Wire and arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) shows a great application potential to manufacture large-size metal components rapidly. However, the research on WAAM to build structural parts on uneven ...substrates in some practical engineering applications is still a challenging issue. Controlling torch height and deposition height is the major barrier that limits the high level of automatic manufacturing of parts directly on uneven substrates. This study proposes a cooperative sensing and control strategy to achieve the process stability and deposition height control in robotic pulsed gas tungsten arc additive manufacturing (P-GTA AM) on an uneven substrate. The feedforward and feedback heights during the deposition process are monitored by a passive vision sensor. A feedforward controller and a feedback controller are designed to adjust the GTA torch height and the wire feed speed in real time, respectively. A thin-wall part was fabricated on a V-type substrate. The results demonstrate that the developed cooperative sensing and control strategy can ensure the process stability and realize the deposition height control in robotic P-GTA AM.
Gait and balance have emerged as a critical area of research in health technology. Gait and balance studies have been affected by the researchers' slow follow-up of research advances due to the ...absence of visual inspection of the study literature across decades. This study uses advanced search methods to analyse the literature on gait and balance in older adults from 1993 to 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) database to gain a better understanding of the current status and trends in the field for the first time. The study analysed 4484 academic publications including journal articles and conference proceedings on gait and balance in older adults. Bibliometric analysis methods were applied to examine the publication year, number of publications, discipline distribution, journal distribution, research institutions, application fields, test methods, analysis theories, and influencing factors in the field of gait and balance. The results indicate that the publication of relevant research documents has been steadily increasing from 1993 to 2022. The United States (US) exhibits the highest number of publications with 1742 articles. The keyword "elderly person" exhibits a strong citation burst strength of 18.04, indicating a significant focus on research related to the health of older adults. With a burst factor of 20.46, Harvard University has made impressive strides in the subject. The University of Pittsburgh displayed high research skills in the area of gait and balance with a burst factor of 7.7 and a publication count of 103. The research on gait and balance mainly focuses on physical performance evaluation approaches, and the primary study methods include experimental investigations, computational modelling, and observational studies. The field of gait and balance research is increasingly intertwined with computer science and artificial intelligence (AI), paving the way for intelligent monitoring of gait and balance in the elderly. Moving forward, the future of gait and balance research is anticipated to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration, intelligence-driven approaches, and advanced visualization techniques.
Noninvasive physical treatment with relatively low intensity stimulation and the development of highly efficient anticancer medical strategy are still desirable for cancer therapy. Herein a ...versatile, biodegradable, hollow mesoporous organosilica nanocapsule (HMONs) nanoplatform that is capped by the gemcitabine (Gem) molecule through a pH-sensitive acetal covalent bond is designed. The fabricated nanocapsule exhibits desirable small molecule release at the tumor tissues/cell sites and shows a reduced risk for drug accumulation. After loading indocyanine green (ICG), the heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp 90) inhibitor, and 17AAG and modification with polyethylene glycol (NH2-PEG), the resulting ICG–17AAG@HMONs–Gem–PEG exhibited a precisely controlled release of ICG and 17AAG and low-temperature photothermal therapy (PTT) (∼41 °C) with excellent tumor destruction efficacy. In addition, ICG loading conferred the nanoplatform with near-infrared fluorescence imaging (FL) and photoaccoustic (PA) imaging capability. In short, this work not only presents a smart drug self-controlled nanoplatform with pH-responsive payload release and theranostic performance but also provides an outstanding low-temperature PTT strategy, which is highly valid in the inhibition of cancer cells with minimal damage to the organism. Therefore, this research provides a paradigm that has a chemodrug-gated HMONs-based theranostic nanoplatform with intrinsic biodegradability, multimodal imaging capacity, high low-temperature PTT/chemotherapy efficacy, and reduced systemic toxicity.
