2 μm soliton lasers in a bidirectional nonlinear polarization evolution Tm3+-doped fiber oscillator

Funding Information: This work is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 61905150 ; 61805281 ); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant No. 3072022CFJ2501 ; 3072022CF2506 ); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China ( 2019A1515010732 ).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Investigation into the effect of deltoid ligament injury on rotational ankle instability using a three-dimensional ankle finite element model

BackgroundInjury to the lateral collateral ligament of the ankle may cause ankle instability and, when combined with deltoid ligament (DL) injury, may lead to a more complex situation known as rotational ankle instability (RAI). It is unclear how DL rupture interferes with the mechanical function of an ankle joint with RAI.PurposeTo study the influence of DL injury on the biomechanical function of the ankle joint.MethodsA comprehensive finite element model of an ankle joint, incorporating detailed ligaments, was developed from MRI scans of an adult female. A range of ligament injury scenarios were simulated in the ankle joint model, which was then subjected to a static standing load of 300 N and a 1.5 Nm internal and external rotation torque. The analysis focused on comparing the distribution and peak values of von Mises stress in the articular cartilages of both the tibia and talus and measuring the talus rotation angle and contact area of the talocrural joint.ResultsThe dimensions and location of insertion points of ligaments in the finite element ankle model were adopted from previous anatomical research and dissection studies. The anterior drawer distance in the finite element model was within 6.5% of the anatomical range, and the talus tilt angle was within 3% of anatomical results. During static standing, a combined rupture of the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) and anterior tibiotalar ligament (ATTL) generates new stress concentrations on the talus cartilage, which markedly increases the joint contact area and stress on the cartilage. During static standing with external rotation, the anterior talofibular ligament and anterior tibiotalar ligament ruptured the ankle’s rotational angle by 21.8% compared to an intact joint. In contrast, static standing with internal rotation led to a similar increase in stress and a nearly 2.5 times increase in the talus rotational angle.ConclusionInjury to the DL altered the stress distribution in the tibiotalar joint and increased the talus rotation angle when subjected to a rotational torque, which may increase the risk of RAI. When treating RAI, it is essential to address not only multi-band DL injuries but also single-band deep DL injuries, especially those affecting the ATTL

Baichuan 2: Open Large-scale Language Models

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable performance on a variety of natural language tasks based on just a few examples of natural language instructions, reducing the need for extensive feature engineering. However, most powerful LLMs are closed-source or limited in their capability for languages other than English. In this technical report, we present Baichuan 2, a series of large-scale multilingual language models containing 7 billion and 13 billion parameters, trained from scratch, on 2.6 trillion tokens. Baichuan 2 matches or outperforms other open-source models of similar size on public benchmarks like MMLU, CMMLU, GSM8K, and HumanEval. Furthermore, Baichuan 2 excels in vertical domains such as medicine and law. We will release all pre-training model checkpoints to benefit the research community in better understanding the training dynamics of Baichuan 2.Comment: Baichuan 2 technical report. Github: https://github.com/baichuan-inc/Baichuan

MedShapeNet -- A Large-Scale Dataset of 3D Medical Shapes for Computer Vision

Prior to the deep learning era, shape was commonly used to describe the objects. Nowadays, state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms in medical imaging are predominantly diverging from computer vision, where voxel grids, meshes, point clouds, and implicit surface models are used. This is seen from numerous shape-related publications in premier vision conferences as well as the growing popularity of ShapeNet (about 51,300 models) and Princeton ModelNet (127,915 models). For the medical domain, we present a large collection of anatomical shapes (e.g., bones, organs, vessels) and 3D models of surgical instrument, called MedShapeNet, created to facilitate the translation of data-driven vision algorithms to medical applications and to adapt SOTA vision algorithms to medical problems. As a unique feature, we directly model the majority of shapes on the imaging data of real patients. As of today, MedShapeNet includes 23 dataset with more than 100,000 shapes that are paired with annotations (ground truth). Our data is freely accessible via a web interface and a Python application programming interface (API) and can be used for discriminative, reconstructive, and variational benchmarks as well as various applications in virtual, augmented, or mixed reality, and 3D printing. Exemplary, we present use cases in the fields of classification of brain tumors, facial and skull reconstructions, multi-class anatomy completion, education, and 3D printing. In future, we will extend the data and improve the interfaces. The project pages are: https://medshapenet.ikim.nrw/ and https://github.com/Jianningli/medshapenet-feedbackComment: 16 page

Neural basis of reward anticipation and its genetic determinants

Dysfunctional reward processing is implicated in various mental disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and addictions. Such impairments might involve different components of the reward process, including brain activity during reward anticipation. We examined brain nodes engaged by reward anticipation in 1,544 adolescents and identified a network containing a core striatal node and cortical nodes facilitating outcome prediction and response preparation. Distinct nodes and functional connections were preferentially associated with either adolescent hyperactivity or alcohol consumption, thus conveying specificity of reward processing to clinically relevant behavior. We observed associations between the striatal node, hyperactivity, and the vacuolar protein sorting-associated protein 4A (VPS4A) gene in humans, and the causal role of Vps4 for hyperactivity was validated in Drosophila. Our data provide a neurobehavioral model explaining the heterogeneity of reward-related behaviors and generate a hypothesis accounting for their enduring nature

