher risk of incident high BP in males (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.24–1.93) than in females (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 0.47–3.22). Conclusions: Among adolescents, and particularly male adolescents, short sleep duration may be a risk factor for high BP. More attention should be given to this lifestyle factor.

Purpose. To analyze foveal microvascular abnormalities in different stages of diabetic retinopathy (DR) using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) with projection artifact removal (PAR). Methods. We analyzed 93 eyes of 59 patients with diabetes—31 with no DR (no DR), 34 with mild to moderate nonproliferative DR (mild DR), and 28 with severe nonproliferative DR to proliferative DR (severe DR)—and 31 age-matched healthy controls. Sections measuring 3 × 3 mm2 centered on the fovea were obtained using OCTA. The area, perimeter, and acircularity index (AI) of the foveal avascular zone (FAZ), vessel density within a 300 μm wide region of the FAZ (FD-300), and parafoveal vessel density in the superficial capillary plexus (SCP) and deep capillary plexus (DCP) were calculated using novel built-in software with PAR. Results. There was no statistically significant difference in the FAZ area (p=0.162). There was a statistically significant difference in the FAZ perimeter (p=0.010) and the AI (p