Correlation of Folic Acid Metabolic Gene Polymorphisms, Homocysteine, Vitamin B12, and Red Blood Cell Folate with Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between folic acid (FA) metabolic gene polymorphisms, homocysteine (Hcy), vitamin B12 (Vit B12), and red blood cell folate (RBCF) with adverse pregnancy. The findings of this study can help in the prevention and treatment of adverse pregnancy in the future. Methods: 118 pregnant women admitted to Qingdao Central Hospital between August 2020 and October 2022 were selected for retrospective analysis, including 62 cases of normal delivery (control group, CG) and 56 cases of adverse pregnancy (research group, RG). The single nucleotide polymorphisms of MTHFR C677T, MTHFR A1298C, and MTRR A66G gene loci were tested in both cohorts. Besides, differences in Hcy, Vit B12, and RBCF levels were observed, as well as Hcy, Vit B12, and RBCF alterations in different genotype carriers in the research group. Results: An elevated proportion of MTHFR 677TT-type gene and MTRR 66GG-type gene carriers and a lower proportion of MTRR 66GG-type gene carriers were found in the research group (χ2 = 4.458, 4.238, 4.206, P = .035, .040, .040). As indicated by the Logistic regression analysis, carriers of MTHFR 677TT and MTRR 66GG gene had an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes (95%CI=2.881-5.942, 1.427-3.809, P < .001), while MTRR 66AG carriers had a decreased risk (95%CI=0.124-1.849, P < .001). Finally, Hcy levels of MTHFR 677TT and MTRR 66GG gene carriers increased, while Vit B12 and RBCF decreased; the opposite was true for MTRR 66AG gene carriers (P < .001). Conclusions: FA metabolic gene polymorphisms, Hcy, Vit B12, and RBCF are closely related to adverse pregnancy outcomes, which is of great significance for future clinical evaluation of adverse pregnancy.

A fair and interpretable network for clinical risk prediction: a regularized multi-view multi-task learning approach.

In healthcare domain, complication risk profiling which can be seen as multiple clinical risk prediction tasks is challenging due to the complex interaction between heterogeneous clinical entities. With the availability of real-world data, many deep learning methods are proposed for complication risk profiling. However, the existing methods face three open challenges. First, they leverage clinical data from a single view and then lead to suboptimal models. Second, most existing methods lack an effective mechanism to interpret predictions. Third, models learned from clinical data may have inherent pre-existing biases and exhibit discrimination against certain social groups. We then propose a multi-view multi-task network (MuViTaNet) to tackle these issues. MuViTaNet complements patient representation by using a multi-view encoder to exploit more information. Moreover, it uses a multi-task learning to generate more generalized representations using both labeled and unlabeled datasets. Last, a fairness variant (F-MuViTaNet) is proposed to mitigate the unfairness issues and promote healthcare equity. The experiments show that MuViTaNet outperforms existing methods for cardiac complication profiling. Its architecture also provides an effective mechanism for interpreting the predictions, which helps clinicians discover the underlying mechanism triggering the complication onsets. F-MuViTaNet can also effectively mitigate the unfairness with only negligible impact on accuracy.

The chromosome-scale reference genome of Rubus chingii Hu provides insight into the biosynthetic pathway of hydrolyzable tannins.

Rubus chingii Hu (Fu-Pen-Zi), a perennial woody plant in the Rosaceae family, is a characteristic traditional Chinese medicinal plant because of its unique pharmacological effects. There are abundant hydrolyzable tannin (HT) components in R. chingii that provide health benefits. Here, an R. chingii chromosome-scale genome and related functional analysis provide insights into the biosynthetic pathway of HTs. In total, sequence data of 231.21 Mb (155 scaffolds with an N50 of 8.2 Mb) were assembled into seven chromosomes with an average length of 31.4 Mb, and 33 130 protein-coding genes were predicted, 89.28% of which were functionally annotated. Evolutionary analysis showed that R. chingii was most closely related to Rubus occidentalis, from which it was predicted to have diverged 22.46 million years ago (Table S8). Comparative genomic analysis showed that there was a tandem gene cluster of UGT, carboxylesterase (CXE) and SCPL genes on chromosome 02 of R. chingii, including 11 CXE, eight UGT, and six SCPL genes, which may be critical for the synthesis of HTs. In vitro enzyme assays indicated that the proteins encoded by the CXE (LG02.4273) and UGT (LG02.4102) genes have tannin hydrolase and gallic acid glycosyltransferase functions, respectively. The genomic sequence of R. chingii will be a valuable resource for comparative genomic analysis within the Rosaceae family and will be useful for understanding the biosynthesis of HTs.

