The Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Therapeutic Efficacy of Trastuzumab Deruxtecan in Gastric Cancer.

This biomarker study explored HER2 expression levels and immune cell characteristics that may affect response to T-DXd using tumor tissue samples collected from clinical trial participants. The results suggest that HER2 expression levels and tumor characteristics before the initiation of T-DXd may correlate with the efficacy of the drug.

Relationship between coordination variability and Osgood-Schlatter disease in male junior youth soccer players -cross-sectional study using an inertial measurement unit.

Background: Osgood-Schlatter disease is a common overuse injury, and motor coordination is discussed as a risk factor; however, no reports have examined motor coordination in young soccer players with Osgood-Schlatter disease. This study aimed to investigate the difference in motor coordination between Osgood-Schlatter disease-affected and non-affected soccer players on a junior youth soccer team.

Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated 35 young soccer players of 12-15 years of age, who completed a self-administered questionnaire covering general information, injury history, and athletic experience.

Structure-Activity Relationship Studies of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors Containing 4-Fluorobenzothiazole-2-carbonyl Moieties.

The main protease (M) of SARS-CoV-2 is an attractive target for the development of drugs to treat COVID-19. Here, we report the design, synthesis, and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of highly potent SARS-CoV-2 M inhibitors including TKB245 ()/TKB248 (). Since we have previously developed M inhibitors () and (), several hybrid molecules of these previous compounds combined with nirmatrelvir () were designed and synthesized.

Potent and biostable inhibitors of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2.

Potent and biostable inhibitors of the main protease (M) of SARS-CoV-2 were designed and synthesized based on an active hit compound 5h (). Our strategy was based not only on the introduction of fluorine atoms into the inhibitor molecule for an increase of binding affinity for the pocket of M and cell membrane permeability but also on the replacement of the digestible amide bond by a surrogate structure to increase the biostability of the compounds. Compound is highly potent and blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection without a viral breakthrough.

Potent and Selective PTDSS1 Inhibitors Induce Collateral Lethality in Cancers with PTDSS2 Deletion.

This study identifies a specific dependency on PTDSS1 for phosphatidylserine synthesis following PTDSS2 deletion and introduces novel PTDSS1 inhibitors as a therapeutic option to induce collateral lethality in cancer with PTDSS2 loss.

In-process measurement of a keyhole using a low-coherence interferometer with a high repetition rate.

The shape of an instance hole (keyhole) created via a high-power laser was measured using a low-coherence interferometer with the following parameters: repetition rate, 10 MHz; center wavelength, 1550 nm; absolute spatial resolution, 10 µm; and measurement range, 5 mm. The keyhole was created on a 3-mm-thick stainless-steel plate using a high-power laser with 8-kW peak power and 1070-nm center wavelength. The cross-sectional area of the keyhole was measured to be 0.

Identification and Characterization of a New Carboxylesterase 2 Isozyme, mfCES2C, in the Small Intestine of Cynomolgus Monkeys.

In contrast to a single human carboxylesterase 2 (CES2) isozyme (hCE2), three CES2 genes have been identified in cynomolgus monkeys: , , and Although mfCES2A protein is expressed in several organs, is a pseudogene and the phenotype of the gene has not yet been clarified in tissues. In previous studies, we detected an unidentified esterase in the region of CES2 mobility upon nondenaturing PAGE analysis of monkey intestinal microsomes, which showed immunoreactivity for anti-mfCES2A antibody. The aim of the present study was to identify this unidentified esterase from monkey small intestine.

Master-slave carrier recovery for M-QAM multicore fiber transmission.

Master-slave carrier recovery is a digital signal processing technique that uses correlated phase noise in multi-channel receivers to eliminate redundant carrier recovery blocks. In this paper we experimentally investigate the performance of master-slave carrier recovery for multicore fiber transmission in the presence of inter-channel nonlinear interference. Using a triple parallel loop setup we jointly receive three spatial channels in a 7-core fiber for transmission distances of up to 1600 km.

