[Second allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with reduced-intensity conditioning and donor changes in relapsed hematological malignancies after the first allogeneic transplant]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the safety and efficacy of a second allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) with reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) in patients with hematological malignancies who had relapsed after the first allo-HSCT. Methods: Between April 2018 and June 2021, 44 patients with hematological malignancies (B-ALL 23, T-ALL/T-LBL 4, AML15, and MDS 2) were enrolled and retrospectively examined. Unrelated donors (n=12) or haploidentical donors (n=32) were used. Donors were replaced in all patients for the second allo-HSCT. Hematological and immunological germline predisposition genes and hematopoietic and immune function tests were used to select the best-related donor. Total body irradiation (TBI) /fludarabine (FLU) -based (n=38), busulfan (BU) /FLU-based (n=4), total marrow irradiation (TMI) /FLU-based (n=1), and BU/cladribine-based (n=1) were the RIC regimens used. For graft versus host disease (GVHD) prevention, cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, short-term methotrexate, and ATG were used. Eighteen (40.9%) of 44 patients with gene variations for which targeted medications are available underwent post-transplant maintenance therapy. Results: The median age was 25 years old (range: 7-55). The median interval between the first and second HSCT was 19.5 months (range: 6-77). Before the second allo-HSCT, 33 (75%) of the patients were in complete remission (CR), whereas 11 (25%) were not. All patients had long-term engraftment. The grade Ⅱ-Ⅳ GVHD and severe acute GVHD rates were 20.5% and 9.1%, respectively. Chronic GVHD was found in 20.5% of limited patterns and 22.7% of severe patterns. CMV and EBV reactivation rates were 29.5% and 6.8%, respectively. Hemorrhage cystitis occurred in 15.9% of cases, grade Ⅰ or Ⅱ. The 1-yr disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and cumulative recurrence incidence (RI) rates of all patients were 72.5% (95% CI, 54.5%-84.3%), 80.6% (95% CI, 63.4%-90.3%), and 25.1% (95% CI, 13.7%-43.2%), respectively, with a median follow-up of 14 (2-39) months. There were eight deaths (seven relapses and one infection). The rate of non-relapse mortality (NRM) was only 2.3%. The CR patients' 1-yr RI rate was significantly lower than the NR patients (16.8% vs 48.1%, P=0.026). The DFS rate in CR patients was greater than in NR patients, although there was no statistical difference (79.9% vs 51.9%, P=0.072). Univariate analysis revealed that CR before the second allo-HSCT was an important prognostic factor. Conclusion: With our RIC regimens, donor change, and post-transplant maintenance therapy, the second allo-HSCT in relapsed hematological malignancies after the first allo-HSCT is a safe and effective treatment with high OS and DFS and low NRM and relapse rate. The most important factor influencing the prognosis of the second allo-HSCT is the patient's illness condition before the transplant.

User Real-Time Influence Ranking Algorithm of Social Networks Considering Interactivity and Topicality

At present, the existing influence evaluation algorithms often ignore network structure attributes, user interests and the time-varying propagation characteristics of influence. To address these issues, this work comprehensively discusses users' own influence, weighted indicators, users' interaction influence and the similarity between user interests and topics, thus proposing a dynamic user influence ranking algorithm called UWUSRank. First, we determine the user's own basic influence based on their activity, authentication information and blog response. This improves the problem of poor objectivity of initial value on user influence evaluation when using PageRank to calculate user influence. Next, this paper mines users' interaction influence by introducing the propagation network properties of Weibo (a Twitter-like service in China) information and scientifically quantifies the contribution value of followers' influence to the users they follow according to different interaction influences, thereby solving the drawback of equal value transfer of followers' influence. Additionally, we analyze the relevance of users' personalized interest preferences and topic content and realize real-time monitoring of users' influence at various time periods during the process of public opinion dissemination. Finally, we conduct experiments by extracting real Weibo topic data to verify the effectiveness of introducing each attribute of users' own influence, interaction timeliness and interest similarity. Compared to TwitterRank, PageRank and FansRank, the results show that the UWUSRank algorithm improves the rationality of user ranking by 9.3%, 14.2%, and 16.7%, respectively, which proves the practicality of the UWUSRank algorithm. This approach can serve as a guide for research on user mining, information transmission methods, and public opinion tracking in social network-related areas.

