Search

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a typical refractory malignancy, and many patients have distant organ metastases at diagnosis, such as liver metastasis and peritoneal dissemination. The standard treatment for unresectable PDAC with distant organ metastasis (UR-M) is chemotherapy, but the prognosis remained poor. However, with recent dramatic developments in chemotherapy, the prognosis has gradually improved, and some patients have experienced marked shrinkage or disappearance of their metastatic lesions. With this trend, attempts have been made to resect a small number of metastases (so-called oligometastases) in combination with the primary tumor or to resect the primary and metastatic tumor in patients with a favorable response to anti-cancer treatment after a certain period of time (so-called conversion surgery). An international consensus meeting on surgical treatment for UR-M PDAC was held during the Joint Congress of the 26th Meeting of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) and the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Pancreas Society (JPS) in Kyoto in July 2022. The presenters showed their indications for and results of surgical treatment for UR-M PDAC and discussed their advantages and disadvantages with the experts. Although these reports were limited to a small number of patients, findings suggest that these surgical treatments for patients with UR-M PDAC who have had a significant response to chemotherapy may contribute to a prognosis of prolonged survival. We hope that this article summarizing the discussion and agreements at the meeting will serve as the basis for future trials and guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC), which progresses locally and surrounds major vessels, has historically been deemed unresectable. Surgery alone failed to provide curative resection and improve overall survival. With the advancements in treatment, reports have shown favorable results in LAPC after undergoing successful chemotherapy therapy or chemoradiation therapy followed by surgical resection, so-called "conversion surgery", at experienced high-volume centers. However, recognizing significant regional and institutional disparities in the management of LAPC, an international consensus meeting on conversion surgery for LAPC was held during the Joint Congress of the 26th Meeting of the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) and the 53rd Annual Meeting of Japan Pancreas Society (JPS) in Kyoto in July 2022. During the meeting, presenters reported the current best multidisciplinary practices for LAPC, including preoperative modalities, best systemic treatment regimens and durations, procedures of conversion surgery with or without vascular resections, biomarkers, and genetic studies. It was unanimously agreed among the experts in this meeting that "cancer biology is surpassing locoregional anatomical resectability" in the era of effective multiagent treatment. The biology of pancreatic cancer has yet to be further elucidated, and we believe it is essential to improve the treatment outcomes of LAPC patients through continued efforts from each institution and more international collaboration. This article summarizes the agreement during the discussion amongst the experts in the meeting. We hope that this will serve as a foundation for future international collaboration and recommendations for future guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing pressure on natural resources and the climate has been noted by businesses and governments worldwide, who now face the difficult task of integrating paths of environmental sustainability and economic growth. One promising approach to sustainable development, reducing the pressure on natural resources and solving waste problems is circular economy. From different ways of implementing circular economy, this study focuses on the productization of industrial side streams, which carry a great deal of underutilized potential. In this article, the productization of pulp and paper industry side stream, fiber sludge, for commercial use as a dust-binding agent is studied via a descriptive, in-depth case study. Apart from inconsistent quality, fluctuating supply, cost of storage and logistics, what makes industrial side stream utilization challenging is the lack of knowledge that stakeholders have about side streams and their utilization and the lack of new value chain development for their commercial use. Therefore, it is essential for all parties involved to have a clearer vision of what is being sold for what purposes, through productization. This study found that the productization of side streams follows the same steps as the productization of any other traditional product, and the productized side streams can be added to the company's product portfolio as by-products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A decision-making system of sponge facility allocation optimization is established; • The runoff coefficient grading of each sub-catchment area is analyzed; • The regression relationships between LID facilities and the control effects are built; • The layout of LID facilities is optimized and gray facilities are connected reasonably. In