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Ensuring navigational safety in nearshore waters is essential for the sustainable development of the shipping economy. Accurate ship identification and classification are central to this objective, underscoring the critical importance of ship detection technology. However, compared to open-sea surface, dense vessel distributions and complex backgrounds in nearshore areas substantially limit detection efficacy. Infrared vision sensors offer distinct advantages over visible light by enabling reliable target detection in all weather conditions. This study therefore proposes CGSE-YOLOv5s, an enhanced YOLOv5s-based algorithm specifically designed for complex infrared nearshore scenarios. Three key improvements are introduced: (1) Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization integrated with Gaussian Filtering enhances target edge sharpness; (2) Replacement of the feature pyramid network’s C3 module with a Swin Transformer-based C3STR module reduces multi-scale false detections; and (3) Implementation of an Efficient Channel Attention mechanism amplifies critical target features. Experimental results demonstrate that CGSE-YOLOv5s achieves a mean average precision (mAP@0.5) of 94.8%, outperforming YOLOv5s by 1.3% and surpassing other detection algorithms.

Optical frequency comb is an enabling technology for a multitude of applications from metrology to ranging and communications. The tremendous progress in sources of optical frequency combs has mostly been centered around the near-infrared spectral region, while many applications demand sources in the visible and mid-infrared, which have so far been challenging to achieve, especially in nanophotonics. Here, we report widely tunable frequency comb generation using optical parametric oscillators in lithium niobate nanophotonics. We demonstrate sub-picosecond frequency combs tunable beyond an octave extending from 1.5 up to 3.3 μm with femtojoule-level thresholds on a single chip. We utilize the up-conversion of the infrared combs to generate visible frequency combs reaching 620 nm on the same chip. The ultra-broadband tunability and visible-to-mid-infrared spectral coverage of our source highlight a practical and universal path for the realization of efficient frequency comb sources in nanophotonics, overcoming their spectral sparsity. Here the authors provide the experimental demonstration of a widely tunable integrated frequency comb source unlocking the spectrum from the visible to the mid-infrared in a thin-film lithium niobate platform.

The precision of phase estimation with interferometers can be greatly enhanced using non-classical quantum states, and the SU(1,1) interferometer is an elegant scheme, which generates two-mode squeezed state internally and also amplifies the signal. It has been shown in Anderson et al (2017 Phys. Rev. A 95 063843) that the photon-number measurement can achieve the Heisenberg limit, but only for estimating a small phase shift. We relax the constraint on the range of phase by considering two adaptive protocols: one also uses the photon-number measurement with a specially tuned sequence of feedback phase; the other implements the yet-to-be-realized optimal measurement but without fine tuning.

Background To explore the relationship between TyG index, TyG–BMI and MACE events in patients after percutaneous coronary intervention, and to evaluate their potential as prognostic indicators compared to traditional risk assessment tools. Methods From October 2022 to September of the following year, a total of 105 inpatients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were carefully selected as research subjects within the scope of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Chengde Central Hospital. MACE events such as recurrent angina pectoris, acute myocardial infarction, severe arrhythmia, in-stent restenosis, and cardiac death were recorded within 12 months after discharge. According to the occurrence of MACE events, the patients were divided into two groups: the MACE group and the non-MACE group. Subgroup analysis was performed for diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Internal validation was performed using the bootstrap resampling method with 1000 iterations to assess model stability. Results A total of 105 patients were followed up, and 23 MACE events occurred. The proportion of hypertension history in the MACE group was higher than that in the non-MACE group (82.6% vs. 69.5%). The age, LDL, creatinine, the TyG index and TyG–BMI values observed in the MACE group surpassed those of the non-MACE group, with these disparities reaching statistical significance ( P  < 0.05). TyG index and TyG–BMI were associated with MACE events in patients with coronary heart disease after PCI ( P  < 0.05). Bootstrap internal validation yielded optimism-corrected C-statistics of 0.742 for TyG index and 0.768 for TyG–BMI, with correction factors of 0.023 and 0.028, respectively, indicating moderate overfitting. Similar associations were observed in both diabetic and non-diabetic subgroups. Conclusion This study suggests that TyG index and TyG–BMI may be associated with MACE events in patients with coronary heart disease after PCI. However, the small sample size, evidence of model overfitting, and lack of external validation limit the generalizability of these findings. Independent validation in larger, multicenter cohorts is essential before these indices can be recommended for clinical use. These preliminary findings provide a foundation for future adequately powered validation studies.

