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The development of integrated semiconductor lasers has miniaturized traditional bulky laser systems, enabling a wide range of photonic applications. A progression from pure III-V based lasers to III-V/external cavity structures has harnessed low-loss waveguides in different material systems, leading to significant improvements in laser coherence and stability. Despite these successes, however, key functions remain absent. In this work, we address a critical missing function by integrating the Pockels effect into a semiconductor laser. Using a hybrid integrated III-V/Lithium Niobate structure, we demonstrate several essential capabilities that have not existed in previous integrated lasers. These include a record-high frequency modulation speed of 2 exahertz/s (2.0 × 10 18 Hz/s) and fast switching at 50 MHz, both of which are made possible by integration of the electro-optic effect. Moreover, the device co-lases at infrared and visible frequencies via the second-harmonic frequency conversion process, the first such integrated multi-color laser. Combined with its narrow linewidth and wide tunability, this new type of integrated laser holds promise for many applications including LiDAR, microwave photonics, atomic physics, and AR/VR. On-Chip integration of laser systems led to impressive development in many field of application like LIDAR or AR/VR to cite a few. Here the authors harness Pockels effect in an integrated semiconductor platform achieving fast on-chip configurability of a narrow linewidth laser.

Brain metastases (BMs) in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) are often associated with poor survival rates and quality of life, making the timely identification of high-risk patients for BMs in ES-SCLC crucial. Patients diagnosed with ES-SCLC between 2010 and 2018 were screened from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Four different machine learning (ML) algorithms were used to create prediction models for BMs in ES-SCLC patients. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, AUROC, and AUPRC were compared among these models and traditional logistic regression (LR). The random forest (RF) model demonstrated the best performance and was chosen for further analysis. The AUROC and AUPRC were calculated and compared. The findings from the RF model were utilized to identify the risk factors linked to BMs in patients diagnosed with ES-SCLC. Examining 4,716 instances of ES-SCLC, the research conducted an analysis, with brain metastases arising in 1,900 cases. Through evaluation of the ROC curve and PRC concerning the RF Model, results depicted an AUROC of 0.896 (95% CI: 0.889–0.899) and AUPRC of 0.900 (95% CI: 0.895–0.904). Test accuracy measured at 0.810 (95% CI: 0.784–0.833), sensitivity at 0.797 (95% CI: 0.756–0.841), and specificity at 0.819 (95% CI: 0.754–0.879). Based on the SHAP analysis of the RF predictive model, the top 10 most relevant features were identified and ranked in order of relative importance: bone metastasis, liver metastasis, radiation, age, tumor size, primary tumor location, N-stage, race, T-stage, and chemotherapy. The research developed and validated a predictive RF model using clinical and pathological data to predict the risk of BMs in patients with ES-SCLC. This model may assist physicians in making clinical decisions that could delay the onset of BMs and improve patient survival rates.

The novel protein acylation modifications have played a vital role in protein post-translational modifications. However, the functions and effects of the protein acylation modifications in lung adenocarcinoma are still uncertain. Currently, there is still a lack of global identification of acylation modifications in lung adenocarcinoma cells. Therefore, in this study, we detected 10 currently known acylation modifications in lung adenocarcinoma cells by Western blot. We found that the abundance of lysine lactylation (Kla), crotonylation (Kcr) and succinylation (Ksu) is likely higher. Subsequently, we identified the above three modifications together with phosphorylation by global mass spectrometry-based proteomics in lung adenocarcinoma cells. As a result, we got 3110 Kla sites in 1220 lactylated proteins, 16,653 Kcr sites in 4137 crotonylated proteins, 4475 Ksu sites in 1221 succinylated proteins, and 15,254 phosphorylation sites in 4139 phosphorylated proteins. Recent studies have highlighted the role of lactylation modifications in tumor cell resistance to radiation and chemotherapy by affecting homologous recombination. Our subsequent investigations have shown that key factors in the nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway, such as Ku70 and Ku80, undergo lactylation modifications. Inhibition of lactylation impairs the efficiency of nonhomologous end joining. In conclusion, our results provide a proteome-wide database to study Kla, Kcr and Ksu and phosphorylation in lung adenocarcinoma, and new insights into the role of acylation modification in lung adenocarcinoma.