order to effectively cope with the destruction of natural hydrological cycle mechanism, frequent urban flood, serious water pollution and other problems, which are caused by the rapid urbanization process, the 'sponge city' concept has been widely used in China. This paper mainly focuses on how to rationally arrange the sponge grey and green facilities in built-up urban areas. With background analysis as the premise, model construction as the platform and swarm intelligence optimization as the method, the optimal proportion of sponge green facilities is determined. Furthermore, gray facilities are strengthened for the problem area, and the optimal allocation scenario of sponge facilities with the combination of gray and green is obtained through continuous circulation. The final results show that the optimal layout proportion of rain garden, sunken green space, permeable pavement and green roof are 3.88%, 7.95%, 2.01% and 0.99% respectively, which can meet the 80% runoff control rate and 40% pollution load control rate in the standard. Based on the simulation results of 50a rainfall, regulation and storage facilities are arranged near the severely overloaded node and the diameter of the overloaded pipes are increased. It can be proved that runoff and pollution can be effectively controlled and urban flood can be alleviated with grey facilities by model. The research results of this paper are expected to provide the overall idea and method of layout optimization of grey-green facilities for sponge city construction in built-up urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platform ecosystem governance refers to a platform owner's decisions and mechanisms that seek to influence complementors and users to build and sustain an ecosystem. The relevance of digital platform ecosystem governance is broadly acknowledged by researchers. However, the extant body of research is fragmented, and varied terminologies are employed, leading to challenges in identifying and recognizing results across different fields. This article provides a multidisciplinary and systematic literature review with the aim of consolidating knowledge on this important topic. Based on an analysis of 103 journal articles and conference papers, this review synthesizes the literature into a conceptual model with five building blocks of platform ecosystem governance. The model aims to create a robust foundation for researchers approaching the topic for the first time and conducting subsequent research. The conceptual model also offers practical guidance for governing ecosystems in a structured manner. Finally, this article provides a research agenda with five areas for future investigation. • Multidisciplinary, systematic literature review on platform ecosystem governance. • Synthesis of the literature into a conceptual model with five building blocks. • Robust foundation for understanding the topic and for future research. • Research agenda with five areas and questions for future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores digital reality replication for cultural consumption and green-digital open-system innovation, along with responsible, sustainable practices fashioned in a post-COVID-19 era. We address these after the dystopian effects of lockdown on global tourism and, in particular, the looming crisis of unsustainable 'overtourism'. The aim of this paper is to disclose problems and policies related to moderating consumption to more sustainable levels. The scope of the article tackles three fields: urban re-branding, fast fashion, and overtourism. Each problem area is analysed against the background of digital surveillance in the attention economy with the aid of a conceptual model. Accordingly, the principal objectives of this paper are to analyse key sustainability problem sources, evolutionary processes, and policy responses. The paper's originality and value lie in its recognition of tractable problem engagement through conceptual and practicable methods. This contribution also explores other consumption modes that tourists appreciate, namely, retail activity and its unsustainable "fast fashion" obsession. Finally, the paper analyses urban soft branding, the third tourism attractor within the niche touristic activity of the creative-cultural and gastronomic kind, which also features impulses that affect the perpetuation of unsustainable touristic practices. Thus, this contribution also assesses various studies on tourism futures that exploit digital media to assist in conserving both natural and cultural environments. Accordingly, we first narrate the soft re-branding of an "Art City" as a "Fashion City" and consider the example of green-digital innovation in the cultural milieu of Florence, Italy, in light of criticism of the unsustainability of "fast fashion". We consider which actions are envisioned or advised in the similarly "over-touristed" city of Venice. In a different vein, we consider whether the mobilisation of 'pop celebrity' performers such as audience engagers or influencers works for sustainable intervention through an assessment of the cultural interventions of Madonna in Lisbon. Finally, we anatomise "green" politics and policies for creative-cultural cities with the support of