Identification of Driver Genes in Primary Liver Cancer by Integrating NGS and TCGA Mutation Data

Background: This study is aimed towards an exploration of mutant genes in primary liver cancer (PLC) patients by using bioinformatics and data mining techniques. Methods: Peripheral blood or paraffin-embedded tissues from 8 patients with PLC were analyzed using a 551 cancer-related gene panel on an Illumina NextSeq500 Sequencer (Illumina). Meanwhile, the data of 396 PLC cases were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The common mutated genes were obtained after integrating the mutation information of the above two cohorts, followed by functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction (PPI) analyses. Three well-known databases, including Vogelstein’s list, the Network of Cancer Gene (NCG), and the Catalog of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) database were used to screen driver genes. Furthermore, the Chi-square and logistic analysis were performed to analyze the correlation between the driver genes and clinicopathological characteristics, and Kaplan-Meier (KM) method and multivariate Cox analysis were conducted to evaluate the overall survival outcome. Results: In total, 84 mutation genes were obtained after 8 PLC patients undergoing gene mutation detection with next-generation sequencing (NGS). The top 100 most mutate gene data from PLC patients in TCGA database were downloaded. After integrating the above two cohorts, 17 common mutated genes were identified. Next, 11 driver genes were screened out by analyzing the intersection of the 17 mutation genes and the genes in the three well-known databases. Among them, RB1, TP53, and KRAS gene mutations were connected with clinicopathological characteristics, while all the 11 gene mutations had no relationship with overall survival. Conclusion: This study investigated the mutant genes with significant clinical implications in PLC patients, which may improve the knowledge of gene mutations in PLC molecular pathogenesis.

MiniLap辅助两穿刺孔腹腔镜全腹膜外腹股沟疝修补术10例分析

目的介绍使用MiniLap辅助两穿刺孔腹腔镜全腹膜外腹股沟疝修补术(MaDP TEP)的临床优势。方法回顾性分析2022年6—10月于中山大学附属第七医院消化医学中心疝与腹壁外科专业组行MaDP TEP 10例患者的临床资料。10 mm腹腔镜穿刺孔、5 mm操作穿刺孔、MiniLap参考全腹膜外腹股沟疝修补术(TEP)三穿刺孔中侧法布局。使用MiniLap无需做线性切口,经1 mm皮肤开口即可穿刺置入术区。分析患者一般资料,记录术后第1天疼痛数字评定量表(NRS)评分、手术部位感染率、疝复发率、术后3周两穿刺孔和MiniLap处瘢痕SCAR评分、单侧疝分离操作时间(即除外放置补片的手术时间)。结果10例患者中,男性9例,女性1例;年龄45~70岁,平均52.3岁;包含Rutkow(改良Gilbert分型)Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲ、Ⅴ、Ⅵ型。10例患者均成功实施MaDP TEP,术中无血管损伤,无中转开放手术。术后第1天疼痛NRS评分(1.50±0.53)分。随访1~19周,无手术部位感染,无疝复发。术后3周10 mm穿刺孔、5 mm穿刺孔和MiniLap处瘢痕SCAR评分分别为(5.10±1.25)分、(3.75±0.79)分和(1.80±0.70)分,瘢痕评分比较差异有统计学意义(P<0.01)。10例手术单侧疝分离操作时间:第1~5例(47.8±12.0)min,第6~10例患者(30.8±5.3)min,差异有统计学意义(P=0.02)。结论MaDP TEP安全有效,疼痛轻、美容减创效果好,与三穿刺孔TEP技术接近,学习曲线短,便于临床推广。

Observation of parity-time symmetry in microwave photonics

Symmetry plays a crucial role in explorations of the laws of nature.Parity-time(PT)symmetry phenomena can lead to entirely real spectra in non-Hermitian systems,which attracts considerable attention in the fields of optics and electronics because these phenomena provide a new tool for the manipulation of oscillation modes and nonreciprocal signal transmission.A potential new field of application is microwave photonics,an interdisciplinary field in which the interaction between microwaves and optical signals is exploited.In this article,we report the experimental use of PT symmetry in an optoelectronic oscillator(OEO),a key microwave photonics system that can generate singlefrequency sinusoidal signals with high spectral purity.PT symmetry is theoretically analyzed and experimentally observed in an OEO with two mutually coupled active oscillation cavities via a precise manipulation of the interplay between gain and loss in the two oscillation cavities.Stable single-frequency microwave oscillation is achieved without using any optical/electrical filters for oscillation mode selection,which is an indispensable requirement in traditional OEOs.This observation opens new avenues for signal generation and processing based on the PT symmetry principle in microwave photonics.