Background The use of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in early stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients post-surgery remains controversial. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of PCI in resected early stage SCLC patients. Methods Relevant literature was reviewed through PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase databases. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS) were analyzed for the overall population, as well as for pathologically node-negative (pN0) and pathologically node-positive (pN+) patients. We also assessed the pooled HRs for brain metastasis-free survival (BMFS) in all patients. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to validate these results. Results A total of 13 retrospective studies were included, encompassing 3,530 postoperative SCLC patients, of whom 880 received PCI treatment. In the overall patient population, PCI significantly improved OS compared to non-PCI group (HR: 0.66, 95% CI 0.58–0.74, p  < 0.001). For pN0 patients, there was no significant OS benefit from PCI (HR: 0.85, 95% CI 0.65–1.10, p  = 0.22). In contrast, pN + patients showed a significant OS improvement with PCI (HR: 0.52, 95% CI 0.41–0.66, p  < 0.001). Furthermore, PCI significantly improved BMFS in all patients (HR: 0.42, 95% CI 0.29–0.60, p  < 0.001). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the stability of these results. Conclusions PCI was associated with a significant improvement in OS and BMFS in resected early stage SCLC patients. The benefits of PCI were particularly pronounced in pN + patients, whereas pN0 patients did not experience a significant OS benefit. These findings supported the selective use of PCI based on nodal status to optimize treatment outcomes in postoperative SCLC patients.

Lysine lactylation is a post-translational modification induced by lactate discovered in recent years. Abnormal lysine lactylation contributes to the occurrence and progression of various tumors. However, the mediators and downstream targets of lysine lactylation remain unclear. Here, we report that HAT1 serves as a potential lactyltransferase that can promote homologous recombination and lead to radioresistance by regulating lactylation of RPA1. Lactylation of RPA1 facilitates its binding to single-stranded DNA and MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complexes and promotes homologous recombination. HAT1 knockout inhibits DNA repair in lung adenocarcinoma cells, thereby increasing radiotherapy sensitivity. Interestingly, we also found that K15 auto-lactylation of HAT1 can modulate its lactyltransferase activity. In conclusion, our research reveals that HAT1-regulated RPA1 lactylation plays an important role in homologous recombination and radioresistance, suggesting that HAT1 may become a potential therapeutic target for reversing the radioresistance caused by lactate accumulation in cancer cells.

With the deep integration of information technologies into urban governance, smart communities have emerged as pivotal platforms for advancing sustainable urban development. However, existing research has not offered a systematic analysis or clear presentation of the field’s academic evolution and thematic structure. This study examines the literature on smart communities published between 2000 and 2024. Employing data analysis and visualization tools, it aims to trace the evolution and development trends of smart community research, map its core themes and their interrelationships, and provide actionable insights for policymaking and practical implementation. Based on 2,347 publications indexed in the Web of Science from 2000 to 2024, this study employed CiteSpace and VOSviewer to conduct co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence mapping, national collaboration network analysis, author and institutional contribution assessment, burst detection, and hotspot term analysis. The literature screening adhered to predefined publication-type criteria and citation-count thresholds to ensure that the results were representative and reliable. This study, through literature analysis and data visualization in the field of smart communities, yields the following principal conclusions. First, the application of digital twin technology in optimizing smart community resources has attracted growing attention, demonstrating considerable potential in urban management, infrastructure maintenance, and resident services. Second, as technology advances, digitaltwin applications are evolving towards greater precision and efficiency, particularly by deepening their support for resource allocation and decision-making processes. Finally, the future development of smart communities will increasingly depend on the deep integration of digital twins with other cutting-edge technologies, thereby driving intelligent management and optimization of community resources. This literature repository excludes grey literature and non-English publications, potentially underestimating the representativeness of grassroots innovation. Furthermore, the temporal analysis was constrained by the citation-lag effects of publications from 2000 to 2024. This study proposes a decision-support toolkit tailored for municipal planners and policymakers. The toolkit comprises three core intervention strategies: multiscale environmental sensing, participatory governance protocols, and regenerative technology pathways. These measures are designed to advance the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. By explicitly defining and applying the “thematic knowledge framework,” this paper offers a concise roadmap for the evolution of smart community research. It also provides precise guidance for designing and implementing community development strategies that align with Sustainable Development Goals.

