Strigolactones modulate cotton fiber elongation and secondary cell wall thickening

Cotton is one of the most important economic crops in the world,and it is a major source of fiber in the textile industry.Strigolactones(SLs)are a class of carotenoid-derived plant hormones involved in many processes of plant growth and development,although the functions of SL in fiber development remain largely unknown.Here,we found that the endogenous SLs were significantly higher in fibers at 20 days post-anthesis(DPA).Exogenous SLs significantly increased fiber length and cell wall thickness.Furthermore,we cloned three key SL biosynthetic genes,namely GhD27,GhMAX3,and GhMAX4,which were highly expressed in fibers,and subcellular localization analyses revealed that GhD27,GhMAX3,and GhMAX4 were localized in the chloroplast.The exogenous expression of GhD27,GhMAX3,and GhMAX4 complemented the physiological phenotypes of d27,max3,and max4 mutations in Arabidopsis,respectively.Knockdown of GhD27,GhMAX3,and GhMAX4 in cotton resulted in increased numbers of axillary buds and leaves,reduced fiber length,and significantly reduced fiber thickness.These findings revealed that SLs participate in plant growth,fiber elongation,and secondary cell wall formation in cotton.These results provide new and effective genetic resources for improving cotton fiber yield and plant architecture.

Miniature tunable Airy beam optical meta-device

Tunable Airy beams with controllable propagation trajectories have sparked interest in various fields,such as optical manipulation and laser fabrication.Existing research approaches encounter challenges related to insufficient compactness and integration feasibility,or they require enhanced tunability to enable real-time dynamic manipulation of the propagation trajectory.In this work,we present a novel method that utilizes a dual metasurface system to surpass these limitations,significantly enhancing the practical potential of the Airy beam.Our approach involves encoding a cubic phase profile and two off-axis Fresnel lens phase profiles across the two metasurfaces.The validity of the proposed strategy has been confirmed through simulation and experimental results.The proposed meta-device addresses the existing limitations and lays the foundation for broadening the applicability of Airy beams across diverse domains,encompassing light-sheet microscopy,laser fabrication,optical tweezers,etc.

Fully automatic AI segmentation of oral surgery-related tissues based on cone beam computed tomography images

Accurate segmentation of oral surgery-related tissues from cone beam computed tomography(CBCT)images can significantly accelerate treatment planning and improve surgical accuracy.In this paper,we propose a fully automated tissue segmentation system for dental implant surgery.Specifically,we propose an image preprocessing method based on data distribution histograms,which can adaptively process CBCT images with different parameters.Based on this,we use the bone segmentation network to obtain the segmentation results of alveolar bone,teeth,and maxillary sinus.We use the tooth and mandibular regions as the ROI regions of tooth segmentation and mandibular nerve tube segmentation to achieve the corresponding tasks.The tooth segmentation results can obtain the order information of the dentition.The corresponding experimental results show that our method can achieve higher segmentation accuracy and efficiency compared to existing methods.Its average Dice scores on the tooth,alveolar bone,maxillary sinus,and mandibular canal segmentation tasks were 96.5%,95.4%,93.6%,and 94.8%,respectively.These results demonstrate that it can accelerate the development of digital dentistry.

The secondary injury cascade after spinal cord injury:an analysis of local cytokine/chemokine regulation

