Subcutaneous fat thickness and abdominal depth are risk factors for surgical site infection after gastric cancer surgery

BACKGROUND Surgical site infection(SSI)is one of the most common complications after gastric cancer(GC)surgery.The occurrence of SSI can lead to a prolonged postoperative hospital stay and increased medical expenses,and it can also affect postoperative rehabilitation and the quality of life of patients.Subcutaneous fat thickness(SFT)and abdominal depth(AD)can be used as predictors of SSI in patients undergoing radical resection of GC.AIM To explore the potential relationship between SFT or AD and SSI in patients undergoing elective radical resection of GC.METHODS Demographic,clinical,and pre-and intraoperative information of 355 patients who had undergone elective radical resection of GC were retrospectively collected from hospital electronic medical records.Univariate analysis was performed to screen out the significant parameters,which were subsequently analyzed using binary logistic regression and receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis.RESULTS The prevalence of SSI was 11.27%(40/355).Multivariate analyses revealed that SFT[odds ratio(OR)=1.150;95%confidence interval(95%CI):1.090-1.214;P<0.001],AD(OR=1.024;95%CI:1.009-1.040;P=0.002),laparoscopic-assisted surgery(OR=0.286;95%CI:0.030-0.797;P=0.017),and operation time(OR=1.008;95%CI:1.001-1.015;P=0.030)were independently associated with the incidence of SSI after elective radical resection of GC.In addition,the product of SFT and AD was a better potential predictor of SSI in these patients than either SFT or AD alone.CONCLUSION SFT and AD are independent risk factors and can be used as predictors of SSI in patients undergoing radical resection of GC.

Stanniocalcin-1 Detection of Peripheral Blood in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Objective： Stanniocalcin-1 （STC-1）, a kind of glycoprotein hormone, is universally up-regulated in various tumor tissues compared to corresponding normal tissues, suggesting it may be used as a tumor marker, whilst disseminated tumor cells usually exist in peripheral blood. The aim of this study is to investigate the mRNA expression STC-1 in peripheral blood of colorectal cancer （CRC） and analyze its clinicopathological significance. Methods： The peripheral blood mononuclear cells （PBMNCs） were isolated from 78 CRC patients and 33 cancer-free controls. The expression status of STC-1 mRNA in PBMNCs was assessed by RT-PCR, its correlation with clinicopathological parameters and 5-year overall survival was analyzed as well. Results： In the 78 blood samples from CRC patients, 33 （42.31%） showed positive expression of STC-1 mRNA, and all of 15 gastrointestinal tumor tissues were positive for STC-1 mRNA. In contrast, all the blood samples from 14 healthy donors and 19 patients with inflammatory gastrointestinal disease were negative. Furthermore, STC-1 mRNA expression status was associated with patients’ advanced stage, distant metastasis and shortened overall survival. Conclusion： The detection of STC-1 mRNA in peripheral blood by RT-PCR was highly sensitive and specific for the patients with CRC. STC-1 mRNA may be a potential biomarker for detecting tumor micrometastasis and predicting prognosis.

Detection and Clinical Significance of DLC1 Gene Methylation in Serum DNA from Colorectal Cancer Patients

Objective: Deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC1) is a new candidate tumor suppressor gene, whose down-regulation or even silence will result from promoter hypermethylation in various human cancers including colorectal cancer (CRC). The aim of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic role of DLC1 gene methylation in the serum DNA from CRC patients. Methods: This study enrolled 85 CRC patients and 45 patients with benign colorectal diseases. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) was used to determine the promoter methylation status of DLC1 gene in serum DNA. The combination of DLC1 methylation and conventional tumor markers was further analyzed. Results: Hypermethylation of DLC1 was detected in 42.4% (36/85) of CRC serums, while seldom in the benign controls (8.9%, 4/45) (P<0.001). The aberrant DLC1 methylation in serum DNA was not associated with patients’ clinicopathological features and elevated CEA/CA19-9 levels. Furthermore, the combinational analysis of CEA, CA19-9 and DLC1 methylation showed a higher sensitivity and no reduced diagnostic specificity than CEA and CA19-9 combination for CRC diagnosis. Conclusion: The serum DLC1 methylation may be a promising biomarker for the early detection of CRC, which will further increase the diagnostic efficiency in combination with CEA and CA19-9.

