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Abstract The goal of this study was to compare the advantages of conventional laparoscopic surgery (CLS) and the split-leg supine position single-port plus one laparoscopic surgery (SSP SILS + 1) in esophageal surgery. This study enrolled 73 patients who previously underwent radical esophagectomy for esophageal cancer from August 2021 to February 2023. Among them, 36 patients underwent SSP SILS + 1, whereas the remaining 37 patients underwentCLS. Surgical time, bleeding volume, number of dissected lymph nodes, incision length, and postoperative abdominal pain score between the two groups of patients were compared using either the Student’s t-test or chi-square test. Time of abdominal incision (1.4 ± 0.2 min vs. 5.2 ± 0.7 min, p 0.01) between the two groups. The SSP SILS + 1 intervention offers multiple benefits over conventional surgical procedures, encompassing shorter incision length and pain scores on POD 1. In accelerated rehabilitation surgery for esophageal cancer, this surgical procedure demonstrated high safety, feasibility.

Abstract To obtain the seepage evolution rule and water inrush mechanism of the collapse column, a multi-field coupled mechanical model for water inrush disasters caused by the collapse column is established in this paper, on the basis of the specific engineering conditions of the 1908 working face in the Qianjin coal mine. The mechanical model is composed of internal column elements within the collapse column and surrounding rock masses. The research focuses on the seepage evolution rule in the roof collapse column under different mining conditions and investigates the permeation instability mechanism of collapse column based on the transition of flow state. The research results indicate that the seepage pathway evolves continuously, ultimately forming a channel for water inrush, as the working face advances towards the collapse column. Besides, the water inflow increases rapidly when the working face advances 100 m, then gradually stabilizes, indicating that the seepage channel entry of the collapse column is in a stable stage. Meanwhile, mass loss in the collapse column gradually moves upward. the collapse column remains stable as a whole in the initial stage of water flow, with a small permeability, exhibiting linear flow. As time steps increases, particle loss in collapse column gradually extends to the upper part, forming a stable seepage channel. The flow velocity shows fluctuations with a slow declining trend over time.

Abstract The destructive behavior of rocks and the evolution behavior of cracks are highly correlated. With the continuous development process of crack, the stress state of rock is constantly broken until entirely failed, so it is necessary to study the spatial and temporal behavior characteristics of the crack in the process of rock destruction. In this paper, the destruction process of phyllite specimens is analyzed by thermal imaging technology, and the temperature evolution process of the crack is studied to explore the infrared characteristics of the crack evolution process. Furthermore, a model for predicting rock destruction time is proposed based on Bi-LSTM recurrent neural network model combined with Attention mechanism. The results show that: (1) During the development of rock cracks, the rock surface shows a stable dynamic infrared response, and shows different evolutionary characteristics in different stages, mainly including temperature reduction in the compaction stage, temperature rise in the elastic and plastic stages, and temperature peaks in the failure stage; (2) During the evolution of the crack, rock destruction has a significant control effect on the IRT field along the fracture tangential and normal direction, and its distribution has the volatility controlled by the time; (3) The recurrent neural network method is used to predict the rock failure time, the results can be used as a method to predict the time of rock destruction, and it can be further put forward the corresponding protective measures accordingly, to maintain the long-term stability of the rock mass.

Abstract Pregnant women infected with HCV should be given attention due to their special physiological stage and the effect on offspring health. To examine the prevalence of HCV infection among pregnant women in part of China and explore relevant factors during pregnancy, a cross-sectional study was conducted in four maternal and children health care institutions (MCHC) in Guangdong, Hunan and Chongqing. Pregnant women who were delivered, induced or spontaneous abortion were included and relevant information was collected through the Hospital Information System. Results showed that the prevalence of HCV among pregnant women in four MCHCs was 0.11% (95% CI 0.09–0.13%). Age, occupations, regions, syphilis-infection, intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), and placenta previa were significant factors (all P

Abstract Effect of highly-porous and lightweight carbon nanotube sponges on the high-power continuous wave laser ablation resistance of the sandwich panel was investigated experimentally. As a comparison, thermal responses of monolithic plate, carbon nanotube film filled sandwich panel, unfilled sandwich panel and carbon nanotube sponge filled sandwich panel subjected to continuous wave laser irradiation were analyzed. Experimental results showed that the laser resistance of the carbon nanotube filled sandwich panel is obviously higher than the unfilled structure. The added failure time of the sandwich panel by filling the cores with the carbon nanotube sponge of unit mass was about 18 times and 33 times longer than that by filling with the conventional ablative and insulated material. It could be understood by the high thermal diffusion coefficient and latent heat of sublimation of the carbon nanotube sponge. During ablation by the continuous wave, the carbon nanotube sponge not only fast consumed the absorbed laser energy through phase change of a large-area material due to its high latent heat of sublimation, but also quickly dispersed the heat energy introduced by the continuous wave laser due to its high thermal diffusion coefficient, leading to the extraordinary laser ablation resistance.

