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Abstract Purpose To compare the effects of a single-port-plus-one robotic laparoscopic-modified Lich–Gregoir direct nipple approach and traditional laparoscopic Cohen in treating pediatric primary obstructive megaureter. Materials and methods The clinical data of 24 children with primary obstructive megaureter from January 2021 to November 2021 were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, 12 children (8 boys and 4 girls, the average age were 17.17 ± 6.31 months) treated with the laparoscopic Cohen method were defined as group C. The remaining 12 children (7 boys and 5 girls, the average age was 17.33 ± 6.99 months) underwent single-port-plus-one robotic laparoscopic-modified Lich–Gregoir direct nipple ureteral extravesical reimplantation were defined as group L. The parameters of pre-operation, intraoperative and postoperative were compared. Results There were no differences in the patient characteristics and average follow-up time between the two groups (P > 0.05).The obstruction resolution rate was 100% in both groups. The total operation time in group L is slightly longer than that in group C(P 0.05). The postoperative parameters included blood loss, gross haematuria time, indwelling catheterization time and hospitalization time in group L is shorter than group C(P 0.05). Conclusion Single-port-plus-one robot-assisted laparoscopic-modified Lich–Gregoir direct nipple approach and traditional laparoscopic Cohen are both dependable techniques for ureteral reimplantation in the treatment of pediatric primary obstructive megaureter. Since Lich–Gregoir can preserve the physiological direction of the ureter and direct nipple reimplantation enhances the effect of anti-refluxing, this technique is favorable for being promoted and applied in robot surgery.

Abstract Objective To observe the safety and short-term outcomes of a new way of laparoscopic trocar placement in pediatric robotic-assisted Lich-Gregoir ureteral reimplantation for vesicoureteral reflux. Methods The retrospective study included 32 patients under 14 years diagnosed with primary vesicoureteral reflux (VUR). All these patients underwent robotic-assisted Lich-Gregoir ureteral reimplantation in our department from December 2020 to August 2022. These patients were divided into the following groups according to the different ways of trocar placement: 13 patients in group single-port plus one (SR) and 19 patients in group multiple-port (MR). Patients’ characteristics as well as their perioperative and follow-up data were collected and evaluated. Results There was no significant difference in the data regarding patients’ characteristics and preoperative data. These data included the grade of vesicoureteral reflux according to the voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG), and the differential degree of renal function (DRF) at the following time points: preoperative, postoperative, and comparison of preoperative and postoperative. There was no difference between the two groups. During surgery, the time of artificial pneumoperitoneum establishment, ureteral reimplantation time, and total operative time in the SR group were longer than those in the MR group. Yet only the time of artificial pneumoperitoneum establishment shows a statistical difference (P

Thermoultrasound (USB) as a promising alternative to traditional hot water (HWB) blanching was employed to blanch sweet potatoes and its influence on enzyme activity, drying behavior, energy consumption and physiochemical properties of sweet potatoes were investigated. Results showed that successive increases in blanching temperature and time resulted in significant (p

PurposeTo introduce a new technique of single-port-plus-one robotic laparoscopic-modified Lich-Gregoir direct nipple ureteral extravesical reimplantation and ascertain its validity in the treatment of pediatric primary obstructive megaureter.MethodsBetween January 2021 and November 2021, we retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 12 children with primary obstructive megaureter who were admitted to the Department of Pediatric Surgery of Fujian Provincial Hospital. All 12 children were treated with single-port-plus-one robotic laparoscopic Lich-Gregoir direct nipple ureteral extravesical reimplantation. Five of them were female and seven were male, including nine cases were simple obstructive type, while the remaining three cases were obstructive with reflux type. The mean age of the children was 17.33 ± 6.99 (10–36) months and the mean follow-up time was 14.16 ± 1.75 (12–17) months. Changes in preoperative and first-year postoperative parameters were compared.ResultsThe mean operative time for all 12 children was 123.58 ± 10.85 (110–145) min, with a mean internal operative time of 101.42 ± 0.85 (90–120) min, a mean operative bleeding time of 2.42 ± 0.67 (2–4) ml, and a mean hematuria duration of 16.08 ± 1.44 (14–19) h. The mean indwelling catheterization time was 2.25 ± 0.45 (2–3) days and the mean hospitalization time was 3.83 ± 0.39 (3–4) days. At the postoperative first year, the ureteral diameter, calyceal diameter, and anterior–posterior renal pelvic diameter were found to be significantly smaller than at the preoperative period (18.83 ± 3.21 mm vs. 6.83 ± 1.27 mm, 13.99 ± 3.58 mm vs. 3.5 ± 2.90 mm, and 34.92 ± 4.25 mm vs. 10.08 ± 1.88 mm, P

ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare the effects of various trocar placements in robot-assisted and laparoscopic pyeloplasty involving children diagnosed with obstruction of the ureteropelvic junction (OUPJ).MethodsWe retrospectively collected the data on 74 patients under 14 years of age who had been diagnosed with OUPJ; these patients underwent either robot-assisted or laparoscopic pyeloplasty in our hospital between January 2015 and November 2021. There were four groups, as follows: •Laparoscopic multiport pyeloplasty (LMPY),•Laparoscopic single-port pyeloplasty (LSPY),•Robotic-assisted multiport pyeloplasty (RMPY),•Robotic-assisted single-port-plus-one pyeloplasty (RSPY).Patients' characteristics as well as their perioperative and follow-up data were collected and evaluated.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the data regarding patients' characteristics. These data included the grade of hydronephrosis according to the Society of Fetal Urology (SFU grade), anterior and posterior diameter of the renal pelvis and ureter (APDRPU), and the differential degree of renal function (DRF) at following time points: preoperative, postoperative, and comparison of preoperative and postoperative. There was no difference among these groups. During surgery, the time of trocar placement, urethroplasty time, and total operative time in the robotic groups (RMPY and RSPY) were longer than those in the laparoscopic groups (LMPY and LSPY). However, the ratio of the urethroplasty time and full operative time (UT/WT) in the robotic groups (RMPY and RSPY) was lower than that in the laparoscopic groups (LMPY and LSPY) (P = 0.0075). Also, the volume of blood loss was lower in the robotic groups (RMPY and RSPY) than that in the laparoscopic groups (LMPY and LSPY), although there was no statistical difference (P = 0.11). There were, however, significant differences in hospitalization days (P

For dielectric energy storage materials, high polarization and high breakdown strengths are a long-standing challenge. A modulating crystalline/amorphous phase structure strategy is proposed by Mn-doping and annealing temperature to enhance the energy storage performance of pure BaTiO3 (BT) films. In this study, lead-free Mn-doped BT films were prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates via the sol-gel method, and the effects of the crystalline/amorphous phase ratio on polarization and electric properties were analyzed. A small amount of Mn-doping in BT could reduce the annealing temperature and enhance polarization with an Mn content of 8%. In addition, the energy storage properties of BT-8%Mn films achieve the best energy storage performance in terms of energy density and efficiency of 72.4 J/cm3 and 88.5% by changing the annealing temperature to 640 °C. BT-8%Mn energy storage films also possess good stability over a wide temperature range of 20 °C–200 °C, which demonstrates that crystalline/amorphous engineering is a simple and effective way to enhance energy storage applications of dielectric films.

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.) is a seasonal plant with high medicinal and aesthetic value, and drying is an effective practice to enhance its storability after harvesting. The effects of hot air drying (HAD), combined infrared and hot air drying (IR-HAD), and sequential IR-HAD and HAD (IR-HAD + HAD) on the drying behavior, color, shrinkage, aroma profiles, phenolic compounds, and microstructure of chrysanthemum cakes were studied. Results showed that the increasing temperature resulted in a decrease in drying time and an increase in drying rate and moisture diffusivity. The Logarithmic and Page models exhibited superior fit in describing the dehydration process. Among the three drying strategies, IR-HAD was more effective in reducing energy consumption, improving shrinkage, water holding capacity, water binding capacity and cellular microstructure, while IR-HAD + HAD showed better inhibitory effect on color deterioration. Furthermore, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed that different drying strategies dramatically influenced the aroma profiles in samples, and IR-HAD obtained the highest concentration of volatiles. The results of ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) indicated that the introduction of infrared radiation contributed to increasing the contents of chlorogenic acid, luteolin, total phenolic and flavonoid. These suggested that IR-HAD was a promising technique for drying medicinal chrysanthemum.

This work aimed to discuss effects of pulsed vacuum drying (PVD) at different temperatures (45°C, 50°C, 55°C and 60°C), vacuum durations (5 min, 10 min and 15 min) and multi-stage heating on drying kinetics, colour attributes, phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of chrysanthemum (Imperial chrysanthemum). Results indicated that successive temperature increase reduced the drying time and enhanced the drying rate and moisture diffusivity. Lower temperature (45°C) and the multi-stage (35°C-55°C-60°C) drying presented the superiority in the protection of color, preservation of phytochemical composition (chlorogenic acid, luteolin, total phenolic and total flavonoid content) and improvement of antioxidant capacity (DPPH and FRAP) of chrysanthemum, which was attributed to the low-oxygen drying environment and reduction of thermal degradation losses. Based on the results of drying efficiency and drying quality, the multi-stage heating (35°C-55°C-60°C) has the excellent potential to produce high-quality dried chrysanthemum on a commercial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a precision gear reducer, the RV reducer has a low-transmission backlash (very high assembly accuracy). Therefore, the selective assembly method is the only assembly method which can guarantee the assembly precision of the RV reducer. However, the RV reducer has a complex structure; it consists of a high number of parts whose machining tolerance cannot be very low. Furthermore, there are numerous parts, the tolerances of which influence the RV reducer transmission backlash. Therefore, it is difficult to achieve high assembly accuracy by using the traditional selective assembly method. In this paper, a method of selective assembly is proposed to make the backlash of the RV reducer meet the requirements through the analysis of the characteristics of the RV reducer structure, the processing and assembly process of the parts, and the influence of manufacturing errors on the backlash. Then, a mathematical model was established for the RV reducer assembly issue. And a matching algorithm based on a genetic algorithm was developed. Finally, the algorithm was applied to the selective assembly of the RV reducer for verifying the feasibility and validity of the proposed matching method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]