After spinal cord injury,there is an extensive infiltration of immune cells,which exacerbates the injury and leads to further neural degeneration.Therefore,a major aim of current research involves targeting the immune response as a treatment for spinal cord injury.Although much research has been performed analyzing the complex inflammatory process following spinal cord injury,there remain major discrepancies within previous literature regarding the timeline of local cytokine regulation.The objectives of this study were to establish an overview of the timeline of cytokine regulation for 2 weeks after spinal cord injury,identify sexual dimorphisms in terms of cytokine levels,and determine local cytokines that significantly change based on the severity of spinal cord injury.Rats were inflicted with either a mild contusion,moderate contusion,severe contusion,or complete transection,7 mm of spinal cord centered on the injury was harvested at varying times post-injury,and tissue homogenates were analyzed with a Cytokine/Chemokine 27-Plex assay.Results demonstrated pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factorα,interleukin-1β,and interleukin-6 were all upregulated after spinal cord injury,but returned to uninjured levels within approximately 24 hours post-injury,while chemokines including monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 remained upregulated for days post-injury.In contrast,several anti-inflammatory cytokines and growth factors including interleukin-10 and vascular endothelial growth factor were downregulated by 7 days post-injury.After spinal cord injury,tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1,which specifically affects astrocytes involved in glial scar development,increased more than all other cytokines tested,reaching 26.9-fold higher than uninjured rats.After a mild injury,11 cytokines demonstrated sexual dimorphisms;however,after a severe contusion only leptin levels were different between female and male rats.In conclusion,pro-inflammatory cytokines initiate the inflammatory process and return to baseline within hours post-injury,chemokines continue to recruit immune cells for days post-injury,while anti-inflammatory cytokines are downregulated by a week post-injury,and sexual dimorphisms observed after mild injury subsided with more severe injuries.Results from this work define critical chemokines that influence immune cell infiltration and important cytokines involved in glial scar development after spinal cord injury,which are essential for researchers developing treatments targeting secondary damage after spinal cord injury.

Properties of focused Laguerre–Gaussian beam propagating in anisotropic ocean turbulence

We analyze the properties of a focused Laguerre–Gaussian(LG)beam propagating through anisotropic ocean turbulence based on the Huygens–Fresnel principle.Under the Rytov approximation theory,we derive the analytical formula of the channel capacity of the focused LG beam in the anisotropic ocean turbulence,and analyze the relationship between the capacity and the light source parameters as well as the turbulent ocean parameters.It is found that the focusing mirror can greatly enhance the channel capacity of the system at the geometric focal plane in oceanic turbulence.The results also demonstrate that the communication link can obtain high channel capacity by adopting longer beam wavelength,greater initial beam waist radius,and larger number of transmission channels.Further,the capacity of the system increases with the decrease of the mean squared temperature dissipation rate,temperature-salinity contribution ratio and turbulence outer scale factor,and with the increase of the kinetic energy dissipation rate per unit mass of fluid,turbulence inner scale factor and anisotropy factor.Compared to a Hankel–Bessel beam with diffraction-free characteristics and unfocused LG beam,the focused LG beam shows superior anti-turbulence interference properties,which provide a theoretical reference for research and development of underwater optical communication links using focused LG beams.

Generation of structured light beams with polarization variation along arbitrary spatial trajectories using tri-layer metasurfaces

Conventionally,the spatially structured light beams produced by metasurfaces primarily highlight the polarization modulation of the beams propagating along the optical axis or the beams'spatial transmission trajectory.In particular,along the optical axis,the polarization state is either constant or varies continuously in each output plane.Here,we develop innovative spatially structured light beams with continually changing polarization along any arbitrary spatial transmission trajectories.With tri-layer metallic metasurfaces,the geometric characteristics of each layer structure can be adjusted to modulate the phase and polarization state of the incident terahertz(THz)wave.The beam will converge to the predefined trajectory along several paths to generate a Bessel-like beam with longitudinal polarization changes.We demonstrate the versatility of the approach by designing two THz-band structured light beams with varying polarization states along the spatial helical transmission trajectory.Continuous linear polarization changes and linear polarization to right circular polarization(RCP)and back to linear polarization changes are realized respectively.The experimental results are basically consistent with the simulated results.Our proposal for arbitrary trajectory structured light beams with longitudinally varying polarization offers a practical method for continuously regulating the characteristics of spatial structured light beams with non-axial transmission.This technique has potential uses in optical encryption,particle manipulation,and biomedical imaging.