Parallel interrogation of the chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array for photoacoustic tomography

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT), also known as optoacoustic tomography, is an attractive imaging modality that provides optical contrast with acoustic resolutions. Recent progress in the applications of PAT largely relies on the development and employment of ultrasound sensor arrays with many elements. Although on-chip optical ultrasound sensors have been demonstrated with high sensitivity, large bandwidth, and small size, PAT with on-chip optical ultrasound sensor arrays is rarely reported. In this work, we demonstrate PAT with a chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array containing 15 elements, while each element supports a bandwidth of 175 MHz (-6 dB) and a noise-equivalent pressure of 2.2 mPaHz^-1/2. Moreover, by synthesizing a digital optical frequency comb (DOFC), we further develop an effective means of parallel interrogation to this sensor array. As a proof of concept, parallel interrogation with only one light source and one photoreceiver is demonstrated for PAT with this sensor array, providing images of fast-moving objects, leaf veins, and live zebrafish. The superior performance of the chalcogenide-based micro-ring sensor array and the effectiveness of the DOFC-enabled parallel interrogation offer great prospects for advancing applications in PAT.

Deep learning based on preoperative magnetic resonance (MR) images improves the predictive power of survival models in primary spinal cord astrocytomas

BACKGROUND

Prognostic models for spinal cord astrocytoma patients are lacking due to the low incidence of the disease. Here, we aim to develop a fully automated deep learning (DL) pipeline for stratified overall survival (OS) prediction based on preoperative MR images.

METHODS

A total of 587 patients diagnosed with intramedullary tumors were retrospectively enrolled in our hospital to develop an automated pipeline for tumor segmentation and OS prediction. The automated pipeline included a T2WI-based tumor segmentation model and 3 cascaded binary OS prediction models (1-year, 3-year, and 5-year models). For the tumor segmentation model, 439 cases of intramedullary tumors were used to model training and testing using a transfer learning strategy. A total of 138 patients diagnosed with astrocytomas were included to train and test the OS prediction models via 10 × 10-fold cross-validation using CNNs.

RESULTS

The dice of the tumor segmentation model with the test set was 0.852. The results indicated that the best input of OS prediction models was a combination of T2W and T1C images and the tumor mask. The 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year automated OS prediction models achieved accuracies of 86.0%, 84.0%, and 88.0% and AUCs of 0.881 (95% CI 0.839-0.918), 0.862 (95% CI 0.827-0.901), and 0.905 (95% CI 0.867-0.942), respectively. The automated DL pipeline achieved 4-class OS prediction (<1 year, 1-3 years, 3-5 years, and >5 years) with 75.3% accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

We proposed an automated DL pipeline for segmenting spinal cord astrocytomas and stratifying OS based on preoperative MR images.

Single-exposure ultrasound-modulated optical tomography with a quaternary phase encoded mask

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography (UOT) is a deep-tissue imaging modality that provides optical contrast with acoustic resolution. Among existing implementations, camera-based UOT improves modulation depth through parallel detection but suffers from a low camera frame rate. The condition prohibits this technique from being applied to in vivo applications where speckles decorrelate on a time scale of 1 ms or less. To overcome this challenge, we developed single-exposure camera-based UOT by employing a quaternary phase encoded mask (QPEM). As a proof of concept, we demonstrated imaging of an absorptive target buried inside a dynamic scattering medium with a speckle correlation time as short as 0.49 ms, typical of living biological tissues. Benefiting from the QPEM-enabled single-exposure wavefront measurement (5.5 ms) and GPU-assisted wavefront reconstruction (0.97 ms), the point scanning and result update speed can reach up to 150 Hz. We envision that the QPEM-enabled single-exposure scheme paves the way for in vivo UOT imaging, which holds promise for a variety of medical and biological applications.

