Controllable distant interactions at bound state in the continuum

Distant interactions at arbitrary locations and their dynamic control are fundamentally important for realizing large-scale photonic and quantum circuits. Conventional approaches suffer from short coupling distance, poor controllability, fixed locations and low wavelength uniformity, significantly restricting the scalability of photonic and quantum networks. Here, we exploit the intrinsic advantages of optical bound state in the continuum (BIC) and demonstrate an all-in-one solution for dynamically controllable long-range interactions. BIC metasurface can support a series of finite-sized quasi-BIC microlasers at arbitrary locations. The quasi-BICs microlasers have the same wavelength and are inherently connected through BIC waveguide. Consequently, the coupling distances in experiment increase significantly from subwavelength to tens of micrometers. Such long-range interaction in BIC metasurface enables scaling to two-dimensional architectures and ultrafast control of internal laser actions, e.g., non-Hermitian zero-mode lasing and enhanced optical gain. This research shall facilitate the advancement of scalable and reconfigurable photonic networks.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Improvement of the separation evolution law and separation position determination method of mining overburden strata

In view of the shortcomings of the traditional method of determining the position of the separation layer, according to the actual movement of the pressure balance arch and the rock layer in the overburden, the concept of the triangular separation domain is proposed, and the relationship between the range of the triangular separation domain and the mining distance and the mining fracture angle is established. The calculation method of rock load is modified. By analyzing the stress mode in the pressure arch of the separation zone, the mechanical model of the deflection calculation of each rock stratum is established. Combining the triangular separation zone with the new mechanical model, the calculation model of the dynamic evolution analysis of the separation zone and the calculation model of the composite beam in the separation zone are established. The traditional method and the improved method are used to determine the separation position in an actual mining example. The field exploration proves that the results of the improved method described in this paper are more accurate. The model predicts the position of overburden separation by comparing the deflection between adjacent strata on the same horizontal contact surface, and can accurately predict the position of separation above the working face

Vegetation change and human-environment interactions in the Qinghai Lake Basin, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, since the last deglaciation

The nature of the interaction between prehistoric humans and their environment, especially the vegetation, has long been of interest. The Qinghai Lake Basin in North China is well-suited to exploring the interactions between prehistoric humans and vegetation in the Tibetan Plateau, because of the comparatively dense distribution of archaeological sites and the ecologically fragile environment. Previous pollen studies of Qinghai Lake have enabled a detailed reconstruction of the regional vegetation, but they have provided relatively little information on vegetation change within the Qinghai Lake watershed. To address the issue we conducted a pollen-based vegetation reconstruction for an archaeological site (YWY), located on the southern shore of Qinghai Lake. We used high temporal-resolution pollen records from the YWY site and from Qinghai Lake, spanning the interval since the last deglaciation (15.3 kyr BP to the present) to quantitatively reconstruct changes in the local and regional vegetation using Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm models. The results show that, since the lateglacial, spruce forest grew at high altitudes in the surrounding mountains, while the lakeshore environment was occupied mainly by shrub-steppe. From the lateglacial to the middle Holocene, coniferous woodland began to expand downslope and reached the YWY site at ∼ 7.1 kyr BP. The living environment of the local small groups of Paleolithic-Epipaleolithic humans (during 15.3–13.1 kyr BP and 9–6.4 kyr BP) changed from shrub-steppe to coniferous forest–steppe. The pollen record shows no evidence of pronounced changes in the vegetation community corresponding to human activity. However, based on a comparison of the local and regional vegetation reconstructions, low values of biodiversity and a significant increase in two indicators of vegetation degradation, Chenopodiaceae and Rosaceae, suggest that prehistoric hunters-gatherers likely disturbed the local vegetation during ∼ 9.0–6.4 kyr BP. Our findings are a preliminary attempt to study human-environment interactions at Paleolithic-Epipaleolithic sites in the region, and they contribute to ongoing environmental archaeology research in the Tibetan Plateau

Clinical thought-based software for diagnosing developmental dysplasia of the hip on pediatric pelvic radiographs