Abstract An enriched environment (EE) is a promising strategy for protecting the intestinal mucosal barrier and regulating the brain-gut axis, but the optimal EE intervention duration is unknown. Here, different EE intervention durations were applied to assess the optimal intervention duration in rats with colorectal cancer. We used a rat model of 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine-induced colorectal cancer. The rats were housed in an EE for 0, 2, 4, 8 weeks and 8-week blank group. The intestinal mucosa and serum TNF-α, IL-6, IL-10, ATP, CRF, and occludin levels and bacterial translocation (BT) were measured, and the intestinal mucosa morphology was evaluated. In 8 weeks, the effect of tumor on intestinal mucosal barrier was not obvious and the EE had a greater impact on it. Eight weeks of EE was more beneficial to the intestinal mucosal mechanical barrier than 2 or 4 weeks of intervention. A significant difference in BT was found between the 4- and 8-week groups. Overall, the analysis of inflammatory factor regulation revealed that the two blank groups exhibited the worst effect, and the intervention effect at 8 weeks was better than that at 2 and 4 weeks. CRF at 4 weeks was higher than that at 8-week blank group. The effect of 8-week intervention duration on the intestinal mucosal barrier was generally better than that of 2- and 4-week durations and intervention within 4 weeks can help to stabilize and promote the secretion of brain gut peptide, but the effect of different intervention durations on the brain-gut peptide levels was not obvious. In the future, we can further explore the molecular biological mechanism of the effect of different EE intervention durations on the intestinal mucosal barrier and analyze the effect of an EE on other brain-gut peptides.

Abstract This study aimed to improve lipid and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) production of an oleaginous fungus, Mucor plumbeus, through coculturing with Bacillus subtilis bacteria, optimising the environmental and nutritional culture conditions, and scaling them for batch fermentation. The maximum levels of biomass, lipid, fatty acid, and GLA in a 5 L bioreactor containing cellobiose and ammonium sulfate as the optimal carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively, achieved during the coculturing processes were 14.5 ± 0.4 g/L, 41.5 ± 1.3, 24 ± 0.8, and 20 ± 0.5%, respectively. This strategy uses cellobiose in place of glucose, decreasing production costs. The nutritional and abiotic factor results suggest that the highest production efficiency is achieved at 6.5 pH, 30 °C temperature, 10% (v/v) inoculum composition, 200 rpm agitation speed, and a 5-day incubation period. Interestingly, the GLA concentration of cocultures (20.0 ± 0.5%) was twofold higher than that of monocultures (8.27 ± 0.11%). More importantly, the GC chromatograms of cocultures indicated the presence of one additional peak corresponding to decanoic acid (5.32 ± 0.20%) that is absent in monocultures, indicating activation of silent gene clusters via cocultivation with bacteria. This study is the first to show that coculturing of Mucor plumbeus with Bacillus subtilis is a promising strategy with industrialisation potential for the production of GLA-rich microbial lipids and prospective biosynthesis of new products.

Abstract The present research involves removing copper and nickel ions from synthesized wastewater by using a simple, cheap, cost-effective, and sustainable activated green waste tea residue (AGWTR) adsorption coupled with electrocoagulation (ADS/EC) process in the presence of iron electrodes. By considering previous studies, their adsorbents used for treating their wastewaters firstly activate them by applying either chemicals or activating agents. However, our adsorbent was prepared without applying neither chemicals nor any activating agents. The operating parameters such as pH, hydraulic retention time, adsorbent dose, initial concentration, current density, and operating cost for both metals were optimized. In ADS/EC, the removal efficiency was obtained as 100% for copper and 99.99% for nickel ions. After the ADS/EC process, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis were used to characterize the adsorbent green waste tea residue. The adsorption isotherm and kinetic model results showed that the Langmuir and the pseudo-second-order were well-fitted to the experimental adsorption data better than the Freundlich and pseudo-first-order models for both Cu2+ and Ni2+ with their maximum adsorption capacity of 15.6 and 15.9 mg g−1, respectively. The above results give an option to recycle the metal-based industrial effluents, tea industry-based wastes, enabling a waste-to-green technique for adsorbing and removing the heavy metals and other pollutants in water.

