Axions can be stimulated to decay to photons by ambient photons of the right frequency or by photons from decay of neighboring axions. If the axion density is high enough the photon intensity can be amplified, which is a type of lasing or an axion maser. Here we review the astrophysical situations where axion lasing can appear and possibly be detected.

This study leverages the relationships between the Great Plains low-level jet (GP-LLJ) and the circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) to enhance the 30-day rainfall forecast skill in the Northern Great Plains (NGP). The assessment of 30-day simulated precipitation using the Climate Forecast System (CFS) is contrasted with the North American Regional Reanalysis, searching for sources of precipitation predictability associated with extended wet and drought events. We analyze the 30-day sources of precipitation predictability using (1) the characterization of dominant statistical modes of variability of 900-mb winds associated with the GP-LLJ, (2) the large-scale atmospheric patterns based on 200-mb geopotential height (HGT), and (3) the use of GP-LLJ and CGT conditional probability distributions using a continuous correlation threshold approach to identify when and where the forecast of NGP precipitation occurs. Two factors contributing to the predictability of precipitation in the NGP are documented. We found that multi-scale geospatial interactions occur at the daily and sub-seasonal time windows. The CFS reforecast suggests that the ability to forecast sub-seasonal precipitation increases in response to the enhanced simulation of the GP-LLJ and CGT. Finally, the multi-dimensional analysis of covariance reveals that high-precipitation forecasting skill is associated with a better prognostic of GP-LLJ and CGT.

To enhance industrial competitiveness and increase productivity, every country has strived to create a smart factory by introducing technologies such as Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence into production line and build cyber-physical system for the purpose of promoting manufacturing efficiency. For mission assignment, production line management or manufacturing field analysis, the location information of employee, machine and material is very essential. To promote manufacturing efficiency, of course, the location information became more important. A Bluetooth low energy (BLE) positioning system for the manufacturing is developed in this research. A "Tag tracking" mechanism is addressed and adopted, which uses Beacon to catch the location information and a BLE receiver is also used to receive the broadcasting information from Beacon. The position information from the BLE receiver will be compared with the data in the database for calculating the location of the target. The status of the target may also be obtained by using the data from the BLE receiver. Comparing with the mobile device, this method can reduce energy consumption and make the maintenance simple and easy. In the real applications, the target may not be limited to human. The "Regional label positioning technology" is also investigated in this research. Defining a suitable zone location and arranging BLE receiver location, and positioning analysis theory are the key factors included in this developed technology. The developed system will be tested for real industry applications. The test results show that the feasibility of this technology.

Chrysanthemum tea, a typical health tea with the same origin as medicine and food, is famous for its unique health benefits and flavor. To clarify the influence of metabolites of different varieties of chrysanthemum tea on the formation of taste and quality differences, nontargeted metabolomics combined with electronic tongue analysis were used to characterize the correlation between metabolites profiles and taste characteristics of different quality chrysanthemum tea. Thirteen metabolites were identified as the key metabolites of the sensory quality difference between Huangju and Jinsi Huangju tea. Kaempferol, luteolin, genistein, and some quinic acid derivatives were correlated with the ‘astringent’ and taste attributes. In contrast, l-(-)-3 phenyllactic acid and L-malic acid were found to be the ‘bitterness’ and ‘umami’ in chrysanthemum tea. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the flavonoid and flavonol biosynthesis pathway had important effects on the sensory quality of chrysanthemum tea.

The emergence of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) has enriched the functional pool inherent in canonical amino acids (cAAs). ncAAs are important building blocks in the production of various pharmaceuticals. The biosynthesis of ncAAs has emerged as an alternative to traditional chemical synthesis because of its environmental friendliness and high efficiency. The breakthrough genetic code expansion (GCE) technique developed in recent years has allowed for the incorporation of ncAAs into target proteins, giving them special functions and biological activities. Biosynthesis of ncAAs and their incorporation into target proteins within a single microbe has become an enticing application of such molecules. Based on that, in this study we first review the biosynthesis methods for ncAAs and analyze the difficulties in biosynthesis. We then summarize the GCE methods and analyze their advantages and disadvantages. Further, we review the application progress of ncAAs and anticipate the challenges and future development directions of ncAAs.

