In this paper, we demonstrate a tunable mid-infrared (mid-IR) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) using an MgO: PPLN crystal with a polarization period of 29.8 μm, which was end-pumped by a 1064 nm ...electro-optic cavity-dumped all-solid-state laser (1064 nm EOCD-laser) with a pulse repetition frequency range of 100 Hz to 1 kHz. Thanks to the use of 808 nm pulsed laser diode (LD) side-pumping Nd: YAG crystal, transverse electro-optic modulating (TEOM) MgO: LN crystal, and birefringent crystal (BC) filtering in the 1064 nm cavity-dumped cavity, both the 1064 nm EOCD-laser and the idler light output by the OPO exhibited high peak power and low peak-to-peak instability in both pulse width and single pulse energy. By combining temperature tuning of the MgO: PPLN crystal from 30 °C to 200 °C, wavelength tuning of the idler light from 3705.2 to 3424.3 nm was achieved. For the first time, a pulsed idler light at 3705.2 nm with a high peak power of 1.224 MW, a narrow pulse width of 4.97 ns, and an optical-to-optical (1064 nm to 3705.2 nm) conversion efficiency of 38.1% was obtained, corresponding to a tuning temperature of 30 °C and a pulse repetition frequency of 100 Hz. The peak-to-peak instability for both pulse width and single pulse energy was only ± 1.04% and ± 1.41%, respectively.
Postpartum depression (PPD) is prevalent and may present major adverse impacts on mother and child health. According to previous studies, mostly from the western society, PPD may have complicated ...etiologies, such as genetic, social and psychological factors. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of some social and clinical factors, particularly those unique in Chinese, with significant PPD symptoms.
A sample of 556 pregnant women in their 36th to 40th gestational week were randomly recruited in a cross-sectional study using a self-reported questionnaire, which collected maternal sociodemographic and clinical information. During their 2nd to 4th postpartum months, 522 participants responded to our screening of significant PPD symptoms, based on a score of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale ≥9.
A total of 90 (17.3%) participants were identified with significant PPD symptoms, and the following factors were observed more frequently in women with significant PPD symptoms (PPD
) than with fewer symptoms (PPD
): intensive involvement of parents-in-law in a participant's life (living together with her, taking care of her, or discriminating against a female baby), lack of support from husband, cesarean delivery, and breast milk insufficiency (supplemented with formula). After multiple logistic regression analysis, parents-in-law's preference to baby boy while devaluing baby girl, dissatisfaction with husband's support, cesarean delivery, and mixed feeding were strongly associated with significant PPD symptoms.
The potential risk factors for significant PPD symptoms, i.e., "son preference" custom, cesarean delivery and mixed feeding, deserve confirmation in continued, especially clinical diagnosis-based longitudinal studies.
Objective
To report a case of autoimmune nodopathy (AN) with concurrent serum and CSF immunoglobulin (Ig)G4 anti-neurofascin 155 (NF155) and anti-GD1b antibodies.
Methods
A 20-year-old male presented ...distal weakness of the 4 limbs, hypoesthesia, absent tendon reflexes and sensory ataxia. Nerve conduction studies (NCS), MRI, and autoantibody tests were performed.
Results
NCS revealed a diffuse demyelinating neuropathy in the peripheral nerve with motor and sensory involvement. MRI of the cervical and lumbar plexus showed diffuse enlargement. IgG4 anti-NF155 antibodies in both serum and CSF and IgG anti-GD1b antibodies in serum were positive. After treatment with IVIg, rituximab, and plasma exchange, the titer of the patient’s anti-NF155 antibodies decreased, but symptoms did not significantly improve.
Discussion
This patient presented a typical clinical feature of AN with serum and CSF anti-NF155 antibodies and serum anti-GD1b antibodies coexistent but poor response to IVIg, rituximab and plasma exchange. Early detection of antibodies may be helpful in both diagnosis and therapy of the disease. And prospective studies are necessary to demonstrate the potential role of anti-NF155 antibodies in CSF and help further understand this complex and heterogeneous disease.
Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is an agent of Aujeszky's disease, and causes great economic losses to pig farming. Re-outburst of pseudorabies implies that new control measures are urgently needed. We show ...here that DDX56 possesses the ability to inhibit PRV replication
in vitro
, which may be an important factor for PRV infection. Overexpression of DDX56 inhibited PRV genomic DNA transcription and lower titers of PRV infection in PK15 cells, whereas down-regulation of the DDX56 expression had a promotion role on virus replication. Further study demonstrated that DDX56 exerted its proliferation-inhibitory effects of PRV through up-regulating cGAS-STING-induced IFN-β expression. Moreover, we found that DDX56 could promote cGAS expression and direct interaction also existed between DDX56 and cGAS. Based on this, DDX56-regulated IFN-β pathway may be targeted at cGAS. To verify this, down-regulated cGAS expression in DDX56 over-expression cells was performed. Results indicated that knockdown of cGAS expression could abrogate the inhibition role of DDX56 on PRV proliferation and weaken the effect of DDX56 on IFN-β expression. In addition, DDX56 played a promotion role in IRF3 phosphorylation and nucleus translocation. Altogether, our results highlight DDX56's antiviral role in PRV infection, and our findings contribute to a better understanding of host factors controlling PRV replication.
The recently proposed twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) effectively overcomes the key capacity limitation without quantum relay and achieves long-distance quantum key distribution. In this ...paper, based on the TF-QKD protocol by Lucamarini et al. M. Lucamarini, Z.L. Yuan, J.F. Dynes, A.J. Shields, Nature
557
, 400 (2018), we propose a scheme where the weak coherent state (WCS) is replaced by a heralded single photon source (HSPS), and compare their performance by calculating the key rate. The numerical simulation results show that TF-QKD using HSPS can still break through the rate-distance limitation. Specifically, compared with the WCS TF-QKD protocol, the HSPS TF-QKD protocol has a lower secret key rate but a greater distance. Thus we show the TF-QKD with HSPS is a more preferable protocol for long distance transmittance.
Graphical abstract
Background and Purpose
Optimal blood pressure management of patients with basilar artery occlusion (BAO) remains uncertain. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between admission blood ...pressure and clinical outcomes following acute BAO.
Materials and Methods
We analyzed data from a prospective, nationwide cohort study of 829 patients with acute BAO and posterior circulation stroke. Baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were recorded on admission. The primary outcome was neurological functional disability based on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 90 days. Secondary outcomes included successful reperfusion, mortality within 90 days, and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score change. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the associations of SBP and DBP with outcomes.
Results
We include 829 patients with posterior circulation stroke and BAO between January 2014 and May 2019. Multivariate logistic regression showed high SBP and DBP correlated with unfavorable outcomes. The favorable prognosis (mRS ≤ 3) rates of the low-to-normal and the hypertension groups were 34.8 and 23.9%, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that an SBP > 140 mm Hg was associated with a poor functional outcome adjusted OR (aOR), 1.509; 95% CI, 1.130–2.015 and mortality at 90 days (aOR, 1.447; 95% CI, 1.055–1.985), and predicted a lower probability of successful reperfusion (aOR, 0.550; 95% CI, 0.389–0.778). The risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and the NIHSS score at 24 h were not significantly different between the high SBP group and the low-to-normal blood pressure group. And the results for DBP were similar.
Conclusion
Among patients with acute BAO, higher systolic or DBP at admission was associated with poor stroke outcomes and had a lower probability of successful reperfusion, with an increased risk of mortality.
Trail Registration:
http://www.chictr.org.cn
, ChiCTR1800014759.
Background
This study aimed to investigate the clinical outcomes of endovascular treatment (EVT) for distal basilar artery occlusion (BAO) and compare them with the outcomes of standard medical ...treatment (SMT) in daily clinical practice.
