253 J at 0.2†Hz, LD pumped cryogenic helium gas cooled Yb:YAG ceramics laser.

A 253 J with 26 ns at 0.2 Hz laser performance was demonstrated using a LD pumped cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG ceramics laser amplifier. A high energy storage of 344 J was achieved with a stored energy density of 0.58 J/cm3 using a 1 kJ output multidirectional-pumping system. High energy-extraction efficiency of 56.5% was achieved with high energy fluence of 4.63 J /cm2. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output energy obtained with a repetitive nanosecond pulse by LD pumped solid-state laser. This paper presented a design of 1 kJ amplifier based on experimentally proven numerical data.

Effect of Laryngopharyngeal Reflux and Potassium-Competitive Acid Blocker (P-CAB) on the Microbiological Comprise of the Laryngopharynx.

OBJECTIVE: To probe the microbiota composition progressing from healthy individuals to those with laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD) and subsequently undergoing potassium-competitive acid inhibitor (P-CAB) therapy. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective case-control study. SETTING: Academic Medical Center. METHODS: Forty patients with LPRD and 51 patients without LPRD were recruited. An 8-week P-CAB therapy was initiated (post-T-LPRD), and 39 had return visits. In total, 130 laryngopharyngeal saliva samples were collected and sequenced by targeting the V3-V4 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene using an Illumina MiSeq. Amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) and clinical indices were analyzed. RESULTS: Alpha and beta diversities were compared among the non-LPRD, LPRD, and post-T-LPRD groups, and the Observed_ASVs were not significantly different. At the same time, the Shannon and Simpson indices, unweighted Unifrac, weighted Unifrac, and binary Jaccard distance were significantly different between non-LPRD and LPRD groups. In addition, significant differences were found in the abundance of Streptococcus, Prevotella, and Prevotellaceae in the LPRD versus non-LPRD groups, and Neisseria, Leptotrichia, and Allprevotella in the LPRD versus post-T-LPRD groups. The genera model was used to distinguish patients with LPRD from those without, and a better receiver operating characteristic curve was formed after combining the clinical indices of reflux symptom index, reflux finding score, and pepsin, with an area under the curve of 0.960. CONCLUSION: Laryngopharyngeal microbial communities changed after laryngopharyngeal reflux and were modified further after P-CAB treatment, which provides a potential diagnostic value for LPRD, especially when combined with clinical indices.

Initial experience with radiomics of carotid perivascular adipose tissue in identifying symptomatic plaque.

Background: Carotid atherosclerotic ischemic stroke threatens human health and life. The aim of this study is to establish a radiomics model of perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) around carotid plaque for evaluation of the association between Peri-carotid Adipose Tissue structural changes with stroke and transient ischemic attack. Methods: A total of 203 patients underwent head and neck computed tomography angiography examination in our hospital. All patients were divided into a symptomatic group (71 cases) and an asymptomatic group (132 cases) according to whether they had acute/subacute stroke or transient ischemic attack. The radiomic signature (RS) of carotid plaque PVAT was extracted, and the minimum redundancy maximum correlation, recursive feature elimination, and linear discriminant analysis algorithms were used for feature screening and dimensionality reduction. Results: It was found that the RS model achieved the best diagnostic performance in the Bagging Decision Tree algorithm, and the training set (AUC, 0.837; 95%CI: 0.775, 0.899), testing set (AUC, 0.834; 95%CI: 0.685, 0.982). Compared with the traditional feature model, the RS model significantly improved the diagnostic efficacy for identifying symptomatic plaques in the testing set (AUC: 0.834 vs. 0.593; Z = 2.114, p = 0.0345). Conclusion: The RS model of PVAT of carotid plaque can be used as an objective indicator to evaluate the risk of plaque and provide a basis for risk stratification of carotid atherosclerotic disease.

Ultrasonic Elastography-guided Pleural Biopsy for the Diagnosis of Pleural Effusion: A Multicenter Prospective Study of Diagnostic Test Performance.

