Efficacy of acupuncture in patients with carotid atherosclerosis: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Background: The current clinical management of carotid atherosclerosis is based on the control of risk factors and medicine. However, the risk of adverse events associated with the medicine resulting in concerns and low medication compliance makes it necessary to seek a safer alternative therapy. This study assessed the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture as a treatment for carotid atherosclerosis.

Effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on artery elasticity for early carotid atherosclerosis.

Objectives: To observe the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on arterial elasticity in patients with early carotid atherosclerosis.

Methods: A total of 62 patients with early carotid atherosclerosis were randomly divided into a blank group (12 cases, 1 cases dropped-off), a sham-acupuncture group (25 cases, 5 cases dropped-off) and an acupuncture group (25 cases, 3 cases dropped-off). Patients in the acupuncture group received acupuncture treatment, including ①acupuncture：Baihui (GV20), Yintang (GV24), Renying (ST9), Neiguan (PC6), Yanglingquan (GB34)；②moxibustion：Yinqiguiyuan (Zhongwan ［CV12］, Xiawan ［CV10］, Qihai ［CV6］, Guanyuan ［CV4］), Sihua (Geshu ［BL17］, Danshu ［BL19］)；③Intradermal needle：Xinshu (BL15), Danshu (BL19).

Polarization evolution in Brillouin scattering with a partially polarized pump.

Polarization sensitivity has been a major issue in Brillouin scattering-based optical fiber sensing systems. Randomization of the polarization state of the pump is one of the ways to circumvent the problem. However, there could exist a residual degree of polarization (DOP) for the pump after polarization randomization, and hence, a model to characterize the polarization evolution in Brillouin scattering with a partially polarized pump is essential for the performance evaluation.

Subregions of the fusiform gyrus are differentially involved in the attentional mechanism supporting visual mental imagery in depression.

Background: Impaired visual mental imagery is an important symptom of depression and has gradually become an intervention target for cognitive behavioral therapy.

Methods: Our study involved a total of 25 healthy controls (HC) and 23 individuals with moderate depressive symptoms (MD). This study explored the attentional mechanism supporting visual mental imagery impairments in depression using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), attentional network test (ANT), and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI).

Perceived stress and brain connectivity in subthreshold depression: Insights from eyes-closed and eyes-open states.

Perceived stress is an acknowledged risk factor for subthreshold depression (StD), and fluctuations in perceived stress are thought to disrupt the harmony of brain networks essential for emotional and cognitive functioning. This study aimed to elucidate the relationship between eye-open (EO) and eye-closed (EC) states, perceived stress, and StD. We recruited 27 individuals with StD and 33 healthy controls, collecting resting state fMRI data under both EC and EO conditions.

Polarization dependent gain in Raman fiber amplifiers with multiple pumps.

In this paper, the polarization dependent gain (PDG) in Raman fiber amplifiers (RFAs) with multiple pumps is studied thoroughly. A comprehensive model, which takes the random polarization mode dispersion, the nonlinear coupling between the pumps, and the degree of polarization (DOP) of the pumps into account, is proposed. The complex nonlinear and random coupling inside the optical fiber is described by a set of nonlinear stochastic differential equations (SDEs), which enable co-simulation of the polarized part and the depolarized part of the multiple pumps.

All-Photolithography Fabrication of Ion-Gated Flexible Organic Transistor Array for Multimode Neuromorphic Computing.

Organic ion-gated transistors (OIGTs) demonstrate commendable performance for versatile neuromorphic systems. However, due to the fragility of organic materials to organic solvents, efficient and reliable all-photolithography methods for scalable manufacturing of high-density OIGT arrays with multimode neuromorphic functions are still missing, especially when all active layers are patterned in high-density. Here, a flexible high-density (9662 devices per cm) OIGT array with high yield and minimal device-to-device variation is fabricated by a modified all-photolithography method.

Spatiotemporal diffractive deep neural networks.

A spatiotemporal diffractive deep neural network (STD2NN) is proposed for spatiotemporal signal processing. The STD2NN is formed by gratings, which convert the signal from the frequency domain to the spatial domain, and multiple layers consisting of spatial lenses and space light modulators (SLMs), which conduct spatiotemporal phase modulation. An all-optical backpropagation (BP) algorithm for SLM phase tuning is proposed, with the gradient of the loss function computed by the inner product of the forward propagating optical field and the backward propagating conjugated error field.

