Electromagnetic Scattering Laws in Weyl Systems

Wavelength determines the length scale of the cross section when electromagnetic waves are scattered by an electrically small object. The cross section diverges for resonant scattering, and diminishes for non-resonant scattering, when wavelength approaches infinity. This scattering law explains the color of the sky as well as the strength of a mobile phone signal. We show that such wavelength scaling comes from free space's conical dispersion at zero frequency. Emerging Weyl systems, offering similar dispersion at non-zero frequencies, lead to new laws of electromagnetic scattering that allow cross sections to be decoupled from the wavelength limit. Diverging and diminishing cross sections can be realized at any target wavelength in a Weyl system, providing unprecedented ability to tailor the strength of wave-matter interactions for radio-frequency and optical applications

Poly[[μ3-3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylato-κ3 N:O:O′][μ2-3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylato-κ3 O,O′:O][μ2-3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylato-κ2 O:O′)]gadolinium(III)]

In the title compound, [Gd(C8H6NO2)3]n, the GdIII ion is in a bicapped trigonal prismatic coordination environment formed by seven O atoms and one N atom, derived from seven different 3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylate (3-PYA) ligands. GdIII ions are bridged by bidentate and tridentate 3-PYA ligands, resulting in a two-dimensional structure

catena-Poly[[aqua­[3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylato]gadolinium(III)]-bis­[μ-3-(3-pyrid­yl)acrylato]]

In the title compound, [Gd(C8H6NO2)3(H2O)]n, the gadolinium(III) ion is coordinated by eight carboxyl­ate O atoms and one water mol­ecule. The carboxyl­ate ligands bridge pairs of gadolinium(III) ions, forming a zigzag chain along [100]. Hydrogen bonds link the chains into sheets parallel to (001)

Matching in the Wild: Learning Anatomical Embeddings for Multi-Modality Images

Radiotherapists require accurate registration of MR/CT images to effectively use information from both modalities. In a typical registration pipeline, rigid or affine transformations are applied to roughly align the fixed and moving images before proceeding with the deformation step. While recent learning-based methods have shown promising results in the rigid/affine step, these methods often require images with similar field-of-view (FOV) for successful alignment. As a result, aligning images with different FOVs remains a challenging task. Self-supervised landmark detection methods like self-supervised Anatomical eMbedding (SAM) have emerged as a useful tool for mapping and cropping images to similar FOVs. However, these methods are currently limited to intra-modality use only. To address this limitation and enable cross-modality matching, we propose a new approach called Cross-SAM. Our approach utilizes a novel iterative process that alternates between embedding learning and CT-MRI registration. We start by applying aggressive contrast augmentation on both CT and MRI images to train a SAM model. We then use this SAM to identify corresponding regions on paired images using robust grid-points matching, followed by a point-set based affine/rigid registration, and a deformable fine-tuning step to produce registered paired images. We use these registered pairs to enhance the matching ability of SAM, which is then processed iteratively. We use the final model for cross-modality matching tasks. We evaluated our approach on two CT-MRI affine registration datasets and found that Cross-SAM achieved robust affine registration on both datasets, significantly outperforming other methods and achieving state-of-the-art performance

Endogenous small-noncoding RNAs and their roles in chilling response and stress acclimation in Cassava

BACKGROUND: Small noncoding RNA (sncRNA), including microRNAs (miRNAs) and endogenous small-interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs) are key gene regulators in eukaryotes, playing critical roles in plant development and stress tolerance. Trans-acting siRNAs (ta-siRNAs), which are secondary siRNAs triggered by miRNAs, and siRNAs from natural antisense transcripts (nat-siRNAs) are two well-studied classes of endo-siRNAs. RESULTS: In order to understand sncRNAs’ roles in plant chilling response and stress acclimation, we performed a comprehensive study of miRNAs and endo-siRNAs in Cassava (Manihot esculenta), a major source of food for the world populations in tropical regions. Combining Next-Generation sequencing and computational and experimental analyses, we profiled and characterized sncRNA species and mRNA genes from the plants that experienced severe and moderate chilling stresses, that underwent further severe chilling stress after chilling acclimation at moderate stress, and that grew under the normal condition. We also included castor bean (Ricinus communis) in our study to understand conservation of sncRNAs. In addition to known miRNAs, we identified 32 (22 and 10) novel miRNAs as well as 47 (26 and 21) putative secondary siRNA-yielding and 8 (7 and 1) nat-siRNA-yielding candidate loci in Cassava and castor bean, respectively. Among the expressed sncRNAs, 114 miRNAs, 12 ta-siRNAs and 2 nat-siRNAs showed significant expression changes under chilling stresses. CONCLUSION: Systematic and computational analysis of microRNAome and experimental validation collectively showed that miRNAs, ta-siRNAs, and possibly nat-siRNAs play important roles in chilling response and chilling acclimation in Cassava by regulating stress-related pathways, e.g. Auxin signal transduction. The conservation of these sncRNA might shed lights on the role of sncRNA-mediated pathways affected by chilling stress and stress acclimation in Euphorbiaceous plants. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-634) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Dietary Intake of Fatty Acids, Total Cholesterol, and Stomach Cancer in a Chinese Population.

To investigate the associations between dietary fatty acids and cholesterol consumption and stomach cancer (SC), we analyzed data from a population-based case-control study with a total of 1900 SC cases and 6532 controls. Dietary data and other risk or protective factors were collected by face-to-face interviews in Jiangsu Province, China, from 2003 to 2010. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using multiple unconditional logistic regression models and an energy-adjusted method. The joint associations between dietary factors and known risk factors on SC were examined. We observed positive associations between dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and total cholesterol and the development of SC, comparing the highest versus lowest quarters. Increased intakes of dietary SFAs (p-trend = 0.005; aOR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.01-1.22 with a 7 g/day increase as a continuous variable) and total cholesterol (p-trend < 0.001; aOR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.06-1.22 with a 250 mg/day increase as a continuous variable) were monotonically associated with elevated odds of developing SC. Our results indicate that dietary SFAs, MUFAs, and total cholesterol are associated with stomach cancer, which might provide a potential dietary intervention for stomach cancer prevention

Screening of traditional Chinese medicines with therapeutic potential on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease through inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammatory response

NADP(H): quinone oxidoreductase (QR) inducing effects of 38 bioactive TCM extracts in hepa 1c1c7 cells. The QR inducing effect was determined after 24h treatment of the hepa 1c1c7 cells in the presence or absence of tested TCMs. The data of the untreated control group was normalized as 1, and then the QR inducing activity of tested extracts was represented by the maximum folds of QR inducing activity (MQI) compared with the untreated control group. Sulforaphane (SF, 2.0 μM) was used as a positive control. The data are reported the means ± SD from three independent experiments. Figure S2. Inhibitory effects on NO production of 55 bioactive TCM extracts in RAW 264.7 cells. The NO concentration in the RAW 264.7 cell culture media was determined through the Griess reaction 24 h after treated in the presence or absence of tested TCMs and lipopolysaccharides (LPS, 1.0 μg/mL). Didox (100 μM) was adopted as a positive control. The data are reported the means ± SD from three independent experiments. The maximum inhibition rates (MIRs) of NO production under the untoxic tested concentration were calculated by comparing the decreased NO concentration in TCM-treated group with that in LPS-stimulated group. Table S1. TCM extracts with QR inducing activity and/or NO inhibitory effect. (DOCX 4312 kb