Antenna-Biased Odorant Receptor PstrOR17 Mediates Attraction of Phyllotreta striolata to (S)-Cis-Verbenol and (-)-Verbenone.

Phyllotreta striolata, the striped flea beetle, is one of the most destructive pests in Brassicaceae plants worldwide. Given the drawbacks associated with long-term use of chemical insecticides, green strategies based on chemical ecology are an effective alternative for beetle control. However, the lack of information on beetle ecology has hindered the development of effective biocontrol strategies. In this report, we identified two odorants, (S)-cis-verbenol and (-)-verbenone, which displayed significant attraction for P. striolata (p < 0.05), indicating their great potential for P. striolata management. Using the Drosophila "empty neuron" system, an antenna-biased odorant receptor, PstrOR17, was identified as responsible for the detection of (-)-verbenone and (S)-cis-verbenol. Furthermore, the interactions between PstrOR17 and (-)-verbenone or (S)-cis-verbenol were predicted via modeling and molecular docking. Finally, we used RNAi to confirm that PstrOR17 is essential for the detection of (-)-verbenone and (S)-cis-verbenol to elicit an attraction effect. Our results not only lay a foundation for the development of new and effective nonchemical insecticide strategies based on (S)-cis-verbenol and (-)-verbenone, but also provide new insight into the molecular basis of odorant recognition in P. striolata.

Rheological properties and microstructure of wheat flour dough systems with enzyme-hydrolyzed mashed potatoes.

The interest in incorporating potatoes into wheat dough is increasing. However, potatoes exhibit significant viscosity during thermal processing, affecting product processing and quality. This study aims to find an effective method to reduce the viscosity of mashed potatoes. We aimed to compare the effects of different enzymes (α-amylase, ß-amylase, and flavourzyme) and concentrations (0.01%, 0.05%, and 0.1%) on the micromorphology and rheological properties of mashed potatoes and potato-wheat dough. The impact of flavourzyme was the most significant (p<0.05). When enzyme concentration increased, viscosity decreased, and the degree of structural damage, indicated by increased porosity. Notably, the addition of flavourzyme can increase the content of sweet and umami free amino acids, improving the flavor of mashed potatoes. The scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy images of potato-wheat dough revealed that enzyme-hydrolyzed mashed potatoes had improved homogeneity, reestablished the dough continuity, and strengthened the three-dimensional structure comprising proteins and starch. Notably, flavourzyme demonstrated the most significant effect on enhancing the protein-starch network structure. This was attributed to the exposure of functional groups resulting from protein hydrolysis, facilitating interaction with starch molecules. Our findings indicate that the addition of 0.1% flavourzyme (500 LAPU/g, pH 5.5, 55 ± 2°C, 30 min treated) was the most effective in reducing viscosity and reconstructing the gluten network. Enzymatic hydrolysis plays a vital role in the production of high-quality potato products, with particular importance in the baking industry, where flavourzyme exhibits significant potential. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Enzymatic hydrolysis plays a vital role in the production of high-quality potato products, with particular importance in the baking industry, where flavourzyme exhibits significant potential.

Multiplying Oxygen Permeability of a Ruddlesden-Popper Oxide by Orientation Control via Magnets.

Ruddlesden-Popper-type oxides exhibit remarkable chemical stability in comparison to perovskite oxides. However, they display lower oxygen permeability. We present an approach to overcome this trade-off by leveraging the anisotropic properties of Nd2 NiO4+δ . Its (a,b)-plane, having oxygen diffusion coefficient and surface exchange coefficient several orders of magnitude higher than its c-axis, can be aligned perpendicular to the gradient of oxygen partial pressure by a magnetic field (0.81 T). A stable and high oxygen flux of 1.40 mL min-1 cm-2 was achieved for at least 120 h at 1223 K by a textured asymmetric disk membrane with 1.0 mm thickness under the pure CO2 sweeping. Its excellent operational stability was also verified even at 1023 K in pure CO2 . These findings highlight the significant enhancement in oxygen permeation membrane performance achievable by adjusting the grain orientation. Consequently, Nd2 NiO4+δ emerges as a promising candidate for industrial applications in air separation, syngas production, and CO2 capture under harsh conditions.

