Fiber-Based Optical Gun for Particle Shooting

We proposed and fabricated a fiber-based optical gun for both particle trapping and shooting. The all-fiber device is made of a coaxial core optical fiber with a center core and a coaxial circular core. The fiber has a cone-frustum-shaped tip to enable the circular core to generate a focused ring light as a trapping beam, providing a stable 3D trapping potential well. When a small particle is trapped, a Gaussian beam is launched as a shooting light at the fiber center core to push the particle away from the fiber tip along the propagation direction of the beam. Here, we find that (1) the highly focused ring field with considerably lowered focusing intensity can generate a very stable particle-trapping potential well in three dimensions and the photothermal effect is also greatly reduced due to the lower optical power requirement for trapping and (2) the shooting light with a Gaussian profile not only supplies a radiation pushing force on the small particle, but also has restrictions and guiding effects as a gun barrel to propel the small particle out of the trapping well at a high speed along the beam propagation direction. The particle shooting distance can reach several hundreds of micrometers. Transverse deviation from the optical axis can be controlled within several micrometers under disturbances of ambient fluid flow. Our proposed method extends the potential applications of fiber-based optical manipulation, e.g., microparticle sorting in biology, accurate delivery of microparticles of a drug to the target cells, and observation of drug synergism

Enhancing the Stability of Nicotine via Crystallization Using Enantiopure Tartaric Acid Salt Formers

Crystallization of nicotine, an oil prone to degradation at room temperature, has been demonstrated to be an effective means of creating nicotine-based materials with tunable thermal properties and improved resistance to photo-induced degradation. Herein, we show that both isomers of enantiomerically pure tartaric acid are highly effective salt formers when combined with nicotine. Both salts exhibit enhanced photostability, and with a melting point of 143.1 °C, the salt prepared using d-(−)-tartaric acid possesses one of the highest melting points for a crystalline nicotine solid reported to date

Enhancing the Stability of Nicotine via Crystallization Using Enantiopure Tartaric Acid Salt Formers

Crystallization of nicotine, an oil prone to degradation at room temperature, has been demonstrated to be an effective means of creating nicotine-based materials with tunable thermal properties and improved resistance to photo-induced degradation. Herein, we show that both isomers of enantiomerically pure tartaric acid are highly effective salt formers when combined with nicotine. Both salts exhibit enhanced photostability, and with a melting point of 143.1 °C, the salt prepared using d-(−)-tartaric acid possesses one of the highest melting points for a crystalline nicotine solid reported to date

Enhancing the Stability of Nicotine via Crystallization Using Enantiopure Tartaric Acid Salt Formers

Crystallization of nicotine, an oil prone to degradation at room temperature, has been demonstrated to be an effective means of creating nicotine-based materials with tunable thermal properties and improved resistance to photo-induced degradation. Herein, we show that both isomers of enantiomerically pure tartaric acid are highly effective salt formers when combined with nicotine. Both salts exhibit enhanced photostability, and with a melting point of 143.1 °C, the salt prepared using d-(−)-tartaric acid possesses one of the highest melting points for a crystalline nicotine solid reported to date

Supplementary document for Unidirectional coupled chiral fiber grating - 6821356.pdf

Unidirectional coupled chiral fiber gratin

Supplementary document for Reuleaux triangle core fiber with triple rotational symmetry - 6797647.pdf

Reuleaux triangle core fiber with triple rotational symmetr

Smoothing of single crystal diamond by high-speed three-dimensional dynamic friction polishing: Optimization and surface bonds evolution mechanism

The high-speed three-dimensional movement dynamic friction polishing (3DM-DFP) has been recognized as an efficient approach for ultra-smoothing single crystal diamond (SCD) surface. Continuing from the previous works focusing on the subsurface cleavage of diamond after 3DM-DFP, process optimization and surface reaction evolution mechanism as a fundamental building block is investigated, for the first time, for comprehensively understanding this fast-smoothing manner. By systematically adjusting the controlling factor, stronger load (0.3 MPa) and appropriate duration (0.5 h) as well as moderate sliding speed (in the range of 30 to 45 m s−1) is found to be able to obtain the smooth surface of SCD without uncontacted traces or break-surface cleavage. Subtle residual clues on SCD surface as a function of progressive DFP procedure indicate that Fe catalytic oxidation mainly produce Fe2O3 and partial intermediate oxides Fe1-yO. Meanwhile, the activated oxygen inserts sp3 Csingle bondC bonds could form Csingle bondO or Cdouble bondO and C-O-V (vacancy) at existing reactive surface sites. The (100) favorable Cdouble bondO bonds can be rebuilt if (100) surface is reformed, although the Csingle bondO bonds associated with non-(100) rough surface would replace them during DFP procedure. The formed Csingle bondOsingle bondC and concomitant C-O-V as well as the oxidized graphite give rise to the increase of Csingle bondO proportion, and finally the covered defective graphitic phase has an approximate Csingle bondO/Cdouble bondO ratio of 1.25. All these are endowed potential value for future upgrading of DFP technique for diamond surface smoothing.</div

Evolutionary features of subsurface defects of single crystal diamond after dynamic friction polishing

Due to the fatigue and continuous energy input during high-speed dynamic friction polishing (DFP), the diamond crystal beneath the polished surface (roughness 50 nm) and even preferential crystal cleavage with the non-diamond phase (distributing at the position in micrometers range).</p

Evolutionary features of subsurface defects of single crystal diamond after dynamic friction polishing

Due to the fatigue and continuous energy input during high-speed dynamic friction polishing (DFP), the diamond crystal beneath the polished surface (roughness 50 nm) and even preferential crystal cleavage with the non-diamond phase (distributing at the position in micrometers range).</p

Image_4_Peripheral Blood Lymphocyte Subsets Predict the Efficacy of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer.tif

BackgroundNon–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has entered the era of immunotherapy. However, only partial patients were able to benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Currently, biomarkers for predicting patients’ response to ICIs are primarily tumor tissue dependent and have limited accuracy. There is an urgent need to explore peripheral blood-based biomarkers to predict the efficacy and safety of ICI therapy.MethodsTo explore the correlation between lymphocyte subsets and the efficacy and safety of ICIs, we retrospectively analyzed peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and survival prognosis data of 136 patients with stage IV NSCLC treated with ICIs.ResultsThe two factors that had the greatest impact on the prognosis of patients with NSCLC treated with ICIs were CD4+CD45RA− T cell (HR = 0.644, P = 0.047) and CD8+ T/lymphocyte (%) (HR = 1.806, P = 0.015). CD4+CD45RA− T cell showed excellent predictive efficacy (AUC = 0.854) for ICIs monotherapy, with a sensitivity of 75.0% and specificity of 91.7% using CD4+CD45RA− T cell >311.3 × 106/L as the threshold. In contrast, CD8+ T/lymphocyte (%) was only associated with the prognosis but had no predictive role for ICI efficacy. CD4+ T cell and its subsets were significantly higher in patients with mild (grades 1–2) immune-related adverse events (irAEs) than those without irAEs. CD8+CD38+ T cell was associated with total irAEs and severe (grades 3–4) irAEs but was not suitable to be a predictive biomarker.ConclusionPeripheral blood CD4+CD45RA− T cell was associated with the prognosis of patients with NSCLC applying ICIs, whereas CD8+CD38+ T cell was associated with irAEs and severe irAEs.</p