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Pregnancies complicated by pre-gestational diabetes (PGD) are associated with a higher rate of adverse outcomes, including an increased rage of preterm delivery, pregnancy-induced hypertension, pre-eclampsia, caesarean section, perinatal mortality, stillbirth, shoulder dystocia, macrosomia, small for gestational age, large for gestational age, low birth weight, neonatal hypoglycemia, neonatal death, low Apgar score, NICU admission, jaundice and respiratory distress. In the past two decades, numerous reports have been published regarding associations between PGD and risk of adverse outcomes. However, study results are inconsistent. To provide a synopsis of the current understanding of PGD for risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, a random-effects meta-analysis over 40 million subjects from 100 studies was performed to calculate the pooled ORs. Potential sources of heterogeneity were systematically explored by multiple strata analyses and meta-regression. Overall, PGD were significantly associated with increased risk of preterm delivery (OR=3.48), LGA (OR=3.90), perinatal mortality (OR=3.39), stillbirth (OR=3.52), pre-eclampsia (OR=3.48), caesarean section (OR=3.52), NICU admission (OR=3.92), and neonatal hypoglycemia (OR=26.62). Significant results were also observed for 7 adverse outcomes with OR range from 1.54 to 2.82, while no association was found for SGA and respiratory distress after Bonferroni correction. We found that women with T1DM had higher risks for most of adverse pregnancy outcomes compared with women with T2DM. When stratified by study design, sample size, type of diabetes, geographic region, and study quality, significant associations remains. Our findings demonstrated that PGD is a strong risk-conferring factor for adverse maternal, perinatal and neonatal outcomes.

The aim of the present study was to identify the appropriate DNA sequence and design high-quality primers for methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP). These primers may be used to examine and identify patients with early-stage epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC). Opioid binding protein/cell adhesion molecule like (OPCML), Runt-related transcription factor 3 and tissue factor pathway inhibitor 2 were selected as possible molecular markers. MSP primer sets were designed to monitor the methylation of the three markers. Free circulating DNA (fcDNA) from 194 patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma and healthy donors were templates in the nested MSP. OPCML MSP was effective with respect to screening methylated fcDNA. One-way ANOVA P-values indicated that the difference in cancer antigen 125 (CA125), a biomarker for EOC diagnosis, level between early EOC and healthy donors was not significant. The methylation of OPCML was significantly altered in early-stage EOC compared with healthy donors (P

Cisplatin resistance is still one of the main reasons for failure of clinical therapy for cervical cancer. But the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in cisplatin resistance of cervical cancer have still remained unclear. Recent studies reported that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are novel nonprotein-coding transcripts, which might play a key role in cancer biogenesis and prognosis. One of the lncRNAs, urothelial cancer associated 1 (UCA1), has been shown to promote different types of cancer cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. This study showed that overexpression of UCA1 confers cisplatin resistance by promoting cancer cell proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis. In addition, knockdown of UCA1 remarkably decreased cisplatin resistance in cervical cancer cells. Moreover, results also indicated that UCA1 was involved in signaling pathways modulating cell apoptosis and proliferation. UCA1 suppressed apoptosis by downregulating caspase 3 and upregulating CDK2, whereas enhanced cell proliferation by increased level of survivin and decreased level of p21. This study reports for the first time that UCA1 might play an important role in the cisplatin resistance in cervical cancer, and also explain partially how UCA1 promotes cisplatin resistance in cancer cells. These results provide evidence to support that UCA1 can be used as a potential target for a novel therapeutic strategy for cervical cancer.

To explore the application of multiplex nested methylated specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the early diagnosis of epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC).Serum and fresh tissue samples were collected from 114 EOC patients. RUNX3, TFPI2 and OPCML served as target genes. Methylation levels of tissues were assessed by multiplex nested methylated specific PCR, the results being compared with those for carcinoma antigen 125 (CA125).The serum free deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) methylation spectrum of EOC patients was completely contained in the DNA spectrum of cancer tissues, providing an accurate reflection of tumor DNA methylation conditions. Serum levels of CA125 and free DNA methylation in the EOC group were evidently higher than those in benign lesion and control groups (p0.05). Patients with early EOC had markedly lower serum CA125 than those with advanced EOC (p0.05), but there was no significant difference in free DNA methylation (p0.05). The sensitivity, specificity and positive predicative value (PPV) of multiplex nested methylated specific PCR were significantly higher for detection of all patients and those with early EOC than those for CA125 (p0.05). In the detection of patients with advanced EOC, the PPV of CA125 detection was obviously lower than that of multiplex nested methylated specific PCR (p0.05), but there was no significant difference in sensitivity (p0.05).Serum free DNA methylation can be used as a biological marker for EOC and multiplex nested methylated specific PCR should be considered for early diagnosis since it can accurately determine tumor methylation conditions.