Dual-comb spectroscopy has been proven beneficial in molecular characterization but remains challenging in the mid-infrared region due to difficulties in sources and efficient photodetection. Here we introduce cross-comb spectroscopy, in which a mid-infrared comb is upconverted via sum-frequency generation with a near-infrared comb of a shifted repetition rate and then interfered with a spectral extension of the near-infrared comb. We measure CO 2 absorption around 4.25 µm with a 1-µm photodetector, exhibiting a 233-cm −1 instantaneous bandwidth, 28000 comb lines, a single-shot signal-to-noise ratio of 167 and a figure of merit of 2.4 × 10 6 Hz 1/2 . We show that cross-comb spectroscopy can have superior signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity, dynamic range, and detection efficiency compared to other dual-comb-based methods and mitigate the limits of the excitation background and detector saturation. This approach offers an adaptable and powerful spectroscopic method outside the well-developed near-IR region and opens new avenues to high-performance frequency-comb-based sensing with wavelength flexibility. The authors introduce and demonstrate cross-comb spectroscopy in the mid-infrared as a variant of dual-comb spectroscopy. It provides enhanced performance and allows mid-infrared spectral information to be obtained by near-infrared detection.

There are nearly 40% of cervical cancer patients showing poor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy that can be induced by autophagy, however, the underlying mechanism has not yet been fully clarified. We previously found that Sex-determining region of Y-related high-mobility-group box 6 ( SOX6 ), a tumor suppressor gene or oncogene in several cancers, could induce autophagy in cervical cancer. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the mechanism of SOX6-induced autophagy and its potential significance in the platinum-based chemotherapy of cervical cancer. Firstly, we found that SOX6 could promote autophagy in cervical cancer cells depending on its HMG domain. Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase-4 ( MAP4K4 ) gene was identified as the direct target gene of SOX6, which was transcriptionally upregulated by binding the HMG domain of SOX6 protein to its double-binding sites within MAP4K4 gene promoter. MAP4K4 mediated the SOX6-induced autophagy through inhibiting PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway and activating MAPK/ERK pathway. Further, the sensitivity of cervical cancer cells to cisplatin chemotherapy could be reduced by the SOX6-induced autophagy in vitro and in vivo, while such a phenomenon could be turned over by autophagy-specific inhibitor and MAP4K4 inhibitor, respectively. Moreover, cisplatin itself could promote the expression of endogenous SOX6 and subsequently the MAP4K4-mediated autophagy in cervical cancer cells, which might in turn reduce the sensitivity of these cells to cisplatin treatment. These findings uncovered the underlying mechanism and potential significance of SOX6-induced autophagy, and shed new light on the usage of MAP4K4 inhibitor or autophagy-specific inhibitor for sensitizing cervical cancer cells to the platinum-based chemotherapy.

Optical solitons have long been of interest both from a fundamental perspective and because of their application potential. Both cubic (Kerr) and quadratic nonlinearities can lead to soliton formation, but quadratic solitons can practically benefit from stronger nonlinearity and achieve substantial wavelength conversion. However, despite their rich physics, quadratic cavity solitons have been used only for broadband frequency comb generation, especially in the mid-infrared. Here, we show that the formation dynamics of mid-infrared quadratic cavity solitons, specifically temporal simultons in optical parametric oscillators, can be effectively leveraged to enhance molecular sensing. We demonstrate significant sensitivity enhancement while circumventing constraints of traditional cavity enhancement mechanisms. We perform experiments sensing CO 2 using cavity simultons around 4 μm and achieve an enhancement of 6000. Additionally, we demonstrate large sensitivity at high concentrations of CO 2 , beyond what can be achieved using an equivalent high-finesse linear cavity by orders of magnitude. Our results highlight a path for utilizing quadratic cavity nonlinear dynamics and solitons for molecular sensing beyond what can be achieved using linear methods. Optical molecular sensors benefit many applications from fundamental science to industry. In this work, the authors leverage the formation dynamics of cavity solitons to achieve molecular sensing in the mid-infrared spectral region.

