Icariin alleviates diabetic renal interstitial fibrosis aggravation by inhibiting miR-320a-3p targeting BMP6.

Diabetic nephropathy is a common complication of diabetes, accumulating evidence underscores the pivotal role of tubulointerstitial fibrosis in the progression of diabetic nephropathy. However, the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Although the mechanisms in diabetic nephropathy fibrosis have been the focus of many studies, only limited information is currently available concerning microRNA regulation in tubulointerstitial fibrosis. In this study, we aimed to investigate the roles of miR-320a-3p and bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP6) in tubulointerstitial fibrosis. After inducing fibrosis with high glucose in HK-2 cells, we found that miR-320a-3p is significantly up-regulated, whereas BMP6 is markedly down-regulated. These changes suggest close link between miR-320a-3p and BMP6 in tubulointerstitial fibrosis. To elucidate this phenomenon, miR-320a-3p mimic, inhibitor and siBMP6 were employed. We observed in miR-320a-3p mimic group the fibrosis marker include alpha smooth muscle actin and type I collagen was significantly up-regulated, whereas BMP6 exhibited the opposite trend. Additionally, we found icariin could alleviate tubulointerstitial fibrosis by downregulation the miR-320a-3p expression. In conclusion, miR-320a-3p promotes tubulointerstitial fibrosis during the development of DN by suppressing BMP signal pathway activity via inhibiting BMP6 expression. Suggesting that miR-320a-3p represents a potential therapeutic target for tubulointerstitial fibrosis induced by diabetic nephropathy.

Classification of cognitive ability of healthy older individuals using resting-state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging and an extreme learning machine.

BACKGROUND: Quantitative determination of the correlation between cognitive ability and functional biomarkers in the older brain is essential. To identify biomarkers associated with cognitive performance in the older, this study combined an index model specific for resting-state functional connectivity (FC) with a supervised machine learning method. METHODS: Performance scores on conventional cognitive test scores and resting-state functional MRI data were obtained for 98 healthy older individuals and 90 healthy youth from two public databases. Based on the test scores, the older cohort was categorized into two groups: excellent and poor. A resting-state FC scores model (rs-FCSM) was constructed for each older individual to determine the relative differences in FC among brain regions compared with that in the youth cohort. Brain areas sensitive to test scores could then be identified using this model. To suggest the effectiveness of constructed model, the scores of these brain areas were used as feature matrix inputs for training an extreme learning machine. classification accuracy (CA) was then tested in separate groups and validated by N-fold cross-validation. RESULTS: This learning study could effectively classify the cognitive status of healthy older individuals according to the model scores of frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe with a mean accuracy of 86.67%, which is higher than that achieved using conventional correlation analysis. CONCLUSION: This classification study of the rs-FCSM may facilitate early detection of age-related cognitive decline as well as help reveal the underlying pathological mechanisms.

Adaptive Segmentation Algorithm for Subtle Defect Images on the Surface of Magnetic Ring Using 2D-Gabor Filter Bank.

In order to realize the unsupervised segmentation of subtle defect images on the surface of small magnetic rings and improve the segmentation accuracy and computational efficiency, here, an adaptive threshold segmentation method is proposed based on the improved multi-scale and multi-directional 2D-Gabor filter bank. Firstly, the improved multi-scale and multi-directional 2D-Gabor filter bank was used to filter and reduce the noise on the defect image, suppress the noise pollution inside the target area and the background area, and enhance the difference between the magnetic ring defect and the background. Secondly, this study analyzed the grayscale statistical characteristics of the processed image; the segmentation threshold was constructed according to the gray statistical law of the image; and the adaptive segmentation of subtle defect images on the surface of small magnetic rings was realized. Finally, a classifier based on a BP neural network is designed to classify the scar images and crack images determined by different threshold segmentation methods. The classification accuracies of the iterative method, the OTSU method, the maximum entropy method, and the adaptive threshold segmentation method are, respectively, 85%, 87.5%, 95%, and 97.5%. The adaptive threshold segmentation method proposed in this paper has the highest classification accuracy. Through verification and comparison, the proposed algorithm can segment defects quickly and accurately and suppress noise interference effectively. It is better than other traditional image threshold segmentation methods, validated by both segmentation accuracy and computational efficiency. At the same time, the real-time performance of our algorithm was performed on the advanced SEED-DVS8168 platform.