digital media to influence sustainable actions to moderate or, alternatively, revitalise polluted, congested, or otherwise over-touristed city centres. The greening of central Paris, Barcelona, Milan, and London offer a a series of examples of this type of moderation and revitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer is one of digestive tract cancers with high mortality rate. Despite the wide range of available treatments and improvements in surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, the five-year prognosis for individuals diagnosed pancreatic cancer remains poor. There is still research to be done to see if immunotherapy may be used to treat pancreatic cancer. The goals of our research were to comprehend the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer, found a useful biomarker to assess the prognosis of patients, and investigated its biological relevance. In this paper, machine learning methods such as random forest were fused with weighted gene co-expression networks for screening hub immune-related genes (hub-IRGs). LASSO regression model was used to further work. Thus, we got eight hub-IRGs. Based on hub-IRGs, we created a prognosis risk prediction model for PAAD that can stratify accurately and produce a prognostic risk score (IRG_Score) for each patient. In the raw data set and the validation data set, the five-year area under the curve (AUC) for this model was 0.9 and 0.7, respectively. And shapley additive explanation (SHAP) portrayed the importance of prognostic risk prediction influencing factors from a machine learning perspective to obtain the most influential certain gene (or clinical factor). The five most important factors were TRIM67, CORT, PSPN, SCAMP5, RFXAP, all of which are genes. In summary, the eight hub-IRGs had accurate risk prediction performance and biological significance, which was validated in other cancers. The result of SHAP helped to understand the molecular mechanism of pancreatic cancer. • We used WGCNA, random forest and LASSO to fuse multiple methods to screen genes. • We constructed a pancreatic cancer risk score model based on immune-related genes. • We compared the accuracy of multiple machine learning methods and select the classifier with the highest accuracy to construct SHAP. • Random forest-based SHAP approach was used to assess the importance of factors influencing prognostic risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the Journal of Palaeogeography (Chinese Edition and English Edition) continually received manuscripts, in which some authors are from China and some are from Pakistan, Lithuania, Morocco, South Africa, etc. The authors of these manuscripts, according to the viewpoint and method of Miall's paper (1985), selected rocks from each bed in the clastic sections of their study areas and induced some rock types, such as conglomerates, sandstones and fine-grained stones, and considered them as lithofacies. It does not conform to the definition of lithofacies. I wrote some papers, i.e., Feng (2018, 2019, 2020), to point out the problems and hope that the authors worldwide, especially Chinese authors, will not continually cite, spread and follow Miall's paper (1985) viewpoint and method blindly. Prof. Miall is the first person who considered rocks (in fact, the sediments) as lithofacies and proposed a facies analysis method. His viewpoint and facies analysis method confused the definition of facies and facies analysis method. My current paper is a special article to discuss the principal problems of Miall's paper (1985), i.e., he considered the sediments as lithofacies and utilized lithofacies to analyze facies, but not to discuss the contributions and less strictness of architectural elements of his paper. Here, I have to declare that the facies in my current paper is the facies of sedimentary petrology, but not of other geological disciplines, such as igneous petrology, metamorphic petrology, palaeontology, stratigraphy, geophysics, geochemistry. Certainly, the definitions of facies and lithofacies are controversial. My current paper will adhere to the policy of "A hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". I hope that through academic discussions, contends and geological practice, these problems will be solved gradually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To utilize industrial by-products in construction projects, soil stabilization using paper sludge ash-based stabilizers (PSASs) has recently been developed. PSASs can be manufactured by insolubilizing the heavy metals in original paper sludge (PS) ash, which is a waste product emitted from paper mills. This study assessed the durability of clays treated with PSASs in wet-dry or dry-wet environments through various evaluation tests. Initially, the particle size distributions (PSDs) in the clays that had undergone various pretreatments were assessed. Then, unconfined compression tests were performed on the treated clays that had undergone dry and wet curing cycles using demolded specimens. Finally, cone index tests were carried out on the treated clays that had undergone dry and wet curing cycles while the samples were constrained in molds. Based on the test results, the durability assessment of the