In the traditional underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) system, spot alignment and communication are divided into different paths. Moreover, the attenuated optical signal is easily submerged by underwater noise, affecting the accuracy of the spot alignment. In this paper, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, five-photodiode receiver (5-PDR) combining communication and spot alignment is proposed, which includes transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), gain stages, and output buffers. Furthermore, a new denoising algorithm based on the hidden Markov model (HMM) is introduced. Through combining the 5-PDR and the HMM noising algorithm, spot alignment accuracy has been improved. Simulation results show that the root mean square error (RMSE) of our proposed method is reduced by 57.2%, compared with that of traditional four-quadrant detector (4-QD). The RMSE is controlled within 0.0108 mm, even under the worst conditions. The experimental results also confirm that 5-PDR has a good spot alignment ability in UWOC.Platinum (Pt) nanocrystals hold the key to a variety of catalytic applications, and those with a cubic shape are attractive as a reference catalyst due to their well-defined 100 facets on the surface. Here we demonstrate the use of droplet reactors as a viable platform for the continuous and scalable production of Pt nanocubes with uniform and controllable sizes. The synthesis was found to be sensitive to the O2 from air because of the oxidative etching associated with the O2/Br- pair. As such, either silicone oil or an inert gas had to be employed as the carrier phase to keep the droplets isolated from air. By controlling the amounts of the precursor and halide ions, the edge length of the Pt nanocubes could be tuned from 5-7 nm. In the setting of a millifluidic device, the droplet reactors could be used to achieve a production rate as high as 31.8 mg min-1, about 10-100 times greater than what has been reported in the literature. We also evaluated the electrocatalytic properties of the as-obtained Pt nanocubes toward the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). For the Pt nanocubes of 6 nm in edge length, they showed a specific activity of 0.27 mA cm-2 toward ORR at 0.9 V and a specific activity of 0.96 mA cm-2 toward MOR at the anodic potential.Cortisol is a steroid hormone involved in a wide range of medical conditions. The level of the hormone fluctuates over time, but with traditional laboratory-based assays, such dynamics cannot be monitored in real time. Here, a reversible cortisol sensor is reported that allows continuous monitoring of cortisol in blood plasma using sampling by microdialysis. The sensor is based on measuring single-molecule binding and unbinding events of tethered particles. The particles are functionalized with antibodies and the substrate with cortisol-analogues, causing binding and unbinding events to occur between particles and substrate. The frequency of binding events is reduced when cortisol is present in the solution as it blocks the binding sites of the antibodies. The sensor responds to cortisol in the high nanomolar to low micromolar range and can monitor cortisol concentrations over multiple hours. Results are shown for cortisol monitoring in filtered and in microdialysis-sampled human blood plasma.
The purpose of this study was to compare the corneal endothelial characteristics in Axenfeld anomaly (AXA), Rieger anomaly (RGA), and Axenfeld-Rieger anomaly/syndrome with age-matched healthy controls.

This is a retrospective, comparative case-control study of 52 eyes of 30 patients with AXA/RGA and AXA/S and 36 controls.

Median age at endothelial imaging was 21.5 years (interquartile range, 13.8-33.3 years). In the study group, the mean endothelial cell density (ECD) was 2112.4 ± 78.5 cells/mm2, the mean cell area (MCA) was 526.9 ± 28.5 μm2, and the coefficient of variation of cell size was 41.2 ± 1.8%. The ECD was significantly (all, P < 0.0001) lower than controls, while MCA (P < 0.0001), SD of cell size (P < 0.0001), and maximum cell area (P = 0.0007) were significantly higher than controls. Four eyes of 3 patients had guttae on slitlamp evaluation and endothelial imaging. There were no differences in the corneal endothelial characteristics among the clinical subtypes.

Patients with AXA, RGA, and Axenfeld-Rieger anomaly/syndrome have lower ECD and increased MCA compared with normal eyes. The reduced ECD associated with inherent anterior segment alterations can predispose to the risk of postcataract surgery endothelial decompensation in these eyes. The association of guttae in some eyes needs further investigational studies.
Patients with AXA, RGA, and Axenfeld-Rieger anomaly/syndrome have lower ECD and increased MCA compared with normal eyes. The reduced ECD associated with inherent anterior segment alterations can predispose to the risk of postcataract surgery endothelial decompensation in these eyes. The association of guttae in some eyes needs further investigational studies.
The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of aging and alumina-particle air abrasion at different pressures on the bond strength of two luting composites to a translucent 3Y-TZP zirconia.

Half of the 192 disk-shaped zirconia specimens were aged in an autoclave (group A) for 20 h (134°C, 2 bar), and the other half was not aged (group N). For each group, a different surface treatment was applied as-sintered (group SIN), alumina-particle air abrasion either at 1 bar (group 1B) or at 2.5 bar (group 2.5B). Disks were bonded to Plexiglas tubes filled with composite resin using a phosphate monomer-based luting composite (group SA) or with a separate phosphate monomer containing primer before using a phosphate-monomer-free luting composite (group V5). All specimens were subjected to tensile bond strength testing (TBS) before and after thermocycling.