Ultrafast changes in effective permittivity of hyperbolic metamaterials and related multi-resonance-induced ultrafast process excited by femtosecond pulses.

Hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) exhibit rich optical nonlinear responses for the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) and anisotropy. In this study, we extract the time-dependent change in the effective permittivity of an Ag nanorod array under femtosecond pulses pumping around its ENZ wavelength. The transmittance and transient absorption spectra measured by s- and p-polarizations are used in the extraction process. We experimentally confirm the existence of an ultrafast recovery process with a relaxation time of 0.24 ps in the transient absorption spectra. The calculation based on the extracted nonlinear effective permittivity indicates that the ultrafast signal originates from the superposition of two slower recovery processes, with relaxation times of 0.74 ps and 1.19 ps, respectively. The results indicate that when the responses of two nonlinear processes have different signs and recovery speeds, their superposition may cause faster signal recovery in the combined process than in the two individual processes.

Ultrafast nonlinear absorption with multiple transformations and transient dynamics of gold nanobipyramids.

The process and condition of saturable absorption (SA) and reverse saturable absorption (RSA) of ultrafast nonlinear optics in metal nanoparticles are essential for applications including light generation, amplification, modulation, and switching. Here, we first discover and explore the multiple transformations (SA-RSA-SA) of ultrafast nonlinear absorption behavior of metal nanoparticles in femtosecond pulses. Correspondingly, the energy level model and fitting formula of multiple transformations are established to illustrate the process of optical response. The femtosecond transient absorption spectra provide information about their ultrafast dynamics process and vibrational mode, which further reveals the multiple transformation mechanisms of nonlinear absorption in gold nanobipyramids (Au-NBPs). Furthermore, Au-NBPs exhibit a significantly higher SA modulation depth up to 42% in the femtosecond, which is much higher than the reported values of other nanomaterials. Our results indicate that Au-NBPs can be used as broadband ultrafast Q-switching and mode-locking, and the conversion offers new opportunities for metal nanostructures in applications of optical switching.

All-optical demonstration of a scalable super-resolved magnetic vortex core.

We first present the all-optical realization of a scalable super-resolved magnetic vortex core (MVC) by tightly focusing two modulated counter-propagating radially polarized doughnut Gaussian beams based on the vectoial diffraction theory and the inverse Faraday effect. It is shown that by imposing spiral phase plates (SPPs) on the incident vectorial beams, single three-dimensional (3D) super-resolved (λ3/22) MVC can be achieved in the 4π focusing setup, which is radically different from that produced with a single lens focusing. Furthermore, the light-induced MVC texture turns to be richer and more complex when the radially polarized beams are tailored by the SPPs and judiciously designed multi-ring filters all together. In this case, we are able to garner not only transverse super-resolved (0.447λ) MVC needle with an uniformly extended area (40λ) in the single lens focusing system, but also the multiple uniform 3D super-resolved (λ3/24) chain-like MVC cells in the 4π focusing system, thus giving rise to the tunable and scalable super-resolved MVC extension. The related physical mechanisms to trigger such peculiar magnetization polarization topologies are unraveled as well. These resultant achievements would pave the way for the integrated transfer and storage of optomagnetic information, atomic trapping, and beyond.

Effect of intramolecular charge transfer on nonlinear optical properties of chalcone derivatives: a visual description of the charge transfer process.

Intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) is an important factor in the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of organic molecules. In order to study the effect of ICT on two-photon absorption (TPA) and excited-state absorption (ESA), three chalcone derivatives (1, 2 and 3) with different electron push-pull systems were designed and synthesized. The ICT performance of these chalcone derivatives depends on the electron push-pull systems and mainly includes ultrafast ICT in the femtosecond time domain and long-lived charge transfer state (CTS) in the picosecond time domain, which dominate the performance of molecular TPA and ESA respectively. Hole-electron analysis and femtosecond Z-scan experiment indicate that the TPA cross section of these chalcone derivatives can be effectively enhanced by introducing stronger ultra-fast ICT in the case of little difference in ground-state absorption and expanding the molecular π-conjugated structure. Transient absorption spectrum (TAS) experiments of these compounds in solvents of varying polarities were conducted to visualize the establishment of CTS. The local excited state (LES) and charge transfer state (CTS)-based ESA of these chalcone derivatives are extremely dependent on the strength of ICT. Our experimental results show that the superposition of LES and CTS by enhancing ICT performance can effectively improve the ESA, which offers us a practical method to improve the long-impulse response of organic materials.

DNA-based qualitative and quantitative identification of bovine whey powder in goat dairy products.

As one of the main ingredients in some milk powders, whey powder is sometimes added to pure goat milk products, which can cause health risks, economic fraud, and unfair competition of food industries. This study is the first to explore qualitative and quantitative methods to identify adulteration of bovine whey powder in goat dairy products based on DNA. We extracted DNA from whey powder using a modified DNA extraction method; this exhibited good quality and integrity, with purity of 1.53 to 1.75 and concentration of 122 to 179 ng/µL. Conventional PCR and real-time PCR were compared for qualitative detection of bovine whey powder; real-time PCR demonstrated sensitivity of 0.01 ng/µL, which was higher than the 0.05 ng/µL detected by the conventional PCR method. Furthermore, real-time PCR was conducted for DNA quantitative detection, with good linearity (R2 = 0.9858) obtained for bovine whey powder contents from 0.1% to 30%. Relative error decreased with increase of the mixing proportion of whey powder; the coefficient of variation above 0.1% of the mixing ratio was close to or less than 5%; and the relative standard deviation of repeatability results was less than 5%. Considering the economic costs of testing, conventional PCR could be performed first, and samples with obvious intentional adulteration detected can be further accurately quantified by real-time PCR. Overall, this research provides a realistic and effective method for qualitative and quantitative identification of bovine whey powder in goat dairy products, thus laying a good foundation for verification of goat dairy product label claims and industrial control.

Synthesis and Ultrafast Broadband Optical Limiting Properties of a Two-Branched Twistacene.

A novel two-branched twistacene (PyDN) has been designed and synthesized for application on ultrafast optical limiting. This twistacene exhibits excellent two photon absorption and two photon absorption-induced excited singlet state absorption, which was systematically investigated with a femtosecond Z-scan experiment, transient absorption spectrum, and two-photon excited fluorescence experiments. The admirable two photon absorption is attributed to the high degree of π electron delocalization in twistacene which is caused by introduction of two strong donors. The excited singlet state absorption cooperates with two-photon absorption to provide an excellent ultrafast optical limiting behavior with high linear transmittance, where the thresholds are 2.3-5.3 mJ/cm2 in the spectral region of 532-800 nm of femtosecond laser and 133 mJ/cm2 for picosecond pulse at 532 nm. These thresholds are lower than that of most of the optical limiters reported previously, which indicates PyDN is a promising candidate for ultrafast optical limiting.

Enhancement of Two-Photon Absorption in Boron-Dipyrromethene (BODIPY) Derivatives.

The linear and nonlinear optical properties of two BODIPY derivatives, 1,7-Diphenyl-3,5-bis(9,9-dimethyl-9H-fluoren-2-yl)-boron-diuoride-azadipyrromethene (ZL-61) and 1,7-Diphenyl-3,5-bis(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)-boron-diuoride-azadipyrromethene (ZL-22), were comprehensively investigated based on experimental and theoretical studies. It was found that both compounds show a strong two-photon absorption response in the near-infrared regime, and the two-photon-absorption cross-section values of ZL-61 and ZL-22 were determined to be 8321 GM and 1864 GM at 800 nm, respectively. The improvement of the two-photon absorption cross section in ZL-61 was attributed to the enhancement of the donor group, which was confirmed by transient absorption measurements and DFT calculation. Our results indicate that these BODIPY derivatives are a promising candidate for optical limiting and two-photon imaging applications.

