Origami metamaterials for ultra-wideband and large-depth reflection modulation.

The dynamic control of electromagnetic waves is a persistent pursuit in modern industrial development. The state-of-the-art dynamic devices suffer from limitations such as narrow bandwidth, limited modulation range, and expensive features. To address these issues, we fuse origami techniques with metamaterial design to achieve ultra-wideband and large-depth reflection modulation. Through a folding process, our proposed metamaterial achieves over 10-dB modulation depth over 4.96 - 38.8 GHz, with a fractional bandwidth of 155% and tolerance to incident angles and polarizations. Its ultra-wideband and large-depth reflection modulation performance is verified through experiments and analyzed through multipole decomposition theory. To enhance its practical applicability, transparent conductive films are introduced to the metamaterial, achieving high optical transparency (>87%) from visible to near-infrared light while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Benefiting from lightweight, foldability, and low-cost properties, our design shows promise for extensive satellite communication and optical window mobile communication management.

Factors influencing functional near-infrared spectroscopy in postpartum depression: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can aid in the early detection and diagnosis of postpartum depression. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional survey that invited all women who sought postpartum health examination 42 days after childbirth between August 2020 and January 2021. Personal information, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and well as fNIRS results were collected. RESULTS: In all, 109 individuals agreed to participate and completed the examination in its entirety. The variance in integral and centroid values was not statistically significant across different subgroups of depression (P > 0.05). The difference in diagnosis of postpartum major depression between EPDS and fNIRS was statistically significant (P < 0.001). fNIRS results in postpartum depression diagnosis were substantially associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (P = 0.027), the number of pregnancies (P = 0.001), and postpartum body mass index (P = 0.035). CONCLUSION: fNIRS can provide an objective method for early detection and diagnosis of postpartum depression. Certain clinical conditions can have an effect on brain activity, which may result in postpartum depression. Additional high-quality study is required to establish strong evidence on the subject.

Advanced liquid crystal-based switchable optical devices for light protection applications: principles and strategies.

With the development of optical technologies, transparent materials that provide protection from light have received considerable attention from scholars. As important channels for external light, windows play a vital role in the regulation of light in buildings, vehicles, and aircrafts. There is a need for windows with switchable optical properties to prevent or attenuate damage or interference to the human eye and light-sensitive instruments by inappropriate optical radiation. In this context, liquid crystals (LCs), owing to their rich responsiveness and unique optical properties, have been considered among the best candidates for advanced light protection materials. In this review, we provide an overview of advances in research on LC-based methods for protection against light. First, we introduce the characteristics of different light sources and their protection requirements. Second, we introduce several classes of light modulation principles based on liquid crystal materials and demonstrate the feasibility of using them for light protection. In addition, we discuss current light protection strategies based on liquid crystal materials for different applications. Finally, we discuss the problems and shortcomings of current strategies. We propose several suggestions for the development of liquid crystal materials in the field of light protection.

Multispectral meta-film design: simultaneous realization of wideband microwave absorption, low infrared emissivity, and visible transparency.

There is a huge challenge to target multispectral compatible designs to satisfy the conflicting parametric requirements according to specific engineering requirements. In this work, a novel design method of multispectral compatible integration based on a lossy capacitive multispectral meta-film (MMF) is proposed. The simple guidelines from the impedance matching conditions of MMF derived from the transmission line model were employed to guide and analyze the broadband microwave absorption behavior. An autonomous optimization platform was constructed to simultaneously realize the customization of low infrared emissivity, as well as the widest microwave absorption bandwidth while ensuring maximum visible transparency. Following the guidance of the design method, a flexible structure with a low infrared emissivity of 0.534, wideband microwave absorption from 8.9 to 16.4 GHz covering X, Ku, and high visible transmission of 70.18% and ultra-thin thickness of 2.3 mm was finally obtained. The experimental results and simulation results were in high agreement, indicating the MMF has great application potential in multispectral stealth on optical windows, further demonstrating the versatility and effectiveness of the design method.

A new predictive model for the concurrent risk of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes patients and the effect of metformin on amino acids.

