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Single-port thoracoscopic surgery is a novel minimal invasive technique that has been widely used in pulmonary surgery and has made many achievements and progress. With the advancement of technology, the application scope of single-port thoracoscopic surgery in lung surgery has gradually expanded, including various conventional surgical methods such as wedge resection, lobectomy, and segmentectomy, as well as complex surgical methods such as sleeve lobectomy, combined lobectomy, and sublobar resection. It has the advantages of small incision, minimal trauma, less bleeding, mild pain, and fast recovery, and has been widely recognized in pulmonary surgery. In the future, attention will be paid to the innovation of surgical instruments and surgical auxiliary technologies to further improve the single-port thoracoscopic surgery system and overcome the existing limitations and risks. With the continuous progress and development of technology, the application prospect of single-port thoracoscopic surgery in pulmonary surgery will be broader.

An external-cavity laser with resonant optical feedback is a common and mature method to achieve narrow linewidth lasers. Since the proposal of optical feedback in 1964, a series of studies on resonant optical feedback have been reported. Although longer feedback length leads to narrower linewidth, it also introduces coupling of environmental noise and causes instability in the laser cavity, which is detrimental to high-speed tuning of the laser wavelength. With such a challenge, current research on resonant optical feedback primarily focuses on the static results of laser linewidth compression. In order to obtain narrow linewidth high-speed tuned external-cavity lasers, further research on the laser dynamics is required to obtain dynamic tuning of narrow linewidth external-cavity lasers. In this work, we construct an external-cavity laser based on resonant optical feedback, and utilize a coherent detection method to measure the dynamic process of laser linewidth compression and wavelength tuning. Based on resonant optical feedback from the external cavity, the linewidth of the main-cavity laser can be compressed from near 100 kHz to the 100 Hz level, with the frequency noise compressed from the order of 104 to the 102 Hz2/Hz level. Since the wavelength switching process includes frequency shift process, linewidth compression process, and frequency stabilization process, etc., we first conduct a research on laser linewidth compression dynamics. In the results of linewidth compression dynamics, we discover that using a shorter fiber ring results in shorter linewidth compression time, which is advantageous for laser dynamic tuning. We subsequently carry out the laser wavelength switching process with a main-cavity switching time in milliseconds. In the wavelength switching process, while undergoing the frequency shift process of fast tuning transient laser frequency, the laser first undergoes the linewidth broadening process, then enters the main-cavity laser frequency stabilization process and undergoes the linewidth compression process at the same time. The experimental results show that the 100 m feedback fiber ring will not significantly increase the external-cavity laser wavelength switching time under the condition that linewidth compression is faster than main-cavity laser switching, while a longer fiber ring will introduce a strong noise. Our work experimentally demonstrates that shorter feedback ring lengths lead to faster compression, which provides valuable insights for the development of high-speed and high-precision tunable narrow linewidth external-cavity lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) is the most frequently seen type of primary liver cancer. Cuproptosis is a novel form of cell death highly associated with mitochondrial metabolism. However, the clinical impact and pertinent mechanism of cuproptosis genes in LIHC remain largely unknown. Methods. From public databases, we systematically assessed common genes from LIHC differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and cuproptosis-related genes using bioinformatics analysis. These common genes were then analyzed by enrichment analysis, mutation analysis, risk score model, and others to find candidate hub genes related to LIHC and cuproptosis. Next, hub genes were determined by expression, clinical factors, immunoassay, and prognostic nomogram. Results. Based on 129 cuproptosis-related genes and 3492 LIHC DEGs, we totally identified 21 downregulated and 18 upregulated common genes, and they were enriched in pathways, such as zinc ion homeostasis and oxidative phosphorylation. In the mutation analysis, missense mutation was the most common type in LIHC patients, and the common gene F5 had the highest mutation frequency. After LASSO-Cox regression analysis and prognostic analysis, CDK1, ABCB6, LCAT, and COA6 were identified as prognostic signature genes. Among them, ABCB6 and LCAT were lowly expressed in tumors, and CDK1 and COA6 