Important evidence indicates the microbiota plays a key role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The esophageal microbiota was prospectively investigated in 18 patients with ESCC and 11 patients with physiological normal (PN) esophagus by 16S rRNA gene profiling, using next-generation sequencing. The microbiota composition in tumor tissues of ESCC patients were significantly different from that of patients with PN tissues. The ESCC microbiota was characterized by reduced microbial diversity, by decreased abundance of Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria, and Spirochaetes. Employing these taxa into a microbial dysbiosis index demonstrated that dysbiosis microbiota had good capacity to discriminate between ESCC and PN esophagus. Functional analysis characterized that ESCC microbiota had altered nitrate reductase and nitrite reductase functions compared with PN group. These results suggest that specific microbes and the microbiota may drive or mitigate ESCC carcinogenesis, and this study will facilitate assigning causal roles in ESCC development to certain microbes and microbiota.

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Background Patients with esophageal cancer often experience clinically relevant deterioration of quality of life (QOL) after esophagectomy owing to malnutrition, lack of physical exercise, and psychological symptoms. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a comprehensive intervention model using a mobile health system (CIMmH) in patients with esophageal cancer after esophagectomy. Methods Twenty patients with esophageal cancer undergoing the modified McKeown surgical procedure were invited to join the CIMmH program with both online and offline components for 12 weeks. The participants were assessed before surgery and again at 1 and 3 months after esophagectomy. QOL, depressive symptoms, anxiety, stress, nutrition, and physical fitness were measured. Results Of the 20 patients, 16 (80%) completed the program. One month after esophagectomy, patients showed significant deterioration in overall QOL (P=.02), eating (P=.005), reflux (P=.04), and trouble with talking (P<.001). At the 3-month follow-up, except for pain (P=.02), difficulty with eating (P=.03), dry mouth (P=.04), and trouble with talking (P=.003), all other QOL dimensions returned to the preoperative level. There were significant reductions in weight (P<.001) and BMI (P=.02) throughout the study, and no significant changes were observed for physical fitness measured by change in the 6-minute walk distance between baseline and the 1-month follow-up (P=.22) or between baseline and the 3-month follow-up (P=.52). Depressive symptoms significantly increased 1 month after surgery (P<.001), while other psychological measures did not show relevant changes. Although there were declines in many measures 1 month after surgery, these were much improved at the 3-month follow-up, and the recovery was more profound and faster than with traditional rehabilitation programs. Conclusions The CIMmH was feasible and safe and demonstrated encouraging efficacy testing with a control group for enhancing recovery after surgery among patients with esophageal cancer in China. Trial Registration Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR-IPR-1800019900); http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=32811.

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High-speed cutting technology has the characteristics of high material removal rate and excellent processing quality. To investigate the surface quality of high-speed cutting Ti6Al4V alloy, the orthogonal cutting experiment is the cutting device based on improved Split-Hopkinson pressure bar carried out with a cutting speed of about 7–16 m/s. Surface roughness, residual stress and three-dimensional surface topography are examined to characterize the surface quality. And the chip geometry parameters are measured to analyze the formation mechanism of surface topography. The result shows that cutting force and surface roughness increase rapidly with the increase in depth of cut. In the meantime, the periodic microwaves appeared on the machined surface, and their amplitudes increase with the increase in depth of cut. However, surface roughness, residual stress and microwave amplitude all decrease with the increase in cutting speed. Moreover, it is found that the evolution trend of chip thickness and surface roughness with cutting parameters is very similar. Therefore, it can be inferred that there is a strong relationship between surface topography and chip morphology.

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