Unraveling Temperature-Dependent Plasma-Catalyzed CO2 Hydrogenation.

Hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals and fuels has recently gained increasing attention as a promising route for utilizing carbon dioxide to achieve a sustainable society. In this study, we investigated the hydrogenation of CO2 over M/SiO2 and M/Al2O3 (M = Co, Ni) catalysts in a dielectric barrier discharge system at different temperatures. We compared three different reaction modes: plasma alone, thermal catalysis, and plasma catalysis. The coupling of catalysts with plasma demonstrated synergy at different reaction temperatures, surpassing the thermal catalysis and plasma alone modes. The highest CO2 conversions under plasma-catalytic conditions at reaction temperatures of 350 and 500 °C were achieved with a Co/SiO2 catalyst (66%) and a Ni/Al2O3 catalyst (68%), respectively. Extensive characterizations were used to analyze the physiochemical characteristics of the catalysts. The results show that plasma power was more efficient than heating power at the same temperature for the CO2 hydrogenation. This demonstrates that the performance of CO2 hydrogenation can be significantly improved in the presence of plasma at lower temperatures.

Hydrogen-Tolerant La0.6Ca0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-d Oxygen Transport Membranes from Ultrasonic Spray Synthesis for Plasma-Assisted CO2 Conversion.

La0.6Ca0.4Co1-xFexO3-d in its various compositions has proven to be an excellent CO2-resistant oxygen transport membrane that can be used in plasma-assisted CO2 conversion. With the goal of incorporating green hydrogen into the CO2 conversion process, this work takes a step further by investigating the compatibility of La0.6Ca0.4Co1-xFexO3-d membranes with hydrogen fed into the plasma. This will enable plasma-assisted conversion of the carbon monoxide produced in the CO2 reduction process into green fuels, like methanol. This requires the La0.6Ca0.4Co1-xFexO3-d membranes to be tolerant towards reducing conditions of hydrogen. The hydrogen tolerance of La0.6Ca0.4Co1-xFexO3-d (x = 0.8) was studied in detail. A faster and resource-efficient route based on ultrasonic spray synthesis was developed to synthesise the La0.6Ca0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-d membranes. The La0.6Ca0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-d membrane developed using ultrasonic spray synthesis showed similar performance in terms of its oxygen permeation when compared with the ones synthesised with conventional techniques, such as co-precipitation, sol-gel, etc., despite using 30% less cobalt.

Control of rice ratooning ability by a nucleoredoxin that inhibits histidine kinase dimerization to attenuate cytokinin signaling in axillary buds.

Rice ratooning, the fast outgrowth of dormant buds on stubble, is an important cropping practice in rice production. However, the low ratooning ability (RA) of most rice varieties restricts the application of this cost-efficient system, and the genetic basis of RA remains unknown. In this study, we dissected the genetic architecture of RA by a genome-wide association study in a natural rice population. Rice ratooning ability 3 (RRA3), encoding a hitherto not characterized nucleoredoxin involved in reduction of disulfide bonds, was identified as the causal gene of a major locus controlling RA. Overexpression of RRA3 in rice significantly accelerated leaf senescence and reduced RA, whereas knockout of RRA3 significantly delayed leaf senescence and increased RA and ratoon yield. We demonstrated that RRA3 interacts with Oryza sativa histidine kinase 4 (OHK4), a cytokinin receptor, and inhibits the dimerization of OHK4 through disulfide bond reduction. This inhibition ultimately led to decreased cytokinin signaling and reduced RA. In addition, variations in the RRA3 promoter were identified to be associated with RA. Introgression of a superior haplotype with weak expression of RRA3 into the elite rice variety Guichao 2 significantly increased RA and ratoon yield by 23.8%. Collectively, this study not only uncovers an undocumented regulatory mechanism of cytokinin signaling through de-dimerization of a histidine kinase receptor-but also provides an eximious gene with promising value for ratoon rice breeding.