Optoelectronic parametric oscillator

Oscillators are one of the key elements in various applications as a signal source to generate periodic oscillations.Among them,an optical parametric oscillator(OPO)is a driven harmonic oscillator based on parametric frequency conversion in an optical cavity,which has been widely investigated as a coherent light source with an extremely wide wavelength tuning range.However,steady oscillation in an OPO is confined by the cavity delay,which leads to difficulty in frequency tuning,and the frequency tuning is discrete with the minimum tuning step determined by the cavity delay.Here,we propose and demonstrate a counterpart of an OPO in the optoelectronic domain,i.e.,an optoelectronic parametric oscillator(OEPO)based on parametric frequency conversion in an optoelectronic cavity to generate microwave signals.Owing to the unique energy-transition process in the optoelectronic cavity,the phase evolution in the OEPO is not linear,leading to steady single-mode oscillation or multimode oscillation that is not bounded by the cavity delay.Furthermore,the multimode oscillation in the OEPO is stable and easy to realize owing to the phase control of the parametric frequency-conversion process in the optoelectronic cavity,while stable multimode oscillation is difficult to achieve in conventional oscillators such as an optoelectronic oscillator(OEO)or an OPO due to the mode-hopping and mode-competition effect.The proposed OEPO has great potential in applications such as microwave signal generation,oscillator-based computation,and radio-frequency phase-stable transfer.

Recent advances in optoelectronic oscillators

An optoelectronic oscillator(OEO)is a microwave photonic system that produces microwave signals with ultralow phase noise using a high-quality-factor optical energy storage element.This type of oscillator is desired in various practical applications,such as communication links,signal processing,radar,metrology,radio astronomy,and reference clock distribution.Recently,new mode control and selection methods based on Fourier domain mode-locking and parity-time symmetry have been proposed and experimentally demonstrated in OEOs,which overcomes the long-existing mode building time and mode selection problems in a traditional OEO.Due to these mode control and selection methods,continuously chirped microwave waveforms can be generated directly from the OEO cavity and single-mode operation can be achieved without the need of ultranarrowband filters,which are not possible in a traditional OEO.Integrated OEOs with a compact size and low power consumption have also been demonstrated,which are key steps toward a new generation of compact and versatile OEOs for demanding applications.We review recent progress in the field of OEOs,with particular attention to new mode control and selection methods,as well as chip-scale integration of OEOs.

Dissipative microwave photonic solitons in spontaneous frequency-hopping optoelectronic oscillators

Dissipative solitons relying on the double balance between nonlinear and linear effects as well as cavity loss and gain have attracted increasing attention in recent years,since they give rise to novel operating states of various dissipative nonlinear systems.An optoelectronic oscillator(OEO)is a dissipative nonlinear microwave photonic system with a high quality factor that has been widely investigated for generating ultra-low noise single-frequency microwave signals.Here,we report a novel operating state of an OEO related to dissipative solitons,i.e.,spontaneous frequency hopping related to the formation of dissipative microwave photonic solitons.In this operating state,dissipative microwave photonic solitons occur due to the double balance between nonlinear gain saturation and linear filtering as well as cavity loss and gain in the OEO cavity,creating spontaneous frequencyhopping microwave signals.The generation of wideband tunable frequency-hopping microwave signals with a fast frequency-hopping speed up to tens of nanoseconds is observed in the experiment,together with the corresponding soliton sequences.This work reveals a novel mechanism between the interaction of nonlinear and linear effects in an OEO cavity,extends the suitability and potential applications of solitons,and paves the way for a new class of soliton microwave photonic systems for the generation,processing,and control of microwave and RF signals.

单光子微波光子学

伴随着微波光子学技术的迅速发展,超低功率下的高速微波光子信号检测、处理是一个限制微波光子应用领域的主要难点.考虑到单光子探测器具有超微弱光信号检测能力的同时还具有极低的时间抖动特性,将单光子检测与经典微波光子处理技术相结合是一种突破上述难点的潜在解决方案.基于此,本文提出了一种单光子微波光子系统.该系统使用单光子信号作为载波,通过微波强度改变光子探测几率,再通过单光子探测器得到光子探测几率复原微波信号.该系统成功实现了对单光子强度的微波光子信号进行滤波、移相的操作,而且系统的处理速度仅由单光子探测器时间抖动决定.此外,得益于系统所使用的信号恢复技术,该系统具有的优秀的抗干扰能力能够有效滤除噪声.该系统展示了一个微波光子学和量子光学学科交叉的范例,为之后量子微波光子学的发展奠定基础.

Large-scale coherent Ising machine based on optoelectronic parametric oscillator

Ising machines based on analog systems have the potential to accelerate the solution of ubiquitous combinatorial optimization problems.Although some artificial spins to support large-scale Ising machines have been reported,e.g.,superconducting qubits in quantum annealers and short optical pulses in coherent Ising machines,the spin stability is fragile due to the ultra-low equivalent temperature or optical phase sensitivity.In this paper,we propose to use short microwave pulses generated from an optoelectronic parametric oscillator as the spins to implement a large-scale Ising machine with high stability.The proposed machine supports 25,600 spins and can operate continuously and stably for hours.Moreover,the proposed Ising machine is highly compatible with high-speed electronic devices for programmability,paving a low-cost,accurate,and easy-to-implement way toward solving real-world optimization problems.