Extraction and control of permittivity of hyperbolic metamaterials with optical nonlocality.

Metal nanorod arrays exhibit hyperbolic dispersion and optical nonlocality under certain conditions. Therefore, their optical behaviors can hardly be expressed by incident-angle-independent effective permittivity. Here we extract effective permittivity of silver nanorod arrays with diameters of 4 nm, 12 nm, and 20 nm by polarized transmission method in the visible range. The incident angles are chosen from 20° to 60° to study the influence of optical nonlocality on permittivity. We demonstrate how the diameter of the nanorods can control the effective permittivity beyond the effective medium theory. The results suggest that the effective permittivity gradually loses its accuracy as the diameter increases due to the optical nonlocality. Our experiment verifies that ultrathin nanorod arrays can resist the fluctuations caused by changes in incident angle. We also extract k-dependent effective permittivity of nanorods with larger diameters.

Longitudinal magnetization superoscillation enabled by high-order azimuthally polarized Laguerre-Gaussian vortex modes.

We present an all-optical scheme for the generation of longitudinal magnetization superoscillation based on the vectorial diffraction theory and the inverse Faraday effect. To achieve this, an azimuthally polarized high-order Laguerre-Gaussian vortex mode is firstly focused by a high numerical aperture (NA) objective and then impinges on an isotropic magneto-optical material. It is found that, by judiciously controlling the intrinsic arguments (radial mode index (p) and truncation parameter (ß)) of such a configurable vectorial vortex beam, the longitudinal magnetic domain induced in the focal plane can be switched from a peak sub-wavelength magnetization (> 0.36λ/NA), via the fastest Fourier magnetization component (∼0.36λ/NA), to a super-oscillation magnetization hotspot (< 0.36λ/NA). We further examine the dependence of the transverse size, the side lobe, and the energy conversion efficiency within the focal magnetization domain on both the p and ß of the initial vortex modes, confirming that the higher-order structured vortex beams are preferable alternatives to trigger robust longitudinal magnetization superoscillation. In addition, the underlying mechanisms behind the well-defined magnetization phenomena are unveiled. The ultra-small-scale longitudinal magnetization demonstrated here may hold massive potential applications in high-density all-optical magnetic recording/storage, super-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, atom trapping and spintronics.

Designed Construction of SrTiO3 /SrSO4 /Pt Heterojunctions with Boosted Photocatalytic H2 Evolution Activity.

Efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is a crucial factor for high-performance photocatalysts. Effective electron-hole separation and migration could be achieved by heterojunctions with suitable band structures. Herein, a porous SrTiO3 /SrSO4 heterojunction is prepared by a sol-gel method at room temperature followed by an annealing process. XRD characterization suggests high crystallinity of the heterostructure. A well-defined interface between the two phases is confirmed by high-resolution (HR)TEM. The photocatalytic H2 evolution productivity of the SrTiO3 /SrSO4 heterojunction with Pt as co-catalyst reaches 396.82 µmol g-1 h-1 , which is 16 times higher than that of SrTiO3 /Pt. The boosted photocatalytic activity of SrTiO3 /SrSO4 /Pt can be ascribed to the presence of SrSO4 , which promotes the transfer and migration of photogenerated carriers by forming the heterojunction and porous structure, which provides a large amount of active sites. This novel porous heterostructure brings new ideas for the development of high-efficiency photocatalysts for H2 release.

Screening of frozen-thawed conditions for keeping nutritive compositions and physicochemical characteristics of goat milk.