Development of in situ characterization techniques in molecular beam epitaxy

Ex situ characterization techniques in molecular beam epitaxy(MBE)have inherent limitations,such as being prone to sample contamination and unstable surfaces during sample transfer from the MBE chamber.In recent years,the need for improved accuracy and reliability in measurement has driven the increasing adoption of in situ characterization techniques.These techniques,such as reflection high-energy electron diffraction,scanning tunneling microscopy,and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,allow direct observation of film growth processes in real time without exposing the sample to air,hence offering insights into the growth mechanisms of epitaxial films with controlled properties.By combining multiple in situ characterization techniques with MBE,researchers can better understand film growth processes,realizing novel materials with customized properties and extensive applications.This review aims to overview the benefits and achievements of in situ characterization techniques in MBE and their applications for material science research.In addition,through further analysis of these techniques regarding their challenges and potential solutions,particularly highlighting the assistance of machine learning to correlate in situ characterization with other material information,we hope to provide a guideline for future efforts in the development of novel monitoring and control schemes for MBE growth processes with improved material properties.

Co-doped BaFe_(2)As_(2) Josephson junction fabricated with a focused helium ion beam

Josephson junction plays a key role not only in studying the basic physics of unconventional iron-based superconductors but also in realizing practical application of thin-film based devices,therefore the preparation of high-quality iron pnictide Josephson junctions is of great importance.In this work,we have successfully fabricated Josephson junctions from Co-doped BaFe_(2)As_(2)thin films using a direct junction fabrication technique which utilizes high energy focused helium ion beam(FHIB).The electrical transport properties were investigated for junctions fabricated with various He^(+)irradiation doses.The junctions show sharp superconducting transition around 24 K with a narrow transition width of 2.5 K,and a dose correlated foot-structure resistance which corresponds to the effective tuning of junction properties by He^(+)irradiation.Significant J_c suppression by more than two orders of magnitude can be achieved by increasing the He^(+)irradiation dose,which is advantageous for the realization of low noise ion pnictide thin film devices.Clear Shapiro steps are observed under 10 GHz microwave irradiation.The above results demonstrate the successful fabrication of high quality and controllable Co-doped BaFe_(2)As_(2)Josephson junction with high reproducibility using the FHIB technique,laying the foundation for future investigating the mechanism of iron-based superconductors,and also the further implementation in various superconducting electronic devices.

Secondary diabetes due to different etiologies:Four case reports

BACKGROUND As research on diabetes continues to advance,more complex classifications of this disease have emerged,revealing the existence of special types of diabetes,and many of these patients are prone to misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis,leading to treatment delays and increased health care costs.The purpose of this study was to identify four causes of secondary diabetes.CASE SUMMARY Secondary diabetes can be caused by various factors,some of which are often overlooked.These factors include genetic defects,autoimmune disorders,and diabetes induced by tumours.This paper describes four types of secondary diabetes caused by Williams–Beuren syndrome,Prader–Willi syndrome,pituitary adenoma,and IgG4-related diseases.These cases deviate significantly from the typical progression of the disease due to their low incidence and rarity,often leading to their neglect in clinical practice.In comparison to regular diabetes patients,the four individuals described here exhibited distinct characteristics.Standard hypoglycaemic treatments failed to effectively control the disease.Subsequently,a series of examinations and follow-up history confirmed the diagnosis and underlying cause of diabetes.Upon addressing the primary condition,such as excising a pituitary adenoma,providing glucocorticoid supplementation,and implementing symptomatic treatments,all patients experienced a considerable decrease in blood glucose levels,which were subsequently maintained within a stable range.Furthermore,other accompanying symptoms improved.CONCLUSION Rare diseases causing secondary diabetes are often not considered in the diag-nosis of diabetes.Therefore,it is crucial to conduct genetic tests,antibody detection and other appropriate diagnostic measures when necessary to facilitate early diagnosis and intervention through proactive and efficient management of the underlying condition,ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Unraveling the efficacy network: A network meta-analysis of adjuvant external beam radiation therapy methods after hepatectomy