Janus MoAZ3H (A = Ge, Si; Z = N, P, As) monolayers: a new class of semiconductors exhibiting excellent photovoltaic and catalytic performances.

Due to the asymmetrical structure in the vertical direction, Janus two-dimensional (2D) monolayer (ML) materials possess some unique physical properties, holding great promise for nanoscale devices. In this paper, based on the newly discovered MoA2Z4 (A = Si, Ge; Z = N, P, As) ML, we propose a class of 2D Janus MoAZ3H ML materials with good stability and excellent mechanical properties using first-principles calculations. We demonstrate that the novel Janus MoAZ3H ML materials are all semiconductors with bandgaps ranging from 0.69 to 2.44 eV, giving rise to good absorption in the visible light region. Especially, both MoSiN3H and MoGeN3H MLs can be used as catalysts for producing hydrogen through water splitting. This catalytic property is much more efficient than that of the MoA2Z4 ML, attributed to the intrinsic electric field induced by the vertical asymmetry effectively separating electrons and holes. More importantly, the carrier mobility of the MoAZ3H ML is up to 103-104 cm2 V-1 s-1 due to the large elastic modulus or small effective mass. Additionally, the electronic properties of the MoAZ3H ML can be easily tuned by strain. Our results suggest a new strategy for designing novel 2D Janus materials, which not only expands the members in the 2D MA2Z4-based Janus family, but also provide candidates with excellent performances in photovoltaic and catalytic fields.

Two-Dimensional Ferroelectric C2N/In2Se3 Heterobilayer with Tunable Electronic Property and Photovoltaic Effect.

Two-dimensional ferroelectric monolayer materials with reversible spontaneous polarization provide more regulatory dimensions for their relevant van der Waals heterostructures. Using first-principles calculations, we construct the C2N/In2Se3 bilayer heterostructure and study its physical properties as well as the effects of E-field and strain. The results indicate that the intrinsic polarization of the component In2Se3 monoalyer can significantly adjust the electronic properties of the C2N/In2Se3 heterobilayer. When the polarization of the In2Se3 monolayer points to the interface (up-In2Se3), the C2N/In2Se3 bilayer behaves as the type-I indirect band gap heterostructure, while it transforms to the type-II direct band gap heterostructure after reversing the polarization of the In2Se3 monolayer (dp-In2Se3). Furthermore, the two C2N/In2Se3 heterostructures both have enhanced optical absorption in the visible region than the isolated In2Se3 and C2N monolayers. More importantly, the external electric field and strain can easily regulate the electronic properties of the C2N/In2Se3 heterostructures. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the type-II C2N/dp-In2Se3 heterostructure is 8.16%, and the electric field of 0.1 V/Å and the strain of -2% can transform the C2N/up-In2Se3 heterostructure into type-II one, conducive to the high PCE up to 24.03 and 24%, respectively. Our proposed C2N/In2Se3 heterostructure is promising in future luminescent and photovoltaic fields, and our findings also provide a strategy for functionalizing 2D monolayer materials by the intrinsic polarization property of ferroelectric materials.

Synthesis of Free-Standing Pd-Ni-P Metallic Glass Nanoparticles with Durable Medium-Range Ordered Structure for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Properties.