Objective: This study established a model to predict the risk of diabetic retinopathy (DR) with amino acids selected by partial least squares (PLS) method, and evaluated the effect of metformin on the effect of amino acids on DR in the model. Methods: In Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, China, we retrieved 1031 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) from the First Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning Medical University. After sorting the amino acids using the PLS method, the top 10 amino acids were included in the model. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between different amino acids and DR. And then the effects of metformin on amino acids were explored through interaction. Finally, Spearman's rank correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between different amino acids. Results: After sorting by PLS, Gly, Pro, Leu, Lyr, Glu, Phe, Tyr, His, Val and Ser were finally included in the DR risk prediction model. The predictive model after adding amino acids was statistically different from the model that only included traditional risk factors (p=0.001). Metformin had a significant effect on the relationship between DR and 7 amino acids (Gly, Glu, Phe, Tyr, His, Val, Ser, p<0.05), and the population who are not using metformin and have high levels of Glu (OR: 0.44, 95%CI: 0.27-0.71) had an additive protection effect for the occurrence of DR. And the similar results can be seen in high levels of Gly (OR: 0.46, 95%CI: 0.29-0.75), Leu (OR: 0.48, 95%CI: 0.29-0.8), His (OR: 0.46, 95%CI: 0.29-0.75), Phe (OR: 0.24, 95%CI: 0.14-0.42) and Tyr (OR: 0.41, 95%CI: 0.24 -0.68) in population who are not using metformin. Conclusions: We established a prediction model of DR by amino acids and found that the use of metformin reduced the protective effect of amino acids on DR developing, suggesting that amino acids as biomarkers for predicting DR would be affected by metformin use.

Menopausal Symptoms and Sleep Quality in Women Aged 40-65 Years.

The study examined the relationship between menopausal symptoms and sleep disturbances and the related influencing factors. Methods. We recruited women aged 40-65 years who attended the menopause clinic at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Sixth People's Hospital from February 2011 to November 2019. The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) was used to collect women's menopausal symptoms, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate the subjects' sleep condition. We used logistic regression models to identify the relationship between menopausal symptoms and sleep quality. Results. A total of 1341 participants were recruited in this study. The most frequent three symptoms assessed by MRS were fatigue (72.9%), sleep disturbance (67%), and hot flashes with night sweats (65%). Participants' age was significantly associated with the severity of menopausal syndrome (P < 0.01). According to the PSQI sleep evaluation, 66.9 percent of participants had sleep disturbances (PSQI > 5). Logistic regression analysis revealed that women with mild, moderate, or severe menopausal syndrome had a 3-, 7-, and 17-fold increased chance of having sleep disturbances compared to women without menopausal syndrome. Conclusion. Women aged 40-65 years were found to have a significantly higher risk of menopausal syndrome and sleep disturbances.

Optically Transparent Flexible Broadband Metamaterial Absorber Based on Topology Optimization Design.

A conformal metamaterial absorber with simultaneous optical transparency and broadband absorption is proposed in this paper. The absorptance above 90% over a wide frequency range of 5.3-15 GHz can be achieved through topology optimization combined with a genetic algorithm (GA). The broadband absorption can be kept at incident angles within 45° and 70° for TE mode and TM mode, respectively. In the meantime, by employing transparent substrates, including polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), good optical transmittance and flexibility can be obtained simultaneously. The experimental results agree well with the numerical simulations, which further validates the reliability of our design and theoretical analysis. With its visible-wavelength transparency, flexibility, broadband absorption, low profile, excellent angle stability and polarization insensitivity, the proposed absorber is highly favored for practical applications in microwave engineering, such as electromagnetic interference and stealth technology. Moreover, the proposed design method of topology optimization can be extended to design the absorber quickly and efficiently, according to specific engineering requirements.

Wideband metasurface absorber (metabsorber) using characteristic mode analysis.

Designing an ultra-wideband metasurface absorber is challenging because of its lossy characteristic that hinders the understanding of its resonance behavior. In this study, a framework was formulated to extend the application of the theory of characteristic modes to the analysis and design of metabsorbers. The metabsorber and its lossless counterpart exhibited similar modal behaviors, hence revealing the absorption mechanism of metabsorber. By introducing absorption modes, a dual-band metabsorber was converted into an ultra-wideband metabsorber. This proposed metabsorber with a thickness of 1.99 times the Rozanov's limit could measure a bandwidth of 5.51-36.56 GHz (or 6 octaves) with 90% absorptance.

Candidate symptomatic markers for predicting violence in schizophrenia: A cross-sectional study of 7711 patients in a Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: Violent behaviour is an alarming problem among schizophrenia patients. The effects of historical, clinical, and pathological risk factors for violence have been investigated by multiple studies, but consensus has not been achieved. As psychotic symptoms are more direct and intuitive indicators for violence, identifying robustly associated symptoms is a crucial part of the future prediction and precise management of violent patients in clinics. This study aims to identify the psychotic symptoms correlated with violence among schizophrenia patients in a Chinese population. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the medical records of 7711 schizophrenia patients (4711 in the discovery set and 3000 in the validation set) were collected from 1998 to 2010. Their psychotic symptoms were extracted, and the patients were divided into violent and non-violent groups. Multivariate logistic analysis was applied to identify symptoms associated with violence in the discovery set. RESULTS: Eight psychotic symptoms were found to be significantly correlated with violence in schizophrenia. "Destruction of property", "verbal aggression" and "insomnia" increased the risk of violence, while "flat affect", "delusion of persecution", "auditory hallucination", "vagueness of thought" and "poverty of thought" decreased the risk of violence. The regression model was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for its discriminatory performance, achieving area under curve (AUC) values of 0.887 in the discovery sample set and 0.824 in the validation sample set. CONCLUSIONS: The correlated symptoms identified by this study can serve as future candidate predictors for violence in schizophrenia, paving the way for precise management of schizophrenia patients in clinics.