Properties of Cosmic-Ray Sulfur and Determination of the Composition of Primary Cosmic-Ray Carbon, Neon, Magnesium, and Sulfur: Ten-Year Results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer

We report the properties of primary cosmic-ray sulfur (S) in the rigidity range 2.15 GV to 3.0 TV based on 0.38×10^{6} sulfur nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment (AMS). We observed that above 90 GV the rigidity dependence of the S flux is identical to the rigidity dependence of Ne-Mg-Si fluxes, which is different from the rigidity dependence of the He-C-O-Fe fluxes. We found that, similar to N, Na, and Al cosmic rays, over the entire rigidity range, the traditional primary cosmic rays S, Ne, Mg, and C all have sizeable secondary components, and the S, Ne, and Mg fluxes are well described by the weighted sum of the primary silicon flux and the secondary fluorine flux, and the C flux is well described by the weighted sum of the primary oxygen flux and the secondary boron flux. The primary and secondary contributions of the traditional primary cosmic-ray fluxes of C, Ne, Mg, and S (even Z elements) are distinctly different from the primary and secondary contributions of the N, Na, and Al (odd Z elements) fluxes. The abundance ratio at the source for S/Si is 0.167±0.006, for Ne/Si is 0.833±0.025, for Mg/Si is 0.994±0.029, and for C/O is 0.836±0.025. These values are determined independent of cosmic-ray propagation.

A Retrospective Study of the Functional Outcomes in Patients with Proximal Humeral Bone Defect after Shoulder Fusion or Prosthetic Replacement

AIMS

The reconstruction of proximal humeral defects resulting from tumor resection is challenging. The purpose of this work was to retrospectively study the functional outcomes in patients with large bone defects after the resection of proximal humeral tumors.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of 49 patients with malignant or aggressive benign tumors in the proximal humerus at our institution between 2010 and 2021. Forty-nine patients were included in the study (prosthetic replacement, n = 27; shoulder arthrodesis, n = 22). The mean follow-up was 52.8 months (range, 14-129 months). The factors evaluated included the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) functional score, Constant Murley Score (CMS), and complications.

RESULTS

Of the 49 patients enrolled in the study, 35 were disease-free by the time of the latest follow-up, and 14 died because of the disease. Adjuvant therapies and medical comorbidities were similar between the two groups. Osteosarcoma was the most common abnormality among all the patients. The mean MSTS scores for surviving patients in the prosthesis and arthrodesis groups were 57.4% and 80.9%, respectively. The mean CMS score for the surviving patients in the prosthesis group was 43.47, and it was 61.44 for arthrodesis cases. Patients with shoulder arthrodesis demonstrated evidence of bony union at a mean of 4.5 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Shoulder arthrodesis is a reliable reconstructive procedure in patients with large bone defects after the resection of proximal humeral tumors for pediatric osteosarcoma patients. Moreover, prosthetic replacement with anatomical implants results in poor function in older metastasis patients with large bone defects and resection of the deltoid muscle.

Multi-parameter estimation resistant to the random polarization effect for coherent optical receivers

Optical parameter estimation based on the data obtained by coherent optical receivers is critical for optical performance monitoring (OPM) and the stable operation of the receiver digital signal processing (DSP). A robust multi-parameter estimation is intricate due to the interference of various system effects. By resorting to the cyclostationary theory, we are able to formulate a chromatic dispersion (CD), frequency offset (FO), and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) joint estimation strategy that is resistant to the random polarization effect, including polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization rotation. The method uses data directly after the DSP resampling and matched filtering. Both numerical simulation and field optical cable experiment validate our method.

Integrated Reconfigurable Photon-Pair Source Based on High-Q Nonlinear Chalcogenide Glass Microring Resonators

Chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) have recently emerged as enabling materials for building reconfigurable nanophotonic devices by employing their refractive index changes associated with photosensitive effects. In particular, the availability of low-loss thin-film ChGs and the realization of high-Q microresonators provide exciting opportunities for integrated photonics. So far, the ChG photonic devices are predominately operated in the classical optics regime. In this work, we present the realization on-chip bright photon-pair quantum light sources via spontaneous four-wave mixing in a high-Q microring resonator fabricated on the newly developed ChG Ge₂₅Sb₁₀S₆₅ platform. The emission wavelength of the photon-pair source can be continuously tuned across a double-free spectral range in a reconfigurable manner. Our work serves as a starting point to fully unleash the potential of exploiting ChGs for developing reconfigurable integrated quantum photonic devices.