Growing evidence has shown that gut microbiome is a key factor involved in liver health. Therefore, gut microbiota modulation with probiotic bacteria, such as Saccharomyces boulardii, constitutes a promising therapy for hepatosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the protective effects of S. boulardii on D-Galactosamine-induced liver injury in mice. Liver function test and histopathological analysis both suggested that the liver injury can be effectively attenuated by S. boulardii administration. In the meantime, S. boulardii induced dramatic changes in the gut microbial composition. At the phylum level, we found that S. boulardii significantly increased in the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes, and decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, which may explain the hepatic protective effects of S. boulardii. Taken together, our results demonstrated that S. boulardii administration could change the gut microbiota in mice and alleviate acute liver failure, indicating a potential protective and therapeutic role of S. boulardii.

BiFeO3 thin films have drawn much attention due to its potential applications for novel magnetoelectric devices and fundamental physics in magnetoelectric coupling. However, the structural evolution of BiFeO3 films with thickness remains controversial. Here we use an optical second-harmonic generation technique to explore the phase-related symmetry evolution of BiFeO3 thin films with the variation of thickness. The crystalline structures for 60 and 180-nm-thick BiFeO3 thin films were characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffractometry reciprocal space mapping and the local piezoelectric response for 60-nm-thick BiFeO3 thin films was characterized by piezoresponse force microscopy. The present results show that the symmetry of BiFeO3 thin films with a thickness below 60 nm belongs to the point group 4 mm. We conclude that the disappearance of fourfold rotational symmetry in SHG s-out pattern implies for the appearance of R-phase. The fact that the thinner the film is, the closer to 1 the tensor element ratio χ31/χ15 tends, indicates an increase of symmetry with the decrease of thickness for BiFeO3 thin films.

// Lei Yu 1, 2, * , Bao-fang Zhang 3, * , Ming-liang Cheng 2 , Xue-ke Zhao 2 , Quan Zhang 2 , Ya-xin Hu 2 , Hua-juan Liu 2 , Mao Mu 2 , Bi Wang 2, 4 , Guo-zhen Yang 2 , Li-li Zhu 2 , Shuai Zhang 5 , Yu-mei Yao 2 , Yi-ju Cheng 2 , Wang-sheng Li 6 1 The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangdong 510632, Guangzhou, China 2 The Affiliated Hospital, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou, China 3 The First Affiliated Hospital, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu, China 4 Department of Eugenics and Genetics, Guiyang Maternal and Child Health-Care Hospital, Guiyang 550003, Guizhou, China 5 Department of Interventional Radiology, Cancer Hospital of Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550004, Guizhou, China 6 Department of Clinical Laboratory, Liupanshui People’s Hospital, Liupanshui 553401, Guizhou, China * These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors Correspondence to: Ming-liang Cheng, e-mail: gmcmingliang_cheng@163.com Guo-zhen Yang, e-mail: gmcguozhen_yang@163.com Keywords: hepatitis B virus, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver cirrhosis, mutation, risk Received: February 29, 2016 Accepted: April 28, 2016 Published: May 17, 2016 ABSTRACT The long-term outcomes of liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are associated with specific HBV genotypes and mutations in the virus genome. However, a number of gene-disease association studies have yielded inconsistent results in the field. To investigate this inconsistency, we conducted a meta-analysis from 118 studies involving a total of 9,418 HCC cases, 2,697 LC cases, and 18,785 HBV-infected participants for 11 mutations of HBV to evaluate the epidemiological evidence of the relationship. Overall, 10 mutants (Pre-S mutation, A1762T/G1764A double mutations, G1896A, G1899A, T1753V, C1653T, G1766A, A1762T, G1764A, T1768A) were significantly associated with increased HCC risk with odds ratio (OR) range from 1.80 to 4.27, while no associations were found for C1858T. We found a significant dose–risk relationship between the number of mutations in HBV genome and HCC, in which high risks for HCC were associated with mutation numbers more than 5 (OR = 18.45, 95% CI: 7.86–43.29). By pooling 15 prospective studies, A1762T/G1764A, Pre-S, T1753V, and C1653T mutation was identified as good predictor of HCC risk, showing ORs from 1.73 to 4.54. In addition, significantly elevated LC risks were associated with 6 mutants (A1762T/G1764A double mutations, G1896A, G1899A, T1753V, C1653T, Pre-S mutation), with OR range from 1.76 to 4.10. Our results suggested that HBV mutations alone or in combination may be of clinical significance for predicting hepatocarcinogenesis.