Transparent ultrawideband absorber based on simple patterned resistive metasurface with three resonant modes.

A transparent low-profile polarization-insensitive metamaterial absorber with ultrawideband microwave absorption is presented. A fractional bandwidth of 125.2% (4.3-18.7 GHz, absorptance > 90%) is achieved using a simple patterned resistive metasurface. The thickness of the absorber is only ∼0.086 times the upper-cutoff wavelength. The experimental results agree with full-wave simulation results. A Cu-metal-mesh ground plane enhances the shielding efficiency and visible transparency. Radar cross-sections (RCS) are reduced across all reflection angles, over frequencies spanning the C, X, and Ku bands. With its visible-wavelength transparency, low profile, polarization insensitivity, excellent absorption, and wideband RCS reduction, the proposed absorber has wide applicability.

Glial fibrillary acidic protein expression during HSV-1 infection in mouse cornea.

This study aimed to investigate the dynamic expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a common neural factor, in cornea and stromal cells during herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection. For each anesthetized BALB/c mouse, the cornea in one eye was inoculated with 1 × 10(5) plaque forming unit (PFU) of HSV-1, while the contralateral cornea was mock-infected as the control. At different timepoints post-infection, corneal lesion examination by slit-lamp biomicroscopy, corneal histology and HSV-1 DNA detection by real-time PCR were performed to estimate the different stage of HSV-1 infection. The expression of GFAP was examined using real-time PCR, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. After infected with HSV-1 for 15 days, the mouse corneas began to become clear, the corneal pathology recovered to normal, and HSV-1 DNA almost could not be detected, indicating that HSV-1 was entering a relative quiescent state from the acute infection. The expression of GFAP in HSV-1-infected corneas was comparatively low on day 3, increased slightly on day 7, and further increased thereafter, higher than that in mock-infected corneas on day 15. GFAP detection on the cellular level also indicated that the expression was downregulated in acute HSV-1 infection. GFAP was found to be downregulated in HSV-1 acute infection in cornea and upregulated in late stage, suggesting that GFAP might play some role during HSV-1 infection in cornea.

MicroRNA profile comparison of the corneal endothelia of young and old mice: implications for senescence of the corneal endothelium.

PURPOSE: To identify critical microRNAs (miRNAs) that play important roles in regulating the aging of corneal endothelial cells in mice aged 10-13 weeks and 2 years. METHODS: We collected the corneal endothelia from 30 mice aged 10-13 weeks and 30 mice aged 2 years. The samples were pooled into six groups (Y1, Y2, Y3 and S1, S2, S3). Each group comprised corneal endothelia from 10 mice, and these six groups were used for a genome-wide miRNA microarray study. The expression levels of eight selected miRNAs were further validated independently by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Target genes were predicted using a computational approach due to their base-pairing rules between miRNA and messenger RNA target sites. The locations of binding sequences were within the target's 3' untranslated regions (UTR), and the conservation of target binding sequences occurred within related genomes. Additional gene ontology and signaling pathway analyses were performed using bioinformatics tools. RESULTS: Twenty-seven miRNAs (7 upregulated and 20 downregulated) were found to be differentially expressed (fold change >2, p value <0.05) in the corneal endothelia of adult and old mice. The qRT-PCR results confirmed the differential expression of eight miRNAs between the corneal endothelia of adult and old mice. A computational approach demonstrated that the target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs might be involved in several signaling pathways, including the glutamatergic synapse pathway (p=0.000313), the phosphatidylinositol signaling pathway (p=0.00197), the neurotrophin signaling pathway (p=0.00687), the transforming growth factor-beta signaling pathway (p=0.0143), and oxidative phosphorylation (p=0.0223). CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified miRNAs that are differentially expressed in the corneal endothelium during aging for the first time. We also identified fluctuations in the expression of these specific miRNAs that may be related to age-specific changes. Understanding miRNA expression and interactions in tissues such as the cornea may aid in the understanding of the basic and pathophysiological processes of age-related ocular pathologies.

Low concentration of S100A8/9 promotes angiogenesis-related activity of vascular endothelial cells: bridges among inflammation, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis?

