Background
With improved short-term surgical outcomes, laparoscopic distal gastrectomy has rapidly gained popularity. However, the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) has ...not yet been proven due to the difficulty of the technique. This single-arm prospective multi-center study was conducted to evaluate the use of LTG for clinical stage I gastric cancer.
Methods
Between October 2012 and January 2014, 170 patients with pathologically proven, clinical stage I gastric adenocarcinoma located at the proximal stomach were enrolled. Twenty-two experienced surgeons from 19 institutions participated in this clinical trial. The primary end point was the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality at postoperative 30 days. The severity of postoperative complications was categorized according to Clavien–Dindo classification, and the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality was compared with that in a historical control.
Results
Of the enrolled patients, 160 met criteria for inclusion in the full analysis set. Postoperative morbidity and mortality rates reached 20.6% (33/160) and 0.6% (1/160), respectively. Fifteen patients (9.4%) had grade III or higher complications, and three reoperations (1.9%) were performed. The incidence of morbidity after LTG in this trial did not significantly differ from that reported in a previous study for open total gastrectomy (18%).
Conclusions
LTG performed by experienced surgeons showed acceptable postoperative morbidity and mortality for patients with clinical stage I gastric cancer.
A MoSe2 p–n diode with a van der Waals homojunction is demonstrated by stacking undoped (n‐type) and Nb‐doped (p‐type) semiconducting MoSe2 synthesized by chemical vapor transport for Nb ...substitutional doping. The p–n diode reveals an ideality factor of ≈1.0 and a high external quantum efficiency (≈52%), which increases in response to light intensity due to the negligible recombination rate at the clean homojunction interface.
Activated macrophages have the potential to be ideal targets for imaging inflammation. However, probe selectivity over non-activated macrophages and probe delivery to target tissue have been ...challenging. Here, we report a small molecule probe specific for activated macrophages, called CDg16, and demonstrate its application to visualizing inflammatory atherosclerotic plaques in vivo. Through a systematic transporter screen using a CRISPR activation library, we identify the orphan transporter Slc18b1/SLC18B1 as the gating target of CDg16.
Hierarchical hollow spheres of Fe2O3@polyaniline are fabricated by template‐free synthesis of iron oxides followed by a post in‐ and exterior construction. A combination of large surface area with ...porous structure, fast ion/electron transport, and mechanical integrity renders this material attractive as a lithium‐ion anode, showing superior rate capability and cycling performance.
Iontronic graphene tactile sensors (i‐GTS) composed of a top floating graphene electrode and an ionic liquid droplet pinned on a bottom graphene grid, which can dramatically enhance the performance ...of capacitive‐type tactile sensors, are presented. When mechanical stress is applied to the top floating electrode, the i‐GTS operates in one of the following three regimes: air–air, air–electric double layer (EDL) transition, or EDL–EDL. Once the top electrode contacts the ionic liquid in the i‐GTS, the spreading behavior of the ionic liquid causes a capacitance transition (from a few pF to over hundreds of pF). This is because EDLs are formed at the interfaces between the electrodes and the ionic liquid. In this case, the pressure sensitivity increases to ≈31.1 kPa−1 with a gentle touch. Under prolonged application of pressure, the capacitance increases gradually, mainly due to the contact line expansion of the ionic liquid bridge pinned on the graphene grid. The sensors exhibit outstanding properties (response and relaxation times below 80 ms, and stability over 300 cycles) while demonstrating ultimate signal‐to‐noise ratios in the array tests. The contact‐induced spreading behavior of the ionic liquid is the key for boosting the sensor performance.
Iontronic graphene tactile sensors represent a new class of high‐performance wearable sensory platforms that reflect not only an unprecedented level of pressure sensing capabilities but also novel sensing principles based on spreading of ions pinned on a graphene grid, which demonstrates a more advanced tactile interface for emerging human‐interactive technologies.
Ionogels are good candidates for flexible electronics owing to their excellent mechanical and electrical properties, including stretchability, high conductivity, and stability. In this study, ...conducting ionogels comprising a double network (DN) of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide‐co‐N,N′‐diethylacrylamide)/chitosan which are further reinforced by the ionic and covalent crosslinking of the chitosan network by tripolyphosphate and glutaraldehyde, respectively, are prepared. Based on their excellent mechanical properties and high conductivity, the developed DN ionogels are envisioned as stretchable ionic conductors for extremely stretchable alternating‐current electroluminescent (ACEL) devices. The ACEL device fabricated with the developed ionogel exhibits stable working operation under an ultrahigh elongation of over 1200% as well as severe mechanical deformations such as bending, rolling, and twisting. Furthermore, the developed ACEL devices also display stable luminescence over 1000 stretch/release cycles or at temperatures as harsh as 200 °C.