clays treated with PSASs was discussed, considering the specifics of each evaluation test and contrasting the findings with those obtained for clays treated with cement. The generated PSDs were found to contain more fine particles as the time spent washing the samples prior to sieving was increased. The findings indicated that PSAS-treated clays will eventually become muddy, even though it is unlikely that these treated clays will ever be subjected to washing with water while being stirred after construction. The unconfined compression test results also demonstrated that, after several dry-wet cycles, the strength of the PSAS-treated specimens had decreased. It was revealed that clays treated with PSASs might be less resistant to dry-wet curing cycles than those treated with cement. However, PSAS-treated samples using unconfined compression test specimens are still being investigated and are a topic of debate because the strength development mechanisms of PSASs and cement are not similar. To address this issue, a series of cone index tests were conducted on samples treated with PSASs to examine the change in strength caused by the dry-wet curing process. The results of the cone index tests were different from those of the unconfined compression tests. The cone index test results revealed that the samples must be constrained during the assessment tests in order to assess the durability of PSAS-treated soils subjected to dry-wet curing. In addition, it was proposed in this study that the idea of maturity would be applicable to PSAS-treated soils with a range of curing temperatures and curing times as long as the soils were constrained during the assessment tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In those cases where construction-generated soils with high water contents are used as filling or embankment materials, it is sometimes difficult to satisfy the specified compaction degrees. Recently, soil stabilization using a paper sludge ash-based stabilizer (PSAS) has been developed. Paper sludge (PS) ash is waste generated by the incineration of PS discharged from paper mills. It has been found that PS ash can absorb and retain excess water; and therefore, PS ash can simultaneously improve the stability of muds when it is mixed with them. However, the current mixture design approach for PSAS-treated soils is only applicable to muds with water contents exceeding the liquid limits and cannot be applied to construction-generated soils in which the coarse fraction is dominant. Therefore, this study evaluated the effects of a PSAS on the compaction and mechanical characteristics of coarse-grained soils to use them as materials for irrigation earth dams. A series of compaction tests were conducted on two types of soil samples treated with a PSAS to investigate its effects on the compaction characteristics. The compaction characteristics obtained from the tests were assessed considering the water absorption and retention performance of the PSAS. It was found that the modified optimum water content w * opt of the treated samples, which was evaluated using the amount of water unabsorbed and unretained by the PSAS, was almost equal to the w opt of the untreated samples. Consequently, a new mixture design approach was proposed based on the compaction characteristics. The calculated results successfully demonstrated that, if the compaction curve of an untreated sample and the water absorption and retention ratio, W ab , of the PSAS corresponding to a certain curing period are obtained, the range in the PSAS addition amount, A PS 1m3, required to attain the targeted compaction degree, (D c) target , for the curing period can be estimated without conducting compaction tests on the treated samples. Finally, the strength characteristics of the treated samples prescribed by the proposed mixture design method were investigated by conducting CBR tests and CU ¯ TC tests. Based on the test results, discussions were made on the contribution of the proposed mixture design to the strength development of the treated samples and on the development mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the declaration of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, nature-based solutions (NbS) are at the forefront of the sustainability discourse. However, this solution needs operational clarity to avoid the commonly mentioned vagueness of the concept. This paper highlighted application of the ecohydrological principles to guide the conception, planning, designing, implementation, and monitoring of nature-based solutions. The paper proposed an ecohydrological nature-based solution that is emanated from the natural sequence of self-regulating patch-interpatch at the hillslope scale to restore highly degraded hillslope in Lake Hawassa sub-basin of Ethiopian Rift Valley Basin. The active restoration site is found to have a landscape organization index value of 0.94 (= 94% of the gradsect is consisting of resources conserving patches) as compared to 0.16 at the passive site. In terms of landscape functionality, the active site showed significant stability (p(x≤T) = 0.01), infiltration (p(x≤T) = 0.001), and nutrient cycling (p(x≤T)=0.005). It also exhibited significant improvement in soil moisture (p(x≤T) = 0.001). Ecologically, the active site is found to be more diverse (richness index 18 (active) vs. 8 (passive); heterogeneous (Shannon diversity index=1.22 (active) vs. 0.44 (passive)); well distributed (Simpson's index= 0.62 (active) vs. 0.28 (passive)); less dominance of few species (Evenness index (0.99 (passive) vs. 0.96 (active)). Limitation of this study is linked with the short span of the restoration period which tends to be not adequate to observe the full 'dual' regulation between hydrology and biota. For this, the research can be considered as a prerequisite towards full restoration of the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment, maintenance, and implementation of environmental flow (hereafter e-flow) in rivers and wetlands have been recognized as a vital tool for sustaining freshwater ecosystems in several countries including India. In this view, the paper intends to review the current understanding of e-flow concept in India. This can be accomplished by reviewing case studies reported for different river basins across India and documented literature, legislative and water policy reports, minutes of meetings, workshops, and conferences. with the aim, On the other hand, its aims to briefly trace the history of e-flow assessment studies as well as the progress that has been achieved so far since 1998s. Role of enabling factors and constraints for e-flow implementation in India at a macro scale is also highlighted, which shows e-flow understanding has received considerable attention over the past two decades for the conservation of freshwater ecosystems and is still evolving. This paper also concludes with identifying a range of actions and gives some directions for future research that requires for e-flow implementation in a river basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction sludge frequently has high alkalinity after its generation or during the intermediate treatment process. The aim of this study is to experimentally investigate the potential of combining accelerated carbonation and a paper sludge ash-based stabilizer (PSAS) to neutralize the alkalinity of construction sludge in a short period and to improve its strength for use as a recycled material. The experimental results indicate that the addition of a PSAS significantly granulated the alkaline sludge, and once granulated, the PSAS successfully accelerated the pH neutralization of the alkaline sludge. It was also found that the decrease in dry density ρ d and the degree of saturation S r of the PSAS-treated sludge was able to reduce the period required for the pH neutralization, t N. The decrease in ρ d is thought to allow fresh CO 2 gas to penetrate the specimen more easily. However, if S r is below a certain limit, it does not strongly facilitate the reduction of t N. This implies that pH neutralization cannot be accelerated when the amount of water in the sludge is below a certain level. Moreover, it was found that mean particle diameter D 50 also affected t N. The strength development of the PSAS-treated sludge was evaluated using a series of cone index tests. It was found that the strength of the alkaline sludge without the PSAS was significantly decreased by accelerated carbonation, but was significantly increased even after accelerated carbonation when the PSAS was present. Due to the porosities of the remaining PS ash particles, most of the contribution of the water absorption and retention performance of the PSAS to the strength development of the PSAS-treated sludge was secured after accelerated carbonation. In addition, the granulated particles of the PSAS-treated sludge retained their granular shape to some extent. Therefore, it is presumed that the friction and interlocking of the particles did not decrease significantly. It was also found that, after carbonation, the q c of the PSAS-treated sludge increased more rapidly than that of the alkaline sludge without the PSAS. A further detailed examination of the test results showed that under air-curing conditions, the q c of the treated sludge with accelerated carbonation increased relatively gradually compared to that of the treated sludge without accelerated carbonation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La polimialgia reumática (PMR) es una enfermedad inflamatoria de las articulaciones que se presenta en pacientes mayores de 50 años con dolor y rigidez matutina prolongada en las cinturas del hombro y la cadera y en el cuello. La falta de hallazgos clínicos específicos, signos de laboratorio, biomarcadores y métodos de imagen establecidos dificulta el diagnóstico de los pacientes con esta enfermedad. La 18F-FDG PET/TC es una técnica de imagen funcional que constituye una herramienta consolidada en Oncología y que también ha demostrado su utilidad en el campo de las enfermedades inflamatorias. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar evidencia bibliográfica sobre el uso de métodos de imagen molecular como la PET/TC para el diagnóstico precoz, la evaluación de la actividad de la enfermedad y la respuesta terapéutica en la PMR. Al mismo tiempo, se consideran las ventajas, las desventajas y las contraindicaciones de otros métodos. Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory joint disease that presents in patients older than 50 years with prolonged morning pain and stiffness in the shoulder and hip joints and neck. The lack of specific clinical findings, laboratory signs, biomarkers and established imaging methods makes it difficult to diagnose patients with this disease. 18F-FDG PET/CT is a functional imaging technique that is an established tool in oncology and has also proven useful in the field of inflammatory diseases. The aim of this paper is to present literature evidence on the use of molecular imaging methods such as PET/CT for early diagnosis, assessment of disease activity and therapeutic response in PMR. At the same time, the advantages, disadvantages and contraindications of other methods are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban ecohydrology research has assessed how several drivers interfere with the basin's response. These interactions can be utilized in urban basins to enhance flood risk management. This paper aims to show how socioeconomic narratives influence rainfall-runoff transformation under changing conditions. For this, the study used the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) scenarios to measure the influence of different storylines on the land cover and, consequently, the basin's response, measured as the Percentage of Peak Flow Variations (PPFV) of the starting scenario. MA scenarios consider postures reactive and proactive to solve problems and different levels of the protagonist of nature. We used 13 urban ecohydrological variables that are sensitive to the socioeconomic narrative and include the use of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Then, we set up the qualitative scenarios to apply in two Brazilian urban basins (78.00 and 15.42 km2) to create quantitative scenarios. Finally, we used rainfall-monitored events in these basins and registered their responses as PPFV. The results indicated that socioeconomic narratives significantly impacted the urban basins. PPFV medians ranged, in the reactive scenarios, between 259 % and 70.5 %, and in the proactive scenario, between 54.5 % and -47.5 %. The scenario with NbS in their narrative shows significant decreases in the two basins. We concluded that socioeconomic narratives influence urban flood risk management. Societies with international cooperation focused on environmental solutions, such as using NbS, achieve better adaptation to challenging futures in the face of hydrological threats than reactive societies that do not prioritize the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woody vegetation cover in South Africa has increased over the past 100-150 years owing to the establishment of commercial forestry plantations, the spread of alien invasive plants (AIPs) and indigenous woody encroachment (WE). Extensive research conducted over the past 50 years has shown that AIPs can lead to dramatic declines in catchment water yields as a result of their high evapotranspiration (ET) rates. This has raised concern that WE may also be responsible for increasing ET losses and adversely impacting the country's limited water resources. In this paper, we used a combined systematic review and meta-analysis approach to explore trends in the water use of different vegetation types located in various climates across South Africa, to ultimately evaluate the likelihood of WE increasing ET losses in South Africa's savannas. This study revealed mixed support for whether WE in South Africa's savannas is increasing ET losses. On one hand, the fact that WE species replace grasses and form dense thickets indicates that there is high potential for WE to increase ET losses. On the other hand, rainfall, appears to be a primary factor limiting ET in semi-arid climates, indicating little potential for WE to have any effect on ET, unless there is an above-average rainfall year, or the vegetation has access to an additional water source. This study justifies the need for additional ET monitoring in South Africa's savannas in order to determine whether large-scale WE control should be implemented to conserve water resources in one of the country's driest regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The George E Palade Prize is the highest honour awarded by the International Association of Pancreatology, that recognises an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of the pancreas and pancreatic diseases. The 2023 Palade Prize was awarded to Professor Minoti Apte, University of New South Wales Sydney on September 16, 2023 during the Joint Meeting of the International Association of Pancreatology and the Indian Pancreas Club, held in Delhi, India. This paper summarises her Palade lecture wherein she reflects on her journey as a medical graduate, an academic and a researcher, with a particular focus on her team's pioneering work on pancreatic stellate cell biology and the role of these cells in health and disease. While there has been much progress in this field with the efforts of researchers worldwide, there is much still to be learned; thus it is a topic with ample scope for innovative research with the potential to translate into better outcomes for patients with pancreatic disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]