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Introduction Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a common and frequently occurring disease of the upper respiratory tract. The nasal instillation of the Gram‐negative (G−) bacterial product lipopolysaccharide (LPS) can induce not only acute sinusitis but also the development of CRSwNP in animal models. Nevertheless, the expression and distribution of LPS in patients with CRSwNP have not been investigated. And the study was to investigate the expression of LPS and its relationship with glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in CRSwNP. Methods Multiple methods, including bacterial culture and immunohistochemistry, were used to detect and analyze nasal bacteria, plasma LPS content, and the levels of LPS and GR‐α/β, cluster of differentiation 68 (CD68), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) expression, as well as their relationship in CRSwNP. Results The number of G− bacteria and Escherichia coli (E. coli) was not significantly different between CRSwNP subjects and the controls. However, the positive rate of LPS was much higher than that of E. coli in CRSwNP subjects and was significantly higher in noneosinophilic CRSwNP subjects than in eosinophilic CRSwNP subjects. Moreover, the LPS levels were positively correlated with GR‐β but not GR‐α expression in CRSwNP. Immunofluorescence assays showed that LPS was mainly detected in CD68+ macrophages and MPO+ neutrophils, in addition to histiocytes, in CRSwNP. Conclusions Persistent LPS in CRSwNP can lead to unresolved mucosal inflammation, eventually leading to tissue remodeling and the development of CRSwNP. Our findings suggest that increased LPS content and possible resistance to glucocorticoids may be one of the important pathogenic mechanisms of G− bacteria in CRSwNP., We used bacterial culture and immunohistochemistry to find that the positive rate of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was much higher than that of Escherichia coli in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), and the LPS levels were positively correlated with glucocorticoid receptor‐β (GR‐β) expression in CRSwNP. Our findings suggest increased LPS content and possible resistance to glucocorticoids may be one of the important pathogenic mechanisms of G‐negative bacteria in CRSwNP.

We demonstrate a handheld swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with a 400 kHz vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) light source, a non-contact approach, and an unprecedented single shot 105° field of view (FOV). We also implemented a spiral scanning pattern allowing real-time visualization with improved scanning efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest FOV achieved in a portable non-contact OCT retinal imaging system to date. Improvements to the FOV may aid the evaluation of retinal diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity, where important vitreoretinal changes often occur in the peripheral retina.