The development of a powerful nanoplatform to realize the simultaneous therapy and diagnosis of cancer using a similar element for theranostics remains a critical challenge. Herein, we report such a ...theranostic nanoplatform based on pyridine (Pyr)-functionalized generation 5 (G5) poly(amidoamine) dendrimers complexed with copper(II) (Cu(II)) for radiotherapy-enhanced T 1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and the synergistic radio-chemotherapy of both tumors and tumor metastasis. In this study, amine-terminated G5 dendrimers were covalently linked with 2-pyridinecarboxylic acid, acetylated to neutralize their remaining terminal amines, and complexed with Cu(II) through both the internal tertiary amines and the surface Pyr groups to form the G5.NHAc-Pyr/Cu(II) complexes. We show that the complexes are able to inhibit the proliferation of different cancer cell lines with half-maximal inhibitory concentrations ranging from 4 to 10 μM and induce significant cancer cell apoptosis. Due to the presence of Cu(II), the G5.NHAc-Pyr/Cu(II) complexes display an r 1 relaxivity of 0.7024 mM–1 s–1, enabling effective in vivo MR imaging of tumor xenografts and lung metastatic nodules. Further, under radiotherapy (RT) conditions, the tumor MR imaging sensitivity can be significantly enhanced, and the G5.NHAc-Pyr/Cu(II) complexes enable the enhanced chemotherapy of both a xenografted tumor model and a blood-vessel metastasis model. With the demonstrated theranostic potential of the dendrimer-Cu(II) nanocomplexes without additional agents or elements for RT-enhanced MR imaging and chemotherapy of tumor and tumor metastasis, this novel Cu(II)-based nanohybrids may hold great promise for the theranostics of different cancer types and metastases.
Abstract
Glacier surge is a special form of glacier displacement caused by the instability of the glacial dynamic system. It is a quasi-periodic oscillation behavior, which affects the estimation of ...the overall change of glaciers in the region and potentially threatens the infrastructure and human life in the downstream regions. Most glaciers experience a mass loss with rising air temperatures in recent decades, but little attention has been paid to the influence of climate change on glacial surges. This study identified two surges, triggered in 1992 and 2015 in Weigeledangxiong Glacier, Ányêmaqên Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, using multi-source remote sensing data (Landsat images, Sentinel-2 images, topographic map, shuttle radar topography mission digital elevation model SRTM DEM, and the elevation change database). The 1992 surge accelerated abruptly with the maximum velocity of 350 ± 9 m a
−1
, and a large volume of ice transported downward, causing a sudden advance of 392 ± 42 m from 1992 to 1994, and clear thickening of the ice tongue. The recent surge is still in the active phase, exhibiting a gentler process of slower advance speed and lower peak velocity, as well as a smaller expansion zone than the previous one. These phenomena may be associated with the reduced glacier basal resistance and energy caused by rising temperatures in recent decades. Higher temperatures may cause the discharge of subglacial water through a more developed drainage system, leading to a longer active phase duration. Similar phenomena may exist widely in the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the frontal position of Weigeledangxiong Glacier advancing in the recent surge is not expected to threaten roads near the ice tongue.
The traditional self-supported piezoelectric thin films prepared by filtration methods are limited in practical applications due to their poor tensile properties. The strategy of using flexible ...polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric as the flexible substrate is beneficial to enhancing the flexibility and stretchability of the flexible device, thus extending the applications of pressure sensors. In this work, a novel wearable pressure sensor is prepared, of which uniform and dense ZnO nanoarray-coated PET fabrics are covered by a two-dimensional MXene nanosheet. The ternary structure incorporates the advantages of the three components including the superior piezoelectric properties of ZnO nanorod arrays, the excellent flexibility of the PET substrate, and the outstanding conductivity of MXene, resulting in a novel wearable sensor with excellent pressure-sensitive properties. The PET/ZnO@MXene pressure sensor exhibits excellent sensing performance (S = 53.22 kPa
), fast response/recovery speeds (150 ms and 100 ms), and superior flexural stability (over 30 cycles at 5% strain). The composite fabric also shows high sensitivity in both motion monitoring and physiological signal detection (e.g., device bending, elbow bending, finger bending, wrist pulse peaks, and sound signal discrimination). These findings provide insight into composite fabric-based pressure-sensitive materials, demonstrating the great significance and promising prospects in the field of flexible pressure sensing.
Objective
To identify risk factors associated with surgical site infection (SSI) after major oral oncological surgery.
