Novel Insights into Orbital Angular Momentum Beams: From Fundamentals, Devices to Applications

It is well-known by now that the angular momentum carried by elementary particles can be categorized as spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM). In the early 1900s, Poynting recognized that a particle, such as a photon, can carry SAM, which has only two possible states, i.e., clockwise and anticlockwise circular polarization states. However, only fairly recently, in 1992, Allen et al. discovered that photons with helical phase fronts can carry OAM, which has infinite orthogonal states. In the past two decades, the OAM-carrying beam, due to its unique features, has gained increasing interest from many different research communities, including physics, chemistry, and engineering. Its twisted phase front and intensity distribution have enabled a variety of applications, such as micromanipulation, laser beam machining, nonlinear matter interactions, imaging, sensing, quantum cryptography and classical communications. This book aims to explore novel insights of OAM beams. It focuses on state-of-the-art advances in fundamental theories, devices and applications, as well as future perspectives of OAM beams

Element dependence of enhancement in optics emission from laser-induced plasma under spatial confinement

In this study, the element dependence of spatial confinement effects in LIBS has been studied. Hemispheric cavities were used to confine laser-induced plasmas from aluminum samples with other trace elements. The enhancement factors were found to be dependent on the elements. Equations describing the element dependent enhancement factors were successfully deduced from the local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions, which have also been verified by the experimental results. Research results show that enhancement factors in LIBS with spatial confinement depend on the temperature, electron density, and compression ratio of plasmas, and vary with elements and atomic/ionic emission lines selected. Generally, emission lines with higher upper level energies have higher enhancement factors. Furthermore, with enhancement factor of a spectral line, temperatures and electron densities of plasmas known, enhancement factors of all the other elements in the plasmas could be estimated by the equations developed in this study

Run or Die in the Evolution of New MicroRNAs-Testing the Red Queen Hypothesis on De Novo New Genes.

The Red Queen hypothesis depicts evolution as the continual struggle to adapt. According to this hypothesis, new genes, especially those originating from nongenic sequences (i.e., de novo genes), are eliminated unless they evolve continually in adaptation to a changing environment. Here, we analyze two Drosophila de novo miRNAs that are expressed in a testis-specific manner with very high rates of evolution in their DNA sequence. We knocked out these miRNAs in two sibling species and investigated their contributions to different fitness components. We observed that the fitness contributions of miR-975 in Drosophila simulans seem positive, in contrast to its neutral contributions in D. melanogaster, whereas miR-983 appears to have negative contributions in both species, as the fitness of the knockout mutant increases. As predicted by the Red Queen hypothesis, the fitness difference of these de novo miRNAs indicates their different fates

Key Role of the Membrane Trafficking of Nav1.5 Channel Protein in Antidepressant-Induced Brugada Syndrome

Anti-depressant treatment has been found to be associated with the development of Brugada syndrome (BrS) through poorly defined mechanisms. Herein, this study aimed to explore the molecular basis for amitriptyline-induced BrS. The effects of long-term treatments of amitriptyline on Nav1.5 were investigated using neonatal rat ventricular myocytes. The electrophysiological properties, expression and distribution of Nav1.5 were studied using the patch clamp, Western blot and confocal laser microscopy assays. Interactions between Nav1.5 and its interacting proteins, including ankyrin-G and dystrophin, were evaluated by co-immunoprecipitation. A larger decrease in the peak INa occurred after long-term treatments to amitriptyline (56.64%) than after acute exposure to amitriptyline (28%). Slow recovery from inactivation of Nav1.5 was observed after acute or long-term treatments to amitriptyline. The expression of Nav1.5 on the cell membrane showed a larger decrease by long-term treatments to amitriptyline than by acute exposure to amitriptyline. After long-term treatments to amitriptyline, we observed reduced Nav1.5 proteins on the cell membrane and the disrupted co-localization of Nav1.5 and ankyrin-G or dystrophin. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments further testified that the combination of Nav1.5 and ankyrin-G or dystrophin was severely weakened after long-term treatments to amitriptyline, implying the failed interaction between Nav1.5 and ankyrin-G or dystrophin. Our data suggest that the long-term effect of amitriptyline serves as an important contribution to BrS induced by amitriptyline. The mechanisms of BrS induced by amitriptyline were related to Nav1.5 trafficking and could be explained by the disrupted interaction of ankyrin-G, dystrophin and Nav1.5

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Papilio machaon annae Gistel (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Papilioninae)

The mitochondrial genome of Papilio machaon annae is described in this study. The molecule is 15,339 bp in length and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and an AT-rich region. All PCGs use the typical start and stop codons, except COI, COII use single T–– and ND3 uses ATG as their stop codons. The rrnL and rrnS genes are 1365 bp and 780 bp in length, respectively. The AT-rich region contains several structures characteristic of the lepidopterans. Phylogenetic analysis shows that P. machaon annae is the closest realtive of Papilio hospiton, rather than the Papilio machaon