Spontaneous versus posed smile recognition via region-specific texture descriptor and geometric facial dynamics

As a typical biometric cue with great diversities, smile is a fairly influential signal in social interaction, which reveals the emotional feeling and inner state of a person. Spontaneous and posed smiles initiated by different brain systems have differences in both morphology and dynamics. Distinguishing the two types of smiles remains challenging as discriminative subtle changes need to be captured, which are also uneasily observed by human eyes. Most previous related works about spontaneous versus posed smile recognition concentrate on extracting geometric features while appearance features are not fully used, leading to the loss of texture information. In this paper, we propose a region-specific texture descriptor to represent local pattern changes of different facial regions and compensate for limitations of geometric features. The temporal phase of each facial region is divided by calculating the intensity of the corresponding facial region rather than the intensity of only the mouth region. A mid-level fusion strategy of support vector machine is employed to combine the two feature types. Experimental results show that both our proposed appearance representation and its combination with geometry-based facial dynamics achieve favorable performances on four baseline databases： BBC, SPOS, MMI, and UvA-NEMO.

Entropic destruction of heavy quarkonium in a rotating hot and dense medium from holography

Previous studies have indicated that the peak of the quarkonium entropy at the deconfinement transition can be related to the entropic force,which would induce the dissociation of heavy quarkonium.In this study,we investigated the entropic force in a rotating hot and dense medium using AdS/CFT correspondence.It was found that the inclusion of angular velocity increases the entropic force,thus enhancing quarkonium dissociation,while chemical potential has the same effect.The results imply that the quarkonium dissociates easier in rotating medium compared with the static case.

Practice and reflection on the teaching of the reproductive system

Objective To review and explore the advantages and disadvantages of the teaching of the reproductive system in Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine,in order to provide a feasible scheme for the subsequent reform of the teaching system,including the syllabus design and the optimization of the teaching method,etc.Methods With the one-year practice in the teaching of the reproductive system,this paper has explored the achievements in the implementation of this teaching system from three aspects,including the teaching experience and feelings of teachers,student questionnaires and test scores.Meanwhile,this paper has also deeply analyzed some problems that may exist or be derived from the teaching practice in that teaching model.Results The new teaching method has huge differences from the traditional"discipline-oriented"teaching method in the curricular design,teachers’lecture form,students’learning skills and examination types,etc.What is more important,the new teaching method will significantly renew the concepts of both teaching and learning.Conclusion The method of the systemic teaching is one of the critical ways to realize the reform of the medical education,and can also provide the necessary basis for the cultivation of professional high-quality teachers required in the medical education.

Fluorescence Retention of Organosilane-polymerized Carbon Dots Inverse Opals in CuCl Suspension

A novel and fluorescence retention inverse opal has been achieved from organosilane-polymerized carbon dots（SiCDs）, which is prepared via infiltrating SiCD solution into the interstice of photonic crystal（PC） template, low temperature treatment, heating polymerization and removing the colloidal template. The as-prepared SiCD inverse opals demonstrate close-cell structure, which is completely different from conventional open-cell structure. Then the fluorescence signal of as-prepared sample keeps almost unchanged in CuCl suspension while the fluorescence of SiCD solution can be quenched by CuCl suspension through an effective electron transfer process. This phenomenon can be attributed to the combined effect of high hydrostatic pressure in the pore structure, stable crosslinking network and fluorescence enhancement by PC structure. The SiCD inverse opals have advantages of unique close-cell structure, easy preparation and good repeatability that give an important insight into the design and manufacture of novel and advanced optical devices.