Rationale: The diagnostic yield of traditional ultrasound-guided pleural biopsy remains unsatisfactory, particularly when the pleural thickness is ⩽5 mm and/or no pleural nodules are detected. Pleural ultrasound elastography (UE) has a better diagnostic yield than traditional ultrasound for malignant pleural effusion (MPE). However, studies on UE-guided pleural biopsies are lacking. Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of UE-guided pleural biopsy. Methods: In this multicenter prospective single-arm trial, patients with pleural effusion whose pleural thickness was ⩽5 mm with no pleural nodules were enrolled between July 2019 and August 2021. The diagnostic yield of UE-guided pleural biopsy for pleural effusion and its sensitivity for detecting MPE were evaluated. Results: Ninety-eight patients (mean age, 62.4 ± 13.2 yr; 65 men) were prospectively enrolled. The diagnostic yield of UE-guided pleural biopsy for making any diagnosis was 92.9% (91/98), and its sensitivity for MPE was 88.7% (55/62). In addition, its sensitivity for pleural tuberculosis was 69.6% (16/23). The rate of postoperative chest pain was acceptable, and there was no pneumothorax. Conclusions: UE-guided pleural biopsy is a novel technique for diagnosing MPE with good diagnostic yield and sensitivity. Clinical trial registered with https://www.chictr.org.cn (ChiCTR2000033572).

Feasibility and safety of fine positioning needle-mediated breathing control in CT-guided percutaneous puncture of small lung/liver nodules adjacent to diaphragm.

To assess the efficacy, safety, and feasibility of a separate inserted positioning fine needle-mediated breathing-control technique applied to computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous puncture for biopsy or microwave ablation (MWA) of small lung/liver nodules near diaphragm. Total 46 patients with pulmonary/liver small nodules (≤ 3 cm in size) near diaphragm(nodule within 1 cm distance to the diaphragm)were undergone percutaneous biopsy ( n = 15) or MWA (n = 31) under the guidance of CT, and a separate positioning fine needle-mediated breathing-control technique was applied for the precise punctures. CT plain scan was performed to monitor the complications after the procedure. The patient baseline data, operation details, successful rate, major complications as well as radiation dose during the procedure were recorded and analyzed. With the assistance of a fine positioning needle insertion for controlling the breathing, the puncture success rate for biopsy or MWA reached 91.30% (42/46). For biopsy, the mean nodule diameter, nodule distance to the diaphragm, puncture time and radiation dose during CT scan were 2.27 cm ± 0.74, 0.61 cm ± 0.24, 18.67 min ± 6.23, 28.84 mSv ± 6.99, respectively; For MWA, the mean nodule diameter, nodule distance to the diaphragm, puncture time and CT radiation dose were 2.35 cm ± 0.64, 0.69 cm ± 0.23, 38.71 min ± 13.65, 33.02 mSv ± 8.77, respectively. Totally, there were three and four cases found minimal puncture-related hemoptysis and pneumothorax needed no additional treatments, respectively. We recently developed and verified a feasible, safe and highly effective puncture technique with reasonable radiation dose for CT-guided biopsy or MWA for small nodules abutting diaphragm, therefore worthy of extensive application to similar clinical situations.

Effective bandwidth reduction for a high-power laser-diode array by an external-cavity technique.

bandwidth of a high-power laser-diode array was effectively suppressed by use of an off-axis external-cavity technique. The external cavity consisted of a beam-transformation system and a pair of off-axis volume Bragg gratings. During operation at a drive current of 40 A, we reduced the bandwidth's full width at half-maximum from 3.3 to 0.24 nm (14-fold reduction) and achieved an output power of 20 W, or as much as 87% of the power radiated by a free-running laser-diode array without an external cavity.

Effective suppression of beam divergence for a high-power laser diode bar by an external-cavity technique.

We describe effective suppression of beam divergence for a high-power laser diode bar by use of an external-cavity technique. Nineteen off-axis external-cavity laser diodes of the high-power laser diode are formed by feedback with a stripe mirror. At three times the threshold current, the diverging angle (1/e2) of the external-cavity laser diode bar is reduced to 1.5 degrees from 6.6 degrees (free running) with 14.1-W peak output power and 70.4% of the radiated power of the free-running state without the external cavity. This technique effectively improves the beam quality of the high-power laser diode bar.