We report a visible-blind ultraviolet photoconductive detector with interdigitated electrodes based on KTaO

This paper describes a particular design of a Pierce gun and a compact PPM focusing system for 108GHz serpentine TWT applications. Design strategies are proposed by providing closed formulas and dimensioning techniques. The influence of focusing electrode dimension has been presented in gun structure design. The optimum value of magnetic induction has been discussed in PPM structure design. Using this design, a well focused electron beam can be obtained.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is the predominant risk factor for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), liver cirrhosis (LC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, genome-wide association studies have identified human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DP polymorphisms (rs3077 and rs9277535) as a new chronic HBV infection susceptibility locus. Since then, the relationship between HLA-DP polymorphisms and various outcomes of HBV infection has been reported. However, the results have been inconclusive. To derive a more precise estimation of the relationship between HLA-DP polymorphisms and various outcomes of HBV infection, a meta-analysis of 62,050 subjects from 29 case-control studies was performed. We found that rs3077 and rs9277535 in HLA-DP significantly decreased HBV infection risks and increased HBV clearance possibility in a dose-dependent manner. In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, study design and sample size, significant associations were found for these polymorphisms in almost all comparisons. Meanwhile, haplotype analyses of the two polymorphisms revealed a significant association between the combination of these alleles and HBV infection outcomes. However, no significant results were observed in HCC development. Our results further confirm that genetic variants in the HLA-DP locus are strongly associated with reduced HBV infection and increased the likelihood of spontaneous viral clearance.

To explore the effect and mechanism of norcantharidin (NCTD) on hematopoiesis function in leucopenia model rat induced by cyclophosphamide (CTX).Leucopenia model was replicated in SD rat with cyclophosphamide(CTX) and model animal was treated with NCTD. Peripheral blood and bone marrow tissue samples were collected from the rats in each experimental group. Peripheral white blood cells (WBC) were counted and analyzed by automatic blood cell analyzer. Histopathologic changes of the biopsied bone marrow tissues were observed by histopathological techniques. The cell cycle and apoptosis rate of bone marrow cells were detected by flow cytometry. Immunohistochemical method was applied to observe the expression of apoptosis-related proteins BCL-2 and BAX in bone marrow.After NCTD treatment in model rats, the WBC count of peripheral blood obviously increased, the cell structure of bone tissue significantly recovered, NCTD could promote the cell proliferation and cycle changes of bone marrow cells, inhibit the bone marrow cell apoptosis and necrosis induced with CTX, up-regulate the expression of apoptosis-related protein BCL-2 and downregulated the BAX.NCTD can stimulate the bone marrow hematopoiesis and promote recovery of peripheral white blood cell level in the leukopenia model induced by CTX, and its mechanism may be related with NCTD regulating bone marrow cell cycle and with NCTD inhibiting cell apoptosis.

The parametric amplification (PA) and second harmonic generation (SHG) from quasi-one-dimensional aperiodic optical superlattices (AOSs) are investigated in the cases of large, intermediate, and small signals of the pumping light wave. The optimal design of the AOSs is carried out with the use of the simulated annealing (SA) method. The numerical simulations show that the constructed AOSs can achieve multiple wavelength PA (or SHG) with identical amplification (or identical conversion efficiency) at the pre-assigned wavelengths. The variations of the normalized intensities of the PA signal (or the pumping fundamental wave (PFW)) for the PA process with the distance of propagation of the light wave from the interface of the AOSs at the pre-assigned wavelengths exhibit monotonically increasing (or decreasing) behavior. So do the variations of the normalized intensities of the second harmonic wave (SHW) (or the fundamental wave (FW)) for the SHG. This strongly supports the fact that the contribution of each individual unit domain in the constructed samples to the PA (or SHG) is constructive accumulation, favorable for the PA (or SHG) process. The saturation phenomenon of the PA (or SHG) signal is observed.

