We propose a highly-sensitive temperature sensor employing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The waveguide widths in the two MZI arms are tailored to ...have different temperature sensitivities but nearly the same group refractive indices. A temperature sensor with an enhanced sensitivity of larger than 438pm/°C is experimentally demonstrated, which is over seven times larger than that of conventional silicon optical temperature sensor (about 60pm/°C for quasi-TM mode). Moreover, the sensor is easy to fabricate, only by a single mask, and no need of any polymer cladding, which makes it more robust, and can be used in lab-on-chip systems as a temperature monitor.
Mounting evidence suggests that gut microbiota can play an important role in pathophysiology of depression, but its specific molecular mechanisms are still unclear. This study was conducted to ...explore the associations between changes in neurotransmitters and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and altered gut microbiota in depressed mice. Here, the chronic restraint stress (CRS) model of depression was built. The classical behavioral tests were conducted to assess the depressive-like behaviors of mice. The 16S rRNA gene sequence extracted from fecal samples was used to assess the gut microbial composition. Liquid and gas chromatography mass spectroscopy were used to identify neurotransmitters in hypothalamus and SCFAs in fecal samples, respectively. Finally, 29 differential bacteria taxa between depressed mice and control mice were identified, and the most differentially abundant bacteria taxa were genus Allobaculum and family Ruminococcaceae between the two groups. The acetic acid, propionic acid, pentanoic acid, norepinephrine, 5-HIAA and 5-HT were significantly decreased in depressed mice compared to control mice. Genus Allobaculum was found to be significantly positively correlated with acetic acid and 5-HT. Taken together, these results provided novel microbial and metabolic frameworks for understanding the role of microbiota-gut-brain axis in depression, and suggested new insights to pave the way for novel therapeutic methods.
Two Edge-input arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) with star couplers of Confocal and Rowland configurations, respectively, are experimentally investigated and the one with the Rowland configuration ...shows better performance in terms of insertion loss and crosstalk. Based on the optimized Rowland configuration, two 64 × 0.4 nm ultra-compact on-chip spectrometers using bidirectional AWGs with two side inputs and different lengths of free propagation region (FPR) are designed and fabricated. Due to the utilization of two side inputs, the footprint of AWG spectrometer is significantly reduced compared to the conventional one center-input AWG spectrometer with the same resolution. The reduced footprint contributes to the performance improvement for an AWG spectrometer on high index contrast platforms, which is verified in our fabricated spectrometers on the silicon-on-insulator platform. The demonstrated ultra-compact on-chip spectrometer has large potential applications in miniaturized spectral analysis systems on a chip.
•The OEM obtains higher profit through outsourcing remanufacturing.•The 3PR prefers authorization when consumer acceptance of remanufactured products is low.•The 3PR prefers outsourcing when consumer ...acceptance of remanufactured products is high.•Authorization is better for environment with low consumer acceptance.•Outsourcing is better for all parties and environment with high consumer acceptance.
Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) allow third-party remanufacturers (3PRs) to perform remanufacturing operations of branded or patented products – through either outsourcing or authorization. This study compares these two modes by modeling the game between the OEM and the 3PR on equilibrium quantities, prices, and profits. The results suggest that when consumers perceive the remanufactured products with a low value, the 3PR prefers the authorization approach; otherwise the 3PR prefers the outsourcing approach. However, in both scenarios, the OEM obtains higher profit through outsourcing than through authorization. Our further analysis compares two modes’ impacts on consumer surplus, social welfare, and environment.
In this study we aimed to investigate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in psoriasis patients, and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated risk factors. A cross-sectional survey was ...conducted from February 2023 to March 2023. Information was obtained with online questionnaire about psoriasis patients on demographic characteristics, clinical characteristics, SARS-CoV-2 infection and outcomes, vaccination, and routine protection against COVID-19. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore risk factors with SARS-CoV-2 infection and exacerbation of psoriasis. A total of 613 participants were recruited. 516 (84.2%) were infected, and associated factors were sex, working status, routine protection against COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccination, impaired nail, infection exacerbate psoriasis, and severity of psoriasis. Among the patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, 30 (5.8%) required hospitalization, 122 (23.6%) had psoriasis exacerbation due to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and associated factors were subtype of psoriasis, discontinuation of psoriasis treatment during SARS-CoV-2 infection, response following COVID-19 vaccination, and severity of psoriasis. Booster dose vaccination contributed a low probability of COVID-19 sequelae. COVID-19 vaccine's effectiveness was unsatisfactory, while booster dose vaccination reduced the occurrence of COVID-19 sequelae in psoriasis patients of Southwest China. Patients treated with psoriasis shown to be safe, without a higher incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19hospitalization compared to untreated patients. Stopping treatment during SARS-CoV-2 infection led to psoriasis exacerbation, so psoriasis treatment could be continued except severe adverse reaction.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors had a great effect in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC); however, they benefited only a subset of patients, underscoring the need to co-target alternative pathways and ...select optimal patients. Herein, we investigated patient subpopulations more likely to benefit from immunotherapy and inform more effective combination regimens for TNBC patients.