ObjectiveTo determine whether handheld widefield optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be used to document retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) stage while using scleral depression to improve peripheral views.DesignProspective observational studyParticipantsConsecutive neonates admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in a single academic medical center who also met criteria for ROP screening and consented for research imaging.MethodsScleral depression was combined with widefield OCT using an investigational 400-kHz, 55-degree field of view handheld OCT during ROP screening from October 28, 2020 to March 03, 2021.Main Outcome MeasuresAcquisition of en face and B-scan imaging of the peripheral retina to objectively assess early vitreoretinal pathology, including the demarcation between vascularized and anterior avascular retina, the presence of early ridge formation, and small neovascular tufts.ResultsVarious stages of ROP were detected using a rapid acquisition OCT system. In one neonate, serial OCT imaging over a five-week period demonstrated accumulation of neovascular tufts with progression to stage 3 ROP with extraretinal fibrovascular proliferation along the ridge. Videography of this technique is included in this report for instructional purposes.ConclusionsSerial examinations using widefield OCT and scleral depression may improve detection and documentation of ROP disease progression. Earlier detection of ROP-related proliferation may prevent vitreoretinal traction, retinal detachment, and blindness.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) enable noninvasive structural and angiographic imaging of the eye. Portable handheld OCT/OCTA systems are required for imaging patients in the supine position. Examples include infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and operating room (OR). The speed of image acquisition plays a pivotal role in acquiring high quality OCT/OCTA images, particularly with the handheld system, since both the operator hand tremor and subject motion can cause significant motion artifacts. In addition, having a large field of view and the ability of real-time data visualization are critical elements in rapid disease screening, reducing imaging time, and detecting peripheral retinal pathologies. The arrangement of optical components is less flexible in the handheld system due to the limitation of size and weight. In this paper, we introduce a 400-kHz, 55-degree field of view handheld OCT/OCTA system that has overcome many technical challenges as a portable OCT system as well as a high-speed OCTA system. We demonstrate imaging premature infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the NICU, and patients with incontinentia pigmenti (IP) in the OR using our handheld OCT system. Our design may have potential for improving the diagnosis of retinal diseases and help provide a practical guideline for designing a flexible and portable OCT system.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) enable noninvasive structural and angiographic imaging of the eye. Portable handheld OCT/OCTA systems are required for imaging patients in the supine position. Examples include infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and operating room (OR). The speed of image acquisition plays a pivotal role in acquiring high-quality OCT/OCTA images, particularly with the handheld system, since both the operator hand tremor and subject motion can cause significant motion artifacts. In addition, having a large field of view and the ability of real-time data visualization are critical elements in rapid disease screening, reducing imaging time, and detecting peripheral retinal pathologies. The arrangement of optical components is less flexible in the handheld system due to the limitation of size and weight. In this paper, we introduce a 400-kHz, 55-degree field of view handheld OCT/OCTA system that has overcome many technical challenges as a portable OCT system as well as a high-speed OCTA system. We demonstrate imaging premature infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the NICU, a patient with incontinentia pigmenti (IP), and a patient with X-linked retinoschisis (XLRS) in the OR using our handheld OCT system. Our design may have the potential for improving the diagnosis of retinal diseases and help provide a practical guideline for designing a flexible and portable OCT system.

BackgroundAfter the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infected people, increasing numbers of patients have pretreatment drug resistance (PDR). In this study, the prevalence of PDR was evaluated in adults initiating antiretroviral therapy in China.MethodsBlood samples were obtained from 1943 patients who initiated antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2017 from 13 provinces or cities in China. Pol sequences were used to analyze drug resistance and construct transmission networks. Logistic regression model was used to estimate the potential factors associated with PDR.ResultsIn total, 1711 eligible patients (76.0% male; 87.8% aged ≥ 25 years) were included, of which 117 (6.8%) had PDR. The highest rates of PDR were 12.2% in Liangshan Prefecture of Sichuan and 9.3 and 8.9% in Dehong and Lincang Prefecture of Yunnan. A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that PDR was significantly higher among intravenous drug users (adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR) = 2.64, 95%CI: 1.57–4.44) and individuals from Liangshan, Dehong, and Lincang (aOR = 2.04, 95%CI: 1.26–3.30). In total, 754 sequences were used to generate 164 transmission networks. Five transmission networks had two or three sequences containing the same mutations, two networks contained subjects from Liangshan, and one network contained subjects from Dehong.ConclusionsOverall, the PDR prevalence was moderate, with a particularly high prevalence in areas with severe HIV epidemics. These results indicate the importance of continuous PDR monitoring in patients initiating antiretroviral therapy.

When sampling analog signal, the electronic transformer generally produces a fixed phase error that will compromise the measurement accuracy and require a phase shift method for correction. In this paper, we propose a digital phase shift method based on least squares fitting algorithm and derive the recursion formula of digital phase shift. The simulation has also been done to analysis its performance. The result shows that the method has high phase shift resolution and precision. By applying the method to an electronic transformer based on Rogowski coil, we have experimentally verified the feasibility and validity of the method.

