Noninvasive right ventricular work in patients with atrial septal defects: a proof-of-concept study.

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive right ventricular (RV) myocardial work (RVMW) determined by echocardiography is a novel indicator used to estimate RV systolic function. To date, the feasibility of using RVMW has not been verified in assessing RV function in patients with atrial septal defect (ASD). METHODS: Noninvasive RVMW was analysed in 29 ASD patients (median age, 49 years; 21% male) and 29 age- and sex-matched individuals without cardiovascular disease. The ASD patients underwent echocardiography and right heart catheterization (RHC) within 24 h. RESULTS: The RV global work index (RVGWI), RV global constructive work (RVGCW), and RV global wasted work (RVGWW) were significantly higher in the ASD patients than in the controls, while there was no significant difference in RV global work efficiency (RVGWE). RV global longitudinal strain (RV GLS), RVGWI, RVGCW, and RVGWW demonstrated significant correlations with RHC-derived stroke volume (SV) and SV index. The RVGWI (area under receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.895), RVGCW (AUC = 0.922), and RVGWW (AUC = 0.870) could be considered good predictors of ASD and were superior to RV GLS (AUC = 0.656). CONCLUSION: The RVGWI, RVGCW, and RVGWW could be used to assess RV systolic function and are correlated with RHC-derived SV and SV index in patients with ASD.

Tumor cell-released LC3-positive EVs promote lung metastasis of breast cancer through enhancing premetastatic niche formation.

Most breast cancer-related deaths are caused by metastasis in vital organs including the lungs. Development of supportive metastatic microenvironments, referred to as premetastatic niches (PMNs), in certain distant organs before arrival of metastatic cells, is critical in metastasis. However, the mechanisms of PMN formation are not fully clear. Here, we demonstrated that chemoattractant C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) could be stimulated by heat shock protein 60 (HSP60) on the surface of murine 4 T1 breast cancer cell-released LC3+ extracellular vesicles (LC3+ EVs) via the TLR2-MyD88-NF-κB signal cascade in lung fibroblasts, which subsequently promoted lung PMN formation through recruiting monocytes and suppressing T cell function. Consistently, reduction of LC3+ EV release or HSP60 level or neutralization of CCL2 markedly attenuated PMN formation and lung metastasis. Furthermore, the number of circulating LC3+ EVs and HSP60 level on LC3+ EVs in the plasma of breast cancer patients were positively correlated with disease progression and lung metastasis, which might have potential value as biomarkers of lung metastasis in breast cancer patients (AUC = 0.898, 0.694, respectively). These findings illuminate a novel mechanism of PMN formation and might provide therapeutic targets for anti-metastasis therapy for patients with breast cancer.

Effects of Chicken Serum Metabolite Treatment on the Blood Glucose Control and Inflammatory Response in Streptozotocin-Induced Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Rats.

Chickens can live healthy without adverse effects despite high blood glucose levels. However, the blood biomolecules responsible for maintaining chronic hyperglycemia are unknown. Here, the effects of chicken serum metabolite treatment on blood glucose control and inflammatory response in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) rats were investigated. First, chicken serum treatment reduced the advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and blood glucose levels in STZ-induced T2DM rats. Second, insulin/glucose-induced acute hypoglycemic/hyperglycemic chickens and the blood biomolecules were screened via nontargeted ultra-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy (UPLC-MS), identifying 366 key metabolites, including DL-arginine and taurine, as potential markers for chronic hyperglycemia in chickens. Finally, DL-arginine functions for blood glucose control and inflammatory response were evaluated. We found that DL-arginine reduced the levels of blood glucose and AGEs in STZ-induced T2DM rats. In addition, DL-arginine treatment upregulated the glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT4) expression in the muscles and downregulated the advanced glycation end products receptor-1 (AGER1) expression in the liver and nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) expression in the pancreas and thymus tissues. Overall, these results demonstrate that serum metabolite of DL-arginine could maintain blood glucose homeostasis and suppress the inflammatory response in chickens. Therefore, DL-arginine may be a novel target for developing therapeutic agents to regulate hyperglycemia.

Green spaces, especially nearby forest, may reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate: A nationwide study in the United States.

