Long-term efficacy of washed microbiota transplantation in overweight patients.

BACKGROUND: Faecal microbiota transplantation holds promise in mitigating fat accumulation and improving obesity. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term efficacy of washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) among overweight patients. METHODS: The clinical data pertaining to the treatment of patients with WMT were collected retrospectively. Compared alterations in body mass index (BMI), blood glucose, blood lipids and blood pressure prior to and following WMT treatment. Comprehensive efficacy evaluation and atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) grading evaluation were carried out, with an analysis of gut microbiota composition before and after WMT. RESULTS: A total of 186 patients were included (80 overweight, 106 normal weight). WMT not only had the effect of improving overweight patients to the normal weight patients (p < .001), but also could significantly reduce BMI in the long term by restoring gut microbiota homeostasis (p < .001). In addition, the BMI improvement value of multi course was more significant than that of single course or double course. WMT had a significant ASCVD downgrade effect on the high-risk and medium-risk groups outside 1 year, while it did not increase the risk of upgrading ASCVD for low-risk group. CONCLUSIONS: WMT could significantly reduce the BMI of overweight patients and still had an improvement effect in the long term.

Schwann cells transplantation improves nerve injury and alleviates neuropathic pain in rats.

The mechanism of neuropathic pain induced by nerve injury is complex and there are no effective treatment methods. P2X4 receptor expression is closely related to the occurrence of pain. Schwann cells (SCs) play a key protective role in the repair of peripheral nerve injury and myelin sheath regeneration. However, whether SCs can affect the expression of P2X4 receptor and play a role in pathological pain is still unclear. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of SCs on whether they can down regulate the expression of P2X4 receptor to affect pain. The results showed that in the neuropathic pain induced by sciatic nerve injury model, the expression of P2X4 receptor in spinal cord tissue was significantly increased and the pain sensation of rats was increased. While SCs transplantation could down regulate the expression of P2X4 receptors in spinal cord and increase the mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) and thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) of rats. These data indicate that SCs can reduce the expression of P2X4 receptors to alleviate neuropathic pain, indicating that SCs can mediate P2X4 receptor signalling as a new target for pain treatment.

A Novel Method for Precision Measurement and Result Optimization of Detuning Angle for KDP Crystals.

In this paper, we investigate the theory of energy distribution when divergent light undergoes harmonic conversion in KDP crystals, and based on this theory, we design and construct a precision measuring instrument for the detuning angle of (KDP) Crystals (MIDC). The device can obtain the detuning angle of the crystal by a single measurement with an average measurement error of 72.78 urad. At the same time, it also has the function of scanning the full aperture of the crystals. Using the MIDC, it is possible to quickly measure the KDP crystal at a single point and quickly scan the crystal detuning angle at full aperture. In addition, we conduct a theoretical study on the variation of detuning angle caused by gravity-influencing factors under online conditions, propose an optimization formula for the offline measurement results of detuning angle, and calculate the optimized values of detuning angle for two kinds of crystals under 45° online conditions. We finally study the error source of the MIDC device, analyze the trend of the influence of positioning errors of the crystal and optical elements on the detuning angle measurement results, and provide theoretical support for the error monitoring and correction of MIDC.

AKT/GSK-3beta/VEGF signaling is involved in P2RY2 activation-induced the proliferation and metastasis of gastric cancer.