A super stretchable electroluminescent device is successfully fabricated with double‐network ionogel as a soft electrode owing to its excellent mechanical robustness and electrical conductivity. The fabricated device exhibits extremely stable light‐emitting operation even at high elongation as well as demonstrating mechanical, electrical, and thermal stability, which can be applied to new types of stretchable light display and sensors.
Occupational safety and health is among the most challenging issues in many industrial workplaces, in that various factors can cause occupational illness and injury. Robotics, automation, and other ...state-of-the-art technologies represent risks that can cause further injuries and accidents. However, the tools currently used to assess risks in workplaces require manual work and are highly subjective. These tools include checklists and work assessments conducted by experts. Modern Industry 4.0 technologies such as a digital twin, a computerized representation in the digital world of a physical asset in the real world, can be used to provide a safe and healthy work environment to human workers and can reduce occupational injuries and accidents. These digital twins should be designed to collect, process, and analyze data about human workers. The problem is that building a human-focused digital twin is quite challenging and requires the integration of various modern hardware and software components. This paper aims to provide a brief survey of recent research papers on digital twins, focusing on occupational safety and health applications, which is considered an emerging research area. The authors focus on enabling technologies for human data acquisition and human representation in a virtual environment, on data processing procedures, and on the objectives of such applications. Additionally, this paper discusses the limitations of existing studies and proposes future research directions.
The rapid and sensitive classification of bacteria is the first step of bacterial community research and the treatment of infection. Herein, a fluorescent probe BacGO is presented, which shows the ...best universal selectivity for Gram‐positive bacteria among known probes with a minimum staining procedure for sample detection and enrichment of the live bacteria. BacGO could also be used to assess of the Gram status in the bacterial community from wastewater sludge. Furthermore, BacGO could sensitively and selectively detect a Gram‐positive bacterial infection, not only in vitro but also using an in vivo keratitis mouse model. BacGO provides an unprecedented research tool for the study of dynamic bacterial communities and for clinical application.
BacGO, a novel Gram‐positive bacterial probe, was developed from a library of fluorescent molecules with a boronic‐acid motif that binds to peptidoglycan on the Gram‐positive bacterial cell wall. BacGO can be used to identify Gram‐positive bacteria in diverse, highly complex samples, and is an attractive alternative to Gram staining.
Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) are capable of encapsulating hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. The present study developed an NLC containing epidermal growth factor (EGF) and curcumin ...(EGF-Cur-NLC). EGF-Cur-NLC was prepared by a modified water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) double-emulsion method. The EGF-Cur-NLC particles showed an average diameter of 331.8 nm and a high encapsulation efficiency (81.1% and 99.4% for EGF and curcumin, respectively). In vitro cell studies were performed using two cell types, NIH 3T3 fibroblasts and HaCaT keratinocytes. The results showed no loss of bioactivity of EGF in the NLC formulation. In addition, EGF-Cur-NLC improved in vitro cell migration, which mimics the wound healing process. Finally, EGF-Cur-NLC was evaluated in a chronic wound model in diabetic rats. We found that EGF-Cur-NLC accelerated wound closure and increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes. Overall, these results reveal the potential of the NLC formulation containing EGF and curcumin to promote healing of chronic wounds.
In this paper, channel estimation techniques and phase shift design for intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-empowered single-user multiple-input multiple-output (SU-MIMO) systems are proposed. The ...two novel channel estimation techniques proposed in the paper, single-path approximated channel (SPAC) and selective emphasis on rank-one matrices (SEROM), have low training overhead to enable practical IRS-empowered SU-MIMO systems. SPAC is mainly based on parameter estimation by approximating IRS-related channels as dominant single-path channels. SEROM exploits IRS phase shifts as well as training signals for channel estimation and easily adjusts its training overhead. A closed-form solution for IRS phase shift design is also developed to maximize spectral efficiency where the solution only requires basic linear operations. Numerical results show that SPAC and SEROM combined with the proposed IRS phase shift design achieve high spectral efficiency even with low training overhead compared to existing methods.
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