Methods
This retrospective study reviewed data from patients that underwent ...major surgery for oral cancer at a tertiary referral hospital in China between January 2005 and July 2016. SSI was diagnosed within 30 days. Demographic, cancer-related, preoperative, perioperative and postoperative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate analyses of the risk factors for SSI.
Results
A total of 786 patients were enrolled, of whom 125 had SSI (15.9%), which were all incisional. Independent risk factors for SSI, identified by multivariate analysis, were diabetes mellitus (odds ratio OR 2.147, 95% confidence interval CI 1.240, 3.642), prior radiotherapy (OR 4.595, 95% CI 1.293, 17.317) and oral–neck communication (OR 2.838, 95% CI 1.263, 7.604); and factors reflecting large extent resections were tracheostomy (OR 2.235, 95% CI 1.435, 3.525), anterolateral thigh flap (OR 1.971, 95% CI 1.103, 3.448) and latissimus dorsi flap (OR 4.178, 95% CI 1.325, 13.189).
Conclusions
Multiple risk factors were associated with SSI after major oral oncological surgery. To minimize SSI risk, surgeons managing oral cancer patients should have a better understanding of the risk factors, including diabetes mellitus, prior radiotherapy, tracheostomy, oral–neck communication and flap reconstruction.
A general approach for the detection and quantitation of analytes and unknown samples through photography were reported in this research article.
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To realize a fast, easy-operation and ...precise way using fluorescence probes to quantify analytes is a goal to facilitate detection, especially in situ. Herein, we are reporting an approach which can be generally employed for the differentiation and quantitation of analytes through fluorescence chromaticity and luminosity. Seven representative fluorescent probes, targeting pH, cysteine, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen peroxide, palladium and hydrazine, were synthesized and tested. Without utilizing costly instrumentations, portable devices were employed to collect data of photographs from the fluorescence samples in responses to different analytes. Subsequently, the photographic images were digitally processed to generate calibration curves between chromaticity/luminosity verse concentrations after mapping to the CIE 1931 xyY standard color space. Good linear calibration curves and quantitative analysis of unknown samples with low errors through the spectral technology demonstrated the reliability of this method. Thus, we showed the analytical method with a simple and on-site constructible/portable device which is promising for applications in more fluorescence probes
Biotreatment of acidic rare earth mining wastewater via acidophilic living organisms is a promising approach owing to their high tolerance to high concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs); ...however, simultaneous removal of both REEs and ammonium is generally hindered since most acidophilic organisms are positively charged. Accordingly, immobilization of acidophilic Galdieria sulphuraria (G. sulphuraria) by calcium alginate to improve its affinity to positively charged REEs has been used for simultaneous bioremoval of REEs and ammonium. The results indicate that 97.19%, 96.19%, and 98.87% of La, Y, and Sm, respectively, are removed by G. sulphuraria beads (GS-BDs). The adsorption of REEs by calcium alginate beads (BDs) and GS-BDs is well fitted by both pseudo first-order (PFO) and pseudo second-order (PSO) kinetic models, implying that adsorption of REEs involves both physical adsorption caused by affinity of functional groups such as –COO– and –OH and chemical adsorption based on ion exchange of Ca2+ with REEs. Notably, GS-BDs exhibit high tolerance to La, Y, and Sm with maximum removal efficiencies of 97.9%, 96.6%, and 99.1%, respectively. Furthermore, the ammonium removal efficiency of GS-BDs is higher than that of free G. sulphuraria cells at an initial ammonium concentration of 100 mg L−1, while the efficiency decreases when initial concentration of ammonium is higher than 150 mg L−1. Last, small size of GS-BDs favors ammonium removal because of their lower mass transfer resistance. This study achieves simultaneous removal of REEs and ammonium from acidic mining drainage, providing a potential strategy for biotreatment of REE tailing wastewater.
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•GS-BDs remove 97.19%, 96.19%, and 98.87% of La, Y, and Sm, respectively.•REE adsorption is both a physical and chemical adsorption process.•REE recovery efficiencies are ranked as Y > La > Sm.•Ammonium removal efficiencies of GS-BDs are higher than free algae at 100 mg L−1.•Smaller sizes of GS-BDs are more favorable for ammonium removal.
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