Intersubject and Intrasubject Variability of Potential Plasma and Urine Metabolite and Protein Biomarkers in Healthy Human Volunteers.

A limited understanding of intersubject and intrasubject variability hampers effective biomarker translation from in vitro/in vivo studies to clinical trials and clinical decision support. Specifically, variability of biomolecule concentration can play an important role in interpretation, power analysis, and sampling time designation. In the present study, a wide range of 749 plasma metabolites, 62 urine biogenic amines, and 1,263 plasma proteins were analyzed in 10 healthy male volunteers measured repeatedly during 12 hours under tightly controlled conditions.

Ecotypic divergences of the alpine herb Potentilla matsumurae adapted to fellfield-snowbed habitats across a series of mountain sky islands.

Premise: Divergent selection due to environmental heterogeneity can lead to local adaptation. However, the ecological and evolutionary processes of local adaptation that occurs across multiple regions are often unknown. Our previous studies reported on the ecotypic divergence within a local area of variation of Potentilla matsumurae, an alpine herb adapted to the fellfield-snowbed environment.

Demonstration of PAM4-OCDM system with electrical amplitude-level pre-tuning and post-equalization for data centers applications.

A PAM4-OCDM system with optical multi-/demultiplexing and electrical pre-/post-processing is proposed for short-reach applications. We experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, a power-efficient 4 OC x 10 GSymbol/s PAM4-OCDM system. The four PSK-OCs are simultaneously generated using a single light source and a passive multiport optical encoder and received by a single optical decoder and cascaded DSP.

Long distance crosstalk-supported transmission using homogeneous multicore fibers and SDM-MIMO demultiplexing.

We propose and evaluate the use of spatial-division multiplexing (SDM) multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems to support long distance transmission using single-mode homogeneous multicore fibers. We show that on a uniform link with per-span inter-core skew compensation, the required SDM-MIMO memory length corresponds to the largest inter-core skew per span on the link. Furthermore, we show that with inter-core skew compensation, the required memory length of the SDM-MIMO is nearly constant with the transmission distance for accumulated crosstalk below -11 dB.

Volume holographic spatial mode demultiplexer with a dual-wavelength method.

Volume holographic demultiplexers (VHDMs) provide spatial mode demultiplexing using simple optical systems. However, applying VHDM to practical optical communication systems is difficult, as typical holographic media have no sensitivity in the infrared region, which includes optical transmission bands. In this paper, we propose a VHDM scheme combined with a dual-wavelength method (DWM).

Few-mode fiber, splice and SDM component characterization by spatially-diverse optical vector network analysis.

This paper discusses spatially diverse optical vector network analysis for space division multiplexing (SDM) component and system characterization, which is becoming essential as SDM is widely considered to increase the capacity of optical communication systems. Characterization of a 108-channel photonic lantern spatial multiplexer, coupled to a 36-core 3-mode fiber, is experimentally demonstrated, extracting the full impulse response and complex transfer function matrices as well as insertion loss (IL) and mode-dependent loss (MDL) data. Moreover, the mode-mixing behavior of fiber splices in the few-mode multi-core fiber and their impact on system IL and MDL are analyzed, finding splices to cause significant mode-mixing and to be non-negligible in system capacity analysis.

Crosstalk dynamics in multi-core fibers.

Inter-core crosstalk is a potential limitation on the achievable data-rates in optical fiber transmission systems using multi-core fibers. Crosstalk arises from unwanted coupling between cores of a homogenous multi-core fiber and it's average power has been observed to vary over time by 10s of decibels, potentially requiring an additional performance margin to achieve acceptable outage probability. Most investigations of crosstalk have so far only considered continuous wave laser light or amplified spontaneous emission as sources of crosstalk.

All-optical Nyquist-OTDM to Nyquist-WDM conversion for high-granular flexible optical networks.