General design algorithm for stray light suppression of a panoramic annular system.

In this work, a universal algorithm for designing a panoramic annular lens (PAL) system free from stray light is proposed. The impact of a given stray light path to the optical system could be estimated without running a full stray light analysis process, which allows designers to eliminate troublesome stray light paths by optimizing lens parameters at an early stage of optical design. A 360° ×(40°-100°) PAL system is designed and implemented to verify the proposed method. Simulation shows that the point source transmittance (PST) decreases by 2 orders of magnitude at a specific field-of-view (FoV) range after optimizing the system. Experimental results show perfect consistency with the simulation predictions, which indicate that two types of stray light are totally eliminated in the demonstrated system. This stray light analysis and suppression method provides a promising approach for the research and development of ultra-wide angle high performance optical systems.

Design of a compact triple-channel panoramic stereo imaging system.

We propose a compact form of the triple-channel panoramic annular lens (PAL) with a stereo field and no central blind area based on polarization technology, which solves the problem that the traditional stereo panoramic system always has a large and complex mirror in front to reflect light. Based on the traditional dual-channel structure, we apply polarization technology to the first reflective surface to create a third channel for the stereovision. The field of view (FoV) of the front channel is 360° × (0° - 40°), the FoV of the side channel is 360° × (40° - 105°) and the stereo FoV is 360° × (20° - 50°). The Airy radii of the front channel, the side channel, and the stereo channel are 3.374 µm, 3.372 µm, and 3.360 µm, respectively. The modulation transfer function at 147 lp/mm is greater than 0.13 in the front and stereo channels and greater than 0.42 in the side channel. The F - θ distortion of all FoVs is less than 10%. This system shows a promising way to achieve stereovision without adding complex structures on the original basis.

Improving fast auto-focus with event polarity.

Fast and accurate auto-focus in adverse conditions remains an arduous task. The emergence of event cameras has opened up new possibilities for addressing the challenge. This paper presents a new high-speed and accurate event-based focusing algorithm. Specifically, the symmetrical relationship between the event polarities in focusing is investigated, and the event-based focus evaluation function is proposed based on the principles of the event cameras and the imaging model in the focusing process. Comprehensive experiments on the public event-based autofocus dataset (EAD) show the robustness of the model. Furthermore, precise focus with less than one depth of focus is achieved within 0.004 seconds on our self-built high-speed focusing platform. The dataset and code will be made publicly available.

Optical trapping of two different microparticles by a double-tapered fiber probe.

We theoretically and experimentally study the optical trapping of two different microparticles by a double-tapered optical fiber probe (DOFP) which is fabricated by the interfacial etching method. A SiO2 microsphere and a yeast, or two SiO2 microspheres with different diameters, are trapped. We calculate and measure the trapping forces on the two microparticles, discuss the impacts of the geometrical size and refractive index on the trapping forces. Both the theoretical calculation and experimental measurements indicate that if the two particles have the same refractive index, the larger the second particle is, the larger the trapping force is. Whereas, if the two particles have the same geometrical size, the smaller the refractive index is, the lager trapping force is. Trapping and manipulation of different multiple microparticles by a DOFP enhance the application of optical tweezers, especially in biomedical engineering and material science.

Amphiphilic HZSM-5 for Cyclopentene Hydration at the Liquid-Liquid Interface in Pickering Emulsion.

Zeolite is considered an ideal catalyst for olefin hydration due to its high specific surface area and abundant acid sites. However, the immiscibility of the water-oil two phases in olefin hydration limits mass transfer, and the side reaction of etherification occurs acutely, resulting in a low yield of alcohol. Thus, water-oil amphiphilic HZSM-5 was prepared by sulfonating silanized zeolite. The successful introduction of organic and sulfonic acid groups is demonstrated by FT-IR, TG, and water contact angles. Amphiphilic HZSM-5 can stabilize the Pickering emulsion and catalyze cyclopentene hydration at the phase interface. In addition, NH3-TPD and Py-IR show that the amount of strong BroÌ·nsted acid sites of zeolites increases significantly after sulfonation. This facilitates the rate-determining step of cyclopentene activation by H+ to form carbocation. Moreover, the nucleophilic side reactions are inhibited by a high concentration of H+. Finally, under the optimized reaction condition, the conversion of cyclopentene can achieve 5.066% with a selectivity of 85.37% to cyclopentanol, which almost reaches the reaction equilibrium.