The coronavirus pandemic is an ongoing global crisis that has profoundly harmed public health. Although studies found exposure to green spaces can provide multiple health benefits, the relationship between exposure to green spaces and the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate is unclear. This is a critical knowledge gap for research and practice. In this study, we examined the relationship between total green space, seven types of green space, and a year of SARS-CoV-2 infection data across 3,108 counties in the contiguous United States, after controlling for spatial autocorrelation and multiple types of covariates. First, we examined the association between total green space and SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. Next, we examined the association between different types of green space and SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. Then, we examined forest-infection rate association across five time periods and five urbanicity levels. Lastly, we examined the association between infection rate and population-weighted exposure to forest at varying buffer distances (100 m to 4 km). We found that total green space was negative associated with the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate. Furthermore, two forest variables (forest outside park and forest inside park) had the strongest negative association with the infection rate, while open space variables had mixed associations with the infection rate. Forest outside park was more effective than forest inside park. The optimal buffer distances associated with lowest infection rate are within 1,200 m for forest outside park and within 600 m for forest inside park. Altogether, the findings suggest that green spaces, especially nearby forest, may significantly mitigate risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Robustness of Interdependent Networks with Weak Dependency Based on Bond Percolation.

Real-world systems interact with one another via dependency connectivities. Dependency connectivities make systems less robust because failures may spread iteratively among systems via dependency links. Most previous studies have assumed that two nodes connected by a dependency link are strongly dependent on each other; that is, if one node fails, its dependent partner would also immediately fail. However, in many real scenarios, nodes from different networks may be weakly dependent, and links may fail instead of nodes. How interdependent networks with weak dependency react to link failures remains unknown. In this paper, we build a model of fully interdependent networks with weak dependency and define a parameter α in order to describe the node-coupling strength. If a node fails, its dependent partner has a probability of failing of 1−α. Then, we develop an analytical tool for analyzing the robustness of interdependent networks with weak dependency under link failures, with which we can accurately predict the system robustness when 1−p fractions of links are randomly removed. We find that as the node coupling strength increases, interdependent networks show a discontinuous phase transition when α<αc and a continuous phase transition when α>αc. Compared to site percolation with nodes being attacked, the crossover points αc are larger in the bond percolation with links being attacked. This finding can give us some suggestions for designing and protecting systems in which link failures can happen.

Effects of mulberry pomace on physicochemical and textural properties of stirred-type flavored yogurt.

Adding functional ingredients is an important method to develop functional dairy products. Mulberry pomace (MPo), a byproduct of mulberry fruit processing, is rich in phenolic compounds and anthocyanins and can be served as the functional ingredient in functional dairy products. The aim of this work was to prepare a functional flavored yogurt by incorporating MPo into stirred yogurt and to investigate the effects of MPo on the physicochemical and textural properties of the product during cold storage. We supplemented MPo powder up to 3% (wt/wt) in fermented milk, and the changes in color, pH, titratable acidity (TA), total phenol content (TPC), total anthocyanin content (TAC), water-holding capacity, rheological behavior, texture, and microstructure of the functional flavored yogurt were monitored during storage under 4°C for 28 d. The MPo powder brought a pink to dark red color to the yogurt, decreased the lightness (L*) and yellow-blue color (b*) values, increased the red-green color (a*) values, decreased the pH value, and increased the contents of TA, TPC, and TAC in a dose-dependent manner. The addition of MPo at 1%, 2%, and 3% (wt/wt) significantly increased water-holding capacity, consistency, viscosity, and viscosity index, and reduced firmness of yogurt samples. Supplementation of MPo significantly reduced the pore spaces and channels inside the samples and improved microstructure of the functional yogurt. During the 28 d of cold storage, MPo-fortified yogurt samples kept relatively constant color, although their L*, a*, and b* showed a decreasing tendency. The pH of all yogurt samples gradually decreased with increasing of TA. Interestingly, TPC and TAC contents and the texture parameters of MPo-fortified yogurt increased gradually and continuously during the 28 d of cold storage. Mulberry pomace is beneficial to improve the physicochemical and textural properties of yogurt and has the potential as a natural stabilizer to be used in functional yogurt rich in phytochemicals.

Microfiber-assisted gigahertz harmonic mode-locking in ultrafast fiber laser.

Optoacoustic interaction can be strongly enhanced in tiny core fibers, and it holds significant potential for stable harmonic mode-locking at gigahertz (GHz) and higher repetition rate. In this Letter, we propose and demonstrate a microfiber-assisted GHz harmonic mode-locking fiber laser, which is achieved by the enhanced optomechanical coupling between cavity modes in microfiber with the waist length of ∼16cm and the waist diameter of ∼1.56µm. The repetition rates can be stably locked at 2.3828 GHz and predominately locked at 1.7852 GHz, corresponding to the frequencies of radial R01 and torsional-radial TR21 acoustic modes, respectively. Our results provide novel insight into the design of a high-repetition-rate laser source and the application of microfibers in the optomechanical field.