The focal characteristics of refractive cylindrical lenses made of anisotropically dielectric material (uniaxial crystal) are analysed based on rigorous electromagnetic theory and the boundary element method. The performances of the lenses with different f numbers are appraised for both incident waves of the TE (transverse electric) and TM (transverse magnetic) polarizations. Numerical results show that the focal performance of this kind of lens for the TE polarization and the TM polarization of incident light wave is a difference, in particular, different focal lengths, owing to the anisotropy of the material. However, for the conventional isotropic lens, the focal features for both the TE and TM polarizations are the same. It is anticipated that this new kind of lens proposed for the first time may serve as a light switching device with high speed used in the micro-optical communication.

We demonstrate that quantum size effects play a crucial role in the row structure of metal-induced Si(111) reconstruction by identifying the 'magic' widths of the metal adsorbates with the minima of electron energy as a function of adsorbate width. Without any adjustable parameters, we obtain accurate agreement with all recent results for Si(111)-4 x 1-In and Si(111)-3 x 1-M (M = Li, Na, K, Rb, Ag) structures. This new and simple physical picture of electron energies in metal adsorbates provides a universal quantitative model for describing the row structures of metal-induced Si(111) surface reconstructions. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We examine the critical behavior of a finite alternating ferroelectric superlattice based on the transverse Ising model. By the transfer matrix method we derive analytical equations for the Curie temperature of the superlattice. Numerical results are obtained for the dependence of the Curie temperature on the thickness and exchange constants of the superlattice. The effect of transverse field on the Curie temperature is also investigated.

Absolute photonic band gaps (PBG's) can be substantially improved in two-dimensional (2D) lattices by rotating noncircular air rods in dielectric background, in which the configuration of high-dielectric regions that are both practically isolated and linked by narrow veins can be freely adjusted to create large absolute PBG's. For square lattice, the largest absolute PBG's in the single-square-rod and double-hybrid-rods structures are 315 and 150 % sizes of those in the corresponding single-circular-rod and double-circular-rods structures, respectively. Furthermore, the large absolute PBG's persist in a wide range of filling fractions and reach their maxima far away from the close-packed conditions, and this is in vast favor of preparation of crystals. Such an approach is also applicable to other 2D lattices. It may open up a scope for engineering PBG's.

We investigate the property of the bound states with an infinite number of classical turning points in the semiconductor superlattices (SL's) with the double-barrier and double-well structural defects. The anomalous parity sequence of these bound states violating the conventional parity rule is predicted. A physical mechanism on the origin of the bound states in the structural defect SL's, different from the mechanism addressed in the previous literature, is proposed. Based upon it, the parity anomaly can be interpreted very well. In addition, we also study the property of the optical transition in this system, for instance, the evaluation of the optical transition probability from the bound states to the bound states, from the bound states to the delocalized scattering states, and from the scattering states to other scattering states, in detail.

In this paper we study the influence of the magneto-coupling effect between the longitudinal motion component and the transverse Landau orbits of an electron on transmission features in single barrier structures. Within the parabolic conduction-band approach, a modified one-dimensional effective-mass Schrodinger equation, including the magneto-coupling effect generated from the position-dependent effective mass of the electron, is strictly derived. Numerical calculations for single barrier structures show that the magneto-coupling effect brings about a series of the important changes for the transmission probability, the above-barrier quasi-bound states, and the tunneling time. Through examining the variation of the above-barrier resonant-transmission spectrum with the barrier width and observing the well-defined Lorentzian line-shape of the above-barrier resonant peaks, we convincingly show that the above-barrier resonant transmission in single barrier structures is delivered by the above-barrier quasibound states in the barrier region, just as the below-barrier resonant tunneling in double barrier structures is mediated by the below-barrier quasi-bound states in the well. Furthermore, we come to the conclusion that the magneto-coupling effect brings about not only the splitting of the above-barrier quasi-bound levels but also the striking reduction of the level-width of the quasi-bound states, correspondingly, the substantial increase of the density of the quasi-bound states. We suggest that magneto-coupling effects may be observed by the measurements of the optical absorption spectrum associated with the above-barrier quasi-bound states in the single barrier structures.

In a measurement of pulsed laser deposition of ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{3}$ on ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{3}(001),$ we demonstrate that the difference in relative reflectivity change $\ensuremath{\Delta}R/R$ between $s$- and $p$-polarized light can be used in a real-time monitor of thin film growth at the level of a single atomic layer. This reflectance difference has the same sensitivity (0.01 monolayer), the real-time monitoring capability, and the spectral resolution as the conventional reflectance-difference spectroscopy developed by Aspnes and co-workers. The present reflectance-difference technique does not rely on the existence of optical anisotropy within the surface plane and therefore is applicable to investigation and control of thin film growth on all surfaces. Compared to the surface photoabsorption technique developed by Kobayashi and Horikoshi, our technique improves the signal-to-noise ratio by at least one order of magnitude through reducing the background to a level equivalent to $\ensuremath{\Delta}R/R=1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ or below.

