Nonreciprocal strong mechanical squeezing based on the Sagnac effect and two-tone driving.

We propose a scheme for generating nonreciprocal strong mechanical squeezing by using two-tone lasers to drive a spinning optomechanical system. For given driving frequencies, strong mechanical squeezing of the breathing mode in the spinning resonator can be achieved in a chosen driving direction but not in the other. The nonreciprocity originates from the Sagnac effect caused by the resonator's spinning. We also find the classical nonreciprocity and the quantum nonreciprocity can be switched by simply changing the angular velocity of the spinning resonator. We show that the scheme is robust to the system's dissipations and the mechanical thermal noise. This work may be meaningful for the study of nonreciprocal device and quantum precision measurement.

Laser coupling in waterjets subject to jet instabilities, laser parameters, and alignment errors.

High coupling accuracy and efficiency attract wide attention in waterjet-guided laser technology due to the requirements for high processing performance in hard-to-cut material and diamond industries. The behaviors of axisymmetric waterjets injected into the atmosphere through different types of orifices are investigated by adopting a two-phase flow k-epsilon algorithm. The water-gas interface is tracked with Coupled Level Set and Volume of Fluid method. The electric field distributions of laser radiation inside the coupling unit are modeled by wave equations and numerically solved with the full-wave Finite Element Method. The coupling efficiency of the laser beam affected by waterjet hydrodynamics is studied by considering the profiles of the waterjet shaped at transient stages, namely vena contracta, cavitation, and hydraulic flip. The growth of the cavity leads to a larger water-air interface and increases the coupling efficiency. Eventually, two types of fully developed laminar waterjets, i.e. constricted waterjets and non-constricted waterjets, are formed. Constricted waterjets that are detached from the wall throughout the nozzle are preferable to guide laser beams since they significantly increase the coupling efficiency compared to non-constricted waterjets. Furthermore, the trends of coupling efficiency affected by Numerical Aperture (NA), wavelengths, and alignments errors are analyzed to optimize the physical design of the coupling unit and develop the alignment strategies.

Fault Diagnosis of Rotating Machinery Based on Improved Self-Supervised Learning Method and Very Few Labeled Samples.

Convolution neural network (CNN)-based fault diagnosis methods have been widely adopted to obtain representative features and used to classify fault modes due to their prominent feature extraction capability. However, a large number of labeled samples are required to support the algorithm of CNNs, and, in the case of a limited amount of labeled samples, this may lead to overfitting. In this article, a novel ResNet-based method is developed to achieve fault diagnoses for machines with very few samples. To be specific, data transformation combinations (DTCs) are designed based on mutual information. It is worth noting that the selected DTC, which can complete the training process of the 1-D ResNet quickly without increasing the amount of training data, can be randomly used for any batch training data. Meanwhile, a self-supervised learning method called 1-D SimCLR is adopted to obtain an effective feature encoder, which can be optimized with very few unlabeled samples. Then, a fault diagnosis model named DTC-SimCLR is constructed by combining the selected data transformation combination, the obtained feature encoder and a fully-connected layer-based classifier. In DTC-SimCLR, the parameters of the feature encoder are fixed, and the classifier is trained with very few labeled samples. Two machine fault datasets from a cutting tooth and a bearing are conducted to evaluate the performance of DTC-SimCLR. Testing results show that DTC-SimCLR has superior performance and diagnostic accuracy with very few samples.

Novel compound heterozygous mutations in ABCA4 in a Chinese pedigree with Stargardt disease.