Methods
Patients with distal BAO enrolled in the BASILAR study from January 2014 to May 2019 were included. Differences in clinical outcomes were analyzed using Pearson's chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression. Clinical outcomes were evaluated using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 90 days, the mortality at 90 days, and the occurrence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage within 48 h.
Results
Among the 267 patients with distal BAO (222 patients in the EVT group and 45 patients in the SMT group), compared with the SMT group, the EVT group was associated with a favorable outcome (mRS 0–3; 40.1 vs. 15.6%; aOR 5.44; 95% CI, 1.68–17.66;
P
= 0.005) and decreased mortality (44.6 vs. 71.1%, aOR 0.32, 95% CI, 0.13–0.77;
P
= 0.012). In the EVT group, multivariable analysis showed that the initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score and posterior circulation-Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (pc-ASPECTS) were associated with favorable functional outcomes and mortality.
Conclusion
Our study suggests that, compared with SMT, EVT is technically feasible and safe for patients with distal BAO.
Background
The present study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of the 24-h National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) for short- and long-term outcomes of patients with basilar artery ...occlusion (BAO) after endovascular treatment (EVT) in daily clinical routine.
Methods
Patients with EVT for acute basilar artery occlusion study registry with the 24-h NIHSS, and clinical outcomes documented at 90 days and 1 year were included. The NIHSS admission, 24-h NIHSS, NIHSS delta, and NIHSS percentage change, binary definitions of early neurological improvement ENI; improvement of 4/(common ENI)/8 (major ENI)/10 (dramatic ENI) NIHSS points were compared to predict the favorable outcomes and mortality at 90 days and 1 year. The primary outcome was defined as favorable if the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score was 0–3 at 90 days.
Results
Of the 644 patients treated with EVT, the 24-h NIHSS had the highest discriminative ability for favorable outcome prediction receiver operator characteristic (ROC)
NIHSS 24 h
area under the curve (AUC): 0.92 (0.90–0.94) at 90 days and 1 year (ROC
NIHSS 24 h
AUC: 0.91 (0.89–0.94) in comparison to the NIHSS score at admission ROC
NIHSS admission
AUC at 90 days: 0.73 (0.69–0.77); 1 year: 0.74 (0.70–0.78), NIHSS delta ROC
Δ NIHSS
AUC at 90 days: 0.84 (0.81–0.87); 1 year: 0.81 (0.77–0.84), and NIHSS percentage change ROC
%change
AUC at 90 days: 0.85 (0.82–0.89); 1 year: 0.82 (0.78–0.86).
Conclusion
The 24-h NIHSS with a threshold of ≤23 points was the best surrogate for short- and long-term outcomes after EVT for BAO in the clinical routine.
Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a promising obesity management strategy, but weight-loss efficacy varies among participants, and the underlying mechanism is unclear. The study aimed to investigate ...the role of gut microbiota in weight-loss response during long-term TRE intervention. We analyzed data from 51 obese adults in a 12-month TRE program, categorizing them into distinct weight loss groups (DG) and moderate weight loss groups (MG) based on their TRE responses. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing analysis revealed a significant increase in species closely associated with weight loss effectiveness and metabolic parameter changes in the DG group. Pathways related to fatty acid biosynthesis, glycogen biosynthesis, and nucleotide metabolism were reduced in the DG group and enhanced in the MG group. Next, we identified nine specific species at baseline that contributed better responses to TRE intervention and significant weight loss. Collectively, gut microbiota contributes to responsiveness heterogeneity in TRE and can predict weight-loss effectiveness.
Display omitted
•Weight change varied significantly among individuals in the same TRE intervention•Gut microbiota contributes to the heterogeneity of responsiveness to TRE•Baseline gut microbiota signatures can be a strong predictor of individualized weight-loss efficacy
Human metabolism; Microbial genomics; Microbiome; Physiology