Design and Fabrication of Ultrathin Metallic Phase Shifters for Visible and Near-Infrared Wavelengths.

The polarization state of light is critical for biological imaging, acousto-optics, bio-navigation, and many other optical applications. Phase shifters are extensively researched for their applications in optics. The size of optical elements with phase delay that are made from natural birefringent materials is limited; however, fabricating waveplates from dielectric metamaterials is very complex and expensive.

Aptamer-Conjugated Multi-Quantum Dot-Embedded Silica Nanoparticles for Lateral Flow Immunoassay.

Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs) are widely used for their low cost, simplicity, and rapid results; however, enhancing their reliability requires the meticulous selection of ligands and nanoparticles (NPs). SiO@QD@SiO (QD) nanoparticles, which consist of quantum dots (QDs) embedded in a silica (SiO) core and surrounded by an outer SiO shell, exhibit significantly higher fluorescence intensity (FI) compared to single QDs. In this study, we prepared QD@PEG@Aptamer, an aptamer conjugated with QD using succinimidyl-[(N-maleimidopropionamido)-hexaethyleneglycol]ester, which is 130 times brighter than single QDs, for detecting carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 through LFIA.

VCP downstream metabolite glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) inhibits CD8T cells function in the HCC microenvironment.

CD8T cells within the tumor microenvironment (TME) are often functionally impaired, which limits their ability to mount effective anti-tumor responses. However, the molecular mechanisms behind this dysfunction remain incompletely understood. Here, we identified valosin-containing protein (VCP) as a key regulator of CD8T cells suppression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Early and multiple doses of zoledronate mitigates rebound bone loss following withdrawal of RANKL inhibition.

Rebound bone loss following denosumab discontinuation is an important barrier in the effective long-term treatment of skeletal disorders. This is driven by increased osteoclastic bone resorption following the offset of RANKL inhibition, and sequential osteoclast-directed therapy has been utilised to mitigate this. However, current sequential treatment strategies intervene following the offset of RANKL inhibition and this approach fails to consistently prevent bone loss.

Automatic visual detection of activated sludge microorganisms based on microscopic phase contrast image optimisation and deep learning.

The types and quantities of microorganisms in activated sludge are directly related to the stability and efficiency of sewage treatment systems. This paper proposes a sludge microorganism detection method based on microscopic phase contrast image optimisation and deep learning. Firstly, a dataset containing eight types of microorganisms is constructed, and an augmentation strategy based on single and multisamples processing is designed to address the issues of sample deficiency and uneven distribution.