[Research progress in preparations of Panax ginseng].

Panax ginseng, known as the "king of herbs", is a highly valued medicinal plant, and its medicinal parts include roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits, among which the roots are the most commonly used. The main active components of this medicinal plant include triterpenoid saponins, polysaccharides, peptides, and volatile oils. The chemical components and active metabolites endow this herb with a variety of pharmacological effects, and thus this herb is used to treat various diseases and play healthcare roles. Currently, a wide range of preparations of P. ginseng have been officially registered and marketed, including tablets, oral liquids, and injections, which demonstrate good clinical efficacy in regulating immunity, adjuvant treatment of tumors, alleviating fatigue, delaying the aging process, improving glucose and lipid metabolism, treating cardiovascular diseases, and relieving inflammation and pain. The production process and quality standards of these drugs are of great significance to ensure their efficacy. According to the theory that Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma can greatly replenish original Qi, tonify the spleen and lung, promote fluid production to quench thirst, tranquilize mind and enrich the intelligence, this paper systematically summarized the clinical application progress of P. ginseng and rela-ted preparations on the market and prospected the further development of preparations from P. ginseng, providing a reference for further exploring the medicinal value and healthcare function of this herb. The above contents, as an important basis for the in-depth development of P. ginseng and related drugs, increase the possibilities for the application of P. ginseng.

Liquid crystal-optical phased arrays (LC-OPA)-based optical beam steering with microradian resolution enabled by double gratings.

We demonstrate an optical beam steering setup based on a liquid crystal-optical phased array (LC-OPA) with high angular resolution and low beam divergence, due to the use of double-grating configuration to enhance the corresponding angular resolution of LC-OPA. The introduction of two nonparallel blazed gratings with a special included angle can achieve multiple diffractions for the incident light, leading to the realization of angular compression. Numerical simulation results show the angular compression ratio can be optimized by selecting the appropriate grating constant and the included angle of double-grating. Experimental results verify that the steered angle of the incident light can be compressed so that the angular resolution of the steered beam can correspondingly be improved more than six times. In addition, when the beam is multiply diffracted within the double-grating configuration, the divergence angle becomes smaller as the beam size is enlarged. Therefore, both the microradian steering resolution and the narrow beam divergence can be simultaneously obtained with our proposed setup. The efficiency of the steering where the beam diffracted four times within the double-grating configuration is 80%.

Programmable spectral processor based on spatial polarization manipulation with liquid crystal on silicon.

We experimentally demonstrate a novel liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS)-based programmable spectral processor, including two cascaded photonic configurations, to realize the state of polarization (SOP) manipulation in the spatial and spectral domain. As the final SOP at each wavelength is linear polarization with a manageable polarization direction, a broadband linear polarizer is used to filter the undesired wavelengths. The polarization manipulation only needs to be implemented along the dispersion direction with a 1D-LCoS. The programmable spectral processor can experimentally reach an intensity modulation depth of 46.4 dB with less than 1 dB polarization-dependent loss (PDL). Moreover, arbitrary power spectral distribution can be obtained with around 40 dB channel isolation. In particular, our experimental results verify that the proposed setup can achieve the adjustable central wavelength and tunable filtering at a resolution of 0.08 nm.

Double-grating with multiple diffractions enabled small angle measurement.

We demonstrate a small angle measurement setup enabled by the double-grating configuration, where the multiple diffractions are used to magnify the deflection angle of the optical beam. Such small angle measurement setup has characteristics of high sensitivity and compact size. The use of two unparallel blazed gratings with a special included angle can realize multiple diffractions for the incident light, leading to the realization of deflection angle amplification. Experimental results verify that small angle can be accurately characterized and the angular resolution of measurement can be improved more than 40 times by inserting the double-grating configuration into the conventional auto-collimation angle measurement setup. Therefore, the micro-radian angle can be accurately measured with our proposed compact characterization setup.

Precise calibration of spatial phase response nonuniformity arising in liquid crystal on silicon.

In order to calibrate the spatial phase response nonuniformity of liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS), we propose to use a Twyman-Green interferometer to characterize the wavefront distortion, due to the inherent curvature of the device. During the characterization, both the residual carrier frequency introduced by the Fourier transform evaluation method and the lens aberration are error sources. For the tilted phase error introduced by residual carrier frequency, the least mean square fitting method is used to obtain the tilted phase error. Meanwhile, we use Zernike polynomials fitting based on plane mirror calibration to mitigate the lens aberration. For a typical LCoS with 1×12,288 pixels after calibration, the peak-to-valley value of the inherent wavefront distortion is approximately 0.25λ at 1550 nm, leading to a half-suppression of wavefront distortion. All efforts can suppress the root mean squares value of the inherent wavefront distortion to approximately λ/34.

Bradycardic therapy improves left ventricular function and remodeling in dogs with coronary embolization-induced chronic heart failure.

Both beta-adrenergic blockade and bradycardia may contribute to the therapeutic effect of beta-blockers in chronic heart failure (CHF). This study tested the relative importance of bradycardia by comparing cilobradine (Cilo), a sinus node inhibitor, with a beta-blocker, metoprolol (Meto), in an established canine model of CHF. Dogs were chronically instrumented for hemodynamic and left ventricular (LV) volume measurements. CHF was created by daily coronary embolization via a chronically implanted coronary (left anterior descending coronary artery) catheter. After establishment of CHF, control (n=6), Meto (30 mg/day, n=5), Cilo (low) (1 mg/kg/day, n=5), or Cilo (high) (3 mg/kg/day, n=5) was given orally for 12 weeks. Systemic hemodynamics, echocardiography, and pressure volume analysis were measured at baseline, at CHF, and 3 months after treatment in an awake state. Protein levels of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase (SERCA2a), ryanodine receptor (RyR2), and Na+-Ca2+ exchanger (NCX1) were measured by Western blot. RyR2 protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation was determined by back-phosphorylation. After 12 weeks, Meto and Cilo (high and low) produced similar bradycardic effects, accompanied by a significantly improved LV dP/dt versus control [Meto, 2602+/-70; Cilo (low), 2517+/-45; Cilo (high), 2579+/-78; control, 1922+/-115 mm Hg/s; p<0.05]. Both Meto and Cilo (high) normalized protein levels of SERCA2a and NCX1 and reversed PKA hyperphosphorylation of RyR2, in contrast to controls. High-dose cilobradine effectively produced bradycardia and improved cardiac function after CHF, comparable with metoprolol. Restored protein levels of SERCA2a and improved function of RyR2 may be important mechanisms associated with cilobradine therapy.