Salts-assistant synthesis of g-C3N4/Prussian-blue analogue/nickel foam with hierarchical structures as binder-free electrodes for supercapacitors

The exploitation of high-performance electrode materials is significant to develop supercapacitors with satisfied energy and power output properties. In this study, a g-C₃N₄/Prussian-blue analogue (PBA)/Nickel foam (NF) with hierarchical micro/nano structures was developed by a simple salts-directed self-assembly approach. In this synthetic strategy, NF acted as both 3D macroporous conductive substrate and Ni source for PBA formation. Moreover, the incidental salt in molten salt-synthesized g-C₃N₄ nanosheets could regulate the combination mode between g-C₃N₄ and PBA to generate interactive networks of g-C₃N₄ nanosheets-covered PBA nano-protuberances on NF surfaces, which further expended the electrode/electrolyte interfaces. Based on the merits from this unique hierarchical structure and the synergy effect of PBA and g-C₃N₄, the optimized g-C₃N₄/PBA/NF electrode exhibited a maximum areal capacitance of 3366 mF cm^-2 at current of 2 mA cm^-2, as well as 2118 mF cm^-2 even under large current of 20 mA cm^-2. The solid-state asymmetric supercapacitor using g-C₃N₄/PBA/NF electrode possessed an extended working potential window of 1.8 V, prominent energy density of 0.195 mWh cm^-2 and power density of 27.06 mW cm^-2. Compared to the device with pure NiFe-PBA electrode, a better cyclic stability with capacitance retention rate of 80% after 5000 cycles was also achieved due to the protective effect of g-C₃N₄ shells on the etching of PBA nano-protuberances in electrolyte. This work not only builds a promising electrode material for supercapacitors, but also provide an effective way to apply molten salt-synthesized g-C₃N₄ nanosheet without purification.

[Association of sleep duration and risk of frailty among the elderly over 80 years old in China: a prospective cohort study]

Objective: To explore the association between sleep duration and the risk of frailty among the elderly over 80 years old in China. Methods: Using the data from five surveys of the China Elderly Health Influencing Factors Follow-up Survey (CLHLS) (2005, 2008-2009, 2011-2012, 2014, and 2017-2018), 7 024 elderly people aged 80 years and above were selected as the study subjects. Questionnaires and physical examinations were used to collect information on sleep time, general demographic characteristics, functional status, physical signs, and illness. The frailty state was evaluated based on a frailty index that included 39 variables. The Cox proportional risk regression model was used to analyze the correlation between sleep time and the risk of frailty occurrence. A restricted cubic spline function was used to analyze the dose-response relationship between sleep time and the risk of frailty occurrence. The likelihood ratio test was used to analyze the interaction between age, gender, sleep quality, cognitive impairment, and sleep duration. Results: The age M (Q₁, Q₃) of 7 024 subjects was 87 (82, 92) years old, with a total of 3 435 (48.9%) patients experiencing frailty. The results of restricted cubic spline function analysis showed that there was an approximate U-shaped relationship between sleep time and the risk of frailty. When sleep time was 6.5-8.5 hours, the elderly had the lowest risk of frailty; Multivariate Cox proportional risk regression model analysis showed that compared to 6.5-8.5 hours of sleep, long sleep duration (>8.5 hours) increased the risk of frailty by 13% (HR: 1.13; 95%CI: 1.04-1.22). Conclusion: There is a nonlinear association between sleep time and the risk of frailty in the elderly.

Asymmetric distribution of Modic changes in patients with lumbar disc herniation

PURPOSE

This study aims to report a new distribution pattern of Modic changes (MCs) in patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) and investigate the prevalence, correlative factors and clinical outcomes of asymmetric Modic changes (AMCs).

METHODS

The study population consisted of 289 Chinese Han patients who were diagnosed with LDH and single-segment MCs from January 2017 to December 2019. Demographic, clinical and imagological information was collected. Lumbar MRI was performed to assess MCs and intervertebral discs. The visual analogue score (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI) were evaluated in patients undergoing surgery preoperatively and at the final follow-up. Correlative factors contributing to AMCs were analysed by multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS

The study population included 197 patients with AMCs and 92 patients with symmetric Modic changes (SMCs). The incidence of leg pain (P < 0.001) and surgical treatment (P = 0.027) in the AMC group was higher than that in the SMC group. The VAS of low back pain was lower (P = 0.048), and the VAS of leg pain was higher (P = 0.036) in the AMC group than in the SMC group preoperatively. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that leg pain (OR = 2.169, 95% CI = 1.218 ~ 3.864) and asymmetric LDH (OR = 7.342, 95% CI = 4.170 ~ 12.926) were independently associated with AMCs. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed an AUC of 0.765 (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

AMCs were a more common phenomenon than SMCs in this study. The asymmetric and symmetric distribution of MCs was closely related to LDH position. AMCs were related to leg pain and higher pain levels. Surgery can achieve satisfactory clinical improvement for asymmetric and symmetric MCs.

