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BackgroundMuscle depletion that impairs normal physiological function in elderly patients leads to poor prognosis. This study aimed to evaluate the association between total abdominal muscle area (TAMA), total psoas area (TPA), psoas muscle density (PMD), and short-term postoperative complications in elderly patients with rectal cancer.MethodsAll elderly patients underwent rectal cancer resection with perioperative abdominal computed tomography (CT). Complications were assessed according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Severe complications were defined as grade III-V following the Clavien-Dindo classification. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate risk factors of short-term severe postoperative complications.ResultsThe cohort consisted of 191 patients with a mean age of 73.60 ± 8.81 years. Among them, 138 (72.25%) patients had Clavien-Dindo 0- II, 53 (27.75%) patients had severe postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo III-V), and 1(0.52%) patient died within 30 days of surgery. PMD was significantly higher in the Clavien-Dindo 0-II cohort compared to the Clavien-Dindo III-V cohort (p=0.004). Nevertheless, TAMA and TPA failed to exhibit significant differences. Moreover, the multivariate regression analysis implied that advanced age [OR 1.07 95%CI (1.02–1.13) p=0.013], male [OR 5.03 95%CI (1.76-14.41) p=0.003], high charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score [OR 3.60 95%CI (1.44-9.00) p=0.006], and low PMD [OR 0.94 95%CI (0.88-0.99) p=0.04] were independent risk factors of Clavien-Dindo III-V.ConclusionPreoperative assessment of the PMD on CT can be a simple and practical method for identifying elderly patients with rectal cancer at risk for severe postoperative complications.

Colluding clique has become the first threat to trust model. However, today’s trust models in P2P network are known as green hand in handling colluding cliques. CCD, a colluding clique detector, was proposed to detect the exis-tence of colluding clique by measuring similarity of peer’s activities, which included a mathematical description and a distributed implementation. The simulation results show that CCD is considerably effective in detecting colluding cliques and trust model with CCD is more reliable and has higher success rate than the same trust model but without CCD espe-cially when many colluding cliques exist.

The structure and electrical properties of CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) ceramics doped with xHo2O3 synthesized by solid-phase reaction method were systematically studied. Insights from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements indicate the existence of a primary phase of CCTO in all samples. Ho2O3 dopant was found to inhibit grain growth and thus leading to a reduced grain size of ceramics. Moreover, the distribution of resistivity with temperature revealed the manifestation of a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) effect in the samples. More specifically, the resistivity (ρ20) values of obtained ceramics configurations decreased from 8.54 × 106 to 1.76 × 105 Ω cm with increasing Ho2O3 doping content. In addition, thermal constant (B20/75) of all samples was higher than 4000 K. Electrical properties analysis disclosed that electron hopping process is main conduction mechanism within CCTO-based ceramics. In addition, insights from complex impedance spectra revealed the existence of grain boundaries with resistance higher than grains resistance. This effect is strongly connected with the manifestation of electrical relaxation procedures within grain boundaries. Our outcomes verify that both the structural configuration and the electrical performance of the CCTO-based ceramics can be tuned directly and effectively by incorporating Ho2O3 dopant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorbent regeneration is critical for a continuous adsorption-regeneration process and often underestimated. In this work, the regeneration of bifunctional AgXO@SBA-15 for [O]-induced reactive adsorptive desulfurization of liquid fuel is reported and further investigated. The spent AgXO@SBA-15 was regenerated in various types of solvents followed by calcination and tested in multiple desulfurization-regeneration cycles. The effects of regenerate solvents were also compared systematically. The original and regenerated AgXO@SBA-15 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, N2 adsorption, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectrometry. The recovery of desulfurization capacity using various solvents follows the order of acetonitrile > acetone > ethanol > methanol > water. Owing to the complete reduction of silver species to Ag0 and severe agglomeration of Ag0, the bifunctional AgXO@SBA-15 demonstrating > 85% (2.60 mg-S/g) of sulfur removal dramatically reduced to < 46% (1.56 mg-S/g) after only 1st-cycle regeneration. It is suggested that polar organic species strongly adsorbed (or residual) on the spent AgXO@SBA-15, in that case, after solvent wash may contribute to the accelerated decomposition of Ag+ to Ag0 in the following calcination step. The desulfurization capacity decreased rather mildly in the later regeneration runs. Cautious choice of regeneration conditions and strategies to rational design stabilized adsorbents is required to avert the adsorbent deactivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]