Dry eye disease (DED) most commonly caused by evaporative subtypes and mainly induced by meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Intense pulsed light (IPL) combined with meibomian gland expression (MGX) is noninvasive treatment for improvement of ocular discomfort symptoms and MGD. In this prospective study between November 2020 and May 2022, the patients met the criteria of both ocular surface disease index (OSDI) ≥13 scores and standardized patient evaluation of eye dryness (SPEED)≥ 8 scores were enrolled in Kaohsiung Veteran General Hospital. Three separate treatment sessions of IPL therapy combined with MGX administered to the lower lids with an interval of 28 days. Further tear film assessment included lipid layer thickness (LLT), tear meniscus height (TMH), non-invasive tear break-up time (NIBUT), meibomian gland loss (MGL) either beforeor after 1st and 3rd IPL therapy combined with MGX. Besides, lissamine green staining and pain scores were also recorded. We totally enrolled 37 patients of 74 eyes. Men accounted for 18.92% (7/37). The mean age was 54.51 ± 11.72 years. The mean OSDI scores were 58.12 ± 22, while the SPEED scores were 17.03 ± 5.98. The mean Schirmer’s test was 3.66 ± 2.43 mm. After three sessions IPL treatment with MGX, the OSDI, SPEED, LLT, TMH, MGL, MGXS and pain scores were significantly improved. For the MGX scores (MGXS) ≤20 group, MGL and lissamine green scores showed significant improvements. For the MGXS >20 group, TMH and dry spot rate revealed statistically improvement. Noninvasive IPL therapy with MGX statistically improved not only dry eye symptoms but also tear film assessments.

With the development of satellite load technology and very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuit technology, on-board real-time synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems have facilitated rapid response to disasters. Limited by severe size, weight, and power consumption constraints, a key challenge of on-board SAR imaging system design is to achieve high real-time processing performance. In addition, with the rise of multi-mode SAR applications, the reconfiguration of the on-board processing system is beginning to receive widespread attention. This paper presents a multi-mode SAR imaging chip with SoC architecture based on the reconfigurable double-operation engines and multilayer switching network. We decompose the commonly used extend chirp scaling (CS) SAR imaging algorithm into 8 types of double-operation engines according to the computing orders, and design a three-level switching network to connect these engines for data transition. The CPU is responsible for engine scheduling based on data flow driven with instructions to implement each part of the CS algorithm. Thus, multi-mode floating-point SAR imaging processing can be integrated into a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip instead of relying on distributed technologies. As a proof of concept, a prototype measurement system with chip-included board is implemented, and the performance of the proposed design is demonstrated on Chinese Gaofen-3 stripmap continuous imaging. A chip requires 9.2 s, 50.6 s and 7.4 s for a stripmap with 16,384×16,384 granularity, multi-channel stripmap with 65.536×8192 granularity and multi-channel scan mode with 32,768×4096 granularity and 6.9 W for the system hardware to process the SAR raw data.

Wheat yield plays an important role in the global economy. Changing climate conditions and increased drought negatively affect grain yield. Currently, breeding programs are aimed at improving wheat productivity. To accelerate the selection process of hybrids and parental forms for crosses, it is essential to pay attention to plants' phenotypic and genetic potential. We studied the genes of the "green revolution" group Rht and coarse-grained TaGW and TaGS to increase yields by selecting optimal parameters for wheat. We focused on short-stemmed and coarse-grained characteristics in a dry climate and conducted a correlation analysis between the genetic potential of wheat varieties and hybrids and their phenotypic manifestation in drought conditions. Rht-D1b significantly reduced the height of plants by 51.67% and reduced the coleoptile length by 30.45%. At the same time, TaGW8-B1a increased the grain width by 13.37%. However, in the presence of Rht-D1b and Rht-B1b in the genome, the 1000-kernal weight was 35.06 g (p<0.05), the Rht-B1b gene enhanced it by 9% (p<0.05), while both Rht-D1a and Rht-B1a alleles gave a 1000-kernal weight of 37.96 g (p<0.05). The Rht-D1b and Rht-B1b alleles gave 18.5 seeds per ear, while the Rht-D1a and Rht-B1a alleles gave the value of grains per ear -24.1 pcs. The data obtained indicated the relationship of phenotypic and genetic parameters in wheat between the coarse-grained and short-stemmed genes, which makes it possible to select based on the genetic parameters of varieties and hybrids, thereby speeding up the selection process.