Multicenter, randomized controlled, open label evaluation of the efficacy and safety of arbidol hydrochloride tablets in the treatment of influenza-like cases.

OBJECTIVE: To study the efficacy and safety of arbidol hydrochloride tablets as a treatment for influenza-like diseases. METHODS: In this multicenter, randomized, controlled, open label study, a total of 412 influenza-like cases were collected from 14 hospitals in seven regions of Hebei Province from September 2021 to March 2022. Patients were randomly divided into two groups. The control group (n = 207) were administered oseltamivir phosphate capsules for five days and the experimental group (n = 205) were administered arbidol hydrochloride tablets for five days. The primary endpoint was the time to normal body temperature, and the secondary endpoints included the time to remission of influenza symptoms, incidence of influenza-like complications, and incidence of adverse reactions. RESULTS: Before treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups in general conditions, blood routine, body temperature, or symptom severity. After treatment, there was no significant difference between the groups in the mean time to fever remission (59.24 h ± 25.21 vs. 61.05 h ± 29.47) or the mean time to remission of influenza symptoms (57.31 h ± 30.19 vs. 62.02 h ± 32.08). Survival analyses using Log-rank and Wilcoxon bilateral tests showed that there was no significant difference in fever relief time or influenza symptom relief time between the two groups. Regarding the incidence of complications and adverse events, there was only one case of tracheitis, one case of nausea, one case of vomiting, and one case of dizziness in the control group. In the experimental group, there was one case of nausea, one case of vomiting, and one case of drowsiness. In addition, one patient in the control group was hospitalized for urinary calculi. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between the patients with influenza-like cases treated with arbidol hydrochloride tablets and those treated with oseltamivir phosphate capsules. Further, the patients treated with arbidol hydrochloride tablets had fewer adverse reactions, and thus, the tablets were safe to use.

Ultra-wide angle panoramic imaging system based on a multiplexed reflective surface.

We propose an ultra-wide angle panoramic imaging system based on a multiplexed reflective surface, which consists of a panoramic head unit (PHU) and the relay lens group. The multiplexed reflective surface is applied in the PHU to reflect light from glass and air for imaging, obtaining the front and rear view channels, respectively. With a field of view (FoV) of 360∘×(35∘-120∘) and an f-number of four, this system has good image quality and relative illumination in the FoV. In addition, it has loose tolerance requirements and a diameter ratio of 7.2, reducing the difficulty of manufacturing and assembly. This optical system architecture provides a promising solution for panoramic perception over a wider FoV.

Athermal panoramic annular lens design with a thermal analysis method.

An athermal 360∘×(30∘-100∘) and F/3.5 panoramic annular lens (PAL) system is designed. Through the optical mechanical thermal analysis results based on finite element analysis (FEA), it is expected that the system will have excellent performance under extreme temperature fluctuations. Simulation shows that the system is thermally insensitive in the temperature range from -40∘ C to 60°C, consistently providing great imaging capability with the modulation transfer function (MTF) value at 133 lp/mm greater than 0.3. The proposed design and analysis workflow contains an evaluation of thermal optical performance with a higher accuracy, thus having significance in future athermal optical design. We expect the designed PAL system to have a broad application prospect in the field of outdoor applications, including automatic navigation of vehicles and all-weather surveillance systems.

Design of stereo imaging system with a panoramic annular lens and a convex mirror.

Panoramic stereo imaging system can not only provide panoramic images to obtain more information, but also obtain the depth information of the target object, and it has broad application prospects in robot navigation, road planning, and obstacle avoidance. A new panoramic stereo imaging system combined with a panoramic annular lens (PAL) and a convex mirror is proposed. It provides a large panoramic vision up to 360°× (30°âˆ¼150°) and, to the best of our knowledge, the entire FOV is the largest in the existing literature. Meanwhile, the stereo field of view is 35°.