SRY‐box transcription factor 6 (SOX6) is a member of the SOX gene family and inhibits the proliferation of cervical cancer cells by inducing cell cycle arrest. However, the final cell fate and significance of these cell‐cycle‐arrested cervical cancer cells induced by SOX6 remains unclear. Here, we report that SOX6 inhibits the proliferation of cervical cancer cells by inducing cellular senescence, which is mainly mediated by promoting transforming growth factor beta 2 (TGFB2) gene expression and subsequently activating the TGFβ2–Smad2/3–p53–p21WAF1/CIP1–Rb pathway. SOX6 promotes TGFB2 gene expression through the MAP4K4–MAPK (JNK/ERK/p38)–ATF2 and WT1–ATF2 pathways, which is dependent on its high‐mobility group (HMG) domain. In addition, the SOX6‐induced senescent cervical cancer cells are resistant to cisplatin treatment. ABT‐263 (navitoclax) and ABT‐199 (venetoclax), two classic senolytics, can specifically eliminate the SOX6‐induced senescent cervical cancer cells, and thus significantly improve the chemosensitivity of cisplatin‐resistant cervical cancer cells. This study uncovers that the MAP4K4/WT1–ATF2–TGFβ2 axis mediates SOX6‐induced cellular senescence, which is a promising therapeutic target in improving the chemosensitivity of cervical cancer. MAP4K4 and WT1 contribute to SOX6‐induced cellular senescence in cervical cancer by synergistically activating the ATF2–TGFβ2–Smad2/3 signaling pathway. The SOX6‐induced senescence of cervical cancer cells contributes to resistance to cisplatin treatment. Senolytics can be used to enhance sensitivity to cisplatin treatment by inducing apoptosis of the SOX6‐induced senescent cervical cancer cells.

The detection and surveillance of ship targets in coastal waters is not only a crucial technology for the advancement of ship intelligence, but also holds great significance for the safety and economic development of coastal areas. However, due to poor visibility in foggy conditions, the effectiveness of ship detection in coastal waters during foggy weather is limited. In this paper, we propose an improved version of YOLOv8s, termed YOLOv8s-Fog, which provides a multi-target detection network specifically designed for nearshore scenes in foggy weather. This improvement involves adding coordinate attention to the neck of YOLOv8 and replacing the convolution in C2f with deformable convolution. Additionally, to expand the dataset, we construct and synthesize a collection of ship target images captured in coastal waters on days with varying degrees of fog, using the atmospheric scattering model and monocular depth estimation. We compare the improved model with the standard YOLOv8s model, as well as several other object detection models. The results demonstrate superior performance achieved by the improved model, achieving an average accuracy of 74.4% (mAP@0.5), which is 1.2% higher than that achieved by the standard YOLOv8s model.

As a naturally existing adaptive immune system of prokaryotes against phages and foreign genetic materials, the CRISPR/Cas9 system has been widely used to combat various viral infections. However, its ability to destroy the constantly replicating viral genome and subsequently clear viral infections still needs further improvement. This study found that Cas9 protein was mainly degraded through the chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA)-lysosome pathway in human cells, which was mediated by the binding between heat shock cognate protein 70 (HSC70) and Cas9 protein. HRS could stabilize Cas9 protein by competing with HSC70 to bind to Cas9 and subsequently inhibiting its degradation the CMA-lysosome pathway. The stability of Cas9 protein with mutant KFERQ-like motifs located at aa 670-674 and aa 894-898 was significantly increased by antagonizing the HSC70-mediated CMA degradation, thus this Cas9 mutant was referred to as a highly stable Cas9 (HSCas9). The enhanced ability of HSCas9 to destroy the constantly replicating hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome promoted the CRISPR/Cas9 system to clear HBV infection without exhibiting cytotoxicity or increasing off-target effects. In summary, this study uncovers the degradation mechanism of Cas9 protein in human cells and provides a strategy to enhance the ability of the CRISPR/Cas9 system to clear HBV infection. ALP: autophagy-lysosome pathways; AR7: 7-Chloro-3-(4-methylphenyl)-2H-1,4-benzoxazine; cccDNA: covalently closed circular DNA; CMA: chaperone-mediated autophagy; CRISPR/Cas9: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated nuclease 9 (Cas9); gRNA: single-guide RNA; HBV: hepatitis B virus; HRS: hepatocyte growth factor-regulated tyrosine kinase substrate; HSC70: heat shock cognate protein 70; HSCas9: highly stable Cas9; rcDNA: relaxed circular DNA; SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; UPS: ubiquitin-proteasome system.