I3-/I- Redox Reaction-mediated Organic Zinc-Air Batteries with Accelerated Kinetics and Long Shelf Lives

The storage time of Zn-air batteries (ZABs) for practical implementation has been neglected long-lastingly. ZABs based on organic solvents promise long storage time but suffer from sluggish kinetics. Here, we report a longly storable ZAB with enhanced kinetics mediated by iodine-containing redox. In the charge process, the electrooxidation of Zn5(OH)8Cl2·H2O is accelerated by I3- chemical oxidation. In the discharge process, I- adsorbed on the electrocatalyst changes the energy level of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Benefitting from these advantages, the prepared ZAB shows remarkably improved round-trip efficiency (56.03% vs. 30.97% without the mediator), and long-term cycling time (>2600 h) in ambient air without replacing any components or applying any protective treatment to Zn anode and electrocatalyst. After resting for 30 days without any protection, it can still directly discharge continuously for 32.5 h and charge/discharge very stably for 2200 h (440 cycles), which is evidently superior to aqueous ZABs (only 0/0.25 h, and 50/25 h (10/5 cycles) by mild/alkaline electrolyte replenishment). This study provides a strategy to solve both storage and sluggish kinetics issues that have been plaguing ZABs for centuries, opening up a new avenue to the industrial application of ZABs.

Temporal Structures in Electron Spectra and Charge Sign Effects in Galactic Cosmic Rays

We present the precision measurements of 11 years of daily cosmic electron fluxes in the rigidity interval from 1.00 to 41.9 GV based on 2.0×10^{8} electrons collected with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aboard the International Space Station. The electron fluxes exhibit variations on multiple timescales. Recurrent electron flux variations with periods of 27 days, 13.5 days, and 9 days are observed. We find that the electron fluxes show distinctly different time variations from the proton fluxes. Remarkably, a hysteresis between the electron flux and the proton flux is observed with a significance of greater than 6σ at rigidities below 8.5 GV. Furthermore, significant structures in the electron-proton hysteresis are observed corresponding to sharp structures in both fluxes. This continuous daily electron data provide unique input to the understanding of the charge sign dependence of cosmic rays over an 11-year solar cycle.

Text Matching in Insurance Question-Answering Community Based on an Integrated BiLSTM-TextCNN Model Fusing Multi-Feature

Along with the explosion of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence question-answering system has been pushed to a climax. Intelligent question-answering enables computers to simulate people's behavior habits of understanding a corpus through machine learning, so as to answer questions in professional fields. How to obtain more accurate answers to personalized questions in professional fields is the core content of intelligent question-answering research. As one of the key technologies of intelligent question-answering, the accuracy of text matching is related to the development of the intelligent question-answering community. Aiming to solve the problem of polysemy of text, the Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration (ERNIE) model is used to obtain the word vector representation of text, which makes up for the lack of prior knowledge in the traditional word vector representation model. Additionally, there are also problems of homophones and polyphones in Chinese, so this paper introduces the phonetic character sequence of the text to distinguish them. In addition, aiming at the problem that there are many proper nouns in the insurance field that are difficult to identify, after conventional part-of-speech tagging, proper nouns are distinguished by especially defining their parts of speech. After the above three types of text-based semantic feature extensions, this paper also uses the Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) and TextCNN models to extract the global features and local features of the text, respectively. It can obtain the feature representation of the text more comprehensively. Thus, the text matching model integrating BiLSTM and TextCNN fusing Multi-Feature (namely MFBT) is proposed for the insurance question-answering community. The MFBT model aims to solve the problems that affect the answer selection in the insurance question-answering community, such as proper nouns, nonstandard sentences and sparse features. Taking the question-and-answer data of the insurance library as the sample, the MFBT text-matching model is compared and evaluated with other models. The experimental results show that the MFBT text-matching model has higher evaluation index values, including accuracy, recall and F1, than other models. The model trained by historical search data can better help users in the insurance question-and-answer community obtain the answers they need and improve their satisfaction.

