The feasibility and acceptability of home phlebotomy for patients with cancer.

Time toxicity is a considerable burden for oncology patients. This study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of integrating mobile phlebotomy into standard of care procedures. From September 26, 2022, through December 31, 2023, a total of 345 patients had 1464 home laboratory test collection visits completed.

Comparison of a Novel Thin-Walled 25-gauge Needle Push Button Blood Collection Set to a Standard 23-gauge Needle in a Cancer Patient Population.

Background: Phlebotomy can be an uncomfortable and even painful experience that increases in likelihood in patients who require frequent blood draws, such as those with cancer. The 25-gauge BD Vacutainer® UltraTouch™ Push Button Blood Collection Set has a smaller outer bore needle size and unique bevel configuration, which in theory should reduce pain associated with phlebotomy. Smaller needles typically cause less pain, however, they have a higher incidence of compromising the specimen integrity.

Betalain-rich concentrate supplementation improves exercise performance and recovery in competitive triathletes.

We aimed to determine the effects of a betalain-rich concentrate (BRC) of beetroots, containing no sugars or nitrates, on exercise performance and recovery. Twenty-two (9 men and 13 women) triathletes (age, 38 ± 11 years) completed 2 double-blind, crossover, randomized trials (BRC and placebo) starting 7 days apart. Each trial was preceded by 6 days of supplementation with 100 mg·day of BRC or placebo.

Recent advances in silicon-based passive and active optical interconnects.

Silicon photonics has experienced phenomenal transformations over the last decade. In this paper, we present some of the notable advances in silicon-based passive and active optical interconnect components, and highlight some of our key contributions. Light is also cast on few other parallel technologies that are working in tandem with silicon-based structures, and providing unique functions not achievable with any single system acting alone.

Flexible single-crystal silicon nanomembrane photonic crystal cavity.

Flexible inorganic electronic devices promise numerous applications, especially in fields that could not be covered satisfactorily by conventional rigid devices. Benefits on a similar scale are also foreseeable for silicon photonic components. However, the difficulty in transferring intricate silicon photonic devices has deterred widespread development.

On-chip silicon optical phased array for two-dimensional beam steering.

A 16-element optical phased array integrated on chip is presented for achieving two-dimensional (2D) optical beam steering. The device is fabricated on the silicon-on-insulator platform with a 250 nm silicon device layer. Steering is achieved via a combination of wavelength tuning and thermo-optic phase shifting with a switching power of P(π)=20  mW per channel.

Ultralow-loss silicon waveguide crossing using Bloch modes in index-engineered cascaded multimode-interference couplers.

We investigate the loss mechanism in three-moded multimode-interference couplers that are the building blocks of a compact and low-loss waveguide crossing structure. Broadband silicon waveguide crossing arrays with <0.01  dB insertion loss per crossing are proposed using cascaded multimode-interference couplers, where lateral subwavelength nanostructures are used to reduce the insertions loss.

Colorless grating couplers realized by interleaving dispersion engineered subwavelength structures.

We investigate the waveguide dispersion of subwavelength structures, and propose that the waveguide dispersion can be reduced by reducing the period of subwavelength structures. A 3 dB bandwidth increment of 20% has been observed by introducing this concept into previously demonstrated grating couplers. To fully exploit the bandwidth merits of the structures, gratings with interleaved subwavelength structures were designed and fabricated.

Ultralow-loss polycrystalline silicon waveguides and high uniformity 1x12 MMI fanout for 3D photonic integration.

We have investigated the feasibility of multimode polysilicon waveguides to demonstrate the suitability of polysilicon as a candidate for multilayer photonic applications. Solid Phase Crystallization (SPC) with a maximum temperature of 1000°C is used to create polysilicon on thermally grown SiO. We then measure the propagation losses for various waveguide widths on both polysilicon and crystalline silicon platforms.

Stamp printing of silicon-nanomembrane-based photonic devices onto flexible substrates with a suspended configuration.

In this Letter, we demonstrate for the first time (to our best knowledge) stamp printing of silicon nanomembrane (SiNM)-based in-plane photonic devices onto a flexible substrate using a modified transfer printing method that utilizes a suspended configuration, which can adjust the adhesion between the released SiNM and the "handle" silicon wafer. With this method, 230 nm thick, 30 μm wide, and up to 5.7 cm long SiNM-based waveguides are transferred to flexible Kapton films with >90% transfer yield.

Modeling and experimental observation of an on-chip two-dimensional far-field interference pattern.

In this paper, we model and experimentally observe the far-field radiation produced by interfering beams propagating in two-dimensional (2D) slab waveguides. Using a transmission-line analogy, we compare the 2D propagation with standard three-dimensional (3D) far-field representations and derive the 2D conditions for using standard far-field approximations. Then we test our theoretical results by experimentally observing the 2D far-field pattern produced by a 1×3 multimode interference (MMI) coupler on a silicon nanomembrane.

Transfer of micro and nano-photonic silicon nanomembrane waveguide devices on flexible substrates.

This paper demonstrates transfer of optical devices without extra un-patterned silicon onto low-cost, flexible plastic substrates using single-crystal silicon nanomembranes. Employing this transfer technique, stacking two layers of silicon nanomembranes with photonic crystal waveguide in the first layer and multi mode interference couplers in the second layer is shown, respectively. This technique is promising to realize high density integration of multilayer hybrid structures on flexible substrates.

Optimum access waveguide width for 1 x N multimode interference couplers on silicon nanomembrane.

We derived an analytical formula for the optimum width of the access waveguides of 1 x N multimode interference (MMI) couplers. Eigenmode-decomposition-based simulations show that the optimum width relation corresponds to the points of diminishing returns in both insertion loss and output uniformity versus access waveguide width. We fabricate and characterize 1 x 12 MMI couplers on a nanomembrane of silicon-on-insulator substrate.

An integrated genetic and functional analysis of the role of type II transmembrane serine proteases (TMPRSSs) in hearing loss.

Building on our discovery that mutations in the transmembrane serine protease, TMPRSS3, cause nonsyndromic deafness, we have investigated the contribution of other TMPRSS family members to the auditory function. To identify which of the 16 known TMPRSS genes had a strong likelihood of involvement in hearing function, three types of biological evidence were examined: 1) expression in inner ear tissues; 2) location in a genomic interval that contains a yet unidentified gene for deafness; and 3) evaluation of hearing status of any available Tmprss knockout mouse strains. This analysis demonstrated that, besides TMPRSS3, another TMPRSS gene was essential for hearing and, indeed, mice deficient for Hepsin (Hpn) also known as Tmprss1 exhibited profound hearing loss.