Introduction Population‐based cancer registration data are collected by the National Central Cancer Registry in China every year. Cancer incident cases and cancer deaths in 2013 were analyzed. Methods Through the procedure of quality control, reported data from 255 registries were accepted to establish the national database for cancer estimates. Incidences and mortalities were calculated with stratification by area (urban/rural), sex (male/female), age group (0, 1–4, 5–9, 10–14 … 80–84, and 85‐year‐old and above), and cancer site. The structure of Segi's population was used for the calculation of age‐standardized rates (ASR). Top 10 most common cancers and leading causes of cancer deaths were listed. Results In 2013, 3,682,200 new cancer cases and 2,229,300 cancer deaths were estimated in China based on the pooled data from 255 cancer registries, covering 16.65% of the national population. The incidence was 270.59/100,000, with an ASR of 186.15/100,000; the mortality was 166.83/100,000, with an ASR of 108.94/100,000. The top 10 most common cancer sites were the lung, stomach, liver, colorectum, female breast, esophagus, thyroid, cervix, brain, and pancreas. The ten leading causes of cancer deaths were lung cancer, liver cancer, gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, female breast cancer, brain tumor, leukemia, and lymphoma. Conclusions Cancer leaves serious disease burden in China with high incidence and mortality. Lung cancer was the most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in China. Efficient control strategy is needed, especially for major cancers.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are devices that integrate multiple photonic functions on a small chip and allow for accurate dimension control and massive production. Similar to electronic integrated circuits, PICs can significantly reduce the system cost, size, weight, and operation power (CSWaP). Recently, the PIC technology has transformed many optical technologies which traditionally rely on tabletop systems and bulky components, such as optical interconnects, nonlinear optics, and quantum photonics, into a chip-scale platform. This device and system miniaturization has successfully led to a wide range of practical applications in computing, sensing, spectroscopy, and communication. However, the traditional passive PIC platform lacks efficient gain media or source components. Hybrid integration, which combines different material systems on a single chip, is a promising candidate to overcome the limitation of the traditional passive PIC platform. By integrating III-V semiconductor chips with passive PICs, it is possible to enhance the functionality of PICs and create novel miniaturized laser systems. III-V semiconductor gain chips are generally favored for hybrid photonic integration due to their small footprint, low cost, and high electrical-to-optical conversion efficiency. There are various approaches to obtain hybrid integration, including direct epitaxy growth, edge coupling, and wafer/die bonding. Hybrid integration by edge coupling provides a simple solution that avoids the material lattice mismatch problem presented by the direct epitaxy approach because the active chips and passive chips can be fabricated, optimized, and thermal controlled independently. In addition, by using silicon nitride material in this hybrid platform, the transparency window can be extended below 1 um, which makes it possible to combine visible and near infrared laser sources through the III-V/Si3N4 hybrid integration. Laser combining systems have many emerging applications, such as integrated nonlinear optics, remote sensing, free space communication, infrared countermeasure, and light detection and ranging (LIDAR). The traditional approaches of laser combining include coherent beam combining (CBC) and wavelength beam combining (WBC). CBC is phase sensitive, which is suited to applications that require single wavelength operation. The difficulty of this technique is that the relative phase of all lasers needs to be operated within a small fraction of a wavelength. On the contrary, WBC usually relies on diffraction gratings or spectral filters to spatially overlap beams from different lasers which operate at different wavelengths. The main advantage of WBC is that it does not require accurate phase control and can scale to many array elements. These laser beam combining techniques (CBC or WBC) usually require free space or fiber optical components, leading to bulky and complex systems. In this thesis, we provide a chip-scale WBC system based on the hybrid integration of Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (RSOA) and Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG), which demonstrated a four-channel combining system with watt-level output. To explore the gain component for the passive PIC, we provide a Hook-Shape Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (HSSOA) design to overcome the alignment challenge introduced by the traditional Traveling-wave Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (TSOA), which requires two-sides edge-coupling and accurate thickness control to avoid vertical mode mismatch. The flip chip bonding of these two-facet TSOAs require extra markers and well-designed submounts to obtain good alignment between multiple components in a high-density integration. The proposed HSSOA design can be easily extended with multiple gain sections in one chip, which is convenient for high-density photonic integration. The Euler bend design used in the HSSOA cavity helps decrease the coupling loss between the bending waveguide and straight waveguide. By applying multiple etch depths inside the HSSOA cavity, we can maintain a small footprint for the whole device and avoid high-order modes in the straight waveguide region. We realize an unidirectional ring laser through the integration of the hook-shape SOA and the Taiji ring resonator. Multiple gain components in a single chip might be one option for future work, which provides additional gain/power for the III-V/Si3N4 hybrid integration platform.

