Fully adiabatic polarization rotator-splitter based on thin-film lithium niobate platform.

A Polarization Rotator-Splitter (PRS) based on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) is demonstrated in this work. The PRS consists of a partially etched polarization rotating taper and an adiabatic coupler, which enables the input TE0 and TM0 to be output as TE0 from two ports, respectively. The fabricated PRS using standard i-line photolithography achieved large polarization extinction ratios (PERs) of > 20 dB across the whole C-band. Excellent polarization characteristics are maintained when the width is changed by ±150 nm. The on-chip insertion losses of TE0 and TM0 are less than 1.5 dB and 1 dB, respectively.

The Carbonic Anhydrase ßCA1 Functions in PopW-Mediated Plant Defense Responses in Tomato.

ß-Carbonic anhydrase (ßCA) is very important for plant growth and development, but its function in immunity has also been examined. In this study, we found that the expression level of Solanum lycopersicum ßCA1 (SlßCA1) was significantly upregulated in plants treated with Xanthomonas euvesicatoria 85-10. The protein was localized in the nucleus, cell membrane and chloroplast. Using tomato plants silenced with SlßCA1, we demonstrated that SlßCA1 plays an active role in plant disease resistance. Moreover, we found that the elicitor PopW upregulated the expression of SlßCA1, while the microbe-associated molecular pattern response induced by PopW was inhibited in TRV-SlßCA1. The interaction between PopW and SlßCA1 was confirmed. Here, we found that SlßCA1 was positively regulated during PopW-induced resistance to Xanthomonas euvesicatoria 85-10. These data indicate the importance of SlßCA1 in plant basic immunity and its recognition by the Harpin protein PopW as a new target for elicitor recognition.

Super-resolution demodulation for fiber sensor arrays based on the MUSIC algorithm.

This paper studies the use of MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) as a super-resolution algorithm to improve demodulation results for intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (IFPI) sensor arrays. Through distinction between noise and signal subspaces in an observation matrix, this paper shows that a 38-fold improvement in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) estimation of IFPI optical path differences (OPD) can be achieved using this algorithm. Based on this improved method, this paper demonstrates that a tunable laser with a 1.3-nm tuning range can achieve the same sensor demodulation performance as a tunable laser with a 50-nm tuning range if a conventional Fourier transform-based algorithm is used. This paper presents a new approach to analyzing optical signals produced by multiple multiplexed interferometers with similar OPDs with potential applications for both single-mode and multiple-mode devices.

Extracting Brillouin frequency shift accurately based on particle swarm optimization and a cross-correlation method.

A fitting algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the cross-correlation method (XCM) was proposed to accurately extract features of the Brillouin scattering spectrum. Both the simulation and experiment were conducted to verify the validity of the proposed algorithm. The results show that the algorithm achieves high demodulation accuracy and is suitable for Brillouin scattering spectra with different signal-to-noise ratios, full width at half-maximums, frequency sweep intervals, and spectral symmetries. Compared with the Lorenz curve fitting and XCM algorithm, the extraction error of the PSO-XCM can be optimized up to 99.98% and 99.93%, and the fitting degree can be improved by 98%. Moreover, based on the proposed algorithm, the minimum temperature measurement error can reach 0.06°C and the Brillouin frequency shift measurement error is 0.07 MHz in 10 km sensing fiber for the Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) sensing system.

Signal-to-noise ratio improvement of Brillouin optical time domain analysis system based on empirical mode decomposition and finite impulse response.

We propose a denoising algorithm based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and finite impulse response (FIR) to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Denoising results indicate EMD-FIR can effectively reduce noise, and the maximum SNR improvement is 11.69 dB, which is 4.98 dB and 4.26 dB larger than the maximum SNR improvement of wavelet and Butterworth. The temperature uncertainty along the heated section is reduced to 0.62°C by EMD-FIR. The improvement of SNR opens opportunities to apply high measurement accuracy to Brillouin optical time domain analysis and other distributed sensing fields.

The effectiveness of booster vaccination of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines against susceptibility, infectiousness, and transmission of omicron BA.2 variant: a retrospective cohort study in Shenzhen, China.