Jacobian methods for dynamic polarization control in optical applications

Dynamic polarization control (DPC) is beneficial for many optical applications. It is often realized via tunable waveplates to perform automatic polarization tracking and manipulation. Efficient algorithms are essential to realize an endless polarization control process at high speed. However, the standard gradient-based algorithm is not well analyzed. Here, we model the DPC with a Jacobian-based control theory framework that finds a lot in common with robot kinematics. We then give a detailed analysis of the condition of the Stokes vector gradient as a Jacobian matrix. We identify the multi-stage DPC as a redundant system enabling control algorithms with null-space operations. An efficient, reset-free algorithm can be found. We anticipate more customized DPC algorithms to follow the same framework in various optical systems.

Impact of leptin or melatonin on Sema4D overexpression-related bone metabolism

PURPOSE

The current study aims to investigate the regulatory impact of leptin or melatonin on bone metabolism as well as the underlying mechanism in conjunction with Sema4D (monoclonal antibody to semaphorin 4D).

METHODS

Rats were used to create the osteoporosis model utilizing the OVX (OVariectomize) technique. Rat tibial specimens from each side were collected for three-dimensional reconstruction and Micro-CT scanning examination. The Hematoxylin-osinstaining (HE) staining technique was used to determine the pathological condition of bone tissues. The ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) assay was used to measure the amount of estradiol present in the serum. In the current study, there were six groups: control, OVX, OVX + NL (no load group), OVX + Sema4D, OVX + Sema4D + leptin, and OVX + Sema4D + MT (melatonin). Rats were given injections of the Sema4D or leptin overexpressing vectors via the tail vein in accordance with the aforementioned classification. By using a high-resolution micro-CT technology, 3D bone structure was discovered. The activity of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase-5b (TRAP-5b) and bone-derived alkaline phosphatase (BALP) in serum was assessed using an ELISA. The number of osteoclasts in the metaphysis of the upper tibia was determined using TRAP (tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase) staining. Immunohistochemistry was used to find leptin and bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) expressions in bone tissue.

RESULTS

The BV/TV (Bone volume/Tissue volume), Tb.N (Trabecular number), BMD (Bone Mineral Density), and BMC (Bone Mineral Content) levels were significantly higher in the OVX + Sema4D + leptin and OVX + Sema4D + MT groups compared to OVX + NL, while Tb.Sp (Trabecular separation) levels were significantly lower. In contrast to the OVX group, the bone trabeculae in the OVX + Sema4D + leptin and OVX + Sema4D + MT groups had a relatively complete structure and tended to be organized closely. The amount of bone trabeculae grew drastically, whereas the proportion of TRAP-positive osteoclasts declined dramatically. BMP-2 and leptin were also elevated, while BALP and TRAP-5b activity was reduced.

CONCLUSION

Leptin or melatonin improved Sema4d's role in trabecular bone microstructure, bone production, and repairment of trabecular bone loss in osteoporosis rats.

Improved U-net-based leukocyte segmentation method

Significance

Leukocytes are mainly composed of neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes. The number and proportion of different types of leukocytes correspond to different diseases, so an accurate segmentation of each type of leukocyte is important for the diagnosis of disease. However, the acquisition of blood cell images can be affected by external environmental factors, which can lead to variable light and darkness, complex backgrounds, and poorly characterized leukocytes.

Aim

To address the problem of complex blood cell images collected under different environments and the lack of obvious leukocyte features, a leukocyte segmentation method based on improved U-net is proposed.

Approach

First, adaptive histogram equalization-retinex correction was introduced for data enhancement to make the leukocyte features in the blood cell images clearer. Then, to address the problem of similarity between different types of leukocytes, convolutional block attention module is added to the four skip connections of U-net to focus the features from spatial and channel aspects, so that the network can quickly locate the high-value information of features in different channels and spaces. It avoids the problem of large amount of repeated computation of low-value information, prevents overfitting, and improves the training efficiency and generalization ability of the network. Finally, to solve the problem of class imbalance in blood cell images and to better segment the cytoplasm of leukocytes, a loss function combining focal loss and Dice loss is proposed.

