Endoscopic therapies of gastroesophageal reflux disease

The high prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease （GERD） in Western societies has accelerated the need for new modalities of treatment. Currently, medical and surgical therapies are widely accepted among patients and physicians. New potent antisecretory drugs and the development of minimally invasive surgery for the management of GERD are at present the pivotal and largely accepted approaches to treatment. The minimally invasive treatment revolution, however, has stimulated several new endoscopic techniques for GERD. Up to now, the data is limited and further studies are necessary to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the various endoscopic techniques to medical and laparoscopic management of GERD. New journal articles and abstracts are continuously being published. The Food and Drug Administration has approved 3 modalities, thus gastroenterologists and surgeons are beginning to apply these techniques. Further trials and device refinements will assist clinicians. This article will present an overview of the various techniques that are currently on study. This review will report the efficacy and durability of various endoscopic therapies for gastroesophageal reflux disease （GERD）. The potential for widespread use of these techniques will also be discussed. Articles and abstracts published in English on this topic were retrieved from Pubmed. Due to limited number of studies and remarkable differences between various trials, strict criteria were not used for the pooled data presented, however, an effort was made to avoid bias by including only studies that used off-PPI scoring as baseline and intent to treat.

Boosting optoelectronic performance of MAPbI3 perovskite solar cells via ethylammonium chloride additive engineering

The quality of the perovskite light absorption layer plays a dynamic role in the photovoltaic properties of solar cells.The existing methods to prepare methylammonium lead iodide(MAPbI3)films render substantial structural defect density,particularly at the grain boundaries and film surface,constituting a challenge that hinders the further optoelectronic enhancement of perovskite solar cells.Herein,a unique approach was introduced:using a simple ethylammonium chloride(EACl)additive in perovskite precursor mixture to produce high-quality MAPbI3 thin films.The results indicated that EACl could encourage perovskite crystal growth without experiencing the intermediate phase formation and would evaporate from the perovskite after annealing.Additionally,a gradient perovskite structure was achieved using this technique,which impressively enhanced the performance of the perovskite films.A high power conversion efficiency(PCE)of 20.03%was achieved under the optimal amount of EACl,and the resultant efficient device could retain over 89%of the original PCE after aging for 1000 h at room temperature.This novel technique leads to a facile fabrication of highquality and less-defect perovskite thin films for competent and stable devices.

Pre-operative total parenteral nutrition improves post-operative outcomes in a subset of Crohn’s disease patients undergoing major abdominal surgery

Background:Despitemajor advances in themedicalmanagement of Crohn’s disease(CD),a significant proportion of patients will require surgery within 5 years of diagnosis.Malnutrition is an independent risk factor for adverse post-operative outcomes following gastrointestinal surgery.Data on the value of pre-operative total parenteral nutrition(TPN)in CD patients aremixed and there is a paucity of data in the biologic era.We aimed to define the role of pre-operative TPN in this population.Methods:This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at a tertiary referral center.CD patients who underwent major abdominal surgery were identified.Patients receiving pre-operative TPN were compared to controls.We compared the incidence of 30-day infectious and non-infectious post-operative complications between the two groups.Results:A total of 144 CD patients who underwent major abdominal surgery between March 2007 and March 2017 were included.Fifty-five patients who received pre-operative TPN were compared to 89 controls.Twenty-one(14.6%)patients developed infectious complications(18.2%in TPN group vs 12.3%in non-TPN group,P=0.34)and 23(15.9%)developed noninfectious complications(14.5%in TPN group vs 16.9%in non-TPN group,P=0.71).In a multivariate analysis,controlling for differences in baseline disease severity and malnutrition between groups,patients receiving pre-operative TPN for60 days had significantly lower odds of developing non-infectious complications(odds ratio 0.07,95%confidence interval:0.01–0.80,P=0.03).Weight loss of>10%in the past 6 months was a significant predictor of post-operative complications.Conclusions:In a subset of malnourished CD patients,TPN is safe and allows comparable operative outcomes to controls.Pre-operative TPN for60 days reduced post-operative non-infectious complications without associated increase in infectious complications.

A novel hybrid cybersecurity scheme against false data injection attacks in automated power systems

The conventional power systems are evolving as smart grids.In recent times cyberattacks on smart grids have been increasing.Among different attacks,False Data Injection(FDI)is considered as an emerging threat that has significant impact.By exploiting the vulnerabilities of IEC 61850 Generic Object-Oriented Substation Events(GOOSE)and Sam-pled Values(SV)attackers can launch different FDI attacks.In this paper,a real-time set up capable of simulating FDI on GOOSE and SV protocols is developed to evaluate the impact of such attacks on power grid.IEC 62351 stipulates cybersecurity guidelines for GOOSE and SV,but only at communication or Information Technology(IT)level.Hence there is a need to develop a holistic security both at IT and Operation Technology(OT)level.In this regard,a novel sequence content resolver-based hybrid security scheme suitable to tackle FDI attacks on GOOSE and SV is proposed.Furthermore,the computational performance of the proposed hybrid security scheme is presented to demonstrate its applicability to the time critical GOOSE and SV protocols.