A systematic review of safety and efficacy of hepatopancreatoduodenectomy for biliary and gallbladder cancers

AbstractObjectivesTo review the evidence on the safety and efficacy of hepatopancreatoduodenectomy for biliary and gallbladder cancers.MethodsMedline and EMBASE were systematically searched for papers of hepatopancreatoduodenectomy in patients with biliary and gallbladder cancers.ResultsEighteen studies involving 397 patients were reviewed. Major hepatectomy was undertaken in 81.3% of the 397 patients and the R0 resection rate was 71.3%. The morbidity and mortality rates were 78.9% and 10.3%, respectively. The 5-year overall survival rate ranged from 3% to 50% (median = 31%). The 5-year survival rate in patients who underwent curative resection was 18–68.8% (median = 51.3%), and 0% in patients who received non-curative resection.ConclusionsHepatopancreatoduodenectomy is a challenging procedure with high morbidity and mortality rates. However, this procedure can provide a chance of long-term survival in patients in whom curative resection is feasible

Crosslink-tuned large-deformation behavior and fracture mode in buckypapers

Strong physical and/or chemical inter-tube crosslinks play a vital role in carbon nanotube buckypapers and composites. However, both underlying mechanisms and regulation patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we employed the coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the nonlinear large-deformation behavior and the fracture mode of crosslinked buckypapers by considering both intrinsic intra- and inter-tube bond-breaking. A critical crosslink density rho(c) is found to divide the deformation mode of buckypaper into two regimes in uniaxial tension, i.e., the bending-dominated mode at rho rho(c). This transition is attributed to the stress concentration and the intrinsic bond-breaking in large tensile deformations. In uniaxial compression, it is always bending-dominated, which is independent of crosslinks and compressive strain. Furthermore, there exists another critical crosslink density controlling the ductile-brittle transition of fracture mode of the strongly-crosslinked buckypaper, which is explained from the viewpoint of the collective hierarchical microstructural evolution. This study provides a profound understanding of crosslink effect on the buckypaper, which is of great significance for the optimization design and further practical applications of the promising material. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

effectsofparticlesizeondiluteparticledispersioninakrmnvortexstreetflow

It is shown that in a Kármán vortex street flow, particle size influences the dilute particle dispersion. Together with an increase of the particle size, there is an emergence of a period-doubling bifurcation to a chaotic orbit, as well as a decrease of the corresponding basins of attraction. A crisis leads the attractor to escape from the central region of flow. In the motion of dilute particles, a drag term and gravity term dominate and result in a bifurcation phenomenon

Strain Hardening in Graphene Foams under Shear

Strain hardening is an important issue for the design and application of materials. The strain hardening of graphene foams has been widely observed but poorly understood. Here, by adopting the coarse-grained molecular dynamics method, we systematically investigated the microscopic mechanism and influencing factors of strain hardening and related mechanical properties of graphene foams under shear loading. We found that the strain hardening is induced by cumulative nonlocalized bond-breakings and rearrangements of microstructures. Furthermore, it can be effectively tuned by the number of graphene layers and cross-link densities, i.e., the strain hardening would emerge at a smaller shear strain for the graphene foams with thicker sheets and/or more cross-links. In addition, the shear stiffness G of graphene foams increases linearly with the cross-link density and exponentially with the number of graphene layers n by G similar to n(1.95). These findings not only improve our understanding of the promising bulk materials but also pave the way for optimizing structural design in wide applications based on their mechanical properties

Characterization of key aroma compounds from different rose essential oils using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography–olfactometry and partial least squares regression

<p>To characterise the key aroma compounds of rose essential oils, five samples (<i>Rosa damascena</i> essential oil, <i>Rosa centifolia</i> essential oil, <i>Rosa alba</i> essential oil, <i>Rosa rugosa cv. ‘Plena’</i> essential oil, <i>Rosa xanthina Lindl</i> essential oil) were analysed by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA). Thirty-nine aroma compounds were selected as key aroma compounds by GC-MS and GC-O. The aroma of rose essential oils was described by 10 sensory attributes such as honey, sweet, fermented, spicy, fruity, woody, floral, herbal, green and fresh. The partial least squares regression (PLSR) result showed the relationship between key aroma compound and characteristic aromas of rose essential oils. This paper provided a reference for the flavourists.</p

Characterization and propagation from meteorological to groundwater drought in different aquifers with multiple timescales