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated all-optical multiplexing (MUX)-format conversion from Nyquist optical time division multiplex (OTDM) to Nyquist wavelength division multiplex (WDM). The system is simply configured with a straight-type phase modulator (PM) driven by a sinusoidal wave and an optical Nyquist filter. In the theoretical investigation, it is proved that the single Nyquist signal is completely converted to Nyquist WDM signal, which consists of two half-baud-rate signals with different carrier frequencies.

Effect of water-immersion restraint stress on tryptophan catabolism through the kynurenine pathway in rat tissues.

The aim of this study was to clarify the effect of water-immersion restraint stress (WIRS) on tryptophan (Trp) catabolism through the kynurenine (Kyn) pathway in rat tissues. The tissues of rats subjected to 6 h of WIRS (+WIRS) had increased tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) activities and increased TDO and IDO1 (one of two IDO isozymes in mammals) mRNA expression levels, with decreased Trp and increased Kyn contents in the liver. +WIRS rats had unchanged TDO and IDO activities in the kidney, decreased TDO activity and unchanged IDO activity in the brain, and unchanged IDO activity in the lung and spleen, with increased Kyn content in all of these tissues.

Pump-phase-noise-free optical wavelength data exchange between QAM signals with 50-GHz channel-spacing using coherent DFB pump.

An important challenge for implementing optical signal processing functions such as wavelength conversion or wavelength data exchange (WDE) is to avoid the introduction of linear and nonlinear phase noise in the subsystem. This is particularly important for phase noise sensitive, high-order quadrature-amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an optical data exchange scheme through cascaded 2nd-order nonlinearities in periodically-poled lithium niobate (PPLN) waveguides using coherent pumping.

Scalable two- and three-dimensional optical labels generated by 128-port encoder/decoder for optical packet switching.

This paper deals with massive number of optical code (OC) label generation and recognition for scalable optical packet switching (OPS) networks. In order to expand the system scalability of code label processing, we develop a record port count 128 x 128 optical encoder/decoder (E/D) and propose a novel three-dimensional (3-D) optical label combining code label with wavelength and polarization. In the experiment, we conduct a proof-of-concept demonstration of 4-code x 2-wavelength x 2-polarization and validate that the 3-D labeling scheme can consequently increase the available number of code label up to more than 1,000 labels.

Optical 8QAM and 8PSK synthesis by cascading arbitrary 2QAM with squared QPSK.

In dynamic optical networking scenarios, it is desirable that the optical transmitter chooses the most suitable modulation format in order to achieve optimal transmission performance. Owing to the ability of switching among different modulation formats, flexible optical transmitters based on reconfigurable optical devices are becoming a key component for the implementation of future flexible optical networks. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a flexible 8-ary transmitter to achieve adaptive switching between 8-ary phase-shift keying (8PSK) and circular 8-ary quadrature-amplitude modulation (8QAM) through reconfiguration of two cascaded in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulators with different driving signals and biasing conditions.

Single parity check-coded 16QAM over spatial superchannels in multicore fiber transmission.

We experimentally investigate single-parity check (SPC) coded spatial superchannels based on polarization-multiplexed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PM-16QAM) for multicore fiber transmission systems, using a 7-core fiber. We investigate SPC over 1, 2, 4, 5 or 7 cores in a back-to-back configuration and compare the sensitivity to uncoded PM-16QAM, showing that at symbol rates of 20 Gbaud and at a bit-error-rate (BER) of 10, the SPC superchannels exhibit sensitivity improvements of 2.7 dB, 2.

Bioactivation of loxoprofen to a pharmacologically active metabolite and its disposition kinetics in human skin.

Loxoprofen (LX) is a prodrug-type non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug which is used not only as an oral drug but also as a transdermal formulation. As a pharmacologically active metabolite, the trans-alcohol form of LX (trans-OH form) is generated after oral administration to humans. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the generation of the trans-OH form in human in vitro skin and to identify the predominant enzyme for its generation.