BACKGROUND Primary liver cancer is a malignant tumor with a high recurrence rate that significantly affects patient prognosis.Postoperative adjuvant external radiation therapy(RT)has been shown to effectively prevent recurrence after liver cancer resection.However,there are multiple RT techniques available,and the differ-ential effects of these techniques in preventing postoperative liver cancer re-currence require further investigation.AIM To assess the advantages and disadvantages of various adjuvant external RT methods after liver resection based on overall survival(OS)and disease-free survival(DFS)and to determine the optimal strategy.METHODS This study involved network meta-analyses and followed the PRISMA guidelines.The data of qualified studies published before July 10,2023,were collected from PubMed,Embase,the Web of Science,and the Cochrane Library.We included relevant studies on postoperative external beam RT after liver resection that had OS and DFS as the primary endpoints.The magnitudes of the effects were determined using risk ratios with 95%confidential intervals.The results were analyzed using R software and STATA software.RESULTS A total of 12 studies,including 1265 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)after liver resection,were included in this study.There was no significant heterogeneity in the direct paired comparisons,and there were no significant differences in the inclusion or exclusion criteria,intervention measures,or outcome indicators,meeting the assumptions of heterogeneity and transitivity.OS analysis revealed that patients who underwent stereotactic body radiotherapy(SBRT)after resection had longer OS than those who underwent intensity modulated radiotherapy(IMRT)or 3-dimensional conformal RT(3D-CRT).DFS analysis revealed that patients who underwent 3D-CRT after resection had the longest DFS.Patients who underwent IMRT after resection had longer OS than those who underwent 3D-CRT and longer DFS than those who underwent SBRT.CONCLUSION HCC patients who undergo liver cancer resection must consider distinct advantages and disadvantages when choosing between SBRT and 3D-CRT.IMRT,a RT technique that is associated with longer OS than 3D-CRT and longer DFS than SBRT,may be a preferred option.

Beam Training and Tracking in mmWave Communication:A Survey

Communicating on millimeter wave(mmWave)bands is ushering in a new epoch of mobile communication which provides the availability of 10 Gbps high data rate transmission.However,mmWave links are easily prone to short transmission range communication because of the serious free space path loss and the blockage by obstacles.To overcome these challenges,highly directional beams are exploited to achieve robust links by hybrid beamforming.Accurately aligning the transmitter and receiver beams,i.e.beam training,is vitally important to high data rate transmission.However,it may cause huge overhead which has negative effects on initial access,handover,and tracking.Besides,the mobility patterns of users are complicated and dynamic,which may cause tracking error and large tracking latency.An efficient beam tracking method has a positive effect on sustaining robust links.This article provides an overview of the beam training and tracking technologies on mmWave bands and reveals the insights for future research in the 6th Generation(6G)mobile network.Especially,some open research problems are proposed to realize fast,accurate,and robust beam training and tracking.We hope that this survey provides guidelines for the researchers in the area of mmWave communications.

Natural vibration and critical velocity of translating Timoshenko beam with non-homogeneous boundaries

In most practical engineering applications,the translating belt wraps around two fixed wheels.The boundary conditions of the dynamic model are typically specified as simply supported or fixed boundaries.In this paper,non-homogeneous boundaries are introduced by the support wheels.Utilizing the translating belt as the mechanical prototype,the vibration characteristics of translating Timoshenko beam models with nonhomogeneous boundaries are investigated for the first time.The governing equations of Timoshenko beam are deduced by employing the generalized Hamilton's principle.The effects of parameters such as the radius of wheel and the length of belt on vibration characteristics including the equilibrium deformations,critical velocities,natural frequencies,and modes,are numerically calculated and analyzed.The numerical results indicate that the beam experiences deformation characterized by varying curvatures near the wheels.The radii of the wheels play a pivotal role in determining the change in trend of the relative difference between two beam models.Comparing the results unearths that the relative difference in equilibrium deformations between the two beam models is more pronounced with smaller-sized wheels.When the two wheels are of equal size,the critical velocities of both beam models reach their respective minima.In addition,the relative difference in natural frequencies between the two beam models exhibits nonlinear variation and can easily exceed 50%.Furthermore,as the axial velocities increase,the impact of non-homogeneous boundaries on modal shape of translating beam becomes more significant.Although dealing with non-homogeneous boundaries is challenging,beam models with non-homogeneous boundaries are more sensitive to parameters,and the differences between the two types of beams undergo some interesting variations under the influence of non-homogeneous boundaries.