There were no statistically significant differences caused by autoclave aging for the test groups before thermocycling, except for the A-SIN-SA group, where the TBS decreased significantly. The variation of the aluminaparticle air abrasion pressure showed no statistically significant effect, except in the N-1B-V5 group, where TBS was significantly lower than N-2.5B-V5. After thermocycling, the TBS of most groups decreased significantly. Specimens of the primer group, which were abraded at 1 bar, showed a significant decrease in TBS in comparison with alumina-particle air abrasion at 2.5 bar.

Twenty hours of autoclave aging had almost no influence on the bond strength of the test groups. For the primer/resin bonding system, higher pressure during alumina-particle air abrasion might help obtain a higher and more durable bond strength to zirconia.
Twenty hours of autoclave aging had almost no influence on the bond strength of the test groups. For the primer/resin bonding system, higher pressure during alumina-particle air abrasion might help obtain a higher and more durable bond strength to zirconia.
To evaluate the effect of different pretreatment protocols and adhesives on the shear bond strength and surface morphology of aprismatic enamel.

Human maxillary incisors (N = 120) were assigned to five different groups according to pretreatment 1) no treatment; 2) glycine; 3) sodium bicarbonate; 4) Al2O3 and 5) extra-fine bur. Then the teeth were divided into three subgroups, according to the adhesive applied 3-step etch-and-rinse (ER), universal adhesive in ER mode, and universal adhesive in self-etch (SE) mode. Shear bond strength (SBS) testing was performed with a universal testing machine. For SEM observation, fifteen human molars were collected and analyzed after pretreatment with/without etching with 37% H3PO4 for 30s.

Al2O3 showed higher SBS than all other groups considered. Comparable SBS values were obtained for other pretreatments. Universal adhesive in E&R mode performed better than did 3-step E&R and universal adhesive in SE mode. SEM images showed visible differences in enamel surface roughness.

Airborne-particle abrasion with Al2O3 followed by etching with H3PO4 increased SBS on aprismatic enamel. The combination of airborne-particle abrasion with alumina powder followed by 15 s of H3PO4 etching and application of a universal adhesive in E&R mode proved to be the most effective adhesive protocol.
Airborne-particle abrasion with Al2O3 followed by etching with H3PO4 increased SBS on aprismatic enamel. The combination of airborne-particle abrasion with alumina powder followed by 15 s of H3PO4 etching and application of a universal adhesive in E&R mode proved to be the most effective adhesive protocol.We report an effective pump recycler for industrial kilowatt fiber lasers. The pump recycler is a (6+1)×1 tapered fiber bundle, with signal ports of Ge-doped fiber (GDF) with core/cladding diameters of 20/400 µm and pump fiber ports (PFPs) with core/cladding diameters of 135/155 µm. By splicing PFPs in pairs, 77.9% of the residual pump light reaching the pump recycler is sent back to the cladding of the GDF. The insertion of a pump recycler increases the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a fiber laser using an Yb-doped fiber (YDF) from 61.0% to 70.5%, with a maximum output power of 2.78 kW. The laser with a 20 m long YDF and pump recycler compares well to another laser using a 40 m long YDF without pump recycler. In both cases, the PCE is comparable but the laser with a 20 m long YDF and pump recycler benefits from reduced stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), thus enabling an 80% increase in Raman threshold. By giving access to short YDF length, the tapered fiber bundle represents an effective pump recycler since it enables reducing SRS while keeping a large PCE.Relative humidity (RH) plays an important role in almost every industrial field. Thus, the detection of RH is of great significance in these fields. Terahertz (THz) waves are extremely sensitive to the changes in RH because water absorbs strongly in this electromagnetic band. In this paper, a RH sensor based on THz metasurfaces combined with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is proposed. Different from the conventional metasurface sensor, our sensor includes a PVA layer that is sandwiched between the metal structure and the substrate. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/dibutyryl-camp-bucladesine.html The improved design is able to enhance the interaction between the electric field and the water molecules absorbed in the PVA layer, and the sensitivity of the humidity sensor can reach 0.34 GHz/%RH, which is more than twice that of the conventional metasurface sensor. These results show that the proposed sensor can be used for the detection of RH with high reliability and high sensitivity, which open a new, to the best of our knowledge, avenue for RH sensing using THz spectroscopy.We designed and built a homemade computed tomography imaging spectrometer (CTIS) of 250×250pixels of spatial resolution and 2 nm spectral resolution. The optical design considers a CTIS optical array coupled to a digital reflex camera. We reconstructed the intensity spectra of a fluorescent source, the diffuse reflectance of a ColorChecker, and samples of Capsicum annuum of three different colors, using the expectation-maximization sequential algorithm, optimized utilizing an array of indices to reduce the reconstruction time. The results obtained with a ColorChecker indicate a high positive correlation of 0.9745 with an average residual difference of 1.31% concerning the spectra obtained with a commercial integrating sphere spectrometer. The feasibility of the proposed CTIS system shows how to detect and evaluate the physiological changes resulting from the decomposition of the green fruit of the Capsicum annuum in a range from 500 to 650 nm.