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Background: Liver fibrosis is a predisposing factor for liver cancer. This study will investigate the predictive role of the Triglyceride-glucose and Gamma-glutamyl transferase index (TyG-GGT) as a non-invasive indicator of advanced liver fibrosis in individuals with obesity or overweight. Method: We enrolled patients who underwent metabolic and bariatric surgery as well as intraoperative liver biopsies at Zhejiang provincial people's hospital from August 2020 to March 2023. Clinical characteristics, comorbidities, laboratory data, and pathological variables of patients were collected and analysed. Then, we conducted logistics regression model to compare the performance of the TyG-GGT index with other 4 non-invasive models. Results: A total of 65 patients were included in this study. 43(66.2%) of them were female, with the mean body mass index (BMI) of 39.0 ± 7.3 kg/m2. Meanwhile, 24(36.9%) patients were diagnosed with diabetes. Advanced liver fibrosis were observed in 16.9% of patients, while liver cirrhosis was found in 4.6% of patients. The multivariable logistics regression showed that TyG-GGT was an independent risk factor of advanced liver fibrosis (OR = 6.989, P = 0.049). Additionally, compared to another 4 non-invasive liver fibrosis models (NFS = 0.66, FIB4 = 0.65, METS-IR = 0.68, APRI = 0.65), TyG-GGT exhibits the highest AUC value of 0.75. Conclusions: More than one-third of patients undergoing metabolic and bariatric surgery are afflicted with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and a significant proportion exhibit advanced fibrosis. TyG-GGT was a potentially reliable predictor for screening individuals with overweight or obesity at high risk of advanced liver fibrosis, thus providing clinical guidance for early intervention in this targeted group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new anchor-siphon drainage combined method used for slope stabilization is proposed in this paper. It includes an anchoring section and a siphon drainage section. The novelty of the anchor-siphon drainage combined method is the realization of the drainage and anchoring in the one inclined borehole. The engineering cost of drilling and the resulting disturbance to the slope is reduced. To validate the feasibility of the proposed method, a numerical method that combines the pore water pressure distribution after siphon drainage and the anchoring force of the anchoring section is used to evaluate the safety of the slope with the anchor-siphon drainage method. The proposed method was illustrated and validated with the Hongpu Village landslide, in Tonglu County, Zhejiang Province, in China. Compared with the common anchor bar with the same length in the anchoring section, the factor of safety (FOS) for Hongpu Village slope with anchor-siphon drainage is increased by 0.085. The calculation method of the optimal length ratio between the drainage section and the anchoring section and its influencing factors were studied. For the different design parameters, there is always an optimal length ratio of the drainage section. Compared with the siphon drainage and full-length anchor bar with the same borehole length, the anchor-siphon drainage combined method shows better landslide prevention ability. Moreover, when the optimized parameters with a bond strength of 560 kPa, a borehole inclination of 35°, and no reduction in length are used, the calculated safety factor is 1.316, which is significantly higher than the FOS of 1.131 for the slope with siphon drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of the genus Megophrys from Zhejiang Province, China is described. Molecular phylogenetic analyses supported the new taxon as an independent clade nested into the Megophrys clade and sister to M. lishuiensis. The new species could be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological characteristics: (1) small size (SVL 31.0-36.3 mm in male and 41.6 mm in female); (2) vomerine ridge present and vomerine teeth absent; (3) tongue not notched behind; (4) a small horn-like tubercle at the edge of each upper eyelid; (5) tympanum distinctly visible, rounded; (6) two metacarpal tubercles in hand; (7) relative finger lengths: II < I < IV < III; (8) toes with rudimentary webbing at bases; (9) heels overlapping when thighs are positioned at right angles to the body; (10) tibiotarsal articulation reaching tympanum to eye when leg stretched forward; (11) an internal single subgular vocal sac in male; (12) in breeding male, the nuptial pads with black nuptial spines on the dorsal bases of the first and second fingers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]