Compact and lightweight panoramic annular lens for computer vision tasks.

We propose a focal power distribution theory for the design of a compact panoramic annular lens (PAL) system based on Petzval sum correction. The system has a large field of view (FoV) of 360° ×(25°-100°). Its total length is 29.2 mm and weight is only 20 g. The proposed compact PAL system achieves large FoV and loose tolerances while maintaining small volume and low cost. It solves the shortcomings of traditional PAL systems that cannot be mounted on miniaturized portable devices due to their large volume and weight. We equip the compact PAL system with a novel and customized image enhancement model: PAL-Restormer to achieve better imaging quality. The produced images are further evaluated in various panoramic environment perception tasks. Extensive experiments show the promising potential of our proposed compact PAL system for the applications in wearable devices and mobile robots.

Semi-analytic Fresnel diffraction calculation with polynomial decomposition.

The numerical method based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) is generally applied to calculate the Fresnel diffraction field, which would suffer from sampling constraints. To break this limit, in this Letter, the semi-analytic Fresnel diffraction calculation method is proposed based on polynomial decomposition. The diffraction field is computed by using properly analytic Fresnel diffraction basis functions (FDBFs) according to the application requirements. Analytic FDBF is calculated based on Legendre or Chebyshev polynomials by using the object-domain frequency division multiplexing method. The proposed method offers arbitrary sampling, high-flexibility, and high-accuracy diffraction calculation in the full Fresnel region. The computational efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are compared with FFT-based methods. It has potential application in light field analysis, wavefront sensing, and image processing.

PPARα agonist fenofibrate relieves acquired resistance to gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer by promoting apoptosis via PPARα/AMPK/AKT/FoxO1 pathway.

Recent studies show that intracellular accumulation of cholesterol leads to acquired resistance to gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. In this study we investigated how to regulate the cholesterol levels in gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cells. We showed that intracellular cholesterol levels in gefitinib-resistant cell lines (PC-9/GR, H1975, H1650, and A549) were significantly higher than that in gefitinib-sensitive cell line (PC-9). Treatment with gefitinib (5 µM) significantly increased intracellular cholesterol levels in PC-9/GR, H1975, and H1650 cells. Gefitinib treatment downregulated the expression of PPARα, LXRα, and ABCA1, leading to dysregulation of cholesterol efflux pathway. We found that a lipid-lowering drug fenofibrate (20, 40 µM) dose-dependently increased the expression of PPARα, LXRα, and ABCA1, decreased the intracellular cholesterol levels, and enhanced the antiproliferative effects of gefitinib in PC-9/GR, H1975, and H1650 cells. We revealed that fenofibrate increased the gefitinib-induced apoptosis via regulating the key proteins involved in the intrinsic apoptosis pathway. In PC-9/GR, H1975 and H1650 cells, fenofibrate dose-dependently increased the expression of AMPK, FoxO1, and decreased the expression of AKT, which were remarkably weakened by knockdown of PPARα. In PC-9/GR cell xenograft mice, combined administration of gefitinib (25 mg · kg-1 · d-1) and fenofibrate (100 mg · kg-1 · d-1) caused remarkable inhibition on tumor growth as compared to treatment with either drug alone. All the results suggest that fenofibrate relieves acquired resistance to gefitinib in NSCLC by promoting apoptosis via regulating PPARα/AMPK/AKT/FoxO1 pathway. We propose that combination of gefitinib and fenofibrate is a potential strategy for overcoming the gefitinib resistance in NSCLC.

Fast testing of partial camera lenses based on a liquid crystal spatial light modulator.