Unveiling external motion dynamics of solitons in passively mode-locked fiber lasers.

Real-time measurement of ultrafast pulses together with high temporal resolution and long recording length is an urgent requirement of all optical communication systems and nonlinear science. Here, external motion dynamics of soliton pairs in mode-locking ultrafast fiber lasers can be single-shot characterized with long recording length, by using an asynchronous four-wave-mixing (FWM)-based temporal magnifier (AFTM) system. Recording length of more than one thousand roundtrips can be achieved through the AFTM system. Temporal propagation dynamics of soliton pairs with tunable separations are observed, revealing that soliton pairs with narrower separation display vibration-like dynamics, while the two solitons with wider separation remain relatively unchanged. We believe our results will provide a promising solution for real-time measurement of ultrafast pulse and can offer novel insights for ultrafast transient dynamics in nonlinear optics.

Full-field real-time characterization of creeping solitons dynamics in a mode-locked fiber laser.

Creeping solitons, which belong to the class of pulsating solitons, can be meaningful for fundamental physics owing to their fruitful nonlinear dynamics. Their characteristics in mode-locked lasers have been studied theoretically, but it is difficult to experimentally observe evolution dynamics in real time. Here, we have experimentally observed the temporal and spectral evolution dynamics of creeping solitons in a passively mode-locked fiber laser by employing time-lens and dispersive Fourier transform technique. With the aid of Raman amplification, the measured recording length of the time lens in the asynchronous mode could be substantially improved. Temporal soliton snaking motion and spectral breathing dynamics are experimentally obtained, confirming intrinsic feature of pulsation dynamics. These results display how single-shot measurements can offer new insights into ultrafast transient dynamics in nonlinear optics.

Upcycling of Electroplating Sludge into Ultrafine Sn@C Nanorods with Highly Stable Lithium Storage Performance.

Sn-based anode materials have become potential substitutes for commercial graphite anode due to their high specific capacity and good safety. In this paper, ultrafine Sn nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen and phosphorus codoped porous carbon nanorods (Sn@C) are obtained by carbonizing bacteria that adsorb the Sn electroplating sludge extracting solution. The as-prepared Sn@C rod-shaped composite exhibits superior electrochemical Li-storage performances, such as a reversible capacity of approximate 560 mAh/g at 1 A/g and an ultralong cycle life exceeding 1500 cycles, with approximately no capacity decay. The ultrastable structure of the Sn@C was revealed using in situ transmission electron microscope at the nanoscale and indicated that the Sn@C composite could restrict the volume expansion of Sn nanoparticles during the lithiation/delithiation cycles. This work provides a new insight into addressing the electroplating sludge and designing novel lithium ion battery anodes.

Revealing the Transition Dynamics from Q Switching to Mode Locking in a Soliton Laser.

Q switching (QS) and mode locking (ML) are the two main techniques enabling generation of ultrashort pulses. Here, we report the first observation of pulse evolution and dynamics in the QS-ML transition stage, where the ML soliton formation evolves from the QS pulses instead of relaxation oscillations (or quasi-continuous-wave oscillations) reported in previous studies. We discover a new way of soliton buildup in an ultrafast laser, passing through four stages: initial spontaneous noise, QS, beating dynamics, and ML. We reveal that multiple subnanosecond pulses coexist within the laser cavity during the QS, with one dominant pulse transforming into a soliton when reaching the ML stage. We propose a theoretical model to simulate the spectrotemporal beating dynamics (a critical process of QS-ML transition) and the Kelly sidebands of the as-formed solitons. Numerical results show that beating dynamics is induced by the interference between a dominant pulse and multiple subordinate pulses with varying temporal delays, in agreement with experimental observations. Our results allow a better understanding of soliton formation in ultrafast lasers, which have widespread applications in science and technology.

Breakdown of interdependent directed networks.