PURPOSE: Stargardt disease (STGD) is a common macular dystrophy in juveniles that is commonly inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. Mutations in five genes (ABCA4, PROM1, ELOVL4, BEST1, and PRPH2) have been reported to be associated with STGD. In the present study, we aimed to identify the pathogenic mutations in affected members in a Chinese STGD pedigree. METHODS: One patient was selected for whole-exome sequencing. Variants in five candidate genes were identified initially, followed by several filtering steps against public and private variation databases (1000Genomes, ESP6500si, ExAC, and in-house database), as well as bioinformatic analysis of the putative pathogenic roles. Sanger sequencing was used for cosegregation analysis among all members with available DNA. RESULTS: Two mutations in ABCA4 (NM_000350.2; c.5646G>A; p.Met1882Ile and NM_000350.2; c.3523-2A>G) were found using whole-exome sequencing. Cosegregation analysis confirmed all the affected members carried the compound heterozygous mutations while the other healthy members had at most one. The missense mutation was extremely rare in public databases and predicted to be deleterious. The splice-site mutation was absent from all public and private databases and was predicted to alter the splice pattern, resulting in an exon skip and a frameshift. CONCLUSIONS: Using whole-exome sequencing, we found novel compound heterozygous mutations in ABCA4 in a Chinese STGD pedigree. These mutations are reported for the first time, therefore widening the mutation spectrum of Stargardt disease. The present study also illustrates the potential of whole-exome sequencing in determining the genetic cause of STGD.

Association between serum Galectin-3 and periodontitis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate the correlation between serum Galectin-3 levels and the risk of periodontitis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). METHODS: A total of 140 patients with T2DM admitted to the endocrinology department of Weifang People's Hospital, Affiliated to Weifang Medical College from July 2021 to November 2022 were selected and divided into T2DM without periodontitis group (T2DM group, n=67) and T2DM with periodontitis group (T2DMP group, n=73) according to whether they were combined with periodontitis. In the same period, 65 non-periodontitis volunteers with normal blood glucose were selected as healthy control group (NC group). Blood samples of all subjects were collected, and serum Galectin-3 levels and related laboratory indices were detected and compared among the three groups. RESULTS: Serum Galectin-3 levels in the NC, T2DM, and T2DMP groups were 3.81 (3.49, 4.15), 4.82 (4.25, 5.26), and 6.83 (5.19, 7.28) ng/mL, respectively. After adjusting for the influence of baseline data by multiple linear regression, serum Galectin-3 levels in the T2DMP and T2DM groups were significantly higher than those in the NC group (all P<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis showed that serum Galectin-3 levels were positively correlated with homeostatic model of the insulin resistance index (ß=0.254, 95%CI:0.089-0.419, P=0.003), glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (ß=0.397, 95%CI: 0.049-0.745, P=0.026), and clinical attachment loss (ß=0.298, 95%CI: 0.024-0.572, P=0.033). After adjusting for the effects of covariates, binary logistic regression showed that serum Galectin-3 levels were significantly associated with the risk of periodontitis in patients with T2DM (OR=2.146, 95%CI: 1.260-3.655, P=0.005). Trend test showed that the risk of periodontitis in patients with T2DM increased with increasing serum Galectin-3 levels (Ptrend=0.011). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the area under the curve (AUC) of serum Galectin-3 in predicting T2DM periodontitis was 0.861 (95%CI: 0.801-0.920, Z=11.806, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Serum Galectin-3 levels were elevated in patients with T2DM and pe-riodontitis and associated with the risk of periodontitis.

DeepQuality improves infant retinopathy screening.

Image quality variation is a prominent cause of performance degradation for intelligent disease diagnostic models in clinical applications. Image quality issues are particularly prominent in infantile fundus photography due to poor patient cooperation, which poses a high risk of misdiagnosis. Here, we developed a deep learning-based image quality assessment and enhancement system (DeepQuality) for infantile fundus images to improve infant retinopathy screening. DeepQuality can accurately detect various quality defects concerning integrity, illumination, and clarity with area under the curve (AUC) values ranging from 0.933 to 0.995. It can also comprehensively score the overall quality of each fundus photograph. By analyzing 2,015,758 infantile fundus photographs from real-world settings using DeepQuality, we found that 58.3% of them had varying degrees of quality defects, and large variations were observed among different regions and categories of hospitals. Additionally, DeepQuality provides quality enhancement based on the results of quality assessment. After quality enhancement, the performance of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) diagnosis of clinicians was significantly improved. Moreover, the integration of DeepQuality and AI diagnostic models can effectively improve the model performance for detecting ROP. This study may be an important reference for the future development of other image-based intelligent disease screening systems.

