Combination and compression of multiple pulses with same or different wavelengths

Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61675008 and in part by Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission under Grant GJHZ20180411185015272. K. Nakkeeran wishes to thank The Royal Society Kan Tong Po International Fellowship 2018 for the financial support to visit The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Peer reviewedPostprin

Combination and Compression of Multiple Optical Pulses in Nonlinear Fibers with the Exponentially Decreasing Dispersion

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. Project 61675008).Peer reviewedPostprin

Aurora-A Induces Chemoresistance Through Activation of the AKT/mTOR Pathway in Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynecological tumor all over the world, and advanced/metastatic EC remains a malignancy with poor survival outcome due to highly resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic treatment. Here, we report that Aurora-A, a serine-threonine kinase, plays a vital role in chemoresistance of EC. Aurora-A is overexpressed in EC tissues, compared with normal endometrium and Aurora-A expression is associated with decreased overall survival. Overexpression of Aurora-A in EC cell lines (Ishikawa and HEC-1B cells) promotes cell proliferation and induced paclitaxel- and cisplatin-resistance. Furthermore, Aurora-A activating AKT-mTOR pathway further induces chemoresistance in vitro, consistent with a positive correlation between Aurora-A and phosphorylated AKT/4E-BP1 expression in EC tissues. In summary, our study provides the strong evidence that Aurora-A controls the sensitivity of EC cell lines to chemotherapy via AKT/mTOR pathway, indicating that pharmacologic intervention of Aurora-A and AKT/mTOR in combination with chemotherapy may be considered for the targeted therapy against EC with overexpression of Aurora-A

A Novel Transverse Flux Permanent Magnet Disk Wind Power Generator with H-Shaped Stator Cores

This paper presents a novel transverse flux permanent magnet disk generator (TFPMDG) for wind power generation. The main features of its structure are the modular H-shaped stator cores and two simple rotor disks. What is different from the structures introduced in the references is that each H-shaped stator core is formed by two T-shaped iron cores and a permanent magnet (PM) rather than a complete H-shaped core, which makes the manufacturing simpler and easier. Each rotor disk consists of a rotor holder and several rotor bars, resulting in high robustness and reliability. Moreover, two circular coils in the H-shaped stator cores together with the stator disk are sandwiched by the two rotor disks, which improves the utilization of PMs. In this paper, the proposed TFPMDG is investigated in detail. Firstly, the structure and operating principle are introduced. Then, the magnetic circuit method is used to analyze the TFPMDG. Next, the three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) is employed to compute the magnetic field distribution and EMF at no load. According to the calculation result, the other three TFPMDGs with different shapes of rotor cores are proposed and analyzed for better back EMF, and then a generator with good performance is selected for load analysis. Finally, a prototype is fabricated and tested, and the simulated results are compared with the measured ones, which proves the rationality of the simulated results

Dietary energy intake affects fetal survival and development during early and middle pregnancy in Large White and Meishan gilts

This experiment was designed to determine the effects of variations in dietary energy intake on reproductive performance and gene expression of luteal and endometrium tissues in Large White (LW) and Meishan (MS) gilts during early and middle pregnancy. After insemination, 32 LW gilts were assigned to high and low (HEL and LEL, 14.23 and 12.56 MJ DE/kg, respectively) diet treatment groups, while 32 MS gilts were allocated to HEM and LEM (12.56 and 10.88 MJ DE/kg) groups. Gilts were slaughtered on days 35, 55 and 90 of gestation. The fetal survival and luteal progesterone (P4) concentration in the HEL group were higher on day 35 but lower on day 90 of gestation compared with the LEL group (P < 0.05) for LW gilts. However, fetal survival and luteal P4 concentration on day 35 of gestation were greater (P < 0.05) in the LEM group than in the HEM group for MS gilts, but no significant difference in mid-gestation was showed. The fetal weights of both breeds were higher for the high energy diets compared with the respective control group on day 90 of gestation (P < 0.05). In addition, the mRNA levels of P4 synthesis-related proteins had correlated with luteal P4 concentration in both breeds. Further, endometrial levels of uteroferrin (ACP5), retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) and secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) mRNA were upregulated in the HEL group on day 35 of gestation but ACP5 and SPP1 were downregulated on day 55 of gestation compared with the LEL group (P < 0.05) for LW gilts. In MS gilts, diet only affected the expression of SPP1 (P < 0.05). Our results revealed the differential sensitivity of LW and MS breeds to variations in dietary energy intake. For LW gilts, the HEL group improved fetal survival on day 35 but a sustained high energy diet decreased fetal survival on day 90 of gestation. The differences in dietary energy intake did not influence fetal survival on day 90 of gestation but the higher energy diet did increase fetal weight in the MS breed compared with the lower energy intake diet. These results may be due to differential luteal secretion activity and endometrium gene expression in these two breeds. Keywords: Energy level, Fetal survival, Corpus luteum, Endometrium, pi

A Green and Efficient Solvent for Simultaneously Leaching Co and Li from Spent Li-Ion Batteries: Dicarboxylated Polyethylene Glycol

Recovery of high-valued metals such as Li and Co from spent Li-ion batteries is quite important for sustainability reasons. The novelty of this work was based on the view of molecular design, proposing a strategy that inserts another group between two −COOH groups on an organic acid to activate them. On this basis, a novel solvent dicarboxylated polyethylene glycol (dcPEG), i.e., HOOC–CH2(CH2CH2O)nCH2–COOH, was chosen to leach Li and Co from LiCoO2. Expectedly, HOOC–CH2(CH2CH2O)nCH2–COOH (n = 250), which was denoted as dcPEG250, showed appealing leaching performance without the help of H2O2 and quaternary ammonium salt. It can simultaneously extract Co and Li, and the leaching efficiency reached as high as almost 100% under the proper conditions. The excellent performance was ascribed to structural feature of dcPEG. The presence of main chain (CH2CH2O)n extended the distance between two −COOH groups at the ends, limited their intramolecular interaction, and activated the −COOH groups. Accordingly, the active H atom on the −COOH group can react with LiCoO2, and the active O atoms on ether (C–O–C) and carbonyl (CO) groups can coordinate with metals. In a word, this work could not only provide a promising solvent but also inspire researchers to engineer more novel solvents from the view of molecular design