Topologically disordered metallic glass nanoparticles (MGNPs) with highly active and tailorable surface chemistries have immense potential for functional uses. The synthesis of free-standing MGNPs is crucial and intensively pursued because their activity strongly depends on their exposed surfaces. Herein, a novel laser-evaporated inert-gas condensation method is designed and successfully developed for synthesizing free-standing MGNPs without substrates or capping agents, which is implemented via pulse laser-induced atomic vapor deposition under an inert helium atmosphere. In this way, the metallic atoms vaporized from the targets collide with helium atoms and then condense into short-range-order (SRO) clusters, which mutually assemble to form the MGNPs. Using this method, free-standing Pd40 Ni40 P20 MGNPs with a spherical morphology are synthesized, which demonstrates satisfactory electrocatalytic activity and durability in oxygen reduction reactions. Moreover, local structure investigations using synchrotron pair distribution function techniques reveal the transformation of SRO cluster connection motifs of the MGNPs from face-sharing to edge-sharing modes during cyclic voltammetry cycles, which enhances the electrochemical stability by blocking crystallization. This approach provides a general strategy for preparing free-standing MGNPs with high surface activities, which may have widespread functional applications.

High-throughput phenotyping-based quantitative trait loci mapping reveals the genetic architecture of the salt stress tolerance of Brassica napus.

Salt stress is a major limiting factor that severely affects the survival and growth of crops. It is important to understand the salt stress tolerance ability of Brassica napus and explore the underlying related genetic resources. We used a high-throughput phenotyping platform to quantify 2111 image-based traits (i-traits) of a natural population under three different salt stress conditions and an intervarietal substitution line (ISL) population under nine different stress conditions to monitor and evaluate the salt stress tolerance of B. napus over time. We finally identified 928 high-quality i-traits associated with the salt stress tolerance of B. napus. Moreover, we mapped the salt stress-related loci in the natural population via a genome-wide association study and performed a linkage analysis associated with the ISL population, respectively. These results revealed 234 candidate genes associated with salt stress response, and two novel candidate genes, BnCKX5 and BnERF3, were experimentally verified to regulate the salt stress tolerance of B. napus. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using high-throughput phenotyping-based quantitative trait loci mapping to accurately and comprehensively quantify i-traits associated with B. napus. The mapped loci could be used for genomics-assisted breeding to genetically improve the salt stress tolerance of B. napus.

SNS-023 sensitizes hepatocellular carcinoma to sorafenib by inducing degradation of cancer drivers SIX1 and RPS16.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains challenging due to the lack of efficient therapy. Promoting degradation of certain cancer drivers has become an innovative therapy. The nuclear transcription factor sine oculis homeobox 1 (SIX1) is a key driver for the progression of HCC. Here, we explored the molecular mechanisms of ubiquitination of SIX1 and whether targeting SIX1 degradation might represent a potential strategy for HCC therapy. Through detecting the ubiquitination level of SIX1 in clinical HCC tissues and analyzing TCGA and GEPIA databases, we found that ubiquitin specific peptidase 1 (USP1), a deubiquitinating enzyme, contributed to the lower ubiquitination and high protein level of SIX1 in HCC tissues. In HepG2 and Hep3B cells, activation of EGFR-AKT signaling pathway promoted the expression of USP1 and the stability of its substrates, including SIX1 and ribosomal protein S16 (RPS16). In contrast, suppression of EGFR with gefitinib or knockdown of USP1 restrained EGF-elevated levels of SIX1 and RPS16. We further revealed that SNS-023 (formerly known as BMS-387032) induced degradation of SIX1 and RPS16, whereas this process was reversed by reactivation of EGFR-AKT pathway or overexpression of USP1. Consequently, inactivation of the EGFR-AKT-USP1 axis with SNS-032 led to cell cycle arrest, apoptosis, and suppression of cell proliferation and migration in HCC. Moreover, we showed that sorafenib combined with SNS-032 or gefitinib synergistically inhibited the growth of Hep3B xenografts in vivo. Overall, we identify that both SIX1 and RPS16 are crucial substrates for the EGFR-AKT-USP1 axis-driven growth of HCC, suggesting a potential anti-HCC strategy from a novel perspective.

Machine learning assisted dynamic phenotypes and genomic variants help understand the ecotype divergence in rapeseed.