We present the effective-barrier-height method to investigate the effects of coupling between normal and lateral degrees of freedom of an electron in the parabolic conduction-band approach. This is performed on electronic states in quantum wells (QW's) and superlattices (SL's) at zero and finite magnetic fields perpendicular to interfaces. The numerical calculations for ${\mathrm{G}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{A}\mathrm{s}/\mathrm{A}\mathrm{l}}_{x}{\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}\mathrm{As}$ materials show that the coupling effect leads not only to the shift of the sublevels in QW's and subband, in SL's toward the well bottom with increasing ${k}_{\mathrm{xy}}$ or $n$, but also to the disappearance of high excited states close to the top of the barrier when ${k}_{\mathrm{xy}}$ or $n$ exceeds a certain value owing to the the fast lowering of the effective-barrier height. We also investigate the variation of the shift of levels in QW's with the well width and found that this coupling effect becomes more striking in thin QW's.

Within the parabolic conduction-band approach, a modified one-dimensional effective mass Schrodinger equation, including the magneto-coupling effect between the longitudinal motion component and the transverse Landau orbits of an electron, is strictly derived. This magneto-coupling effect is generated from the space-dependent effective mass of the electron. Numerical calculations for single barrier structures show that the magneto-coupling has a series of important effects on the transmission probability and the above-barrier quasi-bound states. We suggest that the magneto-coupling effect may be observed by measurements of the optical absorption spectrum in the single barrier structures.

In this paper we present formulas for the transmission coefficient in multibarrier heterostructures when taking into account the space-dependent electron effective mass and the coupling between components of the motion of an electron in directions parallel and perpendicular to the interfaces. We find that the coupling leads to a decrease of the effective barrier height seen by the electron. The numerical calculations are carried out for the double- and triple-barrier heterostructures consisting of GaAs/${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{x}}$ ${\mathrm{Al}}_{\mathrm{x}}$ As. Our results show that the coupling effect leads not only significantly to a shift of resonant peaks toward the low-energy region, but also causes the broadening of resonant peaks and the reduction of the peak-to-valley ratio in the transmission spectrum. The coupling becomes more pronounced for higher-lying resonant states. In addition, the variation of the coupling strength with the concentration x of Al is also investigated.

Near field optical microscopy (NOM) offers an efficient way of collecting local information on the optical electromagnetic fields lying in the vicinity of an object. In this paper we calculate the near-field distributions of mesoscopic/nanometric surface structures based on a modified self-consistent integral-equation formalism (SCIEF) in real-space representation. The field-susceptibility Green-function technique and the unretarded approximation are applied. Two kinds of three-dimensional surface structural defects, protrusion and hollow with various sizes and shapes, are investigated in detail. This shows that the pattern of near-field distribution depends strongly on the characteristics of illumination light, such as total-internal-reflection angle and polarized direction of incident field as well as the position of the observation plane. We also discuss the effect of interference for the larger size single defect and between adjacent defects in multiple surface defect samples. The simulation results demonstrate that this modified SCIEF is a very useful and efficient approach for complex shape of defects with nanometric size on the surface of structures.

A thin-film growth mechanism in laser-MBE is studied by Monte Carlo simulation. Particles impinge on the surface batch by batch rather than one by one. The different contributions of a positive surface step and a negative one to the RHEED intensity are considered, so is the influence of step size.

We predict, on the basis of a model calculation, that an asymmetric Fano-type line shape in the intersubband absorption spectrum will be produced by the electron--LO-phonon interaction in a suitably designed quantum well. The asymmetry parameter q, the broadening \ensuremath{\Gamma}, and the frequency shift \ensuremath{\Delta}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\omega}}}_{\mathit{p}}$ in the Fano profile are varied with the change of the quantum-well structure parameters, and q is also altered by the variation of the doping density in the well.

We develop a direct method by which we exactly derive a general dispersion relation for magnetostatic modes in an N-cell finite superlattice composed of two different alternating magnetic layers. We also confirm mathematically the consistency condition for the existence of surface modes on a semi-infinite superlattice. We obtain some new analytical conclusions about surface modes.

We show that an asymmetric Fano profile in resonant Raman scattering results from the electron--LO-phonon interaction at a particular incident laser wavelength in a quantum well with appropriate structure parameters.