Frozen milk can help producers overcome the seasonality of goat milk production, low goat production and short lactation periods, and avoid discarding milk during some special periods. We investigated effects of combination between freezing (cryogenic refrigerator of -16 to -20°C or ultra-cryogenic refrigerator of -76 to -80°C) and thawing (homeothermy of 20 to 25°C or refrigeration of 2 to 4°C) on nutritive compositions and physicochemical characteristics of raw goat milk during storage period (80 d). Compared with fresh goat milk, the frozen-thawed milk decreased contents of fat, protein, and lactose, as well as surface tension and stability coefficient, whereas increased effective diameter and polydispersity index. The average values of color values (L*, a*, and b*) in 4 group samples changed from 83.01 to 82.25, -1.40 to -1.54, 3.51 to 3.81, respectively, and the ΔE of most samples did not exceed 2. In contrast to the other 3 frozen-thawed treatments, goat milk treated with ultra-cryogenic freezing-homeothermic thawing (UFHT) possessed higher fat (5.20 g/100 g), smaller effective particle diameter (0.32 µm), and the lowest polydispersity index value (0.26). The color and confocal laser scanning microscopy images of UFHT were similar to those of fresh goat milk, illustrating UFHT was the optimal approach to maintain the natural quality of goat milk. Our finding provides a theoretical basis for producers to freeze surplus milk.

Enhanced Two-Photon Absorption of Cross-Conjugated Chalcone Derivatives: Modulation of the Effective π-Conjugated Structure.

Three cross-conjugated chalcone derivatives T3CT, T3CP2, and T3CP3 were designed and synthesized to develop excellent organic nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. In a Z-scan experiment, all compounds show good NLO absorption characteristics in the visible to near-infrared region. The photophysical mechanism is confirmed to be two-photon absorption (TPA)-induced excited-state absorption (ESA). Intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) observed in transient absorption spectra (TAS) significantly affects molecular NLO properties. We define the π-conjugated system that dominates the electron transition process in the cross-conjugated structure as the effective π-conjugated structure. Electron transition analysis shows a sufficiently strong ICT can effectively expand the effective π-conjugated structure in these cross-conjugated structures. The TPA cross sections of these compounds at 650 and 750 nm are only in the range of 17-97 GM. However, we achieve a significant enhancement of the TPA cross section at 580 nm (1737-2027 GM) by extending the effective π-conjugated structure. Excited by 580 nm femtosecond laser pulses, all compounds exhibit excellent OL performance and the minimum OL threshold is 4.71 × 10-3 J/cm2. The results show that these cross-conjugated chalcone derivatives have promising applications in OL, and their NLO performance can be effectively improved by modulating the effective π-conjugated structure.

A possible environmental-friendly removal of Microcystis aeruginosa by using pyroligneous acid.

Cyanobacteria blooms are crucial environmental issues by threatening both aquatic ecosystem and human health. A biomass by-product with antimicrobial activity, pyroligneous acid (PA) was tested for its suitability for removal of the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa) in this work. Results show that the removal efficiency could reach up to 90% in the presence of 0.45% of PA and the inhibition to M. aeruginosa growth could extend to at least 40 days. The removal mechanism was studied. Both organic acids and phenols are functional content in M. aeruginosa removal and acetic acid is the most important one. Zeta potential analysis and morphology study show that the damage of cells dominates the flocculation and sedimentation of M. aeruginosa under low PA concentration (<0.7%), and increasing PA (≥0.7%) resulted in a trend of zeta potential to zero, thus removing any "shield" and triggering flocculation. Finally, study on the phenols residual after M. aeruginosa treatment shows that it could be close to 0 in 70 h. Therefore, this work proposes a possible method for world-wide treatment of cyanobacteria bloom and a new way for further utilization of PA.

Dual-Sensitive On-Off Switch in Liposome Bilayer for Controllable Drug Release.

To improve the controllability of drug release from liposome, a series of pH- and photosensitive block copolymers C7H15-AZO- b-PDPAn- b-mPEG were designed and served as an on-off switch in the liposome bilayer. The functional properties of liposomes were studied by dynamic light scattering, fluorophotometry, UV-vis spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectrophotometry. The liposomes with or without copolymer were relatively uniform in size. Their membrane stability was improved obviously after inserting copolymer under pH 7.4, but it decreased in an acidic environment and caused a large amount of drug release. Meanwhile, UV irradiation could also result in more drug release because of the photoisomerization of the azobenzene (AZO) group. Furthermore, intermittent drug-release experiments showed that the PDPA blocks could reversibly get in and out of the liposome bilayer and ultimately realized the complete drug release. All results suggested that the designed copolymers could be inserted into liposome bilayer through self-assembly and could act as a switch for controllable drug release.