Increasing evidence shows that real-world systems interact with one another via dependency connectivities. Failing connectivities are the mechanism behind the breakdown of interacting complex systems, e.g., blackouts caused by the interdependence of power grids and communication networks. Previous research analyzing the robustness of interdependent networks has been limited to undirected networks. However, most real-world networks are directed, their in-degrees and out-degrees may be correlated, and they are often coupled to one another as interdependent directed networks. To understand the breakdown and robustness of interdependent directed networks, we develop a theoretical framework based on generating functions and percolation theory. We find that for interdependent Erdos-Rényi networks the directionality within each network increases their vulnerability and exhibits hybrid phase transitions. We also find that the percolation behavior of interdependent directed scale-free networks with and without degree correlations is so complex that two criteria are needed to quantify and compare their robustness: the percolation threshold and the integrated size of the giant component during an entire attack process. Interestingly, we find that the in-degree and out-degree correlations in each network layer increase the robustness of interdependent degree heterogeneous networks that most real networks are, but decrease the robustness of interdependent networks with homogeneous degree distribution and with strong coupling strengths. Moreover, by applying our theoretical analysis to real interdependent international trade networks, we find that the robustness of these real-world systems increases with the in-degree and out-degree correlations, confirming our theoretical analysis.

Off-site and on-site vortex solitons in space-fractional photonic lattices.

We address the existence and stability of off-site and on-site vortex solitons with a unit topological charge in space-fractional Kerr lattices. In contrast to the reported ordinary Kerr lattices, vortex solitons in the proposed space-fractional lattices are stable only in the intermediate region of propagation constant, and this region widens rapidly with the increase of a Lévy index. Under the same Lévy index, the stability range of on-site vortices is larger than that of off-site ones. In particular, for on-site vortex solitons, the upper edge of the stability range appears where the maximum of soliton power is located, which provides an effective way to identify the stability range of on-site vortices. Our results extend the study of vortex solitons into space-fractional systems and deepen the understanding of Kerr lattices in fractional dimensions.

Real-Time Observation of the Buildup of Soliton Molecules.

Real-time spectroscopy access to ultrafast fiber lasers opens new opportunities for exploring complex soliton interaction dynamics. Here, we have reported the first observation, to the best of our knowledge, of the entire buildup process of soliton molecules (SMs) in a mode-locked laser. We have observed that the birth dynamics of a stable SM experiences five different stages, i.e., the raised relaxation oscillation (RO) stage, beating dynamics stage, transient single pulse stage, transient bound state, and finally the stable bound state. We have discovered that the evolution of pulses in the raised RO stage follows a law that only the strongest one can ultimately survive and, meanwhile, the pulses periodically appear at the same temporal positions for all lasing spikes during the same RO stage (named as memory ability) but they lose such ability between different RO stages. Moreover, we have found that the buildup dynamics of SMs is quite sensitive to both the polarization state of intracavity light and the fluctuation of pump power. These results provide new perspectives into the ultrafast transient process in mode-locked lasers and the dynamics of complex nonlinear systems.

Effective Extraction of Cr(VI) from Hazardous Gypsum Sludge via Controlling the Phase Transformation and Chromium Species.

Through controlling the phase transformation and chromium species under hydrothermal condition, the Cr(VI) was extracted fully from hazardous Cr(VI)-containing gypsum sludge, with a very high efficiency of more than 99.5%. Scanning transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption fine structure, and density functional theory calculation results revealed that the dissolution-recrystallization of CaSO4·2H2O into CaSO4 was the key factor to fully release the encapsulated Cr(VI). Moreover, the mineralizer (persulfate salt) provided H+ and SO42- ions, the former made an acidic condition to transform the released CrO42- into the specie (Cr2O72-) with less similarity to SO42-, which further prevented the recombination of the released Cr(VI) with gypsum; and the latter was essential to accelerate crystal growth of calcium sulfate so as to enhance Cr(VI) extraction. This work would provide an instructive guidance to fully extract heavy metals from hazardous solid wastes via the control of crystal transformation and the pollutant species.

[Mechanism for synergistic effect of IRF4 and MITF on tyrosinase promoter].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanism for the synergistic effect of interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) on tyrosinase (TYR) promoter.
 Methods: The synergistic transcriptional effect, subcellular localization, and protein-protein interaction for IRF4 and MITF were observed by luciferase assay, immunofluorescence, GST-pull down, and co-immunoprecipitation, respectively.
 Results: IRF4 and MITF proteins were co-expressed in the cell nucleus. IRF4 augmented the transcriptional function of MITF (but not the mutant MITF) to activate the expression of the TYR promoter, but with no effect on other MITF-specific target promoters. IRF4 alone did not affect TYR promoter significantly. No direct interaction between the two proteins was noted.
 Conclusion: IRF4 and MITF exert a specifically synergistic effect on activation of TYR promoter through IRF4-mediated upregulation of transcriptional function of MITF. This synergistic effect is mainly regulated by MITF; DNA might be involved in the interaction between the two proteins.