Early detection of visual impairment in young children using a smartphone-based deep learning system.

Early detection of visual impairment is crucial but is frequently missed in young children, who are capable of only limited cooperation with standard vision tests. Although certain features of visually impaired children, such as facial appearance and ocular movements, can assist ophthalmic practice, applying these features to real-world screening remains challenging. Here, we present a mobile health (mHealth) system, the smartphone-based Apollo Infant Sight (AIS), which identifies visually impaired children with any of 16 ophthalmic disorders by recording and analyzing their gazing behaviors and facial features under visual stimuli. Videos from 3,652 children (≤48 months in age; 54.5% boys) were prospectively collected to develop and validate this system. For detecting visual impairment, AIS achieved an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) of 0.940 in an internal validation set and an AUC of 0.843 in an external validation set collected in multiple ophthalmology clinics across China. In a further test of AIS for at-home implementation by untrained parents or caregivers using their smartphones, the system was able to adapt to different testing conditions and achieved an AUC of 0.859. This mHealth system has the potential to be used by healthcare professionals, parents and caregivers for identifying young children with visual impairment across a wide range of ophthalmic disorders.

Comparison of clinical outcomes of conbercept versus ranibizumab treatment for retinopathy of prematurity: a multicentral prospective randomised controlled trial.

PURPOSE: To compare the recurrence rate and surgical complications of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) between patients treated with intravitreal injection of conbercept (IVC) and intravitreal injection of ranibizumab (IVR) within 6 months. METHODS: A multicentral prospective, randomised controlled trial was applied from May 2017 to February 2019 for the infants diagnosed as aggressive posterior-ROP, zone I or posterior zone II treatment-requiring ROP by binocular indirect ophthalmoscope and RetCam3. These infants were assigned to randomly receive either intravitreal injection of 0.25 mg conbercept or 0.25 mg ranibizumab. The recurrence rate, fundus fluorescence angiography (FFA) and surgical complications were examined during the follow-up period of 6 months. Recurrent eyes were retreated by laser or another intravitreal injection within the 72 hours. RESULTS: A total of 30 infant patients (60 eyes) underwent IVC and 30 patients (60 eyes) underwent IVR. A total of 10 eyes (16.67%) in the IVC group and 14 eyes (23.34%) in the IVR group developed recurrence. There was no significant statistical difference in the recurrence rate between the two groups (χ2=0.83, p=0.36). The postmenstrual age (PMA) at first injection was (34.60±3.47) weeks in IVC and (35.14±1.76) in IVR group. In recurrent cases, the mean PMA at second treatment were (43.31±3.85) and (43.43±3.89) weeks in the IVC and IVR group, respectively. The period between two treatments was (8.71±6.62) for the IVC and (8.29±2.56) weeks for the IVR group. All these results showed no significant statistical difference between these two groups. The fluorescein leakage were observed in the eyes of recurrent infants by FFA. There were no other complications in the two groups except for complicated cataract in three eyes. CONCLUSION: Both IVC and IVR are effective therapies for the treatment of ROP. Conbercept is a new option for treating ROP.

Impact of Systemic Chemotherapy and Delayed Enucleation on Survival of Children with Advanced Intraocular Retinoblastoma.

