Ti-diffused KTN waveguide enabling intensity modulation based on the quadratic electro-optic effect.

Optical waveguides are fundamental components in integrated optics, enabling the confinement of light beams at micron and nanometer scales. The performance of electro-optic materials is the key to realizing waveguide-based modulation devices. Potassium tantalate niobate (KTN) crystals exhibit exceptional quadratic electro-optic effects, making them highly promising for applications in optical waveguides and electro-optic modulators.

Design of AgNPs loaded γ-PGA chitosan conduits with superior antibacterial activity and nerve repair properties.

To address the challenge of infections during peripheral nerve defect repair, this study introduces a γ-polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA) polymers designed to encapsulate silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The AgNPs loaded γ-PGA polymers is applied as a coating on both the inner and outer surfaces of chitosan nerve conduits, providing antibacterial protection across the conduit. The antibacterial mechanism leverages the potent antimicrobial activity of nanosilver and the negatively charged field of γ-PGA, which repels bacterial adhesion to cell membranes.

Therapeutic Potential of Nano-Sustained-Release Factors for Bone Scaffolds.

Research on nano-sustained-release factors for bone tissue scaffolds has significantly promoted the precision and efficiency of bone-defect repair by integrating biomaterials science, nanotechnology, and regenerative medicine. Current research focuses on developing multifunctional scaffold materials and intelligent controlled-release systems to optimize the spatiotemporal release characteristics of growth factors, drugs, and genes. Nano slow-release bone scaffolds integrate nano slow-release factors, which are loaded with growth factors, drugs, genes, etc.

Update in management of microbial keratitis associated with contact lenses.

Purpose Of Review: The rising prevalence of contact lens wear is associated with increased contact lens-related complications, with one of the most serious being contact lens (CL)-associated microbial keratitis (MK). We describe updated prevention and management strategies of this sight-threatening condition.

Recent Findings: Poor contact lens hygiene and practices remain the most common predisposing factors for CL-associated MK.

Zn protects H9C2 cardiomyocytes by alleviating MAMs-associated apoptosis and calcium signaling dysregulation.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate whether zinc ion (Zn) alleviates myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) through the MAM-associated signaling pathway and to explore its impact on ERS and calcium overload.

Methods: H9C2 cells were cultured in a DMEM supplemented with 10 % fetal bovine serum and 1 % antibiotic solution. A MIRI model was established through simulated ischemia and reoxygenation with Zn treatment in a complete medium.

Deciphering the atomistic mechanism underlying highly tunable piezoelectric properties in perovskite ferroelectrics via transition metal doping.

Piezoelectricity, a fundamental property of perovskite ferroelectrics, endows the materials at the heart of electromechanical systems spanning from macro to micro/nano scales. Defect engineering strategies, particularly involving heterovalent trace impurities and derived vacancies, hold great potential for adjusting piezoelectric performance. Despite the prevalent use of defect engineering for modification, a comprehensive understanding of the specific features that positively impact material properties is still lacking, this knowledge gap impedes the advancement of a universally applicable defect selection and design strategy.

Zinc Overload Induces Damage to H9c2 Cardiomyocyte Through Mitochondrial Dysfunction and ROS-Mediated Mitophagy.

Zinc homeostasis is essential for maintaining redox balance, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. However, excessive zinc exposure is toxic and leads to mitochondrial dysfunction. In this study, we established a zinc overload model by treating rat cardiomyocyte H9c2 cells with Zn at different concentrations.

Factors Associated with Follow-Up Adherence After Teleophthalmology for Diabetic Eye Screening Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

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Extramacular Drusen and Progression of Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Age Related Eye Disease Study 2 Report 30.

Purpose: To identify the prevalence of extramacular drusen and their role in the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Design: Retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort study.

Participants: The study was conducted in 4168 eyes (2998 participants) with intermediate AMD in one or both eyes enrolled in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), a 5-year multicenter study of nutritional supplements.

Hippocampal epigenetic and insulin-like growth factor alterations in noninvasive versus invasive mechanical ventilation in preterm lambs.

Background: The brain of chronically ventilated preterm human infants is vulnerable to collateral damage during invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). Damage is manifest, in part, by learning and memory impairments, which are hippocampal functions. A molecular regulator of hippocampal development is insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1).

The Effect of Preoperative Opioid Dosage on Postoperative Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Knee Surgery.

Background: Opioid prescription before knee replacement surgery is associated with longer hospital stays, more postsurgical pain, and a higher rate of complications. Despite the growing evidence against opioids, they remain popular preoperative pain management prescriptions.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of dosage of preoperative opioid use on orthopedic knee surgery pain control and postoperative outcomes and complications.

Distributed representations of temporal stimulus associations across regular-firing and fast-spiking neurons in rat medial prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex has been implicated in various cognitive processes, including working memory, executive control, decision making, and relational learning. One core computational requirement underlying all these processes is the integration of information across time. When rodents and rabbits associate two temporally discontiguous stimuli, some neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) change firing rates in response to the preceding stimulus and sustain the firing rate during the subsequent temporal interval.

IUGR disrupts the PPARγ-Setd8-H4K20me(1) and Wnt signaling pathways in the juvenile rat hippocampus.

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) programs neurodevelopmental impairment and long-term neurological morbidities. Neurological morbidities in IUGR infants are correlated with changes hippocampal volume. We previously demonstrated that IUGR alters hippocampal cellular composition in both neonatal and juvenile rat pups in association with altered hippocampal gene expression and epigenetic determinants.

Traumatic brain injury increased IGF-1B mRNA and altered IGF-1 exon 5 and promoter region epigenetic characteristics in the rat pup hippocampus.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of acquired cognitive disability in childhood. Such disability may be blunted by enhancing the brain's endogenous neuroprotective response. An important endogenous neuroprotective response is the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) mRNA variant, IGF-1B.