Abstract A large maxillary odontogenic cyst could intrude into the maxillary sinus. The traditional approach following surgery for such a cyst is the Caldwell–Luc procedure. However, the traditional CDL procedure is associated with more complications and damage of the sinus mucosa. The purpose of this study was to assess a new method with easier operation, which not only prevented postoperative infection but also caused less damage to the maxillary sinus mucosa. A large odontogenic cyst in the maxillary sinus of 40 patients was diagnosed through radiographic imaging and postoperative histopathology. Twenty patients were treated with maxillary sinus saline irrigation after surgery, while 20 patients underwent the traditional Caldwell–Luc procedure. The therapeutic efficacy was evaluated by clinical examination and radiographic imaging; the longest follow-up was 36 months. The postoperative reaction was evaluated. There was a statistically significant difference in facial swelling, visual analog scale (VAS) and temperature elevation between the 2 groups. Sinus irrigation following large odontogenic cyst surgery involving the maxillary sinus can serve as an alternative to standard CDL and has the advantages of fewer complications, reduced trauma, restoration of the mucosa and more satisfactory results.

Abstract Crataegi Fructus (CF) is widely used as a medicinal and edible material around the world. Currently, different types of processed CF products are commonly found in the market. Quality evaluation of them mainly relies on chemical content determination, which is time and money consuming. To rapidly and nondestructively discriminate different types of processed CF products, an electronic nose coupled with chemometrics was developed. The odour detection method of CF was first established by single-factor investigation. Then, the sensor array was optimised by a stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Based on the best-optimised sensor array, the digital and mode standard were established, realizing the odour quality control of samples. Meanwhile, mathematical prediction models including the discriminant formula and back-propagation neural network (BPNN) model exhibited good evaluation with a high accuracy rate. These results suggest that the developed electronic nose system could be an alternative way for evaluating the odour of different types of processed CF products.

Abstract Treatment with selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) is an effective technology applied recently for conversion of nitrogen oxides pollution control. In order to solve the problems of high cost and difficulties in practical application of SCO catalyst, it was put forward using the solid waste sludge from soybean oil plant as catalyst carrier to prepare denitration catalyst. The sludge was treated by alkaline activation and then MnOx-based sludge was prepared by impregnation. Finally, MnOx-based sludge was calcined in the muffle furnace. The effects of activation and calcination conditions on catalyst activity were investigated. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the activity of the sludge based denitration catalyst, and the structure and activity of the sludge based denitration catalyst were furtherly confirmed. According to the achieved results, (1) after activated by LiOH with a mass concentration of 15% for 4 hours, the surface of the sludge catalyst has more alkali functional groups, making the denitration of sludge catalyst the best; (2) the MnOx-based catalyst calcined in the muffle furnace with calcination temperature of 450 °C for 4 hours has obvious denitration efficiency.

Abstract Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), including visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) radiation, is a rapid, accurate and cost-effective technique for estimating soil organic carbon (SOC). We examined 24 soil cores (0–100 cm) from the Sygera Mountains on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, considering field-moist intact VNIR, air-dried ground VNIR and air-dried ground MIR spectra at 5-cm intervals. Preprocessed spectra were used to predict the SOC in the soil cores using partial least squares regression (PLSR) and a support vector machine (SVM). The SVM models performed better with three predictors, with the ratio of performance to inter-quartile distance (RPIQ) and R 2 values typically exceeding 1.74 and 0.73, respectively. The SVM using the DRS technique indicated accurate predictive results of SOC in each core. The RPIQ values of the shrub meadow, forest and total dataset prediction using air-dried ground VNIR were 1.97, 2.68 and 1.99, respectively; the values using field-moist intact VNIR were 1.95, 2.07 and 1.76 and those using air-dried ground MIR were 1.78, 1.96 and 1.74, respectively. We conclude that the DRS technique is an efficient and rapid method for SOC prediction and has the potential for dynamic monitoring of SOC stock density on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau.