BackgroundTreatment of brain metastases (BMs) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, especially those with non-sensitive genetic mutations, is hindered by limited drug delivery through the blood–brain barrier (BBB). This retrospective study explores the efficacy of systemic treatments during brain metastasis to radiotherapy evaluation window in improving patient survival.MethodsIn this retrospective cohort study, we evaluated 209 NSCLC patients with non-sensitive mutations and BMs, treated between 2016 and 2023 at two tertiary medical centers (Chongqing University Cancer Hospital and Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital). The patients were divided into three groups, namely chemotherapy alone (C; n = 95), chemotherapy plus immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) (C + I; n = 62), and chemotherapy with ICIs and antiangiogenic therapy (A) (C + I + A; n = 52). Statistical analyses were performed using R software, version 4.3.3. Categorical variables were compared using Fisher’s exact test, and survival curves were estimated with the Kaplan–Meier method and compared via the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to assess factors associated with overall survival (OS). Bayesian model averaging (BMA) was employed to address model uncertainty and improve result robustness. Subgroup analyses evaluated treatment-related mortality risk.ResultsFrom an initial cohort of 658 NSCLC patients with BMs, 209 were analyzed with a median age of 59; the majority were male (80.9%) and diagnosed with adenocarcinoma (78.9%). Univariate analysis identified significant variables influencing outcomes, including BMs radiotherapy EQD2, BMs count, local thoracic treatment, BMs radiotherapy field, intracranial response, and systemic treatment post-BMs diagnosis. The C + I + A regimen significantly improved median OS to 23.6 months compared to 11.4 months with C and 16.2 months with C + I, with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.60 (95% CI: 0.43–0.82; P < 0.0001). The two-year OS rate was highest in the C + I + A group at 38.5%, versus 10.5% in C and 20.4% in C + I (P < 0.001). Cox regression and BMA analyses confirmed the stability of BMA in providing HR estimates, yielding area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.785 for BMA and 0.793 for the Cox model, with no significant difference in predictive performance. Subgroup analysis revealed a 71% mortality risk reduction with C + I + A (HR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.18–0.47; P < 0.0001), showing consistent benefits regardless of patient sex, BMs count, extracranial metastases presence, and local thoracic treatments. Treatment sequence analysis indicated a median OS of 33.4 months for patients starting with A, though not statistically significant (HR: 0.59; P = 0.36). The overall incidence of radiation-induced brain injury was low at 3.3%, with rates in the C, C + I, and C + I + A groups being 3.2%, 4.8%, and 1.9%, respectively (P = 0.683).ConclusionOur study demonstrates the significant benefit of the C + I + A combination therapy in improving OS and reducing mortality risk in NSCLC patients with non-sensitive gene-mutated BMs. The sequential administration of A followed by ICIs shows a promising synergistic effect with cranial radiotherapy, highlighting the potential for optimized treatment sequencing. These findings emphasize the efficacy of tailored combination therapies in complex oncological care and suggest that our approach could lead to meaningful improvements in clinical outcomes for this challenging patient population.

The development of integrated semiconductor lasers has miniaturized traditional bulky laser systems, enabling a wide range of photonic applications. A progression from pure III-V based lasers to III-V/external cavity structures has harnessed low-loss waveguides in different material systems, leading to significant improvements in laser coherence and stability. Despite these successes, however, key functions remain absent. In this work, we address a critical missing function by integrating the Pockels effect into a semiconductor laser. Using a hybrid integrated III-V/Lithium Niobate structure, we demonstrate several essential capabilities that have not existed in previous integrated lasers. These include a record-high frequency modulation speed of 2 exahertz/s (2.0\\(\\times\\)10\\(^{18}\\) Hz/s) and fast switching at 50 MHz, both of which are made possible by integration of the electro-optic effect. Moreover, the device co-lases at infrared and visible frequencies via the second-harmonic frequency conversion process, the first such integrated multi-color laser. Combined with its narrow linewidth and wide tunability, this new type of integrated laser holds promise for many applications including LiDAR, microwave photonics, atomic physics, and AR/VR.