were highly expressed in tumors. In addition, ABCB6 and LCAT were negatively correlated with 6 kinds of immune cells, while CDK1 and COA6 were positively correlated with them. CDK1 and COA6 were identified as hub genes related to LIHC by Cox regression analysis and prognostic nomogram. Conclusion. CDK1 and COA6 are two oncogenes in LIHC, which are involved in the molecular mechanism of cuproptosis and LIHC. Besides, CDK1 and COA6 can positively regulate the expressions of immune cells in LIHC. In clinical practice, they can be used as immunotherapeutic targets and prognostic predictors in LIHC, which sheds new light on the scientific fields of cuproptosis and LIHC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pompon-like Bi2WO6 hierarchical nanostructures (BWO HNs) were obtained through a simple hydrothermal synthesis method. XRD, SEM, TEM, UV–vis spectroscopy, and N2 adsorption–desorption have been used to measure their microstructure and physicochemical properties. The photocatalytic properties of the products have been tested by photodegradation of norfloxacin (NOR) and difloxacin hydrochloride (DFL). The pompon-like BWO HNs samples exhibited excellent photoactivity in antibiotic removal, and as much as 97.67% of NOR and 93.87% of DFL could be efficiently degraded in 120 min. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of the BWO HNs samples showed slight changes after five consecutive cycles, displaying good stability and good potential application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common and potentially fatal condition in the emergency department, and early identification of modifiable risk factors for prevention and management is highly desirable. Although gut dysbiosis is associated with a high incidence of venous thromboembolism, the role and mechanisms of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of venous thromboembolism, especially PE, remain unexplored. Here, we attempted to elucidate the benefits of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of PE using multiple antibiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for early intervention in a classical mouse model of PE. The results showed that early administration of various antibiotics (except ampicillin) could inhibit pulmonary thrombosis to a certain extent and reduced mortality in young and old mice with PE. Among them, vancomycin has the best inhibitory effect on PE. With the help of gut microbiota sequencing analysis, we found that antibiotic treatment can reshape the gut microbiota; especially vancomycin can significantly improve the gut microbiota structure in PE mice. Furthermore, FMT could transfer vancomycin-modified gut microbes into mice and inhibit the pathogenesis of PE, possibly due to increased intestinal colonization by Parasutterella. These data elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism by which early administration of vancomycin can remodel the gut microbiota to suppress PE, providing new clues for clinical optimization and development of PE prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to quantitatively analyze the comprehensive impact of population growth, economic development, and environmental pollution on marine ecology, a system dynamics (SD) model was constructed to evaluate and predict the marine ecological carrying capacity (MECC) of Ningbo city, China. Population, gross domestic product, chemical oxygen demand, and marine economic development were selected as the influencing factors of Ningbo MECC. Using the established SD model, the current situation and development forecast of Ningbo MECC from 2012 to 2023 were simulated and analyzed. A consistency test showed that the difference between the simulated value and historical data was within 5%, and the data were consistent in reflecting the evolution of the actual system with high credibility and effective simulation. The results indicated that the model could objectively reflect the relationship between marine ecology, economic development, and population growth. According to the prediction by the SD model, the MECC index would slightly rise year by year under the current development mode, while it would be still below 1.0 by 2023. By reducing the economic growth rate and increasing the pollutant treatment rate, the goal of improving MECC could be effectively achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By introducing SnCl2 into the reaction system, sisal-like Sn doped ZnO hierarchical structures were prepared by a hydrothermal method without employing templates or matrices. Based on the electron microscopy observations, the growth of such hierarchitectures has been proposed to involve self-assembly followed by the Ostwald ripening process. The effects of the reaction time and dosage of SnCl2 on the morphology, structure, and performance of the samples were systematically investigated. With the increase of the SnCl2 dosage from 0 to 10 mmol, the band gap value of the as-synthesized samples decreased from 3.14 to 2.73 eV and then increased again to 2.77 eV. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared sisal-like Sn doped ZnO hierarchical structures were about 1.64 times higher than that of the pure ZnO samples. The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO can be improved by appropriate Sn doping. In addition, the sisal-like Sn doped ZnO hierarchical structures were recyclable and showed a very small change in activity after five consecutive cycles, which might be due to their small band gap and large surface area, as well as their unique morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluoride pollution in water has attracted widespread concern worldwide. In this study, an Artemia eggshell-zirconium (Aes-Z) nanocomposite has been used for fluoride removal. Material characterization results showed that nano-ZrO2 was immobilized on the inner surface of the Artemia eggshell, and there was no pore blockage on the composite material. Various parameters influencing on the fluoride removal, including treatment time, composite dosage, pH, initial fluoride concentration, and other anions, were analyzed. The removal efficiency of the composite material was better than that of the single zirconia material. The removal percentage of fluoride reached 93% in 30 min with an initial fluoride concentration of 10 mg/L and a nanocomposite dosage of 8.0 g/L. The composite material had a high removal efficiency for fluoride in the pH region 4.0–10.0. The adsorption of fluoride was not influenced by the common anions (e.g., Cl-, SO42-, and NO3-) in water. The regeneration revealed that the Aes-Z composite material could be reused and remove fluoride effectively in four cycles. The pseudo-second-order rate model adequately represented the adsorption kinetics of the Aes-Z composite material. A possible, defluoridation mechanism of the Aes-Z composite material was also proposed. This study demonstrates that Aes-Z is a promising adsorbent material for fluoride removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower-like BaMoO4 hierarchical architectures were successfully prepared by a facile solvothermal route. The influences of reaction time and various solvents on the morphology, structure, and performance of the samples were studied in detail. A nucleation–oriented attachment–self-assembly–Ostwald ripening mechanism is presented for the formation of the flower-like BMO HAs. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectroscopy were applied to characterize the structure, morphology, and optical properties of the as-synthesized products. The results reveal that the products have a well-crystallized scheelite tetragonal structure with good dispersion and uniformity. The photoluminescence (PL) properties of the products were all detected at room temperature. The PL spectra show that all the products have two distinct emission peaks and a strong ultraviolet (UV) emission in the UV region, indicating that the synthesized BMO products have a great potential application in photoluminescence areas. The synthetic route is simple, and can also be used to prepare other molybdates and related inorganic materials with specific morphology and structure by adjusting the synthetic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coil-ball-like CaMoO4 hierarchical architectures were fabricated via a simple solvothermal route. The structures and compositions of the as-prepared samples were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis spectrophotometer and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller. A series of experiments of reaction conditions including reaction time and the amount of N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) were carefully carried out. The results showed that the amount of DMAc played a key role in the morphology of the products and the formation of the coil-ball-like CaMoO4 hierarchical architectures was governed by an oriented aggregation, assembly and Ostwald ripening mechanism. The photoluminescence (PL) properties of the as-synthesized CaMoO4 samples at different time intervals were investigated. The results revealed that all samples exhibit a broad emission peak in the visible region (390-600 nm) with 300 nm excitation wavelength at room temperature, but show different PL intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone process has been widely used for drinking water treatment recently. In the oxidation process, bromate is formed by three pathways, i.e., the direct pathway, the direct-indirect pathway and the indirect-direct pathway. This study developed a method to calculate the percentage of these three pathways for bromate formation during O 3 process and O 3 /H 2 O 2 process. Two kinds of water, distilled water containing bromide (DW) and surface water from the Yellow River (SW) were selected as raw rater. The result showed that in natural water systems, the direct-indirect pathway was dominant for bromate formation during the oxidation process. When 3 mg L −1 O 3 was used as the only oxidant, nearly 26% of bromide ion was transferred into bromate in two kinds of water after 80 min. The dominant pathway in DW was the direct pathway (48.5%) and the direct-indirect pathway (46.5%), while that was the direct-indirect pathway (68.9%) in SW. When O 3 /H 2 O 2 were used as oxidants, as the H 2 O 2 dosage increased, the fractions of bromate formation by direct pathway and direct-indirect pathway decreased, while that by indirect-direct pathway increased. The conversion ratio from bromide to bromate first kept stable or increased, then decreased and reached its minimum when [H 2 O 2 ]/[O 3 ] ratio was 1.0 in DW and 1.5 in SW. Under this condition the indirect-direct pathway took the largest fraction of 70.7% in DW and 64.0% in SW, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone has been widely used for drinking water treatment recently. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dosing ozone on the formation potentials and speciation of disinfection by-products (DBPs, brominated DBPs in particular) during subsequent chlorination. Trihalomethanes (THMs), trihaloacetic acids (THAAs), dihaloacetic acids (DHAAs), dihaloacetonitriles (DHANs), chloral hydrate (CH) and trichloronitromethane (TCNM) were included. The results showed that the yields of THMs, THAAs and DHAAs reached the maxima at 1.83, 0.65 and 0.56 μM, respectively, corresponding to an ozone dose approximately at 2 mg L −1 . The formation potentials of CH and TCNM increased, while that of DHAN decreased, with the increase of ozone dose up to 6 mg L −1 . The bromide incorporation factor values of THMs, THAAs, DHAAs and DHANs increased from 0.62, 0.37, 0.45 and 0.39 at O 3 = 0 mg L −1 to 0.89, 0.65, 0.62 and 0.89 at O 3 = 6 mg L −1 , respectively. It indicated that the use of ozone as a primary disinfectant may cause a shift to more brominated DBPs during subsequent chlorination, and the shift may be more evident with increased ozone dose. The total percentage of brominated DBPs (as bromide) reached the maximum value of 55% at 2 mg L −1 ozone dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lanthanum (La) doped BaTiO3-(Bi0.5Na0.5)TiO3 (BT-BNT) positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTCR) ceramics were prepared by a conventional solid state reaction method. The microstructure and PTCR effect of BT-BNT ceramics were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and measurement of resistivity-temperature dependence. The BT-BNT ceramics sintered in a N2 gas flow possessed low room-temperature resistivity (ρRT < 102 Ω·cm) and PTCR effect wasn't remarkable (ρmax/ρmin < 10); through a proper reoxidation process, the ceramics showed a typical PTCR effect (ρmax/ρmin > 103) but with a high room-temperature resistivity (ρRT > 103 Ω·cm). Room-temperature resistivity increased with the raising content of BNT. The Curie temperature (Tc) of BT-BNT ceramics shifted to 160°C for the 8mol% BNT added. With the addition of 4mol% BNT, the obtained BT-BNT ceramics reoxidized at 950°C possessed ρRT = 103 Ω·cm and exhibited a resistivity jump (ρmax/ρmin > 103) at 150°C. The possible mechanism underlying the PTCR behavior in BT-BNT ceramics was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haloacetaldehydes (HAs) are the third prevalent group of disinfection by-products of great health concern. A bench-scale study was performed to investigate the formation and speciation of HAs in raw and treated waters after chlorination and ozonation-chlorination. Pre-ozonation resulted in enhanced HA formation during subsequent chlorination, and the HA yields from ozonation-chlorination were 1.66 and 1.63 times higher than that from chlorination of raw and treated waters. The mechanism about the increase of HA formation during ozonation-chlorination was systematically investigated in this study. The results showed that acetaldehyde formed after ozonation was the dominant precursor for the enhanced HA formation during subsequent chlorination. Increase in pH and chlorine dose increased HA formation during acetaldehyde chlorination. Based on the kinetic studies on the HA formation during acetaldehyde chlorination and the HA stabilities with and without free chlorine, it was found that chlorine was incorporated into the α-hydrogen in acetaldehyde to form a sequence of mono-, di- and tri-chloroacetaldehyde. During this process, these three chlorinated acetaldehydes would also undergo base-catalyzed hydrolysis through decarburization and dehalogenation pathways. This study elucidated that acetaldehyde formed after ozonation resulted in the increase of HA formation during subsequent chlorination. This study also revealed the formation pathway of HA during chlorination of acetaldehyde, which would help to minimize HA formation at drinking water plants. • Ozonation prior to chlorination increased the formation potential of HAs. • Acetaldehyde formed by ozonation was the dominant precursor for the increased HAFPs. • Formation mechanism of HAs consisted of sequential chlorine and bromine incorporation steps. • HAs underwent base-catalyzed hydrolysis through decarburization and dehalogenation pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]