Nuclear energy provides more than 10% of electrical power internationally, and the increasing engagement of nuclear energy is essential to meet the rapid worldwide increase in energy demand. A paramount challenge in the development of advanced nuclear reactors is the discovery of advanced structural materials that can endure extreme environments, such as severe neutron irradiation damage at high temperatures. It has been known for decades that high dose radiation can introduce significant void swelling accompanied by precipitation in austenitic stainless steel (SS). Here we report, however, that through nanoengineering, ultra-fine grained (UFG) 304L SS with an average grain size of ~100 nm, can withstand Fe ion irradiation at 500°C to 80 displacements-per-atom (dpa) with moderate grain coarsening. Compared to coarse grained (CG) counterparts, swelling resistance of UFG SS is improved by nearly an order of magnitude and swelling rate is reduced by a factor of 5. M23C6 precipitates, abundant in irradiated CG SS, are largely absent in UFG SS. This study provides a nanoengineering approach to design and discover radiation tolerant metallic materials for applications in extreme radiation environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the dynamic characteristics and safe operation speed threshold of metro train passing through curved bridge (CB) considering resilient wheels, the mechanical connection characteristics of rim and web are discussed firstly. Based on the train-track-bridge interaction theory, the coupled dynamic model of metro train-CB considering resilient wheels is established. Then, the vehicle-bridge coupled dynamic characteristics under the excitation of long-short wave track irregularity are researched. Finally, from the perspective of dynamics, the safe operating speed threshold of metro trains passing through curved bridge considering resilient wheels (RW) is discussed. Results show that the vertical wheel-rail force of RW is reduced, but the lateral wheel-rail force is amplified compared with the solid wheels (SW). The vertical vibration acceleration of the wheel is reduced, but the lateral vibration acceleration is increased. It is recommended that the speed of metro trains running on curved bridge is not more than 60 km/h. The vehicle-bridge coupling dynamic response is aggravated with the speed and load of metro train. The vibration of the inner side of the curved bridge is greater than that of the outer side, and the vibration reduction effect of the RW on the inner side is more significant than that on the outer side. The RW has a vibration absorption effect on the wheel-rail vertical and the vibration of the curved bridge force within 40-140 Hz., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Genetic alterations play a pivotal role in leukemic clonal transformation, significantly influencing disease pathogenesis and clinical outcomes. Here, we report a novel fusion gene and investigate its pathogenic role in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We engineer a transposon transfection system expressing the TOP2B::AFF2 transcript and introduce it into Ba/F3 cells. Functional studies, including proliferation, cell cycle, and apoptosis assays, were conducted to assess the fusion gene's impact. In vitro assays reveal that the TOP2B::AFF2 fusion significantly enhances Ba/F3 cell proliferation and G1/S phase transition while suppressing differentiation and apoptosis. This study identifies TOP2B::AFF2 as a potential oncogenic driver. However, further validation through in vivo studies are warranted to fully elucidate the fusion gene's role in leukemogenesis., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University with the approval file number 2024.138. All methods were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient’s legal guardians (parents) prior to the investigation for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

This study aimed to develop a real-time, noninvasive hyperkalemia monitoring system for dialysis patients with chronic kidney disease. Hyperkalemia, common in dialysis patients, can lead to life-threatening arrhythmias or sudden death if untreated. Therefore, real-time monitoring of hyperkalemia in this population is crucial. We propose a wearable single-lead ECG monitoring system, offering enhanced comfort and feasibility for extended use. The key innovation of this system is the design of a compact, multi-channel convolutional neural network. This model offers high stability, strong performance, and exceptional computational efficiency, making it ideal for seamless integration into wearable devices for real-time monitoring applications. The model automatically extracts features from ECG signals at different frequencies through multiple convolutional channels, eliminating the need for manual feature extraction before data input. Data is input using a non-overlapping sliding window approach, reducing preprocessing complexity while maintaining model performance. We investigated the optimal window length and the number of convolution channels for ECG signal input. Experimental results indicate that the model achieves optimal performance with a 1200 ms window length and four parallel convolutional branches, yielding an accuracy of 98.25% (4.52%), F1-score of 98.31% (3.26%), sensitivity of 98.63% (2.41%), and specificity of 97.88% (5.13%). This system holds significant potential for improving patient monitoring comfort and real-time responsiveness., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study received approval from the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee of West China Hospital of Sichuan University (NO.2022 − 1843). Consent for publication: Not applicable., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Middle-aged and older adults with chronic diseases are more likely to encounter sleep difficulty and have a reduced Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), but there is little research on their possible mechanisms. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to explore how sleep difficulty mediates the impact of chronic diseases on the HRQoL of middle-aged and older adults. The survey data were from a cross-sectional study carried out in 2019 in Hangzhou, China. We used a multi-stage cluster random sampling method to recruit participants from seven districts in Hangzhou. Multiple regression was used to analyze the relationship between chronic diseases, sleep difficulty and HRQoL. And the mediate package in the R language was used to analyze the mediating effect. A total of 3,550 middle-aged and older adults were enrolled, including 2,273 patients with chronic diseases and 1,277 patients without them. Patients with chronic diseases had lower health utility values (β=-0.0084, P < 0.01) and were more likely to suffer from sleep difficulty (β = 0.5737, P < 0.001). After correcting for demographic and life characteristics, the mediation analysis results indicated that sleep difficulty mediated the relationship between chronic diseases and HRQoL (β=-0.0022, 95% Bca CI: -0.0034 -0.0014). Additionally, sleep difficulty influenced the association between chronic diseases and daily activities as well as pain (or discomfort) (β = 0.0083, 95% Bca CI: 0.0042-0.0111; β = 0.0162, 95% Bca CI: 0.0107-0.0225) in the analysis of the dimensions. Sleep difficulty partially mediated the relationship between chronic diseases and HRQoL, and primarily in the daily activities and pain (or discomfort) dimensions in middle-aged and older adults., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)