Little studies evaluated the effectiveness of booster vaccination of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines against being infected (susceptibility), infecting others (infectiousness), and spreading the disease from one to another (transmission). Therefore, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the effectiveness of booster vaccination of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines against susceptibility, infectiousness, and transmission in Shenzhen during an Omicron BA.2 outbreak period from 1 February to 21 April 2022. The eligible individuals were classified as four sub-cohorts according to the inactivated COVID-19 vaccination status of both the close contacts and their index cases: group 2-2, fully vaccinated close contacts seeded by fully vaccinated index cases (reference group); group 2-3, booster-vaccinated close contacts seeded by fully vaccinated index cases; group 3-2, fully vaccinated close contacts seeded by booster-vaccinated index cases; and group 3-3, booster-vaccinated close contacts seeded by booster-vaccinated index cases. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to estimate the effectiveness of booster vaccination. The sample sizes of groups 2-2, 2-3, 3-2, and 3-3 were 846, 1,115, 1,210, and 2,417, respectively. We found that booster vaccination had an effectiveness against infectiousness of 44.9% (95% CI: 19.7%, 62.2%) for the adults ≥ 18 years, 62.2% (95% CI: 32.0%, 78.9%) for the female close contacts, and 60.8% (95% CI: 38.5%, 75.1%) for the non-household close contacts. Moreover, booster vaccination had an effectiveness against transmission of 29.0% (95% CI: 3.2%, 47.9%) for the adults ≥ 18 years, 38.9% (95% CI: 3.3%, 61.3%) for the female close contacts, and 45.8% (95% CI: 22.1%, 62.3%) for the non-household close contacts. However, booster vaccination against susceptibility did not provide any protective effect. In summary, this study confirm that booster vaccination of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccines provides low level of protection and moderate level of protection against Omicron BA.2 transmission and infectiousness, respectively. However, booster vaccination does not provide any protection against Omicron BA.2 susceptibility.

LPS stimulation during HCV infection induces MMP/TIMP1 imbalance in macrophages.

Introduction. During chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, HCV antigens establish cross-tolerance of endotoxins, but additional lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation effects in this condition are poorly understood.Aim. This study aims to investigate the effects of the upregulated LPS on MMP and TIMP expression during chronic hepatitis C infection.Methodology. In the present study, we analysed the effect of HCV antigens and LPS stimulation on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) both in vivo and in vitro. Macrophages from HCV patients were isolated and their association with endotoxin tolerance was examined. MMP/TIMP1 expression and the related signalling pathways in macrophages were analysed. The macrophage and Huh7.5 cell co-culture model was used to analyse the effects of the cross-tolerance on collagen I deposition.Results. LPS levels were found to be significantly higher in HCV patients, particularly in those with HCV-induced liver fibrosis. In addition, although LPS serum level was occasionally upregulated in the patients, it did not induce intense immune response in PBMCs due to endotoxin cross-tolerance, and this was measured according to the changes in IL-6 and TNF-α levels. However, TIMP1 expression increased significantly during stimulation, exhibiting a tolerance/resistance phenotype, which was associated with TGF-ß/Erk activation in macrophages. However, MMP levels did not increase due to endotoxin tolerance, which ultimately led to MMP/TIMP imbalance and influenced the deposition of collagen I.Conclusion. Increased LPS stimulation of macrophage during HCV antigen-induced endotoxin cross-tolerance contributes to MMP/TIMP1 imbalance and collagen I deposition.

Isolation and identification of polysaccharides from Pythium arrhenomanes and application to strawberry fruit (Fragaria ananassa Duch.) preservation.

In this study, we extracted exopolysaccharides from Pythium arrhenomanes and purified them to obtain three polysaccharides (PEPS-1, PEPS-2, PEPS-3). The composition of these polysaccharides was determined. PEPS-2 and PEPS-3 showed outstanding antioxidant activities. PEPS-2 was chosen as a polysaccharide-based coating for strawberry fruit, and its effects on postharvest preservation of the fruit were determined. Strawberries coated with PEPS-2 exhibited significant delay in decay index and lower malondialdehyde, higher soluble solids content, anthocyanin content and vitamin C content, and greater DPPH radical-scavenging activity than uncoated control fruit. The developed method could be beneficial for improving the shelf-life of strawberries.

[Alterations and clinical signifecance of exosome-containing innate immunity related lncRNAs in patients of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome].

Objective To observe the alterations of innate immunity related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in exosomes extracted from the plasma of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) patients, and analyze their relationship with the disease stage and severity. Methods Exosomes were extracted from the plasma samples of HFRS patients, healthy controls and recovered HFRS patients. Transmission electronic microscopy and Western blotting were performed to confirm the efficiency of the extraction. lncRNA profiles in the different groups were determined by high-throughput sequencing. The contents of several innate immunity related lncRNAs were detected by quantitative real-time PCR, and their relationship with the disease stage and severity was analyzed. Results Exosomes from the plasma were accurately extracted. Innate immunity related lncRNA nuclear paraspeckle assembly transcript 1 (NEAT1), negative regulator of interferon response (NRIR), negative regulator of antiviral response (NRAV) were found in exosomes. NEAT1 content was significantly reduced in the exosomes from HFRS patients compared with healthy controls and it was significantly restored in recovered HFRS patients. The exosome NEAT1 content was correlated with the epidemic of HFRS but had no relationship with the stage and severity of the disease. Conclusion Several innate immunity related lncRNAs exist in the exosome from HFRS patients, among which NEAT1 content significantly decreases in HFRS patients compared with healthy controls and recovered HFRS patients. The reduced NEAT1 level is correlated with the epidemic of HFRS.