Safety and effectiveness of totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy vs laparoscopic-assisted total gastrectomy: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: For gastric cancer with total gastrectomy, the usual laparoscopic surgical approaches are totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) and laparoscopic-assisted total gastrectomy (LATG). Due to its difficult anastomotic technique, the adoption of TLTG is limited. Therefore, surgeons prefer using LATG, which also led to TLTG being somewhat overlooked, so there is no clear conclusion today as to which surgical procedure is more favorable to the patient's recovery. This article aimed to compare the safety and short-term outcomes of the two surgical approaches. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Studies comparing TLTG and LATG, published up to December 2022, were searched in PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases. The study outcomes, including operative time, blood loss, anastomosis time, number of retrieved lymph nodes, proximal and distal resection margins, time to first fluid and soft diet, hospitalization duration, time to first flatus, and postsurgical and anastomotic complications, were compared between these two different surgical procedures. Statistics were analyzed with RevMan 5.4 and Stata 13.1. RESULTS: Fifteen publications were included in this study. The total sample included 3023 cases. The meta-analysis revealed no significant difference in overall postoperative complications between the two surgical approaches ( P >0.05). Compared with LATG, TLTG led to reduced intraoperative blood loss ( P <0.0001), an increased number of lymphatic node dissections ( P <0.0001), and decreased hospitalization duration ( P =0.002). However, operative time, anastomosis time, pulmonary infection, resection margins, time to first fluid and soft diet, time to first flatus and anastomosis-related complications were no significant difference between TLTG and LATG groups ( P >0.05). CONCLUSION: TLTG did not lead to an increase in overall postoperative complications, which is a reliable surgical approach for treatment of gastric cancer. Moreover, it may reduce harm to patients and enable them to obtain better surgical outcomes.

Microporous carbon material from fish waste for removal of methylene blue from wastewater.

Microporous fish waste-based activated carbon material (MFC) was prepared, with a large surface area of 2,193.52 m²/g, a pore size of 2.67 nm and micropore and total pore volumes of 0.9168 cm³/g and 0.9975 cm³/g, respectively. Adsorption efficiency of MFC was investigated by removal of methylene blue dye from wastewater. The Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order kinetics adequately described the adsorption process. MFC exhibited a high adsorption capacity of 476.19 mg/g at 30 °C, and reached equilibrium within 1 h. MFC could be an efficient and low-cost adsorbent for cationic dye removal during wastewater treatment.

Pyrolysis kinetics behavior of solid leather wastes.

In the leather industry, considerable amounts of non-recyclable solid leather wastes (SLWs) are produced and accumulated in factories. In this work, the non-isothermal thermochemical analysis (TGA) test was used to analyse the thermal degradation behaviour of chromium-tanned leather shaving, which is one of the main SLWs. The pyrolysis experiments were carried out under nitrogen atmosphere from 30 to 800 °C at different heating rates of 5, 10, 15 and 20 °C/min. Three different kinetic models, including the Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS) and Kissinger methods, were used to calculate the kinetic parameters. The activation energy values calculated by FWO and KAS methods were 391.79 and 348.77 kJ/mol, respectively. In consideration of the high HHV (14.15 MJ/kg) and carbon productivity (10.15%), SLWs could represent a potential candidate material for bioenergy production and carbon preparation. These results could be used for the design of thermochemical conversion processes utilizing SLWs as feedstock.

Nano-MgO/AB decorated separator to suppress shuttle effect of lithium-sulfur battery.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries are regarded as one of the most promising energy storage systems owing to their high specific energy, low cost and eco-friendliness. However, significant capacity fading caused by the shuttle of soluble polysulfides from the cathode to the anode significantly hampers their practical application. Here, we designed a nano-MgO/acetylene black (AB) decorated functional separator to suppress the shuttle of polysulfide intermediates, which can remarkably improve the electrochemical performance of Li-S batteries. Nano-MgO with the aid of the AB conductive network exhibits superior adsorption to polysulfides due to the synergistic effect of excellent chemisorption and improved electron conductivity. The electrochemical performance of the Li-S battery highly depends on the relative amount of nano-MgO and AB in the composite coating on the separator. A battery with the optimal decorated separator (MgO-25 separator, nano-MgO and acetylene black in the weight ratio 1 : 3) exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 1238 mA h g-1 with high coulombic efficiency (∼97%) and retains a high capacity of 875 mA h g-1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C. This study promotes the understanding of the synergistic effect of the polysulfide adsorbent and the conductive agent on the suppression of the shuttle effect, and provides a way to design polysulfide-blocking barriers for Li-S batteries.

Superb adsorption capacity of biochar derived from leather shavings for Congo red.

Research on biochar for removal of dyes has been a hot topic because of its excellent eco-friendly and economical properties. In this study, leather shavings biochar (LSB) with high adsorption capacity was prepared and tested with Congo red as a model dye for adsorption. The research results show that the as-prepared biochar exhibits a porous structure, with a high specific surface area (2365 m2 g-1), and it would be beneficial for removing Congo red from effluents. More interestingly, adsorption capacity of LSB for Congo red was enhanced by chromium compounds on the surface of biochar through chelation and electrostatic interactions. Chelation occured between the chromium compounds and amino groups of Congo red. Adsorption data for Congo red on the biochar were successfully described by Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second order kinetics model. Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity of LSB at 30 °C reached 1916 mg g-1, which is much higher than that of conventional activated carbon (AC). Recycling experiment shows that LSB has a potential market for removing Congo red.