The Yangtze River is cross-linked with numerous lakes within its floodplain and is a worldwide biodiversity hotspot. There is no evidence indicating when this unique river-lake system developed. The endemic East Asian cyprinid clade has evolved diverse spawning adaptations to different flow conditions. Our ancestral egg-type reconstruction showed an ancestral state of adhesive eggs and later demersal eggs origination (both stream adaptations). Semi-buoyant eggs emerged ~18 Mya as a fast-flowing river adaptation, with increased hydration via three yolk protein degradation pathways, ion transport pathways and egg envelope permeability transition pores. Adhesive eggs evolved secondarily ~14 Mya with the egg envelope increasing to four layers and an adhesive layer, along with an increase in adhesiveness via microfilament/adhesive-related protein crosslinking and enhanced glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis, improving adherence to submerged lake plants, indicating that the cross-linked river-lake system formed in the mid-Miocene. This study provides a unique biological evidence for large-scale water system evolution.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent diseases and the second leading cause of death worldwide. However, the relationship between CRC and cerebrovascular-specific mortality (CVSM) remains elusive and less is known about the influencing factors associated with CVSM in CRC. Here, we aimed to analyze the incidence as well as the risk factors of CVSM in CRC. Methods: Patients with a primary CRC diagnosed between 1973 and 2015 were identified from Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database with follow-up data available until 31 December 2016. Conditional standardized mortality ratios were calculated to compare the incidence of CVSM between CRC patients and the general US population. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses with a competing risk model were used to interrogate the risk factors for CVSM. Results: A total of 563298 CRC individuals were included. The CVSM in CRC patients was significantly higher than the general population in all age subgroups. Among competing causes of death in patients, the cumulative mortality caused by cerebrovascular-specific diseases steadily increased during study period. While age and surgery positively influenced CVSM on both univariate and multivariate analyses, male patients and those who had radiotherapy, chemotherapy, more recent year (2001-2015) of diagnosis as well as multiple primary or distant tumors experienced a lower risk of CVSM. Interpretation: Our data suggest a potential role for CRC in the incidence of CVSM and also identify several significant predictors of CVSM, which may be helpful for risk stratification and therapeutic optimization of cerebrovascular-specific diseases in CRC patients.

Background Successful treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer who failed to response to first-line treatment has been a challenge due to their low response rate for later-line treatment and poor progression free survival and overall survival. The application of dendritic cell-cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy combined with conventional treat-ment, either surgical resection or chemotherapy, showed improvement in survivals in first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. In this retrospective study, we aimed to evaluate the benefit of dendritic cell-cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy for patient with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. Methods A total of 20 patients with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer receiving cell-cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) immunotherapy were enrolled to this study. Among these patients, 11 patients responded to the treatment and the remaining 9 patients did not. All patients were followed for at least one years and the determination of treatment response was mainly based on image study at 6 months after the completion of treatment. Data were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. Results The treatment response rate of the study group is 55% (11/20). The median progression free sur-vival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) of responsive patients was 7 months and 12 months, respectively. The median overall survival of irresponsive patients was 9.5 months. Four responsive patients received subsequent metastectomy or cytoreduction plus hyperthermic in-traperitoneal chemotherapy surgery (CRS + HIPEC). Conclusion DC-CIK cell-based immunotherapy may provide benefits for patients with refractory mCRC with improved response rate and progression free survival.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of global cancer-related mortality resulting in ~1.8 million deaths annually. Systemic, molecular targeted, and immune therapies have provided significant improvements of survival outcomes for patients. However, drug resistance usually arises and there is an urgent need for novel therapy screening and personalized medicine. 3D patient-derived organoid (PDO) models have emerged as a more effective and efficient alternative for ex vivo drug screening than 2D cell culture and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. In this review, we performed an extensive search of lung cancer PDO-based ex vivo drug screening studies. Lung cancer PDOs were successfully established from fresh or biobanked sections/biopsy of lung tumors, PDXs, and pleural affusion. PDOs were subject to ex vivo drug screening with chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immune therapy agents. PDOs mainly recapitulated the genomic alterations, transcriptomic landscape and drug sensitivity of primary tumors. Although sample sizes of the previous studies were limited and some technical challenges remained, PDOs showed promise to screen novel therapy drugs. With the technical advance of high throughput, tumor-on-chip, combined microenvironment, and air-liquid interface (ALI), the drug screening using PDOs would serve better for precision care of lung cancer patients.