Spherical Gauss-Laguerre beam propagation in 4D space-time.

In this paper, what we believe to be a novel class of beams, which are referred to as the spherical Gauss-Laguerre beams, are proposed. The beams propagate stably in the anomalous dispersive media, within which the second order derivative with respect to t could be combined with the two-dimensional (2D) Laplacian operator in the transverse direction and forms a three-dimensional (3D) Laplacian operator, which describes the beam propagation in the z direction within the four-dimensional (4D) x-y-z-t space-time. The wave equation is solved by the variable separation method and the analytical expression for the spherical Gauss-Laguerre beams is derived.

Small-angle measurement system enhanced by an optical phased array.

Small-angle measurement can be realized by embedding the laser beam in a reflective sector, within which multiple reflections enlarge the angle between the input and the output beams. However, the maximum detectable angle is limited by the detector aperture at the receiver side. In this work, we propose, to the best of our knowledge, a novel small-angle measurement system enhanced by an optical phased array (OPA), which is loaded on a spatial light modulator (SLM) to increase the maximum measurement range.

Flexible acoustic lens-based surface acoustic wave device for manipulation and directional transport of micro-particles.

Microfluidics is an emerging technology that is playing increasingly important roles in biomedical and pharmaceutical research and development. Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) have been combined with microfluidics technology to establish a SAW-based microfluidics technology that uses the unique interaction between the two techniques to manipulate substances effectively in fluids on the surface of a substrate. This paper reports a method to generate SAWs using conventional planar ultrasonic transducers and acoustic lenses.

Nonlinear Fourier transform receiver based on a time domain diffractive deep neural network.

A diffractive deep neural network (D2NN) is proposed to distinguish the inverse nonlinear Fourier transform (INFT) symbols. Different from other recently proposed D2NNs, the D2NN is fiber based, and it is in the time domain rather than the spatial domain. The D2NN is composed of multiple cascaded dispersive elements and phase modulators.

Analytical formulation of quantum interference inside coupled waveguides with unequal losses.

In this paper, a theoretical framework is proposed to formulate the quantum interference inside the coupled waveguides with unequal losses. The quantum coupled mode equation is added with the Langevin noise terms to account for the impact of unequal losses, which can be solved analytically. A close form formula is derived for the correlation matrix of the Langevin noise terms, which provides full information for the density matrix of the propagation state.

Characterization of PT-symmetric quantum interference based on the coupled mode theory.

In this paper, we propose a comprehensive quantum theoretical framework to formulate the quantum interference inside the parity-time (PT) symmetric waveguide system which is formed by two coupled optical waveguides with unequal losses. Based on the theory, the expression for the well-known Hong-Ou-Mandel (HOM) dip is derived, which is in an exact agreement with the published results. What's more, a novel one-photon quantum interference phenomenon is predicted according to the model, which suggests a quantum interference process similar to the HOM effect can be observed for the one-photon state, while the other photon is lost due to the waveguide attenuation.

Modulating the Rise and Decay Dynamics of Upconversion Luminescence through Controlling Excitations.

Different from organic dye/quantum dot possessing one luminescent center, upconversion luminescence (UCL) is actually a statistic of temporal behaviors of countless individual activators. Our experimental results have shown that the rise and decay dynamics of UCL is directly associated with the relative contribution of sensitizer-to-activator energy transfer and energy migration among sensitizers, which can be physically modulated by simply tuning the excitation laser. Therefore, dynamic UCL with record-wide 20-fold lifetime, ≈70-fold red-to-green intensity ratio, and reversibly definable emission color is easily realized by just modulating the excitation laser.

Orbital angular momentum mode sorting based on a hybrid radial-angular hybrid lens.

Orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes have their phase distribution as exp (jlθ), which resembles the plane wave in the Cartesian coordinates. Like the traditional lens, which can focus the plane wave on the focal plane, the angular lens can focus the OAM beam in the angular domain, albeit with a relatively long tail due to the unsatisfied angular focal condition for the non-ring shape beams. In this paper, a hybrid lens in the angular domain and the radial domain is proposed.