Three ecotypes of rapeseed, winter, spring, and semi-winter, have been formed to enable the plant to adapt to different geographic areas. Although several major loci had been found to contribute to the flowering divergence, the genomic footprints and associated dynamic plant architecture in the vegetative growth stage underlying the ecotype divergence remain largely unknown in rapeseed. Here, a set of 41 dynamic i-traits and 30 growth-related traits were obtained by high-throughput phenotyping of 171 diverse rapeseed accessions. Large phenotypic variation and high broad-sense heritability were observed for these i-traits across all developmental stages. Of these, 19 i-traits were identified to contribute to the divergence of three ecotypes using random forest model of machine learning approach, and could serve as biomarkers to predict the ecotype. Furthermore, we analyzed genomic variations of the population, QTL information of all dynamic i-traits, and genomic basis of the ecotype differentiation. It was found that 213, 237, and 184 QTLs responsible for the differentiated i-traits overlapped with the signals of ecotype divergence between winter and spring, winter and semi-winter, and spring and semi-winter, respectively. Of which, there were four common divergent regions between winter and spring/semi-winter and the strongest divergent regions between spring and semi-winter were found to overlap with the dynamic QTLs responsible for the differentiated i-traits at multiple growth stages. Our study provides important insights into the divergence of plant architecture in the vegetative growth stage among the three ecotypes, which was contributed to by the genetic differentiation, and might contribute to environmental adaption and yield improvement.

A Data-Driven Intelligent System for Assistive Design of Interior Environments.

This paper analyses the design of a healthy interior environment using big data intelligence. The application of big data intelligence in the design of healthy interior environments is necessary because the traditional interior design approaches consume a lot of energy and other problems. Benefited by its strong ability of computation and analytics, artificial intelligence can well improve a series of problems in the field of interior design. The proposal summarizes the sources, classifications, and expressions of behavioral data in interior spaces, carries out analysis and research on behavioral data from two aspects: display space and supermarket space, summarizes the interior methods based on behavioral data, and analyses the visualization application of behavioral data in different interior scenes, to explore the application value of behavioral data in interior design. In contrast to it is the unconscious behavioral response, the biggest characteristic of which is that it is regulated by the behavioral subject's physiological factors or habits of the behavior issuer. In this paper, we convert the layout recommendation problem of a space into a functional classification problem of segmented segments and household segments on a plane. The scene layout features are extracted by binary coding, the abstraction of the cross features between the vector segments is achieved by using a word embedding algorithm, the feature matrix is reduced in dimensionality, and finally, the segmentation network model and the layout network model are constructed, respectively, by using a bidirectional LSTM. The experiments show that the accuracy of the layout recommendation model in this paper is 98%, which can meet the demand for real-time online layouts.

Field rice panicle detection and counting based on deep learning.

Panicle number is directly related to rice yield, so panicle detection and counting has always been one of the most important scientific research topics. Panicle counting is a challenging task due to many factors such as high density, high occlusion, and large variation in size, shape, posture et.al. Deep learning provides state-of-the-art performance in object detection and counting. Generally, the large images need to be resized to fit for the video memory. However, small panicles would be missed if the image size of the original field rice image is extremely large. In this paper, we proposed a rice panicle detection and counting method based on deep learning which was especially designed for detecting rice panicles in rice field images with large image size. Different object detectors were compared and YOLOv5 was selected with MAPE of 3.44% and accuracy of 92.77%. Specifically, we proposed a new method for removing repeated detections and proved that the method outperformed the existing NMS methods. The proposed method was proved to be robust and accurate for counting panicles in field rice images of different illumination, rice accessions, and image input size. Also, the proposed method performed well on UAV images. In addition, an open-access and user-friendly web portal was developed for rice researchers to use the proposed method conveniently.

Panicle Ratio Network: streamlining rice panicle measurement by deep learning with ultra-high-definition aerial images in the field.

