In-situ evaluation of the pitch of a reflective-type scale grating by using a mode-locked femtosecond laser

Major modifications are made to the setup and signal processing of the method of in-situ measurement of the pitch of a diffraction grating based on the angles of diffraction of the diffracted optical frequency comb laser emanated from the grating. In the method, the improvement of the uncertainty of in-situ pitch measurement can be expected since every mode in the diffracted optical frequency comb laser can be utilized. Instead of employing a Fabry-Pérot etalon for the separation of the neighboring modes in the group of the diffracted laser beams, the weight-of-mass method is introduced in the method to detect the light wavelength in the Littrow configuration. An attempt is also made to reduce the influence of the non-uniform spectrum of the optical comb laser employed in the setup through normalization operation. In addition, an optical alignment technique with the employment of a retroreflector is introduced for the precise alignment of optical components in the setup. Furthermore, a mathematical model of the pitch measurement by the proposed method is established, and theoretical analysis on the uncertainty of pitch measurement is carried out based on the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM). Keywords: diffraction grating; grating pitch; mode-locked femtosecond laser; laser diffraction; diffraction equation; measurement uncertainty analysi

Ca2+-Dependent Interaction between FKBP12 and Calcineurin Regulates Activity of the Ca2+ Release Channel in Skeletal Muscle

AbstractCalcineurin is a Ca2+ and calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase with diverse cellular functions. Here we examined the physical and functional interactions between calcineurin and ryanodine receptor (RyR) in a C2C12 cell line derived from mouse skeletal muscle. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments revealed that the association between RyR and calcineurin exhibits a strong Ca2+ dependence. This association involves a Ca2+ dependent interaction between calcineurin and FK506-binding protein (FKBP12), an accessory subunit of RyR. Pretreatment with cyclosporin A, an inhibitor of calcineurin, enhanced the caffeine-induced Ca2+ release (CICR) in C2C12 cells. This effect was similar to those of FK506 and rapamycin, two drugs known to cause dissociation of FKBP12 from RyR. Overexpression of a constitutively active form of calcineurin in C2C12 cells, ΔCnA(391–521) (deletion of the last 131 amino acids from calcineurin), resulted in a decrease in CICR. This decrease in CICR activity was partially recovered by pretreatment with cyclosporin A. Furthermore, overexpression of an endogenous calcineurin inhibitor (cain) or an inactive form of calcineurin (ΔCnA(H101Q)) in C2C12 cells resulted in up-regulation of CICR. Taken together, our data suggest that a trimeric-interaction among calcineurin, FKBP12, and RyR is important for the regulation of the RyR channel activity and may play an important role in the Ca2+ signaling of muscle contraction and relaxation

Effects of nanofluids containing graphene/graphene-oxide nanosheets on critical heat flux

The superb thermal conduction property of graphene establishes graphene as an excellent material for thermal management. In this paper, we selected graphene/graphene oxide nanosheets as the additives in nanofluids. The authors interestingly found that the highly enhanced critical heat flux (CHF) in the nanofluids containing graphene/graphene-oxide nanosheets (GON) cannot be explained by both the improved surface wettability and the capillarity of the nanoparticles deposition layer. Here we highlights that the GON nanofluid can be exploited to maximize the CHF the most efficiently by building up a characteristically ordered porous surface structure due to its own self-assembly characteristic resulting in a geometrically changed critical instability wavelength.open363

Good Glycemic Control Is Associated with Better Survival in Diabetic Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis: A Prospective Observational Study

BACKGROUND: The effect of glycemic control after starting peritoneal dialysis (PD) on the survival of diabetic PD patients has largely been unexplored, especially in Asian population. METHODS: We conducted a prospective observational study, in which 140 incident PD patients with diabetes were recruited. Patients were divided into tertiles according to the means of quarterly HbA1C levels measured during the first year after starting PD. We examined the association between HbA1C and all-cause mortality using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: The mean age was 58.7 years, 59.3% were male, and the mean follow-up duration was 3.5 years (range 0.4-9.5 years). The mean HbA1C levels were 6.3%, 7.1%, and 8.5% in the 1(st), 2(nd), and 3(rd) tertiles, respectively. Compared to the 1(st) tertile, the all-cause mortality rates were higher in the 2(nd) [hazard ratio (HR), 4.16; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.91-18.94; p = 0.065] and significantly higher in the 3(rd) (HR, 13.16; 95% CI, 2.67-64.92; p = 0.002) tertiles (p for trend = 0.005), after adjusting for confounding factors. Cardiovascular mortality, however, did not differ significantly among the tertiles (p for trend = 0.682). In contrast, non-cardiovascular deaths, most of which were caused by infection, were more frequent in the 2(nd) (HR, 7.67; 95% CI, 0.68-86.37; p = 0.099) and the 3(rd) (HR, 51.24; 95% CI, 3.85-681.35; p = 0.003) tertiles than the 1(st) tertile (p for trend = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Poor glycemic control is associated with high mortality rates in diabetic PD patients, suggesting that better glycemic control may improve the outcomes of these patients

Case report: Exploring teduglutide as a therapeutic option for refractory microscopic colitis: insights and implications

Microscopic colitis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the colon characterized by chronic watery diarrhea, generally with endoscopically normal or nonspecific findings, and can be diagnosed by histopathological examination of colon mucosal biopsies. Some patients experience severe symptoms that do not respond to conventional medical treatment. A glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) analog, teduglutide, is used in patients with short bowel syndrome (SBS) dependent on parenteral support. In this case report, we describe a patient with microscopic colitis who demonstrated significant symptom improvement following teduglutide treatment

Racial differences in long-term social, physical, and psychological health among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

Background The current guidelines for survivorship in adolescents and young adults (AYA) cancer are based on studies conducted in the United States and European AYA survivors. However, previous studies have shown that the health-related quality of life in cancer survivors can vary depending on race, yet the long-term health differences among AYA survivors by race/ethnicity have not been fully explored. Therefore, our aim is to compare the psychosocial and physical health of AYA survivors and their matched controls across different racial and ethnic groups. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the Korea NHANES from 2007 to 2018. We included AYA cancer survivors who were diagnosed with any type of cancer aged between 15 and 39 years, and who were adult with aged over 18 years old at survey year. We then stratified the study population by race/ethnicity with Non-Hispanic White (NHW, n = 310), African American (AA, n = 42), Hispanic (n = 81) from NHANES, and Asian (n = 389) from the Korea NHANES. We also selected 5 times age-, sex-, race-, and survey year-matched general population among participants who had never been diagnosed with cancer (N = 4110). Variables were defined using questionnaire data, physical exams, and laboratory tests. Results Compared to NHW, Hispanics (aOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.00–1.32) had poor or fair general health, lower education (aOR 1.23, 95% CI 1.07–1.40), and lower household income (aOR 1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.33). AA survivors were more likely to be non-coupled (aOR 1.35, 95% 1.15–1.60) and have hypertension (aOR 1.18, 95% CI 1.03–1.36). Asians were more former/current drinkers (aOR 1.21, 95% CI 1.05–1.40). NHW are more likely to experience psychological limitation. Compared to matched general, NHW and Asian survivors had poor general health and psychological health. Conclusions This study provides evidence for future studies concerning long-term health after AYA cancer survivorship that may vary according to race.This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2022R1A2C1013119