ctDNA detects residual disease after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and guides adjuvant therapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

The diagnostic accuracy of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for detecting molecular residual disease (MRD) after multimodal treatment remains unclear. In a prospective cohort of 132 patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) followed by clinical response evaluation and surgery, tumor-informed personalized-panel and fixed-panel ctDNA assays are applied to serial blood samples. Personalized ctDNA assay demonstrates a superior baseline detection rate (99.

Fuelling the Fight from the Gut: Short-Chain Fatty Acids and Dexamethasone Synergise to Suppress Gastric Cancer Cells.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), microbial metabolites also known as postbiotics, are essential for maintaining gut health. However, their antiproliferative effects on gastric cancer cells and potential interactions with conventional therapies remain underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the effects of three SCFA salts-magnesium acetate (A), sodium propionate (P), and sodium butyrate (B)-individually and in combination (APB), as well as in combination with dexamethasone (Dex), on AGS gastric adenocarcinoma cells.

Surgical Outcomes for Cervical Esophageal Cancer: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Although definitive chemoradiotherapy (dCRT) remains the standard for cervical esophageal cancer (CEC), studies on surgical outcomes have reported conflicting results. This highlights the need for more data on surgical treatment for CEC.

Methods: This study reviewed 152 patients who underwent surgical treatment for CEC at a single center between May 2014 and May 2024.

A bibliometric analysis of immune escape in colorectal cancer: research trends, key contributors, and future directions.

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) has brought a serious disease burden to the whole world. Immune escape not only promotes the growth and metastasis of CRC, but also limits the effect of immunotherapy. The purpose of this study is to clarify the research status of immune escape in CRC through bibliometrics.

Reliability analysis of freight elevator systems based on FFMEC, FTA and BN.

Reliability design is critical to the safe operation of complex systems, and the large-tonnage freight elevator (LTFE) is a typical complex system. In order to improve the reliability of LTFE in the textile dyeing and printing industry, a comprehensive analysis method is proposed, which is based on Fuzzy Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FFMECA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Bayesian Networks (BN). First, FFMECA is analyzed by fuzzy analytic hierarchy Process (FAHP) and entropy-weight method.

Expert Consensus on Subxiphoid and Subcostal Arch Thoracoscopic Resection for the Treatment of Thymoma.

Surgery is the primary treatment for thymoma. Although subxiphoid and subcostal arch thoracoscopic thymoma surgery is widely used, there is currently a lack of consensus regarding its use, nor have standards been established. Based on the surgical experience of many domestic thoracic surgery centers, the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Tangdu Hospital of Air Force Medical University has formulated this expert consensus regarding key clinical issues related to thoracoscopic thymoma surgery, including preoperative evaluation, surgical indications, preoperative preparation, surgical details, perioperative management, postoperative treatment, and follow-up.

Topology-Preserved Information Bottleneck for Multiview Anomaly Detection.

Anomaly detection (AD) techniques are widely used in various fields. Existing techniques primarily focus on learning a normal region from single-view data, which may be not suitable for multiview data that provides more comprehensive information from multiple perspectives. Therefore, AD techniques designed for multiview data are necessary.

Spatial heterogeneity of PD-L1 expression influence its assessment in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a promising treatment for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However, the predictive value of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, the most common biomarker for immunotherapy, remains controversial, particularly in the neoadjuvant setting. We hypothesized that the spatial heterogeneous of PD-L1 expression within tumors might render limited biopsy samples unrepresentative of the bulk tumor.

Site-selective ligand defects open up a Zr-oxo cluster electron transfer pathway for CO photoreduction.

Whilst defect engineering is a sound approach to enhance CO photoreduction based on metal organic frameworks (MOFs), the underlying mechanisms were not well understood on an atomic scale. This study aims to elucidate the mechanisms at the atomic level, to provide vital insights to enable the design and development of selectively introduced ligand defects to maximize the CO photoreduction capability of a classical MOF UiO-66-NH without the need for co-catalysts, sacrificial agents and photosensitizers. Defect-containing UiO-66-NH (Zr/Ce) demonstrates superior charge separation and CO photoreduction than both regular UiO-66-NH (Zr/Ce) and UiO-66-NH.

Comparative Outcomes of Ileocolon Graft Versus Gastric Conduit Reconstruction in Esophageal Cancer: A Propensity-Matched Analysis of Survival, Quality of Life, and Perioperative Risks.

Background: Esophagectomy with ileocolon graft (ICG) reconstruction serves as the standard surgical approach for esophageal cancer when gastric conduit (GC) is unavailable, yet comparative outcome data between these techniques remain scarce. This study evaluates survival, quality of life (QoL), and surgical risks between these approaches.

Patients And Methods: A single-center cohort compared ICG (n = 95 after propensity score matching) and GC (n = 95) in patients with esophageal cancer.

On neural architecture search and hyperparameter optimization: A max-flow based approach.

Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) involves the automatic production of models for specific tasks on given datasets, which can be divided into two aspects: Neural Architecture Search (NAS) for model construction and Hyperparameter Optimization (HPO) for model training. One of the most important components in an AutoML strategy is the search algorithm, which aims to recommend effective configurations according to historical observations. In this work, we propose a novel max-flow based search algorithm for AutoML by representing NAS and HPO as a Max-Flow problem on a graph and thus derive a couple of novel AutoML strategies, dubbed MF-NAS and MF-HPO, which handle the search space and the search strategy graphically.

