Current status of proximal gastrectomy for gastric and esophagogastric junctional cancer: A review

Proximal gastrectomy (PG) is one of the function-preserving surgical methods for the treatment of upper gastric cancer. Favorable postoperative results have been reported in comparison with total gastrectomy. However, because there are challenges, such as postoperative reflux esophagitis, anastomotic stenosis, and residual food, appropriate selection of a reconstruction method is crucial. Some methods include esophagogastric anastomosis, including simple esophagogastrostomy, tube-like stomach esophagogastrostomy, side overlap with fundoplication by Yamashita, and double-flap technique, and reconstruction using the small intestine, including double-tract methods, jejunal interposition, and jejunal pouch interposition. However, standard reconstruction methods are yet to be established. PG has also been employed in early gastric cancer of the upper third of the stomach, and indications have also been extended to esophagogastric junction cancer, which has shown an increase in recent years. Although many retrospective studies have revealed the functional benefits or oncological safety of PG, the characteristics of each surgical procedure should be understood so that an appropriate reconstruction method, with a reflux prevention mechanism and minimal postoperative injury, can be selected.

Breast Acoustic Parameter Reconstruction Method Based on Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Array

Ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) systems based on capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays have a wide range of application prospects. For this paper, a high-precision image reconstruction method based on the propagation path of ultrasound in breast tissue are designed for the CMUT ring array; that is, time-reversal algorithms and FBP algorithms are respectively used to reconstruct sound speed distribution and acoustic attenuation distribution. The feasibility of this reconstruction method is verified by numerical simulation and breast model experiments. According to reconstruction results, sound speed distribution reconstruction deviation can be reduced by 53.15% through a time-reversal algorithm based on wave propagation theory. The attenuation coefficient distribution reconstruction deviation can be reduced by 61.53% through FBP based on ray propagation theory. The research results in this paper will provide key technological support for a new generation of ultrasound computed tomography systems.

Characterisation and Modelling of Moisture Gradients in Polyamide 6

Polyamide 6 (PA6) is able to absorb water from the surrounding air and bond to it by forming hydrogen bonds between the carbonamide groups of its molecular chains. Diffusion processes cause locally different water concentrations in the (component) cross-section during the sorption process, resulting in locally different mechanical properties due to the water-induced plasticisation effect. However, the water content of PA6 is usually specified as an integral value, so no information about a local water distribution within a component is provided. This paper shows a method to characterise moisture distributions within PA6 samples using low-energy computer tomography (CT) techniques and comparing the reconstructed results with a developed finite elements (FE) modelling method based on Fick’s diffusion laws with concentration-dependent diffusion coefficients. For this purpose, the ageing of the samples at two different water bath temperatures as well as at different integral water contents are considered. The results obtained by CT reconstruction and FE modelling are in very good agreement, so that the concentration distributions by water sorption of PA6 calculated by FEM can be regarded as validated.

Crystal lattice image reconstruction from Moiré sampling scanning transmission electron microscopy

A wide range of reconstruction methods exist nowadays to retrieve data from their undersampled acquisition schemes. In the context of Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM), compressed sensing methods successfully demonstrated the ability to retrieve crystalline lattice images from undersampled electron micrographs. In this manuscript, an alternative method is proposed based on the principles of Moiré sampling by intentionally generating aliasing artifacts and correcting them afterwards. The interference between the scanning grid of the electron beam raster and the crystalline lattice results in the formation of predictable sets of Moiré fringes (STEM Moiré hologram). Since the aliasing artifacts are simple spatial frequency shifts applied on each crystalline reflection, the crystal lattices can be recovered from the STEM Moiré hologram by reverting the aliasing frequency shifts from the Moiré reflections. Two methods are presented to determine the aliasing shifts for all the resolved crystalline reflections. The first approach is a prior knowledge-based method using information on the spatial frequency distribution of the crystal lattices (a common case in practice). The other option is a multiple sampling approach using different sampling parameters and does not require any prior knowledge. As an example, the Moiré sampling recovery method detailed in this manuscript is applied to retrieve the crystalline lattices from a STEM Moiré hologram recorded on a silicon sample. The great interest of STEM Moiré interferometry is to increase the field of view (FOV) of the electron micrograph (up to several microns). The Moiré sampling recovery method extends the application of the STEM imaging of crystalline materials towards low magnifications.

A Novel Reconstruction Method for Measurement Data Based on MTLS Algorithm

Reconstruction methods for discrete data, such as the Moving Least Squares (MLS) and Moving Total Least Squares (MTLS), have made a great many achievements with the progress of modern industrial technology. Although the MLS and MTLS have good approximation accuracy, neither of these two approaches are robust model reconstruction methods and the outliers in the data cannot be processed effectively as the construction principle results in distorted local approximation. This paper proposes an improved method that is called the Moving Total Least Trimmed Squares (MTLTS) to achieve more accurate and robust estimations. By applying the Total Least Trimmed Squares (TLTS) method to the orthogonal construction way in the proposed MTLTS, the outliers as well as the random errors of all variables that exist in the measurement data can be effectively suppressed. The results of the numerical simulation and measurement experiment show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the MTLS and MLS method from the perspective of robustness and accuracy.

Case Report: Metastatic involvement of the acromioclavicular joint in a patient with papillary carcinoma of the ureter

Ureteral papillary carcinoma is a rare subtype of urothelial carcinoma, ranking fourth among cancers following prostate (or breast) cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer. Although previous studies have documented bone metastases mainly in the pelvis, spine, ribs, and femur, this case report presents the first recorded instance of metastasis occurring in the acromioclavicular joint. A 62-year-old woman with a history of left flank pain and macroscopic hematuria underwent a left nephroureterectomy, which revealed ureteral papillary carcinoma. Three years later, she reported left shoulder pain, leading to the discovery of a metastatic lesion in the distal clavicle. Approximately 9 cm of metastatic bone was resected while preserving nearby nerve and vascular structures. The resulting bone defect was grafted with a 9-cm bone graft removed from the middle third of the fibula. This case report underscores the importance of considering distant metastases, even in atypical locations, in patients with ureteral papillary carcinoma and aims to share the entire treatment journey and insights gained.

Restoration Method of Hadamard Coding Spectral Imager

Hadamard coding spectral imaging technology is a computational spectral imaging technology, which modulates the target's spectral information and recovers the original spectrum by inverse transformation. Because it has the advantage of multichannel detection, it is being studied by more researchers. For the engineering realization of push-broom coding spectral imaging instrument, it will inevitably be subjected to push-broom error, template error and detection noise, the redundant sampling problem caused by detector. Therefore, three restoration methods are presented in this paper: firstly, the one is the least squares solution, the two is the zero-filling inverse solution by extending the coding matrix in the redundant coding state to a complete higher order Hadamard matrix, the three is sparse method. Secondly, the numerical and principle analysis shows that the inverse solution of zero-compensation has better robustness and is more suitable for engineering application; its conditional number, error expectation and covariance are better and more stable because it directly uses Hadamard matrix, which has good generalized orthogonality. Then, a real-time spectral reconstruction method is presented, which is based on inverse solution of zero-compensation. Finally, simulation analysis shows that spectral data could be destructed relative accuracy in the error condition; however, the effect of template noise and push error on reconstruction is much greater than that of detection error. Therefore, in addition to reducing the detection noise as much as possible, lower template noise and more accurate push controlling should be guaranteed specifically in engineering realization.