PURPOSE: Primary enucleation is a well-established method to achieve cure for advanced intraocular retinoblastoma. Recent treatment advances have induced a trend toward trial eye salvage using chemotherapy or other modalities. We investigated how pre-enucleation/postenucleation systemic chemotherapy and the resulting delayed enucleation affect patient survival after failed trial eye salvage. DESIGN: Multicenter, retrospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Children with Group D and E retinoblastoma primarily or secondarily enucleated at 29 Chinese treatment centers. METHODS: Data reviewed included clinical staging, time from diagnosis to enucleation, numbers of cycles of carboplatin, etoposide/teniposide and vincristine chemotherapy, disease-specific survival (DSS), histopathology, and follow-up. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary outcome was DSS. Secondary outcome was histopathology of enucleated eyes. RESULTS: Primarily enucleated eyes had significantly shorter delay from diagnosis to enucleation than eyes treated with pre-enucleation chemotherapy (P < 0.001). Delay between diagnosis and enucleation >3.5 months (Group D) and >2 months (Group E) decreased survival (Group D: P = 0.018; Group E: P = 0.017). Compared with primarily enucleated children, children with 1 to 3 cycles of pre-enucleation chemotherapy for Group E eyes had no significant difference in survival (P = 0.74), but those who received ≥4 cycles had worse survival (P = 0.025). After pre-enucleation chemotherapy, more children with Group E (but not Group D) eyes had high-risk histopathology (pT3/pT4) (Group D: P = 0.076; Group E: P < 0.001) and worse survival than those primarily enucleated (P < 0.001). Postenucleation chemotherapy improved survival of children with high-risk histopathology (pT3/pT4) (P = 0.001) but did not change survival of children with low-risk histopathology (pT1/pT2) (P = 0.52). CONCLUSIONS: We observed that pre-enucleation chemotherapy offered no survival benefit and timely enucleation minimized risk of metastatic death. Postenucleation chemotherapy improved survival of children with high-risk histopathology but was not useful for those with low-risk histopathology. These findings facilitate informed discussion on the risks and benefits of delayed enucleation, the use of systemic chemotherapy for trial salvage of eyes with advanced intraocular retinoblastoma, and the specific children who benefit from postenucleation chemotherapy.

A novel NHS mutation in a Chinese family with Nance­Horan Syndrome.

Nance­Horan syndrome (NHS) is a rare X­linked disorder with various clinical manifestations. The present study aimed to identify the pathogenic mutation causing NHS in a three­generation Chinese family with 4 individuals presenting primarily with congenital cataracts. The genomic DNA of 5 individuals was collected, and family history and clinical information were recorded. Whole exome sequencing was performed on the proband, and candidate mutations were filtered by a series of screening processes and validated by Sanger sequencing. The identified pathogenic mutation was confirmed by co­segregation analysis. Finally, a novel frameshift mutation (NM_001291867.1: c.302dupA; p.Ala102fs) was identified in the NHS actin remodeling regulator (NHS) gene, which co­segregated with congenital cataracts in this family. Carrier females exhibited similar but milder clinical symptoms compared with the affected male. These clinical symptoms were consistent with the phenotypic features of the NHS­associated disease, NHS. In summary, the present study identified a novel NHS mutation in a Chinese family with atypical NHS; the results broaden the known pathogenic mutation spectrum of NHS and will aid in the genetic counseling of patients with NHS. The data from the present study also suggest that genetic analysis may be required for the diagnosis of this disease.

Identification of novel genes involved in gingival epithelial cells responding to Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis infections.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in gingiva epithelial cells responding to Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis infections using bioinformatics method. STUDY DESIGN: GSE9723 dataset was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus, and DEGs between the infected cells and controls were identified using unpaired t-test. Overlapping DEGs in responding to Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis infections were extracted. Protein-protein interaction networks were constructed and functional modules were isolated using Molecular Complex Detection algorithm. Key genes in protein-protein interaction network and Molecular Complex Detection modules were subjected to functional enrichment analyses. In addition, the transcriptional factors were predicted. RESULTS: A total of 533 co-up-regulated and 202 co-down-regulated genes were identified. The up-regulated genes, including IL6, CCL19, EDN1, ADCY9, and BCL2 and the down-regulated genes, including CCNB1, PLK1, and CCNA2 were the key genes in the protein-protein interaction network and modules. They were intensively enriched in chemokine signaling pathway, calcium signaling pathway and cell cycle. Finally, two transcriptional factors, E12 and NRSF, targeting to the up-regulated genes and one transcriptional factor, NRP1, targeting the down-regulated genes, were predicted. CONCLUSIONS: CCNB1, PLK1, and CCNA2 might play important roles in the response of host epithelial cells to Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis.