Prognosis of Robot-Assisted Esophagectomy with Thoracic Duct Resection in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Background: The authors' previous study found no significant difference in short-term clinical outcomes between patients undergoing robot-assisted esophagectomy (RAE) with or without thoracic duct resection (TDR). However, the impact of RAE-TDR on long-term prognosis remains unclear.

Methods: From January 2019 to July 2020, the study prospectively and consecutively enrolled 127 thoracic duct (TD)-preserved and 73 TD-resected patients who underwent standard McKeown RAE surgery.

Risk factors and prediction of intensive care unit readmission after oesophagectomy for cancer‡.

Objectives: Intensive care unit (ICU) readmission has been proposed as a metric for quality of surgical care. The current study investigated potential factors and developed a prediction model for ICU readmission in patients following oesophagectomy for cancer.

Methods: A total of 3028 patients from January 2019 to December 2022 were retrospectively collated as training cohort, with 829 patients from January 2023 to August 2023 enrolled for validation, respectively.

Reconstruction-Based Anomaly Localization via Knowledge-Informed Self-Training.

Anomaly localization, which involves localizing anomalous regions within images, is a significant industrial task. Reconstruction-based methods are widely adopted for anomaly localization because of their low complexity and high interpretability. Most existing reconstruction-based methods only use normal samples to construct model.

A novel HVEM-Fc recombinant protein for lung cancer immunotherapy.

Background: The ubiquitously expressed transmembrane protein, Herpesvirus Entry Mediator (HVEM), functions as a molecular switch, capable of both activating and inhibiting the immune response depending on its interacting ligands. HVEM-Fc is a novel recombinant fusion protein with the potential to eradicate tumor cells.

Methods: The anti-tumor efficacy of HVEM-Fc was evaluated in C57BL/6 mice-bearing lung cancer models: a syngeneic model and an orthotopic model of mouse lung cancer.

"Self-Catalysis" Acceleration of Carrier Transport in One-Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks with Mortise-Tenon Stacking.

Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) are promising in the field of photonic energy conversion. However, most efforts have been concentrated on the design of ligand geometric structures and chemical bonding relationships, while understanding the impact of stacking methods on photonic energy conversion remains a significant challenge. In this work, four COFs (1D-COF, 1D-MeCOF, 1D-tBuCOF and 2D-COF) with the same main-chain structure but different stacking methods are designed and synthesized, using photocatalytic hydrogen evolution as a model reaction.

GDF15 promotes corneal neovascularization and RB cell progression via AKT/ERK signal pathway.

In this study, we aim to explore the involvement of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) in both corneal neovascularization (CNV) and retinoblastoma (RB) progression. Cell migration and proliferation were assessed through Scratch assays and CCK-8 assays. Apoptosis was quantified using flow cytometry.

Surgical repair of benign thoracogastric airway fistula after esophagectomy using a pedicled myocutaneous flap.

Thoracogastric airway fistula (TGAF) is a rare but devastating complication that may occur following esophagectomy. The most effective method for repairing the defect between the airway and digestive tract is the interposition of a pedicled soft tissue in situ. However, this approach is associated with a high risk and remains challenging for surgeons.

Context-aware feature reconstruction for class-incremental anomaly detection and localization.

With the development of deep learning, the unsupervised visual anomaly detection and localization task has gained significant attention in both academia and industry, where only normal data are used for training. Existing methods for this task typically train using all training data simultaneously. However, in practical industrial scenarios, new product classes are usually introduced incrementally, leading to the sequential availability of training data.

Research on brain functional network property analysis and recognition methods targeting brain fatigue.

At present, researches on brain fatigue recognition are still in the stage of single task and simple brain region network features, while researches on high-order brain functional network features and brain region state mechanisms during fatigue in multi-task scenarios are still insufficient, making it difficult to meet the needs of fatigue recognition under complex conditions. Therefore, this study utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to explore the correlation and differences in the low-order and high-order brain functional network attributes of three task induced mental fatigue, and to explore the brain regions that have a major impact on mental fatigue. Self-training algorithms were used to identify the three levels of brain fatigue.

Construction of MIL-100(Fe)-DMA material for efficient adsorption of Sr and Cs ions from radioactive wastewater.

A novel metal-organic framework (MOF) material, MIL-100(Fe)-DMA, was synthesized using the solvothermal method. The structure of the MOF was characterized using scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, N adsorption-desorption isotherms, X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Batch adsorption experiments were performed to investigate the effects of initial Sr and Cs concentrations, adsorption time, pH, and coexisting cations on the adsorption performance of the material.

Impact of a Functional Dairy Powder and Its Primary Component on the Growth of Pathogenic and Probiotic Gut Bacteria and Human Coronavirus 229E.

Milk boasts an array of potent bioactive compounds, such as lactoferrin (Lf), immunoglobulins, and functional proteins, all delivering substantial therapeutic benefits. In this study, Immune Powder (a functional dairy formulation) and its primary component called Fractionated Milk Protein (FMP) containing Lf, zinc, and immunoglobulins and formulated by Ausnutria Pty Ltd. were evaluated for their potential broad-spectrum pharmacological activity.

Effects of degraded durability on the long-term stability of in-service slopes with reinforced concreted support structures.

Engineering slope stability issues typically exhibit the impact of deteriorating durability on the susceptibility of slopes to failure. A thorough investigation was essential to explore theoretical and experimental aspects of slope durability degradation and its implications on long-term stability. Hence, a durability model was developed to accommodate slope stabilization using reinforced concrete (RC) support structures.