Studies have revealed the contribution of ATP-G-protein-coupled P2Y2 receptor (P2RY2) in tumor progression, but the role of P2RY2 in regulating the progression of gastric cancer (GC) and related molecular mechanisms are relatively lacking. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of P2RY2 on the proliferation and migration of GC through in vivo and in vitro experiments. The results showed that P2RY2 was expressed in GC tissues and GC cell lines. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) increased the calcium influx in AGS and HGC-27 cells, and was dose-dependent with ATP concentration. ATP and UTP increased the intracellular glycogen content, enhanced the actin fiber stress response, and promoted the proliferation and migration of GC cells, while P2RY2 competitive antagonist AR-C118925XX reversed the changes induced by ATP. Knockdown of P2RY2 expression by shRNA inhibited the proliferation of GC cells. Activation of P2RY2 increased the expression of Snail, Vimentin, and ß-catenin in GC cells, and down-regulated the expression of E-cadherin, while AR-C118925XX decreased the expression of these genes induced by ATP. Activation of P2RY2 activated AKT/GSK-3beta/VEGF signal to promote the proliferation of GC cells, and the P13/AKT signaling pathway LY294002 reversed the corresponding phenomenon, but no synergistic pharmacological properties of AR-C118925XX and LY294002 have been found. In vivo experiments showed that ATP-induced tumor growth, while AR-C118925XX inhibited ATP-induced tumor growth. Our conclusion is that P2RY2 activated the AKT/GSK-3beta/VEGF signal to promote the proliferation and migration of GC, suggesting that P2RY2 may be a new potential target for the treatment of GC.

Washed microbiota transplantation improves haemoglobin levels in anaemia of chronic disease.

BACKGROUND: Anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) is the second most common type of anaemia and lacks an effective treatment. Patients with anaemia are reported to have altered gut microbial profiles, which may affect erythropoiesis. Here, we investigated the gut microbial features of patients with ACD and determined whether regulating gut microbiota using washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) was effective in treating ACD. METHODS: We compared the gut microbiota profile of patients with ACD and healthy controls, evaluated the efficacy of WMT on haematological parameters in the patients, and analysed the alterations in gut microbiota after WMT treatment. RESULTS: Patients with ACD had lower gut microbial richness, and differences in microbial composition and function, relative to healthy controls. Additionally, the relative abundances of two butyrate-producing genera Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 group and Butyricicoccus, were positively correlated with the haemoglobin (HGB) level and lower in patients with ACD than controls. WMT significantly increased HGB levels in patients with ACD. After the first, second and third WMT rounds, normal HGB levels were restored in 27.02%, 27.78% and 36.37% (all p < .05) of patients with ACD, respectively. Moreover, WMT significantly increased the abundance of butyrate-producing genera and downregulated gut microbial functions that were upregulated in patients with ACD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with ACD exhibited differences in gut microbial composition and function relative to healthy controls. WMT is an effective treatment for ACD that reshapes gut microbial composition, restores butyrate-producing bacteria and regulates the functions of gut microbiota.

CNN-based neural network model for amplified laser pulse temporal shape prediction with dynamic requirement in high-power laser facility.

The temporal shape of laser pulses is one of the essential performances in the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) facility. Due to the complexity and instability of the laser propagation system, it is hard to predict the pulse shapes precisely by pure analytic methods based on the physical model [Frantz-Nodvik (F-N) equation]. Here, we present a data-driven model based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) for precise prediction. The neural network model introduces sixteen parameters neglected in the F-N equation based models to expand the representation dimension. The sensitivity analysis of the experimental results confirms that these parameters have different degrees of influence on the temporal output shapes and cannot be ignored. The network characterizes the whole physical process with commonality and specificity features to improve the description ability. The prediction accuracy evaluated by a root mean square of the proposed model is 7.93%, which is better compared to three optimized physical models. This study explores a nonanalytic methodology of combining prior physical knowledge with data-driven models to map the complex physical process by numerical models, which has strong representation capability and great potential to model other measurable processes in physical science.

Deformable mirror resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method.

In high-power laser facilities, the application of a traditional wavefront control method is limited under the influence of a continuous phase plate (CPP). In order to obtain a satisfactory far-field intensity distribution at the target of the beamline with the CPP, a novel deformable mirror (DM) resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method is proposed and demonstrated. The principles of the DM resolution-matching method and two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method are introduced, respectively. Based on the numerical model, the matching relationship between the actuator space of the DM and the spatial period of the CPP is investigated. By using the resolution-matched DM, the feasibility of the two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method is numerically and experimentally verified. Both the numerical and the experimental results show that the presented DM resolution-matching-based two-stage wavefront sensorless adaptive optics method could achieve the target focal spot control under the influence of the CPP, and the profile and the intensity uniformity of the corrected focal spot are optimized close to the designed ideal focal spot.

