Stroma-rich tumors were associated with poor prognosis and an increased risk of relapse, which may serve as a new prognostic histological characteristic in ESCC. TSR is simple and quick to determine, is reproducible, and could be easily incorporated in routine histological evaluation.

Scour is a major threat to bridge safety, especially in harsh fluvial environments. Real-time monitoring of bridge scour is still very limited due to the lack of robust and economic scour monitoring device. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is an emerging waveguide-based technique holding great promise to develop more durable scour monitoring devices. This study presents new types of TDR sensing waveguides in forms of either sensing rod or sensing wire, taking into account of the measurement range, durability, and ease of field installation. The sensing rod is composed of a hollow grooved steel rod paired up with a metal strip on the insulating groove, while the sensing wire consists of two steel strands with one of them coated with an insulating jacket. The measurement sensitivity is inevitably sacrificed when other properties such as the measurement range, field durability, and installation easiness are enhanced. Factors affecting the measurement sensitivity were identified and experimentally evaluated for better arranging the waveguide conductors. A data reduction method for scour-depth estimation without the need for identifying the sediment/water reflection and a two-step calibration procedure for rating propagation velocities were proposed to work with the new types of TDR sensing waveguides. Both the calibration procedure and the data reduction method were experimentally validated. The test results indicated that the new TDR sensing waveguide provides accurate scour depth measurements regardless of the sacrificed sensitivity. The insulating coating of the new TDR sensing waveguide was also demonstrated to be effective in extending the measurement range up to at least 15 m.

Down-regulation of stromal Cav-1 expression in ESCC had high malignant potential. It predicts high-risk of lymph node metastases and locoregional recurrence, and it could be a powerful prognostic marker for patients with ESCC.

Summary Scour monitoring is crucial for providing early warning of bridge safety and extending the knowledge of scour process. Traditional methods that rely on underwater instruments encounter difficulties in installation and operation in harsh fluvial environment. Time domain reflectometry (TDR)‐based scour sensing wire was recently introduced as a promising technique to improve field deployment and durability. This study focused on further improving the concept of TDR sensing wire for better sensor package and performance. An innovative bundled bottom‐up sensing cable was proposed to improve sensor durability and avoid the adverse effect of sensor fouling. The sensor durability is enhanced by twisting two sets of steel strands (as two opposing electrodes for the waveguide) around a coaxial cable into a composite sensing cable. The inner coaxial cable is introduced and armored by the sensing steel strands to direct TDR pulse to the bottom end before connecting to the sensing waveguide formed by steel strands for bottom‐up sensing. Furthermore, taking advantage of a new data reduction method by using time‐lapse differential waveform, robustness of system calibration and scour estimation is further enhanced. Experimental results revealed the optimal design of bundled TDR sensing cable, effectiveness of the bottom‐up sensing approach, and better performance of the differential waveform method.

No abstract