Study region: Zhanjiang City District, southwest of Guangdong Province, China, was selected as the case study area owing to its relatively frequent occurrence of droughts and groundwater overexploitation. Study focus: This study presents a useful framework to characterize the propagation from meteorological drought (MD) to groundwater drought (GD) in different aquifers from the perspective of multiple timescales. Two standardized drought indices, i.e., standardized groundwater index and standardized precipitation index with different timescales (1–48 months), were used to examine the propagation time from MD to GD in different aquifers. Three clusters, i.e., natural(P)-, natural+human(P + H)-, and human(H)-induced drought, were considered for revealing the potential driving mechanism of propagation. Four characteristic mechanisms of lag, pooling, lengthening, and attenuation were used to analyze the propagation process from MD to GD, among which the lag characteristic, showing the propagation time, was discussed corresponding to varied clusters. New hydrological insights for the region: Results indicate the following: (1) The propagation time in different aquifers varied; that is, in the shallow aquifer, the average propagation time showed 1 month for the P cluster and 3 months for the P + H cluster, while the propagation time in the middle and deep aquifers were found to be longer than that in the shallow layer though much uncertainty remained for the former. (2) The influences from MD obtained the decreasing order of P > P + H>H. The propagation time of the P + H cluster was longer than that of the P cluster, suggesting the negative influence of human activities. This study can provide additional information for policymakers involved in groundwater management during a drought

Engineering photo-controllable fragrance release with flash nanoprecipitation

Controllable profragrance nanoparticles are in great demand for long-lasting scent in flavor and fragrance industries. However, the practical applications of controllable fragrance release are limited by the non-tunable size, structural heterogeneity and poor reproducibility. Herein, a coumarin-derived phototrigger (CM-OH) is covalently conjugated with alcohol fragrances to obtain the corresponding profragrances (CM-R) which enable to release fragrances under the light controlling conditions. Furthermore, we introduce a new engineering strategy to construct fine tunable and highly uniform profragrance nanoparticles with flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) technology, which features commercial available amphiphilic pluronic F127 polymers by encapsulation of photo-activatable profragrances CM-R in hydrophobic cores to enhance the long-lasting photo-controllable fragrance release. With the assistance of FNP technology, amphiphilic pluronic polymer and profragrances CM-R in organic solution are instantaneously mixed and subsequently precipitated in the multi-inlet vortex mixer (MIVM), thus obtaining the pluronic F127-encapsulated profragrance nanoparticles with good homogeneity. Compared to the traditional thermodynamic encapsulation method, the novel kinetic FNP technology can not only tune the size of profragrance nanoparticles with narrow distribution, but also distinctly improve the batch-to-batch reproducibility, which affords an alternative method for scale-up preparation of amphiphilic profragrance nanoparticles in precisely controllable fragrance delivery system

MALAT1 promotes FOXA1 degradation by competitively binding to miR-216a-5p and enhancing neuroendocrine differentiation in prostate cancer

Objectives: Prostate cancer (PC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death in males worldwide. Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) is a feature of PC that often goes undetected and is associated with poor patient outcomes. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs), and messenger RNAs (mRNAs) play important roles in the development and progression of PC. Methods: In this study, we used transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis to identify key regulators of NED in PC. Specifically, we examined the expression of PC-related lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs in PC cells and correlated these findings with NED phenotypes. Results: Our data revealed that metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) and zinc finger protein 91 (ZFP91) were upregulated in PC, while miR-216a-5p was down-regulated. Ectopic expression of MALAT1 induced NED and promoted malignant phenotypes of PC cells. Furthermore, we found that MALAT1 competitively bound to miR-216a-5p, upregulated ZFP91, and promoted the degradation of forkhead box A1 (FOXA1), a key gene involved in NED of PC. Conclusion: Taken together, these results suggest that MALAT1 plays an oncogenic role in NED and metastasis of PC via the miR-216a-5p/ZFP91/FOXA1 pathway. Our study highlights the potential of targeting this pathway as a novel therapeutic strategy for PC

Hepatectomy in Elderly Patients: Does Age Matter?

With the increase in average life expectancy in recent decades, the proportion of elderly patients requiring liver surgery is rising. The aim of the meta-analysis reported here was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of hepatectomy in elderly patients. An extensive electronic search was performed for relevant articles that compare the outcomes of hepatectomy in patients a parts per thousand yen70 years of age with those in younger patients prior to October 2012. Analysis of pooled data was performed with RevMan 5.0. Twenty-eight observational studies involving 15,480 patients were included in the analysis. Compared with the younger patients, elderly patients experienced more complications (31.8 vs 28.7 %; P = 0.002), mainly as a result of increased cardiac complications (7.5 vs 1.9 %; P < 0.001) and delirium (11.7 vs 4.5 %; P < 0.001). Postoperative major surgical complications (12.6 vs 11.3 %; P = 0.55) and mortality (3.6 vs 3.3 %; P = 0.68) were comparable between elderly and younger patients. For patients with malignancies, both the 5-year disease-free survival (26.5 vs 26.3 %; P = 0.60) and overall survival (39.5 vs 40.7 %; P = 0.29) did not differ significantly between the two groups. Postoperative major surgical complications, mortality, and long-term results in elderly patients seem to be comparable with those in younger patients, suggesting that age alone should not be considered a contraindication for hepatectomy