The heading date and effective tiller percentage are important traits in rice, and they directly affect plant architecture and yield. Both traits are related to the ratio of the panicle number to the maximum tiller number, referred to as the panicle ratio (PR). In this study, an automatic PR estimation model (PRNet) based on a deep convolutional neural network was developed. Ultra-high-definition unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images were collected from cultivated rice varieties planted in 2384 experimental plots in 2019 and 2020 and in a large field in 2021. The determination coefficient between estimated PR and ground-measured PR reached 0.935, and the root mean square error values for the estimations of the heading date and effective tiller percentage were 0.687 d and 4.84%, respectively. Based on the analysis of the results, various factors affecting PR estimation and strategies for improving PR estimation accuracy were investigated. The satisfactory results obtained in this study demonstrate the feasibility of using UAVs and deep learning techniques to replace ground-based manual methods to accurately extract phenotypic information of crop micro targets (such as grains per panicle, panicle flowering, etc.) for rice and potentially for other cereal crops in future research.

Shielding Protection by Mesoporous Catalysts for Improving Plasma-Catalytic Ambient Ammonia Synthesis.

Plasma catalysis is a promising technology for decentralized small-scale ammonia (NH3) synthesis under mild conditions using renewable energy, and it shows great potential as an alternative to the conventional Haber-Bosch process. To date, this emerging process still suffers from a low NH3 yield due to a lack of knowledge in the design of highly efficient catalysts and the in situ plasma-induced reverse reaction (i.e., NH3 decomposition). Here, we demonstrate that a bespoke design of supported Ni catalysts using mesoporous MCM-41 could enable efficient plasma-catalytic NH3 production at 35 °C and 1 bar with >5% NH3 yield at 60 kJ/L. Specifically, the Ni active sites were deliberately deposited on the external surface of MCM-41 to enhance plasma-catalyst interactions and thus NH3 production. The desorbed NH3 could then diffuse into the ordered mesopores of MCM-41 to be shielded from decomposition due to the absence of plasma discharge in the mesopores of MCM-41, that is, "shielding protection", thus driving the reaction forward effectively. This promising strategy sheds light on the importance of a rational design of catalysts specifically for improving plasma-catalytic processes.

Prognostic Risk Signature and Comprehensive Analyses of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Related Genes in Lung Adenocarcinoma.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) is the main pathological subtype of non-small-cell lung cancer. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) has been found to be involved in multiple tumor-related biological processes. At present, a comprehensive analysis of ERS-related genes in LUAD is still lacking. A total of 1034 samples from TCGA and GEO were used to screen differentially expressed genes. Further, Random Forest algorithm was utilized to screen characteristic genes related to prognosis. Then, LASSO Cox regression was used to construct a prognostic signature. Taking the median of signature score as the threshold, patients were separated into high-risk (HR) group and low-risk (LR) group. Tumor mutation burden (TMB), immune cell infiltration, cancer stem cell infiltration, expression of HLA, and immune checkpoints of the two risk groups were analyzed. TIDE score was used to evaluate the response of the two risk groups to immunotherapy. Finally, the gene expression was verified in clinical tissues with RT-qPCR. An eight-gene signature (ADRB2, AGER, CDKN3, GJB2, SFTPC, SLC2A1, SLC6A4, and SSR4) was constructed. TMB and cancer stem cell infiltration were higher in the HR group than the LR group. TIDE score and expression level of HLA were higher in the LR group than the HR group. Expression level of immune checkpoints, including CD28, CD27, IDO2, and others, were higher in the LR group. Multiple drugs approved by FAD, targeting ERS-related genes, were available for the treatment of LUAD. In summary, we established a stable prognostic model based on ERS-related genes to help the classification of LUAD patients and looked for new treatment strategies from aspects of immunity, tumor mutation, and tumor stem cell infiltration.

