Electrically controlled liquid-crystal cell enhanced with plasmonic metamaterial

We demonstrate high-contrast electro-optical modulator based on a hybrid liquid-crystal cell incorporating a nano-structured plasmonic metamaterial. With the control signal of only 7V we achieved fivefold, hysteresis-free transmission modulation at the wavelength of 1.55µm

Physiologically regulated transgenic ABCA1 does not reduce amyloid burden or amyloid‐beta peptide levels in vivo

J Lipid Res. 2007 Apr;48(4):914-23. Epub 2007 Jan 18. Physiologically regulated transgenic ABCA1 does not reduce amyloid burden or amyloid-beta peptide levels in vivo. Hirsch-Reinshagen V, Chan JY, Wilkinson A, Tanaka T, Fan J, Ou G, Maia LF, Singaraja RR, Hayden MR, Wellington CL. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Abstract ABCA1-deficient mice have low levels of poorly lipidated apolipoprotein E (apoE) and exhibit increased amyloid load. To test whether excess ABCA1 protects from amyloid deposition, we crossed APP/PS1 mice to ABCA1 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenic mice. Compared with wild-type animals, the ABCA1 BAC led to a 50% increase in cortical ABCA1 protein and a 15% increase in apoE abundance, demonstrating that this BAC supports modest ABCA1 overexpression in brain. However, this was observed only in animals that do not deposit amyloid. Comparison of ABCA1/APP/PS1 mice with APP/PS1 controls revealed no differences in levels of brain ABCA1 protein, amyloid, Abeta, or apoE, despite clear retention of ABCA1 overexpression in the livers of these animals. To further investigate ABCA1 expression in the amyloid-containing brain, we then compared ABCA1 mRNA and protein levels in young and aged cortex and cerebellum of APP/PS1 and ABCA1/APP/PS1 animals. Compared with APP/PS1 controls, aged ABCA1/APP/PS1 mice exhibited increased ABCA1 mRNA, but not protein, selectively in cortex. Additionally, ABCA1 mRNA levels were not increased before amyloid deposition but were induced only in the presence of extensive Abeta and amyloid levels. These data suggest that an induction of ABCA1 expression may be associated with late-stage Alzheimer's neuropathology. PMID: 17235115 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Hospitalization after Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer: A population-based study in Utah

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA, age 15 39 years) with cancer may be at elevated risk for late morbidity following their cancer treatment, but few studies have quantified the excess burden of severe disease in this population. Using population-based data from Utah, we examined the risk of inpatient hospitalizations among AYA cancer survivors compared with their siblings and the general population. Methods: Survivors of AYA cancer who were 2 years from diagnosis and diagnosed from 1994 to 2015 (N 1/4 6,330), their siblings (N 1/4 12,924), and an age- and sex-matched comparison cohort (N 1/4 18,171) were identified using the Utah Population Database (UPDB). Hospitalizations from 1996 to 2017 were identified from statewide discharge records in the UPDB. We estimated multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) for first hospitalization and rate ratios (RR) for total hospitalizations for survivors relative to the matched comparison cohort and siblings. Results: Overall, the risk of a first hospitalization was higher among AYA cancer survivors than the matched populationbased cohort [HR 1/4 1.93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.81 2.06]. Risk was most elevated for survivors of leukemia (HR 1/4 4.76), central nervous system tumors (HR 1/4 3.45), colorectal cancers (HR 1/4 2.83), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (HR 1/4 2.76), and breast cancer (HR 1/4 2.37). The rate of total hospitalizations was also increased among survivors relative to the comparison cohort (RR 1/4 2.05; 95% CI, 1.95 2.14). Patterns were generally similar in analyses comparing survivors to their siblings. Conclusions: AYA cancer survivors have a higher burden of inpatient hospitalization than their siblings and the general population. Impact: Results indicate the importance of long-term, riskbased follow-up care to prevent and treat severe morbidities after cancer treatment

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

An integrative multi-omics analysis to identify candidate DNA methylation biomarkers related to prostate cancer risk

It remains elusive whether some of the associations identified in genome-wide association studies of prostate cancer (PrCa) may be due to regulatory effects of genetic variants on CpG sites, which may further influence expression of PrCa target genes. To search for Cp

Female chromosome X mosaicism is age-related and preferentially affects the inactivated X chromosome

To investigate large structural clonal mosaicism of chromosome X, we analysed the SNP microarray intensity data of 38,303 women from cancer genome-wide association studies (20,878 cases and 17,425 controls) and detected 124 mosaic X events42Mb in 97 (0.25%) women. Here we show rates for X-chromosome mosaicism are four times higher than mean autosomal rates; X mosaic events more often include the entire chromosome and participants with X events more likely harbour autosomal mosaic events. X mosaicism frequency increases with age (0.11% in 50-year olds; 0.45% in 75-year olds), as reported for Y and autosomes. Methylation array analyses of 33 women with X mosaicism indicate events preferentially involve the inactive X chromosome. Our results provide further evidence that the sex chromosomes undergo mosaic events more frequently than autosomes, which could have implications for understanding the underlying mechanisms of mosaic events and their possible contribution to risk for chronic diseases

Light driven nonlinear plasmonic optomechanical metamaterials

The realization of integrated optical system on a chip requires extreme miniaturization functional elements. To reach this objective, novel approach must be developed to manipulate light with light in small areas and interaction lengths. Here we experimentally demonstrate optically driven mechanically reconfigurable photonic metamaterial exhibiting an extraordinarily large optical nonlinarity. With nonlinear absorption of β ~ 0.8 cm/W, the nanostructure is 7 orders of magnitude more nonlinear than nonlinearity of semiconductors such as GaAs at optical frequencies

Playing a metamaterial guitar with light: optically addressable nanomechanical metamaterials

Optical signals actuating unique elements of a nanostructure at their eigenfrequencies are used to modulate metasurface properties with sub-wavelength spatial resolution thus creating a randomly addressable metamaterial that acts as all-optical spatial light modulator

Reconfigurable gradient metasurfaces with random access

Since metamaterials have enabled the design of almost arbitrary landscapes of static optical properties and functionalities, dynamic temporal and spatial control over metamaterial properties has become the next big challenge [1]. Here we demonstrate the first randomly addressable reconfigurable metamaterials, thus enabling fast and high-contrast control over optical properties simultaneously in time and space