Exact envelope solitons in topological Floquet insulators.

The existence of new types of four-wave mixing Floquet solitons were recently realized numerically through a resonant phase matching in a photonic lattice of type-I Dirac cones; specifically, a honeycomb lattice of helical array waveguides imprinted on a weakly birefringent medium. We present a wide class of exact solutions in this system for the envelope solitons in dark-bright pairs and a "molecular" form of bright-dark combinations. Some of the solutions, red or blue detuned, are mode-locked in their momenta, while the others offer a spectrum of allowed momenta subject to constraints amongst the system and solution parameters. We show that the characteristically different solutions exist at and away from the band edge, with the exact band edge possessing a periodic pair of sinusoidal excitations akin to that of two-level systems apart from localized solitons. These could have possible applications for designing quantum devices.

Dissecting the contributions of membrane affinity and bivalency of the spider venom protein DkTx to its sustained mode of TRPV1 activation.

The spider venom protein, double-knot toxin (DkTx), partitions into the cellular membrane and binds bivalently to the pain-sensing ion channel, TRPV1, triggering long-lasting channel activation. In contrast, its monovalent single knots membrane partition poorly and invoke rapidly reversible TRPV1 activation. To discern the contributions of the bivalency and membrane affinity of DkTx to its sustained mode of action, here, we developed diverse toxin variants including those containing truncated linkers between individual knots, precluding bivalent binding. Additionally, by appending the single-knot domains to the Kv2.1 channel-targeting toxin, SGTx, we created monovalent double-knot proteins that demonstrated higher membrane affinity and more sustained TRPV1 activation than the single-knots. We also produced hyper-membrane affinity-possessing tetra-knot proteins, (DkTx)2 and DkTx-(SGTx)2, that demonstrated longer-lasting TRPV1 activation than DkTx, establishing the central role of the membrane affinity of DkTx in endowing it with its sustained TRPV1 activation properties. These results suggest that high membrane affinity-possessing TRPV1 agonists can potentially serve as long-acting analgesics.

The efficient operating parameter estimation for a simulated plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in HEVs (PHEVs) are indispensable tools in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to fight the twin evils of pollution and climate change. In these vehicles, battery replacement and fuel costs are the major recurring costs over a lifetime. Hence, there is a growing attempt to develop strategies that reduce the long-run expenditure in these vehicles without compromising on performance levels. Further, an increase in the fuel economy is also required for the effective penetration of these vehicles in society. Here, the authors attempt to identify the optimal operating values for battery state of charge (SoC), power ratings of motor, and fuel converter to increase the battery life and fuel economy without degrading the vehicle performance. The simulations have been carried out on Ford C-Max Energi (2016) as a representative for PHEVs based on the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS) and Highway (HWY) driving cycles. The software used for these simulations is the future automotive systems technology simulator (FASTSim), developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). In this paper, firstly, the effect of important parameters like battery SoC, fuel converter power, and motor power on HEVs' driving range, battery life, fuel economy, cost, and charge-depleting range has been analyzed. Based on this analysis, the optimal values of the parameters have been estimated. These parameters have resulted in improvements of driving range by 4.3% and battery life by 18% at a minute cost of a 1% decrease in the charge-sustaining battery life and a 0.4-s increase in the time the car takes to hit 60 mph from the rest. This paper presents a simple, effective, and new approach that explores the effect of altering the existing design parameters on vehicle performance, without manipulating, adding, or deleting any component or controller. This can further be extended to study the impact of various other parameters in the proposed work and opens a way to explore other parameters that exist in various other components of XEVs (where X can be H/PH//F). This study will help in achieving optimal cost reduction in these vehicles.

Sympathetic Ophthalmia: Where Do We Currently Stand on Treatment Strategies?

Sympathetic ophthalmia is a rare bilateral diffuse granulomatous panuveitis that usually results from surgical or penetrating trauma to one eye. The symptoms range from impaired near vision to pain, photophobia, and loss of visual acuity. Anterior segment manifestations include bilateral acute uveitis with mutton-fat keratic precipitates and posterior segment findings include vitritis, multifocal neurosensory retinal detachment, choroiditis, optic nerve edema, and Dalen-Fuchs nodules. The diagnosis is clinical. Ancillary investigations include fundus fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), ultrasound B scan, and autofluorescence imaging. The management options include corticosteroids (topical and systemic) as the first line along with immunomodulatory therapy started at the presentation of the disease. Recent advances include imaging with OCT-angiography, enhanced depth imaging-OCT (EDI-OCT, choroidal vascular index/CVI), targeting IL-23/IL-17 pathway, and use of biologics for the management of this rare entity. Recent advances in early diagnosis and prompt treatment has led to improved final visual outcomes in both the sympathizing and exciting eye. This review is aimed at giving a comprehensive overview of sympathetic ophthalmia along with a special emphasis on current treatment strategies and recent advances.

Oral Brush Liquid-Based Cytology: A Study of Concordance between a Cytotechnologist and a Cytopathologist.

OBJECTIVE: Oral cancer accounts for almost 40% of all cancers in the Indian subcontinent. Techniques like oral scrape cytology are helpful in early diagnosis of premalignant lesion and thus prevention of malignant transformation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of cytotechnologists in assessing the adequacy and preliminary diagnostic accuracy of oral brush liquid-based cytology. STUDY DESIGN: 110 oral brush liquid-based cytology smears were prospectively screened by a cytotechnologist for adequacy assessment, and a preliminary diagnosis was recorded. Smears were subsequently studied by the reporting cytopathologist for the final diagnosis. The performance of the cytotechnologist in the assessment of adequacy and the preliminary diagnosis were compared with the final interpretation rendered by the cytopathologist. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in adequacy assessment between both observers, and good concordance was observed in the identification of frankly malignant lesions; however, in premalignant cases, complete agreement in all the cases was not observed. Maximum numbers of discrepant cases were seen in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, 4/17 were downgraded to low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions and 2/17 to negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy, respectively. CONCLUSION: Trained cytotechnologists are capable of assessing the adequacy and identifying the malignancy in oral brush liquid-based cytology smears, and hence there is potential for them to perform initial screening of such cases.