Genetics and Mechanisms of Host Resistance against Mycobacterium tuberculosis: a Study in Mice

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the etiological agent of the disease tuberculosis (TB), and is the leading cause of death worldwide from a single pathogen1. Exposure to Mtb in immunocompetent humans results in diverse outcomes, varying from active, transmissible disease to asymptomatic infection that cannot spread to others. Host genetics, amongst other factors, are thought to contribute to the divergent outcomes upon Mtb infection. Improved understanding of the host immune responses against Mtb—how is the pathogen detected, what immune responses are induced, and which responses are protective—would better inform future development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.To study the effect of host genetics on susceptibility to Mtb infection, I used a previously published congenic mouse (B6.Sst1S) that carries the susceptible allele of the Super susceptibility to tuberculosis 1 (Sst1) locus on the C57BL/6 (B6) background 2,3. Compared to B6 mice, B6.Sst1S mice are significantly more susceptible to Mtb infection, though the mechanisms of this susceptibility are not well understood. A previous study proposed Ipr1 (also known as Sp110) as the causative gene within the Sst1 locus2, though this has never been thoroughly verified. In this dissertation I first investigate the mechanisms of susceptibility in the B6.Sst1S mice, and demonstrate that the susceptibility is driven by type I interferon (IFN) signaling (Chapter 2). I further show that type I IFN signaling upregulates interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), which blocks signaling of interleukin-1 (IL-1), a vital antibacterial cytokine. Inhibition of IL-1Ra by genetic deletion or neutralization with a blocking antibody protected B6.Sst1S mice, suggesting that IL-1Ra is a potential target for host-directed therapy.I then examine the genetic determinants of the Sst1 locus, where I observe that contradictory to previous report2, Sp110–/– mice were not susceptible to Mtb infections (Chapter 3). I demonstrate that a homolog of Sp110, Sp140 is also a possible candidate gene, and generated Sp140–/– mice that were similarly susceptible to infections by Mtb and other intracellular bacteria as B6.Sst1S mice. My work suggests that Sp140 is the dominant causal gene within the Sst1 locus, and is a novel negative regulator of type I IFN signaling during bacterial infections.The findings presented in this dissertation highlight the complexities of immune regulation during Mtb infection in vivo, as well as the many questions that remain open. In Chapter 4, I discuss some ideas on future directions and potential experiments that may help illuminate some of these outstanding questions

Arthroscopic repair with transosseous sling-suture technique for acute and chronic bony Bankart lesions

Background: Failure to fix the fractured fragment can result in bony fragment resorption and consequent glenoid bone loss. Current arthroscopic repair techniques might lead to insecure fixation and refracture. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the transosseous sling-suture technique for bony Bankart lesions, and to compare the clinical outcomes for acute and chronic bony Bankart lesions treated with this technique. Methods: A retrospective case series consisting of 46 patients with bony fracture of the glenoid rim following traumatic injury was identified from May 2015 to August 2020. The patients were divided into the acute lesion group and the chronic lesion group according to the time from first injury to surgery. The size of bone fragment was used to group the patients into the small and the medium sized fragment groups. All the patients underwent arthroscopic repairs using the transosseous sling-suture technique. Preoperative and postoperative evaluations including Rowe score, West Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for pain scores, ROMs and number of dislocations were recorded. No significant differences were found in the comparisons of postoperative ROMs ang functional outcomes regarding between the small and the medium sized fragment groups. Results: No dislocations occurred for both groups postoperatively. At the last follow-up, all the ROMs (including anterior flexion, abduction, external rotation and internal rotation at the side), the Rowe score, the WOSI score and the VAS score for pain in the both groups were significantly improved compared to the preoperative evaluations (all Ps < 0.001). In the comparisons between the acute and the chronic lesion groups, significantly greater anterior flexion (158.9 ± 8.9° vs. 153.0 ± 6.4°, P = 0.037), abduction (167.7 ± 10.1° vs. 161.0 ± 7.0°, P = 0.035) and external rotation at the side (88.3 ± 6.4° vs. 83.5 ± 5.5°, P = 0.024) were found in the acute lesion group. The comparisons of the Rowe score (86.0 ± 7.5 vs. 87.5 ± 10.6, P = 0.319), the WOSI score (223.5 ± 56.3 vs. 185.0 ± 79.9, P = 0.062), the VAS score for pain (0.4 ± 0.2 vs. 0.3 ± 0.2, P = 0.324) and the internal rotation at the side (74.6 ± 13.2° vs. 80.5 ± 11.1°, P = 0.116) between these two groups did not demonstrate significant differences between the two groups. Conclusion: This arthroscopic transosseous sling-suture repair technique for shoulder anterior instability with acute and chronic bony Bankart lesion can restore joint stability, improve clinical outcomes and range of motion postoperatively. The acute bony Bankart lesion using the current technique can produce better range of motion compared to the chronic lesion. Study design: Retrospective case series; Level of evidence, 4