Theoretical research on the novel adaptive optics configuration based on the tubular deformable mirror for the aberration correction of the annular laser beam.

The annular laser beam (ALB) has been widely used in many fields for its unique intensity distribution. Especially, in the materials processing, the power and the beam quality of the large-aperture thin-wall ALB are of vital. However, limited by the aperture, the actuators' spacing or the damage threshold, the existing deformable mirrors (DMs) are not suitable for the correction of the ALB. Considering the stretching effect of the oblique incidence, in this paper, by using the tubular DM (TDM), a novel adaptive optics (AO) configuration is promoted to increase the number of the effective actuators covered by the input ALB. The coordinate transformation equations and correction principle of the novel AO configuration are derived based on the ray tracing. A typical TDM prototype is designed based on the coordinate transformation equations. The influence function characteristics of the TDM is analyzed using the finite element method, and the correction ability of the novel AO configuration based on the TDM is verified. Simulation results show that the TDM could perfectly compensate the wavefront distortions described by the 2th to 15th order Zernike annular aberrations.

Numerical analysis of a novel two-stage enlargement and adaptive correction approach for the annular aberration compensation.

The annular laser beam (ALB) is widely used in many fields, which could be affected by laser power and beam quality. To effectively and flexibly improve the beam quality of high-power large-aperture thin-wall ALB, a two-stage enlargement and adaptive correction configuration (TEACC) consisting of a novel outer-surface tubular deformable mirror (OTDM) and two extra prism groups (EPGs) is proposed in this paper. The correction principle and design principle of the TEACC are derived and analyzed. Based on the principle, a typical OTDM prototype and EPG structure are designed. Annular aberrations are compensated by applying the OTDM's influence functions and the least-square algorithm in simulation. The results show that the TEACC could perfectly compensate the wavefront distortions described by the 2nd to 36th order Zernike annular aberrations.

First Octahedral Spherical Hohlraum Energetics Experiment at the SGIII Laser Facility.

The first octahedral spherical hohlraum energetics experiment is accomplished at the SGIII laser facility. For the first time, the 32 laser beams are injected into the octahedral spherical hohlraum through six laser entrance holes. Two techniques are used to diagnose the radiation field of the octahedral spherical hohlraum in order to obtain comprehensive experimental data. The radiation flux streaming out of laser entrance holes is measured by six flat-response x-ray detectors (FXRDs) and four M-band x-ray detectors, which are placed at different locations of the SGIII target chamber. The radiation temperature is derived from the measured flux of FXRD by using the blackbody assumption. The peak radiation temperature inside hohlraum is determined by the shock wave technique. The experimental results show that the octahedral spherical hohlraum radiation temperature is in the range of 170-182 eV with drive laser energies of 71 kJ to 84 kJ. The radiation temperature inside the hohlraum determined by the shock wave technique is about 175 eV at 71 kJ. For the flat-top laser pulse of 3 ns, the conversion efficiency of gas-filled octahedral spherical hohlraum from laser into soft x rays is about 80% according to the two-dimensional numerical simulation.

Process-oriented adaptive optics control method in the multi-pass amplifiers.

In this talk, we propose and demonstrate the process-oriented adaptive optics (AO) wavefront control method, for optimizing the beam quality in the multi-pass amplifiers. Different from the conventional target-oriented wavefront control approach, the novel method divides the aberration correction process into several steps, to optimize the wavefront quality in time during the courses of the beam's transport and amplification. The experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively prevent the beam quality from worsening and ensure the successful reality of multi-pass amplification, so it has obvious advantages both in efficiency and accuracy over the traditional target-oriented method.

Beam alignment based on two-dimensional power spectral density of a near-field image.