Fundus examination of 199 851 newborns by digital imaging in China: a multicentre cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of ocular abnormalities of newborn in China has seldom been reported. To report the implementation of digital imaging in ocular screening of all newborns in multiple centres in China and to describe the abnormal findings of fundus examination, we did the cross-sectional study. METHODS: Fundus examinations were performed on newborns within the 42 days after birth using a RetCam wide-field digital imaging system. Digital images of the posterior pole, superior, nasal and temporal retinal fields of each participant were taken. All newborns were from eights centres across China from January 2009 to July 2017. RESULTS: A total of 199 851 newborns were included in the study. We detected 18 198 (9.11%) abnormal cases. The most frequent abnormality was severe retinal haemorrhage (RH) found in 12 810 cases (6.41%). The other anomalies included familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, retinopathy of prematurity, abnormal fundus pigmentation, subconjunctival haemorrhage, choroidal coloboma, idiopathic retinal venous tortuosity, exudative changes and other anomalies with uncertain identities. CONCLUSION: This large-scale study of newborn fundus examination showed a relatively high prevalence of ocular abnormalities. Hundreds of neonates with rare disorders that severely impair ocular health were also detected at an early age. The long-term impact of other anomalies including RHs on the ocular system should be investigated by a perspective study. Our study suggested that fundus examination of newborns can play a beneficial role in ocular health.

Functional exercise on patients after sports meniscus injury / Exercício funcional em pacientes após lesão esportiva de menisco / Ejercicio funcional en pacientes tras lesión deportiva de menisco

ABSTRACT Introduction Knee meniscus injury is a common sports injury, and minimally invasive surgery under knee arthroscopy has become an ideal method to treat meniscus injuries. This surgery rehabilitation has been improved, and several studies on the effects of functional exercise in the range of treatment are still inconclusive. Objective Study the functional exercise rehabilitation effects in patients after sports meniscus injury. Methods Twenty patients with meniscus-medial injury being operated on were selected, including eight men and 12 women. They were randomly divided into neuromuscular and strength training groups (11). Signs and symptoms were assessed before and eight weeks after treatment. JOA score indices and gait tests were compared. The impact of rehabilitation differences was evaluated in each group. Results Eight weeks after rehabilitation in both groups, the scores of the strength training group were higher than the neuromuscular group; the difference between the groups was statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion Functional exercise accelerates joint recovery, reflected in increased strength of adjacent muscles. The muscle and joint training effects on postoperative meniscus injury are worthy of recognition. The baropodometry revealed distinctions in walking patterns between different rehabilitation methods. From the perspective of this research, rehabilitation methods combined with proprioceptive exercises are complementary. Evidence Level II; Therapeutic Studies - Investigating the result.

RESUMO Introdução Lesão no menisco do joelho é uma lesão esportiva comum e a cirurgia minimamente invasiva sob artroscopia no joelho tornou-se um método ideal para tratar lesões no menisco. A reabilitação dessa cirurgia vem sendo aprimorada e vários estudos sobre os efeitos do exercício funcional no leque de tratamento ainda são inconclusivos. Objetivo Estudar os efeitos da reabilitação com exercício funcional em pacientes após a lesão esportiva do menisco. Métodos Foram selecionados 20 pacientes com lesão menisco-medial a serem operados, incluindo 8 homens e 12 mulheres. Divididos aleatoriamente em 2 grupos: grupo de treinamento neuromuscular e grupo de treinamento força (11). Sinais e sintomas foram avaliados antes do tratamento e 8 semanas após o tratamento, índices de score JOA e teste de marcha foram comparados, as diferenças do impacto da reabilitação em cada grupo foram avaliadas. Resultados Oito semanas após a reabilitação dos dois grupos, os escores do grupo de treinamento de força foram superiores aos do grupo neuromuscular, a diferença entre os grupos foi estatisticamente significante (P<0,05). Conclusão O exercício funcional acelera a recuperação das articulações, refletida no aumento da força dos músculos adjacentes. O efeito do treinamento muscular e articular na lesão do menisco pós-operatório é digno de reconhecimento. A baropodometria revelou distinções no padrão de marcha entre os diferentes métodos de reabilitação. Na perspectiva desta pesquisa, métodos de reabilitação combinados com exercícios proprioceptivos são complementares. Nível de evidência II; Estudos Terapêuticos - Investigação de Resultados.