The complete mitochondrial genome of Aglais ladakensis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae)

We describe the mitogenome sequence of alpine butterfly Aglais ladakensis (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae) collected from the Qilianshan Mountain, Gansu province, China. The molecule is 15,222 bp in length, containing 37 typical insect mitochondrial genes and one AT-rich region. All protein-coding genes (PCGs) start with ATN codons, except for COI gene with CGA, which is often found in other butterflies. In addition, seven PCGs harbor the typical stop codon TAA, whereas six PCGs terminate with TA or T. The rrnL and rrnS genes are 1316 bp and 735 bp in length, respectively. The AT-rich region is 394 bp in size and harbors several features characteristic of the lepidopterans, including the motif ATAGA followed by a 19 bp poly-T stretch and a microsatellite-like (TA)8 element. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) distributed A. ladakensis of this study is closely related to the A. milberti, which is the only Aglais species that occurs in the alpine caves of North America

Optical Communications and Networking: Prospects in Industrial Applications

In the past few decades, the optical communication industry has explored multiple degrees of freedom of the photon, such as time, wavelength, amplitude, phase, polarization, and space, to significantly reduce the cost/bit of data transmission by increasing the capacity per fiber through multiplexing technology and by reducing the size and power through electronic and photonic integration. This book aims to explore the latest advancements in this industry, including the technologies in devices, systems, and network levels with applications from short-reach chip-to-chip interconnections to long-haul backbone communications at the trans-oceanic distance

Special Issue on Novel Insights into Orbital Angular Momentum Beams: From Fundamentals, Devices to Applications

It is well-known now that angular momentum carried by elementary particles can be categorized as spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) [...

Hydrogen embrittlement behavior of selective laser-melted Inconel 718 alloy

In this study, slow strain rate tensile tests under in situ hydrogen electrochemical charge are performed to investigate the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) behavior of selective laser-melted (SLM) and post-heat-treated Inconel 718 alloys in tandem with microstructure evolution and cracking feature characterization. The results indicate that the high density of dislocations and local strain along the cellular structure walls in the as-SLM sample increase local hydrogen concentration, leading to a crack along the cell walls of the cellular structure. The tensile strength and the HE susceptibility are significantly enhanced by the precipitation of the γ′, γ″, and δ phases generated by solution aging. Solution-aged samples suffer from the severe HE susceptibility caused by the δ phase formation along the grain boundaries and the cell walls, which lead to the δ/γ interface cracking

Association of Genes implicated in primary angle-closure Glaucoma and the ocular biometric parameters of anterior chamber depth and axial length in a northern Chinese population

Abstract Background The membrane frizzled-related protein (MFRP) gene is involved in axial length (AL) regulation and MFRP mutations cause nanophthalmos; also, the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene is reported to result in morphologic changes of the anterior segment and abnormal aqueous regulation that increases the risk of primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG), while the zinc ring finger 3 (ZNRF3) gene is associated with AL. The present study investigated the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ZNRF3, HGF and MFRP with PACG in a northern Chinese population, as well as the association of these SNPs with the ocular biometric parameters of anterior chamber depth (ACD) and AL. Methods A total of 500 PACG patients and 720 controls were recruited. All individuals were genotyped for 12 SNPs in three genes (rs7290117, rs2179129, rs4823006 and rs3178915 in ZNRF3; rs5745718, rs12536657, rs12540393, rs17427817 and rs3735520 in HGF, rs2510143, rs36015759 and rs3814762 in MFRP) using an improved multiplex ligation detection reaction (iMLDR) technique. Genotypic distribution was analyzed for Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Differences in the allelic and genotypic frequencies were evaluated and adjusted by age and sex. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) patterns were tested and haplotype analysis was conducted by a logistic regression model. Generalized estimation equation (GEE) analysis was conducted using SPSS for primary association testing between genotypes and ocular biometric parameters. Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons were performed, and the statistical power was calculated by power and sample size calculations. Results The rs7290117 SNP in ZNRF3 was significantly associated with the AL, with a p-value of 0.002. We did not observe any significant associations between the SNPs and PACG or ACD. In a stratification analysis by ethnicity, rs12540393 and rs17427817 in HGF showed a nominal association with PACG in the Hui cohort, although significance was lost after correction. Conclusions The present study suggests rs7290117 in ZNRF3 may be involved in the regulation of AL, though our results do not support a contribution of the SNPs we tested in ZNRF3, HGF and MFRP to PACG in northern Chinese people. Further studies in a larger population are warranted to confirm this conclusion