BackgroundThe common methods of radiographic diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) include measuring hip parameters and quantifying the degree of hip dislocation. However, clinical thought-based analysis of hip parameters may be a more effective way to achieve expert-like diagnoses of DDH. This study aims to develop a diagnostic strategy-based software for pediatric DDH and validate its clinical feasibility.MethodsIn total, 543 anteroposterior pelvic radiographs were retrospectively collected from January 2017 to December 2021. Two independent clinicians measured four diagnostic indices to compare the diagnoses made by the software and conventional manual method. The diagnostic accuracy was evaluated using the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves and confusion matrix, and the consistency of parametric measurements was assessed using Bland-Altman plots.ResultsIn 543 cases (1,086 hips), the area under the curve, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the software for diagnosing DDH were 0.988–0.994, 99.08%–99.72%, 98.07%–100.00%, and 99.59%, respectively. Compared with the expert panel, the Bland-Altman 95% limits of agreement for the acetabular index, as determined by the software, were −2.09°–2.91° (junior orthopedist) and −1.98°–2.72° (intermediate orthopedist). As for the lateral center-edge angle, the 95% limits were −3.68°–5.28° (junior orthopedist) and −2.94°–4.59° (intermediate orthopedist).ConclusionsThe software can provide expert-like analysis of pelvic radiographs and obtain the radiographic diagnosis of pediatric DDH with great consistency and efficiency. Its initial success lays the groundwork for developing a full-intelligent comprehensive diagnostic system of DDH

Photons in gapless color-flavor-locked quark matter

We calculate the Debye and Meissner masses of a gauge boson in a material consisting of two species of massless fermions that form a condensate of Cooper pairs. We perform the calculation as a function of temperature, for the cases of neutral Cooper pairs and charged Cooper pairs, and for a range of parameters including gapped quaisparticles, and ungapped quasiparticles with both quadratic and linear dispersion relations at low energy. Our results are relevant to the behavior of photons and gluons in the gapless color-flavor-locked phase of quark matter. We find that the photon's Meissner mass vanishes, and the Debye mass shows a non-monotonic temperature dependence, and at temperatures of order the pairing gap it drops to a minimum value of order sqrt(alpha) times the quark chemical potential. We confirm previous claims that at zero temperature an imaginary Meissner mass can arise from a charged gapless condensate, and we find that at finite temperature this can also occur for a gapped condensate.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX; expanded discussion of temperature dependenc

Radiogenomic Analysis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma for Prediction of Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis: A Preliminary Study

Background Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is characterized by frequent metastases to cervical lymph nodes (CLNs), and the presence of lymph node metastasis at diagnosis has a significant impact on the surgical approach. Therefore, we established a radiomic signature to predict the CLN status of PTC patients using preoperative thyroid ultrasound, and investigated the association between the radiomic features and underlying molecular characteristics of PTC tumors. Methods In total, 270 patients were enrolled in this prospective study, and radiomic features were extracted according to multiple guidelines. A radiomic signature was built with selected features in the training cohort and validated in the validation cohort. The total protein extracted from tumor samples was analyzed with LC/MS and iTRAQ technology. Gene modules acquired by clustering were chosen for their diagnostic significance. A radiogenomic map linking radiomic features to gene modules was constructed with the Spearman correlation matrix. Genes in modules related to metastasis were extracted for Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses, and a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was built to identify the hub genes in the modules. Finally, the screened hub genes were validated by immunohistochemistry analysis. Results The radiomic signature showed good performance for predicting CLN status in training and validation cohorts, with area under curve of 0.873 and 0.831 respectively. A radiogenomic map was created with nine significant correlations between radiomic features and gene modules, and two of them had higher correlation coefficient. Among these, MEmeganta representing the upregulation of telomere maintenance via telomerase and cell-cell adhesion was correlated with 'Rectlike' and 'deviation ratio of tumor tissue and normal thyroid gland' which reflect the margin and the internal echogenicity of the tumor, respectively. MEblue capturing cell-cell adhesion and glycolysis was associated with feature 'minimum calcification area' which measures the punctate calcification. The hub genes of the two modules were identified by protein-protein interaction network. Immunohistochemistry validated that LAMC1 and THBS1 were differently expressed in metastatic and non-metastatic tissues (p=0.003; p=0.002). And LAMC1 was associated with feature 'Rectlike' and 'deviation ratio of tumor and normal thyroid gland' (p<0.001; p<0.001); THBS1 was correlated with 'minimum calcification area' (p<0.001). Conclusions The radiomic signature proposed here has the potential to noninvasively predict the CLN status in PTC patients. Merging imaging phenotypes with genomic data could allow noninvasive identification of the molecular properties of PTC tumors, which might support clinical decision making and personalized management