Results

We use the BCISC public dataset to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The segmentation of multiple leukocytes using the method of this paper can achieve 99.53% accuracy and 91.89% mIoU.

Conclusions

The experimental results show that the method achieves good segmentation results for lymphocytes, basophils, neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes.

OAM mode generation in helically twisted hollow-core antiresonant fiber

We investigate the orbital angular momentum (OAM) mode-generating process of a long-period onefold chiral fiber grating (L-1-CFG) based on a helically twisted hollow-core antiresonant fiber (HC-ARF). Taking the right-handed L-1-CFG for an example, we theoretically and experimentally prove that the first-order OAM₊₁ mode can be generated by only inputting a Gaussian beam. We fabricated three right-handed L-1-CFG samples based on the helically twisted HC-ARF with twist rates (α) of -0.42, -0.50, and -0.60 rad/mm, where the twisted HC-ARF with α of -0.42 rad/mm can achieve high OAM₊₁ mode purity of 94%. Subsequently, we present simulated and experimental transmission spectra at the C-band, and sufficient modulation depths were obtained at wavelengths of 1550 nm and 1561.5 nm in the experiment.

Purely nonlinear amplified ultralow-noise transmission using hybrid second-order DRA and PPLN-based PSA

We report ultralow-noise transmission over a 102-km single-mode fiber using a purely nonlinear amplification scheme consisting of a second-order distributed Raman amplifier (DRA) and a phase-sensitive amplifier (PSA) based on periodically poled LiNbO₃ waveguides. The hybrid DRA/PSA features a broadband gain over the C and L bands and an ultralow-noise advantage, with a less than -6.3 dB effective noise figure in the DRA stage and a 1.6 dB optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) improvement in the PSA stage. Compared with the unamplified link, the OSNR is improved by 10.2 dB for a 20-Gbaud 16QAM signal in the C band, resulting in error-free detection (a bit-error rate of less than 3.8 × 10^-3) for the signal with a low link input power of -25 dBm. Mitigation of nonlinear distortion is also achieved by the proposed nonlinear amplified system due to the subsequent PSA.

Characteristics of the paravertebral muscle in adult degenerative scoliosis with PI-LL match or mismatch and risk factors for PI-LL mismatch

Objective

Pelvic incidence (PI) minus the lumbar lordosis (LL) angle (PI-LL) correlates with function and disability. It is associated with paravertebral muscle (PVM) degeneration and is a valuable tool for surgical planning of adult degenerative scoliosis (ADS). This study aims to explore the characteristics of PVM in ADS with PI-LL match or mismatch and to identify the risk factors for PI-LL mismatch.

Methods

A total of 67 patients with ADS were divided into PI-LL match and mismatch groups. The visual analog scale (VAS), symptom duration, and Oswestry disability index (ODI) were used to assess patients’ clinical symptoms and quality of life. The percentage of fat infiltration area (FIA%) of the multifidus muscle at the L1-S1 disc level was measured by using MRI with Image-J software. Sagittal vertical axis, LL, pelvic tilt (PT), PI, sacral slope, and the asymmetric and average degeneration degree of the multifidus were recorded. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify the risk factors for PI-LL mismatch.

Results

In the PI-LL match and mismatch groups, the average FIA% of the multifidus on the convex side was less than that on the concave side (P &lt; 0.05). There was no statistical difference of asymmetric degeneration degree of the multifidus between the two groups (P &gt; 0.05). In the PI-LL mismatch group, the average degeneration degree of the multifidus, VAS, symptom duration, and ODI were significantly higher than that in the PI-LL match group, respectively (32.22 ± 6.98 vs. 26.28 ± 6.23 (%), 4.33 ± 1.60 vs. 3.52 ± 1.46, 10.81 ± 4.83 vs. 6.58 ± 4.23 (month), 21.06 ± 12.58 vs. 12.97 ± 6.49, P &lt; 0.05). The average degeneration degree of the multifidus muscle was positively correlated with the VAS, symptom duration, and ODI, respectively (r = 0.515, 0.614, and 0.548, P &lt; 0.05). Sagittal plane balance, LL, PT, and the average degeneration degree of the multifidus were the risk factors for PI-LL mismatch (OR: 15.447, 95% CI: 1.274–187.269; OR: 0.001, 95% CI: 0.000–0.099; OR: 107.540, 95% CI: 5.195–2,225.975; OR: 52.531, 95% CI: 1.797–1,535.551, P &lt; 0.05).