Beam alignment is crucial to high-power laser facilities and is used to adjust the laser beams quickly and accurately to meet stringent requirements of pointing and centering. In this paper, a novel alignment method is presented, which employs data processing of the two-dimensional power spectral density (2D-PSD) for a near-field image and resolves the beam pointing error relative to the spatial filter pinhole directly. Combining this with a near-field fiducial mark, the operation of beam alignment is achieved. It is experimentally demonstrated that this scheme realizes a far-field alignment precision of approximately 3% of the pinhole size. This scheme adopts only one near-field camera to construct the alignment system, which provides a simple, efficient, and low-cost way to align lasers.

Polarization smoothing for single beam by a nematic liquid crystal scrambler.

Polarization smoothing (PS) is a key approach to suppress laser plasma instabilities (LPI) in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Here, we propose a liquid crystal (LC) PS element to realize single beam smoothing and demonstrate its smoothing effect, in principle, with a 2×2 LC polarization checkerboard, which reduces the laser intensity variation in the focal spot to 78.4%. LC PS elements, which have potential applications in high-power ICF laser drivers, have many advantages because they are easy to fabricate, cost effective, flexible, and large.

Optical zooming based on focusing grating in direct drive ICF.

In direct drive ICF, optical zooming is an effective way to mitigate cross-beam energy transfer and increase the hydrodynamic efficiency, by reducing the spot size of the laser beams while target compressing. In this paper, a novel optical zooming scheme is proposed, which employs a focusing grating to focus the broadband laser pulse, changing the spot size on the target within single beamlet. Experimentally, a focusing grating with clean aperture of 40-mm × 40-mm placed after the collimated light successfully realized the peak-valley of defocusing wavefront distribution of 0.73 µm as the wavelength ranging from 1052.43 nm to 1053.23 nm. Extended to the full-sized focusing grating with laser beam of 360-mm × 360-mm, it is derived that the focal spot reduction reaches to 21.8% with the 3rd harmonic light ranging from 350.81 nm to 351.08 nm, decreasing from 375 µm to 294 µm with 300 µm shaping continuous phase plate.

Theoretical investigations of broadband mid-infrared optical parametric amplification based on a La3Ga5.5Nb0.5O14 crystal.

Recent progress in strong-field physics has stimulated the quest for intense mid-infrared ultrashort light sources. Optical parametric amplification (OPA) is one promising method to build up such sources, however, its development significantly relies on the availability of suitable nonlinear crystals. Here, we introduce a positive uniaxial crystal La3Ga5.5Nb0.5O14 (LGN), which exhibits a favorable set of optical properties for the application in a mid-IR OPA. We theoretically evaluate the performance of LGN as the nonlinear crystal of a mid-infrared OPA, with an emphasis on the bandwidth characteristic. We find that this crystal can support broadband amplifications across its entire mid-infrared transparent region up to 6 µm, outperforming other commonly-used mid-infrared crystals in terms of gain bandwidth. Few-cycle mid-infrared pulses at various wavelengths can be generated from the LGN-based optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifiers.

Shannon entropy method of small-scale self-focusing assessment in high-power laser systems.

Through analysis of near-field beam profiles, we propose a method using Shannon entropy to assess the development of small-scale self-focusing during laser propagation and amplification in high-power laser systems. In this method, the entropy curve that corresponds to increasing B integral displays an evident turning point at which small-scale self-focusing starts to rapidly develop. In contrast to classical methods using contrast, modulation, or power spectral density, the proposed method provides the B integral criterion more clearly and objectively. This approach is an optimization method that can be utilized in the design and operation of high-power laser systems.

Research on controlling thermal deformable mirror's influence functions via manipulating thermal fields.

For thermal deformable mirrors (DMs), the thermal field control is important because it will decide aberration correction effects. In order to better manipulate the thermal fields, a simple water convection system is proposed. The water convection system, which can be applied in thermal field bimetal DMs, shows effective thermal fields and influence-function controlling abilities. This is verified by the simulations and the contrast experiments of two prototypes: one of which utilizes air convection, the other uses water convection. Controlling the thermal fields will greatly promote the influence-function adjustability and aberration correction ability of thermal DMs.