New Jersey was among the first states impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with one of the highest overall death rates in the nation. Nevertheless, relatively few reports have been published focusing specifically on New Jersey. Here we report on molecular, clinical, and epidemiologic observations from the largest healthcare network in the state, in a cohort of vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. We conducted molecular surveillance of SARS-CoV-2-positive nasopharyngeal swabs collected in nine hospitals from December 2020 through June 2022, using both whole genome sequencing (WGS) and a real-time RT-PCR screening assay targeting spike protein mutations found in variants of concern (VOC) within our region. De-identified clinical data were obtained retrospectively, including demographics, COVID-19 vaccination status, ICU admission, ventilator support, mortality, and medical history. Statistical analyses were performed to identify associations between SARS-CoV-2 variants, vaccination status, clinical outcomes, and medical risk factors. A total of 5,007 SARS-CoV-2-positive nasopharyngeal swabs were successfully screened and/or sequenced. Variant screening identified three predominant VOC, including Alpha (n =714), Delta (n =1,877), and Omicron (n =1,802). Omicron isolates were further sub-typed as BA.1 (n =899), BA.2 (n =853), and BA.4/BA.5 (n =50); the remaining 614 isolates were classified as “Other”. Approximately 31.5% (1,577/5,007) of the samples were associated with vaccine breakthrough infections, which increased in frequency following the emergence of Delta and Omicron. Severe clinical outcomes included ICU admission (336/5007 = 6.7%), ventilator support (236/5007 = 4.7%), and mortality (430/5007 = 8.6%), with increasing age being the most significant contributor to each (p &lt;0.001). Unvaccinated individuals accounted for 79.7% (268/336) of ICU admissions, 78.3% (185/236) of ventilator cases, and 74.4% (320/430) of deaths. Highly significant (p &lt;0.001) increases in mortality were observed in individuals with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, but not with obesity, thyroid disease, or respiratory disease. Significant differences (p &lt;0.001) in clinical outcomes were also noted between SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta, Omicron BA.1, and Omicron BA.2. Vaccination was associated with significantly improved clinical outcomes in our study, despite an increase in breakthrough infections associated with waning immunity, greater antigenic variability, or both. Underlying comorbidities contributed significantly to mortality in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, with increasing risk based on the total number of comorbidities. Real-time RT-PCR-based screening facilitated timely identification of predominant variants using a minimal number of spike protein mutations, with faster turnaround time and reduced cost compared to WGS. Continued evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants will likely require ongoing surveillance for new VOCs, with real-time assessment of clinical impact.

In this study, a commercial sodium butyrate protected by a new buffer salt solution (NSB) was tested to determine whether it can be used as an antibiotic alternative in broiler production. 192 1-day-old broilers were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments: soybean meal diet (CON), antibiotic diet (ANT, basal diet + 100 mg/kg aureomycin), and NSB (basal diet + 800 mg/kg NSB). The growth performance, serum anti-inflammatory cytokines, intestinal morphology, gut barrier function, antioxidative parameters, SCFAs content, and cecal microbiota were analyzed. The result showed that NSB significantly improved ADFI, ADG (p < 0.01), and decreased FCR (p < 0.01). Serum anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 was up-regulated (p < 0.01), and pro-inflammatory TNF-α was down-regulated (p < 0.05) by NSB supplementation. H&E results showed that VH and VH: CD ratio significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the jejunum and ileum in the NSB group. Furthermore, ZO-1 (p < 0.01), claudin-1 (p < 0.01), and occludin (p < 0.05) in the jejunum and claudin-1 (p < 0.01) and mucin-2 (p < 0.05) in the ileum significantly up-regulated in the NSB group, respectively. Additionally, SOD (p < 0.05) and T-AOC/MDA ratio (p < 0.01) in the jejunum and SOD in the ileum were significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the NSB group. The MDA level also significantly increased (p < 0.01) in the ANT group in the jejunum. Propionic acid (p < 0.05) and butyric acid (p < 0.01) content significantly increased in the NSB group in the jejunum and ileum segments. The 16S rRNA sequencing results showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) in alpha and beta diversity among the groups. LEFSe analysis also indicated that Peptostreptococcaceae, Colidextribacter, Firmicutes, Oscillospira, and Erysipelatoclostridiaceae, which promote SCFA production (p < 0.05), were identified as dominant taxon-enriched bacterial genera in the NSB group. The Spearman correlation analysis revealed that Colidextribacter with ADFI, ADG, VH, claudin-1 (p < 0.05), and unclassified_f__Peptostreptococcaceae with ADFI, IL-10, and ZO-1 were positively correlated (p < 0.05). Furthermore, ADFI and ADG with IL-10, claudin-1, SOD, T-AOC, and butyric acid (p < 0.05), and similarly, ADG with VH (p < 0.05) showed a positive correlation. In conclusion, NSB enhanced the growth performance by improving jejunum and ileum morphology, serum anti-inflammatory cytokines, regulating intestinal barrier function and antioxidant capacity, SCFAs content, and cecum microbiota, showing its potential use as an alternative to antibiotics in poultry nutrition.