Conclusion

The PVM on the concave side was larger than that on the convex side in ADS irrespective of whether PI-LL matched or not. PI-LL mismatch could aggravate this abnormal change, which is an important cause of pain and disability in ADS. Sagittal plane imbalance, decreased LL, higher PT, and larger average degeneration degree of the multifidus were independent risk factors for PI-LL mismatch.

Protective effects of resveratrol on the ethanol‐induced disruption of retinogenesis in pluripotent stem cell‐derived organoids

Prenatal alcohol exposure-induced fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) can lead to serious maldevelopment in many organ systems, including the eyes. In the present study, the effects of alcohol exposure on early development of the human retina and the therapeutic effects of resveratrol on alcohol-induced neural retinal damage were observed for the first time in an in vitro retinal organoid model. We report that the number of proliferating and apoptotic cells decreased and increased, respectively, following ethanol treatment. In addition, the number of PAX6⁺ cells and migrating TUJ1⁺ cells decreased after ethanol exposure. However, pretreatment with resveratrol prevented all of these negative effects. Using RNA sequencing and immunofluorescence, we identified activation of the PI3K-AKT signalling pathway as the possible mechanism through which resveratrol protects the retina from alcohol-induced damage. These results suggest that while ethanol exposure can restrict the growth of the human retina and impede the development of specific retinal cells, pretreatment with resveratrol may be a feasible method for preventing these effects.

Broad-Specificity Screening of Pyrethroids Enabled by the Catalytic Function of Human Serum Albumin on Coumarin Hydrolysis

Sensing systems based on cholinesterase and carboxylesterase coupled with different transduction technologies have emerged for pesticide screening owing to their simple operation, fast response, and suitability for on-site analysis. However, the broad spectrum and specificity screening of pyrethroids over organophosphates and carbamates remains an unmet challenge for current enzymatic sensors. Human serum albumin (HSA), a multifunctional protein, can promote various chemical transformations and show a high affinity for pyrethroids, which offer a route for specific and broad-spectrum pyrethroid screening. Herein, for the first time, we evaluated the catalytic hydrolysis function of human serum albumin (HSA) on the coumarin lactone bond and revealed that HSA can act as an enzyme to catalyze the hydrolysis of the coumarin lactone bond. Molecular docking and chemical modifications indicate that lysine 199 and tyrosine 411 serve as the catalytic general base and contribute to most of the catalytic activity. Utilizing this enzymatic activity, a broad specific ratiometric fluorescence pyrethroids sensing system was developed. The binding energetics and binding constants of pesticides and HSA show that pyrethroids bind to HSA more easily than organophosphates and carbamates, which is responsible for the specificity of the sensing system. This study provides a general sensor platform and strategy for screening pesticides and reveals the catalytic activity of HSA on the hydrolysis of the coumarin lactone bond, which may open innovative horizons for the chemical sensing and biomedical applications of HSA.

A dual-mode system based on molybdophosphoric heteropoly acid and fluorescent microspheres for the reliable and ultrasensitive detection of alkaline phosphatase

A novel colorimetric and fluorescent dual-mode sensing system based on molybdophosphoric heteropoly acid (PMA) and fluorescent microspheres (FMs) was established for monitoring the activity of alkaline phosphatase (ALP). In the presence of ALP, L-ascorbic acid-2-phosphate (AAP) could be hydrolyzed catalytically to ascorbic acid (AA), which could reduce PMA to phosphorus molybdenum blue (PMB), accompanied by the generation of colorimetric signals depending on the level of ALP. Meanwhile, the fluorescence of FMs was quenched markedly by the PMB produced due to the inner-filter effect, which constituted the response mechanism for the dual-mode sensing systems of ALP. On this basis, a PMA-FMs based dual-mode sensing system was used for the detection of ALP, which not only possessed remarkable sensitivity, with a limit of detection of 0.27 U L^-1 and 0.11 U L^-1, but also exhibited good analytical performance in biological samples with satisfactory results. Moreover, a simple and portable test kit for the visual detection of ALP in real serum samples was fabricated utilizing a smartphone with image-recognition and data-processing capabilities as a visual-detection platform.