We conducted exploratory analyses in the FUSCC cohort to characterize a novel patient selection method and actionable targets for TNBC immunotherapy. We investigated this in vivo and launched a phase 2 trial to assess the clinical value of such criteria and combination regimen. Furthermore, we collected clinicopathological and next-generation sequencing data to illustrate biomarkers for patient outcomes.
CD8-positivity could identify an immunomodulatory subpopulation of TNBCs with higher possibilities to benefit from immunotherapy, and angiogenesis was an actionable target to facilitate checkpoint blockade. We conducted the phase II FUTURE-C-Plus trial to assess the feasibility of combining famitinib (an angiogenesis inhibitor), camrelizumab (a PD-1 monoclonal antibody) and chemotherapy in advanced immunomodulatory TNBC patients. Within 48 enrolled patients, the objective response rate was 81.3% (95% CI, 70.2-92.3), and the median progression-free survival was 13.6 months (95% CI, 8.4-18.8). No treatment-related deaths were reported. Patients with CD8- and/or PD-L1- positive tumors benefit more from this regimen. PKD1 somatic mutation indicates worse progression-free and overall survival.
This study confirms the efficacy and safety of the triplet regimen in immunomodulatory TNBC and reveals the potential of combining CD8, PD-L1 and somatic mutations to guide clinical decision-making and treatments.
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04129996 . Registered 11 October 2019.
Ultra-compact on-chip spectrometers with high resolution and large bandwidth play a crucial role in miniaturized spectroscopic analysis systems. Here we present a novel polarization-insensitive ...micro-spectrometer with high resolution and large bandwidth based on a ( N + 3) × ( N + 3) arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The proposed AWG can be viewed as two same 3 × N AWGs with each one having three input waveguides with channel spacing of 4/3 Δ λ and N output waveguides with channel spacing of Δ λ . The three input waveguides are time division multiplexed, i.e., they are excited one by one in sequence. As a result, combining all spectral responses of each input, a micro-spectrometer with channel wavelength spacing enhanced to one-third Δ λ and channel number enlarged to 3 × ( N - 2) is achieved, only using N output channels. The polarization diversity scheme is utilized to address the polarization sensitive issue of silicon nano-waveguide, i.e., the AWG operates at a counter-propagating manner to process each polarization, respectively. In experiment, we demonstrate a micro-spectrometer with 81 channels and channel wavelength spacing of 0.4 nm by employing a 32 × 32 AWG on the SOI platform. The footprint of the fabricated micro-spectrometer is only 1.1 × 2.35 mm 2 . Experimental results show that the spectrometer has on-chip losses ranging from -5.8 to -2.5 dB, noise level of better than 17 dB, polarization dependent wavelength shift (PD λ ) of less than 0.07 nm and polarization dependent loss (PDL) of less than 1.5 dB, for all 81 wavelength channels. The resolution of the micro-spectrometer is mainly dependent on the 3-dB bandwidth of each channel and is simulated to be ∼0.65 nm. The proposed ultracompact and polarization insensitive high-resolution on-chip spectrometer provides a very promising approach for achieving miniaturized spectrometer-on-a-chip with good performance for applications such as in fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor readout unit and optical waveguide sensor systems.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease with a poor prognosis due to the lack of an effective targeted therapy. Histone lysine methyltransferases (KMTs) have emerged as ...attractive drug targets for cancer therapy. However, the function of the majority of KMTs in TNBC has remained largely unknown. In the current study, we found that KMT nuclear receptor binding SET domain protein 2 (NSD2) is overexpressed in TNBC tumors and that its overexpression is associated with poor survival of TNBC patients. NSD2 regulates TNBC cell survival and invasion and is required for tumorigenesis and tumor growth. Mechanistically, NSD2 directly controls the expression of EGFR and ADAM9, a member of the ADAM (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase) family that mediates the release of growth factors, such as HB-EGF. Through its methylase activity, NSD2 overexpression stimulates EGFR-AKT signaling and promotes TNBC cell resistance to the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib. Together, our results identify NSD2 as a major epigenetic regulator in TNBC and provide a rationale for targeting NSD2 alone or in combination with EGFR inhibitors as a targeted therapy for TNBC.
A temperature self-compensated optical waveguide biosensor employing the cascade of a ring resonator and an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) spectrometer based on silicon-on-insulator platform is ...proposed and theoretically investigated. By means of appropriately choosing the waveguide widths for ring waveguide and array waveguide, respectively, the AWG spectrometer is designed to have the same temperature dependence as the ring sensor in aqueous solution, pertinent to most biosensing applications, with temperature change to eliminate the temperature-induced sensor signal change in detection result. A center of gravity detection technique is used for processing the power distributions at all output channels of the AWG spectrometer to derive the resonance wavelength of the ring sensor. The simulated results show that the resonance wavelength shifts derived from the AWG spectrometer for the ring sensor/sensor arrays are only dependent on the refractive index change of the aqueous solution and remain unchanged regardless of the environmental temperature variation. Compared with the conventional measurement for the ring sensor, this proposed optical waveguide biosensor without the needs for an external high-resolution light source/spectrometer and extra processing for the detected data to eliminate the temperature influence can find an application in smartphones/potable sensor detection systems for on-site testing.
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