A comparative study on the effects of amphiphilic and hydrophilic polymers on the release profiles of a poorly water-soluble drug.

This paper reports the use of two crystalline polymers, an amphiphilic Pluronic® F-127 (PF-127) and a hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG6000) as drug delivery carriers for improving the drug release of a poorly water-soluble drug, fenofibrate (FEN), via micelle formation and formation of a solid dispersion (SD). In 10% PF-127 (aq.), FEN showed an equilibrium solubility of ca. 0.6 mg/mL, due to micelle formation. In contrast, in 10% PEG6000 (aq.), FEN only exhibited an equilibrium solubility of 0.0037 mg/mL. FEN-loaded micelles in PF-127 were prepared by direct dissolution and membrane dialysis. Both methods only yielded a highest drug loading (DL) of 0.5%. SDs of FEN in PF-127 and PEG6000, at DLs of 5-80%, were prepared by solvent evaporation. In-vitro dissolution testing showed that both micelles and SDs significantly improved FEN's release rate. The SDs of FEN in PF-127 showed significantly faster release than crystalline FEN, when the DL was as high as 50%, whereas SDs of PEG6000 showed similar enhancement in the release rate when the DL was not more than 20%. The DSC thermograms of SDs of PF-127 exhibited a single phase transition peak at ca. 55-57 °C when the DL was not more than 50%, whereas those in PEG6000 exhibited a similar peak at ca. 61-63 °C when the DL was not more than 35%. When the DL exceeded 50% for SDs of PF-127 and 35% for SDs of PEG6000, DSC thermograms showed two melting peaks for the carrier polymer and FEN, respectively. FT-IR studies revealed that PF-127 has a stronger hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction with FEN than PEG6000. It is likely that both dispersion and micelle formation contributed to the stronger effect of PF-127 on enhancing the release rate of FEN in its SDs.

Tunable multiple phase-coupled plasmon-induced transparencies in graphene metamaterials.

We demonstrate the existence of multiple electromagnetically induced transparencies (EIT)-like spectral responses in graphene metamaterials consisting of a series of self-assembled graphene Fabry-Pérot (FP) cavities. By exploiting the graphene plasmon resonances and phase-coupling effects, the transfer matrix model is established to theoretically predict the EIT-like responses, and the calculated results coincide well with numerical simulations. It is found that high-contrast (~90%) multiple EIT-like windows are observed over a broad range of mid-infrared. Additionally, these optical responses can be efficiently tuned by altering the Fermi level in graphene and the separations of FP cavities. The proposed scheme paves the way toward control of the multiple EIT-like responses, enabling exploration of the on-chip multifunctional electro-optic devices including multi-channel-selective filters, sensors, and modulators.

Overweight, obesity and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies.

Overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes are recommended to lose weight, but the associations between excess body weight and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes remain controversial. Therefore, we performed a dose-response meta-analysis to investigate this association. We searched PubMed and Embase through 19th October 2014 and examined the references of retrieved articles to identify relevant prospective cohort studies. A random-effect model was used to calculate the summary risk estimates. Nine studies including 13 cohorts with 161,984 participants were identified. The relative risks (RRs) of all-cause mortality in overweight and obese patients with type 2 diabetes were 0.81 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-0.90) and 0.72 (95% CI 0.63-0.81) respectively, compared with the normal or non-overweight patients. Furthermore, a 5 kg/m(2) increase in body mass index was associated with a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality by 5% (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.93-0.97). However, no significant association was found between obese and/or overweight and the risk of cardiovascular mortality in type 2 diabetic patients (RR 0.89; 95% CI 0.66-1.20 for overweight and RR 0.77; 95% CI 0.54-1.10 for obesity, respectively). The findings from the present meta-analysis indicate that excess body weight may be a protective factor for all-cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes.

Observation of vector- and scalar-pulse in a nanotube-mode-locked fiber laser.

We report the experimental observations of vector pulse trapping and scalar dissipative soliton in a compact nanotube-mode-locked all-fiber laser for the first time to our best knowledge. The vector pulse exhibits a smooth Gaussian spectral profile without any sidebands. Although two orthogonally polarized components of the vector pulse have different central wavelengths, they copropagate as a unit in the laser cavity with the same speed. The scalar dissipative soliton shows a rectangular spectrum with pulse duration of ~13 ps, and can be compressed to ~320 fs external to the cavity. This flexible laser provides stable, ultrashort vector- and scalar-pulsed sources, which is convenient and attractive for practical applications.