RESUMEN Introducción La lesión de menisco de la rodilla es una lesión deportiva común y la cirugía mínimamente invasiva por artroscopia de rodilla se ha convertido en un método ideal para tratar las lesiones de menisco. La rehabilitación de esta cirugía ha sido mejorada y varios estudios sobre los efectos del ejercicio funcional en el rango de tratamiento aún no son concluyentes. Objetivo Estudiar los efectos de la rehabilitación con ejercicio funcional en pacientes tras una lesión de menisco deportiva. Métodos Se seleccionaron 20 pacientes con lesión de menisco-medial para ser operados, incluyendo 8 hombres y 12 mujeres. Se dividieron aleatoriamente en 2 grupos: grupo de entrenamiento neuromuscular y grupo de entrenamiento de fuerza (11). Se evaluaron los signos y síntomas antes del tratamiento y 8 semanas después del mismo, se compararon los índices de puntuación JOA y la prueba de marcha, y se evaluaron las diferencias del impacto de la rehabilitación en cada grupo. Resultados Ocho semanas después de la rehabilitación para ambos grupos, las puntuaciones del grupo de entrenamiento de fuerza fueron mayores que las del grupo neuromuscular, la diferencia entre los grupos fue estadísticamente significativa (P<0,05). Conclusión El ejercicio funcional acelera la recuperación de la articulación, lo que se refleja en el aumento de la fuerza de los músculos adyacentes. El efecto del entrenamiento muscular y articular en la lesión postoperatoria del menisco es digno de reconocimiento. La baropodometría reveló diferencias en el patrón de la marcha entre los diferentes métodos de rehabilitación. Desde la perspectiva de esta investigación, los métodos de rehabilitación combinados con los ejercicios propioceptivos son complementarios. Nivel de evidencia II; Estudios terapéuticos - Investigación de resultados.

[Study on the function of keratinocyte growth factor on apoptosis of oral mucosal epithelial cells].

OBJECTIVE: To study the function of keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) on apoptosis of oral mucosal epithelial cells and to provide a basis for further investigation of the role of KGF in the occurrence and development of oral mucosal diseases. METHODS: Different concentrations of KGF (control group, 0 ng x mL(-1); experiment 1 group, 5 ng x mL(-1); experimental 2 group, 25 ng x mL(-1); experiment 3 group, 50 ng x mL(-1)) were added in oral mucosa epithelial cells cultured in vitro. After training for 12, 24, and 48 h, cell morphology was observed under an inverted microscope. Apoptosis was detected by using a flow cytometry instrument, and mRNA expression of apoptosis-related genes Bcl-2 and Bax was detected by using Real-Time fluorescent quantitative detection. RESULTS: Cell adherence of the experimental group was more obvious than that of the control group, and the cell nucleolus of the experiment 3 group was obviously cultured at 48 h. After culturing for 48 h, the apoptosis rate and Bcl-2 and Bax mRNA expression among the four groups were statistically significant. The increase of KGF concentration, apoptosis rate, and Bax mRNA expression gradually reduced, whereas Bcl-2 mRNA expression increased (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: KGF may inhibit epithelial cell apoptosis through upregulation of Bcl-2 mRNA and downregulation of Bax mRNA.