Previous studies showed that several members of the S100A family are involved in neovascularization and tumor development. This study checked whether low concentrations of S100A8 or S100A9 has any effect on the behaviour of vascular endothelial cells. A human umbilical vascular endothelial cell (HUVEC) line was used to measure vascular endothelial cell bioactivity related to angiogenesis, such as cell proliferation, migration, and vessel formation. In the low concentration range up to 10 µg/mL, either each alone or in combination, S100A8 and S100A9 proteins promoted proliferation of HUVEC cells in a dose-dependent manner. The presence of both proteins in culture showed additive effects over each single protein. Both proteins enhanced HUVEC cells to migrate across the transwell membrane and to form tube-like structures on the Matrigel surface. When mixed in Matrigel and injected subcutaneously in Balb/c mice, both proteins increased vessel development in the gel plugs. Microarray assay of HUVEC cells treated with 10 µg/mL S100A8 revealed that ribosome pathway, pathogenic Escherichia coli infection pathway, apoptosis, and stress response genes were modulated by S100A8 treatment. We propose that S100A8 and S100A9 proteins from either infiltrating inflammatory cells or tumor cells play an important role in the interplay among inflammation, angiogenesis, and tumorigenesis.

αA-crystallin in the pathogenesis and intervention of experimental murine corneal neovascularization.

This study was to determine the potential roles of lens crystallins in the pathogenesis of corneal neovascularization (CorNV) and implications in therapy of CorNV-related diseases. Suture- or chemical burn-induced CorNV in different strains of mice were used. Changes of gene expression patterns were analyzed by microarray, and the results of interesting genes were confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR and Western blot. Mice deficient in αA-crystallin gene were used to evaluate the role of αA-crystallin in the development of CorNV. In some animals, exogenous αA-crystallin proteins were injected around time of CorNV induction. CorNV was assessed by slit-lamp, flat-mounts and histology. In BALB/C mice, the expression of α-, ß-, and γ-crystallins were up-regulated at day 5 and returned to baseline level at day 10 of suture-induced CorNV, but remained up-regulated from day 6 to day 14 of chemical burn-induced CorNV. In chemical burn-induced CorNV in C57BL/6J mice, however, they were down-regulated at day 6. Corneal crystallins were down-regulated in both CorNV models at all time points in both BALB/c and C57BL/6J mice. Comparison of CorNV development in αA-crystallin-deficient mice and that in wild-type mice revealed no significant difference. Subconjunctival injection of αA-crystallin significantly attenuated suture-induced CorNV, and the inhibitory activity might be implemented by the increased expression of soluble VEGFR-1. In conclusion, the expression patterns of lens crystallins were time- and strain-dependent but different from that of corneal crystallins in mouse CorNV models. Exogenous αA-crystallin protein attenuated CorNV, potentially by increasing the expression of soluble VEGFR-1.

Efficacy of gemifloxacin for the treatment of experimental Staphylococcus aureus keratitis.

PURPOSE: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of topically applied gemifloxacin for the treatment of experimental Staphylococcus aureus keratitis in a rabbit model. METHODS: Rabbit corneas were intrastromally injected with ~100 colony-forming units (CFU) of S. aureus ATCC25923. Eight hours (early treatment) or 16 h (late treatment) after the injection, 1 topical drop of balanced salt solution (BSS), gemifloxacin ophthalmic solution (0.5%), levofloxacin ophthalmic solution (0.5%), or gatifloxacin eye gel (0.3%) was applied to each eye every 15 min for 5 doses and then, every 30 min for 14 doses. The eyes were examined both before and after treatment. The corneas were harvested from treated and untreated rabbits for the quantitation of bacteria and histological observation. RESULTS: In the early-treatment groups, all 3 fluoroquinolones significantly lowered the clinical severity of infection and the median erosion area of the cornea compared with the BSS control (P=0.000). In the late-treatment groups, gemifloxacin and levofloxacin did not cause a significant reduction in clinical scores compared with the BSS control (P=0.107 and 0.531, respectively), but the gatifloxacin caused a significant reduction in clinical scores compared with the BSS control (P=0.011). The median erosion area significantly decreased with treatment with gemifloxacin, gatifloxacin, and levofloxacin in both early- and late-treatment groups, when compared with the control group (P≤0.022). In the early-treatment groups, the gemifloxacin, gatifloxacin, and levofloxacin groups had significantly lower CFU recovered from the corneas compared with the control group (P<0.01), while in the late-treatment groups, levofloxacin failed to reduce the CFU recovered from the corneas compared with the control group (P=0.695). The minimal inhibitory concentrations for gemifloxacin, gatifloxacin, and levofloxacin against S. aureus ATCC25923 were 0.0625, 0.0625, and 0.125 mg/L, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Gemifloxacin, similar to gatifloxacin and levofloxacin, can significantly lower the clinical severity and CFU per cornea observed in S. aureus keratitis when early treatment is implemented. Significantly, gemifloxacin showed a significant efficacy improvement in reducing the bacterial load recovered from the corneas in the late-treatment experiment.