Nonlinear vibration of Timoshenko FG porous sandwich beams subjected to a harmonic axial load

In this study,the instability and bifurcation diagrams of a functionally graded(FG)porous sandwich beam on an elastic,viscous foundation which is influenced by an axial load,are investigated with an analytical attitude.To do so,the Timoshenko beam theory is utilized to take the shear deformations into account,and the nonlinear Von-Karman approach is adopted to acquire the equations of motion.Then,to turn the partial differential equations(PDEs)into ordinary differential equations(ODEs)in the case of equations of motion,the method of Galerkin is employed,followed by the multiple time scale method to solve the resulting equations.The impact of parameters affecting the response of the beam,including the porosity distribution,porosity coefficient,temperature increments,slenderness,thickness,and damping ratios,are explicitly discussed.It is found that the parameters mentioned above affect the bifurcation points and instability of the sandwich porous beams,some of which,including the effect of temperature and porosity distribution,are less noticeable.

A Non-Stationary Beam-Enabled Stochastic Channel Model and Characterization over Non-Reciprocal Beam Patterns

The multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO)-enabled beamforming technology offers great data rate and channel quality for next-generation communication.In this paper,we propose a beam channel model and enable it with time-varying simulation capability by adopting the stochastic geometry theory.First,clusters are generated located within transceivers'beam ranges based on the Mate?rn hardcore Poisson cluster process.The line-of-sight,singlebounce,and double-bounce components are calculated when generating the complex channel impulse response.Furthermore,we elaborate on the expressions of channel links based on the propagation-graph theory.A birth-death process consisting of the effects of beams and cluster velocities is also formulated.Numerical simulation results prove that the proposed model can capture the channel non-stationarity.Besides,the non-reciprocal beam patterns yield severe channel dispersion compared to the reciprocal patterns.

Chebyshev polynomial-based Ritz method for thermal buckling and free vibration behaviors of metal foam beams

This study presents the Chebyshev polynomials-based Ritz method to examine the thermal buckling and free vibration characteristics of metal foam beams.The analyses include three models for porosity distribution and two scenarios for thermal distribution.The material properties are assessed under two conditions,i.e.,temperature dependence and temperature independence.The theoretical framework for the beams is based on the higher-order shear deformation theory,which incorporates shear deformations with higher-order polynomials.The governing equations are established from the Lagrange equations,and the beam displacement fields are approximated by the Chebyshev polynomials.Numerical simulations are performed to evaluate the effects of thermal load,slenderness,boundary condition(BC),and porosity distribution on the buckling and vibration behaviors of metal foam beams.The findings highlight the significant influence of temperature-dependent(TD)material properties on metal foam beams'buckling and vibration responses.

Optical Mode Entanglement Generation from an Optomechanical Nanobeam

Nano-optomechanical systems,capable of supporting enhanced light-matter interactions,have wide applications in studying quantum entanglement and quantum information processors.Yet,preparing optical telecomband entanglement within a single optomechanical nanobeam remains blank.We propose and design a triply resonant optomechanical nanobeam to generate steady-state entangled propagating optical modes and present its quantum-enhanced performance for teleportation-based quantum state transfer under realistic conditions.Remarkably,the entanglement quantified by logarithmic negativity can obtain E_(N)=1.Furthermore,with structural imperfections induced by realistic fabrication processes considered,the device still shows great robustness.Together with quantum interfaces between mechanical motion and solid-state qubit processors,the proposed device potentially paves the way for versatile nodes in long-distance quantum networks.