Today, there are strict requirements for the quality inspection of mobile phone cameras, as the design tolerance is getting critically tighter. In order to avoid unnecessary disposal of lens components when testing and assembling the complete cameras, testing the quality of each single lens group in advance before the final assembly is effective. However, as part of a whole camera, a single lens group cannot generate a sharp image independently; it needs to be combined with other elements in the testing system and assembled precisely. In order to address this challenge, we propose a fast testing method based on spatial light modulators (SLMs). By taking advantage of the programmable feature of the SLM, the assembly misalignments caused by fixing the lens group to be tested into the testing system are dynamically scanned and compensated at a fast speed. A design criterion of the phase map pattern to be loaded on the SLM is also verified by simulation and is applied on the testing system. In this way, the proposed method significantly reduces the positioning requirement of the lens under test, and thus improves efficiency. The passed yield of tested lens groups reaches 92.6%.

Polarization-driven semantic segmentation via efficient attention-bridged fusion.

Semantic segmentation (SS) is promising for outdoor scene perception in safety-critical applications like autonomous vehicles, assisted navigation and so on. However, traditional SS is primarily based on RGB images, which limits the reliability of SS in complex outdoor scenes, where RGB images lack necessary information dimensions to fully perceive unconstrained environments. As a preliminary investigation, we examine SS in an unexpected obstacle detection scenario, which demonstrates the necessity of multimodal fusion. Thereby, in this work, we present EAFNet, an Efficient Attention-bridged Fusion Network, to exploit complementary information coming from different optical sensors. Specifically, we incorporate polarization sensing to obtain supplementary information, considering its optical characteristics for robust representation of diverse materials. By using a single-shot polarization sensor, we build the first RGB-P dataset which consists of 394 annotated pixel-aligned RGB-polarization images. A comprehensive variety of experiments shows the effectiveness of EAFNet to fuse polarization and RGB information, as well as its flexibility to be adapted to other sensor combination scenarios.

Non-propagation fast phase diverse phase retrieval for wavefront measurement with generalized FFT-based basis function.

Phase retrieval is an attractive optical testing method with a simple experimental arrangement. The sampling grids wave propagation computation based on the FFT operations is usually involved in each iterative process for the classical phase retrieval model. In this paper, a novel non-propagation optimization phase retrieval technique with the FFT-based basis function is proposed to accelerate wavefront measurement. The sampling grids wave diffraction propagation computation is converted to matrix-vector products that have small dimensions to reduce the computational burden. The diffraction basis function based on generalized numerical orthogonal polynomial and two-step Fresnel propagation is deduced, which is suitable for the generally shaped pupil. This paper provides a universal non-propagation framework to accelerate phase retrieval which is applicable to the arbitrarily shaped wavefront measurement.

Feature-based characterization and extraction of ripple errors over the large square aperture.

Freeform surfaces play an important role in modern optical systems with compactness and better performance. The fabrication tools tend to impart a structured signature on optical surfaces, called ripple errors, during the freeform surface manufacturing process. The description and extraction of ripple errors for freeform surface fabrication and testing have attracted extensive attention. In this paper, we develop a fast and accurate method to describe ripple errors for the large aperture based on Fourier model coupling. The polynomial expression is transformed into Fourier series form and surface errors are reconstructed by frequency feature extraction combining with the least square method. The high accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method for representing and filtering ripple errors consuming little computer memory are demonstrated using real experimental data. The proposed method offers a robust and powerful tool not only suitable for surface error characterization but also for image filtering and analysis.

Cross-iteration multi-step optimization strategy for three-dimensional intensity position correction in phase diverse phase retrieval.

Parameters mismatching between the real optical system and phase retrieval model undermines wavefront reconstruction accuracy. The three-dimensional intensity position is corrected in phase retrieval, which is traditionally separated from lateral position correction and axial position correction. In this paper, we propose a three-dimensional intensity position correction method for phase diverse phase retrieval with the cross-iteration nonlinear optimization strategy. The intensity position is optimized via the coarse optimization method at first, then the intensity position is cross-optimized in the iterative wavefront reconstruction process with the exact optimization method. The analytic gradients about the three-dimensional intensity position are derived. The cross-iteration optimization strategy avoids the interference between the incomplete position correction and wavefront reconstruction during the iterative process. The accuracy and robustness of the proposed method are verified both numerically and experimentally. The proposed method achieves robust and accurate intensity position correction and wavefront reconstruction, which is available for wavefront measurement and phase imaging.