Application of cell transplantation in the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Nerve injury can not only lead to sensory and motor dysfunction, but also be complicated with neuropathic pain (NPP), which brings great psychosomatic injury to patients. At present, there is no effective treatment for NPP. Based on the functional characteristics of cell transplantation in nerve regeneration and injury repair, cell therapy has been used in the exploratory treatment of NPP and has become a promising treatment of NPP. In this article, we discuss the current mainstream cell types for the treatment of NPP, including Schwann cells, olfactory ensheathing cells, neural stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of NPP. These bioactive cells transplanted into the host have pharmacological properties of decreasing pain threshold and relieving NPP by exerting nutritional support, neuroprotection, immune regulation, promoting axonal regeneration, and remyelination. Cell transplantation can also change the microenvironment around the nerve injury, which is conducive to the survival of neurons. It can effectively relieve pain by repairing the injured nerve and rebuilding the nerve function. At present, some preclinical and clinical studies have shown that some encouraging results have been achieved in NPP treatment based on cell transplantation. Therefore, we discussed the feasible strategy of cell transplantation as a treatment of NPP and the problems and challenges that need to be solved in the current application of cell transplantation in NPP therapy.

Therapeutic effect of exosomes derived from Schwann cells in the repair of peripheral nerve injury.

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) can cause nerve demyelination, neuronal apoptosis, axonal atrophy, inflammatory infiltration, glial scar formation, and other pathologies that can lead to sensory and motor dysfunction and seriously affect the psychosomatic health of patients. There is currently no effective treatment method, so exploring a promising treatment method is of great significance. Several studies have revealed the therapeutic roles of Schwann cells (SCs) and their exosomes in nerve injury repair. Exosomes are extracellular nanovesicles secreted by cells that act as key molecules in intercellular communication. Progress has been made in understanding the role of exosomes derived from SCs (SC-EXOs) in peripheral nerve regeneration, including the promotion of axonal regeneration and myelin formation, anti-inflammation, vascular regeneration, neuroprotection, and neuroregulation. Therefore, in this paper, we summarize the functional characteristics of SC-EXOs and discuss their potential therapeutic effects on PNI repair as well as some existing problems and future challenges.

Application of olfactory ensheathing cells in peripheral nerve injury and its complication with pathological pain.

Direct or indirect injury of peripheral nerve can lead to sensory and motor dysfunction, which can lead to pathological pain and seriously affect the quality of life and psychosomatic health of patients. While the internal repair function of the body after peripheral nerve injury is limited. Nerve regeneration is the key factor hindering the recovery of nerve function. At present, there is no effective treatment. Therefore, more and more attention have been paid to the development of foreground treatment to achieve functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury, including relief of pathological pain. Cell transplantation strategy is a therapeutic method with development potential in recent years, which can exert endogenous alternative repair by transplanting exogenous functional bioactive cells to the site of nerve injury. Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) are a special kind of glial cells, which have the characteristics of continuous renewal and survival. The mechanisms of promoting nerve regeneration and functional repair and relieving pathological pain by transplantation of OECs to peripheral nerve injury include secretion of a variety of neurotrophic factors, axonal regeneration and myelination, immune regulation, anti-inflammation, neuroprotection, promotion of vascular growth and improvement of inflammatory microenvironment around nerve injury. Different studies have shown that OECs combined with biomaterials have made some progress in the treatment of peripheral nerve injury and pathological pain. These biomaterials enhance the therapeutic effect of OECs. Therefore, the functional role of OECs in peripheral nerve injury and pathological pain was discussed in this paper.Although OECs are in the primary stage of exploration in the repair of peripheral nerve injury and the application of pain, but OECs transplantation may become a prospective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of peripheral nerve injury and pathological pain.