Resistive field generation in intense proton beam interaction with solid targets

The Brown-Preston-Singleton(BPS)stopping power model is added to our previously developed hybrid code to model ion beam-plasma interaction.Hybrid simulations show that both resistive field and ion scattering effects are important for proton beam transport in a solid target,in which they compete with each other.When the target is not completely ionized,the self-generated resistive field effect dominates over the ion scattering effect.However,when the target is completely ionized,this situation is reversed.Moreover,it is found that Ohmic heating is important for higher current densities and materials with high resistivity.The energy fraction deposited as Ohmic heating can be as high as 20%-30%.Typical ion divergences with half-angles of about 5°-10°will modify the proton energy deposition substantially and should be taken into account.

Secondary Metabolites of Entomopathogenic Fungi, Biological Alternative for the Control of Agricultural Pests and Disease: Present and Perspectives

The use of entomopathogenic fungi (EF) in recent years has been highly effective against the different orders of insects considered pests of agricultural importance and their conidia have been commonly applied, but it has been reported that these are sensitive to the environmental conditions. For this reason, biopesticides products have been formulated based on secondary metabolites, recently. These biomolecules participate as biological control agent, such as: cyclic depsipeptides, amino acids, polyketides, polyphenols and terpenoids, affecting their morphology, life cycle and insect behavior. The use of secondary metabolites of entomopathogenic fungi opens the possibility of application in a more efficient way for the control of agricultural pests in a compatible with the environment and human health;therefore, it is important to know, analyzing the type of molecules, their effects, and their different methods of application.

A study of pulsed high voltage driven hollow-cathode electron beam sources through synchronous optical trigger

In this study,a pulsed,high voltage driven hollow-cathode electron beam sources through an optical trigger is designed with characteristics of simple structure,low cost,and easy triggering.To validate the new design,the characteristics of hollow-cathode discharge and electron beam characterization under pulsed high voltage drive are studied experimentally and discussed by discharge characteristics and analyses of waveform details,respectively.The validation experiments indicate that the pulsed high voltage supply significantly improves the frequency and stability of the discharge,which provides a new solution for the realization of a high-frequency,high-energy electron beam source.The peak current amplitude in the high-energy electron beam increases from 6.2 A to 79.6 A,which indicates the pulsed power mode significantly improves the electron beam performance.Besides,increasing the capacitance significantly affects the highcurrent,lower-energy electron beam more than the high-energy electron beam.

Using harmonic beam combining to generate pulse-burst in nonlinear optical laser

The ultrashort lasers working in pulse-burst mode reveal great machining performance in recent years. The number of pulses in bursts effects greatly on the removal rate and roughness. To generate a more equal amplitude of pulses in burst with linear polarization output and time gap adjustable, we propose a new method by the harmonic beam combining(HBC).The beam combining is commonly used in adding pulses into the output beam while maintaining the pulse waveform and beam quality. In the HBC, dichroic mirrors are used to combine laser pulses of fundamental wave(FW) into harmonic wave(HW), and nonlinear crystals are used to convert the FW into HW. Therefore, HBC can add arbitrarily more HW pulses to generate pulse-burst in linear polarization with simple structure. The amplitude of each pulse in bursts can be adjusted the same to increase the stability of the burst, the time gap of each pulse can be adjusted precisely by proper time delay. Because HBC adds pulses sequentially, the peak power density of the burst is the same as each pulse, pulses can be combined without concern of back-conversion which often occurs in high peak power density. In the demonstration, the extendibility of HBC was verified by combining two beams with a third beam. The combined efficiency rates were larger than 99%, and the beam quality of each beam was maintained at M^(2)≈1.4.