Optical coherence tomographic angiography (OCTA) can image the retinal blood flow but visualization of the capillary caliber is limited by the low lateral resolution. Adaptive optics (AO) can be used to compensate ocular aberrations when using high numerical aperture (NA), and thus improve image resolution. However, previously reported AO-OCTA instruments were large and complex, and have a small sub-millimeter field of view (FOV) that hinders the extraction of biomarkers with clinical relevance. In this manuscript, we developed a sensorless AO-OCTA prototype with an intermediate numerical aperture to produce depth-resolved angiograms with high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio over a 2 × 2 mm FOV, with a focal spot diameter of 6 µm, which is about 3 times finer than typical commercial OCT systems. We believe these parameters may represent a better tradeoff between resolution and FOV compared to large-NA AO systems, since the spot size matches better that of capillaries. The prototype corrects defocus, astigmatism, and coma using a figure of merit based on the mean reflectance projection of a slab defined with real-time segmentation of retinal layers. AO correction with the ability to optimize focusing in arbitrary retinal depths – particularly the plexuses in the inner retina – could be achieved in 1.35 seconds. The AO-OCTA images showed greater flow signal, signal-to-noise ratio, and finer capillary caliber compared to commercial OCTA. Projection artifacts were also reduced in the intermediate and deep capillary plexuses. The instrument reported here improves OCTA image quality without excessive sacrifice in FOV and device complexity, and thus may have potential for clinical translation.

Sensorless adaptive optics optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT) is a technology to image retinal tissue with high resolution by compensating ocular aberrations without wavefront sensors. In this Letter, a fast and robust hill-climbing algorithm is developed to optimize five Zernike modes in AO-OCT with a numerical aperture between that of conventional AO and commercial OCT systems. The merit function is generated in real time using graphics processing unit while axially tracking the retinal layer of interest. A new method is proposed to estimate the largest achievable field of view for which aberrations are corrected uniformly in sensorless AO-OCT.

Aberrant microRNA (miRNA) expression has been linked to cancer development. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the anti‑cancer effect of miRNA‑299‑3p on laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells is mediated through targeting human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). The expression of miR‑299‑3p in laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells and human osteosarcoma U2OS cells was quantified by stem‑loop‑mediated reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. miR‑299‑3p mimic was transfected into Hep‑2 cells to induce overexpression of miR‑299‑3p. A CCK‑8 assay was performed to identify the effects of miR‑299‑3p overexpression on the proliferation of Hep‑2 cells. Western blot analysis was carried out to determine the expression of hTERT protein. A significant decrease was noted in the expression of miR‑299‑3p in Hep‑2 cells compared with that of U2OS cells (P0.05). Overexpression of miR‑299‑3p resulted in a notable inhibition of cellular proliferation (P0.05), as well as downregulation of hTERT mRNA and protein in Hep‑2 cells (P0.05). The expression of miR‑299‑3p is downregulated in human laryngeal cancer Hep‑2 cells. Overexpression of miR‑299‑3p inhibits Hep‑2 cell growth by targeting the 3'‑untranslated region of hTERT mRNA.

A multi-dopant material system for polymer-stabilized (PS) blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is proposed. The driving capacity of PS-BPLC can be improved by doping N-vinylpyrrollidone (NVP) and polyaniline functionalized graphene (G-PANI). With the dopant optimization, the Kerr constant is increased by 68%, and the response time, hysteresis and residual birefringence have no degradation.

A combined fringe and in-plane switching (FIS) mode single-cell-gap transflective display using blue-phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is proposed. The structure makes use of the space above the pixel electrodes of this FIS mode as reflective regions and the space between pixel electrodes as transmissive regions. The structure which can be optimized to balance the optical phase retardation between transmissive region and reflective region with simple fabrication process exhibits relatively high optical efficiency and well matched voltage of transmittance and reflectance curves.

A novel fabrication method using holographic exposure for switchable blue phase (BP) liquid crystal (LC)/polymer Fresnel lens was demonstrated. The Fresnel pattern can be achieved by interfering a planar and a spherical wave fronts with a 532-nm laser. The BPLC/polymer Fresnel lens can thus be fabricated without photo mask and controlled with a simpler driving compared with the conventional LC Fresnel lens.