USP1-dependent RPS16 protein stability drives growth and metastasis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a medical challenge due to its high proliferation and metastasis. Although deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) play a key role in regulating protein degradation, their pathological roles in HCC have not been fully elucidated. METHODS: By using biomass spectrometry, co-immunoprecipitation, western blotting and immunofluorescence assays, we identify ribosomal protein S16 (RPS16) as a key substrate of ubiquitin-specific peptidase 1 (USP1). The role of USP1-RPS16 axis in the progression of HCC was evaluated in cell cultures, in xenograft mouse models, and in clinical observations. RESULTS: We show that USP1 interacts with RPS16. The depletion of USP1 increases the level of K48-linked ubiquitinated-RPS16, leading to proteasome-dependent RPS16 degradation. In contrast, overexpression of USP1-WT instead of USP1-C90A (DUB inactivation mutant) reduces the level of K48-linked ubiquitinated RPS16, thereby stabilizing RPS16. Consequently, USP1 depletion mimics RPS16 deficiency with respect to the inhibition of growth and metastasis, whereas transfection-enforced re-expression of RPS16 restores oncogenic-like activity in USP1-deficient HCC cells. Importantly, the high expression of USP1 and RPS16 in liver tissue is a prognostic factor for poor survival of HCC patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reveal a previously unrecognized role for the activation of USP1-RPS16 pathway in driving HCC, which may be further developed as a novel strategy for cancer treatment.

The Amplatzer device and pedicle muscle flap transposition for the treatment of bronchopleural fistula with chronic empyema after lobectomy: two case reports.

BACKGROUND: Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) refers to an abnormal channel between the pleural space and the bronchial tree. It is a potentially fatal postoperative complication after pulmonary resection and a complex challenge for thoracic surgeons because many patients with BPF ultimately develop refractory empyema, which is difficult to manage and has a major impact on quality of life and survival. Therefore, an operative intervention combined with conservative and endoscopic therapies may be required to control infection completely, to occlude BPF, and to obliterate the empyema cavity during treatment periods. CASE PRESENTATION: Two patients who suffered from BPF complicated with chronic empyema after lobectomy were treated in other hospitals for a long time and did not recover. In our department, we performed staged surgery and creatively combined an Amplatzer Septal Occluder (ASO) device (AGA Medical Corp, Golden Valley, MN, USA) with pedicled muscle flap transposition. First, open-window thoracostomy (OWT), or effective drainage, was performed according to the degree of contamination in the empyema cavity after the local infection was controlled. Second, Amplatzer device implantation and pedicled muscle flap transposition was performed at the same time, which achieved the purpose of obliterating the infection, closing the fistula, and tamponading the residual cavity. The patients recovered without complications and were discharged with short hospitalization stays. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that the union of the Amplatzer device and pedicle muscle flap transposition seems to be a safe and effective treatment for BPF with chronic empyema and can shorten the length of the related hospital stay.

Free vastus lateralis muscle flap transplantation for postoperative chronic empyema: retrospective analysis of eight case series.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative chronic empyema (PPE) remains a complex challenge for thoracic surgeons. We retrospectively investigated patients with PPE who were treated with free vastus lateralis muscle flap transplantation, and report our results. METHODS: Eight patients with PPE and persistent bronchopleural fistula (BPF) treated in our hospital from January 2015 to June 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, the time since onset of empyema ranged from 5 to 72 months. The operation was performed in two stages, stage I surgery included empyema debridement, rib resection drainage or open-window thoracostomy (OWT), meanwhile, BPF was treated under bronchoscope. Stage II surgery included obliteration of the pleural space by free muscle flap transplantation. The keys to the operation are thorough debridement, closure of the BPF, and complete obliteration of the residual pleural space. The challenge lies in the anastomosis of the lateral femoral circumflex artery and vein that supply the vastus lateralis muscle flap to the thoracodorsal vessels. RESULTS: The free muscle flaps survived in all eight patients. The abscess cavity was completely obliterated with the muscle flap. Good efficacy was achieved with primary wound healing. No serious perioperative complications were reported. No empyema recurrence, atrophy, infection, or necrosis of the muscle flap was seen during the 18- to 72-month follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The vastus lateralis muscle flap has a large volume with good blood supply and strong antibacterial ability. It can be used for effective obliteration of a large residual cavity caused by empyema and maintains a good thoracic shape. It is an ideal choice for the treatment of postoperative chronic refractory empyema.