Analytical expressions for the crosstalk of super-modes in the tightly bounded multicore fibers.

In this paper, an analytical approach for the super-modes in the tightly bounded multicore fibers is proposed. The method considers deterministic and random inter-core coupling, and the analytical analysis is based on the ordinary differential equations (ODEs), which are derived from the stochastic differential equations (SDEs). It is theoretically found that the crosstalk level is directly proportional to the square of the ratio for the random inter-core coupling strength over the deterministic coupling strength, and is inversely proportional to the random coupling correlation length.

The Role of Acupuncture in Hormonal Shock-Induced Cognitive-Related Symptoms in Perimenopausal Depression: A Randomized Clinical Controlled Trial.

Perimenopausal depression is predominantly caused by hormone shock, but the underlying physical and psychological factors are still unclear. To explore the constituent components of perimenopausal depression by dynamically depicting its influencing factors and interactive pathways from the perspective of embodied cognition. This is a randomized clinical controlled trial.

Simple phase retrieval method based on two intensity measurements on a single plane.

In this work, a simple phase retrieval method is proposed by observing two intensity patterns on a single plane, which are generated with and without a lens. Rigorous theoretical derivations show that the two fields constitute the Fourier transform pairs, and a modified Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm is proposed to recover the phase patterns from the Fourier pairs. The proposed method does not require the intensity patterns to be measured on two different planes along the propagation distance, and this is quite beneficial in a system with a phase tuning element like a spatial light modulator, which can form a virtual lens by creating a parabola-like phase distribution.

Artificial Synapses Based on Lead-Free Perovskite Floating-Gate Organic Field-Effect Transistors for Supervised and Unsupervised Learning.

Synaptic devices are expected to overcome von Neumann's bottleneck and served as one of the foundations for future neuromorphic computing. Lead halide perovskites are considered as promising photoactive materials but limited by the toxicity of lead. Herein, lead-free perovskite CsBiI is utilized as a photoactive material to fabricate organic synaptic transistors with a floating-gate structure for the first time.

Analytical study on the evolutionary behavior of transfer matrix element moments in strongly coupled multimode systems.

In this paper, the evolutionary behavior of the transfer matrix element moments in strongly coupled multimode systems is studied analytically. The randomly coupled multimode system is modeled by a set of coupled stochastic differential equations (SDEs), which can be used to find the coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for the arbitrary order moments of the matrix elements. Since the ODEs are with the constant coefficients, it is possible to obtain the analytical solutions.

Higher order statistics of the Mueller matrix in a fiber with an arbitrary length impacted by PMD.

The higher order (such as the 2nd order and the 4th order) moments of the Mueller matrix elements are important to estimate the polarization mode dispersion (PMD) induced power fluctuations for the forward propagation and the backward scattered signals (e.g. fluctuation of the Raman gain and the Brillouin gain).

Acupuncture treatment for carotid atherosclerotic plaques: study protocol for a pilot randomized, single blinded, controlled clinical trial.

Background: Carotid atherosclerosis disease (CAD) is generally associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents. However, CAD has not been taken seriously enough in the clinic, which, coupled with the single treatment and prevention of CAD, has led to a generally low level of patient compliance. Therefore, acupuncture is expected to be a safe and effective therapy that can be maintained in the long term for patients with CAD.

Blind back-propagation method for fiber nonlinearity compensation with low computational complexity and high performance.

In this paper, a blind back-propagation (BP) method for fiber nonlinearity compensation with low computational complexity and high performance is proposed. The BP method compensates the fiber chromatic dispersion step by step. Between two linear steps, the proposed method compensates the fiber nonlinearity with the nonlinear tap coefficients optimized by the nonlinear least square method (NLSM).

Involvement of Hippocampal AMPA Receptors in Electroacupuncture Attenuating Depressive-Like Behaviors and Regulating Synaptic Proteins in Rats Subjected to Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress.

Objective: A large body of evidence has suggested that the disruptions of neural plasticity in the brain play a pivotal role in major depressive disorder (MDD). Electroacupuncture (EA) therapy has been shown to be an effective treatment modality for MDD. However, the mechanism underling the antidepressive effect of EA treatment has not been clearly elucidated.