Effect of ß-sitosterol self-microemulsion and ß-sitosterol ester with linoleic acid on lipid-lowering in hyperlipidemic mice.

BACKGROUND: The hypolipidemic effect of phytosterols has been wildely recognized, but its application is limited due to its insolubility in water and low solubility in oil. In this study, ß-sitosterol ester with linoleic acids and ß-sitosterol self-microemulsions were prepared and their hypolipidemic effects on hyperlipidemia mice were studied. METHODS: Firstly, the mice were randomly divided into normal group and model group,they were fed with basic diet and high-fat diet for 70 days respectively. After high-fat model mice was successfully established, the model group was further divided into eight groups: HFD (high-fat diet feeding), SELA-TSO(8 ml/kg, SELA:700 mg/kg), TSO (8 ml/kg), SSSM (8 ml/kg,SS:700 mg/kg), NLSM (8 ml/kg), SSHT-TSO (8 ml/kg, SS: 700 mg/kg) and SS-TSO (8 ml/kg, SS: 700 mg/kg) groups, and treated with ß-sitosterol ester with linoleic acid, ß-sitosterol self-microemulsion, commercial ß-sitosterol health tablets and ß-sitosterol powder for 35 days, respectively, and blank control groups were established. At the end of the treatment period, the blood lipid level, tissues, cholesterol and lipids in feces of mice in each group were investigated. Statistical and analytical data with SPSS 17.0 Software,statistical significance was set at p* < 0.05 and p** < 0.01 levels . RESULTS: The order of lowering blood lipid effect is listed as: SSSM> SELA-TSO > SSHT-TSO > SS-TSO, which shows that ß-sitosterolself-microemulsion have the highest treatment effect among the experimental groups. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, a new formulation of ß-sitosterol was developed, and its hypolipidemic effect was investigated. The results showed that ß-sitosterol self-microemulsion has a good blood lipid lowering effect.

Dynamic control of transverse magnetization spot arrays.

We propose a feasible strategy for firstly constructing diffraction-limited light-induced magnetization spot arrays capable of dynamically controlling transverse polarization orientation of each spot. To achieve this goal, we subtly design a tailored incident light comprised of two sorts of beams and sufficiently demonstrate tit's production through phase modulation of a radially polarized beam. Via tightly focusing counter-propagating composite illuminating beams in a 4π optical microscopic configuration, two orthogonally polarized focal fields with π/2 phase difference between them are formed, inducing a three-dimensional (3D) super-resolved transverse magnetization spot in the magnetic-optical (MO) film. Exploiting the ideal of the multi-zone plate (MZP) filter, we further achieve versatile magnetization spot arrays with controllable in-plane polarization direction in each spot. Such well-defined magnetization behavior is attributed to not merely the coherent interference of vectorial optical waves, but also non-overlapping superposition of localized focal fields. Our achievable outcomes pave the way for practical applications in spintronics and multi-value MO parallelized storage.

Arbitrarily spin-orientated and super-resolved focal spot.

In this Letter, we propose a facile approach for achieving a robust focal spot bearing both super-resolution and arbitrary spin orientation. Toward this aim, we meticulously devise a structured incident light consisting of three sorts of beams, which can be produced definitely by the superposition of a radially polarized beam and an azimuthally polarized beam. Based on the vectorial diffraction integral and spin density theory, such newly configurable beams are tightly focused and isotropically interfered in a 4π microscopic configuration to create three polarized field components perpendicular to each other beyond the diffraction limit, thus enabling us to yield a super-resolved focal spot possessing spatial spin axis. By further willfully adjusting the amplitude factors of the reconstituent fields, the photonic spin direction can be freely tunable. The demonstrated results in this Letter may hold great potential for the spin photonics.